Disclaimer; Kim Possible is Property of Disney. This is a work of fan fiction for fun, not profit. "The Trace Without," a work by S3Cubed aka Six-string Samurai.
Chapter One – Resonance
Six Months Ago
"Shego! Shego," like the cries of a baby for its mother, the voice of former megalomaniac Drew Lipsky rang through the recently cramped spaces within the research lab. The blue-skinned scientist barged through the doors of the lab, eyes narrowing in frustration. "Shego! There's something on the news," he shouted into the obviously empty room. "Now, where is that woman, how come she's never around when the important things are happening," he muttered under his breath, stalking back out of the lab to look for his wayward assistant elsewhere.
The woman in question was currently enjoying a self-imposed break from her employer's often irritating presence by soaking up a little warm mid-morning sun. When the summer began in earnest, she'd set up herself a little beach chair next to the large bay window that overlooked the glittering blue waters below the cliffs on which her boss had set up his lab, and little home-away-from-home. At the moment, she was sprawled out face down on the chair, thumbing through the latest issue of Person magazine that she'd snagged off of the table in Drakken's kitchenette. The blue man had a running subscription, claiming it was reference material, and she availed herself from time to time to catch up on the whole celebrity thing, which never failed to amuse her.
Shego rolled her eyes at a few of the articles, wondering not for the first time just how lame a lot of these famous people were. Who dangles their baby outside a high rise window anyway? She tossed the magazine onto the little folding table she'd picked up last week, and was reaching for her Margarita when she heard him. Ugh, what is it this time?
Shego wondered if she pretended to be asleep, if it would be enough to make him go away. Or at least, tone it down a little. But, rushed footsteps and an out of breath Drakken not three feet away put the kibosh on that idea. The hell with it. She rolled over and sat up, pushing her sunglasses down to stare over the top of the lenses at her flustered boss.
"S-shego, what have I told you about the dress code," the pony-tailed scientist was pointedly staring at anything but his pale-hued employee.
Feeling a bit of amusement at his antics, even if he was interrupting her chill time, Shego made a show of checking herself out. The black bikini bearing a swirled green pattern was actually pretty conservative in her opinion, god knows she'd worn less last year when they'd been jetting around western Europe looking for some old guy's dried up bones. "Yeah, yeah, uniform while on the clock. I didn't forget."
"Then what are you doing," Drew vaguely waved a gloved hand in her direction, studiously avoiding her with his eyes.
Just because she knew it irritated him, she purposely stretched her back and made a grab for her drink. Taking a sip, she clicked her tongue. Maybe she'd go a little easier on the Grand Marnier next time; it was a bit too sweet. "Doc, casual Friday. Remember?"
"Casual Friday, no I don't remember specifying that," the scientist worked his face into a scowl as he wracked his considerable brains, utilizing mental faculties that were considerably useless outside of his chosen profession, and naturally came up with a blank. But all that deep searching did have the side effect of recalling that he'd been sidetracked in the first place. "No, no, that's not it at all Shego! Wrap a towel around yourself or something, you need to see what they're going on about in the news."
Now this gave the black haired woman room for pause. Since when was the doc ever big on news that didn't involve himself in some way? And what could possibly be so important that he thought she would be likewise interested. This more than piqued her curiosity, and she got up from the beach chair, the salt-lined glass held nonchalantly in one hand. "This better be good."
"Shego! Towel," Drakken whined when it became clear that his assistant wasn't planning to cover herself up.
"Oh, stop being such a prude, you big baby," she made no move to reach for the beach towel that was hanging over the back of the chair, and swept past her boss, drink in hand and headed toward the main living area where Drakken had most likely been watching the Television.
The blue man grumbled something about not having any respect, and hurried to catch up to the scantily clad woman, trying not to stare at how her long legs seemed to stretch up and up and, oh, she was turning around. Drew quickly shifted his eyes to somewhere less dangerous, like his feet.
Shego wasn't sure how long she stood there nearly in front of the television screen, trying to comprehend what the news caster was attempting to convey to her in what was obviously an unknown foreign tongue. "What kind of joke is this crap," she swung her arm back to gesture toward Drakken for answers, sending a splash of her cocktail in an arc that hit her boss and part of his favorite lounge chair beside him. Her eyes never left the news ticker that scrolled across the bottom of the screen, failing to belie the ridiculous claim the news anchor was making.
The words in cold stark white, scrolled past a second time, confirming that world renowned altruist and adventurer, Kimberly Possible, was reported dead at 1 PM EST; the cause of her death, still under investigation.
"This is a bunch of bullshit. Drakken, how long has this been going on?"
The scientist fidgeted, twiddling his fingers under the heat of her glare. "Maybe, fifteen minutes," he hazarded. "I was looking all over for you the moment I found out. I thought you of all people might want to know."
"Damn right I would want to know! Now, we need to get more information on this. There's no way that's all the info the press is releasing. Something's going on and I want to know what it is. Damn it, Kimmie owes me, and she damn well can't pay me back like this." Shego spun away from the image on the screen, hair whirling across her back. "I'm gonna go get changed, and we're going to get to the bottom of this," as she stepped away, she paused, pointing at Drakken with her now empty margarita glass. "Make sure you set the TiVO to record this, just in case something else turns up." With that, the green skinned woman padded angrily out of the room.
Drakken just stared at the empty space she'd just occupied, frowning at the gray TiVO box under the TV set. Picking up the remote from his chair, he stabbed at the buttons, trying to recall just how he was supposed to set the blasted thing to record. Eventually a menu popped up on the screen, prompting him if he would like to record or just tune to a specific channel now. But, wasn't it already on the channel? Drakken clicked the button, watching the news channel on the menu turn red. Hah, there was a reason I'm called a genius, and it wasn't for nothing.
Ten minutes later and he was all but being hauled out to Shego's car by the collar of his coat. "Come on D, it's a long drive to Middleton and I want to hit the road before we get caught in the rush hour traffic."
"I still don't see why I have to come along, she's your," he paused when a pair of emerald eyes narrowed at him.
"She's my, what?"
"Um, problem," the scientist ventured, and felt his shoulders relax as the grip on his collar fell away.
"Grr, whatever. Do what you want; I'm heading there to find out what this whole farce is about," the green skinned woman hopped in the driver's side door and slammed it after herself.
Drakken shuffled his feet, in the middle of making a decision when Shego rolled down the window.
"I'm taking the rest of the weekend off, so don't wait up or anything."
"But, tomorrow's Poker night down at the club," he protested, trying to sound assertive, but failing.
Shego didn't even bother dignifying his stupid remark with a reply, and the window rolled back up as she put the car in reverse and backed out of the garage.
"Shego! You'll be back on Monday ready to get to work, right," Drakken shouted after the retreating car, and the dust cloud that piled up in its wake.
"Damn that Possible woman. Didn't she realize how bad her timing was? I can't very well win tomorrow if half my team is missing," the scientist trudged back inside, determined to at least get some work done analyzing the pieces of Amaranth Shego had managed to obtain for him when they were travelling through Sweden.