Snark Hunt
Disclaimer – I don't own Kim Possible.
A/N – Thanks to all my readers and reviewers. Note that ~O~O~O~ indicates major shift in time and place, while ~o~o~ indicates small shifts in time or place.
This story is an AU and diverges from canon early in the fourth season before Mad Dogs and Aliens or Big Brother, so there are no Lowardians in this universe and no Hana.
Special Thanks to my new beta reader Halo17442.
Answers to the bonus from last chapter. Some people got different part, but no one got all of them and no one got the Jen reference.
1) Van Gogh is a reference to Shego's last name from failte200's masterpiece Alone, Together. In my opinion, this is the finest Kigo story ever written. It has several hundred more favorites than any other KP story of FF.n. If you have not read it, stop reading this and do so right away.
2) Credible is Nancy Possible's maiden name so she was N. Credible. The reference to her name not being Jen was to the inspiration for the name, the character of Jen Credible, from Blackbird's classic story, Maternal Instinct, which was itself inspired by NoDrogs's classic story, A Small Possibility… If you haven't read them, you should.
3) Molli is Ann Possible's maiden name so if Olivia is her middle name she was Ann O. Molli.
Chapter – 9 – Snark Hunt
The stealth hovercraft carefully made its way through the air over Georgetown, the pilot alert to every chance of being detected. Reaching its destination, the hovercraft gently settled on the roof a stately townhouse. Two figures made their way from the craft to the edge of the roof, where one of them quietly lowered a rope. The two silently descended the rope and entered the house via a second story window. Softly making their way down the hall, the taller figure stayed in the hall as the second entered. Making their way across the room, the figure sat on the bed.
"Hello, George. We need to talk."
Hearing the all too familiar voice, the man in the bed, George Ormsted, sat up and regarded her in the dim light.
"Nancy, if you wanted to talk to me you could have done it during office hours. There was no need for melodramatics." He kept his voice calm and level, making certain not to betray any of the apprehension he felt at this woman's presence in his house in the middle of the night.
"Now, George, if we talked in your office you would stand on your dignity as Deputy Director of the CIA and refuse to tell me what I want to know. Having this meeting here allows it to be just you and me, two old comrades in arms, talking off the record."
George peered at her in the gloom, trying to gauge her mood. The thought of trying to reach his weapon passed briefly through his head, only to be instantly rejected. He knew that age and retirement had not dulled her edge or her reflexes, any attempt to take action against her would probably prove fatal. Playing for time, he asked.
"What do you want to know that is so important you have to talk to me in the middle of the night?"
Nancy smiled slightly at him. "I want to know why you lied to me about what happened to my granddaughter in Plantain. What was so important you would betray the trust between us?"
George silently gulped, knowing that what he had feared for years had come to pass. Keeping his voice level, he replied. "I didn't lie to you. The agency confirmed the story the Plantianians gave us. Your granddaughter worked with the known villain Shego and took out most of anti-drug interdiction force. I did everything I could to protect her."
Nancy shook her head as she tsked at him. "I had hoped you would decide to tell me the truth for old time's sake but I was prepared if you didn't." She raised her voice. "Would you come in my dear and turn on the lights on your way."
George squinted at the sudden brightness as the lights came on. Once they had adjusted to the light, he saw the figure that had entered the room clearly and, after moment's confusion, his heart sank as he saw a nightmare long dead standing before him. The woman was tall and slim, her piercing blue eyes staring menacingly at him from behind her mask. The mask covered her entire face and melded with the formfitting bodysuit she wore, her long platinum blond hair spilling from the back of the mask. For a moment, he stared at the shifting multicolored hues of her body suit, before remembering the danger in their hypnotic pattern and tearing his eyes away.
"Brainchild, you're supposed to be dead." He turned to confront Nancy. "You said you killed her. How is she still alive? Why did you lie to me?"
Nancy tsked again. "I said I took care of her. When I offered details, you refused to maintain plausible deniability."
He stared at her in horror. "How could you let her live? You know what she did, what she is capable of –."
Nancy cut him off angrily. "Don't patronize me George. I was the one out in the field dealing with her while you sat safe in your office in Langley. I said I took care of her and I did. She hasn't been active in over twenty years. She is only doing this as a favor to me."
