Chapter Text
"He is just so adowable!!!" Mei squealed.
On the mountain, under a clear blue sky, inside the cave, the Monkey Kid gang and the Bull Family stood outside the makeshift castle. Sitting on the wooden stairs leading up to the entrance, Wukong cradles his newborn son Jidu against his chest. The infant held onto Wukong's shirt, snoring lightly as he slept peacefully. His fur was a vibrant strawberry-blonde, his exposed skin was lightly tanned like Wukong's, and his face was painted with the same peach-blossom mark as Wukong's. But unlike Wukong, who wore a red camisole with black ends, black jeans, and white, blue sneakers, the infant only wore a diaper.
"What's his name again?" Mei pulls her phone from her pocket to take hundreds of pictures, with the flash off, of course.
"Jidu," Wukong responded, caressing Jidu's back.
"Descending Node of the Moon. What a poetic name!" Sandy praised, his phone raised, already taking a plethora of pictures.
A small breeze ghosted through them, making Jidu scrunch his nose before yawning. Wukong tensed in pain when his ears picked up the ear-piercing squeal elicited from everyone.
"He's just too cuuuuuuuteeee-!!" MK praises, wanting desperately to hold Jidu.
"Thanks, he gets it from me." Wukong flipped his hair haughtily.
"Only you would take praise for your child's look, didi." Bull King rolls his eyes.
"Says the demon who says, 'He gets it from me,' whenever his son blows up a rival demon clan." Wukong retorts.
"Humph! Because it's true." His dage snorts.
Wukong rolls his eyes as he shakes his head.
"I'm surprised that Erlang even allowed you to go out after you finished giving birth." Princess Iron Fan says as she studies the little imp that was Wukong's spawn.
"Hah! It was nothing. We were just caught off guard. Barely a couple of days old and Jidu is just as unpredictable as his old man." Wukong boasts.
"How is Xingjun by the way? Are you enjoying life as a big sis, Xingjun?" Sandy looks down at Xingjun, who sat next to her baba, none too bothered that they were all paying more attention to Jidu. Despite the casual clothes Wukong wore, he made sure his baby girl was dressed in the finest clothes he made. Her hanfu was a pink and jade ensemble; a pink upper robe with dark pink blossoms stitched at the end of the sleeves, a jade high chest skirt with the waistband stitched with white flowers and pearls accenting the bottom tied with a red silk ribbon that reached her feet, light pink flats with lotus designs, and her hair had small cute blunt cut bangs and is tied into two bundles on either side of her head adorned with small gold and quarts jewels. His baby will look divine! he promised.
"Is okay. Jidu 'n Tsui always diwty." She says in her infamous flat tone.
"They're always dirty?" They all giggle at her words.
"She means that they slobber, spit up, and constantly have dirty diapers. Jidu and Tsui are a bunch'a stinker." Wukong nuzzles the top of Jidu's head and reaches out to gently scratch the top of Xingjun's head.
Jidu chirps awake from the attention. His eyes slowly flutter open as he examines his new surroundings.
"Aw, look! He's awake."
"Hi, little guy."
"Hi, baby."
"Hey, baby Jidu."
"Hey, little fella."
Jidu squeaks, startled by all the attention.
"Please, you scawing him," Xingjun warns in her monotone, standing from her seat to shoo-shoo the crowd.
"Sorry." They giggle, none too sorry, unable to contain their coos at her seriousness and protectiveness of her baby brother.
Recognizing his older sister's voice, Jidu looks over his shoulder to look for her. With a leap, he lands on her back, then crawls on her shoulder to rub his face against her cheek. "Nnngggaahhhh-! Baba! He won't let go." She complains, her voice lightly colored with annoyance. "Sorry, baby. It looks like Jidu wants to stay with you. Just like Tsui." Wukong giggles at his baby's shenanigans. Xingjun cutely grumbles.
"Even Ao Cunxin's child follows her around?"
"Yeah, it's really cute. After Cunxin took care of Xingjun one day, Tsui decided he really liked her and now follows her everywhere. It's really funny, every time Xingjun walks somewhere, Tsui is right behind her."
"Is not funny." Xingjun spat with a pout.
They had to hide their laughter as even when she was mad, she was too darn cute!!
Xingjun puffed up her cheeks at them.
"Anyways, Jian 'suggested' that I bring some protection to help with Jidu, which is why he came along." Wukong cocks his head toward the end of the porch. Comfortably lying under the shade of the porch is Xiaotian Quan. After the spontaneous birth of Jidu, the hound was tasked by his master with protecting his offspring whenever they left the Celestial Realm.
"So...the hound follows wherever you go?" Princess Iron Fan narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the hound. It's no surprise the Bull family was hesitant around it. The beast, in their minds, is as savage and brutal as his owner wanted him to be.
"Yup! My own guard dog. Literally."
Hearing the slight, Quan barked at him.
