Reluctant Villainy Part 9 (Patreon)

Hermione frowned when she noticed Myst wince. "What's wrong?"

Myst glanced between Ginny and Mione, doing his best to ignore the various images he'd seen of them collapsing or exploding from overloading their systems with magic. "There's a limit to the number of powers a witch or wizard can get a time without negative effects which means we're going to have to build up everyone's magic before we go completely nuts."

"How do we do that?" Mione asked, curious if he had a shortcut that wasn't insanely dangerous.

"The easiest method involves killing demons," Myst replied as he grabbed Riley's hand and led her a couple of steps away from the group. "Okay, let's try something slightly different." He used his Kingmaker ability to give himself the Copycat ability so that he could copy Riley's Power Mimicry ability then floated off the ground using his magical Flight. "Can you copy my Flight?"

"I already have Flight but sure," Riley replied as she activated her Power Mimicry ability and copied his Flight ability which let Myst snag a permanent copy of her Power Mimicry ability.

"Perfect," Myst mused when he checked his powers and noticed the new power. "Okay, I'm going to open a portal and grab some really nice Electrokinesis in 3, 2, 1!" he said cheerfully as he opened a portal in front of one of Demitrius' lightning blasts in an alternate world so that it jumped through the portal and struck him and Riley rather than Piper.

Riley grinned when she realized that his power barely tickled and that she'd picked up a couple of tricks thanks to her Power Mimicry. "Is that the best you've got?" she taunted, trying to get him to use a different power.

Myst flew through the portal and punched the 'titan' in the face, causing him to stagger backwards from the force of the strike. "There can be only one!" he shouted as he grabbed the titan by the neck and started strangling him, figuring it was the best way to get him to use his powers on him. He grinned when he picked up Power Absorption thanks to the titan trying to steal his powers.

Piper raised her eyebrows when the titan vanished in a whirlwind. "There can be only one?"

"It seemed appropriate," Myst replied with a grin as he pulled three of the lanterns out of his inventory and handed them to Piper. "You're going to need these."

"What are they?" Piper asked warily.

"Invincibility in a bottle," Myst replied with a grin. "They should help you avoid dying though you should be careful, they can steal powers."

"I noticed," Piper grumbled, thinking about the dead Elders. "How do I know these are safe?"

"Get Leo to check them. Best of luck with the Titans," Myst offered as he walked back through the portal, letting it close behind him before Piper could argue about the lanterns.

Mione shook her head. "You're having way too much fun with this."

"Maybe a little," Myst said with a grin.

"Did you get anything useful?" Riley asked excitedly.

"Another form of teleportation and a powerful version of Electrokinesis which should let everyone blast the," Myst glanced at Sarah, "stuffings out of the demons and increase everyone's magic using one of my abilities."

Myst opened a portal to a future timeline where Piper kept Excalibur in her closet and scanned the sword, wanting to know what he was dealing with before he tried to duplicate it. 'Yeah, copying that would draw way too much attention.' He reached through the portal and grabbed the sword then opened another portal behind the Cleaner that was trying to kill a baby Wyatt in a future timeline and stabbed him in the back with all of his might.

Piper stared in shocked disbelief as a sword blade ripped through the 'indestructible' Cleaner's chest as he reached for Wyatt.

Myst blurred forward and hacked the second Cleaner's head off, striking him with enough power to damage the wall behind the 'man' in the white suit from the wind. "When they ask, tell them that no secret is worth a child's life," he told Piper, Leo and Phoebe then walked back through the portal and let it close, rather happy with the boost to his available magic his Hatred perk had given him because the Cleaners had a massive amount of magic. He smiled down at the blade then put it back in the closet and closed the portal.

"You're not going to copy it?" Ginny asked.

Myst shook his head. "I don't need to play with destiny or the trouble it would cause. That blade has gotten every villain that has ever tried to claim it killed one way or another. Besides, I'd rather enchant my own blade."

