So, y'know, last week you got an early update. This week, you get a late one. Whoops. (Okay, it's not that late. But. Y'know.)

Hope you enjoy!


the cycle starts again

Lady Cravenheart


3.


Sprx frowns as he watches Charlie disappear into the Robot. "I'm not sure I like the sound of this 'resistance'," he says. "Not sure I really want to take her back, to be honest."

Gibson throws him a scathing look. "We can't keep her away from her family, Sprx."

Sprx rolls his eyes and waves a hand dismissively. "I know, I know. But… she claims she's got all these people who care about her but…" He rubs the side of his face, and turns to face the team more fully. "Koraladol ain't exactly a hop, skip, and a jump from Shuggazoom, ya know? You'd think they have regular check-ins. To make sure she's okay. But… she seems to think she can get there without anyone noticing she's gone."

"I believe you're jumping to conclusions, Sprx. Not only has she not said anything about getting there unnoticed, but there are many ways that she could get around that issue!" Gibson has adopted the know-it-all tone he often uses around Sprx—that "I'm so much smarter than you" way of speaking that never fails to raise Sprx's hackles. "They could check in on her through text comm instead of video, after all. However, I think it more likely that she believes that no one will notice her absence until it is too late to stop her. She does have schoolteachers to report her absence, after all. Which brings us to my concerns—her education."

"If that chip is as vital as she thinks it is, that's a bit more important than attending class, don't'cha thing, Brainstrain?" Sprx says dryly.

"Well, of course," Gibson says. "But I find it hard to believe that she doesn't have someone she can trust to take it along instead of missing out."

"She's seventeen, right?" Otto says thoughtfully. "She'd be on her last year of school, then. It's right around—what'd Chiro call it? Finals?"

"Yes," Gibson says. "We had them at university too." He taps his chin in thought. "They could probably let her get away with just taking her final courses, though I still don't approve of her skipping them."

"She seemed a bit desperate to get off planet, if you ask me," Nova says, arms crossed. "Relaxed the second we exited atmo. I don't think she needed a big excuse to jump ship."

"You sayin' you don't think those files are as big a deal as she's actin'?" Sprx asks.

Nova shrugs. "I'm sure they're important… but they might not be the life-or-death situation we think they are. Can't know for sure unless we get a look at them, though… and I don't think she's going to let us."

Sprx scowls. "Not like we're working for this 'big bad'. We've been asleep for over twenty years!"

"Not that much over," Otto says.

"Not the point." Sprx swipes his hand dismissively. "We haven't been involved in any of it. What's the deal?"

"She did say it wasn't her decision that counted," Otto says reasonably. "She said that if it were up to her, she'd trust us. But it's not. It's up to the resistance's leaders."

"Which she hasn't named! The only one we know of is Chiro. She mentioned some of our old allies were involved too, though we have no way of knowing how high up the food chain they are. We. Know. Nothing. And even Charlie, born and raised resistance, doesn't seem to trust 'em!" Sprx huffs. "All I'm sayin' is… We don't know anything about what we're walkin' into, and I don't like being in the dark. I want more answers from Charlie, and I'd like 'em as soon as possible."

Nova places her hand on his shoulder. He leans into it. "We've known her less than six hours," she says gently. "We'll get our answers. But we need to wait. She barely knows us! She's got no reason to trust us other than some old stories. And we don't know anything about her. Just that the Power Primate chose her to join us. We're blind on a lot of fronts here."

"Yeah, I know." Sprx scowls. "And I hate walkin' blind." Just the word reminded him of that night of fear that Mandarin had brought them under Chiro's command. Being blind—

Even metaphorically, he hated it.

Nova slides her hand from his shoulder to grab his hand. She squeezes. "We've got time," she says. "Let Gibson build his medical file first. Tomorrow, we'll start asking questions. We'll start easy—get a layout of the enemy first. It'll be easier to get her to talk about that than her allies. Start there, build up."

Sprx takes a breath, lets it out slow, and rubs the bridge of his muzzle with his free hand. "Yeah. Alright."

It's not just the mystery of this 'resistance' that has him on edge, though. But he can't talk to the team about the rest of it. He can't tell them that he's not ready to see Chiro yet—because how could he not be? How could he not be ready to see what became of their boy-hero?

