Mist of Shadows
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Boosted Villainy Part 16
🕑 Added 2022-07-23 02:51:33 +0000 UTCC. Squealer frowned as S. Rose pulled into the snow covered parking lot for the recycling center and slid a touch before the tires managed to get enough traction. "Remind me to upgrade the RV with an antigravity device."
"I'll put it on the list," Myst replied absently as he used his remote to set up the spatial field he was going to use to expand the loft area.
"Any idea why someone is parked next to the office on Christmas Eve?" S. Rose asked thoughtfully as she drove towards the large metal bins that contained a bunch of empty plastic bottles.
"Paperwork?" S. Kid Win asked hopefully as he walked out of the bathroom after getting dressed.
"Sure, let's go with that," C. Squealer said sarcastically as a pair of skinny guys with leather biker jackets and masks made of dozens of bones walked out of the office with a large flat screen television.
Myst stuck the remote in his inventory and copied the man with a beard, fairly sure he wasn't the Butcher. 'What are you doing?'
'We're just grabbing some junk,' the shadow thug replied.
'Why?' Myst asked as S. Rose stopped next to the shelter that contained the bins and shut the RV off.
'Hacksaw needs parts for his surveillance equipment,' the shadow replied.
"We're going to stop them, right?" S. Kid Win asked hopefully.
"Vicky smash," S. Vicky joked as she grabbed her mask.
'How many people do you have with you, any capes?' Myst asked. "That's the plan, I'm just grabbing some information first."
'Three guys and Hacksaw. You can't miss him, he's six and a half feet tall and fat,' the thug replied. 'He's probably already noticed you.'
"Grab your masks, we have a surveillance tinker and three or four minions to grab," Myst said as he pulled his jester's cap and mask out of his inventory and pulled them on. 'Do you know where the rest of the Teeth are?'
'We're not with the Teeth!' the shadow assured him. 'We're just trying to make sure no one looks for us.'
"Right, because pretending to be the Teeth aren't going to piss them off," Myst muttered, fairly sure they had a death wish. "Did the tinker disable the alarms?" he asked, trying to get an idea of how much time they had as the thugs jumped back out of the van.
'Of course, you don't trigger that shit until you're done,' the shadow replied.
"Cool, no alarms. Knock them out but don't kill them, they're not actually part of the Teeth." Myst manifested the thug behind the other two thugs, wanting to see how they'd react before he attacked a tinker that was expecting trouble.
"Copy and paste," S. Rose said cheerfully as she copied the thugs. 'Take out the originals, no killing them.' She manifested the two shadow thugs behind the two thugs that had spun around to deal with the shadow clone behind them. She smiled as one of her shadows caught his original in the nuts, sending him to the ground in agony.
"This feels like cheating," S. Kid Win said as he watched the fight. "What are you going to…" he trailed off as one of the thugs pulled out a gun and shot his shadow clone in the head, "do if they kill the shadow clones?"
"Make more," Myst replied as he recopied the thug and manifested him behind the guy with the gun. He used his copy of C. Taylor's power to manifest a baseball bat for his new thug.
"Can we avoid giving them too much brain damage?" S. Amy asked dryly.
"I'll…" Myst trailed off when a large man in biker leathers stepped out of the office with a shotgun.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" Hacksaw demanded as he glared at the naked thugs.
"Fuck you Ralph, you're not paying us enough!" the thug with the baseball bat shouted.
Myst copied the tinker and swapped the baseball bat for a taser. "Might as well drop him."
"On it," S. Rose said as she manifested her shadow Amy behind the tinker at the same time as the other shadow clone fired the taser into his buddy.
R.S. Amy reached up and touched the tinker on his neck, using her power to drop him unconscious. "That was suspiciously easy."
"Yep!" S. Vicky flew out of the RV and over to help with the thugs.
"Do we have a plan?" S. Rose asked thoughtfully as she let her copy of Amy vanish, along with the rest of the shadow thugs she'd manifested. 'Thanks.'
"We should probably check to see if they have anything useful," Myst replied as he opened the side door and stepped into the cold, not seeing a reason to pass up a chance to pick up a bunch of components that were just going to be turned into scrap.
"You're looting the place?" S. Kid Win asked warily as they followed Myst out of the RV.
