Martin, Ember and Cottie sat in the park in front of Saint Mary’s cathedral, listening to Alexa’s mental narration about lake Eerie, heroes, villains and her dastardly plot to collapse and restructure the global economy using Ember’s ghosts.

[What the fuck is wrong with you?] Martin looked at Ember. [Seriously? Seventy thousand ghosts? Seventy thousand fucking Embers working below minimum wage without rest just to make you Admiral? I thought you became Admiral because you were capable, not because you found a way to cheat the system!]

[It’s not my fault that Kolchi is an idiot!] Ember snapped back. [It’s not my fault that supers are idiots! I only did what I thought was right! What had to be done! I would have made more ghosts too, had Alexa not stopped me!]

[I think we’ve established that you’re the biggest idiot out here.] Cottie thought at Ember. [Alexa had weaponised all of your ghosts. She turned them all into a tool that ends the power of Supers. Not their skills, strength or their speed, but their wallets. She hit the heroes where it really hurts them.]

[Jesus Christ Ember! That’s how you got to take control of the entire orbital ring! That’s how you atomised England with impunity! Did you plan to disband the precogs, after you forced Kolchi into early retirement? It all makes sense now! You’ve been inserting yourself into the foundation of every SCA institution - its maintenance drones! Mom and dad would never have suspected their own daughter of such insidious planning. They’ve been looking across the world for villains when one was living right next to them all this time!] Martin growled. [Here I thought Alexa was a villain, but you… you’re far more of a supervillain than she will ever be!]

[I was only doing jobs that nobody else wanted! Operating a bunch of cleaning drones is not a crime!] Ember howled. [I wasn’t going to fuck up the SCA banking system! That’s all on Alexa! You can’t be blaming me for what she did!]

[Honestly, I don’t know what you were going to do, but the more I learn about your deeds, the less I like you.] Martin sighed. [How could I have been so blind, so gullible? My own sister - the biggest villain of them all!]

[I did it for my family. I did it for you, Martin!] Ember choked. [It wasn’t all selfish. I would…]

[Wait a minute.] Martin turned to her, reading the rush of her surface thoughts. [I see. You… you were going to make me important. Once you were Admiral, you could insert me into any position. It wouldn't have mattered one bit if I didn’t even become a hero! You would help me move up the political ladder, pay for my election, manipulate votes. Hah! President of NUSA or SUSA. Director of the SCA. UN speaker. Leader of Earth Nations?! Emperor of humanity?!! Jesus Christ, Ember!]

[We could have ruled the world side by side! As brother and sister. You and I could have united humanity and heroes, passing laws together. Supers and humans could finally work together to design AIs. Mass produced, self learning machines could fix every problem out there! We would turn deserts green, we would end poverty, eradicate crime once and for all, attain immortality, build incredible cities, colonise the Universe with you as Emperor and me as your fleet Admiral!] Ember turned to Martin. [But it’s all gone now! That future lays in ruins because of Alexa!]

[Holy shit.] Martin paled. [I… I can’t believe this.]

[You would have made Equalizers illegal. You would have made crime obsolete by reeducating both humans and villains side by side in Tartarus.] Cottie mulled, catching Ember’s thoughts too. The Equalizer’s lips drew inward into a thin frown. [You would have eradicated human laziness and stupidity, once and for all, by making debtors into happy, obedient androids. I see.]

[Just fucking shoot me, why don’t you?] Ember put her head between her legs. [I’m fucking done. I can’t take this anymore. She’s ruined everything, turned all of my hard work against me and the heroes.]

A flying taxi whooshed down onto the park, with a crackle of electromagnetic engines.

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaai guys!” Alexa yelled, waving at her minion trio from the open door.

As she jumped out of the taxi onto the grass Martin stood up and rushed to give her a hug.

“Hey, hey. I’m still good. Only got shot in the head a little.” She hugged him back, looking at the tears in his eyes.

Martin blinked at her. He understood now what Alexa has done. She had saved them all from a horrible future. Cottie knew about Ember, but the Equalizers didn’t know about him. Did he fail at being Emperor then? Did he somehow screw that up?

Alexa lifted the right side of her hair. [See? Not even a hole. Honestly, I only lost a bunch of sim memories, which were mostly pointless violence against Tickles. Nothing valuable.]

“Still good,” she winked at Martin, bowing her head. “M’Emperor of humanity!”

Martin blinked, letting go of Alexa. His face turned red.

“Eyyyyyyyy! Why so glum, Admiral crumbum?” She yelled at Ember.

Ember glared back at her. Alexa leaned into the taxi, grabbed a broom out of it and handed it to her.

“What?” Ember blinked.

