A/N ATTENTION ALL READERS! I HAVE DRAMATICALLY CHANGED THIS CHAPTER IN SEVERAL WAYS, MOSTLY THE ENDING AND THE JINMAY SCENE!

(Pikurosonai00, don't worry, I didn't take out the pat you liked!)

Thanks JenMay, AnimeAdict202, Cori Crow, pikurosonai00, xoslammy, and jasper Dragonfly for reviewing! Your awesomeness prevails!

Criticism appreciated!

I wasn't exactly sure which driection I wanted to take this chapter in, so I'm sorry if it isn't all great. Also, I think Nova's a little OOC. Still, I hope you enjoy! As I said, the pace starts picking up around here!

SRMTHFG! does not belong to me.

Chapter Three

The walk back to the Super Robot was unnaturally quiet. At least, it was for all of two minutes.

"Otto! What are you doing?" Gibson cried, shying away from the green monkey as he reached for his tail. The robot shrugged his shoulders like it should be obvious.

"I'm trying to figure out how to install another hand on your tail."

"Why would we even need that? We can already pick up objects with our tails! And our hands! And our feet!"

Sparx rolled his eyes at the two before smiling evilly. "My, Gibson, what an enormous insect on your foot." The blue robotic monkey screeched, jumping from foot-to-foot as he searched for the imaginary insect.

"What? Ooh, I despise bugs! Get it, get it, get it!"

"Sparx!" Nova sent a death-glare to Sparx. "Gibson, there is nothing on your foot. Sparx, that wasn't funny."

"The kid thinks it is!" Sparx cried, turning to Chiro, who was trailing behind the group of simians, lost in thought as he stared at the grimy sidewalk. "Don't cha, Chiro?"

"Hm?" The raven-haired boy's head jerked up, his electric blue eyes blinking in confusion. "Oh, yeah, totally. Uh, whatever you say." The truth was, he hadn't been paying the Hyper Force any mind since they left the little girl's house. Something in his mind wouldn't let the matter go, and he kept turning the events over in his mind, trying to figure out what was bugging him.

"Oof!"

Beginning to lose himself in his thoughts once more, Chiro didn't notice as a man, clad in a grey trench coat with the collar turned up, rammed into his side. "Hey, sorry," Chiro said, turning to apologize, but the man was already briskly trotting off down the sidewalk, not even throwing a glance back at the teenager.

"That was rude," Nova said, shooting the man's retreating figure a glare. Chiro winced, pressing a gloved hand to his side.

"He must have been holding something sharp. It feels like something just stabbed me."

"You haven't exited hypermode," Antauri noted, watching him as he ran his hand over his ribcage. Chiro looked up at him, grinning sheepishly.

"Okay, so maybe that girl's message has me a little more jumpy than I'd like to admit," he shrugged. "I keep expecting someone to jump out at me from the shadows."

The Super Robot was coming into view, a huge figure looming over the smaller citizens of Shuggazoom. As they neared, Chiro tried to tell himself to cool down, reassuring himself nothing was going to happen. Even if something did happen, it was nothing the team couldn't handle, right?

Right?

A panel in the robot's foot slid open, and the Hyper Force stepped inside, mumbling sighs of relief, glad to be back. As the rest of the team took to their brilliantly colored chutes that led up to HQ, Chiro paused uncertainly, taking a deep breath. He waited a moment before zooming up after everyone.

When he caught up with the simians, everyone had already begun to separate and do their own things. Sidestepping Sparx, who was in the middle of a video game with Gibson, Antauri strode over to Chiro.

"The scanners indicate no enemy forces near or in Shuggazoom. It seems we may have the rest of the day off to do as we please," Antauri reported. Chiro nodded.

"Awesome."

Seeing Jinmay was nowhere in sight, Chiro walked over to where Gibson and Sparx were attempting to best one another at video games, Nova watching a few feet from Chiro, and with Otto busy building who-knows-what. After his third loss in a row, Sparx threw down his controller and crossed his arms as his friends watched, amused.

"This game is rigged," he declared, glaring darts at Gibson. Nova stomped on the monkey's foot, causing him to cry out and hop up and down in pain.

"Stop being such a sore loser, Sparky," she said.

"What did I say about calling me that?"

As he watched the two quarrel, Chiro was suddenly overcome with a enormous sense of combined dizziness and nausea. He doubled over, hands on his knees, gasping as his vision doubled for a moment. Then the sensation passed, and Chiro straightened back up.

"What the…?" he whispered. He hoped no one had seen that; he didn't want the team thinking he was sick or something. Then, noticing Gibson was watching him, Chiro quickly said, "Just admiring the beautiful floors." Oh, great. Now the monkey really looked suspicious.

Before the monkey could approach him, however, the sirens began blaring, and the monitors came to life with an image of a huge dark blue and purple machine thundering towards them, lasers at the ready. Everyone looked at their leader, even Jinmay, who appeared from a side room, waiting for him to give the all-too-familiar order.

"Monkeys, mobilize!" he cried, and everyone took off for their specifically colored chute that led to their battle station.

"Jinmay, you're with me," Nova said, pulling the girl with her to her yellow chute.

Chiro ran to his own orange one and, pressing his feet together and his arms to his sides, felt himself be whisked away with a whoosh. A minute later, he thumped into his seat, grasping the controls as his safety harness tightened around his chest. "Torso tank driver one, go!" he yelled as it came his turn to shout out his status. "Super."

"Robot."

"Monkey."

"Team."

"Hyper."

"Force."

"GO!" everyone cried in unison as the Super Robot's weapon systems came online.

"Alright, team, just hang back until we know what we're dealing with," Chiro ordered as the machine stomped into view. For a moment the two machines simply stared at one another, the Super Robot's eyes boring into the enemy's own. And then the enemy raised its arm-cannons and fired.

The Super Robot jumped out of the way as the rockets soared past, exploding in mid-air. "You asked for it," Sparx growled as the two fist cannons raised, multiple rockets shooting out of each. They slammed into the robot's side, causing it to stumble, but it again raised its rockets and sent them flying. This time, however, they slammed into the midsection of the Super Robot.

"Arg!" Chiro cried, gritting his teeth and wincing as the impact shook his station. "Nova!" he yelled.

"I'm on him!"

The Super Robot lurched forward, jumping in the air before its left foot slammed into the robot's head. The robot staggered before straightning up and slamming its fist into the torso tank, leaving a huge dent in the metal.

"Hey, we just un-dented the Robot yesterday!" Sparx cried out in indignation. In retribution, he fired the fist rockets at the opposing robot, catching it in the face. While it was still dazed, Chiro started the Lazertron Fury attack, causing the enemy to slam against the side of a building from the impact.

The robot was just firing up a laser to shoot at the monkey team when it seized up. Its arms went to its side, the red lights in its eyes dimmed, and it fell backwards, hitting the gound with so much force it created a crater in the pavement, cracking up the ground.

"Uh, what just happened?" Otto asked. After a moment, Chiro and Antauri came to a conclusion at the same time.

"It was a distraction!" Chiro yelled, electric blue eyes widening. "And if the robot just gave up..."

"Whatever it was distracting us from has happened," Antauri finished.