III
Unfortunately, Will Du was remarkably reticent. That doesn't mean he was quiet.
"It's a pity that you couldn't have been properly briefed before Drakken showed up," he commented, as he piloted them in his hoverjet.
"Briefed on what?"
"The Tomorrow Project. If you could've been shown some of the details beforehand, you could've handled this. That project is worth quite a bit and wasn't intended to leave the grounds yet."
"Which is why," said Kim with exasperation, "security was minimal, almost token."
"If you'd been properly briefed, it wouldn't have been a problem."
"Ok," replied Kim skeptically, "brief me now."
"There isn't time," replied Will Du. "But I'll show you when we get to Drakken's lair."
"Right," said Kim, "when it can't help me anymore, then you'll show me. This mission just gets weirder and weirder." She rubbed her head briefly before pushing her hair off her face.
"Did your mother make it home today?" asked Will Du.
Kim looked sharply at Will. "Not before I left. How did you know she was gone?"
"How did we know Drakken was going to try to steal the Tomorrow Project?"
"Not tried," corrected Kim, "did." She frowned as she added, "Because I wasn't briefed before he made his move."
Will taunted her with, "Just not as good as you think."
"Ok," interjected Ron, "that was just uncalled for, especially from someone who needs tutoring."
"Tomorrow Project gone," said Kim testily, with just a hint of menace. "Drakken struck sooner than you expected, what little security you have was compromised. Don't be criticizing my work, chauffeur-boy." She barely suppressed a growl as she caught Will's smile. But he was even more sensitive about failure than she was, why wasn't he taking it more personally? She wondered how to ask him what the heck was wrong with everyone.
"Get ready," said Will suddenly, "we're rapidly coming onto the location of the project.
--
Dr. Drakken radiated evil glee as the box open. "At last!" he shouted, "the Tomorrow Project is mine!"
"Yay," replied Shego in a disinterested tone.
"And it was like taking candy from a baby! Except for the part where Kim Possible showed up."
Shego turned to Drakken and asked, "How did she know to be there?"
"Who cares?" said Drakken, "She failed to stop me."
"She failed to get past me," corrected Shego with a hint of annoyance. "But if this project is so powerful that it will change our species forever, why was it so lightly guarded?" She obviously had her doubts about their prize.
Drakken shrugged. "Budget cuts? Brilliant minds are often unappreciated and underfunded. Maybe that's why the Singularity character sold it to us."
"Why us?" asked Shego. "Plenty of other villains can pay more than us. I'm the only one you ever pay whose checks don't bounce." She laughed a little at that, knowing her "boss" wouldn't dare. He'd given her one bad check, and after she chastised him severely, he never made THAT mistake again.
"Shego, do you always have to rain on my parade? The project is ours. Maybe he appreciates my genius."
"Or maybe it's not worth the price you put on that check," replied Shego, still smiling a little nastily. "If it was so powerful, HE could've used it. I think he just wanted the money, and probably wanted to get rid of some junk at the same time. No doubt it will serve him right when your check bounces."
"SHEGO!" Drakken was getting upset now, and he clenched his fists as he glared at his impertinent sidekick. He hated how EVERYONE, even Shego, mocked him.
Shego turned back to the screen and began pushing buttons that showed her different areas of their lair, though her expression was one of boredom rather than vigilance. "But I still think it was a trap. Had we not showed up early, Kim Possible would've been waiting for us."
"Then it's good I decided to strike early," said Drakken, frowning at Shego's lack of enthusiasm or appreciation for his genius.
Shego's eyes widened. "Excuse me, it was MY idea to strike early! Good thing, too. Who knows what else they'd have waiting for us besides Kimmie. So what's the bait anyway?"
"Oh," answered Drakken, unclenching his fist and turning back to his prize. "Hmm. It's just a ball of metal of some kind." Drakken held up a ball that had little indentions all over it. His frown of disappointment turned into a snarl. "It's NOTHING!" More quietly, he muttered, "I'm glad the Singularity's check will bounce."
Both looked up in surprise as they heard Kim Possible say, "Then you won't mind if I take it back." She swung out of a ventilation shaft on the rope of her grapple gun.
That was followed by the scream of Ron as he came down much less gracefully. "Something about how that happens feels so deja vu," said Drakken absently. Then he turned to Shego. "Get them!"
Shego stood, but looked a question at Kim. "How did you find us?"
"I can do anything," said Kim, pulling her hair back and then striking a fighting pose, "including in kicking you into tomorrow."
"Please," laughed Shego lightly and a little nastily. She was annoyed by the teen's superior attitude and was now ready to play the part of Drakken's sidekick. She jumped up on a worker's bench and threw green power blasts at her, causing Kim and Ron to begin dodging.
Ron was the first to make the mistake of getting too close to the wall. One of Shego's ideas had been to put shelves covered with jacks and a few bowling balls against the wall. She blasted the shelf above him, letting the horrible rain come down.
As usual, he somehow managed to avoid any serious damage, but he made many noises of pain and stress as he tried navigating over the jacks. She threw another blast at him, but just as she got it off, he stepped on a rolling bowling ball and fell screaming, only to scream louder as he landed.
Then Shego herself fell as Kim grabbed her ankles from behind and pulled her over. Snarling, Shego kicked at her and managed to knock her away momentarily. She jumped to her feet in more of a crouch and leaped at Kim and began attacking her with blinding attacks of her glowing green fists. Kim was defensive at first, but then saw an opening and jumped in, her shoulder hitting Shego's chin and knocking her back. Then she kicked Shego back, and then did a circle kick that knocked her up against the wall. And then inexplicably to Shego, Kim jumped back.
