Story: Undercurrent (chapter 6)

Undercurrent (6)

Author: Allaine

Rating: PG-13

"All right, Miss Go is ready for surgery," the anesthesiologist told Mrs. Dr. Possible.

"Good," she said. She turned to Kim. The two young women were in a most unusual position for an operating room. Had someone entered the room and taken a quick glance, he might have thought they were Siamese twins conjoined at the head. Shego and Kim were both lying down on separate operating tables, their heads raised in such a manner that their collars could be attacked from any and all points of entry. The collars were as close to each other as possible to minimize the shocking effect.

Minimize was the operative word. She was still upset with both women for their failure to notify their doctors that Shego's collar had begun administering medium shocks no matter HOW close the two collars were to each other. "What's a little pain when lives are at stake?" Kim had asked.

"Of course your life is what matters most to me, Kim," she had replied, "but I'm also concerned about the quality of that life. There's a point where repeated electrocution can have long-term effects on a person's nervous system. You know about THAT danger as well as I do, judging by what you said earlier about paralysis."

Kim had looked down, and Mrs. Dr. Possible had been forced to suppress her frustration. Getting angry at Kim in her condition was completely unacceptable.

The fact remained, however, that even now while she slept, Shego was being shocked by her collar at ten-second intervals. This had created an added complication. If any doctor was in contact with the collar during one of those electric pulses, he or she would ALSO be shocked. Thus they'd been placed in the difficult position of having a nurse to one side counting off every ten seconds. Mrs. Dr. Possible and Dr. Edwards would be working simultaneously on Shego and Kim's collars, but every ten seconds Mrs. Dr. Possible would be given a two-second warning. Her colleague would be forced to stop working as well, even though Kim's collar had not begun shocking her, because there was a fear that if he got too far ahead of her, Shego's collar would go into danger mode and kill the woman.

Mrs. Dr. Possible sighed. This wasn't a brain she was about to operate on, but considering how devilishly tricky a proposition brain surgery was, neurosurgeons such as herself were an excellent choice. Still, this would be one of the most unique and difficult operations of her career.

"Mom?"

She looked down at Kim. She hadn't been anesthetized yet. "Sorry," she said. "I was just thinking."

"I'm sorry about before."

"It's all right, honey," Kim's mother said. "You just go to sleep now, and when you wake up, this will also be a very bad memory."

"Good," Kim murmured. "I love you, Mom."

Mrs. Dr. Possible blinked back a tear. "I know, sweetie. Your father and I love you too." Kim's father was pacing outside somewhere. She assumed Ron was with him, although she hadn't seen Ron in quite a while. Where else could he be, though? She looked at Dr. Edwards. "You can begin whenever you're ready, doctor," she told him.

He nodded. "Since Ms. Go is taken care of, let's put Ms. Possible under then."

"Mom?"

"I'm here, Kim."

"I'm - not sure Go is her last name."

"Any idea what IS?"

"I don't think we're ever going to be close enough for me to ask that question, Mom."

"Well, Go will do for now," Mrs. Dr. Possible said. Although what kind of parent would name their daughter "She" was beyond her.

As the mask was lowered onto Kim's face, Mrs. Dr. Possible turned her head slightly. What was that noise? There appeared to be some kind of commotion outside the OR. Didn't people understand that you were supposed to be quiet in -

"You may think you're all that . . . eh, Stoppable - "

Mrs. Dr. Possible gasped. "Hold it!" she said to Dr. Edwards. She walked toward the OR doors and flung them open.

"But you're not!" Dr. Drakken shrieked at Ron.

"Drew," Mrs. Dr. Possible said with a menace that was barely contained. "What are YOU doing here, after what you did to my daughter!"

He cringed from her, but Ron was right behind him and he wasn't able to back away. "Uh, well, hello," he said. "You're looking well - "

She grabbed him by his blue coat, a physical move that surprised them both. "You tried to KILL Kim, and you still might succeed, you bastard," she growled.

Dr. Drakken offered her the rolled-up papers in one hand. "These are the designs for my invention," he said. "You should be able to use those to deactivate them."

"Why should I believe you?" she asked, eyeing the plans suspiciously.

"Because I have come to the realization that Shego's life is too important!" he said grandly.

Mrs. Dr. Possible just looked at him.

Dr. Drakken stomped his foot. "The buffoon wouldn't have been able to drag me here if I had had Shego!" he wailed.

"Hello? I have a name, remember?"

The mad scientist grumbled and pulled a white index card from his pocket. "Ron Stoppable," he muttered, reading aloud from the card.

"Better," Ron said. "Although I may have you write my name one hundred times when this is over."

"Ron?" Mrs. Dr. Possible asked, startled. "You brought him here?"

