Chapter 18

Kim woke up with a crick in her neck. After a while, other facets of her situation came into focus, like the fabric of her mission clothes on her skin, her cramped position, and the background hum of traffic. She was sitting in her car.

"Good morning, Kimmie."

Kim turned to look at the figure on the driver's seat. "Morning, Shego. How far out are we?"

"We're about forty minutes from Go City. We still don't know our destination there, though."

Kim blinked and focused on the dashboard, looking for the time. "You slowed down."

"The traffic is picking up. And I wasn't really comfortable going past the limits in the first place. The last thing we need is getting stopped by the police."

"They'd have to catch us first." Kim grinned at Shego, but only received a disapproving stare in response. "Hey, I'm sure you want to get to your brothers as soon as possible, too. Besides, this car is tough for radar to pick up."

Kim stretched the best she was able and worked her neck. She hadn't had the most restful night, but she felt alert enough. She looked at Shego, dressed once again in her trademark cat suit. Even with a hoodie covering her top half, she looked much more herself than she had the past few days. She made for a cute substitute teacher, but this woman of action was the real Shego. Kim remembered their last long car trip, and felt tempted to lay her head in Shego's lap.

Shego saw the direction of her gaze, but either she didn't intuit the direction of her thoughts, or simply chose to ignore it. "I can't believe you kept my borrowed costume all this time."

"Hey, waste not, want not. It's a perfectly serviceable piece of clothing." Not that Kim had ever used it for anything but some private entertainment. As much as it was also a reminder of the time when Kim herself had been mind-controlled by a villain, she couldn't view the garment without thinking of Shego.

"I'm not really comfortable wearing something I used for years in my previous life."

"You wore it as a hero, too, not just as a criminal."

"That's true. Maybe it is just appropriate to wear it when we rescue my brothers."

"That's the spirit."

"Speaking of which..?"

"I'll call Wade."

Kim punched a button and the screen built into the dashboard sprang to life, displaying Wade's face. His eyes had no red in them, even though Kim was convinced he had been awake since before they left Middleton.

"Have you been able to narrow down a location for us, Wade?"

"Kind of. There were quite a few incidents over the night, and I have logged their locations. Are you convinced the lair is somewhere in the middle? It would be smart to not be that obvious, and according to Shego Electronique is smart."

"She may be, but Team Go aren't that subtle. If she just sent them out to wreak havoc I doubt they'd take the time to cover their tracks."

"Maybe. The pattern is irregular enough that it still leaves quite a bit of ground."

"Are there any low-traffic areas? Maybe abandoned warehouses or the like?"

"This is Go City, Kim. Not a whole lot of that near the city center."

Shego broke in. "Electronique will want a place with good power lines. And maybe close to electronics supplies."

"Adrena Lynn would want the world to see her defeat me. So maybe near some convenient landmark, or somewhere she could broadcast from."

"There is an abandoned TV studio in the most likely area."

"That sounds like it could be our target. We'll go check it out. Thanks, Wade."

"Be careful, Kim. And call me if you need anything."

"If you could dig up the floor plan, that would be a big help."

"I'll get on it Kim."

"You think that is the place?"

"I do. It feels right."

"I'm not sure going there with just the two of us feels right."

"It is a challenge, yeah, but with Lynn's power, and the Attitudinator, anyone else would be a potential liability. Just remember the trouble we had with Ron before."

"I remember, both times. What about Felix's idea of armoring his wheelchair?"

"It would protect against Lynn, but we don't know if it would help against Electronique's improved Attitudinator. And it would hurt more than help against Hego by limiting his mobility and visibility."

"We could have come up with something. I really have a bad feeling about this."

"We can do this. Our best bet is to sneak in without a fight, anyway, and that's easier with just you and me. If we can grab the device and get Wade to analyze it, we should be able to figure out how to reverse the effects. Then we can come back and restore your brothers, and we'll have the advantage of numbers. They will hopefully be immune to Lynn's glow, too."

"You know these things never go to plan, right?"

"You know I always come through, right?"

"Well, you were always there to stop Dr. D. I'm just a little nervous with my brothers' fate on the line."

"We'll save them. Park well away from the studio, we'll go by foot."

Shego pulled the car over to a currently largely empty mall parking lot. It was a few blocks from their target, but Kim figured they'd be harder to spot on foot, and she wanted to sneak in. Before they left the car, she checked with Wade.

