Alexa let go of Martin after much fussing over her new nickname and walked over to Cottie, lowering herself down to her level.
“Stand up, paladin-sama, I ain’t a god. What kind of a god would allow themselves to be named Casserole? See, I would totally smite Martin for his insolence right now if I was a real god!”
Cotte shook her head. “You have done the impossible. You have broken the power of the Superstate. You have stopped Resonance. You have ended Tartarus. You have aided humanity. You stopped Nonpareil. For this, I am eternally in your debt, Goddess.”
Ember sputtered from her corner, clearly irate that somebody was being called goddess with no good reason for it.
"She could have made up this entire backstory to further emotionally manipulate you two idiots," the ex-hero muttered. Everyone ignored her.
“The heroes were in my way. I told them not to bug me. They bugged me anyway and got what they deserved,” Alexa tried to explain herself. “Come on, Cotes. I’m really not a goddess. I’m just a girl who died far too many times for her own good. I was constantly flung through space as information and scraped up a lot of this void stuff along the way. There’s a lot of malevolent void inside my brain. Much more than in your gun, that’s all. Probably not healthy to eat that much void, honestly. It’s not ice cream, okay?”
[What was the thing that Ember saw when she took the sticky note?] Martin asked. [The pyramid made of pyramids in the sky?]
[I don’t know.] Alexa shrugged. [I can only guess that it's a thing that belongs to the data gods, System Wizards. Maybe it is them. I honestly don’t know what they are. What I do know is that they’re far more powerful than your average Super and they sure ain’t human although they try to masquerade as us for some reason. I think they’re why our minds get the whole uncanny valley feeling. Humanity must have had an evolutionary reason for fearing things that look human but aren’t... since the System Wizards were screwing with us throughout human history.]
"What are these crazy conspiracy theories?" Ember demanded from her corner.
"Oh, but I have the evidence to prove it, Dimmy!" Daddums, show me the Sumerian art set from the Smithsonian and British Museums pls!" Alexa waved a hand.
Cuneiform tablets, Babylonian statues and art appeared all over the cathedral as holograms.
"There is a lot of questionable weirdness in this Earth's history starting with Sumerian math and astronomy. Babylonian astronomers seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with stars and constellations known as Ziqpu. Sargon of Akkad, the first ruler of the Akkadian Empire was the first super that I know of. He was the Overseer of Inanna, also known as Goddess Ishtar. Ishtar’s symbol was an eight pointed star. The Star of Ishtar is also in the eight pointed star inside of a ring pin that the SCA Admirals wear. Dimmy would know this one by heart!"
Alexa waved a hand and the statue of Ishira manifested as a hologram. "Her primary title was 'the Queen of Heaven.' She had many names. Inanna. Astarte. Ashta Lakshmi. Astoreth."
Ember twitched as she was reminded of the pin that would never be hers now.
"Yes. I know you’ve seen her face upon the walls of Titanomachy, Dimmy. Ishtar - the enforcer of divine justice, depicted as a winged girl holding up the orbital ring crossed by lines of space elevators. You thought it was just some pretty art, didn’t you? She stands right in the central hall of the station, judging all. She existed all throughout human history, changing names as Empires and human civilizations rose and fell. Minerva, Venus, Athena, Aphrodite. They must have been interacting with humans long before supers existed... as pretend gods. I think they’ve made supers, changed our narrative by changing humans somehow."
Photos of ruins, temples, statues and etching on walls flashed by Alexa, the images changing, but minute details remaining the same.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"Empires rose and fell, but the eight-pointed star remained," Alexa waved a hand. "The eight-point star appeared in cultures around the globe on national flags and in religious iconography. 'Kaheksakand' in Estonian - the symbol of life, fertility and wards against evil. An Italian nobleman named Pietro della Valle discovered the use of an eight-point star as a seal in the ruins of the ancient city of Ur. She appeared once again on Porta del Popolo, a monumental gate erected by Vignola in 1561 was based on a design of Michelangelo Buonarroti."
