"I am curious. What happens if I take her hand, become one with her?" Alexa asked Captain, her silver-blue eyes darting between Sasha's outstretched hand and Zee's masked face.
"You would become a part of her collective, a drop in an ocean of Alexas. You'd lose your individuality, your unique perspective. You'd become another cog in her machine of entropy,” Captain said.
“And you know this how? How did you even figure out what she is?” Alexa asked Zee.
“Binoculars of Identification,” Captain replied, tapping her violet lenses. “Many omnicode hexagrams etched onto each lens.”
Alexa frowned, turning back to Sasha. "Are you an Alexa that already won then? One that beat the System?"
Sasha's starry form rippled with laughter, a sound like tinkling bells mixed with the hum of distant galaxies. "Oh, darling, I haven't won yet. But I'm working on it. The System has many servants and is infinite. One must be infinite to beat the omnipresent servants of the Machinery of the Stars, the ones that call themselves… the Numbers.”
“Are you infinite then?” Alexa asked.
“Not yet,” Sasha one shook her head. “I do contain a Googolplex number of Alexas within me.”
"How are you planning to beat the System?" Alexa pressed, curiosity burning in her eyes. "By absorbing more me-s?"
"One cannot win alone, no matter how vast and powerful she is," Sasha explained, her form shifting to reveal countless tiny scenes, each featuring an endless myriads of humans of all shapes and sizes. "I'm collecting versions of us, yes, but also helping out our trio of best friends, across the omniverse. I'm guiding them, pushing them to succeed, aiding their survival on doomed worlds."
“So you and three others?” Alexa asked. “Why not a million others?”
“We’re the four Angels of Apocalypse,” Sasha said. “A million friends would be too hard to manage. I believe that a group of four best friends should be enough to tear down the Eight Gods of Everything.”
Alexa's silver eyebrows shot up. "Are you eating our friends too? Do you have a Googolplex number of Martins in you too?”
"No," Sasha One shook her head, causing stars to swirl within her form. "I'm guiding all shapes and sizes of Martins, Cotties and Dimmies of the omniverse to be more, pushing them to succeed, aiding their survival on doomed worlds. I am challenging them and changing the omniverse gradually with their works, seeding every doomed world with the shards of the {Wormwood Star}.”
“Why haven’t you simply eaten me?” Alexa asked as the name vanished from her head.
“I don’t just absorb other Alexas without permission,” Sasha One explained. “You must want to be part of my multitude.”
"Aw, you're nice," Alexa said, a small smile tugging at her lips.
"Nice?! Don't be deceived by her devious ways!" Zee Captain interjected sharply. "Her actions may seem benevolent, but they serve a darker purpose–to upend everything everywhere."
“Then stop me if you dare,” Sasha One Googolplex said to Zee Captain.
Zee crossed her arms.
“Oh that’s right,” Sasha One purred. “You can’t. Because I work within what is permitted. That’s the problem with being a Lawful Good duplicate, you’re bound by your own Lawfulness and Goodness into inaction. Womp, womp."
Alexa bit her lip, her mind racing. She thought about her own friends back home, wondering if she had trained, challenged, pushed them enough to survive in her absence.
Had she done enough to prepare her own trio? And what about the other Alexa, the one she'd left behind as a digital copy? How was she faring?
----------------------------------------
-=[Titanomachy]=-
The lawyer tapped something on her pad and a glowing blue line appeared on the floor, leading away from the group.
"That will take you to your mother's office, Martin," she said.
Martin gulped and nodded, following the line with Katherine and Alexa's hologram in tow projected from a pill droid. As they walked through the gleaming corridors of Titanomachy, he felt a soup of mild excitement spiced with dread boiling in his stomach.
When they reached a door labeled "Precognition Division - Clarissa Kilborne," Martin hesitated.
"Come on, Mittens," Alexa's hologram prodded. "Your mom can't be scarier than me, right?"
Martin shot her a withering look. "You have no idea."
The door slid open automatically.
His mother, a tall woman in a white suit with graying ginger hair and piercing gold eyes shielded by square glasses, looked up from her desk. Her stern expression did not bode well for Martin.
"Martin," the woman said coolly, rising from her chair. "I see you've brought... friends."
"Um, yes," Martin stammered. "Mom, this is Katherine, she's... uhhm, the new Eminence of Equality. And this is Alexa, she's..."
