Kim Potential

"Kim Potential..." Part LXVI...

"What? Oh...Lord knows...Something to do with my emotional motivations affecting skin color ever since that Tuesday..."

"Oh...I miss your blue a little..." she gave wan smile... "Drew, maybe we should just go and leave this to the UN fellas. They can stop Lindendon...I don't want you hurt, I couldn't bear it."

"If we can't find him, they can't. He'll come looking for us...I prefer to meet him." Drakken, set look.

"And do...What?"

"20 megatons should just about fetch him." Smile.

"You have nukes?" she blinked. "You had nukes all this time? And you never..."

"Shego...Power-mad, megalomanic-bordering...But not completely insane. I wanted to rule over a better world, not radioactive ash. But a little nuclear material to spare, I couldn't resist the challenge and I figured I could always use it as a good bargaining chip to get you out of stir...Though somehow, you nearly always did manage to keep out of prison or get out quickly."

"Is it...Here?" she looked round.

"Don't be ridiculous..." he frowned. "It's in orbit...Concealed as space junk. But once we know where Dementor's little island paradise is, we send the coordinates and down it comes. But that's a last resort...I'm hoping we can just let the UN use conventional weapons, plus maybe some of mine may work."

"Ok..." sigh. "So, I'd best stop whining and start pulling this show together in my capacity as Number two...The admin brains of the outfit." She nodded, pausing... "Drew...You've arranged that Kim will be ok, if...?"

"The moment Lindendon is finished...Or we are..." he nodded.

"Ok...You know I know she'd probably kill us but I wouldn't mind seein' her again...Nice kid, all-in-all."

She frowned as he looked eager... "I don't mean I'm willing to leave you here...I'd just like to see her again, when things allow." She put up a hand to his ready-to-argue expression... "I won't go...So no 'you should go protect her' arguments..."

"Fine...Then shall we get to work?...It's time you earned that high salary of yours..." Drakken, sternly.

"High salary...Dementor'd pay me four times as much...And actually pay me..." wan grin...

"Can't put in a resume till you find him..." Drakken noted.

"Now, a little incentive at last...Drew...?" Anxious gasp... "It was quick, wasn't it? You're sure...?"

"Yes." He lied. "I'm sure..."

Nod...Smile... "Drew, that's the most beautiful lie you've ever told me...Thank you." She kissed him.

"So, moron? Can't find a whole island?" she eyed the scanners. "What does that tell you? Walter?" she turned to where Walter sat at the controls. "Our glorious leader being numb in the brain, how about you? If it won't show up?"

"It's either there, ma'am...Or it isn't..." Walter shrugged. "But it's not there..."

"Then...It's not an island..." Drakken eyed Shego... "Though it may look like one...And Dementor may exploit the legends of a 'lost' island."

"Now we're getting somewhere..." she beamed.

"Walter...Do we have sonar maps of the sea bottom around here? From a few years ago?"

"Aye, aye boss...Everything's on Google." Walter noted.

"Then lets do a full sonar trace and draw up a new map...I think it might be interesting..." Drakken smiled. "Start with this area..." he tapped a screen on which a large stretch of the sea bottom, looking perfectly normal, was displayed.

"Take days, Boss..." Walter eyed him...

"Let it...Have to hand it to Dementor...He does lair on the grand scale." He noted. "Island-sized, that is..."

"I definitely should polish up my resume..." Shego beamed.

"Lost Island"...

Currently 14,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific...

"So 'Lost Island' doesn't exist at all...A deception...?" Lindendon addressed Bortel in the main lair hall...As they watched the ocean above via a vast ceiling portal...

"The little volcanic rock did, decades ago...About ten miles from our position now. But it sank under the sea just after I discovered it while mapping for a new undersea lair. It then occurred to me...What better place to advertise as my main base than a place which in fact no longer exists...Though, certainly our base deserves the title..." Bortel beamed.

"A shape-shifting mobile base...Brilliant..." Lindendon nodded. "An island on the surface, the sea floor below..."

"And the largest aircraft-carrying platform ever conceived when air-borne..." Bortel, proudly. "We can do everything but blast into orbit...And we have escape rocket shuttles, just in case."

"Dr. Bortel..." an aide in surgical gown... "The girl is prepped and ready..."

"Excellent..." Bortel nodded. "And the analysis...?"

"As you expected, Doctor...There is no hope for the legs, and one arm...And over a large section of the torso...That unusual suit of hers..." pause...

"Fused?..."

"Some sort of molecular protective binding but the damage has caused a permanent fusing...We can't separate it from her without severely injuring her...It would certainly kill her...However the suit could be adapted as you suspected...An artificial skin layer..."

"Internally?" Bortel asked...

"No serious damage..."

"Can she..." Lindendon cut in, anxiously... "Could she bear...Offspring?..."

"Colonel?" the medical aide stared...

"Well?"

"Technically?...If she survives the adaptation and the surgery to remove the limbs...Yes. I believe so..."

"Good..." Lindendon nodded.

Bortel shrugging to the aide's stare...

"Not that I would require it of her..." Lindendon, quickly... "But I'm sure she'd be pleased..."

"Uh...Yes..." the aide nodded... "Doctor, the team is ready, if you are...Oh, doctor..."

Bortel eyed him...

"She's conscious and has asked for her father...Demanding in fact and also insisting he not be harmed..."

Lindendon regarding...

"You may assure her her father lives and will not be physically harmed if that is her wish." He noted, precisely. "Tell her we are doing all we can to help her."

Bortel nodding, the aide saluted and hurried off...

Offspring?...He blinked...

"Colonel?" Bortel addressed Lindendon, who shrugged.

"It's only natural she'd still protect him, admirable in fact." Calm smile... "And there are many ways to revenge, Professor, without the need for direct physical harm..."