Boosted Villainy Part 6 (Patreon)

Assault blinked when he heard a familiar song playing and saw Luigi in a go kart zooming down the street, driving like a madman and swerving all over the place. 'Is he drunk?' he mused as he checked the PHO on his phone and pulled up Uber and Leet's channel to see if they were doing something live. "Road work? Is that code for something?"

"Hell if I know, I just saw Mario flying through the area driving like a maniac," Battery replied over the radio as they’d split up to cover more ground, since it was supposed to be a quiet night.

"I'm on Luigi's tail," Armsmaster piped up, having noticed the man driving erratically. "What was that about affecting the roads?" he asked in concern.

"Apparently they have a challenge to see who can fix the most road before someone stops them. I pity whoever does that, with the state the roads are in the city is going to absolutely loathe them," Assault commented with a laugh.

"We have to stop them!" Armsmaster announced.

"Why?!" Assault demanded, sounding like a choir boy asking why god had given his puppy cancer.

"Because it's Leet, if we don't stop them we could lose half the city," Armsmaster explained, “his tinkertech is notoriously unstable.”

"The roads could turn into jello," Battery added as she followed Mario, almost laying her motorcycle on its side to follow as he took a turn at what appeared to be a ninety degree angle.

"Possibly explosive jello," Assault admitted as he started running after Luigi, using his power to keep up. “Too bad, because I can actually see the potholes vanishing as he passes.”

"Damn it, where are my bananas?" Myst complained when he noticed the capes in the mirror, wishing the karts had come with a couple more options for escaping capes. "This is going to suck…" he trailed off as he spotted the wrecking yard in the distance. 'Or not, go go lucky penny,' he thought as he headed for the scrap yard.

"Assault and I have Luigi cornered, grab Mario," Armsmaster ordered.

"On it," Battery replied.

"Two minutes out," Miss Militia called over the coms.

"Shit! I've got capes on me!" Myst complained into his headset.

"There should be a button on the dash," Leet replied.

"Which one?" Myst asked.

"The blinking yellow one on the dash with the star on it," Leet replied, his grin audible.

"How did I not see that?!" Myst demanded.

"I'm wondering that myself," Leet admitted, relying on his new social ability not to say anything with the word noob in it.

"Are you wearing your sunglasses?" Rose asked.

"They're awesome tinkertech shades," Myst defended himself.

"And they apparently prevent you from seeing blinking yellow buttons," Rose pointed out as she blazed a trail through ABB territory, which no one seemed to mind as they cheered loudly as she passed since someone had apparently spread word on what they were doing.

"Well, exxxxcuse me princess," Myst replied as he hit the button that was partially blocked by the steering wheel, causing a glowing yellow force field to pop up over the kart.

Assault sighed as the kart started playing a different tune and increased in speed. "It's like they're taunting us," he said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Stay focused," Armsmaster ordered as he lined up his shot. He pushed the button and blasted the kart with an emp, frowning when it did absolutely nothing.

"He has a shield, you're going to have to wait until it goes down," Assault offered.

"Or I can just shoot him again," Armsmaster replied as he lined up another shot, “the cart isn’t large enough to have a power source that can maintain it through multiple hits.”

"I’m invincible!" Myst cheered as he burst through the gate to the wrecking yard, making a mental note to drop some cash off when he got a chance. "Nothing can stop…" he trailed off as his star booster ran out of power and Armsmaster shot the kart, causing the tinkertech engine to falter. He focused on a row of damaged cars, causing them to vanish and causing the engine to pur as he increased his speed.

"I don't think it worked," Assault pointed out, trying to keep the amusement out of his voice.

"I noticed," Armsmaster complained as the kart went around a stack of cars and he lost sight of it.

Myst focused and absorbed another row of damaged cars, boosting the kart and sending him surging forward, screwing up Armsmaster’s aim. "Time to slip the net."

Uber noticed Miss Militia in his rearview mirror. "Yeah, it's getting hot out here too, just remember the red button."

"The big red button?" Myst asked with amusement as he spun around the corner and saw a pile of broken windows stacked up against one of the sheds.

"Yep!" Leet agreed.

Myst focused and upgraded his windshield so he wouldn't have to worry about it breaking as easily. "The button with the T on it?"

Uber snorted. "That’s the one!"

“The one with a subtle red glow just begging to be pushed?” Rose asked.

