She stared at him as the incredulousness just bled away into plain stunned silence, meanwhile he just stared at her with a small smile. Like he was telling her a joke and she just wasn't getting it, because she was the punchline.
She took a cautious step back and looked at him warily. Her hand went into her jacket, and she cursed mentally when she only found her empty pepper spray, but she kept it there to keep him cautious.
"Who are you?" She asked. Sure she could bench press a regular guy, but this was New York. A 'regular' guy might just as well bench press her. She'd found that out the worst way.
"You can call me Isaac. This," he gestured to the store, "is my little shop."
He folded his hand behind him, an action that made her take another step back, one he saw and decided to bring them back to the front.
"… What are you?" She asked carefully. Once again, she was in New York. Nothing was too far a stretch.
"I am but a humble and simple Merchant." The way he said it, Jessica noticed, sounded weird. In fact, the way he spoke the entire time sounded weird. It sounded too formal and posh for a simple back alley pawnshop.
"Relax, miss." He spoke calmly, too calm, like none of this was a concern to him. "I assure you, as long as you're in the confines of this fine establishment, nothing other than trade will be permitted and allowed. That includes violence of any kind."
What the fuck kind of established rules was that? And there it was again, speaking like he was a judge in a courtroom and everyone was under obligation to follow his words.
Her stance loosened, but no way in hell was she relaxed. She just wanted to see if he would do anything funny.
"Right. Apologies for the harm that came to you. It's not usually up for display so I forgot to put it behind a glass when I hung it up. Apologies, ma'am." It was as formal an apology as the word formal could get.
"If you would accept it, I would like to offer medical aid to the wound."
She eyed him warily. She was almost certain that something weird was up with this store. Was it some sort of black market front for some 'exotic' merchandise?
"Try anything funny and I'll make you regret it." She finally said as she slowly moved towards him. She wasn't such a pussy that she would run out in fear just because some big ass knife nicked her.
That said, she wasn't averse to knocking his lights out if he tried anything funny. Super strength and durability might have made her more cocky and daring, but certainly not more stupid.
"I wouldn't dream of it." Slowly, he reached one of the drawers and took out a little bottle and white cloth.
"I said nothing funny!" she warned loudly and took a half step back.
"I am not." He looked at her and calmly replied.
"Then what the hell is that?" She asked in a dead voice as she pointed at the clearly glowing liquid that was inside the tiny bottle he brought out.
He sighed. He had the nerve to sigh?! Oh, she wished she brought a gun.
"This is Estus. It's a healing balm. It's instant."
Okay, this was too far into trippy territory because either he was obviously fucking with her or something weird was going on.
He dabbed the cloth over the mouth of the bottle and waited for her. She didn't need to entertain whatever this was since her regeneration would take care of the cut in a couple of minutes, but she also wanted to see what this 'Merchant' was all about.
"And that's not some black market drug you have lying around, looking for test subjects?"
"Certain," was his very dry response.
She was no chicken so she closed the distance between them and watched with high alert as he brought the cloth towards the rather thin long cut on her finger.
"What… how?" She didn't know what her face looked like but her mouth was definitely wide open. Why? Because the wound instantly disappeared after he ran the cloth through it.
She looked at him again, this time a little less wary but more suspicious.
"So what? Are you a mutant or something?"
"Oh, I'm nothing quite as marvelous as that. I am just a simple Merchant, peddling a simple trade."
"And what exactly do you sell?"
"A little bit of everything and a lot of less. I'll allow myself a boast and say I have quite the collection. So whatever you want, I'm sure I can help you get it."
She raised a brow at his claim and eyed the glowing bottle. "Even that?" to which he answered with a nod.
Yeah, no. She was not buying a bottle of fairy dust and chucking it down to get some magic healing. She could handle that on her own. She also did not want to get addicted to whatever new sensation it was, or grow a third eye or some other horrific side effect.
"What else do you sell?" She asked instead.
"Whatever do you need?" He asked in return, which made her smirk.
"So if I want to buy a gun…"
"I'd ask what type." He said easily with a just as simple shrug.
She tapped her chin and squinted her eyes at him. She was almost certain he was a dealer or sorts, and not the small type either. Well, time to test that certainty.
"How about a list of the kind of stun batons you have." She threw him the curviest ball she could, because who would have stun—
He went through the door behind the counter and came out 5 seconds later with two boxes.
He opened them on the counter and Jessica's eyes went wide as she saw the stun batons he laid out.
Each of them had a little tag that basically described what they did.
—Murphy's Law: May not be lethal, but your enemies will wish it was. (Cyberpunk 2077)
*Can hit multiple targets at once.
