A dying man is given a second chance. This story is a fan fiction that takes place in the Whateley Universe

--------------------

From the outside, Rachael’s transportation looked pretty much like any normal U-Haul, the kind of moving truck that you saw all over the place but rarely gave a second thought about. However, it was clear that my daughter had heavily modified the inside, though I had no idea of what all she’d done to the vehicle, or even if it had actually started off as a real U-Haul. For all I knew, Rachael may very well have made the truck so that it transformed into a giant robot or something. I certainly wouldn’t put something like that past her, which made me just a little nervous as I rode in the truck.

I was sitting uncomfortably in the cab of the truck, which was a tight fit because Pinnacle had insisted on riding with us. Though he could have flown and followed us from the air, he’d wanted to keep a close eye on Rachael, which meant that I got squeezed between the two of them. For once, I was grateful for my small size because it meant that I wasn’t quite as squished as I could have been otherwise.

“Are we there yet?” I asked in my best little girl voice, which was pretty damn good.

Rachael didn’t respond to that, which didn’t really surprise me. She had a grim look on her face and obviously wasn’t happy about having Pinnacle along, even though it had been her idea to invite him. She trusted him about as much as he did her, which was to say, not at all. As a result, it was a quiet drive, with no one really speaking.

Rachael was the only one of us who knew where we were going, and she kept watching the GPS with a careful intensity. She was keeping what she knew to herself, probably because she was afraid that if Pinnacle didn’t need her anymore, he’d forget the deal and try to grab her right away. I didn’t know if he was the kind of person to break an agreement or not, but considering the circumstances, I wouldn’t want to take the risk either.

We drove across the city in near silence, finally stopping on the edge of the city limits, in an area that had once been fairly upscale but which had fallen into hard times. I didn’t know all the details, other than that it had to do with city planning and economic shifts, but property values had dropped and homes had been foreclosed on. It seemed that the Marquis must have decided to move in to one of the empty properties.

“We’re here,” Rachael stated as she climbed out of the truck.

We were parked in front of an iron gate, which was in severe disrepair, as was the property on the other side of it. From where I was at, I could see a small mansion which looked like it had survived a fire and then years of abandonment and neglect. One look made me think that it would be the perfect place for gangs and squatters to start hanging out, or in this case…a super villain.

“Are you sure?” Pinnacle demanded, giving her a suspicious glare.

“The contact who tracked him down for me is rarely wrong,” Rachael responded flatly.

I stared at the building through the gate, scowling intensely as I did so. Rich was in there. I was sure of it. This wasn’t due to some psychic ability that I’d gained along with my mutation, but more of a desperate hope since I refused to think otherwise.

Now that the Marquis had Rich, he also had the ability to teleport anywhere he wanted. For all I knew, the Marquis could have picked up his entire operation and moved it to the other side of the planet. However, the Marquis had continued operating in the local area even after he’d taken Rich. And of course, having the ability to move himself to another location didn’t do a lot of good unless he had a new base already picked out and arranged, one that was capable of holding all his prisoners.

“Thank God it would probably be a huge pain in the ass for the Marquis to move,” I said, more to myself than to anyone else, though Rachael nodded agreement.

“I have something for you,” Rachael abruptly told me. She gave me a faint smile as she added, “Think of it as an early birthday present.”

“You already gave me a great one,” I reminded her, smiling faintly as well. After all, she’d saved my ass from a slow and painful death, and I couldn’t think of much that would be better than that.

Rachael led me around to the back of the truck where she opened the door and revealed a metal box, about the size of a shoebox, which was sitting right at the opening. Without saying a word, she opened the box and revealed the contents, a pair of glossy black metal rings. They weren’t the kind of rings you’d put on your fingers, especially since they were actually large enough for me to use as bracelets.

“Okay,” I said, a little curious about what she had in mind as I picked one of them up.

The metal was smooth and completely rounded in my hands, and after a moment, I slipped it over my hand and onto my wrist as a bracelet. Then I grabbed the second one and did the same with my other wrist.

