Disclaimer: This story is set in a universe of my own; however, Kim Possible, Shego and related characters are copyright Disney, Inc. In other words, not mine.
O()0o-o0()O
Chapter 1: First Night
Xavier was one of the "Greeters" for Sanctuary. He was one of the few people willing and able to reach survivors who had just arrived on the city, alert them to their situation, and get out alive consistently. He never liked his job, but he did it because he knew few could, and the guilt of forcing those who couldn't do the job to attempt and die would be too much.
He looked out from the third story apartment he was sitting in towards the warehouse that had just appeared less than an hour ago. He checked the scanner he had resting on the windowsill. Two humans inside. Easy enough. He folded the scanner back, and dropped it into his zippered pocket. If only those who liked the job could do it.
O()0o-o0()O
Kim woke up on the floor of Drakken's lab. Groaning, she got up and looked around. The abandoned lair seemed to be just in the state it was before she lost consciousness. The Laser was gone, as was the paneling to the consoles. Nothing else seemed to be missing at all though, it looked just like the battle had ended a few seconds ago. There was nobody else except for Ron in the room. She walked over and pulled him up.
"Hey Ron, you awake?" Kim asked. Her tone showed some degree of compassion for him. "Ron, wake up."
Ron stirred. "Huh? Hi Kim.... Why are we still in Drakken's lair? I thought it exploded." Rufus had woken up as well, and popped up. "Uh huh. Boom!"
"Evidently not." Kim said. "I didn't see Shego or Drakken here though. It's possible they left."
Kim pulled out her Kimmunicator and turned it on. "Wade, you there?" There was only the KP logo. There wasn't a signal.
A voice from behind her made her jump. "That's not going to work."
"What!? Who are you?" Kim turned around, putting the Kimmunicator back before getting in to a fighting position.
"Hey, calm down. I'm not here to fight." The stranger raised his hands. "My name is Xavier. I'm here to tell you where you are, and what you can't do about it." He was wearing faded blue jeans, which had torn at the bottom, a novelty t-shirt reading "A day without sunshine is a day without nuclear fusion", and a grey base ball cap that nearly covered his eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kim said. She didn't relax the pose she was in.
Xavier sighed. "You are currently in the city-planet of Gates. Gates is currently under attack by a galactic army, called the Enclave. The only people keeping the Enclave from destroying the planet are another galactic army called the Empire. The Empire is currently at war with the Enclave, and as a result, the remaining sentients in the city are stuck in the cross fire. That's not the nasty bit. The nasty bit is why the Enclave wants to destroy Gates. Are you listening?"
Kim nodded her head. "I am listening, but I still don't trust you."
Xavier nodded amicably, reached behind his head, and pulled Ron over his shoulder onto the ground in front of him. "It's well you shouldn't trust me." He looked down at Ron. "Not cool man. Don't attack other's backs. It's not polite." He chuckled, and looked back at Kim. "The Enclave is doing what they can to prevent their mistakes from getting out. To put it simply, they made zombies. Creatures that rise from the dead, and try to eat human flesh. You following me? I realize this is a bit of rant, but it's kind of important."
Kim nodded, pulling Ron closer to her, while Rufus moved to her shoulder.
Xavier continued. "Naturally, there were a few survivors, despite all that had occurred. Those survivors banded together, and upon finding that the zombies avoided light in general, moved the areas of the sewers that remained well lit, and formed a society called Sanctuary. Sanctuary covers all of the consistently lit sewer system, of the city. To get into Sanctuary, a survivor must first prove that they can handle themselves. The system is simple. Survive for three nights without any aid from Sanctuary other than the information you are being given now. You may ask me questions until sunset, when I'll have to leave. I refuse to learn your names until you reach Sanctuary, by the way. I'll tell you why when I leave."
Kim looked confused for a moment, then spoke, "How did Ro-"
"No names." Xavier interrupted Kim. "You want to know how you got to Gates? I thought I covered that. Damn. I'm starting to feel my age." He smiled, and looked back. "It's simple really, just not in mechanics. Since the plague started, the city itself seems to be partly sentient. It wants to grow, so it pulls bits of cities from other universes into this one. The universes the pieces are taken from just simply collapse, leaving nothing left, due to the sudden destruction of mass. The pieces integrate with whats already there, matching up the sewers and roads. Occasionally some lifeforms come though with the building."
Kim thought on this information. Suddenly her eyes went wide. "That would mean... what's happened to our homes?"
Xavier gave a sympathetic smile. "They don't exist anymore. Boom. Gone. Nothing left."
Ron woke up. "No Bueno Nacho!"
"No Bueno Nacho. No banks. No school. No home town. No home world. No home universe." Xavier said. There was a glaring finality to his words, which weighed heavily in the room. "It's nearing sunset. I'll finish up. You'll have to kill the zombies. There are only two -"
"I refuse to kill anything." Kim said. "I was a hero before this, I refuse to kill anything."
