Myst in Worm (CYOA) part 4 (Patreon)

Chris twitched as he noticed a cargo container vanish out of the corner of his eye that one of the flickering street lights had been illuminating. "What the heck?" he muttered under his breath then stumbled back as something jumped down from one of the piles of crushed cars and landed in front of him. He gulped when he pointed his flashlight at the figure he could barely see and realized that the leather clad girl had a tinkertech energy weapon of some kind and it was pointed at his head. "I give up!"

Myst turned to look at the person pointing a flashlight at his new combat robot, not sure why 'she' looked like a taller red haired Scarlett Johansson in a black leather outfit but he wasn't going to complain. "No shooting civilians."

"Acknowledged," the android replied as she pointed her beam cannon at Chris. "Identify yourself or I'll assume you're a villain and take appropriate corrective action."

"Frank," Chris blurted, hoping she wasn't going to shoot him.

Myst focused on the person he couldn't quite see thanks to the flashlight that was screwing up his nightvision. 'Frank? What the hell was Chariot's first name?' he asked himself as he walked closer to Frank and his combat robot. "Let me guess, you're salvaging parts to make a doomsday device?"

Chris pulled his attention off the oddly familiar looking female with a tinkertech blaster and stared at the cat girl and the robed cape. "I'm not building a doomsday device!"

"Super powered roller skates?" Myst asked as he pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and pushed the button. 'Huh, never mind, Chariot was black.'

Chris squinted but didn't raise his hand as he didn't want to give the girl a reason to shoot him. "Why would anyone make super powered roller skates?"

"No idea, tinkers are insane," Myst replied as he studied the teen's expression, not overly surprised to see a grimace before he managed to hide it. "So, what are you planning on building?"

"What makes you think I'm building anything?" Chris asked warily.

Myst laughed. "The fact that you're running around a salvage yard after dark and you have a bag of parts?"

"Did you steal the cargo container?" Chris asked, trying to change the subject.

'You can't steal something you already own.' Myst shook his head. "Of course not. Do you know how large cargo containers are?" 

"Considering it was just here, yes. If you didn't steal it, where did it go?" Chris asked, trying to figure out a way to avoid getting shot or having the director scream at him for salvaging parts off the clock, something he wasn't technically supposed to do without clearing it ahead of time as it put his identity at risk.

"Let me guess, you're repairing a car?" Myst asked, still not sure if 'Frank' had just lied about his name or if there was another tinker in town, of course there was always the chance the kid's name was actually Frank and that he was just looking for parts for an auto shop project but he doubted it.

"Yeah, have you seen how much the reputable dealers want for parts?" Chris asked, not sure what else to do but push forward with his cover story.

"Yeah, it's downright criminal," Myst agreed as he held his hand out. "My name is Myst, I'm a new hero."

"We can never have too many heroes," Chris said as he shook Myst's hand, not sure what else to do.

Myst smiled as he read Chris's mind. 'Gotcha.' He used his Mindflayer ability to copy his understanding of math to the tinker then quickly created four loyal clones in his pocket dimension. "On that note, I should probably let you get back to salvaging for parts."

"Thanks for not ratting me out," Chris said, glad that he was going to have to deal with a metric ton of paperwork.

"I didn't see any no trespassing signs and I'm fairly sure the place has defaulted to the city, which means it's basically public property." Myst grinned as he turned and headed into the shadows. "We should get back to patrolling."

Chris frowned as he realized he'd never gotten a straight answer about the cargo container and he couldn't even report the incident without admitting that he was sneaking around at night looking for scrap.

Myst waited until they were out of sight and tried to copy his combat robot, on the off chance that she counted as a person. He wasn't terribly surprised to find that he couldn't copy her, either because she wasn't enough of a person or because she wasn't biological. He transferred her into his pocket dimension and whispered to Tangles. "Let's go." He pulled his burner phone out of his pocket and called Coil as he swung his leg over Tangles and sat down. "Let's head to the mall, I want to pick up a laptop."

"Yes?" one Coil's clones asked after the second ring.

"I need a location for the Slaughterhouse Nine, Circus, and Uber and Leet. I also want you to recruit the Travelers, I know how to fix Noelle or at least I have a decent idea," Myst said as they headed towards the mall.

"Anything else?" Coil asked.

"I also need a current location for Squealer. After that, hit the races or whatever you do for money," Myst replied.

"I can get you a location for Uber and Leet but it would be easier to call them in for a service call to check some of the tinkertech," Coil suggested.

"That works," Myst agreed. "I have a tinkertech weapon I'd like them to check. Have you had any luck fixing the Undersider's various issues?"

"I have lawyers working on it," Coil assured him. "We might have to put some pressure on Grue's mother to sign the papers but I can arrange it."

"No. I'll deal with getting her to sign, just get everything set up," Myst said, fairly sure his Mindflayer ability would let him edit her memory so that she remembered signing and Roleplay would let him forge her signature well enough that a professional wouldn't be able to tell the difference. "Let me know when to head back to the base."

