I hope everyone had a good holiday season! Alright! The double digits chapters! Now let's get to know Amanda and Trent a lil bit.
---------------
As everyone enjoyed their lunch, with Mandarin still being a distance away from everyone else. However this time he was a bit closer than usual.
Antauri looked up from his salad and looked over to Amanda and Trent.
"So if I may ask," he began, getting their attention. "What powers do you two have? If you have any at all?"
Amanda and Trent both looked at each other before Amanda sneakily smiled. Willow caught wind of this and glared at Amanda.
"Amanda don't you dare." She huffed.
Then Otto's drink rose from the cup and playfully splashed him. He sputtered and looked around.
"What was-?!"
"Amanda!" Willow scolded.
Amanda shrugged, still smiling.
"Well he asked! Besides you gotta admit that was pretty funny." She giggled.
Willow looked at Otto, who looked so confused and snickered.
"Okay maybe a little."
Mandarin then took out a napkin and began to wipe Otto's face.
"You got it all over you." He sighed, making Otto's face turn slightly red but he smiled.
"Thankies." He said, smiling.
Mandarin's face then flushed and he looked away slightly.
Amanda crossed her arms proudly.
"I have control over liquids, telekinesis, magic like Willow, and I can talk to animals." She explained.
"Oh so talking to us wouldn't be a huge problem if everyone didn't understand us would it?" Sprx jokingly asked.
Amanda shook her head.
"Nope!"
Trent was elbowed by Amanda, who was still eating his hotdog. He looked up and gulped. He quickly sat up
"Oh me? Well I have power over electricity...erm let's see...I also can use magic like Willow and erm...that's it really." He said before shrugging.
Everyone stared at him.
"What? I don't do well when I'm out on the spot." He explained.
Willow sighed.
"He moved to my school a year after my dad died, at first I thought he was gonna pick on me like everyone else did but he didn't. He was actually pretty mean to the people who picked on me." She explained and nearly everyone gasped.
Trent? Mean?
Trent blushed.
"I'm not like that anymore Willow. Besides I was just being protective." He grumbled.
Sprx smirked.
"Oh so did you liiiike her?" He giggled, then was elbowed by Nova.
Trent blinked.
"I'm not interested in girls." He said, straight faced.
Sprx blinked.
"O-oh sorry I didn't-"
"I'm not interested in boys either. I'm just more interested in friendship." Trent chirped before eating again.
Sprx blinked again.
"Oh."
Willow rolled her eyes.
"Anyway when I found out he had powers like me I was so happy, because I thought only me and my sister were the only ones who had powers back on Natulis." Willow explained.
"So the three of us clicked instantly." Amanda chirped.
Trent gulped down his food.
"Wait so what about Amanda? I mean I know she's your sister but was she picked on too?" Jinmay asked.
"No she was pretty much homeschooled because the school she was going to was terrible. That and my mother didn't want her to get bullied like me." Willow huffed.
Jinmay nodded.
"Even then I didn't show my powers to anyone. I just kinda learned how to hide them." Amanda said.
Willow looked down.
"While I didn't..." She muttered.
Antauri smiled.
"You're learning now, that's what matters right?"
Willow looked up and smiled.
"Yeah I guess." She said.
Amanda looked between the two before frowning.
"Waaait...Willow do you have a crush on someone?" She asked, crossing her arms.
Willow's face turned a dark red,
"Mandarin we do not take more food without asking." Gibson huffed.
"Excuse you I need this much."
"I know you do but still ask!"
"N-no why?" She asked.
Amanda frowned even more. She was gonna have to seriously get the truth out of her later but for right now she'll leave it alone.
"No reason- holy g, man!" She said, looking at Mandarin's filled plate.
The orange monkey blinked.
"What?" He asked.
Amanda's mouth hung open.
"I get you're a huge buff guy but jeez do you need that much?!"
Mandarin blinked, straight faced.
Otto bumped into him and smiled.
"Well he is eating for two so he does!" He chirped, patting his enlarged abdomen.
"Otto!" Mandarin exclaimed, embarrassed.
Otto looked up at him.
"What they were gonna know sooner or later."
"On the first day they're here!? We just met them!"
"It's a bit too soon but it is good to let them know." Antauri pointed out.
"Right now?!" Mandarin questioned, panicked.
Trent frowned.
"The heck do you mean by eating for two? That's what pregnant mothers say and he's a guy isn't he?" He said and Amanda nodded.
Gibson then cleared his throat as Willow looked off to the side, inhaling through her teeth.
"Ah you see-"
"Gibson no not you too!" Mandarin whined, his arm patted in sympathy by Jinmay.
