Mist of Shadows
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Taylor and Marvel Madness Part 7
🕑 Added 2023-08-08 07:54:38 +0000 UTCLeet watched the cat themed mech explode after Uber shot its fuel tank with a sniper rifle from halfway across the map. "Are you trying to get banned?"
"What? I wasn't even cheating," Uber replied as he lined up his character's next shot on a particularly annoying guy with a glider.
"There's no way most people could make that shot," Leet replied as he worked on sneaking into position.
"That sounds like a them problem," Uber replied smugly as he shot the man in the glider out of the air.
"Don't blame me when you get banned," Leet replied as he finished as he lined up a shot on the figure repairing a mech and sent a rocket his way, wanting to make sure, since he didn't have his friend's skills.
"Nothing is going-" Uber cut off when he vanished.
Leet turned to look at his friend and noticed that he was gone. "What?" He blinked a couple of times when he found himself facing a concrete wall in a brightly lit room. "What's…" he trailed off as he turned around and realized the other side of the room was filled with high end computers, servers and desks. He glanced at Uber then focused on the girl in a hooded black costume that was sitting next to a large stack of pizzas. "What's going on?"
"You're being kidnapped," Taylor replied cheerfully.
"What?!" Leet sputtered, while Uber simply looked around curiously, releasing the Snitch to flutter around the ceiling.
"I need someone to set up an awesome gaming system, I'm paying in pizzas," Taylor offered.
Leet shook his head. "I don't think that's how kidnapping is supposed to work."
"I don't care, we're out of pizza and I’m hungry," Uber told his friend, reading Taylor’s body language and seeing she was being honest… plus the pizza was fresh.
"I'm going to need some tools…" Leet trailed off as his computer tool kit appeared on the ground in front of him. "What are you looking for?"
"The previous owner of the computer system was using the computers for information processing, I'd rather have a gaming network and a place to keep design schematics," Taylor explained, a bit surprised that the guys were taking being kidnapped so well.
"Wireless networks don't generally like concrete walls," Uber pointed out.
Taylor hopped off the desk. "Running wires shouldn't be a problem."
"Dragon tech, someone spent a decent amount of money on this stuff," Leet mused, impressed as he walked over and grabbed a slice of pizza from the top box.
"Probably," Taylor agreed as she studied Leet's power with her Power Detection, trying to figure out why his inventions failed when his specialty seemed to include everything and the kitchen sink.
Uber snagged a piece of pizza then walked over and booted up one of the servers, trying to get an idea of where to start and switching his power over to network administrator.
Taylor used her emulation ability to copy Uber's power, figuring the ability would be even more useful if she paired it with Oliver's learning ability, pleased with how everything was going. “Do you need anything else?”
“Soda, Dew or Coke as long as it’s cold,” Uber replied. “Nothing diet.”
“And we’ll want to test out the system with some top of the line games when we’re done,” Leet added.
“Good, I have another villain to kidnap for that and the more the merrier,” Taylor said cheerfully.
“Who?” Leet asked.
“Regent,” she replied.
“That spawn camping bitch?! Hell yeah, bring him here and let’s see how he handles some of the classics!” Leet cheered as Uber snickered, patching the Snitch into the network so they could continue their live broadcast that had been interrupted.
0o0o0
The PRT agent raised his eyebrows when Panacea's phone started playing Vader's part of the Imperial March. "Do you want me to answer that?"
Amy glanced over at her phone that was on the table outside of her 'cell'. "It's the hospital. Mom should have told them that I'm busy."
The PRT agent picked the cell up and answered, "Panacea's phone, she's currently busy, can I take a message?"
"We have an emergency at the hospital, how soon can she get here?" the man demanded.
"What type of emergency?" the agent asked, a bit annoyed by the man's tone as it reminded him of his mother in law when she wanted something, which was the only time she ever showed up.
"Someone managed to stick a man's head up another man's ass, we need her help extracting his head without him bleeding out," the nurse explained.
'How the fuck?!' The PRT agent glanced at Panacea. "Is the man in danger of bleeding out before tomorrow morning?"
"What does that have to do with it?" the nurse demanded.
"Panacea is currently unavailable unless it's an emergency involving multiple civilians," the agent replied.
"Both of the victims are still alive, which means there are multiple victims," the nurse argued.
"How?" the agent asked, starting to wonder if this was some type of prank since the second guy should have already suffocated.
