|Day Zero|
June 18, 2015
It was a Sunday, and a little over a week since Kim foiled the designs of Dr. Drakken to take over the world with his Little Diablo army. For the last week, and for months–maybe years–to come, much of the Western Hemisphere was rebuilding. There were Bueno Nachos in just about every major city in North America, Central America, most of Europe, and anywhere an American military base featured the TexMex cuisine beyond–and many of them were damaged by the rampaging robots when they were brought online at the climax of Drakken's scheme. In Middleton alone, a handful of Little Diablos had caused enough property damage to shut down most of the town… but it didn't get it nearly as bad as Denver to the north did. Thousands of the robots were set loose there.
The long summer ahead was going to be dedicated to putting everything Drakken destroyed back together. Both Kim and Ron were fine with that; in spite of everything that had happened, they had each other now more than ever before to get through cleaning up this mess.
"Rufus, I can safely say that when it comes to carpentry, I really am all thumbs," Ron lamented to his pet as he lay on the lawn in front of the Possible residence, which was still under repair from the damage a Diablo caused. Most of his fingers were bandaged, from attempting to hammer nails into boards and being too stubborn to stop when it turned out he wasn't so adept.
"Because I keep hitting them with that stupid hammer."
Rufus, who was considerably more proficient with tools, tsked at Ron. He had tried to warn him to stop, but did he listen? No.
Ron looked at Rufus, frowning. "Hey man, if I can't fix a house, how can I show that I'm a good boyfriend to Kim?"
Behind him, Kim giggled, and both Ron and Rufus looked back. There she was, wearing her battlesuit to do some heavy lifting for the construction crew that was assisting in the repairs. She walked over to Ron and sat down next to him.
"You're not my boyfriend because of your carpentry skills," she said as she drew her legs to her chest and leaned against him.
Ron frowned. "Then what? Is it the cooking?"
Rolling her eyes, Kim laughed and rested her head against his to nuzzle him. "Oh yeah, definitely the cooking."
She pulled back and looked at him critically. "You don't need to obsess over why we're together, just… enjoy the fact that we are, like I do."
"I do, don't get me wrong! I'm just…" Ron met her gaze. "… Sometimes I feel like it was all a dream. That I'm still dreaming."
Kim laughed and gave him a brief, affectionate kiss. "It is so real."
Ron returned the kiss, and the two locked lips there on the sunny front lawn for what felt like a long time. As they made out quite shamelessly on Kim's front lawn, shadows began to pass over them before one completely blocked out the sun. Rufus' squeal of fright made them jump, and both looked up at the source of the shadow.
Growing wide-eyed, Ron pointed at the sky. "Uh… K-KP?!"
Kim was already scrambling to her feet, slack-jawed at the sight overhead. "Are… are you kidding me…?"
The sky overhead was suddenly filled by large flying objects. They ranged from typical flying saucers to massive, battleship-shaped fortresses kilometers in length brimming with what looked like cannons and missile launchers. There were hundreds of them, blocking out the sky with their sheer numbers like gold and black clouds. Their numbers stretched to the horizon in every direction, and more of them were coming into view.
"Are… are those… spaceships?!" Ron screamed.
"Suddenly, I'm really hoping this is some kind of dream." Kim said before the Kimmunicator beeped. In an instant she had it in hand. "Wade, sitch, NOW."
"Kim, it's unreal!" Wade answered, reasoning she was seeing what he was. "They're everywhere! Washington, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo, Moscow! They're thousands of them and more are coming!"
"This is not happening!" Ron yelled. "We just saved the world already! Can't we take a breather, first?!"
A flash of light drew their attention skyward again. A beam was shining from one of the ships, projecting the image of a seemingly human man dressed in a yellow bodysuit with a deep V-neck and a high collar. He had dark green hair, styled into a small pompadour, and from his hair stuck two cone-shaped horns–the only thing that rendered him as seemingly different besides the two lower canines that jutted from between his lips like an ogre's.
Kim was of several minds on this. "That's not their leader, is it? Because he's already running for first place in the worst-dressed villain contest."
