Author's Note: The two big fight scenes are in this chapter. I know it's long, but it's all been leading up to this. Epilogue will be up shortly after!
Sneaking into a villain's lair was always the easiest part of the job. It helped that Doctor Cyrus Bortel was expecting them anyways. But he didn't know that. Ron followed Kim through the ventilation system, stopping when they heard the doctor's voice through the grate.
"Let us see who the highest bidder will be!" he mused to himself.
"Textbook villainy," Ron commented.
"Oh, yeah," Kim replied quietly. She crawled to the other side of the grate, preparing to bust it open. "Ready?"
"Whenever you are," he confirmed.
The clattering of the grate against the floor captured Bortel's attention, as did the sight of Kim and Ron landing right where he expected them to. This set off his trap; a large cage began to form around them. He, of course, did not expect the duo to know that it was a trap, but he should've known better. Before the top of the cage came down on them, Kim grabbed ahold of Ron and shot her grappling hook, swinging themselves out of it just in the nick of time.
"Sorry, Doctor Bortel, but I'm afraid you'll have to do better than that," Kim remarked.
"Tsk Tsk. Selling to the highest bidder on a black-market site for villainy? Shame on you, Dr. B," Ron shook his head.
"And you were the one who ended up getting chipped," Bortel spoke with great annoyance. "She was supposed to have been out of the way!"
"What do you have against me!?" Kim inquired angrily. "I recovered your inventions twice! The compliance chip, the moodulators, and the electromagnetic accelerator!"
"Like you have to ask!" he shouted. "Global Justice took your word of warning seriously about my compliance chip. The ones you believed to be 'ferociously unethical.'"
"Uh, cause they were ferociously unethical," she pointed out.
"Because of you, I lost funding, and had no choice but to sell to villains," Bortel explained. "But no matter, cause I've got henchmen!"
Uniformed henchmen in black and grey came from all corners of Bortel's lab. They wasted no time to attack them. Kim did a back handspring away from the cluster of them up ahead of her. One by one, she dodged and fought off. Ron successfully disarmed ray guns out of the bigger guys' hands. His pants caught on a jagged piece of metal before being torn from him completely.
"Aw, man, even in college!" he complained.
"What happened to the belt?" Kim laughed, immediately defeating two more henchmen.
"Still attached; no time to get it now," he replied, breathing heavily as he used tai shing pek kwar on the unsuspecting henchmen. Ron had improved greatly on his preferred fighting style after having spent a month of last summer vacation at Yamanouchi to further his training.
Sure, it looked silly to anyone on the outside for Ron to be fighting even after losing his pants for the umpteenth time, but Kim found it rather charming. It was a part of his essential Ron-ness—the very core of him that made her love him even more.
Cyrus weaved in and out of the chaos around him, seeking out his rival. Being surrounded on all sides didn't give Kim time to notice before it was too late. Bortel had already successfully implemented his plan for the compliance chip. Kim Possible was now under his control.
"I demand that you destroy Ron Stoppable!" he commanded her. "Henchmen that are still conscious, let us watch."
"Yes, Doctor Bortel," she replied monotonously.
"Alright, KP, I know you're still in there somewhere," Ron spoke with caution.
"Must destroy Ron Stoppable," was all she said before throwing the first punch. Ron ducked just in time. He backed further away from her.
"Kim, I don't wanna fight you," he told her. "I know you can hear me."
Her face softened slightly, giving Ron the hope he needed, but it was quickly replaced with a face of determination of a minion that wanted to carry out their mission.
"This does not bode well," Ron sighed in defeat before taking the proper stance.
Her brothers and Drakken would be at The Knave's Victorian lair by now. Shego paced the old lair that had been her home for years, contradicting thoughts plaguing her mind.
What if her brothers died?
She'd be left without a family. Digging deeper, she conjured up memories of her childhood, long before they had gained the powers they had. It wasn't a bad childhood for the most part. Their mom raised them alone for most of the twins' life. They were the youngest. It was a blessing that they couldn't remember their father. Howard Gordon abandoned his family only two months after the twins were born. Shego had only been four years old.
