Shego growled as she looked around the rather large attic of the old home. She hoped that the ancient floor could support her weight, not that she was heavy, but the wood was extremely old. She scanned what would be her prison, but she did not know how long that it would be such. Why was it that she got stuck in such a cluttered and filthy place? It was her mother’s fault. That woman had to be the devil!
She wanted to just pummel her mother for recruiting her to clean their old house. No, her mother did not even recruit her. Her mother had shanghaied her like they were reenacting the war of 1812 without ships. Shego, even though she had super powers, could not out run the car that her mother had been traveling in and she had been yanked into the car like she was in a gangster movie. Now, it was up to her to clear the attic of the old house because she had not been able to get away.
To escape, she would just jump out one of the three windows that were in the space if only that would kill her. And even if such a fall did succeed in ending her life, she bet that her mother would figure out a way to bring her back to life to force her to clean out that damnable attic. It was just a chore that her mother wanted done and what her mother wanted, she tended to get.
“I wonder what she’d do if I just burned everything up here,” Shego mused as she looked around the area that had been left to her.
The green-skinned woman doubted that her mother would react pleasantly to the destruction of the attic, not to mention the rest of the house since it would surely follow. After all, the house had been in the family for who-knew-how-many generations, so of course her mother would not take kindly to it going up in flames, especially if Shego was the cause. The house was somewhere around a hundred and fifty years old and her mother seemed to like it, even though no one inhabited it. So, she supposed that if she destroyed it, her mother would either immediately destroy her or slowly kill her. Neither scenario worked for her since she still had things to live for, so she figured that she just better get to work. Life would be easier that way.
Shego put her ebony mane into a tight ponytail and rolled up her shirt sleeves in preparation for the task ahead of her. She wished that she was dressed for the job that she had been assigned, but it had been sprung on her too quickly, probably to keep her from protesting or running and hiding. It had been best to abduct her, she silently admitted, because if her mother had given her even the slightest clue as to what was coming, she would have crawled under a rock to get away. She would have done anything to avoid her mother, especially helping her mother. So, it worked to her mother’s advantage to kidnap her.
The green-skinned villainess looked around and wondered where she should start with straightening up the attic. There were so many trunks, boxes, and file cabinets littering the space that she doubted anyone would know where to begin with cleaning. She bet that her mother was forcing her to clean the attic just to punish her for something that she could not remember at the moment; she knew that was not the real reason, but she would not figure out any other reason. She pondered why her mother just could not leave the area the way that it was. It was not like anybody used the attic for anything other than storing junk. At least the attic was organized; sure, it was dusty and stuffy, but no one used it, so it should not matter.
But, Shego knew that she had better get to doing something before that wench of a woman came up there and literally bit her head off like the monster she was. She had definitely learned her lesson and would never just be innocently walking down the street, minding her own business again. She was never supposed to let her guard down and she had forgotten that; well, never again.
She started with the corner that she was facing since it seemed to be as good as any other place to get things underway. She opened one of the dusty, smelly boxes and went through the container to see what was in it and if she could dispose of it. There was nothing worth noting in the box as far as she was concerned, so she threw it down the attic stairs and was promptly yelled at; it seemed that she had struck her mother with the box. Either prayer worked or there was karma in the world.
“Serves her right,” Shego muttered to herself while also snickering in a low tone. She knew better than to say such a thing out loud, or else her mother might appear and she might feel pain; she liked avoiding both of those whenever possible.
The thief moved onto the next box once she got over the comedy of striking her mother and not getting in trouble for it. Boy, she could tell that she was going to be bored out of her mind by the time she made it to that second box, but she had expected as much, which was why she had tried to fight her mother off when the middle-aged woman was kidnapping her and informing her that she would be helping in cleaning the old house. Fighting had not gotten her far, which was why she was right where her mother wanted her. She needed to think of a new tactic to use against her mother since fighting had not worked for her yet.
