“Could you check the coordinates again, Wade?” Kim requested through the COM link. “We should be here, but we don’t see anything and we want to make sure before we go diving.”
“Figures he would put another damn lair underwater,” Shego grumbled. “Idiot always had a fascination with underwater lairs.” Kim raised an eyebrow; someone seemed a little grumpier than usual this morning. Then again, maybe she was getting used to the non-grumpy version. “I am not grumpy, Pink,” Shego insisted grumpily, noticing the pointed look. Shego noticed her tone and sighed. She was being grumpy and she wasn’t quite sure why. Maybe it was a consequence of the crappy sleep the lookout provided; she had banished herself outdoors so she wasn’t tempted to share Kimmie’s bed and as a result had spent yet another night at the cabin on the floor.
Wade’s voice cut through on the COM. “That’s the place, Kim,” he confirmed.
“Do a tech scan, Nerdlinger and see what you find,” Shego requested.
Wade did as he was asked. “There is a large underground complex about thirty meters down,” he informed them.
“Of course there is,” Shego griped.
Kim grinned, finding the grumpy really funny. “Get over it and put on your SCUBA gear, Junior,” she ordered good-naturedly.
“Bossy team leaders,” Shego complained, but Kim’s good mood started to counteract her sour one. All four of them quickly got into their wetsuits; they had worn bathing suits underneath their clothing in anticipation of having to do this very thing and it was just a matter of stripping off the mission clothes and tugging on the wetsuit. Shego went to the controls and programmed the plane to hover a few feet above the water for five minutes before it was to shut the side door and return to the cabin. She glanced at Kim, Ron and Rufus, all of whom seemed to be ready.
Kim opened the side door. “Let’s go everyone,” she prompted. Shego, after saluting sarcastically, was the first to jump, landing in the water with a splash. Ron and Rufus followed and Kim joined them after they had gotten out of the way. They all adjusted their gear and dove, swimming steadily downward until a huge building came into view.
They started scanning the walls looking for an access point. Ron found one first and gave the thumbs-up, causing Kim and Shego to swim over. Kim retrieved her laser welder and started on one side of the grate while Shego lit up and started on the other. They had the cover off in short order and they all swam through the opening and down the pipe, stopping when they came to an underwater chamber that a pipe leading upwards and a pipe continuing the way they came.
Kim and Shego looked at one another and shrugged, not knowing which way to go. They both looked at Ron and Rufus, both of whom looked back and shrugged. Shrugging once more, Kim made an executive decision and swam upward towards the pipe in the roof. She entered it and Shego, who was swimming right after her, followed suit.
Shego’s feet had just slipped past the opening when a grate slammed down behind them, cutting them off from Ron and Rufus. Shego cursed, turned around and lit up, determined to get the whole group back together before they swan into whatever trap they were obviously swimming into. Before the plasma had made any inroads, though, the chamber suddenly emptied, and all of the water was sucked violently out through the sideways pipe that Kim had discarded as a route. Ron got caught up in the current and was sucked out along with the water. Rufus, who was closer to Shego than Ron had been, managed to avoid this fate by hanging on for dear life to the bars above him.
Shego cursed again and reached down to pick him up, only to drop him when Kim suddenly fell into her arms. With no water to give her buoyancy and very little to hang onto, Kim had failed in her attempt to stay where she was and had plummeted back down the pipe.
“Nice of you to drop in, Princess,” Shego quipped.
“Had to go with the obvious rejoinder, didn’t you?” Kim accused.
“Yup,” Shego affirmed.
Kim rolled her eyes. “Put me down please,” she requested. Shego thought about ignoring the request, but Ron had just been sucked away by the world’s largest toilet bowl and now was not the time. She put Kim down and peered down the grate, only to find that the toilet bowl analogy had been quite apt. The chamber was filling back up with water much as a toilet tank would have.
“I vote we wait for the pipe to fill back up and continue the way we were going,” Shego stated, knowing Kim probably wanted to cut through the grate and follow Ron, but truly believing that going up was the better call.
Kim thought about Shego’s suggestion. Her impulse was to cut through the grate and follow after Ron, but she knew Shego was right and they should go upward. “Okay,” she agreed.
