'See anything, kid?'
Chiro glanced up nervously towards the image of the red monkey, Sprx, on a screen a short ways above him in the Torso tank cockpit. 'Uh, um, no, none..! Nothing!' he insisted.
Sprx was immediatly suspicious. 'What is it, kid? Got a hot date or something?'
'What? No, no I--'
'Urgent reminder for Chiro,' rang a female voice from chiro's control panel; the boy began to attempt silence it at once as it continued, 'daily showing of the Sun Riders TV program in 5 minutes.'
Embarassed, Chiro hid his head in his hands.
A deep chuckle reverberated from above him. 'Go ahead, kid,' he said, grinning from sprocket to sprocket. 'Go watch your show.'
Chiro was deeply relieved. 'Gee, thanks, Sprx,' he said. 'I really apreciate it.'
'No problem kid.'
--
"No doubt about it; I remember all of that." Chiro stood up stright again, a sharp pain in his back as he came up from watching the computer screen over Amy's shoulder. "It's kind of hard to believe, though. It's kinda cool." They were upstairs in a small room, and there were only three of them there, Amy, Chiro, and the black monkey, Antauri.
"I've got to ask, though, how did you all even get here? Don't you remember anything? Anything at all?"
"The last thing we knew," Antauri said, "we were against the Skeleton King. After that..."
Amy finished for him. "Nothing, huh?"
He nodded.
She paused. "Do...do you think that, maybe, the Skeleton King could have found a way over?"
"I'm not sure, but it's not entirely impossible."
"Well, the Formless are most definitely here," huffed Chiro. "Not to happy about that myself."
"Yeah, those could prove a real problem. And I suppose we can't go off telling the military, considering the circumstances. Being from TV and all. If the Skeleton King WAS here, though, what do you think he'd want? The Earth, maybe? Or would it be you guys?"
Chiro shrugged, almost sheepishly. "Both?"
"Crud--and what is all of that racket?" she asked as, all at once, she heard a mass of noises coming from somewhere outside of the room."
Looking confused, the other two shrugged.
Amy left the room, the boy and monkey tailing, as she led them down the stairs, which led to a hall connecting to the kitchen. Once there, she followed the noises further, down the stairs to her basement, the door to which stood ajar.
As she circled around the low, dirty overhang at the bottom of the staircase, Amy stopped and gasped in surprised.
"Is...is this MY basement?" she asked.
Nearby, Otto, the green monkey, glanced over at her. "Um. Yes and no."
The last time Amy had seen it, her basement had been dark, dirty, and covered almost top to bottom with cobwebs filled to the brim with dead spiers and insects. In no time at all though it appeared to have changed to look pearly white, with metal walls, metal counters, and even a metal cuboard in the wall. The monkey team was scattered about doing repairs with tools she was sure her grandfather had left behind.
"I'm not even gonna ask where you got all the materials from," Amy whispered, walking forward.
Chiro, coming up to stand next to her, waited for her to say something else, but to his confusion found that she wasn't going to say anything at all, but rather was staring forward as if far out through a window.
Finally he interupted. "Um. Amy?"
Amy blinked out of her ADDitation in mild surprise. "Huh?..What?" Then, after a milisecond of straight thinking, she leapt in excitement. "This is so cool! I can't believe it! Awesome!"
"It was sort of...nessicary," Nova told her. "Hope you don't mind."
"I don't mind at all! Woohoo!"
"So you like tech?" Otto chirped in question.
"Naturally, as a scifi/fantasy manga geek vidiot," Amy said, proudly. "Though I've never really excelled in science."
"But guys, shouldn't you all have asked first?" Chiro asked. "She could get in trouble with her parents, you know."
"Well, actually," put in Amy, "this is my GRANDPARENTS' house. But i don't think I'll get in anymajor trouble..."
"Ah!" Gibson said with a smile, looking up from where he was drilling in a metal shelf. "Good people, then?"
Amy folded her arms and raised an eyebrow good humorably. "Would you expect me to say anything else about my own family? No, it's just that, they can't really argue."
"Oh?" asked Chiro, confused. "Why not?"
"Because. They're dead."
There was a ushed moment in the room, and all at once Otto leapt over and clung to Amy's neck. "Poor Witty! How aweful!" he cried, tears pouring out uncontrollably.
"Otto, Otto, it's okay, I've lived here for a few years now and...wait." she looked at him, eyebrows raised. " 'Witty?' "
He nodded. "Amy Whittle. Amble, Witty. Witty Amble!"
"Walking funny?"
Tears forgotten at once, Otto lept down and grinned up at her, chuckling slightly. "That's a good one, Witty," he said. "Introducing! Walking funny, it's Witty Amble!"
Amy bowed, laughing. "Hello, hello," she laughed. "Glad you all enjoy my name so much." And it was precicely at that moment that the bell rang.
The others all looked at her for an answer as to what the noise was.
She didn't answer the question in their eyes though, as she exclaimed, "Oh, I almost forgot!" and zipped around Antauri to head back upstairs.
She zipped across the kitchen from the basement door to snother on the other side, leading to a second hallway, which served as the laundry room, and opened the door at the end of it. "Hello, everybogy!" she cried.
On her small front porch stood 3 kids half her size, and they all grinned widely as she appeared. "Amy!" they cried in delight.
"We have other quests today, so be nice, okay?" Amy told them.
"Oh! Who is it, who is it?" asked a girl, Jessica.
"Amy? What is it? who re they?"
Amy turned in mild surprise as chiro came into the hall from the kitchen to walk up and look over her shoulder.
Amy grinned. "Wow. Impecable timing."
"What do you mean?"
At that moment all three children leapt on top of him with a squeel. "Chiro!!!" they exclaimed.
"Yikes!" Chiro went down, and was immeditaly smothered by the smaller children.
Amy laughed. "don't hurt him, guys."
At once the three children bolted to their feet, straight and tall, and chorused, "Sorry, Amy." They were all still smiling brightly.
"Now," Amy declared, "who wants COOKIES!?"
"WE DO!" the children pratically shrieked, and rocketed past her into the house.
"Only eat 3 each," she said, and then they were gone through the door. She offered chiro a hand up, which he accepted.
"What on Shuggazoom--I mean Earth--was THAT?" the young hero asked, dusty his clothes off roughly.
"Kids. Specifically, Jessica, Alex, and David. I babysit regularly."
"Babysit? What for?" Chiro asked, not liking the prospect.
"Money. I've got to eat, y'know. Either way, though, they're fun to be with. Helps keep the loniless away to boot."
One of the boys--Alex--came skittering back into the hall just then, the bag of cookies in his hands. "Amy! Here! I thought you'd want a few, too!"
Chiro stared. He never thought he'd see the day a kid give away a cookie.
"Thank you, Alex, that's awesome of you!" Amy reached in and took out a chocolate chip, and offered it to Chiro. "Here you go, Chiro," she said, grinning. "Want one?"
He glanced to the cookie and back up at her, and then smiled, taking it. "Thank you very much."
"No problem."
