“Give him hell,” Skye stated in a cold, furious tone. 

I smirked. “Of course, I didn’t get hired for nothing after all.”

“He’s a sick bastard. Out of all the members of the Phantoms, he’s the one I despise the most. Teach him a lesson for me, you two.”

“You got it, Ghost,” Eve said in a confident tone.

“Are you done chatting yet?” Doctor asked before he motioned toward his followers. “Tie them up and ready them for delivery to the lab. Be rough with them if you have to, just make sure not to kill them. I tire of my experiments dying on me before I'm finished with them.”

The three followers start cautiously walking towards us, guns in hand, as Doctor turns towards the door and holds his palm out. A moment later, a large blast of ice explodes out of his hand that blocks off the door with a large pillar of ice.

“There, now you won’t think about escaping.” He said in an emotionless tone.

I had to hold back from laughing in disbelief. The idiot actually showed me his power right away! No waiting around just to see what he does like I did when I fought Eve. This will be a piece of cake.

“Uhh, boss? How are we supposed to get out now?” One of the minions turned around and said, before he got slapped in the back of the head by the second minion.

“Shut it, idiot! We got a job to do.”

“Sorry, Dave.” The first minion said.

Good thing his minions were incompetent. I was able to copy Doctor’s powers before they reached me, and then I brought my palm up in a manner similar to what he just did. The minions saw my movement and freaked out, they brought their guns up and quickly fired.

In response I created a solid wall of ice in front of me and Eve, blocking the shots. The ice was thick enough that the bullets got lodged in them long before they reached us. I couldn’t see the Doctor, which was a bit disappointing. I wish I could have seen his reaction to me copying his powers.

I heard the minions curse and they started to run around the ice wall. As the first one appeared around the wall, he was immediately knocked back by Eve wielding a baseball bat. 

“You handle Doctor, I’ll take on the small fry!” She exclaimed as she conjured up a thick metal shield in front of her that blocked an incoming shot.

...I think we're going to need to have a conversation on being a bit more creative with her powers. Surely she can do better than a bat and a shield…

I dropped the ice wall and turned towards the Doctor, who just stared at me with a neutral expression. Is there nothing that surprises him? You’d think he’d show something at least…

He created a large floating spear of ice, and with a flick of his wrist, it was sent flying towards me. I copied him and sent my own spear. The two met in the middle and shattered into thousands of pieces. Covering the floor with small tiny bits of ice.

He tried to send a wave of ice towards me, it slid across the floor as it targeted my feet. Yet again, I copied him and our attacks canceled out in the middle. He tried using both at the same time, but we canceled each other yet again.

I grinned when I saw his eye twitch. Seems like I’m finally starting to get under his skin.

“Having some trouble there Doctor?” I taunted with a cheeky tone. I couldn’t help it, the persona I made for Mimica was just too fun to use.“You seem to be getting a little upset, maybe you should cool down.”

“Let’s see if that attitude of yours changes with this.” He said as he reached into his coat and pulled out a small syringe filled with a familiar red liquid. “I hope you’re not afraid of needles. If you stay still then you won’t even feel a thing.”

“You’ll have to reach me first.”

He ignored my taunt as he moved the syringe into his left hand while he pointed his right hand down to the ground. A second later, and a long piece of ice started to form in his hands. It formed into a long blade, and he gripped it near the bottom. 

It was so cold that a faint mist of ice was constantly surrounding the blade. He swung the blade through the air several times at an incredible speed. Once he was done showing off he started to slowly walk toward me, and I only had one thought.

I'm staying the hell away.

Between the syringe and the ice sword, which I admit is pretty cool, makes me really want to keep my distance. I very much prefer long sharp things to be pointed away from my body, please and thank you.

I conjured up a few icicle spears and quickly threw them at him, only for him to dodge the first few then block the last one with his sword. Shit, this isn’t working…

I glanced back towards Eve to see her cleaning up the last of the minions. She was breathing heavily but she didn’t look wounded. Just exhausted. Which means I’m probably going to have to finish this on my own.

My eyes widened as a devilish idea suddenly appeared. This might work.

“Trick, go hide!” I exclaimed as I turned back to Doctor and started conjuring ice around me. I heard Eve run into the secret room behind me, and I could only hope that it would be safe enough.

Let’s see...if a couple of icicles won’t work…

Then how about a couple hundred icicles? Simple I know, but I can’t imagine controlling all of them at the same time will be easy…

He was nearly on top of me when I decided to start letting the icicles rain down. They were much smaller than the ones from before, but still very much a threat. They were just a little larger than needles, but there were hundreds flying at the exact same time.

Let's see if he can block these.

It was taking all of my concentration to keep continuously making the ice needles at the rate they were being sent off. I could feel it getting harder and harder to keep my breath steady, and my vision was starting to blur.

But it was working. 

Little by little, he was being pushed back towards the wall opposite of the frozen door. He had his arms in an X position in front of his face as he tried to block the ice from raining down upon him. Small cuts appeared all along his body, and his lab coat was being shredded to pieces.

Eventually, though, all good things had to come to an end. I dropped down to one knee as my body was vehemently refusing to stand any longer, the barrage of ice needles ended shortly after. Guess I went a little far…

I looked over to see that Doctor was in a very similar state, he was bleeding all over the place and he was struggling to keep standing up. But he wasn’t finished off yet, and if I don’t end it here then...well I’d rather not think about it.

