Hello reckless dreamers, it is I Dreamer R.S bringing you another chapter. I hope you enjoy it.
Mandarin and Antauri
The civilians have already left the area, leaving the market a ghost town. A feeling of dread went up Antauri's back. Something was here with them.
"It's a bit to quiet, for my liking…." Mandarin didn't like this one bit.
"Agreed, I sense an evil presence here, but I can't locate where." Antauri had his claws at the ready, Mandarin griped the handle of his sword. "LOOK OUT!" Antauri pushed Mandarin out of the way as something fiery rocketed at them. It hit a wall and it deflamed leaving thick red ooze.
"A formless…?" in all the day's that Mandarin was in Skeletons Kings dungeon, never did he once see a formless with fire ability's. It plopped onto the ground and spread out in three piles, forming 3 smaller than normal, flaming, formless. Mandarin and Antauri stood back to back, as they were surrounded.
The three jumped at our two heroes:
Mandarin blocked with his shield, sending monster 1 flying back. Antauri used his Ghost blades on the formless 2, but it dodged.
Antauri spin-switched with Mandarin, Antauri clawed formless 1 while Mandarin slashed his sword at formless 2. Formless 1 and 2 burst, splattering the two monkeys with red slime. There was one formless left, Antauri was about to take it down, but his ghost claws flickered off.
Before they could charge, the red slim that was covering our hero's quickly wrapped around them.
"Uggg, I can't phase!" Antauri struggled to get out of the substance.
"It' this UGGG slime!" Mandarin said in between struggles. Another normal formless used sleeping gas on them, though it only affected one of them. Mandarin has an fairy high resistance to drugs (the medical kind), only making him dizzy and somewhat drowsy. Antauri's robotic lungs don't work the same way as biological, so the gas simply doesn't affect him.
The last formless gathered up the two struggling monkeys and headed to the Skeleton base.
-The Robot: Night Shade and Citrus.-
"Nova, Chiro, Otto, come in!...ANTAURI CAN YOU HEAR ME!" Nightshade was getting frustrated and very upset at the loss of communication.
"Citrus, Stay here! I'm going to find them!" Nightshade heading towards the exit of the main room.
"But,"
"I am a warrior, I will not just sit here and wait around!"
"I'm not stopping you, I want to help! Citrus protested.
"You are a young child…" Nightshade added.
"I'm a member of the Hyper Force too!" Citrus summoned her energy Cymbals for emphasis on her point.
"You are trained in the ways of battle?" Nightshade inquired.
"Yep!" Citrus nodded.
Nightshade gave a smile: "Let's go!"
Before they could leave something extremely fast was shot into the chest of the super robot, knocking it back a little.
"WHAT IN THE NAME OF TARTURIS?!" Nightshade cursed as she regained her balance.
"Ya, I'm ok, no need to ask…" Citrus said sarcastically.
A hissing sound started and the room began to fill with smoke.
"It's…*cough* sleeping gas covers your mouth!"
But it was too late Citrus was already falling back to the ground. Nightshade attempted to fight the sleep coming over her, but it was all for not. She succumbed to sleep, she and Citrus were grabbed by an extremely fast bird like formless and taken away.
Mandarin slowly began to wake up. The world around him seemed to be spinning; it soon slowed to a halt.
"Uggg, my head…" Mandarin groaned and held his head as he sat up.
"Mandarin?" Mandarin looked around the room trying to find the voice, sitting agenst the wall was Antauri in his normal calm manner.
"Where are we?"
"From what I can tell it was a hidden Skeleton fortress."
"Was?" Mandarin replied confused.
"Well, we know about it now." Antauri said with a slight smile.
Mandarin gave a little smile back.
"Anyone there?" A voice came from outside the cell. Mandarin got up off the floor and walked to the door. Standing on the tip of his toes to reach the small window, he peeked out into the dungeon hallway. Adjacent to their cell was another cell; Sparks was peeking out of it.
"Ya, Antauri's in here as well."
"I can't use my magnets!" Sparks frustrated.
"I do believe it's these cuffs on our necks…" Gibson responded from another cell.
