Mist of Shadows
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Reluctant Villainy Part 11
🕑 Added 2021-05-15 06:47:07 +0000 UTC"You had way too much fun with that," Mione pointed out, hoping the elder wasn't going to cause too much trouble.
"What made you change your mind about the book?" Hermione asked as she worked on drying off.
"I realized that a decent villain would steal it without stealing it so they'd never know," Myst replied with a grin as his duplicate kicked the Source through a portal into the far reaches of space, forty five billion years in the future in a world the Source wouldn't be able to get back from then quickly closed the portal. 'Besides, it's not like stealing it just to give it back would earn villain points with Jump Chan.'
"Probably for the best," Mione agreed. "When are you going to copy the kids?"
"Now is as good a time as any," Myst replied as he focused on the older group of Charmed Ones and skimmed through their futures looking for useful people to recruit. "A bit selfish and annoying, a bit dim, sex fiend and not in a good way," he mused as he looked through the various alternate timelines for people to copy. "Oh, that has promise, Wolf Halliwell, twelve outstandings on his owls and a bright future," he mused as he checked his powers.
"Powers?" Hermione asked as she pulled her shorts on.
"Divination, Telekinesis, Conjuration, Apportation, Shimmering, Sensing, High Resistance and Immortality," Myst said as he opened a small portal in time to the night before the kid started his sixth year at Hogwarts. He stuck his finger through the portal hovering in front of him, touched his shoulder lightly and created a copy on the ground next to his foot. He pulled his finger back and let the portal close then went looking for more people to copy as his cousins weren't particularly impressive.
Hermione pulled her shirt on then studied the athletic looking teenager. "Hopefully he doesn't flip out too much."
"Hopefully," Myst agreed as he opened a portal to a different timeline and copied the sleeping sixteen year old girl. "Pandora 'Pandemonia' Halliwell, teleporting troublemaker with explosive orbs."
"Let me guess, she's Piper's daughter?" Mione asked as she studied the tall attractive girl with green stripes in her brown hair. 'If the magic doesn't work out, she could make a killing dancing.'
"Yep, Orbing, Conjuration, Telekinetic and Remote Orbing, Molecular Combustion, Healing, Reconstitution, Regeneration, High Resistance and Explosive orbs in addition to the ability to sense magic and people," Myst offered as he opened another small portal and copied her cousin. "Her cousin has Empathy and Telekinesis along with High Resistance."
'And a nice ass,' Mione thought as she looked at the dark haired girl with generous breasts that Myst had just copied. "Honor student?"
"Eleven owls and decent marks before she got to Hogwarts and she's a decent photographer or indecent considering the original is a pervert," Myst said cheerfully as he went back to work skimming through the various timelines.
Wolf yawned as he woke up then frowned when he realized he was sprawled on gravel. "Great, I'm shimmering in my sleep again."
"Afraid not," Myst replied.
Wolf glanced at Myst then got to his feet. "Hey boss…" he trailed off as he noticed the naked girls sprawled on the ground. "Do I want to know?"
"You're a clone of Wolf Halliwell, they're clones of your cousins from alternate timelines," Myst explained.
"Damn," Wolf muttered then glanced between Mione and Hermione. "Are we related?" he asked, hoping he wasn't.
Mione laughed. "Sorry, you're a bit too young."
Hermione shook her head. "We're not related."
"Excellent," Wolf replied with a grin. "So, what's the deal and why are you cloning people?"
"I made a deal with your family, gold for the right to copy their children," Myst explained.
"That sounds like them," Wolf admitted. "So, why do you need a bunch of clones?"
"The wizarding world is filled with idiots, we're trying to stack the deck," Myst explained as he ran a second check on Paradise Halliwell. 'Yeah, I might need two copies,' he mused as he opened a portal, reached a finger through the small portal and touched the dark haired girl on her shoulder, quickly making two copies before he pulled his finger back and closed the portal. "Luring, Empathy, Conjuration, Orbing, Healing and High Resistance."
"Both of them?" Wolf asked, hoping the Boss was going to copy people that he wasn't related to.
"I just made two copies," Myst admitted. "Paradise Piper Halliwell which means we'll probably have to talk one of them into using a nickname."
Mione glanced between the identical girls and Pandora. "They certainly look enough like Pandora to be sisters."
