Boosted Villainy Part 11 (Patreon)

"No flying in the house…" Carol trailed off when she glanced back at her flying daughter and realized that Vicky wasn't the one flying down the hallway. "Amy?" she sputtered.

Amy landed, looking a touch sheepish. "Yes?"

"How?" Carol asked, wondering if she'd found some tinkertech or a cape that loaned her the ability.

"Classified," Amy replied with a shrug.

"Actually classified or you just don't want to tell me?" Carol asked.

"Do I need to pay you a retainer to make sure you don't talk about it?" Amy asked as she pulled a five out of her pocket and handed it to her mother.

Carol took the money. "You realize my normal fees are a lot more, right?"

"I'm aware, cut me some slack, someone doesn't want me taking donations," Amy complained.

"There are reasons but fine, consider me your lawyer for the next twenty minutes. What's going on?" Carol asked, realizing that this was something a bit more serious than a piece of tinkertech she'd picked up.

"Hypothetically, if you had the chance to share powers with the rest of New Wave, would you?" Amy asked.

"As in give everyone Vicky's shield, Crystal's blasts, and Eric's shields? In a heartbeat," Carol admitted. "Why?"

"Because Vicky and I ran into a cape with power copying gloves on the way back from the hospital when Vicky stopped to deal with some gang members," Amy explained.

"You copied Vicky's powers?" Carol asked, concerned about possible side effects.

Amy shrugged. "Just her shield and her flight. The gloves can only copy two powers per cape and I'd rather not have to deal with breaking things or her aura."

"I can't blame you there," Carol admitted. "Did they copy your powers?"

Amy shook her head. "No, they wanted me to ask New Wave about it."

"About your powers?" Carol asked.

"About us using the gloves, everyone picks up two powers and he gets a couple of powers from us," Amy explained.

Carol's eyes narrowed. "Is this some type of scam?"

"I don't think so," Amy replied as Mark walked out of the kitchen. "He's the same person I got the healing wand from and we didn't find any side effects."

"That's a relief," Carol admitted.

"Where's your sister?" Mark asked.

"Flying some thugs to the police station, she should be here shortly," Amy replied.

He glanced over her costume to make sure she wasn't hurt. "What happened?"

"We heard a lot of gunshots and Vicky decided to check it out. She broke the fight up and knocked a guy unconscious that shot at her and she hauled them to the station. I caught a lift back with a friend."

"She left you there?" Mark asked in surprise.

Amy shook her head. "No, my friend was in the area."

"Does your friend have a name?" Carol asked.

"Yeah, Rose you've worked with her father, I've known her for a couple of years," Amy assured her.

"Sorry," Carol offered.

"I might have been a bit checked out but I'm not blind, what's going on?" Mark asked.

"You might as well tell him, we're going to have to discuss things," Carol said, watching her husband's face.

Mark grinned when Amy floated a couple of inches off the ground. "Nice trick, tinkertech?"

"Power copying gloves," Amy admitted, rather amused that her father was taking things in stride.

"How long will it last?" Mark asked thoughtfully.

"It's probably permanent," Amy replied with a smile. "I also picked up Vicky's shield."

Mark glanced at Carol then focused on Amy. "How much did that cost?"

Amy shook her head. "Nothing, I got the healer discount."

"Makes sense," Mark agreed after thinking about it for a couple of seconds.

"Makes sense?" Carol asked in disbelief. "How?"

"There aren't enough healers," Mark replied, matter of factly. "Healers are rare enough that their services are literally priceless. That being said, I wouldn't mind having Eric’s shield or Vicky’s flight ability."

"Amy said he was willing to let us use the gloves to copy each other's powers if we let him copy a couple of powers from us," Carol said.

"Are the copied powers weaker or stronger?" Mark asked, assuming they were weaker as that's normally how that type of thing worked.

"Weaker," Amy replied as she flew down the hallway, stopping in mid air at the end of the hallway. "But still useful."

"What did I say about flying in the house?" Carol asked.

"That Vicky isn't supposed to," Amy replied as she floated back over.

"That's…" Carol trailed off as she realized she hadn't actually made a general rule about it. "Not the point."

"I say we go for it," Mark said, interrupting Carol before she could launch into a rant, though she had been a lot more reasonable lately.

"Just like that?" Carol asked, staring at her husband.

"We're one bad day away from dying in a cape fight. We've taken a lot of hits over the years, if we didn't have Amy patching us up, we'd be dead or cripples," Mark pointed out, more worried about their chosen vocation than he usually was. "This is a chance to stack Neil and Vicky's powers and Eric's so everyone has a shield we can toss up over civilians if we have to and to pick up new tricks."

"Seems sketchy," Carol argued halfheartedly.

