Traveling Magic Shop Part 24 (Patreon)

"Welcome to…" Myst trailed off as Rose walked into the shop dressed like a robber from an old cartoon, complete with a 'loot' bag with dollar signs on it. "Seriously?"

"I figured it was appropriate," Rose replied with amusement as she walked over and set the bag of loot on the counter, causing it to change back to a regular looking trash bag once she took her hand off of it.

"Where's the rest of the group?" Myst asked.

"Swimming with the fishes," Rose replied in a horrible Italian accent as Vicky walked through the door dressed like a police officer with a short blue skirt and a shirt that only had a couple of buttons done up.

"Right, swimming with the fishies," Myst replied sarcastically as Taylor walked in with Amy and another Vicky that was dressed in her Supergirl outfit, thus a bit different looking than the officer Vicky.

"You're under arrest, evil doer!" the officer version of Vicky stated as she pulled a nerf gun out from behind her back and pointed it at Rose.

"I'm not that bad," Vicky complained, trying not to laugh at Harry's over the top performance and finding it hard.

"I give up," Rose replied as she turned and raised her hands. "But you'll have to punish my accomplice, Doctor Sparkly Pants," she said dramatically as she pointed at Amy.

"Sparkly Pants?!" Amy sputtered, annoyed that Rose couldn't have come up with something that didn't sound like a demented villain from a cartoon or a porn star in a bad parody.

"Amy, you missed your line," Myst stage whispered, "curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal."

Amy glanced at Myst then mock glared at Rose. "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal," she 'complained' dryly then held out her hands to 'Vicky'. "Maybe we can come to some sort of arrangement so I can avoid punishment?"

'Vicky' smirked as she made a show of giving Amy a once over. "I'm sure we can think of… something."

"No flirting with my sister while you look like me," Vicky complained, causing Harry to laugh and change back to his normal appearance.

"It's all in good fun," Harry replied as he shot Rose with a nerf dart, hitting her on the stomach.

"This means war!" Rose promised as she snapped her fingers and changed her illusion of a cartoon robber, leaving her looking like Darth Vader. "Doctor Sparkly Pants, get the tickle machine!"

"Yesss Master," Amy replied, doing her best impression of Igor.

"That's…" Myst trailed off as Harry tossed the nerf gun to Vicky and pulled a 'lightsaber' out of his jacket pocket.

Harry used an illusion to create a purple 'blade' for the toy lightsaber. "You are the one who slew my father, prepare to die!"

Myst glanced at the door when the bell rang, wondering if they were going to save them from kids' insanity.

"Sorry, I've killed a lot of people, you're going to have to narrow it down," Rose replied as she drew her own plastic lightsaber and created a shadow blade.

Ethan froze when he walked into the magic shop and saw someone in an exceptionally well made Darth Vader costume preparing to fight a black haired teenager with a purple lightsaber. "What's going on?"

Taylor turned to look at the cape that had just walked in the door, ready to shut his power down if he proved to be a problem but hoping she wouldn't have to because she didn't want people knowing about that part of her powers.

"They're just messing around," Amy assured the brown haired man in his mid twenties, not wanting the man to bolt and call the PRT or the police because her new friends were screwing around.

"My name is Jinn Kenobi, my father was Obi-Wan Kenobi," Harry told her, tossing a couple of names together for his character.

"Hey, wait! I didn't kill the bastard, he ran off with some Mandalorian bird after pushing me into a pool of lava," Rose 'complained'.

"Lies!" Harry replied as he charged Rose and swung his illusionary blade at her.

Rose casually blocked the attack then counter attacked, causing Harry to dance backwards as they started dueling.

"They're actually pretty good at this," Vicky offered.

Ethan grinned as he watched the duel.

"You are no match for the dark side," Rose taunted when Harry was 'forced' to vault one of the tables to avoid her strike.

"The lightside is-" Harry began when Rose cut him off, "Join the dark side, we have cookies."

"Cheater," Vicky complained, enjoying the fight and not wanting it to end because Harry was tempted with baked goods.

Ethan laughed. "What type?"

"Chocolate chip," Rose replied smugly.

"Disclaimer, we don't actually sell cookies," Myst told the dark haired man in his twenties.

"Lies and trickery," Ethan complained good naturedly.

"Welcome to the Magic Shop, how can I help you?" Myst asked, curious if the guy was looking for something or just window shopping.

"Two questions, how much are the costumes that give people flight and do you have any lightsabers for sale?" Ethan asked hopefully, sounding a bit like a kid in a candy store asking if they had his favorite candy that was expecting them to tell him he couldn't have it.

"Fifty dollars for the costumes and I'm pretty sure we don't have any actual lightsabers," Myst replied.

"We have a couple of boxes of dueling sabers in the game room." Rose used her bracelet to change her illusionary costume to a pair of pants and a sweatshirt to go over her sheer Supergirl shirt.

"Dueling sabers?" Ethan asked, a touch surprised that the girl didn't seem to care about people knowing she had powers.

Myst turned to look at Rose, glad that someone else had asked first.