"The projection is appearing everywhere. They're even hijacking broadcast signals to get him on TV," Wade revealed.
In a booming voice, in English no less, the man spoke.
"Peoples of the planet Earth! I'm Invader, boss of the Oni Invasion forces! We have come to conquer your planet and destroy your civilization in the name of our race! We will wipe you all out with no mercy!"
And then suddenly all attempt at mirth vanished from Kim–filled with a building dread.
"What? That's it, they just want to kill us?!" Ron asked.
"Unless!" Invader abruptly added.
"Oh, good, they have demands," Ron said.
"One of your chosen champions defeats our race's champion in a contest of skills, agility, and cunning!"
Kim's face fell into an exasperated expression. "That's what they're hinging our existence on?!"
Ron brightened. "Oh thank goodness, we're saved!"
Kim looked at Ron, who was suddenly the picture of confidence. He turned to her. "KP, you got this."
"Me?" She asked.
"I don't there's anyone else here on Earth who's going to protest you stepping up as Earth's champ!"
Wade chimed in. "He's right, #championkimpossible is already trending worldwide."
"We will give you ten of your Earth days to seek out a champion and-" Invader stopped abruptly, and looked to the side and off camera. "What? What do you mean they've already got a champion in mind?"
"K. Impossible, what kind of name is that?" He paused again. "Wait, wait, show me the clip?"
Kim looked at Ron, who gestured up to the puzzled projection. "See?"
Invader's face went utterly pale, and his hand went to cover the microphone. He could still be heard, albeit muffled. "What?! No one told me there were humans like that!"
He became more astonished. "And that's just a thing she does?! I didn't cross two arms of the galaxy just to be embarrassed by a–okay, okay, new plan."
Turning to face the camera, and looking quite smug again, Invader spoke. "In our magnanimous spirit of fairness… we will allow the champions of our race and yours to be chosen at random!"
"Oh, come on!" Ron shouted. "You can't just change the rules like that!"
Wade spoke up. "I think the ones with the fleet of thousands of ships with weapons pointed at every city on Earth get to dictate what's fair."
"That is the definition of unfair!" Ron argued back.
Kim was fuming as well. They got one look at her skills and decided they were going to rig their stupid contest in their favor?! They may as well just wipe them out without the stupid game at all! Were these guys idiots or something?!
She looked to the Kimmunicator. "Wade, get in touch with Global Justice. I'm not leaving any of this to chance-"
A green bolt of energy suddenly shot the device from her hand and Kim jumped back in surprise. Staring at her unharmed hand for only an instant longer, she turned and looked towards the source of the blast.
"This is a bad time, Shego!" She yelled out.
Dressed like a 50s pin-up girl in a green and pink diamond-patterned top and tiger-stripe hip-huggers with cheap plastic jewelry was Shego. She was sitting in the passenger seat of a massive rocket-powered drag racer, the hand she used to blast at her now wagging in a friendly wave.
"Hey Kimmie; you remember how I stole something your Dad created and it was used to destroy cities? Watch this."
Kim recoiled. "What?!"
"Seriously," Motor Ed, the Driver, said, "Check this out."
The rockets on the dragster–Kim realizing too late they were the Kepler rockets her father helped design–fired up, and the rocket car raced off. Quickly it built up tremendous speed, and its draft began destroying everything it passed.
Kim gawked at the literal destruction being left in the car's wake. "Ron, get The Sloth, we've got to get after them!"
"KP? We got a different problem!" Ron yelled in a panic, before gray jumpsuit and helmet wearing men seemingly fell from the sky, landing in fighting stances and surrounding the two of them and Rufus.
Looking left and right at the suited men, she stopped and looked up at the roof of her house, where she saw one more standing next to a short, broad shouldered man wearing an iron helmet, red tunic, black pants, and bronze gauntlets. She slipped into a fighting stance of her own.
"Professor Dementor…" She growled.
"Fraulein Possible," Dementor said with his heavy German accent dusted in saccharin. "I've decided to come visit and claim your battle suit. Is this a bad time?"
Kim snarled back as her battle suit powered on, "It is. The worst."
