Disclaimer: I do not own "SRMTHFG!" but I do own Ace and Zoey. WingedWolf101 owns the prototype monkeys that came before the Hyperforce was even born.
The Day Before Tomorrow
Chapter One: Friends, Family, & Strangers
Before time began, there was the voice.
No one knows where it came from; all anyone knew was the song from the voice created life.
Each verse became a day, which echoed in the great void, and so in seven days, time itself was created, and life followed suit…
…but with life came light… and darkness.
A group of wise saints foretold a future of bleakness… a cosmos ruled by hate.
Yet, it was also foreseen that another force would rise against the shadows…
…time would choose a Chosen One, who shall be brought into the world by rare faithful hearts. Soul mates that were raised on the same planet, yet in two separate worlds.
That Chosen One would lead followers to end the final war…
…and only until a Chosen One is chosen, the galaxy will drift between light and darkness… until that day comes…
Like on Earth, Saturday mornings were a time of fun for children in Shuggazoom City, especially during what came to be called the Golden Age. Of course, some families had a harder time with weekends then others, and even Carrington Manor was no exception to the rule.
"Uncle Clayton, you can't be too busy for me!" a young boy named Ace was heard to say from miles away, "You promised we could play catch in the park!"
"I'm sorry, kid, but it cannot be helped," said millionare playboy industrialist Clayton Carrington (secretly, Captain Shuggazoom, defender of the city), "my business got me up to my shoulders in paperwork, and there is no telling when my, um, 'charity work' will require my help."
"Don't tell me you forgot what day this is!"
"Of course not, it's the day after yesterday and the day before tomorrow. I'll make it up to you tonight, Ace, I promise."
"How are you going to do that? By using me as a babe-magnet during one of your dinner dates? Yeah! Right, as if I'd let that happen!"
Clayton shook his head, for he cared a lot more about his orphaned nephew then anyone assumes. In fact, if he didn't agree to take the boy in, he'd probably end up on an intergalactic orphanage ship getting into who-knows-what kind of trouble in the cosmos! However, balancing family time with business, women, and superhero duty just isn't easy, so they just manage to spend time together during during the weekends, and even then, they'd be lucky to squeeze in an hour or two… which was far from the case this weekend. That is why the busy uncle had something special in mind to make up for it.
"Actually, tonight, I'm getting you a girl." Clayton said, playfully, "You see, I know this guy who knows a guy who has a daughter around your age… and you know, she has a wonderful personality."
Ace flinched in disgust at the offer: "Ew! No thanks! Look, Uncle Clayton, I know you mean well, but I'm only eight years old! It just isn't normal for a boy my age to befriend girls, and even if it was, I can't let my first moments with her be over a dinner date!" With that off his chest, Ace put on his hat, straightened his glasses, and grabbed his family heirloom baseball, "Fine, if you are that busy, then I'm going to the park by myself. If this girl shows up before I come back… please don't make things weird!"
After that, Ace stormed out, but the second he left, Clayton had a sly smirk on his face. "Somehow I knew Ace would say that," he told himself, "phase one practically completed itself."
"A crafty move indeed, sir," said Tobias Burgas, the butler, who had overheard the whole thing, "however, it would have been far wiser to tell him that your 'charity work' involved flying around with a cape and a helmet, making the duties of the police force easier."
Clayton shook his head, "Toby, you don't know my nephew… like his father, my sainted twin brother; Ace is good at keeping secrets, but not that good. Knowing he has a superhero in his family might blow the kid's mind!" he finished his paperwork with lightning speed, as only a super-powered person could, and then opens the secret passage behind the bookcase, where his Captain Shuggazoom uniform was waiting for him, "Time to go on patrol. Will you get everything ready and cover for me while I am gone, Toby?"
"I always do, sir." Tobias replied, "Good luck."
"Thanks."
Meanwhile, in Shuggazoom City Park, Ace wasn't having as much luck making friends as he thought he would. Most of the other kids were too busy with their own friends and family to even notice him, and the few who did spoke poorly of him.
