A/N: YAY! I updated. I said this in my other fic so I guess I'll say it here too. Since review responses are no longer allowed, I'm responding through that "reply" button when I update. Kind of like an author alert system. If you don't want me to reply to your reviews, please tell me.
Anyway, sorry it took so long, but I hope you all forgive me for taking forever. I also hope you all still remember what's going on. If you need a reminder, you can always go back and read the last chapter, I'm sure you'll remember. Anyway, I like this chapter and I hope you do too! Please read and review! Now, THE CHAPTER!
Chapter 5: Ventilation and Preparation
"This place is disgusting!" Nova said, crawling on her hands and knees, "when was the last time they were cleaned?"
"Nova, they're vents. Who cleans vents?" Sprx-77 asked rhetorically.
The line of 5 monkeys crawled carefully through the cold metal tunnels. Gibson led with Antauri behind him, then Otto, Sprx-77, and Nova bringing up the rear. Antauri warned them to be silent. Surely they would not have the upper hand over their orange adversary for long, and the longer he could know that they weren't in the vents the better. They were vulnerable, and he knew it. They spoke in whispers to avoid being heard, anything could give them away.
"Where're we going, anyway?" asked Otto.
Gibson turned his head to answer Otto, "We'll head up to my bed chamber, I can get another scanner there."
"Huh?" Sprx-77 cocked his head to one side, "You've got more than one of those things? Geez, do you collect them or something?"
"I've had to replace them quite a few times due to their destruction on missions. Now I just purchase them in bulk."
Antauri shrugged, "Makes sense."
"Wait," Sprx-77 stopped, "we're about to be pursued by somebody who wants to kill us, and we're looking for your dumb SCANNER?"
He was immediately shushed by the team.
Sprx-77 resumed scuffling across the metallic floor, silently.
"Gibson has the ventilation system blueprints on his scanner. Once we have those prints, we can go anywhere in the Robot," explained Antauri.
Suddenly Antauri stopped. The vents forked. One path went straight, one went right, and another went directly up.
"Go up," said Otto, "the bedrooms would definitely be above us."
"Yeah, but how do we know we wouldn't just be walking right into some other room above us?" Nova asked.
"Good point." Gibson commented.
Antauri closed his eyes and he began to glow the faintest bit green. Staring, the team remained silent. Opening his eyes, Antauri pointed upward. "This is our best choice."
He jumped up into the tunnel, planting one hand and one foot on the walls around him. Their rocket packs would give them away, they'd have to climb.
Sprx-77 chuckled, "See Brain strain? We don't need your scanner! We've got Antauri!"
Mandarin growled loudly as he stared down at the sputtering control. It snapped and crackled as the sparks of electricity jumped off of the device and onto the ground. How could he be so stupid? He instantly knew what had happened. It was obvious how Antauri had stolen the device from him and freed everyone.
It's chess Mandarin thought, I got cocky and lost my edge, they took a rook, but I'm still winning. Your pieces may be on my side of the board, but I have more pieces, and more strategy.
Mandarin kicked the broken controller from his presence. He was surprised at how it hurt. He still wasn't quite used to his organic body. He stared at his flat, pink foot. How he ever had pink feet he didn't know. He had no recollection of ever being without his orange armor, but he figured there must have been a time. He shook his head to clear his thoughts.
"I have more important things to attend to." He glanced toward the vent in the room. Antauri had made sure to close it after they slipped into it, but he knew that was where they had gone. They wouldn't be stupid enough to leave the robot. "It's going to be harder for me now," he thought aloud, "I now have to be on the defensive and the offensive. But the opponent has practically no experience."
He walked over to the control panel in the room, "Unfortunately I now have to make up for lost time. He looked at what controls he had to work with. "Ah-ha! This one looks rather promising." He pressed an oddly shaped purple button on the panel and laughed. "Check, Antauri. Get ready to lose some important pieces."
