The three women traded looks at each other, two in suspicion and one in exasperation. Mystique relaxed into the intimately soft furniture, mentally comparing it to Magneto's and chuckling in amusement as she decided which one won.
"If you're telling us this, does that mean you haven't told brood and mighty?" Yelena asked. If it wasn't for her mission then she would have either skedaddled or retreated to a safe distance while watching them.
Tangling with Mystique any day of the week was already a bad day. Her words had as much effect as her kicks — both were jaw-breakingly hurtful. Throw in Storm in the mix and Yelena would gladly hang up her leather pants.
She did not enjoy being in such close distance with the Omega mutant that could control the weather.
"No, not yet." Mystique replied and crossed one leg over the other as she let the impossible furniture do its work. They were missing out by being so tense and suspicious.
Mystique was sure that Yelena had entered the store to try and keep a brief eye on Ororo or it was possible that she had been watching some of the Morlocks come and go out of the shop in the past week. This meant that Fury was more invested in this than anything cursory.
She had been surprised with Yelena's abrupt arrival but she was nothing if not adaptable. If this shop was what she expected it to be, then this would escalate way more than just some mutant cure. Speaking of a mutant cure….
"Speaking of mutant cures, who would be a better compass than our supposed arms dealer?"
"You think he would know?" Ororo asked softly, seemingly unable to reject the idea.
"Hold on for a second, let me ask him." Yelena said and marched towards Isaac, having been fed up with Mystique's jittery ways.
Mystique smiled as she watched her stomp towards Isaac and looked at Ororo with a fake concerned expression. "Are you not going to stop her?"
Ororo frowned but said nothing as she followed after the errant spy. She did not like whatever it was that Mystique was playing at but things were becoming too complicated for her to simply extricate herself.
"I'm just gonna flat out ask." She heard Yelena say.
"Ask away," Isaac had replied, "I'll do my best to reply."
She arrived just in time to see Yelena staring down a soft smiling Isaac, or at least attempting to. "Mutant cures or anything of the like: do you sell them?"
"Huh," Isaac rubbed his chin in muted surprise, which was not a good thing. "This is the second time I've been asked that."
They all heard what he said but the man himself looked unbothered by his slip up and even answered Yelena's query.
"Simply, yes." Isaac continued, "But if we are being specific then it's less of a 'cure' and more of a destabilizing, nullification, permanent or temporary suppression of the X-gene."
"So you do sell… gene therapy?"
"Close enough."
"So you were the one who sold the cure to the Morlocks." Mystique stated.
He tilted his head in a show of ignorance. "I'm afraid I don't know who you're talking about. If you're asking if I've sold said gene therapy, then the answer is yes."
The three of them were just as taken with surprise as they were with the incredulity of it all. Ororo who had been plagued for weeks about the shadow conspiracy surrounding the cure; Yelena who had been given a dangerous mission chasing ghost trails, and then there was Mystique who was trying her best to stir away a reenactment of the civil war.
Magically, at the same time, all their problems came to a heel at this small nondescript intriguing shop.
"Do you want to look over the options?" Isaac inquired as their continued silence.
Ororo was the first to get back her voice. "And you've been selling these cures?"
Isaac frowned a bit at the mention of cure but he let it go and simply gave a nod. "Amongst other things, yes."
"And people have been buying these things?" Yelena's professional etiquette kicked in with her going into survey mode.
"Well yeah, I would hope so." Isaac chuckled good-naturedly while consequences ran up the minds of the three women. Did he not know what he was doing?
Yelena was already thinking about taking him in and leaving it up to Fury to handle while Ororo and Mystique thought along the same lines about letting their people know. The only similarity between them was that they all agreed that Isaac had to be interrogated.
"You said this is the second time someone asked for a cure. Who was the first?" The lazy smile on Mystique's face had long waned into a flat expression.
No doubt it was the Morlocks—
"Some thugs or something of the like." Isaac huffed as he crossed his arms. "They tried attacking me after telling me that they wanted to buy gene suppressors, despite me being polite. And not only that, they also called in some reinforcement goons that came in guns blazing. How disrespectful." His face twisted in disgust as if he just tasted a particularly bitter lemon.
"They were the reason I even bothered hanging up the shop rules." He gestured at the board that welcomed them into the open area of the shop – A board they all ignored or took as theme writing.
—Acts of violence are not permitted inside the shop.
—Acts of violence against the Merchant are STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
—The Merchant has complete authority over the nature of punishment if any of the rules are broken.
They took a measured glance at the overhead board and the bold rules scribbled on it and then looked back at Isaac.
"And just out of curiosity," Yelena leaned away from the counter, playing it safe but not taking her eyes away from Isaac, "what happened to those guys?"
Isaac made a dismissing motion with his hand and responded with casual indifference. "Eh, they are lying around somewhere. Turned them into feathery confetti."
"I can't tell if you're being serious or doing a bad job at being funny." Yelena commented, shared a look with Mystique, and scanned the shop around them while Mystique kept an eye on their maybe dangerous shopkeeper.
Her eyes barely started their dance when she caught sight of a vase of feathers precariously balanced on top of a fire-breathing dinosaur's head.
Ororo had caught sight of the same thing earlier when she first came into the store because of how out of place it was. Whether or not they believed in what Isaac was saying, they were steadily growing more cautious as time passed.
"So wait, you just turned people to feathers?" Yelena asked with a humorous flair as she turned around, discreetly signaling Mystique at the weird case. "That can't be legal, right?"
