Mist of Shadows
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Myst and the Magic Shop Part 5
🕑 Added 2022-04-30 02:53:29 +0000 UTC"Are you sure she's up?" Hal asked.
"I doubt she'll be able to sleep through the sun hitting her," Kara replied as she knocked on the door, unwilling to admit that she'd already checked with her X-ray vision and found her standing in front of the mirror in a pair of pajama bottoms staring at her reflection.
"Just a minute," Myst called out as he pulled his attention away from the bathroom mirror and pulled his t-shirt over his head, curious how long it would take before he got used to seeing a teenage girl in the mirror.
He yawned as he walked out of the bathroom and over to the door, doing his best to avoid the various chests they'd brought into the room before he'd crashed out. "Probably just Kara," he muttered then blinked when the door to the hallway faded out for a second, taking on the appearance of slightly cloudy glass and letting him see Kara and Hal standing on the other side of the door for two seconds before the door flickered and went back to looking like a 'normal' steel door. 'Full color? That's better than I was expecting,' he mused as he opened the door, hoping Hal had some good news for him but not really expecting it.
“Hal agreed to swing by," Kara said as soon as Myst opened the door to let them in.
“Thanks," Myst replied as he stepped out of the way so they could come inside, glad that Kara was taking an interest in his safety and wasn't pulling the shit from Young Justice where Clark basically ignored Connor.
Hal raised the hand with his ring and scanned Myst, curious what he'd find. "Run a comparison," he told his ring.
"No trace of genetic damage remains, the subject is in excellent health for a Kryptonian under yellow sunlight," the ring replied in a gender neutral and almost monotone voice.
"That's a relief," Myst admitted, his lips twisting up in a smile as the reality sunk in and he realized that he wasn't going to fall apart or go insane thanks to a bunch of mad scientists screwing things up. "Are you on duty?"
"Why?" Hal asked, not sure why Myst was asking.
"Because it's generally good manners to give someone a gift when they do you a favor and I happen to have an excess of alcohol that I don't have a use for," Myst replied as he walked over, opened one the chest and started pulling hand crafted bottles of wine and brandy out of a chest.
"Not a fan?" Hal asked.
"Not particularly," Myst replied with a shrug. "Even if we ignore the fact that I'm a teenager, you can use grapes from the other world to make magical potions which means there's a chance the alcohol has enough magic in it to get me drunk, getting an untrained kryptonian drunk sounds like a remarkably stupid idea."
Kara winced as she thought about her own experience with magical alcohol that had resulted in her ending up dancing in a stripclub with Lena and spawning a webpage dedicated to Supergirl look-alikes, much to Diana's amusement. "We'll have to run some tests or have Giovanni check."
"Or I could just scan them," Hal replied as he pointed his ring at the bottles of alcohol and scanned them, not particularly surprised that some of the bottles almost matched some alien alcohol while some of them were close enough that they could have come from Earth if you ignored the fact that some of them had an easily detectable amount of magic in them. "Most of them are infused with traces of magic, do you have a stack of sticky notes?"
Myst gestured towards the desk. "There should be some tape, feel free to write notes."
"Happy to help," Hal replied as he walked over and grabbed a pen and some masking tape off the desk. "Have you figured out a way to duplicate the potions?"
"Not yet. I can get more next weekend but I'd love to be able to figure out a local source to replace the ingredients. I might be able to make them using mandrake root and pigeon feathers or crab shell and pigeon feathers which would make them remarkably cheap if I can train enough alchemists," Myst said thoughtfully, not sure how the ingredients from the various games would mix in practice, short of running some tests.
"Do you think it would help with mental illness?" Hal asked.
"No clue," Myst admitted. "It's worth a shot, especially since I can always get more and Batman has an entire rogue's gallery of people that could probably use the help."
"I doubt it would make them worse," Kara pointed out.
"It's something to consider," Hal said as he stuck a piece of tape on a bottle of brandy and wrote, 'Traces of magic, potable.' He finished writing his note then turned to look at Myst. "What are you going to do for the rest of the week?"
Myst glanced at Kara. "Training. Just because I'm not planning on being a hero doesn't mean I can ignore my powers, after all, emergencies do pop up all the time."
