An important part of being a criminal was utilizing your resources. This was a problem when you woke up in the wrong universe fifteen years in your future. Steph was working from the ground-floor-up, but she did have her skills, which was something she could rely on.

Being young, attractive, and smart also opened a lot of doors and mouths. She wondered what kind of network thirty-three-year-old Stephanie had at her disposal, but it was ultimately irrelevant. The people she worked with would not have known her real name, and as far as she could tell, Silhouette never became a player in the criminal network in this world. She was a new actress in the play, and she was going to start fresh and make a big debut.

Through a rumor obtained by a fence in The Village, Stephanie caught onto a plan some local gang was putting together to steal from one of the city’s art museums. She would not be caught dead trying to work her way into a job like that; it sounded like too many moving parts and too many people who were outside of their skillset. Some criminals underestimated the high threshold of execution when it came to art theft and lacked the finesse to do the job right.

And so, while those dolts stole attention away, Silhouette would plan her own get under everyone’s noses.

The target was bigger than she would give a group like that credit for. The Met? Heck, even her world had The Met. They were in over their heads, but Steph could get in, snag the painting she had picked out in her research, and slip out. She might let herself get caught on camera in her shadowed form—perhaps to build her reputation? Okay, maybe that was a little reckless when she could take advantage of anonymity for a while. Famous thieves played a dangerous game, but she was eighteen and a little too confident for her own good.

For instance, she was too confident to realize that while her universe had The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it did not have The Met Cloisters. It was a smaller offshoot museum of The Met, and unbeknownst to the cat burglar preparing her heist, that was what the other thieves were planning to hit.

Checking a watch she then stowed away in a pouch she kept on her belt, Silhouette was certain the team of thieves would be making their appearance soon, if her intel on their plans was close to accurate. Regardless, she was a professional and was ready to commence with her plan.

Letting her body melt into shadow, along with the skin-tight suit she wore, the only aspects of Steph to not transform with her were the belt resting on her hips and the items tied to it. She had to be careful with those; the last thing she needed to do was leave her helpful tools somewhere because her body changed form and abandoned her belt.

This next part… she was still getting used to. She was no more than 100 feet from the lobby of The Met, which she had learned in her testing to be her limit for this. If she could take a deep breath, she would, but since Silhouette in Shadowform could not breathe, she just plunged into one of the shadows cast in the alley she was in.

It was nearly instant, and on instinct, Silhouette felt the pull of a shadow she was sure was in The Metropolitan.

It was; it was just being cast in the security office.

Okay, so this was not an exact science yet. The guard turned, curious by the shift in light behind him, but before he could should, a snakelike shadow arm wrapped around his head, covering his mouth and nose, holding him as he struggled until he was finally out.

That was close. She would tie him up quick and throw him in the closet, but she could not dally; the other guards would come back around soon. Before she slipped out, she did spare a glance at the screens. Odd; was the other group not here yet? Honestly, amateurs.

She was a professional. She slipped out of the office and slinked her way along the walls of the museum, heading toward the wing of her choosing. Sneak in, sneak out, easy score.

It wasn't that she hadn't thought about it. She had. A lot. But there was a difference in thinking and doing.

Tonight, Raine just needed to do something, X-men approved or not. That was how she was used to it going in Universe B, or whatever this place called the other side. They scheduled their times to do and then they did. They practiced. They patrolled. They fought bad guys in the street. They didn't have this weird peace where they ran a school and did team exercises and- and-

Raine savored a moment of weightlessness as she reached the apex of her swing and let go of her gravity tether. Her hair floated up around her in that perfect moment of stillness between the city's buildings, far above the noise of the street.

-and Earth's gravity applied to her too.

Raine was running dark today. She'd been able to use the X's resources in this universe to get a really professional version of her suit made, domino mask and and LEDs and everything she'd slipshod together now was L E G I T. She might have signed a figurine release, not that she'd seen any in stores. It was winter time and apparently ColdSteel was the big Christmas seller. Add on the new Frigid 2 princess movie and the girl that had no visible mutation and shared the face of a bad guy had no chance.

