In this chapter of Ronin Toad we meet more members of Althea's family. Yes I kind of own the Delgato kids: Although the names are not mine! Althea's from the old GI Joe show, and the triplets…well you'll figure it out soon enough where I 'borrowed' their names from. But their characters are mine!

Batteries and Babies

"ROADBLOCK!" Beach Head snapped as Roadblock walked the halls "I wanna talk to you!"

"What is it now?" Roadblock sighed.

"It's that crazy kid of yours. I saw him near my radio again. You know what he did?"

"Changed the stations from the Disney station to the hard rock?" Roadblock said.

"Nooo," Beach Head glared. "I saw him swipe the batteries from it. And from the electric pencil sharpener. And from a flashlight!"

"Why would he take batteries?" Roadblock was puzzled.

"Because he's a nut that's why!" Beach Head spat. "I told you he should be locked away!"

"Look the boy needs to be with someone who will guide him an care for him," Roadblock explained. "Someone who will love him and accept him for who he is. Someone who will keep an eye on him every second of the day!"

"He's a menace Roadblock! A menace!" Beach Head spat.

"He is not a menace," Roadblock told him.

"Hey guys," Cross-Country walked up to them. "Have you seen Mainframe? My game boy's busted!"

"Did you check the batteries?" Beach Head snapped.

"That can't be the problem," Cross-Country opened it up. "I…Hey! The batteries are gone! I could have sworn I just put new ones in yesterday!"

"I'll have a talk with the kid," Roadblock walked away.

He went back to their quarters. He found Todd in his room putting something in his drawer. "Todd! I want to talk to you!"

"Okay," Todd stood by his drawer.

"What did you put in your drawer?" Roadblock asked.

"This drawer?"

"Yeah that drawer! Open up!" Todd did so. Roadblock could not believe it. It was filled to capacity with batteries. "Is this where you put all the batteries you've been stealing?"

"I didn't steal them! I borrowed them!"

"Oh so you borrow the batteries and put them all in this drawer?"

"No," Todd took out a shoebox from under the bed. It was filled with batteries. Then he took out another one. Then another one. Then he opened up his closet and took out even more boxes of batteries. "I ran out of room."

"There must be hundreds of batteries in this room!" Roadblock gasped.

"Five Thousand," Todd said proudly.

"Five thousand," Roadblock looked at him. "You 'borrowed' five thousand batteries from around the base?"

"Give or take a few," Todd nodded.

"Todd I think you and I need to have a little talk," Roadblock said sternly. "Now why are you taking batteries from everywhere and storing them in your room?"

"Because you and Psyche-Out talked to me about taking money and you told me it was bad for me to take money," Todd fidgeted. "You told me not to do it anymore and I haven't! I've been real good about that!"

"I see…"

"I haven't taken any money I swear Roadblock! Not a dime!"

"Yes Todd I know."

"No money! None!"

"I believe you."

"Zippo! Nada!"

"Okay! I get the message! Now why is it bad for you to steal money? Tell me."

"Because…because you don't need me to steal money for you. You can take care of me without stealing money!" Todd looked at him with wide eyes.

"I see…" Roadblock was stunned. "Let me get this straight, you don't take money because I don't need money. But you do take batteries?"

"Right! You don't need money!" Todd took some batteries out of his pocket and held them up to him as if it was an offering. "You need batteries!"

"Okay…" Roadblock held his head in his hands. "I see your logic, flawed as it is. Just out of curiosity…why do I need 5000 batteries?"

"Because you can be prepared for when disaster strikes!" Todd told him. "There are horrible dangers in the world! A typhoon could hit us at any moment! What if there's a typhoon or something?"

"Oh boy," Roadblock groaned. "Todd, I think it's time for you and me to go and see Psyche-Out. I think we should have another nice little chat."

"I did something bad didn't I?" Todd's face fell.

"Oh yeah," Roadblock sighed. "And a bit disturbing. Let's go have a nice little talk shall we?"

"Do you want me to bring the batteries?" Todd asked as they left.

"No I think we'll leave the batteries here for now," Roadblock said.

"I put some in my pocket just in case," Todd told him.

"That's nice," Roadblock rolled his eyes.

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Psyche-Out later found Roadblock sipping coffee with Beach Head and Scarlet. "Okay I think he's figured it out by now," he sighed. "And it only took the two of us three hours to drill that into him."

"I'm sorry I made those dents in your wall," Roadblock sighed. "I mean he just drives me crazy some times."

"Well as least you stopped banging your head before you got a concussion," Psyche-Out sighed.

