Author's Note: Yup, I have another chapter for ya'll. To be fair, I wrote this one (and Kenshi's) before I did Raiden's LOL
Dr. MKDemigodZ-Warrior: I agree! And thanks :)
ROCuevas: Thanks! You're always so nice!
Jason: Sorry, man, I can't do that. Onaga killed Reptile in order to use his body to be reborn, and now that Onaga is dead, so too is your favorite Zaterran. Baraka is the same way too since he died by Erron's hands. ~shrugs~ I wish I could help, but there's really not much I can do without violating my own continuity.
en-lumine: Your review made me laugh my head off. I want to hug them too. Hugs, hugs all around XD And I really am glad you like it. Your version of Kenshi and Suchin make me feel inadequate as a writer!
Obelisk of Light: Well, the way I started with Kenshi (which didn't anticipate his character in MKX) demanded oodles of cheese. But I tried to make it good cheese, not lame cheese sauce. To answer your question, Smoke is up next!
Firebending Master: I suppose it does! But I have a feeling you already knew that ;) Thanks for both of your reviews.
Lin Kuei Unit LK-4D4: Yeah, I kind of got lazy with Sektor, my apologies. After Frostbitten, my idea was that he kind of took off to regroup and reform the Tekunin. So it's definitely possible he could reappear, though it won't be in this set of stories. These are reserved for the good guys LOL
That nice peanut butt: First of all, I love your pen name LOL Second of all, thank you! I'm glad I didn't have to make you wait for long.
iceangelmkx: While you're making grilled cheese, I'll gladly take one too LOL I was hoping you'd approve of him wooing her, and I think the song you picked worked beautifully. With the second part, that kind of unexpectedly came about. I wasn't originally intending to do that, but then I got this idea and well...Anyway, I hope whatever I did helps you with your stuff :)
So, up next we have Smoke. As I was imagining this chapter, it came to me like a movie montage, so I tried to write it that way. Therefore, it's in non-linear order. I hope you enjoy it!
Today was the day. Tomas' first full day alone with Alex without Anya showing him how to be a father. They had been home from Outworld for precisely a month, and things had been going well. Bonding with Alex had proven easier than he thought, and the boy had latched onto him fairly quickly. So now, after everyone had finished with breakfast and began their normal day, the cyber-ninja cracked his knuckles in determination. He was thoroughly exhausted – Alex had not slept through the night at all since Tomas had returned to him – but his sleepiness did not deter him. He had grown up in the Lin Kuei Temple under Grandmaster Oniro, had miraculously overcome automation, and had somehow survived the war with Onaga. This? This was child's play.
Even still, Anya looked at Tomas nervously as she held Alex in her arms and walked around the floor of his sleeping quarters. He understood her protectiveness, he supposed. She had been like his mother since he was two months old, had bathed him, fed him, clothed him, rocked him, and loved him in all that time. But Tomas was Alex's true parent, and he could be trusted to care for his own child.
"Are you sure you can handle this by yourself?" she asked him for the umpteenth time since she and Kuai Liang had shown up in his room only fifteen minutes prior, just as the day was starting. "Because really, I can change my doctor's appointment if you need me to."
"No," the Grandmaster told her sternly. "You're not changing your appointment. Tomas will be fine."
Tomas sighed and smiled. "Relax, můj sladký anděl," he told her. "You've been a good teacher. But now, it's time for me to do this on my own."
"Yeah, Anya," her husband said, patting her shoulder. The Cryomancer flashed a sympathetic smile at Tomas and faintly nodded his head, indicating that he'd get her out of there. "It's time to let go. You've been a good caretaker, but it's time to let Alex's father handle things from here."
"A caretaker?" she asked, an odd mix of anger and grief crossing her face. She looked up at her husband with a wounded expression. "Is that all I've been to him? To all these kids?"
"Honey, it's time to let go," Kuai Liang gently told her as he lifted Alex, who was happily babbling away, from her arms. Then, he passed the infant to Tomas, who leaned him against his shoulder and started patting his back. The cyber-ninja felt sorry for Anya, though. At that very moment, she looked as if she might start to cry. She'd been increasingly hormonal with each passing day of her pregnancy, and Tomas had witnessed her burst into hysterical tears over less than this. He frowned, worried about her.
