I’m not normally someone who enjoys running, especially when I have no reason to do it. But with me unable to go out and try to be a hero while my suit is being repaired, I didn’t need to stay up, so I woke up at six in the morning feeling restless.

  Amelia won’t be up till ten at the earliest, and Bianca also sleeps till at least eight or nine, so instead of making breakfast for myself, I end up going on a run.

  On the bright side, part of being a super means that I’m not winded as I run around in my winter gear.

  Though I wish it was warm enough I could run in normal clothes, it’s not cold outside for me, not really. I can tell there’s a chill, but temperature resistance was part of the package deal, much like everything else.

  I know some people had escaped transport, but the vast majority of them did not, limiting what Andromeda has to work with, but there’s a problem.

  I don’t know how to stop the duplicator, though I’ve figured out a few of the rules she seems to have.

  She can duplicate from any clone, and usually the clones disperse after a solid amount of force is exerted against them. It also extends to items just like the key, which makes sense as it’s not as if her clones manifest without clothes.

  But how could I stop her?

  The first issue is finding the prime clone. That’s how we failed to capture her last time. Anyone else on the team can probably deal with clones faster than Andromeda can put them out, so that’s not entirely an issue either.

  If I caught her and phased her, would that stop her?

  Or could there be a method of using my awareness that would make it so that I could tell which one was Andromeda prime?

  Almost certainly not, but there wouldn’t be harm in trying to use that method if I could train up my senses, I guess?

  Just how I found the stupid box last time, if I flood the area with power it might let me find the real one? Though it makes me wonder if all the Andromeda are connected, would I be able to stop the real one just by grabbing onto any of them?

  It’s a fun idea.

  Prospects for the future tallied, I turn on my headphones and let the music fill my mind as I run through how the past few outings have gone.

  I can improve, and the easiest avenue is understanding what I did wrong.

  Mulling over the fights, I can’t help but wonder what someone else would do with my ability. I know enough to realize looking back I feel like I’m squandering it.

  If I can get to the point of phasing and being immutable simultaneously, what would happen?

  Probably rip myself out of reality or something ridiculous like that, so it might be best not to try it, but I need to experiment more along with improving the avenues of power I already am aware of.

  As I run, I let my awareness spill out of me in a wave, stopping it once it’s about five feet away from me in any direction.

  Part one of the plan complete, just like last time, I let power flow out of me, the river of energy flowing into the air I’m breathing, the ground beneath my feet all of it.

  My awareness of the space around me immediately sharpens.

  Despite my need for physical adjacent contact to activate my ability, I don’t seem to need to follow that rule when it comes to just filling stuff with mystical super power energy.

  Flexing my will, I try to make a small space in front of me immutable, though despite my power swirling around in the space, it doesn’t do anything, and I run past the target location before it can finish consolidating.

  A moment later I realize how idiotic of an idea it could have been for me to make an immutable splotch of air just in front of me. Or even a phased part of the air. I can’t go through phased stuff either; I would have just brained myself or something unless I dodged it.

  Deciding that early morning runs are not the spot anyway to try and test out superpowers, I pull back both my senses and energy and resume running at a normal pace.

  Instead of considering growth avenues or how I want to conquer the world or something like that I try instead to figure out what would make a good breakfast today.

  There’s not exactly anything on the docket since Asher has to fix everything, though I guess we could call Cass and Travis to see how they’re doing.

  There’s not an ounce of desire to go out again today after the water park yesterday, but I also have to expect there could be something there as well.

  As I mentally calibrate for the day, I slow my run to a light jog as I come to my apartment building and once my shoes are cleaned off to the best of my modicum of effort can produce I begin making my way up the stairs to my home.

  Upon opening the door to the apartment, I see Amelia wearing a fuzzy bathrobe, arms crossed.

  Glancing at my phone, I then look back to Amelia and back to the phone. “You don’t wake up at eight in the morning.”

  “Well, well, well, look who decided to go out for a morning brooding run. How was being emo and dramatic?” She asks, doing her best to disguise a grin.

  “How did you get up at this time of day?” I ask more bewildered than anything else.

  “My bed was cold.”

  “We didn’t sleep in the same bed.”

  Amelia gasps, clutching a hand to her chest as she recoils. “The bed of my spirit was cold!”

  “That literally makes no sense at all.”

  “Well, my bed ?was cold too, but it’s always cold except when other people provide the warmth of a living creature.” Amelia admits switching to normal and returning to the sofa, where a steaming mug of hot cocoa awaits her.

  “You could just ask me to sleep with you like a normal person.” I point out as I get myself a glass of water before joining her.

  “Well, yeah, but you’re supposed to romance me first, find out the way to my heart if you want to be with me.”

  “The heart I definitely don’t know the way to?”

