The Titanomachy bay doors with the massive Superstate logo on them closed with a whoosh.

Ember gulped, shuddering.

Mentally, she felt like her heartbeat accelerated, like she was about to drown in sweat, but her body was a corpse and didn't actually do any of these things.

She recalled that was just a shell of her former self, an person she manufactured herself, a girl who didn't even exist, a ghoul puppeteered by a horrid black spider-creature from some fucked up alternative dimension in which every superhero came to their tragic end when Titanomachy fell from the sky.

Ember glanced at the stylized face of the woman on the wall holding a massive ring in her hands. A ring with 8 points.

"The octagram, an 8-point compass rose, the key to Infinity. Goddess Ishitar, the Queen of Heaven, enforcer of divine justice. Inanna. Astarte. Ashta Lakshmi. Astoreth."

The memory of Alexa's voice bounced in Ember's head, like a doomsday siren that resonated across all of Earth's nations sealing Ember's future.

Did machine gods really manipulate humanity for eons and manufacture superheroes for the amusement of one fat man?

Ember glanced at Bob Proverra.

Chalice tapped a small backpack that she was wearing and her armored suit unfurled itself outwards from the bag's innards, fully concealing her feminine body and face. The hero walked to the door of the shuttle taxi and opened it.

A teenage hero emerged from a cubical glass-walled office and rushed down a steel stairwell and up to the shuttle landing platform.

"Welcome back to Titanomachy, Hero Chalice!" the seventeen-year old platinum-blonde teen in a white suit declared as he spotted the armored hero. "I was told by my supervisor that new heroes are on your shuttle, about to take their first step onto the Superstate! I'm hero Mixofer and I've been assigned to do the general introduction for our future citizens!"

Ember recalled doing this teen's job when she had first come to the Superstate. Door greeter was a lame position that paid very little. It was the first job the ex-hero did for the Superstate. It was her first step as she rose upwards on the corporate ladder until she was able to do seventy thousand jobs for Titanomachy systems as duplicate minds existing within a variety of robotic drones.

Mixofer's pure white eyes went around the shuttle cabin and settled on Bob.

"Urm," he stammered out. "I'm sorry, Sir... I wasn't made aware of your designation or hero name. The landing gate scanner seems to have failed to detect your hexagram. Could you press your palm onto my handheld scanner?"

Nonpareil tried to hide his bulbous body behind Chalice as the teen offered him a white scanner pad.

"My companion is... Nonpareil," Chalice said after a few very awkward seconds of silence.

"Wh-what?" The door greeter blinked.

"I'm Nonpareil," Bob added after Alexa elbowed him in the side.

"Could you..." the teenage hero offered the scanner pad to Bob once again.

"His hexagram burned out during a diresome battle with a most treacherous, dastardly villain known as Agent Three!" Alexa announced. "It is a most unfortunate and dark tale of our age about the loss of our greatest hero, Mixofer! I'm certain that you'll read all about it in the papers tomorrow! Why, they'll probably make a movie about it by next week!"

The door greeter opened and closed his mouth, clearly unprepared for this specific scenario. He looked left and right in a panic like a fish that's been suddenly pulled out of water.

"Call your supervising hero and tell them that you have a null-super situation, code 11-01-6," Alexa advised. "They'll send a team over in a jiffy to verify the nullified hero's identity."

"Erm, um," Mixofer stammered. "Hold on a moment, please."

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He tapped on an interface in his right ear.

"Sorry to bother you, boss, I, erm, have a situation here. Code 11-01-6, null-super... I think? Right, right. That's what I thought it was, just making sure. It's, ummm... Hero Nonpareil. He's here and urm... he doesn't look the same, like at all. Yeah. Un-supered. Hero Chalice is here too, it's what she said. Yes, boss! She says it's Nonpareil! Dock 66-93-01. Oh... and there's some teens here too, new heroes and whatnot! Okay. Yes, no problem we will wait in the lounge."

The young hero's pure white eyes went back to the group.

"Please follow me," he said. "Don't worry, we'll sort this... situation out."

"Thank you," Alexa grinned. "I'll make sure to give you six stars on S-workboard!"

"Urm," the door greeter squinted at the girl. "The maximum number of stars possible on my performance rating is five."

"I'll hack it and THEN give you six stars, okay?" The supervillainess grinned even wider. "I'm hero Casserole, by the way, nice to meet you!"

"Wait a minute," the hero froze as his mind finally processed Alexa's face and orange vest. "I saw you on SNN! You're the Doombringer! You... you can't be here, you're a supervillain!"

