Mist of Shadows
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Mist's Jumps Part 14
🕑 Added 2017-08-31 05:23:21 +0000 UTCWyatt frowned at his brother’s list. “Kill Gideon? Technically he hasn’t actually done anything yet.”
Chris looked up from his copy of Laura’s book of shadows. “He killed me or at least a version of him did or rather will.”
Mist spoke up from his spot on Paige’s couch, “I’m all for dealing with problems in a permanent fashion but he’s currently an elder in good standing and runs magic school. Besides, we can probably avoid the entire scenario that drove him crazy by stealing his magic mirror. If he doesn’t have his alternate whispering in his ear and he can’t scry on Wyatt then he shouldn’t go completely nuts like what happened in your timeline.”
“Stealing?” Chris asked warily.
“It’s a mirror that shows what happens in alternate worlds, I’d love to figure out how it works so that I can duplicate the process with worlds that aren’t twisted mirrors before we destroy it.” He wasn’t entirely convinced that the mirror hadn’t created the twisted evil world as things were so different, nothing should have lined up and yet they did.
“Sorry, I’m just a bit twitchy about Gideon and the mirror.” Chris wasn’t sure he agreed with Mist about Gideon but he could see Mist’s point about killing someone for something that might never come up.
Wyatt scowled slightly as he thought about the elders in his world refusing to help and possibly sabotaging them. “As much as I hate the elders preventing us from going back in time to fix things, he hasn’t done anything yet. Besides, we’re in no position to take over magic school right now.”
Paige spoke up as she walked back into the living room from the kitchen where she’d been putting away the food Pandora had helped her pick up from the store. “I have to agree with Wyatt on this, let’s not borrow problems when we have a list of demons to deal with.”
Chris sighed as he realized that Wyatt was right. “Fine, say we ignore Gideon for the moment, where are you planning on stealing another Paige from?”
Mist smiled at Paige. “We have a couple options, we could jump to the crazy evil world and make two copies then turn the copy we take back with us good or we could just hit a world where she’s a decent person despite her father being a darklighter.”
Wyatt shook his head. “You do realize that most darklighters are evil, right?”
“I know but most of that is because of how they’re raised,” Mist pointed out.
Paige had a feeling she might have ended up a vastly different person if she’d been raised by someone else. “I wouldn’t mind recruiting an alternate version of me or my sisters if we find versions that need a fresh start.”
Pandora walked into the living room. “Don’t worry, I know how to get to Phoenix's world if Dad will let me use his breach controler.”
“Any danger of screwing up the local multiverse?” Mist duplicated his breach controller and handed the duplicate to Pandora.
“It didn’t cause problems when you recruited her in my timeline so I doubt it will this time around.” Pandora punched in the rather long and complicated code for Phoenix’s world.
“How do you remember that?” Wyatt asked.
“There is a certain method to the madness once you get used to using the controller to jump worlds, that and I have a nearly photographic memory.”
“Ah.”
Chris glanced at Paige then looked at Pandora. “Assuming we can get to the correct world, where do we find Phoenix?”
Pandora hid her smirk as she thought about Phoenix’s work. “Probably her apartment or at work.”
“Where does she work?” Paige asked.
“She works at the Industrial Zone or at least the version I remember did.”
“Not social work?”
“Nope.” Pandora smiled as she finished programming the exit portal then pointed the breach controller at the wall and pushed the button.
Chris asked, “You put the portal in an alley?”
“It should be less than a block away from the back entrance to the club, do you have a fifty?”
“Bribery?” Mist asked as he pulled a 50 dollar bill out of his inventory.
“Bribery,” Pandora admitted as she plucked the 50 from his fingers then walked through the portal and into the alley.
Wyatt glanced at the doorway floating in thin air. “We should probably follow her to keep her out of trouble.”
“Probably,” Chris grumbled as he followed Pandora through the portal.
Mist held his hand out, “Shall we?”
Paige walked over and picked up Mist’s bottle. “Sure, I don’t want to forget this.”
“Yeah, I’d rather you didn’t.” He took her hand when she held it out and walked through the doorway to another world with her.
Pandora waited until they were completely through the door then closed it. “Try not to piss off the cops, from what I remember of Phoenix’s stories they’re rather corrupt.”
“Great,” Chris muttered as they headed down the alleyway.
Pandora walked up to the bouncer. “We’d like inside.”
The bouncer snorted. “You’re a teenager.”
Pandora held out the fifty.
The bouncer grabbed the fifty then opened the door for the group. “Have fun.”
The first thing Mist noticed as he walked in was the crappy music and the general lack of class of the place, followed by the half naked moderately cute stipper walking into a room with a ‘Staff Only!’ sign over it. He followed Pandora down the hall past the bathrooms and into the main room. Glancing around the dimly lit room reminded him a lot of the evil version of P3 only with less class which was saying something. His attention was drawn to the stage as he saw Chris quickly turn and look away from the stage. He smiled as he saw Paige or rather Phoenix dancing around a pole with nothing more than a pair of cat ears and a g-string on. “Damn, she can dance.”
“I hate you, you realize that right?” Chris glared at Pandora.
Pandora smirked as she watched the show, “What? She’s hot.”
Paige stared in shock as she watched her doppelganger dance around the pole with a flexibility she just didn’t have.
Wyatt stared at the ground in such a way that he could look at the other dancers and the room as he didn’t trust any of the shifty people in the place. “You have a sick sense of humor Pandora.”
Mist wasn’t sure if he should chalk this up to Genie having a warped sense of humor designing her personality or her spending too much time with Sin growing up.
Paige blushed as Phoenix swung around the pole one last time then walked over to her top hat and picked it up. ‘I goess that wasn’t so bad.’ She muttered, “Or not.” when Phoenix reached down and untied her g-string then pulled it off and held it up over her head.
Phoenix shouted, “Tips of five dollars or more gets a chance to win my g-string. I’ll even sign it for the winner.”
Paige stared at her alternate as the crowd cheered. ‘How the hell did I end up a stripper?’
Pandora grinned as Phoenix tossed her hat to a large security guard to start working the crowd. “You should give Paige twenty dollars to stick in the hat.”
