And as usual I don't own Kim possible, yadda yadda yadda, this is a fanfiction website, so the disclaimer is really redundant, but whatever
"His name really is Scorn."
Kim was happier than she thought possible to see Wade. It had been over an hour since the pre-teen tech genius signed off to find information on Scorn, and Ron was driving Kim up the wall. He had managed to turn evey conversation they started back around to the Belgian chocolates, and at some point Kim realized that she had managed to go their entire friendship without seriously hurting Ron before, a fact she found incredible at that point.
"Who is he?" Kim asked Wade, holding the Kimmunicator delicately in both hands.
"That's just it, no one really knows," Wade said. Kim frowned. Wade looked like hell. He was twitching, eyes flickering around his room. He spoke a little quietly, like he was afraid of being overheard.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, it's just…" Wade gulped a bit and took a breath. "There are no public records of this guy, so I checked GJ's system. It was super classified, so I hacked the system. And…well, GJ has really detailed reports."
"Indeed we do." Kim stiffened at the familiar feminine voice. The Kimmunicator's screen split in half. Wade occupied the top half of the screen, and a familiar one-eyed woman glared at Kim from the lower half. "Miss Possible, Mr. Wade, are you aware that this breach of security is a violation of federal and global law punishable by more fifty years of jail time and fines upward of six million U.S. dollars?"
"Ummm…" Wade looked like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, which would have been really funny if they weren't about to go to prison for the rest of their lives.
"Whoa, time out," Ron said, leaning over Kim's shoulder to address the head of Gobal Justice. "Isn't that a bit, you know, insane?" Dr. Director's expresion hardened. Kim glumly reflected that this was the first time Dr. Director had directed that look at her.
"This material is extremely sensitive. Explain yourselves."
"Um, well, you see, Dr. Director," Kim babbled. "We ran into this guy, Scorn, on our last mission, and -"
"You encountered Scorn?" Dr. Director's demeanor changed instantly. Her whole body stiffened, single eye flying wide, hands darting from around her back to grab the edges of the screen. "Where and when did this happen? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Kim assured her, instinctively touching a bruise on her ribs. "No big."
"I'm sorry, Miss Possible, but this is way big," Dr. Director corrected her. "Where and when did you see him?"
"About two hours ago in Belgium," Kim answered slowly. Dr. Director struck the console.
"Damn it. It'll take hours for our nearest opperative to get there. The trail will have run cold." Dr. Director glanced slightly to one side. "I suppose you hacked our system because Kim asked you to find information on Scorn?"
"Yes, uh, maam," Wade said, clearly still worried.
"Our files have been hacked into so many times recently that we set up an alarm to alert us when a sensitive file is breached instead of installing a new firewall." She sighed. "I can't fault you for trying to know more about your enemy. But you must promise me not to engage Scorn without alerting us. Do you understand? If he has indeed returned to Europe, he must have had a very good reason. MI6 and the KGB are probably combing the country for him as we speak. It would be best to stay out of their way."
"Who is this guy?" Kim asked, starting to get a little overwhelmed. She had never seen Dr. Director look so distraught before. The older woman repositioned her hands behind her back, regaining her usual placid composure.
"Scorn is a number of things but primarily a dangerous vigilante. He has a rap sheet so long our printer doesn't hold enough paper to print it. He's been on a warpath of destruction through five continents for the past decade. His target can be anyone from a common rapist to high ranking military officers and commercial CEOs. He moves without pattern, changing countries or even continents at whim. He is also GJ's black spot. Despite our best efforts, our agents haven't so much as slowed him down."
"Okay, that's absolutely terrifying bordering on cool," Ron chimed in. Rufus nodded in agreement from his shoulder, ducking behind Ron's neck as if Scorn were in the room.
Kim didn't quite know what to say. The boy she met had been a little coarse (and a lot presumptuous), but he hadn't seemed evil. Dr. Director watched her for a few seconds and sighed again, closing her eye.
"Keep the data. If you release it publicly I'll be forced to throw you all in a secet GJ pison cell. But you need to be prepared if you encounter him again. Dr. Director, out." The image of Dr. Director blinked out, and Wade filled the screen again.
