Mist of Shadows
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Endbringers Hate Paperwork Part 2
🕑 Added 2023-02-04 01:31:37 +0000 UTCTaylor froze when she accidentally touched Panacea's hand when she reached for her sundae and a translucent character creation page appeared in front of her. "What the hell?" she sputtered as she stared at the display, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.
Vicky glanced at the door then focused on Taylor. "What's up?"
Taylor glanced at the female clerk who was standing behind the counter listening to music while cleaning the back counter. "I think someone is messing with me."
"Why?" Amy asked as she dug her plastic spoon into her sundae.
"Because I touched your hand and I have a transparent window floating in front of my face. It looks like the character creation window for a video game," Taylor explained, thinking about the various design a cape websites she'd looked at when she was younger and wondering if Leet and Uber were about to jump out and yell gotcha or something equally as annoying. "Is this something Leet and Uber would pull?"
"Messing with people like this isn't really Leet and Uber's schtick and I can't think of anyone else in the Bay that could pull it off so you probably triggered," Vicky told her in a whisper.
Amy briefly considered making a joke about it not being her fault and that she couldn't prove anything before she stomped on the impulse, mostly because she'd gotten a snapshot of Taylor's brain and she was a parahuman. "Have you blacked out recently?" she asked in a whisper, trying to be professional despite her unusually good mood.
Taylor shivered as she flashed back to falling off the roof. "When I fell off the roof, I don't remember Myst catching me."
"What are you seeing?" Amy asked, curious how the girl's powers worked since she'd never heard of powers coming with a display or an interface.
"It looks like something out of a video game. I have a powers tab, a species tab and a skills tab and an empty spot for a character doll. I also have a button to reroll stats but it's currently grayed out," Taylor rambled excitedly, looking forward to changing things in the Bay. She glanced at the message log box at the bottom of the page. "I also have two messages in my log about humans and Biokinesis being unlocked."
"Interesting…" Amy trailed off as Vicky reached over and poked Taylor's hand. "Seriously?"
"You're obviously fine," Vicky argued.
Taylor glanced at the new message in her text log, her gaze jumping to the note about the 'Emotional Manipulation Aura' that she'd just unlocked. 'Does that count as a master power?' she wondered as she glanced over the rest of the powers she'd unlocked.
"Did you get anything new?" Vicky asked, curious how the new cape's power worked.
"I don't feel any different but it says I unlocked flight, an aura and a force field," Taylor admitted, wondering if she had some type of thinker ability.
"Some type of trump," Amy mused, curious about the girl's power.
"Try touching the powers tab," Vicky suggested excitedly as Amy started eating her ice cream.
Taylor focused on the tab, wondering if there was a mental component. 'Nothing? Powers?' she thought, trying to get it to work. She reached up and tapped the powers tab with her finger, not really expecting it to work. She pulled her hand back when half of the page changed, bringing up a list of powers and a floating window with a description of Biokinesis.
Vicky grinned when she noticed the surprise on Taylor's face. "Something happen?"
Taylor glanced at the clerk that had moved to cleaning the shake machine. "It's giving me a list of the powers I've unlocked. Does healing count as Biokinesis?" she asked, wishing she'd paid more attention to the local capes, beyond the rumors running around school about the Bay's resident healer.
Amy finished her bite of ice cream. "Mine does. Can you select the powers?"
Taylor tapped the icon next to the Biokinesis entry and frowned when the border around the word lit up red and she heard a slightly annoying buzzing sound like she'd made the wrong choice on a game as her finger went through the screen as if it wasn't even there. "Did you hear the annoying noise?"
"Nope, what did it sound like?" Amy asked as she grabbed another spoonful of ice cream from her sundae.
"Like a game show buzzer when they get the wrong answer," Taylor admitted as she swapped tabs to the skill page. "Generic teenage skills? Not sure how to feel about that," she admitted as she swapped to look at her species tab, absently grabbing a bite of ice cream with her spoon.
"What about the species tab?" Vicky asked.
Taylor finished her bite of vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. "Humans and slimes."
Vicky glanced at Amy. "What do you think, some type of changer rating?"
Amy considered the question as she savored her bite of ice cream. "I doubt she's just a changer, the list of powers implies a trump rating or maybe a thinker rating if she can't do anything with them. Try selecting them to see if they give you more information."
