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SRMTHFG The Novelization: Chapter 3

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Chapter 3: Taunting Shadows


Chiro promised that he would never lay a finger on school lunch again.

Everything was looking up for him that evening, too. He didn't get punished, he had a juicy Hover Burger for dinner, and he was sound and safe under his bed sheets. It couldn't get any better than that.

What a rain on his parade that would be…

/00000/

His dream began as the usual: Go out on patrol duty with the Sun Riders, track down any criminals, kick their butt, and then soak in their latest victory. It was the same old, same old.

Seated in the sidecar of the one of the Sun Cycles with Johnny Sunspot, Chiro grinned with anticipation on what battle awaited his team. Was it going to be rescuing damsels-in-distress? Or perhaps even saving some civilians from a hostage situation? He didn't know… but he was ready to take on anything.

Johnny Sunspot, whose head was fastened with a headgear akin to Chiro's, looked down at his Sun Riders criminal-activity detector. "We got a report saying that the Brass Titan and the Inflatable Nemesis are at it again!"

"Then we must apprehend those criminals immediately!" Super Quasar said, clenching one fist while keeping his motorcycle from going awry. "They must meet the righteous of justice!"

Aurora Six smiled over at the young two boys. "Ready for another fight, Chiro?"

Chiro gave a thumbs up. "Always am!"

The superheroes arrived quickly at their intended destination. Upon seeing the silhouettes of two distinct figures up ahead, the Sun Cycles halted some distance away. Quickly removing his helmet, Chiro ran forward to confront the villains.

"Causing trouble again?" Chiro asked.

The two villains turned… and the boy couldn't believe his eyes.

"Wh-what?" Chiro gasped. "B.T. and Glenny?"

B.T., who was garbed in the Brass Titan's guise, smirked. "Look who it is, Glenny! It's Shuggazoom's own first class nerd!"

"You're still having dreams about the Sun Riders?" Glenny laughed, his overweight body practically made for the Inflatable Nemesis's uniform. "How lame is that."

For a moment, Chiro lost his nerve. But that was it; a moment. His eyes narrowed as he moved into an aggressive stance. "You won't be saying that after the Sun Riders and I kick your butts."

"Oh, yeah?" Glenny's sneer grew. "Where are your Sun Rider friends now?"

"Are you blind? They're right behind…"

When he turned, he was absolutely shocked to see that neither the Sun Riders nor the vehicles weren't anywhere in sight. They were just there! Where did they go?

"So, you think you're some hot shot hero all by yourself, eh?" BT/Brass Titan jeered.

"Well, tough, 'cause you're just a little baby boy!" added Glenny/Inflatable Nemesis.

The boy gritted his teeth, determined not to let anything stop him from giving the justice that they deserved.

Except…something happened that he wasn't prepared for.

As the two villains laughed at him…color slowly began to vanish from their bodies, fading away to a sickly dark-green, almost black. The laughing continued, only the voices began to deepen…to darken…to merge. Their bodies melted like wax on a candle, distorting their images beyond recognition. The substance that the bodies had turned into began to trickle down the street.

Noticing that the gap between him and the substance was slowly being closed, the boy took a step back.

That proved to be a mistake. The instant that he moved, the substance lashed out at him in unbelievable speed. Part of it whipped around his legs, binding them together.

With a gasp, the boy placed his hands onto the sticky tar-like substance to shove it off. Except that when he did, his hands sunk into it and couldn't move once they were in.

"No!" he shouted, wrestling his body in a feeble attempt to free himself. "I can't get loose!"

"Keep struggling if you like," the deep, dark voice hissed at him. "It will make this easier for me."

The substance that held him captive began to move, taking the boy with him. Chiro gasped as the movement was so quick and unpredictable that it was starting to make him dizzy. His gooey prison arrived at the water tower, and parts of them acted like tentacles and began to climb up the structure, lifting the boy high above the streets.

The storm clouds overhead darkened into something more sinister. It was as if the storm itself was blanketing all light from around Chiro. Not only had the moon and the stars vanished, but even the city lights seemed to dim and dwindle.

