Unmasked

Audrey had inherited North Medical Industries when she had turned eighteen. Her father had been a renowned surgeon and her mother a biomedical engineer. They had combined their talents to create breakthrough medical technology and the company had continued to work on cutting edge science to uphold their legacy.

Audrey had always imagined standing beside them and her younger brother Wyatt at events like this one, when a medical library was being dedicated to Doctors Mary and Byron North. Instead she was there alone in their stead, giving some speech to a crowd of strangers who would never, despite their best intentions, understand Audrey's parents.

But she put on her best megawatt smile and stood beside the university dean in her sleek designer pants and Louis Vuitton heels. Her parents would have been overjoyed by all this if they had been there. They had valued education and drive more than almost anything else.

"Thank you for coming, Miss North," the dean said, shaking her hand.

"I wouldn't have missed it," Audrey assured him. "I only wish my parents could have actually been here to see it. I know they would have been honored to see my father's alma mater dedicate a library to him."

After making some more obligatory chit-chat with the dean, she went to North Medical for one of her regular check-ins. She dealt with the board, and she spent a lot of her time among the actual doctors and scientists who worked there. She had been planning to follow in her father's footsteps herself and become a doctor, but while she'd been studying biochemistry and pre-med in college, she'd spent a lot of time here at the NMI labs to study in peace. And snoop what they were working on.

Which is how she had ended up accidentally electrocuting herself. She had been blasted clear across the room while fiddling with a device that was being developed into a sturdier, more effective prosthetic limb. There was a power surge when a breaker went haywire. Audrey had woken up in a daze, with no idea how long she'd been unconscious. For a few moments she had been sure she was dead. Instead, she made the remarkable discovery that she could control technology.

She had changed her major to bioengineering with a double major in business and had never looked back. Now she helped with all aspects of NMI, and it took up a lot of her time when she wasn't out robbing palaces and museums and generally wreaking havoc as Phantasma. Sometimes she went to the various hospitals in the area that used research and tech from NMI and visited with patients to talk to them about how they were feeling and how their treatments were going.

The irony in the difference between Audrey North's life and "Phantasma's" life wasn't lost on her.

Audrey dragged herself home late that night, soaking herself in a long hot bath filled to the brim with lavender scented bubbles, only her eyes and nose visible over the flowery foam. Donning her oldest and comfiest pajamas, she padded into her library room and pulled out the copy of Dante's Inferno that opened a secret door in the wall. Then she punched in the access code and scanned her retinas and fingerprints to access the room where she stored her pilfered treasures. Nichelle always called it her kleptomaniac squirrel lair.

It looked like a museum in its own right, filled with artwork and impressive pieces of jewelry in glass cases. The next item on her agenda was tracking down and stealing the body of King Tut. She still had a few bugs to work out of the plan, but she was confident she could pull it off. Nichelle had looked at her like she was insane when she had brought it up.

"What the hell do you need a dead Egyptian for, Audrey?" she had demanded.

"I want to see if playing that walk like an Egyptian song will bring him to life," Audrey had deadpanned and Nichelle had rolled her eyes.

"I think old Tutankhamun would look pretty good over there in the corner next to Mona Lisa, don't you think, Jekyll? Hyde?" Audrey's twin Egyptian Maus came slinking into the hidden lair, mewing loudly. They purred and wound around her ankles while she sat sipping tea and reading.

Her phone pinged and she glanced at the screen to see a text message from Nichelle.

I let myself in. Remembered my key this time. Quit hiding in your villain hole with your cats and get up here I'm starving.

Audrey rolled her eyes and set her book down, shooing the cat's out and closing up her treasure room before making her way to the front room, where Nichelle had already made herself at home, flipping through Audrey's Netflix list.

"So what do you want to eat?" Audrey asked. Nichelle eyed her critically.

"Kind of early for pajamas isn't it?"

"It's almost nine," Audrey said, frowning.

"You should change."

"Did you want to go out for sushi?"

"Um. Sure."

Audrey shrugged and went rifling for a pair of jeans and a blouse, only to have Nichelle greet her with a dramatic sigh.

"Audrey. I meant change into something sexy," she said irritably.

"Why?" Audrey stared at her, baffled.

"I...may have ordered pizza again." Nichelle twirled a braid around her finger while Audrey stared at her.

"You ordered pizza? Why?"

"Remember that cute pizza guy who was staring at you the other night, and I told you you should have given him your number-"

"Nichelle!" Audrey glared at her. "Would you please quit trying to meddle in my love life?"

"Easy enough. Since you don't actually have a love life. The pizza is already on its way, now go put on some red lipstick and a black skirt."

"Nichelle-"

"Don't argue with me, Audrey. You may be the little princess but I'm the fairy godmother. Trust me on this."

Nichelle fairly shoved Audrey into her room.

"The black skirt is hanging up in your closet!" she called through the door. "I know because I put it there. The lipstick is on your vanity."

Audrey huffed loudly. "We're going to have a very serious talk about this, Shelle!"

But she knew it was pointless to argue; Nichelle wasn't about to let it go. So she put on the lipstick and the skirt and then stomped back into the living room to scowl at her best friend. Nichelle nodded approvingly at the change in outfit. She smirked.

"You'll thank me later, sweetie."