Hey everyone, I apologize for this taking so long to do, but I've been dealing with a lot of stuff these days, and most of my stories have been quick oneshots lately because they're easier to do. I have so many multi-chaptered stories going on now and they all are clamoring for my attention...plus, I've recently found myself wanting to take on another MASSIVE project, one that would - in essence - attempt to connect multiple universes together into one.

But I don't want to get into that too much right now, I know there are other things to take care of first, including this story! Which after nearly two years is finally getting an update. Honestly, I'm ashamed. It shouldn't take this long to do. But, I digress. At least I'm finally here now. If anyone out there is still watching this story, I hope you'll forgive me for the hiatus.

So without further ado, let's finish up our adventure on the Planet Tasneem! I own nothing except the story.
_

"Chiro...Chiro!"

Chiro groaned as he tried to blink away the massive headache pounding away at his cranium, but it seemed that it was determined to stay and act as a grim reminder of how easily Haral had taken him out.

Then something clicked in his head, and Chiro's eyes widened. "Haral!" he tried with all his might to move, but something was keeping him suspended in midair and his arms and legs were unable to even budge no matter how much strength he used, and his powers seemed to be blocked somehow. "What's going on? Where are we?!"

"My guess? Underneath the surface of the planet, deep underground."

Jinmay's voice reached his ears, and he was able to turn his head just far enough to be able to get a look at his robotic girlfriend through his peripheral vision, shackled from her arms and legs and even her neck, which explained to him why he couldn't move either, as he'd been given the same treatment. "What happened?"

"Haral's third eye, he took down you and Capt. Shuggazoom just by staring at you...it was weird."

"And what about you?"

Jinmay was silent for a moment, but then she finally spoke up with remorse in her voice. "I'm so sorry Chiro."

"Sorry? For what?"

"It's my powers...ever since we battled that nuclear monster, I noticed how strong I am...and I started to get scared, because I seem to be getting stronger and stronger but I can't seem to control myself! So...I've been trying to hold back..."

"Jinmay..."

"I-I know...I should've told you from the start...but...I guess...I just didn't want to admit it to myself, let alone you...but once my eye beams blasted a hole through six whole walls with one blast I...I just..." she gave a small whimper. "I didn't fight back Chiro, I was afraid to fight because I was afraid I would lose control and kill you by accident! I couldn't...I just couldn't..."

"I understand Jinmay." Chiro could just barely see through his peripheral vision that his girlfriend was extremely agitated over what she'd done, and he wished he could get free so he could provide some physical comfort. Unfortunately, verbal was all he could offer. "Listen, I know how scared you are, when I first got my powers, I almost blasted a hole through the training room! It took me a while to get used to how strong I'd become. It may take some time for you to do the same."

"Maybe..." Jinmay frowned and craned her neck to get the best look she possibly could at her boyfriend. "So...what's the plan?"

"Right now I don't have one," Chiro grimaced and fought against his restraints again, but all he managed to do was make his headache grow. "No use, these shackles are too tough to break free from...hey, how's Capt. Shuggazoom?"

"He's still out cold."

Just then, they heard the sound of a door opening from the far side of the room, and in came none other than Haral, actually floating with his third eye staring right into their souls. "Good to see you've woken up, we have some business to attend to."

"What sort of business?" Chiro growled.

The Tasneemian dictator paid no mind to Chiro's hostile tone and simply gave them an indifferent glance. "We have to decide what we're going to do with you of course...I must admit, I'm somewhat puzzled as to how you managed to survive my assault, but it's just as well. Killing you would quite honestly be a waste. I can make better use of your talents in my army."

The Hyperforce leader scowled in disgust. "We're not interested."

"It's not like you have a choice," Haral scoffed. "You see, the third eye that the creature's power has granted me can do more than simply inflict pain. Obviously, I would need to be able to do much more than that if I were to take over an entire army in such a short amount of time. Even with my rank, there is that pesky little issue called morality that would cause the soldiers to rebel against my cause."

