Yet Another Kigo Fic! – Chapter 4
By Ken-Zero
Disclaimer: Kim Possible and Friends all belong to Disney and their creators. Of them I own nothing, from them I profit nothing, and without them this story would be nothing, so there.
Kim Possible was just starting to wonder how her week could get any more boring when the familiar, happy-minor-third chirp of her Kimmunicator informed her that excitement was impending.
She thumbed the screen on, finding the familiar face of her genius friend. "Hey, Wade. What's the sitch?"
"Got another Drakken sighting." He was busily typing away and staring at another monitor while he spoke to her.
Kim sighed. "What and where?"
"Another doomsday device in another lair, this one apparently in Nepal. Himalayas, specifically."
"Him and his mountain lairs," Kim said disbelievingly. "I'm starting to wonder about his mental state." When Wade looked at her with one eyebrow up she amended, "Well, wonder more. Anyway, did you get Ron, too?"
"Just about to, actually."
"I'll get him," Kim said instead. "Did you get us a ride?"
"Details coming on that, but yes."
"Have it stop by Ron's house," she said. "He's playing with his little sister, last I knew." She opened her closet and grabbed her mission clothing. "I'll be there shortly."
"Okay then," Wade said. "We'll be in touch." He signed off, leaving Kim to change and leave.
Kim and Ron sat in the back pair of seats of a helicopter as it beat its way through the Himalayan mountaintops. Wade had used two rides to get them to their destination, as the mountains were a bit sheer for skydiving.
The chopper touched down outside an imposing-looking fortress-style building situated about halfway up a mountainside—it was still just below the snow line, so while the air was quite chilly, the ground was grass and rock, not slick. Kim and Ron clambered out of the helicopter, Kim thanking the pilot as was her custom, and moved out of the way as it lifted up and flew away.
The hero and sidekick inspected the castle-like lair for a moment. "Uh, Kim," Ron began, "wasn't the last lair at the top of a mountain?" She nodded, and he continued. "And this one's halfway down…maybe I'm just being paranoid, but do you think it's got something to do with the top itself?"
Kim looked thoughtful. He had a point, after all, and the funny thing was that since graduation—and especially since they'd ended their serious relationship—Ron had been observant, even intelligent about things, which meant when he asked questions she actually thought about them. Nothing was coming to mind, though, even though Kim was mentally sorting through as many past experiences with Drakken as she could. "I think you're right, but we can't tell from out here. Let's go."
All business, Team Possible set off to do what they did best.
Their infiltration was as seamless as it could be, Ron didn't lose his pants, and the two of them were standing in the shadows listening to Drakken recount his scheme to whatever captive audience was there. Kim was guessing it was Shego, since that's how it usually turned out.
"—and once the Automatic Geoseismic Terrain Leveler finishes charging, the gravity shear it will create will be enough to rip even these famous mountains from their places and fling them away, or drop them wherever I want. The world will tremble as I, Doctor Drakken, hold its major landmarks hostage until they proclaim me ruler!"
"Good plan, Dr. D," Shego's voice said idly, and Kim fought back a smile, as she usually did, when she listened to the villainess' sarcastic comments. "Except for one thing: our mountain."
"Oh," he replied, sounding a little deflated. Then it appeared he remembered something. "Right! That's why we're below the snow line, Shego," he said, sounding smug. "The Automatic Geoseismic Terrain Leveler is on its lowest setting right now, which means we can take a little off the top first, instead of taking the whole thing."
"A mountain razor?" Shego asked, still sounding skeptical. For that matter, Kim was, as well.
"Precisely. And once I rule," he said, rubbing his gloved hands together, "that little piffle Dementor won't be able to say I couldn't succeed anymore."
"You'll have to get there, first," Kim declared, stepping from the shadows, "and that means getting through us."
"Kim Possible!" Drakken shouted. He had to visibly calm himself, and when he did his blue face was back in its trademark evil grin. "You're too late to—"
"Stop you this time, right?" Kim interrupted, a smirk on her face.
Drakken's patience snapped again. "Will you cut it out with finishing my sentences, you lippy Possible? Shego, attack!" he yelled, pointing at Kim as if Shego were a hunting dog.
