Note: Some parts in this chapter refer to Tyroth Darkstorm's fic 'Cursed and Blessed' Go to his page to read it!
Chapter Eleven
Smiling again
Meanwhile, Sephie walked to the residential area to look for Callum after getting dried and dressed from her time in the baths with Mona whilst the Lizard Lady had gone to find Pandora since she hadn't seen her daughter since breakfast when she asked Sonia to look after her and Kemeko whilst she went to talk to Callum.
As Mona watched Sephie go and find Callum, her heart was pounding.
"I hope he listens to Sephie." she thought "He's got to..." she chewed her lip then went to look for the children.
She hoped Pandora and Kemeko were alright, and she knew she could trust Sonia to take care of her daughter, like she had in the past, and they had such a close relationship since the day they met as very young children.
She soon arrived at Sonia's Girl-cave and knocked on the door.
"Come in!" Sonia's voice was heard and Mona opened the door and her eyes widened in shock at what she saw!
All the children were dressed up.
Sonia was wearing a sparkly pink dress that matched her scales as she was a bright pink due to her giggling and laughing.
Pandora was dressed up as a pirate, Kemeko was wearing a Panda outfit and Freya was wearing a Knight's outfit.
But that wasn't what shocked Mona, it was what or rather who was surrounded by the dressed up giggling girls.
Loki was sitting in a chair and was tied to it, in the middle of the room wearing a white dress that was way too big for him along with a blonde wig and was covered in Make-up, obviously he had been ambushed by the girls and forced to undergo a make-over.
"What the shell?" she asked as she walked in "What did you girls do to poor Loki?"
Pandora and Freya looked up and grinned evilly whilst Kemeko was on the floor laughing.
"Loki said he was fed up of being the only boy in this room so we decided to turn him into a girl!" Pandora smirked.
Mona stared at Loki in shock and the Dragon Boy looked rather scared yet he did look very funny all covered in make-up and wearing a blonde wig and dress.
"Loki? Are you okay?" Mona asked worried.
"I'm okay!" Loki said "But I want out now!"
"Girls." Mona said in a serious voice "You've had your fun but I think you should stop torturing Loki now!"
Freya and Pandora looked disappointed but they agreed and released Loki from the chair, yet Loki didn't try and get himself out of the clothes, as he now seemed quite happy mainly because he was released from the chair.
"Look at me!" he grinned gesturing his thumbs at himself "I'm a girl too!"
The girls instantly started to laugh and soon Mona felt a slight smile curling at the corner of her mouth and she couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous Loki looked.
Just then, the door opened and Tyroth appeared, also coming to check on the Geckolings and he soon saw Loki standing there dressed in girls clothes and covered in make-up!
Mona had almost jumped out of her skin when she heard Tyroth come in and as soon as he saw his son dressed as a girl his eyes widened and he lowered his head into his hands.
"Oh Gods!" he exclaimed "Girls! What did you do?"
"Hi daddy!" Loki grinned "Like my new look?"
Tyroth looked up from his clawed hands and looked at Loki.
"What did your sister and cousins do to you?" he asked looking at Sonia, Pandora, Freya and Kemeko who were all laughing so hard tears were rolling down their cheeks.
"Loki looks pretty!" Kemeko smiled.
Mona looked at the Dragon, her smile at Loki's apperance still present on her face.
"The girls decided to dress him up." She said "He is the only boy amongst the kids."
Loki nodded.
"That I am dad!" he said "I was scared when they were going to dress me up, but after a while it wasn't so bad!"
"I know how you feel being the odd one out Loki." Mona said "Being the only girl in the Turtle's lair, even though Auntie April comes to see us, along with your mother, I'm still the only girl in the group back in New York!"
Loki grinned then took the blonde wig off to which Pandora frowned.
"Why you taking it off?" she asked "We were just getting used to you being a girl!"
"It's itching my scalp!" Loki commented rubbing the top of his head, then took off the dress "And I want to be a boy again!"
It was then Tyroth found himself laughing as well and he walked over to help Loki out of the dress as well as wipe his face with a wet wipe to get the make-up off.
"Next time you torture Loki girls," he said "Play with face paints!"
"I got some in my box." Sonia said walking over to her box of games "Who wants to have their face painted?"
"Me!" Pandora said excitedly raising her hand.
"Me too! Me too!" Kemeko added.
"And me!" Freya said.
"Me too!" Loki jumped in "But not a girl this time!"
Tyroth and Mona smiled at the children and Tyroth stood up.
"Have fun kids." he said "Just remember we'll be having lunch in two hours."
"Okay Uncle Tyroth." said Sonia.
"Will we be having pizza?" asked Pandora licking her lips.
"Hopefully yes." Mona said "I'm sure Louie will have whipped up something for us all to enjoy!"
"I like hot chilli pizza!" Loki said.
"Me too!" said Freya "And hot spicy meat!"
"That's because you like anything hot!" Sonia said.
"They breathe fire!" Kemeko said "That's why they like hot things!"
"Yeah!" Pandora agreed.
"You're just like your Uncle Mikey." Mona tutted at her daughter "And your father." she kissed Pandora's forehead "Be good okay? And no more torturing Loki."
"Okay mum!" said Pandora with a sweet smile.