Shego blinked in surprise but otherwise said nothing. The water level rose quickly and they got ready to swim. They didn’t get much of a chance, though, because as soon as the water got over their heads, the underwater toilet flushed again, and this time it sucked all of the water in the chamber through their pipe. There wasn’t much they could do but go along for the ride; the smoothness of the pipe and the strength of the current undermined any attempts to resist the current or even to slow themselves down. They didn’t slow down at all until the pipe opened up into a room where it unceremoniously dumped them into a wading pool like some sort of demented water slide.
They were instantly surrounded by armed guards and they glanced at one another to gauge whether they should fight their way out. A quick head count showed they were outnumbered twenty to one and though they were both confident that they could take all sixty of them, they figured the quickest way to get to Ron was to allow themselves to get captured.
Ron opened his eyes gingerly, his head hurting from where it had smacked the side of the pipe as he had been sucked through. He was alone in the room, or so he thought until a voice broke the silence. “How nice of you to join us, Mr. Stoppable,” it said.
‘You know my name?” Ron asked, a thought popping in his head. ‘But that means you can’t be Drakken,” he realized before his head exploded into searing pain and the world went black.
“Well, this is cozy,” Kim muttered as she and Shego brushed chests for the umpteenth time. After their capture, the henchmen had brought them into what was obviously the control center of the lair and chained them together in the middle of the room with Rufus suspended high above them. They were chained by the wrists from shackles that were suspended from the ceiling, and by the ankles whose ends were bolted into the floor and they were strung together in such a way as to have less than ten centimeters between them. It made for a lot of inadvertent touching that was both annoying and exciting all at the same time.
Shego shrugged, or she would have if she had been able to move her shoulders. “Eh, it could be a lot worse, especially for a trap trap,” she decided. She smirked as her reflexive shrug movement made Kim brush against her again. “I actually kind of like it,” she admitted cheekily, “and from your perpetual blush, I think you do too, Princess.”
“Maybe,” Kim admitted begrudgingly, her blush growing deeper at the admission. “But I am really glad the whole beach thing happened or this would be really awkweird.”
“True, but it did happen and we are more comfortable with each other now, so we could make the best of a bad situation,” Shego offered, flirting and teasing all at the same time.
“Yeah, I don’t think so, Junior,” Kim said mock sternly. “Now get your mind out of the gutter and help me think of a way out of here.”
“What if I have already thought of a plan? Do I get to let my mind wander to inappropriate places then?” Shego inquired.
Kim would have smacked her if she could have. “You have a plan? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Cause it is a plan, but it kinda sucks,” Shego admitted. “I can melt these and set us free,” she said, swinging her arms to indicate the chains.
“But?” Kim prompted
“But, Drakken was actually smart enough to use a high-quality steel and it is going to take a shitload of energy to melt,” Shego explained. “By you standing this close to me, which now suddenly makes sense beyond the pervy, you would get really badly burnt or more likely killed. The only reason that I would consider it at all is that the washer o’ doom that you wear nowadays seems to protect you from my blasts. I have no idea if it would stand up to that kind of energy, though.”
“Of course it would, duh,” Kim said dismissively. Shego looked skeptical. “It saved you from a comet, Shego, and gave you superpowers. I think it can protect me from those powers.”
“I suppose,” Shego allowed. She sighed, not really in love with this idea, but seeing no other way. “Ready, Pumpkin?” she asked, preparing to light up.
“Nice of you to join us, Kim Possible,” an overly familiar voice greeted them, interrupting the proceedings. Drakken, his whole being puffed up with the pride of their capture, strode in. He glanced to his right. “Nice to see you too, Shego,” he said dismissively.
“Bring that attitude over here, asshole,” Shego growled.
“He’s got some sort of weapon, Shego,” Kim murmured, and indeed he did. It wasn’t particularly large, but it looked to be quite sophisticated, especially for Drakken.
“Who stole that for you, Dr. D?” Shego taunted. “It looks too fancy to be yours.”
“I always told you words hurt, Shego,” Drakken pouted. “And besides, you’re wrong. It turns out that if I am properly motivated, my genius comes through.”
“Yeah right,” Shego mocked. “Five bucks says that thing doesn’t even work. What the hell is it supposed to be anyway?”
“Try to fish for info?” Kim whispered, having figured it out.
“Yup,” Shego whispered back.
“I call it ‘The Inverter’,” Drakken told them proudly, not realizing he was playing into Shego’s hands.
“Yeah?” Shego mocked. “So what in the hell does that mean?”
