Mist of Shadows
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Taylor Hebert Dungeon Girl Part 28
🕑 Added 2018-08-30 08:23:27 +0000 UTC Taylor twisted slightly as she brought her left sword up and deflected the fake Emma’s punch then brought the nasty dungeon glass sword in her right hand down on the fake’s elbow, severing the limb and doing a fair amount of damage to her health bar. She ignored the thing’s screams as she kicked the bitch’s knee. She ignored the little voice in the back of her head screaming about heroic behavior as she proceeded to viciously kick her ex-friend’s fallen doppelganger until she turned into pixels.She ignored the pair of designer jeans that dropped as she glanced at her various experience bars, bars that had barely moved enough to be noticeable. “We’re going to have to swap dungeons, I’m getting crap for experience.”
“Same,” Amy replied as she picked up the jeans and stuck them in her bag. She smiled as Danny and Gothic walked around the corner. “Any decent drops?”
“Just the usual,” Danny replied as he held up the theater mask he’d gotten off Sophia, “though it was oddly cathartic to stab Sophia.”
Taylor chuckled evilly as she turned and headed for the entrance. “It is, isn’t it?”
“Any word from Kevin and Richard?” Amy asked as they followed Taylor.
Gothic snickered. “They’re probably still beating up security guards.” She was bouncing on the balls of her feet, delighted to have enemies that were always in plain sight and didn’t leap out with sharp things from under postage stamps!
Taylor grinned as she realized the guys might have found a much better way to increase their combat skills. “We’ll have to compare skill totals when they get done.”
“Sounds like plan,” Amy agreed cheerfully as they continued down the hall, completely confident in her skills to handle teenage thugs.
“How do you think Randal is doing farming feathers?” Gothic asked as they rounded a corner and saw a group of four jocks and three trashy looking cheerleaders harassing a geeky looking boy. “That’s different,” she said curiously.
“Just a bit,” Taylor muttered as she studied the group of students. They didn’t look like anyone she knew, just generic jocks and cheerleaders much like the rest of the ‘students’ running around other than Emma, Madison and Sophia. She was actually a little surprised the nerd being picked on didn’t resemble Greg. ‘He did get a ration of shit almost as big as mine, didn’t he,’ she thought idly. She made a mental note to do something about the school’s bully problem at some point when she was sure she could get away with it.
“My turn,” Amy stated firmly as she raised her swords and charged the group, a fierce grin on her face reminiscent of her sister.
Danny winced as he watched Amy cut down the closest jock then take a punch to the face as she got her timing wrong. “We’re going to need a tougher dungeon soon.”
“We could always hit Diablo,” Gothic said thoughtfully as she watched Amy dismantle the last two jocks then turn her attention to the cheerleaders that were attacking her with pom poms.
Amy winced slightly as the cheerleader’s hand and pom pom went flying when she ‘blocked’ the girl’s first shot with her ‘overly’ sharp sword. ‘Shit, I’m going to need to watch that on patrol,’ she thought as she brought her other sword down on the cheerleader’s neck. ‘Maybe a pair of escrima sticks.’ The two remaining cheerleaders grabbed her arms and bore her to the ground despite her best efforts. “Fuck!” she shouted, annoyed.
Taylor shook her head as she watched the cheerleaders try to get through her friend’s armor and fail miserably. “Not tonight, I’d like to get a decent night’s sleep.”
Gothic pulled a knife from her belt and flicked it at the cheerleader on the left, dropping her health by a decent chunk. “Back off, bitch!”
“You forget the power of the darkside!” Danny raised his hands and unleashed lightning on Amy and the two cheerleaders. He held the lightning until the cheerleaders turned into pixels then stopped. “That reminds me, we should hunt down more dungeon glass for throwing daggers,” he said thoughtfully.
“That was awesome!” the geek exclaimed as Amy got to her feet.
“Happy to help,” Amy muttered semi sarcastically as she picked up the Winslow letterman jacket and the rather short cheerleading skirt they’d dropped. “It’s just as well I have my lightning eating boots on since someone just tried to fry me,” she said in a mock hurt tone.
Danny yawned. “I wouldn’t have hit you with lightning if you weren’t wearing your gear.”
Taylor opened her mouth to ask the geek about the harassment then closed her mouth when the guy turned and ran down the hall, vanishing after taking five steps. “That’s a first.”
“It’s probably just a random event or someone triggered it when they were exploring,” Gothic pointed out as she walked over and picked up the pom pom and shook it to see if it hid anything.
