Emmy slipped down the stairs, hearing Inez and Victor talk about a dentist appointment. She collapsed into her chair, picking up a slice of toast. 

The stuff on top looked like spaghetti made out of reddish mud. Highly suspicious, she sniffed it. It smelled like peanut and strawberry. She grimaced. 

“Strawberry? Didn’t you have any blackberry, I hate strawberry.”

“The strawberry jam was about to go bad,” Nick said, barely glancing at her.

Emmy thought that over. “It’s jam, doesn’t it last like forever?”

“Technically yes,” he answered. “But it’s still best to eat things by their ‘best by’ dates.” He smiled at her, but seemed distracted.

Deciding to not argue, she shrugged, taking a bite. The peanut butter covered most of the strawberry flavor. It could have been any other berry, really.

She was almost done with her second piece when she noticed something. 

“Where’s Shawn?” she asked. 

Inez and Victor stopped searching for a dentist on his phone, looking up. 

“Hasn’t come down yet,” Nick shrugged. 

“Think he’s ok?” Inez asked. 

Nick raised an eyebrow. “How am I supposed to know?”

Victor looked around. “Should we check on him?”

“On it,” Emmy said, jumping out of her chair and running up the stairs. 

There was a folded note on Shawn’s door. She swiped it off, opening the paper. 

Shawn’s handwriting, usually small and precise, was nearly illegible, slanting down the unlined paper at an odd angle. 

“Copper set a bomb in the building. Two bombs, one is in the basement. The other one isn’t here yet. I’m going to stop them. Possibly kill them. Be back in an hourish. Shawn”

Emmy felt her heart speed up. Her breathing grew quicker. She dropped the paper, running back down the stairs. 

Victor was frozen halfway out of his seat, Nick was taking a bite of toast, and Inez was looking up the stairs. Emmy ran by them, heading straight for the garage. 

Forcing herself to slow down for half a second, she pulled the door open. The garage was empty. Shawn had taken the car. 

Synapses going as fast as they ever had, Emmy ran. She was only wearing a camisole and skirt, but there wasn’t time to change. She didn’t even have time to put shoes on. She had to catch up to Shawn. 

It was usually a twenty-minute drive to Copper’s base. Emmy didn’t know how long ago Shawn had left; all she knew was she had to catch him. She had to be fast enough to stop him. 

Emmy got three blocks away from their building before she had to stop running. Her legs and lungs burned. Sure, from an outside perspective she’d gone from the gate to North Street in two seconds. But from her perspective she’d just run three blocks. She stopped moving for what she perceived as ten seconds, getting her breath back, and started jogging. The jogging became speedwalking, interspersed with short bursts of running. She passed car after car, frozen in time as she speedwalked down the middle of the road. 

Finally she saw Shawn’s car. Emmy put on one last burst of speed, running up to it, and let her perceived time slow down enough for her to open the door. She opened it, hopped in, closed the door, and let her mind slow down to normal. 

Her muscles instantly caught fire, screaming at the amount of work they’d done in three minutes. 

Shawn, seeing someone else suddenly in the car, twitched away from her. The car swerved, and it took him a couple seconds to get it back under control. 

“Emmy! What the hell!” he snapped. 

Emmy spotted a water bottle in the cup holder and picked it up. Not caring whose it was, she drained it. 

“What are you doing?” Shawn continued. “Why are you here? Are you ok?”

“You can’t…” She was still breathing hard, trying to get enough oxygen in her system. “Not alone.”

Shawn pulled the car to the side of the road, stopping so he could look at her. “Emmy, I have to do this. They- This is the seventh time I’ve been through this day,” he told her. “It has to be the last.”

“Ok but, you can’t kill them,” she said, looking around for more water. She found a bottle and drained it. 

He glared at her. “Trust me. I can.”

“No, you can’t! If you kill someone you’ll be removed as team manager!”

“I- It doesn’t matter. I have to do this for your safety,” he snapped out. “I don’t care about the consequences. I have to do this.”

“No! We can figure out something that doesn’t end in death!”

