Mist SI Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Mist scowled as he looked around the industrial city that had an almost palatable aura of despair. The worst part of being a telepath was he could sense the fear, distrust and misery of the entire world or at least it felt like it before he clamped down on his senses. “We’re on Delmak, the goa’uld in charge is Sokar. We should probably kill him before we leave.”

Ranma glanced over at Hermione and Tiffany who were standing next to Aisha, Amy, Amelia, Victoria and Harry. “Do you want me to drop him into space or do you want to deal with it?”

“Normally I’d say drop him in another dimension so he could fight against himself but I’d rather not duplicate someone else’s problem and he makes other goa’uld look like happy puppies. I’ll deal with him.”

Tiffany swapped the power she was granting Mist to an x-ray vision type power. “X-ray vision for the win.”

“I’ll be right back.” Mist pulled his pocket watch out of his inventory then pushed the button. He scanned the palace until he found the throne room then teleported in front of the throne. He teleported Sokar’s kara’kesh off his hand then stuck it in his inventory to examine later. He used his x-ray vision to look at the goa’uld. ‘Creepy thing.’  

He cast a mana shield then stuck his hand in his pocket with his watch and unpaused time. “Greetings Sokar, Lord of Shit and Fire.”

Sokar raised his hand and stared in shock as he realized that his kara kesh was missing. “Kill him!”

Mist ignored the blasts from the staff weapons that his mana shield was absorbing as he glared at Sokar. “I Mist, God of Magic claim your realm!” He used his teleport power to teleport the man’s symbiote into his head killing both of them instantly. “Your god is dead, kneel before me!” He sighed as the various staff blasts continued. “Seriously?” He scowled as the staff blasts were ‘slowly’ eating through his mana pool. He gestured at the Jaffa and teleported their weapons to his feet. “Surrender and live…” He trailed off as several of the Jaffa charged him. He teleported several of the charging Jaffa into each other which turned them into twisted messes. “What part of I’m a god don’t you understand!”

Mist raised his hands and sent several lightning bolts into the armored warriors that were charging him. He turned to look at the Jaffa in the corner that was standing there rather calmly. “Are you going to charge me?”

The Jaffa asked, “Would it do any good? You’ve proven that you’re more powerful than my previous god.”

Mist reached out and scanned the Jaffa’s mind and realized that he was just being practical and didn’t have any real loyalty to the mad man that had been his god. “Excellent. I want everyone in the palace notified of the change in command.”

The Jaffa gestured at one of the dead men on the ground. “He was Sokar’s First Prime, do you have a replacement in mind?”

“You’ll do for now. Did any of the dead have any useful technical skills?”

The Jaffa winced as he pointed to one of the Jaffa. “Him, shall I have him brought back?”

Mist pointed at the man in question and used revive which brought the man in question back to life. “No need.”

The Jaffa stared in shock at Mist. He’d never seen Sokar bring someone back to life before without using the Sarcophagus. ”Of course.”

Mist glared at the man he’d brought back. “I brought you back from the dead, I can return you there if I feel like it.”

The man gulped. “I live to serve.”

Mist glanced between the two Jaffa. “Excellent, I want a nice orderly takeover, understand?”

Mist’s new First Prime nodded. “Some of Sokar’s jaffa will likely challenge your position.”

“Then they’ll die. Send some people to clean the mess up.”

“Do you want them revived and sent to Netu?”

Mist frowned as he thought about the prison world. “No, they served Sokar. Speaking of the prison, I’ll need to see Bynarr about his management of the prison. Tell him that if I have to come looking for him, I’ll be most displeased.”

“Yes.” The First Prime nodded then left taking the tech with him.

Mist sighed as he watched the Jaffa leave. ‘This is going to be a mess.’ He pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and dialed Hermione’s number. 

“How did it go?” Hermione asked.

“Sokar is dead, I told one of the Jaffa to tell the rest of the Jaffa in the palace that it’s under new management. I wouldn’t mind taking one of his capital ships as a test run for stealing Atlantis but I don’t know enough about the ship nor do we have enough crew yet. We might be able to find some loyal Jaffa if we sort through the Netu but right now, I’m half expecting every Jaffa I see to shoot me with a staff weapon.”

“Like a staff weapon would do anything. Should we come to the palace or try to get some information?”

Mist frowned slightly as he thought about the number of assassination attempts that he’d probably have to deal with over the next couple of hours or days. ”You might as well do some information gathering before our faces are known. I have a feeling a bunch of Jaffa loyal to Sokar are going to try to kill me before the end of the day and I’m a lot more durable than the rest of you.”

“You’re also rather important and if you die, the chain breaks,” Hermione replied.

“I know, which is why I’m going to create an avatar to deal with sorting out the mess Sokar’s death is going to cause,” Mist replied as he created an avatar that was about 50% as strong as he was. He doubted the jaffa had anything that could scratch his avatar but if they did, he’d rather them kill his avatar than have them kill him. He created a small piece of crystal then duplicated the kara’kesh and tossed the duplicate to his avatar. “Best of luck.”

Mist’s avatar caught the kara’kesh then flipped him off. “Best of luck with Atlantis.”

“Thanks. See you in a minute Hermione.” Mist closed his phone, stuck it back in his pocket then teleported back to the group. “Boo.”

Aisha jumped slightly. “You enjoy that, don’t you?”

“Yep,” Mist replied with amusement.

Hermione asked, “Do you still want to gather information?”

“For a couple of hours then I want to open a door to Atlantis.”

“How are you planning on operating the ship considering you don’t have the ancient gene?”

“I was planning on using technopathy and dragon break. If my technopathy ability doesn’t work then we’ll go recruit Shepard or Jack. I’d rather avoid telling Jack about Atlantis until we have it repaired but either way, we’ll figure out something.”

Victoria asked, “How are we going to fix things here?”

Mist shrugged. “No idea, the planet is industrial which probably means it can make at least some advanced goa’uld technology. I’m planning on sorting through the prisoners to see how many of them can be released. Beyond that, we’re going to need to sit down and figure out how to deal with the goa’uld on a grand scale.” He also wanted to make Kinsley vanish before he became a problem but he wouldn’t be especially troublesome for a couple more months or years. “Riley and I should be able to figure out a way to deal with the wraith with a virus or a cure so that their young never lose the ability to eat normal food rather than drain people’s life. Amy, Selena or Amelia should be able to help the Asgard. We have a year, we should be able to make the dimension a better place.”

Ranma said, “In that case, let’s look around a bit then jump to Atlantis.”

0o0o0

Mist was rather glad that the nature of the shields meant that the air wasn’t pressurized otherwise going from the bottom of the ocean to the surface in less than five minutes would have resulted in some rather horrific side effects in most of the group. He was also rather happy that his technopathy ability worked on the ship considering he really hadn’t wanted to have to abandon Atlantis. He turned his attention to Hermione. “Now that we have the ship above the water, we should probably look at putting up the fidelius, are you up for it?” 

Hermione smiled as she thought about the sheer number of problems hiding the ship would have solved. “We might have to do it in sections but it shouldn’t be an issue.”

Leet spoke up, “Do you have a translation guide anywhere?”

Mist frowned slightly as he thought about the problem of learning the language so that they could run the ship. “No but I know where to find a sleeping ancient that could use a cure disease potion before someone else wakes her up and kills her.”

Harry asked, “The woman in Antarctica?”

“Yeah, I’d rather have at least one Ancient that isn’t completely nuts working for us. We’re also going to need to work on repairing the flooded sections.”

“Do you think the ascension device would work on the magic girl minions?” Leet asked.

Mist frowned slightly. “I’m not sure. I’d rather not test the device on my minions unless I have my dragon break ability running and I’d rather wait at least a couple of days before I use it again.”

Riley asked, “How soon can we go after a wraith ship seed?”

“Same thing with Leet’s idea, I’m not playing with those until I can use my dragon break ability. Besides, before I start capturing wraith, I want Atlantis well hidden. I also want to sneak in and steal a copy of the drug that makes it so wraith can’t feed on a person and see if we can modify it to be less deadly or at least figure out a test to find out if it will kill the user.”

Riley frowned. “It should be child’s play to whip up a better version of the drug or at least a test for it if you can get a copy of the drug.”

“Either way, let’s get the city cleaned up and hidden, then we can worry about exploring,” Hermione suggested.

Mist looked at Aisha and Victoria. “I don’t suppose you want to rewatch Atlantis or at least flip through the various episodes to see if you can get the gate addresses for any interesting worlds?”

Victoria asked, “Define interesting?”

“The world with the children, I want to send a telepath there to convince them to banish the people when they hit 24 rather than kill them in some horrific ceremony. It would normally be a ways down the list but I want to figure out how to duplicate the tech dampening field so that we can set traps for the wraith when they show up in various worlds.”

“That sounds better than cleaning,” Amy admitted.

Hermione looked at Harry. “Let’s go hide a city.”

“Sure.” Harry was looking forward to flying around in space which probably wouldn’t happen until they could jury rig the puddle jumpers so that they didn’t need the ancient gene to fly. Either that or they’d have to see if Amelia could give them the gene without screwing something up. 

Mist looked over at Uber as Hermione and Harry headed out of the control room. “See if your power helps with learning languages.”

“It does,” Uber admitted as he headed over to study the writing on the controls.

“Good, that should give us a place to start.” Mist had a feeling things weren’t going to go nearly as well as they would like but he wanted to try to improve things for at least one version of reality.

0o0o0

Mist was rather happy that you didn’t have to actually understand how something worked to repair it with magic or at least not the reparo charm. That saved them weeks or even months of work over the next couple of days as they could just hit faulty components with reparo then move on to the next damaged component. The power issue was solved by stealing a decent number of ZPMS from the Asurans via a door and Mist’s power to be completely invisible to technology.

Sadly it quickly became evident that they were going to have a hell of a time dealing with everything they needed to deal with in a reasonable timeframe unless they recruited some help because they didn’t have the proper skills or enough crew. Mist sighed as he listened to his friends discuss the various projects they were working on. “Does anyone object to grabbing some help?”

Hermione asked, “Where are we going to find competent help? The scientists at Stargate Command have barely begun to scratch the surface of alien technology and the Asurans are more than a little warped by their programmed hatred for the Wraith.”

“Ranma’s ability lets him open a portal to alternate worlds. If we jump to an alternate Atlantis and steal a time ship, we can go forward in time and recruit a version of Samantha Carter, Jack O’Neill and maybe even the Atlantis team.”

Lily shook her head. “I can’t see them abandoning their home dimension.”

“I can if it sucks. There are hundreds of points in the show where something could have went drastically wrong. If we find a world where the Earth was destroyed or something else horrible happened, we can probably recruit them. Either that or we can head to a dimension where things went right and trade something for the right to copy them, like say mushrooms that reduce them back to young adults?”

Noelle nodded. “That could work.”

“Who are you going to recruit?” Lily asked.

Mist smirked. “The best of the best, Jackson, Teal’c, Carter, O’Neill, McKay, Zelenka, Beckett, Sheppard, Teyla, Keller and Ronon Dex for starters. We’re going to need a base commander and it sure as hell isn’t going to be Weir. She really didn’t understand operational security or the point of using an alpha site or anything that would have kept people from figuring out how to dial Atlantis directly.”

“We’re going to need more people than that,” Harry pointed out.

“Probably but they’ll each know one or two others. I wouldn’t mind recruiting at least one Bra’tac to run things on Delmak considering he seemed rather sane in the show or at least the main version of him did. I wouldn’t mind a Selmak/Carter either or a Jolinar/Carter if we can find one. We’re dealing with an infinite collection of worlds, we should be able to find people that are willing to let Noelle copy them in exchange for something.”

Victoria asked, “What about Cascade failure?”

“We’re creating copies, they aren’t the same person,” Mist replied.

Noelle said, “You hope.”

“Pretty much,” Mist admitted.

“Even assuming we’re wrong and the copies are close enough to run into problems we should be able to send them elsewhere before it becomes fatal,” Ranma pointed out.

James spoke up, “It’s obvious that the show only included the highlights and only for SG1 or for the main group for Atlantis. We could try to figure out everything on our own but we’d be shorthanded and likely missing some critical skills that we wouldn’t even know we were missing. They did dozens of missions that were only barely covered on the show, missions that might be important for one reason or another.”

“We’d have to find a timeship and we’d need someone that can activate it which means Mist or something with the ancient gene,” Ranma pointed out.

“There should be hundreds or thousands of worlds with a timeship on Atlantis.”

Amelia said, “If we just steal it then anyone that ends up there won’t be able to escape Atlantis when they arrive and find the city half destroyed because the ZPMS failed.”

Mist glanced at Amelia. “They could if we swapped out their mostly dead ZPMs for a fresh one.”

Leet shook his head. “I’m not sure bringing a ZPM to an alternate world like that is a good idea considering what they are.”

Ranma turned to look at Leet. “That’s easy, we just have Mist steal one from that dimension’s Asura or we just open a portal to an Atlantis that is already mostly submerged that has a timeship. That way we aren’t risking people when they can’t find the timeship.”

“That would probably work better,” Mist admitted.

Ranma smiled. “In that case, let’s head outside and I’ll see what I can find.”

0o0o0

Mist frowned slightly as he looked through the open portal. “This place doesn’t look critically damaged.”

Ranma shrugged. “This part is still structurally sound. Another couple of years and it won’t be for various reasons. It has a timeship and you should be able to raise the city to the surface and leave a log for the Atlantis team.”

Tiffany asked, “Which jumper is the timeship?”

“The one right in front or at least I’m fairly sure.”

Mist scanned the various jumpers with ‘his’ x-ray vision power until he saw the ship with a weird machine in the cargo hold. “The one in front of us and a little off to the right.” He pointed at the ship with the time machine in it.

Tiffany reached out with telekinesis and picked up the puddle jumper that Mist was pointing at and floated it carefully through the portal then set it on the pier. “Do you want me to steal any more?”

“No, they might need them.” Mist used his technopathy power to cause the alternate city to return to the surface in ten seconds. “That should do it. It should be returning to the surface in five seconds.”

Ranma closed the door. “It would be nice if the jumper worked in other jumps.”

Leet frowned. “I might be able to figure something out, we’ll see.”

“Now what?” Abby asked.

