I do NOT own Kim Possible
Time: A week later.
Unmerging,... The Creature,...A Second Ship?
A week had passed and DNAmy was ready to try the mutator on Jenny. The machine had been taken apart and reconstructed to handle a larger power supply. Two hundred cybertronic circuits had been added to the device. According to the mad geneticist each circuit increased the capabilities of the device by nearly three percent. With two hundred circuits the device was now over three hundred times as powerful as her original mutator. More would have been added, but doing so would have caused the machine to melt. Each circuit required power and there were limits.
Ron studied the girl. Over the last week the hole in her skull had closed and her skin had grown back over it. The separation couldn't be done if she was seriously injured. The odds were bad enough as it was. The level of drugs in her system had been lowered so that she was barely asleep. Even at three hundred times it's regular power the machine would be barely capable of separating her from the alien lifeform merged with her body. Everything foreign to her system had to be removed to reduce the power requirements.
He watched the tears running down the sleeping girl's cheeks. Reducing the level of drugs in her system meant she could dream. Have nightmares. She had been crying for over an hour now.
"There's an eighty percent chance of success." DNAmy said. "There's also a ten percent chance of the girl dying." She looked at Dr. Betty Director. "Your call."
"We don't have a choice. Unless you can improve the odds." The head of Global Justice stated.
"I can't." The geneticist answered. "They've been merged too long."
"Then proceed." Dr. Betty Director said.
DNAmy took a syringe and injected a gadolinium based contrast dye into the girl. It would help the mutator distinguish between what was alien and what was human. "Five minute wait." The woman said. "It will take that long for the dye to spread through her system." She motioned to Kim. "Put her in the chamber."
Kim stepped forward, gently lifted the girl from her bed, and placed her into the mutator's chamber.
Ron looked away as she did so. Nothing foreign meant everything. While in the machine she couldn't even wear clothes. The sheet that had covered her was left on the bed. He turned back when he heard the chamber door close.
"One chance in five of dying. Not good odds." Shego said.
"She wouldn't care." Kim answered. "She wants to die anyway. Maybe, just maybe, if she's rid of that creature she will try to live."
Ron looked around. He, Shego and Kim were present in case something went wrong. Other than the three of them, along with DNAmy and Dr. Betty Director, a whole section of the base had been cleared of people and sealed. They didn't know what the creature joined with Jenny was capable of and the head of Global Justice was taking no chances. Kim was in her battle suit, Shego was wearing a gauntlet. He himself wore one too. With the three of them it should be safe, or so he hoped.
"Recalibrating the mutator." DNAmy said. She worked on the machine for a moment. "Scanning the DNA." She said a minute later.
Ron looked around again, feeling nervous. The tension in the room was overwhelming.
"Interesting." DNAmy muttered, staring at a monitor.
"What is?" Dr. Betty Director asked.
"The contrast dye is working better than expected. Not sure why, but it means the odds of success are now closer to eighty-two percent." The geneticist answered. She stared at the display for a few seconds. "I wonder if the drug used to keep the girl asleep was more effective on the alien tissue. It could have been reducing the metabolism of that tissue more than the rest of her. That would explain the readings I'm getting."
The machine beeped and DNAmy looked up. "We're ready." She said and pressed a button.
Ron turned to watch the mutator. For around ten seconds lights ran across its surface. Then an acidic smelling smoke erupted from the device and sparks flew from it. The lights stopped.
"That was close." DNAmy spoke. " Over fifty of the cybertronic circuits burned out. "Open the chamber door." She instructed. "I think the process worked."
She wondered why she had drifted out of the comforting darkness. For a while it had been so peaceful. As though she was dead. That would be so nice, she thought to herself. Once again the something inside her forced the dream upon her. The one where she took away her sister's ability to paint forever. The one that hurt so much. Then the nightmare faded. She knew she was close to waking up. The something was urging her to do just that. It was so afraid.
