A Little Something Extra
Chapter 1
"Ugh…" Sprx muttered as he woke inside the pod, rubbing at his head, wincing at the light, "Damn, I thought Gibson said this would be painless."
"I said relatively painless." The red monkey looked up, vision coming in to focus to see his blue teammate, holding a hand out. "We're talking about decades long stasis after all, Sprx. You should be glad your muscles didn't wither away to nothing."
Sprx rolled his eyes as he took the hand, "Yeah yeah." He grunts a bit as he was pulled out, wobbling a bit as he steps out. He looks around, to see if the others were out, and freezes as he sees Nova crouched over someone. Someone way too big to be one of them. It... looks like a human. A kid. Male from the looks of things. "Who-?"
He pauses as he realizes there are two other figures in similar positions, Antauri crouched next to one of them, another kid, also male.
Gibson sighs, "One of them woke us up." He quickly explains as he walks over to what looked like a girl, also a kid.
Sprx looks around, noticing that all of the pods were empty. "Wher-"
"Otto is in the med bay, getting it ready." Antauri says as he looks at the boy's head.
"I wanted to make sure there was nothing immediately wrong with them, before we brought them there." Gibson explains.
Sprx is still confused, but he nods, "Okay so… why are they passed out?" He asks, looking over at Nova.
She shrugs, but Antauri answers, "Because Sprx… one of these children is our destined leader."
It was a nice day in Shuggazoom, all things considered; it was a warm spring day, getting close to the start of summer, not too hot, not too cold. It was the perfect day for a walk, something one boy named Chiro was all too glad to take advantage of. It was something he did often, wandering along the edges of the city, looking for something interesting. Technically speaking, he wasn't supposed to be doing it, but hey, he hadn't been caught yet.
It was as he made his way towards the edges of the city, taking his usual route, that he heard someone running up behind him. "Chiro!" He stopped and looked back to see a girl he recognized.
"Rio?" The black haired girl was actually quite a bit taller than him, being almost six feet tall at 14 years old, and looked down at him as she got up to him. "Uh... what's up?" The two knew each other from the orphanage where they both lived, having been residents for almost a year now, although they rarely interacted.
The orphanage in question was actually fairly small, all things considered, only a couple dozen kids, on other planets it would be considered a large group home; Shuggazoom was an affluent enough city-planet that children were rarely abandoned, and those that were tended to be quickly adopted. Most of the orphanage kids were either past the age where most considered adopting, no longer being 'cute', or were troublemakers. Chiro was the first category, whereas Rio was in both, from what he had heard about her behavior.
Indeed, the girl was kind of glaring at him as she panted a bit from running. "You're taking me with you today." She said, grabbing Chiro's arm.
"W-What?!" He exclaimed, more than a little bit weirded out by her behavior. "Why?" He paused, and tried to shake her off his arm. "And you don't even know where I'm going."
Rio raised an eyebrow, "Chiro. Everyone with a brain at that stupid place knows you wander the outskirts of the city. They just don't feel like bothering with punishing you." She let go of him and crossed her arms.
"Oh..." Chiro blushed a bit in embarrassment, having thought he was being all cool and secretive this entire time. "You didn't answer my first question though, why do you want to come?"
A snort, and Rio made a very frustrated sound. "The stupid day manager won't stop hounding me about my grades ever since my last report card came in."
"Oh yeah, we got those back this week, huh?" Chiro never paid very much attention to his grades, he was a pretty average student… as long as he studied on stuff he had trouble with, he got average marks; at the very least enough that no one at the orphanage ever bothered him too much. You had to be in serious trouble with your academics for them to start actually doing something about it, from what he knew… which didn't spell well for Rio. "So uh…"
"Come on, let's go. They won't think to look for me out there." Rio began to walk off, and Chiro sighed and followed after her, taking the lead before long.
"So where are we going exactly? Do you have like, a route you take or what?" She asked as they made it past the last bits of city, and started upon the first bits of wilderness.
Chiro shook his head as he hopped over a fallen log, Rio doing the same, "Nah, I just like to explore really. Figured I'd take-" He paused as he spotted something moving a little ways away.