"Just the salvage," Myst assured him as he headed towards the office. "I'll repair a couple of the flat screens and leave them a note, that should more than cover what they would have gotten out of the stuff we're taking as salvage."
"Fair," S. Kid Win admitted after giving it a couple of seconds of thought. "How long do you think we have before the police get here?"
"On Christmas Eve?" Myst asked with amusement as he walked over to the tinker and moved him to one of the slots in his inventory.
"Good point," S. Kid Win admitted.
'Any reason your friend was willing to shoot my shadow clone?' Myst asked as he looked at the dazed and confused thug that was sprawled on the snow.
'Because he's a fucking idiot,' S. Hacksaw complained. 'This was supposed to be easy, in and out with some of the electronics and a fifty in Eric's desk, no harm, no foul, no fucking weapons.'
'You're a villain, right?' Myst asked as he tossed the two thugs into one of the other large slots so he could drop them off with the police then stepped forward and decked the thug that charged out of the office/warehouse with a knife.
S. Amy sighed as the thug hit the ground in a tangled mess. "What did I tell you about brain damage?"
"Not my fault," S. Vicky said cheerfully then flew into the warehouse.
S. Amy shook her head. "I was talking to Myst."
"Something about how you didn't want to fix it," Myst replied as he reached down and shoved the last thug into his ring's inventory, figuring he'd let the PRT sort things out. "He'd have to have a brain for it to get damaged, he charged a bunch of capes with a knife."
"Kyle was never that bright," one of the shadow thugs offered.
Myst turned his attention to the van. 'Did you steal the van?'
'No, I just covered the plates,' S. Hacksaw replied. 'It was supposed to be easy, in and out; no one works on Christmas Eve.'
"Fair enough," Myst agreed as he used his version of C. Taylor's power to copy the van, creating a template in case he needed a van. "Remind me to copy the go-karts when we get a chance."
S. Rose glanced between the van and Myst then quickly copied the van when she realized what he was talking about. "This is going to be awesome!"
S. Kid Win smiled as he thought about Armsmaster's rant about Leet and Uber's latest stunt. "Are you trying to drive Armsmaster insane?"
"That implies that he's sane," Myst replied with amusement.
"We're good!" S. Vicky called out from inside the warehouse filled with electronics, hoping they could make something fantastic out of the junk.
Myst smiled as they walked in and he saw the tech sitting on a bunch of mismatched tables covered with old electronics. "Flat screens, scanners, hundreds of connectors, remotes and printers."
"Huh," S. Kid Win muttered when he noticed a 3D printer on one of the tables. "Pretty sure that's a 3D printer."
"Plastic or metal?" C. Squealer asked thoughtfully.
"I'm guessing plastic but we can probably modify it," Chris mused as he looked around the room, knowing they were going to need supplies now that he didn't have access to the PRT's resources.
Myst manifested the tinker. "Are you a villain?"
S. Hacksaw shrugged. "Technically, it's not exactly legal to stick cameras everywhere, but I've managed to get some of the gang members off the street by giving the police evidence."
"Rogue," Myst muttered as he turned to look at S. Kid Win. "Grab the 3D printer, twenty normal printers, a couple flat screens and all of the connectors that you need." He turned to look at S. Hacksaw. "Is there a reason you didn't join the Protectorate?"
"They'd keep track of my spy cameras and complain about me stealing net access," S. Hacksaw complained. "They'd also want me to arrest people for stealing cable or minor shit."
"Screw it. Not my monkey, not my problem," Myst muttered as he walked over and grabbed one of the larger flat screens, figuring they could sort things out once they had everything loaded and they'd left some cash in the manager's desk.
0o0o0
"Wake up," Frank said as he shook his friend awake.
"What?" Hacksaw sputtered as he woke up and realized that he was in the passenger seat of his van. "What the fuck?!" His clothes were loose and the ache in his back was gone.
"No clue," Frank admitted, not sure how they'd gotten from the recycling center to the gas station a couple of miles away. "Someone knocked us out and drove us to the gas station."
"They also loaded up all of the shit we wanted," Jimmy added, as he looked behind his seat.
