Boosted Villainy Part 7 (Patreon)

Taylor glanced around the interior of the brand new RV then took a seat on the bench. "You can boost things and make things like Dauntless?"

"Basically," Myst agreed as he stepped into the RV and closed the door to keep the heat in.

"Why are you so open about being a parahuman?" Taylor asked.

"I'm trying to form a group of parahumans that want to avoid getting press ganged by the gangs," Myst admitted.

"How many have you recruited so far?" Taylor asked.

"We have three total so far, but I just started yesterday so we're doing pretty good," Myst replied.

"So you're rogues?" Taylor asked.

"Basically, we're just making sure we have a support network," Myst explained. “My plan is to find a legal way to make money and undercut the gangs. Think economic warfare. Attacking them physically hasn’t done anything so I want to strike at their pocketbooks.”

"How?" Taylor asked.

"One of my ideas involves making a device to make medicine to get people off drugs and pass it off as a way for them to pass drug tests, mostly because they'll actually be clean," Myst replied. "I have a feeling that a decent percentage of the people won't go back to drugs and the rest would be safer."

"How long would that take?" Taylor asked.

"About thirty seconds," Myst replied as he grabbed a Yoda pez dispenser from the package that Uber had given him and used his power to give it the ability to turn a stack of pez candy a day into magical pills that will cure someone of their current addictions and flush any toxins out of their system. He focused on the Yoda dispenser and boosted it, causing twenty of the other dispensers to vanish from the package. He boosted it again, causing another twenty dispensers to vanish. "We should be up to four, you have the glasses, can you check it?"

Taylor held up the sunglasses and checked the dispenser. "It can change up to four stacks of magical candies a day into pills that cure addiction and remove toxins from your system. It only makes four stacks?"

"Currently," Myst replied as he boosted it again. "Eight?"

"Eight…" Taylor trailed off as it jumped to sixteen stacks then thirty two as more of the dispensers vanished. "Sixty four?"

"I ran out of dispensers and that should be," Myst replied, doing the math in his head, "768 pills a day."

"Is that enough?" Taylor asked as Rose started the RV.

"We'll be building up a supply while word gets around," Myst said. "It might take a couple of days for word to get around but eventually, it should cut into their business without them even realizing it."

Taylor blinked when she noticed the description of Myst's gloves. "You have power copying gloves?"

"I need to upgrade them a couple more times before they're actually useful and I doubt they'll be useful in combat without a lot of work but I'm hoping I can recruit a brute to share their durability," Myst admitted.

"You're planning on passing the gloves around?" Taylor asked as the RV started moving.

"That's the idea," Myst agreed. "Being a cape is dangerous, between the gangs and the endbringers, most Independent capes don't last a year. I'm trying to fix that or at least make sure we have a better chance."

"And we need to share powers?" Taylor asked.

Myst shook his head. "Nope, no dues or anything either. We're basically just setting up a support network. If you want to target a gang, I can help. If you want to make some money on the side, we can probably help set everything up."

"Just like that?" Taylor asked.

“Just like that,” he assured her. “We aren’t going to avoid the gangs by becoming them, that would kind of defeat the purpose.”

Taylor frowned when she tried to make a clone of Myst and her power failed. 'Huh, my power might not work on parahumans.'

'Or because he's a trump,' T.S. Rose replied.

'I'll have to try it on another cape,' Taylor replied. 'Do you know everything your original does?'

'As far as I know,' T.S. Rose replied.

'That means Emma's shadow should know why she turned into a bitch,' Taylor thought as she asked him, "Do you have any idea what my power actually is?"

Myst shrugged. "The glasses said multitasking, shadow army and mental improvement. I'm guessing the multitasking ability means a lot of parallel processing or multiple lines of thought. The shadow army bit probably has something to do with making minions or possibly controlling people with their shadows. I'm not sure about the mental improvement, do you feel smarter?"

"Not really, but I haven't done anything that requires stretching my mind, other than creating a shadow of…" Taylor trailed off when she realized she forgot to ask their names. "Can I get some names here?"

"Myst and Rose," Myst replied.

"I might have an idea on the shadow army thing." Taylor flipped the other mental switch, causing a naked Rose to appear in front of her. "Huh…"

Rose blinked when she looked in the mirror and noticed a naked version of her standing in the back of the RV. "Is that a naked version of me?"

T.S. Rose waved at Rose. "Yes."

"Cool," Rose replied as she put her eyes back on the road, only glancing at the mirror occasionally.

