“Places, people… the wedding rehearsal is about to start…” the wedding coordinator called, in the middle of the church building.
Kim and Shego, both dressed in casual clothing except for their shoes, stood in the back of the cathedral. Monique had gleefully accepted the chance to design the outfits for Kim and Shego’s wedding. Since this was just a rehearsal, the only people here was the wedding coordinator and the people who would be directly involved in the ceremony. Since part of the ceremony was Kim and Shego walking down the aisle, the two women were wearing the footwear that Monique had selected for their wedding outfits. Shego was wearing a pair of green flats, while Kim was perched on a pair of high-heeled platform pink shoes. The towering footwear made Kim’s height equal to Shego’s, and the two were conversing in soft whispers, in deference to the fact that one of them had a rather bad hangover.
“Oooh… my head…”
“What you get for being a bad girl and drinking too much.”
“You’re enjoying this.”
“Oh yeah. Hey, it was your idea… ‘Kim has a bridal shower, Shego has a bachelor’s party’. Not my fault you can‘t handle your liquor.”
Monique walked over, rubbing her own head. “You two good to go?”
“I’m fine.” said Shego. “Kimmy’s not so good… guess I missed one heck of a bridal shower.”
Kim pouted. “Nana called them Long Island Iced Teas… how was I supposed to know they were alcoholic? Anyway, where did you take the guys for your Bachelor’s party?”
“Well…” drawled Shego. “We started with the strip club…”
“YOU TOOK MY DAD TO A STRIP CLUB?” said Kim, then immediately regretted it as her head felt like it was splitting open.
“Hey, they served some great drinks.” said Shego. “Besides, we only stayed there long enough to serve my purpose.”
“What, totally embarrassing me and my dad?” said Kim.
Shego grinned. “That too… actually, I was referring to getting rid of Hego. After the floor show started, he was out of there faster then a speeding bullet.”
“I can imagine.” said Kim. Somehow, being in a Canadian strip club didn’t mesh with the stereotypical ‘Truth, Justice, and the Go City Way’ image that Hego worked so hard to project. “I’m still kind of surprised you actually relented and invited your brothers to the wedding.”
Shego shrugged. “Well, I’m still pretty upset at Hego… but I really wanted Mego and the Wegos here, and the Wegos promised to dog-pile Hego if he even THINKS about asking me to rejoin Team Go. “
“Aren’t Wego-A and Wego-B a little young to go to a strip club?” asked Kim.
“Only by a tiny bit.” said Shego. “Fortunately, they have me for a sister.”
Kim frowned. “You used plasma blasts to get them in?”
“Doy, no.” said Shego. She paused a moment. “I got ‘em fake I.D.s”
“Shego!” said Kim, frowning. “You’re supposed to be reforming.”
“Right, reforming.” agreed Shego. “As in, close to but not 100 reformed yet.”
Kim rolled her eyes. Still, she consoled herself, sneaking two slightly-underage siblings into a strip club was nothing compared to stealing experimental military equipment or trying to hold the planet ransom. “So, where did you ‘guys’ go next?”
“Places, places!” said the wedding coordinator, hustling Kim and Shego into position behind the main doors of the marriage chapel. Standing in front of Kim and Shego were Ron and Monique. Ron and Monique were both wearing child-carrying harnesses; Ron had Sheki Go strapped to his chest and was carrying a small pillow, while Monique had Kasy Ann and was holding a basket of flowers. Kim had wanted to involve their two daughters in the wedding, as ring bearer and flower girl. Since the two were too young to walk, Ron and Monique were assisting. Behind Kim and Shego was Dr. Possible and Mrs. Dr. Possible.
The selected music began to play, and Ron and Monique (carrying Sheki and Kasy) started forth.
“Oh, a couple of bars…” said Shego. She and Kim began to walk down the aisle, Kim having a little trouble due to her shoes. “We ended at a country western bar where your dad tried to get people to do ‘square root dancing’.”
“You’re kidding.” said Kim. “How drunk was he?”
