Ember woke up from her horrid nightmares with a whimper, her entire body aching, feeling incredibly tense as if she managed to strain every single muscle in her body. This was an unbearable feeling. She wanted for the pain to stop, to adjust her own muscles into a relaxed state with one of her own avatars. She tried to summon an avatar into being and nothing happened.

Argh.

She rolled over and looked down at herself. She was covered in dirt, dust and black grime as if she was crawling through post-apocalyptic ruins for hours. She tried to summon an avatar to clean herself up. It didn’t work.

Oh.

She suddenly remembered the horrible hell-world of the future and paled, nearly throwing up.

It wasn't a dream! It all happened to her!

Receiving a report about Alexa and Martin from local retired super Mr. Canard and then another anonymous report about the gym teacher being mind-controlled by an alien monster. Getting her academy friends together, combining her own and their powers to erase 4 years from her own body, to become a fake student in Saint Mary middle-school. Going to Martin’s school as an undercover agent. Handcuffing Alexa after Mr. Canard ran away for some reason. Getting thrown 400 years into the future, fighting unkillable abominations to the point of fainting.

Ember looked up at the quite-normal looking sky and saw rain clouds coming above the trees and tinting the world in blue tones. Leaves fluttered in the wind above her. Tiniest raindrops started to fall on her.

She was back to the present. She was alive. She didn’t die in the apocalyptic future.

“There will come soft rains…” She whispered, referencing a book that one of her copies read long ago. Ember hugged herself, and started to whimper.

She had seen the end of humanity in person, the end of the all-mighty SCA, the fall of Titanomachy.

How could all of the prognosticators fail to prevent such a horrific disaster? How could somebody like Nonpareil be stopped? How could humanity be extinguished? How could everything she believed in fall to ruin?

She didn’t understand, had no answers to these questions and it hurt her immensely. The things she had considered immutable - the Superstate, Titanomachy, her own power... All failed, betrayed her expectations.

“Hey,” Martin’s voice brought Ember back into the present.

She turned her head towards her brother, remembering how he was in cahoots with a villain now, having betrayed her for a girl.

“Why? Why did you do it?” She croaked. [Why did you kiss that white-haired monster?]

“Um. We didn’t kiss," Martin's face turned read. "Alexa isn't a monster... she's simply... different."

“Wait. What is happening?” Ember blinked. [Did I say that out loud? What the fuck?! Am I going crazy?!]

“No Ember, you’re not going crazy.” Martin rubbed his head.

“Break it to her gently!” Alexa yelled from somewhere nearby. Ember ground her teeth at that voice. She tried to form an avatar to attack Alexa. It didn't work.

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“I don’t know how to put this… uhhh… I don’t know if you remember. I’m… uhhh.. Awake.”

Ember remembered Martin’s silver-sparkling eyes. She blinked at him in an understanding. “You’re awake! Ohhhhh... You can read my thoughts, of course! Oh thank G....”

Then she remembered something else and her face paled even further. “Brain spiders. You gave me brain spiders?”

Martin nodded. He looked incredibly guilty.

“Jesus fucking Christ Martin, WHY?!” Ember cried. She tried to make an avatar to smack him and failed. “Where’s my power, Martin?!”

“Uhhh… how can I put this.” Martin rubbed the back of his head.

“Out with it!” Alexa yelled. “Confess everything!”

[Shut up! You’re not helping!] Martin shot back at her.

[What is happening. What is this?!] Ember thought. [Wait. Puppeteer protocol. Mind control. Brain spiders. Oh, God Damn you all to hell! Get out of my head, Martin!] She slammed her fists into the ground.

“Yeah, about that. I have no idea how to stop reading the thoughts you’re directing at me or how to take the spider out of your head without killing you. Sorry,” Martin apologized.

“What the fuck kind of superpower is brain spiders?!” Ember yelped. [Oh god there’s spiders in my brain. Get them out, get them out! Oh God, I’m going to be sick! Why?!]

“One spider. It’s kind of integrated itself into your neural network, stretched its tendrils all over your brain,” her brother said, unhelpfully.

“That’s still one more than the number of spiders than I want in my brain, damn it!” She wailed.

"Right... Anyways, you can't do super stuff anymore because you burned out while you were trying to protect us from the skinwalkers. You are no longer awake, Ember. I'm really sorry," Martin said.

"No. No. No! This isn't happening. These sort of things don't happen to young, talented heroes!" Ember sat up, and covered her face, wobbling back and forth like a roly-poly toy.

For the first time in her life she was having a panic attack. She didn’t like it one bit.

[Equality shall prevail and no cottages shall burn upon the distant shores of Yore,] a calm voice spoke in her head.

Ember saw a golden ocean of wheat in her mind, gently swaying back and forth played by currents of wind. White clouds rolled above the wheat fields, casting large shadows down onto the serene countryside. British cottages stood in the distance between rows of wild cherry trees. The grasses smelled of autumn rains, seagulls called from the ocean. It all looked so real that Ember forgot how to breathe, her panic attack subsiding, replaced by the vision of the Yorkshire countryside.

She shook her head, getting rid of the image. "Puppeteer protocol, damn it! Focus."

[Ember Kilborne, please remain calm. Now that you are Hero Resonance no longer, I can tell you about your part in the prophecy,] the voice of the Equalizer spoke in Ember's head.

"What? I, uh. I…" Ember muttered.

[You were one of my targets to monitor, assigned to me by her Eminence Equality. The Super who was going to wipe England off the map.] Cottie walked up to Ember.

"What do you mean wipe England off the map?! I couldn't have! I wouldn't have!" Ember gasped.

The Equalizer had reached the ex-hero, armor clinking and placed a hand on her head.

[Observe what I had been given by Eminence Equality. This was your part in the prophecy. My Equalizer name, Verse Twenty-four Nineteen, is part of the greater story about the future of a mighty hero called Resonance.]

An image of Ember formed out of uneven sparks.

She stood on the captain's deck of Titanomachy clad in red and gold of her Resonance costume, looking much older. There was an eight pointed star on her chest.

Her rank was an Admiral! She really was destined to become the defense Administrator of the entire station!

"I know that you are down there, villain! This is for the greater good of the Superstate. You will not bring down Titanomachy!" Admiral Resonance spoke, a hundred of her off-color copies sitting at the controls of the station. The image zoomed outwards showing the entire ring superstructure spinning around the earth.

Beneath the behemoth station, Ember could make out the outline of the coast of France and England. A brilliant ray struck down from Titanomachy down to the beaches of Yorkshire and the coast of Britain ignited, clouds parting away to reveal the devastation beneath. A wall of fire a hundred meters tall rolled out from the center of the enormous explosion, devouring England. On the other side, an enormous tidal wave rushed out towards Netherlands and Denmark.

The vision ended, breaking up into colorful sparks.

"No," Ember exhaled.

"Yessss," Alexa commented with a grin.

Martin simply stood there, his mouth open wide.

His sister was destined to obliterate nations.

"That's not all," Alexa whispered into the silence.