“And if there isn’t any other way?”

Emmy glared back at him. “There has to be!”

Shawn rolled his eyes at her. He actually rolled his eyes. “We can’t just tie them up and leave them for the police. There isn’t any proof they’ve done anything wrong. The only way to stop them is to kill them.”

“That’ll look like you went insane and murdered them for no reason!” Emmy shouted. 

“Which is why I have to do this alone!”

“No!”

“Yes! Emmy-“

“Dad!” she snapped. “If you go to jail I’ll be taken out of your custody!”

He stopped, all the anger draining from his face. He blinked, looking down. “I…”

“If you go to jail for murder, I’m going too,” she said firmly. “There has to be another way out of this. If there isn’t, I won’t let you do it alone.”

Shawn sighed. “Where are your shoes?” he muttered. 

Emmy curled her toes in, tucking her feet under the seat. “There wasn’t time.” 

“I can’t go through this day again,” he said, leaning his head on the steering wheel. “I saw you dead. I saw Victor dead. Nick caught Catherine leaving the building, but I guess he couldn’t stop her from detonating the bomb. I was in the driveway when the building exploded with you inside. Had to shoot myself to get back here. Emmy, this has to stop. I’m so tired.”

“Hey.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “You aren’t alone. We can get through this.”

He sighed again. 

“Why does Copper want us dead?” Emmy asked. 

“Hell if I know.”

“Well… Let’s go find out. We can talk to them, right? Without any murder?”

Shawn sat up. He gave her a half-smile. “I suppose.” He put the car into gear, looking at the traffic behind them. “But not looking like that, young lady. Honestly; no shoes, no bra, hair a mess… I’d be ashamed of your leaving the building like that if I didn’t know you moved too fast for anyone to see.” 

Emmy buckled her seatbelt as he turned the car around. “There’s a built-in sports bra,” she grumbled. She looked at Shawn. “How were you planning on killing them, anyway?”

“Nick’s gun,” he answered. “Element of surprise. Stabbing.”

“That’s a bad plan,” she said flatly. “You should have talked it over with us at breakfast.”

“Eh. That would’ve meant eating Nick’s strawberry peanut noodles again.”

Emmy smirked. “Fair.”

Shawn sighed, watching Victor walk confidently up to Copper’s front door. Emmy and Inez followed the flier, while Shawn and Nick leaned against the car. 

Victor knocked on the steel door, smiling at the security camera. 

“Can’t help himself, can he?” Nick asked quietly. “Sees a camera and has to smile.”

“Better than throwing acid at it,” Shawn muttered. 

Nick crossed his arms. “That happened one time…”

The door opened. Copper’s manager, a large woman who could turn her skin into something like granite, looked out at them. 

“Hello,” Victor said cheerfully. “We were wondering if we could talk something over. Privately.”

Rhea looked Vines over doubtfully. Finally she pointed at Nick. “He stays outside.”

“What did-“

“You know what you did,” she snapped, and walked back into the building. 

Shawn pushed himself off the car, tossing Nick the keys. He followed his team through the door, glancing at the camera. It was important for Victor to take the lead here. Victor knew how to ask and answer questions without anyone getting angry. Inez had that same talent, but with her it was clear she was trying to keep everyone calm. Shawn didn’t have enough patience to keep everyone calm. Nick and Emmy actively tried to rile people up.

Rhea led them to a conference room. Catherine and Petra, the newest member, were already there. Shawn studied the nervous-looking teenager, wishing he knew what she could do. Rhea closed the door; apparently it would be just them.

“Thank you for letting us speak with you,” Victor said, smiling at them. 

“Mm-hmm,” Rhea said, settling into a chair at the head of the table. She glanced at Catherine, sitting at her right hand. 

“We are always happy to have open communication with you,” Catherine said. “However, may I ask why you felt the need to come here in person? Do you suspect electronic espionage?”

“No, nothing of the sort,” Victor said calmly, taking a seat. “Some things just need to be discussed in person.”

“Such as?” Catherine prompted. 

