I do not own Kim Possible, or any other Disney or DC character. I'm just borrowing them for my own view of alternative tales.
KP: GreenLantern's Light
By LJ58
Part 8: The Good Fight
"I do believe she has figured it out," Senor Senior told them as they turned from the monitors that showed the dozens of turtle-crabs headed directly toward them with a glowing green sphere leading the way.
"Let her come," Shego grinned. "By now, she's bound to be tapped out, and almost out of juice," she smirked. "And then she's finished."
"I don't know," the older man frowned. "So far, she seems to have managed our little creations without too much trouble."
"Maybe. But she's using a lot of that ring-energy doing it. So by the time she gets here….."
"I see. You intended for her to arrive at the end of a gauntlet, reduced to her usual tricks and toys. How clever, Shego. I seem to have miscalculated."
Shego only smirked. "I do have a few tricks of my own, old man, if you'll remember."
"True. True. Just one question. What do you intend to do about young Mr. Stoppable. As I recall, he's become quite the formidably young hero in his own right of late. Why, Junior doesn't even stand a chance against him these days."
Shego chose not comment on Junior as she turned to continue scanning for the Kimmunicator's frequencies. Either they had quit using it, or they had wised up themselves, and were staying silent for the time being.
Not that it mattered. She could see the green sphere plainly enough as the woman that now took heroing to a whole new level closed in on their lair.
"Do we release the last cuddly-wuddly yet," Amy asked eagerly from nearby as she turned from watching whatever held her attention on the monitors before her. Likely more of those loopy things she was making up the way old ladies usually made cookies.
"Oh! My brownies," the crazed geneticist abruptly changed topics as a loud buzzing went off from down the corridor beyond the lair's communications room. "Be right back! Does anyone want milk?"
"I wouldn't, my dear," Senor Senior stopped Shego from answering. "Recall, she did bring in several cows earlier?"
Shego knew that meant they likely weren't just cows now.
"Pass," she shouted down the hall as she turned back to the external monitors. Several that had gone out by then as she realized the turtle-crabs were swarming the outside of the lair as they climbed up and over anything in the way as they tried to reach the redhead now hovering directly overhead.
Over to one side, Electronique only sniggered.
"Vhat's wrong, Shego. Lose your adventurouzzz streak working vor zat pozzzer," she tittered.
"Let's leave Dr. D out of this. Just the mention of that dimwit is a sure jinx on any undertaking," she complained.
"Regrettably, I must concur," Senor Senior sighed. "The not go good doctor does have a way of ruining even the most promising villainous scheme. Although," he paused to consider. "He has mastered the villainous laugh quite nicely."
Shego only rolled her eyes.
Even as she felt the sudden shaking of the walls around them.
Considering they were in the heart of a mountain, that was a considerable feat.
"I zzhink someone iz angry," Electronique grinned as they saw another flash of green, and five more of their monitors went blank.
"Milk and brownies," Amy tittered as she walked into the control room carrying a laden tray.
"While they do look tantalizing, my dear Amelia," Senor Senior, Sr. smiled at her. "I do believe it is time for us to proceed to the next act in our little drama. Perhaps you would be so kind as to release our last little surprise for our guests now?"
"Oh, sugar," Amy pouted. "That's her problem. Always dropping in unannounced, and simply ruining a good time."
Shego ground her teeth.
"Let's just remember why we're here," she told her. "After this, there won't be any annoying redhead to bother us. Ever again! Now let the freak go catch its dinner."
"Freak," Amy gasped, staring at her in shock. "How could you call my cutest, cuddliest little creation a freak,' she pouted.
"I'm sure she did not mean to insult you, or your creation, Dr. Hall. In fact, you must know how truly impressed we all are with your wonderful creations. Still, Shego does have a point. If we don't stop Miss Possible before she gets inside without ensuring she has been….tapped out, as they say, we might have a little trouble with the next phase of the plan."
"Oh, right. Well, the big meanie does deserve this," she said, and walked over to the console where she blew a kiss at the writhing thing on the screen, and then threw a switch before opening a microphone, and cooing, "Go get her, baby. Go bring that nasty glowing bug to mommykins!"
The speaker shrilled with the feedback of the roar, and the very ground vibrated as something moved not far from them.
Even Electronique looked uneasy as they felt the creature passing by not far from where they stood. A creature that even Amy had a little trouble calming not long after it began to form and shape itself into the massive, monstrous thing that now awaited the unknowing heroine outside.