Shego sighed; she hated her mother, especially since the older woman did not seem to respect the fact that she was evil. She still worked for a mad scientist, who was looking to take over the world; sure, he was in jail at the moment and she was not planning on busting him out anytime soon, but she still got checks, which made her in the employ of evil. Her mother did not care what she was, though. She could have been undisputed ruler of the whole freaking world and she would still be stuck in that attic all day, cleaning it out if her mother had any breath left in her lungs. She then made a mental note; if she ever did become ruler of the world, she would have her mother assassinated. She doubted that it would work, but she could get rid of a lot of stupid people by sending them after her mother and it would keep her mother busy, which worked almost as well as assassinating the annoying old bat.
Shego entertained herself with thoughts of murdering her mother and all of the different type of ways that it could be done as she continued on with her dull task. She was so angry with being forced to do such a boring, pointless chore. She should just sneak out, her mind suggested. Brilliant! Her mother would not know until she was long gone that she was gone. Why had she not thought of that sooner? She had actually only been in the attic for about five minutes, but to her, it seemed like she had been there for hours already.
“To hell with this,” Shego silently decided.
The pale thief slipped out of the attic and hit the floor, making as much noise as a feather would while descending the sky. She tiptoed out of the house, exiting through an open window to avoid even the slightest squeak that would happen from moving a door. She snickered to herself as she made her way to the driveway with the intention of stealing her mother’s expensive sedan to complete her escape, but she hit a bump in her plan. Her mother was standing right in front of the car. Damn it!
“Going somewhere?” Shego’s mother, Isabel, inquired with an arched, curious ebony eyebrow. Looking at Isabel, it was easy to figure out which parent Shego took after; the thief was practically a clone of her mother. Even their expressions were the same at the moment; they both looked rather irked by what was going on.
“What? No, of course not,” Shego answered. “I just needed some air. The attic is really stuffy, so I needed some fresh air,” she lied.
“All right, breathe in some good, fresh air and then go back up there to clean the place out,” Isabel ordered.
Isabel knew her daughter too well for the girl to think that she could escape, or at least that was what Isabel was telling herself. She hoped that Shego did not think that she was going to get away so easily because it just was not going to happen. One of the oldest homes in their family needed some repairs and she was going to help whether she wanted to or not, Isabel had decided that the second she decided that she was going to fix up the house. So, Shego was not going anywhere until that attic was somewhat presentable.
“There are no witnesses. She’s an old woman. You could take her,” Shego’s mind commented. She seriously mused that she could take her mother. She had youth and super powers on her side. She could break her mother now, her brain insisted.
“Get going,” Isabel commanded the younger female.
Shego made a fist; everything was in her favor, she was sure of that. She could take the old woman, her mind continued to push. She could defeat her mother, her brain persisted. If she was so certain that she could take her mother, then why was she headed back toward the attic? She did not know, but a part of her admitted that she had made the right decision; she was not ready yet to take on that devil woman. She went back to the attic to continue cleaning; her mother glared at her while following her to make sure that she did not try anything funny again.
“Stupid, annoying, irksome…” Shego began grumbling profanities under her breath as she returned to the attic and was left alone.
“I can hear you, you know,” Isabel informed her daughter. She did not mind her daughter cursing, even if the swears were directed at her, but she thought it was pointless for her child to grumble when she was doing it so loudly.
“Good!” the irked thief hollered.
“Do you want me to come up there then?” Isabel inquired, even though she was bluffing. She would let Shego swear her head off for as long as she wanted as long as the girl cleared out the attic like she wanted her daughter to do.
Shego sucked her teeth; God, she loathed that woman! Why had a house not fallen on that witch of woman yet? Where was some holy water for her to throw on her mother? She was certain that holy water would do the trick of ridding her of that bothersome old hag, she thought as she went back to moving and checking boxes. Well, she mentally conceded that her afternoon was going to be one of the worst that she had on the outside world without Doctor Drakken’s help in ruining her day.
The upset villainess continued in her job until she came to a corner in the back of the attic and she suddenly found herself intrigued with what she was doing. She slid a trunk out of the way and spotted an odd outline in the floor. It was subtle and easily overlooked, but she was a well-trained thief and she knew a secret hiding place when she saw one. She arched an ebony eyebrow while wondering if there were any goodies that lay beneath her, waiting to be discovered. It was possible that her afternoon was not about to be wasted.
