Kim Possible and all related characters etc. belong to Disney.
This story was written as a gift to Lupa1985 for giving me a print of her awesome fanart when we met in person. I don’t usually write stories like this, so blame her for what you’re about to read. ;)
For those of you who might have come here from somewhere else than The Ultimate Monkey Archive, here are the necessary warnings etc.
Rating: M/R
Pairing: Monkey Fist/Shego
Warnings: Sex, some torture
Summary: The Supreme One captures one of the few people who had escaped her clutches and tries to make him an obedient servant. AU.
SOME BENEFITS
Shego didn’t bother hiding her yawn, nor did she glance around the room to see what everyone else was doing. She was barely listening to the annoying whining of the man who was standing before her throne, and currently she found the black and green designs on the ceiling to be much more interesting.
“Ah, ahem,” the man cleared his throat after a while.
Shego didn’t move for a moment, but she did glance at the man from the corner of her eye. If she didn’t have to meet similar cases almost every day, she might have felt amused by his fidgeting fingers and attempts to wipe sweat off his forehead.
“What?” she finally asked.
“Well, oh, Supreme One, as I explained… we, uh, we do not exactly approve of renaming our capital Shecow,” the man said.
“Oh, yeah? And what’s wrong with that?” Shego asked. She kept her tone indifferent and lazily stretched out her hand before her, idly examining her fingers.
“You can’t just change names like that! Our city has a long history and --” the man started, but he stopped like he had hit a wall when he noticed the green flames that were suddenly dancing around Shego’s nails.
He gulped, probably recalling what had happened to his predecessor. “Then again, sometimes change is for the best,” he said.
“That’s what I thought,” Shego said. She was too bored to even grace the pathetic loser with a smile, and with a wave of her hand he was escorted outside by her guards. She had about five minutes before she would have to meet an equally pitiful and uninteresting whiner from somewhere in the world. Her world.
Taking over the world had been child’s play and ruling it was even easier with all the cool gadgets that Drakken had built before she had pulled the plug and revealed to him who was really in charge of the operation. She had complete control over everyone who dared to oppose her and enough willing servants who wanted to cash in on her success. If she so wanted, she could spend the whole day sitting on her throne, giving orders to her helpless slaves and not moving a muscle.
That had been fun for the first two weeks, but Shego had soon realised that she needed excitement in her life. Kim Possible and her sidekick were lost in the timestream, and nobody else had so far had the courage to really stand up against her. Global Justice was gone, whatever heroes were left had no resources and were cowering in some dark holes, and most of the world’s villains were working for her, either by choice or by force.
Gloating wasn’t as much fun as Shego had expected, either. It was entertaining when her victims were desperately trying to fight back despite the pathetic odds, but Shego had never been the kind of villain who liked to kick a sick puppy that was already down. She needed a challenge.
She yawned but straightened her form on the throne when the doors opened and Drakken marched in.
“Shego! She – ow, ow! That hurts!”
“Ah, ah,” Shego said as she waved her finger at the scientist. “Now what have we agreed on?”
Drakken could barely hide his contempt as he bowed. “My apologies, oh, Supreme One. Please allow your humble servant this one mistake.”
“That’s better. What did you have to say?” Shego asked.
“We’ve found Monkey Fist,” Drakken announced.
Shego lifted her brows in surprise. “Really?” she asked. Monkey Fist, along with a few others, like Kim’s family, was one of those few people who had managed to slip through her fingers and go into hiding. It wasn’t really a problem since she knew the man and his stupid monkeys would never be able to take her on, but she didn’t want to leave any loose ends.
“Yes. Dementor’s satellite picked up a faint signal in the Amazon. He must have been in contact with someone,” Drakken said. He rolled his eyes when he said his rival’s name. Even though both were now slaves, Drakken and Dementor hadn’t given up on their little contest.
“Too bad for him,” Shego said with a grin. She pressed a button on her control board so that she could tell her men to prepare a jet.
“You’re going yourself?” Drakken asked in a surprised tone.
“Of course. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Even if I didn’t already have it, I mean,” Shego said.
***
Shego kept her eyes glued to the thick layers of green below them as the helicopter they had taken from the nearest city started landing on a small clearing. It was a few miles away from where the signal had been spotted, but she didn’t mind the hike through the rainforest. It would be a nice warm-up for the battle that was sure to follow if and when they found Monkey Fist.
“Okay, boys,” she said to the men she had brought with her. They were all volunteers, men who actually liked her new world order and the danger and excitement it brought into their lives. Some people liked to live on the edge and crush everyone else under their feet, and Shego was willing to give them this chance for as long as they obeyed her.
“You know the plan. Monkey Fist is mine, but you can knock yourself out when it comes to the monkeys. He probably has at least half a dozen there with him,” she continued.
“And what if he turns out to be more trouble than you expected?” one of the men asked.
Shego chuckled. “Yeah, as if. I’ve worked with him in the past; I know how to deal with him. You just take care of the monkeys and leave everything else to me.”
The helicopter was now done landing, and Shego hopped down to the ground. She took a look at her surroundings, but there was nothing suspicious in the midst of the trees and plants that had invaded almost every spot of free space. Only the clearing on which they had landed looked relatively tidy.
Hmm, he might have been waiting for someone, Shego pondered as she walked towards the edge of the forest. Or maybe he was planning to travel away. Either case, she would know once she had him within her clutches.
For the past three years that she had spent gradually taking over and finally ruling the world, she had kept an eye on all her past acquaintances, enemies and allies alike. People who knew her were more likely to be able to hit her where it hurt, so she had either forced them on her side or made sure they would never cross her way.
People like Drakken and Dementor were fairly useful and had been quick to see things her way. Shego had no grand illusions about the loyalty of either scientist, but she knew that she had them on such a short leash that they would never even dream of betraying her for as long as there was the chance that it might not work.
Others, like her brothers, were more difficult to deal with. They had refused to give up their laughable ideas of honour and justice, so in the end she had had no chance but to lock them up in a maximum security prison she had built for them.
Now, after all this time, there were only a few more troublemakers on the loose in her world. Monkey Fist was one, Killigan another, but neither of them had even tried to take her own. Shego was mostly hunting them for fun. The real problem was people like Kim’s family and several friends who had somehow faded into obscurity and struck against her occasionally, not to mention the mysterious reports of ninjas that kept pouring from
But all of that was irrelevant at the moment. She pushed away a leaf that was blocking her way, her eyes scanning the thickness around her and her senses alert. She hadn’t had to do much fighting in the past years because she had an army to do her bidding, but she kept herself in shape and fought regularly against drones that Drakken built her. It was more than just holding onto her dangerous image; she loved the excitement and adrenalin.
She encountered no signs of human life as she made her way deeper into the rainforest. If it wasn’t for the signal, she could have easily believed that Monkey Fist had succumbed to living like an animal in order to stay hidden from her.
A snap from somewhere to her side made her freeze, but it took her only a split second to realise that the cause was one of her own men. She scowled in irritation at their clumsiness, but bit back an angry retort that would have only attracted more unwanted attention to them.
We’re never going to find him like this, she thought to herself as she viewed their surroundings. There were too many trees and vines for her to see more than about ten feet before her. Given Monkey Fist’s superior agility and that this was his home, he could have easily ambushed them.
“Stay here. I’m going to take a look,” she whispered to her men before climbing into a tree. It was no trouble balancing on the thick branches and leaping from one tree to another, and from up there she also had a better view of the rainforest.
Now that she didn’t have to wait for her men, she could pick up her pace to suit her tastes. The men were effective, but working with them could get boring after a while. They always did what she said, never talked back, never took risks and never made her feel like she was living the last day of her life and getting all out of it.
Maybe I should make Drakken take up bodybuilding, she thought in amusement. He might be an entertaining sidekick.
After about twenty minutes of leaping from one tree to another and cutting vines on her way with her plasma, she came to a halt when she found what she had been looking for. The small tree house resting in a large capirona tree was so well hidden that she almost missed it, but luckily she caught a glimpse of a monkey before she got too close. She crouched down for a few minutes to see if she had been spotted, but nothing happened. A victorious smile playing on her lips, she started going back to her men.
It was time to hunt some monkey.
***
Monkey Fist snapped out of his meditation when a monkey ninja, one of the few he still had, dashed into the tree house, letting out worried ooks and whimpers.
“What is it?” he snapped, but his annoyance at having been interrupted vanished as soon as he saw the look in his minion’s eyes. It was sometimes difficult to communicate with monkeys since their world view was so much simpler, but this time he had no trouble understanding what the monkey was trying to say. A pack of humans led by a green female could mean only one thing.
“Blast it,” he muttered to himself. It had been a stupid idea to try using the primitive radio he had, but he had thought Shego would be too busy to notice him, or that she simply didn’t care enough to come after him. He should have known that she was too petty for that.
“Round up the others and proceed to the agreed spot. We’re not staying to fight,” he instructed the monkey.
In the past he probably would have enjoyed going against Shego for she had skills that matched his – and maybe she was actually a tad better, though he’d rather die than admit that to anyone – but he had watched her world conquest from the edges and seen what she was capable of. She wasn’t a fool; she didn’t give any of her past acquaintances any considerable power in her world order. That meant that Monkey Fist’s options were quite limited; he could accept a future as Shego’s lackey, remain hiding or join one of the resistance forces that he knew were being set up around the world.
For the time being, he had been content with the middle option. Working under Shego was out of the question, and the idea of joining forces with people who had been his enemies wasn’t that appealing either.
“No, you are not going to wait for me. A pack of monkeys won’t attract attention here, but we can’t stay hidden if we stay together. I’ll join you in a minute,” he said to the monkey.
“Go!” he snapped when the animal hesitated for a moment. He wanted to growl to himself. Life in the Amazon had had an undesired effect on his monkeys; now that their life was no longer a series of battles and thefts, they had become lazy and rebellious. He sometimes felt like he was living with a bunch of zoo animals instead of a pack of highly trained monkey ninjas.
He had only a few minutes, if even that. He wasn’t planning to take any of his few belongings with him because he didn’t want to make it look like he had fled. If he was lucky, it would distract Shego for a moment. Leaving the radio behind was a shame, but he could do without it.
Without bothering to take a final look at the tree house that had now served its purpose, he climbed out the window and took cover behind a thick branch. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so he supposed that Shego and her men hadn’t made it that far yet.
He grabbed a branch and hoisted himself higher to jump into another tree and get away from the house as quickly as he could. His altered hands and feet enabled him to move like no other human could, and the route was familiar to him, so he was making swift progress.
He had hidden a hovercraft and some supplies a few miles away from the tree house in case he ever needed to flee without a warning. It wasn’t much, but it would take him and his monkeys to safety until they could travel to one of his other hideouts.
A sudden snap made him freeze and turn to look behind his back. He could spot nothing odd among the vast layers of green, and all that he could hear now was his own breathing and the never-ending choir of birds and other creatures of the rainforest. He resumed his climbing almost reluctantly, keeping a careful eye on his surroundings.
Snap!
It was louder this time. Monkey Fist didn’t believe for a second that it could be a coincidence anymore, so he jumped to his feet and retreated until he had his back against a thick tree trunk. He had limited view from that position, but at least nobody would be able to surprise him from behind.
Shego wasn’t amateurish enough to make so much noise, but it could be her way of getting his attention. He hoped feverishly that it wasn’t her; even though they were in his element it would take him too long to take her down before she would get help. He also didn’t fancy being slowed down by the injuries she would no doubt inflict on him.
For a brief moment nothing more happened. Just as he was about to let himself relax, he heard a snide voice coming from above him.
“Hey, Monty. Long time, no see.”
He looked up, but it took him a moment to spot her in the midst of all the green. When he finally did, their eyes met and she jumped down to be on an even level with him.
Shego hadn’t changed much; she was still slenderness and lethality combined, that infuriating smirk marring her face and making her look like she thought she was above everyone else. Monkey Fist had been hoping that ruling the world might have made her soft, but he needed only one look at her fit form and pose, seemingly relaxed but in truth prepared for everything, to know that she was as much of a fighter as before.
“I had been hoping to keep it that way,” he remarked.
Shego shrugged. “Sorry if I ruined your fun, but you know that I can’t leave loose ends ruining my beautiful handiwork. You do know who rules the world now, don’t you?” she said.
“Yes, I’m aware of that,” Monkey Fist said. He glanced to his side to see where the best branches were.
“I didn’t think you get news here in the middle of nowhere. Do you have cable?”
“Enough with this. You know I want nothing from you, so why don’t you spare both of us some valuable time and let me go?” Monkey Fist snapped. He inwardly cringed at his own words and the humiliation that was admitting that Shego truly was in control of everything. How he longed to swipe that maddening smile off her face and hopefully break a tooth or two while he was at it.
Shego snorted. “I’m disappointed. I was expecting you to put up quite a struggle,” she said.
“Oh, I will give you that if that’s what you want, but I’d rather do this smoothly,” Monkey Fist said. Even as he spoke, he took a fighting stance and tried to guess where Shego would strike first. He wasn’t counting on her being generous enough to let him start.
“But that just wouldn’t be fun. I came all the way here to catch you, so don’t you think I deserve some payback?” she asked.
She jumped and aimed a kick at his side, but he dodged her foot and shoved her momentarily off balance, using the split second to strike at her jaw. Or at least he tried, but Shego guessed his intentions, crouched down and used his own movement to throw him over her shoulder. For anyone else falling off the tree might have been the end of the fight, but Monkey Fist merely grabbed a branch with his foot and hoisted himself back up.
“Nice save. I was wondering why anybody would willingly make themselves a freak of nature, but now I know,” Shego taunted from above.
“Yes, I suppose my feet do give me an advantage in surroundings like this,” Monkey Fist said. He was about to start climbing back up to where Shego was, but he ended up having to dodge her when she jumped down right where he had been standing.
“And yet you aren’t good enough to beat me,” she said.
Monkey Fist growled and tried to kick her off the branch by swiping her off her feet, but she dodged him with little ease and leapt back. The simian villain almost smiled as he realised her mistake, but he didn’t give her any warning signs.
The branch they were standing on forked into two, but Shego hadn’t noticed it because of the thick vegetation. She was aiming to land neatly in the middle of the branch, but instead her foot met nothing but air and she slipped as she tried to save her position. It was all Monkey Fist needed to send her falling with one swift kick.
Shego was slammed against a tree trunk, but she quickly got herself back together and sunk her claws into the tree, climbing back up with ease. She took a stance on a different branch from his and flipped her hair behind her shoulder.
“You can still retreat,” Monkey Fist offered her.
Shego chuckled. “I took over the world. What makes you think you even stand a chance?” she asked.
“How about this?” Monkey Fist asked and leapt at her. He wasn’t surprised when she dodged his punches and left his hands stinging with the impact, but there wasn’t much else he could do. His monkeys were probably already at the hovercraft and would be growing restless. He had to get rid of Shego somehow.
The idea that if he killed her, he could probably take a good slice of the world crossed his mind momentarily, but he soon realised how impractical it was. Shego controlled the world through technology. He knew nothing about that and as long as he wasn’t the Ultimate Monkey Master, there was very little he wanted to or could do with the world.
