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Description
Crumbs

Author: The Humbug

Disclaimer: “Kim Possible” and all characters within © The Walt Disney Company and its related entities. Kim Possible created by Mark McCorkle & Bob Schooley. All rights reserved. No profit is being collected from the fiction contained within. You can blame the rest of this on me.
Rating: PG-13 for combat violence and intimations of a physical relationship and intimate contact between consenting adult females. This should also cover a little harsh language now and then. If this will offend you, please read something else and then seek some professional help.
Summary: This is a Kim/Shego pairing fan fiction and is set in my ‘Who’s Writing This Crap?’ storyline. It is a sequel to ‘A Cookie For Ecclesiastes’ and you really, REALLY need to read that story first. Kasy Ann and Sheki Go Possible are the creations of NoDrogs. The KP version of The Supreme One as well as the ruined Shego is my idea. WARNING: Some parts are a little dark.

Crumbs / Eight

She just knew that something was wrong. Kim Possible wiped soot and cobwebs from her face with the back of her gloved hand and gazed out from the shadows.

She’d been following Shego’s plan to the letter, silently roving along the periphery of the lair, seeing and being unseen, searching for clues of their daughters’ whereabouts. Then all Hell broke loose a few minutes ago.

Yep, something’s wrong.

Nuts.

A veritable thunderstorm seemed to unfold from somewhere deep in the hidden complex; explosions of light and sound rattled her eardrums and shook the floor with an intensity that rivaled Las Vegas. The green flashes and glaring afterimages were too much like Shego’s plasma effects for comfort… but then it had all become quiet as the grave. Now it took a great strength of will for ‘the woman who could do anything’ to stay hunkered down with her back against a rusting girder and patiently contemplate her next move.

She wanted to act… now! Waiting impatiently at the ventilation duct had left a bad taste in her mouth. She kept reminding herself that she DID trust Shego’s plan and WOULD do as she’d been instructed. Kim was prepared to sit tight and be as quiet as a mouse for as long as need be. Who cared what those snooty ‘ninjas’ at Yamanouchi might think, she was proud of her stealth techniques would rather have joined her mate on the initial foray into danger. She had no trouble admitting that she had learned much about hiding and infiltration skills from her former enemy, or that those newfound skills had since saved her life on occasion.

Having recalled the ninja training school, Kim caught herself wondering how Yori had fared after all these years. Was the beautiful and deadly martial artist now a full ninja or was she a teacher at the training academy… or had she taken a vow of marriage and had a whole parcel of kids?

Even in this filthy hole, Kim actually managed to grin at the thought. Yori’s fate didn’t matter to her, at least not since she moved out of the life of her best friend… and now that Ron had found a loving wife in the shape of Bonnie Rockwaller. The redhead had no reasons to dwell on that particular slice of the past at all. She shook her head violently and clenched her fists. I’m woolgathering, she thought. Here I am, nestled in a nasty corner of an abandoned Drakken lair and I’ve got my head up my ass! Back to the sitch!

The ‘sitch’ had gone south of cheese. There was no denying that she should have heard the detonation of Shego’s grenades by now! Other than the apparent sound of battle from before, she had heard and seen nothing and no one. Had it been Shego? Did she win?

Where are our children?

Screw this. It was time to get moving.

There were several sidereal chambers and rooms that split off from this main cavern, she remembered, and each one could be where her family was being held. Her mysterious enemies could be there, too, and that was a sitch to be dealt with in good time. With one last look around to get her bearings, Kim stretched and flexed her stiff back muscles, slowly rose into a standing position… and froze.

Something had moved between two of the towering pieces of damaged equipment.

Avoiding any jerky movement, Kim carefully rolled around the girder and put it between her and whatever it was that was on the prowl. If it kept moving… whatever it was… it would come into her line of sight after a few more feet. If she moved to a vantage point where she could see who it was, they in turn would see her. Kim wasted only a second in deciding to remain where she was, oddly comforted that she was so small and slender.

The hero held her breath and listened.