"Then gut," Dementor said chipperly, before he pointed at her and screamed. "GET THAT BATTLE SUIT! EVEN iF YOU MUST RIP IT FROM HER BROKEN BODY!"
Kim smiled with an intent to harm. "Yeah? No."
It was like a comedy routine from the first thrown punch, Kim grabbing the arm of the first henchman to swing on her and using him as a club to send two more flying. She vaulted over another, and kicked off his back to send him crashing into a pile of wood planks being used to repair her home. Twisting her body as she flew through the air, she kicked one, and then another before landing on the grass.
A henchman grabbed her from behind, attempting to put her in a full-nelson. A high kick, demonstrating her cheerleader flexibility, caught him in the face and he let her go–allowing her to turn in place and punch him with enough strength to send him skipping like a stone before he bounced off a parked car.
With minimum effort, she blocked and parried the strikes of the last two henchmen, going back and forth between them to deflect their strikes before she kicked one's leg from under him with a kick to his knee, and shattered the jaw of the other with a palm-thrust to the chin. Spinning in place, she stopped and thrust both arms out, the two blows sending the crippled men flying from her.
She looked back up at Dementor. "Okay. So hop on your jetpack, and spout your revenge promises, because I have more important things to worry about than you!"
He was already gone. Good.
The Kimmunicator went off, and Kim drew it. "… Wade, I just had to deal with Dementor, what's the sitch?"
"Kim, the Oni have chosen the champions who are going to face off," he reported.
Kim was confused. "Wait, already?"
"The Oni used a computer to pick the daughter of the invasion's leader, and then they picked a 2nd Year Japanese High Schooler to take her on," Wade explained.
A roar began to build up as Kim frowned. "Okay, does he at least have any skills?"
"… Nothing that stands out in-" Wade stopped and stared past Kim. "KIM! DIABLO!"
Kim dropped the Kimmunicator in surprise as she bolted away from the vaporizing beam fired by the Diablo, which destroyed the device. Skidding along the ground, she looked up at the machine, and saw more of them flying from over the rooftops after.
The sound of tires screeching turned her attention to Ron, who had pulled up in her car. "KP! We gotta go!"
"Right!" This was insane, first the aliens, then Shego, then Dementor, and now these? Running to The Sloth, Kim jumped onto the roof, her Battle Suit using electromagnets to grip the metal roof as Ron gunned it and fled the plasma rays fired by the attacking Diablo.
"You were thinking that I was just bringing the henchmen?" Kim heard Dementor boast. She looked up, and found him atop the shoulder of a Diablo. "Haha! Now you will be surrendering your Battle Suit or BE DESTROYED!"
"Ron! Evasive maneuvers!" Kim yelled and she wobbled as Ron swerved left and right to avoid the beams.
"Just for the record, I can barely do maneuvers!" Ron yelled back, before screaming as he nearly clipped a car. As he recovered, he spotted Motor Ed's latest creation. "Ed dead ahead!"
"Catch up with him!" Kim yelled back, before she activated the Battle Suit's energy shield and blocked another Diablo beam.
The Kimmunicator chimed again, and Kim answered it. "Wade?"
"Kim! We won! We did it!" Wade shouted.
"What…?" Kim asked before she realized that this was the third Kimmunicator she had in her possession.
"Earth's champion won! I mean, it took the whole ten days, but he won against the Oni! They're not going to destroy humanity!" Wade reported. "And to think you were so mad at him."
"That disgusting creep who flirted with me in front of my boyfriend and his own girlfriend? Of course I was mad at him!" Kim suddenly snapped back, before she stopped. Wait. This wasn't right.
She looked up, the aliens were still here. She looked behind the car, the Diablos were still after them. She looked ahead of it, the Kepler Rocket Car was still racing on in the distance. No, wait… it was slowing down.
This wasn't right at all.
"Uh… Kim?!" Ron called out. "Wade says that aliens are stealing all the oil and gasoline in the world!"
"Why?!" Kim yelled in exasperation.
None of this was right.
"Some kid in Japan hired a space taxi and they decided to take it as their fee."