“Well, to be completely honest, I don’t know,” Drakken admitted unexpectedly. “It does different things to different people that I test it on. For some people, it seems to invert whatever is the strongest emotion they are feeling at the time, hence the name. For others, it makes them confess their deepest, darkest secret. For others, it just amplifies whatever they are already feeling.”
“And that is helpful to villainy, how?” Shego asked sarcastically. “Blackmail fodder? The internet is cheaper and faster. And switching people’s emotions is not only rude, it’s dumb.”
“Fine, then Shego, we’ll see how you like it,” Drakken pouted, aiming the gun at her.
“Eh, you can try, but I am generally so apathetic that no emotion is particularly stronger than the other,” Shego pointed out. “And most of my deep, dark secrets when by the wayside yesterday, so you won’t get much in that department, either.”
Drakken lowered the gun briefly, sulking at her confidence. “Fine,” he said petulantly, knowing she right about the emotion thing and figuring she wasn’t bluffing about the secret thing. He glared at them both before raising the gun again. “Fine, I’ll shoot Kim Possible then,” he said, aiming and firing all in one quick motion.
Kim arched her back as the beam struck her, and Shego nearly dislocated both shoulders as she lunged forward to help her. The chains held fast though and she was yanked back. She growled and lit up her hands, only to stop when Kim groaned and slowly lifted her head. Shego caught her eye and quirked her eyebrows in an unspoken “Are you okay?” She was relieved beyond measure when Kim winked and nodded almost imperceptibly. An unspoken “How?” flitted back to Kim, and Kim used her eyes to indicate the amulet that lay hidden beneath her turtleneck. She then used her eyes to tell Shego that she had a plan and that she should just follow along.
“So how do you feel, Kim Possible?” Drakken taunted. “Any secrets you would like to share?”
“I feel different,” Kim said, turning to look at him. Shego moved accidentally, causing their bodies to brush up against one another again, and Kim turned her gaze to her. The look that Kim was giving her was unmistakably predatory, and even though Shego knew Kim was faking, it was simultaneously making her both completely terrified and completely aroused.
Kim took a step toward her and Shego instinctively took a step back, though the chains prevented her from going very far. “We’re friends now, remember, Pumpkin?” Shego reminded her.
“Friends?” Kim said scornfully, moving closer. “We could never be friends, Shego. We’re too much alike and there is too much past between us.”
Shego looked at her quizzically. She hoped “bizarre” was the act Kimmie was going for, because Shego really couldn’t tell which of the Inverter’s attributes Kimmie was going for. Kim either hated her (inverter option), Kim was hot for her (deep, dark secret option that wasn’t so deep and dark anymore but Drakken didn’t know that) or Kim was really hot for her because of their physical closeness (amplification option). “But we’ve been friends for a while now, Pink,” Shego disagreed, playing along as best she could.
“But we haven’t, Junior,” Kim contradicted. “We’ve been amicable rivals. Drakken’s little toy has shown me that. And,” she continued. “It has brought a few other things to the surface as well.” She reached up and kissed Shego passionately on lips.
“Ah, deep, dark secret option,” Shego thought absently. Their bodies melded closer and Kim bit her lip. Shego took this to mean that it was her turn now that Drakken was probably well and thoroughly distracted. She was, at any rate. She lit up, starting with her hands. She slowly increased the coverage, listening intently for any yelps of pain and sniffing intently for the stink of burning skin. Neither one assaulted her senses, so she engulfed herself completely, causing them both to be alight with green flame.
“Well, I guess the amulet is working,” Kim mused as she felt a mild increase in warmth that might not have had anything at all to do with Shego lighting up. After a while she could also feel the energy that Shego was giving off surging through her system, and it was an odd sensation.
With such an assault, the chains holding them began to weaken, and in a couple of minutes more, they would probably break entirely. Kim and Shego could both sense this and were ready to spring into action, even though they both rather liked where they were.
A loud, pompous, completely familiar and therefore completely unexpected voice cut through the room. “You have got to be kidding me!” Ron bellowed from where he had appeared next to Drakken, shocking Kim and Shego into stopping everything they were doing. The flame disappeared and they took a step back from each other. They looked over at Ron, only to discover that is wasn’t Ron; based on the red tights, Zorpox had made a return engagement.
“Looks like Ron wasn’t set up after all,” Shego observed.
“That’s not Ron,” Kim insisted. “Ron would never intentionally hurt an animal.”
“No, he wouldn’t,” Shego agreed. “Fabulous. Now we have something else to worry about.”