She had sort of joined the X-men here. Sort of not. Apparently she had the face of someone in this universe who'd done a lot of bad things. It made the vibe weird back at home base. That, and she somehow just couldn't connect. She was lost here in Universe A, still ungrounded. Still not evil, even if they made her prove herself a hundred times. When she was with the x-men here, it just felt all wrong. It wasn't her team and it didn't feel like a good fit. Nothing worked the same without her people.

Except her power. At least gravity still worked the same.

Her hair whipped straight up as she fell downward and the gentle, quiet evening air became a roar in her ears. Raine hurled a long throw of her invisible tether toward a far building, tapped her core, and enjoyed the change in direction. Her hair whipped back behind her now, and she got a better look at her surroundings.

The museum mile was just ahead, a future scene of crime if the x-tip was any good. Or maybe they were just testing her. Again. No. She wasn't going to steal anything. Or, even be tempted to. You'd have to be friggin crazy to challenge the security in there...

Stephanie remembered her life before she could shift into shadows. Using her shadow as a tool was always helpful, giving her use on the streets and sneaking wallets out of purses and pockets. She was finally getting some mastery of those powers when some scumbag tried to push his luck, awakening an evolution in her mutation.

Now Stephanie saw the potential to think bigger. Being a shadow made her inherently stealthy and protected from most attacks. Suddenly, security systems and armed guards were a threat but not a dealbreaker. She was opening up a path for herself and Malia; the potential for a comfortable life.

And sure, maybe he enjoyed the thrill. How could she not? She was a disconnected shadow gliding across the great hall, moving toward Medieval Art and slipping through security cameras who could barely pick her out against the patterns of the floor.

Of course, nothing was perfect and Silhouette had her limitations. The Medieval wing was dark; too dark for her to remain in shadowform. Shifting back, Silhouette kept in mind the cameras she had scouted out in a previous scouting trip. She stuck to the walls when she could, making her way down the long hall of antiquated art. Her target was not in this hall, so she moved toward the exit.

Before she stepped through the door, she heard footsteps. The benefit of her human form was a return to full senses. Keeping close to the edge of the doorway, Silhouette waited until the steps came close enough for her to act, and act fast. Catching the guard as he walked around the corner, she got behind him, using one arm to wrap around his neck and the other to keep him away from his radio or weapon.

It took time and effort and Silhouette was not a specimen of peak physical excellence, but she knew where to apply pressure. With a thud, the guard hit the ground unconscious, and the thief breathed a quiet sigh of relief. He would not stay down forever, so her trip was on a timer, making it all the more important to get to the Contemporary Art wing ASAP.

A second tether stopped Raine’s flight and restored her weightlessness in a more permanent, less holistic way. Her hair didn’t float. She didn’t get the stomach in the throat, rush of adrenaline, either. But she did hover in zero gravity, her superhero namesake.

Zero drifted between buildings, watching the dark hallways of the museum. All was quiet on the homefront. She curled up and hugged her knees. What was she doing here?

She’d sort of coasted after applying as a universal refugee, afraid to stray too far from the Mansion in case SUPER made a move on her. But she was a small fry, of no consequence in the grand scheme of things, and time had passed peacefully. She couldn’t be a mooch forever, and she clearly wasn’t a great fit for the main team.

But she’d only ever been a barista, otherwise. She had tried to get into the college swap program, but been derailed until her refugee status was confirmed. It felt like there was only one thing she was still kinda okay at: the vigilante game.

And even more presently, there was no obvious robbery in progress. So maybe that was a bust.

Either her being here scared them away or the tip wasn’t a thi-

She saw a flashlight swivel and then extinguish inside. Probably nothing, but it was literally the most exciting thing that had happened so far on this patrol. Zero dropped one tether and let gravity pull her to land with a soft glassy tunk on the side of the window. She walked, watching down through the glass that was her ground…

Was she seeing things? Or nothing at all? The shadows were playing tricks on her.