"Not the worst idea," Hal agreed, always happy to have another heavy hitter willing to help out in an emergency, especially if they were willing to take directions.
"After that, I'll probably try to figure out where I'm going to live. I'd rather avoid Gotham and super villains, but that still leaves a lot of options," Myst said.
"Most people with sense or a choice avoid Gotham," Hal agreed.
"I can't blame them," Kara admitted. "Between the Joker and Arkham and the crime that never seems to improve, it's not exactly the safest place to live."
"Can your ring scan for magic and underground bunkers?" Myst asked Hal.
"Are you trying to get me on Batman's bad side?" Hal asked.
"I'm just saying there has to be a curse or something, how long would it take to swing by and scan the city, you could always hand Batman a map and let him deal with it or give it to Giovanni, if you don't find anything, that would put some of my fears to rest," Myst pointed out.
"I'll consider it," Hal replied, fairly sure it wouldn't take more than five minutes to run the scan and he'd already been planning to run a scan for the alien arms dealers he was looking for, so it wasn't like it wasn't a problem.
"Cool," Myst replied as he glanced at Kara. "Can we get something to eat before you drag me to the desert or wherever we're doing power testing."
"What makes you think we're heading to the desert?" Kara asked with amusement.
Myst shrugged. "I'm assuming we'd go somewhere without a bunch of people or important infrastructure to wreck when my powers act up."
"I was planning on flying to a deserted island up north, but the desert is probably easier until we get the paperwork sorted," Kara admitted. "We can grab some breakfast on the way. Waffles or pizza?"
"I haven't had waffles in a while," Myst replied as he walked over to the nightstand and picked up the satchel with his enchanted gear, spellbooks, and soul gems.
Hal finished labeling the last bottle of alcohol and stood up. "Do you mind if I grab a bottle of brandy; my father in law likes the stuff?"
"Like I already said, I don't have a lot of use for it, take two," Myst replied, not in the least bit concerned about the alcohol when he could always get more in a week. "I just grabbed everything because it was there and free."
"Thanks," Hal replied as he grabbed two of the bottles. "If you'll excuse me, I need to scan a city."
"Let me know if you find anything under a graveyard or under Arkham," Myst said as Hal headed for the door.
"I'll let you know," Hal promised, glad that she'd reminded him to check.
Kara watched Hal leave then turned to look at Myst. "What do you think he'll find?"
"Knowing Gotham, half a dozen cursed books stashed away in old collections, a dozen cursed baseball hats and an immortal warlock sleeping under the city or possibly a better idea why Slaughter Swamp is cursed," Myst replied, wishing he was joking.
Kara raised her eyebrows. "Cursed baseball hats?"
"I wouldn't be surprised," Myst replied with a grin.
"Bullshit," Kara replied.
"Do you know how many hats there are in Gotham?" Myst asked, making a mental note to look into a decent way to deal with curses when he visited a D&D magic shop. "They have a magical swamp, there's obviously magic in the area, I'd be more surprised if none of them were cursed, especially considering the team. I'm not expecting relic level curses here but everything picks up traces and if enough people curse at your team, eventually something sticks."
"Wouldn't that apply to every team?" Kara asked.
"Possibly, but you have to remember… Gotham," Myst replied with amusement.
Kara shook her head. "Let's get something to eat before we head to the desert."
"Sure," Myst replied cheerfully, looking forward to playing with his powers.
0o0o0
Myst wasn't sure if he should be amused or horrified by Kara's solution to teaching him to fly, he settled on horrified as he spat sand out of his mouth. "You're despicable, you know that right?"
"Looney Toons?" Kara asked with amusement, glad that Myst didn't look too annoyed by her attempt to startle her into using her powers.
"Pretty much," Myst replied as he got to his feet and tried to dust the desert sand off his pajamas. "Can you explain how flight works before you toss me about like a ragdoll?"
"It's a floating feeling, you just sort of do it, like moving your hand or wiggling your nose," Kara offered, not sure how to explain the feeling in a way she'd understand.
