“He will be remembered, Shelly,” Kim said, using Shego’s real name.
They were back on the ground, standing on the edge of the Middleton Space Centre’s landing field, and looked at the sky. It was night in this part of the world and, just like people all over the planet, they could see thousands upon thousands of shooting stars light up the dark firmament. The final hurrah of the Go City comet as its shattered pieces burned up in the atmosphere.
“He always wanted to be a hero,” Shego said, her gaze unflinchingly directed at the sky. “Team Go was his idea. I never wanted to be a hero, but he read all those comic books as a kid and when we got powers, he figured it was God showing him his destiny or something.”
Kim moved closer, putting a hand on her shoulder. Force of habit almost made Shego brush it away, but she resisted the impulse and remained still.
“They’ll build statues to him,” Kim told her. “Heck, forget statues. Mothers will name their babies after him.”
That made Shego laugh. “We probably should tell the media that his real name was Henry. We can’t burden hundreds of kids with a name like Hego.”
Counting the shooting stars above them, another thought occurred to Kim.
“Speaking of kids, how many do you figure are being born tonight? Worldwide, I mean. How many babies?”
For a moment Shego was confused at the question, but then she understood.
“No idea. Thousands? Maybe tens of thousands?”
“You know what this means, right?” Kim said, looking at Shego. “In about thirteen to fourteen years a huge number of kids with super powers will all hit puberty at the same time.”
“The world might be in big trouble,” Shego answered, doing her best to sound humorous. “It barely survived us.”
Kim sighed deeply, then slipped an arm around Shego’s waist. The green-skinned thief flinched a little at the movement, but made no move to stop her.
“Shelly…” Kim began.
“I’m not good at this stuff, Kimmie,” Shego interrupted her. “All this… talking about feelings. I’m a pretty straight-forward girl. Usually, at least. Right now, though, I’m… I’m at a loss. I don’t know what to do.”
“About…?” Kim asked.
“About us, about my life, about… everything.” She looked at the shooting stars again. “Kim… I made an art about not caring about anyone. After all, no one ever cared about me, either. And now… now there’s you. There’s my little brothers who are too stupid to get along without someone watching over them and… and pretty soon there’ll be a horde of little kids who will need someone to tell them how to handle their powers or they’ll… they’ll burn out like you almost did.”
Kim smiled. “Careful, Shego. Hearing you, one might think you’re considering becoming a good guy again.”
Shego finally turned to look at her. A slight smile was on her lips as well.
“I don’t know. I only know that… after all that happened today… I don’t think I can fight you again. I don’t think I can just abandon my little brothers. And… and I don’t think I can leave all these kids to themselves.”
“And what about us?” Kim asked.
Shego smiled a little broader. “I have absolutely no idea, pumpkin. But I think… I think I’d like to find out.”
Kim nodded, snuggling into her side to look at the sky again.
“Yeah. Me, too.”
THE END
Coming in 2007: Children of the Comet
Fifteen years have passed since the Year of the Comet. A generation of superhumans is coming into power. Who will help them? Who will control them? Who will kick their butts if they misbehave? Enter the all-new, all-different Team Possible.