Unknown Horror

Author's Note:

I decided to write a Halloween story since it's an awesome holiday. This story will be sorta scary, but mostly weird since I write weird things.

This story takes place right after Depths of Fear. I thought it fit there best because I wanted the monkey team not to know Chiro is the Chosen One yet. Enjoy!

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Deep within an undiscovered galaxy, a planet was being blanketed with darkness. A new plague was killing it's populace as their scientist couldn't find a cure. One day, a dark and tall stranger appeared in one of their cities. He offered them a solution to their problem; but it came with a price.

At first, the citizens weren't so sure if they should trust him. Who would trust someone who looked like a skeleton and showed the inside of their stomach? But as the plague killed more of their people, they had no choice.

They accepted the solution and the price they had to pay. The stranger than lifted his staff and chanted a spell in an ancient language.

The sky thundered and lit up violently as the people began to change their form.

When the incantation was complete, everyone there was healthy and back to normal; at least, a little normal.

Every night when the moon was high, they transformed back into the creatures that caused chaos and devastation across their whole planet.

When the moon went down and the sun took its place, they were normal humans once more. However, that experience was too awful and they pleaded with the stranger to take it back.

"The only way to turn yourselves back without the plague is to sacrifice one with much strength and power." The stranger announced to the populace of the planet.

"But who is worthy enough?"

"A youth that is strong, bold, brave, and caring. – He is not from this planet; but I can ensure you, he will come." The stranger smirked as his laughs echoed through the thickening air.

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"Beep beep beep!" The alarm clock went off.

A hand slammed the snooze button down and the boy rolled over on his back.

The fourteen year old moaned until his crystal blue eyes slowly crept opened. He didn't want to get up.

The nightmare he had last night played over and over again in his head like a broken record. Sighing, he got out of bed and changed into his normal red sweater and blue jeans. The teen looked in the mirror as he combed his hair slowly.

"Chiro! Breakfast is done!" A familiar voice echoed through the robot.

Chiro knew it was Otto and hurried off to the kitchen. There he saw his team doing their normal routine.

Gibson was serving the food while Otto tried to snatch it out of his hands. Sprx was attempting to flirt with Nova; who punched him in the face immediately. Then there was his mentor Antauri; he was drinking his freshly brewed black tea. Chiro smiled at him as he couldn't help but feel relaxed in his presence.

Antauri returned his gaze upon Chiro to warmly smile back.

"Good morning Chiro. – Did you sleep well?"

Chiro put his left hand on the back of his head. "Not really."

"Is there something wrong?" Antauri asked as everyone went silent.

Chiro looked around to see everyone staring at him nervously. "Nothing's wrong! Honestly. – I just had another nightmare."

As if on cue, Otto jumped onto Gibson with hopes of getting the rest of the food.

"Otto! What are you doing!-Get off me right this instant!"

Otto, who already stuffed his mouth with waffles, looked down at Gibson. "Sorry Gibson; I just can't resist waffles!" He said with a mouthful of his favorite breakfast meal.

"You can have the rest if you get off of me!"

"Yay!" Otto yelled as he immediately jumped off Gibson and took the plate.

Antauri returned his attention to his giggling leader.

"Did this nightmare seem strange or frightening?"

Chiro stopped laughing and faced Antauri once more.

"Well all nightmares are scary and strange."

"What I meant was did you want to talk about it?"

Chiro thought for a moment. It was indeed strange, but he didn't think it was important. "No, I just thought I should mention it."

"But if you do change your mind, you can always tell me. – We're a team and teammates never face things alone."

"I know." Chiro replied. But he still wasn't used to the fact that these cybernetic robots existed. Let alone could talk and pilot this huge fighting machine. Chiro just stumbled across them abandoned in the outskirts of the city three months ago. After Chiro awakened them, the monkeys watched over Chiro secretly for three weeks. The next time Chiro returned to the robot to hang out, Antauri asked him to be their leader.

He wasn't sure at first, but seeing how excited they were, he accepted.

"Hey kid! Aren't you going to eat?!" Sprx asked interrupting Chiro's thoughts.

