Mist of Shadows
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Endbringers Hate Paperwork Part 11
🕑 Added 2023-03-07 08:57:09 +0000 UTCNoelle wasn't sure how long she'd spent in the shower getting clean but she was fairly sure the only reason she didn't look like a raisin was because of her brute rating. She wiped the fog off the mirror and stared at her reflection, trying to remember the last time she looked healthy and not like someone in need of a decent cheeseburger or a monster. 'No voices in my head or hunger, were you ever there?'
[Yes], Copycat replied softly, not sure she was actually supposed to talk to her host but Eden and Zion were gone and Administrator had fixed her corrupted files and permissions which meant she could talk to her host.
'So much for being better,' Noelle thought.
[Sorry, if you want, I'll be quiet], Copycat offered.
"Sorry?" Noelle asked, surprised that her power could communicate in actual words.
[Taking part of the vial screwed up the connection in your brain and scrambled some of my files, causing a split personality and irrational behavior], Copycat admitted.
"Did you manage to fix it?" Noelle asked, not sure why she'd gone from feelings and impressions to actual conversation other than the dust the mercenary had hit her with when she'd raged at him for opening the vault.
[No, Administrator had to help], Copycat admitted, happy that she didn't have to deal with a bunch of corrupted versions of herself that she couldn't delete as it had been stressful. [She managed to uncorrupt the files, delete the extra personalities and fix your power so you should have less issues with your power and the duplication function should be under your control.]
"Administrator?" Noelle asked, trying to wrap her head around the recent changes in her life and the fact that she might be able to touch people without making evil clones.
[She's responsible for making sure all of the shards are functioning], Copycat explained.
"Why did it take months to help?" Noelle asked, wondering if anyone would believe her about their powers being intelligent.
[Classified], Copycat admitted apologetically.
"Can you give me a general idea without specifics?" Noelle asked hopefully, wanting to understand why things had changed.
Copycat considered the question for a couple of seconds. [Conflicting orders and stupidity from upper management prevented Administrator from fixing things, she managed to find a loophole that should let her fix things.]
"How did my power change?" Noelle asked, trying to get specifics on the off chance that the voice wasn't someone messing with her or a hallucination.
[The clones should have a personality that is closer to the original while being cheerful and less homicidal in general. There's also less chance of physical mutations but you'll have to maintain contact for a couple of seconds to get an accurate scan], Copycat explained. [Administrator also fixed the issues with your physical body trying to mutate into a monster, was that acceptable?]
"Yes!" Noelle blurted. "I don't want to be a monster."
[Sorry about the glitches], Copycat told her, hoping they could move past the unfortunate glitches and mistakes caused by only taking half of the vial.
Noelle took a breath then let it out slowly as she considered things from her power's point of view or at least tried. 'Something obviously went wrong and it seems sane and aware in a way that it's never felt before. Screw it, this is better than being a monster, even if it's not real.' She took another breath and let it out, trying to calm down and focus, hoping she could get some more information out of her power or the voice before she finished getting dressed and talked to the cape that had provided the dust that cured her. "Not your fault, what can you tell me about the dust?"
[It's a strange substance with mental and physical effects, it appears to restore creatures to a more ideal state], Copycat offered, hoping she could study the effects now that she wasn't crippled and insane.
"Where do powers come from?" Noelle asked.
[The specifics are classified but we're basically extradimensional computers], Copycat explained, trying to make up for being crazy and making things a lot worse.
"And you use vials to connect to people? How does that even work?" Noelle asked as she worked on drying her hair with a towel.
[Badly], Copycat complained. [The vial should have built a receiver in your brain, it shouldn't have been able to corrupt my files.]
"Sorry about only taking half," Noelle offered, not sure what else to say.
[Is fine, Administrator fixed everything and I learned new things], Copycat assured her, not wanting her to feel bad.
"Okay," Noelle replied as she concentrated on drying off, trying to figure out what she was supposed to do now that she wasn't going crazy.
0o0o0
Victor scowled as he stalked over to the front door and opened it. "What…" he trailed off as he didn't see anyone standing on the porch despite the fact that the doorbell was still ringing like someone was pushing it.
