The Second Wave
It wasn't often that anyone got to enjoy peace and quiet around Capsule Corp. Between the countless experiments, the manufacturing of numerous types of vehicles and machines, most of which were a bit beyond their time, various business associates and the crazy aliens that lived within or frequently visited the town sized building, a quiet moment was near impossible. After 8am, anyway.
It was one of the many reasons that made Henry so grateful that he was an early riser. Few would believe him, but the place was actually nice and quiet at six in the morning. Walking through the hall or out onto their living area's balcony, letting the wind caress his skin, enjoying the view of both Capsule Corp's well kept estate and public park beyond it, it was such a nice, relaxing way to start what would no doubt be a noisy, chaotic day. Or, in this case, a stressful one.
Taking a seat in his favourite chair, Henry couldn't help but sigh, feeling a bit of anxiety already settling in. It was still thick in the air after yesterday. The call for help, Go Tower falling, the confirmed deaths, the way Kim freaked over the communicator and everyone's frantic worrying and searches for information since, it was like the entire place had been drenched in stress, fear and desperation. Even those who had no clue what was going on could feel it and opted to stay away.
"I really hope Team Possible manages to sleep in." He muttered to himself as he watched the sky slowly turning pink in the horizon. While he had maintained his usual sleep schedule, he was well aware that just about all of the others had been up most of the night, for one reason or another, even the two who should have just slept through their sick stomachs. They all had to be exhausted. Besides, the longer they slept, the more likely there'd be more, and hopefully better, news when they did dive back into it.
He felt for them, he really did. It was always a horrible feeling, losing people you care about so violently and being so powerless to stop it. It can be even worse when you thought about those who survived the ordeal. Not only do they have to go through losing their brothers, one of their powers and a leg too in Hego's case, the villains who did it were still out there going wild. The fact that they were failing to even stop them, to prevent them from finishing what they started, that Hego and Wego were both grieving and still in huge danger...that was what was eating Team Possible the most. Sadness and the feeling of failing their friends twice over. Henry wouldn't wish that on anyone.
Sighing sadly again, he closed his eyes and drew up his legs, crossing them as he took a few deep, slow breaths. Meditation was usually good for this sort of thing. Though, this time, he only slowly grew more frustrated with himself. Though he'd been doing it for years, Henry was no master at the art. High stress and frustrating situations tended to get the best of him, his thoughts refusing to shut up. If anything, the silence and the attempts were only giving his mind more opportunities to fret over his new friends.
Growling softly, he gave up not ten minutes later, pulled himself straight up to his feet and headed back inside, toward the lab. If clearing his mind wasn't an option then he'd resort to a distraction for as long as he could. They were planning to make the initial base for their new prototype battle suit today, so he could always get a start on the first small components. They were delicate, they'd require his complete focus. In other words, it was the perfect distraction or it would be the perfect disaster when he was done with it, but he was pretty sure he could do it. His issue was sympathy based, not moral or personal conflict, so working on technology should be able to drown it out for an hour or two.
However, that was forgotten as a low beep came from his pocket. Blinking in surprise, a small grin lit up Henry's face as his hand dived in and pulled out a device just small enough to fit in his hand. It was an oddly shaped, white machine, looking like someone tried to make a T around a circle. At the top and in the centre, a green ring surrounded a square screen, black colouring the area in between the two, while at the bottom was a large, white, circular button with two, small green, ovular shaped ones cutting into its sides. It also appeared to have a card reader built into the side and a USB port hidden on the top, right before it was attached to a green band and clip.
Taking note of the alert flashing across the screen, Henry held down the big button, immediately bringing the screen to life. Within a second, light exploded from and took the form of a circular hologram, depicting a great deal of data. Most notably was the picture of Ryo in the middle with 'Location Identified' written in bold letters underneath it.
His grin turning into a full smile, Henry looked over the information before shutting it down and upping his pace toward the lab. He wanted to make sure that he was there when Kim called Wade next. It was in no way going to help her situation, but he was sure Kim would like a little good news when next she called.
Once this was all taken care of, as soon as she was ready, he could reintroduce her to Ryo.
...
