Molly & Wade: Stay Tuned

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Wade comes by the rec room to talk to Molly about training. They play Hungry Hungry Hippos and it doesn't go so as planned.



The TV in the rec room was alive with the sound of music, and a girl with a strawberry shaped hat dancing around in front of it. She was trying to see if she could dance like the people in the music video. It was going pretty good, though her mom made her do more ballet stuff (bleh) than fun dance stuff so she didn't know all the cool moves.

Wade propped himself up in the door frame and grinned as he watched Molly dance around. He waited until the music seemed to come to an end and then said, "Hey, half-pint. You got a second to tell me how your training's going? Or are you gonna juke around in front of the TV all afternoon?"

Molly spun around after making a face at the commercial guy on the TV who was trying to sell life insurance then grinned.

"I was dancing! What's a juke? Is it like a juke box?"

"Juking's kinda like dancing and yeah, I guess it has something to do with a juke box, but I have no idea what the actual relation is. How're you doing?"

Molly giggled. "It kinda sounds like puking," she said.

"Me and Monet are trying to work on my power levels, so I don't punch too much. But it's really hard. She says I'm doing good, though. But I think she'd say that if I was doing bad, though. Cause teachers do that."

"I dunno, if she says you're doing alright, you probably are. Otherwise, she'd be telling you all kinds of things you could do to improve while also telling you you're doing alright. It's like a code. Or something. You had a chance to show her how you can drop your shoulder?" Wade waggled his eyebrows a little, grinning.

Molly's eyes widened before she laughed. "Dude, no! I forgot! We all should do that together!" she said. That'd be really fun!

"Or I should at least watch you do it when you're all powered up," Wade said, laughing quietly. "Everybody here being nice? Cause if they're not, I'll have a talk with 'em for you."

Molly nodded eagerly, entirely fully agreeing with the awesome idea. "Yeah! I can tell Monet you wanna watch us and then BAM! Quarterback blitz!"

She hopped up on the couch, popping her elbows on the back and resting her chin in her hands.

"Everybody's cool! And the ones who are grumpy I avoid anyway. Cause grumpy is contagious and is not good."

Tilting her head she smiled.

"Are they nice to you?"

Wade pretended to really think about that. "Well, I've got minions now, so that's nice. Minions to make me food. Delicious food..." He grinned. "You tell your Monet and I'll be around for watching whenever you tell me to be."

Molly blinked, head still tilted. "Minions? Like a supervillain?" she asked curiously. She didn't read all the journals cause they sometimes talked about adult stuff and it made her uncomfortable (and it was kinda gross).

She nodded. "Okay!" she said, jumping off the couch in punctuation. Being so small it gave her a bit of air time and made her look like she was in slow motion before she landed on the ground.

"So now I'm bored, you wanna do stuff!"

Pushing off of the door frame, Wade tipped his head to the side. "I'm not a supervillain. I just like having minions to do things like cook me fried chicken." He nodded toward the hallway. "What'd you have in mind, half-pint?"

Molly tapped her chin for a moment or two before her shoulders sagged, biting her lip.

"I dunno....there's not a lotta kid stuff to do here."

"True," Wade agreed. "What kinds of kid stuff do you like?"

Molly shrugged. "I like....being outside...and climbing things and games and cards. And swimming...but it's too cold to swim. And movies and music and jumping on the trampoline...."

She'd gone off daydreaming, staring toward the ceiling thoughtfully.

Wade considered the options she'd given him and then said. "So let's find some games." He went poking about the common room, opening cabinets and drawers until the found a couple things that looked promising. "Right - Hungry Hungry Hippos or... the robot thing. Pick your poison, half-pint."

Molly sat back down on the couch, biting her lip. "Hmmm..both!!!" she said, then burst out giggling.

"Hungry hungry robots!"

Wade looked from Molly to the game he held, then back again. "Okay, you asked for it." He sat on the floor on the other side of the coffee table and pulled the games out, then got them set up. "One hand on each game, got it? You can have two hippos and I'll have the other two. On my mark... ready... set... go!"

Molly hunched forward, narrowing her eyes as she draped her thumbs over the handles to her hippos: the pink and yellow ones. At Wade's count she began to punch down on handles, pushing them as hard as she could.

