Mist of Shadows
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Reluctant Villainy Part 3
🕑 Added 2021-04-17 07:48:36 +0000 UTCAlexandria glanced at Contessa and Kurt as they walked into the conference room. "You're late."
"I'm aware," Contessa replied as she sat down. "I was running a path to make sure the Fallen won't be able to raise the required funds to stop Rainbow Starstrike from destroying another endbringer."
"And I was making sure none of their members could access their funds," The Number Man said as he set his laptop on the table, sat down in his seat and got back to work, wanting to make sure the Fallen couldn't steal any of the funds they needed.
"Do we know how she destroyed the first one?" Eidolon demanded.
Contessa shook her head. "My power doesn't work on her and I don't have enough information to work around her power."
"Do we have any leverage we can use to get her under control?" Eidolon asked, more than a little annoyed that someone had managed to kill one of the endbringers without his help.
Alexandria shook her head. "She's technically extorting money from the Fallen but she killed an endbringer with one shot and the Fallen are a terrorist organization so I doubt anyone would be able to make anything stick or even bother trying considering the amount of destruction she could cause if she chose to."
"Do we have any idea who she is out of costume?" Eidolon asked Contessa warily.
Contessa turned to look at Legend as he walked into the conference room. "I checked everyone that the various facial recognition programs flagged, I didn't have issues pathing any of them."
"Why are you…" Legend trailed off as a portal opened in front of the back wall, revealing someone that should be dead. "Who the hell are you!"
"You've gotten jumpy Paul," Hero replied with a grin as he stepped into the room.
Alexandria spun and stopped when she saw the man before you. "How? I saw you die!"
"I'd say I got better but you saw a projection die, a bit of misdirection because paradox is a bitch or at least that's what Rainbow said when she showed me a vision of my death and helped me avoid it, so what the hell was she talking about when she said you were feeding Legend shit about Cauldron?" Hero demanded.
"Feeding me shit?" Legend asked warily as the portal behind Hero closed. "Care to explain?"
"Where were you!" Eidolon demanded after using one of his powers to confirm that it actually was his friend.
"Nowhere, one minute I'm in the past watching my protection get torn apart and the next, I'm saying goodbye to Rainbow and stepping through a portal through time," Hero said as he studied everyone in the room.
"Time travel isn't possible, if it was Eden wouldn't have died," Eidolon snapped.
"Just because you can't pull it off doesn't mean it doesn't exist," Hero replied, focusing on his friend's face, noticing the lines that age and worry had carved into it.
"You talked to her, what does she want?" Alexandria demanded.
"The world to keep spinning and humanity to reignite the spark of hope buried inside everyone or at least that's what she said," Hero replied as he glanced around the room. "She also wanted me to tell you to clean up your act and fix the case 53's as Scion is dead and gone and the rest of the endbringers are going to die within a couple of weeks."
"Did she tell you what happened?" Legend asked, wondering how the rest of them were connected to the case 53s.
"Just that another entity killed him and that she was dealing with it," Hero admitted. "What the hell happened Rebecca?"
"Life," Alexandria admitted then started to explain what they'd been working on during the 'missing' time.
0o0o0
"I assure you, this is perfectly safe because of the force fields," the asian teacher said with an accent so thick his words were almost incomprehensible as he mixed baking soda into a container of vinegar to demonstrate a chemical reaction to the group of young capes.
"And because you're just mixing baking soda and vinegar," Kid Win muttered.
"I wouldn't expect Americans to understand but proper safety measures are important," the asain cape replied snidely.
Myst scowled as he skimmed through the teacher's mind, not sure what annoyed him more, the fact that the man was intentionally making his accent worse, the fact that he was a CUI spy or the fact that the asshole had orders to kill him if he couldn't recruit him. He briefly considered using his matter creation power to conjure a blob of hydrogen infused caesium in the teacher's beaker but figured the investigation might delay classes or cause other problems and it wasn't like he hadn't suffered through teachers with worse accents in college.
