Mist of Shadows
patreon
Mist Jumps part 12
🕑 Added 2017-08-23 03:33:02 +0000 UTCMist blinked as he stumbled out of a portal and into a morgue that looked suspiciously familiar. He turned and looked at the two shocked people that were staring at him in disbelief. Unless he missed his guess the pale faced girl with white hair was Olivia Moore while the man was Ravi. He scanned the female and smiled slightly as he got a blueprint for an intelligent zombie. “What, you’ve never seen someone jump through a portal?”
Ravi shook his head. “That would be a no.”
“First time for everything,” Mist replied with amusement as he turned toward the exit and took a step toward the hallway.
“Wait, hold on, you just jumped out of a portal and you expect to just wander off?” Ravi asked in disbelief.
Mist turned to look at Ravi. “If I was never here then you don’t have to fill out any paperwork.”
Liv spoke up, “He has a point.”
“But portals…” Ravi trailed off with a pout.
“Okay, fine, what do you want to know, mister mad scientist?”
Ravi blinked. “What? Mad scientist, me?”
“You’re the one trying to find a zombie cure, I’m fairly sure that counts as mad science.”
“Zombie cure, what are you talking about?” Ravi asked warily.
Mist looked at Liv. “Let’s see, white hair and pale skin, nah, she couldn’t possibly be a zombie.”
Liv looked down her nose at Mist. “I don’t suppose you have a cure?”
“Maybe? I have a cure disease potion from another world that might work if you’re interested?”
Ravi snorted. “Magic? You expect us to believe in magic...?” He trailed off as a ball of purple fire appeared over Mist’s hand. “Right… there is obviously…” Ravi sighed as Mist floated off the ground. “You’re not leaving me with much to work with.”
Mist grinned at Ravi. “Why should I?”
“Because magic isn’t real?” Ravi asked warily.
Mist gestured and lifted Ravi off the ground with telekinesis. “I’m not sure that magic actually cares if you believe in it or not.”
Liv stared at Ravi. “That’s cool.”
“So, do you want the possible cure or not?” Mist let the ball of fire vanish then pulled a potion of cure disease out of his inventory and held it out for her.
“Can you put me down?” Ravi asked hopefully.
“I could but you might want to check for wires first,” Mist replied with amusement.
“Do I drink it?” Liv asked warily.
“That’s the idea. If it doesn’t work, we can get more creative.” Mist set Ravi down.
Ravi moved his feet and waved his arms around to try to hit any hidden wires. “What about working with the detective?”
“I’m not remaining a zombie just for that,” Liv replied.
“I might be able to give you psychic powers once you’re cured so you could probably still help your friend.”
Liv looked at the potion then drank it hoping for the best.
Ravi stared in shock as color returned to Liv’s face and hair. “Your hair…”
Liv dashed over to the table and grabbed her purse so she could dig her mirror out and look at her face and brown hair. “I’m cured?”
Mist used his identification eyes on her. “Looks that way which means that you should probably avoid eating anymore brains...” he trailed off as his cell phone rang. “Excuse me, I should take this.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone and answered it after looking at the caller ID. “I’m safe, I ended up in a morgue with some nice people, feel free to teleport in Hermione.”
“You can’t just…” Ravi trailed off as a girl that looked suspiciously like a certain actress appeared out of thin air. “How?”
Hermione blinked as she looked at Ravi and Olivia. “Let’s go with magic.”
Ravi asked, “Emma?”
Hermione shook her head. “No, Hermione Granger, pleased to meet you.”
“Now you’re just messing with me.” Ravi looked around for cameras or something that might explain what the hell was going on.
Hermione pulled her wand out and conjured a stream of bright green sparks. “Believe me now?”
Liv looked away from her mirror and studied Hermione. “You’re taller than I was expecting.”
“I get that a lot for some reason,” Hermione admitted.
Mist said, “Now that we’ve cured your friend’s zombie condition, we should probably see if we can give her psychic powers so that she can continue helping with her friend’s cases.”
Liv asked, “What do you need for that?”
“Stick you in a special sensory deprivation chamber and push the button. We can test it on your friend if you want, it’s not 100% but there is always a chance that he’ll get psychic powers out of the deal.”
“Awesome,” Ravi agreed.
Liv rolled her eyes. “Do we have time for Ravi to run some tests on my blood?”
Mist glanced at the clock on the wall. “It’s going to take me a couple of hours to find the next portal, so we’re not really in a hurry.”
Ravi stared at Mist. “Next portal?”
“Sure, I jump worlds, Hermione is actually a Hermione Granger, as in a friend of Harry Potter’s.”
“Wait, you’re actually serious?”
Mist shook his head. “No, I’m Mist, Sirius is someone else altogether. I don’t mind grabbing a burger and hanging out a bit while you check your friend’s blood work to make sure she’s actually cured.”
“In that case, let’s start testing, I want to get something to eat that I can actually taste without drenching it in hot sauce.” Liv was looking forward to having a functional set of tastebuds again.
Ravi grumbled, “Hopefully this helps with the cure.”
