Heh, well I guess we should check up on our heroes… This ch. gets a little bit gory and has some language (Which has now been taken out cause... it's just kinda weird seeing characters in a kids' program cruse. It's not even that I personally have a problem with language, it's just it kinda takes you out of the story when these characters use language that's pretty obviously not usually in their vocabulary. I'll still might use some milder language when the moment arises, but it will be used sparingly.) I told you this was rated T for a reason (That reason is now violence cause I have no problem with describing people getting stomachs cut open, but hearing them say "Bastard" makes me squeamish.) I blame the fact I was reading a zombie novel while working on this chapter for why it gets to graphic.
Oh and I have started to put little dots in between scene changes, there were too many lines in the last chapter. (I've actually gone back and edited all chapters to reflect this change, yay retroactive editing!)
Genesis ran around the Robot in a frenzy, she was starting to worry about the team and getting anxious because she was starting to realize that she really had no clue what to do anymore. She had sent a message out to Jinmay asking her to come back and aid her in directing the troops, but she was too far away and too busy with her own demons to come and rescue her right now. It seemed that Genesis was on her own until the team came back.
Things were not looking too good for the Skeleton King Resistance Force at the moment either, all the squads were starting to get fatigued. More and more Formless were appearing and it seemed like the enemy supply was endless. For every monster they attacked and killed, it seemed two more took its place. Genesis didn't know what to tell the squads anymore, she couldn't lead this many people at once. She was running from one terminal to the other when she suddenly tripped and fell flat on her face. Genesis just laid there a minute, not daring to move; she was far too tired, too stretched and just so scared, How was she suppose to do this on her own? She felt so helpless and small in that moment.
Finally she did put her hands under her chest and pushed up. Gidget would not lay around doing nothing, she would have at least tried and make a difference and Genesis couldn't let her down. She got to her feet under her and walked over to the computer terminal, sighed heavily and looked up. There was a simple message on the screen:
Do not worry, I'll help you the best I can.
Genesis stared at it in silent awe for a moment before she noticed new instructions being given out to the army, and they were good instructions too, she could have never thought them up on her own. She smiled and gave a silent thank you to the Super Robot for helping her.
.::~::.
Gidget looked at the mutated freak that was standing in front of her. He barely looked like the Mandarin from Otto's memory, he was sickly, menacing; the air around him held a feeling of resentment and repulsion, and Gidget still felt the hate boil over inside of her.
"What do you want?" She spat through gritted teeth while transforming her hands into her guns and taking a defensive stance. She would never let him hurt Otto again.
"Oh calm down, Gidget." Mandarin said as he stood in front of her casually, holding a hand up passively as if he was just dropping by to say hello. He started to walk towards her and in a blur the barrel of her gun was pointed at his head. "Well now, is this how you greet everyone?" He asked with a chuckle. "No wonder no one on the Hyper Force likes or trusts you."
Gidget gave a deep, primordial growl. "Don't try to play nice with me." Gidget said viciously, then added after a beat, "How do you know my name?"
"Well the Skeleton King likes to make notes to learn all he can about his enemies. As well as possible allies." Mandarin said with a wicked grin.
"What is that suppose to mean?" Gidget asked uneasily, she glanced down at Otto to make sure he was still unconscious, unfortunately he was. "Darn it, come on Otto." Gidget muttered under her breath before returning her attention to Mandarin.
"Let's not worry about the little details now." Mandarin continued with an evil smirk and pacing slowly in front of Gidget. "Everything will be reviled in time. But yes, I know quite a bit about you." He looked casually at his one good hand. "I know about you, your sister, and your..." He clicked his tongue as he tried to think of the word. "Interesting powers. I suspect they are the reason you know my name." He began to stride in front of Gidget, the barrel of her gun carefully following him.
"And whom did you steal the memories from?" He asked with a smirk, but Gidget did not reply, instead choosing to watch him with fury in her eyes. "It could have been Nova's." He continued nonchalance while strolling past her calmly. "Your ferocity is in par with hers. Or perhaps it was Antauri, you seem to have enough control over your feelings to not immediately attack me…" He quickly turned around and Gidget tensed up. He smiled curtly and looked down at Otto, forcing her to cocked her gun. "Oh I see," Mandarin's grin grew wider, "It was dear, sweet, stupid Otto." Gidget's growl grew more guttural as he insulted her friend. "That explains so much, it's not that you won't hurt me, it's that you can't. You have Otto's feeling towards me, you don't have the heart to kill me." Gidget was growing tired of his crap, she swung her left arm up and fired, but Mandarin quickly dodged the bullet and was in front of Gidget in the blink of an eye.
