A Period Of Silence

In the dark rafters of Drakken's 13th underground lair, Shego crouched silently, her emerald eyes fixed on the two forms walking casually down the corridor. One was a girl, thin, athletic, with vibrant red hair and a slight spring in her step that told Shego she was ready for an attack even if she looked casual. The other was a boy with short blond hair, looking around as if in awe, but there was something else about his stance, an inherent fluidity that also made the green thief think he was prepared for more than he was letting on.

Quickly shifting her weight, working the kinks out of her muscles from hiding for so long, Shego looked down the hallway and made a small pinpoint of green flame dance at the tip of her finger. The sign she'd established earlier, for her Synthodrones to ambush the intruders. Beyond layers of shadows a blackness, Shego saw movement in the dark and knew the drones had gotten the sign and were about to pounce. Extinguishing the flame, Shego gripped the rafters and hung over the ledge, ready to let go and fall at a moments notice.

The moment was up and the six drones leapt from cover and surrounded the pair of intruders. Immediately the two entered a combative stance. The red-head moved her legs apart and brought up her arms while the boy held his hands out like blades, imitating an often seen karate position in movies. In the darkness, Shego smiled slightly at the boy's appearance. He may have some natural talent, but he was just a buffoon when it came to fighting. His 'karate position' was just an act, with no real skill behind it.

Dashing the blonde from her mind, Shego focused all her attentions on the red-head and just as the drones started their attack, Shego released her grip on the iron rafters and dove towards the skilled girl. Her descent was silent, even the sound of rushing air was reduced by her streamlined and skin-tight bodysuit. She would land directly on the intruder girl and have her captured immediately. Shego narrowed her eyes as the microseconds counted down to her landing.

Without even the slightest warning, the redhead turned and swung her leg around at the descending thief. Without her own years of combat experience, Shego would have caught the heel of the kick on her chin. Even so, she only manged to twist her body enough to take the strike to the shoulder, and rolled off to the side.

Effortlessly, Shego flipped herself back up to her feet, wincing only slightly under the strain her shoulder suddenly felt. She didn't want to be surprised, but her hesitation to simply lunge back at the girl read immediately apparent.

“Didn’t think I saw you there, did you, Shego?” said the redhead with a grin, staring down Shego. She ducked suddenly as a Synthodrone tried to punch the back of her head. Instead the hulking henchman got a kick to the ribs which tore his retaining suit causing synthodrone plasma to spill slowly onto the floor. Throughout the whole defense, her eyes never left Shego's.

“Been training, I see,” said Shego putting her hand to her waist and standing slightly more casually. She extended her other arm and made a beckoning motion with her palm. “Let's see what you've got, Kimme.”

The purple and black suited drones forgotten, Kim sprinted towards Shego, her arms tucked behind her frame to increase her speed as she leaned into her run. Shego stayed still until the last moment when she spun to sweep the oncoming hero.

Reading the action ahead of time, Kim leapt over the leg and swung her own foot around to strike Shego's head. The kick was dodged and Kim touched one hand on the ground to change her momentum and flip over her opponent. Her other hand reached for Shego's hair and, with a satisfying grunt, she grabbed a fistful and yanked, throwing the black and green suited woman over her shoulder into a wall.

Shego felt the snap in her arm and knew she'd probably dislocated something as she bounced off the wall and hit the ground. Unwilling to be defeated so easily, she used her good arm to roll back onto her feet. She stood now in a defensive position. Her mind spun as she saw Kim staring simply at her, now beckoning the thief with her own hand.

“Is that it?” asked Kim with a smirk. “Ron could've taken you.”

“Don't get cocky, Princess,” said Shego yanking on her shoulder and feeling the sickening crunch as it popped back into position. Bile built in her throat but she swallowed it down. “I'm just warming up.”

“KIM!” rang a yell, suddenly. Shego looked past the redhead and saw her blond friend, the gibbering Ron Stopppable, being overwhelmed by the remaining five drones. “HEEAALPP!”

Kim, in turn, kept her eyes on Shego, but carefully side-stepped to a wall and grabbed a jutting metal panel. With a single jerk it ripped from its screws and came off in her hand. The jutting metal looked deadly around the corners, but she turned halfway back and flung the piece like a discus, causing it to arc in the air before coming down on the group of drones and Ron. The sharp corners tore through the suits of the five drones, causing them to bleed out yellowish plasma onto the floor. Ron started to sigh in relief when the sailing scrap of metal made a “clang” against a nearby conduit and ricocheted back at Stoppable. He made a yelp just before the panel struck him in the back, knocking him face-first into the concrete flooring. The panel came to a rest nearby.

“Good job, Princess,” said Shego sarcastically. She squinted to see the crumpled body of Stoppable, trying to find any trace of blood or if he was just unconscious. It was hard to tell with the slowly expanding pool of yellow plasma.

She felt the air pressure before even noticing the punch. The strike was hard to her cheek and only instinct got her to roll with the punch enough to minimize the shock. Shego dove and rolled on her bad shoulder, gritting her teeth in pain.

The soft footfalls of Kim told her there would be no time to delay and she dove back at the redheaded heroine. This time, Kim was surprised and grunted as Shego took her to the ground. Her follow-up punch, augmented by her power, only struck concrete however. She swung again but Kim grabbed her arms and was desperately trying to hold the glowing fists away from her body.

Shego struggled with her left arm, as he shoulder was screaming out in pain, but her right arm was steadily descending. She knew she was physically stronger than the younger Possible, and hopefully she'd gotten her into a position where Kim would surrender. The sudden knee to her pelvis was a low blow for Kim, in every respect and Shego screamed briefly in pain.

The flames in Shego's fists extinguished and Kim took advantage of the opening to strike the thief in the ribs and push her away. The two figures rolled apart and then got to their knees.

Shego was breathing hard, feeling each sharp breath as it entered her lungs. Something was very wrong about this fight. Never had she had such a hard time fighting Kim Possible! Their fights were always a dance, not a brawl. She was the superior fighter, the Princess only ever won because of clever gadgets or unexpected allies. In an all out fight, Shego should win!

Shego glanced back at Stoppable and paused when she realized that Kim hadn't even paid him a second glance since going down. Shego's eyes slowly turned back to look at Possible's as the latter got to her feet once more.

“You're not Possible,” said Shego, her eyes widening.

“What do you mean?” ask Kim, in a mock demure voice. Her eyes softened suddenly but she couldn’t seem to rid herself of the smug grin.

Shego stood, despite her body's protests. “You are not Kim Possible! I don't know who you are, but Kim would never have done that to Stoppable, and she definitely would not have fought me like that.”

“Please,” dismissed the redhead, waving her hand. “You think you know me that well? I'm your nemesis. Don't you think I would do everything possible to find a way to defeat you?”

“No,” Shego shook her head. Something deep within her knew for sure this was all wrong, for so many reasons other than her demeanor. “You wouldn't. Beating me doesn't matter that much to you. Not as much as it does to me.”

“Maybe I had a change of heart,” said Kim. The smile was still there.

“No, not the Kimme I know,” Shego's voice was gaining strength and she could feel doors unlocking in her mind. This was not just wrong, this was impossible. “You're not ruthless. You're … balanced. Just. You use only what you absolutely have to win and nothing more.” She shook her head, like clearing cobwebs. “Why are we even fighting? I don't work for Drakken anymore. I work for Jack Hench. And you know that! You know…” she trailed off. Nothing about this situation seemed real anymore.

“We're fighting because we still have a matter to settle,” said Kim, darkly. She slowly starting stepping forward, her eyes becoming dark, the beautiful jade-like green obscured.

“Not with Kimmie, I don't,” said Shego. “I … care about her. I would never do this.” She swallowed and backed up slightly. “Who the hell are you?”

“She doesn't care for you,” said Kim in a voice that was clearly no longer her own. “You think this is more than a fling for her?”

“WHO ARE YOU?” screamed Shego.

“She will get bored or she'll realize that courting a criminal is going to do nothing but make her life harder and she'll leave you. Or worse, you'll drag her into your sick abyss.”

“I'd never do that!” Shego's back suddenly found a wall behind her. She was confused; the corridor extended much further last time she looked. There wasn't a second to spare to confirm, though, now with… whoever that was coming near.

“She doesn't need you,” Kim continued. “She's probably not even really gay. She's just toying with you and will pull the rug out when it will hurt you the most.”

“STOP!” Shego held up her hands and let the burst aflame. The green figures quickly snaked up her arms right up to her shoulders. She shivered in fear but didn’t dare lower her defenses.

'Kim' stepped right up to Shego's flames and stared dispassionately over them. “Don't let her,” she said. “Take her out, be strong again. Defeat your weakness and move on. The world awaits you. So much to steal. So many people to force to recognize you.”

“I don't care about those things anymore!” Shego couldn't stop her body shaking from fear. The being in front of her made her feel small and frail. She almost felt her body shrinking and becoming young again. Her voice suddenly felt tight in her throat. “I want a real life!”

“Isn't that cute,” Kim said, looking down at her. Shego blinked. Why was she so tall all of a sudden? “Maybe when you grow up you'll understand the way things are.”

“Grow up?” asked Shego.

“You're just a child, after all,” said Kim.

Shego glanced down and realized she was right. Her body was small, she felt like she was six again. Her arms extended only a foot before her and the large flames had dwindled to mere match lights. She wasn't even wearing her catsuit anymore. It had been replaced by a long green sundress.

“What happened to me!?” asked Shego as she looked up only to yelp as she realized that the being before her had changed too. No longer did she have long red hair and cargo pants, now she had long black hair, pale skin, and was wearing an all black catsuit. She didn't look like Kim at all anymore, she had become Shego herself!

The adult Shego stared down with a broad smile showing her jagged teeth. Her body started to smoke and suddenly burst almost completely into green flames. Even engulfed in the inferno, her body and face could still somehow be seen.

The scenery around them stretched then melted away, exposing a vast night sky filled with more stars than could ever be seen from Earth. The adult Shego's burning body lit up the heavens like a green sun and then turned its large sharp eyes towards the little girl in a green sundress.

The young Shego just screamed.

---

“YAAAAAA!! GET AWAY!”

A flurry of physicians dressed in white scrabled around the small, eggshaped room towards the door on one end. In the middle of the room was a simple white table with what looked like the melted, smoldering remains of medical equipment around it. On the table was strapped Shego, thrashing about with her eyes wrenched shut and slowly glowing brighter and brighter from the green flames that were surrounding her body.

The lead physician, Paul Rasiden, finally managed to get the secured door in the special prison open and the four VersaGene doctors scrambled into the hall where a well dressed man with short black hair and pale white skin stood with a frown. The last man out shoved the door closed, activating the sealing mechanism. Nearby, the observation window started glowing green and getting brighter by the second.

“What's going on?” demanded Mason, the well dressed man.

“She's having some sort of nightmare,” stammered Rasiden as he stared through the window. “The symbiote's readings were off the chart and then she just exploded in energy.”

“Make her stop,” said Mason.

“She's asleep!” yelled back the specialist. “She's not even doing it consciously. I think the symbiote is confused, interpreting her nightmare as a real threat.”

Mason regarded the small screen to the side of the door. Several squares on the LCD panel were glowing red. “She's going completely over the tested tolerances. If she doesn't stop soon she'll melt right through the wall!”

Paul looked at the panel and then back through the window. Shego was still thrashing against the steel restraints on the bed which had, remarkably, not yet melted. “Maybe we can tranquilize her,” he said. “Get her out of REM sleep into stage 1 or stage 2 of the sleep cycle. She should stop having the nightmare then.”

“Do it!” yelled Mason.

“There's no way to get to her,” said Rasiden. “She melted the monitoring equipment, there's no telling what she'll actually do to a person!”

Mason grumbled and walked to a nearby cart stacked with drawers and pulled out a syringe. He forced it into the doctor's hand. “There's a way to find out.”

