Nope this isn't an April Fools joke! This is another update, this time with feels! Yaaaaay! Anywho please enjoy.
Yet another peaceful month has passed and the weather was starting to get colder. Fall really was beginning to set in it seemed. The underground base was coming along nicely, now with three rooms, the nursery, one bedroom, and a large bathroom. However the search for Skelemandarin was growing hard as formless began to scatter the jungle, attacking anyone who comes near it. What the Hyperforce learned was that the formless didn't seem to want to go to the city and attack it, but rather would protect the jungle zone.
No doubt it, Skelemandarin was in there somewhere. He didn't seem to be doing anything yet, but they know he will be coming soon.
Mandarin tried to sneak into Gibson's lab every so often to look over the blood samples, but he would be caught halfway through getting there or was distracted by everything else. This was getting irritating, that and having to deal with the 'fun' parts of being pregnant was really starting to piss him off.
Sprx yawned as he walked into the kitchen.
"Wow I didn't sleep that good last night, I must've gotten like six hours of sleep or something." He sighed.
Everyone tensed up as Mandarin turned to him, dark circles under his eyes.
"Oh really? Because I haven't gotten any sleep. For the past few days!" He growled, nearly bending the table because of his grip.
Sprx put his hands up.
"L-look I didn't mean anything by that I was ju-just saying!" He laughed nervously.
"Do you know what it's like to have something banging against your abdomen each night and then having to go the bathroom seven times a night and feeling like someone made you swallow a bolder and now it's sitting on your intestines?" Mandarin asked.
Sprx shook.
"I-I mean-"
"No? Then you don't get to complain about losing sleep." He snarled.
Sprx shook, forehead sweating.
He edged to the table before laying his head down.
"Don't put your head down." Mandarin sighed, causing Sprx to immediately raise his head back up.
Otto then scooted over to Mandarin and snuggled him. Whenever something like this happened, he would usually go over and snuggle with him to calm him down.
Otto's then crawled up on him.
"Otto no, Otto no I'm angry!" Mandarin protested but Otto was already snuggled up with him and nuzzled his head.
"Are you angry now?" Otto asked.
Mandarin paused then side glanced him, his eyes softening.
"Hush." He huffed, causing Otto to snicker.
Everyone sighed. Leave it to Otto to save the day.
Afterwards Mandarin trudged to his room to try to get some sleep before he fell apart, however he found Trent on his bed. He had his knees to his chest and he was staring at the blankets.
"Why are you on my bed?" He questioned.
Trent looked up at him.
"O-oh I'm sorry I didn't think you'd be back so quick." He said.
Mandarin yawned.
"You didn't come to breakfast either." He pointed out.
Trent laughed nervously.
"I'm sorry it's just..." He bit his lip.
"Do you ever get the feeling that something bad is going to happen?" He finally asked.
Mandarin froze.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
Trent drew his knees in closer.
"I mean I just get this weird feeling in my stomach that something's going to happen and it's going to be terrible." He muttered.
Mandarin stared for a second.
"Trust your intuition, now get out of my bed." Mandarin ordered before picking him up, setting him on the floor, and laying in his bed.
"B-but!"
"Trust your intuition. If you truly feel that something terrible might happen, then trust it and be on guard. Besides we don't know where or when my clone will strike again." He said.
Trent shakily nodded.
"And don't mull over it either, it will only deteriorate your health."
Trent nodded again, he was right. Right now he needed food and company.
"Alright...thank you." He said before leaving the room.
Mandarin watched him go and sighed. He hated to admit it, but he felt the same way. Something was going to happen...and he felt he wouldn't like the outcome very much. He didn't need this stress right 's not good for him or the Tabithian, which then began to move again.
He rubbed his stomach, the maternal feelings prickling him. The moments between him and the child became less and less brief as time went on. Sometimes this experience would go for a few hours or so and this wasn't an exception.
"Please let me sleep, just for a little while." Mandarin said softly.
He didn't expect a response since fetuses were incapable of doing such things, but having it kick anyway was sort of comforting.
And yet still so weird!
Mandarin sighed as he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Chiro looked at the scanners again, nothing! He sighed, why was he hiding again? Shouldn't he at least bring his formless into the city and have them cause destruction? What is Skelemandarin up to? He felt Antauri put a hand on his shoulder.
"I understand you're frustrated Chiro, but we can't look at the scanners all day. There is still much to do." Antauri said.
Chiro paused before nodding, agreeing.
