"It's more like what you aren't going to become," Alexa shrugged.

"What am I not going to become?" Martin insisted.

"You’ll never be a proper hero," Alexa said.

"Why?!"

[Well, seeing as this is the end of line, Martin. I’ll be honest with you. I gave you brain-spiders because I needed a bridge between skinwalkers and people. Someone who’s not me. Someone whose very specific, mental-manipulation-type power wasn’t awake yet. I couldn't tell you or anyone anything, had to trick you, mislead you, lie to you because if I didn’t - the prognosticators would find out and stop me. I used you because I needed to create a new kind of super, one that could change the world.]

[To prevent... this future?] Martin looked at the ruins of Saint Mary through the nearest shattered stained glass window.

"This future is pretty shit, but world 2424 isn’t necessarily OUR future. You see, my friend. Our present has problems. Deep, awful problems like the Superstate. My goal is to destroy the Superstate, Martin," Alexa said simply.

[God, you really mean that?!] Martin thought.

[Yes.]

“You… you really want to destroy the Superstate?” Ember stuttered, looking about like a trapped rabbit.

"Yes. The Superstate must come to an end," Alexa said. "And I now have the means to do it, if Daddums got his stuff together."

“Why would you… I… I have to tell everyone!” The ex-hero gasped.

"You can do whatever you want when we return to the present, Dimmy! You won’t be able to stop me. Events have already been set into motion. You’re just a gear in the machinery of the future now, spinning towards the inevitable D-day!"

“My brother won’t be a hero?” Ember shivered.

“He’s going to be MY hero. A hero unlike anyone else. A hero that breaks the rules of the game.” Alexa took Martin’s hand.

Martin looked at Alexa. For the first time in his life, he knew that he could trust her. Her mind had been fully opened to him and via his spider in her head he could tell that she was finally telling the absolute truth.

"Why do we need to end the Superstate?" He asked.

"The superstate creates more villains than it ends. They unjustly imprison and brainwash innocents. They’re monsters disguised under the title of Goodness. It's all just an illusion of protection as our world careens to its inevitable end," Alexa said.

“What?! That’s not true!” Ember waved her hands.

"You don’t have to blindly believe me. I’ll provide you irrefutable evidence very soon." Alexa smiled.

Ember had nothing to say to that. She didn’t believe the villain girl one bit.

Alexa didn’t have to lie, she could simply believe something false, been brainwashed by her father!

Martin on the other hand decided to trust the self-proclaimed villain. He wanted to see what she would do.

Alexa bent down to the floor and listened.

“The reactor’s not sounding too good. I don’t think it’s going to last very long,” she muttered. “Really don’t want to be smeared across space and time. Well, let's go out and get this over with.”

Alexa stood up, heading towards the entrance.

“Where are you going?!” Ember yelped. [Why can’t we stay here, where it’s nice and safe behind the shield?! Why do we need to go out of the cathedral?!]

“Time to face the pied piper,” Alexa said, walking out of the nave. She bravely pulled the doors open. “Follow or stay. Your choice. I have to face Mr. Noodles eventually one way or another, so that I can dig through these ruins for my present in peace. It seems that he and I are fated to cross paths in this desolate land. Hero and Villain at the end of the world. I shan’t run away anymore!”

[Um. Are you saying that Mr. Noodles is a villain? I thought you were the villain archetype. Is he a hero? I’m confused now, thanks.] Martin followed Alexa, looking slightly perplexed.

“She’s clearly nuts! She wants to end the Superstate, Martin! You have to stop her! Please!” Ember tried to pull on Martin.

[Haven’t you learned anything, Em?] Martin turned. [Alexa is almost always right. Except when she’s not. Look, I don’t think that the Superstate is evil, but she said she’ll show me evidence. I can wait and see it for myself.]

“God! Why does nobody fucking listen to me!” Ember cowered, following the others as they stepped through the doors. Alexa reached the blue shield and touched it, her hand going straight through it.

“Ah. Easy to leave, impossible to return. Clever.” Alexa smiled, pushing the doors open. She stepped through the shimmering shield onto the desolate ruins of Saint Mary. The wind howled outside, throwing black ashes and debris in the wake of the eternally spinning supercell storm.

Ember stood at the barrier shield, shaking in terror. She didn’t want to go out there, onto the land full of monsters that already broke her once and stole her power. What could she possibly do out there? How could she possibly be of use without her power?

Stolen novel; please report.

Alexa stood in the dust storm, with Martin on her right and Cottie on her left. She stared out onto the city. Thumps resounded in the distance. Mr. Noodles was searching for them. It felt their presence.

[Give unto me their skins.] The thing spoke not in words but in ideas and Ember choked in horror and panic. This enormous abomination was going to end them with a single swat of just one of its many limbs. It looked far, far bigger than the ones she had fended off with her avatars.

[Why?] Alexa stared at the distant figure of Mr. Noodles. [Why are you after me? Why do you keep murdering me?! What is your problem?! I don't understand! WHY?!]

Alexa grabbed Cottie and Martin’s hands [My name is Alexa Terranova and I am not afraid of you! You scare me no longer! You might have killed and consumed me more than three thousand times, but this time I have friends who believe in me!]

[What do you mean he ate you three thousand times?!] Ember sent.

[When I die in 2424, a copy of my body remains here. Look at that jerk wearing my skins!] Alexa nodded at the giant.

Ember looked. The monstrous, gargantuan skinwalker drew near. It was wearing thousands of human skins as a cloak.

Through her brainspider Ember felt delight in the abomination's mind, a craving for the flavour of human flesh. Ember's brain overworked by countless extra years of avatar use had reached a terrifying conclusion. Ember was a monster once. She understood how this giant felt, what it wanted. This monster had consumed the poor girl villain over and over, growing big and tall over the years.

