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: Green Lantern's Light
By LJ58
Part 9: Enemies & Allies
She flew up through the atmosphere faster than most jets were even capable of moving, but the thrill wasn't there just then.
Her hands were clenched, her jaw taut, and she was trying very, very hard not to scream. Loudly.
Betty's words kept hanging in her ears, and they reverberated like bricks through a glass house.
"Choose," she demanded of her. "But choose wisely."
Pausing on the very edge of the upper atmosphere where she could still breathe without the ring's aide in creating an oxygen envelope, she paused to turn and look back down at the planet. A planet she had unwittingly devoted her life to fighting for after a simple typo had inadvertently launched her career as a crime-fighting adventurer.
Choose, Betty's sharp demand rang in her ears.
"Impressive sight, isn't it," a low, husky voice murmured from just behind her.
Kim whirled in surprise. The shock of another person hovering over the planet paled compared to the realization of who was with her.
"Uh, yes," she choked out, staring at the muscular hero in primary colors who smiled faintly at her.
"I saw you take off. Bad news?"
"In a manner of speaking," she admitted.
He turned and gestured to the planet again. "I often come up here. It gives me a better perspective on things when I'm trying to make…..certain decisions."
"Oh," was all she could think up to reply.
"I heard about your little adventure with the alien world-eater. We were getting ready to tackle that one when we heard the inestimable Team Possible had put together their own task force, and taken care of the threat," the powerful hero told her. "That was a good job."
"Uh, thanks," she murmured.
"You know, if something is bothering you, I might be able to help. We might be able to help."
"We," she frowned.
"Miss Possible, we've watched you for years, and I myself have been very impressed by your exploits. Even my wife is more than impressed by you. Even before you became a Lantern. No easy feat, I assure you," he chuckled.
"Wife. You're….married?"
"Several years now. Happy ones, I should like to think."
She glowered at that. "My would-be boss thinks I should give up my…..personal attachments."
"I know more than a few in our own ranks that think like that. I won't say they're right, or wrong. Everyone knows what is the best fit for themselves, Kimberly," the brightly clad man told him. "Whatever you decide, make sure it's your fit."
"Thanks," she smiled at the caped hero. "That actually….makes sense. So….. You really hang out…. Up here," she asked, looking around at the planet, and at the stars that were so bright up here.
"It also makes it easier for me to spot trouble spots at times."
"Yeah, I can see that," she nodded.
"There are a few other issues I've been meaning to discuss with you," he went on after a brief, but not completely uncomfortable silence.
"Me," she frowned. "I mean…. It's just…. I'm just a normal, average girl. Why would you…..?"
He chuckled.
"Kimberly, or should I call you Green Lantern? Nothing about you is normal," he informed her. "I rather doubt it ever has been."
"Well, I feel normal," she grumbled.
"I'm glad. I feel the same way myself for the most part. At any rate, first, I would like to extend an invitation for Team Possible to join us."
"You…? You mean….? Your team….?"
"Yes. You and Mr. Stoppable have proven yourselves quite formidable, and I can assure you, it was a unanimous decision to invite you."
"Wow. I mean…. Wow," she rasped, and stared at the man, her eyes drawn to his fluttering cape
"Take your time. Talk to your companion. But I hope to hear from you soon. In fact, even if you don't wish to officially join, I'd like to think we might still count on your help with certain…..planetary issues do they come up."
"Of course," she exclaimed. "I mean, sure!"
He smiled and nodded.
"Ah, so, you said….issues? What else?"
He frowned now, and now genuinely looked troubled.
"I happen to know through my own sources that you've been in contact with a certain government liaison that uses the name Black. Colonel Black."
"Yeah," she murmured. "Dr. Director sent us to him to get the army off our…..backs."
"Be careful with him, Kimberly. I can only tell you he is not to be fully trusted."
"Do I want to know why not?"
"Let's just say he has issues with freelance heroes. He'd like to be able to control them the way he controls his soldiers, and those agents under his command."
She frowned at that.
"Dr. Director sent me to him," she murmured.
"I'm sure all of those agencies have similar…..associations."
"She also seemed to be upset with my college major I reconsidered lately."
"Any idea why?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "She thinks diplomacy would be of more use in our field than bio-tech and medicine."
The man eyed her for a moment, then smiled again. "I won't tell you what to do. But my father's advice might help you just now."
"Right now, I could use some objective advice," she sighed.
"Even before I put on a cape," he told her, "My father told me my gifts were given for a reason. I should find that reason, and then use them to the best of my ability if I really wanted to help others."
Kim looked down at her power ring, frowning as he spoke.
