Shego looked around the room and scowled. She was standing next to a queen sized bed. Yep, this was it. Lips' penthouse suite. She'd been in here before but only to talk business. Well in a way this was business too. Lips was a sleaze ball but she'd have to humor him if she wanted a bed to sleep in tonight. Frankly she thought him to be disgusting. She hated how he called her "Doll", "Pudding" and other demeaning nicknames. He reeked of cheap aftershave, his hands were cold and that fake tan made him look like some sort of alien.
Benton had gone to the bathroom to "change into something more comfortable". Shego cringed at the thought. Why had she ever chosen to work for him anyway? Then she remembered. It was at the start of her criminal career. She was short on money and needed to establish a name for herself. It was basically Jimmy Benton or nothing.
He already had his nickname when she first met him. He'd been tagged as "Lips" in the criminal underworld because he had a thing for squealing to the police whenever he felt the slightest bit of pressure. He was a snitch. He'd ratted out plenty of other lowlifes to save his own skin. Not only that but he also considered himself to be what he called a "smooth talker". Oh yes, in his mind he was king.
Benton stepped out of the bathroom, clad in a robe. Thankfully for Shego he was still wearing his pants on underneath. She had enough trouble keeping from gagging as it was.
"Like what I've done with the place, sweet thing?" he asked casually.
Shego looked around. The room was dark and clammy. The lamps gave of a sickly orange light. Basically it looked just like she remembered it.
"Sure" she lied.
"I'm a real man ya know." Jimmy uttered as he walked up to her. "A real player. Just the other night I had two girls up here."
"Yeah right." Shego thought. "For wwhat, three minutes? Till ya opened that mouth of yours? Till the lights came on?"
The man-weasel continued trying to impress her, or at least that's what Shego guessed. What he was really doing was repulsing her more and more.
"Did I tell you I'm double jointed? I can do things with my body you wouldn't believe."
The green skinned woman's right hand closed into a fist. She wanted to punch him straight in the mouth.
"I can give you whatever you want. Whatever you need. I have that kind of power." he told her.
She knew he was lying. He was just the shady owner of a run down hotel. He had no real power in the criminal world. People, especially women just used him to get higher up on the social ladder in Sydney's underworld. He was a nobody. A piece of slime. But he was slime that could alert the authorities if she didn't play along.
Shego decided enough was enough and tried changing the subject. "How's the hotel business? Paying off for ya?"
Jimmy put his arm around her. "Oh yeah, it's going great! Why? You wanna piece of the action? I can get you in if you wanna quit the job you have now. Of course I'm gonna want a little something in return."
She tried staying polite and just shook her head. "I'm pretty happy with what I'm doing at the moment. I've got money. I have a rep. Things are good."
"Still…" His hand moved down her side. "If you ever change your mind…" It latched onto her rear like a parasite. "You know where to find me."
Dear heaven, he was even worse than she remembered. Whatever money he'd gotten hold of since the last time she saw him must've gotten to his head. The urge to walk out of the room grew stronger by the second. Even stronger than that was the urge to give him a thorough beating but Shego didn't want to spend this vacation of hers on the run from the police and Global Justice. She'd just have to grin and bear it. She took a few steps away from him and sat down on the bed.
"Got anything to eat in this place?" she wanted to know as she suddenly realized she hadn't eaten a decent meal since breakfast.
"I'll have the hotel chef whip us up some nice tucker." He blew her a kiss before walking out the door.
Shego shuddered. She felt so… dirty. She couldn't take it any more. No way was she going to spend another minute in that room. She felt like she'd been violated, just by his talking. This was the perfect opportunity for her to leave, while he was gone. She stormed out the door and ran down the nearby stairs. Soon she found herself on the third floor, outside the room Lips had given to Drakken.
She walked up to the door and tried turning the knob. "Locked?"
She knocked. "Dr. D? Are you in there?"
Was he asleep already? Nah, he couldn't be. It was still fairly early in the evening. Maybe he was out, but doing what? Shego sighed and slumped down in front of the room. Then she heard footsteps coming up the stairs and quickly got back up.
Jimmy was carrying a tray of assorted sandwiches up the stairs when he noticed something moving on the third floor.
"Shego, babycakes, whatcha doing down here?"
She had to come up with something fast. "Just wanted to check on Dr. D. Haven't seen him in a couple of hours and wondered if he's settled in yet."
"I'm sure he's fine. Now come on! You've got a ticket to the Benton express and the train's ready to leave the station. I'm gonna rock your world! Oh yeah!" Jimmy announced, strolling over to her.
As Shego was about to reply both she and Benton suddenly noticed heavy breathing coming from the staircase. It was Dr. Drakken and he looked furious.
"Shego…" He hissed as he threw her the keys to his room. "Take the sandwiches and let yourself in. I'll be with you shortly."
Normally Shego'd give him some sort of sassy reply but not this time. She'd only seen him this angry once before and really didn't want to be there when Mt. Drakken erupted.
She unlocked the door, grabbed the tray of sandwiches off of Benton and calmly walked into the room she'd be staying in for the rest of the night. Before getting herself ready for bed she wolfed down the food she'd taken from Jimmy. Drakken came in after a few minutes. His face was completely purple and he was muttering something. Shego thought it best to just leave him alone and call it an evening. It had been a long day and she was tired.