Mimic

Chapter One: Origin

Erina Kingston walked solemnly home. Across her back was a hastily thrown black and red backpack adorned with a plethora of superhero patches and key chains. She kept her eyes down, looking only at the cement sidewalk that wrapped around most of the city. She came to a stop once she hit the corner of Twelfth Street and College Avenue. She sighed as she turned her deep bright blue eyes up to look at the glowing orange hand that signaled it was unsafe to cross.

“You sound distressed, my young friend?” An elderly man spoke to her right. She turned to look and saw him smiling widely from behind his corner newsstand.

“Just a bad day at school.” Erina said as she walked closer to the newsstand. A car speeding by kicked up a gust of air that ruffled her shoulder length brown hair and her purple and white school uniform.

“Why not tell an old newspaper salesman your troubles?” The man asked as he rubbed his chin. “I hate seeing such a pretty young girl cry.”

“I wasn’t crying.” Erina glared slightly while grinning. “But if you insist Mr. Rhodes.”

“I’ve been telling you since you were little,” Mr. Rhodes laughed and leaned back on his stool. “Call me Jim, my friend.”

“Okay, okay,” Erina smiled a little more, and let a small chuckle escape her lips.

“Good,” Jim leaned on his elbow and scratched his chin once again. “Now, about this day you had at school.”

“Well,” Erina looked to the road. Her eyes showing that she was both embarrassed and bothered. “The school’s self appointed queen, Amelia Ashford, decided that because I like comics and manga then I don’t live in the real world and that I should stop living in a fantasy world.”

“To me it sounds as if she is the one living in a fantasy world.” Jim continued to laugh. “What is real and what is not is always in the eye of the beholder. You should live in the real world that is you fantasy.”

“That’s awfully cryptic,” Erina mumbled a little and spun on her heel. “Anyway, I should be heading home now.”

“Have a safe trip, my young friend.” Jim waved as Erina walked across the street, and looking as though she was in a much better mood.

It had gotten dark quickly over the city, and the moon had raised high over the large park that was the fin leg of Erina’s journey home. Thankfully, Erina was used to arriving home this late. It was part of her routine to get a ride to school and then walk home. The park was always the best part of the walk, and its beauty was even more spectacular at night. The moon reflected brilliantly from the ponds that dotted the park’s walkways. She could also see the stars easily from the park and as such looked up to view them. Then there was a bright flash of light, and before Erina knew it she was swatting dust out from in front of her face.

“What in the hell?” Erina coughed as her eyes readjusted to the dark night sky. She could hear the sizzling and cracking of scorched earth and grass in front of her, and once the dust finished settling she could see why. In front of her was a rather small divot within the earth’s crust, and within the hole was a small shiny silver orb, still hissing and steaming from the impact.

Erina blinked a couple of times before her curiosity finally overtook her. She slid into the hole and walked cautiously up to the small ball. Erina stared at the soccer ball sized orb, though it was when Erina tried to touch it that the orb actually reacted. The silver-purple material tried to reach out and grab hold of Erina’s hand with thin metallic tendrils. The tendrils though retracted when she pulled back.

“It’s like the symbiotes from…” Erina’s eyes widened when she felt something cold and metallic on her leg. She would have screamed as the orb began to encase her body, but the more of her that the metal touched. The fuzzier her mind became. Erina soon saw her world turn black as she fell to the ground and began losing consciousness. The silver orb did not stop and continued to wrap her body in a cold metallic skin.

“What is this world?” A computerized voice asked Erina as she floated in the dark of her subconscious.

“This is the planet Earth.” Erina felt obligated to answer, and felt that it was unnecessary to ask questions of her own.

“What is your species?” The computer continued.

“Homo sapiens sapien.” Erina responded quickly.

“What is your designation?”

“Erina Kingston.”

“Understood, now bonding with Erina Kingston a Homo sapiens sapien of the planet Earth.” Erina felt a slight tickle run down the length of her spine and then all stimulation vanished.