“Now we pick a team, send everyone that isn’t on it back to the companion housing and fly through a portal then we jump through time to the future then Ranma picks a world and we see who we can recruit.”

Hermione said, “I’m still not sure we should be messing with time travel.”

“I’m not all that enthusiastic either. That’s why we’re going to open a portal, fly through it then time travel to the future so we can jump to alternate worlds and recruit people.”

Uber shook his head. “This is either going to be amazing or end with blood and tears.”

“That’s what makes it fun,” Mist admitted.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure nothing…” Aisha trailed off as Denis reached up and covered her mouth with his hand.

Danis shook his head. “Not happening.”

Mist laughed as he headed for the jumper to see if he could figure out how to jump forward in time. 

0o0o0

Mist frowned as he watched the Odyssey twist drastically and barely avoid a blast that should have by all rights cored the ship. He felt four of the minds on the ship change and grow from one instant to the next. “This plan sucks.”

Hermione snapped, “It was your plan.” as the Odyssey managed to destroy one of the Ori ships though it cost them their main gun. She knew how the timeline was supposed to go in this world thanks to Ranma’s power but now that they were here, all bets were off.

“And it sucks.” Mist reached out with his technopathy ability and activated the transporters on the surviving Ori ship so that everyone onboard was beamed into space making sure to send the Prior close to the jumper so that he could teleport the man’s head from his body and his staff to his hand. He put the staff into his inventory as he shut the weapons on the Ori ship down then activated his jumper’s communication systems. “The Ori ship has been dealt with, please don’t shoot it or us.”

General Landry’s voice came over the speakers, “Who the hell is this?”

Mist decloaked the puddle jumper. “We’re the cavalry, please don’t shoot.”

”You have some explaining to do.”

“I’ll be happy to explain if you give me permission to dock,” Mist replied hoping that the general would be reasonable. He waited until Hermione was looking out the window then teleported the Prior’s head to his hand then stuck it into his inventory so he could try to figure out how the Ori modified them and gave them enhanced abilities.

“Permission granted.” General Landry had no idea how they’d managed to disable the Ori ship but the Odyssey was heavily damaged and they might be able to help if another Ori ship showed up. Besides, they were sort of out of decent options as Daniel, Carter and Vala suddenly looked about fifty years older for some reason he didn’t understand.

“Understood.” Mist had the Ori ship send confirmation of being in the process of being destroyed then shut down the communication systems so the other Ori couldn’t track it. He doubted that would actually work for long but hopefully long enough to steal the ship. He piloted the ship toward the Odyssey. He reached out with his power and checked the Odyssey’s computer to figure out where he was supposed to land on the ship. “That went better than I was expecting.”

Hermione sighed. “If we lose the time machine, we’re sort of stuck.”

“We can always jump to a dimension that still has one then jump back in time before we jump back to our starting dimension.”

“I still think you’re crazy. We could have waited until they got back.”

Mist shook his head. “If we’d waited, the General would have died and the ship would have been crippled before they could have gotten away.”

Hermione frowned at the controls that Mist wasn’t using. “We should let Leet take a couple of Jumpers apart and fix the controls.”

Mist chuckled. “I’ll see what I can done when we have more time, I can probably replace the system with some magitek that requires magic to make it work.”

“Thanks…” Hermione trailed off as they went through the shield over the hanger. “If being in little more than a tin can in space wasn’t so terrifying, it could almost be fun.”

Mist said, “Relax, it’s not like our avatars dying is that big a deal.”

“It still hurts, a lot,” Hermione muttered the last bit.

“I don’t plan on dying.” He set the ship down and looked at Teal’c and Mitchell who had some type of firearm pointed at the ground in front of the ship. “Locking charm?”

“I already warded it, they should leave it alone.” Hermione replied as she headed for the exit. She didn’t want to apparate when there were trigger happy soldiers around.

Mist mentally opened the hatch and then followed Hermione out of the ship and closed it behind him.

Mitchell said, “Welcome to the Odyssey, you don’t look military and I don’t recognize you.”

“You wouldn’t, we’re from another dimension.”

“What about cascade failure?”

Mist shrugged. “We won’t be here long enough for that to be an issue. We want to talk to Carter, Jackson, Vala and Teal’c.”

Teal’c asked, “Why?”

“We have something that can restore their youth and we’d like to work out a trade.”

“What type of trade?” Mitchell asked suspiciously.

“Nothing unethical or anything that would hurt Earth or America.”

“You’re from Earth, aren’t you?”

“Another version of it, yeah,” Mist admitted.

Teal’c said, “I would be interested, what do you want?”

“I’d like to clone several people because my dimension is just starting their stargate project and could use the help.”

Mitchell sighed. “That sounds like something you should explain to the general.”

“Do you need help repairing the ship?” Hermione asked.

“You have the skills?”

“Not yet but I have near ascended powers that let me repair things. Just like my friend has powers over machines.” She was fairly sure that what he knew from having the mechanic background and from his magitek stuff might help but not enough and not fast enough to be helpful compared to just repairing things with magic.

“Which is how I disabled the Ori ship,” Mist admitted.

“You could do the same here, couldn’t you?” Mitchell asked warily.

“Just because I can doesn’t mean I’m going to.”

Teal’c nodded. “I believe Carter would be interested in the help.”

“Fine, I’ll take Mist to the General.” Mitchell turned and headed toward the hallway at a fast pace.

“Sounds good to me.” Mist followed him while Hermione followed Teal’c.

0o0o0

General Landry frowned as he looked at Mist. “You want to copy some of our best and brightest in exchange for what?”

“Youth, gold and the knowledge that you can help another world. What more do you want?” Mist asked curiously as he studied the current members of SG1 and the general.

“Some of your special abilities?” He asked sarcastically.

“I can do that,” Mist admitted.

“Seriously?” Mitchell blurted.

“Yeah, my friends can also fix your genetics so that you don’t have to worry about your mind falling apart in a few years. We’re trying to play this as fair as we can.”

“How do you know this isn’t a trick?” Carter asked.

Vala said, “Does it matter? We’ve got another ten or twenty years if we’re lucky. I’d be happy to trade a copy of myself for powers and youth… and some gold.”

Daniel frowned slightly as he considered Mist’s offer. He could understand wanting help, he probably would have done the same if he’d been faced with a massive number of enemies and very few trained people. “I’ll do it. I want to live long enough to share everything I know with the next generation.”

General Landry asked, “How many people can you supply powers to?”

“Not as many as I’d like as I only have so many vials saved up. Enough for the people that volunteer. A couple of people also have healing abilities if you have anyone with bad knees or old injuries you want taken care of. I’d offer more but we won’t be here long enough to offer more than that.”

Carter nodded. “Because of cascade failure.”

“There is an outside chance that we’re susceptible to it, yeah.” Mist wasn’t sure if another copy of him existed on this world but he doubted it. Still, no reason not to be careful and leave as soon as possible.

General Landry glanced at Vala. “We’ll start with Vala then run tests. If it works, we’ll make the trade.” 

Mist pulled a mushroom out of his inventory and handed it to Vala. “Here.”

“What do I do with it?” Vala asked suspiciously.

“You eat it. It’s not a joke, it will restore your youth then Carter can run some tests.”

Carter said, “You might as well.”

Mist was sort of amused by Carter’s reaction to the magical mushroom restoring Vala’s youth though less amused by the number of tests she ran before she’d agreed to eat some ‘magic’ mushrooms. The fact that she thought it was just an ascended trick was sort of amusing. Still, if it convinced her to let Noelle copy her, he was fine with her running a bunch of tests.

0o0o0

Mist yawned as he sat down in the pilot’s chair in the jumper. Even with his memory perk he’d lost track of the number of alternate worlds they’d visited over the last two weeks looking for interesting and useful people for Noelle to copy for their Atlantis project, He’d managed to get everyone on his list though he’d ended up having to bring Charlie O’Neill back from the dead in order to get Jack to agree to let him make a copy. He had a feeling that Jack had just tossed that out as a way to say hell no, still he’d been so happy that he’d agreed to be copied, after all he already had one clone what was one more that he’d never run into again and the idea of being able to make better choices with the stargate project had some appeal. The copy had wanted his own version of Charlie but that was fine, the kid had the ancient gene so it wasn’t like it was a waste. 

After they’d stuck the group of clones in a snow globe so they could fit everyone in the puddle jumper, they’d skipped forward a bit in time then opened a portal to an alternate Destiny to help repair the ship and to get a copy of Matt, Eli and a mutated Chloe Armstrong. From there they’d taken another portal to a different Destiny to pick up a copy of a mutated Ginn that had been infected rather than Chloe. They’d stuck around for a couple of days on each ship helping repair the worst of the damage as well as bringing in supplies. 

Selena snickered as she looked over at Mist from the co-pilot’s chair. “You’re the one that wanted to recruit the best of the best.”

“I know, I just hadn’t expected having to jump to quite so many worlds,” Mist admitted.

“Think of it this way, we have a decent number of crew for the ship.”

“Until we jump again at which point we’ll be back to square one.”

“You could always crew the ship with droids or friendly replicators,” Selena replied with amusement.

“Not happening. We already have problems with the replicators, Hermione wants to fix the aggression subroutine in the Asurans and Sam wants to destroy all of them. I have to agree with Sam on this one, even if we could remove the aggression part of their programming, they’re still cold logic based machines, they didn’t have any problem wiping out entire human worlds to try to starve the wraith to death.”

Selena sighed. “Considering what they did in the show, I’m inclined to wipe them out, tragic existence or not they’re a threat to multiple worlds and eventually all of Earth because that’s where the Ancients settled. Changing their personalities enough to fix that would be much the same as killing them all. It’s like a dog that bites people, you can’t always fix it, sometimes the best solution is to put them down so they can’t hurt anyone else.”

“I’ll take to Carter about it.”

“Are we done jumping around yet?”

“I want to jump into Ori space and grab the sangreal that is floating out there so that we can open a portal back to our dimension and toss it through to Ori space to kill them. I can barely tolerate the ascended ancients, I’m not going to tolerate ascended psychopathic nutcases that think they’re gods and almost have enough power to back it up.”

Selena grinned as she thought about ridding the universe of the Ori before they became a problem. “I wouldn’t mind having an ace in the hole.”

Mist looked back over his shoulder at Ranma. “Are you up for one last door before we head back to Atlantis and set up shop?”

“Sure, the sangreal shouldn’t be too hard to find.” Ranma walked over and looked out of the window as he searched for worlds he could open a door to where stealing the sangreal wouldn’t be a bad thing. “Do you want to open a portal to a different galaxy before we open a door so that we don’t nuke the ascended here?”

“We probably should.” While he had a low opinion of most of the ascended, there were probably some of them that didn’t deserve to get nuked. 

Ranma smiled as he opened a door to another galaxy where there weren’t ascended. “That should do it.”

Selena frowned slightly as Mist activated the jumper’s controls headed through the door. “This still feels like cheating.”

“Cheating is pretty much the only way to deal with the ascended and gods. I’d rather not leave them alive to send people after the Milky Way because of a grudge that spans millions of years. Besides, I want them gone before I start experimenting with the prior genetics.” Mist didn’t see a reason not to kill the Ori considering the threat and how they’d created an entire religion based off hate and fear. 

Ranma closed the door behind the ship once they were well clear then opened a door close to the sangreal that was floating in space. “That should work.”

Mist teleported the sangreal to his hand. “You might as well close the door.”

Ranma closed the door. “Back in time?”

“Pretty much, yeah.” Mist activated the jumper’s time machine and brought them back to a couple of hours after they’d first used the time machine. “That should do it.”

“I’m opening a portal to the Ori galaxy in our world, toss it through.” Ranma opened a portal to the Ori galaxy.

Mist teleported the sangreal through the portal. “We’re good.”

Ranma closed the portal then opened another portal back to the sky above Atlantis. “And we’re back.”

Selena snickered, “Now we just have to set things up and start exploring.”

“I doubt it will be that easy but we can hope.” Ranma closed the portal after the ship went through. He was looking forward to relaxing a bit and doing some fishing once they got everything set up.

Mist had faith in the people he’d recruited, the main problem was going to be funding the group long term but he had enough technology blueprints and medical data floating around in his head to fund the crew several times over for decades. Between that and using the Delmak shipyards for building ships and he had a feeling they’d be okay even after he left, it was just a matter of getting the right people to the right places. “That reminds me, I need to recreate my avatar and drop him back on Delmak with someone to manage cleaning out the prisons.”

Selena nodded. “Let’s get everyone out of the snowglobe then we can have a meeting and figure out where to assign people.”

0o0o0

The next couple of weeks were a bit hectic as they tried to set things up and make sure that everyone had enough supplies. The hardest part wasn’t actually figuring out what missions to do in the Pegasus galaxy, it was figuring out how to fix Delmak and Netu in a way that didn’t leave it open for some other goa’uld to steal the second they turned their back on the place. While quietly walking in and ganking goa’uld was a viable tactic considering their magic, the SG crew wanted to avoid something like the Lucian alliance forming this time around which meant controlling how the goa’uld empire collapsed. 

Mist wasn’t all that concerned with the details because he trusted the people he’d recruited to do their best and this time around they had a lot more information and resources thanks to taking over Delmak and the rest of Sokar’s empire. Thankfully, Hermione had dropped her defense of the Asurans after they’d recruited the Ancient buried under the ice and she’d flatout asked the Asurans what they’d do if they got free of their programming. Needless to say Hermione had wasted no time after that in helping Carter wipe each and every single one of them off the map which gave the group access to a bunch of city ships which went a long way toward drastically tipping the balance of power in the galaxy in favor of Mist’s group of specialists.

Dealing with most of the Wraith was surprisingly easy and only took a week of planning, a stolen nuke from China and programming a computer virus to shut down the gate network while they used Janus’s device to screw with the Wraith’s hyperdrives at random points. Sure, it was probably disruptive to the natives but the way the program worked meant that it wouldn’t cut an active gate just lock the gates so they didn’t work then they’d check the network and activate Janus’s device long enough to blow up more ships then turn the device off. Between that and the virus that Riley whipped up to destroy the wraith’s ability to feed, the wraiths days as a credible threat were limited.

