On one level, Kim was completely shocked by the sight of John Acceptable pointing a handgun at Shego with every indication of shooting her.
As a teenage heroine, Kim had been able to respond instantly to emergencies, no matter how surprised she might be. Even though that had been years ago, however, Kim had found ways to maintain her skills.
One difference between college-Kim and high school-Kim was the fact that college-Kim wasn't a cheerleader. When she'd encountered the broad range of women's sports at the university, Kim had decided she didn't have to cheer others on any more. She would be the one getting the cheers. Possibly her retirement from fighting evil had something to do with it.
Whatever her reasons, at this time of year Kim was on the women's varsity volleyball team. She wasn't captain yet, but she felt she would be when the current captain graduated at the end of the year. Being a star volleyball player required a laundry list of talents - reaction time, hand-eye coordination, leaping ability, upper body strength, teamwork, communication skills, and so on. Kim suspected her ability to react to sudden changes had even gotten better since her teen years.
So when John drew his gun, Kim's body responded as instinctively as she might when she was on the front line and a spike came her way. She raised her arm and hurled the bookbag in her hand with great force. It flew through the air and hit John in the wrist, making him cry out. The gun pointed down at the floor and a bullet rang loudly, burying itself in the thin carpeting.
“You stupid cow!” Yvonne screeched at her.
Kim was already racing toward Shego and the blonde Acceptable. Yvonne had forced Shego forward slightly, anticipating the bullet. Shego had stumbled ahead, unable to stop herself. But now Kim grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her back toward Yvonne. The Acceptable daughter couldn't respond fast enough as Kim struck her in the neck with a blow of the hand (thanks in part to intramural karate).
“This is not Acceptable!” Don shouted at his siblings. “Stop them both!”
“So not,” Kim agreed under her breath as she pulled Shego around the corner and kept running. This was as unacceptable as it got.
Shego appeared to be almost in a daze, but when the noise of a second shot rang out from behind them, it woke her up. “Shit!” she swore. “They're firing at us! They're firing at you!” she added, sounding surprised.
“It's nice to be part of the group,” Kim muttered, still reeling in the back of her head. The gun could have been for show, and it could have gone off when she hit him in the hand. But that second bullet could only mean that they were really trying to - kill Shego. And it was important enough that they were willing to kill her too, and in a college dormitory where anyone could see them.
Maybe they were willing to kill witnesses too.
“There's too many people around,” Kim said as they hit the stairwell and hurried down. “We've got to get out of here.”
“Maybe getting away from the people trying to kill us is another reason!” Shego snarled at her.
“That too,” Kim said.
Just as they pushed through the exit and found themselves outside, there was a shattering above them and specks of glass rained down. John Acceptable somersaulted through the air and landed perfectly in front of them. “Nice form, huh?” he asked.
“I almost forgot how shamelessly the Acceptable brats fight for their parents’ approval,” Shego said. “You want Kimmie's too? Pathetic.”
“Are you sure you want to save her?” John asked, grinning nastily.
“No, but I have to. Heroes save people. They don't kill them,” Kim replied sternly.
“Blah, blah, blah,” Shego said, kicking her foot upward in John's direction.
John had been expecting the attack from Kim, not the frail Shego, and he was caught by surprise. The pain blossomed through his entire body as her pointed boot, borrowed from Kim's closet, connected solidly with his privates. His voice wavered weakly as his hands drifted downwards and he collapsed in front of them.
“Fighting rule number one,” Shego told him as she ran past him. “All men have one very, very weak spot.”
Kim actually trailed behind for a second as she stared at the Acceptable brother. “So you're not completely broken down,” Kim said as she caught up with Shego quickly.
“Just don't ask me to do it again,” Shego replied, beginning to perspire heavily.
“We can't take my car, because they'll be able to track it by the license plate,” Kim thought out loud as she heard Don and Yvonne bursting out behind them. “We'll need someone else's.”
She practically dragged Shego across the lawn to a nearby parking lot and located a car that looked fast without having a hundred thousand miles on it. Kim winced slightly as she pulled her elbow back and smashed it hard through the driver's-side window. Then she reached in, unlocked it, opened it, and threw Shego in first. Shego barely had time to crawl into the passenger seat as Kim shoved inside after her.
“I'll do it,” Shego said as Kim ripped the outer layer away from the steering column.
“I can do it,” Kim replied sharply as she fiddled with the wiring and got the car to start in just a few seconds.
“You can hot-wire a car?” Shego asked, surprised.
“What?”
“It's just you're Little Miss All-American who doesn't have a lawbreaking bone in her body.”
Kim put the car in reverse and screeched out of the parking space. “I'm not always that nice,” she said vaguely as she rammed the stick into drive and sped out of the parking lot. Her hair whipped behind her as the air blew through the broken window.
Shego winced as she picked up a shard and inspected the cut on her finger. “I'm getting really tired of broken glass,” she mumbled.
“I'm surprised they're not following us,” Kim said, glancing at both rearview mirrors.
“They have their ways,” Shego replied darkly.
