Patchwork Part 2

"This is bullshit," Greg Veder complained as he glared at his reflection in the hallway mirror, not seeing any changes from his normal appearance. "I get dropped in a new world and I don't even get powers," he complained, annoyed that he hadn't heard anything from the strange voice after it had told him that the world merger was complete. 

"Patch notes? System?" he asked for at least the dozenth time since getting the message and finding out that it wasn't a delusion because everyone was talking about it on the boards. "So unfair," he complained as he walked down the hallway and into his room.

He flopped down in front of his computer and looked at the thread that was about people getting powers thanks to the voice. "Maybe we have to do a quest to unlock something," he mused as he clicked on the short clip that Imp_of_the_Perverse had posted in the thread. He stared at the clip that showed a dark skinned girl in a monster mask turning her arm invisible and picking up a can of coke. "That would be awesome."

"I'd take just about anything," Greg muttered as he skimmed over the post from someone that had gotten banned for offering to unlock people's chakras for a hundred dollars without any proof that he could actually give people powers. "Nobody's that stupid."

He checked the next video that someone named Crazy_Pants had posted and stared at the topless and busty red haired girl that was wearing a smiling theater mask and a pair of rainbow colored knee length shorts that were changing colors as he watched. He glanced at the white sheet that she'd obviously pinned against a wall so that there wouldn't be anything recognizable in the background.

"Hello, my name is Crazy Pants," the girl offered cheerfully. "Well my cape name is going to be Crazy Pants because I can conjure magic pants, well shorts that give people magical powers. What type of powers, you ask? Phenomenal cosmic…" she trailed off playfully. "Yeah, no, I'm not a genie. Joking aside, the shorts are actually magical and come with several useful magical abilities, including the fact that they'll always stay clean and they're supernaturally soft. They also come with an equipment page like a RPG and they function like a costume or a skin in certain games, letting you hide the clothing or armor that you're equipping. The most important part is probably the fact that they'll increase your healing rate and your general fitness over time, giving you a small amount of regeneration. Please don't test this by doing something stupid, like cutting your palms or god forbid wrists, it takes time to build up."

"I'm going to be setting up a website for selling my shorts in the future but I'm currently selling them near the Brockton Bay Library parking lot for a couple of hours for twenty dollars, the price will increase once people have proof that they actually work," the girl told them.

Greg watched the girl spin around, showing off the back of the shorts that had pockets and looked normal enough, if you ignored the fact that they were slowly changing colors. 'Twenty bucks for increased fitness and healing, some of the capes have done more with less, screw it,' he mused as he grabbed his coat and headed for the door, figuring he might as well do something productive since school was canceled for the day.

0o0o0

"This is a horrible idea," Taylor muttered as she made her way from the bus stop to the library parking lot where a bunch of people were gathered around a folding table filled with rainbow colored pants. She glanced at the familiar blond girl that was hovering near the table, wondering if the new cape knew Glory Girl.

"Relax, I doubt the flying cape would be helping if it was a scam and you're just one face in a crowd, no one is going to recognize you," Moonbeam assured her boss.

"Fine," Taylor muttered, a bit surprised that no one had shown up to complain about the half naked cape that was selling shorts like it was the middle of a heatwave.

"Twenty dollars and you can have your own pair of crazy pants," the topless cape offered the jock that was staring at her.

"How much for the shorts you're wearing?" the jock asked with a smirk.

"Two hundred cash," the cape replied without missing a beat.

"Be nice, or I'll hang you from a light pole, she's under age," Vicky told the jock that she didn't recognize, making her think that he probably attended Winslow.

"Just asking," the jock replied as he pulled a twenty out of his wallet and dropped it in the cape's hat, hoping the shorts would increase his fitness enough to make first string of the varsity team.

"No worries," Crazy Pants replied as she grabbed a pair of shorts from one of the piles and tossed it to the jock with a grin that was hidden by her theater mask, willing to put up with questionable questions as long as he was willing to buy the merchandise.

"Move along, there's a line," Vicky told the jock with a smirk that made him decide that being polite was a good idea.

"They're awesome and they're magic, twenty bucks," Crazy Pants announced, her voice carrying over the crowd.

