America Chavez: Made In The USA (2021 series) #3

In the 1st 2 issues a mystery opponent lured America Chavez, whose powers have begun to glitch, back to New York with a threat to her adoptive Santana family. And then to an island off Long Island which she claimed was the real Utopian Parallel, and then zapped her unconscious.
Meanwhile we saw flashbacks to her life with the Santanas with some differences to what we've been previously told. She was washed ashore on Long Island rather than arriving in NY via portal from an other-dimensional UP. She had no memories on arrival but later retrieved memories of her life in that other dimension which included her 2 mothers Amalia and Elena Chavez, her grandmother Madrimar and the Demiurge who created the UP. Her mothers died saving the UP, but she didn't remember how she left the place. She developed her powers and in her teen years became a local vigilante heroine to honour the heritage of her real moms. But the Santanas disapproved so she left them and changed her name to Chavez.

America wakes on a medical gurney with her wrists shackled in a room with 2 bunk beds. She sees that her assailant is a young female who claims that she's her sister and this was *their* room. America denies having a sister and tries to escape but her powers have glitched again. 'Sis' says it's happening to her too. She offers her sodium thiopental to recover her repressed memories, but of course America doesn't consent to being drugged. 'Sis' claims that the UP was this island owned by a rich 'mad scientist' and their mothers were 2 medical researchers from the Bronx. She says it's taken her a while to piece the story together from paperwork and witnesses, but now she'll tell her what really happened:-

We of course see the tale as a flashback. The 2 doctors have a personal problem to solve and they've accepted the help of a billionaire recluse. His yacht brings them to his island which he calls the Utopian Parallel, and when they get there Amalia says that the guy was right when he said it would seem like another dimension. They are greeted by their host Mr Gales who is disappointed that they haven't brought their daughter, but Elena says they want to check things out 1st. We learn that they are concerned about the fatal Edges Syndrome that only affects young girls and that America was diagnosed with 4 months ago. They see that Gales has lots of little girls here, and he claims to have an unconventional treatment - and the Chavez's are desperate.

In the present the captor has wheeled the gurney somewhere else and shows the captive a huge round hatch. America's powers still won't let her break free. The place still has power and Sis pushes a button.

In the flashback Gales opens the same hatch for the Chavez women. He claims this island has special properties, and through the hatch they see a land with islands floating in the sky and 5-pointed stars flying everywhere. He claims that time and space work differently in there.

Now the room beyond the hatch is empty and as dilapidated as the rest of the place. Sis comments that Gales called the girls his Starlings, a name with some resonance for America. But now her powers return and she breaks her bonds and leaps at her captor who responds by zapping her again. She asks AC if she knows where her powers came from (but America doesn't say that she learned exactly where they came from in the America series). She now claims that she was a guinea pig. America's response, as well as a punch, is to ask if what she claims is real then where has *she* been all these years?

In the past Gales suggests that the whole Chavez family come to the island. America needs the cure but younger sister Catalina also has Edges Syndrome but without any symptoms yet. Studying *her* will be a great help in figuring out how Edges works. The women leave with a big decision to make.

In the present Catalina reveals that they did come to the island but they never found a cure. She adds that the treatments they were given only kept the disease at bay. Now they're wearing off which is why America's powers keep fading out. And now they're both dying. And they need to co-operate to stop it happening. Catalina now shows her another large room where Gales had been working on a new avenue for a cure. She's restarted his experiments. And America sees ranks of tubes containing girls (presumably in suspended animation). She thinks this is the kind of thing a mad scientist supervillain would do, and denies Catalina's suggestion that her mothers would have any part of it. Cata says they were desperate to cure Edges, and so will her sister be when her power keeps going off. But America responds by stamping the floor. She can't create an interdimensional portal but does create a more local 1 which Cata falls through ... and lands in the middle of the New Jersey Turnpike.

Left behind America picks up the syringe of sodium thiopental. She doesn't believe it will change her memories but she has to make sure ...

... which leads us to the last flashback this issue. 3 men in suits have come to watch Gales' girls at play, and he's trying to get little America to show them how she can create her portals. But she says it just happens, she doesn't make it happen. Her moms rush up to take her away to her bunk bed. Younger Catalina is already asleep in hers. The women are worried about Gales' intentions. Elena reminds Amalia that America's Edges is in remission and Cata hasn't got sick so they could leave with them. Amalia is concerned about America being out in the big world with the powers she's developed. But Elena wants to take *all* the girls with them. America overhears it all.
Some night later Elena grabs the pair from their bunks and puts them in the 'costumes' that all the girls wear sometimes (it's the 1 America was washed ashore wearing in #1). She runs out carrying them calling for Amalia.