#ladycwritefanfic

[ladytauria]

For the prompt thing: "breaking limits"

Howabout we give you a phrase or prompt and you give us the first srmthfg scenariothat comes up to you??

Thank you so much for this prompt :heart: It ended up beinga lot of fun. I wasn’t sure where I was going to go with it at first, until Ifinally just sat down and started writing, and seeing where it took me. In theend I think I kind of like it? 

This takes place during the War, maybe about six months to ayear after the end of Object of Hate. I see this also taking place after adevastating loss, or a series of disastrous fights, though I didn’t make anyreferences to that. 

Under a cut because I talk too much. 

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Training left Chiro more and more frustrated with eachpassing day. He no longer felt as if he was showing any improvement.Which... wasn’t good. He had an entire host of people depending on him. Themonkeys. Their allies. All of Shuggazoom City.

Skeleton King was less human now than he had ever been--andhe had already been pretty inhuman. There was no more playing around, no moregames. His monsters were sent to hurt, to destroy, to kill. Therewas more on the line now than there had ever been before.

(Except there wasn’t, really, it just felt likemore because the stakes were personal this time.) 

But Chiro...

He felt like he was falling behind. 

Frustration climbed up his throat and he had to smother theurge to scream. Or maybe hit something. 

He just didn’t understand what was going on. It was like...it was like there was something holding him back. He didn’t know what it was,but he could feel it. Like a harness around his chest, a tether that kept himfrom cresting and unleashing the powers of a real Chosen One.

That was the crux of it all, really--he felt like afake. 

There was a piece of him that wanted to go look up otherChosen Ones. People who wielded such a significant portion of the PowerPrimate, and used it to crush the threat of the Dark Ones. There was anotherpart of him that was terrified to see how he held up against them.

He’d gone to Antauri about... all of it. Antauri told him itwas fine. Normal, even. He said that everyone had their limits, and that wasokay. That was why he had allies, after all. People to watch his back and keephim from falling.

Chiro nodded and smiled and left the monkey alone... but ithadn’t helped the frustration in his chest, or the way it swelled and pushedinto his throat, made him vibrate with energy that kept him from sleeping.

After the third hour of doing nothing but staring at theclock, Chiro kicked the blankets off and got out of bed.

He just needed a quick walk through the robot, was all.Something to do other than toss and turn in bed. Maybe he’d grab a bite to eat,too. He hadn’t eaten much earlier. That was probably a bad thing.

(Gibson would normally get after him for it, but Gibson wasa little preoccupied. They all were, really.) 

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A walk and a bite to eat had turned into a visit to thetraining room. He’d kept the settings on low, even though he was just itchingto turn it higher, higher until the tether around his chest was forced to snap.

He was just sinking into the rhythm of things, that terribletightness in his chest easing up, letting him breathe againwhen the training room... deactivated. Chiro came out of a roll and looked up,confused. He half expected to see Antauri’s disapproving frown behind theglass--but instead, he caught Nova’s worried gaze.

Chiro sighed. He sent her a smile and a wave, not reallyprepared to give any explanations but still trying to form them anyway.

Nightmares. I couldn’t get back to sleep again, so Ithought I’d get some training in. No, then she’d want to talk aboutit, or she’d send him to Antauri. Maybe not entirely a bad idea on eitheraccounts, but then he’d end up having to explain that he lied. 

Sorry, Nova, just couldn’t sleep. Thought I’d burn theenergy off. That was pretty close to the truth, at least. There’d still bequestions, though, but he could probably handle them.

Of course, he could also just go straight for the truth, theway he had with Antauri, and see if Nova had any different advice for him. Herway of doing things was generally different from Antauri’s anyway. (And,sometimes her way was closer to Chiro’s way than Antauri’s was.) 

He entered the training room and faced Nova. She looked himup and down. “Are you alright, Chiro?” Her voice was soft, the maternaledge to it making something in his chest warm. He thought of Nova as more of abig sister than a mother, but big sisters often did their fair share ofmothering. Or so Chiro had heard, somewhere. Something about gender roles andexpectations, but also occasionally just a facet of personality.

