Traveling Magic Shop Part 21 (Patreon)

"Magic girls!" Riley squealed when she saw the flier for the magic shop that was sitting on the table of the café they'd stopped at to grab some food.

Jack pulled his attention away from the rude and rather overweight waitress that he was seriously considering killing for being rude and looked at Riley. "What?"

"The shop sells magic girl items that turn you into magic girls," Riley replied as she checked the address for the shop. 'Oh, Panacea and I could be magic girls together!'

"Magic doesn't exist," Jack pointed out.

"Duh, it's tinkertech," Riley replied, not seeing a problem if Jack wanted to pretend that the magic rods were just tinkertech.

"Where's the shop?" Jack asked, figuring it might be worth checking out since Alan liked torturing tinkers.

"Brockton Bay. Can we go?" Riley asked hopefully.

"Might as well," Jack agreed after a couple of seconds of weighing the risks against how much fun he'd have killing a bunch of capes, proving that magic didn't exist, and that people couldn't have nice things.

"Thank you!" Riley smiled as she thought about all of the fun she was going to have as a dark magic girl while Amy tried to stop her and was ultimately seduced by her.

0o0o0

Myst turned to look at the brown haired teen that walked into the shop when the bell rang. "Welcome to the Magic Shop, how can I help you?"

"The bitch said your cider can fix my powers," Perdition replied as he walked over to the counter.

Myst used his upgrade ability to check his power. 'Reverts objects and Taylor locked his powers, probably for the best,' he mused as he grabbed a bottle of cider from under the counter. He spent the mana to boost the healing properties of the cider to include mental health and all physical damage then set the cider on the counter. "Five dollars."

"Sure…" Perdition trailed off as he tried to grab the cider so that he could drink it without paying and the damned thing wouldn't budge. "What the fuck?!"

Myst gestured over his shoulder at the rules that were posted. "No shoplifting, no complaining about morals in the shop, and you have to be kind and courteous to the staff."

"What happened to the rule about the customer is always right?" Cody complained.

"I've met a lot of stupid people over the years and I actually like my staff, so yeah, no, pay the money or fuck off," Myst told him, fairly sure the best work around for Cody's mental issues was to make it sound like he didn't care and was just trying to make a profit because it fit with his world view.

"Fine," Perdition complained as he pulled his wallet out and took out a crumpled five and set it on the counter.

"Pleasure doing business with you," Myst replied sarcastically as he grabbed the five and dropped it in the box under the counter.

Perdition shook his head. "How the fuck do you stay in business?"

"I run a magic shop, I don't have a lot of competition," Myst replied smugly as he opened another 'window' so that he could watch Cody's various mental flaws while keeping an eye on his power.

Perdition snorted then picked up the cider, popped the cap and took a drink. 'Damn, that's better than the cider my grandmother makes.'

'One less Simurgh bomb,' Myst mused as he watched most of the kid's mental issues vanish as the cider worked its magic.

Perdition finished drinking the cider then tried to reset the shopkeeper and scowled when he found that his power wouldn't activate. "I want my money back, the cider didn't work."

"It fixed your physical issues and fixed the damage the Simurgh did to your brain, so yeah, I'm not giving you a refund," Myst replied, glad that his power was still locked down.

"How do you know about that?!" Perdition demanded, ignoring the bell over the door as it rang.

"I run a magic shop," Myst replied with a grin as a cute and rather petite teenager with shoulder length brown hair walked into the shop holding a flier. "Welcome to the Magic Shop, how can I help you?"

She glanced at the guy with a mask then focused on the shopkeeper, hoping she wasn't making a mistake since the shop had a distinct lack of bubbling potions or glowing weapons of power. "Do you have anything that can give people powers?"

"That depends, what type of powers are you looking for?" Myst asked the girl as he used his Upgrade ability to check to see if the girl had powers or a magic stat. 'No powers and less magic than Greg. She'll need a boost and some cards or a warlock deal unless we just want to go with a costume or some magic gear.'

"Something that will keep people from stabbing me," she replied, thinking about the gang members in the school that had been getting a lot more active since Sophia had vanished.

"If you're handing out powers, I'm in the market," Perdition cut in.

Myst glanced at Perdition then focused on the girl, not particularly interested in selling Cody powers since he'd been a prick even before he'd gotten screwed over by the Simurgh. "If you're just looking for personal defense while you're running around town, I can sell you a naughty Supergirl costume for cheap, basically twenty five dollars and a hit to your modesty and you get Flight and a magical force field."

