So I didn't get any reviews for the previous chapter...that's ok I guess. I realize fluff isn't always exciting, I just wanted to give the team a little downtime to recover from what they'd just gone through before throwing them back into the fire. But now it's time to get back to action, as the team reaches a new planet and faces a new threat. What will happen? Well, read on to find out. I own nothing except the story.
_
Chiro's eyes fluttered open as he woke up from his nap. He didn't know how long he'd been sleeping, but he could tell just from his first few moments back in the waking world that his body was thanking him for taking some time to rest and recover. He gave a silent yawn and was about to get up from his bed when he was held back by something. Perking an eyebrow, Chiro turned his head to see what had stopped him, and his eyes widened in shock. "Jinmay?!"
There with her arms wrapped around his waist was his robotic girlfriend, who seemed to be still sleeping, or recharging, he wasn't entirely sure how it worked for her. His mind began whirling as he tried to figure out Jinmay could have possibly ended up in his bed, and that was when he remembered.
Jinmay had come to comfort him.
His heartbeat slowed back to normal as his mind conjured up the memories of her visit. She'd come to him just when he needed her most, and she'd found a way to break down his walls and get him to release the emotional stress he'd been putting on himself. He smiled tenderly and carefully turned his torso around so he was facing her, and he took a moment to just drink in her beauty. He thought how he wished he could meet Jinmay's creator so he could thank him or her for making her. She'd only been in his life for a relatively short time but she'd already made such an enormous impact that it was staggering.
To be able to give a purely mechanical being such human characteristics, it was nothing short of a miracle. For a robot to have such an enormous amount of love and compassion for anyone, let alone someone like him, there was no way Jinmay could ever be labeled as "just a machine" like some undoubtedly would. She had a heart and soul like no other, and things like that simply couldn't be programmed. "Thanks Jinmay, thanks for everything." he whispered before leaning down to kiss the girl's forehead.
Jinmay smiled in her sleep after the tender contact, and she unconsciously cuddled closer to the Hyperforce leader who just shook his head in amusement. "I could lay here with you forever Jinmay, but we still got a war to fight." Carefully extracting himself from her arms so as not to wake her, Chiro shifted until he could kick his legs over the edge of the bed and silently slip out of his room. Once out, he tapped his communicator and went back into Hyper mode, and he rushed up to the bridge where he saw Sprx and Nova staring intently at the view screen. "What's our status team?"
The two monkeys turned and gave their leader a neutral expression. "Oh Chiro, I was just about to call you." Nova turned back to the screen to look at the readings again. "We're approaching the coordinates Gibson punched in, that slime is already there." the yellow monkey pressed a button on the control panel, and the sensors zoomed in on the destination planet. "There's dark energy coming from that spot on the planet," Nova pointed at the blinking red dot on the screen. "So I guess that's where we're going, t-minus sixty seconds before we enter the planet's atmosphere."
"Sounds like a plan to me, this time we're not gonna let that walking booger escape!" Chiro clenched a fist in determination, then he pressed a different button and leaned over the microphone jutting out of the panel. "Chiro to Hyperforce, we're about to enter the unknown planet's atmosphere, report to the Bridge immediately!"
Moments later, the entire Hyperforce had gathered in the Bridge of the robot, including Jinmay, who was now once again armored up and ready for action. "Strangely enough, I feel like I had a full night's recharge." she grinned at the sheepish looking Chiro.
Gibson began working in his section of the robot, and several readings appeared via the holographic projector in front of his blue chair. "Sensors indicate this is a Class M planet, nitrogen, oxygen atmosphere with nucleogenic particles in the atmosphere. Other than the amount of oxygen being a tad higher, it's a lot like Shuggazoom, albeit somewhat smaller in size. There are signs of life, apparently humanoid in nature."
"And somewhere down there, there's a black and yellow ball of snot terrorizing whatever lives down there." Sprx smashed his fist into his palm. "It's not getting away this time."
"That's odd." Gibson's statement got the team's attention. "I'm picking up an enormous amount of heat radiating from the middle of where the negative energy is located."
"Could it be a volcano or something?" Chiro asked.
