Chapter 26

-Darkness Draws Nigh

Mandarin and his clone crashed together, thunder boomed over head as a powerful snow storm mirrored the fierce battle. The orange monkey danced away from the formless, dodging his clone's must faster swipes before being knocked sideways by the spiny tail. He gasped and rolled away when the bone claw stabbed its jagged teeth into the snow—missing his throat by a mere centimeter.

Mandarin.2 howled in laughter, stepping back to grant the original a moment to catch his breath. "I honestly thought you'd be more a challenge then this," he inched forward, claw opening up like a hungry fly trap. "But I can say, one of my other fantasies have been to not only tear the boy apart, but to rid myself of you!" He screamed and smacked Mandarin right as the monkey managed to get back to his feet.

As the clone pinned him beneath his dark foot, he hissed through battered fangs. "You have any idea what it's like to lay down to sleep… and think yourself as nothing but a mere copy?" Mandarin.2 smirked as he wrapped his claws around the x-leader's throat, hoisting him up. "That would be a stereotypical clone's complaint, but not mine… for I am a bettered version of you—meant as a replacement. Which gives me purpose!"

Mandarin was thrown back against the wall, cracking the ice upon impact. His weak body refused to obey his brain's commands as he snarled, eye shut with fluids trickling from his helmet as his clone released another series of mocking laughter.

"What's wrong, no comeback? Or have you truly lost it?"

"Monkey mind scream!" Mandarin cried as red rings of power shot from his mouth, the powerful attack blasting the skeletal formless back. Red eyes shot open in fright upon seeing his boney twin get right back on his feet, a twisted grin eyeing him down.

"You truly have no strength, it is no wonder you were exiled." He slammed his foot into the orange simian's throat, "Now, you'll be wishing you remained that way." Claws opened as bashed against Mandarin's face, sending him back again.

Xxx

Antauri sprinted ahead with his team in hot pursuit, they had been hauling tail since their former leader stayed back to hold off his blood thirsty clone. The silver monkey still worried for the former, but right now his mind could only focus on Chiro—fear for what was bound to happen fueled his metal body to run even faster.

The tunnel was long and stretched on for miles, they had been ducking beneath search lights and staying away from the main hall Vex had warned them about. All was going fine, until the scenery started to change.

Narrow dark tunnels started to widen, more windows exposing the rooms beneath them, hundreds of formless were seen marching like army ants. Weapons of mass destruction hauled in their ugly talons as they scoped around, finding more citizens who attempted to escape and drug them right back to the freezing cold cells. The scared screams leaving the Hyperforce utterly sick to their stomachs at the awful nightmarish sounds which drove them to move even quicker.

"Guys," Otto called out exhausted, holding his side to prevent the cuts from splitting open. "Please, slow down, I can't move as quick…"

Antauri stopped at the anguished calls and rushed back to his withering family, their fragile states bringing pure concern to his eyes.

"Please hang on Monkey Team, we will be there soon," he tried to uplift their spirits, but his comforting words did only a fraction of that.

"Vex said we have until nightfall, and Mandarin's clone also re-stated they were prepping for Skeleton King's arrival," Gibson relayed while keeping a hand glued to Cassia's. "Wither we have the luxury of extra time, that won't do much… we have no plan—what are we to do when we locate Chiro?"

"We will think of something, but time is not of the essence," Antauri corrected while grabbing Nova's hand to keep her from falling over. "We will have to make do with what little we have and plan as we go, right now—our main worry just needs to be reaching Chiro."

Gathering themselves, they pushed on for another hour till stumbling upon a new room. Curiosity engrossed on them as they eyed the new environment, control panels of all kinds blinking around like Christmas lights, beckoning for their attention as Gibson inched forward to inspect the bizarre site.

"Wow, this is a nifty little set up," Otto awed over the contraption, till he pulled back with a confused look. "But how is a rundown place like this able to support such stuff? I mean, this kind of technology would be spinning an entire city's electric meter!"

"Perhaps they're being powered by underground generators," Nova spoke up while pointing to one computer screen that showed a detailed schematics of strange engines tunneled beneath the facility's location.

