Chapter 5
Kim jumped back on instinct when a shadowy figure dropped down in front of her. It was dark in the warehouse, but she would have recognized the shapely silhouette anywhere.
"What the hell are you doing here, Kim?" Shego said.
"Shego!" Kim brought her hands up to a defensive position and eyed the villainess with suspicion and a certain amount of desire. "What are you doing here?"
"That's none of your damn business. Why are you following me? Had a change of heart about letting me go?"
"I'm not following you. Are you working with Adrena Lynn?" Even though they hadn't made any promises beyond truce for their rendezvous, Kim couldn't help feeling hurt. "Are you just going to stab me in the back right after I helped you out?"
"The way I figure I already settled my debt for your little favor. I distinctly remember scratching your back," Shego said, causing Kim's cheeks to heat up.
"And no, I am not working with that little bitch. I'm just going to teach her a little something about limits. She's after something that I regard as my rightful property, and she damn well better learn to keep her hands off it."
Kim's jaw dropped, and she experienced a very curious mix of emotions. On one hand, Shego being protective of her sent a very pleasant thrill through her. On the other hand, it was awfully presumptuous of her to think of her as property.
"I can protect myself, you know," Kim said, trying to sound indignant.
"What?" Shego said. She looked at Kim with eyes wide in confusion. Then she snorted. "Wait, you thought I was talking about you?"
Shego laughed at her. It was a mocking laughter Kim was all too familiar with, though she hadn't heard it much over the last few months. She had trouble breathing and her heart constricted. This was how her nightmares went, with Shego callously rebuffing her advances and mercilessly mocking her when she'd left herself vulnerable.
"Kim, look, I'm sorry." Kim's eyes shot up to Shego's face. It was hard to read her expression in the dark, but the woman looked uncertain, embarrassed. "I didn't meant to laugh at you. I said I wouldn't use this as a weapon against you and I meant it. But you've got to admit it's funny, you thinking I'm your knight in shining armor."
Kim didn't really see the humor in it. Anger rose in her, but it was directed against herself. She should not have let her fantasies get the better of her. Shego had just wanted a night of fun; she wasn't secretly in love with her.
"Can we forget I said that?" Kim said, embarrassed, but once again in control of herself.
"Sure," Shego said. "Wait, no, we can't. Why do you think she's after you?"
"Revenge, duh. I put her in jail."
"You put me in jail, too, Pumpkin. I never come after you for revenge," Shego said. "Rematch, maybe, but not revenge."
"The reason I put her in jail was because she wanted revenge for her ruined career. I figure she might be at least as ticked off by jail time."
"Hm. Maybe." Shego looked thoughtful. "Tell you what. Once I'm done with her I'll bundle her up for the police to pick up."
"You'd do that?"
"Sure, why not? I'll be happy to see the last of her. I'm pretty sure she's violated her parole already, and I can make sure there's evidence."
"So what is she after that's got you tweaked?"
"None of your business, Kimmie. It's personal. You run along home now, I've got this handled." Shego made shooing gestures with her hands.
"I can't just let you assault her, Shego," Kim said. "Look, we have common interest in her. Maybe we could, you know, work together on this?"
It seemed a very sensible solution to Kim. If it meant she needed to spend some more time around Shego she was more than willing to make that sacrifice. Getting her mother to let her stay in Upperton longer than planned might take some effort, though.
"Uh-uh. Nah-ah. No way."
"Fine. But I'm here to find evidence of Lynn breaking her parole, and I will."
Kim felt like herself again. She pulled out her Kimmunicator and turned it on, taking care to angle the camera away from Shego. Wade answered right away, and Kim wondered if he ever moved away from his computers.
"What do you need, Kim?"
"Wade, Lynn has cleared out. There are some fresh tire tracks here. Can you get a read on them?"
"Point the cameras at the tracks, Kim," Wade said.