"Here's the plans. The building essentially has two parts, the studio on one side and entrance and the offices on the other. Apart from the main entrance, there's one back entrance to the offices and a couple to the studio. There is one entry on the roof, there doesn't seem to be any from under ground. You may be right about the place, it's using way too much power for a disused building."

"Thanks, Wade, you rock. We'll take it from here."

Kim locked up the car, checked her gear, and headed for their target. Shego hurried after her.

"It would have been better if it was still dark."

"Not necessarily. Criminals can't keep an open watch in daylight, so they're much less likely to have anyone patrolling."

"Mego could do it unseen. And Electronique probably has a pretty good surveillance system set up."

"You're the one who's fought her before. Why don't you take the lead?"

"Really? I, uh, I kinda expected you'd want to be in charge."

"I'm not that bad. It makes sense: this is your city, and your old foe."

"I don't know... I'm not the same person I was back then."

"It's not like you've suddenly forgotten how things work. I'll be right behind you."

"You're right. I can do it, for my brothers."

Kim followed as Shego took to the roofs as they neared their target. She dumped her hoodie and at long last looked like herself as she navigated the roofs with surety born out of long practice. It was a pleasure to see her in her own element. The view of her behind in the tight catsuit wasn't bad, either. This was who she really was, and this was where she belonged, not in somebody's kitchen.

They arrived near the abandoned studio and cautiously worked themselves to a place where they could observe without being seen themselves.

"It doesn't look like much. Do you think it's the place?"

"Somebody took the time to block out the windows."

"It could have been done to discourage looters."

"Maybe, but it could also be somebody who wanted privacy."

"This isn't exactly the best place for someone looking for privacy. There's quite a lot of open space with good sight lines."

"True, but there's a narrow alley with no windows on one side. If there's a door there, it'd be pretty easy to come and go without being seen."

"If there is, and that is their primary entrance, it's going to be watched."

"And we can't approach on the open side. We'll need to make our own way."

"Roof?"

"Roof. After you."

Kim followed Shego onto the roof of the warehouse—for once in use—next to the studio. They laid down and cautiously inched their way to the edge of the roof.

"I don't see any cameras or other obvious security."

"Me neither. I could do a scan with my Kimmunicator, but there's a chance they could detect that. Should we risk it?"

"Electronique has never met you, and it's a new model, anyway. Even if they detect it, they shouldn't be able to identify it."

"Would it matter? They'll probably guess it's us."

"That's true. Let's keep a low profile and try to spot any alarms the old-fashioned way."

"Then lead on."

The women backed up from the edge to have a short run to leap across the alleyway and land on the roof of the studio building. They were on the roof of the studio itself, on large even plane on top of the windowless two-story cube. At the other end of the building the part housing the offices actually rose higher, leaving them in view of the top floor windows. Without the need for words the women sprinted towards them, to get in close to the wall to be shielded from view.

"They can't be using the top floors, right? They'd be spotted for sure."

"It wouldn't stop them from placing cameras there, though. We must have been seen already."

"Not necessarily."

"Kimmie, Electronique isn't as lackadaisical about perimeter security as Dr. D was."

"Wasn't that your job?"

"Don't remind me." Shego looked around. "Although if they've seen us, why aren't they attacking yet? Maybe this isn't the place, after all?"

"They can't attack us out here without being seen. They are waiting for us to get in."

"They weren't worried about being seen last night."

"Far from here. They wouldn't want to expose their base."

"If it really is here, it's exposed already."

"It's just us, though, not the police. Maybe they realize we want to keep it low-key until we get your brothers out."

"How are we going to do that? There's bound to be a trap waiting for us. Maybe we should have brought the others, if only as a reserve."

"We can get the job done. We need to find that device and grab it. We can lose them in a pursuit and get Wade to analyze it. We just need to find a way inside they won't expect."

"That probably means making our own entrance." Shego lit her hands. "I can do that, but it won't be subtle."

"If we can't rely on stealth, our next best bet is speed. They can't possibly have spotted us more than a minute or so ago. If we can go in someplace they aren't expecting, we can still catch them with their pants down."

Without warning the brick wall they were leaning against exploded outwards and thick, strong arms grabbed Kim by the waist. She tried to pry herself loose as she was pulled through the ruined wall, but against someone as strong as Hego, it was useless. As she continued to struggle, she saw Shego go down under a torrent of red-clad bodies.