She wondered why. Then she recalled how she had been captured again. The trap that the red headed woman, Kim Possible, had set for her. The joy she had felt at being tricked. She struggled to remain asleep. To stay in the darkness. If she woke up the something would make her hurt people again. Images raced through her mind, as the something threatened her with the nightmare again. She had never heard it speak, but she knew what it was saying. Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! The command rang through her mind, pushing all thought aside. The command could not be refused and she struggled to wake up.
The command faded and a strange feeling came over her body. A sensation she had never felt before, as though her entire body was being taken apart cell by cell. She didn't know what the feeling meant but the something did. The fear she had felt coming from it before now magnified a hundred fold. Not just fear, but a sense of disbelief. As though something impossible was happening. Pain ripped through the very fabric of her being and she screamed. A needle lanced into each cell of her body and the pain faded.
She waited for the something to command her to wake up again. The command didn't come. She was confused. Waking up had been so important to the something inside her before, but now she sensed nothing from it. She waited some more and still the command didn't come. It felt weird. As though something about her was now different. She struggled to find out just what it was. And it came to her. She sensed nothing from the something. Nothing. It was as though it was gone. But of course that was impossible. She fell back into a deep sleep. embracing the darkness once more.
Ron wanted to turn away, to protect the modesty of the girl inside. Instead he lit his fists and stared at the chamber door. Just in case. Beside him Shego did the same.
Kim opened the door and saw Jenny. Her eyes focused on the girl and looked her over to make sure she was okay. She reached forward to make sure she was breathing. It was a mistake. The girl had drawn all of her attention and something kicked out at her, hard. She went flying across the room. The world around her vanished.
Ron and Shego had waited as Kim opened the chamber door. When the redhead make no signs of alarm for a few seconds they thought everything would be all right. Then she went flying across the room, slammed into a wall, and slid to the floor. There was a streak of blood on the wall and her stomach was slashed open.
Ron froze in shock, staring at the blood. Something came flying out of the mutator's chamber at him and he reflexively flared plasma around himself. There was a shrieking sound as it touched the plasma and he felt something slam into him. It slashed across his chest and he fell backwards.
Shego was stunned by the devastation wrecked on the redhead too. She felt the Buffoon flare plasma around himself as a shield and instinctively followed suit. She wasn't even aware that something had left the chamber until she heard it shriek. Turning she saw the Buffoon fall backwards and fear rose in her throat.
He turned the fall into a roll that brought him back to his feet instantly. He knew he had taken a serious wound to his chest, but it didn't matter at the moment. Comet powers, enhanced by Tai Shing Pek Kwar, would stop the bleeding in seconds. What mattered was stopping the creature that had come out of the mutator's chamber. "See anything" He asked.
"No. You okay?" Came the reply.
"It'll heal." He kept scanning the room. Whatever it had been it was small. And fast. Very fast. Still it wasn't that small. It had to be around somewhere and there were only three places it could be. Behind the mutator, back in the chamber with Jenny, or under the bed. He circled around the machine until he was sure it wasn't there. And he doubted it would have went back in the chamber, it was a closed space. That left the bed.
This couldn't be, it thought to itself. The technology to merge and unmerge different species is centuries more advanced than anything they should have. It felt fear. As swift and strong as it was even the pests that inhabited this world could kill it. There was just him alone and there were several billion of them. Even without the strange powers two of them possessed, the ability to use plasma as though it was a part of them, there was no way it could survive. Not unless a ship came. But supposedly there was already a ship here and one of them had been on it. That was confusing. There was no way they could have defeated the crew of a ship. And it knew the war machines had been unleashed on this planet once already. Just as planned. That those machines had stopped was impossible. There was no way those who inhabited this would could have stopped them. But it knew they had. It pushed the thought to one side and tried to focus on surviving. The world around it burst into flames and it screamed.
