To Infiltrate An Infiltration
Spectra was ecstatic that this was almost over. Not because of the world of dread and terror she'd already created or that she was finally free of Vlad's ridiculous alterations and additions to the plan, but because she was almost at the point where she'd never have to deal with any of these morons ever again.
"How hard is it to catch one lousy redhead and sit tight until the other one shows up?" Ripping at Drakken's hair, she gritted her teeth at the security screens. The good news was that she found out what Bebe was. That piece of information became crucial to the plan very quickly after a news update reported the arrival of the city hero, Vidal Satan, flying into the disaster zone. Only a few thugs saw the report while looting, but they quickly shared the information with everyone they could find. If Bertrand had come in with the report on the Bebes and their abilities even five minutes later, this plan would have been bailed on like rats fleeing a sinking ship.
But of course, some of the younger idiots only seemed to have gotten emboldened by their appearance and pulled their own stunt. Senor Junior and Fukushima weren't too big of a loss of course, neither was anything more than an extra meat bag as far as Spectra cared, but Gill was another matter entirely. His skill set was one of the most useful and unique amongst them. He was the perfect assurance of success if he was used right, something that was all the more important since they'd lost Electronique and failed to get the full extent of the red glow power. Worst case scenario, he could have stuck Kim and her cohorts to the building as it blew up. Losing him was another serious blow.
Especially since the Fenton brat was still ON THE LOOSE! Spectra simply couldn't believe it. Of all people to get away, it just had to be Little Miss Peppy! Not some minor nobody that Spectra couldn't care less about, not some hacker or Briefs family member who knew how to trick and avoid the plethora of security this bubble fortress had, no, it was a the sole ghost hunter who kept stumbling her way through trouble and thoroughly pissed Spectra off! Granted, it was unlikely that Jazz was going to manage anything important with the army Spectra had brought in on her own, but it was the principle of the thing! The girl who'd blindsided her, not only ruining her plans, but ripping her body into a decrepit, old form, was not to get away under any circumstances! She was going to pay!
A pleasure that would be much easier to focus on if she wasn't still losing key players in her plan. "Has anyone heard anything about the fish stick and the cheerleader going at it yet?"
"No, sorry boss." One of Drakken's henchmen shook his head. "Nothing's on the news."
"Professor Dementor's men tried hacking nearby security cameras, but everything around Capsule Corp has been hit by the blackout." The other added with a shrug. "Oh yeah and we lost the signal from the Bebe too."
"GAH! Well, Kim Possible's taken them out before, I suppose it was too much to assume she wouldn't remember how." Spectra could only shrug. Taking a moment to feign a lack of care was getting more and more crucial. After all, those robots were supposed to be keeping the real threat busy. It was crucial that everyone saw her as confident and justifiably so, just for a little longer. Kim was almost here. Spectra could bail within the hour. "Keep an eye out on the outside camera feeds. Either the cheerleader or one of our rogue boys will show up any time now and I want to know the minute they do. But don't you dare stop looking for the Fenton girl, understand me?"
"Yes sir." Spectra almost wanted to scream with how lax their response was, but she forced herself to hold it in as she left the room. Heading down the corridor, she headed into the nearest bathroom, the one place she was assured of no cameras, and turned herself invisible and intangible before flying off as fast as she could. She could be ready for the world icon whenever she showed up and cared nothing for this stupid miniature city's toys. She wanted Jazz.
Nobody took away her youth and lived to tell about it. Nobody!
….
"Ok, I know we saw it coming in, but now that we have to infiltrate it, let me just say; that's a BIG building!"
"Yep." Huey nodded, staring up with the gaping blonde. "That's a lot room for expensive swag."
"Or to hide hostages." Kim muttered, frowning as her eyes zipped all over the building, forever rocking between her heels and the balls of her feet. "They could be literally anywhere and without a schematic or anyone providing directions, it'll be even harder to find them or get them out when we do. We'll most likely just get lost."
"Didn't you and Felix take the tour?"
"Seriously, Monique?" Felix answered for Kim with a raise eyebrow. "It would take a day and a half to get the full tour of this place, easy, and even what we saw was all over the place. I could find my way to a few places, but I doubt they're hiding people in a mechanical bay where they could arm themselves. Or a chem lab, where they could kick a bottle of acid at the crooks."
"Most areas housed too many potential weapons, both that could help or hurt anyone captured." Henry agreed, drawing everyone's attention as he brought his hand to his chin, a thoughtful frown crossing his face. After all, he had been in the building the longest and had actually come to work there. He'd know it better than anyone else. "And the area's too big to cover in any small amount of time if many people were left on guard duty, so it would have to be somewhere the captives couldn't do any damage, but still easy enough to lock them in."
"If the inside's as reinforced as the outside, that last bit could be any room." Jake commented, biting his lip as he stared critically up at the building. "That place makes Fort Knox look like a joke, yo!"
"Yeah, it can be, but I doubt they activated too much of the inside. Or kept it on after they caught everyone." Henry replied, his response being the only sign that he was even listening. "You got confirmation that they were looting the place, right? They're not just after people, they're after equipment and inventions?"
"That's what Junior said before we dumped him in a cell." Felix nodded, much more patiently than some of his practically vibrating teammates.