“Stopped at a Superstore to grab you a broom! You’re such a great Titanomachy janitor, I figured you could help me clean up my church!” Alexa pointed at the cathedral. “It’s reaaaaaaaly dusty inside, you know.”

Ember glared.

[What? You can clean thirty thousand toilets on Titanomachy as service droids but you can't sweep one cathedral? My apologies, Madam Admiral!] Alexa declared dramatically.

Cottie came over to Alexa and hugged her. [I missed you.]

[I missed you too, Katherine.] Alexa smiled.

Martin froze. [Wait, what?]

[Oh I’m sorry, did you never ask for her real name? Too busy chasing gym teachers and gawking at giant explosions, I bet?]

Martin lowered his head in shame.

Cottie looked at Alexa, her lip trembling.

[Yeah, I know. I am the hand that guides the Equalizers, remember? I’m that which equalizes the world. The power which reshapes all. I’m the girl you’re supposed to kill in the end.]

Cottie nodded. She trembled, hugging Alexa harder. Martin blinked. Alexa had known everything. She had planned every single thing in advance years ago. She called him Mittens because she knew that his name was Martin Kilborne. She called Katherine... Cottie because she knew. All this time she knew everything.

[Wait, hang on.] Martin looked at Alexa. [Cottie… uh Katherine is supposed to kill you?!]

[If I chose a side.] Alexa winked. [If I go insane, obviously. If I become a villain or a hero, then I need to be stopped. Katherine is my defence against myself. I don’t just follow one plan, Martin. I don’t exist on a single track. Multi-track drifting, bitches.]

[Wait… so then.] Martin tried to think. [You aren’t omniscient or something? You don’t like… plan coincidences out miles in advance?]

[Relying on coincidences is for tits. If Mr. Canard didn’t accept his brainspider, he wouldn't have given you my letter and that would be that. Or things could have gone horribly wrong and then half of the letter wouldn't have made any sense.]

[So you aren’t stuck in a time loop or something?]

[Pffff, no. That was a joke. I’m full of jokes you know. They make my observers laugh and then they can’t take me seriously, see?]

[Surely, the precogs are taking you seriously now? They gotta be looking at you after your... show.]

[Oh yeah. They’re totally watching us look at each other in awkward silence. They have no idea what’s going on. They can’t read thoughts sent by brain-spiders, Martin. They aren't omniscient.]

Martin laughed. [So. Um. You’re going to have your own currency, I hear?]

[Soon. Going to sell off all of my gold all at once and crash the price of gold way down first. I’m going to make the heroes absolutely destitute. Going to dump 150 million ounces of gold into the market... plus whatever the Embers got.]

[Wait. 150 million ounces?! So you did rob Fort Knox?!]

[Of course I did. Do I look like somebody who would totally give up on a plan after a few treasonous mercenaries betrayed me? I exploded a skinwalker with a bomb, got myself covered in its juices and carried the gold out manually. Took bloody forever too. Had to constantly spray myself with a non-coagulant so the bugger on me wouldn't reconstitute into smaller ones too.]

[Damn. You’re a freight train with no breaks.] Martin commented.

[That’s right.] Alexa stepped over to Martin and put a hand on his face. [Sorry I tricked you so much. But it was all for a good cause. I had to fool you, Ember, your parents, all of the precogs up in Titanomachy.]

Martin sighed. He didn’t enjoy getting tricked, but as long as it was for a good cause. Ember took this moment of his confusion to stand up. She pointed her armor’s gun at Alexa.

[Oh brutus, why do you wound me so?] Alexa grinned. [Oh, go on then, Boromir. Shoot me. I’m ready. I want you to shoot me in fact. It’s been my plan all along for you to shoot me in this exact moment in time. Don’t stop her guys.]

Ember’s hand froze on the trigger. “No.” She said, unclipping the wrist gun. [I’m done being your nemesis. I’m done trying to stop you.] She took off the remnants of her golden armour and threw it into the thick grass. [I’m done being Resonance.]

“Excellent! Exactly as I planned.” Alexa grinned.

Martin and Cottie blinked.

[Multi-track drifting.] Alexa bowed. [No matter the choice made, it ends in my favour because I already rigged the game.]

[How would it be in your favour if she shot you in the head?] Martin asked.

[I’d have a cool head hole and a perfect sob story for the heroes about the final treachery of Resonance who shot me in the head. Tickles would keep my brain from falling out, the Surgeon would patch me up and Ember would go to prison forever and I would be a hero in their eyes. The girl who caught evil Resonance!]

[And now that she didn’t shoot you?] Cottie asked.

[She gets to go to the academy with us and most of them will likely see me as a villain.]