Gibson shook his head. "Negative. This planet appears to have no active volcanoes anywhere, and the readings that I'm getting do not coincide with any geological activity. It appears to be some form of nuclear energy, similar to our own Neutron Generator...but this energy is much more primitive...and much more dangerous."
"Could that be what the ooze did to the planet?" Otto asked.
"If it is, then we gotta get down there and contain it before anyone gets hurt." Chiro turned to Otto. "Land the robot near the edge of that zone of darkness, we'll assess the situation from the planet's surface and go from there."
"You got it!" Otto landed the robot in the middle of a grassy plain, and as soon as the robot's feet hit the ground, a hatch opened up in the robot's chest and the Hyperforce came flying out. "So what's the plan?"
"This is strange..." Gibson said as he looked down at his portable scanner. "This nuclear energy doesn't appear to be dissipating or spreading, it appears to be moving in a straight line."
"So what do we do?" Jinmay asked.
Gibson turned to the team. "I need to get a visual before I can properly assess the situation, for the energy to be moving in a straight line is very uncharacteristic for a mere nuclear accident." Gibson looked specifically at Chiro and Capt. Shuggazoom. "I would advise that Chiro and Capt. Shuggazoom keep their distance once we arrive, there's no telling what the radiation would do to humans."
"Got it." Chiro nodded. "Ok team, let's go!"
"Wait, look down there!" Nova pointed down to at the ground where several vehicles were driving up to the feet of their giant robot. "What's that?"
"If I had my guess, I'd say that was the welcoming committee." Capt. Shuggazoom replied.
"Strange, my scanner didn't pick them up until just now, I should have gotten some form of reading before they ever got that close." Gibson turned a knob on his scanner. "Perhaps the radioactivity in the air is interfering with its sensors."
"Well if it is the welcoming committee, let's go see what they have to say." Chiro slowly lowered himself to the ground and the rest of his team soon followed. The moment he landed, he was greeted by a purple alien with pointed ears and what appeared to be a sharp fin coming out of his head. He was dressed in what appeared to be a General's uniform. What really made him stand out from the other two uniform wearing aliens however was the fact that he had three eyes instead of two, with his third eye positioned above and between his other two.
"Welcome to Tasneem." the three-eyed alien said with a smooth voice. "I am Haral, the top General in the Tasneemian army, and might I say it is indeed an honor to be visited by the legendary Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce."
"You've heard of us?" Sprx raised an eyebrow with his arms crossed.
"Heard of you?" Haral chuckled. "Your exploits are known throughout the cosmos, how you successfully destroyed the Skeleton King worm and freed the galaxy from its evil forever."
"Yeah, well." Sprx scoffed and looked away with a frown. He didn't need a reminder of what he'd been forced to do by that same evil force he'd sworn to destroy.
"If you know who we are, then you know what it is we do." Chiro took a step forward. "We've picked up a massive amount of radiation coming from around here, it could potentially be a danger to your citizens."
Haral's smile twitched somewhat, the untrained eye never would have noticed. "Ahh yes," he waved a hand dismissively. "A minor problem, it's fully under control."
"Yes, well if it's all the same to you, we'd-"
"It's fully under control...if it's all the same to you." Haral cut the blue monkey off with a very stern look, and then the General turned his attention to Chiro. "Your help is not needed, thank you for coming. Now goodbye." With that said, the jeeps drove off back in the direction they came at high speeds, and the Hyperforce stood there for a moment completely dumbfounded.
"Can you believe the nerve of that guy?!" Nova exclaimed angrily. "I mean we come all this way to help and he's trying to act like nothing's wrong!"
"Yes...he seemed quite determined to have us believe the situation is under control." Gibson looked back down at his scanner. "However the opposite is true. The problem isn't under control, it's getting worse, and the negative energy is still on this planet which indicates that the ooze is still here somewhere."
"Could it have been Haral?" Jinmay suggested. "I mean, something seems seriously off about him, and I don't mean that third eye of his."
"Could be, I did get a bad vibe off of him, but then again, I got a bad vibe off of all those guys." Chiro replied. "Gibson?"
"My scanner didn't detect any movement." Gibson shook his head. "However I've come to learn one very important thing when it comes to dealing with the Skeleton King: we can't always trust what our eyes tell us. We should proceed with caution."
