DNAmy was leaning on her desk with her elbows and her head was resting in her hands. She was looking back and forth between her computer screen and the containment field that was holding a red mist entity that happened to be a dragon that was stolen right out of Kim’s body. DNAmy had not stolen the dragon; Dementor had managed to yank the dragon out of the redhead.
DNAmy was supposed to copy the dragon, but it was a little difficult to do such a thing when she could not figure out if the thing even had DNA to replicate. She was not even sure that the thing was a biological, living creature. It was like a semi-conscious mist and it was getting on her nerves.
She had already scanned the dragon several times over, trying to locate some piece of it that might actually be solid enough for her to extract some cells from. She was not having any luck yet, but she was certain that some part of the thing to be a firm cellular structure. She just had to keep looking. She was determined to find a piece of the thing that she could copy.
The dragon itself did not seem to mind where it was, much like a fish in a bowl, which was somewhat like it was being kept. The dragon just floated around the container as if it was red smoke. Sometimes it manifested features and other times it just looked like crimson blob. It seemed to have given up on wanting to get out of its prison since there did not seem to be a way out.
“Where is your cellular structure?” DNAmy wondered loud as she studied her computer readouts. All she was getting was energy readouts and it was very irksome.
At first, she had just been doing it because it was part of a grand scheme, but now she was just determined to replicate the dragon because she was not going to let it beat her. It would give her its secrets and she would create dragons of her own. That was all there was to it now.
“You’re not going to beat me,” she said in a sign-song voice, speaking to the dragon. The dragon formed its face and just looked at her before fading back into a ball of smoke. She tapped on the container, but the dragon did not bring its face back.
Shego was sitting by Kim’s bedside in the hospital. The redhead was getting worse with every second that passed it seemed. She had not even awakened that day. There were whispers that she might be in a coma, but no one was saying it loud enough for Shego to hear because they were aware that if she knew, she would flip. They were very right with that one.
“Please, Princess, wake up. Be all right,” Shego prayed. She held Kim’s hand in her own, hoping to feel some kind of muscle tick from the redhead. She tried her best to ignore the fact that she could feel how cold Kim was despite the fact that the redhead was under several blankets.
The green-skinned woman was in the hospital instead of hunting down Dementor because she had been ordered to calm down. Dementor was being tracked down by all available Global Justice personnel. Shego was not going to be allowed to have that information once they collected it to go get him unless she had a cool head and Doctor Director had made that very clear.
Shego had gone to see Kim in order to get focused. She could not let her temper get the better of her. She needed to see and remind herself why she had to keep her cool. Kim needed her. The woman that she had taken horrible torture for, the woman that had saved her twice, the woman that had summoned a terrible dragon to save her that first time, that woman needed her in return now. She could not let Kim down. She would not let Kim down.
“I will get that dragon back for you, Princess,” Shego vowed and she brought Kim’s hand to her mouth, kissing the cold attachment. Kim’s body was cold, almost as if she was suffering hypothermia, but she was still very much alive. “But, when I get that stupid lizard back, you have to wake up. You have to wake up and we can go back home. I’ll nurse you back to health from there, but we just have to get you home.”
Really, Shego would take care of Kim, act as her nurse, as long as Kim woke up. She hoped that retrieving the dragon and figuring out how to get the thing back into the redhead would get Kim out of the hospital bed. She wanted her little redheaded “roommate” back.
“I’ll save you,” Shego promised and then her communication device went off. She quickly answered. “Yo.”
“How are you doing?” Doctor Director inquired.
“I thought this line was only for business purposes,” the pale woman remarked, just to be a pain. She was not very happy with the leader of Global Justice at the moment because Doctor Director threatened to not let her go after Dementor when they finally located him. Just the thought of that made her blood boil, almost literally, so she turned her attention back to Kim. She reminded herself that she had to stay calm for her Princess.
“I’m guessing you’re still huffy,” the brown-haired woman commented.
“Is Kimmie still in the damn hospital?” Shego pointed out through gritted teeth, still trying her best to remain calm.
“I thought you were going to calm down, though,” Doctor Director countered.
“I am calm, but you calling asking me stupid questions isn’t helping. I don’t know if you can get this, but someone I care about, the only person I care about in this whole world, is in the hospital and maybe even dying. I’m never going to be totally okay with it, okay? So, what the hell do you want from me?” the green-skinned woman demanded to know in a rather desperate tone. She was tired, angry, scared, and a billion other types of emotions, so she really did not need the boss getting on her case about something that she felt was normal and natural.
