Chapter 27: Baby shower edition! To be honest, this was one of the most fun chapters I've ever written because well...you'll see.
As another week past, Mandarin was well into his seventh month and the sooner everyone tried not to touch his stomach the better. He lost count of how many people's hands he had to smack or push away, it was getting really annoying. It wasn't even the Hyperforce anymore! The citizens were getting in on this too as they became more comfortable around him finally. That and he tried to keep the whole baby shower nonsense from happening and for a while it seemed like he won.
Or so he thought. He one morning grumbled as he went to get something from the kitchen to eat before he heard some whispering. He ducked behind a room and listened.
"So you got everything ready for tomorrow night?" Chiro's voice asked.
"Yep! And I got the ice trays with the toy babies inside." Brittany chirped.
"I dunno guys, don't you think Mandarin's gonna get mad at us? He did keep saying he didn't want one." Otto asked
"Otto please. Once he sees it he's gonna love it! Besides even if he doesn't he'll get over it." Nova sighed.
Mandarin's eyes widened and he felt his stomach churn. Oh no, they were gonna throw him a baby shower. After all his efforts they're gonna do it anyway! Mandarin silently groaned as he dipped his head, the hell was he gonna do?! Tomorrow night he had to escape to somewhere for the time being, he just had to. There was no way he was going to subject to something so cheesy and stupid!
He then edged away and went back to the kitchen, not wanting to get caught. At that same time, Amanda entered the hall and was gonna go to the kitchen as well.
Brittany turned to her and smiled.
"Oh! Amanda! Great timing, listen we're throwing the baby shower tomorrow night but there are a couple more errands we have to run before then." She whispered to her and Amanda's eyes widened.
"You mean you're actually throwing it?" She asked.
Chiro nodded.
"Yeah but it's gonna take us a few hours before we can actually throw it. So can you please distract Mandarin until we get back?" He asked.
Amanda paused before nodding.
"You are gonna stay right?" Nova asked.
Amanda hesitated before nodding again.
"S-sure." She said.
"Great! See you." Brittany said as everyone scattered.
Amanda kept the smile before dipping her head. She went into the kitchen and saw Mandarin slowly eat, looking defeated.
"Uh what's up with you?" She asked as she grabbed some cereal.
Mandarin looked at her.
"Huh? Oh nothing." He said.
Amanda blinked before realizing.
"Oh! I guess you overheard then didn't you?" She said.
Mandarin was silent before saying, "I keep telling them, I keep telling them I didn't want one. I just got another overhaul of gifts from the family."
Amanda nodded and sat down next to him. It really was kinda pointless if people kept sending him stuff. She paused.
"You wanna know something? I don't blame you." She said.
Mandarin turned to her, confused. Amanda sighed and set down her spoon.
"To be honest, I really hate baby showers too." She said and Mandarin's eyes widened.
She raised her hands.
"I know! It's shocking since I'm so super girly, but hey when you have to put up with screaming girls as they play the most stupidest games and open gifts that make them scream even more, I die a little inside." Amanda ranted, having a painful smile on her face.
Mandarin leaned down.
"Not to mention the unnecessary crying." He muttered.
Amanda leaned back, eyes wide.
"Oh my god! That is the moment when I really hated them! I went to one when I was around six and I got so scared by the crying and squealing that I had to be forced to go home. Then when I went to another one when I was twelve, people got mad at me for making snarky comments and refusing to play the games. All I wanted to do was eat and go home!" Amanda raved.
"What hellish baby showers did you go to?!"
Amanda leaned foreward.
"My moms co workers! They're so perky and stupid over stuff like this, it makes every moment with them painful. So really it is hell!" Amanda said.
Mandarin sighed and rubbed his temples.
"I've never been to one, but the ones I have heard and seen about just make me cringe so hard. Like who in the world thinks putting melted chocolate in a diaper counts as a fun game?!" He questioned.
"The games are the worst! The diaper game is terrible and disgusting!" Amanda said, recoiling in disgust.
She groaned as Mandarin placed his hands on his face and slowly slide them off.
"And now we're going to suffer through all of it." He lamented and Amanda raised her head.
"Not if we have anything to say about it!" She said and she turned to him, a smile flashing.
"Okay, the others are going to run some errands before the party starts. That means they'll be gone for who knows how long, so what we can do is go in and destroy the place." She said and Mandarins mouth hung open a bit before smiling.
"That is the best idea you ever had." He said, his whole world brightening up.
