Mist of Shadows
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Reluctant Villainy Part 8
🕑 Added 2021-05-04 08:55:04 +0000 UTC"Shit!" Neville Longbottom cursed as he dove out of the way of the fireball some lunatic had just tossed in his general direction, dropping his ice cream cone in the process.
"Don't worry, you get used to it," Anne Hebert grumbled as she pulled a potion bottle out of her pocket, being careful to stay hidden behind the table she was using for cover.
"How?" Neville sputtered, fairly sure his fellow Gryfindor had lost her marbles.
"You just do," Taylor added as she projected her voice behind the demon with her Voice Echoing power, "Die!"
Anne used the distraction to toss the potion at the demon then ducked back behind the table she was using for cover before the rest of the demons attacking the alley saw her.
Neville shivered when the potion caused the lunatic to burst into flames. "What the hell was that?"
"The demon or the vanquishing potion?" Anne asked.
"Yes?" Neville asked, not sure where to start.
Anne grinned at Neville. "They're basically exploding potions. So, how's your summer been?"
"You're worse than Harry, you know that right?" Neville asked, thinking about the various times she'd dragged him into some crazy situation at school.
Taylor shook her head. "Nah, he goes looking for trouble, it just finds us."
Anne cast a flame freezing charm on herself. "Speaking of trouble, can you toss an illusion over Neville? I need to do something crazy."
"How crazy?" Taylor asked as she reached over and grabbed Neville's arm and used her Projective Invisibility to turn them invisible.
"Crazy enough Mom might ground me," Anne said as she stood up as one of the demons turned to figure out what had happened to their friend. "Hey, demon scum!"
"I take it back, she's worse than Harry," Taylor admitted as she hauled Neville to his feet and away from Anne before they got roasted.
"I have the blood of kings, no man can be my equal!" Anne sang as she charged the demon.
The demon stared at Anne blankly for a couple of seconds then tossed a fireball at her.
Anne laughed as her Power Mimicry ability kicked in and she acquired the fireball ability. "Die!" she shouted as she tossed a fireball at the demon, causing the demon to jump out of the way.
Taylor created two duplicate images of her sister stepping out of her sister's body and projected her voice through both of them, "Shadow Clones!"
Neville stared in shock when Anne's wand morphed into a dagger a second before she vanished in a strange spiral pattern and stabbed the demon in the back. "You've got some explaining to do."
"Later," Taylor replied as she mentally changed her own wand into her athame. "We need to kill the demons before more people get hurt."
"Or we could leave like sane people and let the aurors take care of the problem," Neville suggested in a whisper as they headed towards the remaining demons.
"Bring it!" Anne taunted one of the demons as she tossed up a shield that should blunt the demon's attack. She screamed and dropped when the demon's lightning ripped through her shield and sent her to the ground convulsing.
"So much for doing this the nice way," Taylor muttered as she filled the demon's mouth with the taste of rotten shit using her Sensation Induction power, causing the demon to stop blasting her sister. "We really need to look up a spell for dealing with lightning."
Anne forced herself to her knees. "That was rude."
The black eyed demon grinned as he walked over. "I'm going to enjoy breaking you." He blasted the girl with his lightning, wanting to make her scream again. He frowned when he realized the girl wasn't just being stoic. "What the fuck?"
Anne raised her hands and unleashed a blast of lightning on the demon. "Join the dark side, we have cookies!"
Taylor rubbed her face in embarrassment. "I can't take her anywhere."
"Do I even want to know?" Neville asked, fairly sure he was missing something or a lot of somethings as he couldn't remember Anne ever tossing lightning at people.
"Probably not," Taylor admitted as her sister/clone dashed forward and stabbed the demon in the shoulder then finished it off with a fireball. "You're having way too much fun."
"Just a bit," Anne admitted as she used her telekinesis to deflect a ball of energy into the street rather than take the hit as she was already feeling like shit thanks to the lightning. "We should probably retreat…" she trailed off as the demon exploded thanks to a well placed hex. "At least the aurors are finally here."
"Which means we should probably leave," Taylor said as she walked over with Neville.
Neville jumped backwards when a portal opened in the air a couple of steps from him, showing a drawing room and a couple of familiar people along with someone that wasn't familiar. "What the hell?"
"My hero," Anne said as she hurried through the portal, almost instantly going from having a decent number of internal burns to being perfectly healthy thanks to her Power Hub ability and Myst's ridiculous regeneration.
