(A/N) - well. Since you asked for moar Mom and Dad Howlett ... (Lucky you! Here it comes!)

Chapter 12 - Detonation

While the X-Men were finding their way home from Krakoa, Tony Stark and Hank Pym were having … an interesting moment in the lab.

Tony had been personally tearing into the trackers that had been removed from their two feral friends … only he hadn't had it cracked open for long before he very quickly realized that at least one of the devices - was certainly not a tracker.

"What am I looking at?" Tony said more to himself than anything as the device cracked open to reveal that it was mostly hollow, save for a few tiny circuits and a seriously nasty looking series of what appeared to be microneedles. He frowned at the device ad leaned closer to see what it could possibly be. "Hey, Pym … I think … I need fresh eyes on this."

"What is it?" Hank asked as he almost reluctantly left his project and crossed their shared lab.

"I'm not entirely sure," Tony replied before he gestured to the magnification he was using. "It looks like a delivery system, but I can't think of what the hell anyone would be able to dose either of them with that would be effective."

Hank frowned at that and took a closer look into the scope. "Did you swab it?"

"Yeah, I've got to put it through the AI, but … I'm not crazy on this, right? It looks like a delivery system."

"No, you're not crazy," Hank agreed. "Well … no more than we already knew. Which one did this come out of?"

"K," Tony said. "The other one is your standard tracker - which would explain why it was so much smaller, too, but this …"

"Yeah, he was doing something," Hank said almost under his breath, frowning deeper and deeper. "What could he give to someone with advanced healing that would make a dent?"

Tony blew out his breath and shook his head as he tried to place something. "Any kind of drug I can think of would just burn out. I've seen it myself, the woman can drink scotch like a fish and not bat an eye." He paused and held up both hands. "Unless … it's nanobots?"

But Hank shook his head at that. "If it was nanobots why the delayed delivery? He could have hit her with that at any time she was in his lab."

"Why a delayed delivery for anything?" Tony said, frowning deeper before he shook his head. "This … is something else. I just don't know. Yet."

"Yet. It's always yet."

As Hank went back to his project with a deep frown on his face, Tony started to really think it over. He put the swab from the capsule into the computer for analysis and started running ideas through his head trying to dredge up what might need to be given on a delay. It wasn't a sedative. Couldn't be. Or painkillers … that didn't seem like something this guy would care about anyhow. He was just getting a serious moment of overthinking going when the AI chimed and put the read out on the screen.

Tony snapped out of his focus as he moved to take a look at the results - though what he saw had him frowning even deeper. "What the hell … hCG?"

Hank's head snapped up at that. "What did you just say?"

"It's … the results from the swab," Tony said, gesturing at the screen, and for the first time since Tony had known him, Hank dropped his tools and rushed over to stare at the screen himself - and then started cursing.

"We need to let her know right now what this is."

"She's on her way back from a tropical island," Tony said. "I already talked to her - she said she expected us this weekend for the kid."

"Well we need to see her sooner," Hank said, though he looked frustrated as he did the math in his head. "They were here … what? Two or three days ago? So … can you figure out when that stupid thing deployed it's drugs?"

"Yeah, shouldn't be too hard," Tony said, moving quickly to start digging into the device. "What are we looking at here?"

"I don't really want to say until you get that figured out," Hank said. "For all we know it might be a little too late to stop."

Tony paused. "Alright. Without you actually telling me what this is, why don't you at least give me a time frame."

"Around thirty six hours from administration of that drug," Hank said. "And another twelve to twenty four hours after that."

Tony stared at him for a moment. "How do you know this?" he asked as he read over the readouts about the drug itself, looking more and more serious as he went on.

Hank shrugged and turned back to his work. "It's really not something I want to talk about," Hank replied. "Just … get a hold of her and don't be an ass about it."

The two teams of X-Men, plus Magneto had all settled in for the remainder of the flight without incident. They were all honestly too tired and worn out to argue much anyhow. Logan was sure to push it hard - much harder than they realized as they slept in the fuselage. But when they suddenly slowed and went in for a landing, at least Warren was a little confused at the timing.