I couldn’t bring myself to stand, so I decided to conjure my next, and final, icicle while I was still kneeling. This time, I decided to give it a little present to help it on its journey. Once the icicle was floating near me I started to mentally make it spin. 

Over, and over, and over again.

By the time I was done forcing it to spin in place it was making a slight whistling noise. Once I was confident I had done all I could, I let it go and it shot out at an insane speed. The spinning helped it fly through the air without restraints, until it reached the Doctor.

He blocked it with his blade, and for just a second I was devastated that he blocked it, but then it continued on. It broke the blade in two and slammed onto the villain at high speeds. It was strong enough that it sent him flying, straight through the brick wall behind him.

Dust and debris followed after him, and it took a moment for it all to settle. Revealing a tunnel on the other side of the wall, and the villain on the ground covered in debris. He wasn’t getting up, so I sighed in relief as the exhaustion finally took over.

I collapsed onto the ground face first...ow

I noticed I could no longer feel the ice power inside me, did I really go through all of it in a single fight? While I was thinking this I heard Eve running up towards me from behind.

“Jas- Mimica, are you okay!?” She said as she leaned down to help me up.

“Y-*cough*-yeah. I’m good...I think.” 

“Oh, thank god…” She said with a sigh of relief. “Are you capable of walking? We really shouldn’t stay here, especially in your state.”

I shook my head at her. “I doubt I can go very far, my limbs feel like jelly right now.”

She nodded but did something I didn’t expect. She reached over and grabbed my arm, and pulled me on top of her back.

“H-hey!? W-what are you doing!” I exclaimed as she stood up, keeping me in place on her back.

“It’s a piggyback ride.”

“I know that! Why are you doing this!?”

“You’re injured.” She said with a tone of confusion, “We need to get out of here and you can’t walk, so what’s the issue?”

Sigh…

“I guess nothing…” I mutter, “Just wish you told me beforehand.”

And that she didn’t do it at all...I feel like a child right now.

“You’ll be fine, I’m much stronger than you think.” She said as she started going towards the tunnel where our foe lies. 

“...is he dead?” I ask as I look at his unmoving body. Eve leans down and looks him over, before standing back up and moving down the tunnel.

“He’ll live...sadly…” She said with a cold tone.

I sighed in relief. I may be a thief, and a technical villain, but I’m no murderer. That’s a line I’ll never cross if I can help it. 

...but with villains like him? It’ll be hard to hold back enough that I don’t kill them, but don’t hold back enough that I lose the fight.

But now that I'm thinking more on the fight I just had…

"Hey Trick," I asked her as she walked down the tunnel.

"Yeah?"

"Are all of the Phantoms like this?" I said with a tone of disbelief. "Freezing the door instead of calling for aid, showing his power right off the bat, walking slowly at me when he could have ran. Are they all idiots like him?"

She shook her head.

"Not idiots, just overconfident. They're the biggest villain group in town and have been for several years now. There really hasn't been anyone else who can fight them, except for a few heroes."

"I see…" I said. She nodded before she turned on her communicator.

“Ghost, we’re heading out. Mimica defeated Doctor and I got the spirits secured.” Eve said.

“Good job! I’ll send Tami to pick you two up once you hit street level.” Skye said in a cheerful but relieved tone, “See you top side.”

“So?” Eve asked as she carried me down the tunnel, “How’d you feel about your first mission?”

I sighed.

“...stressful.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

Eve dispelled her illusions as we made our way home. I was a little disappointed that I lost the androgynous face and voice, but I was at least glad to see the cat features go away.

I can see why some people would rather keep it, but personally, I'm not a fan.

Once we got home Eve and Tami helped me inside the cafe and then all the way to the nearest booth. It was still nighttime, so the place was closed. Which I was glad for, if others saw my embarrassing state of being carried in like that I would have died of shame.

Once I was sat down, I noticed Skye rushing over towards our table.

“You good?” She asked me with a worried tone, “You’re not injured are you?”

I shook my head. “Just exhausted, I’ll be right as new soon enough.”

“That’s good.” She said with a sigh, before turning towards Eve. “What about you?”

“I’m fine,” She said as she laid the briefcase on the table, “but more importantly, check out what we brought back.”

She clicked open the case, showing the five blue vials and the small stack of documents on top. Skye’s eyes went wide as she saw it. She instantly shut the case and picked it up off the table.

“Goingtogostudyitseeyouwhenimdone.” She said as she rushed out of the cafe, going through the staff door and heading down to her lab.

Eve sighed once she was gone.

“I knew she was gonna do something like that…” She turned to me, “She’ll be like that for a while, probably won’t even leave the lab until she’s done examining every last bit.”

I nodded, and then decided to make my move now that the action has died down.

“Don’t you think it’s about time?” I asked her.

“For what?” She asked with a raised eyebrow.

“To tell me everything. About your powers, about the spirits, and about why you’re fighting the Phantoms.”

She nodded, but then looked down at the table. A few moments passed where she didn’t look back up, so I gave her a chance to gather her thoughts.

She sighed.

“Where to begin…”