“Don’t worry about it, we all got home safe and sound.” said Shego. She thought back to the bar last night.
The bar was filled with stale cigarette smoke and the smell of cheap beer. Country music played loudly, which would normally have driven Shego running. However, she was getting drunk enough that it didn’t seem worth it to try to drag the small group to yet another bar.
Mego and the Wegos had headed back for their apartments soon after the group had left the strip joint. Ron had dropped out of the party early also. The second bar they had stopped at had actually allowed Ron to try to mix his own drink. After drinking his third or fourth self-made ‘Mar-go-REET-Oh!’, Ron had passed out. Rufus, who had been nibbling from a bowl of cheese-balls, had drunk the last half of the drink and then gone with Ron after Shego had managed to pick up the lanky man and get him into a taxi. Somewhat to Shego’s surprise, Dr. Possible and Will Dhu was still keeping up with Shego.
Shego looked around the bar. To tell the truth, what she was in the mood for wasn’t another drink. She saw Dr. Possible staggering toward the live music group, and then spotted the couple by the bar.
The couple was easy to spot. The man was easily the biggest guy in the bar, brightly tattooed with heavily muscled arms sticking out of his sleeve-less leather jacket. The woman with him had red hair, but that was about her only similarity to Kim. Her hair was garishly colored, obviously from a bottle. Her laugh, in response to something the man had said, was high pitched and nasally, unlike the warm laughs and soft giggles of Shego’s Kimmy. Unlike Kim’s baggy, comfortable clothing, she was wearing a tight top and skirt. The woman fumbled in her purse, pulling out a pack of cigarettes.
Shego grinned and moved toward the woman. The woman had the cigarette to her lips and was reaching for a book of matches from the bar top. Shego flicked her thumb against her fingers, and caused her thumb to ignite with green flames, as if she had lit a match. Shego held her thumb up to the woman’s cigarette, lighting it. “Hi there, cutie…” said Shego, doing her best to sound seductive. “Wanna ditch the gorilla and have some real fun?”
The woman blinked, looking at Shego in shock. With her looks and outfit, she must be used to guys coming up and asking her out; apparently, though, this was the first time a pale skinned super-powered woman had asked her out.
The gorilla-like drinker got to his face, his porcine features screwed up in confusion. “Hey…” he said. “We don’t like your kind in here.” he said, deciding on being pugnacious.
“Oh, don’t like people with working brains here?” said Shego, smirking. Her eyes glanced down over the man’s physique, and sniffed dismissively. “Relax, Tiny… it’s not like you’d know what to do with a real woman anyway.”
Shego was an expert when it came to taunting and mocking. After years of practice with pushing Dr. Drakken’s buttons, this man was easy prey. The man growled in wordless rage and swung a meaty fist which would have broken Shego’s nose if Shego had allowed it to land.
Even in her drunken state, Shego found that the large man’s movements to be slow and she easily side stepped. She grabbed the man’s arm as it swung past and tugged, causing the man to spin completely around. If Shego had wanted to, she could have knocked the man unconscious with a single blow. Instead, Shego just placed a hand on the man’s back and shoved him forward, sprawling onto the bar floor. The man got back to his feet, and was joined by two of his friends.
Shego grinned. “Fight night tonight…” she said to herself. Sparring with Kim was fine most of the time, but tonight she wanted to kick back and do some damage. She moved into a defensive crouch and made a ‘come here’ gesture with both hands.
Shego blinked, returning to the here and now. “I’m sure we all had a fun evening.” she assured Kimmy. Dr. Possible hadn’t been involved with the fight at all; he’d been so intent on trying to explain his idea of ‘square root dancing’ that he never even noticed the hub-bub at the bar. Will Dhu had tried to interfere… after incapacitating two of the men who were trying to clobber Shego, he’d been knocked out himself by a swung chair.
Monique was practicing scattering flower petals, with Kasy’s enthusiastic but unskilled assistance; when Kasy threw a handful of petals, it was as likely to land on a bench or Monique as it was to land on the floor. Ron was having a much easier time; Sheki just kept trying to twist around and study every detail of the large building as the group marched down the aisle.