"Which blade was it?" Hermione asked, fairly sure she already knew.

"Excalibur," Myst replied with a grin as he turned his Power Mimicry power into a sphere and scanned it.

"As in King Arthur's sword?" Sarah asked excitedly.

"The very same," Myst replied as he absorbed the sphere and the power. He held his hands together and made a dozen copies of the spheres. "Anyone that doesn't have Power Mimicry, grab a sphere other than Sarah."

Sarah pouted. "That's not fair."

Myst smiled at the five year old. "Don't worry, you'll get plenty of powers when you're older."

Sarah glanced at her mother then sighed when she realized she wasn't going to budge. "Okay."

"Now what?" Mione asked once everyone that needed Power Mimicry grabbed one of the sphere's and used it.

"Now we make a copy of a magical necklace." Myst put the rest of the spheres in his inventory then opened a portal to the Hebert residence. "Sorry to bother you but can I see your necklace?" he asked Danny.

Danny smiled when he turned and saw Myst. "Sure, is it safe to come through?"

"Safe enough," Myst replied, making a mental note to look into placing better wards on the chest.

"I'll tell the girls," Annette said as she headed for the bathroom to let her daughters know.

Danny walked through the portal and glanced around. "Pocket dimension?"

"Magic chest," Myst replied as he scanned Danny's amethyst and silver magic boosting necklace.

"Nice," Danny replied as he took his necklace off and held it out. "How long do you need it?"

Myst grinned as he used his Matter Creation power to make a copy of his necklace. "I just needed to see it."

Danny put his necklace back on. "Can I get one of those for Annette and the girls?"

"Of course," Myst agreed as he handed the copied necklace to Danny then created another one. "Any regrets?"

"About tagging along?" Danny shook his head. "No, it's nice to live in a world that isn't falling apart."

"What did you end up doing for a living?" Myst asked.

"I own a strip club in London and Annette makes money as a Literature professor and treasure hunter," Danny replied with a shrug.

"Treasure hunter?" Hermione asked.

"Warlocks tend to collect expensive antiques," Annette explained as she walked out of the portal carrying an antique lantern. "Can you copy this?"

"Yep! I was hoping you hadn't used it," Myst said as he scanned the lantern and made a dozen copies with his Matter Creation ability, placing them by his feet.

Annette grinned as she handed him the lantern. "I found it in a vault a week ago. I was trying to figure out how to duplicate it before I used it because it should be safe for mortals to use."

"Any luck?" Myst asked as he used the lantern and picked up Portal Creation, a Force Field power and the ability to teleport via strange sparks of light like the Angels of Destiny or Cleaners.

"Not as much as I'd like, I haven't found a demonic enchanter that I can afford to stab," Annette complained.

Riley grinned at her friend's mother. "If you want Enchanting, I'm sure Myst can make duplicates of my power."

"It's on the list," Myst replied with amusement as he worked on duplicating more power boosting necklaces. "The current plan involves handing out the necklaces and letting Mione and Ginny borrow my ability to gain magic from killing demons then opening portals to alternate timelines so we can collect powers without anyone noticing a dramatic drop in the number of demons running around."

"Wouldn't decreasing the number of demons be a good thing?" Ginny asked.

"Eventually but I'd rather shore up everyone's magic and defenses before we declare war on the underground. They have precogs and divination and other methods of being annoying." Myst glanced at Sarah. "Besides, we've got munchkins to protect and a decent number of locations the demons could hit to hurt us which means we should be careful even if they can't kill us."

"Besides, can't be killed and can't be banished to a timeless void are two different things," Annette reminded them.

"Fair point," Ginny admitted. "How do we start?"

"Grab my hands and make sure you're the closest person to me," Myst replied as he walked away from the lanterns and the portal to Taylor's house. He gave Mione and Ginny the Copycat ability then made sure they could copy his Hatred power along with his various defenses.

"One at a time then," Riley suggested.