Amy handed the jacket and skirt to Taylor. “Do they do anything?”
Taylor stared in shocked disbelief as she looked at the jacket’s tooltip. “Okay, that’s insane.”
“Is that a good insane or a bad insane?” Gothic asked with amusement as she studied her friend’s face.
Taylor ran her fingers through her hair. “The jacket boosts the amount of weight you can lift by 50% which is nuts.”
“Probably because of the weightlifting letter on the sleeve,” Danny pointed out.
Taylor looked at the weightlifting patch on the sleeve. “Nothing special about the patch, but you’re probably right.”
“What about the skirt?” Gothic asked excitedly.
Taylor glanced at her father then looked back at the tooltip. “It gives a bonus on seduction attempts, which isn’t all that useful.”
Gothic mentally disagreed and grinned as she pictured dancing for Taylor and Amy in the rather short skirt.
“A Thinker type bonus or a Master effect?” Danny asked in concern.
Taylor frowned as she read the description again. “It just says skill bonus which I’m guessing is more of a Thinker effect.”
“That’s good,” Danny replied, relieved that it wasn’t a Master effect. He didn’t want the courts trying to railroad his daughter like they were prone to doing with Masters.
Gothic smiled innocently as she held out her hand. “Can I have the skirt so I can disassemble it?”
Amy shook her head, not buying the innocent act for a second. “Hell no, you don’t need the help.”
Gothic snickered as she pulled Amy into a hug. “I love you too.” It was nice to know she was making some progress.
“Get off me you crazy lunatic,” Amy said good naturedly, not even putting up a token struggle as Gothic groped her butt.
Gothic snickered as she let Amy go. “But seriously, we could be Arcadia cheerleaders.”
Danny winced as he watched Gothic wave the pom pom around in a rather bad though enthusiastic imitation of a cheerleader. “You should probably just salvage the skirt,” he suggested, half hoping that Taylor wouldn’t get a useful pattern out of it.
“I can do that,” Taylor agreed as she opened her tailoring menu and dropped the skirt into the salvage bin. She hit accept then looked at the resulting pattern. “Nice, I can pick the material, the school name, the colors, and the logo.” She wasn’t going to mention that her skirts would give a seduction bonus that scaled based on the quality of the material in front of her father unless he specifically asked… and maybe not even then.
Amy shook her head as she stared at Gothic’s attempt at dancing. “Never do that in public.”
Gothic pouted as she stopped dancing. “Neverland, Amy is being mean, can I spank her?”
“Nope!” Amy stuck out her tongue at her alternate, happy that no one cared if she was being ‘respectable’ or ‘silly’, it was a nice change from being Panacea. “I’m just performing my civic duty and stopping you from inflicting your dancing on people.”
Danny laughed. “Sorry, I have to agree with Amy on this one.”
Taylor grinned as she opened her enchanting menu and tossed the jacket into the salvage bin and hit accept. “Rats, I was hoping we could stack it, but no dice. Still, being able to carry 50% more gear for the same effort is nothing to sneeze at, especially in power armor.”
“I can think of a couple of dockworkers that wouldn’t mind that enchant,” Danny replied, thinking about the loads some of the guys had to carry.
“Police and firefighters would probably appreciate it if we’re handing it out,” Gothic pointed out as she dropped the pom pom into her salvage box and hit accept.
“We’ll see,” Taylor muttered, she wasn’t sure how much she really wanted to tell people about her powers. “Maybe if we put it on the boots it can pass without notice…”
“Anything?” Amy asked as they started heading for the entrance.
“Nah, just a pom pom,” Gothic admitted with a touch of disappointment, she’d been hoping for something interesting considering the girl had been using them as weapons or at least trying.
“Probably for the best,” Taylor teased as they reached the exit.
Randal looked up from his drone controller as Danny and the girls exited the dungeon from the bathroom portal. “Any luck?”
Taylor half turned to look at Randal then stopped as she saw a brand new black sports car with tinted windows and a golden eagle decal on the hood parked on the closest lift. “Nice, how long did that take you to put together?”
“A couple minutes,” Randal replied with a smirk.
“It looks brand new,” Danny said in wonder as he walked over to examine the 1981 Firebird.
“I had the option to make it look used but figured a mint condition Firebird would go for far more.”
“Most likely,” Danny agreed as he studied the car.
“Do you think we could turn it into a flying car?” Gothic asked with amusement.
