“What…happened to me?” A tiny man began to shuffle around in total darkness as he fumbled for a light switch of some kind but found nothing. In fact, his hands were met with a very grimy substance and he recoiled in pure disgust. Now that he was more aware, the odor that hit him threatened to send him into unconsciousness once again. Failing about in the dark, the man stood upright and cracked his helmeted head on the roof of his prison. The German was shocked to find that the ceiling gave way so with a mighty push he sent the top of his confinement sailing open…
…and poked his head out of the dumpster he was in. Dementor looked down at the muck he was standing in. “She tossed me in a refuse bin?!” The mad scientist was about to explode in a series of curses against his red-clad rescuer when he took in the scene before him. The abandoned warehouse that had been his lair was in ruins; in fact, the entire block looked like it had collapsed in on itself.
“Well…I guess they didn't have a chance to disarm the auto-destruct. Serves them right.” Dementor flopped out of the dumpster and tried his best to clean his uniform; those stains weren't going to come out without a fight. He momentarily considered taking the price of his suit out of Cleis' payment but quickly dismissed the idea. He shuddered as he remembered the rumors that spoke of what she did to the last person that skimped on her payment; last he heard Duff Killigan still hadn't recovered half the goofballs she shoved up his…
“Maybe I should call my bank before anything else…” he mused as he stuck to the shadows to avoid detection from the few cops still in the area.
“So, what's her condition?” a feminine voice asked. From her state of near-unconsciousness Kim couldn't place the voice.
“Well…she suffered numerous cuts and bruises, her arm is fractured, and she has several deep lacerations in both her legs that were probably done by shrapnel.” that was one that Kim did know; her mother. 'That means I'm in Middleton's hospital…'
The first voice paused for a moment and the teen hero got the definite impression she was being studied. “When will she be awake? She might have information very valuable to us.”
“I won't have you assaulting my daughter the moment she wakes up! I'm her physician so I give the orders here.” Kim's mother shot back. Again there was a silence in the room that the redhead dared not interrupt.
“I respect your position, Mrs. Possible…however,” the other female voice paused and sighed, “your daughter was been awake for some time now.”
Kim groaned; she wanted to sleep more. Opening her eyes she gave a sheepish smile to her mother who was hovering over her bed. Kim saw the other woman was none other than Betty Director, head of Global Justice. Ron and Rufus were at her side the instant they saw she was up; they had been sitting off to the side knowing full-well Anne Possible wouldn't jeopardize Kim's health.
“Hello, Dr. Director; don't worry about it mom, I'm feeling much better than I was. What happened at the warehouse…? Where's Shego?” Kim asked as she looked at Ron. The blonde hanged his head in defeat.
“She got away, KP. Her, Drakken, and Dementor.” Ron answered.
Kim's eyebrow furrowed in annoyance. “So, Dementor got away too?” Kim mused. As an afterthought she added, “Why was he even there?”
“That, Miss Possible, is what we want to know. I have a few questions to ask you.” Betty Director took this opportunity to edge into the conversation. She sat in a chair at the teen's bedside with a large file.
“Well, ask away. I don't remember much, though.” Kim said as she closed her eyes and laid her head back onto her pillow.
“First off; who attacked you? Mr. Stoppable said you were not involved in most of the events that happened; he has refused to say anything to me and insisted that you were taken care of first.”
Kim shot Ron a smile. “The last thing I remember is splitting up with Ron in the tunnels. I ran into some sort of storage area and saw her poking around in there. She saw me and we started to fight. Her Atemi strikes knocked me out five minutes into it.” Kim stated. Dr. Director didn't bother to ask who it was Kim was fighting, the teen hero noticed. Dr. Director finished up her notes and flipped a page in the folder before looking at Ron.
“Mr. Stoppable, now will you tell us what you witnessed after you got separated from Miss. Possible?” Betty Director asked. Ron nodded and took a seat at the foot of Kim's hospital bed.
