Henri’s favorite way to tease Maysah was to give her dramatic readings of posts from fanboys on cape forums gushing or bagging on Stardust. He’d affect a comic book nerd voice for the ones that ranked her power level or argued about who would win in a fight, and he’d switch to a creepy mouth breathing whenever the comments turned to her tights. Maysah absolutely hated whenever she heard about herself, especially the latter parts, but Henri’s mocking tone was a guaranteed way to draw an embarrassed smile out of her after a rough week of vigilantism. One day she caught him writing a post on one of those forums—her very own husband was a closeted super-fan. There was no sweeter revenge than the merciless teasing Maysah was able to level against Henri, at any moment making her husband blush by affecting the same voice her husband had used to pester her. 

Eventually, it became one of their biggest inside jokes. Henri and Maysah would go back and forth with hypothetical Stardust fanboy utterings to see which one would become uncomfortable first. They’d be sitting there, one of them watching TV while the other read a book, when someone would eventually utter something either incredibly stupid, totally foul, or both, and then it’d be a competition to see who could outdo the other. Maysah specifically remembered one time where Henri suggested that Stardust could outrun a missile, to which she replied that she’d like to give Stardust her missile. That in turn sparked a prolonged period where two fully grown adults in their thirties with master degrees proceeded to make exploding dick jokes like preteen boys for their own amusement. In the end she didn’t remember who cracked first, but she did remember Henri telling her later that night to maybe just avoid testing any of her powers against massive explosive devices. She reassured him that she’d already survived one such explosion, but if it made him sleep better then she’d promise to stay away from missiles. 

She never thought that breaking and entering into a former colleague’s secret underground base would end up breaking her promise. 

“Oh, I dunno Miss Stardust. You ever saw a security camera that has a question mark on it?”

Maysah grumbled as Hex’s sidekick gave her a sarcastic little bite. This room was turning out to be a dead end, and she was about to give up and give the others a call when Lazlo hit the keyboard one more time and the ground shook. Maysah only had time to shoot him an alarmed look as he protested before something crashed into the roof. She whipped her head to peer out the tiny window, but then the roof started to crumble. She was fast and her shield was up, she could easily make it off the roof before everything fell apart but that’d mean leaving Lazlo behind. She’d hurt him if she grabbed him and dragged him out, but it was better than leaving him to get buried alive. She turned to grab him, and then the bomb exploded.

As Lazlo dropped down, Maysah was hurled up like a purple distress flare arching out of a tornado of fire. Her shield had absorbed the blast proving that if she couldn’t outrun a missile, at the very least she could survive one, although she hadn’t survived quite yet. She watched the earth flatten and move away from her as she was carried up by the momentum of the blast, and then closed her eyes and braced herself as gravity began to carry her forward. Still, as she hurtled to the ground she felt the plasma surge through her body, strengthening the shield surrounding her. She would make it, that she was sure of, but a deeper fear gripped her—would she be the only made it? Maysah was tired of always being the survivor. It’d be easier if—

Her body smashed into the ground like a meteor. Maysah took a moment to collect herself and then stood up, no worse for wear. She climbed to the edge of the small crater and witnessed the destruction around her. It was all just rubble and fire now, even the canyon walls had been mangled by the blast. She felt exhausted. She discharged her shield, breathed in the air, and coughed. Now what? Back to Canada? Maysah massaged her temples. No, not yet. Hex’s secret lair was a bunker; maybe it could stand something like that. She pulled out her faraday bag and prayed that Addison’s pager wasn’t crushed by her fall. It was still in tact. The first message made her laugh bitterly. [i]Thanks for the warning,[/i] she thought. The second one made her stop. At least one of them were still alive, buried under that rubble. 

The purple plasma cracked back to life around her as she stepped out of the crater, the pager safely tucked away in its little cage as the message from the siblings came through. Arguably, the others could take care of themselves, but Addison was only human so that made rescuing her a priority. Plus, it would be a hell of a lot easier guessing which pile of rubble was the front door than a side entrance. Maysah thought about Lazlo, but he’d been Hex’s pupil. Surely he had some tricks up his sleeve, even if his physique was normal and he was as close as she was to—[i]Just focus on rescuing them.[/i] She began to move through the rubble when she saw the form of another person emerge from the ground. One of Addison’s team? Maysah moved closer. No, it wasn’t. Suspicion swelled up inside of her. The bunker gets blasted and then a mysterious super arrives on the scene? Maysah could easily take her out. All that was required was a flick of the wrist.

But the others needed help first. 

“Hey, you! Over here” she shouted at the newcomer. “People are still inside. Help me clear this!” 

With that, the middle aged, neon-purple glowing woman in mom jeans and cardigan began shoveling away rubbish at superspeed, melting down any pieces that were too large for her to toss with plasma blasts.