I do NOT own Kim Possible
How many people did each girl hurt?
And just why doesn't Ron delegate some of the work?
Time: A week later.
Jenny,... Sara,... Ron,...
He watched as DNAmy pranced around the machine, beaming brightly and talking to herself.
"With this I can combine six, maybe seven, species." The woman sang to herself. Her hands stroked the machine as though it were a lover. "Imagine what I can do now. An elephant combined with a king cobra combined with an electric eel combined with a ..."
He sighed and tuned her out. He was exhausted. It had been delicate work and given its importance he hadn't wanted to turn it over to anyone else. Whether or not the machine worked meant life or death for two teenage girls. It was important that the job be done right. Not that there was anyone he could have turned it over too. All the Global Justice technicians, called off from the Diablo hunt a few weeks back, were busy working overtime in the hellish prison below the base. They were checking each and every sensor and circuit along with the relays to make sure everything was fully operational. Plus they were adding extra precautions to the prison. They were being well over worked. He'd heard some of them wishing they could go back to fighting four year old kids for Diablo dolls. And to top it all off DNAmy had insisted he be the only one allowed to work on the machine. Not that it mattered. By now he was pretty sure Global Justice had studied the mutator and knew how to replicate it.
He turned away from the ranting woman and headed to Jenny's room. It had become the gathering place for his friends when they weren't busy, and, by default, the place he usually headed to when not busy. There was usually someone there with her.
He found Kim in the room along with Miranda. They greeted him and he greeted them back. Picking a chair he slumped down into it, gratefully taking the cup of coffee Miranda poured for him.
"Its the mutator finished?" Kim asked.
He nodded. "All that's left is for DNAmy to run a few tests and it will be ready. So long as she doesn't whip up something that lets her take over the world that is."
"So Sara will soon be fixed too?" Jenny asked.
Once again he nodded. "We will be able to remove the alien from her." He said. "But don't get your expectations up."
"Why not?"
He shrugged and sighed. "During the two years you were harming people you usually hurt one every three days. In total you hurt around two hundred and twenty people."
Jenny gulped. She knew she had hurt a lot of people but to be told the figure like that. "I tried not to." She said. "It wanted me to hurt someone, but it often left the choice of who to hurt up to me. I think it liked that it was making me chose who would get hurt. That I had to make the decision." She paused. "It didn't feel very good." She finally said. "Picking always made me sick and it enjoyed that."
"How did you chose?" Ron asked.
"People who looked strong. Like they could take a lot of cuts and stuff. I also picked crowded areas and kept pushing onto the something the danger of being discovered. Then when we finished I kept the thought of hurting too many too close together would draw attention in my mind. I painted a picture of a jet flying overhead dropping a bomb on me and killing me." She sighed again. "And in between to keep it quiet for a while I mutilated thousands of animals that no one would miss. Like rats."
"It worked." He told her. "Of the two hundred and twenty you attacked nineteen had permanent injuries. The rest healed fully. But that is entirely different from what Sara did."
"How so?" She asked, reflecting on the hundreds she had hurt. The nineteen that would never heal. She felt sick to her stomach.
"She attacked someone practically every day. Six hundred and fifty so far as we know. Of those over two hundred and thirty had permanent injuries."
"Oh." She gulped.
"We think somewhere along the way her mind just broke. From the few times we've seen her it was ..." He struggled to find the right words. "It was like there was no one home." He finally said. "We can separate her from the alien but I don't think she will ever be fully functional as a person ever again."
"Oh."She said again. "What about the other one. Willow?"
"She's the opposite. Other than the time she broke out of the prison she'd only hurt one person. Some serious slashes but nothing that left even a scar. During the breakout she hurt just as many people as you did but none of them permanently. She's somehow forcing herself to remain in a remote area and mutilating animals. When people come close she runs."
"How?" She asked. To her the something had been irresistible.
"Good question. When we capture her again and get rid of the alien in her you can ask. It's something we would like to know too. She comes from a long line of shamans and medicine women. Maybe that has something to do with it."