"Gee, and here we thought everyone on this planet was just as sick and twisted as you are."

"I prefer the term: visionary." Haral responded smoothly to Chiro's barb. "With my third eye, I was able to take control of the minds of the entire Tasneemian army. Admittedly, there were a few hiccups along the way, not the least of which was when your shiny friend here somehow defeated my monster." Haral briefly glanced at Jinmay who found it in her to glare at him. "But with your power under my control, I will be able to launch invasion waves across the cosmos with your technology, and soon the entire galaxy will bow to my will."

"It won't happen!" Chiro snarled.

Haral just smirked and floated right in front of the still unconscious Capt. Shuggazoom. "We'll start with the old man." Haral's eye began to glow, and a beam of energy shot out of it and enveloped the elderly hero's head, and for the next several, agonizing seconds, all that could be heard was the echoing, tortured screams of Capt. Shuggazoom.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Guys, I think something's wrong."

Gibson checked the instruments and shook his head in response to Sprx's statement. "No, all systems are functioning normally. The weapons of the Tasneemian army are still no match for the Super Robot's hyper armor."

"I'm not talkin' about the robot, I'm talkin' about Chiro! We should have heard something by now!" Sprx glanced at the monitor where Nova's face could be seen. "Back me up here Nova, don't you feel it too?"

"I do..." the yellow monkey nodded grimly. "It's like a gut feeling, I think Chiro needs our help!"

"But how are we gonna help 'em?!" Otto exclaimed. "We've got the whole army out here with us, if we go back to the base now, they'll follow us there and we might make things worse! And we can't do anything to them because Chiro told us not to hurt anyone!"

Gibson scratched his chin with his tail for a moment, then his eyes widened as an idea came to him. "I believe I may have a solution!" Pressing a few buttons on his console, Gibson took manual control of the Brain Scrambler and warmed up the eye beams for an attack.

"Gibson, what are you doing?!" Nova shouted in horror. "Chiro's orders were-" The eye beams fired before Nova could finish her sentence...and seconds later, the entire army was completely encased in a thick layer of ice. "You...froze them solid..."

"Precisely!" Gibson crossed his arms in satisfaction. "Reversing the ocular polarity means that we can fight back without causing any lasting damage. Once we've sorted this entire mess out, we'll simply return to thaw them out and everything will be perfectly fine."

"Good thinking Gibson!" Otto exclaimed. "Now the worst thing that can happen to 'em is they get a bit of a cold! So let's go help Chiro!" As the robot turned to rush back to the military base, it wasn't long before they were greeted by more members of the Tasneemian army. "Freeze ray time!"

The robot again froze everyone solid, and continued on its way to hunt down Chiro and the others. "Gibson, you picking up anything?" Sprx asked.

"Yes...but I'm not picking up anything good." Gibson frowned deeply as he recalibrated his scanner. "Sensors indicate that Chiro, Jinmay and Capt. Shuggazoom are nowhere on this base."

"Whaddya mean they're not on the base?!" Otto shrieked. "Where could they have gone?!"

"That's just it Otto, they're not on the base, they're below it!" With a few more button presses, the sensors closed in on their quarry. "I'm picking up what appears to be a large network of underground caverns deep underneath the planet's surface, and those dark energy readings are there too!"

"What about Chiro?"

"No luck pinpointing them as of yet, Nova." Gibson growled in frustration. "Those blasted dark energy readings seem to always find a way to interfere with my sensors. It's like each time I find them, I have to recalibrate. All I can tell you right now is that they're underground, presumably with Haral."

"Then that settles it," Sprx shouted as he clenched a fist. "They need our help, and we're gonna have to go down there to do it!"

"For once Sprx, we're on the same page!" Nova exclaimed. "Alright team, let's go get our friends back!"

"Acknowledged!" Gibson smiled determinedly. "Initiating boring sequence!"

"Well gee Gibson...I don't think rescuing them is boring."