Rasiden frowned and swallowed, looking at the glass and metal instrument in his hand. “I'll probably die,” he said, not looking up.

“Only probably,” said Mason. “Which are better odds than if you attempt to run right now.”

The doctor gripped the syringe in his fist and turned towards the door. He took a deep breath. “Open the door,” he said to one of the other physicians.

“Are you sure--” started the physician.

“Open it!”

The door slid aside bathing the antechamber in green light. Without a word Rasiden ran in, his clothes starting to smoke the second he passed the threshold. The door slammed shut as soon as he was through and the rest of the physicians crowded around the window to watch.

Several second later the green light suddenly vanished.

Then a smoking body fell to the floor gripping a steaming empty syringe.

---

Disney's Kim Possible in

A Period of Silence

By Adam Leigh

Part Three: “Stress Fracture“

(Concluded)

---

Discoveries

The meeting was at night, at the 'witching hour' as it had been referred to once then so many times more. In the major cities like New York, Los Angeles and Go City, heroes prowled the rooftops while villains snuck through the sewers below. But the normal people, the ones with day jobs, or night jobs, or quazi-time jobs that just seemed to never end, or those without jobs, they sat, or slept or strolled or shivered in the night air oblivious to the symphony of clashing powers that was only in its overture as the clock struck twelve.

Middleton, while smaller than all those cities, had it share of heroes and villains and nighttime activity, but because there were fewer people, it was less lively, and because it was less lively, it meant there were more places for two people to meet without ever been seen.

Unfortunately, none of that mattered to the figure walking alone down the sidewalk at night, barely visible in the faint starlight and distant street lamps. It didn't matter to the figure because, for all that he knew, the person he had come to meet would never arrive, not in person anyway. With a dutiful pace, the figure approached the meeting spot, silently counting away the GPS coordinates until they matched the predetermine numbers, then stopped, stood, and waited.

A car drove past, which was rare for this part of town at this time of night, and largely ignored the tall figure. In return, the figure narrowed the lenses of his eyes, adjusting his night-vision and slightly turned up his collar to hide the glint of cold metal that was his face.

Another reason why being able to meet in private didn't matter to the figure was because he was a robot. A drone, to be specific. The drone couldn't care less about where it was or when because it didn't have the ability to do anything save respond to the commands of it's remote operator who, in this case, was a teenaged boy, slightly overweight, with dark brown hair and rectangular rimless glasses.

Miles away, the boy, Timothy Possible, sat at a desk in a dark room and watched, through a trio of monitors, through the eyes of the drone, while simultaneously letting his eyes casually flick over several virtual windows of streaming data telling him things like the temperature, the current elevation, visual mode, hydraulic pressure, battery life, estimated time to live, and current distance from the nearest Dairy Queen.

It never hurt to know how far you had to go to get a sunday.

Timothy, as he had insisted people call him since attending college, scratched his chin a signed. The time was right, where was his useless contact.

Almost immediately the small little device rolled into view and the drone's targeting software tagged it as a non-threat. A quick tapping on Timothy's computer resulted in a detailed schematic of the device and a readout on all signals being emitted from it. It was a small RC truck, with a palm-sized computer duck taped to it and a high intensity transceiver stuck out the back. As Timothy started a software to scan the transceiver for any recognizable signals, suddenly the drone reported a rapid increase in energy output on the device.

Using software written for such an emergency, the drone entered a defensive position, wrapping its insulated arms around its head and tucking its legs under its body, becoming a neat ball. The extremities of the drone were specially insulated and designed to perfectly wrap around the sensitive areas of the drone, its processing torso and signal processing head. In the event of an impact or even a low-intensity EMP, the drone would survive with minimal damage.

Unfortunately, it caused the drone to go into a cycling sleep mode where it would activate for only a few moments every 10 seconds in order to update Timothy on what was happening at its location.

The first 10 seconds revealed little except that the rise in energy output had steadied. The second 10 seconds revealed that there was a distinct audible stimulus nearby.

Timothy sighed and on the third 10 seconds ordered the drone to stand down. When the screens returned to real-time, he saw that the RC truck was still there, but 'standing' in front of it was a holographic projection of his wretched contact.

“Hey Tim,” said the holographic Jim through the audio receivers on the drone's head and the tinny speakers around Timothy's monitors. The boy was Timothy's twin but they had made striking progress at becoming different. Jim as thin, almost wiry, with a goatee and scraggly hair. “That was real cute there, curling up in fetal position. I didn't know I inspired such terror.”

“It was defensive,” snapped Timothy as he activated his headset and the speakers on the drone. “In case you were an EMP.”

“I doubt curling into a ball would be real helpful with that,” said Jim looked up and to the side. “Puts you in a vulnerable position too. If I was real, I could have just rolled you into the street into the path of an oncoming car.”

“This drone weighs 450 pounds,” said Timothy. “A simply kick wouldn't do it. And I don't need design advice from the computer geek.”

“Yeah, cause you've got everything figured out, don't you robot-nerd?” said Jim. He shook his head as he spoke like he was disappointed.

“I've had enough of this.” Timothy tapped on his keyboard, sending instructions to return to launch point. The real-time images on the monitors started to move as the drone started turning.

“Wait, wait!” came Jim's voice. A few seconds later his image slid unnaturally into view and Timothy could see it was limited to projected a fixed distance from the emitter taped to the RC Truck.

“What?” snapped Timothy, stopping the drone's movement. “I'm sure this is all fun and games with you but I'm trying to do real work here.”

“Oh, and sending the drone instead of just walking is just your idea of efficiency?” Jim put his hand to his hip.

Timothy sighed angrily.

“Okay, okay,” Jim put his hands up. “I didn't ask you here to do this. Well, not entirely.”

“Then what?”

“I need your help,” Jim said, looking away.

Timothy scoffed.

“Seriously,” added Jim, but sounding… well, insincere.

“Well, I'm not interested in helping you,” announced Timothy, but he didn't move the drone. A small part of him was intrigued and an even smaller part of him missed being a kid and working with his brother on every manner of trouble-causing scheme. But mostly, he was wondering how he could lord this over Jim at some point in the future.

“You wouldn't really be helping me,” said Jim. “It's for Kim.”

In all their squabbles, attempts to one-up the other over the last couple years, fights over credit, and level of genius, and friends, and girls, there was one thing they had minded being alike in: caring for their sister. Even as their own personal tiffs got worse, when Kim came back broken after the Allucinere incident, they were there for her. Unquestioningly.

“What's wrong?” asked Timothy.

“This may sound like six degrees of separation, but she's gotten involved with--” he stopped suddenly, as if he was surprised at what he was about to say. He quickly regained his composure. “She's involved with someone who may have gotten into a lot of serious trouble and she needs help breaking -- them -- out.”

“She's dating again?”

“It might be more serious than that,” commented Jim with a grin.

“Ah,” nodded Timothy. They were the younger siblings but sometimes it felt gratifying to look pleased upon their elder sister. He sighed again, more sadly. “She sure can pick them, though. What happened? He's caught up in some villain's trap?”

“Less dramatic and more serious,” said Jim, solemnly. “Sickness. I think, anyway. We need some help and I think I know where to find some but … well, they live out in the middle of nowhere and I have limits as to where I can send a radio controlled car.”

“Why not just call them?” asked Timothy, scratching his chin. Something was unsettling about this. He wasn't dumb, there was something about whoever Kim was dating that Jim wouldn't say, even though he knew. Since Kim's live was sacred ground, it must be something that he thought would turn Timothy away from helping, which only disturbed him more.

“No phones,” continued Jim, obvious to his brother's ponderings. “Middle of the jungle-slash-medicine man type of person. We need something to fly in there, interact, then fly back.”

Timothy frowned, catching a glimpse of what Jim was getting at. “You want to use one of my drones?”

Jim stuck his hands in his holographic pockets. “Actually, I have a very specific drone I'd like to use. Not yours, of course. Someone else's. I'm sure they won't mind me borrowing it for a while, and I can easily get past their system security, I just don't know how to interface with it. I could use someone who's a genius with robotics to help built an interface for my virtual reality simulator.”

“Someone else's?” asked Timothy. “That sounds like stealing and I don't know if I want my trail left in a stranger's drone that you want to fly to the Amazon or someplace. Not to mention, it could take me days to figure out how to write drivers to blend your Giger-esque interface to a mechanical drone.”

Jim smiled, in an evil way, and Timothy wondered what he was up to. “It's not really a stranger's drone, and you are probably already familiar with the variable-configuration-and-mass technology used to build it.” He looks nonchalantly away, grinning wildly. “It is the latest in Cybertronics.”

Timothy's eyes widened and then he nodded slowly, understanding completely. “Well, I suppose I could give it a shot,” he said starting to smile just like Jim.

“It is for Kim, after all,” said Jim.

“Oh, right! For Kim I could do it,” said Timothy but his mind was already writing out the code in the air.

---

RING

RIIING--CLICK!

“Hello! You've reached the cell phone of the total awesome and nearly undefeatable hacker Jim Possible! I can't come to phone right now, as you probably know since I didn't pick up. So come up with a good reason why I didn't -- hopefully something exciting, like an Indiana Jones style adventure -- and know that I really did want to talk to you, especially if you're a cutie. Leave your name, your number, and a brief description of yourself after the tone and I'll get back to you as soon as I outrun this boulder. Ciao!”

BEEP

“JAMES ANOTHNY POSSIBLE! HOW DARE YOU HACK INTO THE FACILITY COMPUTERS AND OVERRIDE THE LOCKS ON THE CYBERTRONIC UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE WE'VE BEEN DEVELOPING! DON'T THINK I DON'T KNOW IT WAS YOU! RETURN THE UAV THIS INSTANT! YOU ARE GOING TO BE SO GROUNDED OVER CHRISTMAS IT WILL BE UNLIKE ANY TIME YOU'VE BLOWN THE ROOF OFF YOUR ROOM OR DESTROYED ALL THE WINDOWS ON THE FIRST FLOOR! THERE ARE SOME SERIOUS PEOPLE HERE WHO ARE GOING TO BE ASKING SERIOUS QUESTIONS AS TO WHY THEIR HARD EARNED DOLLARS HAVE SUDDENLY GONE T--”

BEEP

---

Nearly silently the rocket-launched UAV soared just above the thick jungle canopy in the wilds of the Asian jungleland. The craft was small, probably no bigger than a laptop, with a long cylindrical protrusion out the back and long, thin wings to either side and above guiding its careful descent into the valley below. The canopy was dense and nothing could easily be seen from above and so the tiny black craft started to descend.

Just before it was about to reach the uppermost leaves of the foliage, the black device shimmered and glowed with an unnatural light before instantly reconfiguring itself to be shorter and have larger wings, effecting a design that accommodated a slower speed through more treacherous obstacles.

Still, almost effortlessly, the small black plane flew under leaf and vine, bobbing and weaving through trees and other vegetation alike. With the cover of the leaves, the craft had to rely on the myriad of other sensors equipped along its dorsal side, searching the endless brown and green for the organized gray, the overgrown but still majestic stone temple that was its destination.

From Jim's perspective, it felt like he was flying through the dense jungle himself. His suspended form drifted gently from side to side in the virtual simulator suit he had helped create while his mind experienced every sensor reading, visual cue, and gentle air current that slipped over the distant black craft's sleek form. The 'virtual' reality of his simulator was nearly perfect, save for the limited view he had through the UAV's sensor package which only slightly ruined the illusion. Even so, it was the closest he'd gotten from a truly virtual, real-time experience and he had, of all people, his own brother to thank.

Tipping to the side, Jim banked and flew slightly higher, trying to get a better view of what was up ahead. He sighed as he sailed, thinking of how troublesome his brother had become over the years. He knew he didn't always think this way, and could remember times when Tim and he were inseparable. But while time heals all wounds, it also has the tendency to create new ones. When they were in high school was when it started, when being alike stopped being cool and started to be annoying.

