Mist of Shadows
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Myst in DC Part 32
🕑 Added 2019-12-17 06:30:21 +0000 UTCMyst relaxed slightly when he saw Kara, Karen, Superman and Diana fly over with John Stewart. “Any advice for dealing with a demigod?”
“Don’t get hit,” Kal replied dryly, glancing at Diana.
“I can protect the non combatants,” John said as he glanced around the beach at the civilians, not sure why Myst hadn’t already sent them away.
“That would be great,” Myst replied as he got a flash of precog that Devastation would be there shortly. “Incoming!”
“This is going to suck,” Donna Troy complained.
John projected a glowing green shield a second before a young lady slammed into it in a blur of speed, causing it to shatter into a thousand pieces and bringing her to a halt. He quickly reformed the shield as the heroes sprung into action, attacking the sword wielding preteen girl.
Nothing about the girl appeared normal, she was wearing a black leotard criss crossed with pink ribbons and covered by a heavily enchanted breastplate while her red hair was topped with a crown of thorns. Her eyes were a solid white, radiating power the way her manic grin radiated madness.
Diana blurred forward and blocked the strike that was coming toward Kal’s neck with her sword, finding the girl moved nearly as fast as she could.
Kal took advantage of the girl’s sword being engaged to strike Devastation in the jaw sending her flying backwards.
Glory blurred forward to hit the girl that wanted her Key and staggered as the girl twisted impossibly fast and impaled her with her sword, shocked that the weapon actually hurt.
Myst pulled his small pyramid shaped portal device out of his inventory and turned it on, creating a portal behind Devastation that opened into what looked like space. “Now!”
Devastation blurred into action and was quickly blocked by Superman, who mentally cursed himself for pulling his punches as he found it difficult to bring his full force to bear on what appeared to be a child. Wonder Woman quickly appeared her sword raised to strike when Glory appeared between her and her target punting the small figure to the side with a furious kick.
Kara and Donna were forced to dodge out of the way as the small figure slammed into a rocky outcropping that stuck up through the sand.
Superman appeared in front of his target, only to receive a kick between the legs that sent him rocketing into the air, before she rolled to the side to avoid a slash from Wonder Woman’s sword as everyone shifted around to try and keep up with the battle that was moving at speeds far too quickly for most to get more than a glimpse when a blow was struck or blocked.
Devastation blurred around, feigning an attack to make Wonder Woman raise her sword to block and instead appeared in front of Myst and flung him at Glory, knocking them both through the portal and severing one of his legs on the edge before he could react. “Better idea!” she said cheerfully as she slashed through Green Lantern’s shield. She laughed as she slashed at Kara as she went to grab her, forcing her to fly backwards to avoid losing her arm. She grabbed Dawn with her free hand and flung her through the quickly shrinking portal as well.
‘Fuck!’ Dawn did her best to hold her breath and plug her nose as she wanted to live long enough for someone to rescue her.
Sabrina took a breath then teleported through the almost closed portal and carefully grabbed Dawn and Myst with her telekinesis before they could spiral off. ‘Hopefully Glory will swap back to Ben and die permanently,’ she thought, changing back into book form so she wouldn’t need to breathe.
‘Shit!’ Myst complained mentally as he spun around enough to see a familiar looking starship next to a truly massive looking starbase. ‘Yes!’
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Donna flew forward and punched Devastation in the jaw as hard as she could, causing a sonic boom and sending her flying backwards. “Dawn!”
“Recall!” Devastation said quickly as Kara and Karen took advantage of having a clear shot and blasted her with heat vision, happy to teleport away as the fight was not going her way and she’d caused her target enough emotional pain to not be a total loss.
Kal sighed as Devastation vanished, leaving an angry and distraught Donna. “That could have gone better.”
“I’m going to kill her!” Donna screamed.
“I wasn’t expecting her to hit quite that hard,” John muttered, more than a little annoyed that she’d been able to slice straight through his constructs.
“We’ll get her next time,” Karen said, unhappy with how the fight went.
