Kim Possible: Secret Shame Saga
Release Notes:
Ok, I have figured out that the timeline is post STD and most of Season 4 (the parts I want to focus on, anyway).
Of course, since S4 is still airing at the time that I write this, I may very well reference newer episodes as I see them, later in the story, if I can make them make sense without major recon. All in all, the overall story I wanted to tell shouldn't be too effected by the season (unless they, like, killed off Drakken or something in the finale). And that was a joke. Ha ha. No? Well I thought it was mildly amusing.
Anyways… I ended up splitting this second part into two because of how it ended up coming together. It seemed like I came to a natural conclusion sooner then I expected, so I decided to run with it.
Once again… in case you care. I know I don't.
The Author.
PART TWO: Engineering A Reversal
On a secret island in the middle of the sea, there stood a secret castle in which secret plans were hatched by a devious mind.
Lightning lit the perpetually night sky into which climbed the towering fortress that stood, carved out of the very mountain itself. To look upon its imposing visage was to know terror. To traverse the twisted, booby-trapped trail and stand before its massive gates was to know total defeat. To wonder its perilous hallways and witness the multitude of malevolent machines that promised global domination was to know true despair.
To stand in the same room as its all powerful master, was to know mild amusement.
"Aaaarrgh!" Screamed the blue-skinned man. He hopped up and down like an angry child, wiggling his small, black-gloved hands. "Shego! I need that device! How can you not have it? I wanted it tonight!"
The woman named Shego lounged in her favorite chair, her feet resting casually on the massive control panel that monitored all aspects of the secret lair. She ran a nail file over her gloved fingers, sharpening the metal claws into deadly tips. Her emerald eyes never raised to look at the stomping evil genius before her.
"Look, Dr. D, I already told you," her smooth voice sounded nothing but bored, "they were all out. I checked the inventory and there were none in stock."
Dr. Drakken ground his teeth loudly and pulled at his thin black hair in frustration. With a final growl, he set into a sulking pace around the dark, cave-like room. He held his arms behind his blue overcoat as he spoke.
"Very well," he droned, "it would seem that I have no choice but to fall back on my second contingency plan." He raised his fist manically. "I will order the part from a second hand surplus supplier! The quality won't be as good, but then, you get what you pay for."
Shego didn't point out that Drakken wouldn't have paid anything at all if she had managed to steal the device. In fact, she didn't tell Drakken a lot about what had happened earlier in the evening. Shego didn't dwell in the past. So she told herself.
"But that still leaves me with three important pieces missing from my fiendish puzzle. Shego!" He whirled on the black and green clad woman. "Are you listening to me?"
"Mmhm, yeah," Shego raised her hand to inspect, "fiendish puzzle. Nice one, Dr D."
"For I need three other parts for my latest villainous device," he tapped at the control panel, pulling up a detailed schematic on the giant screen. "The Reverse Engineering Ray!"
Shego raised her eyebrows at that. "The what?"
"With this ray," he continued ranting as though she hadn't spoke, "I will be able to reverse engineer anything back into its previous form! Ergo, I can blast the entire planet back into the stone age!" Drakken laughed manically, both fists raised into the air. "There is only one thing that can stand in my way..."
"Common sense?"
"Kim Possible!" Drakken shouted. "And so it will be my teenage nemesis that shall feel the terrible trial of my Reverse Engineering Ray first!" He wrung his hands eagerly. "I will de-evolve that meddling girl into a Neanderthal with a brain the size of a walnut!"
"You know," Shego stretched her hands behind her head, "this is starting to sound like a Monkey Fist plot to me."
Drakken raised his eyebrows. "Really? You think so?"
"Yeah," she shrugged her shoulders, "the whole de-evolving people into monkeys bit would be right up his alley."
"Hmm," Drakken rubbed his chin, "what if I de-evolved her into… some primordial goo or something? Would that be more my shtick?"
Shego winced and shrugged her shoulders again. In truth, the idea of turning her rival into sludge didn't sit as well with her as it used to. Not that it would ever actually happen. It was Drakken, after all.
"So be it!" Drakken's speech became grandiose again. "I will reverse engineer Kim Possible into a teenaged puddle of slime! Then no one will be able to stop me!"
"Mmm… great," Shego rolled her eyes, "what do you want me to steal, already?"
"Ah, I'm glad you asked." He pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of his coat. "I have here a list of all the pieces I need and where they can be found." Shego took the smeared paper with a grimace. "I trust you'll be more successful with these items then your last one."
She read the list with a snort. "It shouldn't be a problem." She crumpled the paper and tossed it over her shoulder.
"Shego!" Drakken admonished. "Don't throw evil plans on the floor! A clean lair is a happy lair."
"Whatever, Dr. D," the green-skinned woman stood, "I'm going to go get your grocery list." She pointed an accusing finger at him. "Don't get foiled while I'm gone." She spun and walked out of the room with a flourish of black hair. Drakken huffed angrily before turning back to his plotting, mumbling about sidekicks knowing their place.
