'...ency Hero Alert: On Tuesday, September 6th, Andreas Vera escaped from Variative Cryogenic Containment facility. The prisoner is considered armed and extremely dangerous at all times. Call the local Administration branch if you see him. DO NOT CONTACT. DO NOT APPROACH. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO APPREHEND. Distinctive traits include...'

Fiona swept the notification aside and grimaced at the otherwise empty obelisk.

“Why is it so hard to find a proper crime to thwart?” she lamented. “Come on, couldn't the others have left a villain or two for us? It's getting hard to call myself a hero without a single actual accomplishment to my name!”

“Of course,” Sophie replied dryly. “How dare dad and the Administration actually do their job. Clearly, they should let the criminals run rampant, so we could become famous by catching them.”

Fiona staggered dramatically, clasping her hands to her heart.

“Et tu, Brute? This is betrayal most foul! How could you stab your own sister like this with your logic?” then added absentmindedly, “And remember, it's not dad, it's police chief south-south-east. We don't want people to think he's showing favoritism.”

Sophie swayed in place, almost like she wanted to take a step forward, but changed her mind at the last second.

“Are we... still not telling him?” the younger sister asked uncertainly, biting her lip. “You know, about... this.”

Fiona winced.

“We agreed to tell him once we've established ourselves as heroes and we... have not. Not yet. At the moment, we've only got new digs. They're cool digs, though!”

They really were.

Practicality demanded she wear an undersuit to avoid power-based backdraft, but it was close-fitting and colored the exact shade of olive necessary to match her skin, making it difficult to discern even from close-by. The rest of her attire was much more heroic – a sleeveless greek tunic, flowing, but sewn tight in all the right places, with golden belt and gloves. She felt a little self-conscious about her sneakers, but finding boots that both provided a full range of motion and looked sufficiently badass was proving to be unexpectedly difficult.

Her sister went in the opposite direction. Despite inheriting dad's dark blonde hair and Alicia's delicate facial features, Sophie almost appeared to hide in her costume. Not only did she wear a full-on dress suit with a jacket, she also pulled on a heavy tweed overcoat, a scarf and a deerstalker hat, effectively obscuring her face even without a mask. Fiona could certainly respect her sister's dedication to her character, but Sophie seemed to disappear in her outfit – and that was not a good look for a hero.

“I don't like keeping secrets from dad.”

“Me too,” Fiona sighed. “But we don't know how he'll react when he finds out. It would be better to present him with a fact accomplice.”

“Fait accompli,” Sophie corrected her automatically. “Do you really think dad will try to stop us? He's not like Garcia or Stevenson. He works with heroes.”

“It's different,” Fiona shook her head. “You know the police consider heroes to be their cavalry. They're the ones sent in to face the threats regular officers couldn't deal with themselves, at least not without serious losses. Do you really think dad would allow us to fight Cuchilla or Fracas or Concerned Citizen? When it comes to family... It's different.”

The ending was a little lame, but Sophie sighed in surrender, and Fiona inwardly pumped her fist.

Take that, debate club!

“I just don't want him to find out when he's contacted by a hospital or a morgue,” the blonde was still a little morose.

“Don't worry,” Fiona grinned.

“Oh, no,” Sophie's eyes widened. “Not the invincible hero speech.”

“After all, I am invincible!” Fiona ignored her sister's protests with the ease of long practice. “No blade, no bullet can overcome me! I can take a wrecking ball to the face without a single scratch! I'll meet any villain head on and protect the civilians against any attack! None may stand against my mighty punch, for I am the invincible hero Third - ”

“Flare.”

The older sister stuttered to a stop.

“You asked me correct you,” Sophie's tone was apologetic.

“I did,” Fiona sighed. “Flare. Invincible hero Flare. That just... doesn't sound the same.”

“Does that mean there will be no more invincible hero speeches?” the blonde asked with badly hidden relief.

“Oh, no,” Fiona grinned back. “It just means I need to find new material. Maybe something about burning brighter than a thousand suns? I'll think on the way. Now, come on! Let's go find some bad guys to fight and make a name for ourselves!”

“Yay,” Sophie deadpanned.

***

Fiona sprinted down the backstreet. Her heart was pounding, her breath was short, and she couldn't have hidden her smile if her life depended on it.

Bang! Bang-Bang!

With pops that sounded downright deafening in the narrow alleyway, the cloaked figure launched something small, fast and invisible from his hands. One projectile smashed into a wall, shattering nanite-reinforced concrete. The other two struck the pursuing heroine in the right side of her torso.

