Within a large white room with wireframe grids, a black monkey sat in the middle of the room. His legs were folded together and his arms were out, middle and index fingers touching his thumb. As lights flickered from the grids, Antauri smirked, but remained seated in the middle of the room.

He jolted up as the door opened, and glanced behind him, with his green eyes locking onto Gibson's tired black eyes. Pushing up from the ground, Antauri spun around as Gibson waddled in, lining up beside Antauri as the wireframes flickered a cyan light through the room.

"Gibson, this is quite a surprise," noted Antauri. "I thought you didn't favor meditation."

"Antauri, this isn't meditation," pointed out Gibson. "You were supposed to be honing your skills with the Power Primate."

"This helps with that." He smirked as Gibson sighed.

"Call it 'combat training' then, and let someone else know when you're doing it." Gibson rolled his wrists and converted his hands into his drill weapons. "It's safer when at least one of us knows about this."

Antauri blinked and stared at Gibson's weapons, and then looked up at him. He tilted his head as the waves of cyan light pulsed through the room, dimming to a darker shade, almost black save for the grid's lights.

"Are you…here to train with me?"

"Naturally. Did the drills tip you off?"

"But I thought you were busy researching."

"Let's go with me hitting a 'dead-end,' shall we?"

"No one needs to monitor me, Gibson," insisted Antauri. "I'm fine."

"You're not, but I respect your effort and instance, my friend." Gibson watched Antauri's eyes lower from his dismissal. "Would you prefer me to leave, then?"

"It's too late for that, and you know it."

"Oh, it's before the program is set that one should depart, silly me."

"Gibson."

"I'll be honest when you are, Antauri." Gibson waited as Antauri lowered his head. "You don't have to continue burying your feelings, you do realize, right?"

"…Yes, but…" Antauri sighed. "It's…habit."

"Break it."

"I am…trying…"

"He does visit—"

"Please don't."

"Sorry."

The lights settled as the room lit up, now in an image of the city outside, though with the buildings caved in, windows shattered, and vehicles smashed on the streets. Antauri converted his hands to ghostly purple claws. Twisting opposite to Gibson, he scanned the environment, narrowing his gaze as he searched the area. Checking Antauri momentarily, Gibson then reflected his efforts, checking the other side of the street.

"What settings did you use for this simulation?"

"Single opponent."

"Then that's going to be dreadfully difficult," realized Gibson. He jerked up and glanced behind him to Antauri again. "Hold on, this wouldn't be him, would it?"

"Which one?"

"Antauri…"

Glaring back ahead, Gibson eyes rapidly shifted between the buildings and the vehicles. Spotting just a slight movement past a broken window, Gibson aimed his drill and fired a laser blast from it, breaking through the building's side.

As Gibson slightly lowered his weapon, Antauri pivoted around, and the two watched an orange blur dive out of the building and behind a giant penguin plush. A cyan beam tore through the penguin doll, carving up and tearing it in half. Ripping it apart and tossing it aside, an orange monkey that lacked robotic armor and much of his fur wickedly grinned across to the pair.

"Brothers, have you missed me?" The orange monkey cackled, lifting the beam sword emitting from his orange glove.

"I sincerely regret programming vocal functionality to these," muttered Gibson.

Aiming his drill, Gibson fired another laser shot at the orange monkey, who spiraled away from it and slashed at the street, knocking a chunk of it towards his opponents.

Darting in front of Gibson, Antauri jumped up and slashed at the pavement lump flying at them. He glowered as the orange monkey flexed his glove, recalling the energy sword briefly.

"Mandarin, you will not harm Shuggazoom any further," declared Antauri.

"Not yet, but all in good time," insisted Mandarin, smirking at them.

"We do realize this is just a simulation," reminded Gibson, "and that we're talking to a hologram, yes?"

"Come now, Mister Hal Gibson," mocked Mandarin, as Gibson shuddered and scowled to him. "What fun would it be, if I did not reflect my counterpart's mannerisms and experiences?"

"That's it, I'm revising this later, I've decided."

"Would either of you mind fetching my hairless monkey?" Mandarin grinned. "I would imagine that he still has my shield after all of these years."

"He's not here," snapped Antauri. "And you're never getting it back."

"Try and stop me."

"With pleasure."

Rushing forward, Antauri leapt at Mandarin, who steadily waited for him. Both opened their mouths and unleashed a sonic scream, with purple and teal waves connecting and blasting both monkeys back.

Hurrying for Antauri's direction, Gibson reverted his weapons to hands, holding them up. Antauri spiraled and clawed at the ground, breaking his fall and realigning himself back upright. Exhaling, Gibson lowered his arms and swapped them back to drills. Blinking, Antauri glanced over his shoulder to his partner.

"Were you going to catch me?"

"Clearly not."

"But you were anticipating it."

