{A/N: The return of Kim Possible is at hand. The journey is almost over, and I hope everyone's enjoying the ride so far.}
*11.) Back in Action
The cellphone Rayne had given her about a week ago - the same one she'd used to call her mom - went off right as Kim walked into the hotel room, balancing Elizabeth and some groceries. While she still couldn't cook too well, she had managed to do basic dishes without blowing anything up. Setting the groceries down on the coffee table in the suite's living room, the redhead fished the item out of her pocket and said, "I just got in the room, Rayne, so-"
"Miss Possible?" came a confused male voice. "How do you know Shego's real name, and why do you have her phone?"
"Hego?" she questioned, just as confused. "Rayne gave me this phone a few days ago, so I could . . . get back in touch with my family."
"Is everything all right, Miss Possible?" the officious hero asked in a tone that was only slightly pompous. "And are you all right? I had you'd been missing for a while."
"Don't worry about, Hego," Kim replied, in a tone of voice that said 'drop it;' a tone the hero was familiar with after dealing with his sister for over a decade. "Care to tell me why you called?"
"Well, I was trying to reach my sister," he explained. "She had stopped by Go Tower about two days ago - two and a half now, actually - and informed myself and the rest of Team Go that our mother had given her the family mansion in Go City. Naturally, I tried to get her to be reasonable-"
"Wait a minute," the redhead interrupted. "What do you mean, 'two and a half days ago,' Hego? She was supposed to call me after she'd talked to you about that."
"I mean just that, Miss Possible," the big man replied, and Kim didn't have to see his face to know he was now wearing a look of apprehension because of her tone. "She came here a little over two days ago, told us about the mansion being hers now, and left. That's the last I saw her, I promise you." Kim didn't bother saying anything; she just ended the call. A squirming against her reminded the redhead of her daughter, and she hugged the almost five-month-old infant to her. Before Rayne's return to her life, she probably would've broken down or panicked or something like that; now, however, the person she'd been before had come back again. The self-confidence she used to have, the belief that she could do anything she chose to do, had returned. Closing her eyes, Kim took a deep breath and let it out. Adjusting Elizabeth again, the young woman looked at her phone and dialed a number she'd never forgotten.
"Missus Load?" she said when she heard her call get answered. "It's Kim. I know it's been a while, and I would love to catch you up on things, but I would really appreciate it if you could get Wade to call me. Okay, Missus Load. Thanks." She hung up and waited. A few seconds later, she heard a very familiar *beep-beep-be-beep* sound. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, the redhead followed the sound to a brown bubble envelope (the kind that incorporates bubble wrap stuff within the envelope to protect the contents). Setting Elizabeth in the cradle-swing Rayne had bought last week, Kim picked up the package and opened it. Turning it over, she dumped a brand-new black and green kimmunicator into her hand. Her face lit up and she answered the device.
"What's the sitch, Wade?" she asked, even though she was the one that had, through his mom, contacted him.
"You don't know how glad I am to hear you say that again, Kim," the now 15yro genius said with a huge grin. "You can catch me up on the last year later; my mom said you sounded pretty anxious. How can I help?"
"I need you to find Rayne," she told him. "I mean, Shego. She went to Go City two and a half days ago, and hasn't been seen since then, according to Hego. She had promised to call me right after her visit and didn't."
"Since she has a higher than normal body temperature, I'll start by scanning Go City and the immediate area for her thermal signature. I'll also set a program to apply the same scans to satellite footage from the past two days."
"Please and thank you," she replied.
"Kim . . . it's been two years since you've been 'in the game.' And I'm sure you haven't practiced or trained any in the year you've been . . . missing," the teen said, his concern evident in his voice and on his face. "I can get Ron and Yori to . . . back you up."
"Wade, no matter who's got my girlfriend, they'll be using HenchCo henchmen," she reminded him. "On their best day and my worst, they couldn't match me." The dark-skinned boy chuckled.