"I refer, of course, to all your gifts, Kimberly," he told her. "Intelligence is as much a talent as any other skill you possess, or develop. So, I'm just saying, find your own way. Remember that, and it can be helpful guidance in any aspect of your life. Hero, or otherwise."
She nodded. "Thanks. I mean, you really helped clear up some….."
He tensed, looked down as he cocked his head, and cut her off as he blurted, "Sorry. I have to go. I hope to hear from you, though," he said just before he shot down through the atmosphere so fast she saw the superheated air explode around him as he flew toward whatever emergency had drawn him.
Raising both fists, she stared at her two rings, and then took a deep breath.
"Either or? I choose both," she stated firmly. "After all. I am a Possible," she grinned, and turned to arch town toward her own home.
And Ron.
KP
She had not quite reached Middleton when she heard her Kimmunicator chirp, and she slowed over the Midwest to lift it as she switched on the device.
"Go, Wade."
"GJ wants you back, Kim," the dark-skinned genius told her with a frown. "Something about a mission they really need you to handle."
"Okay, I'll go grab Ron, and….."
"KP, they don't want him. Just you."
She frowned at that. "What kind of mission?"
"They didn't say, Kim, but…..I don't have anything on the site, or on the feeds. The only thing I know about was a gold heist in D.C. that one of the big guys just handled. Still, this is Global Justice….."
"All right, put her through," she told her friend.
"I can't," he told her. "She just left the message, and hung up."
Kim frowned, and considered what might be going on. "Wade, I'm going back, but….alert Ron, and have him link up with my Kimmunicator. Quietly. Something feels off here."
"I was going to suggest the same thing," her friend admitted.
"Okay. Want me to have a ride for him standing by. Just in case?"
"That might not be a bad idea. To be honest, recent events make me think GJ may be trying to split us up."
Wade blinked at that. Frowned. Then, shook his head. "Why would they do that, Kim? You guys work great together. You always have."
"I don't know. I wish I knew," she admitted as she turned, and flew back toward Global Justice's primary HQ, and Dr. Director. "But, meanwhile, do me a favor."
"Anything, KP," Wade assured her.
"Find out everything you can on Colonel Black, and what he is really up to with that organization of his."
"Isn't that the man that….?"
"The same. But….someone suggested he might be playing us, Wade. I'd like to know why, and how."
"Got it," he said somberly. "I'll have Ron standing by before you can get back to GJ."
"Good. Keep your ears open, Wade. I'm starting to think someone is going on we aren't seeing yet. And I'd rather not be surprised by our own side."
"You can count on me, Kim," the young genius assured her. "If something is going on, I'll find out."
"Thanks, Wade."
Turning in the sky, she fixed her bearings and flung herself through the sky once more.
KP
"I expected you sooner," Betty Director told her as Kim settled to the ground even as the one-eyed senior agent stepped outside of the double doors where Global Justice had set up their American headquarters.
"I had to make a stop," she told her, and let her ring's aura fade, though she kept her Lantern uniform in place as people on the street stopped and stared, but didn't approach them.
Knowing Dr. Director, she had the whole sidewalk cordoned off somehow.
"So, what's so important you had to call me back, and meet me outside?"
"This," she said, and held out a set of coordinates.
"This is in Siberia," she frowned, knowing her globe well enough. "What's the sitch?"
"We have a tip through our underground contacts that a major player stole some very top secret research."
"What kind of…..?"
"The kind that GJ, and Colonel Black would like back before they can use it to do something genuinely catastrophic."
"But what….?"
"Need to know. All you need to do is get the data back. It will be in an encrypted disk like this one. If you are fast enough, you should be able to recover it before they can decode it," Betty said, showing her a black disk with gray markings shaped like a bird.
"Who are the they," she asked.
"We think some of your old rogues have teamed up. Shego might be involved," she added tellingly.
"I see. I'll go get Ron….."
"No time," Betty cut her off impatiently, pocketing the disk she had held out. "This is time sensitive, and must be handled now. Besides, I've got another mission for Stoppable. Something I suspect only a trained ninja can handle," she added cryptically.
"All right, I'm on it," Kim said, "But tell me one thing."
"If I can," the senior agent nodded.
"Why not just call Wade, and tell him what the sitch was? Why demand I come here in person?"
"GJ might have a leak. It is the only way these people could have known about this project," Betty admitted. "That said, I preferred not to let their agents know we were sending you after them."
"If they're so good, how did you know where they went?"
"The disk also has a microwave transmitter to let us track it. Now, go, Kimberly. For the sake of the entire world, go now."
