Molly H

“Is he a runaway too?” She asks, perhaps a little to bluntly, and winces at her own curtness. There’s a lot to this story she doesn’t know, but she can’t pester Molly for each detail. “If he’s in Gotham, I’ll keep an eye out. Do you want to tell me his name?”

Jessica stops in her tracks, glancing back at the girl. Her mind runs a mile a minute trying to come up with reasons; a mob, a cult, a gang, aliens—but she doesn’t ask Molly about it, she trusts the girl will tell her in time, and they’ve just met. “I’m sorry,” she offers weakly, “I know what it’s like to lost parents because they’re…involved in something.” She smiles, gesturing to the couch. “You can sleep there if you’d like, or you can use my room, which ever makes you more comfortable.” She pauses, “no, I—I’ve never liked living in places like that. They don’t ever feel like a home but an apartment? That’ll always be a home, it’ll be cozy. When you spend your whole day surrounded by the superhero stuff, you don’t want to come back home to it too.” Though it was less the apartment and more Carol, but she doesn’t tell the girl that. “But I’m sorry It’s not fancy. Next time I’ll get a giant lasers and some high-tech scanners.”

“Yeah, he is.” Molly shrugged, awkwardly, looking down at her feet. “There’s six of us. Seven if you count the dinosaur. I can’t tell you their names unless they tell me I can, but... if they show up, I’ll let you know. They aren’t here yet.”

“No way am I taking your bed! The couch would be awesome, and I promise I won’t get in the way of your.... superhero stuff. Or yknow.... anyone you might be dating” She nodded, taking a glance around the room. The others definitely wouldn’t believe that she’d got herself a place like this to stay, especially with it being a really safe one to stay. She looked back at Jessica as she apologised for it not being fancy, and she snorted a laugh. “Well, I think it’s great as it is, but lasers would definitely make it cooler.”

Molly was standing in Jessica’s apartment, and while the other woman was out, she decided to let loose, turning up the stereo, and dancing around the room - she had plenty of pent-up, nervous energy that she wanted to get rid of. Of course, it wasn’t as easy as that, and halfway through a spin, she tripped on a cable that was on the floor, and fell flat on her face.

As she lay there, she heard a voice, and hadn’t realised that the door had been left open. Not moving from the floor, Molly looked over at the other person, and frowned. “Not sure if I should take that as an insult or a compliment? Were you talking to me?”

“A pleasure, Molly,” Jessica smiles, kicking down the bike stand. “And if your friend needs the resources, come tell me. I can probably get him going.” The reason behind her kindness is lost on her. Maybe it’s because the girl looks so young, or because she has a name like Molly which just sounds to sweet to see twisted by Gotham streets. Jessica’s worked enough of these cases; abusive parents, runaway kids. She knows how they all end, and she doesn’t like it, doesn’t want that to be the end of Molly’s story. 

“I’m glad you like it, I get more complaints than compliments on my driving.” She starts on the building’s backdoor, unlocking it with ease. “Do you want to talk about that?” She holds the door open for Molly, “about your parents?” She’s prepared for Molly to shut her request down, but she asks anyway, unable to shake the feeling of wanting to help. “The apartment’s just on the second floor, don’t worry about the walking.” She wonders if she should mention that she lives with Captain Marvel, in case Carol is home, but decides it would be worth it to see the girl’s reaction.

“I’d have to know where he was first.” She frowned, shrugging a shoulder, trying to pretend like it wasn’t such a big deal. She couldn’t even call the others, none of them had a way to be traced, after all. Maybe eventually she could ask for Jessica’s help in trying to track them down, but for now she was too stubborn, wanting them to see that she could take care of herself.

“I.... They’re my foster parents. My parents, they.... they were murdered.” She said, biting her lip and habitually touching her cat hair pin, one she’d had since she was little, one of the few things she had from her parents. “They got into some... really bad stuff, and by the time they realised... it was too late.” Her shoulders drooped a little, showing it was a difficult subject. And waay too complicated to even begin to try and get into. Looking up, she tried to change the subject. “So, do you live on your own? Why do you have an apartment? Shouldn’t superheroes have like... a cool lair or something?”

“And it shows,” Jessica sighed, staring up her bike. “Listen, kid. If you’re some runaway—let me give you a tip. Get a fake-id or try one of the shelters. You won’t last long out here just walking into the first place you find.” She’d seen it first hand, the kind of life runaways led. This girl mist have been new, to not be stumbling around the East End somewhere already.

