Yes, contrary to popular belief, I DIDN'T GIVE UP ON MY FICS! I just kept putting them off. Well, my b-day's Sunday and I'm all "well, I can get some reviews for my birthday," so I figured I'd update. I hope it's a good birthday present to y'all (even though it's my birthday) and I hope you all enjoy this exciting installment. Everybody liked the last three chapters so I'd assume you like this one too! But before I get to the story, I must thank the reviewers!
Beastfire: Man, a Mandarin voodoo doll, I gots to get me one of those.
AnimeFanGirl11: Yay for Gibson! Hey you know me, he's got to have his moment to shine. But who will be the true hero of the story? Well you'll just have to wait and see!
Burning Fantasy: I'm sorry it took so long! I really am sorry! I hope you haven't forgotten that this fic even existed and I hope you'll review my story again and like it!
Day Dreamer9: Yes! You know your characters are believable when you can hear them talking. This means I have achieved my goal! Yay! I'm glad you liked it. Please enjoy the new chapter!
Sorano101: Thank you as usual. I hope you read and review as usual and like it as usual. ;0)
Super-Nova-101: o.O Wait, does this mean I'm confusing. . because now I'm confused. Oh well, it happens all the time. Oh boy hon, you're going to have to brace yourself for what happens later and you're probably going to hate me forever, but I hope you don't and we won't talk about what I'm going to do in a later chapter yet because I'm not there yet! I hope you like this one though!
LMann: Actually, memory metal is real. I actually saw some of it worked in 6th grade science. It was pretty sweet! Who knew my 6th grade Bio class would have such a large impact on me later in life. tear tear Anyway, please R&R!
Astral Firefly: Yes, his chest went "poof" ;-) English eh? That's cool. Hope you like the new chapter!
Gijinka Renamon: The whole imprisonment thing is still to come but be patient it'll get here! I know it's hard to be patient considering it took me over a month to update but I promise I'll get there eventually. Until then enjoy this chapter and review again!
Alchemy Hope: Yeah, I know I say this every time but I'm sorry it took so long, but I hope you'll forgive me for how long it took and still enjoy (and remember what happened before) the story! Thanks!
Robo Monkeys 14: Heck yes SRPX-77/Nova rock! w00t! Anyway, please read and review the new installment and I hope you enjoy it!
And now, the new chapter.
Chapter 4: Quick to Act and A KEY Fact
The monkey team lay scattered on the cool ground, the grass gently blowing in the wind and tickling their white toes. Night had become morning, and the team had slept out of necessity. Though mid-morning had come, the sky remained dark, as a cloud cover blanketed the sky. The day was unusually cold, and the usual sounds of chirping birds were absent.
Antauri was the first to awaken, and he instantly realized that something was not right. He gently awoke the others, nudging them silently.
"Oh," moaned SPRX-77, stretching his arms and back, "I must've really bean tired. I slept like a log."
"You snored like a buzz saw," Nova commented.
"I just wish we could've made some kinda progress earlier," Otto lamented.
"It was impossible to come up with a plan when we all suffered from sleep deprivation. Not to mention the necessary mental rest required after yesterday's events. Treason, deception," Gibson looked towards Nova, "among other things."
"Wait a second, everyone," Antauri said softly, "listen. What do you hear?"
There wasn't a sound. The team stood for a solid minute listening.
"Nothin'! I don't hear nothin'!" SPRX-77 finally spoke.
"Apart from the horrid grammar, I must agree with Sparks. There's simply nothing to hear," replied Gibson.
"Exactly," Antauri noted, "something is amiss. The world around us knows something is not right. I sense great destruction for this entire planet. Something is expected of us, to help."
"I doubt Mandarin would waste any time in attacking the city. He would take quick advantage of our lack of preparation."
Suddenly, they heard a distant clank which shattered the cold silence of morning. It was a sound they knew well: the huge, heavy clank of the Super Robot taking a gigantic step.
