Ember Kilborne stared at the abominable superweapon she had helped create in utter existential terror. She saw, felt the flashing bracelets within the monstrosity. The hum of the fusion reactor from within the cathedral grew, pulsating in tune with thousands of bracelets embedded within the titan.

Alexa started to laugh. "You are incredible!" She yelled up at the enormous skinwalker. "I always dreamed about having a big sister! We are going to have such great fun together and nothing and nobody will be able to tell us what to do! Not even Titanomachy! Ha ha ha ha!"

Ember heard the intensifying throb of the reactor and she knew that she was to blame for all of this. The bracelets would bring the skinwalker titan to the present and no hero would be able to stop it. She knew then why the future her, Admiral Resonance, had used the orbital ion cannon to take England off the map. Only the full power of the annihilation beam could vaporize, end this thing. In minutes the bracelets would activate and the world would burn, millions would die. Alternatively, if old Admiral Kolchi was too noble or too indecisive, refusing to sacrifice millions to save billions, this titan would easily reach the space elevator and likely pull the entire station from orbit.

Ember's heart throbbed as quickly as the reactor now. This was the ultimate goal of Doctor Terranova! This was the global disaster her mom had been trying to prevent all this time and ex-hero Resonance in her careless, hasty folly was to blame for the coming end of the world.

Ember dropped to her knees onto the ash covered, frozen earth in front of Alexa, beneath the planet-wide supercell storm. Lightning flashed overhead, highlighting the monster and its creator.

"Please! You have to stop it! You have to do something!!! Deactivate the bracelets! PLEASE!" She begged.

"Hum?" Alexa looked down at her nemesis. "But my big doombringer sis and I already have such great fun planned. We wouldn't want to disappoint daddy!"

"I am begging you! Don't bring that thing to the present! Millions will die if you do!" Ember wept. "Please don't! I'll be your most obedient, most loyal minion! I'll answer to Dimmy! I'll do anything! Just don't do it!!!"

"Anything? I dunno about that. I'd be ever so lonely without my new big sis in 2024."

"I'll be your big sister, instead! I'll be the best damn sister you've never had! Please!!!!" Ember wept, holding onto Alexa.

"You'll let me use your credit card to buy sushi?" Alexa inquired casually.

"Yes!!!!!" Ember yelled. “I said anything!!!”

"I don't know if I should believe you. You were kind of a disappointing sister to Martin, from what I hear." Alexa looked at her fingernails.

"I'll be the best sister, I swear!"

"Why don't we make it official?" Alexa asked, pulling a pen from her vest pocket.

[What. Did you steal one of my dad's pens?] Martin stared at the SCA pen in her hand. He noticed that the pen had several cracks on it and was held together with several Dora the Terraformer themed band aids. He suddenly realised that this was his pen that she broke in Mr. Canard's office. He totally forgot about it, didn’t even see her pick it up! She must have done it when she distracted him with the “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” speech in which she had confessed hacking the SCA database to spy on his family!

[M, gimme your thumb please.] Alexa demanded and Martin complied without questions, not sure how she planned to stop the giant skinwalker from being sent into the present with just a pen.

Alexa brushed the end of the pen against Martin’s thumb. [Say - “Contract maker”] she commanded.

“Contract maker.” [What?] Martin said, confused.

The pen buzzed, the screen didn’t come on. [Looks like it’s broken] Martin thought.

A green, thin beam of light, easily visible in the dim surroundings suddenly flashed from the pen. Alexa rotated the pen to point the beam at her own eye.

“This legally binding contract is made between hiree [A] Alexa Terranova and employer [B] Ember Kilborne.” Alexa flashed the pen’s light into Ember’s eye.

[Say these words, Dimmy: I Ember Kilborne, also known as Hero Resonance…]

Ember looked at Alexa, mouth flapping open and closed. The hum of the reactor intensified in the background.

[Go on.] Alexa prompted.

“I Ember Kilborne, also known as Hero Resonance...” Ember spoke, her voice breaking.

[Do solemnly swear, that I am of sound mind and body.]

Ember said the words, confused and terrified, not understanding why this was necessary.

[From this moment henceforth I declare, take on Alexa Terranova as my future sidekick, apprentice and acolyte selection for Hero Academy.]