Well, that and the fact that Ranma could just open portals and toss explosives or grenades filled with the virus into enemy ships as needed. It was more than a little unfair but they weren’t trying for fair, they were solving problems. 

The best part as far as Mist was concerned was managing to turn the symbiote poison he’d recovered from one of the dimensions into something that killed the symbiotes and reactivated the Jaffa’s immune system. After that, they’d had Jacob/Selmak open a dialog with the Tok’ra and offered them an immunization in exchange for tactical help on which goa’uld needed to be dealt with first. 

The next hurdle was getting the Vanir to play nice but Jackson had managed to send a message in Asgardian that interested them enough to show up. After that it was a simple matter to stabilize their genetics and create a hybrid mix between the ancient asgardians trapped on a sleeper ship and Ginn and Chloe with their enhanced genetics. From there it was a simple matter to have Amy, Selena and Amelia customize their features a bit as needed then use the abyss ticket to gender flop a couple of the clones.

In short it took very little time to sidestep thousands of years of genetic damage which wasn’t all that surprising considering Amy, Amelia, Selena, Mist and Riley’s powers and knowledge base when it came to genetics. They’d even helped relocate the Vanir to an empty world that wasn’t a complete wasteland and hooked them up with a permanent portal back to their home world in exchange for a copy of their knowledge base. It was rather amazing how saving someone’s entire race helped with relations.

0o0o0

Mist looked up from his meal as Umy set a stack of papers down in front of him. “What’s that?”

“The top stack is a set of plans for dealing with Delmak and the bottom stack of papers is a set by step for dealing with various other goa’uld controlled worlds. The last packet is a basic outline for creating an Empire to make sure that everyone stays safe and no one gets taken advantage of by something like the Lucian Alliance.”

Mist grabbed his face with his right hand in frustration. “Sorry, I was going to ask then I got distracted.”

Umy shook her head. “My power makes me smarter the more complicated a problem is. Abby and I were able to toss most of this together in a couple of hours. It would have taken less time but I kept maxing out the speed the keyboard can handle.”

“Try typing with superspeed, completely useless,” Mist muttered.

Umy snickered. “Is there any other projects you want me to work on?”

“We’re closing the portals before we leave which means the team will need to have enough food so they don’t starve and enough ships that they can defend the empire and enough people working to make the ships.”

“You realize that stealing Atlantis at this point wouldn’t be nice, right?”

Mist sighed. “I know, but claiming one of the other city ships just doesn’t have the same panache.”

“Yeah but they’re in much better repair and haven’t been sitting in the bottom of the ocean for 10,000 years. Besides, we can probably grab one of the city ships that can make ZPMs or at least jumpers.”

“Point, okay, they can keep Atlantis,” Mist agreed with amusement. 

“You’ll have to figure out a work around for the Ancient gene requirement.”

“I’ll just create a magical version that works with telepathy for the chair.”

“Speaking of, any luck with the Prior head?”

Mist frowned slightly. “Which of the girls sold me out?”

“Riley mentioned it, she was looking forward to creating an order of enhanced magic users.”

“Ah, that makes more sense. I figured out a couple of things, sadly nothing that would help us but I might be able to use the information to boost the asgard clones. It’s something to look into much like the staff that I took off the prior. It’s an interesting device that boosts various near ascended powers.”

Umy asked, “But not ours?”

“Not so much.”

“Do you want me to work up a training schedule for continuing our assault on item worlds now that things are calming down?”

Mist frowned slightly as he considered the group they’d collected. He’d boosted everyone with the magic infusion machine and handed out mana shield and a couple of other useful spells. He was planning on giving everyone the ability to level like Disgaea characters before they left though that would take take and effort. “Set up a schedule for training us and the rest of the group as I start giving them the ability to level.”

“I can do that.”

“Thanks. I’m glad that you came along for the ride.”

“My tribe was gone, there wasn’t much of a reason to stay though if we go back we should bring the rest of the people in the hunt back to life or at least the people that aren’t complete scum.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Mist admitted.

Sheppard walked over and sat down at the table across from Mist. “I wasn’t expecting things to be quite this easy.”

“I wasn’t either,” Mist admitted.

Umy grinned. “I was, we have portals and magic.”

Sheppard said, “That’s another thing I wouldn’t have believed before you showed up.”

Mist smiled. “I didn’t believe in magic before I started jumping through worlds either.”

Umy smirked. “I grew up with magic.”

“Why help if you’re just going to leave in eight months?” Sheppard asked.

Mist shrugged. “Because I can. I try to make every world at least a little better by the time I leave. I can’t fix everything, I wouldn’t even know where to start but I can make some of it better.”

“How does making costume telepathic ships help?”

Mist shrugged. “It gives Tayla something to fly that is fairly neat and it regenerates which means she’ll have something that can take a decent amount of damage. Besides, if Riley made the correct modifications, it won’t look all that much like a wraith ship especially since we infused it with magic.”

Sheppard shook his head. “Sometimes I think Riley and Mckay should never be in the same room.”

“Oh please, that project was all Riley and Beckett, same with the upgraded retrovirus that makes people immune to wraith feeding. Leet and Rodney is the pair I worry about.”

“I’m a little bit more worried about their cloning project and using a computer to create personalities then using the asgard computer system you recovered off the other Odyssey to download the programs into clones of Chloe or Ginn and various other geniuses.”

Mist blinked. “Huh, I hadn’t heard about that project yet. That’s certainly one way to boost the number of crew we have.”

Umy spoke up, “If you want to me to come up with a decent program for ensuring qualified and sane people, I can probably come up with something in a couple of hours considering the difficulty. My power basically cranks up my processing speed the more complicated a problem is.”

Eli walked over with Ginn. “I can probably help with the programming side of things.”

Umy said, “That would be appreciated.”

“I never imagined I’d spawn an entire race but it sounds interesting,” Ginn admitted as she sat down with her tray of food.

Eli sat down next to Ginn. “Hopefully we can keep them from taking over the universe because they got bored.” He smiled at Ginn.

Umy spoke up, “I’m sure we can figure out a workable plan for that.”

Mist shook his head. “I’m sure they’d take better care of it than the system lords.”

Sheppard asked, “What would you do about the ancient gene?”

“Probably include genetics from you or Jack if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind as long as they don’t grow up wondering why I wasn’t there.”

Eli grinned. “I’m sure we can figure something out.”

Ginn said, “We should recruit my younger self and a few other people I used to know considering the educational facilities here are a lot better than what I had growing up.”

“I just started the ball rolling. I’m sure you can talk Ranma into helping rescue your alternate.” Mist was looking forward to seeing the city alive with people and projects. He reached down and picked up the packet that Umy had set down and started reading while the rest of the people at the table discussed various projects they wanted to try and plans for the future.

0o0o0 

Mist blinked as he found himself back in the blackstone room alone other than Genie. “Did I lose track of a couple of days or did you bring me back early?”

Genie snickered. “You lost track of time when you were jumping between worlds on your recruiting spree.” She held her finger and thumb a centimeter apart. “You came this close to not getting your ship.”

Mist grinned as he thought about the shrunken city ship in the snow globe that he’d stuffed into his inventory. It had taken some rather impressive spellwork by Lily and James with the rest of them helping with the mana cost in order to shrink the city enough that Harry could stick it into a snow globe with a rather complicated ritual. “I’m just glad that it worked.”

Genie shook her head. “You’re going to have a hell of a time getting the drive to work and some of the other technology.”

“It should still float and serve as a base. Besides, I’m sure I can enhance the teleport drive we copied from Atlantis with magic so that it works in other worlds.”

“Where to next?” Genie asked curious where Mist would go.

“I need to spend my points for Stargate but I want to import my city ship into the stagecoach option from Diablo.”

Genie shook her head. “I really shouldn’t let that slide.”

“It says vehicle,” Mist replied with amusement.

“I suppose you want the option to conjure spectral horses too?” Genie asked sarcastically.

“Of course. It’s not fun if you can’t scare the natives. Okay, mostly I just wanted to make sure that the shrinking spell doesn’t fail and wreck my warehouse.”

“All things considered, that’s probably a good idea. Where are you going next?”

“I’m not sure, any suggestions?” Mist asked curious if Genie would suggest something as he wasn’t sure where he wanted to go yet.

“We’ve got a couple of new jumps recently, spend your 3,500 points for Stargate then you can look through the jump folder, maybe something will catch your eye.”

“Nice amount, makes me wish there was better stuff to spend it on.”

“Yep.”

0o0o0

Theoretical Astrophysicist [Free] You've got a good understanding of the physics of the universe, including the physical properties (luminosity, density, temperature, and chemical composition) of celestial objects such as galaxies, stars, planets, exoplanets, and the interstellar medium, as well as their interactions.

We MacGuyvered It, Sir [150] You tend to think outside of the box. Like, a lot. Looking at different equipment and items you think of not what it was meant to do, but what it CAN do. That battery? Makes for a nice bomb. That phone? With a bit of frankensteining could make a quick scanner. On the field with little supplies, this comes in handy.

Remember The Time You Blew Up a Sun? [300]: Your intellect has been significantly increased, to the point where you know how to really get the most out of your technology...

Portable Lab [100]: You can't exactly study alien ruins and biology without equipment... and most certainly not their technology. With this heavy briefcase, you'll have a majority of the tools needed to collect biological samples, scan metals, and even an attempt at analyzing alien technology. You'll never be unprepared.

Kara'Kesh Amulet [300] This silverish multifunctional Goa'uld device fits upon the hand and forearm of the user, with a red gem sitting on the palm. The uses of this item range from blasting someone with kinetic energy, to firing electrical bolts at a victim's brain, or even erecting a personal force field which can protect the user from a barrage of fire. Be wary that too many strikes too quickly will render the shield inert (requiring a 24 hour recharge), and if something is slow enough it could bypass the shield anyway. 

Genie popped back in from checking on a few details with the rest of the group then looked over Mist’s list of abilities for Stargate. “You’re only spending 850 points?”

Mist looked up from the new jump folder. “Pretty much yeah. I don’t really have anything else I want right now.”

Genie nodded. ”Some jumps are like that. Did you find anything interesting?”

“Possibly, I’m allowed to keep drawbacks after the jump is over if I want, yes?”

Genie looked at Mist suspiciously, “Why would you want to?”

Mist pointed at the 0 point drawback that let him shorten or extend his stay in the Stranger things jump between 1 and 15 years. “Because of that.”

Genie stared at the jump. “What the hell? That would side track paying points to cut your stay…”

“Yep. it would would also let me stay longer if I wanted.”

”Like that’s going to happen,” Genie replied sarcastically. 

“It might… it would depend on the world but yeah, probably not,” Mist admitted as she looked down her nose at him.

“Exactly.”

“Seriously though, have I or have I not been entertaining?” Msit pouted dramatically.

Genie shook her head. “Yeah, don’t do that, you look ridiculous.”

Mist stuck his tongue out at her.

“Fine, if you take the jump you can keep the flaw, that doesn’t mean you can leave before you finish any jump objective or such things.”

Mist shrugged. “That sounds more than fair. I’d hate to ruin your entertainment.”

“Damn straight.” Genie smiled as she sat down in the air like she was sitting on a chair. “Drop in or experiment?”

“I was thinking scientist actually that had just finished college, no ties to the crazy people and no contracts with any schools. I’d rather avoid the plot of the show completely considering I haven’t seen it.”

“Considering you’re starting in Hawkins Indiana where the show takes place, that might be a little hard,” Genie replied with amusement.

“Rats.”

Genie snickered. “Are you bringing people in?”

“I might as well bring some of them in as scientists if they want.”

“In that case, I’ll bring everyone in.” Genie teleported the companions into the room.

Amy asked, “Where are we going next?”

“Hawkins Indiana, middle of nowhere in a town with monsters because a scientist opened a portal,” Mist replied as he worked on his build. “Actually, can I just be passing through on a trip so that I don’t have memories of growing up in Indiana?”

Genie raised an eyebrow. “Any particular reason?”

“I don’t need more memories stuck in my head, I mean if it comes down to it, I can just spend 50 to start elsewhere.”

“Eh, it doesn’t say you have to be from there so I guess you can be on vacation, Washington background?”

Mist nodded. “Yep, as close as you can get to my life.”

“That’s going to be slightly problematic as you’re going to be twenty in the early 80’s but we’ll make it work.”

Hermione asked, “How many of us get a background?”

“Eight, the scientist option offers some decent stuff and fits with friends from school going on a vacation after graduating.”

Victoria raised her hand. “I’ll be a scientist.”

Riley giggled. “We can open portals to demon realms?”

Denis looked at Riley, “She looks way too enthusiastic about that.”

Riley pouted. “Come on, what’s not to love? Being able to open portals to a shadowland sounds pretty cool.”

Lily spoke up, “I wouldn’t mind having a background as a scientist.”

Mist let the group discuss things as he looked over his build and notes.

Strange Things:Background: ScientistUniversal Knowledge [Free]Sixth Sense Static: [100] Anti scrying.Mad Science: [200] make portals to upside down world... Mk Ultra: [300] Unlock Psionic potential in people... (small percentage of population has the ability...)

Items:

Hazardous Suit: [50]

Gun [100] Import a gun, it gets a new appearance and reloads every day. Importing BFG9000.Car [200] Sports car, doesn't need fuel, self repairs over a week. Can import a vehicle so I'm importing my ship.Eggo Central [100] unlimited food if limited type.D&D room because yeah... [100]Sensory Deprivation Tank [150] (discounted scientist) (for awaking psionic talents.)Companions [300] 8 companions 500 eachComplications: Extended/shortened stay [0] (Cuts your stay or extends it, keeping it.)Vanishing Jumper: [+300]

The Monster: [+300]

Genie raised an eyebrow. “You’re taking a flaw that means the monster has already grabbed you and a flaw that makes the monster ignore supernatural defenses and attacks, are you crazy?”

Mist pointed at Ranma. “Ranma has doormaker, he’ll be there less than five minutes after we start the jump, Amy, Selena or Amelia can deal with the parasites.”

Ranma grinned. “Sure.”

“What about the memories?” Genie asked.

“I have a pensieve for a reason. As for the monster, my strength and durability aren’t supernatural which means that I shouldn’t have a problem ripping it in half once I get in jump unless you can see a flaw in that plan?”