Kim found the spot by the doors where the tracks she'd noticed outside had to terminate. Wade's fingers flew on keyboards as he remotely calibrated the on-board sensors. A false-color image on the Kimmunicator's screen highlighted the tracks in the dark warehouse.
"Got it, Kim. Looks like a van."
"Tweebs added a new sensor suite to my car, do you think I could use it to track the van?"
"Maybe. Plug the Kimmunicator in and I'll see what they've installed."
"Fine," Shego said from behind Kim.
"Never mind, Wade, I've got a lead," Kim said. "I'll call you back later." She looked at Shego expectantly.
"I know where she's going. If it's that damned important to you, you can come with me. We get some footage of her breaking her parole, I rough her up..." Shego paused as Kim glared at her. "I scare her a little, you send her back to jail. Everybody gets what they want."
"Except Adrena Lynn," Kim said. "She gets what she deserves."
Kim followed Shego's car to a parking lot by a red brick building. It was one of the new commercial buildings popping up in the formerly industrial area. Despite the ongoing construction work on a couple of surrounding lots and some obviously new apartment buildings, the area was somehow even deader than the rest of Upperton.
Shego's car was suspiciously similar to a car that had been parked in front of the motel when they'd arrived there, though the plates didn't match. Kim activated a camera and zoomed in on the license plate. In the glare of her headlights it was easy to tell the plate had been changed. Kim fought down a feeling of guilt. It was too late for it now, she'd known Shego would most likely steal a car when they'd parted ways.
Shego parked the stolen car near the middle of the empty lot. Kim parked her Roth near the edge. She grabbed her backpack and got out of the car. Shego walked up to her.
"That thing is too conspicuous, Kimmie. We need to put it somewhere out of the view," Shego said.
"No big, I've got it covered."
Kim pulled out the car key again, and pressed a button on the fob. The vintage car changed color from bright purple to dull brown.
"It's still noticeable. I didn't know any of those abominations were still in circulation."
"Don't insult my car, Shego. Now, where do we find Lynn?"
"Follow me," Shego said and started walking towards the nearest building.
Kim followed, her eyes straying to Shego's shapely backside. She felt a sharp yearning in her chest and in her loins. It wasn't anything new. Keeping her cool when facing Shego had become harder and harder over the past few months. She wondered how many of her recent captures were the result of her desire to feel Shego's hands on her overriding her better sense. She'd hoped that finally scratching that itch would have helped her get over it. In fact it had only made things worse, with memories replacing fantasies in the picture reel that started playing whenever she thought of Shego.
Shego led her to a side door and held it open for her. They walked through a dark storage space using the Kimmunicator as a flashlight and emerged to an empty, lit corridor. Shego directed Kim to the stairwell.
"Couldn't we have taken the elevator?" Kim said.
"It's got a camera in it. Plus I'm not even sure if it's in use at this hour."
Kim was not thrilled to be reminded that they were breaking and entering. She consoled herself with the fact that the building was basically a public space.
"It probably is. I don't think the cleaners want to cart their equipment by the stairs," she said. Shego probably knew that, anyway, but she wanted to make conversation.
"Speaking of which, less noise would be nice, Kimmie."
"Sorry," Kim said, voice low. "I'm not used to being a burglar."
"It's only burglary if we steal something. This barely counts as trespassing."
"So why are we skulking around then?"
"Escaped convict, remember? Well, you probably do, seeing how you were my getaway driver."
It was a less than subtle reminder that Kim wasn't in the best position to protest against illegalities right now. Kim had to wonder why she was letting Shego drag her even deeper into questionable activities. Oh, right; hormones.
They reached the top floor and Shego carefully cracked open the stairwell door and peered into the long corridor. The coast was clear, and they walked the length of the corridor to a door at the other end. Shego picked it open. Kim swallowed her protest. It would be silly to complain after coming this far.
"You know, you take quite naturally to burglary," Shego said and led Kim inside.
"As you pointed out, it's not burglary since I don't intend to commit a crime. It's criminal trespass."