'Do I look away or just enjoy the view?' Myst asked himself as he checked the copy to see if there was a tell or something that screamed clone.

"Looks normal to me," Myst said.

"I think the word you're looking for is exceptional," Rose called out.

"Exactly." S. Rose said as she sat down on the bench next to Taylor. "So, what's next?"

"Any idea how to practice the multitasking?" Taylor asked.

"See if you can read different things when we find some books, pat your head and rub your stomach, we might need to find some puzzles or something that you can do at the same time," Myst suggested.

Taylor reached up and patted her head and rubbed her stomach without a problem. "Not sure this proves anything."

Myst grabbed two of the notebooks and a pair of pens and handed them to Taylor. "Try writing different things?"

Taylor put the note books on the table in front of her and opened them to a blank page. "Any ideas?"

"Write about taking your dog on a walk and your cat to the store," Myst suggested, curious if she'd mix things up or be able to do it at all.

0o0o0

After some tests, Myst was reasonably sure that Taylor had some measure of superhuman or at least enhanced multitasking as she could write two stories at once, tap a halfway decent tune with her foot and hum a different tune at the same time, something that would have taken years of training to even have a chance of pulling it off.

"We're almost there, you should probably make my shadow vanish again," Rose called out as she pulled into the mall parking lot, not particularly interested in getting harassed by anyone that saw a naked version of her walking around.

"Have fun storming the castle," T.S. Rose offered as she waved at Rose.

"Thanks," Rose replied, hoping she could pick up her last check without too much hassle.

Taylor flipped the mental switch in her head, causing the copy of Rose to vanish. "Easy."

"Where are we heading first?" Rose asked, trying to figure out where to park.

"I want to hit Walmart and pick up some disposable gloves for cheap but I'm easy," Myst replied.

"I'm just killing time," Taylor admitted.

"Walmart it is," Rose said cheerfully as she headed towards Walmart, glad that the mini RV wasn't the size of an actual RV. "I should have plenty of time to grab my check before the asshole clocks in."

"What else do you need at Walmart?" Taylor asked.

Myst glanced at the mini kitchen that was more of a joke than an actual kitchen. "I should probably grab some plastic dishes while I'm thinking about it." He glanced at the sleeping area above the cab. "And some sheets and pillows while I'm thinking about it."

"You should grab a solar power system and boost the battery," Rose suggested as she pulled into a parking spot and turned the RV off.

Myst turned to look at Rose. "Not a bad idea considering I'm going to want some type of entertainment system in here. We should be able to find extra batteries at the salvage yard which means boosting the batteries should be easy."

"How much does that increase their capacity?" Taylor asked, trying to get a better idea how his powers worked.

Myst grinned at Taylor. "It doubles each time and they should use less charge which means they'll also save energy."

"Does that mean you could boost a couple of squares a few times and power a house?" Taylor asked thoughtfully.

"Probably," Myst agreed as he opened the door and stepped out into the cold.. "Especially if I boost the batteries."

"That would be nice," Taylor agreed as she followed Myst out of the RV. "Do you think you could do that on a large scale?"

"No clue," Myst admitted as Rose got out of the car. "I'd probably need a way to mass produce solar panels…" he trailed off as he realized that making something that turned plastic bottles into solar panels shouldn't be out of the question considering what he'd pulled off with the pez dispensers.

"You have that look on your face," Rose said as they started walking towards Walmart.

Myst grinned. "Shadowmaker's suggestion gave me an idea."

"Shadowmaker?" Taylor asked.

"Would you prefer Shadow-Weaver, Skitter, Shadow Army, Dances with Shadows?" Myst listed off.

"How about something that doesn't remind me of Sophia?" Taylor asked hopefully.

"Skitter it is," Myst replied.

Rose poked Myst on the shoulder. "No antagonizing the girl that can make an army of shadow clones."

"If she hasn't snapped and killed Emma yet, I think we're safe," Myst replied.

"What about Admin?" Taylor asked, thinking about her shard's name and her father's unofficial job with the union, which was basically keeping things together.

"That's the spirit," Myst replied with a smile. "It's short and makes sense considering your powers and doesn't give anything away."

"I like it," Rose agreed.

"Cool," Taylor replied as she followed them into the store, feeling a lot better about her future now that she had people that would listen to her about Emma and that she'd finally told her father and she didn't have to dance around damaged clothes or lost books anymore.

