Although she had killed the Planner, the mystery woman was not unable to plan for herself.  She knew she faced a potentially daunting task in defeating Elevator Girl, but the prize -- control of the powers Elevator Girl now had, for the woman's own use -- was well worth the risk.

And today was the day, the woman knew.  Her targets would be at the Greene-Ross fundraiser.  They were the namesakes of the company, after all.  But she had to accomplish two things first in order for the plan to work.

The first was to get Elevator Girl herself out of the way.  She would almost certainly be at the scene in person otherwise, and that would compromise her ability to accomplish the rest of the plan.  Since the girl no longer wore the bracelet that was the source of her powers, she needed the leverage to be able to get the heroine to bring the bracelet to her.

The second was to take out Stamitos Stone.  The woman was pretty sure he had been Granite Man.  Granite Man had rescued his old ally's protégé -- the woman had deduced that Elevator Girl actually was Elevator Man's granddaughter -- at a time that one of her targets was available to get him.  And she could find no records of Stamitos Stone except those filed after the disappearance fo a statue from one of the city's parks -- a statue that had borne an uncanny resemblance to Granite Man.  Among the few records she found was a certificate of baptismal record (from a legal standpoint, as good as a birth certificate, but made many years later.)  It indicated he was 40 years old and born in Greece.  It would let him get his driver's license.  If there was any chance that Stamitos Stone still could turn into Granite Man, he had to be taken out fast.

From there, the plan was simple.  The problem was, Elevator Girl was no simple opponent.  She had a knack for unexpected tactics.  But the woman would hold all the cards.

She smiled.  She would have Elevator Girl cold; with luck, stone cold.

It was early afternoon.  Gemma had put on her best dress.  "Do I look all right?" she asked.

"You look fine, Mom," Kellie said.

"Are you sure?" Gemma asked.  "I mean, I'd ask Stamitos, but he loves how I look in anything."

"Or nothing," Kellie said, blushing slightly.

"Well, we are engaged now," Gemma said.  She walked to a chair and sat down.  "Engaged.  Kellie, I'm engaged!"

Kellie nodded.  "I was there, remember?"

Gemma smiled.  "Cheering Stamitos on, as I recall."

Kellie grinned playfully.  "Well, at least you know I approve of your choice," she said.

"You made that choice possible," Gemma said.  "You freed him from his curse."

"Actually, it was your love that freed him," Kellie said.  "I just figured out what words to say to make it work for breaking the spell."

"Oh, yeah, like that's nothing when the man had been trapped as a stone statue for thousands of years," Gemma said.  She kissed her daughter's forehead.

Just then, a phone started to ring, playing the theme to a popular superhero cartoon show.  By now both Gemma and Kellie knew that ring tone.  It had become familiar to them in the last five months.  The city's e-911 service was calling for Elevator Girl's help.  The phone was untraceable by tower tracking and had a number not registered to any name.

Kellie looked at her mother.  "Mom, I'm sorry," she said.

Gemma smiled.  "Go," she said.  "Join us at the dinner if you get done in time."

Kellie grew enough to take the stairs to her room quickly, switched into her leather armor costume and headed back down to the basement and her secret exit at the former coal chute as she answered the phone.

The attack was one Kellie had been expecting.  It was an ice monster.  In fact, it sounded remarkably like the ice monster she had taken on when one attacked Jackson High School.

Kellie was at the attack site in the industrial park in a matter of minutes.  She smiled.  By now, her mom, Stamitos and the Greenes should all be at the fundraiser.

The monster was easy enough to spot.  It wasn't skyscraper-high, but neither were the buildings in the industrial area of town where it was located.

Kellie smiled.  "This should be easy," she said, smiling as she grew.

Then the monster grew, and split into three monsters that were each twice Kellie's height.

"OK, maybe this won't be so easy," Kellie said.

Meanwhile, Dakota and Gemma were seated at the head table.  Nearby, at a table for families, Dakota's parents and sister were seated with Stamitos.

The dignitaries were getting ready, with the scientists to describe developing treatments based on the technology Elevator Girl had used to treat Dakota. 

Lakota was disappointed when she was offered soda pop.  She had hoped she might get offered some wine, like some of the adults at the function were drinking.  But she, Dakota and Kellie all were underage, so they were getting only the nonalcoholic options.

The president of the foundation, Velma Rogers, started tapping a knife to a wine glass, signaling that the group needed to focus attention up front.

Then vapor streamed into the room -- icy vapor.  While the others tried to figure out what was happening, or just panicked, Stamitos stood up, instinctively striking a battle pose.  He may not have super-powers anymore, but he was still far stronger than  the average man, and he could put up a fight.

"Him," said a woman's voice, so cold it made the blood of some who heard it seem to freeze.  "And them."

The vapor converged on three spots in the room.  They were the positions where Stamitos stood and Gemma and Dakota were seated.  Then the mist solidified.  It encased Gemma and Dakota from the shoulders down in a thick coating.  But it completely encased Stamitos.

"Stam!" shouted Gemma.

"He can't hear you," said the cold voice.  "Soon, no one will hear you."

More mist entered the room.  It split into two segments.  The first solidified into a barrier between the people in the room and the three captives.  The second surrounded the two captives whose heads still were free.

Meanwhile, Elevator Girl had tried outgrowing the monsters, but they had gotten even larger, and each had split into five separate creatures.  Now she was surrounded.

