It was a dark and stormy night. Perfect for any number of horror story settings, but in this case, it was simply a spring thundershower in Middleton and the most horrific thing going on was that Jim and Tim Possible had stolen their older sister's Kimmunicator and she was about to kill them.
"Tweebs! You are SO going to die!" The altercation took them all over the house, from Kim's room, down the stairs, over the couch, behind the TV, under the kitchen table, back into the living room, and finally out the door where all three ended up in a heap on the ground as they stumbled over on unusual object in their path.
"Whoa, watch where you're going, kay?" Kim looked up from the tangle to see Josh Mankey pulling his foot out from under Jim and Tim. A hot blush spread up her face as she realized how undignified she looked, sprawled on top, underneath, and between her two brothers.
"Ummm, hey Josh." She managed to untangle herself and snatched her Kimmunicator from Jim. After giving both of the younger boys menacing glares that promised retribution, Kim turned back to her sometimes boyfriend with a small smile and nervous laugh. "So, what's up?" Josh, as cool as ever, smiled at her, his hands in his pants pockets.
"Oh, y'know, not much." Kim nodded at his answer, feeling incredibly stupid at how awkward she always got around this boy. She may be pretty, smart, and popular, but Josh Mankey was THE ideal high-schooler, and everyone in Middleton high knew it. Except for Ron a tiny voice inside her prodded, but she brushed the thought aside, knowing Ron also thought that monkeys were evil and nachos were the ambrosia of the gods.
"You wanna come in?" She asked, realizing that they were still standing out in the rain. He gave an elegant shrug, a very European action, to be sure, for a teenage American, but attractive nonetheless.
"Sure." The Tweebs had settled down again, watching their favorite station, TV Trash Heap, and Kim smiled at the "Fearless Ferret" episode, remembering Ron's belief that the super hero was real and that he could take over the role. Kim led Josh into the kitchen and had him sit at the table while she peered into the cupboards.
"Can I get you anything? We have hot cocoa, and popcorn, and, um, macaroni and cheese..." She broke off her monologue, thankful that she no longer had to worry about disappearing when she blushed, or else she would be long gone by now.
"Whatever." That was one thing Kim usually liked about Josh, he was so quiet. Unlike Ron, who never seemed to shut up. Of course, sometimes chatter was a good thing, and she turned to throw two mugs of milk into the microwave to cover the silence as it grew longer. Josh sat tapping his fingers on the table top as Kim mixed the hot chocolate and finally sat down at the table with him.
"So... what brings you here?" she asked finally. Josh looked up, seemingly startled a bit, but he covered it quickly with another of his to-die-for smiles.
"Well, actually, I was just out walking and thinking about..." whatever he was about to say was cut off as the door to the kitchen burst open.
"KIM!" Ronald Stoppable, better known to everyone as Ron, slammed the door behind him, panting hard and looking like the four horsemen of the apocalypse were after him. "They're after me!" Kim rolled her eyes a little and shrugged a quick apology to Josh. She sighed.
"Who's after you, Ron?" He opened his mouth to answer, when he caught sight of Josh sitting at the table by Kim.
"What's HE doing here?" Although Kim knew Ron didn't like Josh, the main reason being because his last name was too close to "monkey" for his comfort, she hadn't ever heard Ron speak to him with such suspicion and hostility before.
"Actually I just came to ask Kim if she wanted to go with me to the senior prom." Josh said easily. "I can see you're busy right now, though, so I think I'll just catch you later". He winked at Kim, whose eyes were wide with surprise, and headed out the door. "Call me" he threw back over his shoulder before disappearing into the night.
"Did you HEAR that?! He said he was going to CATCH me later! I'm doomed!" Ron cried out dramatically. A small pink rodent popped his head out of Ron's pants pocket and nodded vigorously.
"Mm-hmm! Mm-hmm! Doomed!" he squeaked in agreement.
"Ron! So not the drama, ok?! He was talking to me, and..."
"He's after YOU now?! Don't worry KP, I'll protect you!!" Kim shook her head and grabbed Ron by the front of his shirt.
"Ron! It's just a saying! And you'd better have a good reason for chasing him away like that because he was going to ASK ME TO THE PROM!!" Ron flinched away as each word Kim spoke rose in volume. She released him and he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Sorry, Kim, but you see..." he was interrupted by the beeping of the Kimmunicator.
"Oh, this is just my night, isn't it?" Kim moaned, pulling out the device and activating it. "What's the sitch, Wade?" she asked, putting some false enthusiasm into her greeting.
"Kim, have you seen Ron lately?!" Wade asked, his voice uncharacteristically worried.
"Um, yeah. He's right here with me." Kim hoped she didn't look as puzzled as she felt. "Why?"
"Well you'll never guess who just broke out of prison... Monkey Fist!"
"Great. Well, I still don't see..."