Xavier raised an eyebrow. "You don't really have a choice. As I was saying, they will eat you alive if you don't. Not my choice if you ignore it. They'll only die if the body dies. They're reanimated, not unkillable. You will have a hell of a time knocking them out. They're all a lot stronger than a human, and could probably bite through 3 inches of wood. In fact, I 've seen them eat through a door to get at a member of sanctuary. I wasn't able to save them in time."
Kim picked Ron up from his mumbling state, and said to Xavier, "We're not going to kill. End of story."
Xavier looked out the window. It was almost dusk. "It's time for me to leave." He climbed onto some of the crates stacked against the wall, getting to the window. When he got there, he turned around and said, "The reason I refuse to learn names at this point, is because it hurts when you can tell what the name of zombie you're killing used to be. Auf Weidersehen." He left.
Kim looked at Ron. "I guess we'll have to get some supplies. Ron, get some food rations from the pack over there. I'll start blocking the doors."
It was going to be a long night.
O()0o-o0()O
The remains of a console now blocked both sets of double doors. Kim and Ron were standing in the middle, waiting for the fight to begin. They heard a load groan com from outside the front set of doors. They heard gnawing at the back door. Groans were coming from both sides. The back door gave way, letting zombies stumble in. The zombies stumbled towards the two humans and naked mole rat waiting for them.
Kim kicked the foremost zombie, slamming it into five of the zombies behind it. Ron used a palm strike on the next zombie's abdomen, knocking it down. He round-housed the next zombie, kicking it to the side. Kim and Ron were soon surrounded. Kim pulled out her grapple, aiming it at the window Xavier had left through. She turned to Ron, and shouted, "Hang on!" Ron grabbed her around the waist, and she fired, pulling the two of them and Rufus to the window.
Kim thought rapidly as she looked around. There was an apartment building next to the ware house. The roof would only provide safety until the zombies cleared the stairs. She aimed her grapple for the roof of the apartment building. Ron grabbed hold again, understanding why, while she fired and pulled them over to the roof next door.
Ron looked around and grabbed Kim's attention. "Kim! There's a mall over there!" he said, pointing at the three story mall in question.
Kim nodded. "That should have something for us to eat come sunrise." They used the grapple to move across the roofs to get to the mall. On top of the second to last roof, Kim noticed a cruiser in the sky to the west, moving towards them. She decided to pay it no mind, and went onto the roof of the mall.
The cruiser looked a bit like a GJ transport, only it was painted entirely black. It opened fire on Kim and Ron. They made it into the Mall as the cruiser began to land.
"Who was that?" Ron said to Kim as they ran down the staircase.
Kim shrugged, "They were probably Enclave soldiers, which means they will likely come after us."
"Are you certain?" Ron asked.
"Yeah. They're the only ones who would open fire on us. There's no one else from home left but us two."
"Three!" Rufus said angrily.
"Sorry about that Rufus. I didn't mean to forget you." Kim apologized.
Just then, Enclave troopers began shooting at the two teenagers. Ron yelped and rolled into a restaurant with Kim. Kim waited for the troopers to get near the establishment, and as soon as the first of the five troopers came around the corner, she jump-kicked him, throwing him off the ledge. The troopers were shocked for a second at seeing a teenager kick a fully grown man off a balcony. The pause was enough for Kim to knock out a second trooper, following it up with a roundhouse to the third. She ducked to the side as they finally snapped out of the shock and shot at her. The pause was enough for Ron to knock one of them out with a punch to the head. The last one fired at him, missing, but grazing Rufus in the process. Ron caught Rufus before he fell. Kim slammed the trooper over the edge.
"Is Rufus all right? They might send backup." Kim said, running up to Ron.
Rufus got up in Ron's hands. "Yup. Hurts though." He said, holding out the leg where he was hit.
Ron examined the wound. "It's shallow enough it only needs a quick bandage." Taking one out, he quickly wrapped a bit of bandaging around the wound. "That should do the trick."
Kim looked through the skylight of the mall. It didn't feel like that long, but they had lasted the whole night. Dawn had come. Kim yawned. She felt a bit tired. It was no time to rest though. "We should make a barricade here, we don't have much choice, but let's set it up at the back of the lobby area, where there should be about as much space as we need, but still enough to limit the zombies entrance."
Ron just nodded. It was going to be a long day.
O()0o-o0()O
The barricade consisted of several couches, lifted from where they had been, and moved to form a wall two couches tall. A few upturned tables reinforced the wall from either side. Behind them, a staircase led to the roof, where the cruiser remained. On one side there was a desk, whose top was littered with pistols, S.M.G.s and assault rifles.
When Ron had asked about the guns, Kim said they were "For a last resort. Nothing else."
Ron couldn't help it, but he felt he wasn't likely to survive the night. He turned towards the front doors where the zombies were going to come through. This was going to be one hell of a fight, if nothing else.