Meanwhile, over a few paces, Drakken was extolling the praises of his new invention to the newly-arrived Zorpox. “It worked!” he bragged. “You saw! Kim was indulging in a completely atypical behavior. How do you think it worked on her?”
“It didn’t, you buffoon,” Zorpox spat. “It isn’t ‘atypical’ behavior; they’re dating.”
“They can’t be!” Drakken protested. “Shego has a crush on me!”
Shego and Kim overheard and Shego’s eyebrows shot four inches upward. Kim chuckled. She couldn’t help it, even though everything else about this situation pretty much sucked.
“She doesn’t have a crush on you, Buffoon, and she never did,” Zorpox said dismissively. “She’s gay, and she’s been plotting to steal my girlfriend for years.” He turned his anger on Shego. “What did you think I was just going to sit back and let you take what is rightfully mine? Look around you, Junior; this all my doing, and I did it for revenge.”
Rage was building and it was building fast. He had insulted Kimmie by insinuating she was some sort of property that could be owned. He had insulted her by accusing her of stealing Kimmie when she had done everything in her damn power not to interfere in their relationship. And, on top of all this, he had called her ‘Junior.’ Exactly three people were allowed to call her ‘Junior’ and he was not one of them.
Kim could see the rage building in Shego’s eyes and knew she had to interfere before Zorpox got Ron killed. “You aren’t yourself, Ron, and I think you really need to stop talking now,” she said softly.
“Shut up,” Zorpox said bluntly. “You don’t even deserve my time. You allowed yourself to be seduced, allowed yourself to be taken away from the only person who really loves you, all for some momentary thrill. Ron might have told you he is okay with it, and knowing the sentimental sap as well as I do, he probably is. But I’m not, because you are nothing but a whore and a dyke whore at that.”
That did it; no one called any woman that in Shego’s presence without being badly beaten, and saying that about her princess pushed her over the edge into homicidal rage. Her face turned into a mask of evil and rage; she yanked her chains out of the ceiling with a flick of her wrists and lit her plasma to make them fall from her wrists. She walked forward, snapping her ankle shackles as she did so and leaving a pile of metal rubble on the floor. She then turned on Zorpox, stalking him like a tiger stalks her prey, but he was either overconfident or over-stupid because he merely stood there. She grabbed him by the neck and hoisted him up, needing only to squeeze or light up to end his miserable existence.
“Don’t do it, Junior,” a voice in her head pleaded. “Kimmie-Ann will never forgive you and you will never forgive yourself.”
That calming voice got Shego to snap out of it. “This is too easy; it has to be a setup,” Shego realized out loud. “Someone wants me to kill your sorry ass.” She smacked Zorpox on the side of the head, knocking him out cold and dumped him somewhat gently on the floor. “All right, time to kick the ass of someone who deserves it,” Shego said with a smirk, turning to face Drakken.
“But this wasn’t my idea, Shego!” Drakken whimpered.
“You really expect me to believe that Zorpox is behind all this?” Shego asked, lighting up.
“Well, I never would have expected you to believe that Drewbie was behind all this,” a new voice countered.
“Drewbie?” Shego and Kim questioned simultaneously, both of them turning toward the voice. “Mama Lipsky?” Shego asked, bewildered, when she had confirmed the identification.
“My name is Sue Lipsky,” Mrs. Lipsky said pointedly. She pushed a button on the panel she was standing in front of, and without warning, Shego found herself recaptured, trapped in a cage whose bars she would never be able to melt.
“And now my plan is complete,” Sue sighed happily. “Team Possible will be no more, and Drewbie and I will rule the Earth.”
“We’re not dead yet, Mama Lipsky,” Shego countered, knowing that if Mama Lipsky were a typical villain, and thus wanted to explain her brilliant plan, they wouldn’t be dead for a while. She decided to get the process moving so that Kim could figure out a way to escape while Mama Lipsky was blathering on and they could get the hell out of here. “So, why’d you do it, Mama Lipsky?” Shego taunted. “You’ve got us, but why do you have us?”
“Revenge, my dear,” Sue said, as though it were obvious. “There is a lot of bad blood between our families. I was going to leave you alone, but then you left and broke my Drewbie’s heart, and now you will have to pay for it.”
Shego rolled her eyes. Apparently, a few things needed to be, for lack of a better term, straightened out. “I didn’t break his heart, Mama Lipsky,” Shego said evenly. “There was never anything between us.”
“But you had a crush on him; he told me so,” Sue said accusingly.
