Please check the ending to chapter 1, as it has been changed just slightly to allow for a change in programming. Thank you.
…with you
Disclaimer: Kim Possible and all the characters of the show are owned by the Disney Company. The original lyrics to the songs referenced in this story and the music are the property of the respective authors, artists and labels. All other characters appearing in this story can be blamed on the author (he, however, is not responsible for all of their actions at all times, being barely responsible for himself most of the time).
This is a strictly not-for-profit, just-for-fun work.
Enjoy! Please read and review.
Villain's Convention - Chapter 2 - Falsetto Jones by Cpneb
A/N Forward:
He needed her help to keep a promise….
--
He really wasn't certain why he had come. After all, he could have contacted his target somewhere else besides at this little gathering. He was here, though, and he decided that he would enjoy himself, one way or another.
He'd brought her along, of course: she didn't go on his 'special' business trips, but on the regular ones, like this, she always came along.
The desk attendant had given him a hard time until he showed his Jack Hench personally-signed invitation. That, and the National Express Triple-Platinum member card, got the attendant's attention, and the two of them and their luggage were escorted to the suite that he had requested: the top floor of the hotel, with single elevator access.
He had done his homework, of course, and he had confirmed that his target would be attending this conference. He wanted to meet her, face-to-face, and see and confirm that she was 'all that' he had heard and read, and he needed to see if she was even interested or, for that matter, even 'still in the business.'
He sat silently in their his suite with her, her head in his lap, him gently stroking her hair, as they listened together to Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #3. It had been her favorite, and she especially liked the harpsichord transitional movement. "It brings you from the stately to the energetic," she whispered to him that night as they attended a live performance in Go City's Chamber Performance Hall.
He glanced up at the clock next to the mantle: 5:49 PM.
It was time.
--
He and his companion went to the hotel bar. He ordered six different drinks and, in a very short order, downed five of them. He picked up the last drink and placed a US 100 Dollar bill on the bar.
"Please, place the drinks on my tab, if you would, dear lady, and keep this for your trouble," he said to the attractive woman that had been his bartender. The patrons in the bar watched him and his companion leave, amazed at his constitution.
"Carlton!" He stopped and turned slowly, and she turned with him to look at the voice now approaching him.
"Jack," Carlton smiled and extended his hand.
Jack Hench, the President of HenchCo, smiled and shook the hand of the world's most famous thief, famous because he was never caught with the goods in hand, and famous because he was already so wealthy that he didn't need to steal in the first place. He had scored a coup, he felt, in getting Carlton to agree to come. The others were regulars, but this was the first time that Carlton had agreed to come to any event such as this.
"I trust you and your guest are comfortable?" Jack smiled and stole a glance at Carlton's companion.
"Indeed, we are, Jack: thank you for allowing us the privacy we desire," Carlton replied, and she smiled and nodded her approval, as well.
"Were you able to arrange some time for me to meet with her, privately, this evening?"
"Indeed I have, but she rejected the retainer until after your conversation was complete: then, she said, she'd decide what value to set," Jack replied and smiled. 'At least, this time, she didn't threaten to burn my rear end: she's so much more relaxed, now that he's 'gone green,' Jack laughed inside.
"Where, and when?" he asked.
"As you requested: at the 'Evil Happy Hour,' at 6:16 PM. I'm sure you'll recognize her," Jack laughed, "and she'll be alone, as well."
"Thanks, Jack," Carlton stuck out his hand and shook Jack's, as he turned and headed for the gift shop to kill time.
Jack felt the paper placed in his hand, and he looked down. A piece of paper, with a number written on it preceded by a plus sign and the word "bill":
"Five thousand dollars," Jack grinned. "Easiest five minutes' worth of work I've ever done, and the most lucrative, to boot." He refolded the paper and placed it in his shirt pocket for the hotel accountant to add to Carlton's bill as 'consultation expenses.'
--
"What's good, Sandy?" Shego quizzed the bartender at the front of the hotel restaurant.
"Besides me?" Sandy replied with a laugh. "Not much; but, for you, ma'am, everything," the bartender grinned. "Your meals and drinks have all been covered by Mr. Jones for the duration of your stay with us," she winked at Shego, and Shego smiled back at her.
"Purely business," Shego smirked, and Sandy smiled back: she knew Shego too well from the past two nights here to know that this guy wasn't getting lucky tonight, if ever.
