I don't own SRMTHFG and never will; Ciro Nieli does.
Neji & TenTen 4ever owns Keeping You Near.
Chapter one: Unanswered Questions
Sprx groaned out loud as he managed to open his eyes, only to feel his back aching from leaning against the wall. He had no idea for how long he had been asleep, and while it had to be a couple of hours, to him it felt like the eternity. It took him a while to realize why he was there instead of his comfortable bed, but as soon as his mind seemed to wake up, it screamed at him in panic as all the fresh memories from last night came back to his head. Nova.
Nothing new for him, as the yellow female popped into his head everytime he woke up, only this time it felt so different. So wrong. He could see her ruined expression from last night in front of his eyes. So many emotions melting in her eyes... anger, pain, dissapointment, and tears. At some point his heart clenched in guilt. And he knew why, only his pride didn't have in plan to accept it.
He could feel the pain leaning on his back as he stood up, and yet the pain inside of him seemed to be worse. Something didn't feel right at all, he felt like there was something missing... something important, but he couldn't find out what. He tried to get that thought out of his head, but it would keep nagging him. He could feel it, sense it.
He shrugged those thoughts off as he cleared his mind, realizing the apologize to Nova was on the first place on his to-do list. He didn't like it a bit. His pride was screaming inside of his head at him. After those words he had managed to say he'd look like a total idiot while apologizing to her. "I've always been for her a dumb monkey." His teeth clenched for some reason, as if the fact bothered him, yet he didn't want to accept it would bother him. Why should it? After all, from the time the war had begun, she hasn't been behaving like that anymore - like herself. She would always turn to him with those sparkles shining in her eyes, with the sweetest smile she could manage, without any sign of anger- but he would always turn his back at her. But why? Wasn't this just what he had wanted all the time? Maybe it was because whenever he looked at her, he could see her face from the Pit of Doom, above him, with tears in her eyes- he wanted to stop thinking about it, about her. But he couldn't. And after yesterday, he knew he wouldn't get her out of his head that easily. He could imagine her reaction to his apologizing after what he had done yesterday. But his legs walked itself their way, ignoring all of these thoughts floating in his mind. As if they would follow something they needed to follow.
As he made his way out of the training room, something caught his attention as the corner of his eyes gazed upwards. Where they usually had all of their powers - saws, magnets, drills - there weren't all of them. Nova's giant fists were missing. Sprx peeked at the place where they had their place on wall - his first thought was, Nova could just take them, no big deal - but it looked like they had never been stored there, as there was no place there for them. Yet he was sure it has always been the same place where they had been stored all the time before. An uncomfortable feeling settled down in his stomach. He ignored the feeling as he left the training room.
Sprx soon approached Nova's room and he paused. The feeling grew bigger as he thought of words to say- but probbably in vain, as she wouldn't even let him speak. But for some reason, in the back of his head he knew he needed to apologize to her, sooner then better. Before the rest of the team will sense something had happened. He wouldn't really admit it, but deeply inside he wanted to say honestly he was sorry.
He slowly peeked into Nova's room, but in his own surprise he realized it wasn't Nova's room at all. No yellow transport tube, no plushies, no punching bag... absolutely nothing. Well, except one lone radio standing innocently in the corner. Sprx looked around himself when he was out of room- he was sure Nova's room was supposed to be here! He shook his head as he felt anger starting to melt inside of him. "There's something really weird goin' on.."
His feet moved itself as he found himself hurrying into the room where all of the monkeys except Antauri slept. He had a bad intuition. When he entered the room, in his own shock he found only three of the tubes. The yellow one, Nova's, was gone. As if it had never been there.
He blinked, as the anger grew. "Is this some kind of joke?" he muttered upon his nose with annoyance, as he became impatient with this joke that was not funny at all. It was making him furious instead.
As he walked down the hall, he felt so furious as the girl was hiding from him like a childlish little kid, wherever she was. Yet it felt like it wasn't Nova's style. Sure she was stubborn, and no doubt she avoided him, after what happened he couldn't blame her. He was sure he would do the same if he was in her shoes. But this was little too much. As if she wanted to make him pay for what he did, but Sprx just knew she would do it the other way. She had always done it the other way.