Chiro looked through another cell window. "Uggg, hi guys…"
"Is the whole team here?" Antauri asked.
"TEAM if your awake sound off." Chiro stated, a chorus of responses came.
"Wait, Tundra are you here too?" Mandarin thought he heard Tundra's voice among the responses. A familiar pink and blue metal hand waved from the cell directly next to Mandarins.
"Yes, a weird blue formless attacked me in the middle of a sled race…"
"I see you've all awaken…" A evilly voice came down the hall.
"Mandarin…errr…Mandarins evil cone." Chiro attempted a threat, but it ended up falling apart.
"You can still call him Mandarin, it suits him better." Mand...*ahem*… Duran growled the last bit at the clone.
"Why, get mad at me? I'm just following you're example, after all you're the original. I'm just a copy of you; I haven't done anything you wouldn't have." Mandarin replied snarky.
"I WOULD NEV….!" Duren's expression fell, for just a second he forgot his past, and for once in what felt like an eternity he felt a certain type of bravery: And it felt amazing, like a burning fire in the heart. But then his memory/past came flooding back to his mind, all the bravery was gone and replaced with an empty cold feeling: disappointment, shame, loneness…
"Clone…..leave!" Antauri said a stern voice that sent shivers up spines.
"I do not obey you or anyone!" Mandarin growled.
"Mandarin! Come, the king wishes to speak to you at once!" Shogun's voice rang though the dungeon.
"COMING!" Mandarin quickly yelled back in a slight panic.
"HAHA, obeys no one, my ass…"
"SPARKS, there are children present." Gibson snapped.
"HEY!" Jinmay and Chiro responded.
"I was referring to Otto and Citrus…"
As the team argued Mandarin had slid down the side of the door, and rested his forehead on it in defeat.
"Duran?" Antauri asked worriedly.
"He's right you know…as much as I wish he was wrong, he's not…I don't know why I tried to take over." Duren depressed.
"No one notices when power corrupts them, it takes over the mind of its host." Antauri soothed
"You don't understand. I...It's hard to explain. It was hazy, and lonely. Shame and confusion. It was like it wasn't me….but it was." Duren responded with no hope.
"Mandarin….?" Otto uttered.
"As much as I wish I wasn't, I am Mandarin." Duren was tearing up.
"I gave it all up! For nothing! And I don't know why! My troop! My Team! My family! I lied to you! I broke you're spirits! I hurt you! How could I have ever done that! Nothing was worth that! NOTHING! How could any of you ever forgive me!? I don't, and will NEVER deserve that!" Duren was crying his heart out. Everyone just listened him with sad expressions and hearts, unsure of what to say.
Antauri turned Duren around and pulled him into a hug.
"But, we do forgive you. We thought we had lost you forever. We missed you. I missed you! I locked myself away in my room for a mouth trying to think of ways to bring you back! I thought I lost my brother! There were so many times I wanted to yell at the team, scream at them that there was a way to bring you back. Otto cried more than he cares to admit. Sparks missed you, even though he would deny it. Gibson didn't sleep for 5 days straight, trying to find out what happened. Even Nova missed you!"
Antauri was crying as well, he didn't even know he physically could. The team's eyes had gone wide, never had they heard such an emotional display from Antauri.
"I forgive you…" Chiro responded solemnly
"So do I!" Jinmay agreed.
"Of course I do!" Otto responded happily.
"Agreed." Gibson chimed in.
"I understand how you feel, somewhat, and for that I forgive you." Nightshade added.
"I forgive you!" Citrus sang from another cell.
"I forgive you…" Nova said from her cell.
"I don't have anything to forgive you for, because I have no reason to be mad at you." Tundra said sweetly
"Oh….for the love of pete! Stop beating yourself up! I forgive you, and I'm the most stubborn one here…well, besides Nightshade and Nova anyways.
Mandarin stood up and looked at Sparks, who had extended his hand for Mandarin to shake.
"So are we friends again… Mandy?"
Mandarin Smiled and took his hand….
Well that was fun! let me know what you think. See you next time!