He did not notice a shadowy hand reach out from behind the control panel to carefully swipe the crumpled note on the floor.
The lunch bell rang at Middleton high school. Along its hallways, students roamed, chatted and made their way to the cafeteria. Few of the teens that frequented the corridor could be called memorable. In truth, some may say they were mostly two-dimensional. But there was one young woman who stood out.
Kim Possible breathed a resolved sigh as she exited her history class. She pushed red hair out of her green eyes and adjusted the collection of books she held with one arm. Toned and athletic, she was in peak physical form. She knew 16 forms of kung fu and was an Olympic level gymnast. She had faced any number of deadly adversaries and beaten overwhelming odds many times over the course of her career as a freelance superhero. Nevertheless, she shuddered at the thought of the history exam she had just written. More fiendishly designed then any world domination plot; she thought she would be lucky to get an A-.
A familiar strident voice and gentle touch on her shoulder instantly brightened her mood.
"Booyah!" Ron Stoppable's blond head seemed to pop out of nowhere. "I tell ya, KP, I aced that history test! Oh yeah! Just call me, TheHistorinator!" Even as he spoke the made-up word, it was echoed by a high-pitched assertion in his pocket. Rufus, the naked mole rat, gave a clawed thumb up.
"Really Ron?" Kim cocked an eyebrow at her lifetime friend. "I thought it was pretty hard. Like, what about question four? Talk about convoluted."
"Oh please, Kim," Ron dismissed her concern, "it was a synch. Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick."
"Uh, Ron," Kim's brow furrowed, "Colonel Mustard didn't serve during the American Civil War."
"Yeah? Well, I prefer to let the grades do the talking, thank you. We'll see who knows his stuff in one week."
"Riight…" the teenage girl smiled sarcastically as they reached her locker, "we will see." Opening the door to the locker revealed a computer screen piled in amongst her school textbooks and binders into which Kim deposited her history notes. Almost the instant the locker was open the monitor came to life with a young, freckled face.
"Hey Wade," Kim greeted the child genius, "any news on the break-in last night?"
"A little," Wade responded, even then working the multitude of high-tech equipment that surrounded him in his room. "It's a real mess down there. Looks like Shego activated their experimental automated security system."
"The giant robot?" Ron chimed in, leaning over Kim's shoulder to see the screen. The young woman couldn't help but smile at the familiarity. She didn't know what she would do without the bumbling Ron Stoppable. He had been a kind of sidekick (though she never called him that) in her superhero career, helping her save the world in his own clumsy way. But he was so much more to her. He was her best friend.
"Yep," Wade nodded, "from what they can tell so far, the thing went ballistic and rampaged through the facility after Shego. Must have been a heck of a fight."
"Looks like she won." Kim sighed. "They don't know what she was up to yet?"
"Not yet," Wade shrugged. "There's a lot they have to account for before they can tell what's missing."
"All right, we'll go talk to the scientists after school. Maybe someone there can tell us something. In the meantime," she reached over to hold Ron's hand, "we've got a lunch date in the cafeteria."
"Yeah," Ron smiled at his childhood friend turned girlfriend, "nothing says romance like mystery meat on a stick."
The teen couple strolled hand in hand to the dining hall to face the evils of the school menu.
Shego could have broken into the National Engineering Center in her sleep. Compared to the research complex she had gotten into last night, it was almost dull.
She didn't even concern herself that it was the middle of the day and that she was one of the most recognized super criminals on the planet. Strolling through the hallways in her signature green and black jumpsuit, her curved and athletic build did not even stir the concentrating inventors from their various testing and soldering. She almost felt insulted.
She paused to watch one middle-aged man carefully fuse tiny circuits together on a silicon board. His balding head was beaded with perspiration and his movements were slow and precise. His eyes were focused on the task at hand. The exotic pale-green woman watching him through the lab window might has well have been a janitor.
Shego could not imagine having the patience to do something like that. Building something so complex and fickle from nothing and following it through to completion. It made her anxious just thinking about it. Creating was never one of her strong suites… at least not since childhood. She looked at her hands, gloved fingertips coming to clawed points that could cut steel. With a thought, she could bring forth burning green plasma from these hands that could be hurled with devastating results. They were not instruments made for creating. Shego was a tool of destruction.
She sighed and shook her head angrily. Shego didn't dwell in the past.
Continuing along, the green thief was mostly ignored by the busy engineers. A few passed her in the hallway, reading graphs or scribbling notes, completely absorbed in their work. She actually had to reach out and grab one by the collar.
"Hi," she said pleasantly, "I'm looking for something. Maybe you can help me."
The tweedy little man in a striped, short-sleeved, button-up shirt, complete with pocket protector, looked at her face in surprise. Then he looked at her form-fitting outfit with wide eyes, pausing in places Shego thought he shouldn't.
"Hey, buddy," she lifted him easily, "my eyes are up here."