It had been a long time since any of them went by their birth names. Hego was the oldest—originally named Henry Gordon—followed by Shego only a year later. Sheena had been the name she was given. Nobody had called her that since they gained their powers. Mego—born two years after Shego—was Melvin, and the twins—born another two years after Mego—were Wesley and Wendell.
What if Drakken died?
Sure, he succeeded in helping save the world, but that didn't mean he was capable of a full-on fight. He would be the first to go. There were plenty of times where Shego could easily picture a life without him—especially when she tried to search for new employment—but in this moment, it was impossible. Yeah, they bicker with each other a lot, but she'd be lying if she said she wouldn't miss it. Time was running out. In another hour or so, they all might be dead.
No, she decided. I need to save them. All of them.
Surprised by his successful backflip, Ron ran straight for Bortel. He needed to get to that phase disrupter. The henchmen did all they could to stop him but Ron was faster. However, Kim flipped over him, landing between Bortel and her boyfriend. The now mad doctor zapped Kim with another device, a red glow emanating from it.
"What did you just do!?" Ron asked in a panic, clearly angry.
"Jack Hench made a portable version of the attitudinator; I simply turned Miss Possible evil," Cyrus explained. "However, the only setback is that this portable one doesn't take out the good; it just makes the evil overpower it." He used his phase disrupter to release the compliance chip off of Kim, as it was no longer needed.
"Ron Stoppable you are going down," Kim growled.
"Uh oh," Rufus squeaked, jumping out of Ron's pocket.
They fought at an almost even level. Kim was well versed in sixteen styles of kung fu, whereas Ron only had tai shing pek kwar to rely on.
"C'mon, KP, don't you remember our halfaversary? You told me you loved me for the first time," Ron tried to snap her out of it.
"Ha! Love you!? There's nothing worth loving," she retorted.
"That didn't hurt at all," Ron replied sarcastically. "I know it's not really you saying that, KP."
Kim landed a kick that sent him flying towards Bortel. The control was knocked out of the doctor's hand, and Ron dove for it. He fumbled with his grip on it until finally getting a good aim on Kim. The evil put into her retracted as her goodness restored itself.
As soon as she was back to her natural Kim-ness, her mouth opened in horror at what she had just done to the man she loved. She saw him shake his head as if to tell her there's no time to waste. He picked up Rufus, placing him in his pocket. As the last few henchmen approached her.
"Ron!" Kim shouted, getting his attention. It took less than two seconds for Ron to know exactly what she needed. His hands at the ready, she flipped towards him—her feet landing perfectly in his hands—and he helped launch her at the last trio of henchmen. With two punches and a roundhouse kick, they went down like falling trees.
"Booyah, KP!" Ron exclaimed enthusiastically.
"Heh, maybe I should just, uh, leave now," Bortel tugged at his coat nervously. He ran for the door, which opened just in time for Global Justice agents to surround the place.
"I'll take it from here, Kimberly," Will Du spoke arrogantly.
"Mhm, yeah, see that you do," Kim replied. "Don't forget who did all the hard work." She gestured to Ron and herself. She then turned to him. "You okay?"
"I'm fine, KP; you actually went easier on me than expected for an evil-minded version of you," he laughed.
"I'm sorry; I know it wasn't really me, but I'm still sorry," she told him solemnly. "I can't believe I hurt you."
"Kim, seriously, it's all good. I hurt you when Dementor had control of your battlesuit. Let's just call it even," he joked.
The kimmunicator went off.
"Go, Wade."
"I found out one other villain that Bortel had sold inventions to," Wade informed her.
"Who and where?" Ron asked.
"Ever hear of The Knave?"
Shego crept through the old Victorian house. She heard voices through the grate in the floor. She searched for the stairs leading to the basement. A door in the laundry room caught her eye. Logically, it should be a linen closet, but upon opening it up, a set of stairs greeted her.
The floor in another part of the house creaked. It sounded closer than she would've liked. Her hands now aglow, Shego prepared for a fight, watching the door get pushed open.
