Disclaimer: All Kim Possible characters belong to Disney and their creators. Original characters belong to me; if for some reason you'd like to use them please ask and let me know.
Kim Possible: Freaked Out
Chapter Three
By Deaku
Kim quickly made her way down the street, the sun warming her and chasing away the early morning chill; she hadn't called Ron this time because she wanted to get to where she had been called to as quickly as possible and wasn't sure if her friend would even be up yet. Kim was heading for a local grocery store that she had received a call from, the owner reporting that weird creatures were in his store and eating his produce. It was the third such incident that Kim knew of since she first saw the creatures just over a week before. This time Kim was determined to put a stop it; the second time Kim had gone after the snaky things, as Ron and Rufus referred to them, she thought she had caught hold of one, but its body suddenly became extremely soft and it just slipped out of her grasp. Kim had a different plan on how to handle things this time.
Kim finally made it to the store and saw a nervous looking man standing out front as she approached; he was pacing back and forth and wringing his hands.
"Mr. Albert?" Kim spoke to get the man's attention since it seemed he hadn't even noticed her yet.
"Ah!" Mr. Albert jumped in surprise, then smiled when he saw who it was that had spoke. "Miss Possible! I'm so glad you're here!" Then his expression changed to where it looked as though he was about to cry. "It's terrible! There are things in my store eating up all the food and they already scared away my employees. They're still in there eating everything; you can see them." Mr. Albert pointed towards a window.
Kim peeked through the window and saw the sight she was expecting to see, the snaky things eating all the food in sight. Kim then turned back towards Mr. Albert. "Don't worry, I'll put a stop to this."
"You'll really get rid of those horrible things? Thank you!" Mr. Albert breathed a sigh of relief.
"Actually I don't think that they're actually separate creatures," Kim explained as she walked over to a manhole cover and moved it aside. "They're actually extensions of a single being which uses them to feed."
"Extensions of a single being...?" Mr. Albert visibly shuddered.
"Don't worry Mr. Albert." Kim reassured him. "They'll be out of your store in just a moment, so please wait out here until I tell you it's all clear." Kim then jumped down into the sewer.
After she had dropped down Kim let her eyes adjust to the darkness then began to scan the area around her, looking for any sort of movement or just anything strange. Out of the corner of her eye Kim thought she saw something move; quickly whipping out her flashlight Kim flashed it in the direction of the movement just in time to see the head of one of the snaky things pull back around a corner, she quickly rushed after it.
Kim was running as fast as she could as she rounded the corner, determined not to let her quarry escape. While there was no sign of the snaky things Kim could see movement ahead of her; she couldn't quite make it out because it was outside the range of her flashlight but she knew it was ahead of her, trying to escape her in the darkness. It was fast but Kim wouldn't let that deter her, she had to catch whatever, or whoever, it was.
The movement shifted to one side of the tunnel and seemed to vanish, as she closed in Kim saw that it had gone around another corner. Kim bolted around the corner and could just make out a humanoid shape ahead of her, its arms were extended out and touching walls of the tunnel. Before Kim could get any closer and use the light from her flashlight to make out anymore details the thing in front of her suddenly moved, yanking its arms back away from the walls. There was a crash as the walls collapsed inward, filling the tunnel with debris. Seeing an opening near the top of the rubble Kim quickly climbed up intending to continue her pursuit; however the opening proved to be too small for her, Kim could look and get an arm through but that was it. What she was chasing was already moving down the tunnel again, Kim growled as she tried to force her way through the opening but the rubble wouldn't budge.
"Freak-Out!" Kim called out, attempting to at least confirm her suspicions.
Though Kim could barely make it out in the darkness she could see that it had stopped and looked back, Kim saw a brief flash of golden glowing eyes before it began moving again and vanished completely into the darkness.
Since she couldn't continue the chase Kim went back the way she had come and told Mr. Albert that his store was clear and that he wouldn't have to worry since the what had intruded into his store was long gone now; Mr. Albert thanked Kim and quickly went inside to call up his employees to tell them to get back to work. As she began walking back home Kim made a call of her own, Wade's smiling face appeared on the Kimmunicator and Kim managed to return to smile despite not completely succeeding in her mission.
"So how'd things go Kim?" Wade asked. "Did you manage to catch one of those snaky things?"
"Not even close this time." Kim sighed. "But I'm sure it is Freak-Out now; I was chasing someone down in the sewer before they blocked it off, but there was definitely a reaction when I called out 'Freak-Out'. Speaking of which, did you manage to find out more about him yet?"
"Nothing new.' Wade shook his head as he tapped a few keys on his keyboard. "Just the same old news articles reporting about various incidents where Freak-Out appeared then was eventually stopped by Team Go, along with a few blurry photos." A few articles and the photos briefly flashed across the screen. "If there was ever anything else the data's been wiped out completely, I can't find a trace of anything else relating to Freak-Out."
"And that leaves us pretty much the in same place we started info-wise." Kim frowned. "I wish Shego would have been a bit more open with what we were doing over in Go City, we might've been able to figure out what's really going on by now."
"Speaking of Shego," Wade piped in. "She called a while ago when you were running around down in the sewers."
"I was actually wondering if she'd call." Kim raised an eyebrow. "So what'd she want?"
"Well she asked for pretty much the same thing you did when you got back from Go City; any weird food robberies happening from a little over a month back till now starting in Go City and moving out into any surrounding cities from there." Wade explained. "She actually already knew about a few incidents and figured out the general direction they were going. Though Shego wouldn't actually say the reason I'm guessing she called me up because she figured I could collect the data faster than whatever method she was using. She didn't seemed too surprised when I pulled up the incident list almost immediately."
"She must have figured I'd already had you check things out and had a list ready." Kim smirked. "So she say anything about it when you gave it to her?"
