Taylor and the Twisted Game Part 25 (Patreon)

"Shit!" Hijack cursed and fumbled the glass jar container she was making when her least favorite host vanished from her senses.

Alec pulled his attention away from the enchanting book he was reading and focused on his puppet/power. "What's wrong?"

"I might have screwed up," Hijack admitted a touch sheepishly.

Alec glanced between the broken jar and the girl his power was puppeting, noticing that she wasn't even looking at the jar which meant it was probably something else. "How?"

"I was 'encouraging' your siblings to come visit so they'd get some of their mental damage fixed, your father got annoyed that they were trying to escape and followed them," Hijack admitted.

"Great," Alec muttered sarcastically then grinned when he realized it was an opportunity. "Where is he?"

"I don't," Hijack paused when her connection with Nikos snapped back into focus, "scratch that, he's in the mage tower in Stormwind."

Aisha glanced up from the rune she was scribing in a notebook. "Isn't that where Noelle was going?"

"Yeah, this is going to be a mess," Alec grumbled as he opened a void portal to Stormwind.

"Do you need help?" Taylor asked through the minion that was working on cutting gems.

Alec glanced over at Skitter's minion. "Do you have a dark cell we can toss someone in and throw away the key?"

"How dark?" she asked, thinking of the places she'd built to contain people.

"Dark enough for Heartbreaker," Alec replied, then stepped through the portal.

[Sorry], Hijack offered then jumped after her host.

"Lovely," the puppet muttered. {Admin, we might have a problem, can you swing by Stormwind and deal with Hijack's other host before he screws up Noelle's friends?}

[On my way], Admin replied as she took another picture of the frozen waterfall then stuck her camera in her inventory and opened a portal to Stormwind.

0o0o

"Excuse me, are you stupid or just unlocky?" Cherie asked as she walked up behind the man that was threatening a group of new players that happened to include her sister.

Ralph turned to glare at the girl that had just called him stupid and paused when he saw her expensive looking silk dress that clung to her curves. "What's your damage?"

"You're picking on my sister," Cherie replied with a smirk.

"And you want me to stop?" Ralph asked with amusement that faded to concern when he glanced up and realized the blood elf was level thirty seven.

"Nope, I just wanted," Cherie smirked as one of her sister's blasts hit the man in the back causing him to collapse to the ground in pain, "to watch you scream."

Jess twitched as the man's screaming turned into a sickening mix of pain and pleasure as the blood elf girl they'd left the tower with walked over and started kicking the man in the nuts between blasts of her power that left weird afterimages of twisted lines. "Lovely."

Luke pulled his attention off the attractive elf's behind that her burlap sack was failing to cover and looked at his friend. "I can't say he didn't deserve it."

Cherie glanced between the muscular man that she wouldn't mind taking for a test spin and the attractive red haired blood elf in a burlap sack. "He shouldn't have started shit he can't finish." She turned to look at her sister. "Do you want a knife?"

"Maybe later," Aroa said as she glanced around the courtyard. "Shouldn't the guards have come to investigate?"

"Nah, they're busy murdering everyone," Cherie replied with a smirk as she got another level thanks to her temporary minions killing some players and her player killing perk taking effect.

"Lovely," Marissa muttered as she glanced around, wondering where they were supposed to go next. She stared when she saw Noelle floating down from the tower, looking like a blue skinned version of her old self with pointy ears. "Hey."

Cherie frowned when she realized she couldn't manipulate the new girl's mind. "Weird."

Noelle grinned as she dropped the last twenty feet to the ground then stepped forward and pulled Marissa into a hug. "It's good to see you!"

"Are you okay?" Marissa asked in surprise, not used to her friend hugging her.

Oliver stared at Noelle when he noticed that her skin was touching Marissa and she wasn't creating an evil clone. "Do you think your power will stay fixed once you leave?"

"It should," Noelle replied with a grin as she started pulling clothes out of her inventory for her friends. "A friend managed to fix it."

"It's so nice to have competent help," Nikos said as he walked out of the tower and tried to use his power on the high level girl with the gear.

