Traveling Magic Shop Part 26 (Patreon)

Myst smiled as Lisa walked out of the game room wearing a Rogue costume with her jacket over the sheer shirt. "Do you want me to boost the Levitation so you can actually fly?"

"What's the catch?" Lisa asked as she walked over to the counter.

Myst glanced over at where Taylor was discussing something with her mother and Amy at one of the tables then focused on Lisa. "You've got two teammates that could use a bottle of healing cider, if you buy a couple of bottles and agree to make sure they drink them, I'll upgrade your costume and toss in a free mental shield for you and your team."

"Why do you care?" Lisa asked, not seeing a problem with doing something that she'd already been planning on doing.

"Rachel triggered because some sadistic bitch tried to kill her puppy, that's justifiable homicide as far as I'm concerned though it was an accident and Regent's father needs to die. You're stuck working for a snake with delusions of competence at gunpoint and you're trying to make sure your team survives and that civilians don't get hurt. I've seen people end up a lot worse for less cause. If I can get a group of villains off the streets or convince them to swap to being vigilantes rather than straight up villains, it's worth the effort," Myst explained.

"Do you know what Coil's power is?" Lisa asked, a bit freaked out that he knew so much about her team and she'd never heard of his shop before.

"He's a precog that basically puppets himself into following one of the timelines that he predicts which means he can basically call heads in one split and tails in the other then 'pick' the timeline that he wants to keep while keeping the knowledge of both."

Lisa glanced down at the ring that she'd bought. "If you're right, he's going to send people to kidnap or kill me."

"Most likely," Myst agreed. "If it helps, I'm planning on fucking him over so that he'll be less of a threat, I've just been a bit busy."

"Why tell me?" Lisa asked.

"I'll be gone in a week or two and this way you'll have a chance to hack his accounts and do something productive with the money or at least more productive than trying to run the city like a bad Bond villain."

"What would you do with his powers?" Lisa asked, trying to figure out what type of person the shopkeeper was.

"I'd probably look into disguises and casinos, not the major ones in Vegas but the small ones that can't afford to hire parahumans or buy tinkertech to detect parahumans using powers. Then I'd "split the timeline" and wander around the casino, possibly with a friend that was playing to check if they could detect my power. If they can't, great. If they can, I just tell them that I was hired to look into them cheating."

Lisa shook her head. "You'd probably get noticed by Watchdog."

"It's certainly possible but I doubt most of them can give the locals enough information to pick me out of a crowd and even if I'm caught, I can simply drop the timeline. As long as you never split the timeline in the casino or even near it, you should be fine. Just split the timeline and play blackjack for the day, dropping it if you lose more than you make."

"You'd probably slip up eventually but you could probably make some type of deal with the PRT if they catch you," Lisa mused, fairly sure it would depend on which thinker was on duty at the time.

Myst turned to look at the door when the bell rang and a tall skinny man with thinning brown hair and glasses walked into the shop. "Welcome to the Magic…" he trailed off as the man froze in place when he saw Annette.

"Anne?!" Danny blurted, knowing it couldn't be his wife despite the fact that the woman looked exactly like her.

"Hey," Annette offered as she stood up, ready to rush over in case he fainted.

Danny felt his heart lurch when he recognized his wife's voice and realized that he wasn't hallucinating despite the fact that his previously dead wife was standing in front of him. "How?"

"Taylor bribed the ferryman." Annette was glad that she was wearing her costume that gave her a brute rating as Danny practically teleported across the shop and pulled her into a bone crushing hug.

Rose pulled her attention away from the drawing of a sixteen year old Riley that was sprawled out on a giant bed with three identical blonde teenagers curled up around her and focused on Vicky. "He didn't faint, pay up."

Vicky sighed as she pulled a five out of her purse and handed it to Rose. "That should have been a safe bet."

Taylor shook her head, glad that she hadn't placed a bet since she would have lost money.

"What did you bribe the Ferryman with?" Danny asked Taylor, wondering what she'd promised the cape to bring her mother back and if Annette was actually back for good.

"Mom's being dramatic, I helped Amy and Vicky buy a scroll of resurrection and Rose was nice enough to use it," Taylor explained as she pointed at her new friends.