"Sharon, bring me two bottles: chilled properly, of course, of Dom Perignon 1998, a plate of medium minced, free-range, calf liver, cooked only enough to take the odor off, bottled plain water, and a seperate saucer. I'll be at the back table, when he arrives with his guest," Shego pointed, and Sharon nodded as Shego headed to her table. "Oh," Shego said over her sholder, "make sure you leave yourself a really, really good tip," she grinned as she headed for the table.
--
The chief wine steward had already come out, accomplanied by his assistants, to deliver the wine and get approval from his customer. He opened the first bottle and poured a small sample for Shego. She swirled it, sniffed the aroma, sipped, and nodder her approval. He filled her glass and then placed the bottle, capped, back into the holder for chilling.
She sat and sipped for only a few moments before she caught them from the corner of her eye as they entered the bar from the gift shop visit. They headed directly for her. Shego started to stand, but he waved her down as he approached to avoid undue attention. The waiter deposited the covered dish and left just before the pair reached the table.
"Please, don't get up on my account," Carlton wryly smiled.
"I wasn't: it was for her," Shego retorted. She knelt down and petted the beautiful animal. "This is Mandy, right? I've never seen a Lithuanian wolfhound before," she added.
Carlton nodded and replied "You're right, Sheila; this is, indeed, Mandy," as he took her pro-offered hand as she stood and kissed it. "A woman of intelligence, discernment, and beauty: Drew is a very lucky man, indeed," he said as he lifted his head and looked into her eyes.
'If I was Princess right now, I'd be blushing,' Shego thought as she took her seat, and Carlton took his seat across from her.
"You're not too bad, yourself: I'm really liking the wine-colored double-breasted blazer," Shego replied, and Carlton nodded his reply to her compliment.
"This is for Mandy: I took the liberty of ordering for her," Shego then pointed at the covered dish. "A plate of free-range minced calf liver, cooked only enough to take the odor off, a bottled water, and a seperate saucer for her water: I assume that she doesn't drink from the bottle since she's a lady and she is refined, unlike some people we know," Shego smiled, and Carlton laughed as he lifted the cover, beamed, and placed the dish on the floor for Mandy. He then placed the saucer on the floor, uncapped the water, and poured some of the bottled water into it.
"Thank you, my dear," Carlton said as he capped the water bottle. "This just makes me even more certain that I'm talking to the right person," Carlton said as he reached for the wine bottle and poured a glass for himself and poured another for Shego, recapping it as he laced it back in the holder. Mandy sniffed the water as if it was a fine wine and then lapped at it delicately. Occasionally, as the conversation progressed, she nibbled at her minced treat.
"To Mandy, or more specifically, to Amanda," he clicked Shego's glass, breathed in the aroma from his own glass, and sipped. "A '1998,' if I'm correct, no?" he smiled.
"It had better be: you're paying for it," Shego smirked.
She took a sip, and then she put her glass on the table and leaned forward, propping her head on her hands with both elbows on the table. "So, tell me, Carlton Jeremiah Michael Jones, a.k.a Falsetto Jones, by reputation the world's richest and most successful thief, what do you want with 'li'l ol' me?'" She fluttered her eyelashes and spoke with her best Southern drawl at the end, but neither of them could hold back, and they both laughed once, then snickered for a few moments.
"And, what does any of this have to do with Kimberly Amanda Flanagan?" Shego shot her bolt, and Carlton winced as her burst struck the target dead-on.
Shego watched him close his eyes, silently mouth something, and then he opened them. She would have sworn that she saw a glint of a tear behind his grin.
"I'll tell you, Miss Go," he replied, and Shego winced: she remembered that period of her life, "but only because I believe that you will help me.
"And, by the way," he smiled, "it was on a Friday night for me, not a Tuesday," he grinned, and Shego chuckled silently as Carlton began to speak...
--
"We were young and stupid," Carlton began, and Shego snorted.
"We thought that we, the six of us, could break into a high-security facility, steal the diamond, and recover the dogs. The fact that we'd never done anything like this before didn't seem to concern us," he mused out loud.
"You have to understand: we believed that technology could solve all of our problems, so I bought the best jamming equipment money could buy, the best outfits that could provide us the most concealment and protection, and the best equipment of all kinds: communications, weapons, you name it, that we thought we'd need to carry this off. Money was no object: after all, I was rich, and the others weren't exactly poor pikers, either," he laughed.
