To say that Bonnie Rockwaller was upset would be akin to calling the moon just another rock. She had been out enjoying one of the last few nights of her newfound freedom before shipping off to college when Kim’s loser boyfriend and some blue freak cornered her in the alleyway. From the look on the taller blue man, she figured things were about to get ugly when she heard Ron start his comedic monkey-fu pose routine, the ooh-oohing and the squealing had been impossible to miss.
Ron let the mystic energy flow through him and let it guide him as he prepared to face off against this potential recruit. “Give it up Bonnie you’ll never win!” He declared theatrically before he leapt towards her and began to deliver a grande sized serving of ass whooping only to find he had, in point of fact, made the right selection for phase one of the master plan. Bonnie made no real effort to evade his varied attacks preferring to simply deflect them, her performance only increased his conviction.
Drakken had opted to simply watch and record, he would require a good understanding of the girls skills if he were to succeed with Stoppable’s plan. Of course, for the recordings he was making to be of any help they would first have to convince her to join them, which was to be partly on him. Growling in mock frustration he made show of holding the camera up so the two combatants could see it. “That’s enough Stoppable there is no way this specimen will do, no way at all!”
Ron grinned to himself as he covertly watched Bonnie’s reaction, the blue goof should get an oscar for that, he could tell Drakken was impressed and could actually follow a plan. “Aw c’mon Dr. D. I mean sure she’s no KP or Shego but you have to admit she is good.” When all else fails resort to the ego, properly stroked it can be a potent weapon.
“Whoah whoah back up there Stoppable,” her glaring eyes not being nearly as threatening as Kim or Shego’s, she couldn’t know the elicited ‘fear’ she was trying to instill was tame compared to the wrath of KiGo. In a huff she stomped on the nearest of the pair of feet and felt Ron’s toes grind under her heel. “What exactly is this all about?”
As Ron began his story Drakken cracked open the thermos they had prepared for this moment, patently ignoring the glares being cast by the irate former cheerleader he poured out three mugs of the noxious looking fluid and gently fanned the steam wafting off the surface. As Ron had predicted Bonnie was all but lost to the wondrous aroma and she was of two minds at that moment, the decision on whether or not to kill Ron Stoppable weighed heavily against finding out what that sinful scent was. “Here Ms. … Bonnie was it? A small consolation prize if you will. We need real talent and I am afraid you are just not in her league. No hard feelings?”
Unsure if she could trust the blue dork Bonnie looked from the mug to the man holding it then over to the remaining loser who gave her a sarcastic smile before turning his mug up and noisily slurping from it. Yeah right, like she was going to let them get away with insulting her with less than stellar comparisons to her old rival, she snatched the mug from the gloved hand offering it knocked back a mouthful and turned her anger directly to Ron. “I don’t know what the hell you two are doing but if you’re trying to get me pissed, mission accomplished. Now spill, err just not any of this chocolate stuff … what the hell is it by the way?”
“Coco-Moo and for the full explanation, not to mention another mug full, you’ll need to agree here and now to join us. No questions asked, though I am willing to let you know the pay rate will be much higher than BurgerSlinger is giving their managers.” Boo-YAH! he thought to himself, check and mate. Ron would be getting yet another compilation of the greatest nudie-vision KiGo moments from Drakkens personal library, Drakken was lousy at gambling but as a perv he held a crown worthy of any perv king.
Bonnie accepted the second mug full from Drakken and thought it over as she sipped. Yeah BurgerSlinger had been the only job she could get, which beat out the naco joint hands down in her opinion, but she was not intending to work there a second longer than she absolutely had to. “Alright Stoppable lets just say I’m willing to listen, for another cup, what do you have in that skeevy little pea-brain of yours?”
