The Possible family car sped through the streets of Middleton with a speed and fury that would make any race car envious. To the driver that’s exactly what she was in, a race. Not a race against another opponent but rather time itself. Kim felt that she had to made up for all the time that was lost in the trip to her house and the change into mission clothes. As she suspected Jen had her own set, which like hers consisted of lose pants(though khaki instead of cargo) and a multi pouched belt. The difference came to their choice in tops. While Kim wore a black crop top, Jen wore a full navy blue shirt that was made out of a pleather. Apparently the girl had extra material laying around from her days in Live Action Roleplaying games. Unfortunately, that idea brought up very unpleasant memories of her cousin Larry. The other difference between their uniforms were the elbow and knee pads sewn into Jen’s, which were apparently a kevlar mesh for added protection, though exactly how Kim couldn’t figure out.
Dave apparently just when in his street clothes on all of their missions, which was just fine for Kim because it meant less time wasted.
After they had piled into her car, Kim sped off without another word, determined to find the warehouse Pazuzu was hiding out in and stop him from hurting either Shego or Shin. The thought brought her back to the present and she focused on her surroundings. By the time they reached the warehouse district it was dark which provided them with extra cover, but also made it hard to spot the proper building.
“There!” Dave shouted, pointing to the right.
“I see it,” Kim said softly and turned towards the alley.
She parked the car out of a plain sight and they all piled out. The group stood and took in the building for a moment before Kim spun to face them and started issuing orders.
“Alright, Jen and I will go in through the top. Ron, you and Dave try to find a side and back entrance to come through,” she stated.
“Right,” the three others replied together.
The decision made, Kim and Jen walked away from the boys toward the south side of the building, which was thankfully covered in the most darkness. They glanced up at the very top of the building again and could see a strong ledge they could use to pull themselves up. While Kim pulled out her grappling launcher from her backpack, Jen simple held up the smaller version attached to her right wrist. The sound of twin air compressors being unleashed filled the air as the two lines shot upward. Once they attached themselves securely to the ledge, their respective owners followed them up, landing on the roof with two prefect somersaults. The girls flash each other an impressed grin before moving to the roof entrance near them. Kim placed her hand on the door nob and tried to turn it only to find it…
“Locked,” she muttered. “Of course. I think I’ve got something here that can take care of that.”
“I know I do,” Jen said as she knelt down in front of the lock.
“Oh?”
Kim’s questioning noise was answered when Jen produced a small object from her belt and showed it to her.
“A bobby pin?” the redhead asked septically.
Jen simply nodded and began to work the lock with the pin. Kim crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at the other young heroine still looking rather unconvinced.
“I really don’t think-” she started, but stopped when an audible ‘click’ was heard.
“You’d be amazed how often that works,” Jen replied with a satisfied look.
Kim merely muttered something incoherent as she turned the knob and pushed the door open. She took the lead as they walked down the dark flights of stairs, their only light source coming from flickering flourescent lights overhead. She pulled out the Kimmunicator and switched it to a new feature Wade installed. A 3D wire grid of the building appeared on the screen showing ten different blinking dots. Six of them were colored a bright reddish orange while four were a dull blue.
“OK, so if this thing is working right then we’re here,” Kim pointed to the set of lights on a stairwell. “Ron and Dave are just about here,” she pointed to another set making its way into the building on the ground floor. “So this must be Pazuzu and Shego,” she pointed to a pair in a large room at the bottom of the building.
“Right, so that means these other dots here are the Grudgliks,” Jen added, pointing to one of the blue dots.
“Looks like most of them are on the ground floor. Two are moving around this main room while another is…getting closer to Ron and Dave.”
“I think they can handle themselves. At least Dave can and I’m sure he can look after Ron.”
“Ron can handle himself pretty well,” Kim snapped, twisting her head to the other girl.
“Alright, sorry. Didn’t mean anything by it,” Jen apologized. “So where’s the other Grudglik?”
“Let’s see…” Kim looked back to the screen. “Looks like it’s on the second floor.”
“Right where we are,” Jen replied as she pointed above them.
Kim looked up and saw that they were indeed just outside the door to lead into the second floor. She put the Kimmunicator away and step over to it, grasping the long handle.
“Well let’s get this over with,” she whispered.
Jen nodded and readied herself. Kim tensed as well before she threw open the door, ready for anything that come at her.
Which it turned out was nothing. The two girls looked at each other then shrugged and stepped through the doorway. The lighting on the floor was barely better than on the stairwell. From what they could see, they could tell the place hadn’t been used for years. It was mostly empty with only a few scattered boxes and decks here and there. A hint of moonlight shined through the cracks in the boards over the windows, giving them a lovely few of the torn and soiled green carpet.
They continued to make their way across the floor cautiously. They knew the Grudglik was here somewhere, they just weren’t sure exactly. Kim briefly thought of trying the Kimmunicator again but that might give them away. Instead she flipped on her pair of night vision sunglasses and looked around the floor. It didn’t take long for her to notice another, slightly hunched over figure stumbling around. She tapped Jen on the shoulder to get her attention then passed the glasses to her. Jen looked in the direction she indicted then nodded before handing the glasses back. They crept over to where the demon stood and thankfully found a stack of desks to hide behind.
“Alright Jen, you have experience here. What do we do now?” Kim asked in a hushed tone. When she received no answer she looked back at the other girl. “Jen?”
Again the question went unanswered, but this time Kim could see why; Jen was busy pulling out various items from her belt. The first two were circular objects that with a push of a button extended to about twelve inches each. She placed end inside the end of another and with a quick turn they snapped into place. Next she pulled out another circular object, though this one had two holders sticking out on each other for something to slide in place. That something ended up being a pair of collapsible blades that each fanned out to become about six inches when opened. She snapped them down into the holders on top and with a smirk held up a very dangerous looking double-sided axe.
