Yet Another Kigo Fic! – Chapter 17

By Ken-Zero

Disclaimer: The usual stuff. I don't own any of these characters, with the exception of the Interro-gater. Even the private eye, his girlfriend, and the lieutenant from last chapter are from something (one reviewer already nailed it), and that something is Firesign Theatre, which is hilarious.

Pre-note: Yes, it's been a while again. I'm sorry, but at least I'm updating! Personally, I blame a bunch of things: my own slowness, being stuck on my other story, work work work (10 hours a day starting at 6am), and too much time spent doing things other than writing.

--

Detective Nick Danger, Third Eye, ran one hand back through his dark brown hair, made even more unruly than usual by the slight wind that had picked up during his investigation outside. His frustration was evident to those around him; no one dared approach him, save his current flame, Victoria Jennessy, as she was the only one who could weather his fury.

"Nicky," she said softly, pulling on his arm, "look, I'm okay, and I already took care of those accounts. Just calm down, okay?"

"I can't, Vicky," he returned. Normally it very nearly disgusted him when she called him 'Nicky,' especially with her nickname being what it was, but right now he had other things to worry about. "This guy's throwing his ability to do that to you in my face."

"I'm sure it's not personal," Victoria soothed. "It would be the same with anybody."

"No, it wouldn't," Nick returned. "Bradshaw's typical; he doesn't care, and no one else would, either."

"So you think this guy's targeting you because you want him stopped? Nick, that doesn't make any sense."

"I know, Vicky, but it's how I feel right now…"

Victoria sighed, but she stepped aside and let Nick do his job. The most recent altercation—Victoria's—had very little evidence at the scene, and eyewitnesses were few and far between, mostly because they flatly refused to believe that what they'd seen was actually reality and not some fancy attempt at animatronics.

Nick turned to one of the uniformed officers standing near him. "Stones, I want cameras on every manhole you and your men can think of." The officer nodded, jotting the note down on a pad of paper, and Nick went on. "We don't have to catch them…I just want to know where they're coming from."

--

Silence was the rule among the prisoners as Kim Possible, Shego, Ron Stoppable, and Yori were frog-marched by the giant lizard-men through the sewers. The Interro-gater walked behind them all, comfortably separated from the heroes by a ring of upright-walking saurians that Kim still wasn't sure what they were. That they were in the sewers, which, while dirty, were essentially fresh water, suggested alligators...but since DNAmy was behind all this, they could have been anything, for all she knew.

As soon as they had been captured, the gators closest to them all had slapped handcuffs on the lot of them, and it was by those cuffs that they were being led. Kim was fidgeting as they walked, continually pulling the manacles up and down, trying to squeeze her hands through them and get free. She was trying to remain as subtle as she could, but the chains connecting the manacles were making more noise than anyone else's, and one of the escorting mutants gave her a wall-eyed stare. She dropped her hands back in front of her.

Shego, watching Kim's efforts through the corner of her eye, sniffed softly. Kim caught the noise, looking her way, and Shego gave her a small smile before gently shaking her head.

Kim was somewhat confused. Does she not want to try and escape? Without having agreed on a plan, though, she dared not try anything. She had done that a time or three before, with Ron; only her villains' usual incompetence had kept those improvised operations from blowing up in her face and turning into something awful. Still, she wracked her brain, trying to figure out what Shego was trying to communicate.

The answer—or at least, the answer she had a few seconds later—was obvious. This way, we'll know where their hideout is.

After what seemed like hours of walking, none of it broken by conversation of any sort, Kim began to notice the sewer tunnel they were in was gradually brightening. The temperature was strangely constant; Kim actually had expected it either to be very warm, or very cool. It remained, however, at a very pleasant room temperature. Occasional puffs of air from overhead suggested ventilation, but if there was anything, the darkness precluded them from seeing any ducts. Every few steps they took, whatever light source lay ahead of them grew steadily, and Kim could actually begin to make out details of their captors.

