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

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

I was sitting in the back of the library, in an out of the way corner where most people wouldn’t notice or bother me. A small stack of books sat beside me, though these were ones I’d already finished reading.

This wasn’t the same library I’d gone to a couple days ago with Rich. After the encounter with the Humanity First protestors and the incident with Bobby Barrow, I’d thought it would be a good idea to avoid that area for awhile. Instead, I’d caught a bus to this library, which was actually a little larger and better stocked.

A woman came through one of the aisles and stood in a position where she could notice me if she actually bothered to look. I tensed up for a moment, then I let out a sigh of relief when she wandered away without coming my way.

Shortly after I’d arrived at the library, one woman had seen me with the books and had commented to someone else, “Isn’t that cute, looking at the pictures and pretending she can read.” It was rude and obnoxious, especially since most normal girls of my apparent age were more than capable of reading.

I finished with my latest book and set it to the side, closing my eyes and thinking about what I’d just read. I’d done this with each of the books, finding that taking a break to absorb the information made it easier to organize it in my head.

When I’d come here nearly two hours ago, I hadn’t been looking for any specific book or subject. Instead, I started grabbing a variety of different things that caught my interest, ranging from subjects like math and basic physics to things like Alice in Wonderland and Othello. There were even a couple books on cars and engines, which were subjects I was already more than familiar with.

“That should do it for now,” I mused, having finished with my entire stack of books.

Of course, I still had to grab a few more books that I could check out to read later. I smiled eagerly at that, having already noted some books and subjects earlier that I’d wanted to read through. And fortunately, I remembered exactly where each and every one of those was.

A short time later, I had another six books, which was the limit of how many I’d be allowed to check out. It annoyed me that I could only get so few, especially since I’d finish these in almost no time at all. Still, there was always the internet to search afterwards.

When I went to the librarian, she took a look at my books and chuckled. “Tolkien, algebra, and an English to Spanish dictionary,” she commented, giving me a curious look. “That’s quite an eclectic mix.”

I just shrugged at that, gave her my best little girl smile and responded, “I’m an eclectic kind of person.”

She seemed amused by that and continued to sign the books out to me. From her expression, I was pretty sure that she didn’t think I’d actually read all these books, but that was perfectly fine with me, just as long as she let me borrow them anyway.

When I left the library, I started down the street for the bus stop, only to realize that someone was following me. I took a quick look back, trying to act as though I wasn’t. It was a guy in his late thirties to early forties. The question was, was he following me because he wanted to make sure a little girl who was by herself was all right, or did he want something else?

“One way to find out,” I mused, turning and walking down an alley between two buildings. He followed me, so I stopped and turned to face him. “What do you want?”

“You look lost, little girl,” the main said, giving me a look that I definitely didn’t like. Then he kept walking right towards me, adding, “Let Uncle Nico help you out…”

“Go away,” I told him simply, definitely getting the creepy vibe from him.

When ‘Uncle Nico’ suddenly lunged forward and grabbed me by the shoulder, I lightly tossed him up against the wall. It only took me a few more seconds to have him wrapped up in pink ribbon like a mummy, with a nice bow.

A minute later, I was back on my way towards the bus stop, hoping that I didn’t run into any other people like him. I also hoped that I didn’t run into anyone who was legitimately trying to help me, because I wouldn’t be able to brush them off quite as easily. Sometimes, being a little girl was a real pain in the ass.

I made it back home without much trouble, though one kindly lady on the bus was starting to get a little too nosey until her own stop came up. It would be a lot easier if I had someone who at least looked like an adult with me, someone who’s very presence would cut off a lot of potential trouble, but I couldn’t expect Melanie or Rich to tag along with me all the time.

The house was quite when I returned home, though it wasn’t a surprise. Mark was at work, Kaylie was going to spend the day with one of her friends down the street, and Melanie had taken Kimberly out to see the latest Disney cartoon. For the moment, I had the entire house to myself, and that was perfectly fine with me.

Once I set my books down, I turned my attention to a project that I’d been working on for the last couple days. I’d been practicing with my manifestor power, trying to gain enough control over it so that I could use it for something more practical than just impressing little girls. Of course, this was bound to be even more impressive to them than the ribbons anyway.

