A/N: Hello, and thank you for clicking on this fic! ^w^ Years ago, someone gave me this idea, and I wrote the first chapter, but left it hanging. As promised, I'll start rewriting some of my older fics, and this will be first because I've pretty much a clear idea on what's going to happen. Again, I apologize if any characters seem to OOC, because exams have already started, and this was written in quite a short amt of time. I will continue this after my O levels, which is around 3 weeks-1 month from now. Since this fic is basically meant to be a second 'ghost in the machinder" ep, I'm going to retain the way as to how the characters originally felt during that ep, so yea, please pardon if some of them seem too mean, etc. Also, although this fic is generally targetted to Sprx/Antauri's relationship and Chiro/Antauri's r/s, there will be Spova and other moments between the characters, especially Super Robot/Hyperforce (also since there was a really huge Spova moment in the original episode, so I wanted to explore it here as well). Also, if you read the original story in my profile, I did try my best to retain the same information! Lastly, Any feedback or review will be greatly appreciated! With that said, please enjoy!
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Chiro sighed contentedly as he leaned back against the office chair in his room- a Christmas present that Nova bought for him last year, "to promote a better back growth", as she had said- that sat safely inside the torso of the Super Robot. The rest of the team had long retired to their respective chambers, but being the hyperforce leader, Chiro felt obliged by responsibility to stay up later to complete the paperwork Gibson had left for him just hours earlier. The lamp on his desk only provided a sparse amount of white light, but he was perfectly content with that, too.
'Astrophysics,' Chiro thought to himself fondly before scribbling down the answer to the final question. 'Now this is one thing that I absolutely wouldn't mind staying up for.'
He puts down his pen and lets out a tired sigh once the last sum has been completed. He arose from his chair, ignoring the squeaking protests it gave, while stacking the mountain of worksheets neatly onto a corner of the desk for Gibson to collect tomorrow morning. Yawning, the teenager then proceeded to the bathroom with heavy, exhausted, footsteps. He caught a glimpse of the digital clock on the way. 1:17am.
After splashing cool water on his face and brushing his teeth thoroughly, Chiro crept up to bed and snuggled under his covers. The moonlight in the sky was hidden by dark, heavy clouds, but the city lights glistened with enough luminance to replace a thousand moons. The teenager smiled in the comfort of his bed before his eyelids got heavier and heavier, that he drifted off into a deep, peaceful slumber.
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The first thing Antauri noticed was how absolutely mechanical the man looked. No human face could be that pale, no human face could have such emotionless eyes, nor such an unmoving smile permanently etched across his features. The man just stood there, absolutely still, staring at the silver monkey with a gaze that could burn.
Antauri shuddered, turned his heels and leaned back against the wall behind him, his eyes widened with confusion. The man did not move an inch. Instead, he stood rooted to the ground, judging every single one of the silver primate's movements with his green, unblinking eyes. He continued to smile.
Who was this person? How did he manage to sneak past the robot's security? And more importantly, where was he?
Antauri took a quick glance around his surroundings. There were meters of wires and insulated cables littering the floor, some tangled up into one huge mess. Corkscrews, presser bars, and other parts of machinery were strewn untidily across a small, metal table, dimly lit by a lamp hanging precariously above it. To his right, there was a red metallic door, tightly locked by several chains, with a bright, crimson sign blinking with the words across it:
OPERATION ROOM
The man's smile grew wider at Antauri's distress.
"Machines do not have souls," he finally spoke, running his fingers through his short, neatly combed hair, "we are merely autonomous gadgets powered by electrons and neutral charges, along with fuels and hydrocarbons, and of course, mechanical clogs."
The familiar phrase rang a bell in the silver monkey's head as he bared his fangs at the figure in front of him. "You're wrong," Antauri said quietly, "someone like you could never understand how a machine truly works."
The man laughed evilly. Antauri activated his ghost claws, and readied himself in a battle stance, anticipating an attack.
"Oh, no, Antauri," the man's smile grew wider, "you're the one who's wrong."
A sharp green light assaulted the silver primate's eyes as it flooded the room, blinding him momentarily. Antauri struggled to keep them open, lifting up an arm to block out the intense glare in front of him. He could make out an outline of a round, metallic shape as the man's body started to metamorphose into something larger . The light prevented him from getting too close as he took a small step forward. A purple, glowing sickle formed in his hand as he flung fiercely it towards the direction of the light.
