Taylor Hebert Dungeon Girl Part 39

Vista twitched slightly as she looked up from pushing the freezer closer to the wall and saw a collection of capes standing near the glowing red portal set in the door frame. ‘So much for it making a noise when people come out.’ She glanced at Glory Girl then at the masked girl with purple hair. ‘Probably Neverland and Glory Girl, though her breasts are larger.’ She glanced at the redhead with a dark crimson cut off shirt and black shorts with a black half mask then looked at the blonde girl she didn’t recognize that was wearing a set of white leather armor and a duplicate of Neverland’s mask. “How many capes do you have on your team?”

Amy snickered as she ended her magic girl transformation. “More than a couple, less than too many.”

“Can you duplicate everyone’s power you meet?” Vista asked ‘Gothic’ as she walked over to where the others were standing.

“Maybe,” Amy teased, a bit amused that Vista had jumped to the wrong conclusion.

‘We’re going to have to figure out how to duplicate a couple more power sets,’ Randal thought to himself as he walked over to the group.

Taylor glanced between Vista and Randal. “Welcome to our not so secret base.”

“Thanks,” Vista replied, glad that Neverland didn’t look too upset with her.

“What color is the portal?” Victoria asked.

Vista glanced at the glowing red portal then looked back at the unknown blonde. “Red, what color is it supposed to be?”

Victoria sighed. “We’re going to have to get her better armor.”

“It’s probably just her resistances,” Taylor disagreed, knowing the dungeon was red for the rest of the group other than Victoria and Noelle without enough elemental resistances. 

“Resistances?” Vista asked warily.

“The dungeon is sort of like a video game, the rabbits are just giant rabbits, the fire breathing rats breathe fire and the lightning cats like hitting people with lightning.”

Vista glanced around the group. “Is she being serious?”

“Yep,” Amy agreed. 

Taylor said, “The dungeon entrance changes color depending on how dangerous the destination is to the person looking at it. Red means you’ll probably die if you aren’t really careful. Have you considered armor and some decent weapons?”

Vista winced as she thought about the Director’s rant about the Youth Guard the first and last time she’d asked about getting a gun for patrol. “I was told that wearing heavier armor would invite the gangs to shoot me the last time I asked about getting better armor.”

Randal blinked as he tried to parse the logic. “What the fuck?”

Taylor frowned. “I can sort of see the PR department wanting your image to stay,” she paused as she tried to find a better word than cute or adorable, “approachable but shouldn’t the Youth Guard want all of the Wards in decent armor?”

Vista snorted. “You’d think, but they’d rather pretend we don’t actually see combat.”

Noelle shook her head. “That’s crazy.”

“Welcome to my world, they’d rather wrap us in regulations than give us the tools to actually do the job.”

Victoria looked at Taylor. “Lightning leather?”

“Or demon hide,” Randal suggested, knowing that it was fairly decent protection.

“Demon hide? Vista asked warily.

“You could always go with a combination of lightning and fire leather,” Amy suggested knowing that the combination would give her decent protection against everything in the dungeon.

“Lightning leather?” Vista asked curious about the strange material.

Taylor shook her head. “Before we explain, you’re going to need to promise that you won’t tell the PRT or Protectorate things you shouldn’t.”

Vista glanced between ‘Gothic’ and Neverland. “I can keep my mouth shut.”

Amy nodded. “That’s what Amy said which is why we’re giving you a chance.”

Taylor nodded slightly. “In that case, let’s get you geared up so you can earn some decent weapons.”

“I can’t see the PRT being happy about me walking around with weapons,” Vista admitted.

Randal smirked. “Nothing says your new weapon has to look like a weapon.”

“What are you thinking?” Noelle asked.

“I’m thinking lightning gloves would be a really nice hold out weapon if she ever gets in a sticky situation.”

Vista turned to look at Gothic’s gloves. “Does that mean that your lightning isn’t a power?”

“Technically it just means that we can create gloves that allow someone to toss lightning,” Amy teased the younger hero.

“Fair enough,” Vista agreed, fairly sure that Gothic had just admitted that her lightning wasn’t actually one of her powers.

“If nothing else some lightning gloves would help keep you safe.” Taylor opened her inventory then pulled out her plastic jewelry box. “Do you want a silver or gold ring for your disguise and inventory ring?”

