“A bigger problem than Tara still alive? What could be worse than that?” asked Kim.
“Wade working with her?” Ken proposed.
Kim promptly stumbled flat on her face, even though there was nothing in her path to trip on.
“Oooh – nice form, Kimmie,” Shego smirked.
“Mmrph…” Kim grumbled as Shego helped her up.
“Don’t forget these,” said Ron, handing Kim her car keys.
“Thanks…”
---
“Y’know, Wade working with Tara does kinda make sense – I mean, he wasn’t that happy last time you saw him and told him Tara killed his mother,” said Ron as Kim pulled into the driveway of her house. “Remember? He blamed you for her death, Kim - not Tara.”
“It doesn’t matter right now, Ron,” said Shego. “It’s too late to talk about anything but sleep now.”
Kim looked down at the dashboard before turning the engine off. “Blast…low on gas.”
“Enh, you got enough to take it to the pump tomorrow,” said Shego.
When everyone got out of the car, Mr. Possible was waiting at the door.
“Dad…What are you doing greeting us?” asked Kim curiously,
“Uh, ah… eh heh heh – Kimmie, your mother just called. Seems her car’s out of gas and she didn’t notice. She needs someone to pick her up from her late shift. I told her you were on the road, but-”
“Don’t worry, Mr. Possible – Kim’s car is out of gas, too - but we’ll take mine to get her,” said Shego.
“Oh. Well – thank you, Shego!” Dr. Possible stammered, looking quite relieved.
“Not a problem, Dr. P.!” added Ron.
---
Minutes later, everyone was in the garage, awing over Shego’s green-and-black sports car.
“You know, every time I see this car, I can’t help but be amazed at the paint job!” Ron mentioned.
“Girl, how you come you never drove this thing to school?” asked Monique. “This is a beauty!”
“Uh, probably because I didn’t want it to get stolen, Monique?” Shego replied, raising an eyebrow.
Kim rolled her eyes. “How ironic…”
“Oh, hush, Kimmie,” said Shego lightly, with her intoxicating trademark grin.
“How fast can this thing push?” asked Monique
Shego grinned with that twisted sparkle in her eyes. “I’ve gone up to 200mph in this baby.”
“200 MPH?” asked Ron, Monique, and Rufus at once.
“Yeah,” Kim grumbled, remembering. “Took 3 weeks for her to clean my vomit off the windshield.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault you stuffed yourself silly at that party!” Shego half-huffed, half-laughed.
“Right – can we just go pick up Mrs. Possible now?” asked Ron.
“Sorry – nighttime. I’m just grumpy,” Kim said.
“At least your hair is combed,” Shego giggled. Kim in the wee morning hours was a frightful sight…
Everyone got in Shego’s car. Shego pressed the button for the automatic garage door opener, backed out, pressed the button again to close the garage door, and set out towards Middleton Medical Center.
“Argh…” Shego grumbled as they pulled up to the pickup/drop-off curb - where Mrs. Possible was not waiting. “She better get here soon – I want to get some sleep under my belt before the sun rises…”
Suddenly, a figure dressed completely in black burst through the double doors, struggling to drag a red-haired female with them while many other doctors and hospital staff swarmed around the figure and held them back. The female doctor was thrown to the ground – and promptly looked right into Kim’s eyes.
“That’s – MOM!” Kim screamed. “THEY’RE KIDNAPPING MY MOTHER!”
The figure broke the grip of the hospital staff, snatched up the fallen Mrs. Possible, and leaped into the air – vaulting backwards in a way that Shego had only seen done before by – Middleton’s cheerleaders. The figure pressed a button or did something, because the front doors of a grey car not far ahead of them suddenly opened. As the figure landed by the passenger door, shoved Mrs. Possible inside, and slammed the door, a sliver of their hair escaped their outfit and flicked into view briefly.
It was blonde.
“Tara! Tara!” Rufus chittered.
The figure did another backflip over the top of the car and dove into the driver’s side door. Seconds later, the grey car started up - and peeled out of the pickup/drop-off area like an Indy car.
