Disclaimer: I don't own SRMTHFG or any of its characters, just my character and this plot.
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Chapter Four: Shining Soul
Chiro spent barely more than a few seconds with any Formless in his way – punching one, kicking another, smashing two together – all in a desperate attempt to reach the newest member of his team, who was facing a very deadly enemy in the center. There were definitely more than the fifty Gibson had counted to deal with here. Fortunately, most of them were deeper in, too busy keeping Hayley contained to be concerned about the human boy.
Chiro was exhausted and almost completely covered in slime by the time he reached the edge of the center. He was startled by what he found: at least twenty Formless have merged themselves together to the point where they didn't have their arms anymore! This has created a blockade that won't be as easy to break through.
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Inside the Formless barrier, Hayley seemed to be calm and collected. But in truth, she was anxious, nervous, and quite frightened. She may be naïve, but no one can take her for a fool. She knew better than anyone of what Skeleton King was capable of doing. She also knew that this pinnacle of evil would not surrender his victims without a fight.
And even deeper in her soul is a scar that cannot easily be healed.
She reopened her eyes, giving a deadly glare into the TV Machine. Displayed on the monitor was Skeleton King himself.
"I give you a final chance to join my services willingly," he told her. "If you accept, the rewards will be plentiful. If you refuse, the consequences will be equally plentiful."
Hayley's scowl deepened. "Even if I am to die today, my promise to never betray the Hyperforce will remain. And that promise does not include submitting into your slavery."
The repulsive glow in his eyes bore deep into her soul, brushing against her inner scar. She felt the dark powers beginning to surround her again, but she kept a firm position. But Skeleton King was just as unrelenting. She noticed when the dark powers intensified, making her snarl in disgust.
"Are you angry?" he asked her. "Do you…hate me?"
That must be the most stupid thing I've ever been asked, she thought to herself.
Then, to her surprise and horror, he laughed. It was the kind of laugh that would tell you that you made a serious mistake. The power in her heart seemed to flinch in response.
The last word she heard him say was, "Excellent."
In her frightened state, it became easier for Skeleton King's energies to find her heart. What seemed like a dark mist clouded her vision, and she began to feel faint. She tried to fight it, but that only made her pain worse. In merely moments, she fell into a concussion.
She never saw Chiro bursting through the Formless barrier with a fierce Lightning Kick, or Antauri coming close behind him, or the others turning to look at the scene. In fact, she couldn't see anything.
"What happened?" she wondered. She didn't actually speak, but the words reverberated clearly in her mind. "Am I falling? Well…if I am, I'll simply hit the street, pick myself up, and get back into the battle. No problem."
But she never felt any landing. In fact, she couldn't feel at all.
Now, she was becoming worried. "What's happening to me? Otto? Chiro? Nova! ANTAURI! Somebody help me, please!"
An evil laugh echoed in the void, startling her.
"Skeleton King?" she asked, her panic melting into hatred. "What did you do to me?"
For a moment, she thought she felt herself falling again. The laugh slowly diminished, and her nemesis replied, "Foolish, filthy monkey. I did nothing. YOU did."
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The crash of her landing on the street was like an echo of doom, and it sent everyone into a rage that defeated the remaining enemies! The TV machine floated to a safe distance, allowing Skeleton King to watch the heroes as they surrounded their comatose friend. He could easily destroy them all in their distracted state with one swift stroke from his waiting monster, but he wanted to enjoy seeing them suffering for the moment.
"There doesn't appear to be any physical damage," Gibson remarked. "However, I cannot complete a diagnosis here."
Frustrated yet frightened, Nova yelled, "Then let's get her into the Robot already!"
"No, no one touch her!" Antauri suddenly objected, his placid face hiding extreme concern. "There is a dark aura surrounding her body."
"What?" Otto gasped, now very worried for the youngest Robot Monkey.
"Must be the old bag of bones," Sprx growled.
Antauri hesitated. Should he tell them the truth? Would they understand? Could they bear it?
"No, Sprx," he said gently. "The aura is coming from the darkness within herself."
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"You lie!" Hayley exclaimed. Now she was outraged and full of hate. She didn't know where to focus those emotions since she couldn't see Skeleton King, so she simply expressed them. "I demand to know what you did to me, Skeleton King!"
"As I have told you, I did nothing," his creepy voice replied. "You are the one who entered the void willingly. Your reaction to your anger has brought you here. Even now, you are doing it."
The light of her heart flinched again, and if she had stopped sinking into this endless abyss of nothingness before, she was falling into it again.
"I don't believe you!"
"Believe what you wish. It will all soon become irrelevant. Will you fight by my side to defeat your own anger and hatred? Or will the darkness swallow this feeble power you dare to call a 'light'? Either way, you will learn to serve ME."
