“Hey, Princess.”
Kim looked up from where she was crouched by the darkened window, unable to contain the happy smile that spread across her face at the sight of the taller woman standing in the moonlight, her long black wig shimmering in the soft white glow, “yeah?”
Oh you are so adorable when you do that, Shego thought.
Shego’s smile was equally endearing to Kim, if the almost violent spike in the redhead’s happiness was any indication. Before, it had been just lapping gently at the edges of her mental barriers, but now it had started battering against it like an insistent child. “I’ve been wanting a good partner like you for –.”
“– a long time,” they said together. Kim dissolved into giggles at Shego’s indignant look, turning back to the window lock she was trying to break. “Yes, Shego – I know. You’ve only said it about a thousand times since we left that apartment down the street, which – I might add – is going to need some remodelling.” She laughed quietly, working on the lock with growing frustration.
Shego grinned, Kim’s interruption forgiven. That hole in the wall might actually make a good second door to the bathroom – too bad I took half the sink, though… “You know,” Shego crouched down beside the frustrated redhead, “I could have had that lock broken a good twenty minutes ago, Princess – What are you doing down there?”
Kim didn’t answer for a moment, focused as she was on the window in front of her. “Well, forgive me Shego, but I haven’t tried to break into a place for a long time, and super-secret evil lairs are way complicated. You know what they say: ‘the simplest tasks are the hardest to accomplish’, or something like that.” The lock on the window clicked open at that moment and it slid open a crack. “Finally,” Kim muttered, sliding the pane open the rest of the way and climbing in, “I thought we’d be here all night.” Sighing as she released her frustration, Kim reached up to rub an itch on her forehead, her fingers passing just over the black mask she was wearing over her eyes.
I really don’t get why you have that mask, Kimmie, but I suppose I’ll play along.
“So did I,” Shego followed her apprentice into the darkened office and silently slid the window closed behind her. “Here’s adding another thing to the list of skills you need to brush up on,” Shego mimed jotting things down on a writing tablet, “you need a refresher course on complex alarm systems and a decent few lessons on simple security.” She looked up at Kim, still smiling as the girl crept through the shadows of the deserted office. “And you said this wouldn’t be a good test of your abilities,” she chuckled quietly. “Anything else you think I should add?”
Kim glanced back from where she was now crouched by the door to the office, smiling slyly at the older villainess, “how about a tutorial on how to kiss beautiful women?” She winked at her partner.
Shego couldn’t help the smile that crossed her face at the new form their playful banter had taken. “Afraid not, Pumpkin,” she walked over to where Kim was and pulled her to her feet, careful not to use her hands. Because she was technically on a mission, Shego had swapped her almleti-leather gloves for one of her pure-leather pairs, so her plasma-emitting hands were guaranteed to burn anything they touched. “Any more practice on that and you might get the crazy idea that you can run off with any old piece of trash girl at a bar.” She enfolded the girl into as good a hug as she could manage with her hands the way they were. She had her almleti gloves in her bag, as well as some other essentials, but she was content to leave them there for now.
Barely.
Kim frowned slightly, her face still partially obscured in shadow. “Does that mean you don’t want me to play along if someone flirts with me?”
Shego appeared to think about it, shaking her head slowly, “only if you plan on leaving me for one of them.”
Kim smirked playfully, “even if it’s nothing more than a one night stand?”
Shego tightened her grip just a little on the girl in her arms, horrified at the very thought of her partner throwing herself around like that – like she didn’t matter. “Especially if it’s nothing more than that.” She leaned into Kim a little, “you are worth to much to me for me to let you go and give yourself away to someone who’ll only appreciate you for a wild few hours.”
Kim smiled warmly, “deal.” She leaned her head on Shego’s shoulder, “I knew it – you have gone soft.”
Dammit. Shego sighed, “Only for you, Kimmie.” She grinned wickedly, “I feel no pity for the poor sap who tries to get between us.”
Kim laughed softly into her lover’s shoulder. “Who knew you could be such a romantic?”
Shego shoved her away in mock anger, “I love you like Hell, Princess, but don’t get all mushy on me or I might just have to call one of my thousands of other pretty redheaded girlfriends.”
At Kim’s stricken and heartbroken look, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, Shego almost kicked herself. Smooth job, genius! She rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Kim’s shoulders, “oh God, Kim – I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.” She made sure to keep her hands away from Kim. Yeah, that would go over well… “It was supposed to be a joke, but I guess it wasn’t all that funny, huh?”
Kim laughed weakly, pulling away from Shego. “A joke – right…” She slid her hands down to hold Shego’s forearms. “Okay,” she finally said, her sadness at the idea of Shego leaving her bleeding away as she was gently reassured by the concern and compassion she could feel in the other woman’s mind, as well as see in her eyes. “Say,” their previous discussion seemed to vanish from Kim’s memory as a new idea occurred to her, “how long would it take you to grow your hair out again?”
Though surprised by the sudden change in subject, Shego managed to move with it. She looked around the office they stood in. What a strange place to have this conversation.
“Well, you know – my hair grows really fast, so I could look like myself again in about three, maybe four months.” She was tempted to run her hands through her raven-black wig because the motion would be comforting to her, but was able to hold back the impulse. I don’t want to destroy my wig yet, do I? “But,” she considered what her partner was implying, “I was thinking of keeping it short for a while longer; you were right in saying that we need to be able to disguise ourselves effectively, but I can’t do that if my hair is long.”
Kim waved that concern away. “Oh, don’t worry about that; I can disguise you.” She stepped away from Shego and pointed at the dark, dark brown S that she’d tattooed on her left collarbone with her elemental powers. “Just like I disguised myself,” She turned back to the door and contemplated opening it again, “but I’m not sure how well your body will take it.”
“Why?” Shego stepped up behind Kim and stared at the white wings that were still clearly visible on the redhead’s back – even in this light. Just like Angel’s wings, she thought with a tiny smile. Hmm…I like that. Is it time to add another nickname for Kimmie? Maybe that’d be a good way to mark the change in our relationship… “Your body didn’t take it badly.”
Kim turned from the door, a thoughtful expression adorning her face. “Yeah, but I think that’s because of the fact that I was able to do it to myself in the first place.” She paused, trying to put her theories into words. “See, because I’m an elemental, I’m beginning to think it’s kind of like my body’s supposed to be able to have foreign substances mixed in amongst my own cells, but your body is a different story. I think that what I thought would have happened to me will actually happen to you.” She stopped again. “Like, when I expected my skin to itch like crazy but it didn’t – I think you’d itch like no tomorrow because your body isn’t supposed to have anything totally foreign inside it like that.”
Shego leaned forward, resting her head on Kim’s shoulder, “and what exactly is that supposed to mean?”
The redhead breathed in deeply to catch her breath. “It means,” she explained, “that I can probably disguise your hair, skin, and general body dimensions, but I don’t think I want to risk trying to change your eyes.” She reached up unexpectedly to hold onto the nape of Shego’s neck with one hand, rubbing gently – comfortingly. “I think it’d be a little painful when I change you back to real-you after I’ve mixed the paints like that.”
Shego chuckled as she thought some more about what her girl was offering. “You know, much as I’d love to stand in this dark room and discuss how cool your powers are,” she nodded her head to the door that was now behind Kim, “we do have a job to do.”
“Right,” Kim smiled and pulled away, “one rare and completely useless armband coming right up.” She pulled the unlocked door open and stepped out into the hall. “You know, I’d have expected better security from a museum; I mean, they must have some artifacts that are at least a little valuable.”
“Hey, what exactly did you expect, Princess?” Shego followed Kim out of the office.
“This is a museum for grade school aged kids; there’s not really all that much here that’s worth stealing.”
She kept following Kim as the redhead made her way down the hallway – looking for a way to get from this administrative branch of the building to the public-but-closed sections of the museum.
