Little more than 24 hours had past since Kim Possible was abducted, the Possible clan and Kim's close friends were more than a little worried.
Kim getting abducted was unusual, as she could take care of herself quite well. If she did get abducted, there was a little bit of worrying, but Ron and Rufus were always there to help and she always got away without a scratch. But when the owner of the gym had reported a green-and-black clad woman at the scene, everybody had started worrying. Since Kim's loss three weeks ago, everybody who knew about it had been secretly worrying about it.
What happens when the good guy is beaten by their arch-nemesis?
“So on a scale of one to ten… how bad is it?” Monique had gathered at the Possible household. Though, not as regular a fixture as Ron, who was like a third brother to Kim, Monique was close enough to rate extended family.
Ron looked around nervously, making sure that the Possibles weren't eavesdropping.
“Thirteen. As in unlucky thirteen. As in unlucky for KP!” Ron whispered harshly. What he had seen… he didn't know why, but his instincts had told him Shego had changed drastically. Into a wholly different and wholly more dangerous super-villain.
“Dang.” Monique gave a low whistle and hoped that Ron was exaggerating. But she's heard stories about Shego. Flaming green hands, martial arts skills that rival Kim's…
“Goddamn.” Monique muttered as the gravity of the situation hit her. Ron, in his distress, had blurted out to Monique that Kim had gotten her ass handed to her that time Shego and her had had that confrontation in the mall.
“So do you have the calvary out looking for her?” Monique took a look around the house. She was slightly surprised that there were only a few Global Justice agents around taking statements from the family.
“No,” Ron shook his head. “Wade's ripping apart the internet looking for her. He says he's searching the villain forums on anything Kim Possible. Of course, there's a million and one entries on her there so he has a way to go. She left her Kimmunicator in her gym bag, so we can't track her down like that.”
“Don't you have another way to find out where she is?”
Ron nodded. “Wade says there's a small chip implanted on the underside of her arm, but the signal started flickering as soon as it went over Asia. That was like… so long ago though. I went and looked with GJ guys where her signal disappeared. No KP.”
“All this,” Monique waved around, “Seems pretty small. Why not do an international search for her or something, with all the works?”
“Monique,” Mr. Dr. Possible had overheard, and came over now. His face was creased with worry, but he tried to smile reassuringly at the teenagers. “Why not an international search, hm? It seems that an international search for Kim Possible would tip the bad guys out there that the first and best defense against them is gone. Everybody's a little bit nervous.”
Monique snapped her fingers, as if remembering something. “What about that guy that Shego works for? Doctor… Dumbass or something?”
“Dr. Drakken. He's in GJ custody right now,” A Global Justice agent informed. “We're questioning him right now on Shego's whereabouts. But it seems like he has no idea where his sidekick is at the moment. He's convinced that she'll be breaking him out soon, though. Since she's done it before, we're going to set up an ambush and wait for her.”
“The boys want to go out and look for their sister.” Mrs. Dr. Possible joined the group and accepted a comforting hug from Monique. “Hey honey, you didn't have to come here at this time.”
“Don't worry about it Mrs. Possible, I don't have anything to do today.” Monique shrugged nonchalantly. “And even if I did, this is important.”
The Kimmunicator suddenly beeped, and Ron immediately picked it up.
“Did you find her?” Ron asked the boy genius.
Wade shook his head sadly. “Sorry, man. I got nothing. But it seems like news about Kim's disappearance might have leaked out.”
“What?! How?!”
Wade held up his hands helplessly. “Seems like Shego planned this ahead of time. There was a message posted on several forums all the big names frequent regularly. You know, villains dot com, bad guys dot org, etcetra. All those posts have her signature on it, so its kinda unlikely that the post would be dismissed as spam. I traced the messages back to a laptop in an apartment complex in South America. The entire complex is empty, and there's no sign of Shego.”
“Why would she do that?!” Ron screeched.
“Calm down, Ron.” Wade had both hands covering his ears, wincing. A red light suddenly started blinking on and off in Wade's room. “Uh-oh.”
“I don't like the sound of that.” Monique, who had been listening in on the conversation along with everyone else in the room, peeked over Ron's shoulder and saw the blinking red light. “I don't like the look of that either.”
