Myst and the Magic Shop Part 9 (Patreon)

"This is going to be easy," Tommy bragged in his thick southern drawl, as he walked towards the jewelry store with his sister, looking forward to scaring people and grabbing a bunch of jewelry.

"It's going to be fun…" Tuppence trailed off when something gold and glittering was tossed at her. She reached up and caught the gold coin then looked at the tall and well built teenager wearing black pants, heavy duty boots and a white t-shirt that was leaning up against a pillar flipping another gold coin. "Did you just toss a gold coin at me?"

"Yeah, consider it a retainer for listening to a sales pitch," Myst replied to the twin superhuman teens.

"What?" Tommy asked, not understanding what he was talking about.

'Right, small words,' Myst thought as he studied the metahumans that looked normal enough for rednecks. "I know you're about a minute from screwing your life up and robbing the jewelry store for a couple of thousand, but I have a better offer if you're interested."

"What makes you think we're doing shit?" Tommy demanded, running his fingers through his short blond hair and trying to play innocent.

"I know a precog," Myst lied. "Without a decent fence, you'd be lucky to get a couple of hundred dollars for a duffle bag filled with loot, not to mention you'd end up on the run."

"We're tough, ain't no one gonna stop us," Tommy bragged, making his sister roll her eyes at how quickly he’d forgotten he was trying to pretend not to be up to anything.

"Tell you what, I'll give you five gold coins for an hour of your time. You can walk into any coin shop in the city and sell them for at least a thousand each," Myst offered.

"You want to hire us?" Tuppence asked in surprise.

"That's the idea," Myst agreed, making a mental note to deal with the girl as she seemed slightly more reasonable or at least more intelligent than her brother.

"Are you a villain?" Tommy asked.

"Does it matter?" Myst asked, curious if they were running from something or if they'd just figured they could get away with whatever the hell they wanted.

"Can you fight?" Tommy demanded.

"Well enough, if you'll follow me outside I'll prove it," Myst replied as he turned and headed for the hallway that led to the supply closets and bathrooms.

"Into a trap, we're not stupid," Tommy argued.

"You haven't broken the law yet, have you?" Myst asked, not surprised when they followed him into the hallway despite calling him on it being a trap. 'This is almost painful,' he mused as he walked over to a supply closet, grabbed the handle and opened a door to a desert in a D&D world.

Tuppence stared at the desert she could see through the doorway. "What the hell?!"

"Let's have some fun," Myst replied as he walked through the door into the desert. "I want to see what you're made of."

"Like a job interview?" Tommy asked as he followed him into the desert, looking forward to seeing what he was made of and if he could actually throw down with them.

"Basically," Myst replied, closing the portal and 'trapping' them in D&D once Tuppence walked through. "Rules?"

"Ain't no rules," Tommy replied and charged Myst.

Myst dodged out of the way in a blur then grabbed Tommy and tossed him, flinging through the air and sending him crashing into a sand dune. "Why jewelry?" he asked Tuppence.

"Why not?" she asked in confusion. "It's valuable."

"Only if you can sell it for a decent price, most pieces these days have marks or codes that make them worthless for reselling for anything resembling a reasonable price," Myst lied, knowing that gold was gold even if some of the gems would probably be marked. “Robbing a jewelry store these days doesn’t pay as well as it used to, it’s a sucker’s move.”

"Are you calling us stupid?" Tuppence demanded as she put her hands up like a boxer.

"I'm just calling it like I see it," Myst replied then flew five feet to the left a second before Tommy crashed down where he'd been standing. "This isn't going to work, I'm faster and stronger than you."

"Where is the portal?!" Tommy demanded, realizing they were trapped wherever the man had taken them.

"I closed it," Myst replied with a grin as Tuppence spun around to look.

Tuppence glared at Myst. "You're asking for trouble!"

"Bring it," Myst taunted, hoping that beating the twins in a fight would convince them that they couldn't do whatever they wanted just because they were metahumans. He almost felt guilty as he tossed them around and dodged every swing, moving like the wind compared to their ponderously slow movement. 'How the hell did Connor lose to these two?'

He dodged a strike from Tommy then grabbed him and tossed him over the sand dune, knowing better than to take the hit like a brute. He dodged out of the way of Tuppence's haymaker. "You really should calm down."

"I'm going to crush you!" Tuppence shouted as she jumped at him.

