The wind’s gotten up while I’ve been talking with you, quite blowy all in all. And, of course, it being autumn, damn cold as well. Now for me, that’s not going to be a problem. Having a body that converts solar radiation, food, and even water into plasma means that my body temperature is a lot higher than most, and it keeps me warm no matter what. I can even wander around the artic if I wanted in my catsuit and only get slightly perky nipples as a reaction, instead of freezing to death.
For you though, well I notice the shiver as the cold wind whips around your thermal jogging clothes. Even the coffee we’ve consumed isn’t going to keep you warm for long. Normally, I’d ask if you wanna part ways. Hell, I never asked for the company in the first place. But, for some reason, I can’t and don’t want to let or ask you to go.
It’s you who spots the bus shelter along the way, and it’s you who asks if it’d be okay for us to shelter in there for a little while. I nod.
“Hey, sure.”
You run in front of me, and I can only frown again as you do. I have never seen your face before, I know that. I’ve never heard your voice either, and I know that too as I have a literal photographic memory when it comes to people. I have to. In this line of work, recalling the face of a past employer or marks bodyguard force means you can dodge a bullet or a blade.
Yeah… I’ve never seen you before, but there’s… something about you!
I watch you dash inside, plop yourself onto the bench inside the Perspex and glass structure, and then smile at me. One of your hands pats the side next to you and I bite, sliding catlike onto the bench.
You sit there for a second and then incline your head, asking me to continue.
“You still wanna hear about it?” I ask, suddenly reluctant, but I don’t know why. You nod and I shrug. “Okay, fine. Let’s see, where did I get to? Oh, yeah… the call.”
“Well, as I said the call was from Dr Director. Charming as always and-“ I break off as you hold up a hand and ask who Doctor Director is. “Oh, crap. Sorry. Just that in all the circles I’m in, everyone knows the leader of Global Justice.”
I pause and gather my thoughts. “As I’ve just said, Doctor Director is the commander of Global Justice. Think of Interpol with no internal problems, a lot of money, and marines as well as cops. That’s Global Justice or GJ. Dr D herself? She’s this, and don’t ever say to anyone I said this, cute brunette with an eye patch. Wears a bluish catsuit, haughty manner, deep sexy voice… the body under that catsuit isn’t bad either.” I break off as you stare at me with a slightly annoyed look. “What?”
You blink and shake your head, apologising. I can only frown, wondering what the hell crawled up your ass for a second there.
“Okay, well. She called me and asked for my help.” I grin and you tilt your head in question, making me go from a grin to a smirk. “Oh, think of it. Me, uber thief extraordinaire, number two on the most wanted lists of every single agency around, even GJ, and SHE wants my help.” My smirk becomes laughter and I watch you sigh and smile in wry understanding.
“Anyway, anyway…” My smile fades. “I’m sceptical, as you can no doubt imagine, and ask her what the hell makes her think I’m going to be even moderately interested in helping GJ. Plus, I threaten to just drop the phone in the trash and keep walking down the street. Good luck for her finding me then.”
I pause and feel the same phantom ache at the thoughts of what Doctor Director told me then. You notice and offer, again, to let me stop. But I wanna keep talking, god knows why, and wave you off.
“She’s quiet for a few seconds on the phone and then says simply ‘Kim’s life is at stake, Shego’ in this really worried tone of voice.”
I sigh, even now I can’t help it. “Now, it’s at that point that I’m standing there, on the street, mobile phone clamped to my face, and I feel sick. Doy! I mean really sick, like my lunch wants to see if it can reach orbit, you follow?” You make a face, nod and ask if I can be a little less descriptive in some areas. “Eh, sorry. Anyway, I don’t know what to say. Oh, I know that Doctor Director must know at that point, know that I’ve been chasing KP with more in mind that pummelling. That’s obviously why she’s called me… me of all people.”
“She needed a thief?”, you ask me and I nod.
“Yeah, she did and in a big way. I ask her what the hells happened to Kimmie and Betty, her first name’s Betty by the way, she’s quiet again and I know. I just know.” I feel my knuckles clench. “GJ has sent Kimmie into something she’s not equipped to handle, which is very little, or something happened and they were forced to abandon her to whoever she was sent up against. I’m calm then, I get like that sometimes when something I care about is in danger, really calm… icy in fact.”
You nod and ask me what had happened to Kim. But something makes me wonder if you’re asking to keep the conversation going, because that something is also saying to me that you know damn well what happened… which is impossible. I haven’t met you before!
