Reluctant Villainy (Patreon)

Myst pulled his attention away from the featureless void and glanced between the smug bastard wearing a trench coat that reminded him a bit too much of the various actors that he disliked and the umbrella carrying black haired girl that reminded him of Wednesday Addams. "Let me get this straight, this ROB," he pointed at the trench coat wearing asshole, "has a ticket for a jumpchain and wants to send a soulless demon on the ride but you managed to talk him into sending someone on a hellish nightmare, spark or get obliterated quest of doom and he agreed because it's funny?"

"Basically," the girl replied. "The alternative was worse. If I'm sponsoring a villain, I'd rather have a quality villain than a demon that just wants to break everything."

"Which means you have to actually be evil," the man said smugly.

Jump shrugged. "Evil enough to be a villain in the particular setting but he's essentially correct."

"And I don't take the deal, he'll obliterate my soul or worse?" Myst asked.

"Unfortunately without actually being on the chain I can't step in, I can assure you that once you actually complete the challenge, you'll be under my protection and I'll curb stomp the annoying asshat if he tries to screw with you."

The man tried to look offended. "Hey now, a deal is a deal. Besides, he doesn't have the stones to be a villain of any worth."

"I get to pick my jumps, right?" Myst asked, wanting to be clear on the rules before he started.

"Of course, we'll even toss in more points as you're going up against heroes, say half again what you'd normally get," the man said with a smirk. "You're going to need them."

"Since I'm already screwed, who is judging if I'm being evil enough and is he allowed to directly screw with me?" Myst asked, glancing between the two beings that could very well both be ROBs for all he knew.

"Technically both of us, but I suspect that he'll always vote that you aren't so it falls down to me and not unless you take certain drawbacks, it would invalidate the challenge," the girl said with a shrug.

"Probably, I am a bastard," the man admitted.

'I other words, damned if I don't, probably damned if I do.' He couldn't help but think of Godogma's typical response to ROBs, if you can't be assured of their behavior don't play. 'Yeah, to hell with that, a slim chance to walk out of this with power is better than none. I just have to avoid being a stupid or chaotic evil villain, worst case, I'm dust in the wind or tortured until he gets bored, best case, I get to go home with magic.' He shrugged. "Sure, show me the jumps."

The girl gestured and conjured a kiosk in front of Myst filled with the various jumps. "Best of luck."

0o0o0

Myst blinked as he went from hitting the start button to start selecting his jumps to waking up in an unfamiliar dorm or at least he was assuming it was a dorm based on the fact that it was a small room with two bunk beds. He glanced over at the red haired teenager sitting on the other bunk wearing a green sweatshirt, jeans and a clock themed domino mask. "Is it just me or is the administration cracked putting heroes and villains in the same dorm?"

"I think they're hoping our morals and ethics rub off on you," Dennis replied as he studied his roommate's face, wondering if he had a changer power or if his appearance was natural.

"It's far more likely that we'll corrupt the heroes," Myst replied with amusement as he mentally went over the list of powers in his head. 'Okay, it's like the machine just grabbed everything I'd want and skipped actually letting me agonize over all of the choices, probably for the best. Cosmic Slot Machine, Shard Administration and King Maker? Builder Powers? Cosmic Flying Brick and a decent collection of defenses both mental and physical? Yeah, I'm not going to complain and I can certainly pull off the villain gig.'

"You think it's that easy?" Dennis asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes," Myst replied as he mentally slotted a matter creation power into one of his slot machine's 'slots'. He paused for a second and marveled at how familiar using his new power was, as if he'd done the same thing a hundred times then 'conjured' a bar of Swiss chocolate. "Tell you what, I'll trade you a bar of chocolate if you prank Kid Win the next time you see him."

"Is that real chocolate?" Dennis asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes," Myst replied with a grin.

"It's not like I don't prank people all of the time," Dennis pointed out.