“Cure?” Mist asked even though he was fairly sure he already knew the answer.
“I’m working on a scientific cure for being a zombie,” Ravi replied as he went to get the testing supplies.
“Sounds like a good idea considering I don’t think I could make enough cure disease potions to cure everyone.” He knew he could sit there for a couple of hours or days and duplicate a lot of potions but he’d rather have a cure that they could create in universe.
Hermione said, “You could always leave them an endless flask of the cure or offer to help them find a cure, I’m sure Riley would help.”
Ravi asked, “Riley?”
“One of our group’s medical techs. Think Tony Stark only with medical tools, devices and techniques.”
“That could be useful,” Ravi admitted as he realized that the man might actually be able to help him complete his cure.
Mist watched as Ravi drew a couple of blood samples from Liv. He wasn’t sure how long it would take to get Liv some psychic powers and maybe hand out a couple of copies of cauldron vials for fun but he wasn’t in a hurry as the girls were still having fun with Bo and Kenzi.
0o0o0
Willow stepped out of a portal they’d found on the top of Mount Everest in Liv’s world into a rather large and very warm cavern filled with large eggs that were almost as big as she was if she curled up into a ball. She had a second to take in the scene of a group of shifty looking ogres that were stuffing the large eggs into massive sacks before she had to dodge out of the way as a large ogre swung a club at her head. “Shit!”
Ranma stepped out of the portal then lunged forward and punched the ogre in the nuts. He leaned back and kicked the ogre in the head as the beast fell to his knees in shock. He lashed out with his fist and crushed the ogre’s throat then dashed toward the rest using his supernatural speed to close the distance before they realized there was a problem.
Xander walked through the portal with Daenerys. He raised his hands and blasted two of the ogres that charged them. “Where the heck are we?”
“Are those dragon eggs?” Daenerys asked in disbelief and longing as Ranma killed the rest of the ogres.
Willow scanned one of the eggs laying in a sort of nest of coals and was rather surprised when she received a red dragon pattern and a dragon egg pattern. “Apparently.” She continued scanning eggs, trying to get a complete set of dragon types or at least a decent collection while the rest of the group figured out where they were going.
Xander gulped as he looked around the room filled with dozens of dragon eggs. “In that case, scan what you can, we need to get out of here before the mother dragon shows up and eats us.”
Daenerys frowned as she looked behind them and noticed that the portal was closed. “Is there another way out?”
Ranma finished looting the ogres then walked back to the group. “I can open a door, any suggestions?”
Willow finished scanning a blue dragon egg then looked at Ramna as she heard the sound of armored warriors moving down the hallway outside of the chamber at a run. “Back to Liv’s house.” She focused on the chamber they were in and scanned it as Ranma opened a portal back to Liv’s house. She smiled as she got a dragon hatchery pattern then reached into her pocket and pulled out her stopwatch as the rest of the group went through the portal. She pushed the button as a group of armored elves and dwarves burst into the hatchery which caused them to freeze in place.
Xander blinked as the world seemed to freeze around him. “What the hell?”
Willow blinked as she realized that Xander hadn’t frozen in place. “You’ve been playing with your armlet haven’t you?”
“It seemed like a good idea to work on my resistance to time stop considering how much you and Mist like the stopwatches,” Xander admitted. Mostly he just didn’t want some enemy magic user freezing him in place then cutting his throat. He knew that Mist’s stopwatch wouldn’t allow you to hurt anyone frozen but he doubted that held true for every spell or item in the multiverse that could stop time. “Why freeze everything?”
Willow turned her attention back to the guards. “I wanted a chance to scan the guards and the rest of the eggs before we left.”
Xander walked back through the door. “In that case, I’m going to explore the tunnels a bit. Be back in five minutes?”
“Sure,” Willow replied as she started scanning the guards and their equipment.
0o0o0
Mist smiled as he watched the shadowy glow around the massive dragon’s feet. ‘Finally.’ He winced slightly as sixteen groups of four twisting and swirling globes of shadow flew at the sixteen conjured minions he had on the left side of the massive greenish black dragon. He resisted the urge to laugh as his copycat ability helped him figure out how to replicate the dragon’s Shadow Bolt Whirl spell. He ignored the fact that the dragon had just vaporized half of his summoned minions with one spell as he raised his hands and tossed four ultima spells at the dragon thanks to his double cast perk and his Soul of Thamasa item that let him double his spells cast if he wanted to. He frowned slightly as the magical energy obliterated the dragon along with the rest of the monsters he’d conjured to distract the dragon while he tried to copy a couple of spells. ‘Well, shit, so much for copying his other spell.’
Abby stepped out from behind the tree she’d been using as a hiding spot. “Are you going to claim the loot?”
Mist replied as he walked over to the boots and sword the dragon had dropped. “I’ll probably just toss them in the pile for people to drain with siphoning.” He picked the two items up and stuck them in his inventory. “Compared to the stuff from the higher level dungeons, they’re crap.”
“Hopefully we’ll find some interesting patterns and items in some of the higher level dungeons.”
