"Ooooooohhhhh yeaaaaahhhhh..."
Not even an hour earlier, right around the same time that Kim had answered her door to find a grinning Ron with a stack of Italian pies, a certain less-than-charitable acquaintance of hers was also staying in for the evening.
"Mmmmmmmmmmmm..."
With a passionate sigh, Shego slumped further down into the new jacuzzi on the the deck of Dr. Drakken's Middleton lair, her attractive, femme fatale face a study in ecstasy as the hot bubbles and steam worked their magic over her toned, killer body.
"It's...like...buttah'", she purred, inhaling the fragrance from the scented oils she had seasoned the water with (while at the spa shop, she couldn't decide on getting "Hawaiian Jasmine" or "English Rose", so she'd simply stolen them both.) She was in such a deep state of relaxation, that she didn't even hear or see (probably a good thing) a dopily-grinning Drakken running across the deck, clad in only a ragged yellow speedo with his pale blue gut hanging out.
"INCOMING!" he howled as he jumped into the air, tucked in his arms and legs and did a cannonball right into the hot tub.
*SPLASH!*
Nearly a third of the jacuzzi's water was displaced from Dr. D's moronic little stunt, as Shego was hit with a massive tsunami of steaming hot water directly to the face.
"What...the...SHIT?!" she screeched, right after the shock had worn off and had been replaced with homicidal fury.
"Owww! This water's really, REALLY hot, Shego!" whined Drakken.
"It's...a...HOT TUB, Dr. D!" Shego roared. "When you ordered this damn thing, did the catalog say 'Lukewarm Tubs'?"
Drakken suddenly frowned as he sniffed the air, turning up his nose in disgust. "And it smells like that air freshener we have in the basement bathroom...YEEEECHHH, Shego, what did you put in the water?"
"Uggggghhh" grunted Shego as she stood up straight (her voluminous hair and makeup job were ruined, but she still looked stunning in her scantily-cut jet-black bikini) and bent over the side of the jacuzzi, opening a built-in cabinet & refrigerator and (aggressively) rummaging through it.
"Thank GOD this particular model came with a minibar..." she said, as she pulled out a chilled Long Island Iced Tea in a can, cracked it open, and then downed half of its contents in one gulp.
"Mmmmmmm...good stuff!"
"Ooh, Shego, could you grab me a soda?" asked Drakken, his face lit up like an excited child's. "Lemon-lime, please!"
"Ha! Whatever, get it yourself, Dr. D!" she barked, fixing him in her emerald gaze with a withering look of doom. "Jumping in the tub like that was just a tad rude, don't you think? It's only fair that I return the 'favor'...hey...HEY, are you even listening to me? HELLLLLOOOOOOO?!"
Drakken's pale blue face was set in a harsh frown, his unibrow twitching, his mouth agape in half-wonder, half-surprise as he craned his head to the left and stared at something behind the surly Shego.
"What is that, Shego?" he asked, pointing at something on the far-off horizon.
"What is what?" she replied, gulping down the other half of the cocktail and then carelessly tossing the can aside.
"That!, Shego!" he yelled, aggressively motioning with his pointed index finger. "THAT!"
"Oh GOD, it's KIMMIE, isn't it?" Shego exclaimed with a cringe, her face lighting up with frightened self-consciousness. "As if this night couldn't get any worse...and with me looking like THIS - like a drowned muskrat - I'll NEVER hear the end of it!"
She scrambled crazily out of the tub, splashing even more water everywhere. "Where's my industrial-strength hair-dryer?!" she demanded, as she hurriedly toweled herself dry. "I can't fight the dainty little princess looking like THIS-"
"NO, SHEGO!" protested Drakken, sounding a little more distressed than usual. "Look, look, look, look, LOOK!"
"Psssshhh, FINE, I'll look!"
So she looked.
And then she saw.
And then she blinked in disbelief.
"...the hell?" she wondered out loud, her face now just as surprised as her boss's at the uncanny sight.
Far off in the distance, in the very last watery rays of the setting sun, a thick, low-hanging wall of cloud was rapidly approaching. To the untrained eye, one would have thought that a monstrous avalanche had just been poured from the sky, but despite the enormity of it's size, it was eerily silent.
'It's, um, heh heh...it's coming this way, Shego!" laughed Drakken, nervously, as he slowly rose from the tub, getting ready to make a mad dash for safety. "And I think that we just may be in the, uh, heh heh...the splash zone..." he quipped, still utterly failing at using his 'teen lingo' appropriately.
