2013-10-19 - Must Love Dogs (Or Get Punched)

It's a bright and almost warm sort of fall day in New York and for once Clint Barton is actually taking it easy. Stretched out on a deck chair at the back of the Avenger's Academy. At one point he had been reading but now he's passed out, snoring with his magazine spread over his face.

Elsewhere on the patio Clint's dog Lucky roams around unattended. Sniffing, digging and generally doing dog stuff.

Molly Hayes comes over to the Avenger's Academy again. She snuck out of the Leapfrog since everyone was really busy doing 'stuff' - leaving a note on Chase's bed saying she was going into the city to play video games at the arcade and maybe go look around. Which was technically true. Because before coming here, she was at the arcade until she ran out of money - since you can only play so much on $2.50.

She notices the sleeping person on the back deck and walks over, standing there watching the man snore beneath the paper for a while. She considers waking him up, when she notices the dog. Then yells, "OMIGOD A DOG YOU'RE SO CUTE!"

"Wha? ImawakeImawake," Clint says as he yanks the magazine off his face and looks around. Lucky, who had been watching the koi pond with interest, splashes through it as he bolts towards Molly, tounge hanging out of his mouth. In dog, cute usually equals petting and very possibly food and so he doesn't hesitate to jump up and put wet paws all over Molly as he says hello.

Molly Hayes hugs the dog when he runs over to her and starts petting him a lot. "We don't have a dog. I mean we have a velociraptor but not a dog! Who's a good doggie! You are! Oh yes you are! OH YES YOU ARE!" she squeals as she plays with the dog, utterly ignoring Clint. Since there's a DOG here.

Clint sets down the magazine and sits up smiling when he sees Molly wrapped around Lucky and Lucky loving every minute of it "What's that about a velociraptor?" he murmurs catching that out of everything Molly says, before he smirks at the two of them. "Seems like you found a new friend Luck," he says to the dog, before he frowns at the wet fur. "Annnd found somewhere to get wet, great, you can ride /on/ the car on the way home."

Molly Hayes mwaaahs the dog before letting go. "Yeah... we have a velociraptor called Old Lace. She's neat but she's not a dog." She ruffles the dog's head. "I wish I had a treat for you, you cutie!" she says as she fishes around in her pocket. "Oh... wait I have this package of gummi bears. Do dogs eat gummi bears?"

"Wow," Clint says scratching the back of the neck. "So how'd you end up with a velociraptor, also, who's we?" he asks before he looks over at Lucky. "Well Lucky here will eat anything, but probably best to give him one of these," he digs into his pocket and produces some dog treats, he tosses them to Molly. "It's not pizza, but he still likes them."

Molly Hayes pauses as she was just about to give Lucky a Gummi Bear, then catches the treat. She sniffs it. "I bet he'd like gummi bears better." She offers Lucky the treat as she says, "Yeah um... Old Lace belonged to my friend Gert before she died and we're still taking care of her. Her parents gave her to Gert from the um... Crustacean Period." Close enough.

True to form Lucky looks past the treat and sniffs after the gummi bears. "Dummy," Clint mutters good-naturedly at the dog. "I'm pretty sure a crustacean is a crab or something, but I get what you're saying," he says as he gets up and plunks down next to Molly and Lucky. "So how'd they get her?" he asks grabbing Lucky's muzzle and pushing it away from Molly's pockets. "Try the treat," he tells the dog, who doesn't seem to want to listen.

Molly Hayes feeds the treat to the dog, then starts eating some gummi bears herself. "Well.. Gert's parents were time travelers so they gsmgh ghgm mshgh." She takes a moment to swallow. "and did some gentle marification in the futureon Old Lace so she'd be smarter and stuff then Gert found her before we ran away from home." She starts eating another gummi bear.

