Projections in Worm Part 3 (Patreon)

Taylor wasn't sure if she should laugh or cry as she looked at her projection, her black work boots and blue overalls weren't horrible though they clashed with her sheer silk shirt and the combination made her pigtails look weird though that might have something to do with the fact that they were tied up with pink shoelaces. "You're trying for a naughty construction worker look, aren't you?"

Myst grinned as he bounced on the balls of his feet, causing 'his' breasts to bounce, fairly sure he'd nailed the distraction part of his costume right. "Not really, I found the overalls in a chest and my hair kept getting in the way so I figured I'd tie it up."

"Why pigtails?" Taylor asked as she slipped out of bed.

"I got bored waiting for you to wake up," Myst replied as he wandered around the room looking for spiders or bugs.

Taylor glanced at her clock. "Apparently I needed the sleep."

"No worries, I'll just have to get a Game Boy or something." Myst grinned as he spotted a spider above the closet.

Taylor glanced at Myst's boots which certainly weren't her father's old work boots. "Did you get anything special?"

"You mean like boots that let me walk on water or fly?" Myst teased as he grabbed the empty plastic cup off Taylor's desk and walked over to grab the spider.

"Or run faster or jump higher," Taylor suggested, wondering what Myst was doing. "What are you doing with the spider?"

"Testing a theory," Myst replied as he knocked the spider into the cup. "My boots let me jump a foot higher which doesn't sound like much but it's a start. I'm hoping they get better if we clear enough monsters."

"Anything else?" Taylor asked.

"I picked up some new boots that should fit your father and a couple pairs of socks that we can probably slip into his dresser without him even noticing," he said as he walked back over to the desk. "I also picked up tennis shoes that should boost your speed by ten percent and might function as armor."

Taylor raised her eyebrows. "Armor?"

Myst set the cup upside down on the desk. "It's probably because we started with steel toed boots but they have an armor rating which is a bit weird considering they feel squishy and soft."

"Does that mean Dad's boots are armored?" Taylor asked excitedly, thinking they might help keep him safer.

Myst shook his head. "No more than the old ones. I got our boots off the last boss which is probably why they're better."

"What was the last boss like?" Taylor asked, curious what he'd ended up fighting.

"A scary guy with a length of pipe," Myst replied, not seeing a point in mentioning that the boss had looked a bit like her father and was nastier than the gremlins by a fair amount.

"What are you doing with the spider?" Taylor asked.

"How do you feel about killing spiders?" Myst asked as he picked up one of her books and handed it to her.

"I normally just put them outside, why?" Taylor asked as she took the book.

"Because I might be able to give you a minor brute rating but you'll have to smash the spider," Myst explained.

Taylor stared at her projection for a couple of seconds. "Objection withdrawn but you should probably explain."

"I can bundle powers and hand them out, I can also get stronger by killing things. If I hand my strength and durability to the spider and let you borrow my ability to get stronger by killing things, you should be able to permanently increase your strength, at least in theory," Myst explained his plan.

"Won't that just make you weaker?" Taylor asked, not seeing the point in being stronger if it would cripple her projection.

"I get the powers back if the creature I'm loaning them to dies," Myst explained as he packaged the part of his kill things ability that he didn't have locked down and loaned it to Taylor.

"Worst case, it doesn't work, right?" Taylor asked as she looked at the spider under the cup.

"Pretty much, yeah. You're going to want to hit it as hard as you can to make sure it dies. Ready?" Myst asked, wanting to make sure she was on the ball as the spider would probably be tough to squash.

Taylor took a step closer and got a better grip of her book. "Ready."

Myst gave the spider most of his strength and some of his 'durability' then pulled the cup off, finding it harder than it should be to even stand. [Now!]

Taylor brought the book down on the spider as hard as she could, wanting to make sure she killed it.

Danny cursed when the bang upstairs caused him to jump and he spilled coffee on his hand. "Are you okay?" he called out.

"Sorry! It was just a spider!" Taylor called out after checking to make sure the spider was sufficiently smashed.

Danny shook his head and walked over to the kitchen sink to wash his hand off, glad that he hadn't gotten his sleeve. 'It must have gotten too close.'

[Can I borrow your power to sense powers?] Taylor asked, swapping to their mental communication now that she realized her father hadn't left for work yet.

Myst loaned Taylor his ability to get a mental list of powers. [Sure.]

Taylor smiled when she checked her mental list and realized that she was stronger than she should be. [I'm not anywhere near an actual Brute but I'm certainly stronger than I should be.]

[How much stronger?] Myst asked, mind spinning through possibilities and plans for the future.

[I can pick up just over five hundred pounds but it's going to hurt. I should be fine with anything less than two hundred.] Taylor walked over and tilted the desk up with one hand, surprised at how easy it felt.

