Kim Possible: The Darkness Without: redux Chapter 11, a kim possible fanfic

Kim Possible: The Darkness Without

Redux

Pt 11

By Eoraptor

Now, on with the Story...

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Saved by the bell again, that seemed to be happening a lot lately. A lot of those times seemed to be involving Mrs. Possible, she noticed.

Yet again Anne seemed to be thinking Monique was dating one of the boys.

J, she believed that Anne thought. She kept trying to 'talk' to Monique about it. Not that J wasn't getting to be fairly cute in his old age; he even had the whole rugged stubble thing going on. Of course both the twins did, but Jim Possible seemed to wear it better.

Monique guessed she could imagine why Mrs. P was so concerned. The twins were only seventeen after all, not even out of high school yet; and Monique was a young woman with her own career and a bachelor's degree in business.

Yet they had all spent one year together in high school, had known each other for several years, what was the big? If Monique actually was dating J or T… wouldn't it be their business and no one else's?

The New Year really didn't seem to be starting out too smoothly at all.

And now a phone call driving her out into the burbs. Ron wanted to 'talk'. Ron didn't do the 'talk'. Monique sighed and pulled into the parking lot of Ron's little apartment center, muttering to herself and gripping the leather wrapped steering wheel.

She honked the horn. Looking around and taking in the contrast between her upmarket SUV nearly fresh off the lot, and the care-worn Chevy's, Kia's, and Toyota's that made up the parking lot's usual population, she shook her head. Ron's was worst off of all perhaps… that rusted out old Explorer. Stoppable really needed to get back into the game, make himself some bank, and get better wheels he had the football moves still.

She honked again, realizing more than two minutes had passed while she'd studied the lower-middle-class cars and trucks in the parking lot.

"Boy… today is not the day to be making me wait on my mexi-fix." She grumbled and rapped her nails on the steering wheel.

She was about to honk a third time when her communicator beeped. Text message only.

['Wade nos']

"Wade Nitrous Oxide?" Monique blinked at the message and mentally scratched her head. About that time Ron was tapping on her passenger window. She sighed and tapped the unlock button, still muttering to herself. "Why does Wade have or need go-gas?"

Ron slid in beside her, and eyed the text that was perplexing her. "What does Wade know?"

"…Oh snap… Today just keeps getting better and better. All right Ron, change of plans. Nacos will have to wait."

"Oh Man! I haven't got my Diablo on yet and the year's already two weeks old."

"no cheese…" came a mole-speak whine from Ron's jacket pocket. Rufus poked his head up and looked about, then eyed the troublesome text message.

"Stow it boys." Monique snapped as she put the car into gear.

Ron blinked and hushed, fastening his seatbelt. That was harsh, he thought, but he wasn't about to say so when she could easily hit him for it. Rufus ducked back into the jacket and hid his face.

Monique headed for Loaded Technology. Ron looked up curiously at the graphic sign, with its symbol of a stylized old school porter with a computer balanced on its head, but no actual name. Once inside the little consulting lab, the trio stopped the first person they saw.

"Hey, we're looking for Wade er- Mr.-, um Doctor Loade." Ron began.

"What do I look like, a receptionist?" The tall blonde turned around, looking more than a little irritated at the mistake. "I can't be a Doctor with a PhD in Robotics just because I'm a woman in heels?"

"Whoa, take it easy Miss Thang. We're just looking for Wade." Monique stepped around, a distinct frown etching her brow. She looked nearly ready to physically ring the answers on Wade's whereabouts from this woman as her hands clenched at her sides.

Ron blinked, looking between the two women. Monique really seemed to have a chip on her shoulder today. He was about to say something, when he blinked again; this time in confusion, and slowly dawning recognition.

"VF?"

The blonde doctor blinked equally back, expressive eyes and beauty mark twitching.

"It's me, Ron! Ron Stoppable?" he wrapped his arms around her in a big impulsive hug.

"Ron! Gosh, I didn't recognize you… You look… great!" Vivian started at the hug and returned it after a surprised moment. She stepped back to better examine the young man who she last remembered as a pasty high school student with a belly and a slouch, and an obsession with the rules of dating.

"Thanks! You look spankin' as always." Ron stepped back after a moment and Rufus popped up, nodding enthusiastically and giving the thumb-claws up. "Oh, this is Monique… Monique, meet Vivian "VF" Porter, Doctor of Robotics. She used to work with KP's dad."

