One strange Cat...

The sirens blared at the entrance to the alley. The medics looked sullenly at the corpse on the stretcher. It wouldn't have mattered how soon they had shown up... they saw the victim had died on the spot.

"Well. Looks like I'm in for another long night." A cat in a red scarf said to himself looking down on the scene.

Jane had been wandering the streets when out of seemingly nowhere a gang of thugs came at her. She fought with all her might, but there were too many of them. They outnumbered her 15 to 1. She tried throwing something but they had her closed off in an alley. She tried to teleport but couldn't get the words out quick enough. She tried charming them, but they had nothing in their minds to charm. She was soon overwhelmed and killed.

The ambulance didn't arrive until later and she had died before the killers even took her money. She was on the stretcher as a cat rolled up on the scene.

As Sissel walked up to the men, they tried to shoo him away.

"I'm close enough. Let's get to work."

Immediately, the world would turn red. Time would halt. Every inanimate object would take on a bluish hue, with a bright blue dot in it. From Sissels body emanated a blue aura... showing his powers of the dead granted by temsik. His soul, which came in the form of a flame, stretched out until it reached the stretcher. Sissel would start time up again as his husk crumpled to the ground.

He would reach out his soul again and take a stretch out to the core in her head.

With a flash of light, Sissel would see himself in a dark void, illuminated by a swirling red vortex behind him... facing a spirit, the blue soul-flame of the recently departed that had yet to take shape

"Hey... are you awake?".

Jane opened her "eyes" and looked around the void. She was a little creeped out by it all. She looked at the cat with curious inquiry. Where am I? She continued to look around trying to piece the puzzle together/ Am I dead? she thought as she peered into the dark abyss.

"Actually yes... you are dead. That's your body on the stretcher." He responded to the girl. He realized she might get a little creeped out by the fact that a cat had just read her mind.

She jumped back as the cat spoke about what she had thought. She then looked down and saw her body lifeless on the stretcher getting poked at by the EMTs. She then looked at the cat with harsh curiosity. So. You can read minds? Why are you here? To lead me to the afterlife or something?

"Sort of... there are no secrets in the world of the dead. It's more like my thoughts are being directly beamed into your head. In fact. You just responded to my surface thoughts."

Sissel had given this explanation so often it was sounding rehearsed to him.

"I'm not here to lead you to the afterlife... I'm here to save you."

Before them appeared a giant red clock.

"Shall we turn back the hands?"

Interesting... was the only word she offered at his explanation.

She was about to ask how was that possible when the clock appeared. She made the connection quickly and looked at the cat with a sort of understanding. She simply nodded as they began to turn back the hands of time.

4 Minutes before Death

A few thugs were hanging around the street, discussing various things, exchanging contraband... the usual illegal activities.

After a minute or so, a girl began to walk up. The men all hid in various locations, such as dumpsters, behind poles, ect.

Then they jumped her. He watched as the girl would throw daggers at the first two making advances at her. Right then, two men would jump from the dumpster and pin her against the wall. Before she could react, a bat would come down on her head with a mighty crack.

The scene froze and turned grey... implying her death.

4 Minutes before Death

A few thugs were hanging around the street, discussing various things, exchanging contraband... the usual illegal activities.

After a minute or so, a girl began to walk up. The men all hid in various locations, such as dumpsters, behind poles, ect.

Then they jumped her. He watched as the girl would throw daggers at the first two making advances at her. Right then, two men would jump from the dumpster and pin her against the wall. Before she could react, a bat would come down on her head with a mighty crack.

The scene froze and turned grey... implying her death.

Wow...

"Good news for me... you can defend yourself. So if I can hold off a few of those thugs... you should be able to save yourself. Now to fix things up."



He found himself in the precise spot where her body had fallen to the ground.

"Okay... the real threats at the moment are the two thugs that pinned you. Let's fix that."

Time froze, everything becoming red again.

"That power box should work."

Stretching his soul to the box, he possessed it, he then jumped down a soccer ball on the ground. He let time resume.

"Trick"

The ball immediately rolled across the alleyway. A couple thugs looked at each other.

"Was that you?"

"Nope."

Jane continued to watch this cat at work. Interesting...Such simple tactics...

"It's time."

He watched as the girl entered the alley, the goons began to crawl out and the girl took down the first two.

"Now to change fate."

Freezing time, he jumped from the ball, now on the dumpsters side of the street, up to a poster, from the poster he jumped to another poster closer to the dumpster that had started to peel. Unfreezing time, he forced the poster to peel off even more, giving him a close enough range to the dumpster. He froze time yet again and jumped to the dumpster lid.

He unfroze time as the two men began to jump out.

"Trick"

Swiftly, the lid slammed down and locked on the two men.

Fate Changed

"Now I've altered your fate a little... but you still aren't in the clear yet."

Jane watched herself as she deviated from the path she had taken the first time around with a lot of help from that cat.

As the lid slammed down on two of the men, three more came from the shadows. Jane quickly whispered. Nails, grow! Her nails quickly grew into three inch daggers. She pierced one of them in his abs, and dug in. She spun around and went to claw the next, but her hands were caught and the other seized her from behind and put her into a choke hold.

"Uh-oh..." Sissel muttered. Before his eyes flashed the words "Time until death:" then a count down of 3, 2, 1. He watched the girl go limp and fall to the ground.

"Let's try this again. If I alter fate like I did with the dumpster, I can use it as a checkpoint. Let's try it again."



He found himself in the dumpster again.

"In ten seconds... you get strangled. Let's fix that."

Sissel froze time as he jumped back through the posters to the ball. He unfroze time and sent it rolling off down they alley towards a bike leaning against the alley wall. As it began to tip, Sissel froze time again and jumped to the pedal. He unfroze time and spun the pedal causing the bike to shoot off crashing into the man choking Jane. His grip loosened as this happened.