“Thanks,” I told Rachael, still feeling a little confused. “But I don’t exactly need jewelry.”

Rachael was watching me with a faint smile before admitting, “Those weren’t meant to be bracelets, but I guess they are the right size.”

“Then what are they for?” I asked.

Rachael stared at me for a moment, then said, “When you told me about your fight with the Marquis, you told me about how easily he was able to deflect your ribbons…”

“Yeah,” I responded with a scowl of annoyance, remembering that he’d done it with Mystery Woman’s powers and then again with that wind power he’d taken from Aerial. “It was pretty damn annoying.”

“I made these for you to tie the ends of your ribbons to,” Rachael explained. “They can give a little extra weight and momentum to your ribbons when you fling them, which should make it more difficult for the Marquis to stop them.”

I looked at my new bracelets, seeing how I could easily tie the ribbons to them, though I imagine that adding any extra weight to the ribbons would also make them more difficult for me to control. Still, something like this might have been useful when I was trying to send a ribbon against the wind to help the Occultist. Then again, they were pretty small and I doubted they’d have enough weight to do much good.

As if reading my thoughts, Rachael grinned at me and said, “They’re made of a special alloy I found some time ago.”

“You stole them,” I translated aloud.

Rachael shrugged at that. “A few years ago, I acquired some rare metals from a gadgeteer metallurgist, but never had much use for the small amount of this metal. It’s extremely hard, but also extremely dense and heavy. Each of these rings weights close to thirty pounds.”

“Really?” I asked in surprise, staring at my new bracelets and having a hard time believing they were that heavy. With my new strength, I hadn’t even noticed the weight.

“Being that dense and heavy makes the metal less than useful for most of my purposes,” Rachael admitted, “especially when there are lighter metals that are every bit as strong. However, it seemed perfect for this purpose.”

“Thank you,” I told her, growing eager to try out these new weights. “These might be useful.”

“I’m glad you like them,” she told me with a chuckle, then teased, “And besides, every girl needs jewelry.” I stuck my tongue out at her in response, something I never would have done before my transformation. But since I was a little girl now, I felt surprisingly free to act as immature and childish as I wanted.

Just then, a heard a woman’s voice call out, “Pinnacle…”

I looked over and saw Miss Fortune, who was standing on top of a giant tarot card that was floating ten feet above the ground. But as surprising as that was, I was just as amazed by the fact that she wasn’t alone. Asset was standing on the card beside her. The last time I’d seen him, he’d been on crutches and was supposed to be out of action for awhile.

“Miss Fortune,” Pinnacle greeted her with a clear note of happiness in his voice. “Asset… What are you two doing here?”

The floating tarot card landed on the ground and then vanished. Miss Fortune smiled faintly and said, “The Occultist narrowed down the Marquis’ location and told us he was somewhere in this area. We were just looking for him when we saw you.”

“Then you arrived at just the right moment,” Pinnacle said with a chuckle.

“Quite fortunate, then,” Miss Fortune responded with a laugh of her own, making me think that this was some old joke between them.

“We were just getting ready to launch an assault on the Marquis,” Pinnacle said, gesturing to the dilapidated mansion.

“We?” Asset asked.

Pinnacle scowled and gestured towards us, just as Rachael stepped around the truck and into view, dressed in her Lady Havoc uniform and holding her energy rifle. Miss Fortune and Asset both gasped in surprise and immediately prepared to attack her. It was probably the fact that I was standing right beside her that made them both hesitate in confusion.

“Lady Havoc,” Asset stated grimly, glancing to Pinnacle and demanding, “What are you doing with her?”

“Haven’t you heard?” Rachael asked with a smirk. “Pinnacle has agreed to become my new partner.”

Miss Fortune and Asset both had a look of shock on their faces, but that was nothing compared to the one Pinnacle had. “That’s not it,” Pinnacle blurted out, giving Rachael an angry glare. “She was leading me to the Marquis…”

“Why in the world would someone like her do that?” Asset demanded, giving Pinnacle an accusatory glare.

