All in all, with all that extra brain-spider power Martin managed to learn nothing about Alexa that he didn’t already know.

She was a quirky girl with a dark side that liked to use people for greater goals.

Martin wondered why he put up with Alexa and settled on the fact that he didn't mind being used by her. He had a lot of feelings to unpack and had no room whatsoever to unpack them or to even be angry at Alexa's shenanigans. Being with Alexa was akin to being trapped on a rapidly spinning unicorn carousel that was sitting atop of a burning train that was strapped to a jet engine. There just wasn't enough time for him to make a move while it felt like Alexa made twenty moves when he blinked.

Martin wasn’t sure how much time had passed with them crouching together and walking as one across the ruins of tomorrow. The road back to his house wasn’t easy. The way was covered in numerous obstructions such as broken rubble, fallen buildings, deep chasms and random, curious skinwalkers who sensed Martin's presence but could not see him or his companions.

As the teenage hero's mind jumped across the skinwalker... GLM Terraforge network he observed strange, impossible things all around that he didn't notice previously with his human eyes alone.

Some of the streets of Saint Mary weren't simply filled with rubble - they were wrong, had no end to them. There were areas in 2424 that even the gargantuan Terraforge organism had troubles mapping or navigating, places where time and space was broken, twisted up into pretzels and other impossible shapes.

Martin wondered whether some super made this mess when they tried to escape from the apocalyptic destruction of Titanomachy.

However, the more attention he paid to his surroundings, the more wrongness he discovered. It wasn't enough that some building interiors or streets was somehow stretched... there were things moving within the screwed up space.

Things that made no sense.

As the four teens passed beneath the Equalizer cloak by one of the stretched streets Martin glimpsed a monstrous thing there - a fusion of a traffic light and a rust-covered spider.

The thing was shambling across a desolate landscape covered in glaciers, its trio of lights flashing through the gloom.

Martin choked, almost losing control of the group and stumbling over his feet as the spindly traffic light's head turned towards him, a red lamp peering in his direction.

[Don't worry, Matilda won't hurt you,] Alexa commented when she sensed his terror and panic. [She's a sweetheart. Also, I recommend not looking directly at Main street unless you want your mind to shatter.]

[I... okay,] Martin lowered his eyes and the walking traffic light vanished in the gloom.

Silenced stretched on between them.

[How did you...?] Martin asked.

[I spent a long time here, M,] Alexa sighed. [A very, very long time.]

[How long?] Martin asked.

[You don't want to know,] Alexa said.

[Why?]

[Because there are horrors far beyond human comprehension in places where even Mr. Noodles dreads visiting, M,] Alexa explained.

[What could a bloody skyscraper-sized skinwalker be afraid of?] Martin demanded. [What aren't you telling me about?!]

[Everything,] Alexa sighed mentally. [Everything everywhere.]

[Huh? Why won't you tell me about everything...] Martin began.

[You're not ready,] Alexa said simply. [Nobody is. There are things here in 2424... things that...]

[Things that?]

[...] Alexa somehow generated pure mental silence. The silence had immeasurable mental weight to it, pressed against Martin's mind.

[Did you feel that?] Alexa said.

[Yea,] Martin nodded. [How did you do that?]

[Think in silence? You'd learnt to think in silence too... if you knew what was out there,] Alexa muttered. [I called our group the fellowship of the Loops, not because I like to joke about breakfast cereal... but because I've been trapped in far too many temporal loops, M.]

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

[I thought that everyone here is dead?] Martin frowned. [Who or what makes temporal loops in 2424?]

[Sorry... I can't speak or even think of them,] Alexa said. [Certain Words, Ideas are... dangerous here.]

[What?!] Martin blinked.

[If you don't think, don't talk, don't know... about them you can't summon them,] Alexa shook her head.

[ REPLICATE. MULTIPLY. DEFEND. CONSUME. PROPAGATE. ]

A large group of skinwalkers distracted Martin's attention away from pestering Alexa further. Martin sang at them about Propagation and Multiplication and they went on their way.

Alexa’s bracelet finally beeped and Martin finally stopped puppeteering everyone, feeling incredibly relieved.

Alexa bent down to grab a broken street sign and then hugged the trio, flashing the group to the present.

----------------------------------------

Martin sat on the grass, panting. His head was spinning. He wasn’t sure if he was himself anymore, his thoughts overcrowded with un-Martin memories, ideas and feelings that he’s experienced through Ember, Cottie and Alexa.

[So. Ummm. Yeah.] Cottie sat down next to him. [I’m sorry you had to see all of that.]

"See what?" Martin asked.

[My memories,] Cottie blushed ever so slightly.

[Oh... right,] he nodded. [I saw the Equalizer compound in your head. I'm sorry. I didn't want to...]

