Beast Boy looked back. Two miniature missiles were headed straight toward him. He transformed into a hummingbird and flew far away from both. The two crashed head on. He eyed the clock. Time was almost up. He switched into the form of a cheetah and ran through the final obstacles, sinking his claws into one last moving target before pouncing across the finished line. Cyborg stopped the timer. Everyone—Raven, Starfire, Kim, Ron, Cy, and Beast Boy—looked at the score.
"That's two minutes and twenty seconds, grass stain!" he announced.
"Oh, well done, Beast Boy!" Starfire said, clapping her hands with glee.
"Yes!" Beast Boy, now human again, exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air. "That's a new record. Who's the man? This guy!"
Raven interrupted his victory dance, "You would have beaten your old record by more than two seconds if you hadn't wasted so much time showing off."
"Hey, the ladies like a show," Beast Boy said with a smile. "Speaking of which…" he dug into his belt and pulled out a cell phone.
"Wait," Raven said, "since when do you have a cell phone?"
"You don't know everything about me," BB replied. He directed his next words to the phone, slightly blushing in a greenish way. "Hey, Tara, what's up? Oh, nothing much, just hanging out…"
"Just hanging out?" Cyborg repeated. "BB, did you forget we are training for a showdown with a couple of supervillains? Now is not the best time to call your cheerleader girlfriend." He quickly turned to Kim and said, "No offense."
"None taken," Kim replied. She and Ron were suited up in their mission clothes, sitting between Raven and Cy at the control panel. Starfire sat on the other side of Raven, also observing.
"Well, that's the course," Cyborg concluded. "Now that Beast Boy's finished his little show and tell, think you could take a crack at it?"
"No big," Kim said. "Am I allowed to use my gadgets?"
"Sure," Cyborg nodded. "Robin always uses his."
"Great!" she said, hopping up out of her seat. She pulled her red hair into a ponytail and walked down the stairs to the starting line, giving Cy a thumbs up when she arrived.
Cyborg flipped a switch. "Counting down!" he announced. "Three…two…one…go!"
Kim took off at a sprint. Two hammers swung down, crossing each other in her path. She bounced back to avoid being hit and ran through the gap as soon as it opened again. Cyborg looked at the control panel carefully. "Maybe I ought to go easy for her first run," he said to himself, reaching for a blue button.
Ron caught his metal arm and his attention. "Oh no, you don't," he told him. "Kim would kill you if she found out."
"I'm trying to help her out," the half-robot insisted.
Ron shook his head. "C'mon, Cy, do you really think she needs help? She's Kim Possible. She can do anything."
"All right," Cyborg sighed. He reached over the blue button and hit a bright red one instead.
Two silver towers emerged in front of her. Each had a laser gun on top. Both began rapidly firing short beams directly at Kim. She cartwheeled back and forth to avoid being hit. Using her hairdryer-shaped grappling hoo, she swung up to the top of one of the towers. The other laser shot a beam at it. She jumped to the ground just before it exploded. Now there was only one laser gun shooting at her. She took out a small makeup mirror and reflected the beam back at its source, exploding the second laser gun as well. She checked the clock. Only fifty seconds so far. Good. She broke into a run.
"Yeah! Way to go, KP!" Ron cheered.
"Kick the butt!" Starfire added.
Raven said nothing, but the edge of her mouth revealed a slight smile.
Cyborg smiled at his blonde friend. "You were right, Ron. Looks like Kim's ready to take it up a notch." He flipped a couple of switches.
Instantly, a giant wheel popped out of the ground a few feet in front of Kim. Each spoke had a rocket missile attached. It started spinning quickly, releasing a new rocket every time a spoke reached the top of the wheel. As it ran out of missiles, it instantly loaded new ones in the same places. Kim jumped out of the way of one, slid under another, and hurdled over a third. She dug into her pocket and pulled out a container of hair gel.
"Man, and I thought Robin used too much of that stuff," Cyborg said.
"Ssh!" Ron said, pointing. "Just watch!"
She squirted the gel into the space between her and the three new missiles heading toward her. It expanded into a thick jelly-like shape. The rockets stuck into it over a foot before they could have reached her. She jumped on top of the squishy purple substance. All of the rockets stuck inside exploded, sending her flying into the air. She took out her grappling hook again and latched it onto the wheel's center. As she landed, she pulled the wheel down with her, deactivating it and crashing it on top of a target at the same time. With no time to celebrate, she took off running again.
"Now that's what I'm talking about," Ron said, leaning back in his chair. "Anything's possible for a Possible, ya know."