Jim realized it first, at least he figured he did, and tried to change himself. Growing out his hair and trying to form a stubble, even though he was still years from being able to grow a real beard. Tim didn't get it and just tried to match, as they always had done. But Jim didn't want to match, he wanted to be different, so that their friends could tell them apart, and their teachers knew which one was in Chemistry and which in Physics, so that the girls would stop confusing Tim's awkward goofiness with Jim's undeniable charm.

In his opinion, anyway.

Once the divide had formed though, Jim realized how different they were in other ways. Their gait and speech patterns, favorite foods and specialties in science, even their proficiency in math was different. Jim found it hard to figure out how they were ever so close when kids.

Then, once they entered college, they stopped trying to be similar at all. They deliberately chose different roommates and separate classes, and went out of the way to avoid each other on the way to class. They started interacting through layers upon layers of formality. Like the way they discussed the plan to steal the UAV through a drone and a hologram instead of face to face which would have been easier and quicker considering they lived only a five minute walk from each other.

“Such a pain,” Jim muttered aloud, but he could no more blame Tim than himself as they both had let the hostilities rise to almost comedic levels.

“What was that?” a voice similar to Jim's own rung in his ears. Somewhere on his virtual HUD was a picture of 'Timothy' staring into the simulator from his won computer terminal somewhere in the bowels of the Applied Science building at Carnegie Mellon. Timothy had one of his brows arched inquisitively but Jim got a little irritated by it. Something about the way he talked made it seem like he thought he was vastly superior to Jim and was somewhat burdened by the task of having to explain anything to his slower twin.

“Nothing,” said Jim, adjusting his course again. “Just having a hard time flying through the trees.”

“Well, we're not going to see anything from above the canopy,” said Timothy.

Yes, I know that!, Jim said in his mind, but refrained from speaking aloud. He needed his brother's help and he couldn't risk him leaving in a huff until they found their target.

After that, Timothy would undoubtedly get upset, but one issue at a time.

“According to topographical maps, you should be coming up on the lowest part of the valley,” announced Timothy. “This is the most likely location for the temple.”

Jim craned his neck to look around but felt like he had a crick in his neck as he did. “Something's up,” he said. “I can't rotate the camera.”

“Hang on,” sighed Timothy as a series of clacks and clicks resounded through the open connection. “Try again.”

Jim looked down. “Much bette-oh, I see it.”

Twisting his legs, Jim dove down further to the ground, picking up speed in order to coast just a few feet from the surface. Slowly, despite the deepening valley, the ground sloped upwards until he reached a stone corner jutting up from the soft earth. Vines and fallen trees covered it slightly but as Jim traced the corner he spotted the sign: a stone monkey, immaculately carved and guarding what looked like a small opening into the ground.

“This is it,” confirmed Jim.

“I see it on the active scanner, looks like it goes pretty deep.” Timothy frowned. “It almost looks like part of the temple has collapsed, tipping it slightly to the southeast. I can't get detailed information on the inside without going in.”

“Then we go in,” shrugged Jim and pointed his nose at the dark opening. Flying smoothly inside, he felt the UAV reconfigure again, losing the long wide wings for smaller stubs and sprouting a pair of blades out of the top of his head that spun like a helicopter.

Inside the tunnel it was dark and with a twitch of Jim's fingers, the view changed to a night-vision mode, basking everything in a shade of green. The small shards of light reflecting from the entrance showed the rough hewn walls and spilled dirt on the floor. Cobblestones peeked out occasionally from the earth from wear and what looked like constant travel.

“Someone's been here,” Timothy said, beating Jim to the observation. “Themographics say maybe less than four hours ago. Bare feet, probably monkey pawed.”

“'Monkey pawed'? Is that really an adjective?”

“Dude, there aren't the right words in the English language to describe some of the goons in Kim's rogues gallery,” insisted Timothy. “I'm doing the best I can.”

“Hmph,” sounded Jim as he tipped forward, causing himself to sail ahead. The ground became more tread and less dirty as he continued, and ahead the soft glow of firelight started to brighten the dusty cavern.

The view changed back to normal light mode once the light got too bright for night vision. Jim stared ahead, and Timothy peered through his brother's eyes, at the awkward sight ahead.

The main chamber of the temple was tall and contained reliefs and statues of various scenes involving monkey victories over man. It was an eerie room, but more disturbing was the makeshift kitchen and living room that occupied much of the hall. Wooden tables and chairs -- quite sizable chairs -- adorned the 'kitchen' area along with what appeared to be a kitchen countertop, sink, and cooking area. Not far from there laid a couch stuffed with straw and large stone brick that Jim assumed was a coffee table. In the distance a large bed laid covered in sheets that hid any signs of what it was actually made of. Jim assumed it wasn't a Sealy.

It was like peering back in time and finding out the Flintstones were historically accurate. Jim and Timothy alike gaped at the arrangement.

Which made the sudden attack on the UAV simple to pull off. The long staff came out of nowhere and slammed the helicopter-like drone to the ground, breaking several wings and completely destroy the spinning blades that gave the vehicle flight.

Jim twisted and writhed in the simulator as he felt parts of his body twist and break in means his mind strugged to interpret. Timothy stared in horror at his brother's face as he typed furiously, desperate the disconnect the sensors in the UAV to the real-time emulators in Jim's suit. After a few moments, the pain in his face faded and he just relaxed, unmoving.

“Jim?!” yelled Timothy. “JIM!”

“Eh, that sucked,” croaked Jim as he rolled his eyes back into place. He glanced down at the video feed from his brother's lab and weakly smiled. “I'm intact.”

“I'm cutting the feed completely,” announced Timothy.

“No! Wait, I'm still receiving visuals,” Jim righted himself and reached out, trying to activate the repair features of the cybertronic drone. “It's still running. Can you try and reconfigure the drone again, we may need to resort to something more like a jeep for the time being.”

“Fine,” sighed Timothy. “But I'm not reconnecting the sensor data to your simulator again.

Jim shook his head. “That's fine, I don’t really want to experience that again.”

“I told you so,” muttered Timothy. “I'm repairing the camera and changing configuration into a three wheeler. Speakers and audio receivers are also online.”

Jim looked around and saw the dark figure standing over him. He was a small man, slightly hunched, staring at Jim with a frown and holding his staff at ready. Jim recognized him immediately as Monkey Fist.

“What is this, some sort of toy from Drakken?” mused Monkey Fist aloud.

“You're live,” whispered Timothy.

“Uh--” started Jim feeling weird hearing his voice echo though the drone microseconds after speaking. “No! No, I'm not from Drakken.”

“An AI?” asked Monkey Fist. “What do you want here?” Monkey Fist held his staff at ready which, given his relative size to the UAV felt very intimidating to Jimm.

“I'm actually here looking for DNAmy,” said Jim. “I'm not here to hurt anyone, really. I'm just here to ask for her help.”

“Hmph,” grumbled Monkey Fist and looked uneasily around. His posture suddenly changed from hunched to a slump. He rolled his eyes and looked to the side. “Sweetheart, it's for you,” he said in a strange falsetto. Turning back to look at Jim his serious frown belied his weakened posture. “You're just a toy, so do anything suspicious and I'll break you in a million pieces.”

“Coming!” a woman's voice echoed from elsewhere in the temple. Jim sweated. This was surreal, much more so than he expected from the data he'd uncovered. He knew Monkey Fist and DNAmy were 'together' but he had no idea as to what capacity. Monkey Fist's reactions and the strange layout of the stone citadel only added further confusion instead of clarity.

Moments later, a large hulking figure bounded from the shadows. It was DNAmy, well, it was the head of DNAmy. Years ago she had mutated herself to be mostly gorilla but had kept the appearance of her face. According to the news reports, she claimed it was her 'most charming element.' As the giant simian stamped up him, Jim had to admit he couldn't see it.

“Well, hello! Who are you, little guy?” asked Amy, in a decidedly non-gorilla-like voice.

“Uh, call me Jim,” said Jim, feeling awkward.

“That's a strange name for an AI,” commented Amy. “I suppose I don't know what normal is for an AI though, apart from HAL.”

“Well, Hal was taken,” said Jim. “And my creator's name was James.” Well, that was somewhat true, he thought.

“Not very creative, was he?”

“Not particularly,” nodded Jim. “Anyway…”

“So why are you here looking for me?” asked Amy. “I don’t know anything about robotics.”

“Actually, I'm here looking for your medical expertise,” said Jim. “On behalf of Kim Possible.”

“Possible!?” echoed a voice from the other end of the hall. Jim assumed it was Monkey Fist.

“Calm down, dear!” yelled Amy back. “I'll take care of this.” She looked back down at Jim. “Possible?” she asked with an arched brow. “She's back in the hero business?”

“Sort of… well, maybe not,” Jim quickly said. “But she is trying to help this … uh, family, and they have a pretty serious genetic disorder that have … um, 'traditional' doctors stumped. It's a long shot, but she thought you might be able to help.”

“Why would I help Kim Possible with anything?” asked Amy. “She was my enemy as much as Monty's.” She turned slightly and looked thoughtful, a difficult feat considering her form. “I heard all about that business a few years back with those robotic clones and I feel bad for her, but that doesn't make us friends.”

“She could owe you one?” suggested Jim.

“She's too goody-goody to let me get away with a crime, even IF she owed me one,” grumbled Amy.

“You'd be surprised what she'd do for this person,” said Jim, under his breath. He spoke up, “How about because you owe her one?”

“What? How?” Amy frowned.

“Well, you never were indicted for that genomic sequencer thing,” said Jim. “And even though you have a non-expiring warrant for your arrest Kim didn't make any effort to turn you in when she first found you out here.”

Amy narrowed her eyes. “You seem to know a lot about Kim's interactions with me.”

“Research is just a matter of downloading files for me,” said Jim, almost robotically. In the simulator, he smirked.

“Ease it off, compu-boy,” Timothy said in his ear. “You don't want her to get suspicious. And whose family are we helping? I thought you said it was Kim's boyfriend who was sick.”

“Whoops,” said Jim, waving his hand absently towards where he knew, in the simulator room, his terminal rested. Suddenly Timothy's video feed froze then vanished.

“I don't owe Kim Possible anything,” DNAmy eventually said, sounding slightly unsure. “And even if I did, I don't do that sort of work anymore.” She held up her hairy hands. “I don't have the dexterity for it these days.”

“I can help,” said Jim. “My body is capable of simulating several medical instruments and analysis equipment. Direct me through the experiments. You do the thinking.”

“What sort of genetic defect are we talking about?” Amy put her hand to her chin. “Inherited by the mother or father?”

“Actually, it's the result of mutation due to exposure to a radioactive element.” Jim wracked his brain to remember the files that Kim recovered from Shego's house. He wasn't sure he was explaining it right. He kept thinking it sounded like dialogue from a comic book.

“What element?” said Amy, sitting down before the UAV.

“Um, would you believe a meteor from space?”

“Fascinating…”

---

Infiltration

Kim stared down for the second time at a Team Go member in a hospital bed and started to wonder what the possible outcomes were for all of this. It was only yesterday she thought things were finally starting to go smoothly between her and Shego, as strange as it first felt they were starting to build… something. Kim wasn't sure what but she desperately wanted to know. But now, looking down at Mego of Team Go, she wondered if 'smoothly' was an adjective she was simply forbidden to apply to her own life.

They had gone in sequence, from eldest to youngest, leaving Kim to wonder just how long Shego knew this day was coming. Based on what the doctors had said, Hego had been at this hospital too at one point, but had dashed off in search of his sister, hoping she wasn't writhing in pain alone somewhere in Middleton. How he ended up at the University was a question still unanswered, but if he hadn't collapsed in the quad early yesterday morning, it was possible Kim never would have known anything about this until she found Shego's body one morning.

Kim shivered at the thought and tried to keep her mind on her work.

