Crawling out of my hole to set this nonsense here before I chicken out again.
43. Whose Side – 6
Shilo resumed her barista duties that day, but at every lull she found herself pulling out the pamphlet from under the counter. She'd already accepted she wouldn't be attending anytime soon, so long as her brothers were on her back, but the possibility of being considered incited a curiosity.
Lowerton Hench University offered a "promising career path" and boasted an impressive range of courses, both conventional and otherwise. What better way to get on an evil overlord's good side than by becoming one of their faithful lackeys? With several henchschools in operation across the globe and an entire corporation founded on servicing the evil community, Shilo had to draw the conclusion that the Hench family had made out like a bandit in the niche market.
Every time the thought, Why hasn't Team Go heard of this? reared its ugly well-meaning head, Shilo stamped it down. The answer was simple: because Team Go were merely pawns Global Justice kept on reserve, keeping them in the dark unless needed for some publicity stunt or to tackle nutjobs out of the police's jurisdiction.
As per usual that afternoon, Shilo loitered behind Buckley's Brew, waiting several minutes just to see if her getaway driver would show up despite her warning over breakfast. Getting her nicotine fix in the meantime did nothing to ease her mind.
Henchmen could be bought, Buckley had explained earlier. It was how most inevitably paid for their so-called "education," and how a good many wound up bound to the villains they served. It sounded like some form of human trafficking, but even Buckley's reminder that they signed up for it when they enrolled didn't silence Shilo's qualms over the matter.
Another long drag to fill her lungs with smoke and her head thumped back against the brick wall. The pamphlet had been folded up in her pocket, her fingers dug down in it to make sure it was still there.
Even if the headhunter picked her head to drag back to LHU, could she count on Drakken to buy her out of it? That would be years down the road. Buckley warned her of the grueling process, especially the first year to weed out the weak. It was entirely possible she wouldn't get to leave the site in that time, much less get visitation with Drakken.
Her fingers curled around the pamphlet, crushing it in her fist.
She'd have to talk to him about it.
Biting her lip, she had to wonder how badly he wanted her. By the time she graduated, would he still want her?
He certainly hadn't wanted her last night.
Just as Shilo let out a disgusted groan with herself, the back door opened beside her and she shoved away from the wall to leave.
If anyone called out to her, she would have expected it to be Abigail, so a small, "Hey," from Chester was a surprise. Shilo turned with a raised eyebrow at the quiet woman. The gunslinger stood awkwardly, rubbing one arm. She wasn't in her smock anymore. Instead, she wore her flannel and beanie, a sure sign she wasn't on kitchen duty anymore. Which was all the more unusual. "You wanna come over tonight? I got some tapes you can have."
The look on Shilo's face must have said enough because the girl looked off down the alley and shifted her weight to the other foot.
"I'm getting the axe," sighed Chester. "I'm not gonna need 'em where I'm going."
The way she said it sounded like a death sentence. But Shilo knew better than that – just barely. "You got in," she stated, and waited for the small nod. Something in her gut wrenched, but envy couldn't possibly be right. "Shouldn't you be happy about that?"
"Gail wasn't up to snuff." She cracked a small sad smile. "There's always next time. You'll make sure she's got enough credit though, right?"
Shilo tried to take a drag but laughed a little instead. "Yeah," she said, discarding the cigarette to stuff her hands in her pockets. She shrugged. "We'll be the menace of the town."
"I'll pick you up tonight?" Chester offered, already stepping away in the other direction.
Shilo nodded in agreement and gave the baker's assistant the alley to herself.
Leaving behind the worrisome thoughts of the shady university and the coworker on her way to bigger and better things, Shilo sought out the refuge of the public library. "Hi there, Granny Smith," she greeted as she passed the front desk, slowing her pace. Politeness, she'd learned through observation, earned forgiveness when it came to late fees – not that she ever checked out anything.
The senior librarian looked up from her stack of books she was sorting and stamping. "Oh! Hello, dear," she replied, sweeter than any Granny Smith apple ever could be. "It's good to see your pretty face again." A peculiar frailty in the old woman's voice and something out of the corner of her eye caught Shilo's attention, and she did a double-take before backtracking a couple steps.
Something had changed about the old woman since she'd seen her last. The oxygen tube up her nose and her wheeze as she persevered through her librarian duties was a pretty big tip-off.
