Despite my desires to the contrary, neither Asher nor my conscience let me attack right then and there. Instead, I retreated and ended up going back home with the plan being to update the team and attack tomorrow.

  “Hey Bianca.” I say cheerily as I pick her up from her daycare. “Did you have fun with your friends?” I ask gently, walking back to the car.

  Bianca nods at me slowly before yawning cutely and resting her head on my shoulder.

  “Yeah, I’m really tired too. Let’s get you home and in bed so you can take a little nap.” I assure her as I transition her from my arms to the car.

  Maybe it’s a sign of good things to come, but Bianca doesn’t even make it all the way home before she falls asleep in the car, her head moving in the motions of the car turning.

  Once home and Bianca safely situated, I quickly change into clothes that aren’t slightly damp from all the snow before going to cook some food for Amelia to have when she gets home.

  “So what is this about you picking up Bianca early? You never stop doing things unless you’ve finished the project you were working on,” Amelia says as she storms into the apartment. I’m not sure if she’s talking to me, or talking to me while in reality only actually talking to herself. “Which means you figured it out! You know where Andromeda is hiding, but because you didn’t want to do it today, you came home early!”

  “Would you like a prize for figuring it out?”

  “A hug!”

  “I’m not sure how that’s a prize; it seems pretty normal to me?” I say while obliging in the requested reward regardless of my personal feelings.

  “You have a tendency to do something stupid when you think you’re smarter than everyone else. I’m just glad you’re back.” Amelia says before pulling away.

  “I’m not that bad. But yeah, the plan is to raid the cabin where Andromeda is tomorrow morning.” I explain.

  “So she has upgraded from dank underground lab to posh mountain cabin. Lucky bitch. You think if we do it fast we can take the cabin? I would love a vacation home.” Amelia muses between bites.

  “Uh, I’m not sure, but maybe?”

  “So, is Bianca playing in her room or is she asleep?” Amelia asks, heading toward the bedrooms.

  “She’s asleep; she was very sleepy when I picked her up.” I relay as I trail behind her.

  “That’s good. I’m glad she could rest. Puts me in a lazy day mood too.” Amelia nods as she opens the door to my room, or is it her room now since that’s the one she’s been staying in this whole time?

  “Going to bed?”

  “Probably not, but I at least want to change into pajamas. Why do you want to join me?” Amelia asks teasing.

  “I’m already in loungewear, so I’ll just wait for you while I pick a movie without your input.”

  Amelia gasps in horror before sticking her tongue out at me. “Spoilsport.”

  Amelia vanishes into the room, not bothering to close the door as she hunts down clothes to change into, while I return to the kitchen, deciding to make a little bit more if we’re going to go with a lazy morning in the afternoon vibe.

  Once the food is ready, I settle into my favorite spot on the couch and pick a movie both of us love.

  Amelia settles in next to me, resting her head on my shoulder as we watch. “You didn’t have to pick a movie I love, you know?”

  “I wanted to.”

  The movie is as enjoyable as it always is, leaving a smile on my face and wondering what it would be like to live in such a world.

  With it done, I let Amelia pick the next movie, and we settle in to keep watching. Though halfway through the second one, Bianca joins us, having awoken from her nap, though content to quietly just watch movies with the two of us.

  When ?my phone, Amelia’s phone, and the Bluetooth earbud Asher gave me started going off like sirens, I jerked out of my seat, racing over to see what’s wrong.

  “Someone’s attacking the tower! I need backup now!” Asher screeched, his voice more anger than afraid, but of the two emotions, one of those is much more useful.

  I exchange a glance with Amelia and motion for her to go. With her near flight and how much better she is at defending a space than I am, she’s the right choice.

  I’ll catch up once someone is here to watch Bianca.

  “I’m flying over right now!” Amelia yells, shoving her phone into a pocket and running out of the apartment, not bothering to grab shoes. The fact that she’s going to go fight crime in her pajamas would almost be amusing to me if not for everything else going on.

  Immediate concerns now put to the side, I go to comfort Bianca, who did not handle the siren-like sounds well.

  “It’ll be okay, B,” I whisper as I rub her back. “Mommy and Daddy just have to ?be superheroes for a bit, then it’ll be all okay.”

  Bianca slowly stops shaking as I continue to whisper assurances to her.

  The problem is, I’m not sure exactly who I should call in this moment; there doesn’t seem to be a great answer.

  Cass is needed at the tower.

  Reyna is working.