“He is completely off his nut,” Shego answered. “I don’t like men in that way,” she said slowly, emphasizing every word. “I like women, and I have liked one woman in particular for practically the entire time that I worked for your son.” She didn’t look at Kim, but Kim could guess who she was talking about and grinned briefly.
“Well then,” Sue said after she had let that information sink in, “it is even worse because you were leading my Drewbie on.”
“I would have had to have a penis to lead your Drewbie on,” Shego said in exasperation. Mama Lipsky looked puzzled so Shego decided to reiterate. “Drewbie is gay, Mama Lipsky,” she said succinctly.
“I am not!” Drakken cut in. “How dare you tell my mother such lies!”
“Want me to call up Lucre, Drewbie?” Shego countered, and Drakken paled considerably.
“Oh, I know that Drewbie is gay,” Sue said unexpectedly.
“What?” Kim, Shego, Drakken and Rufus all said in unison.
“Oh, I’ve known all about it all for the entire time: the evil, the taking over the world schemes, the being gay. Did you really think that a momma’s boy like Drewbie could really hide all of that from his mother?” Sue asked incredulously.
“Then why all of the bullshit of me having a crush and leading him on and all of that?” Shego challenged.
“Oh, that was just a smoke screen,” Sue explained. “Drewbie really did believe you had a crush on him and I thought that maybe you did. I see now that you don’t and you knew that leading him on would be pointless. So, there really is no further reason to pretend that is my reason for killing you all and taking over the world.”
“So why are you killing us and taking over the world?” Kim asked, curious.
“Oh, the reason is still revenge,” Sue said. “But not for my son’s benefit. It is actually for my grandfather and the life of his that was ruined by your family members.”
“That was at least a hundred ago,” Shego pointed out. “Don’t you think you should have gotten over that by now?”
“Gotten over it? Gotten over it!” Sue bellowed.
“Guess not,” Shego muttered.
“Your ancestors sent my grandfather to jail, then they beat him up and left him to die in the jungle before they sent the police after him and put him back in jail!” Sue said angrily, moving closer and closer to Shego’s cage. “He could have been anything; he could have even ruled the world. But instead he spent most of his life rotting in a jail cell.” She glared at Shego and stepped up to the bars of the cage, unsheathing a weapon of some sort from a hidden pocket.
“Shego!” Kim called out, angry, worried, and alarmed all at the same time. With the shot of epinephrine that followed, she felt energy sweep throughout her system and without any real thinking on her part, her hands lit up in green plasma. “Whoa,” Kim breathed.
“Whoa,” Shego echoed. She then lit up her own hands just to make sure she still could, and breathed a sigh of relief when the green plasma shot to her fingertips.
Kim felt the chains on her wrists melting away and she grinned. This amulet was becoming handier by the minute. She figured it was temporary, though, so she worked as quickly as she could. As soon as her wrist bonds were gone, she set to work on her ankle bonds. Just as she freed her feet, she could feel her energy waning, so she used the last of it to send a blast skyward that hit the restraints holding Rufus. They crumbled and Rufus dropped into her outstretched hand. “Try to free Shego if you can, Rufus,” she requested. “I think the button is on that panel up there.” Rufus nodded and jumped down.
Sue, who had been distracted from shooting Shego by the spectacle, looked on bemusedly. “The luck of some people is just really disgusting,” she muttered. She turned her back on Shego to face the more immediate threat of Kim. “Nicely done, Ms. Possible,” she said sarcastically. “But I am still going to win.”
“And how exactly do you figure on that?” Kim asked, knowing that she should be able to take an old woman with little-to-no difficulty.
“Because my plan is perfect,” Sue said immodestly. “And even though you have circumvented many of my traps, you can’t escape them all.”
“Plan? Traps?” Kim questioned, hoping that Sue would either tell her what was coming or tell her what she was doing, giving Rufus more time to set Shego free.
“What? Did you think this was all random?” Sue mocked. “My plan is fail-proof; even if one part fails, there is another to take its place.”
“So, for instance, if we didn’t get busted by the cops, there was a contingency plan,” Shego interjected, trying to keep her talking.
“Exactly,” Sue said proudly. “I arranged all of those thefts with planted evidence so that Team Possible would be the prime suspects. If you were arrested, that would be lovely, but if my bogus evidence failed to bring you down, then my choice of thefts would be likely to stall you for awhile. If for some reason, perhaps because one of the members of Team Possible had preeminent microbiologists for relatives, the commonality of all of the thefts was discovered, then the clues would lead you here and I would be ready for you.”
