The Monkey on the Run Chapter 3, a kim possible fanfic

The general public tends to not know that not all museum artifacts are on display. For every item placed in a display for public view, there are additional items in the typical museum's storage areas, either being prepared for display, maintained or even simply kept waiting, for the inevitable time when the public will lose interest in what is currently offered and want something different. Museums also face a bit of a paradox when it comes to security; the displays must allow the public to view the artifacts, which inherently puts the artifacts at a certain risk for theft and vandalism. For this reason, most museums have extensive security systems and even guards on hand for the display areas.

The storage and support areas, on the other hand, don't need to be as open and visible, which means the artifacts therein can be provided with greater passive physical security. For this reason, the motion sensors, wandering guards and other active security elements can be scaled back to a certain degree. Thus, when an air diffuser shifted in a certain preparation room, in certain museum in Beijing, there were no live guards to notice and the motion sensors did not detect it.

The grille lowered slightly, then tilted and was drawn back into the duct that it covered. A tiny, simian face emerged and a simian hand brought a blowgun to the monkey's mouth. A tiny dart, too small for a security system to detect, flew through the air to pierce one of the room's motion sensors, shorting it out. Three more such strikes rendered the room without a security system. The monkey, dressed in a martial artist's tunic, dropped out of the duct and landed, with only a whisper of sound, on the floor. It quickly scrambled to an exit door, produced a small set of wire cutters from its clothing and cut a pair of wires above the door. It then opened the portal, allowing Lord Montgomery Fiske to enter the room, along with a small swarm of similarly-attired monkeys.

"Good job, Chippy," the nobleman patted the aforementioned monkey on the head. "Now remember everyone, we have the security systems compromised and the communication channel to the monitoring station disconnected. However, the system is scheduled to call in, four hours from now and there are guards out in the display area. We must be quick and quiet."

"Chippy, you and I will search for the amulet," he continued. "Tommy and Limey, you will search for the ivory elephant carvings. Everyone else will pick up anything of either gold or silver."

"That's low, even for you," Kim Possible declared, as she and Ron Stoppable stepped out of a shadowed corner. "You've always stolen monkey-themed artifacts. Now you're stealing ivory, silver and gold?"

"And the cheer squad shows up," Fiske sneered. "I don't suppose that you teens would understand the expenses that can arise when trying to maintain a mansion in proper style."

"By stealing?" Kim placed her hands on her hips, showing her contempt.

"It's your fault!" Fiske snarled. "If you dolts hadn't turned that spirit upon me, I would have never been driven from my home, I would have never taken my monkey ninjas to Killigan's Island and he would have never introduced them to golf!"

"Okay, the golf equipment can be spendy," Ron admitted. "But your estate should have been able to meet the costs."

"The equipment was bad enough," Fiske grumbled, mournfully. "But it's what came afterwards that was so expensive."

"Not seeing the costs," Kim told him.

"Fool of a cheerleader," he growled, "What do you think monkeys do when they enjoy golf, have equipment and I'm not around to keep them focused on more important matters?"

"They play golf?" Kim guessed.

"They play golf!" Fiske confirmed, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "At all hours of the day, apparently! They're obsessed with it!"

"Still not seeing how that becomes more expensive," Ron shrugged.

"I said they were obsessed with it, you pretender," Fiske now turned his ire onto Ron. "I didn't say they were good at it. Apparently, monkeys tend to hook when they tee off!"

Chippy emitted a very offended squeak.

"I don't care if it was technically a slice, the lot of you are either slicers or hook...never mind." Fiske snarled at his small servant. "It means the same thing; golf balls flying through my very numerous, very large, very ornate and thus, very expensive windows! Now, instead of discussing the intricacies of that ridiculous pastime, why don't the lot of you earn your bananas? Monkey ninjas, attack!"

Chippy lifted the blowgun to her mouth again and sent a tiny dart flying towards Kim. The redhead dodged but not enough, she felt a tiny slice along the side of her neck. She looked at both Chippy and the Englishman in terrified shock.