"That's still a misdemeanor, right?"
"Since the door was locked, yeah. I think. Why are we even discussing this?"
"Because your guilty conscience is nagging at you about the consequences if you get caught," Shego said. "Anyway, I intend to commit a crime."
"What crime?" Kim said.
"Illegal surveillance. We want to catch Lynn in action, right?"
"It's not illegal if we record her in a public location. And if it was illegal I couldn't take it to the police, anyway. Don't you even know what's legal and what's not?"
"Eh, I don't stress about it. I have sentences for more than my natural life, so I kind of crossed the Rubicon on that a while ago. As long as it's not a capital crime I don't really care."
"What a wonderful attitude you have."
"Bad girls have more fun, Kimmie. You should try it someday."
Kim reflected that she arguably had tried it over the past few days. She wasn't sure the thrills were worth the guilt. Then she remembered the sensation of Shego's naked body against hers and concluded that yes, yes they were. She also realized that she was getting more than a little aroused.
Kim looked around the room Shego had led them in. It was a corner office, with windows on two sides. There was a table in the middle of it, and Shego was setting up a laptop on it. There was a dark shape in the corner. Taking a couple of steps closer, Kim recognized it as a sleeping bag on a roll mat, with a duffel bag lying on it. Clearly Shego had been here a while.
"Right," Shego said, catching Kim's attention, and pointed at an old factory building visible from the window. "That building over there is one of Jack Hench's R&D labs. Lynn is going to hit it sooner or later. I'd hoped to catch up to her before she did, but my lead proved a dud."
"How do you know that? And if that's where she's going, why are we up here?"
"I have my sources. We're here because I don't know when she's going to show up, and I don't want to sit in a cramped car for hours or days. It tends to draw attention, too."
Shego pointed to the laptop she'd set up. Number of windows on the screen showed scenes Kim recognized as entrances to the factory.
"I have cameras set up to cover all the likely entrances. All we need to do is sit tight until the bitch shows up."
"Can you please not use that word?"
"No."
Kim decided to let it go. "What about unlikely entrances?"
"Well, if she's going to blow up a wall, I figure we'll see it from here."
"Why are you helping Jack Hench? I got the impression he and Dr. Drakken didn't really get along."
"This has nothing to do with Dr. D, and I'm not helping Hench. I'll kick his ass after we deal with Lynn. Teach the bastard not to mess with things that don't concern him."
"This would be the personal matter?"
"Yup. No need to bother your pretty little head with it."
"When do you think they'll move?"
"I'm not even sure it's tonight. I think they're done for the day," Shego said, nodding towards the R&D building, "so there's no reason Lynn couldn't hit it now. There's not many witnesses around here. But she'll probably wait until after midnight just to piss me off."
"So we could be waiting up for hours?"
"And possibly for nothing. Do you have any ideas to pass the time?"
Kim put on her best coquettish look and glanced towards the sleeping bag in the corner.
"No, Kimmie. That was a one-time thing. We're not going to make a habit of it."
"Oh, come on, Shego. I know you enjoyed it," Kim said and stepped closer to the thief. "You'll enjoy it this time, too."
"This is serious, Kim. I'm not going to mix business and pleasure."
"Since when?" Kim asked. She slowly and deliberately batted her eyes at Shego.
"I'm not sleeping with you, and that's final."
Kim lay on the open sleeping bag, her naked body pressed against Shego's. They weren't quite cuddling; Shego had made it clear she wouldn't countenance it. However, there was only so much room on the bag, and with their legs tucked into it for warmth they couldn't put much distance between them if they tried. With sweat cooling on her skin, Kim shivered. She burrowed closer into Shego's side, and to her surprise Shego wrapped an arm around her. She sighed contentedly.
"You're an evil seductress, Kimmie," Shego said.
"I heard bad girls have more fun," Kim said. Shego laughed, and this time it sounded friendly.
"This still won't change anything. I'm going to kick your ass the next time you come after Dr. D. And this was definitely the last time."