George's eyes shifted wildly between the two women, terror etched on his face. "What – what are you going to do to me?"
Brainchild moved toward the bed, a small disk covered in intricate electronic visible in her hand. "This is my new and improved obedience disk, the MASTER disk. Like the old model, it modifies your synaptic patterns to make you compliant but it works on a much deeper level than the old one. If I leave it on a subject for long enough, the synaptic changes become permanent."
Scrambling back in the bed, desperate to get away from the figure looming over him, George didn't see Nancy move until it was too late. She grabbed one wrist and twisted, sending him face down on the bed in pain. He struggled wildly to escape but went limp as the small disk was pressed against the back of his head. At Brainchild's command, he sat up in the bed, staring blankly into the distance.
"Now listen carefully, I want you answer Mrs. Possible's question fully and completely. Do you understand?" Brainchild's voice was low and menacing.
"Yes, mistress." George replied listlessly.
"Good." Turning and giving Nancy a wink she continued. "He is ready. Just don't ask too many questions at once. Try to be as specific as possible or his answers may go on forever."
Nancy nodded. "Did you lie to me about what happened to my granddaughter, Kim, in Plantain?"
"Yes."
"Why did you lie?"
"I had orders from the Director of the CIA to keep the truth from you."
"Do you know why he gave those orders?"
"Yes."
"Why did he give those orders?"
"He knew that if you found out the truth about what happened you would never let your granddaughter be punished."
"Why did he want my granddaughter punished?"
"There were two reasons. The first reason was to stop her meddling in Agency business. On several of her missions, she compromised important Agency operations. The second reason was because it was thought that the punishment could be used help to recruit her for either Global Justice or Agency itself."
'Did you know of the Plantainians plans to use my granddaughter to find Shego and then kill them both?"
"No."
"Did anyone at the Agency know of the Plantainians plans?"
"The agent in charge of the office in Plantain knew of the mission and helped plan it."
"What is his name?"
"Simon Arnold Patterson."
"What is his current duty station?"
"He is currently assigned to the Latin America desk at Langley."
"What was Dr. Director's involvement in what happened to my granddaughter in Plantain?"
"She got involved when your granddaughter contacted her to report the situation in Plantain. The Agency convinced her it was in her best interest to not get involved. She agreed to the plan to have your granddaughter punished."
"Are there any current plans involving my granddaughter?"
"Yes."
"What are those plans?"
"The agency wants her eliminated. They have issued orders to all stations to terminate her if the opportunity presents itself."
Restraining her urge to hit him, Nancy continued. "Why does the agency want her eliminated?"
"Her latest actions have caused the Agency a great deal of trouble."
Turning to Brainchild, Nancy inquired. "Can you think of anything else we need to know?"
Brainchild shook her head, not trusting her voice to not betray her emotions at the thought of her daughter being murdered.
"What do you think we should do with him? I know we planned to simply wipe his memory and leave him none the wiser but after hearing what the Agency has planned I really want to hurt him."
Brainchild thought for a moment, then pulled a small case from a hidden pouch at the small of her back. "I think wiping his memory is still a good idea, just a little more than we planned."
As she opened the case and took out a small vial and hypodermic, Nancy looked at her questioningly.
"I'm sure you remember my Lethe formula?" Brainchild asked, holding up the vial.
Nancy nodded, remembering several times during her hunt for Brainchild when she had woken up with a day or two of memory missing. Once she had even woken up with no memory of her current mission, which had been quite embarrassing, to say the least.
Brainchild filled the syringe from the vial. "This is a derivative of the original formula, called Oblivion. Instead of just removing short-term memory, it is capable of removing long-term memories too. I am going to give him enough to remove the last four years of his life. He took four years of Kim's life so it seems like a fair punishment to me."
Nancy stared at Brainchild for a moment, having almost forgotten just how driven and amoral she had been. "What about the counter-agent we developed? If they detect something like Lethe in his system they will probably try it."
"The new formula is undetectable after two hours of its use so they should never know it was used. Even if they do detect it, I also altered the original formula so the antidote you developed will no longer work." Without any more talk, Brainchild injected the contents of the syringe into the helpless man.
