Monkey Business

There was a man… dressed in some kind of ninja outfit. Behind him were a dozen… monkeys.

Dressed in ninja outfits. Ron and Bonnie blinked. Blinked again. Looked around for the camera crew.

Nope. They were really monkeys, really dressed as Ninjas…and this didn't' look like a joke.

"You fools!" He screeched in a voice that normally had people avoiding eye contact, "These artifacts belong to me! The true master of mystical monkey power!" Then he pointed to the front row, where Kim and Josh were looking at him as blankly as everyone else. "You, the richest men in the state and nation shall also belong to me, to deal with my ah… cash flow problem." He voice dropped on the last phrase, then "Monkey Ninja's, seize them!"
Suddenly, Kim, Josh, Sr. Senor Senior and the others in the front were being manhandled and pushed forward. One monkey ninja looked at Kim's wheel chair in confusion and then tried to pull her out of it. Kim yelled.

"Hey!"

"Let her go!" Josh shouted, grabbing a pitcher of water being held by a shocked attendant and bringing it down on the monkey's head. The Ninja dropped….and then another group were surrounding them, growling.

"Nice monkey…" Josh said, while clutching the pitcher, prepared to go down swinging.

"OK, that's it." Ron said, heading for Monkey Fist.

"Ron…what are you doing?" Bonnie asked.

"Going to thump the crazy guy…" Ron said. "He's a nut with some trained animals—how hard can he be?" Ron charged down as he talked and flipped up onto the front of the stage.

"OK…" Ron said, "Show's over…let's just wait until the cops and animal control gets here, and meanwhile you can let go of my friends!"

"Never, Ruffian!" The man said and assumed a very strange martial arts pose.

"Oh for the…" Ok…so he wants to get thumped. Confidently, Ron moved forward.

With a chorus of screams the people around Bonnie dove to the side, as Ron came flying back, rolling as he hit the ground. Bonnie looked at him.

"So, how hard can it be, Ron?" She asked. Bonnie hated over confidence…well, except from her, but she was never overconfident.

"A little harder than appearances indicate…he does know martial arts." Ron said, stretching. "Hold this." He said, tossing Bonnie his jacket. With that, he dove back towards Monkey Fist, and the two were soon engaged in a blinding series of blows and counter blows.

Wow. Ron thought, This guy is good. His martial art style was like none Ron had ever experienced, and he found himself being pushed back, finding it hard to predict, and using more and more dangerous attacks, until Ron and Monkey Fist were both pressed to the limit, barely blocking blows that would break bone, and being forced to take "merely" bruising blows.

"You are good, but no match for a true master of monkey kung fu."

"Yeah, yeah, my kung fu is pig dung, yadda, yadda." Ron said, almost taking his enemy down in a leg sweep. "What did you do, raise yourself on Hong Kong Action Theater Hour?"

Behind Monkey Fist a lady grabbed for her purse. She'd help that nice young man… She found it, raising her hand, and pointing it at Monkey Fist, who saw her, and ducked. Ron, spinning around for a kick didn't…

And so she maced Ron Stoppable right in the eyes.

"ARRRRGGGGHHHH!" Ron said, staggering back, grabbing his face.

"Ron!" Bonnie screamed, charging forward, only to be surrounded by a dozen ninjas.

"Now… I have you…" Monkey fist said, moving towards Ron.

"That is hardly sporting." Senior said. "Are you going to attack a incapacitated boy like that?"

"Err…"

"You know this man?" Josh asked.

"Yes, he is a member of nobility…and a member of the billionaire's club…but still, to be behave this way, and even think of attacking someone in such a state… it is poor form."

"It is not poor form!" Monkey Fist shouted.

"Oh?" Monkey Fist glared at the quite unfazed older man, who seemed to be taking attacks by monkey ninjas in stride.

"Very well…" Monkey Fist said, "I will leave him until I may show him the true power of Mystical Monkey power…. Skippy!" He shouted at a monkey that was supervising the loading of several stone idols onto a flat plate with tie downs on it. "Are you ready?" The monkey nodded. "Excellent!" Fist touched a button and with an explosion, the glass ceiling was pulled away, revealing a yellow blimp with more monkey's rapelling down, securing the idols…and the hostages. Apparently Monkey Fist had planned, or bribed someone—the front seating area was already rigged, and the richest people in Middleton (and the nation, and the world) were lifted up into the air as Monkey Fist grabbed rope and was hauled up himself.

"Fair well, my young and overmatched adversary! When next we meet I shall be the richest man on the planet—and the greatest warrior!" His cackling laugh echoed through the chamber.

Meanwhile, Ron was trying to see, as Bonnie came running up, grabbing another pitcher of water (and making certain it was water), and a number of napkins.

"Here." She said, "Let's try and get some of that off." Ron groaned and flushed his eyes with water as his sight slowly returned. Bonnie looked at him critically. "we'd better get you to the hospital, to undo sureshot's-" The woman who had tried to "help" Ron gave a squeak and vanished into the milling crowd to escape Bonnie's glare, "help."

"No hospital." Ron said, "I just need the paramedics to flush them with water…" He groaned, "Did you see where that lunatic went?"

"Yeah—a big, banana shaped blinp."

"Please tell me you're kidding…"

"Nope…and Ron…. He took Kim and Josh."

TBC.