A/N: Welp. I am very tempted to end it here just for the sake of resolution in a fic. We have a couple more chapters after this about Chiro's emergence, but that's where we lost our motivation/time. What do y'all think? Want the others or would you rather leave it here?

Chapter 10

"The man who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself." - Friedrich Nietzsche

"Attention everyone," Mandarin's voice sounded throughout the Robot. "We'll be having a Team meeting in five minutes. Everyone is to report to the Command Centre."
The intercom cut off with a squeal that had everyone wince.

For a heartbeat there was nothing (sound, movement, feeling), then Antauri's shuffling cut through. Helen looked over her shoulder to watch her mate stand and begin to head to the door. She gave a slight frown of disapproval, but turned her attention away once more.

Only the gentle bubbling sound of the little current in the meditating room was heard after Antauri left Helen to attend to the meeting in the Common Centre. She wasn't allowed to participate. She wasn't allowed to participate much in anything anymore.

No one had ever told her that that was the case, but much like every other message that was left unsaid, it made itself known.

The silence was reeking havoc among them all.

It rang in the air with with a deafening cry. It did everything possible to get the attention of it's creators. It thrashed and howled and screamed its way into every crevice of the Robot until it ruled over everything. It ate at nerves and tore at sanity.

There was no talking, no laughing, not even any arguments could be heard among any of them anymore. Whatever camaraderie they had developed had been unceremoniously snapped. There was nothing more to them now but the mutual silence that wove it's way into minds and settled there, spreading everywhere in a naturally irritating manner like dust.

Helen dipped her fingertips into the stream; hoping the physical touch of cool water would likewise help bring coolness to her worried spirit. These past weeks she had been in a state of perpetual anxiety and uneasiness – a condition she had witnessed in the others as well. Except Mandarin, of course. He was reserved to the point of being rude and fanatically stoic as always – almost completely detached as if staring into another dream world. A world of conquest; a world of megalomania.

Helen stroke the fur on her side, but found no peace in this gesture. Perhaps it was not too late. Perhaps there was still time.

The white monkey stuck the rest of her hand into the cool water.

As always, Mandarin was standing in front of the large viewscreen, waiting impatiently for everybody to assemble. Usually, he would have hollered for silence and made many theatrics before they could get on with business, but not today. Not these days.

Nobody made eye contact as they gathered in the Common Centre. Nobody laughed or made pointless small-talk. Any such petty social acknowledgements had been stuffed away in favour of a mutual isolation; nobody seemed to want to know what the others were thinking – out of fear that they might be thinking the same things.

Antauri hadn't settled in a chair but stood straight – rigid, even. Nova kept balling her fingers into fists and relaxing them again. Sprx glared intently at a point under the ball chairs. Gibson seemed to murmur all the prime numbers to himself as some sort of nerdy nursery rhyme. Otto was curled up in his ball chair, his tail wrapped around him protectively.

Mandarin turned to face them. They all felt his critical stare. They all felt compelled to, if not meet it, at least peek at him in response. The tense discomfort that had built up towards their leader ever since the Training Room Incident was almost a physical presence in the room.

"You are my Team. My soldiers. My allies. We have served this City, catering to the needs of simple people who cannot take care of themselves - helpless creatures unable to protect this planet that is so vital to the plans of Destiny for the universe. I have decided that the time has come for change."

There were no theatrics, no flailing his arms around, no pointing to the sky, or making elaborate gestures - only the icy voice of Mandarin as he told them the exact extents of his proposal to take over Shuggazoom City as its rulers.

As each perfectly articulated word fell from the orange leader's lips, the other monkeys felt like they were sinking deeper into quicksand, falling out of existence, not really believing the meaning of the words as they were spoken. Antauri closed his eyes. It was like he was standing on the deck of a small dinghy in the stormy masses of the ocean, being thrown hither and dither and each word was another wave ramming him at full speed and sloshing a cold, undeniable truth in his face. Gibson had taken to shaking his head lightly, trying to wake himself from this nightmare world he suddenly found himself in. Otto's eyes, usually bright with wonder at everything shiny enough to warrant his attention were now the dull and lifeless glass eyes of a doll, staring keenly forward, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, saying nothing.

Only the rage and shock of the red and yellow monkeys respectively interrupted Mandarin:

"You can't be serious!" Nova exclaimed as she and Sprx got up from their seats.

