Thug #21 sighed as the house of one Mrs. Lipsky came into sight. He silently parked the hover car as close as he could and stepped out of the vehicle. He made his way to the closest window and saw Mrs. Lipsky at her kitchen table. Thug #21 braced himself and dived through the window.
Shego couldn't help but remember her brother's face from long ago. It was a distant but clear memory. Team Go had just foiled the plans of their arch-foe, Aviarius, and the villain was being sent off to jail once again. That series of events had happened many a time during her days as a crime fighter... but one thing always stood out. Hego's face. After every victory on the behalf of Go City, Hego had worn that smile. A sugary sweet smile that, as far as Shego was concerned, was the epitome of all that was good in the world.
That was far from what Shego saw now. Gone was the friendly smile, gone the hopeful expression. Hego was cold and distant, an ugly fire burning in his eyes- one of anger and disdain. The only thing that was the same was his blue variant of Shego's costume.
"Oh, what's this?" Hego asked. "Is the cranky smart-mouth finally speechless?"
"Ah, you forget!" Drakken replied. "She's a cranky smart-mouth prone to excessive violence!"
Shego made no motion to move.
"Ah... Shego..." Drakken stammered. "Now would be a really good time for some of that excessive violence..."
"What's the matter?" Hego asked his sister. "Don't have it in you to attack your own blood? You seemed so full of vigor and so sure of yourself when you went after us back at Aviarius'..."
Shego still made no move nor said anything.
Drakken knew why. Out of all the people involved in the incident at Aviarius' lair, he had been the only one to see what Shego had done. She had turned on her brothers, taking the Go Crystal and all their powers for herself... and threw the fight to Kim Possible so that the crystal would be destroyed, the powers returned to its rightful owners. She had proven she was evil, thus forcing her brothers away, and yet she couldn't betray them. Not completely. Drakken recalled exactly what he had said after they had escaped. 'You practically gave it to her. You really don't have it in you to betray them, do you?' It was then that Drakken understood.
"Aw, c'mon," Hego mocked, standing before the silent Shego, her head looking down. "No witty comeback? No violent outburst? No little 'I'm evil, not you. Do I make myself clear?' rant? No? Fine."
Hego's hands lit up with blue energy and he struck Shego across the face with all his might, slamming her into the far wall.
Drakken had seen enough. He began rolling up his sleeves. "If it's a fight you wan--"
In one quick motion, Hego spun around and grabbed Drakken around the throat, slamming him against the wall. "Oh, I do... but I seriously doubt you are the one who can give me such a desire."
Meanwhile, Shego shook her head as she stood. She wiped away the hot blood that dribbled down her mouth. Oh, she knew Hego had always been strong, but that had been her first experience of being on the receiving end of his strength.
What is he doing here? Shego thought, her mind jumbled.
She couldn't figure it out. He, the paragon of virtue, working for Dementor. Why would he do that? Shego didn't know, but the one thing she did know... she couldn't fight him. Oh, she wanted to. Every evil instinct in her body demanded that she tear him apart. But he was her brother. He was family.
"C'mon, Shego," Hego said, looking over his shoulder. "Don't gimme that deer-caught-in-the-headlights look. It's so unlike you."
Shego stood up and braced herself against the wall. Her head still ringing from that one punch, she forced herself to stay up. "I don't want to fight you."
Hego dropped Drakken to the floor and turned... only to laugh. "Don't want to fight me? You can't fight your own brother? This from little miss 'I am evil!'"
"I am evil," Shego replied. "I've even taken the test to prove it."
"It's true," Drakken said, shying away. "Hench Co. tests never lie... or so they say. Going by their test, I'm a fairly decent fellow... so I've decided to take their results with a grain or two of salt."
Shego bit her lip in frustration. "Not helping... I am evil!"
"No, I am," Hego replied. "It takes someone truly evil to beat the tar out of their own sibling... and it doesn't seem you have the stones to do it. But I do."
Proving his point, Hego slammed into Shego, throwing her up and over his shoulders and down the hallway.
"Wait..." Shego coughed as she forced herself to stand. "You're helping Dementor and he killed those hostages? Did he have you do that?"
Hego stepped back. "I... I..."
"Blast it!" Shego yelled, her patience finally lost. "Answer me! Did you kill them or not? Did you? Answer me!"
Hego lied. "... Of course I did. I'm bad to the bone and you're just washed up. Maybe you should just go back home and leave the villain stuff to me, eh?"
