“Eureka! I’ve got it!” Alexa finally announced, grabbing Martin’s face. “Kiss me!”

“What?!” Both Martin and Ember yelled at the same time, eyes bulging in shock at her declaration.

“Break a bit off your brain-spider and feed it to me!”

“What brain spider?! What the Fuck!?” Ember yelled.

“Shhh. You’re delusional from making too many copies of yourself. There are no brain spiders in Martin,” Alexa said.

“You put brain spiders into my brother?! I’ll fucking kill you, I swear!!!!!” The carousel of Ember-ghosts around them started to break apart further, leaving gaps.

Martin understood. If they all had skinwalker shards within them, maybe the other skinwalkers would stop seeing them all as targets to be cleansed. He closed his eyes, focusing inward on his Spiderbro shard, disconnecting a bit of the skinwalker.

Terraforge seed self-replication initiated.

Martin saw a flickering notice flash in his right eye.

“Is it ready? Let Cottie know if you can’t control it while it’s inside me so she can shoot me in the head!” Alexa yelled, leaning towards Martin's mouth.

“Nooooooooooo! Somebody stop her! God!” Ember wailed, held back by Cottie.

This was not happening! Her brother did not just kiss a God-damned supervillain! Ember had no strength left to fight off the Equalizer, no choice but to keep up the endless shield of her copies all around them, lest the abominable monsters break through and end her and Martin.

Contrary to what Ember must have imagined as she was looking at the world through burning, tear-streaked eyes, Alexa did not kiss Martin. She merely leaned close to his face and opened her mouth like a fish. Martin opened his mouth in turn and a smaller copy of Spiderbro, leapt from his tongue into Alexa’s palette, quickly carving a path towards her brain.

Only some distant part of Martin's mind was paying attention to Ember’s ridiculous screaming as most of his brain was preoccupied with controlling two spiders and carving two more shards out of Spiderbro, imbuing them with consciousness and limbs.

“Ehhhhrhhh! This tickles something unwholesome! No stabby the important brain-bits pls!” Alexa yelped. “Welcome to my brain, Spidersis! I’ma call you Tickles!”

Martin sighed in relief. He could still control the tiny skinwalker in Alexa’s brain.

“Your turn for a kiss of doom! Get your brainspooder while supplies last!” Alexa shoved Cottie at Martin, grabbing Ember in her stead.

“You are a monster! You’ve set all of this up!” Ember wept, blearily watching as the Equalizer seemingly kissed her brother. She had no strength left to hold herself up. Her avatars could barely see now.

Her power had already reached past its limits and was now draining life from her body. Inner light began to fade from her golden eyes. Her orange hair dimmed to a mundane red color.

“Okay, now you!” Alexa shoved Ember towards her brother.

In that moment, Ember’s power ran out with a snap of something tearing inside her. An explosion of sparkling fractal fire detonated in her head and she fainted upon seeing her brother’s opening mouth, the shield of shimmering bodies protecting them flickering out of existence.

. . .

Alexa watched as the final spider leapt into Ember’s open mouth as she fainted.

“THINK, REPEAT AFTER ME! UNITY! ACCEPTANCE! INFECT! CONSUME! MULTIPLY! PROPAGATE!” Alexa yelled.

“...consume, multiply, propagate.” Cottie droned.

“...multiply, propagate.” Martin repeated, holding his passed-out sister and thinking the same thing with all of his spider-children.

Yep, Spiderbro was a mother now.

Wait, no. Focus. Propagate. [Multiply!]

The gargantuan hands coming from the sky froze right above them, moving slightly up and down in seeming contemplation.

Stolen story; please report.

One of Ember’s tear-streaked eyes opened. “...pRopAgate,” She muttered with a hissy rumble.

Martin felt awful about puppeteering his passed-out sister like that, felt that he was turning into a monster himself, yet he could not stop.

He had to keep the mad charade going! Had to pretend to be one of them to survive. Controlling four brain-spiders was giving him a crazy migraine, making him feel like he was going to throw up, pushing his newly acquired mind-control power to its limits.

The mob of black, glistening monsters slowed just as they were about to strike down the humans with their jagged, sharp limbs.

[Propagate. Multiply.]

Spiderbro and his three children sang, joining the endless chorus that resonated across the dead planet. The multitude of abominations began to part, smaller ones skittering away.

Martin exhaled. He did it! He saved them all!

Thumps of enormous legs resounded in the distance, across the desolate roadside. Martin raised his eyes. It was the gargantuan skinwalker, Mr. Noodles.

A shawl of human skins rasped as it moved.

Martin suddenly felt, knew that all it wanted was to peel off their flesh. It was somehow off, not just bigger and stronger but more clear in its wants, its song discordant.