With that, I stripped down to my socks and underwear, then mentally formed an image of a dress in my mind. I’d done my research, reading up on fashion, dress patterns, and how to make your own clothes. I’d also studied my dresses and several more that I’d found in a store. I held the dress design firmly in mind, creating every little detail. And since I’d measured myself last night, I hoped I could get the dress to my own exact measurements.

A moment later, a fully formed dress appeared on my body and I grinned in delight that it had worked. Of course, I’d tried this last night and again earlier this morning, but the size hadn’t been quite right. This time, it felt perfect. I began stretching and moving around, verifying that it fit like a glove and gave me a full range of motion.

“This should do it,” I announced, feeling rather proud of myself. Of course, I still had to make sure that it actually looked the way I wanted as well.

I went to the bathroom and looked myself over in the mirror, seeing that the dress looked exactly like I’d envisioned it in my mind. It was a frilly purple dress that was a bit old fashioned in style. And after looking it over, I decided that I could probably make a few improvements in style and cut, but for now this was quite acceptable.

“But I still need a few touches,” I mused.

It only took a few minutes to put the final touches in place. I summoned a black silk ribbon around my neck as a form of choker, a larger silk ribbon which I tied around my waist like a sash, forming a little bow with it, and I created a purple bow, which I put in my hair. Then, I added the skull decorations which made it look as though I was trying to be a little dark and creepy, but which actually mellowed the effect. All in all, I was pretty happy with it.

“And to think,” I said with chuckle. “I was expecting to have a few more failed attempts.”

Just a short time after this, Melanie and Kimberly returned home, with my granddaughter singing badly off key. I figured that this was one of the songs from the movie, and from the look on Melanie’s face, I guessed that she’d been singing this for awhile.

“How was the movie?” I asked.

“It was great,” Kimberly exclaimed excitedly, nearly bouncing as she began telling me about the plot, though not in any kind of coherent order.

“It was good,” Melanie told me with an amused look. “The place was packed though. A bunch of kids were there as part of a birthday party and they’d reserved most of the best seats.”

“You should have come, Alyss,” Kimberly told me. “It was fun…”

“Maybe next time,” I told her with a smile.

“That’s a very nice dress,” Melanie finally said, looking my new dress over. “Where’d you buy it?”

“I didn’t,” I responded, feeling rather smug though I tried to keep that out of my voice. “I made it.”

“You made it?” Melanie responded, giving me a look of surprise.

“I’ve been practicing,” I admitted, doing a little twirl to show it off. That whole twirling around in a dress thing was actually kind of fun. It was no wonder little girls always did that.

Melanie looked the dress over, touching the shoulders and commenting, “No seams…” She looked more than a little impressed as she added, “This is way beyond just making ribbons…”

I nodded at that, still feeling quite pleased with my work. Then I admitted, “I’ve had more than a few failed attempts. I hid them in the back of my closet until they fade away.”

“Can you make me a dress too?” Kimberly asked me eagerly.

“Of course,” I responded with chuckle. “But I’ll have to take your measurements so I can make sure it fits right.”

Melanie stared at me with an odd expression, then said, “You know, Mark and I are having a date night next Friday…and I could use a new dress…”

I laughed at that, then told her, “I’ll see what I can do. But like I told Kimberly, I’ll need your measurements and an idea of what you want the dress to look like.”

“My Dad, the seamstress,” Melanie teased me.

“Are you sure you really want that dress?” I asked her wryly.

I got out a tape measure and string, then began taking measurements of both Kimberly and her mother. Both of them were patient as I did this, watching me with a lot of curiosity. I didn’t bother writing any of the measurements down, nor did I need to. I remembered every one of them.

Once I finished with the measurements, I went online and looked up some pictures for that Disney movie they’d just been to. Then, I created a dress for Kimberly that looked quite a bit like the one the princess in that movie had been wearing.