The attack had begun.
Mandarin cackled. He had spent all night strategizing, memorizing, equating, equipping, and studying. He now knew he had a fool proof plan. Victory would assuredly be his, and the monkey team would fall. This time they would be conquered and crushed.
Mandarin adjusted his orange seat and put his feet below his steering device. It was time to attack the city. It was time for victory.
"Wait! We can't just go speeding toward the robot! We need a strategy!" Gibson yelled against the wind resistance.
"Tell Nova that! She was the first one to take off!" SPRX-77 yelled in response.
Gibson looked below and saw the many buildings of the city speeding backwards as he passed them. They were unharmed, for now. He wondered if the people inside of them even knew of the eminent danger. He looked behind him, towards Otto, Antauri, and SPRX-77, trying to keep up. Gibson strained his rocket pack, and then yelled, "Nova! Stop! We need to strategize!"
The sound of crashing rock and metal could be heard in the distance.
Nova stopped and spun around to face Gibson, who almost crashed into her due to her sudden halt. "Gibson! We don't have time to stragegize. Mandarin is openly attacking the city. Every second we wait is another life lost. Mandarin won't stop until he gets what he wants."
The other three monkeys had caught up.
"This may be true," Antauri added, "but we are about to face an enemy more powerful than we could even imagine: an enemy who knows all of our strengths, weaknesses, and strategies, and also has no greater desire than to completely annihilate us. We have to be very careful. Besides, if we fail, the entire city will most certainly be doomed. We have to be very careful."
Nova looked over towards the Super Robot. Clouds of smoke surrounded it. She saw the ray guns shoot from its eyes and missiles come from the finger tips. She sighed and nodded her head, "Okay, what did you have in mind?"
Mandarin laughed, this was too easy. He looked back up to see five dots coming toward him in the distance. He stopped his attack and smiled. They were right on time. He turned his attention to an electrical scan of the Super Robot, zooming in on the neck. There was an important wire there, and he knew it. He put his thumb on a nearby button and waited.
The five saw the Super Robot enlarging as they drew nearer to it.
"Why'd he stop?" asked Otto.
"He must be expecting us," SPRX-77 answered.
Nova sighed, "I suppose that defeats the purpose of sneaking up, then."
"Alright. Otto, you know what to do?" Antauri asked.
Otto brought his hand to his forehead in a salute, "I got it, chief!"
"In that case Hyperforce, Go!"
The team sped toward the Super Robot and attacked it with all of their weapons. Immediately the Super Robot restarted its attack, targeting the five monkeys flying rapidly around it. A large missile sped directly towards Antauri. But immediately he held out his blue claw and froze it in place, discontinuing the effect of gravity or propulsion. "That was too easy." He said to himself, and he was right. Out of the tip of the rocket came a poisonous gas. He felt his head begin to spin, but knew the attack had to proceed. In the midst of coughing he yelled, "Go Otto! Now!" then he dropped from the sky.
SPRX-77 flew after the falling Antauri shouting to Otto, "Go on! I'll get 'im!"
Antauri was falling, dropping. He knew the impact that the ground would have on him, but that is not what filled his mind. 'He knew,' he thought, 'he knew that I'd try to stop it. He's predicting us…Otto!' Antauri felt cold metal arms beneath him. He tried to speak, but couldn't, nor could he see who was carrying him, saving him. He hoped it was Otto, that Otto hadn't gone through with his command. But he couldn't be sure.He had to wake up. He had to warn Otto!
Mandarin chuckled once more. "You make it far too easy for me my brothers. You're so predictable, it's pathetic." He looked back at Otto on one of his many screens. Otto reached the neck of the Super Robot and used his saws to cut off a panel. "Red wire, red wire," he repeated to himself, and reached forward to cut the nearest one to fit his description. Then Mandarin thrust his thumb down upon his button.
