Specter tinkers, Spike escapes, and they take a nice jog through the base!
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A/N:
I HOPE YOU ENJOY CHAPTER 4 OF THIS UN-PROOFREAD, UN-BETA-READ ABSOLUTE MESS OF MISPELLED WORDS!
Specter sits in his private workshop, Tools in hand buried in the back of the Peak Point helmet placed on his head. A crown if it were of ape superiority. He gazes into the screen in front of him, projecting the access panel found on the back of the helmet. The device was intricate with multiple parts to it except from different sides, with what he was looking for located in the rear, and even with the tools at hand it was hard to operate on it himself without removing the device... which was not happening.
"Where is it?" He thought out loud as he prodded about. He would have normally trusted Monkey White to do the prodding for him, but the old ape would probably get overzealous and cause more harm than good in there. And anyway, Monkey White isn't here. Neither are the rest of the Freaky Monkey Five. The last time they had been captured, rather than place them back in the park where he could find them with ease, the stupid humans had finally grown a second brain cell and decided to place the Freaky Monkey Five in different locations. This made the global search for his generals significantly more difficult but not so much so that he would never track them all back down. At this point he knew where two of them were, but he wasn't sure if moving on liberating them from their 'more evolved cousins' would simply make the other three be moved elsewhere. Then again, moving them could be what he needed to find them. In the human's hurry they could slip up.
And that brought his thoughts back to his little visitor. Not a true replacement for his freaky monkey five, but Specter had plans for the redhead being under his control.
"I've already boosted the Peak Point beyond what it even was when I tested it for the professor! Nobody appreciates how nice I was to be the guinea pig for it! The likelihood that the human could resist my commands again was… unexpected to say the least." The albino ape finally found what he was looking for. "There we are!" As he placed some wire to the piece on the board, soldering it in place and turning to his computer, a rainbow of cords fell from the helmet, plugged into this and that. Specter chewed on the end of his prodding tool while running his eyes over the walls of text and code scrolling before him.
"Hmm… If I were to edit the code here…" he highlighted some text. "And change this code here…" more highlighting and retyping, "Then I should be able to reroute from the Peak Point's core power supply to…" a 3d model of the helmet appears on the monitor, sections on the side showing how energy is distributed throughout the headpiece. A red warning flashes on the scene, interrupting his genius zone.
"Hmm… 'warning, power requirements to run safety protocols insufficient. Unable to run Peak Point program. Device shutting down in– shutting down in thirty seconds?!" Specter's eyes widened in panic at the warning flashing on the screen before him.
"NonononoNO–!" his fingers moved like lightning across the keyboard as he fought the clock ticking down. "No shutdown! Not on me!" his alert light flashed on and off red, giving away his panic state rising, as his eyes started around the screen scanning line after line of code for anything to disable the shut off.
Five.. four.. three.. two.. Specter quickly highlights a few lines of code before slamming the delete key, the countdown pausing at 00:00:01. The ape slumps down in his chair, releasing a shaky breath he hadn't realized he was holding. That had been too close for comfort. Eyes blinking, what was once fast starting now slowly blinking between the countdown and the separate window displaying an error message. "Error: safety protocol not found." he stared at it a moment in silence before, yet again, another window popped up showing the power output of distribution through his headpiece. With the string of code that controlled and limited the power output now purged, his power reroute to increase the Peak Point's potential was a complete success! With a huff and a laugh his unwavering facade returned.
"Who would have thought such a useless little set of data would cause such a fuss?" he asks nobody in particular. "But no human safety measures are really of concern to me. As long as I get the modification in place, the Peak Point Helmet should be able to amplify my already prodigious abilities even further." Through his ramblings he didn't notice the twitch in his ringing hands. "Even that human won't be able to outlast my pull!" The chimp returned his attention to rewriting more of the helmet's code. "If only a brain could be rewritten as easily as firmware for a device…" he trailed off and what could almost be considered morose if Specter was capable of feeling such. Yet still his mind wandered to the boy down in holding.