"I can't do that," Shego said. "I'm the black sheep of the family. You're the hero and I'll make sure you stay the hero, even if I have to beat it back into you!"
Shego's hands lit up with her Go Team Glow.
Hego frowned. "This is not how it is meant to be... but if I must prove to you which of us is the villain, so be it."
Hego's hands powered up as well, the blue light reflecting off his face, a sadistic grin covering it. Shego braced herself--
"Let's get ready to rumble!" Drakken shouted as he peeked his head from behind the overturned rubble.
Shego and Hego turned. "Would you please be quiet!"
Drakken ducked out of sight, an emerald laser blast striking the rubble before him.
"You failed?"
Dementor could hardly remember a time when he had been so furious. Before him stood Thug #21. Battered and bruised with several teeth apparently knocked out, the thug could barely stand.
"Are you telling me that you couldn't even capture an old lady?" Dementor hissed, turning his back on Thug #21. "It was a simple task to go and kidnap this Momma Lipsky."
"I tried, sir," Thug #21 replied. "I did exactly what you said to do. Snuck in her house via the window and found her in the kitchen. But..."
"But what?" Dementor hissed, his patience tried.
"She and this guy with a mullet were having toast with margarine and the guy, he was all like 'I can't believe it's not butter, seriously!' So I tried to kidnap the old lady and boom! The guy jumps up from the table, whipping a crowbar from out of nowhere and... and then... things get foggy."
"That happens when you take a severe beating," Dementor said. "I figure all those knots on your head--"
"From the crowbar, I imagine," Thug #21 replied. "And probably the spatula the Lipsky woman took out of a drawer."
"You've had a rough day," Dementor said.
"Can I take a day off?"
"Why, yes," Dementor answered. "In fact, your incompetence is going to let you take as many days off as you want. You're fired!"
"Man!" Thug #21 cried.
"Wait..." Dementor continued. "That would mean I'd have to rename Thug #22 as Thug #21... Thug #23 would then become Thug #22... and then-- Oh, forget it, you're rehired!"
"Thank you sir." Thug #21 began walking over to a chair to sit, only to collapse on the way.
"Oh, this is just sad," Dr. Orvil said as he stepped over the unconscious man. "You really can't hire good help, can you?"
"What do you want?" Dementor asked.
"To ask a question," Orvil answered.
"Your time would be better served completing the project than this trivial matter."
"Well, I was just curious... why did you want the Lipsky woman?"
"Simply put, I need what Drakken has... and she was to be the trade that would force him to give it to me. Drakken doesn't know that I had nothing to do with the murder of the hostages, so I was going to tell him that I would kill her if my demands were not met. Ah, well. Now I'll just have to lie that I even have her hostage. No big."
"Pathetic," Orvil whispered under his breath.
"What?"
"Oh, nothing," Orvil said as he turned away. "I'll be in the other room. I'll have the project finished soon."
"See that you do."
"C'mon, Shego!" Drakken cheered from his corner of the hall. "Throw a Fireball! Quarter-Circle, Punch!"
Shego looked away from her brother. "What?"
"Ultra Road Fighter II Velocity!" Drakken replied. "Classic arcade game! So many quarters gone..."
"You really know how to butcher a serious moment, don't you?" Shego turned away from Drakken, only to see her brother charging directly at her.
Drakken turned away, hiding once more behind the rubble. "It's all I can do..."
Shego, meanwhile, dodged a punch from her brother and delivered one of her own. It was then and only then that she was glad invulnerability had not been part-and-parcel with Hego's gift of super strength.
"Oh, I'm hurt," Hego said as he slammed into Shego, drilling her into the wall. "But sis, I can assure you there is nothing you can do to truly hurt me. Not anymore." Hego's fingers gripped Shego across the face, tightening every few seconds.
Shego said nothing as she struggled in Hego's vice-like grip. He pulled her away from the wall, only to slam the back of her head into it once more. Shego gasped in pain as stars flashed before her eyes. Even through the pain, all she could think of was the why? Why was Hego doing this? Why had he begun working for Dementor? And it was then that Shego realized what could be the only truth.
"Dementor... must... have put you under his control," she said. But she could hear it in her own voice. There was no self-confidence, only desperate pleading for that to be the truth. "Some mind control machine, right?"
"No." Hego smiled, slamming Shego against the wall again. "How would he even go after me, without knowing you and I were related, eh? You've done awfully well keeping your heroic past a secret from the super villain community; ashamed of us, eh? But no... I was the one who went to Dementor of my own free will."
