Munks Meet More Mutants
About This Story: While the Chipmunks are taking a spring break concert tour, they spend a few days in New York City, where they meet a group of their unlikely fans - the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Age-wise they are 11. I don't own any part of the Chipmunk franchise, just borrowing them from Nickelodeon, Janice Karman, & Ross Bagdasarian, their family, & their company. I also don't own any part of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, just borrowing them also from Nickelodeon, as well as Mirage Studios (Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird & their entourage) who founded them.
About This Chapter: Rated PG-13, for mentions of medical stuff including birth control.
Pairings: Alvin/Brittany, Raph/Brittany, Raph/Alvin (Bromance)
14. Some Unanswered Questions
"Once everyone is back from the twenty-minute break..." Ms Campbell began as she turned on the lights in the room. "We are open to answering questions."
Irma was leading Jeanette back into the room. "And you're feeling OK so far? If you need anything else, just let me know."
Jeanette nodded to her. "Thanks for showing me the restroom, Ma—or, I mean, Irma. I guess it feels good to call you 'Ma' again after going nearly seven years of not calling anyone else that." She chuckled.
Irma gave her a hug. "It's nice to be called 'Ma' again, too. And to hear your sweet voice again in person, Jeanette!"
Dave looked over in her direction and asked with his fatherly concern, "Is there some reason why you wouldn't be OK, Jeanette?"
Jeanette shrugged, "Oh, no, Dave. I'm fine. Thank you for asking, I do appreciate your concern."
"Sure, glad to hear that." Dave shrugged, but then he thought of something else. Turning to Brittany, he asked, "Brittany, how is your stomach? I know you had some problems earlier today, but have you gotten through those, OK?"
Brittany nodded. "Oh, yes, I'm feeling much better now, Dave. Thank you for remembering."
Raph patted her back. "I'm glad to hear that you feel better, Brittany."
Alvin added, "Yeah, me too! Not just for my own sake because I'm sitting next to you in a room without windows..." He could see her narrowing her eyes at him, as if getting ready to punch him. "Sorry, couldn't resist messing with ya, Britt. But, you know, stomach problems are not a fun way to spend a vacation, especially with an upcoming concert." He glanced at Raph, "And you, Raph, no wonder your brothers think you're cranky—they didn't mention that your stomach has a gluten sensitivity until after I ate something that didn't agree with me—er, you...er, us."
Raph chuckled. "Yeah, by the way, I have a slight gluten sensitivity. Brittany and I found out we have that in common. But she said she takes Gas-X, Pepto Bismal, or Maalox for it, and she says it doesn't hurt to wear perfume and body mist too. Maybe I can find some of that for dudes. I mean, you'd think someone who grew up in the sewer wouldn't care about that..."
Alvin laughed. "Yeah... Basically, the hidden gluten-sensitivity made me more understanding of Britt's situation."
"Aww!" Brittany patted both of them. "That's so sweet of both of you guys."
Bishop cleared his throat. "I realize that is a lot of information to receive in one afternoon. Does anyone have any other questions about anything the video clips didn't show, or comments about any of it?"
Simon blinked, "It's kinda neat to learn something about our origins—especially how ours is connected to the origin story of the Turtles."
Mikey smiled, "Yeah! It's cool finding out you're kinda related to someone famous. They say that blood is thicker than water, and Kraang mutagen is even thicker than blood. So, welcome to the family!"
Eleanor added with a giggle, "At least we can tell people who have asked that we are not aliens from another planet. We're just kinda-related to some, like Mikey said."
Mikey sighed, "In a way, I'm honestly a little jealous of you Chipmunks. I mean, you are mutants too, yet you live in LA, where you can walk in the sun, and you are celebrated rockstars with lots of friends. No one seems to question it. But we mutants in New York must use our ninja skills to hide in the shadows. I know it's for our own safety, but I'll admit it's kind of a lonely existence sometimes."
Theodore nodded towards Mikey, "Well, if you guys ever want to visit us in LA, I'm sure we could find a good place for you." He then looked back to Bishop to ask, "And I thought of a question that Ma may have mentioned a bit in her first video with us. But what became of our parents? Do you still keep in touch with them or keep tabs on them? And do they have names?"