“I mean, there’s not anything worth it for any thief who knows how to shop at least.” She pointed back at the office they’d just left, “We passed a jewellery story a couple blocks from here, which is easily a nicer target for most thieves.”
Kim glanced into another dark and empty office, “less trouble to make off with jewels and you can pawn them off pretty easily, I guess.”
“Right on, Princess,” Shego tried an important-looking door only to discover that it was the Men’s room.
And it was most definitely occupied.
What the Hell?
Andrew Jordan, lowly night security officer, looked up from his newspaper at the sound of voices and the door opening to see two faces looking into the bathroom – one pale-skinned and almost…green? The other face was normal-complexioned but she was wearing a strip of black cloth across her eyes like Zorro. Both of the intruders were clearly women, and it didn’t escape Jordan’s notice that the one on the left – the green-skinned one – was not-so-slowly melting the doorframe where she was leaning against it with one long-fingered and dully green-glowing black-gloved hand. She was wearing a green-and-black bodysuit that looked to be within millimetres of skin-tight, and had eyes that were the darkest green that Jordan had ever seen. And there was also something all-too familiar about the raven-haired beauty, but he couldn’t quite place it.
Yes, she was beautiful – Jordan could easily admit that much. Despite the fact that she was clearly a criminal of some kind – as evidenced by her presence in a closed museum – Jordan couldn’t deny the fact that there was an exotic quality and confidence to the woman that made her just really…really hot.
The redheaded Zorro impersonator’s eyes narrowed almost instantly as Jordan mentally admired her partner’s appearance, almost as if she had heard his silent appraisal. But that’s just crazy, right? There must have just been something in his body language that told Zorro-girl where his thoughts had presently led him. Just to be fair, Jordan spared an instant to check her out too in the tense and strangely unreal silence that followed the opening of that door. She wasn’t half-bad, either. Red hair bright as a sunrise poured down her back to end perhaps halfway down, her eyes looked to be the same colour as the other woman – whose hand was now wrist deep in the doorframe.
And, oddly enough, there was also a rather noticeable, slender-lined S tattooed in black across her left collarbone. A tight black tank top showed off a nice amount of a flat, toned abdomen, and a pair of black cargo pants completed the look of a woman who was going for comfort during what was obviously a museum robbery. For what, Jordan didn’t have a clue; Redpath Museum didn’t really have that much to interest any professional thief as far as he could tell.
S…
During the tense and far-too-long silence that filled the bathroom, Jordan stared from one woman to the other, realizing that the taller of the two was disturbingly familiar, but he really couldn’t remember where he’d seen her. It had something to do with that S on the other girl’s collarbone – that was for sure.
The taller woman’s voice pulled Jordan out of his thoughts. “God Dammit,” she muttered, pulling her hand out of the smoking crater she’d inadvertently made in the wall. “It figures that the one door I try to open reveals the one security guard in the whole place.”
Zorro turned to the green-and-black clad woman, “well, what’d you expect, Shego – no security?”
Jordan’s eyes grew wide at the revelation.
Shego? Here? Why?
It didn’t matter – really. Rising to his feet, Jordan tugged his pants up violently and fastened the button. He didn’t have time to deal with the fly or his belt, so he just barrelled straight for the door as soon as he wasn’t risking tripping over his own pants, hoping for the best. The S on the other woman’s skin made sense now:
An apprentice.
Jordan had heard of Shego, world-renowned super-thief, and he’d seen a lot of news footage of the criminal in action. Her fighting skill was far beyond impressive and clearly surpassed Jordan’s measly, high-school level security guard training.
So how he managed to get past two of them would forever remain a mystery to him.
He shoved his way between them and out into the hall. Swinging left, he took off down the hall, aiming for the security booth by the main entrance, where his partner was covering the various camera monitors that were routed there. Expecting a painful tackle from behind – or a burning ball of green energy – Jordan was shocked to hear a short cry of surprise and the infamous villainess’ voice.
“Hold it, Princess.”
“But Shego –.”
Their voices faded behind him as Jordan ran, hurriedly pulling his belt together and zipping up his fly as he ran. Grabbing his radio from his no longer flapping belt, he pressed talk and hissed into it, “Hey, Yonge!” You better not be outside having a cig, buddy. I don’t know if I can get to the booth before those two sort out their…thing. “Yonge, are you there? Pick up!”
“Yeah, I’m here Andy – what’s-a-matter?” Jordan’s partner – and the only other living soul in the closed museum who wouldn’t be trying to beat the shit out of him in the immediate future – didn’t sound at all worried and it totally threw off Jordan’s all-out panic mode. “You sound like we’re under attack, man.”
I’d probably be happier if we were, Jordan cursed. “Fire up the sile-arm, Yonge – we’ve got big-time ‘truders.”
“Are you sure?” Jordan’s radio squawked, “okay…silent alarm activated – what do I tell Central when they call?”
Jordan searched his memory as he rounded a corner, using the arm of a sturdy suit of armour to swing him around so he wouldn’t have to slow down. There was something in the old training manual about this – he was sure of it. The memory came slowly because he’d never given that section more than a quick glance, having never expected that the night-haired criminal would ever take an interest in their little museum.
The procedure for Redpath museum if Shego ever broke in – for whatever…reason – was for security to inform the Central control people that oversaw their silent alarm system. Central would then take that information and call in the “proper authorities” to call in backup. Used to be, the proper backup would be a request on Kim Possible’s website, but with the heroine retired now…Jordan just didn’t know how Central would handle this.
It had been a sad day indeed when Kim Possible retired, at least for Jordan; he’d seen the poetry that came to life whenever those two went at it – like a living, breathing, near-tangible thing. Good and Evil meeting and fighting each other to a tie until the end of time…it had been the only form of living poetry he’d ever seen, and it would very likely be the best example he would ever see because nothing could possibly top the art that those two made when captured together on film; an image of light and darkness battling for dominance until eternity. It was a story as old as creation – older than the epic tales of Troy against Athens, Homer’s Odyssey, and the trials of Hercules.
Still, in the here and now, Jordan was left with his partner in a museum alone with Shego and her prodigy. Like only have-a-painting, chaos would surely reign, if the other half wasn’t found to balance Evil with Good.
Jordan raised the radio to his lips as he barrelled around the last corner before the security booth, the oh-so-dangerous intruders still nowhere in sight. “Tell them Shego’s here.”
“Shego?” Yonge moaned in disbelief, “Are you serious?”
Jordan froze as a pair of shadows fell on him from above. “Ah!”
Two black leather gloves fluttered to the floor at Jordan’s feet.
“Jesus!” He bent double to regain his nerves. Now I’m jumping at shadows…but such is the power of Evil, right? “Yeah, I’m serious.” He kept his hold on the radio as he grabbed both gloves and then resumed his mad dash for the security booth. “Glow-hands, bit of a ‘tude, and her app’tice called her ‘Shego’, so what do you think?”
Ten years spent working the overbearingly boring night shift together had caused Jordan and Yonge to develop a small game of their own when they tried to simplify the English language so much that the other couldn’t understand a word. From this rather innocent game had emerged a whole language of their own that no other guard on staff could even stomach. Ten years of that strange, on-going game had given Jordan and Yonge an almost intuitive way of speaking to each other, almost a telepathic bond that allowed for the simplification of whole sentences without losing a single meaning in the process.
“App’tice, really? Any we know?”
Apprentice, really? Is it anyone we know? “Don’t know,” he threw open the door to the security room and stepped inside, continuing to speak to his half-Korean partner as he lowered the radio. “Red hair, black mask – kinda like Zorro.”
“Zorro?” Yonge turned his chair away from the small bank of security monitors. “Villains and their quirks, eh?”
Jordan nodded as a speaker on the left end of the monitor bank came to life with a quiet crackle of static.
“Redpath, this is Central security, what is your current situation?”
