Next chapter up, writing these is actually pretty easy and gets done quickly because I already have most of the aspects in my head already. A couple of twists come to me every once in a while, a couple of them came to me in this chapter alone. Let's see if you can spot them. As a disclaimer which I think I forgot to add earlier, Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go does not belong to me. If it did, Jinmay would've been a more important character and been in WAY more episodes, they could've done so much with her and they missed the boat on those opportunities so many times. Anyway, next chapter.
_

"Why...why does this keep happening?" Chiro was pacing back and forth outside Gibson's workshop, as his blue and green monkeys along with Johnny Sunspot did their best to repair Jinmay's broken body. He wasn't expecting Johnny to come with them, but apparently Gibson had insisted that Johnny use his mechanical expertise to help things along. It was just as well, he supposed. He just hoped that the monkeys would be able to get along with the sometimes obnoxious young member of the Sun Riders. After all, Jinmay's life was hanging in the balance. "Jinmay...this shouldn't be happening...it's almost as if Skeleton King's trying to take her out just to mess with me!" Chiro wondered why the thought had never occurred to him before. Looking back, it seemed that every time Jinmay was in danger somehow, his decision making skills took a major hit...one thing was for sure, he had a big decision to make.

"Chiro?" Chiro turned to see Nova looking up at him worriedly, "Are you ok?"

Chiro made an attempt to smile reassuringly at the yellow simian, but he found that he couldn't summon more than a neutral expression, which definitely wouldn't get by Nova. It was truth time. "No Nova...I'm not ok...because Jinmay's not ok." Chiro looked up at nothing, "I'm starting to regret letting her join the Hyperforce...it's only made her an even bigger target than ever."

Nova placed a metallic hand on Chiro's shoulder, and her leader looked back at her with sorrowful eyes, "I understand how you feel Chiro."

Chiro looked away again and slumped considerably, "How? How could you know?"

"That terrible feeling you get when the one you love is in trouble, when you think it's possible you may lose them forever?" Chiro looked at her with a shocked expression, "Don't act so surprised, I've had to deal with this sort of thing more than you may think."

"You mean...when Sprx was possessed by the Fire of Hate...all that stuff you said was real?"

Nova flinched, she didn't really come to talk about her own love life, or the lack thereof. But maybe Chiro needed the talk from someone who understood what he was going through. "You can't tell anyone Chiro, not even Antauri."

Chiro finally found it in him to smirk, "Knowing Antauri, he already knows everything."

Nova found herself grinning sheepishly, "Actually...he does."

Chiro let loose a laugh, a laugh that felt great coming out of his mouth. "Thanks for comin' to talk to me Nova."

"It's no problem." Nova winked, "I really just came by to tell you that we got a message from Quint, he's on his way to help out however he can."

At the mention of their allies, Chiro's face grew serious once more, "I guess I should get out there, I'm still the leader of the Hyperforce, I can't go to pieces every time Jinmay..." he gulped to try and keep his composure, "Goes to pieces..."

"I also came by to pass along a message from Antauri. He said to not worry about talking to our new allies right now, thanks to Gibson's microchips, he can act as leader until you feel you're ready."

Chiro relinquished a smile, "Same old Antauri...I dunno what I'd do without him."

"Neither do I...we all probably would've torn each other apart a long time ago."

The two friends laughed a little, but then suddenly Gibson came out of his workshop and the open door revealed the sounds of heavy machinery being used. "I have good news and bad news." he said with a neutral expression.

Chiro and Nova looked at each other with worry, "What's the bad news?" Nova asked.

Gibson sighed, "The bad news is that the control mechanism that controls Jinmay's battle mode is completely shot, no hope of repair whatsoever."

"Just what does that mean?" Chiro asked desperately.

"To put it simply, unless I can find a way to rework some of the wiring, Jinmay will remain stuck in battle mode until I can find a replacement for the mechanism...and I haven't yet calculated what the odds are of finding such a unique piece of machinery."

Chiro looked like he was ready to cry, "What do you mean the odds? It's just one gear, one wire, one whatever! There's gotta be something out there that would do it!"

"Chiro you must try to understand, Jinmay's wiring and inner workings are so incredibly complex that even I was unsure of how to go about her repairs the first time around." Gibson began pacing the floor, "I mean for her to have human hair that actually grows naturally but that still transforms into metal when she's in battle mode, to be completely machine without even an organic origin but still have a desire, and more than that, a need for human sustenance that she digests like humans, she has human skin that replaces dead cells with new ones and gives off warmth just as your does, and yet her body is nothing but metal underneath...if I hadn't seen her with my own eyes, I would say it's impossible for her to exist."

