"Are you sure about this, Wade?" Kim asked the image on the screen of her Kimmunicator. "What is Shego's Dad doing out here, anyway?" She connected the multitude of buckles from the parachute on her back, the straps fitting snuggly across her chest and around her hips. Stroking her hair back and plopping her helmet over her head, she listened to whatever Wade had to tell her.
"All the records I've managed to find place this as his destination. His notes say he's been searching for his wife for over twenty years."
"Who disappeared the day the meteor struck their house and gave Team Go their super powers." Kim filled in with a frown. It started to become clear why Shego was the way she was. If she blamed the comet that gave her powers for the death of her mother, maybe using them for good started getting old. "But what do you mean, 'disappeared'? What evidence is there that she's even still alive?" she asked, giving a thumbs up to the pilot of the GJ jet. The bay door opened, and Kim placed a tiny wireless speaker in her ear to stay in contact with Wade over the sound of the wind.
"Mr. Go used to be a renowned professor with several degrees in astronomy, geology, anthropology, and archeology. For the first few years after the meteor strike, he left the University to raise his children alone. When their powers started to manifest, his notes state he saw his wife again."
Kim casually walked off of the loading ramp of the aircraft, unaffected by the now complete freefall. "I'm guessing the University didn't think too much of that."
"Not exactly." Wade replied. "He went back to the University, but rather than his usual classes, he started putting his degrees into more mystical areas. His notes begin getting a little confusing there, as he started research in astral travel and multiple dimensions. Crazy stuff for the times, but I guess it turns out he was a bit ahead of his time. Some of his research went into inventing the Pan Dimensional Vortex Inducer!"
Kim rolled her eyes at the mention of the troublesome device. "Great. But that still doesn't explain why he's here."
"It sounds like he found what he was looking for. He makes mention of a tool of some kind that can break the walls between realities."
"Wonderful. Another brilliant archeologist gone crazy. We just get rid of one and another crops up."
"Monkey Fist may have been crazy, Kim, but a lot of the artifacts he found actually worked. Maybe whatever Mr. Go is searching for really can bring Hego back."
Kim sighed in resignation and pulled her ripcord, the sudden deceleration of the parachute tugging on her body and pulling her upright. "I know. Let's hope his twenty plus years of reading dusty books pays off for both of us."
"Look kid, tell your 'Master' I haven't found it yet, and he can have it after I'm done with it."
Fukushima was trying desperately to remain calm, but that was certainly a trait he had never mastered. It was a lesson he had never been able to perfect from Master Sensei during his time at the Yamanouchi school, and certainly wasn't a technique employed by his most recent master, Monkey Fist. But the power he had been granted by the Yono had made such a lesson meaningless. He turned on his heel to face the grey haired man covered in dust, well worn clothes and brown fedora hat. He eyed his ninjas; a remnant of Monkey Fist's followers waiting for the order to strike.
"I'm afraid Master Fiske has more immediate need of Phan Ku's hammer, as he has found himself in a location I'm told is quite familiar to you." Fukushima said.
Indi Go chuckled at the asian twenty-something kid in front of him, his lopsided grin mocking the upper hand Fukushima believed he had. "Well it ain't as familiar to me as you'd think. If I'd been there, I wouldn't be here chatting with you, now would I?" he said, nodding toward the jungle tree line.
"Indeed. You make it sound as though you can breach the walls of Tiān." Indi's captor replied with a skeptical smirk.
"Or Hell, if you believe in that sorta thing." Indi said, knowing the kind of devastation Phan Ku's hammer could bring to the world. He was hoping he could get back to his wife before this punk got his hands on it. "But I doubt that'll be your decision to make, will it?"
Though expected, Fukushima's speed still caught Indi off guard as the young man sucker punched him in the gut. Indi groaned and collapsed, trying to replace the air that had just been evacuated from his lungs. "For a kid that grew up in a monastery, you sure got a short temper."
Fukushime knelt down on his haunches to look Indi in the eyes. "Too true. Let me put this as gently as I can. If you do not find Phan Ku's hammer quickly, you will not require it to breach the walls of Heaven."
Of all the rival treasure hunters Indi had come across in his career, Montgomery Fiske and this Fukushima kid were the ones that had Indi worried the most, if only because they both seemed crazy enough to fulfill their threats.
