Prologue

Part of being a good mother was dealing with the constant concern that her child wasn’t as safe, comfortable, and happy as she could be.

Claire hoped that she was a good mother. Her Emily, her only daughter, was a strange but kind girl. She had her share of issues, her nearly crippling social anxiety at the foremost of those, but she was still a good girl, and Claire was so proud of her daughter.

When Emily had, with all the meekness of a mouse facing a cat, declared that she would attend college and move out of the house, Claire had never been prouder.

Proud, but worried.

Emily was a wonderful girl, but she wasn’t... as ready to face some things as some other young ladies her age. She stuttered, she had a hard time meeting people’s eyes when she spoke, and before every interaction she needed to psych herself up.

Claire gave even odds that college would either teach Emily to open up a little, or her poor daughter would rush back home. She was hoping for the best. Emily needed to spread her wings, to grow up into the beautiful young woman she was.

The past weeks, with Emily at school, had been awful. Claire waited for the phone to ring, for the bad news to come pouring in. As time went on and no call came, she started to hope and fear in equal measure.

In the end, it was her husband that practically kicked her out of the house and told her to go check on Emily. The big softy was just as worried as she was, though he wouldn’t ever say so aloud.

She arrived at her daughter’s room. The dormitory building was nice and clean, with decent security. It was about as safe as a place filled with young adults could be. Claire adjusted her blouse and skirt, then straightened her back and knocked. It was no mystery where her daughter got some of her shyness; Claire had had to work hard to overcome some of her own anxiety.

There was a shuffle on the other side of the door, and Claire thought she heard voices. Was Emily watching something?

The door opened a crack, and Claire felt some of the tension lifting from her shoulders. Emily was there, safe and sound, and... with very obvious panic on her face.

The door slammed shut.

“Emily, Sweetie?” Claire asked. Was something wrong? Claire listened, but the chatter on the other side died down. Not a show then. Was Emily entertaining guests? Claire felt some blood rushing to her cheeks. Oh my. “Um… if you’re really busy, I can come back? Give you time to clean up or… sweetie, are you with a boy? I hope you’re wearing protection.”

More mutters. Definitely more than one person. They sounded feminine.

Claire swallowed, uncertain what to think anymore.

She decided not to jump to any more conclusions. That sort of thing only lead to silly misunderstandings and fights. She would wait until Emily explained things and then she’d figure things out from there.

On that note, she reached up and knocked on the door again. “Sweetie? I’m sorry, but I did call. You haven’t been answering your phone.”

There was a long moment of silence, then the door opened. Emily looked at her, failed to meet her eyes, then spoke quickly. “Mom. Give me two minutes.”

“Sweetie?”

Her daughter’s mouth opened and shut as she searched for words. “I’m naked,” she settled on.

Claire looked down. Emily was in a nice sweater-vest over a blouse, and she had a skirt that Claire would have found far too long back when she was Emily’s own age. “Okay?”

This time the door didn’t slam shut.

Claire leaned closer and tried to listen in on what was happening on the other side. She couldn’t make out much, juist indistinct voices murmuring to each other. The sound-proofing was pretty decent.

The door opened yet again, and Emily’s hand shot out to grab her mom’s. Claire was gently tugged into the room and the door was pressed closed behind her. “Emily?” Claire asked.

Emily pressed into her, arms wrapping around Claire’s waist and head coming down to nestle on her shoulders. Claire sighed. This was a little more familiar. Emily was never the most touchy-feely girl, but she didn’t refuse hugs from her parents. Not unless they were in public, of course.

Claire hugged back as best she could. She wanted to enjoy the hug, but she couldn’t help but notice that her daughter’s room currently looked like a daycare. “It’s good to see you, sweetie,” She said as she dropped her purse. “But who are all these girls?”

She felt Emily tensing up. “Mom, we need to talk.”

