The holo-projectors in the ceiling that were formerly projecting a massive holographic display of the Great Five Heroes flickered and turned, pointing in front of the drone.

Alexa manifested in her full glory of black boots, black skirt, safety vest, blue eyes and silver hair as a slightly flickering holo projection. She gave Katherine a head pat. The Equality Enforcer wiped her tears.

"Why?" She whispered.

"Because I'm not a god, Cottie," the holo-Alexa replied. "I'm just a girl who knows far too much for her own good that's running against the clock. I really didn't expect for the two heroes to force me out of reality at gunpoint. Sometimes even the best plans go a bit sideways."

Dora the Terraformer seems to have regained her wits and went on the attack.

"You... you can't possibly think that I will allow you to infest Titanomachy, villain!" She snarled at Alexa.

"Oh? Would you like me to send a video of your two best friends strangling me and then sending me to dimension X to murder me?" Alexa asked with a dangerous look. "Because I will. I might be just a digital replica of Alexa Terror Nova, but you'll find me just as unyielding."

"You're threatening the Superstate!" Dora growled. "We don't negotiate with supervillains!"

"Am I really a supervillain though? What crimes have I committed specifically?" Alexa arched an eyebrow, turning to the lawyer. "Pretty sure I'm a hero from where I'm standing legally. Isn't that right, Mrs. Jillian Hoolish?"

The lawyer blinked at Alexa through her glasses.

"Your status is yet to be determined," she answered after a deep pause. "You do qualify for Superstate citizenship due to the apprenticeship contract made with Hero Resonance, but... all of your recent... actions must be taken into account. A tribunal of high level heroes must decide your fate."

"Sounds acceptable," the hologram grinned. "I choose Nonpareil, Chalice and Dora. The highest level heroes in all the land."

"You can't possibly think that I'll vote in your favor after all you've done," Dora hissed. "Plus, there is no way that grotesque fat man is Nonpareil!"

"Bob, would you please confirm some secret things that only you and Dora know," Alexa turned to the rotund hero. "Something very personal, something that nobody could have had access to."

The fat man in the silver suit sighed, turning to the girl in the pink space suit.

"Dora," he said. "When we were in Dimension X, I rescued you from Professor Calamity's lair at the last second pulling you from the all-consuming abyss. Your suit had ruptured and you were running out of air. You slid that mirror off that helmet and I saw your face. You have brown eyes and brown hair and a cute mole on your nose. You told me that you love me and that in case you won't make it, for me to donate your personal research to the Superstate terraforming foundation with the proceeds to build more orphanages. The login on your research is 140868."

The hero froze.

"If you are infecting the Superstate systems you could have guessed..." she began, glaring at Alexa.

"You also told me the meaning behind the code," Nonpareil said. "1408: August 14th, the premiere date of the original Dora the Explorer children's show. A nod to your super name. 68 - The birth year of Kim Stanley Robinson, a famed science fiction author renowned for his works on terraforming - the process of transforming a planet to make it habitable, another inspiration to your name."

Dora's fists opened and closed.

"You can't be him... Nonpareil is dead," she insisted. "The Surgeon touched the train wreckage. He's never wrong! He told me that Nonpareil is gone, blown up!"

"I'm not. I... teleported to my apartment in the last second. Listen, Dora," Bob began. "You and I went to your parents graves in Maldives to plant lilies that you designed yourself every spring for over a decade. You told me stories of how your father Jaque used to take you to the sea as a marine scientist telling you the wonders of aquatic life and how no villain or hero has really conquered the depths of the ocean, how even though the Superstate has touched the sky we've done absolutely nothing at all about truly exploring the oceans."

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"No... no, no, no," Dora choked.

"Do you remember the 2020 New Years eve? We snuck out from the party because you were tired of dealing of heroes and reporters asking the same stupid questions about how we stopped Justice Knorx and his gang of terror drones. We told everyone that we have a secret mission, but we didn't have shit. Instead, we boarded your dad's sub, the one you've been working on and fixing up yourself during breaks and went under the ocean. You showed me Pengi, your personal, secret AI GLM that you've been working on. A cute, blue eyed holographic penguin with the voice of your dad. You me and Pengi. We spent the night under the violet and blue Aurora Australis, mapping ocean currents watching the bioluminescent algae and talking about our dreams."

Dora sputtered in reply.

"Naughty, naughty, Dora keeping secret, illegal AIs in subs," Alexa commented.

"I don't... you can't..." Dora muttered.

