Yori spun about, making sweeping up-and down motions with her fans so that Shego could not tell from which direction the next attack would come. Though made of paper, razor-sharp blades were embedded along their edges, promising damaging slashes to anything caught in their path. With a grunt of frustration, Shego dodged back yet again. She wasn't quick enough, however, and a hole was sliced in one of her sleeves. The skin beneath was untouched, but Shego still felt infuriated. It was yet another point for Yori.

Time to go on the offense, Shego thought.

Shego wasn't unarmed in this fight. Though she had promised not to use her powers, Shego had put on her gloves. Claws that she constantly kept filed to sharp points jutted out from the ends of the fingers. They didn't give her the reach that Yori's fans did, but they were much easier to control. They were also more durable, as Shego demonstrated with an unexpected backhanded slash that shredded one of Yuri's fans, rendering it useless.

After Yuri's careful dance was interrupted by the destruction of one of her weapons, Shego followed up with a solid kick to Yuri's chest. The younger woman was sent stumbling back several yards to slam back-first up against a stone wall.

Murmurs erupted from all sides of the courtyard. The fight had drawn an audience of black-clad students. None of them were making any motion to interfere, and there were no cheers. Two female students were making their feelings abundantly clear, though. Somehow in the few minutes the fight had been going, they had managed to put together a banner saying, 'Yori', and they were holding it stretched out between them.

Shego moved in to strike while Yori was stunned and finish the fight. Yori, however, had other ideas. She reached into a hidden pocket and pulled out a handful of pellets. When the pellets hit the ground, they erupted into a cloud of smoke, obscuring her location. It was a good plan, but Shego was too experienced an opponent to be fooled so easily. She knew Yori's training and had been observing Yori's fighting style for the past few minutes. Shego knew where Yori would jump to.

So when Yori leapt out of the smoke cloud, coming to the top of her arc perfectly placed to land on a nearby stone pillar, Shego was already waiting on top of said pillar. There wasn't a lot of time for banter, but Shego still managed to squeeze in an evil, "Ah-ah-ah!" as she landed yet another kick on Yori's midsection. Yori was sent flying into a small pond, impacting the water with a splash.

Shego waited at the edge of the pond, not sure how much fight Yori would still have in her. The answer turned out to be plenty, as Yori splashed upright and slogged through the water towards Shego. Yori's soaking wet clothes were weighing her down, she had just taken two powerful kicks in a relatively short time period, and Shego held the higher ground; but Yori looked ready to resume the fight anyway. As Shego waited, she decided to end the battle with a straight punch to Yuri's jaw.

The matter was taken out of both their hands, however, as a deep-voiced cry of, "Enough!" echoed through the training yard. Sensei walked into the open, looking extremely unhappy. He looked much as Shego remembered, a solidly built elderly Japanese man wearing white robes, with a long, thin white mustache.

The watching students scattered. Shego backed away from the edge of the pond, allowing Yori room to escape and walk up to Sensei. Yori bowed to her teacher, ignoring Shego. "Sensei, I am deeply shamed," said Yori.

She and Sensei conversed in hushed tones for a minute or so. Meanwhile, Shego fidgeted and tried to decide if she should just leave. Just as she had decided that would be the wisest course of action, Yori and Sensei finished their quick conference. Yori bowed in Sensei's direction and immediately walked away, not sparing a backward glance for Shego.

Sensei cleared his throat and turned to Shego. "Your obedience is no longer mine to command, but would a former student do the honor of speaking with her teacher?"

Shego walked up to Sensei, putting as much swagger in her walk as she could reasonably manage. "I'm surprised you're not trying to kick me out of your school," she said.

"Fights only to be expected among the young. Always wanting to try out their skills. Yori and you fought with honor, so the offense is minor for her," said Sensei. "And your obedience-"

"Is no longer yours to command," finished Shego. "Right, got it, but that's not what I meant. I meant that you might take offense at me going to work for an evil madman who's trying to conquer the world. You thought you were training a superhero, and I turn out to be evil. Kind of broke our deal, there," said Shego. She held up her hands and pantomimed breaking a stick for emphasis.

Sensei looked Shego in the eye calmly. "I have taken a vow to do no more violence, but it was not always so. As the butterfly was once the caterpillar, so was I once a different man before I became the Sensei of Yamanuchi. In my youth and for many years after, I did much that I now regret. So it is not for me to judge the actions of others," said Sensei.

