Mist of Shadows
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Boosted Villainy Part 21 (edited)
🕑 Added 2022-08-13 09:09:20 +0000 UTCAn: This is the ended version of the chapter, including a connecting scene with Taylor and Myst that brides the gap a bit between the bar scene.
S. Rose froze when she saw a beer can in front of a hole in the wall bar. "I guess they have litter."
"Bound to happen eventually…" Leet trailed off as Taylor walked over to pick it up and realized it was bolted to the ground and about three times larger than it should be.
"This isn't litter, it's a public art display of litter," Taylor said as she stood up and looked at the bar, noticing that the window looked artfully dirty unlike the rest of the shops in town. "Hole in the Wall?"
"That's a bit spot on," Myst said as he looked at the open sign. "Care for a drink?"
"I'm fifteen," Taylor pointed out.
"They probably serve soda or orange juice," Myst replied as he opened the bar and walked inside. He glanced at the three costumed 'villains', pausing when he recognized the costumes.
The barkeep turned and looked at Myst as he walked in, seeming a bit surprised to see them. "Welcome to the Hole In the Wall bar, you want beer or whiskey?"
"Orange juice, but I'll take whiskey," Myst replied as he glanced between the bald guy in the skin tight green jumpsuit with silver metallic wings, the busty woman with cat ears and a black leather outfit that clung to her curves, and the busty redhead wearing fishnets and leaves. "Villain bar?" he asked, surprised they actually had powers that sort of fit who they were playing.
“Paid for by the city,” Vulture said, looking the group over. “You don’t look local.”
"What gave it away?" C. Taylor asked as she looked around the bar, wondering if she’d seen it in a noir detective film at some point.
Catwoman smiled at the group. "The locals wouldn't come in here and they're dressed a bit different."
Leet raised his eyebrows. "Paid for by the city?"
"The shrinks figured out that people with powers tend to get a bit nuts if they don't get enough conflict, so we're basically state sanctioned villains, it's a bit annoying, I wanted to be a hero," Vulture complained.
“Which you should know,” Ivy said with a thoughtful frown, her midwest twang at odds with her costume.
"You're breaking character," the barkeep said as he poured Myst a whiskey in a glass that looked dusty, but apparently was designed to look that way as none of the dust was disturbed by the liquid inside it, and slid it across the bar to him as he walked over.
Taylor pulled her attention off Poison Ivy's breasts that were barely covered and focused on the bald man. "You wanted to be a hero?"
"Yeah, everyone has a theme," Vulture complained. "My nose is a bit too large and I don’t have a lantern jaw, so between that and being a gravity reduction tinker they decided this is what role I would fit best. Sort of pathetic really, considering they already have anti gravity tech which is far superior to my designs."
“Where are you from that you don’t already know all this?” Catwoman asked curiously, her cat ears twitching.
“Nearby,” Myst replied, with a smirk, trying to be subtle.
“About a planck's length?” Vulture questioned, eyes lighting up.
“Damn, he’s good,” Uber said, impressed.
“Mad Scientist,” Vulture replied, before taking a sip of his beer.
“Another world? Do I gotta call this in?” the bartender asked himself.
“Let’s get all the details first,” Ivy said, almost bouncing out of her top as she wiggled excitedly in her seat.
“I already handled decontamination,” S. Amy offered, “so that’s not a factor.”
“Biotinker,” C. Taylor explained. “We didn’t want to cause any ecological disasters on either side. Safety third.”
“What’s first and second?” Catwoman asked.
“Large breasts and small shiny objects,” Leet guessed.
“Bingo,” C. Taylor told him, surprised he’d gotten it… or maybe not, considering his personality.
“We saw this world had actual anti-grav tech, unlike any other world we’ve seen including our own, and decided our world could use it,” Myst explained.
“So, you’re not villains?” Catwoman asked with a pout. “We could actually use another hero or two, but interdimensional villains would be fun.”