"Of course," Kim pleasantly agreed. Then her mood soured as an annoying thought wormed its way into her consciousness. "Shego. Um. Is there... do you have any, you know..."
"Yes, Kimmie?"
"Do you have any STIs I should worry about?" Kim rushed the question out.
"Kimmie, that's the kind of thing you should ask before you sleep with someone."
"I know, but it's just that... I didn't know how..."
"You know, this is why it isn't really the bad girls like me that are the problem. I have casual sex, but I take precautions. It's nice girls like you who can't bring up the topic for fear of ruining the romance that are the problem."
"You didn't really worry with me."
"Well, I figured the chances of me catching something from you weren't very high. And I'd just escaped from prison. It's not like I was equipped."
"How do you, you know, usually protect yourself with another girl?"
"Okay, fine, you got me. I mostly don't. I'm not nearly as careful with girls as I am with guys. If you're going to make a habit of lesbian hook-ups, you definitely should use protection."
"I wasn't really planning on it." Kim was silent for a moment, resting her head on Shego's shoulder. "You didn't say if you had anything."
"I think I'm clean," Shego said. "I'll, uh, I'll get tested and let you know, okay?" Both women fell silent, lost in thought.
"I'm guessing you didn't use any protection with your previous partners, either," Shego said. "Should I be worried?"
"No. I've only had one other partner and it was the first for both of us."
"You know, I'm happy your first time was with someone other than me," Shego said.
"You didn't want to take my virginity?"
"That's a guy thing, Kimmie. I don't really get it; I prefer my partners to know their way around."
"Was I..." Kim started to say.
"You were fine, Kimmie. It's how I knew you had some experience," Shego said, hugging Kim with the arm around her. "But you are going to remember your first time. If it's bad, it can color your view of sex for a long time. All girls deserve a great first experience, with someone special."
Kim gave a short bitter laugh. Shego didn't say anything, but the question hung in the air. Kim wasn't sure if this was something she wanted to tell Shego about, but she'd promised not to use their affair against her, and that probably extended to pillow talk confessions. Then there was the fact that Kim didn't really have anyone else to share these things with.
"My first time," she said, then paused to gather her thoughts. "There's this girl on the squad—the cheerleading squad."
"I got it, Kimmie."
"We don't really get along that well, we're pretty much rivals, but she's the hottest girl on the squad."
"A shapely brunette, great legs, a bit of a bitch?"
"You know her?" Kim said, eyes opening with astonishment.
"Nah, I was just wondering if you had a type."
"I so do not have a type."
"That's not what it sounds like to me."
"Anyway," Kim said, deciding to ignore Shego, "we kind of caught each other looking. I'm sure she would have loved to announce to the school I was checking out other girls in the showers, but she couldn't because I'd seen her do it too."
"Mutually assured destruction, huh?"
"Whatever. Anyway, we kind of warily watched each other for a while to see if the other was going to make and issue of it, but neither of us did."
"Okay, then what happened?"
"Do you have any idea what it's like to be a closeted lesbian in high school?"
"Can't say I do. I didn't discover girls until college. It wasn't a big deal there."
"You went to college?"
"Why do you sound so astonished? You don't think I'm smart enough?"
"No, it's just I can't really picture it. You're a mercenary and a thief. What did you major in?"
"It's not like I decided on that on a high school career day. I was still a hero when I started college. Can we get back to your torrid lesbian affair?"
"Well, that's just it. I didn't know any lesbians in my school. I'm sure there were some, but I didn't know who. It's not like I could just start asking. I didn't want to out myself, so I didn't have anyone to talk things over with."
"Other that your rival on the squad."
"Exactly. She was in the same boat, so we eventually started talking about it. You know, comparing experiences and so on."
"And one thing lead to another, like they so often do between hormonal teenagers."
"Well, she is really hot," Kim said, blushing. "We didn't really hang together in school, but we were practically inseparable the summer after the sophomore year. We hung at the mall, went shopping together, went to movies, theater, ballet..."
