Melly Minch (Earth 42711)

Early Life
Melly was born on November 1st, 1998, in a hospital located somewhere in the United States. Her parents, Martha and Matthew Minch, were both mutants, and moonlighted as roaming vigilantes. This habit often saw them at odds with the local law enforcement, forcing them to move frequently to keep the retaliation they received away from their child. Shortly before Melly turned five, the Minches settled in a small town a short distance from New York City, with both Matthew and Martha agreeing to cease being vigilantes and settle for good, finally giving their daughter some stability.

This, however, would not prove to be a long-lived sacrifice on their part.

In 2005, an invasion of New York City by the Chitauri took place. While Melly was at school during the event, both of her parents had gone to spend the day in New York, and thus participated in the defense of the city. This garnered the notice of Professor Xavier and the X-Men, who invited the couple to join their organization. Readily accepting the offer, the Minches relocated to Xavier's Mansion.

Life at the X-Mansion
For the next six years of her life, Melly resided at Xavier's mansion alongside the X-Men, where her formative education took place alongside the many mutant children that had come to reside there. Though Melly herself never developed nor showed signs of her own powers emerging during this period, both of her parents expressed hope that they would eventually awaken.

Her parents now being full-fledged members of the X-Men, taking on the aliases Memoria and Psy-Wall, became caught up in the thrill of the work, frequently going on missions for extended periods of time. In their absence, Melly was watched over by another young mutant named Erin Clarke, and the two grew to have a sisterly bond. Melly eventually gave Erin the inspiration to establish her seldom-used alias as 'Blip', based on the sound that Erin's teleportation-based powers made when used. Erin, in turn, was the first individual to start calling Melly by her now-common nickname. When her parents were back at the mansion, Melly frequently sought attention from them, which they readily gave in the short span of time before they rushed off to participate in another mission. As such, Melly would eagerly wait for their return each time they departed.

The Decimation & Its Aftermath
The home the Minches had found at the X-mansion was abruptly disrupted in 2012, when an event later dubbed the Decimation took place. This reality-altering event resulted in the majority of mutants to, in a single instant, lose their powers, leaving only around a thousand mutants remaining in the world. Both Matthew and Martha Minch retained their powers after the Decimation.

Fearing an imminent attack by enemies of the X-Men, along with the uncertainty that their daughter would be allowed to stay due to her now cemented non-mutant status, the couple fled with their daughter. Though initially unsure of what to do, they eventually decided to head south, heading towards the small North Carolina town that Martha had grown up in. There, the house of her parents sat empty, having been left to her after their deaths over a year prior. The drive down was filled with discussions about their now-uncertain future, particularly regarding their daughter.

Upon arriving, they made the fateful decision to alter Melly's memories. Using Martha's powers, all details about Melly's time living at Xavier's mansion and her parent's powers were blotted out, and substitute details were provided to fill in the gaps that were created. Erin, the sister Melly had found, was forgotten as well.

Teenage Years
Though the changes to Melly's memories had the desired effect-- with her having no recollection of her parents' connection to the X-Men, or her time living alongside them-- the large scope and fundamental nature of what Martha had sought to obscure made the completed job far from perfect. The next year of her life-- even after the restoration of her original memories later on-- remained a blur, as continued alterations were done to patch up the gaps Martha had left in her initial changes. Though these instances decreased in frequency over time, they continued, and were paired with bouts of forgetfulness on Melly's part, along with several more blank spaces peppered through the memories of her late childhood.

Once again, both Matthew and Martha swore to leave their vigilantism behind, and to start anew in a more normal life. However, by 2014, the two of them were located by the remaining X-Men, and were asked to return to the team. Though refusing to relocate back to the mansion, deciding to maintain the façade of normalcy that they had forced onto their daughter, the draw of their life-spanning passion got the better of them, and the two of them returned to hero work once more. As they resumed their work with the X-Men, they became frequently absent from Melly's life, which they played off as being 'business trips'.

With her parents frequently gone, Melly was cared for by a rotation of babysitters and nannies, none of which she found herself able to create a substantial bond with. Instead, she found herself drawn to books, filling her ample time alone with countless stories and eventually started attempting to form her own. Though excited to share these new passions with her parents, their shallow complements given to Melly in their moments spent together began to wear thin. Their disinterest beyond the surface level of what she showed them acted as a stark contrast to the feeling of warm enthusiasm she was still able to remember them giving her, and so an emotional distance between her and her parents began to form.

From her countless hours trawling through her local libraries to fill her time, a more analytical side of her emerged. She began to question her parents about their lengths of absence, and brought up small things she had noticed them do as well as things she had seen them with. Not wanting to give up on maintaining her daughter's 'normal' life, Martha began altering her daughter's memories more, the source of every question being obscured to prevent it from being brought up again. Matthew, though initially uncertain if his wife's actions were for the best, was eventually swayed by the reasons she gave, and allowed it to happen. The bouts of headaches and forgetfulness returned, though fortunately the stories Melly had read and created remained untouched by her mother, and she was able to carry them forward with her throughout her high school years.

