"How did you do that?" the man muttered.
Mirror shushed him again, and when the elevator reached its destination, she gestured for him to follow her into a nearby room. He clicked his tongue, but did as she asked, following her past several more guards. Once inside, she slowly closed and locked the door.
"My power allows me to become invisible, and to share that invisibility with my allies," Mirror explained, while letting their female teammate sit for a while to catch her breath.
"I wish you were with us when we got attacked," he grumbled. Mirror glanced over at him and wondered how complicated his code was. She wanted to hear his full backstory... but decided against it. In this scenario, they probably knew each other well, so asking strange questions would only confuse his coding.
"If I were with you, I would have gotten hurt too and wouldn't be able to help you now," Mirror corrected.
He groaned, and she got up to look around the room for anything she could use. Mirror discovered a box of tissues, hand sanitizer, and tape.
She crouched down beside the woman and ripped her pants around the area where the ally was wounded. She then grabbed some tissues and pressed them against the wound, over and over, until the bleeding lessened. At that point, she got a little sanitizer on her finger and used it to clean the area around the injury, careful not to touch the cut itself. The woman flinched, so Mirror apologized and blew on the wound to ease away the sting.
She folded several tissues and placed them over the wound before wrapping tape around the woman's thigh to hold everything in place.
"Do you want me to help you next?" Mirror asked, turning to the man.
"No thanks, just hand me the stuff, and I'll handle it myself," he answered.
When Mirror extended the tissues and tape to him, he snatched them away and sat in a corner. He tore his shirt, revealing a large gash on his arm. He wiped the area clean, then tightly tied his torn sleeve around the wound.
"Hey, Gale, have you got enough rest yet? We need to get moving," the man said from across the room. Mirror looked over at the newly identified Gale, who was using the wall for support as she struggled to stand.
"Yeah," she mumbled through gritted teeth. Mirror hurried to get under Gale's arm so she had someone to lean on.
"Do you want me to carry her?" the man offered. Mirror rolled her eyes.
"I'm sure I'm stronger than you," she retorted.
"That's right, Allen. Plus, you're injured too," Gale added.
Allen groaned, but walked over to pull Gale's other arm over his shoulder.
"I'm fine... I can help," he argued softly. They slowly moved to the door, cracking it open just enough to peek into the hallway. Once no one was facing them, Mirror cloaked the team and they all stepped out in unison.
Once again, they walked straight past armed soldiers without drawing a single glance. Minutes passed in complete silence, leaving the audience anxiously waiting for something... anything to happen.
"This isn't the most exciting simulation," Shade noted with a bored expression.
"That's true, but would you want to go against a power like that?" Veil asked.
When Shade turned his way, Veil smirked and continued by saying, "You don't see her... and you don't even hear her. Mirror hates fighting so she's never gotten to show off much... but even if they could find her, she has an invisible field around her that she can attack with."
Shade's mouth dropped open in surprise.
"The enemies are lucky that they don't have to fight her," Caster commented proudly.
Shade returned his gaze to the arena.
"You're right..." he muttered. At that same moment, the system announced,
"Top floor cleared. Rooftop reached. Commencing generation."
"You've made some impressive friends," Pierce declared, as his gaze shifted to Fenix.
The remark seemed to pull Fenix from his spiraling thoughts. He lifted Aura's hand to his lips and kissed her fingertips. She gasped, and her face warmed instantly. Only then did he answer his father,
"She's not just my friend, she's family now. Part of our family."
Fenix never once looked away from Aura while he spoke, and the intensity in his eyes made it difficult for her to stay composed.
Pierce looked back to the training area, as it changed into a building's rooftop with the sun setting over the horizon.
"... Oh yeah... she's Aura's sister," he mumbled to himself.
Mirror carried her teammates over to a group of five others who ran over to hug her. Minutes later, a helicopter arrived and they all boarded, escaping just before the soldiers burst through the door.
"She's a great addition to the family," Pierce added.
"Objective cleared successfully."
The computer voice echoed. As the arena dissolved back into its usual state, Mirror headed toward her seat. Caster and Aura hugged her from both sides.
"You did great!" Aura commented,
"She's right," Caster agreed, while placing multiple kisses on her cheek. Mirror giggled, wrapping an arm behind each of them and saying,
"I'm just glad it's over and I didn't need to fight anyone."
"Now... would Cantarella like to enter the stage?" Pierce said suddenly. All eyes turned to Cantarella who frowned.
"Flow hasn't gone yet either," she pointed out.
Pierce chuckled lightly and glanced over at Flow.
"Her unique skill... does pair well with the simulation. In order to show her true potential she has to drain energy from others. There's no life energy in fake opponents," Pierce explained coolly, "Also the point of this exercise is to demonstrate your usefulness to me. I am very aware of what Flow can do."
Cantarella groaned and threw her head back.
"Sounds like favoritism to me," she grumbled.
When Pierce didn't reply, she sighed and said,
"Yeah, but I'm not doing all that nonsense like the others. Bring me two glasses of water... and is there anything on this ship that can separate and analyze chemical components?"
Pierce looked stunned for a moment before clearing his throat.
"We do, we'll have to relocate to the lab, to handle it quickly," he replied. Cantarella begrudgingly got up from her seat and Pierce glanced around the room, saying, "The rest of you are free to take a break for now."
There were excited murmurs from everyone.
Pierce gestured for Cantarella to follow him and yelled,
"Veil, I'll come see you after I'm done."
Veil pouted, watching Pierce's back as he left.
"I was hoping he forgot... now I'm going to spend the whole break waiting for him to show up," he muttered.
Flow stroked his arm.
"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about," she assured quietly.
Veil stared at her blankly, then leaned to her ear to whisper,
"I promised to keep my hands to myself when that man is around... knowing he plans to visit me, ruins all of the plans I had for you."
Flow blushed brightly and pulled away. Veil laughed, lifting his hand to brush the hair back from her cheek.
"Your reactions are always so adorable..." he commented, then he leaned in close again and added, "Thank you for trying to cheer me up," before pressing a light, gentle kiss to her lips.
"What should we do on our break?" Vision asked.
Shade turned to him and said,
"How about we hang out, just the guys," he suggested.
"I'm down," Veil declared. Flow blinked at him in shock.
Then Caster said,
"Yeah, that sounds good to me too."
Mirror pouted, but only for a split second. She then nudged her sister and said,
"We should hang out too."
Aura considered her offer quietly.
"Fenix, you're coming too right?" Caster said. Fenix's eyes widened and he pointed to himself.
"You want me to come?"
Caster smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, we're friends right?"
The word "friend" cut like an arrow straight through Fenix's chest.
Veil playfully punched Fenix's shoulder. When Fenix looked up at him, he said,
"We all want you there. Come on."
Shade bit his tongue, deciding not to argue, while Vision nodded in affirmation.
Fenix looked down... and after a long silence answered,
"Alright, I'll go."
Aura... felt conflicted. She wanted to be happy that he seemed to be getting along with the others, but the feeling that stirred in the back of her mind was... abandonment. It felt like something was tightly squeezing her heart.
Fenix left with the others, smiling brighter than Aura had seen him smile in a while, as they headed toward the rec room.
"We should all meet up in my room," Mirror offered, momentarily distracting Aura from her dark feelings. "I brought some games with me that we can try, and Caster packed lots of homemade sweets for the trip."
"Sounds great," Aura replied, putting on her best smile.
"Yeah," Flow agreed, but her tone was very obviously sad.
"I'd rather do anything else," Panther said, while leaving the training room by herself.