The sound echoed throughout the cave, amplifying its volume and spooking Jidu. He jumped nearly a foot in the air, then scrambled off of Xingjun. Instead of running back to Wukong, Jidu scampers up to Quan, scrambling up his back and clinging to the tip of his ears. "Jidu! Careful." Wukong briskly up the stairs and up to the hound. Quan, unused to the sudden rough treatment, stood and swung his body to shake Jidu off. Jidu clung tighter as he screeched and cried. "Hold on, you two, just give me a second!" Wukong attempts to still Quan so his baby wouldn't be thrown off. "K-kid! A little help!"
"I'm coming, Monkey King." MK scampers up the stairs to his master.
"Hehe! You were right, didi. Barely a couple of days old and he's already twice the troublemaker you were." Bull King cackles at his brother's suffering.
"Tell me about. Jidu, c'mon, let go of Quan." Wukong held Jidu, trying to pry him off as gently as he could. Jidu resisted, holding onto Quan tighter, making him whine in pain. "Jidu, let go." Xingjun scurried up to her baba, patting Quan on his head to calm him. It took thirty minutes, but the three managed to get Jidu to let go of Quan. Again, Jidu struggled free from Wukong's hold and went to everyone else. From MK to Red Son to Mei and so on. Eventually, he landed on Sandy, specifically on his shoulder. "D'aww~!" Sandy coos when Jidu went to sleep on his large shoulders. Wukong sighs. He walks up to Sandy and attempts to remove Jidu. "I'm sorry, big guy. Here let me-"
"It's alright, Mr. King. I don't mind if the little guy wants to take a nap. I just gotta be real quiet and real careful. So don't worry." Sandy reassures him.
"Okay, I trust you, Sandy. Now, I just gotta follow you around to make sure he doesn't get into any trouble. Again."
"Again?!" They all said in amazement.
Wukong sighs. "Yeah. He's a little...easy to excite. Which is why I gotta keep my eyes on him. I'm proud of him, don't get me wrong, but you can't be too careful when it comes to Jidu."
"He really is twice the troublemaker as you are." Red Son says, impressed.
"He gets it from both his baba's, obviously," Wukong smirks, then winks.
When the meet-and-greets were finished, Wukong and the Monkey Kid gang, while Princess Iron Fan and Bull King returned to rule their kingdom, went out to Megapolis, just to sightsee, making sure Jidu didn't cause any problems. Unfortunately, they quickly failed when he woke.
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
"I cannot believe that Jidu got us banned from five restaurants!" Mei looked over all the photos she captured during the chaos.
"I can't believe that he almost destroyed three apartments with that forklift." MK plants the five to-go bags filled to the brim with the food from the restaurants they were kicked out of on the table.
"I can't believe that he managed to outrun a squadron of police." Red Son swallowed some medicine to soothe his throbbing headache.
"I can't believe we almost made it on the news for destruction of private property." Pigsy wipes away the sweat gathered on his forehead and the back of his neck.
Jidu, swaddled in Wukong's arms, drinks from his baby bottle as he looks around with curiosity. On Sandy's cargo boat, everyone rested from the rowdy day. "I'm sorry, guys, really. I thought he would chill out a little after a nap." Wukong rocked Jidu as he held him correctly. "Baba, I'm so tired." Xingjun rested her head on his lap. "I know, baby, just one more hour and we can go back home to my mountain."
Xingjun, along with everyone else, let out a relieved sigh. Once the sun had set, they all returned to their abodes and rested for the night.
At least everyone else did.
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
"Whoa! You look tired, Monkey King." MK said in concern. Examining Wukong, his master sat on the couch, shoulders hunched, holding himself by his elbows, with dark circles under his eyes, and his tan skin paled. "Uuuuuugggghhhhh-!! I am exhausted, kid. Jidu decided he wanted to party all night with the other monkeys and didn't fall asleep until four in the morning." The two turned to look at Jidu, who was asleep in the baby seat. Xingjun was napping next to Wukong, blanketed with her favorite pink blanket drawn with peach blossoms. "I really need some sleep, kid. Would ya mind taking care of Xingjun and Jidu for the day? I don't gotta go back to the Celestial Realm for another day, so I just wanna relax for a little while."
"No worries, Monkey King! I think I can handle a bunch of babies. You can count on this Monkey Kid!" MK puffed his chest and pressed his fist over his heart. Wukong chuckled at his student's enthusiasm. "Okay, kid. Call me if you have any problems, alright?"
"You got it, Monkey King!"
With a thumbs up, Wukong then walks back to his room to take a nap.
"Okay, I just gotta watch two wittle tiny babies, what could go wrong?"
Everything. Everything could go wrong.
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
When the two children woke up, Xingjun demanded to go to the largest library in Megapolis, then go to her cousin's home to see his inventions, all while MK had to take care of Jidu.
"Okay, Xingjun, you wanna go to Megapolis's local library?"
"Yes." She answers flatly, all while bouncing excitedly. Jidu was freed from the baby seat and hung to the front of MK's shirt, not too bothered by his wild movements.
"Okay! Then what are we waiting for? Le'go!!"
"Big bwother MK." Xingjun stops MK before he speeds out of the mountain.
"Yeah, Xingjun?" MK looked back at her before he bolted out of the door.
