.~*Book One – Ties that Bind*~.
By: Fenix Uzumaki and CadySinclair

Welcome to our first story, inspired by "Pit of Doom" and the rest of the season one, for the Super Robot Monkey Team fandom. Fenix came up with the idea years ago for a "Pit of Doom" rewrite when she realized how silly it was that Elevator Monster did not take Chiro to the Citadel of Bone when he captured him but instead left him in an area where the monkeys could reach him.

Things have changed since that idea, and while that will be the main plot, new ideas have surfaced into a brand new story. A new past for the team, surprising connections, and an idea from "Golden Age" where I [Fenix] believe we met Chiro's father, but that timeline doesn't make sense... or does it? In such a day an age of advance technology, is it not possible for a time machine to have been made? After all, it's shown in the show that Chiro has no family other than the team, so just where did he come from? I've also taken some liberties with the episode "Golden Age" and changed a few things around.

This story will cover "Season One", with some very noticeable differences from the show, starting with "Pit of Doom" and ending with "Skeleton King".

CadySinclair has provided a new OC character named CG-5, or Cogs. All other characters belong to the show's creators. Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoy!

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Prologue

The Alchemist frowned as he looked into the face of the toddler waddling around the large laboratory, exploring under the careful watch of Mandarin while the Alchemist worked on his other cybernetic monkeys, trying to finish them before it was too late.

The young boy, he noted, was an odd one. Jet black hair, sapphire blue eyes, and a winning smile. A few months ago, the Alchemist had adopted him when he realized his friend and brother, the good Captain Shuggazoom aka Clayton Carrington, did not return from his last mission of defending the planet from an escaped Dark One. The boy had no mother, having been born as more a clone of Clayton than anything.

How, one might wonder? Well, it was because the boy was 'created' on Coranadol, the jewel world of the Veran Mystics. It was because of Clayton and the Alchemist's visit to the jewel planet to seek out power and wisdom to create a force for good that Clayton had touched the orb of pure energy and the infant had emerged in his image.

Among with being born of the Power Primate, the child had also inherited some of Clayton's own powers, or at least a version of them. Electrical in nature, and sometimes caused quite a lot of trouble when he had a tantrum. The boy also had the ability to speak to the monkeys, whom not even the Alchemist could speak the tongue of.

The Alchemist was delighted to have this ability so close at hand to him, and he had begun to study it, careful not to harm the child, and had taken some of his DNA and added it to his six monkeys. Only two took the most change, adapting the DNA into their own and making them strong in the abilities of the Power Primate. The ones he called Mandarin and Antauri. Mandarin was his first creation, a monkey of orange, while Antauri was one of black. Both intelligent. Both powerful.

Antauri had taken to the boy, always playing with him. As had the yellow simian, the only female to survive the original picking of his team that had not died from the implants, Nova. The two of them treated the young child as if he were their own, not that either of them showed any romantic interest in each other. Even Mandarin cared for the boy, often allowing him to play and mess with his gadgets. In fact, if the Alchemist went too far in his studies, those three would always be the quickest to protest with the other three not far behind.

Right now, though, the younger simians were asleep, and Mandarin was the only one awake, taking a few pieces from the scrap pile and disappearing to his own little area where he was working on his own project. He was trying to build another female monkey to give Nova a female friend. He had saved this female from being put down after the implants had gone wrong. He knew she had potential, as she was Nova's prototype, and she was still alive, but very ill.

CG-5, or Cogs, as young Chiro had named her, was more cybernetic than monkey. She was a violet chrome color with lilac fur. Her limbs were made of robotics, as they had been diseased and it was his way of trying to salvage what she had left.

The young monkey fidgeted and fussed, the robotic limbs flailing uncontrollably as she still could not get to grips with them. Dark eyes peered up at the orange mirror image of herself. Her movements for now, in any matter, were a little lethargic, not unusual for one of her age.

Mandarin fussed over her. Unlike the others, she had not been fully aged and was still quite young in both mental and physical traits. It was one reason why her implants had failed. It was because of her that the aging process was done to full maturity.

He chattered happily to her, and then glanced back as Chiro came waddling in, calling for CG-5 happily.

"Cogs! Cogs!" the toddler giggled, happy to see her.