Mist was just glad that he had plenty of money. He pulled five twenties out of his inventory and handed them to Paige. “Make sure you wave at her. If nothing else that should give her a reason to come talk to you.”
Paige blushed as she took the hundred dollars and made her way toward the stage and the bouncer. She noticed the moment Phoenix saw her as the other woman stared at her in shock before she managed to control her features. She forced herself to smile as she waved then concentrated on not having her money stolen or anyone grab her ass while she waited for the bouncer write down names on slips of paper for the drawing..
Pandora frowned slightly as she glanced around the bar. “I wasn’t expecting it to be this dingy.”
Mist frowned as he saw a man swat a waitress’s ass as she walked by. “Rather creepy if I’m being honest.”
Wyatt frowned as he noticed one of the people was harassing Paige. “This can’t end well.”
Mist followed Wyatt over to where Paige was glaring at a guy with too many tattoos that had just tried to grab one of her breasts. He quickly made his way over to stand next to Paige. “Problem?”
The man sneered drunkenly, “Just having a little fun, bitch is playing hard to get.”
“Find someone else to harass or better yet, don’t. Either way…” Mist trailed off as the man slammed his fist into his face breaking several fingers. He reached up and grabbed the man’s broken hand with his left hand then twisted and pulled. He decked the man with his right hand sending him to the floor with a broken jaw. “Next?” He sighed as he moved his head out of the way of one of the guy’s buddies then shattered the man’s elbow then kicked his knee so that it snapped. “Stay down idiot.”
Wyatt sighed as he saw the manager come out with a shotgun. ‘Great, so much for a first impression.’
The manager shouted, “Next idiot that tries anything gets shot.” He pointed at Mist, Paige and Phoenix. “Get the hell out and you’re fired, you’re too much trouble.”
Phoenix scowled at the manager. “Go fuck yourself, your club sucks.”
The manager smirked. “In that case keep her hat. Get security to toss her out of the club if she protests or tries to steal any clothes from the back room.”
Phoenix glared at the man as he turned and left. She’d get a lawyer but the cops were dirty so it likely wouldn’t help. “Great, I’ll probably get blacklisted now.”
Paige said, “Don’t worry about it, we can figure something out.”
Phoenix turned to look at Paige. “Who are you?”
“Paige, I’ll explain over coffee if you want?”
“Are you buying? My wallet is in the dressing room and he probably already hold the idiots to rob me.”
Mist lifted the information out of Paige’s head about where her wallet was. “I’ll get her wallet, shoes and coat, just get her outside before we have more problems.” He headed toward the staff room to retrieve her stuff as he looked through the manager’s head for details on why he was such an ass. It didn’t take him all that long to realize that the only real reason was because he could be and he liked being a bastard. He made a mental note to rob the place to the ground before they left.
Chris offered her his coat. “Here.”
Phoenix accepted the coat, “Thanks, assholes don’t deserve a show.”
Chris was just glad that they didn’t have any more problems getting Phoenix out of the bar and down the alley before several security guards came out flashing weapons. He was just about to raise his hands and send the guards elsewhere when Mist appeared in the alley without any of the usual visual signs of teleportation. “Teleportation?”
“Speed.” Mist snapped his fingers and teleported the group to Phoenix’s rather small apartment. “That was teleportation.”
Phoenix shivered as she tried not to scream as she found herself back in her apartment. “Can someone please explain what the hell is going on?”
“It goes like this…” Mist launched into a speech about magic being real complete with showing off several spells. Thankfully teleporting someone across town was pretty effective proof that something strange was going on.
0o0o0
Hermione looked over Phoenix’s paperwork and school records that were spread out on Paige’s livingroom table. She’d been a bit surprised that Phoenix had agreed to come with them to a new world but looking at her life, she wasn’t terribly surprised that she didn’t care about her world as her adoptive parents had died a couple of years ago leaving her on her own. “I can mix this into your new official background if you want.”
Phoenix glanced over at Paige. “Are you sure you don’t mind being my sister officially?”
Paige smiled at her doppelganger. “I didn’t have any brothers or sisters growing up. Mist mentioned some half sisters I have yet to meet. I don’t mind having another sister or two.”
Phoenix giggled as she turned and gave Paige a hug. “Thanks!”
Paige was just glad that Phoenix had put on a dress otherwise the hug would be rather awkward.
Chris frowned slightly as he looked at his sort of aunts hug. “I thought her world was supposed to be evil?”
Pandora shrugged. “Technically yeah but the Elders are evil in that world which means darklighters are good or at least that’s how things were explained when I asked. I just figured Phoenix was awesome and left it there.”
“I’m guessing you’re going for one more Paige alternate for three of them?” Wyatt asked curious how many worlds they’d be jumping to before they visited the sisters.
“That’s the plan.”
“Any ideas where to grab a third?” Chris asked.
Pandora shook her head. “No idea, everyone went looking for Tara in my version so Dad never collected another Paige.”
Phoenix let go of Paige then looked at Hermione. “How long does it take for you to use your magic power to create my identity?”
Hermione said, “A couple of seconds to activate my power but I want to have Amelia give you a physical so I can include some medical information. What do you want your last name to be?”
Phoenix shrugged. “No idea, I’m not a huge fan of Johnson, let’s go with my mother’s last name, Halliwell unless that will cause problems?”
“It shouldn’t. I’ll just set it up as a pair of twins were dropped off and Paige was adopted first then you were adopted by some folks that moved out of the area. You’ll be a footnote in some yearbooks and on some lists but nothing that should stand out if anyone runs a trace on you.”
“As long as I can legally get a job, I’m fine.”
Chris asked, “Are you planning on doing the same for us?”
Hermione nodded slightly. “That’s the idea, you’ll be a cousin from your great grandmother’s sister’s line.”
“You mean the one that doesn’t exist?” Wyatt asked with a touch of amusement.
“Exactly.”
Chris smiled slightly. “It would certainly prevent various law enforcement agencies from investigating me.”
Hermione focused on Phoenix and created her identity then created Wyatt’s identity then Chris’s identity. “So we found Paige’s twin, when are we going after Paige’s alternate?”
Wyatt frowned slightly as he looked at Hermione.
Mist was just glad that the memory twisting part of Hermione’s identity creation power only lasted a few hours at most.
