"What do you mean that's not all?" Martin whispered at Alexa with an aghast expression.

"Shh," Alexa put a finger to his lips.

Ember looked up at the Equalizer, her lips trembling.

[Nobody does anything without purpose. Fear not, Ember Kilborne, this future shall not come to pass. No cottages shall burn, for Hero Resonance is no more,] Cottie put her black railgun on Ember's shoulder. [A power, once lost, does not return to its super.]

The silence between them stretched on and on as Ember tried not to freak out. Tears started rolling down her eyes. Her great future was no more. Everything she's worked so hard for was ruined.

"Cotes, you're freaking amazing at rendering memories. That was a really fun orbital visual! Seventeen thumbs up," Alexa spoke.

Cottie sternly looked at Alexa.

"What? I promise not to hide in England from the Superstate! Cross my heart and hope to die!" Alexa declared.

Ember simply kneeled on the grass, facing the Saint Mary's cathedral, feeling the weight of the Equalizer's gun on her shoulder. She cried softly in the rain.

Admiral... Hero Resonance was going to be an Admiral.

[This would not happen anyway, because I would have executed you with Eva long before this,] Cottie said without moving her lips, tapping her railgun. [The Equalizers are the hand of humanity. We stop all Supers who go too far, be it hero or villain. Eminence Equality does not simply command us. She also shows each of us what is to come if we do nothing.]

Ember closed her eyes.

Humanity... the Equalizers had judged her future performance and found her unworthy. She had no power, and would not become Resonance even if she managed to wake up again. She had a spider in her brain that let her brother read her thoughts. Her brother was in…

Wait.

Ember looked up at Alexa.

"Are you planning to destroy Titanomachy? Did the station fall from the sky because of YOU?!"

"Why would I?" Alexa blinked her silver eyelashes back at her. "She's a pretty sky princess that's hugging the Earth. I'd never hurt our precious, overpriced ring-chan. I only plot a most strategic destruction of the concept of the Superstate itself!"

"You're lying! You have to be the one I was after! Equalizer! Why don't you depower her instead of me!" Ember pointed at Alexa.

[Void weapons cannot take powers away permanently. They can only temporarily turn off a power to execute the wielder with a headshot.] Cottie shook her head. [You've done this to yourself, because you love your family. Because you still cared for your brother. Your power made you the best response hero. You graduated with 100% at the academy and had a 100% mission success rate. You could hurt, kill people with impunity and then just undo their deaths. You became more and more disconnected from humanity.]

Ember gulped.

[With each day your powers would only grow stronger, until you could run the entire defense grid of Titanomachy all by yourself. Your response time to an attack and the ability to coordinate as a one person team of analytics made you the best Officer of the SCA. Unfortunately, your power was also gradually erasing your empathy, turning you into a butcher.]

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"She's right." Martin sighed. "You were kinda turning into a massive asshole, Em."

Ember looked up at the ring in the sky with sorrow.

Her dreams of greatness laid in ruins, broken by the world of tomorrow. She had been outdone by a 14 year old supervillain.

[Alexa had done my job for me. It seems that she figured out a way to break Resonance long before you even rose to prominence. It seems that she's the only villain who figured out how to end you without killing you,] Cottie concluded.

"Hum, hum. The Equalizers should pay me for my excellent services! You guys get salaries, right?" Alexa winked at Cottie, opening and closing her hand as if demanding compensation.

Cottie raised an eyebrow at her.

"You're welcome!" Alexa grinned. "Hey can I at least wear your shiny E-shaped pin if I do your job for you? The pin comes with the invisibility cloak, right? I could do twice the crimes if I was invisible!"

Ember stopped crying. It was useless. Nobody seemed to care for her sorrow.

She looked at the only person who seemed to display the slightest bit of concern, tried to reach out to her brother. "Do you not hear the words coming outta her mouth? She's not a good person! She needs to be stopped!"

“I don’t think that heroes are necessarily good people either, Ember,” Martin sighed. “I now know why the Equalizers exist and why they do the things they do. Cottie lost her family and her home because of a hero who was too eager to defeat a villain. The prognosticators can’t account for everything everywhere. They make preferences and allowances towards citizens of the Superstate. The SCA isn’t perfect. You’ve seen it yourself. We've failed humanity. Titanomachy has fallen. I’m afraid I’m with Cottie on this one. I’m going to be Alexa’s friend because that’s the only way to stop her.”

“Mwa ha ha ha!” Alexa stood over Ember, stepping into the shoes of a gloating supervillain.

The rain intensified, thunder rumbling in the distance. A dark storm cloud became visible behind the cathedral of Saint Mary. Ember saw flashes of eerie silver lights dancing behind the stained glass rose window as the world darkened.

[You’ve lost, hero. I’ve taken your powers away! Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer. What could be closer than [mental communion]? Your brother is bound to me by brain-spiders and he no longer believes in the SCA. This lovely Equalizer is bound to me by brain-spiders and she can’t kill me because I’m doing the job of the Equalizers better than they are. You’re bound to me by… well you get the picture. You were the only one in the world who could have stopped me by obliterating the British Isles off the map with the power of Titanomachy. You were a threat to my world dominion and now you’re just a human girl!]

"Nobody can stop me now!" She added menacingly with a theatrical flourish.

Ember flapped her mouth open and closed. Alexa had somehow brought together and destroyed all of her future enemies before they could even grow up.

[Hero Resonance doesn’t exist anymore, except on record. Your own dedication to immersion was your downfall. You erased four years of your own life to blend into the 8th grade, bent the rules of the universe by combining your own and your friends' powers. You no longer have your powers. What you’ve done to yourself cannot be reversed. You can never go back to Titanomachy as Resonance. The space elevator won’t even recognize you as the same person - the door scanner reads the power imprint fractal hexagram. Your unique power signature imprint is gone forever, you no longer have the key to open that door!] Alexa added.

“No.” Ember whispered in dismay.

[I warned you, did I not? I told you that there was no way to come back, that you were going to lose everything if you didn’t let go of me,] Alexa looked down at Ember.

The ex-hero choked.

“Here is what’s going to happen, Admiral. You’re going to be my minion numero trium and I’m going to call you…” Alexa tapped her face. “Dimmy or D if it's an emergency!"

[You know, as a respectful reminder to your future as Admiral of Titanomachy and on the account that your powers and dashing looks have been dimmed. Here, enjoy the new you!] The supervillain made a fake gesture of a salute to Ember, pulled out a small hand-held mirror out of her vest pocket and presented it to Ember.

Ember looked in the tiny mirror at her own reflection and did not recognize herself. Her hair was no longer orange, nor was it floating. It was an auburn shade with streaks of red. Her eyes were not glowing or gold. They were hazel. It was the last straw.

Ember dropped the mirror, wailing beneath torrents of rain, screaming at the sky that no longer belonged to her.

Lightning flashed overhead.

“I know what’ll cheer you up! A tasty yum! Hope you don’t mind that the box is wet. I can’t control the weather, yet.” Alexa slid a bento box towards Ember.