“We haven’t set ourselves in either camp, as our world is… kinda violent,” Rose said. “I’m guessing you don’t have dozens of capes in every major city.”
“God no,” Vulture said in shock, “we have six capes total, four villains and two heroes for the entire state. I’d introduce you to Captain Cold, but he’s taken time off to attend his daughter’s wedding.”
“So… the state controls both the villains and heroes?” Uber asked.
“Of course, everything is scheduled in advance, to prevent injuries and excessive destruction to public property, while making sure it’s all filmed properly so the ‘capers’ pay for everything,” Ivy explained. “My toy sales alone have netted the government quite a bit.”
“I think it’s the adult toy sales that have inflated that figure,” Catwoman teased.
Ivy smirked. “Make a few obscene comments involving root vegetables and… well. I’m certainly not going to turn those contracts down.”
“So they have made being capes a government service,” Uber said with a frown.
“One in which I get to perform jewelry heists, making off with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gems and artwork,” Catwoman said smugly. “I love my job!”
“You’d think the people you robbed would at least complain,” Leet said, shaking his head.
“Oh no, it’s considered quite a feather in their cap for me to target them,” Catwoman said smugly.
“Not to mention the way you sneak in ‘disguised’ as a debutante and seduce them half the time,” Ivy couldn’t help but point out.
“Or their wives and make them watch,” Catwoman purred. “My life couldn’t be better if I scripted it.”
“So what’s your powers?” Vulture said with a sigh, clearly not enjoying the villainous lifestyle as much as the girls did.
“We have a handful of different powers as well as some trump abilities,” Leet replied without thinking about it.
“What are trump abilities?” the bartender asked, pouring himself a drink as he openly took notes on what everyone was saying.
“Trump abilities allow someone to modify either temporarily or permanently someone else’s parahuman power,” C. Taylor replied, quoting what she’d read on the topic.
“You can?!” Vulture asked, perking up. “I don’t suppose that applies to Mad Scientist abilities?”
“We refer to them as tinker abilities,” Myst said, “but yes I could change yours.”
“You’d still look better as a villain than as a hero,” Ivy told him, shaking her head. “They really want broad shoulders and a lantern jaw for heroes. If my breasts were a size or two smaller I could have landed a mother nature type of hero gig. You gotta play the hand you’re dealt. We’ve had this conversation way too many times.”
“Or I could give him a lantern jaw and broad shoulders,” S. Amy said, offended by the idea of being forced into a role because of your looks.
“Really?” Vulture asked almost tearfully.
“Really,” S. Amy promised. “I can also make your breasts smaller,” she told Ivy.
Ivy quickly wrapped an arm around her breasts protectively. “You stay away from my girls! I happen to like the role I have, my only complaint is having to dye my hair red and shave my legs every other day, otherwise my life is damn near perfect.”
“I can also change hair color at a touch and permanently remove leg hair,” S. Amy told her.
“Any good at regrowing legs?” the Bartender asked hopefully.
“You need to be carrying an extra thirty pounds of weight for me to regrow a limb at your size,” S. Amy said, looking him over.
The Bartender slapped his large belly. “I think I can handle that.”
“Since you guys are local, can one of you get us the anti-grav information while we help everyone?” Uber asked politely.
“I’ll make a call,” the Bartender said, “stuff like that is easier to get than the penthouse plans and security schedules I have to request for these guys.”
“The city provides whatever we need,” Catwoman said happily. “This is so much better than my last job.”
Leet looked the shapely woman up and down. “What was your last job?”
She shuddered. “Kindergarten teacher.”
“It involved how she got her powers, so no questions,” the Bartender said firmly.
“We know not to question people about their trigger events,” C. Taylor assured him.
“I’ll make the call," the Bartender said, “shouldn’t take more than half an hour for them to download and package up all the information you need. It’s not like it’s a state secret or anything but there is a crapload of different designs so expect it to take up some space on the hard drive.”