  “Yeah, definitely.” Amelia agrees, giving a cute yawn as she leans her head against me. “You’re actually okay, right? You don’t seem to be in the mental trenches today like you were yesterday, but you don’t go out for runs for almost two hours if you’re feeling stable.”

  “I’m okay. Just trying to figure out how we’re going to beat Andromeda.”

  “I would love nothing more than to have a master plan on how to take her down, but I don’t,” Amelia admits. “I thought superhero work was easy. I go out and I save people. I come home where my civilian husband and daughter are waiting for me with a home-cooked meal and a smile.”

  “Wouldn’t that be ideal?” I chuckle in agreement.

  “She’ll show up again even if she’s told not to. She’s obsessed, and without a higher-up right there to tell her off or an equal to restrain her, she’s going to keep coming.” Amelia says darkly. “Trust me.”

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  “Think she’s going to try and make it a fight?”

  “Probably. They have to be running out of resources eventually, and besides, they’ve already accomplished the primary goal. They released a fuck ton of supers into our ecosystem, and we’ll be dealing with the consequences the entire time…” Amelia says, her words slowing down at the end as if something sad struck her.

  “You okay?” I ask.

  “Not telling.” Amelia says in the painfully obvious voice of she doesn’t want to tell me because she knows that it will affect my decision-making process. “Just realized that with the lab gone you’re kinda done and dusted with all of this. Saved the girl, saved the other girl, you know you save a lot of girls if you think about it.” Amelia pauses to poke me in the side for my apparent transgressions. “But yeah, your goals are done, aren’t they? No more being my plucky sidekick as you refuse to come up with a name.”

  I turn the words over in my head, but I have to ask, even if I know she won’t answer.

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Nope, not playing that game just because you probably already know doesn’t mean I’ll tell you. As long as it’s your guess, you can argue your way into the answer you want. But if I tell you, you’ll do what I want because you’re stupid sometimes.” Amelia disagrees.

  I hold my glass in front of my face, letting the water swirl around as I try to figure out the answer to the question.

  I don’t think there’s a right one, but there’s definitely a wrong one, I imagine. That one being an answer, I don’t put any effort into thinking about what I want to say.

  “The words I always said were till you were safe or the lab was dealt with but I don’t know if that’s what I meant.”

  “Oh?”

  “I have memories of feeling safe because there was a hometown hero. Or heroes later on. I want people to feel safe. Not a ton of ways for me to do that besides doing this kind of work.”

  “Are you saying?” Amelia asks in a whisper.

  “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m saying.” I agree, turning to face her. “Don’t know if I’ll do hero? stuff yet. But I want to keep helping, at least in the shadows.”

  “Jason,” Amelia says seriously. “I have cryokinesis, not whatever light powers are called. We can’t be the light and shadow duo.”

  “That’s what your problem with my statement was?” I laugh, resting my head against her shoulder.

  “I mean, yeah, that’s a serious concern. You’re already known enough though, so you really should pick out a name or someone’s going to come up with something stupid.” Amelia warns me.

  “Is the person who would come up with something stupid a certain person with cold powers who would love the opportunity to mess with me on TV?”

  “Noooooo. Of course not.”

  “I promise I’ll think of one.” I say, standing up. Without my support to keep her sitting straight up, Amelia instantly crashes down on the couch, looking up at me with pouty eyes.

  “Wait really? Like promise, promise you’re thinking of one instead of saying you’re thinking of one just to get me and Asher off your back till I decide to bother you again?” Amelia asks, sitting up and practically vibrating with excitement.

  “Promise, promise.” I agree.

  “Hehe.”

  “What are you thinking for breakfast?”

  “Mmmm, something tasty.”

  “I’ll see what I can do with that.” I agree walking down to Bianca’s room first and peaking inside to see if she’s still asleep.

  Bianca is not asleep but instead playing with one of her stuffed animals quietly.

  “Hey B.” I say gently, walking in and sitting down next to her. “Are you getting hungry?” I ask quietly.

  I don’t know if it’s because she doesn’t talk herself, but I feel such a great need to be quiet around Bianca so that I don’t scare her off. I want to be a safe place she can always turn to, and part of that is being the kind of parent I think is ideal.

  Bianca looks up at me before nodding as she holds the stuffed rabbit close to her chest.

  “Is Mr. Rabbit also hungry?” I ask, scratching the toy rabbit behind the ears.

  The rabbit nods his head as well.

  “Alright, some food for Mr. Rabbit as well.” I say, winking as Bianca giggles. “Do you want to come with me to the kitchen? Play with Amelia? Or stay here?”

  Bianca considers for a moment before shyly pointing at a snowglobe sitting on a small table.

  “Want me to carry you or walk?”

  Bianca holds her hands up to be carried, and I oblige, picking her up as I stand up.