And as the darkness began to swallow him, the substance began to close around the boy's body. Chiro could feel the substance tightening around him, threatening to break him in half like a toothpick!

All the while, the mocking laughter did not cease. "You think yourself to be a hero. Foolish boy…"

Chiro wanted to cry out in some way, whether it was a call for help or a scream of pain. But the squeeze on him was cutting off his circulation and crushing his lungs. How long would it be before the life drains out from him…?

Even as his vision was fading, the boy was surprised to see…a rainbow piercing through the storm clouds like an arrow. The rainbow struck the strange substance, and although the blow looked like a fist punching a pillow, the scream from the sickly voice told Chiro that the blow was hard. The section that was squeezing him loosened.

This caused Chiro to fall towards the street! If the boy's senses weren't dulled from the squeeze, he would have known that a fall from such a height would surely kill him!

But…the rainbow turned course and streaked toward him. The individual colored-lights separated and each took hold a different part of the boy's body. The yellow light took his right leg and the green light his left, the blue light took his right arm and the red light his left, the purple (albeit dark purple) supported his head, and the orange light supported his back.

Unlike the how gooey formation held him just moments ago, each of these lights' grasp was secure but gentle; it reminded him of how his aunt used to hold him in her arms when he was badly frightened. His fall slowed until he could feel his body gently placed on the street.

Even though him being saved wasn't stopping him from losing consciousness, something inside him told him not to be afraid even if he passed out. These lights…whatever they were…he knew they would keep him safe.


/00000/

A ray of sunshine peeked between the tree branches and leaves and landed on the boy's closed eyes. Chiro groaned in protest, already in discomfort from his brow being sweaty and his head a little hot. Slowly, he turned in his bed and opened his eyes. He should have closed the curtains last night.

"Okay, okay, sunshine, I'm awake," he moaned. "Don't expect me to be happy about it."

He got up and stretched before grabbing a clean set of his school uniform. After getting dressed, he entered the bathroom to brush his teeth and comb his hair.

"Ugh…what a weird nightmare…" he said. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to have a Hover Burger right before bedtime…

He tried to push the thought of the nightmare to the back of his mind. He had school to focus on. Getting distracted about that and robot monkey hallucinations wasn't going to maintain his marks.

When Chiro stepped out of the bathroom, his nose caught the unmistakable smell of cinnamon. Shuggazoomian toast! His favorite breakfast, especially when it was his aunt's homemade recipe. He returned to his bedroom to pick up his backpack, and then dashed down the stairs.

"Morning, Aunt Zia!" he greeted as he seated himself at the table.

His aunt smiled brightly at him, flipping over a toast on the grill as she did. "Good morning, Chiro! You're awfully chirpy this morning. You must have had a good night sleep."

Chiro forced a bit of his smile. He probably shouldn't bring up the nightmare. "Yeah, I slept well. Is it that obvious?"

Giggling a little, Zia used the spatula to slide a couple pieces of the Shuggazoomian toast onto a plate. "Maybe."

She gave him that plate, but he didn't start eating until his aunt retrieved hers. He didn't like having his meal without her at the table unless it couldn't be helped.

Once the two of them were settled, Zia asked, "Chiro, isn't it a half-day at school for you today?"

"Yeah, it is," Chiro answered, cutting a slice off his toast. "Advanced students get out early on Fridays. Why do you ask, Aunt Zia?"

Zia drummed her fingers on the tabletop. "Well… late yesterday, I managed to finish my deadline at work. I was thinking I could take a day off so we can spend this afternoon together."

Chiro swallowed his first bite of Shuggazoomian toast. Part of him felt relieved; he had been afraid that she was going to say that she was going to go with him to school that day to talk to someone about BT and Glenny. First of all, he didn't want her to worry about him; and secondly...he really didn't want anyone at school to see her coming with him and to think that he was being clingy.

"It's been a while since we spent good quality-time together, Aunt Zia!" he said in delight. "I would totally go for that!"

