Projections in Worm Part 6 (Patreon)

Myst opened the door to the garage and studied the blond haired young man that looked like he could have been a model. "Oliver?"

"What gave it away?" Oliver asked, studying the girl's face.

"No mask and you're not worried about me seeing your face, probably because you'll have a different one tomorrow." Myst glanced at the U-haul that was most likely where Noelle was hiding then over at the car in the driveway that had two young women in the front seats while a guy with a mask was getting out of the back seat. "Let me guess, you want an off switch for your powers as a proof of concept?"

"Basically, yeah," Oliver admitted, knowing things would go smoother

"Not a problem," Myst replied as he walked over to the table filled with dusty junk that wasn't worth enough to steal and grabbed one of the bugs he'd put in an old coffee can. He shared part of his ability to shut down powers with the bug then shared the ability to acquire powers via death with Oliver. "Easy, crush the bug and you'll have an off switch."

"Crush the bug?" Oliver asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What can I say, powers are weird," Myst replied as he set the bug on the table.

"Fine," Olver muttered, reaching over and smashing the bug that was heading for the edge of the table. "I don't feel any different."

Myst took back the ability to acquire powers via killing things then loaned Oliver his power that gave him a mental list of his powers. "How about now?"

"Damn," Oliver blurted as he realized he knew exactly what his various powers did. "Huh, I guess I have an off switch."

"Thus why I wanted you to smash the bug. Speaking of powers, are you interested in selling a copy of your powers?" Myst asked with a grin.

"How much?" Oliver asked, not opposed to making some money or earning some favors.

"How would you like to fly?" Myst asked.

"Deal," Oliver replied almost instantly. "What do you need me to do?"

Myst grabbed another bug then loaned Oliver the ability to loan powers. "Just focus on stuffing your powers into the bug and I'll smash it."

"How does that get you my powers? They should just snap back to me when you kill it," Oliver said, wanting more clarification.

"The other part of my powers handles that part," Myst explained. "I don't know why it works the way it does, I'm just taking advantage of it."

Oliver pushed his powers into the bug. "Go for it."

Myst smashed the bug then grinned at Oliver. "Pleasure doing business with you." He took his power back and loaned Oliver the power to acquire powers. "So, you're going to grab a bug and don't squish it until I tell you."

"What the fuck?" Perdition asked as he walked over.

"Making deals," Myst replained, forcing himself to sound more cheerful than he felt interacting with Cody warranted.

Oliver picked up a bug from the coffee can and held it between his fingers. "Now what?"

Myst loaned the bug flight. "Squish it."

Oliver crushed the bug then dropped the remains and rubbed his fingers on his pants.

Myst took back his power and loaned Oliver the ability to keep track of his powers. "You'll probably want to test it a bit so you can get used to it while you can sense your powers."

Oliver grinned as he floated off the ground. "Thanks."

Perdition stared at Oliver. "Is that permanent?"

"Of course," Myst replied with a grin. "It's also a test of concept."

Trickster walked out from around the U-Haul. "That's impressive."

"I try," Myst replied as he turned to look at Trickster. "So, the first step is discuss the problem with Noelle, I can can give her an off switch or I can just let her give me the powers she doesn't want but we're probably going to have to be a bit careful because her biology isn't normal so it's going to take a bit of work."

"Meaning?" Trickster asked.

"Meaning, I'm going to start with giving her an off switch for her cloning power then we'll go from there. I'm not getting near her until we do something about the weird clones," Myst said, fairly sure he was immune but unwilling to risk it because the idea of someone with his powers running around without morals terrified the hell out of him.

"What makes you think she's going to give you her powers, I wouldn't mind an upgrade," Perdition said with a smirk.

Trickster glared at Perdition. "Not a chance, her power is screwed up and I wouldn't trust you to pour piss out of a boot with the instructions printed on the heel."

"Ouch, that's just cold," Myst said, completely agreeing with Trickster for the first and probably last time.

"Fuck off," Perdition sputtered.

"I plan to," Trickster replied smugly as he worked on opening the back of the U-Haul, looking forward to taking a vacation with just Noelle.

Despite his best effort, Myst twitched when the door opened and he saw Noelle's disfigured four legged body. 'Yeah, words don't do it justice, at least she looks normal from the waist up.'

Taylor sputtered, choking on her soda when she saw the case 53. [You said she had issues, you didn't say she was a monster!]

[None of the reports mention her current appearance], Myst replied as he grabbed the coffee can filled with bugs. "Oliver, I need you to toss her a bug from the can."

"Why him?" Perdition asked.