She gave Kim a quick nod before running forward with a primal scream. This caused the Grudglik demon to turn towards here just in time to catch the axe to the forehead. Jen grunted as she pushed the blade in further, causing the creature to give off strangled gurgling sounds as a thick yellow/green liquid poured out of it’s wound. It convulsed for a moment or two before finally slumping to the ground.
Kim had watched all this in wide eyed horror and actually felt herself afraid to move from the spot. Pushing it back she stood up and walked over to the horrific scene just in time for Jen to pull the weapon out of the demon’s head. She placed a hand over her mouth to in hopes to keep her lunch down.
“And that’s how you take down a Grudglik,” Jen explained.
“Bit violent, isn’t it?” Kim asked, still staring down at the dead thing.
“Trust me, that thing would kill you in a heartbeat. Now come on, we still gotta rescue someone, right?”
Kim made some kind of absent minded agreement as she continued to look down at bleeding creature at her feet. Although she had always claimed that she could do anything, this she wasn’t so sure about. She shook it off and followed Jen. The girl was right, there was still a rescue left to do. She just hoped Ron and Dave were going to be alright.
Much like the girls, the boys found themselves wandering through the darkened hallways of the old warehouse. They had gotten by the locked door with an assist from Rufus and where now searching for the right direction to go. Without a Kimmunicator there to help guide them, it turned out to be quite a chore. Ron looked around in every direction he could while Rufus covered the ones he couldn’t. While blinding walking into danger wasn’t anything new for him, the type of danger he was walking into was and it was beginning to unnerve. So he decided to break the tension the only way he knew how.
“So you guys do this kinda of stuff all the time?” he whispered.
“You mean the demon hunting stuff?” Dave whispered back.
“Yeah.”
“Well I wouldn’t say all the time, but…quite frequently yes.”
“Wow. That’s gotta be weird.”
“Eh, you get use to it after awhile. Besides Pazuzu’s not really that bad. The one you really gotta watch out for is Fearcrow.”
“Fearcrow?” Ron repeated. “Oh! I bet he’s, like, a guy dressed up in a scarecrow outfit that uses gases and stuff to make people afraid, right?”
“No he’s an actual living scarecrow,” Dave explained plainly.
“Oh. Well that is weird.”
“Yeah. It’s a fear demon living inside that thing. He does induce fear but he mostly uses it to make himself stronger. Well pain the fight to cause we’re never sure if we’ve actually killed him or not.”
“Yeah it’s kinda like that with me and KP. I mean, we don’t kill our villains, obviously, but you can never be sure if they’ll stay in jail.”
“That can be a problem too. That’s the one thing I like about the demon thing we can usually just banish or kill them and never have to worry about them again.”
“Hmm,” Ron muttered, not sure how to response. “Guess we’re lucky then that the only really mystical guy we tangle with is Monkey Fist?”
“Monkey Fist?” Dave asked as he glanced back at Ron. “And you think our guys have weird names.”
“Hey I’m not the judge on the weird name thing. The villains do that to themselves.”
“True. So what’s up with Monkey Fist?”
“Crazy monkey obsessed guy, had genetic experimentation done to give himself monkey hands and feet, wants to be ‘The Monkey King’ always trying to get more Mystical Monkey Power.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up,” Dave interrupted. “You mean someone actually went after the Mystical Monkey Power?”
“You know about it?” Ron asked in surprise.
“Yeah we’ve come across it a few times while looking up other stuff. Never bothered to check it out cause it seemed too…stupid.”
“I have Mystical Monkey Power.”
“Oh. It’s still stupid.”
“Yeah I could really live without it.”
“Monkey! Phooey!” Rufus squeaked from Ron’s pocket.
“Wait,” Dave spoke, remembering something else from the conversation. “You said he had genetic alterations done?”
“Yeah. But a woman named DNAmy,” Ron explained. “Real whack job too. Keeps trying to make real life Cuddle Buddies.
Dave looked completely horrified by that idea. “This woman is a monster and must be stopped.”
“Yeah. So why do you ask?”
“Cause we’ve crossed paths with a guy who was genetically altered. Calls himself Canis and is some half wolf/half man kinda thing. Just wondering if maybe this DNAmy woman did that to him now.”
“Wouldn’t put it past her. She is pretty…” Ron made his pointed by twirling his left index finger around the side of his head.
Dave chuckled a bit at this but stopped when he heard a slight snarling sound. He and Ron both turned towards the sound to find a Grudglik standing a few feet in front of them with is back turned to them. They quickly ducked behind a pillar and after a moment peered out at the greyish demon again.
“So what do we do?” Ron whispered.
Dave looked around for something that could be used to take the thing down. When he found an old discarded pipe with a bent and sharp end he smile then motioned for Ron to stay there. He snuck across the floor to where the pipe lay and picked it up as quietly as he could. He checked to make sure the Grudglik didn’t hear him and let out a thankful sigh when it appeared it did not. He held the straight in of the pipe in his head, positioned it high above his head and began to turn towards the demon.
“Look out!” he shouted.
The demon turned at the sudden outburst then cried out in pain as the sharp end of the piped was driven into it’s forehead. Dave grunted as he pulled the pipe out and took another swing at the injured Grudglik, this time knocking it dead to the ground. He let out a deep breath as Ron walked over to him. He and Rufus both looked in open mouth horror between the fallen demon and the boy who had just felled it.
“Hey, I warned him,” Dave said with a shrug. “Now come on.”
“Uh…yeah…” Ron muttered then followed him, idly wondering what he’d gotten himself involved in this time. Hope KP’s doing better, he thought.
Deep within the main room of the ground floor, Pazuzu still stood at his alter, mixing his potion and oblivious to what was going on around him. His only concern at the moment was getting the potion just right. Once it was finished and applied to his “guest” then the ultimate warrior would be under his control. And if it didn’t work…well he’d just leave Shego’s remains for her “friends” to find and start over back in Los Demonios. Though he sincerely hoped he had not gone to all his trouble just to find out that baby was a dud.