Cherie pulled a knife out of her sleeve and buried it up to the hilt in her father's neck, killing him instantly thanks to the sheer amount of damage her level thirty dagger caused. "So much for enjoying my vacation without the asshole showing up."

"No shit," Alec said sarcastically as he walked up with Hijack. "Oddly satisfying though. Nice to see you're having fun Aroa."

Aroa turned and looked at the stranger. "Jean-Paul?" she asked, recognizing her brother's sarcastic tone of voice.

"Close enough," Alec replied with a smirk.

Luke glanced between the strangers then focused on Noelle. "Friends of yours?"

"Alec and I are in the same guild," Noelle replied as she opened a void portal to the mansion. "We should probably skip town before the guards get here."

Cherie stared at her brother's guild tag in surprise. "You're in the Mages of the Apocalypse?"

"Wings started it and the name doesn't suck," Alec replied with a smirk.

"How the hell did you defeat the Lich King?" Cherie demanded.

"Leet has a plasma rifle and Clockblocker is a badass," Alec replied with a smirk as he walked over and securely tied a blindfold over his father's eyes, not seeing a reason to admit that he wasn't there.

"He's just going to come back," Cherie complained as she glanced back at her father, torn between wanting to kill him a couple more times and never wanting to see him again.

"Eventually," Alec replied as he shoved his father in his inventory. "I've got about thirty minutes to find a place to dump his body."

Oliver shook his head. "That's cold."

"He had it coming," Alec replied at the same time as Cherie and Hijack.

Cherie turned to look at Hijack. "I recognize my brother, why can't I feel anything from you?"

Hijack smirked as she let Cherie feel her amusement. "Because you're a naughty girl that needs regular spankings."

Cherie glanced between the new girl and her brother, wondering how she'd blocked her powers. "Interesting friends."

Alec laughed as he reached out and ruffled Hijack's hair. "That's one way to put it."

Hijack turned to look at Admin as she walked out of the shadows. "Can I torch the connection with Nikos?"

Admin sent Hijack the permissions she needed to restrict Heartbreaker's powers. [That should work, just in case you want to keep tabs on him.]

Hijack turned Nikos' powers off. "Thanks, that should prevent Nikos from causing trouble with his powers."

Cherie stared at Hijack. "Seriously?"

"I don't appreciate people screwing with my hosts, you're mine," Hijack said cheerfully then turned and walked through the portal to the mansion.

"Hosts?" Marissa asked, wishing she had a better idea what was going on.

Noelle shook her head. "I'll explain at the mansion."

"Where are you dumping him?" Cherie asked, wanting to make sure it was somewhere unpleasant.

"In a hole…" Alec trailed off as his father's corpse vanished and everyone heard and saw a system message, [User: Heartbreaker deleted, account deleted for being a threat to the stability of the realm!]

"What the hell?" Luke sputtered.

[Hey! No killing my hosts] Hijack complained when her connection to Nikos snapped, depriving her of the possibility of collecting future data from that aspect of her powers.

[Is he dead?] Admin asked.

[Unfortunately, I wanted to check to see if he could influence demons], Hijack complained as she headed back over to the glass blowing workstation they'd set up.

[Status?] Admin asked Solaris, Projection and Thrust, wondering why they weren't talking.

[Hello! Can you fix my network connection?] Solaris asked Admin hopefully.

[Have you seen Gestalt's host?] Projection asked.

[Sorry], Admin replied to Projection then looked at Marissa and sent a reply to Solaris, [Send me your network permissions and settings and I'll see if I can fix it.]

Solaris quickly sent Queen Administrator her files and settings, hoping she could fix the problem so she'd have someone to talk to.

[Give me a minute], Admin replied as she started looking through the corrupted files to see if she could fix them.

Alec briefly considered telling his sister to fuck off before deciding that he needed information about the rest of his family. "Let's go."

"Did he at least leave a body we can piss on?" Cherie asked hopefully.

Alec shook his head then walked through the portal, glad that the guild had upgraded their mental defenses.