Mist walked back over to where Abby was standing. “There’s always a chance but I doubt we’ll find anything that we haven’t already scanned.” Thankfully the server they were on wasn’t a roleplaying server which meant the high level characters generally walked around with the best gear they had which often came from the best dungeons.
“If we’re not going dungeon crawling, what are we going to do with our last couple of days in the jump?”
Mist frowned slightly as he thought about everything they’d accomplished over the last couple of months, they’d spent a lot of time exploring the World of Warcraft world and building twisted fortifications north of the Wall in the Game of Thrones world to keep the undead out of large sections of the north when they weren’t leveling items with Daenerys, Arya, Bo, Dyson and Kenzi in various item worlds to improve their combat abilities. He was a little bit sad that he hadn’t managed to talk Bo or Kenzi into jumping on the companion bandwagon but they had ties to their world, maybe if they hadn’t brought back Hale and saved Tricks they would have came with them but that would have caused problems in the long run. “I was thinking Liv’s Disneyland with Bo and Kinsey considering I’ve already scanned the flying mage city, the various magical looms and a ton of clothes and weapons.”
“I just wish we’d gotten a better pattern for the magic looms and the floating city,” Abby replied as she glanced around the forest clearing.
“It gives us a place to start for magic looms and the floating rocks don’t have a maintenance cost which means we can build floating towns or cities without worrying about them falling out of the air if they can’t pull in enough mana. On that note, let’s head back and pick the girls up.” He pulled out his phone and dialed Lily’s number to get a ride back to Bo’s world.
0o0o0
Genie smiled as Mist and the rest reappeared. “Did you have fun at Disneyland?”
Dawn piped up, “Hell yeah!”
Mist smiled as he walked over and pulled Genie into a hug. “It was fun and I got a lot of scans if I ever want to start an amusement park.”
Sin smiled as she remembered some of the rather naughty things she’d managed to convince Bo, Dyson and Kenzi to do on account of them being in Liv’s world which meant that any indecent exposure charges wouldn’t follow them home. “I had lots of fun, I’m just sad that Bo decided to stay behind.”
Arya frowned slightly as she glanced around the black stone room and didn’t see Daenerys. “What happened to Daenerys?”
“She hasn’t been imported yet,” Genie replied as she gestured at the screen which had the Builder jump on it. “Mist has 3,500 points. Are you going to import her?”
“Of course.” Mist wasn’t sure he really needed more companions but Daenerys had stuck with the group for a year and put in the effort to increase her Disgaea level and general spellcasting power which meant there was a place for her on the team.
“In that case, you have 3,400 points.” Genie snapped her fingers and brought Daenerys to the room.
Daenerys twitched then looked around and relaxed slightly as she saw her friends. “Does this mean I’m coming with you?”
Sin grinned as she walked over and pulled Daenerys into a hug. “Yep, we’re keeping you.”
Selena smiled at Sin and Daenerys then looked at Mist as she asked, “Any idea where we’re going next?”
“I was thinking about heading to Jackie Chan adventures and picking up magic must defeat magic.” Mist looked at Genie. “That should let me make magical shields that can tank alien energy weapons, right?”
“Yep, what are you thinking for a background?” Genie asked curious what he’d pick.
“Not sure, I just remember that’s where the magic must defeat magic perk came from,” Mist admitted.
“In that case, you should probably spend your points on your Builder stuff then toss together a build for the Jackie Chan Adventures jump.”
Mist walked over to the screen and started looking through the Builder jump document.
0o0o0
Claiming: [100]
Theme: [200]
Dimensional Addition or Subtraction: [400]
Builder Creation: [600]
Knacks:
Inventory, Greater: [100]
Smith: [100]
Artisan: [100] x2 = [200]
Craftsman: [100]
Minion Affinity: [200x2] = [400] Magic user, Researcher
Tinker: [200]
Soft Physics: [300]
Portals: [200]
Items:
Lure Blueprint: [200]
Vehicle Factory: [300]
Jackie Chan:
Background:
Chi Wizard: [200] Apprentice magic user
Age: 26 year old.
Starting Location: Uncle’s Shop
Perks:
We Must Do Research: [Free] Can always find something with research.
Everyone is Doing it: [Free] Proficient at a martial arts skill.
Name?: [200] No one can learn your name unless you tell them.
Magic Must Defeat Magic: [300]
Backup: [100] Import two companions
Dog Talisman: [600] Immortality, protects from things that would outright kill you.
Flaws:
His Name is Bruce: [+200] Martial artist that is working against you.
Won’t Stay Dead: [+200] Your enemies come back from the dead.
Selena and Abby:
Chi Wizard: [Free]
Age: 26
Everyone is Doing it: [Free]
We Must Do Research: [Free]
Daenerys and Arya:
Chi Wizard apprentice: [Free]
Age: 26
Everyone is Doing it: [Free]
We Must Do Research: [Free]
Experience: [100] x2 = [200] Archeology, history.
Genie looked over the group’s builds. “Any reason that you picked that particular talisman?”