That sense of urgency was sincere, but Kim still had the feeling something was off here. Still, she launched herself back into the sky even as she activated her Kimmunicator.
"Wade?"
"I heard it all. I'm checking now. But, you might want to know, she did contact Ron just before she called you. I….guess I missed that one."
"Where is he?"
"They tapped him to help manage the creatures in the lair while their containment team moves in to neutralize them. Admittedly, it is a legitimate concern, but….."
"The timing seems a bit off," Kim asked.
"Keep hunting, Wade. Something stinks. Since when did Dr. Director ever let anyone inside GJ that could pose a legitimate threat."
"I know. Still, if it is real, and Shego is involved….."
"I know. I'll go check this out, but….keep me posted."
"Will do, Kim," he quipped, and the image faded as she willed herself in increase her speed, arching over the planet as she wondered just what was waiting for her this time. Or if his warning might not have been more than timely.
Still, if Shego was involved somehow, she couldn't afford to take any chances.
KP
"I knew you'd be back," Shego said as she faced Ron who stood in the center of a pair of intersecting tunnels as GJ agents with the tranquilizing darts for the yellow monsters held back, none of them a match for the green-skinned woman who held up her hands.
"And you stayed," Ron asked.
"Well, I figured, how could I possibly match Kimmie when she's so obviously amped up her game? Then I remembered Dr. D's own nearly successful ploys, and realized the only way to slow her down was to take her head out of the game. And what better way than to take you out, and have her really distracted by mourning her buffoon."
Ron's eyes glittered as she fired her hands all the brighter.
"Bring it," he smiled, and took a defensive stance.
"Gah! That's my line, monkey-boy!"
"Do you really think you can match me? I'm not the buffoon any longer, Shego. You are."
"Gah! You think that your mojo can stop pure comet poweeeeerrrrrrrrrrr," she howled as she tried to launch a fiery fist only to be tossed up and over his head, and almost fourteen feet down one tunnel before slamming into the ground.
She jumped up, eyes burning with ire, then turned at the chittering sound just behind her.
"Thanks," Ron shouted as the GJ agents raised their tranq-rifles. "We needed bait to flush that tunnel."
"Stopp-a-blllllleeeee," she muttered, falling on her face as fast as she leapt to her feet, as many darts slamming into her impressive chest as the yellow turtle-crabs behind her that had swarmed out at her appearance.
"Remember, aim just below the…..ah, noses," one of the uniformed agents shouted as Ron bounded forward, grabbed the unconscious woman, and pulled her to safety as the agents moved forward to keep firing on the creatures.
Once unconscious, they now had the serum to revert the monsters to their harmless component parts, but it had to be introduced intravenously. And no one had any chance of doing so unless the creatures were out cold.
"I'll take our guest out to one of the holding tanks," Ron told them. "I'll be back to help you before you approach the main lab," he assured them.
The men and women nodded as they carefully approached the now sleeping mound of pale yellow monsters as one of the agents opened a large case with oversized hypodermics.
"Make sure she's tied up tight. That one is more slippery than Houdini," one of the agents remained him.
"Don't I know it," Ron grimaced, and carried Shego out of the lair wondering how long they would hold her this time.
KP
Kim flew in low over the tall, spindly trees that looked like fingers pointing up at her. Or the sky.
Clawed fingers.
She was grateful for her ring's protection as she sensed more than felt the cold chill of the barren wastelands that stretched out all around her. She passed over a military base, but either they didn't see her, or had just ignored her, and that was all right with her.
Wade had yet to call back, but she knew he would when he had something. The young genius might be occasionally sidetracked, and sometimes less than timely, but he always came through. She had little doubt he would again.
Still, she couldn't help but wonder what was going on.
After that subtle warning from a real hero that she, and most of the world respected, and the odd sitch Dr. Director had tossed her way after apparently ensuring Ron was not available to help, she had to wonder what was really going on here.
She knew the head of Global Justice played things close to her chest, but she had always respected the woman. Always trusted her.
Still, as she neared the coordinates, and didn't see anything but a small rise of foothills, she had to wonder what was going on yet again. It seemed that the more she tried to go her own way, the more people, a lot of people, were going out of their way to try to…steer her the way they felt she should go.
"Find your own way," he had said.
He gave general advice. Told her the lay of the land. Then left her to make up her own mind.
It was such a different approach that it felt almost as if he had not really said anything at all. He had just left it to her to listen, and choose the path from all those before her. He didn't pressure her. Didn't hint. Didn't point.
Just offered.
Quite a bit different from a lot of those in her life just now.
In their own way, even her folks were more…..obvious.