"Then the internal security would just in the way. It was designed to help the place better survive something like Piccolo coming at it. And then reinforced to better withstand one of Vegeta's temper tantrums. Basically, that means limiting the number of areas explosions can reach as much as possible."
"It could still be used long enough to pin down and capture people though. Or to catch or direct any rescue attempts." Kim pointed out, throwing her head back with a loud groan before trying to set the building on fire with her eyes. Could someone please figure out this stupid maze already? She needed to move. Preferably while the energy rush and her friends' faith in her kept all her doubts from her mind.
"Down, girl. You'll give us away." Said Jake, smirking amusedly as she turned to glare at him, her fingers now tapping erratically against the windowsill. "Wow, what was in those beans?"
"Magic, what else?" Monique grinned smugly, casually leaning back into her chair and opting to watch the others instead of the building. It wasn't like looking at a sealed, super sized bowl was going to help anything and she wasn't going to get another chance to relax for a while, so she was content to live it up. It didn't hurt that Kim and Ron's caffeine addict routine was plenty entertaining.
Knowing that they couldn't just charge in and all the standard methods of sneaking around were cut off, the group had snuck into one of the buildings nearest to Capsule Corp and were scoping out what they could. Among other things. Apparently one of the floors was sold out to a gym, which everyone was grateful for because that came with showers. Which were still working, though the hot water disappeared fast. They hadn't realized during the fight or when Kim was breaking down, but Henry really stank like the sewer he crawled out of. Once they'd started breathing through their noses again, they practically threw him under the first showerhead they could get running and would have bathed him themselves if he'd put up any fight at all.
The building now had a shortage of hand wash, seeing as Jake and Ron raided it when no other source of soap was found, but everyone was thankful for the reprieve on their nose, so the group deemed it well worth it. Especially Henry, who looked a lot happier in his new, green plaid shirt and grey sweat pants. Of course, that was also partly due to the lack of pain. That was another thing the group originally missed when Henry appeared. The guy was aching so much that had been shaking, barely able to handle his own weight. It turns out he had a lot more power than he was aware of, but his body did not like using it.
Fortunately, Monique had had an answer to that. Having gained a couple of Senzu Beans from Videl before they parted ways, she happily handed them over to her worn out teammates. They only had two, so she'd had to halve them, but it was still more than enough to heal up and rejuvenate Huey, Henry, Kim and Ron. The beans were meant for any civilians in critical condition she might find, but Monique doubted that Videl would oppose her opted use for them.
Even if she did, the sight before Monique was worth any scoldings. Unlike the empowered members of their squad, Kim and Ron didn't need nearly the amount of energy half a bean provided and since they were hunkering down right now, they had way too much in excess and nothing to burn it on. Hence the jitter routine entertaining the team's fashion queen.
She was so open about her enjoyment that Kim almost wanted to smack her. The only thing stopping her was the admittance that they could all use a laugh after the last twenty four hours.
"I know it's a stupid question, seeing as you haven't already made the suggestion yourself," Ron started, turning, turning curious eyes to Henry. "but why don't you just do your techno thing and shut it all down?"
"Yeah! Or better yet, turn it on the looters." Jake nodded, raising an eyebrow.
"Because the security office is out of my range and protected from most other servers." Henry sighed, looking more annoyed with his own limits than the boys. "Most feeds connecting into the main system are one way, so there's no way to send a command through them, only block commands and responses. Even if I do get into a part of it, the main system would be alerted immediately. The Briefs designed the security system too well, with plenty of opportunities to disconnected a compromised server well before a hacker could spread into the others, be it with firewalls or manually ripping out cords."
"Then how did this bunch of fools pull it off?" Monique exclaimed, her eyes turning back and forth from Henry and the building with sheer disbelief.
"Most likely by putting it straight into the main system and letting it spread from there." Kim answered for him. "That's why they sent Camille in."
"To manually insert a virus." Henry nodded. "It was the only possible way."
"Which means if we want to get in there undetected, we'd need someone already in there too do pretty much the same thing." Kim groaned, pulling at her hair as she turned away from the window and started pacing the room. "But while there are plenty of people in there with the talent, they're incapable because they're probably already caught. We have no way of going in undetected. Which means the second we make a move, we will either be corralled right into a trap or they'll threaten the hostages."
"Not if Huey can get them out before they could do anything." Ron offered brightly, turning to the duck, only to frown at his less than supportive expression.
"Ah, no. I'm fast, not strong." Huey shook his head, waving his arms for emphasis. "I could only carry one out at a time at best."
"And that's assuming we knew where the captives were." Felix added. "On top of that, none of us know the full layout of the building. Huey would have to search the whole building, find everyone and pull them out one by one before a villain took two steps."
"Even I'm not that fast."
"Aww man. Then I got nothin." Ron sighed, flopping to the ground, thoroughly miserable.
"So what now?" Monique asked, her amusement completely disappearing now as she turned a very troubled look to Kim. "If stealth's impossible and a direct assault's doomed to fail, what's left?"
