Chapter 17
(1:13 am, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006)
Kim was asleep in her bedroom when she heard the familiar four-beep tone of the Kimmunicator on her dresser. Groggily and half-asleep, she grabbed what she thought was the Kimmunicator.
"Wade...what's the sitch?" she asked, yawning, before realizing she was talking to one of her brushes. The Kimmunicator was still beeping on the dresser. A bit more awake, the redhead managed to grab the Kimmunicator.
She turned it on.
"Hey, Wade. What's the sitch? Don't you realize it's 1 in the morning?"
"Hey, Kim. Um, did you confuse the Kimmunicator with your hairbrush?" Wade asked. He was in his Everlot pajamas.
"Um...a little."
"Sorry to disturb you at this time of the night, but there has been a robbery!" Wade insisted.
"A robbery?" Kim replied with a yawn, "Where did it happen? A jewelry store? A museum?"
"Try the Middleton Space Center!" Wade said.
Those three words really woke Kim up as if she drank an entire espresso.
"What was stolen?" Kim asked, "Was it anything top-secret that Drakken can use to take over the world?"
"It's not that." Wade said, "Since it involves the Space Center, you might want to wake up your dad. And inform Ron as well!"
"I'll do that!" Kim replied before temporarily turning off the Kimmunicator. She went downstairs to the master bedroom and tapped on the door twice.
James and Ann were still asleep on the bed.
"Dad?" she whispered, "Dad? Wake up!"
"Huh...whuh...who dares disturb my slumber!" James grumbled, tossing and turning with the sheets. Ann, still asleep, managed to take back the comforter from her husband. He came to and opened his eyes. He was in blue-striped pajamas and had pink fuzzy bunny slippers on.
"Kimmie-cub? What are you doing up at this time of the night?" he moaned, "Can't you see it's past 1 in the morning?"
"Sorry to cut your sleep short, Dad." Kim exclaimed, "But there has been a robbery at the Space Center!"
Upon hearing this, James went into full alert, knowing that it was his place in the employment.
"How did that happen?" he asked.
"I don't know, Dad." Kim said, "That's what we need to find out! We gotta head to the Space Center!"
"I'll get the lab coat and keys!" James said while grabbing his lab coat from the closet, along with his ID badge and his car keys. "You call up Ronald and get him up to speed!"
(1:33am)
James' brown car started up as he opened the garage door with Kim in the passenger seat. He still had maintained the damage from the Bebes a couple of years ago because the roof was a different color than the remainer of his car.
They drove from the Possible house to the Stoppable house. Kim had contacted Ron earlier about what was going on at the Space Center. She was now in her mission uniform talking with Wade on the Kimmunicator.
"I'll patch you through to Dr. Wong, the Board Chairman of the Space Center. She will fill you in on the details."
"Please and thank you, Wade!"
Dr. Wong appeared on the screen.
"Hello, Dr. Wong!" Kim said with a smile.
"Hello, Miss Possible!" Dr. Wong replied, "I guess I should help return the favor from that time that you saved me from Drakken at his ice base."
"And, of course, saved my dad from when I became Miss Truthful Motor-Mouth." Kim said, for she did not want to relive that embarrassing incident again.
Dr. Wong continued, "That too. As I was saying, something was stolen from the Space Center. I'll show it to you once you get there!"
(2:02am)
Kim gasped when she, Ron, James, and Dr. Wong reached the lower level of the Space Center.
"The insect control helmet! It's gone!" the redhead exclaimed.
There was police tape and about ten officers of the MPD around.
And there stood the safe that was opened and there was no sign of the IRCH on its pedestal.
"Uhhh, yeah!" Ron interjected to Dr. Wong, "Didn't you say that the insect helmet thingey is stolen?"
"It was!" Dr. Wong replied, "The security guard reported that it was there around 11pm. The next thing we knew, some sort of outage hit our security cameras and, 20 minutes later, it was gone!"
"Hmmm!" Kim contemplated, "Me and Ron may need to investigate..."
No sooner than she said this that she and Ron bumped into the Chief of Police.
"Oh great!" Donald Rockwaller exclaimed with disgust at the two teens. "It's the menace and the guy who loves to lose his pants in public! You're not gonna walk "
"Aww...come on, can't you remember my name...?" Ron began before Donald cut him off.
"Like in your mugshot!" he snarked, recalling the time in freshman year where Ron was arrested for alleged indecent exposure. "I'm still not letting you in for that theft of the...what-you-call-it..."
"And like I said, that was accidental!" Ron countered.
"Chief Rockwaller..." Kim said in disgust, "...don't you have more important things to do than to call me and Ron menaces?"
"Yes, like the theft of a top-secret device?" Dr. Wong intervened, "If you even dare to try to deny Miss Possible into it, for she saves the world on multiple occassions..."
"And I do the assisting in saving it..." Ron interrupted briefly before Dr. Wong continued.
"...then I am going to have the feds with Miss Possible leading the way and the mayor of Middleton will have your badge! For you are standing on federal property!" Dr. Wong warned Donald.
Donald relented for a moment and replied, "Fine...just don't let me catch you doing any funny stuff!" He lifted the police tape to allow Kim and Ron in the vicinity. Kim and Ron then put on gloves as to not contaminate the evidence.
"I'm gonna need a pot of coffee...and a smoke...after this." Donald muttered to himself.
Kim and Ron analyzed the pedestal of where the IRCH once stood.
"Hmmm...I wonder how it was stolen..." the redhead pondered, "...and, more importantly, why!"
"Do you think it could be Drakken and Shego, KP?" Ron asked.
Kim looked around the room and replied, "I don't think so, Ron!"
"How come?" he asked.
"Because Shego would usually leave claw marks with a green glow on it as her signature." Kim explained. "And there is no forced entry by Drakken's hovercar." She had seen Drakken use his hover car sometimes for top-secret tech thefts.
"So if we mark those two off the list..." Ron said, "...who would be the prime suspect?"
"It would be either the Senors...Senior mostly..., Killigan since we faced him before with the helmet, or Dementor." Kim deducted.
"And with no-break in means of entry, this only means one thing, Ron. It had to be done from the inside!"
She quickly got out the Kimmunicator.
"Wade, can you go through the entire database of the MSC to see who would steal the insect helmet?"
"I can do that, Kim." Wade replied, "But it may take me a couple of days. The Space Center employs 2,500 people and is one of the largest employers in Middleton. I will probably let you know on Monday!"
"You tech-rock, Wade!" Kim replied before turning off the Kimmunicator.
She also could not forget one other thing that was going to occur on Monday, and it was occurring within the walls of Middleton High.
