Chapter 7
The monkey team had collapsed once more after Antauri had finished and it was a long wait till the silver monkey was returned freshly cleaned and dumped into his cell. Chiro was given food and Otto was taken away, leaving the boy in his silent self-loathing. He stared at his food without eating and waited. He didn't have to wait long, for after only a few minutes the screens flared to life. There Otto stood with the manic gleam in his eyes, a nasty sneer on his face as he flexed his fingers. As had been with the others he was surrounded by other fighters. Each of them were of different races and all of them were huge. Otto looked at them all and laughed, sending a chill down Chiro's spine.
"Mandarin," he squeaked. "He laughs like Mandarin." It was true. The little green monkeys laugh was filled with a mocking disdain for his enemies and a belief that his power was greater than that of his foes. Chiro could only watch as Otto was attacked, the little monkey leaping over and out of the way as he laughed and threw taunts. It wasn't something Chiro was used to seeing, nor was he used to watching Otto quickly change his hands to saw blades and attack each of his enemies. Each time it was enough to draw blood but not enough to disable or kill. It was after five minutes of watching this that Chiro realized what Otto was doing. He was playing with them.
Yes Otto, the sweetest, most good natured monkey, was playing with his enemies as he would play with his food and Chiro had seen Otto play with his food before. This, however, was not as amusing nor were the 'play things' food in any shape form or fashion. This was sick torture play and Chiro could not for the life of him tear his eyes away, no matter how much he wanted to. His eyes were fixed to the screen as he watched Otto get bored of a pig creature and happily rip through him with a saw blade. The crowd cheered at the death and it only seemed to further entice Otto as he continued on his killing spree throughout the arena. It was sick, and when all the opponents were dead Otto seemed to go into a rage, attacking the corpses till there was nothing but...
Chiro fell to the ground and became sick.
"S'not Otto," he whimpered, shaking his head with his eyes tightly shut. "It's not, it's not, it's not!" He sobbed as the screens went black and was still crying when Otto was returned freshly cleaned. A few minutes later the robots were returned to 'life' and began screaming at each other and fighting their restraints. Otto, however, merely sat in the front of his cage as he stared at Chiro and chuckled. A strange terror gripped the teen, and he backed into the furthest part of his cell at the look his once friend was giving him.
"They're going to let us out soon," Otto called over the cries of his brothers. Chiro didn't answer, curling into himself and shaking. "They're going to send us all into that place Chiro, and do you know what I'm going to do?"
"This isn't you Otto," Chiro called, sounding braver than he actually felt. Great Suggazoom his hands were shaking so badly! "Caesar's controlling you! You're not like this!" There was silence for a moment, then;
"How do you know that?" Chains rattled and the whirring of a saw blade was heard before it stopped abruptly. "How do you know that I'm not enjoying this? HAH!" The blade started up again and there was the terrible sound of metal meeting metal as Nova screamed and tried to get away.
"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU CHIRO," Otto yelled as he attacked the bars keeping he and Nova apart. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, AND I'M GOING TO ENJOY EVERY MINUTE OF IT!" He ended with maddened laughter that left Chiro struggling to remember how to breathe. The madness continued for what seemed an eternity, Chiro covering his ears to try and block the sound. By the time it ended he was nothing but a small boy, shaking in the far corner of his cell as tears streamed down his face and sobs tore through his body. Oh how was he ever going to get out of this?
"Antauri," he moaned, sniffling. "Antauri..."
Any who heard his cries could only think of how it reminded them of a lost child crying for his parent. And sadly, it did not affect them.
TBC