Mist of Shadows
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Boosted Villainy Part 23
🕑 Added 2022-08-15 20:51:14 +0000 UTCMyst glanced away from the mirror that was showing the three capes sitting on a couch. "Any idea which apartment they're in?" he asked S. Lisa.
S. Lisa looked up from the apartment blueprints. "Not really, the blinds are closed and the coordinates aren't that precise as they don't give elevation which means it could be one of six apartments, you're going to have to go door to door and check."
"Inspector? City work crew?" Myst asked thoughtfully.
S. Lisa shook her head. "It's the day after Christmas, no one is going to believe the city would send an inspector or a work crew."
"Jehovah witnesses?" Taylor asked.
Myst turned to look at Taylor. "Are you trying to get shot?"
"Point, nazis," Taylor admitted.
"Girl Scouts?" T.S. Emma asked with a grin.
"Girl Scouts?" C. Taylor asked, thinking about the Girl Scouts she'd seen making their rounds.
"No one is going to shoot them, at worst they'll just tell them to leave," T.S. Emma pointed out. "Should be enough to open the door."
"We can go back and grab some," Myst said, slightly annoyed at the idea of buying from the little demons.
“I’m going to dress as a sexy Girl Scout!” C. Rose exclaimed, making Rose groan.
“Please don’t do anything that’s going to get back to my parents,” Rose begged.
“I’ll use the mirror first,” C. Rose promised, “and this way you can live vicariously through me about our Sexy Girl scout fantasy!”
“You have a sexy Girl Scout fantasy?” Taylor asked with a grin.
“Is it the one about being in a too small outfit and the first door you stop at is Arms-” C. Taylor began only to get almost tackled by Taylor.
“Probably,” C. Rose agreed. “It’s a common one.”
“Didn’t expect teasing me to come back at you, did you?” Rose said with a laugh as Taylor took her hands off her clone’s mouth.
“No, I really didn’t,” Taylor admitted.
“You all have that sort of fantasy?” Myst asked in disbelief.
“Hit puberty in a short skirt going door to door and see what you fantasize about,” C. Squealer said. “Do you wanna share your fantasies from when you were twelve?”
“Point,” Myst conceded, dropping the topic like the hot potato it was.
0o0o0
Justin looked up from the football game he was watching when the doorbell rang. "What do you want?!"
"We're selling Girl Scout nookie!" T.S. Emma called out, doing her best not to snicker.
"What?" Alice asked as she turned to look at the door.
"Girl Scout Cookies!" S. Rose called out.
Alice glanced at the bowl chips they'd already finished then looked at Victor. "We're out of chips."
"Fine, we'll buy a box," Justin muttered as he walked over and opened the door. He glanced at the two girl scouts standing on the walkway holding baskets of cookies, pausing on the older of the two girls. 'No bra, her shirts undone a couple of buttons and her vest is a touch too small, she's certainly pulling out all of the stops. "How much for the mints?"
"Twenty," S. Rose replied cheerfully as she made a shadow copy of the cape.
"What?" Justin asked, pulling his attention off the attractive redhead and looking at the eleven or twelve year old that was giving him puppy dog eyes.
T.S. Emma smiled as she twisted the remote she had under the basket of cookies and pushed the power button, turning the man's powers off. "Fifty? I mean we're selling a good time, right?"
Justin turned to look at S. Emma then shrieked when the girl moved and something touched his chest a split second before electricity coursed through his body, causing him to collapse as his legs stopped working.
"Shit!" Victor cursed when he saw Justin drop.
T.S. Emma brought her remote up and pushed the power button twice as she stepped inside, shutting off the couple's powers. "Please remain calm," she told the couple on the couch, trying to keep the noise down as she didn't want trouble from the neighbors.
Alice shivered when she tried and failed to use her power to give Victor invulnerability. "What the hell?!"
Victor tossed the empty chip bowl at the girl with the remote, causing her to block it with her arm and take her eyes off him as he jumped at her, wanting to disable the tinker first as they were usually squishy and wishing he was wearing his weapons.