"So what are you saying Gibson? That there's no way you can fix her?" Nova asked.

"I'll have to spend a lot more time trying to figure her out...Jinmay truly is a remarkable piece of machinery."

"Stop talking about her like she's just a thing!" Chiro suddenly snarled much to Gibson and Nova's shock, "She's as human as anyone else around here, and she deserves to be treated that way even if she isn't here!"

Gibson stammered as he backed up nervously, "I - uh - I never meant..."

"Chiro, it isn't Gibson's fault!" Nova pleaded with her leader.

Chiro snapped his eyes shut to hold back his tears, "You said you had good news?" he said lowly with his fists shaking at his sides.

"Yes, well..." Gibson cleared his throat to regain his composure, "The good news is that with the exception of her transforming mechanism, Jinmay should be fully repaired and reactivated within mere minutes...I was worried for her arm momentarily, but Otto managed to get it working again like new."

Just then Otto and Johnny came out, wiping their hands off with washcloths, "Well, we're done." Otto sighed.

"And?" Chiro asked.

"I gotta say Chiro, your girlfriend's a real piece of work, I've never seen anything like her." Johnny said sincerely.

"So I keep hearing." the Hyperforce leader was having a hard time keeping his voice level, "Is she back online yet?"

"We thought you'd wanna be there for that part." Otto replied.

"I do." Chiro walked past everyone and almost went into the workshop, but then he stopped and turned to face the others with a remorseful look on his face, "I'm sorry everyone...I'm just under a lot of stress right now...if any of you need anything, go talk to Antauri, I'm not feeling like much of a leader right now." With that, Chiro entered the workshop and closed the hatch behind him, leaving everyone else locked out.

"He really loves that robot, doesn't he?" Johnny said in awe.

"I dare say more than any of us will ever truly know." Gibson replied, "Otto, finding that part for Jinmay is our top priority until further notice, we'll begin immediately."

"You got it Gibson, I'll start by looking in my junk drawer!"

"No Otto, that's not what I..." Gibson stopped as Otto had already scampered off, "Meant..." the blue primate exhaled in exasperation, "Very well...I shall begin the search by looking into any possible substitute solutions, since the part we need is so unique in almost every way."

"Well since you're gonna do that I'd say my work here is done." Johnny walked off to join his team, "Gotta admit though...those chimps sure know their stuff." he said to himself.

"I don't think I like him any better as a good guy." Nova scoffed once the Sun Rider was out of earshot.

"Really? I speculated that it would be Aurora Six that you'd have the most substantial disagreement with, since she and Sprx..." Gibson suddenly found himself facing a snarling yellow monkey, so he quickly put his hands up defensively and backed up, "I...think I'll just go begin the search for Jinmay's part."

"You do that." Nova hissed back. Gibson quickly ran off on all fours, while Nova just began the lonely walk back to the Super Robot's Bridge. "Stupid Gibson...why is he almost never wrong?"

Back inside the darkened workshop, Chiro was staring at the deactivated form of his robot girlfriend...still armored up just as Gibson told him. He was beginning to regret more and more ever letting her join the team, thanks to him, she couldn't even look human anymore. "I'm so sorry Jinmay..." he said to her, "If it weren't for me, none of this would've ever happened to you." he grabbed hold of her gloved hand and pulled the glove off...there was metal underneath. Just as he expected. "I promise...I won't stop until I find you that part. Not ever." Chiro put her glove back on her metal-covered hand and turned to pull the switch that would power her back up.

With a slowly rising whirring sound, the machine filled Jinmay's body with power, and the robot girl's eyes blinked a few times before finally focusing on the form bending over her. "Who's there?" she asked, as her eyes had yet to adjust to the darkness.

"It's me."

Luckily her ears were working just fine, and his voice was like music to them. "Chiro...oh thank goodness you're alright." she grabbed his hand and held it, but then she noticed that her arm was still armored up, "Oh, still powered up...hang on a sec." she focused on deactivating her powers, but nothing happened. "What?" she tried again. Still nothing. "No, no! What's going on?!"

Chiro turned his head away in remorse, "Jinmay...Gibson couldn't fix your transforming mechanism...something about a part that was totally destroyed."

Jinmay looked down at herself and felt the metal she was wrapped in, "So you mean...I'm stuck like this? Forever?"

"Not forever!" Chiro suddenly looked very determined, "We're gonna find you that part, we won't stop looking until we find it! I swear it!"

Jinmay was touched to be sure, but somehow she found herself focusing more on the fact that she couldn't power back down at all right now. She felt the top of her head...her hair was now part of her metal exterior. Something she had never really understood about herself was how she could have real hair, and at the same time it obviously wasn't real since it transformed into metal whenever she armored up. "Can I tell you something Chiro?"

