Chapter 1:

Monkey Tale

A faint drop reached his ears.

Not surprised by the sound he'd since long gotten used to, he simply opened his left eye, growling in pain as he did. Greeting his teeth, he kept his head low and let his eye wander around him, watching carefully the room he was in but avoiding the floor, searching for something he could have missed.

He knew he wouldn't find anything.

He didn't knowhow long he had been here but had had enough time to get that his holder was quite the smart one. The room was totally white. He almost couldn't see the lines that separated the walls from the floor or the ceiling: the whiteness had taken the whole space over, leaving him lost in a colorless and fuzzy hell. His hurting head didn't help him focus either: he could still feel the pain from his wounds. A tiny loudspeaker in one corner and the door to his right were his only anchor in the blurry white of the room, as he at least could see when someone entered the room – that is, until his right eye became swollen enough that it seemed to cover a whole half of his face.

The roomwas surprisingly large enough to welcome at least twenty people comfortably. He didn't quite get why so much space was needed to hold one person captive, but what the hell, it sure wasn't the most important mystery to solve right now. He needed to find something, anything he could do. Finding the identity of his holder, even finding something to help him out of this place. He needed to –

"Well, well, hello there. I see someone's awake," said a slow, distorted voice.

He didn't answer. He tried to stay as still as possible, only letting his chest push slightly up and down, trying to look asleep. Much to his disappointment though, his trick didn't work.

"Oh, come on, don't bail out on me. I know you can hear me. Just look up, will you? I don't like talking to furniture."

"What do you want?" he asked in an annoyed tone. "You know, I'm starting to think sleeping has become a privilege around here..."

"Don't worry, you'll have all the time in the world to sleep. Or, should I say, all the remaining time of your life, which, I must say, is shortening quite rapidly." A small chuckle followed those last words. "Unless you give me what I want, of course."

"I already told you, I'm not planning to help you."

His holder let out a loud laugh. He shivered. His whole body seemed to shake just from hearing it.

"I don't think you're getting the idea here. It's not about you helping me. It's about us helping each other. You give me what I want and in exchange, I might leave enough blood inside your body to add a few hours to your lifespan." The man paused, only to speak again, this time in a mocking tone: "Speaking of which, I wouldn't waste too much time if I were you. Looking at this room, I can say it's already received quite the offering from you."

He closed his left eye and silently let out a sigh. He didn't need to look at the room to know what his abductor referred too. Actually, there was a third thing keeping him from falling into a 'white madness': around him, a large part of the floor was bathing in his own blood. Occasionally, a small drip could be heard, meaning that the wound on his back had either reopened or not fully closed. He had avoided looking at the reddening floor, knowing it would only make him even more nervous as he already was, as it reminded him of how bad a state he was in.

"You know, I should thank my genius for having the idea to hang you up. I'm starting to believe you could have drowned in...well, yourself."

He frowned, his eyes still closed, as he weakly tried to move his arms, only to feel an excruciating pain in his muscles and chest as well as hearing the rattling sound of chains. A pair of chains were hanging from the roof and held his arms up, holding them by his wrists, leaving small trails of dry blood. Down below, two more chains were coming up from the floor, holding him by his ankles. The chains however were linked to a rolling mechanism below the room, set in such a way that the young man was literally suspended in the air, his feet a few inches above the floor. He faintly growled as he once again tried to move his limbs, this time stronger, only to let out a small yelp of pain as his movements tensed his already aching muscles. He then felt a small trail a blood flow from his forearm. Guessing a wound had reopened, he couldn't help but shiver as he felt the red liquid slowly run down his arm, his shouled and his chest, letting a red trail on the numerous wounds he had on his body.

The man laughed again, this time longer. "I never thought I'd enjoy seeing physical pain so much. Now, to go back to our business...Are you ready and willing to hear my request now?" Hearing no answer from hiscaptive, he kept going. "Fine, I'll take that as a yes. Now, the story might be a bit long, so I suggest that you sit down...Or up, as you want." The hanging man only raised aneyebrow at the joke.

"No sense of humour, eh ? Well, it doesn't matter. Now, hear me out. My request has something to do with your Monkey powers." Hearing the chains move slightly, he guessed his guest had reacted to his words. "I see you're concerned. Good. First off, do you know the origin of your powers ?" Not waiting for an answer, the voice kept on talking. "You see, it's quite old, actually. Far more than you could imagine..."

He let out a small growl. He focused and listened to his holder as he seemed to open a book and turn pages. He then began his tale.

"A thousand years ago, when the land still hadn't separated and formed the continents we know today, two forces cohabited. They werespiritual beings without a physical form and each of them had powers beyond what we could ever imagine. The first to appear was the Yono. It was as destructive as it was calm and smart, and enjoyed spreading chaos and terror among the lands he wandered by. However, its' birth was soon followedby that of the Han, its' polar opposite. It restored and healed where and when the Yono stroke. They constantly fought, each one of them trying to subdue the other. One day though, after a battle of four days and nights which left the land as desolated as it could be, the Han managed to defeat its' natural ' good nature kept it from killing the Yono: instead, it turned it to stone and sealed it into the depths of the earth, where no one could ever free it from its' prison. The few hundred years that went by after those events witnessed the healing of the earth: plants and trees grew taller and stronger, rivers flowed endlessly without stopping and mankind started evolving and growing into smarter and stronger groups."

