Mr. Noodles wailed about human skins and delicious meats, angrily flailing gargantuan limbs. The smaller skinwalkers wisely chose to depart, rather than get pulverised by the thrashing, serrated appendages of the persistent giant.

[We better move before he makes pepperoni out of us.] Alexa poked Martin, drawing him out of his thought-management paralysis. [The invisi-cloak might have hid us from his perception, but it won’t protect us from becoming pizza via collateral damage!]

In that very instance one of the titanic limbs struck a nearby ruin and it began to topple down onto the group. Martin’s perception split. He saw Alexa’s dark face in front of himself and the falling building through Cottie’s eyes. A jaggedy, steel beam was heading right for her head.

Martin dove into his power and took total control of all four bodies in that instant. The four teenagers moved like a single organism, in near perfect synchronicity, narrowly avoiding the beam and stepping into a broken window as the wall fell atop them.

Using mental threads of the brain-spiders Martin coordinated all four humans to quickly move away from the giant skinwalker while keeping everyone together, constantly, perfectly positioned under Cottie's invisibility cloak. This would be utterly impossible to achieve, had they acted as individuals.

As the four-human-amalgamation escaped the smiting limbs of Mr. Noodles, Martin started to feel mentally drained. Control of four people was a tiresome job. If he added any more his power would probably burn out just like Ember’s.

[Head back to your house.] Alexa specified, wincing as Mr. Noodles continued to loudly topple and decimate buildings somewhere behind them.

[Why?] Martin asked.

[Dinner! Also, we can maybe drop your sister off at home, cus she's an uncooperative butt. She couldn't even catch and examine one gym teacher as her SCA mission briefing required! For shame. 0/5 stars. Would not hire again!]

[Right. Why didn’t you tell me that you hired her?] Martin sighed mentally.

[I didn’t personally hire her. The SCA did. They generally go by the nearest agent with the highest aptitude score. Ember had the highest recorded grades in the Academy and perfect mission success rate.]

[Hmm. I see.] Martin replied. [I didn't know my sister was such a tryhard.]

[You don't have to try as hard if you can just make a thousand copies of yourself, live out a thousand extra lives.] Alexa noted. [Now, how would you rate her sister-ness?]

[Not very high. Wait, why am I rating her?]

[I bet she wanted you to be more successful... more like her.] Alexa glanced at the mind-controlled body of Ember. [I always wanted a big sister, you see. I think I'll take her off your hands.]

[What? How?]

Alexa simply smiled at his question, thinking about something green.

The longer Martin controlled the bodies of the three girls, the more he learned about them through their mutual connection. Most of what he learned he didn't want to know.

He didn’t want to be a puppeteer, didn’t want to know people’s personal thoughts, didn’t want to dominate anyone in this manner. Alas, he had no idea how to mute their thoughts while he was controlling them.

Ember was still passed out and her super power felt completely fried, gone. Her fractal web was dim, just like his once was. Her power was no longer awake, impossible to access. Martin feared an inevitable time when she came to and realized that she was no longer a superhero, just a girl with potential for being one. Would she be stuck forever as a human? What new power would she gain if any? Would she have to go through the Academy again? Martin didn't know the answers. He knew that heroes could burn out, but they generally got killed by their enemies when it happened.

The worst, most embarrassing thing was that Martin knew what Ember was dreaming about. He couldn't turn off the flow of information from her mind, lest he lose control of her body. Ember's nightmares featured flashes of Alexa making out with Martin as Ember rushed to save him, but kept getting held back by some kind of an impediment. A bubble of slowed down time, a sudden fence, a gust of storm wind, a rushing river, legs that refused to work, a crowd of old people, a flock of birds and etc. The same nightmare scenarios repeated over and over in her head, some featuring Cottie as the impediment.

Cottie on the other hand, had no dim fractal web in her head. She was just a human girl. The terrifying Enforcer had no power to lean on, no possibility for an awakening. Martin was truly impressed with her now. Her body responded faster, easier than the others. She was very fit, as fit as a 14 year old could get had they chosen to discard their humanity, given up their childhood to become some kind of a gun-ninja. Martin realised that it was easy to control her because she was trained to obey.

Occasionally, Cottie's mind flashed with images of her memories of the Equalizer compound located somewhere high up in the mountains.

