“MOM?” Kim couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
“Hi Kimmie,” said Mrs. Possible, her face suddenly changing to her normal smile. She looked around the room. “I’m new to this villain thing, so I thought I’d let you come in without a fight the first time.”
Kim couldn’t find her usual snappy response. Her eyes and face were too locked into a twisted horror.
“KIMMIE!” Shego bolted over to Kim the moment she noticed her lover’s body was shaking terribly, her dash fast enough to catch the redhead before Kim’s knees buckled and she fell flat onto the ground.
“However,” Mrs. Possible went on, “I’ve been one long enough to know this isn’t outpatient surgery…” The familiar CLANG of every door and window to the outside shutting and locking echoed throughout. “It’s a permanent stay in the ICU!” She threw her head back, laughing. “Oh, that’s a good one…”
Shego looked at Mrs. Possible with her now-blue skin, then at Wade. “How did you-”
Wade held up something that had been hidden in shadow earlier. “Attitudinator.”
“What?” Ron snapped to attention. “But all of those were recalled! They’re being destroyed right now!”
Wade grinned. “Made a duplicate Attitudinator that I sent back to HenchCo when they announced that little recall. They’ll never be able to tell the difference. This here’s the last one in the world – kinda like the Dodo bird -- Shego. Whoops!” He tossed it in the open fireplace next to him. “Dodos are extinct.”
“NO!” Kim screamed, breaking away from Shego and sprinting straight at Wade – but a huge laser dropped out of the ceiling and fired a punishing concussion blast at the ground just in front of her feet, catapulting her backwards through the air, landing her right back in Shego’s lap. Too horrified to look at her changed mother, Kim just motioned for Shego to hold her close, and she cried into Shego’s shoulder.
“Nice try, but the AI in my security defence system doesn’t make mistakes twice.” Wade pressed a button that was in the shadows, and the laser retracted into the ceiling. “Oh – did HenchCo forget to mention in their press reports what the defect in the Attitudinator was? Well, I found out: If one little piece in the circuitry broke, the effect it had on anyone who used it, or had it used on them, was completely irreversible. Even if one repaired their product, or tried to use another Attitudinator.”
“No…” Ron gasped
“IRREVERSIBLE?” asked Monique.
“Oh, man…” Rufus squeaked.
“That’s right, Monique. Irreversible.” Wade sneered. “No matter how hard you, Ron, Shego, Mr. Possible, or even Jim and Tim - try, no matter how much devotion and time you put into the effort - Mrs. Possible will not change back to who she was before. Kim, just think of it as…the end of one chapter in your mother’s life – and the beginning of a new one. Her own personal evil commencement.”
“I’m gonna go out on a limb and take a wild guess here: Tara ain’t alive, is she?” Shego asked, surprising herself with how she somehow suppressed her rage enough to keep her voice tempered.
“Oh - no, she survived, all right,” said Wade. “Climbed up that crevasse your friend Ken’s giant robot made with her body ripped to shreds. Some couple snowmobiling spotted her when she made it to the top. Hauled her off to the hospital under a Jane Doe. Took me forever to find her. Finally did, oh…yesterday morning, right before your graduation. You should’ve seen her, Kim. She looked worse than a victim in a survival horror game. One short divider separated her from life and death… Though, unfortunately, she fell underneath the dashed line that morning. Never said a word. Just shut her eyes.”
Mrs. Possible sat down in the executive chair contentedly. Wade glanced at her, then continued.
“I came back from Iceland in time to pick your mother up as she was leaving to try and make it to your graduation. One Attitudinator fix later, we – evicted – Jr., hired his henchmen, and bam! Here we are.”
Kim finally found the energy and strength to look at Wade and speak. “How could you do this, Wade?”
“YOU DID THIS!” Wade suddenly exploded. “BECAUSE OF YOUR ACTIONS – or, should I say, INACTIONS – MY MOTHER WAS TAKEN FROM ME!” He grinned. “So I decided to take yours away from you – but, as you know – I decided to do that in a way that was much worse than killing her.”
