(A/N: I won't be able to update for a few weeks, so this one's extra long to tide you over. Enjoy!)
Dr. Drakken, wearing a pink apron left over from his Cocoa Moo days over his usual blue lab coat, waved his new trophy shaped like a golden frying pan in front of Shego's nose. "And you said a baking contest was a waste of time!" he scoffed. "I am clearly the greatest evil chef in this whole convention. This ought to make Dementor apologize for laughing at my stolen vehicle when we arrived. Admit it, you're proud of me."
"Yeah…right, proud's the word." Shego turned away and rubbed her fingers on her temples. "Why do I even try?" she muttered.
Drakken took off the apron, bunched it up and used it to shine his prize until he could see his reflection perfectly. "And now, Shego," he told his sidekick, "we are going to meet with Mr. Wilson."
"Mr. Who?" Shego thought for a moment. "You mean that weirdo who's been sending you all those emails? He's meeting us here?" She paused before adding, "And you were more excited about a stupid bake-off?"
"Oh, I must have forgotten to tell you," he replied with no reaction whatsoever to her last comment. "Yes, he should be in front of the mind control exhibit in fifteen minutes."
"So it's 'Mr. Wilson'? Now that's a scary bad guy name," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "'Ooh, everybody run! It's Mr. Wilson!'"
"Stop mocking, Shego, it's rude," Drakken rebuked, knowing full well that nothing short of a personality-changing Attitudinator could make Shego stop mocking him. "I am sure that is an alias of some kind. He came across as very evil in the emails."
"So you have never met this guy in person?"
"Not until today. He has an offer for me that I think is worth hearing."
"Oy. Talk about your online safety hazards. Well, if he turns out to be some sicko, don't expect me to save your butt. He's probably some dork living in his mom's basement…" She turned to walk away and found herself looking up at a tall man in what looked like a completely metal suit. The lighting in this particular area was such that he was covered mostly in shadow, but Shego could plainly see one eye on the left side of his mask, which appeared to be studying her intently. "…whoa. H-hey there."
"Dr. Drakken and Shego, I presume?" the man said in a deep, sinister voice.
"Um…why yes!" Drakken replied, quickly hiding the golden frying pan behind his back.
"I believe you have exchanged communications lately regarding a partnership with a certain Mr. Wilson," the man said. "That is not the name I am most commonly known by. Call me Slade."
The way he said it sent shivers up Drakken's spine. Even Shego felt a chill.
Slade's one eye scanned the area. Villains of every shape and size bumped and jostled in a huge crowd. He continued. "Perhaps we should find a less popular location. Follow me."
Meanwhile, Kim Possible managed to sneak past the security guards in front of the convention center, pulling Ron close behind even though he was, shockingly, buried in his book. Now, the two were crouched behind a vacated information booth. Kim pulled out her Kimmunicator. "Wade, any idea where Drakken is?"
"Could be anywhere," the boy replied, "but I doubt he'd want to have a serious discussion with this mystery man in broad daylight. Try somewhere secluded where he could have a private meeting."
"So we're just wandering aimlessly around the villain convention?"
"Exactly. But check your backpack."
Kim took it off and pulled out two costumes, one Ron's size and one hers. "Villain costumes? Haven't we done this before…and it didn't go well?"
"It's just long enough for you to walk across the floor without suspicion. They're new, you'll like them."
Kim unfolded hers. It was a red tunic with matching pants, a thick belt, tall black boots, and a short black wig. "It's Madame Rouge," Wade explained. "She can stretch herself into any shape or size. Bad news. Seriously."
"What happens if someone expects me to use my powers?" Kim asked, scrutinizing the costume.
"Madame Rouge is a legend," Wade told her. "As long as you don't say anything, most of these guys will leave you alone out of some combination of fear and respect."
Kim was satisfied with this explanation. She looked at Ron's. It was a white body suit with a green hood that contained a giant plastic eyeball. "And this is…?"
"See-more," Wade explained. "The real one can do all kinds of stuff with his different eyes, but this one just switches the color if you push the button on the belt. He's the opposite of Madame Rouge: not enough people would take him seriously to cause him trouble."
"You getting this, Ron?" Kim asked her partner.