“Well, Rufus and me ran into a door that was blown off it's hinges first. We peaked in and saw Shego taking on about seven henchmen with Drakken, not that he was helping much.” There were several giggles from Kim and Ron did a horrible imitation of Drakken 'helping' before Dr. Director cleared her throat to get things back on track.
“Sorry! Anyway, Shego took care of the goons before she pinned Dementor up against the wall.” Ron said. Betty Director paused in her writing.
“Shego was fighting against Dementor? We assumed it was a collaboration between him and Drakken…”
Ron nodded in understanding. “It was weird; Shego was madder than I've ever seen her. It didn't help when Cleis showed up.”
Kim raised an eyebrow at that. “Who's that?”
“Cleis is most likely the woman you fought, Miss Possible.” Betty Director pulled out a large photograph from her folder and laid it on the hospital bed.
“Wow, that's her!” Ron said as he picked up the photo. “Where did you guys get this?”
“That was a security photo from over two months ago. She showed up on the villain circuit and pulled several high-end jobs but so far the countries that they have happened in have kept things quiet about the heists.” Betty informed the room. Kim scowled and took the photo from Ron. It was grainy, out of focus, and at a very bad angle.
“So, what kind of jobs has she pulled?” Kim asked as she passed the photo back to the one-eyed woman.
Betty leafed though her folder before pulling out another sheet. “She's wanted in seven countries, mostly for crimes that she committed during her two-month crime spree. She has stolen several paintings, jewels, top-secret plans, and she's even helped out several of your nemeses, Miss Possible. Duff Killigan hired her to steal the plans to a new type of explosive from government bunker in Britain, Monkey Fist used her to steal an idle from a New Deli museum, DNAmy gained a new growth formula from Cleis' efforts breaking into a lab in France, and Dementor aquired her services to get some top-secret schematics on a type of particle accelerator from a corporate headquarters here in Middleton.”
Rufus whistled. “She's busy!” the mole rat chirped out.
“That is exactly why we need to catch her. She’s not as dangerous as Shego but she’s getting there. Miss Cleis is the hottest new product on the villain scene and many of the bigger players have tried to hire her permanently but so far it seems she’s rebuffed them and is remaining a free agent.” Dr. Director said as she looked at the list of robberies. “In any event, can you continue your report, Mr. Stoppable?”
“Oh, right. Anyway, Shego had Dementor pinned until Cleis showed up. She almost ended Shego’s career right there with a throwing knife. She saw me and Rufus hiding but she didn’t do anything. I wonder why she did that?”
“She probably didn’t see you as a threat, Ron.” Kim added.
The blonde scowled for a moment but eventually shrugged and continued. “Dementor said something about her helping him take over the world but she didn’t buy it and told him she’d save him for a price.”
“How much?” Betty asked. Ron scratched his head and tried to remember.
“Um…I think it was…err…” Ron stuttered. Rufus jumped up on his shoulder and whispered into his ear which made Ron snap his fingers. “Right, she wanted $119,131.60. Dementor agreed and scurried off to the door while Shego attacked her. I really don’t know what happened after that…I was too busy fighting with Dementor. The next thing I know Cleis is grabbing Dementor and yelling about the place being ready to blowup. She said she knocked out KP so I followed her to the surface…that’s really all there is to it; the building blew up and I found KP and waited for an ambulance.” Ron finished. Dr. Director wrote for a few more seconds before nodding to herself and closing her file.
“Thank you for your cooperation, you two. I have to go confer with my superiors about this but you’ve helped the search greatly with this new information.”
Kim closed her eyes in thought for a moment before speaking. “Dr. Director, do you know who Cleis is yet? Have any suspects?”
“…not at the moment. There are several leads that will be followed up on, however.” Dr. Director replied as she rose from her chair. Ron and Mrs. Possible said their goodbyes to the one-eyed woman as she left.
“Well, that certainly was something else. Ron, Kim needs to rest so I’m going to have to ask you to let her sleep.” Anne Possible said as she started to shoo the boy out of the room. Kim waved to her long-time friend but sighed when she was alone in the room.