"Are you still hopped up on those dodgy meds Gibson gave you?" Sprx asked angrily. "You wanna be even more of a dictator now?"

Mandarin stood perfectly still, but narrowed his eyes until they appeared as two dark slits: "I expected no other reaction but haphazard conclusion-jumping from you, SPRX-77. And no, I intend to steer the humans onto the right path of Destiny, as the pitiful beings are clearly incapable of doing so themselves. They have no direction, no determination, and no drive of their own. We are far superior in mind, and body; logic dictates, no, the very essence of Nature dictates the rule of the fit over the unfit." The last part was said while Mandarin very pointedly shifted his unrelenting gaze to the Hyperforce scientist.

Gibson shook his head slowly, then more vigorously as he spoke: "What you are proposing... it cannot be justified by logic. This is... this is ethics and it's not right, it is wrong, immoral. These Citizens are sentient beings and we cannot impose on their most fundamental rights of freedom."

"You are saying we should stand by and let them make decisions that ultimately lead to the doom of the Universe?" Mandarin asked scathingly.

"Yes!" Sprx shouted and took a step forward. He always knew that arrogant holier-than-thou attitude would bring trouble but this... this was just unbelievable. Or maybe it wasn't and that made him even angrier. "Because it's their right to mess up if they want. It's not about being the strongest or the survival of the fittest – it's about being able to botch things up, or goof off, or do anything they want to. Life is more than just needs and evolution. It's about choices and mistakes and working and fixing and being whoever you are. It's all about their freedom of choice – you have no right."

Mandarin didn't flinch, but it was becoming worryingly clear that he was growing extremely annoyed with the conversation. "That hopelessly liberal idealism is what has brought about so much trouble for us already. Tell me, does that cute little tirade extend to your bounty hunter friends? Should I have let Skeleton King invade Shuggazoom City because it was his freedom of choice to do so? Of course not. Because we ruled that his choice to do so was unfit for the course of Destiny."

"We didn't want to take over the Universe with Skeleton King. What makes you think we'll do it with you?" the golden warrior spat.

Mandarin very pointedly stared down Nova but the female warrior met his gaze, steeled by feelings of anger and treachery.

"So that is how it is going to be?" Mandarin asked, pronouncing each word, each syllable with the utmost precision. "I am now a villain to you? Because I wish to guide the people more sternly? Because my proposed methods are not idealistic and pleasant and cuddly enough for you?"

"This is not our duty." Antauri said. His voice was as calm and neutral as ever, and Sprx had to wonder just how he could manage that at a time like this. It felt inappropriate somehow. "Mandarin, we are servants of the City, protectors only. We cannot interfere with their decisions or laws; we cannot intrude on the freedom of any being this way. You may reason as eloquently as you muster, but it is final: we, the Hyperforce, can never become the rulers of Shuggazoom. It is not within our right or Destiny to do so."

"Then perhaps... the Hyperforce should be no more."

It was like lightening had struck them all, leaving them immobile as a hundred thousand amperes fried their circuits and toasted their bodies. It would have been preferable, instead of having to face this grim reality, this twisted lunatic that had once fancied himself the very epitome of all that was Proper and Right had just disbanded them out of spite and ire.

Otto slowly slid out of his chair and hit the floor with a dull sound. Gibson wished he was far away, back on his scholarly planet with the equations, and research, and timetables he never was able to follow.

Mandarin's displeased expression grew to one of spiteful self-righteousness: "Know that the only factor which separates madness from determination is whether the determined man in question wins his battle or not." The energy blade sparked to life with an ominous sizzling sound. "And I very much intend to stand as the victor of this battle."

Verans do not sleep. But that is not to say they cannot be visited by nightmares.

Master Zan stared into the pure green swirls of the Power Primate, trying to ignore the persistent presence hailing his mind for a mental link. The Veran Mystic knew who it was, he knew why he had come, and he knew what he had come to gloat over.

Mandarin was gone, shifted over to the other side. And his creator wanted Master Zan to join him.

"Mandarin, it does not have to come to this. It is not too late."

Behind Antauri, the facial expressions of the others betrayed the black monkey's words. It was much too late. There had been too much anxiety, too much fear, too much warranted suspicions to ever go back from here.

"You are not this foolish, Antauri. Do not act so. If you wish to lead the Hyperforce with your wishy-washy ways, so be it: have your mutiny. I shall see to it that my Destiny is fulfilled. None of you shall stand in my way."

