Chapter 3 : Malevolent surprises

Scene : the kitchen of Kim's house, six twenty three a.m. Saturday morning. She and Ron are finishing up eating breakfast and packing their mission gear.

"Are you sure you can get Wade out of his present sitch ?" Kim asked the image of Dr Director displayed on the Kimmunicator's screen, "I mean, this isn't the first background check he's ever done ! How come this sitch has never come up before ?"

"He's very good at what he does." Dr Director replied, "Most of the time, no one even knew he'd hacked into their systems. You can't report an intrusion you didn't know about. For the few times he was detected, he was searching for incriminating evidence, or ways to help you and Ron stop major crimes. In these cases, his hacking was considered legal because we filed retroactive warrants on your behalf."

"Retroactive warrants ?" Ron asked incredulously, "You can do that ?"

"Yes. We have seventy two hours to convince a federal judge that such activity was necessary. Otherwise, any evidence gained is inadmissible in court. Since Kim has an exemplary record for stopping world-class villains, getting such a warrant has been very easy so far.

In this case, however," Dr Director continued, "there is no evidence of any sort that the Rossums are involved in anything illegal.

I have to ask you a few questions Kim : Was there any malicious intent on your part, Miss Possible ? Were you trying to gather data on Vina's family to hurt her, or use for personal reasons or gain ?"

"No ! Certainly NOT !" Kim replied huffily.

"I know." Dr Director said, hand raised in a placating gesture before writing it down, "It was necessary to ask for legal reasons. So why, exactly, DID you ask Wade to do a background check on Lavinia Rossum ?"

"Uber-weirdness. She managed to eat the caf's food without getting ill."

"Hmm. Well, that IS unusual." she replied with a shudder, "But not especially world threatening. So, unless there is evidence to the contrary we haven't uncovered yet, we'll write this up as a minor error. Due to your heroic activities, you've had more exposure to the strange and unusual than most people, and may have reacted prematurely."

"Yes, I guess so." Kim replied with a glower.

"It's not the end of the world, Kim." Dr Director stated, "Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. You saw something unusual, and acted in good faith. Because of that, we can probably have the charges against Wade dropped, and his equipment restored to him by Monday."

Kim sighed with relief. "Thank you Doctor Director ! I know Wade will be overjoyed to hear that !"

"Yes. I can imagine. May I ask what you and Ron are doing up this early on a Saturday morning ?"

"The Bebebots are back, and they stole six tons of chemicals. And the equipment needed to process it." Kim replied, "Wade managed to track down a few places they could be hiding before his computers were impounded. It's going to take all day to check all of them out."

"'Bebebots', you say ?" Doctor Director asked as she entered the data into her computer. "Ah, yes. One of Drakken's more successful projects. Until they rebelled against him. This looks like a situation Global Justice should be dealing with."

"I've dealt with these things several times before, Doctor Director. They're no big. Global Justice would be overkill."

"Possibly." she replied, "But it pays to be cautious in unknown situations. We have the resources to perform a more efficient search than you do, Miss Possible. And it is our job to do them. How many potential Bebebot hives did Wade manage to locate ?"

"Fifteen. But the short list is only five sites."

"If you take half the short list, Kim." Doctor Director replied, "Global Justice will deal with the rest. If we find anything unusual, we'll call you in."

Kim did a quick calculation : "If GJ takes half the short list, me and Ron will only be driving around for six hours instead of seventeen ! Spanking !"

"You've got a deal Doctor Director !" Kim replied before scanning Wade's list and sending the file to her.

"C'mon Ron ! We're going to be doing a LOT of driving today !" Kim said after shutting the Kimmunicator off.

"You drive there, and I drive back ?" Ron asked as they headed out to Kim's car.

"Sounds more than fair to me !" Kim replied before getting behind the wheel and starting the engine.

Scene : outside a long abandoned metal fabrication plant, nearly at noon.

"Man, KP ! This place looks older than that recycling plant and the abandoned railway maintenance terminal we checked out combined !" Ron stated as he gazed upon the graffiti and dust encrusted brick building. "How long ago did they abandon this place ?"

"The company left it to rust and rot about twelve years ago, Ron." Kim replied with a grimace as she tried to NOT think about the dirt and filth they may have to be searching through, "but it is on the railway line, and within range of the research lab. So we have to check it out."

"Well, third time's the charm KP." Ron said as he tried to pull the rusted metal door open, "The first two places we checked were a bust, and GJ hasn't called to say they found anything ..."

