[Pffff, I'm not trapped in a time loop at the moment. Not here anyway. There is weird time-related bullshit in 2424 though that I had to deal with,] she sighed.

[What kind of bullshit?] Martin asked curiously.

[You know those infinite streets you saw?] Alexa asked.

Martin nodded.

[Well,] she began. [These streets lead to a place called Eureka. A hub of sorts that connects... everything to everything.]

[Everything?] Martin blinked.

[Anything and everything,] Alexa affirmed. [Other realities, parallel universes. In our case... it usually connects other Saint Marys, other Earths.]

[Are they... nice?] Martin asked.

[No,] Alexa's expression darkened. [They're corpse worlds, ruins just like 2424. Countless planets that encountered a catastrophe of some sort or another. The sheer number of Earths connected by the infinite streets... is maddening. They're insanely dangerous, filled with questionable things like the skinwalkers... but worse. I died there... a lot. Some of them don't have breathable air. Some have... flesh eating clouds. It's a giant mess, honestly. It was quite a blessing that no matter on which parallel future Earth I died, I always ended here... in this quaint little Saint Mary, one that's still alive.]

Alexa sent her trio of minions memories of other dead worlds, other Saint Mary towns ravaged by a wide variety of apocalyptic devastation.

[So you're not in a time loop, then,] Katherine mulled. [You've simply experienced a lot of possible... doomed futures?]

[Essentially,] Alexa nodded. [They're the same Saint Mary... but with slightly different horrific endings. It allowed me to profile... to slowly and laboriously compile a very wide dossier for each of you. It allowed me to predict the future... with a lot of effort and planning. I know you better than you know yourselves, saw you from an angle of your future... futures.]

The villain girl's silver-blue eyes went across Martin, Katherine and Ember.

[You've died a lot,] she confessed. [I've seen your graves far more often than I ever wanted to... you stumbled over the same mistakes again and again and again. Sometimes you died sooner, sometimes later. It's really quite horrific.]

[But it wasn't exactly us, right?] Katherine stared at Alexa.

[Indeed,] Alexa nodded. [Just... alternative versions of you... Ember, Martin and Katherine who failed to prevent the inevitable collapse of human civilization on Earth. The three of you... without me in the way.]

[Wait... was there never Alexa in any of these doomed worlds?] Ember asked with an incredulous expression.

[Nu-huh,] Alexa shook her silver mane. [I'm an anomaly of some sort. I don't exist anywhere else. Just here and now.]

[Because your father made you only in our... universe or something?] Ember speculated.

[Yes,] Alexa affirmed.

[No time loops, just... dead worlds,] Ember thought. [Perhaps if the heroes had access to these worlds... maybe we could avoid...]

[There is a hidden power which monitors and controls the Superstate,] Alexa shot back, shaking her head. [Things like Agent Three... things that do not allow the narrative of our world to deviate.]

[Why?] Ember demanded.

[I dunno,] Alexa shrugged. [Just know this - whatever the Superstate precogs see is a future that leads us to certain doom. I'm trying to avoid that, to break the binding loop of tomorrow, to save you... to make sure that our Earth isn't depopulated like all of the others I've encountered.]

Ember squinted at her.

[What? Don't give me that look! I joke a lot about loops! They make my observers laugh and then they can’t take me seriously, see?] Alexa winked at her minions.

[Surely, the precogs are taking you seriously now? They gotta be looking at you extra hard after your... show,] Martin crossed his arms.

[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. The eyes of Titanomachy 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 500 million ounces of gold into the market... plus whatever the Embers got.]

[Wait. 500 million ounces?! So you did rob Fort Knox?!] Martin's eyes went up.

[Of course I did. I robbed several Fort Knox installations from multiple corpse Earths.]

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Everyone present stared at Alexa.

[What? 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 brakes,] Martin commented.

[That’s right.] Alexa stepped over to Martin and put a hand on his face, cupping his cheek. [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... everyone. I had to derail the narrative.]

Martin sighed. He didn’t enjoy getting tricked... but 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. She fell silent.

“No,” she finally said, putting down her wrist and 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 armor 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 favor because I already rigged the game.]

[How would it be in your favor 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. Yay!]

[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.

As the Equalizer Enforcer pressed the trigger, colors draining from the world, stripping the heroes of their powers.

“You… you…” Chalice choked, intimidated by the Enforcer, his normally deep voice sounding rather high-pitched 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 armor to look extra shiny 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 vaporized! 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. “After his fall from grace he'll need someone to pick him up again. 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, fake, mechanical voice returning. “The precogs can’t see him.”

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

“They cannot,” Chalice said. "From what I was able to uncover, Resonance did something... to herself, changed herself enough to avoid our detection completely. Her hero hexagram and body vanished off the face of the Earth.]

“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 that giant explosion coming? 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. Nonpareil cannot die, he's the nail that underpins every hero, the most important person in the world. He's important to you, yes?"

"Yes," Chalice nodded.

"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," Alexa said.

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

“Nonpareil is alive,” Alexa said. “Trust me. I know exactly where he is hiding. I'll make sure that you two get together, cross my heart and hope to die!"

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.