+ Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Kim Possible characters. All belong to Disney. I make no profit from this, it is simply a product of pleasure.
A/N: I'm really sorry for the long wait. Life doesn't take breaks, when you lose the family dogs, family members end up in the hospital, and when work screw you over, your motivation takes a hard hit and falters. I'm really sorry, but I hope I can keep writing for you guys. You all are amazing for following and sticking around this long. Enjoy. 3+
It was afternoon before Kim was able to take a break from drilling the new recruits; the field course would help her determine their future at Global Justice. Each movement gave her a clue. Each step placed, every lunge upon the length of a vertical rope. One at a time at first with as they tackled each obstacle presented. Kim walked or ran beside them, easily keeping her clip board and stopwatch in hand, shouting orders and giving pointers when a few would get stuck. Her throat was rough from the last several hours of it.
As she worked on her second bottle of water, she looked over the list she had marked all over. With completion times next to every name, Kim also had jotted down notes on how the person moved, every time they hesitated, anything she could spot. With many years of this under her belt, she knew how to tackle the course. It was hard, but the recruits were determined. Even those that took extra minutes on their time to assess the obstacle that proved too tough completed it, even if it meant a lower score. It was better then a zero, after all.
"Good work today, Ms. Possible," a gruff voice said behind her, boots clicking along to accompany the words. Turning to the long time agent Will Du, Kim gave a half nod in respect, but her eyes were skeptical. He and Dr. Director were constantly pressuring her to join the Global Justice team permanently instead of these summer 'internships' and whenever a job came up during her school year. Her high school life was a lot more active then her college days. The past few years had dwindled her hero time. It seemed Global Justice was trying to tell her that if she wanted to continue the hero business, that she would need to be with them. If she wasn't, then they'd take the lifestyle she'd adapted to away.
"Thank you, Agent Du. I will be turning in my report and personal notes to your office shortly," she replied simply, knowing 'his' office, was more like Dr. Director's office. When she saw him nod and look towards the papers, she pointed at just a few of about eight she had circled. "We have a lot of potential in this group. But they'll need work." Before she could continue, she saw the look he was giving and paused.
"Off record, Possible. I don't see why you won't join us. You make this stuff look easy. You're a natural people person, motivator and teacher, and you have years of on-field experience." He stopped there, giving her a look as if he didn't like to admit she was as good as he was saying. That made her frown angrily. She was getting sick of this, of his constant looking down on her. He used to be fairly nice with her, but once she graduated high school, and after a horrendous mission gone wrong that almost cost G.J. it's leading Director, Will had grown hard, hateful almost, but still dutiful to a fault. Forcing down the slight bubble of anger that pressed against her throat, she stood up silently and gripped her now empty water bottle, crushing the center with a loud crinkle.
"Excuse me, Agent Du. But I wasn't planning on giving up my whole life at the age of twenty-two. There is no deadline. And with me graduating next year, I may just continue with my degree and dump the hero business all together. Either way, it's my choice. I'll have your reports within the hour." With a quick turn, she exited the large cafeteria through a pair of solid white double doors, leaving an almost stunned Will behind. It was nothing he hadn't heard before, but the Director was getting nervous which meant he was nervous. Kim had been correct. When she graduated next year, there was more of a possibly of her sticking with it, and G.J. would lose one of their best agents. Pushing her wasn't smart, he knew. But he was doing as he was told. So with a slow turn, eyes scanning the room for any ears that might have over heard, Will took his leave through a side door, preparing to report to the Director.
Earlier that morning, Shego awoke to find herself sprawled along the bed, faintly remembering what had happened prior to her falling back asleep. Dropping from the bed, her green and black tail flopped behind her to catch her egg shaped body before she rolled backwards. It was still a bit difficult, this body. Before, the pale green warrior would rise with the sun, always finding that she preferred to wake before Drakken. Or anyone else for that matter. The few times she had taken lovers, she was out and home before the sun kissed the horizon.
But this half kangaroo half panda body was screwing her system up, causing something like walking/hopping to expend more energy then necessary. And not just from her DNA trying to work itself back to it's normal state. As she just proved, she had to keep in mind that her tail was her balance. Her legs and feet, thick and long and clumsy kept her on her toes as well. Any moment she could stub her toe or kick a doorway if she wasn't paying attention.
