You've Got Promise, Kid! (revised)

A Kim Possible fanfic.

Notes:

Having seen the episode "Fashion Victim", I took the time to revise this fanfic in response to several new details, as well as expand and improve on the narrative somewhat. It's a two-parter now!

I deleted the old version, though. To those who reviewed the original: Thanks! Drop a line on this one, if you can (non-flaming, of course).

I'll admit, Shego isn't as tough-hearted in this story as she is in the show, but I just want to make it clear that this is my interpretation of her character.

I don't own Kim... or Shego... or Camille... I don't own anything or anyone from the show, okay?

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State prison...

"Alright cutie, now march." Came the guard's order to his prisoner, a blonde and very skinny female, as he poked her with his baton.

"Hey, like, watch where you put that!" She complained.

"Just go." He restated. And with that, the two of them began their walk down the hallway. As the two of them walked, the other inmates took notice of the girl.

She was a newcomer to the state prison, having been sentenced to prison for her recent excursion into a criminal lifestyle. Granted, she earned her spot in the clink, but it's not like she planned for this to happen.

Of course, the best laid plans of mice and men often screwed up in the end.

And that's what happened to Camille Leon, once the biggest thing to grace Hollywood, now reduced to just another former actress gone bad. Getting denied of her inheritance by her father was bad enough, but this took the cake. Eventually, the two of them stopped walking just long enough for the guard to open a cell door. Not bothering to wait for his order, Camille walked through the opening. A second later, the door slammed shut as Camille spoke again.

"I don't deserve to be treated like this." Camille shouted to him. "Do you know who I am? I'm-"

"Camille Leon." The guard cut her off. "Hollywood has-been, and criminal never-was."

"What about my cat?!" Camille panicked.

"We sent her back to your father. Don't worry about your cat." The guard answered. "Right now, you've got your own problems, especially with your new cellmate." And, with that, he turned the corner and was gone.

With a moan, Camille collapsed onto the floor. She couldn't bear the thought of her precious Debutante being stuck with her father. And now, she was behind bars, no thanks to that Possible girl. Truly, she had hit rock bottom.

"Man, this sucks!" Camille groaned. "If it wasn't for that girl, I'd... I'd..."

"You've got no one to blame but yourself, kid." Came a voice, female and calm in nature. At that, Camille lifted her head and looked around.

"Who- who's there?" The young girl asked. Unfettered, the voice continued.

"You underestimated her, and you paid the price. That's just how life works." Trailing the voice, Camille noticed a lone figure in the corner of her cell, leaning against the wall.

She was a tall woman, with jet-black hair and eyes to match. Her face was quite alluring, though with a small tint of greenish shading to it. Her outfit was an all-too-familiar orange prison uniform, and she was wearing what looked like a pair of gray metallic gloves. Camille looked at her for a moment, as if she knew her from somewhere before, before she began to speak

"So, you, like, must be my cellmate." Camille said.

"Looks like I am now." The woman sarcastically replied.

"Just who are you, anyway?" Camille asked, trying to remember her face. She had never met this woman before, and yet, she felt that she had seen her from somewhere. What was her name? Sheik? Strago?

"My name's not important." Came the woman's only response. Apparently, she couldn't care less about the young blonde.

"Wait, could you be Shego?" Camille suddenly spoke in realization. "Are you, like, THE Shego?" The woman, however, remained silent. "The infamous mercenary, Shego? You? My cellmate?" Camille absentmindedly continued to press the topic. With a sigh, the woman spoke in annoyance.

"I guess that's what people call me." She said.

"Oh, my gawd! I, like, can't believe it!" Camille said with a squeal of joy. She was almost giddy at this point. "I'm actually sharing a cell with THE Shego! This is so... "

"If you finish that sentence, you'll regret it." Shego snapped at the youth. Camille immediately shut up at that. After a few minutes, she spoke again.

"Sorry." Camille apologized. "It's just that, I never expected to meet YOU, of all people, and in prison, to boot."

"Yeah, well, I didn't expect you to be such a chatterbox." Shego quipped. "Honestly, what's with all this Valley Girl-speak?"

