With the meeting coming to an end the three of us got out of our chairs and started to leave, before Rachel spoke up again.

"Mimica, can I speak to you? Privately." She glanced at Skye and Eve for a second.

Skye wasn't very happy about the idea of me being alone with the heroes, and trust me when I say I wasn't either.

I squeezed her hand and she stopped glaring at Rachel to look at me with a worried expression. 

"It'll be okay," I told her in an attempt to comfort her. "I'm sure it's just going to be a quick little conversation, and then we can go. I'm sure nothing bad will happen."

Her eyes darted back and forth from mine to the heroes, before she sighed. "Fine, but if they touch even a single strand of hair I'll-"

"C'mon, we're all friends here aren’t we? Just trust us a little, we promise not to harm your precious girlfriend…" Volti spoke up with a teasing grin as a small bolt of yellow lightning curved around her finger. "...much."

Rachel sighed. "Not helping here V."

Thanks to that it took me and Eve a little bit longer to convince Skye that Guardian had the best intentions and that I would be fine. Funnily enough, I was saying it to convince her just as much as to convince myself. Surely Rachel wouldn't do anything bad, right?

As they turned to leave, Eve stopped in front of me and, surprisingly, wrapped me up in a hug. "We'll be just outside in the lobby, just scream if you need help and we'll be right there."

I froze, I hadn’t expected Eve to do something like that or to be this close. "R-Right…"

She nodded, and with that, she and Skye left the room. Leaving me alone with four heroes…

Great. 

"Silver, Starlight. If you two could step out as well please." Rachel spoke up, causing Silver to look at her in surprise before his frown took over once again. He grumbled, but he and Starlight took their leave as well.

As soon as the door closed Rachel took off her mask and let out a sigh of relief.

"Finally it feels like I can breathe again. I absolutely hate these kinds of things." She looked toward me with an apologetic expression on her face. "I'm really sorry about Silver, for what he said during the meeting. It was uncalled for, especially since we should be working together."

I shrugged. "It's fine, I kinda expected that to happen when I got here." I glanced at Rachel and then to Volti. "So, uh, what did you need me for?"

"To help us figure out whose power you're gonna be copying," Volti explained with a gleeful smile. "Personally, I say you should totally copy mine. Just imagine the kinda chaos and fireworks two lighting girls could cause. Imagine the fun we could have."

"Basically what Volti said, minus the bit at the end." Rachel glanced at the young hero and shook her head, before turning back to me. "Your choices come down to my powers, Voltis, Silvers, or a villains. And correct me if I'm wrong, but the more complex the power the harder it is for you to use, right?"

I nodded. "Basically, yeah."

"Then taking that into account, I'd say the best would probably be to use Silvers super strength. Especially since mine and Volti's powers are probably a little complex, at least I assume so. However…" Rachel glanced at the other hero. "Maybe we can make it work."

She turned back to me. "How do you feel about having Volti teach you the ins and outs of her power? If I'm being honest, she's probably the strongest member of our team in terms of raw power. If you could copy her powers it would almost be like having two of her around. The Phantoms wouldn't stand a chance."

I'd be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in being able to throw lightning around, who wouldn't want that power? The issue was just how long it would take for Volti to explain her powers to me and teach me. Maybe we'd be lucky and they wouldn't take that long to learn, but there's still the chance it could take a while. We have to somehow fit that in before going to the Phantom base, and I also wanted to spend more time with Skye and Eve before tonight.

I'm worried that something could go wrong tonight, and that worry just makes me want to spend time with my friends in case the worst happens. 

I noticed as I contemplated my answer that Volti had taken her feet off the table and was now leaning forward in her seat. Eagerly awaiting my answer.

"This is hopefully the last fight against the Phantoms, I don't want to go into this without being as prepared as we can get. I don't want to be the reason that someone gets hurt," I started, before glancing at Volti. "So, if it's going to make a difference then I'll do it. I'll copy Voltis powers for the mission."

Volti jumped out of her seat. "Yesyesyes! Finally, it's about to get fun around here! Let's start right away!"

As she said that her whole body started to glow yellow as little bolts of lightning flicked off of her.

"V, what did I say about using your powers indoors?" Rachel warned with a stern frown.

"Oh c'mon Rayray, I won’t break anything," Volti spoke up only for Rachel's frown to intensify. "Fiiine, I'll only show her the basics. We'll go outside for the rest."

Rachel nodded, seemingly content with that compromise. She remained quiet as Volti started to explain her powers.

"So, my powers are a little weirder than most. There's a whole bunch of scientific mumbo jumbo about it but I wasn’t paying attention when they told me. You wouldn't believe just how boring it was. Just, uh, copy me and you'll see."

I did so and was a little surprised to see that I instantly started glowing like she was. Wasn't this supposed to be a more complicated power? I guess that saves us some time. However, her lightning felt...weird. My entire body felt great, surprisingly, but also incredibly tense. As if there was an abundance of energy trapped within me waiting to be let out.

I blinked as the feeling swirled around inside me. "Woah…"

Volti giggled. "See what I mean? My lightning is special. Normal heroes with elemental powers can only create and control their element. But me and you? We are lightning."

But, how? How did copying her power change my body? I've tried to borrow a few flying powers before but it never worked. It never gave me their wings so their powers might as well have been useless to me. It's not supposed to change my body like this.

Was she right? Was her power really just special?

She started to walk closer. "And since we're made of lightning it lets our bodies act differently. It draws all of our power into a core in our chest, and we draw from it to power our lightning.

"Specifically, the core is riiiight about…here." She put her finger on the upper part of my chest near my heart and-

Something happened. Something terrible.