Erina woke several hours later. She found herself on the rooftop of one of the many skyscrapers that dotted the city. Her head throbbed as she sat up. She reached up to rub her forehead, and noticed that her arm was now covered in a thick, bulky armored suit. She stared at the shimmering silver-purple armor, wondering how or why such a thing could have gotten on her. Then she remembered the silver orb. Flashes of memory burst into her head. Memories of the orb encasing her body, then forming into armor, and then climbing up the building she was now on.

“Well,” Erina was well aware of the importance of keeping calm; however, she was both scared and excited. This type of thing only happened in comic books. She was like a super heroine now, except the suit was like the symbiotes from Spider-man. Those weren’t the best things to have. She took a deep breath to calm her mind. “I suppose it could be worse though, but does this thing need to be so bulky.”

As if responding to Erina’s words, the armor grinded into a reaction. It slimed down and began to fit to her athletic build. The arms turned into slender gauntlets and pulled off the upper arm, leaving the skin in between the shoulder and elbow exposed. Her legs followed suit, turning into boots that started at her knee and dropped to her feet. Her thighs, much like her upper arms, were exposed except for armor like skirt that stopped halfway down her thigh. Lastly, her chest and stomach were covered with a blouse shaped top with two large metal wings sprouting out of the back. Her face was covered only by a visor that dropped back and covered ears in a strange pair of headphones.

“Ok,” Erina her arms and walked around. The armor was light weight, and very comfortable. “This is new.”

It was then that she heard a siren in the distance. The headphones picked it up quickly and soon detailed analysis of the siren’s location and the speed of the police car that made it were being shown on the visor. It was almost as if the suit was reading Erina’s unconscious desire to be a comic book super hero.

Erina smiled at this, but she still had no idea what this suit of armor could do. Let alone how to use it. Once again the suit reacted to a mere thought and soon the visor showed detailed information on what the suit could currently do. Erina thought it weird that it used the word currently, but she looked on. From what she was reading the suit was incredibly durable and strong.

The knowledge was limited, but it was enough for her. If the suit was strong then it should be able to jump between rooftops. A normal person can even do that. So, Erina took another deep breath and sprinted towards the direction of the siren. She leapt from the side of the building and soared over the alley to the next building’s roof. She landed perfectly on the roof and started sprinting again. It wasn’t all that tiring. She didn’t notice though that the basic stream lined boots were changing. The molded and shaped as she jumped and landed. They built themselves super shock absorbers in order to take the impact of falling in the legs, and incorporated a form of hydraulic spring in order to allow Erina to jump even farther than what she has been.

Erina was getting so caught up in maintaining the direction of the siren, and in the rush that she got from jumping between buildings, that she didn’t notice that the building she was jumping to was across the intersection from her, and higher than her to top it off.

She soon jumped, and realized her mistake as she was falling toward the ground. She tried to see if the wings would do anything, but nothing happened. She closed her eyes as she knew the impact would be near fatal at best. She just wished the suit had something like Spiderman’s web shooters or Batman’s grappling hook.

This time she noticed the change in the armor, only after her body is saved by a long metal tendril. Both of the gauntlets looked to have grown attached grappling hook launchers just behind the palms and backs of Erina’s hands. She calmly stayed there dangling. She admired that the suit was able to produce the exact thing Erina needed at pretty much the exact moment she needed it. The suit then pulled her up, but before it reached the top of the building. Erina kicked off the wall, and fired a tendril toward the top of the taller building. The thought in her mind was that if she was like Spiderman and Batman, then this shouldn’t be a problem.

The suit reacted as it always did, and changed to support the swinging with the tendrils, that rapidly retracted after separating from the buildings. Erina just laughed at the fun time she was having, and before long she noted that she was where the siren was located. She landed on top of a nearby store and watched. It was a simple speeding ticket, which caused her to sigh in disappointment, but then again she could use this time to take a break.

She flipped onto her back and stared up at the stars. Those stars gave her such a wonderful gift. The suit of armor she now wore. She needed to think of something to call it. She put her hands under her head and thought. The suit copied the abilities that her brain thought of. So “Copy,” no that was just lame. She scrunched her face in thought and then it dawned on her.

