Fic: "Shego's Plan: Resistance" (4/6)

[cdybedahl]

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Shego's Plan

Written by Calle Dybedahl

Resistance

Wade squinted against the sunshine. He wasn't used to the bright outdoors light, and it hurt his eyes. If this was going to become a habit, he'd have to buy a pair of sunglasses.

He was standing in the street in front of the Stoppable residence, having just stepped out of a taxi. For two weeks now he hadn't been able to get hold of either Kim or Ron, and he was seriously worried. Something was badly wrong, and not only things like Doctor Drakken becoming President. He'd spoken to the doctors Possible a couple of times, and they didn't know anything. They were, as much as people like them could, falling apart with worry. Apparently, Kim had just walked out the door one morning and never returned. Even the tweebs seemed unusually subdued.

But he hadn't been able to get hold of Ron or his parents. Or, and he had felt very silly for even trying, Rufus. So eventually he'd decided to leave his room and try to physically visit Ron.

"Hello, Mr Stoppable," he said when Ron's dad opened the door. "I'm Wade. Is Ron in?"

"Oh!"

Mr Stoppable adjusted his glasses.

"Well, yes, I guess he is," he said. "But I'm not sure if he wants to see anyone. He's been really down since Kim broke up with him."

Wade's eyebrows rose.

"Kim broke up with him?!"

He frowned. This just kept getting stranger.

"Look, Mr Stoppable, I really need to talk to Ron. Kim is missing. She's been gone for more than two weeks already, and I can't find a trace of her. Maybe Ron knows something."

Mr Stoppable looked down at Wade for a few moments.

"Okay then," he said and stepped aside to let Wade in. "He's up in his room."

"Thank you," Wade said, as he hurried up the stairs. He wasn't really sure why he was hurrying, since this had been going on for a couple of weeks already, but he had a feeling that he ought to.

Ron's room was a mess. Take-out cartons and dirty plates in various states of decay were all over the place. Dirty clothes were tossed here and there. It smelled, to put it charitably, lived in. Ron himself lay on the bed staring at the ceiling. Rufus was sitting on the desk, playing a portable video game with all four feet.

"Hey, Ron," Wade said. "Er, your dad let me in."

"Did he now."

Ron's voice sounded kind of... dead.

Wade looked around for somewhere to sit, but didn't find anything he really wanted to touch without a biohazard suit, so he remained standing.

"He said Kim dumped you," he said.

"Oh, she did," Ron said. "In the car, on our way to school."

This time a smidgen of emotion could be detected.

"Just like that?" Wade asked.

"Just like that," Ron said.

"But... why?"

"She got tired of lying to me and cheating on me," Ron said.

This time there was definite feeling in his voice. Anger and resentment, yes, but still feeling.

"She cheated on you?" Wade said. "Kim cheated on you?"

"Yup," Ron said. "She said so herself."

Wade was increasingly getting a feeling that he'd taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in bizarro-world.

"With who?" he said, because from what he knew of Kim's life, which was a lot, there hadn't been much room for cheating.

"Monique," Ron said.

Okay, that worked, in a practical kind of way. She and Kim sure had spent a lot of time together, both on and off work. It still didn't make sense, though.

"Aren't Monique seeing Felix?" Wade said.

"Yeeeah," Ron drawled. "The guy with no sensation or motor control below his waist. Fancy that."

Maybe he'd understand this when he was older. He suspected not, but one could always hope.

"Ron," he said in an attempt to change the subject. "Kim is missing. Nobody's seen her for nineteen days now."

"So she dumped you too, huh," Ron said.

Wade sighed.

"No, she didn't 'dump' me," he said. "She's gone. Nobody's seen her. Not her family, not Monique, not the security cameras at school. And Mr Barkin has been faking the attendance records to make it look like she's been there."

That actually made Ron sit up and look at him.

"Mr Barkin has been faking official school record?" he said. "The world record holder in being a stickler for rules has been breaking the rules?"