Shego rolled off her chair. Igniting her hands, she charged at Kim, who dodged the initial attack effortlessly. The two of them mixed it up while Ron went after Drakken, the whole thing working like a well-choreographed, flawlessly-executed ballet—a very violent ballet. Ron even released Rufus from his pocket, telling the little pink naked mole rat to wreak as much havoc as he could.
Well, what Ron actually said was, "Go, Rufus!" as he deposited his pint-sized partner on the floor, but the unspoken context was to have Rufus wreak as much havoc as he could. Rufus was very good at unseen havoc-wreaking.
Shego swept her arms out in grand arcs, making Kim take a step back each time she swung. Each could tell from the other's eyes that neither of them was that into the fight, though, which meant it was just a little slower than usual—more like they were sparring than fighting all-out. Kim reached a leg out and tripped Shego while the other woman was advancing, but Shego recovered quickly enough, kicking into a kip-up while Kim backed away from the flying feet. Slowly but surely Kim maneuvered around their little battlefield until she had her back to Ron's fight—or, well, Ron's running for his life dodging Drakken's laser-armed lair defenses—before she allowed Shego in close enough for Kim to grab her; Kim fell back, rolled her legs up, and kicked out as she rocked from her back to her shoulders. Shego flew across the room, but righted herself in the air and landed on her feet perhaps thirty feet away.
Kim climbed back to her feet in time to dodge a brilliant green plasma projectile. "You gonna dance for me, Princess?" Shego drawled, and Kim had to bite back another laugh as she saw Shego's hands, held with thumb and pointer finger out with the rest of her fingers curled in, as if she were holding a pair of six-shooters. She fired off low-powered shots—at least, Kim figured they were low-powered because they weren't doing much damage to the floor as they impacted. Kim still was of a mind not to get hit, though, so she flipped, jumped, cartwheeled, and tumbled out of the way of each shot.
Now they were enjoying themselves. Kim was concentrating on dodging too much to pay attention to her own face, so she was grinning like an idiot from the fun. Shego was smiling slightly, too; her expression was too happy to be called a smirk.
Kim covered a lot of ground with her flips and jumps, and soon enough she was standing within arm's reach of her opponent. Shego's hands lost their green glow as she continued to point at Kim, and she made little clicking noises. "Uh oh, all out," she said, looking at her hands, an expression of mild panic on her face.
Kim couldn't take it anymore; she started laughing, long and loud. Shego smiled a little wider as she watched Kim; a lot of the tension from the beginning of the fight, tension that had been building up since their first encounter a few days ago on that other mountain, started to melt away as Kim giggled madly, bending almost in half and holding her stomach. Shego was glad the redhead wasn't so angry with her anymore; their mall conversation had left her feeling a little bit disappointed in herself, especially after those lame-ass answers she'd given Kimmie. Oh, they'd been true enough, and were completely real and valid; however, and Shego hadn't said it at the time, after the way her brothers treated her back on Team Go she wasn't really ready for the whole hero thing again. If she could she'd much rather just be left to do her own thing, but that wasn't going to happen, at least not as long as she had her unique…attributes.
Kim finally calmed herself to rationality, or at least a close semblance, as she tried to quell the few remaining giggles. She wasn't sure why she was so amused by Shego's antics, except for maybe they were so uncharacteristic of the villainess from the past. She looked at Shego's face and was privately a little shocked to see her expression. First, she was smiling. Second, she was smiling at Kim, and that made her feel good inside. She also felt a little…odd, since for some reason her mind was bringing up the various lewd comments Shego made every so often and reversing them, tempting Kim to say them right back. The other thing was, Shego's eyes looked…soft. Not mushy soft, she corrected herself, just not the granite-hard jade green they usually were. They looked human enough to let Kim know that Shego was letting her guard down around Kim. A very strange impulse overtook Kim at that moment, and she leaned forward and flung her arms around Shego's neck.
Shego, for her part, was absolutely shocked that Kimmie was even able to attempt such a thing, much less that she actually did it.
