Chapter 19
-No Longer Sure
Chiro watched as he aimed the laser right on Mandarin's temple, the orange monkey looked into the alley way to his left, eyes squinted as he nudged his umbrella and hunkered down in a corner.
With trembling hands, Chiro put his finger in the trigger and gritted his teeth, tears streaming from his cheek.
'If I don't do something now, everything will be gone.'
He started to pull the switch to rev up the barrel until a small meow caught his line of hearing. The orange monkey was kneeled before a kitten, stroking its wet back as he gifted the hungry creature with a warm smile.
"What are you doing out here?" He asked, grasping the poor creature in his free glove while keeping the umbrella firmly above them.
Chiro halted his finger, watching the kind display with absolute shock. The future tyrant turned his back and walked down the road with the kitten towed along, leaving the lonely red laser frozen to the spot he had been previously standing.
When the rogue monkey disappeared into the night, Chiro looked down to the gun and dropped it. Shaken by what he about did, the former human dropped to his hands and let the rain wash his tears away. Lightning bolted across the sky, casting a bright flash across the city and the blue eyed boy's face.
"H-he's not…" he muttered, so stumped by what he just saw. The monkey he believed to be incapable of kindness, the one responsible for the horrific future destined for this city, was not this person. No, this Mandarin… was completely different.
Chiro forced himself to his feet, mind lost in a foggy haze as he grabbed his unused weapon and drug it behind him in a walk home. Rain began to pour down harder, as if masking the broken hearted boy in a wet blanket of despair.
Mind racing, he didn't know what to think, he could have saved his future—with one bullet. But he couldn't, not when seeing a side of Mandarin he truly thought was impossible. Picking up a kitten didn't seem like much to a regular person—but to Chiro; that one tiny gesture made a galaxies worth of difference.
Xxx
The future Mandarin sat alongside a pipeline, ignoring the rain drench him to the bone as he watched the boy-turned-monkey walk away from the near assassination attempt. He had perched himself upon this ledge for hours, plotting his next course of action, till he spotted his younger self being trailed by the chosen one.
At first, he paid no heed to it, but was dumbfounded to see the boy with a large sniper riffle in his grip. He about intervened when the teen aimed for his younger self, but Mandarin just couldn't shake the awe-struck state of seeing the hero make such a lethal choice.
Now he just watched Chiro drag himself away in sheer heartbreak, the pathetic display making the old monkey sick. Mandarin, in a million years, would've never thought the boy had the guts to even construct a plan such as this. It struck hesitance in his heart, understanding now just how far the child was almost willing to go to defeat him.
Despite Chiro's disgustingly soft nature, he almost felt a small amount of respect for the boy-turned-monkey.
But it didn't matter now, he chuckled as he held up a small security camera stolen from the local grocery store. Right when Chiro dropped the gun and walked off with failure, Mandarin had spotted the red dim blinker of a lone camera that had just recorded the attempted murder near the parking lot. While it didn't catch a homicide, it still showed the boy as clear as day, and who his target was.
Smirking, Mandarin leaned back against the building, enjoying the rain sweep his matted fur clean. He'd let the boy enjoy one last night with the team before dropping the hammer. Though he despised the child, the orange cyborg felt he owed him a small break for not only sparing his younger self—but proving he really did have a spine.
Ironic, he felt almost bad for readying to jump someone stupid enough to play fair. Just so naïve, like cheating a kid out of a magic trick for his money. Oh well, war was war, and Mandarin had no plans of losing his future to the boy.
Xxx
Chiro had made it back to the robot and disposed of the weapon back in the closet, not having the stomach to mentally review what he had just about done. Words could not express just how much agony his heart was in as he drug himself to the command center and threw down on Antauri's pod chair.
The hours ticked until Mandarin returned home, the kitten was not with him, probably dropped off at the animal shelter. But something the half-awake boy noticed, was the leader smelt so intoxicated, it almost burnt his nose hair clean off.
Young Mandarin stumbled through the halls and found his way to his tube, dropping the wet umbrella to the floor and fall into his shoot. Fingers blindly fumbled for the switch to activate the air currents that'd take him up to his room, but anger sparked when he couldn't find the damn button!
