2014-07-25 - Lollipop Hayes

A moment ago, Molly and Nico were in Leapfrog with Chase, while the others were out getting food. Everyone was way bored, and Chase had his feet on the roof and Nico was yelling at him while she was trying to find a way to make a holster for the Staff of One for when she had to run with it and it was getting noisy because Chase wasn't bothering to argue. He just kept on saying "Lalalala" louder and louder and Nico was being Nico.

Molly, being the intelligent young lady that she is, was telling them to stop being themselves and behave, like she was because she was obviously the smart one at the moment. Nico, however, pitched a fit and told them to just do whatever they wanted then. Suddenly, everyone was gone and Molly was in The Bronx at night.

Molly Hayes sighs, "Omigod if you guys don't stop I'm gonna havta-" Then she looks around, since she suddenly is in a fiendish pit of villainy and treachery. Or as the inhabitants call it, the Bronx. "Wait... what?" she looks around in, suddenly wishing she hadnt been at the table eating in her Hello Kitty PJs (with matching Hello Kitty hat and slippers of course).

There's a dark alley nearby, which is where all the bad guys are in the movies on the net when we had good internet access. No suprise right now that there's a sound there, some kind of moaning and crunching noise that seems right out of a horror movie. It is awfully quiet other than that around here, which is probably because it's night. People sleep, duh.

Molly Hayes looks around "Oh cmon! This isnt fair! No one kidnaps Iron Man in his pajamas I bet!" She pouts a little then looks around when she hears the scary sounds, getting a little scared now. Poor Molly who often forgets the whole invulnerability thing. Heck, she used to ask to sleep in Gert and Nico's room because of monsters under the bed in her room (so of course it's less scary to sleep in the room with the dinosaur and the witch).

"Um... hello?" she says cringing a bit, hoping it wasnt a monster. Or a mouse. Oh god, definitely not a mouse! PLEASE GOD LET IT BE A MONSTER INSTEAD!

There's a snap as a street light burns out. Gets a little darker down the street a bit. Not here. Here, the noise that Molly makes attracts some attention from the alley and a human comes out of the alley carrying a doggie in his arms. It looks like his left leg is broken, as he's dragging it behind him kinda. Looks kind of painful. and...he's...chewing on the dog o yep monster definitely a monster. It's coming her way, and there might be something behind her as well.

The lights flicker and there's a strange gasping noise, as if something popped a fishbowl and water was spilling on the ground. Then from the alley a man followed by another man come walking, kind of like they were badly hurt. Slow and dragging their feet, they seem confused. In the low light, it looks kind of like they were bruised on their faces.

From behind Molly, a pizza delivery car drives up and screeches to a halt, and the kid inside yells out "Kid! Get in, they're monsters!" His voice cracks audibly from the window, hitting puberty or something.

Molly Hayes looks back at the pizza delivery guy, then at the shambling men. "They don't look like monsters, hey mister are you hur-" then she sees the zombie's face when it goes under one of the lights, and sees part of the face is missing. So Molly of course screams and runs in the opposite direction towards the pizza delivery car.

Because sure, she's a superhero. But she's also 13. And these are zombies. And she's played Left 4 Dead and Resident Evil even though Nico and Chase have warned her not to play scary games like that. "ZOMBIES!"

There aren't any zombies behind the car, so it does look like a safe place to run to. The kid opens the passenger side door for Molly as she approaches, letting her get in if she can. "Zombies? I didn't okay yeah holy wow!" He pushes a pile of pizza boxes out the door so Molly can get in, onto the ground, and waves to her ready to gun it.

Molly Hayes clambers into the car quickly. "Are you like Glenn? He's a pizza delivery person also! Do you have a gun? Shoot them in the head!" she says as she slams the door closed after getting in as fast as she can. "Gogogogogo!"

"I don't have a gun," the kid says as the car takes off, leaving the zombies behind easily. "Oh wait I think I actually do under the seat it's like half the size of my head," he talks awfully fast right now, turning a corner and leaving the zombies entirely behind. "Uh, I'm Kristin, and don't laugh it's not a girl's name." At that moment, the car almost hits someone on the road, swerving around her at the last second.

Molly Hayes acks as Kristin almost hits the woman on the road. "Wait! Stop!" She's so frazzled she doesnt even laugh at the girl's name on the guy. She gets out of the car to see if the girl's okay.

The car stops, and the pizza guy lets Molly out though he seems terrified and is just responding to the fact that Molly sounds like she knows what she's doing.

