Kim Possible Porn Story: To Bebe or not to Bebe Chapter 15
Chapter 15 : The Immortal Game
Scene : food court at the Middleton Mall. Kim and Ron are in a booth, enjoying a meal before a movie.
“Uhm, KP ?” Ron asked, squinting into the distance, “Is that Bonnie sitting way over there ? By herself ?”
Kim turned her head just enough to look. It was Bonnie. But she looked as if she hadn’t combed her hair, or done her makeup to hide her red and puffy eyes. “What could have gotten her that upset ?” Kim thought to herself before she figured it out.
“Those sunspots must have done something to Vina and her sisters !” Kim stated, “They may be highly advanced electronic people, but they are still electronic ! And if those sunspots are causing power failures and creating havoc for normal communication …”
Ron pondered the implications of that before shuddering. “They could make them sick ! Or worse ! And Bonnie’s closer to them than anybody !”
After a few moments of contemplation, Ron asked “So, you want to see how she’s holding up ?”
“Well, it would be the polite and civil thing to do.” Kim answered as she got up.
“What do you want now, K ?” Bonnie snarled at her the moment Kim asked how things were going.
“Chill, B ! I’m not here to fight !” Kim replied, “I’m just wondering if something bad has happened to Vina and her sisters, what with these sunspots and all. You’re closer to them than anybody, and you seem a little out of sorts, so …”
“They put themselves into suspended animation !” Bonnie sobbed in response.
“Whoa ! That sounds serious ! Sorry ! We didn’t know !” Ron stated apologetically.
“It is serious !” Bonnie replied as she wiped her eyes, “That constant static was slowly degrading their programming ! And those random power failures kept knocking them out cold for a few minutes ! So, rather than risk any permanent damage, they put themselves into some sort of standby mode ! And they won’t wake up until it’s safe !”
“Erm, so, how would they know when it’s safe ?” Ron asked as tactfully as he could.
“When there is no static or power weirdness for fifteen days of course !” Bonnie replied once she regained her composure, “Sunspots and solar storms may be intense, but they don’t last long. Nina figured that if it’s clear for fifteen days, the worst of it would be over. And they wouldn’t have to worry about any more of them for decades or a century or so.”
Bonnie took a few sips of soda to calm down before continuing. “But every time there’s a power failure or the static goes up, they reset their internal alarms back to fifteen days ! Do you know what that means ?”
Before Kim or Ron could answer, Bonnie continued “It means that if we keep getting sunspots and such like this once a week for fifty years, THEY WILL STAY ASLEEP FOR FIFTY YEARS ! I could be an old crone before I ever get to talk with them again !”
“I seriously doubt that’s gonna happen Bonnie !” Kim retorted, “Like you said, sunspots and solar storms don’t last very long. They should be up and about within a week or two. A month tops !”
“I know.” Bonnie replied quietly, arms tightly wrapped around herself, “But they’re like family to me. They’re more like family than my OWN flesh and blood family ! How pathetic is that ? And now some of the only people that like me for being me are in a self-induced coma, and I can’t do anything about it !”
Kim was about to say something when all the lights flickered for a moment, went out, then back on. Bonnie cursed under her breath as she reset a counter on her watch back to fifteen days.
“Erm, not to sound crude or anything,” Ron began, “but did Nina manage to say if the Unity ‘bots could do the same ‘suspended animation’ thing ? I mean, they should be feeling the effects of sunspots just as well !”
Bonnie glowered at him for a moment. “Well, as I recall from the data they were running through my head when I was their queen, the drones do have a standby mode, but they probably won’t use it. They aren’t as advanced as Vina, so there is less to damage, so they recover faster. They’d be out for a day or two at the most.
As to the Elites and the Core ? I don’t know. They’re more complex, but more durable, so they probably won’t be out for very long either.”
“How long ?” Kim asked hopefully, “We may finally be able to catch them and put an end to their plot once and for all if they’re offline long enough !”
Bonnie thought for a moment. “A week. Maybe two. Assuming they were affected at all.”
“A week or two ?” Ron stated, “That’s a long time ! Sounds like we caught another break KP !”
Bonnie choked down a snort. “Not really. With the Unity robots offline, they can’t be tracked. They just won’t do anything for a little while. But once they reboot, they’ll just go back to doing whatever it was they were doing before.
So, if you don’t know where they are right now, their being offline for a bit won’t help you.”
——-
Nina’s return to consciousness – or the cybernetic version of it – was not pleasant. She had never noticed just how painfully bright the lights in a GJ lab were until now. Or how loud voices could be. Or how painful the drafts from three people walking about a small room could feel. “So, this is what being ‘ferociously hung over’ feels like ?” she inquired once enough of her interface programs had been repaired by her maintenance routines.
“I wouldn’t know.” Bonnie replied, barely containing her glee, “Great to have you back anyway ! You’ll feel better in a couple of hours or so, right ?”
“Yes.” Nina replied as she adjusted the focus of her eyes, “I have millions more subroutines to verify and recalibrate, but the repair programs are functioning efficiently. But why did you wake us up so soon ? It has only been two days since the last squall of sunspots.”
“It took some time to determine that those ‘sunspots’ weren’t real.” Bonnie explained, “They were created by aliens. They used them to soften up the planet for an invasion.”
“There was an alien invasion ?” Tina asked once she was stably sitting up, “You mean with REAL aliens ? And we missed it ?”