"That's what makes it easy," Myst replied as he tossed Dennis the bar of chocolate. "If I conjured a large red button and said that pressing it would kill someone, you'd probably never press it, right?" he asked as he conjured a softball sized box with a large red button on it.

"Of course not," Dennis replied.

"Would you push it if I said that I'd kill one of the Slaughterhouse Nine and give you the reward money and make sure your father never has to worry about his health again?" Myst asked.

Dennis raised an eyebrow. "Is there point in wearing this mask?"

Myst shrugged. "Considering I have comic style x-ray vision, it's more or less pointless Dennis."

"Good, it was getting annoying," Dennis muttered as he pulled his mask off and dropped it on his night stand, not looking forward to the paperwork that was going to result from him knowing his identity.

"So, about the button, can I talk you into pushing it?" Myst asked, forcing himself to grin.

"How do I know you won't just kill some random person?" Dennis asked, fairly sure the other cape was just messing with him.

"That's not the deal. If I did that, it wouldn't be your fault, it would be mine which ruins the entire experiment," Myst replied. "Just because I'm a villain doesn't mean I can't play things straight."

"I'm not sure how killing the Slaughterhouse Nine counts as corrupting people?" Dennis admitted.

"It's about starting with someone easy, I mean you don't start with an innocent girl, you start with Jack mother fucking Slash, then you move onto the next target until you get to villains that are just trying to get by. Of course, the trick is that you don't have to push the button, you can stop at any time."

'I know I shouldn't but fuck it, it's either a prank or Jack Slash dies, I can live with that.' Dennis held his hand out for the button. "Are you going to tell people that I'm responsible so I have to dodge attacks?"

Myst shook his head. "Nah, you're actually a decent person. I can just leave a card that says I owed Clockblocker a favor and to deposit the money in your account when I drop the body off." He handed Dennis the button. "All you have to do is push it."

Dennis pushed the button. "Now what?"

"Now, I kill Jack." He opened a small portal behind Jack's head then reached through, grabbed the back of the villain's head and squeezed, crushing his skull and mulching his brain then opened a portal under him and dropped his body in Legend's office. He pulled his hand back and closed the portals. "Easy as pumpkin pie." He conjured a business card with the payment details on it and tossed it through another portal so the card would land on Jack's body. "One dead villain, one slightly corrupted hero."

Dennis stared at the villain that had just casually murdered someone he was really hoping was actually Jack Slash. "That was…" he trailed off not sure what to say, mostly because he didn't have a good joke.

Myst shrugged. "A deal is a deal, you should get the money whenever they pay out the bounty. Do you want to kill another villain? Maybe an annoying hero or two? I mean does the world really need Shadow Stalker?" he asked.

Dennis handed Myst the button. "Just because she's a bitch doesn't mean she deserves to die."

"Admit it, you were tempted," Myst replied with amusement as he scanned Dennis, picking up a parahuman pattern.

"What do you actually get out of being a villain?" Dennis asked, changing the subject.

"Less paperwork and red tape," Myst replied with a shrug. "Take Jack Slash, he's spent years terrorizing people. You pushed a button and now he's dead. I didn't have to ask the Director for permission, no council approved it."

"You could help people as a hero," Dennis pointed out.

"Nah, too much paperwork. Imagine if you will, reaching out and curing disease, the medical industry would scream bloody murder because they'd want their cut. Think of all of the doctors that I'd put out of business."

"Still worth it," Dennis said, thinking about his father's cancer.

"And not something I can do as a hero, all those pesky rules and regulations," Myst said as he pulled his class schedule out of his inventory and looked at it. "Three weeks of camp over the winter holidays learning to use our powers more effectively, seems like a waste considering everyone has different powers."

"It's about leveraging them in different ways, like freezing notecards in the air to use as stairs," Dennis explained.

"Fair enough," Myst agreed as he stuck the button in his inventory. "We've got an hour until our first class, that should be enough time for shenanigans."

"What exactly is your power?" Dennis asked.

"I'm basically a flying brick and knockoff Eidolon with some additional tricks," Myst replied with a smirk.