"Puh-leese. Whatever works for you. Just don't think I'm going to turn around and reform one day. Been there, done the hero thing, liking the evil better. So I'll be sticking with pitching in on the world conquest plans, thanks," said Shego. Despite the firmness of her words, she felt somehow on the defensive.

"And when your employer succeeds in conquering the world, what will you do then?" asked Sensei.

Shego chuckled to herself. "Trust me, there's not much danger of that happening any time soon."

"So you do not wish to succeed," said Sensei.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're twisting what I'm saying. Drakken tries his best, and not all his ideas are bad. It's just that Kim Possible gets in the way. I fight her, she gets past me, and Dr. D's not on the ball enough to stop her from screwing everything up. And why am I explaining this to you?" said Shego.

"So Kim Possible is the challenge you must defeat for your own satisfaction?" said Sensei, ignoring Shego's question.

Shego considered. "That's probably a part of it. Of course, a bigger part of it is just that I enjoy my job."

Sensei gave her a measuring look. "Do you know why this Kim Possible always defeats you?" he said.

"Hey, she doesn't always beat me. We don't finish most of our fights. I have to help Drakken get away. And I've had her down for the count a time or two. Okay, usually because I got a lucky break somehow, but that still counts! What are you trying to say? That I'm tanking the fights? That I could beat Kim if I wanted to, it's just that I don't want to? Is that what you're saying?" said Shego, pushing continually closer to Sensei as she spoke, until she was practically in his face.

"Hmmm. No, nothing so complicated. Kim Possible defeats you because she is a better fighter than you are," said Sensei.

"Oh," said Shego. She crossed her arms and looked away from Sensei. She felt rather disappointed. "So what's your point?"

"Point? No point. Just asking a former student about her life," said Sensei.

"And I answered you because you taught me how to kick people in the head, but I think we're about done here," said Shego. She turned and started to walk away.

"Masuyo Ichikawa is also better then you. You will not be able to defeat him," said Sensei.

Shego turned back. "So not! I went up against him, and I know I can take him."

"But you did not defeat him," said Sensei.

"He got some reinforcements," said Shego. "He got lucky."

"He is not a man who trusts to luck. He is your superior in skill and he will be prepared in your next encounter. You cannot defeat him as you are, but I can tell you his weakness," said Sensei.

"And why would you do that? We're both former Yamanuchi students. Why make more trouble for Masuyo?" asked Shego.

"Perhaps this foolish old man merely wishes to ingratiate himself with the sidekick of the future ruler of the world," said Sensei, smiling slightly.

Shego rolled her eyes and walked back to stand beside Sensei. "All right, I'll play. Tell me, how do I beat him?"

"It is simple," said Sensei. He leaned in to Shego and whispered three English words into her ear. Then he pulled back.

"That's it? That's it!" yelled Shego. "I could have got that off of a fortune cookie. It's not even original."

"That is it. Be well, my former student," said Sensei. He stood politely at attention.

Shego stood there shaking her head for a moment, then turned and walked towards the gate. Sensei watched her go.

I wonder what Shego would have said if I had told her my real reason for helping her. I swore to nonviolence, but that doesn't mean I cannot help two evils fight each other. The more evenly matched they are, the greater the chance that they will destroy each other. I think perhaps she would have laughed and approved of my ruthlessness, though Sensei.

It was easy to slip into the role of all-knowing martial arts master, but that was a front for others. Sensei had hard-earned wisdom, yes. He had knowledge of the interaction of the body and spirit and knew much of ancient lore. Still, his questions to Shego had not been some subtly Socratic teaching method, but rather an honest attempt to learn where his former student's head was at these days. Shego claimed to have embraced evil, and Sensei was rather inclined to believe her.

Shego was not beyond redemption. No one was, in Sensei's opinion. At present, though, she and her employer were a danger to the world. However, Masuyo Ichikawa and his employer were also a danger to the world. And Yamanuchi, neutral as it was by tradition in matters of morality, still existed in the world. Sensei could have given Shego more help, of course, but the ideal goal was that Shego and Masuyo destroy each other, and his advice was calculated to that effect.

It was a pity, though. For all Shego's faults, Sensei had rather liked her.