0o0o0

Myst considered getting out of the Walmart with everything he wanted in forty seven minutes a minor miracle, mostly because of the last minute holiday shoppers and the lines from hell. Thankfully the clerk working in the electronics department where they'd snagged the solar system had been willing to ring up the rest of their stuff, mostly because Rose had given him a smile or maybe just because they were buying an expensive electronics system and he wanted to make sure everything was rung up correctly and that he wouldn't get called to the ass end of the store to price check something. "That should be a master power."

"Which part?" Rose asked as they left the store.

"The part where the clerk was actually helpful and friendly," Taylor replied dryly.

Rose laughed. "This isn't the first time I've shopped here, he's actually reasonable."

Taylor glanced down at her lack of generous cleavage. "Pretty sure they're never that helpful."

"Considering he bats for the other team, I'm reasonably sure it has more to do with the fact that Myst bought an entire solar system," Rose explained.

"Commission?" Myst asked as he did his best to keep the speed of the cart down to a reasonable level on the asphalt.

"Yep," Rose replied with amusement as they headed for the RV.

"Okay, that's fair," Taylor admitted as she glanced around, wanting to make sure no one was close enough to overhear them. "How many times do you think you'll need to boost the gloves?"

"Mine? At least five times, more like eight or nine if I want something that's combat viable, which means sacrificing most of a box. We'll probably need a box per person or more depending on what we end up with and I'm hoping we can recruit people." Myst grinned when he noticed a cardboard box of used electronics sitting on top of an overfilled trash can.

"What type of effects do we get?" Rose asked with a smile.

"I wouldn't mind some gloves that let you shape glass or shape stone or even toss lightning," Myst replied as he stopped and looked through the box, seeing several television or VCR remotes along with a couple of game controllers that he didn't recognize and two old headsets that had seen better days.

"Random junk?" Taylor asked.

"Yep," Myst replied with amusement as he picked the box up and added it to the cart.

"At some point we're going to need a workshop," Rose pointed out as she pulled the keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door in the back.

"It's on the list," Myst replied as he turned the cart so it couldn't roll into the RV then started unloading the cart, starting with the solar power system.

"What do we need from the mall other than my check?" Rose asked as she picked up one of the five packages of a hundred batteries that Myst had bought.

"I need to replace a lamp I broke when I had a meltdown," Taylor admitted, feeling more than a bit guilty about the broken lamp and the cracked window that had been the result of her losing her temper and not paying enough attention while ranting.

"Dare I ask?" Rose asked.

Taylor sighed as she thought about the argument she'd had with her father over not telling him about everything that was going on. "I sort of lost it when I realized that Sophia was a cape and that the school didn't care what she did."

"Tossed a lamp?" Rose asked as she handed Myst the package of batteries.

"No, I was just gesturing with my hands and I wasn't paying enough attention, I broke my mother's lamp and cracked the window," Taylor admitted.

"Any chance of fixing it?" Myst asked as he set the batteries on the table and walked back out.

"It shattered," Taylor admitted.

"Did you toss the pieces?" Myst asked.

Taylor sighed. "My father mentioned trying to glue it back together."

"In that case, change of plans," Myst said as he dropped the two sets of work gloves he'd purchased on the rest of the batteries and walked into the RV with the stack. "If I make a repair and cleaning wand, you can probably fix the lamp without resorting to trying to solve an impossible jigsaw puzzle."

"Doesn't that screw up your plans?" Taylor asked.

Myst set the batteries on the floor under the table. "Not really, it was on my list of things to create anyway."

"Does that mean we aren't going to the salvage yard?" Rose asked as she started tossing Myst the boxes of gloves.

"We're still going, we're just doing things more efficiently," Myst replied as he caught the boxes and dropped them on the table, catching eight of the ten boxes she tossed at him. "You need better aim."

"Probably," Rose replied with a grin, knowing that she shouldn't have tossed the last two at practically the same time.

Myst leaned down, picked up the boxes he'd dropped and set them on the table. "There's no reason to spend a decent chunk of energy upgrading the whole RV when I can just spend a tiny amount on each shock and upgrade a wand or a remote to pull off the rest of the tricks I need."

"A remote?" Taylor asked.

"Can you hand me the plates?" Myst asked as he stepped over to the door and held his hands out.

"Sure," Rose replied as she handed him the box of plastic camp dishes. "Why a remote?"

"It has volume buttons." He set the box under the table out of the way. "If I enchant the remote to temporarily boost the volume of a container and one of the other buttons to adjust the weight of the contents in the container, I should be able to make bags of holding that last a couple of months or years just from pushing a couple of buttons."

