Chapter Three: Girl in the Mirror
Hailey Evans-Potter was not a normal girl by any stretch of the imagination and she thanked her lucky stars from that. It was one of the most hilarious things about life. The people who claimed they were normal were among the most abnormal people of them all. It caused Hailey to break out into one of those looks as she stared on the other side of the mirror.
On the other side of the mirror, this mysterious brunette woman stared back at her and Kara both. The mirror did not reflect them. Alia had dealt with a magical mirror in the past, so naturally, she was not completely thrown off by this girl being on the other side of the mirror.
"Do you know her?"
Kara nodded without missing a beat. "Her name is Jesse Quick. She's a speedster heroine, we've team up a few times, and….she's been trapped inside of the mirror."
Alia gathered that much. Of course, the real question was how did this mysterious girl find herself trapped inside of the mirror. Alia had so many questions to ask and with those questions came to a very insufficient amount of answers. She leaned to the other side of the mirror. Every now and then, she could hear something strangled. Jesse's speech patterns, as faint as they were to the hearing of both girls, sounded garbled.
"From our perspective, she's speaking backward," Alia said.
Kara nodded in response. It made a lot of sense considering she had been trapped in the mirror universe. Jesse frantically waved her hands back and forth and started to pace up and down. The faint screams Alia heard meant the exact same thing whether they were communicated backward or forwards.
Alia reached in and knocked on the mirror very lightly. The light rapping on the mirror resulted in Jesse turning her attention completely around to the other party on the other end of the mirror. Her mouth hung up in surprise. Alia raised her hand and caused a glowing message to appear in the air. The words "Can You Read" appeared. Then, Alia waved her hand and the words flipped so they were backward.
Jesse stared at the words and nodded wordlessly. Kara put a hand on her wife's shoulder.
"Looks like we're getting somewhere."
They got somewhere a little bit, but unfortunately for them, they were not out of the woods completely yet. Alia waved her hand once again and the question "How did you get trapped?" appeared. She waved her hand and the words reversed perspective so Jesse could read them.
Jesse zoomed out of the way and started to cause friction to burn the ground where she stood. She made a very crude looking composite dropping from the skid marks she made on the ground.
"Do you recognize that person?"
Kara leaned in and Jesse took a step back. She should have known and almost slapped herself for not knowing.
"Mirror Master."
Those words came out of Kara's mouth just a second later. Alia looked at her for a few seconds and mouthed the name "Mirror Master."
"The Mirror Master is one of the most dangerous enemies of the Flash family," Kara explained. "He can travel through any reflective surface. The last time I heard of him, he had been kept inside of a specialized cell at Iron Heights Prison."
Kara could only begin to guess how the Mirror Master escaped. Alia just deepened her frown and ran her fingers through the top of her head. She could already feel some kind of agonizing headache coming on. She did not know how deep or how agonizing the headache would be as it pierced through her mind.
"Well, that makes me pretty dangerous," Alia said. "And there's got to be a way out. Isn't there?"
The Girl of Steel spent a second thinking about it. "Ask Jesse if she's tried to vibrate her way out?"
The former Girl-Who-Lived waved her hand and a glowing bright light appeared. The words filled the air and then reversed themselves from Jesse's point of view. Jesse raised her hand and started to vibrate it. Her hand moved at super speed and pressed at the mirror from the other side.
The blast of energy knocked Jesse ass over tea kettle and caused her to land with a thud on the ground. Alia and Kara both sighed and they had the same idea going through their mind. That question had been answered at the very lease.
"There has to be a way to get her out," Alia said.
"I don't think smashing the mirror is going to do you any good if that's what you're thinking," Kara said. "And I don't mean the obvious seven years bad luck thing….not that I believe in that."
Alia only paid her wife a slight bit of mind from those words. She leaned her hand on the edge of the mirror from the other end. The good news, or at least as good as she could see, showed that Jesse came close to busting out of the mirror on the other side.
"He's using this strange form of energy manipulation to open a breach to the mirror universe," Alia said. "If I can channel enough of the energy, I can open a breach through any mirror and bring Jesse back home."
This particular message had been related to Jesse. Jesse looked at it, mulled it over, and nodded while sticking up the international sign for "okay."
Mad-Eye Moody must have been rolling over in his grave if he saw how Tonks let her guard down for one minute and let two teenagers get the slips. More seriously and more in tune with the world of the living, Amelia Bones would have her head if Tonks let anything happen to those girls.
Tonks decided to check out of the clubs in Vegas. Maybe Alia and Kara slipped in there. The Auror knew she should really give them some space. Alia needed a fair amount of space after what she had been through. Nym edged back a couple of steps and heard something out in the distance.