With one last mix of the bowl and one last sprinkling of powdered demon bones the concoction was complete. He smile as he set the mixture aside and picked up a spreading instrument. Bowl and spreader in hand, he turned and walked back over to where Shego still lay helpless. He let out a deep, rumbling chuckled as he saw the fight still in her eyes.
“Not giving up yet?” he questioned. “I almost admire that. But it’s pointless. Once this is applied to you the process will be irreversible.”
“Touch my baby and we’ll find out just how ‘irreversible’ your face it,” Shego said venomously.
“Defiant to the last,” Pazuzu remarked as he roughly pulled her sweater over her stomach. “Now hold still, this will hurt quite a lot.”
“What? You gonna make her listen to more of your babbling?” a voice quipped.
Pazuzu looked to his left side in the direction the voice had come from. Dave soon stepped out of the darkness of the corner and grinned as the would be demon.
“You,” Pazuzu growled.
“Me,” he replied before his hand shot forward and knocked the bowel out of the villain’s hand. “Oops.”
“No!” Pazuzu shouted, staring at the paste like liquid now spilling over the floor.
He growled in anger as his head shot back towards the one that he ruined his work. Dave gave a half hearted shrug of apology before the started to run back into the darkness. Unfortunately, Pazuzu proved to be faster than Dave thought for the demon quickly wrapped a yellow, clawed hand around the boy’s neck. He lift the chocking Dave into the air with one hand and glared dangerously at him.
“You insolent little whelp,” Pazuzu grumbled. “I’ll kill you slowly for that. That last sound you will hear will be that of your vertebra cracking, one by one.”
“Pazuzu! Let him go!” another voice sounded, this one familiar to the masked man as well.
He held Dave firmly in his hand as he slowly turned around to see Jen standing across the room, hold her axe high for a fight.
“I’m the one you want,” she said.
“No, she’s the one I want,” he replied, pointing to Shego. “You’re just a bonus.”
“I guess that makes me an extra bonus, huh?” Kim asked walked up beside Jen.
“Kim Possible,” Pazuzu whispered, finally dropping Dave and giving the girl his full attention. “Now this is a pleasure. I’ve long wanted to cross swords with you but I’ve had to contend with your inferior imitation.”
“Who are you calling inferior!” Jen snapped.
“Let Shego go or I’ll show just what I’m capable of,” Kim threatened, ignoring Jen’s outburst.
“As much as I’d love to, I can’t. I have more important matters to attend to. But my friends will be more than happy to keep you company. Kill them!”
At Pazuzu’s command, the last two remaining Grudglik demons charged for Kim and Jen as fast as their squat legs could carry them. The two girls readied themselves for the upcoming battle.
“Ready for this?” Jen asked Kim.
“I think so,” she replied.
“Just remember they’re not human and they won’t hesitate to kill.”
“Right.”
With that, the two parted ways, each running to meet their respective opponent. As the fights began, Pazuzu turned his attention to the small puddle on the ground. There was still a chance it hadn’t lost its potency but he would have to act fast. Just as he started to walk towards it, he felt something tug on his cape. He turned to see Dave standing on his feet and holding his sore throat.
“Hey magic man, we’re not done yet,” the boy stated bravely then threw a punch that landed perfectly on Pazuzu’s jaw. It was an action he regretted as in seconds his hand began to throb in pain. “Ow!” he shouted, waving the hand in the air to try and less pain.
“Foolish boy. My mask isn’t just latex,” he informed, looking more towards Shego than Dave. “It and the rest of my costume have been reinforced with a kevlar lining. A little trick I picked up for you friend Jen there.”
“Well I’m sure she’d be very proud of that fact,” Dave quipped.
Pazuzu merely lunged forward and grabbed the collar of his coat before hurling him over the table Shego lay strapped to. A surprised scream came not only from Dave but also Ron, who had chosen that moment to show up and try to free Shego. The throw had sent Dave sailing right over the blonde sidekick and just missed his head by inches. Unfortunately that didn’t help him escaped the faux demon’s noticed.
“Uh…hello,” Ron greeted with a slightly nervous wave.
Pazuzu merely let out annoyed grunt as he unsheathed this sword and swung it towards Ron, hoping to decapitate the boy. Ron ducked the blade in time and it swung dangerously close to Shego’s belly. Thankfully for everyone’s sake it missed and the villain pressed his attack by lunging over the chair with the sword above his head. Ron let out another terrified scream when he realized what Pazuzu wanted to do with the weapon and quickly picked himself up so that it merely hit the concrete floor harmlessly. Ron moved over to where Dave was just coming to and helped him up.
“So what do we do now?” he asked, glaring at the angry costumed man with the sword.
“We…try not to die,” Dave remarked.
“Works for me!”
Kim performed a backwards somersault to avoid another swipe from the Grudglik’s claws. The good news was that Jen’s statement about them not being very bright proved true. It also turned out that they weren’t very fast so that gave her an advantage as far as avoiding them was concerned. The bad news was that Jen had been right about their hardened skin. Every kick and punch she landed felt more like she was punching a bag of cement. Trying to reach the weak forehead resulted in her being swatted away like a fly by their long arms. So far she had been lucky and not received any serious cuts but she knew that wouldn’t hold out forever.
Come on Possible, you’ve been in hundreds of fights before, she thought as she ducked under another swipe. Admittedly not against a demon before but there’s still away to beat this thing. You know it’s weakness, so how do you exploit it?
She lashed out with another kick to it’s sternum to try and slow it down before he back flipped away to get some space to think. She looked around the large room for something, anything, that might give her an edge. She paused when she noticed several crates resting on a suspended pallet high above the floor. She also noticed that with just a little bit of prodding she could get the demon to stand right underneath it.
“Well that’s convenient,” she smirked. “Hey ugly! Come on, I’m right here! Free Kim Possible dinner plate special!”
