Chapter 7

Adrena Lynn's day began with the most absurd breakfast of her life.

To start with, the dining room, such as it was, was partitioned off from the rest of the studio with movable walls. The walls were only six feet high, doing nothing to hide the high roof or the walls of the large space they were in. In the middle of the ad hoc room was a perfectly ordinary, and fairly nice, dining table.

Electronique sat at the head of the table, dressed in her usual costume and wearing her white-rimmed shades. On one side of the table sat Hego and Mego, with the Wego twins facing them on the opposite side. All four men were masked and wearing their costumes. Adrena was seated at the other end of the table, facing Electronique.

"More tea, my dear? Or perhaps you would prefer some hot coffee?"

"Coffee would be nice, thank you." Adrena would have preferred something stronger, but it was probably a good idea to keep a clear head, given her obviously insane company.

Electronique gave a signal and one of the Wego popped a fresh copy, who promptly went to the coffeemaker set at a side table and returned with the coffee pot. Adrena leaned back while he poured, wary of him spilling coffee on her, accidentally on purpose. She'd seen enough of the Wego on her way here to know they were given to pranks like that.

"Do the clothes fit all right?"

"Yes, thanks." Adrena would have asked how Electronique got her measurements, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know. At least she was rid of her prison overalls. She was also relieved, and obscurely disappointed, that Electronique hadn't insisted on dressing her in something inappropriately sexy.

"So what is it you want from me, exactly?"

"We don't discuss business at the breakfast table. Have patience, darling. We'll get to that soon enough."

Adrena abandoned her questioning and continued to eat in silence. She didn't feel like making small talk. She also continued to ignore Team Go's inane banter. Electronique appeared to be ignoring them, too, eyes locked on her. She still suspected the older woman was into her. She decided she could work with that.

Electronique put down her cup and stood up to signal the end of the meal. Copies of Wego hurried to clear the table.

"Come along now, darling. It's time to discuss the particulars of our partnership."

Adrena got up and followed Electronique out of the dining room. Once out the notional door they were in the middle of the studio, empty space stretching all around them. Electronique led them towards the arrangement of sofas and chairs tucked against the wall they'd sat at the previous night.

"Love what you've done with the place."

"As a recently escaped supervillain I have certain constraints on my choices of residence, but I do try to include some amenities."

"Uh, whatever you say. Isn't this location a little... brazen?"

"Oh, my girl, using abandoned facilities is in the best tradition of villainy. Admittedly, a disused warehouse would have been more traditional, but the one I found was already occupied, and this place had better wiring." Electronique sat down and Adrena copied her. "Besides, the local police are moving with some caution in their search. They aren't terribly keen to take me on, let alone the entire Team Go gone bad."

"Almost the entire Team Go."

Electronique made an annoyed grumble that was actually rather cute. "Quite. Which brings us to you, my dear."

"You're sending me after her? I would like to get a rematch."

"Not quite. We'd need to locate her first, and I don't even have an idea where to start. No, I want you to assume her intended position."

"Would that be kneeling between your legs?"

"You have a one-track mind. No. Her position on Team Go. Their performance has been a little lacking. It appears that the absence of Shego adversely affects their team dynamic."

"I don't want to sell myself short, but I've never worked with them, and I don't even know a lot about them. I'm not sure what I can do with them." Humility didn't come naturally to Adrena, but she suspected Electronique might not react well to groundless bragging.

"A woman aware of at least some of her limitations; how very refreshing. Really, I'm hoping you will grow into the role. I don't expect perfection from the word go."

"You really are serious about making me your partner?"

"I think I could use someone to watch my back. I don't actually trust you do that, yet, nor am I certain you have what it takes. But you intrigue me... your power intrigues me, and I'm prepared to give you an opportunity to demonstrate your worth. And you, my dear, could definitely use a mentor."

Adrena had to begrudgingly agree. She was pretty much committed to a career in villainy by now, and having someone more experienced to show her the ropes would give her a leg-up. Her solo effort hadn't ended so well.

"Yeah, maybe this will work. What do you want me to do first?"

"A test, I think. A test of both your competence and your loyalty."

"Go on." Adrena promised herself that she'd put the smug bitch in her place one day. For now, though, she'd play along.

"I want you to take Team Go and go to Middleton to spy on young Kim Possible."

"Really?" Adrena had thought Shego came first on Electronique's list of priorities, but she wasn't going to argue.

"You are only going to do surveillance. You will not engage her."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it. What am I spying her for?"

"Mostly I want to see if you will follow orders, and if you can keep Team Go in line. But I do expect a report on Miss Possible. I want you to learn about her strengths and her weaknesses, her routines and her associates. Once you think you have learned all you need, or you are discovered, you will return, and we will discuss our plan of attack."

"Spy on Kim, keep the boys in check, don't be seen. Got it. Any advice?"

"I was hoping you'd ask, darling. There are so many things I can teach you." Electronique gave Adrena a teeth-baring smile. She had nice teeth. "I also have a collection of delightful little toys you might appreciate. I will provide you with hands-on instruction in their use before you leave."

