Myst in Worm (Gamer) Part 6 (Patreon)

Physical Endurance Skill increased by 1

“Fuck!” Myst rolled under a parked car and slipped into an empty ID barrier. He looked at his shoulder, rather happy that there wasn’t a bullet or anything lodged in his arm. “Fucker shot me.” He focused through the fading pain and cast soul recovery restoring his health back to full.

‘What happened?’ Taylor asked over the party chat.

‘Some asshole shot me!’ Myst replied as he turned his stranger ability all the way up so that people wouldn’t see him, less than amused by the amount of health he’d just lost because of getting shot.

‘Did you catch him?’ Taylor asked nervously.

‘Not yet,’ Myst replied as he crawled out from under the car then slipped out of the ID barrier. He scowled as he saw the street punk that had tried to kill him was waving the gun around looking around frantically. ‘You’re in the wrong business asshole.’

He stepped to the side then walked up the thug so that he could steal his gun without getting shot again. ‘Yoink!’ He smirked as the man’s gun appeared in his inventory. ‘Yoink!’ He scowled slightly as he stole the Merchant’s shirt, revealing sickly pale skin and causing the man to start swinging his arms around screaming.

“Jesus save me!” the man shouted as he swung at the air.

‘Any idea where that gunshot came from?’ Amy asked on the party chat.

Myst ignored the idiot’s comments as he stole his wallet then his pants.‘Yeah, just another Merchant trying to kill me,’ he replied to Amy as he took a step back so the man wouldn’t hit him with one of his wild swings.

‘Wow, did you piss in their cornflakes or something?’ Victoria asked as she listened for more gunshots.

Myst punched the thug in the temple as two cops rushed out of a donut shop, looking rather annoyed about their break getting interrupted. He glanced down at the collapsed idiot on the sidewalk then continued on his way as he replied, ‘Not that I know of.’ 

‘Work on your armor!’ Amy ordered, not wanting Myst to get hurt.

‘That’s next on my list, right after talking to Armsmaster,’ Myst replied as he continued jogging toward the PRT building. ‘I managed to drop him and leave him for the cops,’ Myst sent his mental message to Taylor.

‘Good, how much body armor do you have?’ Taylor asked in concern.

‘Apparently not enough, I’m going to have to upgrade my gear,’ Myst replied as he rounded the corner and saw the PRT building. ‘Have you figured out any more tricks?’ he sent to Taylor as he adjusted his stranger ability so that the sensors could detect him.

‘I’ve been reading signs with my bugs and trying not to go completely crazy. Any more suggestions?’ Taylor asked hopefully.

‘I suggest trying to map out the surrounding area with your bugs, it might help when you’re trying to map out a villain’s lair,’ Myst suggested as he opened his inventory and moved one of the spiral notebooks and a pen to the party inventory. ‘I dropped a notebook and pen in the party inventory, best of luck, I need to talk to the PRT about some crap.’

‘Thanks, I’ll see what I can find, drop me a line when you’re done?’ Taylor asked hopefully, more than a little bored with being stuck in her hospital room.

‘Sounds good,’ Myst replied as he walked toward the PRT building with his hands clearly visible, not wanting to give them a reason to foam him, considering he was wearing a mask and wasn’t a registered hero. 

He was rather glad that no one foamed him as he approached, though there were several agents inside the building that gave him some less than trusting looks as he walked up to the front desk and smiled at the receptionist. “Armsmaster was rather insistent that I talk to someone as soon as I had time. Please let him know the ghost guy from earlier is here.”

“Armsmaster is busy analyzing evidence, but Battery is on site. If you’ll take a seat, I’ll page her,” the receptionist offered.

“Sure, I have a couple minutes before I blow things off as a waste of time,” Myst replied then walked over and took a seat to wait for Battery to take the rest of his statement.

He was just about ready to get up and walk out the door seven minutes later when a woman wearing a skintight black costume with circuit like cobalt blue lines on it and a visor stepped out of the door leading further into the building, holding a tablet.

Battery glanced around the lobby then walked over to the obvious cape. “You wanted to see me?”

Myst shrugged. “Armsmaster wanted to follow up on the incident at Winslow, he was busy, you were available. I was hoping to get everything dealt with in a single visit.”

Battery gestured toward the elevators. “Right, let’s head to a conference room. I’ll text Armsmaster. If he shows up, he shows up, otherwise we can finish the report without him.”

“Sounds good,” Myst agreed as he followed her to the elevators. 

“So, what happened at Winslow?” Battery asked.

“I grabbed an upperclassman and they helped me remove a young woman from a locker filled with biological waste. Sophia aka Shadow Stalker, decided to try to stop us from getting the girl medical attention, which was when she revealed her powers. I’m sure there are a number of videos of the event floating around. That’s about the long and short of it.”