Ron looked over the book's cover. "How am I supposed to 'get' this when I can't get past Act One, Scene Two? Even Rufus doesn't understand the language in here." Rufus popped his face out from behind the book and made a confused face.
Kim passed him his costume. "The men's room is right behind you. Change quickly and head left. I'll go to the right. One of us will find Drakken. Read while you walk, if you have to."
The pair split up to their respective changing areas and came out in perfect costume, minus Kim being a little bit short of Madame Rouge. They made quick eye contact when they came out, then split off to the right and left to start the search.
Near the back of the convention center, five teenaged heroes stared at the scene before them. "Dude," Beast Boy said in a voice full of awe, "I've never seen so many bad guys in one place. This is even bigger than the Brotherhood of Evil's headquarters in Paris."
"Way bigger," Cyborg agreed. He sniffed the air and licked his lips. "Hey, is that kettle com they're selling in there? Man, I could go for some sweet…"
"We're not here for kettle corn," Robin interrupted him. "We're here for Slade. That's our only objective. We need to find out what he's doing and how to stop him. Cyborg, do you have those holographic simulators?"
"Got 'em right here." He held out his hand and revealed two rings for each Titan, color coded to match each one. "As long as we've got these on, we can go relatively unnoticed."
The team put on their rings and activated them.
Raven was the first to react. Using her communicator as a mirror, she examined her messy black hair, ugly glasses, and oversized pink sweater. "Ew."
Beast Boy began to snicker, but then he looked down at himself. "Dude!" he exclaimed, "I look like some kind of weird fish man!"
Cyborg looked over his own projected body. "Well, I never thought I'd see myself as a blonde, but I think this works." He had a blonde mullet, a muscular build, and dressed like he had just come from a motorcycle race.
Robin looked down at his all-black uniform. "So…I'm a ninja? That's it?"
"Not just any ninja," Cyborg said, showing Robin his reflection in the communicator.
Robin nearly jumped, eyes wide in terror. "I'm a monkey?"
"A ninja monkey," Cyborg corrected him. "You'd be surprised how common they are. You're barely short enough to pass, but I think it's okay if you try to slouch a little bit."
Robin cringed at the statement, intended to make fun of his height. Usually, the spikey hair made up for his vertically challenged stature, but the monkey ninja suit covered it up.
"Robin?" Starfire asked. "Do I look the 'okay'?"
Robin looked at her. She had short blonde hair, black pants, and a red crop top. She didn't just look okay. She looked amazing. "You look great, Star," he said, glad his monkey face hid how red his face was getting.
"All right team," Cyborg said, "in case anyone recognizes y'all, I'll tell you who you are. Beast Boy, your name is Gill. Raven is DNAmy. I'm Motor Ed. Starfire is Adrena Lynn. Robin…well…you're just a ninja monkey. We'll call you Robbie."
"Great," groaned Robbie the Ninja Monkey.
The team split up. Cyborg and Beast Boy, or Motor Ed and Gill, made a beeline for the food court. Raven, or DNAmy, preferred to search alone. She thought it would help her sense Slade without distractions. Starfire and Robin, also known as Adrena Lynn and Robbie the Ninja Monkey, went together toward the mind control exhibits.
Also heading toward the food court was Ron, in disguise as See-more of the H.I.V.E. Five. His nose was still buried in Hamlet. He sighed, "Rufus, I don't know how Kim does the whole 'smart' thing. This story doesn't even make sense. I thought it was about star crossed lovers, but I'm not seeing that anywhere so far." Rufus made a couple of squeaky noises. "Oh, you're right," Ron realized, "that was Macbeth."
"Yo, grass stain," Cyborg whispered, pulled Beast Boy out of line for the kettle corn, "isn't that See-more? I thought we froze him."
Beast Boy looked. "Huh. Weird. How do you think he got out of that?"
"I don't know, but Slade's used the H.I.V.E. students before. Maybe he defrosted them. I say we follow him."
"Okay," Beast Boy agreed, pulling out a dollar, "but first can I get back in line? For bad guys, the people here make some really good food and I have been craving kettle corn since…hey!"
Cyborg dragged him away from the kettle corn stand. "We're going now," he said sternly. Beast Boy followed obediently, but not without a grudging look Cyborg's blonde direction.
