Mist of Shadows
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Boosted Villainy Part 20
🕑 Added 2022-08-06 07:56:15 +0000 UTC"Rise and shine," Leet said cheerfully as he knocked on the RV's door for the third time.
"I'm awake," Myst complained as he opened the door and looked at the pair of villains that were wearing normal street clothes. "I'm surprised that you're awake considering it's not even ten."
"Coffee?" Uber offered as he stepped up into the RV, holding out an extra cup of coffee.
"Thank you!" C. Squealer replied cheerfully as she stole the extra coffee on her way past.
Leet stared at the naked teenager that looked like she'd just stepped out of a movie. "Uber, we need better minions."
"Yeah, some people have all the luck," Uber agreed as he glanced around the room that was about as large as a basketball court. He glanced between the pair of attractive and identical girls playing some type of game that involved killing monsters with magic and the team of people near the back wall that were playing some type of cape shooter game that he didn't recognize. "When did Princess Daisy get a twin?"
"Illegal cloning tech," Myst lied as Leet stepped into the RV.
"Is there any other type?" Leet joked as he closed the door to keep the heat in. "You've been busy."
"Not really," Myst admitted as he glanced over at the empty workbench where he'd been working on his current project. "I spent most of Christmas relaxing and eating."
Uber pulled his attention away from the naked girl that had 'stolen' the extra cup of coffee and focused on Myst. "Does that mean you don't know what happened to Winslow?"
"Officially, not a clue," Myst replied with a grin. "Unofficially, I opened a few portals and upgraded a different version of Winslow after repairing it. I figured replacing the principal and some of the teachers wouldn't actually change things nearly as much as removing the blight completely."
"Did you record it?" Leet asked hopefully.
Myst shook his head. "I thought about it, but then I remembered I'm not you and that vanishing a school is worse than most of your antics."
"It's Winslow," Rose argued.
"In dollar value, if nothing else," Myst explained.
"That's entirely fair," Leet admitted.
"But yeah, we spent about twenty minutes salvaging everything we could get our hands on then bolted before people started showing up."
Uber smiled as he thought about visiting a different world. "What were the other worlds like?"
Myst glanced at where Rose and her shadow clone were sitting on the couch playing a monster hunting game that he hadn't caught the name of. "I haven't had a chance to do a lot of exploring, the girls kidnapped me last night to play cards."
S. Rose turned and stuck her tongue out at Myst. "Bullshit, we were playing strip poker and you were winning, it was hardly kidnapping."
"Strip Poker?" Leet mused.
"No clue, I was stuck listening to my grandmother talk about her church crap," Rose complained.
"We didn't have chips," S. Rose offered with a smile.
Leet glanced between the two Roses and C. Squealer. "As much as I appreciate a decent joke, can I get an actual answer for why you have extra Roses and where you found someone that looks like a supermodel?"
"A combination of Admin's power and an actual cloning power," Myst replied as he gestured towards C. Squealer. "I ran into Squealer on my way out of town so I made a copy."
Leet stared at the naked teenager. "There's no way in hell that's Squealer, she doesn't sound like she's been sucking helium and she's hot."
C. Squealer laughed as she cheerfully flipped Leet off. "Fuck off and die. Amy fixed my voice and one of the abilities Myst copied lets us change our appearance."
"If that's true, why haven't you used it?" Uber asked Myst.
Myst pulled his attention away from C. Squealer and focused on Uber. "I'm not particularly vain and the ability works off subconscious desires, so you can't just swap back to your original appearance if you don’t like the results."
Uber glanced at Leet. "Which is fine if you're a clone or if you want to vanish."
"Not so much if you have family that you actually want to interact with," Rose said as she got up and walked over.
S. Amy scowled as Taylor shot her character in the head, putting her out of the fight. "Says the girl that doesn't need it," she grumbled as she stood up and walked over to watch over her sister's shoulder.
"Panacea?" Leet asked in surprise when he turned and recognized the girl wearing a large blue t-shirt.
"Nope, try again," S. Amy replied as she glanced down her sister's shirt, glad that she didn't bother with a bra.
"Clone?" Uber asked thoughtfully.
"She's a shadow clone," Myst offered.