Gibson froze a moment before he slapped his palm to his face. "No Otto, not that kind of boring." Gibson flipped a switch and the robot suddenly flew into the air and began spinning at a high speed, with the monkeys inside safe in their cockpits thanks to the help of the internal gyroscopes. "We're right on track, but with the density of this material, it will take some time before we reach the source of the dark energy readings."

"I just hope we find them down there." Otto said nervously. "I dunno how anyone can be bored when Chiro and Jinmay and Capt. Shuggazoom could be in danger."

"Otto, it's not that kind of boring!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chiro and Jinmay watched in horror as Capt. Shuggazoom was set free from his restraints, a blank stare firmly cemented on his face, with absolutely no emotion to be seen. "What have you done?!" Chiro spat out in rage.

"I've simply debilitated his thought processes and made his mind pliable for me to work with. I believe that you would consider it making him a blank slate." Haral waved his hand in front of the old man's face and then grinned evilly, slapping the elderly hero across the face several times without any reaction from him.

Each slap made Chiro's eyes flare with more and more anger. "Stop it!"

Even Jinmay, who had been unable to muster up much emotion since the incident with her eye beams on the military base, was starting to get fired up. "Leave him alone!"

Haral simply smiled and placed his hands behind his back, as if he was taking in what he'd just done...and was proud of it. "You see? Completely unresponsive, unless I tell him to respond." Haral then glanced at the other two prisoners and frowned at them seriously. "Now then, who's next?" Haral floated in front of Jinmay for a moment, then moved on to Chiro, who venomously glared back at him. "What to do with you?"

"Keep away from him!"

Haral turned to smirk at the robot girl before placing his attention back on Chiro. "It's a shame that the boy's powers aren't truly his, isn't it?" the alien grinned maliciously before slapping Chiro across the face, causing a bit of saliva to come out of his mouth.

Jinmay clenched her teeth in anger.

"Without his so-called Power Primate, he's as weak and frail as any other human," Haral floated around the Hyperforce leader like a predator stalking his prey. "I've changed my mind...I won't put him in the army...I know just the place for him..." he held Chiro's face in his hand and widened his third eye even as the boy struggled to break free. "He will serve as my personal slave, and watch helplessly as I destroy everything he holds dear. It's more than human scum like him deserves."

Jinmay snarled at him. "Don't even think about it!"

And then the screaming started.

Jinmay felt a spike go through her robotic heart as Chiro's anguished cry echoed through her ears. In just a few seconds, the boy she loved would be nothing more than Haral's puppet to use and abuse as he saw fit. She clenched her fists as her anger reached a boiling point. She couldn't let this happen.

She wouldn't let this happen.

Jinmay strained against her shackles, putting more and more effort into her attempt to escape while Haral remained focused on brainwashing Chiro. They were holding firm, but Chiro's screams only fueled her determination. She would get free if it was the last thing she did! She pushed harder, and harder; her servos began screeching in protest, and still she somehow found more strength to fight with. "Let! Him! GOOOOOO!"

The restraints suddenly shattered into pieces, and the enraged robot girl's eyes began to glow as she threw all of her strength into a vicious punch that sent Haral flying off his feet and into the stone staircase on the far side of the wall. Then she looked up and fired her eye beams into the machine that was holding the restraints tight, and she leaped on top of Chiro's now unconscious body and shielded him from the debris that fell from the ceiling as a result.

Once she was sure that Chiro was reasonably safe, she got up and slowly turned around, getting into a fighting stance with her eyes glowing with energy. "Alright Haral, round two!"

The Tasneemian general got up and glared harshly at the robot girl. "You choose now to put up a fight?" Haral raised his fists by his sides as his eye began to glow. "What makes you think you stand even the slightest hope of defeating me?"

"Because this time," Jinmay armored up and clenched her fists even tighter, her anger over Chiro's brief torture session beginning to boil over. "I won't be holding back. Let's go!"