"Having fun?" Myst asked as he returned Anne's hug, keeping an eye on the invisible people he could sense thanks to their powers.
Anne snickered. "I got to fry a demon with lightning like a Sith Lord."
"Nice." Myst waited until Taylor and Neville dashed through then closed the portal. "Drop the invisibility."
"Sorry," Taylor replied as she dropped it. "We were trying to avoid getting blasted or burned alive."
"No problem," Myst assured her. "I was just making sure people didn't get jumpy."
Neville glanced between Riley, Myst and the headmaster. "Can someone explain why we had demons attacking Diagon Alley?"
"No clue," Myst admitted. "I was looking for the girls and figured you could use a lift."
"Do the aurors need help?" Albus asked as Moody rushed into the room, his peg leg making a decent amount of noise.
"They seemed to have everything under control," Taylor replied. "I doubt the demons stuck around once the aurors got there, they usually don't like fighting anyone that can put up a fight."
Moody turned to look at Taylor. "What do you know about demons?"
"I know there are a bunch of different types and that they generally avoid the Wizarding World for various reasons," Taylor said, not seeing a point in admitting that both sides of her family had a long history of dealing with demons, at least in this world.
Anne glanced at Riley. "Have you seen Leet or Uber? We haven't been able to track them down."
Riley shook her head. "Not yet."
"I'm not surprised, they don't have a connection to the Wizarding World." Myst glanced at Moody then focused on Anne. "Eric was tinkering with something so I dropped a note on his keyboard to call me when he gets the chance."
Myst turned to look at Hermione when she floated out of the trunk. "Did everything survive the move?"
Hemione glanced at Neville, Anne and Taylor then focused on Myst. "I had to repair a couple of glasses and a plate that fell off the kitchen table but everything else survived surprisingly intact."
Neville stared at Hermione. "Since when could you fly."
"It's a recent thing," Hermione admitted.
"That reminds me, I haven't caused enough chaos lately," Myst said as he opened a portal above Neville's parents and gave them copies of the Power Hub ability then unlocked his regeneration and sanity package so they could copy them, causing the Longbottoms to regenerate.
Hermione stared at the portals. "What did you do?"
"I shared my regeneration and sanity package with Neville's parents…" Myst trailed off as Alice Longbottom appeared right next to Neville with a crack of lightning. "Huh, that's new."
Alice pulled Neville into a bone crushing hug. "Neville!"
Albus blinked as he stared at Alice. "Since when could you teleport via lightning?"
Riley snickered as she turned to look at Myst. "You forgot that we don't have immunity to having our powers copied, didn't you?"
"Pretty much," Myst admitted as he gave Alice and Frank copies of the Perfect Body ability to get them back in shape.
"Mum?" Neville blurted.
"I'm back," Alice assured him, only relaxing her death grip when she realized he needed to breathe.
"Mission accomplished," Myst said as he orbed Frank into the room then closed the portals to the hospital. "You should probably stay here for at least twenty minutes while my sanity package fixes the rest of the damage."
"Sanity package?" Frank asked in confusion as he focused on Moody and Albus. "What the hell is going on?"
"I believe Myst decided to cause the healers extra work and anxiety," Albus offered.
Myst grinned at Albus. "Pretty much."
"Thank you!" Neville blurted, not sure what else to say.
"You're welcome," Myst assured him as he used his Precog to find the best wand for Neville. 'Combat, charms, that has some promise,' he mused as he shifted through possibilities. He opened a portal on the ceiling of the other world's Gryffindor common room and copied the wand sitting on the nightstand by Neville's bed then closed the portal and handed Neville the wand. "This should work better than your father's wand."
"Why were you using my wand?" Frank asked in confusion.
"Because Gran thought it was a good idea," Neville admitted.
Frank shook his head, more than a little annoyed with his mother. "Let me guess, it's nearly useless? Longbottoms aren't like the Weasleys, our wands generally don't match."
"Is that a family trait?" Hermione asked.
Frank turned to look at Hermione. "Wizarding families tend to pick up weird quirks, the Lovegoods have some form of sight, the Potters get wild hair and a knack with brooms and the Malfoys generally end up with blonde hair even when they really shouldn't."
"My family generally ended up with plenty of power but they were all a bit eccentric," Albus added.
"Here." Neville pulled his father's wand out of his pocket and handed it to him.
"Thanks," Frank replied with a smile. "Can I use the floo? I don't need Mum cursing the healers for losing us."