Sprx forced his anger down as he spoke as loud so Nova could hear him. "Nova? Alright, you can come out now," he tried with calm yet somehow soft voice, "I know you're mad. Listen, I'm sorry, ok?" No response. Sprx swallowed hard as his impatience grew, as if he gave too much effort to say those words. He cleared his throat, he had no more will to wait. Still no answer. His teeth gritted. He knew Nova too well that she would have answered him by now, no matter how mad or stubborn she could be. He waited few more seconds, untill he could feel a new feeling formimg inside of him, an unexpected feeling. Worry. "Nova?" he looked around himself, confused.
All of sudden his fists clenched and the feeling disappeared. He didn't have to do anything at all, if she wanted it like this, then let her be. He didn't care. He won't be playing any sort of stupid games with her. She wasn't worth his patience with this.
As Sprx entered the mainroom, his eyes searched through the room to check her, even if he was sure Nova wasn't there. And he was right. Otto, Gibson and Antauri together with Jinmay were centered around the mainscreen, but.. no sign of Chiro, who usually as their leader could be found with them whenever they were. "Where's the kid?" Sprx silently wondered. But his first priority was Nova.
"Hey guys," Sprx greeted to get everyone's attention. "Where's Nova?" he asked as casually as he could, trying to keep cool so none of them would realize something was wrong. The team turned to face him, but instead of an answer he got a long silence with perplexed expressions on their faces.
"Who's Nova?" Otto finally spoke up with the exact same question that everyone else had in mind.
First there was a sign of frown on the red monkey's face, but soon it was replaced with a glare. This was going way too far, as if everyone was playing along the game, and he was getting sick of it. "You're kidding me, right?" As he crossed his arms, he made sure he sounded as serious as he meant it. "Okay guys, you've got me, ha-ha. Very funny," as the sarcastic tone of his voice widdened, his glare came back. "Now cut the act. Seriously, where is she?"
"Sprx, what are you talking about?" Jinmay asked softly as there could be heard a worry and very deep confusion in her voice. She had it already too much on her shoulders. Sprx's nerves started to shake as the fact that even the gold soul as Jinmay held inside could be doing this to him. He clenched his fists tight, feeling the anger boil up, as this was so not funny from the whole beginning.
He breathed calmly inside, tired of this as he realized he probably won't get to know where Nova was, until she calmed herself down. "Fine. Act like that, see if I care," as he pointed his finger at himself and his eyes rolled to emphasize the point, all he got in return were glances Antauri and Gibson exchanged. And he knew exactly what they thought about without them saying anything. Only to his surprise Otto with Jinmay stared as if they had no clue about what was going on.
"Alright then. Where's the kid?" just as fast as he finished, a deep tension fell over the atmosphere as they were thrilled by what their friend asked, as if he had said something he shouldn't have. Sprx crossed his arms as his tapping foot reminded them he was getting impatient. "C'mon, guys. I can't wait to hear this one."
Jinmay couldn't hold the breath any longer inside as the heavy air got the best out of her. Tears escaped her eyes and she glanced away, her breath getting faster. She tried to force them down, but they escaped her eyes by self, as if she couldn't control them. Immediately Sprx's anger was replaced with worry and concern, as he realized something bad had happened. He could read it from Jinmay's eyes. "What's wrong? Did something happen to him?" he asked with concern in his voice. But they looked like they weren't going to answer it. So he asked with higher, impatient voice. "Where is Chiro?"
Gibson was first to respond, as his empty eyes met Sprx's in a warning glare. "Sprx, you do know we don't care to speak nor mention that matter," he replied with heavy voice.
Sprx's mind was whirling. His whole world turned upside down after a couple of hours. He couldn't have been asleep that long, could he? It looked like one big awful nightmare, but it felt so real. He wanted answers, so many answers, but everyone seemed to refuse to give them to him... "C'mon guys, can't you just spill it? Why are you all acting so secretive all of a sudden?"
