The days that followed after his wonderful trade with Callisto were eventful to say the least.
Instead of a repeat customer, he had somehow managed to procure a customer base. He didn't really care about the nature of their trade, as long as a trade was had. That was the whole thing. It was why the Union existed. To give people what they wanted.
So yes, he didn't really care about the fact that he was buying what could be argued as priceless(negatively literal) mutations. As already established, the lesser valuable things in his inventory would be sold off in bulk to other entities.
Merchants weren't the only ones out there that dealt in some sort of interdimensional trade. Most times, the younger and small-time Merchants lacked the capital to buy any meaningful bulk of goods from them, something that was both understandable and expected and because the Trade must go on, they then turn to other entities and organizations who are more than happy to buy off the leftovers in their inventory.
While the Union was a massive organizational entity, it wasn't the only one out there, nor was it the largest. And besides, the Union wouldn't have been able to grow itself to its current behemoth existence if it only traded with itself.
When Merchants grew to a certain level, most of them were sought out by agents of other entities, and for Isaac, he had contacts of agents in two of, if not, the largest organizations in his sphere of influence.
The Company and The Guild.
These were the two of the oldest organizations out there, even older than the Union, and between the both of them, the Guild, with its chaotic code of conduct, was Isaac's most frequent customer any time he closed up shop.
Even their agents were such mischief gremlins that their most preferred purchases were bad goods – the more damaged it was the better.
A ring that summons a protective barrier but shaves away your lifespan with every use? Let me see that. Oh this serum causes major biological deformity but grants slightly enhanced human capabilities? Hm, not bad at all. A magical tattoo that causes horrific nightmares, cripples your immune system, makes you weak at night, gives you partial blindness during the day, moderately robs your sense of hearing and taste, attracts monsters towards you and makes them frenzied? Give me your whole stock and I'll put a down-payment for the next one.
The agents were just every bit crazy as their clients but Isaac wasn't one to judge. As long as a trade was had, he didn't care about his customer's 'seemingly' destructive tendencies.
It was because of this certainty that Isaac wasn't exactly unwilling to buy the… more defective X-genes as he knew exactly who he would be selling it to for profit. This wasn't to say that he didn't make a sale to Callisto, because he did.
Yeah, she could throw around the icy glare and intimidating posture all she wanted, but there was no way she could hide the genuine interest(more like salivating intensity) when she saw what she could get from the small fortune she was amassing.
—Salamander Dagger (Lies of P): A fully upgraded dagger designed to make the embedded Ergo generate Overheat. It was created by Alchemist defectors for a special purification ritual, which, good for them(they definitely needed it).
Well now you've got a super finely crafted dagger that deals intense fire damage with every slice.
*The dagger possesses an ignite function that drains more power from the Ergo source to vastly increase its fire damage.
Price: $6,820,000.
To say she was one happy customer would be both a truth and a lie because she expertly hid her reaction upon her purchase but it didn't matter because Isaac could clearly see that oh-so-familiar glint in her eyes.
That wasn't the only thing she bought. She just couldn't get enough of it, but at least she made sure to go for a practical choice.
—Mad Eye Moody's Magical Eye (Harry Potter): The ultimate replacement. A glowing electric-blue magical eye that spins.
If that is not enough, it also sees through walls, invisibility as well as provides a 360° vision.
Price: $2,402,000.
As if that wasn't enough, she also bought a nifty thing that she wrapped around the eye-catching eye.
—Tattered Mage's Cloak (Dragon Age): This junk? It's just a torn piece of cloth with frayed edges and fading glyphs.
*It grants, at most, +5% to Mana/Stamina regeneration.
Price: $7,380.
Honestly, wrapping the tattered cloth over the magic eye, both to hide it and to supply it trickles of magic to boost its abilities, however minuscule the boost was, was a genius purchase and efficient use. Isaac had been pleasantly surprised by Callisto's ingenuity with that little decision.