"Probably for the best," Albus agreed as he gestured towards the door. "How close do they have to stay?"
"Within three hundred feet." Myst turned to look at Moody as Albus and Frank left the room. He scanned Moody's magical eye so he could reproduce it on the off chance that he needed to make a magical prosthetic. "Do you want me to heal you or do you want to keep using your eye?"
"Go ahead, I'm not in the field anymore," Moody said as he turned away from people and took his magical eye out. "Besides, ever since Crouch used it, the damned thing randomly sticks."
Myst used his Kingmaker ability to give Moody a copy of the Power Hub ability and unlocked his Regeneration and sanity ability so Moody could benefit. "Give it a couple of seconds and you should be as good as new."
Alice watched in fascination as Moody's leg regenerated before her eyes. "Wasn't some of that caused by curses?"
Moody stared at his newly regenerated leg. "That shouldn't be possible."
"Magic is all about making the impossible, possible," Myst replied as he scanned Moody, checking his health and picking up a pattern for a vetern auror.
Mione poked her head up out of the chest. "Sirius charmed the generator which means we have power, does anyone want to have a movie night?" she asked, figuring it was the best way to get to know everyone and blow off some steam.
"Sounds great," Anne agreed, curious about her friend's counterpart.
"I'll ask if we can stay." Taylor pulled a two way mirror out of her pocket. "Mum."
Annette's face appeared in Taylor's mirror. "What's up?"
"We ran into some friends, do you care if we watch movies?" Taylor asked.
"No, it gives me a chance to take Danny out for dinner," Annette replied with a grin. "You should probably pick up your sisters."
"See you in a couple," Taylor replied then ended the magical call. "We're good, we just have to pick up Amy, Amelia and Vicky."
"I'm curious, how are you ignoring the Fidelius?" Moody asked.
Myst created a temporary duplicate of himself. "We're not, Alice teleported through the portal and I've just been grabbing people. The girls can probably teleport back here now that they've been but I doubt they could find the place on a map or tell anyone the location," he explained as his duplicate walked over and jumped down into the mostly empty chest to do a bit of landscaping.
"Not a clue," Taylor admitted. "It's a bit annoying."
Myst created a temporary duplicate then orbed everyone other than Moody to Mione's house including the duplicate so he could collect the Heberts. "Something on your mind?"
Moody briefly considered lying then decided he might as well ask. "How much for the ability to see through walls?"
Myst grinned when he used his precog ability to scan for various demons with X-ray vision and caught sight of a familiar painting of a castle. "That's easy enough, how about two hours of your time answering questions about the Wizarding World?"
"That sounds suspiciously reasonable," Moody admitted.
"I was going to screw the warlock over anyways," Myst replied as he pulled his athame out of his inventory. He opened a portal behind the warlock trapped in the painting and stabbed his shoulder, stealing his powers. "Best of luck," he taunted as he closed the portal into the painting.
"Any chance of him coming to collect his powers?" Moody asked.
"Nah," Myst replied as he opened a small portal behind Malcolm's girlfriend and poked her in the arm, stealing her Pyrokinesis and Immortality.
"What the hell?" Jane cursed as she spun around to find out what had poked her.
"Sorry about that," Myst lied as he opened a portal under the warlock and dropped her into the cursed portrait with Malcolm. "At least you'll be together." He closed both portals then turned the X-ray vision power into a sphere and scanned it. "I'll let you know if I have any questions."
"Aren't you worried about someone coming to kill you?" Moody asked as he examined the sphere Myst handed him.
"Not particularly, I'm immune to scrying," Myst replied as he opened a portal so that he could see the cursed portrait hanging above Jane's fireplace.
Moody shivered as the sphere melted into his skin and he found himself looking through the wall. "You don't have any moral qualms about trapping them, do you?"
"Not particularly," Myst admitted as he finished scanning the cursed painting. "They weren't particularly decent people or impressive warlocks, maybe spending time together will give them a measure of peace or maybe they'll rip each other apart. I'll save my sympathy for people that are trying to make the world a better place or at least not actively trying to make it a worse place."
"I can respect that. Do you have a way to block the unforgivables?" Moody asked, figuring it was worth a shot considering the other rabbits he'd pulled out of his hat.
Myst laughed. "That depends, do you know anyone willing to cast them on you?"
Moody grinned as he thought about some of the people he'd run into over the years that had escaped on technicalities or through bribery. "I know a couple of dark wizards that would likely panic if you opened a portal into their homes and they saw me."