“...Hero Academy.” Ember spoke, trembling.

Alexa clicked the pen and the green light shut off. She looked smug.

“I don’t understand. You just wanted… to be my sidekick?” Ember whispered, looking at Alexa with wide hazel eyes.

“Allright, spit em all out, noodle-chan! We’re done here!” Alexa yelled at the gigantic monstrosity. Mr. Noodles wiggled and thousands of rapidly flashing bracelets emerged from his insides, raining down onto the rubble covered ground.

“I’m going to miss you, big sis!” Alexa yelled.

[I’ll miss you too, little sis.] Mr. Noodle mentally replied with Alexa’s voice. The skinwalker giant stood up, and spun, warped, body twisting, tentacles rearranging themselves into a simulacrum of a hair and a dress. For a second the skinwalker looked like a gargantuan statue of a thousand-eyed girl made of black, glistening sludge.

The bracelet on Alexa along with thousands of the others on the ground beeped in unison.

“I love you! Goodbye!” Alexa bowed.

[I love you too.] The titanic Alexa-shaped skinwalker answered, bowing. [Goodbye.]

Thousands of gigantic hands descended from the sky, punching through the broiling storm. The builders were going to dismantle the aberration and they wouldn't take no for an answer. Titanic Alexa saluted the real Alexa as the sky-hands struck her. She didn’t try to resist them, embracing her end.

Alexa hugged Ember. Martin and Cottie placed their hands atop them. The world flashed with blinding white.

. . .

Four teenagers found themselves in the park in front of the Saint Mary’s cathedral. Three thousand black bracelets littered the ground in front of them. Alexa lifted the bandaid-taped pen up to the sky, pointing it up at Titanomachy. Martin saw a barely visible red laser beam of data flash from the pen into the sky.

“Supervillain Alexa Terranova! Put your hands up! You are hereby under arrest for your future crimes against humanity and the Superstate!” A voice boomed from all around. Every tree in the park surrounding the quartet of teenagers suddenly bent outward as the air itself warped and detonated. Branches and leafs flew away, blasted by a sudden hurricane. The stained glass windows of Saint Mary’s cathedral wobbled in their frames. The bell inside the belltower began to swing back and forth for the first time this century producing deep, somber gongs across town.

The pen flew from Alexa’s hand shattering in the air. Her hands were already up.

Hero Nonpareil flashed into existence in front of Alexa with another boom of displaced air. He looked extremely determined, ready to annihilate anything in his way, eyes flashing with terrible, earth shattering power. Five other supers became visible behind Nonpareil. Martin knew of their names, because they were part of the mightiest team of five heroes on the planet. Knight Chalice, The Surgeon, Dora the Terraformer, The Multiplier… and Mr. Canard. The gym teacher was the sixth super present. He was wearing sunglasses and looked spooked.

“Ugh! Where’s the giant monster? I expected to slay a giant monster!” Knight Chalice said, looking around. “I brought my biggest sword and everything!” The swinging park trees reflected off his armor and the unnecessarily long sword. The sword turned, casting a shadow across the city. Chalice was looking for someone to smite, but only found four small teenagers covered in dirt.

“Maybe it’s invisible?” Dora said with a hissy voice coming from very grimy speakers on a rather large space suit covered in numerous dents and scratches. Barely visible pink paint showed in between the delts, peeling off.

“It’s not invisible.” The Surgeon sighed. He looked tired, dark bags under his eyes. His green, long, unkempt hospital gown fluttered in the wind. “I can see across every existing spectrum. There’s nothing. Those bracelets are extremely suspicious though. They’re full of super-tech. They are likely going to assemble into a transit gate or something for the thing to come through. I suggest we destroy them now.”

“Agreed.” Multiplier put his arm on the Surgeon. “Erase them all.”

“Agreed.” Nonpareil flashed out of where he had been priorly. He appeared besides the Surgeon, holding one of the bracelets. “Erase them.”

The Surgeon touched the black hexagonal bracelet held by the small, staple-sized arm of Nonpareil. The black bracelet rippled and vanished. Every bracelet on the ground had vanished at the same time. The bracelet on Alexa’s arm was gone.