"Oh yes, of course," the man mumbled apologetically, "we don't have many… visitors come through the labs. How can I be of assistance?" Shego smiled wickedly and the little man squeaked.
"I'm looking for something called the Quantum Matrix Amplifier," she explained, "do you know where it is?"
The engineer seemed to straighten at the name. "The QuantMat Amp?" He sputtered. "That's one of our most advanced devices! If it were to fall into the wrong hands…"
Shego's free hand began to glow like fire. Green plasma dripped and burnt the ground with a telling hiss.
"Consider these the wrong hands." Her smile was cold.
The little man's eyes looked ready to roll onto the floor. He nodded emphatically and pointed down the hall. Shego pushed him roughly as he led the way to a locked steel door. A small keypad glowed with a red light.
"Do you know the pin number?" Shego asked the man. She probably knew three different ways she could open the door herself, but why waste a perfectly good resource? The little man swallowed loudly and nodded. He talked to himself as he pressed the buttons.
"I don't understand the sudden interest in the Amp," he mumbled. "Its existence has been public for months. Why everyone wants it now…" Something clicked in Shego's head and she grabbed the engineer by the ear.
"Wait a minute…" she frowned at him, "what do you mean by everyone wants it now?"
"A man just came through here a little while ago!" The squeaking man was quick to explain. "He was asking questions about the QuantMat Amp, just like you. I told him where we kept it and he thanked me. He wasn't dressed like he belonged here either."
Shego got a cold feeling in her stomach. She pushed the engineer out of the way and he skidded along the floor before coming to a stop six feet from where he had stood. Her hands burst into roaring green flames and she used them to punch a hole through the door lock. A single mightly kick had the door swinging off its hinges.
Shego took three running steps into the bright white room and froze where she stood.
Hanging upside down from a conveniently located air vent was a man with black hair and silver eyes. He wore a familiar black sleeveless shirt. Directly below him stood a metal pedestal surrounded by what she knew were pressure plates, undoubtedly linked to the building's alarm system. The man's one arm was hanging below his head. In it he held a paper-sized piece of silicone and microcircuitry. The man was frozen, staring at her just as she stared at him. Then his upside down face slowly crept into an upside down smile.
"Hello, sweetpea."
Shego bared her teeth in a snarl at the mention of that word and her flaming palms swelled and crackled with her anger.
"Cutter!" She spat the name of the intruding thief. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Same as you, I'd guess," the smirking man said, "stealing the Quantum Matrix Amplifier for an important… client." His eyes narrowed at her over the word 'client'. They widened back to normal almost immediately. "I guess this is just bad luck on our part. Well... for you, anyway. Once again, I got it first."
Shego growled in growing fury and took a step forward, intending to melt the man's arrogant face.
"Ah…" Cutter gripped the object with both hands. "I'd hate to have to break this expensive device. That way, nobody wins. As I seem to recall."
Shego stopped moving. She didn't want to lose her goal twice in a row. Last night, she had fought Cutter for another stolen high-tech gadget but hadn't been able to get it from him. So she melted it into a metal blob just so he couldn't have it either. Now he was interfering with her latest job out of revenge. She could hardly say she knew the man, but she hadn't thought he would be so petty.
"What do you want, you idiot?" She asked through a clenched jaw, knowing full well that she couldn't possibly get the Amp from him in one piece. She knew from last night that he was too fast to take down before he could snap the object in two.
"What do I want?" Cutter's face seemed to soften at that. "Well…" He stared at Shego, seemingly debating something in his own mind. Shego's eyes narrowed in suspicion. What kind of game was this bouncing freak playing? After a moment's pause, Cutter's eyes hardened again and he smiled grimly. "I guess I want to get paid."
With that, Cutter snorted deeply through his nose. Shego grimaced in disgust as he continued horking and working up phlegm at the back of his throat. Finally, he stopped the disgusting display and winked at Shego.
Then he spat on the floor.
Shego understood instantly as the alarms started screaming throughout the building. She launched a handful of plasma at the retreating Cutter. He was already inside the air vent and the blast exploded into the wall. She knew from experience she would not catch him in the vents. He was seemingly inhuman in his agility. And as the distant wail of police sirens grew, she knew she had to focus on her own escape.
As Shego sprinted down the hallway, past the cowering engineer, she had a look of pure malice painted on her face.
Ten or fifteen men in white lab coats moved through the debris in the giant room. Several carried note pads onto which they scribbled notes, often times shaking their heads in resignation as they did so. Others rolled up their sleeves and dug through the twisted machinery searching for missing pieces. Very few of them looked the least bit pleased with what they found. Some managed to salvage the odd scrap from their respective experimental projects, but by and large most would have to start over from scratch.
Kim Possible glanced at the armed guards, standing like statues around the blast doors. She had needed to pull a favor, through Wade's contacts, to get access into the building. The first time, when the scope of the crime hadn't been established yet, it had been easy. Now that the facility big-wigs knew that a super criminal had so easily bypassed their automated security and thoroughly trashed the place, they had decided to hire guards.