Dennis sighed. "That would explain why you're not particularly concerned about the kill order."

"Pretty much," Myst replied as he conjured a duplicate to take his place at camp. "There's also the fact that I can be in more than one place at a time," he explained as he walked the duplicate over and sat down on his bunk. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to punch some wannabe Nazis, feel free to talk to my duplicate, he's basically me, just without the ability to duplicate himself."

The duplicate flipped the original off. "Whatever."

Dennis shook his head. "If you're basically Alexandria and Eidolon why haven't you taken over the world yet?"

"I literally just woke up, the day is still early." Myst opened a portal to Kaiser's office and stepped through, letting the portal close behind him. "Hello Max, I'd like to make you an offer you can't refuse."

Max Anders glared at the teenager that had just stepped into his office. "Which is?"

Myst slotted telepathy power into his second power slot and stole the information for all of Max's illegal and or hidden accounts and the names of all of the Empire Members he could remember. "If you agree to dissolve the Empire and leave the city, I'll let you live."

"You're insane if you…" Max trailed off as the metal spike he conjured out of the desk skittered off the teen's t-shirt. "Shit!" he complained as he conjured metal armor around himself.

"Let me guess, that's a no?" Myst asked with amusement as he mined Kaiser's memories for everything he needed to destroy the Empire.

Max covered the other cape with metal. "I'm going to kill you."

Myst stretched his arms, casually ripping the metal apart. "I was giving you a chance."

"You're breaking the rules coming after me like this," Max warned him, trying to convince him that he didn't want to do anything drastic.

"I'm a villain," Myst replied as he slotted in a biokinesis power to his next slot. "If you're not cheating, you're not trying." He used his telepathy to take control of Kaiser's body as he didn't really want him screaming or making a scene. "I can sort of wrap my head around being a criminal piece of shit but you're the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, shouldn't that be enough?" he asked as he worked on deconstructing the metal that Kaiser had conjured.

'Of course not, not when people make it so easy to manipulate them,' Kaiser thought.

"Fair enough," Myst replied as he finished deconstructing the random bits of metal and his armor. He conjured a standing mirror and looked at his reflection. 'Bits and pieces, other than my eyes, I barely look like myself. Probably for the best and not exactly unexpected because of the appearance perk.' He conjured another mirror to reflect the mirror of Kaiser then started altering his appearance to match. "Let me guess, you're wondering what I'm doing?"

'I'm going to kill you!' Kaiser ranted in his head, wishing he could use his power or even talk so he could scream at the strange cape that was twisting his appearance.

"No you're not," Myst replied as he continued working on changing Max's body to match his own. "I'm going to cause the PRT some paperwork and you're going to die, mostly because you'll never stop trying to kill me. Nothing personal, I just like your ex and son better, at least they're trying to be decent people." He ignored Kaiser's ranting as he finished changing the man's appearance to match his own.

"There's something amusing about turning in your own bounty," he grabbed a minor shapeshifting power for his next slot and changed his appearance to look like a random forty something year old black haired man with a gut. "That should do it. If it makes you feel better, I'll be a better villain than you ever thought of being."

'You're fucking insane!' Kaiser ranted in his head, wondering how many fucking powers the bastard had or if he'd managed to piss off Eidolon.

Myst conjured a crossbow and a hanging screen so the PRT agents wouldn't be able to see the office then opened a portal and shoved Max through into the lobby of the Brockton Bay PRT.

'Fuck!' Max thought frantically, hoping to hell the man would just hand him over or that the PRT would save him, something he wasn't used to thinking.

"Hello, I've brought in Stalks the Darkness, he has a kill order on him. Give the bounty to the wards, they could use the help." Myst aimed the crossbow at Max's head and pulled the trigger, putting a bolt through his head. He closed the portal before the agents could shoot him or protest and started deconstructing the screen, wanting to make sure he didn't leave any evidence. 'He might not have believed the shit himself but he used it, live by the sword, die by the sword,' he told himself as he finished deconstructing the mirrors and the crossbow.

