Chapter Eight: The
Rescue
Kim awoke on a cold, hard concrete
floor. Her head and body throbbed as if she got hit by a freight train. She
then remembered what (or more precisely who) did hit her – Mr. Hinx, who was as big as a freight
train. When he knocked her out, they were in the lab of Heinz Doofenshmirtz
inside his “Evil Incorporated” building. When she regained consciousness, she
found herself in a locked cell with Perry the Platypus and two men in suits
that looked to be special agents. “Where are we?” she asked them.
“Alcatraz,” said the one agent in
the navy-blue suit. Kim couldn’t stop staring at his oversized chin. “And it’s not as fun as Clint Eastwood
and Burt Lancaster made it out to be.”
“It’s good that you’re finally
awake, ‘cause maybe you can explain why the League locked a girl and a beaver
in here with us,” said the other agent in the gray suit. His features were a
little sharper than his associate’s.
Perry let out an aggravated purr
over the agent’s mislabeling of him.
“He’s not a beaver…he’s a platypus,”
Kim spoke on Agent P’s behalf. “And who’re you guys anyway?”
“Stan Smith, C.I.A.,” the
big-chinned agent identified himself.
“Sterling Archer, I.S.I.S.,” the
other agent did for himself.
“I.S.I.S.?” Kim frowned. “I never
heard of them.”
“That’s exactly what I said,” Smith reflected. “I
think ‘Agent Archer’ here is a mole working for the League.”
“Oh, right, I’m the suspicious one!”
Archer derided. “We’re locked up with a platypus! How’s that not suspicious?!”
The two men proceeded to bicker on
the topic for a good two minutes, much to the annoyance of Kim and Perry.
“Guys!” Kim yelled over them, ceasing the pointless argument. “Let’s just say,
for the sake of clarity, that we’re all on the same team – an actual team, not just the name
for the people we work for.”
“Wait, you two are agents for the
Team?” Smith acknowledged. “I’ve heard rumors about the world governments
putting together a group of elites to look into the League, but I never
expected a teenager and an animal to fall into the recruitment.”
“Were you guys looking into the
League as well?” Kim asked.
“Yeah, we were,” Archer confirmed.
“Until our covers were blown, and we ended up sharing a cell together.”
“My cover was blown,” Stan elaborated, side-eyeing
Archer. “For all we know, yours is still intact.”
“Oh, give it a rest, you discount
Jay Leno!” Sterling retorted.
“I happen to like Jay Leno!”
Words turned to fists between the
two men, exchanging blows. It only lasted a few seconds before Perry leaped in
and separated them by knocking both men down with a single roundhouse kick. “That
platypus is an expert combatant!” Smith exclaimed.
“Like Bruce Lee reincarnated!”
Archer awed.
“And he’ll do it again, if you two
don’t chill!” Kim cautioned. “Is there anything either of you were able to find
out before you were captured?”
Stan shrugged. “Nothing on my end.”
“I was able to find out something about a guy working for
the League,” Archer disclosed. “A clone assassin trained to eliminate targets
around the world.”
“I’ve heard of him,” Smith
corroborated. “Intel states that he’s targeting officials in the world
governments – such an act would put us in global warfare.”
“Who is this ‘clone assassin’?” Kim
pried. “Does he have a name?”
“More of a designation than a name,”
a voice spoke outside their cell. Kim and her cellmates froze when they saw
Blofeld come into view, accompanied by Mr. Hinx. “Not that any of you would be
around long enough to learn it.”
“You won’t get away with whatever it
is you’re planning!” Kim avowed.
“I believe that I will, Miss
Possible,” Blofeld opposed. “James and your ‘Team’ won’t willingly give young
Hiro Hamada up for you and your pet.” Perry let out a vicious snarl at Blofeld
for that remark.
Kim followed up on her partner’s
retort and said, “They will come for us.”
“If they do stage a rescue, we have F.O.W.L. defenses placed
along the shores of the island that will blow any craft from the air and boats out
of the water,” Blofeld divulged. “I’d advise you and your cellmates to give up
hope, Miss Possible. No one is coming for you – no one that’ll survive long
enough to free you from this prison.”
