Ember slumped her head into the desk, rubbing her temples. She had a headache that would not go away. She wasn’t sure if this was because she couldn't think of the most effective way to crush the damned little villain or because she failed to protect her dumbass brother from her vile influence. She was usually very good at destroying things. Breaking people with her power was easy.

If it wasn’t for that damn Equalizer and her nullification gun she would already be done with this job!

Ember didn’t understand why her reports about Equalizer interference were swallowed up without any sort of response to action. The Equalizer organization was clearly run by a monster who was training orphans to become living weapons. There was no question about it from looking at Verse 24:19’s emotionless face. It was an unacceptable, horrid thing to do to a child and it bothered Ember to no end that her superiors refused to do anything about it.

She even submitted the perfect plan to destroy their cult. She could do it all alone, fly her cruiser straight into the heart of the Equalizer compound at full speed, crash into the building and murder their leader. The Equalizers were just humans who were misled by a supervillain. There was literally no difference between Eminence Equality and any other supervillain who had human minions! With the leader dead their organization would undoubtedly fall apart in a few days. Ember yearned to do something with her entire heart, desired to punish, to end injustice and suffering. The Equalizers stood in her way and she would remove their poor, misguided pawn one way or another.

Alas, Admiral Kolchi refused to do anything about the Equalizers. It didn't matter though in the end. Kolchi was an idiot, had made a fatal mistake in refusing to integrate GLMs into Titanomachy systems. Ember had taken full advantage of this. If her long term plan paid off, someday she would gain full control of Titanomachy. Someday she would become the SCA Admiral herself, stand above all and rain hellfire on the Equalizer Compound from the sky, obliterating the disgusting supervillain organization from the face of the Earth.

The chilling migraine let go and intensified once again. Maybe this endless headache was a side effect of the partial de-aging. Her face was itching like crazy too, like a million microscopic ants were crawling within it.

The things she did to protect her family, to protect and educate her careless brother!

Just another 30 minutes. Just another thirty god damned minutes of this kindergarten. Arghhhhh!

Ember formed an avatar behind the classroom wall inside the janitor's closet, shoved the bucket and broom aside and proceeded to kick the wall again and again in agitation, leaving small dents in the bricks.

The young SCA agent had no doubts that the questionable behavior of the retired super Mr. Canard was entirely because of Alexa Terranova.

Ember only saw a few minutes of the video footage from the cameras at the bank, of the two kids getting inside the building before she scoured the hard drive data out of existence with an electromagnet that was built into her super suit. The 14 year old criminal was clearly destroying Martin’s chances of being a hero with idiotic, petty crimes.

Alexa Terranova was the lowest of the low. What kind of a moron steals an ice cream van to get into a bank just to set it on fire, of all the things?

Ember glared at Alexa with passionate hatred. She didn’t believe Martin’s “villain’s letter” story one bit. Doctor Terranova had not been seen in public for many years now.

Hero Resonance wasn’t an idiot. She dug deep into the matter this morning through her academy friends and via whatever SCA databases she could access, trying to find anything of value. There was nothing at all to uncover, nothing on the doc who lived in the church. Someone had paid the bills, but it wasn’t a person, just an automatic system sending money to another automatic system.

Villains didn’t just up and disappear like a fart in the wind from the scanners of Titanomachy or from the reports of the Superstate prognosticators. If the prognosticators and Superstate systems could see no future or present activity for him it meant only one thing - the doc was dead.

Everything had to be Alexa’s fault! The blasted villain had to be stopped, broken, eliminated NOW!

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Ember suspected that the little supervillain accidentally killed her father four years ago and covered it up by locking up the cathedral somehow. The bones of the doctor were likely inside, waiting to be found. Ember had stalked the premises, tried to use her power to break a window, to open up the doors, but it was like the building’s outside was impervious to her attack. It was as if the inside didn’t even exist to her super sense that normally allowed her avatars to get through anything. It was beyond irritating.

Villain tech be damned!

Ember could take the headache no longer. She raised her hand and asked the teacher for a bathroom break, whatever her name was… Fickers? Ickers?

