Chapter 17: Chapter 17: Cracks in the Shell

Too noisy.

Even at this time of night the city was just too damn noisy.

I watched over the passing cars and late-night drinkers returning home, as my feet dangled over the edge of the cafe's rooftop.

I couldn’t sleep again, and I'm starting to think I'm forming a habit. What with wandering off into the night every time I couldn't close my eyes.

At least this time I'm still at home.

Taking a walk through the park probably would have helped me more, just like it did before we attacked the Phantoms almost a week ago.

But I didn’t feel safe there anymore. Nova knew to look out for me there and I just wasn't interested in another encounter with her so soon. She'd probably spout some more cryptic bullshit, before smugly walking off as per usual.

And I really didn't trust her.

Who knows when she'll change her opinion of me and stab me in the back when my guard is down. She said she didn't want to be enemies, but I think that ship has already sailed hasn't it? She's part of the Phantoms, I'm part of a team of vigilantes dedicated to destroying them.

It just wasn't going to work out.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. Sometimes I wish I was still a villain living off stolen change and misplaced wallets. At least things were simpler then. No over complicated villainous plots to worry about, no dramatic changes to the relationship with my best friend, and more importantly,

None of those depressing dreams.

I didn't want to blame Eve for triggering their return, but a part of me regrets us meeting that day. A small part, because despite the dreams I couldn't hate meeting her. Skye and Eve were good friends, really good friends that I was desperately missing. 

Sure I had Rachel to talk to, but she didn’t have that much free time. Time which I now realized was being taken up by being a superhero. I only really got to see her when we both were at the cafe, the same place we met all those years ago.

So yeah, I'm glad I met those Skye and Eve. Glad I accepted their job offer. Glad I became their friend.

As these last six days would have been hell without them.

I was stuck recovering for most of it, my body showing its disapproval from the way I got it beat up, stuck in my room just trying to recover.

And it was torture. 

Where I couldn’t go out as Mimica, couldn’t distract myself with stealing, couldn't just slip into Mimicas personality and let my problems fade away. I was forced to sit there as the voice in the back of my mind grew louder and louder. It was like there was someone else in my head, someone who was constantly whispering promises in my ear, promises to change myself, promises to walk into Eve’s room and take her power, all to make myself look like her.

It made me glad I had friends there to keep me distracted.

The door to the roof opened with a click, shaking me out of my thoughts as a familiar face poked her head out. Skye’s eyes roamed across the roof before they landed on mine. She sighed in relief before making her way over to me.

"You okay?" She asked softly as she sat down next to me. "I was worried when I noticed you weren't in your room, but I hadn't expected to see you up here of all places."

"I'm fine," I responded with a forced smile, hoping that I could alleviate her worries by just a bit.

She looked like she wanted to say something, but she just shook her head and sighed.

"If you say so," she said as she laid her hand on top of mine. "But if you need to talk to anyone then I'm here, okay?"

"Thank you," I replied, trying not to think about the way she gently held my hand, about how she sat so close that our thighs were nearly touching, about how I wanted to lean into her touch and confess everything.

Yeah, I tried not to think about it.

"Any particular reason you were trying to find me?" I asked her as she was weirdly staring at our hands with a soft smile, only for her to flinch and look away when I spoke up.

"Oh! Right, just gimme a second," she reached into her pants pocket and pulled out a small ring. Black metal with a split down the middle and…

Is that a small drawing of a white cat…?

Skye noticed what I was staring at and decided to explain. "Eve put it there, I don’t really know why. She said you would understand."

This again? Nuh-uh. Nope. I'm not letting Eve turn my Mimica image into a catgirl for one single joke.

"Anyways, I thought about what we could do about your problem with disguises. Since we can't guarantee that Eve will always be available I decided to make this, with her help of course."

She held it up and with her other hand she pointed at the split line. "See this spot right here? If you twist the ring just right it will activate Eve’s illusion on you, you can turn into Mimica at any time without her. Of course there still is a time limit, so you can't walk around with it all day."