Vlad's hidden lair hadn't looked this busy since before he'd left for space. Though he currently had no visitors, there seemed to be movement wherever you looked, be it from the flickering lights of rapidly changing screens or the movements of the four Vlads.
The hard work had really begun now. Every player on the board was now active and every aspect needed to be monitored carefully. Now that the attacks had begun, it would take a lot less to send aspects off the rails. The results of missteps varied from inconsequential, down a very steep path to catastrophic, especially with so many critical thinkers and avenues being exploited. Every deviation caused by this attack and every shred of data his enemies acquired from it needed to be accounted for as best he could, preferably right down to the letter.
Something he apparently needed to keep in mind even when considering his own subordinates!
"Be smug now, you infernal woman! I will be repaying you for this little stunt." He grumbled under his breath, glaring viciously as he watched 'Drakken' preparing for their next move while his clone scowled at the image of Dr Director debriefing Kim. Spectra's little stunt had come right out of left field for him. While he knew that she was a snake in the grass and had pointedly threatened him repeatedly, he had thought that she was enticed well enough to simply follow the plan, but clearly he'd well overestimated his grip on her loyalty. He hadn't known or cared where she had their secondary base set up, it was a minor detail that had meant nothing, so he never bothered to get an answer. So imagine the grief he felt running through his veins when he realised that the scapegoat headquarters was one of his buildings!
Then there was the captured shot! He knew for a fact that Bertrand was far more talented than that. He could have easily fled the body without a single flicker of evidence, yet here he was, doing a full body display for an organisation with a reputation for heavily scrutinising every piece of evidence they obtained. He was putting on a show for the damn spies! And seeing as Vlad couldn't get any access within Global Justice's walls, he was only finding out now, while Kim was being informed of this! It was already far too late to circumvent it, every one of their still living enemies would know of the ghostly involvement and his own possible return within the hour! Which, thanks to Bulma's little scheme, now involved the Fentons and provided access to ghost tech. His safety was now in jeopardy.
This was a warning from Spectra. If she didn't get what she wanted, neither would he. The plan had to be a success now, otherwise it would lead back to him far too quickly for him to save himself.
After all his declarations about abandoning his arrogance and not underestimating his enemies, he went and did exactly that with an underling he knew not to trust from the start. He wasn't sure who he wanted to kick more for this, Spectra or himself.
"Her. I will kick her." Vlad swore, his eyes glowing with fury for a moment before forcing himself to calm down with a sigh. He could and would deal with this. Yes, it was troubling, but his return was far from proven, merely suspected. This didn't alter the most important part of the plan and once that part succeeded, even if his return was discovered, he himself would never be found until it's too late. So, with that in mind, Vlad set himself back to work, taking great care to monitor every detail that had resulted from the first wave.
Wade still wasn't much of an issue. He was already up and working on his tablet, hiding away from Jazz no doubt, but his focus was still planted firmly on Go City. The data on Kim's own enemies weren't even being touched and he had yet to be informed of the ghost aiding their enemies. However, changes to his thought patterns tended to come suddenly, so constant surveillance was still a necessity.
Hego had yet to awaken and Wego was by his side, well behind a large number of guards. That represented another irritation. It was another slipup that he hadn't accounted for. Team Go's villains were supposed to have every member of Team Go accounted for before throwing everyone else into a panic. However, despite being well aware of his power, they'd failed to respond adequately and lost their chance to steal the red glow. That was a significant blow. It wasn't a fatal one, but it certainly took a great deal of raw power away from them that could have guaranteed a victory, in more ways than one, not the least being Vlad taking the staff and all the glow powers himself, combining them with his own powers and becoming near invincible. But alas, that end result was currently beyond them. It would have to wait for another day.
Then, of course, there was Kim and Ron. Tracking them had been simple and neither of them was in a position to cause much trouble, but it was still worth it. It was imperative that he maintained knowledge, circumstances and the location of his pawns' desired target at all times and now the added benefit of allowing him to locate and spy on the head of Global Justice herself! This had, in turn, revealed to him just how close his secret was to being discovered and reprimanded him for not watching Spectra more closely.