"Because he doesn't have any offensive powers, I'm less worried about her copying him," Myst explained, not actually sure if she could copy him as he was connected to the same shard.

"Sure," Oliver said as he flew over and grabbed the can.

"Thanks for the help," Noelle offered. "Just tell me when to crush the bug."

"Just hold it up." Myst loaned Noelle the ability to pick up powers by killing things, trying not to show how nervous loaning the ability to an unstable cape made him. 'Just think positive thoughts.' He waited until Oliver tossed Noelle a bug then loaned the bug the ability to lock down cloning powers, temporarily splitting it off his ability to lock down powers. "Crush it."

Noelle crushed the bug. "Now what?"

Myst took his abilities back and loaned Noelle the ability that let her sense powers. "That depends, can you lock your cloning ability?"

Noelle smiled when she realized that she had the ability to lock her cloning ability down so that she could touch people. "Yes!" she said enthusiastically before continuing in a much softer voice, "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now we get to the real question, what do you want to do with your powers?" Myst asked, knowing it was going to take work to fix Noelle.

"Do you want them? I just want to look normal," Noelle admitted.

"I wouldn't mind a copy of your powers but your biology is screwed up enough that we're going to have to be careful and I'll probably have to give you a copy of your regeneration if we want to avoid you collapsing."

"What about just the cloning and Changer parts?" Noelle asked, figuring the regeneration and Brute rating would be useful if she wasn't a freak.

"The cloning part is easy enough." Myst loaned Noelle the ability to give away her cloning power without the bits that would return it to her or let her steal it back. "Okay, I'm more than willing to accept your cloning ability if you don't want it in exchange for fixing your body and your Changer ability."

"Deal," Noelle said, pushing the power to Myst. "I don't want it, it's given me nothing but trouble."

Myst pulled his powers back and looked at his new power. 'Yeah, that's nearly useless without her Changer ability, I'm going to have to hand it out and kill something until I get something more useful or just toss it.' He handed Noelle the ability to acquire powers by killing things. "Oliver, toss her another bug. I'll toss her a copy of your powers and we'll see if that helps."

Oliver tossed Noelle another bug. "Anything?"

Noelle smiled as she grabbed the bug and nothing happened. "It's gone."

"Can you do the same with my Changer rating?" Noelle asked hopefully.

"I'd rather not risk it until we can stabilize your biology. Once we have everything stable, we can probably toss your Changer rating but I'd rather see if combining your powers with Oliver's helps," Myst replied as he shared a copy of Oliver's powers with Noelle, not seeing a problem with boosting her learning speed. "Go ahead and crush the bug."

Noelle crushed the bug. "How do I know it worked?"

Myst reclaimed his powers and loaned her the ability to sense her powers. "Take a look, is that going to be enough?"

"It's going to take a couple of weeks but I should be back to normal and I got part of his ability to learn new skills quickly which is nice. Do you want a copy of my regeneration?" Noelle asked, ecstatic that she was going to be back looking like herself in a couple of weeks and that she could actually touch people without creating evil clones.

Perdition snorted. "I think everyone here would love a copy of your regeneration and strength."

"Sure, I'll even share a copy with Genesis to fix her legs," Myst replied, looking forward to having the ability to hand out bullshit levels of regeneration or at least a useful level of regeneration depending on how much he could pick up.

"How do you know about that?" Trickster asked warily.

"I did my research," Myst replied as he held out his hand for the can of bugs. "Deal?"

"Deal," Noelle agreed, glad that the trip hadn't turned out to be another dead end.

Oliver handed the can of bugs to Myst. "I don't suppose I can talk you into giving me regeneration?"

"That depends, can you talk Sundancer into sharing her immunity to fire?" Myst asked hopefully as Sundancer got out of the car.

"That's all you want?" Sundancer asked as she walked over.

"Your power screams collateral damage, I'd be happy just picking up fire resistance. Do you want flight and regeneration?" Myst asked with a grin.

"Of course," Sundancer replied, picturing flying around and being an actual hero rather than a walking engine of destruction.

[Are you sure you should be giving villains more powers?] Taylor asked, fairly sure her projection was getting carried away.

[Picking up regeneration and fire resistance is worth giving them flight and regeneration. Besides, I just fixed their only real reason to be villains.] Myst smiled at Sundancer then looked at Noelle. "In that case, let's get to it." He grabbed a bug from the can and held it up. "Don't loan your Changer rating, it's the only thing keeping you alive right now." He loaned Noelle the ability to temporarily loan her powers with exception of her Changer rating on the off chance her shard tried pushing her into doing something crazy. "Just focus on pushing your strength and regeneration into the bug."