"When we take somewsault cloud, we go weally slow."
"How come?"
"Because Jidu jump off if we go weally fast." She reveals casually. MK audibly gulps at the reveal. "H-h-h-has he tried that before?!"
"Yes, a lot. 'Specially in back home."
Xingjun then turns away from him and shuffles back to Wukong's room. "Wait! Xingjun, where are you going?!" MK yells in a whisper as he waves his limbs to get her attention. But she ignored him and quietly wandered into Wukong's room. Turning his attention back to Jidu, who was looking up at him, he asks, "You wouldn't actually jump off while we're flying, would you, Jidu?" Jidu just smiles at him while he tilts his head and chirps. "Aw, man." He groaned, discouraged.
Eventually, Xingjun returns and gives...something to MK. "What's this?" MK lifts the bundle of straps connected to a heavy sack. The dark gray bag had about two long straps similar to those of backpacks; the sack looked like it was just the back of said backpack. "'S baby cawiew. Baba put Jidu in it while flying to keep him from jumping."
"Hmm, I wonder why Monkey King didn't bother to use this thing when we went out yesterday?"
MK soon got his answer when Jidu looked over his shoulder and spotted the baby carrier. He released a frightened screech and then scarpers. "JIDU!!" MK ran around the room chasing after Jidu, trying to put the baby carrier AND put Jidu in the baby carrier. "That why." Xingjun just stood there nonchalantly as MK ran around trying to capture Jidu.
While MK was running after Jidu, Jidu kept knocking over objects such as potted plants, cups, books, chairs, and pillows to get away from MK and the evil baby carrier. "JIDU-! C'MON! IT'S JUST A BABY CARRIER!!" MK yelled after him. Jidu jumped on the kitchen cabinet, out of MK's reach, hissing and swiping at him.
"Kid? Everything alright out there?" Wukong called out from the room. "WE'RE FINE, MONKEY KING! JUST...PLAYING AROUND. YEAH, THAT'S IT, WE'RE JUST PLAYING A GAME OF TAG!!" MK yelled in return.
"Okay. Remember to call me if you need anything."
MK didn't want to bother Wukong. He trusted him to do the basic of tasks: babysitting his two kids. What would he think of him if he couldn't even do such an easy job? He would show Wukong that he could take care of the most important people in his life. Him included, he added.
"Alright, Jidu." MK tightens the straps. "You're not the only one who can play dirty. Ready?" He says under his breath. Jidu stares at him with narrowed eyes. "1...2...3!!"
MK jumps and barely reaches Jidu.
Jidu veered out of the way. Since he wasn't safe on the kitchen cabinet, he runs away again. "Quick, Xingjun! Grab him!" MK calls for her. "Okay." She blandly responds. In a flash, she teleports under Jidu and grabs him, wrapping her arms around him, trapping.
"You did it!" MK runs up to her and Jidu.
Jidu screeches and thrashes in her arms, punching and biting at her let her go. "Doesn't that hurt?" MK cringes when Jidu starts pulling on her hair. "No." She monotonously responds. "...Okay then. If it's not that bad, then I can grab him too."
MK was wrong, though.
Once he managed to wrestle Jidu into the baby carriage, Jidu began to punch, smack, bite, and yank his hair. "OW! OW! OW! OW-! Xingjun, I thought you said that it didn't hurt-OW!!"
"I not say that. I say it not huwt when he hit me." Xingjun shrugged. MK groaned in defeat, then yelped when Jidu bit down on his arm again. After a bit of wrestling, MK finally managed to strap Jidu into the baby carrier. "There, nice and snug!"
MK plasters his hands on his hips, proud that he finally wrangled Jidu into the baby carrier. Jidu, on the other hand, suddenly went quiet. "See, Jidu? It's not that bad." MK pet Jidu's head. His eyes filled with panic as Jidu's nose and brow scrunched, his eyes welling with tears. "No, no, no, no, no, no! D-d-don't cry! Please, don't cry!"
But it was too late.
Jidu began to cry and flail against his chest. He swung his little fist and gripped his shirt in desperation, and cried and cried. MK whimpered, disgruntled, dragging his hand down his face. "Aw, man."
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
Leaving for Megapolis, MK assumed that Jidu would, eventually, tire himself out and stop crying. But, no. Jidu, in fact, did not stop crying.
People around him would give him annoyed or concerned looks. MK shrugged with a strained smile.
"Big brother, make Jidu stop cwying." Xingjun complained. "I don't know how, Xingjun!" MK panicked. He tried everything to get Jidu to stop crying, but nothing worked.
"Um, excuse me, but is your baby alright?" A woman sat next to him on the bus, her baby also in a baby carrier, but unlike Jidu, they were quiet.
"What? Oh, no, no, he's not my baby. I'm just uh, babysitting." MK nervously scratched the back of his neck. "Well, if you want some advice, I can tell you how to calm him down? Only if you want it, of course."
"Yes, please, that would be great!"
"Well, then, what you need to give him is this." She points to her own baby, happily looking around. MK blinked owlishly in confusion. Realization sparked in him when he understood what she was pointing at.