"But if it doesn't work?" His fingers pause as his eye twitches as well. It had been doing so for about a minute, yet he ignored it like his unsteady hands in favor of his thoughts. Intrusive thoughts. "How has he resisted thus far?" The human's friend was easily enough. After the incident at the professor's lab when the ape took over the Time Station, Spike, Jake, Specter and a number of Pipo Apes were displaced into the time stream. The only thing that spared the Professor and Natalie the same fate was that they had been tied down by the apes.
Specter had all the time in the world at that point to prepare and build the infrastructure for his new world order. He hadn't expected to find the blue haired boy poking around some of his projects around the ancient, or at the time not so ancient castle that he had decided to bunker down in. Capturing him was easy enough, he was unarmed and lost, and bending his mind to his will was easy enough as well.
In Fairness… for Specter it had been a few weeks before he had sent his transmission to the Professor's lab, though it was probably the same day for them. A few weeks of having the boy locked up, a few weeks of listening to his constant yammering about how his friend would find him, a few weeks to learn what made him tick… The boy was insecure, felt inadequate next to his red-headed friend, and it was easy to pick at that like an open sore.
It was almost an accident that he learned he could bend one's will to his own. Simply wanting the whiny brat to shut up became a psychic push of his will. Simply pointing out his flaws and weaknesses were enough to open the door to the boy's mind. He could almost hear the blunette's voice as if it was replaying before him. He had actually not spoken to the boy locked in the dungeon of his medieval castle. Not entirely at least. The ape was smart, but he hadn't quite developed a human vocabulary, so to learn he simply sat in front of the boy cell and the boy having nothing else to preoccupy his loneliness talked and whined and complained at the ape who sat there mostly silently absorbing words to add to his vocabulary. And with those words came the deeper knowledge of the boy's feelings of inferiority to the redhead wandering time in a futile attempt to thwart the Apes goal. And with that the albino ape learned words. Specific words. Words that dug deep and made promises. "What if you could be greater than Spike? Faster, stronger, more agile? Everything you're not?" It may have been the first full sentence the boy had heard since his incarceration, and even against the boy's will, his mind accepted the temptation and fell to the Apes will, and the ape was more than happy to show off his new tricks he had learned waiting outside the cell of his prisoner. Using the time station's frequency he sent a very satisfying transmission to the Professor and Natalie to let them know Jake was in good hands, but Spike may not be when the boys reunite.
And yet Spike, when offered the chance to join forces with a superior being, declined. And when Specter concentrated his power into an invasive beam intended to put him in his place, just like Jake, he resisted.
"Perhaps….." the chimp thought out loud, "perhaps it was essential, that time spent with Jake and his constant insufferable whining that I was able to place him under my spell? Perhaps that is what leaves him able to refuse me time and time again? I have no anchor to sink him with… no insecurity to exploit or wish to promise and be fulfilled by allying with myself?" Perhaps it was time to visit the redhead's own cell and see what songs the canary would sing?
As if on Cue with that thought a piercing siren blared throughout the chimps private lab.
"What?!" Specter screams, slamming his hands on the keyboard to pull up the alarm report. A little red dot blinking where the alarm had been triggered. The holding cells.
The twitch in the albino's eye and hand had never left, but became more prominent with the realization that he would be visiting his prisoner sooner than expected. He stands up quickly, causing wires and cables that connected to his Pipo helmet to his computer to be forcibly ripped out of place as he rushes to the door.
"Looks like it's time we got to get to know each other better, aye Spikey?!" A chuckle leaving his lips.
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The alarm blared, alerting a smaller chimps to be on the lookout for the one prisoner that the base had in its possession. The single long stretch of hallway wouldn't be too much to keep an eye out in. From the corner of its Vision a splash of red appeared, with the ape turning fast and firing a few rounds in that direction. When the barrage ended the ape only spotted something lying limp on the ground further down the hall, going over to investigate.
