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energy, so I’d made Henry stop at Olé, an all-night Mexican joint, before we headed home.

“Right now, I’m more worried about that doomsdaylooking contraption the ubervillains were building. Not to mention whatever it was they gassed you with, Fiona,” Lulu said.

“Gas, missiles, flying chairs, weird inventions. It comes with the territory.” I took another bite of my cheese burrito. Spicy Monterey Jack cheese melted in my mouth. Ah, so good.

“Speaking of the gas, I collected a sample for the chief to analyze,” Henry said, holding up a glass tube full of light blue fumes. “I got it while I was trying to drag Angel out of the cloud. It looks like a fascinating chemical compound.”

Only Henry would stop in the middle of a battle to take a scientific sample of the enemies’ weapon of choice. I rolled my eyes. I loved him like a brother, but he was such a complete geek.

“Judging from the effect the gas had on Fiona, I’d say it contained some sort of superpotent muscle relaxer,” Chief Newman said, lacing his long fingers together. “Perhaps even a power inhibitor.”

“Smelled like cheap perfume to me,” I said. “As befitting Siren.”

My nose twitched. I’d taken a steamy shower and washed my hair twice, but I could still smell the gas. It clung to my body like Joanne James on a widowed billionaire’s arm. Even the extra onions and hot sauce on my burritos couldn’t quite overpower the sweet, jaw-locking taste in my mouth.

“Whatever it is, I need to make some sort of antidote for it,” the chief continued. “Especially since it didn’t seem to affect Siren and Intelligal in the slightest.”

I looked at my father. “Whatever you do, just make sure it doesn’t taste like toothpaste.”

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J e n n i f e r E s t e p

*

*

*

I spent the next few days working. During regular business hours, I finished up the businesswear line for fall and took care of a thousand other fashion-related details. Then, at night, it was time to suit up as Fiera, answer my fan mail, and squash the evildoers who crossed my path. The rest of the Fearless Five worked just as hard as I did at their day jobs, and at night, we all focused on Siren and Intelligal. The chief started cooking up some antidote to neutralize the stuff they’d gassed us with, as well as putting the final touches on some earplugs to block Siren’s hypnotic voice. But Henry couldn’t figure out what their radiolike device did, and Lulu couldn’t find whatever abandoned building they were holed up in.

Still, we searched, prowling the streets in the F5 van. A few times, Johnny Angel zoomed by on a new shiny silver bike. We tried to flag him down, but he always ignored us, the hardheaded egotistical snot. We even gave chase in the van a couple of times, but he was always too quick for us to catch or darted into some narrow space where we couldn’t follow. Showoff.