"A pacifier?"
"Mm-hmm. This keeps them entertained for a little while. Just make sure they don't suck on it too long, or they'll get addicted." She chuckles.
"That's great! Thanks a lot." MK says his appreciations. He then turns to Xingjun. "Sorry, Xingjun. We're gonna have to buy a pacifier for Jidu first before going to the library."
"Fine." She huffs.
The three ran to the nearest baby and infant clothing store, hoping to find a decent pacifier. When MK found the aisle carrying the pacifiers, he grabbed the first one and popped it into Jidu's mouth. "There, how's that Jidu?" He heaved, catching his breath. "Now, how much is-ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY YUAN!!!" MK cried. The pacifier was from a high-end brand, made from the best material that would last and wasn't toxic to the baby. It also had a hand-stitched toy to entertain the baby, which explained why it cost a whopping one hundred and eighty yuan. "AW, MAN-!!"
When they arrived at the cash register, he and the cashier struggled to scan the pacifier since it was already in Jidu's mouth, and Jidu assumed they were trying to take it away. But, finally, he bought the pacifier for Jidu.
"Can we go to libwawy, now?" Xingjun whined.
"Yeah, Xingjun, we can finally go to the library."
As they traveled to the library, Xingjun kept trying to run off ahead of MK, leaving him behind with Jidu. "Xingjun! Hey! Hold on!" He called out to her when she scurried up the library stairs leading to the entrance. "Hello, welcome to the Megapolis Central Library. Can I help you with anything, young lady?" The librarian looks down at Xingjun from across her desk.
"I want books," Xingjun demanded. The librarian raises a brow at her bratty attitude. "Sorry, she's just...really excited to read books." MK titters as he stumbled up to them. "Mm-hmm. Well, if you need any help, feel free to come to me."
Finally free, Xingjun scuttled away between the shelves. Since MK really wasn't interested (In anything that wasn't Wukong related), he sat down in the nearest chair and grabbed a magazine to read.
An hour later, MK was startled awake by Xingjun, who yanked at his sleeve. "Big bwother MK, I have books I want." In her hands were ten books, all different in size and subject, but all were as thick than half a palm. "Wow. That's uh, that's a lot of books, Xingjun. Ya sure you wanna read all of them?" MK stood up from his seat, slowly so he didn't wake Jidu, who also fell asleep. "Yes." She said candidly. "N'alright. Let's go check them out."
When they walked up to the librarian, the woman gasped at the tower of books Xingjun wanted to check out, and the fact she was able to carry them. "I-er-I mean, I'm so sorry, but we have a five-book limit checkout policy for everyone who wants to check out the books."
Xingjun frowned, her brow scrunched in dissatisfaction.
"Well, is there a chance that, maybe, you can change the rules just for today?" MK quietly begged.
"I'm sorry, sir, but the rules state that-"
The librarian suddenly goes quiet, their eyes turning vacant.
"Uh. Hello? Helloooooo?" MK waves his hand in front of the librarian. The woman starts to check out the books. "Wha-Hey! I thought you said that we couldn't check out more than five books?"
"Check out books." The librarian droned, continuing to check out the books.
"What's going on?" MK leaned over the desk to get a closer look at the librarian. Peering closer, he notices a pink hue in the middle of her glazed-over eyes. He swivels his sights to Xingjun, and just like he suspected, Xingjun is mind-controlling the librarian. "Xingjun! Stop!"
When he reached out, his hand landing on her shoulder, he was transported to the eternal white void that was the Astral Plane.
"Whoa!" He flails as he catches his bearings. "I can never get used to this place." Searching his surroundings, he tries to fly forward, but is stuck in place. "Huh? What's holding me back?"
Wrapped around his tiny frame was none other than Jidu's giant astral projection. It glowed bright orange, a similar hue to Wukong's, carried a monstrous face, and blessed with two sets of arms. He was fast asleep, their giant arms wrapped around his lower half. "Jidu?! Hey, Jidu, is that you?" He asked, tapping Jidu's face to wake him. But Jidu remained sleeping. "Jidu, I can't move! Let. Go!!" MK groaned. Jidu wrapped his arms tighter around his squirming form. "AUGH-!! Now you're chocking me." MK sharply gasped. While he floundered, he peered through the void to find Xingjun's astral projection. A mist pulled apart like curtains, revealing Xingjun. Her giant projection was far away, using her powers to mind-control the librarian's mini projection.
"'Ey! Xingjun, stop that!!" He called out to her.
He knows she could hear him, but like a snooty little diaper-wearing poopy butt, she chose not to. He harrumphed at her attitude. An idea then lit in his head.
"Xingjun, if you don't stop right now, I'm gonna call your baba!!" He threatened.
Xingjun twisted her sights to him, a look of aghast on her three monstrous faces. MK smugly smirked at her, daring to ignore her now. She growled, but relented.
MK's eyes flickered as he was brought back to reality.
He still stood in front of the desk, his hand on Xingjun's shoulder. "Wha...What happened?" The librarian asked as her computer kept beeping an error message. "Uuuuuuuuuhhhh. We-uh, we were just about to check out some books?" MK tries to save the situation. "Oh. But I remember saying that you could only check out five books at a time?"