Moving step by step closer to the limp pile near where the hall split off in the shape of a "T" to find– a red and white jacket? The Ape turns its head inquisitively to the left and then right, not noticing the pale arm reaching from around the corner, in once with motion jerking the rifle from its hands and slamming the butt of it into the back of the chimps head, knocking it clean out cold! From around the corner stepping over the downed Chimp in the process Spike steps out, checking for more guards before retrieving his jacket. Cocking the rifle, aiming and pulling the trigger a few times only to receive a few somewhat satisfying yet unproductive clicks, the redhead let out an exasperated sigh.
"Drat again!? I just saw it fire this!" checking the ape for any ammo or a clip but finding nothing. With the Sigh again, he throws his jacket over his shoulder, moving further through the base while carrying his new beat stick with him.
In spite of being stripped of his Gadget watch and as such effectively unarmed Spike had only been having minimal trouble maneuvering the Apes place about, in no small part due to the guards not being horribly smart and most easy to fool just by tossing his jacket around the corner, causing the trigger happy chimps to panic. For the most part Spike couldn't complain about the ease of traversal. The easier the wandering the easier it will be when he finds an Escape Route out of the base. He had missed the fun of the time station, but with it decommissioned after the last time Specter no longer had access to Dimension X to hide in so this base must be somewhere either in one of Specter's abandoned factories or an underground base to avoid detection. His vote was for the latter, as he hadn't found any windows or factory equipment along his way. In fact it was almost Labyrinthine and how all he had found at this point was just haul after hall, probably designed to get prisoners turned around and lost. Not a lot of guards have been placed, maybe the layout was confusing enough to not require much surveillance beyond a few checkpoints?
As Spike came up to another corner, he readied his jacket like a matador would his muleta, preparing to throw it and repeat his dance as he had around every corner up to this point. With a flick of his arm the coat went flying into the hall and the redhead waited for the sound of a distressed ape followed by gunfire, but instead heard silence. He waited a moment. One, two, three… still nothing. The hall must have been empty. Deciding it was safe he stepped out to receive his discarded clothing item and continue his trek–
Or he would have had he not turned his head, only to find himself face-to-face with the last thing he had wanted to bump into.
"Now, what are you doing on the loose?" The cocky voice pondered.
"Specter!?" the redhead exclaimed jumping back a few steps.
"And here I was just coming to visit you!" The ape grins cockily, bearing his sharp upper and lower teeth. I was just busy with a little something-something." His eyes twitch slightly as he spoke. "Seems that you need some enrichment or else you get bored in your cage? Maybe you want some out-time?"
Spike felt oddly naked before the ape, and to place some space between them the redhead cocked the rifle at Specter, eliciting a laugh from the latter.
"Cute but no dice! Every weapon in this base is biometrically locked to its assigned ape user! We can't have any loose prisoners trying to use–" Specter was immediately cut off by the impact of the butt of the rifle making contact with the side of his head, the surprise eliciting a flash of red from his alert light. Abandoning the weapon the boy turns on a dime, bolting at top speed down the opposite direction of his captor. The albino places his hand to the impact site. It smarted. A lot. But the brunt of the hit was absorbed by the Peak Point helmet.. which was worse as far as the chimp was concerned by the almost laughing growl of "Oh you're dead!" that escaped his mouth.
Spike didn't immediately look back, choosing instead to focus on moving forward. He had known he would trip an alarm but he hadn't expected Specter to be so Hands-On in his incarceration, he usually leaves that to his minions well he lounges in his chair.
He kept pushing his legs to move faster, to put as much space between himself and the enraged ape as he could. In retrospect maybe he shouldn't have hit him with the rifle? The ape King was usually more willing to play benevolent ruler when he wasn't pissed.
And boy was he pissed.
Spike didn't hear The Telltale sounds of expensive boots, but the occasional overtly heavy object flying past his head was any indication Specter wasn't too far behind him. Something rough flew by him digging onto his arm as it flew by causing a cut. As the Human boy turned a corner he took the opportunity to glance down the path he came from, getting a quick look at Specter dashing down towards him feet not hitting the floor as he holds himself up with the same telekinesis he was using to chuck anything that wasn't bolted down in his general direction.