Shego paused outside the gates of the school, cocking her head to one side as if listening to something. Then she turned around, fists erupting into green flame. "Back for more? And you brought friends. This is going to be fun!"

"No, Shego-san. I only wish to give you something before you leave," said Yori. She stepped out of the shadows, followed by the two girls who had been holding up the banner for her earlier. In her hands she was holding a book, which she extended out towards Shego.

"What's that," said Shego suspiciously.

"Your Yamanuchi yearbook. I checked, and you left it behind when you graduated. I wish you to have it back," said Yori.

"You're a very weird girl, you know that?" said Shego. She reached out and took the yearbook. "Keep up the practice, and you might be a real challenge some day."

"Oh, I am sure I will never be anything like you, Shego-san," said Yori. She smiled viciously and left. Yori's two supporters paused to stick out their tongues at Shego and make faces at her before following their friend back into the school.

That wasn't so bad. At least now I know I'm so over that place, even if I didn't learn much, thought Shego as she walked down the mountain. Without much else to do, she flipped open the yearbook and started idly looking through it for pictures of herself.

Each picture of Shego had been mutilated with an ink pen. On one horns and a snakelike tongue had been drawn, and on another she had been given a thick beard and mustache. Shego flipped to the back cover and found a short note. Any time, any place, Shego. Yori.

Shego laughed nastily to herself, somehow not all that upset. "Maybe she's more like me than she thinks."

Doctor Drakken squinted at the paper he held in his hand, as if hoping that if he looked at it hard enough, the numbers would change. "Oh come now, Thomas, I just had new pipes installed a year ago. How can they need to be replaced already?" he said.

He was speaking to a twenty-something Jamaican man dressed in plumber's overalls and carrying a wrench. The man's hair was bundled into thick braids, several of which hung low from his forehead, obscuring his eyes. The man, whose name was Thomas, replied, "Ya mon, I know when the pipes were put in. My dad installed them as one of his last jobs before he retired. I hate to tear out his work, but it looks liked someone pumped acid through those pipes or something."

Two Months Ago

Drakken looked out over the boiling pit of acid. "This should be just the thing to take care of any intruders," he said.

Shego raised a hand. "I appreciate the heat and acid double death combo, but isn't that just going to boil away?"

"No worries, Shego. I picked up a tanker full of acid on the cheap, and I'm piping it in through the lair's plumbing. It'll last for a month. Plenty of time," said Drakken.

"That's the same plumbing we get our water through?" asked Shego, alarmed.

"Hey, they're water pipes. They're self-cleaning. What could happen?" asked Drakken.

Back in the Present

Tapping his fingertips together, Drakken slumped in defeat. "Really. Er, I have no idea how that could have happened," he said. Then the rest of what Thomas had said registered. "Wait, you father Gerard retired? But he was so young. He's been working on my lairs ever since I got into the business. Good man. Why would he retire?"

"He was 59, mon. He'd been a plumber for forty years, and that was enough. Hey mon, in a few years you'll be thinking about retiring yourself from… whatever it is you do here," said Thomas.

"Few years? Few! I'll have you know I'm still a long way from 59," said Drakken, enraged. "And… and another thing. I'm not going to pay full price for you. I thought this estimate was for your father's work. I was willing to pay for an experienced plumber, not his punk son."

"That's the rate, mon. If you don't want to pay it, I'll go and you can find someone else willing to come all the way out here to work," said Thomas. He looked around doubtfully, implying he didn't think Drakken would find anyone else.

"This is extortion! And believe me, I know my extortion," said Drakken. In a whiny voice he added, "It's no fun being on this end of it."

Thomas shrugged. "A mon has to earn a living."

"Oh he does, does he?" said Drakken. He walked over to the wall and threw a switch, causing a giant laser to unfurl from the ceiling and point down in Thomas's direction. "How would you like to never have to worry about working for 'a living' again, Thomas?"

"That would be great, mon, but I'm not charging you enough to retire on. Don't be so dramatic," said Thomas, apparently not having noticed the laser.

"No, I meant that if you weren't alive any longer you wouldn't have to- That is to say, it was a threat. I- Oooooh," said Drakken. He know that a threat you had to explain probably wasn't a very effective threat, so he gave up and contented himself with merely clenching his fists menacingly.

"You need to relax, mon," said Thomas.

