Traveling Magic Shop Part 25 (Patreon)

Myst turned to look at the door when he heard the bell and frowned slightly when a man wearing a green cloak over a blueish green costume and a glasslike helmet walked into the shop. 'So much for not having to deal with Eidolon,' he mused as he looked at the man's powers with his Upgrade ability. 'Doesn't look like there's anything wrong with the power, he's just running on fumes.'

Eidolon glanced at the teenagers that were sitting at one of the tables playing some sort of card game with cards that didn't look like playing cards then walked over to the counter. "A friend of mine mentioned that you have healing elixirs, how much?"

"Two dollars," Myst replied as he grabbed a bottle of cider from under the counter and used his power to upgrade it to the point where anyone that drank it would have most of their mental and physical issues washed away.

Taylor shivered when she considered touching Eidolon and felt a chill down her spine, getting the sense that permanently copying his power would be a horrible idea. 'Is that because he's running on fumes or because he doesn't have conscious control of which powers he picks up?'

Eidolon pulled a twenty out of one of the concealed pockets in his cloak and set it on the counter, glad that Contessa had warned him that the elixirs were cheap and on the level. "I'll take one."

"Pleasure doing business with you," Myst replied as he set the cider in front of Eidolon and grabbed the twenty. "Do you need anything else?" he asked as he got change from the till.

"Do you have any defensive devices or ways to give people Flight?" Eidolon asked, knowing that the less weaknesses he needed to cover with his powers, the more he'd have for offense.

Taylor frowned slightly as she looked over the available list of powers she could emulate using Eidolon's power, getting the sense that her power wasn't particularly amused by the way that he'd used his power for some reason. 'Maybe he's not using the weird powers enough?'

"I don't have anything that would stand up to an endbringer but I have a couple of things that would make you durable enough that you wouldn't have to worry about a sniper, especially if we layer them." Myst turned to look at Vicky who was playing cards with Amy while they waited for Fleur to finish getting a costume. "Vicky, can I talk you into selling one of the bags of lemon drops for a gold coin?"

Vicky shook her head. "You're going to have to do better than a coin per bag, you boosted the drops to last ten years."

"How about a gold coin for one of the lemon drops and I'll give you and Amy permanent flight?" Myst offered.

"How about a gold coin and you give all of New Wave Flight?" Vicky asked with a grin.

"Highway robbery," Myst complained good naturedly as he grabbed a coin from under the counter and tossed it to Vicky. "You're going to have to bring them to the shop, I'm not chasing people down to give them powers."

Vicky put the coin in her jacket pocket then grabbed one of the bags of lemon drops out of her bag and flew over to the counter. "That's fine."

"What do the lemon drops do?" Eidolon asked as Vicky dropped one of the lemon drops on the table.

"They give the person that eats them Flight for ten years, at least currently," Myst replied as he used his upgrade ability to boost the lemon drop to the point where it would give the person eating it a weak version of Flight permanently.

"Currently?" Eidolon asked.

"One of my powers lets me improve things," Myst explained as he double checked the lemon drop's stats, not particularly surprised that the lemon drop was going to fall apart in a couple of minutes from the excess magic. 'At least it worked,' he mused as he tossed the candy in his mouth and started chewing.

"I thought you said that you couldn't upgrade them anymore?" Vicky asked, thinking about what he'd said earlier.

Myst shook his head then finished chewing the lemon drop and checked his new Flight ability. 'Flight, four miles an hour? That's crap but at least it's permanent.' He spent the mana to boost the maximum speed up to two hundred miles an hour. "Upgrading one drop that I'm going to eat right after I upgrade it is a lot different from upgrading a bunch of bags filled with drops that have to remain stable for a couple of years."

"That's fair," Vicky admitted.

"Does it have any side effects?" Eidolon asked.

"No," Myst replied as he floated off the ground. "That's easier to control than I was expecting."

"How much?" Eidolon asked, wondering how much getting Flight would impact his budget.

"That depends, do you want to pay in cash or services rendered?" Myst asked as he floated back and forth and up and down, testing his control.