"Oh, miláček," he told her in his most soothing, appreciative tone of voice to calm her down. "You've been so much more than just a caretaker to Alex. You've been like his mother. I can't tell you enough how thankful I am to you for you watching over him. But you're going to be late to your appointment." He winked at her. "You've got to find out how your baby is doing."
Anya wiped her eyes with the back of her hands and solemnly nodded. Then she leaned over and planted a kiss on Alex's head. "Be good for your daddy," she told him softly. And with that, Kuai Liang gripped her shoulder and led her out. As expected, she'd started to cry. The cyber-ninja tried not to take it personally. She was just a crazy pregnant lady right now who was bursting at the seams with uncontrollable hormones. He felt sorry for her husband though; Kuai Liang had a certifiable nutcase on his hands right now.
Tomas smiled when they closed his bedroom door. Then he lifted Alex up to look directly in those almond-shaped eyes indicative of his birth mother's Tibetan heritage. In fact, most of his features were his mother's, from his Asian face to his jet black hair to his naturally tan skin. But those eyes…Brilliant and gray like molten silver, framed by long, black lashes, they were Tomas' without a doubt.
"You're going to be good for táta, aren't you?" he asked with a large grin. The boy blew a raspberry in response. "Oh, a wise guy, eh?" he teased. "Come on, I think it's time for a little morning nap for the both of us!"
He made his way into his quarters' sitting area where Kuai Liang had ordered Shen to set up a rocking chair when he was preparing Tomas' room. Just this area alone was much larger than that glorified broom closet he'd shared with Kuai Liang and Bi-han growing up. And it was nicely furnished as well, with matching couches colored dark blue, decorative pillows leaned against the cushions, and even a pristine glass coffee table to rest his feet on.
He sank onto the cushiony rocking chair, though, and wrapped a blanket around Alex on his shoulder before he started swaying back and forth. The infant had other ideas, though. To let his táta know what he thought about naptime, he curled a tiny fist around a short lock of Tomas' white hair and yanked as hard as he could.
"Ow!" he yelped as involuntary tears sprang to his eyes. He tried to pull his head away, but his son had an iron grip and refused to let go. "Alexander!" he cried in exasperation.
"Ta ta ta ta ta," the baby babbled in response before he squealed loudly into Tomas' ear.
"What's that smell?" Tomas asked as Alex played on the floor with some baby blocks, a seemingly endless ball of energy.
He had a hunch what it was and where – or rather, who – it was coming from. He immediately dropped down on all fours from the couch and crawled to his son, which made the child giggle in delight. He clapped his hands together and then rolled onto his belly to crawl away, thinking to play a game of tag.
"Alexander?" he asked, feigning a stern tone of voice. "Come here, mužíček!" The baby squealed as he scooted along faster, unable to shake his father. Tomas' cybernetic hand shot out and gently grabbed him by the ankle before he pulled him back to him. The boy laughed even harder as his father said, "Ah-ha! Got you!"
Immediately, Tomas realized the source of the smell: a dirty diaper. The Enenra wrinkled his nose. This had been his least favorite part of fatherhood as Anya was training him. But Tomas hoisted Alex into his arms and carried him to the changing table inside his master bathroom where he gingerly began peeling off the foul-smelling disposable diaper. It was like opening a Christmas present that no one wanted or even asked for, and when he'd pulled back the front flap, he was greeted by a stinking mess of mushy brown poo.
"Ugh, můj syn, what have you been eating?" he asked in disgust. "I didn't think anything could smell worse than your Uncle Kuai Liang!" He thought about it for a moment. "Well, maybe a Tarkatan…"
But Alex didn't laugh at his joke because he was already bawling in hysterics like he was being killed. Tomas had learned on the very first day that of all the babies in the Lin Kuei, his son was the only one who hated getting changed. And this time was no different. As the cyber-ninja yanked the dirty diaper from beneath his son's bottom and then quickly cleaned him off with baby wipes, Alex screamed while alligator tears poured from his eyes.
"Well, would you prefer I let you sit in your own mess?" Tomas pointedly asked him, exasperated. But naturally, Alex didn't understand him, and still kept crying.
