What I Fight For
Chapter Two: Thirteen Years Later
I fight for freedom, for the right to be me.
Chiro started and woke up, looking around his room. The dream wasn't frightening…but at the same time it was…
His heart was beating super fast, and the room was filled with a faint light from the moon outside. The light almost seemed to flash in synch with his rapidly beating heart, but it was from his eyes focusing and refocusing in unison with his heartbeat, probably getting annoyed with the constant changes. His whole head was throbbing. He held a hand over his heart in an attempt to calm down.
Ever since he became the leader of the Hyperforce, he seemed to have more dreams and nightmares than ever before, mainly because of the corruptive dark energy from the Skeleton King beating against the fortress around his heart. He'd seen so many people give in to that energy, and to be honest, he found it odd that he hadn't…he'd seen what that power could do…how was he different?
Antauri kept giving him the same reason—the Power Primate protected him from the Skeleton King's acidic dark powers. But still…one couldn't help but wonder.
He lay back down on the soft pillows and fell asleep slowly, the voice from his dream beating against his heart like a gong.
RIIINNNNGGGGG!!!!!!!
"Ahh!" Chiro bolted awake, rolling over and falling out of the bed, knocking down the pesky alarm clock. He hit it with his fist a few times before he realized what it was. "Ohh," he groaned stupidly. But he still karate-chopped it in half. "Pfeh," he muttered as he stood up. "Stupid clock."
He stood up tall as he stretched his arms and grimaced as his foot cramped up. After five minutes of sitting on the ground in agony, he stood up and got into his day clothes. He wandered into his bathroom to get ready.
Grabbing the bottle of hair gel, he held it upside down and shook it.
Empty.
"This is gonna be a loooong day," he drawled.
With his hair flat on his head and not standing up, he probably looked really stupid. Walking into the main room, he chuckled at the looks he got.
"I'm out of hair gel," he said.
"You mean that's not natural?" Sparx asked, pretending to be horrified. "And to think you inspired me."
"Shut up, Sparx," Nova hissed, smacking him with her tail.
"Aww, I thought you loved me Nova!"
"Say that again and I'll flatten your empty metal skull."
"ANYWAY," Chiro said, snickering, "I'm going down to the store, then I'm going to the library to get a book for a school project. Stupid history teacher."
"I, for one, find history to be exciting," Gibson said, walking over to him. "Mind if I help you find a book? I can be of some assistance."
"Sure, that's fine. I'll meet you at the library then!"
And he was off.
It was almost an hour later when Chiro showed up at the library. Gibson sat at a table, alone, reading a book on literature. He flipped a page and looked up, smiling. "There you are. What took you so long?"
Chiro shrugged. "Long line. I wanted to go back to the Robot to fix my hair, but I didn't want to keep you waiting here."
Gibson nodded understandingly. "So, what is this project of yours on?"
"Our language teacher wants us to write an article in a certain language about the history of that language," Chiro said, looking at a small sheet of paper in his hand. He turned it around. "I don't see why I need to, when I have a translator…"
"It might come in handy if the translator short circuits or breaks," Gibson pointed out.
Gibson led him to the language section of the library, Chiro tuning out his speech on 'Well English derived from blah blah blah its one of the most spoken languages in the galaxy something about two thirds of aliens can also speak it, something about romance, and'—"Here we go."
Gibson browsed the huge selection of language books with him for a while, before sitting down with a rather large tome and completely ignoring him. Chiro rolled his eyes and went to retrieve a ladder—the best books were at the top, he thought, where most people were too lazy to climb.
Climbing to the top of the ladder, he rummaged through the books, still not finding any good ones on language like he wanted it. Then, he noticed it.
There was a book sitting on the top of the shelf, old and ragged and all covered in dust. Out of reach. Even standing on the ladder put him a foot away from the book. But he figured it must be good, so he reached up and jumped.
Bad move.
His fingers gripped the edge of the book, and as his feet regained footing on the ladder, the book was revealed to be thicker than originally thought, and it fell off, landing with a 'BANG!' on Chiro's head. He saw a flash of green behind his clenched eyelids before feeling his feet slip from the ladder and his body succumb to gravity. He fell.
"Chiro."
"Ughuuhhh?"
"Ha, you took quite a hit on the head there, eh? Well, you've always complained that knowledge hurts." Another chuckle.
"Who are you? Where am I?"
"You are asleep, Chiro, the only way currently I can speak with you. And my name is Tellaim."
"Tellaim? Who are you supposed to be?"
"All in due time. Now, wake up, your friends are waiting for you." Chiro could see a shadowed figure wave his hand.
Then there was a bright light.
"Don't worry, he's fine. He's sleeping now."
"I TOLD you learning hurts!"
SMACK! "Shaddup, Sparx!"
"Oww!!"
"God," he groaned, throwing an arm over his eyes. "Just shut up."
There was silence until Gibson said, "See, I told you he's fine. Come on, Chiro, sit up real quick."
Chiro groaned but did as he was told, acutely aware of his pounding head.
"Chiro?" Antauri spoke up. "Are you alright? I can actually hear your heart beating."
It was true. The other monkeys listened, and they could hear a distinct thud-thud-thud-thud. Chiro eyed them, and held a hand against his chest, taking a few deeps breaths. Soon the sound faded.
"Here, Chiro, this was the book that hit you in the head," Gibson said, giving the thick book to Chiro. "It looked rather interesting so I checked it out for you."
Chiro nodded and looked at the book. On the face was a green jewel about the size of a bouncy-ball. Above the jewel were words in simple text that read:
History of Terran Latin.
PS: The description of Chiro's morning routine actually happens to me all the time. Goddang foot cramps. :K It feels like you're dying, it hurts so bad. My foot feels like it's cramping up as I'm writing this. xD