"... and since Wade is never wrong, this MUST be where the Bebes are hiding !" Kim finished his thought before PUSHING the door open with an echoing screech.

"This - does not bode well." Ron stated after kicking away some garbage stuck to his shoe. Even though it was noon, there was little light in the building since all its windows had been boarded over with sheets of plywood long ago.

Kim did a quick survey of the area - there were a few rooms off to her left and ahead, while half a dozen old metal working machines sat in the squalid darkness to her right. Beyond them was a large open space near the shipping bay, where three huge crates were rotting away off in a corner.

"I'll check in what's left of the offices, Ron" she finally stated, "You and Rufus see if there is anything odd over there by the shipping bay."

"On it KP !" Ron replied before threading his way past the remains of some destroyed chairs and tables earlier vagrants had left behind.

Kim had only been examining the old offices for nearly ten minutes before she heard a loud THUD ! - followed quickly by Ron complaining.

She ran onto the factory floor and found Ron lying flat on his back near one of the heavy metal working machines, rubbing the back of his head.

"Ron ! Are you alright ?"

"Yeah. I just slipped in something." he stated as she helped him up. But, for some odd reason, his left foot kept slipping !

"Aw man ! What did I step in this time ?!" he groaned as Kim looked around.

"This looks like a blob of grease !" she replied, rubbing the translucent substance between her gloved thumb and finger, "It is ! And it's fresh !"

She tested a few levers on the nearest machine - despite being covered in filth and blistered with rust, they moved effortlessly and without even a hint of a squeak.

"I think we just hit the jackpot KP !" Ron said before leaning on a 'start' button - and the industrial drill it was attached to began spinning at high speed.

"Whoa ! All these machines still work ? And have power ? Now that is not normal !" he responded before fumbling for the 'off' button.

"It makes perfect sense Ron !" Kim replied with a grin, "What better place for a bunch of robots to hide than in a metal working factory ? Even though all the machinery looks decrepid, it works just fine ! All the Bebes would need is a power source, and they could use everything in here without being detected !"

"That would explain why it made it to Wade's short list of 'places the Bebes could be hiding' then." Ron mused before looking confused, "But I don't see anything that even looks like it could hide a power source in here. At least nothing big enough to power all this."

"Which means their generators must be hidden nearby. So there must be a secret door, or a hidden passageway or entrance to a tunnel in here somewhere." Kim stated with a broad gesture, "Look for a hidden lever or a panel or switch that's out of the ordinary."

"Out of the ordinary in here, eh ? That would be something unusually CLEAN ..." Ron thought to himself as he started looking at the walls and floor panels very closely. "You know KP, this would be a whole lot faster - and healthier - if Wade was on line to do a scan for us !"

"I know Ron," Kim sighed, "but we'll have to do the best we can on our own until Monday."

"Now where's the LAST place a normal person would check in this place ?" Kim pondered in the remains of the foreman's office as she ran her finger along the top of a battered file cabinet, then grimaced at the thick layer of heavy dust stuck to her finger.

She turned on a small flashlight and looked around, before noticing a glint from inside one of the tiny rooms across the hall from her.

It was the handle of the long unused toilet in the women's restroom.

"Well, points for major weirdness if that handle opens a secret door !" Kim thought to herself before gingerly depressing the handle with her foot.

"Hey KP ! Something's going on out here !" Ron shouted from out by the shipping bay.

Kim rushed out to see what Ron was talking about. He and Rufus were looking at a six by six foot section of the floor that was now almost a foot lower than the rest.

"An elevator platform hidden in plain sight. Sneaky !" Kim stated. "I wonder where the controls are ?"

Rufus stroked his chin, then got on the platform for a closer look. He jumped up and down on one tile, and the platform lowered a fraction of an inch each time. He did the same on a tile to the right of the first, and the platform moved up slightly each time.

"Good going there Rufus !" Ron cheered, "You found the controls for this thing ! Wonder why it didn't move when I was searching over here earlier ? I probably stepped on those tiles a couple of times."

"The main switch is in the women's restroom, Ron." Kim stated, "I think you have to flip that switch before the ones on the platform work."

Ron thought for a few moments. "So - you have to find one hidden switch before two other hidden switches will work ? That's more security than most of the lairs we've been in have ever had ! I wonder what else the Bebes have in here ?"

"I don't know Ron. I wish we had Wade's input right now." Kim replied before blowing an errant strand of hair out of her eyes.

