Welcome back to the 495 Universe! If you're new, go ahead and check out the reading order to this universe on my profile, because this is the seventh part, and you mighta missed a few things.
For those of you that aren't new, I promise you... the title of this volume alone should tell you how. stinkin'. awesome it's gonna be. LET'S GO.
Chapter 1: Best Godfather Ever
Logan and K had gone up to Canada after Logan got a call from Heather and Mac Hudson asking for some help tracking down someone who had been part of the department but who had gone rogue. Considering how the department had recently captured them and screwed with Clint, they had plenty of pent-up anger to throw at the problem, too, so they were more than ready to go when they got the call.
Since James was still young enough that it would be hard for him to be away from his parents for a long time — and since no one wanted a repeat of what had happened when Sinister took them — K brought James along. But they made arrangements for the rest of the kids to keep them out of Canada, all things considered.
Clint was staying with Barney's circus family — and helping to take care of Paul and Miranda's brand new little girl — but Logan had asked Matt to look out for the Bishop sisters, since the Avengers were busy dealing with Hydra backlash and the school year had just kicked into swing, so the Westchester teachers were a little busy.
Which meant that the Bishop girls had more or less taken over Matt's apartment.
Susie wasn't taking up too terribly much space, wrapped up in a book series that Hank had given her for her most recent birthday, but Katie was all over the place, fresh out of her cast and wanting to play with Matt and to help him do anything — including making breakfast.
"My daddy makes omelets with lots and lots of stuff in 'em," Katie said, standing on a chair next to Matt and talking a mile a minute. "I just like cheesy eggs, though."
"Is that so?"
"Uh-huh. But Susie likes to put salsa in hers. Huh, Susie?"
"I really just like cereal," Susie said distractedly from where she was still curled up with her book.
"Susie's boring," Katie said, leaning a little closer until Matt put a hand on her shoulder to keep her from getting too close to what he was doing.
"Just cheese, right?"
She broke into a grin and nodded. "Uh-huh! You're good at babysitting!"
"Just good at listening," Matt said with a quiet smirk.
Katie nodded and then climbed back down to 'help' some more, setting out some plates so they could eat together with an energy that had Matt wondering why he'd agreed to this job in the first place — besides the fact that the girls seemed impossible to say no to. "So what're we gonna do first?" she asked. "We can play games or we can go to the park or we can watch movies or we can tell stories or we can do whatever!"
"What do you want to do?"
"I think we should go to the park," Katie decided. "I wanna swing on the swings!"
"As long as I can take my book," Susie put in.
"Course you can," Matt said with a crooked smirk as he brought the pan of eggs over. "Wouldn't dream of separating you and the Diamond Princess."
"She's my favorite 'cause she's the oldest," Susie said with a grin.
"Yeah, you said," Matt said, nodding along.
Katie rolled her eyes and leaned toward Matt. "Susie loves princesses. But I'm gonna be an X-Man-Avenger just like my big brother!"
"I bet you'll be the best one," Matt said with a quiet smirk. "Outdo your dad in no time, too."
"Oooh, yes!" Katie agreed fervently. "Uh-huh! The best out of everybody in the whole wide world!" She bounced and wiggled in her seat as Matt started, at last, on his own breakfast. "I'm gonna use a bow 'n' arrows like Clint does!"
"Are you going to call yourself Hawkeye like he does too?" Matt asked over his shoulder.
"Maybe," Katie said. "Clint said I got lotsa time to come up with a name 'cause of how I'm not even five yet."
"Yeah, you've got plenty of time," Matt agreed.
Katie nodded, happily humming to herself as she ate her cheesy eggs. She was sure that she was going to be just like Clint when she got bigger, and since all the adults around her kept telling her that she could reach for the stars, she didn't see why it wouldn't happen.
Once they'd had their breakfast, Susie helped Katie get changed into some things that actually matched and made sure that she had her shoes on the right feet before they all headed to the park.
Katie made sure that Matt knew how things were supposed to go, too. "We gotta hold hands and look both ways," she informed him once they got to a street, patiently waiting for him to turn his head in both directions even though he would have heard any cars coming. And then, of course, Katie made sure to tell Matt all about how they were gonna be "real close, so you just yell for us if you need us" — clearly something Logan and K had told her before.