Kim groaned loudly as she wrestled with the slowly mounting pile of paper work gathering around her bed, the doctor she respected most, namely her mother, was in the process of getting her checked out of the hospital. Two full days under observation and a host of medical exams had frayed her last nerve, fortunately for her it only took Wade an hour to repair the MRI as she did not want that coming out of her bank account, if she had been billed for it she might have had to rip off Senior Senior Sr. to pay. Still she was relieved to hear that they hadn’t discovered anything more serious than a cracked rib her obviously injured wrist and the three possible concussions she had received via Shegos hands. In point of fact, the doctors including her mother were surprised at her recovery rate. The concussions alone merited an extended stay for observation but on the second day she had gotten over the worste of it much to their collective amazement.
The small mountain of community college study work finally sorted and organized Kim leaned back for a moment and closed her eyes, the combination of head injury and pain meds made even the slightest move a chore. Not only was she still somewhat dizzy from the concussion she was nauseous from the medicines, she had never been fond of anything stronger than the occasional aspirin let alone whatever they had her taking at the moment. Sighing to herself, she once again looked at the stack of papers and books, the college council man had been gracious enough to have the dean collect and deliver all the important documents she would need. She still wasn’t sure why she’d allowed herself to be talked into taking the courses since she had opted for a year off from study to make her future plans but at this point even college study and exams would help alleviate the boredom she could feel closing in on her. If she had to just sit and stew for the remainder of the month she would lose it.
Mrs. Dr. Possible watched from the doorway as her daughter fought her way through the stack of papers spread out before her, she was proud to see that even though injured Kim was keeping her responsibilities in check. Kim had always done her best to get the important things done and while as a mother she wouldn’t approve as a person she was always amazed at the courage and resilience her daughter showed. She didn’t like her daughter going out to save a world that couldn’t seem to keep itself out of trouble for more than a week. She also didn’t like the fact that her daughter routinely faced off against people who could put her in the hospital. “We’re all set Kim, you go change and I’ll pack these away for you.” The grateful smile and peck on the cheek did much to sooth her nerves, she hadn’t been able to calm down much at all since the night they admitted Kim to the hospital but that single gesture always worked wonders.
Mrs. Possible looked to see where her daughters attention was at the moment and casually slipped the Kimmunicator back into Kims backpack, Kim hadn’t asked for it and the thing had remained blessedly silent for the last two days, not that she would complain, when it beeped or Kim was looking for it she was worried. Silence from it meant rest for her world-weary child. She was supremely proud of and worried for the beautiful woman her daughter was becoming, it is never easy to see your child fighting off things that were better suited for b-rate scifi movies but as bad as that was the growing gulf between them was far more frightening. Since the night Kim was admitted to the hospital they had had a few small spats and Kim had simply refused to answer the specific questions she wanted answered. If this went on much longer they might be at each others throats and that was the scariest of all the likely outcomes.
Shego held her pose for a long moment eyes closed and smiling at the opponent only she could see, she had felt so guilty for hurting Kim so bad that she had pushed herself to near exhaustion with her shadow boxing and going through the changes from one martial art to another. She even felt guilty that here she was training and getting stronger while the one she was getting stronger for was bed bound and unable to get any practice time in. The two best reasons for keeping this house after the synthohotty debacle where still valuable assets to the green hued female, it offered an unobstructed view of Kims room and an almost direct line of travel, not counting the cattle pasture separating them on the winding road that lead to past both their houses. At least the cattle weren’t there anymore, after the last pile of poo she had scrapped off her boots Shego had taken to giving the cows some personalization. It only took thirty cans of spray paint and the sailors dictionary for vulgar language to convince the land owner his prize winning livestock needed to be elsewhere.
Bowing partially in the ritual she closed all of her private workouts with she let mental image of Kims returned bow slip from her minds eye. As good as picturing Kim was for working out the real thing was far better. Wiping her forehead down with the gym towel she shook her now shoulder length hair before patting it down as well, she casually looked over the paperwork she had collected and placed on the planning desk she had installed in her garage/dojo/war-room. When she had first acquired the property Shego had considered having the house torn down so she could rebuild with something more fitting her personal preferences but that would have ruined the arrangement that made the house so important. The Possibles would no doubt notice her presence, she was too demanding to let some construction crew do as they pleased with the house she wanted and the time it took to rebuild would be less time she could spend in her voyeuristic hobby, namely observing Kim.
