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: Gifted
By LJ58
30
Drew Lipski sat in his cell alone, pondering the unfairness of a world that would not admit his genius. First, that plebian university threw him out. Then he couldn't find a lab worthy of his name, or his intelligence. When his cousin actually called him in on the most ambitious project of the century, he was beyond ecstatic.
Especially when he quickly proved those idiots with throwaway degrees had never even realized what they had held in their hands without piercing her secrets for all those years. And they called him mad?
Now, caught again, the no-talent policewoman who had dragged him to jail refused to give him the credit for his findings. Revolutionary findings! Findings that should make men envy and admire him. Did she allow him to be honored? No, she threw him in jail and buried his work as if it were something distasteful.
"Somehow, I will be vindicated," he swore, not even allowed out to exercise with the others because he was deemed so dangerous.
Could he help it if he had to constantly defend himself against lesser instincts?
Okay, so maybe hooking up their exercise equipment to the main electrical lines was a little over the top, but they had insulted his mother! His mother! That, Drew Lipski felt, was not to be borne.
He muttered on as he sat in his cell, knowing he would be free again, somehow, and a certain policewoman's name was now added to his list. A list he would someday wipe clean once he finally had the world in his hands. He could foresee nothing else.
"Drakken," a voice rasped.
Drew Lipski, long covertly known as Dr. Drakken to certain elements, turned to see a police officer standing at his cell using a name the authorities refused to acknowledge.
"Who sent you," he demanded because he really wasn't an idiot in spite of certain opinions.
"Gemini needs you. He is willing to free you, and give you free rein in one of his best labs if you will first aid him on a certain project."
"What project," he demanded.
The man smirked.
"He'll tell you himself only when you face him. So, in or out, blue man?"
"I'm in," he smiled. "Only first, can we stop by the communications panel in the security shed on the way out. There's a little gift I really want to leave for my….caretakers," he said with a malicious smile.
"We don't have time…"
"It will barely take a tick," he smiled on with the grim rictus he used as he lifted his mattress and pulled out a bizarre blending of wires and thin leads on the ends of several of the tangled wires.
"No skin off my nose," the apparent guard muttered. "You get us caught, though, and I'll leave you behind."
Drew Lipski, also known as Dr. Drakken, didn't remind the lackey he had a reputation for slipping away even from more secure institutions than this one. He simply rechecked his device he had been preparing for his own escape all along and followed the man from the cell block.
~KP~
"What happened," Dr. Director demanded when Will Du walked into the command center holding a single file. One that was rather thin considering who it was likely on, and yet the madman had been slipping around them across the world, wreaking considerable havoc without anyone ever connecting him to the manic alias until Gordeaux of all people tagged him.
There were times when she really regretted they had lost the woman from the Agency. Still, even she could understand the woman's ire against shortsighted men that had all but murdered her brother. That blind testing they had rushed should never have been allowed. Never. Yet the very men responsible were still trying to advise her on handling a too-powerful teenager they couldn't handle themselves.
"It's Lipski. Somehow, he vanished from his very secure cell, and not one guard in the maximum security facility can even remember him ever being there."
"Want to explain that one?"
He pulled out a small, plastic bag from the otherwise thin file, and held it up.
"One of our own found this patched into the communications center for the guards' comms. It had burned out, which is just as well, as it was apparently broadcasting a low-frequency wave that shut down anyone with an earbud connected to the system. They just forgot everything, sit down, and let over half the felons escape. It's the only reason we realized Lipski was already gone, too," Will explained. "Fortunately, the effects did fade after the device burned itself out."
"My God," Dr. Director swore. "I should have realized…."
"We didn't even know Lipski was Drakken, ma'am. We certainly didn't realize…."
"You overlook the obvious, Agent Du," she said, taking the file to scan it herself. "This is Gemini's move."
"But…."
