Eleanor led the way into Spiffy’s room. It was a meadow inside the tower. Twilight echoed the time outside, but the girls knew this space ran on its own time. There was no sign of the giant gopher anywhere.

“Spiffy!,” called Eleanor. She whistled as loud as she could in a sharp tone. “I need to talk to you.”

“Maybe he went out,” said Money.

“The market does have a good deal on carrots right now,” said Carrie.

“I know,” said Money.

“Do you two mind?,” said Eleanor. “Spiffy!”

A trail of dirt heralded the arrival of the Mark’s gopher. He chittered when he saw the three sisters. A streak of green dotted his brown fur.

“The Mark’s in trouble, Spiffy,” said Eleanor. “We need super powers to help out.”

“We don’t know he’s in trouble,” said Carrie.

“Cassie could be wrong,” said Money. “The city might be fine.”

Spiffy trundled closer to Eleanor. He reached up with one of his paws and grabbed her arm. He looked her in the eye with his own brown buttons. He chittered quietly.

“We know about your Mark, Spiffy,” said Eleanor. “We found Will’s museum and there’s a statue of her there. We know what happened. Cassie Troy said the city is in trouble. We would like to help out. Will you help us?”

Spiffy seemed to consider the words. He chittered at her.

“We know the risks,” said Eleanor. “Please help us.”

Spiffy headbutted her with his hard skull. She reeled back from the contact.

Something lit up inside. She had powers now. Would they help her, or turn into a monstrosity?

She lifted off the ground. The fact that she could fly was reward enough for the mad scheme they were going to have to do.

“Can you give the others powers too, Spiffy?,” asked Eleanor. “We’re going to find the Mark and help out.”

“You look older, Ell,” said Money.

“It comes with the power,” said Eleanor. “So does the toga. How did the Mark get a suit?”

“Do me next, Spiffy,” said Money. “I want to be able to fly too.”

“This doesn’t seem like a good idea,” said Carrie.

“What doesn’t seem like a good idea is seeing if we can help out,” said Eleanor. “I’m going. You two stay here.”

Eleanor vanished with the slamming of the door to Spiffy’s meadow. Carrie and Money looked at each other.

“Are we letting her get away with that?,” asked Carrie.

“Heck, no,” said Money. “Juice me up, Spiffy. I have to make sure Eleanor doesn’t hurt herself.”

“We have to make sure she doesn’t hurt herself,” said Carrie.

Spiffy chittered at the girls.

“No carrots for a week, buddy,” said Carrie. “I’ll cut you off like that.”

“That goes triple double for me, Spiff,” said Money. “Let’s get this done. We have to save the city, and impress the Mark enough to adopt us. Let’s do this.”

Spiffy butted both of the remaining sisters. He watched as they changed in front of him.

“As soon as we get back, we’ll run around with you,” promised Money. “We won’t let you down, Spiff.”

The gopher chittered quietly. He trundled away slowly through the grass of his room.

“Let’s go before he changes his mind,” said Carrie. “He didn’t look happy about us borrowing some of his power to run our own schemes.”

“We’ll have to get him some carrots when we’re done,” said Money.

“I don’t think he takes bribes either,” said Carrie. She shot out of the room.

“We’ll see about that,” said Money. She followed in a streak of lightning.

They flew out of the tower, heading up over Manhattan Island. A swirl of clouds spun above Central Park. Flashes of fire lit up the sky.

“Do you see Eleanor?,” asked Carrie. Her toga whipped in the wind.

“She must have headed for the trouble,” said Money. “Do we want to do the same thing?”

“We can’t sit back and hover over the city until the Mark decides to take the flying from us,” said Carrie. “Let’s see if we can lend a hand.”

“I’m down,” said Money.

The two of them blasted across the sky. They found Eleanor moving people away from the battlefield.

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“Can you two run interference?,” asked Eleanor. “I have enhanced vision to find people but there’s stuff falling down from the tops of the buildings.”

“We got it,” said Money. “We’re lightning.”

She ignited the air as she ripped around. Brick and steel piled up on the street away from anyone that could be hurt.

Carrie joined her at a more leisurely pace. She smiled when the sky finished dumping on the dispersing crowd below.

“Do you know what’s going on, Eleanor?,” asked Carrie.

“It looks like something is trying to hit the city from somewhere else,” said Eleanor. “I don’t know how to stop it. Any ideas?”

“What are you three doing here?,” asked the Mark, appearing out of nowhere. “How are you flying? Spiffy.”

“I asked him for powers so I could come down and help out,” said Eleanor. “It was my idea. I didn’t know the others would come down after me.”

“And Spiffy loves me,” said Money.

“You three are in so much trouble right now,” said the Mark. “I just don’t have

time to deal with it right now.”

“We can still help out,” said Carrie. “We got those people out of the way and stopped the pieces broken from the buildings from killing anyone.”

“And I can shoot lightning,” said Money. She held up her hand. Sparks danced around her fingers.

“All right,” said the Mark. “I’m still mad as a hornet. I’ll deal with you three

after this is over. Come with me, Money. You two wait here until I get back.”

“There goes our adoption,” said Carrie after the Mark and Money headed for

one building in particular.

“It will be okay,” said Eleanor. “Can you shoot lightning too?”

“No,” said Carrie. “I just shoot normal energy waves. I wonder why. The Mark

doesn’t do that.”

“I have laser eyes to go with my enhanced sight,” said Eleanor. “I have no idea how that’s supposed to work.”

“Maybe whatever powers the Marks can change up what they do,” said Carrie.