Not that Kim could blame them. It looked like someone had set off a bomb in the room. Very little had been left unscathed, the one notable exception being the vending machine.
"Ah! No fair!" Ron Stoppable yelled as he kicked the machine. "It ate my quarters! You know what this means Rufus." He narrowed his eyes as he spoke to the fleshy rodent on his shoulder. "Operation: Candy Grab!" The Naked Mole Rat stood stiffly and saluted his large companion before leaping at the machine's outlet. "Be brave, soldier. And be sure to take prisoners!"
Kim smiled fondly and turned back to the grey-haired scientist she had been interviewing as he tapped deftly at a laptop computer.
"So what exactly does this device do, that you can't find?" She queried the frowning man. He had been scouring the updated system inventory for missing parts as they had been found. Practically everything had been accounted for, except one thing.
"The Nuclear Capacitor Switch," the man adjusted his glasses, "stores nuclear wavelengths and reverses their polarity through the cross-dimension principle. It's really a simple little device."
"Uh huh," Kim cocked an eyebrow, "sounds simple enough. The big question is: why would Drakken want one?" She put on a pensive frown.
"It's nearly impossible to say," the scientist shrugged, "we use the Switch for any number of machines. Why… I believe we used one in our cafeteria microwave."
Kim raised her eyebrows at that. "You put one in you're microwave?"
"Yes," the man smiled, "really beefed up our leftovers. Could cook a turkey in that thing in two minutes."
"Right," Kim shook her head. "Anything else you guys found?"
"Well, actually…" the scientist stood up with a groan, "the boys noticed something interesting when they downloaded the post-mortem data from the XL-33T."
"The giant robot?" She looked across the room to where several men were examining the collapsed metal sentinel.
"Oh yes," the grey-haired man followed her gaze. "It seemed that the XL was tracking two separate intruders before it went crazy." He scratched his wrinkled head. "One of them was classified as a level one threat: extremely aggressive with potential for massive physical damage. We assume that is the one who ultimately destroyed it."
"Shego," Kim sighed. "She's a level one threat all right. I guess the other one would have been Drakken. He probably hid behind a desk or something until it was over."
"That's the interesting part," the man caught her eyes, "the second intruder was upgraded by the XL from a class four, which is a non-combative, to a class two, which is a threat with potential for medium-to-high physical damage. Apparently, the XL registered several impacts from the second intruder to warrant the promotion."
Kim frowned at that. Drakken was many things, but a level two threat to a giant rampaging robot of mass destruction he was not. Shego must have been working with someone then, but who? She was notoriously a loner. Maybe Senor Senior, Jr. She had worked with him a couple times in the past, but he was hardly someone who could threaten the robot.
It was an important riddle that needed to be solved. Kim had to know if she was dealing with a new villain team-up. She really hated those. Besides, Shego was enough of an issue on her own, for various reasons.
"Ok, thanks," Kim shook the scientist's hand, "you'll let us know if anything else comes up?"
"Of course," the older man smiled, "thank you, Miss Possible."
"No big." She smiled and made her way over to her partner. Ron was crouched over the vending machine's access hole, waiting with bated breath.
"Come on, little buddy," he clenched his fists, "come on home…"
Rufus's pink head popped out of the machine with a flourish. In his clawed hands he held not one, but two chocolate bars.
"Booya!" Ron cheered. "Atta boy, Rufus! You'da man!"
"Ahem," Kim cleared her voice pointedly, "if you're done ripping off the candy machine…"
"Not ripping off, KP," he shook a candybar at her, "getting what's due. There is a difference. Besides, Rufus needs his finder's fee." Peeling off the wrapper, he handed one bar to his pink friend. Rufus squealed with joy.
"Well," the teen superhero smiled, "I guess he deserves it."
Just then, there was a chime from the device on her wrist. Kim held her arm in front of her and pressed a button on the 'Kimunicator'.
"Hey, Wade. What's the sitch?"
"A couple things," the young man's face looked at her from the tiny screen, "first off, there was a robbery while you guys were at school at the National Engineering Center. It was taken care of by the local police, so it didn't filter through my searches. That is, until they started taking eyewitness testimonies."
"Let me guess," Kim narrowed her eyes, "the thief was dressed in green and black and shot lasers from her hands?"
"You got it." Wade nodded as he typed. "The weird thing is that the guy they interviewed said there were two thieves. A man and a woman. And the description doesn't match Drakken at all."
"The plot thickens," her brow furrowed, "the scientists here also said that there had been two different intruders, according to the robot's memory. And I am sure it wasn't Drakken, either."
"Then Shego's got a new partner," Ron picked up, "or is teaming up with another big baddie."
"My thoughts exactly," Kim acknowledged. "What's the other news, Wade?"
"This one's even weirder," the young man frowned in confusion, "you got a hit on your website not too long ago. It was a tip-off about another major robbery that's going to happen today. It doesn't say much more beyond the what and the where, but I think it's happening soon."