Yong slapped the reply switch. “We have a break-in at the museum in progress and a strong suspicion that one of the intruders is Shego.”
“Say again, you believe that Shego has broken into the Redpath Museum?” The voice on the other end was tinged with disbelief, which was quite understandable. The woman hadn’t been seen for over three-and-a-half years, so her resurfacing in a nowhere place like Redpath was somewhat doubtful.
Yonge wasn’t affected by Central’s scepticism – if his partner said Shego was here, she was here. “That’s right.”
“And how strong is your suspicion?”
Yong glanced at Jordan. “Physical appearance fits, including her glowing hands, and her partner called her by name, so…very strong.”
“Alright, just hold tight and we’ll inform Global Justice.”
The speaker went dead.
“Hmm…” Jordan leaned against the wall beside the door and stared at the security monitors, which showed no sign of the intruders. “So that’s the play they’ll use with Kim Possible out of the picture. I’m not impressed.” He looked to Yonge, “you?”
Yonge shook his head, “I don’t think Global Justice has ever been a match for Shego, so that makes two of us.”
“How about we make it four of us?”
The two security guards turned to face the door, both going for their taser guns as the two intruders strode into the booth as if they owned the place.
Jordan gasped at the sight of the two women, wielders of such power, standing in such a close space. “Uh…you’re trespassing on private property, uh – ladies. We’ve already called for back-up, so you’d better give yourselves up peacefully.”
“Oh?” Shego just leaned back against a wall and crossed her arms, “I don’t really think you can make us, but you’re welcome to try.” She glanced meaningfully at the woman beside her, “Princess?”
The redhead nodded silently and moved before either taser-armed guard could react, kicking off the wall in a fast spin-kick that hit Yonge in the side of his torso, twirling him around once as she dropped to the floor and kicked up, launching the younger security guard straight up into the ceiling, knocking him out cold.
Shego grinned deviously, “and then there was one.”
Before the redhead could move her attention to Jordan, he fired his taser at her, twin lines of wire springing out to pierce her black tank top at the side of her ribcage to flood the woman’s entire body with high-voltage electricity.
For a second, it looked as if the taser hadn’t worked because the redhead didn’t even slow down, and instead leapt forward to drive a fist that could have been as hard as concrete into Jordan’s shoulder, spinning him to one side and down while her other fist came down to smash his head towards the floor, putting him out of the action just as he saw the muscles in her face twitching in pain.
So, the taser had worked. Too bad the thing didn’t have a full charge.
Batteries must be dying, was Jordan’s last thought before his skull hit the floor and he was swept to temporary oblivion.
Kim tore the wires out of her side as soon as the second guard was out.
“Son of a bitch!”
Shego snickered, “a little uncomfortable isn’t it?” She kicked the dead wires to one side casually. “Good thing the taser didn’t have a full charge or I’d be working solo tonight.”
She walked over to the board of monitors and started flipping switches, cutting off the power to every camera and surveillance device she could find. One by one, the monitors went blank as the criminal disabled everything the museum had. Nice of them to put the controls to everything in one place…
Kim rubbed the side where the wires had hit her, wincing. “No…” She walked gingerly over to the chair the first guard had been in and dropped into it, sighing as she closed her eyes and leaned her head back in the mildly comfortable chair. “It had a full charge in it.” She turned to Shego, smiling weakly, “doesn’t really compare to a lightning bolt but then again, lightning doesn’t usually run for more than a split second when it hits you.”
Shego stared at her partner in disbelief. My, my, Kimmie…you’re just full of surprises, aren’t you? “You’ve been hit by lightning?”
The younger woman nodded slowly as her body seemed to straighten, recovering rather quickly from the injury that was supposed to completely incapacitate her for hours. “Several times,” she stretched, standing from the chair, “but only since acquiring my weather-control powers, so I figure it’s maybe a secondary way to recharge myself since I seem to have developed a natural resistance to electricity.”
Shego shook her head, chuckling mostly to herself. “You just keep getting cooler, don’t you?”
Kim reached over to rub her side again. “It still hurts like Hell, but leaves me feeling better after a few minutes.”
Shego considered what she had just been told, “so I guess if you’d had your whole weather-witch-ness back when you were in the business, that Eric synthodrone wouldn’t have been able to touch you, would it?”
Kim smiled weakly at the memory, and Shego almost kicked herself…again…for bringing up the subject. This was always going to be a source of conflict for the two of them – at least until they actually found some time to sit down and argue about it like the mature, superhuman martial artists that they were. It had been the one time that Shego and Dr Drakken had managed to beat Kim Possible by using the dirtiest of dirty tricks: a planted double agent in the teen heroine’s inner circle of friends, and worse – an agent that was supposed to play the part of the “perfect guy” and make Kim fall in love with it. Kim had been far beyond angry when she’d learned about that aspect of that plot – she’d been pissed to Hell and back. And, as it turned out, the rage of Kim Possible – only a few hours after its creation – had proven to be way more than Shego’s own old and unknowingly fake hatred.
“No,” the redhead said finally, chuckling quietly, tensely. “No, I guess he wouldn’t have been able to catch me so easily.”
Shego stepped away from the wall and moved to inspect the wounds on the unconscious security guards, deciding to change the subject to something a little more pleasant. “Impressive work, Princess. Your fighting skill is coming back at least.”
Kim nodded and bent down to check for pulses. Both were fine. The man who’d been seated by the security monitors had a nasty bump swelling up on the top of his head, and some heavy bruising on his side, but was otherwise looking quite undamaged. His buddy, the one Shego had found in the bathroom, and whom Shego decided to taunt by whipping her gloves at him, had nothing but a bump on his head. “Of course,” she stood back up, “these two were hardly a challenge.” She turned back to Shego. “Now, will you tell me why we let them get word out before you made me beat them senseless?”
“Easy,” Shego bent down to retrieve her leather gloves from toilet-man’s grip. Man, the look on his face when I threw these at him – it was freakin’ hilarious! “See, simply setting off the alarms of this place would just result in cops – lots and lots of cops – and I know you don’t want to be beating on cops unless it’s necessary. This way,” she gestured at the now unconscious guards, “Global Justice gets the message directly and right away. They find out exactly where we are and that there are about to be two very dangerous criminals where before there had been only one.”
“Aha,” Kim turned and walked out of the room, “so let’s get this armband of yours before Global Justice agents show up to try and take us down.”
Ha! Shego smirked to herself. Global has the worst response time I’ve ever seen. It’s like they have a freakin’ committee meeting before they do anything. “Yeah, let’s do that,” she followed Kim out into the museum proper. “And, about your idea to disguise me, Kimmie…”
The redhead turned to fix Shego with a dazzling smile. “Yeah?”
The sudden surge of excitement from Kim’s mind, which had been merely simmering at a quiet buzz since they left the restaurant that afternoon floored Shego with its sharpness. Nearly. “Uh,” it had caused her to momentarily lose her train of thought, however. “You get to choose my new alternate appearance, Princess, but only on one condition.”
“What’s that?” Kim’s smile widened at the freedom her living canvas was giving her.
Shego fixed her lover with a determined glare. “No comic book characters.”
Kim laughed. “Deal.”
“God, what is taking them so long?”
Shego bounced another plasma ball off the armband they’d removed from its case nearly an hour earlier, marvelling at the way the artifact flared purple when the ball connected, but then simply reflected the projectile back into Shego’s hand, forcibly reintegrating it into her body without causing any damage. It had awed her when she’d inspected the thing seven years ago, and it continued to astonish her now.
Sure, the armband didn’t look like much; it was supposed to be just another standard military-issue roman legionnaire’s wrist protection after all, but there were just a few obvious differences. Like the common armbands of the time, it was about the length of a human forearm, reaching from Shego’s wrist to about three-quarters of the way to her elbow. Also like the wrist coverings of the time, it was completely unbroken all the way around its cylindrical length with only a hole at each end that was large enough to accommodate a large arm.
