The wails of Aphrodite rang through the robot. She was constricted, as Gibson poked her with every syringe imaginable. Nova's eyes were welding with tears as her daughter reached for her mother, screaming louder.
"Done! For now…" Gibson said as he took Aphrodite out of constriction. The baby rushed immediately to her mother, sobbing loudly, burying her head into her mother's chest.
"I know, I know." Nova cooed, "But we gotta figure out what's causing this."
Nova began bouncing the baby, hushing her. Aphrodite's cries began to calm down.
"I'll give Antauri some samples and we'll see what we can find…" Gibson sighed as Nova nodded.
"C'mon, Aphrodite!" Nova began, "Let's go play!" Nova carried her baby towards the lobby of the robot. When Nova was out of eye and earshot, Gibson placed a small vial into a machine. He pressed a few buttons as a sheet of paper printed out. Looking at it, his eyes widened.
"Chiro, come to the medical bay as discreetly and quietly as possible." Gibson said through the radio.
Chiro entered the medical bay of the robot, Gibson, who was looking at the papers in disbelief looked up towards Chiro.
"I came as unnoticeable as possible." Chiro said quietly, "What's up?"
"Well, I had suspicions when Nova said she had given birth…the timing didn't add up, in fact nothing added up…however…" Gibson showed Chiro a sheet of paper, "I secretly took a DNA sample from Aphrodite, it was just too doubtful not to…but as you can see from the paper I gave you…"
"She has half of Nova and Antauri's DNA…" Chiro finished, looking from the paper towards Gibson.
"I was hoping maybe you'd be able to find out more about what happened during those six and a half weeks…" Gibson sighed, "And while you do that, I'll see if I can find any form of mutation in Aphrodite's other samples. Antauri's in the lab, helping as well." Chiro nodded, he felt he should talk to Antauri first at least.
The doors of a lab slid open as Chiro walked into the room where Antauri was looking through a microscope.
"Hey, Antauri." Chiro began as Antauri looked up from the microscope, "Figure out what's causing the rapid growth?" he asked as Antauri crossed his arms.
"Not yet, and I also know that's not what you came in here for, Chiro." Antauri said sternly, Chiro sighed; there really was no hiding your intentions from Antauri.
"Okay, fine…I gotta ask…" Chiro began, "About the whole story with Aphrodite, I mean…whe-how…" Antauri sighed, understanding what Chiro was trying to ask.
"The village the transmission was from was supposed to be in the mountains as you know. It was bitterly freezing the day we arrive, and as we were making our way towards the village; there was a cry for help from a cave in the mountains…" Antauri paused for a moment before continuing, "Nova and I made our way into the cave, and before SPRX could enter, there was an avalanche, blocking the entrance of the cave…long story short, the cold was too unbearable for our mental circuits, that they shut down temporarily…causing Nova and I to…" Antauri gave another slight pause, "act like uncivilized animals…"
"And the cry for help?" Chiro asked, as Antauri sighed.
"There was no form of animalia life in the cave…"
"This whole shenanigan is weird…" Chiro admitted, placing his hand on his chin; Antauri nodded.
"And I'm starting to think maybe our circuits were starting to shut down when we entered the territory…no sign of a village is bizarre, when that transmission was coming from that area. However, another thing we noticed was that day was the only day unbearably below freezing." There was another moment of silence.
"I should get back to looking…" Antauri sighed, gazing back into the microscope.
"R-right."
Chiro left the lab, heading towards the lobby; maybe Nova could give some more information. He stopped mid-step in front of a door, a bitz bitz sound came from inside. He peeked inside of the ajar door to see SPRX, deep in concentration.
"He-hey, SPRX." Chiro said nervously, entering the room; SPRX looked up, a sad smile came across his face.
"Hey kid…I…didn't hear you come in…" he looked back towards his work. Chiro looked at it too in confusion. SPRX didn't seem to be working on anything important, just welding random shapes.
"Uh…did you need something?" SPRX asked as Chiro thought up a quick lie.
"Uh…Aphrodite…" Chiro began as he was going to say something about Gibson needing an opinion on a sample, but SPRX interrupted him before he could finish.
"What about her ?" he spat in disgust, the tension rose as Chiro nervously chuckled.
"Ah. You don't seem to get along with her very much…" Chiro said nervously as SPRX began to mumble something inarticulated.
"Wh-what was that?" Chiro asked, as SPRX snapped.
