The sleeping neighborhood of Ashland Heights rested quietly. A blue hue clung over everything, illuminated only by the shimmering silver light of the moon.

The peace and quiet is only disturbed by the sudden manifestation of four forms into the street with a flash of light and a high pitch squeal. Spike found himself at the bottom of the pile as his guards landed flat on top of him, dragging him to the ground, while Specter landed effortlessly to the side of him. He took a quick moment to amuse himself with the sight of his human in the ape pile scrambling to their feet.

"You land like you've never used a transporter before!" he teased. Spike pushed himself to his feet and brushed the dirt off of himself as he got back in line with Arnie and ThreeDee.

"It's been a while since I've been flung around the world through scientific advancements." he responded, finding no humor in his lack of 'sea legs' so to speak. Specter only responded with a haughty laugh, which was quickly silenced as he sharply turned his head down the sidewalk. In the dark of the night the single red flash of his light alerted the two other primates who quickly dragged Spike into a nearby bush, shortly followed by Specter. Spike was caught off guard for a second, gazing out between the leaves of the bush to catch a glimpse of what startled the ape King so. His anticipation was short-lived as a figure passed by their hiding spot, seeing it was only a tired man in a bathrobe and slippers taking his dog on a late night walk, the Fistful of bags betraying the intention of his walk.

For a mere moment Spike thought to call out to the man, that perhaps he could thrust himself from his servitude to the ape captors, but a hand gripping tight to his arm stopped him. The albino's gaze burned into his own as the former mimed the action of zipping his lips before pointing to his neck and quietly mimicking an explosion. This was enough for the boy to remain silent as the man and his dog passed, eventually turning down the sidewalk and entering a house. The stick quiet went on for another moment, the Pipo Apes lights on their helmets switching to Yellow, then to blue. The silence finally ended when an incredulous noise escaped Specter's mouth as he pushed himself from the bush.

"Gah! What is wrong with humans?! Aren't they diurnal?! Who takes their pet for a walk this late at night?!".

Out of the corner of Spike's eye he could see Arnie in ThreeDee give each other a look before turning to Spike, and then Specter who was too busy brushing leaves from his hair. It was almost funny, he could feel the Ape's glance practically saying "He's one to talk…" which got a snicker from the redhead, that got a response from the albino. "Yeah, you laugh! But if I am gracious enough to let your species continue living on this planet there will be a strict curfew!" he paused for a second "And they'll all be chipped!" Shaking his hair back into place he cocked his head signaling the rest to follow, the camo ape giving Spike a slap on the back in a way of saying 'get moving.' forcing the human back into formation with him, Specter in the middle and a pipo ape in the front and back.

Spike was genuinely surprised by how loose of a leash Specter was figuratively holding on Spike. As they walked from Empty Street to empty Street the ape actually did very little to rein in the human but outside of instances where another human wandered into the area and got too close to any of their group, forcing them down other roads or alleys or other hiding places. Otherwise he didn't do much to stop the occasional light wandering, lifting the flag on people's mailboxes as he passed, kicking the stray ball that was left too close to the road, picking up a tourist pamphlet left at the bus stop. As long as he was wandering no more than a few feet the Apes seemed to heed him no mind.

Then again that could be because the camo ape Arnie was taking up the rear and usually stopping to wait for the human to return to the line… with his weapon aimed to the boy… so he's supposed Specter wouldn't need to worry about babysitting the human, having delegated the job to the other Apes.

As they walked Spike entertained himself going through the pamphlet he picked up, trying to use the street names to discern where they were.

"Why did we land so far away from the zoo?" Spike queried. "Couldn't you have had us teleported directly there?" He didn't expect the ape to respond, but got an unsurprising "Tch" of aggravation from Specter.

"A drop ship could have flown us directly over and we could have dropped down there, that however would draw too much attention from your more nocturnal brethren. That doesn't matter much to myself as the future ruler of this world. I am entitled to go where I please! For you on the other hand, this is considered a stealth mission. You may presume it is me being considerate to you." His voice dripped of that oh so Superior snark of his. A voice that felt more like he was patting himself on the back then being considerate. Spike wasn't sure what his game was, but Specter seemed to be an extra scoop of suspicious today!

It wasn't long before the Caravan of simeons made it to the entrance to a rather large and well-established zoo. Through the front gate a security guard with a flight could be seen making his rounds. Specter wordlessly headed to the right, his Apes in tow. When it seemed he felt he had walked far enough he turned to his Pipo apes, gesturing with a thumb over his shoulder. The two apes, one by one parkoured over the wall, followed by Specter giving himself a psychic boost and floating upwards. He was only halfway up the wall when he remembered Spike on the ground and quickly snared him in his psychic grip before flinging him Square over the wall. It was so fast the boy didn't even have a chance to scream before he hit the ground with a thud, eliciting what he thought was laughter from the two pipo apes. Specter meanwhile stood atop The Wall for a moment, his head dizzy and his vision swirling for a few moments as his Peak Point helmet gave off a few sparks.