Unlike the normal bands of the time, however, this one wasn’t made of leather; it was constructed of some cool, smooth metal that shimmered in the dim light of the museum. There were also a collection of squares painted on its surface, each containing a different odd symbol that Shego didn’t recognize, each one more peculiar than the last. Another difference was the fact that this armband didn’t appear to have any fastenings whatsoever, meaning that whoever had worn it had to have been very careful to not let the thing slide off in battle. The whole object was either black or it was painted that way to make it look impressive even though no one who had seen it could figure out what the damned thing was.
Tossing another flaming green ball, Shego caught it when it rebounded, smirking at the resulting spike in the heat in her hand. “I swear,” she continued. “We could have made off with half the museum by now,” she muttered to Kim.
“On your bike? I highly doubt it,” Kim didn’t look away from the empty space she was staring at through her aqua-blue rimmed sun-glasses, but her voice rose slightly in irritation. “Do they always take this long?”
Shego watched her partner raise her water-blue gloved hands to grasp at an invisible object. “Yeah,” she replied. “It’s why I’ve been spending so much time living undercover – clean.” She clenched her hand into a fist. “I just couldn’t stand waiting around for a good fight only to have a choice between Monkey Kung Fu and little-Ms-Attitude.” She took in the way Kim was sitting cross-legged on top of another display case, playing the nerd game. “So – how’s Nerdlinger’s newest toy?”
“It’s really cool,” Kim looked over at Shego, “I’d offer you a look, but Wade told me that CP 3.0 will only work for one user, and that would be me.”
Shego studied her partner for a moment. Even distracted and playing with invisible toys there was still a weird beauty in every movement Kim made that made her utterly irresistible. God, you still don’t see it, do you Kimmie? “What?” Shego smiled slightly, “I haven’t heard him say anything like that.”
Kim tapped the right side of her head. “He forgot to mention earlier that the start-up mode has an earpiece as well as the glasses and one glove.” She turned back to the empty space that hung in front of her and returned to playing with her invisible rocks or other objects. “I was running through a tutorial he created just for me; it was helping me set up the suit the way I want it to be.”
Shego tossed another plasma ball at the armband, almost missing the catch when the artefact seemed to hurl her projectile back at her. “So, how far along are you?” And how much longer until I can monopolize your time with that rematch duel you owe me?
Kim grinned mischievously, “Oh, I’m finished setting up the suit.” She swept her left arm across the air suddenly, as if clearing a table in the most chaotic way possible. “I’ve got all the commands figured out and every setting set up just the way I like it.” She reached back with her right hand and pressed her middle finger against the back of the deep green-blue band that went around her head from one side of her VR-glasses to the other. “Just now, I was passing the time with one of the games that Wade put in here for boring times.” With a miniscule whirring sound, Kim’s sunglasses collapsed and the silvery vein-like wires receded back down her arm to reintegrate into the shimmering silvery bracelet around her left wrist. Then, the blue glove on her left hand also pulled back into the bracelet in the same way, “I guess I was a little bored and I kind of forgot you’d probably be just as bored.” She smiled apologetically.
Shego shrugged, “It’s not so bad,” she stated only half-dishonestly. “It’s actually been kinda fun watching you play with nothing, even though I would prefer doing something else with you.” She raised one eyebrow meaningfully.
Kim slid off the display case she’d been sitting on to land lazily in an almost aggressive fighting stance that Shego recognized from earlier in their history together, when the girl’s skills had still been rather raw and unnatural – when she’d just been learning her stuff. She was good even back then, she thought. Good, but raw… “In that case,” Kim smirked as she bent her legs to fall into a lopsided kind of crouch and held both hands in front of her like the talons of a bird of prey. “What do you say to a rematch – confuse the heck out of Ron and his friend by making them think we’re still on opposite sides?”
Shego returned her partner’s smile and vaulted off the display case she’d been lounging on to land right behind Kim, her head bent down to speak softly into the redhead’s ear. “Make them think you’ve come out of retirement just to take a shot at stopping little old me? That’s sweet.” Shego reached out quickly to grab Kim in a bear hug and throw her to the floor in a wrestling move that had often worked very well on Kim. Let’s see if you’ve finally learned how to counter this one, Kimmie.
Apparently, she had.
Even before Shego’s hands could meet around Kim’s chest, the redhead’s arms swung around behind her – fingers still molded together like talons – and jabbed them into the sides of Shego’s ribcage with a strangely loud double-thump, digging in and up painfully. “Nice try, Shego.” The redhead spun away as Shego grunted and abandoned her efforts to entrap her.
Shego coughed and grabbed onto her left side, where Kim’s talon- jab had been a little more painful. “Thanks,” she straightened from the half-standing, half-fetal position she’d fallen into from the sharp and unexpected pain. “And you know what?” She shifted her stance to be more defensive, hoping to throw Kim off by reversing their roles; Shego had always been the aggressor. “I was thinking about your decision to go all Zorro on me.”
Kim’s sweet and slightly fruity confusion was only there for an instant before the girl was right in front of her, fists flying too fast for Shego to get a countering shot in. “What about it?” She panted, her mind steadily giving off a rather modest amount of excitement, “think it’s too much?”
“Oh, not at all.” Shego used the briefest of pauses in Kim’s attack to drop to the floor and swing out in a low kick to sweep Kim’s legs out from under her. “I think it’s cute – really.”
Kim back-flipped over Shego’s kick, landing with a broad grin on her face – whether from her avoidance of Shego’s kick or from the pale-skinned woman’s words. “So, what’s the problem?”
Shego went on the offensive for the first time in their duel and leapt at Kim with a spinning kick that had been known to crush the sternums of lesser humans. Kim, however, simply crossed her wrists and blocked the kick, letting its force add to the momentum of her own countering spin-kick. “Well,” Shego took the kick to her shoulder and slid sideways with the impact of Kim’s boot to her body. “Nice kick, Princess.” She charged up and threw a plasma ball –.
– Which Kim dodged narrowly. “Thanks, but you were saying…?” She settled into a more comfortable defensive stance.
Shego took the aggressive stance but did nothing for a few moments, “you know – you might fool Ms Holier-than-thou for a good few hours, but Stoppable will probably figure out who you are in about two or three minutes.” Shego dove forward with a left-right combo that Kim blocked without any apparent thought before they started a back-and-forth sparring session which had both of them moving together in a dance so familiar it was as natural as breathing. “If you stay quiet it might take a little longer, but you two spent a lot of time together, so he might even recognize you with part of your face covered like that.”
Kim blocked a fast rising kick, countering with a backhand that swept up diagonally from Shego’s left hip. “Ron and I have been friends since pre-K.”
Shego smiled somewhat wistfully at that. Oh, to have a friend who stuck close for that long… She dodged a left-hand jab. “So, it’s pretty much up in the air whether he’ll recognize you or not.” She whirled around in a blinding tornado kick, which Kim blocked all-too-easily. “So, I’ll ask again: what’s the deal with your mask?”
Kim back-flipped away again for a quick breath of air, “like I said back in that apartment – I’m a sucker for dramatic entrances. Plus, there’s also…” She trailed off and Shego swore she saw red in the girl’s cheeks, “no – never mind. “Kim exploded forward in a beautiful diving tackle that drove Shego straight into one of the museum’s marble pillars. “Next question,” she grunted quietly as they landed on the floor together in a heap, Kim lying atop Shego’s briefly winded body.
Shego rolled, throwing her opponent off, unable to contain her amusement at Kim’s embarrassed blush. “Ooh,” she cooed dangerously, “I know this is going to be good; spill it, Princess.”
Kim dodged and pivoted on the ball of her left foot to deal a devastating kick to her rival’s hip, throwing her into yet another pillar. “Do I really have to?” Kim continued without waiting for a reply, “I have a kind of…thing…for Zorro.”
