Bad Moon Rising
Oo000oo000oO
A Kim Possible fanfic.
Oo000oo000oO
It was just after five in the morning and Anne couldn't sleep, so rather than toss and turn and deprive her husband of some much needed sleep she decided that she'd go downstairs to the kitchen and make herself some warm milk and maybe try to read something. Perhaps then she could get some sleep.
Perhaps.
Tugging the sash of her bathrobe closed, she carefully navigated the unfamiliar hallways of the Possible ranch house as quietly as she could. Mounting the stairs, she carefully eased her way down, trying to avoid making the stairs squeak.
Just as she thought that, the step she just put her weight on squeaked and she flinched, expecting to hear a inquisitive bark from Okie, the Montana branch of the Possible family's English Pointer.
Amazingly, all was silent. Staying stock still for a few seconds, she thanked her luck that the dog hadn't heard that and woken up everybody in the house. Exhaling the breath that she had been holding softly, Anne continued the rest of the way down the stairs to the ground.
"Must be outside" she thought, referring to the dog. "Last thing I want to do is wake everybody up."
Reaching the kitchen, she fumbled around looking for the light switch, found it, and flicked it on. Squinting against the sudden light, she held her hand up against the brightness and shuffled her way inside.
"Hey, Mrs Dr. P." Ron said in a low, tired, voice.
Anne gave out a shocked gasp and whirled around to face the voice, and saw that no, her mind wasn't playing tricks on her, that yes, Ronald Stoppable was actually there in the kitchen with her.
He was sitting at the kitchen table, clad in dirty, rumpled mission gear, and looked about twenty five years older than he actually was.
"Ron?" Anne squeaked.
Ron nodded and held up his hand. "Don't say anything." he said. "I don't have much time, and I've got some things that I have to tell you, okay?"
Anne gave a minute nod and Ron continued. "First, obviously, I'm alive. I got... lucky." he said, the distaste he placed on the final word evident to Anne even through her shock. "Second, Drakken's dead. So are the clones. Kim's been avenged, so you and everybody can have some closure-"
"How?" Anne asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"What?" Ron asked, surprised by Anne's question.
"How did my Kimmie die?" she asked. "Did she suffer?"
Ron hesitated for a second, the events of Kim's death flashing before his eyes. "No." he said. "It was over before I knew what happened. We'd split up to look for Drakken. I heard Kim yelling, and when I got there, she was already dead."
Anne saw the expressions that had flickered across the young man's face, and she knew that he was telling her a lie about her daughters death. But she had did the same thing to too many families from her times working in the ER, telling them that their loved ones hadn't felt a thing, giving them a bit of peace of mind thinking that their loved ones hadn't suffered.
And she decided that, no, she didn't need to know exactly how her daughter had died. It was bad enough that she was dead, she'd seen too much to want to know the details.
"Thank you." she said, then looked at Ron. "What about you? Are you okay?"
Ron nodded and got to his feet, the slight scrape of the chair he'd been sitting in oddly loud across the vinyl floor.
"I'm ... no, I'm not fine." Ron said, looking her in the eye. "There's a lotta stuff I gotta work my way through before I'm any where near fine. But I got a lotta stuff to do before I can do that."
"Okay." Anne said. "Do your parents know that you're alive?"
"Yeah." Ron said with a nod. "I already told them. One more thing though..."
"Yes?" Anne asked, looking at the blond boy she had watched grow up and wondering just how much had changed with him.
"Outside, you, Wade, my parents, and a couple of other people, nobody knows that I'm alive." Ron told her. "It'd be a lot safer if the world was kept in the dark about that."
"But you said that Drakken is dead." Anne protested, her brows furrowing in confusion. "Why wouldn't you-"
"Mrs Dr P, I killed Drakken. What about the other super villains out there?" Ron asked. "If everybody thinks I'm dead, they won't come after you or my parents to get to me."
"Oh." was Anne's response, and she rubbed her eyes. "Cripes, I'm so tired." she muttered.
"You're not the only one." Ron said and turned towards the door.
Before he could leave, however, Anne swept him up into a hug. "Come back and see us, when it all dies down." she told him as gave him a rib snapping hug. "Everyone's going to want to talk to you. You're as much a member of this family as Kim is."
"I know." Ron said before he slipped out of Anne's grip.
And with that, he was gone.
