Disclaimer: I don't own SRMTHFG or any of its characters, just my character and this plot.
Note: Beginning with this chapter, italics are flashbacks and bolded words are words that would echo in the show. Other chapters and future stories that have these particular statements will be formatted in that way.
Chapter Three: The Adoption
"I wish we brought the Super Robot," Otto whined as he continued to follow the others and carry Chiro, since he still didn't have his own jetpack. "We'd find her in half the time."
"It cannot be helped, Otto," Antauri reminded him. "If Skeleton King is following her, we require stealth."
"So…who is this Hayley Cometra?" Chiro finally asked. "And how come you never told me about her?"
"We didn't want to get your hopes up, kid," Sprx answered. "We weren't even sure if we would ever see her again."
"Indeed," Gibson agreed. "Skeleton King does not often take prisoners."
"Prisoner?" Chiro echoed, surprised.
"You see, Chiro, Hayley's story began when Mandarin was still our leader…" Antauri started to explain.
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In the deep tranquility of a jungle, several native monkeys screeched wildly as their rather rough struggle continued near what seemed to be an abandoned building. Many bites and scratches were exchanged, but even after the fight lasted for a good while, only one or two drops of blood were shed.
These were younglings, only playing. That was the way of things in every family.
One monkey in particular chattered as if laughing.
Darkness suddenly fell on the jungle, interrupting their game. Knowing that it was not yet evening, the native monkeys huddled together and chattered nervously. As the darkness itself took a more physical form, the monkeys squealed at the sight of Formless emerging and approaching them and surrounding them!
Thus the corruption of the Savage Lands began.
The Formless were destroying everything in their path, corrupting the jungle endlessly. The native monkeys fled in different directions, and some of the Formless began pursuing each of them.
The one monkey in particular ran out of the jungle. It didn't know where it was going, but it knew that the Formless were after it! The chase went on for quite a while, crossing a desert and entering a meadow, before the Formless finally managed to corner their prey.
The monkey whimpered fearfully. It had seen death of many kinds in the jungle, but this was a different and strange one.
The Formless raised their hands, ready to utterly destroy it!
Six colorful figures not much bigger than the monkey suddenly leapt in between them, facing the Formless!
"Hyperforce, go!" Mandarin commanded.
"Whirling Destructo Saws!"
"Lady Tomahawk!"
"Blue Thunder!"
"Magna Ball Blazer!"
"Claw Disruptor!"
"Monkey Mind Scream!"
One by one, each member of the original Monkey Team – Otto, Nova, Gibson, Sprx, Antauri, and Mandarin - destroyed one or two of the Formless until the threat was over. With the battle won, they looked at the uninjured native monkey. It stared back at them, chattering and sniffing.
Then, more curious than frightened, it approached the closest Robot Monkey, who happened to be Otto, and began climbing up on him.
"Hey, that tickles!" Otto laughed in reaction.
Sprx chuckled at the sight. "Looks like someone found a new admirer," he grinned.
"Aw, how cute is that," Nova cooed.
"Can we keep him, Mandarin?" Otto asked.
"Otto, it belongs in the wild," Antauri calmly reminded him. "Our duty is not to interfere with the natives of Shuggazoom but merely to protect them. And that includes the wildlife."
"Please, Mandarin?" Otto begged. "Can we keep him? I'll take full responsibility for him! Uh…it is a him, isn't it?"
Gibson quickly and carefully examined the native monkey on Otto's shoulders. He then made a small smile. "No, Otto, its gender is definitely female."
"Please?" Otto again asked, this time sounding quite pitiful.
The native monkey instinctively looked into the pure white pupils of Mandarin's eyes.
The leader sighed. "Very well, Otto, since you are willing to assume full responsibility."
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The next several days were hard on all of them. It proved difficult for Otto to keep up with a pet while still fulfilling his duties. And part of the trouble was the fact that the wild monkey caused havoc everywhere! But he was always there to stand up for the defenseless monkey.
Eventually, the patience the others expressed was paid off. With time, the native monkey became tame. It learned which tones of voice meant praise or punishment, and it learned to mind everyone, but it still kept its playful and inquisitive personality.
One day, the monkey watched the others in the training room as they finished clearing a level. Mandarin had already shut down the equipment while the others left the room.
Curious, the native monkey slowly approached the control panel and stared at the multi-colored buttons. Its cute coos caught the attention of the others, and they all looked through a window to see what was going on.
"No, don't touch that!" Sprx exclaimed with a screech.
Startled, the monkey accidentally pressed the red button, reactivating the equipment!
The doors to the training room closed, locking the Robot Monkeys out! Unable to help, they were forced to watch worriedly through the window.
The frightened monkey whimpered as a laser locked onto it and opened fire! It was barely able to evade the blast, but it landed on another control panel, this one with a particular switch.
"No!" Nova squealed. "Not that!"
Of course, unable to hear her, the native monkey pulling on that switch, desperately trying to climb away from the laser. At once, a fragment of energy flowed into the monkey's body!
"No!" Mandarin yelled.
The monkey made a very shrill screech as the energy rendered it nearly unconscious!
It fell on the floor and didn't move.
Traumatized, Otto was on the verge of tears. "This is my fault. I should have watched her more closely."
"Wait, Otto," Antauri interrupted. "Something is happening."