"Got it," Matt said, shaking his head at the precocious little girl before Katie rushed off to go swing on the swings, while Susie simply sat down on the bench with her book.
Eventually, Susie finished her Diamond Princess book, and she politely handed it off to Matt before she went to catch up with Katie. Once the two of them were in the same place, then, it wasn't long before Matt was smirking to himself listening to the two of them play pretend. Susie was a Jewel Princess, and Katie was enthusiastically playing the part of the bad guy Darkling trying to chase her around the playground.
"Susie, you're too fast!" Katie complained loudly.
"You're not s'pposed to catch me!"
"But you're too fast! I don' wanna be a bad guy no more!"
"But you said you didn't want to be a princess!"
"Well… well maybe I can be a dragon!"
"Nuh-uh! That's for the Ruby Princess and I'm the Diamond one!"
"Well Inna be a dragon!"
Susie tossed her head back and let out a long groan. "Okay, fine."
Katie giggled and then did her best approximation of a dragon roar, running around the playground and "protecting" her sister from invisible bad guys — which was really more Katie's style anyway.
That on its own was more than entertaining to Matt, though he was distracted from the little girls' games when he heard several more people approaching, accompanied by a few gossipy whispers from the women with kids at the park.
Even if Matt hadn't been listening out for the girls, the ladies' whispers would have drawn his attention anyway. They had started out talking about him — and he was trying to ignore that part — but then they were having a little debate about whether to call someone about the strange group of men that had shown up. Said strange men were talking in quiet Russian, and Matt slowly got to his feet, headed toward the girls. He was not taking chances with them — and if the Russians caused trouble for anyone else, he'd make sure they regretted it, too.
"Katie, Susie," Matt called out to them, which had Katie giggling when she saw him headed over.
"Oooh! Matt! You're in the lava!" she said. "You gotta get off the ground!"
Matt couldn't help but smirk at her, especially since he was headed their way anyway and they were both on the playground, so up the wooden stairs he went to where the plastic wheel was. "Better?"
"Uh-huh! Your feet were on fire!"
"Glad you warned me," Matt said, though he was still listening for the Russians. "We need to head home now. It's time for lunch."
"Aww, do we gotta?"
"Yeah, we gotta," Matt said. "Come on down, alright?"
"Fiiiiine," Katie said, letting out a long sigh — though just as she and Susie started to climb down, Matt heard a few approaching footsteps in a rush and then a muffled sound of surprise from each of the girls as a few of the men grabbed them both with hands over their mouths, probably assuming that would be enough to keep Matt from hearing them.
They were wrong.
For just a few moments, the men probably thought they'd gotten away with it, too, as Matt came calmly down the wooden stairs, his head tipped slightly to the side — before he took his walking stick in a tighter grip at the top and turned hard, knocking the end of it into the legs of one of the men so that he fell backward, landing on his back and still cushioning Susie on the fall.
That, of course, prompted Katie to put into effect what K had taught her, biting one man's hand until he retracted it and she could start shouting for help at the top of her lungs — clearly letting Matt know where she was, too, even as he flipped his cane over and slammed it in between the legs of the guy holding Susie so he wouldn't be getting up to grab her again.
"Susie, I need you to run to that bench over there," he told her as he pulled her up and gestured with a tip of his head toward where an older couple was watching with their own grandkids gathered up with them. "That grandpa's ex-military and has a concealed weapon and he won't hesitate to shoot someone if they try to take you."
Susie was wide-eyed as she whispered "okay" before Matt set her down and then rushed after the still-screaming Katie. He probably would have been more entertained by her mastery of what sounded like every insult and swear word in several different languages if he wasn't focused on getting to her — but she really was getting more creative and colorful as she got further away from him.
By that time, the Russians had caught on to the fact that this wasn't going to be as easy as they thought it would be, and they rushed toward Matt in a group from all sides.
