Story: Under the Milky Way Tonight (chapter 13)

Feedback: I hope everyone who has always been so supportive will continue to write.

Disclaimers: Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable, Shego, Wade, and all other characters from the Kim Possible television series belong to Disney, its television production arm, and the creators and producers of the animated series. All original characters are my invention. I seek no profit from writing this, and expect none.

"Goddamn it, open, open already!" Agent Delta-Alpha hissed as he slammed the DOWN button for the twentieth time.

"How the hell did that happen?" Agent Tri-Iota asked, still shocked. "That one-eyed bitch - she took out half the squad before I knew it!"

"Yeah, well, that 'one-eyed bitch' is Lord Gemini's sister, the former head of GJ, AND she's going to be coming after us any second," the third survivor, Tri-Sigma, said. He faced away from the elevator, training his weapon down the corridor they'd taken to get here. "Keep your cool, Iota, and help me cover our retreat. They've got to come from this direction. If I see ANY motion, we shoot. If only we can get to the men guarding the other scientists . . ."

"Maybe they've been taken out too," Delta-Alpha said dourly.

"Can it!" Tri-Sigma snarled. He wasn't going to turn his back until the elevator doors were safely between him and their pursuers. Neither was Tri-Iota, if he had a you-know-what of common sense.

So when the elevator doors opened a few seconds later, with still no sign of the approach of Doctor Director or any of the other former hostages, the only one to see Vivian Porter and the Wade-bot inside was Delta-Alpha. All three of them were startled, but the taser was in Vivian's hand, and in pure instinct she fired at point-blank range, pumping thousands of volts into his body. He spasmed for several seconds before collapsing.

"What the - " Tri-Sigma burst out, turning to see what had happened . . . and forgetting to keep an eye out for Doctor Director.

For that reason, Agent Tri-Sigma had the dubious distinction of being taken by surprise twice in mere seconds. Once when he realized that they'd been hit from behind, the second when two bullets came from the direction he'd been looking and punched through Tri-Iota's left shoulder and upper body, breaking his collarbone.

To his credit, Tri-Sigma attacked the closest and most visible target, the woman in the elevator cab. Before he could raise his gun, however, two invisible pincer-like forces grabbed him by the elbows. One squeezed mercilessly, and with a cry he dropped the gun. Then he screamed as he felt himself lifted into the air. He banged his head against the ceiling, rendering him unconscious.

Vivian didn't notice. She was still staring at the man who had been shot. The bullets had come from nowhere, and the blood splatter was a bit too graphic. She felt nauseous.

"He had the right idea," Dr. Director said as she emerged from the darkness at the other end of the hallway, "but when you're exposed and being attacked from both sides, there's really not much you can do."

"B-Betty?"

Betty Director smiled as she tucked the gun into the back of her waistband. She ignored the three agents, two of whom continued to writhe on the floor in agony. One, the man who had been shot, kept crying out unintelligbly. "And here I thought you might be in danger," she said, as if she didn't even hear the other man. She gestured to the agent who appeared to be floating in midair. "I take it there's a cloaking device at play here."

The Wade-bot shimmered into view. "Hey, Dr. Director," Wade said.

"Wade?" Betty asked, surprised, as Colonel Barkin came into view. "What the hell is that tin can supposed to be?"

"The best I could offer Dr. Porter on short notice. She said she had some friends to save."

Vivian flushed. "Stop, Wade. You're making me sound like some sort of courageous hero."

"Sounds accurate to me," Barkin said. "Takes guts to go into an unknown situation facing an enemy you know nothing about."

"You also sound very much alive, Vivian," Betty added. "Which is good, since these men seemed to think you were dead. There are some people in Mission Control who will be very happy to know that's not the case."

"You don't seem very surprised," Vivian said.

"I'm not. Very happy, but not surprised."

"I need to get in there too," Wade said. "Whatever jamming device they're using, it hasn't been deactivated yet. We need to shut it down so I can find out if Kim and the others are okay."

