Yet Another Kigo Fic! – Chapter 9

By Ken-Zero

Disclaimer: I can only say it so many times before it gets old, you know?
"How does she always do that?" a whiny voice complained.

The owner of the voice in question was watching a video feed. This video feed was relaying the events of earlier in the day, wherein a trio of giant mutant killer cyborg rats were interrupted in their rampaging through the northern section of Go City by a certain teen hero. As an unwelcome surprise addition, another well-acquainted figure was spotted helping said hero out by flinging green plasma around like it was going out of style. As the watcher continued to observe, the hero climbed the back of one of the GMKCRs and attached something to its cybernetic implants, which promptly fried the rat's brain, and those of its companions when they wandered in closer. As they began to topple three large plasma blasts knocked the rats over backwards, where they collapsed atop the ruins of the city they'd already destroyed.

The watcher grumbled. "Kim Possible," he spat, "you think you're all that, but you're not…"

"That's so sad!" wailed a female voice from behind him. "Why'd she have to do that to them? They were so cute!"

"They were the perfect tools of destruction, yes," the first watcher agreed. "At least they were based off rats, which are easy to obtain…"

"Now, now," a third voice, if possible even more annoying that the first, broke in, "Dementor, Amy, I know this is something of a setback, but if there's one thing I've learned over the years against the cheerleader, it's patience."

Professor Dementor—whose first name was, indeed, Helmut, though he took great pains to hide the fact—and DNAmy frowned at the first voice. "Drakken," Dementor growled, "if you're so convinced these will stop her, why haven't they yet?"

"Because the first designs are always tests," Dr. Drakken replied seriously. "We refine our plans with gathered data until they become as fool-proof as we can make them. If they fail again, we gather more data, do more refining, and try again."

Dementor was privately a tad stunned at the transformation Drakken had undergone. After the last time Kim Possible had thwarted his plan for world domination, Drakken had escaped, of course, but he'd returned without Shego in tow. He'd acted like normal for weeks until hitting on another idea for world conquest. After all, he'd reasoned, sure, there were six-billion-plus humans on the earth, but what about all the other animal types? If they could be made man-sized or bigger and controlled, he'd have an unbeatable superweapon with which to take over the world! The only problem he'd seen with his plan was in making them controllable—and resistant to attempts to stop them.

He'd gone to DNAmy with his plan first, as they'd worked together in the past. She had cheerfully agreed to play along again; Drakken had supposed that for her, any opportunity to show off her "mad gene-splicing skillz" would be enough to get her to sign on, and he'd been correct. She, of course, was responsible for practically fire- and heat-proofing the rats' fur.

Dementor had been a tougher sell, if at least because of his and Drakken's rivalries in the past, arguments over who was the greater genius, and all that. Drakken, however, had been very convincing with his argument that regardless of who was better, being rid of Kim Possible was a goal worthy of cooperation. Once she was out of the way and unable to stop them, well, then they could get around to whipping out their…ray-guns.

After another couple of weeks of collaboration they'd decided to test the rats out in a location they knew it'd take Kim some time to get to. They'd started at the northern outskirts of Go City, where Drakken had zapped the three mutant killer cyborg rats with a reverse-engineered (in the literal sense—it was built backwards) shrink ray. It had worked as advertised, and the rats exploded to their sixty-foot height. The sheer mass involved meant the rats were easily able to move around on only two feet instead of all fours, and they began knocking buildings over, delighting the villainous trio.

Then something rained on their parade—well, someone, who rained with disastrous green plasma fire. From their remote observation post—another idea of Drakken's; after all, why be present in person, and be able to be defeated/arrested, when you could watch from afar and be insulated from such catastrophes?

Drakken had watched with mild interest as Shego attempted to beat back the rats; the other two supervillains watched both the scene and him, to see if he'd snap or something, but he merely kept his attention on the monitors, tiny ­gloved hands posed in front of his face, fingertips touching. Dementor and DNAmy found it…rather creepy that he could hold himself together so well. Privately, Dementor figured it had something to do with Shego's absence; the woman often kept Drakken off-balance with her sarcastic comments on the viability of his plans.

Then Kim Possible had shown up on the feed, and they watched the two women dismantle the GMKCRs with ease, right up to the feed going to static when the electrical discharge fried the circuitry.