"Give me a few minutes to get the information," Coil said then ended the call and split the timeline as he didn't want to try tracking the Slaughterhouse Nine down in a timeline he was going to keep.

0o0o0

"Is there a reason you're snickering?" Amy asked as she pulled her attention away from the motel that Myst had just finished creating and looked at Myst.

"My other half is looking at the Harry Potter movies, since when does Ginny end up with Hermione and Harry?" Myst asked as he continued reading the back of the DVD.

Amy considered the question. "Since the third book. There were some amusing bits with the timer turner in that movie. Just watch them, they're good. Especially the Tonks and Hermione scenes in the fifth movie."

"I'll add them to the basket," Myst said as his other half added the collection to the basket then grabbed a version of the Merlin TV series that looked interesting. 'At least I'll have plenty of clones to watch everything in a couple of days. I should probably hit the hardware store before they close and pick up some solar panels and batteries or at least look at them so I can duplicate them.'

"If you're looking for good movies, grab Star Wars, Luke and Leia made a good couple before Han stole her away," Amy suggested.

'Right, that's probably John's fault,' Myst thought as he continued looking for amusing looking movies. He blinked as he noticed a copy of Back to the Future that should have caused an endless stream of paradoxes. ‘Yeah, that's most certainly John's fault!' He grabbed a copy of all of the Star Wars movies and the television series and sighed as he realized he was going to need a larger basket. "Sounds good."

0o0o0

Myst glanced up from his new laptop as a scrawny man in a Bomber Man costume rushed into his office to gape at his security bot, looking like a child in a candy shop that had just been handed fifty dollars and told to spend it. "Don't shoot him," he ordered as he paused the movie player.

"Acknowledged," the android said.

Leet alternated staring at his scanner in confusion and looking at the Graviton Beam Emitter the attractive redhead was carrying with something akin to rapture. "Where did you find this?!"

"From one of my contacts, why?" Myst asked as he reached over and pushed Leet’s hand away as if trying to keep him from taking anything apart after the tinker had pulled a screwdriver out of his pocket. He focused on a sane and more moral version of Leet and created four copies, dropping them in his pocket world near the lake so that Vicky and Chris could explain things. 'I really need to copy Lisa so I can have her explain things to the clones or maybe someone that isn't weaponized smug. Is my ability to alter the mindsets of the clones I make actually strong enough for that?'

"Hey," Leet complained as he took a step to the side, almost stepping on one of the mercenaries who were standing guard in the room.

"If you try to take her gun apart, she'll rip you in half," Myst pointed out as he held his hand out towards Uber. "My condolences for having to deal with him."

"You get used to it and he's a blast when you're sniping people in first person shooters," Uber said as he shook Myst's hand, figuring he might as well make up for Leet's lack of social graces and the dude sitting was obviously in charge.

Myst focused on creating a decent version of Uber and activated his twin power, creating four duplicates in the pocket dimension next to the various Leets. 'At least I can turn them to stone if they get too annoying.'

"If I can't take it apart, how am I supposed to study it?" Leet whined as his fingers flexed unconsciously, figuring the best way to disassemble the device.

"With a scanner?" Myst suggested, less than amused by his whining. "I'm curious, how much would it cost to talk you into building a virtual intelligence box that could combine aspects of video games? I’ve always wondered what would happen if they switched out the main characters in various video games or we gave Link the Buster sword. It’d probably make a mint as you could even take games like Mario Bros, upgrade the graphics and the way the characters handle and then sell copies."

Leet blinked a couple of times then stared at Uber. "Why didn't we think of that?"

"Probably because we got caught up bringing games to life," Uber admitted, fairly sure they could make an obscene amount of money if they could get the computer to program things for them and he was fairly sure Leet had never bothered to make an AI before or even a semi sentient version. "Great, now he's twitching," he said with a sigh, knowing he’d have to get Leet back to his workshop soon.

"We were done visually checking things anyways," Leet replied as he pulled a notebook out of his pocket and started writing down some ideas.

"What are you watching?" Uber asked as he glanced at the movie playing on the laptop and thought it looked familiar.

"Charmed," Myst replied.

"Just wait until they summon their mother back from the dead and have a four way..." Leet trailed off as he waved his scanner over the grav gun and the girl’s arm and realized she was more than she seemed. "Either my scanner is broken or you have a mechanical arm.” He waved the scanner over her and stared wide eyed at the result. 

"Yes, she comes with the gun,” Myst said, then added, “not literally.”

"Can I take her apart?!" Leet asked excitedly.

"Can I take you apart?" Myst asked dryly. "I'm sure Panacea could put you back together again."

"So I get to take her apart if you get to take me apart and we get Panacea to put me back together?" he asked hopefully, barely paying attention as he walked around the robot scanning her, so that he could try to make a copy.

Uber shook his head. "Yeah, no. That's a bad deal."

Myst shrugged. "Tell you what, if you get the game combination device working and let me play with it for a while, I'll see if I can get a copy without the programming."

"This is going to be awesome!" Leet said enthusiastically.

Uber looked at Leet. "Right, so how often can it be shot and how often do they have to repair it?"

