Traveling Magic Shop Part 20 (Patreon)

"Finally!" Vicky exclaimed cheerfully when she unwrapped one of the packs of cards and found a card with a half naked man with muscles standing behind an anvil with a hammer in his hands.

Amy looked up from her stack of cards. "You found a lightning bolt?"

"Nope, eye candy," Vicky replied as she showed her sister the card.

"That can't be safe," Amy muttered as she watched the shirtless smith pull a glowing blade out of the forge and hammer it a couple of times before he stuck it back in the flames.

"Don't care," Vicky replied with a grin as she put the handsome smith in her pile.

"How come you can never find something when you're looking for it?" Taylor asked as she put another card in her growing pile of cards that had spells she wanted to learn.

"Bad luck or random chance," Harry offered as he walked out of the back room.

"How many rings were you able to make?" Rose asked her brother as he set a handful of enchanted rings on the table and walked over.

"At least six, the rest are a bit dodgy," Harry admitted as he sat down next to Taylor.

"How much do we owe you?" Taylor asked.

"Don't worry about it," Harry told her, feeling generous since they'd let him watch them strip.

"What do you mean by dodgy?" Aisha asked.

"One of them makes the bottom half of your body invisible while another one does the same for your top half, one of them just makes your arm invisible while another one makes your face green and another one makes you look like a hag, they're supposed to disguise your features, not turn you invisible," Harry complained a bit annoyed that he hadn't been able to duplicate the failures.

"Myst should be able to upgrade the invisibility rings," Rose mused.

"Can I have an invisibility ring?" Aisha asked hopefully.

"You should hold out for naked jumping jacks," Rose teased.

"No problem," Aisha assured him, willing to do a lot more than just show some skin for something that let her turn invisible.

Amy tossed the card with a naked witch with runic tattoos into her pile of cards that had spells she wanted to learn and looked at the next card of a girl summoning a lightning storm. "I think we're good, call lightning."

"Can I see it for a minute?" Rose asked as she held her hand out.

"Sure," Amy replied as she handed the card to Rose.

Taylor turned to look at the door when the bell rang and a brown haired teenager entered her range, giving her a temporary power to play with and a bunch of schematics that would let her drones be more effective.

Vicky smiled when she recognized her friend. "Hey Chris."

"Hey," Chris replied, surprised to see Amy and Vicky at a magic shop. "What are you working on?"

"We're learning magic," Amy replied with a hint of a smile, knowing he wouldn't believe her.

"Okay?" Chris replied as a man in his twenties with dark hair walked out of the back room, not quite sure how to take Amy's statement.

'Chris? Yeah, might as well check,' Myst thought as he used his Upgrade ability to check to see if the kid had powers. 'Yep, Modular designs,' he thought as he checked on the teen's mental issues, curious about his dyscalculia. 'Dyscalculia and a mild form of ADD, that tracks,' he thought, trying to figure out the best way to bring things up. "Welcome to the Magic Shop, how can I help you?"

"I saw a flier and I was in the neighborhood," Chris replied as he walked over to see what Vicky and Amy were working on.

"Cool, let me know if you need something…" Myst trailed off as the bell rang and two people in what looked like suspiciously functional power armor walked into the shop. "Nice costumes, welcome to the Magic Shop."

"Thanks," Uber replied as he looked around. "Do you have something that can fix powers?"

"Shit," Vicky complained when she realized that Leet was in the shop and using tech that he'd used before which generally ended badly.

'Shit!' Leet thought when he recognized Vicky, hoping that she didn't start anything in the middle of the shop since their current suits didn't have enough weapons to stop her from crushing them like tin cans.

'They need jump jets,' Chris mused as he studied the duo's power armor, coming up with several ways that he could probably improve it.

"That depends, what's wrong with your power?" Myst asked as he used his Upgrade ability to check the man's powers. 'Skill Emulation? I'd rather have the better half of Oliver's powers, at least he keeps everything he learns.'

"I'm pretty sure my friend's power is trying to kill him," Uber replied, figuring he might as well ask on the off chance that Leet's crazy theory about shops that randomly swapped locations had some truth to it.

"Have you tried percussive maintenance?" Myst asked as he checked Leet's power, not surprised that there wasn't anything wrong with his tinker ability since the restrictions were basically shard based.

"It doesn't help," Uber complained, thinking about the times that he'd punched Leet for scavenging important appliances for parts, like the microwave.

"I don't need additional bruises," Leet complained.