Specter never had that reaction before, using his powers to lift objects or throw them. 'Could I have eaten something off?' The Apes aren't known for their culinary prowess so he considered it, completely ignorant to the arcs of electricity that had been dancing near his temple. Or perhaps choosing to remain ignorant of them.

"Very funny…" Spike exclaimed to the taunting ThreeDee who was still laughing at his landing. He picked up the ape like a child and tossed him in the air before catching him "How would you like it if I dropped you?!" Though the ape was having fun with the action. By this point Specter had regained his grip on his swirling vision and jumped down without use of his powers.

"You seem to be a little too comfortable here playing with your Wardens." His red eye settled on Spike's blue with his deadpan statement, causing Spike to set the Pipo ape down.

"I guess I was just channeling my inner Jimmy…" he said, keeping his own gaze trained on ThreeDee rather than Specter. "Tossing Pipotchi like that is something I'm used to doing when staying at their house with my aunt and uncle and Jimmy."

Specter squinted in thought for a moment. "Pipotchi? What the hell is a–" his nose scrunched in disgust. "Oh, right. The baby." The ape began walking towards one of the zoo's many map signs. As his finger ran across the index he spoke again. "Perhaps your group and mine aren't much different. I'm keeping you as a pet and your cousin keeps an ape as one as well. Who knows, maybe your friends will want you back so much so they'll agree to a pet exchange? Or, maybe they'll decide that 'Pipotchi' is worth more to their needs and simply not bother looking for you?" there was something raw behind Specter's tone. Something personal, but Spike couldn't care to see it as he bristled at the Ape.

"Pipotchi is not a pet! He's like… he's like… a part of the family! Like if Jimmy had a little brother! They wouldn't just pass him off to you to get me back! You don't throw aside family!" Spike was huffing at this point, using his height to loom over the albino ape intimidatingly, though the ape only casually stared at him with a look of challenge in his eyes.

"Oh? That's adorable!" he laughed lightly. "And naive." He became serious again. "I don't doubt you or Jimmy wouldn't trade the baby ape. I don't imagine you would allow yourself to be exchanged or that your cousin wouldn't trade himself alongside his precious 'baby brother.' But I wouldn't count out the rest of your group." The Battle of their locked eyes continued, neither backing down for the moment. Specter's stubbornness would win the day, as with an audible Huff Spike backed down, realizing he couldn't intimidate the other into doing the same. It didn't mean the boy would agree with the Apes' bold accusation.

"You'll be disappointed when you try that exchange and it doesn't go how you think it will." Spike informed. Specter was not one to let the human get the last words.

"And you'll be disappointed to learn that your 'family' is just part of a science experiment to the professor. Once the baby proves to yield no more data it goes back to being an expendable resource. And resources can be sold or exchanged or transferred or abandoned as their owner sees fit." He points to a specific spot on the zoo's map directory. "I think I want my assets here! Let's go asset!"

With that Arnie gave their human asset a jab with his gun, signaling the command to get walking.

The spot Specter indicated was not far, a large caged enclosure relatively close to the zoo's main lobby according to the map. Despite the short distance the trip was slow, as Spike was guided to stick to the shadows while taking a nonsensical route. It wouldn't be long, but it was long enough for the boy to stew over that last conversation.

'The Professor and Natalie wouldn't think of Pipotchi as just some asset to be used and tossed away! Sure, the entire reason that Pipotchi was given to the family to begin with was part of an experiment... but Professor Ozel isn't some cold clinical madman in a lab coat who would just toss Pipotchi away!' Spike thought to himself. Well it was true that Pipotchi was part of the peak point project, sporting the 2.0 model based off of the Prototype Specter stole somehow, the peak Point project had been discontinued after the Project's biggest Financial backer, the monkey park, had gotten a taste of what intelligent monkeys could mean for business. Spike had fixed the past but he couldn't erase the Apes wreaking havoc on the city or taking control of the park in the present. All because one stray helmet got into their prize act's hands, showing smarter Apes were too much trouble for business. And all that was even before Jimmy accidentally sent most of Specter's pipo helmets right back to the apes, causing rampage number two!

Pipotchi was part of a nature versus nurture project where he would be raised by a human family like he was simply one of their children. It's an experiment that other scientists have done before, like Luelle and Winthrop Kellog, with not much in the lines of huge leaps in success… but those scientists did not have the Pipo helmet. The baby ape is practically a person! From a young age he was able to babble his name! At a few years older he's picked up a few new words like calling Jimmy by name when he wants something! Even with the peak Point project disbanded the Professor has never even hinted that Pipotchi is any such asset, living comfortably with this Human family ever since!