The sickle almost immediately came flying back into the his direction, which Antauri had barely dodged.
The man—now probe- laughed again, louder this time, as the glare slowly died down. In front of the silver primate no longer stood a human figure, but a robot, several feet taller than he was. The robot was about the same height as TV monster, with a computer screen located in the middle of its torso. He had black, sharp claws for arms, two long, antenna sensors protruding from its head, a big, broad body and was floating about two feet above the ground. The face on the screen had neatly cut hair, and a masculine jaw with sharp, angled eyes . He smirked, daring Antauri to attack again, silently mocking him.
The silver monkey growled, but kept his hands to himself.
"The Skeleton King has given me so much power," his voice is lower, deeper, and much more confident, "I vow to this master, that one day, I will destroy the Super Robot. With the secret from your mechanical brain, of course."
The probe floated closer to Antauri. He closed his fingers around the primate's neck and tilted his chin upwards, until both were staring eye to eye. Antauri glared at him, trying to break out of the strong grip that held him in place. Thinking quickly, he used his tail and transformed it into a spinning, sharp bladed fan, and brought it towards the probe's arm. Although it didn't cut through the arm, the probe dropped him in surprise at the silver monkey's sudden advancement. Antauri quickly unleashed another two, larger sickles from his hand as he leapt back and landed momentarily on the wall, flinging them at full force towards the enemy.
The two sickles bounced harmlessly off the probe's metallic body without even leaving a scratch. Antauri snarled, preparing to use close quarter combat before the probe moved a step backward and smiled at the primate.
"I cannot feel pain," he stated, grinning, while picking up a screwdriver from the nearby table, "none of your attacks will hurt me."
"After all, I am a machine, just like you."
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"Amazing," Chiro breathed in, unable to take his eyes off the scene, "simply... amazing."
Initially, he had woken up in the middle of the night due to a strange ebbing in the power primate from within him. Confused, Chiro had proceeded to Antauri's room for advice, only to find the other monkeys to already be inside.
"Yea... no one should be able to do that." Otto agreed, stunned. "I didn't know robot monkeys were capable of something like this!"
"It's scientifically impossible." Gibson raised an eyebrow, rubbing his chin, "this has to be resulting from some sort of telekinetic control from within."
"Yea, thank you Captain Obvious for the news," Sprx scoffed, smirking, "we all know that now."
Gibson was about to retort back at his red primate before Nova jumped between the two males, giving warning glares to both of them, which effectively silenced her brothers. Outside, thunder rumbled loud enough to shake the skies, and lightning cracked, tearing through the trees of Shuggazoom.
"Err, guys," Otto spoke nervously, rubbing the back of his helmet, "Antauri's transformers are activating in his sleep... shouldn't we wake him up?"
Nova stared at the unconscious silver primate, a small frown crossing her features. "Not just in his sleep," she observed, "he's only about twenty percent fully recharged, so this can't be happening."
After Chiro had brought back his mentor into this new body, the hyperforce discovered that Antauri had to deactivate fully to restore his system every once a fortnight, to ensure that the silver monkey remained at tip top condition for battle. At first, Gibson would stay a night or two at Antauri's room to confirm that his body would be fully recharged by morning, but Antauri soon got used to the recharging process and had kindly declined Gibson's help after that, saying that the scientist had to get an adequate amount of rest for the next day.
"I'll wake him up," Chiro offered, standing in front of Antauri and shaking his mentor's shoulders gently, "hey, Antauri, you okay?"
The silver primate didn't budge. His deep blue orbs were still empty and the purple ghost claws never stopped reappearing and appearing. Chiro was starting to worry.
Suddenly, Antauri's pupils blinked into life. First, his eyes were wide with fear -for only a brief moment- and then he saw a human figure standing in front of him. Antauri instantly sprang up from his bed and glared at his leader.
"Monkey Mind Scream!"
The blue energy rings hit the teenager right in his chest as he was sent flying backwards to the opposite end of the room. Chiro felt the air being knocked out of his lungs as he landed roughly on the wall with enough force to create a dent. He fell to the floor, groaning in pain.
