Labor Day

Celes goes into labor and Ann makes a contract with Gale Wind.

 

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Chapter 2: Labor Day

 

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"I'll let you out here," said Alex when we arrived at my house 2 days later. "Give the folks my regards and let them know I'll be by later to check on things."

 

"Sure thing." I said before giving him a kiss goodbye. "Catch you later!" After he drove off I picked up my luggage and the cooler containing Jenna's DNA Samples and then went into the house. "I'm home!" I announced.

 

"We missed you!" said Angel in perfect American English. "Did you have fun?"

 

"Someone's been practicing their words, I see." I remarked, tickling her a bit. She giggled and went back upstairs. After she left, I felt a sharp pain coming from my belly. “Oh!” I yelped.

 

"Mom, Celes is home!" Angel echoed.

 

"Welcome back, sunshine!" I heard dad say as he came in from Terra's Office. "Is everything ok? I got Alex's message but—wow..." I felt the pain again but it was stronger this time. Instinctively I put my hands on my belly. I hoped this didn't mean what I thought it did. “Are you sure you're ok?” Dad asked as he regarded me.

 

"I'll be fine." I replied said once the feeling passed. "I'm just a little upset."

 

"Well if you need anything that's what me, your mother and Terra are here for." he replied before going up the stairs. Once I heard a door upstairs close, I went into the living room and sat down as the now familiar feeling came to me again. When I heard the door open again, I got to my feet again.

 

"Hey Dad, is Mark Anthony home?" I asked as I walked to the bottom of the stairs.

 

"He's in the basement." He replied before going into another room upstairs.

 

"Thanks," I said before I heard the door of the room he went into close. I got to the basement door before the same cramping sensation came again. I knew then that there was no denying what was going on. “The baby's coming...”

 

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"Is there something you can't do?" asked Rose.

 

"Probably not," I replied after putting the finishing touches on my latest creation. "I call her the Simulated Artificial Mother, or SAM for short. Her sole purpose is to carry a human child to full term and give birth to it, the difference being she can do it in 9 days."

 

"Now that's just freaky," said Celes, who suddenly appeared in my basement lab. "I came here to ask you about that."

 

"Isn't yours supposed to come at any moment?" I asked, nodding at her belly. I noticed she looked flushed.

 

"Don't remind me." She remarked. "Now, as I was saying before I need your help with something."

 

"Let me guess: You want me to impregnate SAM with someone." I said.

 

"Right as always, little brother." She replied sarcastically as she took a jar containing a brain from the cooler she was holding. "That and I need you to download Jenna's brain into your computer."

 

"Let's see...she was 17 so that'll take about 17 hours..." I said as I started calculating everything on paper. "Do you have a sample for her cloning?"

 

"This jar has her eggs." She replied as she took another container out of the cooler.

 

"Interesting..." I said as I examined the samples. "I'll take care of the rest but first I must prepare SAM for the IVF." I entered all the necessary information into the control panel. After doing that I mixed some of Celes' DNA with Jenna's and impregnated SAM with it.

 

"You could've warned me you were gonna do that..." said Celes as she bandaged her pricked finger. "What do you plan to do with the rest of Jenna's eggs?"

 

"They will be kept on ice for future use," I replied. "She's dead so there's no objections from her, heh, heh, heh."

 

"Mark Anthony can clone people." said Rose.

 

"That explains the laugh." Celes replied with disdain. After making a few more adjustments, SAM hummed to life.

 

"Congratulations SAM, you're going to have a baby." I said. "How does that make you feel?"

 

"Very Exciting!" SAM replied. "You know, it'll get boring calling you by what you are after awhile." I noted, more to Dexter and Rose than to SAM. "Your name will be Eve from now on. Do you like it?"

 

"Sounds terrific!" She replied.

 

"Celes just so you know, Eve here is the only Reproductive Android of her kind in the world." I said. "No one has even come close to what I have just done. This goes with out saying but if you f**k up with her she could have an abortion. Although she's an Android she must Eat, Sleep and Socialize for the sake of the human baby she's having, just like you. I can't really do anything about her exterior as I only finished her a few hours ago so you'll have to make do with that. There are outfits in that dresser over there she can wear if you like, though I'd recommend her being as is so you can witness life being created before your very eyes."

 

"Dude, she's already pregnant!" Dexter exclaimed.

 

"I know, but this way she gets to see what you only read about as its happening." I replied, rubbing Celes' belly. "That and this one's just about ready to come out."

 

“You have no idea.” she said as she turned to go. “I think I'll go upstairs now," She stopped when a puddle began to form at her feet. We looked at each other, knowing fully well what that meant. For the first time since returning from my trip to NASA and Washington, I was really scared.

 

“Celes, you're in labor!” I exclaimed. “You just got your license to practice medicine on top of that, too. Do you have any idea how much of a hypocrite this makes you?”

 

“Please don't go there.” she said as knelt, easing through a contraction.

 

“I think we should be going now...” Rose said as she and Dexter slowly headed for the stairs.

 

“Both of you stay,” Celes said, nearly yanking Rose off the stairs. “This will be you if get any ideas in your young life.”

 

“Let's just get you upstairs.” I said before picking Celes up. “We need to get you to the Hospital.”

 

“No way.” She replied. “Take me Grape Island instead.”

 

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"Come on Serenity, you can do it!" said Terra. Me and Terra were teaching Serenity to walk. She almost had it the day before but the effort was too much. Dad was helping Mom with something so he asked me to videotape everything with a camera. It was starting to look like one of America's Funniest Home Videos after watching her over and over again.

 

"Did it take Mark Anthony this long to learn to walk?" I asked Terra.

