THEN

Joanna Lucas was having an terrible day despite the fact that she was on vacation. The sweltering humidity seeping down from the Manhattan sky only added to her misery. The air felt as stifling as the cloud of control hovering over her marriage. She glanced up at her husband walking a step ahead of her, then shifted her eyes downward again before he could meet her gaze.

To think she'd been looking forward to this trip to New York City with her family... She almost laughed out loud at her idiocy.

"Mama?"

At that one sweet word, Joanna felt life return to her body. She looked down at her beautiful four year-old daughter. Sophie was her only child, and the true love of her life. Joanna grinned down at her.

"What would you like to do today, Sophie?" Joanna asked. "We have a whole new day to explore, little pirate. New adventures to be had!"

Sophie giggled. She loved being called a pirate. No princesses for her. She tried to swing from her mother's hand but failed.

She reached for her father. "Daddy, hold my other hand!"

Paul Lucas, who'd been strolling ahead of the pair, glanced back over his shoulder. His sour look caused Joanna to lose her smile.

Joanna shortened her steps with Sophie in tow, and allowed her husband to trudge ahead. She couldn't believe she and Paul were about to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary together. Five years… Had it been that long? It felt like five hundred. There were times, like today, when she wondered why she didn't just ask him for a divorce. He was always angry, always sullen. At least he'd never been violent. But if this was wedded bliss, she was better off being a single mom.

There was Sophie to think of, though, and Sophie adored her daddy. And so, she stayed. There was no doubt that Paul loved Sophie. He loved them both, Joanna told herself. He really did. He just didn't know how to show it.

Paul stayed ahead of them as they made their way down the sidewalk toward the Empire State Building, Item Number One on Paul Lucas's daily agenda.

"Daddy?" Sophie called out. "Can we go back to the wax museum? Please?"

"No," he barked.

Joanna fought back a smile at her husband's expense. He'd hated waiting in line at Madame Tussaud's, hated the way Joanna and Sophie had enjoyed taking selfies of the different wax sculptures of celebrities.

It didn't matter to Joanna whether they went up to the top of the Empire State Building or not. She was content just holding her daughter's hand as she took in the energy of Manhattan. The larger-than-life buildings, the sounds of cars rushing past, the eclectic pedestrians roaming the sidewalks alongside of her… all of them seemed to call out to her that this was where she belonged. The city felt so alive, its undercurrent of anticipation all around her whispering that anything was possible.

She caught up with Paul at a newsstand less than a block from the Empire State Building. Her husband picked up a copy of the New York Post and scoffed at the headline.

"Will you look at this?" He stabbed the paper with an index finger. "Another damn super villain terrorizing America?" Paul slammed the Post back down. "Why don't they go attack someplace useful, like Iran?"

Joanna pursed her lips and chose her words carefully. She didn't need another argument. "At least we have superheroes here. We're lucky. There are more heroes coming out to fight for us every day-"

Paul's body went rigid with anger. "You know who the real heroes are, Joanna? Our servicemen. Our brave men and woman in the military. Our firefighters, the police…"

"I'm not saying those people aren't heroes, too…"

Paul stepped closer to her, itching for a fight. "This world isn't big enough for morons with super powers calling themselves 'heroes.'"

"Stop it, Paul. You'll upset Sophie."

"Are you worried about me upsetting Sophie?" He smirked. "Or you?"

Joanna felt her face flush. She bent down to her daughter and played with one of Sophie's blond curls. "Hey sweetie, can I get you anything? There's an ice cream vendor right here…?"

But Paul wouldn't let it go. "This world would be better off if we put all those super-powered egomaniacs in a holding cell and just let them kill each other."

He grew cold and quiet, but Joanna was furious. "That's enough! This is our vacation, our only family vacation..."

Her husband's face seemed to soften a bit at her words, but then he spoke. "I keep forgetting how important these family outings are to you, being adopted and without your own true family and all…"

Tears filled her eyes, but she refused to cry in front of her daughter. She took Sophie's hand and walked to the entrance Empire State Building. To hell with her husband. Paul wasn't going to spoil her time here. After a few feet, he trailed after them.

Sophie leaned her head back as they got closer to the building, She gasped at the height of it. "Mommy! It's touching heaven!"