[Yeah, that was my fault, I wanted to make sure you could actually kill the spider. We should be able to fix it once we can find another bug], Myst replied with a grin.

Taylor stared at her projection as her mind ground to a halt. [Does this mean you can turn people into capes?]

Myst smiled as he leaned against the desk. [Apparently. We'll have to see if we can do some horse trading with some of the other capes now that we know we don't have to kill them.]

[Wouldn't that cause a lot of attention?] Taylor asked warily, setting the book back on the desk.

[Eventually but if we do it right, we should be able to make some deals pick up some powers before anyone in charge realizes that we're up to. Besides, nothing says we have to admit that you're my human or that we're even connected], Myst pointed out.

Taylor sighed. [The PRT has Thinkers, they'll figure it out.]

[I might have a way to avoid that to a certain extent but yeah, eventually we're going to screw up and someone is going to notice. By making some deals, we can get more powers. I'm sure we can trade Glory Girl some powers or enhanced clothes for a copy of her shield, especially if we're willing to share it with Panacea], Myst suggested, almost certain Glory Girl would go for it if it meant keeping her sister safe.

[How would you get a copy? She's an Alexandria package.]

[We just tell her to make sure there's a weak point, like yellow objects can make it through the shield then we just do it twice], Myst replied with a grin. 'Technically, we'd just have to hit it twice in a row with enough force but I'd rather not explain how I know that.'

[It might work but she might tell the PRT about you], Taylor pointed out.

[I doubt it, she's not her mother and even if she tells them, it's not a crime to hand out powers. Besides, we probably only need a week or two to get set up to the point where we don't have to worry about most capes.]

[What about the Slaughterhouse Nine?] Taylor asked, fairly sure her projection was underselling the problems they were going to run into. [If they hear about a cape that can hand out powers, they're going to show up, same with Heartbreaker, especially since you look like a movie star.]

[They've lost plenty of members over the years and it's not like the Siberian can permanently kill me, we'll just have to be careful for a bit until we can collect what we need. Which reminds me, we should make a deal with Purity], Myst mused.

[You want to make a deal with a Nazi?] Taylor asked in disbelief.

[To be fair, she's not a Nazi. It's been sixty plus years since the Nazi party disbanded, at worst she's a bigot and a woman that was trying and failing to deal with the gangs before Kaiser recruited her.]

[They're still horrible and she joined them], Taylor complained.

[Do I think joining the Empire was the right call, no I don't but honestly, I can understand her frustration, the Protectorate wasn't dealing with Lung which meant the ABB were basically free to kidnap and enslave people. Besides, she's been trying to get away from the Empire for months, if she's part of the solution, maybe we can keep a high tier blaster around for the next endbringer fight and make sure she doesn't show up to help the Empire out when we go after them], Myst explained his reasoning.

[Ignoring Purity for a second, Lung fought Leviathan to a standstill and defeated the Protectorate when they fought, what makes you think we'd have a better chance?] Taylor demanded.

[We actually want to win and we're not waiting for him to escalate. The Protectorate is well known, we're not. If I walk into their territory in a costume that covers my hair and face and claim to be Asian, they'll probably take me to Oni-Lee or Lung if I can prove that I have powers that don't match any of the locals or well known capes.]

[And then you get set on fire or blown up?] Taylor asked, fairly sure her projection didn't understand how dangerous Lung was.

[As long as Lung isn't expecting a fight, I should be able to get the drop on him and he's not durable enough to survive if you blast his head off before he ramps up], Myst argued, fairly sure that a shotgun slug to the head would deal with Lung before he ramped up.

Taylor sighed. [You're talking about straight up murdering him.]

[He's a rapist or at least he makes it so his people can get away with it, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.] Myst pulled Taylor's dark red tennis shoes and Danny's old boots out of the purse and set them on the desk.

[That doesn't mean the PRT wouldn't use it as an excuse to try to arrest us], Taylor argued.

[With any luck, they won't have anything to connect the dots to us. Worst case, I'll admit that I sold powers to an Asian girl with a grudge against the ABB. I doubt they'll look into it all that hard.]

[Or we could just leave the rage dragon alone], Taylor pointed out.

[I wish we could, but we're basically Tinkers, we make gear that is better than it should be which means the gangs are going to try to recruit us by any means necessary including taking hostages or threatening to blow up the city if we don't work for them. Do you really think the ABB or Yangbang would let a little thing like not actually being Asian stop them from trying to recruit us or the Chinese?]

Taylor flipped the mental switch and de-summoned Myst when her father knocked on the door. "What's up?" she asked, trying not to look like she was hiding anything.

"I was just checking on you before I headed to work, did you kill the spider?" Danny asked, wishing he didn't have to deal with a couple important contracts but he'd already pushed one of them back thanks to the locker so he didn't want to push things further or let someone else deal with it unless he absolutely had to.