“Legally my name is spider-woman. Spider M. Woman,” she laughed, “Jessica. Jessica Drew. Nice to meet you, kid. Don’t worry about accidentally spilling that, my identity is a terrible secret.” She dropped her glasses from the top of her head over her eyes and peeled out of the old motel, speeding down twists and turns to get to her apartment as quick as she could. “I hope you don’t get motion sickness because—” she called out over the rumbling of her bike hitting asphalt, “—I don’t like slowing down!”

She screeched to a halt in the back alley of her old apartment building and shut the bike;s engine out, humming as the rumbling purred to a stop. “Now, wasn’t that fun?”

“I have a friend that’s smart enough to make fake IDs, he just... doesn’t have the resources at the moment.” She shrugged, very quickly missing the others. “And I can’t go to a shelter - there’s a missing persons report out on me, and they’d tell the police, and then I’d end up back home, and probably dead, or.... or whatever they’d do to me, I dunno.” She shrugged, wrinkling her nose, not wanting to think about that.

She felt pretty cool knowing a superheroes real name. Even if she said it was a terrible secret, it still felt awesome knowing something that not many people would. She was about to say as much when the bike sped out of the motel, and she let out a surprised cry, doing as she was told and holding on tight.

As it stopped, she jumped off the bike, full of adrenaline. “Are you kidding? That was awesome!” She grinned, her heart racing, but in a good way for once. Regaining her composure, she cleared her throat, and held a hand out for her. “... I’m Molly.” She said at last.

“Yeah, meet him and then we’ll talk.” She huffed, crossing her arms, “he’s grumpy, hairy and smells like beer. Plus, he has shite taste in beer. Why do you like him?” She quirked up a brow, “yes, please don’t break my spine. I need it to fight crime and eat froyo.”

She nodded and led the girl through the motel, down around it where her bike was parked. She grumbled as she stepped over suspect stains and trace peices of garbage. “Of all the places to sleep….you know there are plenty empty penthouses that you could have broken into right? God, I’ve slept in my share of decrepit motels but one you get a clean bed you never want to go back to this.” She hopped on her motorcycle and gestured behind for the girl to sit.

Molly followed her to the bike, climbing onto the back of it, wrapping her arms around the others waist, reminding herself to not grab too tightly. “I just kind of went to the first place I could find. I’m.... not so used to being on my own.” She admitted, awkwardly. She just wished the others were here so she wouldn’t feel so lost all the time. In hindsight, in a place like Gotham, it was probably a really bad idea.

“So.... What do you want me to call you?” She asked, frowning confused all of a sudden. “I mean... Spider-woman works but if we’re going to your apartment I guess that’s not the name you have on your mail...”

Tim raises a brow; confusion and amusement reflected, “I’m positive I saw you lift it.” Of course, she had the right to be cautious with that knowledge. “Hey, don’t worry. I know a lot of people that can lift vending machines. I promise I won’t tell a soul about what I saw.” He puts a hand over his heart and smiles. The girl looks young, but can’t be too far off his own age.

He hands the girl a five with a gentle grin. “Keep the change. Is that the kind with almonds? I like the almond ones.” He pauses, “if you need money so you don’t have shake-down another vending machine I can give you some.”

“If you want the snacks, then you didn’t see it.” She muttered, relaxing a little when he said that he wouldn’t tell anyone. “.... Thanks.” She said, embarassed, throwing him over the snacks, and taking the five - she wouldn’t say no to money, not while she was here on her own.

“It isn’t - but I do have that kind here as well.” She nodded, pulling it out of the pile, and throwing it over. “And... I’m not a charity. I don’t even know you, why would I take money from you?”

“That’s basically the same thing,” she huffed, “You….” she blinked, hoping the girl would say she was joking. “You like Wolverine more than Tony? Wolverine? Have you met him? He’s hairy, smells like beer and….seriously, Wolverine?” She shook her head with a sigh. “Of course not. Are you comfortable riding on the back of a motorcycle without a helmet or should I carry you across roofs? Unless you can fly, then you’re carrying me.”