Myst blurred forward and left, letting her fly past him and making sure she couldn't grab him. "Why? You wanted a fight."

"This is not fighting!" Tommy screamed as he jumped at Myst. "Man up and take it!"

Myst blurred forward and kicked Tommy in the chest, sending him crashing to the ground and knocking the wind out of him. "Why in the hell would I handicap myself like that?"

"So we can win!" Tuppence complained as she jumped at Myst. “A fight ain’t fun unless there is a chance you can lose!”

Myst blurred out of the way, making sure to keep track of Tommy then raised his hand and cast calm on Tuppence, glad that he'd picked up the spell from Skyrim. "Is that enough?"

Tuppence blinked a couple of times and realized she felt calmer than she'd felt in years. "What did you do?"

"Used an ability to calm you down so we could have a discussion," Myst replied then did the same thing to Tommy, who was still lying on the sand trying to regain his breath.

"What do you want?" Tuppence asked, trying to figure out what the guy wanted.

"Like I said before, I want to hire you," Myst replied.

"Why?" Tuppence asked. "You obviously don't need our help."

"Just because I don't need it, doesn't mean I don't want it. You could be two bit criminals or you could be treasure hunting badasses, I know which one I'd pick," Myst replied with a grin when he saw a blue dragon flying their way in the distance. 'Damn, you can watch movies but nothing really prepares you to see it in person.'

"What makes you think we'll work for you?" Tuppence asked.

"I can pay and I can offer you something nothing else will."

"What's that?" she asked.

"Excitement," Myst replied as he pointed at the blue dragon in the distance, "and the chance to test yourself against real monsters, things that could put the hurt on Superman."

Tuppence looked behind her at the dragon she could see in the distance. "Is that a dragon?"

"Yep, stick with me, I'll shower you with gold, treasures and challenges and you'll be able to go to the mall and buy things without having to look over your shoulder for the police," Myst offered.

"Okay," Tuppence agreed after a few seconds of consideration, figuring fighting dragons was more interesting than heroes, especially since they'd lost and Superman would eventually show up if they pulled enough jobs and he had to be stronger than some guy they'd never heard of.

"Do you want to fight the dragon or leave?" Myst asked.

"Dragon!" Tuppence shouted with a wild grin and charged towards the dragon, causing the dragon to turn and look at the crazy person that was charging it.

Myst wasn't terribly surprised when the dragon blasted Tuppence with lightning then turned and flew away when the lightning failed to do much of anything.

'Fuck this, this isn't even my territory!' the dragon thought as he flew away from the crazy demigod.

Tommy groaned as he pushed himself up to his knees. "That sucked."

"You're the one that said no rules, be happy I didn't hit you in the nuts," Myst replied.

"Heroes aren't supposed to do that shit," Tommy complained.

Myst laughed. "When did I claim to be a hero? I’m just not stupid enough to be a villain."

"How much are you paying us?" Tommy asked, seeing his sister was unharmed and chasing after the flying lizard.

"Depends on the job, anywhere from a couple of gold coins to several hundred," Myst explained as he pulled two silver rings out of his pocket that he'd already enchanted calm and fortify intelligence on.

"Several hundred gold?" Tommy asked in surprise. "Why didn't you start with that?"

"You said you wanted a fight," Myst replied as he watched Tuppence try to catch the bus-sized dragon that was fleeing as fast as it could go, unnerved by the crazy being chasing it.

0o0o0

"You're almost late, did you get distracted?" Kara asked as Myst flew out of the tunnel that led to the ship.

"No, I had to deal with a couple of metahumans before they turned into criminals," Myst replied.

"What did you do with them?" Kara asked.

"Turned them into murder hobos," Myst replied as he turned to look at a sand dune.

"That's- Wait! What?!" Kara sputtered when she’d processed the statement. "That sounds a lot worse than villain."

"Right, sorry, the technical term is adventurer," Myst replied with a grin.

Kara shook her head. "Ah, right, gamer. So, where did you stash them?"

"In a nice town with some ruins and an adventuring group, they should be fine," Myst assured her. "I'll pick them up for the weekend and we can run through some dungeons in some of the Final Fantasy worlds."

"How's that going?" Kara asked as she scanned the area around the ship with her X-ray vision where he'd fused some of the sand into a dome above the ship.

"I've been working on flying while playing the game. It's decent training, if I get too distracted I drop out of the air and have to pay attention," he said with a grin.