It was different... because it had feasted specifically on Alexa again and again. It had become addicted to Alexa’s human flesh, craving, waiting for her return to 2424, blinded by greed for her skins. It was focused on Alexa just like Hero Resonance once did.

Mr. Noodles was different from the other monsters here, because it had been changed by the presence of Alexa in this world!

[Wait.] Alexa’s thought bounced off Ember. [You’re god-damn right! Thank you! This thing is chuck-full of my meats. That’s why it’s an aberration among the aberrations! That’s why it stands out, acts weird!]

[Martin! I know how to stop him! The hands of the builders! Think! Altogether now, you too Ember! Look at Mr. Noodles! Tell the others about it! DIFFERENT. ABERRATION. ERROR. DESTROY. TERMINATE!] Alexa stared into the face of the giant without fear.

Martin magnified, resonated the thought pattern across the four skinwalkers in the brains of the four humans and it reached out, spread onto the city of the dead across the skinwalker network. As Mr. Noodles made his way towards the four humans, smaller skinwalkers began to move towards him, nipping on his heels.

[Do not get in my way! I must have their flesh! It is mine!] He sang, swatting the smaller skinwalkers away, smashing them into buildings. More and more of the monsters flung themselves at him, tearing bits of black flesh, picking at his limbs.

Ember watched in horror as a thousand of smaller monsters beset themselves upon the giant one, slowing it down. Monsters flew left and right. Old ruins collapsed. The remains of Saint Mary were being torn apart. Mr. Noodles smashed, decimated, splattered the other skinwalkers into puddles. The hands of the nest builders arrived from the sky. Mr. Noodles didn’t let himself be struck. He evaded, grabbed at the hands, tearing apart, cutting them with his limbs shaped like giant serrated knives. The titanic hands fell onto the city, severed at the elbows. He reached nearer and nearer, closer to the cathedral, closer to Alexa.

[I shall feast upon you soon,] He thought, his thoughts far more coherent, more like a person than an alien monster. Its skin-shawl had been decimated, torn apart. The monstrous thing had been reduced, thinned out, it was bleeding black sludge from numerous cuts, but had emerged victorious. It had seemingly shredded, destroyed all of the smaller, weaker skinwalkers of Saint Mary.

It advanced towards them, bending down as rain began to pour from the clouds overhead.

[It’s getting closer? They didn’t stop it! What now?!] Martin projected, taking a step back. [The other hands are coming, but they're too far!]

[I don’t know! I haven’t thought of anything else! I thought that the hands would deal with him and we’d be home safe!] Alexa replied, feeling terrified.

Ember, not being able to stand uselessly anymore, her love for her brother overpowering the fear of the coming giant, rushed through the shield.

She knew that Alexa was some kind of a weapon. She just needed to use Alexa against Mr. Noodles somehow. As the titan came closer and closer Ember thought of everyone’s powers, looked at them from an outside angle of a trained hero who knew how to combine, coordinate five heroes into a team, reinforcing, stacking powers.

[Martin! Make a copy of Alexa’s erratic mind! It has to be the key to breaking, interrupting thought patterns! If we can get it into that big bastard maybe we can stop, permanently confuse him!] Ember thought rapidly. She saw the little skinwalker on his shoulder. [Use that scout! Put her brain pattern into that spider scout and…] Ember thought of a way to get the spider to the giant. [The Equalizer’s gun! Shape it like a bullet! Cottie, shoot the scout at that fucking thing!]

Martin grabbed the tiny scout spider from his shoulder. He leaned down and gave it a kiss, carving more skinwalker flesh away from Spiderbro. Spiderbro had been gaining mass in him, thanks to the sushi, he was ready for propagation. Martin shaped the now bigger skinwalker scout in his hand into a bullet shape, imbuing it with a copy of Alexa’s brain pattern. Cottie grabbed it and shoved the spider-bullet into her railgun, aimed it at the head of approaching Mr. Noodles and fired.

The skinwalker bullet controlled by Martin slammed into the head of the giant, getting lost amidst its depths. Martin strained his power to its very limit, capillaries bursting in his eyes. He told the skinwalker bullet to propagate, to infect other stars within Mr. Noodles with the same pattern.

Mr. Noodles had reached them, lifting a limb to splatter them, to take their skins and then… it froze.

Martin saw the radiance of brilliant, shifting colors rippling away from the bullet, dancing all over, changing the giant monstrosity, reprogramming it from within.

Ember grabbed Martin as he wobbled, falling. Martin saw that his fractal of power was beginning to spark, to burn away inside him.

Mr. Noodles had been too big, too complex for Martin to wield.

[Disconnect from him now!] Alexa yelled. [NOW NOW NOW! Before you lose everything!] and Martin obeyed her, told Spiderbro to cut the connection. It did and Martin no longer felt that Mr. Noodles was his. The giant monstrosity moved, head coming down to their eye level. Enormous silver-blue eyes looked at the quartet of humans in the street.

[Welp. This is freaky as hell,] Alexa and Mr. Noodles spoke in unison.

Alexa’s bracelet suddenly lit up with flashing lights from within, as if it had reached some critical event. Three thousand and twenty four bracelets within Mr noodles flared all at once, lighting the giant monster up like a Christmas tree.

“Fuck!” Ember swore.

She suddenly understood. This was the gift of the mad, possibly dead doctor from the cathedral to his daughter/test subject/whatever.

A tool of incredible power to strike down the mightiest supers, the end-all weapon designed to break the SCA and bring Titanomachy down from the sky.

A towering, unkillable monstrosity in the hands of one 14 year old supervillain that Ember herself helped create, like a fool.