One of her punches found its goal and knocked the air out of his lungs, which Shego used to her advantage and swept him off balance with a swift kick to his knees. Monkey Fist caught a hold of her ankle with his foot before he fell, causing them both to go plummeting towards the ground. It came to an abrupt halt when Shego grabbed a thick branch, and for a moment or two they only hung there as a link of two people.
“Let go or lose a foot. Your choice,” Shego said, but Monkey Fist had already jumped to another tree. It wasn’t very far to the ground anymore, so he jumped at Shego and pulled her down before she could climb up.
They landed on the ground with a thud and rolled over twice, leaving Monkey Fist on top and holding Shego in a tight arm lock. She struggled against him, but with the man sitting on her knees and pushing against her chest, it was difficult for her to do anything but squirm.
“Now isn’t this ironic? The hunter becomes the prey,” Monkey Fist taunted.
“And how exactly are you planning to off me?” Shego asked, and Monkey Fist realised that she had a point. If he moved or released even one of his hands, she would get the chance she needed to get free. He frowned as he contemplated the problem, but his attention was attracted elsewhere before he could come up with a solution.
A loud gunshot echoed in the distance and sent all the birds in the area up to the sky in panic.
Shego smirked. “Sounds like my men found your monkeys,” she said.
While Monkey Fist was still frozen in stunned surprise, she lit up her claws and forced him to retreat from her plasma. He stumbled backwards, hissing in pain at the burns on his arms. He knew she had gone easy on him; her plasma could burn through metal, after all.
Another gunshot was fired, but Monkey Fist no longer let it bother him. He had to push that and the pain away from his mind as Shego advanced at him, her claws aiming to strike at the side of his head.
He sidestepped to avoid the hit and tried to strike her off her feet in that brief moment she didn’t have her full balance, but she jumped away nimbly. Before he could attempt another move, she had rushed at him and delivered a swift kick to his side. He was sent tumbling back, but he was glad she had used her foot instead of her hands.
Monkey Fist took a little distance between them as he eyed her warily. Now that they weren’t in the trees anymore and Shego had started to use plasma, it was no longer an even fight. He was alone without minions and he couldn’t escape, so somehow he would have to find a way to destroy her here. He could kill with one strike; the problem was getting close enough without being injured himself.
“What’s the matter? Tired already? Life in the jungle must have made you go soft,” Shego said. She let the plasma around her hands die out, but her pose didn’t relax at all. She made a daring leap at him and chuckled as he pushed her punches aside.
“Or maybe it’s the age. Pushing fifty already, are we?” she continued.
“Age comes with experience, so take my advice. Talk less and fight more!” With that, Monkey Fist took one well-aimed strike at her, making her lose her balance and fall to the ground on her right knee. This was his chance, and he dashed at her, his intention being to snap her neck before she had the chance to get up.
To his surprise, she wasn’t as vulnerable as that position should have made her, and she tackled him and sent him falling to his back. He was left blinking to get rid of the sudden stars that were clouding his vision. When he could see clearly again, Shego was towering over him with her claws cracking with plasma.
“Nah, I think I prefer my own way,” she said and pulled back her fist.
After that everything went black.
***
Drakken had his hands clasped behind his back as he stood at the hangar, awaiting Shego’s jet. She had contacted him only a moment ago to inform him that they were returning. He shifted uncomfortably. The minutes felt like an eternity.
Nobody had been more surprised than him when Shego had declared herself The Supreme One. True, he knew her very well, so he should have seen that coming, but in some ways he supposed he knew her too well. She had always come back to him after all their failures, all the arguments, all the times when she had declared that she had had enough of his idiocy. She was a sidekick, yes, but he had started to think of the two of them as a pair. The way she had turned the situation upside-down was unnatural; he was supposed to be the one to rule the world!
He couldn’t help but frown as he thought about his current humiliation at her hands. Grovelling at her feet and following her every order was bad enough, but the obedience collar was too much. It made him into a slave who had no control over his own life.
“I wouldn’t do this to you!” he had protested when she had snapped it on him.
“Oh, yeah? Like you didn’t put that mind control chip on me back in the day?” she had retorted, and oddly enough, he hadn’t known what to say to that.
At first he had thought that she was only going to teach him a lesson, that she wouldn’t really step over him like that, but after a week he had realised that she was being serious. She really was going to rule the world alone and ignore him.
“She shouldn’t do that. I was always meant to rule the world,” he muttered to himself. He couldn’t understand why she was being so petty and taking his dream from him. She had never shown signs of wanting world domination for herself, after all. Sidekicks had all the fun and none of the responsibilities.
Sadly, it didn’t look like the situation would be improving any time soon. She kept him close, probably suspecting that he would betray her the minute he got the chance. He couldn’t do anything alone, and nobody at her main base could help him. He might have considered joining forces with Dementor – though the mere idea made him gag – but the German man was working in a laboratory on the other side of the continent. Shego was too smart to have two mutinous scientists in one place.
Motor Ed wasn’t around either. At first he had been at the main base, working on creating better hovercrafts for Shego’s men, but he had been transferred elsewhere after Shego had grown tired of listening to him go on about how kinky the obedience collars could be if she only gave that aspect a chance. Drakken wouldn’t have ever admitted it, but he actually missed his cousin. His days would have been so much better if there had been at least one sympathetic face around him.
He was brought back from his thoughts by the sound of an arriving jet. He waited until the door opened and Shego stepped out before he walked over to her.
“How did it go?” he asked.
“Why do you even ask? Of course I got him,” Shego said. She snapped her fingers, and her men threw Monkey Fist’s unconscious form at Drakken’s feet, making the scientist take a surprised leap back.
The simian man had his hands and feet tied up and bruises were forming on his face, but generally speaking he didn’t look any worse than Shego’s usual captives. Drakken had never been a friend of Monkey Fist nor did he particularly care about the man, but he felt a stab of disappointment at that yet another one of them had been captured. It was foolish, he knew, but he kept hoping that somebody would step up and make things go back to the way they had been. Then he could have been the boss and Shego only his sidekick.
“What are you going to do to him?” he asked.
Shego started walking towards her palace, not bothering to look at Drakken as she spoke.
“The usual,” she replied. “I’m sure I’ll find him something fun to do when I’m done with him.”
Drakken couldn’t help but shudder. He had quickly chosen the easy way and submitted to Shego’s will, but he knew several others hadn’t let themselves be controlled like that. Gemini had actually resisted everything she had done to him, and eventually she had been forced to lock him up in the same prison where she was holding her brothers. Drakken had caught a glimpse of the one-eyed villain before they had transferred him away, and it hadn’t been pretty.
Was she always capable of this, he wondered as he followed her in silence. True, Shego had never had any trouble with fighting and hurting people, even attempting to kill Kim Possible during their numerous encounters, but… Now there was a cold edge to her that he had never seen before. She had become distant to him; she no longer felt like the Shego he had once known.
Or maybe she had always had it in her, but he just hadn’t known her as well as he had thought.
***
When Monkey Fist woke up, he found himself in a small cage. There was enough room for him to stand up and walk around a little, but a few minutes inside were already enough to make him feel claustrophobic. He rubbed his aching head and tried to clear his thoughts, but it was all too blurry for him.
He growled to himself as he thought about how easily Shego had defeated him. It was pathetic. He was a master of Tai Shing Pek Kwar, and yet he had let Drakken’s sidekick take him down like an amateur. Now he would pay for that mistake, and only the bitter anger at that kept him from falling back to sleep.
His body was aching all over, and he hissed as he accidentally brushed against the burnt skin on his arms. He had never faced Shego in combat before, so this was the first time he had the pleasure of knowing what her plasma felt like. He welcomed the pain because it helped clear his thoughts.
The door slid open with an electric hum, and Shego stepped inside. She looked impressive in her cape and long hair flowing behind her as she marched to him, but Monkey Fist couldn’t help but sneer at her fashion sense.
“Hello, monkey boy. Had a good sleep?” she asked.
“The accommodations aren’t quite worth five stars,” Monkey Fist said and shot a meaningful glance at the cage.
Shego chuckled. “I think this is an improvement to the hole I dragged you out of. I guess you were pretty desperate if you were hiding in a place like that,” she said.
“I don’t think you’re one to talk. How cliché can you get?” Monkey Fist replied and pointed at the room that was covered in Shego’s signature colours.
“Oh, like you wouldn’t cover everything in monkeys if you took over the world – like that would ever happen,” Shego said. “And now that the world is mine, I see no reason why I shouldn’t let everyone know that.”
“Well, I suppose brainwashing everyone with this can be quite effective,” Monkey Fist remarked. He knew he would go insane if he ever had to wear nothing but green and black.
“You’d be surprised. It’s funny how quickly people give in when you take away the simplest freedoms,” Shego said. She smirked when she looked at him, and Monkey Fist knew she was enjoying his captivity endlessly. He might just as well stop her fun now and get to the point.
“Why exactly did you bring me here?” he asked with an edgy tone in his voice. He wrapped his fingers around the bars of the cage. Too strong. He would never be able to break them without tools.
“I don’t know. Maybe I just wanted a hairy pet. Or maybe I was bored and wanted to go hunt something,” Shego said.
Monkey Fist wasn’t in the mood to be humoured. The nerve of that woman! Just thinking about how Shego had stormed to his hideout and taken him out like it was nothing but a game made his blood boil. He resisted the urge to bare his teeth at her when he growled, “Enough with the verbal games! Let me out of here!”
“Sorry, can’t do,” Shego said with a shrug. “At least not before I’ve got what I want.”
“Then what do you want?” Yes, what possibly could Shego want? She had the world kneeling before her, she had defeated everyone who might oppose her, and she had Drakken as her sidekick and could do whatever she wanted for the rest of her life. Monkey Fist had had nothing of interest to her in the past, and he certainly had nothing now.
“Well, I was thinking that having a monkey army guard my palace might be a good idea. Not that I think anyone would dare to oppose me, but I’m sure you could perform some pretty neat tricks if I threw you a banana,” Shego said.
“If that is your way of asking me to work for you, I’m inclined to refuse,” Monkey Fist said dryly.
Shego flipped her hair behind her shoulder. “Who said anything about asking? Or working for that matter? I’m the one who took over the world. Yo. Je. Eu. Ich,” she said.
“I see you’re already starting to learn the languages of your new world. Impressive effort,” Monkey Fist said.
“Yeah. Too bad I made English the official language of the world. Guess those years learning Spanish were useless after all,” Shego said.
“If you think I’ll ever be your slave --” Monkey Fist snarled, but was cut short when searing pain shook his body and left him lying on the bottom of the cage, twitching and panting for breath. Every muscle in his body stung like needles were being pushed into them, and he could barely resume a sitting position.
He hadn’t even realised that there was now a collar around his neck. He tugged a little at it. It was tight enough to be uncomfortable but not enough to make breathing difficult. He tugged a little harder. It didn’t feel like it would come off easily.
“Obedience collars. Nifty, huh?” Shego asked and showed him a remote control she had produced from behind her back.
“I suppose I was right in thinking that the world doesn’t bow to you simply because they like you so much,” Monkey Fist growled. He couldn’t quite keep his voice steady, but he would be damned if he let Shego see just how much the shock had hurt. He wanted to rub his arms and legs to get rid of the stinging pain, but he forced his hands to remain by his sides.
“Yeah, these really do come in handy when you’re trying to control the world population. They’ve got awesome range, too,” Shego said.
Since Shego didn’t have a scientific mind, Monkey Fist supposed she had a scientist on her side to make her these gadgets. He didn’t have to guess twice who that scientist had to be, but he was a little surprised that Drakken had put together something that actually worked.
As if reading his mind, Shego continued, “It’s funny how Drakken’s inventions suddenly stop blowing up when he starts working for someone else and takes orders. I guess he just lacked proper vision all these years.”
“So, is this your grand scheme? You’re going to shock me until I submit to you?” Monkey Fist asked with a lifted brow.
“That just about sums it up,” Shego replied.
Monkey Fist allowed himself a small grin. “Then I’m sorry, but I have to disappoint you. I know how to endure pain,” he said.
“That’s what all the others said, and look what happened to them. I can get pretty creative if I want to. Also keep in mind that the collar is currently at its lowest setting. It can get ten times worse,” Shego replied.
She pocketed the remote control and put her hands on her hips. “On the other hand, you were always a tad more intelligent than the average villain. I think you should be able to see that the best decision you can make is to join me without struggle,” she said.
“And be a spineless slave for the rest of my life?” Monkey Fist asked. He’d rather die than submit to her – or anyone else for that matter – that way. Somehow he would have to find a way to escape, and until that he could take whatever she did to him.
Shego shrugged. “There are some benefits,” she said and lifted her hand, starting to count numbers with her fingers. “For one thing, you get to beat up everyone who tries to infiltrate my palace. Secondly --”
“I think I’ll pass,” Monkey Fist retorted.
“That’s what you’re saying now, but I know I can change your mind,” Shego said with a chuckle.
“I’ll leave you to think about that for a moment.”
Monkey Fist glared at her back as she exited. Once she was gone and the doors had closed behind her, he finally let himself slump against the bars and rub at his legs to get rid of the sting in his muscles. What he wouldn’t have given for a chance to strike her down for this!
Once he was feeling a little better, he started walking around the cage to see if there was any way he could escape. His legs felt a little wobbly and unsteady, but the bars provided him with enough support.
He supposed the cage was Shego’s idea of a joke. Locking him up like a zoo animal was probably funny to her, and it was the first step of humiliating him into submission. Monkey Fist knew enough about psychology and how to break someone’s will to guess what she had in store for him. He could probably take some of it, but eventually he would either have to give in or get away.
Well, the cage offered him no chances of the latter. He slid back down on the floor with a frustrated sigh. He wasn’t really surprised that the metal around him had no weak spots, but the feeling of helplessness that followed the realisation was new to him. True, he had been in prison several times, but on those times he hadn’t had to worry about much else than infinite boredom.
He rested his chin against his palm as he pondered what to do. His monkey ninjas were probably dead and he had no way of contacting anyone outside – and who would help him anyway? Even if he did manage to get out of the cage somehow, he would still have to face Shego and her army on his own.
Maybe it would be a good idea to pretend accepting her terms. Then he could have more freedom to do whatever he wanted and start putting together a good escape plan. Shego couldn’t possibly keep an eye on everyone all the time, so he would have plenty of opportunities to work in the shadows. From a logical point of view this was easily the best plan.
The only problem with it was the utter humiliation of bowing his head before her and becoming her lackey. She would taunt him, and merely imagining the satisfied look in her eyes was more than enough to make him tremble with fury. He would have to face Drakken and the others, pretending to be just like them. Maybe they would even pity a fellow sufferer. He would hate every minute of it, but maybe it would be worth it.
For plausibility’s sake he would have to wait before following that plan, though. She knew him well enough to realise that he wouldn’t give in that easily. If he wanted to be believable, he would have to pretend that she had got through to him and driven him into a corner. His scowl deepened at the thought, but he reminded himself that the reward would make up for it ten times.
Since there wasn’t much he could do at the moment, Monkey Fist forced these ideas out of his head and took his usual lotus position. Meditating would help him clear his mind, ignore the ache that had consumed his body and make him prepared for facing Shego the next time she came to visit him.