Myst created a duplicate that promptly dropped his telepathy power and swapped to a cosmic banking and hacking skill set as he walked over to Max's computer to start looting the company to the ground and figuring out the best way to profit from the company falling apart.

He opened a portal to the old ferry terminal and stepped through, letting it close behind him. He used his telepathy to check the area and relaxed slightly when he realized there wasn't anyone around. 'Okay, take a second and figure out the best way to be a villain. I doubt anyone is going to complain about you cleaning up flaws. I just need to figure out how to be a villain and not lose my marbles or I'm screwed.'

'You don't have to be the worst villain in the world, just make a decent attempt which means figuring out which crimes you can live with and get started. Stealing from villains, cutting through red tape, screwing over the medical profession and killing unrepentant bastards and psychopaths, those I can do.'

He created a duplicate to deal with Nilbog then turned his attention towards the graffitied wall and started scanning the area so that he'd have a pattern for a ferry terminal if he ever needed to build one. Sure, technically he could replace the building easier with cosmic creation but having the blueprints in his head made things a lot easier.

The duplicate swapped his slot machine slots to global tier biokinesis, clairvoyance, stealth, telepathy and teleportation then opened a portal to Nilbog's kingdom and stepped through after activating his new stealth power. He let the portal close behind him and started walking through the broken city, trying to get a feel for the mind behind the destruction. He spent a couple of minutes looking at the twisted buildings the gremlin like creatures had made out of whatever they could salvage then reached out with telepathy and scanned Nilbog.

It didn't take more than a couple of seconds to realize the man was a broken narcissistic piece of shit and that he didn't actually have a plan for his city other than to 'rule' it until he died and to hell with the fact that the lack of resources was causing his creations to die faster than they should. 'All the powers of a miniature god and you waste it being fucking insane.'

The duplicate spent a couple of minutes telepathically scanning Nilbog's more intelligent creations before realizing that most of them weren't worth saving. He opened a portal to a tropical island on a world where humans hadn't evolved then teleported most of Nilbog's more intelligent monsters through the portal along with their salvaged tools and closed the portal. 'Maybe they'll make something useful without Nilbog or maybe they'll just die, either way, they won't be a drain on Earth Bet.'

'Every villain needs a capital,' the duplicate mused, fairly sure he was going to give some of the PRT members nightmares. 'Time to play the villain.' He teleported Nilbog in front of him then quickly reached out, grabbed the man's arm and knocked him unconscious with biokinesis. 'Goodnight and goodbye.'

He opened a portal to Venus in the air a hundred feet up and teleported the remainder of the monsters he could sense through the portal other than Dot and closed the portal. 'You're young enough to save, probably.' He teleported the tiny little gremlin-like girl wearing old doll clothes to his hand from where she'd been hiding and knocked her out with biokinesis, catching her before she fell. 'Sorry, none of this is going to be particularly fun but at least you'll have a chance to have some type of life.'

'Yeah, I make a horrible villain,' he admitted as he checked her memory and compared things to Nilbog's memories. 'You're better off without him.' He shared a couple of memories to let her know that Nilbog was beyond broken. 'Assuming I didn't mess that up, that should give you some perspective and a better life assuming Amy can fix the crap that will cause you to break down.'

"Let's see," he mused as used his clairvoyance to check on Noelle. 'Somewhere dark and creepy. Okay, if Coil is in the PRT, wait five seconds and kill him, if not wait ten seconds and open a portal under him,' he told himself, firming up his plans. He checked Coil's location and started counting when he confirmed that he was in his base. 'Nine, ten,' he finished, then opened a portal under Coil and dropped him a thousand feet in the air.

'Fitting that you should die here,' he mused as he rifled through the villain's head for passwords, security details and account numbers or at least where to find the paperwork to get at his accounts while he watched him plummet towards the ground. He knew he shouldn't have been amused at the idea of watching someone hit the ground from a thousand feet up but Thomas Calvert was a bastard of a human being that saw nothing wrong with drugging children to the gills if it got him closer to his goal of running the city.

