Kim Possible Fan Fiction ❯ Empire ❯ Pills ( Chapter 3 )

Some of the night after landing in the room was a blur to Kim. She could recall fighting Shego, how much more furious her blows had landed but without the green glow that normally accompanied them, how Drakken had tried to escape only to encounter the mob of kids and had, screaming, led them away from the school. How he transported them was a mystery, but she could recall how Shego's face, usually a sneer, a smirk, or a laconic look on it, had been angrier than she'd ever seen it before. Kim could recall the angry green color rising up and staining her cheeks and neck, how her eyes had glittered furiously in the silver light of the moon when they ran outside, and how her mouth had become pinched and pained just before she vomited all over her opponent.

Kim stared down at her dress, then at Shego who was bent double, clutching her stomach in either pain or laughter, and swore. She swore violently, passionately, and in ways that didn't even seem to go together, in ways that made Shego's ears burn and would have made her mother wash her mouth out with laundry detergent.

The villainess looked at her, said, “Oh, Princess, you are in so much trouble,” just before she passed out. Kim ran a clean hand through her hair and sighed. “I don't believe this,” She muttered to herself just before she put Shego in a bridal hold, wiggled her high heeled shoes off, and walked towards her house. Shego was of just the right weight for a woman that tall and with her job. Her entire body was laced with muscles, light as they were, but that didn't make Kim's job of lugging her any easier to do.

The young woman tried to do a few math problems in her head but she rolled her eyes after she caught herself trying to count how many lashes Shego had. She eventually decided on the Fibonacci sequence.

“1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, 2207, um, 3804,” The teenager frowned trying to come up with the other numbers but drew a blank. That always happened to her; she would be in the middle of a math problem or a science problem or even in English class when it came to analyzing literature, and she would almost have it when the answer would slip from her fingers or it was like she suddenly couldn't go any further. The psychologists said it was a mental block, but whenever they gave her the exercises, it was no problem whatsoever.

She sighed in relief when she saw that her house was in view and hurried up to get rid of the strain on her aching muscles. Her arms were fine, but her legs hurt from the trek barefoot with the added weight. She'd have to get Hope to help her exercises tomorrow if her feet didn't hurt too much, she reminded herself. Then she sighed again, this time in exasperation, as she realized Hope was with Drakken and no help whatsoever.

Kim banged her shoulder against the doorbell and leaned against the wall to help the strain that Shego caused.

Mrs. Dr. Possible opened the door and gasped. Her daughter was standing there, covered in vomit with an unconscious woman in her arms, looking only slightly disgruntled. Sometimes, Kim was to much like her grandfather. Her grandmother could fight with the best of them, but it was Ivan that would take time out of whatever he was doing so he could help some poor wretch.

Anne took the woman from her daughter and almost dropped her. She was heavier than she'd expected and caused her arms to shake from the weight. Kim sighed and took the woman again, lifting her easily and starting towards her room. Anne looked down and saw that there was blood on the wooden floor. She looked at her hands and saw that they were perfectly clean which meant...

“Kim! Get down here and let me fix your stitches!”

Twenty Minutes Later

Kim paced back and forth, her footsteps swift and silent on her bedroom floor. Her leg itched because of the redone stitches and the skin felt tight, but she was so restless she needed to move. Shego was on her bed, a bucket next to her as she continuously heaved even though her stomach didn't have anything left in it. The teen hero bit her lip as she tried to think of something that would warrant Drakken taking all of the juniors and seniors at Middleton and drugging them. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of schools with bigger populations than Middleton. She slowed down a little as she recalled the Middleton slogan, “Not the biggest but the best.”

The red-head hurried out the room, slid down the banister and headed for the office her parents, the Tweebs, the Stoppables, and Wade's hologram were talking in. She slammed the door open, and blurted, “I know why they took all the kids in Middleton.”

James frowned at her, “I thought we told you to stay with your little friend.”

And Anne added, rather irritated, “And you're supposed to be resting your legs. You just broke twenty-seven stitches in your calves.”

She waved a hand dismissively, “Never mind that. I figured out why.”

James leaned forwards, “Why do you say that, Kimmie?”

“Middleton is the best high school every year,” Kim said, “So he thought that he'd get all the greatest kids as his minions.”

Mr. Stoppable frowned, “That can't be. There has to be a better school than Middleton High.”

She turned to Wade, who was already typing, a deep frown on his face, “From what I can tell, she's right. If the football team doesn't win, the basketball team does, or the cooking competitors, or the soccer team, or the chess team, or the tennis team, or the cheer-leading squad. Nobody ever fails, and no one gets below a C average. The only overweight kids are the ones that come from out of town and they become average weight in a year or less. Middleton is the most active town in the country, has the least traffic, the most intelligent jobs, the most responsive children and the best scores. And this year, everybody won top in the nation.”