Mist grinned at Genie. “Because the jump document doesn’t say I can’t just walk off with copies of the rest of the talismans but death protection normally needs to be CP backed for me, right?”
“Generally yeah,” Genie admitted.
Daenerys frowned as she stared at Genie. “Does that mean we could live forever with a copy of the talisman?”
“You could but it wouldn’t give you eternal health just keep you from dying.”
“That’s one of the reasons we gave you a blood transfusion, regeneration helps keep you young,” Mist pointed out as he walked over to Genie. “Hug before we go?”
Genie smiled as she gave him a hug. “You bet.”
“How dangerous is the jump?” Albus asked.
Genie glanced over Mist’s shoulder at Albus. “The world I’m sending you to is similar to the cartoon but it doesn’t run on cartoon logic which means that people tossing around energy blasts and magical attacks could seriously hurt someone.”
Xander spoke up, “In other words, nothing to worry about compared to some of the places that we’ve jumped.”
“Or home,” Buffy muttered.
Genie snickered as she let go of Mist. “Pretty much. On the plus side, it gives you a chance to relax and have some fun.”
“Right, a vacation,” Mist muttered as he thought about the random hijinks that Jackie and Jade normally got up to in the show. Sure, he could avoid the plot if he really wanted to but he wanted to copy the various magical talismans the team recovered which meant visiting the shop on occasion.
“Nothing wrong with taking a break from trying to save the world or trying to collect every spell you can.”
Willow grinned at Genie. “Nothing wrong with having options either.”
Faith spoke up, “I’m looking forward to talking Jackie out of martial arts lessons and catching up on my video games.”
“Any reason we can’t make some video game inspired movies while we’re there?” Leet asked hopefully.
“Sounds fun, we can probably make videos of various dungeons as well,” Mist agreed.
Buffy glared at Mist. “Just as long as they’re not spilling out monsters we have to clean up.”
Genie laughed. “That was just a flaw which means that if his instanced dungeons are leaking monsters, he’s either doing it intentionally or he screwed up.”
Mist stuck his tongue out at Genie.
“On that note, best of luck.” Genie snickered as she sent Mist on his way.
0o0o0
Mist blinked as he found himself in an antique shop with a rather grumpy looking old asian man glaring at him that was probably Jackie’s uncle. “What?”
“Were you even listening?” The old man demanded.
Mist glanced over at Jade who was snickering then over at Jackie who looked a lot like a younger version of a certain actor. “Not even remotely, were you saying something important?” He reached up and blocked the fan that Uncle tried to hit in him the head with. “I’m not Jackie, if you try that again, I’ll break it over your head.”
“Some consultant you are,” Uncle grumbled.
Arya frowned slightly as her memories came flooding back. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.’ She glanced over at Daenerys, Abby and Selena. The twins looked much more relaxed than Daenerys who also looked about ready to try crawling out of her skin. “I believe he asked what the talisman does.”
Mist looked down at the rooster talisman on the shop’s counter that Jackie had recovered. “Let me see.” He picked it up and used his identify power on it. “There is a noble spirit trapped in the talisman.” He reached his free hand into his pocket and pushed the button on his watch and smiled as everyone in the room froze other than the girls. “Four out of four, your resistance is getting better.”
Daenerys glanced around. “I’ve been working on it with Dawn and Willow.”
“Good.” Mist duplicated the talisman then examined the duplicate. “Just a knock off.”
Arya scanned the original rat talisman then the ‘fake’ talisman for the two different patterns. “Can you imagine how useful flying scouts would be?”
“Almost as useful as scouts with flight and telekinesis,” Selena pointed out as she scanned the talismans.
Abby grinned as she scanned the talismans. “We’re going to have to create knock off versions for everyone that doesn’t have telekinesis.”
Daenerys asked, “Are we going to unfreeze them?”
“Or can I drawn on Uncle’s face first?” Selena asked with amusement.
“You probably shouldn’t draw on his face.” Mist pocketed the real talisman then moved back to more or less how he’d been standing and unfroze everything. “The talismans can be used to restore mobility and powers to an evil dragon. In other words, you’re probably going to want to collect the rest of them to keep them out of the dragon’s hands.”
Uncle looked at Mist suspiciously as he asked, “I didn’t know that. How do you know that?”
“I’m a consultant, it’s what I do,” Mist replied only partially lying. His current identity really was a consultant on strange artifacts for various groups.
“You’re also American, not expect you to be familiar with Chinese myths.”
Mist shrugged. “I have an interest in magical items, no matter which culture they come from.”
Jade asked, “Does this mean you’ve seen other magical items?”
“That would be telling, now wouldn’t it?” Mist asked with amusement.
“Rats,” Jade complained.
Jackie replied as he looked at Jade sternly. “Be nice.”
“To answer your question, I have a couple of magical trinkets floating around. That reminds me, I should look at setting up a magic shop.”
Uncle glared at Mist. “What do you think my shop is?”