"Prepare to meet your maker," Fiske smirked at his foe as the rest of his ninjas surged forward to meet Ron. "The poison on that dart will arrange for that meeting in under two minutes!"

Chippy promptly chittered at her master.

"What! What do you mean it isn't poisoned?" Fiske demanded. "Why didn't you bring any poisoned darts?"

More chittering answered him.

"Why did you use all of the poisoned darts on gophers at my estate?" Fiske demanded.

Still more chittering sounded in response.

"They were digging up the greens? Wait, ARE THE LOT OF YOU BUILDING A GOLF COURSE ON MY PROPERTY?" Fiske looked equal parts shocked and angry.

Chippy only nodded.

"We will discuss this later," Fiske snarled. "It looks like I'm going to have to do this the old fashioned way."

Without another word, Fiske launched himself at Kim. In the meantime, the redhead had noted that she had a very slight cut on her neck. There was a little bleeding, but nothing to be concerned about. She dodged the kick that the oncoming nobleman launched and attempted to kick his supporting leg. Fiske jumped over her sweep, but left himself vulnerable to her oncoming attacks. He managed to block both of her punches but had to take the knee to the stomach. He staggered back to a wall, then threw another kick her way. Kim was forced to dodge, which gave Fiske a chance to reset himself. Soon, the two were involved in a blistering series of punches, kicks and dodges.

Kim was forced to keep moving. Fiske was larger and stronger than her and his monkey feet gave him a powerful advantage if he could get close enough to grapple. Also, Kim had to worry about monkey ninjas catching her from behind and since she couldn't spare much time on her surroundings with Fiske attacking, she was forced to move. She noted that a couple of monkeys were searching the room during the fight while most of the rest were dealing with Ron. She was heartened to see that Ron was moving as well, pausing every once in awhile to drop one of his pursuers.

This little observation nearly cost her, as she barely managed to move her head out of the way of one of Monkeyfist's punches, then managed to block the next. She redirected his kick and managed to land a hard kick of her own, hard enough to injure his thigh muscle. She blocked his backhand, but the force sent her staggering backwards. By the time she regained her balance, he was once again on his feet and ready to continue the fight. Suddenly, a monkey's shriek interrupted him.

"You've found the amulet?" Fiske yelled to one of his minions. "Excellent! Leave now. Remaining monkey ninjas, cover Chippy's retreat!"

Kim executed a series of handsprings, avoiding Fiske and reaching the door. She took up position at that point, preventing the monkeys' exit. She was heartened to see that Ron had managed to whittle his assailants down to three, and he was squared off directly with them, no longer fleeing. Fiske rushed her and they were soon battling hard again.

"Give up Fiske," she snarled. The guards had to have heard us by now! There's no way you're getting by me."

"Chippy, back the way you came, we'll meet up later!" Fiske called to his minion.

The monkey jumped towards the open duct. Kim tried to intercept but just as Fiske couldn't force his way past her, she couldn't force her way past him to stop the monkey from escaping. Suddenly, another monkey went flying through the air to collide with Chippy. The amulet was dislodged in the collision and flew through the air. Ron, who had finished off his opponents, made a run for it.

"No!" Fiske snapped, suddenly running away from Kim in his own effort to catch the amulet.

Nobleman and teen boy collided under the falling amulet. They grappled with each other, reaching for the talisman. First Fiske got a hand on it and then Ron, swatting and grasping for the artifact while fighting each other. Finally, tangled up with each other, they fell over, punching and grappling. One flailing limb, Kim couldn't say who's, struck the amulet, sending it arching in her direction. She reached up to catch it, only to have Chippy jump on her, blocking her view. Kim swiftly threw the monkey off of her and felt a very slight jolt on her neck.

She felt at her neck and realized that by some stroke of luck, the amulet had managed to fall on her! The ribbon had gone over her head and the amulet had come to rest on the slight wound she had taken early in the fight. She smiled at Fiske.

"Well, it would appear that I have the amulet," She smirked at the villain. "Why don't you just give up now?"

