Short note about their ages in TAG. Is there any official canon that states how old they are? (I can't accept that Japanese one where John is sixteen). If Scott's in his late-twenties, does he still have the Air Force background that he has in the original series? I'm going to assume that he does, and that he's around 27 years old, Alan's around 14 and Kayo is around 20.
For my new pal Bow Echo and my old pal LH, and always, for JoTracy123 just because.
Scott Tracy was a lightning-fast wunderkind, but he had never been precocious. Not like his youngest brother Alan, who right now was meant to be taking martial arts classes with Kayo but was way too busy goofing off.
"This isn't summer camp," he scolded from the bench where he sat in the Tracy Island gymnasium.
"Every day is summer camp when you're wrestling with a beautiful girl," Alan shot back, dancing around in front of Kayo while she rolled her eyes behind him.
Scott sighed wearily. "Knock some sense into him, will you?"
"I'm a security chief," said Kayo drolly, "not a miracle worker."
"All right, Kayo," said Alan, hunkering down with his arms out, "come at me. Do your worst!"
Scott facepalmed as Kayo accepted the challenge. A brief tussle later, Alan was airborne. No graceful bird he- a nanosecond later he hit the mat like a sack of potatoes.
Scott's wrist comm beeped and Virgil's face appeared, brow creased with worry.
"Was that an earthquake?"
His eldest brother sighed. "No, just Kayo making short work of Alan."
"Not again."
"Yup."
"Really, though," said Alan looking up from his supine starfish position on the mat, "when am I ever gonna need karate in space?"
"When you annoy some karate loving aliens the way you're annoying me right now?"
"For the millionth time, it's not karate," said Kayo with a frown. "How would you like it if I called baseball 'cricket'?"
"You can call it what you want," Alan shot back. "I'm a football guy. That's football. Not soccer."
Kayo began pacing, pulling at her ponytail in frustration. "He's insufferable," she muttered.
Scott left the bench and stood over Alan with his arms folded. "If you don't start taking your job seriously I'll demote you," he growled.
"C'mon, Scott. I'm a kid. I have youth on my side, and a kickin' spaceboard. The rest of the time I'm stuck here doing homework. When's anyone ever gonna attack me?"
"In one minute if you don't check yourself," said Scott in his best 'this is your final warning' voice.
Alan grinned. He lifted his arm. Scott took his hand and began pulling him to his feet.
"Okay, old man. You win."
Scott let go and Alan fell back onto the mat with a thud. "Ow!"
"Old man? Old man?" The eldest Tracy brother's face had turned a not too sexy shade of beetroot. It wasn't often that Scott went red, he was, after all, an ex-Air Force man, but if there was one thing his brothers knew how to do, it was press the 'Age' button. Scott was headed for the big Three-Oh and there was nothing he could do about it.
"Sure, but don't worry, your bros will look after you, bring your slippers and whatever. Run you a nice hot bath after a gruelling mission."
"What the- ? You've got a nerve, kid. You weigh one hundred pounds wringing wet and the last time Gordon beat you at arm wrestling, you cried."
"There were thumbtacks on the table! That's how we roll! We up the stakes!"
"So you're happy for Gordon to maim you, but not for Kayo to teach you self-defense. You're a weird kid, you know that?"
Alan jumped to his feet and brushed off some imaginary dust. "At least I'm not past my sell by date. At least I can get up from an ass whooping unaided."
Kayo wandered back to the brothers, a curious smile playing on her lips. She eyed the vein that was beginning to throb in Scott's neck.
"So you're happy to remain small and skinny for the rest of your life. Okay."
"Better than being old and senile, Grandpa."
Alan's infuriating smirk triggered Scott no end. He signalled to Kayo, joining her in the middle of the mat.
"Watch this, squirt. All right, Kayo, whenever you want."
Kayo flexed, the very definition of a crouching tiger. Even her eyes seemed to glow yellow for a moment. Alan scuttled to the bench and sat there, holding his breath. Even so, he was caught completely by surprise when Kayo launched herself at Scott, knocked his arms out of the way, did something with her hands and feet that was so fast it was just a blur and sent him flying high over her head. Pulling back into her predatory crouch, she watched silently as Scott did an ungainly cartwheel with his legs in the air before slamming to the ground, knocking the breath out of his lungs with one loud "Oof!"
