I do not own any Disney characters named herein and am only borrowing them to tell a nonprofit tale meant for entertainment purposes only.

Kim Possible: A Tale of Prometheus

By LJ58

5

"Quite the tale. Obviously, you escaped their local justice," Martin commented.

"With no evidence but rubble, how could they charge me with anything? Still, I hoped to salvage something of my work, and so I hired a crew, not locals, since a rather serendipitous outbreak wiped out most of the village," Dr. Lipski spat with grim satisfaction, not admitting he had unleashed the plague, and then personally ensured no one survived, "But I spent a full three weeks digging and sifting rubble as I made sure to check every inch of the space where my labs had been."

"I see. And did you find anything?"

"It's what I didn't find that astonished me. Regrettably, the elements in those stones were lost, charred and burned to virtual dust by the heat of the flames," Theodore told Martin.

"I see. And the women? Miss Possible?"

"Ah, that was the proof I couldn't find, which proved I had done far more than even I realized."

"I don't understand. You did, or didn't find them? Did they….survive?"

"Oh, I did, and I didn't find them. The mob didn't bother to properly search even before I returned, you see. When I gained my freedom that is the very first thing I did as I said. I searched for weeks but soon realized their bodies were not buried in the rubble of my old castle. They weren't buried, because they weren't dead."

"But if you found no evidence…."

"Ah," the quietly manic little man spat as Martin studied him. "But I did. It was months later, but I finally found a trace of them through rather reliable gossip and rumor that led me to China, of all places. I sailed there at once, of course. I had to if I was to prove my genius had not only overcome death itself but still thrived in spite of all those superstitious cretins had leveled against us."

"And did you find them?"

"Find them," Dr. Lipski sighed now, leaning back in his chair to study his wine. "What I found was evidence of their passing. Tales of unnatural women that stood against fantastic odds, and even….I do not jest….fought like demons of old. In time, I tracked them to the growing legend of the Jade Dragon, and her Crimson Tiger. Women warriors trained by certain Chinese monks until they became all but unstoppable juggernauts. Women so powerful no man could face them and live. Only never did I catch up to them as yet. They were ever one step ahead as if knowing I was pursuing, and leaving just as I thought I had found them."

"So, you never found them."

"I ran short of funds, and could no longer travel," he grumbled. "I sought old acquaintances, and tried to rally support, but…."

"Ah, so is that where Miss Shelley's rather curious tale originated from then," the journalist asked as his mind now saw a connection.

"Her," he grumbled. "I vow, I am beset by vexing females at all sides at the best of times. I told her and her brother of my tale, yes, hoping to gain a modicum of fresh support. Instead, that annoying and pretentious tart actually recrafted my tale into her witless morality play. She even suggested I was mad and turned my glorious creation in a mindless brute," Lipski complained. "Females. I vow they were put upon this world to vex men. What else are they good for," he huffed.

Martin Sands eyed the eccentric man noted for flights of fancy and leaned back in his own chair.

"So, then that is the end of the tale?"

"The end? Oh, never," he said. "Never. Because my creation is immortal, you know. It cheated death. I just need her…them back to prove it, and use her to perfect my process so all men may share in it. I will find her, too. Somehow," Dr. Lipski swore, eyeing something only he could see just then, "I will find them, and I will tame them. Then the world will see my genius," he promised as he paused to gulp the last of his wine.

"Well, Dr. Lipski," Martin told him. "Do look me up if you ever do find them. I would be very interested in knowing how you fare."

Theodore Lipski slammed his empty goblet down and glared at him.

"You don't think I realize when I am being mocked, sir. I am not finished. I will find them, and when I do! When I do," he trailed off, and then leaped to his feet, running off to leave Martin with the tab for their wine.

Martin only shook his head and pondered the man's mad tale.

It was the last time anyone saw Dr. Lipski alive, though. Certain rumors claimed he had sought his rogue creation and her unlikely paramour in the heights of the foreboding Himalayas. Only no one saw him, or the by then legendary women he had claimed to have turned into immortals. By the time Martin heard those last rumors, the disgraced Dr. Theodore Lipski had vanished for good, and only Mary Shelley's cautionary tale of rogue science remained.

~KP~

Dr. James Timothy Possible sighed as he gathered the day's post as he stood on the front of the step, and looked out over the busy neighborhood. He barely glanced at the letters and packets, and just turned from the boisterous signs of life all around him.

"Anything good today, dear," the redhead asked as his wife, she recently restored him to him after having been found on a Caribbean Island very much alive, came up behind him.

"It looks much like the usual, I….."

"James," Ann Possible asked.

"It's from….Kimberly," he said, holding up the thick packet.

"Mailed….before she passed," the woman asked quietly.

"No," James said, and showed her the posting. "From India, not three weeks past. She's alive, Ann," he rasped. "She's still alive. Those odious little men lied!"

"Open it," his wife cried.

They opened the packet and pulled out a thick letter, and a worn, scorched journal. They eyed the two and then opened the letter. Inside was also a letter of credit to a bank for more than enough to support their family for years.

"How," James sputtered and began to read.

Kimberly wrote of her journeys, and the work she and a friend took that earned them more than enough, so he was not to worry about her. She spoke of adventures and learning things that would astonish him. She then spoke of the journal, declaring he should read for himself, and then decide what to do with it. Every word, she confirmed in her own hand, was true. She wished him and the boys well but said it would not be a good idea for her to return just then. Perhaps, she mused, in the future.

James opened the journal, and together, he and Ann read it as they started with the most innocuous words, "Today I found the most unusual friend one could imagine," as they followed Kim's work and progress with a woman she claimed had been dead.

"What do we do," Ann asked after they finished that genuinely shocking journal that ended with Kimberly's own resurrection and her surprising changes after she woke in Shego's arms with the lab burning down around them. She did not say how but wrote they escaped and fled the region to find their own life.

"We burn it," James told her quietly. "No one must ever see these words. You know how many would react, my love. You know," he told her.

"Burn it," Ann nodded. "I just hope she returns someday soon. I so much want to see my little girl again," she admitted.

"At least we know she still lives," James told her. "At least we know she survived."

The couple smiled, and simply held onto one another, sharing their happiness that had been tainted by grief until that surprising letter. After a time, James rose, lit a fire in the hearth despite the day's heat, and began to feed the old, scorched pages into the flames until every word was consumed, and the journal was gone forever.

End….?