Disclaimer: Look! My finger!
A/N: Everyone thank Fuyuki Bamboo Fox for making me get my butt in gear and writing this! XD
Fuyuki Bamboo Fox: omfgwowbbqit'syou! Woot thanks! I shall fit Ark in… somehow…. somewhere XD but no, I won't be able to get you in too, sorry. But I shall put Ark to good non-evil use!
Racbgar: Wowyourpenname'ssocool! And lo, I have continued!
Tiger Priestess: So many questions . But they shall hopefully get answered now! And your OCs oughta be in this chapter too!
Mewtwo: Maybe he will, but you shall have to read and find out!
Twister91: I already have enough of your OCs woman! . So nope it's not your Midnight, tis Fairy Whisperings instead!
Fairy Whisperings: Hmmm stroking behind the ear eh? Thanks! (Grins evilly)
The monkeys and humans all stared at the projection dumbly. Midnight smirked back evilly; however, he soon grew bored of this and his face began to ache, although he wouldn't admit this, so he scowled instead.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Attack the Stripe Team!" he demanded, feeling annoyed that these insignificant cretins were still just gawking at him. He felt this annoyance increase when the black and white one snorted at his command,
"Go ahead, won't bother me if you get rid of 'em!" he said, as Midnight could tell he was male from his voice, "In fact, you'll be doing me a favour!"
Midnight looked mildly surprised, which meant astonished but his face wasn't used to performing any expressions other than arrogant smirking and anger, and he glared,
"You mean, you don't care if I do, say this" and at this point he made an ice dagger and slashed at Ichigo. He grinned at her wail of fear and pain as the deep gash let her blood flow down her face. He turned back to the screen and frowned when he saw Onyx looking unmoved at all,
"Nope" said Onyx, simply, "Go ahead, do something worse. I won't care; she annoys the heck oughta me!"
Midnight looked at Onyx carefully, and then his gaze went to the other team members; all of whom had various looks of disinterest, and he adopted a similiar look of indifference.
"Well if they really mean that little to you" and he suddenly shot out an ice beam, encasing Ichigo inside it and he smirked at the screen again. He seemed pleased to see more faces looking scared for their friends now, although the black and white one remained unbothered still.
Onyx kept his face still, even as he watched Midnight freeze Ichigo, and tried to play this game right. It was simple psychology, make the captor think what they have is useless and they'll probably let it go. Probably. It was a big gamble, made even bigger when he saw that now both Ichigo and Otto were in vulnerable states.
'Keep it up, just stay cold. He'll give up on them soon' he thought to himself as he watched Mdnight look annoyed at the lack of reaction Onyx made, but Midnight seemed to know something else behind that annoyed visage and it disturbed Onyx greatly.
"Release them!" cried Chiro, attempting to take charge before any more blood was shed. He glared at the projected face, "what is it you actually want?"
Midnight seemed pleased at Chiro's reaction and sighed mock-exhaustedly,
"Dear boy, I've already told you what it is I want! Now you must fulfill that if you are ever want your teammates back!" he grinned sickly and watched the young boy pale.
Onyx sighed at Chiro's brash reaction and looked at the monkey in front of him, who was Citrine.
Quick as lightning his hand went out and Citrine fell down lifeless. Everyone stared at Onyx in disbelief.
"Onyx, how could you?" cried Emerald, rushing towards him. Suddenly she too fell down, not moving. This seemed to have an instant effect on everyone around the bodies; the remaining Stripe Team members huddled together, glaring, whilst the others stared wide eyed at their member. Midnight laughed and applauded,
"It seems you do have some sense after all! Now, finish the rest and I'll return your precious friends"
Onyx narrowed his eyes at the projection,
"Shut up" he said simply, and quick as a flash the remaining members of the Stripe team fell. Midnight crowed victoriously at the sight of his arch enemies lifeless on the floor,
"Excellent work! I must admit I was sure you would be too soft-hearted to go through with it but..." and at this point, a sick grin grew on the monkey's face, "I guess these two must be quite important to you. So I think I'll be holding onto them for now, in case I need your services again!" and with that the projection suddenly blinked out and fizzled away.
