I do not own any Disney characters named herein and am only borrowing them to tell a nonprofit tale meant for entertainment purposes only.
Kim Possible: Vamped
By LJ58
35
Dana came dragging out of her room just after noon in spite of being out all night with Kim again and eyed the two women sipping coffee at the table.
"Why are you up so early, honey," Kim asked her, seeing she was visibly lagging just then. Between the early rising and the fact she had been up so late training with her, it was showing how much she was lagging.
"Just got a call. They want me to cover an afternoon shift today," Dana groaned. "I just know I'm going to screw up I'm so wiped," she complained.
"Go back to bed, Dana," Kim told her. "I'll call in and explain."
"But I'm supposed to…."
"Work your shift. These crazy call-ins are not part of that. Go back to bed, sweetie. You need your rest. I'll take care of it."
"Thanks, mom," Dana said with a sleepy smile. "You're the best."
"Kimmie," Shego asked after Dana stumbled back down the hall. "You okay?"
"Hmmm? Sure, why do you ask?"
"Because you've got a look on your face that I'm not used to seeing on your face," the comet-powered woman remarked.
"Ah, well, I think we're being pranked. Only I don't know if it is GJ, or just someone playing with us for their reasons again."
"What do you mean?"
"Remember two weeks ago when Dana and I were both starting to lag?"
"Yeah?"
"I went over to see Wade. Someone had contaminated the blood serum he devised to undermine the plasma nutrients he had devised to replace the blood we needed. The whole batch was seeded to make it less than ten percent effective. Now, he wouldn't do that to us. Only someone did."
"And you think….?"
"I'm thinking someone is trying to push us. Suddenly Dana's crazy hours are making a lot of sense if you want to strain and push someone to see if they….snap. I think someone wants us to do just that. Only why?"
"What will you do?"
"Snap," Kim smirked and finished off her coffee before reaching into the pocket of her slacks to pull out the new Kimmunicator she now carried that connected solely to Wade. Though no one else yet knew that one.
"Wade, I think we have another ringer in play. Who is making Dana's schedules lately?"
"What do you mean, Kim? You think….?"
"Someone is jerking her around, and having her come in on such an erratic basis that I suspect this is Act II. Remember what we talked about earlier?"
"I'll check."
"Do that. I'm calling in for Dana, and then I fully expect Betty to call me back and complain. Let's get the full story so I can explain it to her before she gives herself a heart attack," Kim suggested.
"I'd pay to see that one," Shego grinned as Kim put her Kimmunicator away.
"No doubt. She's gotten shortsighted these days. She's so busy pandering to everyone out there she's forgetting why she ever started Global Justice. A shame really. She used to be someone I admired."
"Now?"
"Now, I just see another tired bureaucrat trying to push boulders back up a mountain.
"Ouch," Shego said. "Still, I can't deny it," the green-skinned woman declared.
Kim rose to put her mug in the sink, and then picked up the landline, and dialed a number she knew as well as Dana.
"Agent Marlyn? It's Kim. Listen, I know you called in Dana for this afternoon, but she's not going to make it. No. No, she's got critical training she can't miss. She won't be able to come back in until tomorrow night as usual. That's right. For now, she's off the split shifts, and back on the normal schedule. I appreciate your understanding."
She lifted, and smirked, saying, "No. No, Jacob, I can definitely tell you that isn't right. No. All right, you do that. Bye, now," she said and hung up.
"How did he take it?"
"He took it fine," Kim told Shego, both of them knowing Jacob Marlyn was the local head of the regional HQ when Betty wasn't around. "Only he said he would have to log the lapse with her training director."
"I thought Dana was off training," the green-skinned woman frowned.
"Funny thing. Dr. Janos Kolowski insisted she rejoined of her own will. Just as he was the one who apparently made the shift changes in her name. Jacob thought Dana approved his changes herself. He's going to call Betty about it."
"Kolowski," Shego grumbled. "Kim, that's one of the experts that once tried to steal my powers by draining my blood to try to infuse others so. He's a complete loon, and likes to try his own theories on anyone that doesn't see him coming."
"I see," Kim murmured. "So, any odds on the fact he likely altered our blood substitute, and then tried to push you two into….something only he understands?"
"Sucker bet," Shego told her with a scowl.
"I'll wait on Wade, and then go see Bets after she calls. Dr. Kolowski might be about to face his own demons if I find out he was behind this mess."
"What are you thinking?"
"Consider the fact no one should have known Wade was even working in GJ on our behalf," Kim added pointedly. "Suppose this loon was the one that tipped off Hardbed from the start. All our issues could have come from him from the start."
"Oh, hell," Shego said as Kim turned to walk away, and she knew what the Lady Kimbera was thinking.
