Mist of Shadows
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Travels in the Multiverse Part 2
🕑 Added 2020-09-01 01:00:25 +0000 UTCMyst headed towards the hospital, wanting to check Amy's mental health. Thankfully it wasn't hard to spot the hospital from the air, nor was it hard to follow a patient inside so that the cameras didn't show someone invisible opening a door. After that, it was a simple matter to read the receptionist's mind and figure out that Amy was currently in the break room on the second floor. He snuck over to the elevator and pushed the button, figuring no one would even notice as people often pushed more buttons than they should in elevators and the security guards probably weren't paying all that much attention.
He slipped inside after the doors opened and pushed the button for the second floor. 'Okay, how do I skip the line without annoying the hell out of the Bio Striker, yes?' He mentally reviewed his powers while the elevator went up. He smiled when he 'remembered' the ability that should let him create crystals that would let people use weaker forms of his powers. 'If I can't tempt you with money, I'll tempt you with better powers.'
His smile slipped from his face as the elevator doors opened and he saw a doctor talking with a girl in a white robe with a translucent stretched out vortex of blue light that came out of the back of her head and faded into the ether after a couple of feet. 'That's new,' he mused as he stepped out of the elevator then stepped over to the wall so that he could observe the scene without anyone walking into him. 'Is that her connection to her shard?'
He focused on the swirling vortex that no one seemed to notice and wasn't disturbing the girl's brown hair. 'Huh, I could probably jump there if I wanted to.' He focused on jumping worlds to the world he could see or feel when he looked at the vortex and saw a vision of a massive crystalline structure that twisted and moved in strange ways and yet didn't move at all. He blinked and lost the vision as Panacea followed the doctor down the hallway.
Myst shook his head and tried to ignore the memory of the massive alien crystal as he followed Panacea and the doctor down the hallway, listening to their thoughts.
'If I had her power, I could retire in a week,' the doctor mused as he led the way to a patient that needed a heart transplant. 'A couple of thousand here or there, they'd pay and old billionaires would pay tens of millions for an extra fifty years. But no, I have to show the kid around like some glorified intern and smile while she wastes her powers.'
'One more patient, maybe Carol will be asleep when I get home and I won't have to listen to her bitching,' Amy thought as she followed the doctor, trying not to yawn or show any sign of how tired she was because she didn't want to have to go home and listen to Vicky gush about whatever piece of jewelry or overpriced dress Dean had bought her.
'You know, one rich old asshole restored to youth and you could buy her anything she'd want,' Myst whispered into her mind before he realized what he was doing.
'Yeah, and Carol would bitch,' Amy answered 'herself' not realizing the thought wasn't her own, mostly because it wasn't the first time she'd had that thought and certainly wouldn't be the last.
Myst pinched his nose in frustration and stopped reading her mind as he realized what he'd done. 'The point is to help her, not drive her insane.' He stepped over to the wall and focused on adjusting his personal time flow so that he could finish his project before Panacea finished healing her patient. 'Twenty to one, that should be plenty of time.'
He mentally reviewed the abilities he thought she'd appreciate as the doctor and Amy walked towards the patient's door in slow motion. 'Alter Form to change her appearance and leave her fame behind, Flight to fly with her sister, a Shield to keep her safe, Regeneration she can use to fix brains and Invisibility in case she needs to run or wants to spy on her sister in the shower.'
He doubted Amy would bother spying on her sister but having the ability to turn invisible would probably help keep her safe if a lunatic tried to grab her. He focused on creating his first power granting crystal, following the 'notes' the Traveler had left in his mind. He pushed the strangeness and uncertainty aside as he watched the pea sized green crystal grow until it looked like a green gem the size of his thumb nail. 'I'm going to have to ask someone if they can see the energy flowing through the crystal or if that's just a power.'