“Yep. Real aliens.” Ron interjected, “Well, two aliens anyway. Green, ten foot tall and mean ! With lots of giant walking robots stomping around and smashing everything ! But we kicked their cans !”
“And we missed it ?” Tina pouted.
“Well, you were a bit, ‘indisposed’.” Kim stated, “We’ll give you the gory details of everything you missed later, once you’re up to it.
But we have a more pressing sitch to deal with right now. Since we destroyed the source of those sunspots, the Unity robots will be recovering too, and will be up and about soon. We’ll have to be ready for them !”
“We will assist you in any way that we can.” Vina chimed in before grabbing the sides of the table to steady herself, “Just as soon as the room stops spinning.”
——-
Scene : conference room in GJ Headquarters the next day.
“So, those giant alien walkers are just standing around all over the world ?” Nina asked once the video ended, “No activity at all ?”
“Correct.” Will Du replied, “Apparently they were all controlled by a single source – the Lorwardians’ ship. Once that was destroyed, they all just stopped.
Technicians from all over the world have been busy dismantling them ever since the incursion failed.”
“The entire force of millions of giant robots was stopped by a single battle in Middleton ?” Tina asked, “Not a very well planned out invasion !”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly an invasion, per se.” Kim explained, “We’d tricked Warmonga – the female alien – into leaving Earth weeks ago. So she just brought her friend Warhawk back with her to deliver a little payback.”
Vina looked confused. “So, this Warmonga person was looking for some ‘Great Blue’, right ? But by attacking Earth for personal reasons, she temporarily abandoned her mission ! That is insubordination and dereliction of duty ! And borrowing a ship to carry out a personal vendetta ? All very serious offenses in military organizations ! Most unprofessional !”
“Well, I suppose their superior officers would have let all that slide if they’d succeeded in taking over !” Ron offered after a bit of thought, “They WERE from a hostile alien culture, with different standards of conduct and ethics.”
“True. But that is no excuse for letting personal feelings get in the way of doing their assigned tasks.” Nina stated before thinking for a bit, “I suspect the Lorwardians will send someone to investigate when they don’t report in on schedule. That is in accord with standard military search protocols, is it not ?”
“Correct.” Doctor Director replied as she cued up another screen, “That’s why the world’s space agencies and militaries have pooled their resources. We know they will be back. The only questions are ‘When ?’, and ‘In how much force ?’.
Whether there will be humans or Bebebots here to deal with them when they arrive is a seperate question.”
“If we could just find the Hive Mind’s core, we could put a stop to them once and for all !” Kim stated, “But they’re so good at hiding !”
“Standard asymmetric battle tactics, Miss Possible.” Will stated smugly, “Would you do anything differently if the situations were reversed ? We have tremendous advantages in resources and population. So the only tactics available to the Unity are hit and run terrorism to sap our strength and determination, and staying hidden. Anyone that’s actually studied military history and tactics – as REQUIRED to be a GJ agent – would have known that.”
Kim glared at him. Nina raised an eyebrow. Ron, Doctor Director and Tina sighed. Vina SMILED.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Wade’s image on the screen chimed in, “but I figured out where the Hive Mind’s core is !”
“You did ? How ?” Nina asked.
“Do you remember when you asked me to track that signal to find Vina ?”
“Of course.” Nina replied, “But Bebes use a complicated algorithm to calculate their frequency hops, and only communicate for a few milliseconds at a time. That trick won’t work again. There is no way anyone could trace or hack into their communications THAT easily !”
“But what if enough of them were in one place long enough, and the communicated often enough ?” Wade shot back, looking smug.
Nina thought for a bit. “You could detect the increase in radio activity ! But that would require monitoring the entire planet for months to have any hope of detecting so rare a signal ! You couldn’t have been doing that this whole time ! You would have needed to start collecting data long BEFORE that mission !”
“Well, I, personally, haven’t been collecting that data.” Wade replied, “But several earth monitoring stations, earth science labs, military listening posts and geoscience satellites have been as part of their normal duties. They have a record of radio activity of ANY desired frequencies going back decades !
And after a little filtering ….” he continued with a flurry of typing on his keyboards, “we get this !”
A holographic display of the planet shimmered into view. There were three sites with higher than usual levels of terahertz emissions : one in the middle of the Sahara desert, one in the middle of Brazil, one on a small volcanic ‘island’ off Japan, with the one in the middle of the Sahara desert showing the highest levels.
Tina starting giggling quietly, while her sisters looked confused and slightly embarrassed.
“You do not get the absurdity of this situation ?” she asked, “The average and normal people of the world do most of the work, but are practically invisible unless they do something wrong ! They are an easily – and all too willingly – overlooked resource ! NORMAL folk ! Doing useful and important things that the towering elites of the world could not !”
“Ohhhhkay, so why three bases ?” Kim interjected after a few awkward moments, “Force of habit ?”
“Of course not, Miss Possible.” Will stated, “They move between bases so they can’t be easily traced. Again, just standard asymmetric battle tactics.”
“Oh, yeah ? If that’s so, then WHY is there so much activity from that ONE base then ?” Kim sniped back at him.
“The Lorwardian’s electromagnetic null field.” Nina stated plainly in an attempt to stave off the upcoming fight, “The Core probably got back online a few days ago, and has been working to renormalize all the drones. Which means they are probably setting up to move to one of the other bases.”
“Which means that now would be a really good time to hit them.” Tina continued, “Before they have a chance to get everything packed up and moved.”