There was a padding sound, like feet were walking just beyond her hiding place. The tempo was casual, so she guessed that the stranger wasn’t in a hurry. It was quiet, too… barefoot, maybe? There was a rustling noise; it was like fabric against a dry surface and it was then that she drew into her nose a sickly sweet musk. The pungent smell was like some unearthly blend of body odor, dried blood and something vaguely reminiscent of a sickroom. It was that scent that alarmed her more than anything else and in a way that she couldn’t fully explain. Kim was more than capable of stifling her curiosity but she had to know what she was dealing with.

She glanced around the girder… and almost lost her breakfast. She pulled her head back out of sight because in three seconds, Kim had managed to see enough to fuel a dozen nightmares.

A shambling wreck wrapped in a dirty sheet or cloak… it might have been female… was limping down the path that Kim had taken a few minutes ago. Kim’s heart pounded within her chest at the horrible sight but she forced herself to relax and process the tableau that her hurried glance had afforded her.

The ‘woman’ was rail thin and bore a coloration that reminded her of Shego, but otherwise there was little resemblance because the hint of pale green was distressingly faded and waxy. This person had almost no hair and what few bristles remained were bone white, totally unlike Shego’s flowing black tresses. Another unsettling difference was that this creature showed obvious signs of injuries, some of them recent and unhealed.

That settled it; absolutely nothing like Shego! Her spouse was able to fully heal from most superficial wounds in a day, broken bones taking less than two weeks to knit together. This person looked as if she had just left a traffic accident. Risking another glance around the girder, Kim watched the woman stumble further along the corridor of machines. At no time did the shrouded figure pause in her mysterious task and Kim didn’t relax until the battered shape was finally out of her line of sight, taking the unpleasant smell of sickness with her.

Now for the ultimate question… which was more important, the direction this wanderer had come from or the one in which she was headed? And what had she been doing? The woman had been carrying something, a small bundle maybe, and had been using her makeshift covering to form a simple pouch for her load. It was how the hem of the sheet had been gathered up from the floor that had contributed to Kim’s view of this newcomer’s disturbing physique.

Every second counted but Kim stayed rooted to the spot for a few more moments. Thinking of her family in the clutches of something as awful as the creature she had just seen was enough to steel her nerves. The redhead aimed her emerald eyes in the direction from whence the creeping ghost woman had come and got moving.

88888888

Two grimy and dusty children crept out of the rough-hewn tunnel. Kasy’s expression was one of sheer disgust and her sister’s was no more favorable. The raven-haired teen joined her red-haired twin and they hissed at each other in harsh whispers.

“that was sick”

“sick and wrong”

Sheki nodded.

“wrongsick…that was THE worst bathroom I’ve ever seen”

“don’t forget, it’s a lair”

“ex-lair”

“more like ‘ex-lax’”

“worse than that place in Moorefield, West Virginia?”

“ooooh, yeah”

“ewwwww”

“do you want to…?” Sheki couldn’t bring herself to finish the question, opting to cock her thumb back over her shoulder into the dark and nasty restroom.

“not if it’s as bad as you say, heck no,” the redhead protested. “I’ll hold it ‘til we get home”

The discussion served little purpose than to distract them from the dire circumstances they were currently facing, and the effect faded quickly. They grew silent and gave their surroundings a quick survey before continuing through the ruined chamber.

Alternating so as to remain alert, Kasy kept her eyes up and forward while Sheki watched to the sides and rear… how could there be so many twists and turns for a place that basically one big room? Other than the disgusting but much needed rest stop, they were no closer to escaping than they were a half hour ago. There weren’t any central walls but there were plenty of computer banks, both whole and trashed, to create a labyrinth the likes of which King Minos would have envied. At least the machinery made hiding easier while they searched for that elusive exit. The nooks and crannies were a double-edged sword, however, because this also meant there were more spots for enemies to skulk in and too many blind alleys to trap them. Their biggest danger was fear; if they didn’t manage to keep their wits, they would both be apt to crawl into a hole and hide. If only they could locate a communications device… anything that would let them call home and let their folks know where they were.

They paused after a few more minutes of travel, stopping to nestle down between two huge and cracked vacuum tubes, to reappraise their sitch.