He turned slightly red. "Yeah, well, Wade helped. After KP suggested that having me around wouldn't exactly improve Shego's mood, he got me Drakken's location."

"Still, he must have henchmen and death rays and - "

"My henchmen have the day off," Dr. Drakken grumbled.

"Kim needed those plans," Ron said simply. "The other half of Team Possible - other two-thirds, right, buddy?"

Rufus poked his head out. "Uh-huh, uh-huh."

"We don't help save the world for nothing, you know?" Ron finished.

Mrs. Dr. Possible finally took the plans from Drakken's outstretched hand. "Thank you, Drew," she said insincerely. "I'll make sure the police know you're to be kept in maximum security prison."

"Eh, maximum - security?"

"We wouldn't want Shego finding you when she comes through this, would we?"

Dr. Drakken whimpered.

"KP?"

"Ron," Kim whispered, turning her head to the left. She realized she was in a hospital bed, and Ron was sitting next to her. "You came."

"Hey, what are friends for?" he asked, his infectious smile appearing in an instant.

Kim wanted to reach toward her neck, but she was afraid to. "Ron - is it?"

Ron took her hand by the wrist and placed it gently against her neck. The only thing she felt there was layers of gauze and bandaging. "It is," he confirmed.

She breathed a sigh of relief, but she wasn't out of the woods yet. Gingerly she tried to wiggle her toes, and she was gratified when they all moved. "Do you know if there were any complications?" she asked anyway.

"Actually, it only took a couple minutes."

"That's ALL? After all that?"

"Well, it DID become much easier when your mother got all of Drakken's original designs for the collars," Ron told her.

Kim stared at him for a moment. "It was you, wasn't it?" she said. "You - you got them for me. You went to his hideout all by YOURSELF, and you got them, right?"

"Wade helped," he said, just like he'd told her mother. "And Rufus."

Tears brimmed in her eyes. "You really are the man, Ron," she said.

His cheeks flushed and he looked down. "Where'd I be without my best friend, huh?"

Kim nodded. "Same here. Ouch."

"Your mother said your neck is still going to be sore for a few days," he told her. "So you're not going home until tomorrow at the earliest."

"Fine," she sighed. Then she stopped. "So Shego, she's all right too, right?"

Ron scratched the back of his neck. "I assume so."

"You assume? Didn't you ask?"

"Well, no one's really sure. She's gone, Kim."

She stared at him. "Gone!"

"All I know is, she came through the surgery fine, just like you," Ron explained. "They put her in a room on the top floor, and they put a guard outside her door."

"But not in her room," Kim said.

"Nope."

"Why didn't they just put her in a wheelchair and push her out the front door?" Kim asked, irritated. Sometimes she wished she had the comet-induced ability to heal extra-fast like Shego did.

Ron chuckled. "Mr. P said she should be all right. She broke Drakken out of prison two hours ago. Actually, 'abducted' is the word he used. Looks like Drakken really, REALLY didn't want to go with her."

Kim smiled. "Remember how angry she was after the mind-control incident?"

"That mad, huh?"

"TWICE as mad."

"Ooo," Ron said. "My heart bleeds for the guy. Still, she won't kill him. And in a week or two, we'll all be back to normal. We fight Shego, we - you, anyway - beat Shego, and we stop Drakken. Just the way we like it."

"Yeah," Kim replied. "Just how everyone likes it."

Or did they?

Shego, however, was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Drakken.

Normally, Kim was thankful when the villains laid low, but this time she felt a different emotion - worry. Two very real possibilities occurred to her as two weeks became two months without a single sighting. Either Ron was wrong and Shego HAD killed Drakken - and she had no idea how she felt about THAT - or Shego's greater exposure to electric shocks had permanently disabled the villainess.

And that idea bothered Kim to no end.

Therefore, it was with gratitude that she greeted Wade's news that Drakken had announced he was in possession of an oversized death ray, and that he would vaporize Australia's major cities unless they made him ruler of the western half of the continent.

Enormous laser cannons and outlandish demands - two hallmarks of Drakken's career as a megalomaniac.

Kim's gratitude was tempered, however, by the fact that Drakken's deranged ultimatum had made no mention of Shego. It was highly unlikely that Drakken would dare to cross paths with her without Shego protecting him, but there was still a chance . . .

And so, as Kim and Ron made their way "down under", Kim discovered that she was more worried for Shego than she was for the people of Australia.

Well, actually, she wasn't worried at all for Australia. After all, she WAS Kim Possible.

The lair was unguarded. The front gate was open. No one could be seen waiting. "Definitely a trap," Kim agreed. "Afraid?"

"Are you kidding?"

