Thanks for the reviews and sorry for the long wait, college is crazy.

Ch 4: Acquaintance

"Whoa," Otto's voice echoed through the buildings and the rest of the city. "This is yours?" he was looking at a family sized ship that would be about as big as one of the Super Robots Foot Cruisers. Two pairs of massive wings giving it an X shaped appearance as they stretched toward the sky to avoid people hitting themselves because they weren't paying attention to where they were going. The nose of the craft was like that of a modern day jet.

"Yup," Kai smiled as she raised a fist to lightly tap the metal with her knuckles. "Alls fine except for the large hole we got before we reached your planet." She then pointed to the large opening brimmed with black soot and placed a finger on the darkened area creating a trail of black along the undamaged area.

"This is your ship?" Sprx asked in awe. Of course, what pilot wouldn't go for what interested them?

"Yup," Kai answered again. "She's been through a lot, but could use some interior decorating and upgrading. Some of the systems are shot and useless. I haven't had time to do anything since we left our planet for space travel."

"I could help you with your interior decorating and upgrade your systems to their full power and maybe add some." Otto offered. While he and the white monkey were conversing, everyone, other than Gibson, seemed to be confused with this talk of upgrading and all this other stuff. Kai was all-to-happy to get her ship back in order.

"It is pretty bad when an expert pilot cannot even steer clear from oncoming fire." Xel sighed.

"You're a pilot too," Chiro asked and the monkey nodded. "Sprx is our pilot, though his driving makes us sick at times."

"Hey!" Sprx defended. "Who's the one who gets us to Skeleton King? Who's the one who gets us through the asteroids? Who's the-"

"Bragging again, Moron?"

Sprx eyes twitched as she recognized the voice and nickname he had been given by someone he hoped to never see again. So much for that plan. He cautiously looked over his shoulder, "What do you want?"

"My ears were ringing, and I thought I'd see the monkey's who were most definitely talking about me." A small blue cub started, looking around for Clueless. She found him talking to a white monkey she had never seen before. "Don't tell me you two are making friends, who in their right mind would want to be friends with you?" a dark smirk was on her face. The red monkey twitched again.

"Is that necessary?" Chiro asked, Gibson thinking the same thing.

"You have no idea what they put me through," Haya replied, "they nearly got me killed."

Sprx laughed madly as circuits were sparking, "Sprx you should go sit down," Antauri rushed over to the pilot and helped him lean against a building.

"What did they do Haya?" Nova asked, Gibson and Chiro also interested.

"You mean they didn't tell you?" the cub looked at her with a seemingly confused expression. "They tried to drug me, and everything else. They let me get kidnapped and almost killed by my abductor."

Nova was furious, for it shown in her pink eyes. "Is this true Sprx?" she asked, turning toward him, the others followed her gaze.

"Maybe just a little," he answered.

"A little!" Nova roared. "I told you to call me if you needed help. You guys have no idea how to take care of a cub."

Haya smirked, 'This is fun. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. It's a good thing I brought my camera.' She held out her little blackmailing device and took snapshots from every angle. The pictures were snapped silently, so no one would know of her crime.

"It's not like I needed help," Sprx replied, "Otto was smart enough to get drunk on sleeping pills with a long time effect. It would have been better if B didn't need a babysitter."

"Are they always like this?" Xel asked Gibson.

"Usually," the blue monkey answered.

While Sprx and Nova went back and forth, and Xel, Chiro and Gibson continued talking, Haya was enjoying herself. Enjoying every moment that Clueless or Moron made themselves look like an idiot on her website. "So you must be Haya," a deep but gentle voice started. Haya looked up as she seen a shadow loom over her.

"Yeah," she responded, slightly surprised to see another tiger, and some other reasons. "I take it Moron told you about me, either him or Clueless?"

"If you're referring to the red monkey, then yeah that'd be the one."

"That'd be Moron, the green one is Clueless."

"He doesn't seem so bad to me, that red one might be a different story. I'm Eclyps."

"You've already heard of me from Moron, but Haya Gemnet Scrapperton"

"This must be Haya," she looked to see a white monkey walk up to her with a smile on her face, a silver monkey beside her. "I think these two were over exaggerating when they were telling us about you. The names Kai and this is Xel." She introduced herself.

"Pleasure," he greeted with a bow.