Alexa looked at her naked arm. “I’m free! I’m finally free! Oh thank you! Thank you!” She cried, hugging Martin.

“I said, keep your hands up and don’t move!” Nonpareil flashed, suddenly appearing behind Alexa with a supersonic detonation of displaced air. The blast of air knocked Alexa and Martin apart and down onto the grass. A pair of SCA handcuffs clicked, binding Alexa’s arms. The hero smacked her face-first into the earth with another powerful concussive blast of air.

“She’s the one in charge. Arrest her!” Mr. Canard said, sunglasses glinting on his face. He pointed a finger at Alexa, accusingly. “I’ve been observing her. She broke into the SCA bank and attacked me with molotov cocktails when I tried to stop her. She’s been using those bracelets to teleport around and get away from me. She’s a delinquent and a supervillain!”

“You’re making a mistake! I've done nothing! There’s a monster from the future in Mr. Canard!” Alexa hissed at Nonpareil, lifting her face. She was bleeding from her mouth, ears and eyes.

“I do not make mistakes, villain.” Nonpareil said. “You’re going away for a very long time.”

“For what?! I’m innocent, you paperclip-shaped-tit!” Alexa yelled.

“Silence! We prevented the future in which you destroy the Superstate.” Another blast of air flattened Alexa into the ground, tools flying from her belt, backpack ripping apart and things from within it scattering around.

“Arhg, come on! That was my third backpack, you asshole! Why do you people keep destroying my things?!” Alexa yelped, trying to grab at her tools.

“Weapons!” Nonpareil flashed and every tool on the ground flew away from Alexa.

“This is super-brutality, damn it! You’re going to be very, very sorry.” Alexa said, wiping blood from face. “I swear to god, I’m going to find you and…”

“Threatening me will do you no good.” Nonpareil intoned, slamming a wall of displaced air into her once again. “Who are these other kids? Your hostages?”

“They’re my friends.” Alexa answered, crying in pain.

Martin was lying knocked out in the grass, unable to say anything or to help anyone. Cottie rose from the ground, with a groan, pressing the trigger of her railgun.

“By the 1779 Accord made between Eminence Equality and Sup…” She started to speak as colors drained from the world.

Nonpareil and Alexa vanished, a supersonic boom throwing Cottie’s dark blue hair into the air. A hole appeared in the clouds overhead.

“Bring her back, you fucking bastard!” Cottie screamed at the sky.

Ember turned over, coughing. She didn’t try to say anything, deaf and confused from the repetitive concussive blasts nearby. None of the heroes had recognized her and it didn’t even matter to her - she had done it. She had saved the world. She wasn’t even a hero anymore and she saved the world. Nobody would die today and that’s all that mattered.

The five heroes started to back away from Cottie and her black gun.

“Bring her back! In the name of Equality! I command you to bring her back!” Cottie yelled.

A round drone with the SCA logo dotted with cameras spun around the scene.

A thousand eyes of Titanomachy looked down upon the handcuffed villain girl and the paperclip hero that held her by her vest above the clouds.

"I'm going to dismantle all of you, I swear! Put me down right this instant! I am a hero! I saved all of you dumb fucks!" Alexa yelled at Nonpareil.

Across the world, the faces of Alexa and the five heroes flashed on every news channel, the same thing being rebroadcast, regurgitated on every major live vlog.

“The Five save the world once again! Supervillain apprehended!” Newspapers, blogs and tv stations announced. Thousands of professional tv commentators, millions of amateaur bloggers around the world were discussing the arrest of Alexa Terranova, the supervillain that had nearly destroyed the Superstate.

. . .

Martin sat in his living room and looked at his tv screen. He couldn't believe it. Alexa hasn’t done anything and she was being hailed as the supervillain of the century. They had even given her a name: “The Doombringer”. Martin thought that this was the most idiotic thing ever. Alexa didn’t bring any doom, didn’t hurt anyone.

“...if it wasn’t for the brave, courageous, timely response from the Five led by Nonpareil! We must congratulate the incredible work of the SCA action planning team assisted by our two local agents on the ground!” The Superstate News anchorman spoke with a brilliant smile. Another picture of Alexa ‘resisting arrest’ flashed on screen.