'Victor is disabled, send Taylor,' S. Rose told Myst as she stepped forward and hit Victor with her enhanced cattleprod, dropping him like a sack of potatoes. "Please remain calm, we're not going to hurt you," she told the blonde girl in her late teens sitting on the couch. 'Jeans and black sweatshirt, other than the pink eye patch, there's nothing particularly noteworthy about her other than being decently attractive, just a girl enjoying a game.'
"What do you want?" Alice asked warily as the younger girl pushed the door mostly shut with her foot, wondering how they'd found them and if they knew who they were.
'On our way,' Myst replied as he gestured for Taylor to follow him as he left the RV that was parked in front of the apartment building.
T.S. Emma smiled at Alice as she let the shadow cookies and basket vanish. "Sex with the boss but I'll settle for helping her remove the Empire from the city, it's a blight."
"We're the only thing standing in the way of Lung taking over," Alice argued, trying to reason with the crazy girls that weren't even wearing masks.
S. Rose reached down and used her copy of Amy's power to put Justin to sleep. "We've already tossed Lung into a different world, I doubt his gang will last all that long without Oni and Lung to keep them safe."
"Which means you need us to clean house before someone else moves in," Alice told them as the younger girl walked over and touched her husband on his neck, causing his twitching to stop. "What did you do?!"
"I put them to sleep," S. Rose said, giving Alice her best unhinged smile. "If you scream or try to run, I'll bash his head in before coming after you," she lied, wanting to avoid the neighbors calling in a noise complaint or investigating.
Alice stared at the obviously insane child, biting back the urge to ask what the fuck was wrong with her. "What are you going to do with us?"
S. Rose blurred forward, touched Othala's hand and put her to sleep before she could scream. "That went better than I was expecting."
"A touch anticlimactic," T.S. Emma replied as she glanced around the room that was devoid of Christmas decorations and pictures. "You'd think they'd have a tree or family pictures."
"Pretty sure it wasn't worth the hassle," S. Rose replied as she worked on copying Othala's power, using Myst's left bracelet.
T.S. Emma turned to look at the door when she heard footsteps coming from outside.
"Just me," Myst assured the shadow girls as he pushed the door open with his foot, not wanting to startle them.
S. Rose turned to look at Myst as Taylor and her clone slipped inside, also carrying various covered dishes and wearing unfamiliar faces. "You're probably being paranoid."
C. Taylor closed the door after Myst followed them in, then let the shadow dishes vanish. "If anyone notices, they'll see three people walking up to the door with leftovers." She quickly copied the three capes. "We'll be gone in five minutes and no one will think twice about it."
"Any problems?" Myst asked as he knelt down and started copying Crusader's power, looking forward to seeing if he could copy the projection's ability to phase through nonliving matter.
"Nah, it worked like a charm," T.S. Emma replied with a smile at Taylor and her twin. "We're awesome."
"Yep," S. Rose agreed with amusement as she copied the capes.
Myst smiled when the progress bar filled and he picked up Crusader's power. "Do you have a copy of Othala?" he asked as he made shadow copies of the three capes.
Taylor pulled her attention off the way T.S. Emma's shirt was tented and looked at Myst. "Yeah, why?"
"I wanted to heal her before I made a clone," Myst replied as he walked over and tapped Othala with his ring, restoring her eye and fixing a couple of other old injuries.
"Let me guess, you're cloning her?" C. Taylor asked, not sure they needed more neo-nazis even if she had an interesting power.
"She's a trump and the clone should be saner," Myst replied as he focused on the personality he wanted her clone to have. 'Fun loving bisexual nudist with exhibionist tendencies that doesn't blame people for their race.' He placed his index finger on her forehead and copied her before he could change his mind, causing a naked version of Othala to appear on the couch.
"How many copies are you going to make?" S. Rose asked, fairly sure they should wait to see how the clone worked out before they went overboard.
"Right now? Just one," Myst replied as he reached out and poked Othala's copy on the shoulder so he could figure out her powers. "Nice," he said cheerfully as he started copying her power.
"Different abilities?" S. Rose asked hopefully.
"Cryokinesis, invisibility or augmented agility for up to five minutes and she can empower up to five people at a time including herself but it splits the duration between them," Myst explained as his progress bar filled up.