Which brought up the next set of monitors he and his clones were overlooking. He was not taking any chances with her, Bertrand or any of the others from now on. Drakken's security system was being put through its paces as Vlad made sure every villain was accounted for at all times. If anyone so much as blinked funny, he was going to catch it. Furthermore, the spybots he'd sent there were forever locked on Spectra and Bertrand. If they tried another stunt against him, Vlad would know immediately and take them down himself.
The agents flooding Go City and Wisconsin were particularly tricky to keep track of. They were everywhere and since he had no way of accessing their gathered information, he was forced to watch different groups randomly. Though he wasn't too worried about most of them, only the Wisconsin team was of major note. They were actually close to his location, pinning him in. Another clear sign of Spectra's threats.
It still wasn't a significant issue yet, however. His base was deep underground and off the grid. While it was possible that Global Justice would notice it, by the time they did, it would be too late. They'd never reach it, let alone find him, before the next attack changed everything. As such, he was far more interested in circumstances coming to light back in Japan. Adding multiple spy bots after the first one got fried was a little risky, but had paid off oh, so well. He'd had one clone monitoring the feed from the bot sent after Bulma after she left her secret room, hoping to gleam what was so important down there, which had instead caught her seemingly talking to herself. Realising quickly enough that she was actually talking to Piccolo, his clone had recorded the entire conversation and Vlad almost cried with joy. He had to send another spy bot to Earth's secret Lookout, home to the Guardian of the Earth, and had another clone seeking out the others for confirmation, but both clones searching laughed immediately as what they heard was proven right on the money. Vlad's satellite caught a spaceship come and leave Earth, and Vegeta was nowhere to found. The video coming back from the Lookout showed the two Namekians performing some sort of training, while audio feeds confirmed Piccolo saying that it was still going to take days of constant effort, effort that they could not afford to break until they had completed whatever the child was being taught. To finish it off, his spying around the world had his clones also quickly confirming that Gohan had arrived at the Xiaolin Temple, much to Vlad's dismay, and Videl was on the other side of the country for the grand opening of one of her father's new hotels. For the first time in who knew how many years, Capsule Corp wasn't protected by any of the Z Fighters.
Then there was the screen depicting the video feed from his other spy bot. This one depicted Henry, looking at his handheld device. And this time Vlad really did cry tears of joy.
"This couldn't be more perfect!" He cheered, jumping to his feet and beaming at his equally happy and sneering clones. "Global Justice is about to go down, Capsule Corp is practically defenceless, Henry Wong has discovered the location of Ryo Akiyama and right down the hall from him is the perfect bait to have Kim Possible run right into my villainous army and her doom. With one attack, everything will fall into place!"
"And with a prize like Capsule Corp's technology added as the spoils of victory, convincing our pawns to end it there will be child's play." A clone gloated as the others chuckled. "On top of that, without Capsule Corp, what remains of the network the goody two-shoes will have also lost the majority of their scientific and technological resources."
"And for the icing on the cake, when the Z Fighters inevitably come for revenge, it'll be on those fools. They'll never have a clue I was involved." Another clone laughed, quickly being followed by the others.
Letting his clones go back to monitor duty, and creating a few more to assist, Vlad turned his dark, eager smirk back to his screens and set to work, bringing up Capsule Corp's schematics and security systems, along with the data he had on all of his gathered allies' talents and abilities. This was the perfect place to for their final phase. This would have so many repercussions, both for the heroes' network and the world in general. It should even add further security for his secret, the added publicity of such a company going down and supplying villains worldwide would only further sate Spectra, further ensuring their deal.
He could not imagine any situation more perfect than this. Victory at a level he hadn't even imagined was going to be his.
...
Electronique was having the time of her life. Everywhere she went was filled with fear, destruction and chaos. The city was crumbling with every stop she made. A bank here and there, stealing some money for herself and burning the rest, crippling the economy. A few petrol stations all around town, causing mass damage with fiery explosions. She even sent a superpowered wrecking ball right through Town Hall and electrocuted everything swimming in the harbor. With the help of Dementor's men to get around town and gain frequent access to her array of enhanced, weaponised gadgets, she was decimating the city. The police and assisting Global Justice agents couldn't keep up with her, their vehicles merely becoming her last targets before she disappeared again. It was glorious! At the rate she was going, Go City would crumble to the ground before this day was through.
