The Trinity Sitch - Book 4: Heart of the Fury
Will the Real Yori Please Stand Up?
Yori's eyes narrowed as she watched the two thieves drop to the floor from an impossibly thin line. Her fan blades eased out of her belt. This time she was ready for them. This time they would not elude her. They would lead her to the Chosen One or...or they would learn the darker purposes of a ninja!
She had been on their trail ever since their failed attempt to steal the Lotus Blade. They were good, as good as any who had been trained at Yamanuchi but on one is perfect. Still, it was only by random chance she spotted them as they approached the Chamber of the Blade. In a snap decision she beat them there and stole it herself, disappearing into the night, leaving only the slimmest of trails in order to both lead them away from the school and to give Sensei some hint as to what she was doing. She had no way of knowing if he actually got the message.
They followed for a short time before turning their attention to a new target. Yori turned from hunted to hunter, trying at first to divine their purpose. It was not long before their trail led to Middleton. It was there she learned she needed to step up her chase. They needed to be stopped, not just watched.
What she did not expect was that something or someone lay waiting in ambush. She never knew what hit her only that she awakened on the rooftop of a recently constructed row of townhouses. Somehow she could not recall how she had gotten there. She thanked Buddha she had left the Blade hidden or it would have been delivered into her enemy's hands by now. Still, nothing she had been carrying was missing as it appeared her attacker only meant to delay her. The only evidence of her attack was a slight headache. Not even her fan blades were missing. Amazing that someone who could get the drop on a ninja would leave her most potent weapon!
The trail was clear to her. Their target had been the home. Slowly the memory came back to her. She had tracked them here and was ready to move in when a third figure rose from a roof-mounted HVAC unit. That was all she remembered of the attack, but it was now obvious they wanted something within this particular home. It was difficult getting past a surprisingly good security system, but not beyond her skills. Once she gained entrance to the home, trained senses told her that she had missed her quarry only by a short time. Then she happened to look at the photographs adorning the walls all around the townhouse.
This was Stoppable-san's home!
It all began to fall into place in her mind. The items stolen all had something to do with him and his new wife. What was now missing from their home? Nothing seemed out of place save some clothing strewn about the den (Yori may have been demure and relatively inexperienced with men but she wasn't stupid – she could tell there wasn't anything suspicious about that, especially considering the burned down candles on the dining room table and all around the room.) What could they have in their home? Computer equipment? Mission tools? Perhaps some recovered piece of technology that had not been picked up by the rightful owner yet?
Skilled ninja or not, she didn't know what she was looking for. That didn't mean she wasn't going to try! Methodically she started at the window where the thieves had gained entry. The room was nearly empty save for a couple mismatched pieces of furniture. There was an odd blue chair and a small student desk with a hutch top. A swivel chair with a sunburst emblem was pushed under the otherwise empty desk. All three of the bedrooms were upstairs, with a den, living room, kitchen and dining room on the first floor. The second small bedroom had been set up as an office of sorts. A sophisticated computer/communications center was set up there. Shelves were filled both with books and an assortment of equipment, none of which looked as if they had been used recently, despite the home showing signs it had only recently been occupied.
Yori made a slight face when she realized the home had been purchased with the hope that the other room would be filled, possibly in the not to distant future. A touch of regret passed over her, reminding her that decisions had been made, decisions beyond her control. She had missed her chance and that was something she would have to live with.
Still, it appeared nothing in the small office had been disturbed. If files had been taken from the computer, she had no way of knowing.
She bit her lip in frustration. This was a job for forensic science, not for a ninja on the trail of two, possibly three thieves!
Her emotions were harder to control as she carefully searched the master bedroom.
The room struck her as slightly odd, at least based on what she knew of the occupants. It was spartan, almost peculiarly so. There was the bed, two night stands, a table with two chairs and two dressers flanking a walk-in closet. What seemed so odd was the lack of anything like a television, a radio or even a telephone in the room. For a couple who lived their life in constant communication, the room seemed like the polar opposite.
Then she got it.
It was a refuge!
It was the one place in the world that had been set aside for the two of them, where nothing from the rest of the world would intrude. It was where Stoppable-san could be with the woman he loved and she could be with him, where the whole world was just about them.
She nodded approvingly. It is what she would have done, though the décor would have been somewhat different!
Still, her search was proving more than frustrating. If the other intruders had been here, there was no clue. Nothing seemed to be disturbed, except for the fact the bed had not been made. She smiled again, guessing that Stoppable-san's wife had granted him the kindness of sleeping in. What she knew of Kim-san, it was unlikely the bed would have been left in such a state.
Making quick work of the two upstairs baths, she made her way downstairs once more. The den was still unrevealing. Men's trousers, a tie, a dress shirt (were these actually Stoppable-san's clothes?) and a woman's dress she knew she would never fit into (and wondered how even the more petite Kim Stoppable-san got into too!) were the only thing odd about the room. She turned and crossed the hall into the kitchen.
