Myst in Worm (Gamer) Part 5 (Patreon)

Amy shivered as ominous music started playing as they walked past the hospital and dozens of rats burst out of the windows. “Shit!”

Myst raised his partially cracked baseball bat as the large rats formed into a grizzly bear sized rat with glowing red eyes and wipsy shadowy fur. “Yeah, that’s a boss.”

“Mine!” Victoria shouted as she flew toward the boss as fast as possible.

Myst opened his mouth to warn her then trailed off as Victoria slammed her fist through the rat’s skull right behind its eyes and ripped out its brain. “Huh.”

“What the fuck Vicky?!” Amy asked as she watched the boss turn into motes of shadow then fade, dropping a roll of shadowy looking leather, a black silk cloak and a set of lockpicks. “That was kill stealing.”

“Come on, I never get to rip anyone’s brains out,” Victoria whined playfully.

Amy stared at her sister for a couple of seconds then shook her head. “There are no words for how messed up that statement is Vicky.”

“I don’t know, I’m fairly sure some of the Merchants wouldn’t even notice,” Myst pointed out as he walked over to look at the loot.

Vicky pouted slightly as she looked at the loot. “That’s nearly useless.”

Myst picked up the cloak then stuck it in his inventory so he could see its stats. “Decent armor, it also hides your face in shadows and gives you glowing red eyes.”

“Yep, that’s a villain or maybe an Amy thing,” Victoria said smugly.

“How is that an Amy thing?” Amy asked with a raised eyebrow.

“You’re snarky and it would keep them from asking stupid questions,” Victoria teased.

“Yeah, no,” Amy replied with a snort. “I’d rather use it for being sneaky or use it to create another identity which I could use to patrol.”

“It would certainly make an impression on the various gangs but we should probably wait to go on actual patrols until we get better gear.” Myst wasn’t in a hurry to deal with the gangs when a couple of days or weeks would go a long way toward making sure he survived. He picked up the lockpicks and stuck them in his inventory so he could look at them. “Rat picks, low quality, indestructible lockpicks.”

Vicky shook her head. “That’s less than impressive.”

“They’d certainly help with stealth missions,” Amy pointed out.

“That sounds like breaking and entering,” Victoria said, knowing her mother wouldn’t be all that amused with them learning to pick locks.

“More like just entering, breaking is generally your method,” Amy teased.

“Fine, don’t blame me if Mom freaks out,” Victoria warned.

“I wasn’t going to tell her, I have an inventory, she’ll never find my gear,” Amy replied smugly.

“There is that,” Myst agreed as he picked up the roll of leather and stuck it in his inventory. “Yeah, we’ll have to make armor out of this if we find a decent pattern.”

“We’re going to need to come up with a decent shadow themed name,” Amy mused as she glanced up at the broken windows on the hospital.

“As long as you don’t call yourself Shadow Stalker, you can’t be worse than some of the Merchants.”

Victoria shook her head. “You really don’t like her, do you?”

“Considering she’s a villain pretending to be a hero, not particularly,” Myst replied sarcastically as he started walking down the street toward the costume shop.

“Is that because she was a vigilante?” Victoria asked as she floated after him, wondering if he’d complain about some of her less than heroic captures.

“No, it’s because she’s a neurotic nutcase, not only did she run around using hunting bolts on people that probably didn’t deserve it, she liked harassing people in her civilian identity because she’s a toxic bitch. So yeah, I don’t like hypocrisy. You want to be a villain, do it with style. You want to be a vigilante, fine, there are plenty of targets in this city that no one would miss but you shouldn’t claim to be a hero if you’re just in it for the thrill and don’t care about helping people.”

“You’re saying there are useful villains?” Amy asked doubtfully.

“I’m inclined to give a villain more credit if they’re running illegal casinos or providing security to various businesses than I would the Merchants who run dangerous and addictive shit,” Myst explained. “The world isn’t black and white, not every law is good and not every villain is a mass murdering sociopath. I’m more of a heroic rogue than I am an actual hero.”

“What do you mean?” Victoria asked.

“I’m planning on making money with my abilities, people generally value your services more if you’re not giving them away for free.”