They were indeed upright, walking, gun-toting—alligators, Kim decided finally, if only to have something to call them. For all the strangeness of their erect posture, Kim was accustomed to anthropomorphic animals thanks to years of exposure to Ron's partner-in-crime Rufus.

Thinking the name sent a pang of nostalgia through Kim; she dearly wished they had Ron's pet naked mole rat right now. The little guy had helped them immeasurably in times past. Then again…her lips quirked almost involuntarily. Shego's right here. And so is Yori. Somehow, I don't think we'll be missing Rufus quite so much…

Of their captors' leader, the so-called "Interro-gator," Kim could still barely see anything. He was covered almost head-to-toe in a white coat, presumably of the doctoral style Kim's own mother usually wore. His head, or what of it she could see, was bald, shiny; it reflected light oddly, and Kim figured the scaly skin they'd seen earlier covered his entire body. In the light from ahead, she could see his skin was barely different in color from normal human skin; it was brownish, like he'd gotten a deep tan, but it also featured a slight green hue, almost like a concession to the same reptilian genes that made his skin scaly.

The observation, while fascinating—it proved he wasn't natural—did little to help their current situation. Neither, of course, did counting the number of armed alligators surrounding the four of them. So Kim held her peace for a few more minutes, until they entered a grand junction in the sewer tunnels…and the Interro-gator's lair.

There was no mistaking this kind of base of operations; a handful of figures that looked like copies of him were seated at several massive computer banks, looking like something out of the golden age of comics. The computers themselves were ten feel tall and about twice that from end to end, covered by all manner of lights, switches, dials, readouts, and printing orifices; where the figures sat, large monitors displayed information Kim couldn't make out at this distance. Elsewhere, dozens…no, scores more of the alligators surrounding them did the manual labor required to maintain a base of operations this size.

Curiously, Kim noted that everything around them seemed to move slowly. It wasn't like time had decided to take a vacation; it was more like the lair's occupants were unconcerned with hurrying, and decided to take their sweet time to go about whatever task they were required to do. They weren't lazy about it, but neither were they efficient. Things got done, just slowly.

Her observations were derailed when the Interro-gator spoke again. "Impressive, isn't it?" he asked, turning to face them again. The overhead lights, the reasons behind the tunnel's brightening earlier, stripped away the shadows that had clung to his features earlier, and Kim gasped in spite of her efforts to control it.

His face was…inhuman. It was almost like it had tried to grow outward in imitation of an alligator's snout, but had abandoned the attempt after only a few inches. The green in his skin was more pronounced around his lips, and his teeth were decidedly sharper than a normal human's. His lab coat hung open on his frame, and Kim could see the scales did indeed cover his whole body; his chest was bare under it, and while he wasn't spindly, it didn't look as well-muscled as it could have been. Then again, Kim mused, he's got minions; why would he need to do any heavy lifting?

She didn't even bother thinking how all this might have begun; villains just had a knack for percolating under the public's collective nose until they were ready to strike. Most likely, she figured, he'd begun with only a few of his "brethren," as he'd called them, and had uncovered the secret for creating more.

"This is a nice setup," Shego spoke up suddenly from Kim's left, "but seriously. What's in it for you?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"What. Is. In. It. For. You." Shego repeated, enunciating each word as if she were talking to a four-year-old kid with no English skills. Kim had to try really hard not to giggle, while the Interro-gator looked like he was starting to fume.

"Why would you assume this is for my gain?"

"Because," Shego responded, sounding awfully bored, "I've seen the whole noble-villain thing. You're not doing this for them. You're doing this for you. Unless, of course, you're reporting to someone else. Villains are always self-motivated. Besides, you're taking people's money. That doesn't exactly scream altruistic to me."

"Why would you think I am in this for my own benefit? Do you not see that my brethren have need of me as their leader?"