A figure dressed in a black hood slipped past her and almost knocked Nym into the wall. Tonks frowned when the figure moved past her.
Mad-Eye told her that anyone who was walking that quick, without a purpose must have been in a hurry to be somewhere. Granted, Nym knew Mad-Eye could be pretty paranoid in his own right.
Another Moodyism came into the shapechanger's head. 'Just because you seem paranoid does not mean you're wrong.'
With those words out of the way, Nym slipped past the front door and made her way into the club. She lost sight of her mysterious intruder. Nym frowned and looked over her shoulder.
'This is just getting weirder and weirder.'
The hairs on the back of Nym's neck stood the backup. No matter how much she tried to control them with her powers, they would not stay down. Nym closed her eyes and her hand. She took a deep breath and stepped back before entering the area.
The hooded figure moved from the shadows a few seconds later. He looked over his shoulder for a second. The man lifted a newspaper up and took a long look at it.
Curiosity took ahold of Nym as she crossed the bar. She looked at the newspaper which detailed the arrival of a famous starlet into Las Vegas. She had just come off of a major historical movie about a famous ship sinking, or that's the best Nym could figure at the very least.
'Okay, mystery man, you just couldn't disappear into thin air. Could you?"
Nym could have smacked herself in the back of the head. Of course, someone could have disappeared into thin air. She came from the world where people disappeared into thin air often. The only thing was they left some kind of sound. The most refined of them left a small pop when they left. You had to really listen for it.
The less refined of them left a large crack when leaving. Nym heard neither sound or any of the any number of tell-tale disappearing signs from behind. She was dealing with something else. Exactly what, she did not really know.
Nym lightly tapped around the edge of the wall. She noticed the bathroom door cracked open. They entered the woman's restroom. Nym stepped inside to see that no one was inside of the restroom. She could have sworn she heard something.
Her wand slid out into position and pointed out front. Nym flipped the wand in between her fingers and pointed it out. She waved her wand in the air and caused the bathroom to glow purple around her. Nym took another step in and heard something.
Nym turned around and saw a woman rush past her on her way to use the toilet. She bent over the sink and acted like she was freshening up in the bathroom.
'Maybe you're being paranoid. After all, what's the chance of a man going into a woman's bathroom?'
The woman tightened her hand against the edge of the wall. Nym looked up in the mirror and saw absolutely nothing on the other end of the mirror. The lack of any reflection coming from this mirror, whether her own or anyone else's caused Nym to jump back a few seconds.
And speaking of mirrors, she could feel her communication mirror heat up in her pocket. Nym pulled out the two-way mirror and saw Alia's face on the other side.
"Do I even want to know how you got onto a dedicated ICW frequency?"
"It's likely you don't," Alia said. "You should know there's a dangerous fugitive lurking by. He's traveled through mirrors and trapped a friend of Kara's. So keep your eyes open and watch out for mirrors."
No sooner did these words pass Alia's lips, the mirror behind Nym opened up and a vortex sucked her in before she could inform Alia where she was and who she potentially saw.
Outside of the club, Kara and Alia dropped down onto the ground. Kara changed out into a blue tank top and a red skirt which showed off her nice long days. It was not quite her Supergirl uniform. It missed the infamous symbol for one thing.
"You sure this is the place?" Kara asked.
Alia pulled a hooded shirt over the top of her head and caused her face to become invisible to anyone who she did not let the secret of her identity on.
"I'm positive it's the place."
While bobbing her head up and down in response, Kara caught a good look at the attire Alia wore. She opened her mouth and shut it a couple of seconds later.
"Yes," Alia said. "Is there something on my face?"
"Well, no," Kara said. "It's just that if you started running around with a bow and arrow and start shooting people, you could be named the Black Arrow."
Alia responded with a raised eyebrow which only Kara could see. A sheepish expression had been triggered with Alia looking back away from her.
"Which it might not be the best name in the world, wouldn't you agree?"
"I'd say," Alia said. "Let's go."
The club goers looked on in complete shock. A woman leaned against the wall and her eyes widened in shock. She could hardly get a word or two out. She screamed and threw herself down on the ground at Kara's feet.
"Oh, Supergirl! Supergirl! Thank god, Supergirl! I'm glad you're here."
"Take a deep breath," Kara said. "Did you see a woman in the bathroom here?"
The woman nodded up and down. Her feet almost collapsed out from underneath her when taking a deep breath. The breath came in and out of her body.
"I was just standing there. And I saw the mirror towards the back wall suck her in it. It was the weirdest thing I've ever done. And I swear to God I don't do drugs."
Alia already made her way into the bathroom. She performed a couple of subtle charms to direct everyone's attention away from the bathroom. The law enforcement officers included. She frowned and looked on the other side of the mirror. The energy pulsed from the mirror the closer Alia stepped closer to it.
