Sky High: The Series

Episode 9

Strange Villains From Another TV Show

Part 2

Josie Stronghold was having a quiet afternoon at home when the doorbell rang. She had already closed a major real estate deal that morning and was getting ready to throw a nice dinner in the oven, so her mind was elsewhere as she opened the door.

"Hi Mrs. Stronghold, is Will home?"

At the doorway stood a very beautiful oriental girl wearing a demure green dress that matched her eyes.

"Actually he is," said Josie, thinking that the girl somehow looked familiar, but not certain where she had seen her before, "are you one of his friends from school?"

"Uh…yeah," said the girl, her smile never wavering, "I have…we have science class together. I was sick this morning and he said he'd get today's assignment for me. I was feeling better and thought I'd come over and save him a trip."

That must be it. She was doubtlessly one of the numerous Sky High kids Josie had seen since Will had started attending. Truth to tell though, this was one of the few besides the winged boy Darryl who had ever come over outside of Will's circle of five friends.

"That sounds like him," said Josie, "but I'm afraid I don't know your name."

"Oh," said the girl, "just call me Kim."

"Okay Kim," said Josie, "Will's upstairs in his room doing his homework…I hope. I'll call him down and…"

"That won't be necessary," said "Kim", "I'll just go up and surprise him. Believe me, seeing me again will be a BIG surprise for him."

"Just up the stairs," said Josie, "first door on the left. You may have to knock loud if he's got one of his "Aquabats" cds on."

"Don't worry," smiled Kim, "he'll hear me."

With that the girl scampered up the stairs, and Josie went back to preparing dinner, but there was still something nagging at her about that girl. Hopefully it would come to her later.

Quiet as a cat the girl slipped up to Will's door and put her ear to it. Sure enough he had his music on, and she smiled evilly as she quietly turned the doorknob and the door opened silently.

There was Will Stronghold, sitting at his desk and doing his homework like a good boy, totally oblivious to what was going on behind him. The girl quickly scanned the room, noticing everything in it and her mind quickly came up with the best way to go about doing what she had come to do. Without a sound she entered the room, closed and locked the door, and slunk up behind the boy.

Will jumped as his music suddenly stopped and he turned to see the strange girl in his room who had turned his stereo off. He had no idea what was going on until she spoke.

"Hi Willy," smiled the girl, "long time no see."

"Who…" was all Will could say as he recognized the face of who was talking to him. He then started to move, but what he heard next stopped him.

"Uh-uh Willy," said the girl as both her hands burst into wicked looking green energy, "let's not start a fight here. After all, your mom is right downstairs and I don't think you want to disturb her, do you?"

"How did you find me Shego?" asked Will.

"Real easy," said Shego as she pulled out Will's school ID and threw it to him. "You should be more careful with that, I hear they charge a lot to replace one of those things."

Will couldn't believe his bad luck. He and the gang had stumbled onto and caught Dr. Drakken just yesterday after Shego and escaped. She had somehow found his student ID and tracked him down to his home. But apparently she didn't know the really big secret under the Stronghold's roof, and he wasn't about to let her find that out too.

"What do you want?"

"Simple cutie," said Shego as she sauntered over and sat down on his weight bench, never taking her eyes off him, "I know all about your secret with your powers, and your friends too. But I bet your big-shot parents don't know about them…super powered kids very seldom tell their non-super parents…at least me and my brothers didn't."

"Get to the point," said Will, not sure whether he should be scared or laugh about Shego's mistake about his parents not being supers and not knowing about his powers.

"You and your buddies caught Dr. Drakken when he and I were about to leave Maxville. You do what I want and we'll go back to Middleton and you'll never see or hear from us again, and your secret stays safe with me."

"But you can't go back to Middleton with him unless…"

"Dr. Drakken is getting out of jail Willy," said Shego with a cat-like smile, "and you're going to be the one to break him out."

"This is ridiculous," said Gwen as she turned off the sound to the plasma big screen monitor she had been watching. "First I finally get rid of those two idiots Lash and Speed, but before I can start building my new gang THIS happens?"

Gwen glared at the monitor showing the live transport of Dr. Drakken from the city jail to his new place of residence at the Maxville Prison for Super Villains where he would remain while he stood trial for his attempted crimes in Maxville.

"Why is he being put in a prison for super villains…he doesn't even have any powers. He's just a mad scientist with the complexion of an under-ripe blueberry."

"Maybe the police are fond of blue," snickered Stitches, "it's a popular color with their uniforms after all."

Gwen resisted the urge to throttle Stitches for the stupid attempt at humor, and turned her attention back to the screen.

"With the heightened alert from his assistant still being on the loose I'll never be able to go around and recruit any villainesses…"

"Wasn't his assistant a female?" asked Stitches.

"Who…Drakken? Yes, she was…." Gwen's voice trailed off as the obvious hit her in the face and she grinned.

"Yes she is," Gwen smiled, "and I think she would make a great first recruit."

Dr. Drakken, once again in the orange jumpsuit of a prisoner that clashed badly with his light blue skin, could only glower and snarl at the cameras as he was being escorted to the transport prepared to take him to yet another prison. Though he had never been to this particular one before, he was sure it would be like all the others he had been in before. And like those others, he was certain it would only be a short while before he would escape and begin his schemes again.