He sat sipping the coffee. As usual it was exceptionally good. He stared at Jenny and the titanium cuffs that kept her bound to her bed. She stared back, gulping once in a while. His staring was making her nervous. Once in a while Miranda gave her a drink of hot chocolate. Even while drinking she kept her eyes on him. He kept staring, deep in thought.
Why is he staring, she asked herself. If Willow could keep the something inside under control then why couldn't I? Does he blame me? She gulped and felt fear mixed with the sick feeling in her stomach..
"You've been told you had an alien merged with you, but you've never seen it. Right?" Ron asked.
She nodded. "I only know what you've told me." She answered.
"Want to see the alien being taken from Sara?" He asked. He thought actually seeing what had been inside her would help. It would certainly give her nightmares, but it would also show her beyond any doubt that there had been something. It wouldn't be just his word any more. Only problem would be getting permission.
"I can watch?" She asked.
"If I can get permission." He replied.
"I would, then. I think." She wasn't too sure. She wanted to, but she was also scared.
He rose and stretched. "I will go then and nag Dr. Betty Director for permission." He grinned at her. "That's going to be fun."
Unlike with Jenny, the drugs that kept Sara safely unconscious wasn't reduced. With the mutator's boosted level of powers it didn't matter. Still the poor girl wasn't allowed clothes during the procedure. Ron looked away as Kim lifted her and placed her in the machine's chamber.
"Recalibrating." Came DNAmy's voice.
He turned towards Jenny and pulled out a remote control. He pushed a few buttons and slipped it back into his pocket. "You can move fast now if you got to. Just in case." He told her. "But only for five minutes. Then the devices inside you will reset to their default mode."
She gulped. "But I won't need to. Right?" She asked. "The alien is going to be asleep when its separated from Sara."
He shrugged. "It's just a precaution. I've learned better safe than sorry." He turned to see Dr. Betty Director frowning at him. He heard Jenny gulp again. It seemed she'd noticed the woman's frown of disapproval too.
"Scanning her DNA." DNAmy said, her attention focused on the mutator.
Ron watched the chamber that held the cybertronic circuits. A huge tank filled with water that was kept just above freezing. He hoped he hadn't missed anything.
"We're ready." DNAmy said as she pressed a button.
Lights ran across the surface of the mutator, LED displays that displayed the status of the machine. Ten seconds later they stopped. This time there was no acidic smoke and no sparks. He took that to be a good sign.
"Extraction successful." DNAmy said. "I think." She added. "Open the chamber."
Ron moved to open the door. Despite wanting to preserve the girl's modesty he was the best one for the job. He could move just as fast as Kim and his ability to heal far exceeded hers. Shego was the next best choice, but even her ability to heal didn't match his.
It recalled the trap and was confused. It had been captured but obviously its people had found it and were removing it from the camouflage. A needle lanced into each cell of its being and there was a brief sensation of pain. But the sensation was wrong. The extraction shouldn't feel like that. It felt the drugs in its system keeping it immobile and set about filtering them out. Gradually the chamber it was in came into view. It wasn't something its people had built, but any other conclusion was impossible. That technology belonged only to its people. Something was wrong. It increased the rate at which its blood flowed through its body, increasing the rate at which the drug was filtered. It regained some feeling in its limbs. The process was efficient and would clear its blood of the impurities in less than a minute.
The chamber door opened and it was looking at one of the pests. That was impossible. How could they have such technology? It's people had not come for it and it was without camouflage amidst the pests who knew what it was. There was no hope for survival. And now it knew for sure they controlled one of the ships. Not only that, but they were able to replicate some of its technology. It felt the drugs clear its system and it regained mobility.
Ron looked in the chamber and cautiously stood back and studied the scene. Sara wasn't moving. That was a bad sign. There shouldn't have been any drugs in her system. The alien was like-wise motionless. They were taking no chances and he stepped forward with the sonic drill. It seemed too much like the mutilations that the aliens liked but the first step was to break the main bones in each of its limbs to ensure it couldn't move. He felt sick even thinking about it. He kelt beside it and reached for one of its limbs. He comforted himself with the knowledge that the breaks would be minor and would swiftly heal.