“So you’re saying I should charge for healing?” Amy asked with a touch of annoyance.

Myst shook his head. “No, I’m just saying a donation box wouldn’t be out of the question but I’d be shocked if the hospital isn’t charging your patients, even if it’s just for the use of a room.”

“They shouldn’t be,” Amy complained.

“They’re still a business and they need to exist which means they need to make a living. There’s nothing wrong with healing kids for free or helping out in an emergency but generally speaking, people could easily afford to toss you fifty or a hundred dollars to heal them. In a lot of cases it would make them feel better.”

“How does paying money help?” Victoria asked.

“It’s a matter of self worth,” Myst explained as he jumped up on the back of a car. “Knowing they helped the girl that healed them means they can feel good about themselves. Even if you only get the occasional donation that’s still money for new clothes, movies or hookers.”

Amy snorted. “Yeah, don’t even suggest that to Carol, she’d go insane.”

“That would be half the fun and it’s legal in Nevada. Besides, it’s not like you couldn’t make sure they’re clean first.”

Victoria laughed. “Forget insane, I think she’d explode.”

Amy shook her head. “I don’t hate her that much. Besidies, I’d feel bad about charging for healing people.”

“Then set out a donation box, make sure there is a ‘Donations appreciated but not required’ note on it and then see what you get. Either way, you can’t fix the world and vows of poverty are just stupid,” Myst explained as they approached the costume shop.

“I remember Mom talking about charities, you should be able to get away with taking donations,” Victoria pointed out as she flew ahead and opened the door to the costume shop.

“Fine, I’ll consider it,” Amy grumbled as she walked through the door into the shop and looked around. “What are you looking for?”

“Anything interesting,” Myst replied as he glanced around the shop, noting the abundance of cape themed gear.

“That doesn’t narrow it down,” Victoria replied as she floated over the counter to look at some of the high end masks that they had on display.

Myst opened his crafting menu then picked up a cheap looking pirate hat and tossed it into the salvage box and hit accept. He grinned as he looked at the square of felt that he got back that was labeled illusionary. “Interesting, I just got a scrap of illusionary felt which means I should be able to boost my crafting a decent amount in here.”

“Wait, none of the leather I picked up came with an illusionary tag, does that mean it’s real?” Victoria asked curiously.

“Most likely,” Myst replied as he grabbed a genie costume and tossed it into his salvage box and hit accept.

“You’re just going to toss everything in the entire store into your salvage box, aren’t you?” Amy asked with amusement.

“I was thinking about it, but I may have to settle for just half of it. You should look for some decent leather gear, so I can make you and Vicky some armor before you head home, you have school in the morning.”

“I’m not sure there’s a point, considering all of the books we absorbed,” Amy said with a smirk.

“Look on the bright side, I should be able to leave you in the party which means that if you’re not increasing whatever skill you’re learning, you should be able to work on speed reading or something else useful. Worst case, we’ll pick things back up tomorrow and hit something more interesting than rats. Either way, do you have any ideas for dealing with Armsmaster other than a can of instant rust?”

“You can do that?” Victoria asked, fairly sure he was joking.

“Not yet, but if he pisses me off enough, I might have to look into it,” Myst grumbled as he worked on tossing random costumes into his salvage box.

“I know Armsmaster can be a bit abrasive but what do you have against him?” Amy asked as she walked over to look at the pleather catsuits, wondering if she could trick her sister into wearing one.

Myst scowled as he tossed a particularly ugly feathered hat into his salvage bin. “He ranted about my part in Sophia outing herself and basically tossed the Wards under the bus because it was more convenient.”

“How did he toss them under the bus?” Victoria asked as she watched Amy poke at one of the catsuits. ‘That would certainly make people look twice.’

“They’re technically supposed to report to the Protectorate, but because of location issues, they’re under Director Pigot’s oversight, not something I’d want anyone I don’t hate to deal with.” Myst wanted to stay as far away from oversight and Cauldron as possible which meant keeping most of his powers out of any database.

“I can’t say I would either,” Victoria admitted as she spotted a white catsuit under the counter with a large red cross on the front. ‘Huh, that could work.’ She smiled at her sister. “So, catsuits?”