“You bastard…” Shego hissed, as Kim dried her eyes. “You little fucking bastard…”
“SHEGO!” Mrs. Possible snapped. “What did you just say?”
“Uh-oh.” Monique gulped.
“You know the rules I have for my house! And using language like THAT is not one of them!”
“Oh, shut up, bitch! I’ve heard you curse at your tax forms before!” Shego snapped back. As she did so, she released her left hand from Kim’s waist and charged up a concentrated blast of her green energy.
“Shego, no!” cried Kim.
“She’s not your mother anymore, Kimmie. HRRRRAH!” Shego launched the blast at Mrs. Possible—
—who didn’t even blink as the blast dissipated against an energy shield surrounding her. Wade smiled.
“Shit…” Shego grumbled. “Shoulda’ known something like that was gonna happen…”
“Just as I thought – your brain needs some surgery to change this little condition of yours! Course…” Mrs. Possible snapped her fingers. “Can’t do this without assistants…NURSES! Fetch the patient!”
Out of the woodwork crawled a circle of about fifty or so ninjas – dressed completely in surgery scrubs. Quickly surrounding the four, the ninjas fanned their gloved hands out – revealing they were all in possession of many various-sized syringes – poised and ready to throw the needles like shuriken.
“Ninja Scrubs? Wow - y’know, that’s even worse than Motor Ed’s mechanic ninjas…” Ron laughed.
“Ron – they have needles!” said Monique.
“So?” asked Ron. “Needles. Wow. I’m scared.”
“Needles all taken from raiding the Biohazard trash receptacles!” Mrs. Possible clarified for them. “Don’t know where they’ve been, how they were used - some might even be -- RUSTED!” she cackled.
Ron gulped. “Ok – now I’m a little scared…”
Kim broke away from Shego, again drying her tears. “Alright…I can still take on these freaks.”
“Have fun!” Mrs. Possible waved. “Wade’s agreed to turn off this security system up here in order to give you a fair fight. I’ll be back in a little while to check on you kids – don’t get too out of hand!” With that, the executive chair slid down through the floor. Wade, too, disappeared below the floor as well.
Ron activated his Battle Suit’s shield, showing Monique how to turn hers on. Shego flared up her green energy flames and assumed her battle stance. Kim activated her Battle Suit’s shield as well, but followed it up by activating the Centurion Project, letting the herself be covered by the cybertronic armour that sprang up over whole body, locking into the special circuits of her Battle Suit and covering her face in the menacing red-eyed mask. Since Iceland, Shego had dubbed the armoured Kim “Lady of the Dark.” “Whoah – hold on a second, sister – how come my Battle Suit don’t do that?” asked Monique, curious.
“None can do that, Monique,” Ron answered. “That armour getup Kim had on at your Halloween party? That’s what happens when someone learns how to use it properly.”
“Ok, fine, whatever – are these guys gonna attack or what?”
Monique had barely asked the question when Shego caught two ninjas behind her running towards her out of the corner of their eyes. “MONIQUE! LOOK-”
POW! Monique whirled and simultaneously did a one-hand handstand while she punched one ninja in the groin, launched herself into a front flip as the ninja fell, vaulting over the second ninja – where she threw out her feet behind her as she passed him on the descent - catching the ninja in the back, KO’ing him. She landed delicately, on all four of her limbs, finishing in a pose that was way too familiar to be-
“Whoah, waitaminute! Timeout! Time! When’d you learn Monkey Kung Fu, Monique?” asked Shego.
Monique looked at Ron. “Keep up with him in bed? Girl, you gots to learn Monkey Kung Fu!”
“Okay – too much info…” Shego responded.
“Whoah!” Ron ducked a blur that streaked past his eyes. “What the hell was that?” Another blur shot past him, and Ron looked as it hit the wall behind him. It was the needles the ninjas were carrying. “HA!” A flip and a half and he was standing on the shoulders of the now-disarmed ninjas – whom he disabled neatly, kicking his legs together, slamming their heads against each other, knocking them out.
