Star-Crossed Mercenaries (Shego x Slade Wilson)

::Chapter 1::

Here's the thing--- it's a bad economy for villains these days. Not only does no one understand what makes a villain a villain, but there's hardly any respect in the profession anymore. Snot-nosed kids make their sassy remarks while they defeat you. The crowds cheer when you're thrown in handcuffs and carried away in a cop car as if you're a former threat taken care of, as if you won't break out within days of incarceration. Worst of all is the insider competition! It's a dog eat dog world out there! Once upon a time, you could count on the forces of evil to band together to wreak havoc, but not anymore... The politics alone was enough to give you a headache...

The bright white flashes of her laser anti-welder reflected against her goggles as Shego quietly worked to open a hole into the front of the safe. She was deep in the dark bowels of a disguised government building on the outskirts of Jump City. It had been easy to get inside --- steal the blueprints, monitor the building's communications both in and out, wait for nightfall, disable the camera and alarm systems, break inside from the roof, move through the vents, neutralize the roving guards... and now the real work was beginning.

Flash flash.

Shego pursed her lips and tried hard not to suck her teeth. When the front of the safe was about to detach, she pressed her fingertips against it to let it fall gently against her hand... and she placed it softly on the tiled floor. She turned off the laser with a click and removed her goggles, shaking her hair out.

She carefully reached into the safe, the opening only large enough for her arm and some spare change, and grasped what was inside. Pulling her arm out, she was careful not to catch her flesh on the ragged and heated metal that formed the opening. She held up the computer chip to examine it in the dim light of the room.

It was so small and delicate; frankly, Shego did not understand computers as well as she probably should, in her line of work, but she had acquaintances who did, and they would be able to help her use this computer chip to her advantage. Gone were the days where she'd steal rockets and nuclear power components; it was all about cyber these days, baby. Honestly, everything cyber-related bored her, but if she couldn't make personal use of this chip, she would sell it to someone who could. Maybe they could take out some critical infrastructure with it, or steal millions and make off to paradise.

Shego stashed it away into her bodysuit and grabbed her tools, securing them in the utility pouch on her belt. Now that she had it, she had to leave. No time to waste; that was where Drakken always went wrong. She grimaced and shook her head to herself as she walked back to the rope dangling from the ceiling, the one she had used to descend into the room from the vents. Drakken always wanted to relish the moment, give a monologue... Ugh, really, where did he learn all that from from?

She shimmied up the rope and pulled herself into the vent smoothly, a practiced move she had done nearly a thousand times before.

Shego pulled the rope up into the vent, hand over hand, and as the last of it disappeared into the vent, she heard the air-pressured doors to the chamber below open with a whoosh. Gritting her teeth, she instinctively shrank back into the shadow, reaching a hand over to grab the vent... and slowly... carefully... put it back in its place... silently, the vent met the grooves and it was secured in place.

"Did you get a good look at what they looked like at all?"

"Uh... it was a woman. That's all I know. Dark hair."

Shego peered through the openings in the air vent to see one of the building guards suddenly articulating with his hands in a frantic motion.

"Damn it! Look!" The guard ran to the safe. "She took it! She took the cybernetic roton inhibitor chip!"

Shego raised an eyebrow. The names they came up with for these things... Something blue flashed by the vent and she nearly jumped out of her skin. She had to get a grip; she was feeling very safe and overly secure, hidden away here in the vent, but that guard wasn't alone. There were others with him.

Part of her wanted to get out of there immediately, but she knew the wisest thing would be to stay and listen.

She heard a girlish gasp. "...!! Robin! What if this mysterious cat burglar is working with Slade? Did you not suspect it was Slade himself who had broken in? He may have a new apprentice already!"

"All signs did point to Slade," answered the first voice Shego had heard. It sounded like a teenage boy. The girl sounded adolescent, too. Was she going to have to deal with teenage do-gooders again? Christ. "But... it's not like him to lead us straight to him and then vanish. I think this is someone else."

"Well, standing around and talking about it isn't going to help." A deep baritone voice. That was definitely Shego's cue to move.

"Cyborg's right. Titans, sweep the building. Whoever took it is still here; that welding is still hot."

By the time the so-called Titans completed their search of the building and found the rope she left behind in the vent, Shego was long gone.