“That makes sense,” said Eleanor. “The others probably only thought they couldn’t do what we can do now.”

The Mark reappeared. He frowned at his younger counterparts.

“Carrie, I want you to circle around the edge of things,” said the Mark. “If anything that looks dangerous tries to get out, herd them back in this spot if you can.”

“If it looks dangerous?,” said Carrie.

“It will look dangerous to normal people,” said the Mark. “You should be able

to fend off anything less than Spiffy.”

“I got it,” said Carrie. She sped off to take care of her part in things.

“Eleanor, I need you to cover anything I can’t cover,” said the Mark. “Use better judgement than coming out here and getting hurt.”

“I know this isn’t what you wanted,” said Eleanor. “We found out about the others. I decided that you needed more Marks running loose. I asked Spiffy to loan me some of his ability. I guess the others decided to do the same thing.”

“We’ll talk about this later,” said the Mark. “Right now, I am really angry that

you are here and in danger when you should be far away.”

“It’s okay, Dad,” said Eleanor. “We got this.”

She flew away before he could continue the tirade.

Eleanor spent the next few minutes helping one of the Scarlet Scarabs blasting things out of the sky. Another one crossed her vision a couple of times, but he didn’t have the flying armor of his mentor.

Her enhanced vision allowed her to keep tabs on her sisters. Money was with a bunch of mad scientists building a giant lamp from spare parts. Lightning and blue flames kept the area clear.

Carrie flew a patrol like she was asked. Anything that got close took a blast of flame from her hands. She seemed to be flying fast enough that her speed was dragging wind behind her.

Everything was going better than what she expected. Maybe she didn’t have the experience to recognize the risks. They just seemed minimal as a Mark.

Maybe that was the real danger. You didn’t think you could get hurt, but there

were things out there that could hurt you if you weren’t ready for them.

It wouldn’t be the first time Eleanor had taken a shot to the face when she should have run. She could handle it.

The mad scientists blasted at the cloud as soon as their lamp was done. It turned into a blue inferno under glass. The swirl closed as the flames pulled more energy down to be locked in the holding tank. Then the sky was clear of the door to elsewhere.

Eleanor saw the other fliers landing on the roof with the lamp. She did the same, after waving for Carrie to join them.

The small crowd seemed jubilant after their victory over whatever it was they had been fighting.

“Readings are going down,” said one of the mad scientists. “It looks like things are going back to normal.”

“That’s good news,” said the older Scarlet Scarab. “I thought for a minute we were going to lose it.”

“Naw, Hoss,” said one of the mad scientists in a cowboy hat. “With Mister Multiverse and Lightning helping us, we could have built a lamp ten times the size of what we had and drained the whole kit and caboodle from the other side of the gate.”

“Where is Mister Multiverse?,” asked the Scarab.

“Multiversing,” said a man in a black suit. “Showing up to close large doors is his thing.”

“Who are the kids, Mark?,” asked a guy in purple. .

“These are my daughters, Rocket,” said the Mark. “Who should not be here, and who will be grounded for the next two weeks.”

“That’s some rough stuff, kids,” said Rocket. “Save the city and have to sit facing the corner. I have to take off. I’ll see you guys around.”

Rocket exploded into the sky and blasted south. He waved as he went.

“Could we get a hand moving this downstairs,” said one of the mad scientists. “We don’t want it to explode. That might cause more problems.”

“I got it, Mark,” said the Mark. “Girls, say good night to the nice Lamplighters,

Scarabs, and Mister Scry. Then head home. We’ll talk when I get home.”

“Your hero name is Mister Scry,” said Money.

“No,” said Mister Scry. “It’s my real name.”

“I don’t believe you,” said Money.

“Young lady,” said the Mark. “I don’t see you moving back to the tower. Chop, chop. Also tell Spiffy he’s grounded too.”

“You can’t ground Spiffy,” said Money. “He’s innocent.”

“March,” said the Mark. “You’re supposed to be doing your homework.”

“I got that done hours ago,” said Money.

“Good,” said the Mark. “We’ll go over it when I get home.”

“There’s no need for that,” said Money.

“You didn’t do your homework, did you?,” asked the Mark.

“Most of it,” said Money.

“I think three weeks of manual labor is the way to go here,” said the Mark.

“It was nice to meet all of you,” said Money. She vanished in a trail of lightning.

Carrie waved and flew off almost as fast.

“It was a pleasure to meet all of you,” said Eleanor. She floated gently into the air and flew toward the nearest tower door.

She smiled the whole time she was in the air.

Eleanor found the other girls in Spiffy’s room. They were taking turns throwing

carrots for him to grab out of the air.

“Three weeks of grounding,” said Money.

“It could have been worse,” said Carrie.

“Did you hear what he said?,” asked Eleanor.

“Which part?,” said Money. “I did hear you’re grounded, and Spiffy is grounded too.”

Spiffy made a noise like I would like to see him try to ground me.

“He told them we’re his daughters,” said Eleanor. “He just flat out said it like we were his daughters.”

“I missed that,” said Money.

“He’s not sending us away,” said Carrie. “This is great.”

“That is great,” said Money. “I wish it didn’t come with three weeks of grounding.”

“Don’t be a sour grape,” said Carrie. “We were worried that we wouldn’t have a placeto stay, but now we do.”

“It’ll be nice to have a safe place to live,” said Eleanor. “How do we change back?”

“I don’t know,” said Carrie.

“The Mark will know,” said Money. “Hopefully we can keep our powers. I like being able to fly.”

“We’ll ask,” said Eleanor.