Chapter Two
Shego walked quietly down the hall of the lair that she had shared with Dr. Drakken for close to six years. A private island in the Carribean with a towering complex built into the single mountain that had been destroyed and rebuilt dozens of times but was now far more inviting than it had been a year and a half ago. Now it was covered in vines, each with a diminutive flower that seemed to turn and watch he as she moved. "Okay, Dr. D? That is really starting to creep my out, alright?"
A single vine crept along the floor and grew in front of her. She smiled for a moment as a bloom opened up and seemed to do the same. Shego reached out, grasping the flower by its stem and igniting the green fire of her hand. To their knowledge, her glow was the only thing on earth that could sever the vines. "That's sweet, Drew." she commented, smelling the small bloom. She used her companion's real name now as a term of endearment rather than a sarcastic tease.
Placing the bloom in her jet black, thigh length hair, Shego continued walking. Pulling a handful of letters and flyers from under her arm, she began sorting through the mail. A magazine subscription, a trial self manicure kit, and a wad of bills that she disintegrated with a green flare. "How do these people find us out here?" she asked herself as the blast door to the den whooshed open.
"Shego, it is our moral responsibility as American citizens to pay for what we use." Dr. Drakken said, spinning in his oversized chair. His skin was still blue, he wore the same dark blue lab coat and kept his messy, receding hair in the same pony tail that he always had. But since their last run in with Kim Possible, he had become a different person. The machine in the basement of Diverse City's University had changed him just as it had the Stoppable kid. The battlesuit that Shego now wore, with its green and black, knee high boots and waist length cape had somehow protected her from the mind altering effects. She still hadn't heard if Kim had turned back to normal or not as the girl hadn't seemed all that evil after the first incident.
"Dr. D..." Shego began.
"Drew, Shego. Did you know that it's illegal to go around calling yourself a doctor when you haven't even earned a doctorate?" Drakken said, turning back to his computer.
Shego placed her hands on her hips, rolled her eyes. "What's with that, huh?" The whole wanting to turn over a new leaf and become a better person was fine. Dr. D had finally started to seem happy for a change after his plan to save the world from Warmonga and Warhok had actually succeeded. But this wanted to be a do gooder now as well was getting unbearable. "Y'know, I am a fully certified instructor. I could just write you a diploma or something." she said, draping her arms over his shoulders and rubbing her cheek against his.
A blaring red light on the control console came to life and Drakken reached over to press it, bringing up a video feed of an approaching Global Justice helicopter. "Ooo! Visitor!" Drakken said excitedly.
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Joss Possible stood next to Wade Load with her long duster jacket and shoulder length brown hair blowing in the sea breeze. She was looking up at the infamous Dr. Drakken's primary lair from the rocky shore that surrounded the tower. It certainly wasn't what she had expected. "The keep out signs really don't go with the garden, do they?" she asked, swallowing hard.
"Not really, no." Wade said distractedly. He continued to wear the classic black and grey mission gear that Kim and Ron had made so popular, if only for the array of pockets that the cargo pants offered for all of his gadgets. "Ron had said that there was a hidden doorway at the base of the tower."
"How'd Ron know that?" Joss asked.
Wade couldn't help but smile every time he hear the Montana twang in her voice. "A Christmas mission." he replied, pulling out a scanner and holding it out. "There!" he said, pointing to a blank spot on the wall.
"Oh yeah! That's the time he went to stop Drakken and tried to let Kim have Christmas with her family but then Ron and Drakken got stuck in the arctic and Kim had to chase around the world looking for him!" Joss said with a grin as she took a breath. "I'm sure that's a Christmas no one will forget!"
"I don't think there are too many adventures that are forgettable, Joss." Wade said. While hearing Joss talk never got annoying, continually having each adventure that he had taken part in recalled to him was starting to get old. "Just hold on, I've got something that will get us in." Wade whispered, searching his pockets.
"Why don't we just knock?" Joss asked, rapping her gloved knuckles on the wall.
"Because that would be..." Wade began, pulling out a laser pen.
"Too easy?" Joss asked with a grin as the door slit aside. She turned to step in but was blocked by a familiar woman in green and black.
"What do you want?" Shego asked with a hint of snarkiness in her voice. Joss stood her ground with one foot in the door.
"Information." Joss stated defiantly. She was glaring intently at Shego, who was staring her down with a cocky smirk.
"Uh, Hi Shego." Wade said nervously. "Still got the battle suit, I see."
"Take it easy, kid. Hey wait... you're Kim Possible's little cousin, right?" From Montana." Shego surmised. "How'd you get the geek boy here to leave his room?" she grinned, gesturing to Wade.
Joss sighed. Since her and Wade had started doing missions together, that was all she heard. 'I thought you were Kim Possible', 'Where's Kim Possible?', 'Are you related to Kim Possible?' "Yeah. I'm Kim Possible's cousin. Now, can we get to why we're here?"
"Of course!" Came a voice from behind Shego. "Any relation to Kim Possible is a friend of ours! Come on in. Would either of you like some cocoa-moo?"
Shego slapped a hand to her face in frustration as Joss and Wade looked at each other quizzically.
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Shego was filing her nails as she contemplated what the two kids were telling Dr. Drakken. The foot falls from Drakken's boots as he paced in front of the fireplace resounded across the otherwise eerily quiet room. "You're saying that Kim Possible is... dead?"
"Don't you two watch TV? It's all over the news!" Joss said. Each time she heard the words, it made her heart ache.
"Dr. D's had a bit of an aversion to cable after being stuck in a kid's cartoon for awhile." Shego explained from her lounge chair.
"She's not actually dead." Wade began, as all eyes turned to him. "All of her electrical energy has been siphoned out somehow. With Lorwardian technology."
"And we were sure hopin' that you could, y'know, help." Joss finished, a little uncertain.
Shego couldn't help but pause her manicure. Kim was gone. Someone had actually gotten up the courage to off her, and here they were. Drakken was goody two shoes and they were both working for Global Justice. "Fate, you are cruel." she whispered to herself, admiring her black painted nails.
"I'm glad you agree, Shego." Dr. Drakken said, stopping his pacing to think for a moment. "Poor little Kim Possible. Assaulted by a cowardly attacker in a dingy night club with only her best friend and his hairless rodent at her side."
"Dr. D, are you crying?!" Shego asked, surprised and a little annoyed.
Joss and Wade shifted uncomfortably in their seats as Drakken covered his eyes with an arm in a dramatic pose of intense emotional pain. "If you could tell us anything about what could have done this, it would be sure appreciated." Joss said nervously.
Drakken regained his composure, wiping his blue cheeks with his black leather gloves, causing a rubber on glass sound. "While I have studied a bit of the alien technology, I can't say that I have come across anything that could do what you're describing..." Joss' and Wade's faces fell in disappointment. "But I do know someone that could have." he grinned.
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"So who is this guy?" Joss asked Wade as they walked down the rocky path back to the Global Justice helicopter that sat waiting.
"Apparently, he hold five Ph D's, knows seven languages, and is highly recognized in several subjects as an expert, including a newly acquired degree in extra terrestrial technology. Even the military has sought his advice on a lot of the Lorwardian tech that they've recovered." Wade summarized from his search on the pocket computer he was holding.
"Where is he?" Joss asked, pulling on the headphones and adjusting the microphone as the helicopter ascended.
"Diverse City." Wade grinned.
"Figures..." Joss replied.