The Robot Monkeys looked in time to see the native monkey slowly stumbling onto its feet. It was surprise enough that it was still alive, but imagine their shock as it suddenly leapt into the air, evading another laser, and climbed up one of the poles in the room!
"Impossible!" gasped Mandarin.
"Huh?" a shocked Gibson asked, at a loss for any other words.
In their amazement, the Robot Monkeys continued to watch as the native monkey used familiar jumps and twirls, luring the laser to cut the other weapons aimed at her! The pattern was repeated for every claw, every laser, every saw, any weapon that came within reach!
In a matter of minutes, all that was left was the first laser! The monkey then jumped at it and twirled on the gun barrel, breaking it and making it explode!
The monkey landed easily on its feet, completely unharmed.
Otto's lower jaw dropped in complete surprise.
"Such sharp reflexes," Mandarin commented, mostly to himself. "Such keen cunning. Such agile speed."
"But how is this possible?" Gibson asked. "This defies any logical conclusion!"
"How did she do all that?" Nova questioned further.
"She must have learned them from watching us while in training," Sprx suggested. He then chuckled smoothly, placing a hand behind his head. "Well, ya know what they say: imitation is the highest form of flattery."
But Antauri said nothing. Instead, he worked to open the nearest door, even though it meant actually tearing a hole through it!
When it saw the others entering, the native monkey whimpered and crouched behind Otto as he came in, almost certain that it was about to receive another lecture. Instead, all six of them smiled and began coddling her.
"Excellent!" Mandarin praised. "It appears we have adopted a baby sister without realizing it!"
"Good girl!" Nova said sweetly.
"Wonderful job!" added Sprx.
"Magnificent!" Gibson commended.
"Very impressive," Antauri stated.
"Didn't know ya had it in ya!" Otto said. "But don't you ever scare me like that again, young lady!"
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"And, in a way, Mandarin was right," Otto added. "She was like a sister to us." Then, his voice trailed off with a hint of sadness as he continued, "Even though she tried to correct us by saying stepsister. I wonder why she kept saying that…"
That made Chiro pause. Stepsister? Why didn't she count herself as a sister?
Knowing that neither would be getting their answers anytime soon, Chiro wanted the story to continue. "Then what happened?"
"A crisis," Antauri replied. "Dozens of Skeleton King's Formless rampaged Shuggazoom City. It was a long and intense battle. And from the start, we knew that it seemed futile. Then Skeleton King himself arrived. He captured us, but before he was able to leave with us, our little friend arrived and leapt straight at his face."
"I told her to stay behind," Otto interjected, as if sounding guilty about it.
"I wish you could have seen her on that night, Chiro," Nova said. "Biting and scratching and yelling for all its worth!"
"To this day, we don't know if she actually hurt that old bag of bones or just annoyed him," Sprx added, chuckling. "She never does look before she leaps. But at least distracting him allowed us to get free."
"To make a long story short," Gibson began.
Chiro made a grin, wondering to himself if Gibson ever made a long story short. But he said nothing, thankful that no one else noticed, and allowed the scientist to continue.
"We managed to force Skeleton King into a tactical retreat. The battle was won, the city was saved, but our native friend was injured so severely that there was only one method of saving her: cybernetic reconstruction."
The leader's eyes widened in surprise.
"Yes, Chiro," Antauri said, answering the unasked question. "She had imprinted herself upon us, especially after what had happened in the training room. After risking her life to save ours, to let her die would have been wrong. There was no reason not to do it."
"But I thought no one was able to do that," Chiro stated. "Not since…whoever it was that created you guys did it."
"True, whoever did create us used very sophisticated techniques," replied Gibson. "However, we were aware of what we're made of, so we simply performed a very detailed analysis on our bodies and duplicated the procedure for her."
"It wasn't easy as Gibson makes it sound," Antauri pointed out. "We all worked hard for days, losing sleep and nourishment, to keep her alive…but none of us so much as Otto."
Immediately, the leader looked up at the Green Monkey.
"Well, I couldn't just let her go," Otto commented. "After all, I had taken responsibility for her. She'd been such a blessing to me…to all of us."
But Chiro grinned. "Sounds to me like she's more than just your admirer."
Embarrassed, Otto almost dropped Chiro in surprise and stuttered, "Well, I wouldn't go that far...but I do admit that I got a soft spot for her. I gave Hayley her name. What a fine Robot Monkey she was!"
"You know, kid, we didn't realize how well we made her until later when we started her in training," Sprx added. "When she first tried the first three levels, she cleared them all in record time! She has the top score you saw."
"Unfortunately, she never had the chance to test herself in battle," Nova said quietly.
"Thanks to Skeleton King?" Chiro realized.
"Indeed," Antauri said grimly. "He returned, captured her, and kept us from following. We were forced to watch helplessly as they disappeared. That was the last time we ever saw her."
"We tried for weeks to find her, but we didn't even know where to start looking," Gibson explained. "Until now."
"Look, over there!" Otto suddenly shouted, looking to one side.
So Hayley is the Monkeys' baby sister…or is it really stepsister? More coming soon in Chapter Four: Family Feuds.
In response to Chapter Two's reviews…
4Evermonkeyfan and love-writer: Thanks for reviewing. I'm glad that people are liking this since this is the first time I've considered publishing my written works.