"Look, Kim, could you read this stuff yourself?" Wade asked slowly. "I started on it and…" Wade trailed away, and Kim saw how shaken he looked. Kim suddenly remembered that Wade was only twelve, and her heart twanged.
"Yeah, I got this one. Just upload it to the Kimmunicator." Wade gave her a thumbs up and signed off.
"Wade looked pretty shaken," Ron said, brows creased in a frown. "What do you think is on there?" The Kimmunicator dinged, signalling that the upload was complete.
"We'll just have to find out." Kim said, and she began to read. Kim kept reading the entire flight home. Surpirse gave way to disgust, then horror, and eventually smoothed out into dread, and something deeper she was reluctant to admit to. At dinner she ate quickly and tried to smile, keeping Scorn out of her description of the mission. Her parents could tell something was wrong, but they didn't push the issue. Kim kept reading into the night, watching the occassional video included in the files.
Through the files she watched a young kid getting into scraps on the street grow tougher, harder, and more aggressive until most of the files were dominated by descriptions of how governments went out of their way to cover up the incriminating evidence he presented to the world against them. Scorn was like a fire, and everywhere he went people were left bloody and broken behind him. Government conspiracies were released annonymously to media personel who vanished within the hour. Business tycoons hastily reversed inhumane decisions from their hospital beds. Hundreds of common criminals had been traumitized and scarred. Multiple laceration wounds crippled some of the crueler offenders. And still his record of offense carried on in the same emotionless legal jargon that Gobal Justice recorded their files in. Not once did anyone mention glowing hands. Kim wondered if maybe she had been imagining that.
Kim rubbed her eyes and looked at the closk. 2:34 a.m. She'd been reading for so long green spots blossomed in the dark room. She glanced down at the Kimmunicator. She considered picking up again tomorrow and getting some sleep, but Kim hated leaving any task unfinished. If she was honest with herself, Kim was a dangerous perfectionist. She clicked on the next video, which was of a much higher quality than the others.
The Kimunicator screen switched to a shaky feed from a news camera. Big guys in official-looking uniforms armed to the teeth ran around a massive warehouse-type building ringed in twenty foot fence topped with razor wire. The camera crew were being pushed back by silent soldiers. An officer was shouting orders that the Kimunicator needed to subtitle for her.
"We have him pinned down, sir."
"How soon can we storm the building?"
"We're loading tear gas projectiles now."
"We move in in one minute."
"Sir, may I ask what this place is exactly?"
"Textiles plant. We move in thirty seconds."
"Sir, the doors are opening."
Kim watched as the ten-foot double doors swung outward. The camera zoomed in on the figure who had pushed them open. Scorn stood tall in the center of the doorway, light spilling out around him and cloaking his silhouette in shadows. His eyes gleamed hard yellow, the only recognizable feature in the dark. Soldiers turned dozens of automatic weapons on him, shouting for him to get down. Scorn didn't so much as breathe as far as Kim could see. From behind him more figure gathered, so short that they barely reached his ribs. Kim's breath fogged the screen as she watched children bunching around his legs, clinging to him. With a wave of his hand and a few words, spoken so softly Kim couldn't hear, he sent them out.
They emerged slowly at first, little feet quickly gaining speed until the children were sprinting, screams of pure delight tearing from their throats. The oldest couldn't have been more than ten, and every last child was thin enough that their ribs were outlined by threadbare shirts. Their fingers visibly bled even from a distance, but their laughter was beautiful as they mobbed toward the astonished police and military. The children stopped short just before the gathered adults, flinching away as doubt set in. An officer saw this and reached out, pulling a little boy toward her.
Soon all of the soldiers and police were passing the children through, bewildered whispers rising until someone shouted a warning. Scorn had taken a step backward into the building. Soldiers retrained their guns on him, ignoring the kids' frightened cries to stop, shoving them off when they tried to tug their arms down. Scorn carefully reached down and behind the door. Laser sights peppered Scorn's chest as he dragged a man out from behind the wall. The man was a bloodied, beaten mess, the solitary sign of life being the gnarled fingers that weakly scratched the fist around his throat. Scorn raised the man up and heaved him in front of himself, taking a smooth step back and closing the doors before his latest victim could drop to the ground. The camera shook violently as soldiers shoved past, firing tear gas at the upper story windows, guns blazing at the concrete bunker they were intent on turning into a death trap.
