Alex Unlimited: The Beginning



The last school bell before winter break sounded, thousands of kids all across America sighed in relief and Alex herself was no different.

“Ah!” Alex stretched her arms high above her head cracking quite a few bones, “winter break is the best time of year.” She wrinkled her nose looking at the sky. “If only it could snow so far south.”

“I know something better than snow”, Alex’s best friend Georgia smirked.

“What’s that?”

“Jack accepted the invitation to my party today.”

“Jack?” Alex looked faint, “As in the Jack I’ve had a crush on since the second grade?”

“Yup!” Georgia looked smug.

“He!” Alex made a high pitched noise and jumped up and down in place.

“It’s too bad you have to go to your family reunion this vacation.”

“Oh,” Alex gave a dismissive wave of her hand, “I can get out of that if I really want to.”


“You can’t get of it Alex”

“But… but MOM!” Alex looked at her mother with pleading eyes “Jack SPENCER will be there… I can’t just not go!”

“Too bad little lady, It’s your family and you’re going. Now I expect you to be packed and ready to go in about three hours.”

As Alex trooped by her mother she muttered under her breath.


“What’s that Alex? What have I told you about muttering?”

Alex turned to face her mother. “I said I HATE YOU!

Alex ran down the hallway and into her room… the door slamming actually shook the entire house alerting her father to the commotion outside of his home office.

“Whoa!” Alex’s father said “what was that all about?”

“oh, just teenage hormones.”

“Ahh!” He nodded his head, as if that explained everything (and in some ways maybe it did)

“Don’t worry though.” Alex’s mother smiled. “I have a guaranteed way to make it all better.

*****************************************


Sure enough several days and a couple hundred miles later, Alex of the sour and surely had disappeared replaced by Alex of the cute and giggly.

The reason??



It may have been the generous amount of snow laying about her skis.

It may have been the fact that she had just had a large cup of gourmet cocoa with fluffy marshmallows (mmm marshmallows)

But the most likely reason of all stood just a couple of feet from Alex… a ski
instructor… but not just any ski instructor. He was six feet two inches of manly manness and Alex was far from immune.

“And that in, a nut shell is all you need to know about skiing safety.”

“Huh?” Alex wiped a bit of drool off her lips… now how had THAT gotten there?

“So!” the Adonis embodied (also called Dave) clapped his hands together, “Do you feel up to trying to ski now?”

“Uh…” Alex could not for the life of her remember a single word that Dave had said.

“Good” Dave gently guided Alex to the top of the bunny hill and positioned her to start slowly down the hill… except it wasn’t that slow…

“AHHH!” Alex screamed flailing wildly with everything she had trying to slow her descent… unfortunately this only made things worse.

Alex ended up at the bottom of the bunny hill in a mass of ski equipment and random body parts.

“Oww!” Dave said eloquently “that had to hurt”

*******************************************


“I can’t ever show my face again anywhere!” Alex grouched in the hospital room later.

Luckily Alex had only sustained minor injuries in her head long crash, this didn’t appease Alex’s hurt pride much.

“Oh, it wasn’t that bad honey.” Her father tried to appease her.

“Yeah” her mother laughed, “you could have been on an actually ski slope.”

Alex gripped the thin hospital sheets turning her knuckles white.

Her father noticed it first; a drop in the temperature of the room and small beads of condensation forming on the glass in front of him. He panicked.

“Oh, she didn’t really mean that Alex”

“Of course I…” Her mother’s voice trailed off as her father mad slashing motions with his hands… then she noticed it as well

Tiny ice crystals forming in the heated hospital room, a shiver worked its way down her spine as she looked at her daughter.

She gave a sick little smile, “No I didn’t really mean it sweetie” She reached over the bed to touch Alex’s hand “you know I lov-“

“LIAR!” shouted Alex and the room grew even colder as the hospital

window burst open letting large drifts of snow swirl around Alex “You both hate me! I never want to see either of you again!”

A cold hand touched Alex’s shoulder

“That can be arranged”

Alex turned to meet eyes of the exact same shade as her own looking at her with cruel amusement.

“I- I didn’t mean...”

“What didn’t you mean?” The woman leaned away from Alex to better look at her. “Oh! You didn’t mean the bit where you said that you didn’t ever want to see those two” she pointed at Alex’s parent who were looking on in fear, “Again.”

“Well you’re in luck duckie.” The woman with Alex’s eyes chuckled “I feel like granting a few wishes today.”

She turned and walked towards Alex’s parents, she took the father’s head in her hands first and with a quick turn of her hands and a large crack his eyes went blank he then fell limply to the floor.

