Myst in Worm (CYOA) part 16 (Patreon)

"Your family sucks," Riley complained as she flopped down on the bench next to Alec.

"They also bite," Alec replied without glancing away from the first person shooter he was playing.

"Any advice on dealing with Romeo?" Riley asked as she watched Alec's character sneak up to the edge of the building he was on.

"Set the shit on fire," Alec replied sarcastically, only half joking.

"That bad?" Riley asked, studying his expression.

"He was a petty little shit before he got powers," Alec replied as he hit the Q key and brought up his telescope macro. He smirked as Leet's character went from a tiny blot to a reasonably sized target.

"I'm aware," Riley admitted, thinking about his siblings' responses to the incident.

"What happened?" Alec asked as he lined the red dot up.

"I stabbed him with a knife when he used his powers on me," Riley admitted, not particularly happy about the entire experience.

"Did you hit him anywhere important?" Alec asked as he pushed the button and sent a single shot through the enemy's head.

"Fuck!" Leet cursed as his character's head blew up. "What the fuck was that?!" he demanded, fairly sure that he'd been out of range.

"Random act of god," Alec called out.

"No, I didn't hit him anywhere Amy can't fix," Riley replied.

"You want random acts of god. Fine, zombie time," Leet muttered under his breath as he used the cheat codes he'd programmed in to resurrect his character and to activate the new zombie mode which made him indestructible and spawned two hundred stupidly fast zombies to kill Alec's character.

Riley snickered as zombies started coming out of the woodwork. "Is it supposed to do that?"

"No, that's new," Alec replied as he worked on shooting the zombies. "Cheating bastard."

"There's no way you made that shot legitimately," Leet argued as he charged with the rest of the zombies.

"Pure fucking skill," Alec taunted him.

"Language," a different Riley scolded him as she walked over.

"Don't start," Alec complained as he worked on clearing the zombies before they killed him.

"Any luck with the little monsters?" Riley asked the other Riley, curious how her 'rehabilitation' project was going.

"Some of them are fine, some of them need their personalities rebuilt from the ground up," Riley complained, thinking about one of Alec's younger brothers that was particularly rude and hostile.

"It would probably help," Alec muttered as he worked on shooting the horde of zombies climbing up the sides of the building to reach him.

The other Riley stared at Riley. "Isn't that a bit excessive?"

"Not particularly," Riley grumbled as she thought about Romeo and his rage inducing power which had resulted in her stabbing him with a knife when she'd gone to check on Myst and the little shit had decided driving Myst's friends into a rage so he could pick a fight was a good idea.

"It's obvious that you haven't spent any time with my siblings," Alec pointed out as the army of zombies finally overwhelmed him. "You're a cheating bastard Leet."

"Blow it out your ass, you started it," Leet replied smugly.

The other Riley sighed. "We need a swear jar."

"Fine," Leet muttered as he exited the game. "I've got to get back to work anyways."

"Is there anything I can help with?" Riley asked, trying to take her mind off the group of lunatics that Myst had picked up to keep from causing problems.

"Sure, you can help me check over the schematics for Blasto's lab equipment," Leet suggested, figuring it would be a welcome distraction to dealing with people.

"Sure," Riley agreed as she bounced to her feet and followed Leet over to the work table.

Alec glanced over at Brian as he walked over with Aisha. "Game?"

"Hell yeah," Aisha replied as she ran over and dropped into Leet's seat. "I'll beat you like a redheaded stepchild."

"Don't write checks you can't cash," Brian warned his sister as he sat down on the bench next to Alec to watch the game.

"You're on," Alec called out, glad to have something to distract himself with so he didn't have to think about his family.

0o0o0

"Do you have any idea how to deal with Alec's family that doesn't involve mind wiping all of them and leaving them in an orphanage?" Myst asked as he absently ran a comb through Amy's damp hair while watching the large flat screen television where she was trying to fight a green dragon.

"You could always let the PRT deal with them," Amy replied as she used a healing potion and set up her next round of attacks.

"They'd probably just drop them in an insane asylum or the Birdcage," Myst replied, doing his best not to pay attention to the fact that one of his clones was combing through Romeo's mind and deleting most of the memories of his father's insane behavior. Normally it was easy to keep his clones separate or at least focus on each of them at the same time but dealing with detailed crap that he didn't want to deal with, tended to take up more of his attention.

