Chapter 21 – Kankers
Author Notes:
- need confirmation. Did The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack ever give the ocean (not the seas like "Sea of Teeth") a proper name?
"Thanks so much for the candy!" Flapjack exclaimed.
"Heh. No problem, Flapjack." Kyle replied.
Flapjack was happily munching on a large chocolate bar. The enthusiasm in his voice and his happy expression reminded Kyle even more about his younger self.
"So what are you going to do now?" Kyle asked.
"I don't know. I want go look for Cap'n K'nuckles and Bubbie, but I don't know where to start . . ."
"By yourself? You should at least have some people with you."
"Okay. What about you?"
Kyle wanted to help, but he knew he had to decline since there were still plenty of tasks that would come up and require his assistance.
"Sorry," he said, "but I still have lots of work to do here."
"Um, Flapjack." Edd interrupted. "If you don't mind, some of the KND agents around here would be more than happy to take you along to their trip to Mount Blackhead. Based on the currents and location when you and your friends were that day, I've calculated that they should have been set on a course for the waters near the northeastern wilderness. There's a river near Mount Blackhead that flows right into the ocean. Just make sure to stay with the group, alright?"
"Well, I guess that settles it." Kyle said. "Good luck finding your friends Flapjack."
"Thanks, Kyle!"
Flapjack quickly got on his feet. He rushed outside with a backpack of supplies Edd had given him and ran towards the group of KND operatives across the street. Just after he left, Eddy came storming into the medical tent.
"Sockhead!" he exclaimed. "We need to set some rules about givin' away our supplies like that! That's like what, the tenth time this week?"
"Oh, Eddy." Edd responded. "You're just over exaggerating."
"Whatever. Just don't do it again or at least try to do it less often, okay? We're gonna end up broke if you keep up this little charity of yours."
After his short rant, Eddy promptly exited the tent and headed back to his throne to settle his unfinished duties.
"Geez, is he always like that?" Kyle asked.
"Oh don't worry about him." Edd replied. "He does that to almost everybody."
"I see . . . Anyway, I might as well get go-"
"Oh wait, Kyle. If you don't mind, are you interested in a little treasure hunting?"
"You mean the map that Flapjack had?"
"Yes. I'm quite curious to what this map leads to and it conveniently indicates the treasure's right here in Peach Creek so it should be very easy. Let me see your map for a minute. I'll put a waypoint that you can follow."
Kyle did as instructed and showed Edd his holographic map. It displayed the layout of the entire town as well as its outskirts. Edd carefully studied the treasure map for a half a minute and then placed a digital red marker on Kyle's map in the northeastern forest area. It wasn't an exact spot, but a relative location of where the treasure was. Edd also handed Kyle a spare shovel.
"Just look for anything odd or out of the ordinary." Edd told him. "If you can't find anything, then feel free to return."
"Thanks. I'm off."
Kyle exited the tent and Cul-de-Sac gates. Upon exiting, he followed a nature trail to his right. It didn't go into the woods, mainly circled the Cul-de-Sac until it reached the northern entrance to a small park right beside the fortress. Kyle followed the waypoint eastward until he reached the park and then went northeast. He soon came to a creek, the one the town was name after. It flowed southward so it must've emptied into Candy Cove and essentially the Stormalong Ocean.
"This little treasure hunt reminds of that day, huh?" Riyos asked.
"You don't have to keep reminding me." Kyle replied.
The creek was too deep to cross on foot, but there was an old wooden bridge that Kyle used to cross. He then continued inside the forest where the treasure was located. It was relatively quiet aside from the noises Kyle made when he moved branches and other plants out of the way. Unknown to Kyle, a small group of shadows were silently following him, hiding in the trees, their red eyes watching his every move.
Kyle was reaching the designated location when he came to a small clearing with sunlight brightly shining down. Right in the center, he saw a huge red "X" on the ground. He truly didn't expect one like what one would see on a television show, but he went to work. Kyle brought out Edd's shovel from his Nanocom storage and proceeded to tunnel into the earth. After a few minutes of digging, the shovel collided with something metal. Unearthing the remaining dirt, Kyle came across a treasure chest. It was strange that the key was still in the lock, as if the person forgot to remove it. Carefully opening it in case of booby traps, he discovered nothing but candy though they were wrapped entirely in purple wrappers with strange markings.
