The night security guard casually walked through the travelling exhibit, absently playing his flashlight at the dark corners. In his opinion, this was a waste of time. No one would bother trying to steal anything that was exhibited.
“Who would want wooden statues of monkeys anyway,” the guard muttered, shining his flashlight at a rather ugly statue that stood seven feet tall. “Disgusting thing, aren't ya?”
Shaking his head, he wandered away, eventually leaving exhibit floor.
Several minutes pass, then a muffled clicking sound could be heard, and the back of the seven feet tall ugly monkey statue swung open. A black shrouded figure cautiously stepped out and glanced around. Seeing nobody, the figure reached in and pulled out a small, foot tall statue of a monkey baring a strong resemblance to Buddha.
The black shrouded figure quickly went to the other side of the exhibit, to where a statue, exactly like the one the figure had pulled out of its hiding place, rested on a small pedestal. In a flash of movement, the two statues were exchanged and the black shrouded figure was gone.
“It happened two days ago; best we can figure out,” the museum director said as he led the two teenagers onto the exhibit floor. “The police haven't been able to find any way this could have happened either. It was suggested that we call you guys in…”
“aCK! Monkeys!” Ron Stoppable screamed, seeing the horrifying, disfigured statues and murals. “Why does it have to be monkeys?”
“Ew! Monkeys!” Rufus squeaked from where he traveled in Ron's pocket.
“Calm down, boy friend,” Monique said, sighing out as she rested her hand on the blond teen's shoulder. “They're inanimate; they can't get you.”
“No, but this has Monkey Fist's paw prints all over it,” Ron returned, trying to defend himself. Pulling out the communicator, he activated it and said, “Wade, what can you tell us?”
“Hold the communicator up so I can scan the room,” the preteen genius instructed, his image on the view screen showing he was already typing furiously away at his computer.
Ron did so, and watched as a tiny emitter popped up from the communicator, emitted a green ray, and then rotated a full three-hundred and sixty degrees, bathing the room in an eerie green glow. When the scan ended, he lowered the device, looked at the screen, and asked, “So, what's the word?”
“Give me a second to reconstruct a three dimensional image…,” Wade said distractedly, as he typed away. Moments later, he reported, “It looks like the seven foot tall statue of a rather ugly monkey is hollow enough for a person to hide in…”
“The 'ugly' one? They're all ugly!”
“Ron, stop LYH,” Monique muttered, snatching the communicator out of the blond teen's hand as she marched towards one of the statues. “Okay, genius boy: am I in front of the one you're talking about?”
“LYH?” Wade queried instead, staring quizzically out of the communicator's video screen.
“'Losing Your Head,'” Monique told him, sighing as she did so. “Now, can we please get on with it?”
“Oh, uh, sure,” Wade answered, shaking his head. “Uh, yeah, you're in front of the hollow one. Check the back of it, I betcha there's a door, or something like it.”
“Right, give a minute…,” Monique said, pocketing the communicator as she did so. Going around behind the ugly statue, she looked for anything that hinted at a door. As she did that, she called out to Ron, who had finally stopped freaking out, “Hey, boytoy; check out the fake statue.”
“Fine, I'll go look at the ugly little monkey thing,” Ron muttered, heading over to where the fake statue still sat.
“Ugh, Monkeys,” Rufus chimed in, shivering in disgust.
“You boys are too much,” Monique said, chuckling slightly at the antics. Shaking her head, she returned her focus to the seven foot tall statue, sliding her gloved hands along the grained wood's surface. “Hm, the wood feels slightly weird at the edges…the grain is too straight…”
Tilting her head slightly, the dark skinned girl frowned and pushed sharply at one point on the back of the statue. There was a dull clicking sound as a section of the back depressed slightly into the statue itself and then swung open.
“Hah!” Monique crowed happily, even as she was glancing around the inside of the statue. It looked to be a space of about five and a half feet tall by three feet wide by three feet deep. Frowning in thought, she pulled out the communicator and toggled it on, turning it to show the inside of the statue to the preteen genius. “So, what do you think?”
“Hrm, good place to hide,” Wade commented thoughtfully as the sensor popped up out of the top of the communicator again. A green ray played over the inside of the statue for a moment. “Sorry, not finding anything…”
“Well, that's annoying,” Monique muttered. “What next?”
“We go find Monkey Fist,” Ron said as he came up behind Monique. “I have a feeling that he's involved; probably stashed a couple of his ninja monkeys in the statue…”
“Maybe…well, we'll go talk to him anyway; he is the pre-eminent monkey expert,” Monique said, nodding thoughtfully. Turning to regard the image of Wade in the communicator's view screen, she asked, “So, genius boy…where's monkey butt?”
Shego sighed as she leant against a rail and looked down at the bright lights of night time Paris from the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower. Technically, she wasn't supposed to be up there at the time of night it currently was, but then, she'd never sweated the small things, like legalities, before, and she wasn't about to start. Worrying about legalities had been Kimmie's strong point anyway.
“Dammit, Princess, where are you?” she softly whispered, bowing her head as a couple tears slipped from the corners of her eyes, trickled down pale checks, and fell toward the ground far below. “I'm sorry…I'm so very sorry I listened to your mom for even a second…”
Angrily swiping at her traitorous eyes, Shego abruptly pushed away from the rail and turned to take in the observation deck. Sighing, she remembered the fun Kim and her had at the tower. It had been a blast, even when the two of them had just been adversaries.
