"This shit is so cool!!!" Evan exclaimed with a huge grin on his face as he flexed the red draconic gauntlet he had put on in front of Kurt, Ellie and whoever was just as stoked as he was. He flexed his fingers and the grin on his face grew as he felt how smooth the movement was, almost like the gauntlet was made for his hands.
He turned his hand and posed in front of a mirror that had the habit of selectively choosing what type of reflection it gave. Unlike what Kitty said, the green gem in the back was what gave the gauntlet its exotic look. He took a picture in front of the mirror and groaned when he saw that the mirror had no reflection in the picture that he took, only a dull dark surface. Not letting it bother him, for what was probably the twentieth time, he simply took a selfie and sent it to three different groups. He took off the gauntlet and kept it where he found it and walked around to another cool piece.
He walked past Kurt who was wearing a Spartan helmet with an extraneous red plume, having the majority vote that indeed it did look cool, and unlike before he wasn't under a human disguise. He was airing out the blue without a care in the world and nobody(Isaac) was saying anything.
There was no chance of keeping the secrecy concerning Isaac away from this particular circle of friends, not after what happened with Rogue. Storm and Jean had brought a few of the kids that required special needs to Isaac for an affordable solution and they had gotten it. For those similar to Rogue that had problems regarding control of their abilities, Xavier and Hank implored them to remain patient for a little while as they worked fast to reverse engineer the power dampener and EMF bands.
Excluding cases like Rogue, those items were all crutches and relying solely on them against learning control was a recipe for disaster, something the teachers at the Mansion made known to their students, as such their use and issuance would be strictly regulated.
"Is it all magic?" Kitty had saddled herself next to Isaac, being an expert of managing personal spaces, and patiently pestered him with questions for her ever-renewing curiosities.
"No. But considering what most of them can do, the difference becomes technical." The ever-patient Merchant gave answers to each of her questions, which only seemed to create more questions for her to ask about.
"How did you get so many magical artifacts? Can you do magic?" She asked, somehow putting herself behind the counter with him without him saying a word against it. She sat beside him on a chair that was simply there when she arrived, and busied her twitchy fingers with the few items on his countertop.
"I've dabbled. Among other things."
She had a distasteful look on her face as she put down the Uka Uka Mask from where she picked it up from. She wasn't exactly a fan of the dark angry face and bony accessories.
"This is the sixth time you've said that. Is there anything you haven't dabbled in at this point?" She meant it mostly as an idle tease but the serious look on Isaac's face when he replied made her reconsider.
"Quite a lot."
"And you've been a Merchant for a long time?" She asked. The general consensus they had about him was that he was long-lived, possibly way older than Logan.
"Longer."
"And you've been a Merchant all this time?" She spun on her chair to face him and leaned on her hand against the counter. It was like there was a never ending well of questions when it came to him.
"What else is there to be?" Isaac said as he packaged an item for the customer who just walked in.
She wanted to reply with a list of the different things one could be other than a Merchant but she didn't. It felt like her understanding of what he meant by being a Merchant was vastly different from she knew of it. Instead she asked something else.
"Ever hired a help? Y'know, for days where you feel under the weather and still need to open up shop. You must have other things to tend to than simply keeping the shop open 24/7, right?"
Isaac handed over the item and looked up at the ceiling and shrugged lightly. "I did have an apprentice once. Unfortunately I had to terminate our contract."
"Why? Did he steal from you?"
Isaac chuckled as he sat back down on his chair. "No. He would be the last person to ever attempt something like that."
"Then why?"
He shrugged again. "Unlike me, he was more of a focused Merchant-in-training. While I trade in goods and receive monetary payments, he traded his services for deals. Contracts and agreements, that sort of thing. He'd give you what you want – magic, power, information, anything you might need. He was that resourceful. The problem was that they were ultimately one-sided, granting heart desires just to harvest the souls of his customers in the end. He preyed on his customers' weaknesses for his selfish gains. Others might be okay with that but not me. My principle is dealing with honesty and transparency. He was too shortsighted to see past his small pocket of existence. In the end I had to cut him off, not that that seemed to stop him from further dealings."
Kitty was wide-eyed as she listened to him describe what felt too much like the devil, or an evil genie. She wasn't the only one who felt like this as those nearby had the same reaction to his words.
Maybe it was the realization that Isaac wasn't too far off from whoever he was describing and the only difference was his own brand of trade. They all noticed that he wasn't actually condemning his apprentice for his practices but rather because it was not his style of trading. It was a matter of principle rather than morality.
"…. He sounds frightening." She finally spoke to which Isaac laughed. Actually laughed. A funny laugh – one that found what she said humorous and generally amusing.