"Nah, she half-mumbled half-growled a bit though; I couldn't completely make it out but there was something about 'Kimmie' and 'knew she wouldn't mind her own business' in there." Wade laughed a little. "She said she'd call again if there was anything else she wanted; she actually said thanks before she hung up, though she also called me a nerdlinger while she was at it."
"Well that's Shego for you." Kim shook her head, then smiled. "Well if there's nothing else going on I have some plans for today."
"Things are all clear here Kim." Wade grinned. "You have fun."
"You know Wade, you could actually come along if you wanted to. C'mon it'll be fun to get out of your room and hang out for the day." Kim put a lot of enthusiasm into her voice, hoping it would convince Wade to come along.
"That's okay Kim, I'll be just fine here in my room." Wade leaned back in his chair, then smirked a little. "Besides the further away from the human disaster-area I am the safer I'll be."
"Oh Jet's not that bad," Kim retorted, but she had a smirk on her face as well. "Calling him a human disaster-area is a bit much."
"Not from the way Ron was going on about the 'cafeteria incident' yesterday." Wade laughed. "But seriously, you guys have fun."
"Thanks Wade." Kim said as she was laughing too. "Be sure to give me a call if anything comes up."
Wade nodded and cut the connection as Kim slid the Kimmunicator into her pocket and continued walking towards home to prepare for the rest of her day.
xxxxxxx
Kim walked into the park and looked around at all the people; there were people playing sports and walking pets, kids on the playground, there were quite a few groups having picnics as well. Walking further into the park Kim found what she had been looking for; Monique, Ron, Rufus and Jet were around the fountain in the center of the park. Jet was doing his best to keep his balance on a pair of rollerblades as he skated around the fountain, while Ron and Rufus were cheering him on Monique was just laughing at the sight. Suddenly Jet seemed to lose control and began rolling down the path in Kim's direction, yelling and flailing his arms as he tried to regain control or stop.
"Your turn to catch him Kim!" Monique called out and grinned. "I caught him the last three times!"
Kim braced herself as Jet approached then quickly sidestepped before he hit her and grabbed him under the arms as he passed by, swinging him around and taking away his momentum. Kim looked down at Jet and smiled. "You okay?"
"Yeah… Thanks Kim." Jet breathed a sigh of relief and tried to blow his hair out of his face. "I don't think I'll ever get the hang of these things."
"Just keep practicing Jet, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it." Kim told him as she pulled him up into a standing position, then pushed him back over to the fountain.
"Hard to believe the boy's never skated before isn't it?" Monique joked as Kim gave Jet one last push and he resumed circling the fountain.
"Well it just never seemed like a good idea to attach little wheels to the bottom of my feet." Jet said in his own defense as he concentrated on keeping his balance and not lose control again.
Kim laughed "So you three work out any details for the rest of today yet?"
"Nope, still on the basics; lunch, mall, movie." Ron answered. "We decided to wait for you before working out the little details."
"Well we could work on those little details now so we won't have to worry about it later." Kim smiled. "So what kind of movie should we watch?"
"Action!" Ron and Rufus jumped up and took a heroic action pose.
"Comedy… whoa!" Jet said as he began to lose his balance.
"I'm in the mood for a mystery myself." Monique answered as she held out a hand and pushed Jet back upright before he fell on his face.
"Or we could start enjoying ourselves now and just wing it when the time comes." Kim suggested; thinking she'd wait to see what was actually playing at the theater before deciding something, also figuring that the others would be quicker to agree on something as well once they were at the theater. "So how about we…" Kim was cut off when the Kimmunicator began beeping. "What's the sitch Wade?"
"Just got a message from Mego and the Wegos." Wade replied. "Said that Shego was getting ready to come over here to Middleton."
"Took a bit longer than I thought it would." Kim thought aloud. "I thought she would've left as soon as she saw where the most recent incidents happened."
"Well apparently she did try to leave just after I sent her the list, but Hego wouldn't let her leave without the rest of Team Go." Wade just smiled and shook his head. "Message said they spent a good part of the morning arguing about it, but Shego finally stopped it and is letting them come along because she didn't want to waste anymore time. Should I keep an eye on them just in case?"
"That's okay, I think I'll just keep an eye out for them myself. They're not that hard to spot and I'll probably run into them sooner or later. So just let me know if anything serious happens." Kim then heard a yell and looked up just in time to see a sight that made her wince. "Oh that had to hurt…. I better hang up now Wade, need to see if he's okay."
"Jet?" Wade inquired.
"Yeah… he just lived up to his namesake and took flight, then crashed into a bush." Kim answered. "Talk to you later Wade."
Wade nodded as Kim shoved the Kimmunicator back in her pocket and ran over to where Monique and Ron were pulling Jet out of the bush. Jet, while dazed, didn't seem any worse for wear than usual.
"Are you okay?" Monique asked as Jet was shaking off his daze.
"Yup," Jet actually laughed. "Just didn't expect I'd be flying today."
"Never seen anyone get that much air just from tripping." Ron grinned and laughed as he helped Jet up.
"Since everyone's okay how about we all get to bladin'?" Kim said as she pressed buttons on the backs of her shoes, which changed them to rollerblades and began slipping on the rest of her safety gear. "That's why we're here right?"
Monique and Ron quickly put on their rollerblades and other gear and soon the group was off down the paths of the park laughing and having a good time. Jet didn't have anymore mishaps and managed to keep up with the others, though he did seem as if he could crash at any moment.
After a while the group stopped by a food stand that had been set up on one side of the park to get something for lunch then they picked out a spot under the shade of a tree to enjoy their meal. They were talking and laughing about whatever crossed their minds.
"I can't believe your dad actually let you borrow his car just to go to the mall." Ron said as he began to take another bite of his sandwich. "He hardly ever lets you drive it."
