The laser cannon barely fit inside of Slade's newly reopened underground lair, but after clearing out some piles of broken gears, the villains were able to manage. Shego sat down on another pile and looked around. "Well this place is…messy. Seriously, someone could get really injured playing with this stuff."
Slade replied, "It appears others have been here since I was away. I have a few guesses…" He picked up a piece of green fabric that was stuck to a sharp edge. Robin's uniform. He must have fallen for my final trick, he thought, recalling the powder he had put in his mask before his previous apprentice had betrayed him. And yet he is still alive. Not bad, Robin, not bad. I'll just have to try harder this time.
Dr. Drakken, still bitter about the way things had gone over and sporting a new bright orange collar, commented, "Well, at least my lair was more organized than this dump…Aah!" His collar buzzed with a shock and made his hair stick out in all directions.
Shego laughed. "You know, the obedience collar is a really nice touch. I should have thought of that sooner. We should put these on everybody. What do you think, Slade? Slade?"
Not answering, Slade wiped a thick layer of dust off a wall-sized screen and turned them on. He plugged in a device and instantly six little green dots appeared on a map of Jump City. "Think you can hide, Robin?" he apostrophized. "Your team is all mine."
"Um, Slade?" Shego asked, waving at him. "Hello? Earth to masked man?"
He turned around and was probably scowling at her. "Apprentice, you are not to speak to me in such a tone."
"Yeah, okay," she replied, "but am I going to go fight Kimmie, or just sit in this dump moving broken parts out of the doorway?"
"My lair wasn't a dump!" Dr. Drakken pointed out. A sharp buzz on his obedience collar sent him back to silent sulking.
The green dots suddenly started to move out of their cluster and travel along city streets. They were still in a group, but they were no longer in the Tower. "It looks like 'Kimmie' and the Titans are on the move," Slade said.
"Finally, a little action," Shego grinned, one of her hands lighting up at the thought of fighting Kim Possible. Thanks to her new black battle suit, the energy bolt was brighter green and much larger and hotter.
"You always got plenty of action with me!" Drakken shouted.
Shego held out her hand. Slade placed a remote in it. She pushed the big red button.
"Aaah!" Drakken screeched, his hair going frizzy. "It burns! Shego!"
She let go and handed it back to Slade, not even noticing her former master's pain. She analyzed the map. "Looks like they're heading for Chinatown," she said. "Perfect."
"Yes," Slade agreed. "Follow them, apprentice. When they become separated, fight them, and destroy them."
"You mean…kill them?"
"Of course." He turned his eye toward her with some suspicion. "Does this bother you?"
She laughed. "Not at all! I've been waiting to get rid of Kimmie for years. She just has a habit of escaping at the last second. Now I get to eliminate her and her little friends all in one go."
Slade looked away from her again, but continued to speak to her. "You had better not fail me, apprentice."
"Like you even need to tell me," she said, heading for the exit. "Want me to pick up anything while I'm out? It's nearly lunchtime, and I could totally go for some Chinese after dealing with those kids."
Drakken poked his head nervously out of a pile of metal. "Ooh, yes! I'll have some orange chicken, some spring rolls, and that thing…what's that thing with the stuff that we got last time…you know that thing…aah! Turn it off! Aah!" The obedience collar calmed down. "Never mind. I'm not particular."
On the streets of Jump City, the T-Car cruised along with Cyborg at the wheel. Raven rode shotgun, and Beast Boy, Kim and Ron sat in the back. Robin stayed right next to them on the R-Cycle, with Starfire flying right above him. Cyborg played the part of a tour guide to perfection.
"On your right," he said, "you can see the best pizza parlor in town. I highly recommend the Meat Lover's Supreme."
"Don't listen to him," Beast Boy told Ron. "The veggie pizza is the only real option."
The car turned a corner. "On your left," Cy continued, "you can see the Jump City Bridge. How many times have we saved that bridge exactly? Four?"
"I thought it was at least five," Raven said.
"Okay, five. There, on the left, is the dump. If you fall into one of those trash heaps, some freaky stuff can go down. Seriously, y'all better not do it. Now straight ahead you can see that we are approaching the entrance to Chinatown. We've fought some bad guys here a few times. Plus, there are a lot of fantastic gift shops and restaurants if you know where to look."
"Speaking of restaurants," Beast Boy said, "is anyone else here starving?"
"You're always starving," Raven replied.
"But is anyone else? C'mon, it's around lunchtime and we've been sitting in this car for hours. Can we at least get out and look around for a place to eat?"