She touched a small transceiver hanging from her ear. “Okay, I've got all the samples now,” she said to the air. In her hand was a PDA-device similar to her Kimmunicator from the days of old. This one, however, had been designed by her brother, Jim, and was relaying the younger sibling's voice periodically to Kim's earpiece. “I'm transmitting the information now.” Her fingers brushed lightly over the smooth touch screen and sent the decoded DNA information from each of the three Team Go brothers still at the Go City Hospital. She'd made sure to label them 'Mego,' 'Wego 1,' and Wego 2,' even though the charts at this hospital had revealed their real names. They wore masks for a reason and Kim wanted to respect that, especially if these were their last--

She felt sick completing that thought and just let it hang.

“Thanks, sis,” said Jim over the transceiver. “I appreciate you detouring.”

“It's all for nothing if we can't do anything for Shego, so it's no big,” said Kim. She slipped the PDA back into her pocket and moved purposely out of the room. She glanced once at the next room over, the one holding the two Wego twins, but walked away and back towards the elevators. “Are you sure you can trust DNAmy?”

“I think she's intrigued enough to put in a genuine effort,” admitted Jim. “She's crazy, but not maniacal. It seems like all her efforts go towards making a happy home life for herself and Monty. Which is just…” he trailed off.

“Weird,” finished Kim. She reached the elevators and stepped into one, pushing the button for the top floor. “I need you to tap into the GeneNominal security system.”

“Already there,” replied Jim. “Although if someone else is watching, they're going to see you just like me. I was able to tap into security but I can't manipulate it from here.”

“That's more than I used to get on my missions, Jim, don’t sweat it.” Kim stepped out of the elevator and ascended the half-height staircase that ended in the doorway to the roof. A breeze was pushing itself under the doorway and sending a chill across Kim's ankles. She shivered and opened the door.

The hospital wasn't an exceptionally tall building in Go city, standing only 18 stories tall, but it was an easily accessible roof and if there was anything that Kim had learned in her years of rescuing its that the roof is always less guarded than most other entry points. Vents and gratings, while classic, frequently wouldn't support the weight of a person or led nowhere but to furnaces or smaller ductwork that would keep anyone over two years old from crawling through. Basement entry was generally easy, but often forced one to pass through the lobby, which was always thick with security.

Staring off the hospital roof, she could see the GeneNominal tower a couple blocks away. There was another thing she'd learned over the years: The taller the building, the easier it was to get in through the roof. Looking at the 50+ floors of the tower, Kim knew there was only one path open to her.

Pulling out her trusty hairdryer, she aimed it at the roof of the Go National Bank, an intermediary building between the hospital and the GeneNominal tower. The older, mechanical grapple had seen better days, and Kim was hard pressed to find a reason to use it in recent years, but it'd been effective when she was chasing Shego across roof tops not too long ago, and hoped it had at least another day's use in it before breaking.

With a quiet burst, the grappling hook flew out and hooked onto the stone portcullis-like edge to the bank. A few seconds of flying through the air and she was pulling herself over the rim of the building. Taking only a second to breath, she aimed at the significantly taller GeneNominal building.

“Kim,” a voice said to her.

“What is it?” asked Kim, steadying her aim. “I'm a little busy.”

“Hang on,” Jim insisted. “You're too close to the building, the grapple won't pull you up fast enough to avoid hitting the windows.”

Kim frowned, and lowered the hairdryer. “So, what then? I don't have my jetpack anymore, or Prometheus.” Kim scanned the nearby buildings. “There's nothing else close enough or tall enough to substitute.” She paused. “Well, I could swing off a corner, then throw myself onto the roof.”

“You'll be visible to a lot of the building going that route,” warned Jim. “If anyone is looking out at the time you're swinging past, then your secrecy will be shot. You'd have been better off trying to register as a guest in the lobby.”

“Why didn't we go that route again?” asked Kim.

“You're the dramatic one,” quipped Jim. “I've got some security cameras covering the offices in the East and South sides of the building, but not much. You'd be taking a gamble.”

“Well,” Kim shrugged as she raised the grapple again. “That'd be no different than the old days.” Closing one eye and pointing the gun at the corner of the tower, she fired.

The hook sailed through the air and grabbed the roof of the building near to the corner and held tight. Automatically, the hairdryer yanked her up into the air following the cord to its end. She squinted her eyes to peer through the air rushing past her as she saw the side of the building approach her at a dangerous speed. Throwing her weight to one side and holding out her arm like a single wing she caused her path so arc slightly to the side. With a start she realized it was too slight and the building was still in her path.

“Crap,” was all she could mutter in the microseconds as she flung her feet forward and bent her knees to absorb the shock.

The sudden crack was loud and vibrated through Kim's whole body in advance of the piercing pain in her legs. She saw stars as her vision swam in the sharp feeling. She desperately shoved the sensation elsewhere in her brain as she focused on her grip on the hairdryer. No matter what just had happened to her knees, if she slipped off that handle, they would only be cleaning up a puddle of her on the pavement.

When Kim could concentrate enough to see straight she was already swinging away from the building. She had apparently 'bounced' to the side and around the corner of the tower and her hairdryer was pulling her up fast enough now that she would reach the top before swinging back down again. Looking down, Kim saw the awful twist in her one leg and felt the throbbing all over her body and almost cried. She steeled herself all the same, this wasn't the time to get weepy.

Reaching over the ledge of the building once she reached the top, she pulled herself over, knowing better than to rely on her now questionable legs. Stumbling over the edge, she landed in a heap on the rooftop that sent all sorts of new pain sensations up her spine. With a grunt, she pulled her legs straight and laid flat on her back, breathing heavily.

“Kim!?” the concerned sound of Jim's voice sounded in her ear. Kim winced at the sudden loud noise but made no effort to move more. “What was that? Are you alright?”

“Ye…ah,” Kim managed. “Just a … slight miscalculation.” She raised her head and looked around the rooftop for the first time. “Hm… I don't see a door.”

“What do you mean a miscalculation?” said Jim. “Did you hit the building?”

“A little,” said Kim weakly. Sweating, she forced herself to sit up and dragged herself to a large central ventilation duct sticking out of the roof to lean her back against. Breathing deeply, she looked down at her crooked leg again. “I think I dislocated my knee.”

“Oh god,” said Jim and Kim could almost feel him shivering through the connection. “You need a doctor!”

“I hear there are some downstairs,” offered Kim. She leaned forward and started moving her hands down from her thigh towards the awkward knee.

“I'm serious, Kim, I'll get a helicopter to come pick you up.”

“I'm not sure they're going to let a medical helicopter land on a building I was breaking into,” said Kim. She gritted her teeth against the pain as she felt around the knee then grabbed her calf firmly. “Also, there's no helipad here.”

“You can't very well --”

“YEEAGH!” Kim howled for a moment.

“-- fix it your… Kim! What just happened?”

Kim heaved deep breathes though her teeth as her leg twitched slightly and she dug her nails into the clay tiles on the roof. Her eyes were squeezed shut as she tried to keep herself from going mad from the pain.

“Kim!”

After several agonizing minutes the pain started to dull and Kim could bear to relax slightly. She had fallen onto her side and was covered in sweat. “I'm still here, Jim,” she said softly.

“What happened?”

“A lot of pain,” muttered Kim. “I'll be fine in a few minutes. Not the first time that's happened.”

“Are you serious?”

“Heh,” Kim laughed weakly. “Can you find me a way into the building? I don't see a door here.”

“I don't think you should continue--”

“Jim,” pleaded Kim. “I'm already here. There is no way out that doesn't involve GeneNominal finding me. Help me leave with Shego.”

Kim slithered out of her jacket and started wrapping it around her knee. “If you leave now, I'll end up being trapped here.”

“I know!” yelled Jim back, surprising Kim. “I'm looking through the schematics now.” He paused for several moments. “Jesus, Kim, were you always this obsessed?”

Kim tied the sleeves of her jacket into a knot and leaned back again to stare up at the sky. “Things change, tweeb.” She smiled.

“Yeah, but not always for the better,” grumbled Jim. “There's a service vent to the top floor from where you are. You should also be able to get to the elevator shafts from that floor as well without much trouble but that puts you on the wrong side of security.”

Kim took several breaths before pushing herself up onto her legs. Immediately she felt her knee start to give and she gripped the ventilation duct for support. The slightly smoky and warm air blew up at her though the grating causing her hair to whip around her face.

“Fire staircases aren't much better though,” continued Jim. “You'll probably have to find a way in regardless of how you get to the floor Shego's on.”

Kim breathed and again tried to stand, this time remaining standing for several seconds before falling to her good knee. “Do you have any idea where Shego might be?” she asked.

“Not really,” admitted Jim. “Since I started watching the security feeds I haven't seen her or anyone I recognize. It looks like doctors are on floors twenty-six through thirty and some tighter security on floors twenty-seven and twenty eight. But I can't monitor any full floor and there's no telling if I'm seeing doctors or a convention of people like to wear lab coats.”

Kim clenched her fists as she stared at her quivering leg. There was no time for weakness, if she didn't find Shego quick, something… irreparable might happen.

“Lets start at twenty-seven,” said Kim, then, with only a slight grunt, she pushed herself back onto her feet and started walking. The piercing pain would dull eventually, she convinced herself, and if it didn't, she'd bear through it anyway.

Finding the hatch in the corner of the roof, she pulled it up and dropped through the hole, landing hard on the floor beneath it. A series of dim lights lit the largely perfunctory floor, with solid lines of paint on the walls pointing the way to air filtration maintenance, wiring closets, and the elevator motors.

Putting her hand against the wall, Kim limped slowly towards elevator maintenance.

---

The massive fleet of vehicles sat silently within the tall grey walls of the hanger. Each car, truck, jet, plane, and hovercraft were lined up in straight lines perfectly parallel with the length of the huge room and angled slightly so that if an immediate departure was required, it would require that many fewer seconds to leave. All of which was incredibly fortunate for the lone figure running between the rows of jets looking over his shoulder at the double doors that led out of the hangar and into the underground facility that was Global Justice Midwest Headquarters.

The figure, a man, tall, with dark black hair and eyes, stared at the last jet in the row as he ran desperately towards it. The doors behind him burst open suddenly and a taller, heavy built man named Commander Ferris came barging out followed by a half dozen other GJ agents, guns already out and aiming.

“Hold it right there!” yelled Ferris in his booming voice before motioning to the agents behind him. A soft series of clicks resounded and shots started flying towards the figure running who dodged deftly.

“Dammit! Shut those hanger doors!” yelled Ferris over his shoulder. An agent with short blonde hair and glasses was quickly tapping on a panel by the doors they'd entered the hanger from. He grumbled something then made a fist and slammed the panel in anger.

“The system thinks the doors ARE closed!” yelled the agent. “She must have messed with it.”

“I can't believe we succeed at anything,” grumbled Ferris under his breath as he began to run after the dark figure. His speed was surprising for his size, and he was quickly closing the distance with his prey.

The fleeing man noticed the approaching giant and reached into a pocket to pull out a small remote which activated the last jet in the row. He was only a few yards away and would easily make it before Ferris caught him. Smiling widely, he laughed once before finishing the last few steps and diving into the jet, immediately putting on the engines, causing it to effortlessly rise up on its auxiliary hover engines.

“NO!” screamed Ferris as he pointed his gun up and began firing at the jet's engines, open gear, intake ports, anything to get it fail. His shots rang out but proved ineffective at stopping the black jet which immediately turned towards the open hangar and jetted off into the morning sky, the hangar doors finally closing behind it.

“I can't believe she got away,” said a man who walked up behind Ferris. He turned and looked and was almost overcome by rage at the fact that he looked completely identical to the man who had just fled the facility. He calmed himself quickly, though, remembering that the man before him was the real Agent Will Du and that the one who had just escaped was actually Allucinere mimicking his form.

“It is perfectly within my ability to believe,” said Ferris. He straightened his uniform and walked past Agent Du. “She played us masterfully. She must have been studying us for months.”