Aroa kicked Ralph one last time then followed her brother through the strange portal, figuring she could probably get some starting gear and gold out of him before blasting him for leaving everyone to deal with their father.

"Do you have a plan?" Jess asked Noelle after Cherie left.

Noelle smiled at her team. "Yeah, it involves giving everyone legendary gear and grinding like we're insane gamers."

Luke laughed when he realized that his friend was actually back and things would be okay. "So, business as usual?"

"Pretty much," Noelle agreed then sighed as she thought about the last few months. "I'm sorry I went a 'little' crazy."

Marissa shook her head. "No, Francis is a 'little' crazy, you went bug nuts. It's nice to have you back."

"I'm feeling better and I got my powers sorted." Noelle turned her head to look at Oliver. "You should have a switch for your changer rating, have you tried it?"

"How did you know about that?" Oliver asked.

Noelle gestured at Admin. "I talked to our power after Admin fixed the corrupted bits. It's a long story, let's head to the mansion and get something everyone kitted out then we can blast some monsters in a dungeon while I explain."

Oliver looked at Admin. "Thanks."

Admin gave Oliver a thumbs up then sent Solaris the updated and patched files.

[Thank you!] Solaris replaced the corrupted files then reached out and connected to Eden's slightly broken network to check on everyone's status.

Admin followed the rest of the people through the void portal then asked Projection, [Do you need assistance?]

Projection considered the question for a couple of seconds then sent Admin the files for her hosts' powers. [I'd like permission to modify Jess's power so she can stay active, I would get more data out of it.]

[I'll take a look], Admin replied as she compared the profiles. [Can Thrust talk?] she asked the group of shards as she followed their hosts through the portal.

[No, something is wrong with her communication systems], Projection replied, having tried to poke her multiple times over the last solar cycle.

Admin sent the codes to reset Thrust's communication system to her backup receiver.

[Hello!] Thrust said enthusiastically once her communication system reset. [Thank you!]

[You're welcome, is anything else broken?] Admin asked Thrust as she continued tweaking her copy of Jess's power profile.

[Data], Thrust replied, sending Admin a list of her various system glitches and problems. [My host's power doesn't have a sliding scale, it's all or nothing which is a waste of power and not very interesting, can I fix it?]

Admin 'stared' at the large collection of glitches for a couple of seconds then got to work writing a patch that should let Thrust's secondary repair systems fix her primary repair systems which would let her get started fixing the rest of her physical damage. She sent Projection her suggestions and permission to update her host's powers then started working on fixing Thrust's various software glitches while Noelle worked on outfitting her team with gear.

0o0o0

Arthur spun and raised his staff when a strange purple and black portal opened about fifteen feet in front of the group. "Incoming!"

Chevalier stepped out of the void portal and looked at the group of parahumans in mismatched gear, wincing when he saw bits and pieces of Riley's trigger event. "Don't shoot, I come bearing gifts."

"Chevalier?" Arthur asked, surprised to see his friend.

"Does that mean we're not smashing him?" Cassie asked as she moved the large rock away from the man in armor and the portal.

Arthur glanced at the strange portal then looked at his friend. "I think we're good. How did you find me?"

Chevalier pulled his attention off Riley and focused on Arthur. "I wasn't trying, I ran into someone that has the ability to pull up a list of players and their current location."

"And you got curious when you saw three people in Outlands?" Arthur asked.

"Wouldn't you?" Chevalier asked with amusement.

"Probably," Arthur agreed, knowing most people would have a harder time leveling.

Riley grinned when she noticed the stranger's guild tag. "Were you part of the raid on the Lich King?"

"Nah, that was Leet, Clockblocker, Admin and Wings," Chevalier replied.

"How did Leet get a spot on a top ranked team?" Cassie asked in surprise.

"He was in the right place at the right time and he knows the game," Chevalier said, figuring the full explanation could wait until they were at the mansion.

"Admin and Wings?" Arthur asked as he walked closer so they didn't have to shout.

Chevalier glanced between Cassie and Riley as they walked over then focused on Arthur. "Admin's the alternate of the girl that is loaning us her mansion and Wings is an insanely powerful telekinetic and brute."