“Disguise and Inventory?” Vista asked hopefully as she glanced at the extremely expensive looking rings.

“The ring basically gives you an inventory like a video game and makes anything you’re wearing look like your costume if we set it up right.”

“That would be awesome,” Vista agreed, remembering a couple of times it would have been nice to be able to wear additional armor or hide some backup weapons or a taser. “Better go with silver, I’m thirteen and most of the gold rings look expensive or tacky as hell.”

“Fair enough,” Taylor agreed as she selected a nice silver ring with an onyx that shouldn’t get caught on anything. “What do you think?”

“Looks like something I might wear if I wore jewelry,” Vista admitted.

“Good.” Taylor put her jewelry box back in her inventory then opened her enchanting menu and started working on setting up Vista’s hero look. 

Noelle turned to look at Victoria. “Do you want to head back in and keep clearing while Neverland gets Vista sorted?”

“Hell yeah,” Victoria replied gleefully as she jumped through the dungeon portal.

Randal snickered. “I’m going to take that as a yes.”

“Have fun storming the castle,” Amy said with amusement.

“See you in a bit,” Noelle said then followed Victoria.

“Castle?” Vista asked absently as she worked on pulling one of her gloves off so that she could try Neverland’s ring. She still wasn’t sure how her stuff worked but the hoverboard worked which meant there was something to her stuff.

“Just an expression,” Amy replied with amusement.

Vista nodded. “Just making sure.”

Taylor glanced over the ring’s collection of enchants then tossed in a crystal with the thieves enchant from Diablo and hit accept. “This should give you an inventory, a modest boost to your physical stats, the ability to always land safely from a fall and change your clothes or armor to match your costume.” She briefly considered telling her about the reduced damage from ranged attacks but figured that might encourage her to be reckless. She handed Vista the ring. “Here.”

Vista glanced at Gothic then slipped the ring on. “Now what?”

“Just think about calling up your inventory.”

Randal shook his head. “On that note, I’m going to give Amy her M&Ms and check on things while you teach Vista how to use her new toy.”

Amy frowned slightly at the idea of Gothic eating her M&Ms. “I’ll come with you.”

“Sounds good,” Taylor said as she headed toward the storeroom door as Randal and Amy went through the dungeon portal. “I’ve got some extra armor in my workshop dungeon, let’s see what we can find that fits.”

Randal waited until Amy walked ‘out’ of the portal then tossed her the bag of M&Ms. “Here.”

“Thanks, what gave it away?” Amy asked as she opened the bag of M&Ms.

Randal laughed as he stared walking toward the cave’s exit.

“I guess I was a bit quiet,” she admitted as she started following him.

“That and you didn’t flirt with Vista or offer to upgrade her,” he pointed out as they left the cave. “I was willing to give the flirting bit a pass considering her age but not offering to upgrade her, seemed a bit suspicious.”

“Fair enough,” Amy replied as she poured some M&Ms into her hand.

“Where are we going?” Randal asked as he glanced at the three paths. 

“Gothic is helping the Undersiders with the rabbits...” Amy trailed off as she saw Lisa and Gothic heading down the trail toward them. “Hey.”

“Candy!” Gothic shouted enthusiastically as she picked up the pace.

Lisa shook her head as she followed Gothic at a walk.

Randal pulled another bag of M&Ms out of his pocket and tossed it to Gothic as she got close. “Here.”

“Thanks,” Gothic said as she caught the candy. “So, what’s up?”

Amy gestured toward the path that led to the Lightning Valley. “Vicky and Noelle are trying to clear to the boss and Taylor is working on getting Vista better armor.”

Gothic smiled as she thought about Vista running around as a cute magic girl. “Cool, I’ll have to give her a tune up.”

Randal snickered but managed to avoid smirking too much as Gothic proved his point about her offering Vista an upgrade. 

Amy ignored Randal’s snickering as she asked, “What’s up?”

Gothic shrugged. “Not much, Lisa wanted to talk to the hunter about learning to cook and I wanted to chat with Vista.”

“Just so you know,” Amy grinned as she used her tiara to change into her Justice Girl appearance, “I didn’t bother correcting her earlier when she assumed I was you.” She popped a couple M&Ms into her mouth.

Gothic stared at Amy’s breasts. “Holy watermelons Batman!”

“That’s the best you could come up with?” Randal asked mildly disappointed.