"Invisibility for the win," C. Taylor said cheerfully, figuring it would help grab the rest of the Empire capes without letting people know there was a problem.
C. Alice woke up with a yawn. "Hey boss…" she trailed off as she realized she could see out of both eyes. "I can see!"
"We healed Othala before we cloned her, how are you feeling?" Myst asked the clone as he used Taylor's power to copy her and update Othala's shadow clone, not seeing a reason to leave his shadow clone half blind when Taylor's clone was the one that had to pass as Othala.
C. Alice glanced around the room at the people she didn't know then focused on S. Rose. "Confused and sort of worried about your crazy friend."
S. Rose held her hands in front of her. "To be fair, I just wanted to make sure Othala didn't scream or hurt herself trying to run."
"Are we going with Othala or?" S. Rose asked the clone.
"Just call me Alice," Alice replied as she turned to look at Myst. "Is she crazy?"
"She's a teenage girl," Myst replied with a grin as Taylor collected Othala's wallet from her purse that was hanging on the hook by the door.
"Hey!" the girls complained.
Myst ignored the glares as he reached down and stuck Othala into his inventory. "Joking aside, we should probably get back to work capturing the rest of the Empire capes so we can toss them through a portal and start cleaning up the city."
"Are you a hero boss?" Alice asked, not sure how she felt about the villain/hero divide as she didn't hate non-white people, but she wasn't particularly interested in being a hero either.
"I'm a rogue," Myst replied as he reached down and started copying Victor's powers, happy that his ability to copy skills counted as a separate power for the gloves. "I don't have a problem making money off my abilities and I don't see a problem helping with the worst of the villains, if only because they're bad for business."
"Where do I fit in?" Alice asked, figuring he'd cloned Alice for a reason.
"Topless waitress, receptionist, computer tech or biochemical engineer?" S. Rose asked thoughtfully.
"I'm not remotely qualified for the last two," Alice admitted as she stood up. "Not sure I have the patience to be a receptionist either."
"Don't worry about skills, we've got it covered," Myst said as he reached down and shoved Victor into his inventory.
"We should probably leave," S. Rose told S. Emma as she conjured a shadow basket filled with cookies. "We can share powers and copy things in the RV on the way to our next targets."
"Works for me," S. Emma agreed as she headed for the door.
Alice glanced at the window where she could see snow on her neighbor's roof. "I should probably steal some of Justin's clothes unless you want me freezing my bits off."
"No worries," C. Taylor assured her as she manifested a set of clothes for the clone. "You can walk us out then the shadow clone can walk back to the house and finish watching the game."
"Cool," Alice replied as she started getting dressed, figuring there would be plenty of chances to run around without clothes later when they weren't trying to keep a low profile.
Taylor manifested shadow clones of Victor and Justin and copies of their clothes. "Pretend to be your originals, I'll have more orders later."
"Sure," Victor replied as he sat down on the couch to finish watching the game.
0o0o0
"Does anyone else find this disturbing?" Rose asked as she watched the 'couple' in the mirror eat their sandwiches, looking more like androids than actual people.
"What do you mean?" T.S. Emma asked.
"They're dressed up like they're going to a fancy restaurant and they're eating leftovers," Rose explained.
Myst pulled his attention away from where Alice was kissing C. Squealer on the couch and looked at Rose. "They're basically moderately functional sociopaths that got brainwashed by nazis, they don't really do normal."
"Do we have a plan to make sure things don't get out of hand?" C. Taylor asked, having looked up Night and Fog on the boards to try to get some idea what they were dealing with.
Myst glanced at Othala's copy. "Alice and her shadow clones can give us five minutes of invisibility, that should be enough to fly across the yard, make shadow clones and use the remote to turn their powers off."
Taylor smiled. "At which point, we can have one of the shadow Amy's knock them out."
"What happens…" Rose trailed off as the man looked down at his food and the woman changed into an inkblot-like monstrosity with dozens of long insect-like legs that ended in sharp claws for a second before he looked back at her and she changed back as if nothing had happened.
"Fuck!" T.S. Emma sputtered as she took a step back from the mirror, forgetting for a second that it couldn't reach through the mirror and attack her.