As she suspected, the Grudglik took the bait and headed right for her. With a smirk she pulled out her boomerang comb from her pocket and threw it as hard as she could towards the pallet. It hit perfectly on the rusted, old hook holding the crates up and caused it to rock back and fourth. When the boomerang returned to her hand, Kim tossed it one more time and crossed her fingers in hopes that her plan would work. The pallet shifted once again and this time a slight creaking could be heard. One more toss and the corroded metal finally gave way, just in time for the demon to be standing right under it.
“I’d look up if I were you,” Kim advised.
The Grudglik did just that and had time to let out one pathetic scream for the crates crashed down on him, crushing him completely. Kim placed the comb back in her pocket with a slight smirk that quickly disappeared when she heard Ron calling out her name.
“KP! Help!”
“Ron!” she called out in concern when she him and Dave ducking under Pazuzu’s sword.
She narrowed her eyes in anger then darted towards the deranged villain. She jumped into the air as she closed in on him and took him down with a prefect jump kick to the head. He let out a scream of pain as he fell to the ground, dropping his sword in the process. Kim quickly stood up from the crouch she had landed in and looked over at the two boys.
“You two alright?” she asked.
“Oh I’m just fine!” Dave remarked.
“I’m good,” Ron stated more calmly.
“Good. Then you two go help Shego while I deal with him,” she nodded towards Pazuzu.
“Right,” they both said then ran back over to the table.
Pazuzu rubbed his chin as he slowly got to his feet. Even with his armored costume the blow still hurt. He looked over his shoulder and just barely caught sight of Kim out of the corner of his eye. He shrugged his shoulder so that his cape fell in front of his right arm to block her view as it slithered down to a pouch attached to his belt.
“Well done child. You’re everything I’ve heard you are,” he commented.
“Flattery’s not going to make me pull back,” Kim snarled. “You kidnapped the mother of my child, don’t think I’ll forget that anytime soon.”
“Of course. But you won’t be around to worry about it!”
In an instant he spun around and threw an object at her from his pouch. It looked like a simple black ball, about the size of a baseball, but Kim had fought enough villains to know better. Thinking quickly she brought her foot up and kicked the thing away. As soon as it hit the ground it exploded, proving Kim’s theory. Unfortunately, the second that one went off, he threw another one her way, causing her to jump to the side to avoid it this time. As he tossed a third one, she jumped towards him and used the resulting explosion to push her towards him that much harder and faster. They collided together and fell to the ground, hands intertwined and fighting for dominance.
As Kim’s fight with Pazuzu continued, Jen found herself busy dealing with the last remaining Grudglik demon. It would be her luck to get the one that could actually carry on a decent fight. He used his tough skin to his advantage and blocked every swing of her axe with his long arms. Though it did seem to be doing some damage to him, it was obviously not enough to slow him down. Deciding she needed to be more aggressive she took a chance and after ducking another one of his swipes, tucked herself into a ball and rolled under his arms. When she stood up she found herself face-to-face with him, which she broke by slamming the handle of her axe into his chin. He grunted a bit and stumbled enough for her to bring her axe to bare. Before she could strike the killing blow though, he wrapped his long fingers around her waist and held her above his head. She let out a muffled cry as his claws tore through her clothes and bit into her skin a bit, but she pushed it back and slammed the axe into the middle of his back. The Grudglik screamed as he let, allowing her to vault over and land behind him. Unfortunately, the action succeeded in unlocking the blade that was stuck in his back.
“Crap!” Jen shouted as she looked at her now single bladed axe.
The demon let out a fierce growl as it spun around and knocked the axe out of her hand, sending it flying to the middle of the room.
“Double crap!”
The two combatants glared at each other for a second before the Grudglik brought his hands together above his head then swung them down. Again Jen rolled just inside their reach but this time she jumped up and over the creature to land on his back. More specifically to grabbed the discarded blade stuck there. She pulled out it with all her might and with an extra added kick it came out, sending her sprawling to the ground and the demon stumbling forward. She was quick to pick herself up just as he spun back towards her. She grabbed the end of the blade and with all her might hurled it towards him. Luckily, the blow struck true and the blade buried itself in his forehead, causing him to wobble a bit. Taking the advantage she ran forward and performed a jump kick herself, shoving the weapon further into the demon’s head and killing him.
Jen’s sigh of relief but her moment didn’t last long as she heard a pained scream. She looked across the room and saw Kim laying on her back with Pazuzu standing over her ready to strike.
“Kim!” she cried out and bolt across the room as fast as she could.
Surprising even herself with how quickly she approached the fight, she nevertheless brought her left elbow and with her right hand holding her balled left one, smashed it into Pazuzu’s face with all the strength she could muster. He growled in pain as her blow landed in the same spot Kim’s had but this time he kept his balance. He had no time to counter attack, however, because Jen continued her own, slamming her knee into his gut then finishing him off with an open palmed strike to the chin. When he fell to the floor, Jen jumped back to be at Kim’s side.
“That’s what the pads are for,” she stated as she held out a hand.
“Good to know,” Kim replied as she took the offered hand and pulled herself to her feet.
“Still got some fight in you?”
“Of course.”
“Good, then let’s take him.”
In the midst of the girls’ fight, Ron and Dave returned to their original mission, rescuing Shego. They stood on either side of the table and inspected the device the held the woman’s dangerous plasma powers in check.
“So…what do we do?” Ron asked, still looking at the device.
“What are you asking me for?” Dave asked back.
“I thought you handled this stuff all the time?”
“Not this! Look, I get the vision, I drive the car, occasionally I’ll hit someone, but for all the complex, electronic complicated stuff that’s strictly a Jen thing. What about you? You deal with death rays and the like all the time.”
“Yeah but like you I usually rely on Kim or Wade to figure out how to actually turn stuff off. I’m more the button masher type.”
“Ugh. I’m being rescued by the Roxbury Twins,” Shego muttered.
“Hey, now is not the time to be snippy,” Ron admonished.
“No, I think now is the PREFECT TIME TO BE SNIPPY!”
“Well with that attitude I don’t know if I want to rescue you.”