Shego rubbed her hip gingerly. “Is it like your thing for comic book superheroes?” She grinned when the redhead’s blush deepened, “Oh, this is good.” Shego changed tactics and shifted her stance a little. “Tell me everything.”
Kim nodded and swung in with a chop that was aimed for her opponent’s shoulder again, showing no reaction aside from a short nod of recognition when her rival ducked right under the swing. “Okay, Shego – let’s just say that Zorro and all those heroes-of-the-people kind of characters – you know, people like Robin Hood, Zorro, the Lone Ranger, and all those guys – seem to embody the basic concept of my entire career as a vigilante.” She laughed nervously as Shego finally pushed through her defences with a rapid serpent-strike that swept across Kim’s chest with bruising force. “And, uh – there’s also the added appealing thought of everything that happens at the end of their stories.” Kim let off a high kick that missed completely when the taller woman dropped under it. “You know – that whole classic ‘hero takes down the bad guys’ deal.” Kim dodged a pair of plasma balls that had been thrown simultaneously at point-blank range, impressing Shego with her speed. “But my absolute favourite’s the part that comes after that,” the redhead launched forward to return their duel to the blinding back-and-forth dance that Shego had hated herself for loving so much.
“And what part would that be,” Shego blocked, blocked, and kicked, “hero goes home and life goes on?”
“No,” Kim caught Shego’s leg and threw her into the closest dark marble pillar, winding her when the older villainess landed on her back and started to slide down the smooth surface. “The next part,” she pounced on Shego before she could slide very far, and pressed her body into the cool hardness of the stone column, “is so much better than just going home.” She swept aside the weak defence her dizzy opponent tried to raise. Instantly, Kim had her arms around Shego in the bear hug the older woman had tried to get her into earlier, but she didn’t throw Shego to the ground. Instead, Kim just leaned close to whisper her next words into her adversary’s ear.
“The Hero always gets the girl.”
Oh my God!
Shego’s body sagged in shock, completely floored by her partner’s words as well as by the ever-increasing excitement in the air around them. How can she do this to me so easily? “Nice line, Princess,” she tried to brush it off, “do you use that on everyone?”
Kim pulled away and released Shego from her loose hug, but not before the villainess managed to catch a whiff of how hurt the girl was by her last words. God Dammit, she thought, feeling her guilt rising to overshadow the immense enjoyment she’d been garnering from their little sparring match. I can’t ever seem to do it right, can I? After three years of hating her – and even more spent hating the world, have I completely lost the ability to love without hurting those I care about? Shego felt her hopes for a wonderful future with her beautiful Kimmie fading fast.
“No,” Kim said finally, turning away, “just you.” She turned back to face Shego, dropping into her traditional defensive pose, “And I always mean what I say.”
Shego bowed her head in apology, “I’m sorry.” Why the Hell am I apologizing? “I thought we were just joking around – you know, our usual playful fighting banter – but I forgot that the rules changed sometime this morning.” Because your Kimmie’s hurting – that’s why. And you’ve already decided that we can’t have that…ever. Shego settled into her own familiar attack stance, fixing Kim with the most ridiculous innocent look she could muster. “Forgive me?”
Kim’s lips twitched up into a warm and gentle smile that conveyed her love quite easily. “Always, Shego.” Abruptly, the redhead went on the attack, resuming the lightning quick, intricate steps of their own unique dance as if they’d never paused to talk seriously.
Shego was so shocked by the sudden return to their fight that she took two punches to her ribs before her mind could catch up to the outside world.
As if sensing that her opponent wasn’t even close to ready, Kim’s punches were feather-light, barely even brushing across the taller woman’s torso. If Shego were still in “Hate Kim” mode, this move on the redhead’s part would have surely further infuriated her, but as things currently stood, Shego simply saw their rather violent play-fighting for what it was: a way for each to show the other how close they were, how in tune they were the one with the other.
When all else failed – if there ever came a time when they each forgot how the other felt, they would always have this. This back-and-forth dance, this giving and taking of physical blows and playful, heartfelt banter that had formed the very foundation of their relationship would always be there to help Kim and Shego reconcile. Through this new, higher evolved form of their dance, each would always see that they had only ever meant the other true, lasting harm when under the influence of deepest hurt or trickery. Through this new, private language, they would always see that destiny had thrown them together, drawn them closer through pain and suffering, hatred and anger, and separated them for a time – all for the sole purpose of molding them into two bodies with one mind, two sides of the same coin…
Opposites, but forever one.
They were conflicting forces, Kim Possible and Shego, Light and Darkness, Good and Evil. Poems and epic tales had been written about the meeting of the forces they stood for, songs had been sung of that great, eternal battle, but no philosopher or artist had ever truly captured the sheer magnitude and consequences of their joining.
When Good and Evil, Light and Darkness meet, only one of two outcomes can ever result. Good and Evil will make war on each other and will both be utterly annihilated, leaving nothing, or they will join together and combine to form…
Everything.
All things in the universe could be found at the meeting of Light with Darkness – the twilight of Creation. At the joining of Good and Evil, an infinite number of possibilities are opened up and all things became possible.
Sure, there would be arguments between light and darkness – between Km and Shego, but steel is forged through fire, and the greatest and most beautiful works of art are made with the violence of hammer and chisel, and through the inferno of raw, passionate emotion. There could be no passion in the total agreement of Kim and Shego. There was no love found in their simple cooperation. Any disagreements they would have in the future could only serve to either fracture forever the bond they shared, or further strengthen it, drawing them even closer than before.
But, to ensure the latter outcome, Kim and Shego would always have their mutual talents and gifts to remind them of where each had placed their trust and love, and that no argument was worth losing the link that made them one. For that reason, Kim and Shego were forever joined, through fire and water, through peace and conflict…through better or worse…
Knowing that Kim was ready, but still afraid that she was moving too fast, Shego swept one of her brightly blazing hands across the redhead’s torso, unsurprised when Kim twisted out of the way as smoothly as the water over which she held dominion. “You wouldn’t believe the thought I’ve just had, Princess,” she watched appreciatively as Kim moved out of the path of another punch, spinning into a roundhouse kick that Shego had to duck under.
“Actually, I think I would,” the younger woman pushed aside the burning claw swipe that Shego had aimed at her bared abs. “I think very much that I would believe it…”
Shego took a moment to ponder what her partner had just said, deciding to file it away for later. As crap-tacular as Global’s top agent is, she thought, she could still show up at any time and it wouldn’t do to let them know about our respective secrets. Shego threw a pair of punches, “remind me to ask you about what you just said when this is over.” She felt a thrill of pride for her Kimmie’s sake when the girl caught Shego by the wrist and rolled backward into a flip, throwing the villainess behind her and sticking her landing like a pro. That’s my girl, she thought, reminded once again of the beauty that flowed out from Kim’s every move.
Elegance, grace, beauty, power… It was truly awe-inspiring.
“Okay,” Kim nodded her approval as Shego twisted in mid-air to land on her feet and one hand, her other held out to one side like a claw-filled paw. “So,” with that topic closed, Kim went for something new, motioning for Shego to attack as she herself dropped into her defensive stance. “Tell me about the girl who’s replaced me as the world’s ‘Kim Possible’.”
Shego sprang forward, both hands held forward to attack. “What about her?” Her voice was filled with annoyance at Stoppable’s new boss.
Oh, the things I would do to Ms Attitude if I were the textbook definition of evil…
Kim spun away from her opponent’s next all-too-hasty attack, still remaining defensive. “What’s she like?”
Shego snarled unexpectedly and swung out in another claw swipe that pushed through Kim’s defence only to brush right by Kim’s pearly-smooth shoulder without even raising a heat rash from her plasma-filled hands – just as Shego had intended when she came to that split-second realization that this attack at least was going through Kim’s block. If I had wanted to hurt you, Kim, I could have; tighten up your defence. “She’s the most annoying piece of garbage crime-fighter I have ever met.” She drew back and rolled into a cart-wheeling kick-flip that narrowly missed Kim’s chin when the redhead flipped back. “Do you remember what Dr D used to scream at you every time you foiled a plan of his?”
