Present

XX

The Go siblings listened from the family room as their foster mother spoke on the telephone in the hallway, the tenor of her voice rising in anger for a moment before she slammed the phone down into its receiver. Susan knew who Mrs. Cooley was talking to on the phone, and why her steps were so loud and authoritative as she stomped into the family room. The twins looked oblivious to whatever was going on, and Susan and Madison were both indifferent. Susan noticed that even her older brother didn't look as chastened as Susan would have expected, considering they were all sent home from school early.

"You should have heard poor Mr. Corkle!" said Mrs. Cooley as she stood in front of the couch and looked down at Susan and her brothers, hands propped angrily against her waist. She lifted a hand to wag a finger at Susan and Madison. "I don't understand why you two have to cause me so much trouble – and this time I hear you were involved too, Henry?"

"It's not what it sounds like," said Henry. "We were just trying to help someone."

"He says you got in a fight, and that you, Henry, threw some boy straight into a sandbox."

Mrs. Cooley paused, her finger frozen in mid-wag, and leaned a little closer to her foster children after looking around as if to make sure that no one was going to overhear her. Her husband was at work, and there was no one else in the house, but one couldn't be too careful about such things.

"And what's more," she said in voice barely above a whisper, "Mr. Corkle said he saw strange things happening when he looked out the window. He said he saw a blue aura coming from you, Henry, and a green one around you, Susan. I think we know what he's talking about."

"So what?" asked Susan. "What's he gonna do about it?"

"Don't give me lip, young lady! He could suspend you – he could expel you! I've given all of you a home out of the kindness of my heart, and you repay me by telling me strange stories about meteors and magical powers and other inappropriate ideas, and you terrorize your poor teacher just to give me more gray hair, I suppose. I don't know what you did to give him such strange ideas, but-"

"Oh come on," said Susan. "You've seen it! You've seen our powers yourself!"

"Who knows what I saw! Some trick of the light, maybe. I don't know why you children do this to me – what if I gave you up? What if you were given to new foster parents? Do you really think they'd be as understanding as Bill and I have been? You don't know how good you have it here!"

Madison dropped his head back on the couch, as if falling asleep at the sound of his foster mother's voice "Oh, can it lady," he told her.

"Well I never! Where did you learn to say such things?"

Mrs. Cooley made as if to leave the room, but stopped and swiveled back towards the couch at the last moment.

"I'll be letting Bill know about this when he gets home. I don't want to see any of you doing anything strange or particularly colorful from now on – I'll have none of that in this house! Just try to act more normal, or else you'll be in real trouble next time I hear about anything like this happening."

Mrs. Cooley stomped out of the room. Wendell and Walter looked antsy, ready to leap off of the couch and begin chasing each other around the family room, but Henry looked over his shoulder to make sure their foster mother was gone before he got up from his seat and motioned for his siblings to follow him.

"Where are we going?" asked Madison as they followed Henry towards the stairway.

"To my room. I have something to show you guys."

Judging by the sound of a car squealing out of the driveway, Mrs. Cooley had left the house. Susan felt her interest rising as she followed Henry into his bedroom and watched as he rooted around under his bed. Henry had his own room, as he was the most well-behaved of the group. Susan and her brothers shared a second bedroom, which she found quite awkward. Just as her interest was melting back into boredom, Henry ripped a handful of loose-leaf papers out from beneath the bed with a triumphant shout.

"Take a look at these!" he said.

Henry seemed to have several copies of the same packet in his hands, which he passed out to his sister and brothers. Susan looked over the stapled sheet of papers, flipping through the pages as she read her older brother's carefully printed handwriting. The writing was overwrought and needlessly obtuse, like Henry himself, but the title of the papers made it obvious what they were for. Henry had been reading one too many superhero comics before going to sleep at night, thought Susan.

"How does it look?" he said. "Team Go has a nice ring to it, right? I was thinking of Team Henry, but I decided my leadership role didn't need to be that obvious – actions speak louder than words, after all."

"How nice of you," said Susan.

"Thanks, sis."

The twins could not read yet, so they each threw their papers in the air with a laugh and watched their other siblings read. Madison flipped through the papers, his face harsh and mocking at first, but as he read the papers, his features softened. As ridiculous as his older brother could be, he was onto something. Something big.

"How could we pull off anything like this with those jerks around?" asked Madison, referring to their foster parents.