“Death by cleavage?” Gothic asked with amusement as she pulled her attention off Amy’s impressive rack so that she could check out the rest of her.

“Boobs of Justice?” Randal asked teasingly.

“Yeah, that’s not any better,” Amy replied with amusement as she noticed Gothic checking her out. “The flight is awesome.”

“Sorry, you’re a bit distracting,” Gothic said unrepentantly as Lisa walked up.

Lisa glanced between Gothic and Amy then focused on the girl that looked like Amy. “You’ve practiced swapping way too much, I was sure you were Gothic.” She was still fairly sure that she’d been talking with Gothic even if she wasn’t sure how Amy had changed into a copy of Glory Girl.

Gothic smirked. “Expect the unexpected.”

Amy snickered as she floated off the ground. “Have fun upgrading Vista. I’m going to practice flying.”

“Have fun,” Randal said as he headed down the path toward the rabbit area. “I’m going to check on the guys.”

“Sounds good,” Gothic said as she headed for the entrance to the cave. 

Lisa watched the girl that looked like Glory Girl fly off then followed the girl that looked like Amy into the cave. ‘Ah well, at least they’re having fun.’

0o0o0

Victoria shrieked and tossed herself backwards and to the side when a bolt of lightning struck the ground between her and Noelle causing a shock wave of lightning that tossed them both into the air. She stared in disbelief as a truck sized tiger appeared where the lightning had hit. “Fuck!”

Noelle shrieked in surprise as she tumbled through the air then hit the ground. She’d barely rolled to a stop when something massive pounced on her back, causing her face to slam into the ground.

Victoria charged in to punch the tiger then screamed as the tiger roared and a massive storm of swirling and twisting arcs of lightning sprung up around it. She had a moment to appreciate the sheer beauty of the storm before her shield failed and she was struck with dozens of crackling ‘balls’ of lightning which sent her flailing to the ground.

Noelle frantically pushed against the ground and the weight of the cat as she heard Victoria’s scream’s cut off. She stopped struggling as she realized she was just sinking into the soft earth. She reached behind her and tried to get a decent grip then winced as the tiger dug its dagger sized claws into her back through her armor.

Amy felt her heart lurch as she flew over the first part of the lightning area and caught sight of the Vicky’s unconscious or dead form sprawled on the ground half in a forty something foot wide storm of lightning with a truck sized tiger in the middle of the field playing with something. ‘Fuck!’ She pulled out her elemental pistol and started shooting at the tiger’s head, hoping she could lure it away from her sister.

The tiger twisted and tossed a bolt of lightning at the annoying creature tossing fire at him. He tossed another lightning bolt as the first bolt didn’t knock the flying annoyance out of the air.

Amy tried not to think about what she was going to do if her sister was dead as she tried her best to dodge the lightning the tiger was tossing her way while shooting it with fire. She ignored her flight skill bar increasing significantly as she actually managed to dodge one of the bolts of lightning.

Noelle twisted around and rolled out of the hole she’d sort of dug herself into as soon as the pressure lifted on her back. She rolled to her feet then jumped at the tiger’s neck while it was distracted.

Amy tossed herself to the right and soared sideways and forward in an almost dignified attempt to avoid getting hit again as Noelle crashed into the massive tiger’s neck. She dove toward her sister as the tiger started thrashing and trying to dislodge Noelle from its neck. She hit the ground next to Vicky then broke every rule she knew about electricity and grabbed Vicky by her arm. Thankfully she barely felt a current as she yanked Vicky out of the lightning storm thanks to her gear.

“Die!” Noelle shouted as she slammed her fist into the tiger’s neck as hard as she could several times.

Amy sighed in relief as the storm of lightning vanished and the tiger collapsed and crashed to the ground with Noelle on top of it. “What the hell happened?” she asked as she touched her sister’s ear and checked her health. ‘Okay, minor concussion and some electrical burns on her legs, nothing life threatening.’

“The damned thing appeared in a blast of lightning then pounced on me,” Noelle complained as she reached down and picked up the book the cat had dropped. “Is she going to be okay?”

“She’ll be fine, minor concussion and some electrical burns. What did you find?”

“How to Electrify Your Personality by N. Tesla,” Noelle replied as she glanced at the massive tiger she could see a hundred yards away that was sleeping by an ancient looking apple tree that was only about twice as tall as the massive cat.