"Ok, we're on it, Wade." She started towards the blast doors, Ron shadowing her as he munched on his candybar. "Where're we headed?"
The child genius grimaced.
"You don't want to know."
Shego was still grumbling when she made it to Drakken's next target.
She had already broken into this particular series of buildings several times in her career and was almost amused at the improved security, beefed up in all the wrong places. She scaled the barb-wired fence with practiced ease and dashed along the courtyard. There were patrolling guards everywhere and some of them even looked competent. She avoided them all without difficulty.
The sweeping architecture of the place did not lend itself well to stealth. More then once Shego found herself hanging by her clawed fingers as a whistling henchman strolled below her. She was tempted to simply blast her way through the defenses, it was unlikely anyone could stand in her way, given the mood she was in, but Shego felt she had something to prove. To a certain siver-eyed jackass, as well as herself.
Thoughts about Cutter simply spiraled her back into a simmering rage that threatened to boil over. She was convinced that the dark-haired thief was trying to get back at her for last night, when she lied and turned on him in order to secure Drakken's stupid high-tech gadget. Now she had failed twice in a row.
It was all his fault.
Shego felt even angrier at herself for saving the man from the robot that night. He would have been crushed had she not intervened and that would have been that. But Shego also knew that she might not have survived either without his help. He could have easily escaped while the robot was focused on her, but he chose to stay and distract it. The damn idiot. He put her in this situation. It was still all his fault.
Dark thoughts kept a perpetual scowl on her face as she slowly ascended the side of the arched walls. Shego hated when she found herself debating the morals of an issue. Something she found herself doing more and more recently, thanks to a certain red-headed cheerleader. Shego lived in a world of black and white. She was black and Kim Possible was white. It was simple that way.
Shego was destined for black. Created for black.
A squeal of claws on glass made a small hole for her lean frame to slip through. Once inside the tastefully decorated hallways, Shego headed straight for the assembly plant. From experience she knew that would be the easiest entry into storage. Quickly bypassing the retina scanner that locked the door, she entered the dark room. Not expecting the lights to be off, she lit up a single finger with glowing plasma to shed some light.
Then the lights turned on.
Shego blinked in surprise, her finger still aflame. The room was empty except for a single well-dressed individual, standing in its center. Jack Hench adjusted his tie and brushed some invisible dust off his expensive Italian suit. His hair, as usual, was slicked back with way too much product and his smile was just as oily.
"Hello, Shego," the businessman spoke, "a pleasure to have you back at Hench Co Industries, as always. Is there anything specific I can help my old friend Drakken with? A new doomsday-ray? Some evil catalogue subscriptions?"
Jack Hench: the greasy capitalist of the supervillian world. He made Shego's skin crawl. Every time she was in the same room as him, she could practically feel him undressing her with his eyes. He never did anything directly, though. He merely supplied inventions, tools and weapons to an exclusively evil market. Shego thought he was gross.
"Alright, Hench," the woman's hands flamed up, "I wasn't planning on doing it this way, but it works for me." She took a threatening step forward. "Where is the Reversal Drive?"
"Ah, yes," the oily grin didn't falter, "the Reversal Drive, excellent choice. Comes with a thirty day full-warranty." He produced a receipt pad and pen from his coat pocket. "If you want, I can have it gift-wrapped for you. Shall I charge that to Drakken's account?"
"I don't think so," Shego smiled icily, "figured I'd just take it on extended loan."
Hench seemed to frown in disappointment. "I see... Well that's unfortunate." He placed the pad and paper back in his pocket. "I had hoped against hope that you had come here to actually buy something, instead of stealing it, as you always seem to do. But I guess that is the price I pay for the business I do. Still…" the man returned her icy smile, "I suppose it's only fair that we settle up on your tab." With that, he pulled his hand back out of his pocket and pressed a button on the remote he then held. Shego spun in shock as a metal plate dropped in front of the door behind her. The only other exit, directly behind Hench, swung open. "You see, I hired a temp henchman to keep you busy while the authorities make there way here. He came highly recommended through a prominent mercenary service. I do hope he is worth the cost."
Shego adjusted her stance to face the new threat. Her flaming fists pulsed in anticipation. She expected some big, mutated goon or something to come pushing into the room. A couple blasts of green pain would have him shortchanged. Instead, her hands extinguished themselves in shock as Cutter waltzed into the room.
"Hello again, sweetpea."
Jack Hench looked from the smiling Cutter to the jaw-dropped Shego and back. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "You two know each other?"
"Uhh…" Cutter winced. "We've had a couple run-ins."
"Hmm…" Hench studied Cutter. "Well, ok. As long as you do what you're paid for." He circled around the silver-eyed man to exit through the open door. "I'm sure you'll look ravishing in black and white, Shego." He smiled as another metal plate slammed down, locking the combatants inside the empty room.
Cutter, looked at Shego and scratched his head akwardly. "So… uh, how are things?"