"Something is not right, I sense a deeper meaning to this." Leaning forward, Antauri spied one ominous button. Curious, he pressed a weary silver digit on the switch, watching as the computer screens flashed different key coded formulas and demonic looking information that made the wise monkey wince. "This is not good."

Staring for a second longer, Jinmay's eyes shot open as her memory drifted back to the room they discovered the gems. "Guys, the room we first met in with the empty alters, this place is being powered by the gems!"

"Now we don't know for sure," Gibson quickly disagreed in an effort to keep everyone calm. "While that theory is probable, how does this sequence correlate with this so called 'ritual' involving Chiro? Nothing super natural can be performed by these devices."

"No, but…" Antauri closed his eyes, pushing his CPU to connect the dots till something crossed his mind. "Unless, like the pit of doom, Skeleton King plans on opening another portal if he's using the Dark One gems for this."

"But what could he be summoning? I doubt another dark one, we already blew up the worm!" Sprx pointed out while drawing everyone's attention away from the screens.

As they pondered, a low scratching noise outside the door caught their attention. Shooting their eyes up, everyone made a scramble for nearby hiding places as shadows moved across the door. The figured loomed in the window, red eyes scanning the room till they hissed and moved away. Once alone, the Hyperforce scrambled back into a group huddle.

"All we need to know is the Skeleton King is using the gems for something, and Chiro is serving as a sacrificial offering, from what Mandarin clone has informed us." The silver monkey heard more noises coming back to the door, barring his fangs as he made a grab for the papers. "Monkey team, get all the information you can, we can look this over while we continue our search for Chiro."

Everyone scrambled, stuffing pockets and helmets with all their greedy fingers could grab and barging out the door before more guards could spot them. Once they settle upon the rafters in safety, Gibson and Cassia started studying the information given while Antauri and Jinmay led their band forward.

Silence ranged for several minutes before Gibson cleared his throat.

"Sorry monkey team, but this information still alludes my understanding—it makes absolutely no sense." He complained while glaring daggers at the insolent papers wrinkled under his death grip.

"Wait," Cassia spoke out while pointing to one particular symbol. "Vex said that room back there is where 'hope goes to die,' where all the gems were going to be placed…" She scratched his chin, wracking her brain for answers, till a light bulb went off. "That room must be where the ritual is going to go down!"

"Yea, and when were first brought here, I noticed something weird." Jinmay quickly added, "All the pins caging us were in a circular like formation…"

Relaying the clues, reality started to dawn on Antauri as long hidden facts suddenly became known. Horror edged its way across his face as he shot his eyes back to the papers strangled in Gibson's frustrated grasp.

"He's going to use the citizens as sacrifices…"

"And Chiro is the main course," Nova gasped as she caught wind of Antauri's thoughts.

"Great Scott, if Skeleton King needs this many people with Chiro, what on this great galaxy could he possibly be summoning?" The blue scientist gasped out while shoving the papers back to Cassia. "The dark one worm merely needed one powerful life form to escape its egg, but this…?"

Blood howling screams echoed down the hallways, startling the monkeys to a huddled group. Guardian formless shot down from the ceiling, slicing the distracted monkeys mercilessly with their claws. Everyone jumped aside to avoid further damage as the four massive globs of ink charged them.

As they summoned their weapons, Jinmay jolted an arm to halt their advance. Eyes narrowed in determination, she valiantly stepped forward. "You guys keep going, I will hold them off."

Shock hindered their response as Gibson made a grab for Jinmay's arm, "No, will we not leave you," he growled.

"Like Mandarin said, we got no time for this!" She yelled, slapping the metallic hand away. "Besides, there guys jumped me back in the savage lands—so I got a score to settle with them." She cracked her knuckles, long hair flowing in the wind as she ran at the horde, body shifting into her electrical body.

The team unwillingly ran as Jinmay bounded into the group and knocked them over like bowling pins. Grabbing one foot, she hurled one into the others before slamming her heel into another jaw.

Opening her finger tips, four rockets shot out and blew one formless into a pile of ooze. Two had dashed around her and kicked her feet out from beneath and threw the girl into the wall, pinning her left arm back. Jinmay gritted her dental before throwing her head back and knocking one back down. Wounds inflicted on her already injured side sparked, making the teen stumble a bit in pain, but she shook it off and bounded right back into the monstrous huddle.