"No," Shego said shortly, not missing a beat. The reply seemed to shut the villain up—Finally, Kim thought with some relief—and he glared at the verdant woman for a second before marching off to do who-knew-what.

A burst of giggling sounded from behind them, and Kim turned to see Yori completely unable to keep a straight face. Even Ron's mouth was quirked in a grin. "I do believe you have him tongue-tied, Shego-san," Yori said as she gained control of herself.

"Head case," she responded blandly. "Hates it if he can't get the last word. Drakken was that way, too."

"Funny how you can read the bad guys easy," Ron quipped.

Shego quirked an eyebrow at him. "Wouldn't you be able to tell, if another Good Guy showed up, how they would behave?"

"Oh…yeah…heheh, hadn't thought of that one…"

"Obviously," Shego mumbled under her breath. Kim nudged her with a shoulder.

"So why'd you want me to stop earlier?" she asked, then blushed while everyone else stared at her. "Not like that!" she complained. "I meant with the handcuffs."

The staring, if anything, intensified, and Kim blushed deeper.

"Ya know, Princess," Shego finally cut in, "I'd stop if I were you. That hole you're in doesn't get much deeper."

"Gee, thanks," Kim muttered. "So why did I have to stop trying to break free?"

"So we could find here," Shego answered simply.

"And now?" Ron put in. He was looking expectantly at her.

"Now?" Shego shrugged. "I do this." So saying, she ignited her hands, the emerald-colored energy flowing up and around the handcuffs. The metal of the cuffs themselves didn't seem to care very much…but about fifteen seconds after she lit her hands, she stepped away from everyone. Before they could ask why, she brought her hands together, then violently flung them apart; the weakened chain holding the cuffs together snapped like so much string. The cuffs remained on her wrists…but without anything holding them to each other, she was as free as she was going to get right now.

The sound of the metal giving way attracted the attention of a handful of the gator-minions, and they shuffled forward, but Shego was ready. She brought a knife-hand down on the chain connection Yori's wrists, and the ninja suddenly…wasn't there anymore. A small puff of smoke signaled her use of a smoke bomb.

A sharp, metallic clang announced Yori's presence elsewhere, and Kim turned to see her using her metallic fans to clock the gators on their heads, arms, torsos…anywhere she could get a solid hit. The reptiles were tougher than they appeared; they would take several hits before going down, as opposed to just one or two. The first half-dozen fell before Shego had freed Kim, though once the hero was loose, she leapt right into the fray.

Hitting the gators felt, to Kim, like trying to punch a tree wrapped in leather. These things were solid, and very resilient; they also made very little noise, save an occasional rumbling growl when one received a particularly painful hit. The lack of noise was probably the creepiest aspect of the whole fight to all its human participants.

Ron, once loose, spent a moment concentrating and attempting to harness his Mystical Monkey Power; when the moment passed, a by-now-familiar blue aura surrounded him, and the fight turned even more savage as Monkey met Alligator. Ron's hoots and howls were starting to get frighteningly loud, but the foursome kept at it, even as more and more of the boss' brethren ambled toward the fray.

Shego lit her hands in combat again, but a shrieking sound pierced all their ears. They turned to see the Interro-gator staring at them in horror; they looked around quickly, but saw nothing out of the ordinary for a fight.

Then Shego's first plasma blast hit home against one of the gators.

The improved animal seemed to just take the hit, as if it were absorbing the energy and emerging completely unfazed…but then it hesitated. Its jaws opened and snapped shut several times before the thing finally toppled forward. It hit the ground with a satisfying thud…but arose a few seconds later.

This time, though, it stayed on all fours…and it slid off of the solid platforms and into the water with hardly a splash.

Kim blinked. What's going on?

"Do you realize what you have done, you fool?!" the Interro-gator screamed from across the lair. His voice echoed for a few seconds, the flat surfaces of the place granting it added volume and presence and actually making him sound intimidating…something that none of Kim's usual villains had ever done before.

