Obliterate
Well, here's Chapter Two! Please review! This is actually pretty long, for me, but enjoy in nonetheless. I want really good reviews, and tell me what you thought.
I noticed I've been just plain giving up several Fanfictions. I'm sorry for this, but I won't be deleting this one. You can bet on it.
If otherwise you can sick your OCs on me. :D
Chapter Two: First Meetings
Chiro winced as Gibson wrapped his arms in fresh gauze. It had been not long after his return, and the blue monkey insisted on giving Chiro a medical check-up. Chiro didn't want one, saying he could take care of himself, but his wounds had recently re-opened, forcing him into the check-up.
He winced again as the blue simian wrapped his torso, the bandages completely covering his chest.
Gibson looked at him peculiarly, and Chiro met his gaze. "What?"
"How did you get that scar on your eye?" Gibson asked.
"I told you," Chiro snapped. "That dragon. Remember? It nearly killed me; it clawed at my eye. I had to shield my face with my arms. Argh!"
"Sorry." Gibson finished wrapping his torso, and stood back, like an artist studying a newly-completed masterpiece.
"How do you feel, Chiro?"
"Stiff," was his answer.
"Well, you're a lot more built than last time we saw you, three years ago," Gibson agreed, nodding. "You've been training, Antauri said?"
"Yeah," Chiro said, his head bobbing up and down. Before Gibson could ask anything further, Chiro got off the Sick Bay table and trotted out of the room.
Wariness.
That's what occupied all their minds during the first few weeks as a team again. All of them were wary of each other, though they still tried to become a team like they were before. They had spent three years apart; things were bound to still be bitter between them.
But, in all, they were wary of Chiro.
He was a different person. His blue crystal eyes were always distant; and there was always something important on his mind. His movements around the Robot were slow, but he barely left his room. Although, for some reason, he never slept in his room. In the middle of the night, one of the monkeys would always find him sleeping in either the hallway outside his room, leaning up against the metal wall, or in the main room, on top of his globe-like chair. No one knew what was wrong because he was barely talking anymore. What happened to the happy-go-lucky, cheery, amusing fourteen-year-old they once knew?
Oh, him? He was replaced by this smart, cunning, and powerful seventeen-year-old man.
He was still the same, in ways. He stayed on his training schedule, as usual. But his schedule was at a random. He would either be meditating, fighting, or practicing with more advanced Power Primate abilities.
He would also routinely be caught playing video games in the main room. He would sit there in a daze, staring at the screen, his fingers hitting the controls rapid-fire.
He was like having a wild animal in the Super Robot: Unpredictable, and dangerous.
"Chiro?"
Chiro jumped from his pacing in his room when he heard the muffled voice beyond the door. He slowly walked over and opened it.
Jinmay stepped into the room before Chiro could say no. She turned around to face Chiro. "We need to talk."
"Okay," Chiro said. "About what?"
"What's wrong with you? You've been so isolated from us ever since you came back. No one has been able to talk to you."
"I'm just not used to this, is all," Chiro said quietly, looking at his hands. "I've been living alone for a long time—"
"But sleeping in the hallway? What's that about?"
"I sleep on the floor."
"Why don't you start sleeping on the bed?"
"I'm not used to it!"
Now Chiro was yelling. Jinmay backed away, hurt, and said, "You've changed."
With that, she left.
But before she could get anywhere, Chiro grabbed her arm and turned her around to face him. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close.
"I'm sorry, Jinmay," he whispered. "It's just...hard."
And he let her go and backed off, turning around and jumping onto his bed. He looked up at Jinmay, until she finally turned around and left once more.
The ghost owned no conscious thought. The only thing on its mind was the order given to it by its mistress: Attack and disown the Hyperforce. Leave no place left for them to hide.
But after that, what would happen? The ghost would be free of its debt of honor, and be able to do whatever it wanted. Unless the witch was more powerful than it, which was unlikely...
It shook its head, ridding its mind of the thoughts. No thinking, it reminded itself. Attack and disown, it knew, was its mission.
After that, it would kill and destroy, as it was created to do.
Chiro's eyes snapped open. He had fallen asleep. The bed was comfortable.