Kim readied the pistol she had, making sure the gun was loaded and the safety was off. She was ready. Ron had selected an MP5, and made sure his was ready. It was going to be one hell of a night.
O()0o-o0()O
Dusk fell. The zombies broke through the front doors immediately. Kim and Ron settled into defensive positions. As the zombies came through the opening, they were hit back. The strategy seemed to work for a while, but eventually a flaw began to show. As the zombies pushed through the opening, they shoved against the sides. The couches fell,letting the zombies stumble in from all sides. Kim jumped back, and noticed Rufus running to catch up. She looked where Ron was and saw...
Ron had died, and become a zombie. Kim just stood still for a second, still in shock. She started to cry as she raised her gun, and shot run in the head, blowing it clean off. She ran up the stairs, Rufus in her pocket, and got into the cruiser on the roof. She turned it on, and tried to fly away from the area for a bit.
She crashed into an office within a minute. Dawn began to rise, throwing sunlight into the wreck, where Kim remained. Kim opened the door of the vehicle,leaned out, and vomited. She couldn't stand seeing her former boyfriend like that. She leaned back against the nose of the craft, softly weeping. Rufus came out of her pocket and cried with her.
O()0o-o0()O
Kim was out of rations now, but she only had another night left before she could relax for a bit. She went to sleep inside the vehicle, not caring that she didn't know how to pilot it properly. As Dusk fell, the lights in the cockpit went on, keeping her safe from the zombies that were surrounding the craft. Kim woke up, seeing the zombies, and taking out all her anger, pulled the ship back, and unloaded the twin machineguns into the office. The Zombies were just smoking piles of flesh. She dropped the craft on the roof, making sure to block the staircase with the side of the vehicle. She walked out of the craft, and puked again.
Rufus popped out from the cabin. "Alright?"
Kim gave a weak smile at the naked mole rat. "Not really, it's just... all this killing is getting to me. I can't take this for much longer."
Xavier climbed over the side of the roof. "I told you that you would have to kill." He said. He had a saddened look on his face. "I can barely stand it myself, to be honest. Come on. It's dawn. Time to come to Sanctuary."
Kim whipped her head towards him. "You..."
"Yes, me. Me, Me, Me. Can I stop quoting movies now?" Xavier looked bored.
Kim growled, and got up. She walked over to him and punched him in the face.
Xavier rubbed his cheek where he had been hit. "Nice punch."
Kim shouted at him. "It's because of you that Ron died! You were the one who did that... You were..." She broke out into tears. "It's your fault! All of it!"
Xavier shook his head sadly. "Let me tell you something about my past," He said. "I was once a hero, like you were. I saved the world that I was from countless times. The whole time, I had a close friend who stuck with me, every fight, every victory, every failure. Her name was Mona, named after the Leonardo DaVinci painting.
One day, She was shot. She took a sniper round meant for me. She was killed instantly. My first love dead trying to protect me. The sniper himself was thrown in jail." Xavier's face hardened for a second. "He died a week later. Sniper bullet to the brain. Poetic justice. I fired the gun. Puked for a week afterward. I've never been one to truly advocate killing. Occasionally it's necessary. I know how you feel. It's why I don't learn names before they become members of Sanctuary." He landed the craft. While he was speaking, he had gotten into the vehicle, and Kim had followed. He helped Kim out.
He opened a sewer grate, and held it open. "Ladies first." He said with a sarcastic smirk. Kim had a flashback to Shego.
Shego's dead now. Nothing will change that. She thought to herself.
Kim jumped into the sewer, using the ladder to keep herself from landing in the muck. They were surprisingly well lit. Xavier dropped behind her after putting the grate back. "Safe Haven's that way."
O()0o-o0()O
Xavier led the way to Safe Haven. The town looked like a cave made from steel and concrete. metal plates were folded into huge domes, were concrete doors separated rooms. They stopped in front of one of the doors.
Xavier turned to her. "There are three Rules to Sanctuary. First, to enter any of towns that made up Sanctuary, a survivor must survive three nights without assistance. Second, every survivor should support the whole of sanctuary in some way to prevent zombies overrunning the town. Killing members of Sanctuary is a violation of rule 2. Third, failure to comply with the rules will result in exile, which is guaranteed death, as the current record for survival without allies is 27 days. The person who held that record was near immortal. I say near, because he died anyway." He gave a stern look towards Kim. "Do you agree to these rules?"
Kim looked him in the eye. "Yes."
Xavier smiled. "Then this small apartment is yours. Welcome to Sanctuary." He offered his hand, and Kim shook it. "What's your name, survivor?"
Kim smiled. "My name's Kim Possible."
Xavier began to walk out. "This will probably be the last time you see me, Kim. Have a nice life."
O()0o-o0()O
I hope this chapter wasn't too long. Please review, and tell me if I can write action worth anything or not. Intelligent flames are welcome.
Hope you like Xavier. He'll show up once more, and in any further books in the series.
Signing off,
XK