"I…I don't…"
"Stealth's not out." Henry butted in, snapping everyone's attention to him with varying looks of shock and surprise as his own contemplating look was pinned on Capsule Corp, green light dulling from his eyes as he turned to the others. "Difficult, yes. But I can at least get us into the building undetected."
"You can?" Kim almost pounced on the boy at that, getting her hopeful face right up close to his and almost startling him out of his seat. "How?"
"Simple. I can freeze or loop the external camera feeds before they send any data elsewhere and then trick the system operating a window panel into thinking it's still closed while I open it. I can still manipulate what's sent to the main system without detection, so long as it's software related, and disassemble it when I'm close enough if it's hardware related. Inside the building will probably be trickier, but as long as no one's there to see an entrance opening up, entering shouldn't be a problem."
"You're absolutely sure of this?" Kim really didn't want to doubt him, but this sounded almost too good to be true. And why couldn't he mention this before?
"I've already looped the external cameras without issue." Henry stated, grinning proudly as he nodded, pulling himself to his feet. "The window plates' controls are just out of range from here, so I can't guarantee there isn't something I haven't accounted for, but I can make confirm it before trying anything once we're close."
"That's perfect! Henry, you're an absolute lifesaver." Henry just blushed, an embarrassed grin spreading across his face as Kim actually pulled him in for a hug.
Not bothering to let him go, Kim actually felt her confidence growing as she stared around at each member the group once more. There was no need to bother with doubt. Now Henry had provided an answer to their biggest obstacle, they had everything they needed to pull this off just fine.
"Ok everyone, I've got a plan."
….
Getting close was as easy as Henry promised. With all the windows blocked by metal plates and the cameras now effectively useless, they simply ran right up the footpath.
Leaning against the wall, on the off chance the situation changed, the group waited and watched as Henry got to work. Taking a deep, slow breath, Henry closed his eyes let out a few electromagnetic waves, just enough to probe at the system and electrical components connected to the window for a few seconds before turning to the others with a nod and a confident grin.
"Spankin. Let's get to it then." Kim smirked, turning to her newest teammates. "Monique, you're up first. Are you ready?"
"Ready and waiting, girl." Monique smirked right back, already taking a seat on Felix's lap as he activated his chair's flight mode. Waiting just long enough for Henry to grab onto the back, Felix took them right up and around to the side, heading for the upper windows.
"Ok, this should be the one." Henry called a minute later, pointing to an upcoming window one level below them. Felix just nodded in response, immediately shift their position before bringing them to a complete stop right before it. Unless Henry was mistaken, this window led to a storage room right above the apprentices' lab.
Taking a moment to probe the room, Henry confirmed the lack of cameras and the location of a good sized vent in the wall before nodding to the others, reached out a glowing hand for the panel and started slowly rising it back up. Tensing in Felix's grip, Monique raised one of her launchers before relaxing when they saw the room was empty of people.
"Still all quiet on the alarm front?"
"Yeah, this went fine." Henry nodded, his eye flickering to and snapping open the window's lock, sliding it open a second later. "As long as you stay out of sight, they'll never know you're here."
"Great. Well, see you soon, boys." With one last confident smile, Monique pushed herself right off of Felix and into the room with a roll, giving Henry a thankful look as he removed the vent cover before crawling in.
"I wish I could go in with her." Felix sighed, worrying his lip as they headed off. "It doesn't feel right, you know? I mean…"
"Trust me, I get it." Henry replied, frowning at the thought himself. But there wasn't much they could do. The others were needed in the more hard hitting areas and Felix's dependency on his chair was a liability in this situation. Until they got better control over the situation, there was nothing he could do within the building that wouldn't end badly.
But it should be fine. Monique's role shouldn't have her see much, if any combat until they were well underway and the others would be able to help her. She should be fine. 'Just focus on your own part. It's the best way to help her.'
Narrowing his eyes, Henry forced any concerns aside and guided Felix to their next stop; a third floor window almost all the way across the building.
"How long do you think it will take you to reach the office?" Felix asked, shifting their height before coming to a stop.
"Your guess is as good as mine." Was Henry's only response, waving Huey his way as he froze the camera images within. The truth was that Henry had no idea where the security office actually was, only that it existed on this side of the building. He did, however, know that a map was nearby and that all the cameras' cords would lead him there eventually, so this was the best point her could come up with.
Satisfied with his work and hoping no one noticed, Henry raised his open hand out to Huey and quickly turned to concentrate on the window like before. Five seconds later, the window began to open and Huey ran straight up the wall. Henry barely had a second to open the glass before the duck barreled through the opening, eliciting loud gasps before a series of smacks rattled their ears. By the time Henry had jumped through after him, four men in red body suits were already splayed across the ground, with Huey dragging a fifth in through the doorway.
"Ok, he's heavy." Huey groaned, practically wrapping his body around the thug's leg as he slowly pulled him in, sighing in relief as Henry gave him a hand. "He and the scrawny guy were the only guys in the hallway. I think we're good."
"Make sure no one's in the camera's sight." Henry said softly, shifting the one closest to him underneath the offending lens. Outside was one thing in the current circumstances, but it was far too risky to keep internal camera images frozen, to say nothing of the constant focus needed for that.