"On second thought, I have clones." Myst created nine temporary duplicates then lined up in a line. "Let's make this easy, everyone line up and I'll let you use my ability to increase your magic, you can snag some abilities at the same time."

"Hell yeah!" Vicky squealed as she flew out of the portal sans clothes, followed by Amelia and Amy who were wearing bathrobes.

Taylor and Anne followed Amy through the portal wearing their street clothes. "What do we need to do?"

Myst smiled at Taylor. "Stand by one of my clones and blast a bunch of demons when I open portals. We should be able to kill a couple of dozen demons before you need to rest and let the stolen power settle."

"Shouldn't you grab Leet?" Anne asked.

"Probably," Myst replied as he created another temporary clone to help Leet then swapped his Matter Creation power for Precog and went looking for viable targets.

The duplicate created a Power Mimicry sphere and opened a portal to Leet's house. "Do you want some magic candy?" he asked in a creepy voice as he held the sphere out.

"Hell yes, and that's creepy as…" Eric trailed off when he walked through the portal and noticed Vicky. "Do I even want to know?"

"Probably not. Do you have the lantern or did you use it?" Myst asked as he created another twenty temporary duplicates of himself.

"Sorry," Eric admitted. "I was hiding from demons when I found it. Being able to shrink and hide in a cabinet behind a coffee can saved my life."

"Don't worry about it," Myst replied as he looked back through time to check on the lantern, figuring he'd just swap it for a 'conjured' version.

"Where do you want us?" Amy asked as she glanced between the various clones.

"Over here," one of the free clones suggested as he created an Electrokinesis sphere for Amy. "It's like a shooting game, I'll open a bunch of portals and you blast the demons."

"How do we avoid friendly fire in case there are innocents near the portals?" Ginny asked.

Myst glanced over at Annettle. "Annette has an ability to know if someone is evil just by looking at them and if they'll hurt or help the world, you should be able to use it with Power Hub."

"Sorry, it's hard to keep track of everything," Ginny admitted, hoping keeping everything straight got easier with practice.

"We need music," Eric suggested.

"Do you have a decent playlist?" Myst asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Let the bodies hit the floor sounds oddly appropriate," Eric mused.

"I'm fairly sure that won't come out for another decade," Myst pointed out as he orbed his extra clones to the other expanded chest to start hunting demons and building up powers.

"We could always go with 'We are the Champions," Riley suggested with a grin.

"Whatever, grab some music," Myst suggested as his clones started creating copies of Danny's magic boosting amulets so everyone's magic would hit harder. "It's going to take a minute to get everything set up."

"Cool!" Eric said cheerfully as ran back through the portal to grab his music.

0o0o0

Martin twitched when he looked up from his paperwork and noticed a man standing in his office in an expensive looking suit. "How did you get in here?" he sputtered, knowing the door creaked when you opened it.

"I walked," Myst's duplicate lied as he studied the cheap suit the man with short brown hair was wearing. "You own Quake, I have a proposal for you."

"What type of proposal?" Martin asked warily.

"I'd like to buy it," Myst replied with a grin that didn't reach his eyes.

Martin shook his head, not seeing a point in selling the business when he was making plenty of money off of it. "I'm not interested."

"Hypothetically, are you interested in having your legs broken?" Myst asked, remembering some of the crap the owner had pulled on the show.

"What?" Martin sputtered.

"I could dance around the issue but you have something I want. I'm willing to fairly compensate you for it but if you're not willing to sell, I'm more than happy to make you vanish and forge your name on the documents of sale," Myst explained.

Martin stared at Myst. "Are you insane?"

"No, I've just worked in food service," Myst replied sarcastically as he used Projection to temporarily soundproof the room so no one would hear the man's screams or cries for help. "One of the owners was a piece of shit human that wanted to extract everything they could from the place and didn't really see their employees as people, sound familiar?"

"I'll go to the police," Martin blurted then went pale as he realized that was probably a bad idea.