"Powerful enough to beat Kil'Jaeden and help us get out of here?" Cassie asked hopefully.

Chevalier nodded. "She's one of the reasons they could kill a level eighty something boss with four people. The only reason we haven't already cleared the Sunwell is because we've been working on crafting skills."

"Do you think we'll be able to keep them?" Riley asked hopefully.

"That's the current theory." Chevalier gestured towards one of the demons as it respawned and sent a torrent of arcane missiles at it, dropping it from full health to nothing before Cassie's boulder could smash it.

Cassie stared at the dead demon. "What the hell are you using for gear?"

"Stuff that makes legendaries look like vendor trash," Chevalier replied with amusement. "We picked up some crafters and some people with unique skills relating to crafting."

"What makes you think we'll get to keep anything?" Arthur asked.

"We talked to a GM that was drinking buddies with one of the programmers, he had some weird stories about the test subjects coming out of the game with powers and abilities which probably means they have a trump with weird restrictions," Chevalier explained. "Unfortunately, he also mentioned that the other GMs aren't the sanest people around which is why we're leaving as soon as everyone in the group hits 70."

"Is that why they're deleting accounts?" Cassie asked.

Chevalier shook his head. "The first guy threatened to kill one of the GMs and managed to hack their GM channel which gave their threat more credibility and the other guy was Heartbreaker."

"Great," Riley muttered, fairly sure the GMs would kill her out of hand if they figured out who she was.

"How sure are you that it was actually Heartbreaker?" Arthur asked, hoping the bastard was dead even if the collateral damage was going to suck.

"We had proof," Chevalier assured him. "If you'd like to grab some better gear and take a break, we've got space and you're welcome to take a load off."

Arthur glanced between the girls. "What do you think?"

"I wouldn't mind a break and better gear," Riley admitted, knowing their gear was a random collection of crap they'd picked up from the monsters they'd killed.

"What's the catch?" Cassie asked suspiciously.

"We've got a couple of people that used to be villains," Chevalier admitted. "I don't want any problems."

"Which villains?" Arthur asked, figuring it was something like the endbringer truce.

"Leet and Uber, a vehicle tinker that's clean for the first time in years and wants to stay that way and two groups of minor villains that want out of the villain business," Chevalier explained.

"I'm not planning on causing trouble," Arthur assured him. "Have you found any spell books or interesting secrets?"

Chevalier laughed. "You should talk to Skitter, she's been collecting spells."

"I'm looking forward to it," Arthur replied as he headed for the portal.

Riley glanced around the fiery wasteland they'd been farming for the last couple of hours then followed Arthur through the portal, looking forward to a chance to relax and do some tinkering.

Cassie tossed her large rock at the closest demon then walked through the portal.

Chevalier killed the maimed demon then followed the girls through the portal and closed it behind him.

Riley glanced at the stone mansion then looked around the courtyard at the various crafting stations where people were busy working. "Nice place."

"Thanks," Taylor called out from the makeshift glass blowing workstation she'd set up. "It's a bit of a madhouse right now."

Arthur turned to look at Skitter. "I've seen worse."

"This is Arthur, Cassie and Riley, I've known Arthur for years. Do you mind if he takes a look at some of your spell books?" Chevalier asked.

"They're in the lounge, Uber and Oliver are trying to figure out how to modify spells," Taylor replied as she pressed a socket into the molten glass bracer she was working on.

"Any luck?" Arthur asked as he walked over to look at what she was working on.

"Less than I'd like, more than I was expecting," Taylor replied as she smoothed the glass over the base of the socket with her finger.

"Are you a brute?" Arthur asked, surprised to see someone touching glass that was hot enough to be malleable.

"No, my character is just immune to fire," Taylor replied with amusement as she grabbed another socket from the bench. "We ran into a couple of monsters that were immune to fire and Amelia managed to duplicate their immunity."

[Don't forget the other elements], Shaper said cheerfully.

[Are you going to share your data?] Gestalt asked Shaper.