“Not dressed as me,” protested Will quickly moving beside him.

“There's no way to know for sure. Her new luminocodec seems capable of duplicated biological scans, including fingerprint.”

“Why now then?” asked Will. “Why wait forever and then escape like this when she could have just walked out, or completely subverted us from inside?”

“The new protocols that we imitated to authenticate agents must have tipped her off that we were close,” nodded Ferris. The two reached the group of agents by the door and they filed behind them. “She probably realized she wouldn’t be able to hide for long and decided to cut and run.”

“I'm having the entire R&D team come up with new ways of improving security here,” said Will. “Everything is going into making sure she doesn’t get back in.”

“Unless she winds up in another coma,” grumbled Ferris. “Lets schedule the debriefing for forty minutes from now.”

“Agreed,” nodded Will.

Reaching an intersection in the corridor Will turned and moved down a different hall than Ferris, taking the team of agents with him.

Ferris wiped his brow from the exhaustion of running after the surprisingly swift Allucinere and tugged at his collar to properly present himself before continuing down the hall and into the Command Center. Looking up at the glass “bowl” that held Doctor Director's office he nodded to himself and walked up and inside.

“Commander,” nodded Betty Director, looking up only once from the 'paperwork' that glowed from her virtual desktop.

“Director,” returned Ferris. He frowned. “You're oddly… composed.”

Betty paused and looked up at Ferris. “Believe me Ferris, after all that's happened in the last 48 hours, I just want to scream and pull out my hair, but that will help neither the situation nor this office.” She looked down and tapped a few of the windows displayed on her desk, closing them. “Keeping a calm mind is the only thing that's going to get us through this.”

“I wish I could keep my composure as well as you,” commented Ferris. He finally moved all the way into the office and sat at the chair beside Betty's desk. “She was still here, like we suspected.”

“Apparently so,” said Betty. “I'm alarmed at how easily she got away. She may have collaborators inside GJ.”

“I can't imagine how she could have created an network of allies while in a coma,” said Ferris. “I find it easier to believe she's always been nearby, watching us, so she knew exactly how we'd respond. Maya was always quite intelligent, which was why she was recruited to be an agent.”

“And why she was so easily subverted,” reminded Director. “It's not intelligence that ends up dictating our causes, but wisdom, Al.”

“Then we would be wise not to fall into the same trap we did last time.” He looked down at Betty's desk and noticed a few familiar files still open. “We should bring her in now.”

“Yes, I agree,” nodded Betty. “Kim suffered last time for our reluctance to involve her, and I don’t want history to repeat itself. I'll be sending Du to hopefully convince her to come in to at least hear the news.”

“You should just tell Shego to bring her in,” said Ferris. “Speaking of, we locked her out of all GJ buildings when this all started. We should notify GJ Northeast to remove the ban.”

“Let's hold off until we know more,” said Betty. “I don't think Shego is involved, but as long as Allucinere is out there with a GJ jet, we can't be too careful.”

“Very well,” nodded Ferris.

“Find out what jet was stolen, and where she's heading. Once you know which jet she's in, you should be able to activate the homing circuits to track her down. Also, have the Quartermaster do a complete inventory of all GJ equipment and supplies. I want to know everything that was taken, from the inventory on the jet to items from the mess hall.”

“She didn't appear to be carrying anything when we were chasing her,” said Ferris. “But she also looked exactly like Agent Du, so she could have been hiding her stolen goods. I'll make sure Allen does a thorough check.”

“Thanks.” Betty sighed and shook her head.

Ferris frowned and leaned forward to take Betty's hand. “It's all right. We'll wrap this up quickly this time.”

Betty looked up at Ferris and smiled weakly but had nothing to say.

---

The heavy fog that had annoying settled over her mind started to clear and for the first time in several hours Shego felt reality coalesce around her once more. At first the oppressive darkness continued to hang off her like a heavy tarp, begging her to stay unconscious. But the dreams -- no, nightmares she had been plagued with were more than enough incentive to spend as much time as she could awake.

Heavily, Shego picked her head and tried to rub the ache in her temples away but found herself bound to the table she was lying on. For a minute she was someplace else, far away and years earlier, caught in the trap of some villain who hated Drakken, or worse, someone from her own checkered past catching up with her. She felt the adrenaline rush and instinct to escape as her arms flared up with green flame, growing brighter and stronger with each second to burn or melt whatever restraints were pinning her against the cool table. Her eyes shut as she strained against the braces trying desperately to --

“Those are there for you safety as much as ours, Shego.”

Shego paused and opened her eyes again. Looking around she saw the large blank, curved white walls around her, slightly scarred with black. The lingering smell of burnt… something tickled her nose and she coughed slightly before remembering the truth. She was in Mason's chamber at GeneNominal.

Raising her head slightly she looked to see the single window in the largely featureless room. Behind the thick glass stood the pale man in the dark blue suit: Mason.

“Good morning,” he said in a falsetto voice that was probably meant to sound comforting but instead was just creepy.

“What happened?” asked Shego, putting her head down and focusing on the ceiling.

“You had a bad dream, but it's all better now,” Mason continued the coy sounding voice.

“Why am I restrained, Mason?” yelled Shego.

“Because you aren't exactly in control of your faculties, Shego,” Mason said plainly. “You had a nightmare and somehow the symbiote interpreted that as a command to unleash your full power, something we've never had the opportunity to test for good reason.” Mason folded his arms. “You pushed the limits of the chamber itself. Suffice to say, if you go out of control again, we may resort to more permanent solutions to curtail your possibly devastating power.”

Shego thought about that for a second, but failed. “What?”

“Your power is quite possibly strong enough to melt this whole building,” explained Mason. “If not this whole block. We can't take the risk of you going out of control like that again. Which means you're gonna be either awake and agreeable or we'll be forced to induce a coma like what happened to your brothers.” He paused. “I would prefer awake and agreeable, as we'd get the most out of our research.”

“Dammit, Mason,” cursed Shego. “I came here… I agreed to help you on the condition that you help my brothers.”

“On the contrary,” hissed Mason. “We only agreed to use our findings to determine a method of saving your brothers. There was no guarantee of success on our part as there very well may not be a cure to your condition.”

“You son of a bitch, Mason.” Shego struggled against the restraints again. “You know that's not what I intended!”

“Of course not, but the world runs on contracts and litigations, not backyard deals sealed with handshakes.” Mason raised an eyebrow. “How did you think a company this big got so big, anyway?”

“I'll kill you, you midget fucker!” yelled Shego.

“Now, now, that would be in violation of your contract, Shego.” Mason smiled evilly and Shego began imaging ways of tearing off his head. “You belong to GeneNominal now. And don’t go jumping to conclusions, if we do find something that can help the rest of Team Go, we'll gladly provide it to the hospital they're at. Eventually.”

Shego struggled for a few minutes more but eventually sighed and laid back down again. “Have you at least figured out what's wrong?”

“The symbiote we bonded you with to control the powers you gained from the meteor is starting to become … disagreeable.”

Shego looked up at Mason again. “Disagreeable?”

“The parasite was chosen because of it's unique reaction to the meteor power, but also because it was fairly docile,” explained Mason. “Its symbiotic relationship with its host afforded the host full control over it, as long as it received the proper nutrients and energy bleed-off from your body.”

Mason turn to the side and picked up a clipboard from somewhere beyond the view of the window. “It appears, though, over time the symbiote begins to resist control and tries to dominate its host. It gradually inhibits the production of serotonin in the brain and eventually all neurotransmitters until it dominates all higher brain functions. Then, like a puppeteer, it begins producing its own neurotransmitters and operates the body by proxy.”

Shego's eyes were wide with horror and she had to force her body to calm itself and lay back on the table. “Jesus. This is already happening to me?”

Mason nodded. “The symbiote is apparently not completely familiar with the human brain, it's moving slowly, looking for the areas of your brain it wants to interrupt. You've been injected with some serotonin uptake enhancers and some epinephrine to slow the progress of the symbiote until we can figure out how to get to play nice again.”

“Are you joking?” asked Shego. “Something is rooting around randomly in my brain, YOU put it there, and you have no idea how to stop it?”

“I'm quite serious, Shego,” Mason frowned. “This represents a serious flaw in our super-soldier program and I would definitely have preferred not to find it.”

“Fuck your program! My FAMILY is going to suffer for your mistake!” Shego growled.

“The adrenaline is putting you on edge,” Mason said evenly. “Calm yourself.”

“You will NOT let that happen to my brothers!” yelled Shego. “Remove the symbiote if you have to!”

“That will most certainly kill them,” reminded Mason. “As you were dying when we first met, if you recall. Only the symbiote can effectively control the strange meteor energy you were bleeding out of your body. Without it, the power will build beyond your ability to manipulate and Hego's body will pull itself apart, Mego will shrink to atomic size then simply cease to be, and the Wegos will become an endless army of brain-dead drones.”

Shego bit her lip. The thought of her brothers going through that… it was like a sharp pain in her gut. She'd bared plenty of ill-will towards her family for their actions, her eldest brother in particular, but she never wanted them dead or even suffering.

“There has to be way to save them,” Shego softly said.

“There is no substitute to the symbiote,” explained Mason. “The only option is find a means of chemically subduing it, make it docile again. But we don’t understand the chemistry of the creature, not enough to do to it the same things it's doing to you.”

Mason raised his eyebrows. “But now that you're awake, and here, we can start tests to find out.” He put the clipboard down again. “So check your anger. If you fight me, we'll never find the solution in time to save anyone.”

Shego turned her head away and stared at the white wall. A few moments later she heard the clicks of Mason's shoes as they strode away.

“Good god,” said Shego. “What have I gotten myself into?”

No good, a thought echoed in her mind, though Shego wasn't quite sure where it came from.

---

The steel cart rolled through the metal archway clinking and clattering as the vials and beakers banged together when the wheels rolled over the raised track on the ground. Without ceremony, the nebbish looking girl in the long labcoat and striking red hair in a bun pushing the cart held up her ID to the scanner. The plastic grey panel on the wall had three lights on it, one which glowed green, all the time, another which glowed yellow when the girl's ID made contact with the device, a final one which would glow red if something was wrong. The girl's bangs fell in front of her eyes but her teeth were clenched together as the panel hesitated on the yellow light for several seconds.

Finally, without a sound, the yellow light vanished and only the green remained. The guard sitting on the secured side of the archway glanced over at his monitor and then returned to reading his book. “You're early, Dr. Cavendish,” the thin guard said, never really meeting eyes with the girl.

“Meh,” said the girl as she pushed through the archway and past the guard.

“Hah, I know the feeling,” he replied and turned the page of his novel.

Hoping there was no more to be said, the girl pushed the cart down to the first intersection of the corridor and turned right. Once out of sight from the guard, she took a look around quickly.

“There's no one coming,” a voice in her ear spoke.

Letting out her held breath, Kim finally raised her head and took her weight off her bad knee. The throbbing was intense and drowned out almost every other feeling she had at the moment. Leaning against the cart, Kim held her hand to her ear and peered down the remainder of the hallway.

“Got any suggestions as to direction?” she spoke softly.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Jim's voice replied through the earpiece. “I only have security video of that checkpoint you went through, and schematics only tell me the dimensions of rooms, not necessarily their contents.” He paused. “Except for bathrooms, I guess, they have plumbing.”

“There has got to be some way of narrowing this down, the floor is huge.” Kim looked down at the cart and picked up the clipboard listing the delivery destinations of the cartful of chemicals she was pushing. “Maybe this will give me a clue.”

“What do you have?” asked Jim.

“A list of deliveries,” Kim said as her eyes scanned the first page. “Looks like a lot of test results and storage materials. Most of this is going to go into the service station on this floor. I guess they distribute most supplies from one point on each floor.”

“If Shego's being held against her will,” offered Jim. “They might be going through a lot of sedatives. Any deliveries to rooms like that?”