“I love that button!” Leet chimed in.

“We all love that button,” Uber agreed, rolling his eyes as he pulled off a bootlegger’s turn, gaining half a block on his purserer.

"Okay!" Myst replied as he turned onto a long straight aisle. "Okay, let's party!"

Assault frowned as Luigi laughed maniacally as he charged towards Armsmaster, wondering if he'd finally lost his marbles.

Myst pushed the green button on the steering wheel, causing the entire kart to rocket into the air, missing Armsmaster's head by at least a foot and a half as he jumped the cape and his bike. "Beep Beep!"

"Grab him!" Armsmaster ordered, less than happy about failing to capture Leet once again.

'When I stop laughing,' Assault thought as he shifted directions to intercept the kart.

Myst pulled a plastic tube of glitter out of his pocket, pushed the lid off with his thumb and tossed the contents of the tube behind him. "Eat doom glitter!"

Assault tossed himself to the side and out of the stuff that looked like glitter but probably wasn't, losing sight of the cape as he vanished around the corner. "Shit!"

"I lost Mario," Battery complained when she ran around the corner and couldn't find any sight of him, despite the fact that she'd been twenty yards behind him.

Rose dodged around the car that slowed down in front of a warehouse with a number of people standing around out front and music coming from inside. She glanced at the large man with a mask that was standing outside with a group of people.

Lung stared at the girl dressed like a princess sitting in a go-kart for a couple of seconds then shook his head. "I'm not playing Bowser."

Rose nodded and continued on her way, glad that she was sitting down so no one would see her knees shake. "Just saw Lung."

"Are you okay?" Myst asked as he pulled out of the wrecking yard and hit the button that cut the music. 'We need cloaking devices.'

"Yeah, he just looked at me and said he wasn't going to play Bowser," Rose replied.

"That would be awesome!" Leet offered over the radio.

"Bullshit!" Uber replied. "We're not poking the dragon, for we are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."

"Fair," Leet admitted after a couple of seconds.

Myst spun around a corner then hit the brakes and pushed the large red button on the dash and jumped out of the kart. He'd barely made it off the kart when the teleporter in the base activated and transported the kart back to base. He quickly pulled his costume off, stuck it into his bag and pulled his coat out of the bag and pulled it on. He'd barely pulled his coat on before Assault ran around the corner. He just pointed down the road and watched the cape continue running faster than you could drive on a straight away without a decent run time. He turned and started walking down the street, glad that he was only like twenty blocks from the warehouse. "I need a lift, I had to push the button."

"Same," Uber replied as he stepped out of the kart into the warehouse. "You could have jumped back with the kart, that's the one teleportation device that actually works consistently."

"I'd rather wait until he rechecks everything," Myst replied.

"No worries, we'll finish up without you," Uber assured him, knowing Leet was still out there working on completing the road repairs.

"No worries, I'll pick you up in the RV," Rose offered.

"Thanks," Myst replied.

0o0o0

"How did the ride back go?" Uber asked when Myst walked in with a giggling Rose.

"How did the broadcast go?" Myst asked, ignoring the question.

"We got stopped by a cop, she wanted to know if I was picking up a streetwalker," Rose offered between giggles.

"She thought you were a streetwalker?" Leet asked with amusement.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure she needs her eyes checked," Myst complained.

Rose shrugged. "Considering the area and the time of night, I think she just figured you were up to no good. I'm starting to understand why you love running around the city causing chaos."

"Fun isn't it?" Uber asked.

"Once in a while," Myst admitted. "Normally, I wouldn't have risked someone getting hurt but it was the middle of the night and we were fixing potholes."

"Where's your sense of adventure?" Leet asked.

"Hiding in a vault with the last bit of my common sense," Myst replied. "I'm just glad that no one got hurt and that we fixed some of the roads."

"Do you want to use one of the extra rooms or are you grabbing a hotel?" Uber asked.

Myst yawned. "Sounds better than finding a hotel and I haven't cleaned the RV mattress or checked the bathroom."

"We have a vacuum…" Leet trailed off as he got several ideas for an automated cleaning droid that he wanted to test out. "Actually, scratch that, we'll take care of it."

"I'll take a look at the engine and the septic system, I'm still pretty wired and we're mostly night owls," Uber offered.

