Mego looked around, amazed at this chance to prove what he could do as team leader. He, the Wegos (Only two of them right now), Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable, and Rufus were standing on the ledge of the Go City Gymnasium, right next to the Go City National Bank.
“All right, here’s the plan.” said Mego. “I’ll shrink myself down, and then Rufus and I will sneak into the bank and find out what’s going on.”
“Or…” said Kim, pulling out her Kimmunicator. “I can call Wade and have him tap into the bank’s security system.”
“But… shrinking powers!” said Mego. “I shrink, therefore I am smaller.”
“Wade’s faster.” said Kim confidently. “Hey, Wade?”
“Yeah, Kim?” said Wade, over the Kimmunicator.
“There’s been a break in at the Go City National Bank.” said Kim.
“And you want the security camera feeds?” guessed Wade.
“Please and thank you.” Kim said with a smile.
“I’m on it.” replied Wade, hard at work. A moment later, an image from the security cameras appeared.
Three goons were in the bank, wearing dark jump suits and what looked like Native American headbands, with a different number of feathers stuck in each headband. Two of them held guns on the terrified bank customers, while the third was wearing what appeared to be a scuba-tank hooked up to a water hose.
“The Goony Birds!” said Mego.
“You recognize them?” said Kim.
“Oh yeah.” said Wego-A.
“They work for Aviarius.” said Wego-B.
“What are they doing in a bank?’ said Mego, puzzled.
“Um, hello?” said Ron. “Robbing it?”
“That’s just it.” said Mego. “It’s not a bird aviary, it’s not a grocery store that sells eggs… there doesn’t appear to be any bird related reason for this crime.”
“Maybe they just want the money?” asked Kim.
“Aviarius isn’t into crime for the money.” said Mego. “You see, it’s my theory that…”
“Here he goes…” muttered Wego-A.
“….Again.” muttered Wego-B.
Mego pulled out a tripod and a set of large photographs on it. The first photo was a picture of Aviarius, scowling at the camera.
“This is Aviarius, noted bird-minded super criminal.” said Mego. He took the picture down to reveal a man who looked remarkably like Aviarius, except this man was wearing glasses. “And here we have what is OBVIOUSLY Aviarius’s secret identity, multi-millionaire and philanthropist Birdie Stop.”
“Birdie Stop wears glasses!” said Wego-A.
“Avairious doesn’t!” said Wego-B.
“He wouldn’t be able to see.” agreed Wego-A.
Mego frowned. “Well, yes, that is the one flaw in what is otherwise a perfect theory.” Mego admitted.
“Where did this Stop guy get his money, anyway?” asked Kim.
“City construction.” said Mego. “Every time the Go City prison gets blown up and Aviarius escapes, Stop’s construction company gets hired to rebuild it.”
“Ok,” said Kim. “We need to find some way to get the hostages out before we can swing in and attack the Goony Birds.”
The Goony Bird with the backpack pulled a ringing cell phone from his pocket. After listening for a moment, he replied and then begin giving orders. Since the camera didn’t have any audio, Kim and the others didn’t know what the orders were, but the Goony Birds quickly got the bank customers and employees up and sent them out the front door.
“This is very weird.” commented Kim.
“Who cares?” said Mego. “Quick, this is my chance to rush in and… I mean, OUR chance to rush in and save the day.”
“You don’t think that it’s strange that they don’t seem to be trying to grab any money and are now letting potential hostages go away?” said Kim.
Ron shrugged. “Kim, Kim, Kim. These guys work for a guy who goes around dressed up in a bird suit. Who knows what they think?”
“I guess your right.” admitted Kim. “So, should we wait for Hego and Shego, or just go right in.”
“No waiting!” said Mego. He pulled out a grappler hook, in the shape of a ‘G’, and threw it at the roof of the bank building. “Let’s go, Team Go!”
The Wegos, Kim, and Ron (after checking to make sure his pants were securely belted) got their grappling hooks ready.
“Now!” shouted Mego. All five swung down, through the large glass window of the Go City National Bank.
“It’s Team Go!” shouted the head goon. He squeezed the trigger on the spray, squirting a greenish fluid on Kim, Mego, and the Wegos.
“Quick!” said Mego. “Check your powers!”. Mego shrunk down to the size of a small hamster.
The Wegos began duplicating themselves, until there were eight Wegos in the bank.
“Kim! What about your powers!” said Ron.
“Um, Ron? No powers here, remember?” said Kim.
“Nonsense!” said Ron. “What about the power of imagination.”
“Ok…” said Kim. She closed her eyes. “I’m imagining a pretty pony, out on a grassy field, with…”
“Not now, Kim!” said Ron. “We have to beet these guys first.”