"What the? Must be the Candy Pirates' . . ."
Kyle then heard the leaves rustling behind. He pulled out his rifle, ready to make a break for it in case it was a pack of Fuse's monsters. Before he could react, Kyle suddenly received a hard blow to the back of his head that caused him to fall on the ground unconscious. Before he blanked out, Kyle witnessed the shadowy figures descend from the trees, grab the treasure chest, and flee almost as if they teleported.
"Ninjas? . . . ugh . . ."
Kyle was dreaming of the event happening again. Although this time, the mood was much gloomier than before. It was nighttime and he could see the menacing red eyes hidden in the trees. He received the blow on the back once again, but this time it felt much harder than before which promptly made him wake up from shock and sit up.
His back still hurt, but Kyle had found his head bandaged up. He looked around, confused. He was lying on a couch inside a mobile trailer. He could see the place was in a sloppy mess. Kyle could see some women's clothing scattered across the parts of the trailer that were visible too him. The smell of ketchup and aged food filled the air.
It was already morning of the next day. Kyle had been unconscious for hours. Soon, he immediately noticed his Nanocom was missing along with all of his other belongings. Before he could get up to search for them, the trailer's front door promptly opened. A red-headed woman with curly hair came inside. He couldn't even see her eyes; her hair was blocking them. She wore a white tank top and blue jeans. She noticed Kyle was awake and grinned as she was walking towards him.
"So ya finally awake, huh?" she asked.
"Uh, where am I?" Kyle asked back.
"You're at Park 'n' Flush trailer park. I saw those guys leave the forest and went to see what was up. You've got a lot of guts goin' in there, I mean it's Newsprint Ninja territory there. Good thing they just left ya there instead of taking you along. Who knows what coulda happened to ya. By the way, hope your head's okay. We ain't medical technicians."
"We?"
"Oh yeah, hold on. Let me get my sister. Marie! Get your lazy ass over here! Our guest's awake!"
"I'm comin', I'm comin'!" a voice exclaimed outside. "Geez, you don't have to yell."
Another female came inside the trailer. Unlike her sister, she had blue hair and her eyes were visible, though her right one was sometimes blocked off by her hair depending on the view one had of her. She wore a black tank top and green pants. Just like her sister, she grinned at Kyle as well.
"Oh, you're cute." she said in a seductive tone. "So you're the boy Lee found in the woods. Can't believe you went into those ninjas' territory."
"It would've been nice if Double D told me." Kyle mumbled.
"Hm? You know my little pumpkin? Interesting . . . Lee."
Marie whispered something into Lee's ear, but Kyle couldn't make out what she was saying. Lee was just smiling to whatever her sister was telling her.
"Um, if you don't mind me asking," Kyle said, "did you find something like a watch when you found me?"
"Oh, you mean this." Marie responded.
She held Kyle's Nanocom in her hands as she browsed through its contents.
"Six Nanos, huh? Impressive bunch you've got, even Buttercup's and Blossom's. Oh, Lee's so jealous for you having her sweet little Eddy~."
"You mind giving it back?"
"Oh, we will. But you'll have to do something for us before we'll let you have it back and let you go."
Kyle sighed. He didn't really care what he had to do as long as he got the Nanocom back.
"I guess I have no choice then." he said. "What do you want?"
"Nothing that you'd find horrible, really." Marie replied. "I just need you to help me build something. Follow me."
Kyle got up and followed the girl outside. The trailer was right near the entrance to the trailer park. It was located across the creek. He could see the towers of the Cul-de-Sac fortress just above the trees. Around him, Kyle saw the rest of the trailer park to be relatively empty. There were still many other trailers, but they seemed abandoned. It looked like Lee and Marie were the only people still living there.
Kyle continued following Marie as she led him up a hill just outside the trailer park.
"Mind filling me in?" Kyle asked.
"We're the Kankers." she replied. "It's me, her, and my other dumb sister, May. She's not here right now though. She went off to go chase her runaway boyfriend in the Wilderness and hasn't been back since."
"And you're not worried about her? She could be dead for you know."