Both Fiske and Ron scrambled to her feet. She was dismayed for a moment to see that Ron had taken the worse in the exchange, with an eye already swelling up and a trickle of blood flowing from the corner of his mouth. She then realized that he was still able to function. Ron and her would be more than a match for Fiske and Chippy. Then, the amulet emitted a beam of emerald light.

Her body trembled and lifted off the ground. Fiske and Ron stared at her, Ron in stunned disbelief and Fiske in horror. She fell to the ground, somewhat disoriented. The amulet was gone, it's ribbon still around Kim's neck. Where it had touched her wound, a monkey image now resided.

"KP, that's just not you," Ron commented.

"What are you talking about?" Kim demanded, unable to see her own neck.

"You have absorbed the amulet that was to be rightfully mine!" Fiske snarled. He took a threatening step towards her, only to halt when both Kim and Ron assumed fighting stances. His monkey minions were, for the most part, still either incapacitated or injured in some way. The odds had shifted in Team Possible's favor. Moments later, a door flew open and a couple of guards stormed in.

"Monkeyfist, just like Kim Possible warned us!" One guard shouted.

"The police should have believed her!" The other replied, pulling out a radio. "I shall contact the police, you apprehend him."

The first guard looked rather reluctant to engage a super-villain, but gamely pulled out a night stick and moved forward to stand with the teens. Fiske was no fool; he knew that with his minions mostly incapable of assisting him, with Stoppable only slightly injured and police on the way, he was in a very bad situation. Furthermore, being caught and incarcerated for only a couple of months could result in death at the hands of the angry spirit.

"Escape plan three!" He shouted at his minions. "Chippy, you are the distraction! Move!"

Fiske scooped up two of the more incapacitated monkeys and sprinted out of the door. When Kim and Ron moved to pursue, Chippy started to bounce from work table to work table, throwing priceless artifacts into the air. Kim, Ron and the guards were forced to catch the breakable and irreplaceable pieces of history while the rest of the monkeys, some of them supporting each other, also made their retreat. Finally, with all of Fiske's forces clear, Chippy escaped via the air duct.

"Okay, I think we can call that one a failure," Kim commented, after the authorities had completed questioning them. "The amulet is gone, I have some sort of tattoo mark, Fiske escaped and you got roughed up."

"On the other hand, Fiske didn't get the ivory elephants or the other valuables he wanted," Ron muttered from behind the ice pack on his face. "Also, the Chinese authorities will believe us in the future when we say that Fiske is going to try to rob a museum."

"Okay, maybe a draw," Kim grumbled. "Any news about the amulet and what it did to me?" She asked Wade.

"Still working on things," he told her. "I have your ride set up. You'll fly commercial to Taiwan, then catch a military jet to Hawaii, then a private jet. You'll have to..."

"Please don't say it," Ron interrupted.

"Parachute over Middleton," Wade told them. "You should be back in about fourteen more hours. Sometime about four P.M. on Saturday...local time. By then, I should have a better idea about what's going on with the amulet."

"Just do your best, Wade," Kim sounded weary. "As always, you rock."

"What's wrong, KP?" Ron asked, as they walked out of the museum.

"I just feel tired," she told him. "And itchy."

"Okay, TMI."

The series of flights back home started normally enough. Wade had obtained their school assignments and forwarded them via the Kimmunicator. The teens concentrated on schoolwork, although Kim seemed considerably more tired than normal. Another benefit of having a youthful genius as support was that he knew other geniuses...mostly bored geniuses. Whenever one of the two teens had difficulty with a subject, they could call Wade and even if he didn't have the answers for them, he could find someone who would clue them onto the correct path. Halfway between Taiwan and Hawaii, they finished their school assignments and decided that napping was in order. It was when they woke up before landing on the island that the real gravity of what was happening became apparent.