"I want you to go to sleep and not wake up until your alarm goes off." Brainchild removed the disk as soon as the man was asleep. "The disk has a residual effect that leaves the subject under its effect for about an hour after it is removed. We have plenty of time to leave undetected."
Nancy nodded as she made her way to the door, shutting off the lights. The pair rapidly made their way to the roof where they entered the hovercraft. Making certain they were not observed they flew off into the night.
~O~O~O~
'It must be dinner time.' mused Wade in the confines of his mind as he heard the guard open the small door to the box mounted on the wall of his cell, replace the old tray with a new one and close the small door. Once the guard had returned to his post, a buzzer sounded, signaling that he had thirty seconds to open the door to the box and remove the tray before the door was locked for the night. Moving swiftly he used one hand to open the door while the second slid the tray from the box. Carrying the tray to his bunk, he sat down and began to eat slowly, savoring each meager bit.
Finishing his meal, he placed the tray on the floor and lay back on his bunk, staring at the ceiling. Nowadays, whether to stare at the ceiling or the wall was the only choice he was allowed to make. Every other option had been taken from him, so he simply stared and thought. He gave a bitter inward chuckle as he thought of the irony of his situation. He was one of the five greatest hackers in the world, a wizard with computers and electronics, but, currently, he was in a cell where the most sophisticated thing was a single light bulb. His captors knew of his abilities and, therefore, had sent him to a place they would be useless.
Rather than review his slim chance for escape again, he turned his thought down another well-worn path, who was to blame for his current situation. First, of course, was Dr. Director, head of Global Justice and all around worthless lying bitch. Looking back, he could see how she and the rest of Global Justice had manipulated him as well as Kim and Ron. They were always ready with a ride or mission, but details about the background of the mission and what was really going on were conveniently not given. He wondered how many times they had been duped by GJ into helping the wrong side.
What galled him most, though, was how she had lied to and manipulated him over what happened in Plantain. It had started simply enough, a simple retrieval mission; find the bad guy, get the stolen object, throw the bad guy in jail, return the item. Simple enough that Kim decided to go on the mission alone when it turned out Ron had a family function to attend. However, as soon as Kim reached Plantain, things went wrong. All landline communications were cut and all satellite communications were being jammed. When he tried hacking systems to get access, the systems were shut down, forcing him to try another system. After six days of frantic effort, he finally commandeered a NSA spy satellite and got in visual and electronic communication with Kim again.
Once he heard Kim and Shego's stories, he immediately contacted Dr. Director, who said she would handle it. He was shocked when he found out what Dr. Director considered, handling it. He was ready to go public with what he knew in spite of the threat of criminal charges, when Dr. Director contacted him. She told him a tale that agreed with everything he knew but also gave a good reason to believe her.
There had been an artifact stolen and Shego had been blamed, but all record of it had been destroyed when it was discovered the son of a cabinet minister, who planned to hold it for ransom, had stolen the item. Rather that admit the truth to Kim they let her hunt for Shego, figuring she was wanted by so many countries, if she was captured they would find someone to take her into custody. Kim and Shego had been attacked and the attack group had followed a signal, but it was not one planted on Kim. The group was an anti-drug interdiction force and they were following the signal of a tracer they had placed in a large shipment of narcotics. They planned to raid the shipment when it was being traded for arms with a group that had ties to Islamic extremists.
Unknown to them, Shego had apparently hijacked the shipment and was planning to sell it the highest bidder. The attack group thought they were raiding a heavily armed drug trafficker and arms smuggler's compound. By the time they realized something was wrong, Shego had taken out one of the helicopters and escaped with Kim. Attempts were made over the next week to contact Kim and explain the situation, but the security blackout imposed for the drug raid made electronic communication impossible and any attempt to meet her face to face resulted in violence. When Kim had Wade contact her, that had given Dr. Director a chance to put things right.
Unfortunately, when she got in contact with Kim, she discovered that Shego had used the situation to seduce Kim and influence her. No matter what Dr. Director said, Kim refused to believe that Shego had anything to do with the attack on her house. She also refused to believe that the attack had not been specifically targeted at her too. Dr. Director said she spent hours trying to change Kim's mind but in the end had given up and simply arrested them both. Kim's story about Shego giving herself up to save Kim was more of Kim's delusion.