“A place where you sell overpriced trinkets?” Mist smirked as he dodged Uncle’s hand. While he wasn’t going to let Uncle actually hit him and possibly break his hand, he couldn’t really complain about the attempt considering what he’d said about the man’s shop. “Speaking of trinkets, do you mind if I buy a couple of ingredients before I go?” He set the fake rooster talisman on the table. Sure it wasn’t all that nice replacing the talisman but honestly he wasn’t leaving the security of magical items that could bring a demon dragon back to life up to an archeologist, an old man and a group of government agents that didn’t believe in magic.
Uncle’s scowl vanished like it never was. “Buy? Of course.”
Mist resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he listed to the old man talk about the various ingredients. Normally he wouldn’t have bothered but he wanted some supplies for teaching Jade enchanting and Uncle’s shop was probably the closest thing he was going to find to a magic shop outside of going to Mistville and looking through the shops there.
Daenerys had a feeling it was going to be a long year based on her new memories of ‘Uncle’.
0o0o0
Mist smiled slightly as he looked at rather tall hedge around the small yard that surrounded his house. “I can work with this.”
“Great,” Jade pointed out.
Mist twitched as he turned and looked down at the little asian girl in a bright orange jacket. “How the hell?”
“I’m sneaky,” Jade replied smugly.
Selena snickered. “She’s got a point.”
Arya gave Jade a smile. “I noticed her a couple of blocks back, she’s pretty good though.”
Mist scanned her jacket on the off chance there was something weird about it. Sadly for his piece of mind, there wasn’t. “Shouldn’t you be at your Uncle’s shop?”
“I wanted to see where you lived.” Jade glanced around. “It’s smaller than I was expecting.”
“That’s because I haven’t used magic to make it larger,” Mist replied with amusement.
“You can do that?” Jade asked in amazement.
Arya said, “There are a couple of tricks.”
Mist focused on the yard and the expansion ability he’d picked up from Unholy Heights and pushed with his magic and power.
Jade muttered something in Chinese as she watched the space twist and expand to nearly triple what it started as.
Daenerys asked, “What did you say?”
Jade shook her head. “Nothing, moving on.”
Arya snorted. “Right.”
Abby grinned as she looked around the expanded backyard. “At least we’ll have room for a pool.”
“Can you do that anywhere?” Jade asked curiously.
“Just about, why?” Mist asked curious what she wanted expanded.
“Because my room could be a bit bigger.”
“I’d have to talk to your Uncle.”
Abby piped up, “We could build her a room in a magical treasure chest if she wanted.”
Jade stared at Abby. “You can do that?”
“I can though Mist’s treasure chests are likely better.”
“Now that you mention it, I could use the practice,” Mist admitted.
“Awesome, wait, how much?” Jade asked warily.
“I don’t really need money, how about you show the trunk to your uncle and tell him that my magic is better than his?” Mist asked with amusement.
“He’s not going to like that,” Jade pointed out with amusement.
Abby said, “Which is why it’s fun. Speaking of fun, we should probably get you back to your Uncle’s shop before Jackie has a mental breakdown.”
“Good point.”
Selena grinned as she took Jade’s hand. “We’ll stop for ice cream on the way.”
Mist shook his head as Jade and the twins left. “I should probably let the rest of the group know that they can come out to play.”
Arya asked, “How long do you think it will take to get the various talismans?”
“I haven’t seen the show in years. From what I can remember the general plot for the first season was basically get the talismans before the dragon statue does but other than that, I couldn’t tell you where they are.”
“We’re fighting a dragon?” Daenerys asked uneasy about fighting a dragon.
Mist shook his head. “Not really, he’s a demon sorcerer in the form of a stone dragon right now. If he gets all of the talismans back he’ll be able to move again and lay waste to everything he sees or at least that’s his plan. I’d rather not let a maniacal demon sorcerer free if I can help it which means trying to find the talismans before the demon’s minions. If I can scry on the rest of the talismans then it should be easy to collect them, if I can’t, then we’ll just wait for Jackie to find them and follow the bad guys back to their lair. If nothing else, tossing the demon dragon statue onto the moon should cut down on the crap he can do.”
“Don’t you have a flaw that makes it so your enemies come back?” Arya asked.
“Yeah, eventually but we’re not killing him, we’re merely relocating him. If that doesn’t work, I’ll just steal the talismans and lock them in my warehouse. Nothing says I have to play fair or nice.”
“Point,” Arya agreed as she glanced around. “What are you planning on doing with the space?”
“I wouldn’t mind a covered water garden with tropical plants and a heated pool to relax in but I’m not picky.” Mist flashed Arya a smile. “We’re going to be living here for a year, we might as well have some fun.while we remodel the house.”
“Are you going to create a minion tree?” Daenerys asked.
“That’s the plan, I want to create some researchers so that I can get started upgrading some blueprints.” Mist pulled his phone out of his pocket and pushed the button to call Hermione as he scanned the backyard so that he knew what he had to work with.
0o0o0
Mist scowled as he turned to figure out who had just punched him in the back while he’d been reaching into the freezer in the corner store for some rocky road ice cream. He turned and glared at the dark haired man that was only a couple of inches shorter than his six feet. The man was wearing loose jeans, a white t-shirt and a biker’s jacket. His slicked back hair reminded him of a greased rat. “Yes?”