***
Shego strode to her throne room and threw her form on her throne, putting her legs over the armrest. Her whole body was tingling with warmth like after a sensational battle, and she only wanted to stretch out and bask in the feeling. It was too long since she had last done anything that resembled exciting.
Maybe that was why taking Monkey Fist down and talking to him had felt like such a thrill. It was no longer fun to mock Drakken or the others because they were used to it. They only clenched their jaws and tried to keep their faces neutral, occasionally muttering something to themselves when she turned away.
But Monkey Fist, no. He was filled with hatred and would not hesitate throwing every taunt and insult back at her. Eventually he, too, would succumb to her will, but until that she would take immense pleasure in his rage, humiliation and futile attempts to resist. He would be even more entertaining to break than many of the others; he was proud and stubborn and could no doubt take more than the likes of Jack Hench.
She’d just have to know how to get the best out of it without breaking him entirely. As much as she valued entertainment, she was also practical. Monkey Fist wouldn’t be very useful if she reduced him to a blabbering ruin.
She was pulled back from her thoughts when she saw Drakken enter the room. Out of her lackeys, he had the most responsibility and perhaps the greatest amount of freedom. Shego liked having him by her side. He was actually competent at what he was doing if he put his mind to it, and she loved proving to him time and time again that he was better at being a sidekick than number one.
“What now?” she asked as she corrected her form on the throne.
“The latest raid was a failure. Again,” Drakken informed her. There was just the hint of smugness in his voice, but Shego decided to direct her rage at something else.
“Again?” she yelled as her fingers curled against the armrests. “How difficult can it be to track down and capture three teenagers?”
“About as difficult as killing one persistent redhead,” Drakken muttered.
“What was that?”
“Uh, nothing!”
Shego leaned back on her seat, an ugly frown twisting her features. Though she had the entire world under her control, there were a few loose ends that she would have loved to tie up. Perhaps the most infuriation of such cases was one that consisted of Wade Load and Kim’s twin brothers, Jim and Tim. Using Wade’s exceptional knowledge in computers and the twins’ scientific skill, the trio had managed to avoid capture and go into hiding. Every now and then they attacked her forces, usually causing an irritating amount of damage. There was a massive bounty on their heads, but so far not many had even seen them.
“Any leads on their mysterious benefactor?” she asked, though she already knew what the answer would be.
“No, but we still think it’s Señior Senior Senior. He’s one of the few who has the resources, and we haven’t been able to find all of his secret accounts yet,” Drakken replied.
Shego growled under her breath. Who would have thought that the old fart would turn out to be such trouble? He was more cunning than she had given him credit for, and if he indeed was the one who kept providing Wade and the twins with their technology, she might actually be in trouble at some point.
“I want them found,” she said. “If nothing else, find that idiot Junior. If we have his son, it should be child’s play to roast Senior out.”
“What do you think we’ve been doing the last two months?” Drakken asked in irritation.
“Sitting on your lazy behinds and not getting anything done,” Shego replied.
“Give us some credit! We’ve got the best men out there. It’s not our fault if they’ve been able to evade us,” Drakken said.
“Then whose fault is it?” Shego asked.
She saw Drakken take a breath like he was about to retort something, but the air escaped him in one defeated sigh. Shego was almost disappointed; she had been half expecting him to engage her in banter like numerous times in the past. She gave him a little more leeway than the other slaves, but so far he hadn’t risen up to his full potential.
“Double the efforts,” she drawled when it became evident that Drakken wasn’t going to say anything.
“Like that’s going to do any good,” he muttered, but as soon as he saw her raise her brows, he quickly added, “Anything else?”
“Yeah. Cancel my meetings with the ex-leaders of the world. I want to have some fun with monkey boy,” Shego said.
“Do you think that’s a good idea? That guy from
“The last thing I need is to deal with yet another whiny loser who can’t accept it that I call the shots now. He can wait,” Shego said.
Even before she had taken over the world, she had known that ruling it all alone on her own was an impossible task. Every time she had taken over a country, she had found someone who was willing to join her and keep things under control while answering to her. She didn’t think any of them were actually loyal to her, but they were all intelligent and knew it was the best they could get and that she’d crush them if they ever stepped on her toes.
“What about Monkey Fist?” Drakken asked then.
“What about him?” Shego asked.
“Well, what are you going to do with him when you’re done? What could he possibly give you?” Drakken wanted to know.
Shego supposed that the scientist was right in a way. She already had enough men in her service. It was scientists she needed, and Monkey Fist was utterly useless in that regard. Maybe he could be a glorified bodyguard, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to keep looking at his face the whole day.
“Maybe I’ll make him find more monkey magic for me,” she mused, glancing over to the Tempus Simia that was placed on a prime spot in her throne room. Monkey Fist was the one who had contacted the rest of them about finding it and using it to destroy Kim Possible. She supposed that she owed her current reign of the world to him, at least partly.
Hah, she couldn’t wait to rub that to his face!
“Hrmph, magic,” Drakken muttered.
“A little jealous, are we? How many times did you try to take over the world with science? Magic just did the trick,” Shego said with a smirk.
“I only failed because of Kim Possible. She wasn’t here to try to stop you, was she now?” Drakken asked.
“Hey, don’t get lippy. I would have beaten her.”
Drakken said nothing, but Shego knew him well enough to guess what he would have wanted to say, that she had never been able to beat Kim before. That was a reason enough to curse the fates for that the little cheerleader had got herself lost in the timestream and wasn’t now here to oppose her. Nobody else had given Shego a challenge like that, and it was a shame she would probably never again face Kim in battle.
“And in any case, it’s none of your business what I want to do with Monkey Fist. He’s my toy now,” she said.
“I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. If you treat him like Gemini, you won’t be able to use him for anything later,” Drakken pointed out.
Shego lifted a questioning brow at him. “Since when do you care about captives? Going soft?” she asked.
“Don’t be stupid, Shego! Either you play with an enemy and kill them, or you make sure they’ll be useful later on. There’s no point in wasting potential like this. I’m sure he could be persuaded to join us,” Drakken said.
“Already tried that. Didn’t work,” Shego pointed out.
“Maybe that’s because you put him in a cage and treated him like an animal. You should – ow, ow! Stop, Shego, stop!” Drakken’s reasoning was cut short when Shego pressed a button on her remote control and sent a series of shocks through the collar around the blue scientist’s neck. He writhed in pain for a good moment until Shego decided that he had had enough for now.
“Did I ask for your opinion?” she demanded of him.
“Nngh, no,” Drakken muttered with loathing in his eyes as he tried to adjust his scorched hair, flinching when sparks hit his fingers.
“Then shut up. I’m doing this my way,” Shego said.
***
Monkey Fist turned to look when he heard Shego enter the room, but he didn’t bother acknowledging her arrival in any way.
It was a day since their previous encounter, and he had hated every minute of that. He was still kept in the cage and given food in bowls and thrown fruit like he was a zoo monkey. The temptation to throw it all back was almost unbearable, but he knew he had to keep his body strong if he wanted to be able to endure whatever Shego was going to do to him and have a chance of escape.
What bothered him more was his utter lack of dignity and personal space. While other people rarely came into the room, he still hated it that he couldn’t get away from under their eyes. He had been expecting somebody to let him out of the cage at least for a bathroom break, but so far it hadn’t happened. He would kill Shego if she expected him to go inside the cage.
“So, have you thought about my offer?” she asked as she stopped to look at him.
“You underestimate me if you think last time was enough to persuade me,” he said.
He had tried to take off the obedience collar, but he had only managed to make the skin on his fingertips raw. It was so tight that he couldn’t get leverage, and he didn’t dare try to rip it apart. Knowing Shego, it just might have some sort of sadistic trap.
“Well, I thought you might be intelligent enough to realise what’s the best for you, but I can’t say I’m disappointed. It’s going to be fun to change your mind,” Shego said. She pulled out a remote control and lifted it up for Monkey Fist to see.
“You can still say yes,” she said in a sing-song voice and played with the button with her finger.
Monkey Fist didn’t even bother replying to that. He only glared at her with a deepening scowl and clenched his fists, bracing himself for the shock.
Shego pressed the button. The last thing Monkey Fist saw before he closed his eyes in pain was her crooked smirk, and only the thought of that kept him from crying out. He would not let her have the satisfaction of knowing she was hurting him! Waves of sharp pain shot through his body and made him jerk uncontrollably.
Then it ended abruptly and he was left with a painful burning sensation all over him. His fingers twitched as he reached up to run them through his hair; it felt like sparks were dancing there.
“What about now?” Shego asked.
“Guess,” Monkey Fist spat at her.
Shego pressed a smaller button on the remote. Nothing happened, so Monkey Fist supposed she had turned the power up a notch. He cringed and hunched his shoulder, as if that could somehow make the pain easier to bear. He tried to draw a relaxing image from his head and distance his mind from his body, but the searing jolts brought him back and reduced him to a trashing from on the floor of the cage, unable to control his movements or even think straight.
He couldn’t recall when he had last felt such excruciating pain; even the after-effects of the mutation on his hands and feet hadn’t been anything like this, and that had been painful. It was like his whole body was shaking and ablaze at the same time; his insides just might melt or his skin blister or his spine crack, or maybe it would just go on and on until he passed out.
“Aww, it can’t be that bad. Drakken has taken more.” Shego’s words were something to hold onto, and he found that turning to look at her satisfied face made everything easier to endure. His hatred for her burnt fiercer than the electricity flowing through him, so it took him a moment to realise that she had again pressed the button and made the torment stop.
“What do you think you’re going to accomplish?” he asked shakily as he pulled himself from the floor, ignoring his body that was begging him to just lie still.
“You know that already. This is a little suggestive work to make you see my way. And I do get some great entertainment in the process,” Shego replied.
“I never knew you were such a sadist.”
“As if you’re one to talk. If you had got your hands on the buffoon, you would have done much more to him.”
Monkey Fist grabbed the bars with both of his hands. “But I have a reason to hate him! Even the worst I could do to him wouldn’t even begin to justify everything that he has done!” he snapped, but Shego didn’t seem very impressed by his rage. She merely rolled her eyes.
“No ranting, please. I’ve heard enough of that from Drakken for a lifetime,” she said.
Monkey Fist glared at her and didn’t even attempt to conceal his contempt. At that moment he couldn’t decide which he would have rather strangled, Shego or Ron Stoppable. The mere idea of breaking that slender frame and tarnishing her pale skin with her blood was enough to make him tremble with anticipation.
“So, have you changed your mind yet or shall we continue?” Shego asked.
The sensible part of him knew it would be for the best to give in and try to win her trust so that he’d have at least the hope of escape, but Monkey Fist had always been the sort of man who let his emotions have the better of him. Even as he realised that it would only lead to needless suffering, his anger was burning too bright for him to admit defeat at her feet.
He didn’t even have the time to finish his line of profanities before he collapsed again on the floor, this time not being able to hold back his screams or even caring about it. Every fibre of his being was in flaming agony to the point that he could no longer tell his body parts apart from the senseless mass of blinding pain.
He couldn’t tell how long it lasted or how many times Shego turned the power higher, but to him it felt like an eternity. By the time it ended he was a barely conscious heap of shivering limbs on the floor of the cage, breathing in strained gasps and unable to do much but lie there uselessly.
His mind almost didn’t register the hollow sound of Shego’s footsteps getting closer. Monkey Fist lifted his head from the floor, that small movement alone making his muscles scream in protest, and turned to shoot a black look at her.
“I don’t see why you resist. The only way out is to say yes,” she informed him.
“I find your definition of out rather humorous,” he said as he tried to force his breathing under control.
“Getting out of the cage would be a great start to your promising career as a lackey,” Shego said.
Somehow, Monkey Fist got his body to listen to him and straightened into a sitting position. He leant on his right hand to keep himself in balance.
“Even if I said yes, would you honestly believe me?” he asked. Shego wasn’t naïve; the fact that she had made it to this point more than proved that, so she couldn’t have any false impressions about his loyalty. He would attack her the minute he got out.
Shego chuckled. “Of course not,” she said.
“Then what’s the point?” he asked.
She shrugged with a smile that almost made it look like an innocent gesture. “Getting you there, silly. You can’t imagine what the power I have over you feels like. I decide whether you’re ever getting out of that cage; I decide what you’re going to eat, wear, see and hear. It’s up to me whether you live or die from a shock that’s going to melt your skin and set your hair on fire.”
Shego reached forward to grab the bars of the cage. She leant forward and her grin widened, making her eyes glimmer with hot anticipation. “If I want to, I can drive you to a point when you’ll be begging for the permission to call me The Supreme One and to crawl at my feet. That’s the sort of devotion I want,” she announced.
Monkey Fist couldn’t help it that the mad lust on her face made him shiver. He had never seen her quite like this, so beyond reason that her actions made no sense. Even when consumed by her rage on the several occasions when they had met in the past, she had never let him see this side of her. Even though her face was flawless and beautiful as ever, the twisted emotion on her features gave her the appearance of a decaying mannequin.
“Broken men don’t make for good servants,” he pointed out.
“But they’re entertaining. I have enough competent servants as it is,” Shego said.
“Like Drakken?” Monkey Fist asked snidely.
“Oh, please. He’s entirely in the entertainment category, even if he does make nifty toys,” Shego said. To prove her point, she lifted the remote for him to see. Monkey Fist held his breath as her finger playfully tracer the round edge of the button.
She didn’t press it.
“It would only take this miniscule movement to make you scream,” she pointed out the obvious.
“Then go ahead!” Monkey Fist snapped, even as he mentally cringed at the thought of going through that pain again.
“Nah,” Shego said with a shake of her head. “I don’t want you to break just yet. I’m having too much fun playing with you.”
Monkey Fist didn’t reply. He was too much in pain to come up with a good retort, and he didn’t feel like ranting at her either. All he wanted was to curl up and get some sleep to escape the burn. Maybe he would feel better when he woke up. Then he could think about his predicament and what to do about that.
Shego gave him a mock salute as she turned to walk away. “Sweet dreams, monkey-boy.”
***
Monkey Fist spent the next few hours drifting in and out of sleep, having bizarre dreams that never let him quite forget the ache he was in. Countless hours spent meditating usually enabled him to sleep without dreams if he so desired, but now he felt too tired and groggy to even attempt that. Simply lying still and breathing seemed to take too much effort, and he wouldn’t have had the energy to find a better position even if such a thing had been possible.
After an indefinite amount of time, he finally became more conscious of his surroundings again. For a few minutes, he only lay down, eyes closed, and listened to what was going on around him. There didn’t seem to be anyone else in the room, so he dared to take a look around. True, he was alone. That was a good excuse not to sit up and disturb the tolerable slumber he was in at the moment.
The sound of the door whooshing open caught his attention and forced him to straighten his form. He’d be damned if he let Shego enjoy his state any more than she currently was. However, as soon as he found himself in a sitting position, he realised that it was not the empress of the world herself who had entered the room.
It was Drakken.
“What do you want?” Monkey Fist snarled.
Drakken lifted up his palms in a peaceful gesture. “Easy, easy. I just came to talk,” he said.
“I’m not in the mood for company,” Monkey Fist said.