Don Acceptable removed the special visor he'd put on. “I only got the first three letters on the license plate, but I also got the make and model,” he said.
“I'll make sure the area police release an All Points Bulletin within five minutes,” Mrs. Acceptable's voice answered on the receiver in his ear.
“It doesn't matter,” Don said. “There's nowhere Possible can hide from us. Even if she could somehow get back to Middleton, we'll be watching her family and friends. And the local and federal governments listen to us, not a has-been like Kim Possible.”
“True enough,” his mother said. “How is your brother?”
Don looked back at John, who was stretched out on the hood of another car, resting. “His balls are a little blue,” Don told his mother, smiling slightly.
“Your sense of humor is unappreciated,” Mrs. Acceptable said icily. “Your failure to apprehend Shego is completely embarrassing. The three of you are the foremost team in the world, and you allowed a girl who probably hasn't swung a punch in five years to elude you all.”
“That girl seems to have sprained John's wrist,” Yvonne interrupted on the frequency as she examined him.
“Kim Possible will die,” John said through gritted teeth, an angry sulk on his face.
“Kim Possible will die if your father and I feel it is necessary,” their mother warned him. “Focus your killing thoughts on Shego. She must die. We have no idea what she knows, but if Possible is helping her, it must be important. She might even know about Thomas.”
“She couldn't,” Don scoffed.
“She shouldn't have escaped either,” Yvonne muttered.
“Precisely,” Mrs. Acceptable said. “You will kill Shego, and you will take Possible into custody. We will decide whether she's too great a liability. And John - just wait until I tell your father.”
John flinched, and laughter danced in Yvonne's eyes.
Don grunted and massaged the back of his neck. “If Shego thinks she'll get away from us, then maybe we should change her friend's name to Kim Plausible.”
“Thanks for the transport, Captain,” Kim said. The words sounded bizarre coming out of her mouth. Had it only been two days ago that she and Ron had talked about not needing to borrow rides from people they'd helped, now that they had driver's licenses?
A car wouldn't get them where they were going, however, and she'd abandoned the other car not long after she'd stolen it.
“How could I not, Kim Possible?” Captain Solomentsev replied in his thick Russian accent. “It was your bravery five years ago that returned our nuclear core to this submarine, the pride of Mother Russia's navy. It was a little thing to pick you on your California beaches and take you where you are going.”
Kim nodded. It had been one of the last “hits” on her site before the Acceptables showed up. If it had been an American sub, she would have looked elsewhere, what with the Acceptables’ connections to the government.
What people had she relinquished Team Possible's status to? She didn't know if Shego was right about the Family's plans to take over the world, but they had tried to kill Shego, and this struck her as completely unprofessional. It was what made them different from the Drakkens of the world.
That and normal skin with a healthy color.
She thought of Shego and turned to look at her, curled up in a chair staring out into nothing.
The captain seemed to follow her eyes. “It is odd,” he mused. “The female who stole our power source looked somewhat like her. Not so scrawny, though.”
“Oh, no, that's not her,” Kim laughed nervously. She'd forgotten that.
Solomentsev tapped his chin. “Wait, I remember. You had that sidekick too. I thought it was a boy. What was the name again?” He shrugged. “I trust you and your quiet friend will find what you are looking for when you arrive.”
Shego closed her eyes and buried her face in her knees.
“I hope so too,” Kim said. She had nowhere else to go. She hadn't even bothered to use the Kimmunicator again. She'd just mailed it to her parents’ home, afraid the Acceptables could somehow trace its location, as well as hack into its transmissions. And she had made one or two alterations which she trusted Wade could figure out. Even if the Acceptables intercepted it, Kim doubted they would understand.
She had been away at school for a couple months, but she'd never felt so sick for home as she did right now. Kim trusted that the Acceptables were only watching her family for now, hoping for information. But she worried that they might do something more aggressive if she was gone for too long.
Kim and Shego. She wished she had someone like Monique with her, or Ron. This was Team Possible stuff, and half the team - two-thirds if you counted Rufus - wasn't there.
She felt like imitating Shego, but standing as she was, she couldn't exactly reach her knees. She put her fingers to the bridge of her nose instead.
Kim waved from the beach as the submarine's conning tower vanished beneath the water.
“I've been confused with Ron Stoppable,” Shego growled behind her. Dark clouds practically hovered over her. “My humiliation is complete.”
“After all this time, I think you'd have learned not to underestimate Ron,” Kim told her, annoyed.
“Where the hell are we, anyway?” Shego asked, already bored with Ron as a topic of discussion.
“The private island,” Kim replied, “of Señor Senior Senior.”
Shego stared at her. “Are you crazy?! He'll kill you!”
“If the Acceptable Family has done to him what you say they've done,” Kim said, “then he'll jump at the chance to help one of their enemies. Even if I used to be one of his. Besides, the idea of me taking refuge at a villain's lair is something the Acceptables will never think of.”
“That's assuming he gives you a chance to tell him what's happened,” Shego retorted.
“It's no big,” Kim said. “He's a traditionalist. The rules have to be observed.” She began walking toward the fortress-like manor home.