He wants to. Hell yes he wants to.

But…

They just abandoned him. Four years down the drain, all because Antauri got some sort of 'feeling' from the mystical force none of them really understand. It was a shitty thing to do, and Sprx is more than a little pissed at Antauri over it.

"It's for the best," he said. "There will always be evil in the world," he said. "Chiro deserves a chance to be normal," he said.

Like the Kid could ever be normal after all the shit the universe threw at him. Like, after becoming a war hero, the world would ever see him as a boy again. Like he could ever forget about the monkey team. Like he could ever let go of the way the team just up and left him.

They didn't even give him a proper send off. Four and half years of growing together; of learning to care about each other; and they just… boxed his stuff up and left it on the landing strip. No easing him into it, no goodbyes. Just there and gone.

"A clean break," Antauri had said.

Well, "Bullshit," Sprx says.

The kid ain't gonna be happy to see them, and it's gonna break every one of their hearts. Otto might never recover from it.

He's gonna be even less happy when he finds out that they replaced him with a seventeen year old girl.

Hell, Sprx isn't happy about it. They're all going to get attached to this one too. Except maybe Antauri; the emotionless bastard. But when this new enemy is dead, they're just gonna cut her out too. Go back to sleep and wait for the next one.

Sprx is so tempted to cut-and-run. If this is how it's gonna be, he's not sure he wants anything to do with the Hyper Force anymore, no matter what grand delusions Antauri has. If staying with the Hyper Force means he's going to spend his considerable lifespan fighting one war after another, replacing leader after leader with new teens, watching them grow and learn and become, only to leave them in the end…

Well. Count him out.

That ain't what he signed up for.

(Not that he signed up at all.)

He glances at Nova.

She ain't gonna see it that way, though. She's not like Antauri. Doesn't see the beauty in serving some higher purpose; fighting battle after battle because some mystical force demands it. But she's a soldier. A hero. She's got inherent nobility that'll make her want to stay, and fight. Bear the burdens because the universe demands it. She won't abandon the team unless it falls apart around her ears.

Of course, if they abandon another one, just to wake up to someone else to get attached to… Especially if it's another young one, like Chiro.

It might not take much for them to fall apart at all.

Still, Sprx isn't sure he wants to stick around for a third. But he's also not ready to drop Nova, either. He loves her. Has loved her for a damn long time, even if he hasn't said the words yet. Their relationship is still new, tentative. He doesn't want to let it go if he doesn't have to.

He rubs his forehead with his free hand. Monkey doodle. When did his life get so damn complicated?


Charlie returns to retrieve Gibson, who tells them to let him know whether they need help loading the supplies, and then disappears with her, ready to build up her medical file. Sprx watches them go. Charlie smiles easily, body language open and friendly. Gibson is more reticent, but he always is. Never quite the social butterfly, that one.

The supplies come about twenty minutes after—ahead of schedule. None of the workers recognize them. It's odd, but Sprx is grateful. He, like Charlie, would prefer their return stay quiet, at least for a while.

It's not the norm for him—he's not shy to admit he enjoys the attention. But he needs time to get his head on straight.

Once the supplies have been loaded into the Robot, Sprx splits away from the others. He goes to prepare the Robot for take off. Antauri follows him, for whatever reason, leaving Nova and Otto behind to care for the supplies.

Antauri hasn't spoken much since they woke. He was never a talkative monkey to begin with, but even he isn't usually this quiet.

Not that Sprx is complainng. He's not sure how much of that sanctimonious bullshit he can take. Hell, Antauri probably knows that. He's probably a real chatty Cathy when Sprx isn't around.

Sprx scowls.

He taps the keys with more force than necessary, yanking levers with just enough force that it's satisfying but not harmful. The Robot climbs into spaceflight with his usual grace; only a few percentiles off from perfect. Once he's used to flying again, he'll be back to normal.

(Sprx still isn't used to referring to a ship as a 'he'.)

He sets the autopilot coordinates for Koralodal, and then pops into the medbay to get the coordinates for the next rest stop.

Of course… first, he takes the chance to get a good look at their new leader.

Charlie looks so much like Chiro—enough that it's near painful. Raven hair. Round, youthful face. Upturned nose. Pointed ears. Small mouth. Blue eyes. At a glance, it's jarring.