Hayley gasped, now completely aghast. "I am such an idiot," she chastised herself.
"For once, we agree on something."
She hated herself for falling into such a simple trap. Cunning, but simple. The void became deeper.
"Antauri, please help me!"
"Wasted energy. He cannot hear you."
"Antauri!"
"This will be much easier on you if you stop resisting."
"I will not submit!"
"You have no choice. Soon, the Hayley you once were will be nothing but a memory."
When she heard those words, the dark presence of Skeleton King vanished. Hayley started to become desperate. She was still trapped in the sea of emptiness.
"Antauri…?"
No answer.
Being alone in the Citadel of Bone was nothing compared to this.
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"She's what?" Chiro asked nervously.
"Trapped in her own hatred," Antauri repeated. "The experiments that Skeleton King had inflicted on her were excruciating but not deadly. They were merely the seeds of anger and despair that he is now cultivating. The longer she stays in this state, the worse her condition will become."
"Then, let's get in gear!" Otto shouted, ready to save her again. "What can we do to help her?"
Antauri did everything physically and emotionally possible to keep his tears from showing as he answered, "I'm afraid we can do nothing."
"Say that again, Antauri?" Sprx asked, unable to believe that.
"Her heart is ensnared in a battle between the powers of light and darkness. This is a fight she must conquer on her own. If we interfere, her heart will retaliate and fight against us. Her only hope is to summon her new power, the light of her heart."
A roar echoed in the streets, making everyone look to the skies. A giant stingray glided over Shuggazoom City like a kite, preparing to attack!
"We all need to be in the Super Robot to defeat this ghastly creature," Gibson informed them.
"We can't just leave her like this!" Nova exclaimed.
Antauri placed a hand on her shoulder, expressing to everyone how much he wanted to agree with her. "On the contrary, Nova," he said gently. "That is precisely what we must do."
"Looks like we don't have any choice," Chiro added. "Monkeys, Mobilize!"
Otto desperately wanted to take Hayley in his arms and carry her into the safety of their base. But even after remembering Antauri's warning, he found it hard to leave her behind like this. She had only just come back to them.
The others were halfway to the robot when they noticed that they were missing one monkey. They looked back and found him hesitating at her side.
"Hayley…" Otto whispered, barely loud enough for them to hear. "Please win this fight for me." He then turned to catch up with them.
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Hayley had never imagined what it was like to be in a world of complete emptiness. She wondered if it was as cold as it was dark, but that remained a mystery. Her five senses were useless here; there was nothing to see, to touch, to hear, or to smell. The only thing she could taste was the adrenaline in her mouth. The only things she could feel were her mixed emotions of grief, rage, and contempt.
She had given up trying to call for help long ago. She was alone in her struggle between light and darkness, and the darkness was winning the fight.
She was unsure if she was floating or falling in this void. Either way, she remained trapped inside, and as loneliness gripped her heart, she slowly stopped chastising herself. She thought about her friends.
She was only beginning to renew her playful relationship with both Sprx and Gibson. Being the youngest Robot Monkey, she was given a little more leeway when it comes to playful fights with them.
She had thoroughly enjoyed her training session with Nova, despite the argument they had. Playing the show-off game with any other Robot Monkey would have been nearly impossible for Hayley.
She and Chiro had bonded well. The rest of the Monkey Team found it surprising that she had accepted Chiro not only as a responsible leader but also as a caring friend.
She still didn't know what her feelings with Otto really were. True, she flirts with him, and the two care deeply about each other. And yes, he did work much harder than the others to save her the first time her life was in serious danger. But was that a responsibility or something…more?
And Antauri…
"Oh, Antauri," she whispered, degrading herself again. "I didn't mean to yell at you that way. You were only protecting me, just as any decent brother would. You tried to warn me, but I didn't listen. Can you forgive me?"
For what seemed like a long while, there was silence. She had no doubt that her voice was unheard.
Then, much to her surprise, an unfamiliar but gentle voice said, "He can forgive you, but only if you can forgive yourself."
"Who said that?" she gasped, suddenly alarmed. She couldn't feel any presence – light or dark, friend or foe – but she knew that it wasn't Skeleton King. "Come to where I can see you."
"Free your mind," the voice told her, still soft but sounding more urgent. "Let go of all thinking and all feeling. When you are ready, take my hand."
Hayley remained still in shock. This was part of the same meditation session she had started with Antauri not even an hour ago. This voice obviously wasn't Antauri, but the wisdom within very much reminded her of the Black Monkey. Because of this, she couldn't help but submit to its unfamiliar reassurance.