"Thanks, I'm not a mechanic," Myst replied with another yawn.

"This way," Uber said as he headed towards the rooms they'd set up minions.

0o0o0

Rose paused her racing game and looked up at Myst when he walked into the gaming area carrying his backpack. "How did you sleep?"

"Surprisingly well," Myst replied as he walked over and flopped down on the bean bag chair next to her.

"Do you have a plan or are we winging it?" Rose asked as she unpaused the game and continued racing.

Myst glanced at the cheap clock hanging on the wall, noting that it was almost eleven. "I have a vague plan but the details depend on what Uber found when he was looking over the RV."

"The radio was basically shit and you'll probably want to replace the batteries," Uber said as he walked in with a cup of coffee.

Myst turned to look at Uber. "Was?"

"Leet fixed it," Uber replied with a grin. "You might get a couple of Earth Aleph stations."

"Not going to complain. What about the engine?"

"I tightened some belts and changed a couple of filters," Uber replied as he took a seat in his chair. "Someone already replaced the brakes or the previous owner never drove it and he obviously did. None of the tanks leak so you should be fine using the shower and toilet, especially since Leet got a bit carried away steam cleaning everything with his new toy."

"Thanks," Myst replied, glad that he didn't have to track down a mechanic or replace a bunch of parts before he started boosting everything.

"You fixed his power," Uber reminded him. "So what are you planning?"

"I was thinking about grabbing something to eat then swinging by the salvage yard so I could upgrade the RV. By the time we finish eating and get to the salvage yard it should be twelve which means I'll have some energy to sink into the rig."

"What are you going to upgrade?" Uber asked.

Myst glanced between Rose and Uber. "I'm torn between upgrading something to boost my maximum charge and boosting the RV's durability, shape changing, and weight reduction."

Uber glanced at Rose. "You might as well boost your rig while you have Rose around to help collect things and boost your available energy tonight, it's supposed to snow so you'll want to have everything upgraded."

"Not a bad idea, I got a couple of texts from my mother implying that I should be home for dinner if possible," Rose admitted as her car flew around the race track, hurtling towards the finish line.

"No worries," Myst assured her. "It shouldn't take more than a few hours to hit the scrapyard and scavenge for empty containers."

"So, bag of holding?" Uber asked hopefully, knowing Leet would ask.

"Sure, give me a couple of minutes to empty it," Myst replied as he sat up and headed for the exit. 'I might as well upgrade to a spatial ring or an inventory system.'

"Sweet," Uber replied cheerfully as he followed Myst, knowing Leet was going to be ecstatic. "Do you think you could make something that lets you make bags of holding?"

"Eventually," Myst replied as they walked outside, not particularly worried about the backpack as he could always make another one if he couldn't get a spatial ring or some type of inventory system working. He stopped and stared in disbelief at the RV when he realized that it was sparkling clean. "How the hell did he get it to sparkle?"

Uber laughed. "He might have gone a bit overboard cleaning it."

Myst walked over and tapped the RV near the door to the back, causing it to change from a sparkling white to a dark blue color that wasn't sparkling. "Do you have any pez dispensers or pocket sized candy dispensers in your collection of goods?" he asked as he opened the door and stepped inside.

"Sure, why?" Uber asked.

"The Merchants annoy me, I'm going to ruin their business," Myst replied as he glanced around at the nearly spotless interior, fairly sure it hadn't been this clean since it came off the factory floor.

"With a candy dispenser?" Uber asked, wondering what he was going to make.

Myst turned to look at Uber. "My power is flexible, I should be able to make something that will produce a pill that will reset everything back to square one, no addiction, no pain, no reason to risk your job and all of your friends just to feel normal? How many people do you think would take it?"

Uber shook his head. "You'd have the gang trying to kill you."

"I wasn't planning on explaining the full effects," Myst replied with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I'm just going to tell the dealers that it will help people pass a piss test so they can keep working, I doubt most of the hard core users would bother using it."

"You could also give people a completely safe high that did the same thing. You'd probably get more people clean and they'd get a safe high," Uber pointed out.

Myst shook his head. "Leaving aside the moral issues of giving people a false sense of security about drugs and taking money from people that would be better served by buying food, I'd rather not have the PRT breathing down my neck for selling what amounts to tinkertech drugs right now."

"Point," Uber admitted, knowing the PRT played hardball with biotinkers. "Let me grab a pack of candy dispensers."