Kim and Shego followed, walking with carefully measured precision. At the wedding, Kim and Shego would both be wearing the dresses Monique designed and carrying bouquets of flowers. For now, they just practiced moving together in the new footwear, and held hands.
Coming up behind them was Kim’s parents. Kim had always wanted her father to be there to give her away for her wedding. Kim had been touched when Shego had asked Kim’s mom, Mrs. Dr. Possible, if she would give Shego away.
Standing at the alter was the preacher who would be conducting the services, the Maid of Honor, and the Best Man. Since Kim’s two best friends were already acting as Assistant Flower Girl and Assistant Ring Bearer, Kim had offered Shego the choice of who the Maid of Honor and Best Man would be. Shego didn’t have many female friends; after consideration, she had decided to ask Betty Director to be Maid of Honor. The busy woman had been flattered, and managed to actually schedule a week off from her job as head of Global Justice.
Hego, with his typical arrogance, had assumed that Shego would pick him as the Best Man, despite how he had reacted to the news at first. Kim had been amazed that a man who would try to mind control his own sister would expect her to go on to pick him as the Best Man. Shego, more used to Hego, had not been surprised and had greatly enjoyed informing Hego that it was in fact Mego that she wanted as Best Man.
Mego was beaming with pride as he stood by the alter, next to the leader of Global Justice. Looking at the expression on his face, Shego smiled at him; Mego was actually her favorite brother; she would have picked him for Best Man even if it didn’t irritate Hego.
The wedding coordinator stopped them at the alter. “Ok…” the fussy person said. “We’re all here… Flower girl and Ring bearer step aside, the couple comes forward here. We have the ceremony, you take the rings…”
“And we’ll take those babies… now!”
Kim and Shego whirled, both women dropping instinctively into fighting crouches.
At the back of the church was a woman dressed in a black ninja outfit, complete with a face mask that only left her eyes exposed. Seven yellow-skinned female figures, dressed in blue one-piece suits, stood behind her.
“Take the two children!” the black garbed one shouted.
“Mistress, what if we are unable to take both?” asked one of the yellow-skinned figures.
Adrenna Lynn hissed. These Cee-Cees were different then previous models of robots. For one thing, they actually questioned orders when the orders were incomplete and sought out alternative. Lynn did NOT consider that an improvement, she wanted hench-druids who didn‘t think for themselves. “Just take whoever seems to be the best fighter, then!” she hissed.
Shego had no idea who these women were, but she had no intention of letting them take Kasy or Sheki… and every intention of making them pay for interrupting the wedding rehearsal. She lifted her hands, both glowing bright green, and hurled a wave of plasma straight down the aisle. The black clad woman yelped and ducked behind one of the yellow figures. The Cee-Cees just stood still, their special spider-silk skin dispersing the powerful energy blast. Metal claws, built into their feet, dug into the building’s carpeting, so that Shego’s blast couldn’t even push them away.
“Attack!” shouted Lynn, and then made her way out the exit doors. She was not a trained fighter, and knew she was no match for either Kim or Shego in hand-to-hand combat. If she wanted Kim, she would first have to prove to the former cheerleader that Lynn was her superior in intellect and Shego’s superior in evil.
Shego was a little surprised when the figures seemed unharmed by her plasma blast, but didn’t allow that to stop her. After an embarrassing incident where Ron had turned evil, Shego had vowed to never rely solely on her plasma powers. She grabbed the first weapon to come to hand… a large, ornate metal candle stick holder, and prepared herself.
Kim, on the other hand, had kicked off her shoes and was running straight at the seven female robots. Ron, seeing his best bud charging, slipped off his harness and handed a protesting Kasy Ann to Dr. Possible.
Five of the Cee-Cee’s dodged around Kim, focused on Kasy and Sheki. “Engaging K-Protocols.”
announced the two remaining druids in unison, even as Kim lashed out at the first one. Much to her surprise, it pulled back, avoiding the blow, even as the second Cee-Cee delivered a painful punch to Kim’s mid-riff.