Joanna laughed then, and allowed a few tears to escape. "It does look that way, doesn't it?"

Joanna could feel Paul's presence behind them, could practically feel the dissatisfaction emanating from his silent sulking.

"Christ. Another line just to get inside the building," Paul muttered. "There's always a damn line…"

So much for silence. People were started to stare, and Joanna felt her anger boil to the surface. She pushed it back down.

"I have an idea," she said, more to her beloved daughter than her husband. "Why don't I get you that ice cream?"

Sophie grinned, showing the gap in her mouth from the tooth she'd lost right before they'd arrived in New York. "Chocolate, please!"

She smiled down at her little girl before turning to her husband. "Since you hate lines so much, you can go get the ice cream."

Paul bristled. "No, I'm fine here."

"But you just said..."

"My feet hurt, okay?"

Joanna nodded curtly and left the line to head back to the ice cream vendor next to the newsstand.

"Bring me back an ice cream sandwich," Paul called to her.

She ignored him.

Joanna walked back to the block where the ice cream vendor had set up shop. She smiled at him as she rummaged for cash. "Can I have a fudge bar, please?"

The man nodded and opened the metal door that housed the ice cream underneath. Blessed frigid air flowed over Joanna's face from the refrigeration. She smiled and closed her eyes…

BOOM!

The ground quaked beneath her feet. Her eyes flew open. She whipped her head to look back at where the deafening sound had come from and saw a world in chaos.

Had a bomb gone off? Feminine screams and masculine shouts of terror split the air. Windows shattered from buildings all around her. The glass rained over pedestrians racing for cover. Joanna watched in shock as metal pieces from nearby structures crumbling to the ground.

A terrorist attack. It had to be.

Joanna didn't think. She just ran. Back to the Empire State Building. Back to Sophie. Her daughter needed her.

Crowds of people flew past Joanna as she ran. Another BOOM rang out, and outer portions of the Empire State Building began to flake away as if someone were peeling it apart. Joanna ran faster.

All around her, people scrambled to get away. Joanna was the only one heading toward danger. A small, sane voice inside Joanna's head told her she was being foolish, that there was nothing she would be able to do once she reached Sophie. But she didn't care. She didn't even think about the fact her journey could very well be a fool's errand. Even if she ran to her death, she wasn't about to let her daughter die without her.

A huge metal piece of an office building came crashing down near Joanna. She refused to stop running, but she did look up. And what she saw made her blood run cold. A massive black hole had opened up right above the Empire State Building. Masses of dark shadows flew out of the hole. Flashes of light from the shadows struck buildings to her right and left. With each flash, the buildings around her fell apart.

Joanna's heart sank. Not a terrorist attack then. Something much worse.

Avenger tower was in the city though. And Spiderman. Even the X-men were close to New York, weren't they? One of them would come before anything happened to Sophie. They had to.

"Sophie!" Her screams barely carried over the cries of the people racing away. "Sophie!"

A rush of wind almost knocked her off her feet. For a moment, Joanna thought the wind was coming from the chaos of the falling buildings. Instead, a man dressed in strange blue garb with a flowing red cape landed right in front of her. Emotions flooded her mind. She was grateful to finally see a superhero, but the man blocked her way to Sophie.

To hell with him.

She kept going, ran toward him.

He didn't move.

Joanna darted to the right to get around him. But the man made a strange movement with his hands, and instead of seeing the Empire State Building directly in front of her, she saw a grassy meadow instead.

"Sorry," he said. "No death wishes today."

And he pushed her inside.

She landed on her side on top of a thick carpet of grass. She shook her head to clear it and breathed in the scent of the agrarian landscape. No smells of diesel fuel or hot city concrete permeated the air here.

She whipped her head around in shock. What the hell had just happened? All around her were dozens of others, just as stunned and confused as she was. The only difference was that they had family or friends with them, whereas she had no one.

Joanna jumped to her feet, desperate to keep going. She had to find Sophie. The circle she'd been pushed through floated in front of her. She watched in horror as it began to close, sealing her off from death but also from her beloved daughter. The last thing she saw were the icy blue eyes of the superhero who had saved her life but had sentenced her only child to death without a mother.

She screamed Sophie's name, over and over again, until her voice gave out along with her body. And then she collapsed into sobs.