It was important as a mutant thief not to rely too strongly on your mutation. Silhouette’s powers failed her in dark rooms, but there were also adapteds running around this universe, as uncommon as they may be. She had to be as competent a thief as any human, with or without powers, or she should not be putting herself in these situations with Malia waiting at home.

With no footsteps echoing in the upcoming halls, Silhouette walked quickly with her soft-soled shoes, but she felt relatively safe. She did let her mind wander to her sitter for the night. Victoria seemed like a sweetheart, but you never knew! She was only three years younger than Steph, and Steph barely felt like she knew what she was doing. How would that peppy little sophomore handle a crisis? What if she started smoking around the baby?

Stephanie was torn between her aversion to security cameras and her overbearing desire to invest in a nanny cam. Maybe when her fence came through for her after this job.

The European Sculptures wing was low-lit, but it was enough that Silhouette could feel her shadow again. Glancing around at the door behind her and the large space ahead, no one seemed to be in her immediate field of vision. She was, to her knowledge, standing in a small deadspace between camera angles, so she made the choice to let her physical body melt into living shadow. She sank into the floor, leaving just enough of her form manifested physically to hold the belt she wore when in a humanoid form.

Assuming that crew of goons was barging their way into the American Art wing, there should be no guards between here and Modern Art. The shadow glided across the ground, feeling confident in her planning, but ready for whatever unseen variable might come in the next room.

As interesting as it was to walk the halls of an empty art museum sideways, Raine was on the outside of the building and no respectable art museum put anything in reach of the destructive rays of the sun. So most of what she saw was the boring stuff, the glassware and the promotional posters for each section.

Raine paused at a more open juncture where her window gave her a decent view of the floor she was on and the open area of statues and street lamps below. She knelt on the window, trying to read the smaller text on a display where she could just barely see the edge of something stone— an arch or doorway or something? But, again, some unspecified movement caught her eye. She pressed her face against the glass, unable to get the right view, but there was... something.

Something was moving, she was almost sure of it. A darker patch of darkness inside a shadow of shade.

A part of her wanted to break the window and crash her way in, but A- windows were surprisingly hearty and there were a ton of pitfalls in that plan. Also, B- she wasn't a complete moron. If it was just a security guard groping around in the dark and looking for a change of batteries for his flashlight, she'd feel reeeeeal stupid.

But, since there was an alleged crime meant to take place today, Raine had her suspicions (and hopes) on high alert. She would also feel incredibly foolish if she let the bad guy walk away with whatever they'd come for. A good burglar wasn't going to be obvious about it.

She cupped her hands around her eyes to block out the extra lights from outside. This was New York, light pollution was the norm, but she needed her eyes to fully adjust so her brain could make sense of what was happening inside...

Getting through the main throughways of the Museum was easy enough; the main halls accommodate constant traffic during the day, so they could not be armed to the teeth with security measures. Being a shadow made standard measures easy enough to avoid. The real challenge came with removing the piece she wanted to steal, and that determined whether she had to sneak out or rush away.

Stephanie was never big on modern art, honestly. As a photographer, she liked bringing art out of reality, and modern art rarely cared about anything real. If she were starting a collection, a sculpture like the one she was looking to steal would not be high on her list, but she was not going to ignore a market demand for a wavy white sculpture that looked like it was melting.

As she approached the pedestal, the flat shadow reformed into her familiar, humanoid shape. She enjoyed the versatility of her shadowform, but it was still new, and she had more control over her shadow as an extension of her rather than her body as a shadow.

The shadow crawled up the pedestal, creeping onto the smooth surface where the statuette rested. The motion sensors did not catch her, because the shadow had no mass to cross them. The shadow formed around the statue, lifting it up and applying pressure to the spot where it originally rested. She did not want a noticeable shift in the weight on the pedestal.