The two fighters took to the sky, and almost immediately, they were met in a clash of power that echoed throughout the cave. Jinmay's eye beams were firing at full power, burning hotter than they ever had as they went up against the blast coming from Haral's third eye. It wasn't long before the enraged robot girl began to get the upper hand, but that's when Haral suddenly switched tactics. Swooping away from Jinmay's attack before the massive blast could incinerate him, Haral flew towards the downed Chiro and the hypnotized Capt. Shuggazoom, firing a blast into the cave wall that carved out a massive boulder that slowly began to fall towards the unaware victims.

Jinmay reacted immediately, launching herself at full speed towards the rock and catching it before it could crush her friends; with some mild effort, she took off again with the boulder in tow, and threw it as hard as she could towards the Tasneemian general. Unfortunately, it was a simple matter for the villain to simply fly around the incoming object, and he swiftly struck down Jinmay with a two-handed blow that caused her to crash into the floor and form a crater beneath her. "You cannot win! Give in to the power of the Skeleton King!"

The downed robot's eyes widened in shock as she quickly turned to face her opponent. "What did you just-?!" She was abruptly cut off when Haral came down hard and pushed her even further down into the ground with his fists, drilling her at least ten feet deep before she was able to unleash a brutal counterattack with her Heart Cannon and send Haral careening towards the ceiling, smashing into a stalactite and causing it and him to land on the ground in a heap. "You actually name-dropped Skeleton King!" Jinmay snarled as she flew up out of the hole and stomped towards the alien. "You didn't just merge with a random creature that promised you power, you knew that it was a part of the most evil being to ever exist and you still agreed to go along with it!"

"And what if I did?!" Haral pushed off his back foot and tackled the stunned robot to the ground. "Power is power, and with it I will control this planet and the entire galaxy! I don't care what happens to the rest of the universe, I will take what is rightfully mine, even if I have to enslave every mind on the planet to do it! Including yours!"

Jinmay soon found herself being blasted by Haral's third eye, and for a brief moment Jinmay felt excruciating pain and she let out a scream of agony, but all the pain did was remind her of what Chiro had just gone through, and her eyes glowed red hot as she unleashed both her eye beams and her Heart Cannon simultaneously, forcing her attacker back and stopping the assault before it could go too far.

Before Haral could recover, Jinmay charged at him with her fist reeled back, and after she landed the blow and smashed him into the wall, he slowly got back up and placed his hand against his third eye.

When he removed his hand, it showed his eye had swollen closed from Jinmay's punch.

"Let's see you do that again."

Haral grunted in rage, then it evolved into a full roar as he rushed forward and grabbed Jinmay's leg, slamming the robot girl into the cave wall and then the ground before stomping on her chest over and over. Then he saw the bright light of Jinmay's Heart Cannon warm up once more, and this time he was prepared as he grabbed her legs and spun in a circle to build momentum, throwing her into the far end of the cave, past Chiro and Capt. Shuggazoom. "Mark my words little girl, you will pay dearly for your insolence!"

As Jinmay slowly got up with a groan, she supported her head with her hand as she felt her power levels dipping dangerously low. She quickly came to the realization that despite how strong she was seemingly becoming, she wasn't immune to her own version of fatigue, and she was exhausted.

And Haral could tell. "You appear to have run out of gas." his taunt was met with a silent glare. "It's time we put an end to this."

Then Haral was suddenly knocked back by a massive foot that appeared from the ceiling.

"Monkey team!" Jinmay allowed a bright smile to spread across her face as she witnessed the Super Robot pick Haral up into its hand and loom over the evil alien, its face appearing menacing despite its features never changing. "Boy am I glad to see you guys!"

"We couldn't let you have all the fun, kid!" Sprx's voice chuckled over the communicators. "How ya holdin' up?"

"Better, now that you're here." the robot girl powered down her armor and let out an exhausted sigh, falling onto her rear as her drained energy cells pushed to keep her going. "We've got to help Chiro and Capt. Shuggazoom."

"Don't worry Jinmay," a hand gently squeezed her shoulder, and she beamed brightly at the figure standing over her with a proud smile. "I'm okay...and you did great, I'm proud of you."

