Mist of Shadows
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Reluctant Villainy Part 15
🕑 Added 2021-05-29 08:59:20 +0000 UTCMyst had a brief second of feeling like he was being hurled by an angry god before he ended up in the void between worlds. "That was unpleasant."
The girl with the umbrella snickered. "That's what happens when a couple of angry angels open a portal through time to a fraction of a second before you're set to leave and don't anchor it to the world."
"In other words, I fell through the portal and you grabbed me?" Myst asked thoughtfully, wondering if his immunity to time travel failed because he'd subconsciously wanted to be done with the jump.
"Yep!" Jump said cheerfully. "Congratulations on spreading chaos and change, you get my vote for being a villain."
"How does his behavior count as villainous, he was playing the antihero all the way through?" the ROB asked in annoyance.
"Do you want the list?" Myst asked, doing his best to sound amused rather than like he was dealing with an angry mob boss that could have him fitted for cement shoes.
"Yes," the ROB replied sarcastically.
"I managed to obliterate the Angel of Destiny's plans for the world by rescuing Billy's sister and drop kicking the Triad into another dimension before killing them and stealing their powers."
"Which is something an antihero would have done," the ROB snapped. "A real villain would have stolen her p[owers."
"Why? The more demons Billy and Christy kill the less trouble I would have had taking over the Underworld," Myst pointed out. "It's always nice to have people you can send your problematic minions to capture. I also managed to talk Piper into stripping and dancing on stage, none of the demons on the show managed anything half as amusing."
"Fair point," the ROB admitted.
"I also managed to steal a copy of the Book of Shadows, something none of the rest of the villains in the show ever managed to make stick," Myst pointed out. "As for the wizarding world, I took over the Ministry and was in the process of changing it into something useful before I revealed magic to the world."
"Which is why the Angels of Destiny stepped in," the ROB pointed out.
Myst laughed. "Getting screwed is par for the course for a villain."
The ROB stared at Myst. "That's your defense?"
"I caused enough chaos that the closest thing that world has to Arch Angels stepped in to stop me," Myst pointed out smugly.
"Fair enough," the ROB admitted reluctantly. "But I'm picking the next jump."
Jump frowned when Myst vanished. "What makes you think I'm going to let you pick his next jump?"
"I have chocolate?" the ROB offered.
Jump shook her finger at the ROB. "Shame on you for offering a little girl you barely know candy, next you'll want me to get into a van in a dark alley."
"To hell with that, I've seen how that ends, the poor guy ends up dead and the demon of the week gets a snack. I owe a guy an amusing contestant, this seemed like a good way to nail two birds with one stone and it's a world he wouldn't mind going to," the ROB pointed out.
Jump rubbed her chin with her free hand as she considered the problem. "Tell you what, I'll spin up a copy of his mind and go over the details but you have to agree that all of his previous supplements count against the required ten jumps before he can spark out."
"How the fuck is that fair?" he complained.
Jump bopped him on the head with her umbrella. "Language."
"You curse like a drunken sailor," he argued.
"My house, my rules," she replied smugly. "That leaves you with five jumps to try to completely corrupt him."
"He's already losing his marbles," the ROB mused. "Fine, I can work with that."
"Good," Jump replied cheerfully then created a temporary version of Myst to hash out of his jump choices.
0o0o0
"What…" Myst trailed off as he found himself in a stone coliseum filled with a mix of obviously inhuman spectators as well as cloaked figures that might have been human. "Huh."
Mione pulled her attention away from the strange man in a blue costume with antennas sticking out of his forehead and looked at Myst. "What happened? The last thing I remember was watching a movie with Sarah."
"I got dropped through a portal and my 'boss' decided to send me somewhere more interesting," Myst replied as he glanced around the section of the coliseum they found themselves in, trying to figure out where they'd gotten dropped.
"Welcome to the Netherworlds’ Lottery Draw," an attractive woman with demonic wings that was wearing a red silk loincloth and a matching halter top announced, her voice carrying over the entire section, "We'll be handing out the door prizes first then we'll get to the main event. Don't lose your tickets."
Mione glanced at the golden ticket Myst was holding then looked down at her own ticket. "Any idea where we are?"
"Several..." Myst trailed off as he used his Precog to check on the rest of his friends and realized they were in Hogwarts and that the castle was on the outskirts of Gotham. "How do you feel about DC comics?"
"Like Superman?" Mione asked thoughtfully.
