“Are you sure this is the place…?” I ask as I peek out of the alley. My disguise was active, thankfully without any of the feline parts this time.

“If what we got from their sewer base is true, then this should be where they’re making the spirits,” Skye said through our communicators.

“Doesn’t seem like it…” Eve mutters.

We found ourselves in one of the most deserted parts of town, rarely anyone lived here anymore and I could clearly see why. 

All the way up and down this street was abandoned homes, businesses, and other buildings. Our target, an abandoned hospital, was no different. The brick walls were covered in cracks and mold, and all the windows were boarded to hell and back. There was absolutely no way to see inside, so who knows if this is actually a Phantom base or not.

“Just trust me on this.” Skye begged, “I haven’t been wrong yet have I?”

“I guess not…” I sighed. Can’t we just break into a normal place for once? First sewers, now spooky abandoned hospitals? “So what’s the plan then Ghost?”

"You two will be splitting up, and yes before you say anything I am already aware that sounds like a bad idea. This will basically be a hit-and-run mission, so we don't want to be inside longer than we need to. I need you, Mimica, to investigate the top floor and try to find anything that can help us pinpoint their next base. Trick on the other hand has a very important job in the basement."

I look towards Eve who’s in her illusion disguise and carrying a large backpack. 

“And what’s that?”

She smirked. “An early Christmas present.”

I sighed. Eve and her surprises I swear...would it kill the girl to tell me what’s going on for once. Oh well, at least I have an easy job this time. 

I decided to copy her power, might as well have something to defend myself in case I can’t find a villain to copy. I’ll just drop the power when I find a replacement, that way I can avoid those side effects of having two copied powers.

Now to just ignore that small thought in the back of my mind, the one begging me to use the powers for...a more personal reason. Sigh. Just how long is that other me going to be affecting me like this…

But now's not the time for this.

“Trick, give me like five or so minutes before you go in,” I said as I turned to look at the hospital. “I think I have a plan.”

“Since you’re wearing that new gear I can tell her the perfect time to go in. I can see what you see after all.” Skye said with a proud tone. Guess she’s pretty happy with the gear she made me, though I am as well. 

“See you after this is over,” Eve said with a slightly worried expression on her face. “Be careful, this can get pretty dangerous. If a villain shows up, don't be afraid to run..”

I nodded, before starting to walk down the street toward the hospital. As I neared the front entrance I decided to try out my plan, to use Eve’s power to give myself a new disguise. One of the guards from our last mission would do nicely, surely I could just walk right in and they wouldn’t even suspect a thing.

It took a moment for the illusion to take over my last disguise, and then just like that I was suddenly a couple inches taller and a bit more bulky than I was before. 

Bleh. Guess it’s not just my normal body that’s uncomfortable, since this one is pretty bad as well. 

I walked through the front door only to see that there were absolutely no guards or anything even resembling that people were here recently. This place looked just as run down as it does from outside. Was Skye wrong after all?

I took a few steps forward but paused when I swear I saw movement from around the corner. I tentatively took another step forward only to see a man quickly turn the corner and raise a gun towards me.

Before I could even do anything he lowered the gun and sighed out in relief.

“It’s just you Dave, why didn’t you use the code word? I nearly shot you just now you know?”

Shit, of course the first guard I find knows who my disguise is.

“Sorry about that, the boss has been giving me some pretty complicated jobs lately. It’s been leaving me a bit out of it.” I lied, hopefully the guard falls for it.

“It’s fine, we’re pretty used to you at this point.” The guard says with a smile. “It’s why we call you ‘Distracted Dave’ after all.”

He walked over and patted me on the shoulder.

“Let me guess, thinking about Julie again aren’t you?” He said as he chuckled. “Sorry, I probably shouldn’t be joking around on duty. Boss probably won’t be too happy if I hold you up from whatever you need to do. But hey! Good news is that with all these big jobs maybe you just might get that promotion you’ve been wanting!”

“Yeah, here's hoping.” C’mon just let me go already. “If you excuse me, I really need to go report to the boss.”

He nodded. “Of course, of course. Cya later Dave.” 

I nodded back and started to walk down the hall before he called out.

“Dave! You’re going the wrong way! Boss’s room is down the other hall and up the stairs. C’mon, you should know this.”

“Right, of course.” I turned around and started walking down the hall as the guard laughed and made another joke about Distracted Dave.

I let out a small sigh of relief once he was out of sight. Well, guess Skye was right after all…

“This plan of yours is actually going well so far, nice job,” Skye spoke up through the communicator. I didn’t respond as I didn’t want to be accidentally caught speaking to myself if another guard showed up.

As I walk down the hall I pass a few other guards. Most of them greeted ‘Dave’ as I passed by, but I only responded with a nod. I have a feeling if I continue talking I’ll eventually get found out. I’m more surprised that the first guard didn’t notice something was off.

While I was traveling through the hospital I kept a look out for their spirit manufacturing stuff. I assume that’s what we’re here to destroy. Sadly, I couldn’t find anything that would fit such a description.

After going up some stairs I reached the door to the boss’s room, if that guard was telling the truth. What better place to have information than here? It was locked, but thanks to my new pair of lockpicks it was a trivial task to get it open. Even if it took me a couple minutes. I opened the door to reveal...an empty cafeteria. 

This didn't seem right…

I walked in slowly and cautiously as I took a look at my surroundings. Most of the tables were missing so most of the room was just plain empty. Did the guard lie to me? Was this a-

"You really shouldn’t be here."

