xp_logs | Molly and Monet, powers training

Monet works on some powers training with Molly.

There came a certain age where children ceased being up and at 'em before dawn and was more eager to stay buried under the covers. Molly was still on the former. She had been up at about 6:45 am and had breakfast (eggs! and bacon! and strawberries!) and had math class (meh) and art (!!!!) and history (eh), and then she was done.

So she laid upside down on her bed in her room, reading a comic book about zombie cheerleader penguins. Her hat had a magical way of staying on her head, even while upside down. Her pigtails hanged down, skimming the ground. She was too short to reach the headboard with her feet so she tapped her foot against the bed, the surprising sound of Jimi Hendrix's guitar streaming from the boombox on her dresser.

"Gross!" she said, curling her nose as she quickly flipped the page excitedly.

Monet had spent the morning in at the Elpis office before heading back to the mansion with a bag full of files. She'd changed out of her work gear into a pair of jeans and shirt, and headed down to Molly's room. She'd been tapped for this bit of the girl's training partly because she was a familiar face and the only one of those who was both familiar and durable and partly because, hey, hitting things was fun. Hitting things in company was more fun.

Monet arrived in time to hear the girl's exclamation and knocked on the door. "Hey, Molly, it's Monet. You in there?"

At the sound of the knock and the voice Molly let out a rather loud "Eeeek!" and tumbled off the bed in a heap. She had never really been that coordinated.

She quickly jumped up, her hair now completely mussed, and soundly put her hat back on her head.

"Come in!" she announced, blowing a few strands of hair out of her eyes.

She forgot she got to train now!

"You right there, mate?" Monet asked, leaning against the end of the bed. "I figured I'd explain what we're doing before we get started, okay? It's what we call an eggshell drill. Basically, right now, it's learning how it feels to hit things when you are and aren't using your powers. We'll move on to controlling how much power you use later."

"I meant to do that," Molly said quickly, adopting a nonchalant stance as she tried to pass it off as totally planned.

Molly paused as she processed what she was saying, then her hand shot up, waiting expectantly for her to call on her.

"What is it, hon?"

Molly put her hand down, frowning.

"I only used my powers once cause I was mad. It felt kinda weird but what if I gotta get mad to use them?"

"You shouldn't have to get mad but that's what we're going to try and find out. And if you have to get mad, we'll figure out a way past that, too."

Fixing her hat to just the way she liked it, Molly finally nodded.

"Okay," she said, smiling. She wanted to use her powers when she wanted to, not just when she was mad. She spread out her arms.

"So...do I gotta like...wear something different or is this okay?"

"Can we tie you hair back?" Monet asked. "And you'll need to take your hat off, too, okay?"

Molly immediately put her hands over her hat protectively.

"But I like my hat. Do I have to?" she said looking up at her with big green eyes and a pout

"I suppose you can take it off when we get to the Danger Room, okay? Come on!"

Looking a little skeptical at first, Molly eventually nodded. "Okay!" she said as she followed her out of the room. Maybe she could sneak in with her hat!

Monet paused at the door to the Danger Room and turned to look at at Molly. "I need to make a couple of things clear before we go in here, Mols. We're using the Danger Room because it's already set up for eggshell drills, since I do them all the time, but that's the only reason we're doing them here. But there's a couple of rules I need to make sure you know before we go in there. The first is that the danger room isn't a toy and if you aren't careful, you can be badly hurt in there. You're not allowed to touch or hit anything at all in there unless I say you can. The second is that you aren't ever allowed in there without an adult who is doing powers training with you. No exceptions, no "But Dori is training and she said I could watch", absolutely no exceptions." Monet took a breath and continued on with the instructions. "Can you repeat that back to me?"

Molly blinked up at her. That was a lot to digest.

"Um...the dangerous room is not a toy...and don't touch anything until you say so and don't go in without an adult...."

Don't touch a lot of people, don't touch anything in the dangerous room. She didn't get to do a lot of stuff.

She looked down, frowning.

Monet just shrugged. "I'm not saying it to be mean, mate. I'm saying it because that room shoots real bullets at me when I'm doing my flight drills. You go around smashing things and you might break something that controls that kind of stuff and then, whoops..." She tied her hair back and handed a tie to Molly. "Get your hair back and let's get moving."

Real bullets?! Dude. Like when the holodeck goes crazy and makes real things on the TV.

Molly fidgeted with the hem of her shirt and nodded in understanding. She fell silent for a moment or two. .