"Are you—?" Shilo began reflexively. The woman didn't look to be in any condition to be working.
And, apparently, her son agreed. The middle-aged man looked worn out as he came ambling out from between rows of books, eyes flying wide when he spotted his mother hard at work. He came rushing up to her side, gently chastising her for being out of her rocking chair. It was then that Granny Smith turned ornery and took out a grabber to shake at her son, telling him off for telling her what to do.
Shilo backed away, safely out of the small family quarrel. She glanced over her shoulder as she left, wondering silently to herself what could have happened to the old woman. Well, besides being old. The elderly librarian was kind to everyone – except of course to her son, who took a quiet verbal lashing on the regular – and seeing her health on the decline in any way was concerning.
Shilo's hands were stuffed in her pockets again, the pamphlet crumpled in her fist. If she was still having thoughts and sentiments like caring about some old librarian lady approaching Death's doorstep, then she wasn't ready to join some henchschool. Was she even ready for villainy?
She caught herself making a beeline for the children's corner – specifically, to the comfort of familiar picture books she'd once read with her little brothers – and turned instead for the YA section. She still found herself gravitating toward the heroic Captain Constellation novels her big brother obsessed over. She'd never known what was so great about them until she'd come to the oasis.
She selected one of the paperbacks, the spine creased beyond recognition and held together with layers of tape, pages worn and soft at the edges from years of being lovingly read front to back. In the reading nook, she sank down in one of the beanbag chairs to flip through and find where she'd last left off on her last visit to the library.
She wasn't sure how long it had taken her to notice a misplaced odor in the air – no more than an hour. At the fragrance of cherries, she lifted her eyes from the compelling novel in time to spy the shift of the beanbag chair next to her just before the air shimmered and Prissy materialized, perfectly relaxed and spreading open a book of her own.
"Come here often?" chimed Prissy without looking up.
Giving an exasperated roll of her eyes, Shilo stood. "How many stalkers do I have to deal with this year?" she hissed to herself as she left to find somewhere else to read. She cast a wary glance across the library, spying old Granny Smith. Avoiding a fight here was for the best, as much as Shilo's fists itched for action.
If only Priscilla was inclined to let her escape so easily.
"Stop following me," Shilo ground out through her teeth, sensing the girl a step behind her.
She felt a lock of her hair being twirled and took a sharp sidestep away as Priscilla heaved a feigned dreamy sigh, "I love when you play hard to get."
"What do you want from me?" A glare shot over her shoulder confirmed Priscilla was still following her.
Pink lips quirked upwards. "I want a slice of your life, Shego," she whispered with an elbow in the ribs.
Shilo paused to scrutinize the girl, brow furrowed as the bubbly young woman took a step around her to continue toward the study tables Shilo had been headed for. "Yeah, well, I'm not sharing," she said, at a loss.
"I'll win you over," Priscilla giggled with a warm smile back at her.
The familiarity was almost enough to make her give – but she shook off the sensation and willed her resolve to hold fast. "I don't know what game you think you're playing, but leave me out of it," she hissed venomously at Priscilla's back before taking a step in another direction.
Though Prissy didn't choose her table, Shilo still felt the girl's eyes on her every so often from a couple over. At one point, she almost snapped at Prissy to sit in her chair right and get her feet off the table, but instead she grit her teeth and chose to mind her own business.
Focusing on the heroic sci-fi novel was easier said than done, but for the sake of her pride, Shilo forced herself to stay put for twenty-odd minutes, casting glances toward the nearest clock whenever she was sure Priscilla wasn't watching her.
Once sufficient time had passed, she decided it was time to leave, returning the book to its correct spot on its shelf and waving goodbye to Mr. Smith and his sleeping mother. She wasn't leaving because of Priscilla, Shilo told herself. Reflexively holding the door open for a woman entering the library, her eyes narrowed on Priscilla tailing just a few steps behind her.
Prissy barely made it out before the door swung shut on her. "You're too nice," she cooed sweetly regardless, but Shilo could hear the sharp edge of criticism.
"Keep it up," Shilo jeered back. "You'll see how nice I am." She ground her teeth at the sound of the girl's bubbly giggle. Once off the library premises, the temptation to sock her made her fists itch and tickle with plasma. She'd love to ask if Priscilla still found things quite so humorous with a broken jaw.