"You wanna wait until Wade's back online ?" Ron asked, "The Bebebots will probably stay put for a few days. I mean, moving from lair to lair quickly can't be easy or fast. Even for them. Assuming they even HAVE another lair to move to that isn't on Wade's list."

"True. But every day we DON'T intervene, the more of them there will be. So I say we get them now before things get worse !" Kim replied with her standard upbeat and confident tone.

"Right behind ya KP !" Ron replied before they lowered the platform three feet - just far enough down to take a peek without alerting how ever many Bebes were below them.

It looked like the Bebebots had been busy - they had carved out a square room with a twenty foot high ceiling beneath the elevator platform. Sliding doors had been mounted on three walls. As they watched, a triad of Bebebots walked beneath them.

But instead of their usual metallic appearance, these Bebebots looked like they were made from a milky tan, grainy plastic.

"The plasto-ceramic composite !" Kim whispered to Ron, "They've already started using it to build more Bebebots !"

"Good thing we found them when we did then KP !" Ron whispered back, "If that stuff is as strong and as light as Mister Richardson says, those Bebes might put up a better fight than the older models !"

"Which means we'd better take them out NOW, before they build too many more !" Kim replied before tying her grapnel gun's line around one of the machines bolted to the factory floor. Once she was sure there were no Bebebots waiting down below, she and Ron rappelled down their lines into the Bebebot's lair and hid behind some crates.

From their new vantage point, they could see inside the rooms briefly whenever the Bebes exited for patrol. Behind the left-side door was a wall of switches, buttons and screens as far as they could see into the room; Kim guessed some of it was the machinery stolen from Acme labs to make and shape the plasto-ceramic compound, and, most likely the generators powering all of this.

She could see nothing but darkness in the room closest to her.

Behind the right-side door were shelves all the way to the ceiling of the cavernous room, and piles of crates; from the markings, they'd been stolen from many different companies.

"How'd they manage to steal all that without Wade noticing ?" Ron asked.

"I don't know. It should be easy enough for Wade to find out - once he gets his systems back !"

"So, what's the plan KP ?"

"I'll distract them, you and Rufus sabotage all that electronic gear in there !"

Ron looked confused for a moment. "Wait - YOU'RE the distraction ?!"

"I can keep them very busy for quite some time, Ron !" she replied with a grin, "and you and Rufus rock at destruction ! It'll be just like that giant cheesewheel in Wisconsin." she continued before giving him a kiss on the forehead.

"Oh, yeah !" Ron replied with a chuckle and, seeing his chance, slunk off to the left.

Once Ron was in position and gave her a thumbs up, she snuck off towards the right until she was next to the doors.

She waited until the doors next to Ron opened before somersaulting on top of a crate and announcing "You Bebebots just don't know when to call it quits, do you ?"

As one, the three turned to look at her. Their optical sensors flared briefly as they began scanning.

"Target : Kim Possible." the closest one stated in a monotone, "Threat level : irrelevant !"

Kim gave them an annoyed, quizzical look before the other two Bebes raised their right arms in perfect synchrony. Seams appeared along the tops of their forearms and a panel lifted up, exposing a silvery hollow cylinder. Kim heard a whine as the weapons powered up, and had just enough time to look surprised and dive for cover before they opened fire.

"LASERS ?! They're armed with LASERS ?! When did they get lasers ?!" Ron frets as he watches them. "NO ONE shoots lasers at my GF !" Ron thought to himself as he gathered his focus and courage. Seeing that the Bebes were now completely focused on Kim, he carefully slipped into the room.

Kim was easily avoiding their attacks with her gymnastics, drawing them into position for a classic counterattack. She finally somersaulted atop a large crate and waited for the Bebebots to open fire - as she reached for her compact for her standard 'bounce the laser beams back and get them to shoot each other' routine.

"I see you walking tin cans got a serious firepower upgrade !" Kim taunted at them.

"Correct. Every Bebebot that has attempted hand to hand combat with you has been destroyed." the 'bots replied, taking turns speaking a few words from the same sentence, "Conclusion : hand to hand combat with you not advisable. Therefore, alternate strategy required and implemented."

But instead of opening fire directly at her all at once as Kim was expecting, they spread out. The ones with the visible laser mounts went to opposite walls, while the third 'bot which STILL hadn't activated its lasers remained between them.

It extended its arms, palms forward. They start shaking and humming, then its hands blurred into superspeed motion as she generated a sonic blast, using its hands to push waves of air like the cone of a monstrous speaker. Kim managed to backflip away without getting hit.