“this is crazy… we’ve been moving in the same direction and getting nowhere”

“we made a turn aways back”

“huh?”

“yeah, remember?”

“no we didn’t”

“did”

“did not”

“well… we should’ve reached a wall by now”

“or that big door you wanted marked ‘exit’”

“hey, I’m not the one who had to take a leak”

“well I’m not the one who can’t tell a straight line from a turn”

“turd”

“dingleberry”

“Buttmunch!”

“Dickweed!”

Only when the echoes of their growing volume reached their ears did the girls remember where they were, and that announcing their location but them in dire jeopardy. They hurriedly looked around the crevasse where they lay hidden, desperate to avoid detection by their captors, and pulled each other tight together in a huddle such as they’d not created since they were small children having awakened from a nightmare.

The nightclothes that they were still wearing reinforced the imagery.

“see anything?”

“no… sorry” Sheki held her sister close and the beating of their hearts kept a sympathetic rhythm. More so than their uncles Jim and Tim or Weldon and Welford, they had always shared a deep bond that had formed in the womb and was every bit as strong today. Kasy waited until their breathing was equally timed before responding.

“me too”

“how long have we been here?”

“coupla hours, I s’pose”

“ya think mom and momma’ve noticed we’re gone”

“we’re supposed to be at cheerleading, so I dunno”

Kasy lifted her head slightly; she could see no one in the gloom.

“wanna keep moving”

“got to… it’s the only way”

They waited a few more seconds and touched heads, an unspoken agreement that gave them the initiative needed to slowly crawl up from the crumbling hole in the cement floor. Matching sets of anxious emeralds peered into every shadow and corner, eager to find the way out while doing anything to not face the evil that wore their mothers’ faces and spoke in their voices.

They saw nothing.

“wanna make a run for it?”

“what?!”

“yeah… I say we make like a library and book”

“she’ll…” Sheki shivered. “someone will hear us!”

“no way, not if we’re fast”

“I dunno…”

“come on, sis” Kasi said, glancing around. “we are totally off their radar”

“well… if you’re sure”

“hey… nothing to it but to do it”

Sheki took a few deep, steady breaths and pursed her lips.

“ok”

“ok?”

“yep… on the count of three?”

Kasy crouched like a sprinter, ready to fly. Sheki did the same.

“… one…”

“hicka bicka boo”

“… two…”

“hoosha”

“… three…”

A pair of dirty gloves clamped around their mouths so suddenly that they couldn’t even scream.

88888888

“Where is your partner?”

“Blow me.”

“I will not accept that you came here alone, so why do you insist on annoying me?” The middle-aged redhead leaned casually against the damp wall of the storage room and rolled her eyes in bemused exasperation. “And for the clone of…”

“FOR THE LAST FRIGGING TIME, I AIN’T NO CLONE!”

“… of someone who was never without a jibe or riposte, your vernacular is a little sparse.”

“And for the clone of someone whose education couldn’t help but be hindered by Stoppable’s ‘drag factor’ you have an awfully good vocabulary. My Kimmie would never say ‘vernacular’.”

Shego kicked herself mentally at her lame attempt at sarcasm; it really had been the best she could think of at the moment. She was caught, plain and simple, and the chains that bound her were something beyond her experience. Time and inactivity had brought a slight recharge to her system and she made no pretense of hiding her attempts to melt or weaken her bindings; the green glow sparkled through the links and her captor watched with interest.

“I read a lot.” A slender arm gestured at the recumbent form. “If it’s any consolation, I’m having second thoughts about you being a clone. You’ve already healed from our initial introduction.” There was the barest hint of a smile. “Far better than any artificially grown organism. It’s too bad that I won’t have time to give you a full examination… one piece at a time.” The slender form looked down at Shego in a way that made the former villain want to avert her eyes. Now Shego did look away, if only on the pretense of checking her restraints. The length of chain had been forged or chiseled from a metal she could not recognize and the links were wrapped around her wrists and ankles so tightly that she could not move at all. She remained calm and refused to let fear take over; she knew that she would escape, either on her own or once her Princess showed up, but she would be free.