Martin rubbed his head. The two agents on the ground had been Mr. Canard and his dad. The prognosticator team was led by his mom. It had all come together in an unexpected end. Alexa had chosen not to use the monster to destroy the Superstate, but the heroes had taken all the credit regardless.

The prognosticators had been wrong. They had failed to predict the future, seeing only one possible outcome. The one outcome that Alexa had not chosen. The longer Martin watched, the more his belief in the Superstate fell apart. How many villains had been created by false accusations like this? How many had been imprisoned for making the right choice? How many hadn’t even done anything, merely planned to do something but haven’t gone through with it?

The worst thing had been that nobody listened to Martin, nobody had cared about his testimony after the fact. He was a nobody. Just a fourteen year old boy who wasn’t of value or importance. They’ve even blurred his face along with Ember’s in the tv reports.

The prognosticators had seen the future in which Alexa attacks the station with a giant monster. The Five had been sent to prevent her. They seemingly did, by vanishing the bracelets. Alexa had been arrested. She had resisted arrest, insulted Nonpareil. The Superstate heroes had voted unanimously and the sentence was passed before the Cottie could even do anything, could file a complaint on the behalf of the Equalizers.

Martin realised that there was something in his pocket. It was a piece of paper. He pulled it out and unfolded it, realising that Alexa must have shoved it in when she had hugged him today at the moment when her bracelet vanished.

“My dear Martin,

I’m sorry that I had to lie to you so much when we met, had to trick you, bully you.

I really wish I could have been open and honest with you from the start, but this was the only way. I had to play the role of a villain, skirt a very fine line on the blade of a knife for the watchers of the land and the sky and the future.

As you read this letter, the Heroes have undoubtedly arrested me and sentenced me to an absurd amount of years in Tartarus for doing nothing at all.

Please understand, everything I had done was to show, to irrevocably prove to you, Cottie and Ember that the Superstate is corrupt, that the prognosticators guiding the heroes are wrong. Very, very wrong about everything.

You probably think me foolish for sending myself to prison just to prove something to three teenagers, but you also should understand that you three had quite a future ahead of you. Ember, the SCA Admiral. Cottie, her Eminence. You... Well, I won’t spoil your future just yet.

Cottie is undoubtedly reading the same letter through your eyes. Hi, Cottie! You’re awesome. Sorry I trampled your beliefs. Eminence Equality and the Equalizers are guided by the same future predicting tech as the Superstate. It all leads down the same path, although it doesn’t seem like it.

The future which ALL of the future seers witness, use to make all of their decisions is a very complex game of deception.

The seers are guiding our world towards something truly nightmarish, something far worse than world 2424. I dare not say what it is, dare not give it a name, lest THEY know that I know. Even writing this letter, thinking about them is putting me at a grave risk, but I just can’t keep lying to you guys anymore. I am ready. This is the way it has to be. They will come for me, I know. This is the only way I can even begin to fight them on even ground.

I’ll see you in my dreams, my friends.

~ Alexa Cassiopeia Terror Nova

P. S. Eat this letter. It’s made of digestible, strawberry flavoured paper. Yum.”

Martin folded the letter back up, put it in his mouth and swallowed it, his hands shaking. He closed his eyes, trying to reach Alexa using their mutual mental connection. The picture was very fuzzy. He could barely hear Alexa’s thoughts. Martin realised that he should have let Spiderbro grow bigger, stronger. His friend was somewhere very far away. Maybe she was in orbit inside Titanomachy or maybe deep underground.

He saw a small room with chrome floor walls and ceiling. The staple hero was floating in front of Alexa’s eyes.

. . .

“Supervillain Alexa Terranova, also known as Cassiopea the Doombringer. You are hereby sentenced to one hundred thousand years of S-stasis for your future crimes against the Superstate. Any last words?” Nonpareil asked.

“You all suck. Your justice system sucks. The Superstate sucks.” Alexa said, looking at the Supers that she knew were hiding behind the one way mirror in front of her. The chrome walls were closing in all around her. “I’m warning all of you all right now. Put me under and you will all regret it.”

“Well, that’s that then. Have a good tomorrow.” Nonpareil said, pulling the lever.

“I’ve been misled. You’re not a very helpful staple.” Alexa spoke and her body stilled.