I stepped into the small town. It was even more pleasant than I'd expected.

The streets further out from the church were lined with quaint, red brick buildings and cozy wooden houses. They all had white shutters, sycamore trees in front of them and lush gardens dotted by ivy, willow and enormous oak trees in the backyard. The people here were dressed in everyday clothes that looked as if they'd been made in the 1950's.

The few people outside didn't seem to recognize me, didn't say hello nor confirm that I was indeed Alexa Terranova.

It was incredibly unnerving that I somehow understood the 1950s as a concept yet I could not recall my own name or my life before the spontaneously combusting plastic man dumped me into the backyard of Saint Mary's cathedral.

As I walked down the street, I saw various shops selling all sorts of things from fabrics to electronics, food to books and antiques. The shops were old and new and had their own unique styles and charms about them. Signs on the storefronts with their elegant lettering and golden frames caught my eye. Each shop had its own unique charm as if it were telling a story all on its own.

'Saint Mary Township Antiques and More' one sign said.

The quaint atmosphere of Saint Mary's town was making me feel relaxed as if I had stepped into a simpler, safer time.

I tried to think as to where I had stepped from and why I felt that the town was quaint and could not arrive at a conclusion. Parts of my memory were completely inaccessible as if they had been cut away by a surgeon's knife. Thinking about them and trying to understand myself was giving me a migraine.

The headache preyed on my nerves, making them tingle and fuzzing my vision.

I stopped focusing on it, moving forward.

There were also several restaurants and cafes in town; some selling traditional meals while others offered fusion cuisine.

A large yellow sign hung over the sidewalk that said "Atomic Cafe" in flowing red letters.

Looking into the cafe through the glass window presented to me a lovely example of something that I mentally labelled as the 'atomic-art-deco-theme'.

Little boys and girls sat at the tables with their parents, enjoying tasty treats served by hovering, pill-shaped robots with mechanical arms.

The little bots were all dressed in black tuxedos and hovered around the diners serving food or even art supplies for kids to play with.

Another cute, round robot stood near the door, greeting customers.

"Welcome to the Atomic Cafe!" It intoned at me cheerfully when I came close enough to it.

I passed through the threshold of the door and stepped into the cafe and breathed in the soft, calming atmosphere.

I sat down into an empty chair and poked a holographic menu.

Glancing over the menu I determined that things cost money. Money which I did not posses.

Tap water was free. Hooray! I ordered a glass and when one of the pill-bots brought me a glass I slowly sipped it, my throat finally feeling less parched and scratchy.

Staring at happy people eating ice cream was making me grouchy.

"Thanks a lot dad," I muttered angrily tapping my glass. "Thanks for..."

The world vibrated for a split second and became bathed in darkness as if all of the lights in the cafe switched off.

"Umm?" I blinked.

I felt an unnerving chill as my eyes slowly adjusted to the now extremely dim interior of the cafe.

I turned my eyes to the window and choked on my water. An enormous supercell storm was broiling above the town, painting everything in dark blue and black shadows.

The town beneath the storm didn't look the same. Buildings were rotting or crumbling. Where trees once stood were now blackened husks. The windows of cafes and cars were shattered, the cars themselves pitted with holes and rust.

I looked around the cafe and dropped the glass that I was holding. Where once happy people sat eating ice cream were now ossified corpses of people crumpled onto the tables and the floor.

"Holy shit what the f..." I choked.

The words of the plastic butler resounded in my mind about how the bracelet I was wearing would throw me into the future.

"Is this... the future?" I spoke into the dreary silence.

A gust of wind blew outside, flying ashes and debris rolling through empty, ruined streets.

I stood up and walked across the cafe, broken tiles crunching under my bare feet. Pill shaped droids silently lay on the floor.

"Ouch," I hissed as I stepped on something sharp.

Right. I needed footwear, lest I receive Tetanus.

I spun around and spotted a decayed body of a girl that was around my size. Most of her clothing had rotted away, but her shoes with the logo of a silver paperclip on them and the word 'Nonpareil!' were perfectly intact.

I stepped forward, my bare feet timidly feeling their way on the charred rubble. My fingers grasped at a pair of boots - the only thing that remained undamaged on the skeletal figure that lay still before me.

I felt the soot and cinder fall away with each vigorous shake as I turned the shoes over.