Shego fired twin blasts of green flames at him.
Cutter danced and dodged under the assault. He barely evaded the green woman's fury as she unleashed on him. He flipped and hopped like a madman, bouncing off the floor and walls. Explosions of green and white bloomed to either side as he skittered laterally on the vertical surface, seeming to defy gravity.
Shego hurled throw after throw of screaming plasma at the man. Yelling in anger as he managed to keep bouncing.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Her voice cracked in rage. "Why are you always here? You goddamned idiot!" Her plasma swelled with fury and detonated against the wall, next to Cutter. The force sent him spinning across the floor to smash against the other wall. Shego lept on him as he lay dazed.
"You're not going to make me fail again!" She yelled as she held him by his black shirt. "Is that what you're trying to do? Embarrass me to death?"
"Embarrass you?" Cutter groaned. "Heaven forbid." He kicked out with his legs, driving the woman back into the center of the room. She landed on her back with a grunt and flipped herself backwards onto her feet. Cutter had already sprinted the distance between them, swinging at her. Shego managed to duck and sweep her left right leg around, tripping the silver-eyed man. He landed hard, but rolled and righted himself with liquid dexterity. He swung at her again, but this time Shego grabbed the arm and used his momentum to flip him over her body to smash into the wall. Once again, he spun and twisted cat-like to get back to his feet.
Shego saw that he was much stronger and faster then her. And he was more agile. However, he did not know how to fight as well as she did. He relied exclusively on his strength and speed, and that was his weakness. She had beaten stronger people then him before and his speed was only as useful as what he did with it.
Plus, Shego had her own advantages.
Cutter sprung at her like a pouncing cat, and met her glowing fist as she uppercut him in the jaw. The impact was enough to shatter concrete.
Cutter bounced off the ceiling and landed on the floor in a heap. Pieces of tile rained down on his body. He groaned loudly and turned himself over to spit blood on the floor. Shego stood watching as his head turned and glimmering eyes regarded her through his ruffled black hair.
"That really hurt, sweetpea."
Shego was only the smallest bit surprised that he was still conscience. She had expected him to be tough enough to take the hit, gauged from the superhuman feats she had witnessed him perform thus far. But she was glad he could still talk because now she could get some answers.
"Alright you dweeb," she pulled her flaming fist back as if to strike, "you've got ten seconds to explain yourself."
Cutter watched her fist warily. "Well… I put out an ad in the classifieds. 'Feelance henchman seeks villain for one time temporary engagement'…"
Shego fired a burst at the laying man. He opened his eyes to regard the smoking crater rested between his knees.
"Last chance, Champ," Shego growled, "how do you always know what I'm going to steal?"
Cutter met her angry emerald eyes with his own blank stare. He sat silent for a moment. Then he slowly opened his mouth as though to say something.
And then the steel plate lifted behind them.
Shego spun to look in the door's direction and at the two figures who entered through it. Cutter narrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Shego closed her eyes in exasperation.
"Oh God, not you, too."
Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable stood in the doorway. Kim had her green eyes fixed on the two fighters, while Ron looked around the burnt room.
"Yeesh," the blond boy said, "what have you two been doing in here?"
"Listen, Kimmie," Shego massaged a headache, "now's not a really good time. Can we do this later? I really need to melt this guy." Cutter raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"I don't think so, Shego," Kim assumed a fighting stance, "you won't be melting anyone while I'm here."
"Uh huh, I figured," Shego groaned. She turned to face her longtime nemesis with glowing hands. "I guess firsts things first." She leapt at the redhead.
Kim instantly spun into a roundhouse kick, forcing Shego to turn the leap into a roll. She came up with slicing chop which Kim deflected at the wrist, countering with her elbow. Shego barely swung her face out of the way.
While the two girls began their familiar dance, Ron dashed across the room to the seated Cutter.
"You ok there, buddy?" The sidekick helped him stand. "That green meanie didn't give you a hard time did she?"
Cutter stared at the young man in bewilderment. "You're… uhh… Ron Stoppable, right?"
"Indeed I am," Ron beamed, "and that fine fighting female over there would be the legendary Kim Possible!" He nodded to where Kim was deftly dodging plasma swipes.
"Kim Possible…" Cutter repeated as he watched the two girls. "So that's the girl."
"Uh, yeah," Ron frowned at the staring man, "that's my girl. So, ah, mind the looking there, old fella."
Cutter blinked at the younger man. "What? Oh… Oh no. I wasn't…"
A stray blast of plasma had both men ducking. Ron yelped as Cutter grabbed him by the collar, pulling him farther from the fighting. As the young man came to a stumbling stop, Cutter wheeled on him.
"What are you guys doing here?" Cutter's eyes met Ron's but then widened at the sight of Rufus popping out of his pocket. The naked mole rat sniffed in Cutter's direction and then growled
"Uhh…" the sidekick stumbled as he reassured his pet with a gentle pat, "we got a tip that there was going to be a robbery at Jack Hench Co Industries. There's some pretty nasty stuff here, so KP and I decided to check it out."
