Myst in Worm (CYOA) Part 10 (Patreon)

"You're telling me the Undersiders helped take out the Slaughterhouse Nine?" Armsmaster asked in disbelief, trying to figure out how the hell a team that was barely B list, managed to take out one of the most dangerous gangs in the world. "How?"

"I'd say with style but honestly, we just dealt with the problem." Myst gestured towards Grue. "Grue's darkness has some interesting properties and Tattletale is good at planning."

Lisa gestured at Myst. "Of course, the ability to create temporary clones of the people you're fighting tends to level the playing field."

Regent smirked at Armsmaster. "What can I say, we're awesome or at least I am and the others can get by riding on my coattails."

Armsmaster made a mental note to review everything he had on the Undersiders then looked at the man wearing black robes and silver mask theater mask. "Why work with villains?"

"Power synergy," Myst replied as he glanced at the large chunk of Crawler they were using to fake his death. "Crawler and the Siberian were problematic, I wanted to make sure they couldn't see me."

Armsmaster glanced at Grue then looked back at Myst. "I can't say I disagree." He glanced at the medical waste bag that one of the techs had dropped Bonesaw's hand into. "How sure are you that the Siberian is dead?"

Myst shrugged. "I'm reasonably sure I dealt with her, but it's the Siberian."

"In other words, she might want revenge," Armsmaster mused.

"It's entirely possible," Myst admitted. "Which is why we're not claiming the bounty. Donate it to charity in a couple of months or years if she hasn't shown up to get revenge."

"Is there a reason you cut off his head?" Armsmaster asked as he looked at Jack's corpse and his severed head.

Myst glared at Jack's corpse. "They had a biotinker on the team and a lunatic tinker that turned himself into a cybernetic monster, I wanted to make sure the bastard was actually dead."

"I can't say I blame you," Armsmaster admitted, "though in the future, the PRT frowns on people running around chopping off people's heads."

"I'll keep that in mind. For the record he tried to slash me with a projection from his knife so I doubt it's a body double, but you should probably run his DNA to be sure," Myst suggested.

"What happened to the rest of Burnscar?" one of the PRT agents asked as he glanced at her arm that was wrapped in plastic and sitting in a plastic tub of ice so it wouldn't start rotting.

Myst turned to look at the man that looked in his late twenties or early thirties dressed in combat gear that was looking at the bodies like they might jump up and attack people. "My copy of the Siberian hugged her, it was messy."

'He's better at lying than I am, not even a twitch,' Lisa mused as she studied the various PRT agents watching them.

The PRT agent glanced at the Undersiders then at Myst. "It might take the lab techs a couple of hours to process everything considering their history of using body doubles."

"That's fine," Myst assured him, not particularly worried about waiting a few hours or days to get his cut of the bounty.

Rachel kept her mouth shut, mostly because she didn't have her dogs with her and Brian had told her that antagonizing them wouldn't help.

"How did you manage to deal with Hatchet Face?" a different PRT agent asked.

"Line of sight powers are a," Myst glanced at Rachel and changed what he was going to say, "pain in the ass when you don't have line of sight."

"Which is why you brought Grue?" Armsmaster asked.

"What can I say, thinkers are bullshit when it comes to planning," Myst said cheerfully. "Now if you'll excuse us, we have places to be." He reached out and touched Rachel on her shoulder and Regent on his arm and transferred them to his pocket dimension so they couldn't say anything they shouldn't and so his clone could start setting up Rachel's kennels and play area.

"We had more questions," a different PRT agent complained as he handed Myst a folder.

"Take it up with Tattletale, she's her team's spokesperson," Myst replied as he reached over, grabbed Grue and teleported him to his pocket dimension, wanting to make sure the PRT wouldn't try holding him, not that he was really expecting them to pull anything but he needed the Undersiders alive and well which was why the 'real' Lisa was in the pocket dimension and her much more disciplined clone was going to be fielding questions as she didn't have the urge to screw with people, or at least not to an unreasonable degree.

"Thank you for dealing with the Slaughterhouse Nine," Armsmaster offered, annoyed that Myst hadn't offered him the chance to help, as despite the risks it was an accomplishment to be proud of. "We'll get things processed as fast as possible."

Myst smiled as he opened the folder to look at the paperwork and saw the PRT badge in the folder. 'I might have to actually thank Coil for his criminal network, nah, I'll just thank the clones,' he mused as he looked at Shatterbird's corpse, slightly annoyed that she'd managed to snap her neck in a bad fall when Hatchet Face cut her power so she'd stop trying to kill him. "Thank you, call me when you've finished processing everything."

"I'll have someone take care of it," the PRT agent in charge assured him.

"How many powers do you have?" Armsmaster asked.