Kara grinned as she pictured a cartoon where they only fell after noticing they were supposed to. "Eventually you'll reach the point where it's instinctive."

"Hopefully," Myst agreed.

"Do you have an actual plan for what you're grabbing this weekend?" Kara asked.

"Not really," Myst admitted. "I want to grab a spell altar from one of the Elder Scrolls games. It would let me turn some of the D&D spells into spells that take mana so I don't have to burn a bunch of scrolls to repair the ship and I want to learn some of the Final Fantasy spells because healing someone for one hundred percent of their life means I can actually fix Kal and Diana if they get messed up in a fight."

"What about gear?" Kara asked.

"If I grab the right ribbon from Final Fantasy, I'd be protected from most or all status effects which would go a long way towards making it harder to mind control the League and some of the trinkets reduce the mana cost of spells. Some of the more dangerous dungeons have items that let you boost a stat by a point or two. I wouldn't mind setting things up so I can run through the dungeons and loot them. I'd rather have supernatural or near supernatural dexterity, durability and strength under a red sun than not have it," Myst explained.

"Seems like a lot of work, what happens if you get mind controlled?" Kara asked.

"I'm hoping I can get items to prevent that," Myst replied as he picked up a rock and put it in the palm of his hand. "Besides, if I get mind controlled, we're already sort of screwed, especially if they're halfway intelligent and start asking questions."

"I'm reasonably sure Doctor Fate or Giovanni could deal with you if you want nuts," Kara offered.

"Considering the magic resistance ring, they'd have issues and depending on which body Fate was puppeting, I'd just lure him through a portal and close it," Myst explained, not sure that dropping Fate on a D&D world actually strand him, but it was a good start.

Kara shook her head. "What's with the rock?"

"I'm trying to figure out telekinesis," Myst replied as he focused on the rock.

"Any luck?" Kara asked.

"Maybe, it's hard to say it's not just me moving my hand," Myst replied with a grin. "So what do you want to focus on today?"

"How did you make the dome?" Kara asked.

"I fused sections of sand into glass with heat vision then I dug the extra bits out. It would have been easier if I could turn the shields on but I'm not a mad scientist." Myst frowned when he felt the rock move. 'Was that because my hand moved or did I move the rock with my mind?'

Kara grinned. "You don't have to be a mad scientist to turn the shields on, you just have to find the right button."

"Speaking of mad scientists, how did Serling work out?" Myst asked.

"She answered most of the questions correctly," Kara admitted.

"Most?" Myst asked.

"She voted for world domination but after thinking about the question, I was forced to agree with her after she pointed out who was in charge of our political parties," Kara replied with a smile, letting him know she was mostly joking.

Myst laughed. "One of the reasons I try to avoid political arguments, no one would appreciate cursing all of the senators to never lie about campaign promises."

"It would certainly cut down on them getting reelected," Kara agreed.

Myst grinned when the rock jumped off his hand. "Huh, you might want to work on telekinesis, I don't think I picked it up from the shop."

"I'll put it on the list," Kara replied with a grin. "Have you tried making diamonds yet?"

"That actually works?" Myst asked in surprise.

"Kal's done it a couple of times, I've never gotten the trick to work, it always breaks or I burn it, it's a bit frustrating," Kara complained.

"Something to try," Myst agreed, then focused and breathed out a gout of flames. "Have you figured out how to breathe fire yet?"

Kara belched out a small gout of flames. "Like that?"

"Close enough," Myst agreed as he floated off the ground. "What did you want to work on?"

"We have the magic resistance rings, let's practice flying and dodging spells," Kara suggested.

Myst shook his head. "You just want to blast stuff."

"And?" Kara asked with a grin.

"Works for me," Myst replied as he flew up into the air and tossed a blast of lightning at Kara who barely managed to dodge then blinked when Kara used a light spell on his face before blurring forward and poking him on the shoulder.

"Tag!" Kara called out then flew off, dropping several fireballs in Myst's path to start the game.

0o0o0

"Back entrance?" Robin asked as he looked at the abandoned chemical warehouse.

"I'll take the skylight," Batman replied, figuring Robin would be able to sneak in and free the children while he distracted the Joker.

"On it," Robin replied as he dashed from shadow to shadow, moving around to the back of the warehouse.

