Chapter 20: I'm a Member of the Super Robot…Team?
Azalea was still dumbfounded at all of this. The minute that she wakes up in her bed after that intense duel that she and Chiro had, they thought that it was about time that they made her a part of the team. Antauri and the others explained this to her while she and their leader were recovering and even showed her, her uniform that she was going to wear from now on. She could tell that Ivan was a bit jealous of her, but nevertheless supported her all the way.
What didn't get through her head was why they made this big announcement to all of Shuggazoom city two weeks after the two of them recovered. Azalea had her new uniform on and was standing atop of the Super Robot. Her uniform looked exactly like Jinmay's, except that she had violet gloves and a scarf on. On the lower right corner of her white uniform was a purple star instead of a heart that Jinmay has. Azalea still kept her necklace that Gibson and Otto made for her underneath her uniform. The citizens of Shuggazoom were gathered around the Super Robot and Chiro announced to them,
"Citizens of Shuggazoom, I would like to introduce you to your new protector, Azalea!" The people's claps and cheers echoed throughout the vicinity, causing Azalea to blush, which they didn't see her do too often. He turned towards her. "You know," he said sheepishly. "You make that outfit look pretty good." She stood up straight and tall towards the crowd, with her hands on her hips and said,
"Damn straight it does! I'm styling now!"
And it was true. Even after the nomination Azalea couldn't stop looking at herself in the mirror in the Super Robot. She kept on smiling and doing some poses like she was some kind of model. Chiro came up to her and couldn't believe that she was still at that.
"You sure like that uniform now don't you?"
"Well yeah, I've never seen an outfit that looked this cute on me before, but I still can't believe that you actually made me a member of your team." She leered at him. "Where did this come from all of a sudden?"
"After the duel that we had, I thought that you were a really formidable fighter Azalea. I've never fought someone before that was so strong and had such conviction before. I thought you would make a good member to the team."
"Oh I see how it is here, so in another words you're saying that you respect me as a female fighter?"
"Yeah," he replied bluntly. She put her left fist across her chest.
"It is an honor being a part of your team Chiro. But don't think that this is over yet! You're still my rival as far as I'm concerned! I'm not going to stop until I beat you in a duel someday and until that happens, I will not leave this planet. In the meantime I'm going to train under you and the monkey team." He smiled.
"I'm looking forward to that day Azalea."
Later on that day Antauri and the monkeys told her that now she's a part of their team, she would have to work on memorizing their battle cry. She knew that this wasn't going to turn out good because she could never remember their full team name, let alone memorizing their entire battle phrase and each word to their theme song. The monkeys tried helping her out with that problem, but no matter how much she tried Azalea just couldn't get it.
After a while of doing that she got up from her seat and walked away from them, feeling incredibly frustrated.
"Just who in the hell came up with such a long stinking name for a team?! It's impossible to remember!"
"But your so close to getting it right," said Sparx. "You just need a little more work on it." Ivan and the other monkeys agreed with him and said that if she practiced a bit more then she'll have it down. Azalea ignored them as she walked away and out of frustration made some more coffee and began drinking a few cups of it, while sitting in one of the pod chairs. Not that she needed the caffeine anyway. She just drank it because she liked the taste.
"Damn," she muttered. "They need to shorten their team name or something." Azalea took another swig of her cup of coffee, until there was nothing left in it, but a bunch of sugar puddled at the bottom. She got up and washed the coffee pot and cup, while putting it away before she decided to go into her room and relax for the day.
On the way to her room, she heard from behind the Healing Chamber's door that Antauri and Chiro were talking about some kind of important matter. The door was cracked open a bit, allowing Azalea to hear their conversation better. She thought that this was the perfect time to eavesdrop to see what they were talking about. She had a terrible habit of doing that. She carefully listened to their conversation.
"Chiro, you do know that now Azalea's a part of the Hyper Force Team that we need to be careful about her."
"But why do we have to keep these secrets from her?" Chiro asked. "She is our friend after all."
"Yes, but that Sword of Destruction she still carries around gives off a sinister aura. We don't know what it is yet or what it's capable of, so we need to be on our guard at all times. Gibson said that it has a mind of its own and won't allow anyone, but Azalea to wield it."
"I wonder why," Chiro lowered his voice. "But she's going to find out sooner or later Antauri. She's going to eventually figure out the truth, but if you want to keep it from her that badly, then we shouldn't allow her to go into the Savage Lands."
Azalea stopped listening to them and was caught up in her own thoughts. She tip-toed away from the door before anyone could notice. She thought about the Savage Lands. She was in them when she first came to Shuggazoom, but never knew that they held some kind of secret in there. A while ago she did remember the monkeys talking about the Alchemists Laboratory that was located in there. From what it sounded like, it was only ruins now, but if there is something there that they don't want her to know then it must be important for her to know, or else why would they keep it a secret? Azalea made the decision to figure out the truth herself and to get answers to the questions that she's had unanswered for so long now. The Alchemists Laboratory would be the perfect place for her to start. Maybe she could also get some information on the Sword of Destruction as well. She made plans that night to go there by herself.
