"Help! Someone Help!" Kim screamed, again. She couldn't get out—the Coffin was heavy, and the only light came from a small lamp, revealing the obscenely cheerful pink fabric it was done in.
"Enjoying yourself?" The voice said. "Don't worry—if you have any last words, I do have a recorder running inside—no doubt in a few weeks or months, when they find you, they can replay any messages you might have." Kim tried to keep from whimpering. She'd been walking home, when something had shot her—she'd only had a chance to pull a dart out when she'd passed out.
Then she'd woken up in here… in a coffin. She shouted, demanded and hammered her fists on it, but to no avail.
Then she'd felt it being moved, and heard an odd rattling sound…and then lost it completely when she realized that the sound was dirt being shoveled in on her.
"Don't worry… I've buried you at regulation depth—six feet." There was a pause as Kim waited, tears rolling down her face. "But, I think it's wrong to waste power, don't you? I don't think you need that light anymore."
"But… NO! Why are you doing this?" Kim said, her voice uncontrollably shaking.
"Because it will be my ticket into the upper echelons of crime. Because, I don't like know it alls…because at the end of the day, your family will hear your last moments…and because I can." The light went out. Kim started hammering again, even though she knew she couldn't get out. She kept hammering, her hands skinned and bloody, her feet kicking desperately against the unyielding hatch, her voice begging, screaming, pleading to anyone to help…
"What?" Drakken said, "Why should I listen to you?" He asked the strange little man in front of him.
"Because I've eliminated Kim possible…more so, I've broken her." He said, "I think you want me on your side for that." He held out the Kimmunicator for proof.
"So, what did you do?"
"I've buried her alive. Don't worry, there's a recording…she wasn't very coherent when I left, but here's a snippet. I was thinking of releasing it on the internet in a few weeks." He clicked a switch and Kim's voice came, a raw desperate voice with the sound of thumping in the background.
"Oh please god, someone help me, Ron, mommy daddy don't let medie I can't see athing-" The voice cut off.
"So, what's your price for bragging rights?" Drakken had turned nearly normal color, he'd gone so pale. Shego looked over at him, and with equal nods, they looked back.
"I desire to know where Kim Possible is. She's evaded too many traps. Tell me her location, and I guarantee you'll never have to work again." Drakken said, taking a lordly stance.
"Very well."
"Where is Kimmie." Ms. Possible asked. Ron was at their house, and he also looked worried.
"She said she'd be studying at the library…maybe she's getting a ride with someone." Ron said, his voice uncertain.
Wade was at his house, working on his newest program, when an attention light burned brightly. He answered it and then blinked. There was Shego and Drakken, and it looked like Shego had…blood on her hands.
"What-how did you get the Kim-"
"No time, kiddo." Shego said, "Someone's buried Kim alive at…" She read off a coordinate. "Just in case that was a lie, down load this things locator log and see if it was at that location."
"It was…" Wade said. "For at least an hour."
"Good enough for me!" Shego said, "You call every cop, EMS and firefighter for twenty miles around. Drakken is going there with his graviotomic ray to dig it up, but he'll need help."
"Where are you going?" Wade said, even as his fingers set off a dozen alerts in as many firehouses and police stations. Shego abruptly looked very grim.
"To get her family."
Kim had long ago stopped screaming, the runnel of blood from the corner of her mouth showing the signs of abused vocal chords, even as her hands and feet, her entire body was cut and abraded, fingernails clawing at the unyielding metal that backed up the fabric. She couldn't see anything the darkness was complete. She kept beating at the lid, her tempo growing slower and slower. Then, she screamed one more time as there was a shudder, and the coffin seemed to move. She had a sudden, mad thought that she was about to tumble down into hell, into fire… The scream turned to a giggle. Silly girl, just last week in school they'd studied Dante—hell was cold.
The cheery sound of the door bell, interrupted the Possible family dinner—Kim's mom was worried, but Kim had been later then this before—and she would give her another fifteen minutes before she called the police—and grounded her daughter for the next month. The twins were regaling Ron with the newest game hack they'd devised, all three heading to the door to answer it, probably expecting it to be Kim. Ms. Possible did as well and she and her husband walked behind them. They didn't get to it before the door was blasted open, and in it, stood Shego.
"Shego!" Ron said, sweeping the twins behind him. "What are you doing here?" Shego responded with none of her banter.
"Getting you all." There was a pause, "Except for them." She said, pointing to the Twins. Ron blinked as behind Shego two other forms appeared—his parents.
"You-kidnapped my-"
"It's alright Ronald. We're going to take care of the twins…while you all go with Shego…please, it's important." Ms. Possible had turned bone white.
"It's Kimmie, isn't it?"
"Yeah." Shego said, "It's Kimmie." Both Ms. and Mr. Possible swayed, and then all three were in a hover saucer (that had been firing energy beams at Ron the last time he'd seen it), and off in a flash.
"What's happened Shego." Mr. Possible said. Shego looked at them all and sighed.
"Some guy came into the lair a few hours ago and said he'd kidnapped Kim." Ron blinked.
"That's why you're here?"
"No. I'm here because he then put her in a coffin and buried her alive. Dr. D went along ahead to pull her out before the oxygen ran out…I hope."
"Who?" Ron asked, "Monkey fist, Kill-" His hand's suddenly tightened so hard that the rail made a sound of failing metal and came off in them.