"Anything."

"I...I never really found out anything about where I came from..." Jinmay finally sat up and hung her legs over the edge of the recovery bed, she put her hands down on the bed and her hands touched a part that looked horribly bent out of shape. She picked it up and held it in front of her face, "The transformer?"

"I guess...it's the only part of you that's not in you."

Jinmay sighed and put the part back down, "I looked around the galaxy for weeks trying to find some sort of clue as to where I came from, who made me, why I was the way I was...then when Mandarin attacked me I grew as big as I could to try and stop him, but no matter what I threw at him it wasn't enough..."

"I know." Chiro replied grimly, "Then he and Sokko stole your body, but you managed to get away by separating your head from your body so you could warn us."

The armored girl looked down at the floor, "I tried to go out and look for answers again, but I couldn't make myself go too far away from Shuggazoom...I was afraid that something would happen again, and that I wouldn't get so lucky the next time."

Chiro sighed and took Jinmay's hands into his, he frowned when she tried to pull them away, but he held them tight until she finally stopped resisting. "Jinmay...do you...wanna go out and search for answers again? You could handle it now, Nova's taught you how to defend yourself and...obviously you've got the power to do it."

Jinmay looked into the eyes of her human boyfriend, and saw pain. "No Chiro, I don't wanna leave you, especially now when you need all the help you can get...but...I do still want answers...who knows? Maybe if I could find my creator, he could fix me himself, if anyone would have my missing part, it'd be him...or her..."

"Or it?" The couple laughed a little before embracing, as much as Chiro didn't want to admit it to himself...it wasn't as nice hugging Jinmay when she was stuck in battle mode, as all he could feel was the cold metal she was wrapped in, not the human warmth underneath. But at this point, he didn't care. All he wanted was to make sure she was safe, "Jinmay, I want you to do me a big favor."

"Name it Chiro."

Chiro pulled back a little to look into her spring-green eyes; the whites of her eyes were now also green as a result of her battle mode, but if he could take comfort in at least one thing, even if she appeared totally robotic now, her eyes still held all the warmth and love that they had before. "I want you to be really careful from now on, if you get hurt, don't keep going until you can't anymore..." Chiro's grip on her tightened, although her body didn't give way at all because of her armor, "If something ever happened to you and the monkeys couldn't bring you back...I dunno what I'd do..."

"Oh Chiro..." Jinmay also tightened her grip on Chiro, although she was extremely careful not to crush him as her already impressive robot strength was highly augmented when in battle mode, "I'm sorry I made you worry...but...I dunno if that's a promise I can keep."

Chiro reeled back in shock, "But...why not?"

"For the same reasons you want me to make the promise. I dunno what I'd do if I ever lost you either...if I didn't at least try to save you, I'd probably never forgive myself...it's like...when you went to save Antauri."

"Antauri? What does that have to do with anything? I wasn't even in my right mind when I went after Antauri."

"But your heart led you during that time, and your heart told you to at least try and bring back Antauri...that's the way I feel whenever I see you in danger, I need to at least try to save you...if I were to stand by and let you die when I knew that I had a chance to save you...even if I risked my own life to do it...I'd hate myself forever."

"Jinmay..."

Suddenly Chiro's communicator began to beep, "Chiro, come in Chiro."

Chiro looked up from the communicator to glance sadly at Jinmay, and the robot girl gave him a weak smile in return, "We'll talk about this later...right now we've got work to do."

The boy nodded and spoke into his communicator, "I read you Antauri, what's up?"

"I know you're not feeling well, but I think it's time you made an appearance." the silver simian replied.

Chiro sighed, "Alright, we'll be up in a sec." Chiro deactivated his communicator and stared longingly at the robot girl, "I love you Jinmay, and don't worry, I won't rest until that part is found."

Jinmay smiled at that, "I love you too Chiro...but...I'd rather you let yourself rest, after all, what good is a leader who drives himself insane with sleep deprivation?" she joked.

Chiro finally relinquished a sincere laugh, "Ok, maybe I'll rest a little."

"Good." Jinmay hopped off the table and kissed the boy's cheek with her metal lips, causing him to shiver when the cold iron touched him, "Oh, sorry!"

"Don't be...that...was kinda interesting actually." the Hyperforce leader chuckled sheepishly. Jinmay smirked and walked out of the workshop with Chiro by her side. When they finally reached the Bridge, the couple was shocked to see the leader of the Robo-Apes, the Sun Riders, Master Offay, Mobius Quint and his crew, and even some allies he didn't think he had. "You guys?"