"Fair enough," Myst replied as he used his telepathy to riffle through the man's mind for secrets and for his accounting details. He scowled as he skimmed over the man's various moral failings and crimes. "I could mention the various girls you offered promotions to if they slept with you with no intention of helping them but at this point, I don't really care."

"Get out," Martin demanded nervously, certain the man was insane and dangerously well informed.

"No," Myst replied as he dark orbed Martin's keys and wallet to the desk then lifted him into the air with telekinesis.

"What the hell! Help!" Martin shouted, realizing that the guy wasn't just insane.

"Killing you would be a kindness, I'm not feeling particularly kind," Myst admitted. "Hear my words, never shall you be believed, you will walk through life alone. Any fortune you find shall turn to misfortune, any harm you do shall be returned three fold," he chanted as he pushed his magic into the curse.

"I'll sell!" Martin sputtered.

Myst opened a portal to an empty cell in a South American insane asylum in an alternate world and tossed him through. "Asshole," he muttered as he shapechanged to take the man's appearance. He smiled at the man that was staring at him in horrified disbelief then closed the portal. "It's hard to count as a villain when you keep running into complete assholes," he grumbled as he walked over to look at the books. 'At least the owner of the Industrial Zone didn't have a problem with selling it for a decent price.'

0o0o0

Phoebe Halliwell opened her door and smiled at the handsome delivery man standing at her door holding a bottle shaped package. "Can I help you?"

"That depends, are you Phoebe Halliwell?" the man asked with a smile, appreciating the fact that the attractive nineteen year old was only wearing shorts and a thin t-shirt.

"That's me, who sent it?" Phoebe asked, not sure why someone would be sending her a package.

"The note just says Piper," the man replied as he handed her the package.

"Thanks," Phoebe replied.

"Have a good day," the man replied with a smile as he turned and left, vanishing once she closed the door on him.

Phoebe glanced at the tag in her sister's handwriting then ripped the plain brown wrapping off and examined the glass bottle and the note on the neck. "Open me? It's probably spices," she muttered as she opened the bottle. She promptly dropped it when a sparkling purple mist spiraled out of the bottle and formed into a handsome man wearing white cargo pants and a black and purple jester's cap. "What the fuck?" she sputtered.

"Seriously? Have you never seen Aladdin?" Myst's duplicate asked with amusement.

"You're a genie?" Phoebe asked in disbelief, wondering if she'd fallen asleep or hit her head.

"Ding!" Myst teased. "How would you like fantastic magic and power beyond belief?"

"What's the price?" Phoebe asked suspiciously.

"That depends entirely on which powers you want," Myst replied as he glanced around Phoebe's dorm.

"I'm not selling my soul," Phoebe stated firmly.

Myst laughed as he turned to look at Phoebe. "I don't trade in souls."

"What do you trade in?" Phoebe asked warily.

"Generally speaking, favors," Myst replied as he conjured a folding director's chair and sat down.

Phoebe glanced at the bottle lying on the floor. "I thought genies were supposed to grant wishes."

Myst shook his head. "Typically but I'm a free genie which means if you want magic, you'll have to trade favors."

"Such as?" Phoebe asked, figuring it wouldn't hurt to ask.

"Anything from stripping and doing a funny dance to stealing a book from an attic," Myst replied with a smile.

"What's so special about the book?" Phoebe asked, wondering why the genie wanted her to steal something when he should be able to just snap his fingers and grab it.

"It's a book of spells and has protections on it that make it problematic for a supernatural creature to take it out of the attic," Myst explained.

"What would you give me for stripping?" Phoebe asked, fairly sure helping the genie grab the book was a bad idea.

"How about Flight or extra durability?" Myst offered.

"Flight," Phoebe replied without hesitation.

Myst used his Kingmaker ability to give her Flight then used his Skill Management ability to give her the basics on how to fly. "Just to prove that I can give you powers, feel free to take it for a test drive or flight in this case."