"That's insane! I'm going to give them a piece of my mind!"
"Possible, I'm going to have to advise you don't." Doctor Director interjected, her face appearing on the Kimmunicator.
Kim recoiled. "Doctor Director, wait-"
"Due to the nature of the aliens, engaging them directly is outside any of our capabilities. As you've seen, they possess the technology to do almost anything they please and lack any sense of restraint in doing it. We've already had to smooth over several incidents where millions of lives were threatened over smaller things."
"They're stealing the world's oil over a taxi ride!" Kim argued. "They're insane!"
Doctor Director nodded. "Yes, and what do you suppose they'll do over you confronting them?"
Kim's eyes widened, and her body slackened.
The Kimmunicator beeped again, and Kim drew it. "Wade, something's…"
It wasn't Wade this time, her mother was on the screen–looking visibly upset. "Kim, some men from the government just came by the house. Your father's been relieved from his duties at NASA."
Kim's exasperation grew as heart dropped into her stomach. "Why?!"
"A court order; they're forcing him into retirement because of his involvement in the Little Diablo attack," Dr. Ann Possible revealed.
Ron wildly maneuvered the car to avoid more beams, but Kim was hardly affected now as her shock turned to anger. "They're blaming Dad?!"
"They're not calling it that, but…"
Her mother knew what it was. Kim knew what it was. Anyone with even the faintest grasp of politics could see what was happening. The government was pushing him out because he had created the cybertronics that would go on to cause billions in damages across the world. It was a polite gesture, a slap on the wrist compared to what many would like to see happen, but punishing him for being a victim of Doctor Drakken?
Kim crushed the Kimmunicator in her hand, her anger turning to rage as she looked up at the Diablos closing in on them.
"This is auf wiedersehn, fraulein!" Dementor taunted as the Diablo closest came within arm's reach.
Her feet leaving imprints on the roof of her car, Kim screamed and leaped forward–kicking the Diablo's outstretched arm back into its chest. Forming the right glove of the Battle Suit into the energy gauntlet, she willed it to change shape into a blade and swung–cutting the Diablo in half at the waist.
Professor Dementor watched this and recoiled a bit. "Warte, was?"
Kim leaped from the bisected Diablo to another, slashing it in two with a swing of her arm, and then another, and another. Screaming in anger, she slashed through a third Diablo, and used it to close in on Dementor with sheer murder in her eyes. Any other machine that attempted to get in her way was similarly dispatched.
Seeing the savagery Kim was unloading upon the Diablo, and realizing that she was looking only at him, the normally confident and boastful German madman went a little pale. "She has become… ein walküre…!"
Dispatching one more Diablo vertically, Kim fell towards Dementor–with every intention to bisect him. As she reached him, however, a glowing red hot chain wrapped around her waist, and she was snatched from the air–crashing onto the hard metal deck of a ship bobbing in the middle of the sea.
As she lay on the deck, breathing heavily, she punched the deck with a groan of frustration. It was all happening so fast. One after another, before she could finish one thing another disaster was barreling on. Her family, her home, her world was being literally destroyed and she could barely keep up without being alerted to a new crisis.
"Can't do anything, can you?"
A new emotion shot through her.
Terror.
A hand grabbed her shoulder and she was yanked up and onto her feet. It was Adrena Lynn… Khazri… standing in front of her with a knife ready and and a beatific smile. Kim immediately tried to strike, but her arm… she couldn't feel it anymore. She was so dizzy now, and even with the Battle Suit she felt weak.
"Can't save the world. Can't save your Dad's job. Can't be happy. Can't be confident in yourself." Khazri laughed. "Can't put a single villain away for good."
She leaned close to Kim, the red light shining in her unstable eyes. Her smile suddenly split her lips wide, and she laughed like a deranged hyena.
"YOU CAN'T EVEN DIE!"
Abruptly, Khazri impaled Kim through her heart.
Kim awoke with a loud, desperate gasp, as the dream left her mind and the panic that lingered flooded in with her consciousness. Her head swam in a mixture of fear, anger, and sorrow that gripped her heart so tightly that she couldn't breathe. Doubling over, she fell onto her side and curled up in a ball, shaking and struggling for air, bathed in a cold sweat from head to toe.