"Thanks for looking after the girls Sonia." said Mona "With everything that's happening, I do appreciate your help."
"You can count on me Aunt Mona!" Sonia smiled.
"What is happening with Uncle Callum Mum?" asked Pandora as she remembered the reason they went to Mutopia was because of Callum.
"Yeah?" Kemeko asked "Uncle Callum?"
"I'll explain everything properly later okay Little Geisha." said Mona "Just stay with your cousins and be a good little girl and your father, Uncles or I will come back later to fetch you."
"Okay mum." Pandora said.
"I'll tell the rest of you later as well okay?" said Tyroth as he looked at Sonia, Freya and Loki "Be good now okay? And remember what I said about you using your fire breath?" he added to the Geckolings.
"Yes daddy." Freya and Loki said together "Not to use it in play, as we could hurt someone by accident."
"That's right!" Tyroth said with a wink "See you kids later okay?"
"Okay!" The kids chorused as Mona and Tyroth left the room together.
Once the Grown-ups had left, Pandora stared after them and looked down thinking about her Uncle Callum.
Her parents had told her last night that Callum had reacted badly to his mutation and that Dr James was looking after him, yet she didn't know anything about what had happened afterwards and she had been told not to go to the Medical room to look for him much to her chagrin.
"You okay Pandora?" asked Freya.
"Yeah, I hope Uncle Callum is alright." Pandora said "Mummy said he was mad when he realised he was a mutant."
"Don't worry Little Geisha." said Sonia "I'm sure everything will be alright, Dr James will look after him, and Grandpa George will show him Mutopia."
"Yeah!" Loki agreed "He will have a home here with us!"
"And he'll be safe too!" Freya agreed "Daddy says it's always safe down here! Away from the baddies above!"
Kemeko took Pandora's hand and smiled.
"He'll be alright." she said "Once he is better, he'll see us!"
"Yeah!" Freya said "I'd love to meet him!"
"Me too!" Said Loki.
Sonia also agreed, yet she had seen that look of worry on Tyroth's face earlier, yet she couldn't place her finger on it.
"We'll get to meet him soon enough!" she said as she prepared the face paints "Come on! Let's see what I can paint you up as!"
"Yay!" the younger kids cheered and gathered around the Chameleon girl.
The lizard and dragon left Sonia's Girl-Cave to let the children play some more, and Tyroth looked at Mona.
"Nice to see you smiling again." he said.
Mona nodded in agreement, even though they had left the room, she still had a smile on her face from what she had seen in there.
"Yeah," she said "Well, seeing the kids playing always puts a smile on my face, seeing them having fun, I swear, Pandora becomes more like her dad everyday, and I can see a hint of Michelangelo in there."
"I'm sure she's got some traits from you too!" Tyroth said.
Mona chuckled and stared ahead, her happier attitude changing as she faced reality again.
"Sephie said she would go and speak to Callum." she said "She said maybe is might be able to get through to him."
Tyroth's eyes widened as he thought of his mate going to confront the Raven, after his outburst earlier, he was worried, but he knew Sephie would be able to handle herself.
If she was able to take down Purple Dragons, Foot Ninja, the Venomous Five or even more tricky enemies like Dr Arden and Arashi she could hold her own against Callum if he tried anything.
He also knew if his mate's dream to be a psychiatrist when she was human and she had used the same skills to help others when they had problems, especially Mona when old wounds had opened up past and present.
"If I knew Sephie." Tyroth said "I'm sure she'll find a way to reach Callum."
"Me too." Mona said "I just want to mend our bond, Jake and I are on a road to recovery, even started feeling our bond again, but Callum, I've failed to reach him."
"George showed him all of Mutopia." Tyroth said "He was calm throughout the whole tour and he seemed to accept this place, he even said Callum tried out his wings when they went to the training room."
"Really?" Mona asked "He's keen to learn to fly?"
"Well, he's going to have to learn how to use his wings." Tyroth said "I did a long time ago." he opened his wings and flapped them.
"I have to say, when I first saw these on my back when I mutated, they felt like an extra pair of arms and my brain was trying to figure out how to use them, I found that they moved along with my arms so I had to try and separate moving my arms and wings at the same time and before long, I was able to control my arms and wings separately."
Mona said nothing as she thought of Callum and how he had tried out his wings.
"Will you teach him?" she asked.
"Of course." Tyroth said "Well there aren't many flyers in Mutopia, apart from Heather, and we have two other mutant birds and a Butterfly, but they all say I'm the best flyer in Mutopia so I suppose the flying lessons chould be taken from me."
Mona looked at Tyroth and smiled again.
"I'd be grateful if you could teach Callum how to use his wings." she said "It might just help him get used to his new body."
"I'll do my best Monalisa." Tyroth said placing his hand on the Lizard Lady's shoulder "You have my word! I just hope that Sephie will be able to help Callum find some light in the darkness in his soul."
"Me too." Mona sighed as she looked towards the residential area where she knew Callum would have gone to after being shown Mutopia.
"I do hope Callum's in a listening mood."
Awww! Sweet moments with the kids! Poor Loki though! At least he was enjoying himself after a while!
The reaction from Tyroth was based on a scene from 'E.T, the Extraterrestrial' where Elliot discovers that his sister dressed E.T up in fancy dress. That scene always cracks me up!