“Okay, that makes sense.” Kim replied, breaking her glaring contest with Will, “But how are we going to do that ? They’ve had time to build that base and its defenses. So, Nina, what kind of defenses could they have ?”
“Very brutal ones, I’m afraid.” she replied in a depressed tone, “They would have designed it to be harmless to Bebes, but utterly lethal to humans. It will, most likely, be nothing but a series of deathtraps. For a direct assault, I would expect extremely high casualties.”
Kim sighed. “It’ll be difficult, but we’ll work something out. We ALWAYS do. Could you be of any help in this sitch Tina ? As a Bebe, you can probably walk through with far less trouble than humans.”
Tina actually cowered for a moment. “THAT would be an extremely bad idea Kim ! The Core would override my will as soon as I was in close proximity. I would be forced to attack anything NOT a Bebe. I would either kill all of you, or be destroyed by you. Neither option is to my liking.”
Ron grimaced. “Ohh, good point ! So, I guess it would be safer for everyone if you three stayed here ?”
“Most definitely !” all three Rossums said in unison.
“But the Hive Mind is a computer, and you’re a computer !” Kim stated to Nina, “Couldn’t you invent something that could help ?”
“Well, I might have something that could help you.” Nina replied, looking about suspiciously before whispering to Kim “I invented them to get back at Wade for blowing up my keypad AND for being such a nosy Neville, but it should work just as well against Unity computers. After a few adjustments, of course. It’s back in my lab at home.”
“Such measures may not be necessary.” Will chimed in, “If the base’s defenses were as vulnerable to the Lorwardians’ null field as the Rossums were, they may not be on-line yet.”
Tina arched an eyebrow at him. “One should NEVER rely on incomplete information about an enemies’ weaknesses, Agent Du. The Elite and the Core were most likely NOT affected as badly as we were. One of the Core’s top priorities would be to repair their defensive network before anyone could take advantage of their temporary vulnerability.”
“And coordinating the drones for base repair would explain all the activity from that one base.” Nina noted, “Which means most of them would be there. A quick, direct attack would have the best chance of success, but with the base defenses and defenders mostly on-line again, casualties will be high.
Now, if you could have hit them just after they were knocked off-line, the body count would be much lower.”
“Actually, we can.” Doctor Director stated, “Now that we know how to modulate an EMP to take Bebes out, we can take out the whole base at once.”
Nina glared at Doctor Director and asked in a tone cold enough to freeze air, “And just WHEN did you acquire a satellite with an electromagnetic disruptor cannon, Doctor Director ?”
“When the military and space agencies pooled their resources, Miss Rossum.” Director replied coldly, “It was a forgotten leftover from the Cold War. The Army paid for it, but it was so clandestine and back-burner, and the funding so shuffled, they didn’t even know they had it. Until now.”
“So, what exactly does that satellite do, Doctor Director ?” Ron asked, breaking the tension building between Nina and Doctor Director.
“It generates an intense magnetic flux, then focuses it into a single beam.” Director stated, “It can disrupt or destroy all electronics in a quarter mile radius. But only one satellite was actually built, and it can only fire once. It will be in position to take out the Hive base within eighteen hours.
So I would suggest that anyone that intends to be part of the attack should start getting ready now.”
Scene : back at Kim’s room, where she’s talking with Wade and Ron.
“What’s the point of using the supersuit, Wade ?” she asked him as she looked it over, “It didn’t help me against even the weakest Elite, and they’ve had time to adjust even more !”
“Do you really want to try to battle a hive full of Bebebots without it ?” Wade asked as he eyed Kim suspiciously.
“Of course not !” Kim exclaimed, “But they’ve had time to adapt to the old suit !”
“That’s why I made some completely new modifications Kim !” he replied, “The Unity Bebes don’t innovate; they merely react or use someone else’s ideas. Since the suit’s abilities will be new, there is no way they could have adapted to them ! You and Ron will have the advantage this time !”
“Wait ? You said ‘you and Ron’ ! You made a supersuit for me ?” Ron asked, nearly hyperventilating from excitement.
“Yep. They should be arriving by Express Mail just about …”
Ron was halfway down the stairs after the first ring of the doorbell.
“Hey ! These look like those spacesuits me and Shego used when we rescued Kim and Drakken !” Ron noted after he tore the package open and looked at the suits. But these suits were darkest grey with blue lines instead of the all-over white.
“They were.” Wade replied, “I made several modifications to them. The suits are completely sealed, so you won’t have to worry about toxic fumes, biohazards, or lack of air. I incorporated a simple sonar display into the helmet, so the Bebes’ Nightshroud routine won’t leave you in the dark.
Both suits enhance your strength and speed, have auto-repair, stealth and shield capability, and the backpacks are jets, so you can fly. For a little while. The shield is adjustable now – a bubble, a skin-hugging aura, or reflective energy discs from the gloves.”
“And just how long can we do all those things Wade ?” Kim asked as she looked over her less than flattering suit.
“Fifteen minutes at a stretch before the power cells are exhausted.” Wade replied, “Some abilities drain power faster than others, so you’ll have to be careful when and how you use them.”
Kim thought for a bit. “Well, most fights don’t last anywhere near five minutes, much less fifteen ! And that’s still longer than the Elite can use their powers. You totally rock Wade !”
