A/N: Hey people, thanks for waiting! And again sorry it took so long for me to update. Summer, college and my job etc. It's very busy time, don't have a lot of time. So I managed to squeeze this chapter out in the meantime. So anyway, enjoy chapter 7!

Also warning, this story is going to take a VERY unsuspected turn of events.

Chapter 7

Darkness

Chiro whipped his fist around and slammed them against the punching bag. He was a blur of winding kicks and savage punches, taking all his anger out of the punching bag. "Can't believe this…! So… so… stupid!" he ripped the bag open. The sound of pouring sand did little to halt his vicious beating. "So humiliating!"

He growled as he ripped the punching bag right off the ceiling. He turned and stared at his reflection in the mirror. "Ok come on chiro… get ahold of yourself… there is no way that Isomer guy can take me away from the team. But… what if he is my father?" he slapped himself, "No way! I aint buying this…" he looked towards the wall, "But what if he is telling me the truth? What if I have more family I don't even know about?"

Chiro literally had been arguing with himself for the past few weeks since finding out about the legal problem they are facing. He was so shocked when Gibson first told the team, and then him, that Isomer was suing the Hyperforce for his custody.

How could this be? He was the leader of the Hyperforce, not some rash young kid who was lost and scared! He didn't need a mommy or a daddy, he had been on his own all of his life, what make this time any different!?

Chiro gripped his forehead to silence the aggressive voices that swarmed his mind like a pack of angry bees. His luck had just been sailing downhill… now not only is his self-esteem in jeopardy, so was his whole life. How could the very city they protected with their lives even consider this? It disgusted him beyond all measures. Actually if he didn't have such good self-control, he would have gone down to the court house himself and went inner primate on their asses.

"This can't be happening…" he whispered as he slammed his head against the mirror, shattering the thick glass. He growled as he paced, his hair falling down in front of his eyes. This rage, this uncontrollable anger that boiled in his gut. What was going on?

Chiro gripped his head, the shattered glass stabbed into his scalp's soft flesh. He sat down on his bed, the burning in his chest suffocated him. The memory of him reliving his past to the monkey team had already traumatized him enough. But now his brain was overloading just to figure out who this Isomer guy was.

Chiro got up and went to his closet. Ripping the clothes down and throwing some stuff aside, he opened a secret compartment that no one on his team knew existed. Fishing out a strange old fashioned orange laptop, Chiro sat it on his bed. Then double checking to make sure his door was locked, he went right to work.

This laptop had been in Chiro's possession for as long as he could remember. As he clicked through the screens, images of wounds and bullies reflected in his eyes. Clicking through the images he had documented himself as he struggled to survive his childhood; he searched.

"There has to be something!" he growled to himself as he dug through the memoires. "I do not recall any trace of my father, or mother… I don't see anyone in these files except me and my former pet raven."

After digging through for a few hours, the sound of his door knob jiggling halted him.

"Chiro?" came Antauri's voice, "Why is your door locked? Open it this instant."

Leaping up from his bed, Chiro quickly rushed his dark secret back to his hidden compartment. The team already knew enough about his past, but there was still some things they did not need to know. "Hang on Antauri!" he yelled as he ungracefully danced over towards the door.

He flung the door open to eye the short silver simian staring back at him. "Can I help you?" Chiro asked while trying to gradually slow his breath down.

Antauri stared at him, but then he looked past the boy and slowly walked in. "I sense your stress levels rising, I came to check on you," he hovered in his usual lotus position.

After sitting in silence for a few minutes, Antauri broke the ice.

"Chiro… I know this is stressful for you, believe me… the entire team and I are on edge. But all we can do is fight this and ensure you stay with us. Okay?"

Chiro didn't answer as he looked away, "I know Antauri… but I just… can't help but ask myself why. Why does the city do this? Even after all we do for it, they would really allow some stranger to separate us."

A silver hand clasped his shoulder, "Chiro… sometimes fate has a strange way working things out. Wither this man is your father or not, he will not just take you away from us. We are a family, and we ensure the court will see this."

Before Chiro could answer, Antauri had glanced over him. "Did you and the punching bag have a disagreement?" he noted to the bag of sand shredded all over the floor like a wild animal attacked it. He raised his eyebrow, the marks on the bag looked more like slash marks then punches.