—Merr-Sonn stun batons: You never forget the first time you get whacked by one of these things. (Star Wars)
—Taser Wand: Particularly effective against werewolves. (Teen Wolf)
*Produces up to 900,000 volts.
To say she was shocked would be an understatement…. How?
The more she read the tags on the batons the more shocked she became. These were clearly illegal. And way too dangerous.
On one hand, she confirmed that he definitely was a weapon's dealer, but on the other hand she was slightly curious and dreadful of who he delivered weapons to.
'But if he's a dealer, he wouldn't be showing his weapons to just anyone that walks in. There has to be a secret code or someth—'
Her train of thought came to a halt as she remembered the sword—the demonic sword— and the glowing balm.
She looked at the tags, and yes, one of them did say werewolves.
So far the list was camera batteries, mummy grave, demonic sword, magic potion and illegal tasers. Her mind raced as another conclusion came to her.
He wasn't a weapon's dealer. He was a dealer, plain and simple, and not the normal type either.
'He did call himself a Merchant. What does that even mean? Does he really sell anything?'
She was worried he might get annoyed if she pushed too much or asked for his entire inventory, so she decided to just start small. If he really sold stuff like these, then he would be a very good contact/supplier to have.
She looked at the stun batons, if they could still be called that, and while she liked the idea of having one to go along with her 'extra' activities, it wasn't really a necessity, at least not right now.
She cleared her throat and adjusted her posture to appear confident. If she looked like she'd done this before then he wouldn't suspect a thing— who was she even kidding.
"What about cameras? Spycams, micro-mics, micro trackers; let me see them."
If he saw her blundering act then he didn't say anything and instead reached for something under the counter and brought out a few smaller boxes.
She hungrily read the tags and salivated at them before wincing as she saw the price tags. Cameras weren't cheap and neither were these.
"Damn, these things are pricey." She whistled.
Isaac, the Merchant, smiled. "A fair bit, yes, but it reflects their capabilities."
Was she really about to do this? Her entire day has been particularly shitty and here she was contemplating whether she or not she should take the risk.
She wasn't exactly swimming in funds, and purchasing these will set her back but also make her job a lot easier. As for whether or not they worked, well she was obviously going to test them before she paid for them.
—The Toaster: A small, spherical camera that can be rolled into a room to provide a live, 360-degree video feed to the operatives outside. (Mission: Impossible III)
—Signet Ring-Camera: A ring with a hidden camera for covert photography. (James Bond: A View to a Kill)
—Credit Card Lockpick: Has an electronic ability to open locks. (James Bond: A View to a Kill)
These were the three items she picked, along with a camera but the camera was by the far the most normal thing out of all of them, even if it was leagues better than her current one.
The Toaster alone was $2,500 and came in a pack of eight. The camera was $3,200, and she could tell it was cheaper compared to if she had gotten it from an electronics store. But still…
"How about I give you $2,700 for the camera, and $2,000 for these small pops? These things ain't cheap, y'know."
Unexpectedly, he smiled at her haggling and instead of cutting it off, played his hand and took off a measly $150 off the top of the entire thing, which came to roughly seven thousand.
She would have been embarrassed to be seen haggling this fiercely, but they were the only ones in the store and he didn't seem to mind.
In the end, she could only get him to cut off $150 and had to sell him her camera, along with the two batteries she got earlier. In the end, she still ended up paying over five grand and that hurt her pockets good.
She had been skeptical about the whole thing but it was all blown away when she saw the quality of pictures she got from them. She could connect them to her phone and her computer at the same time and the range was simply ridiculous.
If she had this earlier….
At least she got something good from the blasted day, even if it pained her. They all had a one year warranty so that was that.
"Thank you for your patronage."
She rolled her eyes. "Cut the crap, Isaac. At this rate I'll be lucky if I can pay my rent next month."
He chuckled but said nothing after that. He was a pretty alright guy, she thought, probably in his early or mid 30s.
Ah, she almost forgot.
"What was that healing thing again? How much is it?"
"Estus? As cheap as $200. It'll heal any type of physical wound, no matter how great, as long as the person still draws breath." He said as he brought it out and handed it to her. "On the house. As compensation for what Rebellion did."
She looked at the clearly magical fairy dust and put it in her bag. "You're sure it's not gonna make me grow a third hand or something?" She joked.
"Goodness, no."
"Then thanks for the freebie." She said, "You can call me Jessica."
She stretched her hand and grinned as he shook it. 'Yup, he definitely ain't normal.'
"Hope to see you again."
She laughed. "Oh you can count on it. As long as you give me a discount."
Thankfully the stupid rain had finally decided to stop so she wasted no time and grabbed her things and left.
She took one last look at the place, especially the name, and snorted in amusement.
"Yeah, right."
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