Marvelous Shop, Chapter 2 (Patreon)

Nick Fury's face was made out of stone as he watched the latest viral hit on Youtube. Thankfully it wasn't a monster or minature kaiju appearing out of some lake and dragging a family into the depths, but still... It was worrying.

A group of teens, with two of them using enchanted candy of all the damned things had frozen over the top of a large lake in the middle of the summer and were fucking ice skating across the lake with their friends.

"Sir, we have had agents scout out the store as soon as possible due to its location being in the heart of Times Square. We were able to get a list of the currently available candies but the candies that give permanent powers are under enchanted lock and key. To say nothing of them not costing currency or even precious metals but more odd things." A female voice spoke and Fury's sole eye went to Hill and took the file she offered to read the information within.

And within moments Fury snorted as he wasn't stupid nor ignorant of some of the candies available on the list. As he was a child too at one point... He had seen Willy Wonka of course.

Some of the candies he recognized from the older books he had read as well. But then Hill continued as Fury read the list and was thinking. "Sir, also the agents have confirmed with target Jake Bariss that he will be stocking his store with other magical items, weapons, armor, and even power granting... Things once he settles in." 

There was a moment of silence as he scrolled down to the more powerful magical consumables, some of which would grant permanent boosts and effects to the target and seeing the Ironhide Jawbreakers he had a thought.

'What if I could give several trustworthy agents the Spiderbites to give them Spiderman's agility and pre-cognition along with the durability of Luke Cage after eating the Ironhide Jawbreakers.' He mused that such a combination would be a perfect super soldier and assassin with how the Spiderbite would allow them to climb walls with impunity.

"Sir, should we shut down the store? We have agents on sight to arrest the... Mage or whatever he is." Hill asked bluntly as she stood at the ready.

For a long moment, Fury sat there in thought before he dragged a hand across his face and said bluntly. "No, sending mundane agents into a mage's home that can enchant candy to harmlessly give people powers would be a fucking terrible idea. Ideally I would send the Mage Supreme at him but the Aincent One is busy dealing with a portal sending Kaiju's into the South China Sea." 

There was silence as Fury rapped his hands on his desk considering his options. Does he play hardball with the mage merchant selling his wares? Get him to only sell to Shield and other government offices... And of course military, and other companies when they inevitably leaned on the government too hard and made them fold.

Or does he just let the young-looking mage throw his wares across the world and cause god knows how much chaos?

As he could already see it. Some kid who was getting bullied in school decides to go out in a blaze of glory, and instead of taking a gun they take a power-granting candy and do far more damage.

"Sir?" Hill asked after waiting for a while.

Fury snorted and said. "Send agents Romanoff and Yelena to take his measure. See if he will sell exclusively to SHIELD and will keep the permanent power-granting objects off the shelf or to the public."

As much as Fury wanted to shut this Jake Bariss's ass into a cage to make power-granting consumables to help the US and the world itself deal with the monsters and Kaiju's the world had been educated very firmly by the Ancient One, Selene Gallio and other powerful mages. 

Those mages had taught the world that, although they were willing to help, were duty-bound to help, or could be bought to help with the issues of the world. They couldn't be controlled by force.

America was still recovering from the shock after Selene Gallio teleported the President from the very Oval Office into the middle of a North Korean military parade right next to their supreme leader.

So dealing with Jake needed to be done initially with a soft hand. As Fury knew for a fucking fact that such a wizard would only pop up into the open so freely knowing he was beyond safe in his place of power.

With Fury's orders given, Hill nodded, took out her large encrypted satellite phone, and called to share those very orders.

-

"This is a load of fucking balls... Ugh this is complete bullshit." I muttered as I looked into my portal system.

As some higher-tier currencies weren't exactly something I could in good conscience take from people. Like the Ironhide Jawbreakers, in the very store they cost ten pounds of low-grade immortal/innately enchanted metal. 

How the fuck was a random person going to get immortal/innately enchanted metal or bones that was in of itself a treasure? Only fucking Wakanda and the weirdo's in the South Pole who had their own stores of alternate Vibranium had any real amount to trade to me.

As far as I knew anyway... However, that could be changed if the government had managed to overwhelm some kind of vampire castle and capture the treasuries within or something.