The Enenra sighed as he balled up the dirty diaper and wipes and looked around for somewhere to put them. He thought of the trash can, but didn't want that smell lingering around. But he couldn't take it to the incinerator either. Anya was very firm on that point; he could not leave Alex alone on a changing table for even just one second. But Tomas quickly thought of an alternative. He'd just incinerate the problem right here and now. He set the diaper in the bathroom sink and then pressed a couple of buttons on his cybernetic gauntlet, which prompted a small stream of fire to explode from his palm and set the mess on fire. It quickly dissolved to ash and then Tomas turned on the faucet to wash the remains down the drain. Some char marks remained, but he could clean those later.
Then he turned around to finish diapering Alex. But his son, who had nothing to shield his penis because Tomas had forgotten to cover him up like Anya had instructed, promptly peed up his father's nose. He had exceptional aim.
Around lunchtime, both Tomas and Alex were hungry, and the baby frantically cried for some food. Hastily, the cyber-ninja strapped his son into his high chair and then worked to fix a bottle for him and warm up some jars of baby food. But, that wasn't quick enough for Alex, who started to scream even harder now, his impatience knowing no bounds. Tomas, frazzled by this point, looked around for something to give him right now, just to tide him over until his food was properly prepared. At last, his eyes found something: a cinnamon roll that Tomas had saved from breakfast.
He handed it to his son, who immediately stopped crying and looked at the pastry in curiosity. Gingerly, he put one of his hands on it and scooped up a chunk of bread and icing, forcing it in his mouth. He gummed it until it became a gooey mess of slobber and cinnamon roll, but he squealed and grabbed another chunk. Tomas sighed in relief.
"I want you to know how much you mean to me," he told him. "I wouldn't part with a pastry for just anyone." Alex ignored him, but the cyber-ninja smiled regardless and went back to fixing lunch in his kitchenette. It was almost done.
But that was when Anya peeked in. "Tomas?" she called from the doorway.
"Come in, miláček," he told her, carefully measuring the powdered formula into the warm water. "How did your appointment go?"
"It was fine," she said, walking towards him. "The doctor said that-" She abruptly cut herself off in midsentence, and then she looked from Alex to him in horror, but pointing at the baby. "Is he eating a cinnamon roll?" she almost yelled.
"Yeah," he chirped, shrugging, before he went about his work. "So what?"
"Tomas, he's too little to eat adult food!" she quietly exclaimed. "He could choke!"
"It's not his real lunch," the cyber-ninja argued. "But he was crying a lot and wouldn't calm down while I made his food."
"So, you bribed him," she said, looking at him sternly while crossing her arms.
"Pretty much," he told her nonchalantly.
"That's just great, Tomas," she hissed. "Now I get to be the bad guy." And with that, she walked to the high chair and took the mushy remnants of the roll from Alex. The baby looked at Anya in surprise, a wounded expression crossing his face, and then immediately started to cry again. "I'm sorry, baby," she cooed at him.
"Anya, I can handle this!" Tomas said in exasperation, hating to hear his son cry. By that point, the bottle was finished so he handed it to Alex and watched as he started to guzzle it down. "How am I supposed to learn if you don't let me make mistakes, She-devil?"
"And what kind of a teacher, nurse, and mother would I be if I didn't correct your mistakes when I caught them?" she shot back. "And stop calling me 'She-devil.' It's misogynistic."
Tomas glared at her before he pressed a button on his wrist-communicator. A blue light indicated that the connection he wanted had been established. "My pr̆ítel, come get your wife!"
A weary sigh answered him. "I'll be right there," Kuai Liang replied.
"I'm leaving," she growled as Tomas tapped his wrist-comm again and ended the call. "But don't give him pastries or any other adult food again. I'm not kidding. He doesn't have enough teeth to chew it yet, and he will choke."
With that, Anya rubbed Alex's head and planted a kiss on his downy black hair, scowled at Tomas, and then marched out indignantly. The Enenra glared at her as she left. She was so bossy sometimes! But, a small voice grudgingly conceded a moment later, she had been right. He seemed to recall her telling him that Alex couldn't handle grown-up food yet for a variety of reasons. As the memory flashed through his head, he felt a surge of self-doubt. He looked at his infant son happily guzzling the contents of his bottle, and sighed.