"How many capes have you copied?" Leet asked thoughtfully.
"Shadow clones? Squealer and her clone, Kid Win, Panacea, Glory Girl, Vista, Admin and her sister, Bastion from Boston and some of the local villains, mostly I just wanted to have access to their powers so I could copy them," Myst admitted.
"Cool, are you going to hook us up?" Leet asked hopefully.
"How does regeneration, flight and a decent boost to your durability sound?" Myst asked with amusement.
Leet glanced at the girls playing video games. "Less impressive than being able to conjure up minions from nothing."
"Probably for the best," Uber cut in before Leet could start on a rant.
"Seriously?" Leet sputtered as he turned to look at his friend.
"You'd want to use them in the shows and the PRT would freak if they saw us being able to summon up clones of capes," Uber pointed out.
"That's…" Leet trailed off when he realized his buddy had a point. "Moving on, do you have the same powers?" he asked C. Squealer.
"Not exactly," C. Squealer replied as she tossed the empty coffee cup into the bin labeled empty containers. "She deals with rugged vehicles, my specialty is multi-terrain vehicles."
Myst reached out and poked Leet's shoulder, curious about the specifics of how his power worked. 'Technology database, nothing about only using it once, nice to know the shard can't lock the copy.'
"Issues?" Leet asked.
"No," Myst replied as he started copying Leet's power. "Just remember that you're supposed to be a light hearted villain, no hurting civilians, right?" he asked, wanting to make sure that Leet wouldn't let things go to his head.
"No worries," Leet assured him. "I'm not going to screw up a good thing."
"You should toss in the skill package," S. Rose suggested.
Uber spun to look at Rose. "Skill package?"
"It's basically an ability that drastically speeds up learning and improves skill retention so you won't forget your skills," Myst explained as he gave Leet a copy of the four powers. "That should do it, try to fly."
"How am I supposed…" Leet trailed off as he floated into the air. "Sweet!"
"We're going to have to make fake flight systems," Uber mused.
"Do you want the same powers?" Myst asked.
"Hell yeah," Uber replied with a grin. "How many powers can you give out?"
"Technically three from each source I copied the powers from. Realistically? I can only copy three powers from each source so that part doesn't really matter and most parahumans only have a couple of powers," Myst explained as he worked on giving Uber a copy of Noelle's regeneration and durability, Vicky's flight, and Oliver's skill monkey power.
"How many powers do you think Eidolon has?" Leet mused.
"At least two, anti-precog and his emulation ability," Myst replied as he copied Uber's ability, curious to see how well it would synergize with Oliver's ability. "Assuming that each slot doesn't count as one ability at which point four. Assuming he doesn't have random secondary abilities I don't know about."
"Are you planning on copying him?" Uber asked.
"Nope, I'm perfectly happy being a big fish in a little pond," Myst replied, not seeing a point in admitting that it was on his to-do list if he had a chance. "That should do it, flight, regeneration, durability and the skill monkey package."
"When are you going to explore the world with hover cars?" Leet asked excitedly.
Myst glanced at Rose. "We're waiting for Admin's group to pawn some junk so we have the local currency and for Rose's shadow Amy to make sure the locals don't have anything particularly nasty or lack resistance to anything we might have on Earth-Bet, no point in starting a pandemic if we can help it."
Leet turned to look at Taylor. "Group? How many shadow clones can you make?"
"No clue," Taylor admitted as she finished off S. Kid Win's character. "I haven't hit a limit."
"Which is a bit annoying as the rest of us are limited to five or six at a time," Rose complained.
Uber glanced between Rose and Taylor. "Range?"
Taylor grinned as she had her character spin around and shot S. Emma's character as she tried to sneak up on her. "My version of Glory Girl is halfway to Boston, I'll let you know if she vanishes."
"What the fuck was that boss?!" S. Emma complained. "I had you dead to rights!"
Taylor had her character spin and shoot a grenade up to the exit of the building that her shadow Rose was sneaking out of. "Burn!"
T.S. Rose turned and glared at Taylor. "I think the boss is cheating."
"You're just…" Taylor trailed off as her clone called down lightning on her character, killing her despite having previously had full health. "How the hell?" she complained, knowing her character's shield should have taken most of the damage.