Lucky crunches the treat but keeps his eye on the gummi bears waiting for a chance to strike. Clint seems to be eyeing them too even as he chuckles at Molly's store. "Can I have one?" he asks before he nods and says. "Great, time travel. So where is Old Lace now?" Yeah he may not actually believe the kid has a dinosaur, or you know powers, but he's humouring her.

Molly Hayes munches on her gummi bears. "On our invisible frog ship." Yeah, she's totally making this up. Probably doesnt even have any powers. Good sense of imagination though! She asks Clint "Can I give him one, please?"

"Invisible... right," Clint lets out a breath. He's seen some crazy stuff but between the kid's theme song, the velociraptor and now the invisible frog ship, yeah she's full of it. "Sure, go ahead," he says about feeding Lucky a gummi bear. It's Kate's turn to take him tonight anyhow she gets to deal with the stomach problems. Lucky looks expectantly at Molly.

"So who else is on this frog ship?" Clint asks, should be interesting anyhow.

Molly Hayes feeds Lucky a Gummi Bear. "Um... all my friends from Los Angeles. Karolina, Nico, Chase. There's also Victor and Xavin... um there's also Klara. She was living in 1910 and we were um... time travelling and um... she was married to some old creepy guy even though she's my age so we rescued her and brought her back to the present and she's a mutant like me but can control flowers."

Lucky takes the gummi bear and chews it happily. When he's swallowed it down he looks over at Molly again, pushing at her hand with his wet nose. "Huh. We actually have a girl who can control plants here, too," he says. "Though she's not from 1910, or married to a creepy old guy," this kid has a dark imagination. "So I remember from before you and your friends had trouble with the law or something, how'd that happen?"

Molly Hayes crosses her arms. "They didnt do anything wrong. It's because our parents were bad guys and told the police that they kidnapped me. But they didnt. See? I'm not kidnapped. I ran away with them."

Clint looks over. "So, you ran off with these friends of yours, with the dinosaur and the invisible frog ship, huh?" he asks as he pulls his legs up infront of them and leans his head on his knees. "So what happened with your bad guy parents? I mean what was so bad about them?"

Molly Hayes bites her lip when you ask what happened to their parents. "I don't want to talk about that." After all, Molly might be pretty open and cheerful, but half the time she tries to forget that her parents were murderous monsters who killed thousands and ruled L.A. with an iron fist - and definitely doesnt want to think about the fact that she's directly responsible for them all dying from a demonic god. She pauses. "They were just bad guys, okay?"

"Fine," Clint says without protest. For once that's not a loaded word. "Your parents were badguys and you ran off with your friends, so what do you guys do for money? How do you keep that frog ship of yours working?" he asks, whike Lucky lays down at Molly's feet head on his paws.

Molly Hayes sits down on the ground and pets Lucky's head. "oh... well... um.... Chase sometimes does odd jobs here and there, and um... we go to some places that our parents had left stuff which we then use to buy food and stuff. Oh but Leapfrog doesnt need any fuel or anything. I don't really know how he works, but Chase does. He's like.... really smart when it comes to fixing stuff and building stuff."

Clint lifts his head and crosses his legs. "Cool. Been there with the odd jobs thing," he says. "What about the rest of them, what do they do? Or is this guy Chase doing all the work?" Or you know is he the real guy and the rest are all made up?

Molly Hayes shrugs. "I dunno. I'm 13. Not like I ask them." She pauses and then offers, "Gummi Bear?"

Right. Made up then. Clint takes a gummi bear and pops it in his mouth, Lucky looks up for his share. "Tough luck, Lucky," he says chewing the gummi bear. "You know you guys could come here right? Stark could probably sort out the whole not kidnapping thing. Plus there's food here, Chase could get a bit of a break from those odd jobs."

Molly Hayes shrugs a little. "They have trouble trusting adults a lot. Plus ... you know.... we're independent and stuff." She doesnt really feel so sure about that, especially after hearing the part about Stark 'sorting out the whole kidnapping thing.' Other people have tried to, but there are people behind the scenes making sure they were being pursued.