He got up, wincing as his muscles cried in protest. He stretched his back, despite the pain. He looked around his room. They had cleaned it not long after his return, so there were no layers of dust covering everything. He hadn't been in this room for years; he was a little uncomfortable in it.
He paced a little, before deciding to move his legs a little. He left his room and ran to the main room. Just before he got to his orange transport tube, a voice spoke.
"Where are you going?"
Chiro whirled around, coming face-to-face with Antauri. The silver monkey had an emotionless face, and his arms crossed. He looked at Chiro intently.
"Out," Chiro said simply. He hadn't talked to Antauri much since his return.
"Where?" Antauri questioned, his head slightly tilted to the side. "Are you going to come back?"
Chiro let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes, Antauri, I am."
With that, he stepped into his tube. But nothing happened. He hit the side with the palm of his hand. "What's up with this thing?"
"It doesn't work unless I say so," Antauri said. "We are not going to let you leave ever again."
"I'm not going to!" Chiro yelled. The force of his voice actually caused the silver monkey to take a step back. "I can't, because I have nowhere else to go!"
With that, he closed his eyes. With a flash of green light, he vanished.
Antauri walked into the tube. "Chiro!" he called.
"Antauri?"
Antauri turned around to see Sparx standing behind him, a helpless look on his face. "I think you always forget that he's not a kid anymore. He's mastered the Power Primate."
With that, Sparx turned and left.
Antauri shook his head. "I'm going after him."
Chiro walked slowly down the streets, his hands jammed into his pockets, staying in the shadows. He kicked a rock that was in the middle of the street, watching as it banged into a trash can, making a metal clanging sound.
He looked around, making sure no one was watching him. He approached a street lamp, looking up at the trio group of lights. He jumped up and grabbed onto the middle one, and it bent, dropping him back to the ground.
The sidewalk under him gave way, like a trap door opening, causing him to fall through. A slide-like contraption was under him, sending him spiraling down a secret shaft. After a few seconds, he finally landed on solid ground.
In the Shadow Underpass.
Shuggazoom gangs used to use this route to smuggle illegal goods around the city, until it was discovered by the Hyperforce. They found it during the time when Ma and Pa Sinco were discovered to be the leaders of the Skeletal Circle. Now, the place was deserted.
Chiro entered what he called the Skull Chamber. It was the place where the Skeleton King's throne was long ago, and where his Skull was during the curse.
He was surprised to see...something...there. It looked like a ghost, but not any ghost he had ever seen. It glared at him hatefully.
"I understand you are the leader of the team known as the Hyperforce," the ghost said, its voice whispery (imagine Ghostfreak from Ben 10, only deeper).
"Who are you?" Chiro demanded, his stance becoming closer to that of attack.
"You are not worthy of knowing my title, boy." The ghost flew slightly into the air and glowered.
Chiro glared right back.
"I grow weary of this," the ghost sighed. "My master is impatient."
"Who sent you?" Chiro yelled.
Antauri wandered down the street, following the scanner he had borrowed from Gibson. He had located Chiro's position, and was now on the move.
"Why is he all the way out here?"
He stopped. He was right at the point that the scanner said Chiro was. He looked around. No sign of anything living was apparent. A slight breeze blew across the street, taking a piece of paper with it.
Then, he realized that he was in the right spot.
Or, actually, he was above it.
But it was too late to comprehend this, as the ground suddenly blew up, right beneath him.
Chiro accompanied the rocks that blew out of the ceiling. He should have sensed the surprise attack from that ghost. It was only common sense. Ghosts were never good.
He was also surprised to see Antauri, lying on the ground. He was propped up on his hands, giving Chiro a look of surprise and confusion.
"What happened, Chiro?" he asked.
His answer came in the form of a black cloud of mist rising up from the ground. It wrapped around him, engulfing the silver monkey. He began to suffocate.
"Leave him alone!" Chiro yelled. He got into a fighting stance. "Monkey Fu!"
The bright blast of energy slammed into the ghost, and it shrieked and released Antauri, who fell to the asphalt, gasping for air.
The ghost took on form again, and dove from the sky, straight at Chiro. He did a back flip, dodging it, watching as it phased through the ground.