"Glad your confidence is back, Kim," Wade said. "Okay, according to my scans, Shego - I mean Rayne - isn't anywhere in the Go City area. Still waiting for the back scanning to get done. I'll get a ride ready and on the way while it's finishing."
"You rock, Wade."
TLP
Rayne groaned as consciousness returned to her. She remembered the first (which was also the last) time she'd been hit with a cocktail like that; it hadn't been a pleasant experience for those who'd been around her when she'd woken up back then, and she was just as pissed about it now - if not more so - as she had been then. As her awareness expanded and her surroundings became clearer to her senses, she realized she was restrained rather well. In fact, it appeared her captor had upgraded the restraints as she was having some trouble flaring her plasma.
"Glad to see you're finally awake, Shego," came a nauseatingly familiar voice. The pale woman let out an extremely pained groan. 'Not him,' she thought. 'I would have it to be anyone but HIM.'
"I do apologize about the sedatives, Shego," she heard, as though he had thought her groan was from the sedatives wearing off. "But you know I'm too much of a genius to bother remembering things like the appropriate amount of chemicals to put into-"
"For the love of God! Would you shut the fuck up, Doctor D?!" Rayne snarled in frustrated irritation. "For such a 'genius,' you sure aren't smart enough to figure out when to close that damn fountain of torture you call a mouth!"
"We talked about this, Shego," the blue-skinned mad scientist, walking into her field of vision and wagging a finger at her. "Words hurt, you know."
"Find those mystery-solving punks and that smart dog they hang with and get a clue, Drakken," she snapped in reply.
"You shouldn't be so mean, Shego," he replied, actually looking hurt. "We're an evil family, after all."
"News flash, you walking blueberry," Rayne growled at him. "I haven't been evil in three years! Hell, I've gone straight - as far as crime goes - and have a fuckingly fantastic and successful business! I've gotten back with my girlfriend, and my life's going great!"
"Girlfriend?" Drakken echoed, confused. "But you're a girl, aren't you?"
"It's lesbianism you jackass. It means I'm a woman who dates, sleeps with, and prefers to be with only women when it comes to romance and sex."
"Shego!" he exclaimed, aghast. "You don't have to be so vulgar!"
"Go eat some Skittles and fart a rainbow, ya moron," she told him, rolling her eyes. He sputtered and fumed, obviously angry but unable to think of a comment of any kind, making the plasma thrower snicker.
"Well, then, Shego," he finally said, deciding to ignore her words and move on, "I'm sure you're wondering why I've got you here."
"Not really," she replied with a shrug.
"But . . . you must!" he said, insulted. "I have you restrained!"
"So did Kimmie, and that was a helluva night, I'll tell you," she replied with a wink. He darkened in embarrassment as his mind obviously jumped to the conclusion Rayne had wanted it to.
"I have you at my mercy!" he insisted.
"What'd be a mercy is you shutting up for once," she came back.
"Enough!" he shouted, stamping his foot. "I took the time and effort to get you back so you can have a chance to rejoin me. That way we can get back to doing what were meant to do: making the world bow down to me!"
"By coming up with cockamamie ideas for useless inventions that either backfire on their own or are set up so that any idiotic buffoon can stop them," she added as a way to finish his rant. He screamed in frustration, and kicked at a metal table leg, then cried out in pain and began hopping around on one foot, cursing the table in that extremely PG way of his. Snickering at his antics, even though she was glad she had stayed legit after the pardon, Rayne found herself more than a little apprehensive about the fruit loop she once worked for had planned. He did eventually stopped hopping around and glared at her.
"You should show me more respect, Shego," he snarled. But then his expression changed, going from angry and pained (she thought he looked like he was constipated) to darkly gleeful. "And you will. You see, ever since we helped save the world-" he shuddered at that "-I did try to be 'good,' since I'd obviously proven myself to be a superior scientist by defeating those giant green aliens with my 'mad skills.' But no matter what, no one would acknowledge my greatness! Not even those hacks I went to college with, including the father of my nemesis, Kim Possible! So when I'd learned that that accursed teenager had quit being a hero, I decided it was the perfect time to once again take my revenge."