The video cut off there. Kim read the short description. A textile plant was using kidnapped children to make their products. Some of the kids had been held prisoner for years. The men and women running the plant had been found beaten and bloody. Scorn had evaded capture after badly wounding nearly a dozen soldiers and eight local police officers. The media coverage of the event had been disposed of, and the media personel sworn to secrecy.
Kim put down the Kimmunicator, troubled by what she had read. What happened to the kids was wrong, but did it justify such a violent reponse? Part of her, a bigger part than she'd like to admit, said yes. But if that was the case, why would Scorn be on the run from basically every law enforcement agency in existence? Kim had never gotten any flak from the police, and she knew she was doing the right thing. By the time Kim had finished reading GJ's files, she had no answers. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to ask the questions.
CallMeBeepMeIfYouWantToReachMeCallMeBeepMeIfYouWantToReachMe
Draken pouted as he mixed chemicals in a beaker, glancing every few seconds not-so-subtly over at the test tubes Professor Dementor was examining next to him. Dr. Dmentor caught him and glared pointedly. Draken whipped back to his own work, grumbling. Dementor huffed, then leaned all the way over until his head was practically under Draken's hand to look at what his blue-skinned rival was doing. Draken glared and grumbled, prompting Dementor to pull away sharply.
"Remind me again why you invited him over?" Draken whined at Shego.
"Because you two are working on exactly the same project and Kim Possible has a new sidekick." Shego reminded her boss, patience wearing thin on her fourth iteration of this speech. "We barely got away from them when we were together last time. Neither of you would last ten seconds alone."
"Nuh uh," Draken and Dementor chorused.
"At least we escaped with the cats," Draken pointed to the cage in the corner, where the sabertooths glowered from their cage. "I wasn't captured by the buffoon."
"At least I was not stupid enough to try and take a toxin sample without uzing a tranquilizer dart first." Dementor shot back.
"Rrrr," Draken began, but a loud beeping interrupted him. Shego leaned over a console and turned back to the two scientists with a dark grin.
"We have company, boys."
CallMeBeepMeIfYouWantToReachMeCallMeBeepMeIfYouWantToReachMe
"Alright, let's sneak in through the secret entrance at the base of the mountain," Kim said as she stuck her snowboard upright in the powdery drift a few hundred feet from Draken's Belgian mouintain lair.
"It's sad how there's no more secrets after all these times we've fought Draken," Ron lamented. "You'd think he'd go that extra villainous mile for us."
"Ron, shh!" Kim hushed. They crept around a bend toward the rock face where Draken's lair was hidden only to see someone else was already there. Kim thrust out her arm to keep Ron from walking past her, trying to maintain the element of surprise, but it was too late.
"I wondered if I'd be seeing you here," Scorn said with a glance over his shoulder, golden eyes as bright as the sun reflecting off the snow. "Although I thought you would have gotten here sooner." Kim approached him cautiously. After everything she'd seen and heard, Kim wasn't sure whether or not he was an enemy. Scorn's eyes flicked down to her lips. A smile snaked across his mouth. Kim did her best to roast him alive with a glare. Scorn's lips twitched, but he tactfully returned his gaze to hers and dipped his head, acquiescing to her unspoken demand. Kim paused, surprised by the chivalrous submission.
"Uh, dude, how'd you find Drakken's lair?" Ron asked, oblivious. Scorn stepped back from the rock face he'd been inspecting. He only wore an old, ragged coat over his previous clothes, but if the cold bothered him, he didn't show it.
"I went to the local library and read everything I could find online about Drakken." He explained. "The location of his lair was included with most of the articles. The nearest known location to the museum that I could find was here." Scorn shrugged and made a small half-smile. Just for a moment, Kim had the eerie feeling that she had seen that shark-like grin, but the neither-friendly-nor-angry smirk vanished as soon as it had appeared. "If your presence is anything to go on, I'm right on my first try."