Molly Hayes runs up to the woman, saying, "Are you all right? You have to get outta here there are -" And then she sees the woman's decomposed face, "ZOMBIES!" And Molly swings her fist at said zombie's face before turning to run. It's pretty likely if she did not turn to run she would have seen that she had just pretty much destroyed the zombie's head with that punch. But.... you know. Zombies!

Molly runs back into the car. "GOGOGOGOGO MORE ZOMBIES!" Then sees her fist with zombie residue on it. "Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!"

The car is going again, and the kid with his fingers gripping the wheel with white knuckles says, "I usually use the bat," as he holds on and thanks his relative deity he's got an automatic. The car stops at a barrier that blocks the entire road up to the sky, looking like a silverish sheen, and for some reason won't go further. The kid, Kristin, doesn't argue. He just pulls the bat out of the back seat and hands it to Molly. Nice metal bat. "We gotta go back through, I don't know how else to get out."

The car doesn't start moving. In fact, things seem to stop for a moment. Kristin is holding still, and nothing seems to be moving. In fact, the only things that seem to be moving are Molly and a sheet of paper that flutters down in the air and slides in a window, landing in her lap. The windows were CLOSED.

Molly Hayes looks at Kristin. "What the heck is that?" she asks, pointing at the mysterious barrier. Then looks at the fact that Kristin is just frozen there. She shakes him a bit. "This isnt the time to be playing red light green light! ZOMBIES!" Then she looks outside and sees that the zombies have frozen too. In fact, everything has.

Molly looks at the paper that flutters onto her lap and tentatively reads it.

The paper says, in Nico's handwriting, "NOT REAL. GET BACK WHERE YOU STARTED. NICO." Underneath, it says in smaller text, 'sorry about that, I suddenly realized I have time to actually write. Uh, see if you can get back where you started, okay Mol? Nothing is really there, but it can really hurt you. I can get you out if you get back where you started. Panic mode off and stuff.'. Then things start moving again.

Molly Hayes blinks, looking at the paper for a minute. Then looks around. "SERIOUSLY?! OH cmon!" She sighs a bit then looks at frozen Kristin. "Okay ... get back to the alley where through a buncha zombies." She gets out of the car with the bat.

Molly Hayes. Pajama wearing zombie hunter of the dream world. Sounds like a bad movie.

Molly starts heading back towards where she came from.

And, of course, it takes no time at all for targets to appear. Zombies, the groaning slow classics, come out of every corner now. They aren't even TRYING to look real anymore, now that Molly's mind isn't worrying over every detail. Kristin in the car calls out, "Where are you going? You can't walk, they're everywhere!"

Molly Hayes says to Kristin, "Oh wait you're not frozen anymore!" She gets in the car again. "OK, we need to get back to the alley! Don't ask why - it's important! Seriously!"

Kristin nods, saying, "That's what I said, we gotta go back that way!" He puts the car into gear and hits the gas, keeping his window rolled down and swerving through the zombies as well as his little Datsun will do. Old car. The zombies are pretty close to the sides, and one seems to be holding onto the mirror on Molly's side! Getting dragged kinda though.

Randomly, Molly might notice that the pizza smells incredible.

Molly Hayes opens the window and punches the zombie on the window. Much easier to not be scared of them when she knows they're not real. It's like Left 4 Dead. Or Dead Rising. No one's scared of the zombies on Dead Rising, right? Oh or Lollipop Chainsaw! Molly looks in the back seat. "AW man, no chainsaw." she says to herself.

No chainsaw. Just pizza, which looks like it probably gives extra health and a power-up and the groceries hadn't come yet so there was no dinner before the world went all screwy. Totally not fair.

Driving over one of the Zombies, the car shakes and bounces. It wasn't made for driving over anything, and speed bumps give it problems. "Almost there!" Kristin says, looking really worried. "Wait, where are we going? I'm confused."

Molly Hayes pauses. "Honestly I have no idea but my friend's a witch and I just got sent here somehow and she sent me um.... a paper which says she can get us outta here if we go back to where I got teleported in here." She pauses. "And I know it sounds weird but I'm super serious. For serious!"

Kristin pauses, still driving so the car keeps moving, and says, "Can I come out too? I don't like it in here," as the car goes close enough to a zombie to scrape paint off. And then, the car is faced by a wall of the living dead, right in front of the alley where Molly arrived. "Not sure I want the answer. There's a chainsaw in the back by the way. It wasn't there before."

There is, in fact, now a chainsaw in the back seat.