"So what's the plan then?" Sprx put his hands on his hips. "That Haral guy made it pret-ty clear that he doesn't want our help."
"If you ask me, I think he knows more than he let on. I say we ignore what he said and see what we can find." Nova smiled when she received agreeing nods from everyone, and the Hyperforce flew off with Gibson in front with his scanner. As they continued on, they noticed gigantic scorch marks lining various areas of the ground, with small fires burning wherever there was still something left to burn. "What in the world happened here?" Nova asked in shock.
"There are traces of residual radiation all along those scorch marks," Gibson replied. "No doubt the result of whatever nuclear accident has taken place."
"I'm not seeing an accident Gibson," Sprx pointed down to the ground. "Check out the patterns, it looks like someone took a flamethrower and used it to sweep across the ground. That's not an accident," Sprx looked back up. "That's a firing pattern."
"So you're saying something tried to burn this place up?" Otto flew up next to the red monkey.
"Or someone." Nova growled.
The team continued, and the scorch marks became more and more frequent. Entire forests had been cut through and there appeared to be debris from destroyed buildings that had just started to appear. "This looks like a city! Or at least...it was a city." Jinmay said sadly.
"Gibson, you said there were signs of life, where are they?" Chiro asked.
"The scanner indicates that they're almost all bunched together, approximately five miles away from where the radiation is currently, but it's closing in on them fast."
"How soon until we get a visual?"
"We should be getting one right about..." Gibson looked up from his scanner and his eyes widened in horror. "Oh my..."
"What...is it?" Nova gawked.
Out in the distance was an enormous red monster of some sort that had flames coming out of its neck that enveloped its skull-like head, and it also had flames burning from various other parts of its body. "I'm adjusting the scanner to compensate for the radiation. The amount of energy it's giving off is staggering!"
"Uh...Gibson?" Otto gulped.
Gibson looked up and saw the creature turn around and stare blankly at them, and then it raised its arm and out of where its hand would be, a bright white light was building. "It's preparing to fire!"
"Monkey Team, scatter!" Chiro and the others flew in separate directions, and the monster fired a blinding white beam out of its arm that cut a line right through the trees in the far distance. "I think it's safe to say we found what's causing all this!" Chiro clenched his fists, but his expression changed to confusion when he saw that the monster was again walking away from them. "So it just takes a shot and then leaves?"
"No, it's going to the closest source of humanoid life, which up until just a few moments ago was us!" Gibson looked into the distance with a grim expression. "It's only about two miles from where all the signs of life within range of my scanner are, and I think we've been given a good idea of exactly what it plans on doing once it gets there."
"We've gotta help those people then!" Nova exclaimed determinedly.
"Right." Chiro nodded in agreement. "Nova, take the team and go see what you can do about that monster, Capt. Shuggazoom and I will head back to the Super Robot and get our enviro-suits on so we can help!"
"I've got a better idea!" Otto's ear pieces extended as he sent out a signal. "Hey Super Robot, we need your help!" After a moment or two, Otto nodded and deactivated his comm link. "The robot's on its way!"
"Good going Otto," Chiro gave a thumbs-up. "Now get going! Those people need your help, and be careful!"
"What, you kidding?" Sprx chuckled. "Careful is our middle name!"
The robotic members of the Hyperforce took off towards the monster, which was still walking towards the signs of life Gibson's scanner had picked up. Once they were in range, they looked down and saw several purple humanoid creatures running in fear until they reached the edge of a cliff as the monster looked down at them and lowered its arm to take aim. "It's about to fire!" Otto pointed with a horrified expression on his face.
"Not for long!" Jinmay growled and put her foot rockets into overdrive as she approached the monster's fiery face, and once there, she used all her momentum and reeled back her fist to unleash a brutal punch that nearly snapped its neck off.
"Whoa, she's got some power in her punch!" Sprx marveled with his jaw dropped.
"Yeah but it wasn't enough," Nova activated her fists. "But she got its attention, so let's help 'er out!"