The second her finger made contact I felt my body lock up as my lightning and hers started going crazy. Shocking the area around us as big bolts of lightning bounced between our bodies. The glow from my body started to merge with hers, causing the entire room to be engulfed in light. I felt my body being pulled towards her, as if we were merging into one. I started to faintly hear someone call my name…

Before everything faded to black.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I was a young girl named Jasmine. No, wait, that didn't sound right. Wasn't I called something else? I was sixteen, no that wasn't right either. 

What was going on with my head?

Right, I was Jasmine. Normal, powerless Jasmine who went to school and had friends and a loving family. Just an average girl struggling with grades and a social life. Doing my best at making friends and fitting in.

That was until my powers grew in. 

Nobody had expected it, I was assumed powerless at birth after all.  There was a chance it would grow during puberty my parents said, but it was better to not get my hopes up. Due to that, I wasn't prepared for the day they did show. I hadn't grown up with the power, I wasn't taught how to control it, and I wasn't told anything about how to keep it in check. 

The day that my lightning came to me, was also the same day that saw the end of my life as I knew it. 

I was hanging out with my friends after school on the day of my birthday, when suddenly my body began to explode outwards with uncontrollable lightning. Shocking my friends, destroying the school around me, and blowing the nearby electrical grid.

It was almost like a blur with the rest of what happened. By the time my powers settled down a hero had appeared and within minutes claimed I was a villain, an evil villain who attacked innocent kids.

But, I was innocent wasn’t I? I hadn't wanted to do any of what happened, but the hero didn't listen, he didn't want to believe that I didn't mean to hurt anyone. He would later apologize profusely for everything he did that day, and even grow to become something of a friend in time, but at the moment he was nothing but scary as he chased me down. I only barely managed to get away that day, my powers having boosted my speed to let me escape.

I tried to go home later that night and ask my parents for help, but when I arrived there was already a squad of police cars waiting in the driveway. My parents were standing at the front door, a shocked expression on their faces as they spoke with the police. Knowing that I didn't have anywhere else to go that wouldn't lead to my arrest, I ran.

My life on the run was filled with stressful emotional outbursts where my powers continued to run wild, attacking everything around me like a ferocious beast. So I kept to myself, hid as far from other people as I could while still living in the city.

Until she found me, the one person who could shield themselves from my uncontrollable lightning. 

The one hero who actually listened to me, who promised me that she knew people who could help me, promised to keep me safe until I learned my powers.

When she offered her hand to me I quickly took it, desperate to get some semblance of control back in my life. But despite everything I had gone through, despite me disliking my powers for what they put me through, despite my fears for that earlier hero, I still had one question for her.

The question all kids dreamt of.

"Can I be a hero like you?"

Guardian smiled, she opened her mouth to speak and-

~~~~~~~~~~~

I felt myself being quickly repelled out and away from Volti. We were both out of breath and staring at each other with wide eyes.

What the hell just happened...?

"That…was something…" She muttered as she tried to control her breathing.

"...yeah…"

I noticed Rachel was standing nearby glancing at us with a panicked expression. "Are you two okay? What happened?"

"We, uh, shared memories…? Somehow?" Volti said with a confused expression. Oh god, she knows my identity doesn't she? Is this it? Am I screwed?

"So…you know my real name then?" Please say no, please say no.

"Yeah," Damn it. "I mean, I assume you found out mine as well? So if you want, we can both agree to try and forget about it."

I nodded. "Please."

She nodded back as her face twisted further in confusion. "There was also a girl in there I think? Or maybe I was seeing things. She looked kinda like you, and she said she was going to help us split apart again. I dunno, my head's swimming right now."

Volti saw Ashley!? That's great! That means she's still in there and she hasn't vanished. Now I just have to figure out why she can't talk to me right now.

"Right, I think I need a few minutes to mentally recover from what just happened," Volti sighed as she sat down in her chair, her body slowly stopping itself from being a yellow glowstick. "We can continue once my mind isn't swimming in circles anymore."

"No more touching though, got it? We don't need a repeat of what just happened," Rachel spoke up. Volti gave a thumbs up in response.

Volti smiled at me. "Hey, since we’re friends now, can I call you Mimi?"

I blinked. What was she on about now? Friends?

"We've barely known each other for, like, an hour."

She shrugged. "No better way of getting to know someone than literally seeing from their point of view."

Well, she has a point there I guess. I wonder what memories of mine she saw. But seriously? Mimi?

I sighed. "Sure, go ahead."

"Thanks Mimi!" She smiled. "Oh! If you want to stop being all glowy you can just focus on the power and imagine it turning off. Like a light switch. It's how I do it so it should work for you."

Huh. Normally I either let borrowed powers run their course or get rid of them entirely, so the idea of just keeping it in the background but turned off was certainly a new way to look at things. Plus it would save me the trouble of copying her powers again when we go to continue our short little training session.

I imagined turning it off like she said but, surprisingly, something weirder happened. The power and glowing faded away, but it didn’t feel like it was being turned off. It felt like I had instead accidentally made the power dormant, like I had hidden it away inside me.

When I normally copy someone's powers I can feel the energy inside me, and I can tell when it leaves. But this was different.

Imagine a glass cup, I copy a power and it flows into the cup like water. It just sits in there until time runs out or I use it too much. If I copy a second power then the cup overflows and I start to lose control.

But right now? Volti's lightning powers are still within me, waiting to be used at a moment's notice, but also leaving plenty of room in the figurative cup. Like I somehow squished down the power to make more room, or maybe I made the cup bigger? I don't want to make any assumptions, and I definitely need to do some testing later, but if this works how I think it works…

This has the potential to change everything.

Sourie

Brain has been jumping between like six different stories back and forth recently. Wish it would just pick one and let me finish it instead of just sitting there being indecisive. I had wanted to finish the first draft of my next project before Mimica ends, but that doesn't seem likely anymore. RIP.