Hacksaw turned and looked in the back of the van, surprised to see a bunch of monitors and a box of connectors, along with a box filled with remote control cars and busted drones. "Do you remember what happened?"
"Clones? I got dropped by a clone," Jimmy said matter of factly. “Had to be Blasto.”
"Great, we're fuckin’ clones!" Kyle complained, as he looked at everyone and saw how fit they all were.
Jimmy snorted as he reached over and hit Kyle on the back of the head. "Stop freaking out."
"Hey, I wasn't this ripped before, we're obviously clones," Kyle told them.
"Bullshit, no one would clone you," Frank stated. "I can see Hacksaw or Jimmy, but us?”
"If we're not clone troopers, why drop us anywhere?" Kyle asked.
"Weird," Hacksaw muttered when he noticed an envelope on the dash. He grabbed the envelope and opened it, surprised to see a handful of cash along with a note. "Huh, sorry about ruining your gig, thought you were part of the Teeth. We gave you some upgrades and cash by way of apologies. I’d advise trying to avoid pissing off a group of homicidal lunatics, by getting caught imitating them in the future."
"What did they mean upgrades? Did they turn me into a fuckin’ cyborg?!" Kyle demanded.
"It would be an improvement," Jimmy said as he reached over and poked Kyle in the chest. “You feel human.”
"What the fuck was that for?" Kyle complained, rubbing his chest.
"Testing to see if you're a cyborg," Jimmy replied with amusement. "What's the plan?"
“Master stranger checklist,” Hacksaw ordered. “What type of beer do I like?”
“You hate beer, it gives you gas, you drink those things teenage girls like,” Kyle replied.
“Wine coolers,” Hacksaw agreed.
“Last porn watched?” Jimmy asked.
“Endbringers vs Alexandria the final penetration,” Kyle said.
“What? You were suppose to wait for me to watch that, fucker!” Jimmy complained.
Frank rolled his eyes. “I’d say we have all our memories, but Blasto can copy them and we aren’t obvious cyborgs, but the equipment to check that is back at base. Let’s all just agree we’re us and get on with things. It’s not like finding out we weren’t us would change things anyway.”
“I’d definitely rescue myself,” Hacksaw argued.
“Fuck no you wouldn’t, you’d make me and Jimmy do it,” Kyle complained.
“Same diff’,” the tinker waved it off. “Let’s just count this as a good night’s work and go home, anything else can wait until we’ve had something to drink and maybe some pizza… and ice cream.”
“You just got your body back in shape, shouldn’t you at least try and watch what you eat?” Frank asked.
“I’ll watch it go into my mouth,” Hacksaw replied as he started the van.
0o0o0
The PRT agent glanced between the tied up female with a plain looking plastic mask and the girl wearing a trench coat and a hockey mask. "Bounty?"
“It’s Squealer from Brockton Bay,” S. Rose told him. “Don’t know if she has a bounty, but she totalled my ride in her invisible tank.”
“Then why didn’t you turn her in, in Brockton Bay?” he asked.
“Because they seem to be practicing catch and release with their villains and I don’t want to have to replace my car a third time because this drugged out bitch is joy riding in an invisible tank that has a problem with sharp turns,” S. Rose said dryly.
“You’ll have to wait for the paperwork, but we should have it done and you on your way shortly,” the agent promised, hitting a button under the edge of the desk to summon the on duty protectorate member. “Name?”
“Nunya,” S. Rose replied with a smirk that couldn’t be seen under her mask.
“Nunya?” the agent asked.
“As in none of your business,” S. Rose replied as the door opened and Bastion entered, taking a second to copy him before vanishing, leaving her empty clothes to fall to the floor which dissolved a second later.
Bastion, clad in what looked like medieval plate mail and goggles simply raised an eyebrow.
“Unknown cape turning in who they claim is Squealer from Brockton Bay,” the agent reported. “You’ll need to see the surveillance footage for any more information, they didn’t offer much.”
0o0o0
'And we're good,' S. Rose said cheerfully.
Myst pulled his attention away from the flat screen television that S. Kid Win had partially disassembled and manifested S. Rose. "Any trouble?"
"Nope, I even picked up a copy of one of the heroes," S. Rose replied as she manifested a trench coat. "Name and powers?"