"Thanks." Myst closed the door, set his bag on the table and got to work moving the cash from his bag to the expanded gun safe. He paused when he reached for a stack of bills and his hand hit the bag of gloves. 'I should probably deal with that while I'm thinking about it.'

He pulled the bag of gloves out then pulled his power copying work gloves out of his pocket and put them on. 'Let's see if I can improve the quality of powers,' he mused as he activated his power and boosted the gloves he was wearing, consuming most of the rest of them. 'Work gloves: Twice as durable as they should be and more comfortable. Touching someone for two hours with the gloves will give you a weaker magic based copy of one of their powers. That's better than four hours, I'm going to need a bunch of gloves.'

He tossed the mostly empty bag of gloves to the side then continued moving the cash to the expanded gun safe, not sure where else to put it.

0o0o0

Myst paused as he walked up to the Taco Shack building that reminded him of the local Subway shop and saw a teenage girl with long dark hair and glasses sitting inside the restaurant with a parahuman tag floating over her head.

Parahuman

Shard: Queen Administrator

Power: Multitasking/Shadow Army/Mental Improvement

"Are you okay?" Rose asked, wondering why he'd stopped.

"Sorry, I was just lost in thought," Myst replied as he opened the door and walked inside the building. 'Multitasking makes sense considering she's linked to Queen Administrator, shadow army? Not so much. Mental Improvement? Since when do powers help with mental stability? It's probably some type of thinker ability.'

"Just checking," Rose replied as she followed him into the building.

"Don't worry, you're not going back," Danny assured Taylor, doing his best not to lose his temper over the entire mess with the school.

"I still can't believe she's a hero," Taylor complained.

Myst glanced over the meals as he walked over to the counter. "I'll take a number seven."

"One number seven," the clerk replied as he punched in the order. He glanced at Rose. "Same ticket?"

"Same ticket," Myst replied, not seeing a problem with paying for everything, now that he had the money.

"I'll have the same," Rose said as she walked over and sat down at the closest table.

Myst pulled a ten out of his pocket and handed it to the guy behind the counter.

"Your food will be out in a couple of minutes," the clerk assured him.

"Thanks," Myst replied as he walked over and sat down across from Rose. "Did you hear anything from your dad about the altercation with Sophia and Emma?" he asked Rose, keeping watch on Taylor out of the corner of his eye.

"Just some shit about them deciding not to press charges, never mind that I have them on video trying to assault you," Rose replied, thinking about her father's text message.

'Screw it, someone needs to hold the bitch accountable,' Myst thought. "I wouldn't be surprised if Hess had a record, I doubt she'd want to rock the boat."

"Sophia Hess?" Taylor asked.

Myst turned to look at Taylor. "Yeah, she flew off the handle and tried to hit me yesterday in the middle of the mall."

"Why?" Danny asked.

"I wasn't paying enough attention and I was apparently looking in her general direction or something, she said something rude and I called her on it," Myst replied.

"It's actually a pretty funny video," Rose said as she pulled her cell out of her jacket pocket. She pulled up her father's message that contained the video and hit play then flipped the phone around so they could see. "Normally, I wouldn't spread it around, but the redhead likes to pick on my sister at school."

"Emma," Taylor muttered when she saw her former friend. "Sophia is going to be pissed."

"More like unhinged," Myst muttered as they watched Sophia knock herself out.

"You should be careful, Sophia's dangerous, she might go after your sister," Taylor warned Rose.

"I'm sort of hoping that we can get a restraining order considering her behavior," Rose said as the waitress walked out of the kitchen with a tray filled with food.

"We can hope," Myst added, not sure how much control the PRT had over the legal system and what lengths they were willing to go to so they could keep her in the Wards. He glanced at his watch when he felt his pool of energy refill. 'Eleven fifty nine and fifty seconds, close enough.'

The waitress set the tray down on the table between Myst and Rose. "Your order."

"Thanks," Myst replied as the waitress turned and left. 'Hopefully she doesn't expect a tip.'

Rose grabbed their empty cups. "Coke or root beer?"

"Root beer," Myst replied as Rose headed for the soda machine.

"Got it," Rose said, figuring getting the drinks was her job since he'd paid.

"Are you going to press charges against Emma and Sophia?" Taylor asked hopefully.