"Good," Barkin said, nodding. "Betty and I need to find the other hostages. Dr. - Porter? You join the Possibles and stay put."

"Oh, don't worry," Vivian said, laughing nervously. "Still not a fan of guns." The man's blood was spilled all over the floor. Betty's right foot was in a puddle of it. Didn't she notice? "Or, you know, shooting them. At people. Or anything else."

She stopped as Betty put a hand on her arm. "You're safe now, Vivian. Please join the others," she said quietly.

Vivian nodded and hurried past them.

Colonel Barkin looked at Betty. "Friend of yours?"

"Yes. Yes, she is."

He shook his head. "Never easy the first time a civilian close to you sees you at work, is it?"

Betty dragged her right foot against the floor, leaving a bloody smear. "No, it never is."

Shego looked pessimistic. "Well, we've still got Doctor Badfinger to worry about sooner or later. He's probably holed up with a bunch of Alphas so he can ambush us. Welcome to the brave new world."

"Doctor Badfinger?"

"All right, you got me, I don't know if Gemini has a medical degree or not."

"Gee, I didn't think we were in Hell, but someone sure seems to have abandoned all hope," Kim said dryly.

"I'm just being realistic," Shego said.

"Uh-huh, sure."

Suddenly there was a thundering rush of footfalls coming towards them. At least two, Kim thought.

"See? Realistic," Shego told her. She'd never dropped her fighting stance, and now she turned to face the newest threat.

Ron came careening around the corner. His legs seemed to be trying to keep up with the rest of his body. Both arms were stretched out and forward like he was pretending to fly like Superman. In his hands was something that resembled bicycle handlebars. "Slower, slower, brake, brake, BRAKE!" he screamed.

"Ron!" Kim cried out happily.

"KP! . . . ehhhh, stop!" Ron yelled as the item he was clutching zeroed in on Kim and pulled him directly toward her. "Turn into a watch or something!"

There was a flash of light, and the thing in his hands was gone. Ron stumbled forward, slowing down very suddenly, and only just managed to catch himself from falling, just as Yori appeared from the same direction Ron had come.

"Ron, are you okay? What was that about?" Kim asked.

"Just . . . a second . . ." Ron panted.

"Kim-sama," Yori said, "Ron-san transformed the Lotus Blade into a kind of compass that stayed pointed at you. As we drew closer, evidently the pull of the magic became stronger, and eventually Ron-san did what he could just to keep up."

“The Swiss Army Lotus,” Shego said sardonically.

“You’re both all right? Where’s Monique? Is she – “

“I do not know, Kim-sama,” Yori said while Ron collected himself. “We escaped at the same time, but we chose to separate so that we might cover more ground. Now that we have found you, however, perhaps Ron-san can now use the Lotus Blade to find her.”

“Well, that’s good, because you’re the first welcome sight the two of US have found, and you were the ones doing the finding,” Kim complained. “You’d think it would be harder to get lost in something that’s basically a giant circle, but it’s not.”

“Too many doors, too many henchmen,” Shego said. “You could search this place for hours, even if we all split up.”

“It’s not the same without Wade,” Ron pointed out.

“Well, we’re all experienced world-savers,” Kim replied. “I’m sure we can do this on our own.”

A crackling noise could suddenly be heard coming from nearby. “Kim? Are you there? Can you hear me?”

“Wade? Wade!” Kim burst out. She looked around wildly and realized it was coming from a transceiver clipped to the belt of one of the unconscious WEE agents in the hallway. She ripped it off hastily.

“Thought we could do this on our own,” Shego murmured.

“Hush,” Kim hissed. “Wade, is that you?”

“Kim! You’ve got to get to Monique RIGHT NOW!”

“What? Monique?! Where, why? Wade, we have no idea where she is or even where WE are!”

“It’s called the ‘dining room’ on the station schematics!” Wade said quickly. “I’ve isolated your location through the device you’re using to communicate with, and I can give you directions, but we can talk while you’re running!”