Sprx-77 hopped up into the tunnel, using his tail to steady himself. He looked above him and saw his black, blue, and green companions, wondering if they were having as hard of a time balancing as he was. But slowly he scooted his way up to make room for Nova.
Antauri's eyes widened. "SPARKS! GET NOVA UP HERE, IMMEDIATELY!"
"Huh?" Sparks wondered, looking up. Then he knew. A low whirring came from the tunnel below him. Fans. Everybody knows vents have fans. "Otto! Grab my tail!" Sprx-77 commanded. Otto wrapped his tail firmly around Sprx-77's and planted his hands and feet more firmly into the walls to avoid losing his grip. Sprx-77 lowered himself down to where he could see Nova; she was already struggling against the strengthening current.
"Nova! Grab my hand! I'll pull you up!"
She struggled, now running to defeat the powerful gust of air. She squinted against it, reaching out her hand trying to grab his, she was only inches away. Feeling herself slipping further, she turned on her jetpack, expecting it to initiate a strong force, but was surprised when it barely gave her any advantage. But she reached, further…
"Gotcha!" Sprx-77 said, wrapping his hand firmly around Nova's, and feeling hers around his own. Only one thing he didn't think of. The instant he had her, her feet lifted off the ground, but the air current continued to blow, slamming both of their arms into the ceiling of the vent, then suspending her in the air, like a monkey windsock.
Sprx-77 felt his arm throbbing after the hard hit off the wall, "Gah!" He told himself not to let go, particularly due to the loosening grip of the yellow monkey, but his body told him to do so, to save himself from the pain, the strain that his metallic body couldn't take. He tried to hang on, but he felt his grip loosening. He looked at Nova, her eyes begging him not to let go, and showing her own waning strength. He held on as long as he possibly could, but he could no longer hold her, and against his will, his fingers slipped from her arm, and she didn't have the strength to hold his. And she went flying down the long tunnel, back to their entrance.
Mandarin heard the banging of a metal body down the vent and positioned himself below it. Nova finally hit the screen, breaking through it and landing her on the floor directly below him. With split second timing he had his foot on her stomach and energy cuffs around her wrists and ankles. "Ah, the Queen." he chuckled. He pulled her up, grabbing the energy that restricted her wrist's movements.
"What are you talking about?" Nova said, disgusted. Though she wasn't sure if she was more disgusted at Mandarin or at herself for being so weak as to be caught. She looked up at his repulsive face. No, it was definitely him.
"Oh, simply an analogy." He pulled her over to his control panel. She walked stiffly behind him. The cuffs around her legs gave her little room to move, but at least it was some mobility. Man, how she wanted to kick him.
"You still won't win you know." She said, speaking through her gritted teeth.
He looked back at her, "Oh don't pout dear, you're much more radiant when you smile."
"Gah! It's like your head is even THICKER without that orange helmet! I'm NOT interested in you!"
"Suit yourself." He turned away from her and began typing, looking at blueprints of the robot.
Nova looked over to the collection of knick-knacks Mandarin had collected in front of him. One of the things she noticed among several more pairs of electro-cuffs and small scale weapons was several blue scanners of Gibson's. She looked up, confused.
Before she could say anything Mandarin answered her, "Yes, I knew you were going to grab Gibson's scanner. Please, like that blue monkey would have anything else on his mind after I destroyed his last one in battle.
Nova's eyes widened. He had known everything they were going to do. Maybe…maybe they would be defeated. It was no longer in her hands. She was a prisoner of war now. She watched Mandarin work over his shoulder. Although the things that he was looking at didn't give her any clue of his next move. He knew what their next move would be, but she didn't. She began to ponder as she imagined he was. What would they do next?
The fans stopped, but Sprx-77 didn't move. "You can let go, Otto," he yelled up.
Otto obeyed, but immediately regretted doing so. Whatever Sprx-77 was thinking about, it wasn't landing on his feet. He crashed down onto his head upside down, and the rest of the team dropped down to help him up.