For Nova, he was pretty sure that was just part of herpersonality. Though, honestly, of all the monkeys, Gibson was the one with thebiggest maternal instinct. Chiro would never say it to him, especially since hewasn’t sure he wanted to divide the team into traditional family roles anyway,but it was kind of true.

And made him all the fonder of the blue monkey, that was forsure.

Chiro gave Nova a shrug. “I’m not... not alright,”he said, truthfully. “I’ve just been feeling a bit strange lately. It’shitting me kind of hard tonight, I guess, so I thought I’d work off somesteam.” He gestured at the training room.

Nova nodded, because of all the monkeys, that would makeperfect sense to her. He had lost count of the times he had woken up to findher out here. His mouth quirked a bit as he remembered how often he had beenthe one turning the training room off on her. 

“Do you need to see Gibson about it?” Nova asked.

Chiro shook his head. “I don’t think it’s medical,exactly,” he said. “It’s just... Have you ever thought you were capableof more, but you just. Couldn’t make yourself do it?”

Nova leaned against the control panel, careful not to hitany buttons. “Maybe,” she said. “Do you mean... that you feel as ifthere’s a barrier, keeping you from accessing the things you’re truly capableof?”

Chiro nodded. “Yes! That’s it exactly.”

Nova smiled, a little. “It’s irritating,” shesaid. “I found one of mine while I was training with Offay. It kept mefrom reaching my Inner Primate.” 

Now that she mentioned it... this did kind of feel like whenhe had struggled with that. Only he was a lot more uncomfortably aware ofit now. Probably because he had developed an understanding of himself, duringall the meditation and training that Antauri and Nova plied him with. (Not tomention more confidence in his abilities.) 

“I conquered it, like you did. But I found another when Iwas working with Mandarin.” Her face darkened a bit, like it always did whentheir ex-leader was mentioned. “Mandarin could see it too. He had a waywith those things. I don’t know how he did it. But he could see something thatwe couldn’t, and he knew that I wasn’t at my full potential yet. He tried toforce it out of me, and, well...” She shrugged. “You know the story fromthere.”

He did. It wasn’t a pleasant story.

Nova waved a hand. “I know it’s stressful. Andfrustrating. But this isn’t something you can force. It happens when you’reready.”

“But I am ready,” Chiro said. He hated howmuch of a teenager he sounded in that moment.

Nova shook her head. “If you were ready, you wouldn’thave the barrier,” she said, but her voice was gentle. “I know it isn’teasy, but you have to wait. There’s something holding you back. Maybe it’s afear you don’t know you have, or maybe your body just knows it isn’t ready forthe stress. Whatever it is, you have to stop pushing. Trying to force it. Itisn’t going to do you any good, and you need to be at your best right now.” Herface clouded again. “We all do.”

Well, she’s not wrong about that. 

Chiro sighed. It still wasn’t the answer he wanted, but...He’ll take it. If he has to. (And it’s looking more and more like hedoes.) “Yeah,” he said. 

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(In the end, Chiro does conquer that damn barrier. It happensduring the final battle—though it isn’t actually planned to be such at thetime. Someone is captured, or hurt—it all ends up being a little fuzzy for himin the end—and Chiro… well. Chiro kind of goes a little nuts. Shuggazoom gets alight show like never before seen, and Chiro finds out that breaking past yourlimits in such an… explosive way really takes a toll out of you.

And, well. It also ends up meaning that, despite SkeletonKing’s lack of existence, their adventure isn’t quite over yet. ApparentlyChosen Ones have abilities the Verans had never even dreamed of, when they taughtAntauri.

They enjoy Shuggazoom at peace for a bit, before taking offinto the stars again. This time, for answers about the Chosen One. And becausenothing in life is ever simple, well, they find out that just because Skeleton Kingis gone, that doesn’t mean the Dark Ones have lost their grip on the universe.

That’s a story for another day, though.) 

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Not so sure about that ending, or that everyone was in character... but like I said, this was fun :D If anyone wants to send me more, please do!!! :heart: