Shego and Ron closed the doors in silence and slowly walked over to Dr Drakken who had slumped into the easy chair behind his desk, his blue skin turning so pale, it almost looked a normal skin tone! (A normal skin tone that had turned VERY PALE, that is) Almost as if they had rehersed it, Ron and Shego started talking at once, Rufus adding his chattering to the noise.
“What the Devil is going on out there?”
“It's the Twilight Zone, man!”
“Doctor Drakken, what did you do?”
“This can't be happening! Where'd Kim go?”
“Quiet!”Dr Drakken/Mr Lipski shouted with such force that the others stopped cold. “Now let's look at this logicly. Kim Possible went back in time and changed something, that has to be the only answer. Instead of being a supervillian, I now own an ice cream business.”
Ron had to laugh at this.
“Kim made you an honest man? Booyah! Who's your daddy NOW, bad man?”
“Hoo yor dadee?” Rufus chirpped, pointing at ‘Drew Lipski’.
“Wait a minute,” Shego said, placeing a hand on her throbbing head. “How could Kim Possible change reality?”
Drakken got up and paced in thought. Opening a drawer in his desk, he set up some dominos in two fan patterns. Turning to the others, he began his lecture.
“Time is a very complicated thing. We do know one thing: it does nothappen one event after another. That is, if history followed such a pattern, things would happen in logical procession; like one plus one equals two. One plus one plus one equals three and so on. But instead the course of history is a series of cause and effect, each event makeing later events possible. So the pattern really goes: one plus one equals two, two plus two equals four and three plus three equals six. Understand?”
Two human heads and one rodent head slowly shook from side to side.
“All right, I've set up a little demonstration. Let's say that these dominos represent the course of history. I knock over the first domino and it knocks over the next two and they knock over the next row and so on. The resulting pattern represents our present day, this is what we call ‘reality’. With me so far? Good. Now this other fan of dominos is the reality we are now experienceing. Kim Possible went back in time and did something, removed a domino, so to speak. Now when I knock them over, the pattern is diffrent,our reality has been changed!”
“But why are things only diffrent outside this office?” Asked the quick-minded Shego. “Why do we remember what happened? Wouldn't we have been affected too?”
“Hmm, perhaps it's some sort of ‘safty zone’ around the time machine,” he pondered. “There was a flash when she disappiered, that flash may have affected everyone and everything in the light's path.”
“I'll call Wade,” Ron offered, picking up the kimunicator KP had dropped durring the fight. “Maybe he can tell us something. Aw man, it's broken!” He groaned as static greeted him. “Can I borrow your phone?”
“Go ahead,” Drew sighed. “It probobly doesn't matter anyway.”
Ron punched in the phone number and was greeted by the cheerful voice of Wade's mother.
“Hi Mrs Load, it's Ron Stoppable. Can I talk to Wade?…Thanks…Hi Wade, it's Ron. Listen we have some trouble here and I need you to…Ron, Ron Stoppable…You know, Kim's sidekick…Wade, do we have a bad connection? Kim Possible…”A shocked look fell across his features as he listened. “No! Don't hang up! WADE!”
Rufus scrambled to Ron's shoulder and looked at his buddy with concern. Even the normaly indiffrent Shego felt a twinge of pity when she guessed Ron's next words.
“He…didn't know me,” Ron whispered. “He didn't know Kim, either…IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!”
Ron Stoppable ran out through the offices, getting strange looks from the workers as he tore past them, shouting his frustration and fear to the world. Shego closed the doors and turned to her (now honest) boss.
“Dr D, I…what are we going to do?”
“The first thing we must do Shego, is examine the situation,” He told her, tapping his fingers together. “Then we will form a plan of action.”
NEAR THE POSSIBLE HOME, about two hours later:
It took a while, but Ron had calmed down somewhat and was starting to think. He tried to figure out what Drakken had told him but just found it confuseing. No! It had to be a trick! Drakken and shego had done something to Kim and had somehow convinced everyone that she didn't exist! But he wasn't fooled, not for one minute and he was NOT going to just stand there while those two carried out their fiendish plans!
“They may have hypnotised the whole world, pal,” He told Rufus. “But we were too strong for them! We'll save Kim and then we'll kick som blue and green butt!”
“Yaa!” The Mole Rat responded, makeing a pounding gesture.
“But first, we have some serious business to take care of, buddy.”
“Mmm?”
“We have to tell Kim's parents what happened to her.”
“Uuuu,” the rodent groaned, looking sad.
“I know, I don't want to face them either. But as Kim's sidekick, it's my job and hey, maybe they can help! Yeah, they're smart people, they can help Kim!”
Perked up by the thought, Ron put rufus back into his pocket and trotted down the street to the house he knew as well as his own. When he rang the doorbell, Doctor Mr Possible answered, motioning Ron into the house.
“Hi Ronald, good to see you again! hear to see Kimmie?”