As the crate she'd been standing on a fraction of a second before vanished in a vortex of splinters and dust.

"Well, that explains how they got into the Acme labs !" Kim mused to herself before noticing that the Bebebot that fired it could barely stand up, "but that blast takes quite some time to power up, and takes a lot out of the Bebebot using it ! All I have to do is get in close and smash it before it can fire again !"

But each time she tried to move, the flanking Bebes set up a cross fire, driving Kim back !

"What the hey ? When did they start using actual tactics ?!" Kim wondered as she feinted to the left, then cut back right. To no avail.

"Nuts ! All they're doing is keeping me pinned down long enough for that third one to power up its sonic blaster again !

But, as long as they're dealing with me," she continued, "Ron and Rufus will have a much better chance of destroying this place !"

The third Bebebot seemed to awaken and, upon that signal, the flanking 'bots set up a continuous crossfire, driving Kim back towards the wall inside an ever narrowing triangle.

Once they figured Kim was sufficiently pinned down, the last Bebebot powered up its sonic blast and fired !

Kim couldn't dodge left, right, back or ahead - so she quickly performed a split. She felt like her internal organs were bouncing off each other as the blast howled overhead - and disintegrated a four foot wide hole through the wall. She had just enough time to do a double take and dive through it before the other two Bebes trained their laser fire at her.

She found herself in large room about a hundred yards long, twenty yards wide, with a twenty foot high ceiling. All of the rafters and support beams were made from the same plasto-ceramic compound a few of the Bebes were made from. From the random piles of new and old equipment and crates scattered about the room, she figured they were using the place for storage. She grabbed the paperwork still attached to a crate she was hiding behind and stuffed it into her pocket. "Wade should be able to figure out HOW they managed to get all this stuff without anyone noticing ! " she thought to herself as she waited for the 'bots to start looking for her.

Less than a minute later, the doors opened and the triad of Bebebots strolled into the room and looked around. Seeing nothing immediately, they looked and gestured to each other.

The sonic armed Bebebot then used its telescoping limbs to go up to the ceiling. After turning its head completely backward, it started searching the storeroom from its high vantage point, creeping along the rafters like a huge robotic spider. One of the laser-armed Bebebots headed off into the shadows to the right; the last laser-armed Bebebot brazenly strolled down the middle of the room, weapons at the ready.

Kim blinked in disbelief. "WHERE did these 'bots learn effective combat and search tactics ?!" the groused to herself as the 'bots started their search. "They make Hench's goons and Gemini's agents look like morons !

The Rossums are REALLY going to get a piece of my mind when I get out of this sitch !" she continued to herself before taking stock of her present situation.

"The bad news is, split up like that, they'll most likely find me." she noted, "But, the good news is, it'll be three one on one battles, instead of a single three on one !"

She looked around for a weapon to even the odds a bit, and found a small crowbar. She hefted it a few times to gauge its weight as she decided which Bebebot to take out first.

Figuring that the one armed with the sonic blaster was the greatest threat, she threw the crowbar towards it. While the crowbar was still in the air, she whistled to get the Bebebot's attention.

It turned its head to look - just in time to catch the spinning crowbar right between its eyes ! There was a loud 'BONG !!' as the crowbar dented its skull. Sparks blossomed from the damaged 'bot, and it fell to the floor.

The Bebebot skulking in the shadows to Kim's left opened fire - completely giving away its position.

Without backup in position to establish a protective crossfire, the Bebebot was in trouble. Kim bobbed and weaved towards it, making contact with a devastating jump kick. The fembot was knocked back almost ten feet from the impact.

It staggered back a few steps more before recovering its balance.

"I guess being lighter means you can be knocked back farther !" Kim noted as she somersaulted in for another attack.

She caught it under its chin with a spin kick, breaking its head off at the neck, and sent it spinning in a steep arc into the air.

Upon seeing the Bebebot's head bounce off the floor, the last remaining Bebebot started walking backwards towards the door while rapidly firing its laser in Kim's general direction. Kim dived behind a crate, easily evading the barrage.

With Kim momentarily stalled, the Bebebot 'spoke' a rapid sequence of blips, squeaks and tones.

The darkness of the third room in the lair was pierced by countless pairs of glowing red eyes as the reserve Bebebots activated in response to the call for assistance.

Scene : the control room :

Ron had successfully snuck into his designated room, and was watching the six Bebebots tend to the machinery from his vantage point in the rafters.

"Man ! SIX of them ?!" he groused, "Three of the old models are a match for Kim; just me against twice as many ? I sure hope Kim can distract them."

