Boosted Villainy (Patreon)

An: Hopefully everyone has a safe holiday.

Myst opened the envelope and absently pulled the postcard out as he left the post office, wondering who was sending him a postcard as the letter hadn't had a return address on it and why they had put it in an envelope to start with, it kinda negated the reason for buying a postcard in the first place, no envelope. He had a second and a half to look at the picture of a girl in black body armor with a swarm of bugs, behind her a decaying city filled with lights before he vanished from the parking lot and reappeared in an alley.

"What the fuck?!" he exclaimed as he glanced around the alley, trying to figure out what the hell was going on and how he'd gone from the post office in his small town to the middle of a city without feeling any disorientation other than from suddenly being somewhere unfamiliar. He glanced down at his jacket, pants and boots, making sure he was wearing the same clothes and hadn’t suffered a blackout or anything.

Myst did his best to ignore the cold that was seeping in through his jacket and focused on the postcard. "Creepy costume, bugs everywhere, is that Skitter…" he trailed off as he flipped the postcard over and looked at the back. "Congratulations, you've been ROB'd, don't despair, in exchange for your help in creating a more useful and profitable gang, we've decided to give you two fantastic, dare I say it, amazing powers!!!"

"Gang?" Myst muttered as he scanned over the list of powers he was supposed to have, less than happy about being stuck in Worm, but excited by the thought of having powers and getting to live out a CYOA. 'Am I clone or the original? They gave me a chance to get back, so I'm probably the original, I don't feel like a clone, then again how does a clone feel?’ He pulled his sweatshirt up and checked his bellybutton, finding it where it was supposed to be. "So much for that idea, then again, a ROB could just snap his fingers and create a clone with a duplicate belly button right down to a copy of the lint in it. Execute Order 66? Yeah, nothing."

He shook his head and focused on the descriptions of his powers, trying to focus on something he could control. 'Iterative Improvement: You have a daily refilling pool of energy which can be used to 'enchant' objects, starting with minor qualities and growing and expanding as more energy is applied. Annoying apostrophes, does that mean it's not magic? Does that mean I'm a parahuman with an enormous alien super computer connected to my brain?'

He stared at the second ability which he could use to push the first already top notch ability into the realm of the gods. 'Let's Give It A Boost? It lets me sacrifice three similar items, or twenty vaguely similar items, to improve an item's qualities or enhancements by double. Sounds like the version from the CYOA, there's no way that's a parahuman power, the energy requirements would be insane if you had to care about physics.'

"If you manage to create and run the most powerful gang in the city by summer, you'll get a ticket back home or to another world of your choice, if you fail, you'll be stuck in Worm, best of luck avoiding Golden Morning…" he trailed off as he realized he was actually going to have to be a villain if he didn't want to get stuck in Worm.

He put the card back in the envelope then put the envelope in his sweatshirt pocket for safe keeping in case he wanted the exact details of his power. "Okay, first order of business, find somewhere to get out of the cold and get your head on straight," Myst told himself then left the alley.

He stopped and stared when he saw a girl in a gold and silver costume flying down the road chasing a man dressed as Mario in a red go-kart that was hauling ass down the street, dodging cars like a lunatic and spitting fire from the exhaust pipes in the back. 'So much for getting my head on straight.'

'No wires, no crowds lined up to watch a stunt,' he mused, trying and failing to convince himself that he hadn't gotten transported to Worm. He glanced down the street then walked back into the alley and over to the dumpster. 'Great, I'm stuck in Worm and a ROB wants me to run a gang. Take a breath and freak out later, you might have powers.'

He took a few moments and focused on himself and tried to figure out if he felt anything new. Thankfully, it didn't take that long before he realized he had two mental switches, one of which felt like it was tied to an energy bar. "So much for this being a trick," he muttered as he lifted the lid and looked at the random bits of trash that someone had tossed out.

'Three used pizza boxes, a backpack, a stack of notebooks, three pairs of cheap sunglasses, five random wallets, nine licenses, four student IDs, a dozen tossed credit cards, enough bags of trash to fill most of the dumpster, a broken watch and an aspirin bottle that probably isn't filled with aspirin. Looks like some pickpocket ditched the evidence of his crimes here.'

He picked up one of the notebooks and curiously flipped through it. "Chemistry notes," he muttered as he looked over what looked like half assed notes for a high school chemistry class. He flipped through the rest of the notebooks until he found a blank notebook. 'Double the number of pages? Half the weight? Better paper? What can I do here?'

