I do not own any Disney characters named herein, and am only borrowing them to tell a nonprofit tale meant for entertainment purposes only.

Kim Possible: A Tale of Prometheus

By LJ58

1

Martin Sands, a respected, if rather boring journalist noted for rather meticulous investigative work for the Post walked into the pub where he was to meet his contact that afternoon.

He didn't have to look long. All eyes were on the raggedly dressed man in once well-tailored finery that had seen better days. The lanky man had a rather manic gleam in his dark eyes, and a vicious scar under one eye that suggested someone had once taken issue with him over some matter. What was even more incredible was the strangely cerulean hue to the man's pale skin. That, if nothing else, told him this was indeed his quarry.

Martin walked over and nodded to the disreputable doctor that half of London was laughing over and at of late, and introduced himself.

"Theodore Lipski? I am Martin Sands, sir," he nodded to the man as he took a seat.

"Sir? I am still a doctor, Mr. Sands, whatever else those hacks at the College have said. Yes, a doctor, and a true genius," the dour man spat back at him.

"I have heard you seek a boon. Also that you have a truly unique tale to offer as well. I would pay you for your story, sir, and if valuable enough, I'll put a bonus atop that," he said, putting a full two gold pieces on the table in front of him, and sliding them over.

Lipski's hand flashed like a striking viper, and the coins vanished as he said, "Oh, I have a tale, my good man. No common tale, either. It is a tale of true scientific triumph and the genius of man. My genius. For I, sir, have proven men can indeed dare the realms of the gods, and take what is rightfully ours if we only just strive to reach beyond the banal!"

"Go on," Martin said, lifting a hand, and gesturing for two goblets of wine.

"It began not six years past," Lipski told him, and then looked off as if seeing something only his eyes could perceive. "And regrettably, it began with the hiring of the wrong damn maid," he spat.

"A maid?"

"Indeed," the cerulean man scowled. "Had I known…. Ah, but let me start from the beginning," he said.

~KP~

"Father," the slim, willowy redhead shouted as she all but raced up the stairs of their townhouse. "I have wondrous news!"

"Indeed," the pale man in his bed asked as he looked up from his paper. "What news is that, my dear child?"

"I've found a job, and it will pay more than enough for the doctors, and enough to keep the boys in school as well," the young girl beamed as she held out the correspondence she had opened up just that morning.

"Ah. Dr. Lipski. I recall him from the university," Dr. James Timothy Possible nodded as he studied the letter. "Ah, but Austria, Kimberly? That's a far way for a young lady of your standing," her father grimaced.

"Father, I'll be more than all right. For one, Dr. Lipski has a sterling reputation in the College of Sciences, and I will be working with at least three other maids, and a cook he has hired. Besides, this gives me a chance to stretch my wings, as it were, and see more of the world before I decide just what I wish to do with my life."

James smiled and shook his head.

"I suppose you are still not yet ready to accept young Master Ronald's betrothal."

"Honestly, father," Kimberly groaned. "I'd feel more like I'm wedding one of my brothers if I wed him. We've been more friends than not all our lives, and I just do not feel the spark you and mama had."

James sighed.

"I quite understand, my dear. Still, Austria," James sighed as he handed her the letter, and the initial payment for her first month that would also pay her ticket, and needs to reach the household where Dr. Lipski was apparently setting up some grand new experiment.

"We need this money, father," Kimberly told him now. "You know we do. Until you are over your fever, and can return to work, we are stretched more than thin."

"If only your mother had not gone down in that shipwreck," he sighed. "I knew she shouldn't have traveled so late in the season."

"Mother was an adventurer in her own right, and you know it, father," Kimberly smiled now. "Besides, we both know you could not more have made her stay than you could resist the night sky."

"Ah, well, I should have resisted this time. Who knew it was going to grow so cold, and give me a bloody cold that won't quit," he groaned.

"More pneumonia, the doctor said. So stay in the bed, and I'll leave what I can, and send more as soon as I can. You just stay warm, and get well. The boys are old enough to manage now."