“Oh, no you ain’t!” cried Shego. “Buckle up, people!” She grinned. “Time for a driving lesson!”
“Uh, we’re already buckled in,” said Ron.
The instant he finished talking, his head was pinned against the back of his seat as Shego stomped on the gas and roared her car out of the pickup/drop-off area in pursuit of the grey car.
“Think you coulda’ given us a warning ‘fore you did that?” Monique asked through the G-forces.
“And what?” asked Shego in reply, grinning as she spoke through the G-forces with absolutely no hint of any hindrance from them at all. “I still gotta stay somewhat unpredictable, you know!”
Kim also seemed to have no trouble talking with the G-forces slamming into her vocal cords. She took out the Kimmunicator. “KEN! COME IN! THIS IS KIM! TARA IS DEFINITELY STILL ALIVE!”
“What?” Ken answered frantically. “How do you know? What’s your confirmation?”
“WE JUST WATCHED HER KIDNAP MY MOTHER AS WE WERE COMING TO GIVE HER A RIDE HOME FROM HER LATE SHIFT AT THE HOSPITAL! WE’RE CURRENTLY CHASING TARA'S GREY CAR, HEADING DOWN THE-”
The grey car veered across the lanes onto the Tri-City Freeway exit ramp. Shego followed suit.
“-THE TRI-CITY FREEWAY!”
“PATCH ME THROUGH TO EVERY POLICE CHIEF ALONG THAT FREEWAY!NOW!” screamed Ken as Global Justice’s headquarters came alive with every Agent doing something. In a flash, said every Chief of Police whose county the Tri-City Freeway ran through appeared on the massive monitors in front of him. Ken smiled. His Agents were excellent, persuasive - and very fast.
“What is it, Ken?” asked the Middleton Chief of Police.
“Sir – and the rest of you: The criminal Tara has been confirmed to still be alive. Team Possible is currently engaged in a high-speed pursuit of her along the Tri-City Freeway, after witnessing her kidnapping Kim Possible’s mother from the Middleton Medical Center not five minutes ago.”
“Then we can’t take any chances!” the Middleton Chief declared, turning to his dispatcher who was off the screen. “Send out an All Points Bulletin, including the SWAT team – and do it now, goddammit!”
Every other Chief of Police was soon screaming at their own dispatchers to do exactly the same thing.
Police sirens and lights lit up the night as pretty much an entire army of police cruisers and SWAT vans sped towards the Tri-City Freeway. Part of the armada was Car 54 of the Middleton Police Department.
“This is Car 54!” radioed Officer Mahoney back to the Dispatcher. “We are coming up along the Freeway now! Repeat description of target vehicles, please!”
“Car 54, suspect vehicle is grey, traveling at very high speeds. Pursuing car is green-and-black.”
“There they are!” shouted Mahoney’s partner, pointing at a grey and green-and-black blur that was halfway down the Freeway and out of view of the two officers before either of them could blink.
“Well – PUNCH IT!” Officer Mahoney screamed – then noticed his partner had his foot on the gas, pushing the pedal down the floor of the car. “What th-” He grabbed the radio again. “Dispatch, we got-”
The dispatch microphone exploded in his stunned hands. “HOLY SHIT!”
Suddenly, the car jerked forward. His partner wrenched their hands from the car’s wheel as it seemed to take on a life of its own. The car raced forward, then shifted into reverse and raced backwards.
“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?” cried Officer Mahoney.
“I DON’T KNOW!” his partner cried.
“SIR! Someone’s taken control of every police vehicle alerted about the pursuit!” an Agent cried.
“What? How is that possible?” Ken asked furiously. On the monitors above, he watched dozens of police cars herk and jerk around. Some just plain crashed after skidding around for so long.
“I don’t know, Sir – wait! No! Whoever it is, they’re hacking into the cars through their radio antennas!”
“That’s impossible! The only person who can do that besides me is…” Ken gasped. “So…You want a hacker battle, Wade?” he asked nobody but himself. “Well – you are certainly gonna get one now…”
He raced back to his desk, saved all the unfinished work on his computer, and quickly brought up a special display. With only a few coordinates, Ken’s fingers flew across the keyboard at vicious speed.
