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Description
Sticks And Stones

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.

SUMMARY: This is a Kim/Shego pairing fan fiction, made seasonal for Halloween and mostly the killing of a plot bunny. This is set in my own personal “Who’s Writing This Crap?’ Kigoverse, however we all know that Kasy Ann and Sheki Go Possible are the sole creations of NoDrogs and I suggest you go read his story ‘A Small Possibility’ for their origin.

TYPE: Kim/Shego, Romance, Slash

RATING: PG-13 for intimations of a physical relationship and intimate contact between consenting adult females and should also cover some occasionally harsh language. I’m not certain how it will apply to farting or yelling at authority figures. If any of this will offend you, please read something else and then seek professional help.

Sticks And Stones / One

The creature swooped and Kim ran, pumping her legs for all she was worth.

“KP! This way!”

Kim heard the call and angled her path towards the nearby copse of trees from whence it had come. The flying nightmare overhead also heard the human’s voice and considered it irrelevant; it owned the night and the moonlit sky was its playground. It had feasted on these upright cattle for millennia and there was nothing that could change this. The redhead below knew that the danger was almost upon her but all she could do was run.

“KP, hurry!”

She didn’t bother wasting her breath with a reply and instead ran faster. Her best friend and trusted partner was oft prone to needless panic but the beast circling overhead was worth every hue and cry that Ron Stoppable sent her way. It was a mystery, this creature, an abomination that seemed to have risen from nowhere in this lonely stretch of farm country to prey on the hapless travelers of rural State Route Nine. Dozens of people had been reported missing over the last three weeks and Global Justice had asked Team Possible to investigate. Two days of useless leads had finally culminated in a midnight encounter with the grotesquery itself… a winged creature that seemed part man, part gargoyle and all purposeful malevolence.

And that wasn’t even the bad part.

“KP! I really, really, REALLY mean it!!!”

She heard the crack of leathery wings and imagined that she could feel the air of their beating by the time she reached the trees. Kim Possible slipped between the trunks but didn’t slow down; she had quickly learned this night that there was nothing on Earth that could hinder this creature. As if to validate her thoughts the creature flew up and over the trees, skirting the highest branches while still keeping pace with its quarry below.

Down on the ground and already many yards behind the running Kim, a tall young man raised his weapon and took careful aim. He blew an errant strand of blond hair from his eyes and sighted in on the dark figure high overhead, barely visible through the branches in the moonlight.

“a-BOO-yah…”

His finger tightened on the trigger and a barbed grappling hook took flight, trailing a stout tether behind it. Luck, or maybe something else, guided his aim and the miniature harpoon struck and sank deep into the thick hide of the beast. The creature swerved slightly but held its course.

“Hey, KP! I got him! I got… WHOA!!!”

Ron barely had time to take a breath before he was wrenched off his feet and pulled up into the air… leaving his dark gray cargo pants snagged on a sapling about four feet off the ground.

“Ahh, man!”

He struck every branch and tree limb while the winged beast dragged him along in its wake, lifting him into the air while countless scratches and scrapes beset his face and legs. Years of adventuring had long since divested Ron from a fear of heights but the speed at which he was trailing behind the flying demon would have been enough to steal his breath away as he spun and twisted at the end of his lagging tether.

Looking down, he knew that he was higher than the tallest trees and he doubted that even his Mystical Monkey Powers would save him from a fall from this height. Ron briefly considered climbing further along the tether, possibly up to the creature carrying him. He even went so far as to let go of the grappling gun with one hand and extend it a few inches to grasp the line itself.

The line twanged. The beast glanced back and barred its teeth… and Ron found a little more breath.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

The creature smirked and resumed its pursuit with vigor.

It was far too powerful of a flier for the weight of the young man to slow it down; the meager drag was hardly noticeable. It had skulked… and flown… the Earth for eons, preying upon humanity from the shadowy fringe and haunting their nightmares until it had become a part of their myths and legends. It slept for more than two decades at a time and then, to fuel its life force and replenish its resources, it would wake for twenty-three days to hunt and feed before seeking shelter to sleep again.

That left little time for carnage but it was clever enough to wreak all that it could in the time allotted to it.

It wore a thick, pebbly hide that was impervious to most damage and the talons at the ends of those powerful claws could rend iron. The hat and coat that it occasionally wore for disguise were lost back on the highway somewhere, but they were easily replaced. The large, floppy hat was best suited to cover the wisps of scraggly white hair that crowned its head and also served to keep the savage fangs of its mouth in shadow. The long duster was equally practical as it allowed the folded wings on its back to remain out of sight.

It ate humans, but not for true sustenance because it was not made of true flesh. It lived and plotted and even dreamed but it was not a biological being; the lost origins of the beast were steeped in magic. As such, the flesh it consumed became a part of it in more of a metaphysical way rather than the merely physical. It ate eyes so that it could see, brains to facilitate thought and memory, lungs to draw in air and catch the scent of fear it required of the human cattle to distinguish potential prey from idle meat. This was how it knew exactly what could be taken from whom that would ensure the creature’s existence for another lifetime or see it through another battle.