Molly Hayes nods. "Sure! I wouldnt want to leave anyone here with zombies!" Might not have occured to Molly that Kristin isnt real either.

Molly Hayes spots the chainsaw. "Awesome! Lollipop Chainsaw." She grabs the chainsaw.

Kristin laughs, picking up the bat. "How did you make the chainsaw? I didn't have one." He sounds kind of relieved, maybe relaxing a little, as the zombies wait patiently for the Hero to get out of the car. "I could use some body armor and maybe a flamethrower if you got more magic."

Molly Hayes closes her eyes tightly and says, "Body armor and flamethrower, body armor and flamethrower." then peeks in the back to see if that worked.

There is actually body armor, but the flamethrower is outside leaning against the vehicle. It seems a little big to comfortably be put on in the back seat. Kristin whoops loudly and nabs the body armor, pulling it on over his shirt. He pauses with his head and arms kinda caught, and says much more calmly, "Are you a witch too? This is cool but..." he pulls his head through, popping into the gear, and finishes, "it's also kinda freaky."

Molly Hayes shakes her head. "Nope, but my friend is, and I think she got me put here." She pauses. "So can we now go back to the alleyway?"

Kristin waves at the wall of zombies, looking less worried than he has in the time Molly has known him. "It's through them, Molly. Now, explain to me real quick how I know your name before we go get killed?" He cracks the door, nabbing the handle of the flamethrower as the zombies -finally- start to advance on the car. They were milling about, and finally turned to look this way.

Molly Hayes shrugs. "I honestly don't know. Probably the same way as the whole chainsaw and flamethrower thing. Magic stuff." She pauses, then yells, "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" and runs at the zombies with the chainsaw and slashes them at a bunch of them.

To her surprise, they explode into glittery sprinkles, just like in that video game.

"COOL!"

Kristin pulls at the collar of his shirt nervously as Molly leaps into action, then gets out of the car and pulls on the flamethrower. He follows Molly into the fight, spraying flame in mostly convenient locations, while crying "Gaaaaaaaah!" as he tries not to hit Molly himself! He does come kinda close, but he's new at this. Many zombies explode under his spray though, and the sparkling makes him pause in awe. "Woah."

Molly Hayes turns to Kristin. "I didn't think they really did that! Did you know they did that? I mean I HOPED they did that but I didnt know for sure!"

Kristin grins, spraying flame like a trooper. A flame trooper! "I didn't even know what they were ten minutes ago!" he exclaims over the sound of groaning zombies. "Sure are a lot of them though!"

A larger zombie, head and shoulders above the others and wearing what looks like a policeman's hat mauls his way through the horde heading for Molly and Kristin's position. He looks like he was about six feet ten when he was alive, and is unarmed save for the huge grasping hands that look like they could palm Molly's entire head.

The other zombies are working on getting past Kristin's flame which seems to be turning them into sparkles whenever he holds it on one for five full seconds. That does leave him a bit vulnerable, but they don't want to get too close to him apparently and are trying to get out of the Tank's way as he zombies his way towards Molly.

Molly Hayes sees the huge zombie behind her, as her chainsaw gets stuck in 3 zombies - which would have given her a triple score. "Dangit!" There went her chainsaw, popping into glitter with the zombies. "That didn't happen in the game!"

Except this one looked more like the zombie tanks in Dead Island. Which she's not supposed to play but played anyway. And now regrets having played because they had big tanklike zombies that charge you.

A small area is cleared by Molly's exploding glitter-chainsaw, and the Tank lowers his head and looks right at Molly while Kristin makes another little walker zombie explode into twilight sparkles. The big guy lets out a roar and lowers his head, aiming right for Molly and charging, his arms spread wide and his helmet protecting his tiny-looking head.

On the wall up ahead, Molly might notice a door with iron bars on the little window and a sign that says, "No Zombies Allowed" with what appears to be a bakery on the other side. Of course, Molly's got something else to deal with first. Tank!

Molly Hayes frowns a bit. No chainsaw anymore. But she does have one thing that she can use against the tank zombie.

A superstrong punch.

Molly punches at the zombie's face as soon as it's close enough.

The big zombie is big. It's strong. It's tough and scary. And it's doing an amazing backflip as Molly's fist shatters the helmet and drives the zombie's head up in the air with a -crack-, making it land in a pile sending smaller zombies to their backs with the impact. Molly hasn't lost any of her strength in here, wherever this is!

Molly Hayes looks up and sees the door after the Tank is tanked. "Kristin! Over there!" she yells, running over to the door to open it. "In in in!"