The ninjas around Kim hurled their needles at her with furious intent. Kim did nothing but stand there. She didn’t need to do much more. Had she not been so shaken by the sight of her mother with blue skin, she would’ve been laughing as the needles harmlessly snapped in half against the cybertronic armour of the Centurion Project. But right now, she was simply trying to collect herself so she could fight well. One ninja leapt down right in her face. Screaming in partial rage, she viciously punched his lights out.
“Y’know,” said Shego, as the ninjas around her advanced. “I could take all these guys out at once…” She yawned as they unleashed their arsenal of needles and she repeatedly blocked them with her green energy flames. “But that wouldn’t really be that much fun – would it?” She beckoned a ninja to charge her. He complied – and the moment he got near, she leapt into the air and swung her hands out, firing a curved swath of green energy at his back. It slammed into him, driving him face-first into the ground. “Ooh…Good thing you guys are wearing those surgical masks, aren’t ya?” Shego taunted as she landed.
Having seen enough, the other ninjas put away their needles and charged the four of them. “All right – uh, looked like there was 50 of em, we’ve taken out 6 so far…everybody take out 11 more!” said Ron.
“Can do!” said Shego.
“Alright, you quacks…” Monique growled. “Time to revoke your medical licenses. Come and get me!” 4 of the ninjas ran at her. Two in the group still had their needles, and threw them at her while they approached. Monique caught one needle out of the air while ducking and dodging the rest of the flying syringes. With a bloodcurdling yell, she slammed the needle in her hand down – through the loose cloth of the scrub uniform pants the ninja closest to her was wearing, pinning his leg down. As the ninja struggled to free himself, Monique ran up him, using him as a ramp. Leaping off the ninja’s head with a push-off kick hard enough to knock him out, she threw her hands and feet out and she fell towards the remaining 3 ninjas. “CLOTHESLINE BELLY FLOP!” she yelled as she slammed into the ground, promptly flattening 2 of the ninjas beneath her. As the last of the four tried to run away, she wrenched the syringe out of the ground and tossed it at the fleeing ninja at a downward angle – pinning his pant leg to the ground. As the pinning happened in mid-run, the ninja careened into the floor, out cold. “Booyah!” Monique smiled. She barely flinched as she threw her elbow out behind her in a fist pump of celebration, catching the 2 ninjas trying to sneak up behind directly in the gut and ending their attack.
Ron, meanwhile, stood around a pile of 4 ninjas he’d just taken out. “Oh, c’mon, you guys are weak! Call yourselves ninjas? HAH!” He laughed as he jumped and spun off the chests of 4 more ninjas, dropping them out of commission and using them as launch pads to attack the rest of the ninjas around him. 2 ninjas didn’t even have time to look up before Ron’s boot came smashing down into their view. After driving the punishing kicks into their faces, Ron threw the remaining ninja hard against the wall.
“All right!” Shego circled her 11 foes with fair caution. “Can I have a decent fight for once in a while?” She intensified the green energy flames around her hands. “Or is Shego gonna have to choke a bitch?”
She was answered by having to duck and dodge more attempts to pin her onto the wall with the needles. “Okay – choke a bitch it is!” She grinned her crooked smile. “Bad choice for you. Good choice for me!” She instantly dropped to the ground and executed a low, sweeping trip kick. All 11 ninjas around her went down. But they all quickly got back up – only to be met with a roundhouse kick to their noses. Recovering, the 11 ninjas looked at each other and nodded. “Hey, what? You don’t use teamwork!” Shego scoffed. But it was too late. The 11 ninjas all leapt into the air, avoiding another roundhouse kick. They promptly landed on top of her in one big dogpile. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” said Shego, quite unimpressed. “You’re just gonna try to tackle me? Puh-leeze! I’ve escaped from a whole team trying to tackle me before! Two things about that: One: every player was much bigger than you guys; Two: I did it without even using my green energy to assist me! You think this is gonna stop me?” As she watched the ninjas piled on top of her look at each other with a sudden “Oh, crap…” look, Shego grinned. “Yeah. This is gonna hurt, guys. A lot. HRRRRRRRRRRAH!” She let out her signature yell—
Kim looked over to see the ninjas in a pile on top of Shego explode every which way into the air, thrown by the force of a green energy blast. Shego emerged with a sly smile. “All yours, Kimmie!” she grinned.