And during the course of this night it had smelled such a power in the heart of this woman-child that it had not smelled in nigh a thousand years. If she could be caught… when it caught her… it would feast on her heart and live forever.

And THAT was the bad part. It had Shego sweating bullets, that’s for sure.

“KIMMIE!!!” The tall woman fired up her plasma until both fists glowed and she waived her arms in near panic. “Kimmie! Over here!”

She had lost track of her younger partners shortly before they had run into the trees, they being a little smaller and younger and fleeter of foot than she. The woman clad in green and black was more of a brawler and preferred to stand her ground when fighting and didn’t like gallivanting all over creation… or traipsing through a desolate field in the middle of the night, as the case may be. Shego had been itching for a showdown with the winged bastard before he had decided to take to the skies and now she was just desperate to make sure nothing terrible happened to her Princess.

The frigging critter had been much too attentive of Kimmie’s presence ever since they’d first encountered the damned thing. Now it was hot on her Princess’s heels and definitely didn’t look like it wanted to sell her Amway.

Shego reined in her plasma emission and started running towards the trees.

“KIM-MIEEEE!”

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Kim hadn’t slowed down and was almost to the opposite edge of the tiny patch of forest when she heard her mate’s shout. She dropped, rolled, and scurried behind a tree for cover while she scanned the immediate are for signs of the creature. The small grove of trees would only serve as protection for so long, and only while the beast kept to the air. All it had to do was land and follow her scent, which it had apparently been doing all night. Kim knew that she was in a tight spot and that the way out was not going to be easy.

Shego was going to kill her!

Kim hunkered down against the base of the tree when a raucous snapping of branches and violent rustling of leaves hurriedly drew close. She glanced back along the path she’d been running and saw Ron come flying towards her at a pretty fast clip.

“Hi, KP!”

He continued past her without slowing, dragged as he was from the dangling tether.

“Bye, KP!”

The redhead couldn’t be certain in the sparse moonlight, but it almost looked as if Ron had managed to lose his pants again. She suspected that her lifelong friend would have a better chance of surviving this sitch if he remained right where he was at the end of the grappling tether so, without waiting another moment, Kim rose and bolted back the way she had come.

You want me, you got to catch me, she thought.

Considering that the deeper edge of the forest had been only a few more yards beyond her hiding place, there was no time to waste before the beast had to consider her next move and chose his. Would she leave the protection of the trees or turn back? Kim chose the latter because the tight spacing between the boles would leave hardly any room for something with a wingspan as big as a Buick to maneuver, right?

She sprinted her way back towards Shego, and meanwhile…

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… Ron Stoppable dropped to the ground level and was unceremoniously dragged across the forest floor for about a dozen feet after his tether went slack. He barely had time to spit the humus from his mouth before he heard the sound of rushing wind and a dark shape with enormous wings flew down out the sky and passed within arm’s length of his head.

“Oh, crappola…” Ron stared at the useless gun in his cramping hands and watched as yards of coiled tether paid out and out as the creature flew into the forest, winding between the tree trunks.

“‘Forest good’, she said! ‘Forest good’!” Ron staggered to his feet and wiped dead leaves from his face. “‘There’s not enough room for him to fly below the tree line’, she said!” He was sore and exhausted and wished for the thousandth time that Rufus was still alive and nestled in his pocket. The naked mole rat would’ve thought of something by now. Ron felt stupid and slow and useless and the tether had almost run out.

He cursed when he collided with a nearby branch and it whipped across his face, drawing a little blood. The young man raised his hand to snap off the offending foliage when he got an idea.

Maybe he wasn’t totally useless after all.

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Shit! It wasn’t supposed to fly into the trees!

Kim had enough trouble sucking in air as she evaded her pursuer; she was almost out of breath and that didn’t happen very often. Too old at twenty-five, she mused with the one part of her brain that wasn’t focused on survival. She could hear tree limbs snapping behind her, hear the fleshy crack of the creature’s wings as it made use of what little room was available to continue its chase.

I suppose I won’t have to worry about getting any older, she mused, and the thought left her cold. Kim had run out of options. It would be upon her in moments and God only knew what it had planned for her. She poured on what speed she could and thought of her family, and meanwhile…

… Ron finished lashing the end of the tether to a tree trunk seconds before it could vanish away into the darkness.

“End of the line, Fugly!”

The line gave a mighty TWANG as it went suddenly taut, but fell limp to the ground immediately after. Ron stared down in panic at the fallen tether and wondered if his impromptu plan had failed.

An unearthly howl split the night air and Ron suspected that his plan had met with some degree of success after all.

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Agony blazed through the body of the creature and it was blinded by pain. It faltered in flight and almost struck a tree but recovered in time, prey momentarily forgotten as it glanced down along its torso to survey the damage.

There was a hole in its chest. No… it would be more accurate to say that there was a huge, ragged, gaping hole in the center of its chest, a hole big enough to drop a bowling ball through. Strands of necrotic flesh twisted at the edges as the tissue crumbled to dust in the open night air. The pain ebbed, replaced by a terrible hunger and the only force that drove the creature now was the irresistible urge to feed and heal itself.