Oo000oo000oO
Shego awoke to someone gently rapping on the paper screen to her room. Blinking, she rubbed her eyes and fro a brief moment wondered just where the hell she was. Then her mind became fully awake and she remembered where she was.
The Yamanuchi.
"I'm up!" Shego yelled as she rolled over and got to her feet. "Can't a girl get a nap in around here..." she muttered as she stepped over to the door.
Sliding open the door she was less than thrilled to see that ninja girl, Yori standing before her.
"Yeah?" she asked somewhat blearily.
"My apologies for waking you, Shego -san." Yori said with a slight bow. "But Stoppable -san and Naota -kun have returned."
She was instantly awake now. "They're back?" she asked, all fatigue gone now.
"Yes." Yori answered. "They're going to be arriving at the second freight terminal in about five minutes."
"Oh!" Shego said. "That means I have time- give me a second."
Yori blinked is slight surprise as Shego abruptly turned away and headed for the small vanity tucked into a corner of the room. Grabbing a brush, she quickly set her hair to rights and adjusted her clothing so where it wasn't rumpled looking, then turned back to where Yori was still standing.
"Okay." she said, heading for the door. "I'm ready. Let's go."
Yori simply nodded and led the way.
Oo000oo000oO
The tram jerked to a stop and the ninja running it pulled on the handle, setting the brakes. Nodding to him and Naota, the ninja began shutting down the tram as they got up from where they had been sitting on one of the cars.
Hopping down onto the platform, Ron turned and grabbed the large Styrofoam cooler that had accompanied them all the way from Kansas. Lifting it up, he grunted slightly at it's surprisingly heavy weight and turned to face the door right as Shego and Yori came in.
"Ron!" Shego said as she walked over to him. "Did you-?"
Ron nodded and hefted the cooler. "Yeah." he said. "He's dead."
Shego stopped and looked at the cooler. She had a sudden, sinking, suspicion as to what was in that cooler, and it wasn't pate foi gras.
"Uhhh... you didn't have to do that, you know..." Shego said, pointing at the cooler.
Ron shrugged slightly. "Considering what the bastard's did to us, I figured that it'd be best to show you proof." he said. "Just in case."
"Oh." was Shego's response.
"Besides." Ron continued as he put the cooler down on the platform. "He cloned Kim, remember? He could have had some crazy backup plan in place to clone himself if he died. The last thing I wanted to do was leave his head lying around where someone could grab it and download his memories."
Shego thought for a moment, and sighed. "Yeah, that crazy bastard would have something like that in place." she said. "Alright, you brought it here. I might as well see it."
Ron laid his hand on the lid and looked up at Shego. "You sure?" he asked.
"Yeah." she said with a nod.
"Okay." Ron said, and pulled the lid off.
He leaned back and Shego looked down into the cooler. There, nestled in a bed of ice and wrapped in plastic, was the transformed, lupine, head of Dr Drakken. The jaw was slack, and the eyes were dead and staring, but she remembered it quite clearly.
"Yeah." Shego said. "That's him. That's definitely him." she added as she stepped back.
Ron replaced the lid and stood up.
"W-what are you going to do with it, Stoppable -san?" asked Yori.
Ron thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I don't know." he answered. "I never thought that far."
"Burn it." Shego said. "Pour salt on it, and burn it."
Ron looked at Shego for a second, then over at Naota, who had been standing back watching this quietly.
"Not a bad idea." he said in Japanese. "And when you're done, scatter the ashes. That way, there's no grave. He'll cease to exist."
"What'd he say?" Shego asked.
"He said that we should scatter the ashes when we're done." Ron told her, looking down at the cooler. "That way, there's no grave."
Shego looked down at the cooler and nodded. "Not a bad idea." she agreed. "Not a bad idea at all."
Oo000oo000oO
The way that they ultimately disposed of the lat Doctor's head was somewhat... unique, to say the least. They hauled it out into a clearing in the forest that was just bare soil, the ground cover having been scorched and blasted away.
Along with the head, they also took some large plastic sacks, filled with something, not to mention a cardboard box ,two shovels, and a large loop double strand wire.
"What the hell happened here?" Shego asked Yori as Ron and Naota started digging. "This place looks like I've been practicing my plasma."
"This is where we dispose of magical items, cursed artifacts, and other such things." Yori explained to Shego.
Shego gave the scorched, blasted, ground an appreciative look. "Must've have been some powerful stuff." she commented.
Yori bobbed her head. "Yes, some of it was.' she said. "But mostly, it was the thermite."