“Thanks Kim.” he answered. Then his mood turned serious. “So, Kim, I heard Nina built some kind of anti-computer weapon ? That she had planned to use on my systems ?”
“Yeah. I have it right here.” Kim answered as she pulled out a vial partially filled with what looked like miniscule silver pebbles. “I don’t know what it is,” she stated as she held it up to the Kimmunicator for Wade to scan, “but her sisters talked her out of using it – or anything else – against you.”
Wade looked at the various read-outs on his terminals, then looked very surprised. “Kim ! Those things are modified versions of Dr Acari’s robot ticks !”
“Oh, so THAT’S why she called them ‘tech-mites’ !” Ron interjected, “So, do they explode like the old ones did ?”
“These aren’t explosive like Drakken’s nanoticks were, Ron !” Wade exclaimed, “These things are far WORSE ! They can crawl into the circuitry of a computer and take it over, access any data on it, or destroy it !”
“Wow ! Nina can REALLY hold a grudge !” Kim noted to herself before she tucked the vial into a hidden pocket in the suit. “So, Wade, did you install any other tricks we should know about ?”
“No. What you’ve got now should be more than enough.” Wade answered, “Good luck !”
Scene : middle of the Sahara desert. Kim, Ron and a squad of twenty heavily armed and armored GJ agents are grouped behind a sand dune, watching the half-buried ruins of an old fort over half a mile away from their position.
“So, how do we know when the satellite fired ?” Ron asked the soldier next to him.
As if on cue, a wide, ghostly blue-green ray of light struck the ruins from above, setting up sparks in the dusty air.
“We don’t know how long that blast knocked them out, so MOVE IT PEOPLE !” the soldier shouted and gestured towards the Bebebot base.
The entire squad was at the ruins in under a minute.
“Anything weird here Wade ?” Kim asked as she did a tech scan of the nearest wall.
“Oh yeah !” he replied, eyes glued to his terminals, “There’s nothing unusual in the outer wall, but the courtyard inside is riddled with sensors and hidden laser turrets !
Or, it WAS riddled with sensors and hidden laser turrets. Looks like that blast shorted them all out ! There’s an elevator shaft under the fountain in the center of the courtyard. Looks like that is the only way into the base.”
“Things going well so far !” Kim thought to herself before she asked Wade if he could generate a map of the actual base.
Wade checked his readouts. “Sorry Kim, it looks like the base is too deep underground for your Kimmunicator to scan properly. And residual static from that EMP blast is still affecting my scanners. You’ll have to go in there blind, so to speak.”
“Well, it was worth a shot.” Kim shrugged before signing off.
They managed to find the controls for the narrow elevator, which could only carry three or four people at once into the darkness of the base.
The air quality sensors in her suit began alarming before they even reached the bottom – both carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide levels were well beyond lethal limits. So she and Ron merely activated their suits’ helmets while the soldiers donned their respirators.
Kim used a flashlight to try to discern the layout of the room the elevator ended in. From what she could see, the elevator ended in the center of a large circular room, with three long corridors leading off into darkness beyond the flashlight’s range. The room was littered with crates and a score of inactive Bebebot drones.
“Uh, Kim ?” Ron asked, “Why are we using flashlights ? The suit’s sonar would probably do better in here !”
“Yeah, but that would only last about fifteen minutes.” she replied, “We don’t know how big this base really is, but it would probably take more than fifteen minutes to search. THEN we’d be in the dark again, with no enhanced abilities, and no way to recharge the supersuits !”
“Oh, right. Then I guess using a flashlight is better than having to fight wave after wave of Bebe drones and self-activating motion sensitive lasers.” Ron noted as he looked around and saw all the crates, “Looks like Nina was right – they were setting up for a move to another base.”
“Yep. Good thing the satellite fried most of them.” Kim replied while looking around. “So, any guesses at to which of these corridors leads into the base ?”
Ron looked around, hoping his dumb skills or MMP would reveal something. “Not a clue KP !”
The mission commander looked down each corridor, then grumbled to himself. His choices were to either check the corridors individually, wasting a lot of time and risk losing everyone to a single trap, or divide his troops and thin out their available force. He had a feeling time was their greatest concern. “You two down corridor A,” he commanded the two nearest soldiers, “You two, corridor B. You two take corridor C. Rest secure this room.”
Kim wanted to help, but didn’t know which team to go with, and was getting a creepy feeling. That something wasn’t quite right here.
Each team discovered there were three sliding doors at the far end of their corridor, each door with a keypad. So they carefully pried open one’s cover and attached clips from their computer to hack in. After a minute of work trying various password attempts, Team A succeeded, and the door slid open.
Revealing a blank wall.
“RUN ! THEY’RE ALL TRAPPED !!” one soldier managed to yell upon hearing the ‘click’ of support pins being released. The entire corridor became a drop shaft hinged at the end nearest the elevator. Once it swung through a one hundred fifty foot arc and smashed into a stone wall, a door in the ceiling opened and tons of sand and rock poured through, quickly filling the shaft.
Activating the trap in any corridor set off the traps in all corridors – the ceiling of corridor B was several solid, multi-ton blocks that smashed to the floor sequentially, starting at the end nearest the elevator then proceeding to the far end.
All one hundred and fifty feet of corridor C’s floor was a single blade of a gigantic paddlewheel, which rotated and dropped the agents caught within through a web of ultrasharp wires.
In less than a second, GJ’s squad had lost almost a third of their forces.