Why? How?

Martin tried to look inside Mr. Noodles, past its exoskeleton. He saw its nebulous construct, filled with myriads of twinkling silver stars. The stars in the center of its head were tinted with shades of red! It was different! Martin panicked.

[Give me their skins, little one.] Mr. Noodles sang into Martin’s mind, drawing closer, its voice becoming far clearer.

[MINE!] Martin answered, via Spiderbro. [PROPAGATE. MULTIPLY]

[Give it to me. I desire its flesh.]

“Oh sheeeet. It’s the skin-tax collector and he doesn't take no for an answer,” Alexa muttered, her eyes filling with panic.

[I will take what I want.] Mr. Noodles extended a limb, about to strike Martin down.

[NO. Mine! I use what is mine!] Martin sang, trying to make the big skinwalker leave them alone.

He made Cottie raise her gun, aiming for the spot of colors in the head of Mr. Noodles. Cottie fired Eva, the gun punching through the head of the enormous monstrosity. Mr. Noodles swayed. The shot had taken some of the colors from its head, but it was only temporary. Other stars in its head became tinted red, as it reorganized its thoughts towards the same desire.

[Give. Me. That. Flesh.]

Alexa pulled Martin and Ember under Cottie’s cloak.

“What are you doing?” Martin hissed.

“Hiding,” Alexa whispered. “I’m friggin scared. This asshat takes what he wants. Guns don't stop him!”

“What?” Martin groaned, making Cottie fire her gun at the source of the prevalent skin-taking thought in Mr. Noodles.

“Where’s that damn invisi-button, C?!” Alexa growled.

“What button? What?!” Martin looked at her, confused.

“I cannot press it. My arms won’t obey!” Cottie spoke, her voice shaking.

“M! Let go of C for a minute!” Alexa smacked Martin.

Martin stopped his control of Cottie’s arms and she pulled a gray, meshed hood over her face, reached into her clothes and pressed something within. Martin heard a deep hum within the Equalizer’s power armor. It sounded like a miniature fusion battery.

Through the eyes of the skinwalker crowd still surrounding them, Martin saw Cottie. She looked ridiculous. A large, gray hood was covering her face, cloak bulging with the figures of the four humans inside it. The cloak suddenly flashed a multitude of colors and Cottie vanished from sight. Completely. As if she never existed at all.

Martin’s mouth flopped open.

The Equalizer Enforcers had super-designed invisibility cloaks! That’s how they snuck up on supervillains! It all made sense now. Martin couldn't even remember where exactly she stood previously. The cloak was doing something screwy with the act of perception itself, erasing information about it and whatever it had covered up out of the universe.

[Where are my skins?] Mr. Noodles complained. [Give me back my skins and flesh tasties!]

The limb that was reaching out to Martin struck down the nearest skinwalker in agitation.

Martin glanced at Alexa who was clinging to Cottie beneath the cloak. She was shivering ever so slightly, clearly terrified of the big, independent skinwalker. She didn’t like being so close to Mr. Noodles. He was an aberration that wanted to skin people, not just use them as a resource for the endless process of self-replication. If Cottie had an invisibility cloak all this time then why didn’t they use it earlier?

[Uhh… I didn’t know if it worked against these things, sorry,] Cottie thought.

[Your cloak tech works the same way as the SCA Bank's hypno-pacifier system,] Alexa commented. [Number one and moi tested confuddling an entire nest of skinwalkers in a bank recently! Right, M?]

[Wait... What the hell? I can hear you!] Martin responded.

[We can all hear each other’s direct thoughts, you dummy. We got the same brain-spooder brand walkie-talkie™] Alexa’s thought cut into Martin’s mind.

[Oh my God they can hear my thoughts. What have I done? Why have I done this?] Martin thought. [Does she know…]

[Stop thinking so loud or you’ll blow a spider,] Alexa broadcasted back. [And no need to worry, I already know everything about everything!]

[Oh my God, she knows everything! Why did I give her my brain-spiders?] Martin's face turned red.

Alexa started to giggle deviously in her head. Martin scrambled to mute his thoughts to stop broadcasting them out to the girls before he thought something dumb or extremely embarrassing.

He knew that he could easily control Alexa now, but he felt that she was the one puppeteering him with her social hacking bullshit. If she knew that Cottie’s cloak could hide them, why didn’t she just ask Cottie to become invisible right away?

Was it part of her sinister plan to make Martin give her and the others brain spiders? Did she depower, break down his sister on purpose?!

Martin stumbled over his own thoughts, trying to second guess Alexa’s motives and absurd plots.

[Where are you, you little shard? I can hear you but I cannot see you! Come out and give me their skins!] Mr. Noodles insisted.