“GET ME OUT OF HERE!”
Dave tuned out the screaming by looking around for anything that might help them. After catching a glint of something he looked closer to find it was Jen’s forgotten weapon.
“Hey we could use Jen’s axe to cut your hands off at the wrists. That would work,” he suggested.
“We’re not doing that!” Shego snarled.
“It’s the only way.”
“IT IS NOT THE ONLY WAY!”
“It’s one of the ways,” Dave remarked with a shrug.
Shego pulled at her restraints even more as she let out a scream of pure, unadulterate annoyance.
Pazuzu grunted as he blocked another punch and countered it with a backhand that sent the brown haired girl crashing to the floor. He had little time to recover, however, as Kim landed another roundhouse kick to his chest. He grabbed the outstretched ankle and quickly flung her towards the just standing Jen. They collided with a soft “thud” and a shared groan of pain as Jen fell again, this time with Kim on top of her. The demon wannabe smirked then used the momentary distraction to put some distance between himself the two young heroines. He considered himself a decent grappler but he knew when he was outmatched. He had clearly underestimated the strength of the two girls and now had to work the fight to his advantage. Fortunately, he had a rather big advantage right there in the room.
“No,” Jen said weakly when she realized where he was headed. “Kim get up.”
“Wha-?” she asked as she pulled herself off the other girl.
“Snap out of it we have to stop him. We can let him get to his-” She stopped when the sound of an engine starting filled the air. “Glider,” she finished with a sigh and slumped shoulders.
“OK, dropped the ball on that one,” Kim muttered. “So besides just the aerial advantage what else can this glider thing do?”
“Well the lion’s mouth can open and shoot out fireballs,” Jen stated.
“Great. Then we gotta take him down fast.”
Decision made, Kim ran towards the hovering glider before he could turn it towards them and shot her grabbling hook towards it. It clipped onto one of the wings just beneath Pazuzu’s leg and with a screech of surprise Kim found herself launched into the air.
“OK, maybe this wasn’t the best idea,” she mumbled as she hung on for dear life.
Pazuzu looked down when he felt the extra weight on the glider and was surprised to find Kim dangling from the rope. Deciding to have a little fun he flew erratically around the room, turning sharp corners around the catwalks and pillars in hope of smashing the girl into one of them. Unfortunately for him she seemed just as adept at avoiding those objects as she was his punches. He let out an irritable growl after a moment.
“This isn’t fun anymore,” he called out. “So this is where you get off!”
He moved his left foot from the security strap/control unit on that wing to press down on a nearly invisible button next to it. The action caused a scorpion tail to unfurl from the bottom of the machine and lash out at the rope, easily slicing it with its pointed tip. Kim screamed as she started to fall, but stopped when she was save by Jen who was swinging by on her own grapple line.
“Gotcha!” the brunette said as she swung towards the catwalk.
The landed safely but before they could even think of their next move, Pazuzu turned the glider around and began to launch a hailstorm of fireballs from the lion’s head in the front. Each girl ran off in an opposite direction along the quickly disappearing catwalk until they were on either side of him. He looked back and fourth between the two of them, not sure which one to attack first. The choice was made for him when Kim jumped towards him as his turned his back on her. She wrapped an arm around his throat and tried to put him a choke hold, but found it very difficult due to the mask and cowl. He grabbed her shoulders, flipped her over him and sent her flying to the ground. She was able to save herself by leaping off some of the pillars and boxes and landing perfectly on her feet with her hands in the air as if it were a cheer routine.
As Pazuzu turned to strike at her again, Jen took that as her cue to launch her own attack. Unlike Kim, she went for the more direct approach and simply jump kicked him in the back. The attack succeeded in knocking him off the glider, but he was able to grab onto the inside of one of the wings before he completely fell and flipped himself back onto it without it even losing a bit of power.
Jen, however, was not so lucky. The impact from the kick caused her to fly backwards and, again unlike Kim, she didn’t have anything to bounce off of to land safely. Thankfully she was saved a painful landing when the cheerleader ran underneath her and caught her.
“Thanks,” she sighed.
“No big. We’re even now,” Kim replied as she stood Jen to her feet. “So what do we do now?”
“Well usually,” Jen started looking up at the villain overhead, “we try to avoid the death from above as we think of a way to bring him down.
“Not much of a plan but at this point I guess we don’t have time to argue, huh?”
“Nope.”
As they did their best to avoid the fireballs and bombs being dropped on them, the two girls were unaware that they were being watched by someone else. Shego sighed in frustration as they fight dragged on, desperately wishing she could go something to help. Instead she had to lay there and be subjected by the “rescue” efforts of buffoon 1 and buffoon 2. She was seriously beginning to rethink the idea of cutting off her wrists just so she could get away from their inane banter. At least it would be doing something. She hated feeling useless and right now that’s essentially what she was; useless and helpless. She wanted nothing more than to break the restraints, bounce off a few walls and boxes right up to the masked moron and beat him within an inch of his life. But she couldn’t. Even when she did get free she still couldn’t add much more to the fight because of her condition. Again her maternal side and her fighter side came into conflict. She didn’t want to do anything to hurt her baby but she also wanted to kick a little ass. She was still getting use to the notion of doing one over the other.
Something else struck her as she watched the two young heroines fight. In just the short time they had known each other they seemed to adapt quite well the other others moves. The complimented each other very well and at times when struck identical blows. Shego couldn’t help by wonder how differently the fight would have gone had she been the one fighting out there alongside Kimmie. With as many fights as the two had been in over the years, they had gotten to know each others moves rather intimately and could almost preform them themselves. So if they were actually working together than imagine what a well oiled machine they would be. This fight would probably be over by now if was them out there. She found it a little odd that she actually wanted to help Kim in a fight but given all that they had been through in the past few months it seems almost natural at this point. What was really striking her as odd was the almost…envious feeling she had towards the Jen girl for being able to fight along is Kim. Where that came from she wasn’t sure.