Taylor glanced at the smear on the desk then walked over and opened the door. "I got it, sorry about the noise."

Danny felt some of the tension in his chest ease once he realized that she hadn't been crying and that she wasn't letting the locker crush her. "It's fine, I was just surprised. Are you going to be okay?"

[You should mention going to the library], Myst suggested, figuring this wasn't a case of it being better to ask forgiveness than permission.

"I'll be fine, I'm going to catch up on reading and maybe go to the library later if that won't give you a heart attack," Taylor said, hoping he didn't make her stay in the house all day.

Danny checked his watch and realized that he had enough time to drop her off. "Do you want a lift?"

"That would be great, I'll be out in a second," Taylor replied, figuring she'd take a shower when they got back.

"I'll start the car," Danny said as he turned and left, glad that his daughter seemed to be doing better. 'Probably just as well she didn't tell me before, I'd have decked Alan.'

[Can I talk you into working on my shoes?] Taylor asked, causing the door and walking over to her dresser.

[Sure], Myst replied, looking forward to seeing how far he could push the shoes.

Taylor flipped the mental switch and sent him into her new tennis shoes. [Why does it look like a race track?]

[No idea], Myst replied as he glanced around the stadium and noticed the random people running on the track armed with various sports related equipment. [At least I won't be bored], he said cheerfully as he pulled his sword out of the purse.

[Good], Taylor replied as she worked on getting changed.

0o0o0

[Shouldn't this be more accurate?] Myst complained as he glanced over the page filled with wild guesses about the local capes.

[It's not like villains advertise their powers and techniques], Taylor pointed out as she glanced over the book on sewing costumes.

[Fair enough but everyone has to know that Armsmaster doesn't have a blaster rating for stench], Myst complained.

[Do you realize it's a wiki, right? Anyone that wants to edit it, can, including you], Taylor pointed out as she put the book back on the shelf, not interested in making knock off copies of official hero costumes.

[Yeah but that means I'd have to fix it], Myst replied, glad that at least some of the saner guesses matched what he remembered with the exception of Gallant's entry but that fit with the PRT's cover story so he was fairly sure he wasn't a tinker.

[You're the one complaining], Taylor replied as she grabbed another costume book and started looking through it for ideas.

[Curse your fiendish logic], Myst replied with amusement.

[You're the weirdest projection I've ever heard of.]

[Thank you], Myst replied as he flipped back to the parahuman online page and scanned over the thread, looking for theories and thoughts on 'his' appearance. He wasn't particularly surprised to find a lot of speculation and that Void Cowboy had been banned over the fact that he'd said some stuff he shouldn't have, mostly speculating on cape identities, namely his.

Taylor sighed. [I'm not sure it was a complement.]

[I'm choosing to take it as one.] Myst briefly considered sending a thank you message to Void for posting a gif of Sophia getting hauled away by the cops but figured it would be in poor taste and might encourage him to respond.

[We should probably save that, just to make sure it's archived], Taylor suggested as she put the book back on the shelf.

[If you want, I could break her legs?] Myst offered, half seriously.

[Don't tempt me], Taylor replied, wondering how it would feel to take a baseball bat to the bitch's knees. [A hero is supposed to be better than that.]

[I'm not a hero, I'm just support staff], Myst said playfully.

[The answer is still no, she's not worth it], Taylor argued, not quite sure she was arguing on Sophia 'Fucking' Hess' behalf. She didn't even have the excuse of her parents thinking worse of her if she didn't, her mother would probably have already grabbed the baseball bat and dealt with the problem.

[Fair enough.] Myst figured they could always revisit the issue if the PRT couldn't clean up their mess. [Oh, hey power speculation. I'm supposed to be a Brute because I picked you up and a breaker because I got you out of the locker, that's better than I was expecting.]

[I'm sure they'll change their minds by tonight], Taylor said as she headed towards the exit. [I'm done looking through the sewing books, are you ready to go?]

[I want to check on the Boston capes and do a bit more research into the gang territory and where to find Lung. Let me know before you hit four blocks and I'll head to the bathroom or wander outside.] Myst was fairly sure he was being overly paranoid about being seen in the same place but he really didn't want more connections to Taylor's civilian identity but at the same point, he wanted to make sure that his 'knowledge' of the setting wasn't going to get him in trouble.

[Sure], Taylor replied, looking forward to getting her costume together so Myst could start improving it.

'Now I just have to figure out how to get in touch with the Travelers without Taylor asking too many questions which is going to require finding evidence of Noelle's problems. This would be a lot easier if I had Lisa's contact information,' he grumbled as he ran a search for strange events in Boston and started trying to sort through the information.