"Damn it," she grumbled, rubbing her paw over the side of her leg. Just demonstrating a perfect example of what she was just thinking, she had whacked into the doorframe going into the hallway. Mumbling incoherently, she eventually woke up enough to realize that this was the first day she had without Kim around. Though she would be extremely bored after while, she needed to get herself ready for when she finally changed back. First thing was first. Cameras.
With Kim living alone, Shego assumed the red head would keep some sort of security on the place. The front and back doors were examples. The codes she watched Kim imput when they returned that first night were too long for Shego's shorter self to keep up with. She could only guess it was probably a customized system, which would explain the nearly twelve or more numbers Kim had punched in.
After a quick wash up in the bathroom, Shego moved back into the hallway and began her search. The pictures on the walls weren't anything personal, easier to fix up with any sort of wire. Fortunately, these were clear, she discovered. As well as the bathroom and a decent sized room that looked to just be storage, with boxes lined up along the walls, and what looked to be a spare closet. This, however, was stacked full of books instead of clothes. It was almost like a hidden library; placement of the books showed that they were rearranged with care and not just thrown in.
"Points for Kimmie," Shego said aloud, glancing over the book titles of various authors and genres.
"Don't get distracted," she scolded herself a few minutes later, backing out of the closet while being careful to take her time, not wanting her tail to knock a stack of boxes down. All that was left in the upstairs was the main bedroom. She had to admit, the house as a whole was comfortable size. Kim had definitely done some work on it. Some paint and it looked like new windows throughout the majority of the building. It would make her work a bit harder; chips and microphones were easily placed in new windows either under the plastic in the corners, or under a fake rim at the bottom.
Carefully, she searched everything she could around the four walls. It took a while, and Shego's skills as a master thief were tested as her odd body and hands got in the way. But what ever she had moved, she put right back in place. Of course, she left the personal things alone. She wasn't about to go rooting through her arch-rival's dressers. It wouldn't surprise Shego if Kim had all her socks folded up and set just right. It was when she hit the closet that she found herself in a slight manner of shock. On the outside, everything looked fine. Clothes in order with one side work slash hero garb, some the pandaroo had not seen the red head wear at all. The other side held a dressier assortment, something for formal occasions she guessed. Shego had been admiring a certain black dress with a deep red patterns that laced down the side, almost tribal like, when she saw it.
"Why in the hell would you keep this, Kimmie?" Reaching out, she awkwardly removed the old black and green cat suit Kim had been forced to wear during a not so fun experience with Drakken's mind control chips. The item she held now was fit for Kim's body, not Shego's. This was her older styled suit, one she wore for so long, that it made disguising herself easy when she needed to hide out in the open. Her pale green skin had always been one of her main traits, but with the right amount of cover up in just the right place, she could run down the street in common clothes and no one would give her a glance. As she slid the outfit back into place, the mismatched pandaroo knew that if she was going to get out of here, and not prance around the streets naked, that may just be her only option.
As if knowing Shego had finished with her upstairs search, a sudden loud beep sounded from behind her. Squeaking in surprise, Shego leapt to the side and threw her arms up, paws ablaze with plasma. Emerald green eyes darted around the empty room frantically. "There's no one-," she started, when the beep sounded again, this time not making her jump as high. The computer monitor on Kim's desk was the source of the noise. Hopping over quickly, she pressed the flashing red button on the side of the screen.
"Hey, Shego!" Wades face popping up on the screen with a smile, but soon he was laughing when he saw the mammal had jumped back and tripped over her own tail, falling onto her bottom. "Sorry about that. You okay?" He winced a bit at her yelling, but still smiled none-the-less, less afraid of the woman now that she was trying to rock up onto her feet.
"What in the hell do you want, nerd? Besides scaring me half to death," she growled, managing to get up as she heard him speak again.
"I wanted to check in with you, see how you were doing since Kim wasn't around. Oh, and also, I have an idea on how to speed up your changing process. We know that your DNA was spliced, and thanks to your plasma abilities giving you your slightly 'mutated' body, you have a higher healing rate, which we concluded years back."
"Yes, and it's a good thing I do else I'd be stuck like this forever."
