Mist of Shadows
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Travels in the Multiverse Part 16
🕑 Added 2020-10-24 08:14:16 +0000 UTCMyst tossed himself to the side as his precog screamed at him and the attractive teenager tossed a small ball of energy at him. "What the fuck?!"
"What do you want?!" the girl demanded, conjuring another ball of energy in her hand as she bounced to her feet.
"Do you always toss balls of energy at people?" Myst asked, ready to teleport out of the way in case she continued trying to hit him, glad that he didn't have to stand to do so.
She snorted. "You're the one that teleported to a deserted island to spy on me."
"Spy? I wasn't spying, I just got here. I'm still trying to get a handle on my traveling ability," Myst explained, trying not to stare at the girl's breasts, which was a bit hard as he was sprawled on the ground and she was standing.
"You expect me to believe that you just ended up here?" she asked in disbelief.
"No offense, but I don't even know where 'here' is," Myst replied, hoping for a bit of information.
"You're in the Caribbean Islands," she offered. "You know a gentleman would look away, right?"
"I never claimed to be one and you have an energy ball," Myst replied as he looked at her lovely green eyes, fairly sure turning his back on her would result in getting hit in the back.
"You're not as stupid as most of the people I have to deal with." She smirked. "That didn't look like orbing, shimmering, flaming or any of the rest of the powers I've seen, so what are you?"
"Just a guy on vacation?" Myst offered as he studied the girl's magic, trying to figure out what was going on. 'You've got a lot of magic clinging to you, contracts?'
"You don't look like Mr. Black," she replied with a touch of amusement.
"As in Harry Potter?" Myst asked, mind drifting to an old fanfiction he'd read years ago.
The young lady snickered at the look on his face. "Yep, it's a guilty pleasure even if the author got most of the magic details wrong. I mean come on, any self respecting magic user would have incinerated the Dursleys."
"Yeah, Harry has a bit of a complex about being a decent person," Myst said, fairly sure he would have torched the house years before even reaching Hogwarts. "Favorite character?"
"I bounce between Bellatrix and Hermione," the girl offered.
"Why Bellatrix?" Myst asked as he cautiously stood up.
"Because she's delightfully insane and always entertaining." She shrugged, causing her breasts to bounce. "Hermione because she's generally the voice of reason and she's a saint for putting up with Ron, I'd have stabbed him."
"Metaphorically or?" Myst asked.
"With a knife," she replied. "Or just blasted him."
"So, warlock?" Myst asked warily as he glanced at the energy ball she was holding.
"Really? You think I'm a warlock just because I'd stab Ron?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Generally people don't jump right to stabbing," Myst pointed out.
"It's Ron, but I guess that's fair," she admitted. "Witch?" she asked with raised eyebrow ready to toss her energy ball at him.
Myst shook his head. "Nope, I'm just a traveler from elsewhere with a bit of magic. I wasn't joking about ending up here by mistake."
"What type of magic?" she asked, relaxing slightly now that she knew he probably wasn't going to vanquish her on principle.
"This and that. I don't suppose you have access to a power stealing athame?" he asked hopefully, reading her mind.
"Even if I did, you'd have to be insane to use it. If you go after witches, one of the Halliwells shows up and you end up dead. If you go after demons, you end up getting hunted down by demonic assassins or you go insane because demonic powers are evil as hell. I've read the Evil Overlord's Handbook, I want nothing to do with that mess..." she trailed off as a warlock and three demons shimmered in wearing business suits, with the human looking warlock wearing a more impressive suit. "Shit!"
"Not friends?" Myst asked as he looked at the demons.
"Nope," she replied as she glared at the three demons. "Fuck off! I'm not working for you, Marvin."
"You were hired to do a job, you didn't do it," Marvin said coldly.
"You broke the contract, my contract specifically said no messing with innocents, I don't need one of the damned brothers to show up and kill me," she explained.
"You're afraid of a couple of witches," Marvin sneered.
"No shit, one of them has Excalibur," the girl replied sarcastically.
"He doesn't have a Destiny anymore, he can't actually use it. But fine, if you won't work with us, I'll simply take what I want." Marvin smirked as he pulled out an atheme. "How loyal is your bodyguard?"
"Loyal enough. Is that a power stealing athame?" Myst asked as he tapped his bracelet to keep any of the demons from teleporting away.