“This…isn’t good.” she mused to herself as she settled in for a long night…
“Shego!” Drakken bellowed as he walked into the lab. His green-skinned assistant had been in poor spirits since they got back from their little outing but he was sure he could cheer her up with this.
“What do you want now?” Shego mumbled from her swivel-chair. She was busy sharpening the claws on her gloves and really didn’t want to be bothered.
“I have news…” Drakken said in a sing-song voice. When Shego yawned the blue scientist decided to take another rout. “Its news about your little friend…”
“That bitch, Cleis!?” Shego jumped from her chair and was by him in a second. Drakken gulped and backed up a bit.
“Er, no. It’s about Kim Possible! You remember her, right? Annoying teen zero that would fight with you on a regular basis?” Drakken prodded. He was starting to get a bit worried about his sidekick; she was starting to loose sight of the main goal of world domination.
Shego relaxed and flipped her hair. “Oh, princess. What about her?”
“She’s in the hospital! My sources tell me that she’ll be out of commission for awhile!” Drakken practically beamed. Shego rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips.
“By sources you mean Middleton Late News, right? You want me to go put an end to Possible for you?” Shego inquired. Drakken paused for a moment; he hadn’t thought of that, he was just happy the teenage nuisance would be out of his hair for a few days.
“Excellent plan, Shego! I’ll leave it to you!” Drakken declared. Maybe his sidekick really did have her mind on the prize?
“Yeah…Kimmie is bound to know more about Cleis since she fought her more! I’ll just have to…persuade her to tell me all about it.” Shego cooed as she walked off towards the hovercraft hanger.
“…then again, she might just be obsessed…” Drakken mumbled as he sunk down into his lab chair.
She climbed up the side of the massive building, her form fitting suit clinging to her body as her muscles flexed. At the top, she flipped over onto the roof and landed in a crouch. She scanned the darkness; not a soul knew she was there. Without a sound, she sprinted in the towards the access door. It was hard enough sneaking around the multiple Global Justice guards that had been posted. She easily broke the lock on the door and slipped inside. Her target was several floors down so she had to evade the night staff of doctors, nurses, and patients. Any one of them could destroy her stealth if she were to slip up. Calmly she stalked down the flights of emergency stairs while counting the floors. There were several Global Justice guards in the stairwell but they were few and far between; too easy for the cat-suited woman to pickoff.
She finally reached the door to the floor her target was staying in. Taking note of how many people were milling around, she quickly decided a distraction would be in order. She opened the door slightly when there was no one watching and made her way into the halls of the hospital. There were doctors and nurses walking around, but none were too aware; certainly nothing a thief such as herself couldn’t handle. When she saw two large Global Justice agents standing watch outside the door she was looking for, she commandeered a wheelchair-bound patent that was left un-attended in the hall. With a moderate push, the poor man was sent careening down the hall screaming for his life. The thief’s plan worked and the two agents ran after the man to prevent a greater injury than he already had. They gave her just enough time to slip into the room undetected. Once she was inside the door closed with a click…
“I was wondering when someone would show up.” the thief spun around and saw Kim Possible sitting up in her bed with a impassive look on her face.
“Well, I thought I should visit since I won’t be seeing you for awhile, Princess.” Shego said sarcastically as she stepped into the light provided by the small lamp that was on. The redhead scowled at her but didn’t move to attack.
“So, you really got whipped by that pathetic doppelganger, huh? I expected more from you, Kimmie.” Shego scoffed as she walked over to the bed. The green-skinned thief pulled the medical chart and scanned over it. “Hmmm…nothing too bad, you’ll be up and ready to take a beating from me in no time.”
Kim gave the barest of smirks as she looked the other woman over. “I’m surprised you’re walking, Shego. You really got into it today.”
Shego raised an eyebrow at that. “So, you’ve already been talking with the sidekick, huh? Let me assure you, that red-suited bitch got the bad end of the deal today.”
“Oh, I know that. Stabbed by her own knife, that was pretty bad.” Kim agreed. “Of course, getting dropped by one tap and failing a heist…that’s worse, don’t you think?”
