Disclaimer: Kim Possible and the gang are property of The Walt Disney Company. I gain nothing for their use in my stories. I also gain nothing for mentioning any of the songs used in this chapter. I do claim all rights to Miss Suzanne Go, the character I created for these stories. Or should I have her change her name to Suzanne Stoppable?
MS-II
Chapter 4
Karaoke Night
After much discussion and Shego almost coming to blows with Drew over the suggestion, and Suzanne coming to the defense of her blue-skinned almost, maybe soon, brother-in-law, it was decided that a night of karaoke might be a pleasant change of pace and was finally acceptable to all.
They drove over to the local bar and, after having a bit of trouble getting Wade in the door because he was underage and the others in the group having to swear on a stack of bar napkins that they wouldn't allow Wade to touch any alcohol, the three couples sat down at a large table and ordered drinks. Drew ordered a glass of Coco Moo while Shego asked for a Bloody Mary, extra bloody. Kim ordered a Shirley Temple while both Suzanne and Ron asked for, at the exact same time, a Vodka Collins with a little less vodka and more Collins in it. Wade, of course, ordered a pitcher of ice-cold soda. (And keep 'em coming!)
Drew Lipski wanted to be the first one up on stage to sing but Ron, having paged through the album of available songs first and having found his song, raced up ahead of Drew. Of course Ron's song was "The Naked Mole Rap" and Suzanne was more than eager to go up on stage to sing backup vocals. Suzanne convinced Kim to help and the two girls dragged Shego up to assist also. Rufus hopped up onto Ron's shoulder to do his part, much to the delight of the other bar patrons.
As Ron, Rufus and the girls sang on stage, Wade pulled out his laptop computer, did a search on the web and found out that the song was currently being controlled by Rufus who was still acting as the Oh Boyz manager at Defteens Records. The naked mole rat had been approving the rights to and collecting the royalties from the song. The royalties turned out to be quite substantial considering it had become a cult favorite to a lot of rap fans. Wade made sure the song's royalty checks were being deposited in Ron's Naco account. (Rufus was not a sleazy manager by any means, although he did take his normal percentage of the royalties so he could order extra cheese through the mail.)
After the first song finished Drew started to make his way up to the front of the room until Ron and Kim, still on stage, began singing a duet. Drew sat back down at the table to the peppy song, "I Got You, Babe" that was originally sung by Sonny and Cher.
When the song was over, Drew Lipski stood again, adjusted his blue lab coat and took one step toward the now empty stage. He was almost bowled over, and spun around three times in place, when Suzanne raced past him and grabbed the microphone as she jumped up on the stage. Suzanne sang a heart-rending rendition of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir," much to the audience's approval. The lilting and mystical lyrics seemed apropos for the young psychic.
Drew stared at Wade thinking the computer genius was the next to usurp his rightful place on stage. As he slowly stood up at the end of the song to make his way to the stage Drew didn't notice Shego slink seductively toward the front of the room for her turn at the mic. Drew had taken two steps, still peering warily at Wade as the green hued ex-villainess began to sing "Evil Woman," by ELO. Drew grrr'ed in frustration as he re-took his seat.
At the end of Shego's song, Drew looked over to the young techno-genius and incredulously begged, "Well, are you going to sing tonight or what?"
Wade took a big slurp of his soda, slowly refilled the glass from the pitcher on the table and smiled arrogantly at the blue-skinned, former villain. "I wasn't, but if you insist," Wade said standing up and taking his drink with him. The youngest member of the group, actually the youngest person in the whole bar, got up on stage and sang a heart-warming rendition of the Crash Test Dummies' song, "The Psychic." It was an obvious ode to his new girlfriend/fiancée.
Before Drew could move from his chair at the end of the song, Kim cart wheeled up to the mic and belted out, "Say The Word," the same song she had sung at the high school talent show a few years earlier.
By this time Drew was getting angry. This whole night was his idea, he dearly loved to sing karaoke and he had yet to get up on stage.
When Kim finished her song, to a rousing ovation no less, Drew cautiously looked around the table then glanced around the rest of the room. No one else was getting up to sing. He started to rise again only to hear the DJ announce that he was going to take a short break before the karaoke fun would continue. Shego, Kim and Suzanne went off to the restroom while the three men held down the fort and didn't say a word as they quietly sipped their drinks.
Finally after a few minutes of silence, "Aren't you going to get up and sing Dr. D.?" Ron casually asked Drew as their waitress distributed more drinks around the table. The three ladies returned from their trip to the bathroom, laughing and giggling amongst themselves.
"I've been trying," Drew growled in frustration, his head in his hands and elbows on the table, "but everyone else ran up to the stage before I could bat an eye."
"Well we think it's time for you to have your time in the spotlight," Shego laughed and grinned as she helped Drew to his feet. "Just remember, you can't do your shampoo rap song from American Star Maker. It's been deemed a commercial so it's not allowed."
"That's alright Shego," Drew smugly said as he turned to head for the stage. "You know I always have a backup plan."
"Do you mean like all the other backup plans you had in place when Kim and Ron foiled every one of your evil plots?" Suzanne coyly remarked with a snicker.
Drew tried to ignore the hurtful barb but growled in anger anyway as he stomped his way to the stage. After a quick consultation with the DJ he turned to the crowd and spoke into the mic. "Since I'm not allowed to sing my rap song I thought I'd grace you all with another song that's near and dear to my heart. So without further ado, and my sincere apologies to Pete Townshend for changing only one word of his lyrics, I give you The Who's, "Behind Blue Eyes."
