Log:Icelantic Holiday, Scene 6

Icelantic Holiday 2014/04/30 	 Anthony Quinn|Anthony Sukeban Mark Patrica

6

Hotel Bjork in Reykjavik
The children troop off to their room to rest so they'll be awake for the midnight trip out to see the northern lights. They settle down to nap. Soon the room is filled by sleeping children. Not all of them however. Moving quietly the Steels slip out of their beds and make their way to the en-suite bathroom. Opening the window they climb outside, onto the seventh floor wall ledge. From there they climb up to the eighth floor, traverse to a window of a hallway, and re-enter the hotel...

The Steels sneak carefully heading down to the hotel lobby where Patrica briefly distracts the receptionist which lets Mark take a look at the signing in book. They split up, Mark heading to Anthony's room, and Patrica to Sukeban's room, hoping the chaperones will be resting in their rooms as well.

Mark and Patrica knock on the doors of Sukeban's and Anthony's rooms.

Sukeban grumbles, gets up, peers through the peephole, opens the door, "Yo, what's up."

Anthony opens the door and nods to the young Wolfguard. "Mark," he says, having the same difficulty that most do in viewing him as just half of one person. "Is there something I can help you with?"

Patrica looks up at Sukeban, "Please, can you come with me, please." Patrica asks, "I want to talk to you."

More or less at the same time Mark is looking up at Anthony and making pretty much the same request, "Please, can you come with me, please." Mark says, "I want to talk to you."

Anthony quirks an eyebrow slightly. "All right," he says, stepping out of the room and locking his door behind himself.

Sukeban shrugs, "Sure." She makes sure she has her key, and closes the door behind her. "Where to, chibiko?"

Mark unthinkingly reaches out for Anthony's hand. Whether or not Anthony responds by taking Mark's hand the boy leads Anthony down to one of the small alcoves off the dining hall.

Patrica also unthinkingly reaches out for Sukeban's hand. And whether or not Sukeban responds to that, she leads Sukeban down to the sane alcove, "One of the alcoves off the dining hall." She tells Sukeban.

Anthony takes Mark's hand, following the boy with a puzzled expression. "Anything you're able to tell me?" he asks as the two of them walk.

Sukeban takes the girl's hand and follows along.

Mark says to Anthony, "When I'm all here."

Soon Sukeban and Anthony can see each other, each with a child in hand.

Sukeban nods to Anthony, "OK, so whats up?"

Anthony returns Sukeban's nod with a quick one of his own.

The kids indicate seats. They ask if they can get Sukeban and Anthony anything, drinks, snacks?

Sukeban waves off the offers, "I'm good. Get to the point already."

Still holding Sukeban's and Anthony's hands the two say in complete unison and deadly seriousness, "Would you adopt me?"

Sukeban blinks. Blinks again. "Uh, what!? You mean me and him together? Or we each take one of ya?"

"Well, that certainly wasn't what he was expecting to hear. "Is there something wrong with your current guardians?" Anthony asks, his brow furrowing a bit.

Still speaking in unison. "Well one each if you need to. But if you got married I could have a real family of my own."

Sukeban facefaults. "Uh... Look, Quinn's a cool guy and all, but, ya know, I'm a lesbian, and I have a wonderful fiancee, and we're gettin' married when we graduate from college."

Mark explains, "Col Steel is great. But she adopted all of us, me and all my brothers and sisters. And.. Well I guess I'm a failure. Because they are all off doing army things on the firing range on Salibury Plain, and I didn't want to do that. I wanted to be here with my friends."

Patrica asks Sukeban, "What's a lesbian?"

Anthony gives a small laugh and a wry smile of his own. "And beyond that," he says, "I'm not sure we would constitute a more 'real family' than your current one. Yeah, there would be two of us but there are plenty of families with only one parent."

Mark asks Anthony, "But they don't have to share the one parent with thirteen others do they?"

Sukeban stares at Patricia, "How sheltered are ya kids... A lesbian is a woman who only loves other women."

Anthony shakes his head and smiles to Mark. "No," he says, "but then they don't have one of these where their heart is suppose to be, either," he says, a finger lightly bouncing of the center of his chest and a small, dull tapping noise emitting from the concealed Q-Drive. "Every family is different. Just because yours is different as well doesn't make it any less 'real'.

Patrica 'oohs' as Sukeban explains. "So you wouldn't want to marry Antonio? You could still adopt half of me. And Antonio could adopt the other half of me. I'd have real parents of my own even if you didn't get married to each other."