'Bastion, force fields, I can sense what hits them,' Bastion explained.
"Bastion, he's a bit of a PR problem," S. Rose said.
'That's because they don't have a fucking sense of humor,' Bastion replied. 'Pretty sure one of my grandfathers was from Mexico, so really, not sure what they're complaining about. Kid jumped out at me, wanting an autograph. I'd just got done with a ten hour shift, he's lucky I didn't kick him in the balls or let him run into a force field.'
"Makes sense," S. Rose lied as she looked around the expanded RV, fairly sure you could fit a decent sized house in it. "Now that we've dropped Squealer off, do you want to try to copy Blasto or Accord?"
Myst considered the question for a few seconds. "Considering Accord's mental issues and his desire to help the world, I don't see a point in bothering him since I don't have Rose's ring or Amy's wand to fix his mental issues and I don't want to stick around. I wouldn't mind getting a copy of Blasto but I'm not sure how to get to him without causing a mess."
"What about just selling him something? Tinkertech power supply? We grabbed a bunch of lights from the recycling center, how hard would it be to boost the batteries and turn them into adjustable grow lights?" S. Rose asked thoughtfully.
S. Kid Win smiled as he thought about the broken water condenser they'd grabbed that he could probably turn into a decent power supply. "The lights would be easy but we can probably rig something up for the power supply, especially if Myst boosts the batteries."
'Coil should have his number,' S. Lisa suggested.
'Thanks,' Myst replied as he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket. "I'll see if Coil can get a hold of him."
"Are you planning on capturing Blasto?" S. Vicky asked.
Myst selected Coil's number and hit the call button. "Not my monkey, not my problem. He tends to keep a low profile and he helps with the Teeth from what I understand."
S. Vicky pouted. "Please tell me that we're going to go after the Teeth."
"I'd rather avoid the insane lunatics, but if we happen to run into them, you're more than welcome to take a swing, just no killing the Butcher, I'd rather not have Vicky end up as the next one," Myst argued.
"That's a stretch," S. Vicky complained.
"Doesn't mean it's not something to consider," Myst paused when Coil answered. "I need Blasto's number or I need someone to set up a meet and greet."
"He doesn't like leaving his lab, you'd need something important," S. Coil replied.
"Selling tinkertech power systems or grow lights?" Myst asked.
"That would do it, let me call some people that can set things up, he'd suspect something if I called him directly," S. Coil replied. "I also set up a meeting with the Traveler's at 12:30 tonight at a local dive so you could heal Genesis, I'll text you the address. I figured you'd need the proof that you managed to heal Noelle and it gives you an excuse to fix the rest of them."
"Thanks," Myst replied.
"I'll send you the contact information for Blasto when I get it or his location if I can't," S. Coil replied then ended the call.
"Works for me," Myst muttered as he put the phone back in his pocket. "So, we've got a couple of hours to kill and it's Christmas Eve, any suggestions?"
"Food and a movie," C. Squealer suggested, not remembering the last time she'd been to a movie and gotten to actually enjoy it without some idiot making comments.
"Sounds good," Myst agreed, figuring it would give him a chance to take it easy.
0o0o0
There was a screech as the door to the warehouse was wrenched open and Blasto entered with his crew.
Myst glanced between the slightly chubby tinker that was dressed like Wesley from the Princess Bride and his half a dozen assistants that looked like they were either humans with gorilla mods added or gorillas with human mods added, either of which was entirely possible considering Blasto’s powerset. "One tinkertech power system and a row of adjustable grow lights, in exchange for a kilo of high quality cannabis and some cash?”
"Let me make sure it works," Blasto said as he walked over to check on the goods, pulling a screwdriver out of his pocket.
"Be my guest," Myst replied, not particularly worried about the time as they still had plenty of time before they were supposed to meet the Travelers.
“This is some good work,” Blasto muttered, checking linkages and seeing how all the different systems fit together. “I can even handle the upkeep on this, outstanding!”
"That's the idea," Myst replied as he made a shadow copy of the tinker and his crew.
"How come you're not charging more?" Blasto asked.
"You can't trust the stuff in Brockton Bay," Myst replied, not even having to fake the annoyed tone of his voice as he thought about the merchants.