"Only because you made me leave the room," Roadblock sighed. "Why did he do something like that?"

"I think the boy uses stealing to cover up some emotional issues," Psyche-Out said.

"I think the kid's nuts," Beach Head snapped.

"Beach Head I wouldn't call him that!" Scarlet said. "What did he do?"

"He stole 5000 batteries from all around the base for me," Roadblock explained.

"Okay maybe he's a little odd," Scarlet said.

"I've come to the conclusion, the boy has some major league confusion," Roadblock sighed.

"Well," Psyche-Out sighed. "It's obvious the boy has a slight problem with stealing. Probably a form of kleptomania."

"PROBABLY has kleptomania?" Roadblock looked at him.

"He's nuts!" Beach Head told them.

"Todd is not nuts," Psyche-Out said.

"I meant you Spaced-Out!" Beach Head spat. "You counseling that little lunatic! That's a laugh. It's like the Mad Hatter counseling Screwy the Screwloose Loon!"

"So where's the kid?" Roadblock asked. "You didn't leave him alone in your office did you?"

"He'll probably steal the light bulbs next," Beach Head groaned.

"No, I thought you might want a break from the kid for a few hours so Shipwreck said he'd…" Psyche Out began.

"Shipwreck?" Roadblock gasped. "You left him alone with SHIPWRECK!"

"The Napoleon of Nuts if there ever was one!" Beach Head said.

"I hope Althea's there," Scarlet said. "She's the only sane one in that family."

"And that's a frightening statement believe me," Beach Head groaned.

"Well I suppose It couldn't hurt if I left him there for an hour," Roadblock sighed. "I mean how much damage could he do? Don't answer that."

"Well you and I can have a talk later about his progress," Psyche-Out sighed as he started to leave.

"Where are you going?" Beach Head asked.

"I gotta go buy some batteries," Psyche-Out told him as he left. "Never know when disaster's going to strike."

Roadblock sat there. "Maybe I'll pick him up in two hours…"

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Todd happily rode in the army jeep. "It's real nice of you to let me come over," He said.

"Well you and my daughter have been friends for a while now," Shipwreck said as he drove. "It's only natural that she should have you over. Can't think why she hasn't invited you before. Here we are. Althea's having a chemistry lesson with Airtight but she should be home soon." They pulled into a small housing area. There was only one house. A medium sized gray building with a boat on cinderblocks in the front yard. "It ain't fancy, but it's home sweet home!"

"Welcome to la Casa Delgato!" Shipwreck opened the door to the house.

And was promptly tackled in the face by a parrot.

"AWWWK!" The green and yellow bird squawked. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? POLLY WANTS A PSYCHIATRIST!"

"Calm down birdbrain I was only gone for fifteen minutes!" Shipwreck spat out feathers. "What did they do this time? Are they playing with explosives again?"

"Worse!" The bird cried out. "MAKEUP!" The bird then began to fly around the room wildly.

"Don't mind Polly," Shipwreck told him. "He has a nervous condition."

"How do you think I got it living in this nuthouse?" The bird squawked as it flew around.

"That bird can talk?" Todd watched it. "Cool."

"Polly's a very smart bird," Shipwreck said.

"If Polly was really smart, Polly would have joined the circus!" The bird screeched. "It's quieter!"

"GIRLS GET IN HERE! WE HAVE A GUEST!" Shipwreck shouted. He rang a large bell that was in the living room. The house was neat, cheerful and had a nautical motif in every room.

Three ten-year-old girls that looked nearly identical came in. They were wearing identical cute little pink tops and nice blue skirts. They had neat long black hair and bright blue eyes. With the exception of their hairstyles, they were completely impossible to tell apart.

"I'm Daria," The triplet with the ponytail on the right spoke.

"I'm Quinn," The triplet with the ponytail on the left spoke.

"I'm Brittany!" Cheered the third triplet with pigtails.

"This is Todd, whom you all have heard about," Shipwreck explained. The girls giggled. "Okay that's enough. Now what did you do to Polly this time? You better not have been using him in your experiments again!"

"We were just playing house," Quinn said innocently.

"Oh lord that's even worse," Shipwreck rolled his eyes. He whispered to Todd. "The girls are very smart, but they tend to be a little hyper. Wait a minute! What about your brother?"

"We put him down for his nap," Brittany said. "And no we didn't use duct tape. We could never do that to our brother."

"You used it on your last baby sitter," Shipwreck said.

"That was completely justified and you know it," Quinn said.