"We don't have to stay here forever," said Henry. "I've been doing some research, and I'm old enough to be legal guardians for all of you now. We can leave and take care of ourselves if we want to – all of us, together, as a team."

"How is this Team Go idea of yours gonna make any money?" asked Madison.

"Like I said, I've been doing the research, and this superhero business isn't just a comic book pipe dream! There are all kinds of supervillains out there, even other teams of superheroes – some of them make a good living that way. We could charge for our services, or we could find a city that's having trouble with crime and villainy, one that wants to act as a patron and give us funding to fight crime. There are a number of options."

Susan had to admit that Henry's ideas were interesting to say the least, although she was surprised that he hadn't brought them up before. "What's with all these pie-in-the-sky plans all of a sudden?" she asked.

"I've been thinking about it for a while," said Henry, "ever since I started getting control of my powers. And I've seen what the rest of you can do. Your green plasma powers, for instance. And Madison, I've seen you changing size before. Even the twins – I don't think they realized what they were doing, but just last week I saw them making copies of themselves."

Wendell frowned. "I remember," he said. "I thought I drank too much apple juice!"

"All these powers," said Henry, his excitement rising as he motioned for his siblings to move closer and join him in a circle, "all these powers can be used for good. For justice! I became convinced just this afternoon, Susan, when you and I stopped Avery from bullying that child. Tell me you didn't get a rush from that! Tell me you weren't thrilled by the swift application of lady justice's boot on Avery's villainous posterior!"

Susan had been thrilled by the events of that afternoon, it was true, but she quickly began to realize that the reasons for her excitement were not the same ones driving Henry's enthusiasm. Even when they had both attacked Avery in the schoolyard, she could tell they were not doing it for the same reasons. Henry was definitely interested in justice. In righting wrongs, enforcing the rules, and being the center of attention while he did it. But Susan was not at all certain she cared about any of that – not the way her older brother did.

When Susan had seen Avery bullying that girl, she had barely even noticed his victim. Her attention had been glued on Avery. All the times she had tested her strange green glowing hands in the past, it had been in the privacy of a closet, or sometimes a deserted alley, swiping at trash cans. But Avery had been a test. A real target. He had been asserting his dominance in that schoolyard, and by taking him down, Susan would have asserted hers. If it wasn't for Henry butting in, she would have wiped the floor with Avery – or asphalt, to be specific. She would have been the undisputed king of the schoolyard, able to get whatever she wanted.

There was something else beyond that, too. She would have taken on Avery even if there was no one else to see it. Even if it was just the two of them, alone. When she had seen him bullying the girl, she had smelled a fight in the air, and she wanted to be a part of it. To test herself, to best an opponent – she just wanted to fight. To win.

"So what do you guys think?"

Henry flipped to a page towards the middle of his own packet and pointed to a signature line where his siblings could sign, officially becoming a part of Team Go. He nodded, his mouth an open grin, as he encouraged his sister and brothers to take the offer. Susan looked down at her own packet. It was open to the last page, showing another signature line in the event that she wanted to quit the team. Henry was thorough, all right. She flipped back to the joining clause and looked hard at the blank line.

"Ever since that meteor hit us," said Henry, "I thought it was destiny."

Susan felt her eyes flinch with annoyance as she heard her older brother speak. The way he spoke about destiny bothered her – what happened to her parents was destiny? Being separated from other children, mutated into freaks, was destiny? Henry viewed things in a warped way sometimes. But she couldn't deny that while she had been unhappy about her powers when she first discovered them, she was rapidly warming up to them. She could feel a world of possibilities just around the corner, waiting to be clutched in her glowing hands.

"Where are you going?" asked Henry as his sister got up and walked to the bedroom door.

"I'm going to go think about whether I should sign this or not. Duh."

Susan went into the bedroom she shared with her other three brothers and opened a chest filled with her private belongings. She wanted a little privacy to think about the decision, but she already knew she would join. Her brothers got on her nerves sometimes – Henry and Madison in particular – and she could tell that Henry would be insufferable if she didn't nip his idea about group leadership in the bud. Despite that, the idea was interesting. Exploring her powers further, maybe even using them in battle. Living by her own rules, and getting out from under the roof of her intolerable foster parents. It was too tempting to resist.

"I'm telling you, Susan, this is what we were meant to do."