Dr. Director admitted that numerous mistakes had been made in the whole affair, but was pleading with him not to expose them for Kim's sake. The plan was to isolate Kim for a time, forcing her to face reality and snap her out of her delusion. Once she had returned to normal, she and Ron would be offered jobs at GJ, which would end Kim's probation. Dr. Director promised that Kim's record would be cleared once she was back to normal. Dr. Director even came up with the idea of him being threaten with hacking and spying charges in order to force him to not help Kim. At first, he had been reluctant to agree, but after seeing how Kim was acting and looking at the evidence he had been provided, he reluctantly agreed.
Of course, he now knew that the whole tale had been a careful blend of truth and lies designed to get him to make the decision they wanted. Unfortunately, by the time he did find out the truth it was too late to do much about it, thanks to the second reason he was in this situation, Kim's grandmother Nancy Possible. He wanted to believe that Nancy was being used as he was being used, but found that hard to believe.
Shortly before Kim's graduation, the NSA had started to try to recruit him, first with promise of money and cutting-edge equipment, then with threat against him and his family. He had been preparing to ghost himself, when Nancy Possible had shown up in his room one day with a proposal for him. She wanted him to work for a highly top-secret group that monitored super villain communications for the UN. He would get access to real cutting-edge tech, much of it confiscated from super villains and mad scientists, as well as being able to continue to help protect the world much as he had done when working with Kim. If he took the job, all trace of him and his family would disappear. His family would be given new identities and relocated while he went to work at his new job.
When he had asked for proof that the people he would be working with were on his level, Nancy had chuckled and told him to check a specific file on his system. When he did so he found a single line added at the end, 'Gotcha'. He almost couldn't believe that someone had hacked his system and done so without be detected. After a moment's thought, he had accepted the job.
As soon as he saw the equipment he would be working with, he knew he had made the right decision. Most of it was so cutting-edge, it would normally only be seen as a prototype in an R&D lab, but here it was in everyday use. The rest of the equipment was so advanced it could only have come from super villains and mad scientists. After week's worth of orientation, he had dived in to studying and using his new equipment. He rapidly learned the ins and outs of the equipment and the people he was working with. The people fell into three groups; what he called the drones, the normal workers who would probably be standouts anywhere else but here were simply normal, the one-hit wonders, who were the best in the world at one thing only and terrible at anything else and the last group, his group, the five all around geniuses who ran circle around everyone else.
For months, he had reveled in the novelty of working with people as smart as he was and dealing with some of the toughest problems in the world. They were regularly required to break some of the toughest encryption on the planet and then develop AI programs to scan the encrypted data for relevant information. He had been shocked when he realized they were actually hacking the In-terror-net itself. The In-terror-net was supposed to be unhackable and no one was known to have cracked it. Even he had tried that once or twice while working with Kim but had gotten nowhere. Soon, he started to wonder what was done with all this information they obtained. It seemed to him that someone like Global Justice could use this information to cripple most super villain operations, particularly the more public ones like Hench Co.
That had been when the job lost its appeal. Any attempts to ask questions were met with silence followed by subtle retaliation. Unwanted job assignments, equipment failures that only affected your work, a change to less desirable quarters, they had many ways to punish. If someone pushed too far, an accident would be arranged, not necessarily fatal, to teach everyone a lesson. He rubbed his leg in unconscious memory at the faulty beam that had collapsed and broken his right leg after he had pushed to find out what was done with the intelligence they gathered.
He had quickly learned to keep his mouth shut and his head down. He had started to research past events, which is how he discovered the truth about what had happened in Plantain. He had created a hidden file of all the secrets he could find, being careful to prevent anyone from knowing of its existence. Slowly, over the next few months, he had filled the file with occasions where they had known of a super villain attack in advance and done nothing about it, times when reports to various agencies had been 'edited' to provoke a reaction and detailed accounts of records altered and deleted for no official purpose.