But when Sprx takes a closer look, he sees the difference.

Her eyes are a paler shade of blue than Chiro's, and a different shape—smaller, more slanted. Her skin is tanned; unlike Chiro, who never seemed to get enough sunlight. Her hair is long, and kept in a high ponytail; only a few wisps falling into her face. She's got a bigger, more rounded nose. A sharper chin. A smattering of freckles, most prominently across her nose. Different—but seeing her out of the corner of his eye…

Sprx shakes his head.

He clears his throat.

She jerks, banging her leg against the table. She turns to him with a smile, regardless; somehow passing it off as something happy instead of a pained grimace. He's almost impressed. "Yes?" she asks.

"Got the coordinates for the next rest stop? I'd like to set the coordinates."

"Oh." She thinks for a moment, cocking her head to the side. Her eyes light when she finds the answer, and she rattles them off proudly.

Sprx gives her a short nod. "Thanks." He spins on his heel and walks out the door, letting it swish closed behind him before she can even finish her reply. He walks over to the keypad and re-inputs the coordinates.

He turns to Antauri. "I'm going to help Otto and Nova." His tone is sharper than he meant it to be.

"Wait."

Sprx pauses. He's already stepped past he silver monkey. He's hovering lower than usual; his knee level with Sprx's ear. Just above his shoulder. "Yeah?" He doesn't turn around, doesn't even look over his shoulder. Just stands there, still.

"I know you're angry with me," Antauri says. "And you have every right to be. But in time—"

"Yeah," Sprx says, curling his hands into fists. "Don't feed me that bullshit. You're family, so I'll let it go eventually. But what we did… It was shitty, and you damn well know it. It was shitty of us to dump his stuff on the sidewall and pretend like four years of our lives meant nothing. Pretend that we didn't watch him grow up, didn't change his life. And it was shitty of you to ask us to abandon family. I ain't gonna forgive you. I ain't gonna let it go—not really. But I'll put it aside. But you gotta let me be angry, first."

Antauri chews on his words and Sprx waits. He doesn't want to have this conversation now—doesn't want to have it ever, really. But it's gotta happen, one way or another, and better now than later.

"Don't let it affect the team," Antaury says, finally. "We can't—"

"I know." The words come, knife sharp. His temper is building with every word Antauri says, and he's only said a handful. "I know. I'm not petty enough to let it affect the battlefield, okay, Antauri? Learned that lesson already. But I ain't gonna listen to whatever bullshit you're gonna spew about it being 'what's best,' either. So shove it."

Sprx starts walking off again, but even Antauri has moments where he can't leave well enough alone. "It was for the best, Sprx. The universe—Shuggazoom —must come first. We have a duty—"

"I don't give a shit about some 'galactic duty.' Thought I made that clear from day one. I only stuck around, the first run through, because I had nowhere else to go. And when I did…" He shrugs. "You guys were family. That means something to me." The words are pointed, meant to jab. But he doesn't turn to check if they hit their mark. Not that he could tell if they did. He steps into his tube.

"Glad we had that talk." He punches the cargo bay key with more force than necessary.

Once the bridge is out of sight, Sprx closes his eyes and takes a breath as he flies down to the cargo bay. On a normal day, Sprx would say he gets along with Gibson the least. The monkey is like a brother to him, but boy does he rub him the wrong way.

But he had forgotten, somewhere along the way, how much Antauri irritated him when they disagreed about something. Especially when Antauri was doing it for some higher power.


Antauri watches Sprx go, and sighs as the elevator whisks him out of sight. Why are his teammates so stubborn?

Do they not understand that leaving Chiro was hard on him as well? The evil had been settled, and while there would always be more out there to fight… Chiro deserved better than that. He deserved to live. To get married and have kids, if he wanted. To grow beyond the hyper force; beyond their small, tightly-knit family.

The monkey team was holding him back from doing so.

And the Power Primate had seemed—still seemed—to agree with him. A new threat had risen and with that threat came a new hero.

Antauri regrets the pain he's caused his teammates; the pain he's sure his apprentice had to live through. But he cannot bring himself to regret the decision itself.

Chiro deserved more than this.