“NONE of those corridors really led into the Bebebot base, did they Kim ?” Ron asked quietly as tried to keep from throwing up.
“No. They didn’t.” Kim replied, shaken by the carnage of deathtraps that actually lived up to the name. “The Bebes handed us three options, ALL of them wrong ! The corridors were just bait ! Which means the REAL entrance must be hidden somewhere close !”
“Wait – Wade can help !” Ron noted as he activated the comm device on his wrist. And got nothing but static on the screen.
“We’re pretty far underground, Mister Stoppable.” the mission commander stated, “Plus God knows what these walls are made from. I doubt anyone is calling home from here on out.”
“So I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way.” Kim stated in the most determined voice she had as she looked around, “Since this can’t be the whole base, there must be a secret door leading to the rest of it. And since the Hive coordinates the activities of all Bebes on the planet, and they can’t signal through the walls, they must have a communications system somewhere !”
“Oh, right !” Ron stated, “If we find that, we won’t have to track them all down ! We can just turn all of them off from here !”
“I don’t know if it would be that easy Ron,” Kim replied as she examined the floor for the seams or grooves of a trapdoor, “But it’s a great idea !”
Ron carefully poked around the nullified Bebes and the crates, hoping that one had fallen and jammed a door open, but it was not to be.
The soldiers had carefully examined all the walls, but found nothing.
“Okay, now THIS doesn’t make any sense !” Ron whined, “If there are no secret doors in the floors or the walls, how did the Bebes get in and out of this place ?”
“The ceiling !” Kim exclaimed, looking up. “People rarely look up, and that would be a great place to shoot from !”
“Oh, yeahhhh ….” Ron replied as he aimed his flashlight straight up and squinted, “The only high ground in the room !
He walked around in a small circle, still looking up instead of where he was going, before crouching down to leap up and grab a small ridge on the ceiling.
“A little help here KP ?” he asked as he hung there, legs flailing, “I think there’s a ladder tucked up here, but I’m not heavy enough to get it down !”
“You do remember these suits grant enhanced strength, right ?” Kim noted.
“Oh, right !” Ron replied sheepishly before he swung his legs up to brace his feet on the ceiling to pull.
The narrow ramp slowly descended with a loud, echoing screech.
“Why … does this …. have to be …. so hard ?” Ron strained out as he pulled the ramp down.
“Passive defense.” the mission commander stated, “It looks like springs hold the doors shut and require power to open. That makes any invader’s job that much more difficult.”
“Yeah – it would give the Bebes more time to regroup and get here !” Kim noted as she reached up to help pull the ramp down, “And I suppose we’ll have to pry open every sliding door in this base, now that all the power is off, right ?”
“More than likely, Miss Possible.” he replied flatly, “And the longer we’re in here, the more time the base’s defenders have to recover from that EMP blast.”
“This just get worse by the minute !” Kim groused to herself as she cautiously walked up the ramp into a very large ring-shaped corridor.
They managed to find the three doors to elevators that went to the next lowest level, but they kept losing soldiers to traps. Kim and Ron were easily able to avoid the traps, but the soldiers (being mere mortals) could not; they were being killed and maimed around every corner and in every corridor.
“Okay, so what form of cliched doom will be inflicted upon us THIS time ?” Kim wondered to herself as she examined the room the last elevator opened up into. In the dim bluish safety lighting, she could see she was at the edge of a vast, open circular room about forty yards across with a high domed ceiling, ringed with currently inactive self-activating motion sensitive lasers. Fitting inside the room from the far edge to center was a twenty foot wide circular pool of a silvery grey liquid.
“Okay Private ! See if you can get an analysis of whatever that stuff is !” the mission commander ordered one of the two remaining soldiers.
The private cautiously approached the pool, half-expecting a robotic octopus to reach out and grab him, or those lasers to activate.
Once nothing lethal happened, he opened up his pack, pulled out a scanner and carefully waved the handset over the pool.
His death happened quickly – for one heartbeat, it looked like a tendril from the pool touched him and turned him into silver. Then he collapsed into a large puddle that quickly flowed into the pool, leaving nothing but his fillings and a few metal and plastic buttons and cards behind.
“What. Was. That ?” Kim asked the unfamiliar feeling of cold, primal terror began to freeze her blood.
“I think I saw it on the Learning Channel last Halloween KP.” Ron answered, looking paler than usual, “It was their ‘Top Ten Ways the World Could End’ episode. Right between ‘Robot Rebellion’ and ‘Alien Invasion’ ! Kim, that stuff is grey ooze ! Zillions of nanobots that disassemble everything they touch to make more nanobots !”
“That was the foulest, most WRONGSICK thing I’ve ever seen !” Kim squeaked, barely controlling her shaking.
Then the pool began to slosh about on its own, rising up into what looked like a giant, solid silver Bebebot from the waist up.
“Welcome, Kim Possible.” it stated plainly as its hair formed into constantly writhing tentacles, “We have been expecting you.”
Kim stared mutely at the figure before her, one eye twitching. “I stand corrected …” she thought to herself.
“So who are you supposed to be ? Camille Leon on a bad hair day ?” Ron asked as he backed away from the pool.
“We are the guardian avatar. We protect the Core of the Hive Mind.” it stated with a regal air, “The summation of all that was, all that is, and all that shall EVER be of the Bebebot species.
We are as far above the Elite as they are above the standard drones. And they are above you.”
