Location: Middleton
Dimension: Kim Possible
Kim buried her face in her hands again, tears streaming from her eyes as she knelt in what remained of her hometown. All around her, buildings were destroyed and left in complete ruin with shards of their walls strewn all over the place. Suburban houses had been crumbled down to their foundations, many of them with cars and other pieces of debris from the city within them. The streets were littered with cars and wreckage from either the surrounding buildings or from pieces of the pavement itself. There were only a few buildings that were still intact, but even those had windows and giant chunks of the sides missing. The sky was covered with a thin layer of clouds that allowed some of the sun to peak through.
Softly, Kim began sobbing as all of her thoughts began rushing through her at once. What had happened here? Was everyone alright? What happened to her family? Her friends? What in the world could cause so much devastation like this? Sure, these thoughts had emerged in the other places they were in, but this was her home and it hit her like a blade through her heart.
As she continued to sob in the middle of the road, the other three shot each other sad glances; neither of them knew what to say to her. Tears began streaming down Sailor Moon’s face as both Twilight and Mew hung their heads, their eyes softly closed.
After a while, Sailor Moon slowly walked up to Kim, knelt beside her, and placed her arms around her, bringing her into an embrace. She rested Kim’s head on her shoulders as she tried her best to contain her own crying, but to no avail.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly, rubbing her back in an attempt to comfort her. “I’m so, so sorry.”
“Why?” Kim asked softly through tears, mostly to herself. “Why is this happening? What’s going on? What’s causing all of this devastation?”
Sailor Moon didn’t respond. All she could do was hold her, her tears falling down onto Kim’s hair. Mew flew up to Kim and began nudging his head against her arm, trying his best to comfort her like a kitten would its owner. Even Twilight trotted up to her and placed a hoof on her back.
“My condolences,” she said softly.
After a few moments, Kim eventually looked up, her eyes red and glossy from her tears. She looked back and forth to try and make head or tails of where they were. Although they were in the middle of carnage, she was able to identify some of the more familiar landmarks nearby. Slowly, she stood up, making the others back away from her and follow suit.
“I have to go,” Kim said as she began walking away. Soon, her walking became more of a jog, slowly turning into a limped jog; she wanted to run as fast as she could, but with the wounds on her stomach and the events they just went through, she couldn’t.
“Where are you going?” asked Sailor Moon, following her as best as she could.
“I have to see if my family is okay,” she said, not turning or slowing her pace.
“Kim, wait a minute,” shouted Twilight as she used her magic to levitate the unconscious hedgehog. Then, she began trotting after her with Mew and Sailor Moon not too far behind. “We need to stick together, remember?”
“Mom...Dad...” Kim said softly, as if she were in a trance of some kind.
“Kim!” Sailor Moon shouted. “Please, wait for-”
A loud boom echoed across the sky, interrupting Sailor Moon and stopping all four of them in their tracks. They all turned around to notice that the same purplish-white swirl was in the sky again, just like they had seen before.
“Something’s coming through,” said Twilight. “No doubt we attracted unwanted attention. We need to hide somewhere and fast!”
Quickly, they all looked around for the most secure-looking building they could hide inside. Instantly, Kim’s eyes locked onto the remains of a small restaurant that she was all too familiar with: Bueño Nacho. Fortunately, most of it was still intact, save for half of the building that was caved in from what looked like the wall of a building. The windows were all shattered and there was a gaping hole where the doors used to be.
However, the mere sight of the eatery instantly brought back memories, like how she and her friends used to go there all the time. It was in that quick moment that an image of her boyfriend, Ron, flashed before her eyes, causing her heart to sink further down in her chest. She clutched it as the thoughts of something terrible happening to him began racing through her mind, causing fresh tears to stream from her eyes.
“Kim,” Twilight said, snapping her out of her thoughts, though it didn’t relinquish them. “We need to get out of sight, now!”
Wiping her eyes, she pointed to the restaurant. “Over there, quickly!”
