Chapter 11
At the end of yet another excruciatingly vexing school day Shego headed for Kim's locker, annoyingly trailed by Ron Stoppable, who was trying to get her attention.
"I've been meaning to ask you, Shego—"
"Kim. I'm Kim, how hard can that be to remember?"
"Uh, yeah, Kim... no, KP, about the other night..."
As Shego approached the locker, she spotted a figure she recognized. "How's your routine working out, Princess?"
"It's coming together just fine, no thanks to you, so you can continue to stay out of the way," Bonnie said. "And if you insist on giving me strange titles, I'd prefer 'Queen' to 'Princess'."
"I'm sure you would, Cupcake. Run along now, I have business to take care of."
"As if I would be seen dead hanging out with your loser friends."
Bonnie walked off in a huff, but it was still quite a spectacle. Shego noted she wasn't the only one in the corridor who appreciated it.
"You have a gift for dealing with Bonnie, S...K...P."
Shego rolled Kim's eyes. "Whatever. Be quiet now, Nerdlinger wants to talk to me." At least she assumed that was the reason Kim's locker was ringing. She opened the door.
"I'm glad I caught you still at school, Kim. A request came in, and I've been specifically instructed to pass it onto you."
"Is it about a cat?"
"I don't think so. I'll connect you."
Wade's portly figure vanished and was replaced by an image of someone much older, better groomed, and slimier.
"Good afternoon, Miss Possible. Kim. I trust you are well?"
"What do you want, Hench?" Why was Jack Hench of all people calling Kim?
"Straight to the point, eh? I like that. Why does anyone contact you? I find myself in need of help. Helping people is what you do, is it not?"
"We don't help people like you," Ron said.
"Oh, but you really should. I've understood you don't take payment for your troubles, but that you do accept little favors in return. I assure you that I can be very generous to my friends."
"Still not happening. Tell her, KP."
"Yes." Shego gave Hench a blatant wink out of Ron's sight. "What he said. I'm afraid I can't help you."
Shego closed the door, but not the connection. "Let's get out of here. Wanna grab something at Bueno Nacho?"
"Seriously? I wasn't sure you appreciated the good things in life."
"Are you kidding? I love Bueno Nacho. Tell you what: if you beat me there, it's my treat."
"Yes! Everything's coming up Ronster. Hear that, Rufus? Today we're going Grande Size."
Shego watched as Ron broke for the doors, then opened the locker again.
"You still there?"
"Indeed I am, Miss Possible. I take it we are free of... unsophisticated interference?"
"So what's this problem you need help with?"
"A thief has been plaguing some of my facilities. She has shown lamentable skill in dealing with both electronic and physical security, and I've come to the conclusion that enlisting the help of an expert consultant is the expedient thing to do."
"You think she'll come back?"
"I have no doubt of it. She seems to be looking for something specific, and doesn't appear to have found it yet."
"Do you have anything more on the thief?" Shego's heart was beating a little faster.
"I do have body camera footage from guards who stumbled upon her. I hate to say it, but she dealt with them in short order."
A shaky and dark video footage played on the screen. Blurry as it was, Shego had no trouble recognizing the central figure taking the group of Jack's henchmen apart. The clinging black costume with a generous cleavage left no doubt of the fact that the thief was a woman, her identity obscured by a domino mask and a long flowing platinum blonde wig. Shego's mouth went dry, but other parts of her moistened in compensation.
"Yes," Shego said, her voice a little hoarse. "I think an expert is exactly what you need. Of course, I couldn't possibly help someone like you."
"That is unfortunate."
"However, you should tell your people that there is a fair chance a mysterious masked vigilante might be coming after your thief."
"Ah; I understand you completely, my dear."
"I thought you would. Now, let's talk favors."
"Are you really going to do this?" Wade's visage on the viewscreen of the Kimmunicator was worried and uncertain.