"Don't know, don't care," the hero said. "Your evil stops here and now!" She dug into the pocket of her mission pants and pulled out her trusty laser lipstick…and flashed a beam into one of the large computer banks nearby, cutting a hole slightly smaller than her fist.

The beam cut into the metal angrily, little rivulets of melted alloy running down from the clean cut line; when she was done the circle fell inside with a clang. Nothing else appeared to happen, so Kim went through her pocket again, this time producing a small vial filled with something colored dark red; the vial was of the kind usually reserved for single-color makeup pots. She couldn't recall putting one of her own in there…which meant it had to have been another Wade thing. She twisted the cap off and was rewarded with the substance inside quickly turning from red to yellow, so she tossed it inside and ran to rejoin the others, who had meanwhile moved off to engage the rest of the crowding alligators.

Kim had hardly made it four steps when a terrific bang! erupted behind her, the sound echoing just as grandly as the villain's voice had not thirty seconds ago. She risked a glance behind her, and was rewarded with seeing smoke billowing from the machine she had just…what? Fried? Exploded?

The readouts on the face of the device were blank, the gauges going haywire, and the hole she had cut into it was flickering with the colors of fire. Within seconds the small blaze had spread, the small electrical fire quickly growing and consuming the computers with frenzy.

Kim turned back to the fray; in two more steps she jumped, flipped, and planted both feet in a gator that was about to slash Ron from his side. She rode the creature down as it fell, and when it hit the ground fully she stepped off, the sudden change in altitude meaning she ducked right under a lateral swing aimed at trimming her hair at roughly the level of her earlobes. "Claws!" she yelped.

"We know," Ron grated, "and thanks, KP." He was doing quite alright for himself, a far cry from his earlier days; the few times Kim could spare a half-second to watch him, she noted he was good, but still not quite at her or Shego's level. Of course, she noted wryly, he also didn't have someone constantly trying to take him down; thus, not as much of a pressing need to upgrade his skills. Still, he was holding his own, and she returned her focus to the other gators.

Heat at her back made her flinch to the side; the disruption in her usual routine threw the gator she faced off, and once Kim regained her balance—a split second before the alligator could strike again—she dove in for a strike under its front leg that temporarily stunned it. She risked a look behind again, and noted the fire was still growing.

"Uh, guys?" she panted in between salvos of punches, kicks, and dodges, "now's about the time we get out of here before it comes down on our heads…"

Nobody responded right away. The heat continued to increase. Sweat poured down Kim's forehead as she continued to exert herself mightily in the rising temperatures. A louder, duller boom than before, as well as a sudden lack of background noise, heralded the demise of whatever system kept the air temperature regulated. The temperature continued to climb.

Things were getting very uncomfortable for three of the four heroes—Shego could feel the air getting warmer, but it was still a far cry from her own internal inferno—and the oppressive temperatures made it difficult to keep moving at speed; Kim could feel herself slowing down with every punch she threw.

Ron felt his Monkey Mojo beginning to wane; on his own he was skilled enough to not worry too badly. The heat was penetrating his aura of Ron-awesomeness.

Yori's fan blades were beginning to feel very heavy. She swept them closed and settled for normal hand-to-hand strikes, aiming for what looked like they could be pressure points. The scaled hide of the gators made judging the hits hard to tell, though.

Shego was conserving her plasma; there were so many targets that she would easily knock herself out. Just like the one day with the rats…and there's too many to risk having Kimmie carry me out of here. Her normal attacks were satisfyingly powerful, though; every third punch or kick put an enemy down.

As one, the four ex-prisoners turned at some unheard signal; a fire roared dangerously close behind them. Kim wasn't sure what was sustaining it, as there wasn't a lot on the ground to act as fuel, but that wasn't as important as the fact that it was, in fact, still burning…and very close.

Suddenly the gators began to drop…just like when Shego shot one with her plasma earlier. They fell, in singles and pairs, to all fours, crawling into the sewer water with nary a sound.