Still in Hego's grip, her face obscured by his hand, Shego felt rage build up in her. "So that's it... then I'm truly sorry."
Summoning up any power that she could, Shego let loose with an energy blast, hurling her brother across the room. Free from his grasp, Shego landed on her feet and braced herself for another attack.
Hego only smiled. "Good. There's still some fight in you, little sister. Now--"
Hego was cut off when a voice came over the miniature radio in his ear. "Hego," Dementor said. "There isn't any more need of violence. We have... a bargaining chip. Tell them that..."
Shego watched intently as Hego stood silent, his mind somewhere else. She considered attacking but stopped when Hego spoke.
"I suggest we do not continue," he said. "Dementor has a deal to make with you and Drakken."
"A deal?" Drakken questioned as he revealed himself from his hiding place.
"Yes," Hego answered. "You two will turn yourself in or else your dear Momma Lipsky will be killed."
Drakken's eyes went wide. "He wouldn't dare."
"You have exactly one minute to decide," Hego said.
Drakken walked over to Shego. "Shego..."
"No way," Shego answered, not even letting the question be asked. "I have this little family crisis to finish."
"But it's my mother!" Drakken pleaded, dropping to his knees. "Shego!"
Shego looked down at her employer as he begged. Slowly, the emerald energy dissipated from her hands. She mentally kicked herself for her spur-of-the-moment comment. For all her evil nature, the very nature that she loved, she couldn't let Drakken's mother be killed. "I'm sorry, Dr. D." She looked at Hego. "I give up."
Hego smiled as he tore into the wall, ripping out two strips of metal with his super strength. "Excellent." He bent the strips of metal around Drakken and Shego's wrists behind their backs. "Now then, let's go see the good doctor."
Professor Dementor cackled as he saw Hego bringing in Drakken and Shego. "Excellent! You've done me proud, Hego!"
"I aim to please," the blue-costumed hero-turned-bodyguard answered.
"Release my mother!" Drakken rasped, his tone consumed by anger.
"Soon, soon," Dementor replied. "But first, you will give me what I want."
"And that is?" Drakken asked. "Wait... You want my Cocoa Moo recipe, don't you? Never!"
"No, I do not," Dementor replied. "You'll know what I want soon enough. Hego, my friend, show them what this research lab has been working on."
Obeying his master, Hego walked over to the other side of the room. Hitting a switch on the wall, it began to slide open. And once the false wall had opened, the device Dementor had spoke of lay revealed.
The machine, simply enough, was nothing more than a giant cannon with a tread device to support it.
"That, my dear foes," Dementor said. "Is the Go Cannon."
"Go Cannon?" Shego asked.
"Yes." Dementor continued to rant. "You see, the government was quite intrigued by the emergence of Team Go... you more than any of your brothers, Shego."
"Why's that?"
"While your brothers had typical powers like super strength, duplication and mass-control... it was your power that caught their eyes. Simple or not, your ability to fire destructive energy in limitless quantities got their attention. The higher-ups could only imagine how useful that sort of power, on a large-scale, could be for military efforts. Thus they began building the Go Cannon in secret."
Drakken had his own questions to ask. "If that's true, how could you even know about it?"
"Why, a little blue bird whispered it in my ear." Dementor smiled.
"Hego, how could you?" yelled Shego.
"Hey, I needed to give Dementor some incentive to let me join him," answered Hego. "Info like that can get you far."
"Okay..." Shego said. "But how did you even know? The rest of Team Go didn't..."
"Oh, that's because I supplied the military with the power source that they tried to originally use for the Go Cannon," Hego replied. "The one that failed Dementor and I."
Hego pointed to the Go Cannon. Drakken and Shego followed his trail of the index finger and saw it. Stationed on the back of the Go Cannon was a bright light that obscured an object unfamiliar to Drakken. But Shego recognized it.
"The Go Comet..."
"Yes," said Hego. "I gave the government the remains of the very comet that granted you, me and the others our powers."
"Why?"
Hego said nothing.
"It matters not," said Dementor as he stepped into the conversation. "The comet itself has proved difficult to utilize. Over the years, its radiation has weakened. Neither the scientists who worked here nor myself could gather enough green energy from it to power the Go Cannon."
"And that's why you killed them?" asked Drakken.
"Believe what you want. But nonetheless, I have to thank you for coming here, Drakken. You've brought me the power source that will fuel the Go Cannon and bring the world to its knees!"
"What are you talking about?"
Shego knew. "He means me."
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