"Do you know anyone that sells force fields because that's not part of my specialty?" Riley asked, fairly sure they'd help with some of her projects.
"Not my problem that you don't have the support of the glorious empire behind you," the teacher replied sarcastically.
'Screw it,' Myst complained mentally as he teleported a small amount of air into the teacher's brain. 'I'm not dealing with this shit.'
"I can probably help you out," Kid Win offered.
"Cut the talking…" the teacher trailed off as he collapsed.
"Should we call a medic or wait to see if he gets up first?" Leet asked, not particularly concerned with the asshole's health.
"This is why you're a villain," Riley said as bounced out of her seat and headed over to help. She pouted when her hand hit the force field that was supposed to be protecting the students. "Question. How do we shut down the force field?"
"That's a good question," Myst said as he glanced around the room for any obvious controls. "Screw it, call the administration, they probably have a way to shut things down."
"Or you could teleport someone in there," Riley pointed out.
"I'm not teleporting anyone important through a strange force field. I'll just drop him in the hospital." Myst opened a portal under the teacher, dropping him in a bed in the emergency room at the hospital and getting him away from the only two capes in the city that could save his life even if Amy probably wouldn't on account of the problem being in his brain.
Kid Win walked over to the intercom and pushed the button. "Excuse me, the lab tech teacher in room 5 just collapsed during his lecture. He's been sent to the hospital."
"No worries, we'll send another one," the office lady assured him.
"Thank you?" Kid Win offered, not sure what else to say.
"You're welcome, it should be less than five minutes," the office lady replied then ended the call.
"This is what I love about camp," Leet said cheerfully. "Nothing phases these guys."
One of the other tinkers snorted. "Hopefully the next guy doesn't have a horrible accent."
"Would be nice," Petwork agreed, suddenly feeling a bit guilty that she wasn't more concerned with the man's health.
Myst sighed when he noticed Riley was upset about not being able to save him. "Hopefully it's just low blood sugar or something."
"Hopefully," Riley agreed, fairly sure it was something worse.
"Do you think they'd let us have the schematics for the force field?" one of the younger tinkers asked hopefully.
"You can always ask," Myst suggested as he pulled out his phone and started looking through the schematics in his tinkertech library for a personal force field generator. "I probably have something in my library that you can use."
"That would be awesome," the girl replied.
"How many schematics do you have on your phone?" an overweight boy asked greedily.
Myst grinned at the fat kid. "If you try to steal my phone, I will cover you with sugar and leave you chained up on a nest of ants."
"That doesn't sound very heroic," the kid complained.
"I'm not a hero, I'm a rogue with heroic tendencies at best," Myst replied.
Riley shook her head. "You're my hero."
"Thanks," he replied with a grin as he swapped his matter creation power to technopathy and sent the file to the girl's phone. "That should be easy enough to build with your specialty."
The girl blinked as her phone let her know she had a message. "Thank you!" she squealed after she looked at the message and saw the schematics.
Myst spent the next few minutes sharing schematics until a dark haired woman in her twenties walked in wearing overalls, a staff badge around her neck and a bandana over the lower part of her face. He checked her powers. 'Giant robots and weapon systems? Sounds like a good way to cause a lot of collateral damage.'
"Sorry for the delay, I had to collect winnings from the bet," the teacher replied as she pulled a remote out of her pocket and pushed the button, causing the force field to drop.
"Bet?" Kid Win asked.
"You heard his accent, some of the staff placed bets on how long he'd last," she replied as she walked up to the front of the room.
"What was your bet?" Leet asked.
"First day, 'natural causes', I mean it was natural, right?" she asked as she looked over the group.
Riley pouted. "He just collapsed."
"Sounds natural to me," the teacher replied. "So, let me guess, he was expounding on safety protocols and forgot the most important one, don't forget to make sure the EMTs can get to you?"
"Yep," Leet agreed.
"Sounds like a good object lesson, how did you get him out?" she asked, glancing over the class of capes.
"I dropped him through a portal to the ER," Myst replied.