He shook his head and focused on creating a flight crystal, wanting to finish creating the various crystals before Amy finished healing her last patient. By the third crystal he was feeling a bit drained, by the fifth he wanted to slump into a chair and catch some sleep and yet he wasn't tired just worn out mentally. He blinked as he went from being tired to feeling fine until he focused on his ability to create power shards and realized that his power needed to recharge. 'Okay, I guess five's the limit.'
He looked at the five green crystals resting in his palm and realized Amy would need a way to keep them touching. He used his telekinesis to float the crystals up into the air and arrange them as if they were in a bracelet then focused on his Grow Crystal power and created a translucent purple bracelet of twisted crystal 'wires' that wrapped around the power granting crystals. 'That should be fine for a first attempt,' he mused as he dropped the time acceleration as the door handle started slowly rotating.
Amy yawned as she walked out of the patient's room. "I'm done for the night."
"Thank you for the help," the doctor said, happy that she'd been able to help on one level but frustrated that they couldn't milk the man's insurance for more hospital time on another level even if he'd never admit it.
Myst followed Amy down the hall and onto the stairs heading down. "Not to bother you but can I interest you in magical powers for a checkup?"
Amy jumped as she heard a voice from behind her then spun around to look. "Who's there?"
Myst dropped his invisibility. "Just a guy that could use your help with his leg."
Amy stared at his glowing purple eyes and the arcane symbols floating over him then glanced at his right leg which looked a touch smaller around than his left. "I don't do requests."
"I know but I can offer you things more interesting than money or fame," Myst offered as he floated off the ground.
"Like what?" Amy asked.
"Like a bracelet that gives the user the ability to heal themself, change their appearance, generate a force field, fly through the air under their own power or turn invisible in case they want to slip away from a crowd or hide. Does that sound like something you'd be interested in?"
"Hypothetically, what would I have to do?" Amy asked, wanting to know what he wanted before she even considered helping.
"Fix my right knee, my regeneration doesn't cover limbs or missing body parts and I'd rather not have to deal with the metal and plastic breaking while I'm running around. In exchange, I'll give you a bracelet that should let you use the aforementioned abilities for a while before it has to be recharged."
"How much of a charge does it have?" Amy asked as she looked at the normal looking bracelet that the man was holding.
"You should be able to use each of the powers for an hour before they'd need to recharge, which means you could change your appearance to look like a model or change your hair or fly around the block or sneak back home while invisible and flying," Myst offered.
"Let me see your hand," Amy said as she held out her hand, fairly sure she could disable him if she had to as long as she was touching him and her power was an excellent lie detector.
Myst held his hand out, glad that she couldn't actually alter his biology against his will thanks to Inviolable or at least he was hoping that power worked like he 'remembered'. "Sure, take a look and ask your questions."
Amy frowned as she touched his hand and realized that he was in decent health other than his knee though she couldn't sense a Corona Pollentia, of course they weren't in the same place in every cape so that it wasn't out of the question that he could be a parahuman. "Can your bracelet actually give me powers?"
"It does exactly what I said it does while you're touching it," Myst replied.
Amy studied the man's face, surprised that he wasn't lying or at least his pulse and heartbeat hadn't changed like someone that was lying. "How long did the bracelet take to make?"
"A couple of minutes, I created it while you were healing your last patient."
"Is this bracelet going to Master me?" Amy asked.
"No. I have a number of powers that might be considered Master abilities, but mostly in the sense that I can conjure a crystal battle golem or control certain types of tech. So in the sense that I can mind control people or change their emotional state… maybe? I haven’t tried, but then give someone the ability to cause pain and they can program someone over time."
"A crystal battle golem?" Amy asked, trying to picture what it would look like and ignoring the rest of his stream of consciousness that had just flowed out of his mouth.
Myst grinned and held out the bracelet. "A decent amount of my powers involve crystals. Take it for a test spin, I suggest invisibility or self healing as we don't really have enough room for you to practice flying."
"Is it safe?" Amy asked.
"Safe enough as long as you don't run out of charge while you're flying," Myst warned.
Amy slipped the bracelet on. "Now what?"