Doctor Director was silent for a moment. Shego had cut her just a little deep and did not know it. She did not have someone in her life like Shego had Kim and she never did. Her own brother was against her and in prison for life after plotting to destroy everything that she had before taking over the world. She did not let people close to her for the most part and drowned herself in work to avoid feeling lonely. She supposed that she could not understand what Shego was going through because of that.
“We found Dementor,” Doctor Director reported.
“You found him?” Shego asked in disbelief.
“Well, we didn’t find him per se. Agent Load was able to find the unique energy signature of the dragon.”
“Is he sure?” Shego inquired. She did not want to waste anytime on a wild goose chase. She wanted to be going after the dragon and nothing more.
“He knows the dragon’s energy signature. He was able to find Kim on a few occasions using the technology. He did admit that it was a bit more difficult to do without the dragon being attached to Kim because it changed the signature a bit, but he says he’s certain that it’s the dragon,” Doctor Director answered.
“Tell me where,” Shego commanded in a dangerous tone.
“I can’t tell you if you’re not calm.”
“I am as calm as I’ll ever be in this situation. So, just tell me. I’ll leave immediately,” the pale woman stated soundly.
“You have to be careful. The dragon seems to be located in an old, state of the art, WEE lair and lab,” Doctor Director said.
“It doesn’t matter. I know all of the old WEE stations by heart, even if it’s been two years since I’ve seen them. So, just tell me where I need to be, so I can get there and get this dragon back. I need to get Kimmie back on her feet,” Shego replied.
“Okay, I’m going to send you the coordinates. Are you sure you don’t want any backup agents or something to go with you?”
“They’ll just get in my way. You know I don’t play well with others,” Shego remarked, though she was speaking the truth.
Doctor Director did not argue. Shego was not the best team player, after all, and the seriousness of the situation would probably only make her more antisocial when it came to fellow agents. They did not need that at the moment, but she was trusting Shego with only part of the mission anyway. She was going to send a team to capture any villains that might be in the lair.
Shego flew her personal, GJ-issued jet to the WEE hideout. She wondered if Dementor was just using what he knew to be a great lab or if WEE was not as dead as GJ had assumed after Gemini was captured. The thought of WEE still being alive made her shudder as a flash of the past went through her mind; she thought of Gemini demanding that she tell him about Kim. But, the thought did get her back on track.
“I’ve got to do this for Kimmie,” Shego told herself.
She landed in a meadow; the hideout was in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing but field, forest, and one mountain for miles around. The funny thing was that the hideout was on government property. The lair was hidden on federal land; well, underneath federal land anyway.
She looked around for a moment, waiting to see how many agents Doctor Director sent after her. Now, Doctor Director had pretended like she was going to send Shego alone, which the pale woman knew was just an act. So, she wanted to see how many idiots might get in her way. She did not see any yet, so she guessed that they were being delayed, either to keep up the pretense that she was going to get to go in alone or for them to actually stay out of her way. She hoped that they were going to stay out of her way.
She stopped searching after a few seconds and charged off in the direction that she knew the entrance of the lair was. She ran over to the lone mountain and looked for the switch that she knew opened a door in the rock. Once she found the switch, she punched it, knowing that it took a lot of pressure to use. A door in the side of the mountain slid open and Shego took off into the darkness without a second thought.
“What is going on?” Dementor screamed for no reason, in his usual fashion. He asked the question because of the red light flashing through out his work station and annoying the hell out of him while he was trying to work on some new weapons.
He was aware that the red light was the alarm system, which he had reworked when he and DNAmy took refugee in the place. He turned his attention to his monitors to see what the problem was. He did not have to do much else because the system worked automatically when the alarm was tripped. And then he caught sight of the intruder.
“Well, if it isn’t the little traitor herself. I’m sure I would get a nice bonus if I take off her head,” Dementor commented to the air with a smile.
The mad scientist turned his attention away from the weapons that he was working on and decided to watch what happened with the intruder. He wanted to keep a close eye on her just to make sure that he knew where she fell; oh, he was certain that she was going to fall. He had some of the best weapons, traps, and guards hooked up all around the lair, so she was going down, even if he had to take charge of her demise instead of leaving it to his automated system.
