Traveling Magic Shop Part 28 (Patreon)

"Shake it like you mean it," Aisha joked as she watched Myst strip in the phone booth.

"Pretty sure your brother would kill me," Myst replied as he took off his underwear, unwilling to dance around like an idiot for her amusement. "You're supposed to be shooting people in the game."

"If you shake it, I'll let you spank me," Aisha lied, having fun teasing him.

"Why did I let you back in the shop in the middle of the night?" Myst asked as he used his Upgrade ability to double check his new costume, making sure it wasn't cursed or defective.

"Because my mother is drugged out of her mind and I'm dangerously sexy?" Aisha asked, unwilling to stay in the apartment when her mother's asshole boyfriend was around.

"Have you considered therapy?" Myst asked as he spent the mana to upgrade the costume so that it worked like a training booster where he could acquire part of the power if he worked for it.

Aisha shrugged. "That requires money and talking about my problems isn't going to fix them."

"Depends on the problem," Myst replied as he used his Upgrade ability to upgrade the Rogue costume so that he'd be able to keep a fraction of the brute rating permanently if he trained while wearing the costume.

"How much do you know about my brother's boss?" Aisha asked, wanting to make sure her brother wasn't getting screwed.

"I'm not going to tell you his name, you might be tempted to try and kill him but he's basically a sociopath that wants to be a Bond villain, he's on my list," Myst told her as he worked on putting the cargo pants on.

"Does he have powers?" Aisha asked.

Myst sighed. "Yeah, he's a precog. He can effectively split the timeline and choose the best version."

"That sucks," Aisha complained, figuring that would make him a lot harder to kill.

"He'll also be dead or permanently fucked by the end of the week so I wouldn't worry about it," Myst told her as he zipped up his pants.

"Not a fan?" Aisha asked as she went back to killing zombies in her game.

"Not remotely," Myst complained as he grabbed the sheer shirt. "I can understand being a villain when you don't have better options or when you want to fuck with a bunch of Nazis and assholes but he's the type of asshole that would burn the world if he couldn’t rule it."

"Why do you care?" Aisha asked. "You're going to be gone in a week."

"Spite," Myst replied as he checked his powers with his Upgrade ability, making sure the collar wasn't technically required for the costume. "I'm tired of assholes getting away with shit because people aren't willing to call them on it."

"I can respect that," Aisha replied as she worked on killing the boss with her rocket launcher. "Speaking of spite, can I talk you into boosting my costume so I can trash the Empire?"

"You realize that not everyone in the gang deserves to have their spine ripped out, right?" Myst asked as he pulled the shirt over his head.

"What makes you think I was planning on ripping out anyone's spine?" Aisha asked as she used a chainsaw to cut one of the zombies in half.

"Besides the fact that you're a vindictive and violent girl with a warped sense of humor?" Myst teased as he grabbed his clothes and stepped out of the phone booth.

"Do Nazis really count as people?" Aisha asked as she had her character grab the shotgun that was on the table.

"Technically," Myst replied with a sigh. "Joking aside, I'd wait a week for most of their capes to get picked up, anyone that hasn't abandoned ship by that point is fair game for broken legs and ruptured spleens."

"How much are you planning on boosting the PRT and the Heroes?" Aisha asked, worried about her brother.

"Enough that your brother and his team should probably find a new line of work," Myst admitted, fairly sure the PRT would make a deal with Brian in a heartbeat considering his powers might be useful for cleaning up radiation sites, of which there were plenty thanks to Behemoth.

"I can't see Bitch holding an actual job," Aisha replied, having looked up her brother's gang.

"She'd probably do an excellent job training police or service dogs, we'd just have to deal with her criminal record which shouldn't be all that hard, it just requires having the right amount of leverage."

"Do you think you could find leverage on my mom's boyfriend?" Aisha asked.

"Honestly, just wear your costume and a halter top under the shirt or a sweatshirt over it and break his arm if he grabs you when you swing by to get your stuff," Myst told her.

Aisha beamed. "You're a bad influence, you know that right?"

"I'm aware," Myst replied as he headed for the door.

0o0o0

"Did you find anything good?" Riley asked as she walked over to see what Mimi was reading, picking up bits and pieces from her thoughts but not wanting to look too closely since her thoughts were a confusing mess.

"Riley…" Mimi trailed off when she looked up from the graphic novel she was reading and saw the half naked red haired girl that sounded like her friend but certainly didn't match her mental image. "What happened?"

"I grew up," Riley replied as she walked over and sat down across from the pyrokinetic, not sure how to feel about the only remaining member of the Nine but willing to give her a chance since she'd drank the cider and seemed to be saner than she used to be.

"No shit," Mimi replied then winced when she realized that she'd cussed in front of Bonesaw.

"Don't worry about it, some of the people at the school cussed like sailors with a hangover," Riley replied with a grin, glad that she didn't have an unhealthy and pathological aversion to cursing anymore thanks to Professor Frost's help, not to mention having spent time with Logan while he was working in the garage.