“You just made her day,” Melanie told me, watching her daughter with a smile. “It’s like Christmas morning…” Then she told me, “You know, you’re spoiling her rotten with this…”

“That’s one of the benefits of being a grandparent,” I pointed out, only to have her shake her head and walk away, muttering about how I wasn’t like that when she was little.

Kaylie returned home a short time after this, bursting through the door and immediately announcing, “I hate boys…”

“Good,” I responded with a chuckle. “You keep feeling that way. You’ll avoid a lot of trouble.”

“Is there any boy specifically?” Melanie asked her.

“That stupid Brandon,” Kaylie exclaimed. “He’s such a jerk face…” And with that, she stormed back to her bedroom where she slammed the door.

“Brandon?” I asked Melanie.

“Her best friend’s brother,” Melanie answered, looking quite amused. “I think he has a crush on her, but he’s at that age where he’d still rather tease her…”

I nodded at that, musing, “I remember it well.”

Mark returned home from work next, though he didn’t seem to notice my new dress, or at least he didn’t say anything about it. That was no surprise though, because the guy code kind of frowns on noticing things like that. He did give me an odd look, but that was no surprise either. He’d been polite and friendly to me since I’d moved in, though I knew I weirded him out a bit.

Melanie went in and started on dinner right after Mark returned home, and after hesitating a moment, I went in to help her. I’d never been that good a cook, but I’d recently read through a couple cook books and wanted to get my hands dirty trying some of that stuff out for real.

My daughter gave me a curious look, then commented, “No offense Alyss, but you’re not exactly good in the kitchen…”

“Maybe not,” I agreed, knowing that my cooking skills had always been focused more on the grill than in the kitchen. I could cook up a great steak, and I made some mean babyback ribs, but I had also been known to burn water. “I’m just trying to expand my horizons a bit.”

Melanie looked pleased at that, then told me, “Then I’m glad for your help. Now only if Kaylie would stop pouting over a boy, I could give her a few pointers too.”

I helped Melanie get everything together, paying close attention to everything she did and cross referencing it to the cook books that I’d read. That gave me a few ideas from other recipes that could have worked here, but I kept my mouth shut and just made mental notes to try them on my own another time.

Dinner worked out pretty well, and I felt a bit of pride for my part in making it. But more than that, I just enjoyed spending time with Melanie and doing something together with her. When she and Rachael were younger, this was the kind of stuff they used to do with Meg, not with me.

Once dinner was over, I played with Kimberly for a short time, then I settled down to read the books I’d borrowed from the library. Of course, they didn’t last me long, and the entire time I read them, Kaylie stood back and watched me, skeptical that I was actually reading that fast.

“No one can read that fast,” my oldest granddaughter insisted stubbornly.

“And no one can just make a clothes appear by snapping their fingers either,” I pointed out smugly, snapping my fingers and making a dress appear in my hands. It was bright pink and pretty ugly, but I’d made my point.

“That’s not fair,” Kaylie complained, giving me a jealous look. “I want mutant powers too…”

Melanie gave her daughter a wary smile and pointed out, “There are mutants in the family, so it is possible…”

Mark grimaced at that, then reminded them, “But as we’ve seen, being a mutant can come with a lot of problems.”

Melanie glanced to me and then nodded thoughtfully, probably thinking more of Rachael than me. I wondered if Rich had any downsides to his powers. If so, he hadn’t mentioned them to me.

Eventually, everyone else began getting ready to bed. First the girls went back for the night, and then Mark and Melanie did as well, leaving me up by myself. In spite of my apparent age, I wasn’t about to accept an early bedtime, a fact that I’d made clear to Melanie when I first moved in.

I went to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of bourbon from Mark’s private stock, then I sat down on the couch to make myself comfortable. I’d been trying to make a point of not drinking in front of the girls, but that didn’t mean I was going to give up drinking entirely. As I sipped the bourbon, I decided to turn the TV on and watch something, though I realized that the remote was a little out of reach.

“Not a problem,” I mused, not wanting to get up now that I’d made myself comfortable.

I summoned a long ribbon, then it stretched out under my will, reaching for the remote. As I’d discovered by accident, I could actually control the fabric that I summoned, at long as I was actually touching it. However, just because I could move the fabric around, that didn’t mean I could make it do everything I wanted.