Taylor used her Upgrade ability on the stack of shorts when she got closer, curious if the shorts actually did everything the cape claimed. 'Magic color changing shorts… Equipment Page, Increased Healing and Fitness, rate of improvement increases with exercise. Always clean, removes skin blemishes and improves a girl's bust? What's the catch?' she mused as she checked the details of the magical qualities. 

"Damn," Taylor muttered when she read the part about the shorts storing your clothes so you weren't actually wearing anything other than the shorts and an adjustable mask despite the fact that you got all of the protection as if you were wearing everything. 'So much for using the shorts as part of my costume.'

"Problem?" Moonbeam asked in a whisper from where she was hiding in Taylor's hood.

"I don't really want to run around town half naked," Taylor replied in a whisper as she made her way toward the table.

"Nothing wrong with running around in comfortable shorts," Moonbeam argued.

"Taylor?" Greg asked in surprise when he recognized her.

"Greg?" Taylor asked, wondering what else could go wrong as she'd been hoping to buy the shorts without anyone she knew finding out. "What are you doing here?"

"Buying part of my costume," Greg replied in a whisper. "Improved fitness and minor regeneration, there are capes that have done a pretty good job with less."

"Really?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah, Batman didn't have any powers and he was awesome," Greg replied, his earlier frustration with not having powers mostly forgotten since he was going to be able to use the shorts to be a hero.

"Last I checked Batman wasn't real," Taylor replied as they moved a bit closer to the table.

"I know but he's sort of like a Tinker, he uses gear to fight crime and if I put in the work, I can probably make it work," Greg argued. "What about you?"

"Exercise," Taylor replied, doing her best to ignore the way Greg's gaze jumped to her chest, probably imagining her wearing the shorts and topless.

"It's going to be awesome," Greg agreed, looking forward to being a hero. "We're going to need as many heroes as we can get."

"Why?" Taylor asked as she focused on the girl that was floating a couple of feet off the ground so that she could keep an eye on everyone. 'Victoria Dallon: Personal Force Field, Flight, Increased Strength, Scroll Conjuration and Automatic Writing? What happened to her aura?'

"Usually when people get teleported to a new world like this, they have to fight monsters or aliens," Greg told her as they moved closer to the table.

"Aliens?" Taylor asked, having missed most of what he'd said since she was distracted by the description of Vicky's powers. She glanced at the mousy haired girl with freckles that was standing next to the table watching the crowd and occasionally sneaking glances at the half naked cape and used her power. 'Amelia Dallon: Touch based Biokinesis. That matches, weird. Maybe the system didn't like Vicky's aura?' she mused, thinking about what had happened to her own powers.

Greg shrugged. "I don't make the rules."

"Okay," Taylor agreed, figuring agreeing was easier than admitting that she hadn't been paying attention.

"I'm hoping there are dungeons that we can use to get loot," Greg explained.

"That would certainly make getting gear easier," Taylor mused, fairly sure they weren't going to be that lucky.

"Exactly," Greg agreed cheerfully, curious what the next stage was supposed to be since relocating everyone was usually just the first step.

Taylor used her power on the half naked girl standing behind the table, curious about her powers. 'Lacy Clearwater: Someone Else's Problem Field: Nudity. Permanent Conjuration: Magical Rainbow Shorts?' She checked the details on the SEP field. 'Huh, people notice how she's dressed or not dressed but they don't really care, it's always someone else's problem to report or deal with as long as it benefits Lacy, that would make wearing the shorts less annoying.'

"Are they one size fits all?" Greg asked as they walked up to the table.

"Yeah, you can either grab the cargo shorts or the biker shorts, they both do the same thing though the bike shorts have less pockets," Lacy explained.

"Cargo shorts," Greg told her as he handed her a twenty.

"Cool," Lacy replied as she put the twenty in her box and handed him a pair of rainbow colored cargo pants.

"Same," Taylor said as she handed Lacy a ten, a five and five ones.

"Always a good choice," Lacy assured her as she handed Taylor the cargo pants.

"Don't," Vicky told a teen that looked like he was about to reach for the box of cash.