"Who are you? I need to talk to Panacea," the nurse said, getting annoyed.
"Just answer the question, how is he still alive?" the agent said, unwilling to explain shit as the man hadn't even told him his name.
"Someone stuffed tubes up the victim's nose," the nurse snapped.
"Were the victims wearing gang colors?" the agent asked, fairly sure none of the local villains would or could pull something like that to a random civilian.
"I fail to see how that matters," the nurse complained.
"I'll take that for a yes. Panacea is unavailable until tomorrow for non-emergency work," the agent told the caller then ended the call and set the cell back on the table.
"What was that about?" Amy asked, not sure she actually wanted to know since she was stuck in a comfortable holding cell until morning barring an actual emergency, just to be sure that someone hadn't messed with her head.
"A couple of suspiciously dressed guys were assaulted and someone wanted you to come in and heal them," the agent replied, avoiding anything specific in case of trigger words.
Amy glanced at her phone when it rang again. "Now I'm curious why they'd call, Mom should have told them I'm busy."
The PRT agent picked up Amy's cell and answered, "This is Panacea's phone, she's currently busy."
"If you don't give Panacea the phone I'll have you charged with obstructing a medical personnel," the same person as the last call threatened.
"Is there a problem?" Assault asked as he walked in.
"One second." The agent muted the call then turned to look at Assault. "Some asshole at the hospital or a number that registers as the hospital's number called Panacea asking about healing a couple of gang members. I told them she wasn't available outside of an actual emergency and ended the call, he called back and threatened legal action if I wouldn't hand the phone over."
Assault smiled at Panacea. "Permission to deal with the idiot?"
"Anyone important would have said their name, go for it," Amy suggested, tired of certain members of the staff thinking that she worked for them.
Assault accepted the phone then unmuted it. "Hello, you threatened a friend of mine with legal action, I'd like your name and which department you work for in the hospital so that I can get you fired."
"I'm calling the police, you've obviously stolen her phone," the man stated then hung up.
Assault looked at the number on the phone then set it back on the table and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and called the hospital, punching in the extension number for his friend in the IT department.
Frank nearly spilled his drink when his phone started playing the Looney Tunes theme song right as he was reaching for his soda, mostly because he hadn't been expecting anyone to call him. "What's up Assault?"
"Some idiot was calling from the hospital and harassing the agent that picked up Panacea's phone. Can you figure out which station called her cell phone twice in the last, say five minutes?" Assault asked.
"Technically no," Frank replied as he pulled up the information and the security footage, curious which idiot hadn't bothered to read the notice that Panacea would be unavailable unless there was a large event.
"Thanks," Assault replied.
"Shit," Frank complained when he connected the records and the camera footage. "I can't even charge you a favor for this one, his name is Ben White. He's an asshole and an idiot, he's also the nephew of one of the members of the board of directors. I don't know if he just missed the notice that Panacea wasn't available or if he just didn't care."
"Thanks, I'll leave your name out of it," Assault assured him then ended the call. "Apparently, one of the nurses is an idiot that can't read."
"It happens," Amy admitted as she went back to reading her history book, hoping she could actually fall asleep.
Assault glanced at the clock. "It's technically after midnight. If you want to split, I'll fill out the paperwork, the thinkers cleared everyone."
Amy glanced over at Vicky. "What do you think?"
"No point in staying here," Vicky replied as he started packing up her stuff.
'Beyond not dealing with Carol,' Amy thought as she started packing up her stuff. "Sounds good."
The agent grabbed the clipboard and handed it to Assault.
Assault glanced over the page then signed the bottom of it. "Call if you run into trouble getting home."
"We should be fine," Vicky replied, looking forward to seeing how fast Amy could fly once she had enough space to cut loose.
0o0o0
Amy froze and hovered in place when she flew over a building and spotted a flying child sized rubber duck chasing a man down a street while laughing like an evil Disney character. "What the duck?"
"What the duck?" Vicky asked as she stopped next to her sister. "Welcome to crazy town."
"Shouldn't we stop it?" Amy asked, finding the entire situation more amusing than she should.
"Nah, he's got a shaved head and he has tattoos," Vicky replied, not seeing a point in helping since it didn't look like the duck was trying to murder him.
Taylor's invisible duplicate smiled as she used her Sound Manipulation power to cause the illusionary rubber duck to laugh maniacally. "I am Duckman, fear me!"