"The millionare's nephew is too good for us," he overheard one of them say, "I wouldn't spend time with him unless he paid me."
"I wouldn't spend time with him even if he paid me, "he heard someone else say, "I mean, look at his glasses… he's a geek!"
The only exception among that grou[ was this weird boy from the wrong side of the tracks named Gyrus Krinkle… or as Ace came to call him: Krinkle the Creep!
Although they find comfort in each other's company, nobody, not even Ace, would want to spend more than five minutes a day with Krinkle, and for a good reason: once the guy develops an interest in something—mainly monkeys and superheroes – he won't leave anyone alone until he gets what he wants, and he can very annoying in the process.
"Hey! Henry!" said Krinkle, upon finding Ace in the park, "I just saw Captain Shuggazoom fly out on patrol! Want to follow him so we can learn his secret identity and become his sidekicks?"
Ace sighed hearing that, "Krinkle, for the one hundredth time, stop using the name that was written on my birth certificate! I prefer to be called 'Ace'," he said "and no! We are not going to follow Captain Shuggazoom just to see the face under his helmet! People with superpowers keep their true identities a secret for a reason. Besides, he might hear us coming from a mile or more away anyhow."
Actually, in secret, Ace already knew Captain Shuggazoom was really his Uncle Clayton… being a sharp kid, he figured it out the moment he moved into Carrington Manor, but he promised his sainted mother that he would respect other people's privacy, so he kept his mouth shut about it. Besides, he wanted to prove to himself he could do better at keeping secrets then his late father.
"Well, we better do something together today," said the oblivious, crazy young Krinkle, "I'm bored, and I have to do something other than my homework… and getting yelled at by mother for no reason."
"Hey! At least you still have a mom," Ace replied, offended, "even if she is a robot without emotional warmth in her programming. Anyhow, if fun is what you are looking for, then you came to the right guy. How about we play a nice, safe game of catch? I even brought my family heirloom baseball."
Gyrus Krinkle shook his head. "I may be bored, but I'm not that bored… Oh! Oh! Oh! I know! How about we paint ourselves with tiger stripes, and go free all the animals in the zoo?! Like that boy on the tv?!"
Ace face palmed. He wanted to say "No" or "What are you, bonkers?" to Gyrus Krinkle, but he didn't want to paint himself as the bad guy while out in public.
"Fine, Krinkle." Ace said with a sigh, "If I don't meet you there in an hour, start without me."
Krinkle the Creep ran off cheering, and although he was the only company he had, Ace was glad to get rid of him.
"Ugh! I thought he'd never leave," Ace muttered to himself, "I want to have one friend, but I want it to be a real friend. Someone who won't ignore me, expect me to bribe them, or get both of us into trouble just for the fun of it."
Of course, for Ace, finding such a friend is easier said than done, but the maker knows he tried that day… for at least another whole hour.
The next thing anyone knew, the city streets were overrun with beasts from all over the Nexxo-4 galaxy, and from miles away the laughter and voice of Gyrus Krinkle reached Ace's ears.
"Free the animals!"
Out of embarrassment, a drop of sweat crossed Ace's brow, "I'm surprised his mom didn't try to stop him," he told himself, "does she even know he's out and about?"
Before he could figure it out, however, Ace's train of thought was thrown off track by all the chaos around him: everywhere he looked there were animals that didn't belong there, including vampire penguins, night-fliers (a cross between a bird and a bat), mega-lions, intergalactic mammoths, and… a cybernetic monkey?!
Before he could figure it out, however, Ace's train of thought was thrown off track by all the chaos around him: everywhere he looked there were animals that didn't belong there, including vampire penguins, night-fliers (a cross between a bird and a bat), mega-lions, intergalactic mammoths, and… a cybernetic monkey?!