Batman shot a grappling line and pulled himself up to the roof, wondering where The Joker's henchmen were. 'This isn't like him, doesn't fit his pattern.' He snuck over to the skylight, trying to figure out what was going on before he burst in to foil The Joker's plan.

Robin frowned as slipped into the building and found no obstacles save Harley, who was standing on a catwalk, drawing his attention more than usual for some reason he couldn’t explain. 'Something isn't right, this was too easy.' He glanced around then sprinted over to the ladder and scrambled up it.

"You'll never stop Mr J's fiendish plan!" Harley called out, discreetly pointing towards the other end of the warehouse where The Joker was holding the kids hostage. "Make it look good," she whispered.

'She's crazier than normal,' Robin thought as he jumped forward and kicked at Harley, not surprised when she dodged out of the way as she was extremely flexible and had a costume that he wasn’t entirely sure wasn't sprayed on. 'Focus!'

Harley grabbed her large wooden mallet and swug it at the railing near Robin's head. "Take that!"

Robin charged forward, but she twirled the mallet forcing him back once more, but he could tell she was holding back even more than usual while fighting him and he wasn’t sure why. He also wasn’t sure why he found his attention drifting towards certain muscle groups as she danced around, sure it let him know which way she was going to move, but Batman had taught him to watch the eyes of his opponents to avoid falling for feints.

"Not the face!" Harley called out as she jumped at Robin, swinging her hammer and causing him to jump back.

Batman ignored Harley, figuring Robin could handle her as he made his way over towards the Joker, less than happy to see a bunch of cages filled with children and puppies suspended over vats of chemicals. "What's your game?!" he demanded.

"Do you ever feel like we've done this dance before? You capture me, beat me black and blue and toss me in the madhouse, I escape and kill a bunch of people then we're right back here, same old dance but this time, it will be different! This is the time I'll finally have my revenge!"

Batman stopped and stared at The Joker, wondering if he'd finally lost his marbles completely. "Revenge for what?" he asked, honestly confused.

"There are so many incidents, I don't even know where to begin!" The Joker snapped back, agitated as he stalked over to the controls for the crane.

"He's been reading self help books and he had some shock therapy, says it helps him focus," Harvey offered, fairly sure the last round of 'treatments' had finally driven him completely nuts and not the fun kind of nuts ether, since he hadn't been laughing or using any of his usual puns.

"We don't need him focused," Robin complained as he dodged Harley's hammer.

"I'm right there with you," Harley agreed. "He's just no fun like this."

"Fun?! I'll have my fun after everyone is dead!" The Joker shouted.

“Hey Joker,” Robin called out, causing the madman to pause.

“What?”

“Chill out,” Robin said and flung out a hand, a bolt of lightning striking the Joker in the chest and slamming him into the wall where he shuddered and sparked for a minute before falling to the floor, smoke rising from his clothes.

“Chill out?” Harley asked in disbelief, not even questioning the Boy Wonder being able to throw lightning as she guessed he had a Bat-Throw-Lighting-Device or something similar.

“I’m not a comedian, I’m a sidekick,” Robin replied with a shrug, “he’s supposed to be the funny one.”

“Sweetie, are you okay?” Harley asked.

“I’m not sure he is,” Batman said, kneeling down and checking the Joker’s vitals, “his behavior has been erratic even for him. Usually he’s laughing and having fun, regardless of the lives he destroys, but now… he seems to be filled with anger. I’d say he’s more lucid, but I’m not sure it’s an improvement.”

“Huh,” Joker said, staring at the ceiling and twitching a bit, ”you may have a point there, I have been feeling off my game.”

"Cuff me?" Harley asked, holding her hands out towards Robin.

"Sure," Robin replied as he grabbed his cuffs off his belt and went to cuff her.

"Last kiss?" Harley teased, slipping into his personal space.

"I'm not that…" Robin trailed off as he found himself handcuffed to the railing.

"Ta ta for now!" Harley said cheerfully, giving him a big wet kiss on the forehead before she jumped off the railing and bounced off a tank, headed for the exit.

Batman briefly considered going after her but decided that making sure the Joker ended up back in custody and the kids were released was more important. He made sure The Joker was securely restrained.

"A little help here," Robin complained.

Batman took a picture of Robin to show Barbara.

"That's not helpful," Robin complained as The Joker started laughing.

"And here I thought he didn't have a sense of humor," The Joker muttered after getting his laughter under control, feeling like himself once more. “Thanks, Batsy I needed that.”