All three could hardly believe their eyes; sure, Shego hadn't been in on the plan, so seeing her resist it made some sense, especially when it looked like she was threatened. However, seeing the cheerleader swoop in and save her rival, then come back with her and work together…that was, if possible, even creepier than Drakken's apparent calm.

A calm which he continued to exhibit even now, in spite of the oddness. "So," he continued, "what did we learn from this experiment?"

"The rats could use some insulation from electricity," Amy ventured. "Maybe I can make them docile and yet intelligent and we won't need the metal bits."

Dementor had to grudgingly agree with her assessment, much as it pained him. "Ja, Frau Amy," he said. "Unfortunately, as much as my creations could add, I suppose they can also be easily pre-empted by her technical friend. About all I can think of is placing the implants below the surface."

Drakken nodded. "A conclusion I would support. I believe we are on the right track, my evil friends, and that the doom of Team Possible is on the horizon. We need only to make our plans more foolproof and we will succeed."

Dementor raised an issue that had been bothering him. "What about the buffoon? His presence seems to enable Possible."

Drakken grinned evilly. "He is of no concern to us; Fiske is keeping him busy with his relentless pursuit of that 'mystical monkey mastery,' which is an added bonus."

"You mean that wasn't part of your plan?" Dementor asked incredulously. This would be the first time in the history of the universe, he suspected, that luck was actually favoring Drakken.

The blue inventor shrugged. "I had figured him into the current plan, but if he's not there, so much the better."

The three settled down to plan, plot, and otherwise contemplate world domination. It still weirded Amy and Dementor out, how…evilDrakken was being, but they didn't question it much more. No need, after all, to look a gift inventor in the mouth.

The last time Kim Possible felt this nervous, it was the beginning of high school when she tried to ask Josh Mankey to the dance. Back then, her tongue had simply turned into a lump of junk in her mouth as her brain failed her; today, she felt like her guts were going to quiver themselves to jelly before she even made it another ten feet.

She sighed and readjusted her backpack, trudging across the campus of Go University to the building marked for her first class on her schedule. A composition class, first thing in the morning, she grumped to herself. And here I thought I was supposed to be smart.

In the two days since her little adventure in Go City, Kim had managed to return home; load all her stuff into her car; cart it over to the dorms at Go U; unpack and arrange so the room already looked lived-in; obtain her schedule; map out the most efficient path between buildings for the limited amount of time between classes on her packed schedule; buy her books; get a map of convenient locations nearby for various activities such as studying, coffee drinking, more studying, browsing books, studying again, and doing more studying; and save the world twice. She'd managed, in true college fashion, to get about four hours of sleep, which meant she woke up this morning in not the greatest of moods. She hadn't had the time or energy to see anyone at all, except for her rides for missions, and found herself missing Ron and the crew from high school and her parents and even the Tweebs and Shego…

The last person on that list would have surprised her a month ago, even a couple of weeks ago, but now…well, now she counted Shego as a friend, a very good friend if their activities of two days previous were taken into consideration. She still wasn't entirely convinced that she saw the greenish woman in that kind of light—at least, while she had her wits about her, which had conveniently gone on vacation as soon as Shego had locked lips with her the first time. Still, Kim tried to keep herself rational about the whole situation; maybe it was just a fling, or maybe it was a really involved way for Shego to tease her in some way again. Maybe, just maybe, she was being genuine in her declaration of affection…but Kim wasn't so sure she would, could, return it. After all, as she'd noted to herself at the time, girls didn't do it for her at all, even still. To prove that point to herself, she forced herself to stare at a random girl walking in the other direction but situated far enough away that Kim's gaze was unlikely to attract unwanted attention. She tried to note bits of the other girl that guys probably found attractive, but while she couldn't deny her attractiveness, it also did nothing to arouse her in any way. She was perfectly capable of admitting that girls could look attractive without actually findingthem attractive; how often had she complimented, say, Monique for looking drop-dead gorgeous in Club Banana attire? And while she couldn't deny what she'd felt at the time—the way that she'd lazily decided Shego was the hottest thing she'd ever seen, even beating out Eric the Syntho-drone—she wasn't sure if that was real or from the heat of the moment. After all, Shego was a fantastic kisser…Kim didn't notice, but her face had gone red again from the memory.

