Punch Line

"I'm just saying, there are tons of reasons that isn't fair!" Ron pleaded his case and stepped in front of Kim with his arms gestured out, trying to better convey his point.

Kim rolled her eyes in amusement and replied slyly, "So name a few."

Ron stepped back and Kim walked by as the blonde haired boy scratched his head trying to figure out exactly how assigning a full power-point project to be due in one week wasn't fair, but he couldn't think of any; he stumbled over his reply when the Kimmunicator stopped the conversation from going any further.

"What's up, Wade?" Kim greeted after stopping short mid step.

"Another Drakken scheme; he's stealing some super advanced technology, at a Wayne Industries lab a good 30 miles from Middleton."

"Got us a ride?" Kim inquired while Ron stepped in to speak with their tech savvy cohort.

"Hold on a second, you mean Wayne Industries as in billionaire Bruce Wayne's company?"

"That's right. Drakken has stolen from some high profile targets before, but he must really want this piece bad. Wayne Industries has some of the toughest security in the nation, if not the world."

"And we don't know what he's after?" Kim checked as she rummaged through her backpack.

"No, but he is meeting some heavy resistance, Bruce Wayne has more security than Senior Senior Sr. Not hard to understand why though, I get my hands on anything WayneTech that comes my way."

"We're gonna save Bruce Wayne's company from Dr. Drakken? This totally makes up for Barkin's unfair assignment!" Ron cheered.

"Actually, the way things are going, the security team will have Drakken captured and sent off to prison before too long, but I figured better safe than sorry."

"Oh see this day just keeps getting more and more unfair," Ron commented glumly while Rufus scurried up to his owner's low-hung shoulders, "the one time one of our villains tries to steal something from someone high profile, we aren't needed. We must have horrible luck."

Kim again rolled her eyes at Ron's perception of unfair, but perked him up this time too, "Chill, Ron, Wade's right. Better safe than sorry."

Ron made a subtle growl of discontent and mumbled something about it "not being the same" but Kim was already on her way towards the helicopter that had just landed to give the two a ride.

…

"Thanks again for saving the pet store!" The pilot cheered as Kim and Ron exited the craft on the roof of the small WayneTech lab.

"No biggie!" Kim called back and ran into the building with Ron following close behind. Distant gunshots put the two on high alert, but they were not deterred in the least from intervening.

The small staircase that led from the roof put them at a dead end, as a security force field barred their way, but Kim already saw one of Drakken's goons lying head down, stiffly on the floor.

"KP, over here!" Ron motioned to a vent hatch that was a screw loose. Kim and Ron combined their strength to tear it off the wall, and after a lot of effort, and a little ingenuity from Rufus, the vent was opened to the duo.

Kim dove into the small passage and Ron, as always, had her back. They began to descend and the vent gave them two options when they had done so, one passage to the right, and another straight ahead.

"I'll go right," Kim informed her friend and turned into the passageway, again descending with the vent and turning left at the bottom, which was at least another floor down. She continued ahead and found an area that was unblocked, allowing her to see into the room. She discovered an exit vent on the other side of the room and began to move forward when the doors were blasted open.

Several of Drakken's henchmen came running, a few of which were carrying guards who had been taken hostage, and finally Shego entered the room, strutting in with power, but massaging an unseen bruise on her arm.

"Alright, Dr. D wants the place strip searched for that…I don't remember, just find the crate with the special insignia on it!"

"What about the hostages?" One of the guards asked, to which his reply was one of Shego's confident and diabolical laughs.

The guards understood the instructions and all of them who didn't have a guard left for the next room, weapons in hand. Shego directed the hostage holders back the way they came and followed them to the door, but stopped there.

She turned around without a word and stared down the room for a moment; nothing special was inside, in fact it was more of a hall than anything else, and it did not contain any products manufactured by WayneTech. When she had sniffed around to her satisfaction she fired a green plasma blast at the opposite door, locking Drakken's thugs in and keeping any snoopers out.

She then left to chase down the hostages and Kim followed the vent down under the floor and to the opposite side of the room, where she found the exit vent and managed to thrash it open.

She had a choice to make, and she needed some help to figure out her next move.

"Ron, Ron," Kim called after bringing up her Kimmunicator and paging Ron's to life, "Ron, what's your status?"