"That was too much fun," Kim said quietly into her ear, and Shego found herself doing something she hadn't done in many, many years.
She blushed.
"Hey, Princess, that's what I'm here for," she said when her tongue untied itself. Having Kim pressed against her like this was doing strange things to her mind; while she knew she liked Kim, Shego was pretty sure it wasn't at that stage, but the mental images she was getting now, and probably would get in dreams for the next couple of days, belied that notion. Her blush only deepened, tinting her cheeks a darker green. She awkwardly put her arms around Kim as well, privately noting how Kim fit almost perfectly against her. It was strange, she thought, how often they'd been in full-contact combat…and yet a situation like this hadn't occurred once in over four years.
Something in the back of her mind told her it was a good situation.
Kim released her arms from Shego's neck, and Shego withdrew her arms almost instantly, as if she were embarrassed. Kim looked up and saw Shego's face, and she smiled again, but said nothing for the moment.
The smile clinched it for Shego. It was too happy, too radiant, to leave alone…and it was directed at her. Not once had she ever had anyone regard her that way—at least, not since she was a child, before the meteor hit. That the smile was coming from Kim made it that much better. Heaving a much-put-upon sigh, she sidestepped around Kim, lifted a hand, and charged it up. A few seconds later a huge blast erupted from it, streaking forward, singing both Ron and Drakken as it passed them rolling on the floor, fighting over control of a remote of some sort. The plasma spattered against one of the supports for Drakken's superweapon, eating almost entirely through it before the concussive force of the blast crumpled corners and edges on the Leveler. Alarms began to sound and various status lights on both weapon and controller blinked to red as its charging sequence was interrupted and its aim thrown totally off. Ominous metallic creaking noises resounded through the lair as the remaining supports gave way; they couldn't hold the weight and the machine's awkward new positioning.
Rufus poked his head out of the control panel of the device at the noise, then looked at Ron and Drakken before scampering out and away.
For their part, the sidekick and villainous supergenius halted their wrestling, split apart, and dashed away. Drakken looked extremely upset. "SHEGO!" he hollered, as usual.
"Sorry, Dr. D!" she called, though the look on her face said she was anything but. She and Kim had retreated around a corner when things started going south. "I missed!"
Kim almost collapsed again, she was laughing so hard.
Ron beckoned his own sidekick to him, holding the particular pocket open. "Come on, Rufus!" he cheered as the mole rat climbed his pant leg in a flash and slipped into the pocket. Ron then did the one thing he did best: run. He left Drakken behind and skidded around the same corner Shego and Kim had used, only to find a most unusual sight: Kim practically rolling on the floor laughing and Shego standing there looking eminently satisfied. "Uh, KP? You okay there?" he asked, caught halfway between rushing in to help her to her feet and standing rooted in absolute confusion. Needless to say, the circumstances were…unusual.
"She'll be fine," the green-skinned woman said, waving dismissively.
Ron was somewhat aware than Kim and Shego had mended some personal differences in the last few months, but he still didn't quite trust her—especially since she was operating with Drakken again these days. Then again, he had almost been roasted by a blast which had destroyed Drakken's machine… Trying to put the pieces together only made him more confused, so he went with her word. "Let's get out of here before it falls completely apart," he said, moving to grab Kim off the floor.
A tremendous explosion marked the beginning of the end of the Leveler. The lair shook violently and pieces of the superstructure began to fall, including a giant bit of ceiling girder that crashed to the floor about eight inches in front of Ron's outstretched arm. He eeped and leapt back, and Rufus retreated his head back into his pocket, squealing loudly.
The impact snapped Kim back to seriousness in a heartbeat. She leapt to her feet, concern etched on her face. "Ron!" she yelled. She couldn't see through the mess, between the metalwork and the cloud of dust and sparks it kicked up, and she was worried.
"Kim!" he yelled back, which set her at ease. He didn't sound injured, just panicked.
Shego pulled on Kim's arm. "Come on, Princess. He's fine, but we all gotta get out of here before it falls on us."
