Chapter 60: Wild Time in the Gym
When the net came down on the crowd, Kim had to laugh after a brief moment of panic. There's just no way I can have a normal prom, she thought. The net had come loose, that was all. She dropped to her hands and knees and started to crawl, sliding the net over her, towards the nearest edge. It wasn't easy, since there were over two hundred people trapped under the net with her. The various reactions from these people meant that the net tugged everyone in unpredictable directions, and most of the people under it were soon on the ground. Still, Kim wasn't concerned. She would reach the edge, gather up some of her fellow students, and roll up the net to free everyone. They would have the rest of the dance without the decorations. There was still a lot of dancing left to do, and she had no intention of letting a fallen net prevent her from 'sealing the deal' with Ron.
When Motor Ed appeared, Kim was confused. Since when was he involved in a crime that didn't involve at least one internal combustion engine? When the mullet-head started ranting about the power pack, she understood. He had been after the power pack on Felix's wheelchair for almost a year now. But it still wasn't his style to make his move in front of so many witnesses. Then Monkeyfist made his appearance and disappeared with Ron. She wondered what Motor Ed meant by taking care of her, even while she redoubled her efforts to escape the net. She had to rescue Ron!
Two of the monkey ninjas tackled Bonnie and pinned her on the stage. The rest scattered around the net and attacked anyone who started to emerge from under it. Kim gritted her teeth; she would just have to deal with them when she got out. Near the other side of the gym, she saw the Gearheads cut Felix free from the net, dump the boy onto the ground and start dismantling his chair.
Motor Ed produced a piece of machinery and held it up in front of him like it was a weapon. "Man, that monkey dude has the best lines, seriously," he roared. "Let me try one! Okay, Gearheads, snag the pack! That's a good one, seriously! Now, where's Red?" Shrieks and screams answered him.
"Don't you dare say anything," Cindy told Kim. "I don't know what he has planned for you, but it can't be good."
When the net dropped, Yori found herself in much the same situation as Kim. She had been present when the net had been raised into place, so she assumed that its falling was an accident. While she didn't recognize the large, blond man, the moment he used the word 'trap' she knew that Ron was in danger. She dropped to her knees and pulled a tiny blade out of her hair. It looked like a hair accessory and was made of ceramic so it wouldn't set off metal detectors. As such it was too small and fragile to use as a weapon, but it had a very sharp cutting edge.
Yori went to work cutting a hole through the net, noting that the monkey ninjas were concentrating on whomever was emerging from the edges. The constant thrashing of her fellow captives made cutting the surprisingly strong net difficult, but she managed it about the time the apparent ringleader stalked up to a net with some strange, mechanical device. Yori didn't know what he meant by 'taking care of Red', but her duty was clear. She had to rescue Ron-san.
Yori kicked off her shoes and leapt through the hole she had cut. She felt a moment of guilt for running upon the captives, but larger forces were in play. The monkeys were not prepared for someone emerging from near the center of the net. Yori raced towards the door she had seen Fisk and Ron tumble through, striking down the two monkeys that managed to intercept her.
Yori tried the door, which would not open. She backed off a step and hit the door with a spinning back kick but her foot just bounced off. Whatever was holding the door shut was much stronger than the lock. She would need to find another way to rush to Ron's assistance! She looked around and noted the steel shutters covering every visible exit. She didn't have time to think of anything else because Fisk's monkeys had left the net and closed in on her. She dropped into her fighting stance and turned into a blur of kicks and strikes.
As soon as Kim reached the edge of the net, Motor Ed found her.
"Whoa, Red," the big man shouted, stepping on the net in front of her. Kim looked up and saw an uncharacteristic, somber expression on his face.
"I'm really sorry it has to go down this way, seriously," the big man told her. "But you and the skinny dude were going to be witnesses at Cousin Drew's trial. He could seriously be facing the death penalty."
"When I found out that I had to take you out, I put this together," he explained, hefting the strange device he was carrying. It was cylindrical and had a long, steel bar poking out of the front, like a lance. Kim could now see that several tubes and hoses ran from the device to a large pack on Ed's back. "I cut a single cylinder out of a '65 Impala's engine," he continued. "That was one sweet engine, and if I have to check out, being nailed by a '65 Impala engine is the way I'd choose, seriously."