He took in the sight of the mad scientist. Drakken hadn’t changed much since he had last seen him; he was still very much blue and somehow managed to look both menacing and goofy at the same time. There were only two noticeable differences about him. Around his neck was secured an obedience collar identical to the one on Monkey Fist, and the unhappy grimace on the man’s face was even grimmer than after a humiliating defeat in the hands of Kim Possible.
“Well, you don’t have much choice in the matter, do you?” Drakken asked.
“Does Shego know you’re here? I don’t think she’s the type to share her toys.” Monkey Fist searched Drakken’s face for signs of smugness or amusement, but the man was being entirely serious. It caught Monkey Fist’s attention to the point that he decided to give Drakken five minutes to convince him before starting to tune him out.
“I’m not here to gloat, though that would bring some joy to this miserable existence,” Drakken said.
“If this is going to turn into a therapy session about being under Shego’s power, count me out,” Monkey Fist said.
“Can’t you just listen one moment without throwing something like that at my face? I’m actually trying to be helpful here!” Drakken snapped, making impatient gestures with his hands.
Monkey Fist frowned in thought. Drakken might actually be a useful ally. Shego obviously gave the scientist some freedoms or otherwise he wouldn’t have been talking to him at the moment. With Drakken’s help, it just might be possible to escape.
“Alright,” he agreed and crossed his arms on his chest. “What do you have to say?”
“Well, I think you should give in and do what Shego wants,” Drakken said.
Monkey Fist rolled his eyes in disappointment at this anticlimax. Then again, maybe it had been foolish of him to think that Drakken might actually want to help him somehow.
“And why should I do that?” he asked.
“It’s the only way you’ll get out of there,” Drakken said and pointed his index finger at the cage.
“At the price of my dignity,” Monkey Fist said. In truth he agreed with Drakken; he didn’t really have that many options. To surrender was the most sensible thing he could do, but he knew Shego wouldn’t buy his change of heart. As she had said, it wasn’t believable at this point.
Drakken sighed miserably. “Dignity comes with a small price tag these days,” he muttered.
“Yes, I suppose you would know,” Monkey Fist said, allowing himself a smirk. In some ways he guessed that Shego’s lack of respect for Drakken actually gave the scientist an edge. Shego was so convinced of his incapability to do anything that he could easily take her by surprise. He wasn’t incompetent, even if it was everyone’s favourite hobby to mock him. Then there was also that Shego had bought Drakken’s questionable vow of loyalty, not broke him. Fear of pain and punishment was enough to keep the man in line, but Monkey Fist was certain he would never be allowed to work under similar conditions.
“You’re doing it again. You’re just like Shego!” Drakken said.
“Don’t compare me with her! We’re nothing alike,” Monkey Fist growled. That woman maybe had some qualities that they shared, but at the moment his loathing for her was too strong for him to admit that.
Drakken only shook his head. “That’s what she would have said.”
“Are you going somewhere with this line of conversation? If not, leave. I want to have a nap before my next round with The Supreme One,” Monkey Fist said.
“But that’s just it! You should give up. Working for her is not that bad… if you ignore the taunts, the insults, the shocks and that you aren’t getting paid,” Drakken said, listing his words with his fingers.
“But there are some benefits, eh?” Monkey Fist asked dryly, recalling what Shego had told him earlier.
“Well, I get endless funding for my science projects now, provided that I’m working on something she finds useful,” Drakken said with a shrug.
“And that’s worth grovelling at her feet with no self-respect?”
“Hey, I don’t think you know what it’s like to hunt for spare parts at a Smarty Mart sale!”
Monkey Fist snorted. “She has nothing of interest to me. I only care about the Mystical Monkey Power,” he said.
“Yes, and see where that landed us,” Drakken muttered.
Monkey Fist had nothing to say to that. Introducing Tempus Simia to the other villains and proposing a time travel plan to rid them of the nuisance that was Kim Possible was the thing he regretted the most in his life. If he hadn’t done that, Shego would have never had the means to take over the world.
Furthermore, he couldn’t believe how blind he had been. Why do something like destroy Kim Possible when he could have done so much more? He could have travelled to study under the greatest masters of Tai Shing Pek Kwar, found the most amazing mystical items and most importantly, stopped Ron Stoppable from ever stealing his Mystical Monkey Power. Telling the others about the time monkey had been a grave mistake, and he was now paying for it.
“You know, I almost wish Kim Possible would reappear from the time stream and defeat Shego,” he said with a frustrated sigh.
“That makes two of us,” Drakken said.
Monkey Fist glanced at him. “Even if I wanted to work for her, she wouldn’t believe me. She has to break me first and then mould me into whatever she wants.”
“That’s what she tried to do with Gemini,” Drakken said. His grimace told Monkey Fist that she hadn’t had much success with that and that he probably didn’t want to know the details. Still, he had to ask.
“What happened to Gemini?”
The leader of the WEE had always struck him as a man of iron to whom nothing was impossible. Monkey Fist didn’t usually have much respect for his fellow villains because they were either complete buffoons or too enchanted by science to understand that wonders of magic, but Gemini was an exception. Anyone who could rule a global empire of evil and go against his own twin sister with no regrets was a man to be saluted.
“Pretty much the same that’s going to happen to you. He was too stubborn, so Shego broke him and couldn’t put him back together. He was shipped off to that prison she built for her brothers,” Drakken explained.
“What about all the others? I’ve lived the past two years in a jungle; I have no idea what has happened to everyone,” Monkey Fist said. Somebody had to have been able to avoid Shego. Hopefully it was someone competent enough to take her on.
Drakken shook his head. “Most of the usual gang have been caught. Dementor is over in south, Motor Ed in the east. I think DNAmy is with him. Then there are people like Adrena Lynn who aren’t very useful, but Shego keeps an eye on them anyway,” he said.
“Isn’t there anyone still free?”
“I think Killigan and Camille Leon are still hiding. He has disappeared without a trace, and you know that it’s impossible to find Camille.”
“Well, isn’t that great?” Monkey Fist said and rolled his eyes. If their only hope was those two, it was better to just roll over and die.
Drakken said nothing, but the defeated look on his face revealed that he didn’t have high hopes about the future either. Monkey Fist supposed that it wouldn’t be even fair of them to expect anyone to come to their aid. He hadn’t had any plans of helping anyone, so why should Killigan or Camille risk their lives and freedom for them?
“The rebels could do something,” the blue scientist pointed out.
“Like what?” Monkey Fist asked. He didn’t have that many details about who was involved and what they were doing, but the resistance movements hadn’t been very impressive when he had gone into hiding. Shego had all the resources, so it was practically impossible for anyone to give her a real challenge.
“They destroyed one of our weapons factories last month,” Drakken said triumphantly. “Even if I hate to admit it, James raised those boys into real geniuses. They’re almost at my level!”
“The Possible twins?” Monkey Fist asked. Kim’s family had never been a worthwhile target to him, so he didn’t know anything about Jim and Tim, other than that they existed. A few years ago the matter would have frustrated him to no end, but now he found himself glad for that Kim’s brothers were so successfully following in their sister’s footsteps on the road of causing trouble for villains.
“Yes, and the Load lad! They’ve organised some very impressive attacks. And they’re only, what, fifteen?”
“Unless they’re planning to infiltrate this fortress, I’m not very interested,” Monkey Fist replied. His closed his eyes and rubbed his temples in the vain attempt to banish the pounding headache that was making everything spin in his eyes. Drakken’s annoying voice was doing nothing to help him.
“Who knows? If they really have the Seniors as their sponsors, there’s no limit to what they can do,” Drakken said.
“Inform me when it’s going to happen and we’ll talk. If you have nothing of use to say, let me go back to sleep,” Monkey Fist snarled. He curled back up into a position that hurt the least and turned his back on Drakken.
“Hey, aren’t I the one in charge here? You can’t just ignore me!” the scientist complained.
Monkey Fist didn’t turn to look. “Don’t we both wear these blasted collars?” he asked.
“Fine,” Drakken grunted. “Be that way. But don’t tell me I didn’t warn you when Shego goes too far with you.”
Monkey Fist said nothing as he listened to the sound of Drakken leaving the room.
***
Shego didn’t even try to hide her yearning looks at the clock from the other people in the room. Apart from a few awkward pauses that the speaker used to adjust the collar of his shirt, nobody acknowledged her obvious boredom. That was fine with her. The last thing she needed was to make the meeting even longer by wasting time on useless babbling.
Despite her intention to focus solely on Monkey Fist, the matters of the world had been practically pushed at her plate. Her man from
Just how did it come to this, she wondered as she listened to the man’s constant whining. Taking over the world was supposed to be fun. A little bit of ranting here, some terrorising people here, mocking your old enemies before lunch and eventually retiring to bed after a glorious day as an icon feared and respected by everyone. She hadn’t expected to be faced with politics of all things when she had signed up for this job.
“Blah, blah, blah. Can’t you get on with it?” she asked when fifteen minutes had passed and nothing of importance had been said.
The man coughed. “With all due respect, oh, Supreme One, this crisis near the border is vastly important. If you feel like it’s not worth your time, I’m sure we can settle the matter ourselves,” he said.
“And give you the power to make decisions without me knowing? No thanks, braniac,” Shego retorted.
This was her world, dammit. She needed to know what was going on in it if she wanted to be able to rule it efficiently. It was just becoming too much of a task for her, it seemed. There were fights all over her world, the leaders she had appointed were all looking out for themselves, she couldn’t really trust anybody but herself and there was simply not enough time in a day for her to be informed and make decisions about everything.
To top that, she was bored out of her mind. When was the last time she had had a really good fight? The quarrel with Monkey Fist had been a decent start, but it hadn’t got her juices flowing. She needed a real challenge, somebody who could match her in both body and spirit. Someone like Kim.
I have no idea why Drakken wanted to rule this ball of earth so much, she thought.
There was no way she was going to admit to anyone that maybe she could have done better things with the time monkey than take over the world, of course. Now that she had done this, she had to show everyone that she was also capable of ruling it. No matter what she would have to do to achieve that.
She was aware that some of her recent actions and decisions were cruel even by her standards. How she had broken Gemini’s body and spirit had shaken her a little, but she had had to hide that under a mask of pale glee. She hadn’t wanted to do that to him because he could have been an extremely useful lackey. The stubborn man hadn’t bent to her will no matter what, so she had had to do that to him to remind everyone of her power.
Hopefully she wouldn’t have to do that with Monkey Fist. While the ninja could probably fight back for a while, she doubted that he was as strong as Gemini. He would give in like almost everyone had and start working for her once his pride and dignity had been tarnished a little. If he would only give his loyalty to her, he could be very useful indeed.
But if she had to ruin him, so be it. Shego had quickly learned that one couldn’t rule the world by being soft. The moment she showed a sign of weakness and gave her countless enemies an opening, they would strike. She couldn’t show her enemies and captives mercy. If she did, they would no longer be afraid of what she could do them.
“Why don’t we just screw the border? The whole world is mine anyway, so what does it matter what the countries are like? Let the Russians go there,” she said.
“But the area belongs to
“No, it belongs to me. I say it’s not worth it to waste resources on that when you should be hunting down the rebels in the
“But… You rule
“Sure, but I prefer it if they’re causing hassle over at your end instead of bothering
Truth to be told, Shego was starting to feel ready to nuke about half the world at this point. On one hand she was glad that no major countries had teamed up against her, but on the other hand the whole world situation was making her feel like she was nothing but a baby sitter. The stupid quarrels some countries were having with each other were ridiculous. Maybe she really should strike somewhere as soon as Dementor was done with his latest weapon of mass destruction.
The meeting went on in similar vein until she was ready to pop a vein at the stubbornness and stupidity of the others. In the end she told them to do as she said or join the numerous others she had removed from her way. It was an entire afternoon wasted, and she was in a very foul mood as she finally entered her quarters.
She stretched her back and grimaced at the numb pain that shot through her muscles. She was simply not made for sitting so many hours a day, and her body was complaining about it even after the couple of years she had had to adjust. The fight she had had with Monkey Fist had only underlined how out of practise she was.
She slipped out of her clothes and placed her cape on her bed before changing into a jumpsuit that was almost identical to the one she had worn in Drakken’s service. The old one was carefully put away in the back of her closet where she would never again have to look at it. The past was something that she didn’t like to think about too much.
With one final stretch of her muscles, Shego walked to the second door on her right and entered a training room she had made them build next to her quarters. It was already a couple of days since she had last had the time to train, so the familiar air was the best ailment to her scorched mood. This was the only place in the entire world where she could stop thinking about her problems just for a moment.
She clapped her hands twice. Four panels moved aside on the walls and revealed a doubled amount of battle droids. Shego remained frozen on the spot for a few seconds, resisting the temptation to explode into action and savouring the taste of self-torment. Then, as soon as she moved, the droids’ eyes flashed green and they started advancing on her.
The closest machine reached her in a blink and slammed its hand against the floor. Shego barely had the time to make a daring double flip to her left where she immediately had to crouch to avoid having her head smashed to bits by another opponent. She shot out her leg and tried to sweep the droid off its feet, but to her surprise it jumped and avoided her attack.
Drakken has been tinkering with the AI again, she thought, but she didn’t mind. She never had any quality control checks performed on the droids for the exact reason that she knew Drakken kept improving them in hopes that they just might defeat her one day. That of course wasn’t going to happen, but it was fun to see how far he could go each time and how disappointed he always looked when she returned to him victorious.
She let out a small grunt when she landed badly on her ankle after a high jump and rolled to her side to get away from two advancing droids. These were nothing like the clumsy robots Drakken had built in the past; these were actual killing machines that would have sliced most people into mince meat five seconds into the fight.
That was exactly why Shego loved them. Ever since taking over the world and establishing herself as The Supreme One, this had been her only way to get her adrenaline running. She fought her battles with armies now; there was nobody she could face in a real one-to-one battle.
Her anger fuelled by this lonely thought, she smashed her claws into the chest of one droid and withdrew as soon as she saw and felt the sparks. She backed away from the damaged machine as she rubbed her hand and kept a wary eye on her opponents. Usually the droids didn’t let out sparks. They only fell to the ground in defeat.
The storm of sparks grew larger, and Shego’s eyes widened as she realised what was about to happen. She dove to her side so that she was behind one of the other droids as the first one exploded in a blast that sent debris and smoke all around the room. A metal place dug into the floor right next to Shego’s calf.
“Impressive,” she muttered as she examined the piece. It would have severed her muscles had it hit her. How come Drakken couldn’t build stuff like this when they had been fighting Kim?
No, don’t think about the past, she reminded herself and glanced up to see what the other droids were doing.
The machines hadn’t been damaged in the explosion at all, so Shego guessed she had a very busy and dangerous afternoon ahead of her if they all were going to go down in similar fashion to the first one.
She allowed herself a crooked but genuine grin.
***
An hour later Shego stepped back into her quarters, leaving behind a ruined dojo with its floor covered in burnt pieces of metal and debris. Her usually flawless skin was burnt and scratched and her hair looked like it had had an encounter with a rake, but her eyes shone with mirthful afterglow.
It had been a great battle, even if it paled in comparison to those she had had with Kim. No matter how good Drakken made his droids, they were no match for human opponents who could think and surprise and outwit you. Human opponents had feelings.
