On A Doorstep (unedited version)

Chapter 16

Hey! Who wants a chapter all focused on the kids? Well here ya go! Enjoy!

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It was at least three weeks since the incident and Mandarin was well into his seventh month. Ever since the incident, security around the city tightened in case Artemis tried to come back to convince Mandarin to rejoin Skeleton King. However she hasn't shown up since then. They did notice a huge rise of machine parts going missing in cars and other things. Yet they can't find their culprits.

One morning the team was about ready to embark on...somewhere. Mandarin wasn't certain of the details but all he knew was that the children will be by themselves and the security will be up and ready to go.

"Are you sure I cannot stay here? I wouldn't mind." He said to Chiro.

Chiro nodded.

"Yeah we need you to come with us for a bit. Don't worry they'll be fine." He said.

Sprx crossed his arms.

"For once I have to agree with Mandarin, kid. Don't you remember the last time Angela was placed in charge of one of her siblings?" He reminded Chiro.

Chiro looked over at Angela, who was listening to one of her radio shows and sitting next to a gaming Roland.

"I think she can be trusted again. She has gotten less insecure since the whole lab thing." He said.

Mandarin also looked over at her. He agreed with him on that, but was just more worried on their safety in general. He just doesn't like the idea of leaving children this young alone. He felt Otto crawl on him and nuzzle his cheek.

"Angela! Remember you're in charge!" Nova called to her, holding Erin in his carrier as the others arrived.

"'Kay!" Angela chirped.

"Where are we even going?" Mandarin asked.

"Somewhere, don't worry." Jinmay chirped, grabbing her purse.

Mandarin tensed up at that.

"If it's a baby shower I swear-!"

"Mandarin it's not a baby shower we promise. We would invite the children if that were the case." Antauri assured him.

Otto patted his face.

"Don't worry, I told them how uncomfortable you are with having one. We're going to the bunkers to talk with the allies." He whispered.

Mandarin raised an eyebrow.

"Why do I need to come then?" He asked.

Otto was silent for a second before answering, "This sort of concerns you too, the labs and the kids."

Mandarin tensed up even more at hearing that but sighed.

"I guess that's fine. However are you sure they're going to be safe?" Mandarin asked.

Otto patted his head.

"Don't worry they'll be fine. We left then home alone before once or twice and they're usually fine." He assured him.

Mandarin worriedly looked over at them as they were just doing their usual tasks. He then felt himself being dragged towards the transport tube.

"W-wait let me walk on my own!"

"You were just gonna stand there!" Chiro huffed.

Penny looked up from her coloring and waved.

"Have fun!" She chirped as they left.

Angela tapped her legs and stood up.

"I'm gonna get something to drink, does anyone want anything?" She asked.

"I want orange juice please." Penny chirped.

"Star breath soda!" Roland piped up.

"Roland you know you aren't supposed to have any soda before dinner." Angela huffed.

Roland shrugged.

"Eh I tried." He said, eyes still on his game.

Angela turned to Maurice, who was reading one of Antauri's scrolls.

"What about you?" She asked.

Maurice put up a hand.

"I'm good. You better get Violet some water, who knows how long she's gonna be in the lab." He said.

Angela sighed.

"Yeah that's true. Let me know when Kuzon is done painting." She said before entering the kitchen.
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Violet messed a few of the wired a bit more before sitting back. Well, the new potato battery experiment was a success, that is she put one huge artificially grown potato and hooked it up to a car battery. Her next move was to power several potatoes and have them work with other things, like phone chargers and tvs. She will be using her own TV as a test subject. However that is for another day, as she stared at her creation before falling onto her back out of exhaustion. She closed her eyes and listened to the whir of the machines before she heard footsteps behind her.

"Uh oh! It looks like Violet is passed out, I better pour water on her-"

Violet shot up as Angela laughed, holding a glass of water.

"I'm up!" She yelped, getting up.

Angela snickered and handed her the cold glass.

"I'm just kidding Vi." She said.

Violet frowned and took the glass before sipping it. Angela looked over at the experiment and sighed.

"Why do you always gotta work on weird stuff?" She asked.

"Why not is the proper question!" Violet snorted before continuing to guzzle down the drink.