Alex was clearly exhausted, so Tomas rocked him for a little while until he dozed off. Finally, one small victory today. Inhaling deeply, he tiredly got to his feet, still cradling his infant son in his arms, and carried him to his nursery. Carefully, he set the boy in his crib, which was decorated with pictures and blankets full of bunny rabbits as Tomas had requested. They had been his favorite animal when he was a boy, before the Lin Kuei purged any and all joy from his life. The baby stirred slightly, but stretched out on his side and brought a few fingers to his mouth, sucking them. The Enenra smiled and made a mock show of wiping his brow before tiptoeing away.
Alex immediately started to cry.
"Zatraceně!" he swore under his breath. Then he tiredly wiped his eyes, longing for a nap himself. But he stepped back to the crib and picked up his child. Instantly, Alex stopped crying, and cooed and murmured softly as Tomas wrapped the blanket tightly around him, swaying back and forth. It only took a minute before Alex dozed off again, and once more, Tomas laid him in the crib to the same end. As soon as he let him go this time, he started crying. Frowning, unsure of how to handle this, he scooped his baby up and started pacing the floor.
"Come on, mužíček," he quietly said, "you're so tired. And your táta is so tired. Please take a nap."
But Alex refused to leave his father's arms.
Tomas found himself in his sitting area again, fumbling with the DVD player and TV that had been set up in his quarters. As he turned the equipment on and inserted a movie for Alex to watch – a purely educational one, Anya had informed him when she gave it to him – he shook his head in amazement. Kuai Liang had definitely changed the Lin Kuei. When they were children, they had no such luxuries anywhere in the Temple. He wasn't quite used to all this space and all these fine things. He was happy to have them, but they felt strange and alien to him.
Soon, the movie menu came on, and he pushed the appropriate buttons on the remote control to play it. Within seconds, there were four bizarre looking creatures on the screen, one green, one yellow, one red, and one purple. They had strangely shaped antennae on their heads, and unnerving troll-doll faces. They spoke no real words, but kept uttering things like "tinky winky" and "laa-laa." Tomas looked at it in horror, his mouth comically opened wide, wondering how in the hell this was supposed to be educational. Beside him, Alexander looked up at the screen, watched in earnest for a moment, and then burst into tears.
Tomas glanced at him and apologized as he fumbled with the controls to turn off the movie. "Oh, můj syn, I'm so sorry!" he said as he gathered his son in his arms and patted him reassuringly. "That frightened me as well. I'll never turn it on again."
Tomas pulled up a tall stool next to Alex's high chair and carefully arranged the warm jars of baby food on the tray. The baby looked up at him with sparkling eyes and giggled as he squirmed excitedly in his seat. It prompted his father to laugh, and he patted him on the head before gently stroking his cheek, tickling it. Alex squealed once more, bouncing in his chair.
"What shall we start with today, mužíček?" he asked, picking up each jar and reading the label. "Should we start with some vegetables? I warmed up some mashed peas for you." Alex babbled at him, making him smile. "When I was growing up, my teachers always said that eating all of my vegetables would make me big and strong. And now I am, so I guess they were right." He winked at the boy as he swirled a baby spoon through the sickly green mush.
With the spoon loaded, he shoved the food into Alex's mouth. The infant quieted down and savored the flavor for a long moment, smacking his lips. Then, his happy face vanished, replaced by an ugly look of disgust. Promptly, he blew a raspberry to spit them out, and a burst of green exploded on his father's face and hair.
"Uhhhh!" Tomas cried in disgust, wiping the drool and peas from his face. Some of it still dripped from his short, white hair. "Why did you do that, Alexander?" he asked a moment later. "There is nothing wrong with peas. Here, see?" he prodded, scooping up a spoonful and tasting it to show his son.
But instead of the slightly sweet, earthy flavor he was expecting, his taste buds were enveloped by bitterness that was somehow impossibly bland at the same time. It was as if he'd just taken a bite of mashed up wood pulp. Instantly, his facial expression changed to one of disgust, and involuntarily, peas and spit drooled from his mouth onto the tray.
"So this one, můj syn, is called a missile," Tomas explained as he held up an unmarked, gray rocket that was precisely six inches long. He'd plucked it, as well as many other grenades, from his internal arsenal. Arranged on the island in his kitchenette were neat lines of various ordnances that the Enenra carried on him at all times. Alex sat in the very middle of the large square, clapping and happily jabbering away while he listened to his father talk. Curiously, he picked up a dark gray orb that was the size of an orange, with a thin crevice running the entire diameter.