Phoenix glanced down at the brown envelope labeled ‘Phoenix Halliwell.’ in black marker then over at Chris and Wyatt’s envelopes. “I wouldn’t mind some food first but I’m good to go whenever you’re ready.”
Mist pulled his breach controller out of his inventory and started searching for worlds where Paige wouldn’t mind leaving. “I have waffles in my warehouse if we want to grab something that’s quick and mildly filling.”
“I’ll take mildly filling,” Phoenix admitted.
Mist opened a portal to his warehouse. “Hermione can show you were the waffles are, I’ll keep looking for a decent world.”
0o0o0
Piper stared behind her lunatic ex-boyfriend as a door to somewhere else opened revealing several unfamiliar people.
Jeremy shouted, “Your sisters are dead, nothing can save you now!”
Mist gestured and sent the warlock flying into the wall with his telekinesis. “Challenge accepted. You really shouldn’t give the universe lines like that.” He stepped through the door into the attic of the alternate Halliwell manor. He gestured and sent half a dozen crystal shards into the warlock’s chest turning it into a bloody mess. “Excuse the mess.”
Piper stared as six more people walked into her attic. “Who are you?”
“I’ll kill you,” Jeremy gasped out as he started trying to get up despite the damage.
Mist gestured and twisted the warlock’s head around 180 degrees with his telekinesis then pulled his shotgun out of subspace. “We’re the Cavalry.” He walked over, stuck the gun to the warlock’s temple and pulled the trigger which caused Jeremy’s head to basically disintegrate with barely any noise thanks to the muffle enchant on the gun.
Piper stared at the seven people in her house. “What is going on?”
“We’re exploring various realities to recruit people and this world seemed to need the help.”
Wyatt asked, “What happened to Prue and Phoebe?”
Piper sobbed, “Jeremy killed them.”
“In public?” Mist asked hoping that no one had seen them die.
“Yes.” Piper kicked Jeremy’s dead body a couple of times.
Chris muttered, “Great.”
Wyatt winced as he watched his mother’s alternate lose it as she kicked the stuffings out of the warlock, not that he blamed her. He knew that his family had died in countless alternate worlds but he was here now which made it more real than a hypothetical. “We’ll figure out something.”
Hermione glanced around the attic. “We should probably go make sure Paige’s alternate is safe.”
Pandora briefly considered trying to comfort this world’s version of her aunt then decided that she would just start crying if she stayed. “I’ll come with you.” She grabbed Hermione and Paige’s wrists then lightly stepped on Phoenix’s foot then reached out with her senses and orbed with the three women.
Piper stared as four of the seven people vanished in white orbs. “Who are you?”
Wyatt said, “Family from an alternate dimension and time.”
“Do you have any proof?” Piper asked warily as she studied the strangers.
“There should be a truth spell in your book, we might as well start with that.”
Chris had a feeling it was going to be a long couple of hours.
Mist winced slightly as he caught bits and pieces of Piper’s mental plans to go demon and warlock hunting until she died. She hadn’t come right out and said it, even in her head but the pieces were there. ‘Leaving her would just result in her dying at this rate. I might need to add an extra floor to the manor or get Harry to stick this world’s manor in a snowglobe.’ He glanced at her hair, ‘A tweak in hair color, different eyes and she could pass for a cousin.’
0o0o0
Poppy Wilder opened the door then blinked as she saw two women that looked nearly identical to her other than their haircuts standing in the hallway. “Glamours?”
Pandora asked, “You know about magic?”
“Sure, I was raised by a gypsy. That still doesn’t explain who you are.”
“I’m Paige and that’s Phoenix, we’re your alternates from different dimensions.”
Poppy snorted. “Bullshit. If that’s actually true, show me your powers.”
Pandora orbed a foot to the left. “How’s that?”
“You’re a whitelighter?” Poppy asked in surprise.
“Only a fourth,” Pandora admitted. She wasn’t willing to admit to being a warlock and a darklighter if she could help it, at least not until they got to know her.
“Assuming that you’re not blowing smoke out your ass, why come here?” Poppy asked warily.
Phoenix shrugged. “Paige wished for a large family, her genie figured picking up alternate copies of her was a good idea.”
Poppy stared at her possible alternates. “Wait, you have a genie?”
Paige snickered. “Yeah, he’s awesome.”
“Still, why me?” She still wasn’t sure she believed their crazy story but demons weren’t all that creative as a general rule, most whitelighters in her experience didn’t have a sense of humor and she didn’t know any other gypsies that could orb.
Hermione spoke up, “The magical device we used to get here can search for certain criteria such as a willingness to travel.”
“Let me find a truth spell.” Poppy walked over to where she kept her book of spells and flipped through the small book until she found a truth spell.
“Sure.” Hermione smiled as she pictured the shocked looks on various elder’s faces when they stole the Charmed Ones.
0o0o0
Piper stared at her Grams and her mother as they appeared in the circle that Wyatt had drawn. “Mom? Grams?” She hadn’t really expected Wyatt’s spell to actually work.
“Piper, I’m sorry about Prue and Phoebe.” Penny Halliwell glared at the three young men as she stepped out of the summoning circle. “You might have fooled my daughter and granddaughter but I know there are defenses against the truth spell. What‘s your angle?”
Mist resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Beyond the happiness of my charge, I don’t have an angle.”
“Charge?” Penny asked suspiciously.
“I’m a genie. In another timeline Patty had a fourth daughter with her whitelighter Sam. She found my bottle and wished for a large family.”
“Meaning what?” Patty asked.
“Meaning, I’m jumping between worlds and offering various members of her family the chance to go to a different world and get a fresh start so that she can have a large family.”
Penny shook her head slightly. “Wishes always come with a downside.”
Chris said, “I think this version of Grams is even more suspicious than ours.”
Wyatt smiled slightly. “I think she’s still trying to come to terms with the fact that we’re not girls.”
Penny scowled. “I don’t trust you showing up at exactly the right time to help Piper.”
Mist turned to look at Penny. “One of my abilities is a luck power, I’m not surprised that I arrived at precisely the correct time to help but I can understand your concern. While I’m certainly allowed to twist wishes, I don’t see a reason to in Paige’s case.”
Patty asked, “Paige?”