"Yes, which means if you don't want to lose your powers, you'll step aside," Marvin sneered, completely missing the look in Myst's eyes.
The girl snorted as she tossed her energy ball at the demonic muscle on the warlock's left, knowing they'd be expecting her to go for the leader.
Myst suppressed the warlock's powers then used his telekinesis to scatter the demons and rip the dagger out of his hands as he lunged towards him, causing the girl's energy ball to miss the demon as he tumbled backwards.
"Shit!" Marvin cursed as he tried to toss a bolt of energy at the man and nothing happened.
Myst stabbed the warlock in the shoulder and smiled when he saw the man's powers flow into the dagger and then into his arm. 'That makes it easy.' He gestured and lifted the demons and man into the air. "Don't kill them boss, I have a plan."
"Fine, you know how I get," the girl said, playing along.
"I have powerful friends," Marvin warned Myst.
"I'll kill you if you stab me!" one of the demons shouted, a bit panicked because he couldn't shimmer out for some reason.
"Oh?" Myst asked, reading the man's mind as he walked around and stabbed each of the demons to steal their powers, figuring he was already going to have to deal with the warlock's powers, he might as well grab the rest. "I guess I have a use for you." He focused on his precog and checked what would happen if he turned off the interdiction field and let the idiot call his darklighter friend. 'Huh, I'll just have to be quick.' He quickly tapped his bracelet so that people could teleport in as the man opened his mouth.
"Maximillian!" the man shouted.
"Shit!" the girl cursed.
Myst lunged and stabbed the dark haired Italian looking guy in the back as he appeared in a stream of dark blue almost black orbs of not light. "Any friends with interesting powers?" he asked as he lifted the depowered darklighter into the air with telekinesis.
"Who the hell are you?!" the darklighter demanded, wondering why he hadn't sensed his attacker.
"I'm just a guy on vacation," Myst replied as he took a step to the side and punched the darklighter in the temple, dropping him unconscious.
“Mr Black?” one of the demons muttered in confusion.
The girl glanced between the fallen darklighter and the warlock. "Shame about the suit, it's probably worth a couple thousand."
"That's what repair and cleaning charms are for," Myst replied as he turned to look at the warlock.
"They'll kill you for this," Marvin lied, knowing no one with any real power actually cared about them.
Myst laughed. "You're not that important Marvin. Do you have anything worth stealing from your home or office?" he asked, picking up details with his telepathy. "Really, you wrote everything down in a ledger? If I was a villain, I'd be fucking embarassed to be on your side."
"Yeah, I can't say I'm impressed," the girl said, trying to stay positive about everything and hoping her ‘employee’ wasn’t going to hold a grudge about the whole ‘trying to incinerate him’ thing.
Myst reached down and shoved the darklighter into his pocket dimension then smirked at the warlock. "I'm afraid your friend is beyond help."
"Who are you?!" the warlock demanded.
"009, troubleshooting division," Myst replied with amusement as he walked over and punched the man in the temple then shoved him into his pocket dimension.
The girl shivered as the stranger vanished the rest of the demons. "So, what's your top three favorite fanfics?" she asked, hoping he wasn't going to stab her.
"Off hand, Make a Wish, I Wouldn’t Call That Sitting, and A Bet On The Hellmouth Ends In Suffering were some of my favorites," Myst replied with a grin, putting his new athame into his pocket dimension so he wouldn't lose it.
"I love Make A Wish but I've never heard of the second two, any good?" she asked.
"I liked them," Myst replied with a grin. "I don't suppose you know how to get rid of the powers once you've picked them up?"
"You'd need a lantern, the right power, or someone with the right spell," she said, confirming what he already suspected.
"Thankfully he has a couple power storing lanterns in his office." Myst risked another look at the girl's thoughts, curious if he could leave her alone or if he needed to steal her powers. "What can you tell me about yourself?"
"My name is Wendy, I'm a freelance alchemist and poet," she offered.
'Wendy Rose? Sounds like a stripper name, no wonder she didn't actually give her last name, I'm not sure I would have believed her. Likes, moonlit walks on the beach, skinny dipping, books, fanfiction and video games. Dislikes priests, stupid people and her grandfather because he promised her to a demon on her seventeenth birthday, lovely family. Yeah, either my traveling is under my subconscious control or I have a luck based power, probably the first considering the worlds I've jumped to and the odds of any of it being random.' He smiled at her. "Do you want a job?"
