Just a few moments ago…

Skye's POV:

The three of us made our way through the back alleyways in an effort to avoid detection. We were likely going to get into a fight with any stragglers anyway, but it would be better for us to get as close as we could to the spirits before getting spotted.

I glanced towards Eve and thought back to when we split off from Sarah and the heroes. I smiled when I remembered how especially blushy Eve was after she hugged Sarah. Both of them were a little red actually, it was kind of cute. A shame that my two adorable girlfriends are such dense idiots at times. Have they seen the way they look at each other when they think nobody's looking? Do they even realize when they do?

Or maybe I'm thinking too much on this and coming to the wrong conclusion, it wouldn’t be the first time I did. Nor would it probably be the last.

I sighed. I can think about playing matchmaker later, if I was right at least, but for now I needed to focus on not being dead weight. Should I have stayed home? Yeah, probably. Was I going to?

Heck no.

Like I told Guardian earlier, I've been waiting for too long to see this day come. Heck, the whole reason I chose to become a vigilante was for this day. Even if I get injured I'll have been glad I was here to watch them crumble. I felt bad that I always had my girlfriends do the fighting, it wasn't fair for me to put all that on their shoulders without actually joining in for a mission for once.

I glanced down at my prosthetic arm. I wasn’t completely defenseless at least, I had borrowed Tami’s taser and attached it to a hidden slot in my arm. It had enough juice to be used once, maybe twice, but I doubt it would take down any powered villains.

Poor Tami wanted to come and was pretty upset that I refused to let her do so, but she just wasn't built to fight supervillains. She was only designed to hold off the minions as Eve did her work, she wouldn't stand a chance against someone with powers. Plus, as her creator, I didn't want to see her get hurt again. In a way, it was kinda funny. Imagine building a robot designed for combat, only to grow attached and keep her from fighting. Human pack bonding at its finest.

I glanced at Eve as I realized she had been abnormally quiet as we walked. She looked nervous and worried, it was a bit of a surprise to see her like this. Normally she was so confident about these kinds of things. I grabbed her hand and squeezed, letting her silently know that she wasn't alone. I was here, and unpowered or not, I wasn't going to let anyone hurt her. 

She relaxed and smiled back at me. That same smile of hers that always made me want to reach up and kiss her. If it wasn't for the hero in front of us I probably would have.

We continued in silence until we reached the side of the factory. At this point we could hear a bit of the fighting taking place at the front of the building. I really hope Sarah's doing okay…

"We're here, are you two ready to go in?" Starlight said with an echoey voice as they reached out with both of their hands. 

I frowned and glanced around, there were no doors and the windows were too high up to climb. How do they expect us to get in? Despite my slight confusion, I nodded at the same time Eve did. We both grabbed onto a free hand. Might as well see what he has planned. "We're ready."

They nodded back, before their body started to turn into a black starry mist. A cold unpleasant feeling swept through me as the mist slowly surrounded me and Eve, a shiver running down my spine as it covered us.

Then I suddenly felt myself being pulled forward, helpless to stop it if I wanted to, as Starlight pulled us to the wall of the factory. Just as I thought they would smack their head against the wall, they phased right through it and dragged us along with them.

Which was disorientating, and slightly nauseating, until we all stepped inside and Starlight turned us all back to normal. They put a hand to their head and groaned.

"Is everything okay?" Eve asked before I could. 

Starlight nodded. "Apologies, it has been a while since we have needed to spread our stars to others. We have forgotten just how taxing it is to do so. Give us a moment before we continue."

They took a few deep breaths before dropping their hand. "Okay, we are ready. Trick?"

Eve nodded and reached her hands back out to the both of us, then once she held both our hands she slowly turned us all partially invisible.

Once we were all invisible Eve started to pull us towards where we assumed the spirits were being held.

We had to pause whenever a minion ran by us, and I considered ourselves lucky that none of them noticed us. They were in a hurry as they rushed in the direction of the front door. I just hope that Sarah and the heroes can handle this many minions.

Eventually, we did manage to reach the storage room door without being spotted. Our goal was in reach, just right there. There was nothing stopping us…

…except for the keycard reader that was keeping the door locked. 

But this was a perfect opportunity to help out! After all, there's no better hacker on this team than me! I just need to get a few tools out of my arm and-

I felt myself get pulled through the door along with Eve as Starlight did their stary mist thing again. As we passed the door and entered the room I had to hold back a sigh.

The one time I could have done something to help out and I don’t even get the chance to show off.

I glanced around the storage room and was absolutely baffled. This place had spirits all right, they were literally piled up next to the wall all the way up to the ceiling. 

Even weirder, there was a strange alchemy lab of sorts near the back of the room. Red and blue spirit vials were left in test tubes, and I saw a row of empty vials hooked up to a machine that connected to…something. Whatever the machine was connected to was missing, but based off the few spilled drops of some green liquid I can guarantee that it's probably nothing good.

Did they manage to make a new spirit? Was this machine all set up to create a new drug? Heck, what would a green spirit even do? Am I getting ahead of myself and thinking too much into this?

I rushed forward to the lab and started glancing around. Carefully picking up vials with my prosthetic hand and inspecting them, before shoving them aside. At least the red and blue spirits are still the same, at least visually, as long as they don't get changed too much then a cure could be possible…maybe. I'm still hoping for that, but progress has been slowed to a near halt lately. 

