I do not own the characters named herein from Disney, and am only using them for a tale meant for entertainment purposes only.

Kim Possible: Darker Destiny

By LJ58

1

Ron Stoppable woke with a yawn, and stretched out the kinks in his back as he rolled to his feet, and simply nodded at the three people in his small camp.

"Hear anything?"

"A few jets flew over," the young teen at the mouth of the cave told him. "Nothing serious. I did see a few mutates ambling by earlier, but they didn't have our scent."

"Yet," Ron told Ben 'Brick' Flagg. A former football start until Drakken's rise to power changed high school, and the world. Now Ben was one of the few that held out, and tried to form a core of resistance against a madman slowly poisoning their world, when not just literally tearing it apart.

"Stoppable-San," Yori turned to him. "We must get this medication back soon. Our patients need it. Some, more than most."

"I know," Ron nodded, eyeing the blasted world beyond the cavern where they took shelter for the day.

No one moved in the Wastelands during daylight.

There was no cover. No defense. And Drakken's drones could see you for miles.

Ironically, the madman never figured out how to track anyone at night. Which, so far, remained their element. Just as well, since it was now his element, too, thanks to more than a few years spent in Yamanouchi before he returned to help lead the growing resistance against Drakken's madness.

"Too bad we couldn't just let you ninja into Drak's palace, and take him out," a lanky boy with cybernetic limbs replacing both legs, and his right arm.

"Even I know you can't take Drakken on like that," Ron scowled. "I wish we could, but with Shego, and his new robotic defenses, you can't get near him unless he lets you."

"And he's not letting you," Yori remarked. "As Dr. Director proved to her regret."

"What she proved, is that she was an idiot," the older Ben spat. "She wasted a lot of lives in a suicide run that only let the emperor know we were still alive out here. Now, the drones, and patrols are worse than ever, and it's getting really hard to sneak into towns to find supplies."

"She should have known she couldn't face Drakken, and Shego," Yori murmured.

"Worse," Ron told him as the sun settled toward the horizon. "She cost us a symbol. At least when she was alive, she rallied people to our cause. Encouraged some to even risk helping us. Now, we've got no one. Especially with Barkin all but barricading the Tri-City area from our people once he figured out we were using Lowerton to resupply our colony."

"Barkin's a poser," Ben sneered. "One day, I would really like to return the favor he did me in vocational assessment," the young man swore.

"I hope you get the chance," Felix admitted. "The bastard took one look at my legs, and had me tossed into the no man's land out here. Didn't even think I could use my brains in spite of my body," he huffed.

"He has made Middleton a real pesthole," Ron agreed. "I'm just glad my folks got out."

"Stoppable-San?"

Ron turned to eye Yori.

"Gear up. Guys, I'm going to have to ask you to try carrying our packs. Something still feels off, and I think Yori and I better be free to fight, if necessary."

"Are we moving?"

"A little more time. I don't want any shadows betraying our movements, and it's still a bit too light for my taste," Ron told Felix. "But get ready to run all the same."

"You think it's one of his drones?"

"I don't know. I just feel something is…..off."

"I would listen," Yori told the men. "Stoppable-San's mystic intuition is the best I've ever seen next to our master."

"Not doubting you, gorgeous," Ben told her, not missing the way Ron's gaze flashed to him when he spoke. "I'm just saying, until I can see something in my sights," he said, picking up a laser rifle after shouldering his large pack, "I can't do much."

"If there is trouble, you and Felix run. That medicine has to get through. We lost two people just getting it. I won't lose any more. Not when everyone is counting on us," he added.

"We know the drill, Ron-Man," Felix said grimly. "Don't worry. I see anything out there, and I'm history. You'll need rockets to catch up to me," he added with a smirk.

"Too bad we don't have one."

"Yeah. Fire off a rocket, or something, and let Drakken find out exactly where we are," Ben was told as Felix huffed at him.

"I was thinking we could launch one of his stupid nanno-bombs right back on top of his greasy head," he huffed.

"His palace is too fortified for bombs. Even The Chancellor can't get to him, and you know he's been trying," Felix reminded him.