"You know, he's not bad," Ron told Kim. "I mean a little rough around the edges, but he's got the bad guy hunting stuff down." Ron hadn't read Scorn's bio, but Kim cringed. Another predatory smirk danced on Scorn's lips.
"What do you want with those cats?" Kim asked, trying to stay focused. Scorn's expression darkened.
"Let's just say we go way back. I also don't like the idea of anyone with access to chemical weaponry like that, especially not deranged terrorists." He added before Kim could ask if he could be any more cryptic.
"I think Drakken falls under the 'mad scientist' category," Ron amended. Scorn snorted.
"Figures. Terrorists are too easy to stop," he grumbled. Then, addressing Kim, "So, are you going to try to stop me, or are you going to help me get in?" Kim's temper flared a bit, and instantly her mind felt sharper.
"Uh, no. But if you drop the attitude, you can help me stop Drakken and Shego, and then I'll decide what to do with you." Kim snapped, in neither her smartest nor politest move, but Scorn smirked. There was less bite in this smile and more dark amusement. The expression sent a shiver up Kim's spine that she couldn't blame on the cold.
"Alright," he said, eyes latched onto hers. "Lead the way."
CallMeBeepMeIfYouWantToReachMeCallMeBeepMeIfYouWantToReachMe
Kim found the secret entrance and lead the boys into Drakken's lair with their usual ease. When they made it halfway across a darkened open space, Kim was expecting the lights to flash on. She was expecting the henchmen ringing the perimeter and the steel doors to slide shut. She was expecting Drakken and Shego to be standing on a raised platform. What she was not expecting was Dementor's presence next to Drakken nor his minions standing alongside Drakken's goons. Scorn was expecting none of this and whipped his head around, hands raised to attack, eyes scouring the hench-people.
"Kim Possible," The two 'doctors' chorused.
"Dementor?" Kim and Ron chorused.
"You!" Scorn spat at Shego.
"Ooh, look, Kimmy brought her new friend." Shego purred.
"With my new serum-" Drakken began until Shego cuffed him around the head.
"Yeah, what did we say about revealing our plans?" Shego reprimanded.
"Don't you mean our plan?" Dementor inquired. Shego whacked him around the head and leapt to the floor.
"Let's just destroy Kim Possible and her sidekicks so we can get on with the latest conquering the world scheme."
"Nrr, very well," Drakken grumbled. "Henchmen, attack!" Drakken's henchmen bared staffs glowing with purple fire. Dementor's thugs cracked their knuckles. Kim and Ron stepped closer together. Drakken had at least twenty five people, Dementor half that. Plus Shego.
"Not very good odds," Ron echoed Kim's thoughts.
"Not for them," Scorn said. With a growl he launched himself at the goons, seizing one of Dementor's gray-suited lackey's and bringing a hard knee up into his jaw. A blow beneath the ribs and a kick to the side of the head sent two hundred pounds of expensive hired help crashing to the floor.
"Not particularly stylish, but effective," Shego commented with a dismissive flick of her hand. Scorn sneered and attacked the minions head-on. Kim grabbed Ron around the waist and fired her grappling hook up into the rafters. Kim clicked a button, and the dynamic duo whizzed upward. Kim had planned on leaving Ron in the rafters to sneak around and down to take out any devices the mad scientists might have prepared, but a green ball of fire severed the line. Fortunately, Drakken's lair had the usual system of catwalks above the floor, and Kim manged to twist and pull them both onto a low walkway. Shego leapt onto the catwalk with almost unnatural agility and rushed them, smiling a Chesire smile.
"Ron, run," Kim told him, giving him a shove back and leaping to the side. Shego's nails left claw marks through the opposite railing the catwalk floor. She spun and kicked at Kim, who caught the blow on the side of her arm, pushed off the rail to flip up and over Shego before sweeping the older woman's legs out from under her. Shego hit the catwalk hard and sprang to her feet just in time for Kim's leg to connect with her ribs. As Shego fell she reached out and grabed Kim's leg, pulling her down too. Both women hit the floor hard, but Shego managed to turn the impact into a roll. Kim felt the jolt throuh her shoulder and knew that it would leave a bruise. The two women stood and faced each other, thouroughly ticked.