Maybe that’s what I miss the most, she mused as she slipped out of her jumpsuit and stepped into the shower. People had emotions she could mock and use against them. No matter how many times she had faced Kim, it had never been boring. That burning righteousness and believe in justice that her eyes had reflected had made every battle against her feel like it was a matter of something far greater than merely whether she and Drakken could get away with some quantum-powered ray gun or whatever.
She turned on the water and let it wash over her and dampen her hair. Maybe it would get better eventually. Her future self would not have travelled back in time to give her that advice if she had been unhappy with her life as a ruler of the world. Maybe she would just have to wait. The first years had to be the worst.
But I don’t want to wait twenty years for the going to get good, she thought. She wanted everything now. Having to waste the best years of her life supporting a world that was ready fall into chaos could not be worth it in the end.
And it was all her fault in the first place.
Frowning to her stupid thoughts, she turned off the water and started shampooing her hair. She could already feel the familiar heaviness in her muscles as she lifted her arms above her head. She would be sore the next day if she didn’t take her time to stretch and exercise properly.
As if I had time for that, she thought. She still had one boring meeting scheduled for that day and another one waiting early in the morning. It was a wonder she was still relatively in shape at all.
There were also other things that she wished she had time and opportunities for. Fighting Drakken’s droids somewhat satisfied her thirst for brutal action and smashing things up, but she hadn’t really satisfied herself as a woman in a long time. While working for Drakken, she had taken those expensive beach holidays for the simple purpose of releasing some stress and making sure any bent-up energy wouldn’t affect her work, but she couldn’t really do that anymore.
Letting someone that close to her now that she was universally hated or envied by everybody in the world would have been a suicide. She couldn’t trust anyone that much. Of course, she could have simply taken someone into her bed and forced them into doing what she wanted, but there was no fun in that. It would have been just as artificial as fighting Drakken’s droids and provided only momentary and fake satisfaction. It wasn’t a loving relationship that she needed, but she wanted to feel her partner’s hunger for her.
For the time being, she had to resort to herself when she felt like indulging in female pleasures. Being mediocre at something had never been anything Shego allowed herself, so this took care of her needs. She was merely bothered by that she had once had more.
Finished with her shower, she stepped outside and wrapped a large towel around her form. She had about an hour to spare before she had to present herself as The Supreme One again and try to solve the world’s problems.
I wish something exciting happened, she thought grimly.
***
Monkey Fist’s mood hadn’t improved much after Drakken’s visit. He had tried to sleep a little more, but he had found that the mad scientist’s words wouldn’t leave him in peace. Now that he had a moment to himself before Shego decided to visit him again, it was probably a good idea to get some thinking done.
He had to get out. It had been just a little over a day, but he felt he was already going insane inside the cage. The constant pain he was in had become a mere nuisance compared to the frustration that was gnawing at his mind, and only the knowledge of that it wouldn’t accomplish anything stopped him from having an enraged fit. He wanted to smash something, preferably the bars that were between him and freedom or Shego whose fault everything was, just to release his bent-up anger.
He supposed he could have dealt with the loss of his freedom had he been locked up in a normal cell and treated like a normal prisoner – he had experience with that, after all. It was the humiliation and Shego’s open mocking that made his blood boil. He hated being helpless. He hated it when someone saw him like that and made fun of him. Oh, how he hated Shego right now!
What Drakken had said about the world situation hadn’t exactly filled him with hope of a better future. With Kim Possible and that idiotic buffoon lost in the time stream, Global Justice and most superheroes defeated and imprisoned and all the competent villains under Shego’s power, there was nobody who could seriously stop her now. Monkey Fist was certain that even if some government decided to go against her now, they would do so in their own area and not bother with Middleton. He doubted anything serious would happen, though, considering that Shego had the weapons of the
The Possible twins and their little resistance might turn out to be something, but he couldn’t let himself believe in that either. They were still children, and no matter how competent they were, they would never be able to defeat Shego. Annoy her perhaps, but not crush her. More importantly, even their best efforts wouldn’t help him in any way.
There was nobody who could or wanted to assist him, so he would have to come up with something himself. Monkey Fist liked to think that he was clever and cunning, but the problem was that Shego had both qualities as well. She would no doubt see through any tricks he tried to play on her. She had stated what she wanted of him and he doubted he could expect any mercy from her.
He rested his chin against his palm as he thought in circles around the problem. He loathed Shego for what she was doing to him, but he was certain he could ignore that for a while. In the beginning he had thought that he would be able to endure her torment forever, and maybe he would. It just wouldn’t be worth it. Drakken had a point; why suffer needlessly when there was an easier way out?
Shego was competent, so he could see himself agreeing to work for her if it benefitted them both. Now that the world was in a state of chaos, it would be child’s play to infiltrate Yamanouchi and take the Lotus Blade, among other such secret treasures. If Shego was willing to treat him with proper respect, it wouldn’t be that bad. He had worked under contract before in order to be able to pay for his more private endeavours.
That was probably the best possible outcome for him, but he had the feeling that Shego wouldn’t like it. For a reason he couldn’t start to guess, she seemed more interested in tormenting him than getting anything out of him. She was no fool, so surely she had to realise that he was more useful as a willing partner than a broken slave or torture toy.
His musings were brought to a halt and he looked up at the door when he heard it open. For a moment he hoped it would be Drakken again, but he found himself glaring at the green and black form of Shego.
She marched confidently to him and stopped so that she was barely within his reach. He felt his stomach tighten at how she was looking at him like he was a prize or a possession for her amusement. In many ways he was, and the truth of that filled him with hatred for her.
“How kind of you to grace me with another visit,” he said in a low voice.
“Missed me?” Shego asked chirpily.
“Just as much as I miss Ron Stoppable.”
“Funny. That reminds me of the juicy rumours about him and you. You got to admit that your obsession with a cute high school boy could be seen in suspicious light,” Shego said. “But if you feel that way about me, sorry to disappoint you. I don’t do monkeys.”
“Witty as ever, I see. Is there a point in your visit, or did you just come to mock me?” Monkey Fist asked.
Shego shrugged. “No. I came to see you writhe in indescribable agony until you do what I want,” she said.
“Yes, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. Are you sure that’s the most effective way to achieve what you want?”
“Hmm, well now that you mention it, I guess I could give whipping or forced standing a try,” Shego mused as she tapped her lips with her finger.
Monkey Fist chose to ignore her snide remarks. He wouldn’t achieve anything if he started another round of senseless banter with her.
“I might be interested in working for you if the conditions are good. You’d be an idiot to keep going with this charade when you could have a loyal ally,” he pointed out.
“Loyal? You? Don’t make me laugh, Monty. I know you too well. You’d just work your way into a position of power and stab me when I turn my back on you,” Shego said with a dismissive chuckle.
“You don’t trust the word of a gentleman?” Monkey Fist asked.
“No if the gentleman also happens to be a ninja.”
“Certainly you realise that you have much more to gain if you win me over instead of forcing me,” the simian man pointed out.
“For example…?”
Monkey Fist fought the urge to growl at her in frustration. That playful sneer on her face made him wish he was out of the cage so that he could wipe it off and make her be serious for a change. It was his life they were talking about, and she had the nerve to joke about it!
“I’m fairly certain I’m more competent than the people you have in your service now,” he said.
“Don’t overestimate yourself. People like Dementor are useful because their toys keep the world in control, but you’re not a scientist. I wouldn’t even let you fix my car. Maybe you were a decent fighter back in the day, but I defeated you so easily that you must have lost your edge. I’ve got more capable people working for me,” Shego said.
“Then why do you keep me here?” Monkey Fist demanded and grabbed the bars with both of his hands, not able to sustain his rage at her any longer.
“I thought we covered that last time. You’re my new toy,” Shego replied.
Monkey Fist’s scowl deepened as he realised that this really was nothing but a game to her. She probably couldn’t care less about whether he was of any use to her once she was done playing with him, if she ever was. Acting like this was not characteristic of the Shego he had learnt to know, and he couldn’t help but wonder why she was doing this.
“Dementor is far more competent than Drakken. Why do you keep the blue buffoon around and why does he get to waltz around as he pleases?” he asked.
It was barely there, so he was lucky he didn’t blink at that moment. Shego glanced briefly to her side and the beginning of an uncertain frown appeared on her face for a split second. However, it was gone so soon that Monkey Fist almost thought he had imagined it.
Interesting, he mused. Maybe there was something he could use against her.
“Drakken?” Shego asked in amusement. “I get different kind of fun from him. If I tried, I could break him in one session, and what’s the fun in that? I like taunting him better.”
“But wouldn’t that be even more fun if you’ve taken away his dignity and self-respect?” Monkey Fist argued. That was what she was doing with him, anyway. What exactly made him different from Drakken?
Shego put her hands on her hips and gave him a disapproving frown. “I think it’s up to me what I find enjoyable,” she said.
“Let me out, and we’ll see how much you really enjoy my company,” Monkey Fist said.
“Another battle? Didn’t I already make it obvious that you don’t stand a chance against me?” Shego asked.
Monkey Fist would have liked to cross his arms on his chest, but the pain on the burnt spots on his skin made him wince at every movement. He settled with giving Shego a condescending glare from under his brows.
“I take it you don’t want to risk losing,” he commented.
He was a little surprised by that Shego had not yet pulled out the remote control and gone on with her threats. They hadn’t accomplished anything by talking, and their current line of discussion, if it could be called that, was nothing but throwing snide remarks at each other. Monkey Fist hadn’t wanted to let it come to that again, but it was relatively difficult to maintain an intelligent conversation without a willing partner.
“Enough!” he snapped. “Let me out!”
“No,” was all that Shego said.
Maybe that was the worst about the situation. Monkey Fist could tolerate the pain, but what was enough to drive him insane was his utter helplessness at Shego’s hands. There was nothing but a few bars of metal between them, and yet that was enough to give her complete control over his life. He could only gnash his teeth and imagine what a delight it would be to wrap his fingers around her throat.
“I told you to let me out right now!”
Shego laughed and finally took out her remote. Monkey Fist was almost glad for the sudden agony because it momentarily took his mind off his pathetic incapability to do anything.
***
“Yoo-hoo, cutie!”
Drakken’s hand slipped and he almost impaled his palm with the screwdriver in his hand. The high-pitched and immensely happy voice made him whirl around, fully expecting to see the source of the sound standing there. However, he didn’t find himself face to face with the bubbly geneticist, at least physically.
“Amy! What have I told you about calling me when I’m working?” he asked and glared daggers at the massive communication screen that had been switched on.
“Sorry, honey, but I just had to call you once I heard the news!” Amy said, making Drakken grimace inwardly. He had no trouble guessing what the woman wanted.
“Is my Monty-kins really there?” Amy asked, staring down at the scientist with desperate eyes that were begging him to give her a positive answer.
Drakken supposed that he should have told Amy about the latest development as soon as Monkey Fist had been captured, but he hadn’t. He didn’t really even know why. He had told Motor Ed about it, and it was probably through him that Amy knew about it.
He and Amy had kept more or less closely in touch ever since Shego had taken over the world. Despite that their past and his highly embarrassing declaration of love for her still made Drakken cringe and wonder what had been wrong with him, they got along very well. Amy was easy to talk to because she had maintained a positive outlook on life, even after being enslaved by Shego. She was probably just happy to be able to work on her genetic experiments without having to hide them from the world anymore.
Since his daily interaction mostly consisted of being mocked by Shego or her closest men or listening to the miserable angst of others who shared his fate, it was actually nice to talk to someone who could still smile and chat about mundane things like cookies and tri-dimensional hydrogenerators. All of that was probably in the past now, however. Amy would forget about everything else now that Monkey Fist was back in the picture and only blabber about him.
With some amount of regret, Drakken said, “Yes. Shego just brought him in a few days ago.”
Amy almost smashed her head against the screen in excitement. “Really? How is he? Has he said anything about me?” she asked.
Drakken wondered what to say because the answer to neither question would make Amy happy. He didn’t really want to lie to her; she would find out the truth some other way and then she’d be angry at him. As sweet as she could be, her feelings were easy to hurt.
“Shego is giving him the usual treatment,” he said. “And no, he hasn’t mentioned you.”
Amy’s face fell, and she sighed. “Oh, my poor baby. I hope Shego doesn’t hurt him too much. He’s just so stubborn that he probably won’t give in. I wish I was there with him,” she said.
One thing that Drakken would never understand about Amy was how she could possibly explain Monkey Fist’s behaviour in a way that made it look like he had feelings for her. He had rejected her in every imaginable way, and yet she was still convinced that there was something between them. Drakken had been called delusional many times, but at least he knew the difference between reality and utter pipe dreams.
“Maybe it’s better that you aren’t here,” he said. There really was no need to add to Monkey Fist’s torment.
“Maybe you’re right. Monty probably wouldn’t want me to see him like that,” Amy agreed.
Drakken opened his mouth to say something, but whatever he had in his mind disappeared and he was left feeling like an idiot. Amy would never believe him if he said Monkey Fist wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about her, and she’d only get angry at him. She might even get it into her head that Drakken was being jealous after she had rejected him for Monkey Fist.
“Do you think Shego would let me talk to him?” Amy asked.
“No, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to ask. She’d just use your, erm, feelings against him,” Drakken said.
“You’re right again,” Amy admitted with a defeated frown. “I really don’t want him to get hurt.”
Well, that’s a little inevitable, Drakken thought. He supposed that he felt a little sorry for her somewhere in his mad scientist heart. It couldn’t be easy to be that much in love with someone who hated the very sight of you. One the other hand, living in a fantasy world like that probably had its brighter sides, too.
“You shouldn’t worry about him. I’m sure he can take care of himself,” he said to make her feel a little better.
“That’s what they said about Gemini, didn’t they?” Amy asked miserably.
Drakken had been hoping that she wouldn’t make that connection, and he groaned to himself when he saw her puppy dog eyes. He hated it when she was sad. It was like she was radiating bad mood, and then he couldn’t help but feel dreadful as well.
“He’s not stupid. He’ll come around,” he said.
Amy pouted. “I really think Shego shouldn’t be so mean to him. You’re her friend. Why don’t you ask her to just leave Monty alone? Maybe she could send him here so that we could be together,” she said.
Oh, how Drakken wished he had that sort of influence on Shego. “If I could tell her what to do, she’d still be my sidekick,” he grumbled.
“She must have been very unhappy with her life if she wanted to take over the world,” Amy mused.
Drakken wasn’t so sure about that. Back when everything had been normal, he had never got the impression that Shego didn’t like what she had. She was rich, beautiful, had a high status among the villains, excellent working conditions with a dental plan and she got to go against Kim Possible pretty much every other week. As far as sidekicks were concerned, hers had been a perfect life.
She had never given him that ambitious and power-hungry vibe he got from many of his colleagues in the mad genius business. Since taking over the world had been his goal for years, he had spent a long time in those circles and learnt to know what sort of people were into that. Shego just didn’t strike him as one. She already had power and respect; she was self-confident and didn’t need to prove anything to the world.