“Left or right would be nice!” Shego snarled.

“Left!”

“More running,” Ron sighed as Kim took off like a bullet with the others right behind her.

“Wade, if you’re using WEE’s network to talk to us,” Kim asked as she ran, not even sounding winded, “then they can listen in on this, can’t they?”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t – turn right up ahead – matter. According to my readings, every WEE agent on that station is either out cold, or they’re closing in on Monique's location – left! Go back and go left through that door! What do you think ‘dining room’ is code for?”

“It’s a dining room, Wade. They served us dinner. Wade, my family – “

“Your family, Dr. Director, and Col. Barkin are all safe. They’re working on getting the rest of the Space Center staff out of a hostage situation. Sappho found the communications array linking the station to the Earth’s surface, and she’s allowed me to hack into their computers directly. Monique, though, she’s alone in the dining room with at least fifteen different signatures. Although it could be worse.”

“How could it be worse?” Yori asked.

“She could have not had me as a trainer,” Shego muttered.

“Actually, I’m not sure how it happened, Kim,” Wade explained, “but she says she's wearing your Battle Suit.”

Kim almost stopped running. “What?”

“Like I said, not sure how it happened. I’d ask her, but she’s busy. Double doors on the right! Expect reinforcements! Everyone is listening to this, and they’re converging on this spot!”

“No big,” Kim grumbled.

Kim was the first through the doors, and found the dining room in ruins. The table was lying in three pieces on the floor, as were four men – no, five, she saw feet sticking out from under a section of table. And Monique – sure enough, she was surrounded by WEE guards and wearing a skintight white-and-blue suit.

“Kim-sama,” Yori said softly. “There are armed men coming behind us.”

“You and Ron hold the doors,” Kim told her. “Shego and I are going to do a little moshing.”

“Moshing?” Shego asked. “You should have stuck to ‘no big’.”

And since she was outnumbered twenty-to-one, she’d take every little edge she could get. And so her chest heaved, as if she was fighting helplessly for every breath. Which wasn't entirely acting.

If any man was distracted by her heaving chest, so much the better. It wasn’t like her new clothes hid anything.

Said new clothes were giving her a bit of an edge as well. The suit made her feel stronger and quicker, and overall she must have made quite an impression, because when the men had burst into the dining room behind her, they'd been impressed enough to hang back for a second. If they’d piled on her immediately, she might not have survived.

“Monique!”

Monique wanted to look in the direction the cry had come from, but if she took her eye off the action for half a second, she’d have her head cracked open. “Little – busy!”

The WEE soldier behind the one in front of her was suddenly hurled aside. “Have you been going through my closet again?” Kim asked as she appeared.

“Ha ha,” Monique muttered.

Shego materialized a moment later. “I thought they ran out of bad guys here, and you were just hogging them to yourself.”

“I got bored waiting for y’all to find me, so I picked a fight,” Monique told her as she grabbed the hand on her shoulder, twisted the man’s arm behind his back, and then broke his wrist.

“Where did you find my Suit?” Kim asked as the three women faced away from each other and formed a triangle.

“Got time for a story?”

“Well, apparently my family is safe, so now I do.”

“Please, do not be alarmed,” Señor Senior Senior said. “I will not hurt you.”

“No offense, pops, but you can’t hurt me,” Monique said. “You’re the father, right?”

Senior nodded gravely. “Yes. A poor one, but yes. And you are the Oryx.” He glanced at her left hand. “Those gloves do not belong to you,” he added.

Monique looked down at Shego’s gloves, which she was still clutching. “I don’t think they’re your size.”

“The last time I saw those, they were in the possession of a small hairless rodent.”

“A small – did he speak Spanish?”

“Ah,” Senior said. “So Ricardo is all right?”

Monique held up her hands in a “T”. “Time out, this is seriously tripping now. Ricardo is the naked mole rat?”