"It's out of my hands," Myst replied as he grabbed a mexi-fry. "Hopefully they'll get some therapy."

"I can't see Emma's father taking this well," Danny admitted.

Myst finished chewing his mexi-fry and swallowed it. "There's a difference between legal and acceptable behavior and there's a point where you need to call people on their crap."

"The principal doesn't care, she's shredded complaints," Taylor complained.

"Personal experience?" Myst asked.

"They've been harassing me since high school started," Taylor admitted.

"If the principal is ignoring your complaints, take it to the school board," Myst suggested. "Just because the principal is corrupt doesn't mean everyone is."

"Sophia might be a cape," Taylor offered in a whisper.

"If she's a cape, I might have a solution," Rose said as she set the drinks on the table. "My father has worked with Brandish on a couple of cases, I'll send him a text and he can give her a call."

"It's worth a try," Myst admitted as he started unwrapping his burrito supreme, not sure if it would work but it would make it harder for the PRT to sweep things under the rug.

"She also works with the father of Emma Barnes," Danny warned them.

Rose shrugged. "It's still worth a try."

"If that doesn't work, we get creative," Myst replied cheerfully.

"Dare I ask?" Taylor asked.

"There's nothing illegal about placing a call to Boston and telling them they have a potentially compromised department," Myst replied with a smile then started eating.

"Not a bad idea," Danny admitted, thinking about the people he knew that might know someone on the school board. He frowned when he noticed the time. "I need to get back so I can get to a meeting, are you sure you still want to go to the mall?" he asked Taylor.

"I'll be fine," Taylor assured her father, wanting a break from him hovering. "The bus is safe enough."

"Stay safe and call me if you run into trouble," Danny ordered his daughter.

"Don't worry, I will," Taylor replied, not sure how she was supposed to do that without a cell phone as it was almost impossible to find a payphone these days.

"Best of luck," Myst offered as Danny left.

"Do you think there's a chance to get Sophia expelled?" Taylor asked hopefully.

"With any luck," Myst replied as he took his shades off, having noticed the waitress walk into the back to talk to the cook or to grab something. "Do you want to see something interesting?"

"What do you mean?" Taylor asked.

Myst held the glasses out. "Try them on."

Taylor glanced at Rose. "Is he serious?"

"Apparently," Rose replied, wondering if there was a reason Myst wanted the girl to know he was a cape.

Taylor took the sunglasses, held them up and looked through them, noticing the floating cape tag over the guy's head. "Tinkertech?"

"Not quite. Feel free to look in the mirror for your own tag," Myst suggested quietly.

"I'll be right back," Taylor said as she got up and headed to the bathroom.

"What's her story?" Rose asked once Taylor was out of sight.

"Sophia and Emma caused her to trigger, she's their primary victim," Myst explained, finishing as the waitress back to her spot at the cash register.

"Lovely," Rose replied, figuring she'd get the rest of the story out of him later.

Myst went back to eating as he waited for Taylor to get back.

Taylor walked back in holding the sunglasses and sat down next to Rose, wondering how she was supposed to activate her powers. 'Is there a mental switch? Do I need to wave my hands?' she asked herself then spotted the shadow of Rose's hand on the table and realized her power had a mental trigger. She flipped the mental switch before she could think about it, the feeling of wind flowing over her skin for a second before she felt a presence. 'Crap, I probably should have waited, at least I know I have powers.'

'Hello boss,' a female voice said in Rose's voice except it was coming from her mind or at least wasn't coming from the girl that was currently eating.

'Boss?' Taylor asked the voice.

'No clue, I just know that you're the boss and I'm your minion,' the voice replied.

Taylor blinked as she realized she had another switch that would manifest the voice as something, she wasn't sure what and she was fairly sure it would be noticeable.

"That reminds me, I need to pick up my final check from the mall," Rose said, wanting to grab it before the holidays.

"Sure, I'm not in a hurry," Myst replied, then took a drink of his soda, wanting to drink most of it so he could get a refill before he left.

"Can I get a lift to the mall?" Taylor asked, not sure about the holiday bus schedule and wanting to ask the cape some questions since he knew she was a cape thanks to the glasses and he obviously didn't like Emma or Sophia. Friendships were built on less and there were too many connections between them for this to have been simple chance.

"Plenty of room," Myst replied, seeing a chance to recruit her.