"You're welcome," Rose replied as she went back to reading about Riley's adventures in genetic engineering, mad science, and romance… or at least lustful hijinks.

"Just a bit," Annette admitted.

Danny reluctantly shifted the hug with Annette to a one armed hug so that he could focus on his daughter. "That sounds pretty dramatic."

"Not really, I just activated the scroll after they wrote the names of the people they wanted to bring back on the scroll. It caught fire and turned to ash, that's pretty tame compared to some of the legends," Rose argued.

Annette smiled at Rose. "At least you didn't have to fight your way through the underworld."

"Sounds like a good way to get stuck in the underworld," Rose replied as she flipped the page of the adventure book.

"How much do you remember?" Danny asked.

"About being dead? Nothing," Annette admitted. "I remember the car coming at me then I woke up in the shop, if there's an afterlife, I don't remember it."

"Sounds like a good reason to live forever," Myst suggested. "Speaking of living forever, it's two dollars per bottle of cider."

"Cider?" Danny asked as Harry walked out of the back room with a box of rings that he'd just finished enchanting.

"Apple Cider, it heals people and makes them younger," Myst explained as he grabbed a bottle of cider from under the counter and upgraded it so it would restore a person to their early twenties and fix any physical or mental issues they possessed.

"Even if we bought your entire stash, we'd eventually run out of cider," Lisa pointed out.

Myst gestured toward the door that led to the room with the magic books. "We have an entire room filled with magical books, I'm sure there's a ritual for immortality that doesn't leave you a twisted abomination."

"Can anyone learn?" Lisa asked, wondering if she could use it to protect herself.

"In theory, sure," Myst replied as Harry set the box of rings on the counter. "Even if you don't have enough magic to blow out a candle, you can generally make deals with various higher powers for enough magic to get started. Of course, in practice, things are rarely that straightforward."

Rose glanced up from the adventure book. "Stop being overly dramatic, it doesn't cost you anything to give people magic and Taylor helped with the raid."

"I'm not being-" Myst sighed when he noticed the slight upward twist of Rose's lips. "Whatever. If you want magic, I can help you out, just say the word."

"Yes, please," Taylor replied without hesitation.

"Is it safe?" Danny asked warily, wondering when the other shoe was going to drop.

"Safe enough," Myst replied as he gave Taylor a copy of all of his magical talents and powers other than his Upgrade ability. 'Sorry, but I'm not giving you the ability to upgrade everything when you're connected to a shard.' He focused on Annette. "Do you want magic?"

"Please," Annette replied, knowing that she'd need something to stay busy until she figured out how to get her old job back and hoping that it would help keep Taylor safe while she ran around doing heroics.

"Done and done," Myst announced as he gave Annette and Danny magic.

"If you're just handing out magic, can I have more?" Vicky asked hopefully.

"Same," Amy added.

"What do you think?" Myst asked Rose.

Rose absently flipped the page in the book and smiled at Amy and Vicky. "I want pictures of them wearing bunny ears."

"Deal," Vicky replied, figuring a silly picture was a small price to pay for a boost to her magic.

"Works for me," Myst said as he used his Upgrade ability to boost Vicky's magic by twenty points, figuring he'd let her get used to the change for a couple of days before he boosted her magic again. "That takes care of Vicky. Is that a yes on the bunny pictures Amy?"

Amy sighed. "I better not see them on the boards."

"Not a chance," Rose assured her, planning on trying to talk Amy into letting her take pictures of her with just the bunny ears or maybe the bunny ears and her Supergirl costume which she wasn't planning on posting.

"Deal," Amy agreed, figuring she'd just blame it on photo editing if the pictures showed up on the boards.

Myst used his Upgrade ability to boost Amy's magic then turned to look at Lisa. "What do you think?"

"How much are you going to charge me?" Lisa asked, wondering how much getting magic would set her back and if it was worth it.

"Tell you what, I'll trade you. If you make sure your team gets the cider, I'll give you magic, free and clear, no tricks or traps as long as you promise that you won't use it to hurt innocents," Myst offered.

"What's wrong with the cider?" Lisa asked.

