The White Monkey

In The Grip of Evil

~Shouko's POV~

I walked down a dark cave. I've been here before. Many times. Nearly every time I close my eyes and sleep, whenever I don't get premonitions of the future.

"Is anyone there?" I called, "Antauri? Nova?"

I kept walking down the path. I felt like I was being watched, but I remembered if I kept walking, whatever's watching me won't harm me... Yet...

I saw light at the end of the tunnel and followed it. Like always, it lead me to a door with a skull-like seal. In front of it was the Monkeys, made of stone.

I walked toward the door and I placed my hand over the surface. When I was younger, I used to try and pry this door open. But I can never seem to open it on my own.

Then a familiar voice spoke from the door, "You come to me every night, Aisling." Spirits of black energy with a green hue flew out of the door's seal and aimed to attack me, "There's no escaping this world."

Two spirits wrapped around me and tried to attack, but I jumped away from them. The spirits merged into one large one.

"What do you want from me?" I asked.

"I am eternal. I am your destruction!" The spirit answered.

Tendrils grew out of its body and grabbed me. I tried to break out, but I couldn't move, or phase. The spirit laughed and the tendrils wrapped around my face. The tendrils burned.

I sat up awake, gasping for air. I looked around and saw I was back in my quarters. I took deep breaths to calm myself down and hugged my knees close to my chest.

I calmed down and made my way to Antauri's quarters. Antauri woke up and exit his sleeping chamber.

He looked at me, "More nightmares, Shouko?"

I nodded, "Same one every night." I looked at my hands, "What's happening to me?"

"Worry not. The mind is a tenuous puzzle box." Antauri assured me, "Much like dreams, nightmares are only a reflection of our hopes and fears. Many of them buried deep within us."

Suddenly, the alarm went off. I entered Hypermode and Antauri and I made our way to the elevators.

I knocked on the doors of each quarters we passed, "Guys, wake up! We've got trouble!"

Antauri and I used the elevators to reach the lounge. The Central Computer showed a number of threats approaching the Super Robot.

The others joined. Chiro was in his Hypermode too.

"Shuggazoom's under attack?" Otto asked.

The computer showed the threats entering the Robot and toward us.

"No. We are." Gibson gasped, "And whatever it is has breached the Robot's hyper-armor!"

We turned and the spirits from my nightmares appeared. The spirits circled us. The Monkeys, Chiro and I huddled, ready to fight back.

"Out of all our countless cosmic conflicts, we've never encountered entities such as these before." Gibson noted, readying his drills.