"Actually, there's about an 83.49% chance that you'd be stuck forever. But aside from throwing you into another explosion, there's only two ways I can see helping. I have a prototype of a container that boosts the average healing rate 34%. With you, it might help. But then again, it might put you into a coma."
Shego's eyes widened, opening her mouth to say something before Wade continued.
"As I said, prototype. Kim was lucky. I don't know if you remember, but almost two years ago Kim was caught in a plot over in Russia. An unknown organization at the time had located the Global Justice satellite engineers stationed there." Wade was frowning now as he remembered, seeing his long time friend twisted and mangled from the wreckage. "The after math was gruesome. When the bombs went off , she didn't make it out of the blast zone in time. Granted, agents of the small force were caught, but Kim sustained some bad injuries."
Memories were coming to her faintly, a news feed of Kim racing out a building before the smoke and debris covered her and the block around it completely. She wouldn't admit she had feared the red head had gone down. "If I recall, she wasn't around for a good two months after that. Global Justice was swarming the streets while she recovered." Nor would she ever admit that she had found herself checking on the hero in the wee hours of the morning.
"Yes. Ron, Yori, and I had gone with her, as well as a whole trailer full of my gadgets. You know, they're actually built with reinforced steel? But I modified them for off road, even though they probably span about-."
"Get to the point, Poindexter."
"Oh yeah, sorry. Anyway, that container was with us. And she was in it for about a week before we were able to move her back over to the States. She didn't fall into a coma, but it kept her asleep and her vitals stabilized. She has a few scars from that day, but she's lucky she doesn't look like she was mauled."
"I don't know if I want to risk not ever waking up," Shego concluded after some thought, a paw rubbing on the top of her short muzzle "I'll be changing back soon anyway."
"Well, if you say so, Shego." Wade's tone dipped towards skeptical and his naturally open face twisted to reflect his voice. The pandaroo sighed and tilted her head to mock an eyebrow raise.
"Lets just think of this as a little Shego-Vacation. No trouble from me for Kimmie, and I can keep from committing murder of a certain blue skinned boss." It seemed to make a little more sense to the dark skinned boy genius, so he nodded and told Shego how to get a hold of him if anything happened, then signed off.
Once alone again, Shego turned and looked at the closet doors, each holding a full length mirror upon it's front. Emerald green eyes stared back at her, moving down the length of her body, inspecting herself as if she hadn't really fully seen how silly she looked. Her long floppy ears, bent at the tips, drew the eyes to her short muzzle and thick neck, extending to slim furry shoulders that ended in thin arms and long thin claws. Holding her egg shaped body were thick rounded thighs and wide, long feet. As she inspected the tail behind her, she realized she looked more Kanga then Panda. The only true indication was the shape and the distinct markings along her entire body. Her ears though, seemed out of place, she decided as she tugged one lightly. Brown despite the black and green of her panda half, and almost rabbit like.
Dropping her hand, she turned from the mirrors and waddled towards the bedroom door. She still needed to check the rest of the house. That, and she was hungry.
Both bathrooms, the kitchen, all side rooms, the porch, and the closet were all checked, The only room left was the living room. Shego crawled up on top of the couch and used her tail, swishing lightly from side to side, to keep her balanced in place. Everything seemed clear elsewhere, but Shego knew better. One place missed, is one place dangerous. Even though it took hours to finish, with a few snack breaks in between, it would've been worth it.
Not only to plan for her escape, but if anyone outside of Drakken, Kim, and the nerd saw her in this state, her reputation would plummet. Shego wouldn't have that.
Her claws wiggled around on the top of the windowsill, feeling for anything at all. And something she found. A wire! But this wasn't a wire for the security system like she thought it was. Instead, it was almost disappointing. The white wire hooked from speakers placed on the walls into somewhere in the back of the entertainment system. Mumbling her disappointment ay the lack of challenge, she failed to see the dim headlights as Kim entered the driveway. The sound of a door closing was a different story though.
The front door's handle jiggled as Shego attempted to jump down from the top of the couch. Before Kim could twist the handle the whole way open, she heard a loud yell and it caused her to freeze before throwing the door open. Her sudden worry and defensive position was soon doubled over in laughter as she found the pandaroo, hip deep in between couch cushions. "Shego, what in the world are you doing!" Kim said between giggles, setting some bags and her work bag aside.