Jinmay continued to relentlessly attack the monster's face, which for some reason had yet to make a sound despite being pushed back by her rapid punches. Taking a moment to catch her "breath" and recover from the extreme heat radiating from the monster, Jinmay flew back up to attack again, dodging a defensive swing of its arm in the process. But she then got smacked out of the sky by its arm's backswing, and she flew through the sky backwards until she eventually collided with the side of a cliff, nearly knocking her out of her armored mode.
"Jinmay!" Otto shouted.
"Go help her!" Nova's order immediately made the green monkey take off. Then she turned to Sprx. "Those people are trapped, see if you can find a way to help them get across! Gibson and I will keep it busy!" With that said, both she and the blue primate flew after the monster that had quickly turned its attention back to the Tasneemians below.
"Get them across? How am I gonna do that?!" Sprx looked around and eventually his eyes locked on to several completely demolished jeeps, and a smirk appeared on his face. "Well now, that shows some promise!"
Meanwhile, Otto was helping Jinmay get back up, as she held her head in her hand and groaned from the impact. "You ok Jinmay?"
"Everything seems to be working the way it's supposed to." Jinmay groaned before gritting her teeth and glaring up at their opponent. "That thing isn't alive, it's some kind of machine!"
Otto looked up at the monster as well. "If that's true, then what we're fighting is a giant nuclear power plant!"
"Somehow I get the feeling that whoever made this robot had more than powering the planet in mind." Jinmay clenched her fists and reactivated her rockets. "Let's go!"
Up in the air, Nova and Gibson were doing their best to avoid the swings of the robot's arms and smaller energy blasts from its empty eye sockets. "I think it's safe to say at this point that it's a robot." Nova dodged another blast and flew up to get a better angle to attack.
"I concur!" With the robot's attention currently on Nova, Gibson pulled out his scanner and tried to get a reading. "This hulking abomination is essentially a nuclear power plant, there must be a way to shut it down safely!"
"We'll figure that out after I smash it!" Nova dive-bombed the robot with her fists held over her head. "LADY TOMAHAWK!" she slammed her giant fists into the robot's skull, but unlike with Jinmay, Nova's attack appeared to not do much of anything. "It didn't even feel it!"
"Allow me to try!" Gibson activated his drills and switched to the mode he required. "Let's see if I can't disrupt its energy! SPIN SHOCKER!" The blue monkey fired at the robot's head, and for a moment it seemed to weaken as the robot slowed down from the effects of Gibson's specialized beam. But there was a problem. "I can't maintain this firing rate for long!" At last Gibson ran out of power for his attack, and almost instantly the robot regained its full strength and took aim at the scientist. "Oh no!"
"Gibson!" the blue monkey was saved just before he took the full brunt of the nuclear blast by Chiro swooping in at the last second, and with Gibson now being held in his arms, the leader of the Hyperforce dodged several more blasts before Capt. Shuggazoom and Jinmay rushed in to take the enormous machine on. "What's the situation here?"
"By what little information I've been able to gather, that mechanical monster is essentially a walking nuclear power plant, reconfigured in some way to be a doomsday device rather than a means to provide energy for the planet."
"Maybe that's what the ooze monster did, transformed it into that!" Chiro landed near the edge of the cliff, and he immediately caught sight of a man in a hazmat suit, and he looked absolutely petrified...but not of the machine. "Is that guy looking at me funny?"
"I've been getting that same look kid." Sprx commented as he flew over everyone's heads with his magnets carrying twisted pieces of metal to the edge of the cliff. Then he looked back and smirked at what he saw. "About time we called in the big guns!"
The Super Robot had appeared in front of the huge red robot and flexed its arms in challenge. While slightly smaller than the nuclear monstrosity, it was clear which of them was the more technologically advanced. Seeing the radioactive machine turn its attention to the Super Robot, Jinmay turned to Capt. Shuggazoom and pointed down below. "We'll let the Super Robot handle this for now, let's help those people get across!"
"You got it darlin'!"
"Alright, let's hope this works!" Sprx flew into the sky and warmed up his magnets, and unleashed a furious blast that instantly magnetized the metal from the mangled jeeps and forcibly morphed it into a bridge they could use to get across. "Go! Get moving!"