"Looksh...looksh like it'sh coming pretty fasht, too" said Shego, beginning to feel a bit tipsy from all of the cocktails she'd imbibed over the last hour (the deck was absolutely littered with cans.) In spite of that, she actually began to worry. It almost looked like a wave...a big wave...a big, big wave getting ready to crest and then violently crash onto the beach.
An urgent shock of sudden terror cut right through her intoxicated haze and snapped her right back to clear-headed sobriety.
"Y'know what, Dr. D?" asked Shego, softly.
"What, Shego?"
"DUCK!" she screamed, as she clambered back into the tub. Both of them took MASSIVELY deep breaths and then plunged themselves deep beneath the steaming hot water as the oncoming wall of gray clouds was preparing to overtake them. And then, not five seconds later:
*FWOOOOOSHHHHHH!*
The swirling mass of mist blew in like a violent tidal swell and crashed over everything in sight, smothering the warm June evening in a dark, funereal mass of gray.
When Drakken and Shego surfaced nearly a whole minute later, gasping and sputtering (and their faces comically scorched red from the boiling water), they were enveloped in a thick, silvery fog, and the temperature had dropped significantly.
"It's...friggin'...freezing out here!" bellowed Shego, as she quickly sank back into the water until it was up to her chin.
"AAAARGGGH, what is happening tonight?" wailed Drakken. He raised his fist to the sky and shook it menacingly. "Curse you, mother nature !- ooh, that's COLD!" he cried as he quickly sank back into the (now suddenly comfortable) hot water.
"Uggghh, we can't stay out here all damn night!" cried Shego. "But it's too friggin' cold to get up and walk back inside!"
She gazed longingly at the sliding glass door not thirty feet away...so close and yet so far.
"Sh-Shego?" murmured Drakken, softly.
"Yeah, what?"
"I...I really have to go the bathroom...but the back door...it's just so...far away...and it's just so...so COLD..."
"Don't...you...dare..." she hissed.
"I mean, I REALLY have to go, BAD-"
"Don't...you...DARE!"
"This is SO not happening..." said Kim, feeling lost in an endless sea of fog.
"This sucks!" said the twins.
Somewhere between the time that Ron had dropped in, and the present moment, a thick, impenetrable blanket of the stuff had settled over the entirety of Middleton, and made visibility nigh impossible - not to mention, lower the balmy Summer temperature to a level more closely resembling late Autumn. And not only that, but it had muffled all sound to the point where it seemed that they were all wearing earplugs; even the loudest, most piercing of shouts would die on the air and fail to be heard from a far distance.
"Speaking of the Bermuda Triangle...", said Kim in goggle-eyed wonder as she slowly walked in circles over her front lawn, staring in amazement at the hazy gray shroud that had practically turned their world from color to black & white, "I THINK that we just passed through it...and wound up in... "
"Jolly old foggy London, by the looks of it!", said a smiling Ron as he completed her sentence, his spirits suddenly perking up now that he had escaped the menacing confines of the house. "Why, I think I can see Big Ben right over yonder, KP! Oh, and look...Stonehenge, too!" He gestured eagerly towards a random point in the gloom with a wide, cheeky grin.
"C'mon, Ron, Big Ben and Stonehenge are nowhere NEAR each other!" she said, chuckling.
"Hey!" protested Tim and Jim, standing behind them with their arms crossed and their voices fretful.
"What is it NOW, you guys?" asked Kim in a hostile timbre as she whirled around, her nagging impatience with her brothers beginning to swell again. "I swear, if you bug me for ice cream just ONE MORE TIME, I will-"
"What're we gonna do?" they asked, innocently and wide-eyed, their normally-boisterous voices shaded with a little more humility than usual as they shivered in the now-frigid climate.
"Y-yeah, I think R-ron was right" chattered Tim.
"W-were gonna n-need some help" said Jim.
Kim's heart exploded with familial love as her reservoir of anger and frustration suddenly dried up; seeing her little brothers cold and (genuinely) frightened had very nearly brought her to tears. "You guys, you're shivering!" she cried as she swiftly knelt down and threw her arms tightly around them, kissing them both on the forehead (prompting a duel "Ew!" from the two of them, not that she cared.)