And if he was perfectly honest, he was tempted to say that her life had taken a turn for the worse after she had conquered the globe. She could no longer do any of those things she had loved. She was under constant stress and had more responsibility than anyone else on the planet. Drakken didn’t think she actually loved ruling the world that much. She had always been into tormenting others, but everything she was doing now was too distant. What use was it to order something to be done in
Maybe that was why she liked to torment her captives so much. At least that way she actually got to feel like she was in charge.
***
Shego pressed the button and ended Monkey Fist’s misery for the time being. Though he was sprawled on the floor of the cage and breathing heavily as result of his screams, he still turned to glare at her under his messy dark hair. Hatred was written all over his features, and he was baring his teeth at her like an animal.
“That was quick,” he commented in a hoarse voice.
Shego didn’t acknowledge his comment, but she had to admit that he was right. Their banter had left her irritated at the man, so she had expected that hearing his screams of pain would make her feel better. It had, but it wasn’t as entertaining as she had thought it would be. She could make anybody scream as much as she wanted, but it wasn’t every day that someone was ready to argue with her.
Monkey Fist pulled himself up from the floor and leaned against the bars. Shego couldn’t say that she was impressed by his ability to take pain; Gemini taken much more before he had started screaming, but Monkey Fist was different in other ways. Even now when he probably wanted nothing more than to have it end, he was still glowering at her with eyes dark with hatred and thirst for revenge. He’d probably try to kill her with his bare hands if he got the chance.
She found herself smiling at that.
“Oh, it’s nothing personal,” she assured him. “I’d love to stay around and go on with this, but I’ve got a world to run here. Whiny killjoys from
Monkey Fist smirked at her. “Well, doesn’t that sound like a nice way to spend an evening,” he said.
“It’s better than yours,” Shego said and flipped her hair behind her shoulder.
“Is it really?” Monkey Fist asked.
Shego frowned. She knew he was mocking her, but at the same time there was a genuinely curious tone in his voice.
“Why do you ask?”
“Politics and responsibility never seemed like your forte. I have a hard time imagining you sit at a conference table. You’re more likely to blast through it as soon as someone disagrees with you,” Monkey Fist said.
Shego released a hollow laugh. “That’s not how one rules the world,” she pointed out.
“I know,” the man said, making her frown deepen.
“Just what do you mean by that?” she demanded to know.
Monkey Fist smiled sweetly as he gazed down at her from the cage, but his eyes flashed with malice. For the first time since she had captured him did Shego realise what sort of man she was dealing with. It was easy to see Monkey Fist as a goofy monkey-obsessed lunatic, but above everything else, he was cunning, ruthless and efficient as an enemy.
“To be perfectly honest with you, Shego,” he said, “I don’t think you’re fit to rule the world at all.”
She felt her anger flare up inside her. “In case you forgot, I’m the one who conquered it!” she snapped.
“I never denied that. But you have to admit, taking over it is quite different from ruling it, isn’t it?”
“So what? I can do both! I have done both!” Shego snapped.
“And yet you haven’t been able to extinguish all flames of rebellion. I hear mere children are giving you trouble,” Monkey Fist said. He was sneering at her from his prison, one hand around an iron bar and the other supporting his weight. He looked like he was ready to jump at her any minute if there was nothing between them.
Shego felt a shudder go down her spine, but not because of fright. She licked her lips. He would tear her heart out if he got close enough, but that only made it beat faster in her chest. It would be an amazing battle, the kind she hadn’t engaged in in years now. She could give everything she got and still feel like she was walking on the edge and that the tiniest mistake would make her fall and shatter. Oh, yes, that would be amazing.
“They will be killed,” she announced.
“That’s what we all said about Kim Possible.”
Shego had no answer to that. Only now she realised that Monkey Fist had actually turned the situation upside-down and made her be the one on defence. She opened her mouth to throw a comeback at him, but a shrill beep from her waist broke the spell.
“Stealing Kim Possible’s ideas? How utterly undignified,” Monkey Fist said as Shego pressed a button on her belt to silence the noise.
“She’s not the one who invented the beeper,” she said. “I’d love to stay and chat, but it looks like
Even Drakken noticed the change in her.
“Did something happen?” he asked.
Shego stopped, her hand hovering on the handle of the door that would lead her to the conference room.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
Drakken played with his fingertips and glanced at her worriedly. “You seem really happy, like you just mauled a small army or something,” he said.
Shego chuckled. "I had some great entertainment with Monkey Fist," she explained.
"He has started to show signs of breaking, then?" Drakken asked, a hint of surprise in his voice.
"No, not really."
"Okay, so he must be fun to torture," Drakken guessed next.
"Gemini was better," Shego said, frowning at the scientist in annoyance and confusion. Just what was Drakken getting at anyway? It was no secret that she liked tormenting her captives.
"What's your point?" she asked, her angry and demanding voice surprising even her.
Drakken flinched and quickly shook his hands at her. "Nothing, nothing!" he hurried to say. "It's just that you were never happy about torturing anyone."
Shego blinked at that. Drakken had a point. Tormenting others was fun, she was ready to admit that, but mostly it had filled her with frustration and even disappointment as soon as the afterglow had faded. In many ways it was a shame that she had to destroy the others before she could bring them under her power. After all their gloating and self-important boasting, she had expected more resistance from most of her former colleagues.
She saw how nervously Drakken was looking at her, and for the first time she wondered how he was seeing her. Was he bothered by that tormenting Monkey Fist was seemingly so entertaining to her? Drakken had always been a soft mama's boy, after all.
"It's not that," she said. She didn't really have to explain herself to her former boss, she knew, but she found it uncomfortable to see that uncertain and almost disturbed look in his eyes. It was like she had just torn Commodore Puddles's heart out in front of his eyes and eaten it.
"Oh," Drakken said.
Back in the very beginning when she was just starting to spread her rule over the world, she had tried to torment Drakken as well. It had been necessary to get it to his thick skull that she wasn't joking and that she really was taking over the world - alone. However, as soon as he had submitted to her will and stopped fighting back, she had stopped. He wasn't fun to play with, not like that. In some ways it had felt like kicking her best friend or father or uncle or something between the ribs. Drakken was much more fun when she could make a comment about how lame he was and joke about his numerous goof-ups and stupid ideas.
Chances for that had grown rarer over time, however. He no longer ranted about his plans or had such silly and egoistical notions of himself as before. He didn't talk back to her as much as he had used to and mostly kept quit when she talked. He was being a... well, a lackey. It wasn't that much fun anymore. Shego loathed admitting it, but in some ways Drakken had been more tolerable as her boss.
"It's that he fights back," she heard herself say.
"And... that's a good thing?" Drakken wondered.
Shego made an impatient gesture with her hands. "That makes him different! Everyone in this place is so afraid of me that they do everything I tell them to! I mean, look at you. You used to have more spine in you! All I have to do is snap my fingers and show this remote around and people fall at my feet! It's so pathetic! It's so easy! It's so... so boring!" she ranted and felt tempted to throw the remote on the floor and crush it, just to see what Drakken would do.
The scientist just stared at her with a bewildered look in his eyes. She released a breath and brushed a strand of her hair behind her shoulder.
"Monkey Fist is the only one who..." she started, but she trailed off as she realised what she was about to say. The simian villain was the single person who didn't treat her like she was The Supreme One. He bickered with her as if she was still only Shego, like he hadn't yet realised that she had changed together with the world. He was more than a challenge; he was the only one who made her feel like she couldn't get everything she wanted simply by demanding it. She had to fight against him, and she still wasn't any closer to winning.
Oddly enough, she liked that.
"Never mind," she told Drakken. He was different from her. He would never understand the thrill of real challenge and knowing that even if you gave everything you got, it might not be enough. He didn't like going against the odds and didn't know that striking your enemy was all the more satisfying if they struggled against you and almost won. That made even a draw feel like you had accomplished something.
Drakken looked like he wanted to say something, but he thought better of it and only frowned. Shego nodded at him and turned to open the door. A conference was the last thing she wanted at the moment, but she knew she'd have to endure it somehow. It was merely another kind of challenge.
***
The next two weeks turned out to be pure torture for Monkey Fist. Some sort of crisis broke out in
Shego's instructions had been that he shouldn't be let out of the cage no matter what, and he now found himself utterly hating his surroundings. Whenever he was alone, he paced back and forth the limited space, scowling so darkly that only Drakken bothered speaking to him anymore and wishing that he could do something. Anything to break the infinite boredom would have been fine.
Monkey Fist had always been an active man, either exploring some distant part of the globe that hadn't been properly drawn on the map or practising his martial arts. Days when he did nothing were rare so he was not used to such a long period of leisure. There was not enough room in the cage for him to train and he couldn't release his energy in any way because attacking the bars or floor would have only broken his bones in the long run. Now that he couldn't even snark at Shego, his life had turned into such a miserable and mundane existence that would have welcomed any new development.
"I thought you said the Possible twins were giving her trouble? What exactly are they doing? Absolutely nothing has happened since I arrived!" he snapped at Drakken who had come to give him some company. Despite that he loathed the sight of the scientist and the fact that Drakken got to wander free and do whatever he wanted, Monkey Fist preferred the man's presence to being alone. At least now he didn't have to rant at walls.
"How is that my fault?" Drakken asked, equally irritated.
"I believe you said you're at least partly in charge for the defence mechanisms in this city," Monkey Fist said.
"So? I throw in as many faults as I can, but I can't just make the whole system defunct. Shego would be on me in an instant!"
Monkey Fist snorted. "You could blame it on your general incompetence. It wouldn't be the first- or the hundredth - time you blow up something," he said.
"Gnng, well it's easy for you to sit there and make demands. I'd like to see you do something productive," Drakken muttered.
"Then open the door," Monkey Fist suggested and pointed at the electric lock. "Shego won't be back until next week. She'll never have to know how I escaped."
He knew Drakken would never do that. They had argued fiercely about it the day of Shego's departure, but the scientist hadn't given in no matter how hard Monkey Fist yelled at him and promised him painful deaths.
"I'd love to, but you know why I can't," Drakken said.
"You only say that because you're afraid of her," Monkey Fist remarked, resting his chin on his palm as he sat with his legs crossed.
"She would know it was me because she left the code for that lock in my hands! I'm not suicidal, you know!" Drakken snapped. "Besides, you know you wouldn't get far as long as you have that collar."
Monkey Fist's frown deepened. Drakken had explained to him that each collar had tracking chip inside and that they were all individual. Shego only had to type in the serial number to find out where each and every one of her subordinates was. Trying to remove the collar without the correct code would only result in it giving the culprit a shock that they'd never forget.
That detail made his escape pretty much impossible. Drakken had said that with time he could possibly figure out a safe way to remove the collars, but he couldn't do research on that as long as Shego was watching. Since he couldn't get away from her exactly because of the collar, there was really no way to break the vicious cycle.
"Tell me something I don't know," Monkey Fist muttered darkly.
"Amy called about you again."
Monkey Fist covered his eyes and groaned. "Ugh, didn't you tell her that I don't want to have anything to do with her?" he asked. If there was one good thing about his current predicament, it was that he had the perfect excuse to keep away from DNAmy.
"I did, but not in your words. I'm not about to repeat THAT to her!" Drakken protested.
"She's not going to get it otherwise!" Monkey Fist growled.
Drakken said nothing. Monkey Fist watched the scientist’s pouting for a moment and wondered why Amy was such a sore spot for him anyway. He didn’t think Drakken was a gentleman enough to want to preserve anyone’s feelings, especially not those of someone who had dumped him. If anything, he would have expected him to be delighted to have his revenge on her.
Thinking about Amy only worsened his sour mood, so he pushed her away from his head and returned to pondering his situation. The unfortunate fact was that he couldn’t get out or escape without first getting rid of the collar, and for that he needed Shego. Knowing her, she was never going to let him go, at least not before she had had her fun.
That in turn filled with him feelings he was not very acquainted with. Despair and panic were something he had never had to experience on a larger scale, and he had always used meditation to calm down whenever he had been too agitated about something. Now, however, he found that the longer he spent in captivity, the more desperate he became to be released.
Up until now he hadn’t taken Shego very seriously. He had had himself convinced that somehow he would find a way to escape or that she was merely playing a game with him. Now it was starting to look apparent that she really had no grand plans for him and only wanted to use him as her entertainment. The thought of a life as Shego’s toy not only angered him, but made him wary of the future. As much as he liked to claim that he could take pain, he knew that he had his limits. He certainly didn’t enjoy the idea of living in constant agony just to humour a twisted empress.
In that sense he was envious of Drakken. The scientist had it well compared to him; Drakken’s life was very much like it had been before Shego’s rule. The only difference was that he now answered to someone else than himself.
Monkey Fist closed his eyes as he thought about the injustice of it. To think that such a buffoon could hold a place that high in Shego’s new world, but someone like him was reduced to a mere plaything! Something would have to be done about that. He would not spend the rest of his years trapped like an animal.
***
Finally back home!
Shego groaned to herself as she rubbed her temples and tried to ignore the ache that made her head feel like a minefield that was being run over by a herd of bulls. She had got barely any sleep over the past weeks and her every waking hour had been spent either shouting at incompetent fools who couldn’t have followed an order even if she had threatened to kill them – and she often had – or making tiresome plans about destroying the rebels that had taken over large areas in the east.
Now the situation was somewhat under control, but she knew that it was only the matter of time before another such a disaster demanded her attention. Her world was falling apart and if she didn’t soon come up with a good plan, she’d be an ex-empress in no time.
“I take it it didn’t go well?” Drakken guessed as he came to greet her.
“You think?” Shego snarled. She pushed her way past the scientist and marched to her chambers where she fell on her bed. Only then did she allow herself a sigh. She didn’t even bother changing out of her clothes and merely welcomed the deep sleep.
She woke up a couple of hours later, feeling a little better but not even nearly replenished. She had long ago taught herself not to sleep too long at a time, and she couldn’t do it even now when her body really needed it.
Shego glanced at the clock. It was late evening, so she didn’t really have to be anywhere at the moment. For a while she considered going back to sleep, but she then decided against it. She had something far better to do.
Her trip to
On the other hand, she didn’t want her life to go back to the dull emptiness it had been right after she had conquered the world. Everyone had been too shocked and scared to properly oppose her, and she had quickly grown tired of kicking whimpering idiots out of her way.
She ran her hand through her hair. She wanted a challenge, something that got her adrenalin flowing and let her just enjoy herself without having to think about a thousand things at once.
Goddamit, she wanted to fight Kim!
Since the teenager was lost in the time stream, that wasn’t going to happen any time soon. Shego wasn’t sure where exactly Kim was or whether she’d be able to surface at some point in time, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up.
Monkey Fist didn’t come close to Kim, but he was still a breath of fresh air in Shego’s life. Unlike Drakken and the others, he fought back and responded to her taunts with his own ire. Talking to him was like a battle in itself, and Shego found that whenever she visited him, she got back part of what she had liked about her life in the past.
That had presented her with a new problem. Until now she hadn’t given that much thought to what she actually wanted from him. Once she had decided that she didn’t really need him for anything, she had planned to play with him for a while and see if he would bend to her will. She hadn’t wanted to see him end up like Gemini, but she had assumed that he was too intelligent to suffer that fate anyway.
But now… What was she supposed to do with him?
She entered the room where his cage was and smiled a little when she saw that he didn’t move a muscle, even though he had to have noticed her arrival. Even if he was asleep, he was too well-trained to miss her.