"Huh?" all three occupants voiced in confusion.
"What are you doing here, Princess? I don't recall this villain being under your jurisdiction," Shego pointed out.
"He's got a device that we need to retrieve for GJ," Kim replied. "What are you doing here?"
"New employer?" Ron guessed.
"Ugh, as if," Shego scoffed. "My brothers and Drakken are trying to go up against him and his army of automatons."
"Which apparently haven't been activated," Kim remarked.
The house began to rumble and shake from the ground up.
"They are now, c'mon," Shego led them down the stairs into the dark. Upon reaching the basement, they found it was empty.
"Are they invisible?" Ron whispered to Kim.
"Not likely," she replied.
All at once, the floor dropped from beneath them, causing them to fall into a large pile of empty cardboard boxes.
"Nice of you to drop by," The Knave remarked in his posh English accent. His mechanical arm ticked like a clock.
"Kim, he's armed!" Ron shouted.
"No kidding," she replied.
Team Go was fending the automatons off as much as they could while a select few were advancing toward Shego, Kim, and Ron in a rage.
"Dude, I am so up in arms over this," Ron quipped. Kim couldn't help but laugh.
Looking around, Shego felt panicked for the first time.
"Where's Drakken!?" she shouted.
"The chap with the blue skin? Had to do away with him," The Knave replied all too quickly, a smirk on his face.
"Find him," Kim told Shego after noticing the worried expression on her face. "We can fend them off until you do; we'll find a way to supercharge your plasma energy."
With a nod in understanding, Shego raced through the underground corridor. There were so many tunnels to choose from; she had no idea where to go. For all she knew, Drakken was dead. How The Knave phrased it sounded so final.
Following her intuition, she took the tunnel to the left, trying to convince herself that he was alive. If he wasn't, she'd know it. She was led to a dead end, much to her dismay. Upon seeing the sconce on the wall, a trickle of hope was restored.
"Please work," she whispered as she pulled it like a lever. The wall opened up, revealing an old prison of sorts. There, she found a barely conscious Drakken chained against the wall. There were bruises on his face, and singe marks on his coat, but he was okay. "You're okay."
"Shego?" he muttered, wincing in pain as she released the shackles from his wrist.
"Can you walk?"
"Yes, I believe I can."
"Good; we need to find something that can supercharge my plasma blasts," Shego told him.
"Could this work?" he asked, pointing at a device on the table in the room.
"Is that—you're a genius!"
Drakken allowed himself to take pride in that.
"How do we stop these things!?" Ron panicked, running around while dodging them.
"I don't"—she kicked one out of the way—"know."
"Hey, robot arm!" Shego called out. "Let's see how you like to have your army fried!" She signaled for her brothers, Kim, and Ron to take cover.
"Try this for a deep fry," Drakken added before the device in his hand distributed the plasma energy all across the room. Shego was feeding the machine her energy as it was releasing it in a wide spectrum.
"My automatons! No, what have you done!" The Knave shouted. He ran towards them, grabbing at the machine with his mechanical arm.
"Oh, no you don't," Shego told him, redirecting her blasts at his fingers so he'd loosen his grip.
Kim swung on her grappling hook, kicking The Knave back and into a fallen automaton. They were all destroyed; their circuits completely fried. The police arrived shortly after to take him in.
"So, Drakken, that machine doesn't happen to have a DCB30 on there does it?" Kim asked.
"It does; how did you know?" he asked in surprise. "What are you and the buffoon even doing here!?"
"My name is—"
"Ron Stoppable, I know."
Everyone's jaws dropped.
"We're here to retrieve the device for Global Justice," Kim told him. "I've no reason to believe you'll hand it over, but—"
"Take it; I don't need it," he replied.
"So…" Ron began. "Awkward."
"Little bit," Shego admitted.
It was a blessing when Wade cut through the tension with his call.
"Hey, Wade, I've got Bortel's device," she informed him.
"Great! GJ will be there to pick you up!"