I quickly spun, only to see Nova standing there with her arms crossed. I almost felt the urge to tell her to stop following me, but well…

This is her team's base after all. Technically, I followed her.

"Nova's here? Do you need me to call Trick for backup?" Skye worriedly asked through the communicator.

I shook my head no and focused on the villain in front of me.

"I'm serious, someone like you could get hurt here. I'm already dealing with enough as it is, so just go home before trouble shows up."

"How'd you know who I was?" I asked her as I raised my fists. Despite her words of telling me to leave, I didn’t trust her for a second. 

"Dave is still recovering in the sickbay at another location, you did quite the number on him, Trick. I thought vigilantes like you would go a bit easier on the minions at least."

Wait... hold on…

“She thinks you're Trick…?” Skye mutters as she watches on. 

If that’s the case, then how about a little surprise for her? Let’s just drop Eve’s powers and...wait, hold on…

If I used my own illusion on top of hers...what happens when I dispel my illusion…?

I look down at my hand and let just that small part of the illusion fade away, only to reveal my hand. Not the androgynous, and maybe slightly feminine, hand from my normal disguise. No, it was my normal hand.

This is bad…

If I drop Eve’s powers then that means I’m dropping my illusion, then I’m suddenly standing in a villain base in my civilian identity. I don’t think I need to explain just how many levels of screwed I’d be if I let that happen. Just why did I have to act all cool and use that stupid plan. 

If I hadn’t disguised myself I wouldn’t be in this problem, I would be able to use Eve’s disguise and be able to copy the villain's powers.

Stupid. 

...but this is salvageable...maybe…

I can fight with just Eve’s powers, if she can do so then why can’t I? Nova was powerless, if we came to fight then surely I'd have the upper hand.

Right?

The sound of a door opened, and I quickly looked towards it in hopes that Eve somehow made it to my rescue, but as I expected, it wasn’t her. Walking towards us was the large macho man from the sewers, Brute I think he was called. 

Behind him was a tall man wearing a jet-black villain costume with red accents. A part of me was thankful that at least one member of the Phantoms had an actual normal villain costume, but the other part of me was really regretting my decisions that made me stand in front of three villains.

“Boss.” Nova turned towards him and did a small bow. Weird, she was acting differently now. I didn’t take her for the kind to bow over like that.

“So that’s him…”Skye muttered over the communicator in surprise. “That's Shade…”

He reached Nova and stood right next to her as he turned towards me.

“So, Trick is it? I admit, I’ve been impressed with how far you’ve come. To think that the thorn in our side for well over a year now would finally make it this far. Except for so long you were always so hard to keep track of, disappearing for weeks or months at times, only to show up once again whenever you please.”

Shade started circling me, keeping a small distance between the two of us, as he continued.

“What caused you to up your antics? No wait, let me guess. It has something to do with that new friend of yours, that copycat villain or whatever. Tell me, how much are you paying him to work for you?”

“Why do you want to know?” I asked with the fakest confidence I’ve ever had. I’m really screwed here aren’t I…

“Just a little more time, Mimica! Trick’s nearly done!” Skye spoke up.

“As fellow villains I figured I could offer him the chance at a much better job, one where his talents aren’t wasted with the likes of you.”

I scoffed. “He would never join you, not in a million years.”

The boss shook his head. “A shame then, but maybe I’ll just ask him myself. If I ever get the chance to meet him.”

He walked back up to Nova.

“C’mon darling, grab a seat and watch the show. It’s time for our little pest to be exterminated. Brute,” Shade looked towards the monster of a man. “Kill her.”

“Ok Boss.” He said with an enthusiastic nod, before turning towards me and charging.

I dodged to the side, only to have to dodge once again as he continued to try and run me over. This time he crashed straight into a brick wall, only to walk out unscathed. 

Great, this is an issue…

He ran up and started swinging at me this time, and as I dodged I tried summoning weapons to attack him with. I swung down a crowbar, only for it to bend against his body, leaving a giant dent in the illusion weapon.

I dispelled it and continued summoning the first thing that came to mind as he refused to let up. Baseball bat, a sword, a maul, and even a gun, but none of them even did as much as scratch the monster attacking me.

He swung and I tried to dodge, but he just barely grazed me. I was sent flying backward with my arm feeling an intense pain from where he barely hit me. 

If that was just a glancing blow then I don’t wanna imagine what kinda damage a full hit would do. I imagine it would likely lead me to a very early death. 

Am I going to have to break my only rule on my powers? At this rate I-

The fight paused as the entire building shook violently, nearly everyone's balance was thrown off and I had trouble even standing. Parts of the building were crumbling, and I could see some sunlight come in from some holes in the roof. 

The cafeteria was still in mostly one piece, as were the three villains in the room with me.

“She did it!” Skye exclaimed.

Shade pulled out a small radio and angrily pulled it up to his ear.

“The hell happened!?” He shouted into it.

“B-boss! It’s Mimic-Man! He’s down here and he’s destroyed everything boss! The manufacturing rooms are up in flames right now!” A panicked voice came from the other end of the radio.

Shade smashed the radio into pieces and quickly stood up. “Nova! We have another rat to deal with!” He exclaimed angrily. “A powerless like you is perfect against someone whose only tactic is to copy everything he sees.”

“Right Boss.” She said with a nod before she ran out of the room. 

“Brute! Kill her and come downstairs, stop playing with your food!” He said as he stomped out of the room.

“Ok Boss.” Brute responded as he cracked his neck side to side.