Shego knew that she was walking on a slope; the entrance that she had come to led downward because the base was underground. She was using her power in one hand to illuminate the passage way that she was in. She knew that she had to expect traps and things, which she remembered where they were. But, she did suspect that Dementor might have added to what she knew about; after all, he was no slouch when it came to things and he was just as much a genius as he was mad.
She knew that she had to be alert, so she tried not to think about Kim. She just did not want to allow her emotions to get the better of her because she did not want to screw up by letting her temper control her or by letting sorrow consume her. She just told herself that she was definitely going to accomplish her mission and return the dragon to where it belonged.
And then, she did not have time to think much anymore. The traps that she had been expecting sprang, starting with buzz-saws coming out of the walls. She agilely dodged all of those because she knew those were there. She also knew about a pit that was going to open up into a bed of spikes, so she knew to jump at the right time. She sometimes wondered why pits were always made wide enough for someone to jump over.
The new things came before she had to chance to even get out of the hallway that led to the main part of the lair. There were lasers coming out of the walls and the ceiling. She was making it passed those when a giant robot came out of nowhere and punched her in the stomach; its fist was about the size of her whole body, though. She grunted as the hit impacted her abdomen and knocked her into the stone wall.
“Holy crap,” Shego groaned and then she had to duck because a laser was coming her way.
Shego was not in the mood to play around with anything at the moment. She just wanted to get into the lair and get the dragon; maybe beat the crap out of Dementor if he was around for having the nerve to steal something from her beloved and leave her in a state that was not fitting for a pig. So, she ignited her hands to take down the robot and whatever else was going to come at her.
“AH!” Shego snarled in anger as she pushed herself off of the wall and launched herself at the robot. She screamed in fury as cut clean through the machine with the same ease that shears would cut through leaves.
Shego was running down the corridor before the robot even had a chance to hit the floor. Any robot that came near her was treated in the same manner. Any weapon that appeared before her and was in her path, she sliced through it like it was some annoying insect. The more things that got in her way, the angrier she got and the hotter her plasma blazed because of her subconscious feelings.
When she got to the end of the corridor, she was faced with a thick metal door. She knew that it was going to be there. She did not care. She put her hands on the door and proceeded to easily melt through it, even though she thought that Dementor had reinforced the thing. She suspected that he just based his reinforcement on her abilities back when she worked with WEE. Her powers now compared to her powers then was something like comparing the heat from a sparkler to the heat from a star.
Dementor could not believe his eyes. He had not thought that she would be able to go through his door with such ease, or his robots for that matter. It was like she was some kind of monster now, he thought. She was really the fire beast; it was a name that GJ agents called her when she was a WEE mercenary. He was not going to let her get the better of him, though.
Dementor turned his attention to a console and got to work on the keyboard. He was going to show her all of the things that he had added to the lair. He also decided to contact DNAmy to; he wanted to know how things were going and if she was aware that they had a visitor.
“Amy, how’s the research with the dragon?” he demanded to know.
“I could do without interruptions and that flashing red light!” she answered in a huff. She was very frustrated, which was why she was shouting and not her usual jovial self.
“We have an intruder,” he reported loudly. “So, you need to take precautions.”
“I don’t need this now!” she screamed, really just totally aggravated with everything that was happening.
“Will you just take precautions! This is intruder is dangerous. It’s Shego…and apparently, she’s new and improved,” he informed the geneticist.
Dementor heard DNAmy make an irked noise, but he ignored that. He guessed that she was not getting anywhere with the dragon, which just meant that she was a waste in his opinion. Once he got rid of Shego, he decided that he was going to take control of the dragon and he would unlock the secrets of that beast. He was certain of that, but first, he had to get rid of that fire-starting annoyance.
Shego was frowning and breathing just a little hard. Her plasma was now flaring all the way up her arms, stopping just short of her shoulders. She knew that she was getting close to where Wade claimed she needed to be. She hoped that nerd was on the top of his game and really could narrow down the dragon’s location to within yards. Until she got to it, she was just going to cut and burn through whatever was in her path.
More robots came to greet her as she entered a new corridor. They were human-sized and taking up the hall like a tidal wave. If they could not beat her with their lasers and bullets, it would seem that they were just going to overwhelm her. She flung powerful plasma blasts at them, melting them on contact, but they did end up piling up on her.