Mikey perked up, "Ooh—if they don't have names yet, I could totally help with that!" His brothers started to laugh among themselves, so he cleared his throat. "That is, unless their kids want to name them. I mean, they're your parents, I think you guys have the right to name them."
Ms Campbell answered, "Oh, your parents actually were named before they left their respective facilities in LA and Asheville. The boys' mother is named Vinnie, after Virginia Scott, who was one of our guardians in LA. Their father is Anthony, after another guardian there named Antonio Carreras. The girls' parents are Chip and Etta—hence their family and band name 'Chip-ette'."
Mikey gasped, "That is so what I wanted to name the parents of the Chipettes! Whoa!" He made a small explosion sound with his mouth as his hands motioned to insinuate his mind blowing up."
Once the others stopped chuckling, Ms Campbell continued, "Currently, the boys' parents live near the same Wilderness Study Area where the boys were born, and the girls' parents live in the Pisgah National Forest close to where the girls were born. Both sets of parents live as what we call 'feral mutants', which means that they live more like wild natives on a desert island where modern humans have not visited, rather than the civilized urban lifestyles that mutants like you guys enjoy. They have actually built small cabin homes, which are more like the cabins of pioneers, prospectors, or early settlers of the eighteen-fifties. We bring care packages to them every few months with food, clothing, and medicine. They are friendly and welcoming to us, grateful for our presence, but they usually keep to themselves and keep hidden from other human tourists and hikers. One of the other ways we know how they are doing is that the microbots are still tracking them. They make sure no campers mess with them, and that they don't cause any trouble to the humans. And that's also how we know when one of them is sick, or pregnant."
Brittany's eyes went wide. "Does that mean we have other siblings we haven't met?"
Ms Campbell nodded. "Yes, each set of parents has at least one more male child and at least one more female child, still alive to this day. That was before we realized we needed to also provide some form of birth control—especially for Etta's sake, who had several miscarriages, stillborns, and higher-risk pregnancies. She's doing much better now, though, since Chip had a vasectomy. Apparently, it's normal for chipmunks to have at least triplets, carried for about one month before birth. But since the mutation, they usually carry a single baby at a time, conforming more to the forty-week prenatal development schedule like that of humans."
Eleanor sighed, "That's kind of a relief to know."
Ms Campbell continued, "We keep track of their other children with microbots as well. The oldest just turned ten years old, and the youngest is currently ten months old."
Mikey raised his hand again. "Do they have names yet?"
Ms Campbell laughed, along with the others. "The parents named them when they were born. I would have to look back at the database to see what their names are. I'm sure some time they would love to meet their famous big siblings. I could even arrange a neutral meeting place, so they won't be overwhelmed by urban culture, and so their homes don't get discovered by the wrong people."
Simon asked, "Would it be OK to bring Dave? I mean, he's our dad, and I wouldn't want to leave him out of meeting our chipmunk family. But I hope they won't mind meeting a human."
Ms Campbell nodded. "Oh, yes. That's another reason for a 'neutral meeting place', since their cabins are too small for most adult humans."
Eleanor giggled. "Much like our Treehouse!"
Irma noted, "Once we Utroms had you chipmunks in our care, we had to research your chipmunk pup needs so we could meet them, as well as your more humanoid infant needs. It's a bit ironic that in the wild, chipmunk pups are cared for usually by the mother as a solo act for usually no more than two weeks. But you guys and girls are still dependent on a single father even eleven years later." She smiled over at Dave. "But it looks like one good parent was all you needed. Looks like we couldn't have picked a better dad for you!"
Dave beamed. "I'm both humbled and honored that you picked me, and I honestly couldn't imagine my life or my family turning out any other way. I mean, if someone told me when I turned thirty-eight that I would be the father of three singing humanoid chipmunk boys before my next birthday, there's no way I would've believed them. But I'm curious—how did you Utroms do an adoptive 'home study investigation' on me without my knowledge?"