"So Haya, what are you doing here?" Gibson asked.

"Blackmailing." She answered. "I'm looking for my two best friends Midnight and Zinnaux and I've been looking for hours. I swear these two will be the death of me." In the background, Sprx was sending others a sign that he was happy, though no one noticed his actions. "If I knew any better, I'd say they're probably in jail right now for disturbing the peace. When I left them yesterday, they were in some stupid argument about who's fault it was about I have no clue."

"Sound's like those two are back at it," Antauri placed his hand on his chin, in thought.

"That wouldn't surprise me," Chiro said. "Have you seen those two? They're always at it."

"Well, it's nice to meet you Haya," Kai replied. "I should get back to repairing our ship. We may also be here for a while and I'm sure Eclyps wouldn't mind having a fellow tiger to talk to."

"Yes mother," sarcasm in the larger tigers' voice, with the hint of a chuckle in it.

""I'm only concerned, but I should get back to the maintenance." With that she walked back toward Otto, who was hiding away from the blue 'demon' as Sprx calls her, both went in the spacecraft.

"So Demon, you up to more trouble, huh?" Sprx asked. "Who's the poor victim of your torment?"

"Perhaps it's you, Moron."

"That's it!" Sprx readied his magnets. With him usually as the mellow monkey, there must be even certain limits to his temper. "I'll get rid of you right now."

There was a low, angry growl and the source was a large white feline – the expression on his face was that of annoyance and anger. "You should watch what you say around me when it comes to dissing my kind. Nothing ticks me off more."

Sprx gave his own growl as he backed down, magnets becoming hands once again. "I am sorry about him," Xel apologized. "His mother was treated poorly and passed away because of it. He was given to Kai in an attempt to save him from a death that would have soon followed if his mother had not given him up. Kai was able to save him with her healing skills, and we are still unsure if he has any siblings."

"If I may ask, where was his mother when she was poorly treated?" Gibson inquired.

"A lab," Eclyps answered a little rougher than he intended. "My blue stripes and ability to speak to you are the known side effects of the treatment she was exposed to. Though it cost her her life to save mine."

After a few minutes of silence, Otto came rushing outside. "Dudes! They have some pretty cool gadgets in there, even a pretty sweet training system."

"Now that I got to see," Nova disappeared in the open door.

"Shall we follow?" Xel asked, leading them in. "I'll give you a tour."

Haya was looking around the city, again for any signs of the two missing trio members. "You coming?" she looked over to see Eclyps looking at her, a foot or so in front of her.

"I shouldn't stay too long; B may start wondering where I am." She walked up.

"You blackmail?"

She looked ahead, avoiding the larger tigers' eyes. "Only people I don't like, or do me wrong. Moron and Clueless, aka, Sprx and Otto were my babysitters a while ago and they nearly got me killed, more than once, after they attempted to drug me for days." (Read MQB's story "This Is War")

"I'm sure your guardian will find someone better for the job the next time," he assured her. "Someone more capable to protect you and not drug you, perhaps someone who's more fun. So why would anyone go after you? Or were they trying to get back at them?"

"Nope, they were after B, my guardian. I'm worth a lot with this gem." Haya pointed to the gem on her chest. "All because of this. Besides, I didn't need Moron or Clueless to protect me. I could cause more damage than those two combined." She smirked at the thought of everything she put them through. "Besides, they can't cook. Especially Sprx, I think he may have failed a cooking class in High School."

The tiger beside her chuckled, "I could see it now in the tabloids, 'Red Monkey Burns Down High School'."

Both had a moment of laughing as they entered the craft. "Wow," Nova's voice echoed. "This is awesome, you wanna spar Kai?"

"I could always use a sparing partner, they work better than computer programs." The white monkey replied.

"Sorry, Otto," Nova smiled, "I stole your fellow mechanic."

"Don't worry 'bout it. I'll think of something to upgrade for them, of course with their permission." The green simian said.

"Do whatever pleases you, Otto." Xel answered him, "I am sure Kai wouldn't mind."

"Nope, not at all." She answered as she and Nova readied for a battle stance.

There, how was it. Sorry for the long wait, I had writers block with this chapter and I have some with the "Friend or Foe" story, but that may be passed. I hope. School's crazy and I'm starting to get paranoid with this essay. Reviews are appreciated. Thanks for reading.