America Chavez: Made In The USA (2021 series) #5

America Chavez' younger sister, that she'd forgotten she had, Catalina turned up to tell her (and us) that her recovered memory of her life before the Santana family found her was fiction. The only connection with reality was that she had 2 mothers Amalia and Elena Chavez who died to save her. She wasn't born in a Utopian Parallel outside the multiverse, and her moms didn't die to save *it*. The Utopian Parallel was just an island off Long Island owned by a billionaire mad scientist Gales. The moms brought both daughters here seeking a cure for Edges Syndrome that would kill them and other little girls. But the disease/cure also gave them powers and the Chavez' realised that Gales had sinister motives. They died trying to get all the girls away to safety but only America escaped using her power to create portals. But she was washed up ashore on Long Island having lost her memory.
Now the cure given to America is wearing off and her powers are starting to fade, and the sisters face death again. But it turns out that Cata is a bit of a mad scientist herself and has gathered a new gaggle of Edges victims to try for a better cure. And she's kidnapped America's foster brother Alberto Santana to force her to help.

This issue begins with a flashback to 11 years ago where young 'Berto is teaching even-younger America to fly a kite.

Now 'Berto tells America not to do what Catalina wants. Our heroine tries talking her sister down but Cata says she's the only Starling who can make the Starling Chamber work real magic because she was the only 1 who made contact with the 'Demiurge', whatever that was. (Gales called the subjects of his experiment Starlings and the Chamber contained a magical-looking environment. This environment and the Starlings and Demiurge were translated into elements of America's fantasy memory.)

Next we're treated to a flashback showing what happened to Catalina Chavez in the intervening years. We're not told what happened to all the other Starlings but we see Gales with only Cata left. Because she was younger the Edges Syndrome hadn't manifested yet. But in his new medical centre in Switzerland Gales made sure it did, along with her individual power to create electric blasts. But she eventually escaped, and it sounds like she killed Gales.

Now she reminds America of her power to create portals to other parts of the multiverse, even other times. And she wants her to use it to bring their mothers back. And she punctuates her demands with the occasional electric zap to Alberto. In the 2 years since she escaped she's got the Chamber up and running again and tweaked it's settings and believes that it will help attain her goal. She claims that she hears their moms talking to her, and we see Amalia and Elena in America's mind. With her waning power it takes an effort and some while before she manages to create a large star-portal in the floor. Meanwhile she continues to try to convince he sister that their mothers are dead and gone. And Cata admits that the voices have gone now. But in her eagerness she falls into the portal and is lost in the multiverse.

Later America and Alberto lead the Starlings to what may be Gales' luxury yacht and they sail to New York. Then the duo return to the Santana family where 'Berto gets on with his life. America contacts her bestie Kate Bishop in LA to tell her she's staying in NY, and KB gets introduced to the family over the phone. She also resumes her neighbourhood patrols, including fighting giant rats with Captain America and Thor. (She much preferred the giant moles in LA in #1.) She gets her own apartment and comes to terms with her reduced power level. She intends to locate the original group of Starlings, and her sister too. Her lover Ramone Watts (Alloy) flies over from LA for a chat (and meets the Santanas too). And Spider-Man (who was in #1-2) pops up to invite her to help fight a monster snail on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.