Though maybe the shop would accept the more energy-rich portions of Kaiju bones?

But regardless of the higher-tier stuff in my shop, there were also issues on my own end. Looking through the list of possible shipment themes I had to account for costs that I certainly couldn't pay on my own for sure.

As to properly unlock a whole themes section... It was very expensive and something I literally couldn't do on my own.

[Harry Potter- Complete Magical Collection= 5,000,000 Souls]
[Star Wars- Complete Technological Tree/Force Applications and Acquisitions= 100,000,000,000 Million Souls, 5 million tons of enhanced ore/metal, 10 divine souls]
[Dragon Taming/Dragon Egg Collection= Souls of 10,000 Kaiju class monsters. 1 ton of pure blooded dragon remains.]
[Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs Technology= 1,000,000 Souls. 500,000 tons of food scraps from various cultures.]
[CyberPunk 2077 Augmentations/Technology= 500,000 Souls]
[Fallout Technology Tree= 750,000 souls/ 200 Souls of Cryptid Monsters]
[Halo Complete Technology Tree= 100,000,000,000 Souls/ 10,000 Exo-planets sacrificed, 100 life-bearing planets sacrificed.] 

And so many more options were available. But these were the things I could see being easy hits that everyone would want or love.

Now normally you would be thinking... Gee, where the fuck does a man get a healthy several million souls from without committing the worst form of genocide?

And that was the trick. The trick was committing measured genocide against things that literally needed to die and that's where my portal came in.

The portal could go to any number of worlds where killing something was not only encouraged but purely a mercy for whatever they killed honestly.

The government wants Starwars ships to finally be able to properly stand up in the universe? Goodie, they can send troops, hero's and villains into the world of Warhammer Fantasy to hold back the tides of demons with the wonders of modern weaponry. 

People want to become a Harry Potter Wizard? Cool, they can take their buddies and go into Dark Souls and all the souls and materials they collect will be collected by the shop with them getting in-store credit for the higher tier goods if they didn't or couldn't spend things like their own lifespan, or gather things like divine materials in this world.

So my store not only sold the stuff it did, but it also gave people the ability to actually acquire the things they wanted if they couldn't buy it to begin with. 

Not to mention, I literally couldn't afford to unlock these themed packs at all on my own...

This leads back to the portal system and its rules. 

[Anyone going through the portal ties their soul to said portal, should you die within the portal you will be resurrected on this side of the portal. However, you lose all store credit, and will be banned from using the portal for up to six months to allow your soul to heal and fit back into your new body.]

[The Store takes a ten percent fee on the materials and forms of currency gathered within the world. The user or team will visit.]

[Teams that go into worlds together pool all resources and materials are paid out based on contributions. Any form of life-ending betrayal or cuckoldry will result in the traitor's souls being dispersed and them having no form of reincarnation.]

'Alright, so clearly the shop although a safe place for myself... It does want me to get off my ass, make friends and allies that will help me expand the shop. And also have the strength to defend myself.' I thought as I scrolled through the list of hellworlds that I could go to.

And as I clicked the world, I saw that worlds had objectives tied to them. To accomplish certain events and whoever accomplished said major goals, did the most in doing so. Would be given a great amount of extra in-store credit.

Like whoever killed Gwyn in Dark Souls would gain a fuck load of souls to be spent at their leisure to say nothing of the items that they would get for actually killing a literal god no matter how decrepit Gwyn was.

Unbidden to myself a thought came to my mind... Of Captain America just parry locking Gwyn and beating him without a single issue.

"Alright... So, I myself still have the portal protection agaisnt my own deaths but where do I go." I muse as I looked between monster-filled world, scifi worlds, and fantasy death worlds where things to kill were endless.

But before I could make a decision, I heard a buzz from the front of the shop as someone was ready to pay.

"Coming!" I called out as I left the side room where the portal was and headed over to the main shop area.

And as I came out into the main shop, I blinked as I saw someone I vaguely recognized before my lips twitched as I realized it was the Black Widow, and a hot blond next to her that tingled at my memory but I couldn't recognize her. 'Whelp, time to face the music.' I thought.