It waited, remaining still, until the pest was close and then attacked. A claw slashed upward and ripped into the pest. Its bones should have shattered, sending fragments into its major organs, but they held. Still a claw slipped between its ribs and into the pest's heart. The result was not what it expected. It shrieked in pain.
The movement came too fast to dodge or block. One second everything was fine and the next his heart had been pierced. Instinctively he flared plasma around himself as a shield and reflex made him grab at the object embedded in his flesh. He felt his hand close around the alien's arm and he focused all the plasma he could through that hand and into the limb. The pain in his chest was joined by the pain of his flesh burning. Vaguely he heard something shriek, but he was busy throwing himself backwards away from the obviously not unconscious Lorwardian. Some instinct made him reach out with his left hand, extinguish the plasma there, and grab Sara, pulling her back with him.
It stared, stunned, at the missing arm. The pest hadn't dropped dead as it should have but rather had moved with inhuman speed and grabbed the arm it had lashed out with. Plasma had then severed that limb. It stood to move, to try and flee, but a woman it recognized as being able to call the same plasma was in front of it.
Shego saw the Buffoon call the plasma around himself and called it too. He would not have flared such an amount without reason. Then she saw him fling himself backward, pulling Sara with him. What was left behind was the alien, missing an arm, but looking as through it was preparing to run. She focused and threw all the plasma she could at it. The mutator exploded under the force and the alien disappeared from view.
It shrieked in pain and there was no place to dodge. If it had been just a second quicker it would have been out of the chamber. Able to dodge. Then the woman wouldn't have been able to hit it. But the shock of losing its arm had shocked it for too long. It was still in the chamber and it couldn't avoid the inferno that washed over it.
Ron laid back on the floor and studied the damage to his heart from that place of cyan light that was the center of his being. The organ had been severely damaged. He slowed his heartbeat and focused on stopping the flow of blood. Soon the blood gushing out of his chest stopped. With comet powers, plus his knowledge of Tai Shing Pek Kwar, the wound wasn't a threat to his life. With Tai Shing Pek Kwar he could use, at will, the trick Global Justice used with stem cells. The trick that let them heal major wounds to their agents in a matter of days. That combined with comet powers would heal his heart.
In the meantime without his heart there was no flow of blood. No flow of blood meant no oxygen. That was okay. He could just slow his body down and focus all its resources to his heart. But he was in the middle of a major fight. He began to flex various muscles within his body and those in turn caused his arteries and veins to contract and expand. Blood resumed flowing once again. But it was slow compared to what his heart could do. Enough to remain aware and stand, but it wouldn't allow him to fight at anything near full potential. Not even close.
Shego blasted the alien until the area in front of her was a three foot deep crater. Given the way the floor and walls had given away the last time they had fought an alien inside the base Dr .Betty Director had had this place specially built. Other than the door there was nothing but solid rock for fifty feet in each directions. She kept her attention focused, looking for the creature. She didn't think it would have died so easily. She took a quick look at the Buffoon and the wound in his chest nearly made her faint, but somehow he was standing up.
Jenny stood shocked. Ron was dead. His heart destroyed. But then he moved and stood up. He even turned and smiled at her.
"Be careful." He said.
She blinked and wondered how someone could stay alive without a heart. She gulped.
"Ron?" Shego asked, panic in her voice.
"It's okay Shego. I can managed for a while. Best to end this fight quickly though so I can focus on healing. I need to meditate." His voice, like his movements, were slow.
It crouched beneath the wreckage of the machine they had used to unmerge it from its camouflage. The inferno that had washed over it had done severe damage. It's one remaining arm was burnt to a crisp, as was a huge section of its upper body. One eye was gone. No major organs had been destroyed though. Not that it helped its situation. It peered out around and saw the one it had killed stand. That wasn't possible, but it pushed the thought out of its mind. One of the pests in the room was the camouflage another one of its kind had been wearing. It was obviously no longer being used as camouflage. This then wasn't the first time they had used the machine on one of them. It wondered what to do. The woman who could use plasma was looking for it. And it seemed even piercing their hearts didn't kill them. Definitely not ordinary pests.