Kolowski might be the one ultimately at fault for Monique's death. Which meant Kimbera likely felt that he had to pay, too.
~KP~
"Oh, look," Kim's playful voice remarked as she seemed to just appear in Dr. Director's office as they waited for the conference Wade had demanded. "Colonel Mustard," she called Will. "Only you seem to be missing your candlestick. Which must explain why you're so damned blind," she growled at the last, turning on Betty.
"Kimberly," Dr. Director frowned. "Wade suggested you had some concerns you wished to address? Something about Dana's schedule and…."
"You have the evidence, Wade?"
"I found everything once I knew where to look, Kim. You were right. You were right about all of it."
"About what," Will frowned.
"Shut up, Colonel Mustard," Kim glowered at him, and Will shrank back.
"Wade, please enlighten us. If we have trouble again..."
"Again? Again? You used to be smarter, Elizabeth," Kimberly said with a sudden shift in her tone, and she seemed to swell just a degree as if on the very verge of changing. "Only you're letting petty men blindside you far too often of late. Little wonder you are so lacking in our eyes of late."
"Wade, please explain."
"Janos Kolowski," Wade said and aimed something at her computer that made his file come up. "It seems he was operating on a secret agenda all along. One meant to pressure and push Kimberly and Dana for reasons only he knows. I do know he's the one that leaked news of my working with them to Hardbed, and allowed them to discover and steal their blood and tissue samples. It was he who recently altered their blood substitute enough that they would have starved and gone into a manic state hunting blood had Kim not been more….clever than Dr. Kolowski realized. Now, we have found out he is using a purposely erratic schedule for Dana Parker so that she is pushed beyond her current limits in some attempt to see if she can be made to snap. That's Kim's belief, and I have to agree since he used your authority, Dr. Director, to put Dana back into field training while keeping her schedule for communications. All while calling her at random times, usually after she is seen visibly pushing herself so she is already strained before called in. That suggests he is also watching them both, and who knows what he has filmed, or is ready to reveal to others. That is what we've found. Who knows what else he is secretly doing, or why. We just wanted to let you know before we dealt with him."
"Dealt…."
"You don't think he gets away with this, do you," Kimbera demanded. "What Shego did to the little man when he tried stealing her powers should have taught him a lesson. I'm going to ensure he understands there are lines you do not cross," she told Betty.
"I knew we should have fired him," Will swore.
"So, you do have a brain," Kim told him.
Will said nothing to that as he just stayed back.
"What do you plan," Dr. Director finally asked when Kim just stared at her and said no more.
"Call him here. Tell him nothing. Just call him in. I'll handle him."
"Kimberly…."
"Do it," Kim told her curtly. "Or I might get…impatient."
Dr. Director grimaced but reached for her intercom.
"Agent Diggs. Page Dr. Kolowski and have him report to me at once."
"Right away, Dr. Director," came the reply before she cut off the intercom.
"All right," Betty nodded at Kim.
They stood silent as they waited, Dr. Director growing almost as nervous as Will Du. Wade only looked grim and looked patient as a mountain. Kimberly just stared at the door, her eyes fixed there with almost manic focus.
"Dr. Director," Kim said after a time. "You used to trust me," she said without looking away from the door. "I'm asking you to do so again. Either way, you will not interrupt me. Not for a second," she said even as the door opened, and a thin, balding man with thick glasses stepped into the office and froze at seeing Kim and Wade standing there.
"Come in, Doctor," Dr. Director told him.
The man swallowed hard as he met Kim's gaze, and walked timidly forward, but moved past her even if he shuddered as he did.
"You called," he asked with an uneasy voice, glancing back at Kim who had walked up beside him.
"Oh, yes," Kim replied for the head of Global Justice. "You see, we have some questions, and you're going to answer them. All of them."
"Now see here…."
Kim grabbed the bony man, jerking him around, and held him in place as her suddenly crimson orbs bore into his own.
"No more of your pretentions, little man. Show me your true heart," she demanded as her strong hands slid up, and seized him by his temples, her burning eyes boring into him.
The man shuddered, obviously trying to pull free before he went limp, but then he just stared as his jaw dropped, and he began to drool slightly as Kim's eyes only narrowed all the more and she began to growl.
With a fierce snarl, she flung him aside, and he fell in a heap to one side of the office as Kim turned to Dr. Director with a cold, grim scowl.
"Don't worry," she spat. "He'll recover. In due time. Only now he'll be a bit more….loyal. As well as biddable."
"What did you do," Will risked asking.
She glanced back at him, and then looked at Betty again.
"It seems, Elizabeth, we were both betrayed from the start by that little rodent."
"What," Dr. Director exclaimed.
"You never wondered why you couldn't fire him even when he proved so inept, and often more trouble than not?"