"Told you something weird was going on," Wade said.

Ron frowned.

"No, you didn't," he said.

Wade rewinded the conversation in his head.

"Okay," he said. "So I didn't. But something weird is going on."

"Yeah," Ron said, and now he sounded hopeful. "The Kim I've known since pre-K would never have dumped me like that. If she dumped me at all, she'd have been extremely nice about it."

He frowned.

"Maybe it wasn't Kim!" he said. "Maybe she's been kidnapped and someone made a robot copy to cover it up! And I've been moping in my room while KP needed rescuing!"

He jumped off the bed.

"Okay, Wade," he said. "I'm with you. Where do we go and what do we do?"

Rufus left his game, jumped onto Ron's shoulder and beat his chest with his forepaws.

"I haven't got a clue," Wade said.

Ron and Rufus stared at him.

"You don't have a clue?" Ron said.

Wade shook his head.

"Absolutely nothing," he said. "The last trace I have is her car passing a toll camera by the on-ramp to the highway to Lowerton. After that, complete blank."

Ron frowned.

"What would she be doing in Lowerton?" he said. "If that was her at all, that is."

Wade spread his hands in a beats-me gesture.

"I need to think," Ron said. "Rufus, Wade, follow me."

Wade looked on in horror as Rufus stuffed himself with a Naco bigger than he was.

"This is how you think?" he said. "Going to Bueno Nacho?"

Ron smiled.

"Ooh yeah," he said. "It's served me well for many years."

"Uh-hu," Wade said, clearly not convinced. "And what have you got so far?"

"Squat," Ron said. "But it will come, don't you fear. The Zen of the Grande Size is strong."

As if on cue, Rufus spit out a folded piece of paper and made repeated gagging noises. Ron took the paper.

"See?" he said.

He unfolded it and started reading out loud.

"We need to talk," he read. "Meet me in the black BMW with tinted windows parked behind Bueno Nacho. Signed, Shego."

Ron frowned.

"Shego?" he said. "That's got to be a trap. Maybe she and Drakken were the ones who got to Kim, and now they want us too."

"Nah," Wade said, still mostly stunned from the ridiculously well-timed and unlikely find. "If it was Drakken, he'd only need to send in the FBI to grab us."

Ron stared at him.

"Okay," he said. "Run that by me again. Drakken would send in who to get us?"

"The Feds," Wade said. "He's the president, after all."

Ron stared blankly at Wade for a few moments.

"Maybe I should've paid attention to the news, huh?" he said.

"Maybe you should have," Wade said. "I suggest we go out back and see if Shego is there. If she wants to see us without Drakken knowing about it, that's more than odd enough to follow up on."

"Okay," Ron said. "I'll just get some Nacos to go."

There was indeed a black BMW with tinted windows parked behind the Bueno Nacho. As they came close, the driver's door opened. Behind the wheel was Shego, uncharacteristically wearing a dull brown trenchcoat, black glasses and a fedora.

"Get in quick," she said. "I don't know how long we have before she spots us."

Ron and Rufus looked at Wade. Wade looked at Ron and Rufus. Then they all moved into the back seat. Ron had hardly even closed the door when Shego accelerated away with screaming tires.

"Hang on," Shego said. "And don't talk. She might be listening."

"Um, Shego," Ron started saying.

"Ah!" Shego said. "No talking!"

Ron shut up. There wasn't much room for chatting anyway. Shego was driving like, well, a supervillain. And, he realised as he looked at her, a very nervous supervillain. She kept looking in all directions, changing direction abruptly while they were under bridges, taking strange detours across parks and generally doing everything imaginable to throw off pursuit. Except he couldn't see any pursuit, and she only rarely looked backwards. Mostly, she kept throwing glances upwards.

In a parking garage in downtown Upperton, she stopped the car next to what looked like an old beat-up van. She took a little black box out of her pocket and pressed a recessed button on it. The van's side door slid open.

