Myst and the Magic Shop Part 8 (Patreon)

“Come to papa,” Myst said as he picked up the golden ring from the small pile of magical items and slipped it onto his finger.

“Shouldn’t that be mama?” the old wizard asked.

Myst’s form shifted, breasts shrinking into a broad chest as he gained a foot in height and his shoulders broadened, femine features giving way to a mascline grin as there was a sound of tearing cloth. “Not anymore,” he said with a pleased grin, momentarily surprised by how deep his voice was.

“Going to need a change of clothes,” Kara said, remembering when Clark’s exposure to pink kryptonite had worn off with a similar effect some years past.

“I should have some simple clothes that should fit,” the old man offered. “I was trying to find a way to make them similar to a chameleon cloak, but all it did was make them softer and more comfortable. I treat all my clothes that way these days,” he said with a smile.

The old man led him into the backroom.

Lena turned to Kara. “You look good as a man,” she teased.

“As you well know,” Kara replied with a smirk.

“Too bad pink kryptonite only works once,” Lena said, with an expression on her face that would have been a pout on anyone but a Luthor.

“And magic works all the time,” the kryptonian pointed out.

“That is a very good point,” Lena said thoughtfully. “It’d also come in handy for going undercover or just avoiding the paparazzi.”

“We'll have to see what they have available, sex change is just the tip of the iceburg when it comes to disguises,” Kara said.

“I was mainly thinking of the recreational uses,” Lena admitted, “the actual day to day uses are just a bonus. Plus Caren Kent was so much fun to play with. Who knew Clark would have such large breasts as a woman?”

Kara giggled.

“You're right, these are comfortable,” Myst said as he came out of the backroom in a simple black robe and brown leather boots.

“The reagents are a bit pricey, but at my age I’m willing to spend a little more on comfort,” he said, before rejoining Lena at the piece of slate they were scribbling formulas on.

Myst stood the magical mirror up so he could get a good look at himself. He really had no idea what a male Kara would look like, much less a male version of Power Girl or Galatea, whichever one applied in this case.

Myst stared as the magically delayed mirror changed, showing his transformation from teenage sex goddess to viking god. 'Screw movie star, viking god? To hell with historical accuracy, I'll take it.'

"How are you doing?" Kara asked as she checked out her twin/brother, wondering if she could get a copy of the ring to have some fun with.

"Good," Myst replied after a couple of seconds. "I should be annoyed that I don't look like I used to but I look like a viking god or at least Hollywood's version of a viking god a lot more than I used to. I'll just have to get used to seeing a stranger in the mirror."

"Give it time," Lena suggested.

"Shouldn't it have been worse as a girl?" Kara asked.

"It's actually less of a problem as a girl," Myst admitted, knowing that probably sounded weird.

"As in you're used to being a girl?" Kara asked.

Myst shook his head. "No, there was just less of a disconnect. I know that I'm supposed to look like you in that form and I get distracted by having breasts, I was half expecting to look like myself when I changed back. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't even close to this attractive when I was younger but that doesn't change the fact that it's going to take time to adjust. I might have to do something about the blond hair, I haven't been blond in thirty years."

"Your hair changed colors?" Kara asked.

"Yeah, it started blond and went to a dark brown as I grew up," Myst replied.

"Speaking of growing up, should we find Clark and the boys?" Lena asked, wondering where they'd wandered off to.

Kara glanced towards the park where they were getting rid of the worst of the dirt from their adventure. "They're almost done cleaning up in the river."

"Good, I want to pick Lewis' brain about some of these equations," Lena said, fairly sure her son would be interested in the math.

"At least we figured out that Myst could open and close portals so we don't have to leave someone to guard them," Kara teased.

"I apologized," Myst replied, making a mental note to ask Clark about some of Kara's attempts to learn how to use her powers.

"What did you end up doing?" Lena asked.

Kara smiled at Lena. "I filled in some details about the ship and she shared some stories about Alura's trials."

"Alura?" Myst asked. "Trials?"

"Lena and my daughter, we used a gestation pod in the fortress. Themyscira has something like the junior olympics," Kara explained.

"If you're an alien mad scientist, you might as well own it," Myst said.

Kara shook her head. "We didn't have mad scientists, we had mad super scientists."

"You can't just add super to everything, don't be Clark, super car wash, super dishwashing," Lena joked, knowing he wasn't actually that bad and just liked to joke about things.

"I don't know, the super vacuuming was fun," Kara mused. "But no, super mad science was appropriate, we lost a moon because someone decided to blast it with a laser."

"Laser?" Myst asked in surprise.

"Fairly sure it was a particle beam," Kara replied. "That actually makes sense compared to the device to turn beavers into gold."

"How did you have beavers on Krypton?" Myst asked.

"No clue, I'm guessing someone stole them from Earth and they jumped ship, they get everywhere," she replied, only half joking.