Randal shook his head. “We probably could but I’d rather not, it would be a bit noticeable.”
“Speaking of noticeable, where is the drone?” Taylor asked as she could see the remote sitting on the cart but the drone wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
Randal shrugged. “To be fair it wasn’t my fault, that Chemist came out of nowhere and I don't have the parts with me to make another one.”
“Chemist?” Amy asked, a touch surprised that there was something else in the dungeon other than shadow monsters and the one winged end of all the lives.
“They’re basically alchemists that like tossing potions at people... or drones apparently.”
“Was the dungeon different or did you go exploring?” Taylor asked curious where he’d found the Chemist and if there was a way to get there without getting torn apart by the shadow creatures or blasted by Sephiroth.
“I grabbed five feathers and got bored, so I went exploring to see what else I could find. There are a lot of shadow monsters in the first two sections, but the next section has random Final Fantasy Tactics classes wandering around the streets and the roofs. They also have a weapons and armor shop which might be useful if we can get to it.”
Danny spoke up, “Sounds dangerous.”
“Extremely,” Randal agreed with a grin.
Gothic smirked as she saw Randal’s grin. “Let me guess, you have a plan?”
Randal smiled widely. “More of an idea that might turn into an actual plan with a little work.”
“Let’s hear it,” Amy grumbled, uncertain she really wanted to hear Uber’s possibly crazy idea. Most of the time he was actually pretty reasonable for a former villain but every once in a while he got that look on his face and a manic gleam in his eyes that reminded her that he’d been part of Leet’s team.
Randal opened his mouth to explain then grinned as Kevin and Richard stepped out of the entrance to the Winslow dungeon. “Any luck?”
Kevin glanced over the group then focused on Randal. “We managed to get most of our new combat skills up to level six before the experience we got from the security guards dropped to almost nothing.”
“Probably because the security guards should have some type of basic self defense,” Danny pointed out.
Richard shrugged. “Maybe, but if so they weren’t trained very well.”
Amy was just glad that she’d never had to go to Winslow as a student. “Do we have an actual plan?”
Randal glanced at Kevin. “Maybe, we have a used golf cart, a bunch of parts in the stacks, a drone controller, and a Leet.”
“You want to make an unmanned combat drone?” Gothic asked, finding herself liking the idea as it kept them out of harm’s way.
“Either that or we talk Taylor into opening a Mario Kart Dungeon and we see if we can get a couple upgrades for it before we test it against the Final Fantasy Dungeon.”
“I vaguely remember playing the game at the mall when I was younger,” Taylor admitted with a frown.
Kevin winced as he thought about the Final Fantasy dungeon that she’d created off half remembered video clips. “In that case, let’s call it night and meet up Wednesday. That should give Taylor a chance to play some of the video games and Amy a chance to swing by the hospitals and spend some time with her family. Not to mention catching up on homework. Besides, that gives Richard and I a chance to do some actual tinkering.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Danny agreed. He wanted to make sure no one got burned out.
Taylor gestured and closed the portals to the dungeons. “In that case, I’ll see you Wednesday.”
Richard grinned at Taylor. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Latest enchants,” Taylor told Randall, making a cheap jacket, enchanting it, and tossing it to him.
“Thanks,” he replied, breaking it down and checking to make sure they were added to his list. “You get the expanded wallet enchant?”
“No, what’s that?” she asked as he tossed her a wallet.
Reading the tooltip she nodded. “No wallet bulge,” she said breaking it down, “not exactly game breaking but useful.”
“Especially if you can apply it to hidden weapons,” Richard suggested.
“An experiment for later,” she agreed.
0o0o0
Taylor yawned as she woke up enough to realize that Gothic wasn’t curled up next to her. She twisted around so that she could check the rest of the room and smiled when she saw Gothic sitting at her desk, her still damp hair draped over the back of the chair, her flawless, creamy white skin on display. She glanced over at her clock that showed 5:57 AM in large green numerals then looked back at Gothic. “Morning.”
Gothic smiled as she turned and saw that Taylor’s shirt had bunched up enough that she could see her cute little pink kitten panties that she’d gotten from the dungeon. “Morning, sleepy head.”
“Is there a reason you forgot to get dressed after your shower?” Taylor asked in a whisper, trying not to blush as her eyes kept drifting to Gothic’s breasts.
“I didn’t forget, I just didn’t see the point.” Gothic snickered. “Relax, Danny had to head to work early, so it’s just us.”
