"Nova... Nova... Antauri, her eyes are open!"

"SHH, Sprx, her breathing is still abonormal. She needs to rest more."

"Rest more? It's been four hours, Gibson!"

As reality siezed me I found it hard to breathe; each small swallow a gasp of warm air, slicing through my lungs and coming back out in a choking cough. I struggled to take another breath, but my chest stopped in place and I couldn't. Gibson immediately flew his hands to it and dug gently with his forepalms, slowly then releasing his grasp. He did it multiple times until I could breathe a little easier.

"What... what...?" I didn't want to talk; it hurt so much. My eyes scanned of what I could see around the room. Sprx staring down at me, squeezing his tail anxiously. Gibson applying a small breathing mask over my muzzle. Antauri checking the computers and watching my and another's heartbeat. Otto fixing up something on a long, metallic blanketed desk. Mandarin.

I wanted to sit straight up and give him a piece of my mind but my body refused to obey me. It was way too weak and wanted to be treated. So instead I glowered at the orange simian viciously as Gibson tightened the mask. Sprx, seeing my glare, rushed toward me and knelt down with that concerned glint in his eye. I turned away, embarrassed of what they told me; "I told you so."

"Mandarin... do you know what happened?"

I looked back at our worn out leader and noticed Antauri was trying to speak with him. Antauri sounded, surprisingly, a little angry. His golden glowing eyes were so cold it made me freeze into place. As silence stretched out longer, Mandarin grunted.

"Absolutely nothing happened," He said with a bland twist of conniption.

"There was an explosion, Mandarin!" Sprx cried out. "You cannot tell us that nothing happened!"

"Nova just got angry!" Mandarin scowled. "That huge explosion was her releasing all her energy out of anger!"

"She must've been really mad if she exploded on you," Otto noted softly.

"Yeah, Mandarin," Sprx said, his voice dripping with bitterness. "What did you do to piss her off so badly?"

Mandarin closed his eyes and his lips tightly together. I then realized that he didn't say anything out of, not humiliation, but animosity. The white fur on his chest bristled and spiked under his chin. The lines above his eyes deepened and his frown compacted further. His hands were squeezing each other so hard we could hear it scritch and see it turn white.

"Mandarin..."

Suddenly out of no where our leader jumped to his feet and gave Sprx a sharp blow to the head, knocking him out, screeching, "You have absolutely NO authority to sound so disrespectful to me, SPRX-77! I am your leader, and as your leader you must treat me with courtesy and privacy!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

Antauri pulled him forcibly back down to the table with his telekinesis ability. "Mandarin! You must relax!"

"You!" Mandarin shrieked to our second in command. "This is all your fault! You have turned them all against me!"

"I have done no such thing," Antauri said, his forehead darkening. "It's you. I didn't want to say or admit this, but you are going corrupt, Mandarin. This loss has driven you insane. You must calm yourself down and trust in your team to-"

"NEVER!" Mandarin screamed. His voice vibrated violently down the room, shocking me and the rest of the team. At that time, my eyes were starting to water and my heart began to slow with hurt. All my anger suddenly flew off, as I didn't feel mad anymore. We all gazed Antauri, who had his eyes shut patiently and in pain.

Finally he took a deep breath, and put his hand onto Mandarin's. "I apologize for losing my temper, Mandarin, but... I told you before, we will not take over Shuggazoom with you."