Mandarin stepped into an offensive stance, flexed his knuckles with a pleasing crack and extracted the shield as well. Antauri - as a last resort before the argument would undeniably become physical - reached out to his brother's mental presence.

It was a strange feeling and his first response was to want to jolt back in revulsion at what he found.

It was startlingly familiar on the thin surface but he needn't scratch at it to see the wrongness; a dark taint -more than a taint - a core of corruption. And that was the tragedy: someone you knew and cared about had been twisted, had been swayed by a dark mistress, and perverted into this wicked… pretence of a soul which was parading about in the guise of this once dear friend.

Before Antauri could draw in the breath to voice his final warning, a swipe of the blue energy blade crackled through the air where he would have been had not Gibson pushed the black cyborg out of harm's way.

And that was it. The final drop that sent the masses of water spilling over the edges. Mandarin had always been malicious with Sprx – granted most people wanted to hit Sprx at some point (and Nova had certainly done so more than a few dozen times) - and short-tempered with Otto, and rude to Helen whenever he felt like it; but Antauri was Mandarin's oldest friend, the peace-maker, the mediator of the group. Attacking him was like ripping apart the white flag, setting it on fire and then stomping on the ashes – it left out any opportunity to ever settle this peacefully.

So it finally came to this. To Nova clunking her fists together, Sprx's magnets sizzling in preparation, Gibson's drills pointing out vital parts to hit, Antauri focusing the Power Primate to attack, and Otto slowly getting to his feet sending a truly heart-broken look at Mandarin that said "Please don't do this."

But he did.

Helen never heard the sounds of the scuffle and nobody thought to stop and ring her up to inform her of it as they were busy not being cut into smoking pieces of shish kebab. The white monkey walked the well-trodden path to the kitchen, already busy in her thoughts with preparing the midday meal.

Mandarin was becoming increasingly unbearable, but she never expected him to act in pure malice against the Team.

So when her limited aura reading abilities allowed her to pick up the mental ripples of pain coming from Antauri, she dropped her ingredients in pure shock and darted off in the direction of the Main Control Centre.

After having made sure that Antauri and Nova weren't too badly damaged after being flung headfirst into the wall, Gibson and Sprx turned to a cruelly sneering Mandarin.

"Fools – I have taught you every useful battle technique you will ever know. What hope do you have of defeating me?"

"I'm really sick of your voice, Mandy," Sprx growled and hurled an attack at the orange monkey, which he side-stepped. "All you do is rant dramatically like a Saturday morning cartoon villain."

Mandarin lunged at the red monkey and the metal weapons scraped against each other with ear-splitting results. Mandarin pinned the pilot against the wall and hissed: "And I suppose you fancy yourself the hero in that ridiculous metaphor?"

"Don't you know? Unlikely heroes are all the rage – and anybody would do better than you." Sprx said and placed his foot on the orange monkey's torso and kicked him off. Monkey-doodle was it a fantastic feeling to send that haughty douchebag gasping for air. Gibson moved in to launch a far-range attack which Mandarin dodged, albeit staggering.

Gibson glared offhandedly at Sprx. "Saturday morning cartoons-themed banter? That's hardly appropriate for this situation."

"Y'know what's hardly appropriate? Discussing the quality of my trash-talk in the middle of battle."

An enraged war cry alerted them to the female warrior's wish to enter the fray again. She teamed up with Sprx in order to flank Mandarin while Gibson and Otto attacked his left side. Antauri picked himself up and rushed to their aid having no fighting partner of his own to worry about anymore.

The tubes were locked off. The tubes were never shut off permanently like this (the only time was when Otto's bath-tub cleansing robot mosquitoes went on a cleaning rampage through the Super Robot and they sealed off the tubes to keep them from spreading.)

When she entered the door code for the seventh time and the door continued to deny her its tube-entering ability, Helen had to pause and wonder that either she had forgot the correct code or that somebody had made sure to keep her out. Or to keep the others in.

Really, even if she managed to open it, what would she do? Throw a few custard pies around, offer a tray of flapjacks to anybody who behaved themselves? Helen banged on the door a few times just to let out the frustration of being so helpless, so useless.

She couldn't fight, she couldn't harness the Power Primate, and she couldn't calculate some elaborate scheme or high-wire the door or fly a vessel or even make friends with anybody besides the easy-going pilot and her mate.

Whom she couldn't even keep her promise of friendship to.

