The sky stained an unhealthy mix of blood red and ink-like black as explosions rained across the sky, highlighting the shadow of the Citadel of bone as it began hovering dangerously amongst the cloudless landscape and crowded battlefield.
The plan was in place.
Just hours were all they needed.
The underground retreat echoed out with multiple whirs, clinks, clangs, whistles and shouts of communication between allies. Warriors' from across many planets' raced over hundreds if not thousands of miles across space to aid in the attempt to subdue and destroy the evil that is the Skeleton King at his newly reformed state, more powerful, more dangerous. Even those who could not fight had provided useful services of aid ranging from medical to mechanical.
The stench of burning seeped through the lungs' and nostrils' of the workers' who continued around the clock, at every second, to melt down scraps of unwanted metal and remoulding them over and over again to fashion copious amounts of copies of Otto's 'Anti-Undead' weapons which were churned out by the dozens on the large machinery, no longer caring for the resources they tried to hard to reserve. Humans', Humanoids', Cyborgs' alike strained in exhaustion, drenched in sweat as their legs would threaten to buckle to prepare Slingshot's army of 'Robotic Intelligence' with any scrap metal remains they could retrieve from the burning battlefield.
Slingshot would lead his army to the the left of the Citadel to deliver strong blows to the fortress, creating a mass of damage but yet creating an excellent distraction to create the opportunity for the Hyperforce to infiltrate the bone structure from the Citadel's right side. Of course the chances of getting caught were still great and with the cameras planted all over the fortress it had become apparent that they needed more distractions' for his cameras to be transfixed on so with the help from Gibson, Suupa had created a total of six holographic outputs that would be hidden across the battlefield which would emit footage from the multiple battles' and training sessions' that the Hyperforce had undergone in the past few months'.
Now sat in the cockpit of the 'Torso Tank #1' Chiro's stomach flipped. Whether or not it was in a good way the raven-haired boy couldn't tell, his lips went dry and his throat tightened but from what he did know, being sat in that seat was somewhat easing him. Caressing the joystick controls a smile slipped onto his new-ish mature features as his lips quivered ever so slightly.
"You ok Kid?" Sprx's face appeared on the monitor before him as he looked up with a watery smile, Sprx reciprocated with a knowing one. "It's been...so long..."
"Too long I would say," the British accent cut off Chiro's now cracked voice, which had become deeper with the introduction of puberty.
Moments.
Just mere moments.
The Super Robot clacked as more fuel reserves loaded upon it causing the green rectangles on the sides of the monitors to increase at a steady rate.
"Monkey Team," Antauri's voice poured through the receptor systems, his tone gentle but still maintaining a commanding nature, ability the silver simian couldn't have lost if he had tried. "This is our last chance, if anything happens tonight, I wouldn't have picked a better team to fight with."
The words had hit Nova like a bullet to the head. She gripped onto the controls' hard as her teeth clenched tightly, holding her lips in and her eyes squeezed themselves shut to a point where coloured dots stained the inside of her eyelids behind her rose orbs. Refusing to cry, the realisation had smacked her in the face at that moment and for once she was scared. Terrified. In that moment she hadn't seen Sprx's concerned face flicker across the screen before disappearing again, not saying a word.
"Couldn't have said it better myself Dear Friend," Gibson answered across the system making them all hum in agreement. The engines' warmed up slowly, the distant yet familiar tingling feeling as the Super Robot hummed and vibrated with life.
"Super!"
"Robot!"
"Monkey!"
"Team!"
"Hyper!"
"Force!"
"GO!"
"Using the velocity of the Super Robot with the application of consistent pressure we could indent the structure enough to allow our beams to penetrate. Time is key here. Taking previous battles' into account from both Skeleton King Prime and the newly reborn Skeleton King, as well as the size of the hole, the estimation of time compared to the speed of rejuvenation gives us approximately a total of two minutes to disengage the robot and pass through."