"Well that was interesting." He said with an evil chortle. Gidget started to move her right arm to shoot him but he grabbed it tightly in his claw. She started to move her left one again but he quickly snatched that one too and pinned her against the wall. Gidget did the only thing she could think of on short notice and drew her head back before swinging it forward to headbutt him as hard as she could. His skull flipped back an unnatural angle before he simply cracked it back into place with a quick head flip. While Gidget had a violent headache, it seemed that Mandarin barely even flinch from the attempt to hurt him.
"Well that was just sad." Mandarin as he slung Gidget across the hallway and smiled as she hit the floor and let out a yelp. She could hear a sick crack as her still wounded ribs finally broke, her injuries still fresh from the fall. "And here I thought you were a regular chatter box. What's the problem? Monkey got your tongue?" Mandarin asked in a cruel voice as he started to lean over Otto's limp body.
"Don't you touch him!" Gidget screeched as she lifted up her arm and fired on Mandarin.
.::~::.
Sparx and Nova dove for Gibson in unison. Sparx managing to grab Gibson's leg and Nova managing to wrap her tail around Sparx's hips while she transformed her hands and grabbing the ledge of the staircase. They hung suspended for a few seconds before everyone sighed in relief. Gibson looked down and saw the bug was still sitting on his chest, and quickly grabbed it in disgust before throwing it into the dark abyss below him, or above if you used his perspective.
"Was that really necessary Sparx?" He asked turning angrily to this red companion.
"Well I didn't think you were going to go ballistic and walk off the side of the stairs!" Sparx and Gibson argued while Nova tried to pull them all back up onto the staircase. She propped one of her arms up and pulled herself to ground level just as two Formless came running straight towards them from both directions. It would only take a minute for them to reach the trio.
"Uh, guys we have company." She said nervously.
"What kind of company exactly" Gibson asked while trying to get a look at the incoming enemies.
"Formless." Nova gasped as she tried to pull herself up, but kept losing her grip on the loose soil that made up the stairs.
"What?!" Sparx asked exasperated as he turned up towards Nova, his grip on Gibson leg shifted a little. "What are we going to do- " Sparx started to asked as Gibson slipped from his grasp completely. "Whoops." He said as he scrambled to grab Gibson tail and barely succeeded.
"Are you trying to kill me?!" Gibson asked angrily as he was spun around to face the wall. He was about to retort further, when he spotted the grate. It was a simple passage way, probably used to help air circulation throughout the castle. "What's this?" he asked intrigued while trying to get closer to it, "I say, Sparx could you delicately swing me to the wall?" Sparx complied and he reached out to the bars for purchase. Grabbing it, Gibson peered in saw that it would be just big enough to fit them if they crouched.
"What do you got there, Brain Strain?" Sparx asked as he tried to figure out what gears were turning in Gibson's mind.
"A way for us to escape, I believe." Gibson said as he transformed his hand into a drill so he could unscrew the grate.
"Well could you hurry up please?" Nova asked concerned as she watched the Formless closing in, "We don't exactly have all day here, you know." She glanced up and saw that to Formless would be to them any second.
"Almost…" Gibson said as he detached the last screw. "Got it!" He yelled triumphantly as he pulled the grate off and crawled inside. He stuck his head back out and reached for Sparx's hand. "Nova, let go now!" Gibson yelled as he grabbed Sparx and pulled as hard as he could. Nova let go just as the Formless reached them, and Gibson went tumbling backwards as Sparx and Nova flew into the small opening in the wall. They all sighed with relief when they saw they had made the escape.
"That was a close one." Sparx said while rubbing his head.
"Yeah, let's not do anything like that again, ever." Nova said as she sat up. "Where are we?" She asked looking around.
"Not a clue." Gibson said as he got on his hands and knees. "Care to explore? There is only one way for us to go now." Sparx shrugged and made enough room so Nova could crawl in front of him. Gibson headed to expedition, followed closely by Nova with Sparx bringing up the rear.
.::~::.
"Antauri how are we going to defeat the Skeleton King without our powers?" Chiro asked as they hid in small room, they had to gather their thoughts and make a plan before moving any deeper into the castle.
"We need to find the rest of the team and see if they too are affected by this phenomenon too." Antauri said while crossing his legs and attempting to meditate. "But first I need to see if I can find Genesis and tell her what's going on, she has been leading our armies with no guidance for far to long." He tapped his communicator to see if he could contact her that way, but did not even receive dead static as a response. Antauri sighed as he sad down closed his eyes and searched for Genesis's personal signature, but was getting nothing. He growled loudly in frustration. "I cannot contact through mechanical or mental pathways it seems. We need to find Gidget and see if she still has her clairvoyant powers." Antauri said discouragingly. "It's the only way for us to get through to Genesis and tell her what to do. Our forces can't survive long with a child leading them."