"No!" cried Chiro, reaching out towards the sky where the projection had been before letting his hand fall numbly to his side. He stood staring at the sky, along with many of the others, until a sudden thump seemed to catch their attention.
Everyone turned to see Jet, Onyx's younger sister, standing over her brother and glaring with such an intense hatred they didn't think was possible as Onyx lied on the floor, holding his cheek where he'd been punched.
"How could you?" she screaming shrilly, her voice cracking with emotion, "you knew it. You knew he wouldn't release them! Yet you went ahead and killed our friends anyway!" she went to punch Onyx again but he grabbed her hand and held her tight so she wouldn't struggle.
"I needed to do it" he said simply, and these few words seemed to silence his sister, whose face stayed shocked. He let her go and turned to the team,
"Anyone else got any questions?" he asked, his voice gaining its annoyed-at-everything edge again.
"Why..." whispered Nova, crouched next to the body of Citrine, "why..." she looked up with tears in her eyes and such a soft expression on her face that everyone seemed surprised. Onyx surprised, or shocked, everyone by allowing a rare smile to play on his lips.
"To buy time for some friends" he answered.
Midnight grinned at himself as he looked at his two new statues,
'I've outdone myself this time' he thought, feeling proud with himself and his cunning plan. Suddenly a sense that he wasn't alone anymore made him stop the victory party in his head and he turned around scowling. He blinked in surprise at the appearance of four individuals, all looking very different, in his hall. He scowled at them, though he was more angry with himself for letting his guard down so much over something so trivial than the intruders, and the atmosphere became colder.
"Who are you?" he demanded, making ice creep towards the group threateningly. The group seemed unfazed and this annoyed Midnight further. Suddenly one from the group stepped forward, a human male with blonde hair and calm blue eyes, and looked at him intently.
"Release them" he said calmly and Midnight stared at him. The human's expression hardened "now"
Midnight snorted and raised an eyebrow,
"You're in no position to be making threats at me, human" he gloated and waved an arm. Soon, the ice sculptures encasing Otto and Ichigo were encased further in a shell of thick freezing ice from which spikes shot out viciously sharp and glinting. He smirked at the cage he'd created and turned back to the group. The rest of the group had moved forward now as well and he took them in; a female robot monkey with white fur, green eyes and a green symbol on her chest stood in a defensive position next to another robot monkey, male this time, who had silver fur, red eyes and a red symbol on his chest, and between them a white bengal tiger with blue stripes crouched, growling softly.
'Hardly threatening' he snorted at them and casually waved a hand, causing a wave of ice to rush towards the group. He turned to leave when the sound of ice cracking, sounding much like glass breaking, echoed towards him and he spun around to see that his ice-wave had been shattered. He looked widly for the cause and saw the human with his hand outstretched, revealing a hole in his hand. Midnight narrowed his eyes angrily,
"I see I underestimated your abilities. However, you weaklings are still far below my level of power" he crowed. The human slowly unwrapped the bandage covering his other hand,
"You shouldn't be so sure" he replied calmly, letting the bandage fall to the floor. Midnight scowled at the bandage cluttering his pristine ice palace and looked up to complain just as a laser sword sliced through the air at him. He dodged it quickly and jumped back, gaining more distance between himself and the group. He blinked to see that they had disappeared from the spot they'd been at,
"Where-" he never got to finish that sentence as an elbow connected with the side of his face, sending him crashing into the floor.
He pulled himself out of the impact crater slowly, and spat some blood out. He snarled slightly and his eyes glowed with anger and hate towards the group, all now spaced out tactically throughout the cavernous hall. They all stared determinedly at the black monkey and Midnight growled.
Suddenly the door to his palace exploded and clung on barely by its hinges; Midnight tore around, glaring fiercely at the gaping doorway. Inside it the Super Monkey Team stood, along with the others, and Midnight felt his anger reaching bursting point.
"How dare you burst in like this!" he screamed, and he froze at the tinkling sound as ice clattered down the cage he'd made to encase his trophy prizes, Otto and Ichigo, leaving a large yawning hole in its side. He felt his body burn with anger and he blasted blindly at the two groups on either side of him, making them scatter.
