Mist of Shadows
patreon
Boosted Villainy Part 9
🕑 Added 2022-06-28 06:15:16 +0000 UTC"Danny?" Jimmy asked after picking up the phone, not sure who else would be calling him from the union.
"Yeah, I might need to call in that favor you owe me," Danny said as he leaned back in his office chair.
"What's up?" Jimmy asked.
"Is your wife still on the school board?" Danny replied.
Jimmy glanced towards the kitchen where he could hear his wife doing dishes. "Yeah, why do you ask?"
"Taylor has been getting harassed by a track star all year and the principal has been sweeping shit under the rug. I had a call from someone warning me about Hess and Barnes putting biohazardous waste in a locker in Winslow. Jason, Neil's kid works part time at the school, he said the stench was horrible. Does she know who to talk to, so the principal can't bury it?" Danny asked.
"I imagine she does," Jimmy mused. "Which locker?"
"Taylor's," Danny said, “they were planning to shove her into it and lock her in with it as soon as school was back in session according to the call.”
"Fucking hell, what the actual fuck?!" Jimmy exclaimed.
"Hell if I know, they get worse every year and apparently they think they have enough pull to get away with it. There's something really rotten going on, can you have Jessicia call someone?" Danny asked hopefully.
"She'd kill me if I didn't. Even if you hadn't saved my ass, I'd run it down, this is beyond the pale," Jimmy assured him. "I'll let you know if I find anything. How's she doing?"
"Trying not to bite people’s heads off or scream at them," Danny admitted.
"I can imagine. You know she gets her temper from both sides," Jimmy teased.
"I'm aware," Danny said as Kurt walked into his office. "I'll let you go, I need to make a couple more calls."
"I'll call you when we have something official," Jimmy told him, then hung up and went to talk to his wife.
"Any luck?" Kurt asked once Danny hung up the phone.
"Jimmy said he'd talk to Jessica," Danny said.
"If that doesn't work, I know a closed down wrecking yard where the car crusher still works," Kurt offered.
"Keep that as a maybe," Danny replied with a chuckle, only half joking.
"If you're feeling sadistic, Frank mentioned his girlfriend was interning at the news station, he can probably toss her some information and she could toss it to a reporter," Kurt suggested.
"Let's see what Jimmy says first, I don't want to blind side him with this," Danny said.
"You know, some physical labor might take your mind off it, we've got that foundation that needs to be broken," Kurt suggested.
"You're just saying that because you don't want to do it," Danny said as he stood up.
"I can have more than one reason, I'm a multifaceted kinda guy," Kurt replied with a smile.
Danny laughed as he grabbed his hard hat. "You get the sledgehammers, I'll grab us some beer."
0o0o0
"I still can't believe we found an entire suitcase filled with beanie babies or that you don't want them," Rose said cheerfully as she looked through her new collection of expensive collectables that she was planning on selling on Ebay.
Myst pulled his attention away from the window and Taylor's house and looked at Rose. "We have a city filled with neo-nazis, if I need money, I'll go rob them, it's more honest."
"How is that more honest than collecting vintage stuffed animals?" S. Rose asked as she worked on feeding another package of pez into his magically enhanced dispenser.
Myst glanced at the naked clone that was doing his busy work for him. "Shooting nazis is a time honored tradition."
"That doesn't make it more honest," Rose argued.
"Okay fine, it's just more fun," Myst admitted.
"See, now that is honest," S. Rose said cheerfully as she started dispensing the pure white pills into the cleaned out aspirin bottle. "How long do you think it will take Taylor to finish repairing the lamp and cleaning everything?"
"Ten minutes? Twenty maybe. Are you in a hurry to get home?" Myst asked.
Rose shook her head. "Not particularly, I've got an hour before I'll start getting texts and Mom is just going to put me to work when I get there so I won’t even get a chance to try out my new toy."
"In that case, relax and enjoy not being put to work by your mom," Myst suggested.
"Point," Rose said as she glanced at her shadow, finding it strange to be seeing herself as others would. “We really need to keep some extra changes of clothes in here that aren't twenty years out of style.”
“But then I wouldn’t get to have naked clone girls,” Myst said in what he figured was a reasonable manner.
“This has got to be sexual harrasment,” Rose joked, wishing she’d been able to copy him so she could do the same back.
“Only if I complain to HR and I won’t,” S. Rose said with a grin, making exaggerated movements to attract Myst’s attention.
“I am such a slut,” Rose complained.
“There is nothing slutty about having a healthy sex drive,” Myst argued.
“You’re just saying that because you get to watch my naked clone work,” Rose complained.
“And that's because I have a healthy sex drive,” Myst replied smugly.