Myst took a couple of steps to the left so he'd have more room to make clones and continued searching. 'Pepper Halliwell, dead at fifteen because of a heart defect and the OWLs causing her stress,' he mused as he checked further down the timeline and looked at her results. 'Outstandings in everything other than History,' he mused as he skimmed over her History test. "Okay, I'm going to need a minute of silence, so hold the noise for a second."
Wolf nodded then used his Conjuration ability to conjure a pair of shorts. 'At least the Boss has good taste even if I'm related to most of them,' he mused as he pulled the shorts on.
Mione gave Myst a thumbs up.
Myst opened a small portal behind Pepper's left leg when she was taking her History OWL, gave her the Copycat power and unlocked his regeneration so that she could copy it. 'Hopefully this works.' He waited ten seconds to give his regeneration time to work then reached through and poked her leg when she was about to make a wrong answer, quickly making a copy of the girl before he pulled his finger back and closed the portal.
"What the hell!" Pepper blurted as she found herself in a completely unfamiliar location with people she didn't recognize. "Why am I naked? Shit, I'm dreaming aren't I?"
"Sorry, it's part of the cloning process," Myst replied as he held his hand out.
Pepper spun around and froze when she saw Myst. "Hey Boss." She glanced at his hand then shook it. "Cloning process?"
"Yeah, you're a clone," Myst explained as he checked her health with his biokinesis, relaxing when he realized she was in perfect health thanks to his regeneration.
"Does that mean I don't have to finish my history test?" she asked hopefully.
"You're dropping it, right?" Myst asked the attractive brown haired girl.
"Like a ton of bricks," Pepper replied as she glanced at the naked girls that were sprawled on the ground. "That can't be comfortable."
"Good point," Myst replied as he conjured a large air mattress then orbed the sleeping girls to the mattress.
"Let me guess, your mother is Prue?" Wolf asked.
Pepper turned to look at Wolf. "What gave it away?"
"Mostly the fact that you look a bit like my cousin though you're quite a bit nicer, she was a spoiled brat," he admitted.
"Different timelines and slightly different genetics," Myst offered with a grin.
"That explains it," Pepper admitted as Pandora woke up enough to look around. "Mom was always lecturing us about the dangers of time travel."
"Hey Boss," Pandora said as she stretched then orbed next to Myst. "Pandora Pandamonia Halliwell reporting for duty."
"Is your actual middle name Pandamonia?" Pepper asked.
"Nope but Piper doesn't have the same ring and I'm a wrecking ball when you let me kill demons," Pandora replied with a grin as she leaned up against Myst and moved his hand to her left breast. "Can I get names?" she asked, glancing between Hermione and Mione.
"Hermione 'Mione' Granger," Mione offered with a smile.
Hermione pulled her gaze away from Pandora's breasts. "Hermione Granger."
Myst gestured at Wolf with his free hand. "Skipping your cousin Poppy, the rest are Halliwells, Wolf, Pepper and two clones of Paradise."
"Why two?" Pepper asked.
"Because she's a naughty flirt, ridiculously intelligent and she's good at giving massages," Myst admitted. "She's also more than decent at combat."
"Doesn't hurt that she's attractive. Are you going to start copying people we aren't related to?" Pandora asked as she rested her head against Myst's shoulder.
"Good point," Myst replied as he skimmed through the various timelines he had access to. "Huh, neat, I found a Luna that could use a hand." He skimmed over their time trapped in the void, trying to figure out when he should grab her.
"Friend of yours?" Wolf asked.
"Just someone I've heard stories about," Myst replied as he took a more careful look at the last couple of months they spent in the void. 'They get a nice quiet year of studying before the walkway to the library starts breaking apart and they move everything to the workroom. That lasts for another two years before the food starts going weird and the room breaks apart.'
Myst moved his hand away from Pandora's breasts after giving her a gentle squeeze then opened a portal into a partially destroyed room floating in a black void, grinning at the two witches and a stuffed rabbit that were having tea.
Luna finished her tea then smiled at Myst. "Perfect timing."
Pandora Lovegood turned to look at what Luna was looking at and froze when she saw the portal and the strangers standing behind it, wondering if she'd finally snapped and was seeing things. "I'd offer biscuits but they're more than a bit stale and they've got black bits."
Myst held out his hand and conjured a silver platter and a frosted white cake. "That's fine, I have cake."
Wolf resisted the urge to make a joke about the cake being a lie, mostly because he doubted they'd understand. 'Shit, I need to see if he can copy my hard drive.'
