Like following an invisible trail, the hooded monkey carrying the enormous box on her back wandered the city's outskirts, her eyes on the ground and her hands tightly gripping the box’s shoulder straps. Onlookers were amazed at her balance and strength, stopping what they were doing to watch her and take pictures. Save for the few monkeys that would sneakily escape into alleys when she walked past, there wasn’t a pair of eyes on the relatively quiet street that didn’t watch in amazement. Dockworkers in the middle of their smoke break threw their cigarettes into the trash to jump back to work, lest their foreman decide they could all be replaced by this hooded stranger. She paid them no mind. She had a job to do and wasn’t about to let any distractions get in her way.
At every intersection she would come to, she would stop and close her eyes, waiting for the next set of directions to come to her. The mental path led her away from the docks, away from the inviting food stands, and away from all the excited pedestrians looking for pictures. She found herself in a barren, empty section of the town in front of a large warehouse full of loud cheers and raucous activity. With both arms occupied, she kicked the large warehouse doors open and every set of eyes inside turned to face her as the noise came to a sudden stop and the doors fell off of their hinges.
The warehouse was full of monkeys of all shapes and sizes littering all three stages. All sporting some sort of silver-colored fur, they all resumed their whoops and hollers as they turned their attention from the stranger at the door to the one monkey sat higher than the rest of them. On the highest floor of the warehouse, sitting in an ornate throne was a mulleted silver monkey in a spiked leather jacket and pants. He had piercings on his ears and his bare chest, and in one hand was smoking a cigar. Their leader.
His other hand held a large golden pauldron with a roaring monkey design embossed on the center. He threw the pauldron up and down in his hands, watching as the stranger’s head bobbed up and down to keep it in her line of sight. He handed his cigar to a younger monkey behind his throne, who gladly took it and began to puff. “I’ve been waiting for you. And from what we were told about you, you were looking for us too,” the leader said, standing from his throne and raising his free hand. The warehouse went stone silent as he raised the pauldron to his shoulder. “We know all about you, Holly, so there’s no point hiding that artifact behind that dingy hood anymore.”
Holly dropped the box, and it hit the ground with a thud. Slowly, she raised her hand to her hood and pulled it down. With a shake of her hair, she gave everyone in the warehouse a look at her intense yellow stare, and the circlet wrapped tightly around her head. It was gold, and adorned with black writing, and a single pearl right at the center. The pauldron and the circlet both began to glow a radiant golden light. The leader whistled and stroked his chin. “I think they know each other,” he said. “Take a look at that thing guys. Ain’t that the prettiest piece of jewelry you’ve ever seen?” The monkeys occupying the warehouse clapped their hands against the ground and railings in approval. “So what do you say? Should I send her packing and take that headband for ourselves!?” The cheering monkeys stomped their feet now, rattling the entire warehouse with their vigor and excitement. “Well, who am I to disappoint the audience?”
Holly threw her hood to the ground and managed a single step before the leader pointed a finger at her. “You got guts coming here, and if you take another step I’m gonna have to spill’em!” He said. The sound of dozens of monkeys going “Oooh” filled the air as the leader smirked. “Take off the headband, put it on the ground, and get out before I have to come down there and throw you out.”
Holly pointed to the golden headband around her head. “It’s a circlet,” she said. With Holly taking another step forward, the leader’s smirk disappeared and the entire warehouse went silent save for Holly’s voice. “Make all the threats you want, Haircut, I’m not leaving without that pauldron.”
The monkeys all turned their eyes back on the leader to see his response to this insolence. He gulped but quickly recovered, running his hands through his hair and shaking his head. “You’re not, huh? Hmph, I guess I’ll have to bury you right here in this warehouse.” This response earned him a round of applause from his followers. He smiled and slapped his chest, leading everyone to stop their oral cheers and follow suit. Holly’s eyes wandered the warehouse, at the sight of all of these monkeys slapping their chests in unison to mimic their leader’s actions.
The leader tied the pauldron’s strap around his shoulder, and a bright golden light burst from the armor piece. The same light radiated out from under his jacket sleeve. Everyone around the throne took several steps backward and shielded their eyes. In a flash, the sleeve exploded into shreds, revealing the muscular, gold-colored arm hidden underneath. He made a fist and kissed it. “When I’m through with you, that’ll be a closed-casket burial. Don’t invite your parents!”
Holly’s eye twitched, but she did not yield. She did not even flinch at the glowing light and exploding jacket sleeve trick. She cracked her fingers instead, ready for some excitement after spending however many hours walking. “What’re you waiting for, tough guy? Bury me already.”