"A pleasure… I'm sure." Monique shook hands, but her frown didn't seem to abate. If anything, she seemed to tense up slightly more.

Ron seemed a bit puzzled. He thought Monique was still uptight about being snapped at by Doctor Porter, but he noticed Monique's eyes going back and forth between Vivian and himself. He was beginning to wonder if the universe were conspiring to confuse him. That happened a lot it seemed.

"What's the matter Monique? Too much blonde in one room for you?" He chuckled a bit uneasily, trying to smooth over the moment and pointing to his own short cut hair.

"Yeah… blonde… Anyway, 'VF,' where can we find the owner?" Monique seemed to be scowling slightly as she said the blonde's pseudonym.

"He's uh… down the hall in his office." Vivian seemed suddenly a bit uneasy. She looked from Ron to Monique, and after a moment a very faint smirk rolled over her lips. "oh…"

"Thanks. Come on Ron, let's go," Monique practically dragged Ron down the hall, with the leggy robotacist watching after them and still smirking.

"What did she mean 'oh' little buddy?" Ron whispered into his pocket after a moment. Rufus shrugged up at him. He didn't seem to get it either… That was never a god sign in Ron's eyes.

"Get it together girl… what was that all about anyway?' Monique was still pulling Ron along behind her, but her pace had slowed slightly once she was out of the reception area.

She didn't have time to interrogate herself further though, because they came to a door, the door in fact.

'Wade Loade, Co-Owner.' The 'co' etching seemed newer than the rest of the frosted glass on the door.

While Monique was trying to straighten herself up and suddenly seeming much less irritated and much more nervous, Ron just opened the door and went in.

"Wade! Buddy!"

"Huh? Ron! Long time no see!" Wade's dark face was suddenly brightened by a big grin. He got up from behind his desk and came around to shake hands. Ron, used to being quite a bit taller than the computer man, was surprised to be looking him right in the eye.

"Growth spurt?"

"Yeah, kinda…" He chuckled a bit and high-fived Rufus, who scurried up onto his shoulder. He made a bit of a pose to show off his taller and still growing body for the former footballer's approval. "Two inches in four months… what can I say?"

After a moment though, he looked past Ron and his broad smile faded away at who was standing in the door.

"Monique."

Ron felt the chill in the room like a palpable thing. He thought it might be because the two had once dated, and things had not gone well. Mind control had been involved.

"Wade…" Monique wouldn't meet his eyes. Ron thought this was pretty well opposite to what she'd been like when they'd first come into the labratory.

"Am I missing something here? Again?"

"Oh, you mean he doesn't know? Gee Monique… Industrial espionage suits you, you've even got your friends snowballed." Wade practically bristled now, and he walked back around his desk. Pressing a button on its surface; a hologram of what Ron thought was a slightly discolored Ninja with afro-puffs and gold stripes appeared in the air between them. The face was mostly covered by a mask.

"Um… Wade, I can explain." Monique seemed to be wilting as she looked at the hologram, rubbing her arms and holding herself.

It took Ron several seconds to put together the brown eyes depicted on the ninja with the ones staring at the floor.

"Waitaminiute! Is that a battle suit?" He pointed from the transparent person to the one standing next to him.

"It is… and apparently it's not the only one."

The image changed. Ron knew those colors all too well. He scowled darkly, and for a very brief moment, his blue eyes seemed to actually glow with an inner energy.

"Shego." He hissed the name slightly. Rufus actually did hiss, clawing towards the hologram.

"Not Shego… too short." Wade went on after a moment of watching Ron's reaction, "Can you explain that one too, Monique?"

"Actually…" She blinked in mild confusion, frowning and tilting her head. "…no."

"So you're not working for Wraith Technologies, Miss Chocolate Ninja?" Wade frowned, but he seemed to bristle just a bit less. He appeared to take her answer honestly. "I suppose Jim and Tim had something to do with your suit. They never did understand the term Intellectual Property."

There was a heavy silence in the room for moment. Ron was looking back and forth between his two friends and the hologram that had made his hackles shoot up. Finally he frowned.

"Monique… why do you have a battle suit?" His tone was almost parental as he stared at her, hands held out in a questioning display.