"What do you think, Robin?" Cyborg asked the communicator built into the car.
"All right, Cy," Robin's voice answered over the static. "Just don't get too spread out. We're still on a mission."
Cyborg pulled into the first available parking space along the sidewalk, and Robin parked beside him. Everyone piled out of the T-Car and onto the sidewalk, where they took a look around.
"Whoa," Ron whispered. "This is one badical place."
Beast Boy pointed to the sign over the door in front of them. "Check it out! Custom made fortune cookies! Maybe they have a suggestion for Raven's sunny disposition. Ha ha!" Raven slapped his pointed ear mid-laugh. "Ouch!"
"You can eat all the fortune cookies you want," Raven told the rest of her team, "but I'm going to the antique shop next door. I found some very good books in there once, and if I'm lucky I'll find some more. Anyone else want to come?"
"I'm with BB on the fortune cookies," Cyborg said.
"Me too," Ron agreed.
Feeling a little bad that Raven was being left out, Kim volunteered, "I'll come with."
"And I shall locate the lunch!" Starfire announced.
Robin grabbed her hand before she could fly off. "Not by yourself, you're not. I'm coming with you." He felt everyone's eyes staring at him. "Because…we might still be being watched," he quickly added. "It might not be safe alone, and I don't want you getting hurt."
Cyborg rolled his one human eye. "Man, she's your girlfriend. You don't have to make up excuses. Just go get us some grub and stop being so paranoid."
"I'm not paranoid," Robin grumbled as the other boys split off into the fortune cookie shop. He leaned back against his motorcycle. Starfire dropped down from the sky and landed on its seat.
Before leaving with Kim, Raven moved closer to Robin and said in a hushed voice, "While you two are getting lunch, ask her."
"What?" he whispered back.
"Her emotions are in a bad state right now, and they have been since the football game. Ask her about it. The sooner she can get it off her chest, the sooner her emotions will balance out and the less likely it is that they'll interfere with her powers. You know how they are. Even confusion can cause her serious damage."
Robin hated to do anything that would make Starfire uncomfortable, and the one thing he knew about what had happened between her and Shego was that it had been very uncomfortable. "I don't think she wants to talk about it," he told Raven.
"You have to," she insisted. "I'd find out myself, but the issue is buried so deeply inside her mind that I couldn't reach it without full on going inside her head. She trusts you, Robin. She'll tell you anything. It's for her own good." Silently, Raven departed into the antique shop with Kim Possible in tow.
Starfire inspected the R-Cycle from her seat. She had often ridden inside of the T-Car, but only a few times on the R-Cycle, and she had always been a little bit curious about how it worked. "Robin," she asked, "how does one drive this device? I have mastered the bicycle, but this looks much different though it has a similar shape."
Robin always thought it was adorable whenever Star had questions about normal earth things. "I'll show you," he said, putting on his helmet. She scooted back and he sat down in front of her on the seat. "You see, you turn it on here…and then you check this…"
He continued to narrate every action until the R-Cycle had pulled out of the parking spot and onto the street. Starfire wrapped her arms around him for safety. Robin did not mind this one bit. "And then we drive to the lunch?" Starfire guessed his next direction.
"Yeah," he said. "Now we drive to lunch. Hang on!" They took off.
Meanwhile at the antique shop, Kim looked around, trying to find something she was interested in. Raven had already located the bookshelf and was scanning each binding with her finger, trying to read the titles. She seemed pretty focused on what she was doing, so Kim decided not to bother her with questions. The cheerleader found a colorful jewelry box on the shelf next to her. Curious, she opened it up and found some jade earrings. She turned to face the mirror and held them up to her ears. "Not bad. Probably even better on Monique." She checked the price. "Hm. Definitely within budget." She closed the lid of the box, prepared to make her purchase.
In the space previously covered by the lid of the box, she saw Ron's face.
"A-booyah, KP," he smiled.
"Ron?" she said, startled. "I thought you were stuffing your face with fortune cookies."
"I was," he said. "That place had a surprisingly short line."
"I wonder why?" she asked sarcasctically.
"I know!" he replied, completely serious. "You'd think everyone and their mom would want to gorge themselves on personalized fortune cookies!"
"Sh!" Raven hissed from the corner where she was tried to decipher a very dusty old book.
Ron dropped to a whisper. "I swear, KP, that girl wants to kill me."
"She does not," Kim told him. "Raven's pretty cool once you get to know her. I talked with her last night. Just because she keeps to herself doesn't mean she's a bad person. She just has some unusual traits."