"Are we stopping somewhere else first?" Warren asked as he sat forward, stiffly trying to stretch a little.

"No, we're here," Logan told him. "Take a damn shower, you're killin' me."

"Rousing 'welcome home'," Warren muttered.

"Better than the alternative," K said as she pulled Kurt to his feet. "But really. Hose off. It's horrible."

"Dies passiert, wenn Sie auf einer Insel schlafen," Kurt muttered tiredly.

"Javol," K agreed. "You'll feel better and I'll make something wonderful appear for dinner, okay?"

"Danke," Kurt said with a weary smile.

One by one, the X-Men filed off the plane, though when Alex tried to slip past, she put a hand on the center of his chest. "No. You're coming with us." She turned toward Logan and met his gaze. "See you in his office."

"Good. Best to get it over with," Logan agreed as he tried to get Scott to wake up somewhat gently. "Hey. We're back. Time to get up, kiddo."

Scott picked his head up and then frowned and he looked around. "We - what?"

"I flew, we're back. Don't make a thing about it, okay?"

Scott shook his head. "No, I just - I didn't realize I'd fallen asleep," he admitted.

"You're a helluva lot slimmer than when I last saw you, Slim," Logan teased. "You've been out for a while, and we need to go talk to Charlie. Now."

"How long?" Scott asked, though he let Logan pull him to his feet. "The team was disappearing last I remember, and now there's a few other players…"

"When we left to find you, he said it'd been a few weeks," Logan said quietly.

Scott visibly stopped when he heard it. "...what?"

"We can do this with Xavier," Logan said. "There's a helluva lot more going on than you know."

"Clearly," Scott said, lifting his visor for a moment so he could rub his eyes. "Okay, let's go."

Logan was sure to let Scott lean on him as they headed off slowly … making a beeline right for Charles' office where K and Alex were already waiting - and Charles looked equal parts relieved and worn out. And more than a little bit dreading what was getting staged to happen. Especially for how K was watching him … almost perfectly still if not for the fact that if he watched carefully, he could see her breathe.

Alex looked over his shoulder and waved lightly when he saw the two of them. "So… are you in trouble too? Here to see the principal? I'm not sure what I did, but … here I am."

"You didn't do a thing wrong," K said to Alex, though she had yet to take her gaze off of Charles.

Logan gave Scott's arm a squeeze and let his voice drop low. "You should sit down, Scott."

Scott raised both eyebrows, especially at the fact that Logan had used his given name - something neither of his parents did often. Which was probably why he took a seat without arguing it, though he did have to ask, "What's going on?"

"Introduce yourself," Logan said as he rested one hand on Scott's shoulder - though he didn't specify who he was talking to and he was looking right at Alex.

Alex shrugged and then held out his hand for Scott. "Hey. I'm Alex. We didn't get a good intro when we were getting eaten by the shrubbery, but, uh, hi."

Scott smirked at that and shook his hand. "Scott Summers," he said. "Nice to meet you."

But on hearing that, Alex looked like someone had splashed water on him, and he pulled his hand back like he'd been shocked. "I - what -" He turned toward K. "What are you guys trying to pull?"

"Just trying to clear the air," K promised.

Alex narrowed his eyes and turned back to Scott, who looked a little taken aback. "No, but, you see, there's no way you're Scott," he said. "Because Scott died."

"You were lied to, Alex," Logan said.

Of course, by then, Scott had caught up as well, and he wasn't even bothering to hide the look of pure shock, his mouth partly open.

"Close your eyes, Scott," K suggested. "Take off the visor and let him get a look at you."

Scott nodded slowly. "Yeah," he breathed out and then took the visor off, though Alex was, for the first time since K and Logan had run into him, completely speechless too.

Though the boys were silent and stunned, K was glaring harder at Charles. "Explain to me, in small words, why you withheld this information. From either one of them."

Charles let out a weary sigh. "I didn't know about Alex until after they'd left," Charles said. "He didn't go by Summers - and he wasn't reliably powered until perhaps a week before the team left for Krakoa. I wasn't purposely looking for -"

"Kids with families. Yeah, we covered that already," K cut in with a growl.

