Hello all of you people! It's been a while since I updated, so I hope that you enjoy this next chapter. You know, I've always thought that Chiro would look a lot better with a monkey tail and ears. So…. I put that in for the heck of it. XD You gotta love someone with a fluffy tail and ears!

Chapter 7

I tensed as I saw him stare at me intensely. I was fired up and ready to go. I hadn't felt this way since the day I defeated the Skeleton King. I could feel all the adrenaline in my body, the Power ebbing off my very essence. Despite Balthazar's warning to the team, they still had out their weapons, ready to attack at any given moment. I now understood why Balthazar was so respected in the Underworld. He was strong and had a hardened charisma that felt like that of a king in all his glory. He was itching for a fight, I could see him slant his back and move like that of a predator.

'An evil reptile predator wanting to kill a monkey boy…'

If I wasn't strong enough I knew I'd be dead meat. My tail was twitching, giving me a pretty good balance. My ears perked up at any noise that resulted from Balthazar or anyone else. Out of nowhere, I noticed that I now had really good hearing, better then ever. I stood watching every movement that Balthazar made. He was going to pounce soon…I could feel his muscles tense. Suddenly he sprang forward, his claws going straight for my head. I instantly jumped up, but I realized that I jumped too high.

"Crud!"

I was losing my balance. I had to move sideways in midair to barely avoid another one of Balthazar's attacks. As I fell to the ground I quickly regained my balance and ran straight for him.

"Thunder punch!"

He winced as I hit him on the side, making some of his expensive fabric rip apart. I gave myself a contented smirk. He was lucky that he dashed back a bit before the impact. The strange new power was starting to go haywire now that I was actually fighting. 'What the---!?' was all I could think before my hand and the Thunder punch had kept going forward after the hit.

CRUNCH!

A huge hole was left in the street. 'What the heck is going on?' I looked quizzically at my hand. Balthazar took notice of my brief distraction and grabbed me by the tail and swung me over the side making me hit the front window shield of a nearby hover car. The blood started to gush from my head wound. I could feel the shards of glass seeping into my body, cutting the flesh. I watched around me noticing that while I was going against Balthazar, his gang had attack the monkey team. They were jumping and springing on any one who would care to fight them. I knew that if I didn't beat Balthazar soon, they would either be too tired and be attacked or they would go all out on Balthazar. Balthazar was strong, I had the feeling that he would hurt and rip apart my team as if they were toys. Slowly I got off the car and wiped away some of the blood above my eyes while watching Balthazar mock me with his smile. I instantly grew frustrated, 'Why is he mocking me?!'

I quickly ran back towards him. 'He'll get what's coming to him!' A split second before I could kick him, I felt all my powers run loose. The kick went out of control and hit a building making another hole.

I was shocked, but it soon passed as I was filled with a new feeling. Fear. The energy that was pounding its way out of me left me feeling like I was being ripped apart. I couldn't concentrate on anything, just the pain, and then I screamed.

The monkeys

Antauri slashed at another gang member and was about to assist Otto when a piercing scream was heard. He looked around, everyone had stopped fighting.

'Where is Chiro?'

He ran out of the group and instantly saw him, hunched back grabbing his head, screaming to the high heavens. He could feel the pain that Chiro was feeling, but that was nothing compared to the feeling of the huge over flow of energy that was bubbling up inside and then releasing sending Chiro into a wave of shocks.

"Chiro!!"

Antauri ran over a fast as he could towards him. The rest of the team had quickly followed in pursuit, each one frightened at what was happening to Chiro. Gibson quickly scanned Chiro without a moment's hesitation before yelling back to the others.

"He has too much energy stored up! His body won't be able to take the impact any longer!"

Nova instinctively tried to run over to Chiro, but Sprx quickly grabbed her hand and prevented her from going any closer.

"Nova, don't go! You're going to get hurt!"

"But Sprx, he's in so much pain! We have to do something! If no one's going to do anything, I will!" Her voice was filled with determination. They had barely found him after having scared their mental processors out trying to find him, to make sure he was alright. And now it felt as if they were losing him again.

Antauri quickly tried to contact Chiro with his mind. 'Hopefully this will help ease Chiro!'

As he tried to communicate, what he got in response was a scrambled mind, desperately trying to move its body, desperately trying to get away from the pain. Its thoughts were so out of order that Antauri's voice could not calm it or even make it aware of his presence.

Getting out of his trance with communicating, he called to Gibson.

"Gibson, how are we going to help Chiro?!"

"I don't know! The most logical thing right now would be for him to drain out all of the extra energy! We can't help him, if we go any closer we could short-circuit!"

Otto was tensely staring at the others and then back at Chiro. They couldn't do anything to help him.

'What'll we do? Chiro needs help!'

Without them noticing Balthazar had gotten behind them.

"I believe I can help your beloved Chiro, but at a price."

They all stared at him. Was he insane? How he not help unless they gave something in return? Could he not see that he was in pain, possibly dieing?! Nova quickly stole another glance at Chiro who was now withering on the ground screaming with all his voice could muster. They didn't have time. Antauri seemed to notice this too and took up Balthazar's offer.

"We will pay any price! Now help him before it's too late!"

Balthazar called for one of his followers. This woman was small, but the team could tell from her looks the importance she had in the group. Her magenta dress and red veil made her eyes look enormous but made her presence small. She looked old and worn, but her eyes showed a vast amount of knowledge and understanding. She took one look at Chiro and started to sing an incantation. As she sang she danced, making the small blue beads on her dress jingle. She took one of the beads and threw it at Chiro. The bead stuck to Chiro's neck and started to fizzle. The fizzling started to turn into markings, some type of pattern. The more the pattern spread on his throat, the less Chiro screamed and the more he started to drift away into sleep. When he finally didn't move and his eyes closed shut, the woman looked back at Balthazar and spoke.

"The spell has worked. The boy seems to have an enormous amount of strong energy, unfortunately the energy is too strong for him and if he uses it, it would cause a great amount of damage to himself and to things around him. The new seal around his throat will prevent him from using it until he can actually wield the power without difficulty."

Balthazar sent her his thanks and turned back to the monkey team. The team had run back to Chiro and looked him over from head to toe. As soon as they found his health satisfactory to their scans the team decided to pick him up and bring him back to the super robot so that he could rest. As they were about to raise him Balthazar spoke up.

"You guys won't need to do that. There is the matter of my price first."

Antauri went forward.

"What is your price? We shall humbly give it to you for saving Chiro."

"My price is Chiro himself."

Cliff hanger!

Woot! Took a while to upload this didn't it? Now the actual plot might start to seep in after this! Yay plotline! XD

I also think I stink at fight scenes. :,( So I hope that didn't ruin this chapter.