“Not really,” Kim shook her head, then sighed. “I'm not entirely sure she's here against her will, either.” She dropped the clipboard into the cart again and started pushing it forward. “I'll just do a quick look around, see what I can find.”

“Careful, you don't want anyone to see you twice,” warned Jim.

“I have done this before, you know,” commented Kim.

She pushed the plastic cart down the hall and turned down a few corridors, staring at the plastic nametags on each door. Several times she reached dead ends and had to turn around to go back out the way she came. She prayed that nobody would notice, but thankfully the halls on the floor were largely empty.

After fifteen minutes she started to get depressed and wondered if what she was doing was even sane before she noticed a sign on a fairly heavy door and hesitated.

“Why…” Kim started but hesitated to gather her thoughts.

“Kim?”

“Why did she come here?” Kim finally asked.

“To get herself fixed, I thought,” offered Jim though the earpiece. “This place is at the forefront of genetic research.”

“But, the way she ran off yesterday, and how she came right here, it's like she knew these guys could help her.” Kim tried to articulate the strange feeling she was having. It was as if she had thought at the tip of her tongue but was having a hell of a time trying to remember it.

“Do you think she'd had problems with this company before?” asked Jim. “When she was in Team Go?”

Kim frowned and continued to stare at the door. “Maybe not problems in the criminal sense,” she said. The tall steel door said 'Archives' on it. “I mean, she and her brothers had a pretty unique problem, they couldn't just go to a pediatrician.”

“You think GeneNominal has studied Shego before?” asked Jim.

Kim shrugged. “There's a way to find out.” She pushed open the door and rolled her cart in. Beyond the metal fire door was a large closet full of rows of filing cabinets. Kim figured there were hundreds of project files stored here, sorted alphabetically in labeled drawers.

Kim recalled the last name she saw on Mego's chart and immediately headed towards the 'K's. The first drawer she opened in the series had the massive file stored in it.

“Where are you?” asked Jim, sounding a little left-out.

“Archives,” Kim said, pulling up the file and starting to page through it. “They have been here before.”

“Shego?” asked Jim.

“All of them, all of Team Go.” Kim pulled up a summary and started reading. “It looks like a meteor really did hit their tree-house as children. They were brought to VersaGene when they started using their powers uncontrollably. The scientists here studied their ability and the remains of the meteor in order to find a way to turn them into weapons. They got consent from their parents to experiment on them.” Kim put her had to her mouth. “This is terrible.”

“What?” asked Jim.

“They used them like guinea pigs to find out how to create an army of super-soldiers.” Kim shook her head. “They put this… creature that was mutated by the impact of the meteor into their bodies. That must be what that cluster of nerves was that Justin pointed out to me. It tempers their power, makes it more manageable for them to use.”

“What about when you had their power?” asked Jim. “Did you get a creature thingy?”

“No,” Kim shook her head and paged faster through the file. “But it looks like that if I held onto Hego's power much longer than I did I might have had trouble controlling it.” She read a page, frowned and read it again. “Hm… this looks like an addendum. After Shego left Team Go and joined Drakken.”

“What is it?”

“Some sort of analysis based on watching Team Go and Shego fight.” Kim turned the page. “They determined that Shego absorbed more of the meteor power than her brothers. She's the strongest of all of them but it also meant that they had a hard time getting the creature to adapt to her. There's some concern that the power would overwhelm her eventually and a containment unit would have to be built just to keep her from destroying everything around her.”

“A containment unit?” asked Jim. “Like a box?”

“More like a prison,” said Kim. “A room where her power could be contained if she ever lost contro--” Kim suddenly closed the file. “They built it here, in this building.” Kim closed the file drawer but put the large folder into the cart.

“Where?”

Kim headed for the door. “One floor below me.”

---

Recovery

The eerie voice was dark, rumbling, sinister. But the things it said were persuasive, tantalizing, and not at all beyond the realm of possibility, which just made Shego all the more nervous when she realized that the voice speaking to her was a twisted version of her own.

There is nothing to be gained here, said the voice in Shego's head. Why wait around for that bastard to cut you open like a fetal pig?

“There's a chance…” said Shego slowly. “A far shot, but a chance he'll find what he needs to fix my brothers. I can't run from that chance.”

Why not? You’ve done it before. The voice sounded almost sickly, like it was straining just to be heard. It didn't make Shego feel any better though.

“Because I'm not like that anymore, I'm trying to be better,” explained Shego, wondering if she should be speaking aloud to a voice in her head. “And my brothers have always been important to me.”

They weren't that important when you were stealing their powers, reminded the being that used her voice. And who says you're being 'better'? Your weakling girlfriend? What does she know?

“She knows what good I can do,” said Shego, not entirely believing herself. “She believes in me the way Hego never did.”

It's just her opinion of 'better,' not a universal one. Remember when you stole the Eye of Calindar? The voice almost seemed to shiver with delight.

Shego frowned, she remembered pilfering that gemstone. Impenetrable, they'd' said. Feh! She was in and out of that vault in a matter of minutes. Nobody could challenger her then, she'd broken all the rules and still proven she was the best of all thieves. That caused her first Interpol warrant for arrest, doing the job of letting the whole world know she'd bested them.

You see? Weren't those better days?

Shego swallowed. “What was the point though? Just doing those things to have people praise me, or to have authority hate me? That's not a life, it's a vain display.” Shego always loved going after those baubles that other people protected so feverishly. The chase was thrill she lived for.

You can't lie to me, I'm in your mind, said the scary voice causing Shego to shiver.

“Who are you?” she asked, finally.

I'm you, of course. Your 'good' conscious.

“Bullshit, you're the symbiote,” Shego snapped.

The symbiote has no mind, no desires except for control and even then no idea what to do with that power, explained the voice.I'm not the symbiote, I'm the part of you you're hiding from. I'm the part of you that remembers the thrill of the chase, the power in your palm when you've stolen a jewel, the satisfying crunch when you've utterly bested some foolish sap who tried to stop you.

“You're the being in my dream,” said Shego. “The evil version of me.”

Not evil. PURE. The you that exist outside of foolish rules and societal pressures. The voice cackled. I'm more you than YOU are.

Shego turned her head. She refused to accept it. Sure, she was a little sadistic sometimes, and she'd done a lot of admittedly evil things just to feel powerful and strong. Also, she liked to have control over things, even people…

Do I need to say more? You're doing my work for me.

“No,” Shego shook her head. “That's not all there is to me!”

It's all that matters.

“But you're wrong! I … I have other pure desires,” stammered Shego. “Ones that aren't wrapped in sadism or some other evil feeling. I have--”

“Shego!” A voice broke her rambling. Shego blinked and felt her heart sink as she considered there might be a second voice in her head.

“Shego? Are you all right?” The voice came back, but it was familiar and definitely not in her head. Shego rose her head to look at the window and what she saw picked her heart right up and made it soar.

“What did they do to you?” asked Kim through the glass, her hands pressed against it and her face twisted with worry.

She looked beautiful.

“Kim,” Shego said with relief.

Have her bust you outta here and let's get revenge on that prick, Mason!

“Hush,” Shego muttered under her breath.

“Shego,” Kim just repeated back trying to smile. She was wearing a lab coat and had her hair up in a bun, which Shego could conceivably believe was some sort of disguise. She did look kinda like a sexy librarian though, and Shego filed that knowledge for later use.

“Why didn't you talk to me about all this?” asked Kim, looking worried again. “I could have helped you.”

Shego felt pain in her chest but bore through it. “I should have,” she said. “I'm sorry.”

“Have they done anything to you?”

Shego laughed faintly. “Nothing major,” she said. She stared at Kim and suddenly felt strange, like her insides were twisting. “I'm--” she had trouble getting out her own words. “I'm… really glad to see you.”

“Shego,” Kim softly said.

The former thief felt the wetness on her cheeks long before she realized she was crying. “I'm sorry,” she said, laying her head back down to hide her weakness from her lover. “It's been a terrible day and I'm not feeling like myself.” She laughed again between her tears and spoke quietly. “Isn't this pure, too?”

The voice said nothing.

“It's okay,” Kim assured. “I'll get you out of here and we'll go back home.”

“No, Kim,” Shego looked up suddenly. “I need to be here. These guys -- they stand the best chance at finding a cure for my brothers. I have to stay.”

“They'll kill you before helping your brothers,” Kim said. “I've read the files on your project, and VersaGene has only ever had one thing on their mind and it was never helping you.”

“You're quite correct, Ms Possible,” said a slimy voice and Shego immediately felt terror.

Kim turned from the window and saw the tall suited man and the two burly security soldiers behind him. Kim stepped back into defensive posture but winced when pain went shooting up from her leg.

“Not that it matters at all,” said Mason with a smile. He produced an envelope and pulled out a folded pack of papers. “Shego has already signed a legal contact allowing us to conduct 'human trial experiments of indeterminable duration.' Taking her from us would be akin to…” he looked up in thought then smiled widely. “Theft of property.”

“She's a human being, you can't own her,” snapped Kim. Her leg was starting to throb heavily again and she adjusted her stance to take her weight off of it.

Mason slipped the papers back into the folder and then dropped it into his pocket. “Through a series of legal loopholes and equitable judges, I assure you, we can. You, on the other hand, have broken into private property and, given the nature of the supplies kept her, including Schedule IV Narcotics, I'm actually allowed to exercise extreme prejudice in eliminating threats.”

“Don't touch her, Mason!” screamed Shego from the room.

“My, such camaraderie from enemies,” commented Mason. “I thought you two hated one another.”

“Let Shego go!” said Kim.

“There are a lot of demands flying about here,” Mason said. “I suggest you let yourself be escorted off to the policy, Ms. Possible. It's the only way that someone won't get hurt.”

“I'm not going anywhere until you let Shego go,” said Kim. “I'm not abandoning her.”

“Kim,” pleaded Shego. “Please, don't get hurt over me.”

Kim frowned but ignored the pleas. “What's it going to be, Mason?”

“Haven't I made it obvious yet?” asked Mason with a smile, as he motioned to his security. “Shoot her. It's clear she's hopped up on heroin or LSD she stole from restricted storage.”

“MASON!” screamed Shego.

The two security soldiers pulled out their guns as they moved in front of Mason but Kim was already on the move. The guard to Mason's left was startled by her speed and her foot struck his gun hand the second the weapon was free from the holster, sending the cold steel flying. Her follow up strike to the gut was not as affective as she felt the man's body armor, but didn't have time to hesitate. Flipping over the stunned soldier, she twisted his arm slightly and then kicked him towards a wide-eyed Mason. The two collapsed in a pile just in time for the second soldier to get off a shot in Kim's direction.

Already in motion, Kim flattened her body as best she could as she ran, trying to keep the soldier's aim off as she closed the few yards and did a sweep to knock him off one of his feet. Quicker than the first, though, this soldier put a hand to the wall to keep from falling and was already aiming his second shot.

Kim rolled as best she could, feeling the pain in her knee every time it struck the hard floor, dodging the two shots that rang out. Once on the opposite side of the room she looked across at the soldier who grinned in satisfaction. They were too far apart now for her to get his weapon before he fired, and they were too close for him to miss.

Kim swallowed and then stated to run right but after only on step she rappelled off the wall and flipped left, landing by the cart of supplies she'd been pushing around earlier. Grabbing the plastic cart with both hand, she spun on her good leg and flung the cart, contents and all, at the soldier who couldn't resist putting up his arms to deflect the flying beakers of glass and questionable chemicals. Even as the cylinders bounced or broke off his elbows the cart followed their act and took him down with a yelp.

Kim heaved deep breaths at the exertion which was more than twice as hard with the pain her knee. She at the window again and wiped the sweat from her brow.

“There's no sense staying now,” she said, holding out a hand.

Shego wanted to be upset but she couldn't help herself and smiled. Closing her eyes she ignited her arms with the green energy and let it grow in intensity to melt the metal braces. With each second she felt herself growing brighter and the white walls reflected all the light back at her with a painful intensity. Shego closed her eyes as she made herself burn hotter, the metal bands already starting to get soft around her wrists.