The next several years had been a slow, danger-filled nightmare. Always afraid of being discovered, constantly worried for his family's safety; he had lost his happy go lucky manner and become a quiet and somber recluse. He only left his room to go to work, spending all of his free time either brooding over his situation or mindlessly playing video games to distract himself. He had been well on his way to losing all hope or ambition and becoming nothing more than an empty shell when he had seen a report on Dr. Director's encounter with Kim at Smarty Mart.
Knowing that Kim was still fighting, even after all she had been through, inspired him to keep fighting. His first thought was to ask for her help in escaping his predicament but he discarded that idea quickly. Kim had her own problems to deal with and did not need him running to her with his, particularly when they were self-made ones. In addition, a small part of him wondered if he wasn't being used to set Kim up again. The logical part of him knew it was crazy, but another part of him still felt like it had betrayed her all those years ago and didn't want to do so again.
He decided to help Kim without her knowledge. His first action was to hack into and modify Condor's old AUNT system. He installed a variety of tools to allow it greater access to Global Justice records and to prevent it from being detected. Once that was finished, he started to run his own custom scans on the data they received at work, hoping to find a lead on who was behind the operation he was trapped in and what its purpose was.
He had been shocked to the core when he had found the message from Brainchild on one of the In-terror-net forums. Her real identity was one of the many secrets he had uncovered and hidden away but he never expected her to become active again. Hope had grown in him, if Kim's mom was still active perhaps he could get her a message. She might be able to find him and rescue him. He had been crafting a carefully concealed message to send to Brainchild when they had broken into his room and dragged him to this cell.
He had been strip searched, given an orange jumpsuit and thrown in this cell. Since then there had been no attempt to question him and he was allowed no contact with the world outside his cell. Sometimes he wondered why they didn't just kill him, were they afraid of angering Nancy Possible or did they have some future use for him.
As the light in his cell dimmed, he stopped his fruitless quest for answers and turned over to sleep.
~O~O~O~
Irritation growing, he glanced at the clock on the wall of his communication room. The meeting should have ended over an hour ago but Mask still had not reported in. Taking a calming breath, he reminded himself that Mask could not leave the meeting early without arousing suspicion and, given the Agency's normal reaction to unplanned events, he could very well be trapped there until they had talked the problem to death. He gave a silent sigh as the communicator activated.
"Report."
A grey haired man of middle age with a bushy mustache, Mask's normal cover in the Agency, stared at him from the screen of the communicator, a slightly worried look on his face. "Master, it as you predicted, Dr. Director has taken Global Justice independent. She is using her knowledge of various past misdeeds to insure her organization's continued existence and independence."
He gave a small, almost imperceptible smile. "Good. At the very time when she most needs the cooperation of other agencies, she has cut herself of from their help. This will aid my plan greatly." Noticing the growing look of worry on Mask's face, a hint of worry started to grow in his mind. "What is it?"
Involuntarily flinching at his master's tone, Mask swallowed nervously. "There has been an incident at the Agency, Master. I am not certain what it means, but I believe it is serious.'
He gave Mask a small nod. "Continue."
"Two days ago, the Deputy Director of the Agency, George Olmsted, experienced an . . . event."
"What sort of event." He asked, his impatience growing.
"He lost a large portion of his memory, Master. Medical test can find no organic cause for it and no drugs were detected in his system. The Agency could find no sign of his having been affected by any known memory altering device." Looking relieved to have finally explained the problem to his master, he waited for a reply.
"What is the extent of the loss?" He kept the worry that was growing in his mind from showing in his voice.
"He lost all memory of a little over the last four years of his life. Extensive tests show that his memory of events before that is normal. It's like someone simply wiped the last four years from his mind." Confusion at the situation and its cause was plain to see on Mask's face.
He sat in stunned silence for several moments as a cold fear, a fear he had not felt for almost twenty years, gripped his heart. How could he not have seen this coming? Once Possible became involved, he should have known something like this would happen. Had he underestimated his enemy? His thoughts were interrupted by Mask's nervous query.
"Master, what action should I take about this situation? The Director of the Agency –."
"Silence!" His questions cut off by the angry reply, Mask's face grew pale at the unprecedented show of emotion by his master.