"Go ahead and do what you need to do. Just make sure we're done with the wash before you cut water to the laundry room," ordered Drakken. He turned and walked away to the bathroom, leaving Thomas behind to begin work.

Once safely inside, Drakken put his hands on the sink counter and lowered his head. He took a deep breath, then studied his own reflection in the mirror. Retirement? Hah, nonsense. I'm fit and young, not even a grey hair. It'll be twenty years before I think about retiring, thought Drakken.

Even as he tried to reassure himself, though, Drakken's thoughts spun away in their customary thousand different directions. He started to envision retirement plans of all sorts. Perhaps I should bury a chest of gold on the beach. Maybe I should start directing some of that money from Malcom into a secret Swiss bank account instead of spending it all on my plans. Or real estate, I could invest in real estate, Drakken thought to himself.

Drakken had just gotten to the idea of freeze-drying henchmen into cryogenic pods so that he could wake them up to serve him when he was old when he interrupted himself by pounding on his own head. "No, no, no!" shouted Drakken at his reflection in the mirror.

The problem was, none of these retirement plans were built around the idea of Drakken ruling the world. It forced Drakken to wonder if even he believed he could do it anymore. True, he wasn't old yet, but he was getting older every year. Meanwhile, his arch-foe, Kim Possible, was at the part of her life where she was getting better every year. Faster, stronger, closer to her prime. It seemed to Drakken that if he were to do something, he would have to do it soon.

At the moment, however, there was still the problem of Gemini to worry about. Drakken wondered if Gemini ever worried about getting too old.

"I worry that you're too old, Doctor," said Gemini. He lounged back in his seat, stroking his pet Chihuahua as he stared at the man across the table.

"Herr Gemini, please. I am making progress each day. It is only a matter of time until I learn enough to complete the machine," said the man Gemini was speaking to. He was a short bald man in his sixties, dressed in a white lab coat. His eyes were covered by glasses so thick that it was difficult to make out the color of his eyes beneath them.

"There, you see? That's the problem. A man your age trying to learn things, Dr. Vachslo, is in for a very difficult time. When I entrusted you with this project, it was with the idea that you didn't need to learn anything, that you were already expert enough to make Lipsky's machine function without further delay. That was what you promised me. I dislike it when people break promises to me," said Gemini.

"You must understand, Gemini, there is science and then there is mad science. Attempting to untangle the threads of Lipsky's genius is difficult to begin with. Add to that the… personnel difficulties the lab has suffered, and you cannot be surprised at the delays," replied Dr. Vachslo.

"So you're telling me I 'must understand' and I 'cannot be surprised', is that what you're telling me? Well, Dr. Vachslo, it seems you think you should be in charge of this evil organization. Here, why don't you take my seat at the head of the table?" said Gemini. He got up and pushed his chair back.

"Please Herr Gemini, that was not what I meant," said Dr. Vachslo, sounding terrified.

"Oh, but I insist," said Gemini in a menacing tone. He pointed his cyber-hand in Vachslo's direction.

Reluctantly, Vachslo walked over and took Gemini's seat. He continued to speak. "I really can do much better, sir. Just a little more time and I can give you all the tools you need to destroy Global Justice."

At the mention of 'Global Justice', Gemini's dog Pepe gave a furious bark. Gemini shook his head. "Doctor, you forget that there's certain names we don't mention around little Pepe here. I'm afraid I was right about you. Goodbye," said Gemini. He pulled out a control pad and tapped several buttons on it. In response, a panel opened up in the wall and Dr. Vachslo's chair was drawn into the dark void. The panel closed neatly behind him.

Gemini pulled up a new chair and sat back down at the table. "Alpha, let the boys in the laboratory know that they need a new project leader," he said.

Agent Alpha, who had been lurking in one of the room's shadowy corners, cleared his throat. "There are no more 'boys in the laboratory', by lord. You had them disposed of two days ago."

"So that means that Dr. Vachslo was…" said Gemini.

"Yes sir, the last member of WWEE who knew anything about Drakken's machine. Which leaves you with no one to complete the machine," replied Alpha.

With odd calmness, Gemini asked, "So why didn't you warn me before I disposed of Vachslo?"

"It is not my place, or my contract, to question your orders, my lord," said Alpha, subtly moving into a defensive posture. He thought that Gemini was taking this entirely too well, and he was regretting the perverse impulse that had kept him from speaking up about Gemini's mistake.