"Yeah, too bad we're not in Europe. That guy may be nuts, too, but I hear he at least takes care of his people."

"An ageless question," Yori murmured. "What is more precious? Freedom, or security?"

"I'd like to have both back," Ron growled. "I won't stop until we do. Until we all do."

"That's why we're here…."

"Sssshhhhh," Ron held up a hand, his brown eyes searching the darkness growing beyond the cave. "Yori, put out the fire. Get ready," he said, and she used a foot to cover the dying coals even as both hands flashed, and steel-banded fans sprang from her sleeves.

"Do we go?"

"Yori, when I move, go out, flank left. I'm going straight out on three. Felix, Ben, you go right, and blaze. We'll catch up when we can. Something is definitely out there."

The two men tensed, and all teasing was set aside as Felix took up the spare pack in his right hand, his left holding a short, but potentially lethal taser weapon he had recently modified. Ben already carried an oversized pack made of combining his, and Ron's, and used both hands to cradle the rifle he held.

"When we move, you go without looking back," Ron said. "On my mark. One, two….."

He never said three.

Ron seemed to vanish in a burst of speed, and Yori moved with him. Felix glanced at the bigger, stockier man, and nodded, and they both ran out, and to the right, hearing a low, thudding stomping even as a gruff, rumbling roar pierced their ears with enough noise to make them both cringe.

"Mutate," Ben shouted, glancing back.

"I noticed. Run," Felix shouted as the two ninja behind them leapt at the nine foot hybrid of bear and insect that was very interested in the meat before it.

Ben had always thought he was in good shape back when he ran for the Mad Dogs. That was before Barkin dumped him in the Wastelands for daring to punch him when he tried to have him demoted in the local ranks just for speaking up against his stupid emperor. Since then, Ben had been learning every day just how tough he wasn't. He fought, and he worked out harder than ever, but unfortunately, there was no crest in this world. You stopped moving, and you died.

It was that simple.

"Go, go, go," he shouted at Felix as the roaring sounded closer than he liked.

Of all the mutates, he hated the insects worse.

You never knew if they would just eat you, suck you dry by inches, or try to stuff their eggs in your soft belly to eat you from the inside out.

None of which appealed to him.

Behind them, the sounds of battle gradually faded, and they reached open desert where they slowed their pace to a steady jog as they kept their eyes open under the starry sky that peered through the dark clouds here, and there.

"Hope it doesn't rain," Ben grimaced, knowing the acidic toxins that fell here could strip flesh from bone in but minutes.

"The forecast was clear. Of course, out here, clear is subjective. Let's just hope we reach base camp before anything else hap….. Freeze!"
Ben froze.

Even as he did, four robotic drones flew overhead, and kept going.

Ironically, the patrolling drones didn't use IFR here. It was inefficient during the daylight hours when the temperatures spiked well over the nineties. Fahrenheit, of course. Rather than use separate drones for night patrols, Drakken's people used the same drones to patrol the dark wastes using ordinary motion sensors, and little else. So long as they didn't move, the drones would not lock on, and try to blow them away.

Another bit of irony was that the drones did help keep the mutate population down. Which also helped them, and their fellow outcasts, survive.

"Okay," Felix murmured, eyeing his right arm, that was showing a tracking node in place. "It's out of range. Let's move."

"Think Stoppable is okay?"

"Ron? Bro," Felix grinned. "I once saw him take out the last of the Bebes barehanded, and he never even got scratched."

"Whoa. I never saw them, but I heard stories."

"Yeah. They were the worst of the worst. Fortunately, Drakken never made any more. Yet."

"Why would he," Ben swore, jogging alongside the young genius. "He's still got Shego."

"Yeah. He does. If we could counter her, we might really have a chance. But so far, no one can face that crazy bitch."

"Not even Dr. Director," Ben sighed.

"It didn't help that her own right-hand man turned on her. I always knew that self-righteous prig was no good."

"Du. Yeah," Ben agreed. "Too bad he slinked off before I could waste him."

Felix eyed the big blonde, and shook his head.

"That's not our way. Defense is one thing, murder is Drakken's way. Not ours."