Mimi glanced at the door to the game room where Myst was trying on a costume then focused on her friend. "Myst mentioned that you were having an adventure, how long were you gone?"

"Four years, it took a while to get my head on straight," Riley admitted, trying not to think about the early days when she'd been a complete mess after drinking the cider and losing her cyberware.

"I'm trying, the cider helped but I'm still fucked up," Mimi admitted.

"One step at a time," Riley told her. "Do you want me to crack your skull open and fix your powers?"

Mimi shook her head. "Myst already fixed my power, I can use it without going insane."

"Have you figured out what you're going to do now that you're sane adjacent?" Riley asked, wondering if her old teammate had any plans now that she wasn't completely crazy.

"You're wearing panties and a corset as a fashion choice, I'm not sure you get to lecture me on sanity," Mimi argued.

Riley snickered. "I was getting dressed for a date, it doesn't count and you're trying to dodge the question."

Mimi glanced over at the creepy looking fortune teller machine. "I was thinking about jumping worlds, my powers aren't good enough to fight the endbringers and we've got kill orders. The cider fixed my head and my powers, that doesn't fix my memories or the fact that I was a monster."

"At least you had an excuse, your power seriously screwed with your head, my shard just whispered shit in my mind and I ran with it," Riley complained as Myst walked out of the game room.

"If it helps, Jack was a master," Myst offered as he walked over to the table. "His power drastically increased the amount of influence he should have had when it came to capes."

"That would certainly explain how he talked Hatchet Face into joining considering how much he hated capes," Riley mused. "I'm not sure how much that matters, I was a kid and Mimi's power screwed with her brain."

'You're still a kid,' Myst thought as he checked Riley's powers with his Upgrade ability. 'Dimensional Traveling, Magic, Regeneration, Telepathy and Telekinesis, that's a damned nice collection of powers, just as well that she doesn't have any mental problems listed.' He glanced at the backroom then focused on Riley's eyes, trying not to stare at the girl's clothes since they didn't hide much of anything. "How long did you end up spending in the book?"

"Four years," Riley replied. "I was dressed for a date when I got pulled back."

"Lucky…" Myst trailed off as a group of identical blonde teenagers walked down the stairs with Rose following them, a casserole and a stack of plates floating in front of her. "Friends?"

Riley smiled when she saw her girlfriends. "Girlfriends, they followed me when I vanished."

"Huh, first time for everything," Myst mused as he checked their powers and stats, surprised that they'd managed to escape the book. 'Telepathy and the ability to change into diamond, that tracks with them being triplets.'

"We have food, do you want some?" Rose asked Mimi as the group walked over to the table.

"Yes!" Mimi replied without hesitation, not sure when the last time was that she'd had a home cooked meal that she hadn't stolen.

Myst gestured at the game room and pushed the door open a couple of inches with a mage hand spell. "We have food, come get it if you want it."

"Food!" Aisha cheered as she paused the game and bolted for the door, wanting something more substantial than the snack food she'd been grabbing from the game.

"Where's Harry?" Myst asked Rose as she set the casserole dish on the table along with the plates.

"He'll be down in a minute, he was tossing things in the sink," Rose replied as Aisha rushed out of the game room. "Can you expand the apartment? We're going to need more space if we're keeping Riley and the triplets."

"Shouldn't be that hard," Myst assured her. "I was planning on grabbing a couple of dividers and upgrading them to make a couple of rooms for you and Harry so, a couple more won't be a problem."

"Cool," Rose replied as she turned and looked at Riley. "Do you want to stay with us, at least until we jump dimensions?"

"Sounds better than trying to pay someone under the table for a hotel or staying on a world with endbringers," Riley replied as she started dishing up some of the casserole on plates for everyone.

"You're welcome to hang out until we can find a decent world that you like," Myst offered, not seeing a problem with Riley and the triplets sticking around until they found somewhere they wanted to stay.

"How much have you boosted your costume?" Rose asked Myst.

"It should let me pick up a brute rating with enough training which means I should be able to hand the power out," Myst replied with a grin.

"Can you do that to my costume or give me a brute rating?" Aisha asked hopefully.

"Let me check," Myst replied as he checked her costume to see if he could upgrade it. "It's more expensive to upgrade it once you've worn it but it's still a drop in a lake compared to my mana so, yeah, sure, no problem with upgrading the costume."

Riley raised her eyebrows when Myst spent enough mana to level a house to upgrade Aisha's costume. "That's a drop in a bucket?"

Myst smiled at Riley. "I had a year to work on my mana reserves and my mana regeneration when I was learning magic so yeah, it's a drop in a very large bucket."

"I think you had better teachers," Riley admitted with a pout.

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

Myst shook his head. "Nothing but if you want to pay it forward, I'm not going to complain."

"Pay it forward?" Aisha asked.

"Save someone's life or do something that makes the world a better place than you found it. In other words, try to be a decent person to people that deserve it," Myst told her.

"That's it?" Aisha asked.