  Going through my contacts, I try to find the right option before deciding that there is no correct option.

  Looking for one will just waste my time, so I have to go with an acceptable one.

  I dial Sasha’s number, putting my phone on speaker as I gently bounce Bianca to help her feel safe.

  “Jason?” she answers, sounding perplexed. I would be perplexed too; it’s not like I ever call people.

  “Hate to be a bother, but I have a bit of an emergency going on, so could you or someone else come over here or teleport Bianca somewhere to watch her?” I say, regretting the words as I say them.

  “What kind is Travis okay?”

  “Asher is at our base and under attack. Amelia is already going over, but I need to help, and I don’t want to leave Bianca alone.” I say, speaking faster in the hopes my urgency will somehow come through more.

  “I can come over, but I will need to pull a favor to transport this fast, though.” Sasha says before hanging up.

  Still holding Bianca in my arms, I feel her settle, and part of me feels worse at that. She’s so little and yet seems fine with me and Amelia running around at all hours to go fight crime or who knows what.

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  “Bianca?”

  She looks at me curiously.

  “When we finish this, how about you decide something for all of us to go do together? We can do whatever you want so long as it’s within our ability.” I offer holding out an outstretched pinky. “Promise?”

  Bianca’s pinky grasps mine as I internally vow that no matter how this shakes out, Amelia and I will make it back.

  Next thing I feel is Sasha appearing right outside the door to my apartment, knocking already.

  Darting over, I nearly throw the door open, and I hope my habits are strong enough that I don’t have to replace the door.

  There must have been some look on my face because Sasha’s expression immediately warped into something I couldn’t name upon seeing the two of us.

  She gingerly took Bianca out of my hands, and I tried to steel myself. “I’ll be back as soon as I can promise.” I say before kissing my daughter on the forehead.

  “You stay safe.”

  “Always try.” I promise hugging Sasha. “Thanks for this.”

  “Now go!” Sasha urges.

  One family member now safe, I turn on a heel and charge through my living room, leaping through the wall as my power takes hold.

  I land in a run, pushing as hard as I can.

  Normally, I do my best to not bother anyone when I’m out at night, but not today. This time I take a straight line, relying on my capacity to phase to let me nearly fly through the buildings.

  I have to make it in time.

  It’s only when I’m halfway across the city that I realize, just like Amelia, I’m off to fight crime without shoes and in my pajamas.

  It would be embarrassing if I wasn’t so focused on the task at hand.

  As I run, I also kick myself mentally for not grabbing the earbud so I could have some kind of communication, but it’s too late for that now.

  At least I remember to use my powers to keep my features obscured.

  Amelia either managed to actually fly her whole way here or went a different way than me since there’s no obvious trail of ice and snow.

  There’s actually an absence of it now that I’m looking for a sign of her passage.

  If she’s gathering all the ice and snow she could while she was traveling, is it because she knows something I don’t about how bad the situation is or is it because she just wanted to be prepared?

  As I pass through the most recent building, the clock tower comes into view even if it isn’t within my supernatural senses yet.

  Everything seems mostly normal, though that doesn’t really mean much if the fight is all happening inside.

  With my target now in sight, I dig deeper and break out into a full sprint, not bothering to conserve my energy.

  If I have to choose between fighting an army tired or arriving to find my family gone, I know what I’ll choose.

  I won’t let them take them this time.

  Charging forward, details become clear to me as I see within the clock tower.

  A bunch of supers. Most of them identical to one another, so that would mean that most of them are Andromeda, but there’s at least a few that differ.

  Asher’s at the top furiously doing something with a keyboard as a horde of drones and other automated defenses in the tower slow down the enemy.

  Amelia is halfway up the stairs, battling her way up the top, though her progress is slow with having to also stop the people chasing after her.

  I don’t see Cass inside, but with my actual eyes I can see a cloud of black something crashing down near me, so unless there’s someone coming out to intercept me I think that means Cass is here.

  As I had hoped, the shapeless blob forms into the colossus shape I’ve seen Cass use a few times specifically for fighting stronger opponents.

  I need to get to where my suit is so I can at least wear the helmet and communicate with everyone.

  Otherwise, I’m just playing this game half-informed.

  “Ca—Smoulder!” I shout, just barely correcting myself in time.

  The titan turns to look at me, and I would like to think there’s an expression of surprise on her face, but I can’t tell.

  “Throw me up!” I gesture, pointing.

  Cass, thankfully, doesn’t question my insane request.