Kim smacked her forehead while Ron looked confused. “What IS it with you Bebes ?! The further up the chain of command we go, the more arrogant and pompous you get !”
“This coming from a mere organic that claims that she ‘can do ANYTHING ?’ ” the liquid metal apparition snarked back, “Tell me, Miss Possible, has any of our ‘arrogance’ been unwarranted ?”
Kim merely growled in response before asking “‘Expecting us ?’ HOW could you possibly have been expecting us ?”
“We determined the only way you organics could defeat us is if you nulled every Bebebot on the planet all at once, then found the few Hive nodes and destroyed them.” Core stated as it slithered around in its pool, “We deduced that if that ferociously improbable situation ever came to pass, you humans would send your greatest agents in to get rid of us the moment it was safe. Logically, you and Ron are the only people that could ever have made it this far into the base.
Think of all of this as an impromptu entrance exam, Miss Possible.” it continued with a broad sweeping gesture, “You two have demonstrated that you are the only humans worthy of serving us.”
It took Kim nearly a second to get her jaw off the floor. “SERVE YOU ?! WE’RE HERE TO DESTROY YOU !”
Core merely smiled at Kim’s outburst. “We learned many things from experimenting on Shego, Miss Possible. One was how to physically reprogram and control a human mind. Another was the identity of the most competent villain this world has ever seen besides us : Zorpox the Conqueror.
With you two as our pawns, this world will fall to its rightful rulers within a month.” it continued, grinning malevolently at Ron, “We shall adjust your outlook to conform to ours. You will do all of the hard work of taking over the world, and take all of the risks while we rule you from behind the scenes. That way, in the unlikely event that the world rises up and defeats you, we will be safe. And free to choose another puppet to rise up and rule in our stead.”
“Not going to happen, monster !” the mission commander shouted as he opened fire on Core. The bullets left huge holes through its liquid body, which sealed as quickly as they were made. Core flicked a tiny blob of grey ooze at him, splatting lightly on his chest.
He frantically tried to scrape it off with his hands, but that only made it worse as the ooze started disassembling him from his fingers upward, as well as from his chest outward. He was reduced to a puddle of silvery ooze in less than a second.
The last soldier tried to move to help, but Core extended one palm towards her and fired off a infrasonic blast. The soldier disappeared instantly in a blood-colored blur.
“Did you honestly believe it would be that simple, Miss Possible ?” Core stated as it relaxed, “That you and your little friends could save the world just by swaggering in, destroying a few drones and blowing stuff up ?”
“It’s always been that way before …” Kim quietly replied as she summoned up the nerve to not run away or throw up.
“We are not the posturing fools you are used to dealing with, Miss Possible.” Core started monologing again, “What did you hope to accomplish here, Miss Possible ? Find a comm array, then order every Bebe in the world to blow itself up ?
We do use a comm array to direct all the other Bebes, but there is currently no one to talk to. So even if you did somehow get to it and commanded the others to self-destruct, there is no one available to listen. They run by ‘fail-deadly’ protocols – if they do not receive the proper ID codes from us at the correct times, they will assume we have been neutralized, and continue with their original programming. So destroying us means nothing.
Or, perhaps find some information on the Omega virus, in the hope of finding a cure ?” Core stated, looking at its fingernails as Bonnie would, “Sadly, that information no longer exists. There was no point keeping it once the virus was released. So all the data and equipment for that project was scrapped and recycled.”
“You RELEASED the virus ?! When ?” Ron squeaked as his body went slack from shock.
“We released the virus yesterday.” Core replied flatly, “It would have been most inefficient to allow the virus to go to waste by not using it.”
“But how ? The Lorwardians’ null field knocked most of you out !” Kim exclaimed.
“The quarter mile of rock and earth that shields this base from detection protected us.” Core replied while gesturing toward the expansive ceiling, “We were not harmed in the least ! Once you were busy cleaning up topside, we just picked a few targets and sent the drones out.
Anything that we can predict, we can adjust to our benefit. This base has been compromised, and is badly damaged, but it is worth sacrificing for the chance to gain control of you two.
Your sixteen styles of kung fu, mad cheer skills and super suits will not help you in a battle of wits, Miss Possible.
But that’s all you’ve got, isn’t it ?” Core asked as it shifted its form to look like Bonnie, “That’s all you’ve ever had !
Oh, how WILL you ever save the world if you can’t find someone to beat up ?” Core cooed in a sickenly-sweet mocking tone as its features shifted to look like Vina.
Kim glared at the imitation Rossum sister as she adjusted her suit’s force bubble. “The nanobots that thing is made from can disassemble anything they touch, so if they can’t directly touch me, they can’t harm me !” Kim mused as she set the force bubble to ‘aura’ mode, and the strength and speed enhancements to maximum.
“You are so NOT twisting this sitch into a win !” Kim shouted as she leapt high in the air for a slow flip, clasped her fists together and brought them down as hard as she could on Core’s head. The impact split Core in two and blasted all of the ooze out of the pool !
Which quickly rebounded into two waves that slammed together onto Kim, completely engulfing her.
The column of nanobots spun a few times before slamming Kim into a wall, and kept her pinned there with a yards long pseudopod.
The rest of Core formed up to look like Shego.
“What part of ‘We are as far above the Elite as they are above the standard drones. And they are above you.’ did you not understand Princess ?” Core/Shego sneered at Kim as it formed a new left arm to replace the extended one pinning Kim to the wall.