The shadow branched back toward its owner, leading the statuette into her gloved hands. Perfect. She judged the weight of the object; if there was some sensor in the platform, her belt might actually do the trick whatever the artist made this tchotchke out of, it was not as heavy as she would have assumed.

Unbuckling her belt and pulling a flashlight out of a pocket, she let her shadow take the belt away with the intention of carefully leaving the belt and the expendable, non-descript tools inside in place of the expensive paperweight. She had to admit; this was going well so far, even for her.

No. What was happening inside the museum, regardless of it being far away and hard to see, was definitely not normal. Was it a theft in progress? It was looking more and more that way, as a statue was making its way off a pedestal seemingly all on its own. No alarms sounded. Weren't there precautions in place for this kind of stuff?

Raine looked around for her best option. She'd already discounted breaking a window. She didn't want to be on the hook for potential damages. A security guard, then. She got up and ran toward the bobbing flashlight that was on the same floor as the potential problem. She ran right over him, flicked the switch on her costume so her LEDs blazed to life and stomped on the glass near his face.

The flashlight spun out of the guards hands and away onto the floor. Erg! If only she could get that flashlight to go through the door into the statuary. But she couldn't throw tethers through glass as far as she knew. Raine stomped again and pointed before running up the windows toward the roof. He was no doubt making a fuss on the radio, but all his attention was gonna be in the wrong place.

Raine flicked the switch on her suit again to go dark again. How did whoever get in? How did they plan to get out? If she could draw the guards attention to that place... maybe they'd do all the heavy lifting of catching the thief. Impact would be hella proud. It was the vigilante way: get in, facilitate justice, get out.

Amidst carefully trying to replace a priceless piece of art with a salvation army tactical belt, Silhouette could hear some sounds from other areas of the Museum. Evidently, the other criminal enterprise of the night finally lived up to her expectations and ran afoul of some security attention. That made her feel more comfortable with her own endeavors. She was surprised not to hear alarms going off; apparently, they did not even get that far.

With the hope that she could slip out amidst the chaos, Silhouette was disappointed to realize the sounds were drawing closer to her. What the hell? Were those lumbering oafs dragging the trouble to her? Why would they? She had to act fast, but there was no time.

Flashes of light broke through the doorway and three guards entered the room to find Silhouette standing there with a sculpture in her hands and her shadow emerging from the mantle. Her shadow, when she twitched, brushed the motion sensors, triggering the alarm system.

Well, crap.

Before the guards could get a good idea of the thief’s physical details, she recalled her shadow, giving up on her belt trick that totally would have worked, and turned herself back into her shadowbody. ”Would you believe me if I said I got lost looking for the bathroom?” Okay, that was lame, but she was not used to being caught. At lest not by security guards; what an awful way to kick off her career in this new world!

Thankfully, the guards were shining their flashlights at the intruder, which made her form darken and strengthen. Letting the sculpture be led to the ground by a third arm of shadow before it shrank back into her, Silhouette’s arms extended out and grew in size, borrowing from the rest of her mass. They hit two of the guards with significant force, knocking them back. The third reached for either a weapon or a radio, but she was not going to wait. Her arms came together around him and bound him, lifting him off the ground so she could throw him into a wall.

They would all live, bruised in body and ego. She did not like things getting messy, but she was not about to get caught here. ”Sorry, I’ll just see my way out,” she muttered, picking up the sculpture and gliding across the floor, her legs formed together more like a mermaid’s tail or a naga. No need to pretend to run when people already saw her made of shadow. As she tried making her mistake, she noted one odd detail: where were the thugs that led security to her?

From the rooftop, Raine could see no obvious break in traffic or a blinking neon light that indicated a getaway car. She was 99% sure she'd seen inhumanly possible things happening inside so that meant mutant. A car might not be necessary to escape. Unfortunately, she couldn't cover every exit, but she could dance on her toes in a boxer shuffle to try to keep warm while she watched the rooftop.