Shego looked over at the other three. "Time to blow this popsicle stand!" she yelled over the roaring flames. Suiting action to words she began to run and jump across and over anything between her and the dark, inviting opening of one of the myriad of sewer tunnels.

Yori followed. So did Ron. Kim spent a precious extra second seeking the scaly form of their captor, but the Interro-gator had already apparently fled the scene, so she took off after the other three.

The fire continued to grow, and more and more of the intelligent alligators reverted to their animalistic states and fled into the water. Soon enough all the equipment in the lair was enveloped in the flames…but with the water blocking its available exits, and no more extra fuel, it did not advance any further.

--

A few hundred yards down the tunnel, the quartet of heroes paused to catch their breaths.

"That…was too…close," Ron panted as he fairly well crumpled to the ground, his legs stretched out in front of him, leaning back on his arms.

"You and your American-style understatement," Yori chided him with a smile. She had her fans tucked into her belt, so she couldn't join him on the floor, but she did stand next to him and put a hand on his head; Ron responded to the gesture by looking up at her and grinning.

Kim shook her head; she was bent over, one hand against the wall. "I don't know how you do it, Yori," she complained; her voice was breathy, but not broken like Ron's was. "You look like you could run another ten miles!"

The ninja simply returned her look innocently.

Shego snorted from her place at the front of the group. "Stop whining, Princess," she put in. "You know you could, too. Hell, so could Stoppable there."

"Oh, sure," Ron said, rolling his eyes at his best friend's girlfriend. "Take all the fun out of my little act."

"Gladly," Shego said smugly, to which Ron merely stuck his tongue out. Yori watched the exchange, amused but not a little wind-blown. Ron had explained the situation with Shego as best he could, but she still found it a bit odd that the enemy of her friend had so thoroughly transformed into more than an ally. Then again, she understood such things could happen from time to time…and given what just happened, she was more than glad for the assistance.

Kim righted herself just in time to swat Shego's arm lightly. "Leave him be," she protested. After another second of quiet, she asked, "So. Anyone have guesses on what just happened?"

"Ooh, I know!" Shego raised a hand. "You blew up another lair," she added flatly.

"Very good, Miss Go," Kim said dryly. "I meant, why'd the alligators just give up?"

Shego shrugged. "I try not to question our good fortune."

"Perhaps it was the heat," Yori suggested. "They are reptiles. As such, they are cold-blooded. The heat undoubtedly was beyond their safe living range, so they fled."

"It was outside our safe living range," Kim reminded her, just as dryly as her last reply to Shego.

"I know," Yori said. To her credit, she didn't even sound like her patience was strained. "Perhaps it did something to whatever made them more than their usual animal selves."

Kim almost protested again…then she remembered the events of only a few days ago. Yori had a point.

"Can we save the guessing games for when we get out of the stink?" Shego complained.

Everyone else agreed, so they set off to find the nearest way out of the underground maze that was Go City's sewage system.

--

Nick Danger, Third Eye, was leaning against his car, nodding as he spoke to Victoria over his cell phone. It was the most boring day of stakeouts he'd ever been on; who would enjoy staring at manhole covers for hours on end, after all? Victoria was talking to him about something, but he wasn't really paying much attention; his thoughts were on the prospect of dinner.

He was about to say something, but then the manhole cover five feet in front of him bumped and clanged; he blinked, told Victoria he'd call her back, and pulled his gun out as he took a position partially covered by the rear end of his car.

The cover bumped again and rose a few inches before sliding off to the side. Nick caught a flash of black-clad arms retreating down the hole before a head that was obviously not reptilian popped out. It was covered in shiny black hair, and Nick frowned to himself as he watched the body attached to it exit the sewer. Can't be… he thought, but the flashes of green he caught on arms and legs told him it very well could be.