And then her only problem would be how best to clean this bitch’s remains from her uniform.

“You can’t burn through those chains, you know.” Kim’s voice, but with far too much maturity. “Then again, how could you know? Would you like me to tell you about them?” Her petite hand pointed to the links. “They’re a creation of Global Justice.” She spat out the name. “The material is some sort of metalloid that even you can’t melt… and you certainly don’t have the strength to break them or the leverage to worm free.”

“You don’t seem like the artsy-craftsy type.” Shego didn’t really expect much of a reaction and wasn’t disappointed; the redhead merely shrugged.

“The metal breaks down when exposed to a very specific sonic frequency but otherwise nothing can damage it. It was mothballed from an old design intended to capture Shego.” She paused thoughtfully. “My Shego, the real Shego.”

“What do you mean, ‘your’ Shego?”

“Ah, the impetuousness of youth!” The idleness disappeared and the imperiousness returned. “Are you so eager to break free and beat me to a pulp that you’re being intentionally dense, or is it congenital?” The smaller woman crossed her arms. “This is exactly the reason that I know there is another clone out there, some simulacrum of myself that followed you, running around loose. I sent Shego… my Shego… out to look for her and also to undo any damage that you might have perpetrated before I caught you.”

“Well, I didn’t see her out there.” Shego cocked her chin… the only part of her that she could move… towards the door to her little cell. “Does she have a nice ass?”

“Excuse me?”

“Her ass. If someone’s going to go to the trouble of cloning me, they’d better get the ass right.”

The older woman in blue and white gently massaged her temple with her gloved hand.

“All this talk of who is a clone and who isn’t…”

“And the boobs. They’d better have a nice heft.”

“… is giving me a headache. It really doesn’t matter how you came into being.” She moved closer and the weird, metallic hand flexed its joins. “Have you changed your mine about telling me where she is?”

Shego wanted to cringe and pull away from that hand but that was impossible. She was now convinced that what she had originally thought was a gauntlet was in fact a fully functioning hand, albeit a cybernetic prosthesis bonded to the other woman’s arm. She had felt the unholy strength of that limb and remembered all too clearly the power of the plasma field it could generate.

She was given a respite when a noise from the other side of the door redirected their attention that way. Rusted hinges squealed and creaked as the door was slowly opened, but it was too dark to see anyone. There was a faint shuffling that made the bound woman feel uneasy, but that was nothing compared to the sickly sweet odor that assaulted her nostrils.

“… the holy being of The Supreme One guides us all towards salvation…”

The older Kim Possible sighed and rolled her eyes with a long-suffering expression.

“Speak of the Devil. Since you haven’t met my wife yet, I believe that introductions are in order.” She stood and moved aside while a travesty of the human form limped into view.

“Please allow me to introduce my better half.”

The light sufficient for Shego to see the ruined and wasted flesh and the jaundiced skin that was rife with festering wounds. She noticed the mangled limbs and the head that tilted at a disquieting angle, the white hair shorn down to the scalp and the soiled white shroud that served as the only covering for the otherwise naked form. It was all there for Shego to see and, repulsed as she was, she was far worse for having recognized her own face among those ravaged features.

The Supreme One spoke to the newcomer lovingly.

“Success, baby?”

“… success can only be found in death…” The shroud unfolded and several objects fell free to clatter on the damp cement floor. Shego recognized them all too well; they were the phosphorus grenades that she had placed around the lair. The timers on the grenades were melted beyond repair and this made the petite woman in blue and white nod with obvious satisfaction.

“Excellent. You haven’t lost your touch.”

“… thank you, pumpkin…”

“Did you see to the girls?”

“… they rest…”

“And the device?”

“… powering up…”

“Excellent!” The redhead clenched her fists and flashed a shark’s smile. “I do hope that I don’t sound too melodramatic when I point out that everything is going according to plan!”

To Be Continued…

Author’s Notes: There really was an urgent rest stop made one time at an unnamed McRestaurant in Moorefield, WV… it was totally disgusting.