"Now you focus on the bracelet and try to activate one of the abilities," Myst suggested.
Amy felt a touch silly as she focused on the crystal, at least until she realized the stranger started shrinking or rather she was growing taller. She glanced down and smiled at her breasts or possibly Vicky's breasts depending on how you looked at it, even wearing her baggy robes you could tell she had curves now. "I need a mirror."
Myst sighed dramatically. "Alas conjuring a mirror is not one of my powers."
Amy snorted and pulled her makeup mirror from her pocket and looked at her face, rather happy with her new platinum blonde locks. "Vicky is going to freak."
"Just remember to change back while you're wearing the bracelet or you could get stuck looking like your sister," Myst warned.
"I wouldn't mind," Amy muttered.
"You could do better," Myst replied as he studied 'Vicky's' face, fairly sure Amy currently looked better than her sister actually did.
"Oh?" Amy asked, surprised that he didn't seem impressed by her sister's appearance.
Myst pulled the idiot's phone out of his pocket dimension and used his technopathy to run a search for Harry Potter movies. 'Nice, Earth Aleph has Emma Watson as Hermione.' He frowned when he noticed the unfamiliar actor that played Harry. 'Huh, at least he's taller than Emma.' He held the phone up so Amy could see a picture. "Now picture her with red hair and blue eyes."
Amy laughed. "Let me guess, you're a fan?"
"Aren't you?" Myst asked with amusement.
Amy focused on the picture of the Earth Aleph actress and changed her appearance to match then played with changing her hair color, changing it blonde then red. She ran her fingers through her long straight red hair then changed the color to purple. "Amusing but no," she mused as she shifted the color to a dark blue. She grinned as her breasts went from a B cup to looking like she'd stuffed cantaloupes under her robes. "What do you think?"
"I don't think I'm legally allowed to tell you," Myst teased.
Amy pulled the neckline of her robes out a touch and looked at her breasts, a touch surprised that her bra had changed to fit. "Yeah, you could play basketball with these babies."
Myst chuckled as Amy bounced on her feet causing her breasts to bounce. 'At least she's smiling.'
"Yeah, maybe not quite that large," Amy admitted as she used her bracelet to reduce her breast size back to something approaching reasonable.
Myst glanced at Amy's breasts, fairly sure they were at least a cup size larger than Emma's, maybe even pushing two, but he doubted they were large enough to cause back problems unlike her previous watermelons.
Amy focused on her bracelet and changed her robes into a crimson silk dress that hugged her curves. "What do you think?"
Myst stared at Amy, fairly sure her dress was almost see through in certain sections. While it certainly covered more than a bathing suit, it was certainly breathtaking and something that wouldn't be out of place at a high class event without being impractical. "Damn, I think the word you're looking for is enchanting or stunning."
"I feel like Cinderella," Amy admitted as she looked at her dress in her compact.
"Nothing says you have to change back," Myst replied as he enjoyed the view.
Amy sighed. "My stepmother would freak."
"Isn't that a reason to do it?" Myst asked with a grin. "Just tell her that a cape changed your appearance and you can't fix it."
Amy shook her head. "I'd need a new license."
Myst raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, so? All you'd have to do is go to the PRT, demonstrate your powers and explain that you ran into a cape that changes faces and you'd have a written note in an hour and probably a printed ID card in two."
"I can't just…" Amy trailed off, trying to come up with a reason she couldn't change her appearance permanently. She wasn't particularly attached to her mousy hair or even her face if she was honest, she was average at best and she knew it. "Don't tempt me."
"Speaking of temptation, let's grab some ice cream," Myst suggested.
"Ice cream?" Amy asked.
"Unless you want to fix my knee on the stairs, I figure you should test all of the powers first which means we should go somewhere with more space," Myst explained.
Amy focused on the gem she could sense would allow her to vanish from sight and activated it, grinning as her arms faded so that she could only see a translucent outline. "Neat." She took a step to the right and frowned when Myst's eyes followed her. "Can you still see me?"