The unexpected teammates got up from the large conference table that had been placed in the middle of the Bridge, and their leader spoke up, "We Amphiboids always answer when there's a call for help. Where there's evil, we'll be there to stop it!" the blue-skinned gremlin-like humanoid exclaimed dramatically.

Everyone in the room sweat-dropped at the frog leader's badly timed enthusiasm, and when he noticed everyone staring at him strangely, he chuckled nervously. "You'll have to excuse our leader, as good as he is at what he does, he's still young." the black frog explained.

"No problem," Chiro replied with a grin, "I understand how he feels."

"Yes, you have been prone to show extreme cases of juvenile immaturity at inappropriate times." Antauri smirked with his arms crossed.

"Antauri! Don't say stuff like that in front of visitors!" Chiro whined.

Everyone laughed at the Hyperforce leader's misfortune, "In any case, I think it would be an excellent idea if you all were to introduce yourselves. Since we'll be working together, it's best we know a little about each other." Antauri suggested, "Would you care to go first?"

The Amphiboid leader nodded, "My name is Kyros, leader of the Amphiboids," he gestured to the frogs flanking him, "And this is my team."

The black frog stepped up, "I am Eldred, second-in-command of the Amphiboids."

Then the blue frog, who the Hyperforce already knew, took his turn. "I am Supaa, the chief of science for the team."

"Hi, I'm Xena," the yellow frog said with a wave, "I'm the one the team goes to when they need combat training! Or if they need the snot beaten out of 'em!"

"I like your style frog girl!" Nova said with a grin.

"You would." Sprx commented quietly, which earned him a harsh smack in the back of the head from the yellow monkey. "Same old Nova." he thought as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Hey, my name's Gus! I'm the mechanic! I can build anything you ask for, I can even build things you don't ask for!" the green frog exclaimed excitedly.

"Excellent." Antauri said with a polite nod, "And you?"

"The name's Aero," the red frog said in a cocky tone, "Best pilot in the galaxy and a great sniper to boot." the red frog twirled a laser pistol in his webbed hands.

"Best pilot?!" two insulted voices, one human and one simian, suddenly rung out.

"Now you know what it sounds like to listen to you Sprx." Nova snickered.

"I don't sound like that!" the red primate objected, "And as for you," Sprx pointed an accusing finger at the red frog, "You're gonna have to prove you're the best! How about a little flight simulator challenge later on?"

"No problem, I look forward to the challenge." Aero saluted with a smirk.

"Ok, now it's my turn." Quint stood up, "The name's Captain Mobius Quint, and I'm the best pilot in the universe. Sorry Red and Red, but as good as you are," Quint switched his attention to Aero, "Or might be...I'm still the better pilot."

"Care to put your money where your mouth is Quint?" Sprx smirked.

"Thought you'd never ask, bring it on!" the human pilot grinned with excitement.

"Hey!" Nova shouted suddenly, "Can we save Sprx's Super Pilot Showdown until after we're done here?" she glared at the red monkey before addressing everyone else again, "Don't forget that this isn't a casual get-together, this is a war counsel! And Skeleton King could attack at any time!"

"Nova is correct." Eldred said with a nod, "There's a time and a place for everything, and now is not the right time for such talk."

"I couldn't have said it better myself Eldred." Antauri smiled, "Now then, who's next?"

The yellow Robo-Ape stood up, "I represent the entire community of Robo-Apes, we are honored by this opportunity to battle alongside the Monkey Team, and now all of you as well."

"How many apes you got in that ship of yours anyway?" Quint asked.

"Over 250 reside in our craft, all of them warriors prepared to defend the Monkey Team's home."

"And for that, we thank you." Antauri replied, "Master Offay, would you care to go next?"

The elderly warrior nodded and stood up, his form not nearly as muscular as it was when the Dark One's influence had mutated him, but for his age he was in astounding shape. "I am Master Offay, the old combat instructor for Nova and Chiro...I look forward to working with all of you, especially you Xena, I am interested to see what you can do in the dojo."

Xena bowed, "It would be my honor!"

"It's about time our turn came up." Johnny Sunspot and his teammates stood up.

"I will introduce us Johnny." Quasar said, much to Johnny's annoyance. "We are the Sun Riders, actors who were tricked into working for Skeleton King in exchange for power...but thanks to Chiro-san and his Monkey Team, we were put into a position for us to redeem our honor."

Quasar's testimony earned a small round of applause from a few members of the frogs and Master Offay. "I understand how you feel Quasar, I too fell under Skeleton King's influence, it was not one of my better moments."

"Yeah...mine either." Sprx lowered his head as he was momentarily reminded of his failure.

"Or mine." Jinmay added, as she too was reminded of the time she almost killed Chiro shortly after meeting him.