“I have my reasons,” Rachael answered with a grim expression. “Let’s just say, the Marquis made a serious mistake and I aim to see him pay.” Then she looked at Pinnacle, keeping her weapon ready in case he jumped her. “I don’t want you think that the arrival of your friends changes our deal. If you’re thinking about arresting me now that I’ve led you to the Marquis, think again. I’m not surrendering until AFTER I get what I want.”

“I made a deal with her,” Pinnacle explained to the other heroes, looking as though he was sucking on a lemon. He glared at Rachael but made no move to attack her. “She helps me take down the Marquis and rescue his prisoners, then she turns herself over to me.” He gave her a flat look and said, “And don’t even think about not holding up your end.”

“As Asset already asked,” Miss Fortune asked, giving Rachael a suspicious look. “Why in the world would she make a deal like that?”

Rachael gave her a flat look and simply stated, “It’s personal.”

“And what is that girl doing here?” Miss Fortune demanded, looking right at me. She was obviously confused by the whole situation and not the least bit happy about it.

“It’s personal,” answered, repeating Rachael’s response.

“You brought a KID?” Miss Fortune demanded of Pinnacle, who had the same kind of look on his face that I probably had after Meg asked me if her butt looked big. It was the kind of look that said he was desperately looking for an answer that wouldn’t get him in even worse trouble.

“We don’t have time for this,” I told her and Asset, giving them both cold glares that caught them by surprise. “We know where the damn Marquis is, but he’ll probably run like hell the moment he realizes we’re here…”

“Doubtful,” Rachael said, catching me by surprise. “From what I know of him, he has too much pride to cut and run without a fight, especially since it would mean leaving most of his prisoners behind and having to start over. However, we don’t want to give him the chance to prepare for us either.”

“And you’re an expert on the Marquis?” Asset demanded of her, sneering as he did so.

“Of course she is,” Miss Fortune told him. “She’s just like him.”

Rachael snarled and was obviously starting to get angry. I put a hand on her arm and she paused, letting out a breath and calming a little. She scowled, then abruptly asked, “Have you ever heard of Snip and Snap?”

“I ran into them once,” Pinnacle answered, giving Rachael a suspicious look. “A couple of low level villains…pranksters and vandals rather than cold blooded killers.” He glared at Rachael, his eyes filled with accusation.

“The Marquis captured them,” Rachael explained, keeping her tone calm and in control. “He didn’t have much use for Snap’s powers, so he tortured him to death. Snip was forced to watch her brother die this way, then the Marquis spent the next month stealing her powers and torturing her…until she was rescued by Champion.”

“Shit,” Asset gasped, staring at Rachael in disbelief.

“Snip survived the experience,” Rachael continued grimly, “but now she needs a wheelchair to move around…and she’s developed such a severe case of agoraphobia that she hasn’t left her home since.” She paused to look at each of the heroes, her expression cold and hard. “This was done by the man who kidnapped my brother.”

“Your brother?” Miss Fortune exclaimed with a look of surprise.

“Shortcut,” Pinnacle said, glancing to Rachael. “It turns out that Shortcut is her kid brother.”

“Oh shit,” Asset gasped, staring at Rachael with an expression that was hard to read.

“Snip is one of my contacts,” Rachael said, ignoring the way that all three of the heroes were now looking at her. “She told me everything she learned about the Marquis and his weaknesses while she was his prisoner.”

Pinnacle suddenly looked interested at that. “What weaknesses?”

“He requires physical contact for several seconds to take a power,” Rachael said, keeping her tone calm and professional. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought that she wasn’t bothered at all by talking to three people who wanted to beat the crap out of her and put her behind bars. “Snip says that he can only hold a limited number of powers at a time, though she isn’t sure of the exact number, only that it’s between five and seven. He can hold the powers for several hours before they fade, but the more he uses the stolen powers, the faster he loses them. However, his biggest weakness is that he’s self-destructive.”

