I hit play on the CD player, and Carnival of the Animals began playing in our vehicles sound system. Focusing my attention on the world outside the RV, I reached out with my bugs, sending them out ahead of us into the town to check for any surprises. There were none.

"Mom, Can we stop for ice cream?" My little girl asked.

"Sure thing sweetie." I replied.

Ahead of us, the town had erupted into a panic when people saw my bugs moving around. Air raid sirens had started screaming and everybody was running for shelter.

"What kind of ice cream do you want honey?" I asked.

"Do they have mint cookie crunch?" She asked.

"Well I don't know sweetie," I replied. In the town, people had raided the hardware store for tape and were busy taping spiderweb patterns on all the windows they could find in a futile attempt to stop them from breaking, and if they did break to contain the glass shards. "Tell you what, if they don't have some, I'll get you some mint chocolate chip and some Oreos and we'll make our own Mint Cookie Crunch ice cream."

"Attention! Attention! This is the Parahuman Response Team! If you are wearing glasses, remove them immediately, and if you are near a window or mirror move away from them immediately! This is not a drill!" Came a tinny voice over the loudspeaker on a PRT issue van.

The town around us was in a state of pandemonium as everyone began running for the shelters. "Hooray!" she replied.

"Midha, if you would please?" I asked my impeccably-dressed colleague, the Emirati woman next to me simply nodded and began to sing. Miss Al Ghurair had never quite forgiven me for assuming the leadership of the team, but she was enough of a professional to still work with me.

At once, every pane of glass in the town began to vibrate and shake causing them all to start playing Camille Saint-Saëns's Danse Macabre out of them as if each windowpane was an enormous speaker. Around me, my family stood steadfast in not moving.

Death's violin, calling the skeletons out of the graves began to play, the animated skeletons that my two daughters had made for me emerged from the ground and began to dance in time to the romantic-era composition. The singular sound a violin, calling the spirits of the dead out to dance filled the streets, only broken by the sound of people screaming and running for shelter. I spread out my swarm, which only fueled a further panic, as people screamed and clawed to try and get away from the bugs.

As the song continued, additional instruments began to join in on death's dance, and more animated skeletons emerged from the ground and dance in the street.

Saint-Saëns's music finally reached a crescendo, and as it did, the windows all across the town began to shatter and explode outward. The sounds of screaming only multiplied further as Midha's power began to amplify itself and grow further until there was not a single unbroken pane of glass in the entire town.

My family and I began to walk calmly through the shattered town, projecting the image that we were just a regular family out on a stroll, acting as if we could not notice the devastation that we had just wrought.

On the streets around us, people gave us a wide berth, afraid that we'd kill them with just a look. That was rather absurd in my opinion, as anybody who knew me knew that I didn't need to look at them to kill them.

With a wall of bugs ahead of me, people continued to scream and run away, as I reached out through my bugs' senses, my ants caught the telltale scent of an ice cream store, now empty.

"Well Riley, I think I found an ice cream store." I said.

Riley's face broke into an enormous grin at the mention of the frozen treat.

"Well Annie, does ice cream sound good right now?" I asked the shy brunette with us. My other daughter hesitantly nodded her head.

Making my way into the empty ice cream shop, I ordered all of my bugs out of the store to create a chitin wall around us so that we could have a nice family conversation without being disturbed.

"Midha, could you be a dear and get the glass please?" I asked.

Shatterbird obliged and the broken glass that had covered the shop floated up and out of the store.

I walked behind the counter of the store and grabbed an ice cream scoop and some bowls for us.

"Riley, you said you wanted the mind cookie crunch?" I asked. Riley nodded at me.

"Yeah! And you said that if I was a good girl I could get gummi bears on top too!" She answered.

"Well I did promise that, and you have been a good girl on this trip, so I don't see why not." I answered, pouring a scoop of the gummi bears on top of Riley's ice cream. "Annie, what would you like?"

"Um..." Amelia 'Annie' Lavere hesitated. "Just vanilla for me please."

Annie's tone set off alarm bells in my head. "Annie? Are you okay?"

"I..." Annie started. "I don't know. You've all been so nice to me but then when we were in the last town when we were picking up clothing you said that my outfit reminded you of her, and so I... so I thought that you were trying to make me into her so I could take her place."

I rushed around the counter and wrapped Annie up in a tight hug, with Riley joining in as well.

"Is that what you thought honey?" I said, trying to reassure her. "That's not it at all. I've never seen you as a replacement for her sweetie. I'll always have room in my heart for three bright, wonderful young girls, and even though Jacob took my first daughter from me too soon, she'll always be with us in our hearts."

"Can you tell us about her?" Riley asked. "About big sis?"

"Sure thing honey." I replied. "When she was your age, she used to love listen to classical music. One time, I had come home from work as she had turned the record player up as loud as it went so she could listen to Mozart's Lacrimosa that she didn't even hear me walk-"

"ANNETTE HEBERT!" Boomed a voice from outside the store. "WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"

"Well girls, work calls." I said, placing the ice cream scoop into the tub of chocolate chip cookie dough. "Shall we?"