Fiona felt her grin widen, as a corona of flames flared to life around her.

Finally! After three weeks of peaceful patrols, of being late to the mugging and walking by a bank robbery without any idea of what she was missing, she finally found a villain that she could catch! This was her moment, she could almost feel it!

The cloaked figure darted around the corner, and Fiona raced after him, anticipation churning in her veins. This was a dead-end, she knew. She'd memorized the layout of the neighborhood's labyrinthine network of backstreets and passages with a diligence that would have baffled her old school teachers. The heroine whipped around the corner...

...and found the alleyway completely empty.

“What, no! How? Why?” the lack of breath prevented her from finishing any of the sentences, but she didn't know what she'd say even if it didn't.

This was supposed to be her moment!

“Did... did you... catch him?” Sophie reached her several seconds later, bending over with her hands on her knees, looking almost suffocated in her heavy coat and scarf.

“Does this look like I caught him?” Fiona snapped, then immediately regretted it. Her sister was the last person who deserved her temper.

“Did he fly away? Teleport?” Sophie took the situation in stride.

“I don't know,” the brunette hero replied slowly, the gears in her head slowly shifting from bitter disappointment to problem-solving mode. It was something that came to her sister much more naturally than herself, but Fiona was trying her best to cultivate a proper hero mindset. To be a problem-solver, rather than a problem-maker. “If he could do something like that, why the chase?”

“He had to charge up his power? To fulfill certain activation conditions?” the blonde suggested.

“Or there's something about this alleyway that he needed,” Fiona took a careful look around. “Elementary, can you do your thing?”

“Of course,” Sophie nodded.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath in and let it out, centering her mind, then knelt down and touched still-wet alleyway dirt.

Sophie's power was not accompanied by any visual effects, but Fiona could almost picture an imaginary grid of glowing lines stretching out from Elementary's hand, accompanied by some mysterious techno music. For all that Sophie preferred the 19th century detective aesthetic, Fiona always thought that she would be better fitted with something modern, even futuristic. Cyberpunk, maybe?

The blonde stood up and moved left, her fingers gliding across the alley wall, her eyes still closed, but the movements sure and certain. Her hands flittered around, before pressing a nondescript spot on the wall. With a nigh-silent click, the stone seemed to shift, flicker, falter and fall down in a deluge of particles so miniature, they could not be seen with a human eye.

“A secret entrance!” Fiona was unable to help her excitement.

“A back door,” Sophie corrected her. “For service - ”

The brunette heroine did not bother to listen any further, rushing through the entryway, ready for a fight.

Inside, the building was disappointingly mundane, all too similar to a lounge room of any business center, all faux-wooden panels and crimson couches. It even had a reception area, though the receptionist was so busy flipping through her magazine, she had entirely failed to notice the arrival of a conquering hero.

Fiona somehow doubted that the girl could tell them where the villain went, but fortunately, that was one trail that did not require a master detective to follow. It rained last night, and the cloak's muddy footprints clearly lead to the furthest of the building's three elevators, the one with the 'Out of Order' sign.

Sophie entered the room after her sister, and the wall reassembled itself behind their backs.

“Out of Order, huh?” Fiona whispered, trying to avoid the receptionist's attention. “I bet it leads straight to the villain hideout. What do you think?”

The blonde shrugged, looking a little wary, and extended her hand to touch the elevator's doors.

“A lot of moving parts,” she muttered. “Some I've never seen before. The energy grid is not connected to the rest of the building, and the shaft is too small for the elevator to actually pass. It also does not lead up, it leads down... no, not down, out...”

Sophie inhaled sharply, startled out of her trance.

“It's a Katabasis.”

“A morality elevator?” Fiona asked, scarcely able to believe her luck. “Are you certain?”

“As much as I could possibly be.”

Elementary removed her hand from the wall and hid it in the pocket of her tweed overcoat, seeming almost physically ill at ease, though Fiona failed to notice that in her excitement.

“This,” the brunette heroine breathed out, her eyes burning, “do you know what this means? This is what we were looking for all along! Now we can go down and bring in a villain straight from the Underworld itself!”

“Or we could warn dad about a Katabasis moving into the neighborhood and have him surround the area with covert policemen and heroes,” Sophie suggested.

“That wouldn't really be us accomplishing anything, though,” Fiona countered with a tinge of impatience. “And besides, how can we be certain the elevator will even still be here in a few hours? No, we need to go now.”

The blonde took in a deep breath and set her shoulders.