“Right…” Kim turned, shoving the shock that her mother was against her forever to the back of her mind. However, she did feel very angry about the revelation as well, and she kept that anger at the forefront of her mind as she charged at the ninjas. With one cartwheel and backflip kick, 6 ninjas went down. She ducked a punch from another ninja on the left, allowing it to crash into the face of the one attacking her from the right. She elbowed the ninja on her left directly in the jaw after his comrade fell. She picked up a ninja running at her, threw him aside, picked up the next one following him - and fell to the ground in a crumpled heap as the ninja behind that ninja ran up to her and jammed a needle into the chest of her Lady of the Dark armour – filled with a chemical that short-circuited everything instantly.
Shego whirled her head around in time to see Kim and the 2 remaining ninjas descending into the ground. “KIMMIE!” she screamed. Turning back to Ron and Monique quickly, she found very little time. “Okay – obviously Wade’s jamming the Kimmunicator, no matter if GJ’s computers are back up or not! You guys find where he’s got that going on! I gotta go stop these bastards! NOW! HURRY!” Ron and Monique nodded and ran off to do what Shego ordered them to. Shego turned around and dove after the descending platform, barely making it in before it sealed itself off from the rest of the room.
Ron and Monique stopped, looking around. “Oh, great, we all forgot every door and window to the outside is locked!” groaned Ron. “C’mon! Search this whole room! We gotta find those controls first!”
“Mrrrphhh…wha? Shego?” Kim murmured as she opened her eyes. All she could see was white light.
“Kimmie?” She heard her mother’s calm voice. “Kim – wake up…That was a nasty konk to the head…”
“Mom? MOM? Oh, thank god! It was a dream! You’re not evil! I knew it was a really bad lie by Wade – why am I in a hospital gown?” she asked, looking down, her horror gradually ratcheting upwards.
The blinding white light vanished, and Kim nearly screamed in her horrified state of mind. She was in nothing but a small hospital gown, strapped down upon a cold, metal operation room table – with her now blue-skinned mother looking over her. “It isn’t a dream, Little Bubble Butt – it’s a NIGHTMARE!”
Kim’s eyes widened even more in fear as Wade entered, wheeling in a cart that had some of some of the most rusted pieces of surgery equipment Kim had ever seen on it. Only two objects on the cart looked they didn’t come from Tetanus, Inc. The first was a teeny thing that pretty much was a Ping-Pong ball inside a birdcage that had the bottom of it kicked out and lined with a thick cloth - the only reason the Ping-Pong ball stayed inside the faux birdcage. The whole item was even tinier than Rufus’ little head. The other device was about the size of silver dollar. It was looked like a flattened oval, and was all metal except for a little clear plastic bit at the top, which had two openings for what were clearly the small wires lying next to it on the cart. “Mom? What are you doing?” asked Kim with a trembling voice as she watched her mother finish putting on surgical scrubs, completing the outfit by tying on a surgical mask.
Mrs. Possible ignored her. She turned around, and picked up the teeny birdcage item. “Starr-Edwards Ball Valve – very good work, Wade! You got the one I requested, even though you didn’t have to!”
Wade grinned. “Well, you know me…”
Kim gulped as Mrs. Possible picked up the other item and gasped. “And a Medtronic Kappa 900 DR Pacemaker! Oh, Wade – you do know how to make a mother proud!” She smiled, ruffling Wade’s hair.
Wade sneered at Kim. Kim furrowed her brow in furious anger – but her eyes quickly widened in shock as Mrs. Possible picked up the rusted bone saw from the cart and examined it closely. “I know I’m normally a brain surgeon, but I thought it’d be fun if I branched out into Cardiology today – I’ve always secretly wanted to do Open Heart Surgery, anyways! And now I get to do it on my first live patient!”
“WITHOUT ANESTHESIA?” Kim shrieked.
