The Secret World of Alex Mack premiered in 1994 with one of the coolest premises on kids’ television. Alexandra “Alex” Mack was walking home from her first day of junior high when she was accidentally drenched with GC-161, an experimental chemical from the Paradise Valley Chemical Plant. Instead of getting sick, Alex began developing extraordinary abilities. She could move objects with her mind, release electricity from her fingers, morph into a silvery liquid and, inconvenie

But mercy does not always arrive after the danger. Sometimes mercy is the warning that comes before it. Sometimes it is the uncomfortable conversation you did not want to have, the advice you were tempted to dismiss, the uneasy feeling that kept bothering you, the pattern someone kept pointing out or the near-miss that should have made you reconsider what you were doing.

They save somebody in one chapter and betray somebody in the next. They fight for justice but carry bitterness in their hearts. They love deeply while making decisions that hurt the very people they claim to protect. They may do the wrong thing for reasons we understand—or the right thing for reasons that are not nearly as noble as they pretend.