Ten thousand gray-robed child-soldiers moved in perfect synchronicity of a strange, repeating dance, beneath the azure glaciers. Kick, sit, twist, up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right. It was the most incredible thing Martin had seen in his entire life. He knew that all of these children were trained to eventually go out into the world to observe villains and heroes. They were ready to strike down any super who was about to stray too far with their power, to end them before they turned against humanity.

The Equalizers had incredible unity in their silent dance. Martin had experienced the Temple Compound of Eminence Equality as if he himself had attended their training. But why? Why were they so dedicated?

Another memory flashed in her head as the answer. It was seemingly stitched from various recordings of the event, perfectly fused by Cottie's mental strength.

Martin saw a city in flames and a man made of fire laughing in the dusky, smoke-streaked sky. The burning man was igniting police cars with rays of fire. A villain. A girl that looked like she was made of blue ice flew into the villain, trying to take him down. A hero. Their bodies entwined as they collided and the world warped with a blinding flash. A mushroom cloud rose vaporising everything in sight, toppling skyscrapers and leaving shadows on walls where people once stood.

Martin saw a little girl with deep-blue hair and emerald eyes in a sky-blue dress who was hiding out in a bath filled with water for many hours. She breathed through a metal straw while everyone and everything around burned, turned into ashes as a cascade of power resonance rippled through the devastated city again and again until both the hero and the villain were no more.

He understood Cottie!

The Equalizers had become carriers of void weapons of their own volition. They were all children orphaned by super-caused disasters! Many of the Equalizer acolytes had nothing left but passionate animosity for the careless supers that took everything from them. They were humanity, united with purpose to hold back what they saw as walking disasters.

Last but not least, Alexa was the hardest to manage. Martin wasn't sure if he was controlling her at all. Her movement and thoughts were incredibly erratic, mind constantly flashing with odd ideas or jokes. Somehow, she had piggybacked on the skinwalker communication system, seeing what Cottie saw.

Alexa had a name and a narrative for every rock, house and skinwalker in 2424. Martin could not even tell if she was an awake super, as her brain-spider Tickles was constantly bogged down with trying to process an endless, illogical story that had no beginning or end. In Alexa's universe of wild imagination everything was alive, everything had feelings. It was a beautiful, ridiculous, abstract absurdity. Unlike Cottie, Alexa treated her brain spider like a best friend and a one way conversation companion. Martin tried to listen to her story and found himself immediately lost.

[See that traffic light over there, Tickles?] Alexa thought. [Her name is Matilda Wickers Trafficlight. Matilda helps people by being a good traffic manager. She is always soooo incredibly busy managing traffic, so she never has any time to herself. None whatsoever! Matilda doesn’t want to admit something very important. She has a very big secret that separates her from other traffic lights. She is actually in love with a wasteland wraith named Dixon Joulers. Someday they’ll go on a date in a coffee shop, served by the last man in the world and...]

Martin really was hoping to find out if Alexa liked him or what sinister, villainous plots she was concocting, but no. He learned that the West-North wind was called Bob Dockler who was just trying to make it home for lunch and that Mr. Noodles was a pizza restaurant owner in his past life who made the best Fettuccine Alfredo in town.

This waterfall of utter nonsense just kept coming until Martin completely stopped paying attention to Alexa’s thought channel. He simply had no patience left for listening to her gibberish. While trying to tune her out completely, he accidentally dove deeper into her subconsciousness and found nothing at all there, except for an empty, dark, unfriendly void that seemed to stare back at him trying to evaluate, label and sort him out as if he was just a tool, a useful device of some sort. It was far worse than the nonsense channel and Martin backpedalled out of that deep well of darkness as quickly as he could.

All in all, with all that extra brain-spider power he managed to learn nothing about Alexa that he didn’t already know. She was a quirky girl with a dark side that liked to use people.

Martin wasn’t sure how much time had passed with them crouching together and walking as one across the ruins of tomorrow. The road back to his house wasn’t easy and was covered in numerous obstructions such as broken rubble, fallen buildings, deep chasms and random, curious skinwalkers who could almost see that they were there via some sort of 6th sense. Martin sang at them about Propagation and Multiplication and they went on their way. Alexa’s bracelet beeped and Martin finally stopped puppeteering everyone, feeling relieved. Alexa bent down to grab a broken street sign and then hugged them, flashing the group to the present.