Kim pulled the steering lines of her parachute to soften her landing as she neared the canopy of the Brazilian jungle. She slipped through the top layers of thick leaves, letting the parachute continue to let her fall slowly until it was snagged on the overlapping branches. Calmly hanging in the fall arrest gear she'd had built into her purple and black mission gear, she drew her grapple gun, aiming for the trunk of one of the massive kapok trees. The knot of more than a dozen smaller trunks growing together to create a single tree nearly twenty feet in diameter was more than enough to give her a safe way to the jungle floor, and the steel spike drilled into the tough bark with little difficulty. Pulling the parachute release, Kim began a harrowing descent halfway down the tree.
Standing at least two hundred feet tall, Kim's grapple line wasn't long enough to reach the base of the kapok tree, though fortunately, much of the mid level of the jungle was open area, though a quiet swing toward the tree branches was elusive. The moment her harness disconnected from her parachute, shrieks from wildlife began echoing through the forest. Birds scattered as she passed, monkeys began howling, and insects were shook from their leafy perches, buzzing angrily. The cacophony of sounds would certainly alert anyone nearby to her presence, though that probably wouldn't be a bad thing. She was looking for someone after all.
After an impressive acrobatic routine of running along branches and diving through nests of vines, Kim reached the end of her cable and hit the release on her grapple, wirelessly signalling the hook at the end to unanchor itself from where it had drilled itself in and retract into the grapple gun.
She couldn't help but smile a bit. It had been a long time since she had been on a mission by herself without Ron screaming about monkeys or bugs or freefall, and the freeing sensation of not having to rescue anyone and be able to fly through the jungle had her heart racing. She loved Ron of course, and she loved helping others and doing what no one else could, but being able to let loose had her thinking forward to sharing a life with Ron on a permanent basis. Ron's Monkey Powers made things easier; sometimes too easy, and there had only been a few instances this last year where she only had her own skills to rely on. Her shirt sticking to her skin and her pants hugging her curves seemed to be nothing more than an after effect now as she had already worked up a sweat in the steamy jungle, but there was also no boyfriend, fiancé, public eyes, or news crew to worry about noticing.
For a moment, she sat down on the branch, hanging one leg off while the wildlife around her settled down. She tucked her opposite foot beneath her and took a breath before dialling Wade on her wrist kimmunicator. "Touch down, Wade. Still have a lock on Mr. Go?"
"He should be within one hundred fifty feet of your location. Any problems so far?" Wade replied the moment he appeared on screen. He undoubtedly had her jump and landing perfectly scheduled, and was wondering what had taken so long for her to check in.
"Just enjoying the peace and quiet." she answered, holding up her wrist and pressing a button on the Kimmunicator to begin a thermal scan. Adjusting the device for the ambient temperature, the amount of life in the scanners narrow field of view still made picking anything specific out difficult. But as she zoomed in, a number of tall bipeds could be seen strolling along the jungle floor; represented by yellow and red blobs on her screen. "I see you..." she whispered to herself.
"Hold!" Fukushima whispered to his companions. They had just begun their trek further through the jungle when the animals in the upper canopy became agitated, and minutes later, various leaves and seeds began to fall. Fukushima glared upward in silence, searching for the cause of the sudden commotion. His ninja senses had become quite honed since leaving the Yamanouchi school several years ago, and he could feel someone watching them. Someone with expert stealth skills that could be a match to his own. He tensed.
"What's wrong, kid? Something got you scared?" Indi asked, looking up into the jungle canopy himself. He shielded his eyes against the rays of sunshine that managed to pierce through the leaves high over head, taking the moment of sudden inactivity to catch his breath.
"Fukushima-san is afraid of no man." one of the ninja accompanying them retorted, though the masked individual showed signs of fear himself.
"This is no man." Fukushima replied quietly, catching an odd bit of color in the trees. Red, purple, black; and sitting nearly still high up on the branches of one of the nearby kapok trees. Fukushima reached a hand back to one of his ninja companions, gesturing to be handed the binoculars. He placed the scopes that seemed to manifest from the shadows of the ninja's tunic and brought them up to his eyes in order to focus on the object. Seemingly sensing his curious stare, the tropical purple and red bird turned to stare back at him, squawked, then opened its wings and flew to another tree. "Just a bird..." Fukushima confirmed, lowering the binoculars from his face.
Standing before him now however stood an attractive, young caucassian woman with full red hair down to her waist, confident emerald eyes, and dressed in a purple unitard beneath flared black pants. With fists resting on her hips and a straight posture, her presence was unmistakable, and Fukushima was visibly taken aback by her sudden appearance.