Sukeban hehs, "I could, I guess, but I'd have to discuss it with my fiancee. We're also both Japanese citizens, not American, so I don't if where'd we have to adopt ya."

Patrica thows herself into Sukeban's arms if given the slightest chance, "You would? Oh thank you. Thank you." The young girl's eyes are teary with joy, as are Mark's eyes too.

Sukeban holds up her hands, "I haven't agree to anythin'! And if I adopt one of ya, and Quinn the other one, I might move back to Japan some day. Would ya be OK bein' separated?"

"Is Col. Steel putting pressure on you to be doing army things?" Quinn asks Mark.

Patrica tells Sukeban, "I can't be separated. Not unless you move off our dimension."

Mark shakes his head. "No. Not pressure. But all my brothers and sisters want to. All Col Steel does with us on holidays is army stuff because that's what my brothers and sisters want. I... I'm a failure. I don't want to shoot guns and stuff. Lord Markham didn't even put a mind control on me like he did on all my other brothers and sisters."

Quinn gives a much bigger laugh at that point (social incompetent that he is). "You're a failure because you don't want to run around doing army stuff and shooting guns?" he asks. "Then what does that make me? Because I'm certainly not crazy about any of that stuff either. I'm much happier working in a lab building things."

Sukeban says, "Yer not a failure, ya just want to do other stuff. Nothin' wrong with that. And if Steel isn't lettin' ya pick yer own path, then she's a problem. Parents can guide a kid, but what ya want to be when ya grow up is up to ya, as long as it isn't somethin' bad."

Patrica tells Sukeban, "Col Steel doesn't stop me doing things. She let me come on this holiday with my friends. But she's got all my brothers and sisters wanting to do army stuff all the time and I... I get left out because I don't."

Quinn shakes his head and smiles once more to Mark. "Being different isn't the same thing as being a failure," he says. "I know a little something about that. When I went to college I was about a half a foot shorter than everyone else and unless someone needed help with homework they didn't generally want to spend too much time with me."

Sukeban hmmms, "Have ya told her ya want to do somethin' else? Or is it that with some many other kids, she doesn't have time do do stuff with ya?

Mark says to Anthony, "I wanna spend my time with you. Please. Please adopt me. I'll be good, honest."

Patrica nods to Sukeban. "Col Steel has fourteen of us. And all the others want to do the army stuff all the time. She tries to have time for me but I'm the odd one out. She just doesn't have any spare time to give me."

Quinn glances over to Sukeban for a moment, arching an eyebrow. "Mark," he says, "You don't even really know me. We've spent a couple of weeks together when I haven't been caught up in the middle of some project or another." He smiles, trying to make it a reassuring one. "Now I'm not saying I'm some sort of horrible ogre who would ignore you or anything, but what I am saying is that you might be a bit...premature in your judgment."

Sukeban scratches her head, "Huh. I mean, I kind of always wanted to have kids, but, ya know, Quinn's right. That's why he's the smart one and I'm the idiot. Ya barely know me. Ya don't know my fiancee, or my Ma, or her girlfriend, or my fiancee's family. I mean, I think we're OK, if different, and, well, me and my fiancee are both heroes, and college students, so we don't have a ton of free time."

Anthony nods in agreement with Sukeban. "Also," he adds, "You don't know how you will feel once you're away from your brothers and sisters."

Mark hurriedly tries to assure Anthony he wouldn't be a burden, "I'd be at the school most of the time. And I could learn to help you in th..." Sukeban speaks to Patrica, and the pair start to feel their chance slipping away. They quieten. Then they try to be brave, "I'm sorry. I..." Trying to be brave only works so far though. Rushing together they hug each other tightly and begin sobbing.

Anthony puts a hand on each of their shoulders. "Hang on," he says to them. "I haven't said no yet. All I'm doing right now is telling you that you need to be sure about this. More sure than you can be from just thinking about it and wanting it."

Sukeban hugs Patricia, "Yeah. I haven't said no yet, but that's thing about bein' an adult. We can't just say yes, we got to think about consequences. And we'd need permission from Steel. Tell ya what, if Steel's OK with it, how about spending the summer with us in Colonial Bay. Get to know us, let us get to know ya, and see how it goes."

Quinn gives a nod to Sukeban. "That's just about exactly what I was thinking," he says. "It will give you time to decide if that's what you really want or if it is just what you think you want."

Mark and Patrica unwrap themselves from each other. Their cheeks are wet with tears as they rush to hug Anthony and Sukeban. "I can? Stay with you over summer? And if you like me you'll think about adopting me?"