Myst laughed as he swapped his Matter Creation power for Immunity to Magic then unlocked his Magic Immunity and Adaptation power so that Moody could borrow them. "One of my powers should give you resistance to the spells if they're used on you and my immunity to magic power should keep you from getting harmed."
"In other words, I should make sure they use a decent collection of spells," Moody mused.
"It wouldn't hurt," Myst agreed, figuring it would be a good test case for boosting his friends.
0o0o0
Mione smiled when Myst appeared in a shower of white and blue orbs next to the kitchen table. "How did you sleep?"
"Better than I was expecting," Myst admitted as he studied the happy looking wild haired twenty one year old wearing cutoff sweats and a large t-shirt that almost covered the bottom of her shorts. "You're taking this better than I was expecting."
Mione glanced over at where Hermione was playing a video game with Sarah on the couch. "What's not to love? You saved my life, gave me crazy magical skills and I'll never have to deal with my annoying neighbor again."
"Which one is that?" Hermione asked, curious what was wrong with her neighbors.
"The Mitchells sold their house a couple of years ago, the old folks that moved in are overly religious and preachy," Mione complained.
"They also stink," Sarah added, thinking of the old woman's over the top perfume that made her sneeze.
"That makes more sense…" Hermione trailed off as Ginny appeared in the middle of the room sans clothes in a burst of shadows. "Or not."
Ginny looked down at her breasts and sighed. "So much for getting the hang of Riley's teleportation."
Myst grinned when he looked at Ginny's powers and realized she had a decent collection of magical abilities that she hadn't had the last time he'd checked. "Let me guess, you borrowed Riley's Power Mimicry ability then copied Anne's version?"
"Technically I just used the version I got from Power Hub, it took a couple of minutes to copy the real version but the copy seems to work just as well as Anne's version," Ginny explained excitedly.
"Nice," Myst said as he conjured a large t-shirt and tossed it to Ginny.
"Are you saying you don't like the view?" Ginny asked, her face going red when she realized what she'd just asked.
"No, I'm just trying to be polite," Myst replied as he focused on his Precog power and went looking for Hippolyta's golden belt. 'Sorry, you're more than a bit too young and you're head over heels for Harry.'
"Okay." Ginny pulled the shirt over her head, glad that Harry was working with his mother on orbing and hadn't seen her without her clothes.
"Does that mean I can have a copy?" Sarah asked hopefully.
Mione shook her head. "We'll see how you do with orbing."
Riley appeared in a swirl of snowflakes carrying Ginny's clothes. "You forgot your clothes."
"Thanks," Ginny replied as she accepted her clothes. "What did I do wrong?"
Riley snickered. "No idea but if you figure it out, let me know. It would make getting ready for bed easier."
Myst opened a portal to a warehouse in another timeline and used his Matter Creation ability to duplicate Hippolyta's belt, letting it drop to the floor rather than touch it. "Does anyone want to help me test a cursed belt?" he asked as he scanned the original belt.
Ginny scowled as she thought about Riddle's diary. "Not a chance."
"What does it do?" Riley asked, fairly sure Myst's magical defenses would protect them.
"It amplifies the magic of any non evil female that wears it and gives them Enhanced Strength and Speed, Regeneration, Projective Invisibility, Electrokinesis and a limited form of Sensing while making them vulnerable to Suggestion which it basically uses to drive the wearer insane," Myst explained as he closed the portal and scanned the newly created cursed belt to make sure it had the same powers as the original.
Riley shrugged. "Provided you share your mental defenses, Magic Immunity and Adaptation, I'll give it a spin."
"Sure," Myst replied as he shared his mental defenses with Riley then swapped his Matter Creation ability for a tweaked Magical Immunity that didn't grant protection against him orbing or someone using magic to copy or augment his powers.
"Are you insane?" Ginny asked when Riley picked up the belt.
"Worst case, I start going insane and Myst teleports the belt somewhere else and his sanity power fixes my head," Riley replied cheerfully.
Myst grinned at Ginny. "If it works, we'll get better abilities. If it doesn't, we'll try something else."
Mione pointed towards the door. "Test it outside."
"Good point," Myst admitted and orbed the group and the belt outside, leaving Sarah playing her game.
"Hey!" Sarah complained and promptly ran for the door after dropping the controller on the couch.
Riley grinned as she put the belt on. "Anything?"