Ron upped the plasma around his body as much as he could and pointed a hand at the bed. He tossed a small ball of plasma at it, making it as intense as he could, yet keeping the amount down to something that wouldn't destroy the whole room. It hit and a shrieking sound filled the air.
It ran at the one who it believed responsible for destroying its hiding place. It could strike through that wall of plasma if it sacrificed a claw. One of the threats would be gone and the claw would grow back. It struck to kill. It's only hope was to eliminate all the pests and figure out the machine. To get back inside the girl who would camouflage it.
Ron saw a blur coming at him and reflexively tossed more plasma. It missed and he felt something drive into his chest again. This time it wasn't just a slash. It raked across his ribs and the bones barely held. Something slipped between two of them and into his left lung. He ignored the pain to reach out and grab at the blur that flashed just in front of him. His hand came close, but missed, just grazing the creature. He focused on the lung and the blood pouring into it stopped.
Impossible, it thought once more. It had driven the claw into the pest's lung. How could it still be standing? How could it have even tried to reach out and grab it? And that grab had come close. Too close. Of all the places it could have grazed him it had picked the head and it was now blind in one eye. The pest had got lucky. Pain erupted across its body once more and it screamed as it fell.
Shego saw the creature fly away from the Buffoon and land on the floor. She took that instant to toss all the plasma she could at it. It hit and the creature screamed. The plasma blew a hole through the floor and it fell through, on fire. She followed and dropped down through the hole. The creature had been kicking as it fell, still alive.
Ron had been about to throw more plasma at the creature when Shego did it for him. He stepped into the hole with her. Together they turned around, searching the room they were in.
Shego felt relief. The Buffoon had followed her into the hole, so he must be okay. But they had to end this quick and get back to Princess. She turned looking for the creature.
"Two hiding spots." Ron said.
She nodded. "I take one you the other?"
"Yeah." He answered and threw all the plasma he could at a rack of Global Justice uniforms. They vanished beneath the fury. The wall behind it cracked and shattered.
Shego, at the same time, poured forth all the power she could at a case filled with shoes and gloves of the type Global Justice agents wore. It too vanished, as did the wall behind it.
One of its arms had been destroyed when the woman had blown the hole in the floor. Now a leg was seriously wounded as the man, who should be dead, once again destroyed its hiding place. Its only hope was to get out of here. But wherever it was, the doors were made of very thick steel and the walls were solid concrete. The pests had made sure there was no obvious escape route when they had unmerged it from the girl. It ran for the hole the man had made in the wall behind it.
They both saw the creature make a run for the hole and turned, throwing plasma as one. It grazed the creature and it was tossed shrieking into the next room. They followed.
The chase was over. It knew that. One of its legs was nearly gone, the other was broken in a number of spots. It only had one remaining arm to try and pull itself forward with. It turned to face the two who walked towards it.
Ron and Shego approached the hole, careful to keep the plasma focused around them in case the creature attacked. They saw it just beyond the hole, trying to stand. Slower than it had been moving, but still fast, it scrabbled towards them. Together they lifted their hands once more and threw plasma. The creature shrieked again and burned. Eventually its body stopped thrashing and they stopped the out pouring of plasma.
"Get back to Kim." Ron ordered.
Shego turned and ran. The creature might be playing possum. Pretending to be dead so it could have a chance to escape. One of them had to stay and keep an eye on it. She jumped and caught the floor above her, pulling herself back into the room where it had started. She saw Dr. Betty Director working on Kim.
"The creature is dead. We think." She said, dropping down beside Kim. She was horrified to see that the gashes in her friend's stomach were bad enough to see the woman's intestines through. She gulped, not knowing what to do.
Dr. Betty Director pushed a button on her watch and a clicking sound came from the door. It immediately opened and several medical personnel rushed in. Soon they had Kim on a stretcher and were rushing her to an operating room. Shego tried to follow.
"Stop." Dr. Betty Director ordered.