The drill created an ear-splitting crack as it delved deeper into the thin crevices before, after ten minutes, it left a hole large enough to take several beams to it and shatter through which sounded like an egg shell cracking. With their fingers' resting on the disengage button the quickly reacted on instinct, all separated into their individual vehicles and passing through the hole with seconds to spare.
"The room we stand in is host to a variety of abandoned research projects', most likely undergone by Mandarin but judging by the way the layer of dust has settled it looks like the room hasn't be used in a considerable amount of time. Raise the cloaking devices on the vehicles to protect us from suspicion." Antauri scanned the room as the cerulean monkey emerged for his 'Fist Rocket' with both mechanical hands wrapped around the handles' of a small square device that flashed green. "The detector suggests the main source of electrical matter is radiating from the north of the Citadel which can be strongly assumed as it's main power source, an engine room, " he points to the small green circle in front of him indicating the spot on the map and grid to Chiro.
"If we cut of the source it could stall them for a while and give our troops some time to recover."
"That will be when Skeleton King realises that we're here..." Nova thought out loud as her right metallic hand cradled her chin, staring at the floor before Chiro commanded attention.
"Exactly. We'll have to split up to give us a better chance of bringing Skeleton King down. Gibson, Otto- head north and take out all the technology support then re-group, if the technical support is at the north of the Citadel as you say then Skeleton King's quarter's shouldn't be too far. Me, Antauri, Sprx and Nova will cover you and take care of any formless, keep your trackers on. MONKIES, MOBALIZE!"
The halls were covered in fleshy ooze, black and venomous running down the walls, dripping from the uneven structures of the ceiling with a consistency as thick as glue. Flashes of colour raced through the tunnels; red, blue, silver, green, orange and yellow, splitting at the fork in the tunnels' to reach the set location.
'It's easy, too easy,'
That was Chiro's thoughts before they were hit with their first obstacle in the form of a creature made of the same substance of the formless, twenty times larger than Chiro himself with broad bone shoulders to support the protruding rib cage and boney wings that outstretched for the back leaking ooze instead of feathers. It's beak was larger than it's face, stretching the ooze gurgling in it's mouth as it's high pitched screech rang out like nails on a chalkboard causing the team to cover their receptors' in instinctive response. The stench of ooze was unbearable, dripping like glue or caramel from the 'Formless Dragon' as it roared in a threatening manner.
"EURGH! Someone get this thing a mint!" Sprx coughed, choked and spluttered at the stench, wavering his hand back and forth in a futile attempt to direct the smell away from him before being scolded by Antauri, "Don't anger it further Sprx!"
With months' since they had fought together and practised formations' the team followed Nova's 'Lady Tomahawk,' improvising a plan but yet keeping focus on the reactions of the 'Formless Dragon.'
"Thunder Punch!"
"Boom Boom Wake Up!"
"Gyro-Roll!"
"Monkey Mind Scream!"
The beast threw Sprx into the nearby wall with a shattering slam as Antauri's 'Monkey Mind Scream' stunned the beast. "SPRX!" the golden female rushed to aid the red furred simian as he lay helpless, pulling him up with force and yanking them away before the 'Oozetor' as Otto would have probably named it, crushed them into monkey pulp with it's enormous feet.
"CHIRO SPEARO!"
The lightning bolt struck the ceiling with tremendous force that it rumbled and collapsed from around them, the beast screeching violently as the bone fell from the extensive height rendering it powerless. The team ducked for cover and when the smog of dust lifted the beast was silenced and the tunnel was cut off with a heavy veil of bone and ooze, Nova and Sprx on one side, Antauri and Chiro on the other. The bone couldn't be moved with the ooze acting like un-natural cement.
"Nova! Sprx! Come In!"
Sprx coughed heavily, "We're ok Kid, we can't get through the tunnel is blocked." The red simian pulled Nova up by her elbow whilst she coughed hard from her chest from the inhalation of dust particles. "We have another exit, you and Nova continue on whilst me and Chiro make our way around. We'll catch up with you, Otto and Gibson before we confront our enemies, Antauri out."