He opened a portal under the screaming man when he reached about fifty feet and tossed him back up into the sky. 'Yeah, okay, I'm starting to see why people enjoy being villains.' He closed the portals then looked through Coil's head for the details on the mercenaries he'd hired to see if any of them were worth employing.

'On second thought, I should share the view.' He scryed Tattletale and teleported her next to him. "Sorry about the teleport," he said as he pointed at the man that was screaming and falling to his death. "But you'll probably want to watch."

"Why would…" Lisa trailed off as she turned and saw her boss hit a large chunk of sidewalk with enough force to splatter his skull and snap his neck in several places. "Why the fuck are we in Elisberg and are you crazy?" she demanded in a harsh whisper.

"It seemed a fitting place for Coil to die considering his actual name is Thomas Calvert and he was on the last team out of here," the duplicate admitted.

"Fair enough, what about the monsters?" Lisa asked warily as she glanced around.

"I'm reasonably sure I got everything but you have a point, let's get you somewhere safe." He teleported Coil's broken body, Lisa and Dot to the ferry and Nilbog to one of the bathrooms in the ferry terminal then swapped his teleportation for a cosmic ranged blast that would transform the area into exceptionally good topsoil.

Lisa glanced around the familiar ferry terminal then looked down at Coil's broken body. "Is this where you recruit me?"

"That depends entirely on if you want to be recruited," Myst replied with a grin. "Feel free to call your ex-boss, his cellphone probably survived."

"You're not lying," Lisa replied. "What are you offering?"

"Help tweaking your power so you don't get as many headaches, extra powers while you're working for me and possibly an extra power that you'll get to keep permanently depending on how things go. I have to run some tests first to make sure the process is safe."

"You're a trump," Lisa said, studying his face. "What about my team?"

"I'd love to have them on board, I should be able to help Brian with his sister and Rachel with her various problems and I can tweak Jean Paul's appearance enough that he won't have to worry about his father or I kill his father, dealer's choice on that one," Myst offered.

"What happens if I want to walk?" Lisa asked, more than a little worried about the fact that he knew so much about her team.

Myst shrugged. "Beyond the fact that I'll be the one looting his computer and accounts? Nothing, you're free to go but he was abusing his precog power to make sure the team succeeded so you might not be as successful as you'd like without some measure of backup."

"What's your endgame?" Lisa asked, wanting to know what he got out of it.

"I'd like to prove to various parties that being a villain doesn't require putting 'Be Stupid' on your list of things to do, make a decent to obscene amount of money, have a lot of fun and upset self righteous idiots along the way," Myst explained the basics.

"Why do you want our help?" Lisa asked.

"You're good at collecting information, noticing details that most people miss and putting things together and your team are morally grey without being complete assholes," Myst explained.

"Regent's an ass," Lisa pointed out.

Myst snorted. "Considering he's Heartbreaker's son, he could be a lot worse."

"Fair point," Lisa admitted. "What type of powers can you offer and what types of jobs would we be pulling?"

"I can let you temporarily copy powers from any nearby capes, hand out various tinker abilities, thinker powers, x-ray vision, a perfectly safe ranged knockout power, various low end blaster powers, changer abilities, mover ratings and brute ratings, including a personal force field. I'll get you a full list if you sign on."

"How many can you hand out?" Lisa asked, curious what she'd have to work with if she took him up on his offer.

"Any given person can only have three at a time but I can swap them around or remove them if I need to and I don't have a limit to the number of people I can boost," Myst explained.

Lisa raised her eyebrows. "How many powers do you have?"

"I have a flying brick package that is decently impressive, gates and a version of Eidolon's power where I can pick a bunch of different powers. I also have a couple random powers that come in useful like Shard Administration that allows me to tweak people's powers, like adding off switches or triggers or changing how a power works to a limited degree."

"And the offer of additional permanent powers?" Lisa asked.