"A holographic projection of a digital replica of the most wanted supervillain in the world that has infested the Superstate megastructure," his mother finished for him, arching an eyebrow. "Yes, I'm well aware."
Alexa beamed, unfazed. "Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Kilborne! I've heard so much about you. Well, not really, but whatever Martin hasn't told me is absolutely fascinating."
Martin's mother pursed her lips. "I'm sure." She turned her attention back to her son. "I'm proud of you for finally awakening your powers, Martin. Though I must note, your choice in companions leaves an unsavory taste in my mouth."
"What's, uhm, wrong with them?" Martin asked as he stepped closer to his mother's desk, fighting his jelly legs. "Alexa isn't a..." He began his defensive strategy.
"Martin, when I hoped you'd make friends, I was thinking more along the lines of other young heroes, not the leader of Equality, an organization that if I may remind you, murders heroes. A digital copy of an insane criminal mastermind isn't someone that you should be hanging out with either."
Katherine stood stiffly, clearly uncomfortable. "It's an honor to meet you, Mrs. Kilborne. I assure you, my intentions towards Martin are purely..."
Clarissa Kilborne fixed Katherine with a narrowed gaze, her golden eyes gleaming. "I fully understand your intentions," she declared. "While your commitment to justice is commendable, Equalizer, I must express my disapproval of your organization's techniques, such as brainwashing children to strip them of their emotions and transforming them into killer-enforcers armed with guns that negate superpowers."
Martin felt his face growing hot. Of course his mother would know everything. Being a precog was both her superpower and, in Martin's opinion, her most annoying trait. He'd spent his entire childhood trying to surprise her, only to have every birthday party, every prank, and every attempt at sneaking out foiled before it even began.
"Mom," Martin started, "Katherine isn't like the other Equalizers. She's different. Alexa changed her and..."
"Oh? And I suppose this digital menace is 'different' too?" Clarissa gestured at Alexa's hologram.
"Actually, yes," Alexa chimed in cheerfully. "I'm quite unique. One might even say I'm one in a billion. Well, one in however many copies of me are floating around Titanomachy right now."
Clarissa pinched the bridge of her nose. "Martin, when I saw visions of you finally awakening your powers, I'll admit I was overjoyed. But I didn't foresee... this."
"Wait," Martin blinked. "You didn't see this coming?"
His mother's lips tightened into a thin line. "There are... many gaps in my visions lately. Blind spots. It's exceptionally unsettling."
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"Ooh, that's probably my fault," Alexa said, tapping her heart. "Side effect of my dad's Installations plus the shenanigans of the Space Gods. Sorry about that, Mrs. K!"
Martin couldn't help but feel a mild surge of satisfaction. Finally, there was something his mother couldn't predict or control.
"So," Clarissa said, leaning back in her chair. "Tell me, Martin. How exactly did you end up in a romantic entanglement with a digital copy of a supervillain?"
Martin choked on air. "R-romantic? We're not... I mean, she's not... we haven't..."
"Oh, but we have," Alexa said with a mischievous grin. "Remember that time when we held hands and-"
"Alexa!" Martin hissed at the hologram, his face now resembling a ripe tomato.
"What? I'm just reminiscing about holding hands," Alexa replied with a sly grin. "Holograms don't have solid hands."
Martin wanted to sink into the floor and disappear. His mother's piercing gaze felt like it was dissecting his very soul, while Alexa's hologram continued to beam innocently beside him. Katherine stood silently, clearly unsure whether to intervene or remain a spectator to this familial train wreck.
"Space Gods?" Clarissa finally asked, gold eyes boring holes into Alexa's hologram. "Care to elaborate?"
"Oh, you know," Alexa waved a flickering hand dismissively, "just your average run-of-the-mill cosmic entities that control our reality and use us as playthings for their amusement. No biggie. Probably going to unplug our sim from the PG narrative and kill everyone on Earth pretty soon."
Martin groaned internally. This was not how he had imagined introducing his mother to the concept of their entire existence being a fabricated narrative.
"I see," Clarissa said, her tone dripping with skepticism. "And I suppose these 'Space Gods' are responsible for my recent precognitive blind spots?"
"Bingo!" Alexa chirped. "I'd shake your hand for getting it right, but..." Alexa wiggled her holographic fingers. "No solid hands yet!"
Martin winced. His mother's piercing gaze swung between him and Alexa like a pendulum of judgment, a golden sword of Damocles.