Alan stood on the bench and began loudly applauding. "All riiighht!" he yelled, stamping and whistling. "Way to go, Kaaaayo!"
Scott's wrist comm beeped again, just as he was admiring the pretty stars whirling around his head.
"What in jehosophat is going on down there?" Virgil demanded. "I just fucked up my painting thanks to you!"
"Uugh... " was all Scott could manage before Kayo squatted beside him and smiled at Virgil's hologram.
"Just keeping your brother on his toes. Or rather, off them. Sorry about the painting though."
"My nice field of daffodils now has a giant blue streak across it."
Kayo laughed at Scott, who was finally drawing air and using it to utter some choice words under his breath.
"There's a bit of a blue streak going on down here too," she deadpanned.
"It was awesome, Virgil! Kayo just kicked Scott's ass from here to next Wednesday!" Alan joined the fray, sliding to his knees in front of Kayo, Scott and the hologram of TB2's very grumpy looking pilot.
Virgil huffed loudly and disappeared without another word.
Scott pulled himself into a sitting position and rubbed the back of his head.
"Did anyone get the number of that train?" he uttered, groggily.
"That, my man, was the Kickass Kayo Express!"
Kayo rolled her eyes. "It was a simple maneuver that anyone can do. Correction.. anyone who wants to learn can do."
"I want to learn! I want to learn!" Alan started dancing around again, this time with one hundred percent more enthusiasm. "Look at me wanting to learn!"
"Oh? I thought you hated 'karate' class. After all, no one is ever going to attack you."
"Well maybe I was wrong! It's a doggy dog world out there- "
"The phrase is 'dog eat dog'," Scott muttered, blinking away the last of the stars.
"Whatever! A young, handsome, intelligent dude like me could easily get attacked! Come on Kayo, teach me that move! That was amaaaaaazingggg!"
Scott struggled to his feet. "If anyone needs me, I'll be in my room. With the door locked. And a bag of ice over my head."
"Toodle-oo, old man!"
Scott gave a dismissive wave as he limped to the door. After he was gone, Alan fixed Kayo with a beady eyed glare.
"Okay," he tried to growl, only his teenager's voice wouldn't let him. "Teach me how to kick some serious butt!"
Later that afternoon, Kayo found Scott in the kitchen opening a bottle of Goose Island IPA.
"Nice bit of amateur dramatics you did there. Alan bought it completely."
Scott chuckled. "It wasn't all pretend. My shoulders are still throbbing."
"Oh, you can take it, tough guy. The important thing is, Alan is eager for his next class."
"What happened after I left?"
"After you hobbled away?" Kayo laughed. "Alan couldn't wait to get started. I think it's more to do with wanting to throw you across the room, but hey. At least he wasn't acting the fool and behaving like an idiot. It's so exhausting when he does that." She declined the offer of a sip of beer and pulled a soft drink out of the fridge.
"I hope you were never that annoying," she said, popping the can.
"I was never anyone's younger brother."
"Yes, I think Alan made that quite clear. I was worried about your blood pressure when you went purple."
"I did not go purple."
"Okay, puce. We can ask Virgil for the exact shade if you like."
Scott leaned against the kitchen counter, tucked one arm under the other and gripped his beer bottle lightly by the neck.
"You don't want to go anywhere near Virgil. He painted over that blue streak and ended up with an orange one. Personally, I think it looks a lot better, but what do I know? In my day," he went on, adopting the most geriatric voice he could muster, "there was none of this realism bullpoop. It was all cubes and circles and triangle heads with two noses and three eyes."
Kayo burst out laughing. "It is funny the way 14 year olds think anyone over the age of twenty is a dinosaur. The only reason he doesn't call me Grandma Number Two is because I'd flip him out of the window if he did."
Scott grinned and raised his beer bottle. "A toast," he declared. "To us boring old farts."
As the sound of running footsteps and a very irritated Virgil yelling at the Terrible Two reached their ears, Kayo bumped her can against Scott's bottle.
"Hear hear," she agreed, heartily.