A/N:
Kim Possible and related characters © Disney
Wake Up © The Arcade Fire
I own Carmen Marshall, Autumn Gale and Eddie.
Lily is on loan from Love Robin.
Song: paste this to the end of the youtube web address "/watch?v=1-wEBmLht5g"
- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -
Chapter Seventeen: Wake Up
by sweetPixiesmile
She glared at the instrument, her face a rictus of swirling confusion and numbing despair. She sprawled on the cold wood floor of her darkened room.
"Shego! C'mon, open the door," the muffled voice called from the other side of the closed door.
She lay down, the tears falling carelessly and closed her dull eyes, willing herself to a dreamless sleep. Eventually, the pleading sound of Carmen's voice faded away, absorbed into the swirling void of lethargy.
Shego stifled the quivering fear that shot through her as an irritatingly loud buzzing alarm sheared through to her consciousness. She was lying on the ground before the Stratocaster, dark sheets wrapped around her body. She buried her head deeper in a mass of blankets, the fluffy dark squares blending perfectly with her hair. The alarm continued for several minutes, causing her to bury her head in the comforter with a frustrated groan.
She was tired, so tired. For the last two weeks, Shego had tried to lose herself in the dreamless balm of sleep. It was a sort of Lethe so that the days blurred together, but was completely ineffective against clarity of her memories. The alarm that had woken her from her slumber continued to blare for several more minutes, before suddenly ceasing mid squawk.
The agony of irritation at the alarm was nothing to the swell of ire that rose at the roar of triumph that rippled through the fifty story building. She closed her eyes, but the exasperation did not dissipate enough to let her rest again. Why was that? Shego lay, her limbs leaden and her mind numb, considering the situation. There would only be one reason why the big blue doofus would nearly kill himself by shouting in a fifty foot building that he was at the bottom of. Which meant,... Shego frowned. Even in her disinterested state, her mind began to work and her aggravation kept her company until it was interrupted twenty minutes later.
Outside, she could hear muttering, a deep worried voice that droned on and on, interfering with her half-formed, half-hearted unconscious attempt to disappear, somehow, from herself. The voice argued with itself, chased itself back and forth, around in circles, as her vexation rose, building indistinct mutter by indistinct mutter. It swelled, building exponetially, transforming into an impatient conflagration of malevolence that snapped at the catalytic sound of pounding on her door.
"Uh, sis,... I need to talk to you," a voice rumbled.
She turned her back to the door, her face troubled.
"C'mon, sis, I know you're there," the man pleaded. She shut her eyes against the rising tide of resentment and malice, scowling at the effort.
"It's important, Shego! And urgent!" She buried her face in her black satin pillow.
Why can't they just...
"I really gotta talk to you, Shego, and if you don't open the door now, I'm coming in!"
"Go away," she croaked, her voice rusty from uncontrolled bouts of grief and guilt.
"What?"
"I said go the fuck away!" Her shriek was desperate. She hated that.
"Open the door, Shego!"
"Fuck off!"
The door frame shuddered as super-powered fists dented its surface.
"Please Shego, Justice and Freedom depend on us!"
"Justice and Freedom can bugger themselves all they like!"
"C"mon... Shego... please..." She sighed. Once Hego got started with the waterworks, he was likely to go on for hours.
"Stop blubbering or I won't open the door," she called out.
"Oh... okay..." she could hear stifled sniffling and smirked as she stayed in bed. Ten more minutes passed before her door suffered another round of pounding.
"Shego! I'm serious! C'mon!"
"Alright, alright, stop hitting the door," she sighed.
Shego rolled her eyes at the warbling pleading. With a long suffering groan, she rolled over and sat up heavily. Grumbling murderous threats, she rose to her feet. She didn't want to open the door, but she knew that the big blue jerkwad would not leave her alone, if her guess was right. She slipped over to the door silently, and waited, listening intently. She could hear her brother outside pacing impatiently back and forth, muttering irritably. After about three minutes, the pacing stopped in front of the door. She yanked the door open.
Caught in mid swing, Hego stumbled into the room, falling to his hands a knees before her.
"You want to be my slave? Very well, I accept," she smirked down at the hulking man. Even on his hands and knees, his back still came up to her chest.