“Your daughter in the other world was adopted by a family that named her Paige Matthews.”
“Wishes?” Piper asked hopefully. “That means I can wish them back, right?”
Mist sighed. “Yes and no, technically you could but it’s complicated by the fact that people saw them die.”
Penny glared at Mist. “Bringing people back from the dead shouldn’t be possible without a massive amount of power.”
“I’m a genie.”
Piper asked, “Why does it matter if people saw them die?”
“I’m going to assume they were stabbed to death because of the warlock, that means their faces will be on the news. Bringing them back, someone would look into their deaths and magic might be exposed.”
“I don’t care, I want my sisters back! Fix it.”
Mist mentally reminded himself that she’d just lost her sisters and that he wouldn’t be all that rational if he’d just lost family members either. “If I bring them back from the dead, they can’t stay here.”
“Where would we go?” Piper asked grasping for anything that might save her sisters.
“You’re welcome to jump worlds with us.” He looked at Patty. “If you want to come, I’ll bring you back to life.”
Penny stared at Mist. “You’d need a massive amount of power to bring four people back from the dead.”
“If you really can bring people back from the dead, I’ll jump worlds,” Patty admitted.
Mist gestured and cast revive on Patty which brought her back to life. “Done.”
Patty blinked as she realized that she’d just taken a breath and that she felt alive. “How?”
“Magic, isn’t it grand?” Mist asked with amusement.
Chris grinned slightly at the shocked look on his great grandmother’s face. “I could get used to that.”
Wyatt snickered.
Penny asked, “How much does that stretch the wish for family?”
Mist said, “Enough that if I was on my world I might be worried about the paperwork. Speaking of paperwork, I’m planning on leaving before the elders figure out what’s going on, do you want to come back from the dead?”
“Can you bring my ex-husband back too?” Penny asked.
“Which one, some of them were less than amusing people.”
“Allen?” Penny asked hopefully.
“Considering he’s related to Paige, it’s possible for a price.”
“What price?” Penny asked warily.
“I’ll bring him back to life if he wants to come back and if you ask Phoebe and Prue if they want to come back. I’ll even toss in a couple of potions of youth and set you up with new lives on the other world.”
“Deal, I’ll be back in a bit.” Penny stepped back into the circle and vanished.
Patty pulled Piper into a hug. “We’ll figure it out.”
Mist stepped out of the way so that Chris and Wyatt could join the group hug. He was looking forward to seeing how much he could stack the deck without the world exploding or going sideways.
0o0o0
Xander smiled as Buffy and him walked up behind the photographer in the alley next to Quake. “Stephan?”
The rather handsome man turned and looked at Xander and Buffy. “Yes?”
Buffy said in her best valley girl voice, “I heard about your work.”
“Ah, you are fan, yes?” He asked smugly.
Xander pulled his sword out of his inventory then swung it at the demon’s head as fast as he could. “Not particularly.”
“Kill steal,” Buffy complained good naturedly.
“You can have the next one.” He wiped the blade off on the demon’s clothes as the demon changed from a young man into an old shriveled corpse.
Buffy frowned as she looked at the corpse. “I like it better when they dust.”
“Let me try something.” He gestured and orbed half of the dead demon into the underworld.
Buffy blinked. “Was that supposed to happen?”
Xander stared at the oozing half a demon. “If I say yes, would you believe me?” He focused on his new magical teleportation ability and orbed the rest of the demon to the underworld.
“Nope,” Buffy replied as she glanced around to make sure no one had seen the dark orbs that Xander had used. At least they weren’t as noticeable as Wyatt and Chris’ orbs. “Anything else on our list?”
“Just a dark priestess but we should probably get Lily, Chris or Wyatt to give us a lift unless you want to trust our ability to orb?”
“Not Ranma?” Buffy asked curiously.
“Nah, he’s hunting down the family of a priest and killing them,” Xander replied as innocently as he could.
Buffy turned and stared at Xander. “Run that last part by me again?”
Xander grinned at the look on his friend’s face. “A warlock decided to become a priest, his brothers are going to object and things are going to get messy in a couple of weeks. Mist suggested dealing with it early.”
Buffy scowled at Xander for teasing her. “You could have just led with demonic family or something.”
Xander smirked at Buffy. “That’s not nearly as much fun.”
“Speaking of fun, how much fun do you think Mist is having explaining everything to the sisters and seducing Paige’s alternates?”
“Better him than me. I’m sure the seducing is going better than the explaining.”
Buffy smirked as she pictured Mist and Paige together. “Speaking of seducing innocent girls out of their underwear, any plans for Phoebe?”
“If no one else steps up, I wouldn’t mind having some fun if she’s up for a threesome with Cordelia and I.”
“Your mind is a disturbing place.” Buffy smirked at Xander.
“Oh please, don’t tell me that you haven’t done stuff with Faith and Sin.”
“First of all, it’s Sin, second of all.” Buffy playfully stuck her tongue out at Xander then orbed back to Paige’s house.
‘At least she’s more relaxed than she used to be.’ Xander smiled as he orbed back to Paige’s house to pick up some help.
0o0o0
Willow glanced around the ritual area, ‘Five black candles, one figurine, one snarky goth girl and a mirror, check.’ She knew the girl was clueless about what she’d summoned but that didn’t change the fact that she was summoning things that shouldn’t be summoned so that she could acquire borrowed power. She waited until the demon appeared in the mirror then pulled her sword out of her inventory. She resisted the urge to sigh in relief as the demon talked to the girl about the Charmed Ones rather than scream about the invisible witch in the room. She used her new portal power to open a glowing portal into the demon’s realm behind the demon then quickly stabbed her blade through the portal and into the demon’s heart.
Aviva stared in shock as her mentor burst into flames before her eyes. “No! What!”
Willow ignored the skin crawling feeling as demon’s powers transferred to her on the demon’s death. She quickly pulled her blade out of the portal then closed the portal. ‘That could have went worse, other than mentally scaring a teenage girl.’ She created an illusion of a naked faintly glowing red haired goddess that might have looked a bit more like Cordelia than it should have. She used a touch of magic to project her voice so that it came from the image, “Aviva, try not to summon demons when you’re looking for a magical sponsor.”