Susan looked back to see her older brother standing in the door frame. He had followed her out of his room – too enthusiastic to give her a moment's peace and quiet. As annoying as he was, Susan couldn't help but feel affected by his mood. It was contagious. There was even something rebellious about it, about getting away from their current situation and going out on their own, but she knew Henry probably wasn't looking at it that way.

"Once we become Team Go, we can all count on each other. We'll stick together – we're family, after all."

"Yeah, yeah."

Susan found the item she was looking for in the small wooden chest: her favorite green pen. A wiggly green plastic goblin was affixed to its top, and she wrote her name on the signature line in sparkling green ink. Maybe Henry was right. Maybe it was her destiny.

Susan Go, she read as she finished writing. It was done.

XX

A chilling wind blasted through the streets of Middleton, shaking the bare branches of sidewalk trees with its onslaught. Shego watched it from the coffee shop window with an involuntary shiver. She knew she would have to return to her hotel before long. But for now, she wanted to wring as much warmth as she could from the little shop before leaving.

It was getting a little late, and the lone barista at the front counters watched the green woman, who was the only customer remaining in the shop. Seeing as it was Christmas Eve, the barista wanted to close up as soon as possible and go home, as he didn't want to be working there in the first place.

"Would you like anything else?" the barista asked as he approached Shego's table. Shego looked up and shook her head silently before returning to her cup of coffee, stirring it absently with a spoon. She had gotten his hint loud and clear, but she didn't care if he was waiting on her.

A couple of weeks had passed since she left Go City, Go Tower, and Team Go behind. The Go life, in summary. A couple of weeks she had spent, moving on to the unknown. Go Tower had been her home for years, where she lived and worked with her siblings, and she did not know where to go or what to do if she no was no longer a part of that team. She had been staying in hotels since then, using up what little money she had taken with her on leaving the tower. The money was almost gone. It would have been gone even faster if she didn't steal most of what she needed to fill out the duffel bag of personal possessions she had taken with her from Go Tower.

Shego had been traveling from town to town looking at job openings ever since she left Go City, but it was apparent almost immediately that real jobs didn't appeal to her. She had never had a real job, and didn't really want one if she could avoid it. The idea of working a cash register or mopping a floor was mundane. It was insulting. After what she had done with her brothers – what she had seen? And with the powers she possessed? There was no way she could start from the bottom.

Fortunately, she already had a good idea of what she wanted to do. And what was more, she had an opportunity. A possible opportunity, anyway. One which had brought her to Middleton.

Shego sipped her hot coffee and looked away from the window, tired of seeing the freezing wind that would be attacking her as soon as she left the shop. Instead, she turned her attention to the newspaper unfolded on the table beneath her. Villains Weekly. It was amazing, the kinds of things they printed in newspapers. And it wasn't just newspapers – there were magazines, websites, and clubs devoted to supervillainy, mad science, and even the superhero lifestyle that Shego had rejected. She had even been interviewed for a couple of magazine articles herself when she was still part of the team.

This particular newspaper did not interest her, with the exception of the classified ads in the back. She looked at the job offer she had circled earlier that morning with her sparkling green pen, which she had taken from Go Tower along with the money, some changes of clothing, and a scattering of other personal possessions stuffed into the duffel bag sitting beside her little table. Sidekick needed, read the ad. Req. martial arts skills, no sass. Exciting villainy opportunities – apply in person at Middleton!

An address was written at the bottom of the ad, along with a string of indecipherable acronyms that Shego assumed were related to the job description, but shortened to the point of unintelligibility in order to save on the per-word ad charge. She doubted that she had the requirements needed for the position in terms of lacking sass, but she had martial arts skills leaking out of every pore. Not to mention her unique gift of otherworldly, meteor-derived skills.

As she finished her coffee and noticed the time on the coffee shop's wall clock, Shego decided it was time to go in for a personal interview. She got up from her table and folded the newspaper, stuffing it into her duffel bag, which she picked up and slung over her shoulder. Before going out the door, however, the barista stepped out from behind the counter and raised a hand.

"Excuse me lady, but are you gonna pay for that coffee?"

"Oh, uh, no. No cash on me. Tough luck, kid."

She did have some cash on her, but it was only enough for a couple more nights at hotels – after that, she would need to get into gear and figure out what to do, if this next opportunity didn't work out for her.