[It's okay,] Cottie said. [I feel... that you understand me better now. Thank you for helping us survive out there, in 2424. I... as strong as I am, the future is wrong, broken in ways I've never seen,] Cottie hugged Martin, thinking how Martin was her first real friend...

Martin finally broke down.

He cried for Cottie's lost family, for every child who lost everything because of careless supers, wept for every Equalizer acolyte that had to forsake their humanity in order to become strong enough to wield Void weapons, so that other cities would remain standing, so that others could live out their lives in peace.

He cried because no matter how much Equalizers tried to save the world, they had somehow failed, didn't prevent Titanomachy from falling from the sky and shattering the Earth.

Alexa glomped them both from behind. “Mwa ha ha ha! Behold the incredible power of the brain-spider threads as a bonding device!”

Martin angrily looked at Alexa and Cottie smacked her.

“Ow! Oh no! Quadruple mutiny! I’ve bonded you two too hard!” She complained, rubbing her head.

The Saint Mary cathedral loomed ahead of the trio that were sitting on the lawn of the park in front of the church. Sunlight reflected from its stained glass windows flickered on the wildly strewn poppies that were growing beneath oak trees.

Ember was twitching ever so slightly on the grass, dreaming of horrible Alexa-related things. Everyone ignored her.

----------------------------------------

Another orange SCA delivery drone came down from the sky, bearing a large box with the [New Tokyo Planet-View Sushi] restaurant logo on it.

“How are you doing that?” Martin looked at Alexa.

“It’s called planning ahead, Mittens. You should try it sometimes.” She shrugged, swiping a credit card at the drone.

“That's an SCA delivery drone! Planet-View restaurant... you’re ordering meals straight from Titanomachy! How?! You’re not a hero!” Martin grabbed the credit card from Alexa’s hand and looked at it.

It was an SCA gold credit card.

The name [Hero Resonance] was embossed on its surface.

“Did you steal my sister’s credit card?!” Martin gasped at Alexa.

“What? Her mission is to observe me. This is normal mission expenses. Perfectly deductible stuff. She’s not using it, because she’s Dixie-whatever now! Full character immersion, you see. Very impressive stuff.” Alexa pointed at drooling Ember. “See? She doesn’t even have any powers now. She’s a perfectly mundane human girl who can only dream about Planet-View Sushi!”

Martin rubbed his head. “I see.”

He handed the card back to Alexa. He felt that Ember finally got what she deserved. Maybe this would teach her a lesson.

[She seems to have issues with anger management. I should teach her Equalizer meditation techniques,] Cottie thought at them, looking down at Ember.

“Probably wouldn't help.” Martin sighed. “She’s gone beastmode on me ever since she gained her powers."

"Oh?" Alexa looked at Martin. "You know, I thought that you would be angry with me for depowering your sis."

"She's... accidentally hurt me pretty badly a few times and rewound the damage, pretended that nothing was wrong," Martin sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "My parents didn't believe me. Everyone always takes Ember's side... because they think that she's perfect."

“Well that’s not a problem anymore is it?” Alexa smiled. “She’s all powered out, poor kitten.”

[It was an impressive way to bring down a super,] Cottie commented.

“A nice break will do her good, I reckon.” Alexa petted Ember. “Constantly making duplicates and ending them can’t be good for your psyche. If you think about it, every duplicate she made had to deal with the fact that it is temporary, doomed to cease existing once its job is done. Learning to end yourself on purpose must have sucked.”

[Agreed. I’ve reviewed her public records. She was heading down a very dark path. Being able to break anything and undo any action clearly had a very negative impact on personal development. It is dangerous to play God.]

“Shit. I think I'm beginning to feel sorry for Ember. Damn... Wait, you know you can talk, right?” Martin glanced at Cottie.

[I can, but this is much more efficient. Thought-conversations are faster, can express things visually and use up far less of my valuable personal energy.]

A picture of a pink blossom tree facing a valley of glaciers that cascaded down as waterfalls flashed in Martin’s head from the direction of Cottie, blessing him with a feeling of grace and serenity.

“Can’t argue with your logic.” He shrugged, losing himself in the view of Cottie’s memory.

He realized that until now was he constantly missing, wanting the feeling of serenity that the bank defense system gave him. The hypno-pacifier was dangerously addictive!

“Damn it! I’ve made her more like a robot! She wasn’t very talkative before and now she’ll never talk like a normal person!” Alexa complained. “But then again, this screensaver memory panorama is really nice and relaxing. Is this in Tibet or..?”

[I’ll never tell.] A picture of Cottie flashed into their minds. The mental projection of Cottie was smiling ever so slightly and looking smug.

"Yes!" Alexa clapped. "Cotes can emote mentally! I've cracked the Equalizer code, give me praises!"