"You can turn animals into gold?" the wizard piped up, reminding everyone that he was there.

Kara turned to look at the wizard. "I can't, some of the inventors on my world could."

"Tinker gnomes," the wizard muttered.

"Close enough," Myst replied, fairly sure the gnomes were less effective, mostly because the Kryptonians' insane inventions usually worked, for better or worse.

0o0o0

"Any idea if the crocodiles are a protected species?" Lewis asked as he picked up his crossbow, having noticed the large animals swimming towards them and the rest of the people getting out of the water.

"I don't see any collars," Clark said as he backed away from the edge of the river, not wanting to provoke them.

"Are we just going to let them run into town?" Connor asked.

"Run!" one of the women that had been washing clothes said as she ran past them.

“I think I can take them out with my crossbow,” a small man in dark leathers volunteered with a grin.

His larger friend wearing a chainmail tabard shook his head. “The answer to everything isn’t to shoot it with a crossbow.”

“True, but it could very well be the answer to this one,” he argued back.

“You need to stop shooting everything that moves,” the fighter said. “You shot me in the ass while you were on watch when I was trying to water the bushes.”

“Listen, your ass is so white it screwed up my night vision and I thought it was a torch!” the thief claimed.

“Well, for once I’ll admit it isn’t hit it with a fireball,” the older man with the long beard said.

“Why? Because we’re not close enough to what you’re planning on blowing up?” the small man said sourly.

“That and they’re in the river, it provides some decent protection from a fireball,” the wizard said.

“Glad to see TSR hasn’t lied to us,” Lewis said quietly, trying not to laugh.

'This would be easier if we spoke the same language.' Clark picked up a rock and lobbed it at the largest crocodile, hitting it on the snout and causing it to reevaluate its current plans and taking the smaller ones with it. "Or we just do that," he said, wondering if he could pick up something enchanted with speak with animals on it.

"We could have wrestled them and hauled them somewhere," Connor pointed out, annoyed that he didn't get a chance to wrestle the crocodiles because it sounded awesome.

"Better than shooting them," Lewis said, wanting nothing to do with wrestling crocodiles.

"You'll get over it," Clark said, having wrestled more crocodiles than he could count over the years, occasionally because of mad scientists but mostly just because people got too close or they'd wandered somewhere with children.

"Be happy, we got to shoot rats of unusual size," Lewis said with a grin.

"What's weird about giant rats?" Connor asked, not getting the joke.

"We're going to have to have a movie day," Lewis said thoughtfully, reminding himself that Connor's education had some large gaps.

Clark picked up his basket of freshly cleaned loot and started walking back towards the shop. "Let's go, it's getting late."

"Right," Lewis agreed, looking forward to seeing what type of notes his mother had picked up.

0o0o0

"Shit!" Serling cursed as an off white van screeched to a stop between her and the Lena corp building where she was trying to get and four armed thugs with ski masks jumped out of the side door carrying weapons that looked suspiciously like alien blasters.

"Stop running!" the mercenary snapped, glaring at the annoying girl wearing an offensively bright neon pink skirt, bright purple converse shoes, one neon blue sock and an eye watering green sock, a faded ghostbusters t-shirt and a tie dyed denim jacket. "Our boss just wants to talk…" he trailed off as he saw a black Porsche racing towards him with someone holding an arm out of the passenger side window. "Take care of it-" he cut off and tossed himself forward when the arm transformed into some type of alien blaster and sent a ball of crackling plasma at the van.

Serling jumped back and covered her face when the ball of plasma hit the side of the van and burned a hole through the engine block. "Help!"

Lex hit the brakes and slid the car sideways between the teenage girl and the thugs, ignoring the slight bump that was probably someone's arm. He turned the key off as Mercy opened the door and slipped out of the car. 'Someone didn't do their research,' he mused as he watched the one sided fight between the mercenaries and Mercy as she knocked them unconscious or shocked them into submission with her shock glove. He opened the door and stepped out of his car as Mercy finished subduing the thugs. "You seem to have run into a bit of trouble."

"Thanks!" Serling offered as she looked at the handsome looking man in his mid thirties with a shaved head that was wearing black slacks and a white dress shirt, easily recognizing him from various interviews he'd given over the years. "Lex Luthor?"

"The one and only," Lex replied with a smile, keeping part of his attention on the five heavily armed guards that were already rushing towards them from the tower. "Any reason you managed to attract the attention of a group of thugs that were stupid enough to show up at my sister's company?"

"I used to work for Cadmus, I was hoping to get an interview and a job," Serling admitted, less than happy with her former employers for not getting the proper permits and for using questionable and shoddy methods that she'd had included a fix for in her reports.

Lex tossed the idea that she was an intern, mostly because they'd have more sense than to show up for a job interview in street clothes. "Specialty?"