“I got it!” Ron said with a snap of his fingers, drawing the attention of the other two.
“What?” Dave asked.
“How to get these things off,” he replied, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his trusty partner. “Rufus!”
“Oh goody, molerat to the rescue,” Shego quipped, sounding less than convinced.
“I’ll have you know that Rufus as figured out lots of complicated things.”
“Yeah!” Rufus squeaked in self defensive.
Shego just rolled her eyes and looked away as the naked molerat jumped onto the hand restraints and walked the length of the device, studying it. He “hmmed” and “hahhed” for awhile before walking over to the small control panel and pressing various buttons at once. To the great surprise of Shego and Dave, the device gave off a slight his then popped open, freeing her hands. Shego brought her hands to her face and stared at them in disbelief.
“I can’t believe it,” she whispered. “The hairless freak actually did it.”
“Told ya,” Ron smirked.
“Yeah, tol ya!” Rufus added.
Shego ignored the two as a devilish smile spread across her face. It was one Ron recongized instantly, for he had seen it pointed in his direction many times back in the day. It was a smile that meant someone was in for a world full of pain and was to be pitied by all. With a feral scream she sat up and blasted the chains off her ankles and pulled herself off the bed. Dave was about to advice her to get to a safer place, but the white hot look she gave told him to back off, which he wisely did. The green flames around her hands burned brightly with a rage she barely tapped into.
“I have only one good shot left today,” she spoke softly, mostly to herself. “And I’m going to use it on the jackass that dared to take me hostage, threaten my baby and tried to kill Kim. He is so going down.”
She let the power build a few seconds longer before bringing both hands forward and unleashing it with a hellish scream of rage and emotion. As promised she made one good shot the tore the right wing off the glider and almost took Pazuzu’s leg with it. As it was he flailed for a bit before he fell from the remains of the vehicle and hit the concrete floor with a hard, loud “thud”.
He groaned in pain as he slowly picked himself off the floor. His reinforcements only did so much to protect him and while nothing felt broken, there were certainly a few sprains and many, many bruises. As he tried to recover from the fall he, along with most of the others, failed to noticed the black gloved hand picking up Jen’s forgotten axe. It was spun around to the blunt side was facing outwards and the hand loosened its grip so that the shaft would slide down until almost the hilt past at which point it tightened its grip again. The figure stalked towards the injured villain, determined to land the finishing blow.
“Hey scale face!” it called out.
Pazuzu spun to come face-to-face with an anger Jen. The next few seconds seemed to pass in slow motion as she brought the axe upwards to smash into the underside of his chin. His head snapped back from the blow as the force of it launched him into the air a few feet. His body went completely limp as it sailed through the air and once again hit the floor with a sickening “crunch”.
“Now who’s inferior!” she shouted.
She dropped the axe then walked over to his semi-conscious form, rolled him to his side and placed restraints on his wrists and ankles. She then picked up her weapon again and walked back over to where the others were standing around the table Shego had been strapped to.
“Shego, are you alright?” Kim asked even as she looked over the woman for injuries.
“I’m fine now that I’m off the table and away from those two,” she replied as she jerked a thumb toward Ron and Dave.
“No love for the sidekicks,” Ron sighed.
“Tell me about it,” Dave agreed.
“Other than that, are you OK? Did he hurt you? Did he hurt Shin?” Kim continued to ask, still looking frantic.
“We’re both fine,” Shego reassured her, adding emphasizes by patting her stomach.
“Thank God,” Kim sighed and inadvertently hugged Shego.
“Alright, alright, I’m good I’m good. Just stop it already!”
“Oh sorry,” the redhead said with a blush as she pulled back. “This has just been a seriously nightmarish day.”
“Well get use to it,” a voice from across the room threatened.
All eyes turned to glare at Pazuzu as he pushed himself into a sitting position and smiled evilly at the group, particularly Kim and Shego.
“The word’s out on your little prodigy there,” he warned. “I was merely the first in what will no doubt be a very long line. Everyone wants to get their hands on that baby, either as leverage or simply a way to cause you two pain. There will be others and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
The members of the group looked at each other for a moment, unsure of the best way to handle the situation. Shego glared at the captured villain then looked back to Jen.
“That mask just comes off right?” she asked.
“Uh…as far as I know. Usually I let the authorities handle that,” Jen replied.
“Well let’s find out.”
Shego made a purposeful stride over to Pazuzu, flipped back the hood then grabbed a handful of the latex mask, not caring if she was pulling out here or even some scalp. With a hard yank the mask came off to reveal a bald man in about this mid-30s. He stared up at Shego with hatred burning in his bright yellow eyes. She returned the gaze ten fold, causing him to flinch slightly. The next action was her fist slamming hard into his jaw, knocking him over as a loud cracking sound filled the air. His head bounced of the concrete one before coming to rest as he fell unconscious. Shego then walked calmly back to the others and handed the mask to Jen.
“Here have a souvenir,” she simply said.
Kim looked over at Pazuzu’s limp form then back over to Shego, confusion and worry written all over her face.
“Shego, you didn’t?” she asked.
“Relax he’ll be fine. He’ll just have to get his food through a straw for awhile,” Shego dismissed.
“Still kinda harsh,” Ron mumbled.
“Yeah well, he pissed me off. Plus he tried to mess with my baby. No one does that.”
“At least not without getting hurt,” Kim added, surprising Ron and Shego. “Shin is my baby too and I’m going to everything I protect her.” She placed her hand Shego’s stomach before looking up into the woman’s eyes. “And you.”
“Hold me,” Dave spoke up.
“Could you be serious for one second?” Jen admonished.
“I am serious. Hold me!” he repeated as he held his head.