Kim woke to a heavy uni-brow and monkey hands and feet. When she shrieked in horror, an act that not only woke Ron but caused him to hit his head on the overhead bulkhead, she shrieked like an irate simian. Looking at her, Ron saw, and was unable to prevent commenting about, her overly developed canine teeth. Fortunately for Kim's dignity, they weren't at a commercial airport and were able to find a corner of the general aviation terminal with a little privacy to call Wade.

"Bad news," he told them. "The amulet is a magic device that turns whomever uses it into a monkey king."

"Wait a minute!" Kim protested. "How many people in that museum handled the amulet? Some of them had to have put it on, just for the sake of it! Why didn't it vanish and turn them into a monkey king?"

"According to the legends, the amulet must contact either blood, or a part of the body where the tissues are thin and the body is made to interact with the outside world." Wade told her. "According to your story, you had taken a slight wound during the fight. The amulet reacted to your blood and merged with you."

"How do we go about unmerging?" Kim demanded. "I'm so not wanting to be a monkey, especially with a cheer competition coming up."

"Well, upon the monkey king's death, the amulet re-assembles itself for the next recipient," Wade told her.

"Not an option in this case," Kim insisted.

"Okay, we could try science," Wade told her. "I'll send a Wadebot to your home and ask for a hair sample. I might be able to come up with a way of separating your DNA from the merged DNA you now possess."

"I caught a 'might' in that statement," Kim noted. "What if you can't."

"Then we're back to mysticism," Wade told her. "And again, we might be in luck. When that medallion merged with you, you said that a yellow light struck you and you were lifted into the air. Sound familiar?"

"Just like when I was exposed to the Mystical Monkey Power," Ron chimed in. "What's the amulet supposed to do, anyway?"

"Slight enhancement to strength and agility," Wade told them. "Increased life span and a major upgrade to reasoning ability. Important things for a ruler."

"Where were you going when you said that we might be in luck?" Kim asked.

"The amulet didn't give you Mystical Monkey Power," Wade told her. "But it was created with Mystical Monkey Power. There's a good chance than Mystical Monkey Power will be able to reverse the effects, if science doesn't work. I think we can talk Ron into helping."

"The Ron-man is here to serve," the blonde announced.

"Good to hear," Wade said. "Your next ride will be there in twenty. You'll be back home in a few more hours."

The two teens looked at each other. This could be their most difficult mission yet.

It was good to be home, if only for a short time. Lord Fiske looked at his tracking program again. To the best of his knowledge, the spirit should still be in India, still somewhat east of Calcutta and traveling to the north and west. There would be several weeks before it would reach his castle again and he would be long gone before it arrived. Next, he looked over his estate's financial transactions and was considerably less pleased.

"Chippy," he called his primary servant to his side. "Why do you keep purchasing so many golf balls?"

He listened to the squeaky response.

"You must be joking!" He was incredulous. "You are monkey ninjas! I have trained you to seek out and eliminate powerful opponents and perform the most delicate acts of covert surveillance and you cannot regularly find your golf balls?"

More chitters answered him.

"I did not say that it was almost tee time," he snarled at his minion. "I said that it was almost tea time! Can you not understand simple English?"

Before Chippy could answer, a chorus of monkey shrieks, that sounded suspiciously like 'fore', could be heard from outside the mansion. Seconds later, Fiske heard the unmistakable sound of another of his large, ornate and expensive windows shattering, followed by the sound of a golf ball bouncing on a stone floor somewhere above him.

"You will gather all of your fellows," he instructed his monkey. "You will bring them all back to the mansion and change into your ninja garb. After this, you will prepare a proper tea and gather everyone in the great hall to serve it. I will preside over my subjects as a proper nobleman, with the respect I am due! Now, move!"

Chippy scrambled to comply while Fiske walked upstairs to see how much damage had been done to his mansion. He discovered that the broken window was in a spare bedroom and that only a single pane of glass had been broken. It could have been worse. He spent the next half-hour wandering through his mansion, despairing over the number of new glass panes present. Shaking his head at the cost, he returned to the great hall to find most of the seats occupied by his ninja monkeys and several of the small primates bringing in plates of biscuits, finger sandwiches and pots of tea. Fiske took his place at the head table and allowed his minions, and himself, time to enjoy their repast.

