A New Day
Disclaimer: I don't own "SRMTHFG!", even though I want to meet the Ciro Hieli, the original writer of the show and prove myself worthy of the copyrites to make a real movie (can't make post that script on fanfic via odds of spoilers). In the meantime, I'll use this blog for practicing my work and getting advice and/or complements in reviews.
Authors note: While waiting for suggestions for chapter eight on my first fan-fiction, "No Matter What", I decided to write a sort of one-shot on a flashback that may or may-not be part of my early work, based around how before, during, and after the day Chiro was born. For referances, I made it a song-fic on a famous tune, one so famous you'd know who might do the singing voice (and maybe talking voice) of our boy-hero's sainted mother. Enjoy!
When the golden age of Shuggazoom City had "disappeared" with its gaurdian super-being, several of the surrounding civilizations on the planet were distroyed by a mysterious enemy, the Skeleton King. Soon, most of Planet Shuggazoom was reduced to what many called the "Zone of Wasted Years", and there would've been nothing left, not even the planet's capital, if not for a special she-warrior locally known as Lady Wukong.
Like the entity she was named after, Lady Wukong was neither human nor monkey, yet both as well, and even had the same powers: She could replicate herself using strands of her hair, shapeshift into anything, teleport anywhere, and was even strong enough to lift several tons! There was even a rumor that Lady Wukong was skilled in every form of magic in the universe, but nobody knew for sure if it was true, for she was only able to protect the city for one year. After that, her successors, a group known as the Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force (or just "Hyperforce" for short) were brought together, and begun the first of many missions together, and had kept Shuggazoom City safe for a whole decade. Unfortunately, all that ended when the leader of the Hyperforce, Mandarin, had gone powermad, and after such betrayal, the rest of the team had to banish him. Without a sixth member, let alone a leader, the Hyperforce was incomplete, and because what has happened seemed to match a prophecy, the remaining five monkeys went into stasis to wait for a chosen one.
While they slept, Lady Wukong returned to her post as gaurdian, but she too knew the tale the Hyperforce believed in and was said to recite it:
"When one of the Six Abassadors becomes a traitor, she who once raised them will pay a unnerving price to save the Stronghold of Hope as well as the remaining five as they are placed in a dreamless slumber before bringing the Chosen One into the world. Upon the thirdtenth year and sixth month of his arrival, when he is needed most, he shall find and awaken the five Abassadors and take the traitor's place."
Nobody knew for sure what she was talking about, but she indeed made an unnerving sacrifice to imprison the Skeleton King in the Citidel of Bone, which in turn was imprisoned in the darkest corner of the universe... she cut off her own tail!
While that turned Shuggazoom City into a safe-haven, Lady Wukong was no more, and her alter-ego, Heng-Shi Zoey Sulphur, wasn't the same anymore. I should know... My name is Henry James Carrington III ("Ace Ranger" for short) and Heng-Shi's my girlfriend. When we first met, she was all monkey, but she revealed herself to be a changling by using her shapeshifting powers to me to ask for my help finding her "children" for its only as a human that her words are understood by humans.
Whichever of her two favorite forms she took she always had her tail and loved playing tricks on others with it, especially in her human form, for while she had that shape none could see her tail unless she wanted them to, and believe me, she always wants me to see it. (I just wish Gyrus Krinkle wasn't the only exception to that rule... it took us forever to convince the street-cleaning company to hire him and get that monkey-lover off our backs!)
Ever since she had her favorite appendage removed, Heng-Shi spent over a month just learning to walk without it, but that is the least of her problems, for without her animal-traint she was all human and had lost most of her powers. The only magic she had left was in the Jewel of Hope, a rare stone we found that I had made into a necklace for her. With it, she could enchant journals so only worthy eyes could read them, turn oil-spilled water clearer then it was before it has been polluted, and create force-fields. Despite that much, Heng-Shi refused to let go of her task of searching the universe for this chosen one, and bringing him into our world. We searched several galaxies in the universe, we even visited the planets the Hyperforce lived seperate lives on for a year of training, and she still found nothing.
"Even if that silly prophecy was real," I asked her in a warp tunnel, "how are you supposed to find this 'chosen one' if you don't even know anything about him?"
"I know that I will know him when I see him," she answered, "for I had helped the Alchemist raise the Hyperforce since they were orphaned infants, and had been continuing to watch over them and secretly attempted to guide them after their memory was erased. Because of that much, I know it's my destiny to find the chosen one and bring him into our home world."
Although she remained stubborn to her task, Heng-Shi somehow started to relax after a crash-landing upon a planet called Earth. At first, I thought she hit her head really hard, but after some exploring it became clear that this planet is her idea of a paradise: modern technology and traditions found in the forces of nature existing side by side! The only problem was that the natives of this planet seemed to take their world for granted and were destroying it themselves, and she insisted we stay a little while longer to correct them.
'Why not?' I thought, 'With our ship so badly damaged, an entire planet can be repaired before we have the parts we need to leave anyhow.'
Although we were non-polluters, Heng-Shi and I were soon native Earthlings in every other way as we made video documentries about the world as a living, and used the money of several different countries on food, clothing, medical supplies, and of course, machine parts. It's during one of our documentry trips that things started to turn on us. We were trying to find proof of the fabled Yeti in Nepal to get tourists to stop poaching in the Himalayas, and a blizzard ended up finding us again. Even in the cavern we chanced upon, it was too windy to build a fire, and we only packed one sleepingbag at the time, so in order for both of us to survive until the storm cleared, there was only one chance: we had to share body-heat and make the most of it.