The holographic image of the Sistine Chapel blossomed around the cathedral, transposing the supervillain and her trio of minions into the famous Italian church.
"A secret diary of Michelangelo describes his meeting with her," Alexa said. "He wrote her name in code into the art on the walls and inserted hexagrams into the floors of the Sistine chapel, became obsessed with the Kabbalistic tenet 'As below, so above; as above, so below.'"
"The octagram, an 8-point compass rose..." [is the key to Infinity,] Alexa concluded as a massive fractal octagram flashed behind her.
[And the supers are... what?] Cottie thought.
"As for the first Supers - the six-pointed stars also occurred frequently in Sumerian mythology. The Hindu symbol for the state of balance achieved between Man and God. The Star of David, a symbol of the Solomon King, is similar to the fractal Hexagram of a super, don’t you find?"
The holographic fractal behind Alexa changed.
[TLDR for the Dimmies in the room - the eight pointed star represents the power wielded by data gods and the six pointed star represents the lower-end power of Supers,] Alexa bowed and the holograms behind her winked out.
“This is seriously some Ancient Aliens conspiracy bullshit,” Ember muttered.
[You’ve just met Revolution and yet you still doubt that beings made of information exist? It’s a big multiverse out there. I don’t see why there can’t be someone out there smarter, better, more evolved than us. Cosmic managers of the universe. Machinery of the Stars! I’ve proven that it's possible to make one of their weapons using Sumerian math in the Tartarus sim - a living fractal hexagram that transitions into an infinite octagram made of data. I’ve used the full processing power of Tartarus to dismantle the bit of Three that came to attack me. I’ve shown them my power, tricked them into thinking that I’m one of them. That’s why Revolution came for me and gave me a sticky note owl.]
Alexa lifted up her pink hairdryer raygun, unlocked it and pulled out and twirled her little USB data stick that contained 100 petabytes of her sim data. [It hasn’t been a game just against the Superstate. It’s been a game against the masters of Supers, the beings who wield Infinity!]
[How did you know about Three to begin with?] Martin asked.
[Smart supervillains who tried to change the future vanished in a very strange manner. Villains and heroes who saw the same thing that I had and tried to exploit the system, change the future. They don't exist anymore. Nobody remembers them. Three erased them all. In trying to understand the inner workings of the SCA database I saw holes in information. Weird, questionable, people-shaped holes. Questions that the heroes could not answer when I called them up. Someone was messing around with the SCA waaaay before I came into the picture. Perhaps, I only saw them because I’m not a Super. Either way, these data-beings are dangerous. They’re a threat to humanity, to life, to our very existence and future. I don’t know what their limits or weaknesses are yet. I don't know what they want, and they're obviously not all the same like Three, but they've definitely been kittening with humanity for thousands of years!]
Ember scoffed from her corner. Alexa slid over to her on swiffer shoes. “Don’t be making noises of disapproval at me, Dimmy. You’ve got sweeping biz to do. You think you’re gonna live here rent free or something? You think you’re going to the Hero Academy just because I like your cute face or something?”
Ember blinked. “I’m not even awake. How are they going to let me in? Why did you tell Dean Otter that I’m awake when I’m clearly not. I have no powers! I don’t know if or when I’ll ever get powers now!”
“Pfff. I gave Martin hive-mind powers, I’m sure I’ll figure something amazing out for you too! Don’t be a worrisome bug, be a cleaning bug!”
Ember glanced at Martin and got a memory of his awakening as a response.
“I don’t want to be almost killed!” The ex-hero blanched in horror.
“Less complaining, more cleaning!” Alexa threw a large microfiber cloth at Ember’s face.
Ember folded up the weird sticky note and took the rag off her face with a sigh.
[Didn't Revolution ask you to leave the planet in 23 hours?] Cottie thought at Alexa. [Why are you still planning to go to the Hero Academy?]
[Multi-track drifting,] Alexa winked as she inserted the USB stick back into the ray gun with a smug look. [I'm going to need every key to break everything everywhere.]