"Let's not dwell on our past failures," Antauri reprimanded gently, "Skeleton King's evil has touched us all in one way or another, and at no time were any of us to blame for it. We may believe that we should have fought back and resisted, but we must always bear in mind that sometimes it is far easier said than done...even I have been manipulated by Skeleton King at some point, and thus we should always be aware that he is a cunning individual who knows how to his enemies' weaknesses against them."

"Well said Antauri." Eldred said.

"Yeah, thanks Antauri." Chiro finally took his turn to speak, "I just wanna thank you guys for coming to help us, you were aware of the risks and you came anyway. With all of us working together, I'm sure we'll be able to finally defeat Skeleton King once and for all!"

"Sounds great...I do have one question though."

Chiro blinked, he wasn't expecting a response like that from his speech, "What's that Kyros?"

"Who's the pretty metal girl standing next to you?"

Jinmay blushed slightly at the compliment, although she would've preferred it from Chiro of course. "I guess I'm not as well-known as you and the monkeys Chiro." she said sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it." Putting an arm around Jinmay's shoulders, Chiro answered the Amphiboid leader, "This is Jinmay, my girlfriend." he stressed that part to send a message to the gremlin-like creature.

"Alright, geez, I was just wondering." Kyros said defensively.

Antauri cleared his throat, "In any case, now that we've all been introduced to each other, we should begin discussing our defensive strategies in case Skeleton King decides to launch another full-scale attack, we can't afford to leap into battle blindly like we were forced to earlier."

"Can I just say something?" Quint lazily raised his hand, "Look, it's great that I can understand you monkeys now, and I'm looking forward to testing my pilot skills against the Reds squared over there...but haven't you been playing defense too long now? It just seems to me that waiting for that monster to make the first move isn't gonna be very productive towards actually beating him."

"That's..." Chiro hesitated, "Actually a good point...what do you think Antauri?"

Antauri exhaled before responding, "To launch an attack on the Skeleton King is harder than one might think."

"Yeah," Nova chimed in, "Going after the Skeleton King worm took a lot longer than we thought it would, and when we did get a shot at it...it usually ended kinda bad for us."

"I'll say." Sprx added, "We almost lost Nova forever in a wormhole, Chiro almost got killed inside the worm by Mandarin, Antauri almost got tossed onto some unknown planet while fighting the worm, me, Gibson and Otto almost got trashed by zombie astronauts...and we almost lost Nova forever in a wormhole!"

"Yeah but that was before you had a whole army backing you up Red, now you've got a fighting chance." Quint replied, "Think about it, there's three giant robots outside ready for battle, including the one we're standing in, you've got a battalion of robot gorillas in that ship out there, a team of frogs that's an uncanny parallel to your team, we can do it!"

"You raise many good points," Antauri said, "Perhaps it is time we took a more aggressive approach against the Skeleton King and his army...but at the same time, we still have a responsibility to the citizens of Shuggazoom City to keep them safe from monster attacks, we cannot simply lower our defenses in exchange for greater attack capability."

"Then maybe we should take a more stealthy approach." Supaa suggested.

"What'd you have in mind?" Chiro asked, "A sort of guerrilla warfare?"

"Gorilla warfare is not very stealthy." the yellow Robo-Ape pointed out.

"Uh, not gorilla as in ape, guerrilla is a word that describes small groups going out to do sneak attacks or sabotage jobs." Nova explained, "The only problem with that is Skeleton King's probably got his whole fortress more heavily guarded than the Shuggazoom Federal Bank."

Johnny raised his hand, "We could do it."

"Yes, our Solar Shields provide a means to camouflage ourselves." Aurora removed a diamond shaped pendant from her shoulder and placed it on her chest. She then pressed the button in the middle of the gadget, and she slowly faded until she was nothing more than a face and a bunch of orange stripes running down where the rest of her body would be.

"That's not gonna work, we can still see you." Chiro pointed out.

"That's because she's still wearing the prototype." Johnny smirked as he activated his own Solar Shield, and he too began to fade, only this time he was rendered completely invisible. "Presenting the Sun Rider Solar Shield 2.0! Guaranteed to trick any brainless minion or your money back!" he rematerialized with a smug grin on his face, "Pretty cool huh?"

"Fascinating." Supaa remarked, "I suppose your invention utilizes a very advanced light-bending technology in order to render you undetectable?"

"Actually it's more of a specially designed covering that sends out invisible waves of energy which distorts the wearer's appearance to the point of being invisible." Johnny replied.

Sprx's eyes suddenly began blinking with questions marks, "Come again Brainstrain One and Two? I thought just having Gibson around was bad, but having all three of you here is gonna make my head explode."