The Tasneemians still appeared frightened, but one brave soul decided to test the stability of Sprx's bridge, and seeing as it held firm after he stomped on it with one foot, the man motioned for the others to follow, and immediately it was a race to see who could get to the other side first. "Be careful everyone! Make sure you all get across safely!" Chiro was waving for everyone to come as the aliens ran by him in a panic. "Jinmay, Capt. Shuggazoom! Grab those vehicles and carry them across the canyon! Our top priority is getting everyone to safety!"
"We're on it Chiro!" Jinmay blasted off towards the nearest car, which was quite primitive in nature like the jeeps as they were still made to function only on four wheels. Once there, she lifted up the car with ease and flew it across with the family inside the car screaming in fear at what was happening. "Relax, we're here to help!" once across, she put the car down and pointed into the distance. "Go, get as far away from here as you can!" They needed no coaxing as they revved off, and Jinmay immediately took off to get another one just as Capt. Shuggazoom was landing with his own cargo.
Meanwhile, the Super Robot was doing its best to hold off the nuclear machine, as it unleashed punch after punch into the robot's skull-like head. But the machine was able to fight back by swinging its own powerful arm, and the moment the Super Robot staggered back, the red robot cocked both its laser cannons and unleashed a furious blast of nuclear energy that the Super Robot attempted to hold back by slamming its fists together and activating its most powerful energy shield. Unfortunately, the sheer strength of the radioactive blast pushed the robot back and eventually caused the shield to break; the Super Robot fell onto its back unmoving after taking the remains of the blast.
Below, Otto had been helping with crowd control when he saw their giant ally fall. "The Super Robot's in trouble Chiro!" he shouted through his comm link.
"I saw!" Chiro replied as he continued to guide the panicking aliens across Sprx's bridge. "Capt. Shuggazoom has one more load to carry, then he can go help!"
"It's too late!" Otto gulped as he saw the evil robot turn away from the downed Super Robot, and it immediately turned back to its original target. "It's coming this way!"
Sprx groaned from the effort it was taking for him to keep the bridge magnetized, but once the final purple alien had gotten across, he let the bridge drop down to the deep chasm below. "There, that's the last of 'em!"
"Sprx, look out!"
"Holy mother of-!" the moment he'd heard Nova's voice, the red monkey turned around and was greeted by the sight of the gigantic monster aiming its nearly fully-charged laser cannon right at him at point-blank range. "MAGNO-FIELD SHIELD!" the pilot was able to put his magnets together and generate a shield just a mere second before the blast enveloped him. His teeth gritted as he furiously fought to keep the shield up, but just as it happened with the Super Robot, the shield broke and the pilot screamed in agony as the remains of the blast overtook him.
"SPRX! NOOOOOOOOOO!"
A/N: Heh...yeah, how 'bout that cliffhanger though? The team is facing a primitive (by their standards) and yet extremely dangerous threat, and now Sprx is down...which is really the only thing that y'all currently care about right now...heh.
Just to point something out, I didn't make Jinmay able to take on that nuclear robot just because I felt like it. For all intents and purposes, she and Capt. Shuggazoom are in fact the physically strongest members on the team, that group includes Chiro whenever his Inner Primate is unleashed and of course the Super Robot itself. If Jinmay can pick up a car with ease when not armored up (The Hills Have Five), then I headcanon that her strength is multiplied when she does armor up. More on that in the future.
As for Capt. Shuggazoom, he was able to go head-to-head with that Dark One as revealed in the episode "Golden Age" when we find out how the Alchemist came to become Skeleton King in the first place. If Capt. Shuggazoom can punch out a Dark One, that means he's got super strength. Jinmay does too.
Nova however, I can't recall a moment in the show where super strength was ever her thing, not counting the very brief time she was a giant in the episode "Belly of the Beast". Of all the monkeys, she is the physically strongest, and her fists make her able to break things the others can't with brute strength, but as far as I know, she never showed enough to have super strength be one of her powers.
...you don't care do you? You just wanna kill me for hurting Sprx...well I got past the writer's block, hopefully another chapter will be done soon, and you all can find out what happens to Sprx and the rest of the team then. In the meantime, please review!