"Finally," Shego said after a moment. "I am finally going to get my ultimate victory over that prissy, nagging…..know-it-all!"
"We all are," Senor Senior smiled. "And perhaps this moment will finally lure my son back to the dark side. Where he belongs!" All three women only eyed him in silence at that one. They all, after all, knew Junior.
KP
"Ready, Ron," she asked, standing at the heavy, steel door that obviously led to the latest lair of Shego and company.
"Always," he smiled, and nodded as they looked down at the swarm of turtle-crabs not far from them as they tried to keep up with her when she flew up the side of the mountain. "Let's get that door open before the guests arrive, and let them go back home," he grinned.
"Good idea," she agreed, and formed a massive green sledgehammer even as Ron dropped to the ground and began to glow blue. "On three. One, two….."
They hit the door together, and struck the thick steel so hard it buckled in the middle, and flew into the open hangar beyond as it struck the far stone wall to set off an echoing vibration that seemed to shake the very mountain around them.
"Wow," she exclaimed as her hands were tempted to clamp down over her ears. "One of us has been working out!"
"Look out, KP. Here comes company," he said, and leapt inside, and atop a jet as the oversized crab creatures swarmed toward her as she rose from the ground, and started to follow him.
They seemed to ignore Ron, and she realized that they had locked on her emerald glow again. Even as she settled down atop the jet near Ron, killing her ring's glow, the turtle-crabs faltered and milled again even as a low roar echoed up out of the tunnel to their right.
"That…..did not sound promising," Ron grimaced.
"Wanna bet its yellow, too?"
"I'd say that one was a sucker bet," Ron scowled.
"I'm really getting tired of this," she said, and stared toward the dimly lit tunnel. "So….?" "Ready when you are," he said, his body beginning to shimmer with a light blue aura as his eyes glittered brightly.
"We did come all this way," she agreed, and triggered her battle suit rather than her ring.
Even as they prepared to jump toward that far door, the metal panel exploded outwards, taking three of the nearest turtle-crabs with it, and they both gaped.
"Oh, you have to be kidding me," Kim groaned, staring at the massive bovine creature with squid-like tentacles protruding from around its thick neck. It's legs were short, but muscular, and it had very sharp spines all over its head that melded bullish and reptilian features. It was also the size of an elephant.
"Go," Ron told her, and leapt down to face the creature, ducking the waving tentacles as it eyed him with cold, black orbs, and charged. "I'll handle this one. You put the loonies down!"
"Count on it," she assured him, and raced down the tunnel wearing her battle suit, and ready for anything. Knowing who she was facing, she knew that was just what she was facing. Behind her, the beast roared loud enough to nearly deafen her. She knew that had to mean Ron was doing all right.
Racing past the huge beast even as Ron distracted it by slamming joined fists into the middle of its wide, armored snout, Kim waited until she was halfway down the dimly lit corridor, and again mentally summoned her emerald aura, and flew toward the heart of Drakken's lair.
Or rather, Shego's, it would now seem.
Even as she did, she heard the howl of the turtle-crabs, and the weird bull-thing all bellow in outrage. Even as the sounds of more than a few of them sounded as if they were now scuttling her way. The dull thuds and powerful vibrations she felt as she flew toward her showdown suggested Ron was still keeping squid-face busy.
That was fine.
She smashed through the last door blocking her and stopped to stare around the empty control room that was apparently still the heart of the lair. She turned to frown at a tray filled with fresh brownies, and a pitcher of milk.
She frowned, then noted the aura around her started to blink and flutter. She gave a brief frown as the green aura faded, but was still clad in her battle suit, so didn't hesitate to study the dark monitors, thinking they might tell her something.
But they were all dark, and remained so even as she heard a low chuckle.
"Poor Kimmie having problems? Well, guess what, Pumpkin. They're about to get worse," Shego's low, snide tone told her as something overhead exploded with a loud pop, and temporarily blinded her. Even as she blinked to clear her spotted vision, she noted two things simultaneously.
Her force-field was down.
And Shego's glowing fist was less than a quarter inch from her face.
"Shego! That was low even for you," she hissed, back-flipping out of the way to land perched atop one of the now dark consoles, and watching the mercenary felon plant a glowing fist in one of them after she ducked.
"You want low, Princess. Trust me, you're going to find out just how low I can go," she laughed as she jumped up, launching a side-kick at Kim's belly.
