Martin walked to school dragging his feet, burdened with dark questions and even darker thoughts. How much of the skinwalker’s personality had now been overlaid over his own brain? How much of his brain had already been destroyed or rearranged by the thrashings of the little spider? How much had the forced power awakening in the moment of near-death had screwed him, messed up his mind?

Alexa merrily bounced to his right, seemingly looking at nothing in particular. She appeared like nothing but an airhead for the world. Martin knew better now. She was a devious ensnarer that had involved him in her vast, dangerous web-like plot that stretched an unknown number of years back and 400 years forward in time.

Cottie walked stoically on his left, her multilayered carbon fiber steel boots kicking up small clouds of dust with every step. Her gray Equalizer cloak billowed behind her, armor joints clicking with every step, appearing for all eyes like a knight from some long-forgotten kingdom, now long lost in time. Her emotionless face terrified Martin to no end. He expected the Paladin of Equality to detect the evil lurking inside his brain, to turn to the side and to break his neck, to end him for no reason at all.

Thankfully Alexa’s infinite bomb threat was keeping the Equalizer under her control, but how long would this last?

Other students had given them a wide berth, whispering things behind their back in hushed tones. Everyone was terrified of the presence of the Equalizer enforcer, even more so after Alexa had declared Cottie as her "personal minion number two blessed by Pope Equality herself."

“Why so glu…” Alexa began.

“You know why, God damn it!” Martin snapped.

“Oh, psh. You’ve evolved, it’s time to toughen up, Mittens! Stick out your chest because it’s ready for a shiny Superstate access pin for being a goodly boy who turned into a hero today!"

Martin glared at the supervillain. He did not feel like a hero. He had done nothing heroic to gain his power.

"Congratulations, my man! You can now go up the pretty space elevator and look down upon the peasants who toil on the dirty ground with their sticks and stones, from your very own orbital ring estate, feeling all mighty and superior! What splendidness! Such serendipity! Your parents and big Admiral sister will be so proud!” Alexa theatrically wrung her hands.

“You don’t know how my family would react to this! So, stop it!” Martin hissed.

“You know, I expected you to be a lot more excited for the opportunity that I’ve graciously blessed you with.”

“What opportunity? What?!”

“The opportunity to be more! You’ve already grown so much in the past few days, compared to say... where you were two years ago.” Alexa pulled out a picture from one of her vest pockets, brandishing it into Martin’s face. He saw himself, looking around 12 years old, walking to school alone across the exocrete sidewalk of the New New York Citadel district 9415.

“What the frig? Where did you get this?” Martin grabbed the photo out of Alexa’s hands. Upon closer examination, the photograph looked severely scratched and worn out. It was printed on some kind of reinforced fiber-plastic, one that's been through a lot.

“The internet!” Alexa declared with a smile.

Martin glared. “I don’t believe you for one second.”

“Okay, you got me. I paid a detective to take it. You were one of many children on my list,” she said.

“Why do you have a list of children?!” Martin shook the photo, noticing that it said “Prospective # 42” on the back.

“I’m Secret Santa. I send them presents!” Alexa innocently blinked her silver eyelashes at Martin.

“No. No, you’re not, damn it! Quit screwing around! This is all part of your plan to infect people with skinwalkers isn’t it!”

“Okki. I confess. One person.” Alexa corrected. “You! I found this lovely photo in the desolate ruins of 2424 and thought that you were absolutely adorkable minion material."

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Yeah, right! What about the other 41? Well?!” Martin growled.

“What, my list can’t start at forty-two? It’s obviously a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference! You should read it! It’s a whimsical space opera, guaranteed to entertain even a mild-mannered bee counter like yourself.” Alexa grabbed the photo from Martin’s hand, shoving it back into her pocket.

Martin glared at her, anger boiling over within him. His eye twitched.

“You… you can’t do this to people! You’re a manipulative fiend! You’ve tricked me, lied to me! I keep thinking that you’re my friend but you… you’ve been stalking me for years!”

“Not stalking. Investigating. Looking for the perfect…” Alexa smiled softly.

“Perfect WHAT? Test subject?! A fucking patsy to give brain spiders to?!”