Aviva stared at the glowing figure in shock and awe, “She was a demon?”
“A demon sorceress that was banished a long time ago. You need to stop taking shortcuts.”
“Shortcuts are all I have,” she admitted bitterly.
“You managed to summon a demon with a spell, you have some power, you just need training.”
“Will you train me?” Aviva asked hopefully.
“If you keep your nose clean, I might know someone that can train you.” Willow figured introducing her to Penny would probably help the girl or at least convince her not to mess with witchcraft. She made a mental note to deal with Poppy’s world’s Aviva before she managed to screw up that version of Aviva. “Someone will be in contact in a couple of days, don’t summon any more demons.” She dropped the illusion then used a touch of magic to cause the black candles to go out.
Aviva shivered as the figure vanished and her candles went out. “Shit. I summoned a demon...”
Willow waited until the girl was distracted with her own thoughts then teleported back to Paige’s house with her new dark fog whisper teleport ability. She blinked as she realized that she’d accidently ended up in Paige’s room while Mist and her were having sex. ‘Oops.’ She frowned slightly as both Mist and the girl sort of shifted position via dark orbing, ‘Not Paige then, maybe I should have grabbed the seductive perk, because damn.’ She made a mental note about finding a power that let her see invisible creatures and demons as she watched the show.
0o0o0
Albus looked up from his tea as a demon appeared in the living room in the manor. “Are you lost?”
Penny gestured and sent the demon flying into a wall then dodged a fireball as several more demons shimmered into the room.
Albus pulled his wand out of his sleeve and stunned the entire group of demons other than the one she’d vanquished by tossing it into a wall. “Is this common?”
“No, they must have heard about Prue and Phoebe’s death and want to steal Piper’s powers.”
Piper stalked in and gestured at the demons freezing them in place for good measure. “Now what?”
Albus twisted and slashed his wand cutting off the demon’s heads which caused them to burst into flames that curiously enough didn’t burn the floor or anything else. “I think it’s time we work on warding the manor.”
Penny said, “You’re remarkably good with that wand.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice over the decades.”
Piper pointed out, “You look in your twenties.”
“One of the perks of traveling to different worlds is your age periodically gets reset to say nothing of potions of youth.”
“How old are you?”
“A little over a hundred,” Albus admitted.
“Oh.” Penny smiled slightly as she looked at Albus’s handsome features. Her ex-husband hadn’t wanted to come back to life with her on account of having friends that he’d miss and not wanting to feel misplaced in time. She’d miss her old friends but the chance to teach the Charmed Ones was too tempting to pass up.
A second Piper hurried into the room. “What happened?”
Penny waved it off as nearly unimportant. “Demons.”
Harry walked in with both Prues. “We’re going to need to figure out a way to keep them from just teleporting in here whenever they want.”
One of the Prues said, “Agreed, I’d rather not die again, next time we might not have a genie to bring us back to life.”
The other Prue said, “I’d rather avoid dying at all.”
Piper looked at her alternate. “This is going to get weird.”
Harry said, “You could always ask Tiffany to magically change your hair color.”
“I’ll talk to her.” Piper looked at her alternate. “Any idea what you’re going to do with the house over here?”
Piper’s alternate said, “Lily mentioned being able to leave a portal open, if we warded the room it was in we could just go back and forth. I’d rather not abandon my home if I don’t have to.”
“No real reason to abandon it if Albus can cast a fidelius charm on it.”
“It might not work against demons but it should. If nothing else we can figure something out.” Albus had a feeling they might need to go with one of Mist’s portals keyed to them specifically but he was sure they could make it work one way or another.
0o0o0
Xander scowled as he held an energy shield against several rather irate demons that were tossing energy balls at them. “So much for them not being able to see invisible people.”
Dantalian shouted, “Kill them!”
Lily opened a small door near her hand and behind the dark priestess, reached through and grabbed her neck then pulled her head back into the portal cutting it off. She shivered as she absorbed the demon’s magical powers. She raised her hands and tossed an ultima spell through the door to the other side of the underworld cavern then closed it. She smiled as the blast of black and blue energy obliterated a dozen demons. She opened a full sized portal behind them to a dark alley in Florida in Phoenix’s world. “Fallback.”
Buffy had to resist the urge to charge the remaining demons, ‘You’re just lucky we need some of you alive to frame Cole.’ She turned and ‘fled’ through the door back to San Francisco.
Lily walked through her door then stepped to the side so that Xander could ‘retreat’.
Xander tossed another fireball then backed through the portal keeping his energy shield up. He smiled as Lily closed the portal. “That should help screw things up.” He reverted back from his own image rather than Cole’s demonic half.
Buffy looked at Lily. “Anything interesting?”
“The ability to cloak people from good creatures and an ability to sense people at range isn’t too shabby.” Lily glanced between Xander and Buffy. “Do we go back or do we keep killing demons?”
“I wouldn’t mind copying and handing out the powers we grabbed then getting something to eat before we head down to kill things.”
Lily opened a portal to Paige’s house. “Sounds good.”
Willow smiled as the group walked out of the portal. “How did it go?”
Buffy smiled as she walked over and sat on the couch next to Willow. “Pretty good, we killed the dark priestess with the nice cloaking ability and left some witnesses to frame another group of demons.”
Lily closed the door behind her. “I picked up a cloaking ability that should keep people off the radar of good magical beings which might be helpful for creating magical charms to keep the elders from being nosey.”
“Always helpful,” Willow replied as one of the Paige lookalikes walked down the stairs wearing a black bathrobe.
Poppy asked, “Any new abilities?”
Xander grinned as he thought about the various powers he’d grabbed from the demons he’d killed. “I picked up a decent number of minor powers from the demons, mostly different teleportation methods and various ranged attack powers.” He focused and created an orb that contained the shimmering power that he’d acquired from one of the demons. “This particular power is shimmering, a type of teleportation.”
Willow said, “We should probably figure out a way to rate the strength of the powers and a safe place to store them.”
Lily shrugged. “I’ll talk to one of the Builders about an invisible locked chest.”
“Have I mentioned how awesome you are lately?” Poppy asked.
“It’s always nice to hear,” Buffy pointed out playfully.
Lily asked, “Where did Mist run off to?”