"Duckman?" Amy sputtered.
Taylor's duplicate had the illusionary duck turn to look at Amy and transform into a wild haired midget with an over the top mustache wearing a canary yellow rubber outfit with half of a rubber duck glued on his chest. "I considered the Avenger of Ducks, the Quackenator, the Mighty Duck, Rubber Man and Sir Duck but nothing quite fit, thus Duckman was born."
"Why were you following the guy?" Vicky asked, trying not to laugh at the man wearing bright green floppy rubber clown shoes and a matching domino mask that barely concealed anything.
"He was in the process of breaking into a car when I found him," Taylor had the duckman reply.
Amy glanced at the man's tiny green domino mask that barely hid anything, doing her best not to laugh. "Where did you get your costume?"
Taylor used her Sound Manipulation to hide her laughter then projected and changed her voice. "I made it!"
"How long have you been a hero?" Vicky asked, fairly sure they would have heard about someone that could turn into a flying rubber duck if he'd been a hero for more than a couple of days.
"Today, I asked the heavens for power and they gave it to me," he replied enthusiastically.
Amy stared at the man's face, wondering how many midgets with large mustaches lived in the city. "Someone gave you the ability to turn into a rubber duck?"
Taylor had the 'hero' stand up straight and puff out his chest. "The heavens rewarded me, I shall cleanse the city of evil!"
"There are rules…" Vicky trailed off as the man changed back into a giant rubber duck then dropped to the ground and started bouncing down the sidewalk, rapidly picking up speed until he dashed around a corner and vanished.
"How long do you think it took him to make the costume?" Amy asked.
"I think he already had it," Vicky mused. "If anyone is listening, I'd like the ability to blast villains."
'Might as well,' Taylor's Duplicate thought, figuring it would be a good excuse to talk shop with Panacea anyway. She tweaked her copy of Gallant's power to drop the emotional aspect and give the kinetic blasts a gold color then used her Power Creation ability to give Glory Girl a copy of the kinetic blast.
"Do you want to spend…" Amy trailed off when she noticed the look of triumph on her sister's face. "Seriously?"
Vicky smirked as she gestured at a plastic bottle by the gutter and tossed a gold ball of energy at it, causing it to bounce a couple of times when she clipped it. "Cool!"
"Nothing is free," Amy warned her, wondering how long they'd have to stay in a containment cell this time.
"Live a little," Vicky ordered her.
"Fine, can I be Elsa?" Amy asked, not really expecting to get anything.
Taylor's duplicate smiled as she used her Power Creation ability to give Amy Cold Generation.
Amy flipped the new mental switch in her head and dropped the temperature around the crumpled plastic bottle, causing the slush to instantly freeze solid. "I'm going to need a spray bottle or some way to generate water."
"Sorry, I'm doing the best I can," the duplicate offered, causing the two heroes to look around.
"Hello?" Vicky asked as she looked up then around as she couldn't tell where the voice was coming from. "Are you going to turn visible?"
The duplicate wove an illusion of an attractive blue haired woman with giant pixie wings so they'd have someone to focus on. "Is this better?"
"Yes," Vicky replied as she studied the woman's wings. "Nice wings."
"Thanks," the duplicate replied.
"How long will the powers last?" Amy asked, figuring she was responsible for everything.
"It's random," the duplicate admitted. "There's a small chance that the powers are permanent but they generally only last twenty or two hundred days. No clue on the percentages as some people seem to skew the percentages. Your Flight and durability are permanent, your Cold Generation power should last twenty days."
"Do you always go around using your power on people without their permission?" Amy asked.
"Technically, everyone asked," the duplicate pointed out.
"What's the catch?" Vicky asked. "Most people wouldn't hand out powers for free."
"No catch, I was at Arcadia because I wanted to empower Amy and lessen her squishiness factor, she's one of the best healers in the world, if not the best."
"That explains me, what about everyone else?" Amy asked.
"I was testing things and I got caught up in the moment," the duplicate admitted. "It doesn't actually cost me anything to give people powers and by giving some people powers, I let people know that someone is out there that can give people powers."
"Which lets you give your family and friends powers without painting too much of a target on them, right?" Vicky asked.
"Basically," the duplicate admitted.
"How much for more powers?" Vicky asked.