James sighed, and put his paper aside.

"Just promise me you'll take no chances, and that you will behave. Don't trouble the doctor, or give him cause to send you packing."

"Father," she sputtered.

"I know you've your own ideas, and your own drive, my girl," Dr. Possible smiled, "But not all men of science are willing to listen to women even in this modern age. So make sure you play the proper role, and don't anger the man."

"I'll try," she sighed. "You just get well, and take your medicine."

"I'll be fine," he assured her. "Now, if you plan to catch that ship, best you go and pack now. Just remember to write, and don't take unnecessary chances. I've heard those lands are still pretty wild out in that region of the continent."

"I'll be fine," she smiled, and leaned down to kiss his cheek.

"Just come back safe, Kimmie-cub," he called her teasingly.

"Father," Kim blushed furiously. "I am not a child any longer," she sputtered.

"You'll always be my little girl, Kimberly. If your mother were still here, God rest her soul, she'd tell you the same," the man smiled up at her as Kimberly clutched her letter to her chest, and smiled at him.

"I know," she sighed. "I miss her still."

"Well, just recall all I've taught you, and be safe, my girl. I vow, I'm already missing you, though."

"I wager the boys will help keep you company," he smiled. "And busy. They do love their mischief."

He laughed, and waved her on.

"Go on now. Before you miss your ship, my girl."

~KP~

Kimberly couldn't believe she was in a completely foreign nation.

Born and raised in England, she had lived in the same province outside London Proper all her life. If she ever made it to London, it was only because her father had often carried her to his observatory, and tried to share his fascination with the heavens, and science in general with her.

Her mother defied convention, and became a very notable biologist in her right, cataloging species and plants that shocked some of the old men in the College of Sciences, and even suggesting some of those plants might be suitable for new and modern medicines. Her mother, she knew, had also had a gift of healing, and studied anatomy so meticulously she often shocked the family doctor.

That was why she was on that ship that cost her life. She was going to help a team of explorers seeking to survey the South American continent that was showing a lot of new discoveries with every trip. Only her ship never made it to port, and was reported lost in a storm in the Mid Atlantic. No survivors were ever found.

She smiled as she watched the huge manor house appear on the near horizon as the coach she took from town moved up the long, dusty lane that led to Lipski's estates. The three story manor looked palatial, and she found it astonishing that the man had only asked for one maid in his advertisement. She had been told she would be working with three others, but still, a home like that must require an army of servants.

She decided it didn't matter, and smiled as they neared the gates, and an old man merely eyed the driver as he approached, and opened the gates without questioning him. They drove up to the doors, and as soon as Kimberly climbed out of the coach, the man just got down to toss her bags at her feet, and then climbed back up to drive away without a word.

The fellow had not been all that friendly, but she supposed he must be weary if he was the only coachman for this wide open region. She could not imagine how hard he likely worked carrying folk hither and yon, but simply smiled, lifted her three bags in her hands, and walked up to the doors.

She put her one bag down when she reached the thick, double panels, and knocked since she knew it was only polite to announce yourself, even if there was a job waiting. She knocked again after a few moments, and then after a few more moments, the door was jerked open.

"Yes? What? Who…..? AH, and you are?"

"Miss Kimberly Anne Possible, Dr. Lipski," she stated after a moment, gaping at the man for a moment before she regained her wits. "Do, ah, you know that you are the most peculiar shade of blue?"

"Eh? Oh, that? A lab accident. Totally inconsequential," he babbled. "Possible. Possible. Ah, the nanny I requested," he said with bright eyes.

"Nanny," she frowned. "I thought I was being hired as…."

"Do you wish the job, or not," he scowled. "I have little time to waste," he all but growled at her. "I am very busy. Busy, busy, busy. I will be changing the very face of science soon. I will be opening vistas none have ever dared even dream of before now," he almost ranted.

"Okay, I suppose I might as well see my charge since I did come all this way for a job," Kimberly smiled.

