Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Sewer Level

A chill breeze blew through the dark streets, streets that were only barely illuminated by the occasional streetlight. I huddled inside my hoodie as I followed behind Eve. 

Tonight will be my first job as a member of their team. At the moment we were headed towards one of the Phantom's bases, not that I actually knew where it was. Eve and Skye decided to make it a surprise for some reason.

I didn’t really understand it, till Eve stopped suddenly and pointed down towards the ground with a grin.

I looked down at the manhole cover, before looking back up at her.

“No.”

She rolled her eyes and reached down until she was in a position to pick it up.

“C’mon, stop complaining and give me a hand here.”

I sighed before dropping down and grabbing the other side. 

“Okay, on three,” Eve said. “One. Two. Three!”

The second we tried to lift it I wanted to already go and drop it. Just how heavy are these things!? It felt like it took all of my strength to just even barely lift it off the ground.

We managed to lift it up just an inch to get it out of its slot, before then sliding it out of the way. Revealing a ladder down into the sewer system.

Just as I was trying to catch my breath I heard the sound of Eve going down the ladder. 

“Coming?” She asked in a playful tone, before she disappeared from my sight.

“I’m really gonna regret this….” I said with a sigh, before grabbing onto the ladder and starting my descent.

~~~~~~~~~~~

As I finally made it to the bottom, and my feet stood on solid ground once again, I had just a single thought.

“God it stinks down here…”

The sewer was almost pitch black dark, were there no lights down here? I think my other senses were trying to make up for the lack of visibility down here, as I swear I think my nose is working double time. 

The stench was nearly unbearable, it was like some unholy combination of rotten eggs, spoiled milk, and an angry skunk. Probably worse than that actually.

Eve turned on a flashlight, which I was definitely not prepared for. I only jumped a little bit when it clicked on okay?

“Here you go, one for you.” She said as she passed me a second flashlight. 

I clicked it on and shined it around me, taking in the surroundings. The sewer itself was pretty wide open, and the tunnel seemed to go on forever. There wasn’t any water down here at the moment, so maybe this isn’t in use anymore?

I don’t really know enough about sewers to really say…

“Disguise time,” Eve said as she snapped her fingers. Her appearance changed back to when I first met her, from a goth-like appearance to looking like a completely average non-descript girl. 

I was halfway into putting on my ‘disguise’, a black mask, when Eve held a hand up and stopped me.

“I was thinking that maybe it would be better if you upgrade your disguise.” She said as she looked me up and down. “I mean, no offense, but it’s honestly a surprise your identity hasn’t been realized yet. I think you could do a little better with something more than a mask and a hoodie.”

“A little late for that don’t you think?” I say as I put the mask away. “I don’t imagine there’s many things down here we could even use as a costume.”

“Who do you think you’re talking to?” She said as she puffed up her chest and put her arms on her hips. “Trick, master illusionist, at your service. I can make you a new costume instantly.”

“Trick? Really?” I say with a teasing grin, “Couldn’t have come up with anything better? Maybe The Trickster, or Illusia, or maybe even Daydream?”

She looked towards me with an evil grin that would give even the scariest of villains a run for their money. Just seeing that was enough for my smile to drop instantly, as she slowly walked over to me.

She laid one hand on my shoulder and then snapped her fingers.

My vision went dark for just a moment, before it all faded back to normal. At first I couldn’t tell if anything was wrong, and I was about to ask her if her powers failed, when I felt it.

I looked behind me to see a white cat tail hanging from my lower back, it swayed from side to side as I stared at it. I blinked several times to tell if I was seeing things, but the tail stayed there all the same.

“Why did-” I tried to say before the tone of my voice made me pause. It was...different. Not in a bad way, actually in fact I kinda liked it. At least just a little bit.

It was a higher pitch than my old voice, but it wasn’t feminine. It was kinda in the middle between the two, I guess the better term would be androgynous?

I looked back to Eve to see her giggling up a storm, as she summoned a mirror to let me see the rest of myself. My eyes went wide when I saw my reflection, and I turned my head each and every way to look over myself.

My hair was now a pure snow white, and was now just a tad bit longer, stopping around my shoulders. On top of my head were two new snow colored triangle cat ears. My face itself was different, and again, I’d call it androgynous. It was more rounded out, and the cheekbones were just a little higher. I couldn't even recognize myself anymore…

I was brought out of my staring when I noticed Eve kept laughing and laughing, I had enough and decided to call her out on it.

“What’s so damn funny?”