"I was just looking at the shorts," the boy lied, wondering how the hell he'd missed Collateral Damage Barbie floating next to the table.

"Twenty dollars," Vicky told him.

He pulled his wallet out and handed the half naked girl a twenty. "Cargo shorts."

Moonbeam slipped out of Taylor's hood and landed on the table while everyone was distracted by the jock, not wanting to pass up a chance to get a pair of magic shorts, especially since she didn't need to tell anyone that Taylor had created her or that they were anything more than friends.

"You bet," Lacy agreed as she put the money in the box and handed the heavyset teenager a pair of cargo shorts.

"Thanks," the boy replied as he walked off, a bit unsteady from the whiskey he'd stolen from his parents' liquor cabinet when he realized school was canceled and that everything was going to hell.

"Hello?" Lacy asked when she saw the foot tall pixie standing on the table.

"Hi!" Moonbeam said, doing her best to ignore Taylor, since she was probably glaring at her since jumping out of her hood in the middle of town hadn't been part of the plan. "I have ten dollars," she said as she pulled the ten that Taylor had given her out of her extradimensional piggy bank. "Can I talk you into spotting me the other ten if I do a jig?" she asked hopefully.

"Sure," Lacy replied amused as she took the ten.

"Pixie!" one of the young girls in the crowd squealed.

Moonbeam giggled as she started dancing around the table, tossing in the occasional spin and generally having a good time before finishing her dance with a couple of cartwheels.

"Nice," Lacy replied with a grin, rather amused by the girl's dancing. "Bike shorts or cargo pants?"

"Cargo pants, I need the pockets," Moonbeam replied with a smile.

"Pockets are good," Lacy agreed as she used her new power and conjured a pair of pixie sized cargo shorts. She handed the shorts to the girl that looked like a pixie. "Did you get a shrinking power or are you actually a pixie?"

"I'm a pixie, you can tell because of the wings," Moonbeam replied with a smile.

'At least no one connected the dots or seemed to notice that she jumped out of my hood,' Taylor thought as she checked her mana and noticed that her pool was full. 'The other ten must count as a tip, is that because they were a gift for dancing or because Moonbeam charged ten and used it to pay her?' She spent the mana to boost her maximum mana by point one. 'Another eighty dollars and I'll have eleven mana, it could be worse.'

"Can I check?" Amy asked, curious about the girl's biology and brain since it shouldn't be large enough for intelligent conversation.

"Check?" Moonbeam asked as she turned to look at the girl with a bunch of freckles.

"My power lets me see the biology of just about anything living," Amy explained.

"Oh, okay," Moonbeam replied with a shrug, wondering what she'd find and figuring Taylor would object if there was a problem.

Amy carefully reached out and held her finger out in front of the pixie. "You should probably touch my finger, not the other way around."

"Okay," Moonbeam replied as she reached out and touched the girl's finger.

"Huh," Amy muttered when she realized that the girl wasn't human.

"Huh?" Vicky asked, curious why her sister looked confused.

"Her biology isn't human," Amy admitted.

"That's because I'm a pixie," Moonbeam replied smugly.

"Where are you from?" one of the girls in the crowd asked.

"A magic land of forests and glowing mushrooms, I was wandering around when I found myself in your city, it's a bit strange," Moonbeam offered, using the story she and Taylor had come up with in case someone asked her where she was from.

"If you need a place to stay, I've got room," one of the other girls offered.

"I'm good, I already have a friend," Moonbeam assured them as she flew over and landed on Taylor's shoulder, not seeing the point in hiding since Taylor could always just claim that she'd moved on if someone caused trouble.

"Cargo shorts," Aisha said as she handed the cape a twenty.

"No problem," Lacy replied as she handed the girl a pair of shorts and dropped the money in her box, happy that her simple power was making her a bunch of money.

"We should get going," Taylor said as she turned and headed back toward the bus stop.

Greg followed after Taylor, curious about the pixie. "Do you think we can find anyone selling defensive items?"

"No clue," Taylor admitted. "I wasn't expecting to find someone selling magic shorts."

"I know, right?" Greg asked with a smile on his face.

"You're a local, right?" Moonbeam asked Greg.

"Yeah, what do you need?" Greg asked as they reached the bus stop.