“Alex!” Her mother cried as the woman turned to her next “ALEX RUN!” then another large crack and the mother too fell to the floor.

“Alex huh?” the woman turned to Alex... “Isn’t it a small world? My name is ‘Alex’ too.”

Alex let out a moan as she ran through the hospital hallway blindly the crazy woman’s laughs echoing in her ears.

She didn’t stop running for a long time.

***********************************
Hey B.C. wait up!”

Brain Clairwell turned around to see Edgar running to catch up to him.

“You’ll want to see this.”

“Why what is it?” B.C’s shoes clacked on the linoleum as he retraced his footsteps with Edgar back to the briefing room.

“We’ve just picked up a rift in the time space continuum somewhere around Montana.”

“Really?” B.C. tried to hide his enthusiasm and act natural. “Is it still there?”

“Negative… but according to out read out something was able to come through before it was able to close.”

“On it!” B.C. smiled at Edgar. “Is my ‘copter ready?”

“Yes, it’s in the hanger.”

“On to Montana then.” B.C. had to repress the mad urge to skip as he made his way to the hanger… after all his years of research and hard work it was finally going to pay off.

B.C. smirked in anticipation of what he was going to find in Montana.

*************************************************


Alex stumbled a bit as she walked up the driveway to an empty cabin… she hadn’t felt like she was being followed by the other Alex for miles but she couldn’t be sure.

She tested the front door of the abandoned cabin and was relieved when it obediently swung open at her lightest touch. Whoever had owned this cabin was long gone. Nothing was in it except a musty old couch and a few towels.

Alex took the towels and wrapped them around herself trying to stay warm.

As she sat on the couch her adrenaline level dropped allowing the reality of her situation to sink in.

She had just seen her parent killed.

Murdered.

Right there in front of her

And in some way she was the reason that they were dead.

“Mom…” she choked out hiding her face against the cleanest bit of the towels… “Dad I’m sorry”

“Oh, don’t cry child”

Alex’s head whipped up at the unfamiliar voice.

“Let Uncle Giacomo make it all better.”

There against the doorway, outlined in light, stood a large grey haired man with broad shoulders. He seemed to dwarf the very small cabin just by standing there.

The girl to his right was pale with dark hair and piercing blue eyes. She leered at Alex behind Giacomo’s back, her lips pulled back in a cruel mocking expression.

The thin boy standing next to her was extremely good looking, he threw Alex a smile and Alex almost smiled back… hoping for a friend, until she noticed that he wasn’t smiling. He was looking at her like a wolf looks at his next meal.

Alex quickly looked down.

Baron Giacomo knelt next to Alex on the floor, “she doesn’t seem especially powerful Sonnet”, He lifted Alex’s face with a single finger so that he could better look into her eyes. “Are you sure that she has any magic at all?”

The pale girl who was apparently named Sonnet snorted as if at a private joke. “Yes, she just doesn’t know how to use them yet.”

“Really? The Baron looked down at Alex’s face and in his eyes Alex could see her reflection, a small girl of 12 with dirty streaked cheeks and eyes so wide that all you could see was the white.

“Let’s give her a lesson then.”

The Baron grinned “Sabre”

The boy named Sabre smiled the same wolfish smile he had given Alex earlier and stepped forward.

“Take her outside


B.C. landed in the middle of what had been a hospital just the day before, now a ruin.

“Whoa what happened here?”

Snow had begun to fall again as B.C. began his search of the perimeter for clues his equipment glowed faint green and blinked in the dim light.

“What are you doing here?”

B.C. froze at the voice.

“Prying sneaking where you oughten’t not be.”

The source was a tall woman with slightly fuzzy hair, green eyes and blood splattered cloths “Alex thinks that you don’t belong”

B.C. backed up slowly trying to put some distance between them.

The woman tilted her head considering him. Lazily her tongue peaked out of her mouth to lap at a little of the blood on her hand.

“You’ll have to be dealt with.” She said finally taking her hand away from her face and lunging for B.C.’s head.

“AHH!” B.C.’s head was now between the woman’s hands and any second now he was going to hear the sickening snap of his own spine… except it never came.

B.C. opened his eyes to find no one there.

“What the?” B.C. muttered to the frigid air. “I think I’m going to need back up for this one”

Then the device in B.C.’s hands went insane it blinked rapidly and made a high pitched buzzing noise. Somehow it could sense another rift in the time space continuum and was trying to warn B.C. of it loudly.



Alex looked up with nearly swollen shut eyes at the snow that was still falling on her head. She could hear another one of Sabre’s rock hard punches heading toward her face, but she couldn’t really make herself care anymore.

She closed her eyes in defeat.