"But..." Shego started.
"We don't know what's going on with Jenny. Stay here until she's secured again." Her tone left no room for argument.
Shego looked into the chamber. The girl was still there, motionless other than the tears running down her face. Shego lifted her and carefully lifted her out of the chamber and placed her on the floor where DNAmy went to work inserting the IV used to keep her unconscious. A quick check of the pulse showed it to be strong and steady. Her breathing was regular. Five minutes after the IV had been inserted the tears stopped.
Ron watched the burned corpse of what they had been fighting. It looked vaguely humanoid, though child sized, with extremely long legs and arms that possessed oversized claws. Still keeping the creature in sight he searched his chest and found where one of the claws was embedded in his flesh, running straight through to one of his lungs. He pulled it out and focused on healing. Comet powers healed wounds fast. So did Tai Shing Pek Kwar. In a day he would be as good as new. He focused part of his attention on his blood, checking to make sure the claw hadn't been poisoned. It hadn't. Dr. Betty Director dropped down through the hole and he looked.
"You okay?" The woman asked, looking at his chest.
"Nothing that won't heal." He replied. "How's Kim?"
"She's alive and in an operating room." The woman answered. "I can't tell you much more than that. It's bad. I think." She started speaking into her watch and soon several agents had contained the body of the creature in a titanium box.
Ron climbed back up to the room where Shego was.
"You okay?" She immediately asked.
He nodded. "A day or so and it will heal."
DNAmy looked up at him, examining his chest. "Your lung was pierced wasn't it?"
Ron wondered how she could tell.
"Mind if I use you in some of my experiments? I can add a nice tortoise shell and some humming bird wings to pay you back if you agree."
"I think I will skip on that." Ron told her. He sat down on a chair and focused on speeding his healing.
"Kim's in an operating room." Shego told him.
"Any word on how bad it was?" He asked.
"Not yet." She looked worriedly towards the door.
"Don't worry. She'll be okay." DNAmy looked up from where she'd been working on Jenny. "Her skull is still in one piece. She might have a serious concussion but nothing life threatening. As for the wound on her stomach, it only cut some flesh and fat. Her intestine wasn't pierced. Once the bleeding was under control she was out of danger. It looked a lot worse than it actually was."
"Oh." Both Ron and Shego sighed in relief. They were still worried but the words of the woman relieved them. She was after all a genius and in the medical field.
"How's Jenny?" Ron inquired. He looked where she'd been placed on the floor. A sheet once again covered her.
"From what I can tell she's fine. She's lost some weight though and is an inch or so shorter. That's from the alien no longer being merged with her." The mad geneticist answered.
"Why does she still look the same? When you merge two animals they both look different from the original, a mix of both."
"The traits can be selected. They chose to make her human traits the only ones visible. I assume that was so she wouldn't draw attention."
"Wonder what that creature was." Shego muttered, looking at the door, still worried about Kim.
"A Lorwardian." DNAmy answered.
"That size?" Shego asked.
"Yeah. I had a good look at it when it froze on the floor, just before you hit it with plasma. I'm pretty sure when we compare its DNA with the two you killed a few years back they will be very similar. The same species. There were some differences, but I think they were just due it being young."
"So it was just an immature form of Lowardian?" Ron asked. His gaze too was towards the door. He wondered how long before they had news about Kim's condition.
"Basically." DNAmy answered. "We don't know much about them. I'm guessing their size doesn't come until later in life. The way humans have different growth spurts. For them they might be small for maybe the first few decades, and then when they hit adulthood suddenly grow to full size. Or for that matter, their size might be artificially induce later on to make them more capable fighters. Too little data to know for sure at the moment."
"What about those claws? The Lorwardians don't have anything like those." Shego asked.
"A trait they abandon when they become adults. I can only guess. Maybe it's a natural trait, but since claws would interfere with their ability to manipulate tools they may just clip them like we do fingernails." DNAmy shrugged.