"Yeah, like picking out wall colors!" Otto said, holding up pallets.
Chiro raised an eyebrow as he went to the others.
"Shouldn't Mandarin be picking out colors?" He asked.
"He's tired so we should let him get some rest." Willow said.
"The kid is already doing a number on him. Not even getting one hour of sleep." Nova sighed.
Chiro nodded and looked at the colors.
"So what should we pick for the living room?"
Sprx thought it over.
"Maybe a dark and gloomy color, that would match his personality." He said.
"I know Mandarin, and he would want an earthy color for the living room." Otto said.
"You know we should ask him this when he gets up." Trent said.
"What he got to pick the colors for every other room!"
They then heard a knock on the door. They all turned to the screen to find out who was knocking. It was a light blue humanoid like alien, with hair that looked likely was apart of his skin as it matched with the same color. They could even see a bit of that hair from behind his head.,He had two slits for a nose on his face and dark green eyes. He was wearing some sort of purple suit with a blue tie and had a backpack with him and a clipboard.
"Gods I hope I got the address right...I mean he could be living in the house over there for all I know!" He huffed.
The others looked at each other as Chiro went up to the control panel and took out the mic.
"Uh hello?"
The alien looked up and smiled.
"Hello is Mandarin here?" He asked.
Everyone looked at each other again.
"Uh yes he is? Who are you?"
The alien raised a card.
"I'm Tilamat Alenz, I'm Mandarin's obstetrician. Is it alright if I stopped by?"
Chiro turned to the others.
"I know I didn't make any calls before hand but I just got a break from my other patient and I don't know how much time I would have until I have to go back to her."
Antauri nodded.
Chiro activated the doors and they opened for Tilamat.
"Come on in." He said.
Tilamat nodded before entering.
Tilamat then came from one of the tubes and walked backwards, not used to how they operate, before nearly falling. He turned to everyone.
"Again I'm sorry for not calling." He said.
Antauri smiled.
"No it's alright, unfortunately he's asleep right now so I hope it's alright if you wait until he wakes up ." He said.
Tilamat shook his head and sat down.
"Oh no it's perfectly fine I can wait. I understand the baby might be keeping him up some nights. I saw he took his supplements and is eating more sugars. That's good." He said, pulling out a laptop.
"Yeah I caught him in the middle of the night snacking on pickles and doughnuts. And HE was the one judging me." Amanda said, pointing at herself.
Tilamat snickered.
"Well cravings will do that to you." He laughed.
Arwen snickered, knowing how those felt.
"Still he and the baby seem to be doing really good. To be honest I have to thank all of you on that." Tilamat said smiling.
Everyone grew confused.
"Us?" Sprx asked,
Tilamat nodded and looked at his laptop.
"Yeah when I first started watching his progress he was always so sad. Like something always bothered him and I was worried for him. Now he's actually happier and that's good both for him and the baby. I can't thank any of you enough." He said, looking back at the others.
Everyone was silent. They...they had no idea Mandarin was so unhappy before he stayed here. They knew he had a bad attitude back then but they didn't know how sad he was.
"Do you know why he was feeling that way?" Antauri asked.
"No, I never asked him." Tilamat sighed.
However...he did . He knew why Mandarin was so upset but Tilamat figured that Mandarin was over it by now.
They all were silent.
"So! When he gets up I'm gonna talk to him for a while and do some things and then I'll be off!" Tilamat chirped.
"You have to leave so quickly?" Arwen asked.
Tilamat shrugged.
"I don't know how long I have before I have to go back to my other patient. She's really fussy." He sighed.
Everyone understood and they continued to work. However not before Otto went up to him.
"You need anything?" He asked.
Tilamat shook his head.
"I'm fine thank you." He said before turning on his laptop.
"What's that?" Otto asked, pointing at the laptop.
Tilamat looked up.
"Oh this is what we use to check up on the baby. Sometimes the patient will be far away and we use this. We use nanobots to check on them instead of an regular ultrasound." He said.
Otto nodded and looked at it closely.
"Can you tell the baby's gender on it?" He asked.
"Sure can! But let's wait until Mandarin wakes up before we find out." He said.
Otto nodded and went back to the others.
Willow turned to Trent, who was surprisingly not very talkative. She began to wonder what was on his mind.
Nearly two hours later Mandarin came into the room, still looking a bit tired.
"Morning sleepy." Nova greeted.
Mandarin only stared at her before noticing Tilamat. He grew confused.