"Say no more," Blasto agreed, not blaming the guy in the slightest. "Give him the money."
Two of the assistants opened their briefcases, showing a combination of money and pre-rolled joints then closed the cases and handed them to him.
"Pleasure doing business with you," Blasto told them. "I was half expecting this to be a set up by Accord."
"I'd rather not deal with Accord, I'd end up insulting him by accident and then he'd send people to kill me," Myst replied with a shrug.
"You don't seem too worried about it," Blasto said.
"Like I said, I don't plan on meeting him. I had to drop off a cape and do some business, I'll be gone by the morning," Myst told him.
"In that case, best of luck," Blasto said as he gestured for one of his assistants to pick up the tinkertech. "Stop by when you have more stuff to sell or you need the good stuff."
"I'll keep that in mind," Myst replied, not seeing a reason to burn bridges. He watched them leave then walked over to the RV.
"How much did we get?" S. Rose asked cheerfully as they entered the RV and crossed the large empty space to the table.
Myst set the briefcases on the table and opened them, revealing the money and the weed.
"Why do we need weed?" S. Vicky asked.
"He was happier selling product for equipment than he would have been spending cash," Myst replied.
"What are you planning on doing with it?" S. Vicky asked. “Amy! Put that down!”
S. Amy lit up and took a deep drag. “No,” she coughed out. “It is my professional medical opinion that this is some very high quality weed and there doesn’t appear to be any additives.”
“Amy!” S. Vicky screeched. “Do you know what Mom would do if she caught us… oh.”
S. Amy smirked and took another drag.
“Don’t hog it,” S. Vicky complained, “I want to see what getting high is actually like too.”
Myst gestured with his gloves and cleaned the air, figuring they'd be clean and sober when he re-manifested them, assuming their regeneration let them get high in the first place. 'Huh, we should probably test that.'
C. Squealer grinned as she walked over to grab a joint. "I always wanted to try Blasto’s shit but Skidmark said it cost too much."
"He was an ass, have fun." Myst let her grab a couple of joints then closed the briefcases and stuck them in his inventory. He turned and headed away from the girls, figuring he'd just clean the air a couple of times to deal with the smell and the chemicals. "How are you doing with the 3D printer?"
"Making improvements, I've set up a grinder so you can just feed it plastic scraps and I've changed the programming to make it much more user friendly," S. Kid Win said, rather proud of his modifications.
"Let me know when you're done and I'll upgrade it," Myst said, looking forward to seeing how far they could push the basic model before they needed to completely redesign things.
S. Kid Win gestured towards Myst's laptop. "Can you upgrade the program by making copies and boosting it?"
"It's worth a shot," Myst replied as he walked over to check.
S. Kid Win copied the program for the 3D printer four times. He changed the last directory to backup then took a step back. "Go for it."
Myst focused and used three of the copies to boost the original program, causing the copies to vanish. "Do you want me to repeat the process?"
"Later," S. Kid Win replied as he swapped tabs and pulled up the dragon design he'd downloaded to test things. He quickly copied it four times, renaming the last one control. "See if you can improve the actual design for the dragon."
"Sure," Myst replied with amusement as he boosted the file, curious how much it would change the dragon. "Run some tests, I'm going to see if I can organize everything while we're waiting for the meeting."
"Best of luck," S. Kid Win replied, glad he had things to distract himself with.
Comments
Mist of Shadows
That does sound rather exploitable. :P
Michael Strickland
That can be so damn exploitable, not only towards creating better software or an A.I., but also for advancing general scientific or technical knowledge. Start with an OCR or pdf of a high level physics textbook or technical schematics and copy the file x times. Upgrade the original and then copy the new file x times. Repeat until satisfied.
Mist of Shadows
You're sacrificing the items, a row of spears on the wall... get rid of three, the spear holders are still there.
Bable Zmith
That is an intriguing thought... Thank you.
Michael Strickland
But you are sacrificing a physical copy. The program files exist on the media in a physical form. The real question is whether the hard drive has lost storage potential or if that portion of the drive was wiped as if an extremely precise magnet was used to completely remove the data?
Bable Zmith
hmmm... can you sacrifice a copy of a program without a physical body for it? Is it the concept of the work or the metaphysical marker for the sacrifice?