“Someone is looking well,” she remarked as she got closer. She had made sure that her shock treatment wouldn’t injure him too much, but it was impossible to electrocute someone extensively without leaving marks. Maybe he was in better spirits now that he had had time to heal.
Monkey Fist still didn’t turn to look. He just sat leaning against the bars with his shoulders hunched.
“Hey! I’m talking to you!” Shego snapped.
No reaction.
“I know you’re awake. Stop playing this stupid game right now!”
She waited a moment, but he was as motionless as ever. Growling to herself in frustration, she pulled out the remote control. She hadn’t been planning to use it that night because bantering with Monkey Fist was actually more fun than listening to him scream and curse at her, but if that was the only way to get a reaction out of him, so be it.
“Look at me or I’ll make this a very painful night for you,” she said. “Fine,” she added when she was ignored again and promptly pressed the button.
The remote wasn’t at a very high setting, but Monkey Fist still jerked and collapsed against the cage floor with a thud. He shifted a little and whimpered but made no move to get up. Shego frowned and gave him another shock. Nothing still happened.
“What’s wrong with you?”
After getting no reply, Shego walked to the control board on the wall and pressed a button to lower the cage on the floor. She typed in the code to open the electrical lock on the door and then walked to Monkey Fist. She opened the door and looked at the man’s form in puzzlement.
Had something happened while she had been gone? Monkey Fist was a miserable sight; there was no life in him and hadn’t reacted at all to that his freedom was now within his grasp. It was like his spirit had died. He was very much like Gemini.
There were no physical marks on him and Shego couldn’t imagine anyone being able to psychologically break this man in only two weeks. Yet something like that had to have happened. There was no other explanation for this behaviour.
Sudden anger overcame her as she realised that someone had had the nerve to disobey her and touch her prisoner while she had been away. She had given everyone clear instructions about how she wanted Monkey Fist to be treated, and someone had been stupid and courageous enough to do this. They had ruined her fun; they had taken away her only source of relief; they had crossed her so much that she would not let them live! How dare someone break her toy?
She walked into the cage and caught a hold of Monkey Fist’s black garb. He didn’t struggle; he only hung lifelessly in her grasp. With a snarl, Shego pulled him out of the cage and lifted him up so that she could look at his face. His eyes were barely open and his breathing shallow.
“Just what the heck is wrong with you?” Shego barked.
She glared at him in hopes of shaking him out of it, but he only rolled his head back. Dread threatened to fill her as she realised that if someone really had broken him, there was nothing she could do about that. Suddenly the idea of having no more useless banter with him or listening to him snap at her frightened her. It was almost like he had left her alone in a life that no longer felt like hers.
Then she saw his lips curve into a small smile.
The next thing she knew was that she was lying on the floor and staring at the ceiling, barely seeing it from the stars that were dancing before her eyes.
Instincts kicked in and she rolled over to her side just before Monkey Fist’s foot came down where her head had just been. Still feeling a little dizzy, Shego jumped to her feet and leapt back to avoid another swift kick from her former captive. He was giving her no time to stop and respond to his attacks, so she settled with defence for the time being.
“You tricked me!” she accused him as she blocked a blow that would have broken her ribs had she not been careful.
Monkey Fist stood back for a moment, a sinister smile splitting his face. “You didn’t think I’d merely succumb to my fate like that, did you?” he asked.
“It did cross my mind,” Shego said. She couldn’t help but respond to Monkey Fist’s grin with her own. He had actually managed to take her by surprise. How wonderful and exciting!
“But I’m glad you decided otherwise. This could be fun,” she added.
“Then allow me to change your mind about that!”
This time Shego was better prepared and caught Monkey Fist’s hand with her own and twisted it to the side, forcing him to lose his balance. She shot out with her foot and caught him in the knee. He fell back but not before catching a hold of her cape with his free hand so that she came down with him.
The cape was starting to choke her around her neck, so Shego had to leave her body unprotected and reach up to untie it. Monkey Fist immediately used the opening and pushed her off him, sending her flying on her back. By the time she was back on her feet, she had already thrown the bothersome cape to the side.
“Why don’t you be a good monkey and go back to the cage?” she asked.
“I fear I must turn down your offer. The accommodations weren’t quite up to my standards,” Monkey Fist replied.
Shego leapt on top of the cage and turned to look down at him with a mischievous smile. “You know you can’t escape. I could just call the guards and this would be over,” she said.
“If you were going to do that, you would have done so already,” Monkey Fist said.
He had her there. Shego knew for certain that the last thing she wanted was for anyone else to find out about this. She had finally got what she wanted, a spontaneous and real battle whose outcome couldn’t be determined yet. She was not going to let anyone ruin this before she had had her fun.
“Maybe,” she admitted. She jumped back down and landed neatly right behind Monkey Fist. He whirled around to face her and barely avoided a sharp kick to the head. “But I also have other safety measures in my disposal.”
To illustrate her words, she pulled out the remote to the obedience collar. She wasn’t really going to use it, but she loved the flash of anger in Monkey Fist’s eyes as he saw the gadget. He charged at her with a snarl and kicked it out of her hand so that it clattered on the floor and slid to a corner.
“That’s not going to solve anything. Even if you broke it, I can always fetch a new one,” she told him.
“Not if you’re dead,” Monkey Fist replied.
They resumed their battle. Shego assaulted him with a swift punch, but he stepped aside and attempted to kick her in the back. She jumped out of the way and rolled to the side, picking herself up and turning to face him again, only to realise that he was no longer there. A quick glance around told her nothing, and it was only when a sharp kick sent her flying against the wall that she knew where he had gone.
As she got back on her feet, it crossed Shego’s mind that had she been fighting against Drakken’s droids, such a surprise attack would have never worked. The machines were not agile or clever enough to try tricks like that.
“Don’t you dare try that again,” she said, a flash of anger warming up her body. It was familiar warmth and she embraced it fully, remembering what it had been like to fight Kim on numerous occasions. The exciting rush of adrenalin made her feel giddy and turned her steps light; it was like no jump was too high. She could almost fly.
She had missed this. It was fun to be challenged, to be able to respond to it with brute force and for a moment forget all about the trivialities of real life and just live on the edge. She knew she always became reckless when she got this involved in the fight, but she didn’t mind that. It really spiced things up a bit.
Monkey Fist didn’t reply, but Shego didn’t miss the hint of a smile on his face. He was enjoying himself, too. Being cooped up in a cage for weeks had probably been the worst kind of torture for an active man like him. Shego found it oddly ironic that the two of them should find a happy moment together by fighting each other to the death.
Had she stopped to think about it, she would have probably realised that it was stupid to go against a dangerous foe in the middle of the night on her own, but she was having too much fun to care. Just to make things more exciting, she led the battle to the other end of the room where there was another small control panel. She pushed a button and one wall of the room rotated to the side, revealing a view of the former city of
Monkey Fist stopped to look at the sight, a displeased grimace on his face. Shego supposed that the city wasn’t a pretty sight now that numerous battles had marred it, but she figured that Monkey Fist wasn’t angry about the destroyed scenery. It had to be frustrating for him, knowing that freedom was right there and yet he would never get far.
“Nice, isn’t it?” she asked.
“My world order would have looked better,” he remarked.
“Somehow I doubt that,” Shego said. She put her hands on her hips and cocked a brow at him. “Well?”
“In case you’re wondering why I haven’t fled, Drakken filled me in on how these function,” Monkey Fist said and pointed at the collar around his neck.
Shego chuckled. “Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. As long as you have that on, you’ll never be free.”
“I suppose my only logical course action is therefore eliminating you,” Monkey Fist said. He resumed his fighting pose, and Shego did the same.
The next few moments were filled with kicks, punches and slashes, most of which were dodged or pushed aside so that they did no actual harm. They were both aggressive fighters who liked to be on the offence, but now that they were fighting each other, they were both forced to be more careful and watch their moves. Just one well-aimed blow could end the battle.
Shego jumped backwards and made a flip in the air as she dodged an attack by her opponent. When she landed, she noticed the forgotten remote control lying on the ground. She grabbed it without thinking much about it and shoved it into her pocket just as she had to roll aside to avoid another attack.
“This the best you can do?” she taunted as she returned the favour and aimed a kick at his stomach. It sent him sprawling to the ground, and Shego approached him with her claws lit up with plasma in order to strike at Monkey Fist’s head.
She was expecting him to back away from her claws in fear of burns, but he surprised her again and grabbed a hold of her arms. Using her own speed and force against her, he shoved her aside and landed tightly on top of her, sitting on her stomach and pinning her to the ground.
For a moment they only lay there, both gasping for breath and letting the tingling warmth of battle spread through them. Now that it had suddenly stopped, Shego found herself almost dizzy from all the adrenaline and excitement and joy. Her body felt like it was on fire, but that wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy her. She needed to have so much more. This feeling of recklessness and brimming energy was too amazing to be wasted.
She cringed a little when she felt Monkey Fist’s hand press against her throat. His touch was almost gentle, but she knew he could crush her windpipe with ease. She had rarely been in such a vulnerable position, but she realised that she wasn’t the slightest bit afraid.
Monkey Fist’s grin widened, even as he was still breathing in difficult gasps after Shego’s last kick. He tightened his grip around her throat just enough to make it uncomfortable.
“And what does our Supreme One say now?” he asked.
“Okay, you got me?” Shego guessed.
“That’s a decent start, but I was actually expecting something humbler. I am holding your life in my fingertips, after all, and I have more than enough reasons to strike,” Monkey Fist remarked.
Shego snorted. “What? You want me to beg?” Not that it was a surprise, really. Every villain in Monkey Fist’s position, herself included, would have enjoyed a moment such as this.
“Give it a try. If you’re really good, I might feel generous and kill you fast,” Monkey Fist snarled.
Shego spent a moment staring up at the grim line of his mouth and the dead serious look in his blue eyes, but it was too much for her. She could no longer hold back the laughter that had been bubbling inside her for the last moments of the fight, and she threw her head back as chortles shook her body.
“What…?” Monkey Fist asked. In his confusion at Shego’s unexpected reaction, he loosened his grip on her just a little, but it was more than enough for her. She threw all her weight to their side and kicked out with her feet. In a fraction of a second they had suddenly switched places, and she was now looking down at him, still laughing. She cherished the look of utter surprise and shock on his face.
“You really are something,” she finally said when she felt like she could speak again. “I can’t remember when I’ve last had this much fun.”
“I’m truly glad you enjoyed yourself, but it’s about to end,” Monkey Fist growled as he struggled under her and tried to get free of her grip. Shego knew he would never be able to break free as long as she didn’t want it, but she loved it how stubbornly he kept fighting against her.
“Oh, you,” she said with a smirk. She could feel the excitement rush in her veins. Some tiny voice in her head tried to remind her of her priorities, but it was drowned under the sound of her own heartbeat in her ears. She was still too high on adrenaline to calm down, especially since their fight had been cut short before a proper climax.
She threw her head to the side so that her hair wouldn’t fall on Monkey Fist’s face. She spent one more moment savouring the feeling of him fighting against her grip and the frustrated grimace on his face. A funny idea crossed her mind, and she pressed her lips against his.
She wanted to grin when she felt him freeze under her and his struggle ceased for a moment. For a second or two he only lay motionless with a perplexed look on his face.
The element of surprise always tasted sweet.
“What do you --” he tried to ask when Shego broke the kiss, but she silenced him with another one. This time he responded to it, but he felt uncertain, and Shego realised that he was only doing it because he didn’t know what else to do, not because he wanted it. She didn’t want to give him enough time to realise what they were really doing, so she kissed him hungrily and forced open his mouth. His response remained unimpressive, but Shego didn’t mind that. This was about control, after all.
He caught her shoulders with his hands and let them remain there. Shego wondered if he was going to pull her closer or push her away, but he did neither.
“I’m going to kill you,” Monkey Fist whispered hoarsely, fury darkening his eyes as he broke his lips free of hers.
“Because I kissed you?” For emphasis, she tried to force another one on him and chuckled when he turned his head to the side to get away from her. “Or because you liked it?”
She slipped her hands inside his ninja garb and ran her fingers over his chest. He wasn’t as hairy as she had been expecting from all the rumours that the other villains liked to tell about him. She would have liked to tear off the entire garb and see what he was like everywhere, but it was not yet time for that. Besides, he wasn’t really cooperating with her.
“Well?” she asked as she stopped and lifted an impatient brow at him.
He only stared back with impassive and annoyed eyes. “This isn’t funny. Get off me right now!” he snapped. He pushed her hands away as he spoke and tried to adjust his clothing.
“What? You think I’m just goofing around here?” Shego growled. She didn’t know why, but she felt oddly insulted by that Monkey Fist apparently wasn’t charmed by her and had doubts about the whole thing. She had found the whole battle enthralling and she was feeling risky; why couldn’t he just go along with her plans?
Then again, he had good reasons to be careful with her. What she had done to him lately had made him hate and mistrust her so much that he was ready to kill her. She didn’t really have a problem with that because it wasn’t love she was looking for, but she realised that she might have gone a bit too far with him.
“Then why?” Monkey Fist demanded to know.
“Why not?” Shego threw back. “We were having fun just now.”
“Because --”
“Oh, stop your rational whining!” Shego snapped.
Before Shego had time to protest, the man used her own trick against her and pushed her to the side. Shego had no time to fight back because she was no longer having a good hold of him, and suddenly she found them back in their original position with him on top of her.
“Hey, you --” she started to growl, but Monkey Fist silenced her efficiently by bringing his lips down to hers and emptying her mind from all objections. His kiss wasn’t anything like those before; he was more forceful, almost violent, and Shego didn’t resist when he pushed his hot tongue into her mouth. She was left gasping for breath when they finally broke apart, her world spinning.
“I am not your slave!” Monkey Fist snapped. “You don’t give me orders!”
Shego wanted to say something witty to that, but her mind was empty of one-liners. All her senses were tingling and she realised something that should have been obvious to her from day one.
Her lack of response seemed to have calmed him down a little, and he was staring expectantly at her, breathing heavily in suppressed anger. His eyes were burning with hate, and Shego realised only now how attractive he was when he was mad like that.
“Well? It’s not as much fun this way around, is it?” Monkey Fist asked. He tightened his grip on her arms, but Shego only smirked at the pain.
“Actually, I quite like it. Go on. And do it like just now. Those earlier kisses were barely what I’d expect from Catholic school boys,” she said.
Monkey Fist blinked. He needed a moment before he could say something and even then it was just a small, puzzled “What?”.
“Do I have to spell everything out for you? Kiss me again,” Shego said. When Monkey Fist still made no move, she rolled her eyes and lit up her claws. She had no intention to attack, but it startled Monkey Fist enough so that she could break her arms free. She let the green fire around her fingers die and grabbed a hold of Monkey Fist, pulling him down against her. She returned his earlier forceful kiss so that he couldn’t argue with her and slipped her hand back inside his garb.
He shivered against her touch, but she didn’t know if it was because he liked it, because he was disgusted by it or because he knew what she could do to him if she only lit up her claws again. Both of them could easily kill the other in such a vulnerable position, but Shego only considered it an extra thrill.