"And you didn't think to let the biotinker look at him?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"He tossed up a force field and collapsed a couple of minutes later, I wasn't going to risk sending someone in there I actually like and I didn't want to bring him out here in case the cause was biological," Myst replied.
"Understandable, if coldly pragmatic," the teacher said. "I can assure you that the force field was tested and shouldn't have caused any issues but we'll be leaving it off for the time being until we can make sure no one modified it. Let's start with a short lecture on safety measures then we'll get started talking about the various ways powers can influence which safety measures you need."
0o0o0
Monica raised her eyebrows as a cape dressed like a leprechaun dipped in glitter walked into her office along with a young woman in a purple suit with fox ears and a tail. 'The mayor wasn't joking about the guy looking ridiculous, still he said to help them out.' She forced herself to smile despite how crazy the man looked, especially next to the well dressed fox girl. "How can I help you?"
Myst's duplicate smiled at the realtor that handled property for the city. "I'd like to purchase the trainyard along with the abandoned church and the bar next to it."
"Purchasing the trainyard comes with certain responsibilities," Monica replied, not sure why anyone would want it as they'd have to maintain it.
"I'm aware, your company's website is very informative and the mayor covered the basics," he assured her.
"The church isn't in the best of shape," Monica warned him, knowing the Merchants had done a fairly good job trashing the place.
"I've found that most problems are solvable when you have a thousand people to help pick up the pieces," he replied with a smile.
"I'd like to take a look at any of the docks you have for sale or that we can pick up for back taxes," Lisa said with a grin, looking forward to making an obscene amount of money when they took out the gangs and flipped the properties after Myst waved his hand and repaired them.
"With the Merchants and the ABB, you're going to have a hell of a time doing anything with the properties," Monica warned them.
"We're aware," Lisa replied with a smug grin. "We have people looking into dealing with both gangs."
Monica shook her head. "How much money are you planning on sinking into this doomed venture?"
"Twenty million in property, an undisclosed amount in repairs and contract costs," Lisa replied as she handed Monica the bank information.
Monica glanced over the account information, fairly sure that the mayor wouldn't have sent them to her if they didn't have money. "I'll have to check with the bank but it looks legit."
"I assure you, the accounts are in order," Lisa said, her tail swishing behind her.
"Are you looking for things in the same area or spread out?" Monica asked, figuring she'd done her best to warn the capes.
"Let's see what you have," Lisa said, fairly sure she could probably get a decent deal as the city could use the influx of cash and the cargo ship removed.
0o0o0
One of Myst's duplicates teleported to the woods outside of town and started deconstructing a clump of blackberries.
"Stop! Evil fiend, despoiler of nature!" shouted an old man in robes that looked like he'd stepped out of a crappy D&D movie.
Myst's duplicate turned and scanned the druid. "Are you one of the knights that say neigh?"
"I'm a druid you daft fool and I shall stop you from ruining nature!" the man shouted as he gestured and thick vines wrapped themselves around Myst's duplicate.
"Fair enough," Myst's duplicate admitted once he finished scanning the druid. "You have won…" he trailed off 'dramatically' then teleported back to the Brockton Bay docks. 'I love that drawback, especially when I'm not going to be around long enough to care.' He swapped one of his slot machine powers to a teleportation power that only worked on mercury then swapped one of the other powers to telekinesis that only worked on mercury, leaving his anti-scrying power in place.
He gestured towards the bay and teleported all of the mercury under the water into the air in front of him then pulled it into a large blob with telekinesis. "Yeah, that's more than a bit disturbing," he muttered as he started deconstructing the blob of silvery metal, sending it to his ingredient inventory. 'I should probably grab the rest of the industrial waste that seeped into the water over the years then hit the mall so I can start scanning things, at least I have plenty of duplicates to take care of everything.'
0o0o0
"Is there a reason you're drawing dungeons?" Leet asked when he walked over to ask about more schematics and noticed what Myst was sketching in his notebook while they waited for Vicky and Riley to get back with the pizza and sodas.