"The major question I got." Ron said. "Is just why would they put baby Lorwardians inside baby humans. I can guess possible reasons, but without being able to talk to them there's no way of knowing." He sighed, taking a quick look at the door.
"Looking at their DNA isn't going to answer that question." The geneticist admitted. "It would be more of a cultural trait than a genetic one."
Two medical personnel rushed in with a new bed. They left, dragging out the remains of the old one Ron had destroyed. Shego stepped forward and carefully lifted Jenny, placing her into her new bed. She was careful to avoid the hole.
Ron and Shego sat back to watch the woman work on the girl, ordering test after test. They both looked at the door every few seconds. It was an hour before they received news on the redhead. She would be okay. With her own fast healing combined with stem cell therapy she would be out of the hospital in four days.
DNAmy also got some of Jenny's test results back at the same time. There were nonhuman structures in her brain. DNAmy admitted she didn't have a clue what they were and set about doing more tests to find out.
"Kim doesn't have the same structures?" Ron asked.
"No." The woman answered, writing on a form ordering more tests. "But she had the alien creature removed pretty early. For all we know the structures in Jenny's brain might be something the alien created after that point. I'm thinking they're artificial. Not human or alien. So when the machine separated them it remained in her brain by default. More tests will tell."
"Will it affect the way she thinks?" Shego asked.
"I don't know." The woman told her. "Until more tests are done everything is just a guess." She went back to work.
Ron and Shego headed off to find Kim. They found her still asleep from the surgery. Mark was sitting beside her.
"Shouldn't you get that looked at." He asked Ron, looking at his chest.
"Probably." Ron admitted. "How she seem?"
"She's sleeping peacefully." Mark answered. "Doctors said she came within millimeters of having her intestines slashed." He shuddered.
Ron gulped and sat down beside his best friend since pre-K. "I messed up." He said. "I should have insisted that Dr. Betty Director take better security arrangements."
"Wasn't your call." Shego told him. "She took what she believed were adequate precautions. I would have agreed with her if asked. And would have spoke out if I hadn't believed they were sufficient."
"If only I were..." Mark started to say something, but stopped.
"Super powered like she is, like Shego and I are?" Ron asked.
Mark nodded. "Then I could share the danger with her."
"But you probably wouldn't be a couple." Ron pointed out.
Mark looked confused at that. "Why not?" He asked.
"KP knows she's different. But she doesn't want to be. Much as she loves you, and you love her, if you were different like us your relationship would probably hit a few bumpy spots." Ron told him. "She might like to spar with Shego, and she might get a rush from missions, but at the end of the day she likes to think of herself as normal." He paused, searching for the right words. "Other than being a great guy, you're normal. When you accept her despite her being different it makes her feel normal. That gives her strength that you couldn't if you were like us."
"Oh." Mark said, thinking on the words. He looked down at Kim. Having superpowers wouldn't be nearly so great if it meant losing her.
Sara Baring paused in her walking. Stare at the sky. She was instructed, so she turned her head up. Within her the demon was confused. It had seen the calendars by which these pests kept time. Somehow it had been kept asleep for seven years. The first ship should have arrived three years ago to begin the destruction of this infestation. Obviously that destruction had not begun. Still, ships broke down. The engines that propelled them beyond the speed of light were delicate. The ship would be repaired and would arrive at any time. There was nothing to fear. But things were strange. Somehow some of the pests on this world had learned to control plasma without external aid. Walk. It instructed the pest it wore as camouflage. It was nervous. Five minutes later it instructed her to look at the sky again, to look for something it knew it would not be able to see even if it was there. A ship. But even if the first ship had broke down and required a long time to repair there was the second ship. It would arrive soon.
End of Chapter.
Kim hurt again. Of course she got hit by surprise. And the creature hitting her had very long, very sharp claws.
Wonder what the structures in Jenny's brain are.
A second ship?