“Well, no. I mean yes,” Better bite the bullet, he thought. “I have some bad news Dr P. I'm afraid Kim's missing.”
“Missing? When did this happen?”
“About a couple of hours ago. You see, I was fighting Dr Drakken and Kim turned on a laser and there was this flash and…”
“Woah, woah! Ron, I don't know about this ‘Dr Drakken’ or ‘lasers', but I do know that I just left my Kimmie-cub in the back yard with her mother.”
“She's out back? With her mother? Oh man, that's great! Thanks Dr Possible,” he cried, shakeing the man's hand. “You've made my day!”
“Any time, Ron,” Mr Possible called to the teen as he ran out the back door.
‘Kim's safe!’ Ron thought. This was the best news he had heard all day! It also means that Drakken lied! Well, that goes without saying, doesn't it? I mean, he's a villianand all and villians lie! Even now Ron could hear his pal shouting a cheer, that prooved that she was all right because she was celebrateing with a little cheer practice! he skidded to a stop a few feet from the house, jaw dropping when he saw the woman and the teen girl doing cartwheels.
“Feel the adrenalin, Kimmie!” The woman cried. “Burn that energy!”
“Hey ron!” The girl shouted going into a high-kick dance. “Come for a little practice? Mom's the best coach, isn't she?”
“Gaaa,” was all he could say. and the noise was echoed by Rufus.
‘This was all wrong!’ he thought. The woman who appieredto be Kim's mom was Adrena-Lynn!And “Kim” looked like a younger version of her! The girl with Kim Possible's name and voice sprang over in a series of flips and rolls, stopping in front of Ron.
“This is SOcool! Today I get to do some private practice with my bestest-best friend!”
“You mean me, right?”
“No silly! BONNIE!”
“Hi, Kimmie!” the brunette squeeled as they hugged.
“Hi, Bon-Bon!”
Ron's brain froze as the two cheerleaders greeted each other like they had been best friends from the moment they met. This. Was. Wrong.
“Kim…and…Bonnie…are best…friends,” he said slowly, trying to process the information. “It's the Twilight Zone, man! This is wrong on so many levels!”
The three females watched him run away, makeing strange noises that sometimes sounded like words.
“What is wrong with our mascot?” Kim huffed.
“I think he's been eating his ‘mad dog’ mouth foamagain,” Bonnie said with a toss of her hair.
Ron didn't know where he went after that or how long he had been walking. It was all too much for him, he was ready to admit defeat. Drakken had finnaly done it, he had wiped Kim off the face of the Earth and left him all alone to carry on the battle against the supervillians. And Frankly, his heart was not in it, he was too depressed to go on. Sitting on the curb, Ron pondered the cruelty of life. Kim was the driveing force in their adventures, but now that she was gone, there was no point to go on. All he could do was go on being just a misfit teen, but without Kim, without the REAL Kim, he wasn't sure that he could even do that.
Lost in thought, he didn't hear the green convertable pull up untill the driver blew the horn. That made him look up.
“Shego!” Ron Yelled, jumping to his feet. “What do YOU want?”
“Get in the car,” Shego said in a bored tone. “Doctor Drakken wants to see you.”
“Why, so he can gloat about finnaly defeating Kim Possible? Well maybe we don't WANT to see him! right Rufus?”
Rufus added a “razzberry” to show what he thought about the black-haired woman. He liked shego even less than Ron did and they could never understand why Kim sometimes spoke with admiration about the woman.
Shego looked at them through her dark glasses. “Get in, please,” she sighed.
“Yeah, you'ld like that, wouldn't you?” Ron snapped, getting his spirit back. “Why don't you just makeme, huh? Why don't you make me?”
Lowering her glasses, Shego watched him go into some Kung Fu style poses. Curously, some of them reminded her of Monkey Fist's moves.
“I don't have time for this…” she sighed.
“Or maybe you're just scared. You scared, girlie? Little girlie gonna cry?”
That's did it. Shego turned slightly and hooked the passenger side door handle with her foot and opened it, FAST!
“OW! My knee!” Ron yelled. “Oh, that's cheeting!”
“I'm a bad girl, get used to it. Now get in or I'll turn on the heat!” She demanded, ignighting her hand.
“I'll go with you, but I won't like it,” Ron muttered.
As the woman drove, she seemed to be watching for something or some one. At one point Shego made what seemed to Ron, an unessisary turn. She was avoiding some one, Ron was sure of it! They pulled into the parking lot of the Conners building that was near the booming “Lipski Ice Cream” factory. Shego hurried through the lobby as several people looked her way, pointed and whispered. As the approached the elevator, a man ran after them, waveing a small book and pen, shouting “Shego! Please, wait!” But the doors closed and Shego seemed relieved as the elevator went up to the executive offices without stopping.
They were ushered into Drew's office where the ex-mad scientist was in a conference call. He waved the two at a couch by the wall and hurried the call to a close. Before he was forced to do more business, he alerted his secretary to transfer any more affairs to his executives because he was going to be busy with “some new TV ads”.