The man smirked. “I’m going to enjoy pounding your face in.”
Mist raised his eyebrows as he looked at the man. “Bruce?”
Bruce smirked. “So you’ve heard of me, that’s not going to save you.”
“Right, let me finish shopping then we can take this outside and have a nice fight, sound fair?” Mist scowled as the man swung at his face. He tilted his head out of the way of the strike then teleported the annoyance outside of the shop twenty feet in the air. He doubted it would kill him but it would probably break his legs and give him a chance to pay for his food. ‘They really should have included a way for the man to deal with my powers rather than just skills.’ He grabbed his container of ice cream then created an avatar to go deal with Bruce while he finished shopping. Normally he’d just toss the guy into orbit but the flaw implied that he was as skilled or more skilled at martial arts than he was which meant that he might be able to learn something.
The avatar walked out of the shop as Bruce jumped down from the truck that he’d landed on. “Let’s rock!” He grinned as he charged Bruce. He smiled as he teleported behind Bruce and punched him in the back of the head then worked on trading blows with the crazy man. Considering the massive strength difference and the fact that he was an avatar he wasn’t all that concerned with getting hurt.
Mist finished paying for his various purchases then walked out of the shop and turned himself invisible. He cast a small notice me not charm over the area to keep people from reporting the fight to the police then watched the fight, making a note of the spots where his avatar made mistakes and what he did correctly. He spent the next three minutes watching the fight until his avatar reached out with his super speed, grabbed the man and tossed Bruce into a wall which knocked him unconscious. “So much for playing fair.”
The avatar turned and looked in Mist’s general direction. “He’s good but he’s not strong enough or fast enough to justify wasting time fighting when we’ve got other things to work on.”
“Point, we should probably figure out some deserted location where we can hand him a copy of the strength and speed talismans so we can get something useful out of it.” Mist cancelled the avatar then mentally reviewed the memories as he headed back home.
0o0o0
Buffy grinned as she walked through the gate and past the edge of the hedge and saw the group gathered around the pool. She ignored the fact that most of the girls were naked or at least close as she noticed that Tara was rubbing sunscreen on a naked redhead that wasn’t Willow. “New girl?”
Mist smirked from ‘his’ spot between Tara’s knees. “Nope, just an alternate form. How did your mission go?”
“Ah, Jackie and I recovered the Ox talisman without too many issues and Jade and I went shopping so I’m calling the mission a success.”
Xander looked away from where Cordelia was lounging on a lawn chair with a wide brimmed hat over her face and over at Buffy. “Any monsters?”
“Does Tohru count?” Buffy asked as she walked over to the table where a picture of lemonade and glasses was sitting and poured herself a drink.
“Probably,” Mist admitted.
Buffy glanced around the pool area. “I was expecting some naked girls fountains or at least something naughty, this looks rather tasteful.” She glanced around at her naked friends as she muttered, “At least the structures.”
Xander gestured absently toward Cordelia. “Blame Cordelia, I do.”
Cordelia didn’t bother to look up or move her hat as she replied, “I just reminded Mist that some of the girls are at various museums and that they might have some interesting ideas for the garden when they get back.”
Hermione looked up from the book she was reading. “Mostly I think he’s just enjoying being lazy.”
“A little bit,” Mist admitted as he turned his head to look at Hermione.
“Really?”
“We just spent a year running around like crazy bouncing between worlds and trying to make sure we scanned everything we could when we weren’t boosting people. I wouldn’t mind being able to just relax, watch some movies and see how things go for a jump. Eventually we’re going to have to deal with the Dark Hand but until then, I don’t really have a problem leaving the adventures to Jackie or Buffy.”
“I’m a Slayer, we get twitchy if we don’t get to kill monsters every couple of weeks.” Buffy took a drink of her lemonade.
Cordelia snorted. “Try days rather than weeks.”
“Do they have the talisman at the shop or do I have to sneak into Section 13?” Mist wasn’t overly worried about sneaking into Section 13 but that didn’t mean he was looking forward to it.
Buffy finished her glass then refilled it as she replied, “Jackie’s Uncle wanted to do some research on it before they turned it over.”
“In other words, I should get dressed and head over there before they give it to Section 13.”
Tara smiled as she swung her knee around so that she wasn’t straddling him. “Probably for the best. Speaking of the talismans, when are we going collect the rest?”
Mist turned to look at Tara then pulled his attention off of her breasts and glanced over at Buffy as ‘he’ sat up. “From what you said on the phone, the Ox talisman was on a wrestler’s mask, right?”
“Yep, nice enough guy, once you get past the fact that he was totally cheating.” Buffy took a drink of her lemonade.
“In that case, I should probably stop by a video store in Mistville and see if I can grab a copy of Jackie Chan’s adventures so we can narrow down where the rest of the talismans are before Jackie finds them. I’d rather the Dark Hand didn’t get their hands on them if I can help it.”
“I don’t really trust the feds either,” Buffy pointed out.
