Daddy doubt

Terry wasn't sure what he was supposed to do in this wildly bizarre situation. After figuring out Iori Yagami and Rock Howard had somehow swapped bodies, both men in question had simply decided there was nothing they could do about it and figured the best thing to do was go about their typical routines. Terry wanted to send both to a psychiatric hospital, but the blonde teenager responded with a, 'Last time I went to the shrink, they prescribed me a lobotomy. Kagura'll handle it. Give her a week or two. I need to go to the office. Are you coming?'

Of course he was. Rock Howard was... somewhere between these two guys, and Terry wasn't about to let his son run around the city suffering identity crisis. He didn't raise any more objections and decided to simply watch and observe.

The four of them had hopped into the Red Mustang and were off the SouthTown Central as if nothing strange had happened. The man - who was apparently Rock in Iori Yagami's body - was viciously slamming the car through every pothole in the road like he was doing it on purpose. Obviously he wasn't, since he winced each time the car's bumper hit concrete, but Terry was now keenly aware of why the red-haired man was so miffed about those traffic tickets.

Damn… this poor car. (BANG) ...Oh boy…

The man in question, Iori Yagami, claimed to be sitting in the backseat. He was glaring daggers into the back of 'Rock's' head and was obviously very upset that he now looked like his blonde-teenager-employee. His chief complaint had been finding his physical frame was weaker than what he was used to. Not only did he find himself lacking in his physical confrontation with his Japanese rival (that was quite standard. Kyo Kusanagi won almost all of their fights) But additionally, had found himself outmatched in his physical confrontation with his student, who had threatened him with his own flames.

Hehe… that sucks

Now, the man claiming to be Iori was sulking. Kyo Kusanagi was sitting beside him smirking, waggling his eyebrows, and trying to make his life even more miserable. It was honestly a pretty amusing situation. Clearly, Iori was used to be being the boss. Maybe getting demoted would teach him some humbleness - and hopefully caused him to dial back on his asshole-ness.

Pff… as if.

In any case, 'Iori' seemed to be holding up well enough. The person Terry was worried about was 'Rock'. He had a seizure this morning that looked very sinister, and even now, he was was clinging to the steering wheel as if he were battling something within him. Sometimes Rock had pain while using certain techniques, especially when tapping into the latent power in his pedigree. Recently he had been using them more often while sparring - with no outward ill effects... maybe all that practice was compounding on him? Because as they drove, Rock had been getting more and more tense. Even his teeth had begun… chattering?

"Hey Ior...Rock… you alright, bud?"

Rock's neck turned so quickly that Terry thought it would snap. He looked pained, and there was something a bit wild in his eyes. If Terry had believed this situation entirely, seeing that craziness would have made red-flags go off in his head. Unfortunately, Terry was still quite doubtful and 'Iori looking deranged' was something very, very typical. In fact, it was so typical, it made Terry doubt this whole 'body-swap' thing even further.

"Tired? It's been a rough morning, huh?"

"Y-yeah…"

Rock seemed to be having difficulty speaking. His voice was Iori's voice, but lacked the snarl. Honestly, Terry was still questioning his own sanity, because the situation was absolutely insane. Was this some sort of terrible fever dream? It certainly seemed so, whoever heard of such a thing? Body-swapping? It sounded like something straight out of science fiction. In fact, Terry's doubtwas further corroborated by the fact neither Kyo, Iori, nor Rock seemed to be panicking quite as much as he was.

I mean… Kyo is pretty sensible… why isn't he freaking out?

At this point, Terry was just going with the flow. Maybe... Iori and Rock really had decided to pull a prank on him. It was pretty unlikely, since Rock wasn't one for pranks, and Iori had no sense of humor - but Sci-Fi bodyswapping was much more unlikely then those two deciding to screw with him.

...I bet Kyo's in on it? I dunno… I mean, Rock could have learned Japanese… well actually, he could have said anything Japanese sounding just to trick me?

Yeah. This was probably some hidden camera stuff. Terry couldn't think of any motivation behind it. He couldn't imagine what sort of deal had been struck that Iori Yagami would call him 'Dad' and cling to him whilst crying into his shirt, nor cause Rock to try to peel his face off… but there were many things Terry didn't understand. He just needed to do the best with the information he had.

Terry turned to look in the backseat at 'Rock Howard'. He was facedown across the seat, complaining and struggling feebly. Kyo Kusanagi was sitting squarely on his back pinning the teenager into the leather. 'Rock' was clearly unhurt, but seemed incredibly frustrated. When Kyo noticed Terry frowning at them, he waved, grinned and attempted some bad English.

"Helur Tehree."

"Hey Kyo, can I talk to my son?"

Terry pointed at 'Rock'. Kyo poked his victim in the back of the head.

(Ey, Yagami. Your Dad wants to chat.)

(Fuck you get off me-... oof… haah...)

'Rock' sat up and turned his glare at him. 'Iori' - who claimed to be Rock Howard, and was occupied chattering his teeth and driving - looked over to him with something of confused betrayal on his face.

"What do you want, Bogard."

"We should head home."

Harder glaring. He curled his lip and crossed his arms. He sounded pretty mad. Damn, Terry had no idea how good of an actor Rock was.

"...Excuse me? Do I look like your son?! I have things to do Bogard. I'm probably gonna look like this until Kagura figures out what's happening, and I'm not about to play house with you. Fuck right off."

"Hey! Language!"

"Langu-" Rock seemed to completely snap. He was actually… really convincing. Terry felt himself suddenly doubting this was a prank after all...

"Are fucking you kidding me?! You think this is a joke?! I'll kill you! Ack! (Kusanagi let me go!)"

Terry watched with a faraway look in his eyes as 'Rock' - who might actually be Iori Yagami - made an unsuccessful lunge at him, was caught by Kyo Kusanagi, and was subject to another submission hold. He continued to yell at him, then alternatively at 'Iori' driving the car, whilst his face was pressed into the red leather.

"You'll kill me before I let you take me home! I'm not some dog you can just adopt, Bogard! Howard! Take a right and drop me at the DMV. I'm getting a driver's license. (Kusanagi, let me go or I'm going to bite you, you fuck.)"

I mean, would you believe it?

Aight... looks like I'm back on the pain train. I just can't escape it lmao.