"So in other words…" Myst trailed off as he thought about what he'd been thinking about when the door faded out and he got a brief image of Kara without her clothes before everything went back to normal.
"Let me guess, you figured something out?" Kara asked with amusement, fairly sure it was X-ray vision from the way she was looking at her.
Myst turned and looked at the sand. "How do you control how far you can see with your X-ray vision?"
"It's all about mental focus," Kara replied as she turned her attention to the sand and looked through the first couple of feet. "Just focus on what you want to see."
Myst focused on seeing through the sand and grinned when he managed to 'see' the bedrock under the sand. "I can see the bedrock."
"Pull your focus back a bit and try to see the layers of sand," Kara suggested, thinking about some of her cousin's explanations for how he used his X-ray vision.
"You realize there's no way it's using actual X-rays, right?" Myst asked as he shifted his focus and started looking at layers in the sand.
"I'm aware," Kara replied with amusement. "It's more of a limited clairvoyance effect, but he's been using the term since he was in high school and he uses it like an X-ray most of the time."
"Makes sense," Myst replied then jumped towards a sand dune, trying to force himself to stay in the air longer than gravity should allow.
Kara grinned as she flew over, moving faster than the blink of a human eye then stopping in the air and watching Myst sort of twist in the air before she crashed into the dune in a way she was fairly sure shouldn't have worked. "That looked painful."
Myst closed his eyes then took a breath and blew the sand away from him, causing a sand storm and quickly making the top part of the dune vanish. "Not really."
"One of the nice things about our invulnerability, it's always on," Kara replied.
Myst stood up and shook the sand out of his shirt. "X-ray vision and super breath, check. Flight, not so much."
"You'll figure it out, I think you twisted in the air in a way a human shouldn't be able to so there's hope," Kara mused.
"Any other suggestions?" Myst asked.
"Aim for the ground and miss?" Kara suggested 'innocently', her lips curving up into a smile.
Myst laughed as he brushed a bit more sand off his shirt.
"Don't worry about it, you've got time," Kara assured her. "You should try to freeze the ground with your super breath."
Myst breathed in and blew air out, causing the sand to move but not noticeably changing the temperature. He tried a couple more times before turning and looking at Kara. "I don't think it's working, then again just condensing the air shouldn't cause the sheer level of cold you can."
"It's a mental trick," Kara admitted, then took a breath and blew out a frosty cloud of vapor that froze a section of sand solid. "Beyond a small drop in temperature from condensing the air, you have to want the temperature to drop to unreasonable levels."
'In other words, it's cryokinesis,' Myst mused as he thought about Bizzaro and his flame breath. 'Screw it, you won't know until you try.' He took a breath and focused on hot peppers, lava and firestorms and belched a less than impressive goat of flames.
Kara stared at Myst. "How the hell?!"
"You said it was a mental trick, you can heat things up with your heat vision and freeze things with your breath. I've seen a twisted copy of Kal pull off freezing eye-beams and fire breath, I figured it was worth a shot."
"In a comic, right?" Kara asked.
"Animated movie but close enough…" Myst trailed off as he realized he needed to run some tests to see if he could get telekinesis working, mostly because Clark had possessed the ability in one of the movies and Connor had ended up with the ability in the comics. 'Hey sexy! Sexy girl, can I spank you?'
Kara blinked when she heard a word in a voice that wasn't quite her own. "Spank?"
‘Stuffed Tigers! Flaming water buffalo. Chicken wings,' Myst tried projecting his thoughts, encouraged by her choice of words and the confused look on her face.
"Tigers and chickens?" Kara asked, having heard the same voice again.
"I was trying to think really loudly," Myst replied with a grin. "Are you telepathic?"
"Or you picked up the ability from the shop," Kara suggested.
Myst shook his head. "Not that I know of, which means you can probably do the same thing."
"Makes sense, a decent percentage of the adults back home had the ability to communicate mentally to one degree or another," Kara admitted thoughtfully.
"And you didn't experiment with it?" Myst asked in surprise.
"We can't read minds, just project our thoughts to another telepath. My mother didn't have the ability or she didn't develop it and we don't have a lot of telepaths to practice with," Kara pointed out.