"Get out of the car and into the other one," she said. "And don't step on the ground!"

After another brief three-way look, Ron, Rufus and Wade carefully made their way over to the van. When they were in it, Shego did the same, except she went for the van's driver's seat. She drove a few meters away, then leaned out the window and used her green flames to reduce the BMW to a burnt-out wreck.

"I think we can talk now," she said as she drove out of the garage and down into the tunnel under the river. "At least as long as we've got solid cover above."

"Um," Ron said. "Who are we hiding from?"

Shego looked grim.

"Kim," she said.

"No, see," he said, "you've got that wrong. Kim is our friend, who is missing."

"Really," Shego said. "Did she seem very friendly the last time you talked to her?"

Ron's face fell.

"That wasn't Kim," he tried to convince himself.

"What did she say?" Shego asked.

"She dumped me," Ron said.

Shego nodded.

"And I'm guessing she wasn't very nice about it?"

"No," Ron said.

"You know what's going on, don't you?" Wade said. "You know what's happened to Kim."

Shego was silent for a moment.

"Yes," she said. "I do."

"So spill!" Ron said.

"About a month ago," Shego said, "you and Kim foiled yet another of Drakken's hopeless schemes, remember?"

Ron, Wade and Rufus all nodded.

"When we got back to the lair, I kind of goaded Drakken into a bet," Shego said. "About who of us could cause the most chaos, destruction and mayhem."

"That's horrible!" Ron said. "How could you do such a thing?"

Shego looked at him in the rear view mirror.

"Um, because we're supervillains?" she said.

"Oh, right," Ron said. "I forgot. Carry on."

"Anyway," she went on, "Drakken went and stole some experimental autonomous war machines called BattleWarMechBots. Which he never even managed to activate."

Shego paused and licked her lips.

"I, for my part, hit Kim Possible with an Attitudinator ray, then went and hid in the Alaskan wilderness," she said.

For a few moments, all that could be heard in the van was the sounds the car made as it hurtled along the tunnel.

"Nrevil Kimf?" Rufus said.

"Why would you do such a thing?" Wade said.

"Look," Shego said. "If you wanted to cause as much chaos, mayhem and destruction as possible, can you think of a better way to do it than to turn Kim Possible evil?"

"Did it work?" Ron said.

Shego glared at him through the mirror.

"Drakken is President of the United States of America," she said. "What do you think, computer boy?"

She sighed.

"It worked much too well," she said. "The first thing she did was force all her usual enemies to work for her. Even as we speak, Drakken, Dementor, DNAmy, Electronique and the Mathter are working together to design and build a fleet of mind-control satellites. Killigan and the Seniors are buying up every shred of launch capacity there is to be had. Which is pretty easy, considering that one or another of them rules all the countries in the world with any space launch capability at all."

She paused for a moment.

"In three days," she said. "The satellites launch. A few hours after that, the only people on the planet with any free will left will be the ones aboard Kim's sky fortress."

"Okay," Ron said. "That sounds kind of bad."

"Why is she doing it?" Wade said. "Even if she's evil, I can't really see her wanting to rule the world just because."

There was another sigh from Shego.

"She thinks she's saving the world," she said. "Her plan is to make everyone, all six and a half billion people on the planet, want to live an environmentally sustainable lifestyle. We'll be a planet of fucking Amish."

"That doesn't sound all that bad," Ron said. "Well, apart from the mass mind control."

"Um," Wade said. "Production capacity?"

"Computer boy got it in one," Shego said. "The sustainable population for the kind of technology level we're looking at here is somewhere around one billion. So for Kim's plan to work, over five billion people need to die."

"And," she added, "you can forget about Bueno Nacho. Actually, I suspect that you will forget about it whether you want to or not, as soon as the satellites are turned on."

"Kim is going to kill Bueno Nacho?" Ron said.

"Kim is going to kill five billion people?" Wade said.