"Vicky's fine," Amy pointed out. "We don't have to give him an answer immediately, we can talk things over and give it a couple of days, make sure my flight is stable before making a decision."

"I made enough to feed an army," Mark said cheerfully, still surprised at how good he felt lately.

"I'll call Sarah," Carol said as she pulled her cell out of her pocket.

0o0o0

Brian pulled his attention off the attractive barista behind the counter and glanced at his teammate. "You're looking particularly smug, what's up?"

"Do you see the twitchy guy at the last table?" Lisa asked in a voice just above a whisper, not taking her eyes off the gym bag with suspiciously cash sized bulges that a nervous and garishly dressed teenager was holding onto as he drank his coffee. 'It's like you walked out of an eighties movie and you're not happy about it.'

Brian glanced at the person that Lisa was looking at. "What about him?"

"He's got a duffle bag filled with a significant amount of cash and he's getting nervous," Lisa explained in a soft voice.

"Even split," Alec said as he focused on the man, fairly sure he could make him drop the duffle bag as long as Grue distracted him. "I'll make sure he drops it, we just need a distraction."

Brian glanced over at where Rachel was feeding one of her dogs a hot dog then looked back at the guy that looked like a fashion victim. "We're not stealing some random guy's money," he argued in a whisper.

"He's a dealer, part of the merchants, it's not his money," Lisa replied.

"I'll handle the distraction," Brian offered as he stood up, not a fan of drug dealers at the best of times thanks to his mother.

Lisa glanced around to make sure no one was paying too much attention without moving her head. "Nothing too noticeable."

"Wasn't planning on it," Brian replied as he headed over to the twitchy guy. "Excuse me, can I get some creamer from your table?"

"No, piss off," the guy replied, barely even looking at Brian.

"Chill man, I just need some creamer," Brian complained, doing his best to loom.

The guy scowled at Brian. "Plenty of other tables, asshole."

"You're not even using it, you've got more than enough," Brian argued, taking a step closer and causing the guy to focus on him as Lisa made her approach.

Alec gestured and caused the guy to drop his gym bag as Lisa reached him, giving her a chance to grab the bag.

"Fuck it, asshole," Brian said then turned and walked over to the next table and grabbed a creamer out of the dish.

"Fucker…" the guy trailed off as he realized someone had stolen the boss's money. He spun around and looked behind him where the blonde girl was walking away with his gym bag at a decent pace. "Hey! Thief!" he shouted as he got up and ran after the girl, promptly running into a large dog/small pony that stepped into his way, causing him to bounce off the oversized dog that came up to his chest and tumble to the sidewalk. "What the fuck?!" he sputtered as he got to his feet. "Fucking mutt!"

"Leave Fluffy alone!" a twelve year old girl demanded when she saw him pull out a taser.

"Fucking dogs," the thug spit as he shot the large mastiff with the taser.

The aforementioned dog looked at the man in confusion for a couple of seconds then walked over and sat down by his owner.

"You're," the girl paused when a tall red haired girl decked the asshole, sending him crashing to the ground then promptly kicked him in the nuts, "a meanie."

"You don't tase dogs!" Rachel snapped as she kicked him a second and third time, wanting to make sure he learned his lesson then turned to check on the mountain of a dog.

Fluffy offered Rachel a paw to shake.

"Hi," Rachel offered as she carefully shook the dog's paw.

"Roof," Fluffy replied, his tail wagging back and forth.

"You had one job," Myst muttered when he noticed his shadow minion on the ground as he walked over. He glanced at the floating tag over the twelve year old girl that was wearing a bright purple jacket with strips of reflective tape scattered around the jacket and a pair of aviator goggles. 'Projection, doggie! One of the independents or just a tourist passing through?' he mused as he copied her so he could make a shadow clone. He quickly copied Rachel, Brian and Alec as he walked over. "Nice dog."

"Thank you, Fluffy is great," the girl replied cheerfully as she climbed aboard her dog and it stood up. "Let's go."

"You shouldn't-" Rachel cut off as the dog started running down the sidewalk faster than a car. "Nice dog."

"What happened?" Myst asked as he glanced at the guy curled up on the ground.

Brian turned to look at Myst. "He kicked her dog, my friend objected."

"Understandable," Myst replied as S. Rose walked over wearing a winter jacket and a fluffy scarf wrapped around the lower half of her face that did an excellent job concealing her face without looking like she was trying to hide.

'They fucking stole my bag!' his shadow thug complained in Myst's head.

"I've got a van, we should probably get him to the hospital, can you help me move him?" Myst asked Brian.

Brian glanced at the other people standing around watching and realized that not helping would make things worse. 'There better be a decent amount of money in the bag.' He reached down and grabbed the guy's legs. "Sure."