It was all so hopelessly stupid. Helen could very clearly hear the shouts and bangs of the battle on the other side of the door; yet here she was, unable to do anything about it but slink off to the kitchen and make a plate of sandwiches for whoever came out alive and able to consume solid food.

A mental cry of pain was all the motivation Helen needed in order to snap out her momentary despair and make her reconsider all previous ideas of leaving the door alone.

She didn't need to high-wire the door panel. She just needed to cut off the specific wires inside as Otto had showed her when he gave her a tour of the interiors of a few hundred select parts of the Super Robot during a misguided attempt at bonding. She had tried to pay attention, but all his technobabble just seeped out of her mind as quickly as the green monkey could spout it – all but this. Stress and adrenaline had an interesting effect on the mind, at times.

Helen took at deep breath and returned to her original form.

She had come to resent this body. When you lived amongst a band of colourful, cute little robot monkeys and your true form was a writhing mass of tentacles it wasn't a wonder she'd become self-conscious.

Helen willed a tentacle to become as thin as paper and slipped it under the panel, then with great difficulty she returned the mass to the appendage, very slowly pried off the panel and revealed the inner machinery. Helen winced. She wasn't used to displays of strength or durance, ever.

She quickly sought out the correct wires and ripped them out. Luckily, this form was so desensitized that she barely felt any pain as a few sparks flew from the assaulted electronics. The door whizzed open and for a while, she just stared at it, not comprehending that she'd done accomplished something besides cooking and cleaning.

She returned to her robot monkey form and went to enter the tubes where she was greeted by a gloved fist reaching for her throat.

Mandarin was sent flying in a tangle of limbs and indignant shouting and crashed into the wall. He sent the others a hateful glare, furious at the sudden luck in battle the others were enjoying. He tried to summon that anger, that cleansing determination and hatred he felt when he was eye-to-eye with the Skeleton King. It seemed to elude him.

Mandarin growled in frustration and darted for his tube. It didn't hurt to be prepared and he had made sure to change the door codes in order to gain a short time advantage should he need one. The orange monkey disappeared, much to the dismay of the others, who regrouped around the tubes.

"What the—" Sprx hammered on the closed off tube. "It's locked! Why is it locked? That orange son of a—"

"The door access codes have been changed," Gibson informed while fiddling with the panels. "It should be a simple matter of—"

"I think you will want to stay put for now," the haughty voice of Mandarin sounded over the intercom.

"Think again," Nova snarled. "We'll beat your sorry rear all the way into prison, where it belongs, you lunatic."

"On the contrary, Helen is the one who will be sorry."

Everybody froze. They were so used to never having Helen around in battle that they hadn't stopped to think she might be at risk in this one. The monkeys exchanged deeply worried looks. A flat-out hostage situation was a delight they had been spared up until now.

And up there, with their deranged former Leader was the white monkey at his mercy. Shy, little Helen who never went out of her way to attract too much attention, who never meant any harm, who kept to the kitchen and just tried to get by as quietly and unobtrusively as possible.

She was a pacifist who never meant to interfere with their fights and now she had unwittingly become a key player in the most unnerving way possible.

Struggling only added to the aggravating pressure around her throat, of course.

That didn't really stop her from wriggling about and grasping at the surprisingly strong grip that held her.

"Stop that," Mandarin spat. Working the controls single handedly was enough of a hassle, but having to do so while keeping your other hand clamped upon a resistant body made it even more difficult.

Helen only glared harder at him and renewed her struggling.

"What did you do to them?" Helen finally asked. She hadn't felt much more pain shoot through the others for a while, but they were obviously still alive if the orange monkey was making her a hostage.

"I offered them the universe," Mandarin said.

"Why're you doing this? What good can come out of it?"

"Good? The greatest good will come out of this. Destiny can not be stopped, my dear. Once those mutinous so-called-heroes are out of my way, I'll be able to truly follow my path."

"The path of Darkness only ever leads to hell," Helen sneered at him.

Mandarin smirked at her in an infuriating manner - a glint in his eye telling her that he knew far more than she on this subject.

"The greatest leaders only ever rise up out of such a path."

"Well, we have to do something!" Nova roared.

"What, exactly? Rush up there just to see Mandarin fling Helen out the window?"

"It's better than faffing about down here, just giving him time to rewire the whole Super Robot and kick us out!"