The instant Otto touched it, surges of electricity shot through his being, and he was out.
"Ah, and right on cue, here comes the one with the sensitive ear," Mandarin commented, watching nova fly over.
"Otto? Otto are you okay?" Then she saw him. "OTTO! Otto what happened?"
She landed next to him and knelt down, trying to see where he'd been hit.
Mandarin flipped a switch.
Nova jumped back. Another panel of the Super Robot in front of her was reversing. And the instant it did, Otto's body was attracted to it. She felt the strange pulling sensation and tried to avoid it, struggling against the nature of the Iron composition in her metal body. But it was no use. Nova was slammed against the wall and the panel was returned to its original position.
"HELP!" she called out, but her voice was no longer heard.
"Two down, three to go," Mandarin quoted. "Time for target number 3." Mandarin looked at the screen aimed towards Gibson, who was rapidly pressing buttons on his scanner. He aimed the lasers from the brain scrambler a little to the left of Gibson, and then fired.
"Wah!" Gibson, assuming the laser was aimed directly at him, dodged right.
"Just like always," Mandarin said as the laser struck Gibson's left hand, causing him to drop his scanner. He shook his hand to relieve the pain, and then dove after his scanner.
"How many times must I tell you Gibson," Mandarin said, reaiming the laser, "never turn your back on your enemy."
Gibson heard the laser coming towards him and habitually dodged left, causing the shot to score a direct hit on his rocket pack. "Oh, drat," he said, and then followed the same course of action that his scanner had. He looked below and saw a flash of red. "Sparks! Look out!"
SPRX-77 saw him coming and reached out with his tail, wrapping it firmly around his blue companion. "I gotcha."
"Hardly," Gibson said, ignoring the save, "our rocket packs weren't even designed to hold the weight of two robot monkeys. Surely the added weight of a third would cause it to-" Gibson was cut off by the sputtering sound of the rocket pack, "-give out."
The jet pack continued to sputter. "That's the last time I save you," SPRX-77 said accusingly. Then the pack gave out. The two conscious monkeys yelled their way down to the cold, rocky ground.
SPRX-77's head swam with pain and he reached his hand up to rub it…no, he didn't. He couldn't! His arm wouldn't budge, nor would his other arm. He opened his eyes but could see nothing except a flood of colors before his eyes. He blinked in an attempt to clear his vision, and finally succeeded. He glanced around. He was back inside the Super Robot, but his body was completely encased by a hunk of cold metal.
"Nice of you to finally join us, Sparks," said a sarcastic Nova next to him. He looked to his right and saw the entire team staring back at him, minus the traitorous Mandarin.
"Well, at least we're back inside the Super Robot," added Otto optimistically.
"This isn't exactly how I pictured us returning. I was thinking more…breaking in and grabbing Mandarin by the scruff of the neck, causing him to scream out for mercy and American justice." SPRX-77 commented.
The rest of the team just stared again.
The silence was broken by the whooshing and entrance of the orange monkey. All five captured monkeys gasped upon seeing Mandarin, his body free of armor. "Mandarin! What happened? What did this to you? Doesn't that hurt? And do I have eyebrows that big?" Otto asked.
Ignoring the majority of Otto's questions, Mandarin cast an extremely ugly pointer finger at Gibson. "He did this to me! That shot from your blasted drills cut right through my armor. But now I am superior! I am no longer one of you! I am Mandarin! And I will triumph!"
"You will NOT win Mandarin. You already KNOW that you will lose!" yelled Antauri. "You cannot fight it!"
"Silence!" Mandarin shouted, getting right in the black monkey's face, "I shall win. No matter what anyone says." Mandarin stared deep into Antauri's eyes. Both pairs of eyes were filled with contempt for the other pair, and neither pulled away.
"You will be foiled," Antauri whispered, so quietly that Mandarin alone could hear.