It also paired well with her X-gene— which she had let him appraise, and was valued at $29,000,000— which gave her, not enhanced physicality and senses, but actual superhuman physicality and senses, along with superhuman reflexes, intuition and regeneration.
If there was anything that Isaac loved about being a Merchant was the scalable market and how erratically it could fluctuate depending on where he was.
For example, the tattered cloak was literally just a piece of cloth he picked up from the ground in some ruined castle.
The eye, now that required some patience to be able to get it for cheap. Nothing a good trade and batter couldn't fix, especially when he had a full shelf of rare magical tomes staring straight at the impressionable young boy.
As for the dagger, well that he actually paid for, but it was nowhere as expensive as he had to sell it. Less than even a fraction of it.
It wasn't that he was purposely raising the prices through the roof. This dimension practically lacked a magical community which further increased the rarity of these kinds of items, like the eye and the dagger, as well as give value to a piece of rag.
Those were the only things Callisto bought for herself, as she spent a tiny fraction of the returns from selling a few defective X-genes to purchase things for her community, like bulk purchases of tents and blankets sets that filters the air, provides extra comfort and boosts recovery and rest with every session of sleep.
He tried to interest her with magical seeds but she declined, citing that they lacked the soil and sun to properly grow them. Well, at least he got a few things that were sure to interest his roster of eccentric clients from the Guild and the Company.
—Anomalous Fly Mutation X-gene: You are a fly. That's it. You are a human-sized fly. In fact, you're more fly than human. Except that, well, you can't fly(which is the only human trait you have).
Trivia: A fly has a lifespan of 15 – 30 days, luckily for you, that doesn't apply to you. Unfortunately for you, you have a lifespan of 15 – 30 years.
P.S: Never forget, you're a human-sized fly. Do with that information what you will.
—Vitiated Polymerized Biology X-gene: You're made of plastic, down to your very cells. You effectively exhibit plastic-like traits on command, turn your body into plastic, and fuse with other plastics of the same type as you.
… You're polystyrene. Your breaking point is that of Tupperware. And yes, you break. And melt.
On a less important note, every time you turn into plastic or exhibit its properties, it becomes harder to revert back. Use it too much and you'll turn into a plastic statue— which means you die in a pose, choose wisely.
—Energy Absorption X-gene: You can completely absorb any type of energy into your body, and can also attract them towards you in a 10m radius. Heat, cold, lightning, kinetic , gamma radiation, psionic waves, magic, dark matter, gravity – you are the perfect recipient of any and all forms of energy that no residue is left in your immediate vicinity after absorption.
You also possess zero immunity or resistance towards these energies other than what your body naturally provides.
Fire will burn you from inside out. Cold will drop your inner heat, ergo, you die. Lightning? New type of rare steak. Gamma, psionic, dark matter? If you survive, be sure to leave us a review.
These three were not the only ones he got but were some of the best highlighters from the list of X-gene he bought from Callisto and her Morlocks.
They cost a fraction of what Masque's mutation cost, as even these three combined cost less than $150,000, but the addition of the bulk he bought did cost up to some pretty millions. All in all it was a great trading session.
The kids were happy, Callisto was happy, even if she tried to hide it, and Isaac was happy. The customer is happy, the Merchant is happy.
As for his other customer of interest, Mikhail, the big guy was still thinking about Isaac's recommendation of weapons and came in one day to appraise his X-gene to see if it would help with the cost.
The price of his X-gene was so atrocious that he considered selling it for a brief second. He didn't, but the thought became familiar.
Upon seeing Mikhail's internal dilemma, Isaac gave him his professional suggestion. For example, instead of getting the Yamato, he could get a one-use item to get where he wanted to go and for the weapon, Murasame (Akame ga Kill), Soul Split Katana (Jujutsu Kaisen) and Tessaiga (Inuyasha) were all good alternatives.