Kim grinned as her body seemed to naturally sway out of the path of Shego’s next sweeping kick. “You mean his, ‘you think you’re all that, but you’re not’ line?” Kim’s voice rose into a pitiful whine when she quoted the amazing blue doctor, performing a fair impersonation.
“Yeah, that’s the one.” Shego kept coming at the shorter redhead, fists and feet flying as the former heroine became as difficult to catch as the wind. For one wild second, the older woman thought that maybe the girl was using her plethora of powers to avoid her attacks, but she knew Kim Possible, and she knew the girl would never sacrifice her honour and press that advantage – especially not against Shego. With Shego, it was purely a physical and verbal workout. “Well, if Dr D had ever,” she dodged a leaping claw-swipe from her partner, “used that line on this girl, she would have had the arrogance to take it as an insult.” Shego pounced on Kim, wrapping her arms so tightly around her neck that her hands were able to be held over her own shoulders, thus sparing the girl from the harm her hands would always inflict. Her face now only centimetres from Kim’s, Shego had to lower her voice lest she hurt her precious little Kimmie’s ears. “Because she does think she’s all that, and she clearly isn’t.”
As they fell back together against a pillar several dozen metres away from where their duel had started, their rapid movements having slowly led them away from the still-open display case and the liberated armband, Kim blushed and Shego’s closeness and she froze, biting her lower lip anxiously – obviously wanting desperately to close the distance between them. No Kim, Shego thought. Not here, not now. Global Justice didn’t know about this facet of their relationship either, and it would probably be best if they never did.
Nodding almost imperceptibly, Kim wrapped her right leg around Shego’s left and tightened, forcibly bending her opponent’s trapped limb and unbalancing her at the same time as her left hand braced her against the pillar at her back and pushed, toppling them both away from the pillar and towards the floor.
As they fell, Shego’s arms quickly loosening from around Kim’s neck, the younger woman twisted around the elder and placed her own feet solidly on the marble-tiled floor of the museum, reaching over with both hands to gently grasp her opponent by the shoulders and slow her fall so that when she finally did hit the tiles, it was with a smooth softness that was almost akin to being laid down to sleep.
The thought of her girl laying her down to sleep sent shivers and a jolt of excitement straight down Shego’s spine, but it didn’t escape her notice how quickly it had all happened; to anyone outside their duel, it would appear that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Shego knew, however, that her eternal rival had just done something that she never would have done four years earlier. Even in the midst of their fight, Kim had reached out to care for her and make sure the fall didn’t hurt her. It was yet another proof that Kim’s love for her was one hundred percent genuine, and that she fully intended to be there to catch and help Shego whenever she couldn’t help herself.
It would have brought a ghost of a tear to Shego’s eyes if she’d spared enough neurons to think about it, but she just sprang back up – ready to fight Kim with a quick nod that yes, she had seen what Kim did.
And she would love her Pumpkin all the more for it.
Diving in with a complex combination of kicks and punches, Kim didn’t seem at all surprised or concerned when Shego sinuously avoided each swing and thrust. “So,” the girl panted, grinning wildly at her enjoyment of their sparring, “if she’s such a pitiful crime-fighter, why would Global keep her.”
Shego blocked a kick with her forearm, returning her partner’s smile. “I don’t know – maybe they just need a pretty face for the media crews that flock to every crime scene as if the concept of anything illegal was new to them.” She punched lightly, “oh, don’t get me wrong, Princess – she’s good. She’s got the potential to be close to what you were, but her job’s just that to her – a job.” Shego feinted with her left hand while bringing her right knee up into Kim’s waiting block. “Good,” she praised her partner, spinning away from a countering high kick. “But – you know – without that passion that drives us, she’ll always be a whole galaxy below us.” She smoothly avoided another low sweeping kick. “See, Dr Dementor’s henchmen are one thing, and so are Dr D’s synthodrones, but us – we’re a thousand worlds above Stoppable’s girlfriend.” She laughed suddenly at the stray memory that passed through her mind.
Kim blocked another power-filled spin-kick, sliding a metre or so to one side with the impact. “What’s so funny?” She tilted her head just slightly as she asked the question, completely oblivious to how endearing that little shy smile was to Shego.
Shego stopped laughing and circled around Kim, taking a quick break as she studied her opponent’s defence. “I was just remembering this one time when your bosom buddy broke into Drakken’s lair all on his own with some weird rolling computer that had Nerdlinger’s face.”
Kim smiled and blocked Shego’s experimental jab. “Nice try,” she spun into a flying roundhouse kick that rolled off her hips like oil. “Ron told me about that one,” she grunted as her boot struck her partner’s waiting block. Impressive moves, Kimmie… “He was looking for a library book,” she continued, moving quickly to avoid or block the storm of punches, jabs, and chops that Shego aimed at her, “one that he’d borrowed from me that was overdue.” Kim spun away from the unending blizzard of attacks, “He told me that you two had a nice talk before the Wadebot threw you into a supercomputer.”
Shego made a face, “stupid robot arms; you never know where they’re coming from.” She chuckled again, “so, he called it a ‘talk’?” She grinned, “Looks like he was holding back from you – you didn’t get the whole story.” She punch-kicked, hoping that an attack from two directions would break through Kim’s solid defence, but knowing it would fail. I just want to see how you get out of this one, Kimmie…
Kim spun under Shego’s punch and slapped her palm into Shego’s ankle, batting away her opponent’s kick without any apparent effort. “Well, we were kinda busy at the time.” She countered Shego’s failed strike with an uppercut which Shego easily bent away from. “We were trying to close this ghost-monkey test that Ron took from Monkey Fist and then mixed up with the library book that had been in his bag the entire time.” Kim paused to lash out at Shego with another flurry of kicks and chops.
Shego blocked and evaded a good number of the ineffective-yet-well-placed attacks. “Monkey Fist?” She grinned. Oh, this is another good story – I can tell. “How many places did he look for this book?”
Kim grinned as her excitement with their fight grew ever higher. “Four places that he told me. First, he searched Duff Killigan’s personal golf course-island and got force-fed a batch of Killigan’s family haggis.”
Shego worked hard to ignore the emotional bouquet that was just pouring out of her adorable partner’s mind. “That’s disgusting; who would ever do that?” She wrinkled her nose and ducked under a low kick.
Kim frowned, narrowly avoiding Shego’s backhand. “What – eat haggis? What’s wrong with haggis?”
The older villainess stepped around a tall display case to catch her breath. “No – force feed it to someone. If they don’t want it, why waste it on them? Hell, I like haggis.”
Kim squatted down on the other side of the display, similarly fatigued – but never tired of the sparring match she was engaged in with the woman who had once been her worst enemy. Now it seemed like that had been a whole lifetime ago. “So, after Wade saved him from Killigan’s family recipe, Ron broke into Drakken’s, had that ‘talk’ with you, and then got into Dementor’s where he got attacked by an army of mutant, man-eating flowers.”
She stretched out her back slowly, carefully. “After that, Ron went and snuck into Monkey Fist’s temple where our favourite chimp-man was getting ready to crown himself ‘Supreme Ultimate Monkey King’ or something like that.”
Without warning, Kim rose to her feet and vaulted over the display case, inside of which lay an open Egyptian sarcophagus – complete with dried-up and half-wrapped corpse – and dove down at Shego feet first.
Rather than expend energy to avoid the fiery-haired woman’s attack, Shego simply stood and showed her trust once again by taking Kim’s kick, which was aimed straight for her skull – a killing blow if there was enough power behind the blow.