Angela shook her head and began to leave when Violet asked, "Are you sure you're okay?"

She turned to the purple monkey, who looked at her sister in concern. Angela blinked before nodding.

"Y-yeah sure." She said, a bit too quickly.

Violet tilted her head and frowned.

"You sure? Because if it's about that 'purpose as a soldier' thing you can still talk to us about it. I'm sure mom would-" She tried to say but Angela put up her hand.

"No, I don't want to put mom under more stress than he's going through right now." She huffed.

Violet shrugged.

"That didn't stop Maurice and him working things out. He really wants to talk about this Ange. He knows you're still thinking about it." She said.

Angela tensed up, knowing she was right. Yet at the same time she doesn't want to burden him with this sort of stuff.

"I-I don't know...I'll think about it." She muttered before leaving.

"Remember to clean up!" She called back.

"Okay!" Violet chirped before beginning to put her tools away.

"Hopefully they'll talk about it soon, I have a bad feeling something will happen if they don't." She thought as she put her wrench in the tool box.
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Kuzon yawned and stretched. Done and done! He set the painting he was working on up to dry before cleaning up. Now he's off to take his one required nap for the day. He began to head back to his room when he felt someone pull his arm into a room, causing him to feel panicked. Kuzon's nerve settled when he saw Roland.

"Roland don't do that!" Kuzon wheezed.

Roland clung to him, clearly wanting something.

"Sorry, but I got no one to play video games with! Angela is too busy with watching us, Violet is sleeping because of her experiment, Penny doesn't like the video games I play, and Maurice just flat out hates them! So pleeaaaaaase play with me!" He whined, leaning on him.

Kuzon sighed and patted his head.

"Fine I guess for a bit. What do you want to play?" He asked, receiving a cheeky grin from Roland.
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Kuzon watched Roland's eyes lit up as he shifted the joy stick, held down a button, and release. The character on the screen swung back and hit the golf ball all the way to the other side of the area across the river.

"Golfing?" Kuzon questioned.

"Yeah, it's actually kinda fun." Roland chirped.

Kuzon raised an eyebrow before Roland popped up the main menu.

"You and me, competitive mode." He stated.

Kuzon quickly stood up.

"What?! No!" He exclaimed, not wanting to play such a boring game.

Roland glared at him and pointed.

"You said you would play with me! Don't take it back now!" He huffed.

"But I hate golf!" Kuzon told him.

"So? Have you even tried it?" Roland asked, getting up and crossing his arms.

Kuzon opened his mouth to speak but then thought.

"Well...no. But I have watched it and it looks boring." He said.

Roland rolled his eyes.

"You aren't gonna be watching it, you're gonna be playing it. Well, on a video game at least." He said, holding up the controller.

Kuzon eyed the side, still thinking about it.

"I don't know..."

Roland quickly turned and sat down.

"All right, if you don't want too that's okay. I mean I don't want you to get all weepy if I win."

Kuzon quickly looked down at him. What was that now?

"What do you mean by that?" He asked.

Roland looked up him with his lips pursed.

"Hmm? Oh nothing. I just meant that since I have more experience in this game that means I can probably beat anyone. Even my older brother." He said before smirking.

Kuzon was taken back by this and put up his hands.

"Woah now don't go thinking that! I'm sure I or someone else can beat you at this game without experience." He said.

Roland wiggled the second controller.

"Wanna prove it?" He asked.

Kuzon froze before glaring and taking the remote for him.

"Fine! I'll show you!"

Score.
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Violet groaned as she tried to sleep but found no use. She decided to stay in bed anyway just so she can rest up a bit. That is until she heard the door open and a small figure jump right onto the bed.

"Ow!" Violet exclaimed and looked up to see Penny crawl up on her.

"Violet I'm hungry." She chirped.

Violet blinked.

"Don't do that."

"Do what?" Penny asked, tilting her head.

"Jump onto people while they're in bed! I could have been sleeping." Violet huffed.

"You weren't sleeping, you were groaning." Penny said before crawling up next to her.

Violet sighed, true.

"Okay maybe, but still don't do that." She said.

"Okay, can we make something to eat?" Penny asked.

Violet sat up. The others weren't here and Angela was upstairs...

"I guess we could, but no stove or oven food! We have to have an adult with us." She reminded the light orange monkey.