"Probably," Amy agreed as she used a phoenix down on her White Mage that the dragon had killed with its 'special' unblockable party wide attack. "On the upside, how much do you really remember from when you were eight?"

"It's mostly a blur, I remember bits and pieces of a road trip across several states and playing on the computer, reading fantasy novels and playing with Legos, other than that, it basically blurred together with everything else," Myst said as he set the comb down. "You?"

"Bits and pieces," Amy replied, trying not to think about her vague memories of ending up in a new house with an angry woman that didn't want her there. "Mostly, I just remember spending time with Vicky and reading, Carol didn't bother me while I was reading or didn't bother Amy."

"Any regrets about being a clone?" Myst asked as he watched the fight on the screen.

"I'd probably have more issues if I didn't have a Vicky of my own to molest and people to hang out with," Amy replied as her Black Mage blasted the dragon with Flare and it finally died. "This better drop decent loot."

"If it doesn't, we can always get Leet to hack it," Myst suggested as he turned to look over at where Leet, Chris and one of the Rileys was working on making some type of game console in the gazebo.

"Nah, that would be cheating…" she trailed off as she saw the shitty loot the boss had dropped. "On the other hand, I'll keep that in mind."

Myst laughed. "You could always reload the game and try again."

"I'm not that desperate," Amy replied as she leaned her head back so that she could look up at Myst. "Speaking of loot, can I talk you into making a spatial ring for me?"

"Sorry, your princess is in another castle, you'll have to talk to the magic clone for that," Myst replied with a smirk.

"In that case, I guess I'll let her play with my breasts," Amy replied with a grin as she walked her character over to the collection of treasure chests and started opening everything, seeing if the chests had anything rare or if she should just reset the game and kill the boss again.

Myst glanced down at Amy's breasts with a grin as he transferred one of the spatial rings his clone had created to his clone that was talking to Lung about acceptable targets then transferred it in his hand. "Here."

Amy grabbed the ring and slipped it on her finger, smiling as she examined the computer-like interface. "How long do you think it would take to make some of the gear from Final Fantasy?"

"No idea, it depends on the gear," Myst replied as he set his hands on Amy's shoulders and started giving her a shoulder massage. "Making a sword that hits harder is easy, making trinkets that make you completely immune to an element, probably a lot harder."

"I'd love something that boosts my mental defenses or magic," Amy said, relaxing as Myst worked on her shoulders.

"I wouldn't mind a flaming sword," one of the Vicky's said cheerfully as she flew over having caught a snatch of their conversation and realizing it was about shiny things.

Myst continued working on Amy's shoulders as he flashed a smile at the mostly naked blonde cape hovering in place, her symbiote in the form of a pair of blue bikini bottoms. "With any luck, Oliver and Lisa will be able to give us a summary of the library in a couple of days which should give us a better idea where to start looking for ways to create magical gear."

"Does that mean I can have a flaming sword?" Vicky asked hopefully.

"I don't have an objection to you making one once we learn how but you'll probably need a decent amount of ki or mana," Myst replied, figuring it would be a good project for her once they figured out how to convert his cultivation secrets to magic. "Or maybe both."

"In other words, I should work on cultivating and practicing magic?" Vicky asked with amusement.

"It wouldn't hurt," Myst replied with a grin.

"Do you have any ki boosting tea?" Vicky asked hopefully, thinking about his lecture on cultivation and the stuff they could use to boost their progress.

"No but I can check some of the tea houses on the way back from Lung's, they might have something I can turn into something useful."

Vicky frowned as she thought about the ABB. "It's still weird knowing that you've replaced Lung and the ABB is one order away from collapsing."

Amy turned to look at her sister. "They'd just fracture or leave if Lung vanished."

Myst sighed. "I'll be happy if we can keep things down to a dull roar and clean shit up while we try to figure out a decent way to get people to jump worlds so we don't have to deal with the idiots."

"You'll probably have the best luck offering professional grade skills they'd need to start new lives, farmers, blacksmiths, miners, apothecaries and the like," Amy suggested as she saved her game.

