Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible, or Len. Thank God I don't own the ladder.
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It's funny, the things we notice in our most solemn hours. Things like ceiling fans, bathroom grout, and the lines on your bedroom walls. They're usually small, trivial things; taken for granted in everyday life, but in times of pain, we look for any and every distraction to keep from killing ourselves with our own thoughts.
For Sharon, it was the moon.
The four concrete walls of her cell had become boring, and she was tired of counting each insect that scaled those walls before slipping through cracks to the outer world. It was in these moments that she wished she'd been granted her older brother's power, and of course, that always led her to wonder which older brother she was referring to. She was having so much trouble remembering…
When the bands of the full moon filtered through the bars that substituted for a roof, it became her new welcomed distraction.
But even as she let the moonlight fill her eyes and fidgeted in the lead-lined restraints that locked around her wrists, her mind still wondered back to the same place.
A messy flow of imagery and voices ran through her head like a badly cut film. Everyday it got harder to go back, but she knew she had to. She had to keep remembering…
--
It had been a rotten day when the mayor had called. Sharon was hiding in her room, laying on her bad as she listened to notably angry music on her CD player and leafed through some teen magazine with fake interest; that was when her eldest brother entered without knocking. He was tall, well-muscled, and always clad in blue, but memories would never surface a name for him. She did remember him being the most annoying guardian she'd ever had.
"Shego," he said in his always cheery tone, "we're needed in the city."
She pulled off her headphones and scoffed, already sneering from his use of her 'professional' name. "Kitten stuck up a tree much?"
"What's a matter?" he asked, not changing his tone.
Sharon didn't bother looking up from her magazine as she spoke. "Everything. The day sucked."
"Shego, watch the language…" he warned. Because apparently even slang terms were bad for the image of a superhero.
She smirked. "What? I could've said it was a-"
"Shego!" Her brother snapped before another word could leave her mouth. His cheery voice has gone. "Suit up, now!"
The girl slammed the magazine on the floor and stood up from her bed. "Fine then!"
She stormed past her brother and entered the halls of the Go Tower.
Three years. That was how long it had been since Sharon and her brothers had been placed into foster home, and then several afterward, before her brother was legally old enough to act as her guardian. That was also how long it had been since a government facility known as Global Justice had released them back into the public after half a year of testing. Half a year after the crash.
The crash; now there was something she could never erase from her mind. The memories of lying half unconscious in the charred remains of her backyard, wondering what became of her brothers in that flash of destruction. She was burning with pain from the splinters of wood that had been blasted under her skin, and the strange sensation of agony as the meteorite's heavy radiation entered her system. Her insides felt like they were melting, her skin was on fire, and although Sharon did not recall screaming out, she remembered praying for a quick death.
Instead, she was granted god-like status.
This matter was only made worse when she and her brothers came back home to the news of their parents' death in the crash. The exposure to the radiation had proven too much for their systems, and GJ had been unable to save them. Sharon still blamed Dr. Director for the incident. She always would.
The last time she had seen her parents, she was visiting the morgue which their bodies were being held.
Mother's beautiful brown hair had turned bright orange and her skin was tangerine colored on the less severe burns. Her arms and legs were so abnormally long that stretched out to the floor; like all the bones had melted away.
Father had similar changes; his black hair had turned sunshine yellow and his skin was the color of aging parchment. His body was not as damaged or burned as Mother's, but when Sharon went to touch his face, her hand went straight through his cheek.
The doctors explained that the Vertigo parents had exhibited abilities similar to the children's before their passing. By then, Sharon was convinced that the radiation was nothing but a gift of death.
She hated her brother for turning death into something that could be idolized.
Sharon felt those nasty tears welling up again. She wiped her face clear, forced all the horrid memories back into the corners of her mind, and entered the locker room to retrieve her super suit.
--
As it turned out, the young super heroine had not been too far off on her "cat in a tree" assumption, at least in the sense that it would be an easy mission.
"Within the last hour, there was a break-in at GO Labs," the mayor had said in his usual lisp, speaking with the team through the Go Tower's view screen. "We have very little information about what has gone on inside, but we do know that the criminal has taken hostages."
"Mathter? Electronique?" questioned her eldest brother.
"The perpetrator is an unknown; first time offender," answered the mayor, suddenly smiling. Her brothers were doing the same.
"A new guy, huh?" Her second eldest brother spoke with his usual arrogance. She was actually closer to him than any of her siblings, even if he aggravated the hell out of her.
"Way easy!" chorused the twins, youngest of the group at the age of eleven. Sharon eyed them carefully; she feared she would never be used to that "talking at the same time" thing.
But she too felt a sudden well of confidence when she heard it was a small-timer, a newbie. They were always too easy to take down, and she liked putting as little effort in her hero work a possible, if she could help it.