"Thermite?" asked Shego. "You guys use thermite?"
Yori nodded again. "Yes." she said. "When the vast majority of these items came into being, their creators were not anticipating their being destroyed by being placed in a pit on top of a pile of twenty kilos of thermite."
Shego was reminded of a robbery that she and her brothers had investigated. The crooks had used a sack of thermite to try and open a safe that they had stolen. They had botched the whole affair, with the guy who had set the charge using a fifty pound sack of the stuff, and somehow managing to set it off while he was setting it up.
The only thing left of him had been his left foot and part of his ankle, and a high carbon content in the puddle of molten steel they had found. And the smell...
Shego turned greener than usual and clasped her hand over her mouth. "Excuse me..." she choked out and ran for the bushes.
By the time she was done, Ron and Naota had the pit dug and were pouring the contents of the bags into the pit, the reddish brown powder looking like rusty sand as it flowed into the ground.
"Be careful." she said to Ron. "That stuff is dangerous."
"We know." Ron said as he and Naota finished emptying their sacks. "There." he said as he picked up a box of salt and poured it on top of the pile of thermite.
Shego walked back with them to where Yori was finishing attaching the ends of the wire to a metallic gray strip.
"What's that?" Shego asked.
"It's a piece of magnesium." Yori answered. "It's we ignite the thermite. It can only be lit by very high temperatures, so we use magnesium, in this case lit with an electric element."
"Huh." Shego said, and looked back at the pit, which only the very top of the pile of thermite could be seen. "You think plasma could light it?" she asked, an idea occurring to her.
"Certainly." was Yori's response. "Are you capable of generating plasma?" she asked, pausing in her work to look up at Shego.
"Let me see." Shego said, and held up her hand.
With a flex of her fingers, her hand blazed green. "Looks like." she said, and with a wave of her hand, sent a bolt of green plasma at the pit.
With a flash and roar, the thermite ignited in a shower of sparks. The three of them stood and watched as the incendiary agent blazed, vaporizing Drakkens head and all remaining traces of him.
Finally, after several minutes, the fire went out and the trio approached the pit, feeling the warmth radiating out from the fused and melted earth. Holding her nose, Shego looked down into the pit and confirmed that there was nothing left of Drakken.
"That's the end of him, then." she said, moving upwind, away from the smell of burnt flesh and earth.
"Yep." Ron said, himself gagging against the smell.
Filling in the hole, they gratefully tamped the earth flat and headed back to the Yamanuchi compound.
Oo000oo000oO
They left the Yamanuchi a day later, on one final mission: Take Naota back to his family's apartment in the Nerima district.
Sensei had described it as a "difficult" mission, but one that she and Ron were "uniquely qualified to accomplish", whatever that had meant.
Shego had asked him to clarify what he had meant (a habit she'd picked up working for Drakken. When a mad scientist says something, how he said it is just as important, if not more so, than what he had said. From what she had seen of the Yamanuchi, they were all crazy in some way, shape, or form, so she figured that it probably held true to them as well) and his response had been, "You'll see."
Needless to say, this didn't fill her with the utmost confidence.
Ron, on the other hand, didn't seem fazed in the least by it. And had stayed that way for the entire drive down to Tokyo proper.
"Are you sure that this is a good idea?" Shego asked as Ron moved over into an exit lane.
"Shego, relax." Ron said as they began to decelerate "Nerima... isn't that bad. It can a little strange, but nothing dangerous is gonna jump out an attack us."
"Riiight." Shego said, pointedly looking out her window, where a giant drunken turtle in a necktie was beating the living snot out of a mecha in TPDCD livery. "And what about that over there?" she asked, pointing at the ass whupping in progress.
"Huh?" Ron asked, glancing over. "Oh, that's just Gameru. Besides, since when have you been worried about giant mutated creatures? Look at what Dementor or DNAmy have done."
"It's not the giant turtle itself that worries me." Shego explained. "It's the fact that he has a giant bottle of booze and that he's winning."
"Oh, he'll pass out in a bit, don't worry." Ron said.
Shego sighed in exasperation and slouched into her seat. "I am never, repeat, never coming back to this crazy country ever again, you hear me?"
"I'm telling you, it's not that bad!" Ron said as they stopped at a stop light.
Before Shego could make a rebuttal to Ron's insistence that everything was going to be fine, her cell phone rang.
"What the hell?" she said, digging the device out of it's pocket and sliding it open.