“Clues?” Kim prompted, seeing that Rufus had almost made it to the control panel.
“Of course clues,” Sue said dismissively. “The note that had my son’s catch phrase on it; the maniacal laughter; the coordinates that were so easy to get out of Jack Hench.”
Shego swore. “I’ll get the bastard for that one,” she grumbled. “What about Zorpox?” she asked, indicating the prone figure on the floor. “How does he figure into all of this?”
“He was easy to get to,” Sue replied, “unlike the two of you. I knocked him out one night and made a few modifications to his personality by implanting a chip.”
“A chip?” Kim said, still stalling. “What kind?”
“One of my own design,” Sue said proudly. “It is a hybrid of the Attitudinator, the Moodulator and a mind-control chip. And because Drewbie had some trouble in the past when certain people remembered being controlled, it also has a forced amnesia function.”
“So you’ve been controlling him this entire time?” Shego clarified.
“Of course,” Sue said. “I tried just turning him evil or making him angry and jealous, but he still didn’t want revenge on you two. I had to make him do it.” Shego breathed a huge sigh of relief that she didn’t kill him, and from what she could see of her, Kim looked to be mighty relieved that the opinions of a mind-controlled Zorpox did not reflect Ron’s true opinion.
With no one paying any attention to him whatsoever, Rufus was able to make his way over to the console area that Kim had indicated. He climbed onto the control panel and looked around frantically for the button. The one marked “Cage” seemed like a good bet, so he pushed it in, causing the cage around Shego to collapse and disappear into the floor. “Ha-ha!” he said triumphantly.
“Nice going, Roof,” Shego congratulated him. “Well, Mama Lipsky, you are stuck between a Possible and a Goshen. Looks like your plan might have not been perfect after all.”
“Oh, but it is,” Sue disagreed. She sounded a signal and the room filled with not only henchman, but also a singular naked mole henchrat.
“I think we found our acid thief,” Shego whispered to the mole rat that had perched on her shoulder.
“Uh-huh.” Rufus agreed.
“Hold on, Roof,” Shego warned him. He tightened his grip. She executed a perfect flip over the head of Mrs. Lipsky to end up right next to Kim, who promptly scooted closer and placed her back against Shego’s.
“We kick their butts and fight our way out?” Kim suggested, a grin forming on her face.
“I think I said ‘asses’ but hell yes, Pumpkin,” Shego replied with a grin of her own.
They stood back to back and waited for the henchmen to come. Come they did, and Kim and Shego repelled all comers with fists, flips, kicks and teamwork. The first few dozen went down easily, but they kept coming and the short-handed Team Possible started to tire. Luckily for them, there was only twenty or so left to fight, and after a quick non-verbal conference, Kim lured them to the correct spot on the floor and Shego tossed Rufus back over to the control panel. He pushed the “Cage” button again and the cage reassembled, trapping them all inside. Rufus chuckled and started to jump down, but was prevented by the evilest looking mole rat he had ever seen.
The henchrat growled at him and charged. Rufus timed himself and jumped perfectly to allow most of the other mole rat to run harmlessly under him while the stubby tail remained for Rufus to bite. He bit and then proceeded to yelp in pain as his teeth hit solid metal. “Ow!” he complained. He glared at the other mole rat, which was coming around for a second charge. Rufus narrowed his eyes and stood his ground as the henchrat came closer and closer. At the very last second, Rufus jumped, timing it so he landed on the henchrat’s back. He did a quick survey with his paws and soon found what he was looking for: the off button. He pushed the button and the other mole rat went limp.
“Well, Mama Lipsky, your henchmen are either unconscious or in a cage, your mechanical mole rat has been deactivated and your son,” here Shego peered over the control console, “is hiding and whimpering. Ready to give up yet?”
“Not quite,” Sue said, producing the weapon she had threatened Shego with earlier. Before she could aim, though, Shego sent a plasma blast that knocked it out of her hand and sent it over Kim’s way. Kim picked it up and threw it to Shego who promptly melted it.
“Next attempt?” Kim asked pleasantly.