"What are you doing here?" He asked, his tired mind trying to wrap around this.
Tilamat got up and smiled.
"I'm here to check on you."
"Here?"
Tilamat nodded.
"I got a quick break, now c'mon." He said, grabbing Mandarin's arm.
"I just woke up!" Mandarin whined.
"I know and you can go back to sleep after I'm done!"
Everyone turned to each other and silently followed but Tilamat looked back and shook his head.
They would have to wait a while, but Willow snuck away turning invisible.
Mandarin yawned as Tilamat sat next to him.
"Please tell me there's a way to get some sleep despite the constant kicking." Mandarin sighed.
"There is don't worry, I suggest not using medications though." Tilamat chirped.
Mandarin held his head up with his hands, waiting for suggestions.
"I'd turn down the room temperature at night or just make your bed more comfy to sleep in. Maybe a relaxing shower might help." Tilamat went on.
"If you keep talking I'm going to need a notepad." Mandarin snickered.
Tilamat snickered too.
"Don't worry I'll give you a list. Anyway I'm pretty impressed. You're gaining the proper weight, you're doing everything you're supposed to, and your overall mental state has improved amazingly!" He complimented.
Mandarin looked to the side.
"Please..."
"I was actually kind of worried about you for a while."
Mandarin looked to him as Tilamat looked down at his laptop.
"You were so depressed before, and even though the Hyperforce was a better place for you I didn't know how it would improve you emotionally. I know you wanted to leave so bad but I rarely hear you wanting to leave anymore." He explained.
Mandarin flinched.
That was true, he didn't even think about leaving after he told the Hyperforce about his pregnancy. Despite the elephant in the room, he still felt happier which was surprising to him. Willow watched from afar, not saying anything.
"So I'm really proud of you. You're doing really well despite all the stress you have to deal with, especially the clone problem." Tilamat said looking at him.
Mandarin sighed.
"Don't remind me, I still fear what he might do."
Tilamat nodded and paused.
"So uh...have you talked to them about...how you felt about them months ago?" He asked.
Mandarin shook his head.
"No, I don't want to bring it up. I don't need to have them deny it." He sighed.
Willow frowned, what feelings?
"It might be good to bring some closure. You still have a bit of that resentment and frustration bottled up and it would be good to let that out to them. I don't expect it to go over without any yelling but still it might be helpful." Tilamat explained.
Mandarin gripped his knees and looked down.
"I don't know...I don't want them to deny what they did was wrong."
Tilamat shrugged.
"Just something to think about. If you don't want to talk to all of them about it maybe talk to someone you trust?" He suggested.
Mandarin paused.
"That may be a possibility."
Tilamat nodded.
"You don't have to do it now but it might help."
Mandarin bit his lip. Tilamat patted his shoulder.
"Anyway! I think we should move on because I found out about this while you were sleeping." Tilamat said, tapping the keys.
Mandarin turned to him, intrigued. Tilamat continued to tap until his eyes lit up.
"Okay! Well...I hope you don't mind having a daughter."
Mandarin paused, soaking the information in before he snickered.
"No I really don't." He said, happiness filling him.
Tilamat slammed his hand on the seat they were sitting on.
"Good because that's what you're getting!" He declared, causing the two of them to laugh.
Willow smiled, happy that he was having a girl.
"What was that about?!" Mandarin asked.
Tilamat tried to talk in between laughter.
"It's a thing I do! Whenever someone asks the baby's gender I usually go with that but sometimes I would ask, 'hey do you mind having a son?' and if they say yeah I go, 'well you're getting a daughter so uh'." Tilamat shrugged.
"You don't really do that last part!" Mandarin said, shocked.
"No I don't! I could, but I'd get in trouble!"
The two calmed down after that and Tilamat sighed.
"But yeah that may change due to us Tabithians being able to change sexes. That isn't a problem is it?" He asked.
Mandarin leaned forward a bit.
"No of course it isn't, I'd be happy with whatever gender she identifies with." He said.
"Good because I would have hit you." Tilamat joked, causing Mandarin to snicker.
"Not but that's really good. I've seen so many Tabithian parents say they don't care about the sex and when their kid changes gender they turn really nasty and it's so disgusting! My parents never did that with me." Tilamat sighed, shaking his head.
Mandarin sat back, hand on his stomach.
"Well you don't have to worry about that with me. Shuggazoom is an overall much more tolerant planet of these sort of things and I'd never want them to feel unwanted because of what they identify as." Mandarin said.
Tilamat smiled.