Looking from the paper to the holo-clock Dr. D had built her for her birthday Shego frowned, she still had another hour or so before Kim would be home and she had no idea what to do for the rest of the afternoon. There hadn’t been a single peep from Drakken, Stoppable seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth and under threat of Shego the rest of the big time baddies had taken to hiding. All in all it was shaping up to be a rather boring month. This was why she hated vacations, the weekends off and occasional weeks vacation didn’t bother her so much as the prospect of having nothing planned for a full month, Shego didn’t like to be bored.
Once in the comfort of her own room again Kim angrily threw her backpack into the closet and shut the door, the college could kiss her ass for all she cared just then. Her mother had just laid down the law with the ‘if you’re going to live under this roof’ schtick, she knew her mother only wanted the best for her but she didn’t have to make such a big deal about the meeting with Shego she had caught. Wondering if the older woman was home, she parted the curtain that looked out across the small depression in the mountain range separating the houses. Her eye to the monocle of her telescope she scanned the darkened windows for any sign of life and was pleasantly rewarded when she saw Shego part the draperies of her observation window and put her binoculars to her face.
Thinking quickly she twisted the tuner setting of her lipstick laser to signal beam and began flashing Morse code, she had no way of knowing if the older woman could understand and was surprised to find her simple signal getting a response. Shego used the dim green of her plasma as the light source for the returned message inviting her to come up for tea. When Kim responded that now wouldn’t be the best time to ditch the family she could easily see Shego trying not to laugh. Shego was no doubt finding it hilarious that Kim was so easily cowed by her mother, Shego had met the woman of course and should remember why Kim was willing to play along with the sitch.
With a visit for tea out of the question the pair consoled themselves with nightly covert chats, quiet though they were it gave them both the chance to put voice to the varied frustrations they had dealt with to that point. As the month progressed Shego pestered her almost as much as her mother and father had, wondering if she felt better or worse and nagging her about taking it easy until she was fully recovered. Since her wrist was the worste of her remaining injuries Kim stifled the frustration that the constant questioning evoked, she was a super agent for crying aloud, if in the course of her adventures she sprained something or broke something it was to be expected. Not even she could avoid getting knocked around all the time, it was the acceptance of that fact that made her seriously consider the stakes of her wager with Shego. She would not lose to Shego she felt sure of that but she couldn’t deny that she was thinking Shego to be a far more effective and reliable partner for her when things got really bad.
Shego groaned and fidgeted in her overstuffed coat, her long scarf wrapped around the lower part of her face that her woolen cap couldn’t conceal. The shadowed outline of a figure approaching the door caught her attention and she went into her alert and ready posture. If she were recognized she would have to make a run for it. She nearly did when the person answering the door turned out to be Mrs. Dr. Possible, whom she knew would recognize her instantly. The look on the older redheads face was anything but friendly though she made no indication she was preparing for war. Quickly holding out the package wrapped in brilliant emerald green she fished around for the words to start the conversation with. “I uh… have a delivery … is this the Possible residence?” So it wasn’t the best of cover stories, under the circumstances it was the best she could do.
Mrs. Possible schooled her face so as not to let Shego know she could see right through the disguise, it wasn’t that hard to see through considering it was green and black. The woman obviously had some hang up on those colours. The womans hair was somewhat shorter than she remembered but it worked with the outfit. For some reason her daughter had taken to defending Shego and despite her curiosity she agreed to not question it any further, Kim had promised to explain everything before the end of the month. Sighing with resignation she nodded and took the package from Shego, “Wait here a minute I believe we have a package that needs to be delivered as well, if you don’t mind that is, Ms. Go.”
If Shego could get any paler she would have been ‘bleached sheets’ white just then, she wanted to turn and run but her pride and the look on Kim’s mothers face conspired against her doing so. A moment later the door shut cutting her off from the warmth and sounds of the family household. She had been handed the package and wished well on her way so she wasn’t complaining but she would have liked to have had the chance to speak directly with Kim, receiving a gift from her however, more than made up for that small disappointment bringing a broad smile to her face. In typical Kimmie fashion the card was cleanly written on, ‘To: Shego from: Kim’ simple and to the point. She wasted no time in racing back to her house, ordinarily she skipped the trappings of Christmas and only gave Drakken the simplest of gifts in exchange for the lavish numbers he gave her, this was different, this was from Kim.