"No, Kim, that's just it. For some reason he's targeted Ron. We got a hit on the site from Ron's mom saying..."
"Ron! Your MOM?! Come on, if she wanted to contact me she could just call" Kim eyed Ron strangely.
"Hey! I can't help it if my mom thinks she has to go through the official channels! Besides, I was TRYING to tell you..."
"Will you BOTH cut it out?!" Wade's voice came from farther away than they thought it should and Kim looked down, only to discover that she had dropped the Kimmunicator in her argument with Ron. The high-tech machine had sprouted wheels and was driving towards their living room. Kim and Ron hurried to catch up with it.
"HEY!" They heard two identical whines cut the air as the Kimmunicator hooked itself up to the television, cutting off the twins' program right when the Fearless Ferret was about to unmask that week's villain. The screen fuzzed a bit, then cleared as Wade's face appeared on the large screen.
"Now listen, you two, Ron's mom hit the site because the phone was out. A team of monkey ninjas hit Ron's house and trashed it, not more than twenty minutes ago!" Kim and Ron looked at each other, their squabble forgotten.
"Ron," Kim began, "um, what was it you were trying to tell me when you burst in here earlier?"
"Well it wasn't THAT!" he exclaimed, still reeling from the idea that had he left home only minutes later he would have run smack dab into a horde of, the horror, monkeys.
"But you said they were after you! If you weren't talking about monkey ninjas, what WERE you talking about?"
"Uh, hel-lo?! The entire cheer squad!" Kim looked at him in surprise.
"Why would the cheerleaders be after you?" Ron grinned at her.
"Well, you know, prom IS coming up..."
"And they decided not to wait until you asked them to beat you up this time?"
"Oooh, that was low, KP." To her credit, Kim blushed and looked away guiltily.
"Sorry, you know I just could resist..."
"Nah, it's ok. I learned my lesson last year. No the real reason was they weren't too happy with my new Mad Dog routine. See, I kinda ran into them when they were practicing their new formation, and they didn't appreciate plummeting to the ground. I don't know why... I mean I AM a bon-diggity dancer and..."
"Oh no! I completely forgot about practice!" Kim slapped her forehead.
"Well, you WERE a little busy rescuing the biology class's pet lobster from the ventilation system..."
"Hey you guys, can we get back to the current crisis here? Monkey Fist went through a lot of trouble to send his ninjas to trash Ron's house. Any ideas why?" Kim looked at Ron. Ron looked at Kim. They both looked back at Wade.
"Not a clue" "Nope, sorry" they responded at the same time. Then Ron cocked his head to the side and studied the television screen.
"Hey you're the super genius, why don't you tell us?" Wade grinned and typed something into his keyboard.
"Well I can't answer that question, but I do have some interesting footage from the prison when Monkey Fist escaped. Its pretty small, which is why I tapped into your TV, Kim."
"No problem, Wade, let's just see what Mister Monkey is up to."
The image on the screen faded from Wade's visage to the picture from a security camera at a prison. All it showed was four locked, barred doors, and a guard patrolling up and down the corridor. Suddenly a swarm of monkeys burst through the door at the far end of the enclosure. They were dressed in black outfits, with matching black masks, and quickly overpowered the guard with their ninja moves. From the opposite side of one of the closed doors, Monkey Fist's hairy face could be seen shouting out orders.
"That is just too freaky." Ron shuddered.
"Ron, I thought you were over the monkey thing...what about Chippy?"
"Well, YEAH, Chippy's cool, but those monkeys are still evil! And silent too!! That's just WRONG!" Kim sighed, and turned back to the footage.
"Ok, here's where things get weird" Wade informed them. On the screen the monkeys had managed to unlock Monkey Fist's cell and all of them were making their escape, when three of the six monkeys turned and attacked Monkey Fist. They tore at his hair, clawed his arms and legs, and though there was no volume on the tape, Kim could tell he was ordering them to cease... and having no success. The other three monkeys managed to hold the rogues off while Monkey Fist made his escape, but the battle left all six trapped within the prison, while Monkey Fist made his getaway alone. The footage cut out, and Wade appeared again.
"What just happened?" Ron asked the room at large.
"I don't know, but if Monkey Fist is losing control of his ninjas, something's definitely up. But what does that have to do with Ron, and what are we supposed to do about it?"
"Hey Kim." Kim jumped, nearly hitting her head on her locker door, and dropping her books.
"Josh, hi!" She smiled at him, her heart beating wildly. She pushed her hair back from her face nervously, and looked up and down the hallway, though she wasn't sure what she was looking for.
"So, we kinda got interrupted last night." He smiled down at her and she thought back to all the times she had ever laughed at the descriptions of knees going weak or melting when the perfect guy smiles at you and swore to herself never to underestimate dramatic writing again.
"Yeah, we did, umm... sorry about that..."