"The description doesn't really do it justice," Myst offered, unable to stop the shiver that ran down his spine at the idea of dealing with the monster despite the fact that his powers should let him deal with it.
"No shit," Taylor muttered.
"I can understand Lung surviving that but how or why were the merchants still alive?" C. Taylor asked, fairly sure they didn't have anything that could stand up to Night and Fog sneaking in and murdering them in their sleep or while they were awake.
C. Squealer stopped kissing Othala's clone. "Rock, paper, scissors. Night and Fog are a terrifying combination but Skidmark is a pretty solid counter to Fog which means he's a decent counter to Night."
Alice turned to look at the group. "Not to mention, Kaiser was using the merchants as cover, don't worry about the bigots, worry about the drug dealers that kidnap people and get them addicted to all sorts of shit."
"Waste of product," C. Squealer muttered, glad the Merchants were gone.
Rose shivered as Night changed back into an inhuman abomination for a second. "Do we have any way to stop them if things go sideways and the remote locks her into the beast shape rather than her human form?"
Myst frowned as he considered the possibility that her nightmare form was her base form, it seemed unlikely in the extreme but powers were weird. "In the unlikely event of a water landing, push the button again, if that doesn't work, run."
Rose glanced at Myst. "That's your advice, run?"
"Fly, run, go vertical," Myst suggested.
"Better than getting into a fight that will result in a lot of property damage," Alice suggested, having seen the aftermath of some of Night's fights.
"With any luck, you won't have to worry about it." Myst used Crusader's power, conjuring a ghost-like projection of himself. He reached out, touched the projection and smiled when he realized that he could copy their phasing ability. He quickly started copying the projection's selective phasing ability. "Eat your heart out Sophia, phasing without the electrical weakness."
"Can I get a copy?" Alice asked hopefully.
"Sure, just let me finish copying the power." Myst smiled when the progress bar filled up and he received his new power. "This is going to make sneaking around and getting into places easier."
"We need to find a bank to rob," C. Squealer suggested, mostly joking.
Rose shook her head. "We're not robbing a bank."
Alice reached out and poked C. Squealer on her shoulder. "Cryokinesis or augmented agility?"
"What?" C. Squealer asked.
Alice gestured at Myst with her other hand. "I'm curious if Myst can copy them."
"We might as well try all of them," C. Squealer mused as Myst walked over.
Myst reached out and touched C. Squealer's shoulder as she vanished. "Cryokinesis, always on invisibility or augmented agility, looks like we're going to have to skip copying the invisibility unless we want to be stuck invisible," he mused as he started copying her cryokinesis and augmented agility.
T.S. Emma shook her head. "No thanks."
"Can you give invisibility to animals?" Taylor asked hopefully.
"Spies?" Myst asked, not sure letting Taylor unleash an army of invisible minions on the world was the best idea but it was certainly an amusing idea. 'I should probably check to make sure they don't breed true before we get carried away.'
Taylor grinned. "Spies and having the ability to create invisible tiger shadow clones sounds useful."
Myst laughed, making a mental note to take the time to visit a zoo so they could copy a bunch of animals.
"You should toss in phasing, then you could send your spies into buildings to watch people or prank people," C. Taylor suggested.
Alice shivered as she thought about all of the ways you could drive someone nuts with invisible and phasing minions. "I'm suddenly glad I'm out of the villain business."
"Same," C. Squealer agreed, not remotely interested in dealing with a group of heroes that could hand out powers or make temporary copies of people at the drop of a hat.
Myst took a step away from the girls and manifested Lung.
S. Lung glanced around then focused on Myst. "You're an asshole, you know that, right?"
"I'm aware," Myst replied as he reached out and poked S. Lung's shoulder. "Low to mid tier brute rating, a decent amount of pyrokinesis, regeneration and a changer rating that lets you change into a dragon like monster."
"No escalation?" S. Lung asked, surprised and a bit jealous that they were getting a better version of his power.
"Apparently not," Myst replied as he started copying Lung's brute rating, pyrokinesis and changer rating, figuring the ability to turn into a dragon would be useful and wondering what would happen if they gave it to one of Taylor’s hypothetical flying, phasing, invisible, tiger clones.
0o0o0