S. Rose burst out laughing.
"To be fair, she doesn't have a problem with it, so do you?" Myst asked, wanting to make sure the shadow clones weren't significantly different from the original in that respect.
"No, I just figured I was supposed to offer a token protest and that clothes are a good idea if they have to leave the RV," Rose replied.
"Joking aside, yeah, it's a good idea," Myst agreed as he turned back to look back at Taylor's house and saw her walking their way. "You should set the dispenser down, Taylor's heading our way."
"Sure," S. Rose agreed as she set the pez dispenser on the table.
Myst pulled S. Rose back into his shadow and put the lid on the aspirin bottle so they wouldn't lose any if they took a turn too fast even if the ride was remarkably smooth after the improvements they’d made to the RV.
Rose opened the door for Taylor. "How did it go?"
"I fixed the lamp, the front step and everything else. I don't think I've seen the house that clean in years, I'm pretty sure Dad's going to notice," Taylor said as she walked into the RV.
"You could always tell him that you won a free house cleaning on a radio contest," Rose suggested as she shut the door to keep the heat in.
Taylor shook her head. "I can't see him buying that."
"It's a lot more believable than the truth," Rose pointed out.
"I met a cape and he had cleaning powers?" Taylor asked then sighed when she realized that reality actually was stranger than fiction.
"You could also blame it on a door to door cleaning cape but as we didn't hit the rest of the neighborhood, that's probably less reasonable," Myst said.
"I just wish I knew why Emma went nuts," Taylor complained, changing the subject.
"Make a copy and ask," Rose suggested.
"I could actually do that," Taylor said excitedly, recalling her earlier thought.
"Give me directions, we'll swing by her house and you can make a copy," Rose said as she headed to the driver's seat.
"Just like that?" Taylor asked.
"Why not, she goes to the same school which means she has to live reasonably close, right?" Rose asked.
"A few blocks," Taylor admitted as she pointed down the street. "We'd still need to actually see her for the shadow clone bit to work."
"That's easy, you just find a random teen on the street and copy them. We have extra clothes from the scrap yard, dress him up and send him to the door to ask about Emma, she'll show up, either down stairs or at her window to see what's going on, then you simply copy her and you'll have your answers," Rose explained as she started the RV and headed down the road.
"Seems reasonable," Myst agreed.
"Couldn't hurt to try," Taylor admitted as she moved over to the window to watch for people.
Myst searched through the collection of clothes they'd grabbed from the scrap yard for something that wouldn't look too out of place.
Taylor saw an attractive young man through a window of a house and copied him. "Found someone." She flipped the mental switch on the guy in his late teens, causing him to appear in the back of the RV sans clothes. "Right, no clothes," she said as she checked out the guy's equipment, sighing when Myst tossed him a pair of jeans.
"What do you need, boss?" the guy asked.
"Put the clothes on. When we stop, you're going to walk up to a house and ask for Emma, I need her to come to the door," Taylor explained as the guy pulled the pants on.
"What angle do you want me to use? Jealous boyfriend, crazy stalker, prize winner?" the boy suggested.
"That's probably for the best," Myst said thoughtfully as he looked through the collection of junk they'd recovered from the scrap yard until he found a gold necklace that was a bit gaudy but looked like something you might win in a prize. He grabbed one of the notebooks and his boosted pen and started writing random names and making boxes next to them, putting Emma Barnes name four fifths down the list of random American names while the shadow teen got dressed.
'This would be easier if they came with clothes." Taylor watched her athletic shadow clone get dressed. 'Less… interesting though.'
"I need directions," Rose reminded her.
"Right, sorry," Taylor said as she pulled her attention off the guy's muscles and headed up front.
Myst pushed the button at the top of the pen and changed the color of the ink to red when he finished writing the names and started checking off the boxes, stopping at Emma's name. "Okay, this should give you some legitimacy."
"No worries, this isn't the first time I've scammed the parents of a girlfriend," he said with a grin.
"If it doesn't work it doesn't work, but it's a gold necklace, it should work, even if they plan to hock it," Myst said, not worried about the necklace as it was for a good cause.
"White house, red trim," Taylor said as she pointed at Emma's house, a house that was slightly nicer than the ones on either side of it.
"Gotcha," Rose said as she parked in front of the house. "This should be easy."
"Yeah…" Taylor muttered, not really expecting it to be easy.
"Just head up the street after you pull this off, we'll pick you up." Myst handed the stuff to the guy then moved to the window to watch after shutting the door behind him.
Taylor stared in disbelief when Emma answered the door after he’d knocked, proving that the plan had actually worked without any glitches. She quickly copied Emma. "Got her."