Isaac rolled out a catalog of weapons within his X-gene price range and effectively made Mikhail adjust his priorities. As for what those priorities were, Isaac was sure he would be seeing them in the near future.
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.....
The Morlocks, in the span of a few weeks, had witnessed the kind of change none of them would have ever expected to see in their life.
As a forgotten and unneeded demographic, they were well used to surviving by the edge of their teeth and playing with the worst set of cards life gave them, but the recent weeks has seen a stark change to that cosmic balance.
Good tents that didn't leak and beddings that for the first time in a long time made them feel like they were sleeping on beds, good beds, not the bedbug-ridden and chopped foam some of them slept on. They had clean, crystal clear water and good healthy food down in depths of the tunnel under New York city.
And that wasn't the last of it.
Humans. They could be humans again. Most of them that had mutations that threatened their lives, affected their livelihood, and were downright cancerous had traded their mutation for a chance at life again.
Masque was the first to do it and even though it left mixed feelings with most of the Morlocks, it was a proof of concept that they could change their lives.
Whatever they sold their mutations for, Callisto made sure that they donated a good part— a good 50% that is— of it to the camp and the rest they could keep for themselves in case they wanted to go live on the surface or were saving it for a rainy day.
If they decided that they wanted to go live on the surface, Callisto made sure that Dreamer erased all their memories of the Morlocks and implant fake ones. It was a little harsh but no one could argue with Callisto against it, not even Mikhail, as they all knew the risks.
For those that became humans but decided not to leave, well nothing much really changed for them except adjusting to life without their crippling mutation, which was a positive step-up all things considered.
However, it wasn't without its own set of issues as there were some of the Morlocks who saw the act of parting with their X-gene as a betrayal to their identity as Morlocks. There was slight tension in the camp as the murmurs grew and some started suggesting that they send all the humans back to the surface, but it was instantly killed in its infancy by a stern Callisto after the first altercation broke out.
A very serious threat of forcefully wiping the memories of anyone who thought so and sending them up to the surface with their mutations shut up the last grumbles of dissent.
It was either that or they gave her an excuse for her to use her new daggers on a person. Fortunately for them and unfortunately for her, the Morlocks knew her well enough to know when she was in a murderous mood so they wisely swallowed their misgivings and kept it in their dreams.
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.....
"What do you mean?" a rigid voice spoke through a speaker, and even though it remained calm and neutral, there was a natural sharp pressuring edge to it that pricked at the ears and the spine of the listener.
"It's not clear yet, but something has clearly happened down there to bring about all this change. The news is fairly recent."
"How certain are you?" the voice from the speaker asked, making the listener hesitate for a moment before giving their reply.
"I can't be sure until I check it out for myself. Even if it's not true, there is no denying that something actually happened to spark such a rumor."
The voice did not immediately reply, going silent for a few seconds, before responding after an irritated grumble.
"Find out that it is and track it down." The voice ordered, and added after a short pause. "And be quick about it?"
They scoffed. "When have I ever been late?"
"A rhetorical question, I'm sure." The voice said dryly and promptly cut the call, eliciting a faux offended gasp from the former listener.
"Rude." The voice said with personal amusement before clicking their tongue as a new irritation set it. "Now, what the hell is this about?"
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A/N: I put Callisto's X-gene at 29 mil. At first I thought it was too expensive but then I remembered that this is marvel and saw that it was actually dirt cheap given that Cap's super soldier serum is a multi-billion fruit punch, and that no one in their right mind in Marvel would sell it for less. So in a way, it might seem that Isaac is actually ripping them off and technically he is.
It's simple demand and supply. The market favors him as abilities like these are dime a dozen in his shop.
So the equation is:
If Marvel-verse(Mv) = Superhuman abilities, X-gene, and tech is cheap(ST), then Magic items, exotic fruits and cursed tools(MT) are expensive, as long as the Merchant(M) is constant.
∴ Mv = M(-ST) +M(MT)
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