All too familiar with this action, Jen reached out for his shoulders and held him firmly as the latest vision ripped through his mind. He saw images of a short hair blonde woman standing over a struggling Kim atop a skyscraper. Another image of a flurry of monkeys dressed in black. A large woman with glasses in some strange lab prodding Shego. Men in red and white uniforms with Greek letters chasing Kim through a mall. Flocks of birds swarming Kim, Shego, and Ron while a man in a bird costume laughed triumphantly. A robotic blue face glaring angrily at Kim while somewhere midst of a battle Shego cried out in unimaginable pain. His head snapped up when it was all over and he looked at the other three, specifically the two woman and was unsure what to say.
“What was that!” Ron asked, feeling a bit freaked out.
“Vision,” Dave sighed.
“And?” Jen prodded.
“And I really hate to agree with the man laying on the floor with the broken jaw, but he’s right. A lot of people are gonna be coming after your baby.”
A heavy silence hung in the air at that statement. Kim had wanted to believe that this was just a one time incident, but she was only fooling herself. If the word really was out about her baby then she knew a lot of her other villains would try to come after it. And apparently she wouldn’t have just her villains to worry about either. There may be dark times ahead, but she was ready to face them. She wasn’t so sure about Shego. Though she would never admit it, Kim suspected this incident had taken its toll on her. So how could she handle being the target of so many of her former peers during the rest of her pregnancy?
“Bring ‘em on,” Shego spoke quietly, as if hearing Kim’s thought.
“What!” Kim shouted in surprised.
“You heard me, they want a fight we’ll give ‘em a fight. If they thought I was bad news when I worked for Drakken just let them try to take my baby!” she screamed with a fury that would make the devil himself quake with fear.
Kim stared at the front door to her house longingly. It had been a trying day and all she really wanted to do right now was to go inside and rest. But there was something else she had to do first. She turned around to face Jen Credible, the girl who proclaimed to be “fighting the good fight”. After everything she had seen today she understood the meaning to her slogan.
“Thanks for all your help,” Kim said, holding a hand out.
Jen smiled broadly as she took the offered hand and shook it.
“Not a problem. It’s what I do. And it was an honor working with you,” she gushed.
“Same here,” Kim replied pulling back her hand. “If this is what you have to deal with on a daily basis, then you definitely deserve more credit than people seem to be giving you.”
“It’s nothing really. You’re still the best around. I mean, I can’t understand how you can save the whole world all the time and still do the cheerleader thing and all that stuff.”
“It is hard, but someone has to do it.”
After a mutual nod of agreement, Kim turned and started to walk towards her door when Jen called out to her.
“Just one more thing,” she said.
“Yeah?” Kim asked, turning back to her.
“What’s going on between you and Shego?” Jen asked, tilting her head towards the house.
“W-what do you mean?” the redhead asked, suddenly feeling nervous for some reason.
“I think it’s pretty obvious there’s something else going on besides you just protecting her for the sake of your child. You two almost seem like friends now.”
“Well…I guess you could say we are. I mean I know it’s seems weird but…I guess it just had to happen, right?”
“Not really,” Jen countered. “She could have just taken the baby and ran or not told you about it at all.”
Kim seemed to think this over for a moment. “You’re right. In fact she almost tried to do that at first. But when I told her I wanted to help her she caved in surprisingly quickly. After that we’ve been getting along pretty well. Well at least as well as we can.”
“Those who communicate with their fists,” the brunette mutter shaking her head in amusement.
“What?”
“It’s something from an anime I watched a few years back. Can’t remember the whole thing now, but the gist is that those who communicate with their fists, basically you, Shego and me, and I guess Cobalt, she’s pretty good. Kinda like my Shego actually,” Jen rambled a bit then shook her head to get herself back on track. “Anyway, we all have a…bond between us that even we don’t really know about.” She illustrated point by throwing a soft punch at Kim, which the girl expertly caught in her right hand. “See? You know that was coming without any warning at all. That’s what the bond is. It’s a form of respect we have between each other that we’re not even that aware of. It’s what pushes us to be just a little better than our opponent, just a little faster, or stronger or agile or whatever. That need to be at the very top of your game and give them everything you’ve got.”
“Cause if you don’t you’d just be insulting them and yourself,” Kim concluded. “I see where you’re going now. Because we already had that respect built up it was easier to build a friendship once we found something that forced us to put aside our grudge.”
“Exactly,” Jen remarked, pulling back her fist.
“So you feel the same way for this Cobalt woman then?”
“Well, the respect yeah cause she is pretty damn good. But…” she paused as she figured out the best way to put her next remark. “Well let’s just say I don’t think I could handle the kind of situation you’re in.”
Kim chuckled and waved her off. “Don’t worry about it. If I think too much about it I get freaked out.”
Jen was about to say something else when she was interrupted by her cell phone. After fishing around for it in her pocket, she pulled it out and held it up to her ear.
“Hello?” she asked. “Oh Rose, what’s up?” She paused to listen to the response. “Ah. Well it’ll take us a bit of time to get back into town but yeah we’ll look into it.” Another pause. “Well…then tell them not to go in there. Look we’ll talk about it more when I get back. Bye.” She placed the phone back in her pocket and looked at Kim again. “Well gotta go, duty calls.”
“Right. Good luck,” Kim well wished.
“You too. And if you need anything else, you know how to reach me.”
“Same here.”
Kim waved Jen and Dave goodbye as the sped off into the night. She let out a small sigh of relief at the idea of finally being able to relax a bit. When she stepped into the house, however, her mission senses automatically kicked in and told her something was wrong. She wasn’t sure just what was wrong just that something waswrong. It became a little more clear when she walked into the living room and found Shego sitting on the and only half watching the TV. The other half of her mind seemed to be fuming about something.
“Uh…Shego? Are you OK?” Kim asked as she approached cautiously.
“I’m just peachy,” Shego answered, sarcasm dripping from her voice. “I mean I was just taken hostage today like some crying little girl! I wasn’t even able to do anything about it. Noooo, I had to wait for the great Kim Possible to come save me. Oh and her new special friend Jen Credible. Hooray!” She held her hands together and shook them in an exaggerated way.