"Thank you Chiro," she blushed for a moment, then craned her neck up to smirk triumphantly at Haral, who was still struggling to break free of the Super Robot's grip. "So what are we gonna do with him? He's still merged with Skeleton King's ooze monster."

"Well now it's time to put my plan into action!" Chiro clenched a determined fist, but noted that his girlfriend's face had once again turned anxious at the mention of his unexplained plan. "Don't worry Jinmay," he squeezed her shoulder again. "Now that the monkey team is here, my plan just got about four times easier." he activated his communicator. "Monkey team, come on down here and gimme a hand, it's time we finished this!"

Moments later, the monkey team all appeared from an open hatch inside the robot's chest, and they flew down to meet up with their leader. "So what's the plan Chiro?" Nova asked.

Chiro smiled and looked up at the struggling Haral. "Otto, tell the Super Robot to bring Haral down to our level."

"You got it!" Otto's ear extended and sent out a signal. "Alright Super Robot, bring that icky ooze man down here where we can deal with 'im!" Otto's request was granted as the robot lowered its hand and turned it upside-down so that vehemently protesting Haral could be as close to them as possible. Of course, it did make a rather amusing image as now Haral was hanging upside-down as well. "So what're we gonna do with 'im Chiro? I say we give 'im a clobberin'!"

"I think Jinmay's already taken care of that, and it was awesome by the way," Chiro couldn't help but grin at Jinmay's suddenly bashful expression. "But now it's our turn." Chiro stared right into Haral's hateful two eyes and smirked victoriously. "Alright team, just like when we cleansed Sprx of the Fire of Hate! We're gonna purge the evil right out of 'im!"

The monkeys gawked in shock at their leader; of all the things they were thinking, that idea never even crossed their minds. "Chiro, are you sure?" Nova asked.

"I'm sure," Chiro nodded confidently. "If we did it with Sprx, we can do it with Haral! Now let's do it, and be ready to get that ooze monster once it's out!" Chiro crossed his arms and powered up his Power Primate, and the monkeys soon followed suit as they were all enveloped by a flaming green aura. Then that energy converged on Haral, who screamed at the top of his lungs as his evil power was forcefully purged from his body; black ooze poured from his nose and mouth, with some even leaking out of his third eye, and it dripped lifelessly onto the ground beneath him in a puddle. "Keep it up!" Chiro grunted. "It's almost all out!"

Once the last of the ooze was excreted from Haral's body, the Tasneemian general stopped screaming and fell unconscious, his third eye now gone. The Super Robot shifted slightly to place Haral on the ground in front of the Hyperforce. "We...we did it." Sprx slumped with a tired chuckle.

"Yeah, we did! It actually worked! This is great!" Chiro grinned and turned around to look at Capt. Shuggazoom, who appeared to be coming out of his trance now that Haral had been depowered. "Welcome back Capt. Shuggazoom."

"Thanks kid," the elderly hero sighed in relief. "Boy I'll tell ya, no matter how many times you get possessed by an evil space creature, you just never get used to it."

"How many times has it happened to him?" Sprx gave a quick grunt of pain when Nova elbowed him for that comment. "I'm just sayin', sheesh."

"Well in any case, let's get back to the surface team, if Capt. Shuggazoom is back to normal, then the rest of the Tasneemian army should be too." Chiro then looked down at the pile of goo and shuddered in disgust. "And someone get a mop and a jail cell, pronto."

"Uh...Chiro?" Otto hesitantly raised a hand. "About the army..."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Upon reaching the surface after imprisoning Haral and placing the pile of ooze in the science bay under a containment field, Chiro's jaw dropped at the sight of the entire Tasneemian army frozen solid. "Guys, what did you do?!"

"Well we couldn't exactly come and help you while the whole army was on our tails!" Nova's statement didn't stop Chiro from crossing his arms and giving his team a disapproving glare. "It was Gibson's idea!"

"What?!" the blue monkey shrieked. "Well, yes, it was, but-!"

"Never mind team," Chiro sighed and shook his head in exasperation. "Let's just thaw 'em out and we can sort it out after."