“And the fact that you seemed to be a ghost?” Battery asked as she pushed the button for the second floor.

“I’m assuming either someone used a power on me or possibly I was shot long distance with some tinkertech ray, as no tinkertech was found on my body and I haven’t been able to go incorporeal since.”

Battery checked the tablet and scanned Armsmaster’s report of the incident in question. “And the fact that you shouted out her identity?”

“She’s a bioterrorist, she stuffed a teenager into a locker filled with biological waste and I’m guessing she used her power to do it, considering the school is cheap enough to require the students bring their own padlocks, which means there is no way in hell she legitimately acquired the key. I was completely immaterial at the time and that was the only way I had to scare her off and protect her victim from being further assaulted or killed to remove her as a witness.”

“How did you know enough about Shadow Stalker to ID her that quickly?” Battery asked.

“Have you read PHO?” Myst asked a touch sarcastically. “There are a lot of details and guesses on there. Even ignoring the fact that one of her old pictures showed the skin around her eyes, there are only two people in Brockton Bay with shadow powers, Grue and Shadow Stalker and Grue is male and built like a tank.”

“And you weren’t worried about her attacking you?” Battery asked as she walked out of the elevator.

“I was the next best thing to a ghost at the time and I had no idea if she could hurt me, considering she could almost go ghost herself, but I couldn’t just stand aside and let her do god knows what to the poor girl in the locker,” Myst replied as he followed her off the elevator and into the first conference room. “Thankfully we appeared to be ghosting in completely different ways and couldn’t touch each other.”

“And now that you can’t ‘go ghost?” Battery asked, not believing he had no powers.

“I’m sort of hoping she’s in a holding cell and heading to prison for twenty to life for bioterrorism. If she comes after me, I’m going to do what any reasonable civilian would do, call the cops and hope they shoot her,” Myst replied. “I’m thinking I should probably get a gun myself, just in case.”

Battery frowned as she realized the man was serious. “That seems a bit harsh.”

“Did you miss the whole bioterrorism bit?” Myst asked half sarcastically.

“People are innocent until proven guilty.”

Myst opened his mouth to make a snide comment about Canary’s lawyer missing the memo then realized he wasn’t sure if that had actually happened yet. “Considering I witnessed her actions first hand and Sophia tried to stop anyone from rendering medical assistance to her victim, I’m inclined to assume she’s guilty as shit and a villain. If the PRT decides to protect her, I will be calling the national news about the local PRT branch that has obviously been mastered.”

“Falsifying police reports is a crime,” Battery warned, not having any better response and wondering if Mastering would explain some of the stupidity they had to deal with on a day to day basis from the higher ups.

“I’m not going to falsify anything, I’m just going to lay out the facts as I understand them to the news media, not file a police report for crimes I have no solid evidence of. The six o’clock news can spin it any way they want, I have no say in that and they have plenty of lawyers, they’ll figure out the exact wording needed to get the point across without committing any actionable crimes.”

“We could hold you as a material witness,” Battery noted, using one of the standard threats they used on Merchants to get them to cooperate. Of course since Ghost Guy didn’t appear to be going into withdrawals from anything she seriously doubted it would be effective.

“Considering both Glory Girl and Panacea knew I was coming in here to finish a report, trying to make me vanish might not be the best idea. Either way, you have to ask yourself, is Sophia Hess really worth the hassle?”

“Is that threat?” Battery asked, making a mental note that he was associated with New Wave in some fashion.

“No, it’s just a question.” He changed tactics. “I’m legally allowed to report what I see as crimes to the news or the appropriate government agency like the CDC, if I have enough evidence to warrant it. Sure, they might tell me that cleaning the entire area with bleach is sufficient, but I’d expect that idiot to be fired as that was barely acceptable in high school biology to clean up experiments, much less the mess I saw.” He realized he was getting off track. “Are there any actual questions or am I free to go?”

“How do we contact you if this goes to trial?” Battery asked.

“Considering I don’t have a phone number to leave with you, the best way is to contact Victoria Dallon, she can get a message to me.”

“As in Glory Girl?” Battery asked, wanting him to elaborate on the connection between him and New Wave.

“Yep, nice girl,” Myst replied with a grin, saying nothing else and ignoring her fishing for information.

“And the tinkertech that might have caused your out of body experience?” she asked, rolling her eyes behind her visor, knowing he couldn’t see it, even if the sarcasm was audible.

“If you find it, it would be great at parties, just don’t let your body wander off. Joking aside, I don’t know what caused my ghost state. It might have been tinkertech or it might have been a power, but neither of them were mine.” Myst tried not to scowl as the door opened and Armsmaster walked in carrying a stack of paperwork. ‘I really need to grind my luck stat.’