"I'd say classified but technically, it's just confidential," Myst replied as he turned and started walking towards the exit, fairly sure he could use the badge and his roleplay power to slip back into the building and contact John without setting off any alarms.

0o0o0

John yawned as he was woken up by the shifting bodies sprawled on top of him as a phone started beeping.

“Vicky, we gotta get to school,” Amy said, shaking her sister awake.

“Five more minutes,” Vicky complained, “I can fly us there faster when I’m rested.”

“We both need to shower and dress,” Amy reminded her, “and unless you want to be stuck wearing what we did yesterday we have to stop at home first.”

“What?!” Vicky was suddenly awake and floated off the bed. “We gotta fly!”

Amy sighed and shook her head. “That you wake up for.”

Vicky blinked and sat on the air. “Of course, fashion is important.” She shrugged. “John’s fine and Missy is no longer going psycho on the gangs, so it’s all good, but my fashion rep is in danger!” She thrust a finger in the air and her adoration aura flooded the room.

Missy blinked as she stared up at the naked teen. “I knew your aura does that whole love and fear thing, but it’s kinda hard to look up to you when you have my brother’s dried splooge matting your pubes together.”

“Exactly, I have to look my best,” she said brightly, “it’s part of my power!”

Amy groaned and buried her face in Missy’s chest.

Missy glanced down at the healer and sighed before patting her on the head. “There, there,” she said, “I feel for you.”

“And I feel you,” Amy said surprised, “specifically, I feel you have a… whatever John had last night.”

“Symbiote,” John offered, having made quad clones and slipped one to Missy when they were going to sleep.

“I have a… oh,” Missy said as her skin was suddenly covered in black goo. “I feel… strong.”

“Yeah, since I love you I can give you one,” John said. “At least I think that’s how it works.”

“What about us?” Vicky asked with a pout.

John rolled his eyes. “While I do love you, you already have most of the powers it gives you and my sis is kinda squishy. I think I can give Amy one… but it may take me a week to get up the strength to make another one.”

The symbiote on Missy shivered and turned into a duplicate of her costume, removing any dirt, skin oil, or dried fluids as it did so.

“It even did her hair!” Vicky exclaimed in shock. “I want one!”

“This is pretty cool,” Missy said, sliding out from under Amy who’d been distracted by studying the symbiote’s biology. “Wow,” she said as she stood up and stretched. “This feels awesome and I can make phone calls? I have a mental connection to the phone system. It’s like having my own personal cell phone in my head.”

Vicky focused on John. “If you don’t make me one, I will never forgive you!”

John chuckled. “Well, I do love you, but you still have to wait until after Amy, because once again… squishy.”

“Are you calling me fat?” Amy asked, face down on the bed and speaking into the mattress.

John reached over and fondled her ass. “Nope, but you are nicely curved.”

“Keep your hand there,” Amy ordered.

“I don’t think we have time for a repeat,” Vicky said, “unless we skip the first two classes, which I wouldn’t mind, truthfully.”

“I’m reading his symbiote through his hand on my ass,” Amy explained, turning her head to face him so she wasn’t speaking into the mattress, “and I think I can copy them… if I have enough biomass.”

“Hey now,” John said, giving a cheek a squeeze, “no copying my powers. If you happened to make copies for your family… we would have to hide it or they’d go nuts. You know how the PRT is about biotinkers and biotech.”

Amy reached out a hand and laid it on John’s chest. “Good point, but if we use the excuse that you made them for me and Vicky while I just copied them, we can get them a couple of weeks early.”

“Totally doable,” John agreed, “but let's keep it to just us and New Wave for now. I really don’t want to have them acting like I’m the next Nilbog from a secondary power.”

“Trust me, I understand that,” Amy said with a sigh.

John slid a wing under her and pulled her on top of him so he could hug her, having had long conversations about the subject before and knowing how she worried about how dangerous her power was. “I’ll always love you, no matter how fat your ass gets,” he promised. “Ouch!” John moaned as she bit his shoulder.

“You barely felt that,” Amy complained, “don’t be so melodramatic.”

“Looks like I am going to have to go through power testing again,” Missy said, making a muscle and her arm bulging like Popeye’s, before she did a double backflip and landed on her feet without a sound, while ignoring the conversation on the bed, distracted by the all new sensation her symbiote was feeding her. “Hey, I can get Netflix on this!”

“You are making me one tonight!” Vicky ordered the pair below her.

“Better bring a lot of potatoes,” Amy ordered, once John released her lips and she wondered why it felt so much better kissing him this time as all the times they had made out before when they were in bed with Vicky.

“Potatoes? Biomass,” Vicky said with a nod as she realized what Amy wanted them for.

“After they release me,” John reminded them. “I triggered recently and publicly so I have a lot of hoops to jump through.”