Ed stepped forward and pressed the end of the bar against Kim's head. Kim struggled to get out of the way, but the net hampered her efforts.
"Seriously Red, hold still," Ed pleaded with her, tears running from his eyes. "I'll make this quick, seriously." He pulled a trigger, igniting the fuel in the cylinder and launching the bar forward with one-eighth of a classic American muscle car's horsepower.
Kim hadn't been able to get out of the way, but the bar shifted at the last possible moment. The explosion in the cylinder, without the benefit of a muffler, was deafening and the bar tore an impressive divot in the gym floor. Kim looked up to see Ed struggling with Mr. Barkin.
"NOBODY KILLS A STUDENT ON MY WATCH, HIPPIE!" Barkin roared. He tore the makeshift weapon out of Ed's hands and hurled it away. The torn hoses sprayed everybody nearby, including Kim, with motor oil. The two big men promptly started to pound away at each other while Kim slid the rest of the way out from under the net.
"Moe, get the power pack!" Ed yelled, landing a punch on Barkin's face. "Manny, Jack and the rest of you, get Red, seriously! I'll take care of the teach…ooof!" Barkin had come back with a punch to Ed's stomach.
Kim got to her feet as five of Ed's Gearheads rushed her. Rather than wait for them, Kim sprinted forward and kicked the first man. Ordinarily, Kim would have placed her kick just under the thugs sternum but the seriousness of the situation, Ron being abducted and her own attempted murder, prompted Kim to land the kick several inches lower. The thug dropped to his knees and Kim used one of his shoulders as a springboard to launch a spinning back kick at the next man. The kick caught the man solidly on the face, knocking out several of his teeth and sending him sprawling to the ground. Kim had a moment to take a quick look around.
Yori was a blur of motion on the stage, fighting what looked to be about a dozen monkeys. Several more monkeys lay incapacitated around her. Barkin and Ed continued to hammer away at each other, they looked to be pretty evenly matched. Felix slid himself across the floor to struggle with a Gearhead, who continued to dismantle his chair. The thug kicked the crippled boy in the ribs before returning to his work. Kim saw red but the last three Gearheads were on top of her by now. She smiled at the men who were so good to volunteer themselves as targets for her anger.
Oscar had been at the snack table when the net fell. (Wrestlers without an impending weigh-in tend to enjoy their food.) He had been listening to Mr. Barkin describe the punishments he would unleash upon whoever had spiked the punch when he found himself trapped. However, the table held the net up, giving both Barkin and Oscar more freedom of movement than most. The two quickly rolled the edge of the net back over the table, freeing themselves and the servers. Barkin took off after Motor Ed while Oscar tried to figure out what to do next. Rufus answered that question for him. The little mole rat scampered out from under the table, up to Oscar's shoulder and shouted a single word.
"Yori!"
Oscar saw the Japanese girl struggling with a small horde of monkeys and had a moment of inspiration. He quickly yanked the tablecloth off of the serving table (leaving everything on the table, a feat that, in retrospect, he was quite proud of) and ran for the stage, skirting the edge of the net. The monkeys were so focused on Yori that he was able to approach them unnoticed. He threw the tablecloth, swirling it like a casting net to catch as many of them as he could. Then he leapt on top of the seething mass of cloth and monkeys.
The odds against Yori suddenly dropped. Where she had been facing a dozen monkeys, she suddenly found herself facing seven. She redoubled her efforts and soon incapacitated her remaining tormentors. Nearby, the five monkeys Oscar had trapped had struggled free and were now assailing the boy. Oscar was tough, but he wasn't a fighter and he was being mauled. But now the monkeys were so fixated upon Oscar that they didn't notice Yori approach them.
Yori's knife hand strike to the first monkey's neck dropped it like a stone. It's neighbor spun around to catch her elbow strike square in its muzzle. A third monkey turned from Oscar to leap at her. She slid out of its way, dropped into a low crouch and spun in a full circle with one foot extended, sweeping its feet from under it. Before it could recover, Yori hopped to her feet, brought one of her knees up to her chest and used that foot to stomp on the monkey's head. Yori didn't pause, but sprang forward and delivered a roundhouse kick to the fourth monkey's temple. Oscar was clinging desperately to the last monkey. Yori stalked up behind it and drove a fist into the back of its head, causing it to collapse.
