Chapter Nine
Jenny Wheeler was very frustrated. She was stuck inside her own head, watching as her body obeyed Shego's commands.
It wasn't like she hadn't been mind-controlled before, but this was different from what Brother Blood had done. The chip hijacked her conscious control and gave it to someone else, but she was aware of being controlled and of everything going on around her.
She had to admire the woman's sneaky way of doing it. Listening to what she and Km had said, it was a surprise that Shego hated it too, but Jinx understood that to accomplish villainous goals it was sometimes necessary to stoop WAY low.
Unfortunately she couldn't rely on her bad luck ability to disable the chip; her person wasn't affected by her power. That's why the location chip from prison worked, and why she didn't suffer injury, or clothes tearing, or anything of the kind in the general course of events.
She had heard that she was critical to Drakken's plan, so she wasn't too worried about being hurt while not able to defend herself. What the plan actually was DID worry her, as well as what would happen to her afterwards. She hoped Kim, Ron, and Rufus were okay; that was a lot of henchmen they faced.
Well, it was out of her hands, so the best thing was to think about herself, and how to get out of it. Her body's autonomic functions continued to work; heart beating, eyes blinking and so on, and she had no desire to mess with any of that, even if she had known how, or what she was doing. But every effort to scratch an itch below her right ear was a failure.
She was following Shego through the lair. They had taken an elevator (surprisingly with background music; an instrumental version of an O Boyz song) up to the hanger, and were approaching a large hover pod.
Suddenly Shego stopped and turned to her. "Okay, Pinky, I'm the only one who can give you orders, so don't worry about anybody taking advantage. But don't believe for a second I'm going soft! When everything is said and done, you are mine, and we WILL be settling accounts. So keep it in mind."
"Yes, Shego," was the flat response.
"Now, do you have any other way of talking with Nerdlinger or Kimmie?" asked Shego.
"Yes, Shego, my Jennunicator," she replied.
"Give it to me," said Shego, holding out a hand.
"Yes, Shego," answered Jinx, and reached into the pocket of her cargo pants.
Just as her captor took the purple box, it gave the familiar ring tone.
"Ahhh, I don't wanna talk to him," muttered the pale woman, and in a flash of plasma fried the device. She tossed it across the hanger into a corner.
"Get aboard the pod and sit behind the pilot," she ordered, gesturing at the open hatch. "Then put your seat belt on, and do nothing. Got it?"
"Yes, Shego," replied Jinx, and complied.
Once alone, Shego turned toward the elevator, waiting for Dr. Drakken to join her. It was a real shame about most of the henchmen; Brad owed her twenty bucks. But once the world had been subdued, she would have all the money and power she could ever want.
Drakken and Fiske had agreed to let her take Iceland and Greenland and the nearby islands, thinking they were small and unimportant. She grinned to herself. Let them think that. When, and if, she decided she wanted a part on a larger stage, the means were there, currently dormant.
She glanced at a clock to the right of the elevator. A light above it was blinking red, so she knew the self-destruct had been activated. The alarms had been shut off so Kimmie and her boyfriend wouldn't know. They hadn't told any of the regular henchmen so they wouldn't stop fighting and run. Charlie and Bill didn't know either, but they were the two lead henchmen, and they would be coming along with Dr. D. That jerk who was the henchmen's union rep would find out with everyone else.
By the timetable, there were six minutes left.
kpkpkp
Tara drove as quickly as she could toward the lair. Fortunately the traffic was light here in the suburbs of Lowerton. Suddenly her cell rang. She hated to talk and drive, but her mind and vision were so clear she didn't hesitate to answer.
"Tara, this is Wade. You're almost there, and I've let the officials know you're coming. As a member of Team Possible, they'll let you through," he told her.
"Thank you. Any news?" she asked.
"They're still fighting the henchmen, but... okay, that was the last one. I need to let the EMTs know they can go in and get them," was the answer, and the phone fell silent.
She snapped it closed and put it back in the belt holder. Almost there...
Turning a corner she found the road blocked and slowed to a stop. A policeman approached and she opened the window.
"Are you Tara Matthews?" he asked.
"Yes, sir," she answered.
"You'll have to leave your car here, and I'll escort you to the door," he said.
When they got there, she found controlled chaos as the medical people got ready to go in. She looked at the door, and suddenly a chill swept through her. The voices of many frightened monkeys rang in her ears, telling her something was very, very wrong. It was like a jungle instinct that danger was nearby. The knowledge she gained from the scroll told her no one else could hear it except Ron, and then only if he was close enough.
She smiled briefly. It seemed she now had a 'danger sense', like that spider guy in the movies. But no time to worry about it now. She turned and held up her hands. "EVERYBODY STAY OUT! SOMETHING IS WRONG HERE! EVERYBODY GET BACK FROM THE DOOR, NOW!"
She turned and ran inside, following the path she remembered from watching the monitor and checking the layout. It took her unerringly to the control room.
"We surrender!" a burly henchman was telling Kim. He was holding up his empty hands.
Tara looked around, and saw that all the villain's personnel were sitting up, or were standing around groaning and holding some body part.
"HEY!" she shouted, and everyone looked at her. She stepped into the room, and to the side of the door. "Everybody out, and I mean NOW! Something's going to happen!"
"Tara?" said Ron, wonder on his face. He was feeling something new from the Mystical Monkey Power. His attention was drawn to the green pendant she was wearing. What...?
"Say," said a henchwoman, pointing to a blinking red light above the door, "Doesn't that mean that the self destruct is running?"
"Yeah," said another, "And we'd better go, now!" He got up and ran for the door.
Kim, Ron (with Rufus looking out from his pocket) and Tara watched as the henchpeople made their way though the door. When the last one was gone, Kim and Ron came over to her. The sound of feet faded away.
"What are you doing here?" asked Kim.
"No time, we've gotta go, now!" said Tara. She got behind them and pushed her friends toward the door.
Just then, the steel door in front of them slammed shut and locked, and multiple explosions went off around them.
kpkpkp
While sitting in the hover pod, Jinx had spent the time meditating, and had realized something very important. The chip was controlling her physically, but SHE still had control of her hexes. That knowledge didn't do her any good right at the moment; she could hex the pod, but that might cause it to crash on takeoff, and dying wasn't in her plans for the day. She would just have to be patient and wait for a chance.
She heard voices and footsteps approach, and then Shego came into view sitting at the control console. Drakken took a seat beside her, and two henchmen took seats after closing the hatch.
The engines revved up, and the pod was expertly lifted through the hatch in the roof. Shego gained altitude and circled around. Below them they saw a bunch of red uniforms mingled with the police, fire, and medical people.
"Okay, they made it out. At least we won't have trouble with the henchmen's union over this. I don't see Kimmie, though..." Shego said.
Just then, there were several muffled explosions, and the lair collapsed in on itself. Everyone below ran back, but they weren't in any real danger. It had been a condition of the real estate broker's that any lair built there could not endanger nearby houses if it exploded.
"This will be a day long remembered," said Drakken with a grin, "It has seen the end of Kim Possible, and it will soon see the end of any rebellion."
Shego and the henchmen regarded their boss with sour expressions. Jinx would have joined them had she been able, or cared. Her mind had gone blank and her body numb from what she had just seen.
"You've been watching too many science fiction movies," groaned Shego.
The hover pod made one final circuit, then adjusted course for another lair, and the completion of Drakken's plan for world domination.