“Oh, yes, Kimmie! Whaddya say? It’ll be quite the – blood-pumping experience - WON’T IT? AHAH– wait, that doesn’t really work….Oh, what the hell! I’ll laugh anyway! DAH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Suddenly, two other men in scrubs slammed against the wall by the open door behind them, thrown by s streak of green energy flame. “NOT TODAY!” Shego exploded into the room and hurled two blasts of green energy at Wade and Mrs. Possible, the shot at Mrs. Possible sending her and the cart flying backwards over the surgery table Like a flea, she leaped and bounded over to Kim and blasted her chains. “C’mon! We gotta get out of here! Ron and Monique destroyed the machine jamming the Kimmunicator’s signal and GJ’s got a boat on their way!” She leaped towards the still-open door—
—when Wade ran in front of them.
“By the way, Shego - nice punch earlier,” said Wade. “I didn’t think anyone could move that fast.”
Shego’s pale skin darkened considerably as her eyes narrowed even further, turning her enraged steel glare into one of titanium, and the green energy flames around her hands grew brighter with intensity. “You’d be surprised at what I can do when the life of the one I love is on the line,” she snarled furiously.
“Indeed.” Wade grinned. “But you’re not getting by me.”
“You’re right – BECAUSE I’M GONNA GO THROUGH YOU, YOU LITTLE BASTARD!” Shego screamed as she barreled right into Wade, bowling him over like he was nothing but a lame spare pin. Diving into the platform, she smashed the up button, and the platform rose to the room where they’d entered. Jumping out of the platform, Shego hurled a huge blast of green energy at the roof above. The impact caused a chain reaction of explosions that raced over the ceiling. “SHIT!” Shego cursed. “Why do these people always have the most unstable roofs? They ALWAYS explode!” She turned to Kim, a bit frantic now. “Can you run, Kimmie?” she asked. Kim nodded half-heartedly, but it was enough for Shego. She looked ahead at the open door down the way – where Ron and Monique were waving. “Alright, let’s ditch this bitch – c’mon, Kimmie!” Shego said, dragging the resistant Kim as she ran.
Kim seemed to run just fine until the two of them reached Ron and Monique. Then Kim suddenly grabbed Shego’s arm. She dug her feet into the ground, despite the fact that they were completely bare. “NO! GO BACK! WE HAVE TO GO BACK FOR HER! SHEGO! WE HAVE TO GO BACK FOR-”
“KIM, SHE’S NO LONGER YOUR MOTHER!” Shego screamed, grabbing Kim by the shoulders and shaking her – even though she knew how painful the whole thing was to her love. “SHE’S GONE! She’s gone, Kimmie! Just like my–” Shego choked up on her words upon seeing the pain in Kim’s eyes. She began to tear up herself as her own memories flooded back into her mind. “Just like my mother…” She looked down. “But in a different way, Kimmie. My mother's dead. Your mother’s the walking dead.” Before Kim even asked, Shego went on. “Wade went to Iceland to find the living dead. But when Tara didn’t make it, he made his own living dead: Your mother. She’s dead to us, but she still lives.”
The face Kim made was one Shego knew all too well. It was the face of somebody who knew what they were being told was true, but didn’t want to believe it – wanted to believe there was still something left they could do to change the truth. It would go away soon. Shego unwittingly timed it perfectly. Bursting into tears almost simultaneously, she and Kim embraced each other tightly. “Kim, I’m sorry…” Shego cried. “But I’ve been through this before. There’s nothing you can do now - except get yourself killed!”
“Speaking of – CAN WE PICK UP THE PACE BEFORE THIS PLACE GOES UP?” Ron yelled.
Two loud explosions and one shower of gravel later, Kim and Shego were back up, running out of the door and racing across the walled yard of the massive mansion. Scaling the ropes from their grappling hooks, they dropped over the outer wall of the facility. As the terrain got horribly rocky, Shego picked up Kim and followed Ron and Monique as they all hastily raced towards the GJ boat in the water up ahead that had arrived just in time. All Shego could do once they were onboard was envelop Kim in her warm embrace as they both watched in tears as the mansion was obliterated by the huge explosions.
END CHAPTER EIGHT (REWRITE)