"Give me a second on the healing," Myst said as he reached out and tapped the Bartender's hand with his ring, causing his wooden pegleg to fall off and his missing flesh to instantly regenerate as all the aches and pains from his long life vanished.
The Bartender looked down at his newly regenerated leg. "I thought you said it would take thirty pounds."
"Everyone has different talents, she actually has control over biology and can make alterations which uses up biomass," Myst replied as he pulled his hand back. “My power simply restores you to factory new condition, which would give you back your wisdom teeth and such as well.”
"So you're a healer?" Vulture asked.
"Technically, I'm a trump, let's see what I can do for you," Myst said as he held out his hand.
Vulture took his hand, hoping for a different power.
Myst gave him a copy of the surveillance power and Kid Win's modular power then handed him a copy of Noelle's regeneration. "That should do it, that should give you modular components and a surveillance specialty."
"Fantastic," Vulture replied smiling as he suddenly thought of dozens of ways to modify his equipment.
"You're welcome," Myst assured him as he turned to look at Catwoman.
"Lantern jaw, smaller nose and broader shoulders?" S. Amy asked Vulture.
"Thank you," Vulture replied.
"Do you want better night vision?" Myst asked Catwoman with a smile.
"I have infrared," Catwoman replied.
"It also stops you from suffering from sudden changes in light and lets you see in low light without relying on heat sources," Myst explained.
"If you're handing out free powers," Catwoman replied with a smile.
Myst reached out and touched Catwoman's hand and gave her a copy of Lightstar's night vision and Noelle's regeneration then started copying her powers, wanting her cat-like reflexes, enhanced strength and infrared vision.
Catwoman smiled. “I think my basic vision has improved a little as well, things seem a little sharper.”
"Excellent," Myst replied as he turned to look at Ivy. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
"I just want my breasts to be a bit perkier and to not have to shave my legs all the time," Ivy replied. "I'm pretty happy with my plant manipulation."
"In that case, Amy will take care of you," Myst replied as he quickly updated the shadow copies he'd made of the villains then took a drink of his whiskey. 'I'll just have to shake Ivy and the barkeeper's hands on the way out and give them regeneration. Hell, he's doing us a solid with the anti-gravity, might as well give him a couple of extra powers.'
0o0o0
Taylor glanced up from the email she was writing to Dragon as Myst pulled into the PRT's parking lot. "You realize, you're never getting this car back, right?"
"Considering we have shadow copies and it's not exactly licensed in Earth Bet for city use, I'm not particularly worried about it. Besides, we're getting shadow copies of Armsmaster and if he steals it, I get to harass him about it," Myst said cheerfully as he pulled into one of the parking spots and shifted the car into park which should keep it from moving, at least according to the bartender.
Taylor glanced at the rearview mirror. "I shouldn't have listened to Rose, I look like I have floatation devices strapped to my chest."
Myst glanced at the busty blonde woman sitting in the passenger seat wearing a black trenchcoat, black slacks, a black dress shirt and a white theater mask along with a green and blue jester's cap. "It could be worse."
"I look like something out of a horror movie," Taylor complained as she glanced at Myst, not sure why he'd gone with the dress clothes and the trenchcoat or the jester's cap as they didn't seem to fit together.
"You wanted to make sure you were close enough to copy Armsmaster, you could have waited in the RV with the rest of the girls," Myst pointed out.
"I want to meet Armsmaster," Taylor said firmly as she scanned over the email, checking to make sure she hadn't made a mistake. "I look, top heavy," she complained, making Myst think she was protesting a bit too much for something she’d decided on herself.
"And very much not like your civilian appearance," Myst replied, knowing there was no way they would connect her current form… which he was half convinced was copied from an Earth Bet porn star he’d never heard of, to her normal self.
"Okay, that should do it," Taylor said as she sent the letter and files to Dragon’s business email she'd found on her company website. "Not sure if it will get through the spam filter, but it's worth a shot."
"If it doesn't, we'll just have to ask Armsmaster for a better way to contact her," Myst replied, fairly sure Dragon managed her own email. "Ready to meet the heroes?"