"What are you offering and what would I have to do?" Wendy asked, wondering what he wanted transmuted.
"I'd love to have an attractive alchemist working for me long term, but let's start with something simple, removing the cursed powers after I've finished running some tests, do you think you can help?" Myst asked, figuring it would be easier with a local's help.
Wendy nodded. "If you can find his lantern, I can certainly help. What are you offering?"
"How about a ticket to a different world where your grandfather can't find you?" Myst offered.
Wendy shook her head. "I'm covered in tracking spells and spells to make sure I don't run."
"And if I broke them?" Myst asked.
'I can't see that happening,' Wendy thought, knowing that her parents had signed the deal so they'd get more power, which meant she was basically screwed. "Hypothetically, I'd also need protection from scrying because he'd send demons to retrieve me."
"That I can do," Myst assured her. "So, do we have a deal?"
"If you're lying, I'm going to be upset," Wendy warned him as she held out her hand.
"I'm not lying," Myst assured her as he shook her hand, getting more details of her life thanks to the physical contact. 'Yeah, I can't really blame her for running off for one last week of fun before she has to marry a creep old enough to have seen the fall of Rome.' He glanced down at her laptop bag and school bag stuffed with clothes. "Do you need to pick up anything or are you good?"
"I'm good," she replied, hoping she'd never have to go home again.
"In that case, grab your stuff and let's go pick up some lanterns," Myst said.
"Do you have a name?" Wendy asked as she picked up her t-shirt and pulled it over her head.
"Myst," Myst replied as he turned to look at the water. "Nice choice of vacation spots."
"It's quiet and almost no one ever comes here." Wendy grinned as she packed her laptop away then picked up her bags. "I'm ready."
"Not going to grab your towel?" he asked as he glanced at the beach towel.
"Nope, it's my Mom's favorite," Wendy replied with a smirk.
"Fair enough," Myst replied and teleported them to Marvin's office. He glanced around the cluttered office filled with antiques, noting the ones that were glowing with magic. "Demonic pawnbroker, it fits."
"Technically he was a warlock," Wendy pointed out as she glanced at the collection of old antiques scattered around the small office.
Myst walked around the desk and reached down and grabbed the three old fashioned looking lanterns that were glowing and stuck them in his pocket dimension. 'Yeah, I'm almost out of room.' He gestured and floated the half a dozen glowing demonic trinkets over to the desk. "I don't suppose you have a power that lets you identify magic items?"
"I wish," she admitted as she looked at the odd collection of magical items.
Myst dropped the collection of magic items into his pocket dimension then focused on the drawer and suppressed the curse and ripped the lock apart with telekinesis. He opened the drawer and grabbed another power stealing athame and a business leader. He flipped through the ledger, noticing a lot of names, phone numbers, and powers often connected by certain symbols. "What do you think, torch the ledger or turn it over to a witch so they can deal with it?"
Wendy grinned. "Turn it over to a witch, they'll have 'fun' tracking everyone down and it should make his bosses extremely unhappy, which means his chances of being resurrected drop to just about zero."
"Fair point," Myst replied as he lifted the location of the Halliwell house from Wendy's thoughts. "How do you feel about San Francisco?"
"Are you trying to get me killed?" Wendy asked with a shiver
"One of them had a half demon for a boyfriend, they're not going to kill you just for visiting the city are they?" Myst asked, curious if the girls were more hostile in this world than had been shown in the show.
"They ended up killing Balthezar," Wendy pointed out.
"Only after he went insane because he killed the Source," Myst replied.
"Fine, let's make it quick," Wendy said, hoping they wouldn't run into any of the Halliwell clan.
"Cool, don't scream." He dropped the athame into his pocket dimension then teleported to the front door step of the Halliwell house with Wendy.
"Shit!" Wendy cursed when she recognized the house from the pictures her mother had shown her of places to avoid. "Are you insane?!"
"Nope," Myst replied with a grin as he set the ledger on the ground. He was just about to ring the doorbell when the door opened and he saw a familiar looking teenager. 'He's a bit younger than the show.'