"Wonderful," Dr. Lipski beamed. "Drop your bags there. Someone will put them in your room. I'll show you what I require," he said, and led her down the long receiving hall, down a long corridor, and unlocked a door at the end of the servant's hall.

"Uh, Dr. Lipski? Where are we going?"

"To the future, my dear woman," he smiled maniacally as he led her to a landing that led to a set of stairs that descended into the very bowels of the earth, or so it seemed.

"Your lab," she asked, seeing the huge chamber filled with esoteric equipment, rows of odd chemicals, and more familiar equipment she had seen before now.

"Oh, yes. If you've time, you can help me keep it straight. I don't trust those maids down here. Plebian lackwits, the lot of them. You, though, I recall you. You're Dr. Possible's clever little child, aren't you," he smiled at her as he led her across the wide chamber.

"Yes, Dr. Lipski. I'm honored you remember me."

"Hard to forget a girl daring enough to sneak into the College of Sciences," he chortled. "Those old fossils were babbling about it for weeks."

She blushed, and looked away, murmuring, "I just wanted to see the new fossils that Richard Owen discovered. The Post only had his picture, not the images of the actual fossils."

"The media has long since been a useless creation more concerned with celebrity than actual news," the man sniffed as he paused before a heavy iron door.

"What is this?"

"Your charge, Miss Possible," he said, unlocking the heavy door, and pulling it open.

Kimberly gasped as she looked into the larger than expected, but completely bare room that had a single figure huddled inside in one corner. The woman's face was hidden by long, dark hair, but it was obvious even in the dim light from the lanterns around them that her skin was a strangely uniform green.

"My word," Kim gasped, gaping as the woman inside looked up at her, eyes round and anxious as she stared miserably around her. "Who is she," she asked, not about to ask 'What was she?'

"The greatest scientific breakthrough in history, Miss Possible. And with your help, I'm going to show the world that men can be gods themselves."

"What do you mean," she asked as the green woman just huddled there, and didn't even try to move.

"I am on the verge of learning the secrets of life and death, Miss Possible," Dr. Lipski smiled. "For I am not jesting when I say that just one month ago, this woman was dead. I have given her life. I have brought her back. Now, I need you to help her relearn her place, and prove the human mind can indeed survive such a process."

"Oh, my," she murmured and eyed the woman that was still staring back and forth at them but making no move. Making no sound.

"Has she said anything since her….resurrection," she asked.

"Not a sound. And I am still too busy with other aspects of my research, and cannot devote the time required to tending her. So I am giving you this key. Tend her. Feed her. Teach her. But she cannot leave this room."

"Oh. Wouldn't some comforts be amendable, though? I mean, to help her feel alive, and perhaps even give her cause to trust and accept us?"

"Do as you will. She just will not leave this room. Understood?"

"Yes, Doctor," she nodded and eyed the woman that stared back down when Dr. Lipski began to shove the door closed again.

Kimberly sighed, but she took the key from him after he relocked the steel panel, and nodded.

"She is now in your care. Do whatever you think is best, but do not let her out. It…wouldn't be safe," he advised her.

"Yes, Dr. Lipski. If it's all right, I'll go up and unpack, and then put together a few things to get started right away. Will that be amenable?"

"Hmm. Right. Right. Whatever you feel best," he told her, already headed for another door that was also locked. "Just always lock that door when you depart. We cannot risk her escaping. Oh, and do try to keep a journal of observations. This is science, after all," he added as he walked away.

Kimberly didn't say anything as she watched him unlock that other door, then slip inside, closing it after him. She looked back to the door and frowned. The woman looked so miserable, so forlorn, that Kimberly could not help but feel sympathy for her.

A nanny was one thing, but Kimberly suspected the poor woman could really use a friend, too. She headed back up the endless steps and decided that she was going to make sure she was also a friend, as much as anything else. After all, compassion was also a hallmark of humanity. Her mother had taught her that much.

To Be Continued…..