"Not by you…" Mandarin took a step back. "I will make sure that none of you foils me." Mandarin stepped closer to Nova, "that is unless one is willing to join me."
Nova closed her eyes indignantly, "Ha! I'd rather marry Sparks than you!"
SPRX-77's eyes flew over to Nova, "Really?"
Mandarin growled loudly, "FINE! You will all pay for your defiance to join me! I shall deal with you all, now!" He felt at his belt. "Hmm… I must've left it in the other room. If you'll excuse me, brothers, I need to go grab a very special remote for those silly blocks you're in." He then whooshed back up his orange tube.
Nova struggled, "We gotta get outa here!"
"Calm down, Nova," Antauri comforted.
"Calm down?" questioned SPRX-77, "we're trapped in cold metal by our own rogue team member, who has no greater wish than to vaporize us so that he can take over the world!"
"For goodness sakes, Sparks, don't be so dramatic," Gibson said, "It's hardly as bad as all that."
"No?" he asked, and then flipped back the point on his helmet to reveal a video message. "I took this after I'd hit the ground, but before I'd passed out."
The image showed Mandarin standing above him. "Ha ha. Enjoy your life while you can. For soon I'll get vaporize you all so that I can take over the world!" SPRX-77 rewound the clip and continually repeated the "vaporize you and take over the world" line.
"Oh," SPRX-77 said sarcastically, "but I'm being overdramatic."
"Sparks," Antauri said, "relax, you see-"
The red monkey discontinued the repetition and interrupted Antauri mid-line. "Well excuse me for caring about my own skin. It's only my LIFE on the line here."
"Sparks," Antauri repeated.
"But no," SPRX-77 continued, closing his eyes as if crying to the heavens. "I have to be POSATIVE! Oh yeah, just pretend that nothing's wrong!"
Antauri sighed as SPRX-77 continued to rant. He produced the remote control, which he had hovered away from Mandarin during their conflict. He used his ear to push a large button that produced a key at the end of the remote, which he turned in his column, and was released.
"In fact," SPRX-77 whined, "I might as well fall asleep, I'm so relaxed!"
Antauri grabbed the remote from the open column and unlocked Otto…
"After all, there's NOTHING to worry about…"
...then Gibson…
"No, we'll all be just fine and live on forever with peace and flowers!"
...then Nova. They all walked in front of SPRX-77.
"But you're right, Antauri, I should just sit back and relax." The red monkey finally opened his eyes and saw the quad of monkeys in front of him.
"Ya done Sparks?" Nova asked.
"Uh…" responded the dumbfounded SPRX-77.
Antauri held up the remote and smiled.
"Oh, heh heh." SPRX-77 smiled, this time out of pure humiliation. Antauri stuck the key in his column and released him at long last.
"Alright team, we need to get out of here before Mandarin returns. We're hardly equipped to fight him now," Antauri noted, "we should be as secret as we can."
"But Mandarin will see us if we leave, not to mention that would just be taking us further from our goal," observed Nova.
"The ventilation system!" Gibson exclaimed, "we'll still be inside the robot, and we'll be out of sight!"
SPRX-77 scratched his head, "Only one problem."
"What's that?" Otto asked.
"We have cameras in the vents. I asked Otto to install them last month."
Otto rubbed his head. "Um…"
"What?" Nova asked.
"I sorta didn't get around to installing them yet. It's kinda on my to do list."
SPRX-77 slapped his hand to his forehead.
"Ah, Otto, for once your procrastination actually paid off!" Nova smiled.
"Then let's move team, Mandarin will be back any second!" commanded Antauri.
"Hold on," SPRX-77 said, grabbing the remote out of his column, "let's just make sure Mandarin can't use these things on us anymore!" He threw it to the ground and stepped on it, causing it to spark and fizzle. "Alright, now let's get moving."
A/N: Wow, this is long. I hope you liked it. If you liked it, please review! And I'll try to update much sooner this time!
-RobotMonkeys4Ever