Kim and Shego spent another day at the hospital recovering from their exhausting discharge. Ron and Rufus visited frequently, having to put in some hours to convince Kim that, no, they weren’t afraid of her powers, they’d only been gone to get help. Shego reluctantly confirmed that it had been Ron who had gotten her to help, so Kim’s fears that she might have lost her best friend to her new, unpredictable powers were laid to rest.
Kim’s family was also over quite a few times. Her dad had been in but once for a short visit. He’d been visibly tired and obviously upset about something, but neither woman questioned him. Later on Kim had been too irked at the tweebs, who kept calling her ‘Kimmie White-Light’, to think much about her dad’s strange state of mind.
Kim and Shego had both been surprised that they actually managed to get along somewhat civilly while being stuck together in the same room. Kim had long ago learned to take most of Shego’s teasing in stride and only got riled up a handful of times. The green-skinned thief, in turn, quietly admitted that little Kimmie was actually pleasant company once you got over the whole perky-goody-two-shoe thing. Of course getting over that wasn’t easy at all.
They were finally released and Shego found that Kim’s mother had provided clothing for her. Not exactly what she would have chosen to wear, but seeing as her catsuit had been reduced to a bunch of free-floating molecules, she had very little choice. Her nearest safehouse was a bit too far away to travel there buck-naked.
“I don’t know what your problem is,” Kim said, looking at Shego with a barely-veiled grin. “You’re looking just spankin’.”
Shego, dressed in blue Jeans, white sneakers, and a black baby-T, gave her a miffed look. “I happen to look ‘spankin’ in just about everything, pumpkin. But usually I’m shooting for ‘spectacular’ or ‘divinely sexy’, not the girl-next-door look.”
“You can go pick up your own clothes soon, Shego,” Kim’s mother said as she escorted them through the hallways of the hospital. Shego didn’t know how Dr. Possible had arranged it, but it just so happened that not a single security guard or cop crossed their path. The good doctor seemed determined to keep up her part of the deal.
“Your father wanted you to come back to the Space Centre as soon as you’re feeling well,” Dr. Possible told Kim.
“I guess it’s the best location for practising my power,” Kim said. With a smile, she added “Any further explosions and he can say he blew up a rocket again.”
“That, too, but I think he and his scientists buddies also figured something out. He seemed anxious to talk to you and Shego.”
“To me?” Shego asked. “What have I got to do with this?”
“Your powers are increasing, too, aren’t they?” Jane Possible asked.
Shego nodded. Yeah, there was that. Having more powers wasn’t exactly a bad thing, but not knowing why they were growing stronger had her worried.
“Mom, I’ve been thinking,” Kim said as they continued to walk. “If my powers are the result of the meteor passing over the city when I was born, shouldn’t there be others similarly affected? I mean, I probably wasn’t the only baby born that day between here and Go City.”
“Your father said something about that, too,” Dr. Possible answered. “He apparently arranged for your friend Wade to try and figure out how many other people were born that night in the regions where the meteor passed over the country before crashing.”
“Just great,” Shego huffed. “So we could have a whole bunch of other super-powered seventeen-year-olds running around? If you expect me to help them all my salary is going to increase.”
“Is it all about the money for you?” Kim yelled at her, once again getting ticked off with the mercenary.
“You might want to watch that temper of yours, Kimmie,” Shego said calmly, a smirk on her face. “Or your hands will start glowing again in no time.”
Kim quickly looked down, but thankfully found her hands to be perfectly normal and non-glowing. Looking back up, she gave Shego a scorching look, which the green-skinned villain returned in full.
Dr. Possible quickly stepped between the two hot-tempered women. “This is not the time or place for that, girls. Besides, we’re still in a hospital.”
After a moment both opponents backed down, looking anywhere but at each other. Jane sighed, then quickly ushered them towards her car. This was going to be a long drive.
The drive to the Space Centre was spent in icy silence. There was but one brief exchange between Shego and Dr. Possible, discussing whether or not Shego would make a brief detour to pick up some clothing. Seeing as her jet was still parked at the Space Centre, though, Shego relented to first checking in with Kim’s dad. She was getting paid, after all, which she reminded them of numerous times.
Arriving at the centre, they got out of the car and were quickly ushered into James Possible’s office, where a group of people were already assembled. Most of them were the scientists they were already familiar with, but two new people had joined the assembly. Two people that caused Shego to go ballistic.
“You bitch,” she yelled at Kim’s mother. “You told me no cops, no Global Justice!”
The two new arrivals were a man and a woman. The man was black, built like a mountain, and wore a military uniform sporting four stars and more ribbons than Kim had ever seen. His hair was starting to grey at the temples.
The woman wore a simple blue uniform without any insignia, but unlike the man she was well known to Kim. The eye patch was a dead giveaway even if she hadn’t remembered the face.
“Calm down, Shego,” Dr. Betty Director, head of Global Justice, said. “No one will arrest you today.”
“James?” Kim’s mother looked at her husband in confusion. “James, I told you about the deal I made with Shego. Why…?”
The loud clanking of the doors drew everyone’s attention. Shego was gone, having taken off down the corridor as fast as her feet would carry her.