She pushed the ring into my hand and I started to examine it. It definitely was made of metal like I thought, and surprisingly it was a little heavy. Heavy for a ring I suppose.

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I noticed the small cat symbol was placed overtop the line splitting down the middle, but it wasn’t centered. The top half was just slightly misplaced to the right compared to the bottom half.

Tentatively, I slid the ring on to test it out. Using my other hand to twist it, watching as the cat symbol quickly started to align themselves.

The second the image was back to normal a small brief pulse of power went through me. Before I even realized it I was now sitting there in my Mimica disguise. I sighed in relief when I noticed the lack of cat features.

Another twist and I was back to normal. 

I didn't want to sit around as Mimica, you never know when a flying hero could be passing by on patrol. I'd rather not have one notice me, it would bring unwanted attention to both myself and my friends.

"Thank you, Skye, I appreciate the gift," I told her as I turned to her. "Though I feel bad that you went out of your way to make me something like this. It couldn’t have been easy."

Her expression fell as her gaze shifted out to the city.

"I wasn’t going to let a repeat of last time happen. I'm never letting you come home like that again." 

I didn't really know what to say to that. I knew the situation was out of my control, that there wasn't much else I could have done, but…

It tears me to pieces to know just how badly I worried everyone. Maybe there was some way I could have escaped, some way I could have held myself back and kept my sanity.

But I hadn't. If there was such a way, then I had simply not found it yet.

Skye closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh, taking a deep breath to recenter herself before she turned back to me.

"Well, I can't take all the credit. This was as much my project as it was Eves. She's the one who figured out how to apply togglable illusions to my machines after all, even if she doesn't like doing it often."

And that's when it started to click, when I noticed how odd the situation was.

Togglable illusions? How could her powers even do that? How could a simple ring tap into her powers without her being around?

It just wasn't possible, it shouldn't have been possible

That's just not how powers work. You couldn't just drop a bit of your energy into an object and let it borrow your powers, if people could do that imagine the chaos. All the new technologies that could be made, all the advancements to society that would follow, it would change everything as we knew it.

Something that I once thought impossible was being done here by Eve.

That's not even taking into fact that I've been doubting her powers for a while now. Illusions, to my knowledge, couldn't be physical objects. You couldn't touch one, couldn't swing a fake bat around and hurt someone, hell she shouldn't even be able to change someone's appearance the way she does.

If my Mimica disguise was truly an illusion, then why did my body feel different and change? When I had cat ears why could I hear out of them? When I had a tail, why could I feel it swish around?

Why had my voice changed as well? That should have been something that remained unchanged if we were talking about standard illusions. 

And that's not even considering how she could put people to sleep.

No, Eve’s powers were definitely something more. If I had to guess she had some sort of magic-based power, something she had misunderstood as only illusions. She wouldn't be the first magic-based super in Specton.

But would telling her even do anything? It's not like it would change much to know the right name for it. Though maybe it could end up helping her out in the end, perhaps she would experiment more if she realized she hadn't fully explored her powers. It could lead her into discovering something new.

Hmmm.

"J?" Skye's soft, worried tone snapped me out of my thoughts. "You've been quiet for a while now, are you okay?"

I shook my head to clear my mind. There I went again, getting drawn in and distracted by powers. I couldn’t help how fascinating some of them were, and with the mystery surrounding powers even to this day it made me want to find out how they work even more.

"Sorry, I just got lost in thought."

She smiled. "How about we head back inside, it's getting late. Some sleep might help clear your head."

I smiled back. "Yeah, that sounds good. I've been up here for too long as it is."

We carefully got up and away from the edge, before heading to the roof door and back to our rooms.

My head definitely felt more clear than it was earlier. Talking with Skye, as brief as our conversation was, had certainly helped. I could only hope that I'll be able to keep my mind free of worrying about dreams and what-if scenarios for a good while longer. To stop hearing that voice in the back of my mind that wants me to give in, to try out what it would be like to be her. Hopefully, I could get a break from all that and relax before our next mission.

Yeah, here's hoping...

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