"Sort of," Shego said. "She'll make everyone want five billion people to die. I'm sure she'll make people want it all to proceed in a very orderly and civilized fashion."

Wade looked horrified.

"We have to stop her," he said.

"Well, duh!" Ron said. "Nobody messes with Bueno Nacho! Not even Kim!"

"Glad to hear you're aboard with the preventing genocide, kids," Shego said. "I have the Attitudinator in a lockup in Lowerton, so all we have to do is get a clear shot with it at Kim. Let's go somewhere and plan."

Kim stood on the roof of Drakken's old lair and looked on as her airship was being loaded with equipment and supplies. This close, the thing was so big that the mind refused to entirely accept it. Two miles long, half a mile wide and nearly as tick, it was by far the largest object that had ever flown. And under her leadership, it had been designed and built in under two weeks.

She only wished that Shego could've been there to share it with her. Queens of the world, they would've been. But Shego had chosen to betray her.

Which needed to be dealt with. Kim sighed. She didn't want to deal with Shego. She wanted to give Shego her time, to let her come to her senses and see what was best for everybody. Unfortunately she didn't have the luxury of letting it happen that way. Shego was one of the very few people in the world who presented a credible threat to her. Which both made her so desirable and made it necessary to deal with her harshly.

And she couldn't even allow herself the luxury of defeating Shego herself. She'd have to use a subordinate.

"Monkey Fist," she said into her wrist communicator.

The answer came within a couple of seconds.

"Yes, mistress?"

"Some time between now and zero hour Shego will try to infiltrate the airship and take me out," Kim said. "You and your monkey ninjas will make sure she doesn't succeed."

"Absolutely, mistress," he said. "Anything else?"

"Not really," she said. "The top priority is to stop her. If the most expedient way to do that is to kill her, then she dies. The same goes for anyone with her."

"We will not disappoint you, mistress."

There was a nearly inaudible crackle as the connection broke.

She looked up at the airship. It was beautiful, in its way. And it was just about ready to lift off.

Kim turned her jetpack on and headed for the airship's bridge.

The moon shone full, turning the world above the clouds into a monochromatic otherworld. There was nothing but the cold silver moon and pinprick stars above them, the soft-looking cloud cover below them and at the horizon the huge silhouette of Kim's airship fortress.

The headphones in Ron's helmet hissed.

"We're in range," Shego's voice said. "Time to drop auxiliary fuel tanks. And if you disobeyed my instructions and brought something metal along, drop that too. I don't want that thing to catch us on radar."

Ron, Wade and Shego were hanging under the wings of three ultralight airplanes. Or, at least, not too remote cousins of them. Shego had called them airborne infiltration units, and while they looked exactly like the ultralights Ron had seen on TV, these apparently differed greatly in materials, speed and fuel capacity. He had noticed that the frame seemed to be made out of carbon composite rather than metal, so he supposed Shego was right.

She usually was.

Wade had convinced Global Justice to give them equipment and a ride, and they'd been dropped out of an airplane at an altitude far, far higher than Ron wanted to think about. The solid cloud cover was a long way under them, and he supposed the actual ground was another long way below that. In spite of knowing nothing about ultralight flying, he felt sure that they weren't supposed to go this high.

Or this fast.

"Fifteen seconds to impact," Shego said over the helmet communicator. "Too late now to check your crash webbing if you haven't already."

Ron had. Oh, how he had. The crash webbing was, as the name hinted, a web of lines that was supposed to absorb the forces of a crash enough that the person in the webbing would get severe bruises rather than broken bones. Provided that the crash happened pretty much frontally, so that most of the impact forces would go into the aircraft frame and give the webbing room to work.

"Ten seconds."

He saw Shego's ultralight light up green as she turned her hands on fire. She was flying in front, with Ron and Wade flying behind and to each side of her. In front of them, the airship now looked more like a wall than a vehicle. That thing was enormous!

"Five seconds."