No one seemed to notice the sudden breeze that stirred up, even when it totally changed direction in an instant. Everyone was so focused on Dr. Drakken that it only took a literal blink of an eye before he disappeared without a trace. There was a moment of quiet as the realization sank in, then total chaos broke out as the police scrambled to start looking for him and the reporters started broadcasting what had just happened.

Drakken himself was at a loss for words as he found himself miles away from the scene, standing in an abandoned building with some overweight teenager who was grinning like a moron.

"Hey Doc," said the kid, "name's Speed and I'm a big fan of yours. So's my buddy Lash here."

On cue another teenager, a tall, lank boy with a striped black and white sweatshirt, stretched down from an open window and stood beside Speed.

"It went just like you said," Speed said as he hi-fived his friend, "the suckers had no idea what happened."

"Like taking candy from a baby," said Lash.

"Ahem," said Dr. Drakken, "just what exactly is going on here?"

"We busted you out of jail Doc," said Lash as he produced a pair of bolt cutters to remove the shackles from Drakken's wrists and ankles.

"I had guessed that much," said Drakken, "what I want to know is why.'

"Well," said Lash, "we kinda…we need jobs. We're super villains and we're kinda in between gigs right now."

"Hmm," said Drakken, his brilliant but twisted mind already awhirl at the possibilities set before him, "I see."

"Well," said Lash, not able to hide his nervousness, "are we in?"

"My boys," said Drakken as he put an arm around both Lash and Speed's shoulders, "I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship."

Will was still in shock at Shego's plan when there was a knock on the door and Josie opened the door.

"Hi kids," she said as she stuck her head in the door, "I hope I'm not interrupting anything, but I just got a call on…"the phone". Will, keep an eye on dinner, it should be ready in a couple of hours and hopefully your dad and I will be back by then."

"Uh…sure Mom," said Will, scared that she might accidentally reveal her secret identity to Shego, "you go…take care of whatever. I've got everything covered here."

"Thanks tiger," smiled Josie, "and turn on the television or radio and stay in. It seems Dr. Drakken just vanished into thin air on his way to prison and the whole town's in an uproar. See you later."

Josie then closed the door and headed downstairs to step into the backyard, where she quick changed into her Jetstream costume and flew up into the sky faster than the eye could see. All the while she was completely unaware that she had been within grabbing distance of Dr. Drakken's assistant, who was still menacing her son upstairs.

Both Shego and Will stared at each other for several moments as the news sunk into them. Neither moved or even breathed as they waited for the other to make the first move. Will, being the less experienced, started to move and Shego was instantly on her feet, her hands again glowing.

"That changes a few things Willy," said Shego as she started backing towards the door, "so I guess I don't need your help after all. Too bad…I'd have loved to see the looks on everyone's faces when you broke Dr. D out of jail. But remember, I still know all about you and your friends, so how about I just leave quietly and we go our separate ways."

"How do I know you won't try to blackmail me some other time," said Will.

"You don't," smiled Shego as she unlocked and opened the door without taking her eyes off Will, "so you'll just have to trust me. Maybe I'm not such a bad girl once you get to know me."

With that she vanished out the door, and Will was across the room and to the top of the stairs as the front door opened and slammed behind her. He literally flew down the stairs and threw open the front door only to find the street deserted. Shego had vanished.

"Great," said Will to himself, "what else could go wrong?"

Shego stalked through the back alleys of Maxville, angry about how this entire fiasco had gone. First Drakken had dragged her here for his stupid plan, then they ran afoul of the Commander and Jetstream and escaped for Drakken to end up caught by Will and his friends. Though she caught a lucky break learning his identity, she didn't get the chance to blackmail him into helping her free Drakken. She still knew about Will, and could always do something with it later, but now she was angrier that someone else had broken Drakken out of jail. If he was seeing some other evil assistant behind her back…

"Excuse me," said a menacing voice behind her, and Shego whirled around, her hands already crackling with energy. She found herself looking at a tall, armored figure that she had heard of, but never thought she would see in person as he was supposedly destroyed years ago. Then again the armor had a definitely feminine configuration, so it had to be someone else who had assumed the infamous identity.

"Who are you supposed to be," smirked Shego.

"I am exactly who I appear to be," said the raspy voice, "I am indeed Royal Pain, and you are the infamous sidekick to Dr. Drakken named Shego."

"Okay," said Shego, "now we know who each other is. So what do you want?"

"To offer you a chance to go beyond being a mere sidekick, assistant or whatever the term of the moment is. How would you like to make your own way in our…chosen field of profession…as part of an elite gathering of like-minded individuals who wish to go beyond the petty schemes too many of our compatriots waste their time with."

"And in English that means…"

"Alright, I'm gathering a team as part of a plan to take over the city and control every aspect of it…without anyone knowing who is REALLY in charge."

"Now I'm intrigued," said Shego, "but first how about we do a little something I want to do and you may find interesting."

"I'm listening."

"First, I know what Dr. Drakken's plan was, and I think maybe it could work better if someone with a little more firepower pulled it off. And second, I want revenge."

"Against who?"

"A little punk you don't know…Will Stronghold."

"Now that," said Gwen, grinning from ear to ear behind her armor's faceplate, "is actually something I can DEFINITELY agree with."

To be continued