The man's voice paused. It seemed to wait for something before starting again.

"Peace and happiness didn't last, unfortunately. The wind suddenly stopped blowing; mountains began to crumble down to the earth, crushing lives and landscapes throughout the planet; flowers and trees slowly died, their leaves resting on the crackled floor of what had once been beautiful forests. The Han, which had retired to a hidden cave in a remote place near the sea, first feared the obvious: the Yono had returned..! But its' fears were soon washed away by a panic it had never even started to feel before." Hearing the chains move inside the room, he saw the confused look on his captive's face and smirked while talking. "It saw a monstrous form fall from the heavens, crushing the trees on which it landed. The creature stood up to reveal itself: taking the form of a giant gorilla, it brought up his enormous fists and roared, destroying a large mountain a few hundred yards away. The Han instantly knew it couldn't beat the creature alone. Reluctantly, it searched for the bravest warrior it could find and entered his body. Leading him to the prison where the Yono was sealed, it freed its' evil twin power which, after seeing the horrendous figure of the giant ape, agreed to help take it down. Entering the warrior's body as well, both powers then let the mere humanhandle their power, knowing that only a physical body would be able to hurt the physical form inhabited by the monstruous turned into weeks, weeks into months. Then, after a whole year of brawling and destruction, the warrior convinced the Han and the Yono to fuse. He told them that only by allowing their powers to merge together they would be able to take down their enemy. Once the fusion took effect, the battle took a whole new turn: the warrior, suddenly able to use both powers to their full extent, unleashed all the forces he held into his body, killing the monster. Not wanting to let his enemy escape, he used what little energy remained in him to seal the monstrous power away and send it back to where it came from: the sky. As the Han and the Yono both exited his body, the warrior then fell to the ground, dying. Wanting to honour hissacrifice, the twin powers took his soul and made it so that the will and strength of the hero would be reincarnated every generation in the body of a also made sure that, if the worst came to happen again, a hero would be able to summon what once led them to victory. Both powers immensely tired and spent, they decided to have a truce and retreated to where each of them belonged, swearing to be awoken only by those who would be worthy of using their powers. As the Yono sunk back into the depths of the earth, the Han returned to his cave by the sea, only this time sinking it to the deepest sea floor it could find. And, once again, peace returned..."

Silence followed his holder's had said nothing during the whole tale, breathing slowly as if trying to relax as much as possible in his condition. The man stayed silent a few minutes before speaking again.

"I hope you get what I want, now."

Keeping his eyes closed, he answered in a slow voice, as if trying not to cough: "I take it you want the powers of the big ape guy ?" He could almost hear the smirk in the man's voice as he spoke up again:"Indeed."

"I still don't know what you want from me, though. I can tell you I have no idea what those powers are and where they are."

"Maybe you don't right now, but you will know where they are. And after you've told me what I want to know, I will use you to get rid of the Han and the Yono, the only things that would be able to stand in my way. And finally, I'll get rid of you. So don't get your hopes too high about leaving this place safe and sound. If you ever do, it will be in different pieces."

He stayed silent while his kidnapper bursted out in laughter. Opening his left eye, he glanced directly at the loudspeaker on the roof, a hinch telling him that a small camera was hidden inside, allowing his holder to see his face. He then grinned and said:

"You're forgetting a third obstacle to your plans."

The man stopped laughing, only to speak in a mocking tone:

"What, her ? Stop deceiving yourself. She won't come. She won't stop me. She won't save you. It's over."

"You don't know her as I do. You should know she can do anything, though. It's her motto, after all."

"Oh, I know fully well all that. That's why she actually will be taken care of...in time."

He snorted. And laughed. And then coughed when the chains pulled even more on his limbs.

"Don't be so full of yourself. She's saved me before and she will again. I trust her with all my being." He heard a faint, irritated sigh and smirked. "What? Don't tell me I'm getting on your nerves. I know I'm annoying, but come on! I'm just hanging around, here."

Ignoring the lame joke, the voice abruptly growled: "Your lousy self irritates me. I guess I'll have to crush that before forcing out the locations out of you."Small pause. Then, as the door to the room opened: "Say hi to my friends, little boy. They haven't had social contact in a while, so you might find them quite...rough." The loudspeakerlet out a loud laugh before turning off, leaving the man hanging – literally and figuratively – as two large, strong and masked men stepped inside the room. He tried to follow both of them with his left eye, but quickly gave up when one of them went right behind him. The other stayed in front of him, dangerously close.

"Hey guys. So, I'm the first guy you've spoken to since a long time, it seems. You wanna talk about something? I love video games, if you want we can talk about – "

His sentence was cut off by his scream, as the masked man behind him struck his back hard with a strong whip. He could already feel the blood flowing down his body and his skin peeling off as he arched his body backwards, exposing himself to the thug in front of him, who quickly took the opportunity to hit him with numerous punches on his stomach. Coughing up blood, the young man shook his head, trying to get his long, blonde hair out of his face. Then lifting his head, he braced himself, getting ready to take on the next hits.

The door seemed to stay closed for hours and hours, the room echoing with screams and grunts as the pool of blood on the floor slowly grew larger. It wasn't until his head fell forward, hanging low while his whole body went limp, that it finally opened. The two masked men whipped the front of his body one last time, leaving a small cut near his right nipple before exiting the room.

Already unconscious, Ron Stoppable didn't even growl.

He couldn't.