Bolt after bolt of green fire lanced out from Shego's ultralight into the side of the airship. They exploded when they hit the airship wall, leaving lit-up openings behind when they faded.

"Aim for a hole each, boys," Shego said. "And don't expect to hear that from me again ever."

Ron frowned. He had just enough time to get a feeling that something had gone over his head before his ultralight smashed into the airship.

She'd tried to make the openings for Ron and Wade small enough that the frames of their ultralights would catch in them, expending energy in tearing free and into the airship. Even with that, they'd probably be knocked out for a couple of minutes after impact.

For herself, she made a hole large enough for her ultralight to pass through it while only ripping the wings off. It'd get her much farther into whatever room was behind the wall, and make for a much rougher impact. She, however, could take it.

The aircraft slammed into the airship wall. Even as she was passing through, she started firing plasma bolts straight out to the sides. If anything was in the way of the boys' entrances, she could at least help a little in removing it. Also, the extra explosions would add to the general chaos, giving them a few seconds more to recuperate from the crashes.

The wingless aircraft frame slid across the floor, caught on something, tumbled, tore apart and finally came to a stop. Shego was thrown to and fro, but the impact webbing ate the forces better than she expected, so that when she came to a stop she just hit the quick release and dropped to the floor.

They'd landed in a hydroponic garden. Line after line of tables full of trays with plants in nutrient solution. Flimsy tables, excellent for deforming under impact. No wonder she'd come through in such good shape. Even better, the room seemed to be empty of people. That wouldn't last long, but it was nice not to have to start out fighting for her life. She unstrapped the Attitudinator from her back and tore the impact foam from around it. Better have that ready to use. They might get lucky and Kim herself would come checking what was going on. She had a feeling that they'd used up pretty much all their luck in their entrance, though.

A groan came from the ultralight wreck closest to her. She reached into it, hit the crash webbing's quick release and let Ron drop to the floor.

"Ow!" he said, so he was clearly alive and functioning relatively normally.

"Get up," she said. "People will be here any second now."

She did the same to Wade, who reacted much the same. The two boys were soon on their feet.

"Let's go," Shego said. "We've been lucky so far. It won't last forever."

"Wait," Wade said. "Let me see if I can connect to the on-board computer system. If our luck holds a little longer, maybe we can find out exactly where Kim is."

"She's a long way from here," a male voice said. It was accompanied by the chittering of monkeys. Monkey Fist. Of course. Shego had wondered what Kim wanted him for among all the scientific geniuses. A small army of monkey ninjas for internal security made a lot of sense that way.

Next to her, Ron assumed a very strange fighting pose.

"Laugh while you can, monkey boy!" he said.

"Mistress Possible?"

Kim sat in her command chair on the bridge of the Club Banana. Several computer monitors hung on extensible arms in front of her, and two keyboards swiveled in front of her when she sat down. Beyond and below the command chair were five similar workstations for her staff, and beyond them was the airship's enormous windshield.

"Yes?" she said to the staff woman who had spoken. One of Dementor's henchpeople, since they had proven to be by far the most reliable.

"There's been multiple impacts and hull breaches in the starboard side hydroponics labs," the henchwoman said. "Monkey Fist is on his way there."

"Any information on the impacts?"

It had to be Shego.

"Almost nothing, mistress. The security camera saw a flash of green light before it was destroyed."

A wave of pleasure went through Kim. Shego.

She really should let Monkey Fist handle it. Shego had come here to stop Kim, that much was certain. By going there and fighting her, Kim would only improve her chances of succeeding. Tactically speaking, the best move Kim could make would be to simply leave for the auxiliary satellite control center at Kilimanjaro. Shego might be able to disable or destroy the Club Banana, but another one could be built. It'd be a minor setback at worst.

But if she left she wouldn't get to see Shego again. Wouldn't get to dance with her one more time.

Kim shook her head. Fight with her. She and Shego fought. Why had she thought of it as a dance?