"It was Beach Head after all," Brittany pointed out.

"Oh yeah," Shipwreck nodded. "Look, I'm going to try giving Polly some Valium or something so he'll get off the ceiling. Why don't you show Todd your room and be nice to him! I mean it!

"Okay," Daria took Todd's hand. "Come on!" Todd followed them into the oddest room he had ever seen. It looked like someone had taken parts of Dexter's Laboratory, painted them pink and shoved them in a cute little room filled with stuffed animals.

"This is our room where we sleep and play," Quinn told him.

"And do our experiments," Brittany grinned.

"That's nice," Todd groaned looking around the room. He saw one picture on one of the small desks. It was of a blue skinned woman with black hair. "Is that your mom?"

"Yup," Quinn nodded. "Before she went away."

"She didn't die," Brittany told her. "Stop making it sound more dramatic than it is!"

"Our mom ran off with a guy from Atlantis," Daria said.

"You mean Atlanta," Todd said. "Like down south?"

"No Atlantis, as in under the sea," She shook her head.

"O-kay," Todd looked around. "So what do you like to…OW!" He jumped as he felt a shock through his body. "What did you do that for?" He grumbled, rubbing his sore behind.

Brittany held a small taser. "I wanted to see how well you conduct electricity."

"Hey! I'm telling!" Daria snapped. "Daddy told us not to use that on guests!"

"Yeah," Todd grumbled. "Yikes!" He ducked a small spurt of flame.

"Of course he didn't say anything about fire," She smiled sweetly.

"Oh you girls are wacko!" Todd gulped.

"His reflexes are good," Daria said. "Take a note of that Quinn."

"Sisters I believe that we must do further experimentation," Quinn spoke.

"Nobody is gonna do anything to me!" Todd yelped.

"Maybe he wants to play with our dolly," Brittany picked something up off her bed. To Todd's horror it was little Claudius, dressed up in a pink frilly dress with bows in his hair. There was some makeup splattered on his face.

"What are you doing to that kid yo!" He grabbed the little one. "You tryin' to scar him for life or something?"

"Give me back my dolly!" Brittany pouted.

"No way!" Todd held the kid up in his hands. "Come on Little C I gotta get you outta here!" He ran off with Claudius in his arms.

"Bring back our dolly!" The triplets cried out at the same time, chasing Todd all over the house.

"What's going on?" Shipwreck shouted at the insanity. Todd held up the baby. "Yeesh," Shipwreck gulped turning pale. "Run kid Run!" He and Todd raced as fast as they could away from the triplets. "Quick in here!" he ran to a room and they went in, locking the door behind them. "I should have known! I can't leave them alone for one minute!"

"Don't worry Shipwreck I'll fix it," Todd wiped off the makeup from the toddler's face. He then began to change him out of his outfit. "Don't worry Little C, we'll have you outta this in no time!"

"There are some outfits over there," Shipwreck pointed as he looked for something to bar the door with. "Ever since their mother…took off they've been impossible!"

"Okay now that's better!" Todd admired his handiwork. "Check it out! Now Little C is stylin'!" Actually he was now wearing a yellow shirt with mini jeans that were too big for him. A baseball cap that was backwards and sunglasses not to mention some gold jewelry.

"My son the future rap star," Shipwreck groaned. Claudius giggled. "Come here Claudie…" He took his son and started to fix his clothing.

"Where'd he get the name Claudius anyway?" Todd asked.

"Claudius was the name of a great Roman emperor," Shipwreck explained. "It was also the name of my great uncle who was a navigator on the Titanic. Let's just say disasters kind of run in the family. There we are," He had removed the chains and fixed the clothing.

"Hey before I forget do you know your kids have a flame-thrower?" Todd asked.

"Oh no!" Shipwreck groaned. "I thought I got rid of that thing! Girls!" He handed Claudius to Todd and opened the door. "Okay line up! I wanna…AAGGGHHH!"

Todd and Claudius looked outside. Shipwreck was covered with whipped cream. "Okay," Shipwreck glared at the girls who were giggling. "That's it! You are in for it now!" He strode off to the kitchen. He came back with a whipped cream spray can of his own. "Take that!" He sprayed the girls with whipped cream.

"EEEEEEE!" The girls screamed and retaliated. They ran all over the house squirting whipped cream. Quinn started to squirt Todd. Claudius loved it and giggled with glee.

"AAKK!" Todd gasped. "Stop with whipped cream already! AGGH! Okay! I warned you!" He spat a small amount of slime on her.