Would they go up or down? How many were there? She had to be ready in case the guards bit off more than they could swallow in chasing a mutant. She would clean up whatever they let go, assuming that she could find their exit point.

She strained to hear something, anything, but there were floors between the action and where she waited. Front or back exit? Up or down? It was all a guess at this point, but she had to put her chips down somewhere. So she waited on the rooftop where she might possibly get the most coverage of her options.

Blocks away, a lone cop car was struggling up through the traffic. It could take half an hour, it could take them ten minutes. Either way, they were probably going to be too late to catch the thieves and definitely too late to catch Raine... not that she had to run from the police in this universe. But some of Impact's rules were just good practice over all, she decided.

Now that guards were on alert and the security system had sent an alarm to the NYPD, Silhouette was dealing with a time crunch. She had to make her escape and avoid any obvious options. Any actual exit from the building might be guarded, so she had to improvise.

It was important not to rely on her mutation, but in a pinch, it was important to remember when she should take advantage of it. Pulling a heavy maglight out of her belt pouch, Silhouette forcefully chucked it at a nearby window, which was thankfully enough to smash it. She scaled the wall to get through the window, but instead of dropping to the ground level, she went where security could not follow her. With a sculpture in tow, the shadowthief ascended up the outer wall of the museum to the rooftop.

Making it out of sight, she looked over the edge of the rooftop. Sure enough, a guard had thought to check around the perimeter. Glorious. She would keep a careful eye out from this perch until she had a window to make her getaway. Until then, at least she was out of sight and out of mind.

Stepping away from the edge, Stephanie had to blink and adjust her eyesight in the unlit night air. Her vision in her shadowform was diminished, but… was that… no. She refused. There was not about to be another person already on the roof of the most prestigious museum in New York.

It was the glass breaking that finally alerted Raine to which way the thief was going. Aww was the poor thief up against a wall because of security? She bounded toward the sound and skidded to a stop when something beat her to the edge of the building.

Raine crouched with a tether at the ready and was only derailed for a brief moment when she first saw it... her? A writhing mass of shadows bubbled up the wall and formed up into a sort of feminine form... a feminine form holding a... something. It wasn't too big and it wasn't a painting. It was probably art, right? Why else would it be out?

"Hi, did you like the presents I put on your tail downstairs?"

The LEDs on her suit buzzed to life, illuminating Raine's smile. There was no point left in hiding. In fact, she wanted the police to see and find them. Raine launched her first tether, which looked like a whole handful of nothing, unsure if it would stick to shadow or go through it. The shadow was holding something, so it could touch things. She tapped herself as the other point of gravity. If it worked, they'd be drawn toward each other.

As a second thought, just in case the first thought failed, she threw a back up tether at what she thought might be the art. Raine twisted and tossed the "down" gravity point for the art piece at the brick chimney behind her.

If that worked, she would then be between the thief and the object being stolen. Hopefully it wouldn't get too banged up falling that far. And hopefully she could get the thief to drop it... somehow.

Silhouette briefly considered reverting to her human body, if only to get a better look at who or what she was sharing a roof with, but thought better of it. As nice as senses were, the versatility of remaining as a shadow won out. She had to stay close to the edge of the roof, where the lights of the city kept her powers active, preventing her from approaching her roofmate.

The mysterious stranger, then, decided to take all those concerns into account. After a cheeky little line suggesting she drew the guards out, whatever she was wearing suddenly became bright; bright enough to bolster Silhouette's shadowbody and make the figure of a woman easier to distinguish, even at a distance.

She did not stay at a distance long though, as the thief found herself moving closer toward the person. With senses muted, she could not feel the sensation of falling in the wrong direction, so for all she knew, she was being dragged telekinetically toward this troublemaker. What she could notice was an unexpected... force? Tug? Something unexpected to make the small sculpture slip out of Silhouette's grasp.