She didn't know how, but the effort she gave made her focus much clearer. She was still lost in the void, but she could finally see! And the sight before her was a surprise: located before her was a creature that looked very much like the Pegasus Guardian Angel that Nova gave her, and riding on its back was a tall man! One eye was a crimson red, and the other was a chilly blue. He was dressed in a dark blue robe with what seemed to be a red sash around his waist. She couldn't see his feet, but she saw that he had one hand extended towards her.
This was obviously the one who had spoken to her. But who was he? She could barely feel a presence at all, and she couldn't determine if that presence was light or darkness.
"Do you know who you are?" the man asked her, his voice not echoing in her mind but actually talking directly to her.
"Of course I do," she answered, not realizing that she had regained the ability to actually speak. "I am Hayley Cometra. And who are you?" She ended her question with a growl, showing him that she doesn't easily trust humans…for good reason.
"That answer determines only WHAT you are," he softly told her.
"What?" she asked, now confused.
"The question of what you are can be answered by others, but the question of who you are can only be answered by you," he said.
The stare she gave him told him that didn't understand at all.
He sighed. "I know a great deal about what you are. You have a remarkable show of strength; potential for wisdom and knowledge; and an abundance of passion, friendship, and inspiration. These things obviously say what you are, because someone other than you gave them to you. But if you say that you are the youngest Robot Monkey, you are still saying what you are, because someone other than you made you that way. If you say that you are a member of the Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce, you are still saying what you are, because someone other than you made you that way. You cannot even give your name without saying what you, because someone other than you gave you that name."
"Then…how am I supposed to know who I am?" she asked, now interested.
"With faith in yourself, you can find that answer," he told her. "Use your power."
Again, she began to focus and closed her eyes. The darkness surrounding them began to gradually dissipate. She didn't see this, but the man did notice it.
A smile slowly crept across her face as she answered, "I am…a tiny fragment of light, one of many that repels the dark powers. I am…a little heart with enormous hope. I am…" If she hadn't had her eyes closed, she would have seen a small light emerging from within her, similar to the one that had cut her plasma bonds in the Citadel of Bone! It was beginning to heal the scar inside of her.
By the time she did open her eyes, that light had disappeared. But she knew that she felt different. And she concluded, "I am a shining soul."
And when she said that, she discovered that she wasn't the only one who held the light of heart within her. She had sensed a similar light within each of her team members, each one as unique as them. Her own light was probably more obvious than those of the others because it was feeding on her hope, something that she held in more abundance than anything else she possessed.
She had many questions about her light that she believed the man could answer, but as her senses were coming back to her, she felt a strong presence of darkness. She knew instinctively that her friends were in danger. Realizing that she had no time to waste, she began to reach for the man's hand.
Moments before the hands touched, she heard the man say, "Do not speak of our encounter to anyone, for everything will be revealed in its proper time."
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The first thing she noticed was the blinding sunlight. She squinted her eyes and readjusted her sight to compensate.
The next thing she noticed was the fact that she was on the street. She realized that she had indeed fallen, and she probably had some minor damage that may require Otto to repair.
The third and most surprising thing she noticed was that there were several Formless, apparently new arrivals, which were beginning to create another barrier around her!
"I don't think so," she whispered, quickly getting up. Her monkey hands became her whips as she jumped into the air and began twirling. "Stinging Spin!" she yelled, making herself like a bright blue tornado, allowing her whips to strike all of the Formless dozens of times, even hundreds of times!
Caught by surprise and unprepared for a fight from her, the Formless were easily eliminated!
"Impossible!" Skeleton King exclaimed, watching this through the TV Machine as it lowered to her level. "You could not possibly have survived!"
She grinned as she wrapped the ends of her whips around the device's legs. "I don't hate you, Skeleton King," she said confidently. "I only hate what you did to me." Then, like she did with Mandarin in her very first battle, she launched herself into another spin and threw the TV Machine skyward, sending it back to its master.
She then looked around. Where the Super Robot used to be, it was no longer there. And since she couldn't hear any noise of battle, she realized that her friends had taken the fight into outer space.
At first, she wondered how she was going to help them. Her power supply may be full, but it wouldn't be anywhere near enough to allow her to reach the battle in time. But then, she smiled, discovering her answer.
What could Hayley's plan be? Will she make it to her friends in time? Find out in Chapter Five: Here I Am.
In response to Chapter Three's reviews…
4Evermonkeyfan: Yes, I know younger siblings can be annoying. I'm sure I was. Thanks for reviewing.
love-writer: Thanks for the suggestion. I've always seen Antauri as the fatherly one on the team.
Crystal Persian: Well, I already had one scene in my last fanfic where Hayley seemed to be dead; I think doing that twice in a row might be pushing it a little. But I hope this chapter satisfies the same kind of drama.