“When I was trying to take over the world, I could have some one else handle things like this,” he sighed. “Now listen buffoo…Sidekick, we are going to send Shego back in time to undo what Kim Possible did and set reality back where it belongs! And and in order to do that, we have to get Kim Possible back!”
“All right! Wait, hold it. You've spent years trying to kill Kim, why do you want her back?”
“Because in my heart I'm still a mad scientist,” Drew said with a wistful look. “It's the one thing I really enjoy, it's what I do well. And unless we undo the damage, I'll be stuck running the business my ancestor, Bartholomew Lipski started.
“When Kim Possible went back in time, she teamed up with Mimsie Possible,” Drew began. “They captured Bart Lipski and recovered a devise he had stolen from Professor D'Min. Bart went to jail and when he got out he opened an ice cream stand and it grew into a multi-million dollar business passed down from genreation to generation of Lipskis.”
“But how come Kim's mom is Adrena-Lynn?” Ron told them what he saw at the Possible house.
“Huh. So Miss Perfect fouled up big time,” Shego sneered. “Wiped herself out of existance. OK, I investigate Possible and made a little file on her. Kim looks like her mother, right? From a book I read about the World's Fair, I know that they bothlook like Mim Possible. In the realhistory, Mim left town in disgrace and apparently married. Many years and grand children later, Ann Carson was born and she became Dr Ann Possible, Kim's mother. Her parents were seperated by several generations by the time they met, so I'm sure it's not like they married family,” Shego added thoughtfully.
“Kim was talking about clearing Mim's name,” Ron told them. “So if we go back and keep Kim from stopping Bart, we'll get her back! BOOYAH!”
“Accualy, only Shego is going back in time,” Drew Lipski told him. “She has a plan that should work without causeing too much fuss. We can't aford to change history any more than it has been and Shego is an expert in special operations.”
“Hold on, how can I trust you?” Ron demanded. “You don't like Kim. I think I should go with, just to keep an eye on you.”
“To tell the truth, I do like her,” Shego said, pulling out a file and touching up her nails. “She is the only one, man OR woman who has given me real competition. I admire her skills and she's a free, untamed spirit like myself.”
“Oh tell him the truth,Shego!” Lipski snapped. “We don't have time for this!”
With a sigh, Shego picked up the remote for the TV and turned on the VCR. A familior (But not-so-pale) woman entered a liveing room set, wearing a pink apron:
SHEGO: “Hey, where am I?”
BRUNETT WOMAN: “Oh honey, are you OK?”
SHEGO: “Uh, no. No. Why are you hugging me?”
BRUNETTE WOMAN: “Because you broke up with Billy?”
SHEGO: “Who's Billy?”
BLOND WOMAN: “That's the spirit, pretend you've forgotten all about him! Oh, unless you really forgot about him, that would be like, a reason to see your doctor, you poor thing.”
SHEGO: “OK, the hugging has GOT to stop!”
The villianess turned off the TV, shakeing her head with a sigh.
“There's more, but you get the idea.”
“You're on PALS, coolness!” Ron then saw Shego's expression. “OK, maybe it's not so cool.”
“Yeah. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get ready,” Shego said, going into an ajoining room.
Drew Lipski took out his notebook and made an adjustment to the laser cannon. Ron stepped over to his side.
“Can I help?”
“No. Well yes. Start up the VCR and run it to the part of the program when Kim Possible entered the time stream.”
They worked in silence, the gravity of the situation was weighing heavily on their minds. Ron finnished and Mr Lipski made a finnal check on the set-up. When he was through, Ron put out his hand and Lipski took it after a moment's hessitation.
“I just want to thank you,” Ron said.
“Oh. You're welcome.”
“No, really. I really appriciate this. I know that Kim will try to stop your next sceme and all, so it's really great that you're helping her. It's a noble act.”
“Well, I'm…I'm really doing it for me, but…thank you.”
The other door opened and Shego came in, dressed in a green and black “Gibson Girl” suit, her hair put up in an old fashioned, but attractive style. Drew went to his work bench and picked up a odd-looking box that had a pistol grip.
“This is a Quantam Reverser, Shego. I've pre-set it so that when you've stopped Kim Possible and captured her, all you have to do is move this switch and pull the trigger. You both should then return to the present. Here, take this also. It's a silver dollar minted in 1901. Things were cheeper back then, so it should be enough to cover any expences. You won't be there too long I hope.”
“A quick in-and-out job, that's my specialty Dr D,” She reminded him, slipping the reverser into her shoulder bag. “I'll grab Kimmie and run for home.” She then took her place before the time machine.
“Shego,” Ron said. “Shego, thanks and good luck.”
The actress raised a gloved hand and smiled. She then nodded to the tycoon who threw the switch, sending the her into the past…
TO BE CONTINUED.