"You should pay more attention, Kimmy," Shego mocked sweetly. "Don't want you getting hurt now, would we?" A fist connected with the side of Shego's head, quickly followed by a knee to the gut and jaw before she was kicked aside.
"Follow your own advice," Scorn growled around a rather spectacular bruise that covered most of his lower jaw. His shirt was torn, and a cut above his eye flared scarlet, but otherwise he seemed okay. Shego staggered to her feet and glared daggers at him. Scorn gave her the now familiar sneer in return. "I've got some questions for you, lady."
"Mind if I talk with my hands?" Shego asked, palms bursting into acid green fire. Scorn caught her outstretched hands in his own, pulling Shego into him and smashing his knee under her ribs as he rolled back, flinging Shego away.
"Not at all." Scorn charged after her, wisps of smoke drifting from his hands. Before Kim could get over her surprise and join in she heard an all too familiar cry for help. In true Ron fashion, her sidekick had demolished half the lab equipment in the room. Several henchmen lay passed out on the floor from falling beakers and microscopes. But Ron now stood pressed into a corner, Rufus cowering on his shoulder.
Kim hurled herself at the henchmen, punching a nose on her left, sweeping out a pair of legs in front of her and kicking a chin behind her in the same motion. Two beefy arms grabbed her around the midsection and Kim snapped her legs out in a perfect split, striking two foreheads before heaving her entire body back, overtoppling her captor and rolling gracefully to her feet. She fought on autopilot with only one goal: distract the thugs from Ron. But for every goon she downed, two more seemed to take his place. Fists stinging, side spasming, thick mane of hair matted with sweat, Kim was forced to back toward the middle of the room. Scorn staggered back into her, breaths ragged. A set a ugly claw marks shone a violent red on his shoulder, the edges singed so that he smelled like the cafeteria on goulash day (a revelation that disturbed her on multiple levels).
"Finish them, Shego," Drakken yelled. Shego stalked forward carefully, one hand holding her abdomen, death written on her face.
"With pleasure." Shego hurled a line of green fire at them. Hemmed in by minions, Kim dropped to the floor. Scorn snarled and slashed his hand through the fire. For a moment the flames flared a lighter shade of green, like grass that had just begun to die, before he waved his hand back and dispersed them. Kim stared at his hand in shock. It was a little red but not nearly as burned as it should be. Shego was absolutely floored.
"Interesting." Scorn said, flexing his hand. He looked up, and though Kim couldn't see his face she could almost feel the smirk pop up. "Your big trick is useless." Shego glowered and readied herself to fight, hands lighting up once more.
"Then I guess I'll have to beat you down instead," Shego threatened. Scorn dropped into a fighter's stance. Kim was planning how to get Ron to safety and help her new ally when the Kimmunicator rang. Fortunately the minions seemed distracted by the brawl that was taking place and had moved only to form a loose ring around Shego and the Possible group.
"Make it quick, Wade," Kim said when her friend's face blinked on.
"Kim, I just ran a test on Scorn's DNA." Kim hadn't seen Wade this animated in weeks, and she felt a brief thrill of fear. "He's Shego's son! And yes, I double checked. Four times." Kim stared at the Kimmunicator, not hearing the next few sentences Wade said as her brain tried to wrap around those words. A grunt snapped Kim's attention to the fight in front of her.
Scorn staggered back, shaking his head. Shego punched him in the gut, hard, and spun to the right on her left leg, intending to bring her right heel around in a dramatic finish. Scorn grabbed her leg and pulled it past him so that Shego stumbled, off-balance and facing away from him. Scorn smashed his fists into either side of her head, kicked out her knee, and snapped his foot up between her shoulder blades. Shego staggered away from him and swept out behind her with a burning hand, forcing Scorn to slow his attack, allowing Shego to face him and drop to a crouch.