"Well he was in a really good mood this morning so I thought I'd try my luck." Kim grinned. "I didn't even have to use the Puppy Dog Pout."
"What's a Puppy Dog Pout?" Jet asked.
"Go on, show him Kim. I want to see his reaction to the PDP." Monique said with giggle as Jet raised an eyebrow.
"Oh alright, if you insist." Kim laughed.
Kim leaned her head slightly to one side as she stared at Jet with her green eyes and a quivering lower lip. Jet was looking at her strangely while Monique had a smirk on her face and seemed to be waiting for something, Ron and Rufus were doing their best not to laugh at Jet.
"Gah! Stop!" Jet finally broke, turning his head away and waved his hands between Kim and himself as if he was trying to ward off Kim's stare. "Stop, stop, just stop looking at me like that."
"Got ya." Kim grinned.
"Looks like someone's really weak against the PDP." Monique laughed.
"What the heck is that?" Ron suddenly pointed towards the edge of the park.
A large white truck pulling a trailer had pulled up to the edge of the park, though there was no identifying markings the trailer had quite a bit of communications gear and other high-tech equipment sticking out of it. The door of the trailer suddenly opened and several people wearing hazmat suits leapt out, they were carrying strange equipment that looked like some sort of weapons. Kim was about to leap into action when she saw a symbol on the suits that she recognized, the symbol of Global Justice. Kim went from being ready for a fight to rather confused about what was going on. The Kimmunicator went off and Kim quickly answered hoping Wade would have some answers about what was going on.
"Kim!" There was urgency in Wade's voice. "There's GJ agents popping up all over Middleton."
"I know." Kim replied while she was watching the agents move into the park.
"You heard already?" Wade questioned in a surprised tone.
"I see." Kim flipped the Kimmunicator around where Wade could see the agents as they began to approach people, some visibly frightened, and pointed their equipment at them. "Any idea what they're doing Wade?"
"They appear to be scanning people for something." Wade guessed as he watched the scene. "Though I couldn't tell you what it is they're looking for."
A pair of agents began moving towards the group and raised their equipment toward them; while Kim didn't think they meant any harm the agents did look quite threatening. Kim stepped forward and placed herself between the agents and her friends.
"You can just stop right there." Kim warned as she crossed her arms. "You're not going any further until I know what's going on."
The two agents paused and looked at each other, but a before either could speak a voice responded to Kim. "I apologize for the intrusion Kim Possible but we are here on an important mission." Kim looked towards the source of the voice and saw Dr. Director walking in their direction, followed by agent Will Du.
"Dr. Director, it's nice to see you again." Kim greeted, though she was a bit wary. "But what's going on here?"
"We are searching for something that escaped a special holding facility near Go City a bit over a month ago." Director answered. "A bio-morphic entity that we've been attempting to track since its escape, its trail led us to Middleton's general area where it seems to have decided to stay."
"What's bio-morphic?" Ron asked in a rather confused tone.
"Shape-shifter, I think…." Jet answered as he stared warily at the agents and their equipment.
"Oh! Hey Kim!" Ron suddenly blurted out as he remembered something. "Isn't that what that Freak-Out is supposed to be?"
"We've gotten reports that you had gone after the creature." Director spoke as she looked from Ron to Kim. "Though we weren't aware you knew exactly what you had been going up against."
"Well I had Wade do a little digging." Kim explained, though she felt it best not go into the full story of how she got involved. "Though I don't know much more than he's a shape-shifter named Freak-Out. Maybe you can enlighten me about the rest."
"I'd like to be able to tell you Kim, unfortunately I don't know much more than you do this time." Director sighed. "Regulations have placed top authority for this mission with someone else, a Commander Jackson…"
"An impossible man." Will growled. "He's just such a…" Will was silenced by a look from Director before he could continue.
"Commander Jackson was in charge of the holding facility Freak-Out escaped from; special regulations have placed him in charge of this operation, I'm just here to assist and supervise the agents in the field." Director explained. "The man is notoriously tightlipped and won't let out any decent information. All we know is that the creature is called Freak-Out and that it is an extremely dangerous bio-morphic entity, and that these special scanners should allow us to find it no matter what form it takes"
"Actually Freak-Out hasn't really seemed all that dangerous so far when I've ran into him," Kim told Director. "Just seemed focused more on eating than anything else."
"Dangerous or not it is still our top priority to find this Freak-Out." Director stated simply. "So now that you know the reason we're here would you object to us performing a quick scan on you and your friends just to be on the safe side?"
"Sure, I don't have a problem with it." Kim replied. "Scan away."
The agents pointed their scanners at Kim and after the scanners hummed for a few seconds a green light lit up on the scanners with a short ringing noise.
"She's clear." One of the agents announced.
The agents moved on to Ron, who looked unsure about the situation, and scanned him. Rufus was growling the whole time but both of them were cleared. The agents moved on to Monique.
"You better watch where you're sticking those." Monique warned when the agents had the scanners closer to her than she would have liked.
After Monique cleared the scan the Agents moved to Jet, who seemed nervouse and began to back away from them.
"Something to hide?" One of the agents asked as he put the scanner up to Jet's face.
"N-no… of course not.' Jet answered nervously as he stared at the scanner in front of his face. "I just get a bit nervous when things that look like high-tech guns are pointed in my face."
"He's clear." The other agent announced after finishing his scan of Jet.
"Thank you Kim." Director told her as the scanning agents moved away to scan other people. "We will continue our search; but we'll keep in touch so let us know if you have another run in with Freak-Out."
"Sure." Kim nodded. "But going by my previous encounters with him I don't think I'll get another chance at Freak-Out for a couple days at least. Still I'll let you guys know whenever I get a call that might involve him."
Dr. Director just smiled and walked away and the group watched for a while as the agents continued to scan more people. Things were proceeding much calmer than they had when it first started now that Dr. Director was there to calm the people down and give them some explanation of what was going on.