“It’ll be a few days,” Missy agreed, “even with me as a Ward there is a lot of tests and paperwork to go through. You are becoming a Ward, right!”

John knew his twin was not asking a question.

“He could join New Wave,” Vicky said brightly, “I’d... I mean we’d love to have him and he has been publicly unmasked.”

“Sorry,” John said, “much as I love you, Missy has first dibs there and I don’t think your mom likes me anyway.”

“She likes you more than me,” Amy said.

“That’s because she has horrible taste,” John assured her, giving her a hug with wings and tentacles that completely covered her. “Anyway, while I may pretend to be hesitant to get a little leeway in my contract, I gotta protect my sis.”

“Protect me?” Missy asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I watch your back, you watch mine,” John said as Amy started to wiggle down his body, trying to escape the cocoon she was in.

Missy smiled from ear to ear.

“That looks very creepy and a little cartoony,” Vicky noted.

“Yeah, sis you better keep the smile to human norms, unless you are trying to freak people out.”

“I am,” Missy agreed.

“Oh, in that case, nice work,” Vicky complimented her.

Amy had managed to get halfway down John's body, her legs hanging off the end of the bed before she paused and Missy reached down and pulled her completely out, demonstrating a lot more strength than her slender frame should possess as she held her bridal style.

“No time,” Missy reminded her.

“Good point,” Amy agreed, wondering why she was feeling so hormonal. “Come visit us the moment they let you out,” she told John.

“I will,” he promised. “I’ll call you and you guys can drop by my apartment.”

“I suppose that will do for now,” Vicky agreed before floating down and picking her sister out of Missy’s arms. “Well, we gotta fly.”

“Clothes first!” Amy quickly exclaimed.

“Oh yeah,” Vicky said, setting her sister down, “that would help.”

“Sisters,” Amy grumbled, as she collected her clothes and started getting dressed.

“Yep, best thing on Earth,” John said.

“You’re just saying that because she’s standing right here,” Amy teased. “I remember how you complained.”

“I did?” John asked, surprised.

Amy stopped and considered it. “Mostly about her being in danger and not getting along with Vicky, now that I think about it.”

“Sounds about right,” John agreed.

“Also about her crush on Gallant, who is a douche,” Amy said.

“Hey!” Missy and Vicky complained and then exchanged glances and sighed.

“He totally is,” Amy and John chorused like they’d rehearsed it, mainly because they had and this was the first time they’d actually gotten a chance to use it.

“Anyway, gotta go, see you soon,” Amy said as she leapt up and Vicky caught her, having gotten dressed a lot quicker as she wore a lot less.

“Bye,” John said as they flew to the door and Vicky pushed it open with her foot before flying out.

“It probably would have been quicker to walk,” Missy noted.

John shrugged. “Probably.”

“Well, I gotta go check in and get yelled at,” Missy said, looking John over to make sure he was still okay. “I’ll be back to check on you, don’t go anywhere.”

“Love you too, sis,” he said with a wave before she left and he leaned back in bed and relaxed.

Inside his pocket dimension he made additional copies of Vicky, Amy, and Missy as well as himself as they laid around the heated pool behind the Super 8 he’d created. It wasn’t the best place money could buy, but Armsmaster has been right, it was a pretty good deal for the cost.

“You have an awesomely overpowered powerset,” one of the Vickys said as she floated in the pool.

“I know,” John said cheerfully as he leaned back in a deck chair and relaxed, making a pina colada appear in his hand.

“Ahem,” Missy said pointedly.

John snapped his fingers and a table filled with drinks appeared.

“Nachos!” Vicky called out.

“That… actually that does sound good,” Amy admitted, “and it’s not like we have to worry about our health with so many mes around.”

“Yeah, I suppose diet doesn’t matter,” John realized as he materialized a table full of nachos and various other mexican foods.

“So… we get to live in our own little heaven, while our other selves have to deal with… all that?” Missy asked, thinking that it wasn’t exactly fair to their other selves.

“Once we aren’t being watched by everyone I can bring them in and you guys can set up a rotation or something if you like,” he offered.

“Yeah, that sounds fair,” Missy said with a smile, joining him on his deck chair with her own drink.

“We need bigger chairs,” a couple of Missys complained while they squeezed a John between them on a chair and the third Missy watched amused, busy eating nachos.

“I’ll just make one big enough for three,” John said, creating an enormous deckchair to the side and hopping up, so they could all sit in it.

“Don’t hog him too much,” one of the Vickys called out from the pool.

“Eh, give me a little time, I’ll make more of me,” he assured them. “For now, relax.”

John chuckled over his other selves' antics as he waited for the PRT to send someone to start the song and dance of getting him to join, since he was an emancipated minor and they couldn’t just get his parents to order him to.

