Chapter 14 - The Consequences of Showing Off
Sying had heard about Chance's karate lessons, and they sounded like a lot of fun, so he had made up his mind that he wanted to see what they were like. He and Krissy — who wasn't about to let him go into trouble without her — made their way down to where Chance was with his dad and Logan, sneaking by climbing on the ceiling to watch from above.
It was Chance's turn to lead the kids in the next exercise — his favorite one, too. As the little ones practiced iron palms, both of them counted to ten in Japanese, and even Scott had to smirk at the determined look on Chance's face as he did his level best. "Ichi - ni - san - shi - go - roku - shichi…"
"He's doin' pretty well, honestly," Logan said quietly to Scott as he looked up at little Sying on the ceiling, who held up a finger to his lips as Krissy tried to stifle a giggle.
"He's been practicing hard," Scott said just as quietly.
As the two kids traded turns and Elin started to lead the charge, this time for blocking, again Logan tipped his head toward the ceiling after gently elbowing Scott.
"Don't see us!" Krissy whispered urgently, though she was giggling.
"It's too bad I don't," Logan said quietly to her. "You might be able to join them if you weren't so set on bein' silly."
Krissy and Sying glanced at each other and grinned, racing each other down — with Sying winning — and giggling excitedly. "Can we? Can we please?" Sying asked.
"Need to ask your parents," Logan insisted. "And you can't use anything you learn on any of the kids."
"This is only for bad guys," Chance agreed, chiming in with a grin.
Logan walked over to Chance and Elin and handed both of them a pair of bamboo sticks. "Okay. Go slow now," he told them before he stepped back to watch carefully with his arms crossed. Chance and Elin both smiled at each other before they started the exercise — no counting this time. Elin went high with her right, and Chance blocked, and then low on the right as the stick swung around naturally, both actions immediately followed by the same on the left, and so on until they were working at a good rhythm and Logan nodded, giving them permission to speed up as they went.
"That looks fun," Krissy sad with wide eyes. "I thought this was just hitting stuff, not fun. I wanna play!"
"Not playin', little Elf," Logan told her.
"It still looks fun," she said. "Sometimes work is fun! Mama likes arrows, so it's like playing. So…" She gestured with both hands as if this was perfectly flawless logic. "I wanna play."
"Talk to your parents," Logan replied. "No one works here until they get Mom or Dad down with 'em."
Sying and Krissy glanced at each other and broke out into huge grins. "Me first!" Krissy shouted, barreling toward the door and shoving Sying in the shoulder — which didn't actually move him but still had him looking betrayed before he sped ahead of her anyway.
Kurt and Krissy were the ones to get back first, though, as Kurt simply teleported down with his giggling little girl. "I win, I win," she chanted, still giggling as Kurt set her down and Sying got down only a few moments later, looking totally defeated.
"But I ran so hard," he said with his lower lip out.
"And she cheated so hard," Elin giggled as the stick exercise ended and she brushed her hair out of her face.
"But it was fun," Krissy said. She grinned and ran over to Logan with a troublemaking grin. "Papa says I can play."
"It's not playin'," Logan said calmly. "That's number one, darlin'."
She grinned up at him even wider. "Mama says I can play too."
"Well if you wanna play, go play with her," he replied.
"Mama says you're too serious," she said with her arms crossed over her chest.
"I'm supposed to be serious," Logan replied before he shot Chance and Elin a wink. "They have a pretty good serious too."
"Do we gotta be serious?" she asked.
"Yep," he replied with a nod. "You might get hurt or hurt someone else otherwise."
Krissy considered this for a moment before she looked up at Kurt, who nodded, and then at Sying, who was nodding just as seriously.
"Daddy says you gotta work hard sometimes to be safe," Sying said. "But also, I gotta work really hard anyway to be careful with my powers, so…" He shrugged and looked Logan's way. "I can be serious, I promise."
"Me too," Krissy said quickly, not about to be outdone by Sying.
"Krissy, why don't you pair up with Elin?" Logan said. "We'll start with somethin' you can probably do well." He looked over to Elin and Chance. "Falls."
As Kurt let out a scoff, Chance broke into a huge grin. "Yes!" He nodded a few times. "You'll like this, Krissy."
"Can I try too?" Sying asked hopefully.
Logan turned toward the door as Jubilee walked in, grinning and excited to see how the little ones were going to do. "Sure. Go by Chance," Logan said. "We're taking turns pushing each other over — but it's not a real push, got it?" He looked between the three adults there and shook his head. "Come on, Slim. We're up." The two adults demonstrated for the kids, showing them carefully and explaining how to fall and protect yourself right before they let the kids get started — and Scott of course helped to coach Sying and Chance through it as Logan went to the girls.