“Kim, please get her back,” James Possible implored his daughter. “You have my word, no one is going to do anything to her.”
Kim briefly looked at her father, seeing the extremely serious and worried look on his face, then nodded. Explanations would have to wait until later.
Taking off at her best speed, she ran after Shego, hoping to catch the green-skinned thief before she vanished as she’d done a hundred times before. Thankfully Kim had one advantage in that she knew the Space Centre like the back of her hand. She’d accompanied her dad to work numerous times and had had a few missions here to boot.
Figuring that Shego would leave the way they’d come in, she quickly ducked into a side corridor and took a short cut through the staff area until she reached the main lobby. Shego was now but a few steps in front of her, heading directly towards the exit. A quick look around showed Kim that there were no cops or GJ agents to be seen anywhere.
“Shego, please stop,” she yelled as she ran after her nemesis.
“Yeah, right,” Shego just snorted, not stopping. “I’m not going to prison today, Kimmie. Your mother can stick that job offer up her…”
Not waiting for her mother to be insulted a second time, Kim put on a burst of speed and tackled Shego to the ground. The two women wrestled each other in a flurry of arms and legs.
“My parents wouldn’t do this behind my back,” Kim kept up her argument even as they fought. “If Dr. Director is here, something bad must have happened.”
“Something bad’s gonna happen to you unless you quit it right now, princess!”
“Something bad is gonna happen to all of us, Shego.”
Shego looked up to see Professor Kruger approach, along with Kim’s parents. She spat out a curse.
“Please, Shego. You know I was always straight with you back when you were a member of Team Go. Please afford me enough trust to listen for a minute, okay?”
Shego hesitated, one of her hands still clutching Kimmie’s shirt, but then relented. Her rational mind kicked in and told her that, if this were really a trap, she’d be surrounded by GJ agents by now. None were in sight, though.
“One minute,” she said, sliding off of Kim.
“We have found out why your powers are increasing,” Kruger said, “why Ms. Possible’s powers have activated, why it’s all happening now. And I’m afraid this is much more important than any deal, your criminal record, or whatever grudges might exist between the people in this room.”
“What are you talking about?” Kim asked. “Dad? What’s going on?”
Dr. James Possible looked more tired than Shego had ever seen him and there wasn’t a trace of his usual goofiness to be found on his face.
“The worst is going on, Kimmie. It’s the comet. The fragment that crashed in Go City seventeen years ago was just a tiny part of it, which broke off when it brushed our atmosphere. The comet itself has completed its orbit around the sun and is now heading back to Earth. With every kilometre it covers your powers will increase. And then…”
“Then?” Kim asked, afraid she could already guess.
“The comet will hit the planet this time,” her father continued. “The entire world is in danger from this. That’s why I contacted Global Justice and the US government. This isn’t something we can handle ourselves.”
Shego listened, but the words refused to make sense. The comet was back? The same thing that had blown up her tree house, transformed her family into freaks, and nearly caused Kimmie to burn out? It was back? And now it threatened the whole world? That had to be some kind of joke, right?
Kim couldn’t believe what she was hearing, either. Already this was the worst kind of sitch she’d ever had. She’d nearly killed a man. She had powers she couldn’t control. The only person that could help her was her arch-nemesis Shego and she had only agreed after her mother had heaped prodigious amounts of money on her. And now… now the whole world was in danger?
“I spoke with Dr. Director and General Reinhart,” her father told them both. “I informed them of the crisis and that the two of you and Team Go were affected the most. It took some haggling, but Dr. Director agreed that, for the duration of the crisis, all outstanding warrants for Shego would be declared null and void.”
“You’re not joking,” Shego whispered, looking him in the eye. “This is really happening.”
“It really is, Shego,” he said. “Will you come back to the office with us? We will explain everything in detail there. And if you don’t like what you’re hearing, you’re free to walk out. You have my word.”
Kim was still trying to digest it all. She had never seen her father so serious. But she knew he was a man of his word.
“You can trust him, Shego,” she told her nemesis. “Please, come back with us.”
Shego was torn. One part of her was screaming at her to run away as fast as her feet would carry her. The other part, though, kept repeating the words she had just heard from Dr. Possible.
The entire world is in danger from this.
It sounded ridiculous. Sentences like that were only ever spoken out loud in movies and comic books, not in the real world (except maybe by her idiot brother Hego). Sure, Dr. D had launched a dozen capers that would supposedly allow him to conquer the world. Once or twice he had even considered destruction instead of conquest, but it had never really been a serious thing.
This, though, this sounded mighty serious.
Looking over at Kimmie, she forced a smirk on her face. “I see you’re doing your best to turn me into a hero yet, princess.”
Kim, seeing her attempt at injecting humour into the situation, just shrugged in response. “Hey, I can do anything, remember?”
Inside, though, Kim was feeling anything but all-powerful. She was more scared than ever before in her life.
“Let’s see the big brains then,” Shego said. “If that comet is really coming back, I got a score to settle with it.”
“You and me both,” Kim agreed.
TO BE CONTINUED