"How-how 'bout she gets a library card and we could both check out five books on our cards?"
The librarian considered his suggestion. "Um. Sure, that would be alright."
"AWESOME!" MK turned to Xingjun. "Xingjun, what do we say?" He playfully poked her cheek. Xingjun lowered her gaze as she pouted. "...Thank you." She mutters. MK and the librarian chuckled.
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
"MK, Xingjun, Jidu, welcome to my home." Red Son greets as he walks down the stairs leading to the front entrance of his home. "Hey, babe." MK walked up to Red Son to hug him, but refrained when he remembered Jidu was strapped to his chest. "I see that you've been busy." Red Son comments as he inspects MK and the bags in his hands. "Yeah. It's been a crazy day." MK sighed.
"...MK. It's barely three o'clock." Red Son revealed.
MK falls on his knees and wails in defeat. "AAAaaaaauuuuuuuugggggghhhhhh-!!!"
Jidu, who has since woken up, looks up at MK in confusion.
"Big bwother MK bought Jidu pacifiew." Xingjun accusingly points at the pacifier in Jidu's mouth. "I can see that." Red Son notices. "And did he also buy you something?"
"No," Xingjun said flatly and directly, her brow scrunched.
"Don't you start with me, young lady!" MK jumped to his feet and waved a disappointed finger at Xingjun. "We almost got arrested when the librarian realized she was brainwashed."
Xingjun huffs, then looks away.
"You almost had the police called on you again?!" Red Son asked in astonishment.
"It was Xingjun's fault!!"
"Are you seriously blaming a toddler for almost getting arrested?"
"Babe, you gotta believe me! I had to stop her 'cause she tried to control the librarian into letting her borrow ten books when the limit was five."
"Cousin!" Red Son gasped, turning to Xingjun.
Xingjun pouted as she kept avoiding their stares.
"...How long were you able to mind control them?" He asked, genuinely curious at the audacious action.
"BABE! Don't encourage her!" MK squawked.
The four walked into the fortress, ready to look around and relax for the day. "Cousin Wed Son, can I look at youw inventions?" Xingjun walked up to Red Son and tugged at his hand. "I don't know. It is very dangerous, and there are many volatile equipment in my garage." Red Son argued. He turned to deny Xingjun entry, but chocked on his words when he witnessed her expression. "Pwweeeeeeaaaaasseeeee~." Xingjun put on her best puppy dog pout and teary eyes. MK couldn't help but squeal from Xingjun's cuteness. He turns to Red Son and worries when even he is starting to cave. "Fight it, Red! You can do it."
But Red Son could not, in fact, fight it. Even on the mountain, he had a hard time denying the baby monkeys when they flashed their wide eyes and little pouts.
"...F...Fine. Just make sure you stay near me when we go in." Red Son sighed in defeat. "Red, nooooooo!" MK despaired.
Entering Red Son's garage, Xingjun hopped in her steps in awe. "This amazing." She says flatly, but her eyes are sparkling. "I've been updating and improving my cars and robots for the past year. Ever since the battle with the Thrall, I've seen that my inventions need a massive upgrade to withstand freezing temperatures and intense heat."
While Red Son and Xingjun looked over a dismantled bull clone, MK stood behind them, then looked down at Jidu when he felt him flail in excitement. "The lady said I can't let you keep chewing on the pacifier, or else you'll addicted to it, but if I take it out, you'll start crying again." MK contemplated. He wants to release Jidu and let him have some fun too, but if he releases him, he creates chaos. But if he keeps him trapped and removes the pacifier, he cries for hours.
He was stuck on what to do.
"Hey, Red." MK taps Red Son's shoulder to get his attention. "What is it, MK?" Red Son turns to him. "I gotta an issue. Ya see, Jidu's only calm right now because he's got his pacifier. But a nice lady told me not to let him get too used to it, or else he'll get addicted to it. But if I take it away, he'll start crying unless he's out of the baby carrier. What should I do?"
"Hmm? Well, we can take him out, BUT it has to be while we are away from my garage. It's too dangerous for him to run wild in here, so we'll go to an enclosed area. Is that alright, Xingjun?" They turn to Xingjun. She sighs dejectedly. "Okay."
The four exit the garage, Red Son locking it behind him, then go to the living room. Before he lets MK release Jidu, he orders the bull clones to remove any valuable objects. Once the room was cleared, MK took back the pacifier. Instantly, Jidu started crying and begged for the pacifier. But, freeing him from the carrier, he calmed down.
Jidu wriggled free from his hold and jumped around the living room, smelling and investigating his new surroundings. Thankfully, removing any valuable items allowed Jidu to roam freely without concerning MK and Red Son. Jidu was bored at the fact that there were only shelves and furniture to jump on, but was glad either way; he was out of that infernal trap called the baby carrier. "Look at him go." MK chuckled, taking out his phone to record Jidu. "What a rambunctious little fellow." A small smile pulled on Red Son's lips. Xingjun, already used to her baby brother's antics, sits on the couch and reads her books. "Alright. Now, as long as nothing or anyone comes in here, we should be-"
Before Red Son finished his sentence, a bull clone burst into the room, leaving the door wide open.