Jenny looked at Sara who wasn't moving and gulped. So much for the alien being asleep. She turned and looked for it along with everyone else. "Only a few pieces of wreckage are big enough to hid it." She noted. "Blast them one by one?" She suggested.
Shego went to work on it. Before her fury the pieces large enough to hide the alien vanished. That the Buffoon didn't join in on the destruction worried her. The fourth time was the charm. She went to destroy a piece of the wreckage only to have the alien race out from under it before she threw the plasma. It moved fast and ran for the door. It stopped and pivoted on one foot, lashing out at the obstruction with the other. Deep grooves were left in the titanium, but it held. Then she had turned and plasma flowed from her.
The door held. It didn't even shudder beneath the onslaught. The pests had obviously built it to hold against anything it could do. The craters in the floor, from the plasma, told it the floor was thick. It assumed the walls and ceiling were too. It would die here. It turned and raced around the room.
Shego turned and tried to follow the creature but it moved too fast and there were people in the way. She couldn't just throw plasma and hope to hit it without hitting them by accident. She threw a bit of plasma but it was more to keep it busy than anything else. She looked at Kim who had yet to move.
Kim fumed. She had seen Ron die, once again, though somehow, as before, he still lived. She needed to kill that damn creature that had hurt him. But it was so fast and she knew those claws could do a lot of damage very quickly. If Shego could have hit it with her plasma that would have been good, but it seemed she couldn't. That wasn't so good.
Jenny watched and analyzed. This was one of the creatures that had made her a monster and she wanted it dead. The need once again burned in her and the alien was her target. She watched it run around the room so fast she could barely see it. She knew how it thought, knew about the need that burned within it to hurt them. But it couldn't stop to do that. If it did then the balls of plasma Shego was firing would hit it. It couldn't even take a split second to lash out at one of them. The need that burned in her equaled its need to hurt them and she thought hard. She saw one of its eyes was gone and smiled. It was glancing between Shego and the floor with most of its attention on Shego. It had to keep her in view to avoid her plasma. That meant it couldn't focus on much of anything else. She moved in close to where it would pass, close to the wall in what would be its blind spot, with it between her and Shego. When it ran past she put out her foot and it fell.
Shego saw what Jenny was about to do and summoned all the plasma she could and threw it just in front of the creature. It fell and rolled into the inferno for a second. Then it was on its feet again running.
Kim copied Jenny's move and started trying to trip the monster.
They couldn't trip it every time but around once every four attempts they succeeded. When they did Shego was waiting with the plasma. Still it got to its feet and ran. Then they got lucky. The plasma hit it directly on one of its legs and it broke. It was slower then. Easier to trip and easier to target. Slowly its running became less of a blur..
There was no escape and it was dying. Still, it would take one of them with it. It saw that the one it had thought it had killed before hadn't moved. It was severely wounded. It would attack again and this time kill it even as it itself died. It raced around the room and swerved at the last second towards the last pest it would ever kill.
Ron grinned. Bringing Jenny had been a good move. He was too busy focusing on his own body to do much thinking. That and keeping his eye on the beast. He saw its movements change and knew it was about to try something. Given what he knew of the creatures it would want to kill one last person before it died. And it would pick one that was wounded. Either him or Sara. He prepared and called the plasma. It came just in time as the creature swerved towards him. He unleashed the fully fury of his comet powers upon it. It hit the attacking beast directly in the chest and blew it backwards. He kept up the inferno and Shego joined him. Before it could try to move again he focused on its legs and they withered beneath his attack. Then he was out of energy and he slumped to the floor. The place of the cyan light called and he had to answer that call. The effort had undone the repairs he'd been making to his heart.
Dr. Betty Director open the door and medical personnel rush in. They rushed Ron and Sara out, being sure to keep Sara unconscious.
Within the cyan light Ron detected his body being tampered with. He open his eyes for a brief second to see who it was and to give a brief command.