"I need somewhere to put the random merchants and the ABB," Myst replied absently as he continued documenting the dungeon his duplicate was building under the church.
Petwork looked up from the camera she was working on assembling. "Are you planning on fighting Lung?"
"Nope, I'm just going to open a portal under him and drop him in the dungeon," Myst replied with a grin. "He should be able to farm the dungeon for loot."
Leet raised his eyebrows. "Like a game?"
Myst finished sketching out the last passage then closed the notebook. "Pretty much. I'm curious how far they'd get before the dungeon eats them."
"Sounds legit," Leet agreed.
Petwork shook her head. "Which part of that sounds legit?"
Amy glanced up from the hard light hologram projector she was working on. "The part where we have less gang members shooting at people which means I'd get called into the hospital less."
"Shit," Kid Win said as he took a step back from his lab partner. "Someone forgot to feed The Amy today, back away slowly and we might survive."
Amy flipped him off. "I'm not saying it's heroic or legal, I'm just saying I can understand the temptation. How does that tie in with him being able to farm loot?"
Myst shrugged. "It's part of the power, the dungeons come with treasure chests and strange monsters that scale to the power of the adventurers that enter. At least in theory, mine are basically death traps for one reason or another."
"That just means you'd need to get everyone to sign wavers," Leet mused then looked at Petwork. "You have a couple of extra camera pigeon bots, right?"
"In theory, why?" Petwork asked warily.
"Because this would make a great show," Leet said enthusiastically.
"That sounds more than a little illegal," Petwork complained, glancing at the teacher.
"Talk to the camp's legal department," the teacher suggested, not looking up from the blaster rifle she was working on. "You can probably get away with dropping them in an empty room with an open portal to the police department's holding cells. If they don't choose to turn themselves in they can fight their way out of the dungeon. It's hardly your fault if they make a poor life choice."
Amy turned to look at the dark haired teacher. "You're a villain, aren't you?"
"It's hard to be a hero when your specialties are mechs and weapon systems, the insurance is brutal," the teacher complained, thinking about her early attempts at being a hero until an asshole had sued her over his car getting flattened by the villain she was fighting.
Myst nodded. "I'll look into it."
"On a less morally questionable subject, could I test some of my new weapon systems in the dungeon?" Petwork asked thoughtfully.
"Sure, just don't blame me if the ceiling falls on them," Myst warned her.
Kid Win shivered as he thought about trying to explore a dungeon filled with monsters and traps. "You weren't joking about the death trap bit, were you?"
"Nope," Myst replied with a grin, looking forward to showing off his dungeon.
"If that's the case, why build it?" Kid Win asked warily.
"Most of the drawbacks should go away if I get enough practice creating dungeons and I wanted to be able to get a pattern for scaling dungeons," Myst admitted. "Besides, creating Escher like dungeons is fun."
"For a given value of fun," Amy said dryly as Vicky and Riley came back carrying boxes of pizza.
"Are you saying that you wouldn't want to go into a dungeon and kill monsters for magical loot?" Myst asked with amusement.
"Can I use Vicky as a human shield?" Amy asked thoughtfully.
"I wouldn't mind smashing monsters," Vicky replied as they walked over to the table.
Myst shook his head. "Not until I fix the dungeon. I don't think sending Vicky into a scaling dungeon is a great idea..." he trailed off as he realized that he'd overlooked the obvious. "Actually, if I let you borrow my duplication power, we could have some fun without risking any permanent injuries."
"Sounds fun and we've clocked enough time in the lab," Petwork mused.
"Let's swing by the martial arts group and grab Uber," Leet suggested enthusiastically. "He'd kill me if I didn't."
"Sounds good," Myst agreed. "It gives me a chance to stress test the dungeon without getting anyone killed."
"Are you sure you're a hero?" the teacher asked with amusement.
"Just think of it as training," Myst replied with a grin.
The teacher laughed. "Do you want extra credit? The combat instructor would love to run some people through the dungeon to test their reactions."
"Great," Kid Win muttered.