"I should be able to scan for the energy if it's fresh."
It happened five minutes ago so the energy in the air should be fresher.
"Before you walk in front of the mirror, let me do something."
A tap on her head caused Kara to feel like an ice-cold eggshell popped over the top of her head. She closed her eyes to feel the energy flow within her body.
"What did that do?" Kara asked.
"It renders us immune to any reflections coming out of the mirror," Alia said.
Kara took a second to nod. It was a handy little spell, especially when dealing with someone who could spy on their every move throughout the other end of the mirror. Alia looked over in the area. Both girls stood in front of the mirror and stared back at an empty space which their reflections should have been.
'This works.'
Kara took a scanner out of her bag and scanned the area. Several blips came off the scanner as she moved it back and forth through the air. The scanner glowed in the air with Kara holding it in the palm of her hand. She frowned when looking at the scanner.
"Any luck?" Alia asked.
"No," Kara informed her. "There's some kind of energy coming from the area. It's fleeting."
"Maybe for technology."
Alia kneeled down in the middle of the room. Her wife's eyes locked on the back of her head and wondered what she was doing. Alia spread her arms out and channeled enough of the power through the air. Her heart started to beat when feeling the cosmic energy going through the air.
"I can feel it," Alia said. "I've almost felt enough of it so I can duplicate the energy the Mirror Master is using."
"So, if you can duplicate it, you can open up a portal?"
Alia threw her head back and nodded. She resembled a person who was struggling to draw energy out of the air around her in the air.
"Yes," Alia said. "I'll need to look at one more surface where the Mirror Master has either escaped out of or sent someone here."
Another question entered Alia's mind. She wondered where the hell was Nymphadora Tonks after she popped through the other end of the portal.
"Where is he?" Kara asked.
Alia answered with a shrug. They could not follow him through the mirror. The Mirror Master sealed the mirror behind him before running back through the other side of the portal. Alia held her hand on the communication mirror and tapped onto it.
The mirror reflected her own image back from her. Kara leaned over her wife's shoulder. The two girls faced each other. Alia listened for the anything which could tell her where Tonks had vanished into thin air. Nothing pointed to where the woman had been sent off through the mirror.
"Nothing?" Kara asked.
"We should go," Alia said.
She closed her eyes. If she was a criminal who could pop out of any location, where would she hide? There could be any number of places where this Mirror Master could grab onto his big score.
Nymphadora Tonks groaned when she rolled over from her back onto her hands and knees. The shape-shifting Auror turned her attention to the ceiling above her. She clung onto the ceiling.
'Wait, ceiling,'
Those words passed through the mind of the woman when she was hanging from the ceiling. Or, maybe she was on the floor and her entire perspective had been flipped. Nym could not figure out which was where. The last thing she remembered, she saw the inside of the mirror.
This mysterious criminal sucked her through the mirror. Nym fell into one of the easiest traps in the world. The woman lifted her hand off of the ceiling ground. She let go of the ceiling on her hands and knees.
The Auror hovered in mid-air in absolute shock. She swayed from her position. The woman's eyes shifted over when trying to look around. Everything looked backward and also upside down. Nym dragged herself across the area. She searched around the area.
Moments passed before Nym found an open mirror doorway. She swung her legs and flung herself through the mirror. The sensation of being splashed by ice water hit Tonks when she came through the mirror portal. She popped out on the other end of the mirror.
Everything turned topsy-turvy as Nym looked up in the air. She opened her mouth to say something.
"OlleH! Nym yelled.
There had been no sound coming out of her mouth other than the intelligible word. She screamed out something more and more and had confused herself because the words which came out of her mouth was not the ones that registered in her brain. Nym's fingers pushed down on the top of her head.
'Backwards. Of course, it's backward.'
She mentally arranged the letters of what she wanted to say in her way.
"Is there anyone else here?"
It felt weird to think something backward and hear it come out forwards. A blur came out in front of her. The shell-shocked and trapped woman stepped back from the blur who rushed towards her. Time passed when the attractive brunette woman looked forward at the woman there.
"You're trapped too?"
Nym heard those words. The woman was able to speak forward.
"Yeah. Mirror. Bathroom. Portal."
She made sure to articulate each of the words out. The girl craned her neck and nodded in response.
"Mirror Master," she said. "Trouble. Come this way….."
"Tonks," she said.
"Jesse," she replied.
Jesse kept her head on straight when walking forward. Despite the woman's calm demeanor, she had been very agitated with a civilian here. Kara had not found a way to get her out of the mirror and now Jesse had a civilian to walk out. She watched as the civilian stepped through a hole in the ground.