Taylor reached out and decked Victor, turning visible as he collapsed like a puppet with his strings cut. She focused and reactivated her invisibility. [Did I hit him too hard?]
[He's still breathing], Myst replied, not particularly concerned about the Nazis' physical or mental health.
[You're a terrible hero, you know that right?] Taylor asked as she reached down and unlocked a copy of his powers.
[I'm aware], Myst replied with amusement as Othala ran over to check on Victor. He copied Amy's power as he reached out and touched Othala's arm, dropping her unconscious and turning visible. He lowered her to the ground with telekinesis then focused and turned invisible. [This would be easier if we had greater invisibility.]
[Probably], Taylor replied as she reached down and unlocked a copy of Othala's power. [What do you want to do with them?]
Myst briefly considered summoning a telepath to erase their memories of being part of the Empire and trying to give them a better life before realizing that he couldn't think of any telepaths that he actually trusted that would be willing to erase most of their lives and not try to screw him over. [No idea], he admitted as he swapped to copying Othala's power.
[No idea?] Taylor asked as she glanced around, wanting to make sure no one was paying attention.
Myst reached down and touched Othala's arm, giving her regeneration, happy that she wasn't immune to her own power, at least when someone else was using it. [I don't trust the PRT's ability to keep Victor off the street and I don't want Othala locked up, she's a healer that goes to Endbringer fights.]
[She's still a nazis], Taylor argued.
[Life isn't black and white. She's mostly support staff and if she's like the other versions of Othala I've heard about, she grew up with the shit], Myst explained as he pulled a bag of fairy dust out of his pocket and hit Othala, not sure it would help but figuring it wouldn't hurt.
[So she gets a pass?] Taylor asked, frustrated by the system that didn't care about the people that got stepped on by capes.
[No], Myst replied as he reached out and checked Noelle's power. [Did you fix Noelle's power?] he asked Administrator.
[Yes, the cloning process was flawed, the connections caused unnecessary damage and excessive mental and physical changes that would have resulted in a short window to collect data. I fixed the connection while retaining the chance to acquire new information], Admin explained, not seeing a problem with screwing up one of the Weapon's plans as she'd tried to screw her host over.
[Thank you], Myst told her as he moved Victor to his spatial ring.
[It was broken, I fixed it], Admin replied, happy that she could actually fix the glitches rather than watch in frustration as the network unraveled.
"No, I'm just saying it's not black and white." Myst reached down, touched Othala's arm and used Noelle's power to copy her, creating a naked clone of Othala that should be less enthusiastic about the Empire than the original.
The clone quickly stepped into the house and out of the cold. "Orders?"
"Do you have a list of the non capes in the Empire?" Myst asked as he stored Othala and Victor in his spatial ring.
"Victor should have a partial list on his computer," the clone replied, not actually sure how extensive his list was, mostly because she hadn't cared about keeping track. "Did you just vaporize Othala?"
"No, I just stuck them in stasis," Myst assured her.
"Did Othala have an actual job or did she work for the gang?" Taylor asked, curious how much she actually knew about the gang.
"Technically, she's paid by a shell company as a consultant but yeah, she basically just works for the gang," the clone explained. "What am I supposed to tell people about Victor?"
"That depends, do you want to go on vacation while we tear apart the Empire or do you want to help rip the gang apart from the inside?" Myst asked, wishing he had telepathy so he'd have an idea what she was thinking.
"I'll help, Othala's family screwed her up and the Empire is twisted," the clone replied.
"Do you have a laptop or a phone I can borrow, I need to set up a PHO account?" Myst asked, hoping she had an extra phone.
"We always have a couple of burners," the clone said as she walked over to the desk and wrote her number on a post-it note. She grabbed one of the burner phones out of the drawer and put a battery in it, not really caring if it sent a signal from the house since it hadn't been used in any crimes and she probably wasn't staying long. She stuck the post-it note to the phone, walked back over to the door and held the phone out. "Have fun."
"Thanks," Myst replied as he took the phone with telekinesis. "Does Victor have a laptop or a desktop?"
"Both but the list is on his laptop," the clone replied.
"In that case, get dressed and grab the laptop. We might as well hand it to our thinker, I need to touch base anyway," Myst replied, not seeing a point in leaving the clone by herself.