"Provided that nothing goes horribly wrong with the first groups, I'd love to help," Myst assured her, looking forward to seeing how the students did against his dungeon.
0o0o0
Petwork pulled her attention away from the temporary duplicates that were jumping through one of Myst's portals to get back to the group in the dungeon and focused on the two identical metal thermos-like containers Myst was studying. "Did it work?"
Myst finished scanning the vial that he'd duplicated with cosmic matter creation and the scan he'd taken of the 'Cloning' vial and tossed it to Petwork. "One perfectly safe cloning power, unless you want a copy of the other vials?"
Petwork shook her head. "I wouldn't mind the ability to grant powers to my minions but you said the abilities are a bit random and being able to duplicate people or myself would be more useful considering it would give me more time in the lab."
Amy glanced between the vial Petwork was holding and Myst. "How sure are you that the vial is safe?"
"The original should be perfectly safe and the scans on the duplicate are coming up the same so it should be fine." Myst opened the original cloning vial and drank it before he could change his mind, a touch surprised that it wasn't completely nasty or horrible going down his throat. He grinned when he saw his new power appear on his list of powers.
"What did you get?" Amy asked, curious if it was worth putting up with Carol's screaming.
"Touch range instant duplication. It basically lets me permanently duplicate people," Myst explained, not seeing a reason to point out the fact that the clones would be loyal and a bit more perverted than the original while being physically and mentally superior. 'At least it didn't give me a connection to a shard.'
"Are you sure you don't want anything for the vial?" Petwork asked, surprised that he'd just hand her a power without asking for anything in return.
Myst considered the question for a couple of seconds. "I wouldn't object to permission to make a clone but that's not a requirement."
"I'll let you make a clone if I get a vial," Amy cut in, figuring having a twin would take some of the pressure off and give her someone that would understand her and sympathize.
"Carol is going to flip," Vicky pointed out.
Amy's lips curved up into the barest hint of a smile. "I'll just tell her that I'm increasing the number of healers in the world."
"I wouldn't mind a twin," Petwork admitted, knowing she could use the help and someone to talk to. She drank the strange vial before she could change her mind.
"Cool," Myst replied as he put the empty vial in his inventory. He checked Petwork's new ability with his power sense ability. "You have the ability to spawn and despawn six inch clones that are linked in a sort of hive mind which means they can ride your pets into battle or do extra tinkering considering your telekinesis. They're also as strong as you are which is a bit terrifying when you remember they're only six inches tall."
Vicky laughed. "That's awesome."
"It's certainly useful," Petwork agreed, looking forward to testing her new ability.
"Yep," Myst replied with a grin as he looked at Amy. "Which vial do you want?"
"Power granting," Amy said without hesitation. "I don't want the PRT freaking out over clones and I don't need a mover rating with the flight you gave me or a tinker power considering the drone ability is pretty neat." She glanced over at where Kid Win was talking to Leet about one of his inventions. "Besides, I still have the power hub ability and friends with tinker abilities."
"Not to mention you might get something that would give you a decent collection of powers," Myst mused as he pulled the power granting vial out of his inventory and scanned it.
"Does your power copy clothes?" Amy asked thoughtfully.
"No clue." Myst stuck the power granting vial back in his inventory then snapped his fingers and used his matter creation power to create a series of curtains that blocked off a section of the church just in case his power didn't cover clothes. "Let's find out."
"Can I get a copy of the vial?" Vicky asked hopefully.
"Can I clone you?" Myst asked with a grin.
Vicky glanced at Amy then focused on Myst. "I'm already going to get screamed at for 'letting' Amy get copied, I might as well give Mom a reason to lose it. Besides, with the number of villains in the city, it would be nice to have someone to watch my back."
"In that case, sure," Myst replied as he used his matter creation ability and the scan of the power granting vial to create a copy of the vial. He tossed the copied vial to Amy. "Bottoms up."
Amy caught the vial. 'Screw it, if I don't change something I'm going to burn out.' She opened the container and drank the vaguely minty mixture before she could change her mind.