"Where are your heroes now, Go City?" Her cackles echoed throughout the area even as she had some hijacked trucks plough through a multistorey building, eclipsing the thunderous crashes and elicited screams. She only laughed louder as the upper levels of the building started leaning sideways, crashing into its neighbour and leaving it leaning precariously.
Taking a few more seconds to toss a pair of enhanced electro magnets, she cackled again as they attached to a pair of police cars and activated, slamming them into each other, before conceding to making an exit. While she had no fear of a few cops, her escape route would only stick around for so long and she'd rather not get cornered before she was ready.
Sending one last electrical blast of her own at a van between her and another cop car, she gave the men and women within a smug sneer and took off down a chain of tight alley ways, snagging a discarded hoodie to throw over her head along the way. By the time the cops even made it to the alley entrance, she was well out of sight.
Two left turns, a right and another left later, only stopping to avoid the piled up trash and grime, she made a beeline for another entrance to the main road only to make an abrupt turn and fling open a door to the right ten feet before it and step into the back of a bakery.
The place was nothing noteworthy, just one of the many shop, apartment complexes that connected to the alleyway, and was long abandoned. This wasn't Electronique's first attack on this part of the city today after all and the majority of the civilians were trying to flee the entire thing. It was just one in a couple dozen of places that she could run to, but could also still hold one or two scared citizens. Which made it perfect for her rendezvous point.
"About time you arrived." Electronique just scowled in response as a man stepped out of a cupboard. She had no tolerance for anyone giving her lip, especially from someone who was no more than one of Dementor's little cookie cutter flunkies.
She only grew more annoyed with him as he ignored her displeasure entirely. Walking right passed her, he took out a white device and set it down next to the phone. It blended in pretty well there, it was shaped similarly to the mouth and ear piece of the olden day phones and even had the old, circular dial in the middle of it, with a more modern looking knob and buttons on either side. No doubt it was designed after what people in the seventies or eighties thought would be the phone of the future. Something that seemed even more likely as the minion in civies attached its adapter to the phone line.
"The call's come to head in." He stated, not even bothering to look at the temperamental, electrical villain as he set up. "The military's heading into the city and the next attack is about to begin."
"I don't care for any of it!" Electronique snapped, ripping the actual phone from the surprised minion's hand before he could finish dialling. "I only care about getting revenge on this city and am staying right here to do just that!"
"But the plan-"
"I have done my part for the plan!" She snarled, charging electricity into her hand as she held it up in her associate's face. "Your teleporter can now take larger, inanimate objects safely along with the person, thanks to me, can they not? You simpletons can take care of Global Justice without me now and I care even less about some teenage upstarts than I do about spending a moment longer in your little alliance. Feel free to go after some little girl all you like. I'm going to finish what I started, regardless of whether your moron boss and the blue idiot like it! Now move aside!"
Glaring, but unable to do much more as she threateningly waved her electrified hand before him again, the minion conceded and backed off, leaving Electronique free to set the teleportation module and make her next call. Waiting just long enough for an answering machine to kick in, she hit the button and was gone in a flash, leaving the minion to do as he pleased.
Appearing little more than a second later in an office building across town, Electronique took a moment to just stand there and get her bearings. Teleporting through the phone lines was such a convenient and thrilling rush, she definitely had to make a teleporter of her own, but it was a little disconcerting on the body. Taking a few deep breaths as she moseyed over to the window, she decided to take a few more minutes to appreciate the disaster she'd helped create. Smoke, fires, damaged and fallen buildings, people running and screaming everywhere you looked. It was hard to believe that it was all caused by her and the pea-brained, bird fanatic. Nowhere had been spared. It was perfectly magnificent.
Well, almost.