"Sure looks like it," said a voice behind Ron's head. Ron turned around and saw Robin standing there, watching Kim's performance. The Teen Wonder spoke to Cyborg, "Try Level 8 for section five. She needs a challenge." Cyborg obediently turned a dial to the eighth notch.
Starfire sprung up from her seat and hugged her boyfriend. "Robin! You have returned!" She let go and asked, "Have you had any of the luck in your research?"
His shook his head. "No. I've eliminated some leads, but haven't found any solid ones yet. Slade's just so…so…" He noticed Starfire's worried expression. "I'm fine, Star. Really. I know my own flaws. This time, I'm not going to let an obsession control me. That's why I decided to come out and take a break. Besides, Kim said Wade can handle it."
Robin meant what he said. He wasn't oblivious to everything that had happened over the past three years. Whenever he became too obsessive over Slade, he usually ended up hurting his teammates, especially Starfire. After being in the evidence room for about half an hour, Robin had actually started to notice his thoughts drifting a bit too far to the dark side. Unlike most times, he saw it coming and knew he had to get out of that creepy room. That was not to say that he willingly stopped his search. Every bone in his body wanted to keep pursuing Slade. But this time, Robin was determined not to let his arch nemesis get inside his head and use him the way he always did. He was better off trusting Wade and getting some fresh air than going completely Slade crazy.
Starfire visibly relaxed upon seeing that Robin was under control. "Glorious, Robin! Please, have the seat. Friend Kim is doing quite well on the course of obstacles."
"I can see that," Robin replied. He pulled up a seat in the empty chair next to Ron.
Ron shifted in his seat uneasily. Here he was, sitting next to his idol, and he was afraid to say anything after what happened last time he brought up the Dynamic Duo. He watched Kim zigzag through two chopping blades, then turned to Robin. "Hey," he said, "sorry about…that stuff earlier. I didn't know."
"Don't worry about it," Robin replied. "I lost my temper. If anyone was in the wrong, it was me."
"Really?" Ron said, ecstatic that things had gone over so smoothly. "Awesome! I mean, not awesome that you were wrong, but awesome that we can still be sidekick buddies…"
"What?" The Teen Wonder asked, sounding a little bit tense.
"Er…sorry. How about…ninja buddies? You seem vaguely ninja-ish. I've actually trained as a ninja before. Not gonna lie, I still have some sweet moves."
"How about just friends?" Robin suggested, cutting off Ron's boasting.
"Sure," Ron said with an uneasy laugh. "Friends. Yeah. Cool." He looked down at the course again. "Almost there, KP!"
A long rectangular ditch opened up a few feet ahead of Kim. Without even stopping, she activated her rocket skates and soared over it. Once she safely touched the ground, she blasted her way past the finish line. Cyborg stopped the timer.
"Two minutes and fifteen seconds!" he announced. "She's got you beat, BB!"
Beast Boy turned away from his phone long enough to see the score, give Kim a thumbs up, and return to chatting with Tara. "And then I threw the Brain into the freezer. Brain freeze! Get it?" He paused while a girl's giggles were heard on the other end of the call. "I knew you'd like that one. You would not believe how few people actually got that…Oh, you've got to go? Where? Oh…well, have fun then. You too. Call me back when you're done, okay? Okay. Bye!" He hung up and headed up the stairs to where the rest of the team were congregated.
"That was badical, KP," Ron said, giving his girlfriend a congratulatory high five when she arrived.
"It was wonderful," Starfire added. "You are most skilled at the course of obstacles."
Kim took out her ponytail holder and shook her hair free. "Spankin'. So who's next?"
"Looks like it's Ron's turn," Beast Boy said.
"All right!" Ron said, standing up and stretching. "Time to show Cyborg how it's done. There can only be one Lord of the Booyahs."
"Just get out there so I can whoop your butt," Cy told him, jokingly elbowing his side. The Kimmunicator in Kim's pocket beeped its familiar tune. "Right after we see what Wade has to say," he added as Ron sat back down.
Kim took the blue device out of her pocket and turned it so everyone could see. "Go, Wade," she said.
"Okay," the young computer genius told the group, "I have good news and bad news on the location of Slade and Shego."
Robin sat up in his seat. "What have you found?" he asked. Starfire also sat up, as though Robin's question set off an alarm in her brain, alerting her to intervene if necessary.
Wade replied, "Shego's powers have been amplified to an extreme level. Unlike Starfire, Shego's human body isn't built to contain so much radiation. Therefore, the escaping energy gives off an unusually strong signal. I can easily track her on my radar."