"Power granting vials. Provided I can duplicate them and they prove safe, you're welcome to additional powers," Myst offered.

Lisa glanced at Coil, watching the strange trump out of the corner of her eye. "When something seems too good to be true, it usually is. You didn't answer about the types of jobs we'd be pulling."

"That's because I got distracted," he admitted. "I have a couple of ideas how to improve the city but I need someone to deal with the paperwork which is where you come in. I also want to hit the various dog fighting rings which is where Rachel comes in. Grue is more than decent at fighting and Regent has a certain amount of devil may care that's useful in various situations."

"I'd have to talk it over with my team, we'd need a certain amount a month minimum," Lisa said thoughtfully.

"Coil has millions in his accounts, you're welcome to most of it. I just need enough to buy the ferry docks, bribe the mayor and set up a medical research lab to replace Medhall," Myst explained.

"Let me guess, you know it's an Empire front?" Lisa asked.

"Yeah," Myst admitted. "I want them crippled and broke, I want every event they hold to end in broken bones or arrests."

"I can understand that. What are you going to do with the gremlin?" Lisa asked as she pointed to Dot.

"I'm going to see if Panacea can fix her, she needs a friend," Myst said, looking down at the doll sized gremlin girl.

"Can you prove your claim about powers and are there any side effects?" Lisa asked, thinking of the trumps she knew that handed out powers and wanting nothing to do with his power if it was like Teacher's twisted gifts.

"No side effects and I can certainly prove I'm on the level by granting you an ability." Myst focused on his Kingmaker ability and gave her the ability to summon a phantom blade. "How's that?"

Lisa blinked as she realized she had a mental switch in her head. She flipped the switch and summoned a ghostly sword in her hand. "That's new."

"It's also sharp." Myst gave her X-ray vision. "Now imagine seeing through walls to check where they put the safe or guards."

Lisa grinned when she focused and looked through the wall into a back room. "How long do they last?"

"Until I take them back," Myst replied smugly.

"Your powers are bullshit, you know that right?" Lisa asked as she studied his face, trying to figure out what he was hiding. 'That's insane, there has to be a limit, maybe he just hasn't reached it. It's like they gave Eidolon Alexandria's powers and tossed in a better version of Othala. It's nuts and yet he believes it.' She blinked as she remembered something he'd said earlier. "Wait, you said you could give people the ability to copy powers, would that work on Alexandria?"

"Probably, if nothing else it would work on Legend which means you could stick a couple of brutes with him and you'd suddenly have a lot more blasters," he explained as his duplicate used a creation power to turn the entire walled area at Elisberg into an old growth forest. 'It's not like anyone is going to want to live there anyway.'

"We're going to have to run some tests," Lisa said excitedly.

"Does that mean you're joining up?" Myst asked as he swapped her blade power for a personal forcefield and gave her flight. "That should let you fly four times as fast as you can run and give you a force field."

"At the cost of my ghostly sword? I'll take it," Lisa replied, looking forward to flying around.

"Cool. What's the best way to acquire the ferry terminal? I'm willing to toss money at the mayor or levitate the cargo ship out of the bay and imply that I could just put it back or drop it if he doesn't sell the ferry."

Lisa laughed. "As much fun as that sounds, let me make some calls and loot Coil's accounts first."

"Sure," Myst replied as he opened a portal to Coil's office in his underground base and stepped through. "It gives us a chance to have a chat with his mercenaries."

"Let's get cracking," Lisa said as she followed her new boss, more than happy to jump ship.

Myst spawned another copy of himself then stepped through the portal to help Lisa deal with Coil's security and the mercenaries, letting the portal close behind him.

The duplicate in Elisberg swapped his telepathy ability for a global engineer/construction skill focused on building castles then got to work building a massive castle in the clearing he'd left out of the best material his cosmic creation ability could create.