Gemini swiveled his chair around slowly. "I've disposed of many agents for less, Alpha. Fortunately for you, I already have someone in mind to put together the pieces of Project Firebreak," he said.

"Already? But that means-" Alpha's eyes narrowed. "This was no mistake. You disposed of the laboratory team and Dr. Vachslo deliberately. Telling me to call the 'boys in the lab' was your idea of a joke."

Putting his dog on the table, Gemini gave a little clap. "Very good. Their progress was insufficiently fast and once I decided to pull them off the project…. Well, I couldn't have them walking around with all that knowledge, could I?"

"Then the 'someone else' you have in mind must be Drakken himself, yes? Shall I scout out his island lair to make preparations for grabbing him, my lord?" said Alpha.

"That won't be necessary. I will be handling the matter personally. Just continue with your normal duties," said Gemini.

"But my lord, Drakken has deactivated the robotic flies you were using to spy on him. You need my stealth skills to track his movements for you and make the capture," protested Alpha.

"Mmmm. No, I don't believe that I do. As with so much else, I have the matter well in hand." said Gemini smugly.

Alpha stared at his employer quizzically for a few moments. "Why did you hire me, Gemini? It seems that we have a certain… skill overlap."

"To do things I am too busy to do. To give me an edge against my sister when I finally face her. Many reasons. Also, it seems that sidekicks are in fashion this year," replied Gemini. It was hard to tell whether he was joking or not.

"Ah," replied Alpha. There didn't seem to be much else to say.

"So, do you want to go grab a drink?" asked Gemini in a friendly manner.

"Only if you promise to tell me why you are so confident about your ability to kidnap Drakken, my lord," answered Alpha seriously.

"The drink and you also have to promise to wear the 'Agent Alpha' uniform," said Gemini, with an evil grin.

Shego rappelled down the side of the rock face, landing on a platform bolted to the side of the cliff. "Hey Doctor D," she announced.

Drakken turned away from the device he was working on in order to greet his sidekick. "Shego! Back from the trip? I trust you got whatever it was you were looking for."

Shego made a dismissive gesture. "I found out a little about Gemini's 'Agent Alpha', but the trip was kind of a waste. Did manage to trash a few childhood memories though, and that's always fun. Anything happen around here?"

"No progress on Gemini yet, but I do have someone in to fix the plumbing. That 'someone' being a smart-mouthed punk. Tried to tell me I should be thinking about retirement," said Drakken.

"He got under your skin? Sounds like just my kind of guy," said Shego with a wicked smile.

"Eh," said Drakken, turning away. He banged a wrench on the equipment he had been working on. "Shego, do you ever feel like the younger generation is catching up to you? Like you're going to get only a certain number of chances in life, and too many have already gone by?"

"Nope. Compared to you, Doc, I am the younger generation. As for catching up with you? Not too tough," said Shego.

"Ah Shego, you always know the perfect put-down to pick me up," said Drakken.

"It's a gift," replied Shego. "Still, after this latest trip I do know what you mean about the urge to smack down some of those up-and-comers."

"Exactly! That's part of the reason I'm installing this," said Drakken. He pointed at his machine.

"And this would be?" Shego asked skeptically.

"Well, if I want people to continue thinking of this island as haunted, I need to provide them with a few ghosts. Hence the hologram projector here. All I have to do is project a few gruesome images out onto the ocean every once in a while, and no one will dare trespass here," said Drakken.

"That sounds like a good plan. So where does it get stupid?" asked Shego.

"It doesn't! I'm going to give it its test run the night our plumber friend ships out. Scare some respect into him," said Drakken. "We'll see how he likes having these dance around him." Drakken flipped a few switches, causing his intended hologramatic projection to appear on a small screen.

Shego looked at the screen, then sighed. "Newsflash, characters from a TV show for pre-K children are not exactly striking fear into the hearts of adults."

"But I-" began Drakken.

"No, I don't care how scared you are of Mr. Sitdown. Not going to work. How about trying some characters from somewhere actually scary? Like a- a-" said Shego, hesitating at the end.

"A horror film?" Drakken suggested.

"Yeah, something like that. You know Doc, usually you're a little more direct when you're mad at someone," said Shego.