Kim's ruminations nearly carried her past her intended hall; they would have, had she not distractedly nearly run into someone walking across her path, startling her back into reality. Mumbling an apology, she glanced at her surroundings and noted with some surprise that she'd made it, and with a minute to spare. She dashed inside, noted with some dismay that her class was all the way up on the third floor, and took the stairs three at a time, an impressive feat for someone her size. She made it to her seat with seconds to spare, and a spare thought ran through her head as she dug out the requisite textbook and notebook.

Reminds me of dashing into Barkin's classes after missions…
Shego stretched, feeling a few of her vertebrae pop as she relinquished her hunched-over posture and bent backwards to work out some kinks in her back. She held the pose for a few seconds before exhaling in a rush and coming back to normal, inspecting her handiwork.

She'd been parked in front of a chest. Said chest was bolted to the floor thanks to a pair of metallic straps attached to both sides of the chest and four industrial-sized hex-headed bolts, each a good two inches thick and probably eight or ten inches long, blasted down into the concrete itself. Nothing short of an earthquake—Or Hego, her mind added with a twinge of amusement—was going to free that chest from its position.

The reason Shego had been crouched down in front of it laid spread on the floor to her right. Her old lock-picking equipment was unrolled, and one of the specialized tools was missing from the small leather roll. She replaced the one she held as she gazed at the lock in question. It was now open, but she'd been working it for a good twenty or so minutes. After all, being the best entailed both doing it quickly and with inflicting the least amount of extra damage. One of the talents of being a thief was being able to leave everything exactly as you found it—except, of course, for what was pilfered—so as to delay the recognition that something bad happened.

She rolled up her picks and velcroed it shut, replacing it in her ankle pouch. She was clad once again in her trademark catsuit, her frame folded neatly into the small space. Her long, green-tinged black hair spilled out behind her, effectively rendering her nearly invisible in the darkness of the room, darkness that was suddenly spoiled when she stood up and the lights flicked on.

"Chest's open," she called out to, apparently, no one. It felt strange, she reflected, as she was accustomed to making absolutely no noise, so advertising her success—and in a loud voice, no less—ran contrary to all her normal thieving instincts. However, in this instance, she was quite proper in ignoring those instincts, as a door to her left opened and her father walked through, a troubled expression on his face.

"Twenty-two minutes and seventeen seconds," Kane said as he made it through the door. "While I'm proud of you for breaking every other recorded attempt, it's still…unsettling, I suppose."

"That's why I'm the best," she responded with a cheeky grin. "And don't worry. I can tell you four ways to improve it while keeping it strictly mechanical that would mean I couldn't get the thing to open."

Kane raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Hey, that's why I'm here," she responded. She left out her private addendum: I couldn't get it open as quickly, that is.

Kane smiled. "That's my girl. You know, I really appreciate you helping soup up my system prototypes."

Shego shrugged uncomfortably. "You're my dad, and like Mommy said, I gotta start pulling my weight somehow if I'm gonna lay low for a while."

Her father's smile turned knowing. "And you don't really want to stay here, I can tell," he continued. "And I won't keep you doing this, either. But really, it may be a field for you to look into, you know." He gave a light chuckle when she shrugged noncommittally. "Or you could go back to just plain taking things, I suppose."

Her uncomfortable look returned. "I don't know what to do, Daddy," she sighed. She hated showing her uncharacteristic sides, like her mushy side that she still had yet to reveal to Kim, or this indecisive, almost whiny side that she was displaying to her father…but he was her father, and he'd already seen all the sides to here there were to see. "I liked what I did. I liked being able to show people up, prove that just because their nut is tough to crack doesn't mean it's uncrackable. But…over the last few weeks it's felt like…I don't know, blah. I have this feeling, like if I even try, I'll get bored with the attempt ten seconds in and screw up and get in trouble…but if I stop, what happens to my reputation? The world sees Shego, villain sidekick and master thief extraordinaire, go soft and weak and retired. And then what do I do, knit?"

Kane laughed, the sound booming through the smallish room thanks to his barrel chest. "Cassie, I don't think I'll ever see you knit. You'll be a hundred years old and still climbing over buildings like you were a teenager, I'm sure. As for what to do now…well, did you ever consider talking with your little red-haired friend?"