After a moment, Wade answered for her. "UniquePossiblities Dot com. Miss Ninja here has been playing hero."

Ron sighed heavily and flopped into a handy chair. "Oh Monique… why didn't you tell me?"

"I- I um…" Monique stuttered, a few tears forming at the edges of her brown eyes.

She stared, hoping for absolution, or at least understanding, "Well, at first you were still sick Ron… and then later… Well the longer it went on, the harder it got to be to tell you. You know how that is right? Right"

"And what about the theft of property." Wade still seemed irritated at one of his creations being usurped.

"Hey Wade... take it easy." Ron shot back, a little wearily. "Didn't you base your suit on Centurion and Haephestus?"

"Yeah, six months ago we bought the rights to Centurion too. And haephestus has been public domain since the Diablobots."

"Oh… Still, I bet Monique has a good reason, right Monique?" he looked over to her hopefully.

"Yeah. I want to find out what happened to Kim. Obviously," She suddenly looked with just a little renewed venom around the occupants of the room, "I'm about the only one seems like."

"And the tweebs are helping you?" Ron tried to lead her into continuing her explanation, and not wanting to be lumped into her accusation of a one-woman crusade.

"Yeah… Since the beginning. J and T gave me all sorts of kickin' gear."

"Yeah, they do good work all right. I never would have thought of the spidey-slinger and gloves." Wade conceded after a moment, his frown fading almost completely. "I mean, thought of them, yeah, but not how to successfully implement them."

Ron, for his part, frowned with renewed confusion. What were spidey slingers?

"So you weren't at Señor Senior Senior's island over Christmas, and you didn't have me hack Shego's file at Global Justice?" the still slightly round hacker probed, frowning at the hologram of the green character hovering over his desk.

"No… I was at Mr. and Mrs. P's place with J and T. And again the next morning. By the way, Ron was there Chrismas night, he can confirm that if nothing else." She thumbed at the blond boy, remembering the awkward scene at the Possible's doorway.

"…Okay then… So, the real question is… who is this, and why do they want to be Shego?" Ron pointed at the hologram that was still giving him a case of the hackles; after a moment of introspection at Monique's side comment.

"Yeah, and how did they solve the plasma problem with the suit?" Wade grumbled a bit jealously. "That thing puts out a lot of power, without being much bigger than the Mark One or Monique's suit."

Rufus scurried down off of Wade's shoulder and started pacing around the hologram, rubbing his chin slightly in consideration and Hmm'ing.

"Vivian," Wade pressed his intercom button, causing Viv to appear in holo-form as well, "Didn't you design some body armor pieces for someone from 'Banshee Personal Protection' before I canceled the contract?"

"Yeah Wade. Slim line night-vision too, damn that was sweet… one of my better jobs. Why?"

"It's looking like we just sold some expensive toys to a criminal, that's why. It looks like Banshee may be 'Wraith Technologies.'"

"Oh crap." Came the reply over the intercom, Vivian's holographic head frowning as it floated next to the green goblin.

"Yeah, my thoughts too. Look, can you figure a way to track any of that down?"

"I'm on it, cutie."

Wade turned his attention back to Ron and Monique. "Wraith Technologies hired Vivian and I to do some work a few months ago. That's how we hooked up, in fact."

"So I see, 'cutie.'" Monique smirked just a bit. She seemed a bit relieved to be at least partially off the hook. "That's quite the business partnership…"

Wade gave her a sour look and went on. "Yeah. Anyway, they wanted weird stuff… nano-polymers like I used in the Mark One battle suit, uranium power packs, neurological controllers."

"That's why I thought Monique was selling my stuff. I found out about her little 'hobby" two weeks ago, just before I found out about this Green Wraith character. Finding two battle suits based on my design running around when I haven't built one in three years makes a guy kind of paranoid. Especially after dealing a shady outfit like Wraith Technologies."

"I'm really sorry, I'm sure T and J never would have built me the suit if they knew you'd be this tweaked about it."

"If it's for Kim, I don't care if they stole my left nut." He dismissed her apology and continued.

"I started getting suspicious of Wraith Tech when they wanted me to hack into GJE and change records. I dropped them shortly after that and Vivian and I used the money we made from what we did sell them to start Loaded Technology."