The leader, from three stories up, reared his golden fist back and raised a hand, palm facing outward. Holly broke into a sprint to close the distance; something hard and fast smashed into her face stopping her in her tracks and to a knee. It felt like a steel baseball being thrown by a major league pitcher. Rubbing her suddenly bruised cheek, she looked up at the leader on his perch; still in his pose ready to act. Holly tried for another step; another attack struck her in the abdomen. A winded Holly fell backward and rolled to a stop, right next to her hood again. Through the haze of her head trauma, she could hear the laughter.
“Hey, my shoulder’s getting a bit sore if you want to wrap this up already.” The leader said. He laughed and look to his congregation, who joined him. Another attack collided with Holly’s forehead. Her head bounced off the pavement. She growled as she stood up and raised her fists, with the leader in sight, still in his pose ready to throw a punch. “Most guys crumple to one hit, three might be a new record. Let’s see how long you last.”
There was a secret behind his attack, and Holly watched the leader’s every move intently to find out what it was. With all of her focus on the leader’s every motion, Holly could detect the quick, almost instant jab that he threw with his golden arm. It looked a lot like a bored youngster faking a punch to make a friend flinch, but it was so fast that it was hardly noticeable, especially from this distance. While Holly was far outside of his arm's reach, a powerful strike still hit her right on the nose, pushing her head back and spilling a small stream of blood to the warehouse floor.
Another quick jab, but Holly raised her arms in time to block the impact. Her forearms took the brunt of the force and Holly groaned. But it was better than taking it on the head, any day. The leader smirked as he lowered his aim, and threw a jab targeting Holly’s knee. She could hear a high-pitched whistling for only an instant before the attack struck her in the knee. Holly stood her ground this time, only gritting her teeth as her knee shook beneath her.
The leader could only stare. After all that and she still stood? Was she trying to insult him? His eyes scanned over his congregation, their expecting eyes looking at him, a combination of confusion and curiosity on their faces. The leader gulped again and ran his hands threw his hair. It had gotten a bit messier in the moments since the fight started but a quick pat down put everything back into place.
He cupped a hand to his ear and leaned down to the monkeys below him. “Hey! Do you guys hear that? In the distance? Is something approaching?” The other monkeys in the warehouse cupped their ears and cheered in agreement. “It sounds like… it sounds like…” The leader snapped his fingers with a confused expression on his face, as the other monkeys lowered their hands and took in a deep breath. The leader gave an exaggerated shrug. “What does that sound like to you guys?”
They all threw their hands in the air and shouted with all of their might to answer their leader. “Hurricane! Hurricane!”
“Yeah! A hurricane! Let’s rock!” The leader took his pose again and his golden arm began to vibrate in place.
Holly raised her arms to block. The high-pitched whistling returned; one of the doors behind Holly jumped as something hit it. She dared not turn around, as more whistling rang around her. A gust of wind flicked at her hair; as the other warehouse door rattled with an ugly noise. Between her legs, an indent was made into the warehouse’s floor shooting a gust of wind from beneath her. More whistling shooting around Holly’s ears until it became louder and louder. Holly’s hood was lifted off the ground. The open door was behind her, but the wind was coming from inside the warehouse. It was strong, almost lifting her off her feet. From all directions, she didn’t know where to block.
Not that blocking would have done any good. In a single moment, what felt like 100 different fists all punched her at once, all over her body. Her face, her body, and even her fingertips all felt like hammers were driving into them. She could feel her teeth shifting in place and the bones in her face cracking. As quickly as the punches came, they finally stopped, with the collective impact sending her flying backward and crashing headfirst into the giant box she had carried into the warehouse.
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The leader let out a loud exhale and raised his golden arm to pat himself on the shoulder. “And that’s what happens when you’re faced with an irresistible force,” he said through labored breaths. As he fell into his throne, a hand reached from behind him and wiped the sweat off his brow and chest with a handkerchief. “Someone read her a bedtime story, and bring me the headband already.” The leader snapped his fingers and two larger monkeys at the lower stages approached Holly’s body. On his throne, the leader lovingly rubbed his golden pauldron. “It won’t be as good as mine, but if these are both pieces of a set, then hers has to have some real firepower, right?”
Holly didn’t move, but the box, or rather, something inside of it began to stir. The monkeys stopped as the box rattled and strange noises could be heard from inside. A flap on top of the box flew open, and a long cane poked out, followed by the head of a small monkey with goggles and a short blond haircut. This significantly older-looking monkey looked down at Holly as she tried to collect herself, and swung the cane down on top of her head.
“Dammit Holly, I was in the middle of making breakfast!” the blonde monkey said. She continued to hit Holly’s still body. “Now there’s egg all over the place. I don’t live by the 5-second rule, I need to think about my hygiene.”