"Yes... yes, good joke, ha ha..." he said as he slowly got up off the ground.
"Spit out whatever you've got to say so I can throw you out faster."
"I-" Hego's face turned a darker shade of blue as he reigned in his irritation. "Fine. A call came in. A big one. And..." His face turned another shade darker. "We-" His voice was strangled, whatever he was trying to say sticking in his craw.
"Nnnnnngh..."
Shego stared at his struggling face.
"Nnnnnne..."
She arched an eyebrow.
"Nnnnnnngeeeee..."
Deep down she knew she shouldn't be enjoying this as much as she was.
"Need you!"
Shego blinked as the hulking man in the blue and black harlequin catsuit bent over, his hands on his knees, breathing laboriously.
"Whooof! I never... thought I'd... be able to... get that out...!"
"Must be a pretty good call if you're willing to say that," she mused.
"Yeah."
"Something really good, really important," she continued in a honeyed voice.
"It'll put Team Go back on the map! On people's radars!"
"Oh, like that, is it?"
"Yeah!"
"And now that you finally need my help, you come crawling to me because you always knew I was the brains of the outfit."
"Yeahhhhhhh- uh,... wait," Hego faltered, his eyes uncertain.
"Oh, come off it, brother," she sneered. "You always knew."
"I... uh... okay, fine, yes, yes, you were always the smart one, the brains, the reason why we'd win!" Hego shook his head and spread his hands. "Please, help us and take this call with us!"
"You... want me... an internationally wanted felon... to play hero again?"
"You were never really evil, sis-"
"And you would know that wouldn't you."
"Uh..." his eyes shifted guiltily away.
"No."
"What?"
"Not gonna to happen."
"Bu-!"
"Nu-uh"
"Shego, plea-"
"A-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh! Been there, done that. That train has sailed."
"Uh... I believe that's 'ship'-"
"And you still don't get mixed-metaphor jokes."
"C'mon sis! This is it! We could make it to the big leagues!"
"I've been in the big leagues for the last four years! While all you've been doing is wrapping tacos!"
"As a villain! What kind of life is that?"
"Mine! My own! With my own choices and my own mistakes and no one to answer to!"
"After all this time, you're still so selfish!"
Shego's face darkened with anger.
"Yeah, you'd know selfish... wouldn't you."
"I-... what do you mean?" Hego laughed weakly.
"After all these years, did you ever try to clear my name?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Caitlyn, you shit! I waited a whole fucking year, sitting on my ass, just waiting for a sign, any sign! And you never did! You turned your yellow back on me. You betrayed me!"
"You left! You left us to deal with the the mess that you left behind!"
"I did it for her! I did it for you!"
"You did it for yourself!"
"I loved her!"
"You never loved Caitlyn!" Hego roared, his eyes blazing a bright blue. His muscles bunched and heaved, shuddering as the tide of pent up animosity and guilt tore through him.
"What the fuck do you kno-" she ground out.
"You just used her," he interrupted her, "like you used the rest of us!"
"You shut that pie hole-"
"She told me! She said she was so scared of letting you down, so afraid that she wouldn't live up to your expectations!"
Shego's peal of mocking laughter shocked Hego out of his momentum.
"You used me back then too, you know. And now you're using Caitlyn just to get back into the Game."
"You're wrong! People need heroes, they need hope!"
"You're a hero junkie! You'd do anything to be one again. Even using your dead lover's name to manipulate your sister!"
"I didn't burn her body to destroy evidence!"
Shego's eyes flew wide. Her pupils dilated, large dark circles against a crackling, luminescent green. They stood, panting, set hard against one another. Shego's body was vibrating from the suddenly loosed turmoil, torn loose from the moorings of her own strangled self, freed by the harsh words of her brother.
"I... wasn't...," Shego bit down on each word, her eyes blazing brighter and brighter as she forced the syllables past her gritted teeth.
"The... one...", Her voice rose in volume until she screeched out the last words in a tortured howl.
"...Who KILLED HER!"
Trailing green sparks, Shego launched herself at Hego. Her tackle took him by surprise, knocked him into the wall by the door, opposite of the wall to wall shatterproof glass that was fitted with security shutters. His body punched through the dry wall, bouncing him painfully off the concrete underneath. He stumbled forward as he rebounded. Shego came in with a whirling kick. He took the brunt of her attack along his left jaw, lowering his shoulder and responded with a glowing backhand. Shego leaned back but the glow clipped her, spinning her back towards the shuttered windows. She slid awkwardly, her clawed hand snagging the wall and digging deep trailing furrows, drywall and wood splinters flying everywhere.
Hego leaped forward with an inarticulate bellow, fists churning, brawler style. Shego knew better than to face him head on, but in such a small confined area, there was little space for manoeuvring. She slipped in close. Left, right, she ducked under Hego's swings and hammered hard at the ribs and kidneys.
The hulking blue man grunted in pain and swept an elbow back from a right that punched a hole through the concrete wall. The elbow cracked across Shego's shoulder, hurling her across the length of the room, barreling her through the bed frame. The frame shattered, the mattress shredding from the force of Shego's body. Hego was on top of her in an instant.
She twisted, a spring slipping free from her back as she slid inside Hego's swing with a slide step. Her left hand came around and with a bright green flash, she struck his side with a concussive, open palm blast that rattled the shutters. His body flew back and into the bedroom door. The metal door cracked and bent with a grating squeal. Bluish blood ran down the side of his neck. Shego came in with a flaming claw combo that blistered his skin and burned patches off his Team Go uniform. Hego clenched his two fists and hammered downward . She flipped back but as she retreated, those huge hands struck and shattered the wood slats. He dug his hands into the sub flooring and tore it up, flinging it at the retreating green villainess in one single motion. Shego dug her claws into the ground, letting the momentum of her flip to force her down, slapping down hard and flat on the ground as the piece of sub flooring caught at her hair as it passed. She immediately sprang forward, slipping past the charging Hego. He skidded, ploughing up more wood and concrete as he tried to stop, twisting around . She ran full tilt, jumping up and kicking off the wall to fly over Hego as he stopped.
It was over in a moment.
A flailing blue arm connected, dislocating and fracturing Shego's jaw painfully as she flew past, but as she did, she dug her claws deep into her brother's meaty shoulders. Slamming her feet into the ground, she heaved, flipping her brother through the inch thick defence shutters, through the half inch security glass. He fell, roaring all the way down, his blue glow shining bright against the morning sun, winking out as he struck the ground.
She stood at the hole in the security shutters, gazing down at the distant body of her brother. Two reddish specks appeared, gathering around the fallen hero. She stumbled back, eyes watering from the pain.
Her brother was gone. Not dead, he was too stubborn and stupid to die from a fifty story fall. Fractures and dislocations, maybe. But he was going to leave her alone at least for a little while. Shego screeched as she reached up and brutally reset her jaw. Sweat dripped from her as she held it in place, allowing her healing to kick in.
He was gone, but the guilt, the self-contempt his words had unearthed, remained, burning her with a supernova flare that ran up and down her spine, relentless blades of recrimination and despondency.
Her scream of rage and loss blew out the rest of the security shutters and glass, exploding from the super charged shockwave of her voice.
- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -
Shego sat, huddled in the corner of the remains of her bed, shuddering, miserable from a roiling worry, a pervasive trembling that shivered through her splintered heart. She stared at the gleaming chrome and cracked lacquer of Caitlyn's guitar. It shone underneath a surviving bright pot light, the strings dull and brown with age, the neck slightly bowed, never having been refurbished.
She had been near incommunicado since Kim's impassioned plea on national television. She slept listlessly, ate sporadically, alone, always alone. The others had come knocking. Carmen had shown up everyday at her door.
So, a call had come in. A serious call. She shook her head at the morning's events. The big blue idiot had hooked up a klaxon alarm to the "big call" line. She'd nearly gone ballistic hearing the blaring cacophony of presumption and bluster. His joyful bellow shook the foundations.
Hego had finally gotten the courage to barge into her room, to plead his case to accept the call. He even admitted what they'd always known, that she had been the master, the glue, the genius of Team Go. Shego knew he would have said anything to get back into "The Game."
She would have nothing to do with it.