"That sounds broken as hell, boss." Rose handed Taylor the empty box of electronics then grabbed the cart and 'gently' pushed it towards the row of stacked up carts, wondering if it would roll far enough or if she'd have to walk over and make sure it ended up where it was supposed to.

"It would also let me avoid having to sacrifice a bunch of cars to upgrade the RV or messing with each bag of holding or enchanting something specifically to make just bags," Myst explained as he opened one of the boxes of gloves.

Rose grinned when the cart lightly bumped into the other carts and partially stacked itself. "Perfect. You'd probably have to upgrade it a bunch."

"Probably but you know what else remotes have?" Myst asked with amusement as he upgraded his gloves, sacrificing forty of the plastic gloves to do it and dropping the time he needed to touch a cape down to an hour.

"What's that?" Taylor asked.

"A mute button," Myst replied with a smirk as he continued boosting his gloves, dropping the time down to thirty minutes, then fifteen, then seven and a half. He spent a touch of energy to boost the control you had over what you were copying then boosted the gloves a few more times until he got them down to five seconds. "I think I just hit the cap on my gloves."

"What are the gloves down to?" Taylor asked, wondering what it would be like to have a bunch of powers.

"Five seconds," Myst admitted as he pulled the gloves off.

"That's almost combat viable," Rose mused as she thought about some of the videos she'd seen of cape fights. "We're going to need something to stop precogs, nations would go to war over the ability to make capes."

Taylor winced as she realized the PRT would go nuts over it. "That's a bit terrifying."

"More like send them to the birdcage, most of them are villains.” Myst stepped out of the RV and handed Rose the gloves. "You're first, see if you can copy my powers."

Rose quickly put the gloves on and grabbed Myst's hand. "Let's see…" she trailed off when a floating game-like menu filled with three choices appeared in front of her. "Choose one? Copy Protection, Precog S.E.P. or Let's Give It a Boost?"

"How come those don't show up on your glasses?" Taylor asked.

"I'm guessing they pick up active powers or maybe the 'Someone Else's Problem field' cloaked them, I'm not sure," Myst admitted.

"Which one should I pick?" Rose asked, torn between the Precog S.E.P. field and the Let's Give It a Boost power. "How come I can't copy your Iterative Improvement?"

"Probably because I haven't sunk enough energy into the gloves," Myst admitted, fairly sure the ROB didn't want it spread around.

"I might as well start with the anti precog power." Rose tapped the S.E.P. power and smiled as a progress bar appeared. "It has a progress bar."

"Could be worse," Myst admitted.

Rose grinned when the bar filled up and the S.E.P. power vanished off the list. She blinked as she realized she knew how his power worked. "It basically keeps you off of passive shard based precog, it doesn't help if someone is actively looking for you."

"Can you copy the rest?" Myst asked.

"The menu vanished, let me try something." Rose let go of his hand and grabbed his hand after a couple of seconds. She sighed when the same menu showed up after a couple of seconds with the S.E.P grayed out. "Nope, it's telling me that I'd have to replace the power I already have."

"At least we know it works, can you copy something from," Myst paused as he nearly said Skitter, changing it at the least second, "Admin?"

"Can I try?" Rose asked.

"Sure," Taylor replied, curious if it would work.

Rose touched Taylor's hand and selected the shadow army part of the power from the list and watched the progress bar. She grinned when she got a sense of that part of Taylor's power. "You can make shadow copies of people but only one shadow per person at a time, if they're destroyed you'd have to find them again."

"Can I make capes?" Taylor asked excitedly.

"It feels like it, I get the sense that they'd be weaker than the original but I'm not sure how much weaker." Rose reached out and touched Myst's hand. "Same thing, your S.E.P. field is still blocked out which means it's one power per cape."

"Good to know, you should let Admin use the gloves to copy…" Myst trailed off as he realized that they might have a slight work around. "Actually, can you copy Rose's S.E.P. field?"

Rose pulled the gloves off and handed them to Taylor. "Give it a try."

Taylor put the gloves on and touched Rose's hand, curious what it would give her. "I'm not getting anything."

Myst shrugged. "It was worth a try. You should probably grab the S.E.P. field at least until I have time to improve the gloves."

"Sounds good," Taylor agreed as she touched Myst's hand and selected his S.E.P. field. "Do you think you can find a brute?"

"Eventually," Myst replied with a grin. "On that note, we should probably lock up and get Rose her check then wander around, maybe we'll get lucky and run into a cape, it's the holiday season."

"Hopefully, I should still have time to grab it before the idiot shows up," Rose said as she shut and locked the door.