One of her arms flopped about, trying to gain control of the weird thing. "Iwo?" Cogs tried to lift her head up to see who had arrived. "Dawin?" She chattered and kicked out with her legs somehow managing to push herself up at an angle. "Iwo, here?"

Mandarin nodded, pleased to see her standing. "Chiro is here, yes." He pointed at the boy who waddled over with a stuffed monkey toy in his arms. "How he managed to escape the watchful eyes of our brothers and sister is beyond me. Perhaps they are resting. Father has given them new implants. It is a very tiring process."

"Nap'ap?" She tilted her head and yawned a bit. "Iwo, p'ay?" Watching her hairless friend approach, she made to try get up, but ended up flopping onto her little face. Her little stub of a tail twitched about as she began to fuss again, upset about trying to get to her friend had ended up with her toppling over.

Chrio giggled and fell beside her, grinning.

Mandarin smiled, watching the two. "Behave, you two. I will go find you some more parts, Cogs." He had to reconstruct that tail. No wonder she wasn't balancing well. He left the room and went into the main one, surprised to see his master working on the portal to the Netherworld again after its failure a few months prior.

Chiro gabbered to Cogs and look at her happily before beginning to cry at a sudden negative energy filling the air as the portal he could not see was turned on.

Chattering back to her bald-furred buddy, she rolled over, confused at the sudden change in him. Why was he crying? Had she upset him?

Green energy surrounded him, as if protecting him against the negative energy, some of it flowing into her as well.

She cried out, what was going on here? That weird stuff tickled, it felt strange very weird. "I-Iwo?"

He shook his head frantically, frightened. There was a shout from outside the room, followed by the screeching of Mandarin, and negative forces were forced into the world as the portal was breeched. The youngling screamed and collapsed at the energy.

What was going on? She didn't like this one bit, not at all! Where was Mandarin? Why hadn't he come back? In the end, she curled up next to the boy, huddled up, terrified and confused, not understand what was going on.

Silence fell around the large compound for a long time before Mandarin finally returned, red rings around his pupils as he looked at the two with an odd expression. Something was wrong with him. He felt different. Very different. As if he was changing. Like his master had before him months prior, Mandarin, too, had been grabbed by one of the creatures beyond the portal, but for a much briefer time than the Alchemist had.

He looked at the pieces he had gotten from the scrap heap upon his return after waking from his sudden slumber and approached the lilac monkey. "I... will repair your tail. I must... finish you. Something is changing. Father is finishing the others..." He looked at Chiro and let out a pained screech as he was blinded by the green positive energy. "Get out!" he screamed at him, and Chiro, having woken up just before Mandarin's return, ran on four limbs out of the room, as if he had been spending too much time with the monkeys.

Finding her former source of comfort gone, the littler monkey lifted her head, nose twitching. At the sight of Mandarin, she shuffled and crawled forwards towards him. Maybe he could protect her from what had been so scary.

Mandarin glared at her. "Do not touch me, you limbless freak!" he snapped, finding himself shockingly angry.

At the harsh tone, she stopped in her tracks. Why was he angry with her? Why did he seem different? Had she upset him? "D-D-Dawin?" Trying her hardest to gain control of her mechanical limbs she reached forwards with one.

He smacked her paw away from him. "Sit still so that I can finish you already. It's taking too damn long as it is," he growled bitterly.

It hadn't hurt her, him doing that but it still upset her. "Cog'ad?" She chose to curl back up, pulling her limbs around her as best she could. How she was conveniently made her easy to pick up all tucked up in a ball, hiding her head in her arms sniffling. "Cog'ad... Dawin cross."

He scowled. "Just shut up." He began to work into the long hours, spending days with her with little rest to get her finished. Something was driving him to do so. He had to get it done. Get her finished so he could work on his next project, the one he shared with the Alchemist. Another portal, but this time one into the future. They had to send Chiro away. Things had become too dangerous for him. They would come to their senses to find the boy with bruises on him from their rough handlings of him. If he stayed, there was a chance he'd die before they found a cure for their illness.

Finally, months later, Cogs was finished and Mandarin looked at her wearily. "I have to shut you down. Send you with him. You will be his protector. Companion. Guardian."