Sukeban grins, "Listen to the words I'm sayin' ya little twerps. It's not just if we like ya, it's if ya like us, if Steel's OK with it, if the law allows me to adopt ya in the US, or any other thing that can get in the way."

Quinn laughs with a warm, genuine tone as he hugs Mark. "We already like you, silly," he says. "Why do you think we were happy to come back and chaperon you again this year?" He shakes his head. "This is so that you can be sure that you're making the right choice and so that we can be sure we can do the job properly."

The children nod wiping their eyes with their sleeves. Pushing off any future worries to the future they give Anthony and Sukeban tearful smiles. "I'll ask Col Steel as soon as I get back to the school. I'm sure she'll say yes."

Sukeban grins, "And I'll ask my fiancee. I'm pretty sure she'll say yes. After all, she took me in, so she likes adoptin' strays."

Mark and Patrica go to hug Anthony and Sukeban again.

Anthony nods and looks to the two young Wolfguard. "It will probably be more than just a single trip over the summer that we will have to do," he says. "We'll need to work out things with Col. Steel as well and I'm guessing that she's going to want to start with some shorter stays, with some time in between each one so we can talk about what happened followed by longer and longer stays. There's like...millions of things that everyone is going to be learning."

Mark and Patrica listen to Anthony. "It.." Marks starts, "won't be too bad only being able to stay a little while at the start," continues Patrica, "if I know I'll be coming back to you." Mark finishes off.

Sukeban sighs, "Maybe we can start to get to know each other better, right now. Quinn and me aren't getting married, but if we're co-parentin' ya, we should talk at least. My real name's Kotone Yoshida. My fiancee is Suzume Doi. Her family owns and runs Doi Heavy Industries. And her hero name is Vajra. I'm an undergrad at CBSU, majorin' in Family Studies and Child Development. Suzu-chan is also a CBSU student, majorin' in Modern Languages and Cultural Studies. We're both 20 years old, both born in Osaka, Japan."

Mark and Patrica listen intently to Sukeban speaking.

Anthony nods and smiles. "And you know who I am," he says, "since I don't really have a secret identity. I've got maybe a year or two on Kotone but I've already finished up college. A lot of my work day is taken up with Quinn Industries business instead. But if we're going to be co-parenting," he says, glancing over at a clock on the wall, "I suppose the first thing we should do is scold you for being out of bed so late."

Sukeban says, "I never knew my dad, but he was a real scum bag. My ma worked herself nearly to death to support us, and I repaid her by being' a delinquent and gettin' into trouble. One day, trouble got back to me. Some guys beat the crap out of me, doused me in gasoline, and set me on fire. That's when I found out that I don't burn. I've known Suzu-chan since middle school, though we only actually said we love each other last year. She, and my Ma, are the people that kept me from goin' supervillain."

Sukeban laughs, "Eh, even if we send 'em to bed, they'll be too excited to sleep."

Mark and Patrica gasp in horror as Sukeban reveals the beating and setting on fire. Patrica hugs Sukeban. Mark tells their story. "My name was Dolanic. But that was my Wolfguard name. I don't like using it any more. I'm Mark and Patrica now. I was cloned in a Wolfguard base by the Baron nine years ago. But the third generation and heroes from Colonial Bay took us away when I was three. I've been at the school since then and I've made friends there. I'm not like the others, my brothers and sisters..." The pair suddenly wince quite badly. "Ouch. Peter has found out I sneaked off. Oh boy, is he mad at me!"

"Yelling in your head?" Anthony asks with a wry smile. "If we did adopt you would you want to continue going to the same school or would you want to go to school in Colonial Bay?"

Sukeban smriks, "It'd be a heck of a commute if they're livin' with us and they didn't go to school in the Bay."

Mark nods, "Real loud." he confirms. Patrica says hesitantly, "My friends are at Lord Markham's. It's a boarding school, uh, Kotone. But I'll go to a school in Colonial Bay if you want me to."

Mark says, apparently to thin air, "Yeah. YEAH. I heard you."

Quinn shakes his head to Mark and smiles. "It's not as bad a commute as you would think," he says to Sukeban. "I've got a...project I've had on the drawing board for a bit, and of course there's always Transmat." He nods back to Mark. "Maybe you should head back for now and we can talk more about it later on," he says.

Sukeban nods, "Yeah, ya don't want to be away from yer friends." She pokes Patricia in the forehead, "Here's yer Japanese lesson for the day. Call me Anego. Mean's Big Sister, in a casual way."

Mark and Patrica nod and with final hugs they hurry back to the room the school party is bunking in.