Chapter One: Baby Shopping
My dream was wonderful. The team, Chiro, and I went to the beach and I was sitting in the sand. Chiro was in my lap and my feet were buried in the warm sand. I had only known Chiro for a couple of hours but I already felt like his mother.
Than Chiro began to cry. I snapped out of my dream and picked Chiro up. I rocked him and sang to him but he would not stop crying. "Nova!" Sprx shouted.
"What!" I shouted back.
"Make him be quiet!" he shouted. "I can't sleep!"
"I'm trying!" I said. Chiro would not stop and I ran into the Command Center. I thought that he might want to be in there instead but he kept on crying. I heard a noise and turned around. A very angry Sprx was stepping out the red elevator. "Does he have an off switch?" he asked.
"No." I said. Then I heard another noise and Gibson stepped out of the blue elevator.
"Why is he crying?" he asked. "He should be content." Than Antauri stepped out of the black elevator.
"Do you know what he wants?" Antauri asked.
"No clue." I said as Otto came out the green elevator. Chiro's cries became louder and I became more desperate. "What does he want?" I shouted.
Then there was a suckling sound and I looked at Chiro.
He now had a bottle in his mouth and Otto was holding it in place. "He was just hungry." Otto said. "Looks like he hadn't eaten in weeks."
"Good." Sprx said. "Now we can go back to bed."
"Sprx!" I shouted. "We can't go to sleep now! It's seven in the morning, which means we had five hours of sleep! We need to build Chiro's crib and get him his food!"
"And don't forget clothes and diapers." Gibson said. "Especially diapers. He can't just keep on going in the same one. He would get ammonia. And we can't just have Chiro wear that same onesie all the time. He would outgrow it eventually." "I'll go with Nova to get Chiro some clothes." volunteered Sprx.
"Gibson and I will go and get diapers and food." Antauri said.
"And I'll stay and build the crib." Otto said.
"Sprx and I will take Chiro." I said. "We got to make sure the clothes fit." Sprx grunted his approval and Antauri nodded.
"We must be back in an hour." Gibson said. "We don't want to be separated for too long."
"Agreed." Antauri said. "We'll meet back at the super robot in an hour."
"I just remembered somethin." Otto said.
"Yes, Otto?" Antauri asked.
"We need a car seat." Otto said. "He's too small for a seat belt alone."
"True." Antauri said. "Can you build one?"
"I can try." Otto said.
"I'll help you design it." Gibson said. "It needs to be able to withstand lift off and have an escape pod incase of any space accidents."
"With a tracking device!" Otto shouted.
"We must hurry team." Antauri said. "We do not want to be out long."
"Alright." Sprx said. "See you in an hour!" He grabbed my hand, ran to the red elevator and we were out in the real world.
The sun was rising steadily in the sky and the grass glistened with morning dew. The city had a few early risers in the streets and the stores were open. "Let's try and find a clothes store." I said.
We walked on the city streets for about ten minutes. Than Sprx said, "Look at that store!" He was pointing and I was looking. The store was called Clothes for Toddlers and it had tons of clothes in the windows.
"Perfect!" I shouted. "Let's check it out." I went in the store first and Sprx followed. There were tons of signs and I looked until I found the two-month-old boy section. I was looking at an adorable onesie that said my name is trouble when Sprx pulled me over. "Look at this." he said. It was a pair of shorts and a shirt that said monkey trouble.
"Adorable!" I shouted and Chiro giggled an approval. In the end we had two shirts, a bib, two shorts, two pants, two sweaters, three onesies, and a coat.
"It's way inexpensive." I said.
"I hope the others like them." Sprx said. "You know how I hate being laughed at."
"They'll like them." I said. I looked at my watch and gasped. "We've got seven minutes to get back to the robot!"
"Than let's go!" Sprx shouted and we ran down the street and got to the foot of the robot in five minutes. By the time we were up the elevators we were out of breath.
"One minute and fifty-three seconds left." Otto said. "Gibson and Antauri better hurry." I looked around and saw that Otto was right. Gibson and Antauri weren't back.
"Is that Chiro's crib?" Sprx asked, pointing at a bunch of carved wood.
"Yup." Otto said. "It hasn't been put together or painted yet though."
"We've noticed." I said while smiling. Than a familiar noise came to life and Gibson and Antauri came out the elevators.
"Twenty-one seconds to spare." Otto said. "Nice."
"Nearly finished with Chiro's crib?" Antauri asked.
"Just have to paint and put it together and it should be done." Otto said. "You got the food and diapers?"
"Of course." Gibson said. "The question is: Did Nova and Sparks get clothes?"
"Look for yourself." I said and opened up the bag.
"Too cute!" Otto shouted when he saw the monkey trouble shirt.
"Quite… adorable." Gibson said as he picked up an onesie that said I am baby, hear me roar.
"Agreed." Antauri said as he looked at the bib. It was baby blue and had a baby bottle on it. "The bottle reminds me of something. That we have to wash Chiro's bottle."
"We should have gotten another bottle." Gibson said. "Oh well. Nothing we can do now. I'll wash the bottle." Gibson went into the kitchen and Otto got a paintbrush and a paint bucket out of his room. The paint was blue.
"Might as well get started." Otto said. "By the way, I already repainted Mandarin's room. It's all set for Chiro now."
"You did all this while we were gone?" Antauri asked.
"Yup." Otto said. "You guys can look at it if you want." I said nothing and went into the orange elevator, Chiro still in my arms. It had been years since I had been in Mandarin's room.
I walked into the room, expecting Mandarin to attack me, and gasped. The walls were baby blue and Otto had even put glow in the dark stars on them. The room already had a toy box and paper and crayons. In a corner there was a blue diaper changing station.
Chiro started to reach for something and the moment I saw it I screamed. It was a shrunken head, its eyes gone and mouth sown shut. I heard the noise and the boys came into the room. "You don't like it?" Otto asked.
"I don't like the head!" I shouted and pointed straight at it.
"Oh my…" Gibson said.
"Another sign of Mandarin's evil." Antauri said.
"It wasn't there when I was painting." Otto added. "Maybe I put it up thinking it was the hanging star."
"What hanging star?" Sprx asked.
"This one." Otto said. He reached into a box and pulled out a glitter covered star. He took down the head and put up the star. "I'll throw this thing out." He took the head and left the room.
"He did an amazing job." Gibson said.
"It is very good." Antauri said. "Let's go back down and help Otto with the crib." We said nothing and went down the elevator. Otto had gotten rid of the head and had resumed painting the pieces of crib.
"Can we help?" I asked.
"Yeah." Otto said. "I need someone to put the painted pieces together."
"I'll do it." Sprx said.
"I'll start planning the car seat." Gibson added.
"I'll look for spare blankets." Antauri said. Then I smelled something horrible and I knew Chiro had gone to the bathroom.
"I'll change his diaper." I grumbled as I picked up the diapers. Parenthood had officially started.