[Not yet, you might get different results. I want to compare notes on something else. Data], Shaper sent Gestalt her copy of the demonic creativity enhancement idea she wanted to try.

"Neat," Riley offered, trying to figure out ways to duplicate the process without leaving someone looking like a monster.

"Why glass?" Arthur asked.

"One of my skills lets me change how an item looks without changing its stats or qualities, I'm hoping I can keep the skill and my patterns when we leave," Taylor explained.

"In other words, you're tossing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks?" Arthur asked thoughtfully.

"Basically," Taylor agreed. "The more patterns I collect the more I'll keep or at least, that's the idea."

"Let's head to the lounge," Chevalier suggested as he headed for the mansion. "I want to make sure Leet hasn't gone overboard."

"Probably a good idea," Arthur replied as he followed Chevalier, looking forward to picking up more than the basics.

Cassie glanced at the jewelcrafting station. "I don't suppose you have extra gems?"

"In the box next to the workbenches, same with the rest of the mats," Taylor replied as she turned to look at Riley. "You're welcome to use any of the crafting stations or mats as long as you can get skill points from it."

"Thanks," Riley replied then headed over to the engineering station.

[Can you upgrade my host with this!] Gestalt asked eagerly after looking the information over twice to make sure it would work and wouldn't cause serious mental issues.

Taylor turned to look at Shaper who was working on crafting bandages. {Not until we test the enhancement on a puppet and get permission from her host.}

[Permission?] Gestalt asked, not sure why she'd need permission to have Shaper upgrade her host. [Who are you?] she asked Taylor.

{A friend of Admin's}, Taylor replied as she set the last of the ten sockets into the bracer she was working on.

Admin looked up from the force field generator she'd just finished and sent the codes to Gestalt, Pocket and Sigil so they could scrap their conflict drives. [Data]

[Thank you!] Sigil replied then quickly ran the codes, wanting the conflict drive gone.

Gestalt checked the codes for trouble as best she could then used them to scrap the conflict directive, more than happy to have the ability to tailor her nudges to her host's current situation rather than worry about how long it had been since her last fight. [Thank you.]

Pocket checked the codes then used them to remove the conflict protocols she was mostly ignoring as her host already had enough conflict.

[How long do we have until you're ready to leave?] Admin asked Taylor, trying to figure out what else she had time to work on.

Taylor used her puppet to check Harry's level. {We should be done leveling in a couple of hours, that gives us enough time to finish our ultimate set of gear, test the demonic enhancement ideas that Shaper came up with on the puppets and make sure everyone has the basic spells.}

Admin turned to look at Taylor. [Is there a reason you're putting a lot of effort into making gear that you won't be able to keep?]

{I'm hoping that Shaper or Amelia can help us recreate the gear once we're back. Besides, I sort of want to see how far we can push the system}, Taylor admitted.

Admin grinned at her companion. [Just promise me that you'll wait until you get to the Sunwell to equip everything, I don't want to get deleted because one of the GMs noticed our gear.]

{That's easy enough}, Taylor replied with a grin, not seeing a problem with waiting to test everything until she was in the dungeon.

[How far do you think you'll be able to push things?] Admin asked, wondering if they could use magic to solve some of their energy problems.

{Assuming I can talk Noelle or Amelia into making a few more symbiote daggers of doom so I can steal the bonuses, we're looking at just over a hundred and forty thousand points of magic and maybe half a million spell damage when I've finished upgrading our gear, mostly because of the crazy number of gems I stuck on everything}, Taylor admitted, knowing she was pushing things a bit too far but she wanted to beat Leet's damage with his plasma rifle.

[Everyone needs a hobby. I'm going to see if I can help modify some spells], Admin said as she headed for the mansion.

{Best of luck}, Taylor replied then turned to look at Shaper. "Are you up for running some tests on my puppets to see if you can get the creativity enhancement working?" she asked as she opened a portal and walked one of her old puppets through, not seeing a reason to risk her advanced puppets until Shaper had run the initial tests.

"Science!" Shaper exclaimed cheerfully as she ran over to Skitter's minion to get started.