Kim Potential...
Summary: A desperate Dr. Drakken has sensibly reviewed his Files of Past Plots to find the most effective weapon yet used on KP and improve it with unexpected results. Ron and company find they have a new partner.
Disclaimer: No infringement intended.
Part XLVIII...
"I trust you understand, Dr. Bortel...This is a provisional release, pending completion of our investigation." General Masters, sternly...Frown at the little scientist in chair across his desk.
"Oh, ja, General...And I am pleased to have a chance to do my part in the hunt for this dangerous fellow. Uh, tell me? Is it really true Dr. Drakken has been implicated?"
"And you heard that, how? Doctor?"
"Word gets around..." shrug... "And my lawyer mentioned it."
Hmmn...Well...
"There's a possibility he and the Throwback are in communication..." the general, carefully.
"I see...Well...A dangerous combination. Is Miss Possible on the case?" Bortel, eagerly.
"Possibly..." Masters, not cracking a smile. "And many others may be in on it."
"I understand...Very good...You'll have my utmost cooperation, General."
"That's fine, doctor...We count on it. Our staff will see you home now."
"Excellent...My thanks, General...And...Please...No hard feelings...I know everyone must be a suspect and myself in particular in such times."
"We appreciate your patience and your cooperation, Professor."
My middle names...Bortel did not say...
Deny...Deny...Deny...The Drakken mantra, Potential thought, carefully watching the helicopter instrument panel...
Most of which she got, courtesy Dad's intensive-in-artificial-womb training courses...To some extent...
Well, at least she could monitor fuel and keep the thing on a fairly straight course.
Ron, quiet in his seat, except for providing some instructions and directions via Wade on Kimmunicator.
"Look, Ron...Whatever crazy idea you've got in your noggin..."
"Nothing crazy about it, Kim." He replied.
"...Fine, whatever...I just wanted to say, thanks for coming along...And whatever you think, you're my priority."
"After the good doctor..." he replied, a bit grimly.
"I'm going after the Throwback...Drakken's a lead, nothin' more. And why, pray tell, would I be putting myself in such harm's way, given I understand this one's not your typical cartoonish evildoer?"
Silence...
"Fine...I'll tell you why...Because this guy is a Nazi and my boyfriend is Jewish...And I won't sit round, trusting in idiots like Hego, waiting for him to come and hurt my boyfriend because that's what this animal likes to do." She eyed him.
"Whatever you want to believe..." she finished, high-minded tone.
Heck, it's mostly true...Would I risk my precious ass for anything but true love?
And Dad...But that's because my idiot father is doing this, obviously, for me.
One more point against you, Shego...By the way...You should've stopped him...Hogtied him as necessary...
But a lot of it is for you, jerk...She eyed Ron. A sincere look that did make him waiver a bit...
"Ok...You're very good...Fine job Drakken did." He finally replied, staring out the window.
"Ok, then why did you come?"
"For you...And to see Drakken get ripped up by the Throwback...Which hopefully will have a liberating effect." He said, calmly.
"If he does cut a deal with Colonel Lindendon, it could be us getting ripped up." She noted.
"Just me...Drakken wouldn't hurt his greatest achievement."
"Ok, and I'm rushin' in to save the whatever, Master, etc?...If Drakken's up to a deal, why would I interfere with the master plan?"
"It's not...He obviously didn't expect Dementor would risk bringing in such a heavy and dangerously big gun and now it's either pull this off or see all his work go down the tubes. I'd guess he wants you there to demo...Proof that he's a better partner than Dementor."
Well, reasonable...Might have worked out that way...Once...She gave him a wan smile...
But things have taken an odd turn for Drew Drakken, would be world conqueror, father and family man...
"I wish you knew how wrong you were..." sigh...
He said nothing, eyeing her...
"Say, you wanna tell those jets to back off?...I've got enough trouble just steering this thing without them getting in my hair..." she noted, indicating two jets which had been closely monitoring them. The UN force having reluctantly accepted Ron's request via Wade to keep close but pursue only.
"You're lucky I didn't ask them to shoot us down..." he noted quietly.
"Nice to know I've still some place in your heart." Grin.
"You're still my Kim, whatever Drakken's done to you." He replied.
"Thanks..." she patted his hand. "So, after we finish with the Throwback, if I finally shoot ole Drew down or kick him into the water, would that be convincing enough?"
"It would convince me Drakken sent a synthoclone, which is about what I'd expect."
"Fair enough..." she shrugged. "Well, putting aside our little spat over my devotion to my nemesis for a mo, what do you think Drakken has to offer the Throwback, anyway? Assuming you're right and they're not already allies...Cause this could be a trap for us and the other fellas, you know. Get us to come out where they want us...?"
"You." He said simply. "And whatever he did to you. All this equipment he stole, the sequencer and the bioreactor and..."
Blink...
Uh-oh...I see the slowly turning gears of the Rube Goldberg brain of my boyfriend finally meshing...The little ball finally dropping in all the right places...
"So...The famous Ms. Shego..." A hulking Lindendon in old-style military pilot's uniform on screen in the main cabin of the Dementor yacht onto which she'd just climbed greeted the frowning Shego who was being assisted with her parachute by two Dementor henchthugs... "Welcome...I believe you know my colleague, Avairius..." he indicated Avairius beside him in costume. The room behind them offering no clue as to where they might actually be.