She fell down through the floor and then shot up through another mirror about ten feet away from them. Jesse was there in front of her in a few seconds. She helped Tonks to her feet.
"Be careful."
Tonks looked on with a dry mouth and clutched her fists together. She did not know what just happened and had no idea about the ins and outs of this place. She jumped back as the woman caught her from falling over into another mirror portal.
"I almost dropped this."
A mirror slipped out of her of the woman. The strange glow coming from the mirror caught Jesse's attention.
"What's that?" Jesse asked. "That doesn't look like any kind of mirror…did you swipe one of his devices when he pulled you through?"
Hope sprung eternally through that she could use it to find a way out. The woman's expression fell when Tonks held out the mirror. It looked very different than the mirrors that the Mirror Master used.
Jesse noticed a gateway opening up. She scooped up Tonks without any warning and rushed her all the way to the other side. She saw the glowing image of Mirror Master. A large wall appeared in front of them and the mirror. Jesse had to put the brakes on to keep them from slamming into the wall.
"Are you okay?"
Tonks shook her head. She came just inches away from smacking her head into the portal. The energy portal sealed shut in front of her eyes.
"I'll be fine," Tonks said. "I think I might be able to use the mirror to send a message out to my friend on the outside."
The Speedster took this comment in. "If I can figure out how it works, then maybe I can relay a signal with my powers."
Striking the mirror at the right frequency might open a portal. Jesse hoped it could be opened regardless. She took the mirror from Tonks. Tonks raised her eyebrow and looked rather annoyed.
"Sorry, we got to move while the portal is still hot. How do you get the back of this thing open to rewire it?"
A confused expression spread over Nym's face before she realized what the other woman was asking.
"There's no wires in the back of it. There's no technology. It's magic."
Those words took a couple of minutes to sink in. Jesse held the mirror up and put it back into the hand of the other woman. She looked almost disappointed in the fact it was not some kind of interesting piece of technology.
"I'm more of a science person than a magic person," Jesse said. "Actually, I know people who dabble in magic. But, considering none of them are here, pretty hard for them to help us communicate with the mirror."
That would be pretty hard. Nym looked around and could see flashes of light moving around her. Those flashes of light retracted around the mirror she held in her hand.
"It's not right," Nym murmured underneath her breath. "I thought that I had something, but there's nothing."
The Amos Fortune Casino burst with activity as many of the people played on the floor. Some spent a good deal of the money they had on it to finally make it big.
An elderly man dressed in a fishing hat, a tie-dye shirt and a pair of shorts which extended past his knee looked over the glasses he wore. He sat at the lucky machine which he met his wife at all of those years ago. The man prepared to place the coin inside of the machine.
"Come on, if this quarter doesn't get me rich, I'm leaving. I met my dear sweet Mary-Ellen here. Grandpa needs a new fishing pole."
Sweat rolled down the back of the neck of the old man who pushed the coin into the machine. He reached and pulled down the crank of the machine. The old man crossed his fingers.
"Come on, baby, you can do it! Give Pappy some luck here!"
The machine flashed and the jackpot had been released. Everyone looked up in surprise as the old man threw his hands up and tipped the chair over. He crashed down to the ground. The pain racking through his frail body could not beat the joy of finally hitting his lucky machine.
The shower of coins littered the floor next to him. The elderly man rose to his feet, staggering against the chair. His hands almost clutched the railing.
A figure dressed in black appeared on the other end of a mirror and popped up. He caught sight of the silver dollars down on the ground with a wicked smile on his face.
"I'll take that, pops!"
The Mirror Master scooped up the windfall of silver. The elderly man's eyes widened. Thirty years it took him to hit the jackpot and now this hooligan just swiped it out from underneath him.
"Hold it right there, buddy!"
The guards moved in front the Mirror Master. The Master Master retracted his hand and spun the glass ball above their heads shooting several holographic duplications in every direction. The Mirror Master rushed through the portal.
"Stop!" the old man yelled. "STOP!"
Those words fell on some very deaf ears with the Mirror Master jumping through one of the windows. He vanished into the reflective surface. Everyone in the casino yelled out in panic after the Mirror Master swooped in from underneath him and rubbed.
Supergirl and her hooded companion moved into the Casino. The panic of people showed they were in the right place. Alia held her hand up and a glowing purple bulb rose from the palm of her hand.
"You have it?" Kara asked.
"I have enough of a trace to open up a portal and get our friends out."
The Mirror Master slipped out from underneath their noses once again. They might not have any problems if Alia's theory was correct. The pair of super-powered young adults bolted towards the hotel room to get back in touch with Jesse through the mirror again.
The police sirens could be heard in the distance after they were long gone.
To Be Continued on 7/28/2017.