"I said I HATE THAT KID!" He slammed his fist on the table, his eyes welled with tears, "She should've been mine!" He collapsed on his knees, hugging his body tightly, he began to sob in emotional pain, "She should have been mine…" Chiro's eyes widened at SPRX's outburst.
"SP-SPRX…" Chiro began.
"J-just leave me alone." SPRX said through his tears, "I need to be…" he began to sob again.
"I-I'll be back…" Chiro said in worrisome, as he continued his way to the lobby.
The doors of the lobby slid open as Aphrodite looked at Chiro in alarm, rushing over towards Nova for protection. Upon inspection, the lobby was flooded with baby toys that weren't there earlier.
"Whoa…where did all of the baby toys come from?" Chiro asked, picking up a random stacking toy, as Nova sighed in agitation.
"Otto went WAY overboard…" she said in annoyance as Otto popped out from a pile of toys.
"Hey, I'm an uncle now! And I vow to be the fun uncle!" Otto then gasped in delight, "I'm a FUN-cle!" Nova and Chiro blinked at Otto a few times as Nova sighed.
"Aphrodite does seem to like Otto though, for the time being."
"Well, who wouldn't like a fun-cle?"
"Don't you have some lessons to complete?" Nova asked in annoyance.
"Eh, I wasn't even paying attention to them anyway…"
"Otto! Does Gibson have to babysit you?"
"I can babysit Aphrodite!" Otto said in hope. Nova grumbled as the lobby doors opened again.
"Otto!" Gibson scolded "You were supposed to let me know when you finished the video lessons!"
"I don't think he ever even finished them." Nova groaned.
"I just let the videos run and rushed here to play with Aphrodite! You wouldn't have known if I had kept track of time." Otto admitted as Gibson groaned.
"I would have because there was going to be a test…come on, Otto…I'm going to have to keep an eye on you!"
"Is there still going to be a test?" Otto asked in worry, as Gibson dragged the green monkey out of the lobby. Nova shook her head in disbelief, before turning towards Chiro.
"Did you need something, Chiro?" Nova asked, as Chiro bent down to her height.
"How's motherhood treating you so far?" Chiro asked, as Nova gave a tired but genuine smile.
"I'm going to be honest, it's a lot more exhausting than I thought it would be…but, honestly, Aphrodite is the best thing that has ever happened to me…despite everything." She looked down in sorrow before continuing.
"Even though she was a complete accident, she's that missing piece I've needed…but…" Nova looked over toward the lobby door, "I know I've hurt SPRX…and it was never my intention to hurt him…I know Antauri and I weren't in the right state of mind because of the frigid cold and our circuits temporarily shutting down." She paused slightly, tears began to emerge. "But, by the time we realized what had happened it was too late."
"You were trapped in a cave right, so, why couldn't you have used your fists? Ghost claw? Something?" Chiro asked, Nova looked down.
"For some reason, the sheet of ice and snow that fell was harder to break than it should have been." Aphrodite looked up, noticing her mother's tear streaked face she gave a concerned whimper.
"Mama's fine, Aphrodite!" Nova exclaimed, embracing her daughter; Chiro smiled at the small monkey.
"She's super cute! I-is it safe to say she looks a lot like Antauri?" Chiro asked nervously, Nova gave a small giggle.
"Yes, it's safe…because I definitely agree with you. And I don't have any ill-will towards Antauri either, if that's what you're worried about! He's been an amazing co-parent." Chiro sighed in relief as the doors of the lobby slid open again. Otto came in, looking paler than normal, and his expression was as if he had seen some form of paranormal activity.
"Otto?" Chiro began, "You okay?"
"I will never look at babies the same ever again…" Otto looked up from the floor, towards the face of Aphrodite, his expression immediately changed from shocked to adoring, as his eyes sparkled.
"Nah! Gibson's gotta be pulling my leg! There's no way something as adorable as you could come from something so disgusting!" Otto exclaimed, causing Aphrodite to squeal in delight when he began making silly faces at her.
SPRX looked at the sunset from the outside of the robot; his tears kept coming like waterfalls.
"I thought I'd find you here." A voice said as SPRX wiped his eyes.
"K-kid!" He exclaimed in surprise, as Chiro sat next to him.
"Why are you so surprised? I said I'd be back." SPRX gave a nervous laugh.
"Ye-yeah, I guess you did…" There was a moment of silence.
"I know I won't be able to help fully…but…" Chiro looked from the setting sun towards his red comrade, "I'm still here for you." SPRX gave a tearful smile.
"That's all I really need…"