"It kinda makes me want to move here." He said.
Mandarin shrugged.
"You could, I mean the citizens would get a bit nervous over a Tabithian being here but I don't think they'd mind." He said.
"Nah I would like to but my superiors want me to be in specific places." Tilamat sighed.
"That's unfortunate, but oh well."
The two were silent before Mandarin sensed Willow. He looked over at where she was hiding and waved.
"Hi Willow." He greeted, smirking.
Willow fell to the floor and turned visible.
"How?!" She asked.
"Just because you can turn invisible doesn't mean I can't sense your energy. I was too distracted the first time you tried this." Mandarin pointed out.
Willow blinked, mouth open.
Tilamat closed his laptop.
"I'm sorry I just got too curious." She apologized.
Tilamat waved his hand.
"Aw well that's fine. I just didn't want butt to get all nervous and whatever." He said pointing to Mandarin.
"Hey."
Tilamat then got up.
"Besides I'm pretty much done here. I need to hurry back." He said.
"So soon?"
Tilamat shrugged.
"Hey might as well. I'll give you a list of sleep tactics and other suggestions." He said as Mandarin struggled to get up a bit.
"Sounds fine, now I need to sleep again." He sighed.
"Oh no! The others have been arguing over what the rooms in the base will look like and you need to help!" Willow snapped.
Mandarin groaned.
"Fine, only if it will shut everyone up." He huffed, the thought of speaking to everyone about his overall thoughts still clung to the back of his head.
Willow nodded and left, having the two follow her.
Tilamat soon left after that, thanking everyone for their kindness.
Mandarin went over to the others.
"Okay I'm here, here to get through all the stupid stuff." Mandarin huffed, sitting down.
"Good." Sprx sighed.
Chiro sighed.
"Okay so, living room colors." He said to Mandarin.
Mandarin thought for a bit.
"Burgundy red." He said.
Otto smirked at Sprx, who rolled his eyes.
"It's not even a earthy color Otto..." He sighed.
"Still!"
Willow sat back, thinking about the conversation between Mandarin and Tilamat. Especially about Mandarin's closure issue. She felt that he should talk to them about it, and soon.
Afterwards Mandarin began to go back down as everyone went off to do their own thing. Willow ran up to him before he made it to the tube.
"Wait!"
Mandarin turned to her.
Willow side glanced before speaking again.
"When do you want to talk about that uh...closure thing Tilamat was talking about?" She asked.
Mandarin blinked before looking at the others.
"Does it have to be right now?" He questioned.
Willow looked back at them then turned back.
"No, but maybe later tonight?"
Mandarin sighed, loudly.
"Look Tilamat said it might help you and I think it's a good idea. So just try it?"
Mandarin paused before sighing again.
"I could, but don't blame me if things turn ugly." He said before going down.
That statement sent butterflies into Willow's stomach. What did he mean by that?
Later that night after dinner and training, everyone minus Mandarin was watching a movie.
"Otto can you try to get Mandarin up here?" Nova asked.
Otto nodded and quickly ran to the transportation tube.
"He didn't tell us what gender the kid is." Sprx said.
"He probably doesn't want us to get all crazy over it or something." Chiro sighed.
"True but it would still be nice to know." Gibson said.
Antauri nodded.
"He'll tell us soon don't worry." He said.
Willow did her best to not break down and tell everyone it's a girl but she had to keep quiet.
"Otto no!" Mandarin griped as Otto pulled on his hand.
"It's just one movie! And it's halfway over!" Otto huffed.
Mandarin groaned as Otto pulled him to the others.
"Come on, it's time to stop being Mr. Anti Social and join us." Otto said plopping down on the floor.
Mandarin grumbled before sitting down. Otto then crawled up next to him and snuggled him.
Mandarin then thought of what Willow said earlier. He could do it now but...
"Carmichael! Do you understand the pain I went through because of what you did or shall I say didn't do?!"
"Stella we did everything we could with you but we thought we lost you forever!"
"Everything?! You call that everything?!"
Mandarin growled lightly, causing everyone to look at him. He blinked.
"Sorry just thinking." He said before everyone watched the movie again.
"Stella what do you want me to say? That I didn't try?! That I didn't care enough?!"
The woman on the screen got up from her seat.
"No...you didn't do enough to save me." She said before leaving the bewildered man.
"This movie is so stupid. He did so much to save this dumb chick." Sprx huffed.
Mandarin sniffed.