"More like Batman, the castle got dropped in Gotham," Myst replied as the large floating glass ball of ping pong balls next to the demon girl started spinning and twisting in random directions.
"Could be worse," Mione admitted after a couple of seconds of thought.
The demon girl waited for the large ball to stop spinning then reached into the ball and pulled out one of the balls. "Our first door prize goes to lucky number 4567."
Myst glanced at his ticket number. "That's me."
"Excellent, you've won a rather adorable pet magic girl, congratulations," the demon said cheerfully as she gestured toward her blue skinned nine foot tall assistant. "Just show your ticket to Frank. Don't lose your ticket, you'll need it for the grand prize on the off chance you win."
"Thanks," Myst replied as he walked up to claim his prize, doing his best to ignore the glares some of the demons were sending his way because he'd won the first prize.
Frank grinned as he handed Myst a plastic pokeball. "Gotta catch them all."
Myst stared at the plastic pokeball the demon's assistant handed him for a couple of seconds then walked back over to where Mione was snickering. "Weird."
"Pokeballs?" Mione asked in a whisper, doing her best to pay attention to the numbers in case they won something else but curious about his prize.
Myst scanned the plastic ball, getting a pattern for a pokeball container toy. "Nope," he replied as he pushed the button and opened it, revealing a green gem with fluffy cotton swabs wrapped around it. He scanned the gem for the pattern then closed the ball and stuck it in his inventory, not seeing a point in dealing with a potentially annoyed magic user in the middle of a group of demons.
"4568," the demon called out prompting Mione to head towards the line to pick up her prize.
Myst kept half of his attention on the demon calling out numbers and used his Precog to check on his friends.
0o0o0
Xander felt a moment of vertigo as the world rippled and half the class vanished or changed into strangers. "What the hell was that?"
"What's the matter?" Zatanna asked as he turned to look at her classmate.
Xander turned to look at the attractive black haired teenage girl wearing black robes that he didn't recognize. "Half of the class just vanished."
Wolf frowned as he glanced around, noticing the new people. "Some type of spell?"
"Probably," Willow agreed as she glanced around at the strangers that seemed to be various ages ranging from twelve or thirteen to early twenties rather than the fifteen or sixteen they should be. "Where are we?"
"University of the Unseen Arts?" Zatanna offered, wondering if she should get the nurse. "Gotham?"
"As in Batman?" Pepper asked in surprise.
"Yeah, that Gotham," Zatanna replied with a touch of amusement. "Where did you think you were?"
"Scotland," Selena replied as she turned around and looked over her students, trying to place names to faces and having a hard time despite her perfect memory.
"Scotland? Are you feeling okay Ms Summers?" one of the 'new' girls asked in surprise, having been attending the school for the last two months without any trouble.
"Not really," Selena admitted as she looked at her watch. "We've got eight minutes left and I've already mostly wrapped up the lecture on Defensive wards so we might as well call it here so I can talk to some of the other teachers and figure out what's going on."
"Cool," one of the younger students said cheerfully as he grabbed his supplies and headed for the door before the teacher changed her mind.
Amelia Hebert turned to look at Zatanna. "What's Gotham like?"
"It's not that bad during the day, it just gets a bit weird at night when the gangs and masked lunatics come out to play," Zatanna explained as she put her book and notebook in her bag after clipping her pen to her notebook.
"Does that mean the Joker is still running around?" Xander asked in annoyance, thinking of some of the darker comics he'd read over the years.
"Unfortunately, they keep tossing him in Arkham and he gets bored and escapes every couple of months," Zatanna grumbled.
"Lovely, we should probably check the area for curses," Wolf mused as they followed the rest of the students out of the class and into the hall.
Selena stopped when she noticed a blond haired man in a trench coat leaning up against the wall near the other Defense classroom smoking a cigarette. "Can I help you?"
John turned to look at his fellow teacher. "Let me guess, someone bolloxed a spell and you don't remember me?" he asked once he realized she didn't recognize him.
"Apparently, the last thing I remember was teaching a Defense class in Scotland, now we're apparently in Gotham," Selena complained.
"Drink?" John offered as he pulled a metal flask out of his pocket.
"Sure," Selena replied as she walked over. "Any idea what happened?"
"I'm guessing time caught up with you, I got hired two months ago to teach a class on general magic and what not to do," John replied as he handed her the flask.
"Great," Selena muttered after she'd taken a swig of the flask, commenting more on the situation than the whiskey. "We should probably check with the rest of the teachers."