She could respect they wanted their daughter to follow in their own footsteps. But even Kim Possible had to draw a line somewhere. Even she would be finding it hard to be a physicist and a physician. Or so it seemed to her just then. Especially with everything else that was cropping up in her life just now.
Add one near-omnipotent power ring into the mix, and stir on turbo, and things got confusing fast.
Then her ring detected the power flux.
Aiming her flight toward an unnatural rise in the foothills, she spotted the iron door set into hard rock even as she dropped between the trees around her.
"Looks like this is the place," she murmured, and lowered herself to the ground to step toward the apparent entrance.
Which slid open on cue, and what had to be a small army poured out to surround her.
"Welcome to our trap, hero," the man in the lead smirked, raising a grim-looking pistol, and others lifted various weapons from stun-batons to knifes, and surrounded her.
"Oh, I don't think so," she said, and dove at the men with her ring blazing.
KP
"Wade, sorry I didn't call back. I was distracted," Ron said as the agents finally finished moping up the last of the monsters, and loading the dozens of turtles, and crabs, into the holding tanks for transport to a suitable environment.
"I can imagine. Did you get them all?"
"Every one we had trapped in the lair, and canyons. We even found a few in the tanks they had not managed to free yet," Ron grinned. "But we got a bonus, too. Shego is back on her way to Super-maxx after she tried to face me on her own. She had some whacked idea that….."
"Ron, wait. Did you say Shego was there with you?"
"Yeah. She thought that…."
"Hold on, Ron," Wade cut him off. "I just found something, and knowing that Shego was with you makes me think it might be true even if it does sound odd."
"Wade, what's up, buddy?"
"Can't talk. Gotta call Kim," he blurted, and the connection went dark.
Ron frowned, and turned to eye one of the nearby agents.
Every one of them looked more than a little anxious in spite of the fact that they had just neutralized every last creature DNAmy had created to destroy Kim.
"Okay," he said, smiling blandly. "Who wants to tell me what's really going on?"
KP
Kim had fought her way into the lair, but so far, had not found the masterminds, the control center, or the missing disk.
Every man she paused to try to question only redoubled their attack, and refused to say a single word. Which left her fighting on through what seemed an endless army of henches that didn't seem to know how to quit.
Either Jack had gotten some really hardcore professionals on the payroll of late, or she had stumbled into something else.
She was betting on something else.
Even as she was considering which tunnel in the dimly lit lair to follow this time, her Kimmunicator chirped, and she held it up briefly to snap, "Not a good time, Wade. I'm kind of busy here," she quipped, pausing to slam a huge glowing fist she formed into a group of henches charging from one side, while she took down the nearest pair on her other flank with a traditional kick/punch combination.
"Kim, I just found something you have to know!"
"Kind of busy, Wade," she told him as a fresh wave of henchmen appeared down the tunnel she had started to follow. "I'll call you back," she said, punching one henchman even as she pushed through the rest with a green shield she raised only at the last minute, not wanting to just rely on sheer power.
If Shego taught her anything, it was that relying on that kind of force could make you sloppy. And that started a slide she didn't want to take considering the consequences.
"But, Kim…..!"
She had little choice but to silence the Kimmunicator, focusing on the seemingly endless army around her trying to keep her from getting to whatever it was they were housing in the lair that seemed to be an endless maze of tunnels. A maze with no sense of order considering every place she thought might be the primary lab or control center proved to be just another hub that led to another corridor, or three.
"This is really getting annoying," she spat, grabbing one man, and ordering him, "Tell me where your boss is. Now!"
He responded by trying to hit her with a taser.
"Really annoying," she complained aloud as the man slid down a far wall as she turned to try another of the endless hordes that seemed to be doing little more than slowing her down.
Almost as if…..
She was genuinely startled when her ring came to life on its own, and a familiar face appeared in the air before her. The henchmen, too, were stunned enough that they also yielded, falling back at the lifelike, mental projection of one of the Guardians of Oa that eyed her with an ever cool, unfathomable gaze.
"Green Lantern of Sector 2814, hear me."
"Sakar-Rui, what is it," she asked, ignoring the stunned and confused men around her as focused on the Guardian's emerald projection, knowing he would only contact her in a genuine emergency.
"We have ascertained that your entire species is in danger, Kimberly," the grim sentient informed her without preamble.
"So, another invader," she asked just as somberly, wondering if now was the time to call in the real Capes.
"No, Lantern. From your own people's folly. Listen, and heed me well," she was told as a sphere appeared, and a GPS marker flashed from a location she already knew. "If you do not stop these people, there will not be a single human left alive within a solar week's span."
To Be Continued…