Description
Crumbs

Author: The Humbug

Disclaimer: “Kim Possible” and all characters within © The Walt Disney Company and its related entities. Kim Possible created by Mark McCorkle & Bob Schooley. All rights reserved. No profit is being collected from the fiction contained within. You can blame the rest of this on me.
Rating: PG-13 for combat violence and intimations of a physical relationship and intimate contact between consenting adult females. This should also cover a little harsh language now and then. If this will offend you, please read something else and then seek some professional help.
Summary: This is a Kim/Shego pairing fan fiction and is set in my ‘Who’s Writing This Crap?’ storyline. It is a sequel to ‘A Cookie For Ecclesiastes’ and you really, REALLY need to read that story first. Kasy Ann and Sheki Go Possible are the creations of NoDrogs. The KP version of The Supreme One as well as the ruined Shego is my idea. WARNING: Some parts are a little dark.

Crumbs / Eight

She just knew that something was wrong. Kim Possible wiped soot and cobwebs from her face with the back of her gloved hand and gazed out from the shadows.

She’d been following Shego’s plan to the letter, silently roving along the periphery of the lair, seeing and being unseen, searching for clues of their daughters’ whereabouts. Then all Hell broke loose a few minutes ago.

Yep, something’s wrong.

Nuts.

A veritable thunderstorm seemed to unfold from somewhere deep in the hidden complex; explosions of light and sound rattled her eardrums and shook the floor with an intensity that rivaled Las Vegas. The green flashes and glaring afterimages were too much like Shego’s plasma effects for comfort… but then it had all become quiet as the grave. Now it took a great strength of will for ‘the woman who could do anything’ to stay hunkered down with her back against a rusting girder and patiently contemplate her next move.

She wanted to act… now! Waiting impatiently at the ventilation duct had left a bad taste in her mouth. She kept reminding herself that she DID trust Shego’s plan and WOULD do as she’d been instructed. Kim was prepared to sit tight and be as quiet as a mouse for as long as need be. Who cared what those snooty ‘ninjas’ at Yamanouchi might think, she was proud of her stealth techniques would rather have joined her mate on the initial foray into danger. She had no trouble admitting that she had learned much about hiding and infiltration skills from her former enemy, or that those newfound skills had since saved her life on occasion.

Having recalled the ninja training school, Kim caught herself wondering how Yori had fared after all these years. Was the beautiful and deadly martial artist now a full ninja or was she a teacher at the training academy… or had she taken a vow of marriage and had a whole parcel of kids?

Even in this filthy hole, Kim actually managed to grin at the thought. Yori’s fate didn’t matter to her, at least not since she moved out of the life of her best friend… and now that Ron had found a loving wife in the shape of Bonnie Rockwaller. The redhead had no reasons to dwell on that particular slice of the past at all. She shook her head violently and clenched her fists. I’m woolgathering, she thought. Here I am, nestled in a nasty corner of an abandoned Drakken lair and I’ve got my head up my ass! Back to the sitch!

The ‘sitch’ had gone south of cheese. There was no denying that she should have heard the detonation of Shego’s grenades by now! Other than the apparent sound of battle from before, she had heard and seen nothing and no one. Had it been Shego? Did she win?

Where are our children?

Screw this. It was time to get moving.

There were several sidereal chambers and rooms that split off from this main cavern, she remembered, and each one could be where her family was being held. Her mysterious enemies could be there, too, and that was a sitch to be dealt with in good time. With one last look around to get her bearings, Kim stretched and flexed her stiff back muscles, slowly rose into a standing position… and froze.

Something had moved between two of the towering pieces of damaged equipment.

Avoiding any jerky movement, Kim carefully rolled around the girder and put it between her and whatever it was that was on the prowl. If it kept moving… whatever it was… it would come into her line of sight after a few more feet. If she moved to a vantage point where she could see who it was, they in turn would see her. Kim wasted only a second in deciding to remain where she was, oddly comforted that she was so small and slender.

The hero held her breath and listened.

