A/N: Going back to what Shuffle or Boogie was meant to be—a place for story ideas that may never amount to anything, and not a stupid time-consuming one/two/three/?-shot compilation, here's the first entry to What Could Have Been, where ideas are posted.
Not stupid stories.
This first entry was a back-and-forth between warfolomei and I four years ago in my now-inactive FFnet forum. I simply edited it to make more sense, then posted it here in case anyone wants to pick it up.
With all that said, enjoy the horde of plot bunnies!
Warfolomei wrote back in 2014:
"Nope, no matter what I do, it all goes back to Tyke and X-23... She protects him from trouble and he helps her stay in school. So finally, after things go really bad and Laura is asked for why she keeps sticking up for Tyke. She responds with, that she was protecting everyone else from him."
What Could Have Been:
Fly Me To The Moon
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In other words, hold my hand...
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Story starts post-Battle of the Atom (BoTA), except instead of freeloading in the New Xavier School (NXS), the Kitty Crew of time-displaced O5 remain in the Jean Grey School (JGS). The O5 still bump into X-23 and the Purifiers, and the O5 are still being pressured to return to their time by the staff. The JGS staff, are hardest with Tyke—a reaction to seeing Cyke again during BoTA having opened fresh wounds- but this Tyke isn't as patient after seeing how the JGS acted during BoTA.
Noticing Tyke is becoming more aggressive than usual, Laura is assigned to keep tabs on Tyke. Make sure he doesn't get into trouble. As a side-note, Laura takes her mission seriously and requests for all the files Cyke compiled, but the ones about himself (recall: Cyke had a database of battle reports and character profiles in Utopia); she starts reading and analyzing the data in her downtime.
Tyke and Laura bond over shared isolation and crappy upbringing. Laura was already ostracized for X-Force, but now with her Murder World spree on YouTube for everyone to see, the level of isolation from her former friends and teammates gets more severe.
Things are going well until Sinister enters the picture. Sinister found out that a teenage version of his favorite mutant sample, Tyke, has arrived and attempts to capture them to further his next MacGuffin Experiment.
Sinister tricks the Kitty Crew into responding to a mutant distress call and they are ambushed. During the scuffle, Tyke gets abducted, much to everyone's horror. Especially Laura's, who has become attached to Tyke by this point.
The JGS + Kitty Crew eventually track Tyke down, but instead of a helpless captive they thought they were rescuing, Tyke has Sinister in his clutches. And Tyke is very angry.
Turns out, while everyone else was trying to find them, Sinister has been systematically breaking Tyke psychologically, trying to prove a point.
Sinister WANTS Tyke to snap and go full-on self-righteous justice. And Tyke does, and while his mental state is on the borderline between remorse and euphoria at finally cutting lose in the name of personal vengeance, the JGS see a monster in the making.
Scott Summers was the guy who held back; he was the guy who fought back every urge to lash out at his enemies, justified or not. As, well, a young Scott Summers told Jack Winters in Joe Casey's Children of the Atom mini:
"So, you want to see me blast somebody, Jack...? Wanna see a greasy spot?! Maybe I should... Maybe we'd be better off if I just let loose, huh...? But I'm not going to. You're not gonna push me that far. You can't hit me hard enough... No one can."
Of course, that will was not as indomitable as everyone thought, particularly on a troubled teenager with hardly any social support.
Thus Tyke, woefully under-prepared and inexperienced as he is, played into Sinister's hands, proving him right. Remember, this Sinister has far more experience than the Sinister of Tyke's time, and this Sinister can even outplay Cyke. Tyke is, quite literally and figuratively, child's play to Sinister.
The way I envisioned it, Sinister would be laughing his head off as Tyke pounds his face in and is laughing still as Tyke optic blasts him through the ground. The level of brutality would be Fight Club style, when Tyler caves blondie's face in with his fists and then walks away all-calm-like, except it's Tyke vs Sinister with mayhem in Tyke's wake.
The JGS staff are, quite frankly, horrified, and Tyke pays them no mind as he continues hammering the unmoving Sinister, his fury cold and calculated aggression. Wolverine attempts to pull Tyke away, but Tyke blasts him through a wall before he could take his second step, all-the-while still pounding Sinister's grinning face in.
"It's checkmate, young Mr Summers."
Tyke, as a young and impressionable teenager with turbulent emotions, crosses the line between justice and vengeance, and actually revels in the feeling of freedom vengeance brings. For so long, Tyke had always held himself back, fearing how he'd hurt even the people that have hurt him... but now...