  That’s something I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of. Controlling my strength can be hard at times, but the fact that I’ll never get tired of having the strength to hold my family.

  Amelia curled up on the sofa, stares at me with a loopy grin as I walk in, and I can’t help but smile back.

  “And I believe this is your stop.” I tell Bianca, tapping her on the nose as I deposit her on top of Amelia, who lets out a mock oof of pain.

  “Hey B, did you want to play with me? I’m way more exciting than dad aren’t I?” Amelia chatters, sitting up so the two can discuss or play whatever properly.

  “You two situated?”

  “Go, minion, make me food! If you do make something to our tastes, I’ll give you a prize!” Amelia declares, pointing at the kitchen.

  Bianca looks up to Amelia questioningly.

  “B I’ll be honest, I have no idea what kind of prize I should give.” Amelia says in a stage whisper as I move into the kitchen and begin investigating my fridge.

  I’m not really partial to breakfast food in general, so I don’t keep a lot of the staples in the house so I don’t know what type of breakfast would be good for everyone so I try to think of something lighter on the stomach.

  Deciding that line of thinking is too much, I instead just point at a random thing in my fridge hoping it’ll help me decide what I want to have.

  My finger landing on the tomato, I decide on making BLTs since they’re easy. And I like bacon. I’m pretty sure bacon is a suitable enough breakfast food, so it works.

  Once the bacon is in the pan, I slice up the bread and tomatoes, humming a song to myself.

  “Tomorrow when you wake up, could you do breakfast in bed for me and Bianca?” Amelia asks, poking her head into the kitchen as Bianca also pokes her head in like they’re in a cartoon.

  “Uh, I can do that, why?”

  “I don’t know; it just seemed like suitably adorable behaviour. Imagine you with the tray with Bianca’s food placing it at her bedside as she stirs. And then doing the same thing for me like an hour later when I get up?”

  “That’s because you’re lazy.”

  “Well, what if I give you double the prizes and Bianca will give you a prize too?” Amelia tries.

  “You’ll give me a prize?” I ask Bianca.

  Bianca holds up her stuffed rabbit to me.

  “I’m not going to take Mr. Rabbit.” I laugh, picking her up. “But the food’s almost ready, so do you want to play more or eat?”

  Both Bianca and Amelia indicate their desire for food, and I finish preparing the table.

  “You know I wanted waffles.” Amelia pouts once she’s finished her sandwich.

  “I thought you loved the sandwich?”

  “I did it was delicious, but I wanted waffles.”

  “You didn’t say you did?”

  “Well, aren’t you supposed to know what I want anyway with your domestic partner powers?” Amelia accuses. “This is coming out of your prize just so you’re aware.”

  “I’m sorry?”

  Amelia leans over and kisses me on the cheek as I stare at her blankly.

  “Just imagine what your prize would have been if you had given me what I wanted.” Amelia says, winking.

  “And maybe you should imagine what my response would have been if you had given that prize.” I say, smiling back.

  As Amelia stares at me, mouth agape and sputtering, I turn and wipe off Bianca’s face, who is looking between the two of us suspiciously.

  “That’s not how the game is supposed to go!”

  “I’m pretty sure it’s perfectly all right for the game to go like that.”

  I collect the plates and go to wash them, but neither Amelia nor Bianca seem to think the conversation is done as both of them trail behind me, one of the duo picking up steam for some retort.

  “Well, you can’t have the last word!” Amelia declares, spinning around so we’re both face to face with another.

  I wonder if I’m making the exact same expression at the moment.

  “Can’t I?”

  “Fine, as a good sport, I’ll let you try to baffle and astound me.” Amelia smirks, crossing her arms, seeming quite confident that I won’t have anything to one-up her with.

  I lean in and gently whisper in her ear.

  Amelia immediately pulls away and looks away. “That’s cheating.”

  “Is it?”

  “Yes, it is, but I can’t come up with a good last word, so that’s all I’m going to be able to do today. But Bianca and I are still going to invite you to our home date of watching movies, right B?” Amelia says, voice strained.

  “Sounds delightful.” I agree.

  Dishes done, the three of us curl up on the couch as Amelia and Bianca seem to be in a very heated debate about what we want to start watching.

  As the two of them bicker, I let power flow out of me, blanketing the room as I try to find something inconspicuous for me to work my magic on.

  “Jason, if you want me to stop accusing you of being gloomy, it would probably help if you didn’t make everything darker through the cloud coming out of your eyes,” Amelia says, poking me in the side.

  “What?”

  “Just like when you looked for the thing blocking you, you’re making everything darker. Rest is a part of training, so rest with us, okay?” Amelia asks her hand picking up my own.

  I don’t say anything, but I pull back the power and let myself ride the whirlwind and rest.

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