They all ran towards the half-standing structure, leaping through the entrance and ducking down out of sight. Since the booths on the wall adjacent to the door were destroyed or crushed and the windows above it were shattered, they were able to duck underneath it, being careful not to kneel on broken glass. Then, they all peaked out to see what was coming through the portal-like spiral. From the spiraling swirl, three different things fell to the ground. One of them they instantly recognized as the winged scorpion-like creature from the Toy Town, but the other two were completely different. Now that they were looking at them in the light, they were able to see every detail of the creatures, and it terrified them even more.
The second creature appeared to look like an oversized dragonfly, except without the bulbous eyes they often had. Instead, it had one red light in the center of its head and the mouth that looked like an ant’s. By the looks of it, it didn’t appear to have any legs underneath it whatsoever. It still had its elongated body and tail, except the body looked much bigger; it was as if it were meant to hold something inside of it. Using its mechanized wings that glistened in whatever sunlight was available, it slowly hovered its way to the ground.
The third thing wasn’t a creature at all. Whether it was because of the distance, they couldn’t tell, but the third thing looked like a small ball that hovered in the air with the dragonfly. The only noticeable features on it were the black color that it was made out of and a small red light that was in the dead center of it.
Practically holding their breaths, the four of them watched as the three creatures hovered around the wreckage of the ship that Mew destroyed. The scorpion unfurled its legs and landed on the ground, slowly walking around while the blue beam from its tail scanned the ship and the surrounding buildings. The small orb did the same as a similar blue beam shot out of where the red light was. All the while, the dragonfly creature hovered above everything, almost as if it were waiting for instructions.
When they saw the blue beam from the orb heading towards them, they all ducked down, literally holding their breaths this time. From above, they saw the beam scan the insides of the restaurant, going from one end to the other and back again. After 3 rotations, the beam disappeared.
Twilight got ready to peak her head up to see if it was safe, but was stopped by Kim. She placed her hand on her shoulder and whispered, “Not yet.”
A minute or two went by before they were convinced the creatures didn’t know of their presence. Slowly, the four of them peaked over the wall to see that the three things were now focusing on the ship, both the orb and the scorpion’s blue beams scanning what remained of it. While the latter hovered above the wreckage, the former crawled all over it, investigating the damage with its head.
After a few moments, the scorpion unfurled its wings and flew up to the dragonfly, no doubt giving it some kind of orders. The orb remained with the ship, hovering around it and inspecting it from all angles.
Then, all four of their hearts jumped as the sound of a loud cough filled the air. The second the sound was made, the orb turned in their direction, forcing the four of them to duck down. They all turned their attention to Sonic, who was slowly beginning to regain consciousness. He let out a cough again, making their hearts skip a beat again as they heard the whirring sounds of the orb approaching them.
Quickly, Kim placed a hand over Sonic’s mouth, trying her best to muffle his coughing without suffocating him. Sweat began running down her face as she heard the mechanized whirring of the orb coming closer and closer.
It sounded like a low humming sound at first, but the closer it got, the more it started to sound like a small fan blade, spinning fast and loud. It hovered above the wall where they were ducking, shooting its blue laser in the building to scan it again. They didn’t move a muscle as they watched the orb, waiting for it to vacate.
Across the street, they all heard the sound of a piece of wreckage, more than likely from one of the destroyed buildings, fall to the ground and create a loud bang. In the blink of an eye, the ball quickly turned in the same direction and fired its laser at it. However, instead of the blue laser they were familiar with seeing, they saw that it was firing a deep crimson laser. It made a loud zwoom sound as it swayed the laser from one side to the other. Moments later, they heard the orb float away in the direction it had just been firing.
Slowly, the four of them peeked from their hiding place to see that the laser had cut right through a building like a hot knife through butter. They could see that the laser left behind a clean cut right through the building, the foundation still standing glowing red from the heat of the laser.
The ball hovered in front of the building, scanning its blue laser at what it just shot at. Then, the scorpion flew over and landed besides it, resting its wings closed as its legs unfurled from underneath it.
The four of them watched as the two of them faced each other and began making noises at one another. By the sounds of it, the scorpion was making deep moans and groans while the orb made continuous whirring sounds.
