Shego was scowling. Once again she found herself clad in an orange prison jumpsuit. The redheaded heroine had foiled Dr. Drakken's plans for world conquest for about the hundredth time, and sent both him and her back to the Middleton High Security Penitentiary Facility, also known as jail. Unlike usual though Drakken had been prepared for it this time. He was a slow learner, Shego'd said so herself once, but he did learn eventually. Unknown to her, and the authorities, he'd hidden a nanobomb in his hair tie, the one piece of clothing the police officers didn't force him to change out of. Shego wasn't sure exactly what had happened but she guessed he placed the small device in a crack in one of his cell's walls before detonating it. She heard the explosion from her position in the women's cell block. At first she'd though it was someone else, like Gemeni, but then she heard guards shouting that Drakken's cell had been breached, and that the mad scientist was nowhere to be found.
Shego'd been taken aback by this once she first heard it. She'd half-expected him to only have hurt himself in the explosion, but no. Drakken, even as clumsy and unstealthy as he was, had somehow managed to sneak past the guards. Shego figured he'd gone for the obvious choice of hiding and slipping out with either the trash or the laundry. She'd done so herself a few times in the past. However he'd done it he'd managed to escape prison without her help, and for some reason it tore her up inside. That was her job after all. Not his. She was the one who was supposed to save his skin. Not him. The one thing that really bothered her though, was that he hadn't made a single effort to save, or even just contact her. It had been two weeks, and there hadn't been a single word from him. She would've expected something like this from herself. In fact she'd often let him sweat it out in jail for a while before coming to his rescue, not only to teach him a lesson but to get a break from his constant ranting. But things were different now that they were officially a couple. Plus she thought he'd come back for her, because he was more of the type to do so than she was.
Drakken wasn't the only one who had learned his lesson. Shego would have escaped herself a long time ago if she'd been able to. The Global Justice department, however, had done their homework on her and coated her new cell in a plasma-retardant material. She'd tried everything, from beating the walls down to blowing away the ceiling, but nothing had worked. All she'd managed to do was mangle her own bed. She'd actually bruised herself trying to punch through the solid steel door. The knuckles on her right hand were a turquoise shade of blue. They were aching but nothing seemed to be broken. The villainess looked down at the orange jumpsuit she was wearing. She didn't want to get used to the thought of having to wear it every day for the rest of her life.
Right now things weren't looking up though. She was cold, hungry, bored, in pain and feeling lonelier than she could remember ever having done before. The one person who she felt like she could rely on, the one person she could really trust and have some serious evil fun with, seemed like he'd had enough. She guessed he'd probably finally had enough of the sarcastic jokes and the snarky comments she threw at him. He'd probably found someone else to do her job. Shego was closer to crying than she'd been in years. She was mad. Mad at Drakken for leaving her when he was supposed to be her boyfriend. But mostly she was mad at herself for driving away the one man who'd really cared about her.
Shego could hear the guards on the other side of her cell's door talking over their radios. They often did so when they wanted to discuss a sports event that happened the night before, or other trivial matters in their boring day-to-day lives. She didn't really pay attention to what they were saying but they sounded excited enough. Probably about an amazing touchdown in last night's football game or something. Shego swallowed back the pain and la down on her mattress. Sleeping was the only thing she could to make time go by. After having done so most of the day already she didn't feel all that tired but it couldn't hurt. Dreaming was a nice way of escaping the harshness of reality she'd have to face from now on.
The green skinned, villainous sidekick had just closed her eyes when she heard clicking noises from outside her cell. She got up immediately and put her ear to the door, recognizing the clicks as prison guards loading their electro-shock pistols. Then she started hearing more clicking noises, but these were alien to her. "What the heck?" she managed to say before jumping back at a loud crash coming from the stairwell that lead to her floor. The clicking now got accompanied by a synthetic chirping and other robotic sounds. The next thing Shego heard was the guards yelling and firing their weapons. Screaming followed, along with more unfamiliar noises and some more, loud explosive-like sounds . Then everything fell silent.
The female criminal got down on her knees and peeked through the slit in the metal door through which she'd been served her meals the last few weeks. The only thing she could see was dust. A thick cloud of it covering her view of the hallway itself. She could now hear footprints. Someone was in the corridor, and it wasn't one of the guards. Shego wasn't really sure how to react when she saw the silhouette appear inside the dust cloud, until she heard it giggle. It was a familiar giggle. One she'd only heard a few times, and when she did it almost sent a shiver down her spine. She got back up on her feet, anticipating what was going to happen next. "And now…" she heard the person owning the silhouette say. "You know what to do."