"Well, that's just how I, like, talk." Camille retorted, leading Shego to glare at her.

"Y'know, my last cellmate wouldn't shut up. Unless you want to see what I did to her, you'd best not try my nerves." Shego warned, remembering what happened when her last cellmate, Adrena Lynn, yelled out one "Frrr-eaky!" too many. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty for the wannabe daredevil, who ended up leaving Shego's cell on a stretcher.

"Sorry." Camille apologized. "Anyway, my name's Camille."

"I know. I heard the guard." Shego muttered. After a long moment of silence, Shego spoke again. "So, what're you in for?"

"Huh? Oh!" Camille was taken aback that Shego was asking her a question. "Robbery."

"Just robbery?" Shego smirked. "Pretty pathetic reason for you to get locked up with me."

"Well, they said it was on account of my 'talents'." Camille awkwardly said.

"Really? Well, what exactly are your 'talents', anyway?" Shego asked in an unconvinced tone. Deciding to prove her point, Camille mentally visualized herself as the person she was talking to at the moment. A second later, an exact duplicate of Shego stood where Camille once was, right down to the orange jumpsuit.

"Whoa!" Shego said in response to Camille's transformation. Granted, she was surprised, if only for a brief moment.

"Whaddya think? Impressed?" Camille asked in Shego's voice.

"Not really." Shego calmly replied, though Shego-Camille was unconvinced.

"The almighty Shego? Surprised?" Shego-Camille smirked.

"Okay, I was. I'm only human, after all." Shego snapped back. "Just don't be pushing your luck with me. I've wiped the floor with people three times your body weight!" she added, noticing how notoriously skinny she was.

"Fair enough." Camille shrugged as she assumed her original form again.

"At least you can still use your powers." Shego replied with a sigh.

"Well, what about yours? Can't you, like, just bust out of here with those freaky green... uh... things?" Camille asked, not quite articulate enough to find a good word to describe Shego's powers.

"Hmmm… good idea." Shego sarcastically answered. "Perhaps it would have been a novel idea, if the cops didn't already know to EXPECT it!" She finished with a loud shout before pointing to her gloves. "These gloves are designed to neutralize my plasma flares, and they're tightened and locked around my wrists, so I can't take them off." Camille was surprised at Shego's angry response.

"Sorry..." she meekly said.

"Don't be." Shego nodded. "It's just that my breakout last week got screwed up, no thanks to that pig-headed cousin of my employer's." She bitterly said, remembering how Motor Ed busted her out of prison just so she could dress up as "an accessory", as he called her.

"But, they caught YOU? You're, like, the greatest mercenary ever!" Camille exclaimed. If there was anything Camille wasn't, it was quiet.

"No one's infallible, kid." The green-hued merc replied. "I've been in prisons before. Usually, I'm in and out of the joint in a week." Shego said with a smirk. "It helps to have a few contacts waiting in the wings."

"So, like, how'd you get here?" Camille asked.

"Boy, are you inquisitive." Shego spoke in response. "Perhaps I should ask the same thing about you."

"Well..." Camille tried to answer. She wasn't expecting to be asked about her life. "It's kind of a long story. Perhaps you've, like, read my autobiography?"

"Hey, I've been in here for a while." Shego flippantly said. "It's kinda hard to keep up with the world at large from a prison cell. Please, indulge me."

"Okay..." Camille started as she sat down on the floor. "It was about six months ago. Back then, I was, like, the hottest thing in Hollywood since Jimmy Blamhammer. I had fame from my movie roles, fortune from my status as a heiress."

"Heiress to what?" Shego asked

"The Leon Kitty Krunchy cat food fortune." replied Camille. "I, like, had it all. At least, I did."

"We had just finished shooting for one of my films." The shapeshifter continued. "I was walking down the street when I decided to go on a shopping binge. Clothes, shoes, plastic surgery, I had spent, like, $500,000 on that binge. The problem was, when I paid, it was with my daddy's credit card. I had taken it from his wallet because I couldn't find any of mine. Needless to say, he was angry when he got the bill a week later."