"I have a doctorate in genetics, chemistry, and a masters in physics with a minor in robotics," Serling replied.

"A minor?" Lex asked with a grin.

"I like playing with robots," Serling admitted.

"I can't say I blame you," Lex replied as the security guards arrived.

"Lex," one of the guards offered as he walked over. "Do we need to call the police or the FBI?"

"FBI," Mercy said as she finished hog tying the last of the mercenaries. "I recognize this asshole, he's wanted in seven countries for murder."

Lex pulled his cellphone out of his pocket when it started playing The Imperial March and hit the talk button as he brought it to his ear. "Lena."

"What happened?" Lena asked as she looked down from the balcony at the burning van and the familiar porsche in the parking lot.

"A couple of mercenaries decided to capture a scientist, Mercy objected," Lex replied.

"One of mine?" Lena asked, her voice going cold.

"No, they're applying for a job. She has a doctorate in genetics, chemistry, and a masters in physics as well as a minor in robotics," Lex replied, planning on offering the girl a job if his sister didn't snatch her up.

"What's her name?" Lena asked.

"Name?" Lex asked Serling.

"Serling Roulette," Serling replied.

"Bring her up to the conference room," Lena replied, recognizing the young woman's name from her research into potential employees.

"See you in a few," Lex replied then ended the call. He turned to look at the security guards. "Do you need anything else?"

"No sir," the second most senior guard replied as the person in charge was already talking to someone about having the mercenaries collected.

Mercy smiled as she collected the alien weapons and stuck them in the back of the porsche.

One of the guards frowned at Mercy. "Aren't those evidence?"

One of the other guards reached over and gently bopped the rookie on the head. "Not sure what you're talking about, they had guns, we secured the guns."

"Ah, right," the rookie replied.

"With the frequency Star Labs gets broken into, we're doing them a favor," the other guard assured him.

"Pleasure doing business with you," Lex told the guard then turned to look at the scientist. "Shall we?"

"Yes," Serling replied, looking forward to being somewhere safe.

"Park the car and catch up," Lex told Mercy.

"On it," Mercy replied as she closed the trunk then walked over to the driver's side door as Lex turned and walked towards the building.

The rookie watched Lex leave with the young woman. "That's it?"

"Basically," the more experienced guard replied, not seeing a point in explaining that they'd probably get a nice Christmas bonus out of the deal if the research on the weapons turned a profit. "Mr Luthor's company has the permits to handle the weapons and our geeks will probably get schematics for a new battery in a couple of months or some type of crystal tech or power generation method."

"We should probably check to make sure they don't have some method of transporting out of here," the rookie suggested after a couple of seconds of thought.

"Excellent suggestion," the captain agreed after ending the call with the local branch of the FBI. "We've got at least half an hour before the feds get here."

0o0o0

Myst's first impression of Lex, as the thirty something year old man walked into the dining room, was that he looked a lot like the actor from the Smallville series, his second was that this version had a spring to his steps that he wouldn't have expected from a character that was usually depicted as calm and collected when he wasn't ranting about kryptonians or gloating over their impending demise.

"Lewis and Clark," Lex said with a grin as he walked over to where Clark was leaning against the table.

"Uncle Lex," Lewis replied with a bright smile as he closed the folder with his notes on magic.

"Lex," Clark greeted him with a welcoming smile.

"Perfect timing as usual," Lena offered.

"Helena had a poker game in the area, it gave me a chance to pick up the Porsche and meet Connor and Myst," he explained as he glanced between Connor and Myst. "I thought Myst was a girl."

"I was," Myst replied as he focused on his ring and swapped back to his female form, his robe shrinking to fit.

"Pink kryptonite?" Lex asked thoughtfully.

"Magic," Myst replied with a grin.

"Nice trick," Lex admitted, making a note to ask her about it later, as he could see several ways Mercy and himself could make use of it for security purposes.

"Any idea who the mercenaries were working for?" Lena asked.

Lex considered the question for a couple of seconds. "Considering they knew her name and who the mercenaries were, I'm guessing someone wanted her talent or someone in an off the books government project wanted to make sure she didn't share secrets."

"How much do you know about Cadmus?" Clark asked.

"A bit more than most people, less than I should considering their recent activities," Lex admitted. "I looked into them a couple of years ago when they underbid a contract that I wanted."

"Bitter?" Lena asked.

"Not particularly, I just ran the numbers and I couldn't figure out how they could afford to do the work at the price they were offering. Just making sure everything was insured and adequate safety protocols were in place would have eaten up half the budget, never mind paying the scientists anything close to a reasonable wage and that's without looking at the cost of specialized lab equipment and bribes," Lex admitted.

"You've taken losses before on the promise of future profit," Lena pointed out.

