It was the way the question landed that threw them off. 'Will that be all?' – it came off so casually that it almost made it look like he was talking about one of the items on his shelf.
No matter how it looked, provoking a reaction like what Shaw seemed wanting to do was not a sound idea at this juncture. There was no buffer between them and this Merchant—
That bastard. They were the buffer. It was a polite hostage situation and Shaw was so kind enough to let them set the ransom. Knowing what happened to Shaw's little minion was no doubt an information they all deemed important to know, so Shaw was letting them decide to know now – by backing his confrontation – or to remain in ignorance while he attempted for his answer at another time.
It was either join him now and have an ear to whatever information his minion had or leave him to his own where he'd probably defuse the situation and try to find out privately on his own time.
He was a bastard alright, but an annoyingly smart one. So far they were working on the high possibility of everything the Merchant was talking about being true. And no, she did not forget about his little exchange with Selene. The black snake had been here prior and did not say anything. Was Shaw in on this? She in no way enjoyed being part of the ignorant party.
"Yeah, she broke your 'rules', whatever those are, but what did you do to her?" Buckman asked. Of course he would be Shaw's first supporter. It didn't take a genius to see that she was deliberately being roped into Shaw's decision. Buckman and Selene might as well have been here for moral support or a headcount.
"If it's all the same to you, we'd like her back. For continued pleasantness, of course." Shaw added. Sure, because that sounded better.
He was trying to find the man's bottom line in the most direct way possible, and again that was valuable information so she couldn't really say otherwise. They came here personally to test the waters. They couldn't return with only half measures.
But she refused to be a passenger to whatever trainwreck Shaw was piloting. Shaw and Selene planning something together was bad enough. Both of them doing their own thing was just as bad.
"Continued pleasantness is good for business." Isaac muttered softly. Business – that was the keyword. Well at least she could feel 'safe' that she was surrounded by likeminded people. That was the only familiar ground in this whole debacle. "You know, if everyone gets bailed out from breaking the rules then it's no longer a rule but instead a polite suggestion. She broke the rules. She intended to break them. It's only right equal consequences follow."
"And those are?" She asked.
"Whatever I deem it to be." Now that could be between anything and everything. From a prostitution ring to organ harvesting, of course only after an extensive torture session.
"And what did you deem it be?" If he interrogated her then he must've expected their appearance to some degree. That would mean that he either wanted them here or made plans for them to be. For what? Obviously it couldn't be simply for them to buy something. The more she thought about it, the more the loss of her ability became a glaring misfortune. There was something about the place that was actively repulsing her ability from making contact with anyone.
"Well I took everything of value on her and turned her into a statue." It was the casualness of it that stoked the uneasy feeling in her. "But then she was taking up unnecessary space so I just dusted her away."
"Dusted."
His eyes blinked behind the glasses. "Dusted." He made a floating away gesture with his fingers.
"So she's…" Buckman asked slowly.
"Dust." Isaac replied with a deadpan, somehow still able to make it look polite. "Will that be all?"
"So she's dead?" Shaw's voice had peeled off a layer of civility.
Isaac sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose. "Normally that is what being dust means. Butttt… if you want to press the issue, since she is shop property, I can play the UNO reverse for you, for a hefty price of course. That does not mean I'll be returning anything I took from her."
Was he being for real? Could he just do that? Undo someone's death?
"Shop property? Not yours?" Selene asked curiously.
"She did break shop rules, so yes. The shop spares no expense in protecting itself and everything under its domain, including customers. I'm just the humble Merchant running it." Isaac said, recontextualizing what they thought they already knew about him.
That seemed to land strange between them. Shaw looked thoughtful, again nothing good, Selene looked like she just collected another puzzle piece for the collection she was building, and Buckman looked just the same. Confident, conceited and generally unpleasant.
"So the shop's rules are its own and you're just here to see it enforced."
Isaac turned to Shaw, looked at him silently for a moment before waving his hand in an either-or gesture. "Technically, but not really. Unfortunately I'm not allowed to reveal Merchant-Trade intricacies to outside parties."
Not allowed, that was another one. It was slowly opening up to something bigger and Emma couldn't help but wonder if those before them had arrived at the same conclusion that was budding in theirs.
"Fair, I guess," Shaw slowly looked around and nodded to himself in that assured manner he always does. "And if I'm right, correct me if I'm not, but everything inside this shop is for sale, right?"
"Precisely."
"Then that means the shop too is for sale." It was less a question and more a factual statement.
Was it a leap in assumption? Not really. But it was the kind of assumption one thought of and let it cool out somewhere in their chest because the insinuation included things like desperation, greed and other such abstracts that were detrimental in such settings.
"Likely so, but not something I can help you with. You'll have to find where and who to buy it from on your own. It might be on sale to specific people and as for how specific, that's not something I'm liable to speak of." Isaac replied with an even nonanswer.
"In that case, I want everything you have in this shop."
Not only Emma, but Isaac, Selene and Shaw all swerved their heads to look at Buckman as if he had suddenly grown mad. "Don't make me repeat myself. And while at it, I want to see your catalog of everything in this shop, as well as your ledger."
"Edward," Shaw started slowly as he turned towards Buckman. "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like? That's why we're here, isn't it?" Buckman smiled.
"We came here to ascertain the nature of this… shop ourselves. Not to ruffle a nest of thorns." She said tersely. He ignored her and simply returned his focus to Isaac.