"Nothing," Myst replied as he put the upgraded cider on the counter. "Your friends need a break and you've got enough resources to buy cards and books, if you share with the rest of the group, great."

"Deal," Lisa replied. "What do I have to do?"

"Nothing," Myst replied as he used his Pyramid Scheme power to give Lisa a copy of his mental shield and his language ability along with a decent amount of magic and talent. "That should get you started, now you'll just have to buy some cards and learn some spells or talk the girls into letting you borrow their cards."

Lisa pulled a hundred out of her wallet and handed it to Myst. "I want ten bottles of cider and as many packs of cards as this will cover."

"Coming right up," Myst replied as he grabbed another bottle of cider and started upgrading it.

"Huh," Rose muttered when she looked at the page in the adventure book and found that it was blank. "We might have a problem."

Myst turned and looked at Rose. "What's the matter?"

"The adventure stopped," Rose complained as she flipped through the next couple of pages, finding them just as blank as the first blank page. She flipped back to the last page she'd read and sighed in relief when the text was still there. "The rest of the pages are blank."

"Huh," Myst muttered as he checked the book with his Upgrade ability. "I'm not seeing anything wrong with the book, what was she working on before everything went blank?"

"She was in the gym in the mansion and Wolverine mentioned that he needed to talk to a friend of his then nothing." Rose flipped a couple more pages and sighed in relief when the next chapter had words. "Never mind, it's working again."

"So much for the book being reasonably safe," Myst grumbled as he went back to upgrading bottles of cider for Lisa, curious why the book and a missing chapter.

"At least she's doing okay," Rose replied as the bell over the front of the shop rang and a woman in her early twenties with badly cut dark brown hair and cigarette burns from the bottom of her green eyes to her jaw walked in wearing a short red dress that didn't quite fit.

"Welcome to the Magic Shop, how can I help you?" Myst asked as he used Upgrade to check the girl's powers, not remotely surprised when he saw her powers, letting him know that the girl with the distinctive cigarette burns was Burnscar. 'Shit!'

"I'm looking for something that can heal burns," Burnscar replied as she gestured at her cigarette burns.

'What the fuck?' Taylor thought as she felt the cape's power and realized that it was seriously screwing with her head. She reached out and twisted her power, breaking the component that caused her to get more sociopathic the more she used her power then turned her Pyrokinesis off.

"I've got just the thing, one healing elixir coming right up," Myst replied as he floated one of the heavily upgraded bottles of cider over to the unstable cape, trying to act like everything was normal as she hadn't started tossing fire everywhere.

Burnscar grabbed the bottle then popped the top and drank it before she could convince herself that it was poisoned. She blinked a couple of times when she realized that she felt clear headed for the first time in years. "Did it fix my scars?" she asked hopefully.

"They're already healing," Myst assured her as he watched her scars vanish. He quickly checked her mental issues then used his Pyramid Scheme ability to give her a copy of his mental defenses so her shard couldn't continue screwing with her.

"I need to check on something," Taylor said as she headed for the door, wanting an excuse to walk by the cape and unwilling to pass up the chance to pick up Fire Immunity and Pyrokinesis while she had the chance as it would be perfect for dealing with Lung. She double checked that she'd fixed the woman's powers then 'accidentally' touched her hand as she walked past, copying her Pyrokinesis and her immunity to fire and heat.

"Where are you going?" Danny asked Taylor.

"I'll be back in a minute," Taylor assured her father.

Myst cast a whisper spell as Taylor was leaving, 'Let me know if there are any weird capes in the area.'

Taylor twitched and nearly missed a step thanks to the whisper and the collection of strange powers that appeared in her range as she left the shop and the fact that she'd picked up another specialty for her drone specialty. 'Habitat building drones? That sort of matches the tinker that focuses on contained structures. Brute with a trump rating that can shut down powers if he gets close enough and someone with the ability to control glass?'

"Shit," she cursed when finally connected the dots and realized that the Nine were in town. She glanced at the dirty van that was parked across the street where she could feel a cape with the ability to create a nearly unstoppable projection that fit the Siberian to a T. 'Screw it, you're not leaving,' she thought as she used her copy of the man's power, creating a naked monochrome version of Emma in front of her. "Seriously?"