"Oh, I was going to put some mutant snakes into the pipes he was working on, but I didn't have any on hand and they take so long to mutate," replied Drakken. "Say Shego, I don't suppose you'd like to beat him up for me?"

"What I'd like is to have working plumbing. Stick with the holograms," said Shego.

Drakken sighed. "Very well. I suppose this Gemini situation still has me infuriated. I'm ready to show that two-bit evil bureaucrat that it takes real evil genius to conquer the world."

"Ah, we'll get him," said Shego.

"We've got him, sir" shouted henchman Carter, running into Drakken's laboratory with a bundle of papers under one arm.

Drakken jerked his head up, hitting it on the machinery overhead. "Oww! A little more caution in delivering the news, Mr. Carter," he grumbled, rubbing his head.

"Gimmie!" said Shego, jumping out of her chair. She snatched the papers from Carter and began flipping through them.

"The one you're looking for is right there on top. If you would just let me…." said Carter, trailing off as Shego glared at him. He sensibly decided to wait in silence as she took the papers over to Drakken.

"It looks like they're sending the parts for your Project Firebreak to this Field Museum of Natural Science and History," said Shego.

Drakken reached out to take hold of the papers. Shego taunted him briefly by holding them out of reach, but she only made him grab at them a couple of times before letting him have them. He took a minute to read the evidence more thoroughly than Shego had bothered.

"Yes, this is the place all right," said Drakken. He paused briefly. "You know… a museum as a lair would actually be a very fine idea. Think of it, Shego! No one would question the delivery of strange packages from all over the world. No one would question a museum having a tight security system, or a lab area where visitors aren't allowed. It would be wonderful camouflage."

"I suppose," said Shego cautiously.

"And when I'm done with an experiment, I could charge full ticket price to see it," added Drakken cheerily. "Henchman Carter! Make a note of that for me. Museum lair, looking into."

"Yes sir," said Carter.

Shego just pressed a palm against her forehead, a pained expression on her face.

The plan was simple. Drakken and Shego would fly a cargo plane into a nearby airport. Then, under cover of darkness, they'd fly a cargo-equipped hover car out to the museum and take back Drakken's invention by force. After some discussion, Drakken had agreed to leave the henchmen behind, based on Shego's insistence that stealth was called for.

As the plane entered the airport's airspace, Drakken's phone began to ring. He glanced at the display, then put it back into his pocket without answering it.

"What, telemarketer?" asked Shego.

"No, it was Malcom. I have no time for pointless business trivialities right now. I'm just too keyed up!" said Drakken, excitement in his voice.

Shego adjusted her earphones as she received a transmission over the cockpit radio. "You're going to have to be keyed up for another half hour. We've been bumped on landing privileges, so we're going to have to circle a while," she told Drakken.

"What! This is ridiculous. How dare they make us wait? Don't they know who I am?" asked Drakken.

"They know you're John Smith, ordinary cargo plane owner. Of course if you want, I could tell them that Dr. Drakken, would-be world conqueror, is on board. I bet they'd get us landing privileges really fast then," said Shego snidely.

"Of, you think?" answered Drakken, missing the sarcasm as usual.

"Doy, and have about a thousand police plus Kim Possible waiting for us when we got down. Just curious, do you ever use that supposedly genius brain of yours to think things through?" asked Shego.

"Genius isn't easy, Shego. It keeps my brain too busy to think about mundane details," said Drakken, trying to maintain his dignity. He paused a moment to try and figure if he had just accidentally insulted himself, then decided that he had not.

Shego gave a shrug, intending to let the conversation lapse back into silence.

Drakken wouldn't allow it, though. "When I rule the world, things will be different. Then my name will inspire fear, respect, and fast landing times. No more circling the airport then!" he said.

"How?" said Shego, after a moment.

"Why, I expect they'll bump other planes for me, like we're being bumped now," explained Drakken. He was confused at Shego's question.

"No, I mean how will things be different when you take over the world? What exactly do you plan to do once you're in charge? Other than get good landing times," said Shego.

"I…." began Drakken, before lapsing into furious thinking. He realized that for once, his imagination was failing him. Rather than a hundred ideas competing to be thought out, he was drawing a complete blank. He knew he wanted respect and power so he could make everything go his way, but beyond that he wasn't quite sure. The idea of actually administering the world didn't much appeal. That would take him out of his laboratory far too much and keep him away from his experiments.