“No.”

The invincible heroine blinked.

“No?”

“No. Fiona, you...” Elementary hesitated, visibly changing her mind about what she was going to say. “The Underworld is above our pay grade. Way above it. It's home to the worst of the villains. It's where all the Cuchillas and Fracas live, exchanging fried baby recipes with their next door neighbors. Even professional heroes like Splendid or Crystal Clear avoid going down there, if it's not absolutely necessary. We... we are not remotely ready for something like this.”

Fiona bit her lip, feeling something cold and hollow at the bottom of her stomach.

“Except, that's not what you wanted to say, was it?” she asked quietly.

Sophie winced.

“Patrolling the streets, chasing down thieves... it's fine, good even.”

The older sister bit her lip, choking down the instinctive urge to push back.

“But?” she asked instead.

“But... Fiona, going into the Underworld is too much. This time, if something goes wrong, we wouldn't be returning the money for unfinished Rig apps or apologizing for cancelled dance lessons. You always have a lot of ideas – and a surprising talent for persuading people to believe in them – but when it comes to delivering on your promises, you fall short. Every time. And now... Fiona, we could die.”

The older girl clenched her fists, but even the nails digging into her skin failed to dislodge the sick and sticky feeling of shame clouding her mind, stealing her breath.

Dad was a police chief, he had hundreds, even thousands of people depending on him. Sophie was still in school, but she was smart, full scholarship offer from Dreadward's sole university kind of smart. Both of them knew who they were and where they were going. In contrast...

Fiona unclenched her fists.

“I'm serious this time,” she replied, subdued.

“That's what you said about the balloon communication project. And the interior design startup.” Sophie matched her tone.

It felt like somebody was sitting on her chest.

“You're right,” Fiona took a deep, shuddering breath and tried to ignore the burning behind her eyes. “Of course, you are. Going into the Underworld to catch a minor crook is stupid and selfish. I'm going too far and risking your life for nothing.”

Sophie turned away, looking almost guilty. Which was silly, because she had nothing to be guilty about.

Fiona pressed the button, and elevator doors opened with a quiet ding.

Her sister whirled around.

“I'm going anyway,” she finished, entering the elevator. “You're right, it was shitty of me to endanger your life for my whims. I'm sorry. But this once, just this once, I can't... I won't fall short.”

Fiona pressed the button to close the doors, yet in the moment before they could do so, Sophie ran inside.

“Stupid!” the blonde yelled, almost tackling her sister. Her hat knocked askew by the closing doors, her hair ruffled and eyes burning with emotion, Sophie looked more the part of a hero than any professional cape. “You're so, so stupid!”

Fiona felt simultaneously indignant and almost ridiculously happy, the warmth swelling inside her like a balloon.

“You didn't have to come,” she muttered, holding her sibling close and trying not to sound as grateful as she felt.

“Like hell I could leave you here alone!"

Sophie seemed almost embarrassed by her outburst, looking anywhere except at her sister, and the older girl let her have a moment of privacy, hiding her own silly grin.

Still, after a few seconds of silence, Fiona felt there was something she had to say.

“Thank you.”

Sophie snuggled close, clingier than she'd been in a long time, before letting go and taking a step back.

“No need to mention it,” she said with exaggerated gruffness.

Fiona nodded, not even bothering to hide her affection. With renewed determination, she turned toward the elevator's buttons, ready to face anything the Underworld could throw at her.

...many, many elevator buttons.

“So, uh,” she felt the heat gathering in her cheeks. “Do you have any idea how we get down there?”

Her sister sighed. Fiona wanted to think that the sigh was fond, but it sounded more like a mixture of amusement and overwhelming exasperation. Sophie reached out with her hand, gliding across the elevator panel, then decisively pressed a series of buttons.

1 – 6 – 13 – 17 – 2.

“Did that do anything?” Fiona asked warily.

Sophie nodded, her hand still on the panel and her eyes closed.

“We're moving. Or, no, we're staying in place, mostly, but the world is moving around us...”

“Teleportation? Makes sense.”

“Not re-e-eally...” Elementary drew out, hesitant. “It's less teleportation and more - ”

Ding.

“Are we there yet?”

“No,” the blonde frowned uncertainly. “At least we shouldn't be...”

The elevator doors opened.

Dozens upon dozens of pale, bloodless hands reached inside the elevator. They grasped at the sisters' arms, legs, hair, clothes... Elementary lost her hat and, seconds later, her balance, as the hands grabbed her and tried to drag her out of the cabin.