"I wouldn't shoot it more than a couple of times in a row without having it checked but it looks surprisingly sturdy, it takes energy to use it, so you'd need to be a parahuman or an android but other than that, it looks good. I'd have someone check it after every ten shoots for a bit then compare the results," Leet suggested.

Uber pulled a card with his cell number out of his pocket and handed it to Myst. "Here, give us a call in a week after you've run some tests, I need to get Leet back to his lab before he goes crazy and starts writing on the walls."

"That only happened once, maybe twice," Leet grumbled.

"Sounds reasonable," Myst replied, figuring he could call him once then ask the clones to make sure it stayed in working order.

"Right this way," the mercenary said as he headed for the door.

Myst turned his attention back to the show, mostly because he was waiting for Circus to show up anyways.

0o0o0

Myst felt a bit weird trying to meditate lying on a lawn chair in the pocket dimension while his other half was trying to avoid Circus using yet another strap-on on him because she found it funny and amusing, mostly because he didn't or at least that was what he was assuming judging by her sadistic smirk. 

"Canon ball!" Vicky shouted as she jumped into the peanut shaped pool sending a wave of water over the edge and causing one of the Amys that was floating on an air mattress to flip over.

"Hey," Amy complained as she swam/walked towards the edge of the pool. "We might need multiple pools."

"She'd just follow you," one of the other Vicky's said cheerfully as she flew over with the movie collection, sporting a blue bikini. "Anyone up for a Harry Potter marathon?"

Myst glanced over at Leet and Uber. "I'm up for it one of our techmonkeys can figure out how to hook up the solar panels and get a larger screen working."

"Or you could just conjure a movie theater," Amy suggested.

"Sounds good," one of the other Amys agreed.

Myst shook his head. "Same issue, I'd still have to figure out how everything is wired then create everything."

"Give me five minutes and a sketch pad, it's easy," Leet said cheerfully.

"Maybe ten," one of the Ubers added, knowing he'd probably have to decode Leet's handwriting.

"Make it a large blackboard," one of the other Leets suggested. "There are four of us, quadruple the power!"

Chris shook his head. "I'll see what I can come up with for a power supply."

"Now we're talking," Myst said cheerfully as he conjured two blackboards on wheels so he could move them around as well as a box of chalk.

0o0o0

Myst glanced down at his watch as the credits started rolling for the fourth movie. "That was almost as long as the Lord of the Rings. I think we're going to need a few minutes for a bathroom break and breakfast before we watch the fifth movie."

"Too much soda!" one of the Vickys said as she flew towards the bathroom with the Amy that had been sitting in her lap.

"I'm still surprised that Harry didn't just knife Ron for betraying him," one of the Circus clones complained.

"I'm fairly sure Ginny would have stopped fucking him," one of the Amys said.

"It might have been worth it," a Vicky muttered on her way to the bathroom.

Myst was fairly sure the movies would have been an hour shorter if you'd cut out all of the sex, well other than the first one, that one only had a bit at Christmas with the twins and McGonagall and a couple of shower scenes. At least McGonagall wasn't as old as the other movies even if she did look like a younger Maggie Smith. 'I'll have to check the actress's name when I get the chance.'

"I'll queue up the next movie and hit the head," Uber said as he headed for the doors.

"Sounds good," Myst replied as he stood up and stretched. He focused on splitting off another clone then handed him the archmage's ring. "Best of luck learning magic."

"Thanks," the new clone said as he put the ring on and vanished.

"Did you just clone yourself?" Amy asked.

"Yep, I get a new clone every day, same as the rest of you." Myst reached over and copied the nearest Amy had spent a third of the movie on his lap and the Vicky that had been playing with his equipment during the movie when he hadn't had Amy on his lap. "There, now we have five Amys and Vickys besides the original."

One of the Othalas snickered as she held out her hand towards Myst. "We're not falling behind!"

Chris shook his head as another blonde girl appeared out of thin air. "You're all insane."

"Amy is a healer, you're a tinker and Uber is like the best teacher you could get, I don't see a reason not to create more copies, we're awesome," Vicky stated firmly as she floated up into the air. "Now if you excuse me, I need to use the restroom before I explode."

Myst smiled as he watched the naked blonde girl fly off. 'Yeah, it might just be worth dealing with all the shitty quests.'

"Speaking for the Leet collective, I think we have enough," Leet suggested, several others also waving assent.

"The Uber association agrees," Uber said in chorus with himself.

"There should be at least two hot women per guy, five to six would be better, I've done the math, it checks out," Chris added, happy that he didn’t seem to be suffering from the original's dyscalculia.

“You just want to get laid by hot female capes,” Amy said with a smirk.

“Don’t you?” he fired back.

“Point,” she agreed. “Yeah, I think the mix should be six to one.”

Myst turned to look at the Circus clones. "How are you doing?"

"We're having fun though we're going to want more guys around, variety is the spice of life after all," one of the Circus clones said as she glanced between Uber, Leet, and Chris.

"What about girls?" Amy asked.

"We figured that was a given," one of the other Circus clones said cheerfully.

"I'll work on it," Myst promised.

0o0o0