She says, "um... I could ask them though."

"I can get that, I mean if your folks were bad guys then makes sense they wouldn't trust other grown ups," Clint says but then adds with a smile "Though, flips side to that, Tony and I aren't grown ups, not really." He leans forward to give Lucky a pat. "Anyhow, definitely talk to them about it. The door is always open for you guys, even for the dinosaur," a smirk there.

Molly Hayes nods. "We couldnt go anywhere without Old Lace. Would Leapfrog be able to be here too? It's sort of alive. You know. Like a robot, but alive?"

Oh she's just putting all sorts of thought into her story, isnt she?

"Well that depends," Clint answers. "How big is Leapfrog? If it's not too big then we can probably find a place for it to land," he says settling back on his hands.

Molly Hayes pauses. "He's really big." She holds her arms out as wide as she can. "Bigger than this."

Clint can't help but laugh this time. "Really? That big huh? Well, I think we can manage. Uh, though how big is the dinosaur?" he asks amused.

Molly Hayes pauses. "I'll try to measure her when I go back, okay? She's pretty big though. Bigger than you!"

Again, true.

Clint chuckles and sits forward again. "Cool. Actually, can I see the ship and the dinosaur some time? Maybe if I met your friends I could help them see that moving here won't be so bad."

Molly Hayes shrugs. "I... don't know. I'd have to ask my friends. I mean... you're an adult and all that. But I'll tell them you're pretty nice and have a dog and maybe they'll be okay with it."

"Works for me," Clint says with a smile. "Anyhow, I was going to take Lucky here out for a slice, if you want you could come with," he offers.

Molly Hayes quickly nods at the prospect of pizza. Better yet, free pizza. "Okay!" She then tilts her head. "Can I hold his leash?"

"Sure," Clint says as he springs to his feet and heads to the chair, he digs around under it for a second and comes back with the leash. That's all Lucky needs to get to his feet as well panting with anticipation. "Here," he tosses the leash to Molly. "Put it on and let's go. There's a place not too far from here that isn't bad."

Molly Hayes yays and grabs the leash and heads off with Clint, pretty happy. "I always wanted to have a dog but my mom and dad said I wasnt responsible enough to have one, and then when we ran away Nico said that she was nervous that Old Lace would eat a dog if I got one, but I don't think she would do that. She's a very good dinosaur."

Clint leads them through the grounds, and out the gate, passing the parking lot he does think of stopping by his car to get his arrows and stuff but thinks better of it. The pizza place is just a couple of blocks up past the bank, and he has a couple spare arrow heads on him anyhow. "Well she is a velociraptor. Didn't they try to eat those kids in Jurassic Park?" he comments sagely. "And I hope your parents weren't evil just because they wouldn't let you have a dog."

Molly Hayes shakes her head. "Oh no... they were nice to me. I was their daughter and they said they loved me. Mom calls me her little doodlebug!" They walk further, "They were evil to other people. Especially people who werent mutants." she says as she skips along, pretty preoccupied by the dog she's getting to walk. "He doesnt need to go poop, right?"

"He might," Clint says and pats down his pockets. "I think I've got some baggies here if he does," he says before turning to look at Molly. "Huh, so they were the Magneto sort of mutants then," he says.

The bank is coming up and Lucky stops in his tracks and starts barking in that direction tugging on the leash. A moment later the doors to the bank fly off their hinges and Rhino explodes on to the street carrying a couple bags of money in one hand, and a couple more slung over his shoulder. "Move it!" he shouts as he barrels down the street towards Molly, Clint and Lucky.

"Crap," Clint says when sees Rhino. "Never a Spider-Man when you need one." He digs into a pocket and pulls out an arrow head. Crap, the tape came off he's got no idea what he's got but he strikes it on the wall and throws it anyhow. A second later a bola explodes from the arrow and wraps around Rhino's face, which does about as much to slow him down as blowing on him really hard. "Crap," Clint curses as he jumps at Molly to tackle her clear of the rampaging supervillian.

