Teddy stomped over to the side of the corridor where the Hero had gone down, each step coming with a thud that had Emily wincing. She couldn’t exactly call out to Teddy and tell her to make less noise.

Then the Hero screamed, and any noise Emily and Teddy were making was drowned out by the cacophony of two people chasing after each other down a narrow corridor. “No! Come back here!” the Hero shouted.

A grinning Trinity shot out of the hallway opening, nearly running on all fours and tail wagging through the air behind her in all its striped glory. The Hero followed right after her, arm outstretched as if to catch the girl.

Teddy roared, her scream turning from that of a child’s to a full-bodied, rumbling bellow that almost made the walls shake. She swung a massive paw forward, and Emily was infinitely glad to see that she wasn’t trying to hit claws first.

A black barrier snapped up in the air, thin and wide, like a glass pane but entirely dark, as if no light was allowed to enter or escape that one area.

The Hero stumbled to the side, her balance off as she moved to dodge Teddy’s attack.

It meant her back was to Emily.

Emily looked around, just a quick glance, enough to notice the saucepan hanging from a hook above the kitchen island, out of her sisters’ reach, but not hers.

There was a scream, loud and painful.

It sent a cold shiver down Emily’s spine, and she spun around to see one of Trinity crashing to the ground, a hole in her leg.

The Hero wasn’t moving.

Emily grabbed the saucepan, and, without putting much thought into it, stepped up and swung.

The edge of the pan rammed into the Hero’s head with a loud clang of metal meeting hard plastic. Emily’s arms shook and the pan slipped out of numbed hands.

It clattered to the ground a moment before the Hero crashed down.

The shield hovering before her winked out, and Teddy aborted a second roar, looking down, then back up at Emily, then down at Trinity.

“Trinity! Are you okay?” she asked.

“Ow!” all three of the girl said.

One of the intact Trinitys rushed toward Emily while she stared, not knowing what to do. The girl picked up the saucepan and ran back to her downed body.

“Wait—” Emily said. But it was too late.

Trinity bonked her hurt self atop the head, like someone driving a spike into the ground with a sledgehammer.

The injured Trinity burst apart.

A new Trinity popped into existence next to herself. “Oh, that’s much better!”

“Uh,” Emily said.

“Whoa!” A third Trinity poked out from behind the couch. “Awesome takedown, Best Sister,” they said in stereo.