Even as Kim tried to jump aside again, something snagged her left ankle, and she yelped as Shego's foot was planted firmly in her side, slamming her into the rocky wall several feet away before she could regain her balance.
She looked up from the floor to see Senor Senior smiling blandly as he twirled his cane while watching Shego stalk toward her.
"I see you tossed out your usual rules, too," she grumbled.
"Don't bother trying your tricks, Kimmie," Shego laughed as she launched another kick as Kim pressed something on her left wrist. "Electronique's EMP burst was strong enough to fry even your kiddy suit's circuits. And since your night out obviously cost you your fancy ring's edge, that just leaves you and me," she smiled maliciously as Kim just managed to duck a series of combination punch/kick that had her backing away from the woman's flurry of attacks.
Kim blocked the last kick, caught her ankle, and flung Shego aside as she declared, "Actually, I expected something just like this out of you. Unlike Senior's usual methods, I happen to know you haven't found a depth you won't sink to as yet."
"Oh, dear. That was quite the….low blow, as they say," Senor Senior, Sr. smirked.
"Speaking of low blows!"
"So," Kim demanded, deftly evading the next glowing fist, and planting an elbow in Shego's back that had her staggering forward before she could catch herself. "What's the real plan here? Because, I know you people didn't stage all this just to draw me here."
"Actually, we did," Electronique sniggered as she appeared, announcing herself by blasting the ground near Kim with an energy blast that singed her boots. Nearly taking off her toes.
Kim just stared as she barely ducked another blast, and put Senor Senior between them for a moment so the woman couldn't keep firing without hitting him.
"So, where's Amy," she panted, dodging when the wily old man used her ploy against her, and tried to strike at her with his cane again even as he spun out of Electronique's way.
"She's turning those freaks you tried to lead here away. So don't be expecting any cavalry this time," Shego mocked. "And with your sidekick occupied, that leaves you on your own."
"Yeah, I guessed it would be something like that," she admitted, then yelped again as a fist slammed into the side of her hip when she landed too close to the green-skinned woman who took advantage of the moment.
She half jumped, half flew back, and stood just glaring as Electronique laughed again as she and Shego both bracketed her.
"Zzzzo, you guessed zzzhis ploy, and still came alone? You are dumber than that blue dolt!"
"Actually," Kim said, and jerked out her grapple.
"You think that's going to help," Shego laughed as they closed on her.
"As a matter of fact," she grinned, and fired the grapple, swinging up to the ceiling where she pulled a mini-laser from her belt, set off the sprinklers, and watched all three villains suddenly jerk and twitch as they screeched in pain when the water flooded the lair, grounding all three as Electronique's energy-pack proved not to be quite as well insulated as it looked.
Dropping back to the ground after the Go-City villainess collapsed beside the old man, she focused on Shego, whom she knew was going to be tougher to beat. The woman, she knew, could take a lot of abuse.
To prove the point, the comet-powered felon was already pushing herself off her knees as she glared at her with a genuinely dark scowl.
"Okay, Princess," she hissed, running a gloved hand through her dark mane. "Now, I'm going to get serious."
Kim stepped back, and just smiled, crossing her arms as she did.
"You think you can take me on full burn? Let me show you just how those jerks on that weird moon-thingy felt," she growled, and her hands flared brighter than ever with the roiling plasma as she leapt at Kim.
Just before a surge of turtle-crabs poured into the room, scuttling over one another as they targeted the woman with green energies glowing around her hands.
"Oh…..snap. Amy!"
Kim just stood to one side, safely out of the way as the turtle-crabs followed the fleeing woman who did not stay to see if they would distinguish between Kim's power-ring, and her natural plasma. She couldn't help but snigger as she rebooted the battle suit with the fail-safe Wade had designed, and then lifted both unconscious villains after she disarmed and tied them securely before heading to the exit.
She was near the hangar when she slowed, peered out around the forked tunnels, and spotted Ron lounging against one of the walls.
"Ron?"
"No big, KP," he grinned, nodding toward the unconscious bull-squid. "Apparently, it's head wasn't as thick as mine," he chortled.
"Let's clear everyone out, and seal these creatures inside. Betty's people can get rid of them later. After we get these people behind bars."
Even as she was carrying her two captives to the main exit, she heard Amy's distinctive voice cry, "My baby!" as she came running up to the yellow monstrosity that lay at Ron's feet.