"So where is she?" Raven asked.
"That's the bad news," Wade said. "I was able to follow her route all the way through downtown, but then she just vanished from my detection. That means something must be blocking the signal, something thick."
"Slade," Robin muttered angrily, quickly losing the easygoing attitude he had previously exhibited. "Of course that madman thought of everything. He's always one step ahead."
"Not necessarily," Kim pointed out. "Wade, your sensors can penetrate most walls, right?"
"Of course," the boy on the screen said. "I only use the best equipment."
"Then," Kim surmised, "either Slade is interfering with your sensors' signals, which I doubt anyone could do without you finding out, or he's in the one place a sensor intended for surface use isn't strong enough to reach."
"Underwater?" Beast Boy guessed.
"No," Robin corrected, catching Kim's drift. "Underground. This is classic Slade. The sewage system underneath Jump City is full of tunnels more than large enough to hold a basic criminal lair, and it's rarely monitored. He's even used it himself once."
"So we just need to crawl through sewage all day until we find him?" Beast Boy asked, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "Dude, I am so not doing that. Plus, Tara's calling me back as soon as she gets home from the mall."
"We're not going to crawl aimlessly through the sewers," Robin said. "That would make us too vulnerable." He stood up. "Thanks for the help, Wade. It looks like unless you can hack into some subterranean security system that doesn't exist, I'll have to finish this one on my own."
Wade slurped his soda. "Go ahead. I'll keep looking for other ways to find them. Wade out!" The Kimmunicator shut down and Kim put it back in her pocket.
The cheerleader leaned against the control panel. "So, anybody got a plan?"
"You guys keep training," Robin said. "I'll go to the evidence room and try to narrow down the possibilities. With luck, I should make some headway by the end of the afternoon. If you need anything, come and get me."
Starfire rose. "But Robin," she protested, "you are certain that you can find the Slade in this way without…going too far?"
He placed his gloved hand reassuringly on her shoulder. "Of course. Have a little faith in me." He walked away and reentered the Tower.
"Aw, come on," Ron groaned. "I really wanted to show him my monkey kung fu skills."
"That ought to be entertaining," Raven said sarcastically.
"Hey," Ron said, giving the empath a rebuking look, "I'll have you know I have some legit powers. I even went to a top secret ninja school."
"Powers?" Cyborg repeated. "You mean to tell me that you've had powers this whole time and didn't tell us?"
Ron nodded. "Mystical Monkey Power, specifically." He looked away kind of sheepishly. "I honestly have no clue how it works because I've used it, like, twice, and neither one was really on purpose. But I still went to a top secret ninja school for it, and that counts for something!"
Raven rolled her eyes. "Mystical Monkey Power. Now I've heard everything."
While Ron insisted on the legitimacy of his powers, Kim couldn't help noticing that Starfire was still looking back toward where Robin had left, even though he was already inside and far from view. "Is everything okay, Star?" she asked, walking over to the alien girl's side. "You seem…concerned."
"Yes," she said, though her eyes betrayed the lie. "Everything is wonderful."
Kim crossed her arms and looked skeptically at Starfire. "Are you sure?"
Starfire hung her head. "Alas, you are correct. Everything is not wonderful. Robin has the obsession with Slade that is most unhealthy. He has been this way for years. He has let the obsession control him and destroy his mind in the past. He insists that he has changed, but when I see him go to do the research, I doubt his honesty." She looked Kim in the eyes, hoping to find some understanding in the basic average teen. "If he lets Slade in again, he will hurt himself gravely. Slade is just as obsessed with Robin as Robin is with Slade. However, Slade knows how to use the obsession of Robin for manipulation. Have you any similar rivalry with your villains?"
Kim thought hard. "Not anything this extreme, no. That's the good thing about living a normal life. I'm too busy studying for a history exam to be obsessed with anybody in particular. The most personal rivalry I have outside of school drama is probably with Shego."
As usual with any mention of her powers twin, Starfire's interest was piqued. "Please, what is it about Shego that causes the rivalry?"
"I don't know," Kim said with a shrug. "I mean, we fight for obvious reasons. She's working for my arch nemesis, and he's pretty hung up on defeating me. But somehow it's more than just hat. She's really hooked on killing me, but she also seems to honsestly enjoy fighting me. She never wants anyone else to destroy me either. She said once that only she had to right to kill me."
"Like Robin says that it is only he who can stop Slade?" Starfire connected.