Genie shrugged. “It seems viable enough considering what you have access to.”

Hermione said, “It sounds like James, Lily, Riley, Dennis, Aisha, Uber, Victoria and Rose for the companion imports this time around.”

Dennis looked at Riley who looked like she’d just won the lotto. “I still think giving Riley the ability to create portals to the shadowlands is a bad idea.”

“She can already do some rather horrible things and it makes her happy,” Mist pointed out.

Riley nodded. “I’ll be good, promise.”

Genie snickered. “Okay, I’m guessing you want the ability to open portals and the ability to stay off everyone’s radar?”

Mist spoke up, “It’s a magical ability, that means I can probably use spell maker to duplicate it, right?”

“Considering it stops supernatural effects, I’d call it magic so you can probably create a spell version,” Genie admitted.

Riley said, “In that case, I want the ability to build portals and awaken people’s psionic talents.”

Aisha snickered. “This is going to be awesome.”

Lily said, “I’m just looking forward to the free teaching and information ability that comes with it.”

James asked, “Does the upside down world have banks?”

Victoria shook her head. “If I’d known I was joining a team of villains I would have protested more.”

Amelia snickered as she hugged her girlfriend with one arm. “Nah, we’re not hurting anything and it’s a nice change.”

“Point.”

Hermione spoke up, “There is a decent chance that anything we take out of that world will be tainted and toxic.”

Denis asked, “Why do you say that?”

“Because you can buy a hazmat suit in the item section, there is probably a reason for that.”

Mist frowned slightly. “I’m sure we can test it or something. Either way, it’s worth looking into.”

“In that case, let’s get the show on the road.” Genie frowned as she mentally checked on which version of Stranger Things to send him to. “Actually, with your flaws, you’re going to be starting after the breach which means you won’t be able to stop it. You should be able to deal with the monster before any innocent people are killed, if you hurry.” She snapped her fingers and sent everyone to the companion housing or starting locations.

0o0o0

Mist wasn’t all that amused at finding himself holding his pensieve in a hotel room and only a vague recollection of the last few minutes. Still what he could remember wasn’t that amusing so he wasn’t going to dwell on it. He looked at Amy. “How am I doing?”

Amy shivered as she remembered the mess of slug like creatures she’d pulled out of Mist’s stomach. “You have a clean bill of health, the thing tried to stick a bunch of nasty things in you but we got them out.” 

Mist glanced around the hotel room. “Where are we and where did everyone else go?”

“Motel 6, Hawkins Indiana, Either picking up some food at the local fast food spot or hunting the monster. I have a feeling that Ranma is planning on killing it…” He trailed off as the door opened and Tiffany stalked inside looking rather pissed off and angry. “What’s up?”

Tiffany scowled as she shut the door behind her. “We’ve got a problem, some creepy government wetworks bitch tried to kill us while we were eating.”

Amy asked, “Why?”

“Apparently an experiment escaped the lab and they tracked her to the dinner where we were eating and she didn’t want any witnesses. Harry stunned her and the other agents with her, Hermione is ripping information out of her head and whatever she found isn’t good because she’s sort of crackling with magic and yeah, there’s going to be a bodycount.”

Mist sighed as he realized that the jump was going to be more of a hassle than just walking and killing a monster. “In that case, we should probably get over there and figure out what is going on.” He walked over to the door and opened it. He stopped as he saw the rather new purple almost black 1978 Camaro that his ‘memories’ informed him was his. “Damn, I’m going to have to thank Genie.”

Amy followed Mist out. “Why?”

“Because my brother had a Camaro back in school, of course by that point it was old but it was still a rather nice car.”

Tiffany said, “Good, it’s a couple of blocks away, you can drive.”

Mist smirked as he pulled a set of keys out of his pocket. “We are so going on a road trip after this monster is killed.” He opened his door for Amy.

Tiffany laughed as she headed for the passenger side door. “Shotgun.”

Amy crawled/stepped into the back then blinked in surprise as she realized that it was far roomier than it should be. “Okay, what gives?”

“The blacksmith wagon comes with expanded space, I imported it into the car which means the car has expanded space.”

Amy sat down and put her seatbelt on while Mist climbed into the car and closed the door. “I have a feeling we’re going to have to have Hermione put some notice me not charms on the car if only to keep people from freaking out when they look inside.”

Tiffany shut the door then put her seatbelt on. “I’m looking forward to flying down the road at a hundred and fifty.”

Amy stared at Tiffany, “She doesn’t get the keys, ever.”

Mist grinned as he started the car and it started perfectly. He glanced at the rear view mirror, “I think I need some dice or something, ah well, plenty of time for that later.” He backed up then turned and headed out of the hotel’s parking lot. “Where are we going Tiffany?”

“Down the road, you can’t miss it,” Tiffany replied as she wiggled against the comfortable seats. “I could get used to this.”

Amy smiled slightly as she thought about spending a couple of weeks driving around and seeing the country. 

0o0o0

Mist was less than amused by the so called government agents that Hermione had tied up that the cops were taking away. He was less than amused by the black sedan that two suits were getting out of. He walked over to the two of them. “Yeah no, you need to get back in your car, turn around and fuck off.”

One of the agents blinked. “What did you say?”

“You’re trying to cover up illegal experimentation on a little girl for a lunatic scientist. You’re going to write this town off and you’re going to leave or else I’m going to make sure that everyone hears about your continued issues.”

“Assuming that was happening, no one will believe you.”

Mist shrugged. “I honestly don’t care, I want the names of your superiors.”

The other agent snorted. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to take you in for questioning.”

“Yeah, thanks for thinking about your superiors, it makes it it so much easier.” Mist reached out and grabbed the man’s gun as he drew it then crushed his wrist and drove his fist into the man’s jaw cracking it in several places. He pulled the agent in front of him as the other agent opened fire several times in panic. He pushed the dead agent at the other agent then lunged forward and punched him in the jaw dropping him unconscious. “Well that was fun…” He trailed off as another agent shot him in the back. He turned and glared at the shocked looking agent. “I’m unamused.” 

“What are you?!” The agent unloaded several more shots into Mist in increasing panic as he realised that the shots weren’t doing anything.

“A man on vacation that is really pissed because he’s going to have to do some work. Put the damned gun down before you miss and shoot some innocent bystander.” Mist used telekinesis to rip the gun out of the man’s hands then set it on the ground.

One of the cops shouted, “Put your hands up!” 

Mist rolled his eyes slightly but put his hands up slightly on the off chance that he was actually talking to him. “I suggest you do what the nice cop says.”

The next few hours were more than a little annoying as the feds made a rather pathetic attempt at hauling him off and making him vanish, sadly for them he was bullet proof, immune to just about every poison in the multiverse and had a rather warped sense of humor which meant that he had no problem going along with the ‘feds’ until they tried to kill him at which point he’d broken a couple of limbs, duct taped them to their cars then teleported back to the police station with the car and a audio recording of their attempt to kill him. 

Thankfully he only had to do that a couple of times before he managed to get the name of the people in charge of the project, after that it was a simple matter of having Ranma open a door into their private houses and having several discussions with a wrench about the ethics of experimenting on innocent children after which he dropped the half dead men in the middle of the FBI with copies of the various files he’d found in their safes and a warning that such behavior wasn’t going to be tolerated.

The best news of the day was hearing that Ranma had managed to kill the monster by tossing a rather large rock at it and turning it into a splattered mess that he then pulped until nothing was left just to make sure that it was dead. 

They spent the next week exploring the upside-down world a bit before deciding that they should probably close the portal before it did something horrible like expand and cover the world in portals that brought in more monsters like the twisted flaw. After they managed to create a device to close the portal they left previously sleepy town of Hawkin’s Indiana and headed west for their road trip.

0o0o0

Genie snickered as she teleported the crew to the blackstone room. “How was camping?”

Selena grinned at Genie. “Fun, it’s nice being able to camp without having to worry about anything more dangerous than a grizzly bear.”

Dennis shook his head. “I still think you’re crazy.”

Abby snickered. “When you grow up in a world with everything can use elemental attacks that can flatten buildings, grizzlies just aren’t that scary anymore.”

Mist smiled as he reached over and pulled Selena into a one armed hug. “It was a nice vacation after that bit with the feds and the monsters.”

Victoria spoke up, “I’m just happy we got some item world training in when we weren’t playing various roleplaying games.”

Amelia snickered. “You’re just bitter because your warrior got splattered by the dragon.”

“I made my character’s saving throw and I still died, I call that bad gming.”

Mist snorted. “You were supposed to talk to the dragon not charge in blindly after being told that it was ancient, powerful and cranky.”

Victoria stuck her tongue out at Mist.

“You win some you lose some.” Mist turned to look at Genie. “How many points did I get?”

“Only 1300.”

“Eh, I would have been surprised if I’d gotten more considering it was basically a vacation jump.”

Genie nodded. “So where are you going next?”

Mist glanced around the room at his friends. “No clue, I wouldn’t mind going to vampire diaries, I wouldn’t mind going to Harry Potter and picking up another Harry and Hermione.”

Harry piped up, “I wouldn’t mind picking up another Hermione.”

Hermione smiled at Harry then looked at Leet and Uber. “Any ideas of any decent games we should jump to?”

Leet turned and looked at Genie. “Can we see the list?”

Genie tossed up a list of jumps. “Sure, take a look while Mist figures out what to buy from Stranger Things.”

“Sounds reasonable.” Mist figured he could always talk them out of a horrible idea. 

Noelle spoke up, “I wouldn’t mind jumping to a video game world.”

Dennis said, “That would depend on which one and if you let Taylor pick up giant bugs.”

Taylor smirked at Dennis. “They’re not that terrifying.”

Piper laughed, “Yeah, they really are.”

“You’re the one that can control any mammal other than people, that’s worse.”

“Bugs are still creepier,” Aisha pointed out.

Lily smiled as she leaned against James and listened to everyone discuss things. She didn’t really care where they went next as everyone that mattered was in the room with her.

0o0o0

Cops are good at finding things: [100]

Trustworthy: [200]  People tend to trust you. 

Negotiator: [400] Your words have weight.

Research Notes: [100] Get packet of notes about abilities of new monsters you find.

Blanket Fort: [100] Endless amount of pillows, blankets and pajamas for companions and self.

Mist looked over his list. “400 points left in case something comes up.”

Hermione asked, “Any reason you went with those?”

“Knowing the abilities of various monsters we run into sounds useful, having an endless supply of pajamas and pillows is nice and a trustworthy perk might save lives if I have to get people to believe me. Besides, there wasn’t much else I wanted. Any ideas where to go next?”

Hermione glanced over at Leet and Uber. “Buffy, Leet and Uber wanted to do a game themed jump but we reminded them of all of the stuff they could salvage from Ted’s workshop and getting enchantable super strength and durability. It also gives us the Gem of Amara which would be useful to have in the Vampire Diaries jump from what I’ve seen of the show.”

Leet spoke up, “Picking up cool robots would be nice.”

Genie pulled the Buffy jump up. “Have fun.”

Mist got to work on picking out the perks that he wanted.

Background: Spare Key [Free] Drop in. Xander’s brother. Age: 15

Just Plain Snarky: [50]

Once More, With Feeling: [150] Once every six months cause up to 40,000 people to break into song and dance and share secrets and express pent up emotions which either helps them with issues or makes them worse. 

Robotics Genius: [300]

Sorcery Savant: [600]

Root Beer: [100]

Drawbacks:

Penalty Box: [+300]

Genie sighed as she read the drawback that Mist was going with. “Let me guess, you’re going to have Ranma open a door and rescue you?”

Mist said, “Pretty much yeah. Illyria put the necklace on the demon that was torturing Gunn. I don’t see why I shouldn’t take 300 free points. That gives me at least a 100 points to export companions.”

Ranma shrugged. “I’m fine with rescuing you.”

“And you’re coming in as Xander’s sibling, why?” Genie asked.

Selena snickered. “He’s the only male of the group which means he can hit on the rest of the group and they won’t be siblings.”

Abby snickered as she patted Selena’s behind. “Nothing wrong with kissing your siblings.”

Mist shrugged. “Either way, it seems like a solid plan. It gives us an excuse to be part of the group, I have telepathy so I should be able to fake social interaction with Xander’s family and the rest should be gravy.”

“You mean other than having to go back to school?” Harry asked.

“Just have Hermione create a background where you graduated early unless you actually want to go back to highschool?”

Taylor snorted at the idea of returning to high school unless she absolutely had to. “No, I’d rather be free to deal with vampires and demons.”

Piper nodded. “Same.”

“Yeah, I’m going to be trying to figure out how Ted created a bunch of human like robots decades before that should have been remotely possible.” Leet was looking forward to building a robot army to patrol at night.

“In that case, I think we’re ready to start.”

0o0o0

“Where the hell have you been?” Anthony Harris demanded as Mist walked in the door an hour or so after dark. 

“I got captured by demons and sent to hell, I just got out…” Mist trailed off as Tony backhanded him across the face. “Oh, right, it’s one of those worlds.”

Tony grabbed his hand because it hurt about as much as if he’d just backhanded a lightpost. “What the hell?”

Mist glared at Tony. “That was your one and only shot, I hate drunks, if you try that again, I will put you in the morgue and if I’m feeling particularly nasty, you’ll be alive when I do it. I wasn’t joking about the hell part, now piss off, I have school in the morning.” He reached out with telepathy and plucked the location of his bedroom out of Tony’s mind. He walked past Tony and headed down to the basement where his room was. He glanced around the room, it looked normal enough for a teenager’s room, various games scattered around, a burrow and a television that had seen better days. He pulled his wand out of his inventory then cast a minor muggle aversion spell on the door that should keep his parents out of his room without a good reason. He hit the lock with a locking charm then shifted to his older appearance as he didn’t want to walk around Sunnydale as a teenager right now. 

Mist apparated back to the alley near the Bronze where the rest of the group was waiting for him. He went through his mental checklist of things or people to grab or mess with as he headed into the Bronze. ‘Grab the Orbs of Nezzla'khan, get the troll hammer, change Angel’s gender to cause him mental issues, grab the gem of Amara, find a Mohra demon to drain of blood to turn Angel human, kill the mayor, kill Rack, kill Walsh, kill the demon at the college, recruit Faith and Tara and track down the demon with the Ferula Gemini.’ 