Xxx

With two of their allies left to fend off the enemy, the Hyperforce were now flying at full speed down the corridors. Antauri helped each one keep up the best he could, Gibson struggling to keep up as Cassia had to drag him along. Otto and Sprx were deathly scared with Nova trying to keep her cool.

"I sense were closing in monkey team, just a little further!" Antauri reassured with his paws latching onto a kneeling beam and scaling its height, his family in close pursuit.

The second their fingers came to solid ground, a laser fired from a ceiling mounted gun and struck the pillar, sending the teammates flying back down and painfully bouncing off the icy floor. Grunting, Sprx rubbed his head as more lasers were fired.

"Get down!" He called while shoving Nova and Otto out of the way.

Drawing his drills, Gibson aimed and fired two electrical beams that swirled around the enemy lasers and struck the gun—burning its metal down to molten liquids. He sighed in relief while deactivating his weapons before rushing over to help Antauri up.

"Everyone okay?" The wise monkey called out while thankfully taking the hand offered to him, being hoisted back to his feet.

"Yea, that fall really knocked the wind out of us," Nova reported while checking everyone over for further injuries, relieved to see nothing lethal.

"Where did that defense grid come from?" Otto asked with a hand pressed to his chin. "I thought Vex said this way was the safest?"

Looking around, Antauri noted another hallway leading into a different tunnel, his blue eyes narrowed. "We must've accidentally left the upper tunnel she warned us to not depart from," he rushed to the broken pillar in search of any ledges they could climb back up. "Hurry, we must return before more weapons target us!"

As Nova started helping everyone up, Cassia stayed back, eyeing the other tunnels with stern eyes. She turned to yell at the monkeys.

"I'm sorry to say this, but you need to go ahead without me."

"What?" Everyone yelled in unison, scaring the capuchin's glasses off.

"Guys, I know you're not going to like this, but if Skeleton King is going to sacrifice your people, we need to thwart his efforts as much as we can!" She took a step towards one tunnel. "If you five can get to Chiro, I can work on freeing everyone else."

A hand stopped the female from going any further, Gibson smiled as he leaned over her shoulder. "Then I'm with you."

"I can't believe you guys are being serious!" Sprx shouted, trying to slide down to stop the pair before Nova hauled him back.

"They're right Sprx," Nova sadly pointed out to her red hot headed mate. "If we focus all our energy on reaching Chiro, we'll be shooting ourselves in the foot if we mess up." She watched as Cassia and Gibson rushed down the other hallway, "At least this way, if we fail, Skeleton King's plans will still be ruined."

Antauri said nothing as Sprx nodded to the golden warrior's words before the rest of them continued on.

Xxx

Gibson and Cassia ran as fast as their feet could carry them, dodging security cameras and ducking under mounds of broken down machines to avoid detection from passing guards. The capuchin wiped the sweat from her forehead, feeling the icy environment start to wane down her energy levels.

"Maybe we should've asked Vex for a map of this place," She pointed out while Gibson took her hand.

"Not to worry my dear, my acute intelligence has gifted me with a sense of inborn direction," the scientist confidently stated as he puffed his chest out and marched into the hall. He stopped, groped his chin and curiously examined all different tunnels. Tapping a thumb against an ice wall, he placed his ear upon the concrete and listened to the echoing sounds.

Cassia watched the blue cyborg as if he had lost his marbles.

"We're lost, aren't we?"

"Absolutely not!" Gibson denied with a stubborn shake to his head. "I have been in plenty of situations without the aid of my scanner's tracker—I can handle a task as simple as selecting which tunnel to go down." Pressing his ear back to the floor, his eyes pinged open and pointed down to the eastward tunnel.

"This way, my hearing projectioners have picked up something hollow, come!" He grabbed Cassia's hand and drug her down the hallway.

As they ran full blast, Gibson failed to detect the way run off into a steep cliff. Cassia grabbed the screaming chimp's tail and hauled him back before the drop swallowed him up. Gibson clung to the capuchin, heart pounding out of his chest with sweat rolling.

"Great scott, that was close."

Cassia shot him an 'I told you so' look while tugging him away from the edge.