"Awwwww!" said Ron in a syrupy-sweet tone.
"Ron, get over here!" called Kim, her voice muffled as she buried her head between Tim and Jim's.
"What...what'd I do?" he asked, puzzled. "Am I in trouble, too?"
"Just get over here!"
"Uh...alright, KP!" he said, as he sauntered over to the Possible siblings and knelt down, where Kim drew him in with her free arm and (aggressively) joined him into a solid, four-way group hug.
"Uhhh, K-kim? choked Ron. "D-don't get me wrong...I love you guys, b-but I c-can't...breathe-"
"We stick together, the four of us!" said Kim, brightly. "And we're not gonna run away! This is OUR home, right?"
"Right!" answered the twins, enthusiastically.
"Uh...uh...huh!" garbled Ron as his airway was nearly cut off by the three (surprisingly strong) pairs of arms, his eyes bulging out of his skull.
"Okay, then!" said Kim, pulling everyone to their feet and then crossing her arms as a determined smile stole across her face. "Time to get down to business!"
She spun around and faced the front door which had been left ajar, their normally warm and benign household having now become a "place of evil", as Ron would so eloquently put it.
"So, Ron!" she said. "Being the horror scholar that you are, just who - or what - do you think our mystery guest is?"
Ron's face suddenly fell; he remembered just WHY they were outside.
Someone - or rather, SOMETHING upstairs in Kim's house - had spooked them so bad, they had literally run screaming into the night. All of their electronic contacts with the outside world (including Wade) were down, and the police department was apparently MIA. It just kept getting better and better.
"Aww, stop it Kim, you're embarrassing me! Heh heh heh! Uhhhhh..." he said, uncomfortably, as he shuffled his feet in anxiety. "Man oh man, this 'London fog' is COLD!" he cried out, his voice thick and heavy with apprehension. "And NOW, I've got a hankering for fish & chips! AND a Beef Wellington! AND a whole shepherd's pie! AND a block of Wensleydale cheese! AND a blackberry tart-"
"But dude, we just ate!" replied Tim.
"SERIOUSLY!" said Jim, "you ate more than the rest of us put together!"
"It's the fear, you guys! It makes me hungry!", cried Ron. His stomach growled savagely like some kind of famished monster as he cradled it gently with his hands, the way a loving mother would do with a young child. "And with the shocks that I'VE had tonight, I could even eat a metric ton of the high school cafeteria's mystery meat! It's THAT bad!"
He sighed to himself. "Rufus, buddy, you're the lucky one, tonight..."
"Hey, yeah, where IS Rufus tonight?" asked Kim. "Wondered where he was, since you two are practically joined at the hip!"
"I got him a little mole rat-sized weight set for his birthday, and he was too busy pumping iron and making gains to hang with THIS uber-dork tonight", he said, sadly. "He's making me look and feel like a real slob. Le sigh, mes amis..."
Tim, meanwhile, was staring at something across the street that had suddenly snared his attention, his blue eyes squinting hard as he focused his gaze into the tenebrous murk.
"Tim, what's up?" asked Kim, noticing his laser-like focus. "What do you see?"
"That" he said, as he pointed into the gloom, where they could just barely make out a long, unusual object on the other side of the street.
"Whoa, check it out!" said Jim with excitement as he sprang forward, seemingly forgetting just how cold he was.
"Hey, time-out you guys!" called Kim, making the "T" symbol with both of her hands. "Remember what I just said? We stick together - at ALL times! Understand?"
"Even when we gotta pee?" asked Tim, cracking a smile.
..."Okay, there WILL be exceptions" she said, rolling her eyes. "Ron, get over here! And stay close to me, okay?"
"Yoooooouu called, m'lady?" asked Ron, dashing to her side as she firmly took hold of his left arm and clung tightly to it.
"I need you to protect me, okay? And I know you will!" Her warm, irresistible smile was melting Ron's heart like chocolate left out in the sun.
"I'll guard you with my life, KP" he said in an unnaturally deep (and amusing) register as Kim tried not to laugh. "Well, haha, at least I'll try to! I mean, as long as we don't run into a T-rex out here tonight, or as long as another meteor doesn't strike the Earth, triggering another ice age, or..."
"Oh brother..." wailed Tim, slapping himself in the face.
The four of them slowly walked across the street, their footfalls on the pavement barely making a sound in the gray silence. The streetlamps were all out, all of their neighbor's houses were just as dark as their own, and there were no cars on the road.