One of them took a solid swing at Matt with a baseball bat, which he caught with one hand to yank and twist until the Russian had to either drop it or risk breaking his wrist. He tossed the bat hard to the side, where it slammed into another guy's stomach, though in that same movement, one of the other Russians grabbed his still-extended arm and flipped him with it.
Matt landed hard on his back and took a solid kick to the ribs before he turned on his side, grabbed the ankle of the same Russian, and yanked until that guy fell down too.
He pushed himself back up and then twisted out of the way of another kick before he got himself upright, shoving himself up the last foot or so and using that momentum to put more oomph into a punch that sent another guy spinning backward.
Matt could still hear Katie calling out to him, so he kicked the legs out from underneath another Russian coming his way before he sprinted toward the screaming little girl. Once he caught up, he heard the guy swear under his breath a split second before Katie punched him hard in the jaw — once again, obviously showing who had raised her.
Matt rushed the last few feet and followed up Katie's punch with one of his own — with a lot more power to it. The guy went reeling, and Matt stepped in to pull Katie out of his grasp, where she all but melted into him.
"Katie, I need you to catch up to your sister," Matt said, breathing hard and trying not to show it.
For just a second, Katie paused to argue it, but when she saw that there were still a few creeps in tracksuits, she decided against it and let Matt set her down so she could rush to Susie while Matt dealt with the rest of them.
Matt was sure they were calling him a few choice names as they rushed him, but he had no patience for this group of incompetent kidnappers.
The first one to try to come at him from behind got thrown over his shoulder, and Matt kicked him in the side of the head, knocking him out and taking him out of the fight. Another man got a good punch in that had Matt reeling and shaking his head out, and he took a baseball bat to the gut before he grabbed it, twisted, and pulled it from the Russian's hands to use against them, swinging hard and cracking two of them across the face.
By then, there were only two Russians left. One of them rushed Matt with a shout, helpfully alerting Matt that he was coming, and he twisted at the last second and grabbed the man's arm, using his momentum to crash the last two men into each other hard.
All of the tracksuited men were either staggered or unconscious, so the few still on their feet beat a retreat, and Matt listened for a moment to make sure that they really were gone before he let his shoulders drop and made his way over to the girls with a tight smile.
"You alright?"
Katie nodded and let out a little noise before she rushed to Matt to hug him around the legs, and he let out a sigh before he crouched down to let her hug him properly.
"Are you alright?" asked the older gentleman, frowning at the state of Matt.
"Fine," Matt said, letting out a breath before he pushed himself to his feet. "Thanks for looking out for them."
"Don't worry about him," Luke said, appearing almost out of nowhere from the girls' perspective as he walked up to the little group. "He does this to himself on his days off if he can't fight a fight before then."
Matt smirked Luke's way. "And you like to come at the last second and act like you meant to be here the whole time."
"You gonna tell me you saw different?" Luke chuckled.
"Sure I did," Matt said dryly as Katie tugged on his hand until he picked her up with an 'oof'.
Susie looked up at Luke and then took a step closer to Matt. "We gotta go home," she said softly.
"You sure you don't want to get some ice cream or something on the way?" Luke asked with a warm smile. "Maybe get some frozen peas for Matt's face?"
Both of the girls glanced up at Matt, who had the driest expression they'd seen yet, and Katie burst out giggling and kissed Matt's cheek just above a dark bruise. "You gotta get better," she told him with a nod. "You don't gots healing like my mom and dad and my Clint, so it's gonna be purple for a long time."
Susie, on the other hand, was still watching Luke with her lips pursed. "Okay," she said slowly. "If Matt says it's okay."
"Matt ain't gonna argue with me on this," Luke promised. "He needs some ice cream too, don't you think?"
"Uh-huh," Susie said, glancing up at Matt, who smirked her way.
"Can't argue with that," he agreed, letting Susie hold his other hand as Luke completely failed at not looking like he was totally entertained by Matt and his two girls. "What were you even doing at the park?" Matt asked as they headed for the ice cream place not far from there.
"I could ask you the same thing," Luke said. "Especially with a couple of little girls."
"Godkids," Matt said as if it was completely normal for him to go to the park with two tiny girls.