"Oh no." Red Son and MK say.
Jidu, eyes flooded with glee, spots his freedom and runs toward the door.
"Stop him!" Red Son barks at the bull clone. The bull clone attempts to grab Jidu, but Jidu is too quick for it. He slid under their metal legs and ran away. "YOU FOOL!!" Red Son yelled. "Xingjun, stay here while we catch Jidu!" MK tells Xingjun. "Okay." She cooly says.
"You! Stay here and make sure to call me if you see my cousin." Red Son tells the bull clone. It looks at him, confused, then points at Xingjun. "My OTHER cousin, you bag of bolts!!" The bull clone nods. "Let's go, MK." Red Son waves MK to follow.
Sprinting down the arching halls, the two find the direction Jidu was running in from the sounds of chaos Jidu was leaving behind. Bull Clones flailed and floundered at Jidu's sudden appearance, trying to catch him. "JIDU, WAIT!!" MK calls out to him. Jidu ignored him and continued to dash around the fortress on his little paws. When there was nowhere else to run, MK and Red Son managed to shove Jidu into a corner inside the entrance hall. "Okay, Jidu, time to go back in the baby carrier." MK spread his arm and kept his steps light, ready to catch Jidu. Jidu, being a baby, couldn't really understand what MK was saying, but knew well enough that he wanted to trap him in that horrible contraption again.
Jidu hissed and swiped at the two.
"He's almost as much of a menace as I was when I was a child." Red Son stood next to MK, his arms open to trap Jidu.
Seeing no openings, Jidu started to panic. He didn't want to be trapped in that thing again! He wanted to play with his big sis and Baba's, but they kept shoving him in some box or contraption. But he was not going to let them do that.
Contracting his muscles, Jidu leaped.
Too quick, Jidu dodged Red Son and MK's hands, and any time they were close, he would tickle and bite them.
Managing to escape his captors, Jidu ran further into the fortress.
"How-" MK gasped as he caught his breath, "How did-" He heaved again, "How did he do that?"
"That's what happens when a demon is cornered." Red Son adjusts his glasses. "They get desperate and rely on every trick they have to escape."
"We gotta-" MK swallows some air, "find him. Quick. Where else could he have gone?"
"I don't know. I'll send out an order to my robots to signal me when and where they've seen Jidu." Red Son pulls back his sleeve to expose his watch. "Attention all bull clones, an infant demon monkey is running around freely in the fortress. If you spot him, send a message to me of his location." Two seconds passed when Red Son was already receiving signals. "Oh no..." Red Son mutters in dread. "What? What is it?" MK asks. "It's Jidu. He's heading toward my garage."
"Let's get going, hurry!!"
Red Son and MK sprint toward Red Son's garage. "Wait, how is Jidu getting into your lab? I thought you said you had upgraded your security?" MK asked as they kept running. "I did. I have no idea how he's getting in."
The two finally arrived at the garage. Red Son types in a code, then enters. They duck when a rocket almost crashes into them.
The inside of the garage was completely destroyed. Multiple cars were trashed and on fire, many tools were strewn onto the floor, and his construction plans and papers were shredded or tossed into the air, floating like confetti. "My garage..." Red Son said weakly. "Sorry, babe." MK pats his shoulder.
They flinch when they hear Jidu screech as he lands on a weapon on the very top of Red Son's weapon shelf. "JIDU!! GET OFF FROM THERE, IT'S NOT SAFE!!" MK and Red Son ran up to the shelf. "C'mere, you little stinker!" MK takes his staff and extends it while he clung to the tip.
Again, with lightning-fast reflexes, Jidu jumps out of MK's reach and climbs down the shelves. As he jumped down, he landed on a weapon, his feet stepping on the ON button. Hails of bullets burst from the weapon. "DUCK!!" MK flies down and tackles Red Son onto the ground.
A blade of wind slices through the air and dices the weapon, destroying it.
"WHAT IN BLAZES IS GOING ON HERE!!" A gravelly voice yells. They open their eyes to see the holder of the voice.
It was Bull King and Princess Iron Fan standing at the garage entrance door. "Darling, what exactly is going on here?" Princess Iron Fan has her fan at the ready. "Uh, well-" Red Son nervously tries to explain.
"QUICK!! CLOSE THE DOOR!!" MK interrupts.
Concerned MK was hinting at an intruder, Bull King, and Princess Iron Fan shut the door behind them just in time. Jidu skids at the feet of Bull King and Princess Iron Fan. "Ah." The two say with comprehension. Jidu stares up at the two, then runs away back into the fray. "You're taking care of Wukong's offspring, correct?"
MK and Red Son finally stand. "Yeah. I promised Monkey King that I would take care of them for the day 'cause he had to stay up all night to take care of Jidu. I got him to calm down, but once I let him go..." They all looked around the disaster. "We...get it now." Bull King says in awe. "Like father, like son." Princess Iron Fan raised an impressed brow when she spotted Jidu running around. "Yeah... I don't know how to catch him now."