"Oh, please. She's a Kanker. She can take care of herself. Anyway, you're gonna help me with this."
The two came to the top of hill where they saw a giant wooden structure. It was painted and shaped to look like a giant hamburger. It was somewhere near halfway finished on the outside. The inside was completely empty aside from a few buckets of paint and large brushes. Other building materials were lying all over the patty which acted as a porch.
"What's this thing for?" Kyle asked.
"My little project." Marie replied. "Ever since this stupid alien invasion, the Eds built that cardboard fortress and they won't let us in so I started making this. Once it's done, we'll use it as a 'gift' for the Eds. By the way, tell them about any of this and we'll hunt you down till you breathed your last."
"Sure, whatever. Let's get started already."
"Just finish up this section of the wall and I'll let you go. I would've made you finish the whole thing, but I'm in a good mood today so just hurry up."
Kyle sighed and began to work by nailing wooden boards into place. His back injury was still causing him minor pain, but he learned to deal with it. After few hours of labor, he finished his section of the wall. Marie was impressed, evident by her smile. She liked the accuracy and how much detail Kyle put into his painting. Marie considered forcing him to do the same to the rest of the structure, but she was a person true to her word so she handed Kyle's Nanocom back to him..
"Alright, a deal's a deal." she said. "Here's your Nanocom back. Don't worry. I didn't snoop through anything else besides your Nanos. Follow the nature trail just outside the trailer park and you should be back at the Cul-de-Sac in no time.
"Thanks. And um . . . thanks again for saving me."
"Yeah, yeah. Just get out of here before I change my mind and send Lee after ya."
Kyle followed the path outside the trailer park like Marie had instructed. Soon, he was back at the Cul-de-Sac's gates. As he entered, he accidentally knocked into Edd who was running out and two of them fell over.
"Kyle!" Edd exclaimed. "You're okay! Thank goodness! I was almost to send a rescue party for you."
"Why?" he asked.
"You've been gone since yesterday. I sent a search party last night and they found no traces of where you went. I couldn't sleep at all thinking I sent someone to their doom. Then I got an e-mail from you though I could tell it was from the Kankers. It said you were okay, but I just couldn't be sure."
"Relax. I'm fine now. That's all that matters, right?"
"Yes. I supposed so. Anyway, did you find the treasure?"
"Well, I did find a treasure chest, but when I opened it, it was filled with candy. I thought maybe it was the Candy's Pirates' treasure."
"But that's strange. The Candy Pirates are keeping all their treasure with them so they have ammo for their weapons and stock to keep their energy up. If this is their treasure chest, then why didn't they recover it?"
"I don't know. After I found what was inside, a group of people or creatures snuck up behind me, I couldn't tell if they were human, and knocked me out. They just left me there while they took the chest with them. Lee said she saw them leaving the forest. She then came to investigate and found me. I finally woke up just this morning."
"And they let you go that easily?"
"Well, I had to help them with a small thing to get my Nanocom back."
"I guess that will work. I guess they aren't so bad after all. I thought they would do something much worse to you. Anyway, I'm going to assume the people the ambushed you were Fusion monsters. If Fuse was trying to find whatever was inside that treasure chest, it can only mean bad news."
"Should I work on tracking them down? I know a good way-"
"Don't worry about that. Chances are that they already delivered it to their Fusion leader already, whoever he or she is."
"So what now?"
"Just get some rest for now. You should head back to Sector V. Oh, and take this to Numbuh 2 as well."
"What is this?"
"It's a device I found that Dexter requested. He wanted Numbuh 2 to fully examine its condition then give it to Blossom so she could fly it to him."
"Alright. I guess I'll see you later."
A knock on the front door was heard at Dexter's house in Genius Grove. Dee Dee opened the door to see a man wearing a lab coat. He was tall and had his hair cut to a flat top. Under his lab coat, the man also wore a white shirt and tie and black pants and shoes. This was Professor Utonium, creator and father of the Powerpuff Girls. The look on his face clearly showed he was worried about something.
"Professor?" Dee Dee asked in a confused tone. "What are you doing here? I didn't expect you to be back for a while right now."
"Dee Dee, may I come in?" he asked. "It may not be that serious, but I need to ask you something."