"Okay, how about we try my methods now?" She pointed to the ventilated system right above. "The air vents are a safe way to move about undetected, albeit a bit colder than my liking—but it works."

Blushing red, Gibson scoffly nodded as the female climbed up to undo the vent's bolts.

"I was not too far off, just a simple mistranslation of the echoic location anomaly down here." He tried to defend his choice that nearly ran them off a huge cliff.

"I understand, and FYI, we're monkeys, not fruit bats." She playfully sniped before ripping the last bolt off and hoisting her hurt companion into the freezing metallic air vents.

Gibson shivered, "Oh dear, it is very rigid in here."

"I know, right?" She laughed while army crawling down the narrow pathway, trying her best to make as little noise from the flimsy metal as possible.

~With Chiro

Chiro laid upon a table, hands and feet bound with doctors shining lights down his eyes. Claws pricked at his scars with a few others tying his hair back in a messy pony tail, the fiends muttering incoherent hisses to each other. Whatever they were saying, it did not sound good.

The raven haired teen shifted in his binds, looking to his left to spy the dark one crystals housed comfortably upon different alters.

"What are you ugly brutes going to do with those gems?" He snarled through gritted teeth, but when silence met him—he snapped. "Answer me!"

One formless sliced his shirt, exposing his muscular bare chest to the freezing cold air, which made the boy gasp in pain. He shivered, tugging at the restraints as another formless skulked on by with a strange hook in hand.

Taking the weapon, he lightly ran the tip against Chiro's bare skin, trailing light scratches around his pectorals in the shape of a strange symbol. The act didn't hurt Chiro, but that could have been due to the numbing cold, which he was—at the moment—thankful for.

Once finished, another formless circled around the table, he slapped at the others in an effort to forcefully move them away. When they stepped aside, he ran a claw down Chiro's scarred stomach, examining the wound littering his body, probably in an effort to make sure he was not at risk of dying to quick.

The power primate flickered around him, but the energy control collar locked onto his neck zapped him, forcing the power back down. Chiro gritted his teeth, muscles flexing as rage rose to a near boiling point. Ugly words prepared to leave his mouth, before a deep mocking left ice in his veins.

"You want to know, boy?" Skeleton King answered from a monitor mounted a few feet back against the wall. "You know not of how 'surprises' work."

Thankful the warlord was placed only on a screen, the boy felt brave enough to speak with equal amount of venom.

"I don't know what you're planning, but just wait, we will stop you!"

"Oh?" Skeleton Kin chuckled as he moved his soulless pits for eyes across the screen, freezing Chiro's fingers tips. "I hope you plan on it soon, because I will be there soon." He looked to his formless minions and nodded.

The minions surrounded Chiro as the bone tyrant laughed.

"Your parents were smart for mere humans… taking to space with those filthy prototypes to find this chosen one, staying one step ahead of me, forcing me to abounded my goal to finish off the galaxies—starting with Shuggazoom."

Chiro' teeth gritted at the mention, veins pulsing the power primate flared around him. Skeleton King saw this and smirked.

"Not to worry my grandson, soon, you'll be reunited soon."

Hearing the words shot Chiro, pupils shrinking to microscopic size the evil one's statement. "No… no…" he whispered, shaking his head to deny the words he knew his ears heard with complete accuracy.

"But yes, as much as it embarrasses me, it is so." Smirking, he turned his gaze to stare on the left side of the room as three hulking formless dragged in an elderly man.

Captain Shuggazoom trembled from the hundreds of lashes marking across his exposed back, coughing up bloody fluids. Chiro gasped at the sight of the old hero cruelly thrown to floor.

"Captain Shuggazoom, I know you've been meaning to find out the whereabouts of your nephew." Skeleton King's dark chuckles growing into a twisted blood curdling laugh. "Since I am feeling generous, I will allow you a moment of clarity before your death. Go on boy, tell your uncle of our family ties."

"Family… ties?" The ancient man asked in a husky voice, throat dry as he hacked up more spit. "What do you mean? What is going on?"

When Chiro and Captain Shuggazoom locked eyes, something silent passed between the two. First, the old hero knew not what to make of it, till those deep ocean blue eyes looking back at him sent off something in his brain. Reality started to dawn on the Captain as tears started to gush around his worn grey eyes.