"Well shall we get to the mall now?" Kim asked after she was sure everything was all right with what was happening in the park.
"Oh yeah." Ron said excitedly.
"Yeah, I can do without the weird guys pointing stuff at me." Monique sighed as she watched the agents.
"Definitely time for the mall." Jet agreed.
xxxxxxx
Kim was driving down the streets of Middleton enjoying the late afternoon air, while Ron was in the passenger side seat talking excitedly with Rufus. They had already dropped Monique and Jet off and were on their way home after enjoying the movie.
"I knew that was going to be a great movie!" Ron grinned as Rufus nodded. "The Ron-Man doesn't disappoint when it comes to movie choices."
"I was actually surprised." Kim admitted. "The Remarkables was a lot better than I thought it'd be."
"It was remarkably good." Ron laughed at his own joke.
Kim just rolled her eyes at Ron's joke, but as she did so she saw a colorful shape in an empty lot behind a building they had just passed. She quickly pulled over and parked the car then leapt out, heading towards what she saw.
"Hey wait up Kim!" Ron quickly jumped out of the car and took off after Kim.
As they walked around the back of the building they found the Go Jet resting in an empty lot. "Thought so." Kim said as she looked at the jet. "Now the next question is, where is Shego and Team Go?"
"Right here." Came an annoyed voice from other side of the lot; Kim didn't have to look to know it was Shego.
Kim and Ron watched as Shego and Team Go came around the corner of the building opposite from where they had come. The group stopped by the jet; the Wegos sat down to rest and Mego just leaned against one of the wheels, Hego stood nearby while Shego walked over to Kim.
"Shego I'm hurt, you were in town and you didn't even bother to call me." Kim smirked.
"Oh don't even start with that." Shego warned. "No doubt Nerdlinger already told you about what I asked earlier and that I was coming. So why don't you just tell me what you know and what you've seen during the recent incidents around here?"
"I'll tell you if you answer a few questions of mine first." Kim bargained, still with a slight smirk on her face.
"Yeah right." Shego frowned. "You already know all I'm willing to tell you."
"Then maybe I can fill in the blanks for Kim." A voice interrupted the pair before they could continue.
Kim looked over to see Dr. Director walking towards them, followed by Will Du and some large man in a GJ uniform she had never seen before. Kim suddenly heard Shego snarl and saw her fists ignite; Shego crouched down and was just about to leap into an attack when Hego shot forward, faster than Kim thought he could move, and grabbed Shego before she could attack.
"Let go of me Hego!" Shego growled and struggled against Hego's hold. "Let go of me or I will burn you right along with him."
"No Shego, you need to calm down." Hego said firmly as he held on. "What good will it do now anyway?"
"I'll be a whole lot happier afterwards for one." Shego answered with slightly less growl in her voice. "And two, I think Jackson really deserves it for what he pulled."
"While Shego wanting to burn someone doesn't seem all that weird, she seems really intense about this one." Ron commented quietly as he leaned close to Kim; but Shego heard him and glared while Kim nodded in agreement.
"So what's this all about?" Kim questioned. "I know why Shego and Team Go are here, and I know why Dr. Director and Agent Du are here. But who is this guy?" Kim motioned towards the large man standing by Dr. Director. "And why is Shego so mad at him?"
"This is Commander Jackson, overseer of the facility from where Freak-Out escaped." Director introduced and Jackson nodded to Kim. "And the short story is that they have past dealings involving Freak-Out."
"I'm gonna take a guess and say the reason you're here chatting with us right now has something to do with the search for Freak-Out" Kim said as she looked towards Shego, who had stopped struggling against Hego's grip but was still glaring at Jackson with her eyes full of rage.
"Correct Kim," Director confirmed. "I've been looking for you for the past hour; I finally convinced Commander Jackson to give me more of the information related to this case and after I went over it I felt that you should have a look at it." Director handed Kim a folder. "But prepare yourself, you might be in for a shock."
As Kim took the folder and opened it, with Ron looking over her shoulder, Shego kicked back and struck Hego, causing him to drop her. While she glared at Jackson again Shego didn't attack, instead she looked into the folder as well. The first page in the folder seemed full of information; names, dates and other data.
"Biological Threat; Bio-Morphic Entity, Codename Freak-Out." Kim began to read. "AKA, Justin Case."
Kim continued to read, going over various incidents that involved Freak-Out. While the incident reports seemed quite detailed there was very little information specifically about Freak-Out; only some comments on shape-shifting ability and that Freak-Out was supposed to be near-mindless. After the reports were photos of different grotesque creatures, with titles matching them to the various incidents. It seemed Freak-Out never had the same form twice and often shifted forms during incidents.
"Hold on Kim." Director stopped Kim from turning the page to the last photo. "Now's when you need to prepare yourself for a shock."
"Why?" Ron wondered. "Is this one going to be the worst of them all? So gross that no one can look at it?"
"It's a photo of a human form the creature takes." Commander Jackson stated.
"Creature?! Human Form?!" Shego yelled at Jackson. "It's who he really is you…"
"I'll just look at the photo alright?!" Kim cut Shego off and flipped the page, and froze as she saw the picture.
"KP…" Ron began but couldn't find the words.
The smiling young man in the photo had red hair that hung down over part of his face and covered one eye with the uncovered eye being a light blue. Kim had seen that smiling face many times and couldn't mistake it for anyone else; the person in the photo was the young man she knew as Jet U. Cassin.
"You know him." Shego said as she saw Kim's reaction, not as a question but just stating what was obvious. "Can you tell me where he is?" Shego asked in a quiet voice; but when Kim didn't respond Shego grabbed her by the shoulders. "Now's not the time to go mute on me Kim! I need you to tell me where he is!"