A blast of energy hit Kim so suddenly that Shego's breath was taken away as quickly as Kim's was. Her head snapped around and saw the laser cannon that had materialized from the earth in mere moments.
“The first shot was only meant to stun you, Kim Possible,” Senior's voice said, emanating from hidden speakers. It was more like a whisper now, but it was definitely him. And what he said was evidently true, because Kim was still moving, albeit flopping around on the ground. “The next shots will kill you both.”
Kim groaned. “Not very honorable, Señor Senior Senior,” she managed to say.
“Honor?” he replied, enraged. “You heroes have lost all concept of the meaning of honor. If you are going to play without the handbook for our two sides, then neither am I. You and your friend can leave or die.”
Something snapped in Shego and she stalked closer to Kim. “She is not my friend!!!” she screamed.
The cannon did not fire. “Shego?” Senior asked after a moment, startled. “You are not looking well.”
“Neither is your son,” Shego replied.
A video camera flew into view and stopped several inches from Shego's face. “You have seen my son?” he said. Now his voice was in an agony of anticipation. “Is he alive?”
“He was alive when I escaped from the Acceptables’ enforced hospitality last week,” Shego told him.
“So, you too,” Senior answered. “And now you appear on my property with your most hated foe. I must know why you are here. I demand - no, insist - that you join me for dinner.”
“Since we're here to see you,” Kim said as she struggled onto her knees, “I don't think we'll decline.”
The laser drew near. “I don't think you'll decline either,” he responded coldly.
“Could you give me a hand?” Kim asked Shego.
Shego muttered something and yanked Kim onto her feet by the arm. “There,” she said. “Don't thank me.”
“Don't worry,” Kim said as she inspected the bruises Shego's fingers left on her arm with a surprisingly strong grip.
“So you and my son were fellow prisoners,” Senior said as he entered the dining room into which Kim and Shego had been led by armed servants. Whereas once he'd used a cane, now Senior depended on a motorized wheelchair. He'd been an older man when Kim saw him last, but the last five years had treated him poorly. “Did you speak often?”
“Not really,” Shego replied. “He was kept in a different wing. We were taken past each other's cells for our monthly… interrogations.”
Kim raised an eyebrow. “What could you possibly tell them after years in captivity?” she asked.
Shego looked down. “It wasn't really about gathering information,” she murmured.
Kim's cheeks colored. “Oh,” she said apologetically.
The brunette waved her off as she sat down.
Senior Senior smiled mirthlessly. “Did they use electrocution?” he asked.
“Sometimes. Why?”
“I thought so,” he said as he took his seat at the head of the table. “Sometimes there would be these odd charges for electricity. I suspected as much.”
“I don't understand,” Kim said.
“Undoubtedly,” Senior said to Shego, “you deduced that they were holding my son as an - inducement not to continue with my attempts to dominate the world.”
“I figured,” she replied.
Senior nodded. “Did you ever try to escape before your recent success?”
“Six times,” she admitted, “in the first year. They were all disasters.”
“Just so, while you were within, trying to get out, I was out, trying to get in,” he told them. “I made four attacks on their facility in the first nine months after my son was taken. All were repulsed without much difficulty. I think I may have amused them at first,” Senior hissed, gripping his fork tightly. “Eventually, however, they warned me another attempt would result in his death. And,” he added dryly, “they sent me the bill.”
“The bill?” Shego asked, confused. Kim felt equally bewildered.
“Yes, the bill,” Senior replied. “They said it was something I was assuredly used to. They charged me for the damages inflicted on their home. And every month they have charged me for my son's… room and board,” he grumbled.
“You mean they're making you pay your son's RENT?” Kim said, shocked.
“You say it plainly, and correctly,” Senior said. “They are most insistent landlords, and wildly inflationary. I would say the average month's extortion is in the neighborhood of a quarter million dollars. A little thing, true, but it adds a greater edge to my pain.”
Kim was aghast. “They've blackmailed you for over ten million dollars! That's how they pay for all their technology!”
“They have other prisoners I don't know,” Shego said. “Maybe you're not the only one footing their utility bills.”
Senior nodded. “So, before you begin eating the fine repast I am having set down in front of us, tell me, Kim Possible. Why do you come to my home, and with Shego rather than that boy - what was his name?”
“Ron Stoppable,” Kim said, sighing, while Shego slavered as she looked hungrily at the food on her plate. “And he can't be with me right now. He's probably under surveillance. The Acceptable Family is trying to kill Shego, and maybe me too.”
“And so you come to hide?” Senior asked, surprised.
“For now,” Kim replied. “But now I have a plan.”
Shego grabbed her steak with her hands, not even bothering with silverware, and began devouring the meat.
“Team Possible is coming out of retirement,” Kim continued, trying not to look at Shego, “and my first mission is serving notice to the Acceptables. I've decided they're no longer worthy of being heroes. Sometimes the first is the best.” Only now did she look at Shego. “I'm going to fight them. And Shego is going to fight alongside me.”
The other woman almost choked. “With you?” she asked, spitting her food out. “So NOT!”
To be continued…