Chiro moved to stand in front of the drunken monkey, blue eyes staring right into those black orbs housing devilish red irises. The silence went on as Mandarin's ocular lens struggled to focus on the person in front of him.
"The hell… d-do you want?" He angrily slurred, pressing a fist into his chest to shove the teen back.
Chiro stumbled a bit before pushing Mandarin's hand off him, eyes reflecting concern.
"Why are you drunk?"
"None of your damn business, now get the hell back to bed." He snapped before finding the switch at last and shot himself upstairs.
Looking at the empty orange tube, Chiro solemnly dropped his head and moved back to the pod chair to get some sleep.
Morning came faster than he expected as he unwillingly got up and rubbed his eyes, barely receiving an ounce of sleep due to his destructive thoughts hurting his anxiety levels. He drug his feet through the dorms and down the hallway, listening to the idle chatter of his teammates. Not up to joining them for breakfast, he moved to isolate himself in a quiet place. Maybe he'd join them for lunch, if his guilt-ridden stomach was up for the conquest.
Mandarin was in the kitchen with everyone else, rubbing his temples to sooth the migraine like headache. Otto had obediently fetched the grumpy leader some water, to which Mandarin had snatched up and drank in one large gulp. Antauri was slaving over the stove while keeping a worried eye on their orange alpha.
"So, Mandarin," the wise simian started while delivering a plate of bacon and eggs to him. "How did sleep treat you, my friend?"
"Fine," he responded with an icy blankness.
"I see," the black monkey answered unenthusiastically. "Perhaps a bit of food with help ease your… frustration levels."
"Yes, your episodes of insomnia have increased over last week's course, you've failed to attend your routine health checkups." Gibson noted while properly sipping his warm honey tea. "I have prescribed you with sleeping pills, have they not been of any use?"
The blue monkey's long winded sentences seemed to redden the boiling orange monkey. He massaged his temple, gesturing for Gibson to shut up.
"Yea, I told you I needed a higher dosage, the crappy ones you prescribed were too weak."
The medical doctor drew back in offense to the verbal jab. "Mandarin, I can't have you ingest to high of a dosage, which could be catastrophic to your brain cells. You shouldn't need-"
"Shut up," He warned while clamping a hand over Gibson's snout. "I am in no mood for this today."
As everyone ate in silence, Antauri spotted the empty seat right between him and Nova.
"Where is Chiro?"
"I don't know," Sprx added while shoveling in a huge spoonful of oatmeal. "Hadn't seen the kid since last night, seemed really quiet."
"Yea," Nova agreed, also recalling the blue eyed monkey's silence. "Perhaps someone should check on him?"
"Not right now," Mandarin groaned while nibbling at the rear of a piece of bacon. Till a loud beeping sound caught his attention. He groaned and waved Otto to go check the nearby computer console.
When the green monkey opened the computer, he saw footage of three armed humans standing at the foot of the robot.
"Uh guys, there's police officers standing outside?"
Everyone shared perplexed looks as they zoomed in on the security footage, the tall man in the middle angrily banging on the foot hatch. Regrouping themselves, Antauri took the lead as they walked down together and opened the foot hatch.
"Hello officers, what can we do for you today?" Antauri answered politely, standing aside to grant the gentlemen passage into their domain.
"We're looking for someone," the captain answered gruffly, his long brown beard rustling over his broad chest.
"Who would you be looking for here?" Gibson asked while following the men inside.
They didn't answer till the captain spotted Chiro rounding the corner to investigate the source of the new voices. A gun was pulled as the big man ran and shoved the unsuspecting simian into the ground, pressing a knee to his back and hauled the former human's hand behind his head.
"You're under arrest, blue eyes!" The captain sneered while slapping electric handcuffs over the boy's hand.
"What is the meaning of this?" Antauri shouted, rushing over to discourage the officers' efforts. The rest of the monkeys stood completely dumbfounded.
"Back up Hyperforce, we got mailed footage of blue eyes here attempt murder!" The deputy spit while hauling a horrified Chiro to his feet.
"What… do you mean? What proof do you have to back up such an outrageous claim?" Gibson pointed angrily, "You have no right to waltz in here on our property and restrain one of our teammates, especially without a proper warrant!"