Kim heard Shego yelling, but what surprised Kim was that she thought she saw a brief look of pleading in Shego's eyes.
"Disregard her Miss Possible." Commander Jackson spoke. "Freak-Out poses a danger to everyone in the area, we must find it and contain it before the worst occurs. Will you help us to locate the creature?"
"Just so you can lock him up again?! I don't think so Jackson!" The glow around Shego's fists ignited once again and began to flare in intensity. "I'm not going to let you lay a hand on him, not this time!"
"Shego please calm down." Kim gently put a hand on Shego's shoulder; a look of surprise came over Shego's face before it became angry again, but she let her powers fade. Kim turned to Jackson before speaking again. "I'm not going to be telling you anything unless you can guarantee that no harm will come to him."
"Kim, believe me when I say that I want to end this as peaceably as possible. The less violence and less injuries we have the better." Director assured her. "Now will you help us find Justin Case?"
"Well, we know him as Jet U. Cassin, and he's been going to school with us actually." Kim told them and had to hold back a bit of a smile as she noticed how shocked most everyone was; though she noticed Shego just smiled slightly and shook her head, like the answer didn't surprise her. "But we don't know exactly where he is right now," Kim continued. "Last we seen him was when we dropped him off after we saw a movie earlier."
"Dropped him off with our friend Monique, said he could walk home from there." Ron added, but a strange expression came over his face as he realized something. "Actually we don't even know where he lives exactly."
"So you don't know where he is now." Jackson assumed. "So that puts us back to our search."
"Well, I do know his cell-phone number." Kim said a bit reluctantly, still not sure if she wanted to help Commander Jackson. "I could call him and have him meet with Ron and me somewhere."
xxxxxxx
Kim sat with Ron and Shego at a booth at Bueno Nacho; Kim and Ron were within view of the door while Shego was across the table sitting low so she couldn't be seen by anyone coming through the door. Team Go were in the back room while Dr. Director, Will Du and Commander Jackson were behind the counter crouching down out of sight; Kim knew that Jackson had ordered several agents to hide up on the roof as well.
Kim had called the young man she knew as Jet to ask him to meet with Ron and herself; she hated lying about the reason to meet and nearly blew it when she almost slipped up and called him Justin, but Ron grabbed the phone and made a quick recovery and asked Jet to meet them at Bueno Nacho for some snackage. Now they were all waiting for him to get there; Kim could see that Shego was caught up in her own thoughts and Ron seemed to be thinking about something he couldn't figure out, Kim had called Wade to check something out for her and was just waiting for him to finish.
"On the surface everything looks perfectly normal and he could probably get by most things with it." Wade explained. "But when you actually start doing some serious checking you'll find that the identity of Jet U. Cassin didn't exist before a couple weeks ago."
"But how did he do it?" Kim asked. "How could've he created a whole new identity like that, records and all?"
"Justin was always good with computers, strange as that may seem considering how he is usually." Shego answered before Wade could voice any theories. "It wouldn't have been too hard for him to whip up a new identity for himself by messing with records; wouldn't be the first time he pulled something like that." Shego laughed a little. "Like the time he got into the school records and made up a foreign exchange student; then came to school in a costume and fooled nearly everyone until one of our teachers saw through it and busted him. Or that other time he really messed with this one snob's class schedule because she pranked me and thought she got away with it."
"I think I'd like to meet this guy now, maybe we could compare hacking notes." Wade grinned, but then Kim gave him a stern look. "But maybe some other time." Wade said quickly with a nervous laugh and the Kimmunicator's screen went blank.
Ron hadn't been paying attention to the conversation and was instead thinking aloud. "Okay, I get why he would want to change his name to help him hide…. But where'd he come up with Jet U. Cassin?"
"It's an anagram of his real name." Shego answered, sounding a bit exasperated.
"Anagram… Isn't that a school word of some kind?" Ron questioned as he tried to remember if he had heard that term before or not.
"It's the letters of his name rearranged." Shego sighed and rolled her eyes.
"It is?" Ron thought a moment as he rearranged letters in his mind. "Hey it is!"
"There he is!" Kim pointed as she spotted the person they were waiting for coming across the street.
As Kim watched Justin jog across the street Shego slid down a little lower in the seat, looking somewhat anxious, while Ron checked on Rufus as he napped in his pocket. Justin came through the door and waved to Kim as Ron as soon as he spotted them.
"Thanks for inviting me guys." Justin smiled.
Shego stood up and walked towards Justin before he could say anything else; the fierce expression Kim knew so well was gone, instead she was smiling warmly. "Hey Justin, it's been a long time."
Justin took a step back, then froze with a shocked and somewhat confused look on his face. "Tasha… I…"
Justin's gaze shifted from Shego to behind her as Commander Jackson stood up from behind the counter and took aim with his weapon. Shego realized something was wrong but only had enough time to look back before Jackson fired. The bolt of energy flashed across the restaurant; Justin tried to dodge but the bolt tore across the side of his face and he went to the ground on his knees clutching the wound.
"What do you think you're doing Jackson?!" Director demanded as she grabbed the gun away. "I wanted this resolved with the least amount of violence possible!"
"And subduing the target with a single shot is the least amount of violence in my view." Jackson responded in a cool tone.
"Justin! Are you okay?" Shego was knelt down near him; She reached out a hand but then stopped herself, almost as though she was afraid to touch him. However she held out her other hand to keep Kim and Ron back after they had jumped up and ran over.
Without answering Justin stood up and took a couple steps away from everyone; dropping his hand away from his face as he did so and revealing the wound, it was a deep gash across the side of his face but there was no blood. The flesh on the wounded side of Justin's face became a dark gray and his eye became gold, there was a slight hissing sound as the gash closed and then Justin's flesh returned to its usual color leaving no trace of the wound. Justin glared at Commander Jackson before he spun around and ran out the door.
