A girl walked out to the hill by her home. She stared off into the distance, neither her face nor body making any movements. Something appeared on the horizon, rushing in her directions.

It was a large, three-headed dog.

The girl braced herself as the dog tore up the hill, all three of its mouths barking wildly.

The dog crouched down and leapt at her…

And the girl caught him in robotic arms.

“Affectionate Query: Who is a good boy?”

Cerberus barked as all three of its heads began to lick Elise. Her face remained expressionless as she scratched Cerberus’s heads.

But that was fine.

Words and gestures were not necessary between the two.

Cerberus’s internal cybernetic implants were linked to Elise’s network after all, and the two were always aware of the other’s status as a result.

Elsewhere, Bob smiled as he glanced at Elise’s live feed from his phone. Taming a monster had been…quite the ordeal. The intelligent ones had proven entirely too dangerous to trust with an infiltration, so they had turned to the more bestial types. However, these were little more than bundles of rage and aggression, even simple communication seemed impossible.

Bob was forced to compromise.

However much he had wished to avoid it, he ultimately turned to the data from the NSLICE program, cybernetically enhancing a captured monster such that Elise could interface directly with it.

Even then, it had taken a great deal of…discipline before the beast would interact with Elise.

But…it had been worth it.

And not just for the value of having a monster on the inside.

Bob smiled at the scene of the killer cyborg playing with the killer dog as he put away his phone.

On a forested hill overlooking a small town, a snake curled up around the trees. A snake the size of a pick-up truck and far, far longer. It stuck out its tongue and began to hiss.

“Finally…some humansss. Sssoon…I will feassst…”

“Oi, what do we ‘ave here?”

The snake spun its head around. Standing behind it was a group of animals. There was a gorilla…with four arms and four eyes. A lion…with bat wings and scorpion’s tail.

And a squirrel with white feathered wings.

The squirrel spoke.

“I don’t ‘ave any monsters on the schedule for this here location! Looks like we ‘ave an unregistered Elevated here!”

The snake stared at the trio.

“What are you talking about?”

“You doofus! Don't ya know? All attacks on human settlements ‘ave to be approved by the Queen!”

“Queen? What queen?”

“Queen of the Elevated! Didn’t ya pay yer respects on your elevation?”

The snake unwrapped from the tree and coiled itself on the ground, raising its head far above the trio.

“I know no queen. I ressspect no one but myself!”

“I’ve ‘eard enough. Bring him in, boys!”

The snake leapt at the tiny creature, jaws wide open.

And then four fists slammed him into the ground.

The snake cried out as the lion soared through the air and bit his tail.

“I-I sssee…maybe…we can talk thisss out?”

“It’s treason then. Boys, show this lout what happens to those who disrespect the Queen!”

For many days after the town spoke tales of sibilant cries ringing from the forest.

Arachnalich sighed as she stamped the latest document, a small twitch of pain shooting through her wrist. She checked the time in her heads-up display and leaned back into her seat, resting her elbow on the armrest of her chair and leaning her cheek against her hand.

It turns out…being in charge is a lot of work.

And really boring.

And kind of annoying.

Which might be ok…if she was actually in charge.

She stared into space.

Where had she gone wrong?

She had rejected that poor excuse of a ‘family’, trained herself in the mystic arts, gained power beyond mortal ken, discovered the secret to immortality, and then spun her web of death and deception.

And now she was a glorified secretary. Ok that was a bit much, she was more upper-middle management. Still though! She was stuck doing paperwork instead of being waited on hand and feet while her servants conquered the world in her name!

That stupid masked man! This was all his fault!

It was him! He was forcing her to work!

And he butchered her body with these cool-looking implants full of awesome, deadly weapons!

Like these missiles she could use to take down targets beyond the range of her spells and webs!

Or these special grenades that could convert her own body’s poisons into deadly gas bombs for easy and convenient delivery!

Or this flamethrower! She had to admit, she loved having a flamethrower.

And that wasn’t even the worst part! The worst part was this computer inside of her head, displaying itself right on her eyeballs!

Spying on her and sending reports on her activities!

Forcing on her the ability to keep all of her data and communications completely organized and accessible! Like those real-time updates they kept bugging her with whenever the ILS approached Association assets!

Allowing her to cross-reference and identify everyone she saw with just a glance as well as remotely monitor all of her subordinates, which let her portray herself as an omniscient genius to all those idiot followers of hers!

And letting her connect to the internet to watch her shows at any point in time she wanted!