"That, that CREEP has Nova!" Sprx-77 yelled, no longer watching his tone.
"Calm down, Sparks."
"No! We have to go save her!" He began to run off in the direction Nova flew, but he was stopped when Otto grabbed his arm.
"Sparks! We can't! Mandarin would be ready to grab us if we went now!"
"I don't care! A member of this team could be in huge trouble! And apparently I'm the only one who CARES!" He tried to run again, but found he couldn't. He turned around to see Antauri with his bright blue arm extended in his direction, discontinuing his movement. He finally stopped trying and turned around. "But what should we do?"
"I think I may have a plan," said Gibson, "It may be simple, but we may be able to regain Nova, the upper hand, and perhaps victory."
"I'm listening," Sprx-77 said.
"We'll split up. There are two vent entrances to that room. We'll surround him. When he least expects it, we'll spring out and attack with a full force attack, or at least that's how it'll seem. However, Sparks, you'll attack the overhead light. We still have metallic bodies and glowing optics, but he is lacking. We'll simply exploit his weakness. While he can't see, we'll grab him and force him to surrender."
"Good plan Gibson, it just may work," Antauri agreed.
Otto nodded, "If it's the best we've got, I'm in."
"Alright," consented Sprx-77, "for Nova."
"Okay team, then we'll all attack on my mark. But NOT before Sparks, understand?" Antauri pointed out.
"Hey! Why single me out?"
"Because we all know how aggressive you are in this. So do you understand?" Antauri once more asked.
"Yeah, I get it."
"Good," Gibson stated, "Then Antauri and I will go around to the other entrance, look for us on the other side."
"Got it," Otto gave Gibson thumbs up, "see you soon."
Antauri smiled. "In that case, Monkeys, Mobilize!"
Mandarin wheeled out a large laser cannon from another room. This one was unique because it had two cannons as opposed to one. Otto had been very proud of it after he had built it. Gibson always commented on its originality at being able to tear something apart at the roots, molecularly. It was tested, and was supposed to be added to the robot later that week. That was the plan at least, before all this mess started.
Nova watched, standing with legs and arms still bound. She looked for any chance of escape, but Mandarin gave her none. Even when he wasn't looking at her, she felt that he was staring at her. An odd and incredibly creepy feeling. He was setting it up, but she wasn't sure why. Why would the team ever come back through the vent?
"Nova, prepare to witness an amazing feat of timing. I will show you how predictable you inferior monkeys are. Your little team members are going to run right out of those vents in EXACTLY thirty seconds. And when they do, Otto's new "molec-lazer" will pull their particles about one by one. And the Super Robot Monkey Team will come to a swift end."
"If your goal is to kill us all? Why do you keep me around?"
He gave her a disturbing look, "Let's just say I like the company."
She shuddered. When would he get that he wasn't interested in her? He turned to his laser, counting the seconds in his head.
What can I do? she asked herself, I could attack him, but no doubt he'd be expecting that. That's just what I'd do. That's IT! He's predicting our every move! I have to do something so incredibly not me, that he won't see it coming! But WHAT?
She looked at him. Whatever she had to do, she had only seconds to do it.
Sprx-77 tapped his foot silently. He looked to the vent on the other side of the room, but there was no sign of Antauri. Nova was in the other room, he hadn't looked in, he was too smart for that, but he knew that she was there. He could no longer control himself however, and he disregarded Antauri's warning and ran out of the vent and onto the large cylindrical support in the room. But the instant he did, his jaw dropped to the floor, not believing what he saw.
A/N: THE END! of that chapter. HUMONGOUSLY EVIL I know, but I almost can't allow myself to write the next part. Ooh, I'm going to give it away. Anyway, it may take a while, but I WILL get this story updated. Anyway, if you liked this chapter please review and trust that I will review um… well hopefully soon. It shouldn't be too long because I know what I want to do in the next chapter. Anyway, REVIEW please. Thanks!
-RobotMonkeys4Ever