Cinderblock, defeated and contained, disappeared down the road, hauled away by Jump City police.
That still didn’t solve the problem of the Possibles’ house being left half-demolished, though. Drakken stood behind Mr. and Mrs. Possible – who were being comforted by Kim and Ron – not wanting to believe that which he knew was true: He actually felt sympathy for them. “You know, as much as I can't believe I'm saying this, if there's anything I can do to help - I'll gladly do it,” he piped up. Mr. Possible handed him a hammer that came from nowhere. “Oh.” Drakken hesitated. “How did I know you were going to do that?” he said, grabbing the ladder that seemed to have also materialized completely out of thin air as well as he walked away.
“Mom, it's okay.” Kim patted her crying mother on the back. “We'll get them back.” Her anger was coming to a boil. It was partial anger at Slade for what he was doing – and partial anger for letting him get away with it, even though she knew she couldn’t have known he was going to do this to her. The Titans had been right. Slade was the worst person she’d ever met.
“Out of curiosity,” asked Ron, “What time did he say those mini thingies would go off?”
“2200 tonight, Ron.”
“Which is…?”
“Translated? Ten o'clock.” Kim gasped as soon as she said that. The Prom! Barkin had been – well, barking – about the Prom starting at 2100 tonight! 2100 was nine o’clock!
“What? What?” Ron asked frantically after hearing her gasp.
“The Prom starts at nine, Ron! Everyone’s gonna be in the school when the Rays go off!”
Rufus hung his head with the equivalent of “Oh, man…”
“So let's see:” Ron started. “He's gonna burn Beast Boy's girlfriend, he's gonna fry our school an hour into the Prom, and he's gonna bake your brothers along with Hego, Mego, and Wego 1 and Wego 2 – and he's gonna do it all at the same time.” This immediately downed him. “Oh, this guy’s good.”
“Like Starfire said earlier:” Kim and Ron turned to see Beast Boy walking towards them. “He's the worst person you'll ever meet.”
“Yeah. I figured that.” Kim’s anger washed up over her gritted teeth like a tidal wave that just didn’t have enough energy to make it to land before the pull of Kim’s will forced it back down.
Ron was still confused by something. “So what exactly does, uh - Candy-corn Face - want?” He could’ve cared less about the dude’s actual name. “Money? Power? Supermodels?”
We've been chasin’ him for 4 years and we still don't know what he wants,” Cyborg noted as he joined them.
“Why does that answer not surprise me in the least?” Ron muttered.
“So why would Slade give us-” Kim looked at her watch. “-twelve hours to find all three of these miniature Supernova Death Rays?”
“Because it's gonna take us that long to find out where exactly he's placed them, separate to destroy them, fight Plasmus and most likely some of Slade’s robots, and then find out where his lair is exactly and take him down while rescuing your and Shego's brothers. At least, as far as my arm's scanners go.” Cyborg checked his arm scanner, just to confirm what he’d just said.
“Wonderful.” Kim was not cheerful in the least.
Then her communicator beeped. What in the-? she thought whilst retrieving it.
“Not necessarily, Cyborg.” Wade spoke over the communicator before Kim could say anything.
“Huh?” the half-human teen responded.
“When you downloaded that map of Middleton from the communicator, my systems automatically got a blueprint your internal machinery-” Cyborg’s mind immediately flashed to what had happened to him and Brother Blood. “Oh, don't worry,” said Wade, obviously having seen his reaction, “It's a just a general security feature I programmed. It only grabs the electronics layouts. Besides, there's absolutely no way I could crack even half of your personal electronic databanks, even if I'd wanted to.”
Cyborg sighed. “Well, that's a relief.”
“But-” Wade continued, “I found a way we can speed up the tracing for this mission. How fast can you construct a triple-switch byline cross-flux compression almagator?”
“A what-what?” asked Drakken, who’d overheard.
“Uh - bout 3 seconds - if I had the materials right in front of me. Why?” asked Cyborg.
“I've made arrangements with that S.T.A.R. Labs place from your city to deliver the parts to you aerially - they should arrive any second now.”