With a mighty thrust of immense wings it pushed itself through the trees and with stolen eyes it locked onto its prey.

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“KP, it’s headed your way!!”

“Kimmie, it’s right behind you!!”

No pressure here, Kim told herself. No pressure at all.

She knew damn well that the beast was almost upon her; she could hear it plainly and even imagined that she could smell the distinct odor of decay they had first noticed about the thing. A being shrouded in death it might be, but it had proven this night that it was stronger, faster and far cleverer than they had originally estimated… and apparently impossible to kill.

The thought of killing hardly ever passed through the mind of Kimberly Ann Possible, and only then to specifically reject it as an option. Tonight, however, their list of alternatives was short. She knew then that she would die here, right here in these woods. This was the horror that she couldn’t escape and the death that she had avoided for so many years. She had been in dire straights before… and once even came so close to death that she wondered if she hadn’t really been dead for a time, but this was the final nightmare that she could not beat.

Would her end be quick or would she suffer?

It didn’t matter in the long run because Kim Possible was genetically incapable of giving up without a fight. She would run until her heart burst if that’s what it would take to win her victory, even if it were only a moral one. She thought of her family and how she would have liked to see them one last time… but here in the darkness she would die alone, almost within sight of two people that she loved most.

But all she could see in these final moments were trees, branches, leaves and Ron’s pants hanging from a branch.

Hmmm…

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The prey had turned and was running right at him! Madness!

The puny female had stopped just a few yards from the edge of the trees and was now moving back towards him at considerable speed, and she was closing the distance so quickly that he had no time to react. Shear insanity! Still… if this was the manner that she had chosen for her demise, he would accommodate her. Even now she was jumping up to hasten her fate. The creature snarled but didn’t bother to raise his claws to ward the female off. He bared his fangs and…

… promptly went blind.

Kim had leapt at the last second to make her attack and was now falling to the ground, having avoided the grasping claws of the narrowest of margins. The large, dark body careened over and past her, crashing through the few remaining trees before it would once again reach the open space of the field beyond. The exhausted redhead had little thoughts of victory, however, as she collapsed back onto the forest floor and gasped for breath. She knew that she was thoroughly spent and would have to leave anything else up to the rest of Team Possible.

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In stark fury the creature shredded the cargo pants away from its head. They still carried the scent of the young male which it had smelled earlier but had rejected his flesh as insignificant. Now the beast had not only had it missed the opportunity to finally end this chase, it had struck several trees painfully in its sightless blundering and brought more damage on itself.

Space opened up around it as, yet again, it cleared the edge of the forest and found room to turn. This prolonged stalking needed to end now, with the death of this human at his hands and with her heart in his mouth to replace the one he had just lost… a new heart that might beat for a thousand years. Oh, how he would revel in devouring her, wallowing in her corpse until every little piece was consumed. With a snarl that belied a dark intelligence, the beast cupped its wings and prepared to bank…

“Don’t tell Kimmie that I killed you, ok?”

The field beyond the trees flared with emerald fire and he beheld the other mortal, the older woman who commanded powers beyond his abilities to fathom. Eldritch flames scintillated up her arms and across her chest and a terrible heat struck the beast’s face and chest. Large areas of tissue crisped and flaked away and the exposed ruins of its inner torso started to smolder as the flames licked deeply into its body.

“Atta’ boy.”

Shego had seen her Princess stop just a few feet of the clearing but hadn’t known what Kim was doing or what had happened after. When the creature barreled into the open with Stoppable’s pants wrapped around its head, her heart had soared. Right now she let those feelings of triumph fade away, replaced by the desire to see this monster burn.

She poured on the plasma and the beast writhed on the grassy floor of the clearing. It vainly tried to fly away, but already its huge and membranous wings had been vaporized to ashes. The bony stumps thrashed in futility while it rolled and kicked in an effort to escape the green flames. The heat was like nothing that it had ever felt before in the thousand odd years since its creation, and the devastating force followed relentlessly as it dragged its torn body along the burning grass. Some parts of the demonic anatomy flashed away almost instantly while others were more resistant to the plasma briefly because of the regenerative abilities derived from the beast’s diet.

Nothing could withstand the power of the mighty Shego for very long, however, and the horrid existence of the enigmatic creature soon ended in searing agony.

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Ron and Kim staggered out of the thicket in time to see Shego busily stamping out a small fire that was burning in the grass. It would have been far more serious if there hadn’t been some rain in recent days, but the flames had been replaced by harmless smoke by the time they reached her. Bruised and sans pants, Ron was otherwise hearty but Kim felt as if her legs were spaghetti and could barely keep to her feet. Her lungs couldn’t draw air fast enough from her exertions and that made it hard for her to talk.

“Sh-sh-ego, where…?”

“Got away, Kimmie. Yep.” The tall woman shook her head in disgust and looked to the starry sky. “He got clean away.”