"Why didn't you tell Alex?" Logan asked, arms crossed. "Or I dunno - maybe not send the little brother in after him?"

"Because he was already afraid that Steve was going to come in and drop kick him," K said. "So it was a hail Mary."

"Yeah. Um." Alex raised his hand. "For the record? If you'd've said Scott was on the team, I'd've signed up, like, last year?"

"You're like twelve," K said. "You're lucky you don't still have a naptime."

"Fourteen," Alex said. "Fifteen in a few months."

K waved a hand impatiently. "Steve and Jan will be here Friday," she told Charles. "You will be too. All day. No appointments."

"And I have another question?" Alex put in. "Who's Steve and why is he so scary?" And, of course, when Scott snorted, Alex just looked even more confused.

"Steve is a darling, snuggly sweetheart," K said. "Until you screw with teenagers."

"Steve Rogers," Scott said. "Captain Steve Rogers. You know. Captain America?"

Alex looked like you could have knocked him over with a feather. "I have even more questions now."

"Yeah. Me too," Scott admitted.

"If you want some time to catch up with your brother, we can find you tomorrow," Logan said over Scott's shoulder. "We will need to talk to Cap before the night's out or he'll be camping here in the morning."

"Yeah." Scott shook his head and then glanced up at Logan. "I mean… I mean, do you think he'd - Alex should get to meet Captain America too."

"He'll be here Friday," Logan said. "But he'll be all worked up if we don't fill him in before."

"Yeah. If we were gone two … three weeks…" Scott shook his head and then got to his feet. "C'mon, Alex."

"Stay in the house, would you?" K called out before the boys could take off.

"Don't worry, Mom," Scott called back, which just had Alex staring at him.

"Those are your parents?"

"Yeah." Scott let out a breath. "Logan - my dad - adopted me just after I turned fifteen, and then when Mom married him, she adopted me too."

"I thought you were dead," Alex said, his eyes still as wide as saucers. "My parents asked about you…"

"Yeah... there was a supervillain running that orphanage," Scott said bluntly.

Alex stopped and turned Scott's way. "What?"

"Long story."

Alex shook his head. "Okay, but - just wait a minute." He held his hands up in a time out symbol. "So, like, I just found out I've got these weird powers where I literally explode energy, I get eaten by a living island - and that's not the weirdest thing that's happened today."

"Yeah." Scott shook his head before he took a step forward and simply pulled Alex into a tight hug. "Just tell me you got a good family," he said.

"Yeah. I've been living in Hawaii. I learned how to surf…"

"I'm glad," Scott said. He took a step back and then cleared his throat. "Okay. So. I know you've got questions. There's plenty of food in the kitchen…"

"Read my mind. Do they have peanut butter and chocolate chips?"

Scott couldn't help but grin at that. "You still eat that?"

"Um. yes. It's good!"

Scott's grin got somehow wider as he put his arm around Alex's shoulders and steered him toward the kitchen. "I missed you."

While Alex and Scott were getting reacquainted, Logan made a point to lock the door to the office before K positively tore into Charles about every mistake down the line - not that the locked door was any kind of a deterrent to the team of X-Men standing in the hall eavesdropping on the whole thing.

She was nearly snarling, and when she seemed to run out of steam, there was a short beat before Logan jumped in too - with a much more intimidating sounding tear down that didn't last nearly as long, but added a lot more colorful linguistics to the team's vocabulary.

And by the time the two of them stepped out of the door, the team wasn't even trying to hide the fact that they'd heard almost all of it. "Go to bed," Logan told them as he pushed K ahead of him. "After you've ordered some pizza and relaxed. You've earned it."

They were almost to the kitchen when Jean caught up to them with a curious look on her face. "You know … you're both easier to read when you're exhausted," she said.

"Nothing for you to read that's worth the time," Logan said, though he didn't seem to realize it as he pulled K a little closer to himself. "You need to eat, Red. Drink a couple gallons of water and rest."