"I know. I know. But, sometimes, you gotta wonder if keeping the old law is doing us any good."

"When we give up on democracy, or the real law, then Drakken does win," Ron said, suddenly behind them, loping along as if he were out on a casual jog.

"Yori," Felix asked.

"She's flanking us. Just in case. Another hour, and we're safe."

"You don't think it will rain," Ben asked, glancing up again.

"No rain. Not this week. I'm just wondering what stirred up that mutate. Things that big don't usually come this far out into the sands."

"Good guessing. You think Drakken is sending something new out here he wants to test?"

Ron shot Felix a troubling glance, but said nothing as they all kept running.

Time, they all knew, was simply not on their side.

KP

"Shego!"

"What," the green-skinned woman complained as she looked up from where she sunned atop the west tower in Drakken's ridiculously oversized palace to his ego.

Or so she felt.

"I've been looking everywhere for you," the blue-skinned dimwit that actually ruled the world just because he managed to trick a few eggheads into working for him back at the start. Before anyone realized it, Drew had turned their tech into a robot army that literally crushed almost all resistance from the start. "You weren't in your room," he accused.

"Doy," she sneered, and lifted her magazine again. One from pre-Drakken days when people actually knew fashion, and didn't paint everything blue, or green.

She did like green, but seriously, there was such a thing as overkill.

"I needed you."

"For what," she huffed. "You've got most of the world in your tiny little hands….."

"My hands are not tiny," he ranted, holding up small fists.

She slowly lowered her magazine.

"You yelling at me, Blue-boy?"

"Uh, no," he grimaced. "Not at all. I just…. I really do need you."

"What now," she complained. "Someone hide your new tech manuals?"

"My…. I have new manuals," he brightened.

Shego bit back a growl.

"Just tell me what you need."

"I have a great new idea," he beamed. "And I need you to run out to plant a few special devices I can use to test it. After all, it's the sort of idea that you don't want blowing up right in your face," he allowed.

"Which most of your ideas do," she muttered.

"What was that," he frowned.

"Nothing. Nothing. So, what's it do, and where do you want it? In the barrens again, to try to take out those posers?"

"No. No. I'd rather not risk them sabotaging my work this time. No, I want you to plant a special pair of emitters atop, say, Mount Middleton."

"And why there?"

"Well, obviously, if anything goes wrong, that town is no great loss," he sneered. "It would be my final revenge against my longtime….."

"Didn't you already deal with the guy? After you stole all his work to help you take over the world?"

"You're pushing again, Shego," he grumbled sourly.

Shego sat up, dropping her magazine on the lounger as she eyed him.

"Not yet, but I can. Do you want me to really push, Drewbie," she called him.

"Uh, no. No, I don't," he sighed.

"Smart man. So, plant the emitters, and then what?"

"Then, I'd leave. If this goes well, I can write off all my issues with troubling rivals," he sneered.

"What now? A new disintegration cannon?"

"No! Something even better. I will open a hole in time/space, and simply drop all those that oppose me into it!"

"Wow, and then who would you talk to," Shego asked.

"Wha…? Shego, just do as I say," he thundered. Then grimaced at her expression, and added, "Please?"

"Fine. But you better not switch the thing on until I'm well out of the area. Got it?"

"I wouldn't…."

"And that is what you said when you almost blew me out of the sky the last time I delivered one of your toys," she growled.

"That was the exiles in that Wasteland! I told you, they sabotage my equipment lately when I try sending it there to test."

"Then maybe you shouldn't announce your tests, moron," she shot back.

"But how else will the press know to be there to cover my glorious….. Never mind," he yipped when she turned to raise a glowing fist his way.

"Just get the gear to my jet. Have it loaded by someone with a brain. Then wait for my call. If you do not wait for my call, and you do anything… And I stress anything that scratches the paint of my new jet, I will come back and hurt you. A lot," Shego growled.

"Fine, fine," he grumbled, and stalked off as she left to go into her private tower to change out of her bikini.

Frankly, he didn't understand why she sunned so much. It wasn't as if that green skin of hers was ever going to tan. Not that he would say so.

Again.

His last set of burns weren't quite healed.

To Be Continued…