“Hold up.” Wade's fingers danced over his keyboard, his brows furrowed into a frown. It looked like a lot of people had been doing that lately. Frowning.
“I got a hit on the site.”
Ron's face fell. A hit meant a mission. A mission meant Kim and Ron. No Kim? No Ron.
“Its Duff Killigan. He's holding up a bank… and he's asking for Kim.”
“Global Justice?” Ron's eyes were hopeful.
“Duff Killigan spotted, he is armed and dangerous, repeat, armed and--” The radio on the GJ agents’ belts crackled as a huge boom cut off the ‘dangerous’. “--we need back-up! We need back-up! All units, report to--” Another boom, and the radio transmission cut off abruptedly.
Ron's look of despair turned into one of grim determination. Digging into his pocket, he pulled out Rufus.
“Well,” Ron smiled down at the naked molerat, who returned the look bravely. “Its just you and me, buddy. Kim's not here, but we gotta show the bad guys that Ron Stoppable will stop them!”
“You can do it, Ronald.” Mr. Possible patted Ron on the back with a half-hearted smile.
“Uh-huh!” Rufus nodded enthusiastically.
The GJ agents in the background, however, were giving each other looks and snickering. Monique glared at them, then turned to Ron. “Well, I might as well tag along.”
Ron's face was almost comical in its disbelief. “Say what?”
“You heard me.” Monique slung an arm over Ron's shoulder. “I'm temp-ing for a while. Anyways, I heard bout this guy from Kim. Aint he some kinda golfer? Psh. Easy pickings.”
“I don't know, guys--” Wade started, but a glare from Monique shut him up.
“Please. Can he do any worse with me around?”
Wade looked slightly thoughtfuly, then shook his head. “Nope.”
Ron protested. “Hey!”
“You aint shakin’ me, Ron.” Monique crossed her arms.
Two pairs of eyes watched from the stairs as Ron gave in and asked Wade to get him a transport.
“Hicka-bicka-boo?” one boy whispered to the other.
“Hoosha.” His twin nodded.
“Thanks for the ride Mr. Conolly.” Ron piped up.
The billionaire flashed Ron a grin. “Hey, its the least I can do since Kim recovered my invention for me! Where is she by the way?”
“Taking a holiday,” Monique quickly covered for Ron, who was at a complete loss on how to explain Kim's absence.
“Ah, she needs one.” Mr Conolly nodded sagely. Then he frowned as a little light on his control panel flashed. “What have we here?”
“What's wrong?”
“Unwelcome passengers.” The pilot growled, unbuckling his seatbelt and leaving the cabin. A few seconds later, he returned, herding two young boys in front of him.
“Jim! Tim!” Ron jumped up in alarm. “What are you two doing here?”
“We followed you--” Jim started.
“--because we knew you'd need help!” Tim ended. Or was this Jim? And the other Tim?
Monique shook her head. “Uh-uh, half-pints. You two are going back.”
Mr Conolly checked his gauges and shook his head. “Nuh-uh, little lady. This baby right here,” He patted the console, “Is a gas-guzzler. I got just enough, and a little more to drop you off at where you need to go. Then I need to fill up. If we turn around now, I'll run outta gas in the middle of the ocean, honey.”
All eyes focused on Monique. Apparently, they had all chosen a leader in charge of this little disaster. Since Kim wasn't here, the closest thing to Kim was Monique. On the basis that she was a girl and seemed to have things more together than Ron did at the moment, who was hyperventilating.
“You serious?” Monique asked.
Ron giggled nervously. The stress of going on a mission without Kim was getting to him just a little bit. Sure, he's been without Kim before. But this was slightly different. Kim had been kidnapped (or Kim-napped) and every baddie in the world knew about it!
Monique looked down at the twins. “Fine. You two can come along, but Mr. Conolly's going to fly you two home as soon as we get dropped off. Deal?”
The twins exchanged looks, and lied as one. “Fine.”
In their little heads, they plotted away. They would help Ron and Monique. Ron totally needed the help, they had both agreed. Then, they would hijack the plane and go looking for their sister.