Ron stopped walking and looked up, sniffing the air. "You smell that, Rufus?"
"Mm-hm!" Rufus squeaked with joy. "Kettle corn!"
"And nobody gets between Ron Stoppable and his kettle corn." He closed his eyes and took a step in the direction of the glorious scent, bumping straight into something large and…kind of hard. "Ow, dude…uh-oh."
He found himself staring at Motor Ed and Gill. "H-hey guys," he said. "Haven't seen you two in a while. You look great. Well, I am definitely not Ron Stoppable, so I'll just be on my way…"
"Sorry," Motor Ed said, in a voice that sounded nothing like Motor Ed. "B…Gill and I have some questions to ask you. Like how come you're not an icicle?"
"Um…" Ron looked around nervously, hoping Kim would pop out and save him. She was nowhere nearby. He decided the safest thing to do was play along. "Excuse me, do you know who I am? I am the great See-more! Nobody freezes the great See-more! Now excuse me, my evil friends, before I use my laser vision on you." He pushed the button to turn the plastic eye red.
Cyborg and Beast Boy looked at each, then back at See-more. See-more was the last villain they would expect to act like that. "Maybe something's messing with his brain," Beast Boy whispered.
Cyborg nodded. Slade was not known to use mind control, but it was a definite possibility. He also knew that if anyone thawed out See-more, that person could not be a member of the Brotherhood of Evil. Slade seemed the obvious choice. "This kid knows something," Cyborg whispered back. Then, he turned to See-more. "We need to have a talk," he said, taking a step forward.
Ron began to sweat. "Okay, just let me get my…Rufus attack!"
Rufus jumped out of the teenager's pocket and began biting "Motor Ed" while Ron made a mad dash in the opposite direction. "Gill" charged after him, trying to resist the urge to turn into a cheetah and make this all go down easier. Rufus, after nearly swallowing a gear or two, dropped to the ground, realizing that this Motor Ed was apparently made out of some very hard metal. Cyborg scooped him up in his hand and followed after Beast Boy, while Rufus muttered high-pitched complaints.
On the opposite side of the convention center, Starfire looked around with curiosity. She had seen many strange things during her few years on earth, but never so many new people and things in one place. Everywhere she looked there were unusual looking machines, powered by even more unusual looking people. As she began to stare at the exhibit next to her, Robin touched her hand.
"We're looking for Slade," he reminded her. "We can come back here later."
"Of course," she agreed, following only a couple of steps behind him. However, the monkey ninja suit didn't exactly help him stand out in the crowd. As soon as a big crowd of very tall super villains passed by, she could no longer see him. She wanted to call out his name, but it would blow both of their covers.
"Adrena Lynn? Is that you?" a voice asked. A young villain in an orange outfit pushed his way through the crowd, holding a notebook and pen. "How did you get out of prison?" Starfire hesitated, not sure what Adrena Lynn would say. He finished it for her. "Probably some amazing stunt, huh? I watched your show, like, every single day. I can't believe Kim Possible and whatever-her-sidekick's-name-is would get you canceled like that. Can I have your autograph?"
"Okay," she said sweetly, signing his notebook with a heart after the name.
"Cool! Hey, guys!" he called to his friends standing by the demonstration of a new sonic detonator. "It's Adrena Lynn! And she's signing autographs!"
Starfire was suddenly swamped by young villains begging her to sign notebooks, DVDs, costumes, their arms, and even one guy's cast, which he apparently got trying to imitate Adrena Lynn. All the attention was making her kind of nervous, and she needed to get back to catching Slade. "Thank you, friends, but I must…that is, I…this is most touching but…" The crowd just grew bigger and bigger. No one listened to her protests. Too nice to openly refuse, she felt herself getting buried in admirers. I wish Robin were here, she thought. He would think of something.
But Robin was not there. He was crouching on a beam of the roof, trying to get a bird's eye view, or monkey's eye view in this case. He scanned the floor. Slade was nowhere to be seen, but there was one thing that caught his eye: a strangely familiar splotch of bright red.
Wade had been right in telling Kim about the fear and respect her costume would command. No one dared approach her. If she had wanted to, she could cut every line in the convention without receiving any complaints. Of course, that wasn't what she wanted to do. She was looking for a blue-faced madman, and having no luck so far. Wade, however, did not know that Madame Rouge had recently been frozen solid by the Teen Titans in Paris. Robin did.