"He has to know by now that Lipski was directly involved with Kimberly and her….study. He'd want whatever was in his head, and might even hope Lipski knows something that could help him manage her."
Will scowled.
"I did not even consider that scenario," he admitted.
"Never underestimate my brother, William. At one time he was one of the best agents we had on our side. Till whatever it that happened that made him snap. Still, brother or not, I will not rest until we bring him in, and he pays for all the lives he has taken since," she swore.
"Even if he does end up sentenced to death," he asked grimly, knowing some questioned her commitment to bringing down her brother.
"The brother I remember would have been horrified at this madman," she told him. "He would never have willingly done anything this sociopath allows on a near constant basis. No, William, so far as I am concerned, that man out there is not my brother. Sheldon is already dead. And before I finish, I'll make sure Gemini joins him," Dr. Director swore coolly as she handed him the file back.
"Understood, ma'am."
"Now, get Omega wants out on Drakken, and find him before he can do anything else."
"Omega," Will blinked, knowing it implied shoot to kill to prevent escape.
"Yes," she said with a firm nod. "Hopefully, that will be enough to slow this madman down."
Will didn't ask. He only obeyed. After all, that was what he was good at.
~KP~
The private jet rolled up to an equally private hangar just after sunset. The pilot waited for instructions, knowing not to trouble his employer when he wished to be left alone. That, and the man was rather disturbing in his own right.
The combat vet had seen a lot of deformities, injury, and even defects in his life, but he had never seen a man like Lord Montgomery Fiske. The man was enough to make you shudder. Yet he seemed to treat his defects as if they were treasured gifts.
Worse, he seemed to go out of his way to embrace the deformities, and relished all things monkey, as if he were one of them. He even kept a troupe of trained simians around him that somehow seemed to be clever enough to understand and obey him.
The pilot only knew the man paid very well, and without many other options after the war, he had swallowed his disgust and took the job.
He waited in the cockpit, used to being ignored by the nobleman, and finally heard a chirp on the intercom as the shrill voice declared, "I will not need you for three days, man. Be ready to fly on the morning of the fourth. Six sharp," he said, and gave a tittering laugh as he added, "For on the fifth, I finally begin my destiny," he crowed.
"Anything you say, m'lord," he told him and was very glad he wasn't that short little valet of his because he wasn't sure he could take being in that man's company twenty-four/seven. He wasn't sure how Sir Bates managed it. Then again, that roly-poly little guy seemed a bit odd himself.
~KP~
Kim was looking forward to the field trip to the Middleton Science and History Museum and felt she would certainly enjoy it more if she could just get Ron Stoppable to stop following her.
"…telling you, KP," the boy insisted on calling her as something suspicious moved in one of the pockets of his oversized cargo pants, "It's a conspiracy!"
"I'm not fond of Mr. Barkin either, Ron," she sighed as Jessica gave her a sympathetic look as she and Monique stood just behind in the line waiting to board the bus for the museum. "But I don't think the school assigning him to oversee the trip qualities as some kind of conspiracy."
"The man hates me. I mean seriously. He's been after me for four years, just because he thought I gave him a weird look that first day," Ron complained.
"And did you? Give him a weird look?"
"Well, wouldn't you. Have you seen that guy?" Then Ron eyed her, and said, "Oh, yeah. You have."
"Yes, Ron," she sighed as Mr. Barkin appeared only then carrying a clipboard with a thick file attached under the sheet of names.
"All right, people. Listen up, and I mean good. First off, remember this is for your history class, so be sure you take notes because you will be tested on this trip."
"Even on the drive," Ron blurted.
Steve Barkin eyed the lanky boy, and Kim guessed the boy likely brought a lot of his troubles down on his own head.
"For you, Stoppable, especially the drive," the big man growled. "All right, if you're not in Mrs. Weems History class, you don't belong here. If you do, no phones, radios, electronics of any kind…."
"But, Mr. Barkin."