He sat in brooding thought, unaware of his surroundings, for several minutes as he reviewed his plan. When his initial plan had failed after five years of hard work, he had retreated to take stock of his life and his ambitions. In those lonely months, he had found some hard truths. He had been too impatient for success, unwilling to wait before he tasted the fruits of victory. Because of that impatience, he had failed to plan for setbacks and assumed that all of his schemes would automatically succeed. That arrogance had led him to underestimate his opponents and one driven young woman in particular.
When he had first encountered her, she seemed the perfect tool with which to implement his plan. He had molded and manipulated her from afar; using her for his own ends without her knowledge, until one day, she discovered the truth. She had not just stopped working for him she had actively opposed him. With unbelievable ease, she had danced across the world; foiling his plans, undermining his influence and sabotaging his network of agents, all with a smile on her face and laugh for those who tried to oppose her.
By the time she was finally dealt with it was too late, his plans lay in ruins, his influence gone and his carefully crafted network of agents in tatters. When, years later, he had discovered the truth of her disappearance, he forbade taking revenge in order not to draw attention to himself. As the years passed and his new plan came to fruition, concern for her fell to the back of his mind. Even when her daughter was caught up in one element of his plan, he chose to ignore her and the threat she represented, secure in the thought that she was no threat.
Examining his feeling honestly, he saw that once again arrogance had led him into error. He not only didn't think she was a threat, he wanted her to see his triumph and know that she had been bested. He had taken delight in the thought of her reaction when she discovered he had executed his plan under her very nose. If he wished to salvage his plan before it was too late, he would have to take drastic action.
Raising his head, he regarded Mask for a moment. "You have new orders. I want all connection between our organization and the Agency eliminated. I want no trace to show we were ever associated with them. I also want all evidence of our involvement in Plantain removed."
"Master, I do not understand. The Agency is counting on our support. Cutting all ties with them will be difficult enough but removing all trace will be almost impossible." Mask's expression and voice betrayed his confusion.
He regarded Mask in silence for a moment before deciding to take him into his confidence, a little at least. "You have to understand the danger of what we are facing. Have you ever heard of Brainchild?"
Mask thought for a moment, wondering at the relevance of the question but not daring to question it. "She was a social activist super villain from about twenty years ago, wasn't she?"
"She was much more than that; she was master of manipulation and mind control. It was not public knowledge at the time but she regularly manipulated heads of state for her own ends. She was one of the most wanted people on the planet, hunted by every law enforcement and intelligence agency in the world, but none of them ever came close to stopping her. Eventually the Agency was successful in stopping her, but only by returning their best agent, Nancy Possible, to the field. Even then, it took Possible almost year to stop her.
"Everyone assumed she had been killed, since she simply disappeared without a trace one day. The truth is known to only a handful of people. Just before her disappearance, she had met and fallen in love with a young scientist named James Timothy Possible." Seeing the look of comprehension flooding mask's face, he continued. "That is right, the villain known as Brainchild is Ann Possible. When Nancy Possible discovered she was in love with her son, she arranged for her to disappear and assume a new life."
He took a moment to consider how much to tell Mask. "Recently, due to the situation with her daughter, she started using her old contacts to find out what had really happened in Plantain. At the time, I did not regard that as serious and dismissed her as a threat. That was a mistake." He saw the startled look on Mask's face at his admission of error. "Remember, one who will not admit a mistake is doomed to repeat it. I assumed Ann was using her old contacts for information purposes only, I never considered she would become Brainchild again for real. The situation with Ormsted shows that I was wrong. Have you ever heard of Lethe?"
"That is one of the drugs the Agency mentioned testing for. The even administered the antidote on the off chance it would work but it didn't." Mask answered calmly, his respect for his master growing at his easy admission of error.
"Lethe was a drug used by Brainchild that wiped out short term memory. In the original form, it could remove up to five or six day's worth of memories. I believe she used an improved version to remove part of Ormsted's long term memory."
"Forgive me for asking, Master." A measure of Mask's normal obsequiousness returning. "But how do you know it was Brainchild that wiped his memory? If the original formula only removed short-term memory isn't it a bit of a leap to assume she could develop a new version to remove long-term memory in such a short time?"