"Done. Time to zip and zoom. Tallyho!" Rolling one guy into the pile, Huey stuck around just long enough to pose for a run before disappearing out the door in a blur. Shaking his head at the duck's antics, Henry gave the pile one more critical look, making sure that they wouldn't move anytime soon, before following him out.
Turning in the opposite direction, he quickly came across the map and smiled. He wasn't that far off the mark. Three hallways and a flight of stairs in the middle. All of which would lead him away from the areas their enemies would likely be congregating. That made things much easier.
Reaching out to freeze every camera in the first hallway, Henry too off at a sprint. This shouldn't take long at all.
….
Sneaking around was taking a lot more effort then Jazz had hoped. Moving through the vents helped, but it resulted in more noise than she'd expected and they had a tendency to narrow. If the tight fits weren't tricky enough, then it only got worse when she found vertical rises or drops. The size and height of each room in this building made them much too hard to avoid and if she used them she'd likely hurt herself and make enough noise to give herself away. She'd been forced to leave their relative safety more once and each time came with a lot of risk. The only thing that had prevented her from being caught multiple times was Kim's battle suit.
'Here we go again.' Taking great care removing yet another grate as silently as possible, Jazz poked her head out, ensuring no one was within hearing distance before dropping to the ground. Landing on all fours, Jazz took a look around, letting out a silent sigh of relief as the thugs on the far side of the corridor continued about their business and took off as quietly as she could.
Everything was going fine until she made it to the next turn. It should have gone fine. Pressing herself against the wall, the battle suit's invisibility mode would have let her go unnoticed. However, it was right at the moment a man walked around the corner that her form flickered back into visibility.
"H-ooff!" Not even waiting to think, Jazz snapped a fierce uppercut straight into his gut, throwing him right off his feet and the box he was holding into the air. Panicking, Jazz practically leaped after him, opening and dropping a lip balm by his face before flinging her arms for the airborne goods. Fumbling with the box, it was only the need to hold her breath that kept her from squealing as its contents clattered around, freezing still the moment she managed a secure grip. Straining her ears, she did however, sigh in relief at the lack of approaching footsteps. No one had caught her blunder. She was fine. Now, if she could get the lid on Kim's knockout gas and this goon out of sight before anything else happened, then she'd be set.
Fortunately for her, the guy seemed to have been coming out of a personal office about ten feet away. It was a bit of a struggle, especially with knockout gas still filtering away, but Jazz did manage to drag him back in, finally taking a few deep, safe breaths in the process as she closed the door behind her.
"Well that could have gone a lot better." She couldn't help but moan, biting her lip as she stared down at herself. Sadly, when it came to relying on this suit, this attack came at the absolute worst time. The group had opted to use it as the prototype for their new design to speed up the process, but that had mean shutting most of its functions down and removing a lot of components to modify and add new ones. Honestly, the suit was probably dangerous to activate right now, but jazz had been desperate. The invisibility system was still intact and had been crucial for Jazz to get around undetected, but it was one of very few and had clearly been affected by the tampering of others. It was glitching more and more as time went on. Jazz was confident that it would fail completely before too much longer. She could only hope that it didn't blow up in the process.
Taking her mind off of it for a moment, Jazz turned her attention to the box and thug she'd dragged in and everything around her. There wasn't much worth mentioning, really, the most useful things around her turned out to be a laptop in the box and a chair. Papers were scattered all over the place and broken printer lay in pieces on the floor near the desk, but that was just about it. This was just a paper pusher or IT guy's office. Unless she wanted to smack the next guy to walk in here with the chair, nothing was going to replace a faulty cloaking device. The air vent wasn't nearly big enough to crawl through either, so she was going to have to leave the way she came in. Which was even more dangerous, seeing as she couldn't see through solid wood.
"Why did you have to share a shirt size with my dad?" Jazz sighed, rubbing her forehead as she stared down at the unconscious thug. Sneaking around would be so much easier if she could steal a jumpsuit, but this guy was the only one she'd managed to isolate and she wouldn't fool anyone in this mountain man's clothes. No, she was stuck with whatever she still had.
'So that means a malfunctioning, stealthy battlesuit, a metal, noisy, conspicuous battlesuit from the Peeler, a few Specter Deflectors, a few small, offensively minded ecto weapons and a few small gadgets Kim left in her pockets. Most of which, I can't identify.' That only brought another miserable sigh from the troubled redhead. Just about everything she had and could use was built for head-on combat. She had to talk to her parents about stealth gear when this was over.
That wasn't going to help her now though. And neither was the room's soundproofing and lack of windows. She had to keep moving. So, steeling her nerves, she opened the door a crack and poked her ear out, her whole body sinking in relief a moment later. There wasn't so much as the tap of a distant footstep to be heard. Slowly peeking her whole head out, Jazz took a few seconds to ensure that her eyes gave her the same assurance before slinking out, closing the door softly behind her before heading on her way.
Not that she had a destination in mind. Honestly, she had no real idea what to do. When she'd come to, she'd barely had time to register just who had attacked her before she was attacked again. She'd spent this whole time simply trying to figure out exactly what the situation was and not getting caught. She had no idea what she should actually do. She was far too heavily outnumbered to fight and was well and truly lost, not that escaping the building was an option anyway. Her phone wasn't on Capsule Corp's personal/emergency channel, so it had been useless since the explosions went off and even if Capsule Corp's phones still worked, which was very unlikely, considering how thorough this takeover was, she could only find landlines. Staying out in the open for the time it took to make a call wasn't exactly an option right now.