"Joking aside, I might be able to help if you can make it worth my while and can answer a question honestly," Myst mused.

"What type of question?" Uber asked before Derick could put his foot in his mouth.

"That video with the hookers, did you actually run around beating a bunch of girls up?" Myst asked, trying to figure out if they were worth helping.

"I fucking told you posting that shit was a bad idea," Uber complained, giving Leet a glare.

"Grand Theft Auto was a great series," Leet argued.

Uber sighed. "Doesn't change the fact that it wasn't worth the PR hit."

"So why did you do it?" Vicky asked.

"Leet was experimenting with a new type of fuel for a cart and there was a leak. We were high as kites when we made the video and probably still a bit impaired when we posted it," Uber admitted.

"We lost about twenty thousand on that gig," Leet grumbled.

"How?" Chris asked.

"We paid most of the hookers to take a fall and used a holographic weapon, it's completely safe," Uber assured them.

"Most?" Rose asked.

"Jackie tried to kill Leet with a tire iron because we scratched her bike a couple of weeks before we did the movie, so we didn't pay her," Uber explained.

"Over a scratched paint job?" Vicky asked.

"The bitch is crazy, you could barely see the scratch and I offered to fix it," Leet complained.

"Tell you what, if you give me a suit of power armor and let me scan your current armor, I'll give you something that should let you check your inventions to make sure they won't explode and I'll even toss in a power to make sure things can't mess with your head," Myst offered.

"Does the suit have to work?" Leet asked, thinking about the old set of power armor that he'd pulled the power core from to keep it from exploding.

"What's wrong with it?" Myst asked, wanting to make sure it wasn't completely slagged.

"I had to pull the power core," Leet admitted. "It was just a problem with the core but I never got around to fixing it."

"I'm sure I can come up with something to replace the core, so yeah, that works," Myst agreed as he reached under the counter and grabbed one of the tricorders that he'd replicated.

Leet stared at the familiar looking device that the shopkeeper was holding. "Where the fuck did you get a tricorder?!"

"I run a legitimate business, it fell off a truck," Myst lied as he used the tricorder to scan their armor.

"How much?" Uber demanded, figuring it might let him keep Derick alive.

Myst shook his head. "Sorry, I only have one."

"Figures," Leet grumbled. "What's involved in getting the power?"

"I snap my fingers and you get it, it's simple as that," Myst replied as he snapped his fingers and used his Pyramid Scheme ability to give Leet a copy of his mental defense package, not seeing a reason to give him a copy of the rest of his powers. "That should give you a decent amount of defense against Masters."

"Can you do that for everyone?" Chris asked.

"Technically." Myst snapped his fingers and gave Uber the mental defense power. "That covers the mental defenses. I should be able to make a wand that you can use to check to make sure his inventions aren't going to explode the first time he uses them."

"That would help," Uber admitted. "How long will it take?"

"How long will it take to get the power armor?" Myst asked. He turned his head to look at the door when the bell rang. He frowned when he saw a man with light brown skin walk into the shop wearing a black suit with a red mask and a top hat. 'Red mask and a top hat?' he thought as he checked the man's powers. 'Sympathetic teleportation? Yeah, that's Trickster.'

Trickster glanced between the two people in power armor then looked at the teens sitting at the table before he focused on the shopkeeper. "I heard you might be able to help."

"Welcome to the Magic Shop, what do you need?" Myst asked as a blond guy that would have overshadowed a young Johnny Depp wheeled a red haired girl in a mask into the shop.

"My friend has been stuck in a wheelchair since she was four, I was hoping you had something that could help," Trickster said, hoping that if he could help Jess then he might have something that could help Noelle.

"No worries," Myst replied as he checked Trickster's mental health. 'Compromised emotional stability, narcissistic tendencies, mild sociopathic issues, yeah, that tracks.' He grabbed one of the bottles of cider from under the table and quickly spent the mana to boost the cider's healing ability so that it would fix any and all physical problems with the person that drank it. He floated the bottle over to the girl in the wheelchair. "Drink the entire bottle and you'll be walking in no time."

"How much?" Genesis asked warily.

"Five dollars a bottle…" Myst trailed off as Jess opened the bottle and drank it without any hesitation. 'One down, half a dozen to go.' He checked her power and physical and mental health, happy to see that most of her issues were already vanishing. He spent the mana to boost her leg strength up to something a bit more reasonable then grabbed another bottle of cider and spent the mana to boost it.