. . .

Martin sat on the grass, panting. His head was spinning. He wasn’t sure if he was himself anymore, his thoughts overcrowded with un-Martin memories, ideas and feelings that he’s experienced through Ember, Cottie and Alexa.

[So. Ummm. Yeah.] Cottie sat down next to him. [I’m sorry you had to see all of that. Now you understand. Thank you.] She hugged Martin.

Martin finally broke down. He cried for her lost family, for every child who lost everything because of careless supers, wept for every Equalizer acolyte that had to forsake their humanity in order to become strong enough to wield void weapons, so that other cities would remain standing, so that others could live out their lives in peace.

Alexa glomped them both from behind. “Ha ha ha! Behold the incredible power of the brain-spider threads as a bonding device!”

Martin angrily looked at Alexa and Cottie smacked her.

“Ow! Oh no. Quadruple mutiny! I’ve bonded you two too hard!” She complained, rubbing her head.

The Saint Mary cathedral loomed ahead of the laughing trio that were sitting on the lawn of the park in front of the church. Sunlight reflected from its stained glass windows flickered on the wildly strewn poppies that were growing beneath oak trees.

Ember was twitching ever so slightly on the grass, dreaming of horrible Alexa-related things. Everyone ignored her.

. . .

Another orange SCA delivery drone came down from the sky, bearing a large box with the “New Tokyo Planet-View Sushi” restaurant logo on it.

“How are you doing that?” Martin looked at Alexa.

“It’s called planning and ordering ahead, Mittens. You should try it sometimes.” She shrugged, swiping a credit card at the drone.

“That's an SCA delivery drone! Planet-View restaurant. You’re ordering meals straight from Titanomachy. You’re not a hero!” Martin grabbed the credit card from Alexa’s hand and looked at it. It was an SCA gold credit card. The name “Hero Resonance” was embossed on its surface.

“Did you steal my sister’s credit card?!” Martin gasped at Alexa.

“What? Her mission is to observe me. This is normal mission expenses. Perfectly deductible stuff. She’s not using it, because she’s Allinna Kettleburn now! Full character immersion, you see. Very impressive stuff.” Alexa pointed at drooling Ember. “See? She doesn’t even have any powers now. She’s a perfectly mundane human girl who can only dream about Planet-View Sushi!”

Martin rubbed his head. “I see.” He handed the card back to Alexa. He felt that Ember finally got what she deserved. Maybe this would teach her a lesson.

[She seems to have issues with anger management. I should teach her Equalizer meditation techniques.] Cottie thought at them, looking down at Ember.

“Probably wouldn't help.” Martin sighed. “She’s gone beastmode on me ever since she gained her powers.”

“Well that’s not a problem anymore is it?” Alexa smiled. “She’s all powered out, poor kitten.”

[It is an impressive way to bring down a super.] Cottie commented.

“A nice break will do her good, I reckon.” Alexa petted Ember. “Constantly making duplicates and ending them can’t be good for your psyche. If you think about it, every duplicate she made had to deal with the fact that it is temporary, doomed to cease existing once its job is done. Learning to end yourself on purpose must have sucked.”

[Agreed. I’ve reviewed her public records. She was heading down a dark path. Being able to break anything and undo any action clearly has a very negative impact on personal development. It is dangerous to play God.]

“Shit. I think I'm beginning to feel sorry for Ember. Damn... Wait, you know you can talk, right?” Martin glanced at Cottie.

[I can, but this is much more efficient. Thought-conversations are faster, can express things visually and use up far less of my valuable personal energy.] A picture of a pink blossom tree facing a valley of glaciers that cascaded down as waterfalls flashed in Martin’s head from the direction of Cottie, blessing him with a feeling of grace and serenity.

“Can’t argue with your logic.” He shrugged, losing himself in the view of Cottie’s memory. He realised that until now was he constantly missing, wanting the feeling of serenity that the bank defence system gave him. The hypno-pacifier was dangerously addictive!

“Damn it! I’ve made her more like a robot! She wasn’t very talkative before and now she’ll never talk like a normal person!” Alexa complained. “But then again, this screensaver panorama is really nice and relaxing. Is this in Tibet or..?”

[I’ll never tell.] A picture of Cottie flashed into their minds. She was smiling ever so slightly.