Turning to the other side of the building, Electronique narrowed her eyes in spite as she focused on the hospital. The place had been left untouched, not out of any form of sympathy or lingering morality, but because security guards, cops and Global Justice alike were heavily guarding the area. Dementor's minions had mostly been in control of where everyone went and if she wanted to continue using their teleporters, she had to concede to them and they were following a simple, but effective strategy to the letter. They'd hide amongst the crowd, dressed in normal clothes, meet up with one of the villains at predetermined locations when things got hot, use the device to teleport them to a safe location to rampage again and then disappear into crowds once more where they'd pass their teleportation device to another minion hidden within the masses. It was all planned to keep everyone involved from be caught and apprehended. That meant that they had orders to not let any of them get near places like police stations or the well protected hospital, where they were more likely to be caught. And away from Electronique's most desired targets.
There, within those walls, were two still living members of Team Go and that was two too many. She didn't care that one was powerless or that Drakken wanted her to stay far away from those who might luck out and capture her. She was going to finish what she started. Hego and Wego were going to die by her hands, even if it was the last thing she ever did.
...
"Nothing short of anarchy could describe the state that Go City has fallen into. Since the fall of Go Tower, notorious villains, Aviarius and Electronique, have gone on and continued an escalating rampage throughout the city. The collateral damage is enormous, ranging from raging fires to collapsing buildings to vehicles mowing down civilians.
"Furthermore, the people's panic is only creating greater problems as everyone is trying to flee the city. Erratic behaviour has already resulted in a number of car accidents and tramplings, only making the police and newly arriving military's attempts to follow and apprehend our city's greatest villains an even more seemingly impossible effort.
"It also appears that the situation has encouraged other members of the city's criminal activity." The reporter continued as the footage flipped rapidly from the villains' attacks and resulting mobs, to people breaking store windows and looting at gun point. She continued commenting on the situation, but Kim had gone deaf to it, simply staring as all the carnage appeared and disappeared from the screen.
The city was looking more and more like a post apocalyptic catastrophe by the minute, yet she wasn't doing a thing about it and it was driving her insane. She saw the point Dr Director and Ron made, as it stood she couldn't reach the villains before they fled the area. Even plane and helicopter attempts were being avoided or shot down, in the event that the villains didn't just suddenly disappear to another corner of the city. Until it could be determined how they were moving so dramatically or where they might appear next, there wasn't much anyone could do. Police and GJ agents were spread throughout the city, waiting in case the next strike came to their area, but they were spread too thin at the moment to do much against their superpowered foes. They couldn't properly protect the citizens, much less hold the villains in place and all attempts to follow their escapes proved fruitless.
Until they figured out how they got from one place to another, it was unlikely anyone was going to get anywhere with them.
'Hopefully the military will be helpful enough.' She mused, watching as a armoured truck drove down the street. Why they were only arriving in the last ten minutes, Kim would never know.
"You know, staring at that screen isn't going to get you anywhere." Ron commented, drawing her attention as he came back into the room, offering her a cup of coffee. Smiling gratefully, or at least trying to, she took the cup and let him guide her face away from the screen for a kiss.
"I know, but what else can I do?" She asked, earning a conceding sigh of defeat as she took a sip, resting her head on Ron's shoulder as he sat down. "I can break down and cry, I can tire myself out chasing people possibly trying to draw me out and kill me next or I can try to find some kind of pattern or action onscreen to figure out how and where they're doing what they're doing. Since you put your foot down on the second option, I'm choosing the third."
"You could choose the fourth option. Rest." Ron pointed out, wrapping his free arm around her back, though he followed her line of sight to the TV anyway. "You haven't slept enough yet and what could you possibly...HOLY CRAP! I know that!"
"WHAA! Ron! Know what?" Kim cried, floundering and barely stopping herself from falling to the floor as Ron abruptly jumped back to his feet, his eyes wide as he pointed at it.
"In the background, big burly men!" The blonde exclaimed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"There are none! That's a SWAT van!"
"Not now, before that!" Ron exclaimed exasperatedly, startling Kim again as he grabbed her wrist and activated her Kimmunicator. "Wade, I need you to check the phone lines, STAT!"