'How much is too much?' Taylor mused as she let Oliver's power tweak her features a touch, getting rid of some of the imperfections. 'That's enough,' she told herself, not wanting to look like a complete stranger in the mirror. To pay him back she reached out with her power and twisted Oliver's power so that he had a switch so that he could turn the changer part of it on and off.

Trickster smiled as he watched Jess's legs fill out before his eyes, going from looking like the legs of a cripple to the legs of someone that actually got regular exercise. "Can those fix anything?"

"Anything physical, including old injuries," Myst replied as he floated the upgraded cider over to Trickster. "Take a drink, I have more."

"Might as well," Trickster agreed as he pulled a straw out of his pocket, popped the cap and stuck the straw in the cider and took a sip. He quickly finished the bottle then promptly started coughing up his lungs.

"Catch!" Myst tossed an empty wastebasket toward Trickster then floated it down in front of him, making a mental note in the future to warn smokers before they drank the cider.

"What the hell?!" Jess blurted out.

"I'm guessing he smokes," Myst replied as Trickster pulled his mask up enough so that he could hack out all of the tar that had been in his lungs. "Look on the bright side, he'll be fit as a fiddle when he's done."

"That's nasty," Aisha complained as Trickster coughed out black tar.

"Yep," Myst agreed as he grabbed another bottle of cider.

"We should sell tickets," Leet suggested.

"Fuck you," Trickster sputtered between coughs.

Myst boosted the cider then floated it over to Oliver. "Drink up, it should fix all of your old injuries."

"Are you sure it's safe?" Oliver asked warily.

"It tastes fine," Jess said, not looking up from watching her legs as she tested out her leg muscles, something she barely remembered having.

"As long as you're not a smoker or someone with implants, you should be fine," Myst assured him as he checked Oliver's physical and mental health with his Upgrade ability, not surprised that he was also emotionally compromised and in need of a couple of years of therapy. 'Drink it so I can explain that you're a bunch of Simurgh bombs without anyone exploding.'

"Just drink it," Jess told him, feeling better than she'd felt in years, as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"Fine," Oliver whined as he popped the top of the cider.

Myst checked Oliver's power, curious if the cider would fix it. 'Huh, the changer part has an off switch.' He glanced over at Taylor, wondering if she'd changed or if he was just imagining things since he didn't have the best memory for faces. 'Probably just as well that she fixed it before she ended up unrecognizable.'

"Are you guys new or just new to the area?" Vicky asked Jess.

"New to the area," Jess replied as she focused on Vicky. "We were heading up to Boston when we found a flier for the shop. My friend is pretty sick and my legs were messed up when I was a kid so we figured we'd swing by and give it a try, I'm glad that we did."

Trickster coughed to make sure all the crud was out of his lungs then adjusted his mask and stood up. "That sucked, you could have warned me."

"Didn’t know you were a long term smoker or that your lungs were in that bad a shape," Myst replied as the bell rang and the door opened, revealing a dark haired teenager that was wearing a scarf over the lower half of her face.

"Noelle's getting a bit anxious, any luck?" Marissa asked as she walked into the shop.

Myst grabbed another bottle of cider and spent the mana to make sure it would heal just about anything. "You owe me twenty dollars but this should fix a lot of Noelle's problems."

"How did you know her name?!" Trickster demanded, wanting to know what the hell was going on.

"I run a magic shop," Myst replied as he floated the bottle over to Marissa. He checked Marissa's mental health and smiled slightly when he didn't see anything implying that she wasn't sane or at least no worse than most teenagers. "If the bottle doesn't fix her powers, I know someone that can help. You just need to keep her calm enough that she doesn't go on a rampage until we can get everything fixed."

"How much is that going to cost?" Trickster asked as he pulled his wallet out of his pocket and grabbed a twenty.

"No clue but considering Noelle's powers, they'd probably consider it a public service," Myst replied, figuring he could probably upgrade Noelle's power if he couldn't talk Taylor into adjusting her power so that it wasn't as destructive or dangerous. He turned to look at Leet. "I'll give you the detection item when you get back with the armor, this mess is more important."

"Take your time," Leet told him, already feeling better now that he had a possible solution to his power trying to kill him.

"What does the bottle do?" Marissa asked.

"It heals people, including old injuries which means that it can reverse the effects of certain types of masters and it should heal her to perfect health, which would give us time to deal with her power," Myst explained.

"I can move my legs," Jess offered as she lifted her legs up, causing Marissa to stare at her friend.