True to Shego’s original prediction, and following what she knew of the redhead’s feelings for her, Kim’s whirling kick slowed at the very last instant – slowed so much that when it actually connected with the taller woman’s head, it was no more violent than if Kim had chosen to roll up a handful of newspaper pages and taken a swing at her with it.
Moving with the impact of her girl’s kick, Shego rebounded off another display case and came back at Kim with a blazing green fist. “So,” she nodded an acknowledgment to the redhead when she simply twisted aside to escape from the attack. “Did you want to hear about what your buddy and I talked about when he got into Drakken’s?”
She dodged a double kick and a swinging chop. “So, there me and Dr D were,” she back-flipped over a low display to avoid Kim’s lunging claw swipe. “He’s got some gravity generator or a tidal manipulator – or something – which he’s already taken two tries to even activate.”
Shego dropped to the floor as her opponent dove over the display to grab her. “Because the blue dolt couldn’t get it into his head,” she finally managed to succeed in grabbing Kim in an inescapable bear hug – being careful not to let her hands get too close to her – and threw her into the air, keeping her Princess’ trajectory high enough that she could take control of her fall, twisting to land in that trademark crouch that made her look so wild, so fierce, so untameable, so…
Sexy.
Shego smiled, nodding her approval, “that his precious little doomsday thingie needed batteries.”
She dove in to attack with a flurry of blazing green fists, softening the blows the few times that she got through Kim’s rock-solid defence so they didn’t even connect. “So there we are,” she punched, “he’s gloating and being a pain in the ass because he’s finally figured out what batteries are for,” and kicked, “and I’m working on that tan I’ll never get because of that whole waste disposal plant incident.”
She ducked under Kim’s swinging arm, laughing wildly at the pure enjoyment she was getting from this intricate dance now that she was no longer stubbornly reminding herself to hate the girl. She was also opening herself up to the full power of Kim’s emotions for the first time ever, breathing in the super-energizing and completely irresistible scents of her girl’s excitement, contentment, and a dozen other flavours that would have tasted like crap from anyone else, but tasted like the sweetest fruits of the Earth – simply because they were Kim’s flavours.
Kim echoed Shego’s feral, wild grin but she didn’t laugh. “Too bad – I’d love to be able to lie in the sun for hours and not burn.” The redhead ducked a kick.
“Greedy girl,” Shego chuckled, throwing a plasma ball that would have crippled Kim if the girl was an invalid and couldn’t move to avoid it. “You can’t have all the powers, Princess.”
She blocked a spin-kick. “So anyway,” she retaliated with a spin-kick of her own. “Drakken suddenly starts screaming like the wuss he is because your buddy’s pet rat ran across his foot.”
She smiled wildly as her spin-kick connected with the display case behind Kim because the redhead was no longer there. “So,” the glass shattered under her foot, “being the loyal sidekick that I am – or was,” she smirked, “I get up and move to stop your friends where they are.”
She ducked behind a tall pillar, leaning back against it for a quick breather. “I see Stoppable’s rolling computer, so I make some crack about his TV following him around.”
She reached up and wiped a loose lock of her black wig out of her eyes. Annoying natural-looking wig… “Then, I see that the blond wonder’s just looking at me like he’s about to wet himself, and that’s just not the kind of reaction I’m into when I taunt someone. It’s too pathetic, really.”
She glanced to her left as the shorter redhead materialized beside her, seated on the floor and drawing in shaky breaths to calm herself. “Break?” She asked curiously, raising an eyebrow.
“Break,” Kim nodded her agreement, chest rising and falling with each breath.
“So,” she looked up as she slumped down a little, relaxing for the few minutes that they’d allow themselves to rest, “go on, Professor.”
Shego grinned and planted her ass beside Kim’s, “so, I suddenly realize I’m treating your buddy the same way I’d treat you, but I’m not getting the same fiery response from him that you’d give me, and it actually hurts that I’m not getting it.”
She laughed bitterly at that thought. “Let me tell you – that night I was really punishing myself for missing your attitude that day, but anyway… I realize that I actually miss you because – and I hated both of us for this; you for being so irresistible, and me for being so weak – I loved fighting you. Only you could get my blood flowing like that.”
Shego’s face split into a faint smile as she thought about all the nights she’d spent cursing herself and the girl that now sat beside her when she could have instead been trying to court her. God knows it might have even worked, she thought.
“It wasn’t until much later,” she continued, “that I realized that I actually loved you, but we both know about that already.”
She took a moment and thought about the new facets that had been added to the gem of their relationship. “So I try to brush it off like it doesn’t matter that no one’s sharing in my banter and I turn my patented Shego-smirk on Stoppable and I ask ‘where’s Possible?’ and the strangest – and most hilarious – thing happens.”
Kim’s breathing was under control now as she turned to her partner. “What happened?”
Shego fought a giggle, “Stoppable gets this angry, offended look on his face and screams ‘she’s not my girlfriend!’”
Shego’s control failed her completely and she fell onto her side laughing quietly at her vivid memory of the sidekick’s angered and – oddly terrified – expression.
After a few moments, Shego regained control and sat back up, glancing sideways at the thoughtful look on Kim’s face, “so then,” a quiet giggle escaped her, “so then I decide to make the boy wonder squirm just a little more, and I put on this great smile – like I’ve just heard the greatest news in the world, I stare him in the eyes and I say, ‘I never said she was.’ Oh, his face was freakin’ priceless!”
Shego dissolved into soft but uncontrollable laughter. “Then, he mumbles something,” she continued in between gasps of air, “something about having one more place to look in the lair,” she grinned, her chuckles subsiding. “Her runs off and I go to stop him, but Nerdlinger-bot there grabs me and throws me into a mess of wires that I can’t get out of before the lair goes boom.”
Kim nodded slowly, obviously still deep in thought from something Shego had said. “We tried to have a relationship like that, you know; it was mostly because it was expected of us, having been together since pre-K and all.” Her voice was calm, pensive. “It didn’t work out, though,” she finished lamely.
Shego stilled her laughter. “It seemed to be working fine at the dance after that Li’l Diablo incident,” she observed, “better than fine even – it looked great…”
She moved cautiously through this subject, unsure of how Kim would like her dredging up that dark chapter of her and Shego’s relationship and commenting on her personal life. Aw, to Hell with it… “What happened,” she asked, “did he go all awkward and protective on you?”
Kim frowned, “actually – no.” She looked up at Shego quickly, a question going unanswered between them. “What used to happen when he got himself into trouble was he would try to talk his way out, run, or take the beating and brush it off.”
Kim snapped the fingers of her left hand suddenly and they both watched as the shimmering silver bracelet around that wrist cinched tighter to her skin and expanded up and down to cover her left hand with a familiar water-blue glove that went all the way to her elbow like opera gloves. A second later, twin filaments of the same aqua metal shot from her gloved wrist to her bare one, wrapping around her right arm to form a duplicate of the original CP 3.0 bracelet, which expanded immediately into a glove identical to the one on her left hand.
As Kim wiggled her fingers experimentally – testing the fit of the gloves, perhaps –, Shego looked closer and saw that the thin wires that had connected the left glove to Kim’s VR-specs back in the other room weren’t connecting the redhead’s right glove to her left as Shego would have expected. Instead, there was:
Nothing.
Tipping her head to one side in thought, Shego smirked confidently as an idea came to her. “You have options for how the bracelet communicates to the other suit parts.” It wasn’t a question.
Kim grinned and turned away from examining her new glove, “Yeah. Normally, the entire suit’s supposed to be deployed so the parts can communicate directly, but Wade knew that I would rarely need – or want – the entire thing, so he programmed another way for me so I don’t have wires crawling all over my skin like some kind of Sci-Fi Horror film.” Kim smiled faintly, “so I went wireless.”
Shego nodded her understanding, but a thought niggled at her insistently. “But what about jamming?” She thought she might see a flaw in the design. But the super-nerd must have thought about that, right? “Isn’t there a way that someone could disrupt the frequency that your…thingamabob talks on?”