Dementor cackled when he saw his machines gang up on Shego thanks to his monitors and the cameras hooked up all around the hideout. He thought that he had her. She was his! He was going to be a superstar in the villain world having taken down the fire-beast. And then he saw something that he could not even believe.
The robots were starting to melt and there was a bright green glow. Suddenly, there was a flash and then something like an explosion. The camera that he was looking into blew up because of the escape of power.
“What just happened!” Dementor screamed because of the loss of the picture in that hall. He tried switching to other cameras set up around there, but the closest camera that was still working did not show a picture of the intruder.
Shego climbed to her feet. There seemed to be green fire blazing off of her whole body. The intensity of it all was actually melting the walls close by. She was scowling deeply, but very aware of what she was doing. She tuned down her powers, returning it to just dancing on her arms. She took off down the hall that she was in, hoping that she did not wasted too much time with those toys and given the bad guys a chance to get away with the dragon.
Shego decided to just clear her way to not waste anymore time. She charged forward while powering up and throwing plasma blasts with enough energy in them to melt whatever they came into contact with. She could practically hear Dementor screaming in disbelief as she destroyed everything that he threw in her path.
It did not even take her a minute to get to where she needed to be after that. She blew the door open and charged in just in time to hear a woman shout in surprise. She turned her attention to her left and saw DNAmy.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Shego demanded to know.
The geneticist did not answer. She closed her laptop and hit a button that was right next to her. Shego watched in disbelief as the floor underneath Amy and she disappeared into a tunnel with her computer.
“Amy!” Shego roared as she had to hop over several metallic tables to get to where DNAmy used to be. The tunnel closed as soon as she got there. She was about to claw at the floor, but she noticed the container on the table right next to her that held a red gas-like splotch it seemed.
Shego wondered what the crimson mist was and then she remembered that in the video she watched with Doctor Director that the dragon looked like a red smoke when it was drawn out of Kim. Was she looking at the dragon, she wondered. And if she was, what was she supposed to do with it?
Dementor saw on his monitor that Amy had escaped with her work, but she had left the dragon. He wondered what that was about. She then suddenly came into his work station through one of the secret tunnels. She would have left him, but the plan called for them to work together and she was not crazy enough to go against the plan.
“I’ve got what I need,” DNAmy informed Dementor.
“Oh, then we just blow her up,” Dementor stated with a sinister grin. He turned his attention to his keyboard and also to his microphone. He wanted Shego to know who she was going to be killed by. “Attention, traitor!” he shouted into the microphone.
Shego turned to look around for a moment when she heard Dementor’s distinct voice addressing her. She really did not care what he had to say. At the moment, she was trying to figure out how to free the dragon. The container that it was trapped in was actually part of the metal table that it was sitting on. She was prepared to just cut through the table and run out with the whole container since she did not know what would happen if she actually opened the tank and let the dragon out. She was not sure if the dragon could move on its own and even if it could, she was not sure if it would go back to Kim. It might look for another person to parasite off of.
“I hope you’re ready to die!” Dementor announced and unbeknownst to Shego, he pushed a button on his keyboard.
“Self-destruction activated,” a computer voice informed the three people that were in the lab.
“Damn it,” Shego sucked her teeth as the floor beneath her started rumbling.
Shego ignited her hands as much as she could to cut through the table, but to make sure not to harm the container that housed the dragon. As soon as she started in on her task, the ceiling came down on her while the floor began exploding. Debris collapsed, knocking her back and landing on the container while an explosion came up from above the container. Shego started in disbelief; had the dragon just been destroyed?
What would happen to Kim if the dragon had just been annihilated? Would she continue to fade away until she died? Shego planned a slow, miserable, and painful death for Dementor, DNAmy, and any other person that was involved in the plot to take the dragon from its owner.
More explosions and debris halted Shego’s thoughts of revenge. She put her arms up to protect her face as the floor near her erupted with bits of hot metal shooting up. She hoped that the other GJ agents caught Dementor and DNAmy and were not getting caught up in the destruction like she was. She hoped that they did not fail as she did.
“I’m sorry, Princess,” Shego muttered as she knocked back by another, immense explosion.
Next time: what happens to Kim and Shego.