Amanda nodded.
"Of course! It's something I've always wanted to do as a kid! Now they'll get mad at me, but they can't get mad at you since you're the expecting mother." She said motioning towards Mandarin.
He agreed, it was almost too good not to pass up!
"Let's do it." He said, still smiling.
Amanda nodded before leaning in.
"Now we have to be secretive and stealthy as all get out, so tomorrow night we have to..."
"Now are you sure you got Mandarin out of the robot?" Willow asked.
"Yeah! We're going to dinner." Amanda's voice said over the phone.
"Amanda there's a dead rat." Mandarin's voice piped up.
Willow was confused as Amanda shushed him.
"But yeah I got this! Don't worry." Amanda said.
Willow smiled a bit.
"Okay good, we'll text you when we're on our way back. The party is in the base's living room." She said, whispering the last part.
"Okay! See you there." Amanda said and Willow hung up.
"Okay guys, the party is set! Let's move out!" Chiro said and the others quickly left the base and the robot.
The living room was decorated in total baby shower decor. Pacifiers, bottles, and diaper pins galore, along with a huge sign that read 'It's a girl, congratulations!'. All of it was colored in a light pink and various other pastel colors and had a table filled with food and a large cake. It truly was an expecting mother''s paradise.
A while later, Amanda and Mandarin entered the living room, holding bats and clubs as they held wicked grins before looking at each other.
"Let the baby shower commence." Amanda said, mischievously.
She rushed over to the table and raised a bat when Mandarin rushed over to her.
"Now wait! The Hyperforce went so far as to get a caterer for this event. We can't just let their hard work go to waste." Mandarin said longingly.
Amanda placed a hand on her chin.
"That is true, I mean look at that cake." She said as the two looked at the pink binkie shaped cake.
Mandarin nodded, it did look rather satisfying.
"Tilamat did say I need to eat more sugars."
The two could only finish half of it and were stumped over what to do with the rest of it.
"Hmm you sure you can't make room in your stomach?" Amanda asked.
"If I tried I'd throw up." Mandarin sighed.
"I thought that since you were pregnant you'd probably eat the whole thing." Amanda said.
"I thought so too but apparently my appetite doesn't want to cooperate with me today." Mandarin said in defeat.
Amanda thought on it.
"We can't let it go to waste." Mandarin pointed out.
Amanda snapped her fingers.
"There's a homeless guy on the street near us! I'd bet he'd love to have something to eat tonight." Amanda said smiling.
Mandarin smiled.
"That does sound generous." He said.
Amanda took the half eaten cake and began to walk off.
"It will make up for our future sins tonight!" She said, making Mandarin laugh a bit.
After a while, Amanda came back and Mandarin was taking down the streamers and thrusting them into various sides of the room.
"We must do something about that banner." Amanda said, pointing at the 'it's a girl' sign.
Mandarin turned to it and frowned. It does need something done to it. Amanda went up and took it down, beginning to tear the letters from each other.
"You got any tape?" She asked.
Mandarin looked around until he found a roll of tape and handed it to her.
Soon enough, the banner was placed back on the wall, reading only one word.
'Ass'.
"Very mature." Mandarin sighed.
Amanda smiled.
"Thank you, I try." She said.
Mandarin shook his head before he caught something in the corner of his eye. The recliner was decorated as if it were a mini throne, a throne covered in light pink fabric.
"Okay what is that?" Mandarin said, annoyed.
Amanda looked over at it.
"I guess it's for you." She said, looking up at him.
Mandarin shook his head quickly.
"Okay no, not happening." He huffed and Amanda went over to the recliner.
She laid her back on one arm of the chair and rested her feet in the other and posed.
"By order of the queen I demand you all to trash this girly cheesy baby shower!" Amanda declared, faking a fancy royal accent.
Mandarin snickered.
The destruction continued, with a few chairs now scattered across the room and streamers in disarray. Mandarin was placing the presents in the nursery, not wanting such innocent things to get in the crossfire.
"Wait! I got a great baby shower game idea!" Amanda said as Mandarin came back into the room.
Mandarin gave her a weird look.
Amanda pointed the balloons.
"Who can pop the most balloons in five minutes!" She cheered.
Mandarin paused but nodded. That does sound like a good baby shower game.
All of the balloons were then set in one part of the room, ready to be popped. Amanda set the timer on her phone.
"Okay and...go!"