He gave slight nod to indicate his pleasure at the question. "Brainchild was a master at mind control and manipulation. For the last twenty years, what has Ann Possible done?" He saw the look of startled comprehension come over Mask's face. "For the last twenty years Ann Possible has been one of the finest brain surgeons on the planet. With her experience as a doctor added to her experience as a super villain, I believe she could easily modify her Lethe formula in the time she had. There is probably no person on the planet who knows more about the brain and its manipulation than her."
He considered Mask for a moment. "There are two other relevant points you have overlooked."
"What are they, Master?" Mask hurried to ask.
"The first is that George Ormsted was Nancy Possible's old control officer and her major contact in the Agency. As such, he was the one who sold Nancy Possible on the truth of what happened in Plantain. The second is the amount of memory removed. Four years is just about the amount of time since Kim Possible and Shego were apprehended in Plantain. I believe that Nancy Possible and Brainchild questioned Ormsted to discover the truth about Plantain and then took four years of his life in exchange for the four years taken from Kim Possible."
Mask nodded. "As always, your logic is flawless, Master. What should I do if I encounter Nancy or Ann Possible? Do your orders to eliminate them stand?"
He gave a slight shake of his head. "No. If you encounter them, you are to take no action against them. While Nancy Possible may not be in her prime, she is still a formidable opponent but you could probably take her if she was alone. If she were with Brainchild, you would stand no chance at all. Do not underestimate Brainchild because of her age or her long hiatus from action. She is probably one of the most dangerous people on the planet. In some ways, she is even more dangerous than her daughter or Shego."
Mask nodded his understand, a shiver of fright racing down his spine at the thought of encountering a person his master thought was more of a threat than Shego or Kim Possible.
He dismissed Mask to carry out his orders and then started to make a series of calls to other agents around the world. He would need to drastically change his plan, and quickly, if he was to have a hope of success. He found himself having to suppress the urge to hum and realized that the prospect of finally defeating Brainchild in an open contest gave him more pleasure than the old idea of beating her without her knowledge. Every cloud has a silver lining, he mused as he called the next agent.
~O~O~O~
As the first light of dawn appeared over the shoulder of Mt. Yamanouchi, Ron Stoppable made his way to the center of the garden and, easily dropping into lotus position, started his meditation. On most mornings there would have been several others in the garden meditating, but this morning he was left alone to prepare. Today marked the date he would take his last test. If he passed, he would have proved his mastery of Tai Sheng Pek Kwar and his fitness to be Master Sensei's heir and successor.
He suppressed a soft chuckle at the unlikelihood of him becoming Sensei's heir, particularly when you considered his abilities when he first returned here, just after high school graduation. Sensei had felt his confusion and hurt after he left Middleton and sent Yori to find him and bring him back to Yamanouchi. With everything that had happened with Kim and her probation, he had been even more distracted and unfocused than during his original stay. Instead of the long talk full of mystic sayings and Zen wisdom he couldn't understand that he had expected to receive, he had been set a course of lessons from sunrise to sunset.
It was after three weeks of failure at all of his lessons that the first breakthrough had occurred. One of the students had been teasing him about his ineptitude when he went too far and mentioned how Ron must not be much of a man if he could not keep Kim. Luckily, the student easily dodged Ron's enraged blow for the rock wall Ron hit instead was destroyed in a flash of blue. The rest of the class had scrambled away from him as Yori had approached.
"Stoppable-san. Master Sensei requires your presence." Turning she had led Ron to the rear garden where Sensei floated serenely in mid-air, meditating.
"Sensei, I'm sorry about the wall. I don't know what happened. One of the students was teasing me and I asked him to stop but he wouldn't and I finally lost my temper and struck out. I missed him but the wall was destroyed. Please don't send me away; this is the only home I have." Ron had babbled breathlessly, unshed tears filling his eyes when he finished.
Sensei had turned a compassionate eye to him. "Do not worry, Stoppable-san. I will not be sending you away, for today is not a day of shame but a day of victory. Today you touched a new aspect of the Mystic Monkey Power."
Ron looked baffled. "Then you're not mad about the wall? And what do you mean new aspect of the power?"
Sensei lower gently to the ground and motioned for Ron and Yori to walk with him. "You say you warned the other student to stop teasing you?"
Ron rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, yea, Sensei. I just want –."