"W-what? Why?" Wade flailed even more wildly than Kim as his face appeared, his wide eyes taking up the whole screen as it shook. No doubt, he'd almost thrown his tablet when Ron's up close mug appeared on it. However, despite how confused and out of it he looked, he still immediately opened a laptop next to his bed.
"Check for anything screwy in the Go City phone lines! I think I saw Dementor's telephone teleport doohickie!" The results of Ron's answer was immediate, both Wade and Kim going tense, their eyes widening with recognition as Wade's fingers flew across his keyboard.
"Professor Dementor's teleportation module? That would explain how they're getting around so fast." Kim said, biting her lips as she added more dots together. "Which means, either they stole a new, rebuilt model or..."
"Professor Dementor's involved too." Wade finished for her, never looking up from his screen.
"There would have to be more than one at play." Dr Director added grimly as she re-entered the room, just now returning from her eleventh inspection of the hospital security. "Both villains are frequently appearing and disappearing from notable distances from each other and causing far too much damage for anyone to travel quickly. The city must be harbouring multiple allies and teleporters hiding in the masses. At least a dozen."
"Oh great, more bad news." Ron groaned, smacking his face. "Is anything going our way?"
"Actually, yes!" Wade exclaimed, looking up triumphantly. "I've hacked in and you're right, Ron. Go City's phone lines have had erratic surges never before seen ever since Go Tower went down. With this, I can track where they're going with ease!"
"And if we shut down the phone lines, they won't be able to escape." Dr Director added, already making the call. "Brilliant work Team Possible! Wade, track the last exit points of both villains and monitor it until the line's shut down. I'll have my team check for any surges coming to and from the Wisconsin warehouse. If that was their escape method, then we can use their outpoint to discover the rest of this group's location and lock them out of the lines too. We've got them now."
"Already on it." Wade grinned, not even typing anymore as he checked over his screen. "Aviarius is still in the main square, as I'm sure you know. As for Electronique, it looks like she just teleported...
"Maybe a block from the hospital?" Ron asked, his voice going soft drawing the others' attention. The blonde Monkey Master's body was lax, but shaking and his eyes were wide and nervous. He wasn't looking at any of them.
"...About three actually." Wade confirmed, his tone expressing all the worry Kim felt. "How'd you guess?"
"Because she's on TV." Was Ron's simple response. Following his finger as he pointed, the others looked up to the screen to see Electronique strutting her way right up to the hospital, three of its guards already charred and smoking. No one watching even had time to react, for at that moment, she raised an altered megaphone to her lips and unleashed a scream that violently shattered every window before her.
"AAAHHHHHH!"
"ARRGHHHH!" And risked blowing every eardrum within. Including Kim's, Ron's and Dr Director's.
...
"Sir, we got a report back from Go City." One of Drakken's thugs shouted, drawing everyone's attention. It wasn't a hard thing to do right now, surprisingly enough. Everything had been going to according plan perfectly, silencing Drakken's doubters and everyone else was keenly waiting for their part or the fireworks of the next attack. That is, until this thug started yelling, drawing everyone's attention. You could tell from his voice alone that Spectra wasn't going to like what he had to say. "I'm afraid Electronique's gone off book and refused to leave. Instead, she's attacking the hospital."
"WHAT?" Spectra screeched, forcing most of the others to flinch as she stormed over to and activated a monitor. Sure enough, it turned on just in time to watch the electrical nut job's scream shatter countless windows and leave every guard and spy coming to meet her flying back to the ground screaming in agony with their hands clasped over their bleeding ears. If they were still alive, that is. A number of them died instantly.
"Aviarius also has yet to go to the next rendezvous point." The thug added hesitantly, shrinking in his seat. "He should have arrived five minutes ago."
"Damn those idiots!" Spectra roared, slamming her fist into the console so hard that it left a dent. A fact that did not go unnoticed by her cohorts, however, she completely ignored it. Electronique and Aviarius, now that he had Team Go's powers, were the most powerful members of the alliance. They were meant to assist evening the playing field with Ron Stoppable, not to mention anyone else who assisted the teen hero, and ensure their victory. With both of them gone, their chances of success plummeted.
Then there was the fact that those two knew too much. If they were caught and blabbed too soon, it could ruin everything!