Amanda turned her fingers into ice shards and began to pop each balloon. She felt her adrenaline kick in as she picked up speed. However the balloons were all then popped when an really small purple missile shot through them. Amanda's mouth opened and she glared at Mandarin, who blew away some smoke from his knuckles. He smiled smugly at her.
"That's cheating!" She accused, pointing at him.
"You didn't create any rules to this game. You said nothing about using missiles to pop them!" Mandarin said.
"I shouldn't have to say you can't do that because it's unfair!" Amanda argued.
Mandarin turned away and smiled.
"Oh well, I still won. The expecting mother always wins." He chirped, walking away.
"That's bullcrap!" Amanda yelled after him before shutting off her timer.
"What a jerk." She thought as she picked up the strings.
Amanda looked around, trying to find what else to mess up until she came across the kitchen. She opened the freezer lid and came to find ice cubes with tiny little plastic babies in them.
Mandarin entered the kitchen and peered into the freezer.
"Why are there plastic babies in the ice cubes? Are they for decoration?" He asked, hoping that it was true.
Amanda sighed and dipped her head.
"No...there's this game called, 'My water broke'. Basically what you do is that you have to suck on the ice cubes and the first one that melts has to say the title of the game." Amanda explained.
Mandarin looked at her, horrified.
"These games are unbelievably strange!" Mandarin exclaimed.
Amanda let out a dry laugh, that wasn't even half the weird games she witnessed. She then grabbed the trays and rushed them to a lamp.
"Here! So everyone can win!" She huffed, letting them melt.
Mandarin nodded, good strategy. Another thought came to mind.
"Pray tell...what other games do you think they set up?" He asked.
The two were silent before they quickly searched the base. No games must survive this destruction. None!
Mandarin picked up a bag of clothes pins.
"I have found the clothes pin game!" He announced.
Amanda rushed over to him, trying to think of what to do with it.
"Umm...uh...oh! Let's place them all over the place but let's make it so that they hide in very secret places. Just to surprise people!"
Mandarin nodded and went off to put the clothespins in strange places. It was trite but hey it was better than what the game's real intention was.
Amanda looked around a bit more and found some baby food and a few blindfolds. The baby food guessing game! There was no way all of this baby food was going to waste! It could all go to Lazuli! She placed the baby food in the cupboards but as for the blind folds?
"Amanda we are not burning anything."
"Oh come on! Destruction involves fire!"
"Everything is flammable Amanda!"
"You don't know that!"
Amanda peeked into a container and turned away in horror.
"Oh god!" She screeched as Mandarin peered in and backed up.
In there sat a few open diapers, filled with melted chocolate remains of several candy bars. Even though the thought of candy sounds lovely, then melted and placed in a diaper is nasty.
"What have I done to deserve this? Lately, what have I done?" Mandarin lamented as Amanda tried to pull herself together.
"I'm done! I am not eating that!" Amanda exclaimed, walking away with her hands up.
"Who would?! It's a diaper!"
Mandarin shivered and grabbed the container.
"Where are you going?" Amanda asked.
"To take this where it belongs!" Mandarin huffed.
When Mandarin got into the robot, he opened the window and threw the diapers out. He threw the container aside and dusted his hands.
"No one should have to suffer through that." He huffed before going back down.
He found Amanda looking over an array of items. He went over to her and found that it was a bunch of prizes for each game someone would win. They all looked really new too, not stuff someone would find in their house and recycle them. Amanda rubbed her chin, deep in thought.
"Hmm you think since we're the only people here, we get to keep all of the prizes?" Amanda pondered.
The two looked at each other before quickly going through them. They both grabbed for the pot holders and glared at each other.
"Okay look-!"
"I actually need these." Mandarin huffed.
"Your hands are too big for them!"
"I could use my tail for them."
"Your tail is made of energy!"
"It can still feel pain! Ask Chiro!"
Amanda scoffed and handed them to him.
Soon after that, after all of the prizes were sorted that was when Amanda really lost it. Mandarin made a quick note to never give her fruit punch that was filled with sugar again.
Mandarin found various rolls of toilet paper.
"Why do they have a game where they measure the expecting mother's stomach? That is a mistake and an unhappy pregnant mother waiting to happen." Mandarin sighed before he saw a blur and Amanda ran off with half of them.
She then began throw them all across the room.
"TP party!" She squealed, throwing more toilet paper rolls.
Mandarin huffed and rubbed his forehead. Man she was even more annoying than before! Oh well, as long as it wrecks this party even more. He felt hungry again and went over to the table with the food on it.