Penny frowned a bit.

"I don't think you can make cookies in a microwave."

"No cookies either."

Penny snapped her fingers.

"Dang! Okay then." She said as the two left the room and up to the main kitchen in the robot.

Penny looked through many different foods and began to think.

"Hmm what could we make today?" She sung.

Violet looked through the pantry.

"How about a sandwich?" She suggested.

Penny looked back at her and nodded.

"Yeah! Let's make one! I want a ham apple cheese pickle sandwich." She said, getting the apples out.

Violet blinked in surprise.

"And you say I make weird food."

"That's because you put gross stuff together. I like ham, cheese, pickles, an' apples." Penny chirped.

Violet rolled her eyes and went to get the bread.

"Okay then." She sighed, making a note to herself to clean everything up when it's over.
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Maurice took it upon himself to organize some of the junk in the storage room they had. Not that it was that messy, it just needed to be tweaked a bit. As he set aside a box filled with 'Gift Day' decorations he came across a peculiar box. He pulled it out as Angela entered the room.

"Hey what'cha got there?" She asked.

Maurice opened the box and his eyes lit up.

"No way!" He said, pulling out what seems to be a weird black box.

Angela blinked before her eyes widened.

"Is that the old bubble machine we had!?" She asked, kneeling down to get a better look.

Maurice held it up a bit.

"It is! Oh man remember when Sprx let us play with the bubbles when we were toddlers?"

"Yeah! Roland was only a baby at the time so he growled and tried to swipe at the bubbles!" Angela giggled.

The two laughed hard at the memory before Maurice looked down at the machine.

"You think it still works?" He asked.

Angela shrugged.

"It should. I mean we were toddlers what for a few weeks at best?" She shrugged.

The two sat there, the realization of her words sitting there.

"M-maybe we should test it out." Maurice said.

Angela nodded, wanting to forget she even said anything. The two rush out and began to set up the bubble machine.

"Now all we need is a bottle of bubble juice and-" Angela began but Maurice whipped his head up.

"Bubble juice?" He questioned.

"Yeah, that's what it's called isn't it?" Angela asked, frowning.

Maurice was about to correct her when he thought about the term. He then shrugged, that was a good name for it.

"I guess, I'll go get some from my room." He chirped before leaving to get some.

As he left, Angela patted the small bubble machine as if it were some pet. All of these old memories and nostalgia were flooding back, making her miss those times. Yet at the same time, she wondered how different it would be if Mandarin were there earlier.
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Violet stood frozen at the mess before them. The bread slices were all over the counter and table, the pickle juice was dripping onto the floor, and the peanut butter that Penny decided to add on at the last minute was everywhere on the floor.

"How did you even do this?" She asked, not looking at Penny.

Penny looked towards the mess and shrugged.

"I dunno, it must be one of those tornadoes that Sprx compares my messes to." She chirped before biting into her sandwich.

Violet fell to her knees. How in the world was she gonna clean this up?! There were not enough wet wipes in the world to clean this up! Penny patted her head.

"Don't worry Vi, we'll clean it up! We just need Angela's help when she comes back." She said with her mouth full.

Violet gulped. She hoped so.

Meanwhile Kuzon frustratedly threw down his controller and stood up.

"Okay you cheated!" He huffed.

Roland put up his hands.

"How is there cheating in golf?! It's golf!" He snapped.

"I don't know, maybe you hacked into the game and rigged it." Kuzon accused.

Roland then too stood up, hands on his hips.

"You think I know how to do that?! I'm not Violet I ain't smart enough to do weird things to my games! You're just mad because you suck!" He argued.

Kuzon growled and picked up his controller.

"I'll show you! Give me the hardest level and I will beat you!"

"It's on now Sleepy!"

Watching the two as they began to furiously compete, Angela and Maurice were unsure whether to intervene or not.

"I have never seen your brother this mad before. It's kinda surreal." Angela said, not taking her eyes off the scene before her.

Maurice quickly turned to her.

"Are you kidding?! This is the same guy who gets mad if you interrupt him during his painting time." He said before looking for a place to mess with the bubble machine.

"Now where to set this up?" Maurice muttered before setting it up on the one side of the room.