Myst relaxed a touch when Amy didn't start screaming or shaking or doing anything weird. He checked her new power and stared at the popup. "You basically have a slowly refilling pool of power that you can use to permanently imbue jewelry with minor powers."
"What counts as minor?" Amy asked as she slipped between the curtains.
"No clue," Myst admitted as he stuck his hands between the curtains, using his 'x-ray' vision to look through the curtain on the off chance something went drastically wrong with the duplication process.
Amy grabbed Myst's right hand. "Do it before I change my mind."
Myst activated his cloning power, creating a naked copy of Amy that was holding his left hand. 'She looks a bit more athletic and doesn't look like she's about to murder the original so I'm calling it a success,' he mused as he scanned the clone and checked her powers to make sure everything was stable. 'She doesn't have the temporary powers but I wasn't really expecting her to.'
"Hug?" the cloned Amy asked hopefully as she held out her hands towards Amy.
"Sure," Amy said, giving her new sister a somewhat awkward hug as she wasn't much of a hugger and her duplicate was naked. She quickly checked her clone's biology. 'She's in near perfect health which makes sense considering our powers, hell she's probably in better shape than I am.'
"Did it work?" Vicky asked.
"It worked but I'm going to need clothes," Amy's clone replied with amusement, more than a little annoyed that the city had rules about public nudity.
Myst created a fluffy robe and tossed it over the curtain. "Good to know."
"Thanks," she replied as she worked on putting the robe on.
Myst created another copy of the power granting vial and handed it to Vicky. "You're up."
Vicky shrugged then chugged the vial, not expecting the halfway pleasant minty flavor. "Did it work?"
Myst checked Vicky's collection of powers. "You got the ability to grant flight and a high level of durability to five people via touch. Your power also gives you a mental compass and sense of distance towards anyone you empower and you can swap people out whenever you want."
"Not quite as cool as Amy's new power but I'll take it," Vicky said cheerfully as Amy and her clone walked out of the curtained off area. "We're going to have to go shopping."
"Or we talk Myst into snapping his fingers and conjuring some clothes," Amy's clone replied.
"That takes the fun out of it," Vicky replied with a pout as she slipped between the curtains.
Amy's clone laughed. "Two words, free clothes."
"Good point," Vicky admitted. "Let's do this before I change my mind."
Myst stuck his hands between the curtains. "Ready when you are."
Petwork used her x-ray vision to look through the curtain, curious about the process and a bit curious what Vicky looked like without clothes.
Vicky grabbed his hand. "Ready."
Myst activated his power and created a clone of Vicky. "Did it work?" he asked despite the fact that he could see Vicky's clone thanks to his x-ray vision. 'Dean's a lucky man,' he mused as he used his matter creation power to duplicate Vicky's clothes.
Vicky's clone snickered as she floated off the ground a couple of inches then dropped, causing her breasts to bounce. "Yep. I'm going to need some clothes."
'Some people have all the luck,' Petwork mused as she pulled her attention away from Vicky's bouncing breasts. "Can you duplicate tinkertech like that?" she asked Myst.
Myst tossed the clothes over the curtain. "Depends on the tinkertech. Some of it only works because the tinker's power fills in the gaps."
"Makes sense," Petwork said, thinking about some of the less useful schematics she'd seen posted online that weren't useful in the slightest even though they were close to her field.
"If nothing else, I should be able to duplicate components for you," Myst offered as he watched Vicky's clone get dressed.
"That would be great," Petwork admitted. "Some of them are expensive."
"Try building a mech on a budget," the teacher complained as she walked over.
"No thanks," Myst muttered as Vicky and her clone flew over the curtains. "Double the trouble, double the fun."
Vicky's clone snickered. "Of course."
"My turn," Petwork said as she slipped between the curtains, looking forward to picking up a sister.
Myst stuck his hands between the curtains and duplicated Petwork when she grabbed his hand. 'She's a bit on the thin side but she'll probably grow out of it considering her mother's figure,' he mused as he duplicated Petwork's clothes and handed them to her, being careful to keep the curtain closed. "How are you doing?"