Shego shifted. "A bunch of times. But I really don't want to get back into the hero thing. You remember how it was with Hego and all that?"

"Of course I do," he replied. "To this day he maintains that you left the team just because you didn't get to be in charge." He shook his head. "From an outside point of view, I think it was really the both of you at fault—and your other brothers didn't help much, either."

Shego blinked. "My fault? How was it my fault that Hego was an arrogant, insensitive, stubborn, know-it-all prick who decided that it was going to be his vision of being a super group or nothing at all, and if you didn't like it, tough?"

Kane smiled wryly. "It's your fault, only partially, because at least two of those adjectives could apply to your own self, and you know it. Oh," he continued amiably, ignoring her angry expression, "I know that your brother really fancies himself as a big shot, and I know how much it rankled the rest of you, but your mother and I were very proud of you all while you stuck together. And yet when you left, well, neither your mother nor I could really blame you. You wanted to be your own person and not conform to Phillip's routine. While we might not appreciate the path you chose, at least you were doing something to further yourself, to make yourself better in some way." His smile returned, without the irony this time. "If your performance from the other day is any indication, I'd say your current problem is you got what you needed out of your old profession, and now you need to try something new, or to try to apply yourself in a slightly different manner."

Shego couldn't help but stare at Kane. She couldn't remember the last time he'd seemed that…profound. And while he wasn't saying anything earth-shattering or life-changing, she certainly wasn't accustomed to him sounding exactly wise in any sense, either. Sure, he was her father, but…he was so goofy sometimes. Make that most of the time. Kinda like Kim's friend, the buffoon, she reflected.

"You know," she said softly, "I think you may have something there, Daddy. I mean, yeah, you're right, Hego's power tripping ruined Team Go for me, even more than the concept of being a superhero could have." She shrugged. "And I did tell Kimmie that I wouldn't do the hero thing again…but that doesn't mean I have to be, well, evil, either."

"See? I told you you were bored by it."

"Mostly Drakken ruined it for me, just like Hego did," she complained. "Why do I always have to end up working with the most incompetent people in the things I do?"

Kane raised an eyebrow. "You think even Ms. Possible is incompetent?"

"No!" Shego exclaimed, a light blush tinting her cheeks a deeper green. "Fuck, if anything, she's the exact opposite. The problem is…I can't do what she does."

"Save the world? Cassie, you just did a few months ago, much as it may pain you to admit."

"I know, Daddy," Shego growled. "I know that I can. That it's possible. And it was fun at the time. But…she's so selfless about it, and I can't do that."

Her father nodded in understanding. "The self-sacrificing aspect is not a part of everybody," he said. "Your mother and I are perfect examples of that, if you want to look outside yourself. It takes a special kind of person to do what Ms. Possible does."

"I know…" Shego actually looked downcast. Mentally she was fearing she'd never be able to really connect with Kim, to be more than just a good acquaintance or friend.

Kane saw that look and knew instantly what was preying on her mind. "And you think you aren't good enough for that kind of person," he said softly, gently.

His daughter stared at the floor, silent, before nodding once.

"Cassie, you have to remember the past, not just worry about the future. In the last few months, from what I've heard from your mother about your adventures, you've tried to assist that blue fellow in his plans twice, decided he wasn't worth the time it took you to pick your nose"—Shego couldn't help but grin at the off-color joke—"and managed to help Ms. Possible in eliminating a serious threat to this very city—for which we're all very grateful, mind you." He stepped forward and put a hand on Shego's shoulder. Despite his being shorter than she was, she still felt like he was the biggest, most stable rock in the universe, even at her twenty-three years of age. "As unsure as you are right now, which is very unlike you, you have to remember that if nothing you've done so far has scared her off, or made her think less of you, or anything, then you have not much to fear. In fact, I'd wager there's not much in the future you could do to do that, either."

"You really think so?"

Kane had to grin. "I know so. After all, your mother and I are still together, in spite of our completely different approaches to certain problems, right?"