"Justin wait!" Shego called out as she made a grab for Justin's arm before he could get out the door, but missed.
Commander Jackson went for his secondary sidearm, but Will Du managed to grab it before he could, so Jackson settled for pressing a button on his belt. At Jackson's signal the agents that he had stationed on the roof went into action and began to fire at the fleeing Justin.
Justin was struck in the back by several energy bolts, he stumbled a bit from the blows but managed to stay on his feet and keep running. Justin stopped as he came to the street and looked around; suddenly Justin jumped, leaping up higher than should have been possible, and landed on top of a large delivery truck that was driving by, he looked back with and expression that seemed to be a mix of relief and sadness as the truck drove away.
"We're going after him." Shego told Kim as she grabbed her by the arm and ran towards the car Kim and Ron had drove over in, quickly followed by Ron.
As Shego nearly threw Kim into the drivers seat and shoved Ron into the back before getting into the car herself Team Go and the GJ agents were attempting to get to their vehicles, but the number of them trying to get out the doors at the same time was causing a jam and slowing them down considerably. Kim just shook her head as she started her father's car and took off down the road in the direction the truck Justin was on went.
"Ya know, after seeing how he bladed in the park earlier I wouldn't think he'd be capable of surfing on top of a truck like that." Ron commented. "Of course I didn't think he could jump twenty feet into the air either."
"So I guess the whole goofy accident-prone thing he's been doing was all an act?" Kim asked as she glanced towards Shego.
"No he really is like that, a walking disaster-area and a bit of a goof most of the time." Shego replied. "But if Justin has something he really needs to focus on he can sometimes become strangely competent; like in this case, running away."
"So just what is he anyway?" Kim continued her questioning as she kept an eye out for Justin.
"What do you mean 'what is he'? He's Justin." Shego said it as if it explained everything. "And he was… is my friend, my best friend."
"So how do you two know each other anyway?" Ron asked as he learned forward to try and get a better view. "Even after everything we've heard he really doesn't seem like the villainous type."
"As unbelievable as you still seem to find it I wasn't always a villain." Shego narrowed her eyes at Ron. "There was even a time I was a normal person without powers."
"So how did you two meet?" Kim inquired; mostly it was to try and get Shego to stop glaring at Ron, but she was also curious about it as well.
"All the way back in preschool actually." Shego had a small smile on her face as she remembered.
"Hey, just like us KP." Ron grinned, but Shego ignored him.
"It was during snacktime," Shego continued her explanation. "We got into a fight and after we served our timeout in the corner for fighting we became friends."
"A fight at snacktime?" Kim wasn't sure she heard that right.
"Yeah, we got into a fight over the last snack on the plate we were sharing. It was supposed to be an exercise for us to learn sharing and how to split things evenly; but we both thought that the last snack was ours." Shego just smirked and shook her head. "Turns out that the teacher figured out afterwards that she had accidentally put and extra snack on our plate. I probably would have been angry normally, but I got a great friend out of it so I really didn't care."
"Well that's a… different way to start a friendship." Kim gave a bit of a nervous laugh. "So you stayed friends after that, even with the Team Go thing?"
"Oh yeah, Justin loved it. There was no way he'd let me do that sort of thing and leave him out of the fun." Shego smiled. "He was always finding some way to come along with us; if I wasn't smuggling him in our vehicles so Hego wouldn't find out until it was too late he'd find out some other way to get to where we were going. Then he'd either stay out of sight and figure out how to mess with whatever the villain was doing or just provide enough of a distraction for me to jump in and stomp the villain into the ground." Shego grinned and punched one fist into the other. "Hego never did like it though; if he wasn't lecturing us about how a non-powered civilian shouldn't be getting involved he was telling me that I didn't need a sidekick since I was already part of a team."
"But doesn't he have powers?" Kim questioned. "His Freak-Out thing?"
"Where did that come from anyway?" Ron added. "Did he get a dose of the meteor mojo too?"
"No it wasn't from the meteor; he was there, but just far enough away that he wasn't caught in the strike." Shego's voice became quiet as she looked away. "He became Freak-Out because I screwed up. A villain stole some equipment from a genetics lab and made it into a weapon she called the Hyper-Genetic Accelerator; then she started using it to mutate animals into monsters and used them to terrorize the city. We went in, typical battle started, I got a bit too careless during the fight and got smacked by one of the monsters. The blow put me so out of it that I didn't notice the villain aiming her weapon at me, Justin ran up and shoved me out of the way and got hit instead. It knocked him unconscious but he didn't seem to be affected otherwise; we left him at the hospital figuring he wake up and be fine, instead he became a monster. We put a stop to it and he changed back, but it just kept happening."
"Couldn't it be reversed or cured or something?" Kim wondered as she took in the story.
"They couldn't find anything to cure; always said all the tests they did came up negative, that he was perfectly normal." Shego sounded disgusted. "Every single time I would be told that! Well if he was so normal why did he keep changing?! Never could give me an answer to that one."
"So eventually Commander Jackson came along…" Kim said to get Shego to move forward with the story.
"Yeah, Jackson said he could help, that his organization had enough expertise that they could figure out how to solve the problem. And I fell for it." Shego growled. "Jackson and his agents came and used their equipment to deep freeze Justin, said it rendered him inert and eliminated the problem of Freak-Out once and for all. Then Jackson had the gall to pay for a funeral for Justin."
"Is that why you quit Team Go?" Kim asked, a bit of sadness in her voice. "Because you thought Justin was gone?"
"I didn't quit right then, I actually stayed for a while after that. I just started seeing less and less of a reason to keep doing the hero thing after that though." Shego sighed. "How would you feel if you lost him during a mission?" Shego asked as she motioned back at Ron but Kim didn't have an answer.
"You know, for a guy that's already had his funeral he sure has no problems getting around." Ron said as he suddenly pointed. "There he is!"