Wade didn't even use his enhanced speed or anything, since he figured that wouldn't be fair. He just tried to hit the little handles as quick as a normal person would because letting her win wouldn't really be fair to her, either.

Molly's jaw set and her nostrils flared in concentration as she tried to get her hippos fed! But to do that she had to be faster than Wade and that meant pressing down harder! She wasn't doing it hard enough!

Her eyes slowly began to turn a glowing purple, the game suddenly flying across the room with the force of her attempt and embedded itself in the wall with a hard crack!

Little white balls went everywhere, several smacking Wade in the face and one hitting him square in the eye. He clapped a hand over it as it started watering and squinted at Molly out of the other one, then looked at the wall and the game and suppressed the sort of inappropriate urge to laugh. "Whoa, half-pint."

"Eeek!" Molly squealed, looking between him, the wall, then back to him.

"Sorry!" The once extremely surprised look, however, took on an unfocused expression as her eyes fluttered.

"Uh oh..." she said, dropping backward onto the couch with a fluffy thud. If anything, she was usually well rested after practicing with Monet.

"No problem," Wade said, rubbing at his eye for a moment. Then he looked up, saying, "We can just patch the wall, remember I said I could - " He broke off, though, when he saw her flop back against the couch cushions. "Molly?" He got no answer. "Uh, half-pint, my eye's fine. And even if it weren't, I'm pretty sure it'd grow back, seriously... don't worry about it." She still wasn't moving. "Uh..." Pushing himself up, his eye still watering, Wade moved around the coffee table and looked down at her.

"I am a responsible adult." Who the fuck was he kidding? "Shit." Okay, so. Pulse. Wade checked her pulse and it was there. She was breathing, even. Her half-strawberry hat thing was all crooked, but she was... unconscious. "Not good, half-pint."

Molly didn't respond, still asleep on the couch.

Reaching down, Wade picked up Molly's arm and held it in the air for a moment by her wrist, then released his hold and watched it flop limply back to the couch cushion. "Shit." She was unconscious, it wasn't like he really had to worry about his language at the moment. "Still breathing, still one with the pulse..." Wade picked up his Xavier's phone and scrolled through his contacts - fuck, but none of them were useful. Stowing that away, he leaned down and scooped the kid up. "Right, so to the medlab we go. My depth perception is royally screwed," he muttered, one eye squished shut because it stung like a bitch.

As Wade picked her up, the disturbance of being moved made Molly shift a little, putting her head on his shoulder. Since she'd only used her powers a little it meant it was a small nap.

"Mmmm...where...going...?" she said through half lidded eyes as she put her hand on Wade's chest.

"Hey there, half-pint," Wade said, already out in the hallway. "We're gonna go see Osmosis Joe and maybe Hot Doc Jean cause your eyes flashed purple and you kinda passed out."

Molly shook her head, yawning as she tried to stay awake. Wade sounded scared and she didn't want Dr. Beast to freak out because Wade didn't know.

"No doc...no...worry....s'kay...my powers make...sleepy....Happens...every...time...promise...just need...nap..."

Wade paused. "Every time?"

Molly nodded. "Mmmmhmmm....Sorry...should've...told you..."

Her eyes fluttered again. "Can I...finish..my nap now?"

Narrowing his eyes, Wade considered his options. "So long as you promise this is normal," he finally said, turning on his heel and heading back toward the common room. He'd work on getting things kinda cleaned up and then put on a movie or something while he monitored her to make sure she kept breathing.

About 20 minutes later Molly slowly stirred, lured by the sound of crashing cymbals and people fighting on the TV. Opening her eyes, she smiled at the TV. "Yay...Batman...." she said, glancing over to find Wade on the couch.

"Hi....see...all good..." she said, then yawned again as she sat up, stretching.

"All good," Wade agreed, glancing from Molly to the television and back again. "You gotta warn people about falling asleep after using your powers, half-pint."

Molly nodded as she adjusted her hat. She bit her lip. "Sorry...I forgot I didn't tell you...and then...I didn't think I'd use my powers but I realllly wanted to win," she said. She glanced over to where the game had went in the wall and found he'd put a plant there to hide the hole.

She laughed. "Dude, you're sneaky, like Batman..." she said. Her eyes lit up.

"You're Wademan!"

Wade laughed. "If you say so, half-pint." He'd still be talking to somebody about her passing out thing.