"What do you need?" Eidolon asked, figuring it wouldn't hurt to ask.

"Just a bit of public service, we've got a cargo ship in the bay that needs to be ripped apart and disposed of. If you're willing to earn some good PR and take care of the problem, I'll waive the cost and give you permanent Flight," Myst offered as Vicky walked back over and sat down next to Amy and Rose.

"Deal," Eidolon replied, not seeing a problem with the deal since it would help his image and help the local economy for about ten minutes of work.

'I should probably have Amy check to make sure Dad doesn't have any heart problems before I tell him the news about Mom and the cargo ship,' Taylor mused, looking forward to seeing his expression.

Myst gestured at the cider sitting on the counter. "Don't forget your cider."

"Right," Eidolon replied as he grabbed the cider, twisted the lid off and used a power so that he could phase the bottle through his mask.

Myst chuckled when Eidolon drank the cider through his mask. "That's cheating."

Eidolon finished the delicious tasting cider and set the bottle on the counter. "It makes grabbing snacks on patrol a lot easier."

Taylor turned to look at the door when the bell rang and she felt a cape. 'Skill theft?' She scowled as she realized that she was looking at Victor out of costume. She reached out with her power and twisted his ability so that it would be less damaging to other people, not seeing a point in letting him damage people's memories and brains when the power didn't have to in order to function.

Myst double checked Eidolon's mental health with his Upgrade power, relieved that the elixir had given him a clean slate. 'Now we just need to make sure nothing pushes you over the edge.' He snapped his fingers and used his Pyramid Scheme ability to give Eidolon a weaker copy of his magical Flight ability and his mental shields then quickly spent the mana to boost Eidolon's new mental shields to the point where he had immunity to anything messing with his mind. 'No point in letting one of the strongest capes in the world get mind controlled.'

Victor froze when he spotted Eidolon standing in front of the counter. 'So much for shaking the shop down for protection money.'

'That would be a nice power to pass around,' Taylor mused, making a mental note to find Victor once he left so she could steal his power, amused at the irony.

Myst boosted Eidolon's Flight up to two hundred miles an hour, figuring he could use a power if he needed to go faster. "That should do it, one nice and shiny Flight ability."

"That's it?" Eidolon asked.

"Powers are bullshit," Myst replied with a shrug. "You should be able to hit two hundred miles an hour. You might get faster if you work on it but that's a good start and you can always grab a flight or a teleportation power if you need to go faster."

"How often can you use your power?" Eidolon asked, wondering how many people he could talk the shopkeeper into giving Flight and if there was a limit.

"Often enough," Myst replied then looked at the athletic looking blond in his early twenties that had just walked in. "Welcome to the Magic Shop, how can I help you?"

"Do you have any defensive gear?" Victor asked, changing what he'd been planning on saying since trying to shake him down while Eidolon was standing there would not end well in any definition of the words.

"Sure…" Myst trailed off when he noticed Taylor shaking her head. He used his Upgrade ability on the blond and checked his powers. 'Ah, right, Nazi.'

"Problem?" Victor asked, having noticed the way the shopkeeper tensed up.

"No, I just realized that I'm going to have to listen to that stupid jingle again," Myst lied as he pointed toward the creepy fortune telling machine. "Put a quarter in the machine, it opens a 'secret' door in the wall, tell Bruno that you need the heavy gear."

"Heavy gear?" Victor asked.

"Lung's going to make a push," Myst lied as he grabbed a quarter from the till and tossed it to Victor, fairly sure that Victor would have a harder time telling that he was lying if he wasn't looking at him. "Having some people who can give him a black eye sounds like a good idea."

"I can get behind that," Victor said as he walked toward the fortune telling machine, not sure what the shopkeeper was lying about but unwilling to call him on it while Eidolon was in the shop and not really worried about it since he probably wasn't going to do anything in front of a hero.

Taylor glanced at Eidolon then at Victor and decided that grabbing a copy of Victor's power wasn't worth getting outed as someone that could copy powers when she already had a copy of Oliver's power.