Betty Justice pulled a hand gun from a hidden holster and aimed at the five charging Cee-Cee’s, careful to avoid the chance of accidentally hitting Kim. Her first few shots were aimed directly at the center of the Cee-Cee’s mass, roughly where the heart and lungs would be in a human. The shots only slowed the Cee-Cee’s momentarily; the same yellow skin that had absorbed Shego’s plasma were also able to block bullets. Betty aimed higher, sending two slugs into the eyes of one of the approaching Cee-Cee’s. It raised a hand to block one bullet, but one of Betty’s shots had managed to blast the Cee-Cee’s left eye. “Engaging A Protocols.” said the now one-eyed android as it charged at Betty . The robot snap-kicked Betty’s hand, sending the gun flying into the church.
The wedding coordinator was babbling ‘This isn’t in the plan, this isn’t in the plan’ even as the coordinator, the priest, Monique, and the two Doctor Possible’s backed away from the assault, taking Kasy Ann and Sheki Go with them. Kasy Ann wailed, her hands glowing; obviously eager to try to go in and help her mommas. Sheki Go, on the other hand, was quiet; staring at the fight with a concentration unusual to see in a one year old.
Mego moved to intercept a fourth Cee-Cee. Cee-Cee four announced “Engaging A-Protocols” as Mego shrank down to try to grab one of the robots feet. The robot moved quickly, trying to stomp on Mego with its clawed feet… Instead, Mego reached up and grabbed the descending foot even as he expanded to full size, knocking the droid onto its back.
Shego swung the heavy candle-holder like a baseball bat. The droid she was aiming at calmly announced “Engaging S Protocols” before ducking under the swing. Before Shego could recover and swing the pole back, the droid had grabbed the pole in one hand and used the grip to deliver a powerful kick to Shego’s midsection. Shego gasped as the wind was driven out of her, the metal claws slashing her light sweater and her pale green skin. Fortunately, the claws were only designed to aid in traction, or the blow might have done enough damage to incapacitate Shego even with her boosted healing powers.
The two remaining droids dodged around Shego in her moment of distraction, leaving only Ron between them and their targets. Ron picked up another metal candle stick holder. Instead of wielding it like a bat, however, he gripped it near it’s mid point and began spinning the heavy metal rod like it was a propeller.
“Engaging A protocols.” announced the two robots. One dived low at Ron’s feet, even as the other tried to dodge around Ron.
Ron’s staff lashed out, one end knocking the diving robot even closer to the ground. Ron used the impact to move the staff faster, the other end of the metal rod smashing into the jaw of the robot that had tried to dodge.
Monique back peddled franticaly, cradling Sheki to her chest. She found her eyes glued to watching Ron. She had never seen him fight like this before… to tell the truth, she had never seen Ron fight before, period. Wielding an ornate iron and brass candle stand against two female figures, the lanky young man should have seemed ridiculous. Instead, he moved with quickness and precision, blocking the two robots from getting around him in the narrow aisle way and protecting the noncombatants in the mostly empty church building. His face was calm, almost blank; totally unlike Kim’s icy combat expression of always trying to calculate the odds or Shego’s fierce grin of savage enjoyment.
Neither Kim nor Shego were grinning now. Kim, two on one, was discovering the odds were most definitely not in her favor. Every attack she tried, even ones she had used dozens of times and swore were flawless, seemed to be effortlessly blocked by these two robots. Worse, whenever she tried to focus on one, the other would unleash a powerful punch to Kim’s body. While Kim could stand a lot of abuse, she knew it was only a matter of time before she would fall in battle.
Shego, one on one, was faring just as bad. For one thing, these robots seamed totally immune to Shego’s greatest weapon, her plasma powers. Second, whenever she tried a punch, the robot not only easily blocked it but would kick out at Shego, knocking her back. Already, Shego was panting from exertion, blood trickling from dozens of scratches to her body. A small, frightened corner of her brain wondered how long she could hold out, and what would happen to Kasy and Sheki if she failed.