The surgeon nearly fainted as the person with the shattered heart opened his eyes and said, "Don't touch my heart. I just need some rest." Then the person who should have been dead went back into a coma-like state. He considered and stepped back. If the person was still alive, as he seemed to be, maybe it was best not to meddle. He would monitor their status and be ready if he was needed. It was strange, but the person wasn't dying. From the machines scanning the body he could see muscles contracting and then relaxing. The action forced a small flow of blood through the body. In its reduced state of activity he calculated it was enough to maintain life without risking brain damage. Amazing, he thought to himself.
He watched and three hours later he saw the heart start beating again. Very slow, very faint pulses, but it added to the total blood flow and he guessed his services weren't needed after all.
No one had bothered to restrain her again and Jenny waited outside the operating room with Shego and Kim and Miranda. She chewed her lower lip and worried.
"It's okay." Shego told her. "Even I wouldn't die from something like that and he's a lot better at healing than I am."
"But his heart..."
"He's had his heart destroyed once before, along with both lungs. Trust me, he isn't going to die. It's just a matter of how long it takes for him to heal." Shego smiled at the girl, though she herself was worried. Sure he would probably be all right but, damn it, she wished he would stop getting hurt so often. With the last alien it had been a pierced lung, what next... She sighed and gave the girl a small hug to hide her own worry.
Three hours later they were by his bedside.
"Sorry." Ron said to Jenny. "We really did expect it to be asleep." He smiled at her.
She gulped. "Are you going to be all right?"
"I could leave here now but the doctors won't allow it." He sighed. "And I do have to help rebuilt that machine again. I could almost cry." He sounded annoyed. "Four hundred modified circuits destroyed in seconds. Over a hundred hours of work." He sighed again. "And just why was the alien still awake?" He asked Dr. Betty Director who was in the room as well.
"We tested its body. There was no drug in most parts of it, but there was some in what seemed to be a bladder like object. DNAmy is theorizing the alien in its natural state has extremely efficient methods of filtering toxins from its blood. It appears even the minute or so it had was long enough for it to clear the drug from its system."
"Did Sara have any in her system? Why wasn't she moving?"
"She was free of the drug. As for her not moving." The woman sighed. "It's as we theorized. She's comatose."
"Oh." Ron sighed as well. "Anything that can be done for her?" He asked.
"We're not sure yet. First prognosis is that she will never fully recover. She might regain consciousness, but will always be in a hospital or some other mental facility."
Ron looked down at his chest. "Had planned to go after Willow immediately after that but even if I can move I still need a day or to for the repairs to fully heal. And we need a new mutator. Tell Wade to find someone else to modify the cybertonic circuits for the radiators."
"DNAmy will make a fuss over that." Dr. Betty Director warned.
"Let her. She knows how powerful the machine is. She will allow it if she knows there's no other choice. And it's not as though anyone has to look at the mutator in order to modify the circuits."
"Starting to think we will never capture one alive, or even halfway intact." Dr. Betty Director sighed. "And that would be so helpful in studying them."
"Me either." Ron admitted. "Now if you don't mind I want to see Shego." He looked over the woman's should to see the former villainess who was his world waiting impatiently. The second the head of Global Justice moved out of her way she was beside him, looking him over. He smiled at her and pulled her down for a kiss.
Kim groaned. "How they go again." She said, smiling.
Jenny looked around. No one had bothered to restrain her so she took her chair again and sat back to wait. She watched the kiss out of the corner of her eye. It made her feel weird. Why did seeing it bring Miranda to mind, she wondered.
End of Chapter.
I didn't want to talk too much about the Global Justice technicians in the story. Just to point out they would have a lot of work to do. But one should also remember just what sort of working conditions they have to work in. The prison has cells at -30C with strong electromagnetic fields that would make testing anything inside it a nightmare. Outside of the cells the temperature is 80C. Very harsh working conditions. Fatal without a lot of protection.
Ron took a beating that time. Thank goodness for comet powers and Tai Shing Pek Kwar.