“He did? He shot through those trees like a bat out of Hell! How’d he…”

“Stoppable, do I know?” She dragged her boot across something in the ashes and stooped to retrieve it. She blew the soot free and tossed the belt buckle to Ron. “Sorry about your britches.”

“Aw, nuts!” He deftly caught the accessory one-handed, no small feat with his best friend hanging from his other arm. Kim didn’t buy the distraction, however.

“Shego… that thing… was headed… this way. He had to… have… flown right in your face.”

“Hello! Scorched earth! Epic battle!”

“Then where… is it?”

“Got away.”

“We’d better start looking before it gets too far!”

“Ron,” Kim sighed, “I don’t think that we’d find it.” She looked up at Shego. “Would we?”

“I dunno.”

“For the last time, where did it go?”

“It. Got. Away.”

“Really?”

“I’d swear to it. Stack of Bibles, jury of my peers. I’ll happily fill out ‘GJ’ form seven one one nine, pages one through sixteen, with everything signed and dated in triplicate.” Shego crossed her arms and exchanged a hard stare at her petite wife. “I’d even sign my real name.”

Ron Stoppable gave up wondering why the women were looking so intently at each other like that and wished that he would remember to bring a spare set of drawers. The night air was cold as it whipped between his legs! He felt movement at his side when Kim finally looked away and nodded.

“Ok.”

“Ok?” Shego’s stare was just as hard but there was concern there, too.

“Ok.” Her voice was soft, almost careless. “We gave chase, it evaded, we tracked it here, it pursued me for some unexplained reason and then… “ She eyed the burnt patch of ground one more time. “It disappeared.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I’ll even sign the paperwork myself.” She managed a tired smile and then nudged Ron. “Let me down, will you?”

“Down? You ok, KP?”

“Kimmie?”

“Chill, both of you. Just help me down before I fall down. There’s a chance that you’re gonna have to carry me back to the car anyway.”

Ron lowered the lithe woman gently into the cool grass just as her legs gave way, getting a sudden and unexpected assist from Shego. They carefully deposited Kim and the lanky young man found other things to occupy his attention as the former thief bent low to plant a kiss on Kim’s cheek.

“I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

“Thanks for…”

“Don’t mention it. Ever. To anyone. Not even me.”

“You got it, boss.”

“Lord, I’m hosed. I may never walk again.” Kim let her body relax for the first time in hours. She had a marvelous view of the clear, black sky but dawn was drawing close and the stars were already fading. “I owe you both my life.”

“What’d ya think it wanted KP?”

This earned him two incredulous stares.

“Doy!”

“It wanted Kimmie, doofus!”

“But what for?”

“Hungry?”

“Mm? What’s that, baby?”

“Either of you two world-savers hungry?” Shego was bored already. “I’m tired, too, if anyone cares and I want to go home and get something to eat.”

“I can’t remember if Bueno Nacho is open this late or not.”

“Geez, Stoppable! I don’t want any Mexican food this late, or early, or whatever!”

“There’s always the naco.”

“Cram your damn naco!”

“If I can say something, please and thank you?” Kim giggled from ground level. “We’ll need to start home pretty soon if we’re to make it home by lunch time, if ever. I don’t like to keep foisting the girls on their grandparents more than we have to.”

“Oooo, we can take them out for lunch and then shopping.”

“That’s a yes vote from Shego. How about you, Ron? You for hitting the road right now?”

“Sure. I, uh, kinda wanted to keep a… previous engagement that I made for this evening, anyway.” His fair complexion registered an uncharacteristic blush and Shego had been watching for it.

“You just want to visit Bonnie and Alexander, don’t you?”

“Yeah. So? She’s my… our friend!”

“You get her knocked up yet?”

“Wha-wha-what!?”

“SHEGO!!”

“You planning on giving Alexander a little brother or sister yet, or… OW!” Shego hopped back and bent to massage her sore ankle. “I guess THAT leg isn’t too damaged if it can kick!”

“That’s it, we’re leaving now.”

“Then you’d better ask Stoppable to carry your scrawny ass! My ankle hurts to much for me to carry you!”

“Ron, the keys are in my right, front poc…”

“Cool!”

“Nope, no way. Stoppable, the way you drive, we’ll be lucky to get back within the week. I’m driving.”

“Uncool!”

“And the way you drive, Shego, we’ll be lucky to get back in one piece without a speeding ticket.” Kim had to grin. “Ron drives.”

“The return of cool!” He smiled from ear to ear as he knelt down to Kim’s side. “And I promise that I’ll have us all home by lunch, if not breakfast.”

“No way does he get to reach in for those keys!” The tall woman’s tone held no small amount of menace. “No one else gets in those baggy pants but me.”

“Ah, man! I never get to have any fu… GEEZ! KIDDING!” The young man bolted as soon as Shego ignited her plasma and found reserves of strength that he didn’t know he had left. Kim rolled herself over and watched with a tired smile as her best friend ran for his life from the growling woman clad in green and black.

To Be Continued…

Author’s Notes: Oooo…excitement!