They saw Justin still riding on top of the same truck he had jumped up on at Bueno Nacho; he was kneeling down and staring straight ahead as the truck headed for downtown. Shego quickly rolled down the window and leaned out.
"Justin!" Shego called out; Justin turned back and a slight look of surprise came over his face, like he hadn't expected to found by them so quick. "Boy, if you don't get off that truck right now I will blast you off of it!" Shego ignited a fist and swung it around.
"Shego!" Kim yelled out at Shego. "You can't just threaten him like that, I thought he was your friend!"
Shego leaned back into the car. "He knows that when I threaten like that it means I'm serious and that I'm worried about him." Kim and Ron gave Shego a strange look. "What? You guys don't have your own little system of meanings that you only have between yourselves and no one else?"
"Well maybe we do," Kim answered. " But we never threaten each other like that."
"There he goes again!" Ron directed the others' attention back to Justin.
Justin leapt from the truck and landed on the next car ahead; because of Justin's sudden landing on the roof the driver of the car swerved a bit and began to pull the car over to figure out what just happened. Justin simply jumped off and landed on the next vehicle, which was a pickup truck, then launched himself forward again before the driver of the truck could react.
"Well he did get off the truck like you told him to." Ron said then laughed sheepishly as Shego glared at him.
Justin continued forward form vehicle to vehicle; many of the drivers either started pulling over because they were surprised at the sudden impact or started yelling out their windows at the person that dared damage their vehicles like that. Justin finally settled on a van, whose driver didn't seem to notice that an extra passenger had landed on top of his vehicle.
"Hurry up before we lose him!" Shego demanded. "Just drive on through and shove everybody out of the way!"
"I can't do that! I'd be endangering people, not to mention breaking a whole lot of laws!" Kim shot back. "Besides this is my dad's car, I can't go driving like that! I don't even want to think how he'll react if I get even a scratch on it."
"I don't believe this." Shego rolled her eyes, then she smiled. "I guess I'll have to take care of this my way then."
Shego leaned back out the window gathering her power, her aura flaring around her hand as she raised it. Shego let loose with a bolt of energy and struck the ground near the car in from of them; as an explosion of green flame erupted in the middle of the street the car quickly swerved and pulled over to get away. Despite Kim's protests Shego continued with the tactic; she didn't actually strike anybody, she didn't have to, the explosions going off near their cars was more than enough to convince most drivers to get out of the way. Justin heard the commotion and looked back, sighing and shaking his head when he saw what was happening.
"Get as close as you can!" Shego ordered as they pulled up behind the van Justin was on. "I'll jump over and grab him!"
Shego began to climb out of the window to prepare for her jump, but just before she was going to make the jump Justin leapt off the van. Justin grabbed hold of a corner light pole as he was in the air, spinning around it because of his forward momentum, though he lost his grip with one hand Justin managed to hold on with the other as his spinning slowed.
"Turn around!" Shego slid back into the car, looking back as they got further away from where Justin was.
"I know, I know!" Kim hit the brakes and quickly whipped the car around.
Ron let out a yell as the car slid sideways and they nearly went off the road, Kim hit the gas and they rushed back in the other direction. They no longer saw Justin on the pole so Kim quickly turned the corner and headed down the street as they kept an eye out for him. They finally spotted him pushing a motorcycle out into the street; Justin quickly hopped on and started it, taking off down the road with a roar from the engine.
"Justin… what is it with you and motorbikes?" Shego commented in an exasperated tone.
Justin weaved through traffic and turned onto the freeway, but Kim was determined not to lose him and stayed right on his trail. But despite being able to keep on his trail Kim couldn't get close to Justin, every time Kim thought she could close the distance and catch up Justin would begin weaving around traffic and pull away. After a few minutes of the chase they saw Justin look back at them and smirk.
"He's going to pull off the freeway." Shego told Kim. "Get over in the other lane so we can do the same."
"How can he pull off?" Kim questioned. "He's in the wrong lane and there's cars between him and the off-ramp."
"Look, I've known him for years and I know what kind of ideas get into his head." Shego told her. "And I say he's going to turn off."
Just as Shego predicted Justin suddenly made a sharp turn and passed through the small space between two cars, the drivers honking their horns at him as he did so, and went down the off-ramp. Kim just stared in disbelief that Justin was able to pull off such a maneuver without crashing or causing a crash, she inadvertently missed the turn as she stared.
"Nice move." Ron grinned as he stared after Justin.
"Told you so." Shego said dryly. "Now turn here so we can follow him."
"I can't go off the on-ramp! That'd be… aaah!" Kim didn't get to finish what she was saying as Shego grabbed hold of the steering wheel and spun it.
The car slid around until it was facing down the on-ramp, fortunately no one was coming up so Kim quickly drove down before Shego decided to reach her foot over and hit the gas pedal herself. Kim turned in the direction Justin went and resumed their search for him. The search didn't last long.
"There's the motorcycle he was on." Kim pointed out as she pulled into a parking lot where she saw the abandoned vehicle.
Kim pulled up next to the motorcycle and parked the car and the three of them got out and looked around. Next to the parking lot was a large unfinished building, but there was no one around as the construction crew had already gone home for the day.
"What is this place?" Shego asked as she looked at the incomplete structure.
"Going to be the new convention center." Ron answered.
"New? What happened to the old one?" Shego questioned as she continued to look around.
"Well there was a bit of an accident after the last Villains Convention." Kim told her. "They were cleaning up and something exploded, wrecked the whole convention center."
Just then the GJ vehicle that Kim and Ron had seen earlier that day pulled into the parking lot and pulled up next to them before stopping. The door opened and Dr. Director, Will Du and Commander Jackson stepped out soon followed by Team Go.
"How'd you get here so fast?" Shego asked, anger evident in her voice.