Kim was surprised. She hadn't thought about it that way. "Sort of. But it's not mutual. I fight Shego when I need to, and yeah, it's fun to trade witty insults during fights, but I'm not going to go crazy obsessive and shut myself in my room all day doing research. I have Wade for that." She gestured to the Kimmunicator, lying silently on the switchboard between herself and Raven.
"Hm…" Starfire said thoughtfully. "It is most interesting that the most personal rival of Robin has chosen the most personal rival of Kim Possible as an assistant. Perhaps the decision of Slade on this matter was intentional."
"I highly doubt that," Kim replied. "Slade probably picked Shego because she's the best at what she does. She's tough, ruthless, and has a ton of skill. She can do pretty much anything if no one's there to stop her."
"So then," Star concluded, "Shego is like…the evil you?"
Kim had never considered that line of thought. Yet, she realized it was kind of true. Shego used to save the world, or at least Go City, when she was younger. She had been a hero, just like Kim. Maybe that's why she's so intent on killing me, Kim thought. She hates me because I'm like her old superhero self. That's why she wants to be the one to end me. I'm a reminder of everything she used to stand for and now hates. How did I not see this before?
"I…I guess she is," Kim said finally. "I've never put that together, but it all makes sense."
"Robin detests Slade because Slade is insistent that he and Robin are most similar," Starfire pointed out. "Robin detests him even the more for the reason that he himself has noticed it to be true. Robin also dislikes the Batman for the same reason, though he is not a villain like Slade."
"Shego must feel about me the same way Robin feels about Slade, but because I'm a good guy," Kim realized. "It's true that we have a lot in common. We're both care about fashion and girly stuff and we're bothered by a lot of the same little annoying things."
Starfire held a finger up like she had just realized some huge. "You two are so alike, perhaps if Shego were to be made good again, you would become the close friends."
"Whoa whoa whoa," Kim said, holding up her palm in a motion to stop. "Not so fast. We've been over this, Star. Shego is never going to be good again. Ever. No way, no how. Besides, how do you think we could just make her good? Go ask Jack Hench for a reversed Attitudinator?"
"Perhaps," Starfire replied, not completely sure who Jack Hench was or what an Attitudinator did, but almost certain they could help.
"Uh-uh," Kim told her. "Problem Number One: I'm pretty sure HenchCo doesn't make any kind of Attitudinator anymore. Problem Number Two: I'm not giving my money to guy who regularly funds supervillains. Problem Number Three: Shego's so evil that I would be willing to stake almost everything I have on the fact that nothing on this earth can bring out her good side."
"But…"
"Nope. Look, you're a really smart girl and I'm impressed that you figured out the source of Shego's rivalry with me, but seriously, drop the whole making Shego good idea. It's impossible, and that's coming from somebody who rarely says that."
Ron reached over and tapped on Kim's shoulder. "Hey, KP," he said, pointing his thumb at Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy, "I'm about to show those three doubters what monkey kung fu looks like on an obstacle course. Are you going to watch?"
"Of course," his girlfriend replied. He turned to leave. "Ron!" she called.
He stopped and faced her again. "Yeah?"
She leaned over and kissed him quickly on the cheek. "That's for good luck," she said. "Now go out and show them what you've got."
Ron blushed and saluted with his hand. "Heh…aye aye, captain!" He sprinted down the stairs to the starting line.
"He's going to fail, isn't he?" Raven asked Kim.
"Let's just say obstacle courses aren't exactly his thing," KP replied.
As Ron stretched to warm up for his big run, Starfire thought silently about everything Kim had said. Shego felt about Kim the way that Robin felt about Slade. Starfire didn't understand everything about Slade, but she did understand Robin. If Shego really did feel about Kim the same way Robin felt about Slade, then she would probably rather fight and defeat her rival than anything else. This weakness had ruined things for Robin multiple times. Starfire had no desire to use her power twin's obsession against her, but she still had a feeling that somehow this information could be useful. She just wasn't sure how. Another interesting thing she realized was that if Shego really hated Kim for the same reason that Robin hated Slade, then Shego saw something of herself in Kim. Robin had occasional tendencies to break the rules to get what he wanted, like Slade did, and he recognized this and despised it. Maybe Shego still had some amount of good deep down and recognized the similarity with Kim. Starfire knew that Kim and the rest of the team would never accept this theory. As far as they knew, Shego had no good left in her. However, the alien was determined to find out the truth of the matter and save the strange, identically powered woman from a destiny with Slade that she knew could not end well. In the back of her mind, she began to devise a plan…
(A/N: Hm...what could Starfire be planning...? Drakken and Shego chapter coming up next!)