Basically, all she was doing was forever moving and hoping that she wasn't found.
She couldn't help but scowl as the fact made its presence known in her mind once again. Fleeing for her own life was not her style. Even when she was helpless, she did what she could to help Danny back home, even if it was something as simple as covering for him. Then she learned how to fight for herself and she never looked back. If people were in trouble and needed more help, then she came in bazooka blazing. If she could do it against some of the toughest ghost hordes Danny Phantom ever faced, then she should be able do it with this circus!
"Think, Jasmine." She muttered, eyeing another room before pressing on a second later. "There has to be something you can do. Now what is it?"
Sadly, not much was coming to mind. These henchmen were a dime a dozen. She could take some of them out, they sure didn't seem too bright or competent, but she'd end up leaving a trail. Even if she tried to hide her victims, their absence would be noted soon enough and they'd be found. That was doomed to fail on her own. She needed to pick specific targets, ones that would disrupt communication or free some help. Which would be exactly what she'd focus on if she had even the first idea on a where and who to direct her attention to.
"Of all the buildings to get caught in the middle of a hostile takeover, I just had to be in the one that held a city sized labyrinth."
"Could you like, hurry it up? You drone thingies are the biggest hot mess I've ever seen!" Freezing as the woman's voice echoed through the hall, Jazz slunk right around the first corner she could come to and planted her back against the wall. Whoever that was, she was close and not alone. Even as she carried on, multiple thumps were frequently hitting the ground, their sound rebounding in all directions. Unable to tell where they were coming from, Jazz tried to reactivate the invisibility app, only to have to fight back a panic attack as it not only flickered and failed, but released an audible crackle. It was nice to know that it hadn't electrocuted her, but the noise reverberated down the hall and the thumping footstep came to an immediate halt. "What now? Go find out! The last thing I need is some yucky explosion or whatever ruining my perfect image."
Jazz didn't even have to look to know the returning thumps were heading her way. She was still trying to shut down the crackling suit and they were only getting louder. Sucking air through her teeth, Jazz whipped her head around, only to panic even more as she found nothing but a dead end. There was no way of escaping without being seen and a chase would just draw more people's attention. That meant her only hope was to fight her way out.
'Ok, just breathe. You can do this.' Forcing herself to take the time for a few calming breaths, Jazz shifted her weight closer to the ground. Taking one last deep breath, she waited just until the first flicker of black and red entered vision before pouncing with a flying kick.
"Taste my boot, creep-creep!" The lack of a cry of pain was a little disconcerting, but Jazz didn't let it bother her as she watched the guy fall back into another, sending them both to the ground. Instead, she took advantage of the two bodies blocking the others to scope out just what she was up against.
There were a total of four of them, all of them in bodysuits. However, they looked different from every one she'd seen before. These guys were all the exact, same size and donned in black with a darker shade of red. Their faces were completely covered, as opposed to having their jaws revealed, and they were all wearing goggles with glowing, green lenses. She'd only said it because she couldn't think of anything else, but after getting a good look at them, creep-creep sounded perfect for them.
"Ok, who's next?" Kicking the one at her feet back down as it tried to get up, Jazz used him as a springboard before coming down on the third with a battle cry. Whipping out the Fenton Ninetails and thrusting it at the next charger, she easily snared him before landing behind him and pressing onward on foot, using the force and momentum to pull him hard into the ground too. Jerking the Ninetails, she immediately followed it up with an attempt at the fourth's feet, however this one flipped cleanly over it before grabbing the cords in midair and yanking them himself, eliciting a scream as jazz was yanked along with it. It wasn't skill that saved her from this, but pure luck. In her panic, her grasp on the Ninetails slipped and she randomly threw her hands around. The whole seen resulted in a wild shot smacking straight into the man's head, knocking him off balance as jazz crashed into him, taking both of them to the ground.
However, a loud gasp echoing off of the walls as they fell made her forget about the thug entirely. It was much too high pitched for a bulky man and was quickly accompanied by a much more petite blur leaping out from behind him and into a connecting hallway. It had to be the woman barking orders before! If she got away and drew more help in this direction…well, that couldn't be allowed to happen.
Stumbling her way quickly back to her feet, Jazz only spared enough time to slam her heel into last assailant's gut a couple of times before stumbling off and over him and followed the blur, not even waiting to look as she threw punch right at her.
"Whoa! Like, chill!" Her target exclaimed, only just ducking under the attack. However, Jazz wasn't having any of that and quickly responded with a roundhouse kick, forcing the other girl to spin out of the way in a flurry of red hair. "Jazz, like, you need to settle down. Look at me!"