She even had an intuitive 3D art program that would allow her to develop precise magic ritual formations just from her imagination, and then store it all in an organized digital spellbook that could be immediately accessed with a single thought instead of flipping through hundreds of pages of decaying leather to find that one part of that one spell she couldn’t recall the specifics of. Which was actually super cool and convenient and she can’t believe she never thought of doing something like this before.

Arachnalich paused and shook her head.

That was beside the point! He was evil! Totally evil!

She would never forgive him for trapping her like this!

She would outsmart him!

She would get back at him!

She would trap him in her web and make him serve her! See how he likes it!

And then she would make him work! Work for days!

Her robotic eye caught wind of someone approaching her office. She heaved a sigh.

Work first. Oh, she would make him think she’s his humble little helper, for now.

But all the while…she would weave her deadly trap!

“Enter.”

The man on the other side of the door jumped. He hadn’t even knocked yet. Arachnalich allowed herself a small smirk before resetting her expression to passive indifference.

The man walked into the room, sweat dripping from his forehead. He gave a bow.

“Doctor Groovy Shadow pays his respects to the head of the Association.”

“You may rise.”

The man lifted his head but remained standing. Arachnalich smiled and licked her lips.

“Now there’s a smart boy, checking with the Association before you run off on your mad little scheme. Come, tell me what you have planned. The Association is always ready to lend a hand.”

Back in Nemesis HQ, a team of former Midnight minions typed away at computers. The live feed from Arachnalich’s implants was displayed on a wall-sized screen, currently showing the villain she was interviewing. Additional screens showed the views from the spider drones that had been inserted into Arachnalich's swarm from the moment Bob's team had scouted her.

Turns out a mini-spider drone wrapped with dead spider tissue is indistinguishable from an undead spider minion....as long as it obeys the necromancer's commands. It even counts as a dead body and can be raised, the team just gives the drone inside a command not to resist the movement of the external body and voila. A perfect little spy. Perhaps if it were a larger minion Arachnalich may have noticed something foreign inside the body but with the sheer number of tiny spiders she uses inspecting every one for discrepancies was simply not possible.

And what necromancer expects foul play from their own mindless minions?

“Dossier compiled, what’s the status?”

One of the minions looked up at the screen. Arachnalich sent them a yellow symbol, indicating she had no interest in the man as an Association partner…or victim.

“Independent. Let’s send it off to the messenger then.”

“Copy that.”

In a facility far away, the Violet Spy jumped as his phone vibrated with an alert. He pulled it out and sighed.

“I mean…I don’t mind receiving the intel bounties…but could you not treat me like a courier, please?”

He sighed and dialed a number.

“ILS Tip Line, how may I help you?”

“...This is asset 109248.”

“Ah, I’ll connect you to the manager then.”

“Please.”

Aurora Legion sat around the table in a break room within the ILS Mobile HQ. They practically lived there now. Their school work had been put entirely on hold, much to Voidspeaker’s joy. An arrangement only possible due to their transfer to the International Academy for Gifted Youth. Which itself was mostly on hold as every able and willing super had been sent into the field.

Not a word was spoken among the teens. Wonder Knight just had his head buried in his arms. Chronolock and Voidspeaker were leaning against each other on the couch. Pink Star was staring blankly at her phone, too tired to even notice the lovebirds’ display of affection. Icy Rose was sprawled out on the table, frost creeping along the surface every time she exhaled.

Not a single one of them responded when the door slid open. Those with their heads angled correctly moved their eyes to see who it was.

And then they groaned.

It was the Director.

“W-Where…are…we…”

Director Green walked over to the table…and plopped down into one of the chairs, leaning over the table.

“Take a break.”

The entire room froze.

“What…did you say?”

“You all can take a break. Finally, finally, the attacks are starting to slow down. Frankly, I don’t know why, I don’t know how long it will last, and I don’t care either. Go. Go home. Get some rest while you can.”

She hadn’t even finished speaking before Pink Star leapt from her seat, furiously typing on her phone as she sprinted from the room.

“This is my chance! Jeremy, you better be free!”

Aurora Legion and the Director blinked as they watched her flee the room.

“Um, right. Jet’s waiting to take you back to the Academy. You…probably shouldn’t keep her waiting.”

The rest of Aurora Legion nodded and scrambled to gather their things. Londyn watched as they left. She glanced around the room.

“...no one will know. Linda will find me eventually…”

She planted herself face first into the couch and lay still.

She was asleep before she even landed.

An extremely upset Linda found her a few hours later.