"Telekinesis?" Myst asked hopefully.
"Not that I know of, but I was just barely a teenager when I left Krypton, we don't normally pick up psychic powers until we're in our late teens or early twenties and I had a lot of things to learn and focus on so I sort of forgot about it," Kara explained.
"I'll just have to keep trying," Myst replied, then took a breath and blew out another stream of fire, more impressive than his last attempt. "Do you think I could convince people that I'm not Kryptonian if I get a mask and some antennas that I can glue on my forehead?"
Kara stared at Myst for a couple of seconds then grabbed her arm, doing her best to hide her evil grin. "Are you ready for more flight training?"
"Sure-" Myst replied, cutting off when she tossed him into the air. 'Yeah, I probably deserved that,' he admitted to himself as he crashed into a sand dune. He sighed as he worked on digging himself out of the sand dune, happy that he could see through his eyelids if he focused and used his X-ray vision. 'How the hell can I see through everything but lead? Is it a mystical thing or is it a mental hang up?'
"This could take some work," Kara admitted as she watched Myst dig herself out of the dune.
"Probably," Myst muttered, then cast his levitation spell and floated off the ground when he realized he was trying to brute force the problem.
"Casting a spell is cheating," Kara pointed out after seeing the purple sparkles around her hands as she cast the spell.
"It also gives me a place to start and if I'm working on increasing the speed, I'll probably tap into my own ability to fly at some point which will give me a road map," Myst explained as he started floating forward.
"Not the worst idea I've heard," Kara said as she followed Myst. "You should probably work on scanning the ground while you're flying so you're not really thinking about your flight."
"Might as well," Myst agreed as he flew up higher and turned his attention towards the sand, using his X-ray vision to look for buried treasure as he pushed himself to move faster, trying to move faster than the magic allowed. 'All of the criminals that escape the Phantom Zone pick up flight quickly enough to be a problem, it can't be that hard.'
0o0o0
Myst lurched to a stop when he spotted something under the sand that looked suspiciously like an alien spacecraft or maybe a high tech building with three and a half pods that might be used to produce energy or thrust connected to the side he was looking at. "Is that a ship?"
Kara scanned the area that Myst was looking at. "It looks like a freighter, I don't recognize the species, but it looks like it took some damage."
"Energy weapons or acid?" Myst asked as he looked at the scarred hull that looked partially melted in one spot near the destroyed pod on the side of the craft, not sure how he could 'see' it when there shouldn't be any light but appreciating the ability all the same.
"Looks like one of the engines exploded," Kara said as she scanned the rest of the ship, looking for survivors or signs of stasis chambers. "I don't see any dead aliens which means they probably abandoned the ship."
"How long do you think the ship has been down there?" Myst asked, trying to dig up half remembered lessons on how long it took sand to build up in certain areas.
Kara checked the 'sand' under the ship, finding only bits and pieces of it fused into something approaching glass which meant the ship probably hadn't crashed all that hard. "It would depend on the local conditions, but at least fifty years unless the survivors used something to bury it."
"What are the salvage laws like?" Myst asked thoughtfully.
"Complicated. It's basically a no man's land this far out but the state would want a cut of anything we find or the right to auction the tech to a large company," Kara explained as she tried to figure out the best way to salvage the ship. "We can probably get a permit to dig for artifacts, but you'll want to wait until we get your identification papers finished."
Myst glanced at the surrounding rocky hills, trying to figure out the best way to recognize the area before realizing that everything looked the same or close enough. "Any idea how we'd get down there without making it obvious?"
"Spin around like a person shaped drill?" Kara joked as she scanned the craft for an air lock.
"Does that actually work?" Myst asked, thinking about the various movies where Clark used that particular technique.
"Depends on the ground," Kara replied with a shrug. "Most of the time it just gets you dizzy and dirty and not in a good way. How many hidden mental commands did Project Kr get stuck with?" she asked as her mind jumped illogically from techniques causing dizziness to mental programming.
"In the show where Speedy was a clone? At least one. Lex used the code words red sun to cause Connor to freeze," Myst replied, thinking about the bits and pieces he remembered from Young Justice. "I didn't watch the later seasons of the show so there might have been more, but I think Megan dug everything out once she realized they were there."