Emmy took a breath, her fist clenching. Shawn nudged her before she could speak, making her glare at the floor.

“Such as, well, to put it bluntly,” Victor said apologetically, “why you might want us dead.”

Catherine gave him a predatory grin, eyes sparking. Rhea smirked. Petra looked between the two women, biting a nail. 

Shawn appreciated they didn’t try to deny anything. 

“It’s simple,” Rhea said patronizingly. “We need more work and sponsors. There’s no way to magically create those things, but we can stop the competition from getting them.”

Victor nodded solemnly. “While I understand the need for money and work, is destroying us really the best option?”

“Absolutely,” Catherine said. “We know a different team will be created to replace you, but that will take long enough for us to cement ourselves as the top superhero team in the city. Again.”

Shawn noticed Inez was watching Petra, and turned his attention to the girl as Victor and Catherine debated murder as a valid business strategy. Petra was listening to the conversation with wide eyes, chewing on a fingernail that was already at the quick. Suddenly Inez moved, taking the seat next to her. 

“You’re Petra, aren’t you?” Inez asked, her voice soft and calm. 

Petra nodded, lowering her hand. 

“Is that your real name, or one you chose?” Inez asked. 

Petra glanced at Rhea, not sure what to say. She looked slightly older than Emmy, but that didn’t make her any more sure of herself. 

Inez leaned closer to her. “Inez is my middle name,” she said. “My first name is Maria, but I always liked Inez better. You want to say something, don’t you? That’s why you’re here; you have something to tell us.”

Petra took a deep breath. “Pax… was my brother.”

Oh. Oh. 

This wasn’t about money or prominence at all. This was about revenge. 

Shawn put a hand on the back of an empty chair. Inez held up a finger to him, stopping him from speaking.

“Were you close to him?” she asked Petra.

“Not… really,” she admitted. “But he was a good brother.”

“I’m sure,” Inez said. “I was at his funeral; I don’t remember seeing you there.”

Petra flinched, raising her hand to her mouth again. “No, I was, umm, there were- It was too many people.”

“Oh yeah, it was a huge crowd,” Inez agreed. “Lots of reporters. You would have been swarmed by them.”

Catherine was glaring daggers at Victor. Victor was studying the table as if he’d never seen something made out of wood before. Rhea caught Shawn’s eye and smirked before looking back at them.

At the funeral, Victor had told a reporter that Copper was coping. He’d made an off-hand comment about without a second P, Copper was Coper. The news had taken that comment and run with it. Within hours, Team Copper was being made fun of as a group of people who couldn’t take control. They couldn’t win. They just coped. They were Copers. It wasn’t exactly Victor’s fault, but no one denied he’d been the first to say it.

“Why didn’t you stop his death?” Petra asked. “You could have. Right?”

Inez frowned. “It’s not that simple. There-”

“He wanted to die,” Emmy blurted out. “Pax said he believed in fate or something, and if he was supposed to die, that’s what he wanted.”

Everyone stared at her.

“What?” Catherine asked dangerously.

“Emmy,” Shawn warned.

Rhea sat forwards. “No, let the girl talk.”

Emmy started pacing. “This whole time you’ve been like ‘why didn’t you just go back in time and stop his death’. Well, Shawn did. It was a simple accident, one easily avoided if he were just three paces back from the explosion, right? So he sent me there to pull Pax back. But when I told him he would die if he stayed there, he said it was fate and stepped closer. What was I supposed to do, tell him his beliefs were stupid? Force him to live? And anyways, it isn’t our fault you haven’t been getting as many sponsors. You’re the ones who keep breaking windows and tearing up concrete and stuff. We work our butts off making sure nothing gets damaged when we fight. You just aren’t trying as hard. Can’t blame us for being better than you.”

The room went dead silent. Inez had been the only other person to know. They’d agreed between the three of them to never speak of Pax’s death.

Catherine got to her feet, chair sliding noisily back. “So you’re saying… My husband chose to die?”

Emmy, with no sense of self-preservation, shrugged. “I mean, yeah.”

The table burst into flames.