Then  she got an idea; an idea that wouldn't have worked before she could operate the powers without manipulating the bracelet.  Kellie clapped her hands rapidly, swinging her size up and down as rapidly as she could in order to vary the sound.  The creatures all were made of ice; they had a crystalline structure.  And crystals can be broken by sound.

After a few seconds, Kellie hit the right combination of height and impact to produce the needed fequency, and the crystal structure cracked in about half the ice creatures, those she was facing.  She clapped again, and they shattered as those behind her moved toward her.  She pivoted and clapped again and again, and the remaining creatures shattered.  In a few seconds, Kellie was standing in a sea of shattered bits of ice.

Kellie smiled and turned her gaze toward downtown, where she would be heading from here.  Then her eyes widened in horror.  There was some sort of ship hovering over the building where the fundraiser was to take place -- a remarkably familiar ship.  It was larger, but the same configuration as the ship she had dealt with in her battle in the harbor in early November.  Someone was attacking the fundraiser -- and everyone Kellie loved!

Uncharacteristically, Kellie took off at a full run, then remembered there were other innocents below her.  She slowed enough to be careful,, but knew she needed to get to the banquet hall.

Inside the hall, the tier of mists that had not yet congealed lifted the forms of Dakota and Gemma toward a window.

"No!" Gemma screamed.  "Stamitos!  Kellie!"

"Help!" Dakota yelled.  He could hear his family on the other side of the ice barrier, screaming his name as they pounded on the wall of ice.

Gemma screeched in terror as they exited the window.  She was suddenly convinced that the wisps of icy mist would drop her and Dakota to their deaths.

Then they heard the bellowing of the deep, familiar voice of their favorite giantess.  "Dakota!  Mrs. Ross!"  Elevator Girl yelled, trying not to tip her hand as to relationships.  She was known to have contact with Dakota in this identity, but not with her mother.

"Stat!" said the cold voice, so cold it even sent a chill down Elevator Girl's massive spine.  But, by now, she was used to hearing voices at different sizes.  The voice was different in its coldness, but she knew it; she just couldn't quite place it.

At the instruction, the mists hurtled Dakota and Gemma into the crystalline ship from different directions.  Kellie was too far away to reach them, even by growing.

Desperate for a tactic -- any tactic -- that she started clapping her hands again.  She knew the ship might fall if she did, but figured she could catch the her loved ones as they fell.  At least, she hoped she could.

For a second, Kellie thought she had succeeded as she saw the ship splinter into three pieces.  Then she realized that it had, in fact, split into three separate ships -- as they went off in three different directions.

Kellie hesitated for a fraction of a second trying to decide which ship to follow before she realized that she had no hope of keeping up with any of the ships.  They were gone … and, with them, her mother and Dakota.

Kellie wanted to fall apart, but she didn't dare.  There were others inside, including Stamitos and Dakota's family, who might need help.  She needed to hang onto her composure, at least for now.

Kellie did a leap-and-shrink maneuver to enter through the smashed window.  The ice wall already was crumbling, but Stamitos was still encased in ice from head to toe.

Kellie trebled in height and smashed the ice with a single blow.  Stamitos fell out, gasping for air.  "That was uncomfortably familiar," he said quietly.  Then he looked around.  "Gemma? Dakota?"

"Elevator Girl!" shouted Lakota, from the other side of the collapsing ice wall.  "Did you get them?  Is everybody safe."

"No," said Kellie, trying to disguise her emotion by sounding breathless.  "Whoever it was that took them got your brother and Mrs. Ross and got away."

"Well, go after them!" shouted Mr. Greene.

"Their ship split into three pieces, and I couldn't keep up with them," she said.  "I'm calling the authorities.  My connections with the authorities may be able to help us track where they went, so I can find them.  Lakota, and Mr. … um …"

Realizing Kellie was trying to protect her identity, Stamitos said.  "Stone.  Stamitos Stone."

"Mr. Stone," Kellie said, "are you up to helping these people until authorities get here?"

"Of course," he said.

"Lakota, come with me," Kellie said.  "I may need help from a witness -- one with a clear head and no alcoholic intake."

Lakota followed Kellie into a service hallway behind the stage area.  There the two friends looked at each other.  With Lakota in on Kellie's secret now, there was no need for trying to preserve anything here.  The two girls simply collapsed into each other's arms, bawling.

After a moment, Kellie got Lakota's cell.  She gave a coded message and was put through to the Mayor's Office.

In seconds she hung up.  "The air-traffic authorities and Air National Guard will relay anything they get," she said.  "I'll need to hang onto your phone for a bit.  I've got nowhere to keep a phone on either costume."

"Do it," said Lakota.  "Do whatever you need to do.  Just save Dakota and your mom."

The two girls hugged.  Then Lakota's phone rang.  Kellie answered and spoke briefly, but Lakota couldn't tell anything from only one side of the conversation.  "Well?" she asked as Kellie hung up.

"The towers only tracked two ships at all, and only one for its whole trajectory," Kellie said.  She looked Lakota in the eye, her expression grim.  "It came down near my house, and burst into flame.  Everything where it landed is gone … and … and …"

"What?" Lakota asked.

Kellie's voice sounded small.  "They said no one could have survived that crash.  Whoever was in that ship is dead, and we don't know where the other two went.  Lakota … Someone we love … Someone I love may be … dead."