"He's pregnant with a alien child that is able to impregnate males." Gibson explained.
Trent and Amanda coiled in shock before turning to Willow.
Willow looked from left to right, lips pursed before raising her hands in the air.
"He is. It's weird but he is." She stated.
Trent then was doubled over in laughter while Amanda had to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming, her eyes wide.
Mandarin narrowed his eyes at Trent.
"And may I ask why this is so hilarious?" He asked.
Trent wiped his eyes and giggled even more.
"It-it's just I just remembered this game I played where sometimes the male npcs get abducted by aliens and they can get pregnant! Th-that's what I'm imagining for you right now!" He laughed.
That and the idea of a guy as intimidating as he is pregnant is just hilarious to imagine, however Trent liked living so he left it at that.
Mandarin's lip curled at this act but he knew this was possibly going to be one of the reactions. Still he hated being laughed at.
"This is so weird." Amanda finally breathed.
"Tell me about it, we only found out about this a few days ago." Chiro sighed.
"I've known for a while actually." Willow piped up then thought a bit.
"Doesn't make it less weird but you know."
Trent finally stopped laughing and looked up.
"So uh I take it you're keeping the alien baby?" He asked.
Mandarin nodded and nibbled on his food.
Trent was about to ask why but Willow placed a hand on his chest and shook her head. He then looked back at Mandarin and decided to not ask right now.
As the meal began to finish Amanda looked at Willow as she cleared the table.
"Hey Willow?"
Her older sister turned to her.
"Yes?" She asked.
Amanda rubbed her arm as she stepped foreword.
"So uh are you...gonna be staying here? I mean I know Natulis wasn't that great for you but since this place seems so nice and all..." Her voice trailed off.
Willow looked down.
"You know I'd love to stay with mom but..." She shook her head.
"I can't, you know I can't go back there." She choked.
Amanda looked up.
"Oh I do! Believe me I do! It's just that if you're gonna be staying here I want to stay here too!" Amanda said.
Willow's eyes widened and she glared.
"Now wait a minute Amanda there's no way mom would let you stay here! Not without her being here to see you!" Willow harshly told her.
"Then mom can come here." Amanda said flatly.
Willow rubbed her temples.
"Amanda she can't! She still has her job to worry about and she has a life on there and-" She began before Amanda interrupted her.
"Willow she's been wanting to move away from Natulis for a while now. She hates it there as much as you did." Amanda pointed out.
Willow sighed, that was true. Back home her mom always went to the schools and complained about her daughter's bullying problem and how people treated her, but they always had the same excuse.
"Face it Arwen, your child is just...not normal. Maybe it would be better if she was homeschooled like her sister or..."
"Or what?!" An older blond woman asked angrily.
"Perhaps she should seek someone who can um...'help' her get rid of these powers."
Willow never did hear what her mom said next because the teacher held her hands on her ears. However she did hear some angry yelling on the other side of the principal's door.
-
Willow sighed.
"I don't know Amanda..."
Amanda took out her phone.
"I can ask mom real quick. She's probably off work now." She chirped.
"Amanda wait-!" But Amanda had already gone to the other side of the room, looking up her number.
She soon got a response and talked vividly with their mom, before asking the question about her staying here and her mom coming to stay too before waiting. She then jumped up and down, yelling, "Thank you!" Over and over again.
She then hung up and walked up to Willow, smirking.
"She'll be here in two months. She has to give her work a month's notice and time to pack up." She said.
Willow's mouth hung open in shock.
"B-but..."
"And Trent's parents already said it was ok for him to move out this early, they said something about turning his room into a room for his cousin or something." Amanda said, walking off.
"But wait a sec!" Willow demanded but Amanda didn't hear her.
She sighed, she really needed to call her mom later and have a talk with her.
---------------
"Now we just need to find out where you two will be staying for now." Antauri began.
"Amanda can stay in my room for now." Willow said, raising her hand.
Amanda smiled and clutched onto her.
"Ok sounds good, now what about Trent?" Chiro asked.
Everyone thought for a while. Nova looked over at Mandarin.
"You wouldn't mind having someone bunk with you for a while right? I mean until we get a room set up for him?" She asked, causing Trent to look up in fear.
"W-wait!"
Mandarin thought on it.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt, but only if he doesn't bother me." He huffed.
Trent began to sweat nervously.
"Now uh come on I can-"
"Don't worry he's actually a pretty good roommate, that is if you don't mind him talking in his sleep." Willow snickered.
"Now wait I do not-!"
"I don't mind, I'm going to be losing sleep anyway for the next few months...years." Mandarin placed a hand on his head, realizing that the kid would probably keep him up.
Trent shook slightly.