"Oh yea, I just got really upset. Took it out on the poor exercise equipment," he shrugged. He made sure Antauri kept his vision away from the closet, to avoid the real secret he was hiding.

But the look on Antauri's face clearly told Chiro he was suspicious of something. This was confirmed when Antauri hovered over to the punching bag. He place a silver fingertip over the sand particles, "Hm… did you use knives or just your fist?"

"Just… my fist. Why?" he titled his head, not really understanding where his mentor was going with this.

"No reason," he shut his eyes. Sighing, he turned back to face his adopted son. "Chiro… you obviously are not feeling good. The past few weeks you have been acting strange. But whatever the case, I want you in bed early this time. You need all the rest you can get. So sleep now."

Chiro didn't have time to say anything before his mentor hovered out of the room. Shutting the door with his telekinesis.

Sighing, he turned and leaned against his wall. Rubbing his forehead, he slid down to his bed. He stared at his ceiling fan, 'So many nightmares…' he thought to himself, 'I thought my life was going to remain different after I joined the team… but… i… i… can't…'

He didn't have time to finish his thoughts before sleep strangely over took him.

~Outside Super Robot~

A hooded man paced outside the robot's giant silver chromed foot. The light of the full moon reflected off the robot's armor, making it gleam like a blue diamond.

"Such a beautiful night…" the stranger whispered in a deep creepy voice. "The restless fireflies… citizens asleep, their heroes dreaming pleasant dreams. All on a cool breezy night with a star lit sky," he pulled his sleeve back to check his watch. "But such a shame the night will have to be ruined for one particular."

He looked up, four glowing red eyes flickered from beneath the shadow of his hood. A long tongue slithered from his mouth as he watched the hands on his watch begin to tick. With every second passing, the hands soon met at midnight.

Then a small feeling of pressure gripped his shoulder. Smirking, the figure reached up and stroked the beak of a blue raven. He chuckled as he peered into the raven's red orbs, "Its time…" he hissed, "Go to the boy's window… be kind enough to let him see such a beautiful night, before it all goes dark."

The raven cawed and spread it wings. Ruffling its feathers, it took to the sky. Its black body blending into the night as it soon disappeared from sight as it headed right towards the torso of the super robot.

~Chiro's Room~

Thump thump… thump thump… thump thump…

His heart beat was so steady, steadier then it had been in a long time. Chiro groaned as he sat up, the temperature in his room was seeming to rise. He could feel sweat begin to drip from his fingertips, "Damn it… I wish Otto would stop messing with the thermometer before bed…"

Rolling out of bed and onto his feet, Chiro wobbled a little. He approached his wall and hit the button. There a circular piece of metal opened, revealing the night sky as it served as Chiro's hidden widen. He sighed as he opened the glass; feeling the cold air brush through his hair.

"Don't know how many more sleepless nights I can take…"

Just as Chiro turned away to grab his glass of water, a shadow appeared in the moon's rays. Turning around, Chiro turned and met the gazes of a great black raven.

Blinking, Chiro put his cup down and eased his way towards his window. The familiar raven just stared at him, its beady black eyes invisible in the shadows of his room. It just sat there unmoving, watching him, as if it was nothing but a mere statue.

The heat started to intensify beneath Chiro's burnt orange sweat pants. "What the… hell?" he leaned against the head bored of his bed.

Then sharp pain ripped through Chiro, he gasped as he stumbled backwards. He grabbed at his throat as fire shot up the walls of his body. "A…ack!" his yells were muffled. The pain was increasing by the second as he fell over the edge of his bed. The sounds of his shirt and pants tearing echoed through his room.

He grabbed his ribs as he pressed his head against the floor while balling up. "W…what is happening to me!?" he cried. He gagged as blood began to drip from his mouth, his jaw cracking and unhinging.

If he could cry, he would have. But the pain was beyond anything he has ever felt before. Not even being at the unmerciful claws of Skeleton King could compare to this.

The Raven that watched the display cawed loudly. Its eyes narrowing as the bleeding boy used one arm to drag himself to the darkest corner of his room. It raised its beak when the boy's pained yelps faded into savage snarling.

Claw marks tore at his rug as Chiro's eyes clouded over. Soon everything went completely black in his vision.

The raven quickly flew away, the super robot left standing in the silent depths of the city.