Petwork pulled her attention away from her duplicate and looked through the curtain at Myst. "I'm just trying to figure out how to explain having a twin."
"Just tell people that you got too close to one of Leet's inventions," Petwork's duplicate suggested as she worked on getting dressed.
"Sounds legit," Leet called out, fairly sure he got blamed for a lot of things he wasn't actually responsible for.
"You're not that bad," Riley offered.
"No but it's better than people accusing her of being Blasto's work," Leet pointed out.
Riley shook her head as she thought of her fellow tinker. "Fair point."
"That might be the easiest," Myst agreed as Petwork's phone rang.
Petwork pulled her phone out of her pocket and answered the call. "Hey Dad, what's up?"
"Sorry to bother you at camp sweetie but have you heard from your father?" Annette asked, hoping Taylor hadn't been doing anything too important. "It's telling me that his number is disconnected."
Petwork froze, her mind glitching thanks to the familiar and impossible voice on the other end of the call. "Mom?" she blurted.
"Yeah? Did Danny switch numbers and forget to tell me?" Annette asked.
"He doesn't…" Petwork trailed off, not sure how to tell her mother that she'd been dead for over a year. "Where are you?"
"At home, what's going on?" Annette asked, curious why Taylor was acting strange.
"What's the last thing you remember?" Petwork asked.
"I was having a weird dream about a guy talking on a cell phone and running a red light then I woke up on the couch, what's going on?"
"No clue," Petwork admitted, hoping to hell this wasn't a twisted prank. "Dad should be out with the guys from work. I'm across town but I can get back in twenty minutes."
"Twenty seconds, if you want a portal." Myst gave Petwork's duplicate a copy of her temporary abilities then opened a portal to her bedroom. "You might as well make a duplicate, so you can deal with that while you stay in range."
Petwork glanced through the portal at her room then looked back at Myst. "We're going to talk about this later."
Petwork's duplicate quickly made a duplicate which jumped through the portal, eager to see her mother. "You've got some explaining to do."
Myst shrugged. "I'll explain later over root beer floats."
"This isn't a trick is it?" Petwork asked warily.
"No, what's going on?" Annette asked, pausing when she heard someone running upstairs. "Are you in the house?"
"It's not a trick," Myst assured her. "I grabbed her right before the accident. Happy holidays and all that."
Petwork shook her head then created a duplicate that promptly stepped through the portal into her room. "We're upstairs, try not to freak out when you see two of us." She ended the call then looked at Myst. "I have so many questions right now."
"I'd be surprised if you didn't," Myst admitted as he closed the portal to Taylor's bedroom.
Petwork's duplicate finished putting on her costume then rushed over and hugged Myst. "Thank you!"
"Any time," Myst said, patting the clone on the back. "So, does anyone have any ideas on how you're going to beat the floor boss?" he asked, changing the subject.
"Lots of explosives," Amy's clone suggested.
"I vote dropping a mech down there or maybe Lung," the teacher said thoughtfully.
"That I can do," Myst replied as he scryed on Lung, finding him sitting on a lounge chair watching a large flat screen television with Oni Lee leaning against one of the walls. "Should I grab Oni Lee?"
The teacher shrugged. "Might as well, just give us a chance to secure the doors first on the off chance he survives."
Vicky shook her head. "Teleporting villains into a deathtrap seems blatantly unfair."
"It's Lung," Myst replied. "I'm not getting anywhere near him, I don't want to deal with the collateral damage."
"Fair point," Vicky's clone agreed.
"Exactly," the teacher agreed, glad that she wasn't enough of a criminal to warrant getting tossed into a dungeon from range.
Myst teleported Lung's flat screen television to the back room in the church. "Once you're done with the last knight, fall back and seal the doors," he suggested while he watched Lung start cursing and losing his shit over the missing tv. 'That should get you decently ramped up.' He swapped his matter creation power out for telepathy and went to work looting Lung's various passwords and accounts while he waited for everyone to clear the boss's general area.
