Hello! It's been forever since I updated my stories but unfortunately I'm not sure if I'll ever get back to them. However that isn't the case with this story as I will try super hard to finish this story in this fandom.

This was supposed to be a drabble, one small drabble and I would make several more. However as I continued to write I decided to make it into a multi-chapter fic, because I have so much in store for this I swear to god. Also there's barely any Sakko and Mandarin fics, or fics where Sakko is a main character. Also forgive me if anyone is ooc. So bear with me and enjoy!

I also don't own anything except certain headcanons and this story.

Shugazoom mall, due to the war, has been shut down for many citizens to flee to the underground bunkers. It's beautiful and advanced halls and structure were completely clear of life anywhere.

Well maybe one or two sources of life outside the large building.

"Why did I ever think bailing you out of jail was a good idea." A voice said irritably.

"Because you need my tiny body to get in and out of places where you can't get in. Also we're friends so there's that." A tiny voice with a Russian accent chirped.

"At what point were we ever friends?" Mandarin thought, as Sakko was perched on his shoulder.

Sakko's forums were processed for him to be let out of prison due to good behavior, however no one was going to pick him up or had enough money to pay for him.

Then, as a surprise, Mandarin showed up to pay and pick the tiny monkey up. Completely in disguise of course but who would really trust a nearly ten foot tall and overly muscled guy in robes?

The pink monkey always had a really bad habit of never shutting up and Mandarin had to deal with it from when he bailed him out to here. Talking about his life in prison, to some crazed fan taking it over without him knowing, to then asking questions about where Mandarin had been in the last year ever since they split.

But Mandarin didn't answer those questions, and it was starting to bug Sakko a lot. Why wasn't he answering any of his questions? Did something happen to Mandarin while he was away? Something must have because there are visible scars on the monkey's body. It was beginning to worry him.

For now the two had to find a safe and secretive entrance to get into the mall and hide out there for refuge until the war is over.

Usually for a normal sized monkey, it would get in and out vents no problem and can sneak around. However Mandarin wasn't a normal sized monkey as climbing into the vents and sneaking around deemed impossible. Mandarin would have to open a door and slide right in, hoping that his bulky armor or arms wouldn't destroy the door frame. Sakko on the other hand, was perfect for hiding and sneaking around but he insisted on staying with the orange monkey. This irritated Mandarin a lot.

"There are security cameras all around the perimeter. If we get caught in there it would take after the war for people to find out…" Sakko muttered, looking the building up and down.

"The Hyperforce still has a long-range scanner that detects anything suspicious roaming around. Anything suspicious they'll investigate, and what's more suspicious than ex-villains like us?" Mandarin looked for an opening without any security cameras.

"Ex-villains? I thought you were still working for Skeleton King?" Sakko asked.

Mandarin was silent, but his expression turned angry and troubled. Sakko held back an aggravated sigh, but his expression raised more questions.

"Well aren't you or...are you at least still on his side?"

"No." Mandarin quickly said before continuing his search.

Sakko blinked and nodded. At least he answered one of his questions.

The two were then silent as they continued to find a way inside without having the Hyperforce noticing. Sakko bit his lip and adjusted his bow.

"I wouldn't go back you know, it-it just wouldn't feel right to me." He said.

Mandarin didn't say anything as he turned a corner to the back of the Mall.

"And I certainly wouldn't go join the Hyperforce! That sounds so ridiculous just to even think about it!" Sakko exclaimed, laughing a bit.

He hoped Mandarin would at least give a small laugh, but still nothing. In fact it seemed as if his Hyperforce comment made it worse as he can tell Mandarin's mood became darker but just his posture stiffened.

Sakko exhaled sharply, feeling terribly awkward.