Kim felt extremely confused. She could understand Shego hating the idea of feeling weak, but what did Jen have to do with any of this? Carefully, she made her way over to the couch and sat beside the pregnant woman. She tried to place a comforting hand over Shego’s, but she just snatched it away. Kim took in a deep, calming breath, before she could even try to say anything.
“OK,” she said with an exhale. “So let’s try this again. You’re mad, I get that. You were taken hostage and you didn’t like it.”
“Damn right I didn’t like it!” Shego snapped, glaring dangerously at Kim. “Let me explain things to your Princess, I do the kidnapping, I don’t getkidnapped. And even on the off chance that I did, I certainly don’t get saved by Kim Possible, her sidekick and two wannabes!”
There it was again.
“What has Jen or Dave got to do with any of this?” Kim asked.
“Everything!” Shego shouted as she threw her hands in the air. “I mean it was her stupid bad guy that kidnapped me after all! And then here you two come saving the day and making everything right with the world. Just fighting along side each other like you’re been best friends forever.”
Kim quirked an eyebrow. Was this really bothering her that much?
“And?” she questioned, trying to get an honest response.
“And…and…and it should have been me!” the pale woman erupted. “I should have been the one fighting along side you and rescuing the poor shmuck instead of being the poor shmuck. But instead I had to lay there and be with the other girl while I was helpless to do anything. Just…so…helpless.”
The situation turned even more bizarre when she saw something she never thought she’d seeing; Shego starting to cry. Of course she tried to fight it back by hiding her sniffles and discretely rubbing her eyes, but soon enough she broke out into a full sob, head buried in her hands and all. Kim shifted nervously at the very strange and uncomfortable sight.
Alright, this has to be a hormone thing, she reasoned. So what do I do?
The question plagued Kim’s mind as she continued to watch the woman she use to have deadly fist fights with cry like a child that lost its favorite toy. It might have been the very surreal circumstances involved that prevented her from think of anything, but she just couldn’t for the life of her come up with a comforting word. So instead she decided to go for the next best thing.
“Come here,” she said softly as she pulled Shego into a caring embrace.
Shego took a moment out of her crying to be surprised, but it quickly returned in full. She wrapped her arms around Kim’s back and rested her head in the girl’s shoulder as the tears continued.
“Shhh, it’s alright,” Kim whispered as she rubbed Shego’s back.
“I hate this,” the other woman murmured. “Its worse than those damn Moodulators cause I can’t just turn this off.”
“It’s just a natural result of the pregancy.”
“But I don’t want it to be. I don’t want to a blubbering mess. I don’t want to be…weak.”
“You’re not weak. You’re one of the strongest people I know.”
That was the magic phrase was looking for earlier. With just that one sentence Shego knew the cheerleader was right. She was one of the strongest people, not just that Kim knew, but in the world. She could beat these stupid, erratic emotions. She just needed time to wade them out. And someone to knock some sense into her. Apparently, that job belonged to Kim and she couldn’t be happier about it. Shego let out a content sigh as she nuzzled the girl’s neck a bit.
It was then that she realized what she was doing. She was actually nuzzling Kim Possible’s neck. Not to mention hugging and being hugged by her. And she liked it. More than she probably should.
“Alright, hugging time’s over now,” she demanding, trying to go back to her usual tough girl, “I don’t care” attitude as they broke apart.
“Feeling better?” Kim asked as she readjusted herself.
“Yeah I’m fine. Think I’ll watch some TV now,” Shego replied, picking up the remote and flipping through the channels.
“You sure you don’t want to go to bed? I mean a lot happened today and it is pretty late.”
“I thought you’re suppose to be Shin’s mom not mine. Besides I feel-” her statement was stopped when a loud yawn worked it’s way up from her throat.
Kim gave a triumphant smirk at that.
“Shut up,” Shego muttered.
“Like I was saying-” Kim started but stopped when she had to yawn as well.
“Now who’s tired?” Shego gloated.
“Well my day was busy too. And I’ll have you know I was planning on going to bed. But…now I can’t move,” she said, trying to get up and falling back as if proving her point.
“Believe me I know the feeling. How about we just sit here and watch TV for a bit? We’ll get to bed later.”
“Agreed.”
They settled down more comfortably on the couch and stared at the TV as Shego finally stopped on the Comedy Channel. On the screen was a comedian standing in front of a blue curtain with a strange purple and yellow puppet perched on a stood next to him. They were into a routine about what city they were in, which the two ladies found quite enjoyable. No doubt they would have liked the rest of the show as well but not long after they started watching, exhaustion took over and they each feel into a deep sleep. During the course of which Shego ended up resting her head on Kim’s shoulder while Kim rest her head on the top of Shego’s. She also laid her right hand on top of Shego’s right while the pale woman’s own right hand was resting on her belly. They each had a comfortable, dreamy smile on their faces as left the outside world, completely oblivious to anything around them. Including a bright flash and twin sets of laughter running up the stairs.
To Be Continued…
Author’s Notes: Ever had that experience of things not working out the way you planned? Well that’s just what happened here. As I said in my previous Author’s Notes, I really wanted to have this up when I said I would, but it just didn’t turn out that way. Another thing that didn’t turn out like it was suppose was the fact that this story was just going to be six chapters. Well here we are on Chapter Six and not much is resolved, huh? That just means it’ll be longer than I originally thought. How much longer? I honestly have no idea. Just like they say on the show, at this point, anything’s possible. But I will continue on as planned and just cut up chapters as need be. Hope you’ll all stick around for the ride.
In that spirit, some of the villains mentioned in Dave’s vision won’t actually be getting any “screen” time. I think the story is long enough at this point. I’ll certainly make mention of the events in later chapters, but as for actually seeing them…well I don’t know. I might come back sometime to fill in the gaps or if some adventuring soul wants they can write their own version of what they think happened. I only ask two things; 1) PM me so we can go over the details so as not to create a conflict with the story proper and 2) for God’s tell me when it’s done. I’d like to see it.