Description
Sticks And Stones

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.

SUMMARY: This is a Kim/Shego pairing fan fiction, made seasonal for Halloween and mostly the killing of a plot bunny. This is set in my own personal “Who’s Writing This Crap?’ Kigoverse, however we all know that Kasy Ann and Sheki Go Possible are the sole creations of NoDrogs and I suggest you go read his story ‘A Small Possibility’ for their origin.

TYPE: Kim/Shego, Romance, Slash

RATING: PG-13 for intimations of a physical relationship and intimate contact between consenting adult females and should also cover some occasionally harsh language. I’m not certain how it will apply to farting or yelling at authority figures. If any of this will offend you, please read something else and then seek professional help.

Sticks And Stones / One

The creature swooped and Kim ran, pumping her legs for all she was worth.

“KP! This way!”

Kim heard the call and angled her path towards the nearby copse of trees from whence it had come. The flying nightmare overhead also heard the human’s voice and considered it irrelevant; it owned the night and the moonlit sky was its playground. It had feasted on these upright cattle for millennia and there was nothing that could change this. The redhead below knew that the danger was almost upon her but all she could do was run.

“KP, hurry!”

She didn’t bother wasting her breath with a reply and instead ran faster. Her best friend and trusted partner was oft prone to needless panic but the beast circling overhead was worth every hue and cry that Ron Stoppable sent her way. It was a mystery, this creature, an abomination that seemed to have risen from nowhere in this lonely stretch of farm country to prey on the hapless travelers of rural State Route Nine. Dozens of people had been reported missing over the last three weeks and Global Justice had asked Team Possible to investigate. Two days of useless leads had finally culminated in a midnight encounter with the grotesquery itself… a winged creature that seemed part man, part gargoyle and all purposeful malevolence.

And that wasn’t even the bad part.

“KP! I really, really, REALLY mean it!!!”

She heard the crack of leathery wings and imagined that she could feel the air of their beating by the time she reached the trees. Kim Possible slipped between the trunks but didn’t slow down; she had quickly learned this night that there was nothing on Earth that could hinder this creature. As if to validate her thoughts the creature flew up and over the trees, skirting the highest branches while still keeping pace with its quarry below.

Down on the ground and already many yards behind the running Kim, a tall young man raised his weapon and took careful aim. He blew an errant strand of blond hair from his eyes and sighted in on the dark figure high overhead, barely visible through the branches in the moonlight.

“a-BOO-yah…”

His finger tightened on the trigger and a barbed grappling hook took flight, trailing a stout tether behind it. Luck, or maybe something else, guided his aim and the miniature harpoon struck and sank deep into the thick hide of the beast. The creature swerved slightly but held its course.

“Hey, KP! I got him! I got… WHOA!!!”

Ron barely had time to take a breath before he was wrenched off his feet and pulled up into the air… leaving his dark gray cargo pants snagged on a sapling about four feet off the ground.

“Ahh, man!”

He struck every branch and tree limb while the winged beast dragged him along in its wake, lifting him into the air while countless scratches and scrapes beset his face and legs. Years of adventuring had long since divested Ron from a fear of heights but the speed at which he was trailing behind the flying demon would have been enough to steal his breath away as he spun and twisted at the end of his lagging tether.

Looking down, he knew that he was higher than the tallest trees and he doubted that even his Mystical Monkey Powers would save him from a fall from this height. Ron briefly considered climbing further along the tether, possibly up to the creature carrying him. He even went so far as to let go of the grappling gun with one hand and extend it a few inches to grasp the line itself.

The line twanged. The beast glanced back and barred its teeth… and Ron found a little more breath.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

The creature smirked and resumed its pursuit with vigor.

It was far too powerful of a flier for the weight of the young man to slow it down; the meager drag was hardly noticeable. It had skulked… and flown… the Earth for eons, preying upon humanity from the shadowy fringe and haunting their nightmares until it had become a part of their myths and legends. It slept for more than two decades at a time and then, to fuel its life force and replenish its resources, it would wake for twenty-three days to hunt and feed before seeking shelter to sleep again.

That left little time for carnage but it was clever enough to wreak all that it could in the time allotted to it.

It wore a thick, pebbly hide that was impervious to most damage and the talons at the ends of those powerful claws could rend iron. The hat and coat that it occasionally wore for disguise were lost back on the highway somewhere, but they were easily replaced. The large, floppy hat was best suited to cover the wisps of scraggly white hair that crowned its head and also served to keep the savage fangs of its mouth in shadow. The long duster was equally practical as it allowed the folded wings on its back to remain out of sight.

It ate humans, but not for true sustenance because it was not made of true flesh. It lived and plotted and even dreamed but it was not a biological being; the lost origins of the beast were steeped in magic. As such, the flesh it consumed became a part of it in more of a metaphysical way rather than the merely physical. It ate eyes so that it could see, brains to facilitate thought and memory, lungs to draw in air and catch the scent of fear it required of the human cattle to distinguish potential prey from idle meat. This was how it knew exactly what could be taken from whom that would ensure the creature’s existence for another lifetime or see it through another battle.