"Ah, a good choice," Tomas proudly said. "That is my favorite. Do you know what it is?" Alex merely looked up at him and smiled. "That is called a flash-bang grenade. It will blind your opponent and deafen him at the same time. Sure, I could easily destroy him with one of my bigger missiles, but one of these allows me the opportunity to fight him with my bare hands once he's stunned."
"Tomas?" Anya's voice called out as she grew closer. "I knocked but you didn't answer. Is everything okay?"
"Go away, She-devil!" he snapped, still annoyed with her about the cinnamon roll.
"I came to apologize," she said as she rounded the corner. Immediately, her hand went to her mouth and she staggered in surprise. "Oh, my God!" she yelped. "Tomas, what in the hell are you doing? Why in the hell is Alex holding a grenade? And please tell me those aren't live."
"They're live," he said, grimacing. He got the distinct feeling he'd made yet another mistake. "I pulled them from my chest arsenal just a few minutes ago."
She gasped, her voice about three octaves higher than normal. Her face turned a ghastly shade of pale as she lunged towards the countertop and pulled the flash-bang grenade from Alex's hands and tossed it to Tomas. Then she snatched the baby off the island and backed away from the kitchenette.
"What are you doing?" he demanded to know.
"What is wrong with you?" she hissed. "You don't let babies play with weapons. And explosives? Jesus Christ, Tomas. Where's your common sense?"
"Oh, give me a break, Anya," he angrily shot back. "I was just trying to teach my son about the things that I do. He was perfectly safe. I have to activate them. There's no way he could cause them to explode."
"Famous last words," she growled as she cradled Alex tightly to her shoulder and worriedly pressed her hand into the back of his head. "Put those away. Now."
"Give Alexander back to me," he barked, growing angry.
"Not until you put those away," she argued. "And call Kuai Liang. I'll fight with him too. I'm not afraid of either one of you."
"Zatraceně, Anya, you're not his mother!"
Tomas regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. Hurt replaced the fear in her lavender eyes, and her lips quivered.
"Yeah," she said a moment later, her voice shaking, "but you're no kind of a father."
Now it was his turn to be hurt. He looked at her, shaking his head, deep down knowing that what she'd said was true. With a wounded frown, he started gathering up his ordnance and carefully placing it back inside his arsenal. This was a mistake. One huge mistake. Why on Earth did he think he was ready to handle Alex on his own?
When he was done putting his weapons away, he looked at Anya. "Can I have him back, now?" he asked quietly.
"Tomas, I…I'm sorry," she apologized. "I didn't mean it." Tears streamed down her face and her voice threatened to crack. "You're doing good, you really are. I mean, there are so many absentee fathers in this world, but you? You're trying. You just…you just have to be more mindful." With that, she handed Alex back to him.
He cradled his son close to him, smelling his hair, closing his eyes. "I'm sorry too," he said. "I shouldn't have said that. I know you're just looking out for his best interest. And you're the closest thing he has to a mother. I know I couldn't do this without you."
She nodded, scrubbing the tears from her eyes. "He looks like he needs a nap," she gently suggested.
Tomas scoffed. "Yeah, we both do," he admitted.
"I can see that," she said, her voice sympathetic. "Do you…do you want me to take him for a while so you can have a break? Sometimes a break is a healthy thing, you know."
The cyber-ninja ardently shook his head. "No," he said. "I'm determined to make it through one day on my own."
"Okay," she half-smiled. "Then I'll leave you to it. But if you change your mind, I'll be in the infirmary working until dinnertime."
"Thanks," he sadly mumbled. She half-nodded and then walked away, leaving his living quarters.
Tomas found himself back in the rocking chair with Alex and daydreaming about Kailyn. He wished she were here, and he thought of her often. But his son kept squirming and whining and trying to break free, and therefore kept interrupting his thoughts. He sighed and let the baby slide down to his lap, and he leaned him against his cybernetic arm. This seemed to placate the child, but only for a minute. And then, Alex pounded a chubby palm onto his father's gauntlet's control panel, hitting a launch button.