"He won't." Gibson cut into the dispute between the red and yellow monkeys. "Mandarin has secured access to the security mechanisms, but I have successfully cut off his control of them. Unfortunately I had to do so by shutting them down so we cannot use them to our advantage." He looked up from the consoles, a weary look on his face.

"So he's still up there with Helen. Except if we rush up to see him off her, we won't be shot at on the way. Groovy," Sprx rubbed his helmet.

"Could you stop talking about bad things happening to Helen. I think it's putting Antauri on edge," Otto whispered.

Over by the control tubes, Antauri was pacing neurotically, each time he turned on his heel his tail swung about violently.

"We should attempt to negotiate," Gibson said, having finished his work by the computer console.

"Negotiate?" Nova echoed with astonishment. "With that— that creep? Gibson, are you out of your mind?"

"Weren't you the one who wanted to make a move?" Sprx asked.

"We can't give in to whatever insane demands he has!"

"Yeah well, maybe we can debate this for a while longer, hm? – it's only Helen's life that's at stake here."

Before they could argue further, Antauri physically went between the two and addressed the blue monkey: "Gibson, open communication with Mandarin. We must attempt to reason with him."

Gibson tapped a couple of buttons.

"Mandarin." Antauri called; his voice tense and shaking at the edges.

"Ready to reconsider your positions given the circumstances?" the mocking voice rang out through their auditory receptors. "Helen will be pleased to hear that, I should think."

"Don't hurt her," Otto called out weakly. "She's... she hasn't... she's really nice, Mandarin. She's done nothing."

"Exactly. She has done nothing of value for this Team besides filling up empty space. But that is really enough of her – let us discuss your unconditional surrender."

"I... what? Surrender?" Nova huffed. "For all we know you're bluffing."

"Oh, well then. You shall have your proof."

Then the line went oddly silent. The monkeys just stared at each other in worry for a couple minutes before a long-lasting, piercing scream ruptured through the empty air, sending a cold chill of utter dread up their collective spines.

The scream was drawn out to a whimper before the line went silent.

No further words came from the intercom. None were needed

The other monkeys stood petrified and quite unable to properly grasp the ramifications of the tortured shriek that had rattled their auditory units. Slowly, horrible disfigured images filled their minds.

Nova trembled slightly clenching and un-clenching her jaw and fists, then looked to the black monkey whose back was still turned towards them. He appeared as stone-like as always. When he slowly started giving orders - still not facing them - his voice was unnaturally calm, hollow, and devoid - as if his cybernetic neural implants had taken over while the primal instincts were forced to be put down for now.

"This is a critical time, Team. Our first priority is getting Helen out of his grasp. Nova and I shall go and face him directly - as a distraction. Sprx, Otto; I want you to make your way through the vents and meet up with us. Gibson, you are to stay here and counteract his commands as much as much as possible - we will need you for navigation as well. Can you do that?"

"I - yes."

"Good. This is going to be difficult, he won't relinquish control easily. He knows he ultimately cannot win this battle. He knows we will never allow him to do this."

With that, the black monkey took off toward the tubes with the yellow one close behind.

While Nova and Antauri went for the tubes, Gibson turned to the consoles yet again. The red monkey tried to exchange looks with the mechanic, but Otto was reluctant to give any more indications that he was aware of what was going on around him. Instead, he looked blankly at the yellow and black spots that whizzed up the tubes.

Gibson entered commands and started up programs as fast as his robotic fingers could manage.

They didn't like what they'd been told. But then again, they didn't have to. As long as Antauri gave orders, they would follow them. Faith had little to do with it. There just didn't seem to be any other option that could get them to anything close to victory.

Not that Gibson would ever consider anything to do with today's incidents a 'victory' for anybody.

"He knows he ultimately cannot win this battle. He knows we will never allow him to do this."

Does he? Nova thought as Antauri's last words rang though her ears. Most of her doubt at the time had been washed away by determination: they were going to do something. They were not going to sit around and wait for Mandarin to take charge as always. This time she would be able to rise up and smash his head in and not stand around waiting for a miracle.

From the consoles in the Main Lounge, Gibson was still keeping them updated on Mandarin's whereabouts by tracking the orange monkey's hacking activities - simultaneously muttering words of disapproval of the hackneyed plan through the communication implants in their helmets.