Myst grabbed his minion's hands and helped Brian haul him to the RV, trying not to laugh at the fact that Alec was following but not helping. He hauled the thug inside then looked at Brian. "I don't suppose you could tell me where my money is?" he asked, getting a sense that he might as well ask.

"Money?" Brian asked, hoping he wasn't going to get killed over a bag of cash.

Myst gestured at the shadow thug on the floor. "I hired him to rob a Merchants stash, things went a bit south with the job, so it took me a bit to get back here to collect."

"I don't know anything about any money," Brian replied as matter of factly as he could.

Myst gestured at the guy sprawled on the floor with a flourish and recalled his minion, causing his clothes to collapse to the floor of the RV. "You were saying?"

"What the fuck?!" Brian sputtered, shocked that the guy had just disintegrated someone without any warning.

"Damn, that was cold," Alec offered, ready to cause the guy to twitch if he tried to gesture at his team.

"Don't do anything rash, we can help you look," Brian promised.

"Nice trick," Lisa said as she walked over with Rachel and her dogs.

"Nice trick?" Brian asked as he glanced between Myst and Lisa, wondering where she'd stashed the bag.

"There's no ash and he's trying not to laugh," Lisa offered. "Teleporter?"

Brian glanced at the clothes and realized that Lisa was right, there wasn't any ash or anything and the guy looked amused. "That was cold."

"Sorry, my sense of humor is a bit warped. I don't suppose I can talk you into giving me half of my money back?" Myst asked as he copied Lisa.

"Half?" Lisa asked, wondering what his angle was.

"Consider the other half a retainer fee," Myst suggested.

"We have a boss," Lisa pointed out.

Myst shook his head. "No, you have a sociopathic snake without any loyalty."

"Who do you think we work for?" Brian asked, not sure himself but unwilling to admit it.

"Coil," Myst replied.

Brian frowned when he noticed Lisa's wince. "Seriously?"

Myst shrugged. "He has fingers in a lot of pies."

"If you know that then you know he's not the type to accept his 'employees' leaving without his approval," Lisa pointed out.

"I happen to know his civilian identity," Myst replied. "If I can take him off the board, will you work for me?"

"Turning on your boss doesn't exactly inspire loyalty," Brian complained.

"Considering he recruited me at gunpoint, I think most people would understand us 'turning' on him," Lisa argued as she tried to figure out the other cape's deal.

"Shit," Brian complained.

"What would we have to do and how much are you paying?" Alec asked, not opposed to swapping employers if he made a better offer.

"Depends on what you want. If you just want to sit around playing video games when you're not looting stash houses, I'll give you twenty five hundred a month. If you actually want to help with various other projects, more."

"How much more?" Alec asked.

Myst glanced at Brian. "That depends, Rachel has her dogs and Grue looks like he'd be a good fit for security. Tats would be a decent person to run the books."

"You'd trust me?" Lisa asked.

"I have a feeling you're trustworthy enough to people that aren’t trying to enslave you, especially if I get rid of Coil," Myst replied.

"If you can get rid of Coil, I'm good with making more money," Alec said.

"As long as I can keep my dogs safe, I'm good," Rachel said.

"Can you guarantee me legal employment?" Brian asked.

"That shouldn't be a problem," Myst assured him.

"Do you know what his power is?" Lisa asked.

"He's a precog, he basically sees two timelines, makes a choice of which one to keep, then his power puppets him through the selected timeline making things match the prediction. He uses it to pretend to be a reality bender. I'd probably get some work done and watch movies or hit the casinos now and then if I didn't have better things to do."

Lisa shook her head. "They have ways to check for parahumans."

"Eh, if you can run two timelines, you simply go in and gamble in one, play to your heart's content and if you make more money than you spend you keep that timeline, if you don't, you go with the one where you went and saw a movie," Myst replied.

"That would be a lot harder to notice," Lisa admitted. "Are you going to tell us how you know what his power is?"

"After he's off the table? Maybe. Until he's dealt with, not a chance, considering he could 'split' his timeline and torture you for information," Myst explained.

"Shit, how many times has he tortured me? No wonder he always seems to know when I’m holding back information," Lisa said, going a bit pale as her power started putting the pieces together and comparing notes.

"No clue," Myst admitted. "More than I want to count."

Brian winced when he glanced at Lisa and saw her face had gone sort of green. "Fuck, if you can get rid of him, we're in."

"What's the best way to get in touch?" Myst asked.

Lisa pulled her attention away from her disturbing thoughts. "PHO, I'll drop you a line, cape name?"

"Myst_of_Dreams," Myst replied with a shrug. "Most of the shorter names were taken."

"Lots of people, lots of user names," Lisa agreed. "Do you need any information from us?"

