Shego paced her cell nervously. Drakken had given up trying to talk to her and settled into working on his black hole generator.
Every time she looked over to where he was working she stopped and forced herself to close her eyes and count. It didn’t help calm her nerves, or her anger, and she started to regard the idea of trying a more drastic approach to hurting him.
But that would require escape first. She sighed and regarded the shifting material that stood between her and the blue man who was happily humming as he worked.
Punching it was a bad idea, or maybe the glow was the problem. She chewed her lip as she tried to think. Guessing wasn’t going to get her free. It was time to be logical and scientific.
It was time to think logically. She sighed and regarded the idea with contempt. It wasn’t going to be easy, but it was her only option.
Kim was quickly wearing a trench in the floor with her pacing. Ron had given up a long time ago in trying to calm the red head down. She was worried, and if pacing franticly helped her think, much less stay calm, why stop her?
He looked at the message carefully. It was simple and straightforward. Which mean it had to be a trick. Or a trap. Or a trap-trap. He frowned and hoped it wasn’t a triple-trap-trap as he read it again.
Drakken had managed to ghost Shego out of a locked house with no forced entry.
For a mad man he was definitely on top of his game.
The boy chewed his lip. He could ask Josh’s advice, but the boy had no experience with Drakken, much less with what the man could do.
Then again the kid was a genius of a special kind. In a natural, almost beautiful way the boy’s mind could work logically, yet he wasn’t lost from his own feelings.
Ron sighed happily as he thought about Josh. The boy’s mind, his smooth skin, his gentle smile…
A pinch to the back of his neck corrected his train of thought as Kim stood over him. “Ron…it’s nice to see that you’re enjoying yourself….” She trailed off and chewed her lip nervously.
“Kim…you know what I just noticed?”
“What?”
He made a silent prayer to the gods that his random nature could be distracting long enough to confuse Kim. “You and Shego both chew on your lips when you’re nervous.”
“We…do?”
“Not only that…but ever look at your name? Kim Possible. Sounds a lot like the word impossible right? But what you do isn’t impossible at all. Anyone really could do what you do, if they REALLY tried.”
Kim faltered, “Ron…where is this going?”
Ron continued like he hadn’t been slowed down, “Now look at my name. Ron Stoppable. Sounds very similar to unstoppable. Yet I’ve been beaten down more times than I can count, not to mention Drakken stole my ability to actually kick ass. Drakken. The man can’t seem to build a doomsday device to save his own life, but he manages to kick my ass just fine.”
Kim blinked, trying to figure out where it was all going.
“Kim…you do the seemingly impossible everyday. You are dating a very good looking female who happens to spawn glowing energy around her hands at will. Energy that you’ve never seemed to get hurt by. You are a force of nature when you want to be. Now for the love of god woman THINK!”
“Th-think?”
Ron nodded, “Shego had to have –something- from her old life. –Something- that we can use to see how safe it is to deal with Drakken. We’re possibly facing the most dangerous mission yet. Even more dangerous then those mutant rabbits.”
“The flesh eating ones…?”
Ron nodded, “So you figure out what might help us, okay?”
Kim nodded, and walked away feeling very confused, but very powerful too.
Shego gave up on watching the material. Even in its swirling state it never got thicker or thinner anywhere.
Gingerly she reached out and touched it. It felt as if she had placed her finger of wet glass and slowly dragged it.
So touch didn’t activate the shock.
She squeezed her eyes shut and called forth her glow, igniting her hand.
Nothing. The material didn’t even sway. The energy produced didn’t even dent the material. The shimmering just swirled faster beneath her finger.
That left one option.
She let the glow go out and drew back her hand, and expected the worst and she drove it forward in a palm strike.
The burst of energy knocked her on her back again. Smoke was coming off her this time.
Kinetic energy…that’s what triggered it….Guess my glow actually saved me earlier. Shego rolled on her side. She knew what triggered the material that kept her prisoner. The question was how to escape it.
Kim wandered in circles, trying to think. There had to be something useful that Shego had left. Something that they could use to find out what she knew before she had vanished. There had to be something, anything.
Ron leaned on the doorway to the kitchen, phone next to his ear. It was risky calling Josh at work, but the boy had managed to squeeze out a small break, despite working at a daycare.
“That’s all we got. Shego’s missing, Drakken left a note, and according to Wade there is no sign of how it happened.”
The sound of Josh thinking could be heard over the phone, “And you’re worried that Drakken has some kind of trap planned, right?”
“Worse…I’m worried his going to kill Kim.”
Ron twisted the phone cord around his finger as he waited.
“Well you’ve got two options…rush in blindly, or let me help.”
Ron winced, “But your job!”
“Sweetie, I know they’ll understand. I’m useless around here if I’m worried about you, and they let me have some time off.”
“Are you sure?”
Ron could hear the smile, “Positive. Besides, Karen owes me for that day I spent cleaning up after the pudding war.”
“Alright…if you’re sure…”
“I am. Love you and see you soon.”
“Love you too…bye.”
Drakken loved his latest project. His only disappointment was that he had only managed to fold space-time once, counting the to and return trips as half, respectively. But the dark matter generator he was using had shorted out, and the parts fused. It had taken him months to make that one, and simply just didn’t have time to make another. He had wanted to get the Josh boy too. Kim Possible had emotional ties to the boy, not to mention there was something strange in how the bastard acted around him as well.
Yes…the bastard. He had enjoyed beating him…feeling the boy’s body beneath him like a wet sack. But he couldn’t push himself too far.
No, the boy had to be alive. Someone had to focus Kim Possible enough to direct her in the right direction. To make sure she waited long enough to “plan”. It didn’t matter how well she planned really, either way she would be facing the same fate.
The fate of having the very universe weighing down on her.
Kim paused in mid-step. She had it. She knew she wasn’t supposed to, but she had the answer.
She raced up the spiral staircase to her room, and dug under the bed. Shego had tucked her in, and thought she had fallen asleep. But she had been faking it so she could do a little thinking.
And that’s how she had seen it. The laptop.
She dug around, hoping it was still there and nearly screamed in joy as she found it. She pulled it out and hugged it tightly. It smelled like Shego, and it took everything the girl had not to cry.
She walked down the stairs slowly, clutching the portable computer tightly. It was her hope to know what had happened to Shego.
And maybe find a way to save her.
Author’s Notes: And thus we end Chapter Five.