"Um, doesn't a child usually lead them anyways?" Chiro asked sheepishly while pointing to himself and smiling. Antauri looked at him a moment, he had forgotten Chiro was still a child himself. After all the battles they had seen, after all the fights and death, he had forgotten how young Chiro really was.
The silver primate smiled and chuckled a little bit. "I suppose you're right." He replied standing up. "I guess they will be fine on their own a little while longer. They will have to be." An audible scraping sound abruptly came from above them.
"What is that?" Chiro whispered as he and Antauri took defensive stances. The second-in-command shook his head before replying.
"I don't know but we're about to find out."
.::~::.
Gidget watched as a hole tore through Mandarin's midsection and looked in wonder as he grabbed his side with his one good hand and winced in pain and a dark substance started to leak through his claw like fingers.
"Well that was rude." he spat through gritted teeth, then he started to cry. At least that's what it looked like to Gidget, he began to shake uncontrollably and gagging sounds came from his throat. She quickly scrambled to get up when she realized that it was actually laughter. "Did you really think it would be that easy?" he asked as he removed his hand from his side and Gidget saw what she originally mistook for blood, was actually a black goop. It poured out of him in rivulets as Gidget backed away quickly, she suddenly had a strong desire to vomit. It reminded her of what the Formless looked like after they were defeated by Nova's Boom Boom Waka, this thought did not settle her raging stomach.
"What are you?" She asked in a tiny, horrified voice as she began to back away, but then stopped. He was still beside Otto. Mandarin paid no attention to her as he began to cackle and looked at the black disease that covered his hand before raising it to his mouth to wipe away a small stream of ooze that crept from the corner of it.
"A monster," he whispered to her in an ominous voice. "And your worst nightmare." He launched himself at her, raising his arm as he soared through the air. Gidget quickly tried to scrambled and move out of his way but she reacted a second too late, and he landed painfully against her left shoulder, pinning her against the wall. It fell limp at her side, and she looked down at it in horror, there was no way she could fight with that arm now. She looked slowly back up at Mandarin and began to tremble in fear, seeing her show of weakness, he began to grin evilly. Gidget grabbed her useless arm and pulled it close to her side while cowering in fear from the orange monstrosity.
"Let me make a deal with you." Mandarin said as he slowly got to his feet. "I'll let you go right now, you can leave. In fact, I'll even tell you how to get out of this dungeon." He stood to one side of the tunnel and pointed with his outstretched arm. It took everything in Gidget not to darted down it immediately, so instead she just smiled wanly at him and started to move slowly across the wall.
"All you have to do is leave Otto behind for me." Gidget stopped dead in her tracks and turned around to look down at Otto. He was laying peacefully on his side, oblivious to what was happening around him. Gidget turned back towards Mandarin and looked him directly in the eyes.
"Not in this lifetime, you freak of nature." She snapped at him while pointing her one good gun at him and trying to take the most threatening stance she could.
Mandarin simply smiled viciously, "It's your funeral then." He leaped at her again and Gidget closed her eyes and shot. Her bullet glazed his side, making another ragged hole for his ooze to pour out of, but he didn't even slow down or seem to notice the wound. He slammed his full weight against her again and she was pinned again in between the wall and the monstrosity the was literally dripping with evil. She tried to bring her gun up to his chin, maybe she could finally destroy him with a head shot, but as any good gunslinger will tell you, it is all but impossible to make a point-blank shot from the waist. But before she had even gotten the arm up, he used his one good hand to grabbed it and pinned it against her chest. The barrel was now positioned directly under her own chin.
"You wouldn't take my offer to run so maybe you'll take this one." Mandarin said as his arm gripped painfully down on the barrel. "You end this all now, get it over with, if you continue to fight me I will make you watch as I kill Otto slowly and then you will be tortured to death, me savoring every single one of your squeals of pain and cries of mercy." Gidget looked into his eyes but said nothing. She struggled against his grip, but he just squeezed harder, much more pressure on it and her firearm might actually break. "You would feel almost no pain taking your own life," He continued, leaning close to her face, "compared to what Otto's going to experience that is. There is no reason for both of you to suffer too much." He attempted to smiled, but the black goo that now covered his unnaturally sharpened teeth just made the end result look horrendous. "Otto would want it this way." He whispered quietly, his hot breath making it all but impossible to breathe. Gidget mouth seemed to be filled to the brim with cotton, she had to dry swallowed a few times before managing an answering.