~Morning~

"Give me the controller Gibson!"

"No Sprx, I will not." The blue monkey scowled, "I want to watch something educational for once on a nice Sunday morning." He planted his foot against Sprx's belly, pushing the pilot away from the remote.

"Monkey hell your so stingy brain strain!" he yelled, threatening to whip out his magnets.

Gibson scowled at Sprx's immature advancement. "You're such a child, you get the remote almost every morning!"

"Enough!" Nova roared, her muscular frame tensing up. "Sprx shut up and eat your breakfast! Let Gibson watch what he wants for once," she ordered as she stuffed another piece of bacon into her toothy maw.

Beyond the feuding spectacle, Antauri hovered in the corner of the main room. He stared at the empty computer console, their personal e-mail files lying open and exposed. Except… there was nothing open, just a clean inbox.

"Otto" Antauri gently called out for the aid of the green mechanic. "Where is Chiro? It is almost eleven o'clock and I still haven't heard from him…"

The black eyed monkey, with a mouth full of blue berry waffles, came walking around the corner. "I dun no!" he spoke with a mouthful. "Cheuck hiz rum?" he gabbed out as the golden maple syrup ran down the seams of his mouth.

Barely understanding his garbled words, Antauri sighed. "I did check his room, but I didn't see anything; except the fact it was unusually clean…" he rubbed his brow line. "Just the idea of Chiro cleaning his room is enough of a surprise, but the fact he was not there without leaving a note? Odd. The fact I never sensed him leave? Worrisome…"

Having the curdious to swallow his food, Otto wiped his lips clean. "Maybe you didn't sense him leave because you were too tired?" his lip movement sending syrup splattering all over Antauri's silver face. "You have been so stressed about this whole legal custody issue you haven't been yourself lately."

Wiping the excess food from his face, Antauri turned back to the monitor. "You are right, I am probably worrying over nothing."

"Good! Now get over here and eat some breakfast! Nova made some nice tasty bacon and I made some of my famous homemade waffles!" Otto cheered happily as he shoved an extra plate in Antauri's hands.

As the spring green monkey drug his sterling companion to the kitchen, the door swished open. All eyes turned to see a very odd sight.

There a messy haired Chiro came limping into the command room. His body was covered in a long coat while his orange sweat pants were ripped at their hinges. He looked exhausted and was breathing hard.

Blinking at the odd sight, Gibson leaned against his chair. "Chiro? Where have you been young man?" he walked over to the pale boy, "And why do you look like you just relived the skeleton king war all over again?" he observed his leader's tattered clothes. "Great scott, you look ill!"

Chiro flinched away to avoid the blue simian's touch. "I am fine… just went out earlier is all," he answered dully.

Reaching up, Gibson offered the young boy a hot steaming cup of tea. "I know lately you have been tired and stressed… but your disappearance really startled the team; especially Antauri."

A shaky hand took the cup as quivering lips chugged the drink down. Sighing, Chiro looked down to Gibson. "Did… anyone know I left?"

"No" he answered with arms crossed. "But Chiro now is not the time to be disappearing without a trace. The team is in a fragile mood with the presence of Isomer hanging around. So we really need you around us at all times."

"S… sorry Gibson."

"It's okay Chiro, but really I thought we ended these random nightly tours you always took a few years prior. Do we need to analyze you again for intensive sleep walking?"

"No…" Chiro grumbled, his brain pounding against his skull like a damn drum. "Look I have a headache, I really need to get some sleep."

The boy leader rushed out of the room before Gibson could question his appearance further. As he made it to his room, Chiro shut the door and locked it. He gasped as he landed into his bed. He wiggled out of his coat, exposing his bare midsection covered in all sorts of huge scratches and bruises.

Chiro cringed as he could feel dry blood stain his crispy hair. "W…what happened last night…?" he asked himself.

He eventually fell into a restless sleep. Unaware of the oddly cleaned room around him. Not a spec of dirt to be seen.

A/N: Woo wee! What happened to Chiro? Who was that masked man? Why was the raven familiar? All questions will be answered soon.

And if you're majorily confused, good. You are supposed to be! Lol

So anyways, have a nice night, read and review, and stay tuned for chapter 8!

P.S. I will update when i can. So please do not leave review after review on the same chapter demanding me to update. I WILL update when i CAN. Thank you.