The green-skinned female looked for a way to open what she was certain was a trapdoor, but she did not see anything that appeared to be a trigger. She scanned the room for a button or control of some kind that might open the compartment, but nothing stood out to her trained eye. She asked herself what she would do if she wanted to hide something and have a special way to get to it. Well, she would use her powers since those were unique to her, but she could not guess how the person that built the compartment might open it. She did not know what a “normal” person in her family might think to use to open a secret containment area.
Shego leaned down to inspect the suspected hiding place more closely. She knocked on it and she could hear that it was a hollowed out space. She sucked her teeth as she tried to find the way to open the door that led to the area. She then spotted a small bent nail in the wall right next to the little area. Well, it looked like a bent nail anyway. She decided to fiddle with it and found that it flipped like a light switch. The trapdoor opened.
“I’ll be damned. Somebody in this family is actually clever,” Shego remarked to herself.
The emerald-eyed thief went to see just what she found; if it was valuable, she was keeping it. Her mother had not said that she could not take anything and most of the stuff was supposed to be thrown out. She doubted that her mother would care if she lifted anything along as she continued to clean the place. As far as she knew, nobody cared about the stuff that was in the house. Even when they lived there, it was not really a home to them. They had only been there because they were waiting for the house their parents truly desired to be finished. She could hardly recall the time that they had spent in the house; the twins had not even been born back then. The house was just one big family heirloom, she guessed.
Before she could get a good look at everything in the hidden space, she heard footsteps below her. She grabbed the first thing that she saw, which looked like a jewelry box and then she flipped the nail switch to shut the door. She quickly went back to cleaning, hoping that her mother was not going to come up and check on her. She pocketed her discovery and remained on task for the rest of the day because her mother did check on her to make sure she was doing the work.
The pale thief did not even think about the box until later on when she went back to her apartment. She was so happy to be free of her shrew of a mother that she had completely forgotten she had taken the keepsake. And then she had gone to change her clothes and as she was emptying her pockets, she tossed the box on the floor. She glanced at it and then she decided to see what was so important that some poor sap in her family decided to hide it in a rather good hiding place. She hoped that there was jewelry as the box implied, but that would make sense and she had yet to meet someone in her family that made sense.
She picked up the box and inspected it to get some kind of idea as to why it was hidden in the first place. She felt the weight in her hand and wondered if the heaviness came from the contents or box itself. She looked at the box and noted that it was a beautiful container; it was a treasure itself if she was the sentimental type, but she liked to think that she was too smart to be a sentimental fool. The box was made from fine dark wood and polished so well that it was still shining after collecting dust for who-knew-how-long and sitting in the dark hole up in the attic of their ancient family home. It looked at if it housed something precious and it was locked, which only led her to further believe that it held something worthwhile.
Shego sighed because the box was locked; it was always something to get on her nerves. She was not surprised that a member of her family was irking her from beyond the grave more than likely by putting a lock on the box; she assumed the person was dead because no one alive in her family frequented the house enough to go hide things in it now. She grumbled as she went to find one of her lock-picks. Once she located a device that she required, she returned to the troublesome box and began to work on it. There had better be something seriously valuable inside the wooden container, she thought while also noting that box had a good lock on it. She was now willing to bet that there was something worthwhile inside, but she had to get inside to see it.
Whoever it was that owned the box really did not want anyone to get inside. Shego sat there and worked that little box longer than she worked any other small lock that she had ever picked as a professional thief. The top eventually popped, releasing an odd aroma, as if perfumes were in the box. She anxiously looked inside to see what treasure she had obtained. She then sighed when she caught sight of the contents; a small, leather bound book. She sucked her teeth; all of that work for a stupid book.
“Leave it to a jerk in my family to hide a book, like they even read. It was like they knew I’d find it and it would piss me off once I got into the stupid thing,” Shego groaned. So much wasted effort and for nothing as far as she was concerned.
The emerald-eyed female tossed the box, book and all, over her shoulder and decided that she did not care about it. She went to fix herself something to eat and drink; at least she knew that her meal would not be a let down since she would be one making it. She flopped down on the sofa once she had her food and beverage and was about to watch something on television; she did not have anything better to do with her time since Doctor Drakken was in prison. Once she got bored enough with peace and quiet, she would spring the mad scientist from his lonely little cell, but right now, she was enjoying her days without any ranting and raving. Sometimes, she did not even think that the money was worth putting up with Doctor Drakken, especially with his constant failure. Evil was about as overrated as being a superhero, she considered every now and then.