"Hey KP, things are getting intense down here!"

"Where are you?"

"I'm in one of the labs, and it looks like the situation got a lot worse. This place has been trashed; there's a security station outside and from the looks of things the guards are on the run. No sign of Drakken or Shego yet though."

"I just saw Shego, she headed down towards the loading bay," Kim informed as she checked the sign above the door, then looked over to the one where Shego had locked her out, "and she sealed me off from getting to the processing facility."

"Oh yeah, a whole bunch of guards just went through there," Ron reported, back at the security terminal, "It's pretty close by, actually."

"Great, head there and make sure they don't get what they're looking for!"

"Me? What about you?!"

"Shego has hostages, I have to save them; as soon as I've dealt with her I'll find you and stop the other thugs."

"But Kim-" Ron was cut off when Kim flipped her Kimmunicator off and put it away, running to catch Shego.

She was right; it was far better to be safe than sorry.

…

Kim stopped outside the doors that led to the loading bay, firing her grapple at a vent and prying it off with a bit of effort to sneak in undetected. When she entered she found herself perched above a large, concrete area with many metal doors and storage containers. The guards were being held at gunpoint in a circle in the middle of the bay. Shego was interrogating one of them, who was also being restrained by a large thug.

"So, you gonna talk now, or should my fist say hello to your jaw again?"

"Do your worst lady, I won't betray my comrades."

Shego smirked and kicked the guard in the gut before following through with her threat and igniting her fist with green energy, then cracking him in the jaw. He spit out some blood and heaved in his breaths.

He could not force to his searing lips to speak, but his eyes shot a defiant and proud taunt to the super villainess, but Shego did not seem phased by his bravery.

"I'm going to find Dr. D, watch them, and if anything happens, kill them."

"But Drakken said-"

"Hey," Shego called out the thug who spoke up, "I gave you an order, and I'd worry more about keeping me on your good side than Drakken."

The thugs obeyed in silence and separated the guards, holding each of them captive and isolated from the others. Shego climbed up to the coordination station above the bay and entered an elevator in the back of the room, ascending the building and leaving Kim alone with the henchmen.

She knew that one wrong step would lead to someone dying and one mistake could change the lives of a lot of people. She had faith in herself, but a situation of this magnitude called for extreme caution and perfect tactics. She studied the layout for a moment before noticing that plenty of small arches hung above the room, and she could grapple from arch to arch to avoid detection and save the guards.

It was a bit new to her, but she was Kim Possible, she could handle anything.

She grappled over to an arch that hung directly above one of the henchmen, sitting there for a moment and waiting for the perfect moment…then…

BAM! She threw herself down and knocked him to the floor with her feet, setting him up for one final attack, a swift hit to the head that put him asleep.

"Stay here and stay quiet!" Kim warned before grappling away.

The other henchmen were oblivious, and she made her way to the other side of the bay before swinging down as quietly as she could and entering a grate in the floor. She followed it into the maze of crates and smaller boxes, getting directly beneath another armed thug who was out of sight from the rest of the hired hands.

WHAM! She popped out and put one hand over the man's mouth and placing him in a chokehold. He squirmed for a moment and faded into unconsciousness.

The security guard looked at her thankfully and was moving to hide before she could say anything.

She followed the same path out and began to stalk the third victim when Shego's voice rang out through the room, "Hey! What are you doing, morons! Someone is freeing the guards! If they escape, you won't be able to escape me!"

The guards went on high alert and began to out their backs to the wall or get into more gun friendly positions. Kim sighed in a mix of anger and fatigue. Shego always made things harder.

She moved to a better vantage point and slipped out a smoke bomb from her back pocket. She had to time it just right, but if it worked, she could take down two at once.

The thugs slowly backed up towards the other without realizing it, getting into the exact situation Kim was hoping for.

She flung the smoke pellet down and jumped down on the nearby crates, allowing her to get directly above the thugs, who were shooting blindly around each other. When they ran into the other they took one step back and faced the other, then were crushed to the ground when Kim pounced on their guns, bringing the thugs to the ground with them.

A swift spinning kick knocked them both on their backs and she leaped over to one, knocking him out with a hard hit to the head. The other was able to stumble away, barely making it out of the smoke before Kim tripped him and forced his head into the side of a crate, dazing him. He received the same treatment as the other guard and Kim grappled up once more.

