Chapter seven - As if Things Weren't Complicated Enough

The midnight moon shown brilliantly over the clear water. The night lay silent as if all creatures respected the moment. No birds sang, no people talked, in fact—no one even passed by the body of water. Everything stayed silent and peaceful. Just below the water rested an underground lair. Inside this lair, in a temporary bedroom, lay a mound of covers. It moved up and then settled back down around the black flowing hair. A green hand lay atop the pile of quilts never once moving. The hypnotizing silence was broken, however, by a loud scratching yelp.

"Shego!"

Shego opened her eyes and groaned. She yanked back the covers that once posed as her dome of comfort and stomped down the hall. The process of her tangled hair falling into her face and she pushing it away happened several times before the hallway ended.

Blinded by the sudden light, Shego shielded her eyes and tried to make out the figure in front of her even though her eyes wanted badly to go back into slumber.

When they finally adjusted, Shego saw a large robot holding Dr. Drakken, by his leg, above the ground. This didn't surprise her. But why would he call her? He knew how to shut his robots down himself.

"What do you want?" she exploded with anger—pushed severely by how tired she was.

The blue-skin man looked at her worriedly. "Shego! The cyber-electronic circuit you stole for me is not working!" he panicked.

Shego raised an eyebrow. "I kind of figured that when I saw you dangling like a curtain," she teased. Drakken groaned unappreciative of her comment.

"It should have worked! I calculated everything down perfectly!" he argued.

"Well, do you even know how to use it?" Shego asked.

"Of course I know how to use it, Shego. I wasn't born yesterday."

"You got that right," Shego muttered under her breath.

"What?" Drakken inquired in annoyance.

"Maybe you left a piece back at the house," she offered. "After all, you can be pretty oblivious sometimes—"

"Enough!" Drakken demanded. Unfortunately, the robot took this as a command and dropped him to the floor. After the impact, Drakken stood back up, with some trouble, and shook off his dizziness. "I'd know if I forgot a piece at the house or not. I'm not that stupid."

He walked over to his worktable with Shego following close behind. Drakken began rummaging through the papers, randomly reading notes to find anything that might explain his robot's weird behavior. Only a couple pages into it, he found a stunning conclusion.

"Aha! You forgot something back at the house!" he accused pointing to Shego.

"No, I only pick up what you tell me to Chief, and you just said the cyber-electronic thing," Shego defended.

"You should have seen the piece and brought it," Drakken lectured. "What do you think I pay you for?"

"For doing whatever you tell me, oh wise one, and you said nothing whatsoever about anything else," Shego cut him off. Seeing her employer's hard and stubborn scowl, she gave a frustrated sigh. "OK Mr. I'm-Never-Wrong, what do you need?"

"An 02422 brass motherboard," he replied.

"Ah," Shego commented. "I've got a question: why do you give majorly long names to itty-bitty little pieces of junk?"

"It's not junk, Shego! This 02422—"

"Oi! I'll get it!" she said with a groan. "Same place as last time?"

"Yes. I've heard from a reliable source that the scientist has taken ownership of the house again," Drakken said.

An evil smile appeared on Shego's face. "More of a challenge, eh? Fun." She walked off down the hallway back to her bedroom. Drakken stopped her.

"Where are you going? The door's that way." He pointed to the opposite doorway.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm not breaking into a top secret lab in my pajamas, OK?" Shego said disappearing back into the darkness.

Drakken folded his arms and rolled his eyes. "You and your fashion needs," he grumbled.

OOOOO

3:48 A.M—Back in New York City…

A darkness-clad shadow dropped onto a roof. Its green eyes seemed to glow with the moonlight shimmering off of the irises. The shadow slithered down the slope and hung from the gutter. A green plasma, from its hands, lit up the face with a creepy green glow so now it was apparent that it was Dr. Drakken's sidekick, Shego.

Her hand melted the glass window with ease until the gap was large enough to crawl through. Shego jumped from the gutter into the house making barely any sound on the hard wood flooring. She stood up and walked down the dark hallway.

"OK, 02422 brass thingy," She whispered to herself—unknowingly, trying to create some form of noise to hide beneath. Shego took but another step when she heard something. Something faint, yet threatening. Thump, scuff. Thump, scuff. Footsteps. Out of reflex, Shego sank into the wall and her eyes adjusted to the level of darkness until they were functioning at full capacity. What she saw, though, really was no reason to get excited about.

That reclusive scientist her employer had told her about seemed to be at the fridge—probably for a late midnight snack. He turned not one light on in which to gather his food. The man didn't look at all threatening. He was obviously not a fighter, and probably wouldn't notice till a while after when she grabbed the machinery; he didn't look as if he even noticed her! Maybe this wasn't going to be nearly as exciting as she had hoped.