And truly? So does Charlene. But she has a destiny to play out, and though it pains him that the universe is, once again, resting on the shoulders of a teenager… Antauri will follow the will of the Power Primate.


"You're tense," Nova says, when they're out of earshot from Otto. Sprx isn't the best at 'feelings talk'—to be honest, neither is she—but he's even worse about it when there are others in earshot. "What's got you wound up? Is this still about the resistance thing?"

Sprx shrugs. He places another box of cookware into the kitchen pile. "A little."

"You wanna… talk about it?" Nova opens a box. A bunch of pill bottles. She puts it in the medbay pile.

Sprx grunts. He opens a box with more force than necessary. "I just… All of this is bullshit, isn't it?"

"You're going to have to be more specific," Nova says dryly, dragging another box into the kitchen pile.

"I dunno. Everything. Leaving Chiro. Waking up to a new leader—again. Getting stuck in another war." He sits on one of the boxes, and rubs at his cheek. "I mean, is this really all that's out there for us?"

Nova grimaces. She sits down too. "I don't know, Sprx. It's not— This isn't what I had in mind, when we started protecting Shuggazoom."

Sprx sighs. "It's ridiculous. I just… we just tossed four and a half years down the drain like it was nothin'. Left without even a goodbye, and now… we show up again, and… I'm glad we'll get to see him again, it's not like I wish we had shown up after he was dead… except…"

Nova waits.

"Except I kinda do. Because I don't see how this is gonna end well. He's not going to be happy with us, Nova, and frankly—we deserve it. We don't deserve his forgiveness because it was a shitty move, and—" He cuts himself off by slamming his fist on a box, rattling the contents. "I don't want to see it."

Nova pauses. She's not used to having to consider what she says before she says it, but this— It's important. "It might be good to get closure, though," she says. "Finally say goodbye. Even if he is angry at us… at least… I mean, we'll know where he ended up. Get to hear, from him, how things turned out. It could have easily been two hundred and ten years, instead of twenty-one. Who knows how much would have been lost."

Sprx sighs again. "Yeah. I know. I just— Why did we have to leave in the first place?"

"Antauri said—"

"I know what Antauri said!"

Nova jumps. Sprx isn't usually so aggressive—not towards her. There's vehemence in his tone, and it doesn't sound right there. Not at all.

He takes a breath. "I know what Antauri says." He makes an effort to soften his tone. "He said there would always be evil. That it was time to take a break. Let Chiro go, be normal. We'll wait until we're needed. I remember. But you know what else I know? It's only been twenty-one years. If we had stayed… could we have prevented things from getting this bad?"

"I think…" Nova pauses. "I think… that the Power Primate had already chosen someone else to fight this one. If we had stuck around… we might have been able to fight it off… keep things down, but…" She wets her lips. "Charlie was picked to defeat this one, and with Chiro still acting as leader… we might not have met her. She might— Who knows where she might have ended up? And then where would we be?"

"If destiny is real, though, she would have found a way there, right?"

Sprx. Always has to be contrary.

"Unless destiny is just something you forge yourself."

"Then being the 'Chosen One' is a crock of shit."

Nova shrugs. "I'm not a spiritual person, Sprx. The closest I get is centering my mind before a fight. You wanna talk about fate, destiny? You've gotta go to Antauri."

Sprx huffs. "Yeah. Not gonna happen."

"It's not Antauri's fault—"

Sprx shoots her a wide-eyed look. "Really? If he hadn't been the one to give the order—which, by the way, was Chiro's place—then we would be in a very different place right now!"

"He was just—"

Sprx shakes his head. "Don't. Please. I—" He sighs, again, shoulders hunching in on themselves. "I'll get over it. Put it aside. But not yet."

Nova lets the words go, and wraps an arm around him instead. She presses her muzzle against his cheek, and her forehead against his temple, and they just sit there. Quiet.

This is better than words.


Was that a Spova moment at the end? Why, I do believe it was! We should have more, shouldn't we? (And maybe I should write some standalone Spova. That would be fun. Any prompts, guys?)

Also, tbh, I really, really like my Sprx voice in this. I'm still getting back in the hang of everyone's individual voices, but I think I've got Sprx's pretty good. :D What do you guys think?

Thanks for reading!