"They're basically lightsabers without the ability to cut through objects like butter, which means they're great for dueling. They'll give you a zap like a good static shock if you get hit but they're perfectly safe unless you're particularly vulnerable to electricity," Rose warned him.

"Ooh," Vicky said thoughtfully, fairly sure they'd have enough even after they bought the scroll.

"Sounds fun, how long do the batteries last?" Ethan asked.

Rose shrugged. "You might get twenty minutes of waving them around on a full charge, five if you're fighting."

"Could be worse. Where do I find the lightsabers?" Ethan asked, curious if he could talk Colin into making better batteries.

"Through the door, just ignore the party," Myst replied as he gestured toward the game room.

"Sure," Ethan replied as he headed for the door.

Taylor waited until the cape walked through the door then turned to look at Myst. "Did you know he was a cape?"

"Nope. Powers?" Myst asked, making a mental note to check everyone and not get distracted.

"Kinetic Energy Manipulation," Taylor replied.

"Probably Assault," Myst mused, reasonably sure that the only other person with anything resembling Kinetic Manipulation in the Bay didn't actually have a sense of humor or the ability to fake one. "How much is in the bag?"

"Twenty thousand, we split the rest," Rose replied with a grin.

"Which means you have enough for the scroll," Myst replied as he dropped the bag of cash in the lock box and grabbed the resurrection scroll from under the counter that he’d taken the time to upgrade. He handed the scroll to Rose along with a pen. "Three slots, three names, you need to fill them in before you activate the scroll."

"Do you have any suggestions?" Rose asked the rest of the group as she took the scroll out of the glass case, curious if any of them had any last minute suggestions.

"Hero," Amy replied without hesitation. "He was one of the first public tinkers and he was a genuine hero."

"Works for me," Taylor agreed, trusting her opinion on cape matters.

Vicky nodded. "No complaints here."

Rose wrote 'Hero' on the line then handed the pen to Taylor, hoping that his cape name counted and she wasn't wasting the chance to bring someone back.

Taylor wrote her mother's name on the line then handed the pen to Vicky, hoping for the best.

"Aunt Jess," Vicky muttered as she quickly wrote her aunt's name on the last line. "Now what?"

Rose picked up the scroll and activated it, causing the scroll to glow with purple flames then burn to ash as the scent of freshly turned earth washed over the group and two women and a blond man in his late thirties or early forties appeared out of thin air in the middle of the room, all three completely naked.

Annette Hebert only had a moment to wonder why she was in a strange shop without any clothes on before she got pulled into a hug by a girl with long dark hair.

Hero quickly checked his body for injuries then looked at the man standing behind the counter. "Can you help a guy out with some clothes?"

"Yeah, give me a minute," Myst replied as he reluctantly pulled his attention off Fleur and Taylor's mother and headed into the back room to grab some towels or clothes.

"Or an explanation?" Fleur asked hopefully, wondering how she'd gotten to the shop when the last thing she remembered was getting shot when she answered the door.

"You were dead, we used a scroll of resurrection and now you're alive," Rose offered with a shrug, like she was just telling them the day’s temperature.

"Dead?" Fleur asked warily as a blonde girl that she didn't know hugged her.

"Welcome back," Amy offered, hoping her aunt didn't freak out.

"Amy?" Fleur asked in disbelief, recognizing her voice despite the other changes.

"Scroll of resurrection?" Hero asked, wondering how long he'd been dead and how they'd actually brought him back.

Myst walked back in and tossed the recently dead people towels. "It's a one use item that lets someone with magic bring back three people from the dead as long as you know their names. Apparently cape names are enough."

"Why me?" Hero asked as he wrapped the towel around his waist.

"You're one of the few people that-" Myst turned to look at the door when it was pushed open and a square jawed man in a blue and white costume walked in carrying two bags of popcorn.

"Hero?!" Legend sputtered and froze when he saw Hero standing in the middle of the shop with a towel around his waist.

Myst gestured and caught the bags of popcorn with telekinesis when Legend dropped them.

Taylor let her mother go and looked at Legend, wondering if he'd let her shake his hand so she'd be able to copy his powers without making it obvious.

Annette worked on covering herself with the towel, wondering how long she'd been dead since Taylor was taller than her and why she'd been brought back rather than someone important.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Hero offered, feeling a bit better about the situation now that he had one of his friends around.

"Ten years, how the hell were you…" Legend trailed off when he saw Fleur and recognized her, her face engraved in his memories because of the media storm her death caused. "Fleur?"

"Yeah," Fleur admitted as she finished tying the large towel around her.

Harry gestured and conjured an illusionary mask for the recently dead when he noticed the door to the game room start to open. "Don't mind the masks, they're illusions."

"Thanks," Hero told Harry as Ethan walked back out carrying two boxes of dueling sabers.

Ethan glanced between Legend and the new people that were wearing towels and masks then walked over to the counter and set the boxes on the table. "Twenty five each and fifty for the booth?"

Myst glanced at the price tags on the dueling sabers. "Sure."

"Lightsabers?" Hero asked when he saw the boxes.

"Dueling sabers, they're basically harmless fun," Myst replied as Ethan pulled his wallet out and gave him a hundred.