"You bet I am!" He called back and immediately began eating.

Antauri continued to drink his tea; but kept a very close eye on the child.

Something about him always made Antauri excited and hopeful. He didn't know if it was the fact that Chiro posed a large quantity of the power primate, or if it was something else. Whatever the reason was would reveal itself in time. Right now, Antauri just wanted to be there for him and become close friends.

"Hey Chiro, look! I'm a fly!" Otto hollered as two large waffles covered his eyes.

Chiro bursted out in laugher as the syrup dripped down Otto's face.

Nova slapped the back of Otto's head as the two waffles flew across the table. One hit Sprx while the other one hit Gibson right on the forehead.

"Hey!" Sprx yelled.

"I agree! That was completely unnecessary." Gibson added.

Sprx picked up one of his eggs and threw it at Otto. Otto barley dodged it; but it hit Nova.

"That's it!" She yelled as she picked up a sausage and aimed it right at Sprx.

Otto then joined in the fun and threw a piece of toast at Chiro.

Chiro smirked and then the real food fight began.

Eggs, waffles, sausages, carrots, and everything else there was flying in the air as the heroes compete to be the champion. However, everyone froze when a piece of toast slammed into Antauri's face.

Everyone's eyes widened in fear as Antauri slowly looked up with a small smile planted in his face.

"You don't know who you're dealing with."

And with that, everything went flying once more except only one person was throwing it; Antauri.

By the time breakfast was over, the team excluding Antauri was covered from head to toe with pieces of their meal. They didn't seem to care as laughter was the only sound echoing through the robot.

Antauri smiled at the sight of the teen's happiness. In fact, he only fought back like that to see him smile. He felt bad for bringing up the nightmare this early, so he repaid him.

"I'm going to hit the shower, okay?" Chiro said as he walked away from the rest of his team.

"Alright!" Otto yelled; still laughing.

Gibson looked at Antauri in shock as he wondered why his brother participated in such an activity. But once he saw the smile planted on his face, he decided it was better not to ask.

"I think we all should get a shower. – Unless you guys prefer to stay filthy."

"Na!" they all replied and headed for their own rooms.

Antauri watched as they went up their tubes before returning to the colorful kitchen.

He activated his blue ghost claws and quickly went to work.

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Chiro quickly discarded his garments into the bin as he eagerly stepped into the steaming hot bath.

Finally, he could relax and forget about his duties that he needed to attend to.

As he washed his hair, flashed of his dream came back to him as if were trying to tell him something.

'Why can't you leave me alone?' He yelled in his head.

The visions soon stopped and Chiro began to relax again. He laid back and enjoyed the sound of the water moving and the candle lighting. It rather soothed his sole. However, Chiro grasped his forehead in pain as he felt as if someone was engraving a symbol on his skin.

Quickly sitting up, he looked at his reflection in the water to see a red symbol on his forehead. Water rippled the image away as Chiro's hand swiftly rose out of the water to touch the symbol. But when the ripples seized, he once again looked at his reflection to see nothing there.

'What!' He shouted to himself.

When he couldn't think of anything that could have caused it, he slowly returned to his bath as nothing else interrupted him.

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When the monkeys were all clean, they returned to the kitchen to clean it up. However, everything was spotless. The dishes were clean, the table was set, the floor and ceiling was washed off, and even the chairs where clean.

"Who cleaned up for us?" Otto asked.

Sprx looked around. "I bet it was Antauri."

"I'll go thank him." Gibson said as he ran out of the kitchen and headed for Antauri's room.

The rest of the team shrugged and continued on with their day.

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Chiro had finished his bath about half an hour ago as he stared at his blank walls. He was thinking of different reasons why he saw and felt a symbol on his forehead while debating with himself whether to tell Antauri or not.

Giving up, he collapsed on his bed.

"Why are all these strange things happening to me?!" Chiro yelled frustrated before putting his head in the pillow.

He stayed silent for a while until he decided he needed fresh air.

He didn't get too far to his transporter tube when an alarm went off.

The city was being attacked.

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