"Lead the way," John replied with a shrug, not particularly worried about the glitch in time as he'd been told to expect it by the girl that hired him.
0o0o0
Mione glanced up at the large angry looking demon with patchy yellow and green fur as she sort of lurched over. "Can I help you?" she asked, managing to sound a lot more calm than she felt.
The demon stopped five feet away from Mione and smiled, doing her best to appear friendly and failing miserably as her teeth were a twisted mess and her face looked like it had been run over with a steamroller. "I was hoping I could talk you into using your transformation item on me," the demon said in a voice that sounded like she was chewing gravel but was nonetheless friendly sounding.
"Why?" Mione asked, not sure she really wanted to increase a demon's strength or agility or give them more magic.
"I want to be a hero but it's hard when you look like a monster," the demon admitted sheepishly, her words barely understandable.
Mione glanced at Myst. "What do you think?"
Myst used his Precog to check the demon's future. "Huh, go for it, she ends up being a great hero."
"What type of costume do you want?" Mione asked, having read the instruction pamphlet that came with the crystal scepter.
"Magic girl," the demon said cheerfully, still sounding like she was chewing rocks.
"I should be able to do that." Mione tapped her scepter on the demon's hand and turned her into an attractive blonde haired sixteen year old girl with a blue skirt that reached her mid thigh and a dark blue silk shirt with darker cloth over her breasts.
The demon girl giggled as she looked down at her breasts then at her human looking hands. "This is great…" she trailed off as she realized she didn't sound like she was chewing rocks.
Mione watched the girl feel her face for a couple of seconds with a look of wonder on her attractive face. "You're welcome."
"Thank you so much!" the demon said enthusiastically, taking half a step forward before remembering that most people didn't like getting hugs from strangers.
"You're welcome," Mione offered, happy that she'd been able to help.
"4567," the demon girl announced, reminding Myst that the auction wasn't over. He walked over and got into line, not sure what else he was getting as he'd already picked up magic from DC as well as channeling from the Wheel of Time.
Mione turned her attention to the set of silver Celtic knotwork bracelets she'd won that boosted her magic by 50% when the new magic girl ran off to tell her friends about her good fortune. 'I really need to talk to Myst about getting some type of defense against scrying.'
"I don't suppose you'd like to trade for your bracelets?" asked a cloaked warlock with a lisp.
"That depends on what you have to trade," Mione replied thoughtfully, figuring she might as well check as it might be worth selling a copy.
"Curses and books of Eldritch Secrets?" the warlock offered.
Mione shivered, more than a little unnerved by the way he was looking at her bracelet. "Sorry, I'd rather have the boost to my magic."
"Thank you." Myst collected the book on Talisman magic then walked back over to where Mione was talking to the warlock. He ignored the next couple of numbers that weren't his or Mione's as he checked the future on the off chance that they traded the warlock the bracelet. 'Yeah, I don't need you killing your rival after burning down an orphanage to lure him into a fight.'
Mione barely kept herself from sighing in relief when she saw Myst reached her and the warlock took a step back. "What do you think, is it worth trading?"
"Maybe but we're not making any trades until we're done collecting everything," Myst replied as he scanned his talisman book. "I'd hate to trade something that makes something else better," he added as he stuck the talisman book in his inventory, looking forward to using it.
"4568!" the demon girl called out a bit louder than the previous numbers, having noticed the warlock harassing the witch.
"Excuse me," Mione said as she headed over to the line to grab her next prize, relieved to get away from the man that gave her the shivers.
"Keep my offer in mind," the warlock said as he studied Myst's less than impressive outfit, wondering why someone would wear jeans and a t-shirt to a once in a lifetime event. "I don't suppose you want to sell the demonic assistant you won?"
"Sorry, I don't trade in souls and I doubt you'd pay her a fair wage," Myst replied with a shrug, not at all interested in selling her contract before he even talked to the girl.
"Pay her?" the warlock asked as he stared at Myst in confusion. "She's a slave."
Myst shook his head. "Which just means that I'm freeing her or working out a deal when I get the chance."
"Ah, right you're one of those," the warlock replied as he walked away, his cloak billowing like a two-bit edge lord.
'Never summon anything you can't put down and never do anything you can't live with,' Myst mused as he waited for Hermione to get back with her potted tree she was hauling over. He scanned the tree and smiled when he got several patterns, a general magical plant pattern that should let him create a plants that imbued fruit with magic, a pattern for a tree that cleansed the land and a pattern for the Tree of Purification that purified dark magic and condensed it into apples of minor godhood as well as an unlock for corruption resistant plants that looked useful.