Noelle pushed her strength and regeneration into the bug and promptly collapsed against the side of the U-Haul as her strength wasn't enough to support her weight.

Myst quickly crushed the bug, restoring Noelle's strength and regeneration. "That should do it."

"Now you can give the rest of us regeneration, right?" Perdition demanded, ignoring the fact that Noelle had just stumbled and caused the U-Haul to shake.

[He doesn't seem particularly stable], Taylor complained as she worked on eating her piece of pizza.

[He's not], Myst agreed as he collected all of his powers. "What do you have to trade? I don't run a charity."

"The ability to reverse time in an area," Perdition said smugly.

"It's not a large area," Trickster piped up.

"Fuck you man!" Perdition snapped, glaring at Trickster. "You're always fucking knifing people in the back, first you slithered your way on the gaming team, then you pretend to be in charge and now you're spewing shit when I have a chance to get more powers, what is your fucking damage?"

[Are you sure they're a team?] Taylor asked.

Trickster snorted. "I might be an asshole but at least I had the skills to play the game, you sucked and you never put in the time to get better, same thing goes with being a cape, you never put in the time which is funny considering your power."

"Kl-Trickster, enough," Noelle snapped. "Myst isn't wrong, she's already helped a lot."

"And gotten paid for it," Perdition snapped. "She picked up the ability to clone people."

Myst shook his head, happy that he'd already picked up most of the powers he wanted already. "Which is practically worthless as a hero and rogue that doesn't want the PRT to drop on them like a ton of bricks. If you don't want to trade a copy of your power, how much cash do you have? I'm willing to trade some regeneration or flight for cash in your case. Either way, let me trade with Sundancer and heal Genesis then we can figure out what you and Trickster can afford."

"I'm willing to trade a copy of my power or pay cash," Trickster said, perfectly willing to blow some money on more powers now that they wouldn't need as much.

[Just don't give them anything too dangerous], Taylor warned Myst.

[I wasn't planning on it, just a touch of regeneration and some flight at most], Myst replied as he grabbed a bug and loaned Sundancer the ability to loan her powers and the ability to keep track of all of her powers so she'd know he wasn't trying to screw her over. "Just focus on the bug and push your power into it."

"I'll try," Sundancer replied, a touch distracted by the mental list describing her powers. She 'pushed' the part of her power that controlled the temperature around her into the bug, a touch surprised that he wouldn't want her ability to conjure a miniature sun. "Do you want my protection from being blinded by my power?"

"That would be helpful," Myst agreed, knowing that it would probably help dealing with Purity.

Sundancer added that part of her power to the bug. "That should do it."

Myst crushed the bug then walked over to the car where Genesis was sitting. "Permission to heal you?"

"Please," Genesis replied, looking forward to being able to walk.

Myst loaned Genesis his regeneration, causing her body to instantly start repairing itself and building muscle on her legs. "That works better than I was expecting."

"How much do we have in the team's accounts?" Perdition demanded.

Sundancer shook her head. "Less than I'd like."

Jess stared in disbelief for a couple of seconds when she tried to move her previously atrophied legs and they responded easily, if clumsily. "You fixed them!" she blurted.

"Merry Christmas or an early or late birthday," Myst replied with a grin.

"Thank you. Can I still have flight?" Jess asked hopefully.

"Of course," Myst replied as he grabbed a bug from the can and handed it to her. "Hold this a second." He took his regeneration back and pushed some regeneration into the bug as well as flight then handed her the ability to acquire powers via killing things. "Crush it and you should have regeneration and flight permanently."

"Don't!" Sundancer snapped when she noticed Perdition tense like he was going to lunge for the car and bug.

"This isn't fair. How much do you think the PRT would pay for information about her?" Perdition asked in a whisper.

"Are you trying to commit suicide by cape?" Sundancer asked in a whisper, hoping Myst hadn't heard Cody's stupid idea.

"I'm just saying, if she's not going to help me, why should I play nice?" he whined.

"Because she helped Jess and Noelle," Sundancer replied, more than fed up with Cody's self centered shit. "Because we don't know how many powers she has."

'At least someone has a functioning brain cell,' Myst thought as he collected his powers. He smiled when Jess' legs didn't revert to their previous atrophied state. [I should probably give a copy of the regeneration to Amy, maybe even give her the ability to hand it out in slices to deal with simple injuries.]

[That would probably make things easier for her. Or you could give a nurse the ability so they could deal with trauma patients while Panacea gets the interesting cases], Taylor suggested.

[Something to consider.] Myst smiled at Jess and loaned her his mental list power so she could get some practice flying. "You'll probably have to practice walking and flying but you're well on your way to recovery."