“Um… well, Betty is quiet and then she tells me, really softly, that she sent Kim to the splinter country of Tarasham.”
You stare at me blankly.
“Um, Tarasham… yeah, you’ve probably never heard of it, mainly cause the UN wishes it didn’t exist. Nothing goes in or out of that country, not even the media. Practically nobody knows it exists, and that’s how the UN likes it. Let’s just say the reasons they have for such a clamp down? I agree with them, which is a damn rare thing.” You continue to stare and I sigh. “They’re a splinter Arabic country… and they have very strict views on the role of women in life, very strict.” I snort, I can’t help it. “Let’s say that let alone for my suit, the way I wear my hair? It’d be the way I talk and hold myself that I’d be sentenced to death the second I popped my head up… or worse taken for ‘interrogation’ if you catch my drift.”
You nod and I shrug. “I’ve been there once and that was at night, doing a job… and I left them a lot of evidence to make `em rethink the idea that ‘woman is mans servant and weak unless she obeys.’ Bastards.”
“Anyway, they’d sent Kimmie in there, alone too… no Stoppable, only Wade on the Kimmunicator.” I pause. “That’s this little communication device Pumpkin has… it’s neat, but if you ever meet her don’t say I told you that. Anyway, she was on her own, going after the plans for a new type of fusion warhead that the bastards in that country had bought from the black market.”
I sigh, and kick the floor, watching a puff of dust float into the air.
“She got caught, plain and simple. One thing Kimmie can’t do very well, and that’s being a thief. She’s got the sneaking skills, but she lacks the awareness… cause she’s not a thief at heart… not like me.” I lean back, sighing again. “She got caught, her Kimmunicator sent a distress alert before something broke it and Kimmie’s GJ tracking chip it… ah… well… it…”
I break off, the sick feeling I had back then, on the street as I listened to Betty on the phone, her own tone stressed, hit me in the stomach once more. You notice and I blink as you reach over to rub my shoulders gently. It feels really good and I’m even more shocked that I’m letting you do it.
“Go on”, you say quietly.
“Well, they put a chip in Kim to keep an eye on her… it also monitored her vitals and a few hours later after her Kimmunicator went down it, it was registering extreme stress, chemicals… manmade chemicals for pain, truth serums, Jesus… you name it. Then it told them she was… was…” I break off. I can’t help it.
I’m a stone cold bitch when I want to be. For years I considered crippling Kimmie just part of the job, and a risk we both had to take in our respective corners of the big law and justice game. I have never wanted to kill her, not really… again if it happened I told myself back then that it would have been part of the job. A neat lie, even back then. Still, even I wouldn’t condone anyone being… being…
I stare at you and shiver. “Damn it! Sorry, I hate showing anyone weakness like this. But what Kimmie was going through… well. Let’s just say that I could only be thankful that they hadn’t, jeez, well raped her… yet. It still makes me feel sick… remembering that.” You nod and I can’t help but relax at the unjudging expression on your face. “She tells me that, Betty, and then as I’m trying to remain upright on the damn street, considering my legs have gone to jelly, she asks me to help them. Not to get the plans, as Kim had managed to get them and burn the paper and destroy the computer disks… I knew she had done even before Betty told me, because I know Kimmie so damn well. No, what they wanted me to do was even a bigger theft in their eyes…” I pause and you stare at me, your teeth nibbling your lower lip. “They wanted me to sneak in, find Kimmie, and pull her out of there.”
“I told Betty yes, even before she started to outlay the actual payment for such a mission.” You blink and open your mouth, but I wave you off. “And yeah, you’re right… I’d have done this even before I fell for the redhead. I’d have just charged a lot of money.” I trail of as you frown and crack my knuckles sharply. “I have a few morals I break for nobody, and preventing rape or murder are two of them. I’d have done it anyway, rescuing Kimmie… Yeah, I’d have done it anyway for lots of cash.” I pause and wonder for a second who I’m trying to convince, because I know I’d have done it for free even back at the beginning… and I hate knowing that.
The wind has died down, I notice that suddenly, and feel an itch in my legs. I want to run, I need to run while I tell the rest. I can’t help it. Tossing a gaze across to you, I ask if we can run again, considering the wind’s died down. You stare at me, eyes wide at my story, and then nod.
As we get up and you stretch and limber up, my own actions mirroring yours, you suddenly ask if we can head back to the stall where we got the coffee. I frown, and you smile in apology explaining that you’d noticed that they were selling roasted chestnuts.