Armsmaster dropped the NDAs on the table. “The director wants you to sign these.”

Myst glanced at the contracts. “Why would I be signing anything?” 

“Because you outed a Ward, you’re lucky we’re not tossing you in prison,” Armsmaster said flatly, comparing a visual scan of the parahuman in front of him with the sensor data he’d recorded at the highschool.

“Last I checked, Brockton Bay was still located in the United States of America where freedom of speech is a thing and I’m not sure which laws you’re claiming I broke, I have yet to be told of any laws concerning secret identities that apply to civilians. As for the unwritten rules, that’s a cape problem, so not one I have to concern myself with.”

“And the danger to her family?” Armsmaster snapped, annoyed that the young man wasn’t treating things as seriously as he should.

Myst shrugged. “I have every expectation that you moved her family before any of Sophia’s various enemies could track them down. Just because I suspect she was a criminal hiding out as a ward without your knowledge doesn’t mean I expect you personally to be incompetent at your job. Now if that’s everything, I’m done. You can either let me call a lawyer and charge me or let me go. I suggest letting me go as I don’t fall under your purview.”

“Why are you wearing a mask if you’re not a cape?” Armsmaster asked.

“I’m wearing a mask because Sophia ‘fucking’ Hess is a psychopath and I’d rather not have my name or location floating around your computers for her to find, so that she can come attempt to kill me while I sleep.”

“And you don’t trust our computer security?” Armsmaster demanded sounding offended.

“I trust the PRT to cover their own ass which you’ve already tried to do,” Myst said as he gestured at the NDAs. “I’m not signing anything without a lawyer. Besides, last I checked the PRT and the Protectorate were supposed to fight parahuman criminals like Hess, not protect them.”

Armsmaster frowned slightly as he studied the young man in front of him, despite his claims of not being a cape, he was far too relaxed about the entire situation to not have a parahuman ability to fall back on. “Fine, how do we contact you if we have more questions?”

“I don’t currently have a phone, which means the best way to contact me is to contact Victoria Dallon, she knows how to get a hold of me,” Myst replied, knowing Glory Girl was a trusted hero, so she was a good choice for a point of contact.

“We’ll contact you if your testimony is needed,” Armsmaster said, “in the meantime please do not make any public statements about the events in question until after her trial. Battery, would you please escort him out of the building?” he requested, knowing that he didn’t actually have any leverage to force him to sign anything, no matter what the director would like and knowing that this was about the best he could expect at this time. 

“Let’s go,” Battery said as she headed out of the door.

Myst resisted the urge to smirk at Armsmaster as he followed Battery out of the door, being careful not to touch anything as he didn’t want to leave any fingerprints. ‘That could have gone a lot worse. At least Armsmaster was fairly reasonable.’ He kept his mouth shut as they rode the elevator back down to the lobby.

“He’s usually a lot more personable, he’s had a hard day,” Battery lied.

“I actually managed to misplace my body and found it in a morgue,” Myst pointed out as she escorted him out of the building, “pretty sure that tops anything he might have gone through today.”

“You should try avoiding that in the future and stay out of trouble,” Battery suggested, suddenly having the urge to go check on Ethan and make sure he wasn’t getting into any trouble.

“If it happens again I’ll stop by for help,” Myst said as he started walking away from the PRT building. He waited until he was around a corner and out of the PRT building’s line of sight then adjusted his stranger rating so that people paid less attention to him than they might otherwise and electronics would ignore his existence.  

‘Okay, that should help.’ He tried to relax and not glance around like an idiot as he walked down the sidewalk. He glanced suspiciously at the white van on the other side of the street that was supposed to be a work van, not sure if he was being paranoid or if the van belonged to the PRT. ‘Take a breath and chill, you aren’t important enough for the PRT to tail, at least not as far as they know.’ He relaxed slightly as the man in the driver’s seat got out of the car. ‘Yeah, he’s shorter than I am and weighs three hundred pounds, probably just a plumber.’

‘You’re going to drive yourself insane if you don’t relax,’ Myst thought to himself as he walked down the street, enjoying the sounds of the city and the lights. He sighed as he saw a man in his early twenties grab a woman’s purse and start running in his general direction, pushing people out of the way as the woman shouted for someone to stop the thief. ‘Less than two blocks from the PRT building and you’re purse snatching, yeah, that’s a fucking Darwin award.’

Myst waited until the man was almost to him then reached out and punched him in the stomach, dropping him to the ground gasping for breath and causing him to drop the purse. He walked over and grabbed the gun the idiot had stuffed in his back pocket then opened his Abyss auction account and dropped the gun into the instant cash box. ‘One less piece of crap on the street.’