"DADDY TODD SLIMED ME!" Quinn cried.

"Well you shouldn't have squirted him with whipped cream now should you?" Shipwreck told her. "Get 'em good kid!"

Todd smirked and spat slime on all three girls. "That's for the flame-thrower!" He put down Claudius and grabbed an extra can of whipped cream. "And now for the electric shock!" He squirted them with whipped cream. Soon it was a free for all. Claudius squealed with delight as he ran around getting whipped cream all over the place.

"What's going on here now?" Althea came in. "Oh no, Dad what did you do this time?"

"They started it!" Shipwreck pointed at the girls.

"I see you guys are settling disputes in the traditional Delgato manner," Althea groaned.

"Yes well now that the silliness is officially over," Shipwreck reverted to a stern paternal figure. "I want you girls to apologize for how you treated Todd! He's a guest in our house! You should be ashamed of the way you treated him!"

"We're sorry," The girls apologized.

"Now first I want you girls to clean up this mess," Shipwreck said. "And I want that flame-thrower or any other little weapon you built right now! After you clean this up we'll discuss your punishment. Understand?"

"Yes sir," They said.

"Althea why don't you help Todd get cleaned up and hang out with him a bit?" Shipwreck said.

"Come on Todd," Althea sighed leading him to the bathroom. She handed him a towel and he wiped himself off. "This is why I never invited you here!"

"They ain't that bad," Todd told her. "Hey back when I lived with the Brotherhood we used to do this kinda stuff all the time." Todd looked away uncomfortably.

"You don't owe them anything you know," Althea said softly.

"I know that," Todd replied with a hurt in his voice. "But sometimes I still remember the good times, when I thought we were a family. I miss them and it hurts."

"Yeah I know how that is," Althea sighed. "Come on, let's go into my room."

He followed her into her bedroom. It was pretty average, with some teen posters of boys on the wall, a radio and CD's on a desk. There were even a couple of beanbags on the floor.

"I guess you kinda figured out why my mom left huh?" Althea sighed as she plopped down on one of the beanbags. "She didn't want anything more to do with this crazy family!"

"That can't be true," Todd shook his head as he sat in a beanbag across from her.

"It is," She sighed. "And we're not that nuts! I mean, we are, but in a good way. I mean it's not like my dad beats us or anything. Although I wish he'd give the triplets a smack every now and again! When all's said and done, he's a good dad."

"Your sisters said she left for another guy under the sea…"Todd said gently.

"That was only an excuse," She snapped. "She didn't really wanna get away from my dad. She wanted to get away from…us."

"Look if you don't wanna talk about it…" Todd started to say.

"No, I don't mind telling you the story. I'm just surprised you haven't heard it already, what the way the gossip flows around here." She sighed. Todd said nothing. He had heard the story but thought it best to keep silent.

"My mom was once a Cobra soldier. She volunteered for some genetic experimentation. She was supposed to be an amphibious stormtrooper. But something went wrong and she couldn't survive out of the water. She got sick of being a lab rat and escaped. My dad and the rest of the Joe team saved her. For a while she lived on an island so she could be safe from Cobra. Well one time she and my dad got together and I ended up the result! So she married and moved in with my dad. They got a mini aquarium so she could rest and even figured out a way so she could stay out of the water for a while, other than wearing a diving helmet filled with water. Life was pretty good, I guess. Even when the triplets were born. She took care of us, did some missions for the Joe team. And then about over a year ago…well Claudius was born. Dad took his mutation well, but my mom…."

She sat silently. "It's not like it was Claudius' fault either! It's just the way he was born. Then there was this mission that had the Joes contact Atlantis…don't ask about the details they're classified. Well needless to say my mom ended up being a liaison to the Atlantean nation for obvious reasons. She met this rich guy and…."

"I think I can guess the rest," Todd sighed. "Why didn't she take you guys with her? Did you want to stay with Claudius?"

"More like she didn't want us," Althea snapped. "I heard her say that."

"But she must have loved you or something?"

"I thought she did too," Althea's eyes grew cold. "I guess she loved her new life more."

"Maybe your mom had problems or something?" Todd said gently. "Maybe it wasn't because of that. Maybe it was something she couldn't handle…"

"She couldn't handle being the mom of freaks!" Althea spat. "And she was a mutant too! I don't understand! Logically it should have been my dad that should have dumped us! But then logic's never been my dad's strong suit." She fought the tears back.

"At least your father loves you," Todd said softly. "That's more than my dad ever did. My dad didn't want me either."

"I guess we both know what it feels like to be dumped huh?" Althea sighed.