Shego chuckled. She knew her lifestyle was something of a blend of her parents'; Kane tended to take the subtle, almost manipulative approach, whereas Isabel would simply force her way to a solution, and if she got to knock a few heads around, so much the better. Of course, either was capable of doing things the other's way, they just preferred their own. The meeting Kane had had a couple of mornings ago, for example, had led to him slamming his hands on his conference table when the customers began to bicker and complain about inconsequential nothings. The table itself had nearly upended, spilling their coffees and leading to his comment that day about cleaning up their messes. Normally he enjoyed smooth-talking them until they realized he was right. Shego had both her mother's hammer and her father's lathe in her tools of trade, able to verbally convince some and physically intimidate others as the situation demanded.

"Right," she agreed with a sigh. "So…you think I have a chance?"

"You always have a chance. Sometimes you just have to manufacture it," he said with a wink.

"Thanks, Daddy," she said, feeling a lot better now than she had for the last day and some. A thought struck her. "I'm actually going to go out for a while," she continued. "I'll be back later." She left without even waving, and Kane smiled at her back.

She's got that look back in her eye. Damned if she's not going to get what she wants…and that's my girl.

Kim nearly sagged in relief as she finished her last class of the day. Much as graduating high school had felt like the end of an era, she was really only now realizing that it was the beginning of the end. And that was if she settled for only a bachelor's degree, which she highly doubted, given her family.

Still, finishing classes at five in the afternoon? SO not doing that anymore after this semester.

Kim was feeling pretty normal, educational exhaustion aside, after she'd spent her first few classes convincing herself that she really wasn't all that confused about her and Shego anymore. Nope, Shego was just a really good friend. That was a strange enough metamorphosis for her former nemesis, but at least she could cope with it. The alternative was…well, she lacked the mental energy to deal with it right now. Besides, so what if Shego'd kissed her, right? It was no big. Kim used to kiss her mother all the time when she was younger. Even if she didn't anymore…well, girls were still supposed to be more affectionate than boys. Or at least less afraid of showing it, right?

She pushed the mental discussion away as she trudged toward her dormitory. Lots of people were milling around out front, more so than usual, and something in Kim clicked. She jogged up to the people at the fringe of the crowd. "Hey, what's the sitch?" she asked as she neared a guy who was shaking his head at the place with his arms crossed.

"Huh? Who're you?" he asked, looking somewhat confused.

"I'm Kim Possible. I'm a freshman here," she answered.

"Oh. Well, from what I heard, something's up with the locks on all the doors in the dorm. At least, all the outside doors."

"What do you mean, something's up?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. I only got here a few minutes ago, so I don't know many details. Just that none of us can get in, and even the RA's keys aren't working."

Kim was starting to have a bad feeling, but she still nodded in understanding. "Thanks." She stepped past him, determined to weave her way through the crowd.

There are times, she reflected as she threaded between knots of chattering students and individuals waiting to get back inside, that being only a few inches over five feet tall is something of an advantage. Her diminutive stature was allowing her to avoid too much attention as she ducked and dodged around people; her cheerleading- and world-saving-honed athleticism meant she barely even came into contact with people.

Eventually she made it to the front of the pack, and what she saw proved her informant correct; several people were clustered specifically around the doors, two of whom had a key ring in their hand. The rest were conversing heatedly about something, and one had his phone out, presumably to call the police.

Kim frowned briefly. Their presence blocked her view of the doors themselves, so she couldn't see what had actually taken place, but that didn't matter for now; if the doors were jammed shut, that logically meant two things: either there was a bomb inside, which was unlikely—and a bit stupid, in her opinion; who'd want to explode a college dorm?—or whomever had busted the locks was still inside.

She backed up a few steps, staring up at the edge of the roof as she slung her bag off her shoulder and rummaged around inside for a second. She came up with her trusty hair dryer grapple gun. A few students that saw her act chuckled at how silly she was, pulling a hair dryer out of her bag when they weren't anywhere near an outlet. Kim let them make fun of her, as she had more important things to do. She slung her bag back over her shoulder, took two careful steps back, aimed, and triggered the hook. With an explosive blast of compressed air the grapple shot from the nozzle and arced upward, the grapple's tines snapping out and locking into position a second after it cleared.

Gravity took over and pulled the grappling hook down, but not before it had easily cleared the edge of the roof. The motor in the dryer engaged, dragging the rope back inside until the hook caught on the edge of the roof. Sensing the tension, the motor stopped, waiting Kim's command to begin to retract again.

