On A Doorstep (unedited version)

Chapter 9

Ok somehow I fucked up the chapter number thing. This is the REAL chapter 9! Anyway please enjoy more feels and drama.

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After that day, Violet was very clingy towards Mandarin. It makes sense given what she and him have been through, yet sometimes it gets a bit much.

"Violet come on you can survive without Mandarin for a few hours." Nova said.

Violet looked towards Mandarin, almost panicked. The other kids watched as the team tried to get them downstairs so they can talk about how to save the other monkeys and what to do about the labs.

"Jeez what happened that made her so clingy?" Roland asked.

"I don't know...she isn't telling me anything." Angela said.

"Same here, it's almost like she's keeping a secret." Maurice said.

Penny looked at him and grinned.

"I wanna know! I love secrets!"

"I know you do, that's why no one tells you them. You blab them to other people." Roland snickered.

"That was one time!" Penny huffed.

Kuzon tilted his head at the team, trying to make sense of Violet's recent behavior.

"B-but I should be here too!" She said.

Chiro knelt down to her.

"I know you do, but this is a very serious discussion that only the adults can have. Don't worry we'll let you know what's going on." He said, eyeing the other kids.

Kuzon frowned a bit. What does that mean?

Violet looked up at Mandarin. She knows he couldn't go down with her because this very much involves him too it's just...

"What if something happens?" She asked.

Mandarin patted her head.

"Don't worry about it. It'll be fine we're just talking."

"I know but what if Skeleton King..."

Mandarin shivered.

"As much as I don't like to think about it, we're fine. We're safe here." He said.

Violet nodded slightly.

"Now go on down for a while, I'm sure you'd love to show everyone your cookie and jelly cake."

The kids shivered at that as Violet turned to them.

"Oh yeah! It's delicious you guys I swear!" She said as the kids darted towards the tubes.

As soon as they were gone Chiro turned towards Antauri.

"Antauri."

He nodded and pressed a few buttons to show the Skeleton King castle.

"Okay from the Sun Riders they said they saw a few robot monkeys hanging around the castle through the bug bots Otto made." Chiro began as two pictures of robot monkeys popped up.

One of them was pink and another was a pale yellow with light green eyes.

Otto looked up at Mandarin, who looked at the screen worriedly. Jinmay tilted her head.

"What's their names?" She asked, trying to make him feel a bit better.

Mandarin gripped his knees a bit.

"Artemis and Reid."

Otto smiled as Jinmay nodded.

"They sound nice."

"So they're at least patrolling the area or at least allowed outside. We still need to know when they're going to attack so that we'll be ready to help them." Chiro said as Gibson pulled out what seems to be a skinny blaster.

"We can hold them down using this with the holding gunk we have made. Once shot it hits it's target and grows large enough to keep them from moving." Gibson explained.

"How many have you made?" Antauri asked.

"Bullets or guns?"

"Both."

"We've made over seventy of the bullets and six guns. We can make more bullets but guns will take a bit longer." Gibson explained.

The team nodded as Otto hopped up next to Mandarin.

"That can work, we can have some of our allies to use them while we're fighting from high buildings." Nova suggested.

"Yes and in case they bring in heavy artillery, the robo apes will take those down." Sprx said.

"Just don't really hurt them."

The others turned to Mandarin, who quickly looked down.

"I apologize I didn't mean to-"

Otto crawled on him as Chiro smiled.

"Don't worry about it. We'll do our best to make sure they'll come here without any serious injuries." He said.

Mandarin stared at him before looking down a bit. Otto patted his face and sat on the top of his chest armor. Antauri cleared his throat, knowing the next topic on their list.

"Now....the labs." He said, sending chills up Mandarin's spine as images of the labs were brought up.

He had to look down, not wanting any terrible memories to come flooding back. Otto wrapped his arms around his neck and rested his head against his.

"We know from our experience down there that the robots were really upset that Mandarin was gone. Since they have weapons they'll most likely come and attack us." He said.

Mandarin gulped, not wanting to hear any of this. Yet he had to stay and figure out some way to stop them. Otto stroked his head.

"Let me know if this gets too much for you okay?" Otto said softly.

Mandarin shakily nodded and looked back up.

"So what we need to figure out is how to get more information on them so that we can defeat them. We can probably hack into their systems but they may detect us."

Mandarin nodded, they probably could. Antauri looked over at him.

"Are you comfortable sharing any information about the robots specifically? Other than they are shut down at night?" He asked.

Mandarin was silent for a moment.

"They...they were programmed to keep me there by any means necessary, even if that means they'll go to drastic measures. However they can't hurt me while I'm pregnant. They're not allowed to, but when I'm not...anyway anyway they won't be hard to fight once they get here. However they also have more bulky robots so those will be harder to fight." He said, causing everyone to have a series of expressions.

Otto hugged him more, anger bubbling in his chest. Chiro felt extremely sorry for him and pursed his lips.