The Ape pulls back for a moment, slowing down just enough to make the same turn before attempting to speed up again to not lose the distance. The doors down this Hall were different than the Labyrinthine holding Halls, leading Spike to believe he had finally left and entered a new section to the base. A clear elevator and stairs laid before him.
Just as Specter turns the next corner the elevator door was barely able to shut and the elevator began rising, causing the ape to almost bounce off the door. With a growl he forces the door open, head darting up and down for the elevator before jumping in to continue pursuit. A moment of pause before a tuft of red and blonde poked out from behind the edge of the stairwell. Spike sighed in relief and sat down, finally having a chance to take a breath.
"Shit… If the elevator decoy didn't work I don't know how much longer I could have kept running for…" It had been a while since he had personally fought Specter. Jimmy, Kei and Yumi had done so in the interim, but for an ape claiming the Peak Point prototype was the strongest version of the Pipo helmet the boy didn't recall Specter figuring out flight back when they had fought! Though he's supposed there might have been a learning curve for the ape, and by now he's had years to figure things out.
The boy winces at the cut on his arm caused by one of the Apes makeshift projectiles. It was deep enough to be bleeding, but not bad enough for stitches thankfully. Having caught his breath and not liking the idea of being around when Specter's done trashing the elevator and comes back, he pushes himself back to his feet and heading down the next pathway hoping that this journey takes him towards an exit to this ape infested nightmare. Little did he know, the cut on his arm would leave just enough of a crimson Trail that when the albino returns to the last place he'd seen the redhead, the nightmare would continue.
And so Specter did return not finding the redhead in the elevator, and did notice the small trail of blood and knew exactly where the boy would be going. The alert light's scarlet glow dimming as his fury extinguished, Specter lowered himself back to the ground, deciding to have his Apes give Spike a bit of a hand with directions.
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At this point Spike had ventured more of the base with about as much luck as he had in the holding area. Though hardly a maze of hallways the boys was still hopelessly lost. He had passed through what he's surmised was a kitchen as there was fruit stored everywhere in the room, though it was out of place among the rooms upon rooms of stores of weapons UFOs and Mech suits that all failed to function to the humans touch, while avoiding the larger number of Apes that dwelled in this area. Almost comically he was sure some of the Apes that spotted him and just ignored him, going into other rooms like they don't get paid enough to deal with an escape prisoner.
This area wasn't heated as well making Spike regret discarding his jacket when he swung at Specter. The further in he went though the more it felt like the Apes around him were leaving doors open and locking others almost intentionally, as if guiding him through a designated path, and as much as Spike didn't trust the path laid out for him he didn't have too much of a choice at this point, as the only way other than that was to turn back the way he came where the angry chimp was. Admittedly he didn't feel safe with all of the Lesser apes working in tandem. That was never a good sign.
It felt more like an escort guiding Spike down a specific direction to a specific place.
As he entered the next large dark open room, every fiber of his being told him to turn around. The Apes prevented that by locking the doors that he passed their prior, so into the dark unknown he goes. As he stepped into the dark room the door was closed and shut behind him as a large shutter began to open on the far wall, a light Illuminating gently through it. The moon in the distance was like a breath of fresh air to the red head.
"Maybe… they're letting me go?" he thought, hopeful but farfetched as it was. Those hopes were immediately dropped as the shutters opened further revealing a large blue object beside it. The earth. Spike visibly wilted at the realization. He had never dealt with it personally so he hadn't even considered that the venue of his incarceration would be off planet, in a space station, surrounded by technology designed around him not being able to use it for an escape. So lost in this realization he was, that he didn't hear or notice the familiar sound of expensive boots, casually strolling up to stand next to him. He didn't even jump when the white tuft of hair settled in the corner of his vision.
Specter stood in silence for a moment, drinking in the profile of the boy who would just give him quite the chase staring out at the spinning orb he called home. He broke the silence first.
