Molly/Rachel - Backdated to Aug 20!

[x-eidolon.livejournal.com]

An unconventional meeting between an unsquishable little girl and a sleeping psion. Wreckage occurs.



Molly was headed for the art room. They let her use the art supplies to make stuff outside of class and she felt like doodling today and adding some glitter, presents for Wademan and Blink and Meggan. She had her iPod on and had just left her room, half dancing, half walking as she made her way down the hallway toward the stairs.

"I get knocked DOWN! and I get up again!," she said, bringing her arms down at 'down'. then hopping at the 'up again.'

"You're never gonna gonna keep me down! I get knocked down! But I get up again! You're never gonna keep me down...Kissin the night away...kissin the night away...She makes wishy drink, she makes a soda drink, she makes a badger drink...she makes a panda drink...she sings the songs about some good times...she sings some songs about a lot of the better times...."

Slumped in a corner of the art room was a figure curled up into a tight ball, her own pair of earphones plugged firmly in her ears as she dozed. Around her lay scattered several pieces of art paper and a pencil which looked like it had been snapped in two. More distinct, however, was the row of chairs she had lined up in front of her, quite literally cornering herself.

Molly skipped into the artroom. Not seeing the earphones, all she saw was the lady who's eyes were closed curled up.

"Um...are you okay? Uh...lady girl?" she said, creeping up as she reached out and attempted to shake her gently.

She really didn't want to have to go with her to scary doctor lady. The other lady doctor was nice but she was taking a break so they had to see scary doctor. Still, she didn't want the lady girl to be hurt.

Eyes snapped open at the gentle touch, wide and unseeing. Rachel snarled a denial in a heavily accented tone, clearly caught in the throes of a nightmare. One earphone popped from its perch in her ear as Rachel threw an arm out and pushed the touch from her, lurching to her feet in time with the violent throw of her assailant. A telekinetic force field snapped into existence around her, almost corporeal, crackling with energy.

Not expecting that kind of reaction, Molly didn't have time to duck or dodge or even make a sound save for a gasp so when the lady girl threw her arm out...she flew. The result was a loud smash. A small section of wood paneling crumpled and left a hole as the small girl was telekinetically slammed through it and went through the other side into another class room.

A small metallic device clattered to the floor as Rachel’s gaze refocused on her assailant, taking in the small figure and the bright colours it was wearing. In the next moment, a swearword was exclaimed and the force field banished as the telekinetic flew forward, propelled by her powers.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!” Fuck, damn and shit. “Please be all right.” She had not much hope, however. That blow was aimed to kill, and Rachel never messed that up. But after killing a child in a school that saw itself as a safe haven, the teenager was pretty sure she had more than colossally messed up any kind of chances of getting help from the X-Men in this world. She landed near the body, horror, guilt, remorse and an unhealthy dose of self-loathing forming a lump in her throat that only a whisper could get around. “Kid?”

In the other class room two rows of desks had been knocked backwards when she crashed into them during the collision course. The girl lay in the middle of them, hat askew and halfway in her face, clothing stained with dirt and debris as she stared up at the ceiling. After a moment she blinked, then made a face.

"Uh oh. I broke the wall," she said, no sound of pain or fear in her voice, just pure sheepishness.

"Kyle is gonna be so mad at me."

“Oh, my God,” Rachel breathed, uncharacteristically sending a prayer of thanks to whoever was listening that the younger girl was all right. Relief could not even begin to describe... She vaguely remembered Kyle, and was pretty sure that he would be more mad at her than at the little tyke – But that was largely irrelevant to her immediate concerns. Crouching, Rachel righted the hat so she could see Molly’s face properly, tilting her head upwards to check for a concussion when it became obvious that there were no punctured organs or streaming rivers of blood. “Here, can you follow the movement of my finger with your eyes?”

Molly peered at the lady girl with confusion, but nodded and did what she was asked, tilting her head.

"Are you a doctor too?" She seemed too young to be a doctor. Did all doctors have red hair? Wait...no, mom and daddy had normal hair, and there was also Doctor Beast. Maybe there was just lots of redhaired people in the school. Like Mary Angie and Doctor Grey and Maddie and Matt and Lady Girl....

"I hope they don't take it out of my allowance. I'm saving up for a wand remote control...like Ron Weasley. Except he can probably do that with magic."

