Plot: Prom Night: No one messes with family (Backdated to May 25th)

[xp_talon]

Laura visits her pops about the phone that Kimura dropped.



Laura had many questions, but the burning one was what was on the cellphone. She stopped at Doug's door and then knocked. She could hear talking inside and knew that Kyle was inside as well. "Can I come in?"

"Okay, yeah, I owe you five bucks." Laura could hear Kyle yell as the door opened itself, with a little Roombah beeping at Laura once before moving out of her way. Kyle tapped his phone - stopping a beeping stopwatch. "Yeah, you can come in. Doug bet me you'd be here prettty quick." He was sprawled on Doug's couch, still half in his suit, shirt untucked and a beer in one hand. "He's copying that phone. should be out of the batcave any second now."

"One of these days you're gonna learn to stop taking sucker bets, dude," Doug observed from the table where he had the cell phone plugged into a laptop. "But today's not that day, and tomorrow ain't lookin' too likely either." He tapped several keys and made a noise of concentration. "Hey, Laura," he greeted the girl as she came in. "Grab a seat, we should be able to get something off this phone in a couple minutes."

Laura walked in to see both of them hard at work. At least one of them. She sat down near both of them. "I didn't know she would come. Kimura has always been delulu. I didn't think she would be sloppy and drop a phone."

Kyle let his head flop back against Doug's couch. "Fuck. Doug I want a bingo card. Kid uses slang I know but wish I didn't." He scooted over to the far side of the couch, making room for Laura at the end between him and where Doug sat at his dining room table. "Yeah, legit, she seemed pretty nuts. Fuckin' cunning though, pretty sure I had more rage going than she did."

"No cap," Doug intoned solemnly before he couldn't hold a straight face any longer and started chuckling. "Probably fell out of her pocket on the tumble out the window, then." The fingers of his flesh hand drummed on the table, just ever so slightly impatient. "So what, we're shifting from trading off five dollar sucker bets to bingo? I don't have enough gray in my hair for that, dude." Bingo was for grandpas down in Boca Raton.

"She did say something to me. About others." Laura said to both of them. "I've never heard of others while in confinement."

"Fuck sake." Kyle groaned out. "Can Weapon X just let this shit go?"

Doug snorted. "It's right there in the fuckin name, dude. So I'm thinking no, they can't." There would always be people looking to weaponize all kinds of shit even before mutant powers entered the conversation. It was exhausting, sure, but at this point Doug never bet against peoples' worst impulses. After all, it was kind of his job.

The computer pinged, and Doug turned back to the results. "Well, it's a burner, which we figured. Already disconnected, which probably means anything in its call history is too." He tapped a few keys. "But it's got some text messages stored. Just a bunch of bullshit about 'bring X-23 back to the fold' and similar wankery." He kept scrolling. "It does mention other attempts, though. Guessing that means some that never even got off the ground due to our security or whatever."

"Well, thank whoever for small fuckin' miracles I guess." Kyle noted.

Laura jumped up and walked over to stand behind Doug to look at the computer. "They've spent almost two decades trying to perfect a clone of Wolverine. I am not surprised that they will continue to try to bring me back. Especially if the other attempts are failing." She looked at her dads. "If they won't stop, then I want to join a team. I need to prepare myself, especially if Kimura is the one doing the hunting."

"Well, you are definitely spoiled for choice, then." Doug grinned at her as he leaned back in his chair. "You've got me for spy stuff, Kyle for the X-Men, and we can always put Clinto in a headlock and drag him down here if you want to go on wacky dimensional adventures."

The growl that came up out of Kyle's chest startled him - and he bit it back before it reached more than a low bass. He came up from the lazy recline to glare at Doug, eyes narrowed and teeth bared. "No. No, fucking, no, you are not recruiting one of my kids for your spy shit." He inhaled sharp through his nose. "You don't get to offer that."

Laura glanced over at Kyle and titled her head as she watched his body language. It was similar to prom night. "It is okay, pops. He offered, but I am going to decline. I think X-Men is where I want to be. Also I don't think I can see Kimura going on dimensional adventures. Unless we can just drop kick her into one and seal the door behind her. Is that an option?"

"He shouldn't've said it in the first place." Kyle said, through gritted teeth. "Bad enough you want to join the X-Men. We'll talk about that.. . literally any other day than today. Fucking' Weapon X."

Doug had to fight down a bristling instinct to point out that the kids, especially Laura, were arguably just as much his in some cases. And while he didn't go out -trying- to recruit for X-Force, it was ultimately Laura's decision much more than Kyle's. And Laura was close to the age he'd been when Pete had first asked him for 'the moon on a stick'. His friend was in full protective mode, and that wasn't the sort of thing that lent itself to nuanced discussion. He held up his hands after getting himself under control. "My point was that there's lots of people here willing to help, whatever's needed."

"Okay, but." Kyle said. "Just... no." He sat up more, rested his elbows on his knees. "I'll talk to Scott about you and the X-Men, Laura." He forced himself to relax. Rolled his neck, cracked knuckles, rolled shoulders until they stopped feeling like he was ready to punch something. Someone. Some Doug. "Also Pops is what I called my mom's dad, so ima keep that one." He rubbed the back of his neck, a little embarrassed. "Terry's gonna get all mushy about that."

"I've never, besides Sarah, had anyone care so much about me. I appreciate that. It is a new feeling for sure, one I don't dislike. I don't see myself being sneaky. I can't be sneaky, I have 30lbs extra weight on me. I am tiny but I am mighty." She put a hand on Doug's shoulder, "I am sorry Pops." She looked at both of them. "Sarah said that is what she called her pop too. The only father figure I really had really is an asshole and father sounds too formal. But I imagine this is what a father figure feels like. And I have two. Well, there is Logan, but I haven't really had a proper conversation with him and he scares me a little."

Okay, Doug had been feeling grumpy at Kyle for calling them 'his' kids, but Laura actually calling him Pops caught him unexpectedly in the feels. He reached up and patted Laura's hand before she took it from his shoulder. "I guess I'm in my 'dad era' officially," he opined, thinking of Ellie and hoping wherever in the multiverse she was, she was okay.

"Besides, it's fun watching Kyle's coworkers trying to figure out if we're together or not without actually asking awkward questions."

Comments

[xp_banshee]

Awww yeah, Laura on the XM. :D

Great log, guys!

[xp_spectrum]

Great log. :) I especially enjoyed the interplay between Kyle and Doug, including the moment of tension created by the differences in how XF and the X-Men operate and Kyle getting all protective.