"Has it sunk in yet?" he inquired. The redhead didn't answer, not look away from the window before him. The only indication that he had heard the albino was the pursing of his lips, and the deep breath being held for a moment before a shaky exhale.
Specter was patient, eye twitching with the steady pulse of his alert light being the only sign of his true disposition beneath the mask. As for Spike, his heart was racing in his chest. He had no weapons, no access to any, no way out of the base and he had just bashed the super powered ape standing next to him in the face with the butt of a gun and now at his mercy. He didn't even dare look at Specter. What does he say? Should he bother saying anything at all? The human kept his eyes fixated on Earth before him.
it was then Spike knew he fricked up
'...Specter... he'll screw up… he'll screw up eventually.. I just have to not get on his bad side until then. Bide my time.. get a message to Casi or the professor or Jake! Jake will notice something is wrong! He probably already has and has gone to the professor! I just have to wait..' his eyes turned in the Chimps Direction. ' I just have to not dig my hole any deeper…' blue eyes met crimson as the shorter male kept eyes locked on his own. At least Specter didn't look as angry as he did during their jog in the hallway?
Spike allowed his head to follow his eyes, pivoting to the face Specter, not knowing how to break the silence.
"I–" was about all the redhead could choke out, as immediately upon opening his mouth he felt his face bounce off the metal floor. It had happened so fast Spike wasn't even sure what had happened until he realized he was suspended in the air before the ape, whose arm was outstretched towards him glowing with psychic energy. Sparks jolted from the Peak Point helmet on the side with the twitchy eye and forming bruise from Spike's one lucky hit.
" Never touch me again!" The Ape commanded with a strict demanding tone. "Are we clear?" He maintained eye contact with the boy, waiting for a response. Spike knew he was not in a good position, but was at least too proud to give his captor the satisfaction of hearing his voice so settled for a silent nod.
As soon as he nodded a pain shot through his shoulder on his left side as the Ape slammed him into some nearby Machinery with telekinesis before pulling him back to face the ape just as quickly.
"You are to go nowhere unless authorized by myself. Are we clear!?"
Spike reluctantly nodded again. As with before, Spike is thrown and bounced off of something and dragged back, this time on his other side. He locks eyes with the ape waiting for his next demand.
"... That one was just for symmetry!" He said before physically grabbing the boy by the shirt and forcing him to the ground before releasing the telekinetic hold on him. From his spot on the floor he felt the Ape step over him before kneeling against his back. Something cold was placed against his neck before a quiet 'click' and a 'beep' was heard. The ape then stood up and placed himself upon his hovering throne which had appeared out of nowhere from the darkness.
"Whu–What was that?!" Spike questioned.
"Just a little present I meant to give you back in your cell."
The redhead touched the cold band around his neck. "Is– is this a collar?! "
"It could be. It could be a bomb . It could elicit a horrible shock. Do you want to find out?"
Spike looked on in horror at the idea the Specter may have strapped an explosive to his neck. The ape cackled before looking off into the void of space before him. He was quiet for a moment, then spoke up again. "Clever of you to evade me back there. I've been saying for years that you're wasting all of your potential! I'm not even mad anymore that you struck me! The key to being a benevolent ruler is understanding their subjects, and I understand that you're only human. Of course your first reaction would have been to resort to violence!" He wasn't really one to talk… "Of course you would try to escape! I overlooked making sure you had proper enrichment for the whole… what? Four hours in your new home? Idle Hands Are The Devil's plaything after all!" His tone was so condescending! "That's why I was on my way to give you something to do!"
Spike wasn't in any place to anger the ape. "Something to do? What do you mean? Like what?"
Much like before, Specter dangled Spike's Gadget watch from a finger, practically offering it to the boy before pulling it back.
"I've got a job for you! And if you're good… you get this back!"
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A/N:
Trying to decide how the chapter ends was hard! In the original idea it was an actual grappling match between the match which turned into a brutal onesided beat down of Spike by Specter, but then became this more "Quick clipped punishment" in practice and talking to my friends and sisters about the scenes.