Then she saw something that gripped her heart with talons of ice!
Lying in the middle of the kitchen floor was the limp form of a naked mole rat.
Rufus was alive and seemed to be uninjured, but something had left him unconscious and completely unresponsive. She began to fear that it was not some thing the thieves had been looking for…
…it was someone.
Without being able to revive him and not knowing what else to do, she gently placed Rufus in the folds of her gi.
She searched the home one more time for something, anything that gave her a clue. Finally her eyes came to rest on a scrap of black fabric on the floor. She picked it up, examining it, thinking at first it could be part of the cocktail dress she found discarded in the den. Instead it seemed to be ordinary silk, much like her clothing, but of lesser quality.
Why would somebody leave a scrap of silk like this behind? What does it mean? If they took Stoppable-san, were they trying to imply that he had gone with another woman? He would never do such a thing! His bond with his wife is too strong! I know this now in my heart, no matter how much it pains me to admit it!
She caught her reflection in the hall mirror, noting the black silk gi she was wearing. Black silk.
They didn't want to imply he left with another woman of his own free will, they wanted to imply he was taken by a very specific woman!
Two can play at that game she thought grimly, ripping a scrap from the end of her belt, pocketing the other. Somebody wanted those who found this scene to think it was her? Let them come!
It took her into the next day to pick the trail up once more. In doing so she caught sight of Stoppable-san's wife leaving the city in her car, following a motorcycle. It would have made sense to tell the woman what she had learned and enlist her aid, but she had no time to divert her attention to the redhead, no matter how much she would add to her chase. Doing so she risked losing her quarry once more, possibly for good. That was not going to happen. If Stoppable-san…Ron was in trouble, she would come to his rescue. Yes, despite the fact he would again return to his wife, Yori was still his friend and there was still a bond of honor that went beyond the love he had for his wife or the love she had for him, still smoldering in her heart.
Was she wrong about her conclusions? What if they had indeed simply stolen something from the house, surprising Stoppable-san's bond-animal in the process. No, her instincts told her that he was in trouble. That was confirmed when Rufus woke up. The little rodent shrieked when he saw Yori, but quickly came around as he got a good whiff of her scent. He spent a few minutes climbing all over her until he was convinced she was the genuine article.
It still took some time for him to relate to her what had happened. Ron and, to a more limited degree, Kim could understand his squeaks most of the time, but Yori's less complete grasp of English made him more difficult to understand. She finally got the important details after much pantomime and improvised sketches in the dirt. Stoppable-san kidnapped, seemingly by a fake version of Yori.
Was that what had attacked her? Why would they have used a doppelganger of her? If they were simply abducting him, why such an elaborate measure?
The thieves did not stay in Middleton for long. The trail led west, out into the desert. They unwittingly led her to a lab hidden under the desert floor itself, somewhere deep in the southwestern desert. The lab itself, complete with a large (not 'lair' large but much larger than normal) computer monitor and shelves lining most of the rough-hewn stone walls. They were already working on the safe mounted to the floor when she approached. For the first time she had a clear view of them. A man and a woman, both in skin tight black suits that resembled her Gi but had none of the wrappings or loose folds. All of the equipment they brought was contained in black equipment belts that hugged their waists. There was no sign of a third intruder.
The male was obviously standing watch as the other one worked on the locking mechanism. They were using some high-tech miniature electronic device to defeat the lock. She carefully examined them. The male was just a hair under six feet tall, thin but with wiry muscles moving underneath his suit. The woman was lithe, slimmer than Yori. This clearly wasn't the one who had masqueraded as her.
The safe door beeped and a light on the lock mechanism turned green. Silently, the heavy door swung open on well-oiled hinges. She reached inside and withdrew a piece of white cardboard with a number of round, spike edged devices with tiny black screens on them. Placing them into a padded pouch, she reached inside once more, withdrawing a pair of small control devices made of dull green plastic.
They had what they came for. Carefully the safe door was shut and locked. Hoping they would be distracted by completing their task, Yori chose that moment to strike.
She had been in plain view for some time now, using her skills to make her nearly invisible. However, once she moved, she was plainly visible.
In the space of a heartbeat, the male thief ducked her blow. In the same motion he rose, bringing a fist crashing into her midsection. She blocked out the pain, rolling away from the punch, landing on her feet as the two intruders circled her.
With a flick of her wrists, her fan-blades snapped open. While they were in fact deadly weapons in their own right, the fan's primary use was to distract. They had their intended effect, at least on the woman. Blind luck with a dash of hard-won battle instinct saved her as the man swept her legs. She stumbled sideways, knowing that if he had connected fully her knee would have been shattered.