"None," the man bellowed. "You're here to soak up history. Not tweet your deadbeat head-bookers, or whatever you delinquents do. Now, when I call your name, board the bus. You will go to the back of the bus in the order I call your name, and fill the seats in an orderly manner. No skipping seats," he barked.
"But what if….?"
"Zip it, Stoppable. Now, Allen Anders," he began, and the students began to board even as their teacher only then appeared.
"Any problems, Steven," the older woman smiled.
"Not yet," he growled, eyeing Ron and Kim respectively.
"I know that look," Ron whispered to her. "You're in trouble now."
Kim only sighed as Monique and Jessica giggled.
Fortunately, the trip was uneventful, and even tolerable since Ron was two seats behind her, and Mr. Barkin refused to let anyone speak while he was driving. Not that they didn't, but they just made sure to whisper only to those closest to them.
Ron, being two seats back, couldn't quite manage that one. For one, he didn't seem to know how to whisper.
She found him a bit silly, and sometimes amusing, but she didn't like him following her around at odd times, asking how her brothers had brought her back to life. That he had suggestions for her to choose from was even more disturbing. Ron, she realized, must watch a lot of strange films, and play a lot of even stranger video games.
By the time they reached the museum, Mr. Barkin stayed to secure the bus while Mrs. Weems led them to the museum, and began a tour of regional history that she actually found more than interesting. Barely twenty minutes later, Ron crept closer to her, and she almost groaned as she tried not to anticipate what insane comment he was about to make now.
"Hey. Hey, KP, cover for me. I'm going to the restroom."
"Why do I need to cover…?"
"That's why," he said, pointing at Mr. Barkin at the back of the line who had since rejoined them.
"Ron, just go the restroom," Kim sighed. "I doubt Mr. Barkin is going to bother you about something so simple," she told him.
"All right, but if he comes unglued, I'm blaming you," he said, and just turned, and hid behind a statue of someone next to a horse before he bolted for the hall after Mr. Barkin passed him.
Kim couldn't help but roll her eyes over his antics.
Ron, meanwhile, walked into an exhibit that had him shuddering as he tried to focus on the signs leading him to the restroom. He was still focused on the signs when he walked into someone carrying four weird rocks that were walking around the wide room filled with disturbing items and howled at the accidental collision.
"Boy," the man hissed, juggling the four rocks he held, and glaring at him. "What are you even doing in here," he demanded. "Your kind should not be allowed in institutions of higher learning?"
"Wow, you kind of sound like a guy I know. Are you related to Mr. Bar…?"
"Go," the man bellowed, and Ron just ducked a kick from his obviously misshapen foot.
"Eeeeewwww, dude, do you know got monkey feet? That is so sick. Maybe you should see a doc…."
"Go!"
"I'm trying," Ron said, and pointed at the restroom sign. "But you keep shoving me the wrong way," he went on blithely.
"Witless buffoon," the weird, hairy man spat as he began setting the weird statues around him in slotted pedestals set up around the room, or so they seemed to Ron. "You will be the first useless cretin I destroy once I gain ultimate power."
"Look, I just want to use the bathroom, weird monkey-foot guy. I don't really care…."
"Then go," the man shrieked and shoved him away from him before setting up the last statue on its plinth.
"Jeez," Ron muttered, staggering forward, tripping and stumbling as he brushed the ugly little rock statue with his fingers before managing to stay upright, giving a short little hop back in disgust at seeing that ugly rock up close.
"Seriously creepy," he complained even as he stepped back into the wide space in the center of the room when he almost ran right into the pedestal after he was shoved.
"No, you imbecile," the weird hairy guy shouted as Ron recoiled from catching himself, tripped over something, and almost knocked the small stone from its pedestal even as it now began to glow.
Even as it fell on its side on the raised, it somehow shimmered even as that shimmer erupted, joining with the matching beams from the other idols, and bathed the both of them in a blinding, golden light.
To Be Continued….