"I already came all this way. I didn't go to all this trouble for nothing." Maybe she hadn't strictly speaking needed to infiltrate the facility, since Hench had asked for Kim's help, but stakeouts were boring, legitimate or not, and it was good to keep in practice.
"I'm really not sure Jack Hench is the kind of person we should be helping."
"That's why I'm in disguise: just to safeguard Kimmie's precious reputation." At least that was the only reason anybody needed to know. "Did or did not Kimmie specifically instruct you to pass his request to me?"
"Yes, but I'm not sure just why—"
"And here I thought you were supposed to be smart. Obviously Kimmie for once is pulling her weight by doing a job, and she wants me here to stop her." Whether she got what she wanted was another matter, but they could negotiate that later.
"That doesn't explain the costume."
"I'll ask her when I see her." She did have a fairly good notion about the reason, though. It was largely why she had gone through all this trouble. Shego scanned the small industrial yard from her spot on a roof. "Any sign of her yet?"
"No. Based on Hench's data this is the most likely target, but she could hit someplace else. She really could have given us a heads-up."
"She did. I kinda like that she's playing it coy." Though Shego suspected that if Hench hadn't made his request, she would have just called.
"You could have brought Ron along."
"No, I couldn't have. This mission requires some basic discretion that will probably remain forever out of his reach."
"Hold up, I'm getting some movement on the sensors. Do you think it's Kim?"
"Only one way to find out." Shego checked the location of the contact. "So long, I'm going in."
"Wait, take the Kimmunicator with—"
"Sorry, Nerdlinger, this outfit didn't come with pockets."
Shego turned off the device and stashed it in Kim's backpack. She pulled the mask over her head and made some little adjustments to the tight, colorful costume she was wearing. It fit more snugly than her own catsuit, and left her midriff bare, but was still easy to move in when it was sitting just right. She tested the wrist-mounted web shooters, and went over Wade's briefing on them in her head. Then she jumped off the roof. It's what Kim would have done.
It was also what the Spider would have done. Shego shot a line of sticky and hopefully durable webbing to control her descent. She swung down parallel to the wall, maintaining separation by judicious kicks. Inspired by the mood of the moment, she performed a perfect three-point landing. She felt both a little foolish, and disappointed there was no one to see it.
Shego stealthily entered the building through a route she had scouted out earlier. She was here by invitation, but old habits died hard. She stayed in the shadows among rows of shelves as she investigated the workshop. She soon spotted a shadowy figure moving along the assembly benches, maybe searching among the few items cluttering their surfaces. Shego was about to make her move right then, but decided that some things needed to be done right.
It took Shego a minute to get on top of the shelving unit closest to the benches without making enough noise to alert the intruder. She was fairly well hidden in the shadows, which was good for stealth, but not so much for dramatic reveals. She really should have gone for the light switches, but she wasn't climbing back down now.
Perhaps she could do something from here? She inspected the walls and found what appeared to be a row of large toggle switches. That could be for the overhead lights, and it was close enough she might be able to hit them with the web thing. She inched as close to the switches as she could, aimed carefully, and pushed the trigger. She missed. She corrected her aim and tried again. It looked like she might have snagged a switch or two. The angle wasn't the best possible, but she gave the web line a yank, anyway.
Something started up with a hum, and some of the lights flickered on. Kim whirled around to look for the culprit. The time for hiding was over.
"Well, well, look what the cat dragged in." In retrospect, she should have figured out a good opening line ahead of time, too. She'd had plenty of time.
"Spider!" Kim homed in on her voice. "Why, you wouldn't be stalking little old me, would you?"
"If you didn't insist on burglarizing places, I wouldn't have to keep coming after you."
"Maybe I like it when you come for me."
"Not that you're much of a thief. This is the third place you've hit, and you haven't actually stolen anything yet." Shego hoped her disappointment was clear.
"Dr. D wasn't very precise on just where the things he wanted were."