"That's alright," the barista said. "We also accept-"

The door closed in his face, bells tinkling on the wreath attached to its glass panel. Shego stepped outside of the shop and into the cold night. A strong gust of wind hit her, cold enough to make her face feel like it had just been slapped. She grimaced as she walked down the block towards the bus stop – fortunately, the bus was already there, and Shego got on just before the driver pulled the doors shut, finding a seat as the bus went into motion.

"Hey lady, you have green skin! 'Tis the season, right?"

Shego looked over at the man sitting across the aisle and smiled as she lit one of her hands into flame. The man's face was illuminated in green light, and he shrank back in shock at the sight of the strange force coming from the woman across from him. He turned his head towards the front of the bus and backed all the way to the window, whistling in an attempt to appear innocuous.

Shego ignored the man and looked out the window as Middleton buildings passed her by. The bus traveled through the tightly packed buildings in downtown Middleton. It was a large town, although it was nothing compared to Go City. Eventually the business districts were replaced by suburbs as the bus traveled onwards, weaving its way through the town.

Soft light poured from the windows of suburban homes, and Shego could sometimes catch glimpses of families inside as she passed. Cars were parked outside many of the homes, although the bus passed one with a blue scooter leaning against the garage doors. She watched as another house passed by – quite a large one – and caught a brief glimpse of a girl with red hair looking out the window, meeting her eyes for a split second. The bus traveled on, and Shego sat back, deep in thought. All of those houses were filled with families. Enjoying each other's company, cozy and safe from the cold weather outside.

Thoughts of the Go Tower she had left behind swirled up from the depths of her mind, and she wondered what her brothers were doing. If they missed her. She doubted it, and she told herself that she didn't miss them. Things had been simmering there for a long time. Slowly coming to a boil. When they finally caught her with Aviarius, the jig was up. The chasm between her and her brothers was final, complete, and she knew there was no jumping back to the other side.

Aviarius had offered her a job as his sidekick, but she had not been interested. He was a second-rate villain, one who liked hearing the sound of his own voice. He had nothing particularly useful to teach her, although he had taught her one thing: she was no superhero. She no longer belonged with her brothers. Maybe there was nowhere she belonged. A nomad in green and black, doomed to travel alone on the earth.

The bus had passed her destination before she noticed where she was and jerked on the rope hanging above her. The driver brought the bus to a halt, and Shego got off with a curt nod, returning to the harsh wind. She was on the very edges of the suburbs, and judging by the address on the mailbox in front of her, she was only a few houses away. Shego pressed onwards until she reached the house the bus had passed, fishing the newspaper out of her pocket and looking at the address on the ad one more time to make sure.

This was it.

It was a house like any other. She stepped up onto the porch, knocking loudly on the front door and ringing the doorbell right after, not wanting to spend more than a moment outside if she didn't have to. After far too long a wait, the door opened and a very strange looking man poked his head out. A man with blue skin, and a scar below his left eye.

"Yes?" he said. "Can I help you?"

"I'm here for the sidekick position in the Villains Weekly newspaper."

"Oh yes," said the man with a cough. "Um, I regret to inform you that the position is already filled, as you can see."

He stepped aside and gave Shego a glimpse into the house. She noticed another man, younger than the blue-skinned one she was talking to, sitting on a couch with a briefcase placed beside him. He was smartly dressed, business suit and tie, sporting a close-clipped military haircut and a brawny frame. More importantly, he was apparently the new sidekick of this blue-skinned supervillain she had been hoping to work for. The blue-skinned man looked promising – the scar definitely added to his villainous image – but it didn't matter. She was too late.

"Uh, thanks anyway," she said.

"You're very welcome. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!"

The man shut the door as Shego picked up her duffel bag again and left the porch, walking back out into the street. She saw a bus stop in the distance and began to walk towards it – the small glass enclosure would provide at least a little relief from the chilly, blustering wind.

Looking into regular jobs had been a bust, and now her first foray into supervillainy had failed as well. Shego knew there were other advertisements in the rolled up paper she had returned to her pocket, but something about this one had given her a good feeling. She had no idea why, but she had gone to Middleton after seeing it, picking it out from the others.

She could follow leads in other places, but the available jobs were scattered across the country – there were enough to fill the classifieds for a villain newspaper, but jobs in the business of villainy weren't all that common on the whole. She would have to leave Middleton again, and her money was almost out. Shego approached the bus station, the brutal cold pounding against her face, and she felt a solitary tear well up in her eye, only to dissipate in the freezing air.

