The girl in front of me might as well have been my polar opposite, and it was irritating.

Where she had long flowing light brown hair, I had short scraggly dark brown hair that desperately needed a good combing.

Where she had a tall, confident figure, I was more like a child to her. She's teased me before about how I constantly have to look up at her.

She was always bright and upbeat, walking through life in stride. While I was….me.

Her name was Rachel, and I always hated meeting with her. Not because I hated her, far from it. She's one of the only friends I have left, but there was always that weird feeling whenever we met.

The feeling of 'Maybe, if the world was just slightly different, this is what I could've been.' 

We looked similar enough that we could probably pass as relatives, even though I'm pretty confident we aren't. And that feeling always made me...envious?

At least I think so. 

I could never really understand why I was envious of her. Maybe it was the fact that she is successful in life, that she has a place to call home, that she isn't broke like me. It could have been any of these things.

But I had a feeling that those weren't it.

There was something...more… that I just couldn't put my finger on. Something else that made me envious…

The small quiet voice in the back of my mind had an answer, but as usual, I ignored it. Honestly, I have too much on my plate as it is to worry about it right now.

I was pulled out of my train of thought, as Tami appeared with another cup of coffee. She placed it down in front of Rachel, who accepted it with a smile.

"Thanks, Tam." She said as she took a small drink, before letting out a satisfied sigh. "Good as always. Kinda baffles me as to how you remember everyone's order. I can't even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday!"

She smiled, then lightly tapped the side of her head. Likely just her saying she has a good memory, at least I think that's what she's meant.

As soon as she was away from the table, Rachel slumped over and laid her head on the table. She let out a big, probably over-exaggerated, sigh. She may as well have had a giant flashing sign above her head that just screamed ‘ask me what's up please.’

“Something bothering you?” I asked as I took a sip of coffee. 

She nodded her head before starting, her speech coming out slightly muffled as she kept the side of her face pressed to the table.

“Work sucked today, more so than usual.” She said as she stared at the side of her mug. “Sometimes I wonder why I'm still working there...Like I enjoy what we do, but the work hours are long and the pay sucks.”

“What happened today?” 

“They had me running around all over today! I swear I barely have the time to even breathe before they force even more work on me. Like we couldn’t even catch M-” She said before she stopped suddenly. 

A moment of uncomfortable silence passed before I spoke up.

“Catch what?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. She jolted up from the sound, her eyes swimming around and refusing to look at me.

“Uhm...uh…” She started as she scratched the side of her cheek, her words coming out slowly as if she didn’t know what to say. “We uh...couldn’t catch...uh...couldn’t catch up...to our quota!” She finally exclaimed.

“Your quota?”

“Yep!” She confirmed with an overly enthusiastic nod. “Falling behind on our daily quota, at this rate we’ll never reach our deadline. You know how it is.”

“I’d probably have a better idea if you actually told me where you worked, Rachel,” I said with a sigh, ignoring that feeling of being a little hypocritical here. If she knew what I did for a living she’d probably be upset with me. 

Can’t imagine anyone would be happy with their friend being a villainous thief. Even if I don’t call myself that, but you can’t stop the heroes and the media from doing their thing. Like sure, I steal, but they paint me as some mustache-twirling evil villain. I'm not out here trying to build a death ray or something cliche like that, not that they care about the truth, I just steal to survive.

Plus, I don't even like having a mustache.

I couldn’t help but be worried that my friend had managed to find herself a shady, and possibly dangerous job….Let’s just ignore the fact that I'm just describing my ‘job’.

“Uhhh...would you look at the time!” She nervously exclaimed as she stood up, “Sorry gotta go was nice talking to you see you later okay goodbye.” she said, her words going at a mile per minute as she briskly walked towards the cafe door.

“Rachel!” I exclaimed as I jumped out of my seat, causing her to stop in place before I continued in an apologetic tone. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry like that.”

She turned around and gave a friendly smile as she spoke.

“It’s fine, really. I do wish I could tell you what I do for a living, but it's better for the both of us if you didn’t know. It’s nothing bad though, I promise you.”