"Why would I…" Jazz started, launching another couple of punches only for the girl to weave through them and back the way Jazz came. She had to step back a moment later however, for one of her other foes swung himself around the corner with a vicious strike of his own, right before…
Jazz dropped her jaw a second later as her latest opponent ignored her entirely, spun on her heel and jabbed something into her friend. The froze in place immediately only for his entire form to start bubbling a moment later. Jazz could only watch, more than a little disturbed as his body's shape only further warped into a disfigured mess before flopping to the ground. "What…what did you-"
"They're not actual people." The girl broke in, her voice suddenly very familiar to Jazz's ears as she turned back to her fellow redhead to reveal a just as familiar face. "They're Drakken's Synthodrones."
"Kim?" Jazz cried, staring wide eyed at the latest reveal. "What? How are you here? When did you get here?"
"Later. There's three more of them." Kim replied pointing her thumb around the corner. "We need to get rid of them first."
"Oh, right. So, Synthodrones aren't actually alive?" Jazz asked as she swung around the corner.
"Nope. They're mostly just goop."
"Great. Then this will be easy." No longer worried about fatalities, Jazz smirked as she raised her wrist and pressed on a metal bracelet, activating a small ecto laser within. With the Synthodrones already charging at her, it only took her a couple of seconds to shoot a hole through all three. It was a good thing she had seen and experienced plenty of ghost related messes though, otherwise watching the yellow liquid explode from their shriveling bodies could have easily made her puke.
"I'll have to remember to apologize to the genitors after this is over. I don't envy anyone who has to deal with that." Jazz muttered, shooting the one Kim had already downed as she rejoined the team heroine. But that was later's problem. "Thanks for the help, Kim. But come on, we get out of here before the girl that was ordering them calls for backup."
"Oh, don't worry. I caught that tacky chic before I came to you. She's sleeping with a mop." Kim waved it off with a smug smile. "So let's just get out of here before the stench gets into our clothes. It will be hard to sneak around if we smell like sludge, after all" She went on, almost singing over her shoulder. "Come this way. It's clear and leads to my boy."
"You mean Wade?" Jazz asked, frowning as she followed her. Kim seemed a little…off. At least jazz thought she did. To be fair, she hadn't seen Kim up close in the field before, but even so, this didn't seem quite right. Especially when she took more care to avoid the sludge as best she could than being particularly stealthy.
"Of course. Who else would I mean?" Kim shrugged, easing Jazz's doubts a little as she lowered her voice and grew much more careful with her movements as she scouted out the next area. "Bulma got a message out before she was taken and told us where they were gathering everyone. It's a big lecture hall not too far from here. Care to help me bust everyone out?"
"Sure." That gave Jazz the reassurance she needed. If they could free everyone, not only would they have more help dealing with the invaders, but there'd be no one to hold over their heads. Not to mention, Jazz would feel a lot more at ease when she actually knew everyone was ok. After all, these low-lives had already committed mass murder in twenty different locations. It'd be a miracle if everyone was still ok.
But still, they were doing something that big with just the two of them? That sounded dangerous for everyone. And where was Ron? He wouldn't let Kim come here alone…however she'd gotten back in. He'd be right behind her. His thing was mostly distractions, was he causing a ruckus elsewhere? And how had they gotten back in anyway? She didn't doubt Kim's skills, but every possible exit Jazz could find was sealed tight and would be a challenge even for her ecto laser to blast through. She'd tried once and had to leave the area due to the resulting noise attracting trouble long before she could get through.
Diving into an alcove as another thug, this one in the grey suit, walked by, jazz waited for him to enter another room before turning back to her partner to voice her questions, only to stop herself, tensing when a ball of pink flesh came running out of nowhere. Oh crap, that did not look like one of Dr Briefs' pets. If that was another one of Drakken's syntho monsters, then had to get rid of it, fast!
However, before she could so much as twist her wrist, Kim practically squealed. "Oh, there you are! Come here, I've missed you so much." She cried, kneeling down and running her hands all over the creature as she guided it further into the alcove.
"Since when did you have a cat? I thought the hairless pet was Ron's mole rat." Jazz muttered, eyeing the feline warily as it purred against Kim's leg.
"It…was. The cat's a recent purchase."
"And you thought bringing it on a deadly stealth mission was a good idea?" Jazz asked, only frowning harder as Kim spent more time and attention picking up the feline than on the area before them. This was feeling more off by the second.
"What can I say? I'm like, totally attached already." Kim just smirked in response, practically cooing over the pet. Had this girl hit her head or something? This was not the time to fuss over a cat.
Besides, now that she thought about it, Jazz couldn't help but think she'd seen that one before. She wasn't big on magazines, but hadn't a very similar cat been on the cover of one not too long ago? It was an ugly thing, so it was definitely not on the cover for its own merits. Its owner must have been a big deal. It definitely wasn't Kim, the model wasn't a redhead. She could remember that much at least. There was a big scoop connected to it, wasn't there? Like, a genuine one, not just some heiress taking a stroll. Heiress…
"Where almost there." Kim called, snapping her out of her thoughts and almost also sending her skywards with just how loudly that came out as she practically dragged her toward the staircase. Ok, something was not right here. "We just need to get down these stairs, then-"
"Get a redhead jumped?"
Both girls screamed as a rope shot out of the air, stumbling back as it bounced off of the floor, the metal ball on the end aiming straight for Kim. If it wasn't for Jazz ripping her out of the way, it would hit her right in the nose. "HEY! No one messes with my face! Who do you think you are?"