Taylor tapped the slime entry and smiled when it glowed green and stayed lit, giving her a brief description of the slime species. "Slimes take half damage from slashing, clean any surface they touch and drop small, generally worthless trinkets when destroyed."
Vicky stared at Taylor for a couple of seconds, wondering if she was going to start laughing or at least give her some sign that she was messing with them. "You're serious?"
"Yeah…" Taylor trailed off as she swapped back to the main page and saw a sludge-like monster with two googly eyes that looked like it was made out of blue jello where the empty character doll was. "Huh, I have a 'Create' button now and my slime has stats."
"Check the skills tab again," Amy suggested.
"Or the powers tab," Vicky suggested excitedly.
Taylor glanced at the clerk that had her back to them and was still cleaning the milkshake machine without paying them any attention. She checked the skills tab and clicked on the generic teenage skill, getting a warning message in the process. "Addings skills will increase the slime's intelligence and increase the required creation time by one minute."
Amy winced as she thought about being stuck as a slime. "You should probably avoid giving them intelligence until you get a better handle on your power."
Taylor swapped to the powers tab and frowned when she noticed that the Biokinesis power was grayed out. "The Biokinesis power is grayed out, looks like I could add the rest."
Amy shivered as she thought about what the director would say about nearly indestructible slimes flying around smashing through buildings. "We should probably avoid giving them Vicky's aura or force field and creating the minion might be noticeable so you'll probably want to grab a mask and talk to the PRT about power testing or at least go somewhere out of the way."
"Any suggestions?" Taylor asked, feeling a bit sheepish for not even managing to keep her powers a secret for an hour.
"Normally I'd suggest the docks but with your friend moving the cargo ship, it's going to be crawling with people trying to catch him on video," Vicky warned her as she pulled her phone out so she could pull up PHO.
Amy shook her head. "Not to mention the ABB have a large presence in the docks."
"No thanks," Taylor muttered as she selected the flight power to see if she could, happy when it turned green and the rest of the powers didn't gray out. She swapped back to the main page and looked at the slime's stats. "Huh, Flight upgrades the loot drops to common."
"Probably because they're more dangerous," Vicky mused as she pulled up the PHO site and started looking for posts about the giant cape. "We're going to have to test this."
"After we finish our ice cream," Amy stated firmly, wanting to enjoy her ice cream before they started running around or testing things that would probably get them in trouble.
"Huh…" Vicky trailed off when she found a couple of threads and streaming links for the cargo ship being dismantled. "Your friend is ripping the cargo ship apart, we should probably find a spot to watch."
"Let's go," Amy said as she grabbed her plastic sundae container and headed for the door, not wanting to miss the cargo ship getting demolished and what very well might be the rebirth of the city.
Taylor grabbed her ice cream and followed Amy and Vicky out of the ice cream shop.
0o0o0
"Is it too late to put in vacation time?" Dave asked as he watched the side of the massive cargo ship peel off the frame.
"You'd have to clear it with the Director," Armsmaster pointed out, not taking his eyes off the ship that was floating over the harbor as it was ripped apart. 'Would that work on an endbringer?'
"Any idea how you stop a telekinetic that-" Dave felt his heart skip a beat as he heard an explosion coming from further into the docks and the cargo ship dropped twenty feet before lurching to a stop. "What the fuck?!"
Frank pulled his attention away from the crowd of civilians that were filming the cargo ship being dismantled and focused on Armsmaster. "Some type of tinkertech?"
"Or a lot of mundane explosives," Armsmaster replied as he mounted his bike and turned it on, glad that it was electric and didn't have to make a lot of noise.
"I'll call it in," Dave told Armsmaster, hoping the director would order them to pull back, mostly because he didn't want to be there if the telekinetic or the tinkertech that was keeping it in the air failed.
"Thanks!" Armsmaster replied as he twisted the throttle and took off like a bat out of hell.
0o0o0
Myst didn't hesitate when he saw a copy of Oni Lee appear out of thin air on a warehouse roof with a pair of grenades in his hands, lashing out with his telekinesis. It was only after the insane cape started screaming bloody murder thanks to having his eyes ripped out and skull fractured that he realized he'd hit the real Oni Lee. "Shit!" he cursed when Oni Lee pulled the pins on his grenades and ran towards the edge of the roof where a group of civilians or at least he was assuming they were civilians as they weren't wearing ABB colors and didn't look like skinheads were watching the cargo ship in the distance.