"Forget the ice cream" said Jim, out of nowhere. "I could really go for some hot chocolate right now."
"Me too" said the other three, all at once. They laughed.
"With marshmallows" said Tim.
"With whipped cream" said Ron.
"With a splash of brandy from my Dad's liquor cabinet" said Kim, with a mischievous smile.
"Why, Kimberly!" gasped Ron with mock surprise in a shrill old lady's voice. "For shaaaaaaame!"
The puzzling object was becoming more and more clear as they approached it, until finally it was in full, unclouded view:
A long, black stretch limousine, the kind that could seat nearly twenty passengers, was parked parallel to the sidewalk. No sounds could be heard from within, and the engine was just as silent as the mist-clotted air.
"Soooooo, question one" said Ron. "Is it somebody's birthday?"
"Aaaaaand question two" said Kim. "Why weren't we invited?"
"Heh heh, yeah!" laughed the tweebs.
The four of them slowly circled the vehicle, keeping a distance of about ten feet between them and the limo, if only out of politeness for the occupants. If there were any.
"Y'think there's anyone in there, KP?" asked Ron in a hoarse whisper, his face full of suspicion as he studied the dark, tinted windows. "I don't hear anyone in there, and the thing ain't rockin', either."
"I'm not sure, myself" answered Kim in a soft whisper. "Let's go around to the driver's side window and see if the chauffer's in there. At least THAT will prove that we're not the only ones left in the world!" she chuckled.
They came around the back end and carefully made their way towards the front, wondering to themselves what kind of immense wealth was required to own such a rig, or whose it was, or what it was even doing here on such an odd night. But as they came closer to the limo, crossing over the roughly ten-foot "buffer region" they had been keeping, several things happened.
First, they all began to feel extremely anxious, even more so than when they were in the house with their unknown guest. It almost felt like there was an electrical charge shooting violently through their bodies, giving them all butterflies and the inexplicable urge to suddenly run away. They all exchanged identical glances - a collective 'Huh? What the hell?' expression. Regardless of the unusual feelings they were all sharing, they continued to move in closer.
And then, without warning, nausea exploded in all four of their bellies, the feeling to be sick became overwhelming as the four of them staggered backwards, barely able to stand on their own two feet.
"I-I think I'm g-gonna...hurl" wailed Tim as he clutched his stomach and tightly winced his eyes shut.
"D-d-ditto!" stuttered Ron, his face pale and clammy, cold sweat beading and pouring down his cheeks.
"You...you guys...b-back to the yard...h-hurry!" gestured Kim in agony, hoping she could make it back to their lawn before getting a stomach-driven reprise of her dinner.
Paralyzed with sickness, the four of them lurched back to the Possible's front lawn, where they all collapsed in a tangled, groaning heap, just barely keeping the contents of their guts down.
The foursome lay flat on their backs on the cold, damp grass, gasping for air and tensing their muscles until the extreme feeling of discomfort had finally left them. After about five minutes, Kim, Ron, Tim and Jim all felt just fine again. As if nothing unusual had even taken place.
"Whew...well!" said Ron as he sat up slowly, looking pallid and bemused, "wasn't THAT fun! Let's NOT do it again!"
"Uhhhh...good idea" said Jim, weakly.
"KIM...DANGER...TONIGHT..." mused Kim out loud, still sprawled spread-eagle on the lawn, her brow furrowed in deep thought.
"Whoever said that", she pondered out loud, "sure wasn't kidding."
"God, I hope they're alright" he said to himself uneasily, as he typed furiously at his computer.
After his contact with Kim and co had mysteriously died out, Wade had immediately called the police, though he wasn't sure just how helpful that would be, given all of the abnormal circumstances. According to his sources (and he had quite a few), the weirdness wasn't only limited to Kim's end; there were numerous reports of unexplained (and even supposedly "supernatural") occurrences happening all over Middleton that particular evening, and there simply weren't NEARLY enough law personnel to respond to every incoming call.
Hopefully, Kim, Ron and her brothers would be able to deal with whatever entity had assailed them. Kim was tough, smart and resourceful, and he had every ounce of faith in her. But above all else, after getting hold of some rather disturbing information...
He hoped and prayed that there was NOT a black limousine parked in front of Kim's house.
Just like the OTHER two victims from earlier that evening.