"Yeah," Todd sighed. "And at least you ain't alone. You got your brother and sisters to keep you company."

"Some company," Althea groaned.

"But you love them right? They make you feel less alone. And does make you feel pretty good bossing them around a little. Makes you feel important and that you ain't totally helpless."

Althea gave him an interesting look. "When did you ever get this insightful?"

Todd shrugged. "I dunno, I just get to thinking why people do the things they do. I mean you and your dad may yell at each other, but you don't have that tone of hate or malice or anything like that. Believe me, I know that tone. It's just you guys feel comfortable expressing yourselves. You don't hold nothin' back. You ain't afraid of him and he ain't afraid of you. That's how it should be between a parent and his kid. You guys really love each other."

"You know you're the first person I feel like I can talk about this with," Althea sighed. "I dunno, I'm just so…comfortable with you. Ever meet someone that even though you hardly know you feel like you can tell them anything?"

"Yeah," Todd nodded. He looked at her. "I do."

"I really don't feel like talking about this anymore," Althea sighed.

"Okay so tell me something else," Todd said cheerfully. "Like about that spaceship I ain't supposed to know about?"

"That's classified," Althea smirked.

"Then how come you know about it?" Todd snapped. "Aw come on! It ain't like I wanna go for a joyride in the thing or nothin'!"

"Couldn't even if you wanted too," Althea said. "Can't fly anymore. Let's just say one of the other geniuses on the base broke it. Maybe someday I'll tell you more about it."

"Why does everyone around here know all the good stuff except me?" Todd pouted folding his arms.

"You haven't been here that long," She pointed out.

"Hey kid" Shipwreck came in. "Roadblock's here!"

"Well there's my ride," Todd sighed. "I hope he's still not mad at me."

"No I'm just concerned about you," Roadblock came in. They got up from the beanbags. "I hear you had an interesting time here."

"That's one way of putting it," Althea sighed. "Hey I'm sorry how my crazy sisters treated you."

"Well Roadblock and I have been talking," Shipwreck smirked as they went to the front room. The triplets were still cleaning up and little Claudius was in his playpen happily licking off whipped cream from his face and flippers. "We decided that tomorrow you don't have to work in the cafeteria." He pointed to his daughters. "You three are going to take his place!"

"That's child labor!" Quinn snapped. Althea and Todd gave evil laughs. She made a face at them.

"Well maybe from now on when I tell you girls to be nice to our guests you will be!" Shipwreck said sternly.

"Todd what do we say to Shipwreck?" Roadblock prompted him.

"Oh! Thank you very much for having me over to your house," Todd said politely.

"Well it was nice having you here," Shipwreck said.

"Can I come back sometime?" Todd asked.

"Are you serious?" Althea startled.

"Come on down anytime swabbie!" Shipwreck nodded. He shook Todd's hand. "Say goodbye to Todd everybody!"

"Bye Todd," the triplets said as they left.

"See ya tomorrow," Althea said. "We got swimming practice! Remember?"

"I remember," Todd told her. "Bye!"

"Bye bye!" Claudius giggled.

"So did you two have fun in your room?" Quinn snickered.

"Shut up plankton brain," Althea snapped. "We didn't do anything!"

"Don't bother your sister," Shipwreck told the triplets. "Besides, we all know Althea's not like that. When you three get to be her age, then I'll worry." He turned to Althea. "So he actually sounded like he had a good time today."

"Well he didn't run off screaming so I guess it went well," Althea sighed as she sat down on the couch. "He even wants to come back."

"So you like him huh?" Shipwreck smirked.

"He's all right," Althea said casually. "Kinda weird. But okay. As a friend. Nothing more. I mean it's not like I'm attracted to him in any way."

"Today I met the cutest boy," Daria read from a purple book. "His name's Todd Tolensky. He has these adorable yellowish eyes that are so wide and expressive! His codename is Toad. But he's so cute! I'm so glad he's a mutant like me! I hope we get to hang out more!"

"Where did you get that?" Althea turned pale. "She's making it up!"

"Someone's got a crush," Quinn teased.

"I do not!" Althea snapped.

"I had the best dream the other night! I dreamed Todd and I were getting married and…" Daria started to read.

"DARIA YOU ARE GOING TO DIE!" Althea screamed and started chasing her sister around the room.

Shipwreck held his sides and laughed. "Oh yeah. This kid will fit right into our family all right."

"DADDY!" Althea screamed. Needless to say, the second whipped cream fight of the day was much more intense than the first one.