0o0o0

"Angel wings, could be worse I guess," Myst said as he looked at John, his PRT approved hat changing colors before shifting to a black and blue jester's cap. "So, did you have a plan for getting out of here? I figured I'd say hello and all that."

“And you are?” John asked, wondering who the strange man was.

"Myst, pleased to meet you in person," Myst offered as he changed his hat back to the standard PRT version.

“Oh,” John said surprised. “I was wondering when you’d show up. Hoping you would anyway, since there is no telling what a ROB would do even if he did give me everything on my CYOA. How far have you gotten on your missions and kill list?”

"I've finished the Challenger, it wasn't hard. I've dealt with Coil, he's currently staring into a wall of fog only able to move his head and I've basically taken over the Undersiders, so everything is more or less on track. I need to hunt down Nilbog but I figured I could wait considering I already dealt with the Slaughterhouse Nine, before you complain, they were far too close and I have copies of Manton and Bonesaw, Burnscar too for that matter," Myst explained.

“And those were the two I most wanted,” John said, holding up a hand and a black sphere appearing in it. “Your symbiote.”

"Hey, there is a goddess," Myst joked as he took the symbiote. "Thanks..." he trailed off as the sphere ‘popped’ and black liquid ran up his arm.

“Give it a second to get used to you and align with your biology,” John said cheerfully. “I think it’s better to do that while the victim is asleep, but that’s just me.”

"Probably," Myst said nervously as the liquid covered his chest and started crawling up his neck.

“Let’s exchange clones so we can make copies of each other's parahumans, not to mention keep in contact,” John said, popping one of his clones out his private dimension.

The second John sipped his Pina Colada, his symbiote taking the form of a pair of swimming shorts. “Don’t forget transferring all the goodies from the gadget box.”

“That too,” John agreed.

Myst split his other clone who quickly conjured a pair of shorts and pulled them on then dropped him into the room. "Sounds good, I've managed to copy a couple of people, mostly villains that you might want to copy."

“I have Armsmaster, who should be on your list as he is pretty much the best tinker around, ignoring Leet and his little exploding problem.”

"Yeah, he didn't offer to shake my hand so I haven't copied him," Myst replied.

The standing John tapped the second Myst on the hand, sending him to his private dimension

and then held out his hand to be sent to Myst’s.

Myst grinned and dropped the second John to the hotel in his pocket dimension. "On that note, I should probably get the hell out of here before someone notices."

“Yeah, I’ll be seeing you, except for the fact that we have two pairs of us talking right now of course,” John said, lying back and closing his eyes.

"Exactly," the Myst in his pocket dimension said as the one in the PRT left.

0o0o0

Myst waited until he was several blocks away from the PRT before ducking into an alley and dropping his disguise. 'I should probably talk to Leet or Chris about duplicating Shadow Stalker's visor so I can check for cameras,' he mused as he looked down at his outfit and realized the symbiote had already changed his costume back to casual clothes. "I could get used to this."

He focused on his symbiote and used his Sharing power to give the symbiote the ability to quickly adapt to various types of damage, figuring it was an additional level of protection and unlikely to cause trouble as the symbiote shouldn't have Venom's mental issues. 'Besides, worst case, I lose a clone and have to toss the symbiote into the pocket dimension.'

Myst glanced up at the annoyingly short buildings. "I guess I'll have to wait until I get to New York before I try web slinging," he muttered under his breath as he swapped his outfit to look like a black and white version of Spiderman's then started running towards the docks, curious how much of an improvement the symbiote gave him.

He laughed as it quickly became apparent that he was moving faster than traffic and that it was far easier than it should be. 'Yeah, that's better than I was expecting. You could take over the world with enough of these or at least make a decent attempt. Of course, then I'd have to deal with all of the idiots that want me to fix their problems and rebellions and logistical nightmares until I'd be willing to let my empire burn.'

"Yeah, no thanks," he muttered as he continued running towards the docks. He used his suit's built in phone to call Coil's clone.

Coil's clone answered the call before the second ring. "What do you need?"

"I need you to find Hero's actual body," Myst replied, hoping he wasn't cremated.

"He's buried in New York, his grave shouldn't be hard to find considering it's a tourist destination," Coil's clone replied.

"Huh, I figured they'd just bury an empty casket at the monument and bury him in his civilian identity," Myst admitted.

"No, his heroic identity was more important than his civilian," Coil's Clone replied.

"Anything else or should I let you get back to making money?" Myst asked.

"I was just about to call. The Travelers should be in town this afternoon and available for a meeting tonight if you think you can help Noelle."

"I should be able to help, one way or another," Myst replied.

"In that case, I'll set up a meeting and call with the details," Coil's clone promised.

"Thanks," Myst replied then ended the call. 'Now I just need to fly to New York and rob a grave and get back before dinner, piece of cake, worst case, I'll just have a different clone meet them.'