Chiro looked around. He yelped as the ghost rose up under him, wrapping its body around his torso, restraining him.
A flash of green light surrounded him, and he vanished, causing the ghost to coil around itself.
It looked around. It saw as the human appeared next to the fallen silver monkey and grabbed him, teleporting away once more.
The ghost smiled. "Someday, boy. Someday."
Chiro appeared in front of the Super Robot, holding a winded Antauri. He set the silver simian on the ground. "Antauri, you okay?"
Antauri grimaced. "I am fine..." he muttered. "How did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Teleport."
"The Power Primate," Chiro answered simply, shrugging.
He opened the door in the Super Robot's right foot, and Antauri followed him inside. Antauri persisted him for more information.
"But how? The Power Primate can't do that—"
"Antauri." Chiro turned around and looked straight into the blue eyes of the silver monkey. "I've been training for the last three years. All with the Power Primate, all the time, every second of the day. Do you think I don't know what it's capable of? Are you calling me stupid?"
"No, Chiro, hardly at all," Antauri said, backing off. "I was just wondering."
Chiro smiled a little. "That's okay. Maybe, one day, I can teach you."
Antauri stared for a moment before returning the smile. "I'd like that."
The Hyperforce was alerted of the danger. The ghost had not appeared, though, in days. Everything was slowly going back to normal.
Well, if you could that the team was still unstable with each other normal.
Chiro was walking in the hallway, towards a random destination, when he was confronted once again.
He was tackled by something. Something so strong, it held him down on the cold metal floor and refused to let him up.
"You left us." The anger-filled voice of Nova hissed into his ear. "You left us here to fend for the city ourselves. You betrayed us, Chiro. I trusted you." She held him down tighter. "Now it'll take a long time to get that trust back."
"Nova?" Chiro asked incredulously. "Why—"
"No, you listen to me." She put a hand on his head, forcing his head to stay on the floor so he couldn't see her. He realized she was using her giant golden fists, and her body was what was holding him down. "How could you? Even if you had a valid reason, you had no right to leave us with nothing!"
"You had everything you had before you even met me!" Chiro yelled back, his voice muffled by the floor. "You had the Super Robot, each other, Jinmay… And Shuggazoom! —What were you missing?"
"We didn't have a leader!" Nova pressed his head down harder. "We all looked to Antauri for support, and he upped and left as well! You both betrayed us, and so I left! All I had left was Otto and Sparx." She moved to growl in his ear. "We...had...nothing. We lost it all when you left. I can't believe you would be so heartless."
"I can't believe you could be so hopeless," Chiro retorted.
Nova blinked. Then, angrily, she jammed her knee into his back, causing him to wince.
"How could you even—"
Suddenly, she was flipped. Chiro twisted his body in a way thought impossible, and he ended up holding Nova down by the wrists, glaring at her.
"Maybe this isn't me," he said softly, despite the situation. "Maybe there's something else...to you. You always believed in me, through thick and thin, through everything we've been through together. I always trusted you, and you always trusted me." He leaned down to whisper in her ear. "When did you finally lose hope?"
She blinked again. All her anger melted away as she listened to his words.
"There are two possible answers," Chiro continued. "Maybe you just broke down, and totally 'lost it all', like you said before." He got up and stood above her, yet she made no attempt to stand. He kneeled down and held a hand out to her. "Or, maybe, you just had no hope at all."
He took her hand and pulled her to her feet. Without a second glance, he turned and walked back in the direction he had been going in, whistling.
Nova watching him go. She thought about what he had said.
Did she lose it all when he left? Or did she never have hope?
She blinked once more when she realized that he had never answered the question. She walked off towards her room, to ponder her answer.
Oh, man, you thought Nova was mad in Thanks for the Memories? Well, this is her anger, truly, at Chiro for leaving. More will be revealed for all the others. Now, at least Chiro and Antauri have reached an understanding, however small. When Nova figures out the answer to Chiro's unspoken question, maybe they'll reach a level of understanding as well.
Oh well. Nothing is definite now. Just you wait. The fun's only began.
Review and stay tuned for Chapter Three!