He stayed where he was for a moment, calculating. Though Slade was his target, he had to know how Madame Rouge had escaped. If she was loose, the whole Brotherhood could be. Robin needed answers, but he couldn't just jump down and reveal himself. For one thing, it would blow his cover. For another thing, Madame Rouge had captured him before because of a few stupid mistakes, and he did not want to repeat that. If it hadn't been for the rest of the team, she would have frozen him forever.
He nimbly jumped down from the beam, landing on all fours. Maybe if I just follow her, I'll find some clues, Robin thought. He began to do just that, but from enough of a distance that she wouldn't see.
After a little while, Kim began to feel like she was being watched. She pulled out her makeup mirror and looked behind her. That's odd, she thought. That is the biggest ninja monkey I have ever seen, and I haven't seen Monkey Fist anywhere. Her eyes skimmed the crowd. He probably is here somewhere. That monkey hasn't moved. Monkey Fist must be using it to track me. She put away her mirror and ducked behind an incinerator cannon prototype.
Robbie the Ninja Monkey saw her do this, and followed close behind. He knew that using his utility belt would compromise the holographic simulator, so he prepared to fight hand to hand. Kim checked her mirror again. "Still behind me," she muttered. "I guess I'll have to take care of this the hard way."
Robin jumped onto the cannon, then down to land crouching right on top of "Madame Rouge". Kim shook him off and somersaulted a few feet further away. Before long, the two teen heroes were locked in a martial arts battle. Robin punched. Kim blocked. Robin kicked. Kim lunged to grab him. He grabbed a tray someone had brought from the food court and used it as a shield. Kim cartwheeled around him and hit him from behind. Robin ducked just in time and kicked her feet out from under her. She fell, but was quickly up again. Robin expected her to stretch out her arms and grab him, but she didn't. Instead, she pulled out a hair dryer, which shot out a grappling hook that she used to pull herself onto one of the roof beams to get away from him. Has she lost her powers? Robin wondered. Unable to use his own grappling hook, he leaped from the floor to the cannon, to the top of a nearby tank, to the nearest roof beam.
Somewhere around the mind control exhibit, Raven closed her eyes and focused on her center. Despite being surrounded by villains of all kinds of negative forces, Slade's personal energy was still faintly distinguishable. She felt his presence growing stronger as she walked toward a temporary wall leading to some kind of hidden room. She put her hand up to touch the wall and instantly felt the negative emotions that she had always identified with her team's arch nemesis. She pulled out her communicator, intending to alert Robin, but stopped when she heard voices talking on the other side of the wall. One was definitely Slade's, one sounded a little bit like Brother Blood's, though it clearly wasn't him, and the third voice was the voice of a woman. She turned off her holographic simulator rings and put away the communicator.
"I'm probably going to regret this," she figured. She transformed into her soul self and passed through the wall, sticking her hooded head out of a swirl of dark energy, grateful for the bad lighting.
Slade was indeed present. The voice that sounded curiously like Brother Blood's belonged to a funny-looking man with blue skin and a scar. The woman had faintly green skin, black hair, and an outfit of the same two colors. Raven listened intently to what they were saying.
"So will you accept my proposal?" Slade asked the blue man.
"Let me get this straight," Dr. Drakken replied. "If I prove myself by doing a few chores for you, you'll cut me in on your plans to take over the world?"
"I prefer to start with one city at a time," Slade corrected him, "but you basically have it. With enough success, I do not see why the world is not a possibility. However, this deal extends also to Miss Shego." Both of them looked at her with expectation.
"Well, glad to see somebody cares about my opinion for once," she said, crossing her arms. "I suppose I'm in. Your plans can't be any more stupid than what I've had to deal with before. I'm going to make a few things clear, though." She walked up to Slade and pointed one gloves finger at him. "I don't do clones, I don't do cakes, and I don't work for free."
"Naturally," Slade replied, a little taken aback by the fact that somebody actually dared tell him what to do, "you shall be well-rewarded for your efforts."
Raven noticed a paper being held in the blue man's hand. It appeared to be some kind of contract. It was too far away to read in such a dark room. She stretched her body out of her energy a little bit further. The words were still too small. Maybe if she just stretched a little further…
CRASH!