Cutting loose their parachutes, Kim and Ron carefully made their way into Drakken's base. Within ten feet of the opening, steel doors slammed shut behind them.

"Original," Kim and Ron said in unison.

"Does anything about this setup strike you as especially original?"

Kim's eyes zeroed in on a small, green glow in the darkness. "Shego?" she asked.

The lights came on, blinding them both. Kim put a hand over her eyes and saw that, despite the hangar bay doors they'd entered through, they were standing in a narrow corridor that appeared to have been hewn from a rock cliff. Shego lounged against the wall at the other end, one hand glowing with plasma. "You were thinking someone else?" she replied sardonically.

Kim exhaled slightly. That was the only sign she gave that she was happy to see Shego like this. "I guess not. Like you said, this feels like one big rerun."

"Tell me about it," Shego sighed. "Dr. D had two whole MONTHS to come up with a plan, and what does he do? He builds a giant death ray! I tell you, it makes me doubt the man's intelligence." Then she chuckled. "Of course, what doesn't?"

Kim looked at Ron. "How about you find Drakken, Ron? I think Shego and I need some alone time."

"Uh, KP? Not exactly a lot of room here."

"Don't worry. I think Shego will let you past. Right, Shego? Let's do girl talk."

Shego cocked her head. "Sure, why not?" she said. "I heard this story about how Stoppable here captured Dr. D all by himself. I'd like to see if it was a fluke."

Ron looked doubtfully at them both. "Um, okay then?"

He made his way toward Shego. When he was almost there, she stepped back and gestured impatiently for him to pass. "Haven't got all day, buffoon," she said.

"Aw man," Ron complained as he kept walking. "I finally get Drakken to remember my name, and now SHE forgets it!"

Shego watched him leave. Then she turned back to Kim. "What say we find something more spacious?" She pounded the wall with her fist.

There must have been a hidden button, because the floor dropped from below the feet of both women, plunging them into darkness. Kim quickly found herself in a cavernous underground airplane hangar that was curiously empty. "I guess the Learjet is late?" she quipped.

"I wanted us to have PLENTY of room, Pumpkin," Shego said. "And Drakken's been awfully keen on giving me what I want these past couple months, considering he almost got me killed twice and all."

"Where have you been?" Kim asked neutrally, not wanting to show any sign that she'd cared.

Shego shrugged. "Two weeks' paid vacation," she said.

"And the rest?"

"Okay, maybe it was more than two weeks," Shego said curtly. "We fighting or not?"

"I guess we're fighting," Kim replied. "It's what you said you wanted."

"SOMEone seems to have figured out that I always get what I want," Shego said, grinning. Then she ran forward, igniting the plasma in her other hand.

Kim supposed this was what she'd wanted too. As they traded the first few kicks and punches, she was struck by how familiar it felt. Familiar almost in a good way, if you ignored the pain element of what they did.

Shego sneered at her as she slashed the air where Kim's head had been a moment before. But Kim had ducked before burying the toe of her boot in Shego's stomach. Shego bent over, exhaling loudly as the air was expelled from her lungs.

"Oh God, Shego! Are you okay?"

The words had left her mouth before she even knew she'd said them. She slapped her hands over her lips, as if doing so could take them back.

Judging by the way Shego's eyes grew round with shock, and perhaps even horror, Kim knew they had most definitely not been taken back.

Shego's eyes then narrowed in fury. "What did you say?" she demanded. "What did you FUCKING say?"

"Shego, I - "

"You just have to be so goddamn GOOD, don't you?" Shego snarled at her. "You - do you want to know the real reason I've been gone for two months? I was trying to avoid shit like this! I tried to give you plenty of time to forget about what happened between us, and remember who we really are! We're enemies, got that?"

"Shego, it doesn't work like that!" Kim shot back.

"For softies like you, maybe," Shego sneered. "But I can put you BACK in that hospital the same as snapping my fingers!"

They were still just a couple feet from each other, and Shego's fist came toward her face so quickly that Kim, already astonished by the vehemence of Shego's reaction, had no time to block it. Instinctively she closed her eyes.

And the blow never came.

Kim opened her eyes, and Shego's fist was a mere inch from her nose. She could even feel the heat of Shego's plasma. "Shego?"

Shego lowered her hand slowly. She tried to say something, but she seemed only able to make inarticulate noises.

"That wasn't the real reason, was it?" Kim suddenly realized. "You haven't been gone all this time because of me. You've been trying to tell yourself that what happened between us didn't matter to you. You've been trying to forget!"

Shego backed away two steps before her face darkened with rage. She screamed with fury as she turned away from Kim and began throwing balls of plasma into the walls.

Kim just stood there. It looked like their status quo had changed.

Into what, she had no idea.

To be continued . . .