The tunnel seemed endless, it might have been it's length or the silence that had overtaken the warrior and pilot as the walked down it, it was hard to tell. Sprx remained behind Nova, furrowing his brows in thought as he watched her walk. They hadn't had the chance to speak since the Fire of Hate had consumed him, allowing Skeleton King to rise again, he had hurt her. He knew it. The vision of her hanging above him with tears in her rose coloured orbs haunted him in his sleep. This was his fight, he had to prove himself and take down the Skeleton King.
"Nova?" his tone was quiet but loud enough for her to hear, she turned on her heel to meet his soft gaze with her quizzical one. Her throat tightened as her lips opened slightly before hardening her gaze and turning away from him again. "Now is not the time for games Sprx, let's hurry-" she was cut off in mid sentence when Sprx had turned her around by her right arm, the distance between them just a fraction.
She hadn't noticed that he was slightly taller than her up until now; maybe it was the stare of his coal eyes looking down into her rose ones. His expression turned serious, "We need to talk...about what happened..." his voice was gentle but still a bit rougher than what she had remembered it but the again it was hard to know. What she remembered and what was reality didn't seem to mix anymore, she yanked her arm away from his grip, her chest heaving with a burning anger.
"We don't need to talk about ANYTHING!" her heel snapped into the direction her destination. When she was a few steps away from Sprx she stopped dead in her tracks at his words.
"What are you so afraid of?"
The silence took it's place between the two simian beings as Nova shook a bit, her lip quivered, still turned from Sprx. She refused to meet his glare, the upset look in his eyes that surely would be awaiting her. She heard his feet move as he switched his leg position to hold his body better, cocking his head to the side as his body rocked on his heel. He clenched his lips inward with his teeth letting out a sarcastic, breath of amusement.
"Me. You're afraid of me. What I might do to you huh...?" it was spoke as a question but ended up being more of a statement as he wiped his mouth and looked away at the ceiling, shaking his head in disbelief. Nova marched up to him as soon as he said it, she was livid, shaking with temper and upset. Before she knew it her face was a breath away from his making his watery gaze fix on her.
"No Sprx I-"
"No WHAT, Nova? You barely looked twice in the medical room and that was the first time I had seen you since I was corrupted! I wouldn't blame you!" he held her shoulders, "I just can't bare to see you look at me that way!"
Nova was lost for words as he shook her with a pleading look. She didn't get to answer that statement, a crash of formless opened fire with no respect for the monkeys' privacy. Dodging ducking and turning the formless multiplied as each his struck them down before a ray of blue light illuminated the tunnel and froze the formless before them. "You looked like you needed a hand." Gibson stood before them, walking over to help Nova up with Sprx's arms folded further away from him.
"I could have handled that myself..."
"Sure Sparky!"
"Watch it Brainstrain!"
"Come, Otto gained access to the room, hurry!" they take off to a set of large metal twin doors with Gibson leading followed by Sprx. They enter to find Otto setting of Sparks in the wires with the electrical current whilst attempting to find wires that disconnect certain parts of the heavy machinery that towers high above them. Otto's goggles flash with light as Gibson hacks into the computer system 'Hmm-ing ' and 'Ahh-ing' at different points when stumbling across useful information.
A few moments later the door is shut by Antauri and Chiro who have finally reached them, panting. They regain composure and nod in greeting and take a look around. Nova can feel Sprx's glare on her, burning through her mind as she fought to ignore him, now was not the time to be entertaining each others 'feelings'.
Sprx's glare snapped from her as he looked on at a piece of machinery that seems a lot similar to the rejuvenation tanks kept in the Super Robot's MedBay, the light blue liquid moving with bubbles and a mass of heavy duty wires connected on both the outside and the inside of the tank attached to...
"GUYS! You're not going to believe this…" The warning tone of his voice made the others' uneasy. Gibson stopped looking at the data, Otto retracted his goggles and the others' looked up at the tank, mouth agape and stunned at the sight.
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