“If they’re like the cartoon, they’re actually trying to do the right thing but yeah, I’d rather not trust the fate of the world or at least the country to people that don’t believe in magic despite seeing the effects from actual magical talismans.” Mist turned away from Xander then changed back to his normal form and pulled his clothes out of his inventory. “I’ll be back in a bit then we can figure out what we’re having for dinner.”
Tara smiled slightly as Mist pulled his underwear on, she liked him better as a girl but he was still rather attractive even as a man. “I think Sin’s planning on spaghetti.”
“Sounds good.” Mist pulled his pants on.
Buffy smiled as she looked at Mist’s muscled shoulders. “What are we going to do after you recover the talismans?”
“Watch the show and see if there is anything else we need to pick up before we leave.” He pulled his shirt on then teleported to Uncle’s shop.
Uncle jumped and swung at Mist when he appeared out of thin air. “Don’t do that!”
Mist plastered an innocent expression on his face, “Do what? You were day dreaming.”
“No I wasn’t!”
“Okay, Buffy said that you had the Ox talisman and that I should take a look at it to see if it does anything else.”
“This way.” Uncle scowled at Mist then headed for the back of the shop.
Mist ignored the man’s muttering about young people as he headed into the back room to copy and replace the talisman, sure it was a little dirty but he doubted that Shendu could use the fake talismans unlike the real deal which made things safer in the long run.
0o0o0
Ranma reached through his door into the cave and pulled the dragon talisman off the cave wall. He pulled his arm back through the door then closed it. He glanced over at Hermione’s scrying mirror which was sitting on the living room table. “I almost feel bad about stealing the snake talisman.”
Mist chuckled as he thought about Jackie meeting Viper on his adventure in the cartoon. “Don’t worry, I’ll replace it with a copy.”
Dawn asked half seriously, “Can we steal the massive diamond from the museum?”
Mist smiled slightly as he looked down his nose at Dawn while slowly shaking his head.
Faith snickered. “You could always make a copy.”
Lily spoke up, “That’s not a bad idea. We’re halfway through the list of talismans already, we have most of a year before we jump, we might as well have some fun.”
Hermione frowned then smiled as she thought about some of the rare books scattered around in various libraries that she wouldn’t mind having a copy of. “I wouldn’t mind copying some ancient books and paintings.”
“How much do you think some of the famous paintings would go for on the blackmarket?” Dawn asked with amusement.
“We’re not going to rip off a bunch of museums,” Hermione stated firmly.
“Not forever, just long enough to let people know that they’ll be on the market, then we sell a bunch of copies to various criminals and return the original paintings safe and sound.” Dawn turned to look at Mist. “When you scanned your magic black debit card, did you get a useful pattern?”
Mist smiled at Dawn. “Maybe.”
“I’ll take that for a yes. I’m not sure about everyone else but I wouldn’t mind a couple of million in an untouchable account.”
Lily reached over and patted Dawn on the head. “As much fun as robbing a bunch of museums would be, I have a better idea.”
Dawn turned to look at Lily. “Oh?”
“In my original world, various groups had lists of stolen artwork, I’m sure it’s the same here. We should be able to scry for the various paintings. Once we find some of the lost paintings, a little telepathy will tell us if the current ‘owner’ knew the pieces were stolen.”
Mist chuckled. “If they knew they were stolen, we recover them and turn them over to a museum for a finder’s fee.”
“Not quite as much fun but at least this way we’re not causing a bunch of museum workers heart attacks,” Dawn admitted.
Ranma grinned as he opened a small door into the case with the snake talisman. “Go for it.”
Mist teleported the talisman to his hand then duplicated it. He teleported the duplicate back into place then stuck the copy in his inventory. “Close it.”
Ranma opened a small portal into the case of the huge pink diamond.
Mist teleported the diamond then copied it and stuck the original back in place. “That should do it.” He handed the diamond to Dawn. “Have fun.”
“Thanks!” Dawn smiled as she looked over the huge pink diamond.
Ranma closed the portal then looked at Hermione. “What’s left?”
Hermione gestured at the mirror and changed it to show a statue of a six armed woman. “I wouldn’t mind the Armbands of Shiva.”
“Any particular reason you want four hands, other than kinky sex?” Dawn asked with amusement.
Hermione blushed slightly as the thought had crossed her mind, mostly thanks to some of the stuff that Sin had said when they’d watched the cartoon. “I wanted to study them.”
Ranma opened a door to the ancient temple, right next to the statue so that Mist could reach through and copy the magical bands. He was looking forward to relaxing for a bit and doing some actual training.
0o0o0
Aisha smiled as she walked into the study where Mist was sitting behind his desk playing a video game. “I’d wondered where you snuck off too.”
Mist flashed Aisha a smile then paused the handheld video game he’d been playing and set it on the table. “If I was really being sneaky I would have hid under the desk.”
“Or teleported elsewhere, yeah, I know,” Aisha agreed as she walked over and sat down on the edge of his desk.
Mist frowned slightly as he noticed the frown on her face. “Something the matter?”