"Leave that to me." Bull King says.
With a short, feint whistle, Jidu pops out of his hiding place and runs up to Bull King. Bull King whistles again and offers his giant hand to Jidu. Jidu looks suspiciously at his hand, but hops into it. He was lifted in the air, where Bull King whistles once more. A sweet, true smile stretches on Jidu's lips as he chirps and giggles. "How did you...?" MK stares in awe. "A tune that Wukong had taught me when I used to help him take care of his young ones when I visited his mountain. I cannot copy the chirping they produce, so he taught me the tune that they respond to." Bull King begins to tickle Jidu. Laughter and chirping filled the garage as Jidu was tickled. "Such a little demon." Bull King chuckles.
Bull clones were summoned, and cleaned, and repaired Red Son's garage. Once finished, they all returned to the living room, where Xingjun sat obediently. "Auntie Tieshan, Uncle Niu." Xingjun lifted her gaze from her book when she heard them enter. "Xingjun, how are you, dear?" Princess Iron Fan strides toward Xignjun. She sits next to her and presses a kiss on her cheek. "I awight. I wead books all day." Xingjun lifts one of her books to show off. Looking at the stacks of books, one stack had three, already read, the others untouched. "You already read three of them?" MK asked, surprised. Xingjun nods. "Impressive." Bull King and Red Son praise. "Whewe Jidu?" She asks.
"Here he is, little one." Bull King points to his right shoulder. Right under his ear, Jidu was fast asleep. "He tuckered himself out from all that running." MK gives a quick peek at Jidu. "He cause pwobem?" Xingjun curiously cocks her head. She eyes them all questioningly as they answer with a heavy and weary sigh.
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
"Hey, kid, how did...Are you okay?" Wukong looks down the stairs where MK stood. His student stood with slouched shoulders, his hair in disarray, and his eyes were screaming that he was running on fumes. In his hands were multiple bags of books and scrolls. "Hhheeeeeey, Monkey King." MK droned out. "Kid, what happened?" Wukong walks down the steps to help him with the bags. Stepping back into the castle, they place the bags down and sit on the couch. MK then releases Jidu, shrugging off the baby carrier and gently returning him to Wukong. "It was a loooooooong day. First, it took me, like, an hour to get Jidu into the baby carrier," Wukong looks down at Jidu who played with his feet, "And, then we had to go to a baby store to buy a one hundred and eighty yuan pacifier just so he would stop crying."
"It cost one hundred and eighty yuan?!?" Wukong recoiled in shock.
"Well...it was the first one that I grabbed, so I bought it without thinking." MK nervously twiddled his fingers. Wukong sighs. "THEN, Xingjun and I went to the library and almost had the police called on us!... Again."
"Again?! Why?"
"You wanna tell'em, young lady?" MK turns to Xingjun with his hands on his hips. Xingjun ignores him and keeps reading her book. "Xingjun...Did you try to brainwash someone again?" Wukong asks with a low, knowing voice. Xingjun keeps avoiding his disappointed stare while pouting. "It not that bad." She mutters.
"She tried to make the librarian check out ten books for her even though there was a five-book limit," MK revealed.
He yelps when Xingjun smacks his leg for snitching.
"Xingjun! You know what this means, right?" Wukong sternly says. She groans irritably. "I'm gonna have to tell your baba about this."
"Is Erlang going to ground her?"
"Kinda. Every time she does this, she has to go to Guanyin's for training and disciplining. And training means no books and no experiments." He firmly reminds her. "Wha' 'bout Jidu?! He destoyed Wed Son woom!" Xinjung points to Jidu. Curious, Jidu reaches out to grab her hand. She pulls it back, blowing raspberries at him. Jidu giggles behind the pacifier. "Xingjun, Jidu is just a baby; he doesn't know what he's doing yet." Wukong softly explains. "He do to!" She argued.
MK and Wukong turn to each other and sigh, "Xingjun, you can't blame Jidu, and you can't keep trying to mind control people to get what you want. Do you wanna stay with Nana Guanyin forever?" Wukong threatens. Xingjun's tenses with fear. "No!..."
"Then stop trying to mind-control people. Your powers weren't meant to be used like that."
"Then what they use for?" She asks desperately.
"Well...To do good things. What are some good things that you can do with your powers?"
Xingjun went quiet to ponder. "...I dunna know."
Wukong exhales through his nose. "See. It's easy to do bad things with your powers. Try and figure out what you can do and experiment."
"...Okay."
While Xingjun sat thinking, Wukong and MK stood and walked into Wukong's room and laid Jidu down for a nap. "You wouldn't really send Xingjun to stay with Guanyin forever, would you?" MK asked. "Yes, I would have." Wukong takes Jidu's pacifier and places it on top of the cabinet next to the bed. "But...from what the tales say, you wouldn't be able to see her again?" MK fidgets with worry. "It's a price that's gotta be paid. Xingjun can't be using her powers like that, and, if push comes to shove, they would've used other methods to control her."