Molly Hayes walks along with Clint. "Well um... I guess so? I dunno - I never actually saw them do what people told me they did, but I saw them do some bad stuff afterwards but I don't want to-"

And that's when the stuff with Rhino starts happening. "It's okay! I can take him down cause I'm Princess Pow-whoop!" she says until interrupted by being tackled and 'saved' by Clint. She scurries out of Clint's hold after Rhino rampages past and yells at him, "HEY! COME BACK HERE YOU BIG STUPIDHEAD! WE'RE NOT AFRAID OF YOU!"

Okay, the girl's obviously not only got an imagination, she has a death wish.

Lucky seems to have the same death wish as Molly. The dog barrels after Rhino, and when a truck pulls in front of Rhino forcing him to stop Luckly latches onto his heel shaking his head trying to bite through his costume and flesh. "What?" Rhino growls looking back. "Get lost mutt!" he gives his leg a shake and Lucky is sent flying bouncing off a wall and landing with a whimper on the sidewalk.

Clint pushes himself to his feet. "You hurt my dog," he growls and reaches into his pocket. Only two arrowheads, odds are good one of them is an explosive one. He grabs both and lets fly. The arrows explode against back and send him staggering against the truck. He snarls and with a vicious smile bends down and lifts the truck off the ground. "You're going to pay for that punk!" he snarls before he lets the truck fly.

The truck flies at Clint and, right before it's about to hit him ... Molly - crazy, imaginative Molly - runs in front and puts up her hands to .... catch the truck. It sends her backwards a little, her small feet digging into the sidewalk, but ... yep, little girl, holding a huge truck overhead.

Oh, and her eyes are glowing purple. "YOU DONT KICK DOGS! YOURE REALLY BAD! THATS LIKE... SUPER ULTRA BAD!" she says as she throws the truck back at him like firing a truck-sized bullet from a howitzer.

Clint is reaching out to grab Molly when he dives out of the way of the truck, but his hand grabs nothing but air. He hits the ground and rolls coming up on his feet in the street he turns expecting to see the ruins of the truck and Molly's bloody remains under it but what he sees stops him cold "No freaking way..." he says staring at Molly holding the truck and her eyes blazing a bright purple.

Then foosh! - the truck is airborne and slams into the Rhino driving him back into the next block, where he lands with a crash. Money flying out of the bags when he lands. "What the heck happened?" he grunts as he tries to push the truck off of him and sort out how it all went wrong.

Clint just keeps staring "How the hell did you do that?"

Molly Hayes looks back at him. "Toldja, I'm Princess Powerful! Is Lucky okay? I'm gonna run after that guy and punch him sooo hard!!!" she says as she starts to run down the block.

Clint blinks. Right Lucky! "Go," he says but there's really no point, Princess Powerful is already moving. Clint leaps a parked car and moves to Lucky's side and checks him out. The dog stirs with a little whine and licks his face. Clint yucks and leans away rubbing his head "Good boy," he says then turns down the street to watch Molly run at Rhino while he fishes out his StarkPhone to call the cops.

Rhino pushes the truck off of him and gets up grabbing some poor slob who was gathering up some of the loose money. "Hey, that's my gettaway money," he says and tosses the guy across the street. Then the kid is coming at him and he cracks his knuckles "Alright, squirt, let's do this," he rushes at Molly, the ground thundering under his feet.

Molly Hayes was already running at Rhino when he pushes the truck away. The ground is NOT thundering below her feet. Rhino charges at her and Molly.... Princess Powerful... is charging right back at him. And she is PISSED OFF. You don't kick dogs! EVERYONE KNOWS THAT!

Right as they're about to contact with each other, the 13 year old swings her fist at Rhino's face, which is helpfully lowered since he probably planned on goring her on that horn.