He poured a full glass. "To my friends," he said as he took a drink for each name:
"James Augustus Clement;
"Reggie Stephen Nation;
"Regina Stephanie Nation;
"Dr. Marilyn Michelle Meadows (or, Doc3M, as she went by);and
"Kimberly Amanda Flanagan," he finished off the glass.
"Why were you going there, in the first place?" Shego asked.
"It was her father's diamond," he began, and he stopped when Shego looked perplexed. "I did leave out a few minor details, didn't I?" he grinned.
"Ya think?" Shego shot back with a laugh, and she picked up the bottle and poured both him and herself each another glass, almost finishing off the bottle. He took a sip before he continued.
"Professor Jefferson Karlos Flanagan, the gentleman who found the Kimber Diamond almost by accident on a wild boar tracking session in, of all places, northern Arkansas, named the diamond after his just-born daughter, Kimberly Amanda Flanagan. I think that's the reason Amanda hated the name Kimberly." he explained. "He later told me that the darned thing was lying on the ground, just waiting for someone to pick it up: what are the odds?" He laughed.
"And, you probably aren't the biggest fan of the name, either, I imagine?" Shego smiled a thin smile, and Carlton nodded.
"Ah, yes, Miss Possible," he stared forward. "She was a bit of a surprise in her escape when she carried the diamond back to the museum and the Townsends. That's why I called you, as a matter of fact; but, I'm getting ahead of myself.
"Professor Flanagan and the Townsends were partners in the beginning, but Suzanne," and the venom almost dripped from his lips when he mentioned her name, "managed somehow to swindle the diamond from Jefferson when Kimberly was five years old. He would never tell me or her just what happened, but they were no longer the friends that they had been before the find.
"Jefferson would tell his daughter, and she would tell me, stories about the diamond and how she even played with it when she was two and three. After she received her Master's degree, she promised her dad that she would, somehow, recover the diamond and return it to him for his birthday.
"It was purely coincidental that we learned that the Townsends were also planning to perform experiments on these beautiful animals for cryogenics research; Regina got word of it from one of her college professors that was working on other research projects and had been contacted by the Townsends. She told her twin brother, Reggie, and we suddenly found ourselves with two missions at the same location: one, to reclaim the diamond, and the other to save the Lithuanian wolfhounds."
"Uh-huh," Shego thought for a moment, and then she grinned and took on a totally faux British accent: "So, Carlton, old sod, just what was Amanda to you: was she just another 'pickle on a pike', or was she the perfect 'bangers and mash?'"
"You nailed it, Shego," he laughed at her references, smiled and petted Mandy's head; Mandy rewarded him with a lick of his hand. "I was in love with Amanda, but I couldn't ever tell her: she was so stunningly beautiful to me, so glamorous, so perfect, and I was just a klutz on the bottom of the food chain who had money."
"Sounds like another sidekick I know," Shego observed wryly. Carlton thought for a moment, and then he broke into laughter.
"You're right," he laughed. "I never realized the connection, Shego; that could be why I was so annoyed with young Stoppable: he was a younger version of me, in a frighteningly similar role.
"The difference, Shego, was that Miss Possible was ready for me: we weren't ready for professionals, for security who didn't care that we were idealistic kids.
"James, Mandy, and I went after the dogs: we found them exactly where we suspected they would be, and we managed to get them to follow us out of the holding area without any major problems.
"That's when the fun began.
"I heard gunfire over our communications link, and I heard Regina scream 'We surrender! We surrender! We're unarmed!" and I heard Mandy scream. I later learned that a single shot had struck Reggie in the chest, just above the vest.
"How many more?" A rough voice screamed, and Regina screamed over the system. James hurried us to the dock where the vehicles were, and he ran out, calling "I'll be all right: Mandy, Carlton, get the dogs into that van, and I'll be back with everyone and the diamond.
"That was the last I saw of James, but not the last I heard from him," Carlton said sadly, and he paused for a moment. Shego watched him quietly as he took a deep breath before he continued.
"They shot Reggie," and she watched Carlton stop again; this time, she could see him visibly gathering himself back together. He then took another deep breath and continued: "They killed him, in front of his twin sister, and then they laughed about it."
"Even I'm not that low," Shego commented under her breath, and Carlton nodded his agreement.
"An explosion, I later learned, was set off by James, and it distracted them for a few moments, enough time for Doc3M to get away. She headed straight for us, but she didn't know she was being followed: again, the stupidity of youth," he smiled sadly.