"Good," Rose said as she copied her as well, wanting her own answers and figuring it would be too sensitive a topic to quiz Taylor on.
Myst copied Emma, figuring he might need to frame her for something. "She took the necklace and we're done."
"That seems too easy," Taylor said as the guy walked back down the path towards the street.
"Sometimes it really is that easy," Myst assured her.
"I'll take it," Taylor said, deciding not to question her good fortune.
Rose waited until the guy had walked down the street a bit then started the RV and drove up next to him and stopped.
The teen opened the door and climbed in the passenger side. "How did I do?"
"Perfect," Rose assured him. "You should probably go into the back and strip so we can get the clothes back."
"Or we test to see if they'll vanish and reappear with clothes," Myst suggested, not wanting to see the guy strip.
"You're ruining my fun," Rose complained.
Taylor flipped the switch, causing the shadow to vanish and the clothes, notebook and pen to drop to the seat. "So much for being able to store clothes."
"It would have been useful," Myst said, sort of glad they couldn't, even if it would have been nice.
"You're so going to abuse the clone of me when I’m not here, aren't you?" Rose teased Myst.
"I'm not going to do anything she objects to," Myst cheerfully pointed out.
"That much?" Rose asked, eyes widening in ‘surprise’ before she burst out laughing. "You're just lucky I can't make a clone of you."
"Probably," Myst agreed.
Rose jumped when her phone got a text message with her father's ringtone. She pulled her phone out and looked at it. "Yeah, I'm still alive, no he wasn't a serial killer. Yes, I'll be back in time for dinner," she said aloud as she texted back.
"Let me guess, we should get you home?" Myst guessed.
"Probably sooner rather than later," Rose agreed.
Taylor took the repair gloves off and handed them to Myst. "Thanks."
"You're welcome," Myst replied. 'Would she take money for the help and sharing powers or would she take it badly?' he asked his shadow copy of Taylor.
'She could use the money, just tell her Merry Christmas and give her a hundred, more than that and she'd protest,' Shadow Taylor replied.
'Good to know.' Myst pulled his wallet out and handed Taylor five twenties. "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas?" Taylor asked in surprise.
"It's the holidays," Myst replied with a smile. "Stay safe and let us know if you need help or if you want to cause mischief. We’re up for either."
“You got that right,” Rose agreed with a smile.
"Thanks," Taylor said, trying not to cry, mostly because she didn't want to look like an emotional mess and decided to hold off on questioning Emma’s clone until she was home.
0o0o0
Myst watched Rose through the window in the passenger door until she made it into her house then turned to look at S. Rose who was sitting in the driver's seat, wearing nothing but a Hawaiian shirt. "If we get stopped, I'm claiming that you kidnapped me at gunpoint."
"Live a little, none of the cameras can see anything they're not supposed to," S. Rose replied cheerfully as she started the RV and pulled back onto the street. "Where are we going boss?"
"How much do you know about how most dealers work?" Myst asked as he turned his attention back to the road, glad that Taylor's power gave him a built-in driver, as he wasn't familiar with the city.
"Just the basics you see in movies," she admitted. "They generally call or text a runner to collect the money if they sell a certain amount or maybe a runner wanders through on a schedule. The runner then takes it to the stash house or maybe they drop it off with someone else that takes it to a stash house. Are we going after some stash houses?"
"That's the idea," Myst agreed. "I have a decent amount of cash, but I don't have 'buy an abandoned marina in a halfway decent location' level of cash yet. From what I've seen and from the dealers I've talked to over the years, there are two types of dealers, the people that are halfway decent human beings providing a service and the people that want to sell their stuff to anyone and everyone and don't care how many bodies they pile up to make a quick buck."
"And the people that are providing a service are decent people?" she asked skeptically.
"Rarely. I mean some of them can be halfway decent people, I've known a couple over the years, it's just you almost never find anything approaching decent people that are willing to push the hard shit," Myst replied.
"Makes sense," she said as she stopped at a red light.
"Normally, I'd probably ignore the dealers because dealers are a dime a dozen for the gangs and it's hard to say which ones are just trying to make a living and which ones are cutting the drugs with stuff that will cause trouble but Admin's power means we can drive down the street and copy a dealer then pump the shadow clone for information."
"Which means we can find their stash houses and loot them to the ground with shadow clones," S. Rose said cheerfully.
"That's the idea," Myst agreed.
"I know just the place, it used to be a nice corner store before the assholes showed up and started to harass people," she complained as she turned left when the light turned green. "We're going to need to pick up some masks."
"Eventually," Myst agreed. "I'm sort of hoping that we can abuse Admin's power to get some easy scores and get things set up before we have to act like proper capes."