Sue Lipsky scowled, and Kim and Shego hoped that it meant that the old geezer had finally run out of tricks. “You two make a formidable team,” she complimented them. “I admit I underestimated you. But I do have one more ace in the hole.” She produced a small remote control from her pocket. “The chip that is implanted in Mr. Stoppable’s brain has a self-destruct mechanism in it. I had hoped to just kill the two of you, seeing as Mr. Stoppable is an innocent party, but if the only way I can get to the two of you is to kill someone you both love, then so be it.” She pushed the button and threw it at their feet.
“No!” Kim screamed and Shego sent two full-fisted blasts of plasma at the remote in the vain hope that it would somehow interrupt the transmission. She missed, badly, and everyone waited for the inevitable. But, much to everyone’s mutual shock, nothing happened. Ron, still soundly knocked out from Shego’s earlier blow, continued to sleep peacefully on the floor, his head fully intact. Kim picked up the remote cautiously and examined it, smiling when she saw what the trouble was.
“There’s no battery,” she said, tossing it to Shego.
Shego looked it over. “You’re right,” she said with a smirk. Then, with untold satisfaction, she crushed it in her fist.
“No battery?” Sue screeched, her cool demeanor completely gone now that all of her traps had failed. “But I put the battery in there myself.” She reached into the pocket where she had got it from and jumped when the pocket moved. Rufus chittered at her angrily and jumped down, holding his battery prize aloft as he ran to Shego.
Kim grinned. “There are more than three of us in Team Possible,” she told Sue proudly. Sue glared at her, but said nothing.
‘We done here, Pumpkin?” Shego asked.
“I think so,” Kim replied.
“Cool,” Shego said. She activated her wrist kimmunicator. “Hey Nerdlinger, contact GJ and give them the coordinates. We have a few people here they might want to talk to,” she told Wade.
“Can do, Shego,” Wade answered. He was silent for a few moments. “They’ll be there in thirty minutes,” he informed her when he came back on the line.
“Excellent. Thanks, Nerdlinger,” Shego said, signing off.
They passed the time by thoroughly restraining Sue Lipsky and Drakken and by doing a search of the lair. They found many interesting things, most notably Bev, who was alive and well and munching some hay in one of the lair’s rooms. They also found most of the rest of the stolen goods in another room. When they returned to the control room, they found the last thing they were hoping to find: a button labeled “Lair Surfacer” that when pushed caused the entire complex to rise to the surface of the ocean.
They finished waiting for GJ up there, and after all of the prisoners had been loaded on to the transport planes, Shego contacted the plane to pick them up. They loaded on Ron, who was still fast asleep and still dressed in red tights, and Bev, who was a little wary of the plane at first but who didn’t seem to mind after she had been up there for a while. They went at full speed back to Middleton, and after placing a quick call to Yi to inform her Bev had been put back where she belonged, they took Ron to see Kim’s mom.
“Can you help him, Mom?” Kim asked tentatively after they had explained the situation.
“Of course I can help him,” Mrs. Dr. Possible assured her. “He’ll probably wind up with a bad headache from the concussion, but the chip won’t do him any harm,” she explained, looking pointedly at Shego. Shego grinned and tried to look innocent. Mrs. Dr. Possible rolled her eyes and shooed them both out of the room so she could prep for surgery.
They waited nervously in the waiting room, but Kim’s mom came out much more quickly than they anticipated. “Ron is doing fine,” she told them. “The chip was very easy to remove. He’ll stay here overnight for observation, but he should go home tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Kim said sincerely.
“You’re welcome,” her mom answered with a smile. “Now, it has been a very long day for both of you. I would suggest that you both go home and get some sleep.”
“We will,” Kim promised.
“See you girls tomorrow,” Mrs. Dr. Possible said, hugging them each in turn before retreating back into the operating room.
“Your mom is right, Pink,” Shego commented. “We should get some sleep. I need to take the jet back to the hangar, so I’ll say good night here.” She glanced around quickly to make sure no one was watching before she drew Kim close and kissed her. “Good night, Princess,” she said.
“Good night, Shego,” Kim said affectionately. Shego turned to leave, but as she made it to the elevator, Kim remembered something. “Wait a second, Shego,” she called. “What time tomorrow?”
“We have plans at eight, so if you want dinner, we had better meet at 6ish,” Shego called back.
“We have plans?” Kim questioned.
“We have plans,” Shego confirmed. The elevator opened, and Shego got into it. “See you tomorrow, Pumpkin,” she said as the doors closed.
“Bye, Shego,” Kim said. She smiled. Now that she knew Ron was okay and their latest mission was in the books, she was looking very forward to tomorrow night.