The end of the ribbon wrapped around the remote control, then raised it up and brought it to me. Unfortunately, the amount of weight I could lift with my ribbons was pretty limited, which was a real shame, because it would have been pretty impressive if I’d been able to use my ribbons to grab hold of people and then lift them up off the ground. Instead, I could just reach out with the ribbons and wrap people up, then drag them back to me by pulling on the ribbons.

“But who knows,” I thought aloud. “Maybe I’ll get better at that with practice.”

I turned on the TV and began flipping through channels, but there wasn’t anything on. I ended up turning to a local news show, which was giving reruns of all the news that had come on during the day. Since I hadn’t actually watched any news earlier, it was still new to me.

The anchor talked a bit about some minor scandal involving a politician, then they went into some feel good piece about a shelter that was finding homes for rescue dogs. Both pieces were pretty boring and I was about to go to sleep.

But as I took another sip of bourbon, they started another news piece that caught my attention. There was camera footage of Mystery Woman fighting some guy I didn’t recognize. He was wearing a black and red outfit with gold metal trim. His entire head was covered with a black mask so I couldn’t make out his face or even his hair color, and in his hand he was holding what looked like a golden scepter.

When I’d met Mystery Woman before, she hadn’t told me what her powers were so I watched carefully as she fought the man. She had a green glow around herself as she hovered in the air, then various things around her would glow green and suddenly fly around, making me think that she was a telekinetic or something similar.

Text announcing ‘Mystery Woman versus the Marquis’ began scrolling at the bottom of the screen letting me know what who her opponent was, or at least what his name was. I still had almost no idea about anything else about him.

“Go get him,” I said, cheering for Mysterious Woman simply because I’d actually met and talked with her. In spite of her insulting Rachael and then patronizing me, she’d seemed like a decent sort. Then again, she was a super hero so that was probably required.

The Marquis fired blasts of energy from his hand, putting holes in walls and causing the side of a car to bubble and melt. Mystery Woman kept lifting random things and putting them between her and the Marquis in order to shield herself from her attacks.

I couldn’t see everything that happened during the fight because whoever was filming the fight ducked behind a car for cover. When they came back out, Mystery Woman was standing over the Marquis, who looked completely defeated. Then he suddenly raised his scepter and a spray of smoke poured out of it and right into her face. A moment later, she suddenly collapsed to the ground without moving. The Marquis got back to his feet, picked Mystery Woman up and slung her over his shoulder, then he walked away.

“Oh shit,” I gasped, realizing what I’d just watched.

The video ended at that point and the news anchor came back on, talking about how earlier today, the Marquis had not only defeated Mystery Woman, but had kidnapped her afterwards. I grimaced, watching the rest of what they had on the situation, but it was obvious that they didn’t know anything more than what had been on the video.

A minute later, I turned to the TV off, then took a long sip from my bourbon as I thought about what I’d just watched. I hadn’t particularly liked Mystery Woman, but hadn’t really disliked her either. I shook my head sadly and gave a silent prayer that things would work out for her.

I knew that the Freelancers weren’t a real team, that they were just a bunch of solo heroes who happened to hang out at the same place, but I certainly hoped that at least one of them would go after her. After all, what was the point of making all those contacts with other heroes if they couldn’t back her up when she needed it.

I leaned back and finished my bourbon, thinking about what I’d just seen and the fact that Mystery Woman might not even be alive anymore. I’d learned a long time ago that anything involving super powers was dangerous, but even more so once costumes became involved. This had just severed as a clear reminder of that fact.

Most mutants seemed to think that just because they had powers, that they should put on a costume of some sort and either become a hero or a villain, as if there were no other choices they could make. I’d seen where the villain path led, and I had absolutely no intention of following Rachael down it. But at the same time, I couldn’t imagine myself putting on spandex and playing at being a hero either.

I had power, more than anyone who looked like I did had any right to possess. However, I refused to follow either the hero or villain paths. As far as I was concerned, that video had merely reinforced my previous decision to keep my head down and avoid the whole thing.