“What?” Alexa tilted her head to the side. “I thought you wanted to be a hero. Seriously, look at where you were two years ago versus where you are now, surrounded by two adorable femmes.”

Alexa proudly pointed her hand at herself and then at Cottie. "Everyone is jelly of you now! Don't you hear their whispers and speculations on the nature of our relationship?"

Martin sputtered. Then his anger returned.

“Becoming a hero is a very complex science, you stupid asshat! It takes years at the Hero Academy with instructor aid, observation, hero training, apprenticeship and a very specific diet! You can’t just hodgepodge it with a fucking near-death experience!!! Why would you do this?!!!”

Martin’s screaming has reached the highest crescendo. He suddenly noticed that the Equalizer girl was looking at him and his accusatory, screechy tone broke down into a quiet mumble. She scared the bejesus out of him.

He remembered watching a very fuzzy video of an Equality Enforcer in action when he was only eight. The young knight in a gray cloak simply walked up to a super and shot them in the head. It was brutal, quick and disturbing on all levels. No long winded speeches, no epic fights. It took only a few seconds. Bang, and the hero was dead. The super's power didn't even work against an Equalizer!

Martin shivered, looking away from Cottie.

Alexa grabbed his face, turned it towards herself and stared into his eyes. “Look. Focus. There’s a reason why I do all the things I do, Martin! The world ends very soon, if maybe it slipped your mind! Everyone will die if I fail! You, me, this town, every city on the planet will burn to ashes! We are doomed! DOOMED!”

Martin let out some of his rage. “Why can’t you just be straight with me? Why do you have to lie, manipulate me all the time?”

Alexa pointed up at the sky, not saying anything. The ring of Titanomachy glinted overhead, myriads of lights twinkling between clouds.

“I don’t understand,” he said.

“You will, in time. All will be revealed in time,” Alexa said with a sigh.

"Alexa desires to destroy the Superstate," Cottie commented with a nonchalant voice.

Martin choked.

“Why did you wake my power so early? What if there are horrible side effects?” Martin whined.

“Look, it worked for me. I didn’t need no Supestate drugs to be awesome-sauce. I’m clearly fine.”

“You are not fine! How are you fine?” Martin hissed.

“Cottie gimme a hug, number one is being mean.” Alexa pranced over to Cottie, burying herself into her cloak. The Equalizer stared at Martin expressionlessly. He wasn't sure if she was judging him. Martin expected the Equalizer to strike him, he drew inward in fear, expecting awful things.

Cottie's arms wrapped around the girl villain. Martin sputtered. He’s never seen an Equalizer hug anyone before. Enforcers didn't hug villains or heroes, they shot them in the head. This simply didn't happen!

Where had the world gone wrong? How had Alexa managed to break the universe?

A silver-blue eye peered out at him out of Cottie’s cloak. “Psstt. Commerre. We can hang out under this invisibility cloak and steal Philosopher’s stone from Dumb-ley-dore and cure cancer with it!”

Martin blanched. He definitely did not want to hide under the Enforcer’s cloak and pretend to be some kind of Rational Harry Potter.

Cottie rolled her eyes at Alexa’s antics. Then, she yipped, twitching ever so slightly.

“Sorry, wrong button!” Alexa yelled from beneath the cloak. “Seriously dawg, where’s the invisibility mode on this thing?”

Martin’s facade of anger cracked. He started to giggle nervously, unable to contain himself. He worried that the Equalizer was going to murder him for this disrespect, yet he could not stop himself. The whole situation was beyond absurd.

“Welcome to the fellowship of the lööps! Villain, Hero, Equalizer, and an angry smol spider from the future, all tied together with itty bitty strings of fate. Our adventure party is now in full order and the real fun can begin!” Alexa announced, flapping Cottie’s cloak like a pair of wings. "We're just missing the Admiral. She'll join us soon though! Sooooooooooooon!"

Martin blinked as the supervillain girl cackled from beneath the Enforcer's cloak.

Who was Alexa talking about? Who was this 'Admiral'?

"Wait, can you turn into Mothra? Where's the lever for your pretty butterfly wings?" Alexa demanded.