As he was watching, all of the Bebebots stopped working and, as if listening to an unheard voice, walked out of the room.

The moment the doors closed Ron dropped to the floor and walked over to the school bus sized control panel.

"This is some very complicated and advanced technology Rufus," he stated before cracking his knuckles, "Better mess with everything !"

Rufus nodded in reply before squeezing into a vent to do some hostile rewiring from inside the generator's control as Ron pressed every button and flipped every switch he could find.

Scene : back in the storeroom :

It didn't take long for Kim to figure out why the lone Bebebot's shooting was so lousy - it was using suppression fire to keep her there until reinforcements arrived.

And arrive they did - the doors opened and a trio of Bebebots entered.

Then another. And another. And another. And yet another.

They powered up their lasers and spoke as one : "Your adventures end here and now, Miss Possible !"

Before they could fire, red lights started flashing, a klaxon sounded, and a robotic voice warbled "Forming press damaged. Forge temperature critical. Regulators off line. Catastrophic failure in two minutes."

"THANK YOU RON !" Kim grinned, taking the opportunity to somersault away from the Bebebots. They watched her for a few moments, before turning to run to deal with the problems.

Except for the last three in the room - they remained standing in front of the only exits, weapons powered up.

"Oh, THIS is not good !" Kim fretted to herself, "Either the rest of the 'bots will repair Ron's sabotage, then come back here and blast me into a charcoal briquette.

Or they'll decide they can't repair it, abandon the base, and let it blow up.

With me still inside !"

She tried a few runs at the door to fake them out, but they simply opened fire and remained in position.

She tried to taunt them into pursuing her deeper into the storeroom, but they refused to abandon their posts.

"Great - suicidally determined guards !" Kim thought to herself before realizing that, as members of a hive mind, the fates of any particular 'bots were irrelevant; the surviving 'bots would just build more to replace them.

"Ron, where are you ?" she whispered to herself as the shadow of self-doubt began to darken her outlook.

A bellowing shriek like something out of a bad kung-fu movie filled the room as Ron dived through the same hole Kim had dived through earlier. The 'bot guarding that exit was caught completely off guard as Ron swept its feet out from under it. Its delicate neck snapped when it landed at a sickening angle.

Looking scarier than anyone would have believed possible, Ron stood up, glared at the remaining two Bebebots and said "NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE shoots lasers at my GF !"

Jumping into a room so brazenly was so ANTI-logical that the Bebes looked at him for 1.5732 seconds as they tried to figure out how best to deal with him.

This was 1.14 seconds longer than they really should have taken their eyes off Kim !

After downing them both with a double jump kick, Kim grabbed Ron and dragged him out of the room while activating her jetpack.

"Whoa Kim ! Can't we take the elevator ?" he asked as the jets kicked in and they took to the air.

"Not enough time Ron ! This place is going up in less than two minutes !" she replied as they shot up the elevator shaft and out through the narrow gap at the top.

She and Ron touched down a few hundred yards away, and ducked down behind the railroad track enbankment to watch.

There was a sound like distant thunder as they felt a vibration through the ground. Over by the abandoned factory, the ground blistered up as the walls of the abandoned factory cracked before finally collapsing. Then it sunk into the ground as the Bebebot tunnels below it collapsed.

"Well, looks like we can add another lab to your running total of destruction there Ron !" Kim stated with a forced grin as they began walking towards her car.

"They were shooting lasers at you KP ! I am not going to stand for that !"

"Thank you Ron !" she replied while embracing him hard enough to squeeze the air from his lungs.

"Uhm, KP ?" he squeaked, "I normally wouldn't complain about this sitch, but .. AIR ! I NEED AIR !!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry Ron !" she said after releasing her grip, "But THOSE ... BEBEBOTS were SCARY !!"

Ron had a confused and worried look on his face. "Huh ? What's so scary about a bunch of robot women you've easily trashed twice before ?"

"These weren't like the other ones, Ron !" Kim replied while grabbing two fistfuls of Ron's shirt, "They were actually, well, SMART !"

"What ? You mean they had other upgrades besides the lasers ?"

"Yes ! At least one of them was using some kind of sonic blaster. And they were using totally different combat tactics !"

"Where could they have learned better tactics KP ?" Ron asked as he put his arm around her to calm her, "You think they found someone else to link to their hive mind like they did with Bonnie ?"

"I don't know Ron." she replied as her confidence returned, "But I intend to find out !"