"I'll give it to her, I don't know if she'll drink it," Marissa told them then headed back out to deal with Noelle.

"At least things can't get worse…" Uber trailed off as a blond teenager appeared at the other table. "More capes?"

Greg blinked a couple of times as his eyes adjusted to the light. "Sorry, I got carried away killing slimes."

"No worries," Myst told Greg, relieved that he was fine and a bit surprised that he hadn't run into trouble.

"Are you a teleporter?" Trickster asked.

"No, just a guy with a magical game…" Greg trailed off when he turned and saw the power armor. "Where did you get the power armor? That would make things so much easier!"

"You have magical games?!" Leet demanded, almost vibrating in excitement, like a puppy that was about to mess up the rug.

Myst laughed as he pointed toward the game room. "Take a look, let me know if you have any questions."

"Cool," Jess said as she started wheeling her way toward the game room, not quite ready to test her legs and give up the fantasy that she might be able to walk.

"We should probably go test the box," Rose told Vicky and Amy, curious if the lightning from the spell would properly fuse the costumes or if she needed real lightning.

"Works for me," Vicky agreed, deciding that she didn't need to stick her nose into things that didn't concern her.

0o0o0

Taylor watched Greg and Uber vanish into Greg's game world with Greg's collection of cards then turned to look at Myst. "Can I borrow one of the disguise rings so I can help Noelle?"

"Sure, give me a second to make sure they aren't cursed," Myst replied as he quickly checked the rings. "Three extra disguises, two disguises, invisibility… ooh, two disguises, a computer interface and the ability to turn your left foot invisible, I can work with this," he mused as he picked up the ring with the computer-like interface.

"How much can you upgrade it?" Taylor asked.

"Good question," Myst replied with amusement as he spent the mana to upgrade the ring so it could save five disguises and selectively turn parts of the wearer or her clothes invisible, giving her some interesting options for messing with people. He spent the mana to give her the option to hide from various types of extraordinary senses, including precog. "I boosted the invisibility to include various forms of detection, including precog."

"Does this mean I can walk around without cameras picking me up?" Taylor asked.

"In theory." Myst handed her the ring. "I wouldn't try sneaking into Armsmaster's lab and I'd still wear a mask while running around but it should make sneaking around the city a lot easier."

"Thanks," Taylor replied as she slipped the ring on. "How do I activate it?"

"Just think about pulling up the interface," Myst told her.

"Not sure…" Taylor trailed off as a game-like interface appeared in front of her, showing what looked a lot like a character generator for a cape game. "Never mind, I got it."

"Cool," Myst replied as he went to work upgrading the rest of the rings so they'd be more stable and or useful.

"What can you tell me about Noelle?" Taylor asked.

"For reasons I'm not going into, her powers are a bit weird. Her shard is basically the same one that Oliver has which might help with patching up her ability. In addition to being an extremely dangerous and unstable brute, she can create twisted and evil clones of anyone that she touches which makes her one of the most dangerous capes alive. She also hates her power and isn't particularly stable or at least she wasn't before she drank the cider."

"If anyone asks, you called me," Taylor said as she activated her ring, changing her appearance to an average looking woman with short blonde hair and changing her clothes into an ash gray business suit and a black theater mask. "I'll be back in a bit."

"Best of luck," Myst told her.

Taylor walked out of the door and froze when she felt Noelle's presence or the presence of her powers and she realized that they were screwed up. 'Touch based evil clone creation without any conscious control, no one needs homicidal clones,' she complained as she turned that part of Noelle's power off, unwilling to get near her while her power was active. She turned Noelle's Changer ability that is turning her into a monster off as she headed toward the moving van where she could feel a group of capes that were probably the rest of their group since she recognized the teleporter and the girl that could conjure a miniature sun.

"Stop!" Perdition ordered as he raised his hand, ready to use his power.

Taylor temporarily turned the cape's power off, not seeing a point in letting him erase part of her memory and teleport her around in an attempt to fake being reset in time. "I'm here to help Noelle, the shopkeeper called."

"Do you have any proof?" Perdition demanded, not seeing a point in being polite since Noelle was back to normal.

"No," Taylor replied, then raised her voice, "I'm here to help."

"Stop messing around," Marissa complained as she walked out of the back of the truck.

"Piss off," Perdition complained then tried to use his power on the cape. "What the fuck?!" he sputtered when he realized that his power hadn't activated.

"I'm a trump," Taylor replied. "I turned your power off, you can get it back when I leave."