“As long as you're safe,” I said as I gave her a concerned look. “I just don’t want to lose my only friend…”

“Aww…” She started, “I promise you that I'm staying safe.”

“That’s good,” I said with a nod, relieved that she’s not in danger. Unless she’s lying, but I trust her to tell the truth.

“But seriously, I do need to go. It’s getting late and I have a few things to take care of before I head home for the night. I’ll catch you some other time Jason, so don’t go getting in trouble!” She exclaimed as she waved at me.

“See you later Rachel,” I said as I waved back. 

Once she left the building I went back and sat in the booth, before I realized something important.

She forgot to pay!

~~~~~~~~~

Eventually, I left the cafe for the night with my wallet a whole two coffees lighter. I felt bad for Tami that she left like that, so I paid for her coffee in her place. Mostly cause I still kinda blamed myself for causing her to run off like that.

If only I hadn’t pried like that. 

I sighed as I finally made it home, and plopped down on my bed. I stared blankly at the TV as I sorted out my thoughts.

And by home I meant the city park.

And by bed I meant park bench.

And by TV I meant people watching.

It’s gonna have to do for now, until I either make it big from a heist or get lucky some other way. I could probably bring more money in if I did more traditional old school heists.

Like robbing a gas station or a grocery store.

But whenever I thought of actually doing that, I always felt that it was wrong to do so. It wasn’t right to trouble and possibly traumatize a poor cashier like that. They already get treated terribly by customers, no need for me to add onto that.

So instead I decided to try and only rob those I deem more fitting. The greedy businesses across town are one of my primary targets. I try to keep a mental checklist of the ones that treat their employees harshly, and those tend to be the ones I go after.

Though that kinda leaves me lacking in the cash department.

Sometimes I also try to look for shady places or people, those that work in the dark. They tend to attract the worst of the worst of humanity, and I have no issues stealing from them either.

Like the guy over there who randomly set his briefcase down and kept walking, only for another guy to walk past him and pick it up.

Yeah, something like that….

Wait…

Seriously? Right in front of me? Are they even trying to not raise suspicion?

Like seriously, if I was a hero they’d be in trouble right about now. Luckily for them though, I'm not a hero.

Unluckily for them, I’m not a hero. Which lets me play by my own rules.

Let’s just see where they're going~.

~~~~~~~~~

I followed the guy with the briefcase for quite a while, making sure that I was well out of sight. Unlike him and his buddy, I knew how to not raise suspicion so easily.

I was peeking out of an alleyway when he finally stopped at a large warehouse that looked like it had been abandoned for quite a while. He walked in through one of the side doors before leaving my sight.

Seriously? This is the most cliche hideout spot of all time...that's great.

If they can’t even pick a more original hideout, then these guys are probably just some small-time gang. Or something similar at least. Either way, it was something I could probably sneak through. I doubt they had the security to stop me.

If they were a villain group though…

Let's just say I wouldn’t even think about taking a step inside. Well, maybe not without being extra careful at least.

Villain teams aren’t something to be taken lightly. I don’t want to even imagine what they’d do to me if they caught me.

Death would probably be a better alternative.

Well either way, I think I’ve spent enough time waiting. Time to go see how our briefcase friend is doing. I dug out my mask and hoodie and quickly slipped them on.

"I'd be careful in there if I were you,"

I tensed and quickly turned around. When did someone get behind me!?

A tall woman with fiery red hair was standing in the darkness of the alley, wearing a long simple black dress.

"Who are you?" I prepared myself for a fight, using my powers to copy hers and…

She's powerless? Huh.

"No one important," she smiled and turned her gaze towards the warehouse. "Just someone waiting for the excitement to start. I'm quite bored this time of night."

"Excitement?" I stepped back and lowered my fists.

She nodded. "There's always some to be had at night like this. Specton is a very active city after all. Always something new around the corner, always someone new to step into the spotlight."

She chuckled and walked out of the alley, before turning in the opposite direction of the warehouse. 

"And I think it's time for a new actor on this stage." She said mysteriously as she left.