"Did you not hear me?" He asked with that tone of self-importance he used when dealing with people he considered lesser than himself, which was almost everyone.
Isaac remained perfectly unperturbed— well that was not entirely true as his face had mellowed into a severely neutral expression. "With all due respect, Mr. Buckman, and I mean this as sincerely as I can, but the worth of things currently on display in this ship are above any worth you can currently procure."
"What… Did you just say?" Buckman ignored the warning look Shaw was giving him and stepped up to Isaac.
Isaac met his gaze unfazed, eyes set in a dull color that showed the utmost seriousness of his next words. "Mr Buckman, sir, I'll have you know that as a Merchant, the one thing I don't take jokes for is anything that has to do with my trade. I approach it and every customer with the respect they deserve – sincerity, forwardness and truth – and in turn I expect them to do the same. Your earlier words can be considered a breach of the latter but I digress. Every single item in my shop was acquired across a non-significant stretch of time with due diligence, their worth unquestioned, so due to that understanding I spoke plainly when I said that the net worth of these items are beyond your acquisition. I apologize for any misunderstanding if I came off as rude and insulting."
Every single word landed with the full efficacy of which they were meant. There had been no sugarcoating or flowery words. Isaac had set a bottomline in a crisp and precise way that brokered no other interpretation. They were free to come in and go as they wish, ask him anything they wanted to, have any cordial relationship with the Merchant as much as they could stretch it to. The one thing they were not allowed to do was undermine the worth of the shop. Shaw was prodding for a bottomline and here it was.
From his words, the insult he received was that Buckman's words insinuated he could ever have the pockets to buy everything in the shop. She guessed it was the same way she would feel if someone came along all serious and business and said they wanted to buy Frost Group for like a measly hundred million dollars. Insulting was putting it lightly. Scorn was more like it.
"You—"
"Now I will warn you that any acts of violence—of any rules being infringed upon in this instance will be duly dealt with. There will be no pardons."
Oh yeah he was politely pissed. Even now her powers felt like they were swimming through air, virtually unable to latch onto anything.
If the spaceship thing was true then she couldn't even criticize him for feeling this way. It was something called 'Professional Pride', something they all had.
Was this it? Was this what Shaw wanted from his risky and dangerous gamble? Did this favor whatever it was Selene was planning? She hated being so passive but right now the best thing she could do was being passively neutral. It played well to her character and also granted her the extended perspective.
She caught Shaw's expression flicker, too quick to put a name to it but it was there.
"That is quite enough, Buckman." She said coldly, staring him dead in the eye when he swiveled around and tried to direct his anger at her.
"Edward, Emma is right. That is enough." Shaw added as he placed a hand on the angry snarling man's shoulders.
He was about to snap at Shaw but he paused as a look of realization dawned. He looked at Shaw and shook the man's hands off and turned to Isaac.
"And what are you? Mutant?" He couldn't even hide the hateful vitriol that accompanied his words even if he tried. He never had to, if anything he was very consistent in that.
"A Merchant. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Yeah, right. Of course." He snapped his fingers with a grin on his face. "That's why you've been dealing solely with mutants till now, isn't it? 'Course you're one of them."
He couldn't really…. Emma Frost stopped thinking further and rather watched the expression that flittered across Selene and Shaw's eyes. Selene saw her and simply smiled at her, saying nothing.
"You know what? I've been suspicious of the whole thing from the beginning but I graciously granted it the benefit of the doubt, but you…you." He opened the small box and took out the vial and held it up to the light and looked through the clear crimson liquid. "The deal is off. My men outside will open fire on this place in three minutes."
That surprised her and Shaw a little bit.
"Don't be reckless, Edward. That is not why we are here."
"You will do no such thing, Buckman." She said coldly.
"We're not here to do it your way either, Shaw. Fucking pests." This was who he had always been. A very hateful and vile man down to his bones. His brand of policy was cruelty and letting his opponents know who had the bigger gun.
In this case, he brought out said gun and leveled it against Isaac's head.
"For your own sake, Mr. Buckman, I would advise you not to—"
Bang.
"—that." Isaac finished his sentence unperturbed.
The cold settled once again in Emma's stomach. Everyone had gone silent at what their eyes captured.
Buckman was still there but that statement instantly corrected itself as his body from his fingertips started breaking away. It swiftly took over his whole body and in the next second all that remained of Buckman was an ephemeral outline of what looked like his soul, but that too didn't last as the soul lost all its features and grew malformed, like that of a horror wraith, before simply disappearing.
"Eternal servitude as a shop-exclusive spectre. It's more eco-friendly than a retcon." The narration was unneeded but it did provide some uncomfortable context. Isaac wasn't exactly done as he faced a direction in his shop and said out loud. "Keep it on nonstop cleaning duty for the next heat death."
Her eyes never left him but she also didn't see when some vials and tags appeared in his hands. "Hmm, average management skill, but that's it."
He held one vial to his eye – eyes that were glowing – and groaned in disappointment. "The memories are not exactly useful, less so the identity template." This time he shrugged. "It's somewhat valuable so I guess someone might be interested on a budget find."
He turned towards them and the items were gone from his hands. It wasn't that they disappeared but more so that it looked as if they were cut out of the existing frame. One moment they were there and the next moment they were never there to begin with.
Selene was no longer near the counter but had moved to stand near her at some point, leaving Shaw standing in front of the Merchant's appraising eyes.
"Sorry for the interruption. We were saying?"
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