Cogs didn't understand what he meant by shutting down, but she did, however, understand that he was sending her away. She clung to him, shaking her head. "Don't go away. Stay here! Why you sending away?" Since being properly connected to her own computer, her vocabulary had improved somewhat, thanks to the programs pre-installed. "I don't want to go."

"Because he is in danger... from myself and Father. We are sick. No, there's nothing you can do. You have to be there for him. Protect him as he grows," Mandarin explained.

Her metal tail curled and uncurled, wrapping around one of his limbs. "But... Don't want to leave you..." Leave him? The one who had made her better?! Who was now sick instead?

"You have to," he argued with a sigh. "Chiro needs you more. Where we're sending him... I do not know what the future holds, but I know that he will need protection. You know of his abilities. His natural power. He must somehow learn to control that power, and the future holds the key. You must go, Cogs, or else he will be harmed."

She looked down and put her paws around his still slightly bigger than her body. "Wish could come... maybe the future has medicine to make better." Somehow she knew he wouldn't let her get the better of him, arguing about this, but at least she maybe got to hug him. "Not now?" Cogs looked up at him, she didn't have to go right now did she? What would the future be like? Would she ever see him again?

He smiled and hugged her, opening his receptors on the sides of his head and sending out the signal unique to her to put her into a dormant state. "Now. Take care, Cogs," he whispered as she drifted off.

Within a few moments she was motionless; green eyes dimmed and dark, her arms sliding down from where they'd been around his waist; her silently slumbering self was supported only by him, head resting on his shoulder. She'd felt so sleepy, oh so sleepy within a few seconds, everything just slipping down and away into nothingness.

Mandarin sighed softly and picked her up, carrying her over to the second pod, sealing her inside. He looked up at the Alchemist, who had just sealed the almost two-year-old Chiro away in his own pod, with sad eyes.

"Fret not. You will see them soon, Mandarin. Now go join your siblings for your reset process. We must send these two on their way." The Alchemist started up the portal and pressed a button, the containers starting to move into the machine. A twitching began, and he felt himself beginning to slip. Claws took the place of his normal fingers, and his voice began to shift. This power... He couldn't let that power go! He made a grab for Chiro's pod, but Mandarin grabbed him, holding him back, fighting against his own demons.

"Release me!" the Alchemist shouted, making another grab before the containers disappeared. He pushed Mandarin off of him and grabbed the control panel, trying to stop it, and the ensuing fight ended with an explosion of the portal, blowing both of them back...

In the distant future, nearly a hundred and fifty years, a woman walking through the Zone of Wasted Years discovered the wailing babe with his name on a medallion around his neck. She smiled down at the small child and picked him up, not even noticing the other pod.

As the years went on, Chiro grew in the city orphanage as a reject. All potential adopters either looked him over or ended up returning him like a product to a store, stating that he was defective. Too many times had his electrical abilities caused trouble, shorting out circuits or damaging vehicles.

Being ridiculed for so long for his freakish abilities had caused him to turn them in on himself. He learned a temperate control over them, but sometimes even that wasn't enough. Finally, at the age of thirteen, Chiro ran away from the orphanage and decided to set up a new life for himself outside of the city.

A new life did find him when he stumbled upon an abandoned giant robot and ventured inside. Within, he flipped a switch he believed would give enough power to the machine so he could see, but instead it did so much more. His hands glowed green, unbeknownst to him, and flowed into the tubes of five cybernetic warrior monkeys, awakening them from their very long slumber.

Chiro had felt no fear of them, sensing something familiar about them, comforting, but their presence did startle him at first, especially when they began talking and he could understand them. To his surprise, he was made leader of a team called the Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce, and within days training began.

As the months waned on, battles were fought, most won, and all was quiet for a while until Skeleton King began a new plan. Digging a pit... and in that pit, to the King's surprise, a pod with a monkey inside was found. A monkey that had awoken when a signal to shut down the other Monkeys by Mandarin was sent out... and freed her.

Hi! Thanks for reading the first part of my first SRMT story! I originally wrote this seven years ago and decided to rewrite it since I had never published it. So many things changed and my ideas grew. I hope you've enjoyed reading! Please leave a review!

I'm planning on Saturday weekly uploads. :)