I stood there stunned at the encounter. Who was she? A hero? An innocent civilian with a thing for danger and thrills?

A smarter person than me would have walked away tonight. Just meeting a suspicious woman like her would have any sane thief giving up and going home.

I am neither smart, rich, nor sane. I've been running low on cash really bad lately, I need a job like this.

Hopefully, the rest of the night goes smoothly.

I sighed, then carefully walked towards the warehouse door. Turning the handle as gently and slowly as I could when I reached it. Luckily, it barely made any noise at all as I opened it and squeezed in. I closed the door behind me and took in the sight.

This...this isn’t a warehouse…

I expected a giant open space, probably filled with boxes and maybe some machinery. But that is far from what I saw.

Instead, I saw a long hallway with dimmed lights and a low roof. There were several doors along the hall, leading to multiple different rooms. 

I shook off my shocked expression, before tip-toeing down the long hallway. It split off in two directions, and when I looked down the right I saw the man with the briefcase opening one of the doors. 

Luckily, his back was to me. So he hadn’t spotted me yet. 

He walked right into the room, the light spilling out into the hallway before he closed the door behind him. From that brief glance I saw, the room seemed to be much bigger than I had expected. 

I snuck up to the door, and put my ear up against it. I didn’t hear anything, so I very carefully inched the door open. I looked through the crack in the door, and couldn’t see the briefcase guy, so I opened it a little more and slid in. I closed the door behind me and once again took a quick look at my surroundings.

This room looked much more like a warehouse than the rest of the place. It was filled with boxes and shelves that lined the walls, and a lot of the floor. There was only a single light that was turned on, and it hung right in the middle of the room.

Right where the briefcase guy was at. He had a cell phone to his ear and the briefcase lay on a table in front of him. 

I snuck around to the side of the room, using the boxes and the shadows to my advantage, as I listened in on his call.

“Yes Boss.” He said in a deep rough voice. “The package has been delivered….yes, we’ll be keeping an eye on it until the transaction….yes boss….yes….will do boss…”

I’m starting to think that the only thing this guy can say is 'yes boss'. 

The guy ended the call with his boss, and looked ready to just sit there and guard the thing, until the door I came in through slammed open.

“Dave!” The new guy exclaimed as he rushed in, slightly panting as he spoke. “Dave, there’s an intruder!”

Shit! Have I been caught!? Did that woman come back and rat me out!? I knew I shouldn't have come in here. Time to get out of-

“Where are they!?” Dave asked as my heart pounded in my chest...This isn’t good. I don’t know if these guys even have powers for me to steal from…

“They're near the front! Dude, It’s some kind of robot!” 

Wha-...A robot?

So am I...not caught…? That’s a big relief if so.

“Let’s go, we can’t let them get inside. I’ll call for backup as we go.” Dave said as they both left the room in a hurry.

I waited until I heard their footsteps fade out as they ran towards the other intruder, before I got up and headed over towards the briefcase. Weird that there would be two people breaking in on the same day, bad luck for them I guess.

And bad luck for the other intruder as well, since I beat them to the punch. This briefcase is now all mine.

I laid the briefcase down on its side, before clicking it open. Let’s see what we got~

What…

...the hell…?

There was no money inside the briefcase like I hoped. Instead, there was just a single thing surrounded by black styrofoam.

That thing was a needle, filled with a weird bright red liquid.

It didn’t look like blood, it was too light colored for that. But I still had no idea just what it was. I picked it up and held it in my hand as I inspected it. Is this some kind of new drug? A weapon maybe? What the hell is-

I slammed the briefcase lid shut as I heard the door open behind me, I panicked and turned around. The briefcase held in one hand, and the vial in my other hidden behind my back. I started to look for a place to hide, before I heard a feminine voice start speaking.

“Thanks for the distraction Ghost, give Tami my thanks. I’ve reached the storage room, it should be around here-” She started saying, one hand up to her ear, before her eyes locked with mine.

We eyed each other for a moment, taking in each other’s stances and slight movements. She was dressed in a dark t-shirt, covered by an open jacket, her light blonde hair tied into a ponytail, and she was wearing tight blue jeans. 