The boots were like a feather, but I could still feel them safely envelope my trembling toes as I put them on. I bent down and ran my finger across the surface, feeling a strange texture that seemed to somehow combine both fabric and dark metal. I stared up at the skeleton, barely able to make out a faint skull-smile from underneath it's inky facade. A chill ran down my spine yet I felt comforted, grateful even.

"Thank you," I managed to whisper.

Feeling better, I strode towards the cash register with every intention of breaking it to test my new footwear. With one solid kick from my boot-reinforced foot, the register opened, revealing a pile of cash within its innards.

"It's a bit chilly and these will burn well, I guess," I shoved the bills deep into the pockets of my shirt, suddenly aware of how the chilly air prickled on my skin.

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

I snatched a broken metal end from a ruined table. I squinted out the window and only then noticed how the darkness seemed to linger in the air. The desolate street was utterly devoid of life, aside from me.

Stepping outside, I felt an icy chill that sent shivers down my spine. My eyes were met with the desolate wasteland which lay before me: no greenery, no trees, no sign of life at all. It was as if this world had been depopulated for centuries. Even the air felt dead and cold.

I hesitated for a moment, thinking of all that had led to this moment, and all that was to come.

"Well, the future sucks," I muttered under my breath as I stepped further out into the murky, foggy city.

I spotted an orange vest and hardhat atop another charred skeleton. The vest and hardhat weren't damaged by time at all either. There was a questionable, melted bullet hole in the hardhat, but I decided that beggars can't be choosers.

'Superstate construction' the logo stated. I pulled the vest and hardhat atop of myself, feeling a bit more safe.

Searching through burned out shops, I discovered more tough clothing - a pair of black gloves and a 'Dora the Terraformer' backpack that was immune to ravages of time as well.

I turned a knob on the little lamp atop of the hardhat and it actually lit up.

"Damn, that's a tough battery," I commented. "Whatever the Superstate is, their stuff is crazy good quality."

I stared at the desolate landscape of tumbled down buildings, the sky overhead a seething blanket of ever-moving clouds. A speck of movement in the distance caught my eye, but whatever it was, it was too far away to make out any details.

My heart pounded in my rib cage. Something stirred beyond the remains of the burning city, beneath the boiling sky. I peered into the distance, straining to see what it was.

Suddenly, without warning, the speck began to rapidly grow as it moved in my direction. I could hardly believe my eyes as I watched it approach.

Shrieking and shaking, a giant entity moved towards me; a sphere composed entirely of human arms. I could barely make out the details but I knew its structure was solid, as if each arm had become a root and melded together to form an immense carapace. The wriggling, black, oily, grotesque arms moved in unison, propelling it forward waving and pressed against each other like the legs of a giant centipede. The sphere moved with an uncanny agility, flattening everything in its path as it rolled closer.

My mouth agape, I stumbled backwards, away from the awful thing that didn't make any sense in my mind. My panicked gaze darted around for a way to escape, but all I saw was an impenetrable wall of broken cars and trucks blocking my way.

With no other option left, I sprinted back towards the safety of the Atomic Cafe and dove inside, hoping that the monstrosity would not follow me, would not be able to make its way inside due to its massive size.

I panted as I rushed deeper into the cafe. I looked back just for a second and froze in panic again.

It was an uncanny sight. The beast formed from human flesh and some unknown substance stretched and crept through the opening of the cafe's window, like a droplet of warm honey. Its shape and form constantly shifted, as if conjured from a primordial soup of living metal or ferromagnetic fluid.

The boundaries of its being were as fluid as water, numerous hand joints clicking.

Suddenly, a black, glistening, thick hand shot out of the entity's core and lunged towards me. Its fingers were like tentacles made of liquid mercury, pulling away the air around them to create a vacuum.

With a piercing wail, the suddenly extended fingers punctured through my chest into my heart and lungs, then quickly withdrew in one pull, taking blood and breath from me with them.

I felt the icy touch of death on me in that moment and knew no other pain that could compare to it. I screamed and thrashed with the last shreds of life still left inside me.

Little mouths filled with far too many teeth akin to leeches extended from a thousand fingers of the monstrosity, sipping at my spilling blood.

I choked and gurgled, drowning in blood and falling into the embrace of painful darkness.

. . .

"What the freaking hell?!" I gasped as I came awake in the middle of my poster bed in Nemendias, hyperventilating. "God damn it, why is everything everywhere so horrible?"