Immediately, a missile flew from Tomas' mechanical hand, filling the room with a thick trail of smoke and an ear-piercing whistle. In a split second, it slammed into the front wall of his living quarters, the one separating his room from the hallway outside. Instantly, it exploded in a ball of fire that shook the entire Temple. Plaster fell from the ceiling as burning bits of drywall fluttered to the floor. But Tomas didn't see any of this because the second the missile left him, he had pulled Alex behind the rocking chair to shield them both from injury.
"What in the hell did you just do to my Temple?" Kuai Liang's furious voice soon shouted through the gaping hole in the wall. Tomas cautiously peeked over the rocking chair's armrest and looked at his Grandmaster. Behind him, several curious bystanders looked at the opening in shock.
"Aggressive expansion?" he said with a nervous chuckle as he tiredly rested his face on his human arm. Then he looked down at Alex. "I think I made a mistake in teaching you about my weapons, můj syn," he said. The boy giggled.
After Alex had finished drinking his bottle, Tomas hoisted him from his high chair and walked around his living quarters, patting the baby on the back to coerce a burp from him. Several long minutes passed, and as the cyber-ninja paced the floor, his eyes began to droop. Some days he really missed being automated and not needing to sleep. But then again, he thought, if he was automated, he couldn't appreciate the feel of his son in his arms, or smell his fragrant hair after a good bath, or giggle whenever Alex did. This was definitely better.
And then he heard an astonishingly loud yet terrifying sound escape the baby. For a split second, Tomas imagined that his son had been replaced by some horrible creature from mythology, perhaps the Kraken, as his tiny lungs rumbled and his entire body shook. The sound abruptly quieted, but at that moment, something warm and gooey spilled down the cyber-ninja's shoulder and splattered his hair. Tomas wrinkled his face in disgust as dread filled him. He knew what had just happened, but he didn't want to believe it. Quickly, he hurried to the bathroom and looked at him and Alex in the mirror. As expected, a sticky mess of half-digested formula stained his plain black t-shirt and stark white hair with vomit. He made a face.
"Alexander…" he trailed off, not really knowing what else could go wrong today.
Tiredly, he wiped what spit-up he could off his shirt, but it was still damp and highlighted with white residue. Alex's silvery eyes, he saw though, were growing heavy when the cyber-ninja switched him to the other shoulder. It was a point lost on the exhausted Tomas, who meandered to the sitting area with his son, prepared to declare defeat. He had been bested by a baby. He shook his head in self-loathing.
"Anya, I think you've argued enough with Tomas for one day," Kuai Liang sternly told his wife as he followed her towards his friend's sleeping quarters. "This is becoming ridiculous. You need to let go. Tomas can handle a baby."
"He is a baby," she shot back, though she said it with more affection than anything. "But that's not why I want to go talk to him," she stubbornly declared, leading the Grandmaster through the maze of hallways after she'd missed him and Alex at dinner. It wasn't like the Enenra to miss a meal. "I just want to make sure he's okay. I still feel terrible about what I said to him earlier."
"And you should," he told her in all sincerity. She'd confessed to him what she'd said, and he wasn't particularly happy with her about it. "Tomas is many things, but he's not an idiot. You've got to let him handle this on his own."
"You're right," she said. "You're totally right. I guess I'm just…"
"Crazy?" he suggested. "Overbearing? Stubborn? Proud?"
Anya glared at him. "I was gonna say that I felt like I was losing my child," she hissed. "And I was gonna say that was my problem and not his. But, please, feel free to keep putting me down. Because that's not gonna make me want to sleep on the couch tonight or anything."
"You're not sleeping on the couch," he sighed, annoyed. The feeling grew even stronger when he saw the gaping hole in the wall from where Alex accidentally launched one of Tomas' missiles.
"Like you're gonna stop me," she challenged, marching forward. "You're such a jer-"
She abruptly stopped in her tracks and stood before the hole when she looked inside. As Kuai Liang caught up to her, she smiled and crossed her arms. He immediately saw why. Right inside the room, laying on the bigger of the two couches, was Tomas snoring quietly. His poor friend's hair was stained green and crusty with white, and his training clothes looked as if vultures had gotten to his wardrobe. But lying on top of his chest swaddled in a baby blanket, his face peaceful and cherubic as he slept as well, was Alex.