“I can imagine,” Claire said as Emily broke the hug. She decided to start with things that were a little bit easier. “You need to tell me how you’ve been? How are classes? Did you make any friends? Why do you have five children in your room? That last one especially.”

“Right, right. You might want to sit down for this,” Emily said.

Claire placed a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow as she looked up to Emily... since when was her daughter taller than her? Probably a while, but Emily’s constant hunch hid some of her height. “I might not be a spring chicken, but I can still take a surprise or two.”

Emily licked her lips. “Right,” she repeated again. “Like ripping a bandaid then. I’m… a Hero. More or less.”

A million confused thoughts raced across Claire’s mind. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but that wasn’t it. “Pardon?”

Emily laced her fingers over her stomach and focused on the ground.“You remember Power Day, uh, about a week ago?”

“Yes?” Claire said. It was hard to forget. It was the day after Emily had arrived at the college, the news was rattling on about the big day while Claire and her husband worried about Emily.

“Well, I got a power. I can make, um, little sisters for myself. Sorta.” Emily gestured to the girls who were all smiling. “These are my summons? I can’t unsummon them or anything. They all have their own powers too.”

Claire looked at the girls. They were cute, in a sort of rascally pest way. They were also very obviously trying to be on their best behaviour. They were her daughter’s... Her super-powered daughter's power.

“Can I sit on the bed?” Claire asked. She stumbled toward the bed, then paused. “Or would you rather I use the chair?” Technically this was Emily’s place, so it was only polite to ask.

One of the girls, the shorter one, with the chubby cheeks and a shirt that read ‘Bear’ in large blocky letters, raced over to Emily’s chair and rolled it closer. “There you go, uh--” she glanced over to Emily. “Hey Boss, what do we call the old lady?”

Claire wasn’t sure how to feel. Insulted? At the same time, the girl was kind of endearing, in a clumsy way.

“Anything but ‘old lady’ you dumb bear,” another one of the girls said. She was the tallest of the lot, though not by much. A lankier, skinny girl, with sharp features and a pair of large glasses perched on the tip of her nose. Her eyes were large and very serious as she turned to Clarie. “Hello, grandmother,” she said.

Claire looked up to Emily. “Emily, you know how I always wanted to have grandkids one day? I was expecting maybe one. Two at most. This is considerably more than that.”

“It’s okay,” three of the girls said at exactly the same time. The strange stereo effect sent a shiver down Claire’s spine. The girls were all entirely identical, now that she looked. It wasn’t just their clothes, their faces were all the same. “You can count all three of me as one.”

Emily rubbed her face, and for a moment Claire almost didn’t recognize her daughter. The shyness was gone, the insecurity was buried. Instead, there was just frustration, embarrassment, and another emotion that Claire couldn’t quite pin down.

“So, I should probably introduce everyone. Mom, this is Teddy.” Emily gestured to the girl with the bear shirt. “She can turn into a bear. She won’t demonstrate that here because it’s against the rules.”

“I’m real soft,” Teddy said. “Way more soft than any of the others when I’m a bear. I bet you’d like petting me just as much as the Boss does.”

“The Boss?” Claire asked. She decided that just sitting back and asking questions was probably the best thing to do.

“That’s Big Sister Emily’s Hero-slash-Villain name,” the taller, more serious girl said.

“Villain?” Claire asked.

She hadn’t really noticed that sinking feeling in her gut before. It was too confusing and mixed in with a host of other feelings. Now the sinking was replaced by a sheer drop, and she couldn’t

“Don’t worry, Best Mom,” the three girls said at the same time. “We wouldn’t Villain you.”

“Emily?” Claire tried to smile, but it felt brittle at the edges.

“Hey, Boss,” Teddy asked, ”Does your mom need to poop?”

“No, Teddy, my mom doesn’t need to poop,” Emily said. She patted Teddy’s head absently. It was a strange gesture. “Okay, Mom, where do you want me to start?”

“I think that maybe you should start from the top?”

Emily nodded. “So, it all began on my first day here…”

***