Myst set the science notebook on the corner of the dumpster and grabbed the blank notebook with his left hand. He grabbed three of the notebooks with his right hand then flipped the mental switch that didn't feel connected to his energy pool, causing three of the notebooks to vanish.

He flipped through the blank notebook and grinned when he realized it had twice the pages as the original notebook and hadn't gotten noticeably thicker. 'Not quite as good as the Isekai Upgrade ability, but it should give me enough power to compete with the gangs, assuming I don't turn myself into a target before I'm ready.'

Myst pulled his wallet out of his pocket and counted his money. 'A hundred and nine dollars, a useless out of state driver's license that won't be issued for years and some useless debit cards since I doubt my accounts are valid in another world.'

'I need defenses and I need the ability to grab a room at a hotel, there should be enough energy for both,' he told himself as he focused on his driver's license, trying to keep all of the details in mind as he flipped the mental switch connected to the pool of energy. He felt some of his energy leave his fingers and jump to his license. 'At least I don't feel drained, just like I've discharged some static.'

He grinned as he focused on his license and it changed to read Brockton Bay. He pulled the card out of his wallet and focused on one of the student ID cards, causing his license to change into a student ID. 'Winslow? Amusing but there's no way they'd believe I'm a student, maybe a teacher.'

Myst focused on the rest of the plastic cards and activated his boosting power, consuming twenty of the cards and causing the faint glow around his license to get brighter. 'This would be easier if it came with a user interface. I'll have to put it on the list. Iterative Improvement should be flexible enough to create something that lets me control how my power works.'

He quickly checked the halfway decent looking backpack. 'No numbers, no blood, I doubt there's a bounty on it.' He focused on the pizza boxes. 'They're containers, they're containers, they're,' he flipped the mental switch on his boosting power, causing the three boxes to vanish and the bags to shift as other containers in the dumpster vanished, 'containers.'

Myst grinned when he checked the bag and realized that it was now larger on the inside than it should be. "Better than insect control," he mused as he tossed the sunglasses, broken watch and the rest of the notebooks into his backpack. He focused on the wallets and upgraded his own wallet, repairing some of the wear and tear and making it able to hold twice as much. He knocked the remaining wallet back into the dumpster then closed the lid, put his wallet away and left the alley.

'If I'm stuck in Worm, I need a way to make money. What's the least offensive way to make money that doesn't involve a legit nine to five?' He considered the question as he walked down the street, glancing between the people and the various shops that were still clinging to life. 'Stealing from Nazis, drug dealers, and dragons? Check, more than a bit dangerous, then again the entire project is more than a bit dangerous.'

'Loan sharking?' he mused as he noticed a sign for a second hand shop. 'In this economy, I'd have to break some legs and I'd feel bad. What about running a nightclub? You'd need licenses, alcohol and dancers if you wanted to make a profit. What about endless beer kegs?'

'Pure profit after the initial set up? I'd still need to pay the bouncers and the girls but we'd get plenty of business with cheap drinks. It would be a decent cover for minions, I'd just need a way to hand out powers. Or steal them,' he mused as he walked into the small thrift shop, noting the sign that said to leave your bags at the counter.

"Excuse me, you'll need to leave your bag…" the clerk trailed off as Myst turned and handed her his bag. "Thanks."

"No worries," Myst replied as she handed him a plastic basket. "Do you have sunglasses?"

"We have a few," the woman replied as she gestured towards a plastic cylinder partially hidden by a mannequin in a wedding dress. "Take a look."

"Thanks," Myst replied as he walked over and checked the sunglasses, hoping he could find something that didn't make him look ridiculous. He picked up a pair of round frame glasses with red plastic lenses. "Do you care if I try them on?"

"No, you're fine," the clerk assured him, surprised that he'd even asked.

Myst glanced at the price tag then tried the glasses on and looked in the mirror. 'Could be worse, at least they're plastic which means they won't explode when Shatterbird shows up.'

He glanced around, wanting to make sure they didn't screw with his vision. 'The tint is barely noticeable, I doubt I'll notice once I enchant it.' He turned to look at the woman behind the counter. "Where do I find the shoes?"

"Third aisle, we don't have the best collection and I'd spray them before I used them," she warned him.