Before he could figure it out, however, Ace's train of thought was thrown off track by all the chaos around him: everywhere he looked there were animals that didn't belong there, including vampire penguins, night-fliers (a cross between a bird and a bat), mega-lions, intergalactic mammoths, and… a cybernetic monkey?!
"Weird!"
That was the only word that escaped Ace's lips before he started following the strange grey furred, steampunk monkey into that chaotic mess. He would have been eaten by a mega-lion or some other predator if not for Captain Shuggazoom, who wasted no time getting to work, rounding up the escaped zoo animals… carnivores first, of course.
"I was actually hoping Major Mongroloid would pull a stunt like this," the superhero sighed, "but thankfully that wasn't the case… this time. Still, you'd think a wacky kid with a robot for a mom would have picked up her restraint. Speaking of moms, yours has been looking everywhere for you, little guy. You stay here; I'll be right back with your neighbors."
With that said, he put the last of the mega-lions… a cub… back into its habitat before the zookeepers before the zookeepers closed the door, and took to the sky the moment they looked it behind him. While up there, he recognized the little boy chasing the one monkey that didn't belong in the zoo to begin with.
"That's my Ace," Captain Shuggazoom chuckled, glad to see his nephew is safe, "he's one of the few people in this city to notice the elephant in the room. Ah! Speaking of elephants; better fetch those interstellar mammoths next."
Before long, Ace had followed the mysterious monkey to a peach orchard in the outskirts of the city… and at this point, things were starting to get even more suspicious. See, from what he heard, monkeys live in trees, gathering fruit and sleeping in the branches. To any animal, let alone a monkey, the branches of a Shuggazoomian peach tree would make a rather sturdy home, mainly because the fruit that grows on them usually ripen at twice the size of a person's head, yet for some reason, the cybernetic monkey shown no interest in any tree in the orchard. She just kept running, like she was determined to get somewhere, but where?
"Well, wherever you are going," Ace muttered, as he was catching his breath, "you better let me catch up with you! I mean, really? Who puts artificial limbs on a monkey?! I want answers!"
The only response he got from her, of course, was a bunch of monkey talk, and even then, she kept running… and then disappeared behind a rock. Ace was just about to call himself crazy for talking to a monkey and expecting her to speak back in a way he could understand, when he reached the other side of that same rock, and found a tunnel hidden behind a tall patch of grass. Near the entrance was an old lantern with a lungwort wick, and judging by the scorch marks on the glass, it had been used before… several times… and quite recently too, until whoever is in there knew the tunnel so well they could find their way around in the dark.
"Well, no way I would let this to waste." Ace said to himself, as he reached into his deep coat pocket for his in-case-of-emergency box of matches… unfortunately, he knocked out his baseball in the process, and it bounced down the tunnel into darkness. (He could no longer see it, but it sounded like it landed on something made of metal.) "Oh! Great! Now I have to find a runaway monkey and my family heirloom baseball!"
Of course, despite his young age, Ace had been through worse, so he took a deep breath, lit the lantern, and went in without further complaining. He didn't know how long he had been walking before his lantern went out, he tripped, and he stumbled to the other end of the tunnel, which, to his surprise, was much brighter than he expected. Did he resurface? No, he discovered, for only a portion of the light came from the sun, seeping through cracks of a large cavern ceiling that was coated in glowing crystals. If not for that, Ace would have assumed that he fell into an alternate, jungle universe, because that is exactly what it looked like to him. He even saw the cybernetic mystery monkey he was chasing had climbed one of the nearest trees.
"Oh! So this is your home, huh?" but then he noticed what her tail was wrapped around, "Hey! That's my ball! Don't you realize you are holding a family heirloom? My dad gave me that ball, and his dad gave it to him, and so on and so forth for a total of sixteen generations!"
He then noticed she had a dent on her helmet… she was a grey furred monkey with large green eyes, clad with onyx black steampunk arms with claws, a matching helmet and a flail-like tail tip. It was a frightening display, yet despite the scar over one of her eyes, her large teeth, her messy fur, and cybernetic parts, there was an aura of beauty about her, and Ace was suddenly ashamed his carelessness had hurt her, even if she could barely feel it.