Kim’s smile widened at her partner’s terminology, and the scent-flavour of her pleasure tickled at Shego’s nose playfully. “Not from what I understand.” The girl’s eyebrows drew close together as she searched through her memory. “Wade somehow managed to get his hands on a complete BeBe robot – inactive of course – after our second run-in with the things.” She paused. “He wanted to find a way to disrupt their newest generation of wireless communication, since they weren’t affected by anything we had on hand anymore.”
Kim chuckled suddenly, “I swear, he worked for three months solid on that wireless network but it was, to quote the BeBies, ‘perfect’. The best Wade could do was replicate the technology identically, so he integrated that into his third Centurion model.” Kim shrugged. “This suit’s wireless net might be jammable – someday. But even then, at this kind of distance,” she spread her arms wide, “I’d have to be standing on the jamming equipment for it to work. CP’s net is quite strong because it doesn’t need to extend over any more than a metre-and-a-half – two metres tops.”
Kim stood and started to pace slowly, “Besides,” she held her arms out again. “The wireless net is only needed for when each suit-part forms or when each component’s programming gets updated; each of the suit’s pieces are almost totally self-contained.”
Shego watched the light reflect oddly off the long blue gloves. “Very cool, Kimmie, very cool,” she studied the armoured gloves more closely, “but that doesn’t look like metal.” Her voice still held that curious-yet-cautious air.
Kim smiled and dropped back down onto the floor beside her partner. “It is and it isn’t,” she replied cryptically, reaching up to brush the back of her hand against Shego’s pale green cheek.
Almost against her will, Shego’s eyes fluttered closed as the warm sensation of smooth, supple leather slid across her cheek. What the…in her fascination with the odd metal from which the Centurion Project was made, the villainess had a hard time focusing enough to form coherent thoughts.
Her mind cleared as soon as Kim’s hand moved away, “um…” she stared at the glove like it was a dangerous animal, “you’re going to have to explain this one to me.”
“Simple,” Kim grinned light-heartedly. “I’m walking around with metal parts and everyone’s going to know that something’s up.”
She waved her arms vaguely. “Wade saw this too so he added some high-tech fabric and material simulation programming that allows me to make any part of my suit look and feel like anything from a wide variety of materials. And here’s the bonus,” she swung her hand through the air suddenly and Shego thought she saw the aqua-blue of the girl’s glove darken a couple dozen shades before returning to normal once Kim’s hand stopped moving. “If any suit piece detects fast movement like that, the material of that part will immediately harden into its natural state temporarily, which is an incredibly strong, durable metal alloy.” Kim swung her left hand in a swift chop, the glove darkening just as the other had. “This will add more kick to my punches,” she grinned widely.
Shego nodded slowly, “that is very cool, Kimmie.” She returned Kim’s smile, “this is all cool and interesting, Princess, but what happened between you and Stoppable?” Shego paused to think about her partner’s last words on the subject. “Did he make you fight all his battles for him?”
Kim nodded, frowning in thought. “I guess we both kind of thought that being in a relationship meant we were supposed to be able to depend on each other, but he kind of took it to the extreme and completely stopped defending himself.” Kim reached up to rub her forehead at the memory of all the headaches her childhood friend had caused when he became her boyfriend. “You know, I never really understood how far down Ron was on the High School food chain until he had me taking on the world for him.” She shook her head, smiling ruefully. “He always said he’d do the same for me but it was a moot point because I was, like, the Queen of Middleton High – right next to Bonnie.”
Finally, Kim simply shrugged and her tone turned casual, “it was okay for a while, but I started to get this feeling like he was just using me – of course he’s not that kind of guy. I don’t think he even knows the meaning of the word manipulate, but we both agreed that it wasn’t working out, so we split up and went our separate ways.” Kim made a vague, waving sort of gesture in the air, closing the subject. “We were always pretty close as friends, though.”
Shego studied Kim’s face for a moment before deciding to take the plunge with a different topic. “I can’ believe,” she muttered under her breath, glancing away, “that you got your first kiss before me.”
Shego could feel the redhead’s grin on the back of her head as well as taste her amusement in the air. “Hey,” commented the redhead, “it’s not my fault you’re old fashioned and had to wait until you were fifty to hold someone’s hand.”
Fifty? Shego’s head whipped around to stare at the smirking girl. “I’m only four years older than you, Possible.”
“Okay,” the girl’s smile weakened only slightly, growing apologetic, “but don’t get me wrong, Shego – a fifty year old you would still be the hottest woman on the planet.”
Shego returned Kim’s smile, “thanks, Kimmie.” She chose that moment to return to their familiar verbal sparring. “And you looked pretty cute yourself when you were dancing with the sidekick at the prom.” She smirked deviously, “that dress with the burned hem? A great fashion statement, Princess.”
Kim snorted at that, but her voice was quiet, hesitant. “I kept looking down at that burn on my dress all night, and it constantly reminded me of you and of everything that had happened earlier that night.” She closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the dark marble pillar. “Every single time I thought about it all, I regretted every last word I’d said to you before kicking you into that tower, but I couldn’t take them back because I’d already said it all…and I’d meant it.”
Shego felt the heroine’s sickening guilt roll through her from the distressed girl, and she knew it had to stop. “Look, Kim.” She took a breath, “stop punishing yourself for that; you were caught up in the moment just like I was when I was told to hate you. It’s only fair that you get a chance to hate me back since you took my crap for so long. You’ve forgiven me for my unfair treatment of you and I can do no differently. Now, let’s move on,” she paused as a sudden thought occurred to her. “And remember this, Kim – you were more justified in your hate than I was because I’d actually done something to hurt you, but like I said: let’s move on.”
Kim nodded slowly. “Thank you,” she spoke quietly, referring of course to the absolution she’d just received from her former enemy.
Abruptly, the energetic Kim Possible was back, her mind completely dry of guilt and sadness, humming instead with a diminished amount of excitement, contentment, and pleasure. “So,” she turned her aggravatingly adorable grin on Shego, “if you saw me and Ron at the prom, it must not have taken you very long to escape from prison.” She winked, “what was that – five hours? You couldn’t have been checked in for any more than – what – two hours?”
Shego chuckled, “Princess, there isn’t a cage on this planet that’s built to hold me.”
“That’s good.”
It was a toss-up as to whom the newcomer’s voice was more familiar; Shego had heard the high, musical voice most recently, but Kim had grown up through high school with the owner of that voice.
Regardless of who recognized the voice first, Kim and Shego both heard it coming from the other side of the pillar. “Because,” the newcomer stepped around the pillar and stood over the two of them wearing a suspiciously pleased smirk, “I’d just love to keep hunting you down again and again.”
Shego looked up at the new woman carelessly. Well, it’s about freakin’ time!
Kim only let out a surprised squeak, eyes wide in shock and staring openly. In the long, tense silence that followed, only one word successfully made it past Kim’s lips.
“Tara.”
A/N: Okay, so there’s Chapter 11. What do y’all think?
A/N (2): And I end on the biggest cliff-hanger I’ve ever posted – MUAHHAAAAHAAAA! For those of you who missed it, Tara is Neo-Kim! Why? How? When? Where? Those questions are to be answered next chapter…
Once I’ve managed to turn my pages of notes into writing worthy to be typed up…that should take a week or so…
Next: We see a clash between the Kims, new and old. Who wins? Well, I suppose you all have your suspicions, but let’s just wait and see. And why is Tara such a jerk? Could it have anything to do with the old Kim/Bonnie rivalry?
And keep your eye on the armband, it’s an important plot piece! You’ll see why in a few chapters…
And even though I might not update for a while, you can email me with questions or comments, or you can visit the KP slash forum and comment on my thread…I’ll be around…
See you around, Kigo fans!