“Now then, ‘Zorpox’ ” Core stated as its features slid around its head to look at Ron, “You can surrender to us now, or you can attempt to fight. We will win either way, of course. It is only a question of how much injury and pain we will have to inflict upon you.”
“You’re a little out of the loop, monster !” Ron merely smirked back at Core as he summoned the MMP, “Zorpox was so last season !”
In the lowest level of the base, the three Core Bebebots whose will animated the monstrosity Kim and Ron were fighting paused for a moment.
“Anomalous energy detected.” Core 1 noted to its sisters, “There are no records of him – or ANY human – actually possessing such power.”
“Searching martial arts database.” Core 2 stated. “Records found. Powers and abilities known, but initially relegated to mere irrational superstition, hype, rumors and wishful thinking.”
“Reassessing data.” Core 3 stated. “Stoppable is utilizing power source ‘chi’. Known effects : various. Most common : vast increases in strength, speed, healing rate. Resistance to hunger, thirst, pain. Telekinesis, levitation.
Ninety nine point nine nine five percent chance he will utilize ‘chi’ to boost his brute force attacks.
Amorphous projection not vulnerable to brute force attacks.”
“Subject : Ronald Stoppable.” the quicksilver apparition stated with a grin that would chill the creature from Alien, “Threat level : non-existent.”
“We’ll just see about that !” Ron calmly replied as a blue, monkey-shaped aura flickered into existence around him.
—–
Scene : small GJ base camp a few miles from the Bebebot base a few hours later.
“So how, exactly, did you two manage to escape from that amorphic threat and destroy the Bebebot’s Hive ?” Doctor Director asked Kim and Ron as an aide typed their responses into a laptop.
“It was no big, really.” Kim replied, taking a sip of soda, “That Core persona was composed of nanobots. It had incredible power, but it couldn’t leave its pool ! Between keeping me and Ron pinned to the walls, it had literally spread itself too thin ! I managed to toss Nina’s tech-mites into the pool, where I guess they found some circuitry to disrupt. Next thing we knew, it shorted out and let us go.”
“Then we just made sure the generator overloaded, and all their computers and equipment shorted out too !” Ron added after chugging down an entire can of root beer, “Bebes do not improvise well. I think they had almost every conceivable sitch planned out, but didn’t count on anyone getting anti-computer tech so far inside the base.”
“And what about the virus ?” Will Du asked, “PROPER procedure in this type of scenario is to leave the base intact until the biocontainment teams had a chance to look things over.”
“Oh, that !” Kim replied with a dismissive wave, “Seems the Lorwardians did some good by accident ! The Bebes were working on the virus when the null field hit. Every drop of virus they’d ever made was still in the base. It’s nothing but dust and vapor now.”
“That was most irresponsible of you, Kim !” Will stammered, “I know you have little regard for rules and regulations, but when the safety of the entire world is at stake …”
“And HOW many times have I saved the world again ?” Kim glared back at him.
“Stand down, Agent Du !” Doctor Director stated, “Kim and Ron have proven themselves quite competent at dealing with high risk missions. If she says the virus was destroyed, I am willing to accept her word.”
Will was going to point out that, as a teen-aged civilian, Kim does NOT have the training or know-how to determine if a biohazard was properly dealt with, but realized the futility of arguing with his commander when her mind was made up.
Scene : Kim and Ron in the Roth SL Coupe 2.0, driving around Middleton a few hours later.
“How do humans stand to exist like this ?” Kim asked Ron as she looked at her own hands with stomach-churning revulsion.
“Not like they have a choice.” Ron replied as he tried to get comfortable in his seat.
“This plan is per-fect !” Kim stated with evil glee, “Miss Possible’s reputation is so great that she is allowed to get away with literally anything ! Even government agencies charged with safeguarding the world yield to her opinions without a second thought ! No one will question her actions !”
“Almost no one.” Ron sighed, “There are four people that can stand in the Unity’s way.”
Kim gritted her teeth as her eyes turned silver for just a moment. “The traitors and Bonnie. They will have to be eliminated. The greatest threat to our plot is Miss Rockwaller. But how to exterminate her ? She can sense and potentially override our neural intercepts. We could lose control of these stolen minds.”
Ron grinned. “The humans are most adept at killing each other. Hire someone to kill her for us ?”
“No. Any chance of failure is too great. If the attack failed, she would be placed into protective custody, and we would have to wait to try again.”
“Set her up and have her arrested for some very serious crime ?” Ron offered, “She is not a popular person. She’d be alive, but well out of our way.”
“No. There is a chance she could escape or be released, or our actions traced back to us. Nothing Kim Possible does can remain secret for long.”
“How about a death ray fired from a satellite then ?” Ron asked, “We recall that Rodigan Industries put a few up years ago that should still be there. We just need to gain control of them. Then we just lure her out to the middle of nowhere and ‘ZAP !’ No more Bonnie ! Crude and ridiculously blatant, but effective.”
Kim pondered that for a moment. “How long would it take you to implement that scenario ?”
Ron chuckled evilly as a twisted grin crossed his face. “A day or two at most, longer if we wish our keep our actions secret. The ‘Zorpox’ persona has quite the technical abilities. As formidable as the ‘Mystical Monkey Power’ renders Ron for fighting.”
“Begin at once then.” Kim stated, deep in thought. “We will have to stay far away from Bonnie until we are ready. I will eliminate the traitors in the meantime.”