"Doc3M got to the loading dock just as we arrived with the dogs.
"Unfortunately, her 'help' arrived just as we began to load the dogs onto the van, and shots rang around my ears. I felt something hit my leg, and I went down on top of one of the dogs in agony.
"'Carlton!' I heard Doc3M yell, and I think I heard another shot strike something with a thud, but I passed out when my head bounced off of the concrete floor.
"The next time I woke, I was in the back of a van with six strangely quiet Lithuanian wolfhounds, all staring at me, and my leg hurt to the high heavens. I realized that there was a tourniquet on my leg, and it hurt, but not as much as I would have expected.
"Then, I remembered: I was shot, and I passed out on the dock.
"How did I get into the van, and where was Mandy?
"I managed to get the side door open and stumbled out, realized that this was one of Townsend's vans that he used for transporting his scuba tank and recharging equipment, grabbed the sides of the van to help me walk, and I stumbled to the front of the fan.
"Mandy.
"She was there."
"She was slumped over the steering wheel, holding her Blueberry in her hand, holding it out toward the passenger side of the van.
"I managed to open the door and throw myself into the passenger seat, but she didn't respond.
"'Mandy,' I reached over and touched her, and I knew, right then and there, that I'd never get the chance to tell her to her breathing face that I loved her.
"Mandy was dead," Carlton said, and Shego could feel the love radiate from the man as if it were the heat of a blazing sun.
"I took her Blueberry from her cooling hand and, tears streaming down my face, also took the note she had written.
"I read the note, first:
"'Before you play my last message, C, I want you to know something:
"'I wish I'd had both the guts and cajoles,' I stopped and smiled, then continued, 'to tell you how much I was in love with you, but I never did: you were so much more than I ever dreamed I could be, and I always felt small in your shadow.
"She loved me, and I didn't even suspect it," Carlton said sadly to the air, and he continued.
"'I wish I had, but I wouldn't trade it for any of the time we spent together: we laughed, we sang, we played, and we danced. I wouldn't give up one thing for any of those dances, C.
"'I'll always be with you, just know that.
"'I love you, and I'll love you, forever.
"'m.'"
By the time that he finished recounted that last message, Shego wasn't trying to hide her tears any longer.
"What was on her Blueberry?" Shego asked after she managed to stop her tears.
"Lots of personal stuff: she told her dad that she really didn't hate the name Kimberly, but she was jealous of the diamond until she realized just how much it meant to him, and that was why we went after it and the dogs.
"Her message also told me what happened after I passed out: how Doc3M had put the tourniquet on my leg, got me and the dogs into the van, slammed the door shut, and gave Mandy orders to take off." Carlton paused for a moment and took a small sip of the Dom. "In the message Mandy left she said that Doc3M said, 'I'll be behind you, I just have to get the guys,' Mandy said she could see her limp back into the open, what turned out to be the clean line of fire."
He paused before he continued, and Shego knew what was coming:
"She lied to Mandy." "The gunman cut her down in an instant.
"Mandy got into the van, fired up the engine, and floored it.
"Gunfire came through the back of the van, and one lucky bullet found Mandy's right lung," Carlton said matter-of-factly, and Shego winced. "She realized that her only chance was to get to a hospital, but she didn't think she could do it and not bounce the dogs and me all over the back of the van.
"So, she saved us, and lost her own battle," he smiled, and Shego felt sorry for the man.
"What neither of us counted on was the number of hits that the helium tanks took that were strapped in the back of the van. Helium began escaping and started to fill the rear cabin, and it headed forward to Mandy as it filled the van. You could hear it in her voice: it went up in pitch as she talked, until her last words were almost a caricature of her own voice.
"It wasn't until after I heard her speak her last words that I spoke, and," Carlton smiled, "imagine my surprise," he sat silent, and Shego thought about the abuse he had taken from the villain community for all these years. 'None of them knew the story' she realized.
"The dogs completely lost their ability to bark," Carlton added. "The extreme amount of helium that they were exposed to affected their vocal chords differently; but, at least, they survived."
"What happened to the rest of your friends?" Shego had to ask, even though she knew the answer.
"Jason had a surprise for security: he had decided that, if he died, he would take as much of the factory with him, so he had rigged 20 pounds of C4 compound inside his shirt and had left some bricks along the way to the safe, and he had them all connected to a dead-man switch. He told the security guards not to kill him, and he even showed them the switch, but they didn't believe him: the resultant explosion took out half the plant."