Being a hero was what screwed them all up. That was a chapter of her life that she refused, with a tenacity born of desperate survivalist instinct, to unearth and relive. Never. Never again. Not for all to accolade, all the money in the world.
Hindsight's such a bitch.
Eventually the pleading transformed from pleading to accusations, from accusations to conflagration. Words were their weapons, convulsions of torment their motivational impetus. Painful memories were unearthed and laid bare. Accusations, denials and ultimatums, no weakness left unexploited, no button left unpressed. Old scars were reawakened to thunderously implosive effect, new wounds inflicted. The physical blows that ended the discussion were almost anticlimactic. Although he had gotten in a good solid hit to her chin that broke her jaw, the resulting recoil had allowed her to throw the huge man through her top floor window. Without flight ability, Hego had nothing to help break his downward momentum except his body. He had probably been unconscious for a few seconds after impact. Two red clad figures had exited the Tower and had helped set the man's bones before his healing factor began to repair the damage. Shego had to wrench her jaw into place herself.
Afterwards, she had thrown what was probably her best tantrum ever. Fire proofed walls were scorched and melted, not one single piece of furniture had been left unscathed from her fury. Anything stuffed was now inside out, anything metal or plastic in melted piles. But what stopped her in her rampage was the single instrument that she had laid in a place of honour, above and beyond all her sentimental morass of worldly possessions.
She had stood there, plasma blazing, claws raised, her chest heaving, teeth gritted so tightly one could hear the grinding noise of comet enhanced enamel. A bead of sweat trickled into her glowing eye. She blinked, the green corona surrounding her hands fading. Her arms slowly lowered to her sides, before wrapping tightly around herself. Her wrath fled, and the strength that shored up her fury shattered. She dropped to her knees before the gleaming chrome and shining lacquered wood.
And cried. So much crying. Ever since Kim's interview, Shego had been a mess of uncontrolled emotion. As if the backlog of repressed emotion, now that her sarcastic and cynical facade had completely cracked, continued to rush in uncontrolled torrents through her, making up for lost time.
She wasn't sure for how long she'd wailed her despair, her self-incarcerated spirit struggling in a desperate frenzy against the flood of self-loathing. Eventually, she had stopped, and had crawled to the corner where she sat now. And her mind couldn't stop the truth, her eyes couldn't shut away the despicable thing she had become.
All the feelings, she'd pointed her finger at Kim and accused her of uncontrollable emotions. She had sloughed the detritus of responsibility off on everyone she'd ever known and she now was reliving a hell she'd promised herself she'd never do again. But it wasn't Kim's fault. It wasn't her parents fault. Fuck, it wasn't even Hego's fault, if she was really honest with herself.
She had done this.
She had done this, it was all her own fucking fault.
And she couldn't bring herself to fix it.
"Gawd, some remodelling job, Sheegs."
Shego lifted her head to glare at the tall purple figure who leaned carefully against the twisted and melted security door frame. Mego gave a low whistle as he surveyed the damage, his arms folded across his chest.
"Get lost," she growled at him.
"Put those fucking fangs away, girl," he snapped back.
"Not in the mood, Tiny!" She spat at him.
"I don't fucking care. You're lucky the twins were here when you kicked you own brother out a fiftieth floor window." A sliver of guilt slid a tiny spike into her and she squirmed slightly, turning away from her brother. Mego walked purposefully into the centre of her maelstrom.
"Yeah, you nearly killed your own fucking brother for telling you the truth. Good thing the twins were here and that blue lummox is near unbreakable and has slower healing than the rest of us. They were able to reset the bones before they started to reknit."
"Fuck off," she muttered a retort.
"So he's okay now, you bitch, thanks for asking."
"If you're done, the door's right there," the woman snarled, her eyes glowing brighter.
"I'm not going anywhere, Sis. This is it. Time for the talk."
"Don't need it."
"You just nearly killed your fucking brother and almost demolished Go Tower on top your baby brothers with your sorry little hissy fit, and you say you 'don't need it'? Fuck that Sheegs!"