"Look, I am sorry I let my ball hit you on the head, but can I please have my ball back. It's all I have left of my parents." Of course, all Ace got in response was a bunch of monkey chatter, and that frustrated him, "Ugh! You know, I really wish I could understand you! Then I would know for sure whether or not you can understand me!"
Hearing that, the monkey became quiet, and then she tossed the ball back to Ace, and flipped a hidden switch under her cybernetic ear. After that, she started chattering again, and her voice changed from that of any other monkey to one that was deep and gravelly, yet had a queenliness to it like a jungle goddess, despite her obvious Scottish accent in the human-like words that were forming for the first time: "Why… you… here… lad?"
Ace was stunned, "You can talk?!" he asked, but then he shook it off, "I mean, I was going to ask you the same thing back in the city. I'm not sure why nobody else noticed but it's not every day we have cybernetic animals in the zoo, let alone escape from there."
The grey monkey shook her head, and came down from the trees. "I talk, lad… don't like to… especially about that. Now, again: why are you here?"
"I was just… trying to make friends," Ace answered, "and after… well, whatever it was that got you into that mess, I felt that you could need a friend as much as I do, so I followed you home."
"Bad idea, lad… the forest of Pandora is too dangerous for you." The monkey said, "You must leave. Go back to your city, where you are safe."
"No! I am a Carrington! 'Danger' is in my blood, and being in the car crash that orphaned me was a lot scarier than this beautiful place."
The grey monkey's dull expression did not changed, but her one good eye seemed to tremble when Ace declared his family name. "Carrington?" she asked.
"Oh! I guess we hadn't introduced," said Ace, blushing, "my full name is Henry James Carrington the third, but you can call me 'Ace'. My sainted father is the twin brother of my uncle, Clayton Carrington who is usually too busy for me on account of being a tycoon in intergalactic industry, a real playboy and…" he looked both ways, making sure there is nobody around, before whispering to her, "he is a superhero. He doesn't know that I know, and I think it is best things stay that way."
He felt better getting it off his chest. Before he was orphaned his mother always told him that animals are better at keeping secrets then people, and at this point, he quietly hoped she was right.
"Alright, lad," said the monkey, appearing uninterested despite feelings to the contrary, "I will take your word for it."
"So what's your name? I told you mine."
"Vex."
"Huh?"
"My name is Vex. Now, for the last time… go away."
"Hold on!" Ace shouted, as Vex started running off again, "There is so much more I wanted to ask you! Like, where did you get your armor? Are there others like you? Why did you call this jungle 'Pandora'? Is it because this cave it's in is like a box? Because if that's the case, it's not even that clever! Hey! Wait up!"
He followed her through thick tree branches, across stepping stones on a raging river, and around obstacles that a city kid never would have even imagined, and still he kept running… and then he tripped over a tree root and fell into a giant spider web. Just as the arachnid that spun it was about to devour him, however, Vex swung back to him on a vine, and she pulled him out just in time.
"Thanks." Ace gasped, as they lowered themselves back to the ground.
"Eyes open, lad," said Vex, shaking her head, "Cannot protect you all the time."
Realizing what Vex meant by saying this place was "dangerous", Ace made up his mind to head straight back home… only to find that he could barely walk and he was completely lost.
"Ouch! I must have twisted my ankle back there. Say, Vex, got anywhere I can stay until my uncle comes looking for me… if that is even possible?"
Vex sighed. She knew that the jungle was dangerous enough to someone who was able bodied, but a wounded child with a poor sense of direction? Things would be even harder for him now, and it was clear that Ace might not make it back to the city… alive… not without some form of help. With that in mind, she picked him up and carried him to a strange hut, and placed him on the bottom step of the stairs near the front door. Then, she pulled a pin-like device from one of her mechanical ears, and blows into it… it was a shrill sounding whistle.