I checked all around the desk for notes or clues as the other two got to destroying the spirits behind me. I glanced back for a second to see them literally tossing them into a portal made of stars.

Well, that's certainly one way of getting rid of them.

Eventually, I did manage to find a small yellow folder with a few sheets of paper inside. They looked to be a log of their notes about the new drug. I skimmed through the data to get a gist of what was going on, but I stopped when I reached a section that intrigued me.

Progress has increased at a pace faster than I had expected. I knew convincing Shade to hire Doctor was a good idea, even though I despise his weird fascination with experimenting on people. Even though he sickens me, I can't deny that he gets results. The notes he left behind before he got arrested have proven invaluable to my research on Project Green.

At this rate, the spirit will be finished soon and I can finally make a move on that bastard Shade. All these years of prep and planning and he still hasn't realized a thing. 

Him and those so-called heroes shall pay for what they've done.

Still though, why should I do all the work? The other heroes have been a pain in my side this entire time, but maybe I can put them to good use. Maybe I should have them and Shade tire each other out. Originally I had wanted Mimica to fight him, to combat his possession powers with a copy. I was surprised when the simple plan I had turned out so well, he even managed to team up with the vigilantes that have been chasing us down. To think that just planning one suspicious spirit trade in front of him had led to this.

But now he has vanished, I cannot find Mimica and I do not have the time to waste waiting for him. 

Perhaps it's time to put in an anonymous call, let the heroes charge in on their own. With any hope, Guardian might just be the one to take Shade down.

My eyes widened as I read over the note. So they really were making a new spirit. But the question was, who did this note belong to? It obviously couldn't be Doctor or Shade, and Brute wasn't the sciency type. That only left one villain remaining, the one villain that the heroes hadn't caught yet.

I turned around and was about to warn Eve and Starlight, but I stopped when the door opened.

There she was.

Nova.

She had to have known we would be coming here.

She entered the room and glanced at all of us with a smirk. "And here I was thinking heroes would have a bit of respect for privacy, but what do I find? A bunch of vigilantes reading my diary and throwing out my belongings. How shameful."

Starlight didn't waste any time with talking, before I even realized it they were rushing Nova and attempting to kick her with a spinning kick.

She caught their leg out of the air, gripped it tight, before throwing them through the door she just came through. Starlight flew through the doorway and into a brick wall.

I…I should be helping here…shouldn't I…?

Eve summoned a large hammer and swung it at Nova only for her to dodge away. She swung again and again, until Nova leaned forward and punched Eve away.

I need to help…

Starlight threw their arms wide, letting their cape open up as far as it could go. The cape then started firing large amounts of bullet-sized stars towards Nova.

Nova ignored the stars pelting her as she pointed a hand towards Starlight and snapped. A shockwave of force blasted away from her fingertips, smashing into Starlight and causing them to crash into the same brick wall as before, causing the entire wall to collapse on top of them.

I was prepared for this, wasn't I?

I was prepared to fight for once instead of sitting away from the action. To stop being the support member of the team and to start taking risks just like Eve and Sarah. 

So. Why. Can't. I. Move.

Why was I locking up here!?

Eve returned from being punched away and brought her hammer down hard on top of Nova. She caught the hammer and crushed it, before swiping at Eve who ducked underneath the attack.

Eve brought her hand up in a familiar stance, she always stood like that before she used her illusions to make people fall asleep.

A moment passed. Then Nova grinned, stepped forward, and punched Eve right underneath her chin. She wobbled a bit, but collapsed backwards onto the ground.

No….no no no no…

This can't be happening…

"You know, I always heard most people claim their powers came instinctually to them, of how easy it was to master them," Nova grinned as she flexed her hand. "But I had no idea just how right they were."

She turned to look at me and my blood ran cold. She took her time walking towards me as I started to grimly realize that the other two weren't getting back up. 

I was alone, facing down a villain.

When she reached me she tilted her head, a smile on her lips and a raised eyebrow. "Not very good at playing the hero are you?"

I gulped nervously, shaking in place as her head tilted to Eve laying on the ground. "Or maybe, you need some extra motivation." She rose a hand towards Eve and prepared to snap.

No!

Before I even realized what I had done, I had stepped forward and activated the taser I had stored in my arm. I lunged forward and jammed it into her gut as the electricity in it surged wildly.

And it did nothing.

"See? Knew you had it in you." She smiled, before she grabbed my nonprosthetic arm and twisted it. I gasped in pain and collapsed on one knee. She crouched down and pushed her hand towards me, and for a few seconds I was terrified as her hand reached the side of my head. 

Then she grabbed my communicator and gingerly took it out of my ear. She put it on, and just when I thought she was done, she reached forward and wrapped a hand around my throat. She wasn't trying to choke me, but her fingers were still tight around my throat and made it harder to breathe.

She activated the communicator, and what happened next left me frozen in place.

"Mimica, we need you inside. Alone." Nova said in an exact copy of my voice. "Can you come and help us out for a second? Thanks."

As she finished she let go of me and then crushed the communicator. But how!?

How did she sound like me!? How was she this strong, wasn't she powerless!? How many different powers does she have!?

Is this what the green spirit does?

Nova started to leave, but she stopped at the doorway to glance at me, a small hint of guilt on her face that she tried to hide.

"I won't hurt him, so long as he listens," she started, before her eyes trailed from me to Eve. "You and your partner are injured. Use that excuse and leave while you can."

She turned away.

"My fight isn't with you."