Fiona smashed into them with everything she was worth, shattering brittle bones and ripping apart thin, rubbery flesh. Clasping her own arms around Sophie's midsection, she hauled her sister back into the Katabasis and jabbed the 'Close Doors' button hard enough that something gave in under her fingers with a crunch.

The elevator doors closed.

“Wha... what the fuck was that?” Fiona demanded, the voice high and sharp. “Some kind of a security system? A trap? Somebody's idea of a joke? I swear, if it's some asshole's idea of a joke... Sophie?”

Her sister was still down on her knees, twitching and patting herself in blind panic, as though her mind was just a little too slow to register the fact that she escaped. Her breathing was quick and she was shivering violently.

“It's over, Soph, it's over,” the older sister crouched down, patting the blonde's back. “It's over.”

“What the fuck was that?” Sophie asked with a quiver in her voice. “It's... I've never felt anything like it!”

“That's what she said,” Fiona blurted out automatically.

There was a moment of utter silence, as they both processed her words. Sophie shot her an incredulous look.

The sisters cracked up, bursting into laughter at the same time.

“Seriously, Fiona?” the younger choked out in between bursts of giggling. “Now?”

“There's always time for a 'that's what she said' joke,” the older nodded, though her attempts at sounding serious were somewhat undermined by her ceaseless guffaws.

“That's stupid,” Sophie said, her lips twitching up into a smile. “You're stupid.”

“That's what she said,” Fiona replied wisely.

They fell down laughing once more.

Ding.

The chime of the elevator doors opening cut through the merriment with all the suddenness and the subtlety of a car crash.

What lay beyond looked like a normal corridor, one you could find in any office building. It had a floor, a ceiling and walls, covered by some cheap wallpaper. It was dark, but there was some kind of lighting, coming from the far end of the hallway.

“Do you think this is it?” Fiona asked finally. “The Underworld?”

“Seems a little barren for that, doesn't it?” Sophie replied, but there was no certainty in her tone.

“Well, there's only one way t- ”

~ Come to me ~

“Did you hear that?” Fiona cut herself off mid-word.

“Yes,” Sophie nodded. “It sounded like - ”

~ Where are you ~

There was something down the corridor. No, Fiona realized, not something, someone. A woman, and one who seemed almost painfully familiar.

~ I can't find you ~

“Mom?” Sophie whispered. For once, she actually sounded as young as she was.

~ Is that you ~

The woman was hazy, indistinct, as though reaching from somewhere far away, but the endless corridor made it hard to judge distances. On a second look, she did not appear to be all that far off at all. Actually, the more Fiona looked, the closer the woman seemed. By now, she could almost distinguish the woman's features...

~ I SEE YOU ~

Fiona shut her eyes and slammed the 'Close Doors' button.

The doors gently shut together.

Sophie jerked, as though startled from a trance, pulling her hand back from where she was reaching out. She turned around toward her sister.

“Nope,” Fiona said preemptively. “That did not just happen. Nothing happened.”

“Nothing happened,” Sophie agreed after a moment's hesitation. “That's right. I did not see... I couldn't have seen... But what if - ”

“Nothing. Happened,” Fiona reiterated forcefully.

“Nothing happened,” the blonde bit her lip and turned her head away.

It was still too late to hide the tears.

They made the rest of the way down in silence.

Ding.

This time the elevator opened into a back alley, not entirely unlike the one that started their current adventure. It had similarly stained and grimy walls, and the muddy ground had some suspicious stains hidden behind the trash bins. The ceiling was sufficiently high up that it was indiscernible by the human eye, making the entire area seem to be under the cover of an eternal night.

There was no question of whether they arrived at their destination – the alleyway opened into a much busier street that had too many hurrying pedestrians for this to be anything other than the Underworld itself.

Two girls that quietly stepped out of the cabin were rather different from the confident heroines that strode into the building proper. Nervous and pale, with clear tear tracks and covered in cold sweat, they looked frightened and wan.

Weak.

It was not a look Fiona was particularly keen to show the Underworld's denizens, its monsters and predators. Several times she hesitated, barely avoiding the temptation to look back, to walk into the elevator and return to the sunny world above.

Not this time, she reminded herself. I won't fall short.

Stepping into the foot traffic, Fiona took a deep breath and turned toward her sister.

“Can you use your powers to track - ”

“Hey,” somebody interrupted her from behind, shoving a dirty rag at her face. “Do you think this smells like chloroform?”

She inhaled before her mind could fully process the words.

Then everything went dark.