Shego was staring at him, waiting for an answer. Drakken desperately wished that she could utter some sarcasm or otherwise say something he could take offense at, rather than waiting patiently for the answer to her quite reasonable question. Her stare was getting uncomfortable.

"I always saw myself in more of a supervisory role," he finally said. "Not so much in all the nitty-gritty everyday government. I'll just… allow the current governments to continue what they're doing. Underneath my supervision, of course. And they'll only bother me when… there's a problem. Yes, I'd be more of a high level problem solver. Something goes wrong and they'll come to me, properly appreciative of my genius of course, and I'll find a way to fix it. Then I retire to my lab until I'm needed again." Drakken nodded his head to Shego, finally relaxing. It had been a bit sticky for a moment, but the plan was fairly obvious once he thought about it.

"So let me see if I understand this," said Shego. There was an odd tension in her voice. "You'd let the world pretty much run like it does now, except people will cheer you and respect your… genius. And when the world has problems, they'll come to you, and you as ruler will go out and help people with their problems."

"Precisely," said Drakken.

"I bet you could even have some way of letting people contact you directly with their problems. Say a website of some sort where people could send their requests for help," said Shego. She was carefully controlling herself.

"That's an excellent idea, Shego. Of course, I'll need to assign a henchman to sort through all the requests and set my schedule, but the concept is sound," mused Drakken, glancing out the window. When he looked back at Shego, he realized she had a very odd expression on her face. If it wasn't utterly ridiculous, he would have said that she was horrified. "Shego, is there something wrong?" he asked.

"But you'll actually have to take over the world first," said Shego. She shook her head as if trying to drive out bad thoughts. "So we don't have to worry about that yet."

"Oh, I think I'm getting very close to-"

"We don't have to worry about that yet!" yelled Shego.

Drakken shrank back into his seat and shut up.

"Let's… let's just be quiet for a while. You work on your death ray designs, m'kay?" said Shego.

Drakken nodded vigorously and took out his notepad, wondering what he had said to upset Shego so much.

They landed the hover car just outside the museum. The plan was to first scout out the place, having Shego disable the security, and then summon the hover car when they were ready to haul off the Project Firebreak machine.

A soft glow appeared in Drakken's hand as he flipped open the screen on a small device. He poked a few buttons and studied the screen. "My biometric scanner says that there's no one inside, Shego," he announced.

"What, not even some guards?" Shego said doubtfully.

"The scanner doesn't lie, Shego. I built it myself," replied Drakken.

"Well that inspires confidence," replied Shego sarcastically. "Tell you what, we're just going to pretend that the scanner might possibly be wrong and there is someone inside, okay?"

"Must you always complicate everything? Just get the door open so we can get my machine," ordered Drakken.

Shego studied the alarm on the entrance door. It was a decent model, but no match for her skills. A pried up panel and jolt of plasma to the proper location later, and the door popped open an inch.

Drakken started to push forward through the door, but Shego shoved him back. "Hold on!" she whispered. She extended a small periscope through the tiny crack the door had been opened and peered about, searching for cameras. After finding what she was looking for, she pulled back the periscope.

"All right. I'm going to zap their power line. It'll put their cameras out of position for a few seconds. When it does, we move. Got it?" asked Shego.

Drakken nodded in response, so Shego followed through with her plan. During the instant the cameras cut out she yanked Drakken through the door, closing it behind them, and into a blind spot for the museum cameras. Safe for the moment, she paused to take stock.

It wasn't as dark in the museum as it might have been. Though the main lights had been shut off, small emergency lights still glowed in a few corners. They provided enough illumination to make out the museum's contents. The platform they were currently lurking on was occupied by several dinosaur skeletons, and over on the other side of the room were what looked like some models of early cave men.

"It's creepy in here. My museum lair is going to have a lot more science and a lot fewer bones," said Drakken. He spoke quietly.

"You do all the lair design. Where would you put an entrance to a secret lab?" asked Shego.

"Hmmm." Drakken looked around, trying to see in the dim light. "The lab would be underground, of course. I'd want to have an entrance out in the exhibit area as well as one in the back. Errr… There, in the Paleolithic Sky Pavilion. It's perfect. You go in there and close the door behind you. Then instead of exiting out the other side when the time is up, there'll be a hidden elevator down to the lab."