"4579!" the demon girl running the raffle shouted. "And that's the last door prize. Just in time, please direct your attention to the arena where they'll be handing out the main prizes shortly."
Mione set the plant down next to Myst. "You could have helped."
Myst glanced at Mione's watch. "You could have just dropped it in your inventory."
Mione reached down and moved the potted tree into her watch's inventory. "You saw nothing."
Myst grinned at Mione. "Tree of Purification?"
"Yeah, it should keep the garden nice and clean," Mione replied, having noticed that some of the demons were paying a bit too much attention to their purchases.
"Always nice," Myst replied as he turned his attention towards the arena where the announcer was starting his spiel. 'I'm getting 50% more from flaws, so there's a chance Jump gave me a world but there's also a decent chance she didn't. Hopefully I'll at least win the Fusion Toad so I can test it,' he mused, not sure if any of the items from his story were actually on offer but rather excited about the possibility of making some trades or copying some decent magical items or powers.
"What's the chance of actually winning something from the grand prize?" Mione asked as she turned her attention towards the wooden stand in the arena where a couple of demon girls were finishing setting things up.
"No clue," Myst admitted, not sure how Jump had spent his points or if it was possible to win based on pure luck. "Either way, it shouldn't take all that long."
"Good," Mione agreed, hoping her daughter was still sleeping and wasn't getting into mischief.
Myst wasn't particularly surprised that the first prize went to someone that looked like River from Serenity or even that the hulking Balrog knockoff won the copy of Alderaan. 'Next up should be Superman's powers.'
"The next prize is truly a treat, the powers of the Kryptonian Sun god or at least the Man of Steel and Legend of Earth, Superman!" the demon with the microphone announced, causing the crowd to roar. "13536 come on down!"
Myst watched the nearly naked demon girl with far too many piercings jump out of the stadium and run over to the platform to claim her prize. 'At least she didn't waste points on his powers.'
"Next we have a fusion toad, a once in a lifetime event for most of you poor souls," the announcer shouted, causing the crowd to go wild.
"Fusion toad?" Mione asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Would number 4568 please come down and get their fusion toad!" the announcer shouted, saving Myst from answering.
"Nice." Mione used the Metamorph ability she'd copied to change her features then flew down to claim her prize, figuring she didn't want a couple hundred people coming after her to claim the prize if the crowd was going that wild over it.
'Here's hoping I win a world,' Myst mused as he watched Hermione fly down to the platform to claim her prize. The next couple of dozen items weren't particularly interesting, being mostly Japanese magical items from various anime or porn videos or at least that was where he was assuming some of the creepy magical items came from.
"Next we have the first step on the path to ultimate power, Power Copying!" the announcer cheered, causing the crowd to scream in excitement.
'I don't think I captured the sheer enthusiasm in my story,' Myst mused as he waited for the screams to die down. 'Then again, that was a story, this was real.'
"4567! Would 4567 please come down to the platform to collect their prize," the announcer shouted over the people that were still rumbling about the prize. "I repeat, 4567!"
Myst glanced at his ticket to make sure he had the right number then changed his appearance a bit and flew down to the wooden platform, looking forward to being able to hand out an immunity to scrying to his friends or at least a power that would keep everyone else from scrying on them.
One of the scantily clad demonic assistants held out her hand towards Myst. "Ticket please."
Myst glanced at the announcer then handed the assistant the ticket after she nodded. "Here."
The assistant grinned as she handed Myst a small green crystal. "You're lucky, power copying is awesome."
Myst took the crystal and stared in surprise when it melted into his hand and vanished before he had a chance to scan it. 'Ah well, I can always just share it.' He accepted the pamphlet the demon handed him and flew over towards where Mione was talking with some of the other winners.
"Is the power copying as good as they were making it out to be?" River asked.
"I'm guessing it depends on your dimension and what you have access to," Myst replied as he quickly flipped through the pamphlet to make sure there weren't any dire warnings or restrictions on using the power then stuck it in his inventory for later when he had a chance to sit down and study it.
River glanced at the gold ring with an emerald frog that Mione was wearing. "In other words, I got lucky getting a ship."
"Probably," Myst agreed as one of the demonic assistants walked over to the group.
"Can I get a ride out of here?" the large demon that won Alderaan asked hopefully.