Then the monkeys, humans and one tiger all launching themselves with various types of attacks at the furious ice-wielding tyrant. The chaos was soon over though, as Midnight was overwhelmed by the sheer force of the teams' combined attacks and he fell down, defeated.
Onyx grinned smugly and rushed over to where Ichigo and Otto lay frozen still. He looked lingeringly at Ichigo and closed his eyes.
"Onyx..." started a voice behind him and he spun around, looking surprised. He looked even more surprised when he saw it was Antauri, and he was smiling at him! Antauri closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them, they seemed to shine with what looked like hope.
'But... hope for what?' wondered Onyx as Antauri placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You love Ichigo, don't you?" he said, more of a clarification than a real question. Onyx felt a blush start up on his face and Antauri leaned back, smiling,
"I thought so" he murmurred slightly, looking into the middle distance for a while. He stayed like that for quite some tiem and Onyx started to shift uncomfortably. "Onyx... I think I now understand why you said what you did before to Ichigo and I want you to know... that that was the single most stupid thing you've ever done!"
Onyx blinked in shock at this reply then he raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.
"And why's that?" he asked hotly, scowling slightly at the smiling black monkey.
"Because you've faced much bigger things than your father in order to save someone you care about and, quite honestly, if you love Ichigo is it really worth putting her through all this pain?"
Onyx looked shocked and then he looked down,
'No... It isn't right. But... what else can I do to protect her?' he mused
'Love her' came a voice, and Onyx looked up sharply at Antauri. Antauri smiled back,
"I know I've never been a real leader to you Onyx, and I've always given you a hard time, but the truth is... I know you can take better care of Ichigo than I can and... it makes me slightly... jealous, I guess, to think that I'm not as strong as everyone thinks I am. So Onyx, I'll offer you a proposition: take care of Ichigo, love her and protect her and I won't ever give you a hard time on decisions again." He smiled at Onyx and held out his hand, to seal the deal, "Deal?"
Onyx looked at Antauri's hand; feeling tempted, and reached out shakily, but stopped himself and shook his head slowly.
"No..." he said quietly, making Antauri look surprised for a change. "I'll love and protect Ichigo cos I love her" Antauri smiled at this reply and nodded, satisfied.
"Ok then" he replied and, for once, the two monkeys smiled at each other and saw each other as friends.
A roaring sound of jet engines broke the peace however, and everyone jumped up to see Midnight, in a spaceship, taking off and smirking at them.
"You sentimental fools! Did you really think you could defeat me?" he roared, steering the spaceship to face the team underneath. On either side of Midnight, lights glowed dimly and seemed to build energy which pulsed slowly out from its sides. Gibson paled,
"Those are neutron plasma lasers! He'll destroy us all!" he cried and the team all gathered together, looking to their leaders for a plan. Chiro stared at the lasers, looking desperate, as did Antauri, whilst Onyx stared determinedly at them.
"Please say you've thought of a plan for this!" cried Jet, staring fearfully at the lasers which were pulsing more frequently as energy built up further inside them. Onyx looked at her and Jet's heart sank. "No..." she whispered and the team all braced themselves for the end.
"Goodbye you pests!" roared Midnight and a high-pitched whine filled the air, louder than even the jet engines. The team huddled, closing their eyes, and waiting.
Then a blast ripped through the air, but instead of feeling their atoms being shredded, the team felt the ground beneath them shake and crack. They looked up to see Midnight's spaceship crashed on the ground in front of them in burning ruins, and above them the Stripe team's jets hovered overhead.
Citrine leant out of his and grinned at their gobsmacked faces,
"Need a lift?" he joked and the team all rushed forwards to their friends, carrying Ichigo and Otto with them.
And, as they lifted off, they watched the ice palace crash in on itself from all the damage it received in the battle and taking Midnight with it to an icy tomb.
Woo hoo! Another chapter is finished! But oh no this isn't the end! I have another chapter to go! The final, mushy romantic ending to Onyx and Ichigo's story! As well as maybe revealing why the Stripe team is still alive! Review peoples! Cos reviews make kitty happy: D