"No thanks." She said weakly, coughing from the pressure of her gun pressed against her chest. "I would rather die a hero and a friend than as a deserter or a weakling, Traitor." She spat in Mandarin's face, his eyes erupting with hate at the personal jab, but his still smiled dripped contempt.
"Have it your way." He whispered as he crushed Gidget's gun in his claw and it shattered to pieces. She shrieked in pain and fell limp with despair against the wall. Gidget sent out a silent pray, she apologizing for not being strong enough to save them and that it wouldn't hurt Otto too much and Mandarin activated his lazer saber and slowly crept towards her.
.::~::.
Sparx grumbled as they made their way through the extremely stuffy pipe. "Do you see an end to this stupid tunnel, Gibson?" Sparx asked as they trudged along through the gloom. At some point the stone passage had turned into a metal one and had gotten particularly warm with three cybernetic monkeys crawling through it.
"Don't you think that would be one of the first things I told you if I saw it?" Gibson snapped back while wiping a thin layer of sweat from his brow.
"Guys it's way to cramp and stuffy in here," Nova said sighing heavily, "for your two big heads to keep spouting out hot air."
"Well if Brain Stain would get a clue, we could have found the rest of the team by now!" Sparx's shout echoed loudly in the far too tiny space.
Gibson stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to face Sparx. "Are you honestly trying to blame all this on me?!" He asked shocked and appalled.
"Well you haven't been very enthusiastic about this mission, Gibby." Sparx snapped back.
"Sorry if I prefer having a plan to simply running head first into the universe's most important battle." Gibson retorted angrily.
"Will you two calm down?" Nova tried to interrupt both of them, as they heard a scrapping noise as the paneling underneath them gave way and they tumbled down through the ceiling...
And right in front of Antauri and Chiro.
"Nova! Sparx! Gibson!" Chiro yelled in delight as they plummeted to the ground. Gibson and Sparx landed first and Nova landed softly- for her- on top of them.
"Oh, hey Chiro." Nova said as she dusted herself off. "Look guys I found Chiro and Antauri."
"Wonderful." Sparx mumbled, his face plastered against the floor.
"Excellent." Gibson replied as he pushed himself up and cracked his back.
"We were just looking for you." Nova said happily as she hugged Chiro.
"And us you," Antauri said after a quick embrace from Nova. "But reunions will have to wait until later, I have a very serious question to ask you. Do any of you still have you powers?"
The trio looked at each other before replying. "Well, yeah." Sparx said sceptically, "Why wouldn't we?"
"Because me and Antauri can't use ours." Chiro said while shaking his head slowly.
"What do you mean you can't use yours?" Nova asked concerned and looking between the two.
"My hands will transform," Antauri explained quickly, "but I can neither use my ghost claws, nor read minds."
"And all the power has left my attacks." Chiro added. "How can you guys still have yours?"
"Well," Gibson thought for a moment. "I know that Sparx's and mine weapons are scientifically based and Nova's is brute force, while yours and Antauri's are infused with the Power Primate. It could be that has something to do with it, though since we don't yet know the status of Gidget's and Otto's, I can't be sure."
"We actually fear that the Skeleton King might have taken the Power Primate from us." Antauri said grimly.
"Well what are we going to do now?" Sparx asked looking among the team.
"I suggest we begin by trying to find Otto and-." Antauri started to say as a piercing screech interrupted him.
"What was that?" Nova asked while transforming her hands, ready to fight.
"I don't know," Chiro said, "But I have a feeling we won't like it when we find out, come on team." The entire team darted out of the small room they had been occupying and headed towards the scream.
.::~::.
Gidget was slung across the hallway and she landed with a hard thud beside Otto. She cowarded as Mandarin slowly strode towards her, saber raised to strike. Realizing he was aiming for Otto and not her though, she quickly slung herself over her green friend and laid there with her eyes closed, too afraid to move, when a yell ripped past her ears.
"What the heck do you think you're doing?" She cautiously opened her eyes to see Nova running full speed at Mandarin with the rest of the team following close behind.
"Guys…" She said weakly smile and trying to force herself up when she caught Sparx's eye. He looked over and saw Gidget torn and broken, trying to push herself off the ground with her broken gun.
"Nice to see you will attack an unarmed girl." He said with more that a slight hint of sarcasm. "Pun partially intended."
"That joke sucked Sparx…" Gidget called softly while giggling weakly before breaking down into a fit of coughs. She felt darkness start to close in around her, when she saw movement in her peripheral vision.
"Well hello, Monkey Team," Mandarin said with a grin on his face, "I'm just introducing myself to your newest member."