It was just the wind irritating her eyes, she thought.

She reached the bus stop, where she would have to wait maybe fifteen minutes, maybe half an hour for another bus. But she stopped just before sitting on the metal bench inside the glass walls. She did not want to take the bus to a new place. She did not want to keep doing this. She had been uprooted for too long, and she needed someplace to stay – someplace where she could stop searching aimlessly. She was tired of searching. What was more, she was not part of Team Go anymore. She did not play by the rules.

She was Shego, and she took what she wanted.

Shego knocked on the door and rang the doorbell a second time after returning from down the road, and this time, the blue-skinned man answered more quickly. He frowned as he saw the same woman outside his door again. "Look," he said, "I suppose I should have supplied a phone number on the ad, but you're too late for-"

Shego brushed past him and entered the house. The ex-military looking man in the business suit was still sitting on the couch, and a collection of papers were spread on the coffee table in front of him, taken from the open briefcase beside him. As far as she could tell, he was finalizing employment papers with the blue-skinned man. Shego dumped her duffel bag unceremoniously on a nearby chair as she looked around the room while the two men inside stared at her, nonplussed. She did not notice them. Instead, she idly wondered why a supervillain would be living in such a regular looking, non-villainous home.

"What's with the get up?" she asked the blue-skinned man, motioning to the room. "Is this your lair?"

"I am between lairs at the moment," said the man.

"What's your name?"

"Drew Li – Drakken. Doctor Drakken. May I ask why you are-"

"I'm your new sidekick."

Drakken gave a faint nod, not in agreement but for lack of any better idea of how to react. The large man on the couch raised an eyebrow, looking increasingly annoyed that his new job was suddenly being usurped by a green-skinned woman half his size.

"I already have a sidekick," said Drakken. "He's right there," he said as he pointed to the man on the couch nervously. "Can't you see him? Am I hallucinating?"

Shego glanced at the man indifferently before picking up the papers on the coffee table in a crumpled handful. The man let out a cry of protest as she produced a fiery green burst of energy that vaporized the papers, leaving a film of ash that she clapped off. The man stood up, his irritation turning to anger.

"You," she said. "Get out."

"I don't think so, " the man growled.

Drakken took a few steps back as man made a running jump at Shego, but she caught him by the leg and whirled him around, sending him crashing into a cupboard against the wall. Fine china and glassware shattered as the man hit the cupboard, creating a man-shaped dent in the wood and glass paneling. He got up with a snarl and charged Shego again, throwing a punch that she easily blocked, a kick that she barely had to sidestep to avoid. The man's martial arts skills weren't utterly incompetent, but Shego was out of his league. She gave him ten seconds, at best.

A flurry of punches hemmed the man in, pressing him towards the door which still hung open after her entrance. The man began to fight more desperately, and before he even knew what had happened, Shego gave him a bone-crunching kick in the chest that sent him flying out the door, rolling off the porch and onto the slate walkway in the front yard. She stood in the doorway and looked out as the man got up, more slowly this time, and with a groan.

"Sorry," she said. "Better luck next time. There's a bus stop down the street."

She slammed the door and walked back into the room. After a few half-hearted thumps on the door, no more noise came from outside; the man had decided his new job wasn't worth the effort, apparently. Drakken gave his new guest a nervous grin as she sat down on the couch and made herself comfortable.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Su – Shego."

"Sushego? That's a strange name."

"No, just Shego. And besides, so's Drakken," she said as she looked at the room more closely. It didn't look much like a proper supervillain's lair, but it would do. It was warm, it was a place to stay. And it was new start. She noticed a Christmas tree in the corner of the room, although it was undecorated. Apparently, even blue-skinned supervillains celebrated the holidays. Or maybe he was a mad scientist. Shego couldn't be sure.

"So what's on the agenda, Drakken?"

Drakken sat down in a chair not occupied by Shego's duffel bag, still trying to make sense of the fact that the strange woman sitting across from him had just forced his other brand new sidekick out of the house and seemed to have appointed herself to the position without an interview. Then again, she did have a certain assertiveness, a certain ruthless style, that Drakken thought might come in handy once he started stepping up his own operations. He wouldn't be in this house forever, after all. And she had certainly demonstrated her martial arts skills – the only remaining requirement was that she not give him any sass. He decided to remain hopeful about that one.

"First," he said, "we decorate our tree!"