"I'd love some cake," Luna said cheerfully as she grabbed her stuffed rabbit and makeshift crutch and hobbled for the portal, looking forward to having something that wasn't duplicated and quite stale biscuits that were going a bit weird.
Myst glanced at the spot where Luna's missing foot should be then glanced at the shelves filled with books and notebooks. "Do you need help with your books?"
Pandora glanced at the books she'd salvaged before the library had fallen into the void. "If you don't mind."
Myst gestured and orbed everything in the room to the yard, including Pandora and Luna. He scanned the room that was floating in the void then closed the portal and turned to look at the two Lovegoods. "Before I try to figure out where to send you, do you want your foot back?"
"I lost it when we got trapped, I doubt it would still fit," Luna said matter of factly.
"Sorry, I meant do you want me to regenerate it," Myst said as he handed Pandora Lovegood the cake and conjured a fork and knife for her.
"Oh, in that case, I would love a new foot," Luna replied cheerfully.
"You can regrow body parts?" Pandora Lovegood asked in surprise.
Myst gave Luna a copy of Power Hub and unlocked his Regeneration so she could copy it and smiled when her foot regenerated in the blink of an eye. "Technically, I could probably fix it with biokinesis but it's easier to just hand people regeneration for a couple of seconds."
Luna wiggled her foot and grinned when everything seemed to be working. "Thank you!"
"You're welcome," Myst replied with a smile.
"Can you get us back to London?" Pandora Lovegood asked hopefully.
"That's where it gets complicated," Myst admitted. "I could technically send you back but your house is gone as is the yard and a decent section of the street. The Ministry even looted your vault to pay for the damages."
"Xeno didn't make it, did he?" she asked, fairly sure she didn't want to hear the answer but knowing she needed to.
"I'm afraid not but I can send you to a world where he survived and you're not wanted by the Ministry of Magic for various high crimes," Myst offered.
"I'd get Dad back?" Luna asked hopefully.
Myst shook his head. "I can't bring back the dead but he's a version of your father."
"What happened to his Pandora?" Pandora Lovegood asked.
"Accident with spell research when Luna was nine," Myst explained. 'I really should check to see if she's just unlucky or if she's just taking shortcuts.'
She nodded. "It's a dangerous field. Without Xeno or the Rookery, there's nothing worth going back for so you might as well send us to the local version of the Rookery. If nothing else it will be an experience and give the local Xeno something to write about."
"Sounds good…" Myst trailed off when he opened a portal to the edge of the Lovegood property and saw Missy and Luna playing with a kite while a slightly older Pandora watched them with amusement. "Or not. I probably should have checked."
Missy glanced between Myst and the other version of her mother. "Did you copy my mother?"
"Nope, I rescued her from the void between dimensions," Myst replied with a grin.
"And the naked girl?" Missy asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Pandora Halliwell," Pandora offered as she stepped out of the way.
"She might be a clone," Myst admitted as he stepped through the portal so Pandora and Luna could walk through.
Pandora Lovegood glanced between the loca Luna and Missy. "Mother? I'm guessing things were a bit different here."
The local Luna smiled at her younger counterpart. "Do you want to fly a kite?"
"I'd love to, do you want some cake?" Luna asked, figuring there was enough to share.
"Cake sounds good," Luna agreed.
"We have plenty," Pandora Lovegood agreed as she turned to look at her counterpart. "Sorry to stop by unannounced but how does one explain about alternate timelines in a letter."
"The usual way I suspect," the local Pandora replied with a grin. "Start with Dear Lovegoods and go from there."
"Is Xenos alive?" Pandora asked hopefully.
"I don't imagine he managed to kill himself in the last ten minutes but it wouldn't be the first time the printing machine has tried to eat him," Pandora admitted. "Perhaps we should check after we have some cake."
"Sounds reasonable," Pandora agreed with a nod.
Missy shook her head as she watched her mother walk towards the house with her counterpart. "Why am I the only sane person around here?"
Myst laughed. "What makes you think you're sane?"
"Point," Missy admitted, thinking of some of the fights she'd tossed herself into as Vista. "Where did you find them?"
"Floating in the void between dimensions," Myst replied as he studied the fourteen year old hero. "Is it worse than the Bay?"
"No," Missy replied without hesitation. "My parents are crazy but they're lovably crazy and Luna is great."