"It wasn't difficult to follow your trail Shego." Director answered. "I had you tracked from the moment you pulled away from Bueno Nacho."
"Though we probably could have found you even without the tracking," Will added. "You were hardly subtle in your chase."
Shego growled and looked about ready to blast them, particularly Commander Jackson, but then spun around and began walking towards the unfinished convention center. "I don't have time to waste on you."
Kim and Ron walked after Shego with everyone else following behind them, heading towards the structure where Justin was presumably hiding.
"So what can we expect in here?" Kim asked since she still didn't know what Justin's full capabilities were as Freak-Out.
"Anything." Hego answered in a very serious tone. "With his abilities he could conceivably take any form."
"Actually it's always seemed pretty random." Wego2 said as he walked up next to Kim. "Like the first time we fought he was a big mass of flesh covered in mouths, eyes and all sort of different limbs. Then there was another time he was a huge wolf monster thing with saber-teeth and covered in spines."
"Remember that time we fought him at the baseball field he was that humanoid thing with the huge arm?" Mego snickered. "Got a homerun on Hego and knocked him clear out of the park."
"That quite enough of that." Hego directed towards Mego. "No need to bring up things like that at a time like this."
"Basically his forms are just random mash-up of different things." Wego1 ignored Hego and Mego as they bickered. "If you've ever seen that old Thing movie you'll have a pretty good idea of the types of things he turns into."
"Don't be too sure of what you think you know about him." Shego warned. "Before when Justin would become Freak-Out he would lose himself and the resulting thing would be pretty much mindless. But now he has control of it, I doubt things are going to be so random anymore."
"So what exactly are we going to do here?" Ron asked as they entered the convention center. "Talk to him? Fight him? Catch him? Take him out to dinner?"
"Capture him of course." Jackson answered sternly. "Freak-Out is a threat and needs to be contained."
"Not if I have anything to say about it." Shego snarled at Jackson.
Kim kept an eye out as they walked looking for signs of movement or anything strange. Since the sun was setting the darkness and shadows were deepening; even when the GJ agents pulled out flashlights and Team Go used their glow it didn't help that much, it just cast more shadows and made them move. They finally entered into the main convention area, bare framework of the building was all around them but there seemed to be no sign of Justin.
"What's that?" Kim spotted something on the floor and walked over to it, it was a pile of cloth shreds. "I think it's the clothes Justin was wearing, though it's all in pieces now." Kim picked up a piece of what was once Justin's shirt.
"He's shifted form." Shego said as she looked around. "Justin! I know you're here so answer me!"
"Come on out Freak-Out!" Jackson called out. "If you come along quietly it'll be that much easier on you!"
"You'd like that wouldn't you Commander Jackson?" Justin's voice came echoing from the darkness around them, seeming to come from all directions at once. Kim thought the voice had a lot more echo to it that it should have as Justin continued to speak. "Sorry but no, I'm not going back into the deep freeze. I had more than enough of that the first time around and I didn't enjoy it."
"How could you even been aware of what was going on?" Jackson questioned. "You were completely frozen, an icecube, you shouldn't have been aware of anything at all."
"Well I wasn't as out of it as you seem to think. My eyes were wide open and I could see just fine out that little viewing window that was built into that freezing coffin you had me in, I could even hear a bit too. It's ridiculous, as many people that were studying me that none of them ever considered the possibility that I just might be aware of what was going on. Not even you considered it; no you'd just come down alone to rant about whatever was bothering you at the time. You know Jackson, it might be considered a bad sign when you rant to someone you think can't hear you." Justin's voice half-laughed. "But can any of you imagine what that was like? To be locked in the cold for that long unable to move, unable to do anything. Only having a little window to see what's going on outside, with people coming by to stare at you because they think you're only a thing to be studied."
"Just what do you want Justin?" Director asked calmly. "Revenge?"
"Revenge? Why would I want that?" Justin shot back, a bit of sarcasm in his voice. "I was only abandoned by people I trusted." Kim saw Shego wince as Justin said this looking as though someone punched her in the stomach. "Then I was put into a deep freeze and locked away for years." There was a slight growl before Justin continued. "But no, I'm not out for revenge. If I had been I would have took it already. After I got free I could've killed everybody in that facility where I was being held, especially Commander Jackson, but I didn't. Then I could've hunted down anyone else I had a grudge against, but I didn't do that either."
"So what do you want?" Director asked again.
"Honestly? To try and get back to having a life more-or-less like the one I had before I got turned into a popsicle. That's it, no revenge, no hurting anybody, just trying to live normally again." Justin answered. "I've been trying to get a handle on these powers too now that I can control them; unfortunately my body seems to need a ridiculous amount of energy right now to keep going, which is why I've been having to clean out food stores. But I'll get a handle on it eventually."
"You're not going to get a chance to do anything more Freak-Out!" Jackson shouted. "You're a danger to everyone around you and I'm not going to rest until I've taken you in and put you back in the deep freeze."
"Fine… Have it your way Jackson." Justin said darkly.
A massive form dropped down from the shadows above and impacted on the floor in front of them, causing the floor to crack and break. As the hulking form raised up and loomed over them most took a few steps back. It was nearly twenty feet tall and covered in dark green armored plates. Its upper body was humanoid with an insectoid head with glowing golden eyes. Its lower body was that of a scorpion but instead of a normal scorpion tail there was several giant versions of what Kim and Ron knew as the snaky things. Team Go was silently mouthing the name 'Freak-Out'.
"You know, that really doesn't look like a random mash-up." Kim said as she stood her ground, but there was a bit of nervousness in her voice. "It looks like he has things pretty well planned out on this one."
"As I said before he has control of it now. But you guys just didn't want to believe me." Shego stood her ground as well, a fierce smile on her face.
Freak-Out then let out a deafening roar that shook everything around them.
To be continued...