“Are they falling for it?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, good!”
Hands clapped together while fingers at a laptop typed away in the background.
“Every…body - needs a fun diversion now and then!”
The shadows laughed with the cackles.
“She’s-”
“Yes.”
“As of right now.”
The blue skin, tensed with annoyance, loosened with shock.
“How do I know you’re not lying?”
“In all the times we’ve encountered each other – NOT counting the Halloween incident, because you were tapping my phone line and hadn’t encountered me yet – when have I ever actually lied to you?”
“Well, there- wait…”
Pale-skinned arms were crossed. “Take your time. We got all night.”
“I’m almost sure – no… - AHA! – er…RRRGH! FINE! So you haven’t lied to me…”
“Booyah.”
“Mm-hmm! Mm-hmm! Booyah!”
“Ugh, jeez – look, we’re willing to cut you a deal. Alright?”
“So now that you think she’s still alive, you’re suddenly willing to negotiate? Good trick. Wrong dog.”
“Hmmph. Nice analogy, yo – but we all know it ain’t gonna work – uh, right?”
“Oh, he’ll crack, yeah - I’ll even bet he agrees to pretty much any offer we make.”
“And what makes you think that I’ll do that?”
“Please. We saw how you were around her. You miss her so badly, you’d do anything to see her.”
“OH, IT’S TRUE! IT’S TRUE! OH-HO, IT’S TRU-HU-HUE!” The tiny hands somehow gripped the titanium bars. “PLEASE! WHATEVER CONDITION YOU FIND HER IN – ALIVE, DEAD, CYBORG, VAMPIRE - I DON’T CARE! JUST LET ME SEE MY TARACAKES ONE LAST TIME!”
Dark lips formed a signature sneering grin. “What’d I tell ya’?”
“Oh, can it, Shego,” Drakken snapped. He turned to Kim. “Do you have some actual evidence?”
Kim handed the file folder containing the copies of the papers with all the data Ken had given her to the guard by the cell. The guard scanned every piece of paper thoroughly, removed a few staples and other metallic items, then slipped the file folder through the small mail slot of the cell.
Drakken took the folder and began to look through it, He stopped reading, and did it rather quickly. “What’s with all the black bars over the text?” he asked.
“I’d say it’s called “Classified Information,” Dr. D.,” Ron answered smugly.
“Hmm. So be it.” Drakken began to read through the whole contents of the file folder, page by page.
Ken Du yawned. Being the new Director of Global Justice was much harder than he’d thought it would be. He was used to a 36-hour workday, but the rigors of this position – usually a 48-hour workday – were starting to kick in on him. He sighed as he sipped his coffee and turned back to his computer.
He hadn’t understood at first why Kim’s brothers and her friend had said to check horror websites, but it soon dawned on him. So of all the agents working on that particular case, he’d assigned half to comb the horror sites like had been suggested, and the rest of the agents kept searching what they’d started with.
He was glad he didn’t have kids. He sighed; looked at the paperwork on his desk. Had to finish it all-
“Sir!”
The shrill, harsh fuzz of the intercom tone snapped him awake. “W-what? What is it? Report!”“I think we may have found something!”
Ken was at the Agent’s console in a flash. “What’d you find, Agent Christie?”
The woman pointed to her monitor. “All the horror sites – that hunch was correct. They’re all abuzz with some rumours of a zombie – and/or zombies, we’re not entirely sure yet - in Iceland.”
“Anything else?” Ken asked.
“As a matter of fact? Yes. The rumours, according to all the posts, apparently started about a month after you called off the search for Tara’s body. Around that time, as these rumours are saying, a local couple from the city nearby was having a bit of private fun snowmobiling when they purportedly saw a zombie dragging itself up out of the crevasse. Apparently, they still haven’t gotten over it, and continue to see their shrink about the grisly sight that they saw.”
“Hmm…” Ken scratched his chin. “Still too inconclusive. Anything more?”
“Not yet, Sir,” said Agent Christie.
“Let me know immediately if you find something.”
“Sir.” Agent Christie saluted.
“Carry on, Agent Christie.”
Ken made his way back to his desk – but before he could get there:
“Um, Sir?”
Ken turned back around. “What, Agent McCarthy?”
“Permission to speak freely, Sir.”
“Granted. What’s your beef?”
“Uh – well, it’s not a beef, Sir – it’s more…”
“Go on, Agent McCarthy. You know I welcome any and all criticism of my decisions.”
“Right. Uh…What I’m trying to say is, um… Can we actually trust Kim Possible?”
“Agent McCarthy, Kim Possible has been a trusted ally of Global Justice since before I became-”
“-became Director, I know, Sir. That’s what I mean – when Ms. Betty Director was – Director… If I recall, Ms. Betty Director turned out to be a traitor – someone who blackmailed us all-”
“She blackmailed Ms. Possible, too, Agent McCarthy. And recall Drakken also had her killed.”