Spike had only been Specter's 'employ' for... he doesn't really know… two days maybe? And already Spike hates how the albino gets under his skin and Riles him up in anger. It made the boy wonder how he ever thought that the tyrannical ape could be reasoned with. He even agreed to help him apologize for all the trouble he had caused years ago with the time travel incident! Spike didn't like who he was around the ape.

His stewing was interrupted At Last by the reaching their destination. The large caged enclosure was a large Circle indented into the ground, the audience would be kept at a safe distance from falling in by the glass wall that went up to the lanky human's chest.

"Ah! This is the place!" Specter said pointing at an information slab that read 'Big Boy; the Monkey Goliath' "Looks like the humans are giving out cute little nicknames now!"

Rather than use his powers to fly over, this time he simply lifted himself up and over the barrier like any normal vandal would and silently signaled Spike to do the same, the redhead's longer limbs easily allowing him to reach the other side. ThreeDee and Arnie staying on their side of the glass barrier, tossing Spike's bag over to the human.

"You two aren't coming?" Spike questioned the two apes, who only ukkied in response. Arnie making himself comfortable on the barricade will ThreeDee just adjusting his goggles.

"Their job is to keep an eye on you. They can do that from over there." Specter explained for them. "Your job is in here." The albino messed with the enclosure doors keypad for a moment holding down a few buttons well swiftly clicking others as if implementing a cheat code on a video game. The light on the lock turned green and the handle clicked, allowing the ape to hold the door open for Spike in and over the top fashion like a gentleman would a lady. The lock thing Spike actually found impressive. Almost enough to forget his anger at the ape.

"How did you know how to do that?" the redhead said as he entered the enclosure door.

"This model of electronic lock has something akin to a debug mode that can be used to unlock it in case of an emergency with different models having different button combinations. I've been planning this for months! Of course I'd figure out how to enter this lock systems debug mode and unlock it–" the level of pride in the Apes voice giving away how much he enjoyed being asked about his process in describing the steps to do so. "Not all the locks in the zoo are the same as this model so we'll need another way to open the next one at our next stop." With that Specter slammed the door shut with Spike inside, the lock turning red, and erasing any notion Spike had of chill.

"What the hell!?" he exclaimed.

Specter put his finger up to his mouth in a shushing motion before pointing behind Spike, who could hear something moving around in the enclosure.

"In that bag…" Specter directed, Spike ripped the bag off of his back and quickly shuffled in it to pull out a Pipo helmet. "You're going to want to get that on to him."

When Spike turned around, squinting his eyes in the low light of the environment he saw the form of what might be the biggest, angriest looking gorilla he'd ever seen in his life, it's facing a scowl, snarling it's Sharp– actually it didn't have any teeth at all, just gums, so that was reassuring, lumbering about but clearly alerted to The Intruders.

"You want that King Kong monster in your army?!" Spike exclaimed, his heart rate quickening at the terror of having to wrestle a helmet onto that beast.

"I thought you humans thought capuchins were cute!?" Specter taunts through the bars, causing Spike to look back at the Beast and then back to Specter.

"How is that a Capuchin?!" He whisper-yelled. Capuchins were small and cute little monkeys while that thing was not.

"Vita-Z bananas do have some strange and wondrous effects on the body…" the ape mused. Spike took a moment to connect the dots, sidestepping a rock thrown by the huge simeon and risking a chance at a more attentive look.

"That's Monkey Yellow?!" Spike practically screamed dodging another rock. He didn't have too much of a personal experience with this monkey, but from what the boy did know, Monkey Yellow was a lot more jovial, friendly, maybe to an uncomfortable degree? Yumi did say he was a really really catty person though. Another rock. "Why is he like this!?" Spike screamed, causing Yellow to become more aggressive.

Specter only shrugged in response before turning on his heel and walking away.

"Wait! Where are you going?!" The boy yelled, chasing the albino along the bars of the habitat while trying to stay out of arm's reach of Yellow. The silver haired ape looked over his shoulder, cocking his head with a smirk racing his lips.

"Oh, I just had my heart set on releasing the armadillos!" his playful tone overlapping with sarcasm. "They're probably the smartest animal here aside from us apes!"

Spike's tone became panicked as Specter climbed back up the raised barrier surrounding Yellow's housing.

"Specter! Specter wait! This ape is going to maul me!" this is probably the most pathetic the human has sounded since coming into Specter's care, and although the ape found himself loving the sound of the human boy practically begging him, Specter had something to do.

"Well then I suppose you would better get that helmet on his head quickly." He shouted as he walked away from the boy, leaving him to his mission as Specter went off to do his own.