The figure crouched next to the sewer when she exited—oh yes, it was very definitely female, he noted, as he could see it in profile—and extended a hand back down; seconds later she pulled the arm back out, and clinging to it was the arm of another person, this one sporting a mane of bright orange-red hair.

Nick watched in puzzlement as a total of four people exited; the other two were a blond male and an Asian female. By this time the first two were on their feet and staring at the open sky. Nick put his gun away and stepped out from behind his car. "Shego? Is that you?"

The black-haired figure turned around. "Nick?" she asked, almost disbelieving. "Oh my God, it is you!"

The detective shook his head. "What the hell were you doing now?"

Shego flashed him a bit of a grin, even as her companions looked confused. "Getting into—and out of—trouble. As usual."

"As usual," Nick repeated, shaking his head. "Talk about the things you least expect to see."

The redhead tugged on Shego's sleeve. "You two know each other?"

Shego turned back to her. "Oh, right. Kimmie, this is Nick Danger. Nick, this is Kim Possible. And friends." She gestured to the other two. "Nick and I go way back."

Nick was a tad confused still. "Kim Possible? The Kim Possible?"

Kim blushed. "Yeah, that's me."

"The world is a strange and wonderful place," Nick mused. "Alright. Get outta here, you all. I'm not even gonna ask why you were down there, but I got a watch to keep."

They did as told, but Shego turned. "You wouldn't happen to be watching for some gators, would you?"

"How did—Never mind," Nick decided. "Not even gonna ask."

"Don't worry 'bout 'em," Shego said easily. "We blew up their base."

"They had a base."

Shego nodded, grinning.

"In the sewers."

Another nod.

"And you blew it up?"

This time Kim nodded, somewhat sheepishly. "We barely got out, the fire was so big."

"Fire?" Nick echoed weakly. "That's it, I'm goin' home."

"Good plan," Shego approved. "And look, if you want the real deal, call your plant in GJ. Have 'em transfer you to the director, and make sure to drop my name or Kimmie's. She'll tell you all about it."

"Right," Nick said, climbing into his car. "Bye, Shego."

"Bye. And say hi to Nancy for me, would you? It's been a while since I've seen her."

Nick shook his head. "She doesn't like that name anymore, but I'll pass the word."

"She doesn't? Why not?"

"Got too annoyed with everyone calling her that." Nick shrugged, starting his car and driving away.

Shego waved him away until Kim pulled on her arm again. "What was that all about?" the ex-cheerleader asked.

"Nick and I go way back," Shego explained. "He was on the force when I still was with Hego and all that bullshit." She shrugged. "He seemed to be the only one who wasn't enamored with Hego's self-righteous talk, which meant he was the only one I could tolerate. We were kinda friendly, in terms of the workplace definition of friends."

"Oh. Okay." Kim shrugged. "Mind if we go home? I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I've got homework…"

"Your wish is my command, Princess." Shego sketched out a theatrically-overdone bow.

Kim giggled while Ron and Yori watched, still amused. "Fine. Bye, you two. See you around." She waved to her friends while following Shego through the streets of Go City, looking for where they had stashed the ex-thief's bike.

Ron shook his head as they left. "An unexpected match," he said, sounding uncharacteristically wise and serious, "but it works. Boy, does it work."

Yori nodded. "You are correct, Ron-chan. I am glad that they are no longer at odds."

"You an' me both, ninja babe," the bond concurred, sounding more like his normal self. "You an' me both."

--

A/N: Yeah, I try not to let characters die—good or evil—so the Interro-gator here will make a return.

Kudos to fuzzibare for making the Nick Danger connection.

And I will admit to some influence for character design coming from Spider-Man, but (at the risk of giving away a secret) the villain's name and mannerisms came first, before his looks. Me and my penchant for bad puns are to blame for coming up with the Interro-gator as a guy who can only speak in questions.

Some things will be explained next chapter, such as how he dunnit with his gator mini-onions.

Otherwise I hope now to be back on my usual 2-week track. See you sooner rather than later!