"Well if that happens, at least it won't make much of a mess." Nova shrugged, much to Sprx's annoyance.

"Speaking of Gibson, where is he anyway?" Chiro wondered.

The group began looking around in confusion, "Yeah...Otto's been missing for a while too." Nova pointed out.

At that moment, Gibson came in with a disappointed look on his face, "Where ya been Gibson?" Chiro asked.

"I'm sorry Chiro..." Gibson sighed, "I've looked into every possible solution I could think of, I even tried some things that went against every law of logic there is...but I couldn't come up with a feasible way of replacing Jinmay's transformer...in order to fully repair her system, it will have to be with the real thing."

"So what's the big deal?" Otto suddenly appeared, "We'll just use this!" Otto held up a piece of metal that looked incredibly familiar.

Gibson shrieked, as monkeys tend to do when they're shocked, and he seemed to warp from one side of the room to where Otto was, "Otto! Where - or rather how I should say - did you manage to find the exact part we needed to replace Jinmay's transformer?!"

"I told you I was gonna go look in my junk drawer." Otto shrugged.

"So does that mean...you can fix me?" Jinmay asked hopefully.

"Yes, that's precisely what it means!" Gibson replied with a grin, "Come along Otto, we've got a job to finish!"

"Right behind ya Gibson!" Otto exclaimed, "Come on Jinmay, we're gonna put you back together again like Humpty Dumpty!"

"Uh Otto...Humpty Dumpty couldn't be put back together again." Chiro pointed out.

"Oh..." Otto blinked, but then he shrugged, "Oh well, it still sounded cool. Come on! What are we waiting for?!"

"Guess this means you can rest now Chiro." Jinmay winked before walking off, "I'll seeya later."

"Looking forward to it." the Hyperforce leader replied. Then Chiro turned to address the other members of his new team, "Guess now all that's left to do is come up with an attack strategy." But suddenly, the robot's viewing screen began to flicker as an intruding transmission came in, "You!"

"Yes Chiro, it is me...do you really think there's anywhere you can hide that I won't find you?" the Skeleton King's image chortled at him.

"Who's hiding bonehead?!" Sprx roared, "You're gonna know what it feels like to be run over by a tank by the time I'm through with you!"

"So much hate...perhaps the power of the flame has yet to leave you after all."

"What?!"

"You're wrong!" Nova snarled, "Sprx's heart is clean! The only hate he has is the one we all share, a hatred of you! Now get off our viewscreen, we've got nothing to say to you!"

"If you insist..." the Skeleton King began to cackle before he finally cut off the transmission.

"Can you believe the nerve of that monster?! Hacking into our transmission frequency just to try and get under our skin?!" Nova scowled.

"Remember what I taught you Nova." Offay spoke up, "In order to truly weaken an opponent, you must keep them off balance...the Skeleton King is obviously quite skilled at that."

"Y-Yes Master..." Nova took a deep breath, "So he's trying to throw us off our game, fine. We don't have to fall for it."

"There might be more to it than that, enemies don't usually call just to say hi." Kyros said.

Suddenly an alarm went off inside the robot, and the viewing screen automatically put what the sensors were showing on it. "What is that thing?" Chiro wondered.

Sprx and Nova went over to the control panel and began pressing keys, and the screen began to zoom in on the strange anomaly flying towards the atmosphere, "What? This can't be right!" Nova exclaimed, "If the sensors are reading this right...then Skeleton King is headed towards space!"

"So...what? He's retreating?" Quint asked.

"No..." Antauri closed his eyes and focused his Power Primate, "That's not Skeleton King, but the creature residing inside that ship has much of his evil energy powering it...this could be a trick to goad us into splitting our forces in half."

"But what if Skeleton King's trying to attack other worlds like he did when he was a part of that worm? We can't all stay here and let the universe be corrupted!" Nova exclaimed worriedly.

"You will not have to Nova-chan." Quasar said, "We will remain here on Shuggazoom City with our new allies, while you go and investigate this new evil."

"Really?" Chiro replied, "But...how are we gonna know how things are going here?"

"That's easy!" Gus exclaimed, "Our robot's communications console is state-of-the-art, we'll be able to call you monkeys even if you get warped to a whole other universe!"

"And if things get out of hand within our own ranks, I'll be here to reestablish peace." Master Offay added.

"Like I'm gonna listen to that old dinosaur." Johnny snickered to his female teammate, but his smile quickly turned upside-down when he was bonked on the head by a wooden staff, "Ow!"

"This old dinosaur has excellent hearing you boob!" Offay got right into Johnny's face, "I'll be keeping an eye on you."

"Good. He could use someone to watch him." Aurora giggled.