The captain smirked smugly as he pulled out his phone and swept a fat finger through the images till he found the preferred video.
"Oh, you mean this?" The video showed Mandarin walking through the rain with a barely-seen picture of Chiro housed on top of a building, a massive gun in hand.
"We've received an anonymous tip he, the suspect, was carrying an automatic thermal clipped riffle, illegal to carry in public first of all. The video clearly shows him take aim at your leader, the laser housed on his right temple—we don't know why, but he ceased his actions. But that does NOT excuse the attempted murder."
All six pairs of eyes fell on Chiro as Mandarin fell into a deep pit of silence, unsure of how to react to this news.
Chiro was frozen, mind unable to grasp what was happening. But he couldn't deny the video, for it was indeed him, and his actions were also as clear as the rain. He shifted his shackles uncomfortably, knees shaking as he stared at the ground.
"It's not what you think…" he whispered.
The Mandarin turned and knees the monkey in his gut, sending the younger simian down to the ground. Rage fumed from his helmet as he grabbed his ear and forced him to look into burning onyx optics.
"You tried to kill me? After all we have assisted you with?" He snarled and dropped the dark simian. "I had a feeling you were not a friend, just didn't think you had any reason to be a traitorous scumbag."
Chiro coughed, a large purple bruise inking his stomach as he looked to his team, eyes shrinking in horror at the looks of betrayal marking their faces. When the officers tugged his arms, he started to panic, reality sinking in as he struggled.
"You- you don't understand!" He yelled out to the monkeys. "I'm not who you think I am—I'm not from here!" The guards grabbed his shoulders and forced him towards the door, but the monkey persisted against them. "Monkey team, please, you're in danger!"
"The only one who's in danger is you," Mandarin snapped, blocking his view from his heartbroken teammates. "Officers, thank you for removing this thing from our robot. We'll be sure to come by later to press charges, send him off."
Antauri looked shaken, but unable to remove his eyes from the cellphone video clearly showing Chiro with the gun. Hardening his look, he gave an expressionless glance to Chiro before turning his back to him, soon followed by the rest of the team.
Seeing the others, especially Antauri, struck a nerve within the teen. Heart sinking into the pits of his stomach, he lost all strength in his legs and allowed the guards to haul him out of the robot and into the back of a police cruiser.
One officer kept his gun trained on him as the other two got in the front seat. Chiro glanced out the window, watching the robot grow smaller as the hover car towed him away. The watch of Morrow seemed to reflect his conscious as it abruptly loudened its ticks. Ominous to his ears, the lonely sounds were a welcoming distraction from the depression that ate away at his insides.
'What have I done…?' He thought to himself, unaware of how many minutes ran by till he was in the heart of the city and forcefully removed from the car.
Two cold gun barrels were kept planted to his back as he was marched into a police station through a quiet lobby, and into a high-tech holding cell. They didn't even bother to remove his shackles as he was kicked into the cold floor, Chiro coughed as streams of electricity powered on and trapped him.
The man standing on the other side shook his head.
"I really thought you monkeys were above something like this." He stared at the cellphone video one last time before retiring it to his pocket. "Doesn't matter now, you best rest up before the Hyperforce get here."
Chiro didn't answer as he looked away, curling his tail around his knees in a desperate attempt to comfort himself.
"I ain't sure what your status was there—seeing as I never seen you with the Hyperforce before. Whatever you are, they seem pretty pissed to see what you tried to do." The captain turned his back to him while crossing two burly arms across his chest. "Either way, seems like you don't have much time left."
Glancing down to the silver and blue watch hidden beneath his scarf, the former human swallowed the lump in his throat down, bowing his head in defeat.
"No, I don't."
A/N: Dun dun dun, Chiro heard his heart and stopped himself, but older Mandarin used that moment of clarity and turned it into regret.
Though Chiro's punishment may seem a bit harsh, given he chose NOT to shoot Mandarin. It still won't be dismissed, given as the footage showed him about to attempt the worst. Trying to do something is almost as bad as carrying it out.
So what will happen now? Is this it for poor Chiro? Will the Hyperforce forgive him? Find out next time.