"We got caught by Chalice at dawn," Bob said. "She flew in her suit to where your submarine was parked and she lectured us endlessly about following protocol as she floated over the iceberg covered in penguins, her arms crossed. You and I found this hilarious. Oh! That night you also told me about secret project 'Neptune Dullard', one of those projects you don't show anyone because it's too dangerous for the public to know about, a terraforming, self-replicating nanite swarm that you've made in your Titanomachy lab."

"A nanite swarm?!" Chalice hissed, turning to Dora. "You... you made a NANITE swarm... inside Titanomachy?! What is wrong with you?!"

"They don't eat everything," Dora turned to Chalice. "They sorta die out after a certain radius too due to available material discrepancy. I still haven't figured out how to make them propagate across an entire planet. The plan was to deploy them on Mars."

"You know how I feel about nanite swarms, Dora!" Chalice growled. "What if they get out and eat the entire station?! I know that you're a supergenius and all, but what the hell?!"

"They're inside twenty containment fields," Dora defended herself. "They can't possibly get out unless every single one of my fail-safes and for all of Titanomachy's systems to fail. Every hero on the station would have to be dead for them to..."

"Dora," Clarice snarled. "You know that we can't take that chance!"

"Terraforge can't get out! It has a GLM inside it," Dora insisted. "It answers to me, it's not a dumb swarm that would just start eating everything without my say so!"

[Terraforge GLM... isn't that your name?] Martin thought to his companion brain-spider.

[Yes it is,] Spiderbro replied. [I reckon that we have found my maker.]

"So many crimes, Dora," Alexa shook her head. "Tut tut tut. You heroes love to judge the mundanes from your sky ring and yet you all seem to be messing with things that you've outlawed yourself all the time."

"I... erm," Dora sputtered.

"Well? Are you not convinced yet, Dora?" Alexa-hologram waved her hand at Bob. "Is he not your number one hero?"

Dora turned back to Nonpareil.

"I might have lost my power, I might have gotten really out of shape, but I'm still me Dora," Bob opened his arms. "I know I look ridiculous now, but I'm your Nonpareil still. I'm really sorry... I never told you who I really am, even though you've shared all of your secrets with me. My real name's Bob."

Dora's fingers tapped a sequence on her wrist. Her helmet slid off. Her eyes were filled with tears. She walked to Bob and accepted his embrace, bawling onto his shoulder.

"I thought you were dead!" She wept. "The Surgeon told me that... I thought that..."

"I'm not dead," Bob said. "I just... lost my power."

"Three out of three," Alexa grinned at the Superstate lawyer and Admiral Kolchi.

"I would still appreciate an explanation of how your copy ended up inside my station's systems," the Admiral said.

"Hero Resonance gave me a couple of basic jobs in station maintenance as her hero apprentice," Alexa explained. "Several of her Avatars are in maintenance administration positions. I believe you approved her placement yourself within these systems?"

"Of course," Kolchi sighed. "That I did."

"See?" the holo-Alexa looked at the lawyer. "I didn't do anything illegal, cross my digital heart! I was working hard as a bathroom cleaning drone and only stopped doing my work when I saw that the Multiplier and the Surgeon choked and dragged my real self into god knows where!"

The drone-Alexa nodded, flashing a pixelated smiling face at the Admiral. "I'm going back to cleaning," she commented and rolled into the bathroom.

The hologram of Alexa smiled and crossed her arms behind her back, trying to look cute and innocent.

Ember knew that Alexa was far, far from innocent but she didn't say anything, because opening her mouth meant attracting the wrong sort of attention to her own terrible crimes.

Chalice crossed her steel-covered arms, looking jealously in the direction of Dora and Nonpareil. Dora refused to let go of Bob, still fiercely clinging to the fat man, crying and apologizing endlessly.

"Right," the lawyer said, looking over the group. "We will permit nullified Nonpareil to enter the station one last time... However, a mundane girl without a hexagram will not be permitted entry." The woman's eyes settled on Ember.

"Oh, that's just my bestie Dimmy," Alexa said. "She's... anything but mundane. Feel free to scan her again! I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised!"

Ember's cheeks flashed red as she wished for the metal-plated floor to swallow her.

There was no escape from the sharp look of the Admiral, Hero Licorish, his assistant and the Superstate lawyer now.

"Scan her," Licorish ordered.

"Yes sir!" Mixofer fumbled with his hand held scanner. "It says that she's been dead for more than a day." He reported to the hero.

"What do you mean she's dead?!" The Admiral demanded. "How is she walking upright then?!"

"That's what the scanner says," Mixofer said. "No life signs. She has no heartbeat. She's not breathing. Blood's not moving in her veins. No hero's hexagram either."

More eyes settled on Ember. The ex-hero gulped.