Ch.7: Raining Hope

It was pouring rain when the team finally made it back to Shuggazoom City, but the rain wasn't all that was falling. Tears were flowing down a certain yellow monkey's cheek as she remembered the brave red monkey who had just saved her and the others lives.

"Oh Sparks," she sighed as she looked out a window.

Nova didn't actually mind when Sparks used to flirt with her, she really kind of enjoyed it, but she wasn't about to let Sparks or any other of the Monkey Team know that. She had to keep up with her tough tough guy image right?

Sparks was always there for the team, sure he could get annoying sometimes, but he remianed completely loyal to his friends. Nova smiled as she remembered something from the past.


(FlashBack)

"Come on Nova" cheered Sparks "you gonna stand there all day?"

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" said Nova "Mandarin said...,"

"Who cares what he said" said Sparks "you have to some fun once in a while, now you gonna help me or not?"

Nova mind split two different ways at once. One side of her mind kept on telling her that Sparks idea wasn't going to work and they should go back, the other part was wanting to go with Sparks. Finally making up her mind Nova went with Sparks.

Sparks grinned and flew up in the air on his jetpack, Nova followed. After about thirty minutes of endless flying around Nova was starting to get suspicous.

"Sparks, where are we going?" she asked.

"You'll see," he said and flew on leaving Nova just as confused as ever.

After nearly a hour had gone by Sparks finally stopped in a part of Shuggazoom Nova had never seen before. "Where are we?" she asked.

"Welcome to paridise" said Sparks pulling back some over-grown weeds. Nova gasped at what she saw, it was a spetactcular view of the ocean. The sun was just begining to set, shining it's reflection across the water. Shuggazoom's three moons also started to rise as well, making it look like the sun was wearing a crown with three shining jewels on it.

"Oh Sparks" said Nova in awe "it's beautiful,"

"I thought you'd might like it" said Sparks " I never showed this place to anyone, promise you won't tell the others,"

"I promise," said Nova and she leaned over and gave Sparks a kiss, making the red monkey blush a shade of deeper red. It was the first kiss he had ever gotten in his life and it felt great.

(End FlashBack)


Chiro was remembering something too, it seemed like the Monkey Team never gave much thought about what effect they had on each other, until now that is. Antauri was busy meditating, but even though he seemed to be zoned out you could tell his mind was troubled.

The silver monkey knew that the Fire of Hate's spell had been broken, but he still worried about the spell Skeleton had cast on Sparks long ago. He had never had forgotten what happened that day after the Skeleton King's attack.


(FlashBack)

Sparks walked out of the lab still wondering what was with the necklace around his neck. Soon he saw Antauri and the others discussing something and thought he'd drop in.

"Hey guys" said Sparks "what's going on?"

"That's just what we're trying to figure out" said Gibson "you were attacked in the Training Room earlier today and seems Mandarin has vanished. Do you remember anything that happened to you?"

"I was attacked?" asked Sparks " all I really remember was feeling a hologram and then blacking out,"

Record stratches and Otto held up his hands saying "Stop, rewind. You felt a hologram?"

"Yeah" said Sparks "that thing felt to real to be fake, in fact the hologram was old Skullface himself,"

"The Skeleton King!" blurted Nova "but how did he get in here?"

"A better question would be" said Antauri " who let him in here?"

-----------------------------

Mandarin approached the Skeleton King, bowing.

"Master" he said "the spell is set, I await your orders,"

"Excellent" hissed Skeleton King "slowly my power shall course through his body and strike his heart. The red monkey shall soon rule by my side,"

Laughing the Skeleton King continued "When the red light shines this world shall be mine!"

----------------------------

Antauri was probing Sparks mind, seeing if the red monkey had forgotten anything important. A vision appeared, Sparks was in the training room when the Skeleton King attacked. The black monkey could feel every blow Sparks had suffered. When Sparks was thrown againist the wall the red monkey's last lingering thought struck Antauri like a ton of bricks.

Antauri istantly broke his mental connection with Sparks, stunning the rest of the team. Otto spoke first.

"Well" he asked "what did you see?"

Antauri looked slowly towards Otto saying two simple words "A traitor,"

-----------------------------------

Mandarin arrived back at the Super Robot a few minutes later to find that all the lights had been turned off, and his team was nowhere in site. Before he could even blink the lights came up and there stood his team, not at all happy to see him.

The orange monkey's eyes landed on the black necklace around Spark's neck, then Sparks spoke up.

"Nice to see you Mandarin" said Sparks in anger and pointed to the necklace "mind explianing what this is? I found it around my neck after you had the real Skeleton King attack me,"

Mandarin grinned, seeing that the secret was out.

"So you figured it out" he said "but you're to late. That necklace has marked you as the Skeleton King's servant, you cannot deny your destiny,"

"Everyone has thier own destiny" said Antauri " it seems you have chosen yours,"

Sparks was more worried about what Mandarin had just said, but before anything could be done about it, the whole team was blasted unconious. Mandarin approached Sparks loosening the necklace from the red monkey's neck and took it off.

"The spell has served it's purpose for now, but in the future you will serve Skeleton King,"

Without another word Mandarin marched off, not looking back.

(End FlashBack)


Back to reality, Gibson and Otto were also disappionted at losing Sparks, who would piolt the Super Robot? Who would make all the bad jokes? Both workers simply hung thier heads, hoping that Sparks was still alive.

Little did anyone know that Sparks still lived, and so did the villians, but you'll have to wait until the next chapter to find out more.