He had a feeling that he was forgetting a couple of things but he’d brainstorm with the group and figure something out. He was looking forward to seeing how many of the Scoobies he could bring with him on the jump, he doubted recruiting Xander would be a problem, Willow would probably jump at the chance to learn more magic, Tara the chance to never see her messed up family again and Faith a chance to have some fun. Buffy might be willing to come with him or might not, depending on how things went.

He walked into the Bronze and glanced around. He was almost but not quite relieved when he didn’t see Buffy, Xander or Willow. He walked over to the table and sat down across from Selena and Abby. “Who did you get stuck with for a family?”

Abby pouted, “Willow which means that it’s going to be harder to seduce her.”

Selena snickered. “Any problems checking in?”

Mist sighed. “Tony was drunk, he nearly broke his hand when he backhanded him because I was late getting back. I’m going to tattoo him and enchant it with immunity to poison so he can never get drunk again, either that or I’m going to find a spell in the magic shop that makes alcohol taste like shit so that he drives himself mad.”

“Or you could just send him to counseling,” Abby replied.

“Not nearly as fun.”

Selena shook her head. “Moving on, where are we going first?”

“I was thinking the magic shop to see if I can find Olaf’s crystal so that I can steal his hammer and look through the magic shop for interesting spells.”

Abby shook her head. “Nope, you’re not visiting the magic shop when you’re pissed. We might as well just track down Angel and mess him up before he meets Buffy.”

Selena snickered as she spotted Angel following a couple out the back exit. “Found him.”

“I’ll be right back.” Mist grinned as he pulled his gender swapping ticket out of his inventory and followed the group. He turned invisible as he exited the door. He was slightly surprised that Angel was actually fighting another vampire then he realized that the terrified blonde looked a little like Buffy. He waited until Angel dusted the vampire then zapped him with the ticket changing him into a female version of himself. ‘Let’s see you seduce Buffy as a girl.’  He had a hard time not laughing at the shocked vampire as he stuffed the ticket back in his inventory. He waited until the girl opened the door to the club then followed her in as Angel tried to figure out what the hell just happened. 

He turned visible as he sat down across from the twins. “Problem dealt with.”

“Did you just stake him?” Abby asked in concern.

“Nope, better, I de-staked him…” Mist trailed off as he started snickering. 

Selena raised an eyebrow. “De-staked… you turned him into a girl didn’t you?”

Mist took a moment to get his snickering under control. “Yep, I figured that would make things harder for him to seduce Buffy. Besides, I still have to track down the Ferula Gemini and a Mohra demon before I can fix him.”

“I think you already fixed him.” Abby broke into snickers.

Willow asked, “What did you fix?” as she walked over with Xander.

“A future problem.” Abby leaned over and kissed Selena.  

Mist turned to look at Willow and Xander. “Have a seat.”

Willow took a seat next to Mist and Xander took a seat next to Selena. “Aren’t you supposed to be grounded for telling Snyder to do some inappropriate things with a baseball bat?”

“I checked in, Tony was drunk, I don’t see a reason to follow their rules when they’re drunks.” Mist reached out with telepathy and checked the reasoning behind his dislike for Snyder. ‘Okay, good, it’s just me calling an administrator on his crap and not something serious like being the first on a list of suspects if he vanishes.’ 

Xander sighed. “He’s usually not that bad.”

Mist shrugged. “I don’t care. The next time he hits me drunk or not, I’m beating him to death with a baseball bat.”

Willow frowned as she looked at her friend in concern. “That might be a bit drastic, we can just report him.”

Selena said, “Don’t worry, we’ll help you hide the body.”

“Speaking of bodies, did you see the new girl today?” Xander asked.

“Nope, is she as hot as Willow or the twins?” Mist asked curious if Xander would stick his foot in his mouth.

Xander glanced at the twins then at Willow. “Ah, no.”

“See, no point worrying about it then.”

“What are we not worrying about?” asked Jesse as he walked over. 

“The new girl Xander was talking about,” Willow pointed out.

“She’s nothing compared to Cordelia.” Jesse looked at Mist. “Hey, do you think you could sneak us into your club?”

Mist frowned slightly as he checked Jesse’s mind to figure out what he was talking about. ‘Oh, Jessica’s father left me with control of my strip club to piss off Tony and Jesse wants to see the girls. Huh, I’ve got a bet with him about Willow, that could be interesting.’ He said, “That would be illegal and immoral.”

Willow said, “See.”

“Besides, our bet stands, if you can convince Willow to come watch the fun, you’re welcome to watch from behind the one way glass so no one calls the cops about underage people in the club.”

Willow blushed. “Mist.”

“What? Selena and Abby want to seduce you, I figure the first step is getting you to admit that you like girls.”

Xander shook his head. “I still think you’re greedy.”

Mist looked at Xander. “The twins are hot, I might as well go for the full set if you’re not going to.”

Willow turned beat red as she looked at Jesse. “How much are you offering if I agree to go with you? I mean the bet doesn’t say I have to enjoy it, just go.”

Jesse blinked. “Really?”

Willow shrugged. “Why not, it might get you to stop obsessing about Cordelia.”

Abby turned to look at Selena. “Do you want to dance?”

Selena snickered. “Sure, we might as well. Let’s see if we can make some people’s heads explode.”

Abby slipped out of the booth and held out her hands for Selena.

Jesse shook his head. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to those two.”

Mist smiled as he watched the girls head to the dance floor. “At least they’re having fun.”

Willow shook her head. “So, what are you offering?”

“Not sure, what do you want?” Jesse asked warily.

“Fifty dollars, I know you can afford it,” Willow pointed out. She figured she could go to the club and stare at the ground for an hour for fifty dollars toward her new computer and anything that distracted him from from lusting after Cordelia was a good thing.

“And there goes my comic book fund.”

Willow said, “You don’t have to make the trade.”

Jesse shook his head. “Strippers are better than comic books.”

Xander shook his head. “How are you planning on getting him in without anyone noticing?”

“The back stairs, this weekend, it should be busy enough that no one will notice if a delivery guy comes in through the back and goes up to my office,” Mist pointed out.

Xander smiled as he saw Buffy walking over with a brown haired girl that looked a couple of years younger than her though just as tall. “Nice to see you Buffy.”

Mist turned and looked at the slayer and Dawn. ‘Huh, she looks the same as the Dracula episode. I guess that makes sense in a warped way.’ He smiled at Dawn. “I’m going to grab some sodas, do you want anything?”

Dawn blinked then grinned as someone noticed her before her sister. “Root beer.”

“That I can do.” Mist opened his inventory and smiled when he saw the keg of root beer. He reached into his coat and pulled the keg of root beer out of his inventory then pulled it out of his coat and set it on the table. He grinned at the shocked faces then used his left hand to reach into his coat and pulled out a stack of plastic cups.

Dawn asked, “How?”

“Magic,” Mist replied with amusement as he started filling up cups for everyone.

Willow frowned as she stared at the unfamiliar keg. “I don’t think you’re supposed to bring your own drinks.”

“Eh, we’ll buy brownies for everyone, I doubt they’ll care,” Mist replied unconcerned about the Bronze’s staff complaining. If it came down to it, he’d just slip them a twenty and say they were having a birthday party or something.

Xander took a mug and took a sip. “Nice.”

“Yep, Xander said you were new to town, have a seat and take a load off.” Mist moved over so that Dawn could sit down next to him. 

Buffy frowned slightly as she wasn’t used to getting blown off for her sister. She took a sweat and a drink after everyone else took theirs without complaint. She’d watched him fill it, so knew there hadn’t been anything in the cup and everyone else was drinking it. “Just moved here from L.A.”

Dawn said, “It’s been a bit of an adjustment but Buffy got kicked out of school so we had to move.”

Willow asked, “Kicked out?”

“I was accused of burning the gym down…” Buffy trailed off as it wasn’t like she could just tell them about vampires.

Dawn piped up, “Don’t worry, there wasn’t any proof. So what’s the town like?”

Xander said, “This is about the only club in town that teenagers can come to.”

“We also have a couple of new age shops, a college, an airport and a stupidly large number of cemeteries.” Mist took a sip of his root beer. ‘Totally worth 100 points even if it hadn’t come with an endless enchant.’

Buffy raised her eyebrows. “How many cemeteries are we talking about?”

“At least twelve,” Mist replied.

Willow shook her head. “Don’t mind Mist, he plays too much dungeons and dragons.”

“No such thing, it’s fun,” Mist replied in defense of his hobby.

Dawn asked, “How do you play?”

Jesse smirked as he spotted Cordelia on the dance floor. “Now you’ve done it. I’m going to hit the dance floor.”

Mist grinned as he launched into a quiet explanation while Buffy chatted with Willow and Xander. He figured it would be a good way to get to know Dawn and tie her in with the group so he could keep an eye on her because if she was here, that meant Glory was running around causing problems a couple of years early.

0o0o0

Hermione looked up as Mist walked into the companion entertainment center with a smile on his face. “Any luck?”

Mist grinned as he walked over and sat on the couch next to her. “I turned Angel into a female, met the slayer and I might have picked up another D&D player.”

“Who?”

“Dawn sounded interested but that might be because her sister wasn’t interested in playing.”

“I can see where that might be a problem. Any luck finding any of the various magic items that we’re looking for?” Hermione asked.

“Nah, I had to head back with Xander, Willow and the twins then I had to sneak back into the basement. I have a feeling I’m going to end up memory charming Xander’s parents to ignore me and move into the club. I might just take Xander with me if it comes down to it. Did you have any luck with your assignment?”

Hermione said, “Faith was in a mental ward but is currently with her watcher getting trained. I wasn’t able to find a location of Kakistos but we probably have a small window to deal with things before he shows up in Boston.”

”Any luck with the glove?”

Hermione said, “Harry and Tiffany picked up the Glove of Myhnegon and Leet and Uber took care of Ted and are working on looting his house and workshop.”

“That’s good to know.”

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

Mist shrugged, it wasn’t like he actually needed sleep anymore. “I managed a couple of hours of sleep. I’ll get some more tomorrow while my avatar attends class.”

“Any reason that you’re skipping?” Hermione asked.

“A couple of reasons, I have a college degree and don’t want to sit through what amounts to useless classes and I want to check on Tara. So yeah, I don’t see a reason to waste my time in school right now when I have other projects I need to work on. Besides, I have avatars that can suffer for me.”

Hermione smiled. “One of these days they’re going to form a union.”

“Considering they’re me, I can’t really see that happening.”

“In that case, best of luck for saving Tara. We should probably send Ranma after Fred.”

Mist frowned slightly as he thought about Pylea. “We should probably figure out a decent way to destroy Wolfram and Hart’s minions on that world but I want to get the anti scrying spell done before we pick a fight with Wolfram and Hart.”

“Probably a good plan. Do you want me to buy anything from the magic shop or should we just copy everything using a watch?”

“You might as well do both, see if you can find a starting guide for magic that has cleansing spells of some sort. I really don’t want to start teaching the gang magic before we scrub some of the hellmouth gunk off.”

“I’ll look into it,” Hermione agreed.

“How are you doing?”

“I’m looking forward to meeting the gang and having some fun in various item worlds with them after you turn them into Disgaea characters.”

“Any ideas what to do about Amy Madison?” Mist asked.

“Run her brain through the washing machine?” Hermione replied semi sarcastically.

“Hopefully, we can deal with her mother before she becomes too much of a problem. Maybe Giles knows a place to send her before she gets too far gone. Then again, killing Rack might help with some of that.”

“Part of me wants to just show them the DVDs.” 

“Yeah, I can’t see that ending well but it might be interesting. Let’s at least wait until I’ve tracked down the Mayor, Rack and Walsh and gotten to know Buffy a bit better.”

Hermione said, “I can wait, we should probably figure out the paperwork for you to get emancipated before you end up killing Xander’s father.”

“Probably. Either way, I should grab an eggo waffle then head out and check on Tara.”

“How are you even going to find her?”

“I’m going to ask Ranma to drop me off in the right town then I’m going to look her up, there can’t be all that many Maclays. Honestly her family situation was described as toxic, I might as well check on her.” He wasn’t sure what he’d find, her mother should be alive but he wasn’t sure if she was in good health or not.

“I’ll work out a leveling schedule.”

“Thanks,” Mist replied then turned and headed toward the gym to find Ranma. 

0o0o0

Tara Maclay was pulled from her thoughts as she turned and saw an old fashioned stage coach with four spectral horses pulling it down the road heading up the road in the same direction she was going. “How?”

Mist waved cheerfully then came to a stop. “Do you need a lift?”

“Wh-at?” Tara asked uncertain if she’d heard correctly.

Mist smiled at her. “I asked if you wanted a lift, it’s raining and my stage coach is covered.”

Tara frowned as she thought about the walk home, she’d missed the bus and it was another two miles, on the other hand the man had spectral horses and an old fashioned stagecoach. On the other than if he meant to harm her, she doubted there was much she could do about it, besides he seemed trustworthy. “O-kay.” She walked over to the passenger side of the covered stage coach then climbed up. “Sorry a-about the water.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure the seats will survive. Are you all settled?”

“Yes,” Tara replied hesitantly.

Mist flicked the reins which started the spectral horses walking. “So, I suppose you have questions?”

“Where did you get the spectral horses?”

“They came with the coach. I’m Mist, by the way.” He offered her his free hand.

“Tara but you al-ready knew that didn’t you?” She asked hesitantly as she shook the teenager’s hand.

“That’s why I’m here, I’m checking in on a future white witch.”

“Like a fairy godmother?” Tara asked hopefully.

“Something like that. Anything I can help with?”

“Do you have anything to cure demon blood?” Tara asked hesitantly.

“I’m sure I could figure something out if you actually had demon blood but you don’t.”

“All the women in my family…” she trailed off as she realized that he was serious..

“Are witches, yeah, that doesn’t require demon blood, your father lied.”

“W-why?”

“Because he wanted to control you or maybe because he’s a jerk? I have no idea why he lied and told you that you had demon blood. If you want we can ask him.”

Tara shivered. “He’d get violent.”

“In that case, how would you like a mana shield to keep you safe?” Mist asked. 