[Them?] Martin asked.

Alexa pointed a finger up at the sky. An SCA cruiser punched through the clouds, sirens flashing. It landed besides the taxi with a whoosh, blasting hot air into the faces of the four teenagers. The doors slid open and three heroes stepped out.

Knight Chalice, Surgeon and Multiplier stared at the four kids.

“What have you done, villain?” Knight Chalice advanced towards Alexa, sword flashing and growing.

Ember froze, standing awkwardly in her pink pajamas. The three heroes came too late to stop Alexa. At best they could arrest Ember.

Cottie stepped in front of Alexa and aimed Eva at the head of Chalice, colors draining from the world.

“You… you…” Chalice choked, intimidated by the Enforcer, his normally deep voice sounding rather high as his power became disrupted by the nullification field.

“Let's all be friends, you guys! I get to attend your fun Hero University and nobody dies today, okay?” Alexa yelled.

“You are a villain. Someone’s dead already! It’s your fault that Nonpareil is gone!” Chalice said, sounding like a girl. “Wait. What… damn it. Uhhh.”

The Surgeon and Multiplier looked at Chalice, somewhat confused.

“Ohhhhhhhh... You’re a girl! How interesting.” Alexa grinned, tapping her lips. “Blending in with the boys, I see. I bet you really like Nonpareil too. Totally in love with him. Polishing your armour to look extra shily so he could appreciate you. Makes perfect sense.”

Chalice took a step back. Her sword no longer looked menacing.

“Hit the nail right on the head.” Alexa nodded. “Look, Miss Chalice. Nonpareil is fine.”

“How is he fine?” Chalice growled. “He freaking exploded! Gone! Totally vaporised! I don’t know how you did it but I know that all of this has to be your fault!”

“Look, Chalice. You can still marry Nonpareil if you’re into him so much.” Alexa smiled, tapping Cottie on the shoulder. “Cottie here can officiate your wedding and everything. She’s a really high ranking Equalizer! That makes her a high priest, I think.”

[Why are you agitating them?] Cottie thought. She was feeling a bit intimidated by the sudden arrival of the heroes, although her face wasn’t showing it at all.

[Let me do my magic, girl.] Alexa smiled. “Twenty-four Nineteen, don’t shoot her. She’s alright. She’s just a little heartbroken, that’s all!”

Cottie let go of the trigger and colors returned to the world.

“Nonpareil is dead.” Chalice shook her head, the deep, mechanical voice returning. “The precogs can’t see him.”

“Can the precogs see Resonance?” Alexa asked, stepping around Cottie.

“They cannot.” Chalice said.

“Exactly. Yet they both live, I assure you. I don’t know why you people put so much faith in your precious precogs. Have the precogs seen the explosion? If they did, why didn’t they prevent it? Did they know what Nonpareil was going to do?”

Chalice shook her head.

“Exactly. If I, a 14 year old villain have outplayed your almighty precogs, then so can Nonpareil and Resonance and so can Division Three.”

“Division Three?” Chalice asked.

“He called himself the hand of the future. He who divides people by zero. He killed my father and nearly killed me in the sim.” Alexa said. “A super made of lasers. You’ve seen his face in my little show. He tried to kill Nonpareil today, but he failed.”

“Are you sure?” Chalice bent on her knee down to Alexa.

“I am very sure of it. I’m not afraid to show my face to the world. Why are you? You have to stop pretending to be something you are not. Nonpareil has never seen what you look like. You think that he’s into shiny robots or something? You’re wrong. Open your helmet. Look at me. I’m not your enemy Chalice. We have a common enemy in Division Three.”

Chalice tapped something on her helmet and it slid apart, revealing a human face. She looked like a tired, blonde 35 year old underneath the metal helmet, her eyes red from recent tears.

“Nonpareil is alive.” Alexa said. “Trust me.”

Chalice nodded.

“You can’t trust her, Chalice!” The Multiplier said. His suit covered in numbers looked quite wrinkled. “She’s a villain. I had to sell all of my S-credits for gold. I’ve lost billions because of her damn show!”

“Ladies and gentlemen a hero who cares only about what really matters! Money!” Alexa pointed at the Multiplier accusingly. The hero shut up.

The Surgeon yawned. He looked like he didn’t want to take a side.

Dean Otter emerged out of the cruiser with a limp. He looked like a mixture of man and otter, wearing a striped shirt and a beige suit with a bowtie.

“Heya Dean-sama!” Alexa waved at him.

Dean Otter looked extremely nervous. He clearly didn’t want to be here.

“Where’s my letter duct taped to an owl?” Alexa asked him with a wide grin.