Rayne yawned a bit as he continued ranting about how he'd been slighted, what he was going to do once he ruled the world, and so on. She tuned back in when she felt he was finally getting to part that concerned her.
" . . . which brings me to you, Shego," Drakken said, not realizing he'd been ignored for the past five minutes. "I needed you for my plans to work, and tried to find you. I'd thought you'd gone to work for that hack Dementor, or had joined that idiot Gemini, but all of our villainous colleagues said you had given up villainy! Can you believe that?"
"Gee, Doctor D, no I can't," she answered with exaggerated disbelief and insincerely huge eyes. "Who would want to give up a life of hiding in lairs and making failed inventions for a life within the law and making life at a job you enjoy?"
"Exactly!" he agreed, completely missing her sarcasm. "So I decided to make plans just in case they were right. I needed a way to make sure you would always be on my side, loyal only to me. I knew my mind control chips wouldn't work, since apparently ANYONE can make a silicone phase disruptor, and the moodulators were obviously faulty tech. Then I remembered the Attitudinator! If I could combine that technology with my mind control chips and the right program, I could rewrite your neural synaptic pathways and make you evil forever since the process would be permanently irreversible! Muahahahahaha!" As he continued to laugh manically, Rayne felt a cold shiver of dread run up and down her spine in titanium-spiked cleats.
TLP
Kim opened the door to the penthouse suite when she'd heard the knock. Stephanie stood there, stunned halfway through the motion of knocking again. It was obvious Kim's appearance more than surprised her; the redhead's hair was still short, but it was her style of dress that was eye-catching. Kim had, using Rayne's money, bought and had delivered a whole new outfit: a black three-quarter sleeve crop top with thick dark green panels on the sides, a pair of dark green cargo pants with black pockets, a pair of dark green gloves with black palms, and a new pair of black short boots.
"Hot damn, Kim!" she exclaimed after a minute of opening and closing her mouth with nothing coming out. "You look . . . wow!"
"Thanks," the redhead replied shyly. "It's . . . well, it's kind of the same style as my original mission outfit. Just . . . just in my new colors."
"Like your girlfriend's colors, too," the blonde commented with a wink, making the younger woman blush. "Actually, I'm glad you called me; I needed some time away from home."
"Why?" Kim asked. "Is everything alright, Steph?"
"Not really," the other woman admitted. "I dumped my boyfriend, Derrick."
"I'm sorry, Stephanie," the redhead replied, pulling her friend into a hug.
"It's okay, Kim, really," Steph said, returning the hug. "He was a nice guy and all, but . . . he just didn't get me. Especially the whole 'bisexual thing' as he calls it." She pulled back a bit and smiled at the redhead. "So, what do you need?"
"Can you watch Elizabeth?" Kim asked. "I've got an emergency to take care of." Just then, her kimmunicator went off.
"What's the sitch?" she asked, answering it.
"I've gotten Rayne's exact location," Wade said without preamble. "She's at one of Drakken's old Middleton lairs. One of the ones GJ wasn't told about. I've sent the location to your kimmunicator, and your ride's five minutes out."
"Thanks, Wade," she replied. "You rock completely." She ended the call and looked back at her friend. "Rayne went to Go City to make sure her brothers knew about her having the mansion, and to get it set up for me and Elizabeth. But it turns out that her former boss, Doctor Drakken, kidnapped her after she'd left Go Tower, and has had her for the last two days."
"Well shit," Stephanie said. "Your life certainly isn't boring."
Kim laughed and said, "Can't argue with that."
"So you need a babysitter?"
"Yeah," Kim confirmed. She walked into the bedroom and got her daughter - who'd woken up - out of the crib and went back to Stephanie. "I need you to watch my daughter," the redhead said, "so I can kick Drakken's ass and rescue my girl's minty green one."
{E/N: And there we have it! Kim Possible is so back! Next time, Kim makes a big entrance into Drakken's lair.}