“Oh, right!” said Kim, opening her eyes. She assumed a dramatic, butt-kicking pose. “Let’s get them!”
Kim kicked out, knocking the spray unit out of the head goon’s hands before he could try squirting them again.
The eight Wegos surged over the remaining two Goony Birds, while Ron and Mego… just stood there.
Mego resumed his full height. “So, um, is it usually like this?”
“With just three or four regular goons?” said Ron. “Yup. Kim either fights them on her own or has me go and distract them. Sometimes I wonder if she really needs me.”
“I hear you.” said Mego. “Sometimes, I think I’m just dead weight on the team.”
“Hey, don’t say things like that.” said Ron. “You’re a great asset to the team.”
“Yeah, I am.” said Mego, puffing his chest up.
“I mean, I’m sure you’re always getting the vital info Team Go needs, or helping them out of a tight pinch…” went Ron.
“I do! I’m vital to the success of Team Go!” said Mego, standing proud and tall.
“Wow I’m a better motivator then I thought!” Ron commented to Rufus, who was watching the fight from the safety of Ron’s pocket.
Kim had the head goon face down on the bank floor, and was restraining his hands behind his back using a plastic unit similar to a cable tie. The Wegos had dog piled on their two goons, burying the goons under the Wegos’ combined body weight.
“Good work, team!” said Hego, walking into the bank and followed by Shego. He turned to Shego. “Don’t you think they did a good job here?”
“Not as well as you could have.” said Shego, flatly. “I am just glad you gave me the chance to reconsider rejoining Team Go.”
Ron’s jaw dropped open, wide.
Kim blinked. “Shego? What’s going on?”
Shego turned to face Kim. Her coat collar was turned up, so that Shego’s body was completely covered from the neck down. “Hego has asked me to return to Team Go, as second in command, and I have accepted.” said Shego, as if reading the words off a page. “I feel that you can raise Kasy and Sheki on your own and they do not need me in their life.”
“But… but…” said Kim. “I need you, Shego!”
Shego looked coldly at Kim. “I have realized you were nothing more then a brief dalliance, just like Dr. Drakken, before I realized where my true allegiance lies… with Hego and Team Go.”
Hego grinned. “Good girl, Shego. Now, let’s get these three crooks and turn them over to the police. “
“What about the gas they tried to spray us with?” asked Ron, pointing at the tank still laying on the floor.
“That’s not important.” snapped Hego. “The only thing important here is that we captured the bad guys, that Shego is rejoining Team Go, and she’s no longer interested in a relationship with Kim Possible.”
Shego, trapped inside her own skull by the hidden NICE collar, thought ‘Oh, come on! There’s no way Kim can buy this! She knows there’s no way I’d ever go back to Team Go, especially if it meant leaving her.’. Much to the mind controlled Shego’s surprise, however, Kim Possible broke into tears and ran to the only comforting arms available… Ron’s.
“Whoa, easy there…” said Ron.
“Wha’ goin’ on?” demanded Rufus.
Ron held Kim tenderly, patting Kim on her back. “I don’t know, Rufus… something very strange is going on.
‘Doy!’ thought Shego. ‘Hego is mind controlling me, and must have done something to make Kim and the others believe it!’. However, all Shego could do was stand mutely by Hego’s side.
“Let’s go, Team Go!” said Hego. “Oh, Ron… make sure these crooks go into police custody, and take Kim back to her apartment to watch after her children.”
Hego, Shego, Mego, and the Wegos left the bank building.
“Kim… Kim…” said Ron. “Come on… something must have happened to Shego.”
“Yes…” cried Kim. “Shego realized I was just a brief dalliance…”
“No no no!” said Ron. He frowned. “Something is VERY wrong here.”
“Wrong!” squeaked Rufus in agreement.
In his bird-lair, Aviarius frowned. His Goony Birds had only managed to gas four of the targets. That blond buffoon and his mole rat had been unaffected by the ‘Believe Me’ gas. If Dr. Drakken had supplied more, then Aviarius would have been glad to go himself and send another expendable goon in to gas the duo, but Aviarius had only been given the one tank.
“No matter.” said Aviarius. “Shego is back in the team, and the other Go-ers will all believe she belongs there. When I use my override control on her collar, it will come as a total shock to them! And I, Aviarius, shall be triumphant at last!”
Monique set in the main room of the apartment, with the TV turned on. Kasy and Sheki sat next to her on the couch.
“Good afternoon, and welcome to Go-City News.” said a bright, chirpy looking woman. “A bank robbery today was foiled by the heroic efforts of Team go.”