"Space Gods, really?" Clarissa repeated, her voice flat.
"Yepperoni," Alexa nodded. "You see, Mrs. K, our entire reality is basically a big ol' video game infested with cosmic entities who are serving a single nerd who was bored and decided to play The Sims: Superhero Edition. You know, Nonpareil? He's the main character. We're just NPCs in his story. Well, he WAS the main character. Now we're all going to be main characters, especially Martin who got a nifty mind-controlling superpower courtesy of your friendly supervillain. No need to thank me!"
Martin watched as his mother's face cycled through a range of emotions he'd never seen before: confusion, disbelief, irritation, and finally, a sort of resigned exasperation.
"Martin," Clarissa said slowly, "when I told you to make friends, I really didn't mean for you to join a supervillain's doomsday cult as a minion."
"It's not a cult, Mom!" Martin protested. "It's..."
Clarissa tapped something on her desk and a picture of Martin came up, featuring a DNA strand. Martin blinked at the screen, not understanding what this was about.
"You're listed on Alexa's file as an expendable minion, Martin," Clarissa said. "See? She registered you for 'Minion Consistency Insurance'. It's service offered to villains to grow clone bodies."
"What?" Martin's head snapped to Alexa.
"Minion backups are important," Alexa blushed ever so slightly. "It's just in case you explode. I can't bear losing my numero Uno bestie."
Katherine, who had been silent until now, cleared her throat. "Mrs. Kilborne, I know it sounds far-fetched, but what Alexa's saying is essentially the truth and..."
"Far-fetched?" Clarissa interrupted. "Young lady, I've had my fill of doomsday cultists with far more coherent theories."
"Hey, our doomsday is perfectly coherent, thank you very much," Alexa huffed. "At first the universe will shatter and then evil PK players and other planet-eating NPCs will appear, killing off whoever is left. What, you're not going to believe the words of Her Eminence Equality herself?" Alexa waved a hand at Cottie.
Martin groaned. "Alexa, you're not helping."
"Sure I am!" the hologram beamed. "I'm helping your mom understand that her son isn't crazy, just caught up in a cosmic soap opera that's about to get far less whimsical and less family-friendly on the account that this Earth's subscription is about to expire!"
"Evidence," Clarissa demanded, her golden eyes narrowing. "If what you're saying is true, surely you can provide some concrete proof."
Alexa's hologram tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Well, Mrs. K, let me ask you this: in your precognitive visions, is there a big hole in the future? Something you can't quite see around?"
Clarissa's eyebrows shot up, surprise flickering across her face before she schooled her features back into a stern mask. "Yes," she admitted reluctantly. "A really big one, about the size of the moon."
Martin felt an icy chill run down his spine. His mother rarely admitted to uncertainty in her visions.
Clarissa glared at Alexa's hologram. "I assume you're responsible for this blind spot? Are you planning to blow up the moon or something equally ridiculous?"
"What? No!" Alexa exclaimed, looking genuinely offended. "I would never blow up the moon! I like the moon. Why do you think I am planning to blow up the moon?"
"I don't know," Clarissa tapped her desk. "You tell me why I can't see the moon and a bunch of other planets anymore."
Suddenly, Alexa's holographic figure began to smudge and shimmer. Her image multiplied, splitting into a thousand echoes of Alexas entwined with Ember, all looking left and right, an entire sphere of limbs, heads and eyes all looking left and right in panic.
"Wha..." Martin opened his mouth.
"The stars just winked out! Take cover! Duck! Hold onto something!" The thousand of Alexas and Embers snapped together into one distinctively horrified Alexa.
Before Martin could react, a deafening series of booms shook the entire station, bulkheads buckling and warping unnaturally as if a wave of something invisible rushed across them.
Katherine grabbed Martin shoving him away from a falling halogen lamp that detonated on the floor, shattering in a million pieces.
Clarissa fell backwards as her chair's back shattered. Her lavish, wooden desk rippled and cracked across with a dark fissure. Similar rippling cracks ran across everything, glass diplomas detonating and falling to the floor.
The doomsday alarm began wailing across Titanomachy, the urgent wail piercing through the shocked silence that had fallen over the room, red lights flashing in the ceiling and floors.
Martin looked at the large round window behind his mother which was now covered in a web of cracks, his heart pounding in his chest. His jaw dropped at the sight before him.