“You remember the comedy of errors when the rat swallowed that chip, Princess?” Shego asked rhetorically, chuckling sadly when a light breeze was the only answer she got. “You were magnificent, Kimmie…you never gave up on your sidekick's rodent; not once.”
“I wish I'd had a friend like that, oh so long ago when I quit Team Go…,” the dark-haired woman continued, her voice a whisper of regretful remembrance. Shaking herself, she switched to different, hopefully better, thoughts.
“Our third date was up here,” Shego reminded the wind, smiling at the memory. “It was one of the few times I managed to get you to 'bend' the law; we had so much fun that night…”
Bowing her head, as if thanking the wind and the ancient spirits of Paris for listening, and keeping her company, Shego left, whispering, “I'll find you Kimberly Ann Possible; and when I do, I'll apologize, and we'll work this out, and then we'll be happy again…”
Monique looked around the rather luxurious lawn that led to the mansion. She sighed, knowing that she'd never have the money needed to pull something like this off. Still, she privately wished she could. All the Club Banana outfits she could have…
Shaking such thoughts out of her head, she glanced over at Ron to make sure he was ready. Seeing that he was, she rang the door bell.
A little more than a minute later, the door opened to reveal the ninja suite Montgomery Fiske, also known as Monkey Fist, who looked both shocked, and angered. He immediately demanded, “How did you know that I had that idol stolen!?”
“Uh, we didn't before,” Ron helpfully told the man-monkey. “We do now though…”
“Damn, looks like I owe five bucks to you, Ron,” Monique griped good naturedly before glaring at Monkey Fist and rhetorically asking, “You're not gonna just give us the idol, are you?”
“Never!” Monkey Fist shouted, backing into his mansion. “I'll never give up the chance to increase my Mystic Monkey Power! Monkey Ninja: attack!”
Five minutes later, there was a small pile of unconscious monkeys wearing the stereotypical ninja suit with Rufus standing on them, raising his arms in victory as he hummed the Queen song, 'We Are The Champions.' As that drama was going on, Ron was zip-tying the monkeys together, and Monique was working on the downed Monkey Fist.
“I can't believe I lost!” Monkey Fist whined as Monique tied his hands and feet with zip-ties. “Kitsune promised me she wouldn't leave anything that would help you find me!”
“We got lucky, that's all,” the dark-skinned teen commented as she finished trussing the man-monkey up. Pulling out her communicator, she keyed it on. When Wade's face appeared on the screen, she commanded, “Wade, run a search for a villain named 'Kitsune.' Apparently, she's a thief. She's the one who stole that statue from the museum…”
“Hrm, never heard of her…she must be a new player,” Wade commented, the clacking of keys underscoring his voice. “Running search now.”
“Oh Kim, why do you have to be so impulsive,” Mrs. Possible sighed as she held a cup of coffee. “It was just Shego; she isn't good for you. You would have found someone to love again…someone better…”
“Talking to yourself, Doctor P?” Ron asked as he sat down at the Possible kitchen table across from Kim's mother. “I'd tell you that's the first sign of insanity, but you know the human brain better than me…”
“It's okay, Ronald,” the older redhead assured her daughter's oldest friend. “I'm just trying to understand why Kimmie ran away…I mean, not to be crass or anything, but it was just Shego!”
Ron chuckled mirthlessly for a long moment and then said, “You ever read Romeo & Juliet? I haven't, but I did get the cliff notes for it. Anyway, KP and Shego were a lot like them: they both loved each other immensely…surprised the hell out of me, but I eventually got over it and understood…and they were constantly being pulled apart by their respective jobs, which is sorta like being pulled at by your families I guess, and I know Kim was about to sit down with Shego, to see if they could do something about it…”
Mrs. Possible blinked at Ron's discourse, trying to parse what she'd been told. Ron had to be exaggerating. He had to be!
Else, she was maybe guilty of the whole damnable mess!
“Oh Kim, please come home!” she whispered plaintively, coffee and Ron both forgotten.
“No Lord Fiske, it's not my fault,” growled the woman known as Kitsune as she stalked nude through her hotel room. “I got you the item, I delivered the item. Nowhere did we agree that I would make sure no one tried to get it from you; and nowhere did I agree that if you lost it I would recover it free of charge.”
The lithe, yet muscular, woman sighed as she listened to the person on the other end of earpiece she wore. “Fine, you want me to get it back from the FBI evident lockers, it'll cost you. How much? Five hundred thousand. Yes, in pounds!”
Growling, she ripped the earpiece away from her ear and tossed it on the desk, beside an open laptop. As she tapped a few buttons, shutting down the VoIP programs she was running, she muttered under her breath, “'Sorry, but I don't think it's worth half a million pounds to break into a highly guarded vault' my ass! Stupid monkey; I hope he gets fleas!”
She grabbed the pair of pants tossed on the floor and pulled them on, bending down and repeating the process with a blank tank top. Sighing, she ran a hand through her red hair and mutter, “Calm yourself, Kimberly. You knew Monkey Fist was fucked in the head before you started this, yet you still did the job he asked…”
Abruptly, she started giggling and then laughing. After suffering from the attack of laughter for several minutes, she whispered gleefully, “Who knew going bad was so much fun!”
To Be Continued