"Uh may I please have a say in this?" He asked quietly but it was already decided.
He gulped, he was gonna die at the hands of the overly buff monkey. Yay for him.
"Don't worry we got blow up beds and we'll make sure Mandarin doesn't pummel you into dust." Sprx said, patting Trent.
"I didn't say I would do that." Mandarin huffed.
Trent gulped, not really believing him.
"Alright so let's get your stuff into the robot." Chiro said and most everyone left to the ship.
Mandarin turned and went back down to make some room for Trent and his things.
Trent was hesitant to follow the others but Chiro patted his shoulder.
"Don't worry, you'll be fine." He sighed, leading him outside.
Trent whined loudly in despair.
Mandarin looked through a book after he was done moving things around a bit. Trent brought down a large box and set it down in a corner.
Mandarin looked up.
"Actually you can put most of your items in the other room." He said pointing to the nursery.
"Oh is that ok?" Trent asked.
Mandarin nodded.
"Sure it's fine. I need some privacy after all." He said, not taking his eyes off the book.
Trent slowly nodded before going back upstairs to get more of his stuff.
As Mandarin kept reading, a worrying thought entered his mind.
Perhaps it wasn't the safest idea to have the nursery inside the robot, especially since they use it to fight so much. If that happened then...what would happen if-?
Mandarin gulped at the thought. Okay there was no way he was going to let that happen, he needed to talk to Antauri about this as soon as they're done bringing everything in.
For now he had to think of some alternative for the Tabithians living conditions.
Perhaps temporarily live in another place? Maybe but where? Or have the Hyperforce build some sort of underground base for him? That can also work, he might just ask them about when he gets the chance.
He set his book down and went to get the blowup bed for Trent. He placed it in the Nursery on the other side of the room and noticed the duck ornament. He cringed, it was so cutesy and disgustingly innocent that it nearly made him sick.
"No..I'm sorry Amas... But there is no way my child would have to succumb to something as idiotic as a ornament such as this!" He angrily thought as he grabbed it and placed it in the trashcan near the bed.
He huffed and sat back down on the bed, getting ready to look up other ornaments online when he realized what he thought before. He just thought, "my child"
He referred to the Tabithian as his. Mandarin laid on his side, a plethora of emotions flowing through him. Almost like a maternal flurry of emotions. He stroked his stomach gently.
Trent soon came back with more boxes, now very tired.
"And I still have more to go through..." He sighed.
He blinked as he saw Mandarin on his side, facing away from him.
"Um...are you awake?"
Mandarin jumped and sat up.
"Nope nope I'm fine!" He yelped.
Trent blinked, what was that?
--------------------
Chiro sighed, that took a lot out of him.
"Antauri why can't I have telekinesis like you?" He asked.
Antauri chuckled.
"Are you saying that you would like more training in order to get to that?" He asked.
"If that means I don't have to pick up boxes anymore that'll be fine!" Chiro huffed before laughing.
Antauri shook his head, but smiled. The two then heard someone clearing their throat and the two turned to Mandarin.
"Yes Mandarin?" Antauri asked.
"I need to speak to you about the child's living arrangements." Mandarin stated.
Chiro and Antauri looked at each other.
"Actually we were going to discuss that with you tomorrow but today sounds good enough." Antauri said, nodding.
Chiro looked at Antauri before back at Mandarin.
"So I take it you'd like to set the nursery up somewhere safer?" He inquired.
Mandarin nodded.
"If you're still going to have to use the robot to fight, which I know you might, I would like to have the nursery set up where I won't have to worry about the robot falling over." He said, crossing his arms.
Antauri chuckled before he thought on it.
"Well we could possibly build a base under the robot but that will take a while." He muttered.
Mandarin rolled his eyes.
"This child won't be here for seven months, surely it won't take that long to build a small extra room or two." He huffed.
Chiro frowned.
"Well we might put in a few more rooms for other people, maybe a kitchen, and a huge bathroom too." He huffed.
"Still, you have Otto."
"Okay," Antauri said putting up a hand.
"We'll get it done as soon as we can. Right now why don't you just relax while me and Chiro work on setting up a blueprint."
Mandarin shrugged a bit.
"I'll suffice on that. I mean since I am your prisoner." He said before leaving.
Chiro frowned more.
"You're not our prisoner Mandarin!"
"I pretty much am!" Mandarin yelled before going back down to his room.
Chiro sighed.
"I don't get him at all." He said softly.
Antauri looked after him. He didn't mention this yet, but he could sense a lot of hurt coming from Mandarin whenever he was with them. But why?
"He just...has a hard time expressing his feelings and tends to act irrationally." He finally said.
"You don't say?"
