[You don't listen to her, do you human child?] The skinwalker in Martin's head whispered.
[Huh?] Martin thought to the spider from the future.
[Your parents and big Admiral sister will be so proud,] the skinwalker replied, copying Alexa's voice.
[Ember isn't an Admiral,] Martin replied. [She's just a young hero. Alexa's probably lying again, messing with me!]
[Possibly,] Spiderbro replied and fell silent.
----------------------------------------
Martin looked at his slightly scratched-up mechanical wristwatch. It was lunchtime. He couldn't believe it. Nothing had exploded. Nobody around him had gotten stabbed or died horribly for an entire half of the school day. Alexa acted like a perfectly normal schoolgirl and not like an insane super-genius, hellbent on terrorizing the population of Saint Mary.
She went to class, answered questions from the teachers, made occasional jokes at Cottie’s expense, and didn’t harass him one bit. It was a miracle!
Martin expected her to snap at any moment and to start causing trouble, but alas he was again and again stupefied with her perfectly mundane behavior. It was in fact so normal and ordinary without her hexagonal bracelet making a sound that he began to suspect that he was now in some sort of a pleasant, parallel universe where things didn’t go horribly wrong with every hour.
The skinwalker spider in his head remained silent, observing the world through his eyes and enjoying the learning experience. The group of older kids, part of the friend-group of the jock that Spiderbro had managed to piss off on the bus, gave them a wide berth, spooked by the imposing presence of Cottie.
The only thing that was bothering Martin was the fact that there was still another skinwalker somewhere nearby.
"Are we going to do something about Mr. Canard?" He asked Alexa.
"What's wrong with Mr. Canard?" The villainess tilted her head.
"He's infected with a skinwalker shard," Martin pointed out.
"I've called the SCA," Alexa shrugged. "Let the authorities deal with it."
Martin blinked, feeling stumped. This did not seem like her prior behavior of doing everything herself.
Martin was tired of slipping up on banana skin peels left and right. He thought hard about what he would do if he encountered the skinwalker himself, preparing himself mentally. The fact that the spider in his own head was now under his control was Martin’s advantage.
The trio had descended down to the lakeshore park behind the school and now sat underneath a great willow tree facing the pebble beach.
Alexa started to studiously read the “How to survive middle school” book, resting her head against Cottie’s lap. The Equalizer was sitting in a lotus pose, looking as serene as ever. Martin stared at their relaxed postures for a few minutes and was about to suggest they head out to grab lunch from town, when an orange delivery drone descended from the sky bearing a large pizza box.
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“Dig in, friends!” Alexa announced, swiping a credit card at the drone.
She had a credit card!
Martin expected alarms to go off on the drone, screaming about credit card theft, but no such thing occurred. The only criminal thing that had transpired was the fact that the pizza had pineapples on it along with miscellaneous meats. He chose not to complain about it, looking at the sparkling reflections of the orbital megastructure ring of Titanomachy upon the sky-blue water of lake Eerie.
Alexa’s figure was backlit by dancing sun puddles reflected from the lake’s surface, her silver hair gently swaying in the wind as she enjoyed a slice of pizza.
Had she lied to him about the whole manipulation of SCA business to save him from the skinwalker’s control? The more Martin thought about it, the more sense it made.
There was no way that a 14-year-old girl, no matter how clever, could manipulate the Superstate or decide which mission his father was given. The SCA had entire divisions of prognosticators at its disposal, including his mom.
The future seers could not be deceived or misled; thousands of super geniuses constantly labored under the prognosticators setting up new security measures up on Titanomachy against intrusions, be it physical or digital.
As soon as somebody planned attacking the Superstate, the SCA would come down on them like a ton of bricks. The orbital megastructure was indestructible, impregnable, a world onto itself, filled with countless heroes who were far more experienced and older than the little villainess who liked pineapples on her pizza.
Alexa noticed Martin staring at her and threw him a thumbs up, as if confirming his theories.
Both her father and the villain minion team had manipulated and used her. Martin felt that she would not betray her first friend in a similar manner, that beneath the deception, she was someone that he could -
[Wowza. This is a lot of human feelings to process,] his brain-resident commented.
[Don’t make me mute you,] Martin thought back, annoyed that the little spider was spying on his personal thoughts.
[Okay, boss-host, you do you.]
[That’s right!] Martin pondered. [I’m…]
[I have noticed an irregularity. It could be nothing or it could be something potentially dangerous to us both.]
[What sort of an irregularity? Are you talking about Alexa’s unreasonably calm behavior?]
[No. There was a new student present in class. The teacher did not introduce her to the rest of the class like you, Alexa or Cottie.]
[A new student? Why is this odd? Maybe she was sick yesterday or something?]
[You do not understand. She was also in class yesterday, but at the same time, she wasn’t. You have two memories present in your mind. One memory shows an empty seat, the other a girl sitting there. I’ve been busy looking over your recent memories, so it’s exactly the kind of a thing that would normally escape your attention, but I am a diligent analyzer. Someone is screwing with your memory.]
Martin gulped. [Oh. That’s not good.]
"Hm. There are fruits on here," Cottie commented, observing her pizza slice.
"You got something against the taste of pineapples on pizza, equality-chan? Do they violate the 117th commandment of her Divine Preeminence? Thou shall not flavor thine cheesy bread with tingly fruits?" Alexa teased the Enforcer.
"No. This is an acceptable flavor. I just never had, um, pizza before."
"Oh, my poor, sheltered child! My heart weeps for you. Growing up under rocks! Avoiding smiles! Climbing glaciers all day long. Carrying water buckets uphill both ways! Don't you worry, you and I are going to experience all the fun things the world can offer from quad bikes to finding out how many licks it takes to get to the bottom of a lollipop!"
Cottie did not look like she was interested in lollipops, Martin noted, returning to his worries about yet another mysterious stranger that was now stalking them.