"Probably," Myst admitted as he continued massaging her shoulders, trying not to focus on his clone that was trying to patch Romeo's personality together into something approaching normal or at least parahuman normal so that they could turn him over to the PRT without him ending up in an insane asylum. 

"In that case, I'm going to go practice," Vicky replied then flew off towards the practice area where several Circuses and Runes were meditating or doing stretches.

"Have fun," Amy replied as she closed her eyes and enjoyed her massage, glad that she didn't have to deal with Amy's mental issues or Carol.

0o0o0

"Do you have any idea how much it costs to arrange transportation via Strider?" Coil's clone asked.

"No, is it over a hundred thousand?" Myst asked as he glanced at the four idiots dressed like Fallout raiders that were running down the street towards him waving an assortment of knives and clubs in what he guessed was an attempt to be intimidating. "How the fuck do you even survive?" he muttered as he focused on some of the action heroes he'd seen over the years as well as the boogeyman, John Wick.

"What?" Coil asked.

"Not you, the teeth," Myst replied as he pulled a pistol with a silencer out of his holster in his suit and tapped into his Role Playing power. "Professional assassin."

Coil's clone winced and pulled the phone away from his ear as he heard an annoyingly loud gunshot through the phone, rapidly followed by three more. 

Myst calmly shot the fifth thug in the head as he charged out of an alley, doing his best to ignore the noise that was only partially muffled by the silencer. "Is it more than one hundred thousand?"

"No, it's 10,000 unless it's for something heroic or you have a previous contract," Coil's clone replied.

"In that case, make it happen," Myst replied as dozens of identical looking thugs rushed out of another alley and charged him. "I've got to deal with idiots, call me when you have a time and place." He closed his flip phone and dropped it in his pocket then had one of his alternates grab a grenade and transfer it to his hand.

He winced as a large four legged dog like beast straight out of a nightmare jumped down from a roof and screamed at him, a wave of force washing over him. He tossed the grenade into the alley with Spree and started shooting at the beast as it leapt at him.

Myst grabbed the dog-like beast as it tried to bite him then put two rounds in his eye, causing the cape to shift back to his human form. He put another bullet into Animos' head to make sure the bastard was dead then swapped his magazine for another magazine, making a mental note to replicate more ammo to replace it.

He ran into the alley and grabbed Spree as he tried to crawl away on three burned limbs and a stump. He rifled through his head for the location of the rest of The Teeth then put him out of his misery, wanting to make sure he didn't escape PRT custody.

Myst sprinted down the alley and into the courtyard-like enclosure surrounded by abandoned apartments and started shooting the remaining members of The Teeth that were having an impromptu barbeque. He winced slightly as an arrow almost the size of a ballista bolt struck him in the chest and bounced thanks to Othala's invulnerability power. He ignored the idiots that were grabbing weapons and scanned the area for the Butcher, the massive arrow being a clue that she was around.

"Kill him!" Quarrel shouted as she shot Myst in the neck, figuring he might be less durable in his throat or other vital spots.

Myst focused on his Midas power, turning her to stone before she could send a third arrow then went back to shooting the lunatics as they charged him. He turned his attention to the crazy looking woman charging him with swords formed out of blood and shields of blood floating in front of her that were blocking his bullets. "Fine," he muttered as he turned her to stone then proceeded to shoot the rest of the thugs, wanting to make sure The Teeth didn't reform.  

Myst sighed as he realized that Vex wasn't with them which meant he was probably back in New York with the rest of their unpowered members. 'Then again, without the Butcher, they'll either die or fall apart,' he mused as he walked over and transferred the Butcher to the glass jungle in his pocket dimension. "When the hell did I get nominated for the damned clean up crew?" he asked himself as he walked over and transferred Hemorrhagia to the glass jungle.

'Do I have enough time to loot them?' Myst mused then shook his head. 'Screw it, I might as well just leave the authorities guessing.' He slipped back into his pocket dimension and smiled when he saw two girls that looked like young Marilyn Monroes, one of which was dressed like a nurse and standing next to an empty regeneration vat the other was sitting on a folding chair playing some type of handheld video game, which meant she was probably Riley. He glanced over at the shower he could hear then focused on the girls. "How's he doing?"