“What are they doing?” whispered Sailor Moon.
“Looks like they’re...talking to each other,” Twilight hesitantly said, tilting her head at the sight.
“Any idea what they’re saying?”
“I don’t know, it’s hard to tell,” Kim answered. “It doesn’t sound like anything I’m familiar with. Perhaps it’s some sort of alien dialect only they understand.”
They continued to watch in silence as the two creatures continued to talk to each other. After a few exchanges, they watched as the orb hovered away, heading towards the dragonfly. Being left alone, the scorpion looked at the wreckage, hearing the sounds of metallic clanks as it slowly crawled towards it. Then, all of their hearts jumped when they heard Sonic let out a cough again, forcing the creature to turn its head towards them, a gravely hiss sound following shortly.
Quickly, they all ducked down to hide. Instantly, they saw Sonic slowly trying to get up, his eyes slowly adjusting to the light.
“What’s going on?” he asked uneasily, rubbing his head with hand. “Where are...?”
He was immediately interrupted by Kim putting her hand over his mouth while cringing.
Then, all of their hearts came to a complete standstill as they heard a loud clang coming from above them. They all looked up to see the scorpion looking at them, its tail scanning them before switching to its claw-tail.
As it beared its teeth at them, Kim yelled, “RUN!”
In a heartbeat, Twilight levitated the closest piece of debris she could find and threw it at the creature, knocking it back from the window-frame. Then, all of them got up and began running out of the building and down the road. From behind them, they heard the beast let out a bellow as it flew towards them.
Turning her head to catch a quick glance, Kim shouted, “DOWN!”
All of them dived forward as they watched its tail swoop above them, swinging back and forth as it tried to get a grip on any of them. When it missed its target, it circled around for another attempt.
“Looks like I didn’t miss much,” said Sonic as they all got up and began running again. Immediately, they all jumped out of the way as it tried taking another dive at them, missing once again. As they all got up and began to run, Sonic nearly lost his balance as he gripped his head; running for his life having just woken up from an unconscious state wasn’t really mixing well with him.
“Are you going to be alright?” Twilight asked as she galloped alongside of him.
“I’ll be fine,” he fibbed, flashing a weary smile. “It’d help if we could slow that thing down or something!”
“Mew, Mew,” said Mew as he flew up into the sky and turned to face the creature. Quickly, it fired its pink beam at it in an attempt to hit it. Unfortunately, the creature rolled out of the way by spinning to the left with its wings close to its body. Then, it unfurled them again, let out an angered roar and continued to advance on him, appearing to flap its dragon-like wings even harder than before.
Mew began flying towards the others, the creature closing in on him. When he was closer to the group, he turned again and fired his attack at it. Like before, it spun out of the way and let out another bellow as it seemed to go faster and faster.
“I think you’re only making it angry,” said Twilight. “Still, it’s a valiant effort!”
“Any idea where we’re going?” asked Sailor Moon as she tried not to lose her balance on the uneven pavement underneath her.
No one responded.
“Kim, this is your home, right?” Sonic asked as he leaped over an upturned vehicle. “You do know where we’re going, don’t you?”
She didn’t answer him, her eyes looking back and forth at the wreckage all around them. As she avoided the debris all over the streets, she tried her best to make out where they were. Unfortunately, with everything nearly in shambles and the dire situation they were in, it was difficult to pinpoint certain locales they could find refuge in.
“I...I...,” she said in a breathy voice. “I don’t know! I can’t get my head straight! I’m...I’m sorry.”
As they turned down a street and headed towards what looked the remnants of a school, Sonic said, “Not for anything, but is that the only one after us?”
No sooner did the question leave his mouth did the others see the dragonfly creature zoom over their heads and hover in front of them. In a split second, all of them stopped moving and got ready to run in another direction. However, the bottom of the creature exposed a grey cylindrical device with a red tip; a missile, most of them recognized. Before any of them could start running, the dragonfly fired its primary weapon at them, moving too fast for any of them to react. It may not have hit any of them directly, but it was close enough for the shockwave to knock all of them on the ground; even though Mew was in the air, the blast was enough to push him down to the street.