"Can I help you?" Chris asked, trying not to stare at the attractive girl that was quite obviously not wearing a bra.
"We looted a warlock's office and found his ledger." Myst pointed towards the ledger on the ground. "We figured you'd know someone that could investigate the names."
"Let me guess, you were just going to ring the doorbell and leave it?" Chris asked as he glanced between the two strangers.
"We didn't want to bother anyone," Wendy spoke up, trying not to show how nervous she was. "You're sort of famous."
"We'll certainly check it out," Chris assured her. "Where did you find it?"
"L.A," Myst replied, sending him a mental image of the man's office so he could investigate. "Thanks, I wouldn't have a clue where to start."
"Don't worry about it, Paige's husband is pretty good at tracking people down," Chris told them, as both an assurance and a subtle threat.
"Best of luck." Myst focused on Mortimer's shop where he could get his magical items identified and winced when he saw a vision of the Lady of Pain, waving one bladed finger at him, as if to say, you're not welcome. He gulped and shifted focus, looking for a safer place to jump and grinned when his precog showed him an older man standing by a fountain. 'That's better than dealing with the Lady of Pain. Not sure what the hell that was about, but I think I'll skip that world for a bit.'
Chris frowned slightly when the strangers vanished without a trace or any of the familiar signs. 'Yeah, because that's not suspicious.' He glanced down at the ledger then walked back inside to grab a pair of gloves.
Myst glanced at the old man in mage's robes then looked around the old fashioned town, focusing on the brightly glowing anvil in the smithy. "Where are we?" he asked, fairly sure he already knew where they'd jumped.
"Tristram," the older man replied.
"As in Diablo?" Wendy blurted as she put the pieces together, wondering where Myst had found a pocket dimension that resembled one of her favorite games.
"There were whispers," Deckard Cain admitted. "I sense great power in the two of you. Have you come to help destroy the Lord of Terror?"
Myst shook his head. "You really need to work on your recruitment speeches. We're just here to get some magical items identified and do a bit of trading."
"I can do that for a small fee," Deckard offered, disappointed that they weren't here to help as the rest of the heroes that had shown up to help hadn't fared all that well.
Myst reached into his pocket and pulled out a small gem. "Is this enough for a couple of items?"
"More than enough," Deckard agreed. "I only ask because the hero that cleared most of the dungeon stumbled out of a town portal and died before the healer could save them."
"Tell you what, if you identify all of the magic items I'm carrying for free and anything I find in the dungeon, I'll scrounge up a hero and destroy your demon infestation," Myst offered.
"Toss in the hero's gear," Wendy added quickly.
"Deal," Deckard replied quickly, knowing they'd need all the help they could get to defeat Diablo.
Myst gave Wendy a smile then gestured and focused on the college, opening a portal in front of him that connected to the wall of Winterhold's dorm.
'Can't be worse than letting my grandfather win,' Wendy thought as a group of strangers walked out of the portal. 'Does he run around collecting attractive people?'
Deckard stared at the strange portal, wondering where the man had learned it.
"Trouble?" Buffy asked as she looked around, feeling like she was back in Sunnydale.
Tara shivered as she felt the tainted magic in the area wash over her. "The magic is twisted here."
"I'm not surprised, a demon lord set up shop under the cathedral which means we need to go down there and kill his current body and find a decent hiding spot for his soul stone," Myst explained, curious how the world would change without Diablo pulling its strings.
"We need to find a better way to cleanse corruption or prevent it," Willow mused as she extended her senses before quickly pulling back as the magic just felt wrong even compared to the Hellmouth.
Buffy glanced between the old man and the girl in shorts and a t-shirt, wondering where Myst had picked the girl up. "Great, I thought I was supposed to be on vacation?"
Xander glanced between the old man and the smithy then looked at the fountain again. "Are we in Tristram?"
"Good guess and yeah," Myst replied, curious how many magical items they could loot from the dungeon before they killed Diablo.
"How do you kill a demon lord?" Ivy asked, fairly sure none of the spells she knew would cut it.
"Explosives," Xander said firmly, thinking about the mayor.
Willow shook her head. "I don't think we have any."
"Enough magic should do it," Wendy offered.
Myst turned to look at Harry as he stepped out of the portal. "No Hermione or Dawn?"
Harry shook his head. "They're in the library, I left a note."