"Thank you!" Jess said as she climbed out of the car, using her flight when her legs tried to collapse on her. "This is going to take some work."

"How much do you want for flight?" Perdition demanded.

"2,000," Myst replied with a grin that didn't reach his eyes as he loaned him regeneration, curious if it would fix any physical changes the Simurgh made or if she'd just whispered the right words at the right time to cause him to self-destruct.

[You're selling him flight?] Taylor complained.

[Just enough to get off the ground or maybe float to the ground, not enough that he'll be able to outrun a fat cop or use it for much of anything.]

"That's your split of what we have left," Noelle spoke up, knowing Cody was getting increasingly restless with the group.

"We have more than that," Perdition snapped.

"We still need to find a way home," Noelle reminded him.

"Where's home?" Myst asked, curious what they'd say.

"Earth Aleph," Sundancer said before someone lied, figuring she might have some ideas considering she knew more than she should about them.

[How the heck did they get here?] Taylor asked, shocked that someone had actually jumped dimensions.

[I'm guessing misadventure.] Myst didn't see a point in asking as he doubted he'd get an honest answer considering the connection to the Simurgh. "In that case, you should probably talk to Leet."

Trickster stared at Myst. "Why him? He's a joke."

"Nah, he just loves video games. He can make anything once and I doubt he's made a portal device. I'm not sure what he'd charge but he's probably your best option for getting home," Myst explained.

[Anything once? That's not on his page], Taylor complained, wondering how she'd missed it.

"Which means we're going to need everything we have to cover parts and his pay," Trickster said with a note of smugness at the end.

"Fuck you Klouse," Perdition snapped.

[Yeah but it fits his shows.] Myst glanced between Trickster, Perdition and Noelle. "Take some time and figure out what you need to get home, maybe sort out your personal issues. I'll give you a call tomorrow and we'll see what else we have to do to get Noelle to a point where she can toss her Changer rating."

"You can split powers apart, right? Couldn't I just toss part of it?" Noelle asked, putting the pieces together.

"Maybe." Myst glanced at Genesis. "I need the mental list, do you have a handle on your flight ability?"

"I think so," Genesis replied with a large smile, ecstatic about her new powers.

Myst collected his powers and handed the mental list to Noelle. "I suggest starting with the part that causes hunger, we can take things one step at a time."

"Thank you," Noelle said as she tried to figure out how to split her Changer rating in a way that wouldn't kill her.

0o0o0

[How much should I tell my father?] Taylor asked as she finished scrubbing her plate in the sink, trying not to pay attention to the collection of horribly mutated bugs pouring off Myst's left hand into a second coffee can.

[It's up to you but the more he knows, the more he can help], Myst replied as he studied the mutated bugs, fairly sure he had a ways to go before he was willing to use his new cloning power on people.

[What happens if he grounds me?] Taylor asked as she stuck her plate in the dishwasher.

[I doubt he's going to be that unreasonable, just stress the fact that you have a projection and shouldn't be close to any trouble], Myst suggested as he tweaked his cloning power, locking everything down to an almost unusable state so that he could push past the new limitations and grow the power.

[I'll try. Best of luck with your cloning power.] Taylor turned to look at her father. "You're done talking with the PRT, right?"

Danny stopped digging into the ice cream and looked at his daughter. "I finished signing the paperwork and NDAs for the settlement, why?"

"So, if you learned something about me, you wouldn't be violating any rules not disclosing it, right?" Taylor asked, hoping she wasn't making a mistake.

"Not that I know of, why?" Danny asked warily.

"Because I'm a cape," Taylor admitted, wanting to tell him before she chickened out and found another reason to wait.

"I'd wondered," Danny admitted as he went back to filling Taylor's bowl with ice cream, doing his best to resist the urge to start cursing.

Taylor stared at her father. "That's it?"

"Cursing and hitting things isn't going to help," Danny said, wishing it would. "What did you end up with?" he asked, hoping it was something that would keep her safe.

"A projection with a Trump ability and the ability to improve and acquire things by having my projection fight monsters in a pocket world," Taylor explained.

Danny turned to look at his daughter. "How much of an improvement and what do you mean acquire?"

Taylor gestured at her new converse shoes. "My projection needed shoes last night so I sent her into your old boots, she found these in a treasure chest. Before she ran through the dungeon linked to the shoes, they let me run 10% faster, now they're up to about 38% faster and she hasn't even taken out the boss yet."

Danny shook his head. "Dungeons? Monsters? Bosses? Okay, start from the beginning."

"Right," Taylor muttered then started into a somewhat rambling explanation of her powers and what Myst could offer when it came to powers.