"You're good, kid," Shego praised. "Unfortunately two meddling kids and a rodent is already more than I want to deal with." Shego raised her hand, and the glow intensified in preparation for a final blow. Kim's brain snapped back into gear, and she ran forward.
"Shego, wait," Kim yelled. "He's your son!" Scorn and Shego stepped back and stared at her. The ferociously scarry thing at that moment: she could see the resemblance. They had the same lean body and had curled their lips in identical expressions of derision during the fight. Scorn's victims had been slashed, similar to the claw marks Shego left in his shoulder. He was able to redirect her fire; Kim hadn't been imagining that last time. Scorn wasn't just tan; his skin was tinted champagne yellow, just like Shego's was mint green.
"What?" Scon asked, blinking repeatedly.
"Yeah, I don't think so," Shego said.
"Wade just ran a test on his DNA," Kim responded. "Four times."
"Positive maternal match evey time," Wade called from the Kimmunicator.
"Shego, is this true?" Drakken asked, eyes wide and hands clutching his head.
"What, no," Shego shook her head. "I don't have a son."
"Are you sure?" Professor Dementor asked.
"Uh, I think I would remember something like that," Shego snarked back.
"Good, now back to business-" Drakken began.
"Well, now that I think about it, I did give birth that one time."
"Say what now?" Drakken stuttered.
"But that couldn't be him," Shego dismissed. "I went to some super remote, really poor village to give birth so that I wouldn't have to hear from it again." Kim flinched at Shego calling her child it, but Scorn spoke first.
"This village, was it by any chance in the Amazon rainforest, somewhere around seventeen years ago?"
"I think so," Shego mused. "I remember being glad to get away from the mosquitoes on my way back to Go City. Or was it – no, no it was the Amazon. Why, were you…" Shego trailed off when Scorn nodded grimly. "…oh. Okay, that's a surprising coincidence." Her hand reignited. "Doesn't change anything."
"Whoa whoa whoa," Ron interrupted, pushing through bewildered henchmen with his hands held in a T. "Who's the dad?"
"A) none of you business. B) He tried to stop me from getting an abortion using the words 'I won't let you,' and after a fight, I killed him." Ron gaped.
"Oooookay, really hope you're joking." Ron's voice came out as a whimper. Kim felt frozen, watching the drama play out around her. Shego rolled her eyes, annoyed.
"It was years ago. Like I'm going to remember every fling. I only kept that lump of morning sickness around long enough to give birth on a dare."
"Dude, I'm sorry, but I think you dodged a seriously dysfunctional bullet here," Ron said to an increasingly confused Scorn. Ron held out his arms. "Want a bad news hug?"
"Ron," Kim hissed.
"I agree mit the sidekick," Professor Dementor chimed in. "About the bad muther, not the hug. Now can we please get back to the destroying?" Dementor pressed a button, and laser cannons popped out from all over the wall. Four of his gray-suited guards led in a pair of dachshunds the size of elephants, foam flying from their lips as they barked. Dementor pulled down a curtain behind him, revealing a cage with the sabertooths in it, probably for some dramatic and unnecessary plan-sharing.
"With pleasure," Shego agreed, much more enthusiastic now that they were back to wailing on Kim.
"Shego, wait, if he's your son then we can't just-"
"Watch me," Shego snapped over her shoulder. In her moment of distraction Scorn drove his fist under her ribcage and fired a short jab under her chin.
"Happy Mother's Day." He sneered. Shego stepped away, reared back, and brought down a burning hand, forcing him to step back. The three teens stood back-to-back, winded and surrounded.
"Do you trust me," Scorn asked out of the corner of his mouth.
"No." Kim answered truthfully.
"Smart girl." He replied. Scorn's right hand steamed and burst into a cloud of yellow fire. Kim started but Scorn hurled his arm at the ledge where Drakken and Dementor stood. Unlike Shego's dense balls, his blast took the form of a long, thin curve of looser flames, like a crescent of vaporized gold. Drakken and Dementor shrieked and ducked. The deadly arc sailed over their heads and sizzled against the sabertooths' cage. Drakken looked up from under his arms.