It was early in the morning when Azalea forced herself to get out of bed, put her team uniform on and get ready for her journey. It was so early that not even the sun was awake yet and it was still fairly dark outside. She wasn't too sure how long she would be gone for, but Chiro and the team know that she can handle her own just fine. Azalea equipped her Sword of Destruction on her right side, got something small for breakfast and quietly made her way to the entrance/exit of the Super Robot, being as quiet as possible so that she won't wake up the others.
Just as she was thinking about that, Ivan was right there in front of her with his pajamas on. Azalea completely forgot that he slept on the pod chairs since there was no other place for him to sleep. And she didn't want to share a bed with him since it was too small for two people. He was half asleep, but knew something was up with her and didn't want his sister to do anything that she shouldn't be doing, just being made a qualified member of the team and everything.
"Azalea, where are you going?" he whispered. "It's not like you to get up this early. Are you leaving us?" She took a glance at her surroundings, making sure that nobody else was stirring awake. She also lowered her voice.
"Don't worry Ivan, I'm not going to do anything bazaar, I just need to get out for a little bit is all. There's somewhere I need to go." She kindly smiled at her half asleep brother. "Please don't worry, I'll be back. Now let's get you back to bed." He hesitated for a moment, and her reassuring words made him feel better.
"Alright, but you better come back." Azalea then walked Ivan back to the pod chair he was sleeping in, put the blanket over him and he was already almost sleep, by the time he lightly kissed him on the cheek. After that she opened the door to the Super Robot, walked out and closed it once she was outside. Once she was done she made her way to the Savage Lands on foot.
It was around nine o' clock when everybody was awake. The sun was now up all the way in the sky and Gibson made his coffee for the morning. He made extra, like he usually did since Azalea always drank quite a few cups of coffee. Especially if she's had a rough night. They all waited for her to wake up so that they can do their morning routine of patrolling Shuggazoom, but no matter how long they waited her bedroom door continued to remain closed. Ivan didn't say anything, because even though he knew that Azalea was gone, he wanted to buy her as much time as possible to get to her destination and back, but she never came.
When ten o' clock struck Chiro and the team had a feeling that something was wrong. Sure, Azalea might sleep in till nine or nine thirty, but never did she get up past ten before. Chiro and the monkey team thought it was about time to investigate. They walked up to her bedroom door and Chiro lightly knocked on the door, saying that they had to patrol Shuggazoom city now. Heck, they even tried to get her up by telling her that coffee was ready, but little did they know that they weren't speaking to anybody beyond the door, until they opened it.
They were all stunned to see that Azalea wasn't there in her room. Her bed was unmade and her pajamas on the floor. They also saw that her Sword of Destruction was nowhere in sight, so she must've taken that with her. None of them could understand why she left nor did they have any idea of where she would've gone to.
"Maybe she got up early so that she could patrol Shuggazoom city by herself," Otto suggested.
"That's highly unlikely," Gibson replied. "She's never ran off like this from us before."
"We could check the entire city first before making any assumptions that she's missing," said Antauri. "If we still can't find her then there's something wrong." Chiro agreed with him and said,
"Monkey team, move out!"
All of the team and Chiro checked the city from both above and below ground. They went through every place that she thought she would be at such as the arcade, the fast food places and even on the rooftops, but Azalea wasn't anywhere in sight.
Once they all tipped the city upside-down looking for her, which took a good two hours, they all came to the conclusion that she must've ran off somewhere outside of the city, but they couldn't figure out where she wouldn't gone to. The team met back inside of the Super Robot once they were finished with their search and inquired Ivan if he knew anything that could help them. He knew that he couldn't keep this a secret any longer, because if he did then that would only make matters worse.
"Yeah, I know," he said. "I tried stopping her this morning from going anywhere, but she wouldn't listen to me."
"Why, what happened this morning?" Chiro asked.
"Before the sun was up she got dressed in her team uniform and took her sword with her. I heard her getting some breakfast while I was sleeping and I tried asking her what she was doing. All that she said was, 'there's somewhere important I need to go.' She also said that she'll be back once she's finished." The team felt a little comforted by Ivan's words, about saying how she'll come back, but they were still suspicious as to why she was gone so suddenly without telling any of them anything. They all relaxed a little.
"Well we all know how strong Azalea is," said Sparx. "If she really said that she's going to come back then I think we should just wait for her and then question her afterwards."
"But what if she doesn't come?" Nova asked. The red monkey didn't know the answer to that so Gibson chimed in.
"Then we'll track her down using her necklace that we gave to her. It can also be used as a tracking device for her, so we'll easily be able to find her if she doesn't come by evening today." They all agreed with him, so they thought that they would take it easy in the meantime, but they did wonder what business Azalea had outside of the city.