"Makes sense," Myst agreed as he headed down the aisle, looking over the collection of cheap shoes. He grabbed two rather cheap pairs of slippers and some shoes that had seen better days and dropped them in his basket. "Do you have any clothes that aren't going to get sold? My son is working on a project."

"Not really, you might try the Goodwill three streets down the way," she pointed further down the street. "It's near the old theater."

"Thanks," Myst replied as he wandered through the aisles looking for anything useful. 'Oh, watches.' He grabbed the five dollar plastic bag of watches and dropped it in his basket then grabbed a bag of plastic heart shaped rings and dropped it in the bag.

He wandered around for the next couple of minutes before he found a theater mask that would cover the top half of his face. He grinned as he grabbed a blue and white jester's cap off the shelf and stuck it in the bag. 'If I have to be a villain, I might as well have fun with it.'

He spent the next couple of minutes looking over the various shelves in the strange collection of seemingly random junk, then picked up a plastic tube of party hats and headed for the counter, snagging a large bag of used markers on his way. He set the basket and the tube of hats on the counter.

"Art project?" the woman asked, trying to figure out why he wanted a bunch of random junk.

"And a party," Myst replied, figuring that explained the hats.

"Have fun," the woman replied as glanced over the collection of bits. "Ten dollars?"

"I have a hundred and nine on me, so nine?" Myst asked hopefully as he pulled out his wallet.

"Sure," she replied, not wanting to unlock the safe to break the hundred and figuring no one wanted the fungus infested shoes, the broken watches or the rest of the junk.

Myst handed her nine dollars then put his wallet back in his pocket and transferred his purchases to his bag with the exception of the plastic tube that was too long to fit without looking extremely suspicious. "Thanks."

"Stay safe," the woman offered as he left.

Myst glanced around as he left the shop then sat down on the old fashioned wooden bench in front of the store. He focused on his boots and the three pairs of footwear he'd bought and flipped the mental switch to boost his boots, increasing their durability, comfort and water resistance by double and giving him a tiny boost to his walking speed, while destroying the extra shoes. He zipped his bag up then headed down the street, finding his already comfortable boots even more comfortable.

He'd managed to walk two blocks before he noticed a group of four teenagers walking down the sidewalk towards him with shaved heads and tattoos that no one in their right minds should get. 'Great, local idiots.' He pushed the rest of his power into turning his ring into a Ring of Protection or at least the closest thing he could get when he noticed the smirking assholes take a slight detour so that he'd have to move if he wanted to avoid running into them. 'Seriously? I'm white, I don't look Jewish, I’m six foot, and you're still being annoying as hell?'

Myst briefly considered walking into one of the shops or avoiding the group before he realized that would be giving them what they wanted. 'Half a block, they're not moving fast.' He focused on his ring and the plastic rings he knew were in his bag and flipped the mental switch, upgrading his ring's protection by double then did the same thing a second time, using up most of the rest of the rings.

He glanced at the other side of the street where people had already found convenient shops to vanish into. 'I'd feel a lot better if I had a vest or a chain shirt.' He stopped in front of the teenagers. "Need something?"

"Your money," one of the teens replied sarcastically.

"Donations to the cause, you understand," the skinny teen in the back said with a smirk.

Myst stepped forward and tried to punch the teen in the throat, hitting his chin when he pulled back, then shifted and punched the other one in the front in the temple as hard as he could. He stepped forward and shoved the person he'd just crippled into the guy in the back then blocked a punch from the skinhead that tried to hit him with a haymaker. He jabbed him in the solar plex then grabbed the back of his head and rammed him into the brick wall. He lunged forward and punched the last guy in the face as he reached for something in his pocket then struck him again to make sure he wasn't going to hit him.

Myst glanced up and sighed when he saw a teenager on a hoverboard approach from the air. "They started it," he called out, hoping the hero hadn't seen him throw the first punch and glad that the ring had protected his hand.

"I'm going to have to call it in," Kid Win replied as he pushed the button on his glove to contact the console and record his statement.

"Be my guest," Myst replied as he took a couple of steps away from the people on the ground, keeping his hands in clear view.

Kid Win glanced between the unconscious gang member and the person who had knocked them out. "We have four teenagers with swastika tattoos unconscious or concussed near the intersection of Main and 5th street."

"What happened?" Clockblocker asked.

"Trying to figure that out, can you send an ambulance?" Kid Win asked.

"Sure," Clockblocker replied as he punched the buttons to do exactly that.

"What happened?" Kid Win asked Myst.