Raven dropped to the floor, feeling like she'd been hit with one of Starfire's starbolts. The green lady, Shego she assumed, was standing over her with a smirk on her face. "Is this one of those teenagers you were telling us about?"
"Ah, Raven, how good of you to come," Slade said. Raven could not see his face, but she could sense a big cloud of evil intent hovering just above him. "It's been awhile since we last had a chat, hasn't it? Look how much you've grown."
Raven put up a protective shield of energy around herself. "You're a fool, Slade. You won't get away with this. You never do."
"Is that a threat?" Slade shook his head in disapproval. "Like father, like daughter I suppose. Though, to be honest, I never really liked him either."
Raven's eyes glowed white. She dropped her shield and telepathically grabbed the contract out of Drakken's hand. Unfortunately, Shego was right there, hitting her with hands covered in what looked like green fire. Raven was able to block every hit with a black shield, but that didn't stop Drakken from ripping the contract out of her gray hand and hurrying to the exit with Slade and Shego close behind.
"No!" Raven yelled, shutting the door with her powers.
Then, something happened that nobody in that room could have expected.
Cyborg, no longer activating his Motor Ed costume, crashed through the door, yelling, "Get this rodent outa my gears!" Rufus continued squirming around and chewing all kinds of important pieces of Cyborg's machinery.
"Rufus! Help me!" Ron Stoppable yelled as he toppled over one of the temporary walls, still in costume, trying to avoid Beast Boy, who was still disguised as Gill and was trying to grab him. The changeling grabbed Ron's helmet.
"I got him, Cy! I got him!"
The helmet came off and Ron Stoppable kept running.
"I don't got him."
"See-more has face?" Cyborg asked, jumping up and down and trying to shake off the naked mole rat. He suddenly realized that Slade was standing in the shadows right next to them. "Yo, BB, don't move!"
He blasted his enemy, but a sudden bite in the wires from Rufus made him miss and hit Beast Boy, knocking off his holographic simulator rings and revealing him to be himself.
Shego had no clue who these kids were, but they were apparently enemies of her new ally, and that was all the explanation she needed. She fired her green glow at Cyborg, who ducked just in time, then shot his sonic blaster at her. She leaped away, simultaneously kicking Ron the floor with Beast Boy.
"Shego!" Drakken ordered, pointing to the open space where the temporary wall had fallen down. "Let's get out of here!"
The three villains ran towards it, only to crash into a wall of dark energy. They all turned back to look at Raven, who was levitating with her eyes bright white again. "Don't even think about it," she said, preparing to lift the wall back into place. "You three aren't going anywhere."
Slade took out his laser gun and was about to fire it at her, but was stopped when two more teen heroes crashed through the black force field, shattering it and knocking down Raven. Robbie the Ninja Monkey and Kim "Madame Rouge" Possible tumbled after each other. Kim tackled Robin, Robin kicked her off, and the two landed flat on their faces, breaking Robin's rings and knocking off Kim's wig to expose her bright red hair.
Robin looked up and saw the person he hated most standing over him. "Slade!" he exclaimed, getting up.
He was immediately knocked down by a stampede of fanboys following a familiar-looking blonde villainess.
"I am not the Adrena Lynn!" Starfire shouted, running as fast she could to avoid being buried alive. She couldn't take it anymore and shot two starbolts into the crowd, saying, "I apologize and I hope we may perhaps still be friends at another time!"
The bolts scattered the crowd, but knocked down the second temporary wall onto Starfire, who fell hard, though not at all injured, to the ground.
Slade was enjoying himself quite a bit. It wasn't every day he could see the Teen Titans make fools of themselves right in front of him. Unfortunately, he did have other things to do. "It's been nice seeing you again, but I am afraid I must depart. Shall we?" He beckoned to the other two villains.
"You think you're all that, Kim Possible…" Dr. Drakken began to say.
"Yadda yadda, we get it," Shego finished, grabbing his arm and pulling him after Slade. "Move!"
The three super villains ran away and jumped onto Slade's hovercraft, leaving the scene entirely, leaving seven teenagers and one naked mole rat staring at each and wondering what had just happened.