“I understand, Sir. But what if the whole thing’s a truly elaborate setup? I mean – yes, Drakken ordered her killed, but who killed her? According to your report and Drakken’s testimony, Drakken wasn’t the one who killed her. It was Tara. Now we get evidence that Tara may still be alive. And who helped Ms. Possible stop the plot six months ago? Shego. Drakken’s former ally-”
“Are you suggesting Ms. Betty Director may still be alive, too, Agent McCarthy?”
“Well, no – er…yeah. Maybe. I don’t know for sure. It just seems too convenient for me.”
“How so? Do go on, Agent McCarthy.”
“Well, uh, Sir – you might want to pull up a chair, this is gonna be a longin’…”
“I can stand for 24 hours, Agent McCarthy. I think I can manage.”
“Alright, here we go: First, Drakken recruits Tara to his side – eventually falling in love with her, which pretty much convinces Tara to help raise the offspring of Drakken’s dog into killing machines. About a year later, he becomes friendly with Ms. Betty Director in jail before the Lil’ Diablo incident trial. That trial ends with him and Shego oddly getting out on a mistrial. Days later, Shego’s been de-aged, and Drakken’s apparently used a machine called a Memory Modifier to help plant false documentation in Go City Hall to back up Shego’s newfound youthfulness. He sends Shego on an “undercover mission” to live with and spy on Kim Possible and her family – but Shego admitted in her recent testimony that it was so blatantly obvious to about everybody who saw her that she wasn’t “Shennen,” and that she was somehow surprised that an entire high school full of students couldn’t see it. Then, Drakken calls in his cousin Motor Ed to trash the Tokyo Motor show, but Kim doesn’t capture Ed. Later, on the ride back, Ms. Possible’s plane has to conveniently refuel at a tiny airstrip in the Bavarian Alps – around about the same time Drakken supposedly eliminated Professor Dementor – who not only lived in the Bavarian Alps not far from said airstrip – but who was someone Drakken had a grudge against for a while, from what we’ve found in his past posts on the villains’ message boards. At the same time, Drakken stole an improved version of Mr. Dr. Possible’s Hesphaestus Project.”
Agent McCarthy took a breath. “And it’s Dementor’s murder that kickstarts the whole fiasco: Kim and Shego instantly become public enemies #1 and #2. The night that happens, Kim and Shego apparently come to terms with each other and turn allies. The next day, Kim is allowed to go to school one last time and attend the pep rally at the end of the day. The slide show at that pep rally is interrupted by Drakken, who commandeers the video signal of the projector - and nearly everybody present at the rally watches him shoot a fellow cheerleader of Kim’s he’d just kidnapped – presumably with Tara’s help, because Tara was also on Kim’s cheerleading squad.”
Ken sat down in a free chair that was nearby. “Keep going, Agent McCarthy.”
“Right. Then Kim goes to prison – and breaks out a few weeks later. She escapes to the residence of Big Daddy Brotherson, where Kim’s friend Ron and Shego end up at not soon after. Apparently, they decide to return to Middleton in secret. Simultaneously, Tara pops back up on the radar when her now-trained dogs supposedly devour Ms. Betty Director. On the secret ride back to Middleton, Kim and Shego suddenly discover that they love each other deeply. Next, Kim, Shego, and Ron somehow hold off three counties’ worth of SWAT officers, and an entire National Guard company. Just after it looks like the three have claimed victory, Kim is separated from Shego and taken away in a small ‘private’ jet. Then, while Ron and Shego are hiding from the armed response still bearing down on them, Kim’s computer kid Wade conveniently discovers that Drakken’s taking Kim to a lair in Iceland – by hacking into our monitoring satellites, Sir. Then he hacks into the controls for the jet that belongs to Team Go – the superhero team Shego used to be a part of with her brothers – and Shego and Ron escape the siege and head for Iceland.”
Agent McCarthy took yet another breath. “In Iceland, Kim mysteriously overtakes the plane transporting her and semi-crashes it near the lair. Shego and Ron conveniently arrive just in time to save her, and then they go into the lair to stop Drakken. There, they apparently discover Tara is working for Drakken – and that the immediate families of Kim and Ron’s, along with Wade’s mother and Monique, a mutual friend of all of them – have been kidnapped by Drakken. Only, Wade’s mother had just been devoured by Tara’s killer dogs. Soon after, Drakken reveals that everything was a distraction, designed to draw attention away from a new army of giant robots designed with the improved Hesphaestus Project, which he’s sent Motor Ed and Ed’s cronies out in. Then all the fighting breaks out, and in the end, Drakken’s new giant robots prove to be even easier to defeat than the Lil’ Diablo robots. Finally, the President steps in and tells GJ personally that it’s gone too far, and by his command, takes GJ off official standby and demands we stop the giant robots – all off the record, of course. We move in and stop the worldwide threat. You personally stop Drakken at the Iceland lair – and that’s where Tara supposedly dies, attacked by the killer dogs she raised, which sends her over the crevasse recently created. Drakken flies down the crevasse with his jetpack, but comes up empty-handed. But here’s the kicker, in my opinion: When everybody returns home, Wade, upset over the loss of his mother, angrily declares that Kim isn’t a true hero, and promptly tells her that he’s never working with Team Possible ever again. Kim seems shocked when it happens - but not a week later, you’re the new liaison for Team Possible – which now includes Shego. It all seems a bit weird to me, Sir.”