Crow sighed as she looked at Myst’s severed leg, lying on the ground where the portal had been, slowly melting into formless blue goo. “That could have gone better.” She’d had to focus all her power on shielding the group from mental attacks, lacking the well of power Raven could draw from.
“Any idea where they went?” Superman asked, hoping Myst or Sabrina could save the young ladies that had gotten tossed through the portal.
“Without the portal device, not a clue,” Crow admitted. “On the upside, he should be able to use the portal device to get back, assuming they can find the right dimensional code.”
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Myst quickly pulled his shield bracelet out of his inventory and slipped it on his wrist, creating a large purple globe around himself, as Sabrina telekinetically dragged him and Dawn to her, reforming her human body as they entered Myst’s bubble. “Sorry about that, I wasn’t expecting her to be quite that fast.”
Dawn glanced back at the edge of the purple glowing shield surrounding them. “Lantern ring?”
“Nope, magic,” Myst replied as he stuck the portal device in his inventory. “Which is sort of annoying, a Lantern Ring would be able to contact the ship…” he trailed off as a familiar man in a Starfleet Captain’s outfit appeared near them. “Fuck!”
Q raised his eyebrows as he glanced between Myst and Dawn. “Interesting, with a reaction like that, one might assume that you’ve heard of me,” he replied, his voice perfectly audible to the three of them despite the fact that he was floating in hard vacuum.
“I’ve heard stories, I don’t suppose I could impose upon you for a teleport to someplace less… drafty?” Myst asked, wondering if they’d screwed up one of Q’s plans or if he was just bored.
“But of course,” Q said cheerfully as he snapped his fingers and teleported Myst, Sabrina, and Dawn to Voyager’s bridge. “It looks like this is my day to be the hero.” He turned his attention toward Glory who was spinning through space and snapped his fingers, sending her somewhere... more interesting.
“Riker?” Myst sputtered as they found themselves on the bridge looking at Commander Riker.
“Who are you and what are your intentions?” Captain Riker asked as he studied the three people wearing old fashioned looking clothes, one of whom was missing half of his pant leg and one of his boots.
“Accidentally got spaced, Q was kind enough to teleport us here,” Myst explained as he looked at Deanna Troi then looked over at Tom Parris who was sitting behind one of the stations. ‘Apparently some of the normal timeline’s crew are still here, so not everything has changed.’
“What does Q have to do with things?” Riker asked with concern.
“Nothing,” Q replied as he appeared. “Well, almost nothing. They dropped in from another reality into the vastness of space and I gave them a helping hand, purely out of the goodness of my heart.”
Riker glanced between Q and the three strangers. “I don’t suppose I can talk you into collecting my crew members, repairing the ship and sending us home?” he asked, fairly sure Q wouldn’t help them, but he’d never forgive himself if he didn’t try to do things the easy way for the sake of his crew.
“I’m afraid not, but that’s why Myst is here,” Q replied then vanished with a flash of light, his smirk hanging in the air for a few seconds before fading away.
“Can you get us home?” Riker asked as he turned his attention back toward the three strangers.
Myst shook his head. “I’m not a Q who can instantly rewrite reality, but I can certainly cut down the time it’ll take by decades if not more,” he replied as he reset his pants and missing boot, happy that his ring had no problem fixing the damage.
Riker glanced at Myst’s leg for a second then turned to look at Deana. “Thoughts?”
Deanna focused on Myst, not sure why she couldn’t feel him. “I can’t sense anything from Myst, but the other two are excited about being on the ship.”
“That’s because starships are awesome,” Dawn replied, not at all worried about her sister as she had Wonder Woman with her, and hoping she could get a tour.
“It’s a nice ship,” Sabrina replied good naturedly.
“Why can’t she sense you?” Riker asked.
“Because I’m a telepath and have exceptional mental shields.” Myst turned off the part of his mental shields that kept empaths from sensing him. “How about now?”
“You’re worried about something back home and amused about something,” Deanna replied, a little surprised that he’d went from a complete blank to someone she could feel; most telepaths couldn’t hide their emotions without crippling their own abilities so rarely did so. She hesitantly reached out with telepathy, ‘Can you hear me?’