Kim sat amidst the family a growing pile of shredded wrapping paper and boxes, courtesy the day spent unwrapping the gifts they had given each other, staring at the gemlike foil Shego had wrapped her tiny gift in. Shaking it had proven ineffective, it made no sound, nor could its weight help, it was feather light. Giving in to her natural curiosity Kim peeled away the wrapping and squinted as she lifted the lid of the enclosed box, just in case Shego had Rons taste in joke gifts. When nothing came flying out and the box didn’t burst into flames Kim opened her eyes only to promptly close them and the box again. ‘What the hell ….”
Tim cast a conspiratorial glance at his near duplicate, Jim and made a lunge for the box Kim was trying to hide. As predicted Kim dodged his attempt but Jim was in position to capitalize and in a moment he had snagged the small box. After peeking inside he realized he would have been better off not knowing. When Tim got his chance to look as well, he had to agree, neither of them wanted to picture their sister in that skimpy bathing suit. Kim fumed as she finally caught the tweebs in a corner, her anger only kept in check by the thought of the potential damage her brothers could inflict upon the gift. She was rather surprised when they made strangled sounds and returned the box, she wasn’t sure if she should be happy with that reaction or not but decided to let it go. It was Christmas after all. Almost as an afterthought, she gasped in surprise that she and her family had completely forgotten someone. Where was Ron?
Ron heard the beep of his cell phone and whistled to get the dueling pair settled down so he could answer, he doubted they would listen and end up fighting again but he at least had to try. “Hola seen yo reeter, you have reached the Ron, how may he serve thee today?” He knew Kim would take a minute to respond to that buying him time to get some distance from the building storm between the two combatants.
For her part Kim wasn’t exactly sure where to begin in response to him, she was still rather embarrassed that she had completely forgotten about him until after Christmas. The fact he was Jewish not withstanding he had always had an open seat at the Possible dinners during the holidays and made full use of them, his mother agreed to do her dinner ahead a few hours so he could sit down with Kim and her family. It had become a tradition, one that was now kind of broken, much to her dismay.
“Ok first Ron, mixing Spanish and olde English, so not working. Second, where the heck were you? I missed you at dinner tonight.”
Ron winced and looked at the holo-clock, “Shit I’m sorry KP I’ve been so busy I forgot. Didn’t even make it to moms dinner I guess.” He could be heard grunting over the phone as he ducked and rolled out of the way. The car landed in a heap right where he had just been standing. “Can you hold on for a minute Kim? Please? K luv ya be right back.”
‘Luv Ya?’ She thought as she heard the distinctive sounds of heavy combat over the portable phone she used. She could hear Ron over the ruckus, apparently having to yell at the top of his lungs to be heard.
“No don’t break him we need him intact!” A loud crunch punctuated that part.
“Dr. D. get out of there he…” Several seconds of silence “That’s gonna leave a mark but don’t worry Dr. D. I’m sure it’ll wear off … eventually.”
“Noooo Dammit Bonnie didja hafta break him? Mutant chocolate bunnies aren’t easy to come by you know!” Each new tidbit set off every weird-ar alert she had but that one blew out the system. Part of the response was garbled but it got clear quick as the voice went full volume.
“Piss off Stoppable, You want me to fight that kinda thing for practice you better expect I’m going to break it! The damned thing is fifty foot tall!” There was a moment of silence followed by two distinct voices screaming and running away.
“Hello Kim uh Ron … will be uh… busy for ah … perhaps a day can he call you back?” She couldn’t believe it but her ears weren’t deceiving her.
“Drakken?”
“Yes Kim look I’m sorry but I’ll have to let you go, it looks like they’re going to need my pazer net. Happy holidays by the way.” With that she heard a click and shut her own phone off. That marked the end of the single weirdest phone call she had ever had bar none.