"Sometimes I wonder whose side you're on." Johnny grumbled as he rubbed his head.

"The enemy vessel is leaving the atmosphere, we gotta make a decision kid..." Sprx said.

"Ok..." Chiro turned to his allies, "We're leaving Shuggazoom City in your care, we can't let Skeleton King's evil spread beyond Shuggazoom ever again!"

"We will not fail you, Chiro-san." with a final bow, Quasar led the Sun Riders out of the robot.

"Try not to get killed out there, 'kay Chee-ro?" Johnny snickered.

"Your concern is so touching." Chiro scoffed.

Then the frogs, Quint, Offay, and the Robo-Apes all took their leave, which left only the Hyperforce on the robot. "Looks like we're headed back into the galaxy, hopefully this time we won't run into any wormholes." Sprx grumbled.

"You know you mentioned how you almost lost me in a wormhole twice in the same sentence?" Nova smirked.

"Uh well I...y-you know me, when I get going I tend to lose track of things." the red monkey chuckled sheepishly.

"Yeah, I know." Nova winked and walked over to her tube, where she was whisked off to the depths of the robot.

"Yep...same old Nova." Sprx smiled warmly in the direction Nova had gone, and he promptly zoned out.

"Sprx...Shuggazoom to Sprx, come in Sprx." Chiro waved his hand in front of the red primate's face, and got no response. Then a sneaky idea came to his mind, and he grinned mischievously, "Nova! Quit kissing Antauri and get back to work!"

"What?!" Sprx activated his magnets out of reflex and looked around in fury, but all he saw was a nervously grinning Chiro and an indifferent Antauri. Sprx put his magnets away and crossed his arms as he glared at his leader, "Real funny kid."

Chiro shrugged, "Had to try somethin'." Chiro went over to Antauri and looked at the screen with the silver primate, "Well Antauri, looks like we're heading back into the galaxy."

"Not me Chiro."

Chiro blinked a few times before using his finger to try and clear his ear, "I must've gotten something stuck in my ear...it almost sounded like you said you weren't coming with us."

"I'm not."

"But...but why not?!"

Antauri turned to look his leader in the eyes, "Someone has to stay behind and represent the Hyperforce while you go and chase whatever creature Skeleton King is sending into the galaxy, as the second-in-command, I would have the greatest influence aside from you staying yourself."

"C'mon Antauri, these guys are all good guys too, they can handle it!" Chiro argued.

Antauri shook his head, "They need someone who is familiar with the Skeleton King and how he operates in order to succeed, to leave them all here with little to no knowledge of the Skeleton King's tactics would not only be foolish, but irresponsible."

"I'm not followin' ya to be honest." Sprx spoke up, "I get why leaving them here to learn as they go along might be a little dumb, but how does irresponsibility factor in?"

"These people and creatures have all come from the farthest reaches of the galaxy to aid us in our time of need, to simply leave them all here to fend for themselves would be a sign of ungratefulness on our part. They are here to help, not fight the war for us."

"But what are we gonna do without you Antauri? We need you." Chiro pleaded.

"No Chiro, you don't need me to stop this threat, you have grown to become a great leader, you can handle this task." Antauri relinquished a smile, "Besides, I'm always with you, no matter what. Remember..."

"We're connected...through the Power Primate." Chiro's face grew determined, "I won't fail you Antauri, I'll make sure your faith in me isn't misplaced."

"You already have Chiro," the silver monkey placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, "You have proven yourself time and time again, each time showing further proof that you are worthy of the mantle you bear."

"That's great Antauri," Sprx crossed his arms, "I have faith in the kid too, but if you stay, we're still one team member down, and I don't like the idea of us going out there without a full roster."

"The team will still have its numbers Sprx...I will be sending Jinmay in my place to pilot the Brain Scrambler Pilot 2."

"Uh...no offense Antauri...but do we need Gibson to take a look at that robo-brain of yours?" Sprx raised an eyebrow, "Remember what happened the last time Jinmay tried to pilot the robot? We almost got corkscrewed into the ground."

"Actually Sprx..." Chiro rubbed the back of his head, "The last time Jinmay piloted was in your Fist Rocket...ya know...when you were having a sort of identity crisis?"

Sprx shrieked, "You let her fly my rocket?!"

"Hey, we didn't have a choice!" Chiro put his hands up, "Besides, she didn't crash it or anything, ever since the Torso Tank incident, she's been logging a lot of practice time in the flight simulators!"

Sprx stood still for a moment, but his stance eventually relaxed, "Ok kid, I understand...huh, I guess Jinmay's really comin' into her own as a Hyperforce member."