“Yes. I presume you got the gloves from him.”

“Yeah, I did. Do I ‘presume’ he got them from you?”

Senior smiled, but it was a sad smile. “You don’t believe I would help you over my son.”

“Since he’s not going to win, I’d say you have a very good reason to help us,” Monique pointed out.

“Pragmatic, but not the reason why. Unfortunately, you do not have time for an explanation. You barely have time for me to tell you where my son is going. Even now, he is giving orders to have Ms. Possible's family murdered, and to unleash destruction upon the Earth's shores.” Senior went over to a table nearby and picked up a bundle of white cloth. “While you’re here, you may as well have this too.”

Monique reached out, stunned. Old man appears, gives you critical information and powerful weapons right before the big fight - what was this, a game of Everlot? “Kim’s Battle Suit? Old man, your son is not going to be happy when he finds out.”

“No? Then I suppose we shall both have to be unhappy with the other. I do have a couple suggestions to make in the meantime,” Senior told her.

“Oh?”

“One, I ask that you take this as well, and keep it safe.” He reached into his jacket pocket and took out an unlabeled compact disc. “The proper authorities may find it interesting.”

“I guess I can do that. What’s the other suggestion?”

“I realize you refer to that as Ms. Possible’s suit. But judging by the state of your dress, my dear, you may wish to borrow it for a while.”

“I don’t know,” Monique said. “There was a look in his eye . . .”

“So how did you wind up here?” Kim asked. There were only a few men left, and she could divide her attention easily now. From the sounds of fighting coming from outside the room, Ron and Yori were in no danger of being overrun by reinforcements.

“Senior told me there’s an elevator that runs through the middle of the station,” Monique explained. “The upper level contains machines that keep the station in place and provide artificial gravity. The lowest level is where Junior will activate the device that he’s been trying to blackmail the Earth with. Those doors over there,” she added, gesturing in the opposite direction from where they’d entered, “take you to the elevator.”

“I never even thought of additional levels,” Kim admitted, embarrassed.

“Yeah, yeah, can I have my gloves back now?” Shego asked, in an almost agony of impatience.

“Sure,” Monique said, reaching into her leg pouch.

Gemini wanted to remind him that he was no man’s “flunky”, but Junior would probably point out that Gemini WAS his flunky, and hearing that wouldn’t improve his temper. “I remember,” he said sulkily.

“In that case,” Junior replied, “while I prepare the moon for its new oh-so-fashionable alterations, you can – give our friends the finger.”

“Better yet, why not all five?” Gemini growled. His men were almost all gone, but that just meant he’d have a clear shot at Possible’s foolish sidekick and the new girl from Japan. Exiting the corridor he’d been lurking in, he pointed a hand at Ron and Yori. A miniature missile shot out of his metallic index finger and headed right for them.

Ron saw it first. “YORI!” he cried out, stepping in front of her.

It wasn’t enough time for him to get Yori out of the way, but it was enough for Ron’s instincts and the Lotus Blade to take over. The Roman legionnaire’s shield that materialized bore the explosive impact of the miniature rocket, saving both their lives, but the force of the blast threw Ron through the doors. His body hit Yori’s at full tilt, and both of them sailed through the air. Ron landed heavily on top of her.

“Ron!” Kim and Monique shouted in unison, while Shego snatched her gloves from Monique’s hand and kept an eye on the doors.

“Yori?” Ron asked groggily, shaking her by the shoulder, but the secret agent was unconscious. He put a finger to her neck and exhaled with relief when he found her pulse.

Gemini strode in two seconds later. “I don’t know where that shield came from, NON-factor,” he sneered, “but I dare you to – “ He got a look at the wreckage in the dining room. “Oh, come on, that table cost over five thousand dollars!”

“Gemini, are you insane?!” Kim exploded. “This entire station will implode if one of those rockets misses!”

“Well then, why don’t you be a good little girl and stand still?” he snarled. He fired a second rocket at her.