Mandarin continued to search until he found a staircase leading down to a door in the ground. For the first time tonight he smiled and began to go down the stairs carefully, eyeing the walls in case he saw any cameras locked on him. Thankfully the bricked walls were blank of any cameras or at least they weren't aimed at him and at the ghost town parking lot. As soon as Mandarin took the last step down, Sakko jumped off his shoulder and clutched onto the door knob and messed around with the keyhole to see if it's locked. It was and Sakko pulled a bobby pin out of his pocket and picked at the lock until it was finally unlocked. With a twist of his body on the knob, the door opened ajar. The door fully opened when he jumped down and pulled the door away from the frame.

Mandarin stared at the door worriedly, eyes focused on the door frame that clearly won't fit him.

"Well then let's look around." Sakko chirped, about to jump right back onto Mandarin's shoulder but he then noticed Mandarin's expression.

"What?" He asked.

"Tell me Sakko...how in the world am I going to fit in there?!" Mandarin asked, motioning towards the door.

Sakko smiled and stepped inside the door frame sideways.

"Simple! You just go in sideways!"

"But I'll still break the frame!" Mandarin argued.

"Oh so what it'll be fine!" Sakko huffed.

Mandarin shook his head.

"No you don't get it, what if the Hyperforce sees the damaged door? They'll want to find out what broke it!"

"So what?! I'm sure they won't notice!"

"You don't know them like I do!"

Sakko growled and rubbed his forehead. Why was he being so difficult?!

"Forget about the Hyperforce right now! This building is going to be destroyed anyway by the end of this war, so what is a door frame going to matter?!" Sakko snapped.

Mandarin was silent but he still looked irritated. He then closed his eyes and sighed.

"Fine but if the Hyperforce comes barging in here, weapons ablaze then it'll be on your head." He grumbled as he attempted to get through.

He cursed Skeleton King under his breath as he heaved through the door with much difficulty. He could barely fit through because of his large muscle mass! Sakko sat against the wall and waited until Mandarin was finally through the door, which had cracks and chunks of debris on the floor. Mandarin grimaced at the door's shape, but Sakko hopped onto Mandarin's shoulder with a smile on his face.

"Now that that's out of the way, where should we go first?" He asked

.

Mandarin snapped out of his worry on the door and began to think.

"The control room...that way we can shut off all of the security cameras and triggers." He said.

Sakko nodded in agreement as the two began to search for the control room. Thankfully the control room was down the hall around a corner. After some hacking and shutting off all security measures, Mandarin and Sakko were now free to roam around without worrying about setting off an alarm.

The two then went up to the main part of the building where many shops and stores lay. The mall was fully advanced with screen ads depicting all sorts of products and goods, crisp and clean-cut walls and structure with a clean white and pink coating, and several stores were hugely themed from the outside to give them an identity and personality.

Mandarin looked around, it has been an extremely long time since he was in here and it felt so nostalgic to him, having to fight countless battles and getting discounts his ex teammates got. There were a ton of changes done here, as well as several stores he didn't recognize. He didn't even notice Sakko jumping off his shoulder and going straight for a store nearby.

"Huh I wonder if they still have the store where I fought a large formless in and ended up staining a sofa that I ended up getting...I wonder if the monkey team still has it.." Mandarin wondered when he heard Sakko scream.

At first he thought he was screaming of terror because he turned and activated his sword but quickly see that Sakko was planting his face against the window of a toy store, a huge grin on his face. He groaned, he looked like a little kid!

"They have the Little miss Shugazoom clothing line! Do you know how long I've waited to put on their clothes?!" Sakko squealed, quickly opening the door and running inside.

Mandarin's eyes widened, knowing what he was going to do next.

"Sakko no! We can't take anything from in there!" He yelled, going in after him and not caring what happened to doors at this point.

Which this one promptly broke down of course. Sakko pulled down a small white dress with red polka dots on and held it up to himself.

"Hmmm I wonder if this will go with either a white bow or a red one…." He muttered to himself.

Just then Mandarin's two fingers took the dress and placed it back onto the rack.

"Hey!" Sakko exclaimed angrily, turning to look up at the orange monkey.

"Sakko we can't take anything from here! You and I both know we don't have any money left!" Mandarin scolded.

"I know that! I was going to wear them and put them back when I'm done!" Sakko huffed.