"It likely would've ended with a collision, not a catch."

"The effort is still appreciated, my friend." Antauri smiled as Gibson shook his head.

"Please, you can handle this whole fight on your own," he insisted. "In fact, I'm likely more of a liability here."

"That's not true, and you know it."

"Are you two done passing compliments?" Mandarin activated his sword once again. "Even just listening to you is sincerely disgusting."

"The feeling is very much mutual," remarked Gibson, aiming his drill.

"How is my dear Otto doing, by the way?"

"Oh, I do hate you."

Quickly lifting his second drill, Gibson alternated firing criss-cross shots at Mandarin, who dashed away from most shots. Zigzagging, Mandarin grinned as he raced from each shot, but tripped up as Gibson fired the last one ahead of his enemy.

Fazing past the car in his way, Antauri emerged before Mandarin, claws readied. He pulled back and sliced forward, as Mandarin lifted his sword to block.

"Don't think so," remarked Antauri, lifting his second weapon. "Claw Disruptor!"

Slashing through Mandarin, the orange monkey screeched out and dropped down. Wincing, he swept at Antauri's legs, forcing the black monkey to flip back away.

Jumping into the air, Mandarin dropped his mouth open, screeching out at Antauri and blasting him away. He dropped back down and smirked as Gibson aimed at him.

"Maybe you should go get the other two idiots to assist you," taunted Mandarin. "Those sickening sweethearts are stronger than you, if only just barely."

"Shut up."

Blasting laser shots at Mandarin, Gibson's eyes widened as the orange monkey zipped past the beams and popped up in front of him.

Using his free hand, Mandarin punched Gibson and then slashed at him with his beam sword, sending him flying back by Antauri.

Slamming down, Gibson groaned and stared up at the ceiling's image of the sky. Antauri leaned over him, offering a hand to help him up. Taking it, Gibson pushed up as Antauri helped him from the ground.

"He seems particularly intent on insulting you in particular," pointed out Antauri.

"Between the two of us, I'm the more emotionally susceptible target," elucidated Gibson. "Naturally, if Sparx were here, those would all be going to him, but of course, it's currently me."

"You programmed him to pick up on which of us he can mess with the easiest?"

"Of course." Gibson frowned to Antauri. "You told me to make these training sessions as realistic as possible, didn't you?"

"Perhaps I should have told you to focus more on the combat," murmured Antauri.

"Mind games are all part of battle," countered Gibson. "Even if I succumb to them, it's better to remain sharp with handling them at all."

"Fair point."

"Shall I interrupt you two once again?" Mandarin approached the two, slashing at debris in his way. "Do you need a minute to talk out something, my Brothers?"

"Actually, I do have an idea to finish this, Gibson." Antauri smirked to him. "I think I've worked on it enough to get it right this time."

"If you insist…"

Rotating his drills, Gibson watched as Antauri climbed up a streetlight. Mandarin followed his gaze, pulling back on his sword.

"Gibson, now!"

"Spin Shocker!"

Kicking off from the pole, Mandarin flipped back to face Gibson. He jerked back as Gibson's electric blasts launched not at him, but into the open air.

"Monkey Mind Scream!"

Sonic waves echoed from Antauri, with the blue electric blasts bouncing around the rings of the purple waves. Ricocheting through, the lightning burst from the waves, zapping at Mandarin. They were quickly followed by a heavy blast from Antauri's sonic waves, pinning Mandarin into a crater.

Grunting as he tried to force himself up, Mandarin was slammed back down by Antauri's ghost claw. He winced and looked up at his opponent, with Gibson standing just behind Antauri, drills trained on Mandarin as well.

"Utterly pathetic," chastised Mandarin.

"Even so, we win," taunted Gibson.

"He's right," chimed in Antauri. "Simulation complete."

The holograms of the environment flickered, as the setting slowly faded into darkness around the duo. Mandarin scoffed and rolled his head back.

"Laugh while you can, Brothers." He picked his head back up to wickedly grin at the two. "I'll be back again, some day soon."

"Can you please stop calling us 'brothers,' just once?" Gibson jabbed his drill forward. "None of us are biologically related, and your use of it is just so strained at this point."

"You remain as much a fool as ever," spat Mandarin. He looked to Antauri, a glint in his black and red eyes. "And you…still unable to detach yourself entirely."

"He needs work on parting threats," decided Antauri.

"Noted."

"Bah!"

The computerized version of Mandarin faded with the remaining setting, as the cyan lights from the wireframe grid powered down. The room returned to its white lighting, as Antauri relaxed his claws to normal. Gibson reverted his drills away, and folded his arms, looking to Antauri.

"Can we please have a more civilized conversation now?"

"Didn't you want to attempt a second round?"

"No!"

Antauri chuckled at Gibson's annoyance, and nodded, leading him from the room.