"GET OUT!" she roared, launching herself at the purple coloured super. Mego shrunk beneath the fist, then grew himself back to his normal height, his forehead smacking into Shego's chin with incredible force. Her head snapped back, her vision filled with flashes. Instinctively, she went into a sweeping two claw combo and flowed into a low leg sweep. Mego, had shrunk again to duck the claw combo, but the leg sweep caught him. As he fell, Shego spun into a roundhouse kick. Mego brought his arms together. He hard blocked the kick and slid back several feet.
"And what? I'm not that blue moron, you know. You've had this coming. It's time to face up to your own fucking failures, Green Bean!" Mego leapt forward, his legs shrinking, ducking another jumping kick. His legs suddenly expanded, sending him into a body tackle that knocked the wind out of Shego. They flew past the guitar, her back slamming painfully against one of the exposed metal struts of the building frame. Shego's flaming claw caught him in the side. The sizzle of searing flesh was frightening. Mego fell back with a cry. The comet-powered villainess surged forward, her claws flailing wildly, technique forgotten in the haze of guilt fuelled battle fury.
"Leave!" A flaming clawed right.
"Me!" A clawed left.
"ALONE!" A flip kick caught her weaving brother in the chin. As he staggered, she hit him in the chest with a double fisted hammer punch. Mego flew backward. He bounced twice before landing in a heap.
"Or what...?" he snarled back, hoarking blood laced spit on the floor, wiping a trickle of purple blood from his lips. "You gonna kill me so you can just run away again? Like when Caitlyn died?" Shego, who had been advancing, stopped and stiffened.
"I DID NOT RUN AWAY!" she screamed, her entire body flaring a bright green.
"Yeah you did! You fucking c-coward!" Mego stuttered, a sharp pain lancing along his side. Cracked ribs, probably.
"Say that again." Shego's shoulders hunched, her eyes dangerous.
"Coward!"
Shego charged forward with a cry and snatched the purple man, her older brother, off the rubble of her room floor. As she was about to slam him against the wall, he shrunk to the size of a mouse, instantly escaping her grip, scurrying along her arm. She stumbled as the full one hundred and eighty pounds of his body weighed down on her, unbalancing the impetus of her momentum. He expanded as he jumped down, off her shoulder, and kicked her legs from under her unbalanced body. Shego fell heavily. He immediately put her into an arm bar, grasping her thumb and twisting her arm painfully.
"You've always run, Sheegs," Mego panted into the green woman's ear as he leveraged her arm with his other hand, his foot in the small of her back. "When Mom and Dad died, when the feds put us in test tubes, when Hego went nuts... you just cut and ran like a little pussy!"
"Shut up... shut up..." Shego choked out as Mego leaned harder. Her right arm was trapped under her.
"You said you'd never love... but you loved Caitlyn! But she loved Hego, and you let her go. You never, ever forgave yourself because you couldn't save her. And you let the wolves eat up your brothers, your family."
"You little fuck, shut up!" Shego screeched, panting against the pain.
"And now, you've let those same wolves have Kim, haven't you? You've run out on her because you're scared shitless that you'll go through the same damn thing again-"
"SHUT UP!" Plasma flared all along Shego's arm. Mego jumped back from the heat, then dodged to the side as the incensed woman swiped at him with her claws.
"You didn't kill mom and dad! The government did! They pushed you and pushed you and pushed you... And then Caitlyn. You loved her! So much it hurt. And it's the same with Kim. But this time, you left her to face the music. All by herself."
"No... no I,... she wanted..." Shego's face blanched, the glow dying as the shock of Mego's words struck her very core, shattering the whirling anger.
"She loved you, she still loves you! You fucking hypocrite! When are you going to wake up and own up to the things you've done, the things you're doing! Wake the fuck up-" With a growl, Shego shot in close, her claws seizing the tall lanky man by the shoulders as she charged and slammed him into the wall. The concrete cracked for a foot around him as he gasped at the impact, pain spearing into him.
"Don't you think I FUCKING KNOW THAT?" Shego screamed, her plasma reinforced voice shattering the last of the security glass in her room. Her claws had dug deep into the struggling man's shoulders as she lifted her brother bodily. He suddenly staggered as the green glowing woman leaned into him, her grip loosening. She buried her face into his chest. Her shoulders shook, as the suppressed the vortex of sorrow and regret began to leak free of her control, her shoulders hunching against the buffeting tempest of betrayal. Mego slowly lifted his sore arms and held his sister. She drooped, her confession draining all the ire and paving the way for the translation of emotion into a torrent of words. Once started, they could not be stopped.