‘Is that enough proof?’ Myst asked, letting his amusement bleed through. He winced as he got a precognitive flash that involved the Kazon coming back with a group of carrier ships and blowing Voyager up. “Shit! We’re going to get company soon and it is quite definitely hostile and well armed.”
Deanna stared at Myst, trying to put the images she’d seen together. “You’re a precog.”
”Yeah, sorry about that.” Myst turned to look at Riker.
“What did you see?” Riker asked, having felt his wife’s unease.
“I saw the ship getting destroyed by three large carrier ships,” Deanna said, hoping they could prevent it.
“You’re going to believe him?” Tom asked.
Riker glanced at Deanna who nodded. “Considering our dealings with the Kazon so far, I’m inclined to believe it’s something they would readily do. When you say you can help repair the ship, are you talking snap your fingers quick or engineer quick?”
“Assuming it works, closer to the ‘snap my fingers’ side of things,” Myst said as he opened his upgrade menu and looked at the ship. ‘79% Repaired, that’s going to take some mana, at least I have plenty.’
“That would help,” Riker said, knowing that turning down the help at this point would be counterproductive.
Myst slid the mental slider up until the ship was at 100% repaired and spent the mana, sending a flood of mana through the ship as every single system on the ship regenerated, surprising more than a few of the crew that were working on repairs. “That should do it.”
Dawn shivered as the mana tickled her skin and almost sent her to her knees with pleasure. ‘What the hell was that?!’
“Status?” Riker asked as he turned to look at one of his officers.
Deanna glanced between the two girls, wondering why they were suddenly radiating pleasure.
The officer stared at the display as all of the warnings vanished and any sign of damage disappeared. “That’s impossible, all of the warnings are gone and everything looks good, including some issues from before we were dragged here.”
Myst shifted uncomfortably as he thought about the ships coming to kill them. “We’re still going to be in a world of trouble when the carrier ships show up. Do you want the shield upgraded?”
“That would certainly help, what do you need?” Riker asked, deciding that he could get an explanation later, mostly because if Q wanted them screwed over there was nothing they could reasonably do to stop him.
“Just your permission,” Mist said as he sunk half of his remaining mana into upgrading the ship’s shields, causing another storm of mana to wash over the girls and flow through the ship.
Dawn grabbed Sabrina to keep from falling over. “That was awesome!”
“You get used to it,” Sabina said, wishing she had time and a bed to really enjoy the experience.
“Get used to what?” Tom asked as he glanced between the three strangers.
Sabrina grinned at Tom then turned to look at Myst. “Even with better shields, they’re still going to have a problem dealing with the Kazon ships.”
The comms officer spoke up, “Tuvok is in the transporter room with Ensign Kim and B'elanna Torres as well as a telepathic native and Nelix.”
“Take us toward the array,” Riker ordered and tapped his com badge. “Riker to Tuvok, we’re going to have company shortly, I need you to beam over to the array and see if you can use it to send the Kazon ships to the Badlands.”
“Sir?” Tuvok asked, not sure he’d heard the captain correctly.
“They’re large enough that they’ll have a difficult time escaping the plasma storms,” Riker replied. “With any luck they won’t survive the journey.”
“Understood. Is there anything else?” Tuvok asked.
“Copy as much of the Caretaker’s database as possible, the knowledge could prove invaluable.” Riker knew nothing would bring the dead back but recovering a large chunk of the Caretaker’s advanced knowledge would help make the trip something other than a complete waste.
“Understood, permission to take B’elanna Torres with me?” Tuvok requested. “She’s the best engineer we have,” he said, knowing that she’d have a better chance to access the Caretaker’s array than he would alone.
B’elanna nodded.
“Clear it with Chakotay…” Riker trailed off as the Caretaker’s array exploded on screen. “Blast!” he cursed as he realized their best chance of getting home had just exploded. “Belay that, the array is gone.”
“What happened?!” Neelix asked anxiously.
“The Caretaker must have survived long enough to activate the self destruct,” Riker said as he stared at the debris, feeling like someone had just punched him in the gut. “Bring the local ‘expert’ to the bridge, I need to know what he can tell me about the Kazon.”