Poppy pointed at the ceiling. “With Phoenix and Paige in the bedroom. I just came down for drinks.”
Lily blushed. “Too much information.”
“Happy to help,” Poppy replied with amusement as she headed for the kitchen.
Xander watched Paige walk off with a spring in her steps. “On that note, I’m going to go visit Phoebe.”
Buffy pouted. “I see how it is, Willow, you’ll stay by my side right?”
“Sure, Tara and Egwene are studying with Laura so I have time,” Willow replied as she picked up the remote to see if there was anything decent on the sort of crappy television. “We should probably pick up a decent flat screen at some point.”
Lily smiled as she headed for the kitchen to grab something to eat while Buffy and Willow settled in to watch television.
0o0o0
Saleel spun as he heard something behind him. He glared at the flaming haired demon in a t-shirt and jeans that was standing in his lair in front of a portal holding a rather nasty looking sword. “What do you want?”
Mist smiled as he used his eyes of magic negation on the demon to keep him from teleporting away. “I heard you have a personal dislike of leprechauns, they send their regards.” He blurred forward and cut the demon’s head off. “Summoning, shimmering, enhanced strength, telekinesis and another type of sensing. Not a bad haul for a few seconds of work.”
Dawn shimmered into view as she cancelled her invisibility power. “It’s a good start.”
“Where to next?”
“Are you up for hitting a marketplace where they sell powers?” Dawn asked as she pulled out her new map that showed her all the demonic hangouts and how to get there.
“Let me turn some of these powers into power stones then I’ll copy some athames and we can see how many demons we can kill.”
Dawn looked up from her map. “Any reason that you’re not just shimmering in and blasting the place with ultima?”
“I’d rather the demons don’t track this little spree back to us or Piper or Poppy. I’d rather look like two crazy warlocks that lost their minds and started killing demons than two extremely dangerous magic users with powers they’ve never seen.”
“I can still use my speed, right?” Dawn asked.
“Enhanced speed is a known power, I don’t see any reason a warlock couldn’t have picked it up somewhere.” Mist pulled his athame out of his inventory then copied it and handed the copy to Dawn.
“Thanks. Let’s do this.” She took one last look at her new magical map then stuck it in her inventory. “The market I’m thinking of hitting is in Italy, a place for warlocks and low level demons to trade powers.”
“In other words, nothing all that impressive.”
“Not particularly but it would give you a chance to practice looking into people’s hearts with your new power and Sin has been looking for test subjects for a project.”
Mist raised his eyebrows. “Test subjects?”
Dawn shrugged. “She had a book open to nymphs and another book open to furies.”
“In that case, we should probably just stun everyone we can grab before they teleport out then transfigure them into marbles for Sin.”
“If we’re leaving that many witnesses, I should probably look like someone else.” Dawn morphed her features using her new shape changing power to darken her hair and twist her features so she looked like some random woman in her forties or fifties with a crooked nose and slightly melted look to her face. “How’s that?”
“Hideous, I hope you don’t expect to get kissed looking like that,” Mist replied with amusement.
Dawn stuck her tongue out at Mist. “I’ll shimmer us there.”
Mist put his athame on his belt then held out his hand. “Go for it.”
Dawn took his hand then shimmered them to the marketplace in Italy.
Mist glanced around at the various stalls and customers in the warehouse marketplace. Other than a couple inhuman looking demons, it looked surprisingly normal for a demonic marketplace. He focused on a demon or warlock that looked like a man in his early thirties in a suit. ‘You’ll make the world a worse place.’ He turned his attention toward a dirty blonde haired female wearing a sexy black leather outfit and frowned when his power informed him that she’d make the world a better place. ‘Not what I was expecting.’ He reached out with his esp and looked at her thoughts and realized that she was just here to get enough power by selling her soul to take out a group of demons that were preying on an orphanage. ‘Right, heart’s in the right place, she’s just crazy.’
Dawn asked, “Find anything yet?”
Mist frowned as the young woman headed toward a ‘familiar’ man that he recognized from the show. “Yeah, try not to get kidnapped.”
Dawn snorted, “I’ll be fine.”
“Good because I don’t need a lecture from Buffy about how I took you to a demon marketplace.”
“Technically I took you.”
“Yeah but I let you.” Mist made his way through the crowd as the woman walked up to Zahn. “Zahn, you sold one of my contacts a rotten deal.”
The soul trader looked up in confusion as Mist walked over. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
“I mean you cheated a friend of mine out of their soul.” Mist used his esp to lift the location of his various contracts from his mind then used his projection power to light the contents of the demon’s lockbox on fire.
Zahn jumped backwards as his lockbox exploded under the table. “What?”
Mist lurched as Zahn’s power to freeze people washed over him thanks to his bracelet and resistance training with stop and slow. He blurred as he ran forward and stabbed the soul trader in the chest with his athame. He turned and looked at the various demons as they looked at him in surprise. “He cheated a friend of mine.”
The woman gulped as she started backing away.
Mist sighed as several demons shouted, “Kill him!” He gestured at the woman and teleported her back to her hotel as a volley of various energy bolts and fireballs flew at them. He smirked as the various blasts hit him and fizzled out thanks to his magic resistance or elemental immunities though none of the demons had enough power to even come close to getting through his durability. “Ah fuck it, I am the legendary Dark Wing Duck! Hear me roar!”
Dawn barely resisted the urge to facepalm as she stared at her friend and lover. ‘At least he doesn’t take himself too seriously. She moved behind a demon and stabbed in him the back with her athame while he was distracted throwing an energy bolt at Mist. She shifted the dagger to her left hand then pulled her wand out of her inventory then started stunning demons before they realized that she was a problem.
Mist for his part was having fun tossing stunning spells at the various demons attacking him until a couple of demons flamed in that were immune to his stunning spells. “Shit.”
One of the new demons gestured and sent Mist flying with telekinesis.
Mist crashed into a stall then rolled to his feet as he pulled his plasma rifle out of subspace. “More Dakka!” He opened fire on the group of demons. He smiled grimly as the demons died via plasma. He frowned slightly as he realized that everyone still conscious other than Dawn had already fled or teleported away. He put his plasma rifle back in subspace and started transfiguring unconscious demons and warlocks into little statuettes for easier transport.