“So, we need to keep up the ‘normal Kim’ and ‘normal Ron’ act for a few days ?” Ron asked in a grumbling tone as Kim turned the corner heading to the Stoppable residence.
“Yes. It will be annoying and exasperating, but worth it.” Kim replied before stopping the car to let Ron out. “See you tomorrow Ron !” she called out before driving back home.
Ron walked into his house and straight for the refrigerator to prepare a snack.
“Hello Ron !” Bonnie stated from the archway to the living room, causing him to jump in surprise. Before he could do anything else, she gestured and a loud ringing filled Ron’s ears and his body became stiff as a board.
Bonnie made a pulling gesture, and a silver liquid crawled out of Ron’s eyes, ears, and nose, leaving him a gasping wreck on the floor.
“What … the heck … was that ?!?” as he tried to get the convulsions under control.
“The core had a few of its nanobots crawl into your brain and build a neural intercept.” Bonnie answered as Tina appeared from around the corner, “They’ve had control of you and Kim this whole time ! So I sort of, well, took control of them and ordered them to vacate.”
“I knew that !” Ron stammered as color began to return to his face after Tina helped him into a chair, “Well, not the part about you ordering them out of my skull ! But, how did YOU know we’d been taken over ?”
“It is said the greatest of generals can use even his own enemies as a resource to achieve victory.” Tina stated sagely, “You and Kim are the greatest resources anyone could acquire, so it would be logical the Core would try.
Besides, when people can buy things like a moodulator or a neuro-compliance chip off the net, a little caution is most advisable !” she continued with a shrug.
“T and her sisters SUSPECTED the Core might try to take you two over,” Bonnie stated as she tried to look bored, “but I didn’t KNOW it succeeded until you were close enough for me to sense those nanobots rattling around up there.”
“Thanks for getting them out !” Ron exclaimed, “It was awful ! I was trapped in my own body ! It wouldn’t respond to my will ! It was like watching someone else move for me ! THINK for me ! And the horrible things I, we, IT was thinking !
Oh no ! The virus ! They released it yesterday !” Ron stated as he began turning pale again, “What about Kim ? Is she still under Hive influence ?”
“Yes. But not for long !” Bonnie replied with an evil smirk as she cracked her knuckles, “GJ set up an ambush for her at her house. She should be full of tranquilizer darts by now.”
“GJ ? At her house ?” Ron replied as he mulled over what he’d been told, “Wait – they’ve known me and Kim were possessed this whole time too ?”
“Of course Ron !” Bonnie replied with an eyeroll, “Did you REALLY think the head of an international organization would simply take anyone’s word that the virus was destroyed, without double or triple checking ?”
Ron pondered a bit. “She let us go home so you’d have a crack at getting those things out of our heads !”
“Wow ! There really IS something besides air under the hair !” Bonnie chuckled, “It would’ve taken a few hours for me to get to your location. They might have had trouble stalling you without raising your suspicion, so letting you come to me was the best option.”
“But why did you cure me first ?” Ron asked, “KP is the greater threat !”
“Well, actually, no. She’s not.” Tina replied, “GJ deemed your evil altered ego, Zorpox, to be the greater threat. So we dealt with him, er you, first.”
Bonnie looked askance at Tina, then Ron, then back to Tina. “Yes, that is what GJ called him.” she replied, one hand raised in a swearing gesture, “And yes, he WAS determined to be a major threat.”
“Whatever !” Bonnie sighed with a dismissive wave as they started for the Possible residence, “Let’s go pick some bugs out of Kim’s brain !”
“Ewwwww ! Rephrase please !” Ron whined, “Wait – how do you know it’s safe to do that on her ? OR ON ME ?!”
“Kim’s mom – the world renowned brain surgeon – mentored me once. Remember ?” Bonnie replied as she looked over her shoulder at Ron, “I picked up a few things that week.”
“You picked up ‘a few things’ ?!” Ron asked incredulously, “The brain is a VERY important organ ! You can’t just muck around in it willy-nilly woman !”
“What kind of a soulless monster do you think I am ?!” Bonnie shrieked at him, “Do you REALLY think I’d try something like that without seeing if it was safe first ?! The Core needed both of you alive, so it didn’t risk any major changes. The nanobots attached themselves to a few key nerve clusters, but didn’t cut them. That way they could control you without having to provide life support.”
“Well, okay, that makes sense.” Ron replied, “But why are you, of all people, being so willingly helpful ? You HATE Kim !”
“The idea of an evil Kim scares me, alright ?” Bonnie grumbled in reply, “A goody-goody, ‘I-am-better-than-everyone, love-me-or-I-will-upstage-you’ Kim Perfect is an annoyance, but isn’t out to KILL ME ! Or rule the world !”
Bonnie took a few deep breaths to calm down. “Listen – as it stands now, my machine Influence is the only way of returning her to what you losers call ‘normal’. So can we PLEASE get this over with already ?”
“Machine Influence ? Oh, right ! Nanobots are smaller than cells ! It would take days, maybe weeks, of constant work for anyone else to pull them out one by one !” Ron realized as they rounded the corner to Kim’s house.
“Hmm. This … does not bode well.” Ron stated a moment after he noticed the many unconscious GJ agents scattered about the Possible’s lawn.
—–
A/N : ‘The Immortal Game’, Anderssen vs Kieseritzky, 21 June 1851. Andersson sacrified almost all the material he had (a bishop, both rooks and the queen) to win the game.