Irma chuckled. "By human standards, some of our methods may be considered 'stalking', I'll admit. But since I was touring Jett Records so frequently as an Utrom cultural liaison, and considering getting the Chipmunks and Chipettes into the music world, you and about twenty-four others were first considered as potential music managers or even caretakers of our chipmunks. You were one of the people who came to Jett Records often enough that we put your name on our list. Some of these people were good music managers, who could ensure the chipmunks' access to recordings or concert gig bookings, but they were just not quite as...nurturing, or able to provide the parental level of protection, discipline, structure, or care deemed necessary for the chipmunks' well-being—such as your colleague, Ian Hawke. We—mostly Ken, Mark, and myself—did some further background checks on the twenty-five people on our list, and we even deployed some microbots to follow all of you for two weeks. Although a few of them were eliminated sooner than that. Throughout this process, Mister Seville, you worked your way to become the top choice on our list. So...congratulations!" She chuckled again. "I realize that congratulations are almost nine years overdue since the time you became our boys' adoptive father."
"Thank you, Irma." Dave beamed. "Like I said earlier, I feel both humbled and honored to have been chosen for this blessing." He added with a chuckle, "And now I also feel a little bit violated, knowing that I was being studied without my knowledge or prior consent. But I'm coming to terms with it by now, knowing that had you not done your...investigation on me, I never would have met these kids, or been a part of their lives. I guess you Utroms have your reasons for doing it that way. I mean, if there were an ad in the paper that said, 'Interested in being a chipmunk parent? Please call this number to apply.'—I still doubt I would've voluntarily signed up for that. It sounds too much like a scam." The others shared a brief chuckle with him.
Simon raised his left hand. "Now, about those microbots..." With his right hand, he started feeling around his neckline. "Do we still have them attached to us? Still taking our vitals from our jugular veins?"
Ms Campbell answered him, "No, Simon, we actually removed those within a few weeks of birth. It was once the mutagen would no longer affect your survival, and your post-mutation vitals had stabilized. It was also when your growth patterns began to slow so that you started aging like humans. Our decision to remove them was more like that of a hospital deciding which patients need to move to the ICU, and which patients can be discharged. Now, if any of you got sick while you lived with us, a microbot would temporarily latch onto your jugular vein, but it would leave once you were healthy enough. We had no further need to constantly know your vitals or your location down to the centimeter after that."
There was a brief moment of satisfied silence. Irma warmly added, "And if any of you think of other questions to ask later, I can also give you a card with my contact info. Take note of which numbers are more secure and which have more public access." She started passing a few cards around to the group.
April smiled when Irma reached her. "We already have each other's contact info from when I assume you play 'cultural liaison' at our high school." She winked. "Your secret is safe with me."
Irma laughed and gave April a hug around the shoulders. "Awesome! My BFF guardian! I forgot to tell you until now—but I helped raise the Chipmunks and Chipettes when they were babies."
April laughed. "Well, I forgot to tell you for a while that I knew the Turtles, and often played a version of a 'cultural liaison' for them, so I guess we're even."
Bishop asked the group, "Does anyone have any other questions before you are dismissed?"
Alvin and Raph both raised their hands together. "Yes!" They stated simultaneously.
Raph asked, "Will we be stuck in each other's bodies forever?"
Alvin added, "Yeah, I literally have not been myself all day."
Bishop chuckled. "Of course not, Alvin and Raphael. We Utroms have a way to change you back, and we will now prepare you both for that transfer. Come with me."
A/N: Mikey said, "Welcome to the family" to April in the Nickelodeon cartoon episode "The Kraang Conspiracy". Mikey is also the one who comes up with names for just about everything or everyone in the same cartoon series. The Chipmunk parents named Vinnie (from the 80s cartoon series) and Anthony (maybe from around...other fanfics of other friends?), I got that information from other sources. The Chipette parents named Chip and Etta, I just made that up, but it fits. Mikey made the motion of his mind being blown at the end of the 2014 live-action (Michael Bay) movie. The other chipmunk siblings? I didn't want this story to become about that, but there's potential for another spinoff fanfic.