"We never got the diamond, and the price for its ransom went up, so I had to use 'other means' to expand my fortune. I couldn't resist the one chance when it was out of the vault, though: I had to try, one more time, for Mandy.
"That's why I need you, Shego: I have the money that the Townsends want, and I need someone to deliver it that won't be coerced or intimidated by them and can return with the diamond…alive.
"Why now?"
"He's dying, and I want him to have it before he sees his daughter," was his reply.
"Will you, Shego?"
Shego looked into the hopeful and sad eyes, and she made her decision.
She started humming a tune, and Carlton's eyes snapped wide open. Then, she leaned forward and began to sing to him in a soft voice, so soft that he was the only person in the bar that heard it:
Looking back, on the memories of
All the fights we shared
and the lairs blown up
For a long time
All the world was night
How could I have known
that a plant would make it right?
And I...I wish that I had known
The way it all would end
The way it all would go
Our lives weren't better left to chance
Boy, I could've missed the pain
But I'd have had to miss
The dance…with you
Holding you, I held everything
All this time with you, I wished I were your queen
If I'd only known how the world would change
Then who's to say
You know, I might have skipped it all
And I...I wish that I had known
The way it all would end
The way it all would go
Our lives weren't better left to chance
Boy, I could've missed the pain
But I'd have had to miss
The dance…with you
Yes my life
is better now with you
I could'a skipped the pain
But I'd have had to miss
The dance…with you.
She stopped, tears streaming down her face, and she looked into his tear-soaked face.
"When do you want it done?" she asked.
"As soon as you're available, Shego," Carlton managed to get out with a smile. "I have the money in my suite: I hired Hank Perkins," and Shego chuckled inside, "to work for me a couple of months before the Lowardians hit, and he's been a godsend with his mad organizational skills. He's got the money upstairs in a briefcase."
Shego wiped her face with the napkin and smiled. "This will be so worth it: helping you, and scaring the pants off of Perkins, to boot: a two-fer," She said as she stood. "I'll be back in a few hours, then," she turned and started to take a step.
"WAIT!" she stopped when she heard him call out.
"How did you know that was 'our song?'" he asked, and she grinned with a devilish look and headed for the elevators.
--
Carlton ordered dinner (an antipasto appetizer, to start, that he shared a bit of with Mandy), and then ordered a paella that he thought would challenge the kitchen.
When it arrived, still steaming and smelling wonderfully of saffron, onion, garlic, peppers, seafood, and spicy sausages, he forgot for a moment and dived into the wonderful creation, smiling broadly as he began to devour the contents of the platter and laughed as Mandy, after unsuccessfully begging, lay down and finished her liver.
He had a very leisurely dinner, and he topped it off with another challenge to the kitchen: a chocolate-and-cream-cheese soufflé. Again, the kitchen didn't disappoint, the soufflé arriving in less than 30 minutes, hot and still puffed to its full extension.
He was one-third of the way through dessert when Shego sat down with a briefcase at her side.
"Well?" Carlton asked.
"They deserve anything that I can come up with," Shego smiled as she flamed her right hand.
"They didn't know who I was, and they tried to tell me that the diamond wasn't for sale. I explained that I had just come from you and placed the briefcase on the table, informing them of the contents. They tried to convince me that there had been a price increase during the time that I came over.
"I stared at them in shock, and Suzanne said, and I quote, 'tell the loser to go steal another 10 million, and he still won't have enough,' unquote," Shego smiled, and Carlton was immediately worried.
"Shego! What did you do?"
"I 'explained' to her that you weren't a loser, and that she was going to honor the contract.
"She laughed and told me that would never happen unless I got a super villain to convince her, so I flamed one hand and asked her if helping to save the world got me any bonus points. Then, I introduced myself," Shego smiled.
"They took the money out of the briefcase and placed the diamond inside, and then they asked me if they could do anything else for me."
"Shego," Carlton laughed, "you didn't?"
"I may have suggested a small donation of a few million or so to animal research; coincidentally, the same amount that they got from you, and I told her I'd be very happy if she could 'make it so,'" Shego smirked, then laughed.
"You actually got it," Carlton marveled, but Shego held onto the handle of the briefcase.
"Not until I get mine," she said.
"Certainly: how much?"
"You have a picture of Mandy?"