"Not really," Taylor replied, a bit nervous to be meeting one of the best tinkers in the world.
"That's the spirit," Myst replied as he watched the door to the PRT's headquarters, fairly sure it wouldn't take all that long before someone showed up since he'd called them as they drove here.
0o0o0
"I'm afraid I can't help you," Quinn Calle told the girl on the phone that had called to inquire about hiring him on behalf of Miss Mcabee.
"Can't or won't?" Lisa asked as she stuck her feet up on Coil’s desk, fairly sure there was something preventing him from helping, given his reputation.
"Can't," Quinn admitted. "I tried to contact that court when a colleague of mine mentioned the case and the fact that the public defender was a spineless coward that was perfectly fine with the system dealing with his client but Judge Hall is playing fast and loose with the law and is unwilling to allow her to change lawyers."
"Any suggestions?" Lisa asked.
"Sticking to purely legal suggestions, your best bet is to find someone that can put pressure on the chief justice to assign a more reasonable judge, unfortunately it looks like someone with a lot of pull is looking to make an example of Miss Mcabee," Quinn admitted.
"Do you happen to have the number of her public defender so that we can call him and offer him a 'bonus' to take his case seriously?" Lisa asked, trying to save herself the effort of looking it up.
"One second." Quinn glanced at his planner and rattled the number off, not particularly concerned if they murdered the sorry excuse for a lawyer. "Best of luck."
"Thanks," Lisa replied then ended the call and called the number that Calle gave her, knowing Myst wanted to at least try all of the legal, or at least mostly legal solutions before they jumped to the illegal solutions they were probably going to have to resort to.
"Yes?" Rick asked when he answered his phone, not sure why someone was calling him the day after Christmas.
"Public Defender Rick Wilson?" Lisa asked, wanting to make sure she had the right person.
"Yes, what is this about?" Rick asked.
"This is in regards to one of your clients," Lisa told him.
"I can't discuss my clients," Rick told her.
"I'm aware," Lisa assured him. "However it has come to my attention that your current conduct could get you disbarred and into all sorts of legal trouble."
Rick paused, his finger hovering over the button to end the call. "What do you mean?"
"You're planning on parading your client into the courtroom in brute restraints, despite the fact that she isn't a brute and you're not going to allow her the chance to speak via text on a computer, something her power can't influence."
"She's dangerous," Rick complained.
"Then excuse yourself and let someone else take the case," Lisa suggested.
"And let someone else mess it up and let her get off, she told someone to mutilate themselves!" Rick snapped.
"No, she told a criminal that shouldn't have been anywhere near her to fuck themselves, not remotely the same thing, she had a restraining order against the guy, that should be enough to get the case laughed out of court," Lisa told him.
Rick snorted. "She used a dangerous ability against him."
"You could argue self defense, it's your job to do the best you can," Lisa told him.
"No, it's my job to walk in there, state the case and let the judge sentence her, don't call me again," Rick replied then ended the call.
"You can't say I didn't try," Lisa muttered as she called Myst.
0o0o0
Myst pulled his phone out of his pocket as he watched Armsmaster examine the anti-grav engine in the old Camaro-like hover car and answered it. "What's up?"
"I managed to get in contact with Calle, he basically confirmed that she's being railroaded by someone higher up the chain. I talked to her public defender, he's playing along and basically wants to see her in jail and gone so he's not planning on actually defending her," Lisa explained.
"So much for the easy way," Myst complained as he walked away from the hover car. 'Did Cauldron set this shit up?' he asked S. Rebecca.
"More like ‘so much for the legal way," Lisa said, not particularly surprised that it wasn't as easy as tossing money at a lawyer.
'Not everything is our fault,' S. Rebecca replied. 'Masters scare people, even 'friendly' masters make people nervous.'
"Don't worry about it, I'll see if I can set up a meeting later," Myst told her, trying not to say anything incriminating as Armsmaster was using his helmet to take notes and he wasn't absolutely sure it wouldn't pick up his side of the conversation.