Shego stood at her observation post and looked the Possible household over noting that Kim had her curtains drawn, again. Shego grumbled when Kim had started closing the curtains so often but she did respect her right to do so, she would be a hypocrite if she complained seeing how she had all of her windows covered all the time.
She was about to let the black velvet slip back over the spot she used to peek through when she saw a familiar flash from an unexpected source. The kitchen was dark which meant both it and the living room were likely empty, connected as they were any light from one room would give light to a fair amount of the kitchen. The flashes repeated spelling her name out in Morse.
Something made her twitch involuntarily, she decided to respond and signaled ‘yes?’ Just because it was coming from the kitchen didn’t mean it wasn’t Kim, she could be anywhere in the house at this point. The signal she got in return made her smile but set of another alarm. She did not like her alerts sounding when it came to Kim.
‘Come over tomorrow night and count down the end of the year with us, I have already cleared it with the ‘rents so no big.’
Shego flashed her answer quickly and dropped the curtain back in place then backed away as she fought to keep her heart from stalling and figure out why she had said she would be there. She said she’d be there but that didn’t mean she would, Shego thought to herself as she dialed the first phone number on her portable. “Hello? Yes put me on link with the big guy.”
The twin jade Chinese dragons decorating the far wall slid apart along with the curtains and she saw Senior Senior Sr. turn to look at her from his impressive office. “Why hello Ms Shego, I trust you are suffering the holidays well?”
Always the courteous charmer she couldn’t help but smile at his warm grin. “Yeah but it looks like I was just sentenced to several hours of torture.” At his concerned startled look she chuckled. “I’ve been invited to ring out the old year, I hate parties like that, I really do.”
With a nod of understanding he dismissed the topic with a slight wave of his hand, “Well I assume that since you’re using this line you must want to say or do something, so how may I be of assistance to my partner?”
Shego scowled deeply and leaned forward as if she was about to reach through the monitor and deck him. “Keep it down Triple S! I don’t want anyone other than you and the staff to know about this hence the whole ‘silent partner’ routine!” Her voice was a low growl but it didn’t phase the old man in the least. She had to respect his nerve. “Ok Ok Fine! Can we get down to business here?”
With a gracious nod Senior Senior Sr. smiled broadly, Shego might prefer to be anonymous in this venture but it would be hard to pull that off considering she had a large hand in the entire project. “Please Shego, allow me the pleasure of reporting the recent growth of the facility. I must say this month has been exceptional, Hench alone had the west wing booked solid with people he paid to stay. He never would say why he was doing this but as it is not my business I simply accepted two of his bank accounts.” He enjoyed seeing the look on her face when he mentioned the money side of it, her pale green skin positively glowed. “I would also like to know where you got the idea for a multi story gun range, we haven’t been able to keep up with the bullet reload so I had to buy a few of the smaller countries to specialize.”
Shego tried not to grin too wide as she listened, she liked the partnership and as she had donated the island to the project along with a fair chunk of her contractual earnings she had a vested interest. “All nice and good Triple S but I have other things to attend. You really need to watch the villainy channel more they have some good programming.” The old man had derailed her once more. He was flashing pictures of the newly completed
“The villainy channel? I believe that is 289 on my provider I will have to investigate further, Didn’t you do some stand in work for one of those shows? I believe I read that in Villainy Weekly.” As much as he enjoyed her slightly greedy nature he truly loved catching her off guard, it was so hard to do he relished every opportunity. The faces she made were priceless.
Shego blanched as he mentioned the show, “Yeah that’s the channel. They asked me to stand in for Nitro-grl on ‘Homebrew Explosives with Bud’. She was mixing the shows secret recipe when it ignited, they believe it shot her straight through the roof but my guess is she went out at an angle, they’re still looking for her, I think. Bud didn’t last much longer.” She scowled at that one, she had been blamed for it even though she wasn’t on set when he lit the cigar while sitting on the fuel drum. That version of the show ended there but they had it replaced with ‘Garage tech explosives with Bob’ Shego shook her head back to the present and looked at the old codger, “Subject, back to it now, I want the island starting Tuesday and going for the week. You can have till noon to remove all the tourists,
Again Senior Senior sr. nodded graciously his smile deviously broad, “Yes, as you wish.” Then he reached over and disconnected the link leaving a stunned Shego to sit there and blink. While that wasn’t the strangest discussion she ever had it ranked right there with the oddest. It also set off another alarm. Shego knew exactly where ‘Yes, as you wish’ came from but she had not expected it to have reached that far yet.