"That's it," Myst agreed as he grabbed a plate of the chicken casserole. "One random act of kindness can change the world or at least make someone's day brighter."

"Beating the shit out of Nazis also counts as making the world a better place," Rose stated.

"Same with Humans First," Riley added, glad that the group had mostly disbanded after they'd started shooting each other at their last major rally.

Aisha smirked. "Noted."

Myst glanced between Riley and Aisha. "On second thought, not my circus, not my monkey, if you want to beat up Empire thugs, go for it. Just remember that there are shades of gray and that some of the people probably joined because they wanted protection from the Merchants, the ABB, or possibly the Empire itself."

"Can I get some names for the new people?" Aisha asked as she glanced between the rest of the people at the table, trying to change the subject.

"I'm Mimi," Mimi offered, glad that most people didn't use her real name so it wasn't widely known.

"I'm Riley and we have Jack, Helena and Vivian Frost." Riley said as she gestured at her girlfriends.

Jack finished up her bite of the casserole. "It's technically Jacqueline but everyone calls me Jack."

Myst glanced between the identical blonde girls. 'Not the names I was expecting but at least they don't seem to have any mental or physical issues that show up to my power or hidden triggers.'

"Nice to meet you, I'm Aisha," Aisha offered, finding herself wondering if Riley would share and glad that it wasn't easy to see her blush.

"Nice to meet you," Jack replied with a grin, rather amused by the idea of sharing Riley, not that she'd want to long term.

Myst turned to look at the door when someone banged on it.

"Can you open the door?" a woman's voice asked.

"Fuck it," Myst muttered as he stood up. "Just a minute!" he called out as he walked over to the door and looked through the spyhole in the door at a girl in her late teens with an eye patch over one eye that her hair mostly hid. 'Speak of the devil,' he thought as he opened the door. "It's late, how can I help you?"

"Have you seen James?" Othala asked as she showed a picture of Victor to Myst.

Myst glanced at the brown haired man in his twenties that was standing off to the side of the door enough that he hadn't been visible through the spyhole then focused on Othala. "He showed up when the PRT was buying powers and left via the teleporter, that's the last I saw him."

"Teleporter?" Othala asked.

"He didn't want to be seen leaving," Myst replied as he stepped out of the way so they could walk inside.

"Buying powers?" Justin asked suspiciously.

"They're buying costumes that give people minor brute ratings and Flight, I guess they want to crack down on the gangs," Myst replied as the two villains walked into the shop.

"That's good," Othala lied as she glanced around the strange shop.

"Great," Justin muttered when he noticed that one of the triplet's had her hand on one of the girl's arms in a way that implied she was more than just friends.

Riley reached out with Telepathy and skimmed the stranger's surface thoughts when she noticed the less than friendly way he'd looked at them. 'Lovely, he's a fanatic and he's annoyed because Vivian's hand is on my arm.'

"How much are the costumes?" Justin asked.

"I sold the costumes to the government for a grand but I'd cut you a deal since you're not part of the problem," Myst lied as he used magic to quietly lock the door. "How's a hundred dollars sound?" he asked.

"Sounds like a steal…" Justin trailed off then collapsed as he fell asleep.

Myst glanced at the girls when Othala slumped to the ground. "Rose?"

"Nope," Rose replied. "Harry?"

Harry shook his head. "Wasn't me, you'd notice."

"Sorry," Riley offered. "Othala was thinking about touching Crusader and giving him invulnerability so they could just beat the answers out of us about where Victor went and so they could steal the costumes. I figured it was easier to just knock them out since Crusader wasn't planning on leaving us alive."

"They're capes?" Aisha asked in surprise.

"Yep," Myst said cheerfully as he used his Upgrade ability to repair Othala's eye, upgrading her physical health to the point where it was nearly perfect. "At this rate, we're going to run out of villains before the end of the week."

"Good," Aisha replied, looking forward to seeing the Empire collapse.

"Can you walk them over to the machine that looks like a carnival fortune teller so we can drop them in a random dimension?" Myst asked Riley.

"Sure," Riley replied as she used her Telekinesis to haul the villains over to the machine. "Now what?"

"I don't know," Myst admitted. "We might have to wake them up and do a bit of good cop, bad cop to get them to put a coin in the machine since I'm fairly sure that using Telekinesis or mind control to force the issue might cause you to teleport."

"That's easy enough," Riley replied as she used her Telepathy to edit the last couple of minutes of Othala's memories so that they'd explained about how Victor had set everything up for a surprise vacation and that sticking a coin in the slot would take her to the same place. She floated Othala's wallet out of her pocket and over to the table then put a coin in her hand and woke her up without her realizing that she'd fallen asleep.

"Thanks," Othala said as she dropped the coin in the slot and vanished.

"Can you do the same to Crusader?" Myst asked.

"Yep," Riley replied as she tweaked a couple of memories, trying to make sure that Crusader would have an easier time getting over his issues with therapy then set things up so that he'd willingly drop a coin in the slot.

0o0o0