“Better cough up those powers soon girl.” Giocomo heckled from a few feet away. “Sabre has never been known to show mercy, I should know, I taught him myself.”

Sonnet snickered next to Giocomo.

Sabre raised his fist again in preparation for another punch… but before he could even twitch his arm, his hand as caught in a rock hard grip.

“I don’t think so!”

Sabre suddenly found himself several feet away feeling the snow melt into his clothes.

“why don’t you pick on someone bigger n’ you.” The speaker had light brown fuzzy hair and flashing green eyes as she faced off against saber.

She deftly moved between Sabre and Alex as saber let out a howl of rage and launched himself at the older woman.

High block, low punch the woman countered all of Sabre’s fancier moves for several minutes before taking him out of the fight with a single blow to the head.

Sabre landed in a large pile of snow. Out for the count.

“Why you WITCH!” Screamed Giocomo as he also attacked the new woman.

However the green eyed woman was in no mood for anymore games: and just landed a hard hit to Giocomo’s back.

“Crack!” Giocomo landed in the snow unable to get back up, his back broken.

The woman then looked for Sonnet.

But Sonnet had already hightailed it out of there, heading for the nearest highway… around 100 miles away.

The woman sighed and relaxed, “What a bunch of bullies.” She gently took Alex’s bruised and unconscious body in her arms. “What have they done you little one.” She whispered.

“STOP RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!”

The woman froze as B.C. Stepped out of the forest followed by two dozen police officers, all of their guns trained on the woman holding Alex in her arms.

“Drop the girl and step away.”

The woman placed Alex on the ground and stepped way her hands in the air. “There must be some kind of mistake”, she said

“You have the right to remain silent” the man said putting the woman in hand cuffs said as they pushed her into a police car

“I’m telling you you’ve made a mistake” cried the woman as the car drove away.

B.C. blew out the deep breath that he’d been holding.

“So she was definitely the woman that attacked you earlier at the crime scene correct.”

B.C. turned to face the sheriff “yep there’s no doubt about it that woman killed all those people at the hospital”

“Shame that.” The man shook his head. “Well, we’ll be taking these victims to the hospital now, have a nice trip home.”

“Thank you I will.” B.C. spared a glance at the three unconscious bodies in the snow… a large elderly man and two children.

The girl particularly caught his eye because of her hair. It was the same shade and texture as that of her attacker… now that was unusual

The silence was broken by the radio the sheriff wore on his belt. The people on the other end sounded very excited.

The sheriff picked the radio up and talked quietly to the people at the other end on it for a while until...

“But that’s impossible!” the sheriff shrieked. “That’s crazy talk.”


“What is it sheriff?”

“Oh,” the sheriff gave a nervous little laugh “Just the boys playing a joke… They claim that no sooner did they get to the nearest road than the girl in the back just up and disappeared.”

He laughed a little more but B.C. suddenly grew very still.

“HOW COULD I BE SO STUPID?” He cried. “She must have been altering the time space continuum…

“Eh?” the sheriff said, but B.C. was too busy ranting on about how stupid he was to hear him.

“That’s how she ended up so far away from the hospital. We’ll never find her now!”

Alex’s eyes were leaking silent tears as she looked at the hospital room ceiling.

She wished she wasn’t in a hospital… it made her remember things... and no matter how she turned it over in her head she just couldn’t seem to believe that her parents were really dead.

She brought her hand to her forehead and let out a silent sob.

“Hey!” B.C. came into Alex’s room with a tray of food. “Finally awake?

He set the food down on the table and sat down in a chair. “You were hurt pretty badly in Montana… we’re trying to locate your parents but we’ve had no luck so far….”

“They’re dead.” Alex’s voice was abrupt and emotionless.

“Oh.” B.C. looked at his hands, he had feared as much.

“I killed them.” Alex finally broke down crying. Her sobs were so loud that they made her body rock and hindered her breathing.

“No, no you didn’t sweetie.” B.C. took Alex’s shaking body in his arms “I saw the woman who did this and you must never, ever believe that you had any part in this.”

“But I did.” Alex whispered.

“Ever since I was a child, when I was bored or lonely another me would pop up.”
B.C. froze.

“This girl would always know the best games and would love to play with me for hours and hours and when I got tired of her… she would just disappear… later I could call another girl to play with.”

“Until one day… when I was playing with my next door neighbor and he was winning at soccer… I got mad and I called the girl again… I didn’t mean to but I did. Except this time she was different… meaner… harsher. She beat my neighbor up and then she turned on me.”

“By the time my parent’s separated us I had two broken bones and a blackened eye. They forbid me to ever call the girl again… and I didn’t until today.”