"I ran from our parents. I ran from what happened to Caitlyn. I ran from what happened to Hego. I act all tough and shit, but I'm the same as I always was. The scared geeky girl, not good enough for anything or anyone." Shego's brittle voice trembled. "I'm so tired of running bro. All I've been doing is running away. Mom and Dad. Hego. Carmen. Caitlyn. And now, Kim."
The mop-haired purple man stood silent in the midst of her carnage. His bright purple eyes glistened, listening to the pain and longing in his sister's voice.
"I always thought... I always thought I was just forging my own destiny, ya know? But all I was doing was just getting pushed around by it." She drew in a shuddering, hitching breath. "I'm tired, Meegs. I'm tired of running. All I want to do now is run to something. Make something."
"And Kim is it?" Mego asked after a moment of silence.
Shego stopped and stepped away. Her mind was churning, her subconsciousness dredging up all the small precious moments that she had thought discarded in an incoherent stream of vivid images. She began to tingle at a sudden surging tide of emotion, something warm, a long forgotten dream. It erupted inside of her, flowed into her limbs from a deepening well of certainty in the middle of her chest.
This is what she wanted, what she needed.
Kim.
Shego closed her eyes, enjoying the released emotion, allowing it to take root in the parched landscape of her innermost being. She felt like a deep sea diver, surfacing from a long exhausting exploration of cramped submarine caverns. It was like breathing, again, for the very first time, fresh and unadulterated air, a cooling, calming wash of relief and familiarity.
She opened her eyes and turned as Mego groaned, pushing himself away from the wall.
"Yeah. She is. Thanks, Meegs," she mumbled, as she reached out a clawed hand to steady the purple man.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm the best, just-" he winced as he coughed. "Gimme a moment, alright?" he finished weakly. He stood still, eventually straightening and taking increasingly deep breaths. Shego rubbed his back whil ehis breathing was still hitched, growing easier and easier by the second. In a few minutes he stretched. While he recovered, Shego began shoving the remnants of her furniture into a corner by the door to the room. Splinters of wood were strewn across the carpet.
"Thank God for healing factor," he sighed. Shego walked past the guitar and stood at the edge of the shattered glass, looking across the sparkling Go City harbour and the darkening orange purple of the setting sun. Mego joined her.
"And if you ever breath a word of this to anyone," the superpowered woman growled menacingly.
"You'll serve up my spleen," Mego smirked back, "just between you and me, sis. You and me."
The quiet moment between brother and sister was shattered by a frantic voice.
"Shego! Shego! Sheg- Oh my god!" The siblings shared a rueful glance before turning to the shocked Carmen. She stared at the remains of the room, her mouth working slightly.
"What is it, Carmen," Shego replied, amused. At the sound of her voice, woman's blue gaze snapped to her face. The desperation in them caused a shiver of foreboding to ripple across the comet-powered villainess' newfound resolve.
"It's Kim, Shego. She's in trouble."
- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -
Shego's claws were clammy and trembling as, for a second time in as many weeks, she stared at the television. But the content was quite different. A blood-black visage on the grainy and choppy video feed that was playing on all the major networks. His harmonically distorted voice oozed venomously out of the television. Behind him, Kim hung in the air. Bands of shimmering silver held her, her arms straight out and legs together. Her battlesuit was no longer a pristine shining white with electric blue trim, but a dull red, so dark it was almost black. Veins pulsated with an ominous red glow that writhed and scrabbled, Kim's limbs twitching as they clawed along the black swathe. Her head hung in matted and stringy red ropes, covering her face.
Carmen stood near the corridor to Shego's room. Mego put himself behind the couch, on the other side from Shego.
"See how your nation defends itself! By sending Kim Possible, who had been crucified just two weeks past, little more than a girl, to clean up a National mess!" The villain spat as he monologued. He seized Kim's hair and pulled her head up for the camera.