"I try," the local Luna said as she helped her younger counterpart fly the kite.
"Have you seen Riley?" Missy asked, hoping someone had.
Myst gestured towards Hermione's house. "She's playing video games with Taylor and Anne, you're welcome to stop by if you want."
"Do you have a floo?" Missy asked, looking forward to catching up with her friends.
"Nope but I can give you the ability to teleport if you want," Myst offered as he swapped his Precog for Creation.
"I'd love the ability to teleport considering I'm not allowed to apparate," Missy grumbled, wishing the Ministry had more reasonable rules.
Myst grinned as he created three wicker baskets with a collection of power spheres in them. "This should cover teleportation, durability, offense and healing, try not to blast anyone important with your lightning."
"Sweet!" Missy replied as she warped space and stepped over to Myst. "How do I use them?"
"Just hold them and think about absorbing the power," he explained as he handed her the three baskets. "The other two are for your sisters."
Missy gave Myst a one armed hug. "You're the best."
"I try," Myst replied with a grin. "Are you looking forward to Hogwarts?"
"More than I was a couple of days ago," Missy admitted as she let go of him, still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she'd been a space warping hero in another life. "Some of the idiots are still giving my twin trouble, despite some percussive maintenance over the years."
"If it helps, you're looking at the new Enchanting teacher so we can probably straighten things out if you want to lodge an official complaint," Myst offered.
"We'll see if any of them got the message. Enchanting? Like magical items rather than charmed crap?" Missy asked as she stretched space and handed both Lunas the other baskets.
"Exactly," Myst replied as he created a copy of the enchanting book one of his duplicates had finished writing with Literary Manipulation and Cosmic Tier Enchanting and Writing skills. "You should sign up for the class."
"I'll certainly try," Missy assured him as she accepted the book. "It depends on my schedule."
Myst glanced at the younger Luna then at the house. "That reminds me, I need to collect a couple of teachers and talk to Minerva, let me know if I need to relocate Luna and Pandora."
"I'll let you know but I doubt they'll make a decision until after we're at Hogwarts." Missy picked up one of the spheres and used it. "Can you give us a hint or do we have to figure out our new powers on our own?"
"That sounds counterproductive," Myst replied as he used his Skill Management ability to give the three girls the basics on controlling and using their new powers. "That should cover the basics, I'll see you at Hogwarts." He gave both Lunas a smile then stepped through the portal and let it close behind him. "That went better than I was expecting."
"How do you know Missy?" Hermione asked.
Myst glanced at the cloned girls that were trading stories then focused on Hermione. "I met her before I got dropped into the world."
"Where did you meet?" Mione asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Camp." Myst dark orbed the group to the other chest where one of his duplicates had created a crystal minion tree.
Pandora grinned when she noticed the crystal tree shaped like an old and slightly gnarled maple tree in winter. "Neat!"
"What is it?" Wolf asked.
"It's a minion tree, it basically lets me make minions or in this case teachers," Myst replied as he put his hand on the minion tree and mentally brought up the interface.
"What do you mean by minions?" Hermione asked, making a mental note to ask about the reincarnation bit later.
"They're basically virtual intelligences walking around in a fast grown body that the tree creates based on patterns I get from scanning people," Myst explained as he selected the Magic Girl template that came with his Minion Affinity for magic girls. He glanced between the naked girl's pug-like face and pot belly then looked at the 'staff' she was holding that consisted of a broken broomstick and cardboard star duct taped to the top of it. 'Yeah, I've seen more impressive attempts by five year olds.'
"In other words, they're basically holodeck characters?" Wolf asked.
"Ignoring the fact that they're flesh and blood, basically," Myst admitted as he looked at his minion's stats, not particularly impressed with her physical stats. "They're basically programs or at least they start that way and grow more complicated as they get experience."
Mione laughed. "In other words, they're like children."
"Or teenagers," Myst replied absently as he compared the girl's stats.
Pandora stuck her tongue out at Myst.
"How many teachers are you going to make?" Wolf asked.
"At least a couple," Myst replied as he looked at his minion's talents. 'Combat Magic, Monstrous Skill Growth, Skill Retention (Complete) and Research Monkey (Minor), could be a lot worse,' he mused as he added the teaching ability he'd picked up from scanning his duplicate and the grizzled veteran template he'd picked up from Moody. 'That's messy, one missing arm, two missing legs at the knees and a bunch of internal damage and her combat talent increases to the next stage and she gets a talent for detecting lies, not bad considering I should be able to fix the damage.'