"It's not my fault you didn't notice the water on the ground," C. Taylor replied with a grin as she stood up and walked over to watch Rose's progress with the monster game, glad that she was actually wearing pajama bottoms, unlike most of the girls if only because she didn't know Uber and Leet.
"There's no way, you're that good," S. Emma complained.
"Prove it," Taylor replied with a grin as she headed over to where Myst and the villains were standing. "Apparently the hover cars aren't tinkertech, though one of the local villains is an anti gravity tinker."
"How long have they had hover cars?" Leet asked as he studied the girl with a theater mask, fairly sure she needed to cover her hair if she didn't want someone picking her out in a line up.
Taylor scanned the page her minion was looking at in the bookstore next to the pawn shop. "They've been publicly available since nineteen seventy five, Victor Tesla accidently discovered antigravity when he was researching alternate power sources because of the spike in gas prices."
"Any relation to Nikola Tesla?" Rose asked.
"Yeah, Nikola is his great grandfather," Taylor replied. "Most of them avoided anything related to engineering, Victor's father was an English professor."
"Strange," Leet muttered, thinking about the eccentric scientist that hadn't had children in their world. "Something must have changed in that world to make him want children."
Taylor smiled as one of her shadow clones found a large mirror with a brass frame in one of the houses he was exploring in the flooded city. "No clue, we'll have to do some research."
"Can you get schematics for the antigravity engines?" Leet asked, curious how their network security compared with some of the networks he'd hacked into.
"I picked up a book for making an antigravity engine, they're supposed to be simple enough that you can make them with a decent metal shop and access to a high school chemistry lab but I don't think they had Winslow in mind when they made that claim," Taylor said as she looked over the handbook for do it yourself anti gravity engines that one of her minions was holding.
Myst glanced at Leet. "If we pick up a computer, do you think you could figure out a way to convert the files?"
"Shouldn't be a problem," Leet replied, knowing he could come up with something now that he didn't have to worry about all of the gaps in his tech trees.
"We should be good, beam me up Scotty," Amy's voice came over the radio sitting next to Rose.
S. Rose let her shadow Amy vanish and re-manifested her at her feet where she'd be out of sight of Uber and Leet. "Define good."
R.S. Amy used C. Taylor's powers and conjured herself a set of pajamas then stood up and flopped down next to Rose on the couch. "I didn't notice anything dangerous or particularly strange but it's something to keep an eye on if we're going to be exploring strange new worlds."
"As long as we heal everyone before we step through the portal and after, we should be fine, right?" Taylor asked, hoping they weren't going to talk themselves out of exploring.
"It would help but it would also depend on how things spread," R. S. Amy warned them. "We should probably use conjured clothing and grab a shower before and after each trip through a portal."
Myst shook his head. "That would cripple our ability to grab supplies and require training and a decent investment in time and resources."
"You have a better idea that doesn't result in the plot of a bad movie?" S. Amy asked.
"Yeah, multiple layers of protection," Myst said as he walked over to the workbench where they'd set up the 3D printer that S. Kid Win had modified. He moved the mouse connected to the laptop to get rid of the screen saver and looked at the collection of symbols they could use for the temporary tattoos. 'I need an instruction manual.'
He focused on what he wanted then pushed half of his energy into the printer and computer, curious if his crazy idea would work. He smiled when a new menu option appeared in the program. "Magic, let's see if that worked." He pulled his sunglasses out of his pocket, put them on and stared in disbelief when he realized that his idea had actually worked. "Huh, this should let us print temporary tattoos that increase disease resistance."
"How much do they increase it?" S. Amy asked.
"Currently? Twenty percent and they give you a permanent resistance to any pathogen or toxin you encounter while using the tattoos," Myst replied cheerfully as he clicked on the magic menu, curious how everything worked. "I just have to select a design then apply the magic modifier and print it."
"Before you get carried away making magic tattoos, we're still going to need something that destroys the bacteria and viruses in an area," S. Amy reminded Myst.
"I'm thinking soap or figurines," Myst mused.
"Is there a reason you can't use rocks?" S. Kid Win asked as he walked over, figuring they'd be easier to find.