“What do you mean?” I asked her, fully aware of the irony of her talking about someone else being self-destructive. Then again, if there was anyone who was an expert on the subject, it would be her.

“From what I understand,” Rachael explained, “there’s no real threat of him becoming the next Gizmatic or Lord Paramount because he’s too distracted by his…hobbies. He keeps torturing and killing his most powerful donors, weakening himself in the process. That’s how Champion was able to take him down before.”

“So,” Pinnacle mused, “our best bet is to hit him with everything we can, force him to use up his stored powers, and keep him from recharging.”

“And don’t let him touch you,” I added grimly.

“I can’t bring myself to hope he’s already killed off his most powerful ones,” Miss Fortune said with a look of disgust. It was obvious that everyone else agreed, even Rachael, though I doubted any of the heroes would have realized this. Then Miss Fortune looked at me again and said, “I’m not going in there with a kid.”

“She can take care of herself,” Pinnacle said.

Rachael looked at me and hesitated a moment before saying, “You don’t have much experience in this kind of thing, so it might be best if you stayed back.” The heroes all stared at her in surprise.

“Hell no,” I exclaimed, angry and insulted that she’d even suggest I should stay back while my son was in danger. “There is no way in fucking hell that I’m going to sit this one out.”

Rachael stared at me for several long seconds before letting out a sigh of defeat. “When you’re like this, there isn’t any changing your mind.” She gave me a faint smile and said, “Just promise me you’ll be careful.”

I hesitated a moment, then told her, “I’ll try.” The truth was, I wasn’t about to make any promises other than that I was going to get her and Rich both out of there safely.

Rachael nodded at that, then went to the back of the truck. A few seconds later, three robot dogs climbed out while the heroes all watched with wary expressions. I gulped faintly at the sight of the dogs, remembering the way they’d attacked back at the Clinic. I also remembered the way they tended to explode when hit, so made a mental note to keep my distance from them.

“These are the only robots I had that were near ready,” Rachael told me, almost apologetic.

“A couple of those humanoid ones you have would have been useful,” Asset commented thoughtfully.

“Maybe,” Rachael agreed with a shrug. “But I can’t keep any of those around long. If they’re active for too long, they tend to become sentient.” She shook her head at that and admitted, “I usually use them as cannon fodder so they don’t stick around long enough for that to happen.”

Asset gave Rachael a worried look, probably having second and third thoughts about working with her at all. Then he shared a look with the other heroes, one that spoke a great deal about how little they trusted Rachael. They might be working with her today, but they fully expected her to turn on them at any moment and they were prepared to deal with her.

Rachael went and looked over her robot dogs, then grabbed a few more weapons from the back of her truck. While she was doing that, the heroes quietly talked among themselves, though I was close enough to overhear a few words.

“No,” Pinnacle told the other two sharply. “I made a deal.” And then a few seconds later, he added, “Besides, we still need her…”

I was relieved that Pinnacle at least seemed willing to keep up his end of the deal, at least for the moment. I didn’t know what Miss Fortune and Asset were going to do, though from their looks of disgust and frustration, I suspected that they would reluctantly follow Pinnacle’s lead…at least for now.

Finally, Rachael held her energy rifle in hand and stared through the fence at the mansion, a cold hard look on her face. She sneered, revealing her sharp teeth and looking every inch the dangerous super villain.

“No more fucking around,” she stated firmly, not bothering to look at me or any of the heroes. “It’s time to go.”

“I’ve got the gate,” Pinnacle said, going to the metal gate where he easily broke the lock and then flung the gates wide open.

With that, everyone began walking through, though Rachael snarled and yelled out, “Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war…” And with that, her robots all rushed through the gate to lead the charge.

“A little dramatic,” I commented wryly.

Rachael just gave me a faint smirk and responded, “I thought it was appropriate. Now, let’s go kick some ass…”