However, he was mostly drowned out by the echo of Helen's agonized scream still ringing in her ears. Nova tried to shut it out and focus on following her Second-in-Command's furious tempo. Antauri might not have wanted to let it show through words, but it was painfully evident that Mandarin's addition to his wannabe emperor stunt – pulling Helen into the fray – had clearly had gotten so far under his skin that Nova wasn't sure if he could keep his usual composure when they reached their former Leader. She dearly wished he would because judging by the heat she felt boiling inside her, she knew she most likely couldn't.

Nova wasn't a pure, innocent damsel with naive morals. She was an Action Girl with a warrior's creed of honour. Mandarin had wronged her – sure he wanted to wrong the entire Universe as well, but he had wronged her first and she wanted revenge for that first.

She assumed Antauri's livid resolve to be, likewise, tainted by personal concerns. She would have smacked him comatose if it wasn't.

It didn't matter who of them lost control first, she supposed. And it didn't matter for what purpose or reason as long as Mandarin was never allowed to fulfil his insane fantasy of tyranny.

In the end the thought rarely mattered as long as the right people won the battle.

It doesn't matter where or when or for what purpose: if there are vents in any building, any vessel or machinery, odds are that somebody leaning towards the courageous side of the moral compass is going to be crawling through them for escape and/or rescue purposes, frantically trying to piece together some snippet of a plan and banging their heads against the ceiling at each twist and turn.

Bang!

"Ow!" Sprx yelped and glared at the dent his helmet had created in the metal surface before edging along on all fours behind Otto. Both monkeys were struggling to amble through one of the smaller passages in the ventilation network - because apparently not all ventilation shafts were manufactured with the intention of 'heroes being sneaky' in mind.

"Monkeydoodling having to crawl through monkeydoodling vents this is monkeydoodling Mandy's fault for monkeydoodling just having to go crazy and stuff I swear —"

"Don't call him that," Otto said firmly.

"Wha—"

"Don't call him Mandy."

"I... okay. No, okay ... it's still his fault."

"..."

The green and red monkeys ambled along in relative silence. There were no words spoken besides that of Sprx's cursing every time he hit the sides of the vent. At last, they came to a fork; Sprx brought out his auricle communication device and called on Gibson.

"Please for the sake of my bruises' bruises tell me we're nearly there," Sprx pleaded.

"Regrettably, Sprx, I cannot for certain tell you where 'there' is yet. Mandarin seems to have eluded me for the time being and I cannot pinpoint his exact location."

"A simple 'no' would've been enough," Sprx groaned. "How the scrap are we going to be able to stop Nova and Antauri from doing their stupid heroics if we can't find them?"

"I suppose we will burn that bridge when we get to it."

"I think you mean 'cross that bridge'," Sprx replied and scurried along after Otto who just decided on the centre direction.

"I don't think that I do," Gibson said and cut the transmission.

Sprx balled his hands into fists and swore under his breath. If Helen wasn't in one piece when they got to them there was going to be much setting fire to things. Living, breathing things like treacherous orange spit stains.

The hand around her throat tightened involuntarily.

"Here comes your most precious knight," Mandarin hissed at her as he watched Antauri race through the halls toward them from the viewscreens.

"He will defeat you," she hissed back. A renewed fire lit her eyes that transfixed Mandarin with curiosity for a moment.

A twisted, sickening smirk of delight warped his face, haloing it in darkness. His eyes burned though. They penetrated her so completely she froze enough to feel her heart rate spike at the malicious glee he was exuding towards her being. The humourless chuckles that followed from his changed countenance set her nerves into overdrive, racking shivers up and down her body until she thought she wouldn't be able to stand if he wasn't holding her so firmly by the neck.

"You're in love with him," he said simply. The darkness that had enveloped him never left as he watched her.

"You're insane," she gasped. Not from his claim, but she absolutely knew on a very basic level that all sentient beings possess that she was looking into the face of pure madness. There was an indescribable rapture in his eyes as he watched her squirm and cherished the knowledge that he could easily end her life that no sane being would ever hold. He simply wanted to watch the universe fall at his feet because he could.

"I think not, my dear. No matter - it will never be returned. I'm afraid your beloved is already spoken for, he's given his heart to his precious Power Primate. He'll follow it wherever it goes."

Fear raced through her blood in a greater quantity than she could have ever imagined, but she found the strength to challenge his stare with her own.

The clapping of feet on metal nearby interrupted their contest.

"Let's see how much you're worth, shall we?" Mandarin asked as the black monkey finally came into view.

'Please don't do anything irrational.'