Shego stepped over the threshold of the house, into the night. After her little ‘talk’ with Kim, she had left the house, feeling a bit angry and guilty for what she had done. Angry because she felt guilty. Back in the days, before she had stumbled on this little village, she would never have felt guilty. Sighing, Shego tilted her head up and smiled a little. In a seemingly endless black void hung a myriad of tiny lights winking down at her and she was always surprised to see them. Most of the time, Shego worked in cities so she didn't have the opportunity to behold such wonders. Stars. Ha. How many people in the city takes these lights for granted?
Shego remembered when, still pretty fresh from the city, she had discovered stars again.
“Right there,” She could here her voice, see a delicate finger pointing up to the sky. “What you call ‘the big dipper’.”
Shego nodded, pleased. “Right.”
“And that star up there… its named after you?”
Shego looked up at the north star, trying not to laugh. “Yeah. That's it. The Shego star.”
The green-eyed woman let out a huge breath she didn't know she had been holding and shook away the memory.
“Not sleeping?” Someone asked in Chinese. Fong's body seperated from the shadows, and she smiled shyly at the young woman.
“I could say the same for you.” Shego smiled back, responded in Mandarin. The Chinese woman tilted her head to the side, then spun around on her heels, walking towards the outskirts of the village. Not missing a beat, Shego followed behind the woman, through winding alleyways and twisting paths.
“Where are you leading me?” Shego asked casually, knowing the answer. Asking anyways.
Fong glanced at Shego over her shoulder, and laughed lightly, her voice teasing. “Are you scared of the dark?”
Shego's right hand burst into eerie flames that bathed the alley. A mud-splattered mutt who had been snuffling about started at the sudden light, then ran off, away from Shego.
“Aw, you scared him.” Fong turned left as Shego snuffed out the light, the darkness rushing in to enfold them again. Momentarily blinded, Shego stopped, listening closely to Fong's footsteps stop, then return to her. But she still couldn't see her.
“Where are you?” Shego held out a hand, felt Fong's fingers dance lightly over hers, saw shining brown eyes smiling at her. Fong pulled Shego closer, and draped the older woman's arm around her shoulders, like a scarf. Shego canted her head to better look at the Chinese woman as she continued walking.
“You're limping a bit.” Shego pointed out.
Shoulders tensed under her arm. “You're a bitch.”
“You know you don't want it any other way.”
Fong rolled her eyes and looked up at Shego with admiring eyes. “Can't live with you, can't live without you, right?”
“Right.” Shego's smile was worth the beating she had taken today. After a while, Fong had seen she would lose. Kim was faster than her, stronger than her. And it had galled her that the redhead had almost wanted to go easier on her at the beginning. This fight was a matter of pride! It demanded that your opponent give you the same level of seriousness that you put into it. She had fought hard and fought with all that she had. She knew she was no match for Kim, but she had thought that maybe--
“Stop thinking about it.” Shego's voice broke into her thoughts, her words ruthlessly rubbing salt into the open wound. “Stop thinking about the fight. You had absolutely no way of winning and I told you before you even challenged her. You would give her a run for her money, but you would lose. You got what you deserved. I told you there was no way in hell that you would win. You had a snowball's chance in hell against her.”
“I wouldn't have given up without trying.” Fong set her jaw stubbornly. The asian woman stopped suddenly, spinning out of Shego's arms to regard the thief. “Why take her with you? She's obviously unwilling!”
“Drop it, Fong.” Shego breezed by the other girl. “We are not having this argument again.”
“Shego--” Fong reached out and grabbed Shego's arm as she passed by and Shego acted like she had been scalded. Snatching her arm away from Fong, she rounded on the woman, her features livid with fury.
“I've fought with Kim since forever! You are nowhere NEAR her skills.” Shego hissed, finally snapping, her patience stretched thin. “I do not want you to pursue this further. You lost. If you had beaten her, she would be on her way home and you would be going to Er-Mei with me.”
“Shego, I'm sorry,” Fong recoiled from Shego, “I'm sorry, please…”
Shego eyes were narrowed to tiny slits as she studied her angrily, searching for some hidden motive behind Fong's apology, a reason to lash out at the girl. Fong shivered involuntarily at the scrutiny and felt incredibly miserable. Shego was on her way to being a legend. She, on the other hand, was just another girl out there. A girl who loved a legend, but just a girl.