0o0o0

Myst glanced away from the window of the cafe as a sketchy looking long haired guy in his twenties walked over. "Not interested."

"You don't even know what I was going to ask," the man replied with a grin.

Myst took a sip of his hot chocolate as he studied the man. "Let me rephrase that, I'm probably not interested."

He gestured towards the girl in her late teens that was sitting down at a table with only one chair. "Relax, I was just going to ask if I could grab the chair because my sister stole mine or if you were saving it for someone."

"Go for it," Myst replied as he turned back to look at the street, watching the dealer across the street that he very much wanted to slap the crap out of for having no sense of style or self preservation. [Shouldn't the dealer at least try to look normal?]

"Thanks," the man replied, grabbing the other chair and hauling it over to the other table.

[I'm fairly sure the cops are too overworked and underpaid to care about a guy that might be causing trouble], Taylor replied as she studied the possibly broken Game Boy that was marked five dollars. [Should I grab the Game Boy Advance? It's only five bucks which means it's probably broken or at least suspect but it might be worth trying to fix it.]

[It's worth a shot.] Myst smiled as the dealer looked up and started running like the hounds of hell were after him. He popped the top of his cup and drained the hot chocolate on his way out of the cafe that 'just happened' to be in Glory Girl's patrol area. He tossed the empty cup into the trash bin. [Can you pop me to the other side of the street?]

[Sure], Taylor replied, resummoning Myst across the street in front of the gang member that was running for his life from the flying cape that was 'lazily' flying after him.

"Hi!" Myst said cheerfully, causing the dealer to dodge sideways and trip. "Ouch, do you need medical attention?"

"I give up!" the dealer shouted, freezing in place after making sure his hands weren't near any pockets.

Victoria flew down and landed near the man on the ground. "What did I tell you about selling drugs?"

"Don't?" the man blurted, his heart racing as he started up at Victoria in terror.

"Exactly, I suggest turning yourself in to the cops," Victoria suggested, knowing there wasn't much else she could do thanks to the way the vigilante laws worked considering he hadn't taken a shot at her.

"Okay!" the man shouted as he scrambled to his feet and took off running.

Victoria watched him for a couple of seconds then turned to look at Myst. "Teleporter?"

"Grab bag," Myst replied with a grin. "I was sort of expecting him to struggle."

"There's not much I can do unless I actually catch him doing something illegal other than make my presence known. You're the cape that rescued the girl, right?" Victoria asked, having seen the video a couple of times as a bunch of people had been playing it during lunch. "No mask?"

Myst shrugged. "No real point, especially after yesterday."

"You realize not having a mask causes problems, right?" Victoria asked.

"I'm aware, it's just sort of hard to put the genie back in the bottle so I figured I'd make the most of it."

"Does that mean you're going to join the Protectorate?" Victoria asked.

"Nope, too many rules and not enough freedom. I don't need people telling me what to do or how to do it or thinking that I'm their attack puppy," Myst explained.

"Are you a brute? You should be wearing armor if you're not," Victoria suggested, digging for more information about the cape.

"Ish?" Myst replied, holding his thumb and index finger a centimeter apart. "Not enough to keep me safe but I'm stronger than most bodybuilders, so eh, that probably counts, right?"

"Probably Brute 0 or 1," she suggested. "Anything else?"

"You mean like the ability to give people fantastic powers? That would be nice, wouldn't it?"

"That's not a no," Victoria pointed out, noticing her smirk.

"That depends, are you asking for yourself or the Protectorate?" Myst asked, wanting to make sure she wasn't going to rat him out.

Victoria considered the question for a couple of seconds. "Myself."

"Technically, I'm probably a low level Breaker and a Trump of yes."

"As in yes you are a Trump?" Victoria asked.

"No, as in I copy powers, permanently which pretty much makes me a bullshit Trump that the Protect would want to lock up in a gilded cage."

"Are you saying you copied my powers?" Victoria asked defensively, taking a step back without even realizing it.

"No, I can only copy people or monsters by killing them unless I use a work around but that requires willing help and some shenanigans," Myst explained quickly.

"Such as?" Victoria asked.

"Basically, I need someone to lend their powers to an insect then I kill the insect and get a copy of their powers," Myst replied.

"How does that work?" Victoria asked. "Most people can't lend their powers out."

[Are you sure you should be explaining everything?] Taylor asked warily.

[Not really but trust has to start somewhere and she's a hero.] Myst shrugged. "I have a power that lets me lend powers to people and I can loan part of it to people so they can loan their ability to people or bugs."

"How many powers have you collected?" Victoria asked warily.

"None but I've made someone a minor Brute using this method," Myst replied, hoping Victoria wasn't going to screw him over. "Tell you what, how would you like to be able to phase through walls?"

"I'm listening," Victoria replied with a grin.