“Bait accepted.”
“Perfect. Now let’s have a little more fun! Since we have her, this should leave them – GROUNDED!”
A button was pressed as fingers danced over a keyboard in the background.
They were halfway to Go City when they heard the sirens sounding. “Finally…” groused Shego.
They passed through a small tunnel, and when they emerged from it – which took about a second – a pack of black cars and vans had the grey car surrounded. “Nice going, Ken Du!” shouted Ron – his voice fighting the G-forces. Almost immediately, another pack of black cars appeared out of the shoulders. “Waitaminute-” said Ron. “Somethin’ ain’t right here. Where’s the lights and siren-?”
“RON! DUCK!” screamed Monique as she saw a machine gun barrel fixed in the middle of one of the black car’s windows. She grabbed him and pushed his head down against the seat as the guns opened fire.
“JESUS CHRIST!” Shego sped up, leaving the two black cars to fire their machine guns at each other. It didn’t take long before two huge explosions lit up the road like a halogen spotlight.
Four black cars came up alongside Shego’s this time. Ron peeked at them nervously.
There was nobody driving any of them.
“SHIT! SOMEONE’S CONTROLLING THESE CARS BY REMOTE!” yelled Ron - ducking with Monique as another hail of bullets rained down upon the two from both sides of the car, showering the two of them in safety glass pebbles as the windows exploded like sand caught in a fierce desert wind.
“OH, THEY DID NOT JUST DO THAT TO MY CAR!” Shego fumed. She pumped the brake once, which dropped her car all the way behind the black cars. “ROLL DOWN MY WINDOW, KIMMIE!”
Kim nodded, rolling down the driver’s side window for her. The wind roar was like a madman’s cry.
Keeping her right hand on the wheel, Shego leaned out of her window and hurled multiple blasts of her green energy flames at the tailpipes and tires of just about every black car or van in front of them. Each vehicle she hit exploded almost instantly, making it look like someone was setting off a line of huge firecrackers down the Tri-City Freeway. “OKAY – ARE THESE CARS, LIKE, PACKED WITH EXPLOSIVES OR SOMETHING?” asked Monique over the roar of the wind and against the G-forces.
“YEAH!” said Kim quite bluntly.
“HAH! Gotcha, ya’ little punk!” exclaimed Ken as his display turned green.
Car 54 stopped moving. “Phew…” Officer Mahoney sighed.
“Aww…Nice try, Ken!”
More typing sounded – insanely fast typing.
As Ken pumped his fists in celebration – the display turned back to blue. “WHAT?” he screamed.
“Uh-oh…” sulked Officer Mahoney as the gas pedal engaged once again on Car 54.
“Little bastard!” Ken cursed, his fingers typing at seemingly inhuman speeds.
The display turned green.
Then it turned back to blue.
Ken typed some more.
The display turned green.
Then it didn’t turn blue – it changed to a picture of him, photoshopped into the hood of a cartoon character.
“Oh my god! I killed Kenny! Oh my god! I killed Kenny!” repeated over and over again. It spilled through the headquarters’ main speakers.
“What th-”
Every Agent watched the monitor and listened.
“Oh my god! I killed Kenny! Oh my god! I killed Kenny!”
Ken’s eyes went wide when he realised what was going on.
“EVERYBODY GET OUT OF HERE – NOW! I REPEAT: EVERYBODY GET OUT OF HERE NO–”
He was interrupted when a series of gigantic explosions ripped through the consoles, sending Agents and debris flying through the air. Ken looked at his computer – and dove away just as it exploded in a huge fireball.
The concussion force of the explosions were so close to him that he was knocked out cold when he landed.
“Oh-ho! This is so much FUN! AH-HAHAHAHA!”
“UH…WE STILL GOT FIVE BLACK CARS FOLLOWIN’ US!” Monique notified Shego.
“NOT EXACTLY!” Shego clarified.
“HUH?”