"Pretty rich for you to be asking that question, 'bff'." Another voice replied from the ceiling, practically dripping with sarcasm as its owner dropped to the ground, pointing her retracting rope launcher right at Kim's head. "Jazz, get away from her. Kim's not in the building. This is an imposter."
"What?" Jazz frowned, staring back and forth between the two girls.
"I am totally Kim Possible!" Kim snapped back, latching on to a very confused Jazz's arm before she could step away. "Why would I be helping you if I wasn't? Stay back, she's the one trying to deceive you!"
"Oh, I'm the fake?" Monique asked, her glare intensifying before turning into a smirk. "Ignoring the hideous cat," She started, ignoring the offended huff she got in return. "You're talking way too loudly for a stealth mission and you needed help to avoid my shot, which is both simple enough to avoid in general and one Kim knows and responds to reflexively when we train together. You've already proven to be nowhere near her standards. But if you want real proof Jazz, we'll only have to ask 'Kim' here, one simple question. What's my name?"
"Y-your name?" Kim asked, smacking her chest in a lousy attempt to hide her suddenly nervous sputter as Jazz connected everything she'd thought to Monique's claims. "That's easy. It's…Monica?"
The ever-growing smirk was all the hint 'Kim' needed to know that she was wrong and had her immediately ducking the fist Jazz shot her way, pulling her off-balance in the process. Taking advantage of that and Jazz's body blocking Monique's shot, 'Kim' dropped the cat and shoved her hand into her pocket, only for Jazz to stun her with an elbow to the face on the way down, leaving both of them dropping in a heap, Jazz's bag and items scattering across the ground in the process. The pile up quickly turned into a wrestling match as 'Kim' whipped up a taser at the girl on top of her, but Jazz had no trouble batting it right out of her grip and sending them as far from it as she could, struggling to pin the now screaming girl. It would have been an easy victory, this girl definitely wasn't at Kim's level, but right as she was confident of the capture, the body underneath her suddenly expanded like a balloon at high speed. Her easy broken, Jazz could little more than cry out as a much beefier woman she recognized as the rapper, MC Honey threw her off before body slamming and trying to strangle her.
Unfortunately for her, that left her wide open for Monique. 'MC Honey' didn't even notice the girl approaching before she was right on top of them and by then, it was much too late. Managing a sharp jab right in 'MC's' side, Jazz had her ripping away with a gasp right as Monique placed the knockout gas right next to her face. Within seconds, her eyes had widened and closed, her whole body flopping to the side a moment later. "Eww, that's just…gross."
"Thanks for the save. I owe you one." Jazz gasped a moment later as she pulled herself from the dead weight, taking in a deep breath only when she was sure she was clear of their most potent weapon. "But why is…actually, scratch that, who is here trying to kill me?"
"You're welcome." Monique smiled, already pulling the last of her rope from her launcher and tying the woman up, only stopping to bat away the hissing cat. "And this is Camille Leon. She had a crazy experiment done on herself so she could make herself look like anyone she wants. Like Henry for example."
"Henry?" Jazz cried, freezing in place as she connected the dots. Well, that explained a few things. Why he'd not wanted help and why he attacked her when she was pushing him to get it. He never did make it back, it was this…disinherited heiress turned criminal the whole time! That made way more sense than the idea that Henry had betrayed them.
Didn't that fill her with relief! Henry would make a deadly enemy in a place like this. The fact that they weren't fighting him, possessed by ghosts or otherwise, would make this far less daunting. But still, if he never came back…"Do you know where he is? Or if he's ok? If he didn't actually get away…"
"Don't worry, girl, he got away. He just didn't come here so soon." Monique replied, giving her a reassuring grin as she dumped the newly bound and gagged shapeshifter into the nearest supply closet, only waiting long enough for the cat to follow her before closing it. "He's fine now. And here too. He's the one that got us in."
"Us?" Well, didn't that fill her with a bright, hopeful feeling as she gathered everything she'd dropped? The fact that they had Henry here, and on their side, alone was spectacular, but to know that there were even more of them? They really could all make it out of this situation yet. Even if Kim wasn't actually close, there were plenty of people nearby that would be great help. "So, Felix and Videl are here too? Or Goten and Trunks?"
"I'll tell you on the way. It's been way too loud around here, we need to move." Monique stated, grabbing her by the hand and running back the way she'd come. "I'm not exactly a frontline fighter and getting caught by a horde would be really bad for the plan."
"Which is what, exactly?" Jazz asked, making a point of lower her voice as they moved into a set of connecting rooms, right as echoing footsteps approached from opposite directions. "And why are you out here on your own? That's crazy dangerous for someone with no powers or blackbelts. Are the others at least close by?"
"Sure. If somewhere in or just outside the building counts as close." Monique shrugged as they moved straight from one room and into another, closing and locking the door behind them before nodding at the large vent in the wall. They'd need to stack a table and chair to reach it, but that wasn't much of a problem. They could even make it look inconspicuous to whoever came in next if they tried. This room didn't look all that used. "It's fine though, my job's pretty low on the danger front, all things considered. I'm meant to grab more rope and any other gear I could find before sneaking my way towards the hostages while the others put on a show, but it was a no go. Your stuff's been looted."