Amanda twirled as she threw another roll on the coffee table before falling back onto the recliner. Mandarin shook his head but smiled.
This was an actually pretty good baby shower.
The others were on their way back from their errands. Willow texted Amanda but she hasn't really heard anything. Hopefully Mandarin still doesn't know about all of this.
The team kept walking, walking by a citizen sitting in an alley.
"Hey! Hyperforce!" He called out.
As they turned to him, he raised a hand.
"Tell the little lady with the pigtails that the cake is mighty delicious and that I said thanks!" He said, giving them a toothless smile.
Antauri frowned.
"Uh what cake?" Otto asked.
"The pink one! It kinda looked like a half a binkie or something." The man said, scratching his beard.
Everyone's eyes widened and they turned to each other.
"They didn't-!"
They saw two diapers from one of the games out on the street.
Brittany groaned and covered her face.
"I wonder who did that." Chiro sighed.
When they got to the trashed base, Amanda was sitting on the recliner and Mandarin was next to her.
"And so I said, stop talking shit Carl!" Amanda said before laughing hard.
She sounded really out of it and she was wearing a present bow on her head. The two then noticed the others shocked and peeved faces.
"Surprise!" Amanda cheered, throwing her glass of punch in the air.
"Surprise." Mandarin said, giving them jazz hands.
Gibson nearly tripped over a fallen chair.
"What did you two do?!" He asked.
Mandarin shrugged.
"I said I didn't want a baby shower. You should have listened to me." He said.
Chiro sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"We thought that you might end up liking it." He said.
"Oh I did, I liked destroying it." Mandarin smirked.
Willow was to say, unsurprised that all of this happened. Even though she would have had some fun at a baby shower, Mandarin would have just complained and be all mad at everyone.
"I can't believe you two, especially you Amanda. Why did you tell him and have him accompany you in destroying his own baby shower?" Gibson scolded.
Amanda raised her arms a bit.
"Hey, he wanted to destroy it, I just gave him the idea. Besides he already heard about it before I even mentioned it to him." She said.
The others froze as Mandarin shrugged.
"Next time, plan somewhere that isn't near the kitchen...or in the hallway in general." He said before sipping what's left of the fruit punch.
Sprx bit his lip and smiled.
"Um...thank you." He said and everyone turned to him, confused.
Sprx sighed.
"You know I really didn't want to go to this baby shower either. I mean really didn't want to go. I know I was just going to suffer some stupid cheesy party. That and I knew Mandarin was going to hate it, so why throw him a baby shower if he was just going to hate it?" Sprx huffed.
"Perhaps his constant denial of having a baby shower meant he wanted one?" Jinmay pondered.
Mandarin shook his head a bit, a sad smile on his face.
"No..." He breathed.
Trent looked over at the others.
"Yeah I kinda thought it was pointless to have one if he didn't really want one. He'd just complain the whole night."He said.
Otto looked around, that was true. He was going to try to cheer Mandarin up through the whole thing but...since this happened...
Antauri sighed and closed his eyes.
"You two will clean this up." He said.
Mandarin shrugged.
"That's what I was going to do later anyway." He said before realizing that Amanda completely passed out.
"However...that's going to wait until tomorrow. Someone's sleeping on the job." Mandarin said as Amanda snored.
Chiro sighed.
"Alright team...I guess the shower's over." He said.
Before anyone could leave Mandarin piped up, "Thank you, this is actually the most fun I had in awhile."
The others turned to him as he laid Amanda down on the couch, pulling a blanket over her. He was smiling and actually looked kinda...kinda satisfied.
Otto couldn't help but smile a bit too. When he agreed to throw a surprise baby shower for Mandarin, all he wanted was Mandarin to end up happy. In the end, he did. The others soon felt the same way, at least they got their end product.
"If you have any more kids, just let us know if you want to destroy another baby shower." Nova huffed as most of the others already left.
"Listen to me when I say no next time."
"Then let us do some nice stuff for you."
"Alright."
"Alright." Nova said before leaving.
Willow was the only one staying in the room, deciding to hang out for a bit. She sat on the recliner as Mandarin began to finish what's left of the food when Arwen came in, present in hand. She blinked and looked around.
"U-umm...is the party over?" She asked.
Mandarin began to snicker loudly as Willow scratched her chin.
"Well...umm..."
Ahh nothing like destroying your own party am I right? Okay I've never done that but still, thanks for reading!