"Whoa, hold up." Shego spoke in disbelief. "You turned to crime because of a credit card bill?!"

"As if! I'm not finished!" Camille complained. "Anyway, he said that, as punishment, I would have to pay him back for the card. Well, needless to say, I was, like, desperate to pay it off and get back on daddy's good side. It was then that I saw a TV report about you trying to steal some kind of diamond pinky-ring, or something like that. When I saw you, I thought you were, like, sooo awesome, fighting that Kim Possible girl and all, so..."

"Hey, slow down." Shego suddenly said. "First of all, I'm flattered that you're a fan..."

"Correction: THE fan!" Camille beamed. "I've been, like, your number one fan for years!" Shego was quite surprised at this.

"Well, that explains a lot!" Shego said in amusement, remembering how excited Camille was when they first met. "But, anyway, what's this all got to do with now?"

"Well, I, like, figured that if you could pull off a theft, then so could I. So, that night, I had broken into the studio that we were filming my movie at. I was gonna make off with some of the money from the studio vault. But, it... it didn't end very well." Camille finished, her head bowed in shame.

"You got caught?" Shego asked. Camille sadly nodded as she spoke again.

"Daddy was so furious when he found out that I was in prison for theft that he cut me out of his fortune for good. When I, like, got out of prison three months later, I was all ruined. My movie roles were cut, my credit cards cancelled. All I had left was my precious Debutante." Camille said as she pulled out a picture, letting Shego take a look.

"A hairless cat?" Shego raised an eyebrow at the photo.

"It's a Sphinx." Camille replied. "What, you don't like?"

"I'm sorry. It's just that I've had enough experiences with hairless animals to last me a lifetime." Shego grimaced, knowing about Kim's lousy little mole-rat all too well.

"Anyway," Camille continued. "The thing was, when I was trying to rob the studio, I came to realize that I actually enjoyed doing it."

"You... enjoyed the robbery?" Shego asked skeptically.

"I was enjoying being able to actually do something I wanted, instead of acting all dependant on daddy." Camille explained with a smile. "No 'Camille, you can't buy that' or 'Camille, that's not in the script'. I was just free to be me. And just like Botox treatments, I wanted more. After all, after my prison stint, I had, like, nothing left to lose."

"Hmph..." Shego shrugged. "Desire for independence, huh? I can see where you're comin' from with that."

"When I, like, started out, I knew I needed an edge, so I turned to my acting skills for inspiration." Camille continued. "Between my acting and some disguises I had stitched together out of old movie costumes, I pulled off a few decent heists. But I always had to carry the outfits with me, and they were, like, so hard to lug everywhere. It was then that I heard of... uh, um." Camille stuttered, trying to remember the word. "Nanomorphing!"

"What's that?" Shego asked, now genuinely curious as to Camille's plight.

"Apparently, some plastic surgeon had, like, created some kind of high-tech skin treatment. Lots of words I couldn't pronounce, but what I did understand was that I could alter my appearance at will. Poor guy got his doctor's license revoked for such a concept, but he was willing to let me be a free volunteer." Camille explained "A few days later, I was a new woman. I could be, like, ANY woman, or any man for that matter. Tall, short, young, old, any color, any size, any outfit, didn't matter. I could mimic anybody. And with my acting skills, it was flawless."

"Any outfit?" Shego looked at her. "So, does that mean, you"re always naked?" she said with a teasing grin.

"Actually, yes. Assuming I'm, like, not wearing something over me, like this gaudy prison suit." Camille answered.

"Hmh... Makes sense." Shego shrugged.

"Anyway, my star was rising. For a while, it seemed like things were finally looking up again. I was pulling off crimes, disguising myself as other, more successful celebrities, leaving the real ones with the blame. It seemed like I would finally be the star I once was all over again." Camille proclaimed. "And then, SHE showed up." she added with a sneer.

"Kim Possible, right?" Shego mumbled at the thought of her longtime rival.

"Thanks to Kim Possible, I got caught, and I lost everything again. But that wasn't the worst part." Camille said, looking as if she was ready to cry. "I called daddy when I got here, seeing how it was my one phone call. I tried to get him to send me some bail money, and you know what he said?"