"Guilty as charged!" Alexa nodded. "I'm also a hero, though! I'm trying to change my ways, I swear. So, please be respectful and refer to me under my hero name - Lady Casserole!"

"Lady... Casserole?" Mixofer.

"Yessery," the supervillain girl clapped. "I'm ever so excited for my big Titanomachy tour! It'll be ever-so-fun! I'll finally see the yellow brick road and the Emerald city and meet the Lady behind the curtain!"

The door greeter looked stumped.

Martin tried very hard not to snicker. He didn't expect Alexa to use the nickname he came up for her as a heroic identity. It sounded ridiculous and coupled with Alexa's Cheshire grin and Mixofer's confused face, the absurdity of the situation was rising as rapidly as water boiling in a tea kettle.

"Feel free to tell your boss... Hero Licorish that I'm here," Alexa added. "I'm afraid there's no standard code for this sort of a situation because it has never happened before. An active supervillain has never been admitted to Titanomachy on the account that they might commit evil deeds here. Don't worry! I've already committed everything criminal that there was possible to commit. Why, I practically own Titanomachy! Why would I commit crimes on my own station? That would be extremely illogical, don't you think? You can't steal a television set from your own house!"

Mixofer squinted at Alexa. He clearly didn't believe that she owned Titanomachy.

The group awkwardly shuffled to the waiting area and settled on the steel benches.

Both Ember and Bob looked like they wanted to disappear. Chalice appeared stoic but it was hard to tell because she was wrapped in body-covering, shiny armor.

Martin and Cottie curiously looked about the waiting area, appreciating the futuristic interior of the enormous, open space and the massive etchings on the steel walls and holographic projections showcasing various heroes doing heroic deeds. Far too many of the holo-panels featured Nonpareil and his team. Bob tried not to look at himself punching crime, keeping his eyes downcast.

After about five minutes a distant door slid open and a group of heroes emerged, heading to the waiting area.

Noticing his supervisor, the door greeter finally remembered what he was supposed to be doing here.

"Right. Umm... I need to confirm your hexagram, so that..." he offered Alexa the pad.

"I ain't got no hexagram," Alexa said.

"What?" He sputtered.

"Don't fret, bud," she added. "Most of my group doesn't have S-hexagrams. Dimmy and Cottie don't have hexagrams, either. Don't worry, the big fish heroes will sort it out in a jiffy! That or throw us out of the airlock. It's all good." Alexa waved a hand at the group of rapidly approaching heroes.

Hero Licorish was a lanky man with limbs that were longer than normal, striped patterns on his face and hands resembling a Barber's pole. He sent an annoyed look to Mixofer as if it was the door greeter's fault that a known supervillain was here.

The people behind Licorish that Ember spotted in her frantically increasing panic were the Multiplier, Dora the Terraformer, the Surgeon, Admiral Kolchi and a nondescript woman in a black suit with a white tie who looked like one of the Superstate lawyers.

"So, this is Cassiopeia Terror Nova," Admiral Kolchi asked, sharp, gray eyes examining the supervillain girl. "The girl who managed to hack Titanomachy's doomsday broadcast?"

"Yeah," Dora sighed. "That's her alright. Chalice, why is Alexa here?" She addressed the armored hero.

"We... have some very important things to talk about, Dora," Chalice replied.

The Multiplier sent Alexa a murderous glare. He was clearly still very irate about Alexa demolishing his bank account.

Alexa ignored the gathered heroes, her face suddenly snapped towards the lawyer standing beside Admiral Kolchi. Ember felt a wave of pure, unconcealed terror rushing from Alexa's mind before it petered out, converging into dangerous determination like a laser beam. Alexa's fists opened and closed.

[Who's that? Why are you... so angry with her?] Martin sent across the spidernet.

[I don't know...] Alexa replied. [I don't know who that is!]

[Is that... bad?] Martin asked.

Cottie's black railgun was already pointed at the lawyer's head. The group of the heroes froze, looking concerned.

[When I don't know something... that's when things are absolutely kittened, M,] Alexa replied. [This is very, very bad.]

[What?] Ember thought.

[She's not in Titanomachy records, Dimms! I can't socially hack a person who doesn't exist!] Alexa barked mentally. [I don't know anything about them! I should know everything about everyone here!]

[Not in Titanomachy records? How is that possible?] Ember demanded.

[She's a non-entity,] Alexa replied, gritting her teeth. [Someone who doesn't exist. Someone... who doesn't belong here. Someone who injected themselves into the local narrative!]