Whatever they expected his reply to be, his next words weren't it.
"Oh it's completely legal, shop's rule. Says it right there on the board." The satisfied smirk he wore did not assuage them one bit. "If you're worried about consequences from whoever sent them, you don't have to."
"Why?... Why don't we have to, Isaac?" Ororo questioned, hoping against everything that all this was just a tasteless prank by the polite owner and her day was not in fact ruined.
Isaac tapped his temples with a conspiratorial grin. "Because I was smart about it. As part of my punishment, I made sure no one remembered who they were."
Silence. It was the type of silence that was usually a prelude to an irreversible decision.
Fortunately for them, especially for Yelena who was slowly taking out her gun, they had a voice of stronger reasoning with them.
"Why would you be telling us all this?" Ororo looked at him, trying and succeeding with little result to see anything other than the veneer of a polite shopkeeper.
Isaac leaned backwards on his seat and adjusted his hands so that his head was propped up on it. He looked like the poster picture of an honest and blissfully ignorant man. "Heh, no real reason"
The smile on his face might as well have been that of a maniacal megalomaniac. Yelena and Mystique both took discrete steps backwards to put more distance between them and the counter, while Ororo remained rooted to where she was.
She remembered the magic plants, Mystique's reluctance to confront him alone, the insinuation to mutant cures, and the weird feeling of being watched she felt at intervals, and then Isaac's open politeness — there was a disconnect somewhere. It was either from Isaac or from their perspective. He wasn't blind not to see Yelena and Mystique's threatening posture, and what did he do? Just smile and answer their questions.
"Who are you?" Yelena asked as her fingers coiled around her hidden trigger.
Isaac looked up at her and sat upright, looking pleased to play the role he had played a hundred times over. "You can call me Isaac. I'm a Merchant."
"I think she was asking if you were human, mutant… or something else." Mystique clarified.
"Let's go with something else for now."
"What do you mean by 'Merchant'?" That was something she had heard him say a few times, even hearing it from her students when they referred to him.
"Exactly what you think it means." He answered. "I buy and sell things. All sorts of things."
"Like gene suppressors and magic plants." She added and he gave an affirming nod.
"Magic weapons, alien tech, antique pieces, demon contracts, nightmare fuel, arcane texts, glass shoes, bad luck in a bottle — take your pick." The way he said it, the same casual air he used to affirm magic to her, was rather unsettling and eye-opening because of how real it made it seem. "Quality assurance if that's what you're worried about."
Her eyes went to the vase and his eyes followed. "And… them?" And that was her admitting that despite the outlandish insinuation, she was believing in what he was saying. The unspoken threat and all.
Isaac shrugged, looking as if he couldn't be less bothered by such an inconsequential matter. "Shop's rule. It's their luck for being ungrateful thugs."
"And what's stopping you from doing the same to us?" Yelena interjected at that point because it seemed like just a vital thing to know.
Isaac sighed and rubbed his face. "Shop rules. As long as you don't break them you're fine."
"So what? Anyone can just waltz in here and buy a nuke or a deathbeam?" Yelena's hackles raised when she saw the same carefree shrug.
"As long as they have the money or something of equal exchange."
"And what about the part where you deny having a nuke and a deathbeam?"
"Why should I? You'd be surprised at how popular they are, especially in technological civilizations. It's kind of a staple product, so I always make sure to keep a comfortable stock any time I set down shop. Every Merchant does it."
They didn't mean to but his words had them all looking at each other and mentally bumping up his threat assessment. Ororo was already regretting choosing today of all days to have her little mental detox.
"'Every Merchant'. There are more like you here?" Yelena asked. Having Isaac slipping through every surveillance and intelligence system was already bad enough, but more of them? Selling to the highest bidder? Oh God.
Lucky for them and their little hyperventilation, Isaac shook his head. "Nah. Only one Merchant per dimension, or what have you. Now, while this little tête-à-tête has been fun, can I interest you ladies in anything? Magic plants, alien tech, limit off?"
His attempt at humor was noted and his offers, while inviting, were not what they were focused on, at least not Ororo.
"Those people. What will happen to them? Are they still alive?" He had said that no one would remember who they were, but what did that really mean? Was it just memories, or did he mean systematically where their digital footprints and primal existence was erased.
Isaac's expression took on a disappointing sheen as he looked at her and likely saw that she wasn't keen on letting that angle go.
"They are what they are." He said with vivid disinterest and even started picking his nails in the midst of it. "I might sell them for the joke of it if someone comes along wanting a vase of feathers. That or I might turn them back and have them pay me for it in any way I want. Depends on my mood, really."
"What if we buy them bac—"
He airily cut him as he blew against his nails. "You'd be buying a vase of feathers." He finally stopped what he was doing and looked at them. "I wouldn't worry about them if I were you. They are shop products, nothing more."
The nonchalance with which he said it grated on all their nerves. It belied a dark arrogance and cruelty that they all had some past experience with.
"And what if we were to forcefully take them away from your shop?" Mystique asked, surprising both Ororo and Yelena.
Isaac sat upright on his chair and looked at her and asked with a closed eye smile. "Forcefully… like stealing?"
"Whatever you want to call it."
Isaac's eyes glinted behind his glasses as they opened, looking every bit the professional middleman. "Can't let you do that. I'm afraid. Shop Rules."
––––––
.
Patreon.com/1stDepth
.
––––––