It was a...well, out of place outfit for being this deep into, what I assume, is gang territory. Are they just lost, or are they a hero with a really bad disguise. She wasn’t even wearing a mask!

“So?” I asked in a cautious voice, as I kept my eyes on her. “Who are you? And why are you here?”

She lightly chuckled, taking a few light steps towards me. I narrowed my eyes at her and tried to find an escape route in case things got ugly.

“I should be asking you the same question. What are you doing here, Mimic-Man?”

This again?

“It’s Mimica!” I exclaimed with a frown. Why do people keep getting this wrong! Can’t they tell how much better Mimica sounds!?

But this only grew my suspicion of her being a hero, I wouldn’t imagine I’d be that popular with anyone but them at the moment. Even villains probably had no idea I existed.

What made things worse, is that I had no idea who this was. I know what the majority of the heroes in this city do, thanks to the news and internet, but there were still a few who I didn’t know much about.

And unknown heroes are the biggest threat to me at the moment. 

How am I supposed to copy their powers, if I don’t even know what they did? My best bet would be to just copy it and hope it's a simple power. Something like Silver Fist's power that just made him stronger would be great.

So that’s what I did. I copied her powers, and tried to figure out what they did as she started talking.

“Sorry about that,” She said with a surprisingly apologetic tone, which weirded me out. Heroes aren’t normally the type to feel anything but hatred towards ‘villains’ like myself. “Let me ask again, properly this time.”

“What are you doing here, Mimica?” She said as she stopped about ten or so feet in front of me.

I scoffed and tried to buy myself some time to think.

“Oh you know, just going out to buy some milk and eggs. Running low at home you see.”

“Funny.” She said with a deadpan expression, before it dropped. Replaced by a disappointed one instead. “You know, we had high hopes for you. We thought you were one of the good ones, someone who we could see eye to eye with. To think you would fall so far like this, that you would join them.”

“I’m afraid you’ve lost me, I didn’t join anyone,” I said as I raised an eyebrow in confusion. I was really struggling to figure out her power, but at this point I can safely say that her power isn’t a simple one. Great. Fantastic.

Which means I’d have to either guess how her powers work, which is incredibly dangerous, or wait for her to actually use them before I can do anything with them.

Which basically means, I’m at an incredible disadvantage. And with only one exit, with her standing between me and the door, means I can’t even run away either.

I really should have just walked away.

“Say what you want, it doesn’t matter. Just hand over the briefcase and I won’t hurt you.” She said with a cold, demanding tone.

Heh, as if I’d listen to a hero. The second I give her this case I guarantee she’ll try to capture me too. She isn’t the first hero to try this, and she won’t be the last. I’m not getting caught this easy.

I threw the briefcase at her and booked it towards the door, the vial still in my other hand. It had to be important, I’m not interested in selling drugs or even using them, but my curiosity still peaked either way.

And well… let's just say that when a kleptomaniac like me sees something unique like this…

I can't not take it.

I had no idea if the briefcase even hit her, but I kept running. I was about halfway to the door when I felt something hit me, painlessly, but weirdly causing me to stop in place. 

The world exploded into a blinding white light not even a second later, and I had to bring my free hand up to shield my eyes. My feet refused to move despite my best efforts. When the light started to fade I was greeted by an empty void.

Gone was the warehouse, gone was the hero, and gone was the vial in my other hand. Instead, I was now in an empty dark void.

I turned around and around, my breathing getting unsteady as my eyes refused to focus. The hell was her power!? Am I...am I dead?

Is this the afterlife? What the hell happened-

But all my thoughts stopped when my eyes saw her.

Someone I abandoned long ago. 

Something I thought I grew out of...

A single girl stood there. A sad, pitiful expression on her face as she smiled gently at me. She stood just a few inches shorter than me, her brown hair much longer than mine. Her face was rounded and cute but also familiar, almost like she was my sister. 

But she couldn’t be, I never had siblings. 

She was almost like a younger, shorter Rachel.

But it wasn’t her. It couldn’t be her. Cause I knew who this was...

It was her…

It was…

...me.