Phoebe floated off the ground a couple of inches then started giggling when she realized she was flying and that the stranger with the stupid hat could actually give her magic. "This is soo cool."

"It really is," Myst agreed with a smile, trying not to laugh as she floated around her room, enjoying the delight he could feel flowing out of the witch thanks to his stolen Empathy power.

Phoebe enjoyed floating around for another minute then floated back over to her desk and sat down. "If magic is real, why doesn't everyone know about it?"

"Because it's a secret," Myst replied with amusement.

Phoebe frowned as she tried to come up with reasons to hide it. "Obviously, why?"

"I'm assuming the "Good" side wanted to give humanity a chance to grow and to keep the various magical creatures and beings from being exploited. As for the "Evil" side, it's a lot easier to get people to sell their souls when they think it doesn't matter," Myst offered.

"That makes a disturbing amount of sense," Phoebe admitted. "Does that mean I'm going to have to fight monsters?"

Myst considered lying then shrugged. "Now and then but that was already in the cards."

"Already in the cards?" Phoebe asked warily.

"I didn't pull your name out of a hat," Myst admitted. "You're a witch or at least you could be if your powers weren't bound. You have an interesting family history."

"You're saying my family has magic?" Phoebe asked with a raised eyebrow. "Does that mean Prue and Piper have magic?"

"Prue has telekinesis like your grandmother and Piper the ability to freeze things like your mother," Myst replied with a grin as he conjured an image of Prue and Piper playing with their magic as children. "Or at least they would if your grandmother hadn't bound your powers and used magic to erase your knowledge of the supernatural."

"Why would she do that?" Phoebe asked, more than a little disturbed that her grandmother had erased part of her memory.

"Because life isn't fair and demon hunting isn't for the faint of heart. Your mother ran into a warlock she couldn't kill while pregnant with you, rather than risk your life she tricked him into accepting a deal, she'd bless a ring so that he'd be immune to her daughter's powers if he let her live," Myst explained.

"Let me guess, she was hoping Grams could kill him before it mattered?" Phoebe asked.

"Yeah, except he vanished to the wind when he realized your grandmother had bound your powers and was looking for him," Myst replied with a smile. "She's a bit terrifying when she wants to be."

"She can be a bit intense," Phoebe agreed. "What power should I have?"

"You'd get visions of the future which let you save innocent people," Myst said, not seeing a point in explaining the rest of the powers she'd end up over the years as she might change her mind about accepting powers.

"Story of my life," Phoebe muttered. "Prue gets an active power and I get to see the future?"

"As I said, life isn't fair but I'm willing to give you powers in exchange for favors," Myst offered.

Phoebe reached down and pulled off her shirt, showing off her breasts. "What would you give me for stealing the book?"

"How about invisibility so you can enjoy your flight power without causing trouble?" Myst asked as he checked Phoebe's breasts out.

Phoebe tossed her shirt on her bed. "What are you planning on doing with it?"

"Does it matter?" Myst asked.

"Of course it matters," Phoebe replied as she reached down and slipped her thumbs beneath her waistband. "Is the owner evil?"

"No, they're just cranky," Myst replied with a grin as Phoebe pulled her shorts down, letting them fall to the ground and revealing the fact that she wasn't wearing anything under her shorts.

"Are you going to give the book back?" Phoebe asked.

Myst shook her head. "Give? Nope, trade? Of course. I'm just planning on copying some of the protections on the book and some of the spells and potion recipes."

Phoebe sighed. "Fine. What else can I talk you out of?"

"That depends, what are you offering?" Myst asked, curious what she'd trade for power.

"I have sex toys and I'm willing to help with a couple of projects as long as you're not asking me to hurt people," Phoebe offered.

"What about bad people?" Myst asked, fairly sure there was some wiggle room on that particular requirement given the first couple of seasons when Phoebe was still trying to find her feet.

"I'm sure we can come to an agreement," Phoebe assured him, looking forward to picking up more magic.