Shego growled and held up a flaming fist, albeit with a lower power level. “I don’t know how you found out about that, but it was a fluke! I gave just as good as I got!” she snarled.
To the raven-haired woman’s ire, Kim just chuckled to herself. “No, you were beat completely, it was an embarrassment.”
“Shut up!” Shego raged as she lashed out at the sitting hero. Only too late did she notice the confident smirk the girl had on her face. Kim countered with unexpected speed and tapped several points on Shego’s arm that made it go limp. Before the former-superhero could even begin to contemplate this, the redhead leaped out of the bed and flipped over the stunned Shego. Several more taps were administered to the older woman’s spine that made her fall prone on the hospital bed paralyzed from the neck down.
“W-w-what is this?!” Shego croaked. Kim sighed and shifted the woman’s legs under the covers of the bed.
“Too bad, Peaches, I wanted to have a bit more time toying with you.” Kim sighed.
“Y-y-you…h-how?” Shego’s mind was still reeling from the implications of this.
“Oh, please. Like I told you at Tessa Corp., it’s Atemi. You blocked it good enough yesterday in Dementor’s lair so I’m disappointed with your performance now, Peaches.” Kim taunted as she sat down at the foot of her former bed.
“…what are you waiting for? Call the guards already.“ Shego asked simply. Kim looked at her long and hard before answering.
“You think this is all a setup? Are you that egotistical?” Kim asked in an amused tone. Shego snorted and would have shrugged if she could move.
“You created a fake personality just to throw me off. It was clever, Princess, I’ll give you that. That knife to, an experiment to see if your new metal will stand up to my plasma so you could build a cage out of it. Ha, I can’t believe it ends like this…” Shego mused. She was completely thrown off by the historical laughter coming from the teen at the end of the bed.
“Oh…god…that’s great, Duchess. Just priceless. You think I would go to all this trouble just to arrest you?” Kim stood up and walked over to the small bag her mother had left her. Still giggling to herself, she began to pull out clothes from it to change. Shego, confused as she was, couldn’t help but watch the girl’s supple form as Kim pulled off her hospital gown. Shego couldn't help but notice the large bandages on the legs of the teen hero; one large on in particular made Shego flinch. Kim pulled on her trademark cargo pants but stopped when she reached for her form-fitting sweater.
“See something you like, Shego?” Kim cooed. The pale-skinned thief blushed a darker shade of green but firmly wrenched her head over to one side so she could stare at the wall.
“What’s the point of all this?!” Shego fumed. “I don’t need you of all people taunting me for falling for this! Guards! Gua--umph!” Shego’s yelling was cut short by a hand planted firmly over her mouth. Kim was scowling at the door but relaxed when no one came in.
“What the hell are you doing, Shego! If you don’t shut up I’ll make it so you can’t even move your mouth!” the redhead hissed. Shego found herself…worried…by the new attitude her rival was sporting.
“Now…you’re going to be very quiet while I sneak out, right?” Kim asked in a tone that indicated she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
“What’s with all this? Are you on the down-and-outs with Global Justice?” Shego asked. Kim stopped by the window she had just opened and gaped at the raven-haired woman.
“I don’t believe this, you still don’t believe I’m Cleis? You actually think this is all an elaborate trap to get you behind bars?” Kim asked.
“Doy! No way in the seven circles of hell a goodie-two-shoes like you is a thief.” Shego scoffed. Kim shook her head once again and walked over to the bed to stand behind the green-skinned thief yet again.
“You know, I was actually going to let you get out of here without getting caught by Global Justice but now…” Kim roughly twisted Shego’s neck to the side to jab a finger into the back of her neck. “…you can ask Betty Director all about it when they find you like this in the morning. See you around some day, Peaches.”
“Ugh…Kimmie…whyyyy…” Shego groaned as the room started to spin.
“Maybe one day I'll tell you, Shego. If you can find me, that is.” that taunt from Kim was the last thing the raven-haired woman heard as her world went dark…