He accepted the changes then glanced at the mana cost for his new minion. 'Okay, what else can I buy?' He glanced at the mana cost to add his Duplication ability. "Not even close," he muttered as he tapped the icon on the overpriced ability.
"What's not even close?" Wolf asked.
"I don't have enough magic to give the teacher a full copy of my Duplication ability," Myst replied as he looked at discounted options it gave him. "On the other hand, I can certainly afford to buy one duplicate." He bought the ability then tossed the rest of his available mana into increasing her intelligence. "Getting closer to being finished."
"That's good, right?" Pandora asked.
"Pretty much," Myst replied as used some of his duplicates to open portals to Knockturn Alley and scan a bunch of hags. 'Warts, ugly as hell, unfortunate choices in food, bonus to ritual magic, not bad.' He played with applying and pulling the hag template until he got something he could live with then hit the accept icon and let his mana pour into the crystal tree. "Close enough."
Mione pulled her attention off Pandora's butt and looked at the strange 'fruit' growing on one of the branches. "Close enough?"
Myst pulled his hand away from the tree once he drained his mana pool. "I'll need to lend her my regeneration and fix some of her health issues before we go shopping for clothes and supplies but it's a good start."
"Speaking of supplies, we should probably get the girls clothes so we can introduce them to everyone," Mione suggested.
"I'm not going to refuse free clothes," Pepper said cheerfully.
"Do you want off the rack clothes or custom originals by an amazingly skilled tailor that you've never heard of?" Myst used one of his duplicates to look through the various alternate timelines for a high end digital camera that was charmed with magic.
"Custom originals," Pepper replied without any hesitation.
"Poppy, catch." Myst opened a portal near the ceiling of a rather small bedroom in a New York apartment and copied the teenager's digital camera and laptop, dropping the camera into Poppy's hands and the laptop into his own.
"I'll be there in five M.J." a voice said as the door to the bedroom opened.
'M.J.?" Myst mused as he had the duplicate scan the teen's life. 'Huh, Peter Parker, magic tinker and occasional hero thanks to a magical spider bite. Yeah, I'm blaming my luck perk for that one,' he mused as he closed the portal. "How do you feel about recruiting a genius level technomancer?"
Hermione pulled her attention away from the high tech looking camera that Poppy was holding. "Is he sane?"
"More or less," Myst said thoughtfully, not sure running around New York at night looking for trouble qualified as sane.
"What's wrong with him?" Wolf asked, curious where he'd found a wizard that understood technology well enough to be classified as a technomancer.
"He's a hero in his spare time when he's not at school," Myst replied as he conjured an air mattress then opened a portal to the next morning in Peter's timeline before he woke up. He poked Peter's shoulder and duplicated him then quickly closed the portal after pulling his finger back.
Pepper grinned as she ran her gaze over the naked teenager sprawled on the air mattress that was in the process of waking up. "Nice eye candy."
Hermione shook her head. "Why do I feel like the only responsible person around?"
"Because you're not having enough fun?" Myst asked with amusement as he dropped his Creation power down to a global power then picked up Superhuman skill fashion designer at a global level.
"What's going…" Peter trailed off when he noticed the naked girls. "Am I dreaming?"
"Sure, let's go with that," Paradise teased.
Peter glanced between Wolf and Myst, wondering how he'd ended up in a strange location without any clothes. "What's going on?"
"We're trying to meaningfully increase the average intelligence of the British wizarding world without killing a bunch of people which means we're cloning geniuses from various timelines and worlds."
Peter scowled at Myst. "In other words, you cloned me. Did you at least pay the original…" he trailed off as he noticed Myst was holding his laptop. "Did you steal my laptop?"
"No, I just copied it. I needed something that worked with your camera," Myst explained as he duplicated the laptop, dropping the copy on the mattress next to Peter. "How much do you think the original would want?"
"No idea," Peter admitted.
"Fair enough." Myst conjured a pair of shorts for Peter then opened his HUD and pulled up his drafting tools so he could get started making clothes for the girls.
Comments
Chichi son
"He's a hero in his spare time when he's not at school," Myst replied as he conjured an air mattress then opened a portal to the next morning in Peter's timeline before he woke up. He poked Peter's shoulder and duplicated him then quickly closed the portal after pulling his finger back." extra"