Dawn pulled out a bag and worked on collecting the various statuettes. “I’m telling Riley.”
Mist continued transfiguring demons as he replied, “I was just getting into character.”
“Right. Where did you send the woman?”
“Oh, right, I should go deal with that.” Mist created an avatar. ”Go find out how you can help.”
The avatar shimmered away just in case there were cameras or something.
0o0o0
Kyra nearly jumped as a man that looked like a human in his early twenties appeared out of thin air in her lair. She managed to control her initial instinct to shimmer out as she didn’t sense anything from the man which probably meant that he was powerful enough to track her wherever she went. “Can I help you with something?”
Ranma smiled at the demon that looked a hell of a lot like Cordelia. “I’m looking for information on a particularly annoying demon.” He pulled a card out of his pocket that Hermione had written the demon’s name on and floated it over. “I’d rather not give him any warning that I’m coming.”
Her eyes widened as she read the demon’s name silently, ‘Litvack’. She looked back up at Ranma. “How are you planning on killing him?”
“With stealth and surprise which is why I’d like your help.”
“Even if I could help you, what’s in it for me?” Kyra asked curious what the man thought was worth the risk of attacking one of the Source’s generals.
“My friend can give you a human form.”
Kyra tensed as she looked at his face, even without her abilities working on him, she could read his face easily enough, he knew her desire to experience the full range of emotion that being a human would grant her. She considered her rather bleak options, she could run and try to hide, she could sell out the Source and his generals and die horribly when they found her or she could lie and probably die when the man she couldn’t see came for her. “Can you grant me protection?”
Ranma smiled. “A whole new life in a world where no one knows you exist.”
“I’d keep my powers?”
“No reason why you couldn’t unless you don’t want them.”
“I’ve pissed off enough people over the years that I sort of need them to stay alive,” Kyra admitted.
“Do we have a deal? You help me kill some rather nasty demons and I’ll help you relocate and get you a human soul.”
“You just need his location?” Kyra asked warily.
“If you can show him in your scrying pool, that would be great.”
Kyra frowned. “That would get some people’s attention.”
“They won’t be alive long enough to matter.” He’d rather just open a portal and jump in there but he wanted precise targeting information. He opened a door to a dark alley in Paige’s world. “Step through and focus on yourself.”
Krya cautiously stepped through and focused on herself and immediately realized that she could sense a different version of her in the underworld. She quickly stepped back through the door to another world. “What do you get out of it?”
“Powers and the satisfaction of knowing that we’re screwing with a bunch of evil pricks,” Ranma admitted.
Kyra asked, “Any chance of some of that power coming my way?”
“If you behave and don’t screw us over, I don’t see why not,” Ranma agreed.
Kyra stared as she realized that he was serious. “You’re seriously aren’t you?”
“Of course, we’re going to kill a lot of demons, no reason that you can’t profit.”
“In that case, I’ll show him his image and his current surroundings but he’ll probably sense the attention.”
“He’ll be dead within seconds. Look on the bright side, if this doesn’t work and he kills me, just tell him that you knew it wouldn’t be a problem to send an enemy witch to be dealt with considering he’s immune to witch spells and potions.”
“You know and you’re still going after him?” Kyra asked in disbelief.
Ranma happened to agree with Hermione about getting some protection against spells and potions that they could hand out to their friends. He wasn’t sure if the upper demon’s protection against magic extended to warlock magic but it was something to look into. “That’s why I’m going after him.”
Kyra concentrated on her scrying pool and brought up an image of Litvack talking to a couple other demons.
Ranma looked at the demon that looked like a blond haired middle aged looking human for a second then opened a small foot wide window behind the demon’s head then reached in and grabbed the demon by the back of his neck and yanked his head into the top edge of the window as fast as he could. He smiled grimly as the edge of the door cut the demon’s head more or less in half. He ignored the creepy feeling as the upper level demon’s rather impressive powers settled in as he opened other windows in the air so that he could punch and kick the demon’s assistants before they could teleport away.
Kyra blinked as she watched the man or demon or whatever the hell he was move in a blur as he opened and closed portals and punched through them killing everything he hit. ‘That could be useful.’ She changed several of her long term plans, leaving was all well and good but dealing with her various enemies before skipping off in the sunset so they couldn’t try to follow her, even better. She waited until he closed the various doors before she asked, “Did you kill all of them?”
“Everyone in that room, we should probably pack your stuff before someone comes sniffing around.”
“Agreed.” She wasn’t what was going to happen next but staying wasn’t an option.
0o0o0
Mist smiled as he shook the old man’s hand that had just sold him the Victorian house next to the manor. “That should be everything, right?”
The man smiled at his wife. “We had a lot of good years here but the stairs aren’t getting any easier.”
“Not to mention the grandchildren moved up to Oregon,” the old woman grumbled.
“We were going to put it on the market in a couple of months but this saves us a lot of hassle.”
“Are you sure you can afford it?”
Mist smiled at the old woman. “I had an uncle that left me enough to get by. Best of luck to you.”
The old man grabbed his wife’s hand. “Leave the young man alone, we should get going if we want to make it to Marge’s before dark. You know how well I see at night these days.”
“To be young again.” She turned and headed for her car with her husband.
Mist watched the old couple as they got into the car then turned and walked into the house. He glanced around the house, the furnishings weren’t exactly to his taste but they’d came with the house because the old couple hadn’t wanted to cart most of the crap off as they were moving in with their daughter and there wasn’t room. He glanced over at Egwene who was sitting on the old couch. “What do you think?”
“It has character but the couch is rather uncomfortable,” Egwene admitted.
Abby walked down the stairs. “I think it has potential. If nothing else we can expand it and spread out a bit. We should probably ward it against uninvited guests and demons.”
“Don’t forget scrying, I’d rather not have various factions spying on us. Technically we’re sort of breaking the rules by helping the sisters.”
Mist smiled slightly as he thought about all of the stress they were probably causing certain entities. “Not to mention upsetting the cosmic balance by moving them between worlds.”
Abby asked, “Speaking of the sisters, shouldn’t you be with Paige?”
“That’s what I have avatars for. I also have one helping Poppy’s Piper relax.”