That raised immediate concerns because thousands of dollars somehow slipped away from her. As Silhouette's malleable body met with the bright woman, she kept her form something resembling human, choosing instead to focus her shifting shape to let her arm extend toward the sculpture, catching it before it... fell? It was odd, even with the object in her hand, she felt the light pressure of it trying to move away from her. Nothing serious pulling, but if she let go, she expected it would keep "falling" the wrong way. What exactly was she dealing with here?

Whatever it was, it was coming from, a flashily-dressed mutant. X-Men. "A girl scout. Great. I was hoping you'd all be off doing late night interviews or visiting children's hospitals." It was bizarre being in a world where the X-Men were mainstream and not, strictly speaking, an illegal group of misfits.

Silhouette tried to push herself off of the woman, but whenever she tried, she found herself being forced to return. Curious, when she lifted her lower body off the ground, nothing tried pulling her down. Was... was her gravity wrong? "Take this as no offense, but I don't like getting this close, sugar. Commitment issues." She was going to have to figure out a way out of this, because Lightshow here was going to drag a lot of unnecessary police attention very soon.

She didn't realize how much she'd missed witty repartee until she was getting called 'girl scout' again to her face. As if it were an insult. Hah. Little did miss bad girl know, Raine was a habitual candy striper and hospital volunteer. Or... did she know. Did she know?

They collided and even this close to her quarry, Raine was unsure if she could ID the woman beyond the obvious. Shadow powers? Yeah, that'd be the obvious tell. Otherwise, there was no telling who she was.

> "Take this as no offense, but I don't like getting this close, sugar. Commitment issues."

"Aw, I was really hoping we could get to know to know each other."

They struggled momentarily and, while the woman's attention was on reclaiming her prize, Raine did what she did best.

She laughed off gravity.

"If you can't accept my love, then it's time to get dramatic, I guess."

Raine whooped and jumped backwards off the side of the building.

Where she went, her catch was soon to follow. She was hoping to again shock the art out of her hands. Raine had one gravity tether left. She would wait until the last second possible to use it, if she had to.

Dealing with other mutants on a job was a huge hassle. They came with so many variables, and if one tried to interfere with her work, Silhouette was stuck trying to come up with new plans based on incomplete information. She may be good at thinking on her feet, but she liked doing so with some concrete information to go off of.

Thankfully, the blonde was clearly not some no-nonsense crime fighter. That was pleasant at least; guards were always serious, so Steph could appreciate a little nonsense. Kept things spicy. "Sorry, all flirting should be done off business hours. It's an HR thing." It was also a lie, given Steph's bad habits, but they could ignore that.

Really, the banter was runing concurrent with plans. She could smother this girl. Tried and true classic. Maybe she could drag her along? The LEDs had her feeling strong. She could meld into the girl and become a flat shadow, but then she was forfeiting her prize. There was even the fleeting thought of pushing the hero off the roof, but Silhouette would never. Well, not if it could be avoided.

> "If you can't accept my love, then it's time to get dramatic, I guess."

Turns out, things became harder to avoid when the choice was taken out of your hands. The absolute maniac. She jumped toward and off the edge of the roof.

F*king X-Men, man.

While the burglar was sure this hero was not just a walking deathwish, she was still in survival mode. Not necessarily for herself; cautious testing showed moderate drops in shadowform did not destroy her. Nothing from this height, but... well, optimism. This woman might use some weird gravity trick to save them, but Steph was going to act first.

Using her free hand, (with the other fighting to hang onto a sculpture that wanted to fall in a totally different direction,) she tried to lash out toward the edge of the roof. She caught it for a moment, but their momentum caused her grip to slip and she only had so much reach to begin with. When she caught for a second, she felt herself break from the heroine, followed by a slight shift in her angle of descent. Her fall was following this woman, not the ground.

Of course, she would have to process that later, as she was more focused in the moment on falling. begrudgingly, she lashed her whole body out at the woman, choosing to hope she had a plan. Silhouette's body formed around her torso, enveloping her, with only her head and her arm being distinct. She had no time to be quippy just yet; she had to hope this X-Man was not banking on Steph to be the one to save her.