Rhino's head is lowered when Molly's fist rams home. There's a huge noise and Rhino just comes to a stop the concrete bunched up behind his feet as he was driven back. Up close Molly can see his eyes are crossed and his nose is broken, dripping blood. The villain crashes forward with thud laying at Molly's feet.

Clint is on the phone with 911 "You're already responding? Great, send an ambulance, oh and a crane," he hangs up and with Lucky limping at his side he rushes over to Molly. "Great work Princess Powerful," he says grinning, Lucky jumps up and starts licking her face.

Molly Hayes takes a deep breath and looks at the unconscious supervillain. "AND HIS DOG BETTER BE OKAY OR ELSE I'LL PUNCH YOU EVEN HARDER FOREVER!" she yells at him. Then as Lucky jumps up and starts licking her, she pretty much forgets about Rhino and hugs the dog. "You're okay! Yeah the big bad guy's all knocked out!" she hugs the dog. "Good boy! You're such a brave boy arent you! Yesyouare, oh yes you are!" she giggles as the dog licks her face, the purple glow in her eyes going away.

Okay did she seriously knock out Rhino with one punch? Apparently.

Clint lets Lucky thanks his saviour with doggy kisses while he checks out Rhino. Jeez, he really is knocked out. "Seriously kid, how did you do that?" he asks Molly shaking his head. "Because that was incredible."

Sirens start to blare in the distance. Looks like the cops are finally showing up.

By this point, Molly Hayes's eyes are no longer glowing purple. She shrugs a little. "I'm like.... super duper strong." She peers at Clint curiously. "I thought I told you that. Remember? Mutant? Princess Powerful? Really really strong?" She thinks to herself. She could have sworn she'd told him that. Yeah she did. She smiles happily. "I told you about when I once threw this monster that was like.... as big as a skyscraper, right?"

Okay that ridiculous imagination thing is looking a little less ridiculous.

She asks, "we'll still be able to get pizza right?"

Clint looks at Molly and nods slowly. "Yeah, you mentioned that, and really, a skyscraper, who was it - Godzilla?" not that he doubts her, at this point he's actually wondering if she fought Godzilla. "About the pizza, yeah, we can still do that, but we need to talk to the cops first and sort out this mess," he says nodding to Rhino, and to the truck down the block which is still sort of smoking on the sidewalk. "Great power, great responsibility and all that, right?"

Lucky is sitting on the sidewalk now looking at them both, he heard the word pizza.

Molly Hayes shrugs a little. "I don't know what his name was. They just gave me a whole lotta caffeine and I threw the monster when he tried to step on me and my friends. She then looks over at Rhino. "He really sorta looks dumb running around in his pajamas like that." Then she pauses. "Um... do I have to talk to the police?" She looks around. "Actually uh... maybe I should go back to my friends and we can have pizza another time?"

Molly's had REALLY bad experience with police. Trying to put her in foster homes or 'special schools,' trying to get her to lead them to her friends, the 'kidnappers' - etc.

Clint frowns "Right, the whole wanted thing," he says and tucks his hands in his pockets. "Here," he says as he pulls out a scrap of paper and a pen and writes his number down on it. "Take this and you can call me sometime and we'll grab pizza and talk about things. That going to work?" he asks.

Molly Hayes nods a little more assuredly as she takes the paper and stuffs it in her pocket. She smiles. "Deal!" Then gives Lucky one more hug before getting back to her feet and starting to run off before the police show up.

Clint watches the kid go and crouches down to give Lucky a hug and a scratch behind the ear "Just when we thought life was strange enough," Clint says before standing back up again as the cop cars begin to round the corner. Before they stop Clint puts a foot on Rhino's back and when the cops stop and get out of their cars guns drawn but lowered he grins broadly "It's alright guys, I got him."

"Woof," Lucky agrees.

The cops just stare then putting away their guns, they just shake their heads and take control of the scene.