"I will," she said. "It's just…" She looked at K. "Have you told Scott about what happened?"

"When would we have done that?" K asked. "When you were captured? Passed out on the jet? Or when we were reintroducing him to his brother? Importance-wise, there is nothing to talk about tonight," she said.

"You mean besides the fact that the evil doctor is still looking for him - and kidnapped and tortured you both," Jean said, her arms crossed and one eyebrow raised. "You're both projecting it. That and how sick you are trying to find a solution that won't drag anyone else down."

"Um. What?" This time, it was Scott who interrupted - frozen halfway in the doorway and obviously meaning to talk to his parents. Not…. overhear that.

"Don't worry about it," Logan said.

"Like hell!" Scott said, his eyebrows nearly to his hairline.

Logan let out a sigh and shook his head. "Wasn't exactly important, comparatively. And we're fine, so it's being handled."

Jean let out a little 'mmm' that said what she thought of that, her gaze on K. "Probably would help you to talk about it. Out loud," she said, barely containing her smirk.

K turned her way - the remnants of the glare she'd been wearing all afternoon still in place. "And I have. To an adult."

"This is the kind of thing I want to know about," Scott said, shaking his head. "This guy is after me. And you're my family. Let me help."

"There is absolutely nothing you can do right now but build up your strength," K reasoned. "We ditched the trackers before we came here and we're watching out …"

"What trackers?" Scott asked, looking even more concerned.

"The ones Stark is lookin' over," Logan said.

"Dad." Scott looked between Logan and K. "Tell me what happened. Please."

Logan let out a breath, looking around the group for a moment and made it clear without saying a word that he wasn't going to talk to a pack of teenagers. "Maybe when you're done catching up with your brother and you've had a chance to recharge. You still haven't even had a chance to take a damn shower. Now's not the time."

"I'm not going to let it go, you know," Scott warned.

"Fine," Logan said.

Scott held his gaze for a long moment and then let out a breath. "I … was actually just about to - well, Alex wanted to actually get to meet my parents if you wanted to grab a bite with us…"

Logan looked over to Alex. "We met, didn't we?"

"Yeah, but I didn't know you were Scott's dad," Alex pointed out. "And he sort of sucks at talking and I still have a billion questions."

"No reason to traumatize you on the spot," Logan said. "Or we would've said something earlier."

"Yeah, I get it," Alex said.

"We can burn a few steaks, if you're game," K said. "While the teeny bopper crowd gets their pizzas." She turned to see Charles and Erik standing together in the hall. "Along with the teeny bopper wanna bes."

Alex snorted. "No, but seriously. Your parents are hilarious."

"We're goin' to the boathouse if you want to follow," Logan said.

"Great." Scott grinned and put his arm around Alex's shoulders again. "I want you both to get to know my little brother too. Apparently, he can surf and he's won a few competitions."

"I absolutely believe that," K deadpanned.

"Really? You can smell than under the living island smell?" Alex asked, then smirked. "Scott told me about the nose."

"No, it's the way you present yourself - screams beach bum," she said.

"Hey, you grow up in Hawaii…"

"Jungles're more fun," Logan said as he took K by the waist and led the way down to the boathouse. "Less tourists."

"Oh, I hear that," Alex said with a grin. "You wouldn't believe how many tourists my friends end up driving in circles on golf courses that are just… weirder than a living island."

When they got to the boathouse, Logan put Scott on task pulling out the steaks as he and K took turns getting cleaned up and Alex chattered away. The two ferals took turns keeping Alex going while Scott occasionally added his two cents for Alex's sake. All the way up until the phone rang - and Logan took the call with his back to the little group.

"So what did you two want to do now that we're all fed and watered?" K asked to try and give Logan and Steve a bit of quiet to chat.

Scott was frowning after Logan, but Alex grinned. "Well, Scott said he got to learn some hunting and fishing and I mean, I haven't gotten to celebrate my brother's birthday with him in ages so if it's okay with you guys…"

"You better be there," K said.