Antauri glanced at him in concern, searching through his eyes. Not that he wouldn't believe his friend... but it was much more unlikely for him to don't remember such a thing. "Sprx, you honestly don't recall the incident?" he asked.
Sprx sighed in frustration. "I've been asleep for what, two hours? What all have I missed since then? Before I woke up, everything was just fine!" he hissed through his teeth.
Otto opened his mouth in order to speak, but before he could have said anything, the alarm went off. Everyone's head turned to face the screen. Sprx could not help himself but think what an awful timing all the bad guys had. "It's Ma and Pa Senko and their army again!" Jinmay exclaimed with serious tone in her voice.
Gibson sighed wearily. "They're unstoppable, it seems."
"Well, we won't give up," Jinmay responded determinedly, just like a true leader.
Sprx's mind kept whirling, not to mention he got too confused while absorving so much information. Ma and Pa Senko? Weren't they just in the middle of a war? They had taken these guys a long time ago, hadn't they? Nothing made him sense anymore. He was staring blankly at the screen until he noticed a white background of the city. Was it... snowing? They hadn't had snow in Shugazoom city since- his thoughts were interrupted by a large loud crash, which caused him to hit the ground with his nose.
"Monkeys, mobilize!" Antauri's authorative voice rang out.
Sprx hardly got up from the floor and headed to the transport tubes, but he stopped his feet right away. There were no colorful tubes. As if they never existed. "What the-"
"Sprx! Where are you going?" Otto's shouting voice refused him from finishing the sentence. As Sprx turned around, he noticed they were sitting in a pod chairs with controls around them.
Gibson turned back to look at him and gave him a sharp strict look. "Hurry to your position, Sprx! There's no time to waste!"
The red simian hurried to the last empty pod chair and hesitated. As he looked at all his controls, he realised he had never used them before. He was scanning them in confusion, trying to figure out if they were similar to the controls he had in his Fist rocket 3.
"Sprx, fire your rocket missiles! NOW!" Jinmay commanded. "That should take them down, at least for a little while. It'll buy us some time."
Sprx's thumbs were running through the all buttons and controls. He had in mind to ask which button it was, but that would just make him look ridicilous. He couldn't concentrate on the task. It felt like a nightmare. A big, awful nightmare. "C'mon, c'mon.."
"Sprx!" Gibson's warning voice woke him up. "NOW!"
And so he tried all the first buttons that were closest to his hand. "Please, let it be the right one, let it be the right one..." He could hear his nervous heartbeat, but sighed in relief as he probably must have shot the right button, since everyone calmed down. All the atmosphere, the tension, his thoughts and feelings.. it felt so real. But.. how could this world be real when everything was so different?
"That should do," Jinmay closed her eyes with a deep heavy sigh, "for now.. what held you back, Sprx?" as she opened her eyes, she met Sprx's frowned expression. He was so not himself..
"I,I.." Sprx tried to come up with an answer that would not make him look ridicilous, but he gave up. "I don't know."
"You better pull yourself together, Sprx," Gibson reminded him. "We mustn't tolerate any kind of your nonsense."
"Me?" Sprx shot back, giving Gibson a cold emotionless glare. "It's you who keep having secrets from me! Seriously, what is going on here?" but before anyone could answer, he threw his hands in the air. Nova, her fists and room, sleeping tube, all the transport tubes, Chiro - it was all too much for him to take. "Just save it."
As Sprx walked out of room, everyone looked at Antauri in hope. In hope of getting an answer. But this time, not even Antauri had a clue about what was going through Sprx's mind.
"What was that all about?" Otto asked, much more in serious tone than in a worry in his voice.
"He might have a hard time," Jinmay suggested while looking worriedly into the direction her red friend had left to. She had promised herself to keep all the monkeys safe, and that's what she would do.
"All of us do," Gibson reminded her.
"Antauri, do you think Sprx is okay?"
"I'm not certain, Jinmay," he replied while deeply thinking, "only time will tell."
Okay.. I deserve to be punched in my stomach right now, since I haven't updated for months. I'm not going to blame anyone, or come up with any excuses. But I'm going to finish this story for sure. And I promise to keep updating this, and not in a half year period time.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.