Taylor attempted to give her friend a withering look for making her worry about her father checking on her and catching Gothic sitting around naked as she got out of bed, but it was obvious she wasn’t really angry. “I’m going to get my shower. Have you figured out which dungeon you’d like to use while I’m at school?”
“Something fun and interesting, but not too dangerous. How about an upgraded version of Winslow with students who can actually put up a bit more of a fight? That would help me grind my skills. Of course I could also use some eye candy and fun, like those cheesy movies where the highschool student runs into a martial arts master who for some reason has decided to become a janitor, because that makes sense, and teaches him his secret techniques cause he has a good sob story? Like a B-Grade movie version of the Karate Kid, except with a bit less durable clothing for all involved.”
“That I can do... probably,” Taylor muttered the last part as she realized she could probably combine Gothic’s idea with some sort of safety net. The loot would definitely suffer, but at least Gothic would have somewhere to practice and entertain herself while she was at school. “Can I talk you into making me breakfast while I get my shower?” she asked hopefully.
“Sure,” Gothic stood up and stretched her arms over her head, trying her best to hide her smirk as she noticed Taylor’s response. “I was just checking PHO to see if there was anything interesting going on.”
Taylor’s gaze dropped down to Gothic’s crotch then inched back to her perky breasts before she finally managed to pull her gaze back to her friend’s face. “Thanks,” she called over her shoulder, as she turned and quickly headed for the door, a touch embarrassed that she was as flustered as she was.
“You’re welcome.” Gothic managed to keep her giggles contained until she heard the bathroom door shut. ‘At least she’s having fun.’ She grinned as she danced out of Taylor’s bedroom and down the hall with a degree of skill she wasn’t going to admit to having, mostly because teasing Amy with her ‘lack’ of dancing skill was fun. Thankfully it wasn’t all that hard to grab an apron, set the table and make two large sausage omelettes and have them most of the way done by the time Taylor walked into the kitchen. “Food’s almost ready.”
Taylor wasn’t sure if she was supposed to smile or shake her head as she glanced between her ‘half’ naked friend and the delicious smelling omelettes she was putting on the table. Gothic put the pan back on the stove and took off her apron.
“I had a thought about the safety feature in the new dungeon,” Taylor said as she let her gaze travel over Gothic’s naked body while she was distracted.
“Yeah?” Gothic asked as she sat down across from Taylor with a smirk as Taylor wasn’t nearly smooth enough to hide checking her out.
Taylor tried to ignore the view as she worked on cutting up her omelette. “If I set it up like a movie where you get booted if you die, you can safely practice any number of skills. The loot won’t be as nice, but that won’t stop you from grinding your fighting skills.”
“Hmmm, wanna do a quick run with me, just us?” Gothic asked, thinking about spending some time alone with Taylor.
Taylor glanced at the clock on the microwave. “Considering the time, I’m going to have to take a rain check.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” Gothic replied excitedly then quickly dug into her omelette wanting to have enough time to grab her gear and get everything set up before Taylor had to rush off to the bus.
“Works for me,” Taylor agreed then started eating her omelette, trying not to let herself get so distracted she missed her face or something equally as stupid. ‘Stupid hormones.’
Gothic finished eating her omelette after a minute then stood up and headed for the stairs. “I’ll be right back.”
Taylor finished her current bite of omelette then called out, “Don’t break anything.” She smiled as she realized she was actually looking forward to a nice normal day at school, no ninjas, no adorable teasing nudists or crazy robots, just some people that were quickly turning into friends and some lectures by teachers that hadn’t given up.
Taylor finished the last couple of bites then set her fork on her plate. ‘Let’s see if I can come up with a training dungeon that won’t get her in too much trouble,’ she thought as she headed for the living room. She knew it was a bit of a risk leaving the portal open in her house, but if someone broke in she’d have bigger issues anyways. Besides, it wasn’t like she couldn’t tell people that Neverland had opened the dungeon for Gothic.
She walked over to the cupboard and grabbed the handle. She kept the Gummi Bear expulsion safety feature firmly in mind as she pictured the various theaters and B-Grade movies she’d seen on television over the years then pulled it open.
She raised an eyebrow as she saw a movie theater lobby and checked the color around the edges. It was a light green, so it was definitely safe. Poking her head inside she saw ‘Brockton Bay Multiplex over 500 screens’ on a banner near the ceiling and had to force herself not to go exploring as she saw posters for some of her favorite B-Grade movies.
‘Gothic is going to love it,’ she thought with a fond smile.
