The New Status Quo
by Ms. Kinnikufan
Disclaimer: Marvel owns them.
It was approximately 3:22 in the morning, and less then three days after Gert's death.
Molly couldn't sleep, something she usually had no trouble doing.
Molly got up and went to check on her family. Make sure the new status quo of Nico, Victor, Karolina, Xavin (the new guy...girl...person...runaway) and the recently found Chase and Old Lace.
She did this for the first time when future Gert had died (to make sure the real Gert was there), when Victor had joined (to make sure he hadn't gone crazy yet), and when Karolina left (to make sure no one else had left).
The first person she visited was Chase and Old Lace. He was the one most hurt by Gert's death and was missing for a few days. There had been nothing but seething pain and anger in his silence since his return.
She opened the door very carefully, as to not wake him up. He wasn't in his room but in a common area. The abstract was opened in the middle and Chase has apparently fallen asleep studying it.
There was a bottle lying next to Chase's unawake form. A bit of amber liquid leaked from it, it's scent almost overpowering.
Molly tried not to think how he had obtained that.
Chase was in a near fetal position. Old Lace mimicked her new master.
It was hard to gage if Old Lace's sadness was shared with Chase,or was she simply copying Chase's?
Molly wondered if Old Lace would ever think about Gert, and if she would compare Chase to her.
Chase and Old Lace are still alive.
Next was Nico who last minutes with Gert had been mostly tense. Her tones were full of regret, no matter what she was speaking about.
Nico slept as if she was a crumpled piece of paper, her arms and legs sometimes flaying about.
Drippy black lines running down from Nico's eyes had been present the last few days. The Staff of Truth had not been reabsorbed. Molly thought it might have been feasting on the ever present grief.
Nico is still alive.
Karolina was next, and with her Molly found Xavin.
Xavin was sleeping next to her in male form, something Molly found a bit jarring.
Karolina was still in her luminescent form, something that she never turned off now. Another change.
Karolina and Xavin are still alive.
Molly found Victor (the former new guy) pouring over some book on how to update security systems.
"Must not let gamers hack into myself again." He was muttering.
Victor could still go evil, or become a great hero, or become a fat slob who watched trash television or day, but he was not Gert's killer. That path was lost.
Victor is still alive.
Thank God the new status quo was still new. Molly went to her room and hugged her doop doll.
A childish action that she did as a comfort thing, not as a plea for attention like that freaking dick Geoff claimed.
Like being an adult was so great. Both the old evil Pride and the new stupid Pride had proved that adulthood was far overrated.
She could have died that day instead of Gert (so many many different ways that she's lost count). It would have been considered a tragedy, because she wouldn't have grown up to become someone willing to monster people's soul. She wouldn't have grown up to gullible like those idiots that helped (even inadvertently, even unintentionally) get Gert killed.
Screw acting like an adult. It was too overrated.