Angela knelt down as Maurice placed the bottle inside and turned it on. A few bubbles started to come out of the machine before a whole bunch of them started pouring out.

"Woah it really works!" Angela breathed.

Maurice nodded, no doubt taken back by the nostalgia.

Suddenly the machine made a weird clicking sound and then a whole flurry of bubbles started pouring out of the machine. Angela and Maurice looked at each other. Oh no.
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Penny chewed her sandwich as Violet yelled while cleaning up. The team just sent her a message that the meeting was close to being done and they'll be coming home soon. How was it almost done?! They've only been there for an hour and they're already done?!

"Who plans for one hour?!" Violet ranted as she wiped down the counter.

"Mommy and the team do." Penny chirped.

Violet scoffed as she grabbed a swiffer mop and began to scrub the floor like mad.

"Careful Vi! You're gonna-!" Penny warned before Violet slipped and fell onto her back.

"Slip." Penny finished before getting up and going over to her.

Violet sat up and hissed in pain as she rubbed her back.

"Violet you gotta be careful when you mop! It makes the floors very slippery." Penny said.

"Ugh I know. But they're coming home soon and I don't want them to see this!" Violet motioned to the mess still there.

Penny patted her cheek.

"But you can't just freak out about it. You're gonna slip and hurt yourself again. Lemme help!" Penny chirped before grabbing the wipes.

Violet shook her head.

"No Penny you need to finish your sandwich." She told her.

"I'm almost done anyway. I don't like crusties, they're gross." Penny chirped before cleaning up one of the peanut butter stains.

Violet blinked before sighing.

"You're too mature, for a four year old."

"I'm almost five Violet!" Penny huffed.

"Yeah, yeah." Violet said, wondering if things were going as well for the others.
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"How do we stop it?!" Angela panicked.

"Turn it off that's what!" Maurice yelled before pulling the plug out of the wall.

The bubble maker still kept making bubbles!

"What's going on?!" Angela yelled, scared.

"I don't know!" Maurice panicked.

He tried to open the machine to get the bubble container out, but the machine sparked at him.

Kuzon growled before yelling in joy as Roland's mouth gaped open.

"How-?!"

"I did it! Finally!" The chubby monkey cheered, pumping his arms into the air.

Roland growled and stood up.

"Rematch!" He yelled.

Kuzon danced a bit.

"May-be la-ter! I just wanna celebrate my first win!" He chirped.

Roland blinked and sighed. He did just win for the first time, so for now Roland will let him have this. It was a bit fun. The two then noticed the amount of bubbles floating by before turning towards the panicked yellow and orange monkeys.

"Wha-?!" Kuzon began to ask before a bubble popped on his nose.

Roland sniggered.

"What is even happening?" He asked the two.

Maurice looked up at him with wild eyes.

"Stop standing there and help us! We can't turn it off!" He called.

Kuzon and Roland looked at each other before running over to them.

"Why is it still going?!" Roland asked.

"I don't know! We pulled the plug and it still won't stop making bubbles!" Angela yelled, a bubble popping on her cheek.

"Can't you just pull the bubble stuff out?!"

"Can't! It tried to shock me! It's like it has a mind of its own!" Maurice told him.

Kuzon shrugged.

"Maybe we should just wait till it runs out of bubbles? I mean then the machine can calm down." He suggested.

Angela and Maurice looked at each other.

"That...that can work." Angela said as Maurice shrugged.

At that moment, Violet and Penny entered the room no doubt hearing the whole thing.

"I don't know if I would let it run for so long." She said as Penny gasped and tried to play with the bubbles.

The others looked at her.

"Why's that?" Roland asked.

Violet motioned towards the tubes.

"The team is on their way home and I don't know how they're gonna react to a bunch of bubbles pouring into the command center." She said.

A sudden silence came over them as Penny kept playing with the bubbles.

"We gotta turn it off." Maurice said before smacking the side of the machine.

"How?! If it sparks at you for trying to get the bubble container out how the heck are we gonna turn it off?!" Angela asked.

Roland grabbed a mallet from the kitchen and ran towards the group.

"We just gotta put it out of its misery!" Roland declared but was stopped by Maurice.

"Oh no we are not smashing anything!" He huffed.

"Then tell me genius how are we gonna shut it off?!" Roland asked.