Myst shook his head. "Not currently, I'll let you know when I've dealt with Coil."

"Best of luck," Lisa offered, hoping the strange cape could actually get rid of him.

"Let's go, I'm getting cold." S. Rose walked over to the driver's door and opened it.

"Good point, we'll be in touch," Myst replied then closed the door, doing his best not to laugh at the questioning look Lisa was giving him. 'Ten thousand a month to keep the Undersiders employed, that's a bargain and a steal considering Lisa's power.'

"Where are we going next?" S. Rose asked as she got into the RV, closed the door and started it.

"Hardware store," Myst replied as she pulled away from the curb. "I want to grab some disposable masks and talk to Leet about setting up a 3D printer so we can make some masks and temporary tattoos."

"I get the masks, why the temporary tattoos when we already have a bunch?" S. Rose asked.

"Currently, I'd have to enchant each tattoo, if I enchant the printer to make temporary magic tattoos, I could just slap a tattoo on the minions and I wouldn't have to care about wasting resources," Myst explained.

"Same thing with the masks, right?" S. Rose asked.

"That's the idea," Myst agreed as he sat down on the bench and pulled his cell phone out so he could start working on a text to Leet about the 3D printers.

0o0o0

'You're stalling,' Emma's shadow told her. 'Just summon me so I can congratulate you on getting powers, it took long enough.'

Taylor glanced at the closed curtains on the living room window and flipped the mental switch on Emma's shadow, causing a copy of her ex-friend to appear in the middle of the living room. 'Yeah, her breasts are certainly larger than they used to be and she shaves, not really a surprise considering she models.'

"Mission accomplished!" S. Emma said cheerfully.

Taylor pulled her attention off her ex-friend's breasts and glared at her. "What do you mean mission accomplished?"

"You proved that you could be strong," S. Emma replied with a smirk.

"Proved? What, the last year was some sort of fucking test?" Taylor demanded.

"Of course," S. Emma assured her. "Sophia didn't think you could do it, but I knew you were strong!"

"Strong?" Taylor sputtered.

S. Emma shrugged, causing her breasts to bounce. "Okay, I had some doubts when you didn't kick the shit out of Sophia but hey, we got there in the end."

"What the hell caused you to go insane?!" Taylor demanded.

S. Emma rolled her eyes. "I'm not insane, I just know that people are basically predators or sheep, you're either strong or you're weak and I don't have time for anyone that's weak."

Taylor stared at her minion, fairly sure her friend was completely fucked in the head. "What happened while I was at camp?"

S. Emma scowled as she thought about the day she'd gotten attacked with her father. "I got attacked by the ABB, they threatened to cut off my ears and scar up my face, Shadow Stalker saved me and explained the way the world worked."

"Sophia?" Taylor asked.

S. Emma laughed. "She's going to be annoyed that you figured it out. Oh well, she'll deal now that you have powers."

"You realize she's fucking insane, right?" Taylor asked, trying to figure out if she actually thought Sophia would 'come around'.

"She's just a bit jaded," S. Emma replied. "So, which villains are we going to attack first?"

"Villains?" Taylor asked, not sure why Emma was jumping to attacking villains.

"You're obviously going to be a hero and I'm going to be your sidekick," S. Emma replied as she made a less than impressive fighting gesture. "I'll need a mask and a costume, it's December and I'd freeze my bits off if I went around naked. I have a lot of great costume ideas and let's be honest, fashion was never your strong suit."

Taylor stared at Emma a couple of seconds as she realized that her friend had completely lost her marbles. "What did you do with my mother's flute?"

"I told Sophia to hold onto it for when you came to your senses," S. Emma replied with a shrug. "She probably still has it, she likes trophies. I figured if anything would push you over the edge it was losing your mother's flute."

"I considered killing you," Taylor admitted.

"I would have understood," S. Emma assured her with a caring smile. "I mean, we had to be cruel to be kind but hey, water under the bridge right, you've got powers. Now no one can fuck with you!"

'How the fuck do I process this, she's insane but… I got powers and she loved me enough to put me through hell,' Taylor thought, not even sure how to feel about her obviously insane ex-friend. 'It's not my fault that she went insane, but I can make sure she gets some therapy.' She walked over to the table and grabbed a notebook and a pen. "You're going to start by writing down the location of any evidence you kept and which teachers knew about Sophia being a cape or any evidence against the school you have and where you kept it."

"Sure, boss," S. Emma replied cheerfully, just happy that she had her friend back. "After that, I'll braid your hair and do your makeup."

'One step at a time,' Taylor told herself, not sure how to untangle her feelings. 'Fuck, I should probably be in therapy, maybe I can copy a therapist, at least it would be free and they'd never be able to report anything.'