“You...you…” She tried to say in between her fits of laughter, before she finally got the words out. “Now you’re a Copycat. Pfft-” she started giggling again.

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“Ha ha, very funny,” I say in an unenthusiastic tone, despite the small smile I found forming from that pun. Okay, maybe it was a little funny…

“Can you turn me back now so we can focus on the mission?” I say once her laughter starts to die down, despite me not really minding the new appearance. It was a breath of fresh air after all.

She straightened up, but looked at me with a smile. 

“I think you need to learn a lesson, so how about you go the rest of the mission like that. Now, let’s start heading towards their base.”

I sighed as she turned around and started to walk away. 

Why did I agree to this…

~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s been about twenty minutes, give or take, and I’m really starting to get annoyed by the new addition to my lower back. The novelty has already long worn off by this point, but Eve still refuses to remove it.

I guess cat ears and tails just don’t suit me. Not really that surprising I guess.

Well, if she won’t remove them then I guess it's up to me. Copying her power only takes a second, and she didn’t even realize when I activated it on her. Now it’s time for the hard part.

Actually using the damn thing.

She still hadn’t told me a single thing about how her powers actually work, so I mostly have to go off from what I've seen her do. 

…

...

Needless to say, after several minutes of trying to figure it out I got nowhere. I couldn’t remove the cat parts, and I couldn’t even make new illusions. This is why I hate copying complex powers, I can never seem to figure them out.

I even tried snapping my fingers like Eve does, but it didn’t help at all. Instead, it just gave away what I was doing. Eve started giggling to herself when she heard it.

“You know, you still haven’t explained to me your powers yet,” I said as I crossed my arms and frowned at her. “It was part of our deal, surely you haven’t already forgotten?”

“Hmmm,” She hummed as she walked, before glancing back at me. “How about we change that deal a little bit? You tell me about yours, and I tell you about mine.”

“What? No!” I exclaim in a frustrated tone, “Why should I tell you about mine? This isn’t what I agreed to!”

She stopped and looked back at me with a neutral expression.

“The real reason is because I just want you to talk about yourself. We’ve known each other for, what, two days now? You haven’t said a single thing about yourself willingly.”

I shrugged and looked away. “It’s not like I'm interesting, besides why do you even want to know? I thought I was just some thief you hired for the job.”

“I did plan on this just being a professional relationship at the start,” Eve started before she let out a loud sigh. “Then Skye suddenly wanted to be friends with you, and that kinda threw a wrench into the plans. So I’m just going to try and follow her lead, and who knows, maybe we’ll be friends too.”

I guess I wouldn’t hate that... Not like I have very many friends left these days, and they seem to be pretty okay. Minus the rocky start. If a friendship naturally starts, then I guess I’m fine with that.

Eve started moving down the tunnels once again, and I followed behind her.

“Still doesn’t explain why you need me to talk about my powers, doesn’t Skye have my file from the hero database? That should include practically everything you need to know.”

She nodded. “Yeah it does, and we’ve read it, but I still wanna hear it from the source. Let’s just call it a sign of trust, yeah?”

I sighed and tossed the idea around in my head for a moment or two. I guess I don’t lose anything by telling them, and it’s not like my powers are hard to figure out…

Okay, might as well let it all out.

“I can copy other people's powers if they are within sight. It lasts for about an hour, give or take depending on the power and how often I use it. The more complex the power, the harder it is for me to use it right away.” I let out a sigh at the end. “And that’s all of it. Any questions?”

She put her hand to her chin and hummed to herself for a moment.

“Is it only one power at a time? Have you tested that out?” She asked.

“Yes, I can. And no, I won’t ever do it again.” I say as I felt a cold shiver go through my body as the memories came back, from the time I tested that out.

“Huh, why’s that?” She asked with a worried tone. “Does it hurt or something? You make it sound pretty bad.”

“No it doesn’t hurt but…” I started, but I couldn't really find the right words. “Let’s just say that it puts me into a...well battle crazy state. I have a theory that the more powers I copy at once will make me crazier and crazier, though I’ve only tested two powers. When I last tested it out I could feel my mind and sanity drain away, and I refuse to go through that again.”

“Damn…” She said quietly, and a small silent moment passed as we traveled through the sewer. “Rest assured, I don’t plan on ever asking you to do something like that. Even if the situation turns dire.”

“...thank you.” I said as we turned a corner, “What about your powe-” I tried to say before she held up a hand and cut me off.

“We’re here.”