Because that's what it's always been, hasn't it? her annoyingly truthful self said. The two of you never really tried to hurt each other. You always used attacks that you were sure the other one could take. The few times accidents have happened and one of you have actually been in danger, the other one has usually helped. A true enemy would never do that.

If she tried one more time maybe she could get Shego to join her. She unbuckled from the command seat.

"I'm heading down to the hydroponics lab," she said to the henchwoman. "Let Monkey Fist know I'm on my way."

"Yes, mistress," the henchwoman said.

Almost a dozen monkey ninjas lay spread over the room, knocked out or killed by Shego's comet bolts, but every time one went down another one took its place. She kept shooting them. Sooner or later, they'd run out. Over on the other side of the room, a weirdly slapstick-like fight was going on between Ron and Monkey Fist. Shego had expected Kim's old sidekick to be brushed aside like so much wet paper, but somehow he always managed to avoid Fist's attacks by pure blind luck. Not only that, be he often got Fist to be hurt in random but amusing ways. Overall, it worked out to a strangely even battle.

Behind her, Wade had connected his portable computer to a socket in the wall and was typing furiously. Shego hoped he was doing something useful, because she was shooting monkeys in order to let him keep at it. Well, and because exploding monkeys were kind of neat.

"Lord Monkey Fist?" a female voice said over the PA system.

"Busy!" Monkey Fist yelled.

"Mistress Possible wishes to inform you that she is on her way to assist you, sir," the voice said. "That is all."

Suddenly all the fighting stopped. Wild elation rose in Shego. Kim was on her way! Even if they didn't win, at least she'd get to see her one last time. And, well, their chances of winning just went up by a lot.

"Kim is coming?" Ron said. He looked somewhere between uncomfortable and scared.

"Why is she telling you she's coming?" Monkey Fist screamed. "She could have struck by surprise!"

The monkey man had a point.

"Wade?" Shego said. "How's it coming?"

"I've got read access," he said, sounding distracted. "Kim's coming here for sure. Or at least her battlesuit is."

The battlesuit. Swell. Shego frowned.

"Can you disable the suit?"

"Not remotely. That'd be too much of a security problem."

Shego sighed. Of course it would. But if someone like Drakken or Dementor had built it, it would've had a remote cutoff anyway. Plus a self-destruct button. Probably in the middle of the chest.

"Does it have a self-destruct button?" she asked.

Wade looked up at her.

"Who'd be insane enough to put a self-destruct in a battlesuit?" he said.

Shego didn't bother to tell him.

"Anything else?" she said.

"The final satellite launched five minutes ago," Wade said. "They plan to bring the system online in an hour."

"Well," Shego said, "if we haven't succeeded by then we never will anyway."

As if on cue, the fighting resumed.

Kim took a split second after she entered the room to assess the situation. Over there, a Mystical Monkey Power duel between Monkey Fist and Ron. Over there, Shego shooting monkey ninjas to protect Wade, who was working on his computer. Next to her, monkey ninjas waiting to replace those shot by Shego.

She groaned inwardly. Supervillains!

She stepped into the room. "Shego," she said.

"Kimmie," Shego said, not looking away from the monkey ninjas. "Glad you could make it."

"You should've let me know you were dropping in," Kim said. "I could've arranged a better reception party."

"Sorry to disappoint, Princess," Shego said.

"Wade," she whispered out of the corner of her mouth. "How can I disable the suit non-remotely?"

"Just unzip it," Wade said, also in a hushed voice. "It'd be dangerous for the wearer to use it when it's not done up properly, so that makes it shut down."

Oh, perfect. The way to take down her way too attractive enemy was to try and get her clothes off. If she ever met the being responsible for irony, she'd kick its ass.

"Got it!" Wade said behind her. Security lasers ejected from lots of panels in the walls and ceiling, and started picking off ninja monkeys.

"Go for Kim, Shego," Wade said. "I'll handle the monkeys."