After the Hyperforce recalibrated the eye beams and thawed out the frozen military, the army began cheering at the robot for returning their freedom. Then as the Hyperforce emerged from the robot to talk with the aliens, they were soon greeted by a heavily-built military official, one who seemed much older judging by the wrinkles on his purple face. He was also much more amiable than Haral had ever been. "Thank you, Hyperforce," the man said with a wide smile after the team greeted him on the ground. "I am Colonel Damron of the Tasneemian army, and my people are forever in your debt for putting an end to the evil that plagued our planet, and bringing that traitorous scum to justice."

"Nice to know not all Tasneemian officers are total jerks." Sprx chuckled nervously when Nova gave him a glare. "No offense there Damron."

"None taken," Damron nodded in understanding. "Considering Haral is the only Tasneemian officer you've had any interactions with, I can hardly blame you for having that impression. I have been working for many years to expose Haral's treachery to my superiors, but I was never able to get any solid proof. Haral was always too careful with his plans. But when that ooze monster appeared and merged with Haral, all of his subtlety went out the window, and almost immediately we were placed under his control. We're grateful you arrived when you did and brought this nightmare to a swift end."

"We're glad we could help...and uh...sorry about the whole freezing you thing..." Chiro shook the colonel's hand and officially handed the indignant Haral over to him, as two guards rushed up to restrain the prisoner in case he got any ideas of escaping. "As much as we'd like to stick around and make sure Haral gets what's coming to him, we've got our own mission to complete. Good luck with rebuilding Tasneem."

"Thank you once again, Chiro of the Hyperforce. It will not be an easy task, but I am confident we'll pull through." Damron nodded confidently. "Good luck to you on your mission I do wish we could offer some sort of aid in return for your efforts."

"Not necessary," Chiro held up a hand and smiled. "But we have an old saying back on Shuggazoom: 'it's the thought that counts,' so thank you all the same." Chiro then motioned to the rest of the team with a quick nod, and the Hyperforce lifted off back to the robot, waving farewell to the Tasneemians below before disappearing back into the familiar interior of the Super Robot. "Glad that's over with."

"No kiddin' kid," Sprx exhaled loudly in sheer relief. "Now that that's over with, we can head back to Shuggazoom and help everyone take down Skeleton King once and for all...for real this time."

"I'm just glad everyone came out of this relatively unscathed," Nova fixed the red monkey with an earnest look for a moment. "We had a few close calls."

Sprx smiled and slowed down his walk to allow the others to go ahead of them, and once they were out of everyone's field of view, he took Nova's hand and gave it a quick squeeze. "Yeah, but it all turned out okay...nice to be reminded you care though."

"You know I do," Nova smiled back, and the two primates stood still for several moments, just staring into each other's eyes and reveling in the care and affection shimmering through them.

A scream of horror echoing through the robot quickly broke them apart.

"What was that?!" Sprx exclaimed.

"It sounded like Gibson!" Nova activated her jetpack and flew through the corridors at full speed until she caught up with the others, Sprx right on her heels. "What happened?! What's wrong?!"

"This is inconceivable! Impossible!" Gibson pointed to the containment field that was holding the pile of ooze...or at least, it was supposed to be. "There is no way it should have been able to escape! That containment field was set for voice recognition only, and there was no visible sabotage done whatsoever to cause it to malfunction! And even if it had, an alarm should have been triggered to notify me!"

"So that thing's just runnin' around the robot unchecked?!" Sprx shouted as he activated his magnets.

"Defensive positions team!" Chiro's order was followed without question, and the team got into a circle to cover every possible field of view, weapons armed and at the ready. "Gibson, scan for the dark energy, see if you can get an idea of where it might be."

Gibson nodded silently and deactivated one drill so he could use his scanner, and after a few moments, the scientist was quite honestly confused. "I don't understand, this makes no sense!"

"Care to elaborate, Gibson?" Sprx scoffed.