Shego backed up, trying not to grin too broadly as she did so. This was a very pleasant and most welcome surprise. The clicking sound started up again, and what looked like a small insect came crawling through the slit in the prison door. Then one more, and another one, and another one. Soon they were pouring in by their hundreds. The clicking Shego'd heard was revealed to be the sound of the insect-like robots assembling into a large, humanoid one. As they did so right in front of her she couldn't help but be impressed. The massive robot tore the door right out of its hinges and threw it into the hallway, nearly hitting it's creator as it did so.
"Hey! Be careful! I gave you life after all!" Drakken said as he stepped into the small room.
"Dr. D, you… came back." Shego whispered, more to herself than him.
"Of course, Shego. You actually thought I wouldn't? There's not much fun around the lair without…" The megalomaniac was unable to finish his sentence as his girlfriend pounced on him, giving in to her feelings for once. She was so happy to see him, to know she hadn't lost him, that she didn't care how she acted. Her lips found their way to his in a long, tender kiss before she let him get back to what he was doing. He blushed for a moment as his assistant and girlfriend released him from the very intense hug she had him in. "Let's get going, shall we?" he asked. "Oh! But first…" The mad scientist rushed out the door before coming back in, carrying a digital video camera and a box of expensive chocolates. "This is for you." he told Shego, handing over the sweets. "I wasn't really sure if I'm supposed to give you something or not, but I got you these."
"And what's the camera for?" she asked curiously.
"I'm going to leave behind a little something for the warden and Dr. Director to watch." Drakken explained to her, smirking as he did so. He gave the camera to his latest invention and told it to turn it on.
"Is it on? It is? Excellent. Good evening to whomever will be watching this tape… DVD… whatever. Yes it is I, the infamous Dr. Drakken, sending a message to anyone who watches this." the blue skinned man proclaimed, giving his best evil grin. "Now this is my first time doing something like this so bear with me folks. You might be wondering why I'm making this little clip. Well I'll tell you. I'm doing it because… Actually, let me show you." He swiped the camera right out of the robot's hands and pointed it out the door, into the corridor. Large chunks had been ripped out of the concrete walls and the guards lay lifeless on the floor. "Are they dead or just unconscious? That's for me not to know and you to find out. I'm sure I don't care either way. Isn't it just beautiful though? All this sensational destruction. And do you know who caused it?" The evil genius turned the device around and pointed it at himself. "Me!" he exclaimed, laughing evilly. "Mwahahahahahahahahahah!"
The madman felt like he was on a roll. "In your face Global Justice! You thought you'd seen everything. That you knew all my tricks. That by keeping my assistant locked up you had won. That I wouldn't be able to get out by myself. Well look at me now! You can't keep me down! I'm in Shego's cell, lending her a helping hand with her imminent escape ." Drakken now pointed the camera at his sidekick, who in response rolled her eyes and gave a halfhearted, dismissing wave. He gave her a disgruntled look as he turned the handheld filming device over to her. "A little enthusiasm would be nice, Shego!"
"I just threw myself at you five minutes ago. If I was any more enthusiastic we'd be having sex right now." his significant other pointed out to him.
Drakken blushed again, turned the camera off and gave one of his infamous growls. "They didn't need to know that!" He huffed, scowling at her.
"I know." Shego answered. "But you know I love making you uncomfortable."
"Yes… Well… Anyway… I've got a tray of freshly baked cookies waiting for you back at the lair so we better get going." the villain told her as he pressed his belt buckle and a fully working jet pack emerged from the belt, strapping itself onto his back. "Make an exit, nanobot." he told his invention, which in turn morphed a jetpack of it's own and flew through the roof, shattering it. He then reached his hand out at Shego. She smiled to herself and took it, now knowing he wasn't going to leave her. He hadn't gotten someone to replace her. She was happy knowing that she meant a lot to him after all, that she wasn't alone, and that she was going home. Home to a bath, real clothes and a comfortable bed to sleep in. She smirked to herself as Drakken took off, having a firm hold on her as he did so. It had been a while. Maybe sleep could wait.