She rushed into the bathroom, scratching at her face and splashing water on it.

The headache slowly subsided.

Ember suddenly deduced that the migraine was likely caused by Alexa - either a power or some infernal gadget on her person.

Why couldn't her brother see what kind of a fiend he was dealing with? All of Ember’s training and motivation to push her little brother into the path of a great hero was turning out for naught. There was only one conclusion to it, one explanation - the little idiot was in love with a bad girl.

A refraction of Ember swung its ghostly fists against the mirror and the mirror shattered, detonating into a thousand pieces, shards of glass raining all around the bathroom. Ember scowled at the myriads of her broken, twisted reflections raining around her. Another pale ghost came into being, smashing its head against the sink, the ceramic shattering from the impact. Other avatars kicked at cubicle walls, smashed toilets. Everything in the five meter radius became a zone where nothing of value remained intact as Ember let out her rage.

The agitated hero stepped away from the mirror, and the motions of her ghosts flickered in reverse, destruction all around rewinding the damage, cracks sealing themselves, shards flying back into place.

Her avatars didn’t feel much. Destroying things and putting them back together always brought her joy, but this time all of the joy had been hampered by her utter inability to destroy one God damned fourteen year old girl.

Biology teacher Tamara Kells made no noise from her distant bathroom stall, blinking in confusion as the sole witness to the inexplicable bathroom ruination and restoration which she witnessed through the small gap in the stall’s wall. She swore to take it easier on drinking in the mornings.

----------------------------------------

Martin smiled, sliding Alexa's raygun into his backpack. He managed to chase his annoying sister away with a migraine.

Great success!

[She will likely return,] Spiderbro commented.

[Then she will enjoy more migraine,] Martin said mentally.

[You hate your human sibling this much, huh?]

[Yes,] Martin thought. [Ember made my entire life hell! She's five years older than me and she's tried to control me, to push me around and boss me as long as I've known her!]

Terraforge GLM Integration complete.

LV 1 Tools available:

Production of Terraforge carrier seeds.

A message suddenly flashed in his right eye.

[Carrier Seeds? Meaning what?] Martin thought.

[Meaning we can grow new skinwalker shards,] Spiderbro replied. [You're pretty weak and thin so you could probably grow one shard in your stomach and infect... one other human with it.]

[WHAT?! I'm not growing spiders in my stomach!] Martin blanched.

[You do not wish to propagate?]

[Ew! Obviously not! I'm not bloody infecting anyone!] He shot back.

[Your human mind is very confusing,] Spiderbro mulled. [You don't want Alexa to be killed by your sister's hand?]

[What? No!] Martin sputtered mentally as he glanced at the white-haired supervillain. [Why would I want Alexa dead?]

[She lied to you and betrayed you,] Spiderbro explained. [She manipulated you into getting me into your head, almost killed us both with that raygun and ruined your chances of ever getting a 'proper power' as a hero. She committed several crimes attracting SCA attention to you.]

[I... errr.] Martin's thoughts careened sideways.

[You could infect her,] Spiderbro suggested. [Control her.]

[No!]

[Why not?]

[...]

[You... like her? Is that really a sufficient reason to endure her present company?] Spiderbro asked.

[I... I don't want her hurt or mentally controlled,] Martin thought. [She's a victim of her supervillain father! I can save her!]

[Ah, I see,] Spiderbro mulled. [You wish to gradually turn her into a hero, to rescue her, to prove to yourself that you're a Hero?]

[Yes, damn it!] Martin mentally barked, muting Spiderbro in annoyance.

Why was he arguing with a skinwalker shard... err Terraformer Seed, anyway? He was in full control of the creature's thoughts now! His superpower was that he... controlled skinwalkers.

Something clicked in his mind.

Was this part of Alexa's plan too? Him being able to mentally control skinwalkers? If the Good Directorate Terraformer project had gone out of control in the future, destroying the superstate... then maybe this was his way of becoming a great hero!

Maybe this was how he could save the planet and everyone in the present! Maybe this was how he could protect Alexa in 2424!

A wide grin spread across his face. He would have to see if he could mentally control the Terraforge seed in Mr. Canard!