"And screwed like rabbits every chance you got."
"It was a really fun summer," Kim said. She was blushing even harder now, but couldn't keep the grin from her face.
"Sounds to me like a pretty successful high school romance. What happened?"
"The junior year started. I went back to school and she acted like the summer hadn't even happened. It was just like before we got together. She'd hang around with her clique and put me down whenever I happened by. She'd always been obsessed with the whole high school food chain thing, but I'd though she'd acknowledge that things had changed between us. It really hurt."
"Did you talk to her about it?"
"No. We never even really broke up. We just... stopped." Well, they'd mostly stopped. "I know this is going to sound horrible, but I'm not sure we ever even liked each other. I'm not sure we had anything but teenage lust."
They lay together in silence. Kim wondered what Shego was thinking. She hadn't held her like this the last time. Did that mean she was warming to her? Laying there beside the alluring woman, Kim knew that this was what she wanted. How could she ever settle for Ron, if she had a chance with Shego?
"Get your clothes on, Kimmie. It's go time," Shego said, interrupting Kim's thoughts. "I can't believe I said that," she added more quietly.
Kim sat up and glanced at the laptop. One of the windows showed a van pulling to a stop by the building. From the corner of her eye she noticed Shego was already up and searching for her underwear. She noted her naked body only in passing, her mind already in mission mode.
"Are you sure it's her?" Kim asked as she pulled her panties on.
"She's stepping out of the van right now, no mask. Looks like four guys with her," Shego said, adjusting her sports bra.
"Do we take the gear with us or leave it here?"
"Will you give me a head start when you hand her over to the cops?"
"I might forget to mention you at all."
"Then I can come back for it." Shego was already pulling her catsuit on. Kim committed the sight of her bent over posture to memory, to be savored later.
"Come on, slowpoke," Shego said, pulling the zipper on her suit closed and turning for the door.
"Wait," Kim said as she pulled her shirt over her head. She was annoyed that Shego was dressed before her. "Do you think those windows open?"
"We're five stories up, Kimmie."
Kim gestured towards her hairdryer grappling hook. "I have enough wire for that."
"Well, it would save time," Shego said and stepped to the windows, searching for a way to open them. "You should have brought that up sooner, we could have prepared for it."
"Sorry, moment's inspiration."
There was a key lying on the windowsill that opened the larger windows. It took them a little over a minute to get one open. Cold night air rushed in. Kim slipped out the window, hooking the grapple on the windowsill and hanging off, both hands on her grapple gun and legs braced against the wall. Shego maneuvered out of the window and climbed on Kim's back, wrapping her arms and legs around Kim.
"You just wanted me close to you, didn't you?"
"Hang on. I'm pretty sure this will work," Kim said. She freed the spool and engaged the mechanism for retracting the cable. She knew the electric motor wasn't strong enough to reel the cable against their combined weight, but was fairly confident it would slow their descent to a survivable speed. She was almost as confident that the strain wouldn't burn it out.
"What do you mean 'pretty sure'? Eep!"
The descent was a little more rapid than Kim had expected. Luckily they were both used to rough landings. Shego disengaged before they hit the ground and both tucked into a roll to kill the momentum. Kim stood up, shook herself off and snatched up the hairdryer gun. A click of a button sent a signal for the grapple to fold up, and Kim stood from under the falling weight as the cable spooled up.
"Why did I listen to you?" Shego said.
"Don't be such a baby," Kim said. "They left a lookout in the van. How do we deal with him?"
"Up on to the roof of the adjacent warehouse, drop down next to the door, I punch his lights out."
"Well, let's get to it."
The lookout was startled when Shego dropped down on the roof of the van. That turned to alarm when a glowing green fist smashed through the window on the door. Shego grabbed the cellphone the thug had been holding and crushed it. Then he opened the door and yanked the man out, none too gently.