"Oh, wonderful!" Zia said. "I can already tell this is going to be a great day for the both of us."

Chiro beamed. "Well, better get going. The sooner I get done with school today, the sooner we can spend time together!"

He gulped down the last quarter of his orange juice, and then put the glass, plate, and silverware in the sink. He would have washed them, but he had to get to school.

"Love you, Aunt Zia," he said, grabbing his backpack and heading to the door. "I'll see you later."

"Have a great day, Chiro!" Zia called from the kitchen. "Do well on your school work… oh, and, whatever you do, don't talk to strangers!"

The thirteen-year-old cracked a smile. Typical Aunt Zia…

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Yeah, Sprx really wished that he was back at the Super Robot.

The half-asleep robot monkey was convinced that if the trunk hadn't been there, he would have fallen off the branch ages ago. Not surprising considering he hadn't gotten any sleep all monkey doodling night long. He blamed that partially on his teammate. Whenever he drifted off, she would do the generous thing of nudging him out of it. "No sleeping on the job" she would tell him.

"Jeez, Nova," he grumbled to her after the fifth time. "Can't a monkey get a decent night's sleep?"

"You had plenty of it." Then she proceeded to whack him over the skull with her tail.

"'No sleeping on the job, Sprx'," he said under his breath. "'It's not like we have anything better to do than babysitting. Forget about sleeping. It's not like some monkeys here need it.'"

"You said something back there, Sprx?" Nova asked, looking back at him.

"No." Sprx smiled innocently. "Nothing at all."

Nova rolled her eyes, and then resumed her sentry.

And Sprx resumed his own moping. He did this for what he assumed was the next half-hour. Below, civilians were progressively packing the streets now that the sun was visible on the skyline. He noted that many of the humans that came by were adults in business suits (he preferred to use the term monkey suits). They must have had six senses like Antauri for they were able to elude crashing into anything when all they did was look at paperwork in their hands or their watches.

"Love you, Aunt Zia. I'll see you later."

Sprx jerked his head to the apartment. The human boy, Chiro, was stepping out the door. On his shoulders were the straps of a backpack.

"Have a great day at school, Chiro!" a woman's voice shouted from inside. "Do well on your school work… oh, and, whatever you do, don't talk to strangers!"

The red monkey looked at Nova. "What's this place called school?"

"I don't know," she said. "How about watching and listening like other monkeys have been?"

He would have retorted back, but the pair noticed that Chiro was walking beneath the branches of the tree. They didn't move till they were definite that the boy didn't see them.

"He's moving out," Sprx said. "We'd better go report."

"Way ahead of you," Nova said as she pressed a paw on one of her metallic ears.

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A single, vexed screech would be all it took to shatter the serene silence of the old park reservation and propel birds to fly away from the seemingly lifeless statue in a panic.

"OTTO, STOP YOUR IDIOCY THIS INSTANT!"

In the configuration of what the birds had seen as a go-to perch spot, a green cybernetic monkey curled his lower lip in a pout at his less than amused teammate.

"Why not?" he asked.

Gibson smacked a paw to his face. "Otto, I am going to repeat this to you in the simplest terms possible: Repairing the Super Robot does not give you the right to add one of your ridiculous gizmos to the mainframe!"

"Aw, come on, Gibson! Try it out just once!"

The green robot monkey tapped a key on the Command Center's console. A motorized arm with three revolving blades attached to it rose out of a panel. His blue teammate let out a startled yelp as he was thrown back by the gust of wind.

"See? It works!" Otto smiled.

Hauling himself to his feet, Gibson curtly replied, "Oh, yes, it certainly does, Otto. As much as I would love to be the guinea pig for another one of your inventions, we have other pressing matters to attend to."

Otto rubbed his head sheepishly. "Oh, right. Sorry, Gibson. I'll get back to work."

"Thank you."

They returned back to their objectives. Not long after they did, a whoosh sound at their backs informed them that someone had entered the Command Center.

"Current status, Gibson?" Antauri asked, joining them.