Kim had to look away from the window then, as the light was too bright for her to keep staring, no matter how much she wanted to keep an eye on Shego. She turned away from the sun-like blaze and looked down at the soldiers who were moving slightly. They would be ready for more soon and Kim wasn't really in any condition to keep fighting. Shego had to hurry up.

The soldier on the floor picked up his head and held it in his hand and Kim noticed that Mason was no longer lying beneath him. Kim frowned. “Where did Mason go?”

“Boo.” The voice was startlingly close and behind her, and Kim's instinct took over before any conscious thought registered. She spun with her arm out, ready to strike the man Kim knew had to be Mason. As she turned, her head whipped around and she saw that the perpetually grinning suit was holding the first soldier's gun.

Without any option, Kim lashed out at the gun, hoping to knock it away or take it before anything could happen.

Consistent with her luck this day, she wasn't fast enough.

The shot was loud, and Kim wondered if she'd ever been this close to a gun being shot before. The pain ripped through her shoulder and even as she struck Mason's gun and sent it flying, the force of the bullet flung her to the floor as well.

“AGGGK,” Kim screamed as she twisted on the floor and held her shoulder. Her whole body screamed in pain that wouldn't quit, from her knee to her hips up her shoulder and into her neck. Everything ached.

Mason stared down at her with disgust. “I find it hard to believe you're the great hero the world always talked about. Our Team Go was much more impressive.”

Suddenly the door to the chamber rumbled and Mason realized that the brightness of the room was starting to seep around the edges of the supposedly atmosphere tight door. When the edges starting turning to slag, Mason dove for cover, missing getting hit by the exploding door by inches. Pieces of the thick covering blew through the opposing wall and some even out the windows on opposite side of the building.

Mason looked up as the green mist poured out of the chamber to see Shego, her eyes glowing bright green and her one arm and half her torso dancing with emerald flames. Shego's eyes stared at Kim then at Mason and turned to slits.

“You son of a BITCH!” she screamed and stepped over Kim's form to close in on Mason. Each step she took left tendrils of green fire behind, like a trail in jade. Mason started crawling away but Shego quickly reached him and grabbed his shirt with her normal arm. The heat coming from her body was intense and Mason felt his hair singe.

Destroy him.

Roughly, Shego flung him against the wall and then grabbed his neck, sliding him up off his feet. “I told you not to touch her,” Shego said, her voice twisted and hollow, as if her organs had burned away and only the flames remained within her chest. “You always thought you were so smart. Make your own army. Experiment on children. Never considering how close to being destroyed by your own creations you were. Never realizing that if you hadn't picked good people, moral people, they'd have turned on you in a microsecond.”

Choke him to DEATH!

“Well, I'm not good anymore,” Shego said, bringing her face close to Masons so that his skin started to steam.

“Pp--ppp-” sputtered Mason.

“WHAT?!” yelled Shego.

“Please!” the man begged. “Don’t -- ack! -- don't kill me…” He was whimpering.

Shego looked up at him with hate.

He doesn’t deserve mercy.

“Where's that contract?” demanded Shego. Mason reached with trembling hands into his coat and pulled out the envelope. “Is this the only copy?”

Mason nodded in a jerky manner. Shego sneered at him then grabbed the paper with her flaming fist, causing it to turn to dust in her palm. “You are going to send all the information you have on me and my brothers to the St. Reeve Memorial Hospital where they are.”

Mason nodded vigorously. The sweat on his face was turning to steam almost immediately. Shego looked away and then threw Mason at the ground, causing him to strike the flooring hard and slide down the hall. He looked up in fear seconds after coming to a stop.

“Our business is done, Mason,” she intoned and turned away from him.

What?! KILL HIM!

“No, I won't,” Shego said simply. She bent down to Kim as the younger one moved to look up at her. She was bleeding from her shoulder quite heavily. “We need to get you to a doctor.”

“No kidding,” laughed Kim. She smiled weakly. “Can you… turn it down a little, it's getting hot.”

Shego laughed.

Not on your life.

Shego froze in place and her glowing eyes became larger.

Ha. Ha, the voice purposefully laughed.

“No, let me go,” Shego yelled to the ceiling.

Let's light this place up right, said the voice.

Shego clenched her fists and concentrated but the fires started spreading over her body instead of going out. She tried again, concentrating even harder.

“Shego!” yelled Kim, suddenly.

Shego opened her eyes and saw the girl slowly backing off as the aura of green started to expand. Looking down, the green girl realized her body hand totally gone ablaze.

“I--I can't control it,” Shego said, panicking.

Of course you can't, that has ALWAYS been my job.

“You ARE the symbiote!” yelled Shego.

“What?” asked Kim, backing up further.

Shego screamed and ran back into the chamber where at least most of her glow was being contained. With the door broken apart, it wouldn't keep indefinitely though.

You just haven't been listening, have you? The voice sounded tired. The symbiote HAS no personality, no voice. So it needed to attach itself to a will, a desire, in order to function and to understand its host.

Shego gripped her head and wished the voice to go away.

You had such anger in you when you were a girl, the voice continued all the same. Always the outcast, even before you got hit with the meteor. Nobody ever loved or respected you the way you wanted. Everyone was against you, never on your side!

“SHUT UP!” screamed Shego.

It was easy to attach to that, strong emotions are always the easiest to understand. Afterwards, it was just a matter of tapping into that anger, which had always been so readily available to you, and the symbiote knew what you wanted. It understood its purpose.

“Noooo…” she yelled weakly.

To cause destruction.

“I don't want that anymore!” cried Shego.

“Shego?”

Shego looked in panic at the door and saw Kim there, standing against the flames, holding her hand up to keep the heat from her eyes. “Shego,” she said again. “Who are you talking to?”

Shego flung her hands back and forth. “Get out! Run, Kim, it's not safe here for you! I don't want to hurt you!”

“What's going on?” she stepped further into the chamber, causing her clothes to smoke.

“Dammit girl, listen to me for once! Get out!”

Or let her stay, it'll be a barbeque!

“Tell me, Shego,” Kim insisted.

“Arrggh!” screamed Shego at the stupidity of the situation. Why wouldn’t she go? “It's the symbiote! It's latched onto my … hate, my darker thoughts and now it thinks all I want is destruction! It's going to go destroy this place and everything it can find!”

“You can't let it happen,” said Kim, stepping closer. She was barely able to open her eyes anymore against light. The heat was causing her skin to turn red.

“I can't stop it,” yelled Shego, falling to her knees. “I don't have control anymore. I can't stop it from burning you alive! So, PLEASE… go.”

“I can't,” Kim said weakly.

“Why not!?”

“Because I need you,” she said just above the roar of fire surrounding them. “I came all this way. I can't just run while you self destruct. You're more important to me than that.”

“You're important to me too, Kimmie,” said Shego through sobs, although her tears turned to mist and floated away before ever striking her cheeks. “That's why I can't let you get hurt because of me. If I go supernova, I don't want to take you with me.”

“You don't have a choice,” Kim said, smiling with her eyes clothes. Her nose was starting to blister and her hair was slightly melting.

“Kimmie,” pleaded Shego.

“Whatever happens, it'll happen to us both,” Kim said, holding out her hand.

What a crazy loon you picked up! This is what happens when you indulge in flings. Let her be roasted, it's her own fault now.

“NO!” yelled Shego. “I won't let her!”

You don't run things here, I do.

“You exist because of me!” Shego angrily screamed. “You're just a part of me!”

A part stronger than the rest of you combined, especially now.

“But still just me. You need me to live, to survive. To… to cause more destruction.”

Reasoning with me will do you no good, the symbiote doesn't have any concept of future. Only purpose. If it dies in the process, so be it.

“There has to be a way,” cried Shego.

“Shh,” said Kim, feeling out Shegos hands and ignoring the burning she felt. “Whatever happens, happens.”

“Kim,” Shego weakly whined. “Not like this… I didn't want it like this.”

Kim smiled through the pain. “It's okay.” She pulled herself closer to Shegos body until she could feel them touching. Oddly, this close to the source, it was slightly cool, less intense. She still dared not open her eyes for fear they would melt but she imagined the tall figure she clung to, her black hair whipping about her frame, her sad eyes begging for a miracle.

Time for a roasting! Do you want white meat or dark? Well, I think everything is going to be blackened so it might not matter.

Kim rested her head against Shego's shoulder, hugging her close. She moved her head slightly after a second and moved her mouth to Shego's ear. “Don't be afraid. That only fuels anger.”

Shego nodded, then paused, and nodded again, slower.

“I'm not afraid,” Shego said tenderly. She straightened herself and wrapped her arms tightly around Kim. “Because we're both going to be fine.”

“There you go,” said Kim back.

Hah, only if you like Cajun-style superhero.

“I know we'll be fine, because I would never cause the death … “ she hesitated for a second, but not because of fear or embarrassment. Suddenly those things didn't matter. What she felt now was… accomplishment. Something that had long eluded her understanding, something that had perplexed her since being a child, was amazingly clear.

“I would never cause the death of the woman I love.”

Kim opened her eyes and saw the pale green eyes of Shego staring thoughtfully down at her, the fire having receded from her face. Two pairs of green eyes stared boldly at one another. Shego moved her head quickly towards her but Kim was already ready. Their lips met in silence.

Then the flames surged forth again.

YOU CAN'T STOP ME! The dark voice screamed but seemed to be bewildered.

Shego looked up calmly. “I can certainly try.”

---

It was lunchtime when the city paused, and turned. People on the street or in buildings, sitting at tables or in meetings, all could feel it and turned almost simultaneously to look at the tall tower near the center of the city.

For exactly five seconds, the entire twenty-sixth floor of the GeneNominal tower glowed bright green, blowing out all the windows on the level.

---

Lazy eyes finally turned towards daylight and parted, taking in the morning sun, letting its warm rays reflect light off everything in the room, showing every little detail on every piece of furniture, clothing, and person. It seemed like a morning like any other, until Shego remembered that the last thing she saw was Kimmie being bathed in her flames.

Her eyes immediately focused and she realized the half-dozen figures in the room were all looking at her, and she was in a normal hospital bed. Shego's eyes scanned over the crowd, not really noticing all the faces, just trying to match their feature with the one set she wanted to see.

Then her eyes found her, standing closest to her, at the side of the hospital bed, her hair tied up in a pony tail, her arm in a sling, and looking a little worse for wear but there, smiling, at her.

“Kimmie?” Shego groaned and felt like she hadn't spoken in years.

“I'm here,” Kim said softly, holding Shego's hand.

“You're alive?”

Kim laughed. She shrugged at her sling. “A little worse for wear but-mmfff!”

Shego didn't even have to think about it, her body responded exactly like she wanted to. Her arms were pulling Kim down to her and her mouth was pressed against her lover's. She reveled in the feeling of the soft lips and warmth against her chest and knew, for sure, nothing else in the world mattered.

She was a little curious as to why Kim was stiff at first but after a second she responded in kind.

A soft cough from a woman reminded Shego that there were other people around. She considered ignoring them. Kim patted her on the arm a couple times to suggest that she reconsider.

Shego finally let go and Kim straightened herself, completely flushed. Shego, on the bed, seemed fine, if not looking completely satisfied. She decided to find out who had just see her kiss her Princess. A distant part of her mind remembered they were supposed to be keeping their relationship somewhat of a secret, but at the minute it was impossible to figure out why.

To the left of the bed stood a pair of teenagers, somewhat similar looking, and Shego's mind lazily registered them as Timothy and Jim Possible, Kim's twin brothers. One of them was gaping at her in shock. Turning a little right from them, she saw Beth Corelia, Kim's roommate, who was smiling somewhat proudly at the couple. Further right was Betty Director and Wade Load, who were both somewhat shocked, and Shego realized there might be some fallout there. Then her gaze settled back on Kim.