Alex nodded. "Yeah, exactly. As long as there's no creepy living islands, I'm totally down to learn how to catch a fish."

"No creepy living islands - just a few of Logan's closer friends that will want to wish Scott a happy birthday - and I'm sure fishing would work if that's what Scott's asking for…"

"Alex doesn't have any training on how to handle a gun," Scott said. "So I thought it would be more relaxing to take a fishing trip."

"We can fix that too," K agreed. "But we don't need to wait for the birthday for fishing or anything else, you know."

"Yeah, but I was out for a few weeks. Birthday's almost here anyway," Scott pointed out with a smirk.

"True," she agreed. "We can make a weekend out of it. Who needs to wait around for Cap anyhow?"

"Um. I do," Alex said. "I definitely, definitely do. We can't go until next weekend because I haven't met Captain America yet." He shook his head. "My brother 'dies' and befriends a pair of super spies and an Avenger!"

"Stark's comin' too," Logan said when he hung up and turned back to the group with a sigh.

"Oh, really?" Scott asked - in a lot more disappointed tone that Alex said the exact same words at the same time.

"Yeah, your mom put him on a job and he has concerns," Logan said as he turned toward K with a pointed look. "I'll fill you in later on that. Steve's got the same questions as before though. The two of 'em are gonna be a pain in tandem."

"And then fishing," Scott said, looking like he was looking forward to the visit a little less.

"Yeah," Logan agreed. "Maybe we'll commandeer a jet and go somewhere interesting."

Scott smirked. "Yeah. Alex hasn't seen me fly."

"I'll steal Cap's keys," K called over to them as she started picking up the table. "Stick a potato in Tony's blasters so he can't follow us."

"Can't we just… take one of the jets you guys have here?" Alex pointed out. "I mean, I'm all for a good joyride but…"

"More fun to steal Cap's," Logan said.

"We're not stealing the Quinjet," Scott said.

"What if we steal Cap too?" K asked. "He'd like it."

"Okay, well, that's different."

Logan smirked at that and met Scott's gaze. "You know that means she'll hogtie and gag him, right?"

"How about instead I just ask him if he wants to spend my birthday fishing."

"You are taking all the joy out of this, Caramel Mocha."

Scott smirked her way. "My birthday."

"Oh, fine."

Scott grinned and kissed her cheek. "Love you, Mom."

"Love you too," she said, sure to give him a little kiss right back.

When the boys finally settled out for the night, Logan took the opportunity to tell K what Tony and Hank were hypothesizing. "You didn't have a tracker, sweetheart."

"What the hell do you think they pulled out of my nose then?" K asked with a frown.

"An ampule that drugged you."

K blinked at him for that. "What could he have drugged me with?"

"The way it tests out? Some kind of hormones."

K froze and stared at him - holding her breath for a long moment before she finally let out a whispered "What." Her heart was hammering in her ears and all at once, she honestly thought she might pass out had she not been sitting down already.

"By the time they got a hold of us, it was a little late to really do anything," Logan said. "But they don't know if it'd even affect you the way it should. Pym's comin' along to draw some blood. Just to double check that there weren't nanobots too."

"Oh, of course," K replied softly, though it was clear she was very quietly panicking. "Because what kind of a month would it be if there weren't nanobots too?"

Logan let out a sigh and pulled her over to wrap her up. "Either way, I'm sorry."

K stiffened up at that and tipped her head back to look him in the face. "Oh. Please don't do that again. Not when it's not your fault."

He smirked at that and stole a kiss that lasted longer than he thought she'd allow - all things considered. "The window of trouble was comin' to a close when we left Cap. So it wouldn't have made a difference anyhow. If anything comes of it - "

"We'll deal with the fallout later," K cut it. "And I don't want to think about it too hard, if I'm being honest." She leaned forward to steal another quick kiss. "Don't tell Scott. Not unless it's an actual issue."

Logan nodded his agreement at that and then simply held onto her for a long while, already anxious at what could be around the corner for them.

…...

Translated From German:

Dies passiert, wenn Sie auf einer Insel schlafen - This happens when you sleep on an island.