"To quote someone near to me, 'Well, D'OI!'" Carlton laughed. "Why?"
"I want to see what the woman who has your heart, even after all these years, looked like," she said.
Carlton reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his MePod, clicked it to his favs, and selected an image. "Here she is: I caught this picture of her when she was babysitting in Go City."
Shego took one look at the picture and reached for the full bottle of Dom Perignon, uncorked it, and proceeded to down a full third of it in one gulp. When she put the bottle on the table, tears were streaming down her face.
"Kimmie," was all she said before she picked up the bottle again and took another huge swig, then slammed it back on the table, waking Mandy from her nap.
"Sorry, Mandy," Shego explained, "but I'm not in a very 'lady-like' mood, right now," and Mandy wagged her tail, accepting Shego's apology.
"Shego?"
"She was babysitting in Go City?" Shego asked as he watched the montage of emotions play across her face.
"Did you ever take a good look at the little girl in the picture with her, Carlton? A really, really good look?"
"No, why?"
"Long, full black hair? Slim, boyish figure, complete with a smirk on her face?"
Carlton looked at the picture and, suddenly, the pieces fell into place.
"Kimmie was my hero: she had her B. S. Ed., she was a Graduate Student in Education and Childhood Development, and she was everything that I wanted to be: smart, pretty, and she had a really cute BF, to boot," Shego smiled through her tear-covered face. "Then, one day, after she got her Master's degree, she disappeared, and I never heard from her again.
"I was so mad, at her, at everything," Shego continued, "I couldn't even say her name again without hate in my voice. Then, imagine my surprise to then be battling a cheerleader named Kimberly: I stuck her with the name 'Kimmie' because I hated it and her, and it got under her skin, so….
"I never knew what happened to her…" Shego's voice trailed off, and Carlton watched a smile form through her tears.
"Do you think the kitchen is still open?" Shego asked.
"Yes; why?"
"I just had a hankerin' for Kimmie's favorite dish: paella," and Carlton laughed as he signaled for the waiter.
"You certainly woke Hank Perkins up, Shego," Carlton said after the meal was ordered. "He called me about two minutes after you left, ranting about having ordered room service and finding you at the door instead of his pizza. I think you made the poor boy wet himself, Shego," Carlton laughed.
"'Why didn't you tell me she was coming?'" he asked me, and Shego grinned: she knew what the response would be.
"I told him," Carlton sat up, and he and Shego said it together:
"'This was my way of telling you, Hank,'" and the two of them laughed.
"Kimmie's up there busting a gut, herself, I imagine," Shego said, and Carlton nodded.
"I'd like to propose a toast, Shego," Carlton poured the last of both bottles into their glasses, and he held his up and waited for Shego to lift hers.
"To the 'Kimmies' in our lives," he began, and Shego snorted. "They drive us insane, and we are both the better for them: without Kimberly Ann Possible, I would never have approached you, my muffin-top-pincher," he grinned, and Shego burst into laughter, "and, you would have never found the answer to your mystery."
"Jinkies, Carlton," Shego laughed, "I'd forgotten about the muffins."
"Hey, they were my favorites, the giant blueberry ones, and you always would rip the tops off of them and eat the tops, right in front of me."
"And, then, to 'top' it all," Carlton laughed, "you laughed at me when I tried to get mad at you!" he complained.
"Well, the top is the best part of the muffin, you know," Shego retorted.
"That closed 'the case of the topless muffins,'" Carlton grinned, and they laughed and talked until the second giant pan of paella arrived.
"I still think you look silly in that mustache," Shego added as she scooped a large portion of the paella onto her plate, and Carlton chuckled.
"She always wanted the goatee, but she hated the mustache, too; perhaps it's time," he grinned as he stroked it, contemplating the final action.
Carlton ordered two more bottles, chilled, and the waiters and the bartender were all very, very happy.
--
Jack Hench smiled as the screen pulled away. "Wasn't that a most touching story folks?"
Shego glared around the room, making sure that not one single villain was laughing. "One word... just one word... and that person gets the most painful enema of their lives."
Jack coughed at the implied threat, quickly moving on before any of his guests decided to run in terror. "Our next presenter is someone I'm sure you're all familiar with, since he just helped save the world... yet still won't pay his bills... Dr. Drakken!"
--
Thanks to my betas JAKT, Star-Eva01, and Ran Hakubi, and one of my favorite inspirations, my other AG, Akinyi.