Ken almost yawned, but forced himself not to. Instead, he sipped his coffee. “So you just gave the entire rundown of everything that happened which pertained to the events six months ago. A rather pointless rundown, may I add, Agent McCarthy. What exactly is the point you’re trying to get to here? Because so far, all you’ve done is give me a history lesson which I already knew, and it’s been a waste of my time. Are you just purposely trying to make this whole thing much more complicated than it really should be, Agent McCarthy? I swear– next you’ll be tellin’ me the Girl Scouts are responsible for the crop circle phenomenon…”
“Sir, what if this whole thing was one massively elaborate ruse that everyone – except Professor Dementor; the families of Kim, Ron, and Wade; Kim’s fellow students in high school and her teachers; and Wade himself – all had full knowledge of; and participated in to the ends they agreed to devote themselves – all just to get Wade so distraught he’d turn away from Kim and contemplate turning to the life of supervillainy – without the newly run GJ, the government, the general worldwide public, and even Wade himself realising he’d even been manipulated at all? I mean – Memory Modifier? That has to be the most pathetic device name ever. And if Drakken could only use it once, why did he use it for such a brainless operation as wiping the minds of a few Go City Hall employees for 5 minutes? It doesn’t add to me.”
Ken stopped mid-sip of his coffee. Agent McCarthy’s rambling had seemed at first nothing but a paranoid rant – but something in that massive jumble of exposition was hitting the right chords…
“I mean, think about it, Sir – Wade’s a genius who can hack into anything, and monitor and/or change the data with nary any evidence any intrusion ever occurred. Having him on the bad si-”
“Hold on, Agent McCarthy.” Ken quickly stood up. “You may have something there.”
“I told you, Sir! I told you we couldn’t trust Kim P–”
“However, that’s not the part I think you have right. My brother didn’t trust Kim when he first worked with her. But he came to trust her – and not only that, but trust her enough that he willingly forfeited his life in an attempt to try and inform her she’d been scammed by Ms. Betty Director. Will never let me down in the field, or as a brother in general. Team Possible is not under any official watch, and Team Possible will not be under any official watch at all, until something outrageously drastic occurs. If I find out otherwise, then all those found to be involved will be immediately dishonorably discharged from GJ service. Understand, Agent McCarthy?”
“Yes, Sir!” Agent McCarthy slumped in his chair with a hmmph as Ken walked away.
Still waiting for Drakken to finish reading through the papers of documents provided by GJ, Shego tapped her knee as silently as she could to pass the time.
Finally, Drakken closed the file folder. “What’s the deal, Ms. Possible?”
“Well, as much as even Shego wants to–”
“What?”
“-we can’t offer anything in terms of reduced sentences or a wiped record-” Kim continued.
“Oh. Yeah. Whatever,” Shego grumbled.
“-but if Tara is alive, Dr. Drakken – well, she’s going to have to serve her time, too. We obviously can’t let her share the same cell as you, but we’ll see to it that she gets one of those two cells closest to this one.”
Drakken thought it over. “Mmm…promise?”
Shego scoffed. “Didn’t we just go over that she’s never actually lied to you, Dr. D?”
“Oh, hush, Shego,” said Kim lightly. Shego harrumphed and crossed her arms again in annoyance.
Drakken shrugged. “Enh. Deal. I don’t really have much going for me at the moment. Might as well.”
“Ugh. Finally. Can we go now, Kimmie?” Shego asked.
“Oh, and the next time you drop by, could you bring some fava beans?” Drakken asked semi-casually. “The vegetables that they serve with the meals here are rather quite detestable in terms of their taste.”
“Yeah, sorry, Hopkins – eat your broccoli,” Shego sniped as the four visitors walked away.
---
Once finally outside Upperton Asylum, the Kimmunicator beeped. “What’s the sitch, Ken?” asked Kim. “You dig up any new evidence on whether or not Tara’s still alive searching those horror sites?”
On his end, Ken sighed. “Kim – I think we may have a much larger problem than just Tara still being alive.”
END CHAPTER FIVE
Author’s Note: Yes, so far, this story’s been all lengthy talking. Action scenes will arrive soon, don’t worry!
-RavenStar