There was a padding sound, like feet were walking just beyond her hiding place. The tempo was casual, so she guessed that the stranger wasn’t in a hurry. It was quiet, too… barefoot, maybe? There was a rustling noise; it was like fabric against a dry surface and it was then that she drew into her nose a sickly sweet musk. The pungent smell was like some unearthly blend of body odor, dried blood and something vaguely reminiscent of a sickroom. It was that scent that alarmed her more than anything else and in a way that she couldn’t fully explain. Kim was more than capable of stifling her curiosity but she had to know what she was dealing with.

She glanced around the girder… and almost lost her breakfast. She pulled her head back out of sight because in three seconds, Kim had managed to see enough to fuel a dozen nightmares.

A shambling wreck wrapped in a dirty sheet or cloak… it might have been female… was limping down the path that Kim had taken a few minutes ago. Kim’s heart pounded within her chest at the horrible sight but she forced herself to relax and process the tableau that her hurried glance had afforded her.

The ‘woman’ was rail thin and bore a coloration that reminded her of Shego, but otherwise there was little resemblance because the hint of pale green was distressingly faded and waxy. This person had almost no hair and what few bristles remained were bone white, totally unlike Shego’s flowing black tresses. Another unsettling difference was that this creature showed obvious signs of injuries, some of them recent and unhealed.

That settled it; absolutely nothing like Shego! Her spouse was able to fully heal from most superficial wounds in a day, broken bones taking less than two weeks to knit together. This person looked as if she had just left a traffic accident. Risking another glance around the girder, Kim watched the woman stumble further along the corridor of machines. At no time did the shrouded figure pause in her mysterious task and Kim didn’t relax until the battered shape was finally out of her line of sight, taking the unpleasant smell of sickness with her.

Now for the ultimate question… which was more important, the direction this wanderer had come from or the one in which she was headed? And what had she been doing? The woman had been carrying something, a small bundle maybe, and had been using her makeshift covering to form a simple pouch for her load. It was how the hem of the sheet had been gathered up from the floor that had contributed to Kim’s view of this newcomer’s disturbing physique.

Every second counted but Kim stayed rooted to the spot for a few more moments. Thinking of her family in the clutches of something as awful as the creature she had just seen was enough to steel her nerves. The redhead aimed her emerald eyes in the direction from whence the creeping ghost woman had come and got moving.

88888888

Two grimy and dusty children crept out of the rough-hewn tunnel. Kasy’s expression was one of sheer disgust and her sister’s was no more favorable. The raven-haired teen joined her red-haired twin and they hissed at each other in harsh whispers.

“that was sick”

“sick and wrong”

Sheki nodded.

“wrongsick…that was THE worst bathroom I’ve ever seen”

“don’t forget, it’s a lair”

“ex-lair”

“more like ‘ex-lax’”

“worse than that place in Moorefield, West Virginia?”

“ooooh, yeah”

“ewwwww”

“do you want to…?” Sheki couldn’t bring herself to finish the question, opting to cock her thumb back over her shoulder into the dark and nasty restroom.

“not if it’s as bad as you say, heck no,” the redhead protested. “I’ll hold it ‘til we get home”

The discussion served little purpose than to distract them from the dire circumstances they were currently facing, and the effect faded quickly. They grew silent and gave their surroundings a quick survey before continuing through the ruined chamber.

Alternating so as to remain alert, Kasy kept her eyes up and forward while Sheki watched to the sides and rear… how could there be so many twists and turns for a place that basically one big room? Other than the disgusting but much needed rest stop, they were no closer to escaping than they were a half hour ago. There weren’t any central walls but there were plenty of computer banks, both whole and trashed, to create a labyrinth the likes of which King Minos would have envied. At least the machinery made hiding easier while they searched for that elusive exit. The nooks and crannies were a double-edged sword, however, because this also meant there were more spots for enemies to skulk in and too many blind alleys to trap them. Their biggest danger was fear; if they didn’t manage to keep their wits, they would both be apt to crawl into a hole and hide. If only they could locate a communications device… anything that would let them call home and let their folks know where they were.

They paused after a few more minutes of travel, stopping to nestle down between two huge and cracked vacuum tubes, to reappraise their sitch.