“Understood,” Tuvok replied.
Riker ended the call and turned toward Myst. “What else can you do?”
Myst briefly considered downplaying his abilities then decided that it didn’t matter, it wasn’t like they could keep them from leaving and Riker was unlikely to try. “I can improve just about anything other than personal skills.”
“Don’t you have rules against helping lesser species?” Tom asked, fairly sure most godlike beings had their own version of the Prime Directive when they weren’t being complete sociopaths.
Myst turned to look at Tom Paris. “Just my own moral compass.”
“What would we have to do to have you upgrade the ship enough to allow us to return to Federation space in a reasonable timeframe?” Riker asked, wondering what it would cost.
“Allow us safe passage with you, while we work on how to find our own way home, and I would like access to your database, though that isn’t a deal breaker, it’d just be nice. If you feel you have to return value for value for moral reasons, I would like to take a look at your memory of the phase cloak you should have ran across in the normal course of events in this time period.”
“You want my memory of an illegal phase cloak that we could never get to work for more than brief periods of time?” Riker asked, wondering if it was a test by Q to see if he’d compromise his principles.
“I’m not a member of the Federation and I have the ability to upgrade devices. Can you really afford to hold to a stupid treaty that never should have been signed when you’re 70,000 light years from home and the cloak could save your ship and crew?” Myst asked.
“Picard made the right choice when he decloaked and proved that we had it,” Riker said, defending his captain.
“Probably, but that doesn’t mean this situation is the same. You’re 70,000 light years from home in a really nasty section of space that happens to include the Borg and things the Borg haven’t managed to assimilate, despite years of trying. I’d rather not upgrade the ship just to have it fall into the hands of the Borg or the Kazon or any of the rest of the various nasty species flying around this section of the galaxy.”
“Do you even need his permission to grab the memory?” Tom asked.
Myst glanced at Tom. “Technically? No, but just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.”
Riker weighed his options, on the one hand he’d sworn to uphold the laws of the Federation, on the other hand, even the Kazon fighters had managed to drop the shields by a significant amount, which was problematic as the carriers were a lot larger and presumably more powerful. He looked at Deanna. “What do you think?”
“Not everything is black and white,” Deanna replied, knowing Will would have doubts no matter what he decided. “It was an unauthorised project, which means it can’t be classified as Federation technology, which means there is nothing preventing you from letting him look at your memories of the project and while I can’t be certain without consulting legal counsel, I don’t believe the Treaty of Algeron applies outside Federation or Romulan territory.”
“Fine, you can look at my memory of the device in exchange for the assistance you’ve offered,” Riker agreed, not sure he was making the right choice, but knowing the only reason Myst did not yet have it was simple politeness.
“Excellent, where do you want to start?” Myst asked, glad that Riker was at least willing to consider breaking the rules, when the rules were idiotic.
Riker turned to look at the door as it opened, revealing Tuvok, B’elanna, Neelix and a young woman that he hadn’t seen before. “What can you tell me about the Kazon?”
“They’re slavers and they’re highly territorial,” Neelix replied as he glanced around the bridge. He smiled as he noticed Sabrina and Dawn and realized their clothes didn’t match the rest of the crew’s uniforms. “New people.”
“We can shake hands later. How much more powerful are the Kazon carriers than their fighters?” Myst asked, knowing they didn’t have time for bullshit.
Neelix frowned at Myst then turned his attention toward Riker. “Significantly, a skilled pilot should be able to outmaneuver them as they are somewhat ungainly, but they are very heavily armed and armored.”
Myst paced back and forth, causing Dawn to look to Sabrina.
“He regains power at a faster rate while pacing,” she replied to the unasked question.
“Helm, full speed towards the system’s primary,” Riker commanded, “if we can’t outfight them we can outfox them.”
“Course laid in,” Paris replied as he tapped away.
“Engage,” Riker commanded.
Comments
Mist of Shadows
It gives him a chance to explore a bit.
Robert Buniff
Nice. I like the change in cast.
Mist of Shadows
We'll see how it goes.
Ben Benson
Yay!!! Should be interesting.