“No, I’m not a doctor,” Rachel wrinkled her nose at the girl, lifting her eyelids and inspecting them. Just very familiar with concussions and cracked skulls. “What’s your name?”

"Molly Hayes," Molly said politely, crossing her eyes a couple of times as she peered up at her. The look of confusion lingered.

"Um...do you know I'm unsquishable?" Maybe she was supposed to have told her that herself. Oops.

Huh. Rachel set back on her heels. Then stood and levitated both her and the little girl away from the mess. “Well, Molly Hayes,” she said, grasping her by the shoulder. “Unsquishable Molly Hayes, I don’ think anyone will be takin’ anything from you for somethin’ clearly not your fault.”

Rachel got damned lucky and she knew it. But if they expected her to pay for the damage to the room, then she was going to have some problems.

Molly jumped, arms flailing a bit as they floated. She didn't think her feet would leave the ground twice in one day.

"Oh," she said, nodding a little. She paused. "Who will they take it from?"

“Me, probably,” the older girl sighed as she lowered them to the floor. She was probably going to have to get a job. Although with no identification, that was not going to be a walk in the park. “M’sorry, Molly. Did I startle you?”

"Oh," Molly repeated, frowning softly. She shrugged a little. "It's okay. It just feels funny."

Rachel mirrored her frown, dropping to a crouch in front of Molly, immediately concerned again. Her heart rate still had not returned to normal. “Exactly how ‘unsquishable’ are you?”

Molly thought about it a moment. "I got thrown through a church once?" she said, then shrugged again.

"Heights are okay but...I guess...cause I didn't know you were gonna do it. Maybe..."

With a loud sigh of relief, Rachel flopped to the floor and crossed her legs, breathing deeply and studying Molly even as she berated herself for falling asleep in public. “I’m Rachel, bee tee dubs. Think y’need a trip to the doc’s?”

Plopping down in a chair, Molly shook her head. "Nothing hurts...Should I?" she said.

"Nice to meet you Rachel Beeteedubs. I'm Molly Hayes!"

“I dunno. Maybe just in case?” The redhead smiled, a more genuine uplift to her lips – it was hard not to in the face of such an effervescent personality. “’Sides… What better way to tell the people around here that I managed to destroy your art room with a human wrecking ball?”

Molly glanced around, to make sure no one was listening. She bit her lip. "Do we have to? Dr. Ghost--Oh! Dr. Ghost has red hair too...but she's scary. She might yell. I think her eyes have powers. Dr. Jean is not a doctor right now so we can't go to her and Doctor Beast is away..."

“I’ll see if I can protect you from scary doctors. If anything, I’m good at exit strategies.” Holding her hand out for Molly to take, Rachel massaged the bridge of her nose with her free hand. “Humour me, all right? It’s not every day I send a kid flying through the air for her to live to tell the tale. Y’just about gave me a heart attack, tyke.”

Curling her nose, Molly took Rachel's hand. "Okay...sorry..." she said begrudgingly, apologetic but more worried about Dr. Ghost. After a moment she glanced over with a small sneaky smile.

"If we were in a comic book it woulda made a BOOM! noise with a explosion picture," she said, her hands extending outward.

"That was pretty cool."

Smiling despite herself, Rachel patted Molly's head with her free hand. "Yeah? Y'like playing human catapult?"

Molly shrugged. "Sometimes....I made a hole in a church once cause this guy had lotsa muscles really fast, not normal cause there was something weird going on, and he was like RAAAAAAAAR!" Her face twisted, eyes narrowing as she opened her mouth wide. "And he threw me inna the church and.....these older people were playing bingo and I scared 'em too. Then I borrowed a chanda--um....a light thing. And I threw it at the guy to try to knock him out before he hurt people and....that didn't work so we hadta do something else...I think Wademan did it...Maybe...yeah?."

The animated expressions of Molly’s face were so diverting that, Rachel could not contain her chuckles. “Maybe next time we’ll find a more suitable, open-aired place an’ see exactly how far I can throw you. I dunno. Should be kinda fun.”

"Yeah...I could be a Molly Missile!" Molly said. She was still kinda scared about flying in the air but maybe if she did it enough she wouldn't.

“Molly Missile,” Rachel repeated thoughtfully. “Nice. It has a nice ring to it.”