"Well you see, Princess," Shego grumbled, trying to get her legs out, her weight not helping as her thinner arms didn't hold too much strength "I was missing you so bad that I was watching for you out the window. And I was just so excited, that I slipped." Laughing, she found Kim was laughing with her and taking the situation lightly. It wasn't long until Kim had her pulled out of the couch and set down on the floor. "Many thanks, Kimmie. That could have been bad if you suddenly decided to take your time."
Changing the subject, Shego started poking around the bags Kim had brought. The heroine snatched them away and shook her head at the small mammal.
"Nosey aren't you? It's take out. Either you'll eat it, or eat waffles again. I'm not scrubbing you down because you couldn't get pizza cheese out of your fur."
"You did what?" Kim demanded, hands on her hips as she glared down at a blinking Shego. Repeating herself, Shego knew exactly what the other thought, and inwardly grinned at how the red-head reacted.
"I said, Miss Interrupts-Shego, that I went through your closet," now pointing to the one just under the stairs leading up to the bedrooms on the second floor, "And found board games," she finished, Kim now blushing a bit from jumping to conclusions. "And if your reaction didn't make me curious enough, I'll assume that you don't want me snooping around in a certain closet?" Shego pretended to make for the stairs when Kim grabbed her in a half tackle, loudly squeaking a 'no' as she did before dragging the laughing pandaroo from her supposed destination.
"Look, I'll play games with you if you promise not to go snooping. Shego!" Kim pouted, seeing the green and black pandaroo tapping her chin in thought.
"Alright, alright Princess, deal! Don't pout like that. But I get to pick!" Shego, glad she knew what the other had in her closet already so her curiousness wouldn't overcome her later, hopped down and bounced over to the closet door.
"You're a cheat!" Shego yelled later on, throwing down a card in the center of the coffee table, utterly shocked that Kim new the random question of who directed the 90's TV show Friends.
"I don't cheat!" Kim added, gathering the cards, unable to suppress her grin at winning. "Bonnie happened to be in love with the show, and to up her in any way I could, I tried to know everything so I could piss her off."
"Round three! Double or nothing, and you can pick the game this time," Shego said with a grumble, having won a game of intense Sorry! Shego's paws were knocking their pieces over on accident and causing Kim to accuse her of cheating. Even though they were yelling, Shego found herself having fun, especially when she won the game in the end. Kim had grumbled that she still cheated and demanded a second game to even the odds. But while Kim won the second game, being a trivia game called Smart Ass, Shego was more skeptical that the other had actually memorized the questions and answers rather than actually knowing them.
"Fine, but I swear if you cheat, then bets are off and you're sleeping outside as an added punishment," Kim said, still grinning from her victory, taking the game to the closet and putting the other box away. Looking through the stack now in front of her, Kim looked through to see if she could find a game that would be a bit more of a challenge as well as one she could kick Shego's butt at. Aha! Grabbing the small box, she closed the door and hurried over.
"Backgammon is the name of the game, and if you want to forfeit now, you have this one chance." Shego growled, and attempted to grin.
"If you think I'm backing down, you're dreaming, Cupcake!" Backgammon wasn't her favorite of all the games, but she knew the rules and if she feigned confidence, she might just throw Kim off enough to win.
Thirty minutes later, Shego and Kim were both snapping and cursing at the other when a piece would fall into the center, or when a roll of the dice wouldn't allow them to move said piece out of the area. Shego was actually surprised that the once careful Kim now actually acted like saying a bad word or two wouldn't cause her tongue to explode and melt. A tongue that was now licking at the owner's lower lip in thought. That one thought had Shego distracted enough to miss an important move, and Kim threw her arms in the air and shouted in victory. Shego was now at her mercy, the tinted green warrior couldn't attack the others pieces anymore, and with Kim's black ones all on her side of the board, she could start moving into the victory zone. Shego still had two pieces on Kim's side.
As there was a knock on the door, the red head laughed, hearing Shego scream in frustration and flip the board over as she opened the door.
"You're picking those up, you know!" But the face she saw at the door was so unexpected, she jumped in surprise.
"Hey, Ron, what are you doing in town?"