"What does it say?" Ron asked as she looked at the display.
"It's the Prince." she said, looking up at Ron in surprise.
"Huh." was Ron's response. "I think you'd better answer it then."
"Yeah." Shego said, and pressed the talk button. "Hello?" she asked.
"Hello Miss Goizargi." the Prince's heavily distorted voice said. "Nice work."
"Thanks." Shego said. "What took you guys so long to call?"
"We wanted to be sure that you were clear of the Yamanuchi before contacting you.' the Prince said. "On that note, we need to debrief you and Mr Stoppable go to this address-" he rattled off an address that Shego barely caught "-and meet one of our agents."
"Okay, but we gotta drop off this kid first." Shego said, looking to the backseat where Naota was sleeping peacefully.
"We know." said the Prince. "Be quick about it."
"Okay." Shego said before the man hung up on her.
"What was that all about?" Ron asked.
"He wants us to go meet an agent so they can debrief us." Shego explained. "After we drop off the kid." she added, jerking a thumb to the sleeping child in the backseat.
"Okay." Ron said with a shrug. "Where at?"
Shego repeated the address and Ron punched it into their rental's GPS.
"And there we go." Ron said as directions came up. "It's like right near where we gotta drop Sleepyhead back there off."
"Well, that's convenient." Shego said.
Oo000oo000oO
The meeting place turned out to be a book store, a two story structure filled to the brim with books and magazines set on a maze of shelves.
"Good choice..." Shego murmured as they walked in through the front door.
"Huh?" Ron asked, not catching what she had said.
"Oh, I said that this is a nice place for a meet." Shego clarified. "It's quiet, and has a lot of places to talk."
"Oh." Ron said as his cell buzzed. "What the-?"
Taking his cell out, he saw that he had gotten a text message.
Second story, far right corner it read.
"What'd it say?" Shego asked.
"I think it was from our contact." said Ron. "Let's head upstairs."
"Alright..."
Climbing the stairs, they reached the second story of the book store and found that it was a large reading area, with several tables and chairs arranged in a somewhat haphazard fashion, with book shelves lining the walls.
It was almost deserted, with only a couple of people in it. Looking around, Ron saw that the far right hand corner was deserted.
"You see our guy?" Shego asked under her breath.
"No." Ron said, looking around. "The message said to go to the far right hand corner of the room. Think he'll show up after we do?"
"Probably." Shego said. "Keeps it from looking suspicious."
Ron grunted and they headed over to the far right corner, threading their way around the tables and chairs. When they got there, Ron looked around once and didn't see anybody who looked like they wanted to talk to them, just a small round table with a book laying on it.
Then his cell buzzed again. They looked at each other, and Ron took out his phone. There was another text message waiting for him.
Open the book to page 230 it said.
"Now what?" Shego asked.
"It said to open the book." he replied, and flipped the book open to page 230.
On page 230 there was a slip of paper, with instructions printed on it.
Take this paper, leave the store, turn right, and head two blocks down is what they said.
"I hate this game..." Shego growled in a low voice.
"Don't like scavenger hunts?" Ron asked as he took the sheet of paper and closed the book.
"No."
Oo000oo000oO
"Excuse me."
Ron and Shego turned around to see a Native American man walking up behind them.
"Yeah?" asked Ron, wondering who this guy was, as they'd only gone a block and half from the bookstore.
"You're Stoppable and Goizargi, right?"
"Yeah..." Shego said, cautiously dropping her hand into her shoulder bag. "Why do you ask?"
The man smiled. "I'm with the Prince and the tiger." he said. "You can call me the Keeper of the Keys."
"You're our-?" Ron started to ask.
The Keeper of the Keys nodded. "Yeah." he answered. "Shall we keep walking? It looks less suspicious that way."
"Sure." Ron said, and they started walking.
"So." The Keeper began. "The base blew up. I take it you were successful?" he asked.
Ron nodded. "Yeah." he said. "Drakken's dead."
"You sure about that?" The Keeper asked. "Werewolves are very... resilient creatures."
"Oh, I'm sure." Ron answered. "I cut off his head and burned it."
"Okay then." said the Keeper. "That's good to hear. What about the clones?"
"What about them?" Ron asked.
"Are they dead?"
Ron thought for a moment, his features darkening as he remembered the encounters in the base with said clones of his dead friend.
"Yes." he said. "At least a good portion of them, anyways."