Chiro thought about what Sprx had just said, and realized the red monkey was right. Despite all his earlier worries and regrets, he realized it was just him being concerned for his girlfriend. Jinmay had been able to keep the city safe in their absence except for the one isolated incident that even they couldn't handle at first. And ever since then, Jinmay had only gotten stronger, smarter and more experienced. Also with the blossoming of her skills and powers, a new sense of courage was being born inside her, a trait that Chiro found made the robot girl even more attractive to him than ever before. "Yeah, Jinmay's really made a difference for us."

"Thanks Chiro."

Chiro turned around and saw Jinmay coyly smiling at him...and she looked totally human. "Jinmay!" Chiro rushed to embrace the girl, and sure enough he could feel her human skin on her arms and face, and also her hair had regained its original softness, as if she were an actual human being, "How d'ya feel?"

"Right now?" Jinmay whispered as she reciprocated the embrace, "Like I'm the luckiest girl in the universe."

They broke apart and smiled at each other, as the monkey team with the exception of the absent Nova smiled at the scene. Unfortunately however, there wasn't much time to enjoy it. "It's time you departed Monkey Team, the craft is almost out of range of our sensors." Antauri said.

"Wait...why's he talkin' like he's not comin'?" Otto scratched his head.

"He's not, but don't worry, we'll be ok, Jinmay's gonna come with us and take Antauri's place while he stays behind and runs everything down here..." Noting Jinmay's suddenly nervous expression, he grabbed her hands and squeezed them, silently rejoicing in the fact that they gave way under his pressure thanks to the current lack of armor, "You can do it Jinmay, you've proven that time and time again...and each time you've given us further proof that you're worthy of the mantle you bear."

"Gee, that doesn't sound familiar at all." Sprx smirked.

"Shut up Sprx." Chiro mumbled in sing-song before turning his attention back to Jinmay who was now rolling her eyes good-naturedly.

"You stole that line from Antauri didn't you?"

Chiro's eyes began trying to avoid looking at hers directly, "Uh well...it sounded appropriate."

Jinmay giggled, "It's ok Chiro, I get what you wanted to tell me." she leaned in and pecked the inner part of the boy's cheek which caused him to blush slightly, "Let's go bash some baddies."

Chiro nodded and looked at Antauri. "Alright, we're ready."

Antauri nodded back and began to levitate. "Remember Chiro, if you ever need me, the Power Primate is our link." Antauri floated over to his tube and disappeared, moments later, Antauri was shown on the viewscreen leaving the robot. "Good luck team." he spoke over the communicator before signing off.

Chiro looked at his team, which currently consisted of his girlfriend Jinmay, his mechanic Otto, his scientist Gibson, his top pilot Sprx, and then the third-in-command Nova reappeared from her tube. "Where's Antauri going?" the yellow monkey asked.

"He's staying behind to lead the attack against Skeleton King while we chase that thing into space." As he expected, Nova was stunned, "Don't worry Nova, we can do it. If Antauri has faith in us, then we won't let him down."

Nova's face became determined, and she nodded at her leader, "Got it."

"Otto, get us outta here!" Chiro exclaimed.

The green monkey went over to the control panel and pushed a lever up, and the robot undocked and blasted off into space to chase after whatever creature Skeleton King had sent to terrorize the galaxy.

"Perfect..." the evil king chortled to himself, "The boy has done exactly what I expected of him...leaving the safety of Shuggazoom to go do battle with my greatest malevolent creation."

"So you intend to strike now while the Hyperforce is away?" Mandarin asked.

"Oh no Mandarin, no that wouldn't be very wise. You saw that silver simian stay behind to lead their forces against me? I predicted that as well. No...we will send some forces their way every once in a while just to keep them honest, but my true goal now flies off into the cosmos...Chiro has no idea what he will soon be facing, or what sacrifices he will have to make to defeat my creature, which of course he will continue trying to do until he succeeds or dies trying. Either way is acceptable to me. His team will either die in the coldness of space, or come home with so much weighing down on their hearts that they will not only be ineffective against my forces, but they will be a hindrance to their allies, causing even more unrest within their ranks...you will soon realize Chiro...just how futile it is for you to resist me."
_

A/N: It may seem like things are scattered around all over the place, but trust me, everything is there for a reason. I'm also wondering if I should raise the rating on this story to T, things are gonna start getting a lot darker really fast, at least what I consider dark. I don't usually go in the direction I'm going, but with darker shows, comes darker stories. Pokemon is usually always happy, this show wasn't. Jinmay almost lost the ability to appear human, Antauri's staying behind while the rest of the team goes after whatever Skeleton King shot into space...and what DID he shoot into space? The answers will come soon, please read and review, show some love for your fandom with reviews!