  I don’t make the apex of the building with my jump, but I don’t need that; I just want to get to the stairs at the moment. Asher’s fine and doesn’t have anyone currently harassing him.

  Crashing onto the stairwell, I first marvel at how chilly it is.

  The amount of cold Amelia is throwing off is impressive.

  Despite my instincts of what I need and want to do, I first begin ripping my way up the stairs.

  I have to believe Amelia is going to be fine. I trust her just like I trust Cass; neither of them are fragile.

  If I can get to the top of the stairs or at least as far as the highest up raider is, then I can make sure that Asher is safe, who is not as durable as the rest of us. And give us a place to retreat to if things go bad.

  Well, worse.

  Originally, my plan had been to just sort of punch, kick, strike my way up there, but with the Andromeda problem being a self-propagating one, I instead use the fact that nobody can stop me from going where I want.

  As I phase through the bodies, I occasionally throw myself past them using the railing as I trust my spatial awareness to be enough to move my hands and feet to propel me without accidentally getting caught on anything.

  “Forty-Three!” The lead Andromeda cheers as I stand between her and moving up the stairs.

  My body immutable, I don’t reply as I swing my fist through the air, knocking her over the railing.

  That worked substantially better than I thought it was going to, and I changed my plan of attack quickly. Andromeda can just be dropped below.

  I jump back before going normal as I stomp down, flexing my power.

  The weight limit is still an issue, but turning a few stairs insubstantial is more than within my power, at least for a moment.

  Almost immediately, people fall through the ground, and the ones who grab on I step on their hands.

  With Cass fighting up the stairs, myself fighting down the stairs, and Amelia in some kind of stalemate at the center of the stairs we slowly make headway but the problem isn’t that we cannot beat them it’s that Andromeda keeps duplicating herself and using her bodies to protect the people that actually matter.

  “Hey you two that I love dearly! I’m going to turn everyone into a popsicle at the end of my sentence to buy us some breathing room you’ve been warned!” Amelia bellows.

  Not wanting to be a popsicle, I leap into the air, phasing, hoping to mitigate as much of my falling down as I can.

  The world goes white, and I touch down solid. I try my best to keep my footing stable, but it is not easy barefoot and with everything covered in ice.

  With an exertion of will, I drop the ice below my feet to make my footing more stable as Amelia and Cass race up the stairs to meet me.

  “Fancy seeing you here. How about we go on and meet up with our guy in the chair?” Amelia says running up.

  After my failing to run up the iced stairs, Amelia must have decided that enough was enough, and she picks me up, carrying me in her arms as she continues to race up the stairs.

  Once we’ve reached the main landing, Amelia sets me down and begins blasting ice, forming a thick wall of the stuff. “So how long until they break through?”

  I motion for them to follow me to where the suits and Asher are as I take stock. “Andromeda is still duplicating, meaning it’s only temporary, but we have some time.” I say phasing the mannequin away.

  “Oh, thank god you all are back here.” Asher says in relief as he sags in his chair.

  “Superheroes save the day.” Amelia says, putting her hands on her hips. If she wasn’t in a giant unicorn onesie, maybe the look would be more striking.

  Cass, being the only one who’s not busy changing into their armor, speaks. “So what exactly is the plan?”

  “Well, with Amelia here, I’m hoping we can ice them over until they get bored.” Asher admits as Amelia lets out a whoop in recognition for her prowess.

  “Waiting for them to get bored isn’t exactly a plan, though.” I point out.

  “Well, there’s limited options for defeating the duplicator.” Asher complains.

  That’s not exactly true if we’re right about the cabin.

  “Come on, we should try to be awesome, play the odds, do the things.” Amelia says.

  I give Asher a nod when he looks to me.

  “One of you needs to go to the cabin Jason found earlier today. If Andromeda is actually there, that’s the only way to stop her.” Asher says once I’ve finished putting on my suit.

  Part of me thinks that I should go, but I don’t want to leave these three defenseless.

  “You know that you should leave.” Amelia says, her focus still locked beneath her where a horde of combatants are battering themselves against the ice.

  “But…” I trail off. She’s right after all. “Fine, I’ll go. Promise me to stay safe.”

  “Of course I will. I still haven’t told you something important.” Amelia quips.

  Part of me really wants to ask what that means of what she wants to tell me, but I won’t get a straight answer from her, so there’s no real point.

  “I’ll stay safe too.”

  For the second time this day, I launch myself out of a building, a plan of attack in mind.

  This time though, I’m furious. And prepared.

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