"Well fortunately for us, some of that was by me." Jazz grinned, opening her bag and lighting Monique's face right up as she revealed her stash. "I didn't get much, but if the ghosts involved do show up, this stuff should hurt. I even grabbed some ectoplasmically coated fishing line. Think you could use it with your launchers?"
"Heck, yeah! Girl, you just made my job so much easier." Monique beamed, snapping a Specter Deflector around her waist before snagging the blue, glowing rope and loading it into a gauntlet. "So, care to join us in taking the fight to them?"
"I'm in. What's the plan?" Jazz nodded with a smirk.
"Step one is track down any safe places to hide hostages in case we can't get them all out of the building while tracking the hostages down. Then wait for Henry to sick the others on the bad guys, sneak around and free everyone we can before joining in on the hoedown. The only problem is that we're mostly still running around blind until Henry gets into position."
"Not quite. I know where most of the hostages ended up." Jazz winked. "These morons have big mouths and the one time Camille actually did sound completely honest was when she was talking about the location. Just follow me."
"Girl, you are an all-star!"
….
So far, this job was going really well. Making it through the first corridor and up the stairs had been quick and easy. Not a single person had shown up in Henry's way. The next corridor wasn't much of a problem either. There had been a monkey swinging around, but a simple creaking door was more than enough to draw its attention and the moment it crept through it, Henry had snapped it shut, locked it and bent the metal bolt all out of shape. It wasn't going anywhere. Its screeching was annoying at first, but that wasn't a real concern. This place was built to be soundproof.
Now there was just one last hallway to his target. The only problem was that this one was well guarded.
'Makes sense.' Henry mused, though not without a notable amount of frustration as he pressed himself against the wall, narrowed eyes peeking cautiously around the corner. Though he knew Kim would not call many of her enemies all that competent, and from he'd seen of them before this week, neither would Henry, to pull off the feats they'd reached in the last few days, the one in charge had to be smart enough to know not to leave anything about this to chance.
'I don't have a lot of options.' Sadly, there was no way to be stealthy here. The hallway was long, had five men along it and who knew how many actually in the office. There was no furniture or connecting rooms to take advantage of, so the moment he moved, he'd be right out in the open. He'd have to be quick and brutal, while minimizing the amount of noise made. If the rest of this swarm was alerted to his presence, all hell would break loose. No, these guys had to go down before any of them could escape or call for help. Fortunately, he could at least take some of the risk from the second possibility. After all, manipulating the system was still pointless from his position, but shutting it down was now well within his power.
Narrowing his eyes toward the office, he thrust himself straight into everything currently using power in the room and shut it all down before it could make a peep at his presence. Right before bursting out from the behind the wall and making a beeline for the door.
"Intruder! Sto-augh!" The first thug never saw more than a blur before Henry grabbed him by the jumpsuit and threw him face first into a wall. Before he even hit, Henry was already reaching the second one, effortlessly batting away the fist coming at him, snagging his wrist and using it to yank the thug into his rising knee, leaving him crumpling to the floor.
"Hey, call the boss, all our- AAHHHH, it's him!" One more thug burst out of the office door, only to tremble and scream as Henry dodged and slammed the heel of his palm into the third thug's neck and immediately moved on to send the fourth flying with an open palmed jab, not losing a second in his approach. The screamer tried to run while the fifth grunt charged Henry, but Henry simply dodged the incoming kick and used its momentum to swing the now also screaming aggressor around and toss him straight at the deserter. Stopping just before the door, Henry waited just long enough to ensure that neither of them was getting up or screaming in the next five minutes before swinging in.
"Get him!" Two more were still in the room, but Henry barely batted an eye at them. Both were swinging electrified staffs, but Henry had already shut them down and they clearly had no talent for the traditional use of a bo staff. Easily catching both, Henry flinched in sympathy as he pushed down on them with enough force to slam the other ends into their owners' groins before moving in between them and striking both crumbling goons in the face, one with a palm and the other with a kick. Passing out when they hit the ground was probably an act of mercy.
"Well, that's the hard part done."Letting out a small breath as looked over his work, Henry spared the consol a look and grinned as it immediately booted back up. Taking note of the USB still plugged in, Henry brought its data up on the main screen with a flicker of his eye, easily identifying the malware. It was certainly a tricky little bug, very complex, but nothing Henry couldn't handle. Within a couple of minutes, he already had an anti-virus coursing through the system. In no time at all, the entire company should be purged.
Taking the time needed to clean up his mess, Henry quickly dragged every unconscious henchman into the office and ensured they were still out before closing the door and crunching lock with a wave of his clenching fist, sealing the room. Getting in or out was going to be a lot harder now.
Satisfied with his safety, Henry turned his attention back to the computers and grinned as information flashed before him. He was all set and before long, every detail they needed would be in his lap.
Taking a seat, he took a few minutes to watch the security feeds, flickering them from site to site as he tracked everyone down and scoped the situation before activating the restored communication system and calling multiple channels, his grin only growing as each one answered.
"Alright everyone, I'm all set. Kim, Jake, your doors are opening now."