At least he didn’t pull away from her. He wasn’t the best kisser Shego had known in her life, but she liked it how he made her feel like each kiss was a battle for dominance. Most men she had been with had always done what she wanted, even when they had pretended otherwise. It was much more challenging this way.
***
Monkey Fist’s mind was empty save for the outraged anger he was feeling at Shego’s behaviour. Did that woman have no limits? It was one thing to capture your enemy and torment them for your twisted pleasure. He knew he would have done the same so his grudge for her had nothing to do with the act itself, just that she had done so to him.
This, however, was so tasteless that he couldn’t believe Shego could sink so low. He felt another hot wave of anger rush through him and he knew he should have pulled away from her and killed her while she was vulnerable.
He didn’t.
He hated to admit it, but this was a very clever move from her part. She had thrown a challenge at him. This was the ultimate insult; she was suggesting that he couldn’t possibly resist her even after everything she had done to him and how she had humiliated him. Monkey Fist was certain he could have done so, but his anger stopped him from thinking clearly. Just breaking away would have been too easy. It wouldn’t have hurt her.
She was squirming under him and moving her hands over his chest, sometimes barely touching his skin and sometimes scraping her claws against him so that she almost drew blood. It annoyed him even further and he bit into her neck out of spite.
Shego released a small gasp at the sudden pain, but it turned into a chuckle.
“If you want to play rough, that’s fine with me,” she whispered into his ear. Her breath felt warm and tickled him.
His hands travelled down to her breasts and caressed them through her clothing. She released a small appreciative sound when he rolled his thumb over her right nipple one more time before starting to unbutton her jacket. He tried not to look at her face as he was doing so, partly because he didn’t want to see the self-satisfied smirk that had to be on her lips and partly because he didn’t want to have her call his bluff.
Oh, she’d be surprised in the end.
When her jacket was finally open he left her neck alone and started moving down towards her chest. Throat. Collar bone. Right breast. She lifted her back high enough for him to reach behind her and open her bra. She felt unnaturally smooth against his hands; the difficult life in the rainforest had left his skin hardened and covered in scratches.
Her hands slipped out of his garb and travelled up to his throat. The tips of her fingers only slightly brushed against the hair on his neck and sent cold shivers down his spine. She grabbed a hold of his chin and planted a hungry, deep kiss on his lips, and he found himself responding to it with equal passion.
He had to remind himself that he had to keep his head in the game; that he couldn’t afford to lose to Shego in this game. If he did, he would never be able to face her with his head held high. Still, he didn’t object when she started untying the sash around his waist or when she tried to tear his gi top off him. He had to lift his arms above his head before it worked, and he felt oddly naked without it.
The air was cool and a slight wind blowing through the opened wall was making it even colder against his skin. He was still sweaty from their fight, so he couldn’t help but shudder as another gust blew over them. Shego’s hands felt hot against him, like she was on fire.
“You should take that off,” he said and pointed at her open jacket.
“Why? It’s not going to get in the way,” Shego pointed out. She pulled him back down on her and kissed him once more, sending hot shivers down his spine and making him want to indulge in her warmth.
“How about letting me be on top again?” she asked.
“How about no?” Monkey Fist responded.
“Well, I did ask nicely,” Shego said. Without any warning, she shoved him off her and jumped at him. For a moment they wrestled on the floor for dominance, but Shego got it in the end. Monkey Fist briefly wondered how many times they were going to repeat this procedure before they were done.
Whatever complaints he might have had about the change of events died in his throat when Shego’s breasts pressed against his chest as she leant closer. He was too surprised to react, so Shego straightened her form and stopped to look down at him, her cheeks only a little flushed.
She took off her jacket and charged at him without a warning. She went down at his neck, but she didn’t stay there for very long. Monkey Fist couldn’t help but gasp in surprise when she worked her way over his chest and stopped to suck on his nipple while her hand kept going lower to grab him. He wasn’t planning to just lie down passively and let her choose the direction, but every good part of her was currently out of his reach.
***
Shego grinned when she realised Monkey Fist’s dilemma. She had no plans of letting him decide what to do and when, but she knew he would try to take control from her again after a while. She wouldn’t have had it any other way. Surprises in bed were fun.
She could feel him hard against her thigh, and she brushed against him on purpose to tease him a little. To her disappointment he had too much self-control to moan, but it only made her more determined to get that out of him. Maybe later.
She was about to move lower down to his stomach, but she let out a surprised yelp when Monkey Fist suddenly grabbed her arms and pulled her back up. He slammed his lips against hers and pulled her close against him, first caressing her breasts and then moving lower down her side when it was just starting to feel good. The hair on his hands tickled her sensitive skin and made her want to squirm.
She froze just for a split second when she felt his hand travel between her thighs and slowly rub her through her pants.
“I thought you didn’t want this,” she said, surprised by his bold move. In the beginning she hadn’t known if he was going to let things get this far, and even now she was a bit stunned by how easily he had agreed to this.
“I can stop if you don’t like it,” he replied.
She only chuckled and straightened her back so that she could stare down at him before tugging at his black pants. “Oh, I doubt you really want that,” she said and the bulge made it obvious for the both of them what she meant.
She moved to open the button of her own pants, her finger fumbling a little in her hurry.
“I can hardly follow your example if you don’t get off me,” Monkey Fist pointed out.
Shego threw her pants to the side but didn’t move away from on top of his knees.
“What if I just tore them off you?” she asked and lifted her clawed hand for emphasis.
“Well, it would give you points on the drama scale, but I’d rather not have anyone ask me why and how my gi ended up in that state,” Monkey Fist said.
“Good point.” If people saw that, there would be rumours about what they had been doing up here. People talking about her behind her back wasn’t what bothered her because she could easily silence them if she wanted, but she didn’t want anyone to think that she had a weakness. Having female needs would surely be seen as one, and if they thought she was weak, someone might be bold enough to start a resistance or something equally stupid.
She slid off him with reluctance and watched how he removed his pants and underwear. He was slow as he did so, probably on purpose, and Shego pursed her lips in impatience. Now that there was a moment of rest, she realised how many things could go wrong and how stupid this perhaps was. However, that didn’t seem like a very pressing matter at the moment. This was what her body wanted, and for too long she had denied herself pleasures like this.
She pressed herself against him so that she could feel his warm breath on her skin and reached down to grab him. She used her free hand to brush the hair on his neck to make him shiver against her, and her other hand started stroking his pulsing length in slow motion. He actually moaned in his throat at her this time, but she only kissed him reassuringly, feeling her own heartbeat pound in her ears. She could taunt him later if she felt like it.
His hands went to her back and slowly made their way downwards her spine, finally reaching her hips. With one swift motion, he pulled down her panties and let them fall on the floor. She wasn’t prepared for much else yet, so she released an involuntary gasp when his hand travelled between her legs to feel her up. Her knees jerked at the sudden stab of burning pleasure that shot through her. She knew he had to feel how aroused she was already.
“Let’s get on the floor,” she decided. Doing it standing up would only give them cramps, and she wasn’t about to let something like that ruin her fun.
“Right,” Monkey Fist said with a sudden flash in his eyes and kicked her behind her knees to make her legs give in under her. Before she had time to do much more than to grab his hair forcefully, she had been laid back on the floor with him on top of her.
She growled against him when he silenced her objection by claiming her mouth with his and tried to kick him off her, but he was sitting on her thighs and not giving her much chance to move. Her movements felt clumsy and half-hearted to her, like she didn’t even know how to resist properly.
“My turn,” was all he said, and if Shego had been an honest person, she might have agreed.
“Who said this would be fair?” she asked and tried to shove him off her, but she didn’t put all her force into it. She could have used her plasma to drive him away, but that seemed like a distant thought that was buried under the agonising need that had taken over her.
Monkey Fist pushed her knees apart without much resistance from her. He spent a moment to smirk at the sight of her before him, but right when Shego was about to snap at him to stop gawking and ask if he had never seen a woman before, he climbed on top of her and started pushing into her.
Shego had promised herself she wouldn’t give him the pleasure of getting a reaction out of her, but she couldn’t help but arch her head back and bit back the moan that threatened to escape through her lips. She bucked her hips to give him better leverage and to get him deeper inside her until their bodies couldn’t get any closer to each other.
Shego felt full and like her body had suddenly caught fire. She sucked in a shaky breath and wrapped her arms around his back.
“Hmm, isn’t that nice?” she asked.
Monkey Fist stared into her eyes, and Shego recognised a malicious gleam in the midst of his passion. The man’s face twisted into a sneer, and in that instant she realised that she hadn’t been as much in charge as she had thought.
“Who said it would be nice?” he taunted.
Before Shego even realised what he was up to, he had pulled out of her and thrust back inside with such force that she yelped in surprise and pain. Her claws pushed instinctively into the skin of his back, but it did nothing to slow him down.
She had been expecting him to be more hesitant, gentler, or something like the gentleman he had supposedly once been, but she guessed she shouldn’t have let him fool her like that. She clutched at his back and could barely hold back a groan every time he entered her, but even the idea of fighting back didn’t cross her mind. She had been aroused enough so it wasn’t like he had to force his way into her, and she had done rough before. She could take it.
She wanted to let him know that she wasn’t bothered by the way he was handling her, so she pushed his head down and assaulted his lips with hers, forcing his mouth open and pushing her tongue inside. She’d be damned if she let him have all the fun.
“Are you… still going to kill me?” Shego panted when they broke apart for air.
“In the most painful way imaginable,” he responded, and she laughed with mirth.
Maybe he thought he could get back at her by doing this; maybe he didn’t realise that this was what she had wanted all along. She could just imagine him thinking that taking her like this was some sort of revenge or that she was just a little girl who didn’t know what she had got herself into. Oh, she’d show him that she couldn’t be broken that easily.
He suddenly hit a spot inside her and sent a wave of pleasure through her, making her arch her back and let out a startled moan before she could help it. She shuddered at the sensation and clutched him more closely against her. It was in the midst of that moment that she realised that he hadn’t made much noise, like he was holding back on purpose.
Oh, you silly thing. You still think you’re in control, don’t you, she thought to herself.
Smiling mischievously, she waited until he was again thrusting into her. She flexed her inner muscles to tighten around him at just the right moment and chuckled at the startled gasp he released.
“Don’t think you’re the only one with tricks,” she said to him.
“I’m not in the habit of underestimating my enemies,” Monkey Fist replied.
“Then how come you lost to that buffoon every time?” Shego asked.
“Do you really have to bring him up right now?”
Shego opened her mouth to retort something, but she released only a soft cry when he filled her again. She knew it was stupid of them to try to pretend that one was in charge; they had both surrended to the other and they knew they were both enjoying it. Holding back served no purpose anymore, and so she was glad when he moaned against her when she went to nibble at his ear.
It felt like time had stopped, so she had no idea how long it lasted. All that she was aware of was his throbbing length inside her, the scent of his sweat and skin and how their moans grew higher as they neared their climax. She arched her back and shuddered under him when she came, and a few moments later he joined her. They collapsed as a sweaty and panting heap on the floor and remained there.
Though just lying there for a while felt like a very tempting option, Shego knew that it was out of the question. Cold wind was blowing in through the opened wall and sooner or later someone would start to wonder where she was. She really didn’t want Drakken to stumble upon this scene.
Then there was the problem of what they’d do now. Monkey Fist no doubt still wanted to kill her for what she had done, and she wasn’t sure if she could just lock him up again after something like this.
She got up on her feet and stretched her arms, feeling lovely and loose like after a really good training. She walked over to where her clothes were and picked them up. As she was putting on her jacket, she heard the faintest noise behind her. She smirked and almost rolled her eyes. Something like that was to be expected.
“I heard you,” she said, without turning to look right away.
“In that case you know what I must do,” Monkey Fist said.
“Offing me after such passion is not very gentlemanly, now is it?” Shego asked. Now done with buttoning up her jacket, she turned around to face him.
He was hastily clothed and his hair ruffled, but Shego couldn’t make a comment about that. She probably looked even worse. She certainly felt worse; she was wet and sticky and sore, and it would take forever to get her hair back in line.
“But I guess that’s what ninjas do, huh?” she added.
“If you think I’ll go easy on you because --” Monkey Fist started, but Shego interrupted him with a laugh.
“Oh, please. We both know it didn’t mean anything,” she said.
Monkey Fist nodded. “Good. In that case I have no reason not to kill you and claim my freedom,” he said. He took a fighting pose, but Shego just shook her head.
“I’m not in the mood for that right now,” she said.
“Too bad because I’m not giving you a choice in the matter.”
Shego sighed. What she wanted now was a shower and a good night’s sleep, not another fight with a man who didn’t know when to stop. Her muscles were like cooked asparagus; there was no way she could pack a punch now.
“I hate to do this, but you aren’t exactly being co-operative,” she said and pulled out the remote that she had found in the midst of their fight.
The sight of the gadget made Monkey Fist freeze, and his eyes flashed with fresh hatred. He made a dash for the remote, but Shego jumped back and wiggled her finger at him.
“Now, now. Don’t be naughty,” she said. She was about to direct some new taunt at him, but her smirk wavered a little as she noticed the expression on Monkey Fist’s face. Behind the blind rage and frustration was something else that looked a little bit too much like despair and defeat to Shego’s taste.
For the first time since she had taken over the world, she felt a small stab of guilt. She’d be treating Monkey Fist like a pleasure slave if she imprisoned him again, and she knew for a fact that that just might ruin him in the end. Even he probably couldn’t take a humiliation like that. If she broke him, he’d cease to be annoying and rebellious. She didn’t want that, not now when she knew how much fun he was as himself.
“Just be still, okay? I’m going to try something a little different,” she told him. She pressed a few buttons on the remote and saw how he braced himself for a painful shock. Instead of that there was only a hollow click.
“What?” Monkey Fist asked dumbly as the obedience collar fell on the floor in two pieces.
Shego threw the remote behind her shoulder. “I’m feeling pretty lax right now, so take it or leave it,” she said and nodded at the open wall and the sleeping city outside.
Monkey Fist looked at it for a moment and then turned his attention back at her. “I should still kill you for what you did,” he said, but his scowl was a thoughtful one. Shego could almost hear the clockwork in his head.
“I’m not that generous,” she remarked. “The guards will be here in a second if I call for them. Don’t be stupid.”
Monkey Fist hesitated for a moment, looking like he couldn’t decide which would be sweeter, freedom or smashing her skull. Rationality won in the end, and he hurried to the opening, hoisting himself up with the help of his mutated hands and feet.
Shego followed him and stopped to stand at the small balcony. She watched him climb and wondered if she wouldn’t regret this as soon as the afterglow had faded away. She would probably never see him again, and she was dooming herself to a boring life from this moment onwards. Yet this was probably better than witnessing him become a shadow of himself.
At the very least she’d had to come up with a story to explain his disappearance. Maybe she would tell the others that she had killed him.
He was already some eighty feet above her when she called out to him one last time.
“Hey, Monkey Fist!”
He stopped and turned to look back at her over his shoulder. His hair was being tousled by the wind and even at this distance, Shego could see the suspicious frown on his face.
“Promise me one thing,” she continued.
“What?” he asked.
She gave him a mock salute with her right hand.
“Drop by for revenge sometime, okay?”
The End