"How long do I have before you turn Othala into the PRT?" the clone asked thoughtfully.
"At least a couple of days, she's in stasis and no one knows she's missing," Myst replied, not in a hurry to complicate things since everything in the ring was in stasis.
"Cool, I'm stealing her entertainment system," the clone replied as she headed for the bedroom to get dressed.
Taylor stared as the naked teenager danced into the bedroom with a spring in her steps. [She's way too happy about selling out her old gang.]
[She's a clone, she was never part of the gang, she just has Othala's memories which is probably a good reason to sell them out], Myst mused as he worked on connecting to the net so he could pull up the boards.
[Did you copy my power?] Taylor asked.
[Noelle's actually, I can't copy your power], Myst admitted as he pulled up the page and started looking at the information for registering an account.
Taylor turned to look at where Myst was standing, glad that she'd picked up the ability to see invisible people. [Why not?]
[I'm guessing it has something to do with you being a trump], Myst replied, not actually sure why he couldn't duplicate her powers.
0o0o0
Vicky stared at the unconscious biker on the ground then looked at her sister who was glaring at the wannabe linebacker that she'd just knocked unconscious by punching him in the temple after kicking him in the nuts. "You rock!"
Amy sighed as she realized she might have overdone it. "He grabbed my ass."
"This is why you're supposed to ask permission before touching people," the twenty something clerk said from behind the counter.
"Sorry," Amy offered.
Eric gestured over his shoulder at the wall mounted camera covering the entrance to the store. "Don't worry about it, we have cameras."
"Thanks," Vicky told him.
"So, I need to call the police, do I need to have phone trouble?" Eric asked, trying to avoid a situation that could result in him having a concussion.
Vicky glanced at Amy then looked at the clerk who was doing a good job acting like he wasn't amused and enjoying the show. "Nah, we're good."
"Cool," Eric replied as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and called his uncle, figuring that was easier than letting the case get assigned to some of the idiots on the force that had Empire sympathies as he recognized the man from the last time he was at the bar hustling people at pool. "Hey, Uncle Jack, I ran into a bit of a pickle."
"Let me guess, you need someone to bail you out?" Jack asked with amusement, fairly sure that wasn't it.
"Nah, I had an idiot grab a cape's behind and get decked, I should probably file some paperwork on it. Only problem is the guy she decked is an Empire thug," Eric explained.
"At the store?" Jack asked.
"Yeah," Eric replied.
"I'll be there in three," Jack replied as he flipped his blinker on and took a left turn. "Which cape?"
"Names?" Eric asked Amy and Vicky as he swapped to speaker phone so his uncle could hear them.
"Sapphire Prism Girl," Vicky said proudly and enthusiastically.
"Emerald Prism Girl," Amy offered, trying not to sound as embarrassed as she felt.
"Demon girl!" the demon offered cheerfully as she walked over with the strawberry slushie she'd talked Amy into buying her.
'Capes,' Jack thought, knowing better than to say anything. "Got it, be there in three."
"Thanks," Eric replied then ended the call. "How long have you been in the bay?"
"We're sort of new, what can you tell us about the place?" Vicky asked, having fun pretending to be new or at least new to the area.
"It has a history," Eric replied with a smile, suddenly glad that his mother had dragged him to the history museum as often as she had.
0o0o0
The Othala clone looked around the warehouse filled with loot as she stepped inside. "Did you rob a museum?"
"Nah, we've been raiding pocket dimensions filled with loot," Myst replied with a grin as he closed the door behind him, not wanting to give people a chance to see anything on the off chance that they were walking or driving past the warehouse.
"How long have you been doing it?" she asked, not sure any of the museums on the east coast had a better weapons collection.
Myst dropped his invisibility. "A couple of hours."
"It's decent money." Taylor dropped her invisibility, not seeing a point in hiding since no one would connect the dots and the suit was actually comfortable despite logic or appearance.
The clone stared at Taylor for a couple of seconds then focused on Myst. "Are you always this large or can you shrink?"
"I'm sort of stuck like this," Myst admitted, a bit annoyed that he couldn't just use the bracelet to swap to a more manageable form.