"Ace and Zoey… they…" he looked at Chiro, now seeing familiar features that didn't register until now. Nerves sky rocketed as he stared at his hands planted to the floor, tears now flowing down his cheeks. "This can't be…!"

"Captain…" Chiro whispered out, wishing with all his might he could break this binds and hug the ancient hero. How could he have been so naïve to not have noticed such a connection sooner?

"My nephew… he's dead… he's…" he howled in horror while slapping his gloves to his tear flowing face. "Why Alchemist, why?"

"Haha, a question for someone who no longer exists." Skeleton King tsk'd, "if it helps to know, they fought bravely. I almost had the boy, till that damn prototype got away with him… the boy's pesky parents held me off till the end. I will admire their gusto."

Tightening his fist, electricity started dancing around his fists as the old hero jumped to his feet. "You'll pay for this!"

Three formless grabbed the man and threw him back on the ground, his old feeble legs not having the energy to support his threat. Spit flew from his mouth when his face bounced off the frozen concrete, shivering as waxy claws grabbed his wrist and drug him over to Chiro, strapping him down on another table.

"You two bare the most energy, your energy shall nourish the dark ones until they're powerful enough to break through the gates themselves."

Hearing that, both captives froze.

"The dark ones, you're not going to simply free one…" Chiro muttered out, horror making his eyes grow to the size of dinner plates. "You're going to free all of them."

"You can't!" The captain yelled as he fruitlessly struggled against the chain. "If you destroy the gate bridging the netherworld from the living dimension, we will all die, including you! There'll be no way to undo this if you use those gems to the full power—it won't benefit you!"

Skeleton King chuckled as he glanced to his soldiers, nodding before looking back once more. "Enjoy the little time you have left," he hung up, leaving the monitor as black as space.

The heroes shook in fear, staring at each other with looks of over whelming anguish.

"I'm so sorry Captain."

"No," the old man shook his head, white facial hair flipping around his scratched up face. "I'm sorry, I should've told you all this years ago, maybe this wouldn't have happened if I had…"

"It's not your fault, none of us knew…"

"What of Mallory?"

Chiro looked down, not having the heart to inform Clayton of what Vex's true involvement had caused. But he knew the old man would figure it out eventually.

When silence filled the air, the captain dropped his head, feeling one more tear leak down his eyes and onto the floor.

Xxx

Antauri and the remaining members of his team raced ahead, Otto huffed out of his breath as his arms started to weaken, slowing his speed down several notches. Nova and Sprx doubled back to the wheezing monkey as Antauri followed in concern.

"My friend, we must keep going," Antauri tried to encourage the green mechanic.

Otto looked down to see red leaking from his wounds reopening—he shook his head.

"Sorry guys, but I will only slow you down… you must go without me." He glanced up to the ceiling, spying several wires that ran its way across the walls. "Maybe I can try to… somehow… cut off the power going down to the underground generators. That could slow Skeleton King down even more."

"You'll need me to back you up," Nova added with a confident pound to her chest.

"And we can use my magnets to over load some of the more heavily locked sequences," Sprx threw in with a happy smirk.

Looking between the three, Antauri could barely believe what he was hearing.

"No," he shook his head, making a grab for their hands. "I will not leave anymore of you behind!"

"Antauri… you're the only one quick enough to reach Chiro in time," Sprx added sadly.

"And besides, even if we somehow made it, we would only slow you down." Nova pointed out while gesturing to their wounds to prove a point.

When the silver monkey shook his head, fear lashed out at his heart. "Please, monkey team…"

"You already gave up your life for us, let us help you this time," Nova whispered while catching the second in command in a tight hug. "We'll be okay, but Chiro needs you."

Tightening his fist, Antauri nodded and embraced the gold warrior tightly before letting go. Longingly, he glanced back once more, before taking off in a high velocity sprint.

Once alone, the three monkeys helped each other to their feet and made their way across the room to find a stable pillar to climb up on in order to reach the wires to begin their sabotage operation.

As Antauri ran, a tiny tear dripped from his stoic face as he lunged into the darkness, running right towards the place containing his boy. Hope dwindling from his metallic gut, praying it was not to late.