"Ron."
"I have her," the monkey-master told her, and walked over to simply put a firm hand on her shoulder.
The stocky geneticist turned and started at his touch, and then sagged with a dark pout. "Oh, pooh. You meanies always win. It's just not fair."
"Maybe you're just on the wrong side," Kim suggested as she came over, and supplied a pair of flex-shackles to secure the geneticist so she could be taken into custody.
Amy just glowered as they led her outside into the cool, pre-dawn sky. Even as she and Ron levered the steel door back into place, using her laser to spot weld it, they noted four jets flying their way as the two other captives began to come around.
"What about Shego," Ron asked as they secured the steel panel.
"She'll probably be fine," Kim sighed. "But we couldn't risk letting any of those things out. Besides, we both know she won't be trapped long. She'll get out. It's what she does."
"True," Ron agreed as the first GJ landed, and Will Du himself stepped out to eye them with his usual dour gaze.
"I take it your….night off….didn't go well?"
"Someone forgot to let them know," Ron nodded at the three villains that now sat nearby, looking less than pleased.
"Get them out of here," Will demanded as Ron covered Kim as she now recharged her ring as GJ took charge of the villains.
"Where's Shego," Will asked as she came back from where she had summoned her power battery out of sight of the others.
"Inside. Or not. Hard to tell with her. But there are also a lot of very weird monsters we had to seal inside, so I didn't bother hunting her once I stopped them."
Will nodded, glancing over at where Amy was being put into the jet with the others. "We'll get Dr. Hall to tell us how to neutralize those things. We already sent teams to pick up the three…..creatures you left in town."
"Thanks. That's a relief," Kim told him honestly.
Will, being Will, merely nodded curtly, and turned to handling the matters at hand.
"So, why didn't Dr. Director show up this time," Ron asked dryly before he could leave them.
"Cleaning up another one of your messes is hardly that high up on her agenda when she has an entire world to police," Will remarked curtly.
Both Ron and Kim simply stared at that one.
"Besides, I believe Dr. Director wishes to debrief you personally in the morning. Ah, in two hours. Just you," he told Kim when Ron's frown turned even darker. "Something about…..Guardian business."
"I see. Guess I'd better go see what she wants, Ron," he told her fiancée. "Can you finish up here?"
"Sure, KP," he said quietly, staring at Will's back "You can count on me. Just….be careful."
"Always," she smiled, and leaned close to kiss his cheek. "Keep an eye on him, too," she whispered for his ears alone. "He seems….a little anxious about something for some reason."
"You noticed, too," Ron remarked quietly as Will glanced back their way once after reaching the closest group of his own agents to confer with for a moment.
"I'm not completely blind. Not after that fiasco a few months ago when he sent us up in Beijing," she grumbled.
"Yeah. Yeah, I still owe him for….."
"Later, Ron," Kim said. "Let's just see what is up this time. Just….keep your eyes open."
"You, too. KP. Space hero, or not, you're still my best friend, and fiancée."
"Ditto," she smiled, and kissed his cheek again. "I'll check in later," she told him in a more normal voice, and her body was cloaked in emerald energies once more as she rose into the sky, hovered briefly, and vanished over the horizon in a burst of speed few jets could manage.
Ron watched her go with a wistful smile.
"Hero envy," Will asked as he walked back over to join him again.
"Hardly," Ron told him, his instincts still not liking this guy much lately since that mission to China, when it became apparent GJ used them for bait, or diversions, more than anything else. It was not a good time. It still rankled.
KP
Not far overhead, still hidden in the shadows along the cliff wall where the sun's rays had yet to illuminate, cold green eyes watched the pair before the redheaded heroine vanished over the horizon. Hunched down behind her craggy hiding place, clad in a now torn and ragged costume, Shego watched and fumed as her longtime rival flew off as if untouched by the long night, and all it had thrown at her.
She clenched one fist that now had no glove, her plasma flickering impotently as she ground her teeth at the impossibility that the pair of teens could have not only survived, but bested their plans.
Bad enough they all but spanked Drew these days, but now…..
"This is not over, Princess," she growled, and eased back toward her hidden getaway hovercraft she had put in place out of habit.
Next time, she mused grimly. Next time, she would do the job herself. The way it should have been done herself.
No elaborate plans. No bumbling partners, and conflicting egos. Just raw power where it would do the most good.