Mrs. Stoppable frowned quizzically, “You mean every team.”

“No, I mean everyone. Everyone won in the top five in something, even if it was second-runner up in crocheting,” Wade said.

Jim mused a loud, “The probabilities of that little rinkie-dink school winning everything is mathematically impossible.”

James puffed out his chest, “Anythings possible for a Possible, son.”

Anne turned to her husband, “Yes, but not everyone's a Possible, dear.”

Kim sat on the floor next to Hanna and asked, absentmindedly playing with the baby, “Mom, have you ever done blood-tests on people in Middleton or given anyone drugs?”

The brain-surgeon replied, “Of course. We have to do it for surgery.”

The oldest Possible child asked again, “What about something everyone takes?”

Anne leaned back for several long minutes and finally said, “There's a supplement that everyone in Middleton takes with their breakfast. There's a slightly different type for pregnant women and new families after their first check-up.”

Kim turned to the Stoppables, “Does Ron take the supplement too?”

Mrs. Stoppable nodded, “Yes. He went to Dr. Wilburn for his check-up, since Dr. Watering moved, and they started giving them to him.”

Wade asked, having caught on to Kim's train of thought, “Around what time?”

Mr. Stoppable's face became slack as he said, “It was around the same time he became running back.”

The room was silent as everyone finally realized what Kim was trying to say. Tim shook his head, “You mean everyone in Middleton's being drugged to be the best?”

Hana giggled, reached for her hair gurgling, before saying, “Kim,” and grabbed her hair, anticipating her movements.

Kim stared at the child before standing and pacing, mumbling to herself.

Wade offered, “I think it's more than that. Online I learned that the census for Middleton has been the same for the last fifty years until fifteen years ago; the same time Global Justice and WEE were founded. Everybody either lives here, goes to Go City, or join the army. Lately Gemini has been getting worse and smarter, collaborating with others and I think that the pills are a way to stop him. Drakken hates playing nice and he'd want the credit all for himself.”

The heroine shook her head, “Nah. Drakken may not play nice but his plans are really short-term, just like Gemini's. The amount of research, waiting, and planning that those pills would require is just not something either of them could pull off.”

She pulled Hana up to rest on her hip and continued, “But Global Justice has been begging for me to quit school and join them since I was about twelve and helped stopped Gora El from melting the ice-caps. Maybe they figured that if they can't get me, the town might be better.”

Mrs. Dr. Possible said, “As it is, I'm going to see what effect those pills have on you three, and Hana too, if you don't mind George, June.”

June waved a hand, “It's fine, Anne. We aren't sure what those really could do, and I'd feel safer getting your take on it.”

Anne smiled at her and then headed to the kitchen where they kept the children's pills. Getting one of each, she looked at the pills and saw that they differed. Most of the time, she just put them in the individual cups with the vitamins and she'd thought that they needed different pills, the same way they needed different vitamins.

Now, she pondered what it was that these pills could have that made them individualized. Jim and Tim's, she knew was to increase their reasoning skills. Before their second year check-ups, the boys had been smart, active and attentive, but after that they were bouncing off the walls and practically geniuses.

Kim had been the biggest change though. They hadn't moved to Middleton until she was about four, and she'd been rather chubby then. She'd been an adorable girl with large green eyes, a little thoughtful frown, a quick study, and a desire to help and teach others right from wrong. Soon after taking her pills, she'd lost a lot of the baby fat that had composed much of her, and she was peppy, no longer content to lay on her Mommy's growing belly and listen to a story or go to Daddy's job and watch the rockets quietly. At the time, it'd been a good way to stay in shape for the twins, and after that it was good to know she wasn't mourning the loss of being an only child. Now she wondered what kind of person she would be.

It wasn't that hard to imagine her the same size she was now, because the twins had also been large until about first grade then lost weight to be normal sized. Kim's vision had been lacking until the pills, so probably glasses, and a small frown, as if something had seized her attention. They'd called her Rodin for awhile, because of how much of a thinker she was. A small book pressed against her hip, maybe a pen behind her ear to scratch notes with. For some odd reason, this image pleased her very much and she briefly hoped that Kim would become like that but then threw it away. There was no way Kim would be satisfied curling in a ball at home and reading instead of being out there and helping people.

Anne headed into the den, where most of the boy's toys were, and some of Kim's things. She glanced at the plush leather seat Kim typically sat on, sometimes still curling up with her mother when she had a hard day and just needed to rest, or listened to her read a medical journal. Maybe those Global Justice people hadn't robbed the world of a literary genius after all.