Before long, we had all the parts we needed to continue our intergalactic search, but before we could leave, Heng-Shi started to become sick. Despite being "aliens" we were human enough to get an Earthling Medical doctor's help, and it was through him that we soon learned that her throwing up and having mood-swings happened to be part of a good thing...
...my beloved was pregnant! What's more, it didn't take long for me to figure out that I was the father, which might be why Heng-Shi was so upset. After all, Pandorian Changelings are to Planet Shuggazoom what Romani Gypsies are to Planet Earth: having intercourse before marriage is a sin in their traditions! In order to keep her from distroying herself and our unborn child, I had to propose to her, and thank the Creator of Creation Itself she said yes. We've said our vows in accordance to the customs of Trinidad and Tobago, South America, as it was where our spaceship crashlanded in the first place... and I couldn't think of any planet to have a coincidence. You see, the locals on that island have a superstition saying that sunshowers take place whenever a monkey gets married, and sure enough, just as we were finishing our vows, we had been covered with rain under a clear blue sky! Thankfully we've left the planet before those who actually believed those superstitions suspected a thing, though I kept hoping against hope the ride back to Shuggazoom wasn't too much for her. Hoping to make the journey easier on her, we only used half as many hyperboost tunnels to return to our homeworld as we've used to leave it in the first place, which only made me all the more anxious as Heng-Shi's pregnancy became all the more obvious every lightyear.
Soon we were back at Planet Shuggazoom, but before we could get close enough to the city, my wife discribed the sensation she had... obviously, our child was to be born that day, and we didn't have enough fuel to get to the hospital in time! Then, I remembered the next best thing: the treehouse that the two of us made for the Hyperforce when they were really little monkeys. Even our child is meant to be all human, I couldn't think of a better place for a changeling's baby to be born then up in the trees like it's monkey brothern.
Before long, the labor screams were replaced by the sound of a baby crying, and Heng-Shi singing two different lullabies. The first one was the short little tune she made up for the Hyperforce when they were young, and the second was the very song during the end of our wedding reception:
"I was waiting for so long for a miracle to come, everyone told me too be strong, hold on and don't shed a tear.
Though the darkness and good times, I knew I'd make it through, and the world thought I had it all, but I was waiting for you.
Hush now, I see a light in the sky. Oh! It's almost blinding me; I can't believe I've been touched by an angel with love!
Let the rain come down and wash away my tears, let it fill my soul and drown my fears, let it shatter the walls for a new sun: a new day has come!
Where it was dark, now there's light. Where there was pain, now there's joy. Where there was weakness, I found my strength, all in the eyes of our boy."
I came up just in time to see she was right to continue with that next verse, for our child is indeed a boy. I have a son, and I had to climb a tree just to hold him! Thank goodness I installed those miniture elevators years ago, or it would be risky getting our son down and presenting him to the city... just to be safe, I had to get started on checking the system.
"I feel like such a fool," Heng-Shi said, as I put our child back in her arms, "when the prophecy said that I was destined to bring the chosen one into this world, I started a wild goose chase on other worlds to do just that, only to discover I was really ment to give him life. All the same, we still have to name him. What do you think."
"Anything but 'Henry the Fourth', " I said, almost joking, "There was a reason My dad gave me the nickname 'Ace', and my mom only called me 'Ranger' because I was born while our moon, Ranger 7, was full. We have to give our son something... unique!"
Heng-Shi thought about it a moment, then smiled. "The name 'Chiro' appeared several times in ancient fictional manuscripts about heroic deeds," she explained, "and it came to me in a dream twice that often if I recall correctly. I think 'Chiro' would be purfect for him."
And so we stuck with the name "Chiro".
After we moved out of the treehouse and into Montigue's Motel, Chiro had been one surprise after another. True, he was born all human as I was, but I get the feeling his big blue eyes weren't the only thing our boy inheirited from his mother. When he screams and yells, he uses a full scale of vocal ranges instead of one high-pitched sour note that other children in Shuggazoom City tend to use, and he was climbing things before he could even walk!
By the time he was five years old, he kept insisting that we visit the outskirts of the city, mostly because the animal in him loves spending time outdoors and the city park just didn't seem like enough for him. I still think the prophecy is a load of baloney, but if any truth to it, it was just too soon, for if he doesn't find the Super Robot, giant spiders and other leftovers from the Skeleton King's last visit are bound to find him! I would do anything to make sure our young Chiro is not only happy, but also safe, and I don't want to be ignorant of his existance like my Uncle Clayton (AKA "Captain Shuggazoom") seemed to be with me.
Besides, even if evil forces do return... which I doubt, because imprisoning the Skeleton King seemed to spook every other villian in the universe... our world seems to need more "everyday heroes". It was only by resourcefulness that those who live here managed to prevent the occasional fire emergancy, but since the our Highway Patrol disbanded in favor of super-powered beings, and my uncle's industrial work keeps the city restalked anyway, nobody but me seems to make a big deal about petty theft! In fact, sometimes I wonder if we should've raised Chiro on Earth when we had a chance. Oh well, at least we have a stable family again, and I only hope nothing goes wrong to break it up this time, for each day is a new day.