Kim resisted the tug, staring at the wreckage for a second, before she reached a decision. "Ron, get yourself and Rufus out of here. We can't get around this; we'll find another way out."
Ron didn't respond for a second, which made Kim worry again, but he finally said, "Alright, KP. See you on the other side."
Kim heard his footsteps over the din, then turned to Shego. "Alright," she told the taller woman. "Our turn. And what about Drakken?"
Shego scoffed. "The dork builds four or five escape routes into each lair. How else did we get away in the past?"
"Point taken. Okay, so he's long gone…at least he's foiled. Nice shot, by the way."
"Thanks, but run now, talk later." She suited action to words and dashed off, Kim following closely. The acrobatic pair leapt over and dashed around the various obstacles in their path, from downed girders to power cables to the occasional leaked energy blast from the dying Automatic Geoseismic Terrain Leveler. Shego blasted a chunk of ceiling away and they wall-jumped between a pair of still-standing support pillars until Kim pulled out her hair drier grappling hook and shot the tether clean through the opening. She felt it latch onto something, grabbed Shego around the waist, and flipped the device to 'return' mode, pulling the two of them through the ceiling and onto the roof. They landed while still moving forward, momentum carrying them into a dead run along the sloping surface. They ran out of roof before they ran out of steam; Shego grabbed Kim's hand tightly and leaped right off the edge.
Kim was actually a little worried; as Drakken had said earlier, they were below the snow line, which meant not a lot of cushion for the bottom of their fall. She looked at Shego's face, which was set in deep concentration, and wondered if the super-thief was as scared as Kim was—or even if she was scared at all. She turned her attention back to the ground rushing up at them.
Suddenly Shego yanked on Kim's arm, bringing the younger girl around in midair. Kim cried out in shock since she completely wasn't expecting the maneuver, but silenced herself when Shego grabbed Kim up in her own arms, one each under Kim's shoulders and knees. The ground was coming awfully fast now, and Kim 'eep'ed and buried her face in Shego's shoulder, which actually made the older woman smile slightly.
Then the lair blew up.
The explosion was spectacular, more so than it really ought to have been, except for the fact that there were probably a few hovercraft left behind to contribute their not-inconsiderable fuel sources to the blast. Pieces of the Leveler rained down, their velocity assisted by the force of the blast, but luckily none of them impacted with Kim or Shego as they continued to fall.
Just as Kim thought they should have been hitting the ground the blast wave caught up with them, tossing both escapees forward with the disdain for mere mortals that all forces of Newtonian physics exhibit.
"Hang on tight, Princess," Shego growled as they continued to lose altitude. Their new vector was going to take them well past the foot of the mountain and into the light forest beyond it.
Kim obeyed instantly, putting her arms around Shego's neck again, and a small corner of her mind urged her to put her face against Shego's neck, too—the small corner that wasn't joining the rest in nearly gibbering in sheer terror, that is.
Shego thought fast as they fell towards the trees. As expected of forests near mountains, most of the plants were evergreens, complete with gnarled trunks where lower branches had fallen off as they grew higher. Shego freed her arm from under Kim's shoulders and pointed at one tree in particular, the one she judged the best fit from their current trajectory. She ignited her hand and sent a burst at the root of that tree, sending another for good measure half a second later. Both shots impacted, smashing the hell out of the trunk towards the ground; by the nature of the species, the trees were tall and thin, without the massive girth of, say, an oak tree. Shego's plasma exploded almost on contact, blowing chunks of wood and large splinters yards away from the tree, and eating almost completely through the trunk. Shego flung another shot at the top of the tree, but this one was weakened such that it pushed the tree back instead of blowing it up. The tree began to tilt away from them, but before it could fall completely they were on it. Shego again yanked Kim around in midair, spinning them so Kim wouldn't bear the brunt of the impact; she couldn't bear to see the little hero hurt like that.
That was her last thought before impact.
A/N: Didn't want to end there but it was getting long enough; I have to update some time, after all.
King in Yellow, I appreciate the criticism. I didn't notice the flaw, but I'm not an outside, unbiased observer, either :)
To everyone else, thank you kindly for your reviews. I hope you continue to read and enjoy!