“Right, helping.” Abby smirked at Mist.
“She’s cute and currently single,” Mist defended himself.
Egwene frowned slightly. “Having three Piper’s is going to get annoying eventually.”
“Probably.” Mist walked over and sat on the arm of the couch. “I was just planning on calling our Piper, Shaman.”
“Do you want to put the minion tree in an expanded chest or in the backyard?” Abby asked.
Mist considered their options, between expansion charms, his basic magic trunk blueprint and his various space expansion abilities creating a chamber large enough for a couple of minion trees shouldn’t be too hard. He wasn’t particularly attached to the house and didn’t see a point in having to hide a bunch of trees in the backyard. “Let’s go with stashing them in magical trunks.”
“In that case, I’ll work on fixing the house if you want to start crafting magical trunks.”
“Sure.” Mist brought up his list of blueprints and selected his magical trunk blueprint. “A few panels, corner pieces, hinges and a lock.” He mentally opened the tab for locks then selected his magical lock pattern from the small list of locks that he’d scanned. He brought up the material tab then selected adamantium for the lock material then hit the build button on his HUD.
Egwene smiled as she saw a lock ‘slowly’ materialize out of thin air, layer by layer. “I’m fairly sure that’s cheating.”
Abby snorted. “He’s probably just using an endless container of liquid adamantium… okay, it’s probably cheating.”
Mist smiled as he finished the lock for the chest. “If you’re not cheating, you’re just not trying hard enough.” He picked up the finished lock then duplicated it with his Diablo trick several times. “That saves me from having to build more locks.”
“Because it took all of ten seconds, you’re getting lazy Boss.”
Mist decided to ignore the teasing as he asked, “Weirwood or crystal for the panels?”
Egwene said, “You might as well go with weirwood, they can at least pass as possible without magic.”
“That works.” Mist brought the panel blueprint up then selected weirwood. He scowled slightly as a popup informed him that he had insufficient material to create the panel, he already knew that. He mentally flipped the toggle to use mana rather than material then selected the number of panels he needed then hit craft.
“On that note, I’m going to go survey the house and see what we need to pick up from the hardware store.” Abby headed for the basement which was the last thing she needed to scan to figure out what needed to be repaired. She wasn’t expecting anything major but it never hurt to check.
“Have fun,” Mist replied absently as he concentrated on creating the various panels for the magical trunk. He was just glad that he had a extremely large mana pool thanks to his Leaky Limiter perk and Diablo potions because substituting mana for magical material drained a decent amount of mana.
Egwene smiled as she watched the panels come together out of thin air. She knew the Tower would have tried everything they could think of to control Mist if they’d realized half the things he could do. She had a feeling the beings in ‘control’ of both ‘good’ and ‘evil’ would try much the same here if they realized what their group could do.
He duplicated the various panels then stacked them on the table. He made the corner pieces out of adamantium then copied all of the pieces and laid them out with the rest of the pieces. He selected the magical trunk blueprint then pushed the slider up to the largest chest that he could create and hit accept.
Abby walked back up the stairs as the pieces floated off the table and started assembling themselves in front of Mist. She smiled as the assembled trunk floated down to rest on the floor a few seconds later. “How large is it?”
“No idea.” Mist reached down and opened the trunk and looked inside of it. “It looks about as large as the living room. I’m going to need to build some stairs or a ladder eventually.” He floated up then floated down into the chamber. He reached out with his magic and used his space expansion ability from Unholy heights to boost the size of the chamber. He smiled as the space expanded and the walls got further away until he could have fit the entire lot inside of it. He flew back up out of the trunk then landed next to it. “I should be able to fit four minion trees in there which should help in the fight against the demons.”
Egwene asked, “How many are you planning on creating?”
“We shouldn’t need all that many trees once we get things rolling.” He figured he could always build more trees if he had to but four trees would get him started.
“What are you going to use the rest for?” Abby asked curious what twisted and fun ideas he had.
“Bedrooms, a magical shopping district and maybe even a dungeon to help people pay for the shops.”
Egwene raised her eyebrows. “Magical shops and a dungeon?”
Mist shrugged. “We need a place for the minions and the team to practice so they can improve. While I don’t have a problem making a dozen or so sets of magical armor and anti scrying rings, at a certain point it makes more sense to just ward the magical trunks against scrying and stock the shop with anti scrying jewelry.”
“That and we get to create a dungeon?” Abby asked with amusement.
“Exactly.”
“Do you have enough material or are we going to have to grab supplies?”
“I was thinking about raiding the underworld for enough stone for the crystal trees and the dump for metal and such things.”
Egwene spoke up, “Or you could use your breach controller to go to Phoenix’s world and steal stone from the nice happy underworld. I’d rather you accidently create a happy minion tree than something evil and twisted.”
“That would also let us scan a good version of the demonatrix demons,” Abby replied with amusement.
“As much fun as that could be, let’s not. They’re not that impressive magically though I wouldn’t mind scanning a nymph.”
Mist smiled mischievously at Egwene. “Oh really?”
Egwene shook her head. “Get your mind out of the gutter, they have some nice powers that I wouldn’t mind copying.”
He held up his hands playfully. “I’ll put them on the list.” He mentally checked on his avatars that were having sex with Paige and her alternates then the one that was massaging a very relaxed and very naked Piper. “I still need my avatars for a bit which means I should probably see if I can talk someone into collecting the stone.”
“I’ll go, I need a project,” Abby admitted.
“Thanks, that leaves me to finish the other chests and design everything.”
Egwene frowned slightly as she glanced around the room. “You should probably turn one of the chests into a drafting room or maybe a research lab.”
Mist pulled two notebooks and pens out of his inventory and handed one to Egwene. “I’ll put it on the list.” He was sort of regretting not organizing things a bit better during the last jump to start with rather than just relaxing and treating it like a vacation jump. “Feel free to sketch out ideas for the magical marketplace.”
Egwene walked over and looked down into the chest. “I can’t see the bottom, how deep is it?”
“About a hundred feet.”
“That means it could have multiple stories.” Egwene opened the notebook and started sketching some ideas.
Abby smiled as she pulled her dimensional breach controller out of her inventory. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
“Sounds good.” Mist gave her a smile then opened his notebook and started making sketches.