“Chestnuts.” I reply flatly, and your grin widens further, so attractive for some reason… so familiar in another.
You nod and as we run into the cold air again explain that there’s nothing like hot chestnuts to cheer someone up and we could both use them if my tale is heading in the direction you think it is.
What the hell, I think to myself. I could eat chestnuts too I suppose.
Nodding in agreement, we jog along the cold path for a few moments before you glance across and tilt your head.
So what happened then? You ask me.
“Oh, I end up being picked up by GJ at a location of my choosing. It was one of those generic black cars with the tinted windows. But inside, well, Stoppable was there and he looked awful. Now I don’t give a damn about him.” I pause and scowl at your expression. “I don’t! But he was pale as I am, just without the green tint, and when I got in he… he…” I break off again and my jogging slows to a slower pace at the memory. “He actually sighed in relief and grabbed my hand in a grip like a vice… I thought for one horrible damn second he was going to cry.”
“I take it he was relieved?”. You ask me quietly and I shrug.
“Yeah, what a buffoon. I mean, hello! I’m Shego, and everyone knows I’m not a nice person!” I watch you chuckle and narrow my eyes. “What?”
You grin at me and point out that I’d agreed to rescue Kimmie.
“Damn, yeah I did.” I grunt in defeat. No point if denying you’re right. “Anyway, he fills me in on the way to the airport, asks me to sign the contract that Wade has pop up digitally on his Kimmunicator, and then asks me something I really hated him right then for asking me.”
You stare and I growl in discomfort.
“He asked me to bring her back, even if she was dead… to just bring her back home.” I shiver and speed up again, desperate for the throb in my legs to drown the shudder that is rippling along my spine. “Doy! Then he smiles and says if anyone can bring her back alive, it’d be me… cause he knows after that Team Go business that together, Kimmie and me are unstoppable.”
You smile faintly and I hate the way it makes me feel. Because it makes me feel like I did back when I was a hero… and I loathe even thinking I could have remained one, even now.
“I tell him to wise up, that I’m doing this for how I feel about Kimmie and the deal GJ agreed to. Not because I’m a nice person.” I close my eyes in recall, seeing Stoppable’s face. “He just smiled this really odd smile and told me that you could do good shit and still not be a nice person. Little bastard.”
That sets you off into a host of giggling the likes I’ve never seen. I can’t help it when I smile in return… it’s too infectious not to join in. As we run along the path, your giggles echo around the empty park, along with my own grunts of annoyed amusement.
Eventually, we both stop at the cart, the smell of hot nuts and cinnamon suger in the air, and as you place your order, I end up thinking back to the young woman I left slumbering at her parent’s home. The bruises on her face, the scratches, burn marks, whip imprints and… and the other things too. I wish I could feel rage. Instead, all I can feel is a dull sickness, mingled with worry.
I hope Kimmie’s okay when she wakes up. And the only reason I think that is because I remember how confused and disorientated she was when I pulled her out. Days of abusive torture can do that to someone… I know, however much i try to forget. Another legacy of being a damn hero all those years back.
You break me out of my darkening thoughts with a gentle nudge and I glance down as you press a little paper cornet of hot cinnamon coated almonds and chestnuts into my hand. The smell cheers me up, I can admit that, and I pop a chestnut into my mouth and enjoy the wonderful blend of flavours as I chew.
“So,” you ask me, “What happened then?”
“We stopped off at Middleton airport and I boarded one of those Stealth jets they keep trying to pretend don’t exist. Well, I say I boarded… more like I was placed on one by three agents of GJ, who then sat with me. God knows why… I suppose they thought I might just change my mind and nick the jet itself. Doy!”
“And then?” You ask, and prod me gently with a finger.
I scowl. Why did I let you do that, and more importantly, why am I going to let it slide?
“Then? I night parachuted into Tarasham’s capital, Ron’s Kimmunicator and Wade outlining where Kimmie’s tracker was, and set off to rescue her.” I bite into another nut and you stare as I chew slowly, my eyes lost in the past.
And? You prompt, intrigued and excited now… because you know that this story has a, hah, ‘happy’ ending, in that I got Kimmie back alive.
I shrug as I stare at you, chewing the chestnuts slowly one by one. My voice, normally so sexy, deep and decisive, is very quiet.
I can’t help it. I just can’t…
“I’ve never been forced to hurt so many people to get what I want… even crippled some of them permanently.” I lick my lips. “But I’d have done it again in a pinch… Tell me though. Do you really want to know what happened that night?”