"Wait," Will frowned. "Are you saying….?"
"You were never trusted by your own Security Council. Especially François Van Dyke," Kim told Betty. "He felt you were too idealistic. Too likely to go your own way. So they put a plant in your ranks. He was watching you from the start, and carrying out orders to keep you from being too effective, and undermining the politics they were more interested in than the mission you hoped to manage. He even made sure certain critical missions failed if they were not the type your backers wanted to succeed for whatever their reason," Kim said quietly.
"Good lord," Will exclaimed. "If that's true, he's got a lot of blood on his hands."
"Yet you need to keep him in place," Kim declared.
"That's insane," Will exclaimed.
"No, she's right. If removed, the Council only has to deny knowledge of him, and then put another plant in place we might not spot either," Dr. Director countered. "If he is…neutralized and now loyal, we can use him for a change."
"Exactly," Kim smiled. "And if you want a sample of their thinking, consider he turned Shego against you from the start with his insane experiments on her. Van Dyke feared you might be gaining a too powerful backer they couldn't control, so they ensured Shego, already known to be willful even then, had a reason to hate you. After all, Janos made sure he told our friend everything he did was at your command."
"That…."
Dr. Director shook her head and cut off her own oath.
"What else," she asked Kim.
"Me. I was seen as another too idealistic. One a little too popular for their liking. They also feared they couldn't control me, and if we joined, they feared a lot of their covert operations might be undermined. The last mission Ron and I were sent on was a trap. They already knew a vampire was out there, Elizabeth. They knew, and they sent us in blind."
"Good God," Wade swore.
"That's not even the worst, as angry as that makes me," Kim said, and she stepped forward, and eyed Betty. "They are the ones that hired Sheldon and created WEE to be your foil. All your leaks. All your moles. All your problems with him. Janos and the Council. They kept you sniping at one another, and so kept you distracted at various times while they carried out the clandestine activities that kept them enriched, and in power. The last thing they wanted was someone like you or I joining and either exposing them or even taking their place. So they sabotaged us all from the start."
"That….is not what we're supposed to be," Will Du said in a somber tone.
"It would seem, Agent Du, it's time for your own naiveté to die. Janos is yours, Dr. Director. Use him for your own benefit. I assure you, he will now be loyal to you and you alone first and foremost."
"And….your suspicions regarding him baiting you?"
"The Council knew all you learned. You all but told them everything about us. Van Dyke was getting tired of you somehow coming out on top in spite of all their efforts. So he planned to sacrifice you by having Dana or I self-destructing in a very public, very violent way they could then blame on you. This was all about putting their own pawn in your chair and ensuring GJ only investigated what they allowed. I'll tell you now, I will not be a part of that. If they cross me again, Elizabeth, they die," Kim spat.
"It goes without saying that I think it best I now move my work back to my own primary labs where I can monitor all my security," Wade told Dr. Director. "You understand."
"You can even make it look as if our trust has been fractured, and we're all pulling away," Kim smiled at Dr. Director. "I wager that might make them a bit cocky. Maybe even overconfident. Call Ron if you need us, but let's make it seem we are…cutting ties, shall we? Oh, and I'd delete every file you have on us, too. Just in case someone decides to try to get creative again."
"I'll help," Wade said blandly.
Dr. Director rose to her feet and eyed Janos.
"I can't believe I was duped. All this time…."
"You trusted. As I did. I'm not so trusting these days," Kim told her. "Now, I leave you to your own housecleaning. Kim Possible is about to retire. From Global Justice at least," she said. "Do suggest they kiss their own backsides when they beg help if more preternatural elements show troubling their own interests. You may say I told you to say so," Kim said, and turned and walked out.
"Well," Will Du said quietly as the Janos Kolowski remained on the ground, yet to stir. "That was…informative."
"This isn't why I started Global Justice, William," she said as she sat back down. "This isn't what we were supposed to be. To think they used my own brother against me. Turned Shego into a woman that could have threatened the world itself, and came close to that more than once."
"How do we respond," Agent Du asked quietly, stepping forward.
"We do our jobs, Agent Du. We do our jobs. We just received a credible tip concerning major corruption and scandal. When Janos wakes, I want him meticulously debriefed and questioned. Only after will we vet our senior staff, and find out who we can trust. If the Council is actively endangering our world, then we have a duty to investigate," she said so ominously that William didn't have a doubt that his superior was serious.
"We'd best keep this one in-house."
"Obviously. Start with Team Impossible. Find two more trustworthy agents. Put them on the Council. I want to know everything about them, and then dig deeper. I will not let this injustice stand, William. As you said, lives have been lost. The world endangered. And two potentially great heroes were lost because of this madness. It ends. It ends now," she said, and turned to her computer, and began to work.
To Be Continued….