"Yeah, like fighting with darkness. Did you not see her fighting Shego? Her powers are literally controlling darkness!"
"So what? She's on our side, isn't she?" Kim added once she thought of it, "You know, Raven's saved your butt a few times already. She shielded everybody when the lasers in the chemical factory were going off, and she healed you when you got knocked out at the football game. If I were you, I'd be glad she's here."
Ron looked over at Raven uneasily. The hooded girl seemed oblivious to the conversation. "Maybe," he half conceded, "but I still get chills around her."
"You get chills around everything," Kim dismissed. She decided to change the subject. "So if you're done with your fortune cookie binge, where are Cyborg and Beast Boy?"
Ron was happy to explain. "They're trying to figure out how to haul a hundred pounds of individually wrapped customized fortune cookies into the trunk of the T-Car without damaging any of them."
Kim rolled her eyes. "Of course they are."
Ron's face suddenly lit up. "Oh! That reminds me! I saved you one." He held out a single fortune cookie. Kim took it and cracked it open. "Read it!"
Kim read the tiny letters. "Will you go with me to the Lucky Dragon restaurant for dinner tomorrow night?" She smiled. "An invitation to a date via fortune cookie. Ron, you have no shortage of creativity. Of course I will."
"Yes!" Ron celebrated. "I thought of it while I was in the fortune cookie place. You can see the Lucky Dragon from the window. It looks really nice. It seems pretty likely that we'll still be here tomorrow night, so why not get a date out of it?"
"Creative and resourceful," Kim added. "What do you think of these earrings? I'm thinking about getting matching ones for me and Monique." She held them up to show him.
"Great idea," Ron affirmed. "Monique likes all that girly friendship stuff. Ooh, shiny!" He was distracted by a red and gold vase off to the side. "My mom loves things like this. I wonder what the design on it is…" he turned it around to see the front of the image. "…there it is…oh my gosh! Kim!" He threw the vase up in the air and ran for cover behind Kim.
Before it could crash on the floor, the vase turned black and was levitated into Raven's hands. "Smooth," she said, calmly putting it back in its spot.
"Ron, what's wrong?" Kim asked, a little more sympathetic.
"M-m-monkey! Evil monkey!" he exclaimed, pointing at it.
Kim and Raven looked. The design on the front was a very angry red and gold monkey. Raven turned it around so it faced the wall. "Happy now?" she asked.
Ron caught his breath. "Yeah, thanks. Sorry about that. It's just that, you know, this is usually the exact time and place where Monkey Fist would pop out of some mystical monkey thingy and go crazy monkey kung fu on me."
"It's true," Kim confirmed.
"Whatever," Raven said in her usual monotone. "I just bought a really good book. You two can stay here, but I'm going to go outside and read it. Just…don't break any monkeys. That's just weird."
"You bet they are!" Ron called after her as she exited through the back door. "Monkeys are sick and wrong!"
Finally out of the building, Raven massaged her temples with her fingers and tried to regain her sanity. She had actually bought a book, but that had really just been an excuse to avoid more conversation. "Ugh. I knew the guy was terrified of monkeys, but this is ridiculous." She looked around and saw that she was alone in an alley. The back door of the fortune cookie place was right next to her, and she could hear Cyborg and Beast Boy debating how many cookies could fit in the T-Car's trunk without breaking. "Okay," she admitted, "that is more ridiculous."
She closed her eyes and sensed out the area. Starfire and Robin were still out, and their energies were too faint to be nearby. She thought she sensed something dark nearby, but it was hard to tell what. She opened her eyes and looked around. No one was there. "Well, as long as I'm here," she shrugged, grabbing a seat on the ground. She opened to the first chapter and began to read.
Had she been looking up instead of around, she would have noticed a figure of a woman in black silhouetted against the midday sun, smiling the most evil of smiles. Unfortunately for Raven, she was fully focused on the plot by about the second paragraph. Fortunately for Shego, she was a lone sitting duck.
"Time to test this baby out," Shego said, looking down the neon green streaks of her new uniform. She held out her hand and watched as an energy bolt developed into a large ball of pure green flame. It actually looked a lot like a star bolt. But she quickly blocked all thoughts of that confrontation from her mind. Now, she could only think about kicking some serious good guy butt.
Shego wasted no time. She blasted her energy bolt onto the ground of the alley, right in front of Raven. The teen leaped out of the way just in time. When the green smoke cleared, she saw that all that remained of her book was a charred binding. And it was just getting good, she thought.