A quick montage of Hego, Mego, and the Wegos flashed on the screen.
“M’go!” lisped Sheki, pointing at the screen.
“Tweebs!” said Kasy, happily.
“Twins.” said Monique, correcting Kasy.
“The criminals had apparently taken two teenagers hostage: Ron Stoppable and Kim Possible.” the news anchor said. “No one was hurt… except for the bad guys.”
Monique frowned in confusion. The TV now showed Ron Stoppable and Kim leaving the bank… Kim was slumped over, and it looked as if she had been crying.
“Mommy sad?” said Sheki, looking at the TV. Kasy frowned and her hands started to glow.
“Easy, guys… I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for this.” said Monique, wondering where Shego had been during all that.
The announcer reappeared. “We go now, live, to a special news conference involving the leader of Team Go, Hego, and Mayor Jonathon G. Downe.”
The image cut to a large podium. News reporters were gathered around it, but the podium was on a raised platform so that the ‘Mayor Jonathon Downe… he’s downe with that!’ poster on the front was clearly visible. Hego was standing at the podium, next to a slightly shorter but well muscled man. The man, who was the mayor of Go City, was still obviously very physically fit despite being in his fifties. His hair was salt-and-pepper, with distinguished looking side burns. He wore a dark brown business suit, complete with a ‘Vote for Downe’ button on his lapel.
Hego was speaking. “I’m glad that I was able to help save our fair city from the villains trying to rob her good citizens, but even more glad about the news that I have to reveal. Team Go is once more complete. Our sister, Shego, after a long series of communications with myself, has finally renounced her evil ways and returned to Team Go.”
The camera turned to show a very subdued looking Shego, wearing her trademark green and black body suit. A black scarf was wrapped around her neck, the two ends dangling back.
Monique’s jaw dropped open in shock.
“Mom?” asked Sheki and Kasy, frowning at the TV screen in confusion.
The camera swiveled back to face Hego. “I would particularly like to take this opportunity…” said Hego. “To thank the Mayor of Go City, Jonathon Downe, for his continued support of Team Go and for offering Shego this chance to reform and to prove the good she can do for this city.”.
Jonathon Downe stepped forward. “Thank you, Hego.” he said. “It is thanks to the good citizens of Go City like you that I have been able to do all that I have managed I could to stop crime and to make Go City the showplace that it is. In fact…”
Monique turned off the television set, frowning. “CTTM.” she said, finally.
“Creepy to the max? You don’t even know the half of it.” said Ron.
Monique turned. Ron had just entered the apartment, busy helping hold Kim up. Monique had never seen Kim look so depressed; as soon as Ron stepped aside, Kim slumped on the floor and wrapped her arms around her legs.
“Mommy?” cried Kasy and Sheki at once.
“Shhh… it’s ok…” said Ron to the two little girls. “Mommy is… just having a rough time. But Uncle Ron and Aunt Monique are going to try to fix it.”
Kasy nodded. “oh-kay…” she said.
Sheki gave Ron the most penetrating look he had ever received from a toddler. “Try hard?” she asked.
“Try my hardest. Pinky swear.” said Ron, holding up one pinky.
Sheki held up an unsteady pinky and hooked it around Ron’s. “Good.” she said.
“Now, let’s get you two to bed so that Monique, Mommy, and Uncle Ron can talk about this.” said Ron, gathering Kasy and Sheki up in his arms.
“Wanna help.” said Sheki, and Kasy nodded emphatically.
“I know you do.” said Ron. “But it’s late… you two need your sleep.”
Kasy looked as if she was about to protest, but then she had to yawn. It had been a long day for the two girls… shopping with Monique and their mommies in the morning, then meeting their uncles in the afternoon… and both girls were tired.
Ron set the two girls in their crib/beds and made sure they had fallen asleep. When he came back, he found Monique and Kim both sitting on the floor. Kim had her arms around Monique and was sobbing. Kim just kept repeating “She’s over me… she’s over me…”
Monique frowned. “Girlfriend, believe me… I saw how you and Shego have been. She couldn’t get over you in a year of Sundays.”
“But… she said that…” said Kim.
“Bullshit.” said Ron. Kim and Monique turned, both startled by Ron’s uncharacteristic use of profanity. “Kim, I don’t know what you thought you heard, but there’s NO way what Shego was saying was what she wanted to say.”
Ron set down, forming the third point of a triangle. He stared into Kim’s eyes. “Kim… I’ve known Shego for a long time, as long as you have. First, as an enemy… then, as the person my best friend was in love with. And I’d be willing to swear by anything you want… that Shego is at LEAST as in love with you as you are with her.”.