He winced slightly as a man in his twenties jumped on the mugger with his knee going right into the man’s kidney. ‘Yeah, that level of precision had to be intentional.’ 

“Don’t move asshole,” the man kneeling on the mugger said as he painfully wrenched his right arm behind his back and pinned it there.

‘Yeah, definitely intentional,’ Myst mused to himself as he watched a woman in her twenties rush over and grab the purse then hand it to the owner of the purse as she came running over. He winced slightly as a middle aged man dressed like a construction worker walked over and pinned the guy’s other wrist by stepping on it when the man started to struggle. ‘That will leave a mark.’

“Stop struggling and wait for the cops, it will hurt less,” the middle aged man said as he pulled the mugger’s cell phone out of his pocket and dialed the cops.

“Fuck you!” the mugger shouted as she struggled wildly. “Kaiser will fuck you up!”

The construction worker stomped on the thief’s ribs as hard as he could, which caused several of them to break and a couple more to crack.

‘Wrong thing to say,’ Myst thought as the mugger shrieked in agony.

The man waited until the thief stopped screaming in agony. “My grandfather fought Nazis in the War, you’re nothing but street trash.” He brought the phone to his ear. “Yes, I’d like to report an injured mugger on the corner of 5th, less than a block from the PRT.”

‘Note to self, pick up a sleep spell and some zip ties.’ Myst turned and kept walking as the group seemed to have things well in hand and he really didn’t care what happened to anyone stupid enough to join the Empire 88 or claim membership in an attempt to scare people off. He flipped over to the spells section of the Abyss auction, wanting to see if there was anything useful on sale. It didn’t take him all that long to realize that all the spells he wanted were nearly as expensive as buying a small car, which meant he was going to have to hit a stash house or something of decent value if he wanted enough money to afford much of anything.

He blinked as he found a fifty dollar journal that promised to teach the user a spell to turn rats into gremlins. “Warning, the resulting gremlins can breed… Yeah, that can’t possibly end well,” Myst muttered as he bought the book, wanting to see what he could get from the spell when he scribed it a bunch.

Myst frowned slightly as he saw a bike chained to a fence. ‘That would be so much easier.’ He shifted to an empty ID barrier then walked over to the bike. ‘Can you toss the lockpicks into the party inventory?’ he sent the message to Victoria.

‘Sure, give me a second,’ Victoria replied as she opened her inventory and looked for the lockpicks. ‘What are you stealing?’ she teased.

‘Nothing, I’m borrowing a bike in an ID barrier.’ He grinned as he grabbed the lockpicks from the party inventory slot then went to work on the cheap looking padlock. ‘Thanks.’

‘No worries, I don’t have any locks to practice with right now. Did you know that being in a party makes doing math homework stupid quick?’ Victoria asked excitedly.

‘How quick are we talking about?’ Myst asked as he continued working on unlocking the padlock.

‘Seconds a page, which is pretty damned fast,’ Victoria said happily.

‘Nice,’ Myst agreed as the padlock opened, netting him a third point in lockpicking. ‘Nothing like skipping the drudge work.’

‘Speaking of drudgework, I figured out how to turn tap water into pure water with my crafting menu,’ Amy added, rather happy about her new ability.

‘Not to mention destroy a can of soda,’ Victoria added.

‘What happened?’ Myst asked as he pulled the padlock off the chain and dropped it in his salvage box.

‘My crafting ability ate the can when I tried to extract the essence of bubbles from the soda,’ Amy explained.

‘Did you get any crafting or science experience?’ Myst asked as he pulled the chain off the bike and dropped it in his salvage box.

‘I’m a third of the way toward a level of something judging by the experience bar.’

‘I’m still annoyed that I didn’t get a crafting skill,’ Victoria complained.

‘I’m sure you’ll end up with something interesting,’ Myst offered, not sure why Amy had ended up with a crafting skill while Victoria hadn’t. He moved his endless keg of root beer into the party inventory. ‘I have an endless keg of root beer, I suggest grabbing a stack of plastic cups and going to town with your crafting ability.’

‘Where did you get an endless keg of root beer?’ Victoria asked in disbelief.

‘It came with my powers,’ Myst replied with amusement as he rolled the bike back and forth to make sure it worked.

‘That’s complete bullshit and is going to go well with the vanilla ice cream in the freezer,’ Victoria snarked as she looked at the endless keg of high end root beer sitting ‘innocently’ in the party inventory.

‘We have a bunch of cups in the garage, this is going to be awesome,’ Amy replied as she headed for the garage to acquire a couple stacks of cups so that she could continue her experiments.

Myst swung his leg over the bike seat and headed down the street, happy that he didn’t have to dodge any pedestrians.