Myst grabbed everything within about four feet of Oni Lee with his telekinesis and hurled it into the air, wanting to make sure he couldn't take anyone out with him. He had a feeling some of the civilians would need therapy after getting showered with blood but they were alive so he wasn't going to complain.
"Die!" Lung shouted as he tossed a fireball at the giant cape that had killed Oni Lee.
Myst used telekinesis to solidify the air in front of the ball of fire, causing it to explode thirty feet away from him and away from anything flammable. He reached out and grabbed Lung with his telekinesis and hauled him into the air, glad that he still looked human as he didn't want to deal with a fully transformed Lung.
"You killed Oni Lee!" Lung shouted back.
"He tried to kill me with a grenade!" Myst replied, not particularly happy about getting a grenade in the face just for flying over the docks.
"You ignored our offer to join and you were trespassing!" Lung replied, as if that justified trying to kill someone.
'Was that what the idiot was screaming about?' Myst briefly considered arguing that he wasn't Asian before he decided it didn't matter. "I'm curious, do you have a daughter or anyone that will miss you?" he asked the enraged cape, trying to get a better idea what version of worm he was stuck in.
"I'm a dragon," Lung replied.
'No reaction, nothing, so much for being in a world where Lung has a daughter and is a halfway reasonable person,' Myst mused as he used his telekinesis to put pressure on Lung's throat, cutting off his oxygen supply. "You're not a dragon, this is a dragon!" he shouted as he tapped into his power to summon creatures and summoned a small pony sized silver dragon. "Huh, that didn't work as well as I was hoping."
The silver dragon flapped his wings and turned his fall into a glide. "Why did you summon me to deal with a pyromancer?" the dragon demanded as he dodged a fireball.
"Sorry, I'm still trying to get used to my summoning ability," Myst replied as he blocked another two fireballs, wanting to make sure he didn't get hit as the fire would damage his clothes and might start causing damage if he got large enough.
"Whatever you're doing isn't working," the silver dragon pointed out.
"Yeah," Myst replied as he snapped Lung's neck and tossed him towards where he could see Armsmaster approaching on his bike, figuring he'd let the hero get the credit for taking him in or recovering his body on the off chance that being slammed into the ground was enough to kill him. "I noticed."
"Thanks, I hate getting hit by fire," the dragon complained. "Where are we?"
"Brockton Bay," Myst replied as he turned most of his attention towards the pony sized silver dragon that was flying around him. "Earth?"
"Nope, it's not ringing any bells but you'd be surprised how many places call their planet dirt," the dragon replied, nearly forgetting to flap his wings when he saw the massive ship floating in the air. "You don't see that every day, unless you do?"
"Not really, it was blocking the channel," Myst replied as he worked on folding up the hull so it would take up less space.
'I don't think Dad could move that,' the dragon mused as he hovered in place so he could study the metal ship. "Do you need me for anything or can I fly around for a bit before I'm sent home?"
He focused on the hourglasses that he could sort of feel, getting a sense of how long both of his summons would stick around. "Have fun, no kidnapping princesses."
"Seriously? They're an excellent source of wealth and conversation, assuming you grab the right princesses, some of them you have to ransom back because they're impossible to deal with," the dragon complained, managing to keep a straight face.
Myst focused on the dragon. "Seriously?"
The dragon snorted. "No. I mean, I'm not going to turn a girl away if she just happens to turn up at my cave and needs a cup of tea but seriously, morality aside, kidnapping princesses is a good way to get legendary knights and heroes after you and don't even get me started on wizards. I don't like fire, most wizards love fire, are you seeing the problem yet?"
"Yeah," Myst replied, rather amused by the dragon's response. "I'll catch up after I've finished ripping the ship apart, I'm tired of holding it in the air."
"No worries," the dragon replied as he flew towards the city, curious what he could find.
0o0o0
"Thanks, I'll let her know," Vicky replied and ended the call as she walked back over to where her sister and Taylor were watching the cargo ship get dismantled.
Amy kept her hand on the waist high wall that kept people from falling off the roof and turned to look at her sister. "Trouble?"
"No, Sarah was just letting me know that Myst made a deal with the mayor and that he would be busy for a couple of hours…" Vicky trailed off when she spotted something that looked suspiciously like a dragon in the distance. "Is that a dragon?" she asked as she pointed off to the left of the cargo ship.
