LOS Drabbles

Captured

The beast stalked the perimeter of his tiny, dark cell, claws dull and chipped from the nonstop pacing. It was all he'd been doing the past week, besides swiping through the bars at anyone who got close and glaring murderously from the shreds of what had been a bed not too long ago. And the howling was the worst part.

The thing cried every night, a long, mournful sound that echoed through the concrete halls but never made it outside. It was like he was calling for someone, a lilting plea for help that would never come.
———

Finn and Gail huddled in the limp curve of their father's great paw, trembling and fearful of the leering scientists on the other side of blast-proof glass. Furball's body was a dead wall at their backs, barely alive and nowhere near conscious; he'd been that way ever since they'd been captured, sedated long past what should've been safe and unable to protect them.

If they'd been given the chance, the pups could've gotten him awake, they'd done it before; fending off syringe-carrying scientists with tooth and claw one after the other until someone had gotten smart.

Now they timed Furball's sedative within the hour Finn and Gail were dragged away for "testing", and from there they felt the chances of escape dwindle.

The boys could slip out easily if they tried, fight free and bolt to the safety of the Legionnaires, but there was a fear of what might happen to their father if they tried. They weren't even old enough to control their shifts, how could they hope to protect someone as seemingly invincible as Timberwolf? The techs had already made it clear that they weren't beneath hurting Furball if given the chance, and what better chance would they have then Finn and Gail bolting?

Leaving their father to fend alone was out of the question, and so, there in the curve of his neck they huddled, needle teeth bared and fur puffed in a weak attempt to seem bigger.
———

Brin's eyes opened, glazed and unfocused as they rolled from the back of his head. His head hurt and his ribs ached from his place face-down on a cold metal floor. His throat was raw and dried out, almost unbearably so as he tried to swallow.

"Good morning, Brin. I apologize for the way my compatriots treated you, but feared there was no other way I could see the progress you and my grandchildren have made." He knew that oily, accented voice, raspier with age but still undeniably him. It lit a rage like no other in Brin's stomach and pushed enough fuel into his overtaxed body to lunge at Mar's voice, extended claws screeching uselessly against unbudging bars.

"And I'd have thought you'd be more grateful after 26 years of using my gift to you." Black boots didn't even step away, standing firm in front of the beastly hero.

"Give me back my sons." Brin snarled, limbs shaking with adrenaline and pain.

"And miss out on the chance to bond with my grandchildren? The ones that are everything you could've been if you hadn't run off?"

"You lost that title when you forced your gift onto me." He spat out the word "gift" like a piece of bone from a meal, disgust rolling off his tone in waves. "Give. Them. Back."

"I'm afraid I have a few more tests to run before that can happen, though I could just keep them. You're surely not in any state-" Brin wrenched himself up and shoved his arm through the bars in a last burst of energy, snagging the front of Mar's lab coat and yanking him into the bars, feeling a sick satisfaction as his glasses cracked on the metal.

"Lay a single finger on my sons, and I will personally reduce you to the liquid state when I'm free, Legion codes be damned."

Mar raised an eyebrow, flicked a glance between Brin and the tearing fabric of his coat, and phased out of sight to the frustrated scream of his worst experiment.
———

Finn and Gail were bundled up in the space between their dads, still shaking even in sleep. Brin and Garth could barely even blink without feeling a swoop of anxiety in their stomachs, a nervousness that the boys would be gone if they slept even a single second. Instead they murmured in hushed tones about what to do with the boys.

"They can't keep staying with us, Sparky, it's too dangerous."

"I know, Bees. I'm calling tomorrow to see if my parents can take them."

"They have to." Brin settled a soft hand in Gail's hair, jaw clenching tightly as the boy shrunk away before anything else. "For fucks sake, the boys couldn't even run the first time because they were scared for me!"

The beginnings of angry tears caught in the corner of Brin's eyes, and Garth tugged him closer, wiping them away before they could puddle on his nose or the pillow below.

Sniffling, Brin buried his head into the warm column of Garth's neck. "I don't want to lose them for good."