"What type of hit to my modesty…" she trailed off as one of the doors opened, revealing an attractive blonde girl wearing a sheer Supergirl costume. "I think the teachers would object."

"Unless you're wearing it under something or over a halter top and some shorts," Myst replied as he used his Upgrade ability to check the blonde girl's power as she floated into the room, trying to figure out who he was dealing with. "It also comes with a changer ability which means you'll have less trouble with a secret identity."

"How much of a changer rating?" the girl asked.

"I'm normally a brown haired guy," Chris offered.

"Sweet!" she replied gleefully as she pulled her wallet out of her purse and took out a fifty. "Can I have two?"

"For yourself or for a friend?" Myst asked.

"Friend, unless the costume is going to fall apart?" she asked.

"The costume should be fine unless you're trying to tank explosions," Myst assured her, planning on boosting the costume's durability once she had it. "You can pay for the costumes now but your friend will have to come to the shop to pick it up. The magic booth that makes the costumes requires you to change into the costumes while you're in the phone booth and you get the best result if you have people watching."

"Why?" she asked.

"It probably has something to do with sacrificial magic or maybe the crafter was a pervert," Myst replied with a shrug.

"Or both," Chris offered.

"Do you have anything that doesn't turn people into girls?" Perdition asked as the bell over the front door rang and Noelle walked into the shop.

Myst glanced at the brown haired girl with a blanket wrapped around her waist like a skirt that walked into the shop with Trickster. "That depends, are you willing to risk your life?"

"Doing what?" Perdition asked.

"I have a magical book that basically sends people into a simulation where they can pick up powers and life experience. You'd basically spend most of a year having an adventure and or learning magic while only about twenty minutes pass here," Myst explained as he used his Upgrade ability to check Noelle's power, wanting to make sure he didn't have to worry about her making an evil clone of him.

"How much?" Perdition asked, knowing he was going to need powers if he didn't want to get left behind.

"If you give me a hundred dollars and clear it with your team, I'll grab the book," Myst told him.

"Clear it with my team? Why should they care?" Perdition asked, knowing that Francis would probably throw a party if he didn't come back.

"Have you ever played Cyberpunk? Jacking into the network can kill you if you do something stupid." Myst glanced at Noelle then focused on Perdition. "I don't want your team coming after me if you end up dead."

"Don't worry, we won't," Trickster assured him, smirking behind his mask and sort of hoping that Cody didn't come back. "You might as well do something useful."

"Fuck off!" Perdition told Francis, wishing the asshole could just keep his mouth shut. "Everything was fine until you showed up."

"You weren't getting any better and you were taking it out on everyone else, that's not my fault," Trickster replied smugly, trying to get the asshole to leave without coming off as a complete jackass to Noelle now that he didn't need Cody's 'help' finding a cure for her.

"We've been over this, we needed alternates," Noelle cut in, trying to avoid a fight when they should be grabbing a couple of pizzas and celebrating.

Myst glanced at Noelle and Trickster then focused on Perdition, having a lot more respect for the guy's self control now that he'd spent a couple of minutes in Trickster's presence. "Okay, consider your team informed, give me the money and you can take a trip and pick up some powers."

Perdition pulled his wallet out and handed Myst a hundred. "Let's do this."

"You don't have to do this," Noelle told him, wishing Francis would just shut the fuck up for once.

"I need a break before I stab Francis, he's a fucking asshole and he's worse when you're not around," Perdition complained.

Myst reached under the counter and grabbed the CYOA book and set it on the counter, wanting to get things moving before he had to listen to more complaints. "Open the book and pick your choice."

"Best of luck," Noelle told Cody, making a mental note to talk to the rest of the team now that she wasn't going insane so she could figure out if she needed to toss Francis in the bay or if Cody was just blowing things out of proportion.

"Thanks," Perdition replied as he set his hand on the book, doing his best to ignore the urge to kick Trickster in the nuts. "Any rules or things I should know about using the book or about the simulation?"

"Don't fuck up," Trickster suggested with a smirk.

Perdition flipped Trickster off with his other hand but otherwise ignored him.

"Don't read the destinations out loud until you're ready, they'll activate. I'd avoid anything that sounds like a death trap or selling your soul and do your best to avoid dying or doing anything that sounds like it would have permanent consequences, you can pick up scars and injuries," Myst warned him.

"I'll keep that in mind." Perdition opened the book and looked over his choices. 'Adventures of a Magical Maid in Transylvania, Monster Chef in Raccoon City, Ghost Buster in Night of the Comet, Magic Girl Adventures in Tokyo, Cooking with Monster Girls, Mad Hatter in Gotham, Evil Overlord Academy or Jurassic Park, Survivor Edition? I'm not going anywhere near Tokyo as a magical girl and fuck playing with dinosaurs or going to Gotham. I don't care about cooking or playing with ghosts or being a maid.'