"My readings indicate that the dark energy is still here on the robot, as we suspected...but...it somehow seems less sporadic and in a way...easier to track."

"That's a good thing," Otto glanced briefly at the blue monkey. "Right?"

"Normally I would say yes," Gibson looked over his shoulder to look at his team. "But...those dark energy readings now seem to be coalescing and forming a distinct shape...Chiro...it almost seems to look like-"

Gibson never got to finish his sentence, as the black ooze suddenly dropped down from a ceiling ventilation shaft, and again enveloped Chiro.

"Not again!" Jinmay summoned her remaining strength and armored up once more. "This thing is obsessed with Chiro!" she activated her electric shield and reached out a hand to shock the creature, and the ooze convulsed for a moment before ripping itself off of the now heavily breathing boy and crawling away a few yards. "What is your deal?!" the robot girl growled at the monster.

But then the team was met with the biggest shocker of all, as the ooze stood up and started to take form...a form that was so familiar, they wouldn't have believed it if they hadn't seen it with their own eyes. "You will all die."

Jinmay gasped. "It...it talked!"

"And it looks and sounds like Chiro!" Sprx gawked in disbelief.

"Only a lot oozier!" Otto cringed and stuck out his tongue in disgust.

"What are you?" Nova stepped up and raised her fists threateningly. "You better start giving us some answers, or you're gonna get a face full of fist!"

The black ooze monster just laughed, and the Hyperforce couldn't help but reel back at how much it now sounded like their leader, who had just gotten up after his close brush with a fate worse than death. "You act like you even have a chance of beating me, I'm not a normal formless, you can't just punch me and make me go away." the creature then turned and pointed a defined but still dripping finger at Chiro. "I'm not done with you yet, Chiro. Mark my words, we still have some unfinished business to attend to."

"You and your master won't win, you're still on our turf here!" Chiro clenched a fist. "Monkey team, let's get 'im!"

"I don't think so!" the monster took off running, and the Hyperforce quickly gave chase. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before half the team got caught by ooze traps that kept them from pursuing, and the briefest hesitation on anyone's part allowed the dark Chiro-shaped being to get out of sight. Soon enough, the only ones left were Chiro and Sprx, and the monster had managed to get all the way to the escape pods. "It's been fun, but it's time for me to go!"

"You're not going anywhere slime ball!" Sprx fired a blast from his magnets, but it was easily dodged and the monster responded with a glob of goo that effectively immobilized the pilot. "Oh great, I'll be ripping this gunk out of my fur for a month!"

"If you're lucky!" the creature laughed again, and turned its attention back to Chiro. "So, you gonna try and attack me again? I'd love to get up close and personal all over again."

Chiro growled as his fists shook in rage. "What are you? If you're no regular formless, then you're something else! You killed Po, you nearly destroyed an entire planet!"

"And I'll do much more than that! And let's just say...after our next meeting, you won't even recognize me." it grinned conspiratorially. "But for now...just call me Orich." Dodging an energy spear from Chiro, the creature leaped into an escape pod and launched it before it could be stopped. Moments later, it was back in its bone ship and smiling evilly as its voice came over the communications console of the Super Robot. "Seeya later Hyperforce, sooner than you think!"

And then the ship was gone.

"It calls itself Orich?" Sprx scoffed. "That's just Chiro backwards, how unoriginal can ya get?

"Yeah...it is pretty lame," Chiro said grimly. "But I get the feeling it just got even more dangerous."
_

A/N: So, can anyone see where this is going? Maybe I've telegraphed it, I dunno. But I do know I wanna start updating more stories, including this one. So many people have been waiting on updates and I honestly feel like I owe it to you all to get some content up. Hopefully this is a good start.

So Jinmay kicked butt! But does that she's over her small internal crisis? And what's up with the creature? Naming itself Orich, taking the shape of a Chiro copy? And how'd he escape? Well, I think that last part was self-explanatory, but whatever lol. So what's next? Well we gotta chase that son of a gun down of course! Stay tuned ladies and gentlemen, this is just the beginning!

Leave a review if you can!