A wave of black plasma, however, incinerated it in midair. There was a minor concussive blast that knocked everyone back a step.

Shego mockingly waved a glowing green finger back and forth. “Why don’t you be a good little boy and be nice to girls?”

Gemini just grinned nastily at her. All four fingertips on his cybernetic hand flipped up.

“Uh-oh,” Monique muttered.

Three miniature rockets sailed out, while a bright blue laser beam emanating from Gemini’s ring finger burned a charred line across the floor directly for Kim. She backflipped towards her destination, the doors leading to the elevator shaft – not realizing that Gemini was nudging her there.

Since dodging his missiles was apparently as dangerous as being hit by them, Shego burned yet another rocket out of the air while Monique hurled a piece of that five-thousand-dollar tabletop at another one. “Damn things are as limitless as his men,” Shego muttered. “He’s a walking self-destruct button with that thing!”

Ron meanwhile was forced to be a stationary target to protect the defenseless Yori. He hunkered down behind his shield and kept himself in front of her. Instead of trying to flank Ron, Gemini seemed intent on simply pulverizing the one thing between them.

Ron had no idea if Gemini would succeed. He just gritted his teeth and braced for another impact.

“Ron-kun?”

His head whipped around. “Yori?”

Yori had risen to her knees. Her hand was pressed to her temple. “I – hit my head?” she asked uncertainly.

“Well, actually I hit your head. Maybe with my head, I don’t know. Look, can you run?”

“Oof,” she murmured. “My body is sore, but no more so than during training at Yamanouchi, and I was expected to fight through THAT.”

“Good,” Ron said. “Then stay close behind me. We’re going to introduce Gemini to the Stoppable Lotus Express.”

At the other end of the room, Kim dodged another laser blast, ran up the stairs, and banged the button to open the doors. She hesitated, though. She wasn’t sure if she could leave the others behind without disposing of that maniac first.

“That’s it, Ms. Possible,” Gemini whispered. “Just a few more steps . . .”

He was distracted for only a few seconds, but that meant Ron covered plenty of ground, leading with his shield, Yori right behind him with a hand on his shoulder. Gemini whipped his hand around and fired three missiles at point-blank range just before he was crushed by Ron’s stampede. One exploded against Ron’s Lotus Shield while the others glanced off and veered crazily. Shego tracked one and blasted it.

Monique couldn’t follow the path of the other one, though, and this was unfortunate because it was headed for a point squarely between her shoulder blades.

“Monique!!!” Kim screamed. She leapt down from the stairs and tackled Monique.

The rocket hit the steps and exploded. The damage was high enough above the floor that the station’s outer structure was unharmed, but shrapnel went everywhere and sliced Kim’s left thigh open, making her cry out.

Shego ran over, seeing that Gemini was too busy. “Are you okay, Pumpkin?” she asked anxiously.

“I’m – fine,” Kim said. “Damn, that hurts! Monique, are – “

“Yeah, I’m good, thanks for the save, Kim. But you’re going to need to get that bandaged.”

Kim looked down at her leg. She had three bloody gouges across her thigh, like a wild animal had clawed her. “It can wait. We’ve – “

“The Battle Suit,” Shego said. “Nerdlinger said it could heal things like this, right? Monique, switch clothes with Kim.”

Monique’s eyes popped out. “Girlfriend, this is not the time or the place!”

“We’ll take care of it, Shego,” Kim said. “For now, you’ve got to go ahead and stop Junior. We’ll catch up in a minute.”

Shego wavered. “Are you sure?”

Kim smiled. “So not the drama. Go, save the world. We both know you can.”

“Pfft,” Shego said. “I’m just doing this because we have a contract.”

Shego then leapt and bounded her way past the damaged steps and slipped through the open doors leading to the elevator shaft.

Nobody, including Shego, noticed that the doors which closed behind her were solid steel, and several inches thick.

To be continued . . .