It was eight pm on the dot when Shego stepped onto the front porch of the Possible household, she was fairly impressed as she debating turning to leave. One of the Possibles had installed a quartz radiant heater at foot level on the porch and wired it to a motion sensor. The small concrete space tied to the house itself had to have been heated as well, it was clear of any snow and quite dry. Trust the rocket knut to tech out his house. “Aw to hell with it.” Frustration often got the better of her if she did not find a means to chill, usually by doing something destructive, but in this case she chose the more frightening option. When the doorbell turned out to be musical and blared out Auld Lang Syne it took everything she had not to melt it.
Mrs. Possible leaned out from the cabinet she was rifling through, “Kimmiecakes could you please get the door, I believe it’s for you.” She had seen Shego leave her house ten minutes ago and figured the woman walked over.
Kim gave her mom a quizzical look but went to answer the door, she opened it to find a very nervous Shego who looked close to run away mode. “Shego! What are you doing here?” She didn’t hesitate and instinctively held out the hand she normally used for greeting someone and promptly blushed, the hand wasn’t really ready for shaking since it was still in the cast. Seeing a look of concern on Shegos face she interpreted it as guilt for hurting her arm so badly, Kim smiled broadly but didn’t say a word about it or their fight and didn’t really hold it against the woman, they were doing what they did and it happened, no big. “Don’t sweat the cast Shego it’ll be off in two or three days.”
Shego looked up from the cast to see Kims face smiling at her. “That won’t do Pumkin, you have an obligation starting tomorrow and continuing until the cast is off.” She had hoped the cast would be off by now but Kim had been impatient and re-injured it once, knowing her Shego figured at least a couple of times she didn’t report. She looked past Kim as she noticed a shadow move across her field of vision and saw Kim’s mother come out from the living room.
“Why Hello Shego please come in, you’re a bit early but that’s ok the boy’s will be leaving for party supplies so if you have any special requests please speak them now.” She wished for a moment that she had thought to bring a camera of some kind. It wasn’t often she got to see her daughter so tweaked and Shego, well the look on her face would win any of the tv home video contests.
Of the pair Shego recovered the quickest, “It was you wasn’t it?” Kims mom nodded with devilish smile, “Dammit I should have used the nightvision goggles.” Then she did a kind of startled leap backwards as she connected a few dots, almost literally. Kims mother must have noticed their convert communications and quite possibly spoke with her directly while leading her to believe she was Kim. “Damn, you’re good.”
Mrs. Possible simply smiled, “I know, now why don’t you come in, the house was warm a few minutes ago.” No sooner than she had said that they heard a truck turning in on the Possible driveway.
The truck barely made the hard turn required to get into the Possible driveway and resulted in it being parked cattycorner across it. The trio watched as two people climbed out of the cab and ran to the back of the truck. Kim and Shego immediately went into combat ready mode and Mrs. Possible stepped back ready to close the door when they heard someone call out, “Don’t close the door yet Mrs. Dr. P. we have gifts!”
Ron stepped into view a moment later carrying a case of some beverage followed by two people holding two large boxes apiece. Kim and Shego both gawked at the blonde, his winter clothing was outlandish but looked quite warm and he seemed somehow different yet the same. “Belated Merry Christmas Mrs. Dr. P. I come bearing gifts. I’m sorry I missed your dinner but when duty calls it must be seen through to the end. I hope it’s ok with you that I brought friends as well.”
Kim could only stare, her ability to speak temporarily lost, Drakken was setting down the large boxes with a groan and then he turned to relieve Bonnie of the packages she was toting. “Well Kim, aren’t you going to invite us in or like are we going to stand here all night?”