Jubilee made her way over to Kurt and bumped his shoulder. "Guess they don't want us showing them how to do it with style, huh?"
"Maybe just a little," Kurt said with a little chuckle.
"Wanna do it anyhow?" Jubilee grinned. "I bet I can flip into a good backspring already."
Kurt's eyes were twinkling as he broke into a showman's bow. "With promises like that…" he teased.
The two of them waited at least until it was clear that the kids were falling into giggle fits of their own before they launched into their highly flashy routine — that very nearly looked planned. Kurt gave Jubilee a little push — which she dramatically over-acted into a handstand and a backspring — and Kurt met her where she landed in a cloud of smoke so she could push him. He tumbled backward and sprang up to finish on a handstand of his own — with both of them grinning.
Scott and Logan shared a dry look. "This is a beginner's class you two," Scott said in a slow and well-used drawl.
"I only teleported once," Kurt said as if this was perfectly reasonable.
"And you can't come back if you're gonna disrupt the kids either," Logan added.
"Yeah, Papa, you gotta be serious," Krissy said, which was not helped by how much she was giggling.
"Oh, then, I should look more serious when I do my handstands?" Kurt teased.
"You can only come back for sticks," Logan said with a teasing little smirk.
"And only because you need a partner, mein Freund," Kurt laughed.
"Scott does just fine," Logan replied.
Kurt shook his head at Logan. "You wound me, Wolverine," he teased.
"Not my fault you're rusty and I needed someone more reliable," Logan said airly.
"Rusty?" Kurt put a hand on his heart. "Lacherlich. Rusty. The very thought."
While Logan and Kurt were trading barbs, though, the kids were still giggling with each other about the lesson and about how silly Sying and Krissy's parents were.
"I can spin too," Sying insisted to Krissy, who was still giggling and had half an eye on the ongoing back and forth between Kurt and Logan.
"I can spin too," Krissy agreed, twirling a little circle.
"That's not how your dad does it," Chance pointed out.
"Well, I don't know how to do it upside down yet," Krissy admitted, frowning and tugging at the tip of one ear.
"You gotta push your arms," Sying nodded. "I see my mom teaching it in her class, and you gotta push real hard and then spin but… but spin upside down."
"Did your mom teach you how to spin upside down?" Chance asked curiously.
Sying scuffed one foot. "Not really," he admitted. "But I see it. I know how." He took a deep breath and rushed to the wall so he could climb halfway up it and then put his hands on the ground so he could try to do a handstand. He was strong enough to do it, but when he bent his arms and pushed off hard and tried to spin ... he went sideways and managed to put his entire foot through the wall.
And immediately started crying.
The sound stopped all teasing that was going on, and the four adults turned to see the damage. Jubilee let out a curse as she and Logan rushed over to the little guy — with Kurt and Scott not far behind them.
The kids were half shouting all at once with explanations—
"He hurt his foot!" Krissy was saying while Chance was a little clearer: "He did a really good handstand though."
Logan was holding the little guy up so he wasn't twisted in such an awkward position. "Elf—"
Kurt was there in an instant, and a moment later, the three of them and Jubilee were in Hank's lab with one very hurt little boy now free of the wall and crying on the crook of Logan's elbow.
"What happened?" Hank asked, abandoning his current experiment to see what had happened with the little guy.
"Showin' off gone wrong," Logan summarized.
"He kicked a hole in the wall," Jubilee added, gently patting down Sying's hair as he hiccoughed little breaths.
Hank gently took Sying over to the X-ray machine, and with a little gentle encouragement, he got a few good pictures before he brought him right back to Jubilee and Logan. The verdict was quick. "Broken, of course," Hank said.
"How badly?" Jubilee asked. "Can you have Tyler fix him quickly, or is it different with Kree?" she added, honestly concerned as she thought about it.
"Tyler has helped Noh before," Hank assured her. "He'll be by shortly. In the meantime, I can give him something to relax and take the edge off."
"Please," she said with a little nod.
Hank gave her a little reassuring smile before he came back with something that didn't look exactly like what Noh got from the good doctor. "Not as strong," Hank assured her.
Jubilee nodded and sat down next to the sniffling little boy to explain that Tyler was going to fix his foot for him, though Sying was watching Hank. "My dad gets blue stuff," he sniffled.