"Williamsen-san, are you injured?" Yori asked.
"Ron is soooo right about monkeys," the dazed boy muttered. His clothing hung off of him in shreds and sharp monkey claws had left him scratched and bloody.
"WILLIAMSEN-SAN!" Yori snapped.
"Wha.." Oscar shook his head. "No, I'm good. Scratched up a little, but I'm good."
"We must assist Ron-san and all of the doors and windows are covered," she told her friend. "Do you know another way out?"
"That Motor Ed guy," he said, after a moment's thought. "He brought the shutters down…"
"So he must have a method of leaving," Yori completed his thought. "Let us convince him to show us this method."
Steve Barkin had been faring poorly against his opponent until he realized that his blows to the man's head simply weren't having much effect. He reasoned that this was probably because the mullet-wearing freak didn't use that part of his body very much. Once he came to that conclusion, the Vice-Principal adjusted his tactics.
"How DARE you come into MY school, on MY watch, and attempt to murder one of MY students!" Barkin stepped inside of Motor Ed's wild haymaker and used the momentum to spin the crook around and slam him into a wall.
"This…is…a…celebration!" He continued, punctuating every word with a punch to Ed Lipsky's stomach.
Motor Ed got in a shot, but he was fading and Barkin was in full righteous rage. The punch was going for Barkin's face, but the big man caught the offending fist, twisted it, and used it to spin Motor Ed completely around him and back into the wall with an impressive thud.
"You are a skilled mechanic," Barkin continued his lecture, pinning Ed to the wall with a forearm under his chin. "You could use this talent to make an honest living contributing to society but instead you live a parasitic life of crime!"
Ed's face was turning blue but he managed to shove Barkin back. Ed threw a right hand, but Barkin dodged it, then caught Ed's arm between his left arm and his body.
"Because of this, you are nothing but a two-bit thug, a waste of breathable air," Barkin accompanied his tirade with three knees into Ed's belly. "And what's more," he brought Ed's arm up, spun around and flipped his blond adversary over his shoulder, to crash in a dazed heap on the floor. "You need a haircut."
The first of the three oncoming Gearheads reached Kim and threw a sweeping right hook at the redhead. Kim parried the blow, directing it over her shoulder, spun and used the thug's own momentum to flip him over her back. He started to summersault forward but instead of releasing his wrist, Kim hauled back hard. Her yank and his forward roll combined dislocate his shoulder. Kim released him, spinning to face the others as he slumped to the floor. The second man dove forward in a football style tackle, which Kim simply jumped over, leaving him to go sailing past her. The third man showed more skill.
He slowed as he approached and launched a series of combination punches. Kim dodged two good 'left jab right hook' combinations, then stepped inside of his third hook and landed an open palm just under his sternum. Winded, he was unable to resist as she swept his feet from underneath him, using his own extended arm and her hand under his chin to slam the back of his head onto the floor.
The second man returned, catching Kim in a bear hug from behind. He tried to drive her forward and to the ground, but she got her feet set and smashed the back of her head into his face, stunning him momentarily. She then stomped down hard on his right foot. His grip on her loosened, and she spun a circle, still inside his grip, and drove her knee into his groin. He went down and made no effort to get back up. Kim turned to find the last man, the one who had kicked Felix while he was down.
Monique had just crawled out from under the net when she saw one of Ed's cronies kick Felix The boy's gasp of pain set off her temper in a way that she would have never believed possible. With a shriek that would put one of Ron's monkey nightmares to shame, she launched herself onto the man's back. She kicked, clawed, hit, and even bit the man. The thug flailed around for endless minutes, unable to figure out just what was attacking him.
The man fell forward, then rolled over and managed to pin the raging spitfire underneath him. Holding Monique down with one hand, he pulled back the other fist. Monique saw the blow coming and went into an absolute frenzy; clawing at the man's eyes and screaming adjectives that would make a sailor blush.
Unnoticed by the combatants, Felix pulled himself towards them, grabbing the wrench that the man had been using to dismantle his chair. Most people who saw the boy's slim build assumed that he wasn't particularly strong. After all, he used a cybertronic wheelchair so it would seem that his arms didn't get regular workouts. What the casual observer failed to realize was that every time that Felix left his chair, he did so by hauling his entire weight out with his arms alone. Every time he took a bath, drove his van, or sat in the couch, he moved by using strictly arm strength. As such, it was with surprising force that Felix smashed the wrench into the goon's kidneys, ending the brawl in the Gym.