She decided not to think about evil and things like that or else it would send her down a road that she hated traveling. She was evil and that was that. It was great being evil, especially since it allotted her a chance to work on the only two things in life that she liked working on, which were fighting and stealing.
She settled into enjoying her time alone and happened to glance where she dropped that stupid book. She did not pay it any mind at first and then she did a double take. She accidentally spit out the beer that she had in her mouth and flung herself off the sofa. She practically ran over to the book and picked it up to make sure that her eyes were not lying.
“What the hell was this thing doing in our house?” Shego wondered out loud. She could not answer that question, but she figured that maybe the person whose name was in it could.
Kim Possible, globetrotter and current college student, had her hands full of books. She was attempting to make it safely up the stairs while keeping her books balanced and not being able to see over the stack in her arms. People in her building knew to watch out for her, especially if she had a research paper or project to do because she always had loads of things on her mind and in her arms. Every now and then, she did accidentally run over someone who was not paying attention like she was, but the person rarely blamed her. After all, the people knew her and how she was, so they just forgave her when she did something like that.
The redhead made it to her apartment and now the trick was getting in with all of her books in her hands. First of all, she had to get to her keys, which were in her pants’ pocket, and she did not think to empty her hands. She balanced her stack in one hand with the aid of her knee. She retrieved her keys and when she went to put them in the door, she discovered something weird; her door was open.
The martial artist was on high alert as she entered her home. She left her books sitting by the door once she was inside and silently shut the door to block on escape route in case some idiot had actually broken into her house. She crept into her own home and crouched into a fighting stance the second that she hit the living room. The intruder was relaxing on her sofa.
“Shego, what the hell are you doing here?” Kim demanded to know when she caught sight of the person that broke into her house. Shego was the one sitting on the couch and she was calmly drinking a soda; it was like she was supposed to be there, but that was how she was.
“Why the hell don’t you have any beer in your house?” Shego countered as if that was an equally relevant question. To her, it was a more important question.
“Because I’m not old enough to drink yet, duh,” Kim answered and then she remembered that the woman before her was her deadliest foe. “Why are you here?” she once again demanded the information.
“Calm down, calm down. I’m not here to fight or even start any trouble. Okay, no, maybe it will start trouble. Just check this out,” Shego replied and she tossed a small book at the redheaded hero.
The college student caught the book with one hand while remaining on guard; she just could not take Shego’s word for that she was not there for any trouble. She kept her eye on the green-skinned woman, who focused on her soda more than anything else. She really was not there for any sort of problems. She was only curious and looking to share what she felt was a huge anomaly that should interest her foe just as much as it interested her, if not more so.
Kim relaxed her stance once she was certain that Shego was not a threat to her or was not looking to even be a threat. After years of fighting, they could read each other’s body language almost perfectly, so she knew almost immediately that Shego really was not there for any problems, but her common sense overrode her instincts. Shego was a villainess, so she thought that she had to be on guard, even though her eyes and brain were saying that her usual opponent was not looking to harm her. The slender hero was still curious as to why Shego was in her home, even if she was not there to start trouble.
“What’s this?” the redhead asked about the little book in her grip. It looked like a journal because of the small dimensions of the book, but she could not figure out why the raven-haired woman would chuck any book, let alone a journal at her, at least without the intent of hitting her with it.
“Something that I found while I was cleaning the attic in an old family house. Open the cover and see who it belongs to,” the pale woman instructed her slim enemy. She wanted to laugh because she could see how the redhead was going to react in her mind’s eye; she bet that it was something similar to the way that she reacted.
Kim did as she was told to and she opened the book to see who it belonged to. She glanced down to see what the big deal was and she gasped when she noticed the name that neatly written in curvy calligraphy. She dropped the book as if it was a poisonous spider looking to bite her. The tiny, leather-covered book fell to the floor with a soft thud and landed face up. Inside the book, it proclaimed that its owner was one Kim Possible.
Next time: meet Doctor Kim Possible and Sheshona Go of the 19th century.