And during the course of this night it had smelled such a power in the heart of this woman-child that it had not smelled in nigh a thousand years. If she could be caught… when it caught her… it would feast on her heart and live forever.

And THAT was the bad part. It had Shego sweating bullets, that’s for sure.

“KIMMIE!!!” The tall woman fired up her plasma until both fists glowed and she waived her arms in near panic. “Kimmie! Over here!”

She had lost track of her younger partners shortly before they had run into the trees, they being a little smaller and younger and fleeter of foot than she. The woman clad in green and black was more of a brawler and preferred to stand her ground when fighting and didn’t like gallivanting all over creation… or traipsing through a desolate field in the middle of the night, as the case may be. Shego had been itching for a showdown with the winged bastard before he had decided to take to the skies and now she was just desperate to make sure nothing terrible happened to her Princess.

The frigging critter had been much too attentive of Kimmie’s presence ever since they’d first encountered the damned thing. Now it was hot on her Princess’s heels and definitely didn’t look like it wanted to sell her Amway.

Shego reined in her plasma emission and started running towards the trees.

“KIM-MIEEEE!”

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Kim hadn’t slowed down and was almost to the opposite edge of the tiny patch of forest when she heard her mate’s shout. She dropped, rolled, and scurried behind a tree for cover while she scanned the immediate are for signs of the creature. The small grove of trees would only serve as protection for so long, and only while the beast kept to the air. All it had to do was land and follow her scent, which it had apparently been doing all night. Kim knew that she was in a tight spot and that the way out was not going to be easy.

Shego was going to kill her!

Kim hunkered down against the base of the tree when a raucous snapping of branches and violent rustling of leaves hurriedly drew close. She glanced back along the path she’d been running and saw Ron come flying towards her at a pretty fast clip.

“Hi, KP!”

He continued past her without slowing, dragged as he was from the dangling tether.

“Bye, KP!”

The redhead couldn’t be certain in the sparse moonlight, but it almost looked as if Ron had managed to lose his pants again. She suspected that her lifelong friend would have a better chance of surviving this sitch if he remained right where he was at the end of the grappling tether so, without waiting another moment, Kim rose and bolted back the way she had come.

You want me, you got to catch me, she thought.

Considering that the deeper edge of the forest had been only a few more yards beyond her hiding place, there was no time to waste before the beast had to consider her next move and chose his. Would she leave the protection of the trees or turn back? Kim chose the latter because the tight spacing between the boles would leave hardly any room for something with a wingspan as big as a Buick to maneuver, right?

She sprinted her way back towards Shego, and meanwhile…

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… Ron Stoppable dropped to the ground level and was unceremoniously dragged across the forest floor for about a dozen feet after his tether went slack. He barely had time to spit the humus from his mouth before he heard the sound of rushing wind and a dark shape with enormous wings flew down out the sky and passed within arm’s length of his head.

“Oh, crappola…” Ron stared at the useless gun in his cramping hands and watched as yards of coiled tether paid out and out as the creature flew into the forest, winding between the tree trunks.

“‘Forest good’, she said! ‘Forest good’!” Ron staggered to his feet and wiped dead leaves from his face. “‘There’s not enough room for him to fly below the tree line’, she said!” He was sore and exhausted and wished for the thousandth time that Rufus was still alive and nestled in his pocket. The naked mole rat would’ve thought of something by now. Ron felt stupid and slow and useless and the tether had almost run out.

He cursed when he collided with a nearby branch and it whipped across his face, drawing a little blood. The young man raised his hand to snap off the offending foliage when he got an idea.

Maybe he wasn’t totally useless after all.

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Shit! It wasn’t supposed to fly into the trees!

Kim had enough trouble sucking in air as she evaded her pursuer; she was almost out of breath and that didn’t happen very often. Too old at twenty-five, she mused with the one part of her brain that wasn’t focused on survival. She could hear tree limbs snapping behind her, hear the fleshy crack of the creature’s wings as it made use of what little room was available to continue its chase.

I suppose I won’t have to worry about getting any older, she mused, and the thought left her cold. Kim had run out of options. It would be upon her in moments and God only knew what it had planned for her. She poured on what speed she could and thought of her family, and meanwhile…

… Ron finished lashing the end of the tether to a tree trunk seconds before it could vanish away into the darkness.

“End of the line, Fugly!”

The line gave a mighty TWANG as it went suddenly taut, but fell limp to the ground immediately after. Ron stared down in panic at the fallen tether and wondered if his impromptu plan had failed.

An unearthly howl split the night air and Ron suspected that his plan had met with some degree of success after all.

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Agony blazed through the body of the creature and it was blinded by pain. It faltered in flight and almost struck a tree but recovered in time, prey momentarily forgotten as it glanced down along its torso to survey the damage.

There was a hole in its chest. No… it would be more accurate to say that there was a huge, ragged, gaping hole in the center of its chest, a hole big enough to drop a bowling ball through. Strands of necrotic flesh twisted at the edges as the tissue crumbled to dust in the open night air. The pain ebbed, replaced by a terrible hunger and the only force that drove the creature now was the irresistible urge to feed and heal itself.