“This isn't about you, Fong.” Shego motioned the woman forward. Fong didn't hesitate, ran into the thief's embrace and felt ashamed as tears soaked into Shego's green-and-black shirt once again. “This isn't about me. This is about something else entirely. You know that. I don't want you to ask or question my decision on this ever again.”
“I'm sorry, Shego.” Fong held on to Shego for dear life. Everybody who knew her knew that she wasn't one for strong emotional displays like this. Since she was young, she rarely cried at all and almost always had a serious countenance on her face. In the village, people respected that aspect of her personality, recognizing that it came hand in hand with her beyond-average intelligence. Outside of her home, people that had tried to get close to her dubbed her a ‘cold bitch’.
“Sh. Its alright. Now lets get going. They're waiting for us.”
Fong had grown up in the small village and was sent away by her great-aunt, Grandma Lo, to study abroad. Never one for the hustle and bustle of modern life, she had returned after completing her post-secondary education, not only because of duty, but because she loved and missed her quiet home where people understood her need to be alone. Nothing upset her, nothing really required her to think too much.
That was before Shego suddenly dropped into Fong's quiet life. The thief boggled her mind and challenged everything that she thought was true. The green-eyed woman shocked and scandalized her, and though she did grow up in a backwater village in China, Fong had thought she hadn't been that sheltered from the world.
Despite all their differences, there was the immediate physical attraction to this pale-skinned enigmatic woman. It surprised everybody to see Fong's emotions flare out around Shego and her obvious want to be around the outsider. It was at once a good and a bad thing. It was good because Fong was showing she had the emotional capacity to love someone. And indeed, the elders weren't blind, even though Fong denied it vehemently, they could see she was absolutely smitten with the green-eyed woman. The fact that the two involved parties were both girls wouldn't have been that much of a problem, since Grandma Lo was the appointed head of the elders and loved Fong. She would permit the girl anything, and any disapproval on the elders’ part on her grand-niece's love was quickly squashed.
“It is strange, but does that matter? Some of you might not remember, but I remember Mr. Li and Mr. Young. They were the nicest couple around, remember? It is out of the ordinary, but I believe it is normal. What Fong does does not affect you. It should affect me most since she is the last in my bloodline.” Grandma Lo had addressed the issue when she had sensed people were a bit uncomfortable. “She has not shown interest in ANYONE except Shego, so its ridiculous for some of you, and I will not name names, to say that ah Fong will poach on your daughters.”
The rebuke from Grandma Lo shamed the council, and they bowed to Grandma Lo's will.
“I'm actually quite happy.” The old woman's lips had pulled back into a grin. “My grand-niece has good taste.”
It was also a bad thing because nobody knew how Shego felt. She was elusive when Grandma Lo would question her on her relationship with Fong. And even though the reclusive Chinese girl had finally learned how to step out of her shell, Grandma Lo didn't know if it was a good thing that it was Shego who helped this change come along. Grandma Lo was positive that Shego was a great person underneath layers of protective attitude and hostility… but what would it take for someone to get underneath all of that? How badly burned would the person be who dared to be close to Shego?
There were so many things bad about this non-relationship that might or might not happen… there were so many reasons…
“Hey,” Cheung's form was outlined by the light shining through the doorway of a house. “You guys finally made it.”
“Cheung.” Shego and Fong had arrived at a small house at the edge of the village. “They're all here?”
“Been here for a while.” Cheung pushed the doors open wider. “Go ahead.”
Shego nodded, then patted her companion on the back. “Go home, Fong. Cheung will take you home. I'm thinking this'll take a while.”
The Chinese girl shook her head. “I'll wait for you.”
Shego nodded, knowing she would not be able to persuade the girl to leave. The doors slammed close behind her as soon as she entered the house.
“Po-po.” Shego bowed to Grandmother Lo. Then she bowed again to the rest of the elders. “Everybody. Good evening.”
The council of six were made up of an equal number of men and women, of which Grandma Lo was the official head. They sat in a semi-circle facing the door, and they regarded Shego with serious eyes. Even Grandma Lo, usually jolly and cackling didn't have a smile on her face.