Carmen gasped, her hands covering her mouth. Mego muttered an incredulous, breathless curse. Shego's eyes began to glow, crackling with energy that spilt from her intense green eyes. Kim's pupils were so dilated, her eyes were dark glazed pools. She breathed in short gasps through clenched teeth. Sweat ran down, dripping down her red, swollen face from constant effort. Dark streaks of congealed blood streaked one side, a dark clumped patch just inside the hairline. But it wasn't the girl's tortured visage that filled Shego with an insistent dread.
Kim's battlesuit's colour typically was a pure white that ended at a tight collar at the nape of her neck. But the blackened, subverted battlesuit had ruddy, thin, crystalline tendrils tipped with pulsating blood red spikes that had covered most of the graceful curve of her neck. As they watched, a tendril convulsed, spearing another half inch up the line of her jaw. Kim unleashed a low quavering, gasping wail as another crystalline line drove towards her left eye. Carmen muffled a small whimper.
"As you can see, Miss Possible's transformation is well underway. She will be the first to experience the power of the new era! In six hours, my nanites will merge with her own! She will be the Eve of your destruction, and join me in obliterating humanity's existence! You will all be transformed into a greater destiny!" The man's insane laughter poured violently from the speakers. Shego's already pale face turned ashen and sick.
"It's the call you nixed, Sheegs," Mego said quietly. Shego stiffened. "It was a call from Global Justice." Shego's mind stuttered as adrenaline coursed through her. She wanted to do nothing but rush to Kim's side, to beat down this upstart villain that threatened to rape and destroy all that was good in her eyes. Her muscles shuddered as she forced down her supernova flare of anger. Her mind began to race, and when she spoke, her voice was a deep, menacing calm.
"Is Hego alright?"
"For this, he will be."
"Wegos' downstairs?"
"They're in the training room."
"Still have the number to Global Justice?"
"Uh... Yeah."
"The Go Jet? Did you guys finish retrofitting the afterburners?"
"How'd you-... never mind, yeah it was delivered just a few months ago. In the hanger."
"My hoverpod's upstairs." Shego tossed him a set of keys. Mego snatched them from the air. "Take Hego and the Wegos to DC. I need the jet."
"Where are you going to be?"
"Ten minute shower, then I'll see you in DC after I visit and old friend. Five hours."
"Wait, Shego," Mego protested, but the woman was already at the elevators. He sighed. Carmen's eyes were torn from the horrendous scene on the television as he turned to her, a fierce grin on his face.
"The Bitch is back."
- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -
Her ears still rang from the roar of the jet's specially fitted rocket engines. By her calculations, she would have just enough fuel to get to DC and maybe another short jaunt. The entire 2 hour flight, she ran assault scenarios through her head, an attempt to keep the gnawing fear and self-recrimination at bay, a tidal bore of what-ifs that haunted the horizon of her mind. It had taken her less time to get to the lair than she thought, nearly blacking out from the ten gravity constant acceleration, but now she stood before the small door considered to be the front of the lair.
She punched in her code and grunted when, not only was her code rejected, but a blaring, buzzing alarm began to sound. She rolled her eyes as she stood in full view of the door and waited. In moments, red suited men poured out of side entrances and surrounded her, glowing stun staves in their hands.
"Arvis, a little higher with your right hand," she said. The man shifted his grip, then glanced about in embarrassment.
Walking past the ring of grim, cowled faces, stalked a hulking figure, a familiar cowl-covered face trailing behind.
"You got some octane, coming back here, She-babe," the dirty blond mulleted man said through his handle bar moustache.
She turned to the henchman behind the man in the wife beater and faded blue jeans.
"Eddie, I got replaced by this gear head?"
Eddie shuffled his feet, looking abashed.
"The Doc didn't have any options, all the other applicants sucked," he said, spreading his hands.
"The Dude does not like his underlings talking about him behind his back," Motor Ed grumbled.
"He's family, he hasn't been able to get a good crew together since the whole Monster Truck of Destruction thing," the lead henchman shrugged.
"Stop talking, seriously," the dirty blond complained. Shego opened her mouth, but reconsidered with a sigh.
"Take me to Drew. No matter what's going down in the Villain and Hero world, he owes me."