"What?" Rio asked, first looking at Chiro and then to where he was looking. Way too big to be a squirrel or anything like that, but the trees obscured it's shape. "A deer maybe?" She whispered, only ever having seen one at the zoo.
Chiro doubted it; although it was rumored that a few of them still wandered the Shuggazoom wilderness, he certainly hadn't seen one in his few months of exploring.
Whatever, or whoever, it was, it was moving away from them, slowly disappearing from view.
"Let's go after them." Whispered Rio, Chiro nodding without objection. If there was one thing neither of them had an abundance of, it was caution.
They spent several minutes tracking the figure, both of them trying to be stealthy as possible as to not scare; although the increasingly thick underbrush ensured that they had to take the same narrow path that their quarry was, and made it difficult to make the figure out.
It was almost 15 minutes later that they finally caught up, both surprised to recognize who it was. "Raf?!" Rio exclaimed, the short, stocky boy in question turning around, his headphone cord whipping about a little.
"Oh... hi there." He muttered as he removed his headphones, a rather tired look on his face.
"What are you doing out here?" Chiro asked, looking around the small clearing they were in.
Raf shrugged slightly, giving his nose a wipe with his sleeve as he sniffled. "Just walking." He looked sick, his normally dark skin looking pale.
Rio glanced at Chiro, raising an eyebrow in suspicion, before looking back at Raf. "Why out here?" She asks.
Chiro had to admit, she had a good point. He only barely knew Raf, even less than Rio, the boy only having arrived at the orphanage a couple months ago; but from what he knew about him, he didn't seem the type to come out here on his own.
Again, Raf gave a shrug, "It's quiet." He said simply, not seeming to care or notice that his short answers appeared to be making the other two slightly uncomfortable.
"So uh…" Chiro wasn't quite sure what to say next, Raf had this kinda empty look on his face, one that said all attempts at conversation would end as quickly as they had been.
Just then, the relative silence between them was suddenly cut by a loud clanging noise in the near distance, contrasting sharply against the chirping of the birds and rustling of leaves. "What the?" Rio looked towards where it had come from, there was nothing but trees that way that blocked the view.
"Is there another person out here?" Chiro asked, knowing that they were far enough away from the city, that there wasn't anything that would make that sound out here.
Rio glanced over at him and Raf, "Well… let's go find out." She started off, Chiro glancing at Raf for a moment before following. Raf himself stood there for a few seconds before slowly following.
Taking his time, Raf almost lost the two as they made their way through the undergrowth, no natural path for them here. It was a couple of minutes before the trees began to disperse.
"Holy Shuggazoom." Chiro whispered as he came into the clearing, Rio right behind him, whose eyes went wide as they too saw what Chiro was looking at. Right in the middle of the clearing, which was more a field it was so large; stood a giant robot.
Raf came stumbling out behind them, seeming a little winded, "You know, you guys could wait up a…" He too froze as he saw it.
They stood there for a few moments, silent, taking in what stood before them. It was enormous, easily the height of most buildings in Shuggazoom, not to mention blocky looking, all sharp corners. It had clearly been here for quite some time, judging by the amount of growth covering it, vines and moss encasing most of its feet.
"Is this thing even real?" Rio asked, snapping the other two out of their thoughts.
"What do you mean?" Chiro was confused, it sure looked real to him.
"I mean… this isn't like, a prank or anything? Right?" She glanced over at Chiro, who had a look on his face, "Oh, don't look at me like that, it'd be less weird than actually finding a giant robot out here."
Raf stepped forward a bit, closer to them, "…why didn't we spot it earlier?" The two looked at him, confused, and he continued, "I mean… it's so tall, we aren't that far from the city, if not us, someone should've spotted it a while ago."
Both Rio and Chiro, thought about this for a moment, and soon seemed extra confused, realizing Raf was right. "Maybe I was right then… could be a hologram or something that got put here just a few minutes ago." Rio said.
Chiro promptly bent down and picked up a small rock, tossing it at the robot's left foot; it hit the plating with a loud clang. "Well, that's definitely not a hologram."
Rio glared at him a little bit, and seemed ready to mouth off at him before Raf spoke up. "Uh… guys." He was pointing at the robot, a small ways away from where the rock had hit, there seemed to now be a small gap open, a large panel that covered the front of the robot's foot seeming to have come unhinged.