"Knowing you, you would probably keep it after a while."

Sakko frowned.

"My friend you just don't get it, we're in a huge mall with a grocery store nearby and plenty of other supplies that we may need, including clothing. So why don't we take advantage of this situation and take what we need?" Sakko asked.

"Because that's wrong and you know it!" Mandarin huffed.

"How? Like I said this building will probably be gone in a few months anyway." Sakko reminded him.

"And if it doesn't?"

"Well then we can see what happens then. Besides it's not like I'm going to keep these." Sakko shrugged before going back to looking at the clothes.

Mandarin growled and rubbed his forehead, obviously too frustrated to deal with this anymore. Sakko looked back up at him.

"Listen, you're stressed and you had to break doors just to get here. So why don't you go and lay in the fountain or something." Sakko advised before happily looking through clothes.

Mandarin sighed and left. He would have just picked him up and carried him out of the store but he knew Sakko would just walk right back in there.

He began to look for a place to sleep for the night and a place where they can hide. So far there was a good mattress store they can stay in but as for a hiding spot there was little to none for him, but plenty for Sakko. Mandarin kept walking around, peeking in through most store and alleyways.

There were definitely a ton of stores that he didn't recognize at all, and no matter how much the ex-leader tried he couldn't find any that he knew. He suddenly felt a pinch of sadness at the memory of all the past stores now gone. However he knew that those stores would have to go and make way for new ones, like most things in life, but that didn't change the sad feeling that Mandarin was feeling.

He shook his head, what was he doing?! Reminiscing about the past like a sad old man?! That wasn't him! He wasn't sad in the slightest, old yes, but not sad. He had to find a hiding spot for himself and quickly. It took him nearly an hour to find a perfect hiding place for him; a pile of wood planks, debris, and other broken items placed in large garbage bags. He examined the width and length of the pile and it seemed perfect for him! Mandarin looked down to the side and found a vent that Sakko can no doubt crawl his way through there. Happy with his discovery and taking a mental note of his new hiding space's location, between the ice cream store and the shoe store, he began to explore some more, out of simple curiosity at this point.

Mandarin looked up at the mall's clock, which read 1:54 am. This wasn't the longest he stayed up but for Sakko it probably was somewhere around...10:00pm?

"Hmm...I just hope he's not doing anything stupid." Mandarin grumbled as he began to go back to the toy store to check up on him.

Knowing Sakko he probably already left and was now running around the mall, a new fancy and frilly dress on.

And Of course he was gone when he came back and Mandarin would have to go find him. He sighed heavily and began to search for him.

"If I were Sakko where would I be?" He wondered as he looked through each store until he found himself in the food court.

Maybe he got himself something to eat? But how the grills and all sorts of cooking supplies are shut off.

Mandarin was about to search in the pizza concession stand anyway when he heard,

"Mandarin!"

Sakko jumped onto Mandarin's back, which made the muscly monkey yelp, and he felt the tiny monkey climbed on his back to his shoulder. Sakko was now wearing a yellow sundress with a sunhat.

Mandarin turned to him and glared.

"I swear Sakko if you weren't...I just don't know what I would do." Mandarin huffed.

Sakko smiled and patted Mandarin's face.

"Oh Mandarin, you're happy to see me!" he mocked.

Mandarin huffed and turned away.

"Whatever, where did you go anyway?" He asked.

Sakko adjusted his seating position and smoothed his dress out.

"Well after you left I decided to look around for stuff we might need and there's a First Aid room just in case, a movie theater, and a Hyperforce store." Sakko said.

"Why would we need to go to the Hyperforce store?" Mandarin asked.

"We don't have to, it would be kind of funny if we did." Sakko said, shrugging.

Mandarin nodded, it would be kind of funny.

The two stood still, thinking.

"You wanna go there?"

"Why not?"

Ahh so that does it for the first chapter! I might make changes as time goes on but ah.

If you want to review, go on ahead I will not make you . That is up to you whether or not you want to.