"I'm going to fucking kill you if you don't give it back!" Perdition snapped as he stalked toward Taylor, trying to intimidate her. He froze when the sky lit up and a wall of sound hit him.

"Yeah, that's loud," Taylor complained as she made her way past the deranged cape, glad that her costume prevented her ears from taking any damage. She stopped when she saw a young woman that was probably a couple of years older than she was leaning up against the back of the moving van with a blanket wrapped around her waist. "I'm here to help with your power, do you want me to remove your ability to create clones or modify it?"

Noelle shook her head. "I don't want it."

"Having loyal clones would be useful," Trickster pointed out, having a bit of trouble hearing because of the lightning bolt that had hit somewhere behind the shop.

"I don't care, we don't need the trouble or the responsibility," Noelle argued, knowing she'd never trust the clones. "Am I going to turn back into a monster?"

"I can turn your changer ability off or use your friend's changer rating to stabilize things if he wants to get rid of it," Taylor offered, trying to appear less capable than she actually was in case they talked.

"Would I stay like this?" Oliver asked as he pointed at his face, not wanting to go back to being an ugly fat kid.

"You'd have to actually exercise to keep your six pack but that shouldn't be hard with your powers," Taylor assured him.

"You're insane," Perdition complained as he stalked over. "We could rule the world with your power but you don't care!"

"Eidolon would kill me," Noelle pointed out, tired of Cody's shit.

"Unless you copied him," Perdition argued.

Noelle shook her head. "I have to touch people, it wouldn't end well."

"Fine. Give me my fucking powers back!" Perdition snapped at Taylor, wanting his powers restored so he could ditch the group.

"If you want your powers back, go in the shop and buy a cider, it should break the nullification effect," Taylor lied, figuring he needed some mental health.

"Fine!" Perdition snapped and stalked off toward the shop to buy a cider.

Taylor shook her head, making a mental note to turn his powers back off in case the cider actually reset her changes. "Do you want to keep your changer power?"

Oliver shook his head. "I'm tired of changing all the time and if it helps Noelle, looking like a model is a sacrifice I'm willing to make."

"Lucky you," Trickster muttered.

"That makes things easier," Taylor replied as she adjusted his changer ability so that it would function as a mild form of regeneration and keep him young but wouldn't change his features. 'Having one face should help his mental health, probably,' she thought as she touched his hand and permanently copied his powers, wanting his ability to rapidly master skills.

"Do you have to touch people to fix their powers?" Noelle asked warily.

"Only if I want the changes to be permanent," Taylor lied, not wanting to admit that she could make permanent changes at range. "Don't worry, I turned your power off."

Noelle held her hand out. "We're going to have to kill your clone if this doesn't work."

"It should be fine," Taylor assured them as she tweaked Noelle's power so that she'd have more control over the people she copied. 'Okay, that should prevent any evil clones.' She spent a minute adjusting Noelle's changer rating so that it would keep her healthy and alive and make sure her regeneration wasn't going to cause problems. "Now I just need to reach out and touch your hand."

"Just do it before I change my mind," Noelle told her, hoping that she wouldn't have to kill the girl's clone.

Taylor double checked that Noelle's cloning power was locked down then reached out, touched her hand and copied her power. She pulled the cloning ability out of Noelle's power so that she could give it to someone else and to make sure that someone else couldn't 'fix' things or unlock the changes. She double checked Noelle's powers to make sure there wouldn't be any problems then pulled her hand back. "That should do it, you can touch people without making copies and you won't turn into a monster."

"Thank you!" Noelle told her, relieved that her nightmare was over.

"Just remember that you're still a brute so you could hurt someone accidentally," Taylor reminded her.

Noelle nodded. "I'll keep that in mind. How much do we owe you?"

"Nothing," Taylor assured her. "But if you want to pay it forward, be a hero or at least a heroic antihero."

"I'm not…" Ballistic trailed off when another lightning bolt struck the area behind the shop.

"What the hell are they doing?" Trickster complained, tired of the noise.

"Playing with lighting," Taylor replied. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm leaving before the PRT gets here."

"Probably a good plan," Trickster agreed, wanting to avoid getting back on their radar.

"I need to say thank you to the shopkeeper and to see if he has any pants," Noelle said as she headed for the shop, making sure her blanket didn't fall down.

"Good luck," Taylor told them, then walked around the van and used her ring to vanish so that she could make her way over to where one of the girls was making noise.

0o0o0