“What does it do?”

“It creates a shield around you that protects you while your mana pool lasts.”

Tara shook her head. “I don’t know if I have enough magic for that to help.”

“Don’t worry, I also have magic elixirs to help with that by boosting your maximum mana pool.”

“That sounds expensive,” Tara replied uncertainly.

Mist shrugged. “You’re a future hero, consider it an investment in the future and as a proof of concept for the other spells I want to trade you.”

“I’m not trading my soul.”

“Good, you’re already smarter than a lot of magic users I’ve heard of over the years. I don’t trade in souls, can’t in point of fact. I generally trade in favors if I don’t just give spells away.”

“What type of favors?” Tara asked hesitantly.

“In general or specific?” Mist asked as he watched the road.

“Both?” Tara asked.

“You’re cute, I might trade a book if you’d agree to go on a simple date with a girlfriend of mine or come up with a poem or do a couple of cartwheels or anything that seems amusing or interesting at the time. With someone else, I might trade a book if they ran down the street without any clothes on or any number of things to prove they actually wanted magic enough to step outside their comfort zone.” Mist pulled out a copy of the Diablo mana shield book and handed it to her. “Open it and you’ll understand.”

Tara carefully opened the book then blinked as it vanished and she suddenly knew how to cast a shield formed from magic that would use magic to soak damage. “That’s handy and strange.”

“It makes learning the spells easier. Does that work as a proof of concept?”

“It does. I’d still want my mother to check any magic elixirs.”

“I don’t have a problem with that,” Mist agreed.

“The house is on the left. I don’t suppose this can look like anything less noticeable in case my father gets home early?”

“It can also look like a sports car,” Mist replied with amusement as he turned the coach toward the driveway.

“Seriously?” Tara asked in surprise.

“Yeah, a 1978 camaro actually. I just went with the stagecoach because I hadn’t gotten to test it out and it looks a bit more magical than the camaro.”

“Are you even a guardian angel?”

“Eh, I’m a magic user and I want the best for you so sort of.” He smiled as he saw the blonde woman on the porch that looked to be in her late thirties and bore a resemblance to Tara. “If you want, I’ll bid you fare thee well and you can go on with your life. If you want to be able to protect yourself, I’d be happy to make some deals and chat with your mother about the elixirs.”

Rebecca Maclay said, “You might as well come in out of the rain, interesting horses.”

“Thank you.” Mist ‘parked’ the coach out of the way then climbed down and walked around to help Tara down. He focused on his coach and it changed back to it’s black camaro form taking the spectral horses with it.

Tara stared at the car. “You weren’t joking, were you?”

“Nope, I save the jokes for Xander, he’s better at it.” 

Tara walked with Mist to the house and inside into the living room.

Rebecca shut the door behind Tara and Mist. “Excuse the mess, my husband is a bit of a slob.”

Mist made note of the way she said husband with some disdain. “It happens.”

“I can’t help but notice the magical coach, where did you get it?”

“From a genie, more or less.”

Rebecca frowned. “Their wishes are always twisted.”

“The car was more or less a gift.” Mist figured the entire jump was basically a gift or at least a trade so that sort of counted.

“Why give my daughter a lift?”

“Because I wanted to talk to her and because it was raining and she didn’t have an umbrella.”

“Why did you want to talk to her?” Rebecca asked/demanded.

“Because she’s a future hero and I like helping people.”

“How?”

Mist launched into his pitch about offering Tara magic elixirs and training with various spells in the item worlds and how it helped both of them. He made a mental note to slip a potion to break curses into both of their stacks of elixirs as well as a couple of cure disease and health potions.

0o0o0

Tiffany leaned up against the wall next to Professor Walsh’s door as she reached out with her telepathy and looked through Walsh’s mind to see if she knew anything about the Initiative, she wasn’t all that surprised to find out that she was already part of it and that crews were already remodeling the bunker under the dorms. 

She held her breath and tried not to make any noise that would draw attention as a student walked past her blissfully unaware that she was standing against the wall thanks to her invisibility spell. She waited for the student to walk around the corner then opened the door, raised her hand and hit Walsh with a ball of lightning. She quickly blasted the mostly dead woman again in the head, just to make sure that she was completely dead then quickly shut the door as quietly as she could. She waited to see if anyone came running or shouted or did anything to show that they’d heard the spells. 

She waited twenty or thirty seconds then teleported outside of the abandoned dorm on campus when no one had screamed. She grinned as she floated up and over so that she could look in the mostly blacked out skylight. Thankfully, one little scratch of the paint and dirt was enough to see inside so that she could teleport into the dorm. She grinned as she floated up the stairs looking for vampires to blast with holy fire. Fighting fledglings was one thing, semi competent vampires that managed to stay on a college campus for decades, no thanks. Besides, Mist wanted to buy the dorm to use it as a base so that they could have parties and have a place to invite friends.

0o0o0

Mist wasn’t sure which surprised him more that Rebecca had been cursed to stay with her husband, that Tara’s real father wasn’t actually Rebecca’s husband or that her first reaction to the curse breaking after drinking the curse breaking elixir was to bundle up everything her and Tara owned, rush everything outside then toss a fireball into the house to set it on fire. He guessed that he could understand the desire for a clean break.

Tara stared at the burning house. “Mom?!”

Rebecca said, “I was cursed to never leave for more than half a day or to talk about the curse. I hate this house!”

Tara asked, “W-where will we go?”

Mist spoke up, “You’re always welcome to come with me to Sunnydale, I’d love to have a decent teacher for this world’s magic, I can pay you a decent salary.”

Rebecca frowned. “Sunnydale, that would require hazard pay and extra for circles and purification rituals.”

“That’s fine, we can work the details out once we’re gone.” Mist opened a portal to his warehouse. “You might as well toss some of your stuff through then I’ll park the car and we can take a portal to Sunnydale.”

“If you can create a portal, I don’t think you need my help in teaching you.” Rebecca gestured and transfigured the night stand into two bodies that matched her and Tara. 

“The instruction is also for one of my friends but I’ll explain more after we leave.” Mist had a feeling he was going to have to explain about jumping and the various types of magic he had if he wanted to get the most out of her help but that was fine.

Rebecca spent a few seconds memorizing the flames and the house, briefly wishing they could stick around to watch it but knowing it would be far better to be elsewhere once the flames rose high enough to be seen by the neighbors. “We’re already trusting him, you might as well move the bags as we need to leave as soon as possible.” She started moving bags as Mist moved the car into what looked like a warehouse. She had a feeling there was more to the story but there would be time for that later once they were long gone.

0o0o0

Mist wasn’t all that amused to get back to find Jesse had gotten turned into vampire, on the other hand he was glad to have proof that tasers actually worked on vampires to motivate them. He felt slightly bad about torturing the vampire wearing Jesse’s face into giving up his vampiric powers with a glove ensouled with generous donation so that the pain would stop. After that, it was just a matter of staking him, sprinkling holy water on his ashes to make sure the demon was gone then bringing him back as a human using revive. Sadly that sort of blew his cover with the group because Jesse couldn’t keep his mouth shut about finding himself somewhere other than where Darla bit him and how he’d found him which had caused Buffy a bunch of red flags. “Fine, sure, I brought him back to life, what do you want?”

“How?” Buffy asked suspiciously.

Mist sighed. “Magic, we live on the mouth of hell, it pays to have a couple of tricks up your selves.”

Giles frowned as he looked at the 15 year old that could bring back at the dead. “How?”

“There are several ways to bring back the dead, a long complicated ritual that requires an urn of Osiris, a resurrection spell that requires a decent amount of energy or revive which is rather easy. The problem is it doesn’t work on undead, I had to dust him first.”

Jesse asked, “I was dead?”

“Yeah, and now you’re not, get over it and you’re welcome,” Mist replied.

Willow asked, “Why didn’t you tell us you could use magic?”

“You didn’t ask.”

Selena snickered. “He told us.”

Willow pouted. “Why not me?”

“Because the twins let me kiss them and you’re crushing on my older brother.”

Xander asked, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Mist smirked at Xander. “You didn’t ask and you’re my older brother, I have to have some tricks. Besides, secrecy is important, if I told everyone how I did it, it wouldn’t be mysterious and I’d never get the girls.” He reached out and patted Abby on the head. “And I happen to like having two really hot girlfriends.”

Jesse said, “I can’t argue the logic.”

Buffy asked, “Seriously, you died and you’re okay?”

“I’m alive and I have a pulse, freaking out about it isn’t going to help. Besides, I spent plenty of time freaking out last night.” Jesse glanced over at the clock as the first bell rang. “I just want to go to class and forget that I died.” He turned and headed for the door.

Willow glanced at her sisters. “I’ll figure it out.” She turned and walked out.

Xander shook his head. “We’re going to have a long chat about keeping secrets.”

“Sure, have fun at class.”

Buffy asked, “What else can you do?”

“Lots of things.” Mist smiled at Buffy. “I’ll tell you after school, if you don’t hurry, you’ll be late.”

“What about you?”

“I have computers, I can afford to be a little late.”

“Cool, thanks for saving Jesse.” Buffy was glad that Jesse hadn’t died.

“He’s a horndog but he’s my brother’s friend.”

“Still, it’s nice to know, I’ll have help,” Buffy admitted.

“Of course.” Mist followed Buffy out of the library. He figured he’d ditch his class after roll call then buy the dorm on campus then pick up Ranma and check on Faith.

0o0o0

Mist was faintly surprised when he finally managed to track Faith down to a Boston martial arts studio using a locator spell after a couple of hours of dealing with buying the dorm and acquiring the materials to perform the locator spell. The first thing he noticed as he walked in was that she looked happier than she’d looked on the show and a bit less jaded which wasn’t terribly surprising as she was younger and hadn’t taken quite as many hits to her ability to trust. He glanced around the building filled with mats, bags and mirrors on the wall. It reminded him a little bit of the dojo from his home town only larger and more impressive. He glanced over at the woman in her late twenties or early thirties that was leading the class then walked over and sat down on the bench by the door to wait for the lesson to be over. It didn’t take him that long to realize that the woman leading the class was an excellent martial artist and teacher. ‘I might have to take classes if only for a reason to hang out with Faith.’

He found himself frowning slightly as he watched the students break up into pairs for sparring practice. ‘Seems almost tame after watching Ranma spar.’ He put a smile back on his face and tried to relax a bit as he thought about old friends from his days practicing martial arts and waited for the class to finish. His smile became a bit more real as he watched Faith get in a couple of points on her opponent. ‘Even without being the slayer she’s good.’

Thankfully the time flew by and it wasn’t long before before the instructor came over. “Can I help you?”

“I’m looking for a place to practice before my skills get rusty, how much is a membership?” Mist asked curious if his idea on how to get to know Faith was going to work. Thankfully they were taking new students and they took cash and didn’t require anything more than a signed permission slip that would be easy to forge which meant that he was on the floor not long after showing the instructor what he knew. Of course that had resulted in a rather different deal than he’d been looking for where he could use the bags and spar with the older students in exchange for teaching the occasional classes. He wasn’t overly bothered by that deal as he had avatars that could fill in if he got bored. 

0o0o0

Willow carefully avoided looking out of the one way mirrors onto the stage where several girls were practicing on the various poles unlike Jesse who was staring at the half dressed girls with rapt attention. At least Xander was trying to pretend that he wasn’t staring not that he was fooling anyone. She put her best resolve look as she focused on where Mist was leaning against his desk. “Spill.”

“About what?” Mist asked playfully as he glanced over at Buffy who was glancing around the office. 

“About magic.”

Xander spoke up, “And where you got enough money to buy the dorm.”

“Grandpa hated Tony, he wasn’t going to leave Jessica anything when Tony would just spend it so he gave it to me in the form of various trust fund.” Technically he hadn’t but it was an easy way to explain where at least some of his wealth came from and he was dead so it wasn’t like he was going to complain. “Picking up the dorm cheap just made sense.”

Buffy asked, “Why was it cheap?”

“Because of the vampires living there, don’t worry, they’re dust.”

“How?”

“It’s remarkably easy to kill vampires if you can turn invisible, muffle your feet and mask your scent with magic, especially during the day,” Mist pointed out with amusement.

Xander asked, “What is it going to take to get you to teach us?”

“I’ll tell you what, if you agree to magic lessons with Rebecca, I’ll teach you how to turn invisible and how to create a mana shield so that your mana pool takes the hit rather than you. Beyond that, I’ll trade spells for favors.”

Buffy asked, “What type of favors?”

“In Xander’s case, he needs to sign up for a martial arts class after school. If he’s going to be running around helping against vampires, he should have some ability to defend himself.”

“Vampires are stronger and faster than humans,” Buffy pointed out.

Mist shook his head. “Knowing how and when to fight helps. Besides, I can enchant armor that gives enhanced strength.”

Willow asked, “What would I have to do for magic spells?”

“You mean in addition to attending magic lessons?”

“Yeah.”

Mist pointed toward the mirrors. “Dancing or singing.”

Willow blushed red as she squeaked, “Dance?”

Xander said, “As amusing as that is, she’s not old enough.”

“That is what masks are for, but no seriously, I was thinking musical rather than pole dancing.”

Buffy glanced between Mist and Willow. “I’m sensing a story.”

Xander said, “Willow has stagefright.”

Mist grinned. “By facing her fears she becomes a better person and proves that she’s willing to work for her magic.” Mist knew he was being a little hypocritical as he’d gotten some of his magic via perks though he’d actually worked for most of his Diablo spells or at least the group had. Still, he wanted Willow to work for it so that she’d appreciate it.

“Any other options?” Willow asked hopefully.

“Not that I can think of right now.”

Buffy asked, “Would I have to sing?”

Mist shook his head. “I’d trade some spells if you helped her overcome her stagefright.”

Jesse pulled his attention away from the stage. “What about me?”

“You’d have to give up talking about Cordelia for a week.”

Jesse sputtered. “Seriously?”

“She’s hot and decently intelligent under the social conditioning but she really needs to get some actual life experiences before she’s worth much of anything as a person and maybe a muzzle or gag.”

Buffy frowned slightly. “Should I be relieved or offended that he doesn’t want me on a stage dancing?”

Mist stuck his tongue out at Buffy as Sin walked into the office.