That left only one more hostage.

"Just you left buddy, and that means that everyone else will be taking shots at you in the hospital if you let us down…if I let you make it to a hospital, that is."

Kim swung down and stalked the henchman from atop the crates and containers. Every time he looked her way she would drop down out of his line of sight and get a little closer to him. He was trembling at the thought of either meeting the mysterious force that had taken out his friends or of meeting Shego if he failed…probably both, and it made him sloppy.

Kim pressed herself up against one of the crates as he walked by it, keeping his back to her unknowingly the whole time. She crept up behind him and kicked him fiercely in the back of the leg as she struggled to get the gun away from him.

He fell to his knee after she wrestled it from him and then knocked him out with the rifle's butt. The final hostage thanked her and left, not bothering to ask who she was or how she did what she did, just content to escape the barrel of death's gun from being shoved at the back of his head.

"Well, well, well," Shego's voice blared as a camera on the wall focused on the teen heroine before it, "Kim Possible has come to save the day. Well then, what are you waiting for? Come on up and get me, Kimmie!"

The elevator door in the coordination and management office opened and Kim quickly grappled up and ran inside, ready and eager to take Shego down.

…

The elevator took Kim up to the meeting room for the lab authorities, but it had been cleaned out. The table and chairs were gone and the walls and floor had been torn up. A catwalk ran around the perimeter of the conference room and Dr. Drakken stood upon it with Shego and many guards, one of whom was carrying a silver briefcase, and another held a captive Ron.

"I'm sorry Kim!" Ron called out and grimaced in pain when the henchman bent him down farther and strained his neck to make the teen quiet.

"So, Kim Possible has come to stop my evil scheme! Well I'm afraid you're too late now, Kim Possible; I've already won, I got what I came for, and with it I can finally take over the world. Watching Shego and these goons break you will be the icing on the cake!" Drakken bragged as Shego leaped down with several thugs backing her up.

Kim's eyes glared at Drakken as he smiled with a twisted glee, but there was no time to focus on him now. Shego screamed her war cry and ran at Kim, jumping into a spinning kick attack aimed right at Kim, who barely rolled out of the way in time.

One of the thugs stepped forward to attack, but Kim blocked the punch and used the henchman's moment to her advantage, throwing him off his feet and into Shego, but the green and black clad villainess kicked the thug to the side like he was a piece of trash.

Shego continued the onslaught and traded many kicks and punches with Kim, but neither gained an early advantage, as was usually the case. The other thugs formed a barrier around the two and watched for the moment to step in, and for the moment to get away from one of the tough as nails women.

"What's wrong? Why hold back, Princess? Why not give it your best!" Shego mocked and slid forwards quickly, forcing Kim into a backwards cartwheel to escape. The two instantly locked up again and continued to trade blows.

"Maybe you aren't worth my best!" Kim shot back, angering Shego further and causing the older woman to attack so fiercely her plasma-covered hand broke through the floor.

Kim took the opportunity to get rid of some of the lightweights and shot her grapple onto the chest of one of the thugs, pulling him off balance and forward, right into her arms. When the other thugs attacked, she used the captured henchman as a shield before tossing him at two of his companions, knocking all three down.

Kim was forced to backflip over another thug who was trying to attack from behind, but once there she was able to quickly knock him down and out. She jumped around, using her amazing prowess as a cheerleader to attack the goons before they had a chance to retaliate or defend themselves.

Shego, however, was not so easy, and she had freed herself.

"Go on, Shego! Take her down!" Drakken supported, rather unfitting of his position as an evil super villain.

"Hang in there, Kim!" Ron called from nearby, but Drakken motioned for the thug to make the sidekick stay quiet once more.

Kim jumped forward into a roll and popped up to punch Shego down, but the attack was reversed when Shego kicked Kim back onto the floor. The female villain was relentless in her pursuit and Kim was forced to evade several powerful plasma attacks, and she did not escape the burning side effects of the strikes like she did the actual punches.

Kim managed to kick herself up and duck to avoid a mid section kick from her rival, seizing the opportunity and punching Shego in the jaw, launching her into the air.