"I was heading to the store to pick up some crafting supplies for an art project. They adjusted to make sure they’d run into me. When they walked up I asked them what they wanted, they wanted my money, something about donating to their cause or some crap," Myst complained.

"Let me guess, you said no and they got violent?" Kid Win asked.

"Pretty much," Myst agreed, not seeing a point in admitting that he'd hit them first.

"You knocked all four of them out, by yourself?" Kid Win asked, surprised.

"I'm pretty sure they're on something," Myst replied.

"Do you mind waiting for the police?" Kid Win asked.

"I'm sort of freezing and I'd rather not press charges, I don't need someone in the police department telling them my name. I don't want Hookwolf showing up at my place in the middle of the night," Myst argued.

"He's got a point," Clockblocker pointed out. "If we have to, we can track him down."

"Fine, get out of here before someone notices," Kid Win told Myst, fairly sure the Empire would make an example out of anyone fighting back if they could get away with it.

"Thanks, stay safe," Myst told Kid Win then continued walking down the street, wondering if running into the wannabe Nazis was bad luck or a cursed to live in interesting times flaw.

0o0o0

Myst tried to ignore the feeling of being watched as he headed down the street, fairly sure it was just his overactive imagination playing tricks on him and not someone actually watching him but he couldn't quite shake the feeling. Thankfully, he reached the Goodwill without running into anymore gang members or at least without running into any obviously visible gang members.

He did a bit of people watching as he made his way around the side of the store to the covered area where the donation bins were. He glanced at the camera he could see on the building and guessed the range and area that it covered as well as the quality. He continued walking over to the dumpsters where the employees dumped the stuff they weren't willing to deal with, mostly torn clothing that they didn't want to or couldn't fix and electronics that had seen better days.

He wasn't sure about the local laws for dumpster diving but doubted anyone would care considering it was Brockton Bay and the police should have better things to do. He focused on the worn or cut up pants he could see and upgraded his own, causing three sets of pants to vanish and his own to get twice as comfortable and durable. He focused on the cut up jackets he could see, trying not to think about why one of them looked stained with blood and upgraded his jacket, causing three of the jackets to vanish, leaving a set of keys on a pile of clothes. 'Must have been in the jacket.'

Myst picked up the purple LED flashlight keychain and pushed the button, causing a beam of flickering light to hit the back of the already well lit dumpster. 'So much for everyone keeping their flashlights charged.' He pushed the button again to turn it off then slipped the keys into his pocket and focused on the various plastic bags in the dumpster containing clothes and various bits of junk that the company didn't want and upgraded his backpack, causing twenty of the bags to vanish and the contents to spill out.

He glanced over the collection of damaged clothes, broken electronics and random bits of junk. 'One slash, a bloodstain on that, grape on that shirt, not even sure what that is, did they even wash these before they tossed them in here?' he mused as he sorted through the contents, trying to put things in piles.

'Jackpot!' he thought as he uncovered a large plastic bag of old and corroded batteries under a worn out tank top. He opened the bag and poured the batteries onto a shirt and poked through them using a plastic arm from a broken toy. "Rechargeable, rechargeable," he muttered as he moved the rechargeable batteries that were in better condition to the side. 'Four triple A batteries, two double As and a nine volt that aren't corroded.'

Myst used his ability and boosted the three triple A batteries, consuming nine regular batteries and doubling their available charge and making them use half the charge. 'I wonder if Dragon could reverse engineer the boosted battery?' he mused as he boosted the nine volt and the two rechargeable double A batteries. He grabbed nine of the nicer looking batteries and boosted eight of them, consuming the rest of the batteries in the process. 'Almost enough.'

Myst stuck the boosted nine volt in his pocket then pulled the flashlight out, unscrewed the back and popped the plastic and metal battery holder out. He picked the best looking battery of the three of them and boosted it with the extras. He quickly boosted all of the rechargeable triple A batteries, loaded the holder and put the flashlight back together and pushed the button, causing a bright light to hit the back of the dumpster.

'I should have tested the battery to start with to see if they had a charge,' he mused as he turned the light off and put it back in his pocket. 'They should have eight times the capacity and it should use a fourth of the energy, another sixty batteries would push that to sixteen times the capacity and an eighth of the charge, I doubt I'd need to recharge them for a year.'

He grinned as he went back to sorting through the mess and upgrading his clothes, fairly sure that upgrading his clothes enough would turn them into halfway decent armor.