"Bird-brain, how's things?" nod.
"Miss...Please...I'd hoped we'd conduct negotiations in a friendly manner. Do I have to shoot down your aircraft and blow up this vessel with you on it simply to encourage common curtesy?" Lindendon, patiently.
"Sorry...I just don't like spending a day under compliance chip control." She frowned at Avairius on screen. "And Dr. Bortel not being here, he'll do...But since Dr. Drakken'd like me to behave...Again, sorry." Wave of hand.
"Fine. So, Dr. Drakken, I take it, wishes to join our merry band? A wise move on his part..." Lindendon noted.
"And you are empowered to handle all negotiations for him?"
"I am...You asked that we send reps...I'm it as his chief lieutenant. If that bothers you...?"
"Not at all..." Lindendon shrugged. "I'm not quite the reactionary my reputation suggests...And I appreciate demonstrated superior ability merged to sound common sense...In fact I've long wanted to meet you, Miss Go...A woman after my own heart in many ways, with the sense to abandon foolish notions about protecting and cherishing the common herd..."
"Yeah, that's me." She nodded. "Though I do prefer my super powers au supernaturel..."
"Oh, a quaint reluctance to embrace the future...Surely if we can achieve a master race through Science as well as supernatural accidents it can only be to the benefit of future superior generations." Lindendon, rather charming, if terrifying on that face, smile.
"We'll see..." she shrugged to the screen. "And I take it you can speak for poor ole Cyrus in stir?"
"Without question, as friend Avairius here can testify. Though we confidently expect the Professor to rejoin us soon. Now, Ms. Go...Just what does the good doctor have to offer us?"
"Clones...That's what Drakken's up to..." Ron blinked. "And not an army of Throwbacks, at least not at first...You..." he stared at Potential. "You were the project."
Keep that mantra...Deny...Till you believe it yourself.
"Ron? Are you out of your mind? Wade? You listening to this nonsense...?" she sighed. "Fine, there's a bottle of Coke in the cup-holder there." She pointed. "Here, right on the hand..." she held out a hand.
"Just don't get it on my new boots..." frown.
"You're not that kind of clone...Not another synthoclone...No..." shake of head... "A perfectly human clone...But one he adjusted to suit himself."
"A human clone? Ron? And why would Drakken want another Kim beatin' the crap out of him? Wade? You've been monitoring my brainwaves, right? Am I any different?"
"She's right there, Ron..." Wade's image on Kimmunicator screen suddenly...
Knew the lil' chub was listening in...Potential thought...
"There's no difference in brain patterns...And..." careful pause... "While I would think a perfect human clone would have to match Kim's patterns...If she's programmed in some way, it would show."
"No..." Ron shook head... "She's not 'programmed'. He just didn't let all of KP develop...She's KP attuned to him, to Evil and to him from birth. That wouldn't show as manipulation or brainwashing, would it?"
"Come on..." she rolled eyes... "Drakken's gonna love the respect you're offering but..."
"I don't know...Maybe not..." Wade, hesitant. "I'll have to look into it."
"See...? No proof." She shook head. "Ron, I'm sorry you can't deal with me changing a little over time but trust me, if you're gonna be with me, you gotta get used...Heck, what about you? Where's my old 'never even consider KP as girlfriend mat', my old 'save the world right after I finish this burrito' Ron? Are you a clone, huh? Huh?"
"I was always in love with you, Kim...I just didn't think you were..."
Oh...She blinked...
"And as for the pre-world-saving burrito..." he pulled out a wrapped packet.
You were always in love with me? Ron?
"Ron? Always? Really?" undeniably sincere beam...
"A clone?" Avairius blinked...
"Intriguing, indeed." Lindendon nodded. "A human clone? Perfect in every detail but adjusted to appreciate the wiser course of morality?"
"I guess..." Shego shrugged. "Anyway she's firmly on the team but all Kim Possible."
"And the real Kim Possible?" Lindendon, shrewdly.
"Under safe lock and key..."
"Remarkable." Lindendon, pondering. "I am impressed. If true, this would be what I'm searched for for years...A way of producing the greatest traits of the most superior men...A chance to bring the master race to life."
"You doubtin' me?" Shego, grimly...
"Actually no, given the equipment your employer obtained and the uses to which it could be put...But I hope you understand my natural skepticism...I'm sure your Dr. Drakken knows of my quest to perfect Humanity. Well, you may tell him I am certainly willing to consider an alliance...What would be his terms?"
"Equal partnership....No trouble from Dementor...Equal share in ruling the world...The usual thing..." shrug.
"All eminently reasonable..." nod... "Friend Avairius? Your opinion?"
"If Drakken can deliver...And we can modify the clones as he seems to have done with the new Possible..." Avairius, carefully...
"Indeed...Yes. Ms. Go, I think we will need to see the new Ms. Possible in action and have a look at the Doctor's cloning system. But I do believe it sounds like the three of us could make a working alliance." Smile.
"Great." Shego dryly. "I'm sure the doc will be pleased to hear it. Can I give him a call and see about arranging the visit? As for a demo...I'm sure we can set that up as well."
"In fact..." Lindendon on screen, beaming... "I understand the young lady is currently on her way here...Well, there."
Say what? Drakken, listening in hovering flying submersible via link to 'Shego'/535...