Lisa smiled as she connected the dots. "I'll get you an address."
"Thanks." Myst glanced over at where Taylor was talking to Kid Win, the young tinker having a hard time not staring at her chest. "How's the other project going?"
Lisa glanced over the color coded map of the docks on her computer that showed her recent purchases. "I sunk most of our liquid assets into it and managed to acquire a decent chunk of the docks for back taxes. I'll give you a full list when you get back to the marina, you need to sign the paperwork."
"Thanks, I'll see you when I get back," Myst told her then ended the call. He slipped his cell back in his pocket then walked over to where Taylor and Kid Win were watching Armsmaster examine the hover car.
Kid Win turned to look at Myst as he walked back over. "How fast does it go?"
"Near the ground? Forty. In the air? Close to three hundred," Myst replied with a grin.
Armsmaster turned to look at Myst. "Why forty?"
"It's basically a safety feature, you have to put more current through the engine which causes the size of the field to increase, which limits how fast you can go without the field contacting the ground," Myst replied, repeating what he'd read on the safety pamphlet the barkeep had included with his car.
"And they couldn't control it?" Armsmaster asked.
"I'm not an engineer or a physicist, I got the car because I healed a guy's leg. I'm pretty sure he's planning on writing it off on an expense account. I picked up enough information and schematics that I can probably hand the schematics to an engineering team and start making flying cars but there are rules and regulations and all sorts of legal hoops that I'd rather not deal with thus why I'd like to talk to Dragon about it."
"The PRT could help you," Armsmaster offered, knowing the director would be annoyed if he didn't at least offer and he wanted access to the information.
Myst shook his head. "I'd rather deal with someone that's actually trustworthy, they'd want a large cut of the pie."
"And you think Dragon wouldn't want a cut?" Armsmaster asked, annoyed that he'd try to take advantage of his friend.
Myst glanced over at where S. Rose and Rose were talking to Vista while disguised as twin young black women in full harlequin outfits then focused on Armsmaster. "I think she'd settle for being able to use the technology in her personal devices and a reasonable percentage, whereas the PRT would just try to steal it by claiming that I acquired it via parahuman abilities and thus it falls under their authority despite not being tinkertech."
"There are reasons we restrict dimensional travel; we almost had a war with Earth Aleph," Armsmaster argued.
"Considering the size of a portal, I doubt that was ever a real concern. Either way, last I checked, jumping to other dimensions isn't illegal as long as you're not traveling to Earth Aleph."
"There are laws about capes using their powers to destabilize industries," Armsmaster argued.
"This anti-gravity tech isn't tinkertech," Taylor pointed out, turning slightly and trying to hide her enjoyment at the way Kid Win’s head turned as well.
"From what I understand, the anti-gravity tech would basically cripple the oil industry. They're going to bury you in lawyers," Armsmaster warned them.
"Best of luck…" Myst trailed off as his cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered it after glancing at the unfamiliar number. "Hello?"
"This is Dragon. I received your email with the schematic for an anti-gravity device," Dragon told Myst, wanting to interrupt before Armsmaster said something that would cause the cape to lose his temper and take his technology elsewhere. "I have a few questions, if you have time?"
Myst glanced at Armsmaster's helmet, wondering if she'd been listening in. "I was just showing Armsmaster my hover car's engine, what did you want to know?"
"I'm curious where you acquired the technology," Dragon replied as she watched her manufacturing robots finish creating the first prototype.
"On a different world. I was exploring an alternate version of Brockton Bay and I ran into a government official that was responsible for the local capes. I provided one of his capes with some assistance and he gave me a database filled with schematics, medical information, and details on their material sciences as a thank you."
"Like the PRT?" Armsmaster asked.
Myst glanced at Armsmaster. "More like a special liaison, he works with the villains to make sure they have lists of acceptable targets and arranges testing to make sure there aren't side effects of their powers or gear. He also works with the heroes to make sure there isn't an excessive amount of collateral damage."