"Amy?" Legend asked, finally recognizing the girl.

"Nice to see you again and I got rid of them," Amy told him, gesturing at her freckle-less face.

"What brings you to my humble shop?" Myst asked as he handed the popcorn back to Legend and used his Upgrade ability to check Hero's health and powers. 'Perfect health and a wavelength specialty, looks like Legend was right about his specialty.'

Legend glanced at Ethan, recognizing his face from when they'd arrested him as Madcap. "The local PRT director called Watchdog and the Chief Director about the shop's ability to create costumes that grant powers and the healing elixirs, she asked me to check on the shop and a precog I know told me to grab two bags of popcorn on the way but wouldn't tell me why, just that it would ruin the surprise if she explained or if I didn't grab the popcorn."

"Toss me a bag," Hero said, getting the feeling that they had a lot to catch up on.

Legend tossed one of the bags to Hero. "How long do the powers last?"

"They'll last until the costume suffers significant damage," Myst assured him. 'Contessa? Did she tell him to get the popcorn because Hero likes popcorn or because he would have gotten here early and screwed something up if he hadn't? Not sure it matters, at least I don't have to deal with Eidolon.'

"And the healing elixir?" Legend asked, curious if there was a reason the thinkers were getting inconsistent results when they tried to figure out how they worked.

"The basic version increases healing and regeneration which also helps with trauma. It also makes an adult two months younger, at least physically. My power can boost the elixir in various ways, increasing the healing and the rejuvenation effects or removing certain types of mental issues," Myst explained.

"How long do the alterations last?" Legend asked.

"They're permanent," Myst replied, not seeing a point in mentioning that the magic might fall apart after a couple of thousand years.

"How young could you make someone?" Hero asked thoughtfully, trying to figure out what his options were.

"I don't know. I'd have to view changes as an upgrade so I doubt I could turn you into a baby but anywhere from thirteen to twenty should be easy enough," Myst offered.

"I had some health issues before I triggered, would that bring them back?" Hero asked, wanting to be sure that we wouldn't end up a dead man walking.

"Amy's a biokinetic, worst case, she can fix everything," Vicky told them.

Hero turned to look at Amy. "Actual Biokinesis? What else did I miss?"

"Ten years," Legend said, not even sure where to start.

Amy glanced between the three people that had been brought back from the dead. "I should probably give everyone a physical."

Hero glanced at Legend and relaxed when he gave a small nod. "I'd appreciate it…" he trailed off as the door opened and Alexandria walked into the shop. "Long time no, see."

Alexandria froze when she saw Hero and Legend then flew forward and pulled Hero into a hug.

'Not sure I'd want her a copy of her durability, then again, I can just turn it off when I don't need it,' Taylor mused as she studied Alexandria's powers.

'So much for her being heartless,' Myst thought as he used his Upgrade ability to check her power, making sure they matched the story. 'At least it's not getting worse,' he mused as he grabbed a bottle of cider and upgraded the hell out of it, doing his best to make sure it would be enough to regenerate her eye and deal with her physical and mental issues.

Myst set the bottle on the counter, a touch surprised that it wasn't vibrating off the counter with how much magic he'd spent to upgrade it. "Alexandria, two dollars to fix your eye."

Alexandria turned and looked at Myst. "What makes you think you can?"

"Magic," Myst replied with a grin. "Look, if I can't fix it, no charge. It's worth a shot."

"Fine," Alexandria muttered as she walked over and carefully grabbed the bottle, trusting that Contessa wasn't mistaken about the trip being a good thing. She popped the top then drank the cider, a touch surprised by the flavor as it was the best she'd had. She blinked a couple of times when her fake eye was forced out of the socket as her eye regenerated. "How the hell?"

"Like I said, magic," Myst replied.

"Can I have one of those? I would love to be back in my twenties," Hero said, thinking about how he'd felt after taking the vial that had healed him.

"Two dollars," Myst told him.

Ethan pulled a ten out of his wallet and set it on the counter. "I'll cover it."

"Thanks, I'd give it away but everything takes longer to recharge if I do that," Myst replied as he grabbed another bottle to upgrade.

"Do know how we're supposed to…" Fleur trailed off, not sure how to phrase things.

"Become un-dead?" Ethan asked with a straight face.

"That was horrible," Vicky complained. "We could always claim that you're from an alternate timeline."

"That's probably easier, we'd need an excuse for how you got here though," Legend admitted.

"We can always blame Leet," Ethan suggested. "Everyone would believe it and no one would expect him to be able to duplicate it or trust his inventions."

"Bad reputation?" Hero asked.

"For a couple of reasons. His power is good at prototyping things, it's not particularly good at making reliable tech and he's sort of an assshole," Myst replied as he upgraded the rejuvenation effect of the cider and levitated it over to Hero.

"Bottoms up," Hero said and drank the cider, causing the years to start falling away from him.

Myst turned to look at Rose. "Can you politely tell the people in the game room that they need to take a break and take a walk or look through our collection of books for like twenty to thirty minutes? That should give everyone enough time to get a costume that wants it."

"Sure," Rose replied as she headed for the game room.

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