"Hmm… muh…? Kim…? Kim!"
She stopped shaking when she heard Ron's voice. When he placed his hand on her shoulder she instinctively curled tighter, but then he pulled her back against him and embraced her tightly–swiftly causing all the tension to leave her almost all at once. The suddenness of the calm that overcame her was stunning, literally so as she went still in his arms.
"It's okay, KP," Ron assured her, "You're safe now."
"S-safe?" She repeated. "Wh-where am I? Where are we?"
Taking the time to look around, she realized that they were in a modern and expensively furnished bedroom. Like they were in a five-star hotel or the guestroom of a mansion. Both she and Ron were on a bed with black sheets and pillows, and she was wearing only sleep clothes consisting of a t-shirt and underwear.
"We're on dry land, thank goodness. I don't think I could take another minute on that boat," Ron said.
"Kim!" Both heard Rufus squeak before the Naked Mole Rat hugged the side of Kim's face.
With a little effort, Kim patted Rufus on the head, and settled back against Ron. "How long have I been out…?"
"It's been about a day and a half. After you fell asleep you stayed asleep; they said you just needed rest after what happened."
"They… Global Justice…" Kim murmured as she tried to remember the dream. She couldn't, only feeling the rush of emotions left behind like cooling embers. "… Is… is everything all right? They got the cargo safe, right?"
"Everything's where it belongs, KP, don't worry about that," Ron assured her. "Just rest, okay?"
"I'm wide awake," she lied–her body felt like it was made of lead and she'd gladly sink back into unconsciousness if it weren't for the fear of dreaming again. "I should get up and stretch… call my parents, make sure they know I'm f-fi-fuh…"
She tried to get up and head towards the foot of the bed, but her aforementioned weariness dragged her back. She flopped forward onto the bed, Rufus barely avoiding being pinned under her. Lying there with her butt in the air, she let out a weary sigh.
Behind her, Ron stared at Kim's rear with his mouth slightly agape, before he shut his eyes and turned away with a crimson flush on his face.
Kim turned onto her side, and looked at Ron. "Do… do they already know?"
Without opening his eyes, Ron answered. "Uh… they know there was an accident and you got hurt, but I spared them the details. Dr. Director said the last thing we want is for your parents to come straight to Spain when we don't really know what's going on."
"Why are we all the way here in Spain?"
He kept his eyes closed. "The owner of the cargo demanded we bring it straight to their home… they offered to put us up until you were good to go."
Kim managed to prop herself up on one arm. "Who are the owners of the cargo?"
"A really scary Nun." Eyes were still closed.
"Why are your eyes closed?"
"Because you're in your underwear and I did not want to stare."
And there was some much needed warmth in Kim's otherwise barren emotional state, enough to make her crack a small smile. Extending a leg, she lightly poked him in the side with her toes.
"You can look at me, Ron. I… I don't mind if you're the one seeing me like this…"
At the weakest she ever felt.
Ron regained some of his composure, and opened his eyes to look at Kim. Seeing her sprawled out there on the bed, looking at him so intently, caused the blush linger on his face. He needed to change the subject.
"Uh… you're probably really hungry and thirsty, right? I can call up one of the servants to bring up food." Ron said as he went to the phone on the nightstand beside the bed. "Crash and the Boys said you probably would be. I-I think you'll feel a lot better with some food in you."
After sleeping for a day and a half, Kim agreed. "Yeah… probably…"
There was a knock at the bedroom door. Kim, Ron, and Rufus all looked towards it as it abruptly opened–revealing Sister Lida Ysidro walking in with a bag in one hand and the other resting on the strap of a bolt-action rifle slung over her shoulder. Scary Nun suddenly became less of an exaggeration on Ron's part when Kim beheld the woman–she was a pretty woman of Spanish descent, but with pale skin that gave her a clearly cold presence, light gray eyes that bordered on white, and black hair with a white mottled throughout it that resembled a merle pattern on certain dogs.