"It's a nice place Wade…" Ron nodded and smiled a bit, still eyeing the hologram that slowly rotated, showing the ugly troll-looking character. He wondered if anyone else in the world found it odd that a seventeen year-old boy part-owned a successful technology consulting business.

"Yeah, the Wraith paid well. Anyway, here's the thing. After Wraith asked me to hack Shego's stuff, I found this… Ron… um… I don' know how to say this, but I think Wraith may have had something to do with the explosion. They wanted me to get rid of this image. I finally found it last week after looking for three months."

The hologram changed to a grainy photograph that continued to rotate. It took Ron a moment to make out what was being shown to him. "It was taken by a security camera on the roof of the Chicago Board of Trade. Why a security camera was pointing at the sky I have no clue, aside from someone wanting to watch 'the fireworks'."

What the four saw was washed out by a blossom of light that they all recognized with grim memory. After a moment, a green outline appeared in order to sharpen the blurry edges of the still frame. It showed a black helicopter with a 'W' on the nose and side.

Ron blinked. He hadn't seen or heard a helicopter that night; and he remembered that night as though someone had written it directly into his brain in indelible ink. Monique though, interrupted his train of thought and derailed the discussion after moment.

"So, how much do you know about what the twins and I do?" She eyed Wade for a moment, wondering if his reputation for knowing things he wasn't supposed to was still valid.

"Enough to know you're more than a little clumsy at it." He smirked, remembering the escapades he'd heard about with her running all about the south-east chasing leads on Shego between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"Oh yee of little faith..." was all she said in response, an insulted smirk on her lips.

"Wait wait wait wait!" Ron was looking fairly flustered at the change of topic. "You mean to tell me you've been sitting on this stuff for a week, and you didn't bother to tell anyone? Harsh!"

Wade looked down to the desk for a moment, trying to collect a response. "Well… It's not a lot to go on, really. It's just a helicopter and a bunch of blurry pixels. I… I didn't want to get everyone worked up over a coincidence if it turned out to be a traffic copter."

Ron wasn't mollified, but he couldn't come up with a reasonable argument at the moment.

-KP-

Sara was looking at the same picture of tower and copter, brought in from a small backdoor via one of her early emails to Wade and Vivian. It was a sweet little hack, and fortunately had yet to be discovered in the Loaded Technologies systems.

She didn't know that Wade, Ron, Monique, and Rufus were at that moment also looking at the image. Nor was she particularly concerned with the black helicopter hovering in the frame. What evidence she was concerned with getting rid of was far more subtle than the blurry 'copter.

There, near the edge of the building, just below the blossom of orange light atop the Sears Tower, was a small group of purple and black pixels. That group of pixels was falling onto one of the stepped roofs of the Tower's tiered design. That group of pixels was supposed to be dead, vaporized, in fact, and shouldn't be visible plummeting from the roof to a relatively safe landing..

The picture needed to be deleted.

She made a note in her PDA to have that taken care of… again. When Wade had abruptly decided he no longer wanted to work for Wraith Technologies, she'd been left slightly in the lurch for technological expertise. Doubly so when he'd hired Vivian Porter out from under her.

It had taken several weeks to head-hunt a hacker approaching Wade's level of expertise. Finding someone who could repair her two prosthetic arms had been only slightly less troublesome. VF's robotic arm technology was years ahead of the prosthetic limbs developed by the medical field specialists who were more concerned with making a light weight power-friendly arm than making one that did what a human arm was supposed to do. And that didn't even approach the special functions that her arms included which were unknown to Load or Porter.

Sara stroked her 'dress casual' arm thoughtfully for a moment. Yes, it weighed more than Kim's flesh-and-blood left arm had… But it was ninety percent functional, which was far more than could be said for the gaudy beige prosthesis she had worn out of Jefferson County Community Hospital months before.

With a prideful sigh, Sara thought back more than seven months, to escaping that little rural community clinic.

-June of the previous year-

Sara lay in her hospital bed, waiting. It was three twenty-two A.M. on a warm June morning. The full moon had just crested the horizon and was bathing the lightly forested landscape beyond her window in silvery light. When the alarm clock next to her monitoring bed had clicked to three twenty-three, she made her move.

