Chapter 22: Chapter 22: The Meeting

Ashley hadn’t managed to contact me in any way in the past couple of days, neither did I manage to find a way back into that dream realm. I've been worried about her since I left that place, but sadly there wasn't anything more I could do but wait for her to talk to me again. Unfortunately, I had to push my problems aside for now.

I had other more immediately pressing issues to worry about.

"I'm still not sure about this…" I admit as I glance up and down the empty street. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

It was the middle of the day and all three of us found ourselves outside of a small clinic tucked away in the backstreets of the city. We were in costume, and for the first time I got to see Skye’s disguise. The illusion she went with replaced her purple hair with longer brown hair, and changed up her face just enough to be unrecognizable. She still had her prosthetic arm, and she still dressed the same, but she looks different enough that nobody should notice. Hopefully.

I was still using my old disguise, the white-haired androgynous figure. I realized I could change my disguise to be more feminine, but I actually liked looking like this from time to time. So I decided to just keep it as my Mimica disguise. 

"This place is neutral ground. Hero, villain, vigilante, it doesn’t matter. You come here you play by Selene's rules or you leave," Eve said. "This is probably the safest place for the meeting in the entire city."

Right, the meeting with Rachel. She called us today to share details about the Phantoms but insisted it would be face-to-face. Which I was fine with, up until she said she'd be bringing her team with her. Needless to say, I'm still incredibly nervous to be around more than one hero, even if I'm not a villain anymore. She guaranteed that nothing bad would happen, but I was still worried nonetheless.

"What even is this place?" I asked as we started getting closer to the entrance.

"A clinic," Eve chuckled when I frowned at her for stating the obvious. "It's just about the only place in town that people with powers can go to when they get seriously injured. The normal hospitals in the city all leak info to the news about supers, but here? Selene keeps everything private and the media barely even knows she exists."

"There's only one rule while you're inside," Skye adds. "Doesn't matter who's inside, doesn't matter what grudge you have, there's no fighting and no drama allowed. It doesn't matter what they use their power for or what side they stand on, Selene helps everyone regardless."

So she helps villains too huh? That left a lot of questions to be asked. Why were the heroes okay with letting villains come here? Why was this neutral ground? What was stopping a villain group from just abducting the healer in the first place and taking her to their lair?

I sighed. Questions for another time I supposed.

When we entered the clinic lobby I noticed a young woman sitting behind the receptionist desk. She had long straight black hair and she was wearing a white lab coat. She glanced up at us as we entered and smiled.

"Ah, Trick and Ghost. It's great to see you again, I hope everything has been going well," her gaze turned towards me. "And who is this?"

"I'm Mimica." 

"Oh," Her eyes widened a little, but her smile remained unchanging. "You look a little different from what I've been told, but it's nice to meet you anyway. I'm Selene, in case that wasn't obvious, if you need healing feel free to come on by whenever."

She then pointed her hand to the right towards a hallway. "Well don't let me hold you up, Guardian's already waiting for you three."

Eve nodded and led us towards the hallway. "Thanks, Selene, I know you don't normally like these kinds of things happening here, but we appreciate it."

She waved us off. "It's fine, I owed them a favor anyway. Just don't break anything while you're in there."

The hallway ended up being pretty short, with only a small handful of doors to be found. Though out of all of them, only one was cracked open. When we made it to the door and opened up I suddenly felt a shiver go down my spine.

That…was a lot of heroes.

Sat on one side of a large rectangular wooden table was big name hero after big name hero.

Rachel was there near the middle, all dressed up in her Guardian costume. To her right was Silver Fist looking annoyed and staring a hole into the table. 

Next to him was a young hero with her legs kicked up on the table as she balanced the chair on two legs. She had short, dark brown curly hair that came down to her shoulders. Her outfit was a large yellow and green jacket with black accents, with no mask to hide her face. She smirked at us when she saw us come in.

She was the lightning hero, Volti.

To the left of Rachel was the final hero of their group. A lean, androgynous figure wearing a full black costume from head to toe. They wore a cape that had small sparkling stars adorned all along the inside.

They were the hero of the night, Starlight.

I really didn’t like us being outnumbered. Considering that Skye's not a fighter, that means if this ever came down to a fight it would be a two versus four. 

We wouldn't stand a chance against them.

Sure I trust Rachel, but the rest of her team? Not so much. I could only hope that Eve was right about this being neutral ground.

"Thank you for coming," Rachel started, before she motioned to the chairs closest to us. "Please sit, we are short on time and have much to discuss. I've already briefed my team about you three so we can skip the introductions for now." Ah, that explains why Silver is glaring at me. Probably still upset over what happened last time we fought.

Eve claimed the chair all the way on the right, Skye claimed the middle, and I was unlucky enough to sit on the left in front of Silver and Volti.

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After I sat down I glanced downwards to see Skye moving to hold my hand with her left and Eves with her right. From the strength of her grip and her forced smile, I could see that it wasn’t just me who was nervous about this meeting.

