The Alternate

Prologue

(Ami's POV)

Three years ago...

I held Cressa in my arms, carefully hugging her as she slowly fell asleep after crying for almost a half hour. I would have been crying too but I didn't want to show any weaknesses to the family across from us. I looked on as people in the church cried for their beloved superhero and supervillain who died in battle with each other. Instead of having the funerals on separate days, the city's council decided to host both of them on the anniversary of the town's founding for "important" and "classified" reasons.

Plus it was tradition that if a super was to die by the villain's or the hero's hand, the family of the villain or hero should come to the funeral, wearing the mask symbolizing the mark of the hero or villain to show that the villain or hero was actually sorry to kill one of their own and was willing to show sympathy towards the mourning family. Which seems absurd to me cause, who would want to see the family of the person who killed your sibling, wife, husband, cousin, etc?

I averted my eyes back to the funeral conductor who reminded me a little bit of  Harley Quinn. She had blonde, blue and red hair like Harley but at least Harley knew how to do her makeup that didn't look like she did it without a mirror in a dark room.

Though I didn't want to, I started to listen to her speak again. Her voice was like fingernails against a chalkboard to me. I wanted to cover my ears or maybe listen to some music but I had to listen to the already twenty minute speech she was making so I wouldn't seem disrespectful.

"...as we say goodbye to two of the best Alternates of this lifetime. We have a request from the family of Slash that his will be read before everyone today by his wife, Misty, as said in his last wish, that everyone needs to know the truth from the mouth of my sweet angel."

I tried not to gag as people in the audience awed and I nearly felt the heat emitting from my mother's cheeks as she nuzzled my neck. She took off the traditional mask, placed it in the hands of my elder brother, Jackson and nodded towards him.

My mother never liked to wear masks. Everyone already knew her secret identity since she chose to become a full time villain and stay at home mother. I admired her so much for doing that.

My mother turned her face towards the crowd and walked up to the podium in all her angelic beauty. She smiled brightly and walked with a fearless yet beautiful grace.

Though I knew how much she was trying to make herself look strong after father died.

I shook that out of my mind as she got up to the podium and I saw her bring her hand up to wave to the other family but they didn't wave back. I heard my mother scoff and she changed her position to one that seemed to say she didn't care if people were watching her.

"Let's get this over with." My mother said as the conductor hand her a really old looking paper and my mom took her time trying to untie the red ribbon that was around it. She scrolled it and I heard her small intake of breath as she skimmed over it. She cleared her throat, straightened up as she placed the paper on the podium and read it.

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"..and finally the last thing I leave to my wife is my undying love for her. I love everything about her. From her beauty in the inside to her beauty on the outside. You are my air, my water, my ground, my soul, my life, my world, my star, my galaxy, my whole universe. I hope we meet again, my darling."

It took twenty minutes for my mother to read the first part of father's will and it was all about how he loved her and basically gave her almost everything he owned. Most of the crowd was either on their phone or bored out of their mind. My arms were sore from hugging Cressa this long and I'm pretty sure she was asleep by now. I heard snoring behind me and glanced over to see Jackson, also asleep on one of the chairs that they provided for each family.