“I’d try it on, but it’s not my color,” Amy replied dryly.

“You’re in luck,” Victoria said as she picked up the white catsuit and let it unfold revealing the red cross on the back and the red cross between the breasts on the front. “Because I found one in your color.”

“Why the hell do they have a Panacea themed catsuit?” Amy asked in shock.

“Because you’re awesome?” Myst offered ‘helpfully’.

“See? I’m not the only one that thinks you’d look good in that,” Victoria said smugly.

Amy blushed slightly as she glanced between Myst and her sister. “Fine,” she muttered before she spotted something and grinned evilly. Amy pulled out a skintight white and gold catsuit that was most likely made with Glory Girl in mind. “Here,” she tossed the catsuit to Victoria before she could change her mind, “you can use your character doll.”

Victoria refused to back down as she caught the catsuit, opened her character sheet up and pulled her costume off of it, revealing her white sports bra and bike shorts. She froze, not having expected it to do that and quickly slotted the catsuit in place, ignoring the slight thrill she’d felt at being exposed that way. “How do I look?” she asked Myst, noting that her shorts and sports bra were now in her inventory, having been instantly displaced by the catsuit. 

Myst stared as he had a rather good view of nearly half of Victoria’s breasts, the pleather hid next to nothing being designed to show off as much cleavage as humanly, or parahumanly, possible without getting arrested. “Fantastic, not something I’d probably wear in public, but yeah, what do you think Amy?”

Amy blinked and pulled her gaze off her sister’s breasts. “Nice.”

Victoria looked down at her breasts. ‘A bit more of a show than I was expecting, but damn I look good!’ She grinned as she looked back at her behind, happy with the way the catsuit showed off everything even if her mother would freak the fuck out if she wore anything like that in public. “Your turn.”

Amy opened her character sheet then dragged the cat suit over to her armor slot and dropped it, sending everything back to her inventory. She glanced down at the red cross that was provocatively positioned right between her breasts and split down the top because it wasn’t designed to zip up more than part way. “What the hell?”

“It’s meant to show those puppies off,” Victoria teased.

Myst closed his mouth, having to resist the urge to say something inappropriate.

“Well... I can’t argue with that,” Amy muttered as she tried to adjust it to cover her breasts a bit more but just ended up making them jiggle about. “Were they always this big or is it the suit?” she asked.

“A little bit of both,” Victoria said.

Amy gave up trying to adjust it and grabbed a nearby black robe, switching them out and relaxing as she was properly covered once more. “I need to lose some weight.”

“Not that I could tell,” Myst said without stopping to think about it.

“Yeah, and we were really looking,” Victoria agreed. “I didn’t see an ounce that wasn’t well placed.”  

Amy set the cat suit on the counter and tried not to blush. “I think I’ll stick with robes.”

Victoria tossed her costume back on, set the leather catsuit on top of Amy’s, and slid them both over toward Myst. “Might as well copy the pattern, they’re leather so it should help when we find something for you to actually make.”

“Fair enough,” Myst said with a slight smile as he tossed the catsuits into his salvage box to get the patterns. “Hopefully we can get a decent armored robe pattern from a drop or something because you need armor,” he told Amy.

“That would be nice...” Amy trailed off as Victoria floated up to grab the katana they had displayed on the top shelf and she realized her sister had forgotten to put her bike shorts back on. ‘I wonder how long that will take for her to notice?’

Myst blinked, trying and failing not to stare up Victoria’s skirt despite knowing she could smash him like a bug. ‘Damn, words don’t do that justice, Dean is a lucky bastard.’

Victoria scowled as she hit the glass and it didn’t break. “What the hell?”

“I’m guessing it’s either scenery or a lock pick challenge,” Myst offered as he pulled the lockpicks out of his inventory and tossed them to her.

“This should be fun,” Victoria said as she spun back around, not realizing that she’d just flashed the room. She snickered as she went to work, intent on proving that she was better than the stupid case.

Amy and Myst turned to make sure the other hadn’t noticed where they were both looking and met each other’s eyes before quickly finding something else to look at, namely Victoria.

Myst look a last look then decided to get back to work salvaging things as that was far safer than getting caught staring. 