The slow, two bar intro wafted from the speakers, then Drew Lipski sang in a slightly falsetto voice:
"No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue skin"
"You got that right," Shego hooted aloud from the audience. Drew almost expected that barb, having been heckled by the green skinned woman before on previous karaoke outings. He set his mind to the song and vowed to ignore any and all jibes from the audience.
"No one knows what it's like
To be hated
To be fated
To telling only lies"
"And we're all glad we don't know," Suzanne loudly heckled from her chair.
"But my dreams
They aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be"
"I always knew you weren't conscience most of the time," Kim yelled, adding her two cents to the girl's heckling. Drew growled to himself but continued.
"I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance
That's never free"
"It's never free because vengeance usually equals jail time for you," Suzanne quickly jibed.
"No one knows what it's like
To feel these feelings
Like I do
And I blame you"
"Who me?" Kim quizzically begged out loud and laughed when Drew angrily pointed directly at her. In fact the whole table laughed along with her.
No one bites back as hard
On their anger
None of my pain and woe
Can show through"
"That's not totally true Dr. D," Shego laughed out loud. "You always show the pain you're in!"
"But my dreams
They aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be
I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance
That's never free"
"Vengeance just isn't your forté," Suzanne interjected. "You'd better get a new love." The music picked up in tempo and Drew, now completely blocking out the hurtful barbs from the table started to wildly gyrate about, getting in to the beat.
"When my fist clinches, crack it open
Before I use it and lose my cool
When I smile, tell me some bad news
Before I laugh and act like a fool"
"Too late for that," Ron, getting into the swing of the heckling, chortled aloud to everyone within earshot. "You always act like a fool!"
"If I swallow anything evil
Put your finger down my throat"
"Ewwwww, gross," Kim quickly interjected, playfully sticking a finger in her open mouth and pretending to gag.
"If I shiver, please give me a blanket
Keep me warm, let me wear your coat"
"You're never gonna to touch my green, Club Banana coat," Shego playfully growled with a raised, glowing green fist.
"No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue skin"
There was a smattering of applause as Drew Lipski dropped the microphone and stomped back to the table. "Why is it," he angrily yelled to the five people sitting there trying to hold back their laughter, "that all of the women around me get great joy out of giving me a hard time!"
"Because you deserve it?" Wade answered before soda squirted out of his nose when he couldn't hold back his laugh any longer.
"Because it's so easy?" Kim ventured before her snickering blew up into a full out belly laugh and she fell out of her chair onto the floor. (ROFL!)
"Because you deserve it from all of your lame, take-over-the-world plots?" Shego cackled loudly.
Drew harrumphed out loud as he plopped down into his chair, pouted and waggled an accusatory finger between Kim and Suzanne who were sitting next to each other. "You kids have no respect for your elders now-a-days!"
"It wasn't their idea to heckle you Drew," Shego cut in with a cackling laugh as she leaned over and lovingly stoked her hand along his jowls, "it was mine. I told Suzy Q and Kimmie what song you were going to sing and we discussed what jibes to use in the bathroom." The green woman leaned back in her chair and quickly tipped her glass in salute toward the two other woman at the table. "It was just a bit of womanly bonding." Shego raised her hand and was rewarded by a hi-five from the two other girls.
"But you joined in too… er, um," Drew pointed to the blond boy at the table.
"Ron," Wade supplied the name for Drew. "His name is Ron Stoppable."
"I knew that," Drew huffed at the reminder.
"You know, Drew," Wade said before pausing to take a quick slurp from his soda, "some people would say your forgetting Ron's name is a subconscious attempt to totally block out all thoughts about a person who you know could whoop your butt both physically and mentally."
"The buffoon?" Drew roared in indignation. "Able to best my superior mentality? Preposterous!"
"Ronnie did outshine you when he was Zorpox," Shego quickly interjected. "He was a much better evil villain than you ever were. I think the Nerdlinger is right." She saw Wade stiffen at the nickname and wickedly smiled. "And yes, Wade Load, I do know your name. I know you're intellectually superior to me but I can whip your scrawny ass two ways to Tuesday." To prove her point her hand briefly flamed up with plasma power before it extinguished. "I just like using nicknames."
"Hey," Wade nervously chuckled before he gained his composure back and smiled brightly at the green skinned beauty, "I'm all for nicknames. In fact I'm honored you deemed me fit to have one. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a nerd is someone who is slavishly devoted to intellectual pursuits."
"Can we get back to the topic at hand?" Ron questioned, which brought all attention at the table back to him. He gulped nervously at the sudden focus on him. "I mean Dr. D. asked a question and I have an answer."
"What was the question… er, um…?" Drew asked, forgetting Ron's name again.
"You asked why I joined in on the lady's bonding moment," Ron reminded everyone.
The table went silent waiting for Ron to supply the answer. After thirty seconds Kim finally spoke up and begged, "Okay Ron. Why did you throw out that quip?"
"Now I forgot," Ron said with a puzzled look on his face.
xxxxxx
Author's notes: I had planned this to be a separate, stand alone one shot with Drakken and Shego enjoying a night of karaoke. Kim and Ron would rush in at the end of Drew's song to quell a disturbance someone had called in, only to find Drakken singing. The final line would've been Ron quipping, "Yep. Now that's disturbing the peace!" But I decided to use karaoke night in this story instead to give my three girls a bit of quality bonding time.