"None of the above." Shego said, and-
"That's not important." Mr. Possible said, "Shego, step on it!" All four strained their eyes, until they came to an area on the outskirts of Middleton. Even before they landed, they could see what looked like every police and firefighter care in the place, as well as a saucer, twin to the one they were in, that was pulling up great swathes of turf. Drakken was grumbling.
"Cursed ray—and cursed man who didn't bother to make an exact map…where are you?" Then, there was a brief lurch in the saucer as a oblong object came into sight—a coffin.
" A second after the saucer was grounded, Mr. And Ms. Possible and Ron were on their way to be stopped bya solid line of cops.
"Let us through!" Mr. Possible shouted. "Kimmie!"
"No." The police officer said, an older man. "We're opening it up. If she's alive, you'll see her, if she isn't, I will not let this be your last image of your daughter." Drakken had dropped the coffin and a pair of firefighters came charging up with the jaws of life.
"Traps?" The other looked at him.
"Possible managed to save my dad when his boat went belly up."
"Right. Hell with it." The jaws bit into the metal, pulling the lid up with irresistible force. Both firefighters looked down at what was revealed.
"Jeez." One said under his breath and then louder.
"Can you hear me?" The blinking girl got up like a zombie, heedless of the firefighters, mumbling in a monotone.
"I've got to get home, Mom's going to ground me forever, I need to get home, I don't want to be grounded, put in the ground, buried…" She started giggling, higher and higher. Then, Mr. and Ms. Possible were there, holding their daughter with desperate strength.
"Kimmie."
"Kimmiecub…you're going to the hospital right now, and we'll ride with you." The EMT's didn't bother to contradict that, besides, Dr. Possible was certainly capable of helping. Kim looked up and some realization came into her blank eyes.
"Mommy? Daddy… I can't feel my hands, I can't feel…" Dr. Possible didn't bother to look at the hands, that wasn't what her daughter was talking about. The way she had moved ruled out trauma to the spine or head, and—her husband ended the question by, just as soon as a heated emergency blanked was wrapped around his daughter lifting her up into his arms, as easily has he'd lifted up a much lighter child years before.
"Let's go." He said, no tremor in his voice, but his tears mixing freely with the rain. His daughter looked at him uncomprehendingly, and only mumbled incoherently as they took her off to the ambulance.
Ron was paralyzed. What could he do…why hadn't he studied with her instead of going to play some games, he was so-
"hey… HEY!" Shego spoke in his ear.
"What?"
"Stop it."
"What?"
"The 'if I was there' business." She looked at him. "First, it's counterproductive—Kim needs you and not someone walking around beating himself up. Secondly, you're not joined at the hip." She paused, and sighed, "And thirdly because other people will say it for you. Ignore them. Kimmie was a lot of peoples' good luck charm and now it's been dropped in the toilet." Ron looked over at the ambulance and a police car.
"Are you coming with us?" Ron asked. Amazing, a tiny part of his brain said, how Shego and Drakken could go from goofy enemies, to people he could never pay back in a million years in the span of day. Shego shook her head.
"No Kid, I'd prefer not to risk someone remembering that million dollar reward for me. I also have…something else to do, well, Drew and I do." She pushed him towards the police car. "Go. She needs you…she's gonna need you more than ever…really need you."
Ron didn't wait, but took off for the car, and seconds later it was heading out into the darkness. Shego sighed, and turned towards her saucer to be confronted by police officer.
"Don't tell me you're going to try and stop us?" She asked.
"I have to ask where you got the information about this crime."
"Someone told us, trying to be the big man." She said, "I…convinced him to be more forthcoming."
"Where is he? I just got the DA up and he's wanted on about a dozen counts, more as fast as the DA can write them down."
"Waste of paper." She said. The cop looked at her.
"As much as I hate to say it, I can't let you kill that bastard." He said. Shego ran through a dozen stories, and decided to be honest.
"OK, honesty time. He did it. I know he did it, Drakken knows he did it, and when you pull the fingerprints and DNA, you will too. Except, your way, there will be a long trial, full of questions like "are you certain this man was the one who buried you" and Kimmie's going to be sitting there watching him look at her. Then he gets to go to death row, unless he escapes.
"Yes well-"
"There's another point—he's not going to live that long because Ron Stoppable is going to kill him."
"Kim's sidekick-"
"Yeah, I know, the "buffoon", get a clue, he's survived more death traps then your average Navy SEAL. He's a slacker, but not in this and he will figure a way into any jail you care to name and off the guy…and then get caught because he isn't a criminal." She shrugs. "Then you get to pull him into jail and have a trial, with…oh yes! Kimmie getting to watch her best friend go to jail for life for killing a piece of shit that should have been strangled at birth."
"And you?"
"Off the record? I'm wanted, yes, never for murder, but this isn't murder. Even if you do charge me on it, I can get away. And in case he decided to have any dry runs for this…I think between the two of us, Drakken and I can get you all the evidence you need."
"Um." The officer paused, "You realized, that if his body is found, there will have to be an official investigation…and we will officially have to follow up all leads."
Which means unless I do something like chop his head off at the mall, at 12:00noon, nobodies going to be looking real hard for the perpetrator.
"Good enough." Shego said.
"I'm afraid that the rain has interfered with our communications…I can't be officially certain you have any outstanding warrants… I don't think we'll be able to check for at least five minutes."
"Good enough for me!" She said, leaping up into her saucer and joining Drakken's saucer.
"Ready, Shego?"
"Yeah."
"excellent! Our friend has carried out his part of the bargain, and I wouldn't want to let down my end."
"Your end?"
"To ensure that he never wants for employment again."
To be continued.