"Your dad has nanites that you do not," Hank replied. "So the only blue stuff you can have here is a sucker. But only if you make sure your mother hides her eyes while I get it."
Sying considered this and then nodded. "Okay, Mom, you have to not look so I can get the good sucker."
Jubilee sniffled out a little laugh and very carefully closed and covered her eyes. "Is that good enough?"
"If Dr. Fuzzy says it is, then I get a blue raspberry," Sying said. He paused. "And one for my friends too? They got scared too."
Hank smiled their way and returned with two suckers — both of them blue raspberry.
Sying beamed as he took both of the suckers in his hand. "Thank you, Dr. Fuzzy."
"You're very welcome," Hank said as Logan and Jubilee got the little guy settled in.
It was only a few more minutes before Tyler arrived, and by that time, Sying was fairly dopey. Tyler wasn't alone, though, and Noh ran to Jubilee with a look of concern while Tyler got the rundown from Hank.
Noh gave his little boy a kiss on the forehead as Sying sucked happily on his blue raspberry sucker, though Noh frowned over the top of his head, thinking something over clearly as Tyler joined the little group.
"Can I hold your hand, Sying?" Tyler asked, and Sying nodded, still sucking happily as he held out his hand.
While Tyler fixed Sying right up, Noh slipped over to where Hank was so he could look over the X-rays for himself. The fuzzy blue doctor watched him for a moment as he poured over the results before, finally, Noh let out a breath. "Of course," he said, shaking his head. "I didn't even think about the lack of compensation." He looked up at Hank, still looking almost surprised at himself. "I can use my enhanced strength and other such abilities without injuring myself only because the nanites work faster than my pain receptors. I don't even know they fix the damage I do when I hit something."
"How old were you when you were given the nanites?" Hank asked.
"They were part of my systems before I was — well, if you can use the word 'born' for a growth chamber," Noh said with a sheepish look.
"Then it's perfectly understandable why you wouldn't think of it right away," Hank said. "It's not something that you control — not those functions anyhow."
"And I had hoped not to introduce them into Sying's system at all, considering the timeline Jubilee and I visited with Miss Hill running things," Noh admitted, running a hand through his hair.
Hank let out a little chuckle. "Yet once again you've overlooked a simple solution," the furry blue doctor said. "What about asking your ex-teammate if it should be done? He would not be the first super-powered individual to not have structural reinforcements if it's not favorable."
Noh couldn't help but let out a little laugh. "Yes, you're right; I didn't even think of Billy," he admitted. He looked over to where Sying was giggling with Tyler and Jubilee now that his foot was all healed. "As ever, you give the best advice, good doctor," he added with a little smile.
Noh had called ahead about the project that he wanted some help with, though Tony was pleasantly surprised when Noh was willing to do the whole thing at Stark Industries — finally relaxing a little about letting Tony get his hands on Kree technology, since "you've already seen most of it anyway in this regard."
Not that Tony was going to do much pushing, anyway, not when Noh had explained the concept. Trying to make sure that cute little white-haired kid didn't break himself with his own powers — pretty important stuff.
Noh had come prepared, too, with not only everything he had on his own nanites but a whole host of information from an alternative timeline in which Maria Hill had been in charge that frankly sounded to Tony like it was the worst — as well as notations on how to avoid running into those problems with this project.
Basically, Noh had come with a whole list of requirements they had to hit just right before he'd even think about putting it in his little boy.
And Tony ... Tony had his own thoughts, not just on the programming itself but on specifics Pepper had suggested. Like an alert system if the nanites found something compromising like poison or drugs — up to a certain age. Tony was thinking he'd phase those out at around, sixteen. Let the kid live a little. His liver could heal faster than he could do real damage anyway.
It took the two of them next to no time to get set up as Tony got some AC/DC on the speakers, dancing along with his head bobbing as he looked over the specs.
"So, I think … to make this whole process work a little faster, I would like to get a few samples to compare to the specs," Tony said over the music.
Noh looked surprised for a moment before he nodded. "Alright," he said slowly. "That shouldn't be a problem. I can wash a few for you…"
"I promise to incinerate everything when I'm done," Tony swore.
Noh let out a breath. "That would be best," he agreed. "Especially as they tend to bond to the nearest organic matter if you don't deactivate them properly." He pulled down a few specs on the table to look them over as well. "I do appreciate your help on this. There isn't anyone else I can ask — except perhaps Forge, but he is with his favorite ladies for the summer, and I didn't want to disturb him."
Tony nodded distractedly, already getting into the swing of the project in front of him. "No problem," he said.