Written in the Cards Part 13

"And done," Molly said cheerfully as she finished copying all of Derrick's contact list and various stories and games to her phone in case Mist's card ate his phone rather than just the Magical Law series of stories Mist was going to use as a template. "Is it weird that I want to hit a fast food restaurant and a movie theater?"

"Not really, the more food you're familiar with, the more options we'll have," Sarah offered, wondering what the food tasted like in the future. "They have movie theaters, right?"

"Yeah, they still have movie theaters," Derrick replied with amusement. "They also have decades of old movies on the net, one of the interns liked old movies."

'At least we won't be bored,' Mist thought as he focused on the story that Derrick had pulled up on his phone and activated his Angelic Territory card, causing Derrick's phone to vanish and creating a floating silver mirror to appear in front of him.

"Fuck!" Derrick cursed in frustration.

"Don't worry about it, I copied your contact list and your stories," Molly cut in before Derrick completely lost his shit.

"Sorry," Mist offered as he studied the ornate mirror, a bit annoyed but not surprised that his power had consumed Derrick's phone and not just the files. He read the words carved into the frame at the top of the mirror, "Closed: Moonlight Hotel, Miami Florida, Magical Law Series."

Derrick took a breath then let it out. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting your card to eat my phone, just the stories."

"I'll buy you another one when I get a chance," Mist assured him, glad that Molly had copied everything important before he'd used his power.

"Moonlight Hotel? That's from the first case, right?" Eric asked, trying to change the subject away from Derrick's phone.

Derrick nodded. "Yeah, the owner got shot because a Chinese spy found out he was recording the pool area and was worried that he was some type of intelligent officer. The place eventually defaulted to the city when no one wanted to pay for the extensive repairs as there was a bit of a firefight."

"How do you know that?" Tiffany asked.

"It was in one of the later books, it turned into a drug den for some of the magical drugs and one of the clients for the law firm found the deed hidden in the previous owner's chair when he accidently broke it because he was tripping balls. He ended up suing the city to get possession of the hotel. It was a bit of a legal mess since the guy had been trespassing at the time and was an addict and a dealer. Turns out the drug laws hadn't actually kept up with the magical drugs so he ended up getting possession of the hotel," Derrick explained.

"Decent guy?" Mist asked.

"Complete asshole, he was killed in the next book when he tried blackmailing a couple of French Intelligence officers that were having a bit of a workplace romance."

Molly winced. "They shot him?"

Derrick laughed. "Nah, they told him to go ahead and report them and to send them a copy of the video having sex by the pool, he was so pissed he stormed out of the motel and was ran over by a delivery truck which was trafficking hot magic crystals."

Tiffany shook her head. "This is starting to sound a bit like a soap opera."

"It's not that bad, even in real life coincidences happen," Derrick pointed out.

Mist smiled as he realized that the hotel was the perfect place to hide the mirror as most people wouldn't even notice people coming and going from the hotel. "On the bright side, that means I'm not going to feel bad about recovering the deed and stealing the place before the asshole can find it."

"All of the records should be electronic," Molly mused, looking forward to seeing what her Technomancy power could do with a network. "Give me twenty minutes and we'll be the proud owners of a hotel and I'll have my minions start cleaning and repairing it."

Sarah glanced around at the people sitting at the picnic table. "Is anyone going to raise a question about ethics and morals?"

"No," Derrick replied without hesitation.

"I checked, he was a horrible person," Mist replied with a shrug, not feeling the least bit guilty about claiming the hotel since the previous owner had left the deed to anyone that could find it.

Eric laughed. "No objections here, I'm looking forward to lounging around the pool and working on a couple of comic books."

"Figured someone had to ask," Sarah replied with a grin, not seeing a problem with claiming the hotel as it would make moving between the worlds a lot easier.

Tiffany shook her head. "I'm good. The city would just sell it to a developer or something and someone would probably pocket the money."

"Do we have an actual long term plan?" Derrick asked, figuring he might as well ask now that they'd had a chance to relax a bit.

"Not really," Sarah admitted. "I want to learn magic but that's a goal, not a plan."

"I'll second the magic bit and raise you making an awesome comic book," Eric said, figuring he'd ask Mist about grabbing at least one minion card with a cute girl later, when he wouldn't get strangled by the girls.

"I wouldn't mind finding a nice girl or guy and having kids," Molly said thoughtfully as Victoria walked out of the mirror that led to the mask pocket dimension with Mia and five goblins.

Derrick shook his head. "I was thinking about the nobles and the people they're oppressing. I'm not suggesting that we fight them directly but they're going to come after us eventually, either because we escaped or because you're boosting cards and they'll want to control you."