Alex’s sobs overtook her again and her frame curled in tighter against B.C.’s body.
“My God!” B.C. whispered as he looked down at Alex. This girl was the answer to all his prayers and the embodiment of all his nightmares combined.

She was actual proof of the time rift his organization had spent years researching and theorizing about…

Giocomo moved his new arm experimentally after days of having been unable to control his body, he had undergone radical sugery.

He was now strapped into the hospital bed with cloth bands, he snorted, as if that could hold him in this bead.

He twitched his new gleaming metal body and moved up and out of the bed walking over to the window to shut it.

He had been in that hospital gurney for days and listening to the birds was the worst part.

A single unlucky pigeon was on the sill as he approached it, with lightning fast
speed Giocomo reached out snatching the bird in his fist… he squeezed.

The bird fell to the floor, never to fly again.

“hmm.” Giocomo murmured, “Teach you for singing off key.” He laughed!

He knew what he would do now….

He would perfect the world the way that he was now perfect…

And no one would ever sing off key again. No one would ever trip and fall. No one would ever make less than an ‘A’ on a test.

He would teach the world to sing.

Alex walked down a darkened hall way, her footsteps echoing in the emptiness.
She turned a corner and found herself facing a mirror.

As she looked at her reflection, the reflection smiled, waved, then took a knife out of it’s pocket and proceeded to step out of the mirror and walk towards Alex.

Alex ran through the corridors taking a left a right another left the reflection not far behind… she passed more mirrors as she stumbled through the corridors and every time she passed one another version of Alex would step through the reflection and make it’s way towards her, brandishing some sort of weapon.

This one a sword that one a club.

“No!” Alex reached a dead end, she was surrounded by the reflections and there was no way out… in front of her stood the largest mirror she had come across yet and so slowly a hand started to emerge and make it’s way towards Alex before…

“AHHHH!” Alex screamed waking up in a cold sweat fighting with her covers as she tried to breath.

She closed her eyes and gripped the sheet to her chest as she took a steadying breath.

It had been a few months since she had had a nightmare about this; she had hoped that she would never have one again.

“Crap!” she said as she got out of bed. There was no way she was going to be able to sleep after a dream like that so she might as well get started on the day.

She turned on the shower and quickly dressed in jeans and a tee-shirt before making it to the mess hall at the end of the corridor.

It was amazing how easily she had adjusted to living life in a secret military base… but she had. She had grown to love the quite and security of it.

If only she wasn’t dreading what was to happen today, she would probably appreciate the relative comfort she was living in better.

“Good morning Alex!” B.C. chirped, being entirely too cheerful for so early in the morning.

“Are you excited about today?”

Alex gave him a look.

“How can I be excited when I’m fearing for my life?”

“Oh come on… you know we like you too much to let you die!” B.C. thumped her on the back. “Besides we’ve been teaching you control for months now! Nothing will happen. Come on now it’s almost time to get started.”

Alex stared incredulously at his back. Then followed him at a slower pace.

Eventually they reached a very large room divided into two sections by a large two way mirror. B.C. went into the “observation room” where several other doctors and specialist (as well as a few body guards) were waiting, but Alex hesitated before going into her side of the room.

“I don’t think I can do this.” She said finally looking at B.C. in the observation room.

“What if I hurt someone again...? I don’t think I could live with it…”

B.C. stared at her in silence for a moment,” It’s true you could hurt someone.” He admitted. “But think of all the people that you COULD help. You could save the world.”

Alex Gulped and nodded, B.C. shut the door separating the two rooms…. Then locked it the lock clicked with a final snap.

Alex Breathed deep and the air around her started to stir as the temperature dropped significantly. Her eyes turned blank and suddenly she was surrounded by snow... hundreds of flakes swirling majestically around her.

“How is she doing?” B.C. asked a hint of worry in his voice.

“Respirations are normal heart normal… only thing that’s changed is the temperature and…” he gestured at the snow.

“Good” B.C. Nodded satisfied.

Suddenly the slight breeze in the room turned into a gale whipping all the snow together into the middle of the room in front of Alex. Slowly, so slowly the snow took shape… it grew hair and skin, when it had finished there stood a woman of about 25 large eyes and brownish straight hair.

She looked exactly like Alex except older with more manageable hair.

She looked around the room in confusion for a second before her eyes landed on Alex.

“Where Am I?”

Alex sighed in relief and held out her hand so that the new Alex could shake it. “Hi, you’re in a top secret facility somewhere in New York… your name is Alex and you’ve been called to help us.”

“Help you do what?”

Alex smiled “why to save the world of course.”


***********************The End****************************