Antauri's pace came to a halt as an energy sword was suddenly pointed right at him. In his mind, he still couldn't help but think of it as his friend's weapon and how he still had trouble fully accepting that he would henceforward stand on the receiving end of the blade.

They took a minute to just stare at each other before Mandarin broke into a huge grin as if he was welcoming a long-awaited guest.

The energy blade ever so slowly turned from facing Antauri, to hovering dangerously close to Helen's throat. Releasing the crushing grip from the white monkey's neck Mandarin reached out and entered a code on the nearby computer panel. In reaction, the emergency doors started closing, effectively trapping the three in an enclosed area of the hallway.

Or, they would have, if Nova hadn't lunged forward and squeezed under the door before it closed. She rolled over the floor and landed on her feet; sending dirty looks in every direction until she regained her bearings and ran to Antauri's side.

Mandarin's looked at her amusedly: "Well, well, well. The little girl wants to play rough with the big boys?"

The overall temperature of the room seemed to rise a few degrees at that.

He had grudgingly respected her for her determination, her steadfast character, the way she stood up to others – but all that vanished the minute he saw her crumple under his control during that fateful training session. She was breakable; she was frail. She was weak.

Those thoughts must have been visible through his shifting expressions, because Nova brought out her fists and moved to a battle stance.

"You didn't break me, you bullying freak. I'll gladly prove it to you or anybody who dares say otherwise."

She didn't get to move a centimetre before she felt a firm hand on her shoulder.

"No."

Nova turned to look incredulously at Antauri, all but yelling in his face to bugger off about this and let her turn Mandarin into a stain on the floor. He looked past her and directly at Mandarin.

"Mandarin. Your fight is with us; not Helen."

"You wanted her to be a part of this team. This is the only purpose she is any good for – a helpless living shield," Mandarin sneered. He had returned to his original position of firmly crushing Helen's neck with his energy blade extended toward the main threats in the room; he shook Helen about to emphasize his words. "I knew from the second you agreed to this despicable companion arrangement that this pitiful creature would be your downfall."

Helen sent a pleading look at the two Hyperforce members. Whether it was a plea for rescue, or if she was trying to tell them to get out of harm's way or that they shouldn't worry about her was hard to say.

Antauri went on, clearly upset by Mandarin's words, but still his words were eerily calm: "Let Helen go. We will—"

"Oh please. You will what? Exchange places? Surrender? I think not. I think..." Mandarin put on a mock thoughtful expression. He casually deactivated his sword before he lifted his hand to point at the two opposing monkeys. "I think I shall just kill you where you stand."

As her would-be rescuers were lifted a few feet above the floor and thrown directly into the wall, Helen felt Mandarin squeeze her neck the minute Antauri's helmet collided with the hard surface.

She rarely cried – she had been taught to express sadness in other, more productive ways – but now the tears pressed on and she felt a sob wanting to escape her throat. She wouldn't let him have the pleasure though, and so mustered all her strength to keep quiet. But as the two monkeys were tossed hither and dither (why didn't they resist?) like lifeless dolls by a bored child, she found it increasingly hard not to sob out her desperation.

As Antauri and Nova slid down the wall - Nova slightly unconscious and mumbling something about ripping off somebody's tail and whipping him to death with it - the black monkey glanced at the ceiling. Then he started sidling along the wall, as if wanting to put distance between himself and his demented brother.

This seemed to please Mandarin to no end. The orange monkey walked casually, practically dragging Helen after him as he moved in for the last personal, spiteful comment before the kill.

"Do not worry yourself, old friend," Mandarin hissed; deliriously joyful. "Death comes to all. The only difference between you and me..." the blue energy sparked almost in anticipation."... is that I shall die laughing while you..." he lifted the blade to the black monkey's face. "... will simply die."

Normally, in this situation – after this the villain's arrogant epitaph – the hero would stare hatefully and declare that evil would never triumph or something equally cute; but Antauri seemed more interested in a particular spot on the ceiling. This put off Mandarin somewhat. The least Antauri could do was pay attention when he was about to be brutally murdered.

Frowning, the orange monkey glanced upwards to see what he was vying with for attention. His eyes widened in surprise and Helen took advantage of his temporary shock and tore away from Mandarin before a sizeable chunk of the ceiling decided to fall on them. Mandarin moved away, but not quickly enough to not have the large grid formerly covering the ventilation shaft fall flat on his left foot.