"It also came with the requirement of working with a particular scientist, I might joke about you being a mad scientist but you can explain your inventions, the 'scientist' in question makes leaps of intuition that often result in horrifying, if interesting results."

"Ethical concerns?" Myst asked, a touch surprised.

"And safety concerns," Lex admitted. "In the unlikely event that I'd work with someone that unstable, I'd want to use a shell company and I'd put the lab in the middle of Nevada and use remote controlled waldos, so I could just blow the lab if something went wrong."

Lewis nodded. "All of which would run into budget concerns."

"Basically," Lex agreed.

"Where does that leave us?" Connor asked.

"You're family. At least Superman is already married to Wonderwoman, that saves me from having to propose to make an honest man out of him," Lex mused, watching Clark's expression out of the corner of his eye.

"For the best," Clark replied, knowing the newspapers would run the story into the ground if Lex did it publicly, and he would.

"Joking aside, have you figured out why they decided to use your DNA?" Myst asked Lex.

"Not a clue, someone killed the head researcher on the project," Lex pointed out as he looked at Myst.

"I could probably find a necromancer," Myst mused, only half joking.

Lex shook his head. "It wouldn't stand up in court."

"Not to mention the ethical issues," Clark pointed out.

"Speaking of ethics, do you want me to make some calls and check on Serling?" Lex asked Lena, wanting to make sure the scientist wasn't a deranged lunatic.

"I'd appreciate it," Lena said, knowing that her brother had better investigators.

"I'll make some calls when I get a chance," Lex replied as he looked at the folder in front of Lewis and the notes with strange equations in front of Lena. "What are you working on?"

"Alchemy," Lena admitted. "We acquired some alchemy and enchanting notes from a trustworthy source and I noticed some patterns and wanted to see if the results could be improved by applying modern scientific practices."

"Any luck?" Lex asked thoughtfully.

"Enough that I'm willing to run some tests and start a project," Lena said as she handed her brother a partial list of the potions and enchanted magical items that Myst could make that she thought he'd be interested in acquiring.

Lex looked over the list then pulled out a pen. "Can I write on this?"

"It's just a copy," Lena replied with a grin.

Lex set the list on the table and started making notes on how much some of the magical items would save the company. "Do you need an investor?"

"I'll let you know," Lena replied with a grin.

"Fair," Lex admitted as he continued taking notes, his mind jumping to ideas that he'd shelved because of safety concerns and cost that he could probably revisit.

0o0o0

"Why did you join Cadmus?" Kara asked the brightly colored scientist.

"They offered to cover my student loans and they were doing cutting edge genetic research," Serling replied.

"What did you end up working on?" Kara asked, not surprised that she'd agreed to sign with the company that had agreed to pay off her student loans.

"I was trying to fix their glitchy cloning process so we could mass produce fish that generated an unreasonable amount of electricity because of reasons I'm not sure I can talk about. I can't actually tell you the details until I finish discussing things with my lawyer, but the supervisor didn't accept my corrections to the process, so I can probably share all of the fixes I developed for their process," Serling said thoughtfully.

"Okay, hypothetical, you develop something that could be labeled as a weather dominator. Do you A: sell it to the government, B: use it to end California’s drought or C: Take the tristate area hostage and demand twenty billion dollars?”

“Aren’t you supposed to ask things like ‘what would I do if someone stole a pencil from the company?”

“Not with what we work with,” Kara replied. “We had one intern that stole the expresso machine every Tuesday Morning when a replacement arrived so she could sell it on Ebay. None of us even raised an eyebrow. Petty theft and little amusing quirks are expected in our profession. In fact, that intern now has a permanent position with the company.”

“And a warehouse full of expresso machines?” Serling asked, surprised they'd put up with it.

“No she does quite well selling them on Ebay, after she makes a few modifications of course,” Kara said cheerfully. “I’ve bought one from her myself, makes a full sized cup in under thirty seconds, she really is a marvel.”

“Okay,” Serling said with a slow nod, thinking that was a lot less dangerous than the things Cadmus’ scientists did off the books with or without approval. "Hypothetically, that depends on who owns the machine, if I designed it, B sounds good, otherwise, that's above my pay grade."

"Good answer," Kara admitted. "D also works, consult with your supervisor. Another hypothetical, you've created a fantastic device and your supervisor refuses to acknowledge your genius. Do you A: take the machine, put on a costume and rob the third national bank to prove your genius. B: Go over his head and show his boss your invention to get their opinion. C: Use your supervisor for a test subject since a plebian like him is of little use to society except as a test subject."

"You really like the B, don't you?" Serling asked. "B seems the only reasonable answer."

"Mostly I was just trying to figure out if you'd fit better here or in my brother in law's company," Kara mused.

"What?" Serling asked, confused.

"Next question," Kara said cheerfully, ignoring her question, having a good feeling about her.