Adrena suspected Electronique was messing with her again, but she felt excited. A private lesson from a powerful villainess followed by a road trip where she was in charge and didn't need to toady up to anyone? Only thing better would be getting revenge on Kim Possible, but she could wait a while. Things were definitely looking up.

Adrena was ready to snap. Driving all day and grabbing much too little sleep on the front seats of a van while four men snored in the back certainly contributed to her sour mood, but the most proximate reason was that Team Go were immature brats and she was tired of herding them. It didn't help that the two Wego could become four the moment she wasn't looking. Or sixteen. At the moment there were only two—that she knew of—but that was plenty bad enough.

"This is boring."

"Yeah, this sucks."

"Our orders are to just look, so that's what we're going to do." Adrena ground her teeth and tried not to get worked up. It didn't help, and she suspected the twins tried to wind her up on purpose.

"Do you, like, like to look?"

"Yeah, yeah, I bet she, like, likes to look at girls."

"Hehe, yeah, I bet she likes to spy on them nude."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, boobies; boobies!"

"Yeah, boobies are cool. Hey, show us your boobies."

"She, like, barely even has any."

"Hehe, yeah, that sucks."

"Don't listen to the those idiots, sugar tits, yours are nice enough. Size isn't everything."

"You always say that, dumbass."

"Yeah, you suck, Mego."

"Why don't we leave dumb and dumber here creeping on schoolgirls like the losers they are and go get a drink somewhere, hmm?"

Much as Adrena wanted a drink, Mego was just about the last person she wanted to share a drink with. Right after his younger brothers, but they were too young to drink, anyway. And her breasts weren't small by any reasonable measure; she'd even had a modest enhancement made, to look a little nicer on television. She comforted herself by reflecting that the losers in the back probably hadn't seen a naked woman outside of porn, and didn't know what a real one looked like. She was sure Electronique could appreciate what she had.

"We should, like, write 'free candy' at the side of the van, or something."

"Yeah, I bet we could, like, get some hot chick lured in."

"Yeah, yeah, then you could like, control her, and, like, make her show us her boobies."

"Yeah, boobies, hehe."

Adrena tried her very best to ignore the people in the back of the van, and turned towards Hego at the wheel.

"Were they dropped on their head as a kid?"

"Ah, they're not always like this, Miss Adrena. They just get a little stir crazy at times. I mean, this is pretty boring." Hego gave her a quick glance. "Also, I have to say, spying on school children from a van does make me feel a little dirty."

"We're not spying on school children. We are spying on one specific teenage hero." Of all the brothers, Hego was the most reasonable. She just couldn't feel comfortable sitting next to him in a van, no matter how well he behaved; not when she vividly remembered what he'd done to the last van they'd shared. She supposed crushing it into a ball and dropping it in a dumpster was one way to hide a getaway vehicle.

"She has classes. We should come back at the end of the school day." Hego shifted uncomfortably. "We are a little conspicuous here."

"She's a hero. She could get called on a mission at any time."

"I bet she'd get called if we, like, set something on fire."

"Yeah, yeah, fire. Fire! Hehe. Fire!"

"Fires are cool."

"Fire! Fire!"

Adrena slumped and let her head hit the dashboard. She was not going to survive the day without murdering someone. Surely no-one would miss one Wego?

"That's Shego!"

"What?" Hego's outburst startled Adrena. She didn't like the way her voice slurred. She hadn't been napping. She quickly touched the sides of her mouth to check for drool.

"There, walking with Kim to her car. She's here!"

"I should have known she'd go running to her little girlfriend when she needed help."

It had been only a couple of days since Electronique's run-in with Shego. Had she come straight here, to her supposed enemy? Adrena felt vindicated; when she had last faced them, she had been sure the two seemed a little too cozy to be just enemies reluctantly teaming against a common foe.

"Okay, let's go." Hego reached for the door handle.

"Hold up, what do you think you are doing?" Adrena grabbed hold of Hego's arm to arrest him. When her fingers didn't dent his skin at all, she realized that attempting to physically restrain Hego was a fool's errand, and quickly let go.

"We need to get sis."

"We're only here for surveillance." She indicated the directional microphone and digital camera lying on the dashboard to stress her point.

"When it comes to Kim, sure. But we have prior orders from Electronique to capture Shego."

Adrena wasn't sure what to do. She dearly wanted a rematch against Kim and Shego, especially with the rest of Team Go at her disposal. Hego clearly wanted to grab Shego right now, and his brothers would probably back him up, if only out of boredom. On the other hand, doing so would mean failing Electronique's test. She also had a valid point in that jumping the gun and attacking Kim without a solid plan had backfired on her before. Adrena wished she knew which course of action would disappoint Electronique more: going against her orders regarding Kim, or missing out on an opportunity to capture Shego.

"We'll follow them. Once they separate, we can grab Shego without interference from Kim."

Hopefully they would separate at some point. Just how close were they? At least the compromise was enough to mollify Hego, who sat back in his seat and started the van up.

"Are we there yet?"

Adrena just wished the three morons in the back would shut up.