Mego desperately wanted to help his sister or his future sister-in-law, but it was all he could do to handle the Cee-Cee in front of him. Only his shrinking powers had enabled him to avoid blows that would have put him out of the fight; as it was, he was becoming rapidly exhausted trying to keep up with his cybernetic opponent’s assault.
Dr. Director circled the now cyclopean Cee-Cee warily. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the others fighting with others of the robots. She was startled to see that Ron was managing to hold his own with two of the robots, while Kim was losing to her two and Shego was having trouble dealing with one. Her mind, trained to analyze any situation for possible strengths and weaknesses, wondered if it was linked to these ‘A’, ‘S’, and ‘K’ protocols. Dr. Director’s assessment of her opponent was that it was faster and stronger then Dr. Director herself, and while Dr. Director had managed to land one or two punches on the machine, the only damage she had managed to do so far was the eye she had shot out. Still, Dr. Director decided, she had one edge over her opponent; a much greater backlog of experience with being blind in one eye.
Dr. Director rolled suddenly into the Cee-Cee’s blind area. Even as it swung to bring Dr. Director into sight, she was running to the back of the church. She ignored the gun and instead went for the weapon she should have used first… her Global Justice communicator. “Director to any available units… assault by unknown forces. Home in on my transmission.” she snapped into the handheld device.
Ron turned, moving like a well oiled machine. The heavy metal rod smashed into the back of one of the Cee-Cee’s necks, with all the force Ron’s wiry body could put behind it. In a shower of sparks, the Cee-Cee collapsed, her head coming partially off her body. The other Cee-Cee stepped back, considering Ron carefully. He raised the staff in front of his body with one hand and, with the other hand, made a ‘come here’ motion.
The six remaining Cee-Cee’s considered their options. One unit had been disabled by a non-primary threat source. Another non-primary threat source had managed to summon aid, which was rapidly approaching. The chance of achieving their primary objective was now relatively nil; At least two Cee-Cee’s were required to cope with the primary threat sources (Kim Possible and Shego), and it would take four or more to either kill or knock the two women unconscious. The remaining Cee-Cee’s were outnumbered by the non-primary threat sources (Ron, Dr. Director, Dr. Possible, Mrs. Dr. Possible, the priest, the wedding coordinator, and Monique) and at least one non-primary threat source had demonstrated an ability to disable a Cee-Cee. It was time to switch to the secondary priority. The two robots fighting Kim stepped back and threw smoke grenades on the floor. The other Cee-Cees followed suit, until the building was full of thick smoke, impossible for a human to see through, but easily navigated by the Cee-Cee’s using infrared vision. They moved together, taking out the one they had identified as being the best fighter, and then vanished into the smoke.
Kim found her way to the front doors and opened them wide, to start the smoke dissapating, and then came back to the middle of the church hall. Shego and her mom were going through, opening windows to help ventilate the area. The priest had the wedding coordinator sitting down and was talking to him to help the man recover from his shock. Kim looked around, first checking to make sure that Kasy Ann, Sheki Go, and Shego were all safe, before checking on everyone else.
“Where’s Ron?” demanded Kim.
“One of those yellow people grabbed him.“ said Monique. “Just when the smoke started. Then it pressed a hand against Ron’s face, and he fainted.”
Shego shook her head. “What is it was bad guys wanting the side kick?” she asked, then looked around.
The Cee-Cee that Ron had taken out still laid on the floor. The retreating robots had made no effort to collect or salvage it. “Side kick had some moves.” Shego reluctantly admitted, frowning angrily. She had actually been losing to one of these, and Kim had been being worn down by two while letting five by… how had Ron managed to take one out while foiling a second one’s attempts to get past him?
“Let’s find out what‘s up with these bots.” said Kim. She knelt by the now inactive Cee-Cee and pulled out her kimmunicator. “Wade, I need all the info you can get on this droid.” she said, placing the kimmunicator by the droid.
“I’m on it.” said Wade. Several cables extended from the Kimmunicator and hooked up to the droid’s head and body.