"What?" Shego quietly asked.

"He said to me, 'I have no daughter' and hung up." Camille finished, before breaking into tears.

"Ouch!" was Shego's only reply as she stood up. "I feel for ya, kid. Heck, my life before becoming a merc wasn't exactly a bowl of cherries either."

"Well, what was it like?" Camille asked.

"Actually..." Shego said as she started thinking about her past. She thought about the meteor that struck her and her four brothers and turned them into superpowered heroes. The years spent putting up with their overbearing personalities as they protected Go City (granted, she tolerated the Wego twins, but Hego and Mego were another matter). The fateful day when she left her brothers to pursue her own goals.

And now she was a mercenary. Knowing she couldn't hold any other job, she made a career out of the only thing she knew how to do: to fight. If anyone asked her about her reasons, she'd just claim that she wanted to be the baddie. However, that wasn't really the whole truth. Her true motives were far more personal. Too personal for even Camille to understand.

"I'd rather not talk about it." Shego simply said.

"Really?" Camille asked.

"Yes, and if you push it..." Shego threatened.

"Point taken." Camille replied. Shego, however, looked at her and smiled.

"You know what, kid? I like you." Shego stated. "With a bit more practice, you could become quite the mercenary."

"Mercenary?" Camille asked.

"Hired hand, soldier of fortune, et cetera..." Shego explained. "Think about it! You get to travel, put your talents to real use, and get paid for it."

"Wow!" Camille exclaimed. "Sounds pretty good."

"Tell you what." Shego said as she turned to Camille. "If I ever manage to get out of here, I'll bust you out with me."

"Really?" Camille asked in shock. "You'd, like, do that for me?"

"You're the first cellmate I've had that I could tolerate for more than five minutes, so you've got that goin' for you." Shego smirked before asking. "Tell me, how good are you at pickpocketing?"

At that, Camille seemed a bit uneasy.

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A few nights later…

"Alright, lights out!" came the guard's shout as he walked down the halls. In his pocket sat a large metallic key, cylindrical in shape.

"You see that metal thing sticking out of his side pocket?" Shego whispered as the guard came their way.

"Yeah." Camille replied.

"Now, just like we planned it." The merc said.

As the guard walked by the ladies' cell, he failed to notice a tiny hand reaching through the bars. As quick as a wink, the tiny hand pulled the metal key out of the guard's pocket and passed it to Shego. One second and two unlocked latches later, the hand put the key back into the guard's pocket, all without him even noticing. Within the cell, the two women silently congratulated themselves.

"It worked." grinned Camille as she adjusted her hand size back to its' normal shape. "I didn't think I could do that."

"Like I said." Shego said as she removed the restraining gloves from her hands (unlocked thanks to the key they borrowed). "You've got promise, kid."

Before the conversation could continue further, a sudden explosion went off, and the outside wall of the cell suddenly blew inward. As the alarms went off, Shego quickly fired up her palms into plasma flares and blasted away the rubble, revealing a rope ladder.

"C'mon, kid! Let's go!" Shego shouted as she walked towards the opening.

Camille was just about to follow when the guard suddenly reached into the cell and grabbed her from behind, restraining her from moving.

"Shego, HELP!" the shapeshifter pleaded.

"Damn!" Shego swore. She wanted to help her out, but she couldn't sacrifice her own chance for freedom, especially seeing as how fate gave it to her. Waving towards Camille, Shego grabbed the ladder and was flown away from the prison via a black helicopter (which Shego recognized as one of those owned by Senor Senior Sr.) As she looked back, she heard Drakken's all-too-familiar voice shouting over the chopper.

"What are you doing?! She's just the sidekick! I'M the one you want!"

Drakken! Shego thought to herself. Well, he'll have to wait his turn. Tuning her head back to the cell, she saw Camille struggling with the guards.

"I'll be back for you as soon as I can!" Shego shouted over the noise. "Just hang in there!" And with that, Shego disappeared over the horizon, much to Camille's disappointment.

"SHEGO!!!" Camille gave off one final yell before a guard hit her over the head, knocking her unconscious.