"He's alive and a bit confused but he was lucid enough to ask about tools so he's probably not a zombie," Amy offered.

"He's a tinker, he could be a zombie tinker," Riley suggested with a grin.

"There is only Zuul," Hero called out as he turned off the shower.

"Seriously? You're going with a Ghostbuster reference?" Myst asked as he changed to his Doc Holiday appearance and costume, feeling a bit better about using one of his vats on the hero given the fact that he obviously had a sense of humor.

"Why not?" Hero asked as he pulled the towel from the top of the frosted glass shower and worked on drying off. "So, yeah, now that I'm awake, what's going on?"

"What's the last thing you remember?" Myst asked, curious if he remembered an afterlife or anything.

"Fighting the Siberian and getting ripped in half," Hero replied, wondering if the rest of his team had survived. "Did my team make it?" he asked as he wrapped his towel around his waist.

"Alexandria lost an eye but they survived," Myst replied as Hero stepped out of the shower, looking surprisingly hale for someone that had been dead for a decade.

Riley selected her character's warp spell and exited the dungeon then saved her game. "Do you have an appetite for brains?"

"Not that I know of, but I could do with something to eat," Hero admitted.

Riley mock pouted as she turned her game off. "So much for that theory."

Myst gestured and conjured a bowl of chicken noodle soup. "Here."

"You have food creation powers?" Hero asked in surprise as he looked at the long haired man in an expensive looking suit that looked to be in his late twenties.

Myst walked over and handed Hero the bowl and a spoon. "I'm a bit of a grab bag."

"Now that you're awake and don't feel like a zombie, we should probably talk about how long you've been dead," Riley suggested.

"Dead?" Hero asked, not feeling as surprised as he probably should be considering his last memory involved getting ripped apart.

Amy glanced at Riley then shrugged. "You've been dead for ten years."

"On the upside, at least we don't have to deal with the paperwork," Riley said cheerfully.

Hero sighed. "Great, I wonder if there's a form for getting undead."

"No clue, you can ask Armsmaster when I drop you off, I'm sure he'll enjoy helping you with the paperwork," Myst replied with a grin.

Hero laughed then sighed as he remembered that he was going to have to recreate all of his armor. "Great, I'm going to have to recreate all of my gear."

"We have a replicator/3D printer if you want to use it," Myst offered.

"Are you part of the Protectorate?" Hero asked.

Myst sighed as he thought about Cauldron. "No, we're independant. We actually like solving problems."

"And the Protectorate doesn't?" Hero asked, wondering what had changed over the last ten years.

"They have issues," Myst replied. "They seem to be fighting a holding pattern and letting villains escape at the drop of a hat, even when they don't fight the Endbringers."

"It encourages them to fight the Endbringers," Hero explained. 

"I figured the best I could do was to bring back the best Tinker," Myst replied.

"How many people can you bring back?" Hero asked.

"Three, sadly there wasn't enough left of the Tinker to bring him back, I'm saving the rest for a rainy day. On the other hand, I have a regeneration chamber you might like, it does a remarkably good job of regenerating people but they have to be alive."

"I'm sure the Protectorate would pay well for one," Hero replied. “It’s a dangerous job and the heroes can always use the help. Is there any way I can call the Protectorate and let them know I’m alive again? I imagine the paperwork is going to be a nightmare.”

“Let’s get you back in armor and the chamber and I’ll drop you off,” Myst offered. “Is Brockton Bay okay?” 

“That would be fine,” Hero replied, looking forward to having some proper armor, provided they weren’t planning on betraying him and taking it once it was complete...

0o0o0

John leaned back in his lounger and sipped his Coke by the pool. A pleased and slightly smug Amy lay on her own chair next to him.

“This is nice,” she said with a sigh as they watched the girls in the pool.

“Beats working,” John agreed, despite knowing that his other three bodies were hard at work. 

Well, not the one hanging out in Myst’s pocket dimension, that lazy bastard was lounging by the pool and watching the girls splash each other. His other self in his pocket dimension was relaxing and reading while the Industrial Replicator was creating things for him. His last body was currently relaxing with the Wards in their break room while they tried to ‘subtly’ influence him into joining. 

Okay, all his bodies were currently lazing about.

“Excuse me,” Danny asked politely.