The fact that she looked annoyed with her guests did not do her presence any favors.
"Buenas tardes," she greeted before tossing the bag at Ron. "Here's lunch. It's not Bueno Nacho, but it'll do your digestive tract a favor."
Ron scrambled to catch it, as Kim sat up and folded her legs Indian-style. "So you're the owner of the cargo, then?"
"Yes," the nun said with a softening expression as she introduced herself properly to Kim, "I am Sister Lida Ysidro, serving the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and you are in the home of my family near the city of Bilbao."
The woman's expression softened, as she nodded to Team Possible. "I want to thank you for helping recover it. Words cannot convey my gratitude; even putting you up here for you to rest feels like it's the least I could do."
"Oh no, it means a whole lot to us," Ron said, Rufus agreeing, as he passed one of the sandwiches in the bag to Kim.
"It's no big at all–I'm glad we could help you," Kim insisted.
Lida manage to smile a little more. "You three really are too good for this world."
Unwrapping the sandwich, Kim stared at it. It looked like it came from a café, and just from a single whiff she knew everything that was on it. Chicken, cheese, sweet red peppers, onions, and pepper aioli. She smelled it again, the different aromas crashing into her senses, and the hunger expected to follow after over a day slumber overcame her. Ravenously she tore into the sandwich, moaning in satisfaction when the food tasted as good as it smelled.
Both Ron and Rufus stared in surprise at Kim voraciously devouring the sandwich in seconds, and then even licking her hands and fingers clean of any remaining crumbs and sauce. Lida's speckled eyebrows rose in amusement, as Kim looked at Ron and his sandwich like she wasn't picky about eating either.
Without hesitating, he offered the whole thing to Kim. "I guess you would be hungry-"
Kim took it, kissed him on the cheek, and hungrily ate the offered sandwich. Ron watched in a mix of awe and concern, before Kim leaned back over and licked where she kissed him–slurping up a bit of the aioli she had left behind.
"Oh… mmf… it's so good…" Kim moaned as she finished. She had never felt so hungry before, even after going without a meal for a day from chasing Drakken and Shego across the Arctic in her sophomore year.
She tensed up before bringing a hand up her chest and resting it on her heart. Ron and Rufus watched her with concern.
Lida hummed. "Something wrong?"
Kim pulled on the collar of her t-shirt, but was afraid to look down at her chest. "… I'm not sure I can put it into words."
"We don't have to talk about it," Ron said, "I told Dr. Director everything that happened."
"Even that…" She stopped for a moment, struggling with saying it. "… That I died?"
Ron looked pensive. "You.. uh…"
"Yes," Lida said for him, "And Betty told me in turn. Not that I wouldn't have figured it out; I saw the scars when I got you out of your suit."
"Scars?!" Kim yelped, and looked down her shirt. Her eyes widened at the sight of the pale splotch of new, slightly rougher skin now residing over her heart. She looked at her left arm, and found a similar band of new flesh midway up her upper arm–right where it had been cut off before…
The memory of Khazri driving most of her arm through her chest and out her back abruptly snapped into crystal clarity. The pain, the heat, the cold… the… emptiness that followed shook her to her core.
Suddenly Kim felt sick, like she wanted to throw up everything she just ate. "… I shouldn't be alive…"
Without hesitation, Ron moved and embraced Kim. "No, don't say that."
Kim didn't resist his hug, but she couldn't accept his words. "It's not right, I shouldn't be here… you don't come back from that. No human being can."
No normal person couldn't, not even a Possible could just come back from the dead!
"But you did!" Ron argued. "You're here, you're alive!"
"Then what am I?!" Kim snapped at him, on the verge of hysterics.
"I know what you are."
The two of them and Rufus looked at Lida, who stepped back and opened the door.
"You… you know?" Kim asked.
Lida nodded. "Get dressed and follow me; there's something I wanted you to see when you woke up; it'll help explain everything."
Her hysteria vacating, Kim found new energy as she got up. "I'll… we'll be right out."
The woman nodded, and stepped out the door.
A/N: Merry Christmas, I say, and I add further... that this is just the start.