God is a Gun: Molly, Korvus, & Scott | Tuesday Afternoon

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Molly makes a discovery and wisely takes it to the adults.


Lately everyone was kind of quiet, almost nervous, walking quickly to and from places, whispering to one another. The adults tried not to scare the kids, only giving enough information to keep them safe, but Molly knew something was more wrong than they said, especially with Kurt and Jubilee in the clinic in the city. She knew the adults were trying to protect them, but being at the school with the X-People for so long, with so many weird and bad things happening, she knew they could only do so much.

Molly tried not to bother Wademan while he was working, even if she wanted to check on him, since he seemed the most freaked out of all them. So she didn't, and tried to act like normal. But when she went to throw her hat away, since it was covered with blood, she noticed it.

And that was why she went looking for an adult. It was probably nothing but she wanted to make sure.

Korvus was sitting on the recreation room couch, legs folded up under him, eyes on the television. He looked Molly's way the moment she stepped in and smiled, then his eyes drifted to the blood splattered hat. "That's an odd article to carry around."

"Good, an adult!" Molly said, before suddenly realizing that she said that out loud instead of thinking it. Her cheeks flushed red and she made a face. "Er... sorry. Um... well, Wademan and I were at the comic book store yesterday and he got shot and... I was going to throw my hat away... cause it has blood on it. And I found a hole. It wasn't there before, I don't think. I think maybe it happened yesterday. I felt a weird thud on my head, like getting poked really hard, y'know? It didn't hurt or anything so I didn't think much about it. I dunno what could of made a hole in my hat, though." She shrugged. "I figured I should talk to an adult just in case."

"Good figuring." Korvus said with a nod, parroting her slang with slight awkwardness. "May I see the hat?" He held his hand out. "And your head." He requested, one of her ever-present caps in the way as always.

Molly nodded, leaving the doorway so she could get closer to Korvus. She gave him the hat, showing where the hole, a little bigger than a nickle or a quarter, was. She also ducked her head so that Korvus, even if he was much taller than her, could see.

"See? Maybe it got stuck on a tree or something before and I didn't remember? It just seemed weird. I don't wanna like... make the other adults upset though. Everyone seems kinda... spooked, y'know?"

"You did well." Korvus assured her. "Coming to me was a good choice but we will need to see Scott." He turned her cap inside out, then pushed his finger through the hole to show her. "There are marks here which are familiar to me. Trees are not hot enough to burn fabric. I had a shirt which had holes like this. If this hole was caused the same way, the team will need to know."

"Burn?" Molly said, blinking. "But what would make burns? Wademan doesn't smoke."

"Lets make sure Scott agrees first." Korvus stood and offered Molly her hat back. "He will want us to go to him directly."

Molly squinted. "We want to make sure Mr. Summers agrees Wademan doesn't smoke?" she said. Korvus was doing that thing adults did when they knew something and they weren't telling her because they thought she was too young. It made her grumpy. She made a face. "Okay."

Korvus stopped in the middle of standing, noticing her reaction. It didn't need to be said. He finished getting to his feet fully, stepping back a bit to avoid looming over Molly. "Your reaction is deserved." He stood motionless to explain, instead of rushing her off. "I have no right to hide my suspicions. It seems likely to me that your hat was damaged by a bullet but I'm not experienced enough to say so with the certainty such a claim warrants."

"Dude," Molly said, holding up her hat as she tried to look at the hole a little more closely now. "A bullet? That's so weird." She glanced up, smiling at Korvus. "Thanks. For telling me. Most adults don't."

***

As they got closer to Mr. Summers' office, it was time for Molly to start fidgeting again. The door was partially open, and he seemed to be busy. She didn't really talk to Mr. Summers that much since she didn't have his class. She had science with Dr. Grey.

"What if he doesn't believe me?" she said to Korvus, not realizing she said that a little louder than she thought she had.

"What if I don't believe what?" Scott piped up leaning back in his chair and glancing out of the open doorway, "Korvus, Molly," he said nodding at the two of them, "Would you like to come in?"

"Gack!" Molly jumped when Mr. Summers spoke up, head snapping toward where he sat. "Kay..." she said practically tip-toeing in before she slowly sat down. Biting her lip, she tapped her foot against the floor. "Um... well... I found something... on my hat. Korvus thinks it might be something bad."

Korvus stepped in behind Molly before he moved around her to get to the desk. "I told Molly the only types of primarily symmetrical holes I've seen in which the fabric appears burned have been bullet holes. One of her hats has a similar hole."

"A bullet hole?!" Scott shot forward in his chair, "May I see the hat?" he asked concern radiating from his features.

Standing up so she could reach over the desk, Molly handed Mr. Summers her hat. He looked worried, too. Well, more worried than Korvus. Korvus always usually seemed to be calm (except that one time when he was an evil Knight but that was a little girl's fault).

"I noticed it when I was gonna throw it away since I couldn't clean... y'know... Wademan's blood off." She made a face. "It looked weird. So I showed Korvus."

Scott took the hat from Molly, turning it over in his hands to examine the hole, "That is definitely a bullet hole," he confirmed with a nod at Korvus. "Well spotted." The X-man turned the hat over in his hands once more, calculating trajectories and ricochet angles based off of the report Wilson had given the previous day. "It looks like Wade wasn't the target of the shooting," Scott realized as his voice trailed off and he turned to look at Molly.

Molly paused, then glanced behind her, before realizing he was actually looking at her. She pointed to herself. "Me? Wait, why?" she said, blinking. She held up her hands. "I didn't beat anybody up lately, I swear. And they weren't super-villains. At least... they weren't before." Her eyes widened. "Did I make a super-villain?" she said with hushed whisper.

"I really hope not," Scott replied honestly. "They always seem to keep popping up in your life, even when you think they're done." The X-Man took a moment to examine Molly. "It doesn't look like you're injured," he noted in relief. "But I'd like to take you down to the medlab and get Jean to check on you, just in case. After that we," he said looking at Korvus but meaning the mansion staff in general, "need to talk to someone and see what's going on." Scott pushed back his chair and stood up, gesturing toward the door, "Shall we?"