“Nah, I’m just a bit bored and a little homesick,” Aisha admitted.
“I thought you were having fun training with Jackie and stealing/recovering paintings with Lily?”
Aisha sighed. “I was for the first couple of weeks, now it’s just boring. I mean don’t get me wrong, hanging out with Lily is fun but being able to open a door into some rich guy’s office, grab the stolen painting off the wall then close it behind you without leaving a trace takes some fun out of robbing the idiots blind.”
“I guess I can see that and Jackie’s uncle is a bit annoying,” Mist admitted.
“That and there is nothing on tv that I really want to watch.”
“Wasn’t Taylor, Piper and Amy heading to a play?”
“I’ve already seen it and it was boring.”
“Jump into an item world?” Mist asked curiously.
“That requires nine other people and Hermione already has a mission scheduled for tonight besides, Jade and Jackie are coming over in a couple of hours so I probably shouldn’t get too distracted.”
“You could always read a book or talk to Uber and Leet about their new project,” Mist pointed out.
“They’re working on something new?” Aisha smiled as she thought about some of Uber and Leet’s projects.
“Leet mentioned something about go-karts and rockets.” He was hoping they didn’t do anything too crazy with the rocket powered go-karts because they still had a couple of months left before they jumped.
“Oh, in that case, I’ll go check.” Aisha grinned as she jumped off the desk and headed for the door.
“Check on Riley while you’re at it, she’s been rather quiet lately.”
Aisha muttered as she left the room, “Which is never a good thing.”
“Not particularly,” Mist muttered to himself. Riley was a sweet girl for the most part without her shard screwing with her and after some time to get her head on straight but some of her projects were more than a little scary. ‘Speaking of crazy, I should start a couple more research minions while I’m thinking about it.’ He picked up his video game and stuck it in his inventory then headed out of his study and down the hall toward the back door that led to the backyard where he’d placed the minion tree. He wanted a couple of researchers to see what they could figure out about the talismans and maybe even the scan of his modified yellow lantern ring..
0o0o0
Mist twitched as he found himself back in the black stone room. “Hey Genie.”
Genie snickered as she looked around at the group. “How was your vacation?”
“Relaxing for the most part,” Mist replied as he walked over and gave Genie a hug much to her delight.
Xander spoke up, “I’m just glad that his shadow ninja have a range and that cutting Shendu in half reduced his ability to conjure shadow ninja.”
Buffy smirked. “It might have something to do with the fact that we tossed his remains in the ocean.”
Genie smiled at Mist as he let her go, “Do you have a plan for your next jump or can I make a suggestion?”
Mist raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”
“Charmed,” Genie replied with amusement.
“There’s a Charmed jump?” Mist asked in surprise.
“Yep, let me bring it up.” Genie giggled as she brought the Charmed jump up on the wall screen. “It looks pretty fun though I’m going to skip the part where the Angels of Destiny make a sales pitch as I’d rather not have to listen to them whine about their grand plan. They should have ran their plans by a 5th grader…” She trailed off with a rather purple blush as she noticed the entire group looking at her with various degrees of amusement. “Ah, right, sorry about that.”
Egwene frowned as she mentally reviewed the last season of Charmed that they’d watched with the girls. She’d been less than amused by how the so called Angels of Destiny had treated the Charmed Ones and Leo after everything that they’d done and given up to keep the world safe. “What’s to stop the Angels of Destiny from killing us if we cause problems for their grand plans?”
“Beyond your magic resistance perks and gear?” Genie pointed at Mist. “The Angels of Destiny are rather powerful magic users but outside of magic, they aren’t actually that scary which means that Mist should be able to deal with them if it comes down to it, probably.”
“Probably?” Mist asked warily.
“Eh, assuming they don’t try to flip the board over and do something rather drastic. Then again at that point we’d have words. Either way, I’ll be dropping you off in an alternate timeline to the main timeline so they shouldn’t get involved.”
Willow grinned as she walked over to get a closer look at the jump document. “This is going to be awesome.”
“Hopefully.” Mist smiled as he looked over the racial options for the jump. He wasn’t all that interested in being a demon or a cupid but the darklighter option looked pretty solid when mixed with the warlock or witch race using the twice blessed option.
Victoria asked, “We’re picking whitelighters, right?”
“I was actually thinking Darklighter, at least for myself,” Mist admitted.
“What? Why?” Victoria turned to look at Mist. “They’re evil.”
“No more than any other human. They’re raised to be evil, it’s a choice which means that they’re not supernaturally evil and unlike the whitelighters their powers get passed down without degrading. I’m thinking of using the twice blessed option to mix the darklighter and witch options so that the Charmed Ones have a reason to help.”
Riley snickered. “Besides, their dark orbs are awesome.”
“Just as long as we’re not demons,” Buffy complained.
“Yeah no, I don’t really care for their powerset or perks…” Mist trailed off as he looked at Buffy’s displeased expression. “I mean yeah, demons are bad.”
Faith snickered. “I’m sure you’d still take it if the perks didn’t suck.”
“Probably,” Mist admitted as he worked on putting his build together.