"Worth a look," said Shego. She led Drakken on a circuitous path through the museum, avoiding the gaze of the security cameras. Just as they drew close to the Paleolithic Sky Pavilion, however, she pulled to a halt. "Aha-ha!" she muttered.

"Huh-what?" asked Drakken.

"Forget the Pavilion! Look at that rock wall in the cavemen exhibit. See the light leaking out from around those cracks? There's a door behind there," said Shego.

"Don't be ridiculous Shego. The old door in a rock wall trick? Done far too much. I'm telling you, there's an elevator in the Pavilion," contradicted Drakken.

"Doy, then why did they put a pit trap in front of said rock wall? I can see the outline on the floor. Face it Doctor D, Gemini is a traditionalist. You stay here. I've got this covered," said Shego.

While Drakken waited in front of the Pavilion, glowering, Shego crept towards the rock-door. There was a hidden card slide where one could presumably deactivate the trap. Lacking the proper key, Shego got a running start and gracefully leapt over the danger area. She then examined the door. It wasn't difficult to see where the alarm circuits were connected, and Shego spent a few seconds bypassing them. How to open the door, however, wasn't so obvious. Perhaps some sort of radio signal to a mechanism on the other side, Shego theorized. She'd seen something like that before once.

She listened at the door for a while, but there was nothing to be heard. It seemed doubtful that a guard would be posted directly behind the door, so Shego decided to take the gamble. She waved a hand for Drakken to be ready, then ignited the plasma around one of her fists. With a terrible and swift blow she punched the stone wall, intending to shatter it and clear the way inside.

Shego's fist broke through a thin stone shell and embedded itself in a gooey, sticky mass inside the wall. She tugged, but was unable to free herself. Hoping to move before whatever it was set, Shego lined up her free hand and released a plasma blast near the point where her trapped hand was embedded in the wall. The stone shell broke through in a different place, and a thick glob of whatever was inside surged out, catching Shego's free hand. Before she could react, surge reversed itself, drawing her formerly free hand with it. Shego now had both hands trapped inside what she was beginning to strongly suspect had never been any sort of door.

Behind Drakken, the door to the Paleolithic Sky Pavilion slid open. Drakken turned at the sound, seeing Gemini revealed in the doorway. Shocked, Drakken could only protest, "Impossible! My biometric scanner said there was no one in this museum." He waved the biometric scanner at Gemini, as if hoping it would make his foe disappear.

"Perhaps you should have double-checked it before you left," said Gemini. He reached out with his mechanical hand and grabbed Drakken by the face. An enormous electrical jolt was released from the hand into Drakken's head, causing Drakken's body to jerk in spastic action and fling away the scanner. Drakken slumped to the floor, unconscious.

Gemini waved at Drakken's trapped sidekick. "I admit, I was a bit worried when you two started to head towards the Pavilion here. Fortunately you decided to trust your instincts over your employer's brain," he said.

He walked over to Shego, stepping on the apparent pit trap without fear. "Now then. To business," he said.

It was at this point that Shego started to get worried.

Author's Notes:

Ouch, it's been over a week and a half, I know. Sorry, all I can say is that I fell a bit out of the writing grove last week. Still, I'm back now, and we're getting to the really fun stuff.

I'm still not confident on how the whole Yamanuchi side trip turned out. I hope I came up with an interesting twist on Sensei's motivations and actions (or lack of actions) in this matter. And that Yori, she just doesn't give up, does she?

Things got a lot easier for me on the downhill end of this chapter. I spent like five minutes cackling to myself over the line, "Say a website of some sort." And now we're getting back to the territory I had more heavily outlined. I'll try to have the next chapter out this weekend.

As always, I tried hard to balance the evil and the goofy, the genius and the incompetence. And with Shego, her being skilled versus sometimes screwing up all the same.

Thanks to Gargoylesama, Eva91, PoisonousAngel, Corencio, and Jezrianna2.0 for the reviews. I don't write for the reviews exactly, but it's nice to know people are reading and enjoying.

I'm glad that many of you like how Drakken and Shego play off each other. As I've said many times, they're just so much fun to write. Jezrianna, good thoughts on differing interpretations of characters. I want you to know that my interpretation is always influenced by a comment you made about not whitewashing Drakken and Shego too much. I just try to keep the funny too, that's all.