Trickster walked over to look at his options. "You should take the maid option."

"Evil Overlord Academy!" Perdition announced, wanting to make his choice before Francis managed to screw things up.

Noelle sighed as Cody vanished. "Sorry, he wasn't always like this."

"Don't worry about it, he just needs a vacation," Myst replied as he turned his attention back to the brown haired girl. "Sorry about that. Did you want a costume or did you want to go with something that can't be stolen?"

"Can I get both?" she asked hopefully.

"Sure," Myst replied as he gestured toward the door to the game room. "You might as well grab a costume from the phone booth while you're waiting for me to finish reading the book so we can get Perdition back then you can take a turn."

"Thanks," Madison replied as she gave Myst the fifty then sprinted to the game room door, looking forward to being able to fly.

"How much for the rest of us to take a turn with the book?" Trickster asked.

Myst shook his head. "Sorry, I'm not currently interested in selling you powers."

"Why not? Is this because I'm black?" Trickster asked.

"No, you're just an asshole," Myst replied. "In another life, in another time you'd have burned the world for Noelle, that's not love, that's obsession. Take a couple of days to get your head on straight, talk things over as a team and figure out if picking up a couple of magical abilities is worth taking the risk."

"Did you get that from a crystal ball?" Trickster asked sarcastically.

"Precog," Myst lied as he turned to look at Chris. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Do you have anything that can cure Dyscaluclia?" Chris asked hopefully.

"Sure," Myst replied as he used his Upgrade ability on Chris to check his mental issues. "Do you want your ADD dealt with?"

"I'm not that bad," Chris complained.

"Is that a no?" Myst asked.

"No, I mean yes… I mean that’s not a no." Chris sighed, realizing that he might as well own up to his issues if it meant he could get rid of them. "I want them both gone."

"Cool," Myst replied and snapped his fingers twice as he spent the mana to upgrade Kid Win's brain and genetics, getting rid of his mild attention disorder and his dyscalculia and making sure they wouldn't be a problem for his descendants. "Done and done."

"That's it?" Chris asked.

"Yep," Myst replied with amusement.

"How much do I owe you?" Chris asked.

"Nothing but if you want to pay it forward, do something nice for someone," Myst told him, not seeing a point in charging him for something that took him less than five seconds to deal with.

"Thank you for calling your friend and helping me with my problems," Noelle told Myst.

"Can you fix her mental problems?" Trickster asked hopefully.

Noelle shook her head, unwilling to let go of her coping methods. "He did enough."

"Not without permission," Myst replied as he used his Upgrade ability to check Noelle's mental health. 'Mild anorexia? Is that because the cider fixed some of it or because we're in a different version of Worm? Either way, her powers will keep her healthy even if she never eats anything so I'm going to ignore that one.' He checked her aversion to being touched and found that he couldn't fix it as it was purely mental.

"Don't worry about it," Noelle told Myst.

"You should probably…" Myst trailed off as the bell over the door rang and the door opened enough that he could see a person in midnight blue and silver power armor. "Welcome to the Magic Shop, how can I help you?"

Armsmaster glanced around as he finished walking into the strange shop. He focused on the teenager that was wearing sheer clothes and floating a couple of inches off the ground, trying to judge if she was eighteen or not before deciding that she wasn't doing anything questionable and there was a warning sign on the door to the shop that let people know that people might not be wearing clothes which meant it wasn't his problem, beyond the fact that there was an unknown cape in the city that they didn't have any information on. "I'd like to talk to the owner or the manager."

'He's going to drop me in a Master/Stranger cell and lose the keys when he finds out that I let someone mess with my head,' Chris thought, doing his best to avoid looking guilty.

"I'm the owner. How can I help you?" Myst asked, curious why the local head of the Protectorate was in his shop and wondering what it would take to get rid of him.

"We had noise complaints and someone mentioned seeing a flash of light, like lightning," Armsmaster replied.

"Okay? I'm still not seeing the connection," Myst replied, doing his best to keep a straight face.

"I was in the area, I saw the lightning coming from behind your shop," Armsmaster explained.

"That explains why the thunder was so loud, I'll have to check to see if it caused any damage when I get a chance," Myst replied as he started silently reading the CYOA book.

Armsmaster glanced between the people in the shop, curious how much they knew about the cape responsible. "Do any of you know anyone that can control lightning?"