The new duplicate slotted a specific immunity to being copied or cloned into the last slot and turned invisible then checked on Noelle with clairvoyance before teleporting into her vault. 'Piece of cake, fucking hell that's rank!' he complained mentally, smelling the spoiled meat bits that had fallen to the floor thanks to her messy eating and lack of care.

Noelle turned and looked at the invisible stranger she could sense. "I can smell you."

"Yeah, give me a second." He dropped the stealth. "I was on another job. I was called in to fix your powers. Let's start with your powers, do I have permission to change your cloning ability so you have to activate it consciously?"

"Yes!" Noelle replied eagerly.

He reached out and tweaked her power so that the duplication part was activated by conscious thought and required touching people with her right hand while singing happy birthday. 'That should keep her from creating clones accidently.' He tweaked her power so that her changer aspect only kicked in when she wanted it to and was humming. 'That should keep her from unconsciously using it.'

"Do you have proof?" Noelle asked warily.

He teleported Nilbog into the room. "Feel free to test it on the unconscious cape, I need some duplicates made."

"You realize they're insane, right?" Noelle asked warily.

"Right, let me fix that first." He tweaked the cloning power to spawn the clone from her left hand rather than inside of herself and so that the clones weren't hell bent on killing the originals. "That should fix your duplication power. Go ahead and lightly touch him with your foot then I'll fix the rest of your powers."

"If you're lying, I'm going to get angry," Noelle warned him.

"I'm not lying," he assured her. 'I really need to figure out how to deal with her mental issues otherwise she's still going to go on a rampage.'

Noelle carefully tapped the unconscious man with her foot and stared in surprise when she didn't create a clone. "I'm cured?"

"Eh? You can duplicate people if you touch them with your right hand while singing happy birthday. They'll appear touching your left hand," he explained as he scanned her, wanting to be able to reproduce her power.

"Happy birthday?" Noelle asked in disbelief.

"It seemed appropriate. Your changer power should only come into play if you want it to and you're humming, that should keep you from using it accidentally."

Noelle shook her head. "I don't suppose you can restore my human form?"

"Sure," he replied as he held his hand out. "My biokinesis is touch based."

"How sure are you that I can't accidentally use my power?" Noelle asked warily.

"I'm currently immune," he replied with amusement.

She raised her eyebrows. "Currently?"

"It's a thing, don't worry about it." He reached out and touched her leg when she moved it closer. "See, nothing to worry about..." he trailed off when he used his biokinesis and realized the extent of the changes. 'Okay, screw it, I might as well just cheat, she's not one of mine.' He used his kingmaker ability and handed her the ability to acquire a humanoid alternate form that looked like an airbrushed version of what she'd looked like before she got powers. "You should have a mental switch, go ahead and flip it."

"Ahh!" Noelle squealed and pulled her sweatshirt down to cover her crotch when she flipped the new mental switch and found herself back in a humanoid body. "You forgot to mention the part about not having pants."

"I figured it was obvious and I'm a villain." He smirked at the attractive young woman. "Speaking of being a villain, can you copy the cape five times? That should give me a decent baseline for his power set."

"Who is he?" Noelle asked as she looked at the unconscious cape, fairly sure she already knew given what she could 'smell' about his power.

"Nilbog, I'm planning on dropping the clones on empty worlds and seeing what happens," he explained.

"Worlds? You can get to other worlds, like Earth Aleph?" she asked hopefully.

"Sure, I'll even send you home," he replied with a grin.

"How much?" Noelle asked, knowing most of the group's money had gone to keeping her fed.

He briefly considered saying something like 'Your first born!' or asking to watch her and Sundancer dance naked in the moonlight but figured she'd had enough trauma to last a lifetime and he wasn't really feeling it. Besides, to hell with the Simurgh and her plots which was probably the real reason that he just shrugged. "On the house."

"Thank you." Noelle reached down and touched Nilbog's face with her right hand. "You weren't joking about singing happy birthday were you?"

"Nope," he replied with amusement as he started scanning her, figuring he'd scan the copied Nilbogs then send the Travelers on their way other than Cody who could stay in China for all he cared.