"Mr. Barkin," Bonnie ran up to the Vice-Principal, waving a cell phone. "I'm trying to call the police but I don't have a signal."
"We must rescue Ron-san," Yori interjected, arriving with Oscar in tow. "All of the exits appear to be blocked."
"Most of the students are still trapped under the net," Kim added as she approached.
"Those jerks tore up Felix's wheelchair!" Monique was still tweaked.
"All right everyone just calm down!" Barkin yelled at the assembling students. "First, Williamsen, grab some volunteers and start rolling up the net. Get everyone free." Oscar nodded and ran off.
"Possible, go get that funny communication thing of yours, see if you can get us some help." Kim ran off to follow orders.
"Monique, round up every student that Oscar's guys free. Drag all of these miscreants together and don't let them get any funny ideas." Monique was more than happy to follow the big man's instructions.
"Now, Tanaka, what's this about Stoppable?" Barkin's eyes narrowed to slits as Bonnie and Yori described what Fisk had done.
"Barkin-sama, Fisk wishes to kill Ron-san," Yori explained. "He is insane and believes that he will gain great power by dismembering him." Bonnie turned green and sat down. Barkin looked even grimmer than he had before.
"All right, Maggot!" He snarled to the now recovering Motor Ed. "Just how did you intend to leave here after you killed Possible?"
"Seriously, dude, I was just going to go out the door!" It was hard to tell how much of Ed's confusion was due to his beating.
"WHICH DOOR!" Barkin roared into the cringing man's face.
"Well…I…Uh" Suddenly a look of horrified realization spread across Ed's face. "Whoa man, this is seriously bogus!"
"You mean you were so stupid that you blocked all of the doors without a plan to leave?" Barkin's question was delivered in a tone of angry disbelief.
"Hey, quit harshing on me, seriously!" Ed snapped back. "I've never locked down a gym before!"
Steve Barkin shook his head. It was actually possible for a crook to be too stupid! His moment of discovery was cut short by Kim's return.
"Mr. Barkin, I can't get a signal on my Kimmunicator." She reported.
"That's cause we put in a jammer thing," Ed explained. "The monkey dude got some seriously cranked gizmo from that short guy that hates my cuz. We hooked it into the building's frame and it's supposed to seriously jam up any signals. He had us cut all the phone lines as well, seriously. "
"How do we turn off the jammer?" Barkin demanded.
"Uh, it's battery backed, locked in a steel box and monkey dude has the only key," Ed answered. "That dude really didn't trust me, seriously."
"We must escape and rescue Ron-san!" Yori reminded everyone. "Can we remove the shutters?"
"They lock down and cover their own anchor bolts when they drop," Ed informed them. "And monkey dude didn't give me any of the keys for them either. Man, that dude has some serious trust issues!"
"Then how do we get out?" Yori's voice was getting frantic.
"We're working on it, Tanaka," Barkin explained. "Being hysterical won't help one bit. Now, how can we break out of here?"
"We can't use his piston weapon thing," Oscar advised, walking up with the device. "It's busted and the fuel's all spilled out."
"Mr. Barkin," Felix interrupted. Monique and Cindy had gotten the boy into a regular chair and were sliding him along the floor. "I have an idea."
Within a few minutes they had pulled the balance beam out of the gymnastics equipment storage room. Using Motor Ed's tools, they removed the beam from the stand. Strips cut from the net provided handles and soon a dozen volunteers were using the beam as a battering ram on the back door. The door was barred from the outside but it didn't take long before the beam blasted the bracket's anchor bolts out of the cinderblock in an explosion of concrete dust.
Kim was the first through the door with Yori right on her heels. The redhead looked around then dropped to her knees with a wail of anguish and buried her face in her hands. Yori brought her hand up to her mouth and became very pale. Barkin forced his way past the shattered door to get a look at what had upset the two very capable young women.
He saw a few monkeys sprawled on the ground and Ron Stoppable's bloodstained jacket, pinned to a utility pole with a short-bladed sword.
A/N:
As always, big thanks to Joe Stoppinghem for beta reading and pointing out me errors.
My thanks to all of you for reading this story.
Hope to update soon.
daccu65