"You know," Shego said in a conversational tone, "you should have got walkie-talkies. Texting is just too slow when you need to warn your buddies at a moment's notice." The criminal looked confused.
"I don't think he was texting the others," Kim said, then turned to the hapless lookout. "You were playing a game, weren't you?" The man looked down, visibly ashamed.
Shego closed her eyes, looking pained. "Can I knock him out now?"
"Not yet," Kim said. She pulled the unresisting man's wrists together behind his back and tied them together with a zip-tie. "Give us a breakdown on the crew and the plan."
"I'm not telling you anything," the man said, trying to rally his courage.
"See," Shego said, "that's the wrong answer. It's the kind of answer that gets you hurt."
"She won't let you hurt me," the man said, but didn't seem too sure about it.
"Don't worry," Kim said sweetly, "I'll step in if she gets too rough. She probably won't have time to break very many of your bones." She knew she should feel guilty about this, but there was something very satisfying in the way the man was cowering.
"There's two guys for locks and alarms, one guy for muscle," he said. "I'm the driver. Lynn's after something specific in one of the labs, we get to keep everything else we find."
"Thank you," Kim said.
"Wait, I have a question," Shego said. She stepped up right to the man's face. "Why the hell didn't you hit the place yesterday?"
"We, uh, didn't have all the gear together, and all the stores were closed on Sunday."
Shego stared at the man, her eyes wide open. She opened her mouth, then closed it, spun on her heel and stalked towards the entrance to Hench's facility. Kim led the unresisting captive to a street sign, secured him to it, and duct taped his mouth shut.
"You just sit tight, okay?" Kim said before hurrying after Shego.
Kim opened the exterior door and found herself in a mostly featureless, white-washed corridor. She moved cautiously onwards, peeking around the corner. She saw another corridor, but this one had a number of doors opening to it. One was ajar. She sneaked up to it and looked through. Behind it was a long and narrow room equipped with a number of workbenches along one side. At the end was another door, and lying next to it was an immobile man in dark clothing. Kim quietly ran to the man and ascertained that he was still breathing.
Beyond the door was a square room furnished with some tables, chairs, a water dispenser and a large potted plant, with doors on all walls. Shego was engaged in combat with two men, her fists engulfed in green glow. One of the men, a notably tall and broad-shouldered one, was keeping Shego at a distance by swinging a baseball bat in wide arcs. The smaller man, armed with a stun baton, was attempting to circle behind her, but Shego was maneuvering to prevent it. Kim moved to assist her.
"I've got this, Kimmie! Go stop Lynn," Shego said, taking a moment to gesture towards an open heavy-duty door.
Kim thought Shego might not mind a little assist, and tripped up the man with the baton in passing as she dashed for the door. She emerged in what looked like a small storage room, walls lined with metal cabinets. Lynn was digging in one across the room. Kim wasted little time sprinting towards the blonde, only to be brought up short when Lynn whirled around with a strange-looking weapon in her hands.
"Too late, Kim Possible," Lynn said with a triumphant leer. She then pointed the weapon at herself.
Momentarily frozen in surprise, Kim noticed a green flash from the corner of her eye. Time seemed to move in slow motion as one of Shego's bolts struck the weapon in Lynn's hands, but there was nothing she could do as the device exploded. Kim's world was engulfed by an orange blaze.
Kim came to and tried to blink yellow-orange flashes from her eyes. She was reclining against a cold brick wall, not very comfortably. She realized Shego was kneeling before her, one hand resting on her shoulder. For a moment, with her vision blurry, she thought the strange expression on Shego's face was worry.
"Are you okay, Kim?" Shego said.
"Yeah... I think so," Kim said, taking stock of her aching body. "I don't think anything's broken. What happened?"
Before Shego could answer, there came a voice from behind her.
"Freaky," Adrena Lynn said. Leaning to the side to peer behind Shego, Kim saw Lynn staring at her hands with an expression that was a curious mix of fascination and manic glee.
Her hands were glowing bright orange.