"A tip?" Cutter frowned.
"Yeah," Ron shrugged. "From Hench himself. He sent us straight in here."
"I see." Cutter clicked his tongue and watched the unhappy mole rat warily.
"So what's your story, my man?" Ron smiled at the thief, seemingly oblivious to the vicious battle raging across the room. "You a hostage or something?"
Cutter smiled at the younger man. "Yeah… or something."
An explosion had both men spinning.
Kim dived out of the cloud of smoke to tumble along the floor. Behind her, Shego came bursting out of the same haze, flaming arms held wide to either side. Kim hopped into the air as Shego brought her glowing fists down to explode on the floor where the redhead had just been. The cheerleader's leg snapped out and nearly clocked Shego's head who managed to flip backwards out of harm's way. They stood facing each other for the barest of seconds. Then, Shego bounded forward to meet Kim in a flurry of jabs and blocks. The women seemed evenly matched. Shego had power where Kim had speed. Both women used their advantages to the fullest.
But Shego's one weakness, as always, was her impatience.
Growling in mounting fury, the older woman made a particularly vicious swipe at the younger woman's belly. She knew the mistake she had made the moment she made it.
Kim twisted with the swipe, gripping onto Shego's arm at the elbow and bicep. Using her momentum, she spun the green woman to pin her on the floor, arm held firmly behind her. Shego grunted in pain and tried to push he way out of the lock. Even using her body as leverage, Kim just barely managed to hold the stronger woman.
"All right, Shego," Kim spoke through clenched teeth, "what's Drakken up to?"
"Come on, Princess," Shego smiled fiercely, "you know I can't tell you. That's how this works."
"We were friends, once." Kim said quietly, to which Shego halted her struggle. "You were… like a big sister to me. I know you remember."
"That was because my brain got zapped!" Shego snarled at the memory. "Like I would be friends with a spoiled cheerleader. Thanks but no thanks, Kimmie."
Kim tried not to let her hurt show. She told herself that she had expected as much from Shego. They had been arch rivals for so long, she couldn't remember anything before. Which made the brief and strange time that they had been best friends all the more bitter.
"I'm sorry, Shego," Kim sighed, fully expecting to put the woman in jail.
"Don't be," the pinned woman tried to sound acidic, "just doing your job."
"Um, excuse me?" Cutter leaned in to the private conversation uncomfortably. The two woman looked at him and he cleared his throat. "Uhh… sorry to interrupt. But I was wondering if I could talk to the… err, prisoner." Shego shot daggers at the silver-eyed man.
Kim narrowed her eyes at the stranger, noting that he was dressed in black as well as his unusual eyes. "And who exactly are you?"
"Oh," Cutter smiled, "I was hired by Mr. Hench to, um, subdue the thief that was threatening his business. Just a temp."
"You're name?" Kim asked impatiently.
"His name is Cutter," Shego growled, "Chris Cutter. And he's an idiot."
Cutter frowned at the mention of his name, but then smiled icily at Shego.
"Cutter?" Ron echoed with a frown, coming to stand next to Kim. "You just told me you're name was Smith."
The three stared at each other for a few moments. Then Kim's eyebrows rose in realization.
"The other thief." She breathed. "Shego's partner."
"Wait, he's not my…" Shego began.
Cutter moved with blinding speed. His hand shot out to grab Kim's wrist. Pulling her off green woman with unexpected strength, he tossed her into the standing Ron. Both heroes fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs and shouts of protest. He then grabbed the prone Shego and roughly hoisted her to her feet, pulling her a few steps towards the open door before she could react.
"What the hell…" Shego pulled out of his grip.
"Run, you stupid woman." Cutter hissed. "Drakken's stupid ray won't build its stupid self."
"Wait," Shego sputtered angrily, "how do you know about…"
"Uhh… Later, sweetpea." He pushed her out the door.
"Hold it!" Kim came to one knee and produced a hairdryer from her belt to point at the retreating man. Cutter actually stopped to look at her incredulously.
"What are you going to do?" He snorted. "Stop me with style?"
Kim smiled. "Something like that." A grappling hook fired out of the dryer's nozzle.
Cutter's arm shot up to catch the flying hook. He looked more then a little shocked as the young woman pulled back on the cord to hook him in the hand.
"You're not going anywhere." Kim scowled as she kept tension on the line. Ron, seeing what was happening, was quick to grab on the line as well. The two braced themselves against the dark man.
"Wow," Cutter hissed in pain, "this is nuts. I can't believe you…. arrgh!" He was pulled forward by the two teens. He grimaced at them. "Nevertheless…" Cutter tugged on his hooked arm. "I really need to go."
Kim and Ron were both surprised as they were dragged along the floor. Cutter's face was tight as he hauled his snared hand through the door. He paused to reach for the retina scanner.
"Later, Ron," the silver-eyed man smiled painfully, "nice talking to you."