Sin snickered as she stuck her tongue out at Buffy. 

Buffy turned her attention to the half dressed drop dead gorgeous girl sticking her tongue out at her seductively. “Why is everyone sticking their tongues out at me?”

“It seemed the thing to do.” Sin sauntered over to the table and sat down next to Mist. 

Mist noticed that Jesse’s eyes were a bit glazed as he stared at Sin like she was a cup of water in Death Valley. “Play nice Sin.”

“I’d love to play nice with the girls.” Sin blew Buffy and Willow kisses complete with red cartoon like lips that floated over and landed on Willow and Buffy’s cheeks with exaggerated kissing sounds.

Xander blinked. “Where did you find her?”

Sin snickered. “He followed me home, can I keep him?”

Mist chuckled as he reached up and patted his succubus on the head. “Right, this is Sin. Sin,” he gestured around the room, “Jesse, Xander, Willow and Buffy.”

Willow blushed as her gaze dropped to Sin’s rather impressive breasts that were only barely covered by the thin silk shirt she was wearing. “Do the twins know?”

“About Sin? Sure, they love playing with her.”

Sin licked her lips seductively at Willow. “I’d love a full set.” She turned to look at Buffy. “Any time you need to relax after patrol, I’m really really good at massage.”

Willow sputtered as she realized what Sin was suggesting. She was going to have to have a chat with her sisters.

Buffy blushed as she pulled her attention off of Sin’s breasts and body. ‘What the hell is wrong with me.’ She turned to look at Mist. “You told her?”

Sin shook her head. “He didn’t have to. You’re a slayer and I’m a magic user, it’s not hard to see what you are.”

“Oh.”

Jesse asked, “Why are you hoarding all of the cute girls?”

Mist turned to look at Willow. “I don’t have all of them, yet.”

Willow turned to look at Mist. “You’re a flirt.”

“A bit yeah.”

Buffy asked, “How come you haven’t flirted with me?”

Mist shrugged. “Because your sister is cuter and is a bit of a geek which is something I like. It wouldn’t be polite to actually flirt with you without talking to her about it and we’re just getting to know each other.”

Xander said, “That’s actually sort of sane for being insane.”

Sin grinned at Buffy. “Awesome, that means there shouldn’t be any objections to me seducing Buffy.”

Buffy blinked. “Wait, what?”

“Nope, knock yourself out.” Mist smiled as the door opened and Hermione walked in. “How’s it going?”

Hermione glanced around the room at the various people from the show then focused on Mist. “Ranma was able to recover the Orbs of Nezzla’Khan.”

Buffy asked, “What are those?”

Hermione said, “They’re small mystical crystal balls that grant their user enhanced strength and durability if you carry them around.”

Jesse said, “Damn, where can we get more?”

Mist said, “No idea, I’ve been looking for them for a while considering how dangerous the town is.”

“This isn’t some D&D magic item is it?” Xander asked.

“No, they’re real. Hopefully, I can figure out how to make some knock off versions for everyone once I have a chance to study them.” He was hoping he could figure out how to enchant something with the effect that didn’t have to be as fragile as the crystal orbs.

Willow asked, “Why didn’t you tell us?”

Mist used his telepathy to look at some of Willow’s memories until he found a time when he’d tried to tell her about lighting a candle with magic. Willow hadn’t believed him, of course they’d been a few years younger and he wasn’t sure if the fake version of him had actually lit the candle with magic but either way it worked for a reason why he hadn’t told her. “I tried to tell you about magic when I lit the candle, you didn’t believe me so I figured I’d just keep it to myself.”

Xander sighed. “Right, any other secrets you should tell us?”

“Eh, not really though I should probably introduce you to everyone after we pick up Dawn for her magic lessons.”

Buffy sputtered, “What, Dawn isn’t part of this.”

“She’s the younger sister of the Slayer, the demons aren’t just going to avoid her because she doesn’t know about the nightlife.”

“They wouldn’t dare,” Buffy complained.

“They live on the hellmouth, they’re not stable to start with. If they were actually sane, they’d flee for greener pastures as soon as they found out there was a slayer in the area. So yeah, training Dawn on how and more importantly when to use magic and what to avoid is rather important if you want to keep her safe. Besides, outside of a stupid Lovecraftian story, ignorance of a threat rarely helps.”

Xander spoke up, “I have to agree with my brother on this one, if she doesn’t know about vampires, all they’d have to do is walk up and ask to be invited inside or something as simple as can I get a glass of water. She’s be safer if she knew about vampires.”

Hermione said, “Besides, it’s important to get a solid foundation before you start experimenting with magic, especially on a hellmouth.”

Sin spoke up, “Besides, if she knows about the vampires she can help you cover with your mother.”

“Fine but Mom already thinks I’m slightly nuts…” Buffy trailed off as she didn’t like being reminded of her mother’s lack of faith in her.

Sin snickered. “Next time you need to convince someone that you’re the Slayer, start by bending an iron poker into a pretzel and go from there.”

“I probably should have,” Buffy admitted.

Mist asked, “Speaking of magic, is the dorm cleaned up enough for a meet and greet?”

Sin turned and mock glared at Mist. “What do you think I’ve been working on all day?”

“Having fun with the girls?”

Sin snickered. “I guess that’s fair but don’t worry, I dusted, cleaned everything up and got Rebecca and Tara settled.”

“In that case, anyone have an objection to free pizza and root beer while we listen to a lecture or two on magic and meet some of my other friends?” Mist asked.

Xander said, “How many cute girls do you have stashed away?”

“A couple,” Mist replied with amusement.

Jesse glanced at the mirrors as he asked, “What about the show?” 

“Eh, there will always be another time, besides the shows don’t start until later anyways,” Mist pointed out. 

Willow pulled her attention off Sin’s breasts as she said, “Let’s go.”

Sin snapped her fingers and wove an illusion of business clothes over her shirt as she didn’t want to attract too much attention getting to the dorms.

0o0o0

Mist lashed out and slammed ‘her’ hand into Luke’s face sending him sprawling in the alley behind the Bronze. “What’s the matter vampire? Were you expecting this to go better?”

Luke glared at the red haired girl that had just sent him sprawling as he got to his feet. “Slayer.”

Mist smirked as ‘she’ put her hands on her hips and posed dramatically. “Nope, that’s the other girl, I’m something much worse. I’m a magic girl vampire hunter. We fight for truth, justice and love.”

Luke stared at Mist like she was insane. “What?”

Mist sighed. “Right, tell you what, you take me to your master and I won’t dust you.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to beat him silly and take his gummy bears. No, seriously, it’s a slayer’s job to kill vampires, I’m going to kill him. If you don’t agree to take me, I’ll dust you and find someone else.”

“Fine, the Master can kill you.” Luke gave her one last glare then turned and headed toward the tunnels.

Mist followed the idiot vampire into the tunnels and through the maze under Sunnydale. He was rather happy that he could just teleport out once he got done killing the Master as the tunnels were a confusing mess. He just wanted to deal with the so called Master while Buffy and the rest were distracted with magic classes. Thankfully the vampire didn’t chat or say much of anything as they walked. He waited until they entered the cave with the partially ruined church then lashed out and destroyed Luke’s head with ‘her’ fist. “Hello, I’m a happy magical girl and I’ve come to kill you.”

The Master stared at Mist in shock as he tried to figure out how the hell the slayer was strong enough to casually obliterate Luke’s head. He reached out with his mental powers and found nothing but shadows where the girl’s mind should be. “What are you?”

Mist raised ‘her’ hand and started tossing holy bolts at the vampire until he burst into flames. “I’m a happy magic girl and you’re dead.” He cast soul trap on the Master then smirked as the Master finally crumbled to dust leaving behind his skeleton and leaving him with a filled soulstone. “Hopefully you have some gold stashed around here somewhere.” He figured he’d spend a few minutes looting the place then get back and get some sleep before he went looking for a way to deal with Amy’s mother.

0o0o0

The next couple of weeks were fairly easily dealt with as the group worked on eliminating threats, getting to know everyone and having fun. They’d dealt with Amy’s mother by giving her a mushroom to reduce her age back to a teenager then dropping her into an alternate world where she could reclaim her glory days as a cheerleader. Then it was a quick stop by Miss French’s house to kill the giant mantis. 

The most amusing part of the next couple of weeks was probably posing as Whistler and helping Angel get his humanity back. “I can help for a price.”

Angel asked, “How and how much?”

“Basically, you’ll give me your beneficial vampire powers to hold then I’ll transfer your soul to an Orb of Thesulah then I’ll soul trap Angelus. At that point, I’ll bring your body back to life and put your soul back with your body and restore your powers. No need for blood, no problems with sunlight, you’ll be human plus which means that you can help the Slayer.”

“And I’ll be male again?” Angel asked hopefully.

“For the most part, it’s a rather powerful curse that we can use to further boost your strength at night. It’s actually the reason that any of this is possible, the other side cheated, which means that we get to cheat. Don’t worry, by the time we’ll done, you’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”

Angel considered his options, all of the upsides of being a vampire and none of the downsides and he could atone for what he’d done as a vampire without worrying about bloodlust or Angelus moving around in the back of his mind. “Do it.’

Mist tossed Angel the glove that he’d created with ensoul and then handed him a gem. “Put on the glove then focus on your beneficial powers and will them into the gem, strength, senses, regeneration then durability last. After that, we’ll move your soul to an orb and then we’ll deal with your demon.” He made a mental note to thank Genie for the trustworthy perk as Angel didn’t even question Whistler deciding to help after not being able to before.

Angel held the gem and glove out as he asked, “Now what?”

“Now I capture Angelus.” Mist collected the gem and glove then pulled a white soul gem out of his inventory and cast soul trap on Angel. He hoped his plan actually worked like he was hoping. He pulled his sword out of his inventory with his free hand then stepped forward and cut ‘her’ head off before Angel could react.

He smiled as the white soul gem filled up with a demon. He looked down at the pile of dust. “I could just leave you, Buffy would never know… nah, Sin likes a challenge. Besides, someone would probably just bring you back.” He cast revive on the ashes which recreated Angel as a naked human woman in her mid twenties. “How do you feel?”

Angel glanced down at ‘his’ breasts. “Annoyed that you tried to kill me and that I’m still a girl.”

Mist put his sword back in his inventory, tossed him one of the couch pillows then pulled out his dark ticket and zapped Angel which changed him back to male. “Better?”

Angel used the pillow to cover himself. “Better. Now what?”

“Now you go get dressed and I’ll work on creating your alternate form.” Mist put the glove in his inventory then focused on the gem while Angel fled to get dressed. He used ensoul to grant the gem an alt form based off Angel’s female form that he’d gotten when he killed ‘him’. He pulled a necklace out of his inventory then worked on setting the gem while he waited for Angel. If everything went like it should, Angel would have Jesse’s powers normally and his former powers as a female or maybe even more depending on how everything combined. He put the soul gem with Angelus in his inventory. He was looking forward to stuffing Angelus into a stuffed animal then giving him to Miss Calendar so she could hand him over to her tribe right before he left the dimension in a year.

0o0o0

A quick trip to the zoo in the middle of the night before Xander, Willow and Buffy’s fieldtrip solved the problem with the lunatic zookeeper’s ritual. Mostly because he’d used magic to erase the marks on the ground then lured the man outside of the enclosure before dropping him in an alternate Sunnydale with his dimensional breach generator after stealing his keys, bank numbers, wallet and the location of his house. He briefly considered just killing the creepy hyenas but his holy bolt didn’t kill them or do any damage so he decided that they were probably normal if creepy animals after all. 

Of course, things turned out slightly worse or better depending on how you looked at it. The upside was that no one got possessed and thus Flootie wasn’t eaten but because of butterflies either from the missing zoo warden or conversations with Xander or Willow, they hadn’t been paying attention while Lance was ‘dragged’ off to the hyenas and thus Lance had nearly gotten eaten by the hyenas when the group of idiots pushed him toward the pen or at least that was his story. 

On the upside as the weeks passed the group managed to kill Darla and a decent number of the rest of the Master’s gang as well as Rack. That had been dealt with via soul trap and teleporting a rock into his head when he’d failed to be able to freeze the warlock. Mist had shot the Mayor with a sniper rifle during one of his public appearances while using an alt form so that he didn’t have to deal with him ascending in a couple of years.

From there things were decently quiet other than watching Buffy and Willow squirm because of Sin’s flirting after school and magic class. She had it down to an art form which wasn’t all that surprising considering she was a succubus. It was just enough to keep them flattered and interested without crossing the line. Amusingly enough Xander took Buffy and Angel circling each other much better than he did in the show, either because Jesse was still around or because he’d hooked up with Cordelia after a bit of nudging on the twins’ part so they could seduce Willow easier or at least attempt it. Mist had managed to get Willow to agree to a couple of dates with him and Tara that had went quite well. He wasn’t sure where that relationship would end up but as long as it didn’t end with Tara or Willow in tears, he was fine with whatever happened. 

0o0o0

Mist was rather happy that Sin was more than willing to show Faith a good time and was a shapeshifter with mad skills in the bedroom because she was able to keep Faith coming back for more which helped keep her more or less sane while they worked through her mental issues with the quasi therapy perk he’d picked up in Worm. As cute and fun as she was as a friend he didn’t want any part of that ball of crazy until she hit sixteen at the earliest considering her issues with authority and relationships.

He was just glad that Dawn found the entire situation with the odd relationships funny as hell because she was turning into a pretty decent friend and gaming partner. Sadly, or not depending on how you looked at it, things with Glory came to a head far sooner than he was expecting when she showed up to the school the last week of school with a couple of snake demons looking for her key. Thankfully most of the rest of the students had already left and the few that hadn’t were already running. “You should run Glory.”

Glory glanced at the snake demon then back at the group standing in front of the school. “This is too good, they split the key into four thinking I’d miss it.”

“I really should have killed you earlier.” Mist had been hoping he’d find a way to save Ben but he hadn’t come up with anything that wasn’t completely insane like using the ferula gemini on him.

Glory blurred forward to grab Mist only to have him dodge at the last second then hit her with an uppercut that would have pulverized concrete. She flew through the air then crashed through a car.

Cordelia stared at Mist in shock. “What the hell?”