“Mimic!” She screamed and then snapped her hands over her mouth. She turned and looked towards the scenery behind her. Nothing else was happening tonight. She sighed and stood. She stretched her arms. Then within seconds she was on her tethers and swinging through the city toward her house. She stopped in the park though. She realized that she couldn’t just go home like this. She closed her eyes and thought about how she looked before, well actually more about hiding the suit than anything, and before she knew it the suit grinded and compacted into a strange wrist mounted PDA. She smiled in triumph as she was once again in her school uniform and had her bag. Laughing, Erina sprinted home, which was much more tiring without the armor.

She soon turned the corner to where her house was to see that two police cars were parked outside with their lights flashing. A large crowd had gathered around them, but Erina was able to navigate through it quickly.

“Erina,” a child’s voice screamed to the teen as she emerged from the crowd. Before long, a small girl that shared Erina’s brown hair sprinted from the officers standing watch and jumped onto Erina. Tears were streaming down the girl’s face and her clothing was stained with blood.

“Holly, what happened?” Erina asked. Her eyes were wide, and she couldn’t think straight. The girl in her arms did nothing but cry as two officers walked towards her.

“Who are you, miss?” One asked quickly. He kept his face by the brim of a hat, but his badge red Harding.

“I’m Erina Kingston,” Erina told Officer Harding and the man next to him. She thought she knew him from somewhere but she couldn’t quite place it. “This is my little sister, Holly Kingston. Maybe you can tell me what’s going on?”

“Someone broke into your house, Rin.” The man that she couldn’t place spoke. There was only one person in the entirety of the world that still called her by her nickname.

“What do you mean Detective Hikari? Why is Holly covered in blood?” Erina almost shouted but was able to contain herself. She needed to remain calm for the girl in her arms.

“It will be easier to explain on our way to the precinct, Miss Kingston.” Officer Harding motioned to a squad car as he spoke. Erina just nodded and followed.

The car ride felt like forever. After the first few minutes, Erina was also crying, though it was more composed than her sister. An unknown assailant broke into the Kingston’s rather large house and in the process of robbing the family killed Erina and Holly’s mother and father. The police arrived after Holly crawled out of her hiding place and called the cops. She had fallen on their mother’s body and that was the reason that she was covered in blood.

Holly had thankfully fallen asleep by the time they had arrived so she couldn’t hear the rest. Erina’s parents had left the entirety of their estate to Erina, and Holly. However, Holly was still too young to live with just her sister according to them.

“What is that supposed to mean anyway?” Erina said in an angry tone. They kept giving her this legal runaround about her sister and herself.

“In short it means that your sister will be put into the care of foster parents until you are old enough to provide for her. A student cannot provide for a little girl.” Mrs. Robertson, the social worker that Detective Hikari left the two with, spoke in a cold tone.

It was true, under the law a student wasn’t allowed to care for a child, and she was still too young to quit school legally. Erina just looked away and rubbed the sleeping child on the head. A fresh tear worked its way down her face. It would be morning soon. Under the circumstances it looked as though Erina wasn’t going to school today.

“We’ll be taking her into custody as soon as she wakes up.” Mrs. Robertson spoke in the same cold manner before standing and leaving the room.

Erina didn’t like the woman. She seemed too cold and heartless for someone who was supposed to be in charge of taking care of less fortunate children. She always thought those types of people should be those that know how to make sure those children are smiling, not the type to just rip a child from the only family that she has left.

There was nothing Erina could do about it though. Thanks to the Teen Emancipation Act, she was already past the age in which an individual could live on their own. It was that same act that stated that all children of every nation must be enrolled in school until the age of twenty, and that a student could not raise a child under the age of sixteen. Thinking about this made Erina even angrier. It was a horrible system. She leaned her head back and looked at the ceiling.

She started to blame herself. If she wasn’t off playing around with the suit, then her parents would still be alive. That suit could have easily devastated anyone. She should have been there. She cried to herself.