"Can I please, please please please keep my hat?" she said. They were a little like her security blanket. They made her feel better.

"...you can keep the hat," Monet said, keying her code into the door and swinging it open. She'd set the room up before collecting Molly and it contained nothing but mats and the pressure sensitive pells, handles that could be squeezed and mitt targets that Monet herself used.

Molly grinned broadly. "THANKS!" she said, taking the hair tie. She pulled her hair back, the hat still on her head making her look a little funny(er).

Walking in with Monet, Molly looked around.

"It's like gymnastics!"

Kinda.

"It's better." Monet stopped in front of a target and tapped it lightly. A little green light on top came on. "That means I'm hitting it lightly enough that I wouldn't break most things." She hit it again and an orange light came on. "That's me hitting hard enough that I could probably break a brick wall." Monet punched it one more time, as hard as she could, bringing up the red lights. "And that's... harder than I like to hit things."

Molly watched the lights, tilting her head.

"Why doesn't it go crunch?" she said. If she hit it hard, shouldn't it get smushed?

"I have absolutely no idea. You'll have to ask Hank. It's pretty cool, though."

"Hank?" Molly asked. She didn't know his first name. She just knew him as Dr. McCoy (there sure was a lot of Star Trek stuff!) or Dr. Beast.

"The fuzzy blue dude who you thought was Kurt's brother. Beast, remember? Anyway, I want you to hitting this as hard as you can without powers. Can you do it three times?"

"Ohhhh. Hank," Molly said, then giggled. "He sounds like a cowboy."

Squinting at the target, Molly nodded. "Okay..." she said, a bit reluctantly because she wasn't sure what might happen.

Slowly creeping up to the target, Molly clenched her fist and swung at it. The light flashed green the moment her fist impacted it. Peering down at her fist, Molly then looked back up at Monet for confirmation or denial.

"Good work. Now, I want you to tap it really lightly, so lightly that the light doesn't even come on and concentrate on how it feels compared to doing it hard?"

The idea of patience and doing things carefully was an almost alien concept for a 12 year old, also known as walking chaos.

"Okay," she said nevertheless with determination.

Glancing to the target, Molly punched it again, but it once more turned green. She made a face.

"We'll work on it. Also, you know the only way I can manage it?" Monet demonstrated, tapping it lightly with one finger. "This is haaard, Molly. Do you want to try and give it a belt with your powers now?"

Since that seemed easier, Molly eagerly nodded, smiling.

"How hard do you want me to hit?"

"Can you try for hard enough that you know you're using your powers but not too hard?" Monet gave it an amber-lighted hit. For her, the issue had never been knowing she was using her powers but rather, keeping things at a level that wouldn't leave a trail of broken objects behind her. "Don't worry it it takes time to get it right, though."

Molly shrugged. Since she'd only done it once she wasn't sure. But she would try!

She stared at the target for a few moments before she shook her hands out and hopped up and down. Balling her hands up into a fist, she tried to think about the robot man and her eyes narrowed.

Slowly, a rush began to wash over her, and her eyes suddenly started to glow a vibrant, glittering purple as she reared back and slammed her fist into the target. It went red-orange.

Molly pulled her hand away, staggering backward like she were tipsy.

"Is...that good...?" she said through unfocused, half lidded eyes. She was suddenly very-very sleepy.

"That was fantastic!" Monet said, reaching out an arm to steady Molly and feeling the wave of exhaustion wash over her. "What do you say we both go nap in the sunroom for a bit? They have couches...."

Molly glanced up at Monet, practically cross-eyed.

"I like the sun..and...and couches....I don't like naps but..." She yawned, about ready to take a nap right there. "That sounds nice."

"Cool. C'mere." Monet picked Molly up and carefully locked the door behind her as the left the Danger Room. She'd text Kurt soon and demand that he come and wake her up in an hour or so.

Molly rested her head on Monet's shoulder when she picked her up, reaching over to play with the long dark hair that ran down her back.

"Your hair...pretty..." she murmured as she struggled to keep her eyes open and found it to be a losing battle.

"Of course it is. My hair is perfect," Monet said and carefully deposited Molly in the smaller of the two couches in the sunroom and stretched out on the longer one, phone out and sms to Kurt already half typed. "Night, Molly."

Molly curled up into a little ball save for a tiny arm outstretched off the side of the couch. Her hat had shifted a little and was now almost covering her eyes.

"Nigh..." she mumbled. The warm sun made her feel comfortable and she was out seconds later, dreaming of far off places and Monet in a Wonder Woman costume.