Kim stared into Ron’s eyes. He stared back, willing with every fiber in his body for Kim to believe him. “But…” Kim said. “She said… she was over me…”
“No way anyone could get over you that fast.” said Monique. “Something is definitely wrong.”
“Wrong!” said Rufus, his head popping up from Ron’s pants pocket.
“She… she sounded so convinced…” said Kim, part of her beginning to hope.
“Not to me.” said Ron. “To me, she sounded just like you did when you were being mind controlled.”
“No!” said Kim, crushing the spark of hope for fear that it would grow… and prove to be false. “No. Not Shego. She meant it…”
Kim rushed for her bedroom… the bedroom that she and Shego had just shared last night, the bed that just yesterday that had laid down together and… Kim couldn’t hold it back any more, and burst into tears.
Ron slumped back, in temporary defeat. “I don’t get it!” he complained. “Shego sounded so flat… even Rufus could tell. Right, Rufus?”
“Uh-huh…” agreed Rufus. “Flat.”
Monique looked at the bedroom door in confusion. “I don’t know. I mean, I haven’t known Shego as long as you and Kim have, but I’ve never known Kim to be wrong about a person.”
Ron nodded. “Right. And the Kim who went to the bank with me would have said that Shego and she were soul mates… joined by a love that would last a life time. “
“But now…” said Monique, gesturing at the door.
“One of those robbers sprayed Kim and the others with something when we showed up.” said Ron. “It must have done something to Kim… I don’t know what, and I don’t know what happened to Shego…”. Ron stood up. “But I know where to go to find out.”
“Where are you going?” asked Monique.
“Go City Jail.” said Ron. “I‘ll be back with answers.”
“Sorry, kid.” said the cop, looking down at Ron. “Yeah, we’ve got those three bank robbers here… but you can’t go in and talk to them. They’re being held in the holding cell until we get them processed. No visitors.”
Ron frowned. “Criminals only?” he said.
The cop nodded. “That’s right.”
Ron picked up a paperweight off the cop’s desk. “Well then…” Ron said.
Ron turned, then with all the force he could threw the paperweight at the door of the front of the jail building. The glass panel of the door cracked into a spider-web pattern, only the protective mesh keeping the glass fragments from hitting the floor. Ron turned to stare back at the shocked officer. “I guess you’re going to have to arrest me.” said Ron, coldly.
Several police officers rushed into the room, attracted by the sound.
“I don’t know what you’re planning, kid… “ said the police officer. “But you better know what you’re doing.”. The officer looked up. “Take him to the holding cell. The charge is vandalism, destruction of government property, and theft of personal property.”
“Theft?” said Ron.
“Yeah.” growled the cop. “That was MY paperweight.”
The arresting officer pushed Ron, still in his street clothes, into the cell with the three Goony Birds. Unlike Ron, they were dressed in bright orange prison jumpsuits, and their feather decked headbands had been confiscated.
“Hey…” said one of them. “Aren’t you the kid from the bank.”
“That’s right.” said Ron, a cold, dark smile on his lips. “And now I’ve got some questions.”
“What makes you think we’ll talk?” demanded the goon.
Ron looked at him. The goon was one of the ones holding a gun, not the guy with the spray tank who had seemed to be in charge. “I don’t think you‘re going to talk.” said Ron. “I think you’re going to sleep.”
Before the goon could react, Ron grabbed him and spun him around. A perfectly executed Monkey-Lash-Out palm strike to the base of the goon’s neck had him slumped to the ground, unconscious. The second goon barely had time to gasp in surprise before Ron grabbed him and rolled, throwing the man upside down against one brick wall. The man’s limp, unconscious body slumped to the ground.
The third goon, the one who had been in charge, backed up. The teenage boy, who had seemed to be a buffoon earlier, had proven to be a very dangerous opponent. The goon looked up to the corner of the cell where a security camera was. A pink, hairless rodent was standing on the camera’s mounting bracket, holding the video cable the rodent had pulled from out of the camera.
“Now, YOU are going to answer my questions.” said Ron. “And, since it’ll probably be only a few minutes before someone notices that camera is offline, you’re going to answer them fast. Or else you’re going to be in a LOT of pain.”
“I… I can’t do that!” said the man. “If I do that… do you know what my boss will do to me?”
“Does it involve breaking every finger and toe in your body, and then making sure you wake up in a body cast?” said Ron.
“N-no, actually it’s more like tickling with lots of feathers.” admitted the goon.
“Well MY method involves the bone breaking.” said Ron. The goon stared at Ron’s face. It was obvious that the young man was extremely serious. “Now talk.” commanded Ron.
Almost wetting his pants in fear, the larger man begin to babble.