"Oooohhh, we're half-way theh-ehr, oh-ho, livin' on a pray-er..."
Molly sung to herself in a small voice as she felt her way along the tunnel. She was embarassed to admit it, but she was lost. Who got lost in their own house? Little kids, that's who. Even if their house was an abandoned supervillain lair under the La Brea Tar Pits.
"T-take my hand and we'll make it I sweah-herr..."
It made her feel a little bit better to sing the same goofy old song she used to sing with her parents on the karaoke machine. It reminded her of better times, even thought it was a little weird to think that all that time, they'd been bad guys. She kept forgetting and thinking that they'd turned bad one day. It was hard to remember that they'd always been that way.
"ohh-ho... livin'... on a..."
She felt her voice quivering. If she didn't find her way out of the tunnels soon, she was going to start crying, and then it would be even more embarrassing when they found her, but at this point, she almost didn't care. She wanted out.
"pray--ow!"
Whatever she'd tripped over bounced down the stone tunnel with a loud clang. Molly ran after it, feeling ahead of herself. Maybe it was a lantern.
She felt her hands close around the metal. There didn't seem to be an on switch. She felt her way further down the hallway, and came--sweet relief!--to the bottom of a dimly light flight of stairs that led up to what she hoped was their living quarters. She sat down to compose herself (she could not be sniffling like a baby when she got back to the others) and took a look at what she'd found.
It looked a little like a metal egg. Molly could swear she'd seen something like it somewhere before. She wondered if it opened; there was a seam running around it, but twisting didn't seem to do anything. Neither did pulling. She tried turning it a little harder--not that much harder, she could have sworn, just maybe as strong as ten or fifteen regular people--and the top of the egg pulled right off with a nasty sounding squeal of tearing metal.
"Oops," Molly said, staring down at the broken egg. A few sparks and a weak-looking dribble of smoke drifted up, and a wobbly arm popped out of the opening, folding out into a screen which flickered to life.
"Gert..." said the woman on the screen. Now Molly recognized what the egg reminded her off; the style looked a lot like Gert's parents' time machine. And the woman on the screen was none other than Heroine, future leader of the Avengers... not to mention Gert's future self. Even though she'd grown taller and slimmed down, and didn't dye her hair quite that bright of a purple any more, the resemblance was unmistakable.
"..is a messa...have to be quick..." Heroine said. The video was half static, and stuttered so badly, Molly could barely hear every other word, but the woman sounded frantic. She much have sent the pod off in a hurry, Molly realized, because she'd obviously miscalculated the destination and the arrival time. Who knew how long it had been lying down in this dusty tunnel?
"...I'm not even supposed to be send...ut-ut-ut I have to risk it, even if it is for my own personal gain." Heroine smiled wearily. "Maybe there's too much of Mom and Dad in me after all. You spend your life trying not... ecome your parents, and here I...at's one part of the future I guess you can't avoid. Sorry kid."
Her face took on a more serious expression. "But there is something you need to do. Soon after you receive...ou'll meet this boy, he thinks you're hot, you think he's hot, and it will seem innocent enough at first, but..." She bit her lip. "Just... don't make the same mistake I did. I know, I know, outdated norms of monogamy and all that--and I still believe that, intellectually--but Chase doesn't. And call him unenlightened all you want, but it won't matt...nd result is the same. You'll lose him."
She looked away. "And take it from me. You'll never meet another guy you'll love as much. Maybe I'm just maudlin because he's getting married and...inking about the past, I guess. Wishing I hadn't made such a stupid mistake." She turned to the camera. "What I'm saying is--we've got a good brain in this melon head of ours, kid. I didn't think with it. I hope you will."
There was a burst of nasty-smelling fumes, and the screen sparked again and went out. Molly sat for a second, holding the broken egg.
It's not really my fault, she told herself. I mean, if I hadn't tripped over it, it just woulda sat down here forever. Gert wouldn't have known about it. So what if I...
if I...
She sighed. Broke it. It was a message from Gert, to Gert, and her whole happiness might depend on it, and Molly had wrecked it. What kind of terrible friend did something like that?
She couldn't tell Gert, that was for sure. Just the thought of having to confess to something like that made her stomach sink. But if she didn't... if she didn't, then Gert wouldn't get the warning, and when she met this mystery boy, which might be any day now, she would do the unthinkable: she would go on a date with him. Maybe even kiss him! And flush her relationship with Chase right down the drain in the process! That was infinitely worse. Molly had to tell her.
But she couldn't. Molly just couldn't bear the thought.
Maybe...
The beginning of an idea was forming in the back of her mind.
Maybe I can make it so this guy doesn't like her in the first place. There were lots of reasons guys might not like girls, after all. The magazines at the supermarket talked about it all the time. She had to look quick because her mom got mad if she saw Molly reading them, but she was pretty sure she had the gist. And one of the things guys didn't like at all was when girls got fat. That's why there were always a jillion diets in those magazines.
So, Molly realized with excitement and relief, if Gert got fat, this new guy (who she was sure would be a shallow jerk, I mean, it just stood to reason) wouldn't want to go out with her, and she would stay with Chase (who was the sort of super cool, nice guy who wouldn't care about a girl being fat 'cause he saw what was on the inside). It was simple. It was easy as pie. And best of all, Molly wouldn't get in trouble for screwing up.
She climbed with stairs, filled with a new resolve. Molly Hayes was a girl on a mission. She had a friend to save, and there was only one way to do it.
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