For Kim, everything began to turn into a blur as a ringing sound echoed in her ears. Time seemed to slow down as she tried to make out what was happening. Although it was blurry, she saw the two creatures hover over all of them before making its way towards her, the claw on the scorpion’s tail opening. Desperately, she put a hand up to try and stop it, her vision starting to turn black all around her. Then, something must have happened because the two creatures stopped advancing on her, both of them turning their heads in another direction.
The ringing in her ears was slowly going away, but her normal hearing was still muffled. Therefore, she couldn’t hear what it was that was being shot at the creatures, but the blaster-like beams of light hit the scorpion and sent it flying backwards, shattering in multiple pieces before it hit the ground, lifeless. Immediately, the dragonfly turned and tried to fly away, only to suffer the same fate as its cohort.
Her eyelids began to feel heavy as the blackness began to consume everything. In the remaining moments she had, she could have sworn she saw a humanoid stand over her, some sort of gas-mask on its face and a gun-type of weapon in its hands. It stared at her for a few moments before it began making gestures with one hand; it was like it was signaling something else to take a look at her. Out of her distorted peripherals she could see more of them surrounding the others.
In a matter of seconds, another humanoid stood over her, looking just like the other. This one knelt down in front of her, almost like it was closely examining her. Then, she could have sworn she heard it say something, something that she didn't expect it to say, but couldn't respond to in time.
"It can’t be! Kimmy...is that you?"
Then, she completely blacked out.
It stood in what remained of the wreckage, only turning its head back and forth to oversee the damage that had been done. The flames had died down, though smoke still came from the bottom where the boosters used to be. The yellow fuel began pooling across the ground, making it take a few steps back to avoid making contact with it.
The being stood in what appeared to be a long black coat, a hood covering its face and a long golden staff in its hands. The coat was kept closed to conceal the rest of its body from being seen.
Lifting its head, it held the staff in front of its body, raising it and slamming the bottom on the ground. With an echoing sound like a small mallet hitting a small bell, the orb that oversaw the wreckage hovered in front of its cloaked face. Then, the two of them began speaking to one another. [Although it was in an unknown dialect, it’s able to be translated into English].
“Damage report,” the cloaked creature said.
“It’s salvageable,” the orb said. “The dimension-opener is inoperable, but the transport-core is still intact, my lord.”
The “lord” nodded its head. “Excellent. It’s only a matter of time before they come back for it. Better make sure it leads them right where we want them.”
The mechanical ball gave what looked like a nod to the “lord” as it hovered towards the ship, disappearing within the openings. Then, it took its staff in its hands and looked at the upper tip of it, where a spherical crystal with what looked like black smoke inside of it, rested. It placed its hand on the crystal, making it glow a bluish color.
“They’ve managed to survive, but we need to be sure,” it said. “Send in the first wave. I need to see if they truly have what it takes.”
Then, it removed its hand from the crystal, the blue hue disappearing. It wasn’t long before the orb returned.
“The core has been re-coded, my lord,” it said. “It will send them to the ‘Tractor’, as per your orders.”
“Excellent,” the lord said. “That will certainly finish them off. That is, if manage to survive the five we are about the send.”
“Not to question your orders, but what if they do survive? They could try to interfere with our operations in that dimension.”
The lord let out what sounded like a chuckle. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We will deal with that as it comes. For now, see to it that the five have been fully prepared to stop these so-called, ‘heroes’ at any cost.”
“Understood, my lord,” the orb said. Then, it began making several whirring and beeping noises before hovering away.
The lord looked down at the wreckage before focusing on the crystal on the tip of his staff. As it radiated its blue hue, a single triangular eye, glowing a crimson color with a hint of orange, could be seen underneath its hood.
“They may have what it takes to survive this little test,” it said. “But, in the end, they will come to understand that I am in complete control of their fate. No matter how far they go, no matter how hard they try, they will die.”