"O'Dimm was many things, but I don't think frightening was one of them. He was mostly inquisitive. It's just that he had a poetic flair for tragedies. The Fated and Destined kind. And he also thought himself as something of an author." He said with an amused crinkle in his eyes.
"So a god complex." She said dryly.
"Most would call it that." Isaac remarked.
Her curiosity had carried her this far and it assured her it wasn't stopping anytime soon. "And what would you call it?"
"Strongly opinionated."
She blinked repeatedly. The response felt strangely fitting as well as a heavy understatement. Before she could open her mouth to speak, or likely ask another question, Evan's phone rang and the formal responses he gave made them all stop what they were doing and waited for the call to end.
Evan looked completely serious when he put the phone down. "We're going back now."
"What happened?" Rogue asked as she came out from where she had been lounging and reading her dark fantasies.
"The city is currently being attacked by aliens. The Professor wants us back at the Mansion as soon as possible." Evan was looking directly at Isaac as he said that, and soon they all were.
"Oh don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Junk 'N Stuff is exempt from things like these: destruction of public properties, environmental hazards, infrastructural decimation. We'll still be up and standing come tomorrow, so run along now. You don't want the old professor losing more hair than he currently has now, do you?"
"See you… later, Mr. Isaac."
"Later!"
"C'ya!"
They rushed out of the shop in an orderly manner as he waved them goodbye. However, barely ten seconds after their departure the door was pushed open as someone rushed in.
"Mr. Isaac!" He heard Peter call out before he saw the heavy breathing teen.
"What's up, Peter?" He frowned slightly when he saw Peter grabbing his knees and puffing out hot air. "Slow down, kid. No one is on your ass."
Peter looked behind but caught himself and laughed awkwardly as he straightened up. Even when he tried to act casual, there was no way he could fully hide the anxiety rolling off of him in waves.
"There's uh, a commotion outside. An alien attack." It was pretty clear that he was in a haste with how his eyes were darting around in every direction.
Isaac smiled. "And instead of going for safety or whatever it is you do in such situations, you came to check up on me. You're too kind, kid."
Peter shook his head rapidly. "N-Nothing like that. I was already nearby so I came to check if you were closing up."
"I'll be alright, Peter." Peter looked at if he was having a hard time believing that so Isaac gave him a lopsided stare and that seemed to knock something into his brain.
"Oh. Right."
"Run along, Pete."
Peter practically zoomed out of the shop after somehow confirming that Isaac was—would be fine. Seeing the teen rush out, Isaac thought lazily to himself whether or not he should have pointed out the bright red fabric around his neck that his jacket failed to cover.
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It was the classical New York theme at this point that Jessica hardly felt surprised or anxious as another alien brawl spilled out into the city.
It wasn't a large enough scale for it to count as an invasion but the number was great enough to cause serious damage to the city.
Even from where she was helping people get to safety, she could already hear explosions happening all around her that told her that dozens of the scores of heroes sleeping in this city had gotten to work.
Her facial disguise was already in place but she complemented it further with the Lin Kuei's half mask so she had nothing to worry on that front.
She lost count of how many aliens she had punched to death in the last thirty minutes but that mattered little as the number kept on counting.
"Seriously," she shook her head in disbelief as she helped up the guy that had fallen for the sixth time in the last two minutes due to panic. "Fall again and I'm leaving you there."
"Sorry!" The man stumbled barely three steps after but managed to keep upright this time around.
She was about to move ahead when her spy lenses picked up some weird movements seconds before two SUVs pulled up on her sides.
She burst into action as soon as she realized the ambush by ripping out the door of a car and sending it flying against the opening doors of one of the SUVs. Her next simultaneous action was picking up the lid of a manhole and frisbeed it at a sucker.
"Tch. Mutants." She scowled at the barrier that saved the idiot's head from flying. Four more joined him, and from their menacing postures and hateful eyes, the guy she killed with the door wasn't just their chauffeur but also number six.
She was surrounded but that in no way stalled her actions as she charged at the nearest bastard who was giving her a condescending smirk as a translucent barrier appeared between them.
"Block this!" The smirk froze as cracks spanned the barrier with one hit and shattered it with a quick second. The idiot stumbled back in shock and a roundhouse kick immediately put him out of commission.
The second guy was already on her and that was when everything went wrong. She punched him but her hands went through his jelly-like body. Even drawing her arms back took some effort which he didn't let her do as he grabbed onto her to hold her in place.
"I've got her!" Her eyes widened as the two women behind her, likely twins by their resemblance, opened their mouths wide and blasted her with sonic screams that instantly jammed her brain and sent her eyes rolling into the back of her head.
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