“BLOFELD!” an infuriated voice
bellowed outside the conversation.
Although Kim couldn’t see the
speaker from her cell, she recognized the voice as Dr. Drakken. “You didn’t
tell me that Shego was arrested!” he griped to Blofeld. “Why aren’t we busting
her out?!”
Turning away from Kim and her
cellmates, Blofeld turned and faced Drakken. “Shego is now a liability and can
no longer be trusted. She’s cooperating with the government’s Team.”
“You don’t know that for sure!”
Drakken challenged.
“Let her go, Dr. Drakken!”
Blofeld raised his voice for the
first time that Kim heard him speak. His usual calm demeanor began to break
through in the presence of Drakken’s defiance. Using this to her advantage, she
told Drakken, “That’s the type of people you’re working with, Dr. D! They leave
behind one of their own when they’re wounded and let them fend for themselves!”
“Silence her,” Blofeld ordered Hinx.
Kim braced herself as she watched
Hinx remove the prison key from his suit jacket, intending on unlocking the
cell to get to her. She was spared once a voice came over the two-way radio
Blofeld carried with him. “Yo, Blofeld!” the voice called – it was Steelbeak.
“We gotta situation outside!”
“Deal with it then,” Blofeld
responded.
“It’s Bond and Hunt,” Steelbeak
alerted. “They’re comin’ up in a speedboat with the kid – Hiro Ham Sandwich…or
whatever his name is.”
This news took Blofeld by surprise,
even if it didn’t show in his stoic façade.
“Shut
down the defenses…let them in,” he ordered Steelbeak. He then briefly switched
his focus on Hinx and instructed, “Keep an eye on the prisoners.” Hinx
acknowledged the command with a firm nod, pocketing away the prison key and
standing guard outside the cell holding Kim, Perry, Smith, and Archer – not
taking his eyes off them for a second.
-----------------------------
Blofeld, Steelbeak, and a
large group of armed Eggheads met with Bond, Hunt, and Hamada as their
motorboat docked along the pier. “I must admit I’m impressed by your decision,
James,” Blofeld stated. “That being said, I do expect you to have a trick up
your sleeve.”
“No tricks,” Bond professed. “We
just want our agents back.”
“At the cost of young Mr. Hamada’s
life?” Blofeld returned. “I know you have a soul, James… one that I’ll take great
pleasure in extracting.”
“Search ‘em,” Steelbeak ordered two
of his Eggheads.
Bond, Hunt, and Hiro were all patted
down. Nothing was found on Hiro or Ethan, but Bond was discovered with a stick
of gum. “Let him keep it,” Blofeld teased. “If he prefers a last meal, he’ll
need that gum afterwards.” Looking towards Ethan, his stoical demeanor
resurfaced as he ordered, “Place Mr. Hunt in holding with the others. Mr.
Steelbeak, I’m putting you in charge of watching them. You’ll let Mr. Hinx know
he’s relieved of duty.”
Much as he hated taking orders from
Blofeld, Steelbeak hadn’t dared to challenge his authority with Hinx around. As
such, he acknowledged the command with an overeager “You got it, boss!”
Bond and Hiro were taken to the
Alcatraz control room, now fitted with League supercomputers, operated by
Egghead technicians. Situated along one corner of the room was a high-tech
chair attached with surgical appendages that Bond spotted on his way in. “Like
it?” Blofeld took notice of 007’s interest. “I’ll give you an up-close
demonstration of its properties, after Mr. Hamada has transferred the nuclear
launch codes.”
Hiro frowned. “What nuclear launch
codes?”
“The ones from the Korean military
base linked to the League computer,” Blofeld indicated the laptop sitting on
table at the center of the room, connected to the supercomputers. Having no
choice, Hiro sat at the table and typed on the laptop’s keyboard, transferring
the nuclear codes. Once the transfer was complete, Blofeld then ordered, “Now
launch one of their missiles with San Francisco as its target.”
Hiro glared at Blofeld. “I am not doing that.”