"You and your ninja friend killed them?" asked the Keeper.
Ron looked over at the man. "You know about him?" he asked.
"We were monitoring your communications." answered the Keeper. "Your friend Wade has very advanced tech, but ours is better."
"I see." Ron said. "Anyways, yeah, me and him killed them."
"And you said that you're sure you got at least a good portion of them?" the Keeper asked.
"Yeah."
The Keeper nodded again. "Good." he said.
He was about to say something else when there was a massive explosion half a block down from them. All three of them whirled around, expecting attack, but what they got instead was a singed, sooty, boy in semi shredded clothes. A very familiar boy in singed, sooty, boy in semi shredded clothes.
"Naota?" Ron asked.
"Eh?" Naota said in a daze.
"You know this kid?" The Keeper asked him.
"Yeah." Ron said. "He was the kid who... helped me. Hold on a second." he added, then spoke to Naota "What happened?" he asked.
"A-a girl." Naota stammered as he tried to push himself up onto his elbows. "Redhead-"
"Redhead?" The Keeper said under his breath. "A redheaded girl..."
Ron glanced over at the Keeper. He'd understood what Naota said?
"Okay, just why were you spying on one of my Daddy's students?" a new voice said in American accented Japanese, drawing Ron's attention from the Keeper.
Out of the cloud of smoke and dust strode a young girl, obviously the owner of the voice. She was short, looking about Naota's age or maybe a little younger, wearing a pair of overalls and a t shirt, with long red hair braided into a pigtail.
"Ah, it's complicated..." Naota started to explain.
"Lia?" The Keeper asked.
"Oh, hey Evans." Lia said, giving the man that called himself the Keeper a wave. "Who're your friends?" she asked.
"They're friends of my family who're on vacation." Evans said smoothly. "Lia, I'd like to introduce you to Ron and Sheena."
"Hi! I'm Lia!" the girl chirped.
"I'm a student of her father, who's my martial arts teacher." Evans explained to Ron and Shego.
"Ah." Ron said, catching on to what The Keeper- Evans, was playing. "Nice to meet you." he said, giving her a slight bow.
Next to him, Shego also gave the girl a slight bow.
"You know this guy?" Lia asked, jerking her thumb at the boy who was trying to sneak away. "And don't even think about trying to sneak away." she added, shifting her attention to Naota and flexing her fingers menacingly.
Naota gulped and kept his eyes focused on Lia's hands.
Ron's thoughts whirled as he tried to think of something to say. "Martial arts." he said. "We both follow the same school."
"So why was he following you?" Lia asked, narrowing her eyes at Naota.
"I was going to surprise him." Naota said.
"It's true." Ron said. "It's a little tradition that we have."
"Oh." Lia said. "Sorry for blowing you up with a chi blast." she apologized to Naota and held out her hand.
Naota took the proffered hand and got to his feet. "It's okay." he said, dusting himself off. "You didn't know." he added, then got a thoughtful look on his face. "How'd you do that?" he asked.
"Chi!" Lia said, holding her hand out and flexing her fingers. Energy flared over her fingers.
"Huh..." Naota said as he watched the energy. "How do you do that?" he asked.
"My daddy taught me." Lia explained. "If you want to join, classes are open..."
"I'd recommend it." Evans opined. "It's very educational."
Naota looked over at Evans for a moment, then back to Lia. "Okay." he said. "When is the best time to come over?" he asked.
"Now is good..." Lia said and grabbed his hand "Lets go! You'll like it!"
Evans, Ron, and Shego watched as Naota was dragged off to fates unknown. When they were safely out of ear shot, Evans sighed and turned to Ron and Shego. "Well, that was... unexpected." he said, and jerked a thumb in the direction that Naota and Lia had left in. "I like that kid." he said. "He's got... ability, ability and potential."
"He's a kid." Ron pointed out.
"Who, by your admission, is a stone cold killer." Evans countered. "I can put him to better use than his clan ever will." he added, holding up a finger as Shego opened her mouth to say something. "What would you have him do, Miss Goizargi? Sneaking around doing what you've done, or working for us?"
Shego huffed and frowned at Evans. "That's not much of a choice." she said.
"We're the good guys, Ms. Goizargi." Evans retorted. "That makes all the difference in the world."
Oo000oo000oO
End, Bad Moon Rising.
Authors note: I love alternate timelines...
Anyways, things will turn out better for Naota in the long run. It's gonna be fun showing how that comes about...