"You didn't think the glowing eyes were just for show did you?" Myst asked with amusement as he vanished from sight. "Let's grab a snack and test the rest of your new powers."
"I could eat something," Amy admitted, remembering that she'd skipped dinner.
"Cool," Myst replied with a grin as he headed down the stairs. "Let's go."
'I must be insane,' Amy thought as she headed down the stairs, following his voice. "How fast is the flight?"
"No idea, I haven't really pushed it, I'm not a Brute, I'm a telekinetic and a Blaster. You should probably avoid going fast enough to splatter against a building or damage your internal organs by stopping too fast," Myst warned as they walked out into the hallway and headed toward the exit.
"You think?" Amy muttered dryly as she followed him outside, happy that she could actually slip away without people begging her to fix their sniffles or other minor injuries.
Myst turned visible as they left the hospital, if only so Amy could keep track of him. "Where to?"
"There's a decent diner around the corner, but I might be a little overdressed," Amy admitted as she looked down at her silk dress, smiling as she took in her new breasts once more.
Myst focused and changed his appearance, going from looking in his late thirties to looking like he was in his early twenties and changing his pants and sweatshirt to a pair of slacks and a black dress shirt then changing his face to look like the actor that played Harry Potter. "If we're going to have a night on the town, we might as well match and have a blast."
"You realize I like girls, right?" Amy asked dryly.
"I know," Myst replied as he held out his arm, lifting the location of the diner out of her thoughts. "I'm honestly not looking for anything more than dinner and some laughs, maybe a new friend."
"Good," Amy agreed as she took his arm, pretending for a second that she didn't have a care in the world and that Carol wasn't going to be pissed when she got back late or whatever her excuse of the week was for her attitude. "We're going to cause a scene, you realize that, right?"
"Are you telling me that people don't dress up as their favorite heroes?" Myst asked as he kept his eye out for trouble and capes as they started walking down the sidewalk.
Amy shook her head. "Most people can't shape change and dressing up like heroes tends to get people in trouble with villains, outside of cons or Halloween."
"Fair enough," Myst admitted.
"Ignoring Scion and Eidolon, if you could pick any power, what power would you want?" Amy asked after a minute of walking in silence.
"I don't know, I have a pretty nice collection of powers but if I had to choose an official cape, I'd probably want a copy of your powers."
"Why?" Amy asked in surprise, expecting him to go for someone with more impressive powers, like Legend or Alexandria.
"Being able to buy a private island in the Caribbean with the profits of a weekend in Vegas or Hollywood, is nothing to sneeze at."
Amy shook her head. "Charging for healing wouldn't be heroic."
Myst shook his head. "Let's ignore the fact that doctors are paid for their time and say I agree that healing should be free, you've got to eat and working a nine to five is rather pointless when you could be flying around the country having fun and clearing hospitals in your free time because you charge an actor or CEO five to ten million to make them twenty to thirty years younger a couple of times a year."
"How is that fair?" Amy asked. "You're basically saying I should just help the rich and powerful."
Myst shrugged. "Life isn't fair, some people are born with family money, some people are born with intelligence, some people get fantastic powers because of random chance and some people have the IQ of a concussed chihuahua. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, it's just a fact, life isn't fair."
"Carol would want a cut if I started charging people," Amy grumbled. "Besides, if people knew I could make them younger, I'd never get any peace."
"Fair enough," Myst admitted.
"That's it?" Amy asked.
"It's your life," Myst grinned at a couple of girls that were staring at them in disbelief from the back of a car, "I'm just here until I can figure out my powers then I'm jumping dimensions and finding somewhere more exciting."
"Jumping dimensions? Like Earth Aleph?" Amy asked in surprise.
"Pretty much though I think I'll skip Aleph considering there are actual treaties in place that make jumping back and forth illegal," Myst admitted.
Amy stopped walking and stared at Myst. "So you're saying you've actually been to other dimensions?"