“this is crazy… we’ve been moving in the same direction and getting nowhere”

“we made a turn aways back”

“huh?”

“yeah, remember?”

“no we didn’t”

“did”

“did not”

“well… we should’ve reached a wall by now”

“or that big door you wanted marked ‘exit’”

“hey, I’m not the one who had to take a leak”

“well I’m not the one who can’t tell a straight line from a turn”

“turd”

“dingleberry”

“Buttmunch!”

“Dickweed!”

Only when the echoes of their growing volume reached their ears did the girls remember where they were, and that announcing their location but them in dire jeopardy. They hurriedly looked around the crevasse where they lay hidden, desperate to avoid detection by their captors, and pulled each other tight together in a huddle such as they’d not created since they were small children having awakened from a nightmare.

The nightclothes that they were still wearing reinforced the imagery.

“see anything?”

“no… sorry” Sheki held her sister close and the beating of their hearts kept a sympathetic rhythm. More so than their uncles Jim and Tim or Weldon and Welford, they had always shared a deep bond that had formed in the womb and was every bit as strong today. Kasy waited until their breathing was equally timed before responding.

“me too”

“how long have we been here?”

“coupla hours, I s’pose”

“ya think mom and momma’ve noticed we’re gone”

“we’re supposed to be at cheerleading, so I dunno”

Kasy lifted her head slightly; she could see no one in the gloom.

“wanna keep moving”

“got to… it’s the only way”

They waited a few more seconds and touched heads, an unspoken agreement that gave them the initiative needed to slowly crawl up from the crumbling hole in the cement floor. Matching sets of anxious emeralds peered into every shadow and corner, eager to find the way out while doing anything to not face the evil that wore their mothers’ faces and spoke in their voices.

They saw nothing.

“wanna make a run for it?”

“what?!”

“yeah… I say we make like a library and book”

“she’ll…” Sheki shivered. “someone will hear us!”

“no way, not if we’re fast”

“I dunno…”

“come on, sis” Kasi said, glancing around. “we are totally off their radar”

“well… if you’re sure”

“hey… nothing to it but to do it”

Sheki took a few deep, steady breaths and pursed her lips.

“ok”

“ok?”

“yep… on the count of three?”

Kasy crouched like a sprinter, ready to fly. Sheki did the same.

“… one…”

“hicka bicka boo”

“… two…”

“hoosha”

“… three…”

A pair of dirty gloves clamped around their mouths so suddenly that they couldn’t even scream.

88888888

“Where is your partner?”

“Blow me.”

“I will not accept that you came here alone, so why do you insist on annoying me?” The middle-aged redhead leaned casually against the damp wall of the storage room and rolled her eyes in bemused exasperation. “And for the clone of…”

“FOR THE LAST FRIGGING TIME, I AIN’T NO CLONE!”

“… of someone who was never without a jibe or riposte, your vernacular is a little sparse.”

“And for the clone of someone whose education couldn’t help but be hindered by Stoppable’s ‘drag factor’ you have an awfully good vocabulary. My Kimmie would never say ‘vernacular’.”

Shego kicked herself mentally at her lame attempt at sarcasm; it really had been the best she could think of at the moment. She was caught, plain and simple, and the chains that bound her were something beyond her experience. Time and inactivity had brought a slight recharge to her system and she made no pretense of hiding her attempts to melt or weaken her bindings; the green glow sparkled through the links and her captor watched with interest.

“I read a lot.” A slender arm gestured at the recumbent form. “If it’s any consolation, I’m having second thoughts about you being a clone. You’ve already healed from our initial introduction.” There was the barest hint of a smile. “Far better than any artificially grown organism. It’s too bad that I won’t have time to give you a full examination… one piece at a time.” The slender form looked down at Shego in a way that made the former villain want to avert her eyes. Now Shego did look away, if only on the pretense of checking her restraints. The length of chain had been forged or chiseled from a metal she could not recognize and the links were wrapped around her wrists and ankles so tightly that she could not move at all. She remained calm and refused to let fear take over; she knew that she would escape, either on her own or once her Princess showed up, but she would be free.