“That could be interesting,” Amy replied as she fixed the worst of her sister’s electrical burns.

Noelle put the book in her inventory. “I’ll have Neverland take a look. Do you want to keep watch while I skin it?”

“Watch? Did we win?” Victoria asked warily as she woke up with a headache from hell.

Amy pulled a healing potion out of her pocket and handed it to Vicky. “Here, drink it.”

Victoria drank the potion then relaxed as her headache vanished with the pain. “Thanks.”

Amy took a step back as Vicky floated to her feet. “I think we need some better distance weapons for dealing with this area.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t expecting the tiger to appear in a bolt of lightning or be able to conjure a lightning storm.”

Noelle nodded. “I think we should table this particular dungeon until Genesis gets here. She can create disposable minions to test shit unless you have a bunch of drones that you don’t mind losing?”

Amy shook her head. “Not really, our Tinkers were supposed to be working on that today but I haven’t heard anything, which probably means they got distracted.”

Victoria frowned slightly as the massive tiger under the apple tree opened an eye a crack and looked at the group then closed it dismissively. “Either way, let’s hurry up.”

Amy pulled out her skinning knife then went to work on the massive lightning tiger.

0o0o0

“Here goes nothing,” Richard muttered as he pushed the button on the remote control glove and the spherical hover drone he’d spent the last hour building started humming then floated two feet off the table. “Sweet.”

Kevin looked up from coding the 3D printer for the plastic that would hold the focusing crystal and the metal bit that fit into the electric screwdriver they’d converted into an elemental pistol. “Congrats it didn’t explode.” He glanced up at the clock on the workshop’s wall. “Let’s see if it actually works then we can go see what the girls are up to.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Richard agreed as he started testing the rest of the controls on his glove.

Kevin grinned slightly as the drone spun left when Richard twisted his hand to the right. “Wasn’t that supposed to go the other way?”

“Did I screw something up or did you screw with things when I was grabbing a soda because this worked the last time I checked it?” Richard asked as he twisted his gloved hand to the left and the drone twisted left then stopped exactly like it was supposed to.

“I didn’t screw with anything,” Kevin replied with amusement as he alt tabbed to the program they’d used to code the drone’s remote control. He was guessing it was a software issue since they’d tested the drone earlier and it had worked perfectly. “Let me check the software before you crack the case and check the hardware.” 

“Probably a good idea,” Richard agreed as he tested the rest of the controls, sending the drone up and down then back and forth.

Kevin pulled up the code for the right twist function. “Oops.”

“Oops we’re all going to die Leet style or oops I flipped a number?” Richard asked warily as he landed the drone on its stand.

“The second one,” Kevin replied with amusement as he worked on fixing the code. “I just forgot to change a couple things when we mirrored the code from the left function. He saved his changes then slid his chair back so he could grab his soda and let Richard take a look at the code. “What do you think?”

Richard walked over and looked down at the numbers on the laptop, happy that he’d gotten the math book or it would have been completely incomprehensible rather than slightly confusing. “That should be negative correct?”

“Yes,” Kevin agreed, fairly sure he’d just missed that particular function when he was swapping things over.

“In that case, we’re good,” Richard replied as he plugged the USB cable into the slot on the glove and started the update. “Do you think your new project will actually work?”

Kevin swallowed his drink of Coke. “Eventually. With any luck the mana will flow out of the mana battery in the handle, through the gold wires in the machine and then into the spinning focusing crystal which should in theory spin the elemental blast.”

“It could also explode,” Richard pointed out as he disconnected the glove and turned the drone back on.

“Been there, done that,” Kevin replied as he set his drink down then scooted his chair back over to the bench and alt tabbed back to the CAD program he was using for his project.

Richard smiled as he drone twisted left when he twisted his glove left then right when he twisted right. “Looks good.”

“Good,” Kevin said as he finished looking the project over then hit the print button and selected the superconductor 3D printer and hit yes. “Let’s hope the material boosts the quality of the gun.”

Richard shrugged. “Stranger things have happened. Are you going to let Taylor check it before you use it?”

“Oh hell yeah,” Kevin agreed without hesitation. “Just because we’re Mad Scientists doesn’t mean we have to be idiots about it.”

Richard laughed as he started packing up his drone so they could take it with them to the garage. “Point.”