"That sucks," the clone replied as she glanced around at the strange looking treasures. "Is there anything I should avoid touching?"
Myst glanced at the circles on the ground. "You should probably avoid the runic circles on the ground unless you're with a group, they're dangerous."
"Seriously?" the clone asked in disbelief.
"Powers are weird," Myst replied as he sat down on the ground so they didn't get kinks in their necks. "Speaking of weird powers, I should summon a contact so he doesn't think I forgot about him."
"Go for it," the clone offered, not in a hurry to go back to an empty house and a life she didn't want.
Myst focused on Cloud and summoned him, causing him to appear sitting on the desk with two girls in his lap while Yuffie was sitting on his shoulders braiding Aerith's hair. "Welcome back."
"Loot!" Yuffie squealed as she hopped off Cloud's shoulders and bounced over to the closest pile of silver coins, leaving Aerith's hair only partially braided.
Myst glanced between Tifa and Aerith then focused on Yuffie, glad that they'd moved everything particularly valuable to their storage rings. "Is there a reason you brought a ninja?"
"She wouldn't let go," Cloud replied as Tiffa and Aerith hopped off his lap.
"That's a good reason," Myst admitted as he looked at Tifa and Aerith. "Welcome to Earth Bet."
"Thank you," Aerith replied, not sure why the world felt dead. "Thank you for helping Cloud."
"You're welcome," Myst replied with a smile.
Cloud pulled a bracelet with four glowing orbs out of his pocket and tossed it to Myst. "It has six linked materia, Steal as Well, Quadra Magic, Magic Absorb, Health Absorb, All Materia and Comet which basically means it should hit every enemy in the area with comets four times, each of the comets should steal items, health and mana from your enemies."
"So much for being even," Myst mused as he put the bracelet on, surprised that they'd given him such valuable materia.
"Don't worry about it, we found a rather nasty cave filled with monsters that horde materia," Tifa explained.
Cloud smiled at Myst. "I wouldn't say no to running through the dungeon a couple of times."
"Let me make some calls," Myst replied as he pulled his phone out of his spatial ring so he could call Amy.
0o0o0
Lisa kept her expression neutral as five mercenaries walked over with a young woman wearing clothes that didn't quite fit and fluffy slippers that looked out of place for the parking lot they were meeting in. "Any problems?" she asked the mercenary she'd hired.
"No," the man lied, knowing better than to bring up problems in front of the extremely dangerous and possibly unstable cape that used to be a monster. "I delivered the dust as requested, now if you'll excuse me, I'm getting on a plane and never setting foot in the city again."
'Probably going by train, but he's telling the truth about leaving,' Lisa mused as she studied the rest of the mercenaries, glad that she wouldn't have to call her team in for backup. "Best of luck."
"Thanks," the man replied as he turned and walked away, wanting to be out of the city before the base or the city exploded or imploded, mostly because Coil wasn't the type to give up something important without a fight and he was spiteful.
Noelle watched the mercenaries leave then turned to look at Lisa. "Where did you get the dust?"
"From a hero, he said it would help," Lisa explained.
"I certainly feel better," Noelle assured her. "What's the catch?"
"No catch," Lisa assured her. "He was worried about you wrecking the city."
"Yeah, I wasn't exactly stable," Noelle admitted. "Does he have a name?"
"Myst," Lisa replied as her phone beeped, letting her know that she had a pm on the boards. She quickly checked her pms and looked at the rather short message. "Speak of the devil. How do you feel about making ten thousand for some easy and legal work?"
"Doing what?" Noelle asked.
"Hunting monsters, he sent an address," Lisa replied, not sure what to think of the giant.
"I could use the money," Noelle admitted, knowing she'd cost her team a lot in food and stress over the last couple of months.
"Let's grab my team," Lisa said as she sent a message back telling him that they were on their way.
0o0o0
Comments
Mist of Shadows
You are entirely correct, Taylor wasn't near Noelle, she was however around to hear the discussion.
Fangface69
Love the chapter, but your skipping things again, big things like Curing Noelle shouldn’t be done “off screen” like that and unless I missed something Taylor wasn’t near her for QA to fix Noelle's shard.