“Seconded,” Buffy complained as she kept an eye on the snakes.

“What they said,” Xander agreed.

Mist replied absently as he watched the car that he’d knocked Glory into. “I’m tired of playing nice.”

Selena said, “We should get out of here.”

Glory pulled herself out of the car looking a little unsteady or maybe just pissed off. “What are you?”

“I’m a god!” Mist shouted the traditional Ghostbusters response when anyone asked if you were a god. Sure it didn’t actually fit but he wanted to keep her guessing. He teleported in front of Glory and punched her as hard as he could then teleported back.

Buffy blinked as Glory ripped through the car then bounced several times before she stood up looking pissed. “What the hell is she?”

“She’s a hell goddess.” Mist reached reached out and tried to teleport Glory into space only for his power to fail. “Well shit.”

Glory snarled. “You’re not a god, you don’t have the right aura, upstart magic users. I’m going to enjoy killing you.”

Mist teleported the ruined car around Glory then summoned his BFG9000 and shot the demonic snakes that Glory had created. He doubted it would help in the long run but it would slow her down in following them. He reached out with his power and teleported the group back to the club. “That could have went worse.”

Cordelia shivered as she looked around in shock. “What the hell Harris?”

“I took my best shot at the bitch but it wasn’t enough so I teleported us out of there.”

“Since when can you teleport?”

Xander stared at Mist’s large gun. “Since when have you had a working BFG9000?”

“Since a while ago on both counts,” Mist admitted as he returned his BFG9000 to its hammerspace.

Xander asked, “Now what?”

Selena said, “We should probably go on a road trip.”

Dawn nodded. “I like that idea.”

Buffy snorted. “We need to figure out what type of demon she is and how we can kill her.”

“She’s not a demon, she’s a hellgod,” Mist replied as he sat down on his desk.

Cordelia gulped. “You’re saying you just pissed off a god?”

“You’re in so much trouble.” Dawn was just hoping they could fix this because she really didn’t want to die.

“More or less but considering she wants to sacrifice some of us, I’m not all that concerned with upsetting her feelings.”

Willow asked, “How do you know that?”

“Research.”

Xander asked, “Does your research tell you how to kill it?”

“I’d need a divine weapon and I don’t have one,” Mist admitted reluctantly.

Buffy said, “I’ll call Giles maybe he can find something.”

“Her name is Glorificus or at least that’s the nearest human translation.”

Xander asked, “Is running an option?”

Willow nodded. “We have a couple of days of school left but after that, running is an option.”

Dawn asked, “What about fighting?”

Xander shook his head. “She went through a car and got back up without looking injured.”

“Can you duplicate the orbs of Nezzla’Khan for us?” Dawn looked at Mist hopefully.

Mist glanced at Willow. “I was sort of holding out on that until Willow agreed to do her singing and dancing routine for a live audience but that was before a hellgod decided to show up so I guess I can give it a try.”

Willow sighed in relief.

“You would be great.” Mist flashed a smile at Willow. 

Cordelia stared at Mist. “How can you be joking? Unless you’re lying we have a hellgod after us, why is that?”

Mist sighed. “It might be because we have magic or something else that she’s looking for.” He didn’t want to explain the key to anyone other than Dawn unless he had to. “If we can make it through the next couple of days, I know a couple of places where we can hide for the rest of the summer.”

Cordelia snorted. “Where?”

“A nice tropical Hawaiian beach on a different world.”. 

Xander asked, “How?”

“I have a friend that can make doors to other worlds.”

Xander stared at his brother trying to figure out if he was serious. “Seriously where the hell did you meet all of these people?”

“They’re part of my gaming group,” Mist replied with amusement.

“Does everyone in your group have magic?” Buffy asked.

“Yeah, that’s sort of the point. If you have books and character sheets for a game then you can talk about whatever you want and people just assume that you’re talking about a game. I’m going to call Hermione, she can create trinkets that will teleport you somewhere safe if you say a magic word. Glory swaps off with her host so if we’re lucky we should have a couple of days before she can come out to play again, in theory.”

“She has a human host?” Willow asked.

“Ben.” Mist frowned slightly he noticed everyone was sort of staring off into space.

“That would be helpful, who is it?” Buffy asked.

“Ben,” Selena replied.

Mist sighed as his suspicions about Glory’s alternate identity were confirmed. “No idea, it’s something to look into.” He made a note to check the hospitals just in case Ben was working as an intern or something. 

“In that case, what do you need to copy the orbs?” Willow asked.

Mist pulled a bag of orbs out of his inventory. “These are on loan, if you misuse them, I’m stealing them back.” He reached into the bag and pulled out a much smaller back with two crystal balls wrapped in cotton and handed it to Dawn. “Here.”

Dawn grinned as she took the two orbs. “I’ll be good.”

“You better,” Mist replied with amusement as he started handing out the bags of orbs. “Just don’t let them get crushed and you’ll be okay.”

Buffy asked, “Fragile?”

“Not exceptionally but yeah, they’re crystal and the enchantment doesn’t cover the orbs. Between the orbs and the portkeys to teleport people to safety, you should be fine finishing the last couple of days of school then we can go on a road trip.”

Selena said, “Sounds fun.”

Xander said, “If I can talk my folks into it.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard, just remind them that it gets us out of their hair for most of the summer, they should jump on it.” 

“That should do it.”

Buffy glanced at Dawn. “We were supposed to see Dad.”

“Like he’d even notice if we didn’t spend the summer with him,” Dawn complained.

Mist continued passing out the copied orbs as he didn’t want to get into the middle of things. He just wanted to last though the school year then have a fun summer traveling and killing monsters in various item worlds before he dealt with Halloween and season two.

0o0o0

Ranma was a bit amazed how easy it was to convince Glory to leave through a door to her hell dimension. She hadn’t believed him at first but then he’d opened it and she’d felt the unique energy seeping out and she’d jumped through in a heartbeat after telling her minions to grab her dresses. Five minutes later the door was sealed and Glory was someone else’s problem. He had a feeling she’d either kill two hellgods or get killed leaving the world a better place. Either way, any type of war would take longer than a year which meant they had plenty of time to come back with something powerful enough to kill a god. He took a last look around Glory’s highrise apartment for anything interesting then opened a portal back to the club to inform everyone that the problem was dealt with.

Vista smiled as Ranma stepped out of the portal. “You’re not dead, how did it go?”

Ranma let the door close behind him. “She’s back in her dimension, win or lose she shouldn’t be a problem for at least a couple of years.”

Vista sighed. “It feels a bit like dealing with the endbringers, the most we were doing was trying to limit the damage.”

“Sometimes you have to sidestep the problem and returning Glory to her world was safer than trying to figure out a way to hurt her.”

“I’m not disagreeing, I just want a win. I’d like to visit a world that isn’t completely screwed up.”

Ranma grinned. “Other than the demons and vampires, this world isn’t too bad.”

Vista shook her head. “Now what?”

“Eh, we could still take a short road trip before we buckle down for more training. Mist should be able to get the rest of the people turned into level 1 Disgaea characters by the end of the road trip, after that we can hit various items and boost everyone until they can crush most vampires and demons.”

“Have you heard where we’re going next?”

“Mist is still tossing around a couple of ideas, we’ll probably spend a couple of days back in my world so he can pick up some water from the cursed pools now that he picked up an endless enchant from the root beer keg.”

“Best magic item ever,” Vista agreed.

Dennis asked as he walked into the office, “What’s the best magic item ever?”

“The root beer keg.”

“I don’t know, our armor is pretty cool,” Dennis teased.

“Fine, best non combat magical item.”

“It’s certainly useful.” Dennis turned his attention to Ranma. “Weren’t you going to try to send Glory elsewhere?”

Ranma smirked. “Already taken care of.”

“Sweet, we should tell the others. I’m a bit sad that we won’t be taking a road trip but with that many girls, it’s probably for the best.”

Vista glared at Denis. “I’m a girl.”

“No, you’re a Vista,” Dennis teased then ran for it..

Ranma shook his head as Dennis ‘tried’ to escape the girl that could bend space like a petzel. He pulled out his phone to call Mist and inform him that Glory was taken care of.

0o0o0

Faith stared at the costume that Mist was holding up. “I knew you were a pervert.”

“What? Hey, no this isn’t the entire costume, this is just the ears and the tail…” Mist trailed off as he realized that Faith was just messing with him. “Right, the tail clips onto your belt.”

She snickered. “Oh come on, the look on your face was hilarious.”

“She has a point,” Faith’s watcher pointed out.

“I’ll have you know, my intentions toward your charge are perfectly honorable, at least for another year and change,” Mist defended himself.

Diana grinned as she knew how Faith felt about the young man. “Best of luck with that.”

“So, do we have a deal?” Mist asked hoping that Faith would come hang out with them for a day. 

”Sure, I’ll add the ears and tail to my costume for a magic book.” Faith turned to look at her watcher. “Any objections to us enjoying halloween?”

Diana shook her head. “Nah, most of the never dowells stay in on Halloween anyways, just stay in brightly lit areas and call if there is a problem. Besides, I almost feel bad for anyone that picks a fight with either of you.”

Mist grinned. “I don’t.”

Faith grinned as she grabbed the cat tail and ears and headed toward the dressing room to get changed into her costume. “This is going to be awesome.”

Mist smiled as he watched her practically bounce toward the dressing room. ‘If I ever figure out who the hell screwed her up in the other timeline, I’m going to make them regret it. I’m going to have to thank Sin for making her this happy.’ He was looking forward to seeing Willow in her costume though he had a feeling she’d just stick her traditional ghost costume over her catgirl outfit which was fine because it would take a miracle to talk Willow into wearing anything that even approached sexy. Then again that helped balance Aisha as it would take a minor miracle to talk her into wearing something that wouldn’t get them tossed in jail.

Diana looked at Mist’s toolbelt as she asked, “So what are you going as?”

“I’m going as a magical journeyman Builder, basically they build things like dungeons and castles and other magical equipment.”

“In other words, you grabbed a construction belt and stuffed some plastic toys in it and are calling it a costume?” Diana asked with amusement.

“Nah, at least one of the hammers is real and it gives me a nice place to carry a taser,” Mist admitted.

“It’s always good to be prepared,” Diana agreed.

0o0o0

Mist knew he was staring but couldn’t help it as the sexy catgirl took off her mask and he realized that it was Tara rather than one of the dancing girls like he’d been assuming. “Tara?”

Tara blushed as she spun around showing off her barely there costume. “You like?”

“Ah, yeah... “ Mist trailed off not sure what to say to the normally shy girl. Running around the item world had done wonders for her muscle tone and general fitness as well as confidence. “Is this a trick?”

Tara shook her head. “Willow and I sort of lost a bet with Sin. She got to pick out our costumes.”

“Wait, you mean Willow is in the same costume?” Mist asked with disbelief.

“Yep,” Tara replied with amusement.

Mist grinned as he pictured Tara and Willow curled up with each other as catgirls kissing.

“You’re thinking dirty thoughts aren’t you?” Tara asked a touch smugly.

“I was just picturing you and Willow kissing,” Mist admitted.

“Play your cards right and I might be able to talk Willow into letting us fix our vulnerability to preying mantis ladies.” Tara put her mask back on to cover her blush then walked out of the office while Mist’s brain tried to reset.

0o0o0

Buffy walked into Mist’s office. “Can you fix it?”

Mist rubbed his right temple as he looked up at Buffy. He had a bit of a headache which was probably a combination of the failed Halloween costume and the volume of the music that had been playing until the wee hours of the morning so Buffy was making even less sense than usual when she got excited. “You’re going to need to give me more details than that, I haven’t gone to sleep yet and Faith, Dawn, Aisha and Vista wore me out trick or treating then Tara, Willow and the twins wore me out in the bedroom while you and… Angel. Shit did the curse break?” He knew the curse shouldn’t be in play anymore but this was the hellmouth.

“What no, nothing like that.” Buffy shook her head. “The Halloween spell broke his girl form.”

Mist asked, “What happened?”

“I went as a foxy Bond girl, he went as James Bond only he went as his female form in a suit and he…”

Mist rubbed his nose. “Spit it out.”

“His female form got stuck with a dick…” Buffy trailed off with a blush.

Mist blinked as that wasn’t what he was expecting her to say. “So he got turned back to a male?”

“No, he’s got both… can you fix it?” Buffy asked hopefully.

“I would have thought you’d enjoy him having the ‘proper’ equipment.”

“I sort of like…” Buffy shook her head. “Can you fix it?”

“I can certainly try. If nothing else I should be able to add his female form back to his transformation item so that you can have the best of both worlds, you sick, sick puppy,” Mist replied playfully.

“What’s it going to cost?” Buffy asked hoping that he didn’t set the price too high.

“I’d ask to watch you and Sin but nah, this one is on the house.”

“Really?”

“I charge for spells so that the team values them…” Mist trailed off as a crazy idea came to him, the truth was going to come out eventually if he wanted everyone to jump with him which meant telling the group about the fact that there was a television show about them on certain worlds. “Actually, do you want a glimpse into what might have been?”

“What might have been?” Buffy asked warily.

“Yep, I have some DVDs that you might want to watch.” He figured showing her the first couple of seasons of Buffy as an alternate dimension wouldn’t ruin things with Dawn or Faith as long as they didn’t show Faith’s descent into madness. Then again, Faith was already a different girl with friends, training, magic and Sin making sure she didn’t end up with a string of losers for boytoys. “Actually, we should probably grab the team and make a day of it after I get some sleep.”

Buffy pulled Angel’s upgrade necklace out of her pocket and handed it to him. “Can you fix this first?”

Mist focused on the item. “The good news is the only thing wrong with it is that his alternate form got twisted by the Halloween spell.” He focused then ensouled Angel’s female form into the necklace. “That should do it.”

Buffy asked, “That’s it?”

“That’s it.” Mist gestured and opened a portal to his warehouse. “Angel should be fine without this for a bit, let’s find a spot in the pillow fort and we can watch a DVD that should shed some light on your upcoming monsters of the week.”

Buffy raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Sure, I’ll probably fall asleep but yeah, I have a feeling the DVD will be informational and occasionally funny.” He was fairly sure that Buffy wouldn’t find a decent amount of it funny but hopefully it would be useful.