And then her only problem would be how best to clean this bitch’s remains from her uniform.

“You can’t burn through those chains, you know.” Kim’s voice, but with far too much maturity. “Then again, how could you know? Would you like me to tell you about them?” Her petite hand pointed to the links. “They’re a creation of Global Justice.” She spat out the name. “The material is some sort of metalloid that even you can’t melt… and you certainly don’t have the strength to break them or the leverage to worm free.”

“You don’t seem like the artsy-craftsy type.” Shego didn’t really expect much of a reaction and wasn’t disappointed; the redhead merely shrugged.

“The metal breaks down when exposed to a very specific sonic frequency but otherwise nothing can damage it. It was mothballed from an old design intended to capture Shego.” She paused thoughtfully. “My Shego, the real Shego.”

“What do you mean, ‘your’ Shego?”

“Ah, the impetuousness of youth!” The idleness disappeared and the imperiousness returned. “Are you so eager to break free and beat me to a pulp that you’re being intentionally dense, or is it congenital?” The smaller woman crossed her arms. “This is exactly the reason that I know there is another clone out there, some simulacrum of myself that followed you, running around loose. I sent Shego… my Shego… out to look for her and also to undo any damage that you might have perpetrated before I caught you.”

“Well, I didn’t see her out there.” Shego cocked her chin… the only part of her that she could move… towards the door to her little cell. “Does she have a nice ass?”

“Excuse me?”

“Her ass. If someone’s going to go to the trouble of cloning me, they’d better get the ass right.”

The older woman in blue and white gently massaged her temple with her gloved hand.

“All this talk of who is a clone and who isn’t…”

“And the boobs. They’d better have a nice heft.”

“… is giving me a headache. It really doesn’t matter how you came into being.” She moved closer and the weird, metallic hand flexed its joins. “Have you changed your mine about telling me where she is?”

Shego wanted to cringe and pull away from that hand but that was impossible. She was now convinced that what she had originally thought was a gauntlet was in fact a fully functioning hand, albeit a cybernetic prosthesis bonded to the other woman’s arm. She had felt the unholy strength of that limb and remembered all too clearly the power of the plasma field it could generate.

She was given a respite when a noise from the other side of the door redirected their attention that way. Rusted hinges squealed and creaked as the door was slowly opened, but it was too dark to see anyone. There was a faint shuffling that made the bound woman feel uneasy, but that was nothing compared to the sickly sweet odor that assaulted her nostrils.

“… the holy being of The Supreme One guides us all towards salvation…”

The older Kim Possible sighed and rolled her eyes with a long-suffering expression.

“Speak of the Devil. Since you haven’t met my wife yet, I believe that introductions are in order.” She stood and moved aside while a travesty of the human form limped into view.

“Please allow me to introduce my better half.”

The light sufficient for Shego to see the ruined and wasted flesh and the jaundiced skin that was rife with festering wounds. She noticed the mangled limbs and the head that tilted at a disquieting angle, the white hair shorn down to the scalp and the soiled white shroud that served as the only covering for the otherwise naked form. It was all there for Shego to see and, repulsed as she was, she was far worse for having recognized her own face among those ravaged features.

The Supreme One spoke to the newcomer lovingly.

“Success, baby?”

“… success can only be found in death…” The shroud unfolded and several objects fell free to clatter on the damp cement floor. Shego recognized them all too well; they were the phosphorus grenades that she had placed around the lair. The timers on the grenades were melted beyond repair and this made the petite woman in blue and white nod with obvious satisfaction.

“Excellent. You haven’t lost your touch.”

“… thank you, pumpkin…”

“Did you see to the girls?”

“… they rest…”

“And the device?”

“… powering up…”

“Excellent!” The redhead clenched her fists and flashed a shark’s smile. “I do hope that I don’t sound too melodramatic when I point out that everything is going according to plan!”

To Be Continued…

Author’s Notes: There really was an urgent rest stop made one time at an unnamed McRestaurant in Moorefield, WV… it was totally disgusting.