With a mighty thrust of immense wings it pushed itself through the trees and with stolen eyes it locked onto its prey.

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“KP, it’s headed your way!!”

“Kimmie, it’s right behind you!!”

No pressure here, Kim told herself. No pressure at all.

She knew damn well that the beast was almost upon her; she could hear it plainly and even imagined that she could smell the distinct odor of decay they had first noticed about the thing. A being shrouded in death it might be, but it had proven this night that it was stronger, faster and far cleverer than they had originally estimated… and apparently impossible to kill.

The thought of killing hardly ever passed through the mind of Kimberly Ann Possible, and only then to specifically reject it as an option. Tonight, however, their list of alternatives was short. She knew then that she would die here, right here in these woods. This was the horror that she couldn’t escape and the death that she had avoided for so many years. She had been in dire straights before… and once even came so close to death that she wondered if she hadn’t really been dead for a time, but this was the final nightmare that she could not beat.

Would her end be quick or would she suffer?

It didn’t matter in the long run because Kim Possible was genetically incapable of giving up without a fight. She would run until her heart burst if that’s what it would take to win her victory, even if it were only a moral one. She thought of her family and how she would have liked to see them one last time… but here in the darkness she would die alone, almost within sight of two people that she loved most.

But all she could see in these final moments were trees, branches, leaves and Ron’s pants hanging from a branch.

Hmmm…

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The prey had turned and was running right at him! Madness!

The puny female had stopped just a few yards from the edge of the trees and was now moving back towards him at considerable speed, and she was closing the distance so quickly that he had no time to react. Shear insanity! Still… if this was the manner that she had chosen for her demise, he would accommodate her. Even now she was jumping up to hasten her fate. The creature snarled but didn’t bother to raise his claws to ward the female off. He bared his fangs and…

… promptly went blind.

Kim had leapt at the last second to make her attack and was now falling to the ground, having avoided the grasping claws of the narrowest of margins. The large, dark body careened over and past her, crashing through the few remaining trees before it would once again reach the open space of the field beyond. The exhausted redhead had little thoughts of victory, however, as she collapsed back onto the forest floor and gasped for breath. She knew that she was thoroughly spent and would have to leave anything else up to the rest of Team Possible.

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In stark fury the creature shredded the cargo pants away from its head. They still carried the scent of the young male which it had smelled earlier but had rejected his flesh as insignificant. Now the beast had not only had it missed the opportunity to finally end this chase, it had struck several trees painfully in its sightless blundering and brought more damage on itself.

Space opened up around it as, yet again, it cleared the edge of the forest and found room to turn. This prolonged stalking needed to end now, with the death of this human at his hands and with her heart in his mouth to replace the one he had just lost… a new heart that might beat for a thousand years. Oh, how he would revel in devouring her, wallowing in her corpse until every little piece was consumed. With a snarl that belied a dark intelligence, the beast cupped its wings and prepared to bank…

“Don’t tell Kimmie that I killed you, ok?”

The field beyond the trees flared with emerald fire and he beheld the other mortal, the older woman who commanded powers beyond his abilities to fathom. Eldritch flames scintillated up her arms and across her chest and a terrible heat struck the beast’s face and chest. Large areas of tissue crisped and flaked away and the exposed ruins of its inner torso started to smolder as the flames licked deeply into its body.

“Atta’ boy.”

Shego had seen her Princess stop just a few feet of the clearing but hadn’t known what Kim was doing or what had happened after. When the creature barreled into the open with Stoppable’s pants wrapped around its head, her heart had soared. Right now she let those feelings of triumph fade away, replaced by the desire to see this monster burn.

She poured on the plasma and the beast writhed on the grassy floor of the clearing. It vainly tried to fly away, but already its huge and membranous wings had been vaporized to ashes. The bony stumps thrashed in futility while it rolled and kicked in an effort to escape the green flames. The heat was like nothing that it had ever felt before in the thousand odd years since its creation, and the devastating force followed relentlessly as it dragged its torn body along the burning grass. Some parts of the demonic anatomy flashed away almost instantly while others were more resistant to the plasma briefly because of the regenerative abilities derived from the beast’s diet.

Nothing could withstand the power of the mighty Shego for very long, however, and the horrid existence of the enigmatic creature soon ended in searing agony.

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Ron and Kim staggered out of the thicket in time to see Shego busily stamping out a small fire that was burning in the grass. It would have been far more serious if there hadn’t been some rain in recent days, but the flames had been replaced by harmless smoke by the time they reached her. Bruised and sans pants, Ron was otherwise hearty but Kim felt as if her legs were spaghetti and could barely keep to her feet. Her lungs couldn’t draw air fast enough from her exertions and that made it hard for her to talk.

“Sh-sh-ego, where…?”

“Got away, Kimmie. Yep.” The tall woman shook her head in disgust and looked to the starry sky. “He got clean away.”