Willow tried to practice her powers in the training room by setting various dummies on fire. She morphed a fireball in her hand, ran and doused the next dummy in flames. She panted and wiped her forehead. Willow then grabbed a bottle of water and sipped on it, but not before putting the fire out of course.
Trent was already asleep from jet lag and Amanda wanted to go shopping with Jinmay. She would have gone with them but she needed to practice in case Skelemandarin, her new nickname for him, came back.
He could be coming any day, and especially for her.
Willow gulped and clutched her chest. Was she listening to her thoughts right now? Or was she dormant?
She didn't know yet but hopefully she'll never find out.
"I wonder what everyone else is doing?" She thought.
She wanted to go up and look around but an idea soon popped in her head. She gripped the water bottle tighter. No, Willow was not going to resort to mind reading! She said to herself that she wouldn't! She didn't want to invade anyone's privacy.
But...it wouldn't hurt to at least practice it, just in case she needed to in an emergency.
She closes her eyes and concentrated, trying to find the closest member.
"Hmm hmm hmmm oh magnets you are looking so good today! Nova won't be able to take her eyes off you! Hmm, our one year anniversary is coming up too...might wanna do something."
That was Sprx, no big surprise there.
"Our anniversary is coming up...oh jeez listen to me I sound so girly! God if I do want to do anything I'm going to look so stupid! Sprx will never let me live it down! Ugh whatever I need to go lift weights for a while!"
Nova, surprisingly.
"Alrighty just put that there and viola! Perfect! Now the robot's lights can turn into different colors! I should show Mandarin this!"
Otto sounded really happy, Willow would love to see his invention later.
"Tabithians have a military? That's interesting...they can also change their gender whenever they want to?! That's incredible!"
Gibson's having fun with his research.
"Green or pink? Hmmm maybe I should ask Amanda- and she's back at the hats again. Hehe she's so full of energy."
Oh Jinmay you have no idea.
"Oh my god! This hat with the bow is super cute I need this! No no this barrette is super cute too! Oh if only mom gave me enough money!"
Willow groaned by Amanda's girlyness but she let that go.
"No I don't see the blue diamond sir, what? You want me to go up to get it? But sir I don't have bounce shoes!"
An archeology dream again for Trent.
Willow got to Chiro but got a bit confused by what he was thinking about.
"Maybe we should add in a living room, that would be nice. Adding that to the list."
What was he talking about?
"Mandarin should be in here with us discussing what he wants with the rooms but, if Antauri said he should relax then I guess it's fine." Chiro thought.
Rooms? Was Mandarin going to move out of the robot in into somewhere else the Hyperforce is going to make? She would ask but she had a feeling she'd know later.
She skipped Antauri because she'd get too flustered over his thoughts and decided to go over to Mandarin's. She at first sensed a lot of deep emotional pain but then it dropped.
"...Can I help you?"
Willow nearly fell over.
"How did you-?!"
"Don't you forget that Antauri and I both were trained to read thoughts. So don't be surprised if you don't really get to hear mine or Antauri's because we will know." Mandarin's voice huffed in her mind.
"Oh sorry." Willow scratched her chin.
"Don't be. You're just practicing are you? Then it's fine as long as you don't use it against someone." Mandarin said, telepathically of course. "Unless its enemies then it's fine."
Willow snickered.
"So what are you doing?" Willow asked.
"I was about to lay down for a while and rest, since I'm going to need some sleep before...well you know."
Willow nodded, who knows how many hours the baby will keep him up.
"That sounds reasonable."
Mandarin sighed.
"Well if you'll excuse me I need to sleep."
"Wait!" Willow said.
"Are you...are you feeling okay?" She asked.
"Why?" Mandarin asked, a hint of suspicion in his voice.
Willow sighed a bit.
"Well I mean before I could even read your thoughts, I got a lot of emotional pain from you." She said to him.
Mandarin was silent for a moment.
"And why is it any of your business?" He asked.
"Well maybe because we're actually getting along and I'm concerned?" Willow suggested.
"I get that but really it's nothing to worry yourself over. Who knows? Could be those mood swings acting up."
"Mandarin I think it's more than tha-"
"Besides even if I do have any problems, I wouldn't say anything. It would only cause issues." Mandarin grumbled.
Willow blinked and raised her head a bit.
"So...you do have issues?"
Mandarin was silent again.
"I'm going to bed."
"Mandarin!"
After a bit of silence, Willow realized that he completely blocked her out. She laid back and groaned in frustration. Just what was his problem and why was he so upset?
Willow held her knees to her chest.
She hoped it wasn't anything too serious...
------------------------------
Hmmm....Hmmm! I wonder what it could be. Thanks for reading!