Shego prepared to shoot more blasts at her when she ducked a moment, thinking Kim had drawn a gun. Kim seemed to disapprove of guns, but she couldn't help that reflex whenever Kim pulled her grapple gun out. She'd just realized she wasn't in mortal danger after all when Kim shot it up at one of the braces holding up the shelf above her. "Oh, no," she muttered as she jumped away just as the shelf came raining down. A bowling ball hit her in the back and it hurt, and also knocked the wind out of her.
Then Drakken howled. "Owwww!" He was near the door, the metal ball that was, in theory, the Tomorrow Project hugged close to him. Then he just stood there.
Kim ran at him, determined to get the Tomorrow Project back. She didn't know why he was just standing there, but she didn't slow. "Drop it!" she yelled, and she took it from him like it were a basketball. She was braced for it being heavy, but she found it amazingly light, covered with honeycombed pock marks, and while it felt like metal, it was of a quality she couldn't identify. Then, surprise, and pain, as she felt as if she'd been stung. "Ow!" she cried out
Then she was tackled by Shego and the ball was slung from her hand. Oddly, it didn't roll, but stuck right where it landed. Shego jumped at the ball and picked it up. "Again, you lose, Princess." She held it like a basketball. Then, "OW!" Then growling in rage, her hands began glowing again, and then she chunked it and it blew it apart as it hit the wall while she yelled obscenities at the "piece of junk." The blast also damaged the wall, including a water pipe, and water began spilling into the room.
While Shego was yelling, Drakken's and Kim's face distorted in a worldess rictus of agony and their breathing became intense, but the pain quickly departed, and grew relaxed.
Kim sat up, stared intrigued at the events, but she didn't get up. Drakken was now sitting on the floor too, looking dazed. She dimly wondered if she had that same look on her face. She knew she should be worried about the raging Shego, but Shego was calming down. Her breathing became normal, and she didn't turn around as Ron leaped at her. Shego fell as Ron crashed into her, but she didn't fight back. All she did was catch herself as she fell, and then rolled over to face Kim.
"What happened, Kimmie? I don't feel right. Do you feel right?" Her voice was slurred, and sounded very tired. Kim tried to answer, but couldn't. She barely nodded, but doubted Shego saw it. "Never mind, don't answer. I suppose I should ask Dr. Drakken, but he's not a real doctor you know." Her voice was very calm now, almost serene. She laid her head down on her arm and Kim thought that she would like to lie down like that, too.
"KP!" shouted Ron in her face. Strangely, Kim hadn't even really noticed he was there until he yelled. Now she gazed at him curiously. Then she felt the water soaking into her cargo pants. "Wa...water," said Kim dimly.
"What? Oh, don't worry!" Ron lifted her and put her on the table.
"Oh, right, Kimmie, that water sucks." Though Shego was barely wet, she pulled herself up onto a table and laid back down. The water flowed past Drakken without touching him.
"What's going on?" asked Ron, feeling creeped out. Shego closed her eyes and seemed to go to sleep. Draken had nodded off himself, and his mouth was open, though he didn't snore. He looked back to Kim. "KP?" She was barely conscious. "Oh, man, this can't be good," he said aloud. Rufus agreed with him, and jumped down to Kim's prone body and reached into her pocket that held the Kimmunicator.
"Wade, yes!" shouted Ron. "He'll know what to do!" He pulled the Kimmunicator out and hit the button that would instantly connect him to Wade.
"Wade, here."
"Wade, help!" shouted Ron.
"Ok," said Wade, "what's the problem?"
"Kim down! Uh, Shego and Drakken down, too. And there's water everywhere!"
"Did you get the Tomorrow Project?"
"Forget the project!" shouted Ron, "Kim needs help!"
"Ron," said Wade firmly, "where is the Tomorrow Project?"
Ron looked around wildly. "Oh, yeah, Shego blew it into a bunch of little bits, and then everyone got sleepy! What's going on!"
Wade seemed stunned. Slowly, he said, "Shego blew up the Tomorrow Project? Are you sure about that, Ron?"
"Yes, I'm sure! Look!" Ron pointed the screen toward the hole in the wall where the water was still pouring out. He knew the sensors would show it to Wade. Then he brought the screen back to face him. "What do I do, Wade?"
"Just keep everyone dry. Will Du will be down in a moment. Stay right there till he shows up." Then the screen went blank.
"Yes! Wait, I already did that." Ron frowned, feeling that something was wrong here. But he couldn't put his finger on it, so just asked, "But how do I get Kim to wake up?" He hit the redial button, but it wasn't answered. Wade must be talking to Will. "Ok, that was weird." He looked around the room, and added, "make that weirder. What's going on, Rufus?" Rufus shrugged his shoulders and held out his paws showing confusion.
Ron went over to Kim's face and waved a hand in front of her face. While she wasn't asleep, her gaze was unresponsive. Ron's face firmed into resolve. He was too antsy to just sit around. He had to do something to help until Will showed up. Since Kim's pants and the end of her hair were damp, he figured the least he could do was find a towel. Or even a blanket and maybe he could take her wet pants off...well, maybe he wouldn't do that, but Kim could do it herself if she wanted, assuming she ever came to. He knew what it was like to lose one's pants.
"So, little buddy," he said to Rufus, "do you think villains keep clean towels and linens here?" After Rufus made a response, he laughed nervously. "Yeah, I bet Shego would demand he do. But where are they?" He rubbed his chin for a moment and then said, "You stay here with Kim, and I'll look for Shego's room." He heard Rufus warn him that Shego might have her room booby trapped, and he replied, "I doubt it, no one other than KP would dare go into HER room, not even Drakken, and she knows it. But I'll keep an eye out." Then he ran out of the room looking for a bathroom, linen closet or anything that might hold what Kim needed.
Rufus held Kim's unresponsive fingers in his paws.