"So this is how it feels to let it go..."
With how the JGS view Cyke now, they'd ostracize Tyke even more believing that, inherently, Scott Summers was always a bomb waiting to explode. The memory of Phoenix!Cyke murdering Xavier would be too fresh in their minds, and now they'll be led to believe even more that it wasn't possession that drove Cyke to make the kill; Cyke truly wanted Xavier dead.
Eventually, Tyke stops/is stopped, and is under house arrest in the JGS. The staff argue about what they saw and the next step, never once considering the help Tyke needs. They see a monster in the making; the next Gabriel Summers. They don't see what Laura sees- a teenage boy, manipulated, way out of his league, and without support.
Laura isn't judgmental. She doesn't live in a black-or-white world. If anything, Laura sees the world as cause-and-effect, not good-or-evil. She sees the scenarios and the risk factors that brought Tyke to such state, and believes that, with help, Tyke can trace his footsteps back to the borderline, whether for his sake or for the sake of everyone else's safety.
Laura would approach the matter with near-clinical detachment, her prescriptions nothing but objective logic and calculated actions to bring about desired emotions, all reflective of her upbringing in the Facility.
The oppressive pressure at the JGS grows and becomes palpable enough that Tyke decides to run away again. He has already stopped caring about making things right, or getting along, or even about the O5—who have all drifted apart since arriving in the present. Laura tags along saying she needs a break as well.
Thus begins Tyke and Laura's roadtrip after stealing Wolverine's bike. They're heading towards Tyke's old place in Anchorage, Alaska, since Tyke wants to retrace his steps.
Cue lighthearted hijinks as the two grow closer.
As time passes, Laura begins to believe less in the notion of protecting the world from Tyke, and more in believing she could atone for her sins by saving Tyke, until eventually it is to see Tyke as a good man again. On the other side, Tyke helps Laura through her own existential and spiritual angst. Tyke helps Laura feel; he helps her find the home she had always been searching for ever since she broke out of the Facility.
Kimura would appear once more, supposedly driven by the desire to break Laura after seeing her Murderworld Rampage in the internet. In actuality, the reason Kimura's been tormenting Laura was because, subconsciously, Kimura, insane as she is, wants to die to atone for all her sins, and she wants Laura, the victim of all her transgressions, to be her executioner.
Regardless, this would be the turning point in Tyke & Laura's development. Kimura is hellbent on tormenting Laura the same way Sinister is with Tyke. Should the two of them do to Kimura what Tyke did to Sinister- (attempt to) remove her permanently? It would be a struggle for both Tyke and Laura, but no. They are better than that, now. They are stronger than that, now.
Kimura would eventually be subdued, but not before dousing Tyke with the Trigger Scent in a last ditch effort for Laura to snap. Laura feels the effect taking over her, but she struggles to fight and despairs her apparent fate- destroying her happiness with her own two hands each and every time. Laura struggles and, through bleeding gums from how hard she grits her teeth, begs Tyke to run.
Tyke doesn't. Fearlessly and selflessly, Tyke approaches Laura, and even stabbed through the gut, Tyke reassures Laura that the Trigger Scent isn't her, and encourages Laura to fight its effects. He embraces her tenderly.
"I'll be here, Laura. I know this isn't you. Whatever happens after this, whatever you do- I'll still be right here. With you. So fight it, Laura!"
The actual struggle would be more dramatic than my tl;dr, of course.
Laura would have to dig in real deep to overcome her psychological programming. When fearless, selfless Tyke gets stabbed, it's not just once. He's battered, bruised, beaten and blue, with Laura biting off an entire chunk off Tyke's shoulder. Imagined a bloody Tyke that should, for all intents and purposes, be dead, but like a Summers, Tyke doesn't go down when it counts. Laura, seeing that Tyke won't run the way everyone else did and met with Tyke's utmost belief that she will contain this, fights even harder to regain control of her instincts.
It's a grueling experience for the both of them.
Laura finally overcomes the Trigger Scent and, for the first time in her life, cries as relief washes over her. She is no longer a soulless weapon. She is finally Laura Kinney. Just like the story of Pinocchio- the story her mother brought her up with- Laura is now whole.
The near-death experience is felt by Cyke and alerts the X-Men, so Magik 'ports Triage over in the aftermath. Emma picks up on the fact that Kimura wanted Laura to kill her, as well as updates everyone on what Tyke has been through with Sinister, as well as all the happenings in-between.