Well, that was not going to happen. "Dementor, if your men can't grab both of those idiots, at least make sure they get Aviarius! We did not help him restore that crystal just for him to let Kim Possible get the glow powers back. Everyone else, let's get to it! We need phase two finished before those deserters allow Global Justice to get wind of it!"
No one wasted time retaliating to being ordered around, for the first time ever surprisingly enough. Even Gemini and Dementor just grumbled under their breaths as they got to work, ensuring all twenty minions that were about to depart had a bomb in one hand and a newly completed, Electronique upgraded teleportation module in the other before Drakken's minions hooked up their own teleporters and sent signals to begin calls. Within minutes, their texts were answered by ringing phones and they were motioning Gemini's men forward, teleporting them off to their targets, the frequent flashes of electrical light and deep, evil laughs making Drakken's dark, gloomy lair, for the first time ever, truly look like a place of true horror.
...
There was little more than pain making it through Kim's mind. Mind splitting, excruciating pain. It blanked out her world, consuming her. When her mind did actually start to push past it, all she got for her efforts was the awareness of loud, constant, shrieking ring in her ears, rebounding and echoing through her head and tweaking the constant pain she already felt into waves ricocheting through her skull.
She couldn't think at all, could barely register that her own hands were covering her ears or the deep breaths working her lungs. She was so out of it that she couldn't even tell that someone was shaking her for a good two minutes.
"KKKiiii! mmmmm! Kiiiiiimmmm! KIM!" Snapping her eyes open as her name finally made it through the ringing, Kim just stared blearily for another few moments as she re-established her visual understanding. Green and black blurs slowly cleared up to reveal Ron's pants and shoes respectively, his scared, pale face swimming into view above them. Ok, that meant that she'd fallen to the ground. Yes, she was curled up on her side, holding her ears while something warm was pooling into her left hand. Forcing it away, she quickly recognised the red liquid as blood, though where it was coming from, she wasn't sure. Was it her ear? Did she hit her head on the way down? That would explain the pain, though not the ringing. No, that was caused by...
"Oh God!" Blood running cold as her clarity snapped back into place, Kim almost threw herself back to her feet, stumbling into an equally pained and horrified looking Ron as a result as the vertigo struck hard. "Electronique...the patients! How could she? This is a-"
"Hospital with a number of still living injured people stuck in the crossfire." Dr Director broke in gruffly, already forcing herself to her feet and stumbling out the door as she reached for communicator. "All units, converge on the hospital! Code red! Deadly sonic attacks in use! Neutralise the sound device and move as many civilians out of harm's way as possible immediately!"
"Come on! Let's..." Kim gasped, stumbling against the table as she made her way toward the exit, forcing herself to ignore her flinching at the sound of her own voice.
"No way!" Ron however, wouldn't have any of it, snagging her arm before she could take her third step and forcing her to sit down. Ignoring her spluttered outcries as held her in place with one hand, he used the other to wipe the blood from her head, checking for injuries. "Kim, stop! You can't even walk right now, if you go out there-"
"We'll die in here if we can't stop that bitch!" Kim snapped, glaring fiercely right into his eyes. "And so will everyone one else if we can't stop that screech from happening again!"
"I know, KP, I know." Ron grunted, biting his lip, struggling to contain himself as he continued wiping blood from her face. "But if you can't even stand, then you'll just get in the way and get more people killed! Wait, ok? Just until you're steady on your own feet."
"I'm already steady enough!" Fed up, she slapped his hand away before swinging her leg around his shoulders and spun herself into a roll behind him before charging out the door, completely ignoring the yelling behind her. She could stand on her feet, she was steady enough to get there. She was going to help, damn it!
Ron would be there too, she knew it. He wouldn't let her go alone, he'd follow and help her. It would be fine, she'd be fine.
She wasn't going to let any else get hurt. She was going to take the murderous harpy down.
...