"He works with the heroes and villains?" Armsmaster asked in surprise.
"There are only six publically known capes for the entire state so they've turned the cape scene into a bit of a game and entertainment industry," Myst explained.
"What happens if they don't play the game?" Dragon asked.
"The cops generally end up shooting them if they break the law to a significant degree. If they're bulletproof, their equivalent of Alexandria shows up and wrecks their day," Myst explained. "It's not a perfect system, but they realized that parahumans need some measure of conflict to stay sane so they figured out a way to help and make a decent profit off the entire thing."
"They make a profit?" Armsmaster asked in disbelief.
"Sure, action figures, movie rights, recordings from the heists and cape fights provide more money than they actually need to run the organization," Myst explained.
"That is certainly a unique way to deal with capes. Provided the prototype functions, have you considered where you'll be setting up shop?" Dragon asked as she directed her bots to take the prototype to the testing range.
Myst glanced at Taylor. "Brockton Bay, the property is cheap and they could use the boost to their economy."
"Considering the economic trouble the city has been dealing with, it would be appreciated," Armsmaster said, knowing the city was going to have to scramble to replace Winslow and new jobs would help the situation. 'At least we lost the school that needed replacing.'
"Are you willing to give me ten percent of the company?" Dragon asked, knowing she was going to have to put a decent amount of work into dealing with various legal challenges for the new business.
"I don't have a problem with ten percent, but I'd like first refusal if you decide to sell your share. I'll send you the rest of the anti-gravity and physics files when I finish translating them," Myst assured her.
"Different language?" Dragon asked.
"They use English, but the branching point was a couple of hundred years ago as near as I can tell, so the computers they ended up with don't use the same programming languages," Myst explained.
"How did you translate the first one?" Armsmaster asked.
"I printed it and scanned it then ran it through an OCR program," Myst replied with a grin. "I'll probably have a friend of mine code something that can decode the files, but that's going to take at least a couple of hours."
"What do you want out of the company?" Dragon asked, wanting to distract Armsmaster before he got things off track.
"Anti-gravity isn't the only thing I picked up on my trip in the other world," Myst replied, not sure how much to say considering Saint was probably listening in. 'Screw it, I doubt this is going to push him over the edge as it has nothing to do with AI.'
"What else?" Armsmaster asked.
"They gave me formulas for hundreds of drugs that could change the medical industry and schematics for dozens of high end batteries, solar panels that are more efficient and a magnetic field generator that keeps birds away from wind turbines. They even tossed in schematics for tinkertech fusion plants that I'd love you to take a look at to see if you can reverse engineer them."
"They were crazy enough to let someone build tinkertech fusion plants?! What happens when the tinker dies?" Armsmaster demanded, sounding horrified.
"They have a number of safeties built in that will toss the entire structure into a pocket dimension if something goes wrong and they can't shut things down," Myst explained, having asked much the same question when the barkeep had mentioned it.
"I'd be happy to take a look," Dragon told him, always looking for ways to increase her power generation. "I need to supervise an experiment and take care of a couple details, do you have a time you'd prefer I call back?"
"I'll probably crash by eleven and be awake by nine," Myst replied, figuring she'd get back to him once she tested the designs and found they worked on solid scientific principles.
"I'll let you know how your test goes." Dragon ended the call and shifted her attention to checking on the Birdcage.
Myst put his phone back in his pocket and turned to look at Armsmaster. "If I leave you with the hover car for a couple of days, can I trust you not to take it apart?"
Armsmaster frowned as he looked at the engine that he really wanted to take apart, not sure he’d actually be able to resist the temptation.
Kid Win shook his head behind Armsmaster.
"Can I trust that you'll be able to put it back together?" Myst asked, hiding his amusement.
"Yes," Armsmaster assured him with a relieved sigh. “Since I have the schematics that should be quite simple.”
Comments
Bable Zmith
Meh.
Dark epyon
Much less confusing version great chapter