Even in the heat of battle, her mind was hard at work, assessing her opponents. What had seemed like distraction on the part of the female had actually been a feint. They were acting in unison, as a team and they were good. Very good.
Something tickled the back of her mind about the man's attack, about his fighting style. It was so, fluid!
Snapping her hand back, she disengaged one of the bladed spikes of her fan. With another flurry of blinding feints and slashes, she flicked her wrist. The spike sailed forth, finding it's mark, burying itself deep in the thigh of her male assailant.
Snapping the other fan back in her palm, she landed a good jab to the woman's jaw. Her head snapped back as Yori followed through, dropping to the floor and sweeping her legs out from beneath her.
These two were professionals. With the exception of a surprised grunt when the blade struck home, neither of them had uttered so much as a sound.
Satisfied she now had everything she needed, she let herself get lost in the fight. She blocked, feinted, punched, kicked, all the while keeping the woman from getting back to her feet. She could hear the hiss of air as the bloodied spike sailed through the air. Without looking she put her hand out, snatching it from the air. She spun on her heal, using her momentum to catch the man in the side of the face. He was fortunate she had switched directions with the spike or he would have been impaled.
The woman executed a perfect back flip from her nearly prone position. Moving before she could plant her feet, Yori grabbed at her head. The visor and mask came away in her grip.
She stood there in shock, unable to believe what she was seeing.
It was Kim Stoppable-san!
Yet, there was something different about her. True, she had last seen the woman when she was still a teen, not yet fully grown into womanhood, but this was beyond even that. Her red hair was cropped short, almost boyishly. Her green eyes looked almost…haunted! She was also gaunt, much the way an endurance athlete looked.
If this was Stoppable-san's wife, who had she seen in Middleton?
Sensing the rush of air, she dodged a fist aimed straight at the back of her head. She spun around once more, finding herself behind her male attacker. Almost against her will, she grabbed at his mask.
No!
She backed up a pace as the two Stoppables squared up in front of her. Yori's eyes darted back and forth between them, fear starting to replace the combat high she had been enjoying moments before.
"I know you." He said.
It wasn't his voice! Suddenly the spell was broken and Yori knew what she was up against. This was not Stoppable-san and his beloved wife. This was something else entirely, something perverse! Her fists curled around her fans as the rage built within her. Her plump lips curled into a scowl as she stopped her retreat, standing her ground against them.
"She is the Keeper of the Blade." The false-Kim said. The voice might have been hers with practice, but the accent was all wrong, as if the speaker had not learned English first.
"She has the sword we seek." The false-Ron said, almost dispassionately.
Once again Yori said a silent prayer of thanks she had left the ancient weapon in the care of Rufus!
"I don't know what the two of you are, but as the real Stoppable-san would say, you are sickwrong!"
"Interesting, though I think the words you are looking for are sick and wrong." The red haired doppelganger said in such a monotone Yori couldn't tell if she was mocking her or must making some kind of statement.
"You are correct that I have chosen the incorrect expression." Yori leaped into the air, never taking her eyes off the false-Kim. Instead of attacking her, she swept her leg out to the side, taking the false-Ron by surprise. He went down, stunned from the blow.
"The proper term is in fact WRONGSICK!" She popped up from her landing place, grabbing the female by her collar, slamming her to the floor.
"Where is Stoppable-san!" She asked through clenched teeth.
"The Sword is no longer here." She said with a mocking smile, her voice still a near monotone.
Yori noticed the reflection in the green eyes a moment too late as the false-Ron brought both fists down on the back of her head. She never saw the two don their masks once more and disappear from the darkened lab.
It only seemed like moments later she was opening her eyes once more. Standing over her was a lithe woman with long hair spilling down her back, The light was behind her but she knew the silhouette.
"Kim Stoppable-san?" She asked, trying to get up.
A hand forced her back down roughly. As her eyes adjusted she realized a slightly younger woman with brown hair and turquoise eyes was glaring at her with menace in her eyes.
"What have you done with my cousin's husband?" She growled in a thick western twang made worse by her anger.
A/N – I'm a stickler for timeline and when things occur but I think I've left it a bit too unclear when things are taking place, so, basically, here's where certain events in my universe fall:
So the Drama – Late May, 2005. Kim and Ron's junior year and Junior/Senior prom (that's the way we did it at my school and Brick was there (according to info about the upcoming Season 4 he's a senior at this point.)
They Say Everyone Has a Twin – Identified as occurring during the summer of 2005, before Kim and Ron's 17th birthdays.
Glow – Winter/Spring 2006. Shego and Neil both turn 24.
Soulmates of the Fury / Motor Court Blues - August, 2006, after Kim and Ron's 18th birthdays.
Blade of the Fury – February, 2009, halfway through their Junior year of college. They're 20 at this point.
What's the Hitch? – Spring/Summer of 2010.
Heart of the Fury – September, 2010. Kim and Ron have recently turned 22