"Scanners are fully functional," the blue robot monkey replied, indicating an open panel near Antauri's feet, where Otto was fixing up some of the wiring. "However, there is no Skeleton King activity registered."

Otto reemerged from underneath the panel, looking rather solemn. "But...I can't shake off this weird feeling that he's coming here."

A troubled look flickered across Antauri's features. "You are not alone, Otto. I, too, sense the Skeleton King's presence... as he does for us surely."

That had been the first any of them had uttered his name since reactivation. It was rare for Antauri to appear less at ease than normal, but infrequently, a trace of unwanted emotion would find its way on his face without his awareness. His two years of training on Koraladol had taught him to keep his sentiments bottled up to avoid exposing weakness to the enemy… and his comrades.

Just then, Gibson's ear-antenna extended. "Okay, Gibson, we watched the Kid." Sprx's voice said in irritation. "Can we come home now?"

Equally as annoyed, Gibson answered, "Do you have anything to report, Sprx?"

"Just that the Kid has to go to this place almost every day called school, which is where he's going now...and he apparently doesn't like being there for some reason. And he's also got plans to spend the afternoon with a relative. No trouble anywhere."

"Do you want us to follow him?" Nova's voice added. "Or do you need us back at the Robot?"

With a quick glance at Antauri's direction for confirmation, Gibson answered, "Keep observing him. We have everything well in hand here at the Robot. And remember your orders."

Sprx was heard groaning in exasperation on the other end of the link. "I am so gonna kill you for this one day..."

"Mm, noted," a half-listening Gibson replied as he concentrated back on his work.

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Chiro happily walked down the street. He didn't really know why he felt so happy. It was almost as if a part of him that he really wanted to be was finally coming out, and it was making him smile.

He was almost to school property when he hesitated. Why did he have this feeling that he was being watched? Was it BT and Glenny? He turned around, glancing about. There were a few kids on the sidewalk and some hover cars zooming by, but none of them were pausing to watch him.

He was baffled. There was no one spying on him... except there had to be. This feeling...it didn't feel like a gut feeling; it felt more like something...deeper. What was that feeling?

Then, the bell rang its first warning, snapping Chiro back into attention. He sprinted into the school grounds, doing all he could to ignore the peculiar sensation.

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"That was a close call," Nova said.

Sprx gave a slow nod. The two of them had frozen up when Chiro looked over at the bushes where they were concealed. They were afraid that their cover was blown, but a bell from the adjacent building had rung, drawing the boy to it.

"Okay… now what?" Sprx asked his teammate.

The yellow robot monkey, however, had already left him to scuttle towards the vegetation planted on the border of the property.

"I guess it's back to the trees..." Sprx muttered, going after her.

A few dull hours later, the bell rang again. Sprx and Nova watched as several kids emerged from the school building. Most of them were going to the recreational area or to the outdoor consumption area. The two didn't quite understand why only some kids were allowed to leave school early upon that bell.

But Chiro was one of them.

He didn't get very far when two other boys—one lanky, the other tubby—appeared in front of Chiro before he could actually exit the school grounds.

"Hey, Geek," the tubby one chuckled darkly. "Hope you enjoyed dodging us the last two days, 'cause we've got quite a treat for you today."

"Yeah," the lanky boy said as he grabbed Chiro's upper arm. "And you don't want to miss this!"

"Actually, BT, I would rather not," Chiro said. "Let go of me."

"Heh, no way, Mr. Smarty-Geek," the lanky boy, BT, said. "Come on, Glenny."

Against his will, Chiro was forced back into the heart of school grounds. Sprx snarled softly. Much as he didn't like Chiro, he knew what he and Nova were witnessing was wrong. But he minded their orders and stayed hidden.

Hard as it was.

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At the Super Robot, an alarm blared, arousing Gibson's attention. "Oh, dear..."

"What is it, Gibson?" Otto asked.

"There is a small incoming vessel closing in on the planet's atmosphere! And it's just not any small vessel..."