"I'm hot," the projection replied.

"I fucking need therapy," Taylor muttered as she sent the projection to make sure the cape wouldn't escape, finding it a bit strange being in two places at once as she had more feedback than she had with the prototype drone that she'd cobbled together. She reached out and turned the man's powers off when the fake Emma was about five feet from the van, causing the person-shaped shadow in the driver's seat of the van to lurch.

The projection ripped the door open and pulled the filthy looking man out of the van as he tried to start it.

"What the fuck?!" Manton snapped, trying to figure out how the hell someone had stolen his projection and why it had changed appearance, something he'd never managed despite his efforts.

Taylor looked at the man's swan shaped tattoo that signified that he'd been in one of the early Simurgh zones or picked it up in support of her victims before people started treating anyone with the tattoo like a plague carrier. 'Yeah, we should probably pour some of the cider down his throat,' she thought as she pulled her scarf up over the bottom part of her face on the off chance that someone wandered by or looked out of a window on the mostly deserted street, glad that it didn't look that out of place because of the cold.

"I wasn't bothering anyone," Manton lied.

Taylor touched his arm once he was dragged over and stole his power so that she could give it to someone else then followed her projection into the shop, wanting to let people know that the Nine were in town before she ran off like an idiot.

0o0o0

Hatchet Face smirked when he saw a man with silvery claws stalking down the alley with a scowl on his face. "This is going to be fun."

"You picked the wrong girl to mess with, bub," Logan replied as he walked toward the soon to be dead asshole that was part of the group that had tortured one of his students.

"You must be new," Hatchet Face replied as he focused on the man with the claws, looking forward to seeing the look of horror on his face when his claws and strength failed to do anything useful.

Logan brought his claws up as he lunged forward, cutting through the handle of the idiot's axe then drove the claws of his other hand into the man's chest. "No, you're just an idiot."

Hatchet Face stared at the claws that were sticking out of his chest in shocked disbelief for a second before the man's free hand blurred and the world began to spin.

Logan looked down at the man's severed head then cut it in half on the off chance that he had enough regeneration to put it back on or survive until someone found him. He tapped his communicator. "Wolverine to Tin Head, Hatchet Face is dead."

"Try to remember that your skeleton is metal," Magneto replied dryly as he casually ripped the cyborg apart that was trying to kill him with metal chains. "I've dealt with my target, have you found the Siberian or Crawler?"

"I redirected Crawler toward a local villain," Frost replied as she twisted Shatterbird's thoughts, causing her head to get ripped apart by shards of glass rather than the countless people that would have been injured or killed by her power if she'd let her scream like she wanted.

"You couldn't put him to sleep?" Magneto asked.

"I tried, he woke up and his power started building defenses," Frost admitted. "They should be able to kill each other."

"I'll deal with it, we're trying to keep the collateral damage to a minimum," Magneto replied as he flew toward the docks, feeling weird to be the one arguing for acting responsible. "Where did you send him?"

"Toward the docks," Frost replied. "I managed to deal with Shatterbird and a guy dressed like a cowboy killed Jack, which just leaves the Siberian and Burnscar but I can't sense them."

"The Siberian is immune to just about everything, that might include Telepathy," Logan offered as he headed back toward the meeting spot they'd picked out.

"Unfortunate," Frost admitted, wanting to finish the mission so she could grab a drink and forget about the things she'd seen in their minds.

0o0o0

Clockblocker pulled his attention away from the dead body with a hole burned through his forehead that he was reasonably sure was Jack Slash and focused on the guy wearing a cowboy outfit with a glowing visor over his eyes that was standing next to two people that he suspected were Uber and Leet. "So, you know that favor you owe me?"

"What about it?" Kid Win asked, keeping most of his attention on the group of three capes on the other side of the street.

"I'm calling it in, they're never going to believe me, you need to call it in," Clockblocker replied.

"Cape name?" Kid Win asked loudly enough to be heard across the street.

"Void Cowboy!" Leet called out.

"Shit!" Kid Win cursed, wishing that he'd called in sick.

"Didn't happen, there's no way, that fucking happened," Clockblocker complained under his breath.

0o0o0