"That depends, can I buy an hour of Panacea's time?" the duplicate asked.
Amy opened her mouth to tell her that she didn't take requests before she remembered the idiotic nurse and the fact that she'd basically been at the hospital's beck and call since she'd triggered. "That depends, what do you need me to do?"
"I have a friend that has the ability to basically improve aspects of a person permanently, intelligence or physical abilities and I can hand out the ability to make temporary duplicates of yourself. I was hoping we could sort of cheat and use the duplicates as templates to improve ourselves so that the ability would push us even higher," the duplicate explained, speaking fast so that she wouldn't get interrupted.
"What happens when their time runs out? Do they die or just vanish?" Amy asked, not interested in using a power that made a clone with a short lifespan.
"They vanish, you get all of their memories, because they're basically you," the duplicate replied with a shrug.
"I'm not sure if your crazy idea will work but I'll take a look in exchange for a Duplication ability," Amy offered, wondering if she was making a mistake.
The duplicate had the image pull an illusionary cell phone out of her pocket and push a button then hold it up to her head. "I'm calling a friend, do you have any objection to being teleported?"
"Wouldn't be the first time," Amy replied, thinking of the last time she'd gone to an Endbringer fight.
"Beam me up Scotty," the duplicate said.
"Beam me up…" Vicky trailed off as she found herself in an empty twenty by thirty foot concrete room with an open door.
The duplicate snickered. "Ready?"
"Ready," Amy said. She glanced around the dimly lit room then looked at her sister. "We might need to look into some type of tinkertech for blocking teleportation."
"I've looked," Vicky admitted. "Sadly, Mom's a bit paranoid and tinkertech requires maintenance which isn't cheap."
"I'm aware," Amy complained as she looked around, wondering if they were supposed to wait or head through the door. "Do you think we're doing the right thing?"
"I think we've been stupidly lucky and luck runs out," Vicky replied, thinking about some of the idiotic things she'd done on patrols. "I wouldn't mind an ace up my sleeve if I run into someone that can nullify powers."
"I've been trying to pretend that I'm never going to get into combat," Amy admitted.
"There's always someone that is too screwed up to care that the rest of us would murder anyone that seriously hurt you," Vicky pointed out.
"Sadly," Amy admitted. "How badly do you think Carol is going to flip that we're not back yet?"
Vicky gave Amy a smile. "I sent her a text that said we were going on patrol and testing your flight, we've got a couple of hours."
"On a school night?" Amy asked in surprise.
"I told her you got a few hours of sleep in lockup," Vicky replied, not all that worried about things since Amy had snagged a couple of hours of sleep once Eleventh Hour and Hunch had shown up and told their classmates that they could go after they'd gone through power testing.
"Thanks," Amy replied, surprised that Carol hadn't thrown a fit.
0o0o0
Taylor froze when she got her duplicate's memories. 'Telekinesis, vaseline and biokinesis? I didn't need to know that.' She sighed when her character got viciously sniped by Leet for the twenty-third time that run. "Okay, that's enough for me," she complained good naturedly as she set the controls down on the desk and stood up, wanting to check on Panacea and Glory Girl before they started wandering.
"Thanks for the free points." Leet smirked as he turned his attention back to hunting down Regent's character.
"Die!" Noelle cheered as she activated the trap that Leet had wandered near, causing a section of the wall to bury his character. "Don't worry, we'll deflate his head."
Leet glanced over at the BDU wearing gamer girl that was sprawled on a beanbag chair. "Just so you know, this means war."
"Bring it," Noelle replied enthusiastically, having the most fun she'd had in a long time, mostly because she wasn't worried about winning and she had hope that things would improve.
Regent shot Leet's character in the head a second after he respawned. "Spawn camping!"
"Fuck," Leet complained as Taylor left.
Uber smirked as he shot Regent's character from halfway across the map. "Don't worry, I've got you covered."
"Are you using powers?" Noelle asked as she moved her character away from her previous location, trying to stay low so she couldn't get sniped by Regent or noticed by Uber as she snuck up on him.
"Pure skill," Leet assured them. "He's put at least a thousand hours into the game."
"I can respect that," Noelle replied as she lobbed a grenade behind Uber's character, waiting until almost the last second so the grenade wouldn't bounce.
"I deserved that," Uber admitted smugly as he grabbed another piece of pizza.
Leet laughed. "Just a bit."