"Control her!? B-b-but she's just a little kid." MK spluttered in shock.
"Like I told you, that wouldn't've mattered, kid. When someone powerful is misusing their powers, the Celestial Realm jumps in and...deals with them."
The truth made MK tense, totally disturbed. From previous events alone, he's witnessed the Celestial Realm's method of "dealing" with a serious issue. Wukong's imprisonment was one thing, but it was the whole Lady Bone Demon debacle that solidified his opinion of them. They were picky when it came to dangerous threats. Choosing to do nothing or make the situation worse. Or even worse, shift the blame to someone else.
"Still, I trust them as far as I can throw'em. When it comes to controlling powers, I prefer Guanyin versus anyone else." Wukong waspishly says.
"I hear ya. But, still, isn't it a little bit too harsh to leave Xingjun with someone else forever?"
Wukong caresses Jidu's cheek as he sleeps. "It is. But that's the downside of having incredible power."
Wukong and MK leave the room, keeping the door open just a crack in case Wukong needs to come running back. "I don't wanna see them grow up like I did. I also don't want them to be punished for making a mistake. If never seeing them is what it takes to protect them, then... I guess it was nice knowing them."
MK hears Wukong's words, but listens to his tone. His master would have despised having to be separated from his kids. Especially if it was the Celestial Realm's fault. If anything happened to them because of the Celestial Realm, his previous raid would've seemed like a small temper tantrum compared to what he would've done. His master would flip heaven and hell to protect his children. "I don't think you gotta worry about anything, Monkey King," MK tells him. Returning to the living room, they see the entire troop had surrounded Xingjun as she sat on the couch, a notepad on her lap as she writes on it. "I believe that Xingjun and Jidu will responsibly use their powers. I mean, as long as they have you and Erlang, they won't go down the path of evil."
"...I guess."
MK looked back at Wukong with concern. "Monkey King-"
"Baba, I did it."
Xingjun hopped off the couch and scuttled up to Wukong. "What'd you do, Xingjun?" Wukong bent forward, holding his hands on his knees. "I made list to do good things." She says, handing the list to him. Wukong stood straight and took it. "One, read minds of animals. Like with Lian and Quan." He read it out loud. "Yes." Xingjun nodded.
Speaking of Xiaotian Quan, the hound walked past them and entered the room where Jidu was sleeping to also take a nap. "Wait...HOLD ON!! Where was he this entire time?!" MK stares at the dog in confusion. "I thought you said he was supposed to stay around to keep Xingjun and Jidu safe! I didn't see him at all this entire time!"
"Quan is good at keeping quiet. Chances are, he was near you the entire time; he just kept his presence a secret. That was the reason he was able to sneak up on me that time me and Jian battled."
"Okay, but why didn't he do anything when I was having trouble with Jidu at Red Son's place?"
"... MK, what happened at Red Son's place?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...MK. What. Happened."
"N-n-nothing too bad."
"MK."
"I mean, unless you count the fact that we had to chase after him for about two hours."
"MK?"
"Then, when he broke into Red Son's garage, he broke all of his cars and turned on all of his weapons."
"MK!"
"Then he turned on a machine gun that fired all over the lab."
"He WHAT?!"
"B-b-b-but don't worry, Bull King was able to catch him with a whistle that you apparently taught him. Which, by the way, do you think you can teach me that whistle?" MK timidly asked.
Wukong groaned in distress, massaging the bridge of his nose. "Oh, kid." He shook his head.
"I'm sorry, Monkey King." MK wilted.
"No, it wasn't your fault, kid. I should've known Jidu was going to be difficult, even for you." Wukong sighed. "I just need to remember to keep a better eye on him."
"You're not gonna punish him, are you?"
"What? Of course not! I just gotta...be more careful with him. That's all."
MK frowned at Wukong's hesitancy. He sounded so unsure of himself when it came to taking care of his kids. It wasn't new to him that his master had trouble with taking care of other people. He was reserved, secretive, and impulsive. Habits that he still showed from time to time, but with some help from Sandy, and serious interventions from all of them, he was getting better. Still, those parts of him stuck around from time to time, and he kept his secrets. They didn't punish him, though. They just eased him out of those bouts, reassuring him that it was okay to make mistakes and ask for help.
"Now, let's see what other good things you can do with your powers, Xingjun." Wukong pets her head as the two walk to the couch. "This is quite the list. And there are even notes here about doing some experiments?" Xingjun excitedly nods her head. "I wanna test powes on oth things. So I make list. When we go home, I'm g'na test powes." She explains.
"Very good, Xingjun. But remember, don't ever use your powers without the other person's permission, okay?"
"Okay!"
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
"Shi Hou, Xingjun, how was your trip?" Erlang asks the minute they enter Wukong's room.
"It was...an adventure." Wukong exhales through his mouth.
"Was it that bad?" Erlang raised a brow.
"Not bad, per se. Just...A revelation on how Jidu and Xingjun are going to grow up like."
"What...does that even mean, Shi Hou?"
"It's gonna be crazy, Jian, that's all I've gotta say."