"Why didn't J'onn catch that?" Kara asked, surprised that they'd managed to slip something like that past him.
"No clue," Myst admitted. "As far as I know, he didn't bother checking."
"He didn't bother checking a clone that a secret black book project created?" Kara asked in disbelief.
"It took months before they bothered running DNA tests or maybe they just neglected to tell him that he was related to Lex Luthor," Myst grumbled. "The adults were annoying in the show for various reasons. That reminds me, I'm not asking for a name but do you know Captain Marvel's civilian identity?"
"No, should I?" Kara asked, wondering why she was bringing it up.
"Probably," Myst admitted. "Normally I wouldn't say anything because he's a good kid, but he's a child that assumes an adult form with a divine intelligence boost while he's transformed to help him pass as an adult."
"Assuming your knowledge of the world is accurate," Kara pointed out as she mentally reviewed what she knew about her fellow hero, finding a couple of examples that fit him being a child in an adult’s body, though some of those seemed to apply to Flash and Plastic Man as well.
Myst shrugged. "He's almost always a kid and almost always the same person in the stories I can remember. He's a hero but there were a couple of times in the show where his inexperience was a problem despite his intelligence. He also managed to disturb Robin's team by wanting to hang out more than someone that was older would have and they thought he was being condescending."
"Ah, I'll talk to him about it," Kara promised.
"I don't want to discourage him from being a hero, I just figured someone other than Batman should know," Myst replied.
Kara pulled her attention away from the buried ship and looked at Myst. "What makes you think Batman knows?"
"He's Batman," Myst replied dryly.
"Point," Kara admitted.
"I just remember bits and pieces from the show, mostly things that showed up in other stories." Myst frowned as he remembered something else he should check on. "Speaking of worlds and timelines that don't quite match, have you run into anyone named Starfire or Raven?"
"I've never heard of Starfire, but there's a purple haired mystic in Gotham that saved a couple of street kids a couple of months ago," Kara offered. "Why are you looking for them?"
"Starfire is an alien princess who helps Robin's team in various comics and Raven, or at least the Raven I'm thinking of, is a hero with a connection to a demon lord that might need some help," Myst explained.
"Demon lord?" Kara asked warily.
"He's basically a world killer and one of the few enemies the League and assorted heroic teams had to deal with that were only defeated in the comics by luck, chance, and plot armor," Myst admitted.
Kara sighed. "I'll put it on the growing list of things to worry about. Do you have a name for this particular demon lord?"
"Technically, but I'd rather not say his name, he might notice and I'd rather avoid drawing his attention until after he's already dead," Myst replied, thinking of the crap that Trigon had survived in the comics.
"You know how to kill him?" Kara asked, studying Myst's expression.
"I have a couple of ideas," Myst replied, not sure how he'd lure the demon lord to Sigil or into one of the Final Fantasy worlds so he could shut the door on him, but figuring that was their best shot of dealing with him permanently. "If nothing else, giving Raven something that protects against possession would help delay the problem until we can get Doctor Fate back in action."
Kara frowned. "I thought you hated Doctor Fate?"
"Nothing in that changes the fact that he's our best chance if it comes down to a fight and he's going to lose nine times out of ten against her father."
"Any suggestions on how to win?" Kara asked, now sure how they were supposed to deal with someone out of their league to that extent.
"Cheat," Myst replied with a grin. "Some of the Final Fantasy games have items you can use to permanently boost your stats and the Elder Scrolls games have some tricks that might come in handy. I'm hoping we have a couple of years to deal with it."
"That would be nice," Kara admitted as she turned her attention back to the buried ship. "Have you considered grabbing a shovel?"
"Sounds boring," Myst replied then took a breath then turned and started blowing some of the sand out of the way, a touch surprised at how effective it was. 'It's decent practice.'
Comments
Mist of Shadows
Generally yes. Mostly you just shoot for reasonable practice... or how the heck does this work in his case.
Bable Zmith
'Perfect practice makes perfect performance' or something to that effect. 8D