“He did? He shot through those trees like a bat out of Hell! How’d he…”

“Stoppable, do I know?” She dragged her boot across something in the ashes and stooped to retrieve it. She blew the soot free and tossed the belt buckle to Ron. “Sorry about your britches.”

“Aw, nuts!” He deftly caught the accessory one-handed, no small feat with his best friend hanging from his other arm. Kim didn’t buy the distraction, however.

“Shego… that thing… was headed… this way. He had to… have… flown right in your face.”

“Hello! Scorched earth! Epic battle!”

“Then where… is it?”

“Got away.”

“We’d better start looking before it gets too far!”

“Ron,” Kim sighed, “I don’t think that we’d find it.” She looked up at Shego. “Would we?”

“I dunno.”

“For the last time, where did it go?”

“It. Got. Away.”

“Really?”

“I’d swear to it. Stack of Bibles, jury of my peers. I’ll happily fill out ‘GJ’ form seven one one nine, pages one through sixteen, with everything signed and dated in triplicate.” Shego crossed her arms and exchanged a hard stare at her petite wife. “I’d even sign my real name.”

Ron Stoppable gave up wondering why the women were looking so intently at each other like that and wished that he would remember to bring a spare set of drawers. The night air was cold as it whipped between his legs! He felt movement at his side when Kim finally looked away and nodded.

“Ok.”

“Ok?” Shego’s stare was just as hard but there was concern there, too.

“Ok.” Her voice was soft, almost careless. “We gave chase, it evaded, we tracked it here, it pursued me for some unexplained reason and then… “ She eyed the burnt patch of ground one more time. “It disappeared.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I’ll even sign the paperwork myself.” She managed a tired smile and then nudged Ron. “Let me down, will you?”

“Down? You ok, KP?”

“Kimmie?”

“Chill, both of you. Just help me down before I fall down. There’s a chance that you’re gonna have to carry me back to the car anyway.”

Ron lowered the lithe woman gently into the cool grass just as her legs gave way, getting a sudden and unexpected assist from Shego. They carefully deposited Kim and the lanky young man found other things to occupy his attention as the former thief bent low to plant a kiss on Kim’s cheek.

“I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

“Thanks for…”

“Don’t mention it. Ever. To anyone. Not even me.”

“You got it, boss.”

“Lord, I’m hosed. I may never walk again.” Kim let her body relax for the first time in hours. She had a marvelous view of the clear, black sky but dawn was drawing close and the stars were already fading. “I owe you both my life.”

“What’d ya think it wanted KP?”

This earned him two incredulous stares.

“Doy!”

“It wanted Kimmie, doofus!”

“But what for?”

“Hungry?”

“Mm? What’s that, baby?”

“Either of you two world-savers hungry?” Shego was bored already. “I’m tired, too, if anyone cares and I want to go home and get something to eat.”

“I can’t remember if Bueno Nacho is open this late or not.”

“Geez, Stoppable! I don’t want any Mexican food this late, or early, or whatever!”

“There’s always the naco.”

“Cram your damn naco!”

“If I can say something, please and thank you?” Kim giggled from ground level. “We’ll need to start home pretty soon if we’re to make it home by lunch time, if ever. I don’t like to keep foisting the girls on their grandparents more than we have to.”

“Oooo, we can take them out for lunch and then shopping.”

“That’s a yes vote from Shego. How about you, Ron? You for hitting the road right now?”

“Sure. I, uh, kinda wanted to keep a… previous engagement that I made for this evening, anyway.” His fair complexion registered an uncharacteristic blush and Shego had been watching for it.

“You just want to visit Bonnie and Alexander, don’t you?”

“Yeah. So? She’s my… our friend!”

“You get her knocked up yet?”

“Wha-wha-what!?”

“SHEGO!!”

“You planning on giving Alexander a little brother or sister yet, or… OW!” Shego hopped back and bent to massage her sore ankle. “I guess THAT leg isn’t too damaged if it can kick!”

“That’s it, we’re leaving now.”

“Then you’d better ask Stoppable to carry your scrawny ass! My ankle hurts to much for me to carry you!”

“Ron, the keys are in my right, front poc…”

“Cool!”

“Nope, no way. Stoppable, the way you drive, we’ll be lucky to get back within the week. I’m driving.”

“Uncool!”

“And the way you drive, Shego, we’ll be lucky to get back in one piece without a speeding ticket.” Kim had to grin. “Ron drives.”

“The return of cool!” He smiled from ear to ear as he knelt down to Kim’s side. “And I promise that I’ll have us all home by lunch, if not breakfast.”

“No way does he get to reach in for those keys!” The tall woman’s tone held no small amount of menace. “No one else gets in those baggy pants but me.”

“Ah, man! I never get to have any fu… GEEZ! KIDDING!” The young man bolted as soon as Shego ignited her plasma and found reserves of strength that he didn’t know he had left. Kim rolled herself over and watched with a tired smile as her best friend ran for his life from the growling woman clad in green and black.

To Be Continued…

Author’s Notes: Oooo…excitement!