"Antauri?" Chiro managed to croak out, sitting against the wall shakily.
Upon hearing Chiro's voice, Antauri was snapped back to his senses as he stared unbelievably at the injured teenager in front of him. Realizing what he had done, he rushed to Chiro's side, swinging the boy's arm across his shoulder gently, supporting Chiro's weight on his body.
"I'm so sorry," he apologized, voice filled with remorse, "I thought that I had seen... someone else."
Nova is the first to run up to the two leaders. She placed her hand gently on Chiro's chest, where the attack had landed. "Are you alright?"
"I've handled worse." The boy winks back with his trademark grin, assuring the rest of the worried monkeys. "Um, Antauri, who did you mistake me for just now?"
"I..." The silver monkey blinked as he struggled to describe his nightmare. The memory was now so blurred and no matter how much he scoured his brain to look for the correct words, he couldn't find any. "I... can't remember."
"You can't remember?" Sprx raised an eyebrow, slightly skeptical at his brother's strange behavior. "You just hit the kid with one of your most powerful attacks, and now you're saying you can't remember?"
"He was a man, or a robot, around his thirties," Antauri tried to explain calmly, furrowing his eyebrows in concentration. Even though he felt immensely guilty at what he did to Chiro, he couldn't waver, not now. "He sounded strangely familiar, but I sense that we have encountered him before, during our pursuit for the dark one worm."
"Well, it's just a dream, right?" Sprx laughed nervously, trying to lighten the heavy mood, "everyone has weird dreams."
"This isn't just any dream, Sprx," Chiro replied sternly, "Antauri's transformers were activating in his sleep- I mean, it must be serious."
Sprx puts his hand up in front of him, motioning for Chiro to slow down.
"Okay," he said slowly, clearing his throat, "Come on guys. We've established before that machines do have souls, but being able to dream?" He pointed to his own helmet to prove his point. "The only reason us robot monkeys are still able to dream is because of our organic brains! It's practically impossible for someone like Antauri to dream! I mean, he's fully mechanical now, isn't he? I don't want to sound like Gibson here, but no more chemical reactions in the brain and all that, remember?"
There was silence in the room. Nobody spoke for a while, as they let Sprx's words sink in.
Gibson, ever the pragmatist, is the first to reluctantly break the deafening silence. "Sprx's theory is right, as much as I hate to admit it," he spoke slowly, "it is... scientifically impractical for artificial intelligence to have dreams." He stared apologetically and walked toward his silver brother. "I'm sorry, Antauri, but maybe it was a malfunction. If you may allow me to examine-"
"Hey!" Chiro defended, with small traces of anger in his tone, stepping in front of his mentor, crossing his arms sternly, "let's not talk about Antauri like he's a machine! He's a living being like the rest of us, so why treat him any differently?"
"Chiro's got a good point," Otto pointed out, smiling, oblivious the teenager's dissatisfaction, "I mean, it's not like the rest of us are that far off."
Nova lets out a small sigh and rests her arm gently on the teenager's hand, trying to calm him down. "Chiro," she said softly, "let's get to the matter at hand instead." She then turned towards her silver brother, who was being shielded safely behind the teenager's back. She knew that even though Antauri's face barely showed any emotion, her brother was truly feeling touched on the inside.
Nova cleared her throat. "So, what else did you see in your dream?"
The silver primate hesitated for a moment. "He did mention something about being fully mechanical." Antauri replied, thinking hard.
"Well, who do we know who's fully made of metal?" Otto asked, "I call dips on Scrapperton!"
"There is Krinkle's inventions," Gibson suggested, "and TV monster. But using the method of elimination, we should have already destroyed them all."
"Gibson's right," the green monkey nodded enthusiastically, "maybe the dream was a warning, or something?"
"It could, but what is it telling us?" Nova asked thoughtfully, standing up straighter, "did he say anything else, Antauri?"
It started to rain hard. It started falling in sheets and deluging the city, beating down mercilessly on the walls of the Super Robot. Antauri contemplated for a moment, deep in concentration.
"There is one more thing," he began to speak slowly, "he said that he will be arriving in Shuggazoom in about five hours."