Amy headed over to the robe section, while ‘coincidently’ facing her sister, glancing over occasionally to see how the challenge was going because she was curious and not because she had poor self control she assured herself. The fact that Myst was having the same problem was noticed.

She briefly wondered if the Iron Will globe was defective or if Victoria simply had an ass that deserved its own master rating. She had to smother a laugh at the thought. At Myst’s raised eyebrows she opened up a private chat and sent a text message of her thought to him. Normally she wouldn’t have shared it, but… she actually found herself considering him a friend despite the short time they’d known each other. 

Myst considered the text for a couple of seconds then decided what the hell and sent a reply, ‘I’m fairly sure her ass is naturally that nice, unless you’ve made some tweaks. If so, nice work?’ 

‘She’s the only member of the family that required barely anything done, so it’s not my handiwork,’ she sent back.

‘Lucky,’ Myst replied as he tossed a plastic shield into the salvage box. “How much do you think the PRT will freak if I walk in there without showing up on the cameras?”

“Probably more than you want,” Victoria replied as she worked on trying to open the case the sword was stored in. “Do you have an actual book on lockpicking?”

“I’ll put it on the list, have you gotten any points in lockpicking?” Myst asked curious if the case would be a decent way to train the skill.

“Three so far… make that four,” Victoria said as she picked up another point. “We should probably call it good for tonight, we’ve been out of contact for a bit and it’s getting late.”

“Probably,” Amy agreed, knowing she’d get blamed if she missed a call.

“On that note, I might as well face the music and deal with Armsmaster or at least talk to someone from the PRT so they don’t think I’m avoiding them,” Myst complained as he turned toward the door and started walking.

Victoria spun and floated over to the counter, giving Amy a nice show as she jumped off the counter then slowed herself a foot over the ground. “Let’s go.”

Amy quickly swapped to her underwear then pulled on her Panacea robes while no one was looking before following her sister out of the shop with a spring in her step.

Myst led the way into the alley. “Ready?”

“Ready….” Victoria trailed off as she checked her inventory to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything and noticed her shorts. She blushed as she glanced at her equipment page and realized that she didn’t have anything on under her costume. “I’ll be right back, I forgot something.” She walked back around the corner, careful not to flash Myst. ‘I’m just glad they didn’t notice.’

Amy couldn’t help her lips curving up into a smile once her sister had turned her back on her. ‘At least I won’t have to worry about someone taking a picture of her without her shorts,’ she sent to Myst.

‘Yeah, that sounds like something bad for PR even if it would improve your group’s popularity,’ Myst replied, relieved that he hadn’t had to mention that he’d noticed her missing shorts.

Victoria finished putting on her shorts then walked back around the corner and picked Amy up. “Ready?”

“Ready,” Amy agreed as she relaxed against her sister.

Myst broke the ID barrier, causing the sounds of the city to come back.

Victoria frowned slightly as her phone beeped, indicating several missed messages. “We should probably go before Mom comes looking for us.”

“Oops, looks like that’s my cue to leave,” Myst teased.

“You heartless fiend,” Amy said dryly as she checked her phone, noticing the missed call from Carol and a text from her asking her where they were. ‘At least it’s only five minutes old.’ She quickly sent a text back, ‘On our way home.’

“Have fun,” Victoria said as she floated over and kissed Myst on the cheek then flew up into the air and headed toward home.

‘You know, flying off to avoid embarrassment doesn't work well when we have a telepathic voice chat,’ Amy sent to the party chat.

‘Hush, I’m damn well going to try,’ Vicky replied.

‘And I’m going to let her,’ Myst sent as he headed toward the PRT at a sprint, wanting to work on his endurance.

‘You’re both dorks,’ Amy replied.

‘Yes but I’m a dork that has managed to out fly embarrassment,’ Victoria said proudly.

‘There are worse things,’ Myst replied then focused on running as fast as he could, which caused his stamina to take a nosedive after a block. He paused at the crosswalk then dashed across when the walk symbol came up and he checked both ways. ‘Last thing I need is to get hit by a car.’ 

Myst made it another two blocks before he took a shot to the arm that spun him around and sent him crashing to the ground painfully with half his hit points gone.