“Erina,” Holly stirred in her sister’s lap. She was looking up at Erina with the same blue eyes that both girls shared. The girl’s small face looked worried, and Erina having to tell her that she’ll be taken away was most likely not going to help the situation much. “Is something the wrong?”

“Holly,” Erina positioned the four year old on the bench so that she was sitting up. Erina then kneeled on the ground so that she was looking Holly in the face. Tears continued to stream down her face. “I don’t know how to tell you this.”

“I’m sure everything will be okay.” Holly smiled. The sun was rising in the window behind her. The scene made Erina smile a little, but she knew what was actually happening. “We still have each other.”

“Holly, I…” Erina is stopped as the door is opened. Mrs. Robertson and Detective Hikari walked through the door.

“I have asked the detective here to make sure this goes smoothly.” Mrs. Robertson looked at Erina with eyes of disgust.

“Can’t you at least give me some time to explain?” Erina screamed and stood slightly. She couldn’t tell what this woman’s problem was, but it was really getting on Erina’s nerves.

“You should have thought about that. A teen cannot be in charge of a child Holly’s age.” Mrs. Robertson walked over to the two and reached a hand out to Holly.

“Erina, what’s going on?” Holly asked in a confused manner as Mrs. Robertson grabbed hold of her arm. Holly struggled a little as she was picked up and held tightly by the woman social worker.

Erina didn’t make a sound, and just slumped there while Detective Hikari looked away. She cried to herself while listening to Holly’s screams from down the hall. Then it was too much and she stood. However, Detective Hikari placed a hand on her shoulder and stopped her.

“I know it’s hard, Rin.” The detective pulled the girl into a tight hug. He knew the girl was trying her hardest not to break under her entire family being ripped from her. “But this is how the real world is.”

The real world, that always seemed to be biting her in the butt. Yet, for her, the real world was different now. She had power. The suit that made her Mimic. She’d use that suit to make this real world a better one, especially for Holly. The first thing to do would be to figure out who did this and why, but for now she’d wait. She needed a good break from the stress.

“Is it alright if I stay at your place today, detective.” Erina asked solemnly.

“Let me call my wife and see, but it shouldn’t be a problem. Wait here.” Erina nodded as Detective Hikari left the room. It wasn’t that Erina didn’t want to go home. It was just that, she had to keep away from the house. It was still a crime scene. A crime scene that Mimic should investigate later. She was certain that the suit could pick up anything that the police missed.

Detective Hikari was right in that it wouldn’t be a problem, and so the two were on the road to the Hikari’s small, in comparison to Erina’s, house. It resembled a small cottage in appearance and had two stories. Though the house was a fair sized house, it ate up most if not all the available yard that the plot of land had. It was painted an off white color with a beige trim.

“Ah, so this must be little Rin!” An Asian woman shouted as Erina got out of the car. She had short bobbed black hair and wore a pair of blue jean shorts and a light blue tee. She rushed over quickly and pulled Erina into a very constricting hug. “I’m just glad you’re here and safe. You’re Auntie Namico will take care of you.”

“Thank you for having me, Mrs. Hikari.” Erina gasped in the woman’s embrace.

“Oh, no, no, no, this won’t do.” Namico put Erina on the ground and wagged her finger in the teen’s face. Her brown eyes were squinting in dissatisfaction. “You call me Auntie Namico, understood.”

Erina nodded to the woman. She was unsure of how to handle this kind of situation. It was just best to agree with the woman to get it over with. Erina then followed Namico and Detective Hikari inside. The inside of the house was relatively similar to the outside. It had a bright color scheme like the outside and was augmented with darker tones for the furniture. Namico was quick to sit Erina down on an overstuffed maroon sofa, before she went to make tea. Detective Hikari then excused himself and returned to work. It turned out that he personally took up the option to be lead investigator for Erina and Holly’s case.

“Mom, who’s this?” A boy’s voice turned Erina’s attention to the stairs. Erina’s face immediately lit up in a shade of red. The boy had perfectly sun tanned skin along with sun bleached blonde hair. His golden brown eyes stayed slightly narrowed as he looked at Erina from the side. He then dropped those eyes back to his book as Namico brought a tray of tea cups into the room.