In the mist of bubbles, Kuzon searched all over the machine looking for a way to at least have the bubbles come out much slower when he noticed the sparking hatch where the bubble container was. He gulped as he tried to think of how to open it without getting shocked. He then noticed another hatch on the other side of the machine, the backup battery hatch. The battery backup was so that even if the cord was out, it would still run for a few minutes or so. Unlike the bubble container this was not sparking and seemed relatively normal. However Kuzon couldn't be too sure. He took a break before beginning to reach for the hatch. Violet noticed him and gasped.

"Kuzon no wait!" She warned but Kuzon had his fingers on the hatch door.

He was not shocked, and instead opened the hatch and forcibly took out the batteries. The bubble machine sputtered before powering down, letting out one more bubble before no more could come out. The kids were silent before they exploded into cheers.

"Kuzy saved the day!" Penny squealed, bouncing up and down.

"Fast thinking Kuzon, how did you know it had that battery thing?" Maurice asked.

Kuzon blinked.

"Well when we were younger I wanted to know how the machine worked so Otto gave me the directions to read and explained how it worked." The orange monkey explained, causing him to get some really confused looks.

"He explained to a toddler how a bubble machine worked and you understood it?!" Violet questioned.

Kuzon shrugged.

"Not all of it but I knew there was a battery backup just in case. Good thing that information came in handy huh?" Kuzon said with a smile.

"No kidding." Angela said before looking around at the still very bubbly room.

"Okay we took care of that...how are we gonna get rid of all these bubbles before the team gets home?" She asked before the four heard a creaking sound.

They turned to see Penny opening the one window the robot had, letting the huge amount of bubbles spill to the outside.

"Penny!" The four collectively yelled.

Penny turned to them.

"What? 'M getting the bubbles out." She chirped.

"But the team is gonna see them!" Roland reminded her.

Penny blinked and tilted her head.

"Why would that be a bad thing?" She asked.

Kuzon motioned to the bubble machine.

"We're probably not supposed to have this out without their permission so we might get into trouble for that." He explained.

Penny turned to Angela.

"But Angela's in charge, shouldn't that mean that we should ask her to get the bubbly machine out?" She asked.

Angela froze.

"Well uh yeah I guess but..." She muttered.

"Wow it looks like you guys had fun while we were gone." A voice said behind them.

The kids quickly turned around to the Hyperforce and a sleeping Erin being held by Mandarin in the carrier.

"You're home!" Violet yelped, a little too loudly.

Penny smiled and ran over to them.

"Didja see the bubbles come out of the window?" She asked.

Sprx nodded.

"Yep, we were wondering what was going on but uh..."

The red monkey looked at the bubble machine and the batteries put aside.

"I think we got a pretty good idea on what happened." He said.

Penny nodded.

"The bubbles wouldn't stop coming out and then Kuzy had to take the batteries out." She chirped.

Gibson sighed and closed his eyes.

"I told you to fix that thing." He muttered.

"I said I would! I just...got a bit busy..." Otto muttered, cheeks flushing a bit.

Nova looked towards the kids and gave them a small smile.

"You know you could have called us. We would have helped."

Maurice scratched his chin.

"Well I thought we would get in trouble because we didn't ask to get the bubble machine out...." He said.

Nova then looked over at Angela.

"Well if Angela is in charge then you better ask her. We don't mind really if you guys want to play with it." She said.

Angela blinked and scratched her chin.

"O-oh. Then I guess it would have been okay...of the machine didn't go crazy on us." She said before tapping the machine with her foot.

It shook slightly and sputtered before releasing a small bubble.

Sprx laughed a bit and patted her shoulder.

"Don't worry about it. Otto will fix it....now who wants to play with the fog machine?" He grinned, causing Penny to gasp loudly and the others to tense up.

Mandarin watched as half the group tried to talk Sprx down while the other half was all up in arms with playing with a fog machine.

"I am genuinely confused as to how a fog machine is fun." He muttered, causing Erin to make a few sleepy noises.

Mandarin shushed him to settle Erin back to sleep before looking back at the others. What was he so worried about?

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D'awww mommy Mandarin is too precious. Anyway I may upload another chapter tonight but idk yet. Thanks for reading!