Kristin is having issues with getting through the crowd. His flamethrower stops spitting flame, and he takes it off. "I'm out!" he calls, fighting his way through while most of the zombies are knocked down. Dashing into the door to the bakery he slides to a stop inside and waits to see if Molly makes it too!

Inside the bakery, just as you walk in, is a table with all of the sweets and pastries that you see in bakery windows. Breads seem to be a low-priority item; very few are available. Lots of donuts cakes and danishes and the more elegant items as well. There's also a glass box on the wall with a fire axe in it that says 'emergencies, break glass'.

Molly Hayes gets into the bakery after Kristin and slams the door closed behind her. "Okay! Safe... we're safe. What to do now, um.... um.... trying to think of video games with zombies that has a good ending." She pauses. "I can't think of zombie games that have a good ending."

Kristin sits on the floor, not hungry apparently. "The.." he pauses, gasping breaths til he can talk. When he does, he tries again. "The alley's close now. I saw it up ahead. Maybe it doesn't have to end like the games? We can get out, right?"

Molly Hayes peeks through the barred door window to see if they can or not.

The alley is visible, across the street and about three doors down. There are about twenty zombies in the way, and they're all kinda gathered around the bakery door. It looks like other than that the way is clear.

Molly Hayes peers outside. "There's only like... twenty zombies out there." She pauses and leans against the door. "Okay so .... here's the plan. We run out, I clear a path and we get to the alleyway. Then... um...... we probably should have a plan in case we need to hold them off, shouldnt we?"

Kristin gets to his feet finally, looking out the window. He says, "Molly," as he stares out the window at the milling horde. "Could you make them not be there at all?" He turns and looks at Molly curiously, gathering his courage.

Molly Hayes closes her eyes. "There are no zombies outside, there are no zombies outside." She then opens her eyes and looks through the bars. Then looks at Kristin. "There are still zombies outside."

"Then we rush it," Kristin says. "I say we just go, and we get there and then you go home." He looks at Molly and pauses, then says, "I don't remember anything before you showed up, Molly. I don't think I existed. We should get you home."

Molly Hayes frowns. "You're coming with me anyway. Even if you didnt exist before, you exist now. That's final." Then she grabs Kristin's hand, opens the door, and makes a bull rush run, making sure to be in front because - superhero.

The zombies fly, Molly's shoulder making the best battering ram in the world. Literally. Through the pack the two move, and then they're free, the zombies trying to catch up but far, far too slow. And they arrive at the alley without more than a bruise and a moment's thrill, with nothing between them and freedom, and Molly can actually see the colour of the alley. It's the color of Nico's eyes.

Molly comes to a stop in the alleyway, pushing Kristin in ahead of her. She says, "Okay, you go through first, then I'll go through." She lets his hand go and gives him a little push. "And you will go through because I believe you will and I can do that here. Go through!"

Molly turns away, closes her eyes and wishes with everything she's got. She's a superhero, she should be able to save the good guys even if the zombie games don't have good endings!

In the pearl, Molly sees a mist rise up over the street, making it slowly go away. The zombies vanish into nothingness. So does the city. The alley is gone, and the only thing left is the glow of Nico's eyes behind her. It slowly surrounds her, making the world vanish.

Nico Minoru, holding a little pearl and staring into it with her spell letting her keep an exit open, watches it start to glow. It gets hot, making her jump a little and almost drop it, but pain isn't enough to make her drop her friend.

The glow gets brighter, and suddenly flashes so bright that she has to shield her eyes from the light. Before she closes her eyes, she seems to see two glows, not just one, emerge from the little pearl into the room. Wiping away her tears from the flash, she refocuses and looks around Leapfrog for her friend.

Molly leaps into Nico's arms, saying "Nico! I made it I made it! I made it out, you got us out, wait is Kristin here?" She looks around Leapfrog for her friend, still repeating in her head he WILL get out he WILL. There's no little boy in here though.

There is however...something. Small? Something young, only an hour old. It's a little ball on the floor, sleeping. Brown fur. "Nico, did you get...a puppy? Kristin?"

The little puppy on the floor looks up at Molly with baby's eyes, responding to the name already. It makes a little yap that sounds strangely familiar, as Molly's eyes begin to cry a little.

Nico, picking up the little puppy and handing it to Molly, says, "No...you've got a story to tell me, Molly. Tell me about it while we look in on Chase, okay? You made a friend."

Molly looks at Kristin the puppy and grins a little, not sure if it was a win or not, and nods. "Bet his story can't match mine."