Chiro seemed a bit embarrassed, and in all honesty, a bit frightened. "Oops." He laughed nervously.
Before they could do anything else, the panel make a loud creaking and groaning noise, before suddenly dropping down to the ground with a very loud, echoing clang.
Once more, all three froze for a few moments, waiting for the dust kicked up to settle. When it did, they could see that the large panel had fallen way and appeared to be more of a door actually, still attached at the bottom by some hinges. The inside looked mostly dark, although sunlight provided some illumination.
Rio let out a whistle, "Damn." She said as she started to step forward, Chiro following only a moment after.
Raf hesitated, however, "Uh… guys?"
The two looked back at him, "What?" Rio asked, looking annoyed almost.
Chiro smiled as he looked back, "Don't worry Raf, we'll be careful." He pulls a small pocket light out of his pants pocket, "And I've got this to help. You shouldn't worry so much."
Raf thought there were plenty of reasons to worry. After all, that door had collapsed rather easily, what was to stop the rest of the robot from doing so while they were inside? And who knew what exactly was inside anyway? Instead of voicing these thoughts however, he sighed a little and slowly followed them.
What awaited them inside, matched what was suggested by the outside. Metallic in nature, everything had a layer of dust collecting on it that seemed to be several years thick, if not more. "It's musty as heck in here." Chiro says as he covers his mouth a bit.
"You can say that again." Rio nods in agreement, while Raf coughs heavily as he tries to cover his mouth as well.
What was surprising for them, however, was that it didn't appear to be completely dead; every room they entered seemed to have emergency lighting, casting everything in a dim red light.
"How long has this thing been here?" Chiro asked as he poked around, looking for the way to the next room.
"The hell should I know?" Rio asked as she noticed that there were some chairs in the room, which seemed a bit too small for the average person.
Raf kept silent as he looked around, occasionally looking at a panel that would go to a computer, wondering how one would turn them on.
Eventually they neared what they figured was probably the center of the massive robot. "We should head back soon…" Muttered Raf, having gotten sick of the occasional creaking of metal that kept freaking him out.
Chiro thought about it for a second, but Rio didn't, snorting a bit as she continued, "Whatever, we can keep going for a little while longer. You can't tell me you're not curious."
Raf was silent, the look on his face suggesting, no, he wasn't all that curious, at least not enough to risk death. Chiro gave him a sympathetic look, "Look, we'll jus-"
"Guys, come check this out!" Rio's voice rang out from the next room, both of them turning. After a moment processing, Chiro quickly made his way towards the room; Raf following after a few seconds later.
What they saw, astonished them both. "Whoa…" Chiro whispered as he walked towards where Rio was, eyes transfixed on the center of the room, Raf taking his time as he did the same.
In the center of the room, laid something that the three found just as mysterious as the robot they had stumbled upon, perhaps even more so. A series of five tubes, all lined up in a row, dim lights coming from them, small figures within. They were each a different color; red, yellow, green, blue, and a very dark purple, almost black.
"What are they?" Asked Rio as she tried to squint for a better view of them, the figures difficult to make out in the dim light, the slightly tinged glass.
"They're small but… they look like they're wearing armor?" Raf seemed unsure as he approached one of them slowly, clearly hesitant. "I… they look like monkeys."
"What?" Rio said in a very incredulous tone, "You mean like at the zoo?"
Raf gave her a look that seemed to ask why he'd be joking at a time like this, but he spotted Chiro behind her, looking really out of it. "Chiro?"
Rio looked behind her, to see Chiro, eyes locked with the five tubes, a very vacant look on his face. "Chiro, you okay?"
Just as she asked this, he started walking towards them, startling both of them.
"Uhh…" Raf was confused to say the least, as was Rio, who put a hand on Chiro's shoulder, only for him to keep walking.
The two watched him for a moment, until they saw he was walking towards something right before the center tube. It appeared to be a large switch. Both of them panicked, not quite knowing what was going on, but having a very bad feeling about it.
"Chiro!" Rio cried out as they ran towards him, both managing to grab him just as he pulled the switch.
A bright flash of light crossed all of their visions, and everything went dark...
AN: Sorry for all those watching me for not updating my other stories. Long story short, this idea has been stuck in my head.