The students immediately around Kim blinked in astonishment at the initial noise the dryer made, watching in stunned disbelief as something sailed up onto the roof and a line connecting them went taut. Kim flexed her legs and jumped, hitting the switch and beginning her ascent. As she rushed to the wall she bent her legs and hit, letting her knees and ankles absorb the impact. The dryer pulled her swiftly upward as she kicked off again, and at the top of her arc she flipped over the edge, giving her wrist a twist and releasing the grapple. It snapped back into the dryer and Kim checked back over the edge to make sure no one was going to either follow her or report her; those students that had been watching merely stared at her open-mouthed. She smiled prettily and waved before her "mission face" settled into position. She jammed the dryer back into her bag and went for the roof access door.

She nodded when she got there; that lock had been spared, apparently, since no one else would have thought of coming up there in the first place. It was a six-story dormitory, after all. She gave the handle a twist, only to find that the door was locked, but Kim, never one to let a small obstacle like that stop her, merely pulled her laser lipstick from the proper pocket on her backpack and flicked it on. She carved the door handle out of the door—she couldn't see a deadbolt in the doorframe—and gave it a kick when she was done. The door bounced off its jamb and swung open slightly, so she grabbed it and yanked it the rest of the way open.

The hallway beyond was dusty and lightly lined with spider webs along the ceiling, a sign that it hadn't been used in ages, which Kim supposed was a good thing—better than an emergency door be on the ground level than the roof, with no fire escape ladders of any sort. There wasn't even any machinery on the roof to justify the door being for mechanical use only. Kim supposed it was installed only to please the fire marshals.

She stepped in, allowing the door to swing closed behind her, and marched down the hallway, making no attempt to hide her presence. At the end of the hallway was another door, this one marked as access to the interior stairwell. She yanked it open and descended to her floor, where she booted that door open as well, after turning the handle of course. The narrow hallway, lined with doors to the students' rooms, was devoid of traffic, so Kim marched over to her door, intending to grab her battle suit just in case.

None of the doors showed any sign of forced entry, not even her own; she chuckled at her apparent paranoia. Like I told Shego, if the bad guys didn't know I was coming here three days ago, how would they know now? I'd give them a month before I start to worry…

She produced her room key from her backpack and unlocked the door, taking a step inside and locking it behind her—just in case whoever's in here gets cute ideas about stalking me inside. Cautiously she moved forward, eyes roving, scoping her room to make sure nothing screwy was going to happen.

It was big, for a dorm room; apparently Go U had some money to spend, and had seen to it that its students were actually comfortable. Kim had gotten a single, so she had the room all to herself, but there was enough living space to cram in three if they had the same relative as the sardine-can packing so common at most universities. She had a small, very small, but also very present, kitchenette, complete with two-burner stove and single-basin sink. It had its own bathroom, as well, though once again it was tiny; it still featured sink, toilet, and shower, though, so she couldn't complain. The place was littered with memorabilia from home, mostly, but also with quite a bit of little things she'd picked up on her mission over the four years previous. Like over on that windowsill, there were a handful of small stone statues that she'd collected as thank-you gifts after her last visit to India to stop Professor Dementor from assuming possession of the Taj Mahal and charging visitors exorbitant fees to see the landmark. It had been a screwy idea at the time, but she figured he'd been a bit light on cash and needed the boost…or something.

And over there, on either side of her computer monitor, were a pair of ornately-tied scrolls that she'd received during her last visit to Yamanouchi. Well, one was the actual scroll; the other was an English translation thoughtfully provided by Yori.

And there, sitting on the lone easy chair in Kim's dorm, was a Shego, clad in her familiar black-and-green checked catsuit, busily reading a magazine.

Kim's gaze snapped back to Shego as she almost continued her visual cataloging of items, interrupting her impromptu inventory. "Shego!" she squeaked, something in her abdomen giving a quick shiver at the sight of the raven-haired woman. In spite of her shock, Kim realized with a start that all her rationalizations from earlier in the day crumbled down into nothingness; even now, while surprised, she wanted to just melt into the other woman's arms.

"Hey, Princess," Shego said, snapping her magazine closed and looking up at Kim with a smirk. "Nice pad."

A/N: Chapter end. Initially part of one extra-extra-long chapter 9, I decided to split it up so I could actually update. Since it is a split, and I'm basically putting finishing touches on the second part, I'll update again in a day or two.