The two went on battling for a while longer, knocking the other down every so often but constantly raising the competitive drive between them, forcing the other to improve or risk their rival getting a shot in. They completed each other in a sense, and neither was willing to risk losing the battle, because of what lay beneath it, and what it meant to both of them on a personal level.

Finally, though, the two were tiring, and it was time to decide the flow of the mission once and for all. They both leaped back a few times and stood facing each other at least 25 feet apart.

They both intended to run forward and give it one last attack, that needed no verbal communication to become clear. The mystery of it all lay within what move they would use to try and strike down the other with. It consumed their minds as they made their decisions and gnashed their teeth together, arching their backs and shifting their stances, to charge.

They ran at the other with passionate screams of battle and leaped into the air to make contact. Kim went for a high punch attack to strike Shego down and into the floor with; Shego went with a plasma-covered uppercut to knock Kim back and over with.

They put everything into the strikes and had no intention or ability to block, evade, or retreat. They both struck and were struck at the same time, feeling the full damage of the attacks and falling to the ground with a loud and deep echo.

All was silent for a moment, then, just before Drakken could demand that Kim Possible pay for fighting Shego to a draw, the wall behind him exploded, knocking him into the catwalk rail and almost everyone else over it to the ground below. Ron was the only other person able to keep himself from falling, and he retreated into the corner as fast as he could.

From the smoke a woman's voice echoed out in New Jersey laden accent to announcement, "Now presenting, straight from Gotham City, the Clown Prince of Crime himself, The Joker!"

From the smoke The Joker came laughing out, stiff in stance and rigid in walk, but his theatrical nature and deadly poise came across clearly, and even Kim was a bit stunned, and afraid, of the man.

Stories did not do the super villain justice. His bleach white skin made him a ghostly harbinger of death and his wicked laugh drowned out any logical thought she could muster. His bizarre appearance made the whole ordeal seem so surreal, yet still so terrifyingly intense.

Harley Quinn stepped out behind him with three large henchmen of their own, each one wielding a machine gun.

"W-W-What are you doing here?" Drakken asked, trying to sound as demanding and powerful as he could.

"Well I went though so much trouble getting you to do my dirty work for me, I thought I'd make a personal appearance, just for this occasion!" Joker announced and crouched down beside Dr. Drakken, who was lying on his chest and trying to figure out what to do.

"So nice of you to get what we wanted for us, and for free to; you're a standup guy, D," Harley mockingly commented as she took possession of the briefcase, taking out the way she came in.

"What do you want that for?" Kim asked, though she realized only after she said it that it was involuntary.

"Ah, yes, little Ms. Cheerleading hero, I was hoping to run into you," Joker commented as he walked down the side stairs to the floor.

"Why do you care about me?" Kim asked, finding that as the clown got closer he involuntary questions were making her more and more afraid.

"Oh, I don't care about you at all, dear, still, you remind me a bit of Harley, and slapping her around is one of my favorite hobbies…I thought I'd try it out on you," Joker announced and chuckled ominously, drawing a pistol from the pocket of his coat.

Kim began to freak out inside, but she managed to get to her feet; still, as exhausted and physically taxed as she was, and as crazy and resourceful as the Joker was, she knew she was facing one of the hardest fights of her life.

"I'm not afraid of any clown," Shego called out and ran at The Joker, "you're more pathetic than Drakken!"

She didn't really believe he was, but Kim was her rival, her battle, and no out of town freak was going to mess with things, even if the freak was the infamous Joker.

Shego dashed forward and moved from side to side, evading the barrel of the gun as best she could, but Joker was a lot savvier than he looked, and before she could get within reach of him he pulled the trigger.

Shego closed her eyes, tried to block the bullet from hitting her anywhere too important, but she felt the heat of the shot and the flash was enough to penetrate her closed eyes, and her heart nearly stopped.

Then she realized that she was fine. The gun fired a flag with "bang" written on it, it was a fake, a prop. She felt her anger boil up and she began walking over to the Clown to make him feel her wrath, and Kim got to her feet too, no longer as fearful of the supposedly fierce killer.

"Why you-" Shego was cut off when Joker's laughing stopped and he fired it again, this time the flag shot straight into her upper chest, just below her right shoulder, and she was knocked back onto the floor, grasping at the flag. It was an intense pain, and she could already feel the shock getting to her. Kim froze in place, mouth agape.