Myst let the portal close. "Long story short, the local hero died, which means we should probably step in and help, unless we want a demon lord running around."
"Is it worse than Glory?" Buffy asked warily.
"No idea," Myst admitted. "It's hard to judge by the stories I've heard."
"Diablo is one of the three prime evils," Deckard offered.
Myst shrugged. "From what I understand, Diablo needs a host, which means we might be able to force him out of his current host by touching him with something that prevents possession, though it's possible that he's too far gone."
"Do we have anything that will actually hurt him?" Buffy asked, wishing she had the troll hammer with her.
"The hero had a decent collection of weapons." Deckard looked at Xander. "I could use some help carrying everything."
"Sure," Xander said as he followed the old man towards the inn.
Myst watched Xander and Deckard walk off. "He said the hero reached hell before stumbling back through a portal and dying of blood loss, which means we should be able to defeat him and jump worlds with the soul stone, which would derail a lot of crap over the next couple of years."
"Not to mention get us a nice boost to our magic, right?" Ivy asked.
"Pretty much," Myst agreed as he gestured towards Wendy. "This is Wendy Rose, she's an alchemist that was having trouble with a demon that wouldn't take no for an answer. Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg, Tara Maclay, and Harry and Ivy Potter."
Wendy stared at the group. "From the show? They don't look like their actors and Ivy Potter?"
"Girl That Lived," Ivy offered with a shrug.
"Nice to meet you," Wendy said, hoping the group wasn't going to flip out and try to kill her when they found out she was part demon. "That means you're not the Boy That Lived?"
Harry sighed. "I wish, two different worlds."
"Ah, you weren't joking about being a traveler were you?" Wendy asked, grinning when she realized that he might actually be able to take her outside of her family's reach.
"No, one of my powers allows me to bounce between worlds. We're sort of on summer break and Buffy is taking a vacation," Myst explained.
"Some vacation," Buffy replied, thinking about the army of demons waiting for them.
"You'd get bored if there was nothing to slay," Myst pointed out. "Besides, these demons should have loot."
Buffy grinned. "On the other hand, I'd hate to get rusty."
"That's the spirit," Myst replied with amusement.
"What type of alchemy?" Ivy asked Wendy.
"Transmutation and potions," Wendy offered.
Willow smiled. "Good, we found a bunch of alchemy books in the library at the college, we could use help testing everything."
"I'd be happy to," Wendy said with a smile, looking forward to having some honest work. "Do you have any potions books from home and is Snape really as bad as the books portray him?"
"Snape's an evil bastard," Harry grumbled.
Ivy shrugged. "He's an expert when it comes to potions, he just shouldn't be anywhere near children. We left all our books at the base."
"Where did you learn?" Tara asked Wendy, curious about the new girl.
"My Mom's side of the family have been alchemists for as far back as anyone can remember," Wendy explained.
"If we're going into a dungeon, we should probably work on making some defensive gear," Ivy pointed out.
"Good idea," Buffy agreed.
Myst pulled his enchanting table out of his pocket dimension. "With any luck, Deckard Cain will be able to identify everything I looted from the Thalmor, which means we can get started making some basic gear."
"Thalmor? As in Elder Scrolls?!" Wendy asked excitedly.
"A version of it," Myst replied with a grin as he started stacking the various magical items he'd looted recently on the ledge of the fountain. "The enchanting is a lot like Daggerfall, you can use souls but you don't have to, which is good because I'd rather not use souls to power my magical items if I can help it."
Wendy nodded, fairly sure that using souls to enchant things would get you in a decent amount of trouble with the whitehats and thus dead. "I can't say I blame you."
Willow glanced towards the shed she could see in the distance. "Should we check the witch for full mana potions?"
"Go for it." Myst pulled a couple large gems out of his pocket and tossed them to Willow. "Grab any spell books and magic elixirs while you're at it."
"Of course," Willow agreed as she headed off to talk to the witch.
Myst grinned as he went back to stacking magical items while he waited for Deckard and Xander to get back.
Comments
Hunter128
... You do know that was on of Mist’s stories right? Mistofrainbows is their handle on TTH. It is a good story though.
Patrick Sandhop
Hmm, somehow I missed "A Bet On The Hellmouth Ends In Suffering" so it's a good thing you still like your older stuff enough to recommend it.