"It sounds like you have a plan, what are you thinking?" Mist asked, curious since he didn't really have a plan beyond leverage his cards to get magic and to make a comfortable living while looking for ways to get home or at least contact people back home to tell them that he was alive and that he hadn't just left without a reason.

"I think we should look into stealing part of Cuba once Molly gets the deed sorted out with the city," Derrick suggested.

"Why are we stealing part of Cuba?" Victoria asked as she walked over with Mia and the goblins that had been helping her clear the creepy mansion filled with faceless mimes.

Derrick gestured toward the mirror that led to a version of Miami. "Mist used his Angelic Treasury ability on the Magical Law series."

"Magical Law series?" Victoria asked, wondering if she was just blanking on the series as she'd never heard of it.

"It's basically a series of stories about a law firm dealing with cases involving magic after a dungeon seed fell into their dimension and hit Cuba in 2047. A bunch of dangerous kobolds poured out of the dungeon and killed or drove off everyone living on the island."

Victoria frowned as she focused on Mist. "I thought the point of opening a portal to another world was to avoid monsters?"

Mist pulled his attention off the goblins and focused on Victoria. "The kobolds basically take a lot less damage from mundane weapons than supernatural weapons or magic which means they should be easy for the goblins to kill and they drop magic crystals that instantly teach people magic spells when they die which means they're extremely valuable."

"Especially at the start of the series," Derrick added, knowing they got a bit less valuable as the series continued as it got easier to acquire them.

"Instant spells?" Mia mused. "That would certainly make learning magic easier."

"That's the idea," Derrick agreed. "If we can farm a bunch of crystals, we should be able to give everyone a decent collection of magic spells, including all of the summons with Vivian's teaching ability which increases our ability to survive in your world."

"What do you think?" Mia asked her goblins.

"Gobos smash magic kobolds, get magic!" one of the goblins said cheerfully.

"Zorch!" one of the other goblins said as she gestured as if she was casting something.

"Pretty sure the correct answer is, I cast fireball!" Eric offered.

"Don't start," Molly scolded Eric, not wanting the goblins to pick up more bad behavior.

"Looks like a plan," Mia replied with a grin, excited about anything that would save her a lot of work pouring over books and formulas.

Victoria shrugged. "As long as we're not actually stealing people's homes, I'm not going to complain."

"Nah, Cuba's basically abandoned by the start of the series with the exception of the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, the American Military are stubborn bastards and it's a good way to harvest crystals. The Cubans also lost any moral high ground they might have had when they invaded Haiti and some of the other islands in the area and started killing the locals so they could take over."

Mist sighed. "That sounds like a mess, you could have mentioned that before I used my card?"

Derrick shrugged. "I didn't mention it because it's basically over and done by the time the first novel starts. A lot of the government officials ended up in Mexico or on the Isla de la Juventud which is the island south of Havana. They lost most of their military trying to kill the kobolds before they decided to make a deal with Russia, which went about as well as you'd expect."

"Let me guess, the Russians stabbed them in the back?" Molly asked.

"Technically, they were supposed to offer the Cubans the chance to buy the crystals but the Russians basically said that they wouldn't take Cuban currency which was worth less than toilet paper at that point so the military stole a shipment of spell crystals."

"They managed to steal them from the Russians?" Victoria asked in surprise.

"Someone left the warehouse unlocked and all of the Russian soldiers were all drinking at a local pub. Of course, the warehouse catching fire while the Cubans were in it was probably a complete coincidence or at least that was what the Russians claimed. There was some evidence that the crystals had already been moved. The Russians ended up killing most of the remaining Cuban soldiers and officials on the way out. The remaining officials sold the island to the U.S. to keep the Mexicians and Russians from claiming it."

"Like I said, messy," Mist muttered.

"As long as the supply of mana crystals doesn't stop or drastically decrease, none of the world governments are going to care if we take over, especially if we start on the west side of the island and work our way east," Derrick explained.

"Okay, clearing the monsters sounds like a long term plan and having somewhere to stick people that doesn't involve chaining a bunch of pocket dimensions together wouldn't hurt." Mist turned to look at Mia. "Are you willing to help steal a country?"

"As long as I get to rename it," Mia replied with a grin. "Goboland!"

"Sure," Mist agreed, fairly sure he was making a mistake letting her name it. "Okay, Molly and Derrick should probably head through the mirror and see if they can sort out the deed, I'll get back to boosting the girls' cards."

"Works for me," Derrick agreed. "I need nail clippers and a new phone or laptop."

"I've got gold," Victoria offered cheerfully, wanting to check things out.