"What's a proper cape act like?" she asked.
"Crazy and prone to conflict," Myst replied as he spotted a guy in his late teens with a bulky coat hanging around the corner store.
S. Rose parked the RV across the street from the corner shop. "Do you want me to get some pants on and see if he harasses me when I walk into the store?"
"Nope," Myst replied as the guy made some stupid gestures that were probably gang related at an older man that walked into the store. "I'd be generous and assume the guy is having a seizure but he hasn't hit the ground yet."
"I'm assuming they're gang signs," she replied as she copied the target so she could make a shadow clone. She made a shadow clone of the guy in the back of the RV. "What's the deal with the shop?"
"Yo, we's trying to scares the owner into paying protection, you know, easy money," the naked black haired guy replied as he glanced around the RV.
"Which gang do you work for?" she asked.
"Merchants all the way, I aint no shit kicking Nazi. I'll fuck anyone, black people, yellow people, white people, green people," the guy replied smugly.
"Do you know where to find any stash houses?" S. Rose asked, hoping copying the guy wasn't a waste of time.
"Hell yeah, we keep the shit in an abandoned fire station," the guy replied.
"How many people are guarding it?" she asked.
The guy laughed. "At least four, you can't have two fuckers guarding things, they might split the cash and run, three bastards might shank the other guy and split the cash, but four assholes? They know better, Skids would fuck them silly and send thems flying over the bay like the last dumb fucks that tried it."
"Did you even graduate?" Myst asked, wondering what the hell was wrong with the idiot.
"I ain't wasting my time with that shit, I make more scratch in a week dealing than my old man made in a month, so fuck him and his self righteous bullshit about being a decent person. The world is going to hell, we might as well enjoy ourselves. Speaking of enjoying ourselves, do you want to fuck?" he asked hopefully, looking between the two.
"No," S. Rose assured him with a slight shudder. "What weapons are you carrying?"
"Just a taser, no one trusts me with a gun after I fucking blew Tommy's toes off," the guy replied with a grin. "That was a fun day, fucker told me I couldn't fuck his mom, but she was down to clown!"
S. Rose stared at the guy for a couple of seconds as she tried to figure out if he was just that fucked up or if there was something wrong with her copy of Admin's power. "Grab some pants and the baseball bat then go steal the original's taser."
"Fuck yeah, the guy is a bastard," the shadow thug replied as he grabbed a pair of baggie hammer pants from the table and pulled them on.
"That's going to be messy," Myst muttered as he tossed the guy a Big Dog sweatshirt, not sure he actually cared as long as no one learned any useful details about Taylor's power. "You might as well include shoes or someone will notice."
"Do we have something that will fit?" S. Rose asked.
"I doubt people will notice if he's wearing a couple of pairs of socks," Myst pointed out as he handed the clone two pairs of socks and some Air Jordans that should be in the right ballpark.
"Any idea what he's supposed to use as a mask?" S. Rose asked.
Myst grinned when he spotted the roll of duct tape sitting on top of the box of stuff they'd recovered from the scrap yard. "I've got a couple of ideas."
"What the fuck man?" the shadow thug sputtered when Myst walked over and grabbed the roll of duct tape.
"Don't worry, I'm just making sure they can't see your ugly ass face," Myst replied.
"Fuck that, I'll kick the shit out of you," the shadow thug replied as he put his fists up.
"Stand there and take it," S. Rose ordered.
"Fine, but I better get a show when I'm done fucking me up," he replied as he pulled a pair of socks on.
"Does your original have a bank account?" S. Rose asked.
He laughed. "Fuck yeah, I don't trust my ‘associates’, they're fucked in the head."
"Where did you stash your cash?" S. Rose asked.
"In the bank and my wallet, I ain't stupid," the thug replied as he put the shoes on, finding them a bit loose but serviceable.
'Bullshit,' S. Rose thought.
'Pretty much,' Myst agreed as he handed the guy a baseball bat. "We're going to want his cash, coat, and wallet, don't kill him."
"No problem, I'll make him suffer, this should be fun," the thug replied with a grin. “Self-love is an idolatry, self-hatred is a tragedy.”
They both just stared at him.
“What? Do you have any idea how many philosophy majors I deal to?” he asked.
Myst pulled a strip of duct tape off and put it across his face, doing his best to build a half assed mask. 'Or he'll kill you and we can see how well the mental improvement part of her power works.'
S. Rose gestured towards the notebook on the table. "Once he's done with your mask, I want you to write a list of your felonies and where to find the evidence that will send your original to prison."
"Yes, boss," the shadow thug agreed as the guy worked on covering his face with duct tape.