"Before I address more urgent matters," he addressed them, once he had finished. "I will tell you all, that as of this moment, there will be no more golf played on my estate!"

A chorus of squeaking dismay echoed through the hall.

"You have inflicted more than enough damage and expense upon my property!" He roared, silencing the protest. "There will be no more! Do you understand me?"

A chorus of subdued, chagrined chitters answered.

"Very well," Fiske nodded at them. "On to more important matters. You have failed me. You have failed to maintain my estate and those who accompanied me to Beijing failed to deal with the pretender. I am now forced to involve myself even further in this affair. Tomorrow, Chippy and the three most capable of you will accompany me to the United States. We will obtain the power held within the Amulet of the Monkey King for me, as I deserve. If those who accompany me fail again, the consequences will be dire."

The monkeys looked at each other nervously.

"You have been warned," he concluded. "Select the best among you and prepare yourselves. We catch a cab for London at five thirty tomorrow morning. Now attend to your duties...AND NO MORE GOLF!"

The monkeys scattered, save for a couple who busied themselves gathering up the dishes and cups. Chippy also remained behind, offering her master a pensive look.

"What is it?" He demanded.

Her squeaking reply was very nervous.

"What if this venture fails?" He asked, incredulously. "I will not fail! A master of Tai Shen Pek Kwar does not accept failure!"

She chittered again, still nervous. Fiske's offended glare softened slightly.

"Perhaps you make a good point," he conceded "A ninja always has a backup plan. Even when I succeed and become the Monkey King, there is a chance that my power and authority will not be sufficient to deter the spirit currently pursuing me. Follow me."

Fiske led the way down to a spiraling stairway, where he picked up and lit a lantern. He then led the way down the stairs.

"I store the most sensitive, magical secrets down here," he told his minion, as they descended. "I do not allow any technology to intrude down here, to make sure that the magic properties of these writings and other artifacts is not compromised. As you know, I do not even allow you, my faithful minions, access to the chambers we are about to visit."

At the bottom of the stairs, he reached a door, where glowing glyphs shone dully in the dim light. The touched the glyphs in a specific order. The door opened in response.

"I will collect scrolls detailing how to obtain a powerful weapon...WHOAAA!"

Fiske's lecture was interrupted by his undignified yell, which had been brought on by the floor seeming to shoot out from under his feet. He was agile and quick, possessed of a natural balance that was enhanced by years of both adventuring and martial arts studies, but every time he tried to put a foot onto the ground, it met something round and hard that rolled away, leaving him flailing again.

The lantern flew from his hands as he tried to keep his feet underneath him. Even a master of kung fu has a limited ability to stay on his feet when the surface beneath him is determined to roll out from under him and Fiske eventually succumbed to the laws of physics. He landed, hard, on his back, several of the small, round objects digging painfully into his kidneys.

"Chippy," he addressed his minion, who had managed to catch the lantern. "I believe that I have solved the mystery of the missing golf balls. It would seem that some ancient drain or sinkhole has been directing them to this level."

He got slowly to his feet while his minion chittered a question at him.

"No, no need to remove them," he reclaimed the lantern and resumed his journey, shuffling his feet to nudge the small bits of sporting equipment out of his path. "They make an excellent supplementary trap, don't you think?"

The monkey had no answer for him and simply followed her master along a dark, stone passage to yet another glyphed door. Fiske again touched the glyphs in the proper sequence.

While the passage had been cold and dank, the room behind the door was cool and dry, lit by strange, mystic energies. Several ornate, wooden latices held scrolls. After examining them for several minutes, Fiske found the one he wanted.

"This scroll is the key," he told the monkey. "If the power of the Monkey King does not allow me to eliminate my pursuer or, unthinkable as it is, I fail to obtain such power from the cheerleader, this is my next step. I shall set out upon a quest to obtain the legendary, mystical weapon known as the Han."

A/N: Thanks again to Joe Stoppinghem for beta and some dialog help.