"Of course," the demonic assistant replied as she gestured and created a swirling purple portal next to her that looked large enough to drive a truck through. "Just step through the portal and you'll be returned to the world we collected you from."
"What about the rest of us?" one of the other contestants asked.
"As I said, just walk through and you'll end up where you're supposed to," the demon girl replied. "Either way, thank you for participating in the Underworld Raffle and best of luck surviving the waves of jealous demons that are probably going to try to track you down."
"Vera is going to get a workout," River mused thoughtfully.
"Horde of demons?" one of the other contestants asked warily.
"You won something fantastic which means people are going to try to steal it, the Underworld Lottery is under no obligation to make sure you survive," the assistant replied with a shrug.
"Great," the guy muttered then walked through the portal figuring he might as well try to get a head start.
"I doubt a lot of demons are going to come after him for a desert vacation home but you never know," the assistant mused then looked at Myst. "You're probably in the most danger of demons and unscrupulous warlocks trying to track you down."
"It wouldn't be the first time I've pissed off a group of demons," Myst admitted as he used his Precog to check River's future, curious how much trouble she was going to run into from the random demons. 'Huh, one of them gets Kaylee? To hell with that.' He swapped his Precog for Creation and copied Missy's stealth cloak. He held it out towards River. "You're probably going to want this."
River glanced at Mione then looked back at the dark grey and black cloak Myst was holding. "What does it do?"
"It's a stealth cloak and protects against scrying and various forms of detection which should help keep you safe, give it a couple of months and they'll probably forget about you or assume that someone else already stole your ship." Myst glanced at the demonic assistant. "Is there someone neutral that can verify the cloak?"
The demonic assistant grinned as she walked over and examined the cloak. "Impressive workmanship, it should keep everyone from finding you while you're wearing it and let you turn invisible and move silently."
"How much?" River asked warily.
"Don't worry about it, just give Jayne a heart attack or two and by that I mean scare the hell out of him and I'll call it even," Myst replied with amusement.
"Can do," River replied with a grin that almost made Myst feel sorry for Jayne. He created a sphere of biokinesis and held it out. "Would you like biokinesis?"
"Yes," River replied matter of factly.
"If you're just handing out powers, can the rest of us get some?" a fat teenager demanded.
"Sorry, I've seen her captain before," Myst replied as he handed River the sphere. "Just think about absorbing it." He waited until the sphere vanished then used his Skill Manipulation power to give her the 'basics' so she could heal herself and others as well as manipulate their biology.
"Thank you," River replied as she stepped forward and hugged him. "Bye now."
Myst watched with amusement as she ran through the portal. "That should toss a monkey wrench in things." He turned to look at Mione. "Ready?"
"Ready," Mione replied as she grabbed his hand.
Myst stepped through the portal and frowned when the first thing he heard when they appeared in an old fashioned looking town was screams and the first thing he saw was a large half human eagle headed monster with an axe charging at him. "So much for Gotham," he muttered as he conjured a sword and charged the shadowspawn.
Mione quickly turned around to check to make sure something wasn't sneaking up on them. She conjured a ball of fire and tossed it at the strange goat headed creature that was trying to haul a woman out of a house, causing it to drop the woman and start trying to put the flames out.
Myst stopped when he caught a mental voice thinking about the town's name and the date, mostly because they were thinking about the winter celebration. "Emond's Field, which explains the trollocs," he muttered as he swapped out his Creation power for a ranged blaster power that healed anything living that wasn't tainted by the shadow and used his Metamorph power to change into a tall woman. "New plan, we save the town then we check on Sarah."
"Sounds good," Mione agreed as she tossed a fireball at one of the monsters, causing it to snarl and charge her. "Die already," she complained as she tossed another fireball at it.
Myst quickly flew up a mile above the town then blasted the land with his new power, causing a blast of 'holy' light that swept through the town and healed everyone that wasn't touched by the shadow.
Mione stared as the trollocs turned to dust as the wave of light struck them. "Show off."
Myst snickered as he dark orbed back down to where Mione was standing. "That should take care of everything in the region."
"Region?" Mione asked with a raised eyebrow.
"It's a cosmic blast, I could crack continents," Myst replied absently as he started using pyrokinesis to put the various fires out as he headed toward the two story stone building he could see in the distance.
"Yeah, because that's not terrifying," Mione muttered as she followed him through the streets of the old fashioned looking town, trying not to think about someone evil and insane getting his powers if he failed to spark.
Comments
Mist of Shadows
Basically yes.
Alex Wierzbicki
So River got Romy?