"Yeah, that's what you get for relying on him for intelligence." It was good to know that this was actually a job for him, and that Kim at least gave the appearance of attempting it. Maintaining good standing with her regular employer kept the regular pay coming.
A bit of a standoff followed, as the two women faced each other, Kim on the floor and Shego perched on the shelving unit. At least it gave Shego an opportunity to admire her—no, Cat's, definitely the Cat's—body.
"Aren't you going to stop me?"
"From doing what? You haven't even stolen anything yet."
"I was about to."
"So go ahead."
"Shego, that's not how I behave."
"And when I go to steal something, I don't just hang around waiting for you."
"You do sometimes."
"That's beside the point, and you still need to actually make me stop."
"Fine." Kim turned around and sensually bent over, giving Shego an excellent view of her—the Cat's behind shifting under the tight and clingy fabric as she searched the table. "Now, which one of these was it that he wanted..."
Shego relented. "Hold it right there, Cat."
Kim turned her head to peer at Shego from under the bangs of her blonde wig. Her voice was a purr. "I could do that, Spider. But wouldn't it be more fun if you held me instead?"
"I won't fall for your foul wiles, fair villainess."
"It sounds like you already have." Kim frowned. "Not that there's anything foul about my wiles."
"You're pretty full of yourself, aren't you?"
"If you want me to be full of someone else, you'll have to do something about it."
"Oh, I will."
Shego lunged for Kim, but took care to make an easy landing. It gave Kim enough time to avoid her with a lazy flip over the table. Her legs moved in graceful arcs and Shego's gaze followed the natural course towards the lovely behind wrapped in cloth so thin and tight it almost might not have been there.
Kim gained her footing on the other side of the table and leaned on it to display her mesmerizing cleavage in turn. "So eager." Her lips parted in a challenging smile. "I like it. Come on, Spider. Let's dance."
The fight was on, if you could call it that. Usually when Shego and Kim went at it they made some effort to keep up appearances, but there was nobody else here, and between them they had dealt with the cameras. The only audience on their minds was the two of them. And it wasn't quite Shego and Kim, this time. It was the graceful and seductive thief the Cat, and the equally agile hero the Spider, caught in their special courtship dance.
They play-fought all over the workspace, over the workbenches, between the shelves, occasionally pinning each other against them and, sometimes, crashing right through. They caused quite a lot of collateral damage in the process. Shego didn't care, and Kim didn't appear overly concerned about it, either.
Shego enjoyed the way they moved together, improvising a choreography for an intricate dance that was theirs, and theirs alone. Even in borrowed bodies they were in perfect synch. There was no-one else she could have done this with; there was no one else Kim could have done this with.
She enjoyed the way Kim had taken to her role, taking the lead on flirting. She enjoyed the fleeting caresses and gropes, the feel of her body on Kim's, the tantalizing glimpses of the body rendered foreign by the costume and the heat of the moment.
Eventually the heat became too much to bear. Shego pushed Kim down between the workbenches and rather than try to push her off, Kim wrapped her limbs around her, desperately pulling her closer. Shego smashed Kim's mouth to hers, only to be reminded of her head-covering mask.
"Let me help you with that, Spider." Kim's fingers traced the edges of the mask, pulled it over her mouth and nose.
Kim pulled her into a forceful kiss, and Shego didn't resist. Her lips were demanding, insistent, the tongue in her mouth challenging. Shego responded in kind, and for a while they wrestled with their tongues alone, their hands exploring all the while. When Kim finally broke the kiss, they were both panting.
"You wouldn't really arrest poor little me, would you, Spider?"
"I really should. Committing burglary on behalf of a mad scientist and all."
"Ah, but, you know, I think I've acquired a taste for mad science myself. Perhaps you could help me with an experiment?"
"Oh?" Shego wasn't sure where Kim was going with this, but she suspected she might like it.
"Let's go someplace quiet and find out what you get if you crossbreed a cat with a spider."
Shego decided that mad science had its moments, after all.