Just as Wade had said, a plane flew overhead, and as it disappeared away from them, a package drifted down on a parachute.
Cyborg couldn’t believe it. “How old did you say this kid was again?” he asked Kim.
“Wade? He's 10,” Kim answered.
The box landed inches from Cyborg's feet.
“Alright, Cyborg-” Wade piped up. “Now, once you get it set up, hook the communicator to the negative input side and your scanners to the positive input side. Then all we gotta do is cross-”
Cyborg got it. “-Cross-hatch the internal memory banks with the polarizing energy flow, sweep it through the battery chamber, and focus the excess output using the two-switch functions-”
“-Spread the tri-core signal to the folding components, and we'll be able to scan all of your city, Go City, and Middleton in less than half the time it would take us both to do it separately!” Wade finished.
“And all with barely raising a tinny stink for Slade's computers to detect.” Cyborg grinned. “Wade, you're a genius.”
“I know,” said Wade.
“Kim, did you understand a word of that?” asked Ron, who’d been swimming in the sea of completely lost for the last couple of minutes.
“No,” replied Kim. “But I believe it all meant we now have our time cut in half - I think.”
“In half?” Cyborg blurted. “Try three-quarters.”
Drakken stopped rebuilding the house wall. “Does this mean I have less time to-”
Mr. Possible shook his head.
“Aw, phooey.”
In Slade’s lair, Shego was furious. “Look, I know I said I didn't care for Team Go, but you didn't tell me you were gonna turn em into blackened toast for your personal amusement!”
“Shego…” Slade tilted his head down slightly. “Let me tell you how I chose you to become my next apprentice.”
“Huh?”
“When I first saw Terra, she was running from a giant scorpion. At the time, I was more interested in her powers, which she used to drop quite a large rock on the scorpion's head to escape. But once I recovered following her betrayal, I went back and took a look at that first time I saw her. However, this time, I focused on the giant scorpion. Clearly, it was not a natural creature of the canyon it chased Terra through. I certainly didn't create it. So I knew that someone else had to have. Thus, I began searching. It took a while, but I found a secret wire from the Middleton Army, warning of a giant scorpion escaping from the direction of a one Dr. Drakken's hideout. Naturally, I altered my search for Dr. Drakken next. The first attempt on the regular internet surprisingly drew all the results I'd ever wanted - and more…”
“Whaddya mean by that?” Shego asked, even though she had an inkling of what the answer was.
“Kim Possible's website.”
“Oh, yeah. Huh.”
Slade nodded. “The info on Drakken was sufficient. But then I noticed Drakken was #2 on the list of ‘Kim's Top Ten Enemies.’”
Shego’s ears perked up. “And the #1 spot was…”
“You.”
“Yes!” Shego did the Tiger Woods fist pump. “Drakken's gonna be so jealous…”
“But all the data I found on you was fascinating: Wanted in 11 countries…”
Shego suddenly remembered why she was talking to Slade. “Hey, getting back to topic, you never said the other half of the plan was ‘Let's cook Shego's baby brothers.’”
“My dear Shego -- even I don't know what the other half of my plan is.”
That was something Shego hadn’t wanted to hear. “Yeah, you know what? Keep calling me “My dear Shego,” and I'll show you what the other half of your plan's gonna be,” she snapped.
“My my…such anger. Wondering why your superhero family hasn't escaped yet?”
Shego looked. Actually, she had wondered about that. Then she saw: The rope holding Kim's and her's brothers down was glowing purple, red, and blue as they struggle to escape.No…
“I think you know what's in that rope.” Slade was clearly nothing but amused. “Their own powers are holding them back.”
He left the room, leaving Shego to stew in her own anger.
Then a quiet beep rang out. Shego looked down at the computer bank.
“OUTSIDE TRACE DETECTED” blinked repeatedly.
Shego watched for a bit -- then started typing.
The message flipped to “TRACE ALERT ALARM DISABLED,” then went away.
Shego walked away as if nothing ever happened.
END ACT THREE