"Hah, you missed!"
Scorn smirked. He raised his hand, and Kim sucked in a breath. His hand and wrist were a deep red, and the skin was smoking, little flakes sloughing off. Scorn pointed at the cage, and the villains tensed. Slowly, they turned to look behind them. For a few seconds everything was still and quiet save for the hum of charged laser and the growl of mutant weiner dogs. Then a soft breeze curled through the lab, and the cage door opened the tiniest bit with a soft crreeeak.
The sabertooths hesitantly reached out to paw the door. Slowly, steps jerky and unsure, they pushed through the door, useless now that the lock was cleanly sliced in half, and stood, trembling from many long days of cramped quarters. Then, they did what any predators that had been ripped from their home and forced into a tiny cage would do: they focused on the loudest thing in the room, panicked, and jumped it. The dachshunds had the misfortune of being the outlet of their aggression, and in the moment those cats roared and launched themselves over the frozen people to sink their talons in those poor dogs' hide unadultered pandamonium ensued.
Scon used the distraction to lunge for Shego again, and Shego pulled away with a hiss, angry red scratches already bledding across her collarbone. Ron threw his hands up into the air and ran, yelling like a chicken without its head. The remaining henchmen, already disoriented and afraid, panicked and scattered, giving Kim time to rummage around in her bag. She pulled out the small, circular container just as Scorn fell back from Shego. He spat out a clot of blood and positioned himself between the enraged supervillain and Kim.
"I hope you have a plan," he asked without looking at her.
"I plan to finally vaporize Kim Possible with my home laser security system," Drakken butted in, holding a square remote above his head. Drakken slammed a finger on the lone red button, and the lasers along the wall hummed to life before sparking, seizing, and fizzing out with plumes of smoke. "Uh?"
"Oh yeah," Rufus cheered from a control panel behind Draken, pumping a double fistful of wires in the air. The naked mole rat ran between Draken and Dementor to find Ron. Kim took advantage of Shego's surprise to kick her onto her back. Shego hit the groud with a loud oomph, took a look around, and saw that there was nothing left to salvage from her boss's latest failure.
"Dr. D, we're outta here," the mercenary yelled, rolling to her feet and jumping onto the ledge Drakken stood on. Kim fired her grappling hook at the wall above them, but Shego blew the hook aside with a fireball before it could connect to the wall. As the villains retreated through a closing steel hatch, Drakken turned around and pointed a dramatic finger in the air only for Shego to yank him back. Kim started to run after them, but she heard Ron yell out behind her.
"Kim, I got Dementor."
Kim whirled around to see that Ron had in fact caught the second scientist. Ron staggered crazily with his arms around Dementor's waist. The diminuitive German was kicking his legs, waving his arms, and screaming at the top of his lungs, but in his anger Dementor's accent had grown so thick that Kim honestly wasn't sure if he was still speaking English.
"Ron," Kim called and she ran toward him. They had been beating bad guys for so long that Ron instantly knew what the plan was. The second Kim fired her grappling gun he let Dementor go and stepped back. When the grapple had traveled past Dementor Kim heaved it to the side, pulling its momentum in a circle. As the grapple made a full circle Kim ran around Dementor in the opposite direction, circling him several times as she reeled in the grapple. Before he knew it Dementor was thoroughly tied up in several coils of flexible steel.
"Way to go, Ron," Kim beamed, turning to her stricken friend. Ron's pale face, now bleached further and beaded with sweat, was frozen save for a tick in his eyebrow. Disturbed, Kim followed his line of sight and froze herself. The larger of the two sabertooths stood no more than three inches away from Scorn and was slowly advancng. Scorn slid back at the exact same speed, muscles loose, back of his hand hanging before the cat's red muzzle. The mutant dashchunds lay behind them in a scarlet kiddy pool. Kim was scrambling for a plan to save him when a few soft words ghosted to her ears.
"Huh, good…you remember…what a big boy…my little…such a sweet…" Kim stared, dumbstruck, as the sabertooth's fur slowly laid flat, ears and tail gradually rising. Scorn slowed to a careful rest. The great cat held its parted jaws next to his hand, venomous saliva stretching pink between barely visible teeth, before emitting a quick, low cough and butting its skull against Scorn's chest. Scorn smiled and continued murmuring to the beast, scratching the thick shoulder fur.