"What was that?" asked Ace.
"A distress call," answered Vex, putting the whistle away, "you humans are not the only primates who scream when they need help, and I do not like to scream."
Sure enough, Vex's distress call was quickly answered, as another cybernetic monkey—a white one –rushed out of the house and down the stairs with a tiny, robed figure close behind him.
"Mon amour," they white monkey said, in a smooth French accent, "you had been away too long. Where had you been all this time?"
"I do not want to talk about it, Wisp," Vex answered, giving the white monkey with violet eyes a gentle kiss… despite her fangs, "but right now, that is the least of our problems. Where is the Alchemist?"
"Sensei is in the Super Robot, tuning the systems," said the small, robed figure (Ace noticed it was a girl's voice, but the tone was pretty impish, like that of a fairy), "you know how he likes keeping his hands busy. What is wrong, Vex?"
Vex didn't say a word, as she directed the attention of her friends towards Ace, who had sweat on his brow as he worried what will become of him.
"Look, I read enough comic books to know where this is going," Ace said, raising his hands in defense, "you don't want anyone to know about your secret underground garden, as the modern world might ruin it, so you intend on punishing anyone who'd end up knowing too much; I get it! Well, you can go ahead and do what you want with me, I don't care! My only family, my uncle, is probably too busy to even know I'm gone, and I have no friends to miss me anyhow, so-!"
"You have no family?" the small robed figure interrupted, her young voice turning from dull and impish, to soft and sweet, "No mother?"
Ace shook his head "no", and the robed figure lowered her hood, revealing the human face of a young girl. Her skin was ghostly pale, except for the dark grey rings around her bright blue eyes. Her raven black hair was only shoulder length, but it had several split ends, as though she had been growing out like the fur of a wild animal.
"I am alone too," she said, looking down, "for as long as I could remember, it was just Wisp, Vex, Sensei, and me. I never knew anything about my parents… except that, according to Sensei, my mother died shortly after I was born, and that she wanted to name me 'Eris', after a goddess of chaos… I like the name that Sensei had raised me with better."
"And, um, what name is that?" Ace dared to ask, "What was the name you grew up with."
The robed girl smiled proudly before answering: "Zoey."
"'Zoey'," Ace repeated, liking the sound of it, "That's a nice name. I'm Ace."
At that moment, inside the Super Robot, Captain Shuggazoom and the Alchemist were watching the children get acquainted via the outside camera.
"You know," Captain Shuggazoom said, as the mask on his helmet slid to the side, "I would have made 'Operation: Dinner Party' work without the mishap, but I'm actually glad that delinquent's desire to free all the animals from the zoo served the purpose."
"Especially for Vex's sake, the loner," replied the Alchemist, as he shook his head, "if I had known one of her antics would have landed her behind bars, I would have alerted you to it sooner, but you know her. She likes to keep her distance from others for days on end."
Captain Shuggazoom nodded in understanding, and smiled at the footage of Zoey tending to Ace's ankle, "Well, I'll be back in half an hour to stage a 'search and rescue' in favor of my alter ego, and then we continue the plan we already had thought up. I know you like keeping your real name a secret, and I respect that, so when you and Zoey stop by for dinner tonight, you could address yourselves as the 'Sulphur' family, after the ashes in your lab."
The Alchemist thought it over. "Hmm, 'Zoey Sulphur'," he pondered, "life from the ashes… yes, that will be a fitting maiden name for the phoenix-like personality of my apprentice… my daughter."
"You know, 'Neili' isn't a bad surname either."
"No, no, you know the reason I don't go by that title anymore."
"Yeah, I understand. See you in half an hour."
So, after "Captain Shuggazoom" returned to take Ace home, one can imagine the surprise this boy had when his new friend Zoey shown up as the dinner "playdate" his uncle Clayton arranged. From then on, Ace and Zoey got together in each other's worlds every chance they could, and while things may have worked out for the better, life was never the same for either of them, or their monkey friends.