Aimed right at that do-gooding cheerleader's heart.
KP
"You wanted to see me," Kim asked as she walked into Dr. Director's office sans her Lantern costume, wearing the same cargos and top she had been wearing the night before since she had by then deactivated her battle suit, too.
"I hear you had quite the night," the one-eyed senior agent that led Global Justice remarked blandly as she looked up from a stack of paperwork that had her scowling even before Kim had arrived. "You acquitted yourself rather spectacularly, too."
"Nothing Ron and I couldn't handle," she tossed out, shrugging. She was learning that some people took offense to her 'No Big' comments.
"Actually, that is exactly what I want to talk to you about. In a roundabout fashion."
"What do you mean?"
"Kimberly, no one denies the contributions of Team Possible to the world, or this agency even before you two became…..provisional agents."
"I'm hearing a 'but' here," Kim said quietly, the long night making her shorter than usual as her neutral expression turned into an open glower.
"Kimberly, I think you still have a lot to contribute. To the world, and to this agency. Still, I'm concerned about certain decisions you're making lately. College, for one."
"What about it?"
"I just heard you had changed your planned majors."
"What does that matter," she asked quietly.
"Quite a lot, actually. In law, and related fields, you would be the idea protégé I planned on all along to someday succeed me."
"Me," Kim asked in genuine surprise.
"You had to know I was considering it," Betty told her blandly as she continued to sift paperwork.
"No, I didn't. I always thought….. Well, Agent Du always seemed….."
"Will is a good agent. A top operative. He's better suited for the field, and training new agents. He, however, doesn't have the imagination and flexibility to handle all the…..angles of my post. You do, Kimberly. Or rather, you could."
"Why do I feel like you're taking a long way around the mountain, as dad likes to say?"
"All right. Let me put it plainly for you, Kim. One, I would like you and Ron to come on board as full agents. Do the usual training. Do the standard placements. And….yes, it would involve breaking you up for a time. At least, from the start."
"Go on," Kim said quietly.
"I'd also like you to reconsider your major."
"What's wrong with my…..?"
"Kim, you're not a lab rat. You're not meant for that life. That piece of jewelry you're wearing," she told her, nodding not at left hand, but her right, proves that much. You might also want to consider your…..engagement."
"What," Kim hissed, truly caught off guard now.
"Kim, as a GJ agent, as a Lantern, you stand to do incalculable good for the world in the years to come. You can literally go anywhere. The sky, is literally, the limit. However, you take on a family, bind yourself to a major that will limit your usefulness, and….well, I am afraid you're going to turn into one of those nine-to-five drudges that frankly has no place in our world. Understand."
"I don't think that's a fair statement," she started to sputter.
"Kimberly, let me say one last thing. Consider the fact I have years of experience over you. I have been in this job long enough to see more than a few promising young people throw their lives away for the mundane. I can see you might think I'm full of it just now, or that you feel I'm being petty. Trust me, I have seen others come and go before now. So I'm asking you, Kimberly, to choose. But choose wisely."
Betty looked back down at her paperwork.
Barely glancing up, she added, "That's all. You may go."
"Choose, but choose wisely, Kimberly," Betty's words hung in her ears as Kim simply turned to the door, and walked out.
The statement carried its own dismissal, or so she felt.
"Do as we say, or get out."
The words were all but implied.
Kim stepped outside of the main offices of Global Justice's primary HQ, and shuddered for just a moment. Then with a burst of green she flung herself into the sky and kept going.
Back in Betty's office, a buzz sounded from a monitor to her left as the agent sighed, looked away from her work again, and flipped a switch.
"Hello, Elizabeth. How did your ward take your little declaration?"
"Not well. I'm surprised she didn't tell me to do something anatomically impossible. Of course, she always did try to be…..conciliatory."
"I'd give her one hour, then call her in on the mission we set up. Without Stoppable. Once she sees her own value to the agency on her own, I believe she will reconsider your words."
"We're taking a big gamble here, Ian. She might not have shown it, but I know Kimberly. I haven't seen her this angry since Lipski set her up with a synthodrone."
"Ah, yes. The Lil' Diablo incident. I remember that one."
"Well, then you'll know how poorly she takes being manipulated."
"True. Which is why it is best she does not find out if we're to both get what we want. Keep me posted, Elizabeth."
"As if I need to bother," she growled as Colonel Black's face vanished from her monitor.
To Be Continued….