Myst sighed when he checked her powers. "Your Power Mimicry and Enchanting are a bit better but they're showing as augmented which means I'm probably not going to be able to get anything by scanning you."
"Can you pick Myst up?" Ginny asked as she reached over and put her hand on Riley's arm.
"Sure," Riley replied with amusement as she turned and picked Myst up by his arms. "Like that or do you want me to throw him?"
"Go ahead and throw him," Ginny replied, knowing he was practically indestructible.
Myst laughed as Riley tossed him through the air then hoved in place before he could hit Mione's car and flew back over. He smiled when he checked her list of powers and noticed the new addition. "Nice, you managed to pick up an Enhanced Strength ability that's tied to your magical strength."
Riley grinned as she started blurring through some punches, letting Ginny pick up enhanced speed before she turned Ginny and Myst invisible so they could pick it up. "I don't seem to be going insane but we should probably stay within 300 feet."
Myst checked Riley's collection of powers and immunities. "I doubt the belt could mind control you considering it's already tried, but staying close is probably a good idea."
"What else should I test?" Riley asked excitedly.
Myst glanced between Ginny and Riley. "How do you feel about picking up some combat powers?"
"Mum is already going to flip her shit when she can't find me," Ginny admitted.
"Which means you might as well make it worth it," Riley suggested, knowing her friend's mother would calm down eventually.
"She'll get over it, eventually," Ginny said, not quite sure who she was trying to convince.
Myst adjusted his powers so the rest of the group could copy his Magic Immunity with their Power Hub ability then gestured towards the wall of the chest. "We should probably stand over there so none of the demons hit the house."
"Good idea," Mione said, not particularly fond of the idea of her house being damaged.
Riley blurred over to the area where he'd pointed. "Do you have a plan?"
"Yep, we're going to give Mione and Hermione Power Mimicry then we're going to let a bunch of warlocks and demons in different timelines and worlds blast us through portals so we can pick up new powers and defenses," Myst explained his 'slightly' crazy idea.
Hermione stared at Myst for a couple of seconds then shook her head. "Considering the decreased quality of the copied defenses thanks to Power Hub, we should probably copy Amy's 'Immunity' to magical harm and Invincibility powers before we open the floodgates."
"Fair point," Myst admitted, figuring the extra layers of protection would help keep everyone safe while they drastically increased their available powers. He used his Precog power to scry on Amy and blinked when he found her and Amelia sharing a shower with Vicky. "They're a bit busy."
"Doing what?" Riley asked.
"Getting ready," Myst lied as he looked through his inventory and pulled out the magical lantern that he'd gotten from the Charmed jump. "But that's okay, I think I have a solution," he said as he scanned the lantern that should allow people to give mortals powers without the powers screwing them over.
"What's that?" Sarah asked, looking at the strange old fashioned lantern.
"It's a container for powers," Myst replied as he swapped his Precog ability for Matter Creation.
"Which ones?" Mione asked.
Myst duplicated the lantern five times, setting each of the new lanterns by everyone's feet then used the original lantern to give himself the power on the off chance that the copies weren't perfect and didn't allow the power to grow, causing the lantern to turn to ash once the power transferred. "This particular lantern has Slow Growth Invincibility."
Mione glanced at Hermione then looked back at Myst when she noticed her counterpart was just as confused. "Slow growth?"
"It starts off as decent protection and grows better as your magic increases," Myst explained as he checked to make sure everyone could copy his various defensive powers.
"In other words, more than enough to cover the small gap in our protections?" Riley asked as she picked up her lantern and used it. "Is there a reason the lanterns self-destruct?"
Myst shrugged. "It's part of the design. As for the power, it's decent enough that we'd probably be fine even without the magic resistance but Hermione's right, we might as well stack things."
"I'm fairly sure I'm insane for even considering this," Hermione muttered as she walked over next to Riley after using her own lantern. "Of course, being able to survive everything that comes looking for Harry has advantages."
"Yep," Ginny agreed as she used her lantern.
"I get to use the lantern, right?" Sarah asked, wanting to make sure.
Mione picked up and used the lantern by her feet. "Of course, it's a defensive power."
"Okay!" Sarah said, quickly using the lantern next to her before her mother could change her mind.
Myst used his Matter Creation ability to make another dozen copies of the lantern with the Invincibility power then swapped it for Precog. He put the extra lanterns in his inventory then used his Precog to check the most likely outcomes of his plan.