"Let's go," Molly said and walked through the mirror to the other world.

0o0o0

Mist was pulled out of his thoughts when Zora sat down on the other side of the picnic table wearing a slime covered white t-shirt that left barely anything to the imagination. "Nice shirt."

"It's warm and the rest of my clothes are on the clothesline to dry out," Zora replied, well aware that her spare clothes had been dry enough but that she was having fun flirting and showing off.

'I'm not complaining,' Mist thought as he reluctantly pulled his attention away from her breasts and read the description of the cursed card that Vivian had unlocked, not surprised to see the professor and crone qualities. "Eldritch Gypsy, Outfit Witch. That's a pretty decent card despite the curse, since it has the Professor and Crone qualities, decreases the time any crafting takes by 20%, gives you the option to make magical costumes and boosts your magic."

"I'm not a fan of fleas, which means the curse has to go," Zora complained, wondering if the curse had something to do with her cat cards or if it was just random.

"That's fair," Mist agreed as he spent the mana to boost her cursed card, fairly sure he could get rid of the curse if he boosted it enough or at least change it to something less annoying. He glanced over the five cards. "The first card gives the costumes you make an Allure boost and lets you control all of the insects in a sixty yard radius, the second card increases the curse resistance the Crone ability give you, changes the slimes you can conjure into catgirls and gives you the ability to teach summoned or conjured minions craft skills by paying mana. The third card merely increases the size of the insects that the curse conjures which seems worse than useless."

"Unless you have the ability to control them from something else," Zora mused, not particularly interested in making the fleas larger since she couldn't control them.

"Probably," Mist agreed. "The fourth card increases your agility and the fifth increases your slime minions."

Zora shook her head. "Take the second card, I'll need the boost to curse resistance and it makes the minions more useful."

"Absolutely," Mist agreed as he selected the second card. He spent the mana he had to partially boost her card again then pulled a mana potion out of his pocket and drank it. He spent the mana to finish boosting the card then looked at the new cards. "Junk, more Allure, more agility and rage filled bugs. Eldritch Gypsy, Lord of Ink card changes your summoned equipment ability to the ability to create a magical tattoo that gives the owner a 10% reduction on the cost of their magical spells and doubles their mana regeneration. Unfortunately, anyone bitten by the fleas breaks out in song and starts dancing."

"What about the last card?" Zora asked.

"Huh," Mist muttered when he checked the last card and realized that it was even better than the fourth as long as you could deal with the curse. "The Eldritch Gypsy Princess of Costumes card does everything the previous card does, increases your magic resistance and gives you the ability to make costume bracelets that change the appearance of people's gear. The tattoos also increase their magic by 10 points, doubles their mana pool and gives them a 15% reduction on mana costs for all magical abilities rather than 10% all for the low cost of giving the fleas the ability to permanently turn people's skin black and blue when they bite someone."

"So you're saying I can basically double everyone's mana pools with a tattoo but we'd have to figure out a way to kill the fleas?" Zora asked.

"Basically," Mist replied as he pulled another mana potion out of his pocket.

"Go with the last one, hopefully the next boost will fix the fleas," Zora told him as he drank the potion.

Mist selected the last card then spent his mana to partially boost the card. He grabbed three more greater mana potions from his pocket and proceeded to drink them, spending all of the mana after drinking them to boost the card. 'I really need to boost my mana pool,' he thought as he looked over the new cards. "Huh, the first card loses the curse that conjures fleas and gives you the ability to permanently turn people's skin blue, giving them minor mental powers."

Zora shook her head. "That's useful but you'd have to be blue which would make you stand out."

"Yeah," Mist agreed. "The second card merely increases your agility a touch, the third loses the curse and you pick up the ability to make glowing handprints on things which would be a solid choice if the fourth card didn't push your magic up by 25 points, drop the curse and give you the ability to give the tattoos some minor magical effects."

"And the fifth card?" Zora asked.

"It basically adds a curse to the tattoos so your Allure is twice as effective against anyone with a tattoo," Mist explained.

Zora shook her head. "That's a good way to ruin a perfectly good ability, I don't need people falling over me because of Allure. Go with the fourth one, it sounds like it gives me the best options and more magic is always good."

"Sure," Mist replied as he carefully selected the fourth card. He checked the cost to boost her card again and wasn't surprised when he realized that he'd need an entire basket of greater mana potions if he wanted to boost it again. "And the mana cost jumped an unreasonable amount, I think we're done for a bit."

"I'm not in a hurry but I have a weird feeling that I'm going to need my cards, it's annoying," Zora admitted. "Can you boost my Tiger Queen card then awaken my cards?"