"Are you comfortable with telling us anything else?" Jinmay asked.

Mandarin quickly shook his head.

"N-Not anymore no. Ma-maybe later." He said.

Chiro nodded.

"Okay so after we defeat the robots we'll need to figure out what to do with the lab itself."

"Burn it." Nova said.

Antauri shook his head.

"No we need to go down there and collect the DNA samples that were used to create the children. That way we can track them to see if Skeleton King did anything else to the donors."

"And the technology and information down there could be very important." Gibson brought up.

Mandarin shakily touched his stomach that took a lot out of him. Otto hesitated for a moment before kissing his cheek.

"We can go down now if you want." He offered.

Mandarin shook his head.

"No I'll be fine." He sighed.

Otto smiled a bit before resting his head against his.

"Then what will we do with it?" Jinmay asked.

"Well we could have it as another base or-" Antauri said before sensing something.

He looked at the middle of the room where the large transport tube was and went over to it.

"What is it?" Sprx asked, about to get his magnets out.

Antauri stared down at the floor before pressing a button to open the floor, showing the kids listening in. Mandarin immediately felt sick. How long were they listening in for?!

"Uh hi!" Penny greeted.

"What are you guys doing? We told you to stay down in the underground base until we were done." Gibson said frowning.

"Violet wouldn't talk to us! We wanted to know what was going on and she refused to say anything!" Angela said, pointing at the purple monkey who looked away.

"I don't have to tell diddly squat" She huffed.

Maurice turned to Antauri.

"We got worried that something really bad is happening so that's why we were listening in." He explained.

Violet turned to Mandarin. She saw how scared he looked and went over to him.

"M-Mandarin?"

Roland glared.

"She's so clingy towards him and we don't know why! And what were you guys even talking about?! What other robot monkeys? What lab? What aren't you telling us?!" He demanded.

Penny worriedly turned to the team.

"Is it something bad?" She asked.

The team turned to each other.

Violet looked up at Mandarin.

"Should we tell them?" She softly asked.

Mandarin eyed Chiro, hinting that this may what they have to do. Chiro nodded slightly before turning towards the kids.

"No Penny it's not...all bad but there is a lot we need to talk to you about." He said.

"Sprx could you get them some chairs? They may need to sit down for this." He said, causing Sprx to nod and go into the kitchen.

Roland watched Sprx as he went, growing nervous.

"I don't like this one bit!" He laughed nervously.

"It's not bad, it's not all bad." Jinmay assured them as Sprx came back with a few chairs.

The kids looked at each other before sitting down in the chairs, wondering what they're about to say. Angela gulped.

"Does it involve what happened to Mandarin?" She asked, serious.

Chiro hesitated before nodding. Nova looked over at Penny.

"Penny do you remember asking me one night who your mommy and daddy were?" She asked.

Penny tilted her head, eyeing the ceiling.

"Hmm I think so." She said.

Maurice looked back between them.

"Wait does this have to do with us too?" He asked.

Nova nodded, causing the kids to look at each other. Mandarin gripped his knees and closed his eyes. Violet stood by and watched, nervous.

"You know who our parents are?" Angela asked, growing hopeful.

"Yeah we do but-"

"Who are they?!" Kuzon suddenly exclaimed, causing the kids to look at him funny.

"Sorry I just got excited."

"That's ok. Actually you all have one parent." Antauri began.

The monkey children got confused. There was a small silence that to Mandarin felt like an eternity.
Antauri sighed heavily, it was now or never.

"Your mother was...in a terrible situation and had to leave all of you here with us. To keep you safe and did it out of love." He began.

"She did?" Penny asked, smiling a bit.

Antauri nodded.

Violet almost laughed at that, not only because she had no idea what went down but also at the fact that their mother wasn't technically female.

Angela looked back at Mandarin, suddenly having a bad feeling about this.

"What does this have to do with Mandarin?" She asked.

Otto kept clutching to Mandarin. Roland looked back between the groups.

Chiro looked towards the team before looking back at them. There was no more hesitation, no more going back, and no more jumping around the subject.

"Well your mother is Mandarin." He stated.

"Seriously?!" Angela exclaimed as Kuzon placed his hands over his mouth, millions of emotions going through him.

Angela looked around, making sure no one was pranking her as a smile slowly grew on Penny's face. Maurice was stone still, color draining from his face. Roland quickly got up.

"Okay wait! How?! He's a boy and boys don't have babies like girls do!"

"How do you know that?" Angela asked.

"Shut up!" Roland said, holding out one finger to her.

He suddenly looked back at Mandarin and then the team and then Mandarin again.

"Wait...the bikini armor is starting to make sense!"

Violet fell to the ground, laughing.

"Roland trust us, he's a guy. They worked on his body so that he could get pregnant." Otto said.

"They? You mean Skeleton King? He did this?" Angela asked.