Holly slowly pulled herself to her knees, every monkey in the warehouse staring in amazement as she stood up and rested a hand on the box. The leader looked down at his golden arm and back at Holly. She spit something red out of her mouth as she gathered her breath to speak. “I’m fine, thanks for asking,” she said, looking up at the old monkey and holding up her hand to block the cane attacks.
“What’s going on anyway?” The blonde monkey asked, looking around at the dingy warehouse. “You find the armor piece yet? My goggles are all fogged up.” Holly pointed a thumb to the leader with his glowing gold arm as her companion rubbed the steam off her goggles. “Ah yes, that's definitely the Right Pauldron of the Monkey King. Makes you punch at supersonic speeds.” She used her cane to point to the bruises forming on Holly’s face. “Judging from your bruises, you haven’t figured it out yet so I’ll explain it to you slowly. He’s punching so fast, he’s making bullets of air. Strong enough to break a bone.”
“I know, Cass, I’m not an idiot,” Holly said. “I already figured it out. I didn’t feel any knuckles or bones or anything. So it must've been the wind.”
“You no-good liar. How dare you lie to me?” Cass poked Holly’s face with her cane, “If you figured it out, why is your eye so red? You haven’t been letting him punch you over and over have you?”
Holly slapped the cane away. “Well, what else was I supposed to do?”
The leader jumped from his chair and stomped his foot to get their attention. “I’m not interrupting something, am I?” He asked. At the snap of his fingers, a can of beer was handed to him, and he downed it in seconds before crushing it against his forehead. His congregation broke out into an awkward cheer, unsure of where to point their attention.
“He’s giving you lip. What are you waiting for?” Cass said, pointing to the leader and clapping her hands. “Come on, stand up for yourself! While we’re young!”
Holly put her hand on Cass’s head and shoved her back into the box, closing the flap behind her. She sighed before turning around and raising her fists. “Alright, fun’s over. Show’s over. Now I show you the power that I’m packing.”
The leader raised his golden hand to his ear and leaned towards Holly. “I’m dying to see what you have in store for me.” He raised another beer to the air. “Consider this a preview of what I can do with that thing, guys! The Silver Monkeys are about to get an upgrade!” The collection of Monkeys cheered with glee at their leader’s bravado, and they joined together in drumming any nearby surface with whatever they had on hand.
Holly joined them in cheering this time, falling to her knees and smacking the ground with both hands, to the surprise of the monkeys supposedly against her. But Holly was not doing it out of a desire to celebrate, she was looking for something. And as the leader was drinking in the adulation from his gang members and collecting a third beer, Holly smirked. “There it is.”
She slapped her hand against a point on the cement floor. From the leader’s onslaught a second ago, the ground had been bombarded with bullets of air that had damaged its integrity. By smacking one part of the ground, a small section momentarily jutted up a few inches away, and from this, Holly would find her means to close the distance.
Raising a hand in the air, Holly punched her fist through the ground with one hand. Everyone in the warehouse stopped what they were doing to see what Holly was up to, with a few whistling. Raising her other fist, she punched the floor again, driving her fist right through it. Holly transitioned from her knees to a squat, and the leader quickly dropped his beer and took on his punching pose once he figured out what she was up to.
He threw his jab, creating another air bullet that soared toward Holly’s forehead, but before it could reach her, Holly ripped out a large chunk of concrete from the floor and used it to block the attack. It was big enough to cover her entire body from the leader’s line of sight and take the impact of the air bullet for Holly. The leader gulped; he threw more and more punches at the concrete shield. Small flecks fell off but nothing gave him another clear shot at Holly.
Squatting down even further, Holly jumped forward and pushed the chunk with all of her might, launching it across the air and directly toward the leader’s throne. The leader, in a panic, punched the ground with his golden arm and launched himself upwards, just barely missing the chunk as it obliterated his throne. Everyone standing by was able to avoid it as it rolled to a stop against the wall behind them
The leader soared through the air, propelled by his fist-made gust of wind. He clicked his teeth at the sight of his wrecked throne, it would take days to make another one to his liking. As his upward trajectory slowed down, he looked down to see Holly, who had jumped the great distance between the first and third floor in a single bound and was now hurtling right towards him at an alarming speed, with a nasty-looking smile on her face. He yelped. Holly cocked her fist back and grit her teeth. With her rapidly approaching his arm's reach, the leader cocked back his golden fist and tried to throw another punch. Before he was able to fully extend his arm and unleash another air bullet, Holly reached out with her mouth and caught the fist within her teeth. The leader wailed as Holly crunched down and broke bone with her mighty jaw. “I couldn’t resist a taste!” she said, her voice muffled by the fist in her mouth. With her shot clear, she tensed the muscles in her arm and launched a mighty punch for the leader’s head.