Shego jumped down from the roof of the building she had been standing on, landing perfectly on her feet. "Shego," Raven said, recognizing her at once. "I knew I sensed something dark."
"You should've trusted your senses," Shego replied, firing another energy blast at her.
Raven pulled up a black energy shield. Though it effectively protected her, in broke on impact. She's stronger than before, she realized. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" she chanted, sending the garbage cans from the fortune cookie restaurant Shego's direction.
All the villainess had to do was slice each can with her glowing hands. They burned straight through and left the pieces on the alley floor. "Is that the best you can do?" she taunted. Before Raven could think up a witty reply, she tackled her full force and pinned her to the ground. "This is really too easy," she added.
Raven pulled her cloak around her and vanished in a dark energy swirl. She reappeared behind Shego and telepathically threw her against the back wall. "What do you want?" she demanded.
Instead of answering, Shego smirked and threw another energy blast Raven's direction. This time it was a direct hit. The girl collapsed under her cloak and Shego was free from the black force field.
That was too far for Raven. This was not a particularly clean alley. Piles of litter were everywhere, not to mention what had fallen out when Shego had sliced through the trash cans. All the alley's garbage started levitating and turning black. Raven looked up, her eyes bright white. "Azarath, Metrion…"
Before she could say the next word and bury her foe in a heap of trash, which there was definitely enough of to bury her with, Shego kicked her in the stomach. Raven stopped and clutched where it hurt. "Sorry, princess," Shego said, though she clearly wasn't sorry. "You've really got to find shorter magic words."
Raven swung out her leg and kicked Shego off her balance. She stood up, looking kind of smug. "Zinthos!"
Shego was completely buried in garbage.
Raven took out her communicator. The others had to know about this. Before she could place a call, a bright green light burst out of the trash pile. It exploded in all directions, revealing a not at all damaged Shego, her green hands ready for battle. This time, she didn't both with chatter. She lunged for the girl in the cloak and aimed two kicks and a punch, all barely avoided. Raven telepathically broke a rain gutter from the roof of another shop and hit her enemy with it, driving her back. Next, she created a black disc and took to the sky. Shego may have enhanced her powers, she thought, but she can't fly.
Shego wasn't worried for a moment. She pressed a button on her new battle suit, activating a small grappling device that hooked onto Raven's cloak. She swung up onto the flying circle with ease.
Raven had her communicator out by now and was delivering her message. "Raven calling Kim Possible! Over!" No response. "Kim, pick up! Hey!" Shego grabbed the communicator out of her hands.
"Whoops!" she said, tossing it to the ground below. "I am such a butterfingers today." She lunged for Raven, who blocked her with her arm and nearly thrust her off the floating platform.
By now, Beast Boy and Cyborg had noticed that there was a commotion going on outside in the alley. "Hey, BB," Cyborg said. "Did that scream sound like Raven to you?"
"Yeah," Beast Boy realized. He opened the back door and found Shego and Raven fighting in the air. "Cy, we've got to help her!"
Raven noticed her friends and shouted, "Cyborg! Shoot her!"
Shego grabbed Raven's cloak clasp and wrapped her arm around the teen's neck, starting to choke her. She held the girl directly in front of her, blocking Cyborg's shot. "I wouldn't, kid."
"I can't shoot or I'll hurt Raven," Cyborg told his green friend.
"Hang on, Rae!" Beast Boy shouted to her.
Raven shut her eyes to regain focus and transformed into her soul self, escaping Shego's grasp. She reappeared on the other side of the black platform. "Get off," she said. She held out both hands and parted them. As she did so, the dark energy underneath Shego split to make a large hole, which the villainess fell straight down. Raven jumped to the ground, held up her hands, and threw the floating circle at Shego. The impact knocked her to the ground, and the circle splintered and disappeared. Raven looked at the two boys.
"She's dangerous," she told them. "Get Kim and Ron and make sure she doesn't escape."
"And what are you gonna do?" Cyborg asked, not noticing that Shego was beginning to get back on her feet.
Before Raven could reply, Shego tried to grab her again, her hands lit up with anger. No one eludes Shego for this long. No one ever does. Fortunately, Raven swerved out of the way just in time. Shego grabbed her cloak and pulled it, tearing it jaggedly about halfway through. Beast Boy morphed into a tiger and tackled her as Raven backed away toward Cyborg.
"I'm going to find Robin and Starfire," she explained. "They can't be far."
She took off running down the alley, her torn cloak flapping behind her.