“THERE’S A ROADBLOCK UP AHEAD!” Ron screamed.
Shego saw the line of black cars on the other side of the intersection up ahead – but she didn’t pay it any heed. The grey car was what she wanted. She accelerated even further.
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?” screamed Monique.
Suddenly, the grey car swerved to the left – and crashed through the concrete divider in one of the worst U-turns Shego had ever seen. “SHIT!” Shego cursed as the grey car sped back down towards Middleton.
“Shego…SHEGO!” Kim cried as the “roadblock” came up.
Shego waited a split-second more – then expertly dropped into 2nd and swung the car into a perfect bootlegger turn as she reached the intersection. The remote-controlled cars giving chase couldn’t turn like that, and swerved into the “roadblock” ahead, exploding in some massive fireballs as Shego kicked her car back into 1st and pounded her foot back on the gas, peeling the car away down the other lane, barreling back down towards Middleton. “HOW YOU LIKE THEM APPLES, BITCH?” she yelled over her shoulder in triumph.
“WILL YOU SHUT UP AND WATCH THE ROAD, MS. BULLITT?” screamed Kim, pointing frantically at the windshield in front of her as a hairpin curve suddenly materialized out of nowhere up ahead.
“WHOAH!” Shego slammed on the brakes and drifted the tires through the hairpin, fighting the steering wheel with all the strength she could muster. Finally, she came out of the turn. She grinned - and gunned it once again, continuing to pursue the grey car, which was – or had been – gaining distance from them. There was no way she was going to let that car out of her sight – Kim would never let her live it down…
“That was totally BADICAL!” yelled Ron as Shego’s car began to catch up with the grey car.
“Yeah, well, it ain’t over yet!” cried Monique – pointing at one last remote-controlled car chasing them.
“KIM! I’M GONNA TRY AND STOP HER!” yelled Shego over the roar of her car’s engine. She looked at the speedometer – quickly looking away, not wanting to know the true speed she was going. She leaned out of the open driver's side window and fired up the green energy in her left hand. She had to hit it right - just enough to stop the grey car. No destruction. She aimed straight for the grey car’s rear tires. “HRRAH!” she hurled the blast of green energy flame with frightening speed. Too much speed – as it missed completely. “SHIT! SHIT SHIT SHIT! That was obviously not supposed to happen!” she cursed. She came back into the car; prepared to lean out again…
Ron looked up through the sunroof. “Shego…”
“WHAT?” Shego asked viciously, whirling around to look at him with a completely unneeded ferocity.
“What the hell is THAT?” Ron shouted, pointing up into the sky.
Shego looked up – in time to see something not unlike a meteor hurtling down from the sky. “What the f– OH, SHIT!” Shego screamed as she realised what was going on. The “meteor” suddenly split in two as it neared the ground – the pieces promptly slicing straight through the grey car’s hood and through its front tires, instantly causing them to blow out. The effect was not unlike a spring – a bad spring, in this case. Shego swerved as the grey car was catapulted backwards into the air, sailed over them – and she and Kim watched in horror as it careened into the car chasing them - setting off a tremendous explosion; one that was truly a terribly nasty display of what a car packed to the brim with explosives could do.
“MOM! NO!” shrieked Kim, her eyes welling up with tears. “STOP THE CAR! STOP THE CAR!”
Shego skid her car to a stop; her eyes almost locked in terror. No. Not again. This was not happening again. She unlocked the car doors – and despite it being Kim’s mother they were after – was the first one who ran towards the wreckage, spurred moreover by her own memories than the care she had developed for Kim’s family in the last six months“MRS. POSSIBLE! MRS. POSSIBLE! CAN YOU HEAR ME?” she shouted with every muscle of her vocal cords. “MRS. POSSIBLE!MRS. POSSIBLE!”
“MOM! MOM!” screamed Kim with all her lungpower.
“MRS. P!” bellowed Ron.
“MRS. POSSIBLE!” echoed Monique.
“Kimmie! Help me!” came Mrs. Possible’s voice – faint, but it was there. “Kimmie! Help me!”