“This is Rin Kingston, Jarred. She’s going to be staying here for a bit.” Namico said as she sat with the tea. Jarred just walked over, and without looking up from his book, picked up a glass of tea and returned to the upper floor.

“Who,” Erina was about to ask.

“My son, Jarred.” Namico said calmly. “He’s a senior so you must not have seen him around.”

“No, I can’t say that I have.” Erina sighed and leaned back on the large cushions. Her eyes finally became heavy and dropped. She soon was sleeping rather peacefully, and didn’t notice that Namico placed a quilt over her.

Erina was able to wake up shortly after Namico and Jarred went to bed. There was a note on the table. It read that there was dinner in the fridge. She rubbed her stomach and walked to the fridge. Inside was a plate of roasted chicken and steamed white rice. Erina was quick to put the food into the microwave and started to heat the meal. Her wrist mounted PDA then dinged rapidly, just as the front door was opened.

“Ah, you’re still awake Erina?” Detective Hikari asked as he entered the house. Erina just looked out of the kitchen. Her hair was still matted and upturned because of sleep.

“I, uh, actually just woke up.” Erina wasn’t sure how to talk to him. She did just sleep on the man’s couch for the entirety of the day.

“Well, that’s understandable.” The detective walked in and sat calmly down on the large overstuffed chair that matched the pattern of the couch. “You were up all night last night.”

“I wanted to make sure Holly was okay.” Erina said. She reentered the living room and sat back down on the couch. Her food placed in front of her. She picked at it a little before stopping and looking at the detective. “You wouldn’t happen to know where my sister is, would you.”

“I do,” Detective said calmly. “She’s going to be in the Social Offices’ Apartment complex for a while, until they find a place for her.”

“She has a place with me.” Erina said under her breath and looked down at her food. Her eyes hardening with resolve as she spoke.

Detective Hikari stood and placed a firm hand on Erina’s shoulder. He squeezed the girl’s shoulder gently as if trying to convey that he understands. “And someday that will happen, but for now enjoy your dinner and feel free to watch some TV.”

“Where are you going?” Erina asked quickly. The detective had started moving towards the stairs after his speech.

“To bed, it’s been a long day.” Detective Hikari scratched the back of his brown haired head. He then walked up the stairs and vanished into one of the bedrooms.

Erina took a deep breath and leaned back on the couch. She exhaled and turned to look at the PDA on her wrist. She stood up and watched the screen. It looked to function just like a normal PDA, though she couldn’t read a lot of the words on the screen, and to top it off the suit that fell from the sky was secretly the wrist device.

However, Erina didn’t need the wrist device. She needed the suit. She just needed to figure out how to change back, but first she needed to leave the house. She quickly did so. The front door was still unlocked from the detective returning home. She locked it as she left and ran down the street.

Erina soon realized that trying to run into the downtown area of the city. She soon stopped and bent over to catch her breath. She then stood and stared at the thing on her wrist. “You could help you know, like change me back into Mimic or something.”

Once again the suit acted upon its wearer’s request. In a flash, Erina was once again adorning the high tech armor that had attached to her the night before. She smiled in confidence before continuing her run.

She kinda wished she could go faster though, but how without a car was she going to be able to do that. She supposed that if she had some kind of powered roller skate that would make this trip a whole lot easier.

And like that, Erina flailed to regain balance as two sets of wheel’s popped out of her boot and she rocketed forward on them. Within at least half the time, she was inside the city. Erina then took to her grappling hook tendrils as she entered the sky rise.

Erina landed on the roof of the building across the street from the Social Services’ Apartments. The visor of the suit then directed her eyes to the room in which Holly was staying. After she had moved to get a better view, she smiled at seeing that Holly was in fact sleeping. She laughed at herself for her paranoia, and then turned to go see what the suit could find at her house. But then it picked up a noise. A woman had screamed from within the apartment building. She also picked up the sounds of silenced gunfire, and a swishing sound. Like someone was swinging something. She turned weary eyes to Holly’s room. The girl had woken up to the scream, and then screamed herself.