 

"He was able to fix the TV by the time he was Serenity's age." She replied with a laugh. "Something tells me today's the day Serenity learns to walk."

 

"I never knew having four sisters could be so much fun." I remarked. "I was an only child in Korea."

 

"I didn't have any sisters or brothers either." Terra replied. "My real family is everyone in this house as well as Katrin and Fin, though they are far away from here. Another thing you can look forward to is when Celes' baby arrives. She's expecting a girl and that means you'll have a niece!"

 

"Alright!" I exclaimed.

 

“Umm...Mom?” we heard Mark said from the hallway. When we came into the hall we found him carrying Celes into her room. He managed to put her on the bed before collapsing in exhaustion.

 

“What happened?” Terra asked him.

 

“She's having the baby.” he replied. “I've got to find Dad and Ann. She insists on giving birth on an island in Boston Harbor. Man, she was heavy, even with Force Energy...”

 

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"Why in the world would you want to do that?" I asked Celes before picking her up. "Angel, go and let your father know what happened. Mark, get Serenity." I made it to the bottom of the stairs without dropping her, Mark right behind me. When we got to the living room the doorbell rang. Mark opened it to find Alex on the other side of it.

 

“That's where I was born.” Celes said as Alex came in. “In fact, all my mother's children were born outside a hospital.”

 

“So were Mark and Serenity but it wasn't because I wanted to do that.” I replied before turning to Alex."Your timing is as sterling as ever.”

 

"I know, I'm late." He replied jokingly. "Let's roll."

 

"Wait." I heard Celes say. "Where's my parents?"

 

"We're here, Celes." I heard Ann say as she came down the stairs with Ted and Angel. "We'll be at Grape Island in just a few minutes."

 

“You're kidding, right?” Me and Alex said in unison.

 

“No she doesn't.” Ted replied with a nervous laugh. “It's true Celes was born on Grape Island. It was the same night Fin and Katrin went against our wishes and watched a movie based on my Journal. Ann later told me that if she died before I did, I was to make sure Celes' first child was born in the same place she was.”

 

“Does that Island hold some kind of special meaning to you two?” I asked Ann. “Aside from her being born there I mean.”

 

“It's the same island where I made my contract with Leviathan.” Ted remarked. “Let's see...Ann regularly uses it to practice summoning and train Angel. Yeah, we all have some kind of connection with that place.”

 

"Who's going to watch Serenity, Nick and Ilana?" Mark Anthony asked.

 

"Why not you?" Celes suggested. "You are the resident genius, after all."

 

"Don't kid yourself." He replied. "How do you expect me to take care of a toddler, two infants and a Pregnant Android?"

 

"A what?!" Ted exclaimed. "Mark Anthony, what did I tell you about the ethics of cloning and using people as test subjects?"

 

"But it's Jenna that I cloned!" He exclaimed. “And besides, she was already dead!”

 

"Oh, I see." Ted replied, then remembered the more pressing situation. "Ann, take everyone in the helicopter I kept from our most recent adventure. I'll stay with Mark Anthony, the twins and Serenity."

 

"But you're going to miss your first grandchild being born!" Celes exclaimed.

 

"I've got seven kids already," he replied. "I'll get over it, and so will you. Just go!" We didn't need to be told twice. We went to the roof, where Ann powered up the modified Black Hawk Helicopter. Ted and Ann came back with it from their trip in North Korea. Ted later got clearance to use it in any sort of airspace. Everyone boarded the chopper just as Ann lifted it into the air.

 

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"I don't know if we'll make it," I said as we hovered over Downtown Crossing.

 

"Well, at least we're going by air." Alex remarked. "Our kid picked the day of the Celtics' opening Home Game to be born. That's just rich!"

 

“Let's just focus on getting where we're going.” Terra suggested.

 

“Hey—what IS that?!” Alex suddenly exclaimed. We looked in the direction he pointed to see a swirling entity take shape in the clouds. It took on the shape of what looked like a Hawk.

 

“It can't be—Gale Wind?!” Mom exclaimed in surprise. Upon seeing us, it turned and attacked!

 

“Whoa!” Terra yelped as Mom evaded a surprise attack from it. Its ear-piercing screech made me cover my ears.

 

“I wish I had my crossbow.” Terra remarked. “A few well-placed bolts would bring it down...”

 

“I'll take care of it.” Angel said before jumping out of the Helicopter.

 

“What the--?!” Alex exclaimed when Angel reappeared a moment later sporting wings.

 

“Now would be a good time to set up a Terra Force Barrier.” I said to him.

 

“Why?” he asked.

 

“Do as she suggested.” Mom said. “Angel's about to blast it with Lightning.”

 

“She can do that?!” Terra exclaimed as Angel began to cast a spell.

 

“See for yourself.” I said as Alex set up a barrier.

 

“INDIGNATION JUDGMENT!” Angel said before the skies became white. It soon after came alive with electricity, all of which hit Gale Wind. The final strike caused the huge bird-like creature to fall. I was surprised when Mom stopped its descent with her powers.

 

“Submit to me!” She said as she held a strange sword out the helicopter. “My name is Ann-Marie Toss, Master Summoner! Let this Prism Sword be the proof of the power we now share!”

 

“Agreed.” The creature said before allowing itself to be absorbed into Mom's Sword. As quick as it started, it was all over.

 

“What just happened?” Terra asked as Angel returned to the helicopter.

 

“I just made a new friend.” Mom said with a smile. "Aren't you happy I came along?"

 

"You have no idea," I replied.

 

“Um guys?” Terra suddenly said. “I can't see anything.”

 

“What do you mean?” I asked.

 

“I mean just that.” she replied. “I can't see!”