Above the Kimmunicator, a holographic image began to form, showing a wire diagram of one of the Cee-Cee’s.
“What’s the sitch with the combat droid?” asked Wade, as he continued electronically probing at the machine.
“A bunch of them just barged into my wedding rehearsal, tried to grab Kasy and Sheki, and grabbed Ron instead.” said Kim.
“Here’s the freaky thing.” said Shego, butting in. “Me and Kim could barely keep up with these things, but this one got taken out by the doofus.”
“Hey, that doofus was kicking serious bot-butt.” said Monique, glaring at Shego.
Wade cleared his throat. “Actually, I’m not surprised. This thing has three separate combat protocols established.”
“A, S, and K?” said Dr. Director, coming over after talking with the agents who had showed up.
“Correct.” said Wade. “The A protocol is a general combat system… Some good moves, but something anyone with serious training could take on. S and K are much more complex… someone apparently had taken hundreds of hours of footage of Shego and Kim fighting, against each other and against other fighters, and used them to program two sets of combat protocols: One specifically designed against Kim, the other specifically against Shego.”
“Can you tell us who sent them? Or where the bots are taking Ron?” asked Kim.
“Who sent them… no can do, Kim.” said Wade. “All the volatile programming is wiped. The combat protocols were burned into their ROM, that‘s why I could read them. Based on hardware specs, someone used one of Drakken’s Bee-Bees as a base model, but it lacks the Bee-Bee’s accelerated speed factor. Also, each unit is much more capable of independent operation.”
“Here’s a thought.” said Shego. “Since Dr. D built the Bee-Bees, maybe he built these too?”
“Oh, come on.” said Kim. “He’s in prison. Most likely, he sold someone the original blueprints, and they’ve finally built an improved model.”
Wade interrupted. “Got good news… I’ve managed to locate Ron.”
Dr. Director cleared her throat. “Kim… as much as Global Justice owe you and Ron, I cannot authorize a GJ strike team just to go after a sidekick. GJ‘s primary theatre of operation is in the United States.”
“No, but you can authorize a team to save your aged…” began Shego testily.
“SHEGO!” snapped Kim. Kim turned to Dr. Director. “I understand you have limits on what you can do. Don’t worry, I’m sure we can handle this. Right, Shego?”
Shego shrugged. “Those bots took me by surprise. I can handle them now.”
Kim frowned. “Let’s give ourselves an edge. Wade, keep an eye on Ron’s location and let us know if it changes. Shego, we need to get to the hotel.”
“What can I do to help?” said Monique. Mego came over, wanting to help also.
“Monique, I need you to go get a couple of items while Shego and I get changed.” said Kim. “Mego, I’ve got the most dangerous assignment of all… baby-sit the kids.”
“You idiots!” screamed Adrenna Lynn at the six remaining Cee-Cees. “I wanted Kimmy’s kids, NOT the side kick!”
Ron, still unconscious, lay slumped on the ground. The one eyed Cee-Cee stepped forward. “Forgive us, mistress. After Cee-Cee 1 was destroyed, we realized that we could not accomplish objective one. So, we grabbed the best fighter and returned.”
“I meant, whichever of the two brats was the best fighter!” growled Lynn. “And what makes you think this… this guy was the best fighter there?”
“He was the only one able to disable a Cee-Cee unit.” said the one eyed Cee-Cee. With the demise of Cee-Cee 1, Cee-Cee 2 was now in command despite her impaired function.
“FrEEKY.” said Lynn. “And NOT in a good way.”
She blew out her breath. ‘Ok, girl’ she told herself. ‘Cameras are rolling, and your stunt double is a dud. Just find a way to make this look good.’. “Drakkie-poo said that Kim always seemed able to find her side kick. Shego will probably be tagging along. When they attack, capture Kim Possible and bring her to me.”
“And Shego?” asked Cee-Cee 2.
“Keep her busy. Humiliate her.” said Lynn. “Maybe, if Kim asks real nice, I’ll even let Kim keep her as a pet after I‘m done here. “
The Cee-Cee nodded. “As you command, mistress.”