"Then again, if he just actually tried harder maybe whatever situation she's in wouldn't have happened." He huffed.
"Well if the chick would have just not lashed out like she did-."
"Maybe if he wouldn't have given up so easily-!"
Sprx turned to him.
"Okay what the heck is wrong? You never get this upset over a movie. Is it the mood swings or something?" He asked, having Willow push him.
Mandarin glared at him, his eyes like daggers.
"No it's not actually."
"Then what's wrong?" Otto asked.
Mandarin gritted his teeth but sighed, if he had to do this it'd be now.
"Well this movie got me thinking of something that I...presumably got upset about years ago and some of that still carries on today but less than before because I am less angry with you." Mandarin said before shrugging.
The Hyperforce looked at each other.
"What about?" Nova asked, not really liking where this was going.
Mandarin side glanced before looking back at them. Then he sighed again, he didn't want to talk about this now since the mood was so nice previously but there was no turning back.
"Well what that woman said about not doing enough to save her might have some prevalence on how I felt when you banished me."
Everyone was silent before Sprx sighed harshly.
"Tell me you don't mean when we tried to use the Power Primate to get the evil out of you right?" He huffed.
Mandarin held up his hands.
"It's not like I'm that bitter about it, I mean I still am but on a less intense scale than before." He said as Nova stood up.
"What are you talking about?! Mandarin we did everything we could to try to bring you back!"
Mandarin glared, anger bubbling inside him.
"Really? Do you call those 'anger management solutions' and 'stress relievers' and 'let's just blast him with a huge amount of Power Primate and if he's still evil we just give up' everything you could?" He huffed.
Sprx put his hands in his face.
"Oh my god.."
Antauri frowned while Chiro, Jinmay, Trent, Willow, and Amanda could only look on in confusion.
"We thought that was it for you Mandarin. We thought your corruption was something the Power Primate couldn't fix and when you lunged at us what were we supposed to do?" He asked sternly.
"I still felt I could have been saved, you could have just tried again!" Mandarin argued.
"So what, we didn't try hard enough?!" Nova demanded.
Otto sunk back in his seat.
"Mandarin we even tried to stage an intervention in order to help you but you brushed that off pretty quickly!" Gibson pointed out.
"What intervention?! You mean that confrontation before you tried to blast the evil out of me?!"
"You guys..."
"Yes! Mandarin what the hell did you think we were trying to do?! Just doing everything half assed?!" Sprx yelled.
"Sprx!" Chiro warned, but everyone seemed to ignore him.
Willow looked between the two groups. She began to wonder if this was a good idea.
Mandarin crossed his arms.
"Well I think it could have been done much better to be completely honest. When you gave up on me I thought none of you cared-"
"Don't you even dare finish that sentence! We did care! We cared a lot about bringing you back! Did you realize how heart breaking it was to imprison you? Otto cried for hours after you left!" Gibson yelled.
He felt like crying now, he didn't want this. Otto just wanted everyone to enjoy a movie together and forget the past...
"So don't you dare think we didn't care! We tried everything to save you-!"
"Really?! It never felt like that to me!"
"Well then maybe you should-!"
Chiro stood up.
"Alright that's enough! All of you need to calm down." He ordered.
Nova looked down, glaring at the floor while the others looked off in different directions. Otto didn't know who to comfort and just stood there.
Mandarin clenched his fists, he knew this would happen. Why did he even bother trying?
"Now I get that what happened back then was terrible and there are a lot of hurt feelings. But we can't scream at each other over it because it solves nothing!" Chiro said.
Mandarin turned and walked away.
"Wait Mandarin!" Chiro called out.
"I'm going to bed. I'm not going to stand here and have you remind me of how much I..." He didn't finish the last part, but huffed before leaving.
"Fine! See if we care!" Sprx growled.
"Sprx." Antauri warned.
Otto stood there while the others began to talk intensely amongst themselves about the situation. He couldn't even hear what they were saying as he stared at the transportation tube he left. Mandarin felt hurt by what happened. He felt genuinely hurt.
Otto didn't know what to do, on one hand they did their hardest to help him but he also felt that they could try one last time. He just didn't know what side to be on.
While everyone was still talking, Otto ran to the tube. He had to make this right between them, he had to make the tensions between his family settle for good. He had to.
Oooh boy! That's not good, but it was something I wanted to put in because I've headcanoned Mandarin being pissed at the team for not 'saving him' or something like that. Well that was a headcanon I began to think of a while ago so ehhhh. Thanks for reading!