"I can certainly check your Tiger card," Mist replied as he spent the rest of his mana on boosting her Eldritch Gypsy of the Tiger Queen card, wanting to make sure it was a touch better before he awakened her cards. He pulled another potion out of his pocket and drank it. 'At least they don't taste like artificial bananas,' he thought as he spent the mana to boost her card and drank another potion. He wasn't terribly surprised that it took the rest of the potions he had in his pocket to finish boosting her card as the card was powerful.

"Sorry," Zora offered, feeling bad about the number of greater mana potions he'd spent helping her since she knew they were expensive.

"Don't worry about it, I can always get more," Mist replied as he glanced over the descriptions of the cards. "Nice, the card's basic Magic boost went up to amazing and adding the cat summon to a card gives them 10 points of Magic rather than 6. The second card increases the physical boost you get by a small amount, the third card does both and gives you the ability to spend mana to temporarily increase their claw damage, the fourth does the same as the third but the physical bonus is better and you also get a boost to your combat ability and some mental cat traits. And last but certainly not least, the Eldritch Werecat Gypsy card gives you remarkable Regeneration, a boost to Magic, Durability, and the amount of magic each cat adds to a card as well as the ability to switch places with your cats."

"Any side effects on that last one?" Zora asked, rather excited about the idea of having Regeneration.

"Sort of but not really," Mist replied with a shrug. "The regeneration and your increased Durability from the card don't apply to silver weapons so not really, since it doesn't affect anything else and it didn't have extra Durability or Regeneration before."

"Grab it and awaken my cards," Zora told him, wanting to grab her cards before she could change her mind since she had a feeling she'd need them.

"Okay," Mist replied as he used his power to awaken her cards.

"Thank you!" Zora exclaimed cheerfully as she started reading the description of her cards, not particularly surprised but certainly delighted that most of them were Demon King quality. "Is there a difference between Demon King quality and Divine cards?"

"I don't know, the Divine cards seem to be on the same tier but they're probably aligned with the heavens or divinity. I wouldn't worry about it," Mist told her. "Just remember to use the Princess card first for the curse resistance."

Zora finished reading the description of the Eldritch Gypsy, Princess of Costumes card and used it, causing her tiny mana pool to expand into what felt like a massive lake as her magic stat jumped a hundred points. "This is going to be awesome!"

"What's going to be awesome?" Victoria asked as she walked over. "Oh, you grabbed your cards? I thought you were going to wait."

Zora shrugged. "I had a bad feeling that I'd need the boosts and the amount of mana we needed to boost the cards was getting to unreasonable levels. I'm not worried about it, I still have two slots that I can fill with completely over the top cards later, one of my abilities can double people's mana pools which should make everything easier."

"Makes sense," Victoria agreed, not seeing a point in making her feel bad about something that they couldn't change.

"Her next card is cursed, if she starts twitching, can you heal her?" Mist asked Victoria.

"Sure," Victoria assured them, making a note to learn a spell for dealing with curses.

"Here goes," Zora said as she used the cursed Eldritch Werecat Gypsy card, causing a black leather collar to appear around her neck and her shirt to twist and glow an ominous green and purple. She screamed incoherently as she frantically tried to pull the cursed shirt off and realized that she couldn't pull it off as it was glued to her flesh, flesh that was rapidly burning thanks to the curse.

Mist touched Zora's shirt and used his power on it, burning his hand like he'd stuck it on a hot plate and held it there for a minute and causing the heavily cursed shirt to vanish and a mirror to appear in front of them, leaving Zora looking like someone had splashed her chest with gasoline and lit it on fire.

"Fuck!" Zora cursed as her flesh started regenerating and she felt itchy as hell.

Mist pulled a healing potion out of his pocket with his left hand and drank it, more than a bit relieved when his burned flesh healed and the pain healed. "That fucking sucked!"

"No shit!" Zora agreed, feeling better as her regeneration healed the last of the damage. "Can you deal with the collar before I stand up and strip?"

Mist reached out and touched her collar and used his power to create a pocket dimension, causing the cursed collar to vanish. "And done."

"Thank you," Zora replied as she worked on brushing the ash off her chest.

"What happened?" Victoria asked.

"One of her cards had a one time curse on it that activated when she used it. I'm pretty sure it would have killed her if she hadn't used the card with curse resistance first," Mist admitted, glad that it was a once and done curse since it had been horrific and nasty.

Victoria cast a healing spell on Zora to make sure she was fine. "At least you waited until I was here. What did you get?"

"A bunch of cat cards," Zora replied with a smile as she started using the rest of her cards, looking forward to seeing what she could do and learning magic now that she had more magic.