His refusal only prompted Blofeld to
unsheathe a small handgun that he kept concealed in his pocket, aiming it
squarely at Hiro’s chest. “The League doesn’t need your body, Mr. Hamada. We
have ways of getting what we want from you, without you lifting so much as a
finger. It’s your choice, but I recommend making the one that’s less painful
for you.”
Hiro wasn’t fazed at all by the
threat. “I know,” he told Blofeld. “I used to work for your morons…until you
betrayed me.”
Blofeld’s brow crinkled in confusion.
“What?”
Suddenly, he noticed how Hiro’s
hands were engulfed in a familiar green flame that singed the “skin” off,
revealing black-gloved hands. He burnt away the rest of his skin and clothes,
exposing them as a disguise worn by Shego. She punched Blofeld with enough
fiery force that it severely scarred the right side of his face, even blinding
his right eye.
With Blofeld out of commission, Bond
worked with Shego to bring down the Eggheads in the control room. He took out
the stick of gum that he was permitted to keep from the search. Rather than
chew it, he molded it up in his hand and stuck it against one of the
supercomputer towers. After a few seconds, the gum exploded, destroying the
tower and all the rest of the equipment in the room, including Blofeld’s
special chair.
“Where in the heck did you get that?” Shego asked him.
“Hunt gave it to me,” Bond told her.
“At first, I thought he was pulling a prank. Now, I’m glad he wasn’t.”
Surveying the bodies littered over
the floor with the rubble from the explosion, Shego realized that Blofeld
wasn’t among them. She discovered a trail of blood leading out through the exit
and roared, “That weasel escaped!”
“Let’s find him.”
“Nuh-uh. I did my part of the plan,
handsome. You go after Blofeld. I’m going to find someone else I need to punch
– Drakken!”
Bond
watched her set off on her mission, leaving him to his own.
-----------------------
At the cells, Steelbeak was
getting a little bored with guard duty, but no more so than Kim, Perry, Smith,
and Archer were. Hunt, on the other hand, watched Steelbeak like a hawk. His
intense focus was the one thing that held Steelbeak’s attention, not liking the
way Hunt was looking at him. “How ‘bout you stare at the wall or somethin’,
pretty boy?” Steelbeak suggested. “We ain’t in some kind of starin’ contest.”
Ethan smirked. “Trust me. One of us
is about to blink real soon.”
His cryptic threat enticed Kim’s
attention. Did Ethan have an escape plan?
“Mr. Steelbeak!” the radio hitched
at Steelbeak’s hip screeched with the breathless voice of Blofeld. “Kill the
prisoners!”
“Come again?” Steelbeak responded.
“KILL THE PRISONERS!!!”
Finally, an order that Steelbeak
could follow without any aggravation. “You got it, boss,” he acknowledged with
genuine enthusiasm this time. He drew his gun and aimed it at the first person
he saw, which was Ethan. “Looks like I win, Hunt!”
All of the sudden, he felt something
tug at both the gun and his steel-made beak, but there was nothing there. The
force of the tug was so strong that he lost his grip on the gun, which flew
from his hand and clipped against the bars of the prison cell. His steel beak
soon followed, throwing him headfirst against the bars and knocking him out
cold – although his body dangled with his beak stuck to the bars.
“What just happened?!” Stan
exclaimed, left in awe of the sudden occurrence with Archer, Perry, and Kim.
Kim looked to Ethan and saw him
gripping his wristwatch.
He turned the watch face at
one-eighty degrees; Steelbeak’s gun and body dropped to the floor.
Realizing that Hunt used a function
of the wristwatch that magnetized the gun and Steelbeak’s steel beak, Kim
beamed with satisfaction. “That is so tight!” she applauded. “Where did you get
that?”
“From Bond,” Ethan said, moving to
retrieve Steelbeak’s gun and the prison key. “And magnetizing things isn’t all
it does.” He pushed down on the watch face and it lit up with a green hue.
Waiting for something to happen, Archer
was less than impressed when nothing did. “I think you’re supposed to use that
function at night, buddy.”
Kim detected a faint beeping sound
coming from the wristwatch.
“No, he sent a signal,” she said.
“But to whom?”
“Some special helpers,” Hunt replied
with a smirk.