Victor put the coin in the slot. "Now what?"

"Pull the lever," Myst replied then smiled when Victor pulled the lever and vanished.

Eidolon's question about the teleporter died on his lips when one of the doors opened and a young man that could have been Hero's much younger twin walked out, dressed in a pair of black cargo pants and a sheer green shirt. "Hero?!" he blurted out, feeling like he was looking at a ghost.

"Not any more, he's dead," Hero replied as Legend followed him out with an unfamiliar woman in a mask that was wearing the same type of outfit as Hero, except she'd tossed a towel over her shoulders that she was using to cover her breasts.

Eidolon glanced at Legend then back at Hero. "What's going on?"

"He came back from the dead," Legend offered, knowing that he'd want more details.

Annette walked over and sat down next to Taylor. "Have you called your father?" she asked Taylor in a whisper.

"I called and told him that I needed a ride, he should be here shortly," Taylor told her.

"You came back from the dead? How?!" Eidolon demanded.

"The shopkeeper had a scroll that resurrected three people, they only needed two of them so they brought me back as a bonus," Hero explained as the front door opened and a child wearing an old fashioned black and red dress walked into the shop holding what appeared to be part of a curtain rod with a glitter covered Christmas star glued to the end of it.

Eidolon stared at Legend, wondering if he'd lost his mind.

"Welcome to the Magic Shop, how can I help…." Myst trailed off as he checked the eleven or twelve year old girl with curly blonde hair with his upgrade ability and realized that the girl was a potential catastrophe waiting to happen.

'Wetworks tinker, I bet I could make some interesting medical drones,' Taylor mused as she reached out and tweaked the girl's shard so it would stop pushing her to use her power for large scale destruction.

"I want to be a magic girl," Riley replied with a smile as she held up the flier in the hand that wasn't holding her magic wand, ignoring the rest of the people in the shop in her excitement.

"Excellent," Myst replied as he grabbed the CYOA book and a cider from under the counter, trying not to think about everything that could go wrong if Riley flipped out and unleashed a plague or used some type of nerve agent on everyone. He upgraded the cider to the point where it would cure mental and physical issues and dissolve her cyberware. 'Okay, don't panic, just get her in the book and away from Jack,' he told himself as he walked over to one of the empty tables and set the book down. "Okay, it's easy, all you need to do is open the book and you'll be able to pick your adventure. Just don't read the choices out loud, it's voice activated."

"This is going to be awesome!" Riley said cheerfully as dashed over to the table, having been expecting some sort of ritual or a quest to find a magical animal. "Do I need supplies?"

Myst set the bottle of cider on the table in front of Bonesaw. "The adventure should give you everything you need, but you should grab the healing potion just in case you run into problems."

Riley picked up the potion and opened the book, looking forward to having an adventure. 'Monster Cooking, The Lair of the Goblin Queen, Naughty Magic Girls Just Want To Have Fun, Witches Gone Wild or Emma Frost's School For Well Behaved Girls? I'm a good girl.' She tapped the last option with her finger. "Emma Frost's School For Well Behaved Girls."

Myst sighed in relief when Riley vanished.

"What happened to the girl?" Annette asked, surprised that she'd vanished into thin air.

Myst turned to look at Taylor's mother. "The book has the ability to send people on adventures, she'll probably come back with magic and a couple of interesting stories."

Eidolon pulled his attention away from the whispered conversation with Hero and Legend. "What type of weapons does Bruno sell?"

"No clue, I don't know anyone named Bruno, I just wanted the Nazi out of my shop. The machine is supposed to teleport anyone that pulls the lever to a random safe location," Myst explained, not seeing a point in explaining that the random location was in another dimension.

"How did you know he's a Nazi?" Eidolon asked.

"My power let me know that he was a skill thief and I've read about the local capes," Myst replied with a shrug. "He also didn't correct me when I lied about Lung making a move."

"What happens when he calls the rest of the Empire?" Legend asked.