"What's wrong?" Dawn asked from the spot where I hung her on the bed-frame.

"Just got pincushioned through the lungs by a monster made from human arms in a 1950s apocalyptic scenario as a teenage supervillain... courtesy of another Infinite Mirror," I groaned, rubbing my face tiredly.

"Oh," the star-woven girl on my dress frowned. "I see. Is... the other you dead?"

"Pretty sure she's dead," I lamented. "And that thing is eating up what's left of her body."

[She's not dead,] Junezia reported. [The Mirror is open.]

"She's not dead?" I repeated and pulled up my stats.

[+1 Infinite Mirror, Alexa Terranova, Earth.]

"But... I got stabbed by mister thousand-slender fingers and everything," I sputtered. "How did I... how is she still alive? You know what? Reconnect me! I want answers!"

I fell backwards into infinite darkness, drowning in my bed sheets.

. . .

A blast of warm air filled my lungs as I inhaled again. I stood in the back of the Atomic Cafe and gasped as I stared at the orange tiles beneath my feet.

A few children blinked at me, momentarily looking away from their ice creams. I looked down at myself. The bloody holes in my body were replaced with smooth flesh, but the shirt remained ripped where the bony fingers had torn it.

I was still wearing the yellow hardhat, gloves, orange vest and the backpack.

My pockets were stuffed full of money from the doomed future. I slid the bills out of my pocket and onto the counter.

There was a picture of a president on the bills that I did not recognize, could not recall the name of.

I waddled back to my booth, called up a pill-shaped droid and ordered the biggest breakfast with pancakes, bacon, whipped cream and ice cream.

My hands trembled uncontrollably, my fingernails digging deep furrows in my palms.

I let out a small whimper as I glared at my reflection in the window. My once-brown hair now a stark silver from the horrific encounter caused by the arm-sphere. I sneered in irritation and anger as I spoke to my own reflection. "Thanks a lot dad, thanks a whole freaking lot!"

There was something in between the moment when I died and the moment when I was back in the wholesome, sunny, people-filled cafe... something that I could not recall. Nemm.... my migraine was back. I slumped my head into the table and started to sniff softly, unable to hold back tears of pain, misery and confusion.

"Are you alright, miss?" The pill shaped robot rolled by with my order.

"P-perfectly peachy," I replied with a stutter, wiping tears from my eyes. I looked at the happy people all around me.

I didn't know any of them and yet... I didn't want any of them to turn into ashes and dust.

I looked down at my feet. The Nonpareil brand, indestructible shoes I had stolen from the future were still there, hugging my feet snugly.

I had a chance. I had a chance to stop whatever was coming, whatever would kill everyone here.

I looked at the bracelet. I realized that it would send me into the future again at random. The thought sent a deeper shiver of terror down my spine.

I drowned the fear in crunchy, hot bacon.

"I will not break," I whispered. "I will not become a villain. I will figure out WHY my world is doomed and I will stop it, no matter what it takes."

"Do you require assitance, miss?" The pill shaped droid stared at me with its beady, lens-shaped eyes.

"Do you have access to the internet?" I asked. "It seems that I have forgotten some things and I'd like to catch up."

"Of-course," the robot replied. "Your lunch menu can be used as a basic browser for two dollars an hour rate. Atomic cafe is proud to provide the most recent Superstate Advances from Titanomachy."

"That's fine I got cash, connect me. Also, what's... Titanomachy?" I asked, poking the menu and trying to see what else I could order to drown my sorrow with snacks.

The illuminated screen of the menu cast a pale yellow hue across my face as I perused the extravagant breakfast specials.

Suddenly, a mesmerizing image of a majestic ring-shaped space station appeared, and I was transfixed by its complexity.

The text on the menu now read ‘Titanomachy – The Nation of Heroes! We protect the world from villains!’

As I contemplated the enormous structure in awe, my heart began to thump against my chest.

I could feel my heart race faster and faster as I flipped the pages to discover more information about this world, superheroes, villains and Titanomachy.

I felt as though I was being drawn into the screen, yet I couldn't escape from the mighty gravitation of this most formidable space station and what Superheroes did when they caught villains.

"One hundred thousand years of reeducation program introduced to turn villains into heroes!" Another article declared at me. "Pre-crime, precognitive division receives more funding to prevent super-crimes before they happen!"

I gulped.