It was strange that she remembered the short flight from Go Tower to GO Labs on the other side of the mountains, hidden from public eyes. She recalled her two eldest brothers fighting over who got to pilot the jet, and how the oldest won, as always. She recalled the brother in blue putting on his Len CD as soon as they took off, how she pulled on her headphones, in hopes of finding music that was less inclined to make her ears bleed. How funny it had looked, watching her Hulk-eque brother sing to "Steal My Sunshine", and seeing that her other siblings were suppressing their laughter as well.
It was moments such as those that made her miss her family.
The Go Jet landed not long after that, and from the point which they stood they could see the hidden entrance to GO Labs. What looked like a cluster of large rocks that had fallen from the top of the cliffs was actually holographic projection… that was a little too easily bypassed. Sometimes Sharon wondered what made people think scientists were so smart. After all, a newbie had managed to slip past their cloaking device.
The siblings played Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who would enter first. Sharon won, with "Paper beats Rock" against her second eldest brother.
He scoffed. "You cheated! That doesn't even make sense, paper beating a rock!"
She cocked an eyebrow. "You want it to be Rock beats Rock?" Her threat was accompanied by a clenched fist held in the direction of his face. He quickly shook his head, and the twins snickered behind his back.
Sharon remembered looking forward to going in first. Newbies were easy, and stupid, and that meant she could use the "he attacked first" defense if her brothers caught her beating the snot out of this guy… or girl, whichever the case may be. The last few missions had ended with lectures about violence from her 'team leader', after she got a little hot around the collar during battles against Mathter, the leader of WaterWorks, and Avarius (the ladder actually went back to Go City Asylum with a cast on his arm, cursing Shego's name from the armored car).
It wasn't her fault if her daily tensions came out while she was fighting crime; between school, her brothers, and regular teenage girl angst, Sharon didn't have any other outlet for her anger. And seeing as those idiot villains were already annoying a hell, sometimes… she just couldn't help herself.
Sharon was smirking with arrogance when she slipped through the holographic door, into a dark, metal-plated hallway. From where she stood, the girl could see the main lab. Honestly, no locks? No security system? This city's stupidity never ceased to amaze her.
She could hear shuffling bodies and a woman's sobbing; the hostages, and standing next to the doorway was a tall-ish man, his back turned to the hall. From what the heroine could see, he had a gun of some sort pointed inside the lab. Her newbie, or perhaps a hired help.
She brought her fingers to life with a green-and-black glow that matched her costume, grinning devilishly as she became Shego. Whichever the case, this was going to be easy.
Too easy.
Shego was running break-neck speed toward her target when she realized this, but it was already too late. The man wheeled around and faced the teenager, revealing his featureless metal face. And before Shego had time to process what was happening, the robotic man raised his weapon again and shot it right at the girl's shoulder.
There was no difference between the sound of bullet leaving the gun and entering her upper arm. Not in her ears anyway.
Crumbling to the floor in an ungraceful manner, Shego became Sharon again. She lay there on cold metal, cringing from pain and cursing herself for being so fool-hearted. It had been a trap! Of course it had! Why hadn't she seen it?
More questions suddenly flooded her mind, like why her brothers hadn't come to check on her by now? Or why the attacker hadn't advanced on her? And why she wasn't bleeding out yet?
She answered her last question pretty quickly, when she turned over and saw that the bullet was in fact a sleeper dart.
Sharon was contemplating sticking the dart on some sensitive spot of the mayor's body when the toxins finally pulled her under.
--
"She's such a curious creature," he muttered as he watched the young heroine through the large view screen kept in the main room. The girl was staring into deep space, her eyes glazed over in thought. What else did she have to do? He often wondered what she was thinking though.
The man adjusted his jacket cuffs and folded his arms behind his back, looking on at his greatest achievement. For three months, he'd kept Shego prisoner, and so far, it was looking progressive. The girl was beginning to forget her life, or least the positive aspects of it, thanks to the serum he had used. It was of his own design, and while slow working, it was affective.
"Now comes phase two," he muttered with wicked grin. Sharon was beginning to fall asleep again as he watched the girl, unbeknownst to her. "Create the ultimate super villain. The world shall fear the name Shego, and it will be all thanks to Doctor Lipsky!"
Maniacal laughter proceeded to fill the room, as it too often did when Lipsky was around. He was always like this when things went his way.
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Author's Notes:
Well, well, well, what have we here? Me trying my hand at Shego's past, in a very twisted way I might add?
This story was actually inspired by a Kim Possible music video request I received, to the song, "Once Upon A December" from Anastasia. I began contemplating the idea of Shego's evil life being the result of her losing her memory at a young age. As to this Doctor Lipsky… well, you'll learn more about him in the next chapter. This story will probably be only two or three chapters at most.
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