"You sick monster." Gibson whispered as he looked over at Gidget and gasped. "What have you done to her?"
"Oh all that?" Mandarin said as he motioned back towards Gidget but didn't bother to review his work. "I'm just breaking her in that's all, nothing to get your tail in a bunch over-"
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO GIDGET?!" a voice screamed from behind Mandarin. He turned around slowly to see Otto leaning over Gidget while examining at her wounds with a look of concern on his face. His hand was lightly resting on her cheek while his other carefully turned her broken arm this way and that and she looked up at him, smiling brightly.
"Oh, nice to see you again Otto." Mandarin said, trying to act calm and moving towards the couple with open arms. Otto looked up and without a word, shot one of his saws straight at him, no one even saw him transform his hand. It slid neatly into Mandarin's stomach and stuck there with a horrid plop. Mandarin grabbed the saw and began to laugh harshly, "Do you honestly think this will stop me? I am immortal! You will never be able to defeat me!" He began to laugh manically and pull the saw out when he abruptly stopped. Antauri stood behind him with his claw out and slammed deeply into the back of Mandarin's head. Mandarin's form seemed to wobble for a moment before finally dissolved into an unrecognizable puddle on the ground.
"That's just gross." Sparx said as everyone stood around silently and Otto retracted his saw.
"Glad to see you guys are all okay." a weak voice finally spoke up. They all turned and looked down at Gidget seeing what kind of condition she truly was in. Otto leaned down to inspect how bad the damage was.
"Gidget what happened?" He asked concerned while lifting up her limp arm. "You're in worst condition that when you crashed a spaceship. Your right hand is shattered and can you even move you left one? "
"I guess I have a track record as good as Gibson's now." She said while smiling, before she broke into another fit of coughing. Otto tried to put her in to a sitting position but finally settled on a leaning one against the wall.
"Take it easy," He said as the team began to circle around her.
"Gidget, are you okay?" Nova asked as she gently held her useless hand between both of hers.
"More or less," Gidget replied with a weak smile, "I sound worse that I look, promise."
"Well you both sound and look like scrap there, Giggles." Sparx said he inspected her ruined arm. "Man, your handgun is toast."
"I can make a new one," Gidget said simply while trying to stand up, "if Otto and Gibby wouldn't mind helping me, that is."
"Of course not." Gibson said softly while leaning down to help Otto appraise the damage done. "It's the least I could do for not grabbing you two sooner and saving you from an encounter with that..." he looked over at the puddle on the floor that use to be one of their greatest enemies. "Thing." Gidget shrugged in response.
"Forget about it Gibby," She said offering a smile. "I seriously doubted you would wish that fate on me. Help me fix my gun and maybe make some new weapons for it and we'll call it even."
"We need to get you back to the robot first." Otto said as he wrapped an arm around Gidget's waist and helped her into a sort of standing position.
"I told you it's not that bad…" Gidget started to say before she trailed off as her eyes went dark and lifeless.
"Gidget!" Everyone screamed in unison as she fell against the wall and slid down it.
Omigosh! Gidget is dying and you guys are the only ones who can save her! (Oh God, not this again.) Someone help me I'm creating drama! (Two exclamation marks, really? Oh God why.) Damn these cliché plot bunnies, they're trying to create suspense! Someone stop them! (No, stop ruining every suspenseful thing you write!)
Otto: You can! (Oh God did I add dialog between me and the characters too? Sweet Lord no.)
Gidget: Why are you trying to kill me off!? (NO ONE BELIEVES I WAS GOING TO KILL YOU OFF. STOP IT.)
Me: Because people always say 'listen to the plot bunnies'. Should I? (Wait, am I retroactively arguing with myself now? Sonofa-)
Monkey Team: NO!
Me: Oh what should I do? R&R please! (You should stop this retroactive embarrassment immediately.)
Gidget: Someone save me! She's gonna kill me! (No, I'm gonna kill past self for adding this stupid bull- No stop being meta this instant this is just getting silly now.)
(Okay enough goofing off. In all seriousness, these moments of...awkward character interaction were a poor choice for narrative purposes, especially at a very serious and suspenseful part of the story. The upcoming points where I would completely break the flow of the story and the fourth wall to add in unneeded commentary were a worse one though. This is honestly something that when I was writing these I noticed a lot of other writers doing and I thought, 'hey, why not try it out?" And as I found out, you shouldn't because it's a horrible idea. Trust me when I say this, if you do this now: Stop. If you are want to be taken seriously, do not interact with your characters in the author's comments section. It's a whole lot of unfunny meta humor that is just regretful later in life. Trust me on this, 3 years later I'm regretting it.)