Shego unslung the Attitudinator and went for Kim.

When she saw Shego come charging at her, Kim was filled with a strong sense of rightness. This was how it should be. Or, well, one of the ways it should be. It would be nicer if Shego came charging to plant a kiss on Kim's lips instead of a foot in her face, but you couldn't have everything.

She dodged a plasma blast, bounced off the ceiling and tried to land a kick of her own. Shego somersaulted over her, and at the apex of her arc fired her weapon straight down at Kim. Their eyes met through the transparent glow of the oncoming bolt. There was, Kim thought, a hint of loss and remorse in Shego's eyes.

Then the bolt hit the Attitudinator shield she'd added to the suit, harmlessly split into several and dissipated.

Shego landed on her feet. They looked at each other again.

"Did you really think it would be that easy?" Kim said. "That I wouldn't have figured out what happened to me? The Attitudinator leaves neural traces, you know."

"No," Shego said. "I didn't really. But I had to check."

Of course she had to. Making sure. Getting it right. Shego'd do that.

"You can still join me, you know," Kim said. "What do you want if not the Bahamas? France? China? You can have it."

She could see Shego hesitate before she answered.

"Sorry, Kimmie," she said. "But what you're doing is just wrong."

"Oh really," Kim said. "But it wasn't when you helped Drakken try it over and over again?"

"No," Shego said, and Kim thought she could hear sadness in her voice. "Because he was too incompetent to ever actually do it. You, I'm afraid, aren't."

Kim smiled at her.

"That's the strangest compliment I've ever had, Shego," she said. "So if I didn't take over the world, you'd join me?"

"You'd do that?" Shego said. She lowered her guard fractionally in surprise.

"No," Kim said and attacked.

It quickly became obvious to Shego that turning evil hadn't just vastly increased Kim's capacity for mischief, but also raised her hand-to-hand combat skills considerably. She had to spend a lot more effort than usual just to not get hit. Kim must have let her get that first clear shot in, just to show Shego that her main weapon was ineffective. That her plan was doomed to fail.

Shego was actually starting to worry that she was right. Sure, she could get another shot in if she could disable Kim's suit -- but as long as Kim was wearing the suit Shego didn't have a chance to get close enough to disable it. She looked around the room for something that might help.

Wade was still shooting monkeys, aiming the lasers with mouse and keyboard. They monkeys were getting better at dodging, though, and he wouldn't be able to keep it up for very much longer. Ron was still engaged in his weird duel with Monkey Fist, stumbling under punches and accidentally kicking knees. There was no help to get from that corner.

She did a double take.

Yes there was.

Gradually, she brought her own dodging and weaving close to the two Monkey-fu masters. She did her damnedest to make it look accidental. If Kim saw where she was going she'd figure out what Shego was after in a heartbeat.

A kick that near caved in her ribcage gave her an opportunity to land within arm's reach of Ron's pant leg. She aimed a quick series of plasma bolts straight at Kim's face, to obscure her vision. With her other hand, she ripped open Ron's leg pocket and grabbed Rufus.

"Undo her suit zipper!" she hissed at the little rodent.

"Huh?" he said.

"Just do it!" she hissed.

She jumped, ran, somersaulted, did cartwheels and just about everything else acrobatic she could think of, shooting wildly all the time.

Kim followed suit.

"Ready to give up, Shego?" she said. "This way you'll just delay the inevitable, not defeat me."

Shego kept dodging. She couldn't give Kim time to see what she was holding in her hand. Not until...

...she came close enough to drop him on Kim's head.

Kim stopped.

"Rufus?" she said, clearly confused.

Shego stopped and aimed the Attitudinator.

"Mroo-yah!" Rufus said. Then he scampered down Kim's face with a rodent's deceptive speed, grabbed the handle on her suit zipper and jumped.

The zipper opened, pulled down by the weight of the naked mole rat.

Shego fired.

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