"S'ok. I was just wondering if you thought about what I said?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I mean Yes! I mean... of course I'll go to prom with you." He smiled at her again as the first bell rang. "See ya later." Kim nodded mutely and watched him walk away. When he was out of sight she fell back against the lockers and groaned.
"Well that was smooth." She turned to close her locker when Wade's face appeared on the screen set up inside.
"Hey Wade, what's the sitch?"
"You aren't going to believe this, KP, but I don't think it's Ron Monkey Fist is after!" Kim rolled her eyes and looked at Wade with as slight smirk.
"What part of that am I not supposed to believe, exactly?"
"What part of what aren't you supposed to believe?" Kim jumped again, this time she didn't manage to miss hitting her head.
"OW! Ron!!"
"Sorry. So what's up?" Kim rubbed the sore spot on her head as she looked to Wade. He wasn't paying any attention, though. His fingers danced across the keyboard and his eyes remained glued to the computer screen.
"Wade...Wa-ade... hey! Earth to Wade, what's going on?!" Wade jerked out of his computerized trance and glanced back at her.
"Sorry Kim, it's just...well...see for yourself." He again morphed his image into video footage. This time it was from a security camera at some kind of store.
"Heeeeyyy, all right, Smarty Mart!" Ron cried out and Rufus, not wanting to be left out, crawled up onto his shoulder and voiced his own opinion.
"Boo-ya!" The video showed Monkey Fist holding up the store with a group of monkeys. The monkey ninjas went to work breaking pottery and tearing clothes while Monkey Fist made his way towards the back of the store. The image jumped as another camera picked him up in the pets department. He looked in all the containers, and, when he didn't seem to find what he was looking for, he smashed some of the empty aquariums sitting on the shelves nearby. When he made to leave the store, though, again some of his monkey ninjas went wild, attacking him and the other, still loyal, monkeys. The footage cut out.
"So you said you don't think he's after Ron, so when he sent the monkeys to Ron's house, you think they were looking for....?"
"Rufus."
"WHAT?!" Kim and Ron burst out, and Rufus, not to be upstaged, enacted a dramatic faint that landed him right in Ron's shirt pocket.
"And when he didn't find him at Ron's house he went to Smart Mart to try and get his own naked mole rat." Kim shook her head at Wade's explanation.
"But, but...why? Why would a man obsessed with monkeys, a 'master' of the art of tai-shing pequa, who had himself genetically altered to be more like a monkey suddenly take up an interest in naked mole rats?"
"Who knows? You could ask him that yourself, though."
"You found his hideout?"
"Of course." Kim grabbed Ron by the back of his collar and dragged him along with her as she slammed the locker door shut. Lifting the Kimmunicator she peered down into Wade's face.
"So...where to?"
"I've pinpointed his location to just outside Middleton. He really must need something, though I don't know what, to risk meeting up with you!"
"Yeah, well, villains aren't always the sharpest pencil in the box, you know? How many times have they told me they're plan while leaving me to die and letting me escape? Sometimes I think they do it just to get the chance to fight me, you know, relieve the boredom." Kim skidded to a stop in the parking lot. After passing her driver's test she had begged her parents to get her a car, but they were old fashioned and told her that she could save her money and buy one. They thought that it would keep her off the roads for a few more years, but Kim had simply contacted some of the people she had helped over the years and found one who was willing to really "give her a ride". Dr. Freeman, inventor of Sadie, the self-driving, sentient car, used his blueprints to come up with a car for her that wasn't sentient, but had all the other goodies.
"Come on Ron, hurry up!" She shoved him towards the silver SUV with purple and green highlights.
"But KP! Don't you think that if Monkey Fist is after Rufus, it would be a bad idea to bring him what he wants?!" Kim slammed the door shut behind him.
"Fine, we'll drop off Rufus at your place on the way"
"Yeah, but he might send the monkeys after him again!"
"Then we'll drop him at my place and the Tweebs can take care of him."
"But..." Kim slammed on the brakes.
"Ron, what is up? You've never tried to back out of a mission before!" Ron looked down into his lap, a ruddy color spreading over his face.
"It's just, well, you know how I feel about monkeys, and yeah, Chippy's ok, but it's bad enough when you have a supervillain controlling fighting ninja monkeys, at least they have someone controlling them. But what if he's really lost it?! What if they go crazy and try to eat us? WHAT IF..."
"RON! Chill, so not the drama! If Monkey Fist can't control the monkeys, it's probably better for us! They won't attack us because he can't tell them too."
"Didn't stop the camp mascot." Ron mumbled. Kim sighed. Sometimes Ron was almost to Ronnish, even for her.
"KP, I think you shouldn't have any trouble with Monkey Fist."
"Why is that, Wade?"
"Because we just got a hit on the website... from Monkey Fist!
To be continued...