She's, of course, annoyed but amused at the irony of Tyke and Laura together, but all the same welcomes the pair to the NXS while the two plan their future.
Once again, the tale as old as time unfolds, and Tyke and Laura end up bringing out the best in each other; they end up wanting and needing each other; they end up with each other.
Tyke and Laura will have grown up and out of their unnatural teenage angst. They, Tyke and Laura, know that the future will bring more uncertainty and more drama but, hand-in-hand, as two mutants that transcended superficial adjectives such as best friends and lovers, they know that there is a silver lining no matter how dark the coming days will be, and even if one of them fails to grasp it, the other will.
The silver lining is no longer out of their reach. Their future is now theirs to shape- together.
Story ends with a Sentinel appearing to apprehend "Cyclops".
Tyke grins at Laura, Laura smiles at Tyke. Laura guns the engine of their bike (because Laura is totally the better rider) while Tyke reaches for his shades.
Roll closing excerpt from Fly Me To The Moon by Frank Sinatra:
You are all I long for, all I worship and adore…
In other words, please be true…
In other words…
In other words…
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The tl;dr:
BotA ends with O5 staying in JGS - O5 rescues Laura from the Purifiers - Tyke/Laura bonding - Sinister vs Tyke ending with Tyke's breakdown - Ostracized Tyke - Laura helps Tyke heal - more trouble in JGS - Tyke & Laura flee from the JGS but do not go to NXS - even more Tyke/Laura road-trip bonding - Kimura hunts down Laura - showdown with Kimura - Laura overcomes her programming with Tyke's help - Tyke's near-death is sensed by Cyke, who sends Magik & Triage to Tyke & Laura's location - Tyke wakes up next to Laura in the NXS - Cyke offers to let them stay in NXS while they figure out what to do next - Tyke and Laura resume their road-trip.
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Cue Omakes from The Roadtrip
The road trip would be Tyke & Laura having fun as teenagers. Tyke would be getting used to the modern world while Laura starts having fun. This isn't another spiritual journey for Laura, but her scars end up fading anyway.
Tyke would be getting into all sorts of trouble, in part because he IS Scott Summers, wanted by the state but loved by the people, and in part because he's clueless to a lot of the advancements post-Y2K. Tyke gets into a bar fight for supporting the 'wrong' sports team and Laura bails him out; Tyke gets all protective when guys start hitting on Laura; Tyke & Laura go bowling where Tyke just barely wins a trickshot contest against the very analytical Laura Kinney; Tyke & Laura go to a beach where Tyke gets sunburned while Laura's still fine - stuff like that. Maybe have Tyke encounter a shark - there's just something about Cyke & sharks, after all.
Splice in one or two serious moments to maintain the mood of the story. Add in moments of clarity as well, like Tyke & Laura waking up next to each other for the first time, after a wild night, and both of them just not bothering to move because it's way too early in the morning and they're both secretly comfortable with each other; Laura walking in on Tyke showering and neither of them bat an eyelash as she hands him the bar of soap he was asking for; Tyke & Laura bathing in the moonlight in comfortable silence on the roof of a cabin in the woods, and Laura rests her head on Tyke's shoulder while Tyke wraps an arm around Laura's waist, pulling her closer...
A/N: Aaand there you have it. I apologize for the hack edit-job, but this thing was freezing in my old forum since 2014. Had to splice in together my posts, tried to arrange it to make some semblance of sense, and this is the result. The next few installments of What Could Have Been (WCHB) will, hopefully, have more structure to them.
In fact, I do already have an idea on what the next should be. WCHB: Moon River, which will take a peek into how my OC, Elle Summers, came to be, will hopefully follow the 7 Beat System when it eventually gets posted. With any luck, following the 7 Beat System will shorten this to, like, 500 words max. SHEESH.
And yes, this may be the headcanon for where the Tyke-23 offspring comes from (explaining why Laura was in the White Room of Hot Mamas), thus maybe part of the Crisis of Infinite Cyclops Daughters headcanon.
For themes when I was formulating this idea, I wanted to tackle breaking bonds and forging your own path. In a way, you could view it as beginning with teenage rebellion and ending it with maturing into young adults, capable of making their own decisions in life and taking responsibility for said decisions. Recall (or don't; those were DARK ages), this was conceptualized during BMB's (UGH!) run, immediately post-BoTA.
Anyways, that ends this. Gawd, finally.
If anyone wants to pick this up and run away with it, just please send me a link when it's done! Cheerio, and teehee~!