The smaller cat, a female, Kim thought, had been circling around Scorn and froze when she saw her mate rubbing his jaw along his side. She snarled and advanced with raised hackles, only for the male to intervene. Scorn lowered himself to a crouch, met her eyes, blinked, and turned his head away, repeating the process as he inched toward her, careful to keep the male nearby. After several extremely tense minutes, the female lowered her head to sniff him, and sat down looking in the opposite direction. The male, sensing the crisis was over, relaxed and lay down next to his mate to wash blood out of his fur.
Scorn eased himself up, backing away slowly until he stood next to Kim. Kim noticed that all of the henchmen had fled. She debated whether that was a good or bad thing.
"Told you we go way back," Scorn whispered. Icy fingers danced up Kim's spine. Something about hearing his voice, spoken to her in that impossibly soft hiss, made her shiver.
"Mind sharing," she whispered back. He stared at the cats, a softer smile playing on his lips. Kim noticed that they were crisscrossed with thin white scars.
"I lived like a wild child in the Amazon for a year. Spent most of that time following his parents, scavenging their kills." Scorn gestured to the male. "When he was a cub a saved him from a camain. After that he and his parents were perfectly friendly toward me so long as I didn't hang around for too long. I decided to gamble that he would remember me and care enough to keep the girl from killing me. And now the question arises: what will you do about me?" Scorn glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes, smirking again. Kim noticed that he kept his muscles lax and decided to avoid any sudden movements. Ron, Dementor, and Rufus were still petrified. Seeing what those animals had done to Dementor's dogs, Kim couldn't blame them.
"You're a criminal," Kim whispered.
"True. But does that necessarily mean I'm evil? Even if you think it does, we're caught in a stalemate. Either one of us attacks, and those cats will panic and kill all of us. So allow me to make a proposition."
"I'm listening."
"A trust exercise. I trust you to make sure that these cats go straight back to the Amazon. Mankind isn't ready for them yet, and now that people know they exist that area of rainforest can receive improved protection. You trust me when I say that I don't want to be your enemy and that I never have nor will stoop low enough to kill." Kim tensed at the last word, and the cats responded, heads whipping around to face them. Kim forced herself to relax, and the sabertooths slowly eased back.
"Just because you draw a line doesn't make you a good guy," Kim told him. "You don't have the authority to go around attacking people."
"Neither do you," he shot back. "I may not have a sparkling track record, but every person I hit has directly attacked, killed, crippled, mentally scarred, or dehumanized a defenseless innocent. I never strike without clear, observable evidence."
"Even if I did believe you, you still don't have the right to do this," Kim told him, dangerously close to losing her cool.
"You're right." Kim blinked, thrown. She had expected denial. "But you teamed up with me anyway. Do you really think I'm all bad?" Scorn smirked and slowly edged toward the door. "I'll leave now. I'll watch what happens with these two closely. I hope that the next time we meet is under more friendly circumstances; but until then, good night and farewell, Kim Possible." Scorn slipped out the door, movements as smooth as the purr in his voice. Kim stared after him, unbalanced and oddly flushed until. Ron tapped her on the shoulder.
"Kim, you ok?" He asked, glancing between her and the sabertooths.
"I don't know," she murmured. Then, more clearly, "I'll get Wade to call GJ once we locked the cats in here; they can take Dementor to jail and these two to the rainforest." After they had inched their way out of the room, Dementor chuckled. Even he had recognized the danger those animals had posed and had remained silent until now. When Kim glanced down at him, he was grinning like a fool beneath his helemt.
"He vas very handsome, no? Yeeeow!"
Shoes with rocket skates were exceptionally hard.
The tactic Scorn uses to calm the sabertooths is a slight variation on a technique I used to aid in training jaguars. Do not attempt it by yourself. Wild animals are very dangerous, and Scorn's success with an animal that has very little knowledge of people is why this is FICTION.