"Who thought that was a good idea?" Luke laughed.
"My daddy," Katie sang out happily.
"And who's that, sweetheart?" Luke asked, smirking to himself. "Do I know him?"
Katie regarded him carefully, drawing herself up a little taller as she tried to decide if Luke was trustworthy enough to tell her dad's real name or his codename. She nodded to herself at last and then giggled. "My daddy is Wolverine."
Luke stopped outright at that, his eyebrows high. "Oh really?" He glanced at Matt, more out of habit than anything. "Alright. Really. What's the story here?"
"Really," Matt said, taking his own turn to look highly entertained. "What, it's so unbelievable that I'd make a good godfather?"
"Yes."
"Thanks. That's really helpful."
"Well, I mean, considering her dad, it's a step up." Luke was chortling at his own joke as the girls ran circles around the two men.
"My daddy is Beast!" Susie piped up helpfully.
"Now that … really is something," Luke said.
Matt chuckled to himself and ruffled Susie's hair before he let Luke in on the story. "Kingpin had their father trapped in some scheme. Logan called me in after he dealt with the problem, but there were two orphan girls left in the aftermath."
"And now the Russians are after them," Luke said, shaking his head. "Make sure you let Logan know how much I appreciate the whole war between the gangs going on while these low-lives try to step in and take Kingpin's place."
"I'll pass it along," Matt agreed, shaking his head before he dropped his voice a bit. "Not the first time that group's come after those girls, actually. They're set to inherit a billion between them, so…"
Luke let out a low whistle at that. "Gonna be more than just the Russians poking around."
"Don't I know it," Matt said. "We're lucky it's mostly been them, but you can bet K already had a talk with me about running numbers and backgrounds on every boyfriend down the line too. That woman thinks ahead."
"Probably why Logan's doing as well as he is now," Luke said.
"Oh, without a doubt," Matt chuckled.
"You talkin' about my mom?" Katie asked, her eyes bright and wide.
"We are," Luke said. "Though I've only heard stories about her so far."
"She's the best," Katie said fervently. "She helpeded my friend Steve fight some super bad guys and stabbed 'im dead." Katie mimed stabbing as if she had claws. "Cause of how you shouldn't grab little girls, right, Matt?"
"Right," Matt said without missing a beat.
Katie nodded. "Uh-huh. I tried to tell him how he was gonna get stabbed but he didn't lissen and then my daddy came and got me so Mom could make 'im learn a lesson."
"And did they learn it?" Luke asked.
"I dunno. Dad said I had to close my eyes, so I did," Katie said with a shrug.
"Then I'll bet she taught 'em good," Luke said with a smile.
Katie grinned at him brilliantly, warming up to him significantly by the time they got to the ice cream shop, where Susie got strawberry and Katie got chocolate, as usual.
"Do we gotta go to the doctor?" Susie whispered to Luke.
"Nope," Luke said.
"But Matt's face looks bad, and he's limpin', and I bet my daddy could fix 'im up," Susie said.
"You think he needs a Twinkie on top of the ice cream?"
"Maybe," Susie said. "I'm learning about how to help people too, you know. I wanna be like… I wanna be like my Dr. Blue an' save people!"
"And you're gonna be great at it," Luke said.
Susie grinned at him, happily working on her ice cream while Katie monopolized most of the attention, telling stories about her mom and how she was so good at fighting.
Finally, Matt let out a breath and got to his feet. "Their parents are going to be back in a couple weeks. Think you can keep an eye out for me?" he asked Luke, gesturing their way. "Apparently, this is more of a bodyguard situation than a babysitting tour. I'll try and keep an ear to the ground for anyone else that might come looking for them."
"I … am not really … I don't do babysitting," Luke said. "Pickin' on you, sure but …"
"I'm not pawning them off on you; that would be a disaster," Matt said with a smirk. "Just… keep your eyes open."
"Sure, I can do that. You want me to bring Danny in too?"
"Oh sure. Because what my godkids need is Danny."
"Never know," Luke said.
Matt shrugged. "Alright. We'll be at my place. You know where to find me."