“Yeah... Wolverine’s cool? I mean, from what I’ve heard at least.” She frowned, shrugging. “I haven’t met him... But it sounds like you have. What’s he like?” She shrugged again. “I can handle being on the back of a motorcycle, no problem. Promise I’ll hold on really tight. Except... maybe not really tight.” She wrinkled her nose. Probably wasn’t a good idea to crush the sternum of a superhero.

Now this was a sight to behold, that’s for sure. Mary’s eyes widened as she watched the other girl break the vending machine, which was a blessing if you asked the red haired girl. Crossing her arms over her chest when the other girl stated the obvious and then extended a bag of chips in her direction, she chuckled and took it with a soft smile. “Lucky for you the way to my heart is through the stomach” she teased and wiggled her eyebrows before she opened the bag, starting to eat the chips. A content hum left her before she looked at the rest of the snacks on the floor. “Should we… eat it all before we get busted?” she asked.

“I... Yeah. Even split?” She offered, nervously. At least they weren’t talking about the huge elephant in the room that was her maybe using a little too much force on the machine. Picking them up from the floor, she stuffed them quickly into her backpack. “We can find somewhere less incriminating to share out the stash.” She smiled a little, because it wasn’t completely her fault that she forgot her strength. “Where to? You promise you’re not gonna tell?”

Tim yawned, he was tired. Unfortunately for him, he was always tired. Being a vigilante and a college student didn’t allow him a lot of sleep. But he wouldn’t trade in his life for anything else.

He’d been planning on a quick meal from the vending machine when he saw a girl struggling with it….and then suddenly doing the exact opposite of struggling with it. “Did you…” Tim rubbed his eyes, “Did you just lift the vending machine?” He awkwardly took the chips offered to him. “I uh—I wanted to get some chocolate…” He pulled a few dollars from his pockets, “can I buy them off you?” He knew he should probably talk about the obvious concern here–which is that a young girl had just lifted up a vending machine–but Tim was hungry. 

Well. Crap. She hadn’t planned on being caught, and despite having plenty of experience, she hadn’t got any better at lying. “..... Let’s go with no.” She nodded, as if that was a perfectly reasonable response.

She looked at the chocolate in her hand, tilting her head as she thought about it before she nodded, holding it out towards him. “Two bucks. And we keep this between ourselves.”

It was easier to deal with grief when left alone. There was too much screaming, too much sobbing, and all of it probably was from the bodies that were littered on the ground. Of the people that were his friends, the people that he loved, the people that were his family.  They were nothing more than bodies that were cold to the touch and it was because he couldn’t save them. It was from the toxins, somehow they were targeted, and….. Gar jumped slightly when someone pulled him into their arms. 

He couldn’t morph back — well he could, but he was too tired. His mind had slowed, processing only what had happened and the fact that the girl was crying. And he was shaking and the fur beneath his eyes were damp and so was his nose. It didn’t matter though, he could barely process words, so he ran his head gently beneath her face, trying to rub the tears away. 

He didn’t know what he could do in the moment. Everyone he cared about was gone and he was the only one left, only one to say the names of those who passed, and the only one that could tell their future kids stories of their friendship that ended too soon. All that mattered was calming the other and Gar rubbed his head against her again, licking at her hand gently. It’ll be okay, he wanted to say, but hope was something that Garfield had managed to lose too. 

Molly held the fox close to her, tears falling against it’s fur, and she stroked it, trying to hold herself together, blocking out the chaos around her. But that only pushed her further into her own head, her fears.

“They.... they killed my mom and dad, and now they’ve killed my friends, and if I wasn’t so stupid they wouldn’t have come to Gotham and known we were g-going to be here...” She sobbed, kissing the fox’s head as she was licked. She wanted so badly for it to help, but the fear was too much, almost an exhausting amount.

Honestly, Molly was here for the food more than anything. She knew she wasn’t going to be winning any costume contests in her hoodie and painted on cat whiskers, but it was free entry, and there was food. Plus, she was kind of too old to trick or treat, so there wasn’t anywhere else for her to go.

She was about to pick up the spider-shaped corn dogs and find a corner to sit in when she looked up just as someone was walking through the main doors. She didn’t react at first, telling herself she had to be seeing things. That it was bad lighting, or her mind was playing tricks on her, or... something.

But then her mind slowly registered that it really was Chase, and she was running across the room, throwing her arms around him and holding him tightly, closing her eyes as she did.

“Look who finally decided to show up.” She muttered into his chest, finally pulling back to look at him.