"Nuthin' doin', Green. You've got no free ticket to ride here, anymore," he said flexing his muscles. Faster than the eye, Shego flicked three green darts into his chest. Motor Ed yelped, then glanced down at his ruined shirt. The word "Dude" was burnt through the cotton fabric.
"Or I could just tear through you guys and take what I want, your choice," Shego said, cocking a hip and looking at her nails.
"Woo! Gotta respect the green magic, seriously," Motor Ed whistled. "But a lady does not diss The Dude."
"Look, if I wanted to, I could have just snuck into the lair and lifted whatever I needed. I'm doing this straight up. Do the same and play straight with me, alright?" Motor Ed considered this for a moment, pulling at one side of his long drooping moustache.
"Righteously said, Green. Alright, I'll talk to my cuz," he said as he pulled out a radio. "Hey Cuz, Green sez she wants to talk. Seriously. What? You are not coming in right, dude. Are you still hiding under the... Seriously? I'll let Green know you'll be in the main hall." He put away the radio. "After the lady," Motor Ed gestured towards the lair door.
"The maybe you should go first?" She didn't hesitate to walk in, trailing laughter as the rest of Drakken's henchmen filed in behind her. Walking in was probably the long way. Ventilation was a lot more efficient, whereas corridors, unless it was from the secret direct door, were meant to confuse. In ten minutes of twists and turns, Shego eventually found herself in the large main chamber.
The high-ceilinged chamber was dark but for the brightly lit dais in the middle of the room. The Henchmen spread out as she'd trained them to do. Drew was standing near his work table.
"Sorry, Shego, I can't give you your job back. As you can see, the position has been filled," he called out.
"Doctor D, I don't have time for dramatics," she replied, walking towards the blue man. "You owe me. You've got something I need. And I need it right now."
"And what makes you think I'll give it to you?"
"You don't really want to go down that road, do you?"
"You need something from me. Not the other way around. The way I see it, you're in no position to nego-"
"Well I could always start with why you were injured when you were beta testing the-"
"Shego! You wouldn't!" Drakken gasped, his eyes bulging from wounded surprise.
"Clear the room, so we can talk. I'll get it one way or another, but I'd rather we all walked away from this healthy. And you know I won't stop for anything, this time." She crossed her arms. "Your choice." Drakken glared at her for a few long moments, long enough that a few of the henchmen shifted their feet uncomfortably.
"You been watching the news?" she asked.
"As a matter of fact, yes, we have."
"So let's talk."
"Oh, very well! Ivan, clear the room!"
"That's Eddie, cuz," Motor Ed corrected him.
"But I'm not talking to you, Edward," Drew squinted in confusion as Eddie barked out orders. The henchmen filed out cautiously.
"You too, Ed."
"Aw seriously?" the mechanical engineer protested. Drew nodded. "I got some Carbonic regulators to get back to. Later, dudes!" And with that Drew's cousin lumbered out of the room.
Drakken watched Shego walk slowly to the dais and come up the stairs. She went over to him and whispered her request in his ear.
"And why would I give that to you?"
"If you've been watching the news, then you know why. You don't have to put up that front with me. You owe me." Drakken looked away first, leaning against his table.
"I... I suppose I do," Drew Lipsky, also known as Doctor Drakken, sighed. "I just thought that, if I did take over the world one day, you'd be there beside me."
"We just happened to be walking the same way. We were strangers and we became friends. But even if my path is leaving yours now, it doesn't mean we aren't still friends." Drakken was quiet for a while.
"Very well," he sighed. "If Kim possible goes down, I'd rather be the one pulling the trigger." Shego's jaw tensed slightly at that, but she let the comment go.
"Thanks, Drew," she said as she turned to leave. As she stepped down from the dais, he spoke again.
"Shego," he called. She stopped and turned to look at the blue mad scientist.
"Yeah, Doctor D?"
"Is she really worth it?"
Shego closed her eyes as a strange, foreign feeling welled up inside her again.
"Yeah," she said, her voice thick. "Yeah, she is." She walked down the dais stairs and headed quickly for the storage room corridor.
"Good luck," he said as her back disappeared through one of the rear entrances. "You'll both need it."