"I'm not falling…" Amy trailed off when she looked at where her sister was pointed and realized that her sister might have a point.
Taylor turned and looked at the silvery dragon in the distance. "It certainly looks like a dragon."
"You should probably see if it wants to be friends," Amy suggested, curious about the creature's biology and where it came from.
"Are you trying to get me eaten?" Vicky asked, not particularly worried about the dragon-like creature.
Amy rolled her eyes. "You're not a princess and you have a force field."
"Fine, you're the one that has to put me back together if this goes sideways," Vicky pointed out then flew up in the air and headed towards the dragon, excited about getting a better look.
Taylor took a step back and turned when she noticed a girl start to point a phone in her general direction. "I need a costume."
"One of the nice parts about being an open cape," Amy admitted as she pulled a clean handkerchief and her sunglasses out of her jacket pocket and handed them to Taylor. "Put the glasses on, tie the handkerchief around your face like a bandit and pull your hood up."
"I'm not sure this is going to cut it," Taylor argued as she worked on tying the handkerchief in place.
Amy turned back to look at where she could see her sister and the dragon. "It's part of the culture, if you're not trying to hide your face, people are free to guess your identity, if you're trying to hide, most people won't try that hard or at least won't make a big deal of things if they figure it out. If anyone asks, I'll just tell people that an out of town cape was caught without her costume."
"Thanks, I'm still getting used to the idea of being a cape," Taylor replied as she looked at the glasses. "I don't think the glasses are going to work."
"Do I have permission to fix your eyesight?" Amy asked, knowing glasses were a liability for a cape and wanting a second look at her brain.
"Yes," Taylor replied without hesitation.
Amy reached over and poked Taylor's forehead with her finger and worked on fixing Taylor's eyes and cleaning up a couple of health issues. "Done."
Taylor blinked a couple of times then pulled her glasses off, surprised by how well she could see. "Thank you."
"Don't worry about it, just tell people that you got contacts if they ask," Amy told her as she turned to watch her sister, not particularly interested in having a bunch of people begging her to fix their vision. 'This would be easier if Carol wasn't insane about taking donations. I wouldn't mind people asking if they were willing to give me a hundred bucks to fix things, maybe I should charge for cosmetic changes?' she mused.
Taylor took a step back from the edge as the silver dragon managed to come in for a mostly graceful landing. "It certainly looks like a dragon."
"I should hope so, I'm a silver dragon," the dragon replied as he studied the girls. "My name is Draxrillian but you can call me Drax."
"Amy or Panacea," Amy offered as she held her hand out, wanting to see the dragon's genetics.
Drax carefully reached out with his hand and shook the human's hand, being careful of his claws. "Pleased to meet you."
Amy giggled as she felt a rush as her power scanned the dragon's unusual biology, taking a couple of seconds to give her a complete picture. "What brings you to the city?"
"Magic," Drax replied as he looked over the edge at people looking up at them.
"Magic?" Vicky asked as she sat down on the wall, rather amused by the talking dragon.
"Most dragons are sorcerers, unless they're broken," Drax explained as he pulled his head away from the edge and looked at Taylor. "I can smell ice cream, where can I find it?"
"I'll grab it," Vicky replied as she twisted around and jumped off the roof. She smiled as she flew across the street to pick up a milkshake.
"Is she always that enthusiastic?" Drax asked the girls.
"Yes," Amy admitted. "So what's it like being a dragon?"
"Awesome," Drax replied with a smile as he shook Taylor's hand. "What's it like being human?"
"Less awesome," Taylor admitted as she looked at the unlock notices that had just popped up. 'Silver dragon subspecies, a cold breath weapon and magic? Nice.'
"Makes sense, dragons are awesome," Drax agreed. "What can you tell me about the city?"
Amy glanced at Taylor then focused on the Dragon. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything," Drax replied enthusiastically.
"That could take a while," Amy warned him.
"That's fine," Drax assured her. "Vicky promised me ice cream and burgers if I could cheer you up, you look happy, thus ice cream and burgers."
"Makes sense," Amy replied. "I'm not sure where to start on the city's history."
"We used to be a shipping town," Taylor offered, figuring that was a good place to start.
Comments
Mist of Shadows
Glad that it worked.
Bable Zmith
I like the abrupt change of scene at the beginning of the chapter. It makes you think about what you didn't see and think up answers for yourself. Nice! :P