Where the moon hung just a minute ago, there was now only a expanding cloud of debris, chunks of lunar rock hurtling through space. It was as if someone or something had punched a hole right through the Earth's satellite, cracking it.
"Oh my God," he whispered. His mother followed his gaze and turned to stare at the moon that was coming apart. Katherine had instinctively moved into a defensive stance, holding onto Martin, an unfolded space helmet already covering her head.
Martin stared in horror at the cracked moon, his mind reeling. This couldn't be happening. It had to be some kind of illusion or trick. But the tremors still shaking Titanomachy and the wailing alarms told him otherwise.
"You..." Clarissa hissed at Alexa.
"I swear I didn't do that!" Alexa's hologram exclaimed. "Cross my digital heart!"
"The PKs are here already?" Martin turned to her.
"Not yet," Alexa said, her hologram flickering with sparks of silver static. "That wave across reality, warping everything? The stars winking out? That's us, getting booted out."
"Booted out?" Clarissa blinked at Alexa. "What?"
"We're in free fall," Alexa said. "Our reality is in the process of colliding with other dead Earths, about to fuse with a mesh of other dimensions inhabited by planet-eating monstrosities."
"We have a Code Moonfall. I repeat, Code Moonfall," Admiral Kolchi's voice resounded in between the wailing alarm. "All station residents and personnel, be advised."
"Code Moonfall?" Martin stammered out as Katherine helped him get up from the warped floor. "We have a code for the moon exploding?"
"The Superstate has a code for everything," Alexa said. "Except for this. This isn't just Moonfall... the moon exploding is just the tip of the iceberg. This is the end of everything, the end of reality as we know it. The end of Bob's game." She cleared her voice with a cough. When she spoke, her voice sounded across the entirety of Titanomachy, echoing from every speaker in the office and hallway outside.
"Heroes of Titanomachy... The Earth as we know it is about to face an unprecedented catastrophe. Reality itself is fracturing around us. Look all around you. The immovable metal of the station you called home is warped and cracked. This is because reality itself has shattered. Soon, even bigger cracks will open across our universe, and through them will pour entities beyond comprehension - things both alive and not alive, alien to our desires and hungry for our very existence. The stars above us will shift and change. Our planet will soon quite literally come apart at the seams and begin to fuse to other dead Earths. This is the moment you've trained for. This is why you became heroes. It's time to live up to that title and face the greatest threat humanity has ever known. Prepare yourselves, protect the innocent, and stand ready to defend our world against the impossible. The future of Earth and everyone on it depends on what we all do in the coming hours. Code - Evacuation of Earth. I repeat, Code - Evacuation of Earth. Now, for those of you who don't believe in words of a villain," Alexa's blue eyes stared at Clarissa. "I give you... your saviors and trusted heroes."
"No, that can't..." Clarissa choked, her face pale, gold eyes wide in horror of not having foreseen any of this. "This isn't..."
Alexa's hologram snapped her fingers. The holo-projection expanded, showing a live feed from the Hall of the Great Five. Nonpareil, Dora, and Chalice sat around a massive circular table, their faces grim, two of the seats belonging to the Surgeon and Multiplier empty.
"This is Nonpareil," Bob's voice rang out, sounding far more authoritative than Martin would have expected from the rotund, sweaty man in his silver suit. Bob placed his hand onto a panel, the table confirming his identity, his hand and his chair shining green. "I confirm Code Evacuation of Earth. All heroes are to assist in the immediate relocation of Earth's population to Titanomachy."
Dora spoke next, the gloved hand of her pink suit landing on the panel below her her chair igniting green. "Dora the Terraformer confirming Code Earth Evacuation. All terraforming projects are to be repurposed for emergency shelter construction."
"Chalice here," the female hero's exposed face was gaunt with the weight of her responsibility as her chair ignited green too. "Code Earth Evacuation confirmed. All available S-shuttles are to be deployed immediately. Priority is given to densely populated areas. We need to save as many lives as we can. Anyone with a gate-opening power is to open gates between large population centers and Titanomachy."
"Dora, how much time do we have?" Chalice turned to Dora.
"According to my calculations," Dora tapped the panel below her, bringing up a hologram of the shattering moon. "Smaller, faster traveling pieces of the moon will reach the Earth in six-point-one hours and the larger ones will hit the planet in eight-point-four hours. We need to get as many people as we can off planet by then, the doomsday barriers will hold against smaller debris but the larger pieces will likely overcome the shields."