She heard the duty nurse down the hall get up to check another patient who had been brought to the hospital's ICU a few days earlier. Once Sara's keen ears told her that the nurse was safely down the hallway of the rural facility, she slipped her bare feet out of the bed sheets and nestled them carefully into her slippers.

She then carefully made her way down the corridor; avoiding any open doors to adjoining rooms as best she could by darting across them before resuming a slow and cautious pace. She could hear all sorts of sounds in the still of the night; the slow ticking of old mechanical clocks in the hallways taunted her to continue, the rustling of sheets as a sleeping inmate- or patient that would still her heart and her breathing for long seconds. She had almost screamed when the duty nurse's desk phone had rung once and then gone to voice mail. Raking her hand through her hair, she growled and tried to get ahold of herself, tugging free a few short crimson strands in the process.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour, she made it to the door to the smoking porch, and god how old-school was this hospital to still have one? She looked at the alarm clock, which she had pocketed in her robe.

Damn, three twenty-nine… She'd been a little too careful. Too much time had passed. Carefully, she opened the door to the smoking porch, and listened to the swaying breeze outside. Yes… damn it, she could already hear it; the steady thump thump thump of a helicopter approaching.

Sara knew it wasn't life-flight, because if it were the entire hospital would be buzzing with activity; and given its small size she'd be very aware of that. She threw the door open, and darted across the sidewalk towards the Emergency Room doors.

This was the risky part. She could be easily seen now. She threw open the door to the ER and swept over to the nursing station, which was thankfully deserted at the moment just as she'd planned. She threw the small switches that turned on the tarmac lights for the heli-pad just outside, and at the same time disconnected the ground radio. She whirled and darted back out the door, already hearing the footsteps of the ER nurse returning with her nightly coffee.

Back outside, and already panting for breath in excitement, she started to cough violently. She grabbed at her robe, frantically patting both the large front pockets for their contents and failing to find the small rescue inhaler. In the throes of her violent coughing, it took her a moment to realize that while she was using both hands, only her right would actually report back to her brain if it felt something.

Still coughing hard, gagging now on the phlegm that was being forced up, she angrilly thrust her right hand into the left pocket and found the inhaler. She held it to her lips, depressed the little gas cylinder on top, and inhaled deeply.

After a few seconds, her lungs' spasming relaxed slightly, but it was too late. The lights on the tarmac and the noise she had made coughing up her damaged lungs had alerted the ER nurse. She saw the door beginning to open and raised her arms in a fighting stance.

Sara didn't associate the suddenly stronger breeze with her ride until it had forced the door of the ER closed in an instant hurricane, smacking the triage nurse in the nose in the process. She turned, spied the blue and silver private bell-jet copter landing on the tarmac, and wiped at her green eye as it teared up from the dust being blown at her.

She ran towards the chopper, and as the door slid open, she reached up with her left arm to be lifted in. In an embarrassing moment, she gasped as the plastic-coated left arm came free of her stump with an audible pop. Groaning at herself, she reached up with her right arm for the other hand being offered. This time she was successfully pulled in, and she snatched the phony arm away from the chagrinned man who had first tried to help her in.

The expensive private helicopter lifted away, ignoring frantic calls from the now-reconnected ER nurse and from local air traffic control. It stayed well under radar level, and Sara could see the light forests of northern Illinois roll by only a few dozen feet below.

She sat back into the jump-seat and inhaled deeply, taking a second hit off of her little inhaler. Allowing the rhythmic thump thump of the helicopter's blades through the heavily insulated cabin to lull her, she rested for several moments before pulling on the headset which she'd been handed.

"Miss Smith, welcome aboard… Your new employer is looking forward to more of your information services. Please, enjoy your flight."

Author's notes additional; So we're just starting to bring the threads of the story together ;) Why was Monique so pissed off when they got to Loaded Technology? Is Sara Smith ever again going to be Kim Possible? And who broke her out in the first place?Will the author stop using the Socratic Method and answer these questions in the next chapter? Maybe. Stay tuned next time; Same Kim time, same Kim channel!

New Notes: Obviously, this story was written a few years back, so some things may start to seem a bit dated, such as the Sears Tower still being the Sears Tower, and not Willis Tower. No tremendous changes in this particular chapter, just a lot of cleanup (about 1,200 more words worth). Coming up, however, will be some more cleanup and new scenes as I fix up some awkward timing jumps.