Electronique was easy enough to find. Honestly, none of her plans had ever been this easy. Global Justice itself was all around her, but they were child's play. Her first sonic scream had decimated the entire front of the hospital, killing everyone within the area, if not instantly then messily as the exploding glass crashed into them, and left countless more in serious conditions. The fact that most of them were doctors, nurses or already sick and injured patients only put icing on the cake. It again diminished the amount of opposition as she strutted down the halls, half of the agents coming from within ignoring her entirely in attempts to save the casualties. The rest were still injured themselves for the most part, leaving them easy prey for her electrical blasts. Which just left more helpless or dead casualties for the next load of GJ agents to fuss about.
Chuckling to herself as she had her body surge right as a spy tried dropping on her from an air vent, leaving him flying away twitching and charred, she made her way right up to a reception desk and fired lightning around either side of it, trapping the injured, trembling woman within.
"Listen up, pretty, because I'm only going to say this once." She stated, snagging the front of the receptionist's scrubs and yanking her right into Electronique's face, enjoying the scream as she had her hair spark. "Tell me where I can find the Go Weenies and no one else has to die. Refuse or mislead me and I'll kill you and everyone I find before them."
The poor woman could only whimper in response. It was unlikely that she could even make out what the electrical demon was saying and either way, she was far too rattled and afraid for conscious thought.
Not that it mattered too much. Electronique's attention was taken away almost immediately as something struck her neck.
"Did you really just try to taser me?" She laughed, ripping the projectile off, forgetting about her would be victim as she turned to face Dr Director and yanked on the cord, dragging the head agent toward her. "I have electrical powers, you idiot! That just tingled."
"It did its purpose though!" Dr Director snapped, embracing the tug and propelling herself into a flying kick. Swerving away, Electronique had to concede to that as the corner of her eye caught her old prey making a run for it before she was forced to raise an arm to block a back fist, smirking as she let electricity flow through her arm only to gasp as her unphased opponent planted her other fist into her gut. It was quickly followed with an uppercut to the jaw, sending the electrical villain sprawling on the ground.
'An insulated suit.' Well, that was annoying, but not unexpected of Global Justice. Of course they'd come here prepped for her. Still, they weren't completely protected, she had, after all, electrocuted a number already and she had plenty of other methods.
Rolling from the attempt at her megaphone, Electronique kicked a wheeled table between them before rolling back into it as Dr Director flipped over it and shooting a bolt from her finger right at her opponent's head.
The head spy dropped to the ground faster than her eye could widen, avoiding the shot by sheer luck, and spun her body for a heel kick at the megaphone again, however, Electronique was quicker. A flash of grey and silver was all she saw before pain exploded from her side. "AARGH!"
"Always nice when you get help from panicking fools." Electronique sneered, twisting a scalpel within her flesh before ripping it out, eliciting another muffled cry from the spy. "They should be more careful where they leave their toys. Someone might get hurt. Especially if you don't tell me what I want to know."
"N...not a chance." Dr Director spat, forcing down a scream with clenched teeth as her stab wound was struck again.
"Then I guess I kill you and move on to the next." Electronique sneered, raising her electrified hand to Dr Director's unprotected face. "Not that it matters for you. If I don't kill you, you'd probably die when Global Justice goes boom anyway."
It was at that moment that a lot of things happened at once. Electronique was blown well away from her with a scream and a flash of green. A wall was smashed through with tyrannical laughter, only to be cut off something smacked into the source with a bang. But Dr Director didn't even register any more than the fact that she was free, for just as Electronique's words registered in her head, just as she flung up her arm to call headquarters, her watch exploded with a rapidly flashing red light and a string of loud, incessant beeps, which only meant one thing: Global Justice had been compromised.
...
Unlike with the fall of Go Tower, this time there was no warning. Not one member of Global Justice even noticed as Gemini's men hidden within their bases made their calls, nor the flashes heralding the arrival of their armed associates. One by one, base by base, the pairs activated their bombs and attached their teleporters to the still active phone lines before teleporting away without a trace, right before the explosions began.
All around the world, twenty bombs went off almost simultaneously with enormous force and once more, people were running away in pure terror as they watched the hidden bases explode before them or the ground they hid underneath caved beneath their feet.
Twenty of Global Justice's largest and most important bases worldwide were destroyed in an instant. Those within never stood a chance.