"Not sure, most of the stuff I've made has some connection," Myst admitted as he queued up a sheet of magic kitten temporary tattoos and hit the print button. "The gloves have a connection to work, pennies for lucky charms, wands for magic, jewelry for general boosts and such but I'm not if any of that's actually required or just a useful way to help keep track of things."
Leet pulled his attention away from C. Squealer and looked at the printer as it started printing. "Is there a reason you didn't go with a stamp? They're cheap to upgrade and you could stamp people's hand when they show up at the club."
"Now I feel like an idiot," Myst admitted. "One stamp and no diseases, if we can make a stamp with the same effect as the temporary tattoos we could probably get rid of the worst effects of alcohol and drugs, not to mention make things better for the city."
"That sounds like a fantastic way to get people to try to kill you," Uber pointed out.
"I'm fairly sure it would only work on the toxin part, so the hangover and the loss of motor function, but we might have to run some tests," Myst mused.
Taylor smiled as she looked at the fake coins scattered on the laundromat floor through her minion's eyes. "I found something you can use for the disease prevention token, laundry themed coins."
"Where are they?" Myst asked Taylor.
"A couple of blocks from the portal," Taylor replied.
"Have them toss everything in a pile, we'll head there and open another portal. How close are the guys in the hover car world?" Myst asked.
"They'll be here in five," Taylor replied with a grin.
"Time to get dressed," Myst told them.
"Fine but I'm going to have to give everyone something to test the coin," S. Amy said cheerfully as she headed for the bathroom to get changed.
"Some type of pox," R.S. Amy mused with an evil grin as she followed Amy.
Taylor frowned as she watched the Amys walk into the bathroom. "She's joking, right?"
"Hopefully," Myst muttered.
0o0o0
"It's like walking around in a sci fi pulp fiction movie," Taylor mused as she looked at the group of men across the street that were wearing suits that were at least fifty years out of date back home much less the fedoras along with overcoats that looked like they stepped straight out of the fifties.
"Close enough," Myst agreed as he pulled his attention off the smooth metal and glass building that looked like something you might see in the first Bioshock video game and looked at the old fashioned flying Rolls Royce that was flying in front of a car that reminded him of a fifty seven Chevy without the wheels, softly glowing panels lining the underside of the car and probably providing propulsion.
"Did they just stop making things in the…" Uber trailed off as he saw a car fly past.
Myst grinned as he saw a yellow cab without wheels pull over and let a couple of women wearing shin length blue dresses with thick fur coats out in front of the theater. "I thought you said our clothes were fine?"
"By the docks, they were. Downtown, apparently not," Taylor admitted as she worked on copying some of the clothes people were wearing so she could make some copies.
"Next alley," S. Amy suggested as she worked on copying everything she could copy, if only so she had a decent collection of flying cars and clothes.
"Sure," Myst agreed as he copied a man's suit and fedora, figuring he might as well look the part.
"We're going to have to figure out why everything is so backwards…" Uber trailed off as he watched a kid on a hoverboard zooming down the street. "We are so getting some of those before we leave."
"Yep," Myst replied as they headed into the surprisingly clean alley. "Makes me wonder if they have robot cleaners."
S. Amy glanced around then used C. Taylor's power to conjure an ankle length fur coat that she certainly couldn't get away with wearing at home and pulled it over her shoulders then swapped her dress. "Done."
"Cheater," Rose muttered as she conjured a dressing screen and walked behind it to swap her clothes.
“Did you copy a dressing screen just so you could pull that?” Taylor asked with a laugh.
“If the lighting was better I’d be physically undressing while you watched my silhouette,” Rose replied with a grin.
Myst conjured the guys overcoats, thankful that it’d cover their clothes well enough that they wouldn’t have to change anything.
“I want a fedora,” Leet said with a laugh. “And you said they’d never be fashionable again,” he teased his partner.
Uber rolled his eyes and accepted a fedora as well. “I did say on Earth Bet. Anyway, let’s go see what’s what. We probably want to find a library or something to learn the history of this place without sticking out.”
Comments
Mist of Shadows
That's the idea, characters are supposed to interact.
Dark epyon
Love this story the interactions between the characters is so entertaining.