Two monkeys looked down, one of them grinning something that couldn't be heard over their former leader's high-pitched howling and screaming of death threats

"Mind if we drop in?" Sprx yelled and targeted Mandarin with a red blast that sent him flying through the room in a graceful arch.

"About time you dorks showed up!" Nova exclaimed and rubbed her helmet. "Now – let's get tearing!"

Through the haze of pain and humiliation, Mandarin could make out the figures of his former team members cautiously advancing on him – cautious not to let him escape, not because they feared him.

He had lost his edge, and his hostage. He had lost his team. He was alone.

Mandarin pushed himself up the wall and frantically typed in numbers to have the emergency doors open, and sent a triumphant glance at his enemies when the door opened, allowing him to escape—

Right into the held-out drill of Gibson. Before Mandarin could even start to emit a Monkey Mind Scream, Gibson activated his drill and shot what looked like a few cubic metres of cobwebs, crumbs and dust into the dumbstruck face.

While the orange monkey sputtered and coughed up cobwebs, Sprx edged in and asked Gibson: "What's with the dirty tricks?"

Gibson didn't look too proud of the unconventional ammo. "I must have forgotten to empty my drills after Mandarin less than politely ordered me to vacuum the entire robot," he replied dispassionately.

"Classy," Sprx said.

Mandarin leapt to his feet. A look of pure malicious determination lighted up his otherwise darkened features. Debased, defaced, dethroned – he was all those things, but he would never give up without a fight. He might be trapped, he might be grossly outnumbered, but he would make sure this was a fight the others would never forget. He would be the shadow that haunted their dreams of peace and justice forever.

He held up his knuckles, cracked them with a nauseatingly jarring sound and smiled the smile of a person who has lost everything except the strength of will to leave a few lasting scars before he welcomed oblivion.

In the end, there was no cheer, no jubilant applaud from the crowd, no sense of self-worth or joy over the triumph over evil. There were no victory ice-creams or playful banter or teasingly pointing out where they had come out short during the battle. Not this time. Maybe not ever again.

There was only the muffled sounds of the Monkey Team as they gathered to discuss what to do with the unconscious body of the former Leader of the Hyperforce; the very picture of the shattered pieces of a once noble dream.

No Citizens littered the streets of Shuggazoom. No curious eyes peered out the windows or looked mournfully at the Monkey Team. It was like everybody somehow knew that something terrible had happened to their protectors; something that they had to bear and try to heal on their own. And so, either out of a sense of privacy or just because they didn't know how to properly deal with this, the Citizens simply stayed away while the robot guards of the HOOP carried the limp body of the former Hyperforce leader away.

As the little group of robots encircling their prisoner passed the remains of the Monkey Team, the head of the orange monkey suddenly snapped to attention and glared at them. Then a smile plastered his muzzle.

Sprx and Otto found that Mandarin smiled far too much lately.

"You pitiful fools – failures – do you think this proves anything? That you are superior to me? That your feeble notions of good and wrong pertain to this? Compared to your dull, blind devotion to ridiculous dreams of being slaves to unworthy insects I had ambitions! Great plans for you all! But you have scorned me, failed me." At this point Mandarin started to cackle hysterically: "I will destroy every trace of your disgraceful existence, see to it that your pathetic memory is removed from the Universe from all time – I will wait for my revenge, I am eternal, I am sup-uhhhfffgonnakillyouall—"

Mandarin's speech of vengeance was promptly cut off when one of the prison guards rudely whacked him over the head to keep him quiet and another shoved a tranquilizer dart in the first patch of exposed fur it could see.

The robot guards dragged the snoring body of Mandarin off to the temporary holding cell in the ship headed for the HOOP.

The monkeys watched emotionlessly, as the shuttle sped off into the atmosphere and the fiery exhaust was reduced to a tiny yellow dot in the distance.

Helen clung to Antauri's arm. Gibson shook his head lightly. Sprx crossed his arms and mumbled something unintelligible. Nova went to tug on Otto's shoulder when the green monkey didn't seem able to tear his gaze away from the point where the shuttle vanished into the darkening evening sky.

"What now?" the red pilot asked.

"We hope, and we wait," the black monkey answered. His voice was as sure and strong as it had ever been, infusing his words with the confidence and assurance the others needed at the moment.

In the end they had nothing more to do. The monsters had been vanquished for now, and the sun was finally setting on this adventure. All they had left was time and a flimsy hope. A hope for a new leader, hope for a new beginning, for a new adventure, for their real destiny to start.

They waited a long time.