“MOM! HANG IN THERE!” Kim shrieked, her eyes filled to the brim with tears. “WE’RE GONNA GET YOU OUT OF HERE! YOU HEAR ME? WE’RE GOING TO GET YOU OUT OF HERE!”
“Kimmie! Help me!” the faint cry repeated again.
Shego tried to run straight into the wall of flame – but Kim’s hands grabbed her shoulders.
“SHEGO! NO!” Kim wailed. “NO! DON’T DO IT! YOU’LL BURN TO A CRISP IF YOU DO!”
“I LOST MY PARENTS TO A COMET THAT SET MY HOUSE ON FIRE – I AMNOT GOING TO LET YOU LOSE EVEN ONE OF YOURS TO PRACTICALLY THE SAME THING, KIM!” Shego bellowed, whirling around, nearly crushing Kim’s hands as she shoved them off her shoulders. Kim backed up in shock as she saw her lover’s eyes, alit with a determined fury, stronger than any glint Kim had seen in Shego’s eyes during the events six months ago in Iceland. She dropped her head, knowing she couldn’t stop Shego now, even if the only thing she could do to stop her was to shoot her. “’Sides,” Shego lifted Kim’s tearful face up by the chin and grinned. “I’ve got some flames of my own.”
With that, Shego twisted out of Kim’s death grip, lit her hands into huge swaths of green energy flames, spread the green energy flames over her whole body – and dove headlong into the burning wreckage.
“SHEGOOOOO!” cried Kim, racing towards the flames as far as she could go before the heat became too much for her, and she was forced to back away or risk ending up looking like a nice, crispy sunspot.
“Shego…” she whimpered. She collapsed to her knees in front of the flames. Here she was, Kim Possible. The girl who could do anything – and yet, as Ron and Monique came up and locked her in a dual embrace in an attempt to comfort her – all Kim could do was let out one long wail of agonized pain.
All she could do now was wait.
How she hated waiting.
She looked at her watch. 1 minute.
Kim tried to see through the smoke and flames and catch something, but the flames were too thick, and the strong winds were drifting all the smoke straight towards them - and right into her straining eyes.
“Ho ho – c’mon, Shego!” Rufus chittered with worry.
Kim checked her watch again. 2 minutes.
“C’mon, Shego…” said Ron, clenching his fists tightly with hope.
“Get the hell out of there already, Shego,” Monique chimed in.
Kim looked at her watch. 3 minutes…
Suddenly, a hue of green energy rose up behind the flames – and seconds later, there was a monstrous explosion. A Doppler effect “WHOOOOOAAAAAAHHH!” rang out as Shego burst out of the flames, flying backwards like a living crossbow arrow. She slammed into Kim, bowling the two women over.
“SHEGO!” Kim shrieked, letting herself get within the one-step-away-from-crushing mark as she tearfully embraced Shego in joy. She looked at Shego’s face. It was singed in some places – but not burned. Shego’s hair, on the other hand – well, she was going to have to find a really good shampoo…
“Urgh-” Shego gasped. “Can I have my lungs back, sweetie?”
Kim loosened her embrace slightly. “That better?”
“Perfect…” Shego gasped. She held up something that was sparking “However…”
“Huh? What’s that? Where’s Mom?” asked Kim frantically.
Shego pointed to the sparking object. Kim looked at it – and gasped.
“Kimmie! Help me! Kimmie! Help me!” repeated the damaged head of a robot version of Mrs. Possible.
Shego frowned. “Wade is so in on it. What a spectacular decoy he cooked up this time. Engineered an entire car chase for nothin’.” Shego grinned. “I sadly have to admit, that part was fun – ‘till the end…”
“That means –” Kim began.
“Yeah – they got yer’ mother.” Shego looked up into the stars. Wade’s villain methods were…effective. She sighed. “But this voice recording for the robot sounds recent – I’d say they’ve had her for a while.”
The tears welled up in Kim’s eyes again, mixed with a new, indignant fury towards Wade.
Shego turned around and scooped Kim up into her lap, letting her lover sob away on her shoulder.
END CHAPTER SIX