"No matter." Sensei's calm answer cut him off. "He was warned to stop and did not. He must pay the price for his action. If one provokes a lion, one may not blame the lion for its attack. Yori, see to it that the student in question repairs the wall."
As Yori walked off after giving a small bow, Sensei motioned for Ron to join him on a low stone bench. "I am certain you have many questions, Stoppable-san."
Ron looked slightly bewildered, having expected to be reprimanded for his action and not understanding why he was not. "Um, no offense, Sensei, but I don't understand anything that has happened lately. Nothing in my life has made sense since Kim went to Plantain. I thought coming here would help but I am just as confused as before."
Sensei nodded sagely. "I cannot help with your unfinished business with Kimberly except to point out that it is unfinished. Neither you nor Kimberly were allowed to work out things between you and until you have a chance to do that, it will remain unfinished. All I can recommend is that you put off worrying about it until you have a chance to deal with it with Kimberly. Until you do stop worrying you will be stuck exactly where you are now."
Ron nodded desultorily as Sensei continued. "Your stay here at Yamanouchi has been designed to distract you from your problems and to prepare you for your future. Today you showed you are ready to take the first steps on you path, you used a new aspect of the Mystic Monkey Power."
Ron stared at the garden in silence for a moment. "No offense, Sensei, but I don't think using the power in a fit of anger is all that much progress. I mean, I have been trying for years to harness the power and it has never worked."
Sensei laughed. "Stoppable-san, you must understand, the Mystic Monkey Power has many aspects. You have been using one aspect, the Running Monkey, since you first obtained the power. Today, when you struck the wall, you used the Angry Monkey aspect. This is the first time you have used a different aspect despite the numerous dangers you have faced. This is a sign that you are ready to learn to use all of the aspects of the Mystic Monkey Power."
Ron looked a Sensei with a look of amazement on his face. "You mean I have been using the Mystic Monkey Power for years to run away from danger?"
Once again Sensei laughed. "Yes, Stoppable-san. Do not be shocked, one of the hardest lessons for most students to learn is that there is a time to fight and a time to run. This is a lesson you have already mastered."
Starting that day Sensei, Yori and several advanced students had tutored Ron in the differing aspects of the Mystic Monkey Power. His progress had been slow at first but as his confidence grew so did his mastery of the power. He had gone from the school fool, who could not do anything, to the head of the class, the person who had become unstoppable. On a personal level, his life had improved vastly as he and Yori had started dating. Passing his final test would make their engagement official. The one dark spot in his life was concern for Rufus's health. He was impossibly old for a naked mole rat and his age was starting to catch up to him.
Taking a breath, Ron rose from his meditations, knowing that the time for his final test had come. As he approached the main courtyard, he was met by Sensei.
"Stoppable-san, are you ready?"
"Yes."
~o~o~
It was almost time for the evening meal but most of the students were still crowded in the main courtyard, congratulating the new heir to the leadership of Yamanouchi, Ron Stoppable. The crowd parted as Sensei, trailed by Yori, made their way to him.
Ron gave a short bow. "Greetings, Sensei."
Sensei gave an equally short bow. "Greetings, Stoppable-san. I dislike cutting your celebration short but a situation has arisen that requires your attention."
Ron's face grew somber, knowing the situation must be grave to cause Sensei to interrupt like this. Making his goodbyes, Ron followed Sensei to his office, where he and Yori sat on the floor while Sensei took his place on the dais.
"Stoppable-san, recently we received a prophecy of dark things to come. It seems you will be needed to stop it."
Ron bowed his head. "As you wish, Sensei. What did the prophecy say?"
"Storm clouds gather in the twilight.
Darkness soon will engulf the world
Only the impossible and the unstoppable
Can find the daughter of mind and the son of machine
And lead them to the world salvation"
Ron's face remained calm, but inwardly, the short verse had started a slow panic in his mind. "Sensei, do you think this means I will need Kim's help with this crisis?"
Sensing Ron's inner turmoil, Sensei reassured him. "That is one possible meaning of the prophecy but do not blind yourself to other possible meanings. You must keep you mind open and unclouded if you are to save the world from the danger that threatens it."
Ron nodded. "When do I leave?"
"You and Yori will leave in the morning."
~O~O~O~