Bobbie returned home and felt like a new person. Over the next few weeks that summer, she began to exercise more, getting in shape again. She was able to spend more time with the children and even bought brand new cars for their family. Even her and Harlan's relationship improved. They argued less, and loved more. For the first time in years, she really felt incredible.

As she dressed for the day one morning, Bobbie noticed a tear in her Super suit. She winced, recalling how the Omnidroid's sharp pinscher had easily cut through her arm. She looked down at it, seeing that the ugly pink scar on her skin was still healing.

"Hurry, honey, or the kids will be late for school!" Harlan called from downstairs. Bobbie quickly stuffed her suit under her blouse, hiding it from Harlan as she smuggled it into her car where the children were waiting.

Harlan kissed her at the doorstep, preparing to go to his own car. "You have a great day," he told her.

"You too," she replied with a smile. They kissed again before parting, Harlan having an extra skip in his step at his wife's brightened attitude.

Bobbie waved from her car at him as she backed out of the driveway and went off to drop the kids off at school.

An hour later, Bobbie pulled up to an enormous gate of webbed laser beams and leaned out her window toward the video security monitor. Jackie cooed curiously in the backseat as the screen flashed on. "Do you have an appointment?" a guard asked stiffly.

"I'm an old friend," Bobbie answered. "I just wanted – "

"Get back!" a husky voice suddenly barked over the speaker to the guard. "Go check the electric fence or something."

Bobbie couldn't see anyone on the screen but the guard. But a familiar face wearing huge dark-rimmed glasses rose into the bottom half of the screen. It was her old friend, internationally famous fashion designer Edward Mode.

"What is it?" he asked in her brusque accent. "What do you want?"

Bobbie took off her sunglasses and grinned at the security camera.

Edward, known to her good friends simply as E, was stunned. "Goodness, you have gotten fat!" he said. "Come in! Come!"

The laser beams shut down. Bobbie drove through the gate and up the long driveway. E, now in his late sixties, greeted Bobbie and Jackie warmly as she entered his modern, gallery-like home. He led her into her gigantic living room.

"Yes, things are going quite well, but" – he sighed – "you know, it is not the same. Not the same at all."

Bobbie nodded. "Weren't you just in the news?" she asked. "Some show in Prague?"

"Milan," he corrected. Then he scoffed. "Supermodels – hah! Nothing Super about them. Feh! I used to design for gods!" Then E looked at Bobbie hopefully. "But perhaps you come with a challenge, eh?"

Bobbie held up her suit. "E, I just need a patch job."

E grabbed the torn suit. "This is megamesh," he told her impatiently, "outmoded but very sturdy, and you have torn right through it."

He looked up. "What exactly have you been doing, Roberta? Moonlighting hero work?"

Bobbie tried to sound casual. "It, um… must've happened a long time ago."

"Ah," E said knowingly. "I see."

E stood up. "This is a hobo suit," he announced firmly. "You cannot be seen in this. I won't allow it. Fifteen years ago, maybe. But now!" He shook his head and dropped the suit in the trash.

"What do you mean?" Bobbie asked, rushing to retrieve it. "You designed it."

"I don't ever look back," he explained with a wave of his hand. "It distracts from the now. You need a new suit. That much is certain."

"A new suit?" Bobbie was shocked. "Where would I get – "

"Ask me now before I again become sane," E said. It was a hint.

"Wait," Bobbie said, confused. "You want to make me a suit?"

E suddenly began gesturing with his tiny arms. "Of course! Why, it will be bold. Dramatic! Heroic!"

"Yeah!" Bobbie agreed enthusiastically. In her arms, Jackie shrieked in approval. "Something classic, like Dynagirl. She had a great look. The cape and the boots – "

"No capes," said E, cutting her off.

"Isn't that my decision?" Bobbie asked.

E stiffened and began to remind Bobbie of all the past caped Supers. "Do you remember Thunderhead?" he asked.

Bobbie cringed, knowing exactly which Super he was talking about.

"Tall? Storm powers? She was a good girl, and she was also good with kids," E said. "Her cape snagged on a missile fin."

"Okay… but Thunderhead was not really the brightest bulb in the - !" Bobbie started to say, hoping to change his mind.

E only raised an eyebrow and ran down the list of doomed Supers.

"Stratoguy," he said. "Cape caught in a jet turbine."

Bobbie sighed.

"Metawoman," E continued. "Express elevator. Dynagirl – snag on takeoff."

E glared at Bobbie. "No capes!" he said with a finality Bobbie wasn't about to argue with. Then he smiled. "Well, go on," he told her. "Your new suit will be finished before your next assignment."

"I only need a patch job, E," Bobbie said, looking at her old suit. "For sentimental reasons."

"Fine," E sighed, taking the suit from Bobbie. "I will also fix the hobo suit."

Bobbie smiled at her old friend. "E, you're the best of the best!"

E closed his eyes and smiled. "Yes, I know."