The man set a carton of milk onto the counter. Shego silently shrugged and got started down the hall. At this rate, she might just get back in time to get a few more hours sleep. She quickened her pace; it's not like the scientist would really notice. He didn't even know she existed, much less that she was directly behind him—

A long metal snake—with an ear-piercing screech—shot in front of her and went through the wall. Shego, not knowing what to do, slowly turned to see the man facing her. Though it was dark, she could make out his hard features set in as scowl as he flipped on a dim light.

The light revealed three other metal snakes all slithering around the scientist hissing, chirping, and moving with personality. Shego came to her senses and leaped over the metal arm only to see another move in front of her. She rolled on the ground to avoid them just as another soared for her just barely grazing her head. In fact, if she hadn't have ducked, there was no doubt in her mind that he would have torn her head off without a second thought. The first tentacle to attack released the wall to lash for her again. Shego jumped out of the way frantically and it caught her ankle.

The actuator mercilessly threw—not simply tossed—but threw her to the opposite end of the room sending her through the pots and pans that hung from the ceiling in the kitchen, and also through a wooden cabinet-like bookcase. The glass shattered around her as she hit the opposing wall. Books fell, pans still rattled, and she was hesitant to get back up. This decision, however, was followed up with the bottom left tentacle grabbing her ankle again and throwing her to the refrigerator. A horrible, metal arm held around her stomach and another's jaws were tensed—less than a foot from her face—ready to tear her to shreds if she threatened to make a wrong move.

Shego could barely make out the heavily set figure behind the glowing red light of the tentacle. "What were you doing?" the man growled. "It isn't good to steal." His words were calm, yet threatening.

Shego remained still. She was afraid—actually afraid! It wasn't a feeling she was used to experiencing. Drakken should have told her about what to expect with this guy. He should have told her that this scientist had four metal arms. Of course, he probably forgot—as he did in many cases—oh well. He'd pay later. At this moment, though, Shego needed to focus not on how to get revenge on her employer, but how to escape this man's metallic grip.

The scientist remained silent as if awaiting an answer. He looked deathly angry with her. By the looks of it, he probably knew that she had taken the last piece from him as well.

"You shouldn't have come. Because now I'll have to kill you," he said through the strangely calm anger in his voice.

She has gotten in our way.

She does not deserve to live.

Her death will be sweet.

As the saying goes: "Revenge is sweet."

This will take your mind off of tonight.

"I need something to calm my nerves." A wicked smile crept onto his face. "And this will pose the satisfying therapy that I need."

Let us kill her.

The top free tentacle shot out a blade and the smile was still present on the doctor's face. It soared for Shego with such amazing speed that she almost let it stab through her heart and into the fridge. Instead, out of reflex, Shego shot a green laser from both of her hands, which hit the man at an angle grazing his shoulder and catching his side.

"AAAAHHHGGG!" he let out a cry of pain as the tentacle released her to tend to its host's wounds. Shego took this moment to make a mad dash again for the laboratory. Otto walked after her as fast as he could but had to use the counter to support himself. The tentacles picked him up and darted down the hall after the thief.

When he got there, a hole was left in the ceiling and a helicopter was hovering over it with a rope ladder. She was getting away! The two bottom tentacles lifted him over countless mounds of rubble and down the few steps. Shego sensed his presence and her eyes enlarged when she saw him charging her. Nonetheless, she—micro part in hand—jumped and began climbing the ladder.

The bottom tentacles lifted him up into the air and the top right one grabbed hold of the thief's leg. Shego saw this and tried to get it off with every tactic she could think of. The helicopter continued rising and the grip on her leg tightened. Then its twin grabbed the arm with the hand holding the stolen technology.

Shego slashed and pulled at the tentacles but nothing worked.

…The helicopter rose another foot…

The man had no intention of letting go. Shego pulled with all her might and the actuator opened up the small dexterous 'fingers' built into the claws and the tips went into her skin. Shego screamed and shot at the man with her plasma. He seemed to dodge every single blow! Finally one hit and sent him to the ground—the actuators both releasing her—and the helicopter flew off.

It began to rain like right out of a movie and the small icy drops fell onto Otto's face. He reminded himself that he must get up if he wished to stay clear of a cold. As soon as he stood, however, he was forced to fall back to his knees for the pain was on the verge of inhumanity. And the thought that he had survived more was unbelievable.

The top right tentacle tore a piece of tablecloth from a display he had set up for hungry investors. It brought it to him and the top left one helped wrap it loosely around his middle. Otto went limp—the pain now taking its toll. The bottom actuators picked him up and the top two kept the 'bandage' positioned right as to stop the bleeding.

Do not worry. We will take care of you.

to be continued...