"With any luck, he'll get eaten by a hippo and I won't have to worry about it, but last I checked, self-defense was still legal in America," Myst replied with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"You should," Eidolon paused when two people appeared out of thin air next to the table.

"Huh," Uber muttered when he saw Eidolon and Legend.

"That was awesome! We killed the second boss!" Greg cheered.

"Cool," Myst assured him. "Guys, it's getting late and someone paid to book the game room."

"Okay?" Greg asked, a bit too distracted by being in the same room as two thirds of the Triumvirate to catch his meaning.

"That means we'd got to dash, I'll show you my rig," Uber told Greg as he worked on collecting Greg's cards.

"Oh, right," Greg agreed, glad that he'd put some work into his social skills in the game so he was no longer completely clueless and more importantly knew he was still generally clueless and needed to work on it.

Myst turned to look at the door when the bell rang, half expecting it to be another member of the Nine. He used his Upgrade ability to check the blonde girl with bottle-glass green eyes and freckles on the bridge of her nose, figuring it was better to be safe than sorry. 'Magic and powers, not surprising considering her luck.'

Lisa froze when she walked into the shop that Coil wanted her to check out and spotted Eidolon and Legend standing by one of the doors.

"Welcome to the Magic Shop, how can I help you?" Myst asked, wondering if she'd wandered in on her own or if she was here because of her boss.

Lisa pulled her attention away from Eidolon and Legend and focused on the man that was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. "Do you have any defensive gear?"

"Sure," Myst replied as he slid the adventure book over to Rose. "Can you make sure the girl doesn't get into trouble?"

"No problem," Rose replied as she grabbed the adventure book and started reading about Riley's adventures in Boston.

Myst walked around the counter and grabbed the box of jewelry that he thought she might want. "Are you worried about knives or random gunfire?"

"Both," Lisa replied, knowing that the gangs had a decent collection of weapons.

"Oh, this one is a gem, it comes with a force field and protection from precogs," Myst said as he tossed the ring to Lisa.

"Protection from precogs?" Lisa asked warily, her power telling her that he knew who she was, something that would have been apparent without her power judging by the amusement in the guy's voice.

"It's rather useful when you have people that can see the future running around and the force field should cover random gunfire," Myst offered as he used his power to boost the strength of the force field so that she'd be able to tank a couple of pounds of C4 going off even if she was sitting on it. "I can let you have it for five hundred."

"Five hundred?" Lisa asked, wondering what the catch was since that sounded ridiculously cheap.

"If you're looking for something a bit cheaper, you might want to hang around and invest in a costume, it comes with a brute rating and I only charge fifty for the costumes."

Lisa glanced between Taylor, Annette and Hero, her power feeding her information she would have figured out by herself in a couple of seconds. "Do you take cards?"

"Only if it clears," Myst replied as he gestured toward the card reader on the counter, not actually sure if it worked but figuring that was the shop’s problem and not his.

0o0o0

"What's the deal with the kid?" Logan asked as he watched the new student enter the gate and practically sprint towards the front door to the mansion.

“She’s excited and escaping a situation…” Jean shuddered.

“You okay?” Logan asked, concerned.

“She’s been through things that are beyond horrifying,” Jean whispered. “I’ll have to see if she can room with Illyana. She’s the only one here that can actually understand what she’s been through.”

“Snowflake actually survived hell,” Logan said with a frown.

“Yeah, and in some ways she had an easier time of it than Riley did,” the red haired telepath said softly.

“Who do I have to kill?” Logan growled out.

“Hate to disappoint you, but they aren’t in this dimension.”

“Just let me worry about that, Darlin,” Logan said with a growl. “Names?”

0o0o0

"So, you're telling me that most of the guys died off because of a plague and that helping repopulate the world is every guy's sacred duty?" Victor asked the group of attractive blondes that were looking at him like he was a glass of cold water and they'd been trapped in a desert.

"Exactly," one of the girls said.

'Sorry dear but I've got no way back and it's the end of the world if I don't help,' Victor thought, apologizing to his wife before he said, "Let's do our solemn duty."

0o0o0