"What do you say we grab some Chow?" suggested Prissy, practically skipping along beside her.
"Bite me."
"Maybe later," dismissed the thorn in Shilo's side. "I think we've got milkshakes calling our name."
Shilo's fists clenched tighter as she tensed. "Remind me. How attached are you to your teeth?"
There was a pleasant hum in reply, but when Shilo spun to swing a punch at the girl, her fist sailed through empty air. The invisible girl egging her on must have seen it coming. Shilo grit her teeth and spun, spotting Priscilla reappearing several steps ahead of her and stifling laughter. The urge to throttle her was unbearable and drove her to follow Priscilla through town.
"Quit screwing with me," Shilo snapped as Priscilla finally paused for traffic. "What are you doing here?"
"I want to reconnect," said Priscilla, pressing a finger to Shilo's temple to push her out to arms length.
Shilo scoffed and slapped her hand away. "Yeah. You have a hell of a way of showing how much you care." At the first hint of a shimmer, she snapped her hand out to grab Priscilla by the arm, her grip tight enough for the shimmer to dissipate and Priscilla to look genuinely worried and maybe a little pained at the bruising squeeze. "What was that shit you pulled last night all about?"
The strained look on Priscilla's face didn't smooth out completely though she tried to remain casual. "Just giving your boss a sample of my skill, that's all." Her bubbly giggle was faked. "Why? You scared I'm gonna take your place, Shego?"
She didn't expect her heart to jump with a jolt of fear at the very idea.
Priscilla took her chance to slip out of her grip, stepping into traffic and vanishing for a moment only to reappear on the other side of the street. Shilo glared both ways before making a dash through the flow of traffic.
"You're not threatening," she snapped as she jogged up behind the pink-clad woman. "You're not taking my place – because Drakken's not hiring you."
Before Shilo could grab her once more, Priscilla disappeared yet again in the blink of an eye. Hands rested on Shilo's shoulders, the warm cherry-scented body pressing in from behind her. "You act like you have a say-so in it. It's cute," giggled Priscilla, and she left a sticky kiss on Shilo's cheek before slipping away and resuming her visible position in the lead on the way to Cow-n-Chow.
"I liked it better when you stayed out of my business," Shilo spat.
"Au contraire, I've always been in your business. You know, you scared me when you ran away from home." The hand over her chest and saddened look shot back at Shilo was all part of some heartfelt act even a fool could see through.
"Yeah, like you're so worried about me, handing out my medication like candy to crackpots and villains."
Looking back from her spot safely ahead and out of reach, Priscilla raised an eyebrow back at Shilo, looking her over head to toe. An amused scoff and she turned her back to Shilo once more. "So that boyfriend of yours did the right thing, huh?"
All at once, Shilo felt sick at the idea of Drakken being a lesser man and yet relieved he was better than that. He could have chosen to test the effects to see for himself. Shilo's eyes narrowed on the interloper's back. "Prissy, if you ever try that shit again—"
"What are you gonna do about it?" Priscilla snapped back at her, her words bitter for a change with no sugar to coat the hostility. "Tattle on me to big brother? I'm sure they'd love to know all about that blue freak you eloped with."
Priscilla wasn't watching where she was walking, too busy glaring back at Shilo. So when a simple crow scavenging fries off the sidewalk fluttered out of the way with a caw of alarm, Priscilla jumped a foot in the air and consequently crashed into Shilo, nearly knocking them both to the ground in Prissy's haste to take cover behind her.
Had it not been for Priscilla's wide eyes and the fearful grip on Shilo's shoulders as she hid behind her, Shilo might have shoved her away and told her off. Instead she paused, eyebrow quirked curiously as she followed Priscilla's frightened gaze to the crow fluttering away over rooftops. She pushed her back then – not hard enough to knock her down as she would have liked – and held Priscilla out with a grip on her arm so the woman couldn't disappear on her.
The connection between her old friend and her newfound aversion to birds became a little clearer. Without thinking, Shilo blurted simply, "What did Aviarius do to you?"
Priscilla shrugged out of her grip, still a little shaken and tense. She raised a lip in disgust, but whether it was aimed at her or the avian vet, Shilo wasn't sure. "A lot more than he's done to you."
Shilo didn't like that answer. She almost disliked getting Chow to go with Priscilla even less.