"Three," Myst replied with a grin. "One didn't have anyone with powers, one of them had a girl with a talking cat and the other had a tinker that liked portals."
"A talking cat?" Amy asked.
Myst laughed. "What can I say, the multiverse is a weird place."
"Can you take people with you?" Amy asked, curious what it would be like to go somewhere no one had ever heard of the Endbringers or capes or a world where America had lost the war for independence or any of the other major turning points in history had gone the other way.
"Sure, they just have to be touching me when I jump," Myst replied as they hurried across the street while the walk symbol was lit up. "You're welcome to come with me for a short trip."
Amy considered her options as they walked towards the diner, she knew she shouldn't even be considering taking a trip with a stranger she'd just met but she was stressed out and needed a vacation and she wouldn't get any relaxation with Carol breathing down her neck or her sister for that matter, as she was still trying to set her up on blind dates every chance she got. "I'll consider it after the next endbringer fight and classes get out for the summer."
"Sounds reasonable," Myst agreed, trying to remember when the next attack was. 'Okay, I know it's Leviathan and I know it happened while Taylor was still in school which means a week or two at most, unless something changes, like dropping Noelle off in another world.' He wasn't positive that she was his target but it made more sense than him hitting the Bay randomly because of economic reasons when there were much worse places to hit. 'Either way, I should probably make an interdiction field generator if I want to avoid people dropping in and I need to figure out a way to sneak in to deal with Noelle without Coil screwing me over, this would be a lot easier if I was immune to precog.'
Amy smiled as she saw an attractive blonde that looked a bit like her sister giving her an appreciative glance as they walked up to the diner. 'I could get used to this.'
Myst gestured and opened the door to the diner with telekinesis which caused a group of girls to turn and stare at them. "Ladies."
"It's sort of fun being someone else," Amy whispered as they walked into the diner.
"Now and then," Myst agreed as he smiled at the waitress that was walking over.
"Sit anywhere…" the waitress trailed off as she 'recognized' them. "You look like…"
"We know," Myst replied with a grin as he walked over towards one of the booths.
Amy grinned as she sat down in the booth. "That was more fun than I thought."
"It's just a bit of harmless fun and it helps take the edge off," Myst explained as he sat down across from her. "If you could be any type of magic user, what type would you be?"
Amy raised her eyebrows. "Magic?"
"It seemed appropriate," Myst replied as he focused on his detection ability and checked to see if he could use it as a cape detector. He smiled as he felt the dimensional connection sitting across from him and another dozen in his range, most of them underground in what he was guessing was the financial district. 'Okay, unless I'm wrong, that should be the Travelers in Coil's base which means I need to get busy unless I want things to go to shit.'
Amy smiled as she thought about the Harry Potter series. "I'm not picky, as long as I can fly and blast things, I'd be happy."
"No healing?" Myst asked as he grabbed a menu.
"No, that's a bit too close to home," Amy admitted as she rested her hands on the table, already knowing what she wanted to order.
"Fair enough," Myst admitted as he looked over the burger section.
"You?" Amy asked.
"Enchanter," Myst replied without any hesitation. "I always liked crafting in games, there's something interesting about crafting your own gear, unless they completely screwed things up and it's random to make you grind."
"Have you found any worlds with magic yet?" Amy teased.
Myst grinned. "I'm fairly sure the talking cat was a warlock in disguise, but I don't have any proof."
Amy shook her head and smiled at the waitress as she walked over. "I want a burger, fries, and a Coke."
"Burger, fries, and I'll have a chocolate shake," Myst said as he handed her the menu.
"One check or two?" the waitress asked.
"One, I'll pay, unless you want to?" Myst asked as he glanced at Amy.
"That's fine," Amy said, not seeing a reason to waste her allowance if she could avoid it.
"It should be out in a couple of minutes," the waitress assured them then left.
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Chichi son
Myst gestured and hoped the door to the diner with telekinesis which caused a group of girls to turn and stare at them. "Ladies." opened the door?