A man dressed entirely in black entered the room. His face was hidden in a solid black mask, and blood dripped from a black colored sword to his side. He pointed a gun towards Holly. The suit picked up that after this he would have to hunt down Erina herself.

Erina acted rashly and used one of her grappling hooks. She secured herself to the building before swinging in through the closed glass window and slamming both her feet into the assailant. He slammed hard into the wall while muttering an expletive towards Erina. Erina stood forcefully, with the tendril retracting to her hand.

“Who the hell are you, bitch?!” The attacker screamed as he shakily stood. The gun was now trained on Erina’s gut. She just hoped the suit could take a hit from a gun. She then noticed her was bleeding. A glass shard must have struck him as she entered.

She gulped and remained silent. Holly was good at remembering voices, and she wanted to keep a secret identity in front of people that wished to harm the two of them. The suit shifted a bit on her neck and then the words ‘voice modifier active’ came up on the visor. She took a deep breath and spoke as calmly as her fear torn and adrenaline fuelled body could. “I am Mimic.”

Her voice came out with a heavier Asian accent than she actually had. She had a little one from her mom but that was slightly ridiculous. However, it was still manageable. She had to be someone other than Erina now, and that person was Mimic.

“And what business does some armored freak bitch want with the Ikaruga.” The man stuttered a bit. He was obviously more afraid of Mimic than Erina was of him.

“Ikaruga, who are they?” Mimic spoke softly and calmly. She took a step forward. She had to get him to calm down. He was injured and needed treatment. Even though he attacked Holly, he was still human. She couldn’t him die. “I am just here to protect this girl and the people of this city.”

“Like I’d tell you.” With that he opened fire. Erina closed her eyes and covered her face with her glove. The bullets impacted her armored chest and skirt, bouncing harmlessly off.

“I’d advise you not to try that again. A stray bullet could hit you and cause you more harm.” Mimic kept calm, and Erina felt much more at ease now that she knew this armor was durable.

“Damn,” he growled. “This mission was a total failure.” He then quickly placed a gun to his head. Erina couldn’t see that he had coughed up blood into his mask. “Well then Mimic, if you want to protect that girl so bad, the Ikaruga will just have to deal with you too.”

“Wait no!” Mimic yelled and rushed forward. He pulled the trigger and in a silenced shot ended his own life. She then stood there stunned. She wasn’t able to save him. All be it he was a bad guy, but still. She could have saved him.

“Um, thank you, miss.” The little girl in the room spoke up from behind her hiding place. Erina smiled a bit and dropped to a knee. One life often had to be sacrificed to save another. That was something she had heard one time. It was probably from Jim.

“Are you hurt?” Mimic spoke softly to the girl. Holly just shook her head and smiled.

“Don’t move,” A voice screamed as a detective and another police officer entered the room with their guns drawn.

“Detective, I am not the one at fault here.” Mimic stood and raised her hands in surrender. “If you look at this room’s video tape. You’ll notice that I was only trying to be of assistance.”

“It’s true.” Holly said in her childish voice. “Mimic saved me.”

“Mimic huh,” Detective Hikari dropped his weapon and motioned for the officer with him to do the same. “The name’s Detective Schnider. So then the perp is this guy.”

“Yes,” Mimic dropped her hands and started to drop back to the window. “He said he was with the Ikaruga. Does that mean anything to you?”

“I’ll check my leads.” Detective Schnider looked away and the police officer was tending to Holly. Mimic took this opportunity and exited quickly and silently from the room. “As for you… Where’d she go?”

Erina skated back to Detective Hikari’s house as fast as the wheels on her suit could take her. She had to make it before someone called the Detective and he realized that she wasn’t there. She hopped from rooftop to rooftop in the suburbs that the Hikari’s lived in. She landed softly in the back patio and with her will turned the powerful suit back into the wrist mounted PDA.

She sighed. She made it in time and walked toward the back of the house. She did save her sister, and she did find out information on who killed her parents. She’d have to look into this Ikaruga tomorrow. For now she was tired.