"Do you know anywhere that would hire a pixie?" Moonbeam asked, wanting some spending money so that she could buy more honey and help Taylor.

"Sorry, most places that you'd want to work require identification…" Greg trailed off as he realized he might have a solution.

"You have an idea, don't you?" Moonbeam asked hopefully.

"That depends, do you have any problem with being on camera?" Greg asked.

"No, why?" Moonbeam asked.

"I can think of a couple of websites that don't require a valid ID," Greg admitted.

"Websites?" Taylor asked suspiciously, noticing the fact that Greg was acting shifty.

"It's not as bad as it sounds," Greg argued. "One of the streamers I like has an account, she's basically paid to play video games. She flashes a little skin, makes a lot of bad jokes and just collects a lot of money from simps."

"We'll need video games," Moonbeam stated.

"I have a couple of old consoles that I can lend you," Greg offered.

"And that's legal?" Taylor asked, not sure she wanted to know what the last part meant.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Greg asked in confusion. "They're my systems."

"I meant the websites," Taylor replied, not sure why she was entertaining the idea except that it would solve most of her mana issues.

"Technically, they're run by a company in another country, it's up to the people making money to report their income," Greg assured them.

"That would require a camera," Taylor admitted, fairly sure most of them would be out of her price range.

"I'll cover the camera if you give me fifty percent of the profit until it's paid off then ten percent?" Greg offered.

"Twenty percent until we double your investment?" Taylor countered.

"Deal, I have everything you'll need including a stage," Greg replied cheerfully.

"Why do you have a pixie sized stage?" Taylor asked.

Greg grinned as he remembered his summer project. "I tried to make a stop motion action figure video. It's a lot harder than it looks to get everyone to move right."

"I can imagine," Taylor admitted, surprised that he'd had the attention span to make the attempt.

"This is going to be awesome!" Moonbeam squealed. "Can you help us set things up?"

"Sure, my house isn't that far," Greg assured them.

Taylor used her Upgrade ability to check to make sure Greg didn't have powers and that Greg hadn't been replaced by aliens or something as he'd been pretty reasonable and helpful. "Sure, sounds good," she told him, knowing he lived decently close.

0o0o0

"You're way too good at this," Taylor mused as she watched Greg finish setting up the Naughty Girls account. "Have you done this before?"

"Twice," Greg admitted, trying not to think about how awkward setting up his cousin's account had been. "The website is pretty close to the streaming service I use for my gaming videos. Unfortunately, most people don't exactly pay to watch a guy play old games, unless they have some type of gimmick. I could probably make bank if I had a pixie that sat on my shoulder and shit-talked people."

"You know, I have a couple of friends, what do you think?" Moonbeam asked Taylor, figuring she'd have a better idea of his personality.

"Should be fine," Taylor replied as she opened the menu for her pixie bestowal power.

"Awesome," Moonbeam replied as she started dancing in place. "I'll do the pixie summoning ritual and we'll get the party started."

Taylor stared at Moonbeam as she started dancing like a crazy girl. "Close enough," she muttered as she reached up to hit the Bestow Minion power and accidently hit the button labeled, 'Grant Power!'. 

Greg's eyes went wide as a floating menu like a video game character appeared in front of his face and he realized that he knew exactly how to dismiss and summon the menu. "Did you just give me the ability to summon pixies?"

"What?" Moonbeam asked as she stopped dancing.

"Huh, wrong button," Taylor admitted when she read the message that said she'd given Greg the ability to create pixies rather than giving him the ability to summon a specific pixie.

Greg glanced between Taylor and Moonbeam. "You picked up a power, didn't you?"

'So much for having a secret identity, then again he's a gamer, he probably has useful ideas,' Taylor mused. "If you tell anyone…" she trailed off, not sure what the proper response was.

"You'll kill me? Got it," Greg assured her.

"I was going to go with 'deny it', but sure," Taylor replied, deciding that she might as well share notes.

"How does it work?" Greg asked as he looked over the options for summoning pixies.

"You spend mana to create the pixie, you should have a list of options," Taylor explained.

"Awesome!" Greg squealed as he started flipping through his available options.

0o0o0