But the leader had planned for this. Before Holly was able to punch him, he quickly undid the pauldron’s strap around his shoulder and threw it to one of the monkeys at the lower level. Holly let go of the leader’s fist to watch the pauldron fly away, only to see another monkey, far below the two of them, strap the pauldron on his shoulder, and take on the same stance as the leader before as his arm exploded into a bright gold color.
Holly raised her arms to block; another air bullet colliding with her crossed arms. It pushed her high onto the 3rd floor, and she struck a wall before falling to the ground. The leader, now free from the threat of being punched, brought his legs together and extended his arms, falling into the waiting arms of his gang members, wiping his moist hand on his pants. They carried him over them like a stage diver, but the leader insisted on being let down. “We can party later, guys. Don’t let her rest, stay on her!” he said. “Get the headband too! It’s ours now!”
The pauldron was thrown across the warehouse into the arms of a monkey directly next to Holly. She strapped it to her shoulder and smiled. As Holly raised her head to find the source of the golden light, an air bullet was launched point-blank at her face. The impact knocked her clear off the third floor. As she fell, the sound of screaming and laughing got louder and then quieter as she passed by the second floor. The monkeys below who were so eager to catch their leader all stepped aside and gave Holly all the room she needed to crash into the cement ground with a thud.
The crowd got really quiet. The leader moved in close and nudged Holly’s body with his foot. No movement. Not even a breath. He reached down for her head but pulled his broken hand back. Snapping his fingers on his other hand, he pointed to Holly’s head and took a few tentative steps away from her. “Someone get the headband off. Now.” Another smaller monkey came forward and knelt by Holly’s head, gripping both sides of the circlet and trying to jostle it loose. He shook her head to and fro but it wouldn’t budge. He stood up and raised Holly’s head, vigorously shaking it to try and get it free.
Holly’s eyes suddenly shot open. The monkey screamed as an uppercut found his chin. He flew up to the third floor; Holly found her feet beneath her. The monkey on the third floor watched as her friend soared past her and worked to undo the pauldron from her shoulder. The monkeys on the floor backed away to the wall as they watched Holly’s hair danced around her head. A bright red light emanated from her eyes as her grit teeth grew into pronounced fangs on both sides of her mouth. Pounding on her chest, she let out a long, piercing roar that shook the warehouse to its foundation, and had every other monkey in the room covering their ears.
Before she could take another step, the top of the box flew open again Cass emerged to swing her cane. As it came down, it extended to double its length. Then triple its length by the time it conked Holly on the head. Holly’s hair fell back into place and the red light faded from her eyes. Leaving only a blank expression.
“Don’t you dare transform now," Cass said. Her voice was domineering and without her goggles, her pink eyes bore a hole in the back of Holly’s head. A shiver went down her spine. "If these guys are giving you too much trouble, you won’t stand a ghost of a chance collecting the other artifacts.” Holly regained her breath and her composure at the old monkey’s words. “These guys are small potatoes, you haven’t seen anything yet and already pulling out the big guns. Get it together!”
Holly shook her head as the cane retracted back to Cass. “Yeah. Right. I’m fine, I will,” she said. Holly looked around at the monkeys keeping their distance from her, and specifically at the leader fleeing up a nearby flight of stairs. Holly approached the staircase only to be met by a sea of monkeys standing before her, blocking her path. The pauldron fell from the third floor to the hands of an awaiting monkey on the ground in front of Holly.
“They’re passing the pauldron around,” Cass said, sliding back into the box. “You need to think of a way to neutralize that strategy. Use that head of yours for something useful besides ruining my breakfast. Their strength is in their numbers.”
“My head, huh? Fine.” Holly bolted for the monkey applying the pauldron to his shoulder and grabbed him by the collar. A monkey behind him took the pauldron and threw it to an awaiting set of hands upstairs. Holly reared her head back and struck the monkey with a hard headbutt. She let go of his collar and watched him crumple to the ground. The gold light emerged upstairs, but Holly showed no interest. Instead grabbing another monkey and driving her forehead into their nose too. The pauldron-wearing monkey froze, unsure of what to do next. Holly took advantage of their hesitation, throwing the unconscious body of their friend at them like a wet towel, and watching them bowl over like pins.
The crowd of monkeys made a path to let her through to the second-floor staircase. Holly shook her head. “You guys are passing the pauldron around, huh?” She cracked her knuckles and smiled again. “Well, you can’t pass it around if there’s no one to pass it to, right?” The monkeys nervously looked at each other and tried to back away. Holly grabbed the nearest one by the collar and headbutted him too; He was out cold with a single hit. She let him fall to the ground before she looked up at the crowd. “Who’s next?”