"Let’s just get straight to the point. Thanks to an anonymous source, we've found, what we assume, is the last base of the Phantoms." Rachel said as she just casually dropped a bombshell on us. They really found it? Just like that? 

"An anonymous source?" Skye frowned. "That doesn't sound very trustworthy. What if it's a trap?"

"We still don't know who the anonymous caller was, but their info checks out with our own and seems to be legitimate. We won't know for sure till we actually get there, but it's still our best chance at finishing off the Phantoms." Rachel looked over the three of us and sighed. "But sadly, there's a problem."

"I assume this problem is the reason why you need our help?" Eve asked. 

Rachel nodded as she sighed. "As I've said before, us heroes are too limited with what we can do thanks to the many laws in place to restrict us. What happened five years ago changed a lot of how we run things. Nowadays we would have to sit through and wait until the necessary paperwork is processed to raid the place, but we don't have that kind of time.

"The Phantoms have been more active these past few months, and with how far we've pushed them into a corner I don't see them staying in one place for too long. It's only a matter of time before they pack up shop and leave."

"That's not even talking about the possibility of them having a spy in the hero department, just waiting to warn them when the paperwork gets submitted," Volti spoke up, her eyes never leaving me. First Silver, now her? I glanced at Starlight to see if they were staring at me too, but their mask hid their entire face.

Rachel sighed and rubbed her temple. "I didn't want to think about it, but you have a point. Star?" She glanced at the hero, who stood up and stuck their hand through their cape. Their hand disappeared as if it went through a portal, but when they pulled it back they were holding a large rolled-up map, which they then passed to Rachel.

"Thank you," she placed the map on the table and rolled it out. On the map was a large layout of what looked to be a factory building. "Here is what we think is their base, located along the western edge of the city. It's supposed to be abandoned, but if our source is right then I doubt how abandoned it really is."

She pointed at a small enclosed room near the middle of the factory. "If we had to take a guess, I'd say this is where they keep their supply of spirits. Sadly, there's no easy way in without alerting them. No windows into the room, and no back doors. Which means whoever goes in will need to prepare for a fight."

I frowned, that sounded weird. "Are you implying that not all of us are going in? Isn't that kind of dangerous?"

"It will be, but that's why we'll be separating into two teams. Team A will be in charge of making a distraction to lure them outside and away from the storage room. Team B will be in charge of infiltrating and destroying the spirits before they get the chance to run off with them," Rachel explains before she glances around. "Question is, is how to split our forces. Deciding who goes where."

Personally, I didn't care which team I was on, while I love being a distraction and getting into fights, I'm also quite good at sneaking into places without being spotted. 

Most of the time at least...

"If we may," Starlight spoke, their voice unnaturally echoing around us in several different tones as if several people were talking at once. "We believe putting ourselves and Trick on the infiltration team would be for the best. With our powers, sneaking in would be trivial. While we would do little to help compared to you four in terms of fighting prowess."

Rachel glanced at Eve who nodded. "Sounds good to me."

"Good, in that case, the rest of my team and Mimica will-"

"No," Skye spoke up, causing everyone to glance at her in surprise. "I'm a part of this too, I'm going in with Trick and Starlight."

Rachel stared at her for a moment in confusion. "I, uh, was under the impression you were powerless. Are you sure you want to go in? It's not going to be anywhere near safe."

"I've been working this long towards seeing the Phantoms crumble, I'm not sitting out on this one, not when their end is in sight." Skye locked eyes with Rachel, an unwavering and determined expression on her face.

I wanted to ask if she was sure, to convince her it was too dangerous, but I held back. I could tell this was important to her, this was her dream and goal after all, I wasn't about to be the one to deny her that. Even if I was worried for her. I shared a glance with Eve who looked like she shared the same idea.

After a moment Rachel let out a sigh. "Right, small change of plans. Ghost, Trick, and Starlight will be infiltrating the place. While Mimica, Volti, Silver, and myself shall be in charge of drawing out the villains and finishing them off. Any questions?"

"What are we doing about the issue of you four needing to wait for paperwork?" Eve asked as she looked the hero team over.

"While we can’t officially charge in, there are however a few loopholes." Silver started while not sounding very happy with what he was saying. "Say a group of vigilantes got into a fight with a group of villains, that would be enough of a reason to investigate. Which would then let us arrest the villains."

"So while we are all going in or fighting, we're just going to agree that the official story is that you four showed up a bit later and helped out?" I asked.

He nodded. "Pretty much. Don’t like it, but then again I don't like any bit of this plan."

"Silver…" Rachel started.

"I'm not going to sit here and pretend I'm happy with this meeting or this plan. Sitting in front of me is someone who I should have caught and thrown behind bars months ago," He sighed in frustration. "Just be happy I'm willing to put up with it till the Phantoms are dealt with."

Jeez, you punch a guy through a solid wall like one time and he gets all grumpy at you.

Rachel sighed. "Okay, does anyone else have any questions or comments? No? Then we'll meet again tonight near the factory. I'll text the exact time and place later. Get some rest before then. We'll need it."

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