"Like a big tall guy with red hair that goes by Thor?" Trickster asked dryly.

"Do you have more of a description?" Armsmaster asked, fairly sure the guy was joking but wanting to make sure that the Empire hadn't picked up a new cape.

Trickster shook his head. "I heard something that sounded like thunder and I saw the light but I didn't see a cape flying around tossing lightning so I can't help you there."

'That's better than the Empire getting someone that can do a credible job replacing the God of Thunder.' Armsmaster turned to look at the girl wearing a revealing Supergirl outfit, surprised that she wasn't wearing a mask. "Did you hear or see anything suspicious?"

"I was playing video games," Chris replied as the bell over the front door rang and Amy and Rose walked in with Amy carrying shopping bags, followed by Taylor and Harry.

Armsmaster turned and stared at Amy when he realized that her freckles were gone. "What happened to your freckles?"

"I got tired of them," Amy replied as she walked over and set her bag on the table next to her cards. "Why are you here?"

"I'm investigating reports of lightning and a shop that wasn't here yesterday," Armsmaster explained as he turned to look at the shopkeeper.

"Damn, you caught me, the shop teleports between cities and I work for a cabal of tinkers," Myst offered dryly as he went back to reading about Cody's failed schemes. "Before you write that down, I was obviously being sarcastic. If you check with the city records, I'm sure you'll find that all of the permits have been filed in the appropriate places."

"Is there a reason you're here?" Armsmaster asked Amy.

"It's called having a life and friends, or at least trying," Amy replied.

Rose pulled a pair of black sweats out of her bag and tossed them to Noelle. "Feel free to change in the bathroom."

"Thanks," Noelle replied as she made her way to the bathroom, making sure her blanket didn't slip as she didn't want everyone getting a show.

"This is awesome!" Madison squealed as she flew out of the game room dressed like a naughty Supergirl, too ecstatic about getting flight to care that she was giving a bunch of people a show.

"Yep," Myst agreed as glanced away from his book and focused on the blonde that was enthusiastically flying around the shop. 'Probably just as well that she looks like an adult right now rather than someone in middle school.'

"Why are there a bunch of capes wearing Supergirl costumes?" Armsmaster asked.

"Because they let you fly," Myst replied, not seeing a reason to lie since he could always resummon it before he jumped worlds.

"How?" Armsmaster asked.

"The costumes were created by a magic phone booth, they give people the ability to fly and they come with weak force fields that work like bug shields. You can ask Amy if you don't believe me," Myst told him, not taking his eyes off the CYOA book.

"Amy?" Armsmaster asked.

"I'm not sure how they work but they don't seem to cause any physical side effects and they're not burning through calories to generate the flight so they're probably safe," Amy offered.

"How long do the costumes last?" Armsmaster asked, wondering if it was a trump effect and if they had a range.

"I don't know," Myst admitted. "The delivery guy showed up less than an hour ago with the phone booth, we haven't had a chance to run them through rigorous testing yet."

"You're selling untested tinkertech?" Armsmaster asked warily.

"We had Vicky run some tests to make sure they didn't cut out if you flew out of the city or too high and Amy checked to make sure they weren't mutating people, we just haven't done extensive tests to see how long they last. You're welcome to run some tests but attuning the costume requires stipping while in the phone booth and putting on the costume. Before you ask, I have no idea if that's an actual requirement for the process or if the creator was just a pervert and used it as a security method."

"I don't care, this is awesome," Madison squealed as she spun in the air.

"We found a new number…." Aisha trailed off as she walked out of the game room with Leet and saw Armsmaster.

"Hello nurse!" Rose teased the attractive redhead that was wearing a sheer nurse outfit.

"No, bad Rose," Amy complained when Rose gave her puppy dog eyes, not remotely interested in dressing up like a naughty nurse, especially not in front of Armsmaster.

Rose snickered.

"Don't worry about it." Myst quickly checked the costume. "The costume should let you safely numb someone's limbs or part of their body for a couple of hours by touch."

"Sounds fun," Aisha replied with a wicked grin.

'Yeah, that's Aisha,' Myst mused as he spent the mana to upgrade her outfit's durability. He turned his attention to the other girl's Supergirl costume and boosted the durability and her force field, wanting to make sure she survived her adventures in the book.

"Is there a reason you can't wear something under the costume or over it?" Armsmaster asked.

"It comes with a changer rating which means the sizes change a bit but no, once you're wearing it, there's no reason you can't mix and match," Myst assured him then went back to reading about Cody's adventures wanting to finish.

0o0o0