“Yes?” John asked, seeing that Danny and Taylor were standing nearby. “Grab a seat,” he offered.

“Thank you,” Danny said as he and his daughter sat at the table next to them. “I was wondering… why Taylor? You really didn’t tell us much earlier.”

“I didn’t,” John agreed. “Events that would have happened are now not going to happen, but in at least one version of this reality she went through a really fucked up life and saved… a number of Earths with her actions. Not just one or two, but a number so high it required scientific notation.”

“Really?” Taylor asked in disbelief.

“Really,” John assured her. “Her reward was losing half her arm and getting two bullets in her skull before being dumped through a portal. Not sure where the portal went, but she needed to be shot to deactivate her power which was out of control. Anyway, the entire thing offended me on a personal level so I decided to change things. The Bitches Three have been made into your personal slaves for a period of no less than three years. Hopefully I can figure out how to unfuck their heads in that time.”

A naked Madison ran up and set a couple of drinks in front of the Heberts before sprinting off again, causing the two to look at him with matching doubting expressions. 

“I haven’t even made any changes to her,” John defended himself, “even her clones aren’t that devoted. Anyway, as I was saying, we are here to relax and get well.”

“Which should be easy with me around,” Amy said smugly.

“She’ll be right there to patch Danny up after Annette rips him a new one for neglecting their daughter in his depression,” John said with a grin.

Danny winced. “I’m aware of my failings,” he admitted. 

“So, are we trapped here for three years?” Taylor asked.

“No idea,” John said, “but it beats watching you commit suicide by cape. Your first outing had you taking on Lung and winning.”

“What are my powers?!” she sputtered in shock.

“Insect control,” John replied. “You leveraged a minor power into enough strength to kill a god. Of course it had a number of facets and you were near suicidal and would rather die than give a single centimeter of territory so…” He shrugged. “You can look at it as me keeping you imprisoned if you like. I know you like to play the victim because that’s what you’ve been for the last couple of years.”

“I’m…” Taylor blushed and looked away, shrinking into herself.

Danny just stared unsure what to say or even to think in this situation.

“Like I said, you can think of it however you want, because you are not getting out of here until you are both physically fit and mentally well,” John said. “And possibly after we’ve dealt with the endbringers come to think of it.”

The pair stared at him and John just grinned. “Not only do I have a shitload of powers I am much better than you at leveraging them, and I have a friend who is even worse. Worse at a few things actually,” he joked. 

“I’m not sure whether I’m supposed to be happy or sad or angry,” Taylor said after a minute. 

“Yes, and we will also work on that,” John decided. “Well, you’ll work on that, I’m not digging into your head unless I have to. I’ll probably have to clone a shrink. Maybe Dr Yamada… if she exists.”

A naked Taylor marched up to Amy. “I want breasts,” she asked politely.

“I have breasts!” Taylor defended herself, wishing her clones weren’t wandering around naked.

“And I’d like bigger ones,” the clone said.

“You need to eat a lot more first,” Amy said, “also we’ll want to give you more in the rear to counterbalance it. Seriously, big tits and a flat ass looks like you visited a chop shop and I am not some two bit hack plastic surgeon.”

“So… you’ll help me?” she asked hopefully.

“Of course,” Amy said with a smile, “for as Tyrion Lannister said ‘And the girls shall have breasts and that shall be bountiful!”

“Preach it sister!” a couple of the girls in the pool called out.

“Yes!” she bounced on her heels.

“We are also a religious sect whose First Commandment is: Thou shall not be a cunt,” John said cheerfully, ignoring the roar of laughter he could hear in the back of his mind that he was almost positive was not his imagination. 

“We’re being held captive by a crazy person,” Taylor groaned. 

“Probably,” John said unconcerned. “I’d suggest relaxing and not worrying about it.”

“I am in way over my head,” Danny said with a sigh.

John waved a hand and created a six pack of beer in front of the older man. “As I said, don’t worry about things too much. Annette will be back on her feet in about twelve hours and you can see what she thinks about the whole thing.”

“Are you going to clone her too?” Taylor asked.

“Have to,” John said, “we have a second Danny Hebert and he falls apart without her.” 

Danny sighed and popped open a beer. “Fair enough.”