A layout of the planet became displayed on the monitor. Approaching the airspace at rapid speed was what could be described as a ball of fire. The flames coming off spluttered so profoundly that it would be impossible to tell what it was... for most.

Antauri squinted his eyes, a feeling of dread growing inside of him.

"Formless."

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In a couple of moments, the three boys were standing at the edge of a pool. Unknowing to the bullies, they were facing in the direction where Sprx and Nova could see their faces plainly. Chiro's face was white as a sheet.

That expression was exactly what the bullies wanted.

"Ha ha, remember earlier this week, Geek!" Glenny laughed. "When the Gym class first assigned you to the swim team? You were begging to the teacher to be assigned to anything, anything but the swim team."

"Yeah, and you should have seen the look on your face!" BT said. "You were as yellow as a chicken! Bawk bawk bawk!"

Sprx growled. He could see Chiro's face had paled...and he knew what Chiro was experiencing. "This ain't right," he said. "Orders or no orders, this ain't right."

"Sprx, don't—"

Without waiting for Nova to complete that response, he quickly came down the tree and ran behind some bushes to get into position.

"So, what's the matter, Geek?" BT asked. "Don't wanna get wet? Don't want any sand getting in your shorts? Don't want your fingers turning all wrinkly?"

"About time you cooled off your show-off hothead," Glenny said, as the two were ready to push Chiro into the pool.

Chiro didn't say a word. All the boy did was stare into the depths of the water. He was paralyzed with fear; Sprx could see that clear as day. The look on the kid's face was all too familiar to him. He could see another standing there in Chiro's place, just as petrified… just as helpless…

"Come now, Sprx," that voice scolded in a distant memory. "It's only a little water. What's there to be afraid of? If you cannot confront this absurd fear of yours, then you no right to call yourself a member of this team. You'll be nothing but dead-weight to the rest of—"

On impulse, he activated his magnets. He then tore out of the bushes, shoving BT and Glenny from behind with his weapons and electrocuting them mildly. The two older boys screamed and fell into the pool.

This action had pushed Chiro forward a little, and he cried and almost fell in as well, but Sprx was hasty in grabbing the kid's wrist and pulling him into the bushes.

Not having noticed who saved him and apparently alarmed by these turn of events, Chiro yanked his hand free and ran as fast as he could, accidentally sending Sprx face-first into a mud puddle.

"You're welcome..." he grumbled, even though Chiro was out of sight by the time he straightened himself up.

"Sprx!" Nova exclaimed, rushing over to help him to his feet. "What were you thinking?"

"Hey, the Kid needed help," Sprx said as he wiped the mud off his face. "No one was standing up for him. Did you see the look on his face? Remember that swimming training he forced me to go through, and how I reacted? No one should have to go through that experience, and the Kid almost did."

Nova merely looked at him. The frown on her muzzle didn't seem angry or annoyed… just thoughtful.

Sprx snorted lightly. His teammate was likely thinking on how she should break the news that he had disobeyed orders. "Hey, you can tattle on me to Gibson and Antauri all you want about me not following orders to stay hidden, but I thought our orders were to protect him, and I did. I know I did the right thing!"

"I didn't say it was the wrong thing!" Nova snapped. "But you shouldn't have just—"

The conversation ended there for his and Nova's antennas extended. "Sprx, Nova, we got a problem!" Otto's voice called in. "We got a Formless vessel that's gonna land outside the city in about ten minutes! Antauri and me will come in and back you up, and Antauri says keep your eyes on Chiro."

"You got it, Otto," Sprx answered, shutting off the communication a moment later. "Come on, we gotta catch up with the Kid."

Nova pounded her fist into her palm. "At least there's one good that comes out of this: we're going to finally be getting some action."

The red monkey inwardly sighed. If luck was on his side, then maybe she might forget about the whole 'shoving the kids in the pool' incident after she gets her taste of adrenaline.
Here's the next one!


SRMTHFG! (c) Ciro Nieli, Disney Company
Zia (c) AnimeMonkeyGirlFan
© 2015 - 2024 AnimeMonkeyGirlFan
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