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Somebody Stop Her!
35. Sentenced

35. Sentenced

Martin sat in his living room and looked at his tv screen. He couldn't believe it. Alexa hasn’t done anything and she was being hailed as the supervillain of the century. They had even given her a name: “The Doombringer”.

Martin thought that this was the most idiotic thing ever. Alexa didn’t bring any doom, didn’t hurt anyone!

“...if it wasn’t for the brave, courageous, timely response from the Five led by Nonpareil! We must congratulate the incredible work of the SCA action planning team assisted by our two local agents on the ground!” The Superstate News anchorman spoke with a brilliant smile.

Another picture of Alexa ‘resisting arrest’ flashed on screen.

Martin rubbed his head. The two agents on the ground had been Mr. Canard and his dad. The prognosticator team was led by his mom. It had all come together in an unexpected end. Alexa had chosen not to use Mr. Noodles to attack the Superstate, but the heroes had taken all the credit regardless.

The prognosticators had been wrong. They had failed to predict the future, seeing only one possible outcome. The one outcome that Alexa had not chosen. The longer Martin watched, the more his belief in the Superstate fell apart. How many villains had been created by false accusations like this? How many had been imprisoned for making the right choice?

How many hadn’t even done anything, merely planned to do something but haven’t gone through with it?

The worst thing had been that nobody listened to Martin, nobody had cared about his testimony after the fact. He was a nobody. Just a fourteen year old boy who wasn’t of value or importance. They’ve even blurred his face along with Ember’s in the TV reports.

The prognosticators had seen the future in which Alexa attacks the station with a giant monster. The Five had been sent to prevent her. They seemingly did, by vanishing the bracelets. Alexa had been arrested. She had resisted arrest, insulted and threatened Nonpareil.

The Superstate heroes had voted unanimously and the sentence was passed before the Cottie could even do anything, could file a complaint on the behalf of the Equalizers.

As Martin got up from the couch, he realized that there was something in his pocket. It was a piece of paper. He pulled it out and unfolded it.

[Alexa shoved it in when she had hugged us today at the moment when her bracelet vanished,] Spiderbro commented from his mind.

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[Right,] Martin nodded, opening the folded note.

“My dear Martin,

I’m sorry that I had to lie to you so much when we met, had to trick you, bully you.

I really wish I could have been open and honest with you from the start, but this was the only way.

I had to play the role of a villain, skirt a very fine line on the blade of a knife for the watchers of the land and the sky and the future.

As you read this letter, the Heroes have undoubtedly arrested me and sentenced me to an absurd amount of years in Tartarus for doing nothing at all.

Please understand, everything I had done was to show, to irrevocably prove to you, Cottie and Ember that the Superstate is corrupt, that the prognosticators guiding the heroes are wrong.

Very, very wrong about everything.

You probably think me foolish for sending myself to prison just to prove something to three teenagers, but you also should understand that you three had quite a future ahead of you. Ember, the SCA Admiral. Cottie, her Eminence. You... well, I won’t spoil your future just yet.

Cottie is undoubtedly reading the same letter through your eyes. Hi, Cottie! You’re awesome. Sorry I trampled your beliefs. Eminence Equality and the Equalizers are guided by the same future predicting tech as the Superstate. It all leads down the same path, towards the same end, although it doesn’t seem like it.

The future which ALL of the future seers witness, use to make all of their decisions is a very complex game of deception.

The seers are guiding our world towards something truly nightmarish. You've seen it in 2424. The streets without an end.

I dare not say what it is, dare not give it a name, lest THEY know that I know. Even writing this letter, thinking about them is putting me at a grave risk, but I just can’t keep lying to you guys anymore. I am ready. This is the way it has to be. They will come for me, I know. This is the only way I can even begin to fight them on even ground.

I’ll see you in my dreams, my friends.

~ Alexa Cassiopeia Terror Nova

P. S. Eat this letter. It’s made of digestible, strawberry flavored paper. Yum.”

Martin folded the letter back up, put it in his mouth and swallowed it, his hands shaking.

He closed his eyes, trying to reach Alexa using their mutual mental Terraforge network connection.

The picture was very fuzzy.

He could barely hear Alexa’s thoughts. Martin realized that he should have let Spiderbro grow bigger, stronger. His friend was somewhere very far away. Maybe she was in orbit inside Titanomachy or maybe deep underground.

He saw a small room with chrome floor walls and ceiling. The staple hero was floating in front of Alexa’s eyes.

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“Supervillain Alexa Terranova, also known as Cassiopea the Doombringer. You are hereby sentenced to one hundred thousand years of S-stasis for your future crimes against the Superstate. Any last words?” Nonpareil asked.

"Pull that lever and the Superstate will fall," Alexa said. "Send me to Tartarus and everyone will know what you do to villains there."

Nonpareil rolled his eyes.

“You all suck. Your justice system sucks. The Superstate sucks,” Alexa said, looking at the Supers that she knew were hiding behind the one way mirror in front of her. The chrome walls were closing in all around her. “I’m warning all of you all right now. Put me under and you will all regret it.”

“Well, that’s that then. Have a Good tomorrow, villain,” Nonpareil said, pulling the lever.

“I’ve been misled. You’re not a very helpful staple,” Alexa spoke and her body stilled.