Intervention
During Melly's senior year of high school, the X-Men Martha and Matthew worked with (most of whom had met a younger Melly at least in passing during her time living at the X-mansion) began having concerns about Melly's wellbeing, given how long both her parents tended to be away at a time. However, both of them seemed to brush off the matter, with Martha in particular being vocal about having everything under control. Having doubts, the X-Men secretly sent Erin-- Melly's once-sister and former babysitter, who had also retained her powers post-Decimation-- to check in on the Minch household. While watching on, Erin witnessed Martha alter her daughter's memory over a seemingly minor disagreement. With the realization of how reliant on her powers Martha had become to manage her daughter, Erin returned to the X-Men, who confronted the duo.

After a series of lengthy arguments, both concerning their actions as well as the condition of their daughter's mind due to the continuous tweaks Martha had been making, an agreement was reached: Melly's altered memories would be left alone, but no more changes would be made. For the remainder of Melly's time in high school, and up through when she would leave for college, the pair would be kept busy with the X-Men, and would not be allowed to return to see their daughter without another X-Men accompanying them, remaining nearby to ensure Martha made no more changes to Melly's mind.

Though Melly's memory improved without her mother's interference, the damage had already been done to other aspects of her life. Though she managed to maintain her grades well enough, the last six months of her time before moving to college were lonely ones-- a feeling she came to connect with the increased absence of her parents.

Starting College
In 2017, Melly began attending college at Danvers University, located in the nearby Centrum City. On move-in day, she met her new roommate for the first time: another freshman named Hannah Toomes. Despite their differing areas of study (Hannah as a mechanical engineering student, Melly as an English major) The two immediately found themselves becoming fast friends. The two of them also frequently spent time with another student living on their hall, a sophomore named Abbie Brant, and a small but rotating group of other students that they would play tabletop games with. The group also began to frequent Stan's Rollercade, a locale not too far from Danvers University, on the weekends.

Seeing that they fit well together, Melly and Hannah decided to room together once again during their sophomore year.

Gaining Her Powers
Melly's sophomore year started out as normal as the previous year had been. The summer leading into it-- one in which her parents were almost entirely absent-- would prove to be the last one she would spend at home, and it left her eager to return to school (and Hannah) come August.

On a Friday evening in late September, Hannah had opted to stay in the engineering lab late to finish designing a project for one of her classes. Melly, not wanting her roommate to miss out on their weekly burger night, picked up the food and took it to Hannah, where the two discussed the project in question. Their meal was interrupted by a sudden disturbance from elsewhere in the building: a loud noise was heard, the lights flickered, and a strange series of lights flashed outside. The two, looking out into the hallway to investigate, witnessed a tall, cloaked figure run out from another room and head elsewhere into the building.

Given that both Hannah and Melly had neither powers nor the inclination to follow a suspicious man to who-knows-where at the time, decided to let someone that was better equipped come along to handle the situation.

After cleaning up their things, Melly decided to head back to the pair's dorm room. After exiting the building, she crosses paths with the classic Spider-Man of her dimension, who had come to investigate the site of the disturbance that Melly had witnessed earlier. After answering some questions about what happened, Melly continued on, now stuck on thinking about her encounter with the hero.

Back in her room, Melly began unpacking her things for the night. It was then that, as her hand searched around for something to write with, an unusual spider that had hidden itself in her bag latched on to her hand and bit it.

What followed was, at the time, the weirdest night of Melly's life as she began to hear the Spider speak. After reassuring it that she wouldn't hurt it, the spider dubbed itself 'Red', and the two shred a long, winding conversation with each other as they bonded in more ways they one.

The next morning, Melly eventually woke up, not fully remembering the events of the previous night at first. However, after some questioning from Hannah (who had walked in on her in a delirious state the previous night), briefly having her and her roommate's hand stuck to each other, and confirming that Red was very much real, the trio put together that Melly had gained a set of powers that appeared to replicate those held by the Spider-Men of her dimension.

The Spider-kid Era
[WIP]

A Spider by Name
[WIP]

Something Old, Something New
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Meeting the Cluster
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Danger Zone
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In the Shadow of Giants
[WIP]

Loki's Moodswap Mayhem
[WIP]

Trial by Fire
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In Memoriam
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Anarky and Kaos
[WIP]

Seeing Red
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The Long Fall & The Web of the Worlds
[WIP]

The Crimson Weaver Emerges
[WIP]

The Clone Conspiracy
[WIP]

The Ungoliant Crisis
[WIP]

Dissonance Arc
[WIP]

A Meeting of Scarlet and Crimson
[WIP]

Redline's Trap
[WIP]

A Glitch in the Matrix
[WIP]

Battleworld
[WIP]

Escape the Dreamscape
[WIP]

A Matter of Self
[WIP]

A Tale of Two Ocks
[WIP]

Back to Your Roots
[WIP]

Unlimited
[WIP]

College Graduation
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Technicolor Turmoil
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The X-Sitter
[WIP]

Palpitors
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Trapped in the Web
[WIP]

The Weaver's Knot
[WIP]

Tangled Threads
[WIP]

Self-Reflection
[WIP]

Untangling the Knots
[WIP]

Vox Populi
[WIP]

A Mender of Souls
[WIP]

Crimson Weaver, Reignited
[WIP]

Beholden
[WIP]

The Last Heist
[WIP]