The steel plate slammed down, cutting the grapple line. Ron and Kim fell backwards together to lie on the floor.
"Well," Ron was the first to speak. "We almost had 'em."
"Yeah," Kim sighed. "I didn't realize he was the partner until too late." She frowned as she sat herself up. "But they were fighting before we got here."
"Yeah," Ron stood and brushed himself off, offering a hand to Kim, "he totally looked the victim, KP. Even had me fooled." The young man looked self-conscious. "I stood there chatting with him like an amateur." Rufus sniffed derisively. He hadn't been fooled.
"No worries, Ron." Kim smiled and rubbed her boyfriend's shoulder. "We know now. He won't fool us again." She brought her wrist up in front of her face to press a button. "Wade, we lost 'em. But we got a lead on Shego's partner. His name is Chris Cutter."
"Did they steal anything?" The young man on the tiny screen asked.
"Nope," she looked around the empty room. "Hench must have cleared the space when he found out Shego was coming."
"Which makes me wonder who his source was." Wade scratched his dark hair. "Something doesn't fit right in all this."
"Total agreement," Kim nodded, "I think we need to find out more about this Cutter guy."
"Like what his deal is with pulling at the hook in his hand," Ron shuddered, "that was sick and wrong!" Rufus echoed his revulsion with a groan.
"Yeah," Kim nodded, "he was pretty strong. And he was really fast; he caught me completely off guard. Put that in your search, Wade."
"On it," the young boy was already typing.
"Oh, and something else strange," she noted, "I noticed that his eyes were silver, colored contacts or something. Maybe that'll help identify his M.O."
"Check," Wade nodded. "Anything else?"
"Not right away. We're going to go find out if Jack Hench knows anything else he's not telling us. Then…" the young woman shuddered, "I am taking a long, hot shower. Being in this place makes me feel icky."
"Right," Wade smiled, "I'll get back to you with some dirt on this new guy."
"Thanks, Wade." The Kimunicator winked out.
Growling in pain, Cutter cradled his wounded hand as he slid down the outside wall. Small retractable claws in his fingers and toes left tiny furrows as he skimmed along the vertical edge. They allowed the nimble man to find purchase on virtually any surface. It was this reason that Cutter never employed ropes or grapples, like so many other professionals, in his thieving career.
The thought of grapples had the man looking at the hook embedded in his hand. He still couldn't believe that… girl had sent him running. She had looked young enough to break over his knee. Cutter had to remind himself that he had watched the teen go toe-to-toe with Shego, and somehow pin her, something he had never done.
Even with an injured limb, the silver-eyed man skittered along the buildings almost effortlessly. He kept high enough that no guards saw him, most never bothering to look up anyway. He managed to clear the barb wired fence in one leap and land in a roll that had him grunting as he tried to protect his hand.
Dashing into a copse of trees not far from the Hench Co boundary, Cutter stopped to lean against an oak trunk. He examined his wound and cursed Jack Hench for tipping off Team Possible. When he approached the man with information regarding Shego's planned assault he had specifically offered his own exclusive services as a thief catcher, even going so far as to provide a resume of his past mercenary work to help sell himself. Hench obviously had not trusted him, with good reason. Either that or he had not been convinced that anyone could successfully stop Shego on their own, also with good reason.
Cutter stretched his still soar jaw at the memory of fighting the green woman. He was beginning to feel out of his league. His superior strength, speed and agility had always granted him supreme confidence to overcome all obstacles. But not this one. For some reason, he was feeling more and more helpless as events unfurled. All his plans had spiraled out of control almost from the onset. He did not know what to do.
Cutter wanted to roar in frustration.
With an animal snarl, the man tore the hook from his hand. The pain was excruciating. He saw red for a brief moment, but managed to breathe his way through the episode and find a calm. It was too easy to loose himself to the pain if he wasn't careful. He reflexively blocked the memories that bubbled forth at that thought. Now wasn't the time to brood over the past.
Cutter pulled a bandage from his utility pouch and wrapped his hand quickly. He was no field medic, but then he had never needed to be. Reaching into his pocket with his good hand, he fumbled around. His fingers brushed against a cold metal lump and he paused. He traced the surface of the melted object before continuing his search. Finally, he pulled a wrinkled piece of paper out of the depths.
Opening it enough to read the scrawled list, he decided on his next course of action. The note went back into his pocket and the man left the tree trunk behind, circling around to where he had left his ride.
A few moments of silence followed. And then, a lithe figure dropped to the ground from the very oak tree that Cutter had been leaning against. Emerald eyes stared in the direction that the dark man had retreated. A skin-tight green and black jumpsuit flexed and stretched along athletic curves as the woman slowly straightened from the landing. She quietly took up pursuit.
Shego had some questions.
And she wanted some answers.
Part Three will come when I'm good and ready and not a moment before. Heck, I'm still worried that I rushed Part Two. I'm sure I'll find a dozen things wrong with it after a week.