“What happened?” asked Shego.

“You-- you just kissed Kim!” said Timothy, still with his mouth open.

Shego considered that. “No, I meant before.”

“I'm not sure what you did,” a tinny voice suddenly rang in the room. Shego looked around and noticed a phone in the room with its speakerphone on. “But it seems like you completely subdued your symbiote. But I'd personally like to hear more about you kissing Kim.”

Shego looked dreadfully at Kim, who only had a small smile in response. “Is that… DNAmy on the phone?”

“Uh,” Jim interrupted. “She helped find a way of saving your brothers. We figured it was appropriate she be here to explain.”

Timothy suddenly straightened and turned his shocked expression towards his brother. “You're not fazed at all!” he observed. “You knew!”

Jim smiled and patted his brother on the back. “Later, later.”

“SHE'S the boyfriend?” continued Timothy.

Jim just laughed and started ushering his brother out of the room.

“What did you do to my brothers?” asked Shego.

“It wasn't easy, that's for sure. Nothing I discovered pointed towards a permanent solution,” stared Amy. “But when I found out about you conquering the will of the symbiote, I realized that a temporary solution might be most effective. I developed a mixer of neurosupressants keyed to the unique mutated elements of your biology that is allowing the symbiote to directly communicate with the brain. Eventually it will adapt, but the process will be slow, and hopefully give you enough time to teach you brothers to do whatever it was that you did.”

“Yes,” nodded Shego. “I understand the… thing better now, I can defiantly help them.” She paused. “How did you test your little formula anyway? The whole reason I was suck in GeneNominal was because they needed a guinea pig.”

“Ah--heh,” started Amy. “Well, you know me! Once I have a DNA sample I'm never far from some test subjects.”

Shego clenched her teeth together. “You didn’t!”

“I think I've gotta run,” DNAmy announced. “All sorts of cleaning to do here! Ta ta!”

“AMY!” yelled Shego but the phone was already dead.

Kim put a hand on her lover's shoulder. “We'll take care of it once we're healed.”

Shego nodded reluctantly.

“Kim?” asked Wade Load in the silence. “Now that you're satisfied that Shego is okay, are you ready to talk to us?”

“You mean you guys aren't here to see me? I'm hurt,” pouted Shego in a mocking manner.

“Shego,” warned Kim, sitting beside her on the bed. She took Shego's hand and held it. “Yes, Wade, now is fine.”

Wade turned to Betty. “Director?” He motioned for her to continue.

In return Dr. Director just looked awkwardly between Kim, Shego, and their hands, delicately intertwined. After a moment, she closed her eye and sighed.

“No,” she said.

“What?” asked Wade.

“I mean,” started Betty. “It's not a good time after all, I need to … reassess the information. It's possible we can handle it ourselves.” With a nod to herself, she turned and started to head for the doorway out of the room.

“Wait, Director!” called Kim.

“Director, what about all that talk doing things right this time?” asked Wade.

Seemingly oblivious to the other people's calls in the room, Betty continued towards the door, her movement a little stiff. When she went for the doorknob, however, the door opened on its own. She looked up to come face-to-face with Commander Ferris standing next to…

Herself.

“What the--” started Betty, before the 'second' Betty Director standing next to Ferris locked her eyes on her and swung. The strike was loud and the Director flew to the side and struck the adjacent wall to the door. She crumpled to a heap on the floor.

“Betty! What are--” started Ferris but a swift kick to the gut sent him flying back into the hall and the still-standing-Director closed the door shut behind him.

In the mere seconds it took for the two GJ officers to be incapacitated, Beth Corelia had scrambled to the other side of Shego bed, putting herself behind Kim and the patient. Kim, in turn, dropped her sling and held her hands out in first position, ready for an attack.

“Shego, stay out of the way-- hey!” Kim said then stumbled a bit as Shego slipped off the bed and pushed Kim behind her.

“Get back,” warned Shego as she faced the Betty Director that was slowly stalking towards them. She pushed her back against Kim and Beth, forcing them into the corner between the exterior wall and the bed.

“Shego,” hissed Kim, trying to move beside her. “You're in no shape for this.”

“I heal fast,” said Shego over her shoulder.

There wasn’t time for any other comments as the Director lunged at them. Shego stepped forward to grapple with her but was surprisingly pushed to the floor by the much stronger woman. Using her new position to her advantage, Shego quickly picked her feet up and kicked the Director off to the other side of the room. As Kim helped Shego up, she noticed the 'evil' Director had easily landed on her feet.

Wade ran over to the Betty Director he came in with while the 'evil' one was distracted. As he quickly nudged her, she sluggishly started to come around.

Meanwhile, Kim kept her hand on Shego's shoulder while the latter rubbed her shoulder. She'd hit the ground hard under the attacking Director and begrudgingly admitted to herself she wasn't as healed as she thought she was.

“Who are you?” demanded Kim, frowning. “Some clone?”

The attacking Director laughed. “I am an Angel of Vengeance,” she announced, glaring sinisterly at Kim. She ran forward and began a flurry of blows at Shego.

The weakened thief was able to block most of the attacks but as she started to sweat she was letting more and more of them though. She could feel her ribs and arms ache from being hit and wasn't sure how much the painkillers she was on was dulling the pain. She could be much worse off than she felt.

The attacking Director made a sweeping kick and a follow up jab that triggered a memory in Shego. One she wasn’t particularly eager to recall but useful nonetheless.

“She's got your moves, Kimmie!” said Shego, adjusting her stance. She knew Kim's fighting style well enough, and knew, in her current state, there's no way she'd win alone. “Who the hell is this person!?”

Kim took the hint and slid alongside Shego, pressing herself to the wall, until she was close enough that the attacking Director threw a punch at her. Favoring her shoulder, Kim spun and blocked the strike which gave Shego the opening to sweep the attacking Director's legs. She went down hard but was already scrambling to stand again when Shego followed up with a kick to her chest, sending her sliding a few feet.

Shego breathed deeply, fatigued. “Kim…” she started.

Kim, looking a little worn herself, nodded. “I know, Shego.”

The attacker stood back up again, apparently unfazed by the two good hits she took. Changing her stance, she stared coolly at her opponents.

Kim pushed herself in front of Shego successfully this time while the latter took another breath and returned to her defensive position.

The attacker grinned microseconds before launching herself forward. Her speed was several times faster than before and Kim could barely see her before she was standing right in front of her, kicking her leg forward. Kim twisted to block but misjudged the kick's target and missed entirely. The attacker's kick snapped behind Kim and knocked the wind right out of Shego.

Hitting the ground hard, Shego saw stars as she tried to catch her breath again. Heaving on the floor, she turned her strained eyes upwards. The Director was holding Kim up by her neck, the latter flailing wildly for breath as her enemy just stared coldly up at her.

“Kim!” Shego tried to scream but felt no air coming to her lips. A loud bang caught her attention as she turned her head to see the door to the room kicked open and the large man who had arrived with this Betty holding up a pistol, ready to fire but hesitating as he saw Kim so close to the attacker. Shego tried again to draw air back into her lungs.

And felt the cool rush of air down her throat then the burning feeling immediately behind it. Looking back to Kim she saw her lover start to slow her struggles. With no time to spare Shego just stuck out her hand and prayed she didn’t roast the only person in the room she cared about.

Her fist burst into green flames, as it usually did, then, to Shego's surprise, the flames lengthened then twisted together weaving in an intricate pattern until it formed a tall lance burning from the top of her fist. A moment later, it was arcing forward, away from Shego, and slammed right into the torso of the attacking Director, spearing her.

The woman froze then convulsed once, dropping Kim to the floor. Wasting no time with a clear shot, Commander Ferris fired twice at her, landing one bullet directly on the small of the attacker's spine and one in the back of her head. She sputtered once then collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud.

The world slowed. Shego felt each breath coat her lungs in quicksilver as she reeled from her world of reactions back to conscious thought. The attacking Director's skin seemed to slag for a moment before shimmering and then vanishing altogether, leaving a silvered sheen beneath and strong metal hydraulics where once smooth arm skin had resided. A robot, Shego's mind finally registered.

“A PossiBot?” the real Dr. Director said, being helped up by Wade and Commander Ferris.

“No,” said Wade, shaking his head. “It's a K-11.”

“K-11?” asked Ferris.

“It's the successor PossiBot series I've been working on,” explained Wade. “A PossiBot 2.0, if you will. It looks like it had a Luminocodec attached to it.”

Dr. Director immediately turned on Wade. “What?” she shouted. “You've been working on a new PossiBot? After what happened the first time? Are you crazy?”

Wade's eyes went wide and he stepped back from the seething Director. “B-but, wait!”

“You know what a shame to GJ those things were, and you still couldn’t turn away?” Betty waved her finger at the shorter agent. “I thought everyone understood my position on this.”

“You TOLD me to make them!” yelled Wade.

“I'd never--” started Dr. Director but Wade cut her off.

“You came to me, four months ago and told me to try and improve them,” Wade explained. “You said that they were genuine technology regardless of what they were used for and we would be foolish to ignore potential benefits because of sentimentality. I even disagreed with you!”

Dr. Director blinked and paused her advance on Wade. “I never said that,” she said simply.

“You did,” insisted Wade.

Betty turned the words over in her mind and felt echoes from the past overcome her.

“Allucinere,” she said. “Four months ago?” She put her hand to her forehead. “Tell me that was a prototype, Mr. Load.”

Wade shook his head solemnly. “I finalized the design a short while ago,” he said. “There are over a dozen K-11's back at GJ.”

“I'm willing to bet,” interrupted Ferris. “That there aren't anymore.”

Betty turned to face the commander. “Get back to headquarters and tell everyone to restart the search. If you can't pick up, shake, throw, or otherwise use a piece of equipment, assume it's an illusion. I need to know what's missing and what Maya Tromper has been doing for the last four months while we thought she was in a coma.”

“Yes, Ma'am--”

“Kim?” a raspy voice said urgently. “Kimmie!”

Dr. Director, Wade, and Ferris turned to see Shego over Kim's body with Beth at her side. Shego's hands were on Kim's shoulders as she shook the still redheaded figure gently.

“Kim!” Shego yelled again. “Wake up, Princess!”

Dr. Director looked to Ferris who nodded and quickly ran out of the room.

“Shego,” said Beth, trying to pull back on the dark haired woman. “I'm sure she's alright, let's just get a doctor.”

“Then why isn't she waking up?” asked Shego, never taking her eyes off Kim's face. “She's breathing, she has a fucking pulse! She couldn't be taken down that easily!”

“Shego…” said Beth.

“No, no, no, no,” repeated Shego as her shaking got more violent.

“KIIIIIIIIM!”

---

END OF PART III: “STRESS FRACTURE”

AFTERWORD: I really need to change the naming structure I established for this series. By splitting up 'Part Three' into 3 parts, I essentially made it impossible for myself to refer to any segment of the story without confusion. Ah well, live and learn.

It may seem kinda lousy to end this chapter like this, but it's pretty essential to what I'm doing in the final part of this series so I hope you can forgive me. While this 'part' moved the current plot along significantly, the final part will explain the history between Kim and Global Justice that I've been making references to since 'Fling.' You may even have a good idea of what happened already, but I'll lay it out nice and plain so everyone understands. ;)

Finally, as much as I hate to reveal the 'trick' when writing, as it does kinda eliminate some of the magic of process, this chapter was intended to resolve the dream-sequence that Kim had (and subsequently forgot) during Part Two: “Reciprocity.” The youngest Kim in that sequence said something to the effect of that Kimmie had to begin to understand her love for Shego if she ever hoped to help her. In this chapter, the key to Shego overcoming her loss of control to the Symbiote was her perception of Kim's unequivocal love towards her which gave her the strength to overcome her fears. It was subtle, but, well, I wanted to explain it in case any one was wondering.

Thanks again for reading! See you in the Finale!