Written in the Cards Part 17

"What happens if they ask a question I don't understand?" Vivian asked as she glanced around the strange room on the other side of the mirror, not sure what to make of the box with glowing numbers on the front of it or the thin black box hanging on the wall made out of an unfamiliar material.

"Just shrug and say, "I don't know," Mist suggested, making a mental note to get Tiffany to explain how everything worked when she had a chance.

"Don't worry, I've got your back," Sarah assured her.

Mist smiled as he pulled the 'cursed' Dutchman card out of his pocket and handed it to Sarah. "Speaking of having your back, here."

Sarah stared at the description of the card Mist had just handed her for a couple of seconds as she tried to wrap her head around the amazing card. "Damn!"

"Yep," Mist replied with amusement.

Sarah finished reading the description then quickly touched the Dutchman card to the back of her left hand, causing it to sink into her flesh and create a tattoo of the card. "Thank you!" she squealed as she pulled Mist into a hug.

"You're welcome," Mist assured her, glad that she'd remembered her strength enough to not crush him like a grape.

"Something good?" Zora asked, wondering what she'd received.

Sarah turned her head so that she could look at Zora without letting go of Mist. "It gives me a monstrous amount of magic and an incredible boost to all of my physical attributes along with a bunch of talents related to boats and a 50% reduction to crafting time which is completely insane!"

"Not to mention the boost to the durability of anything you make," Mist teased, glad that she was happy with the card.

"Yep!" Sarah agreed as she let go of Mist and darted for the door. "To victory!"

"Victory!" Zora squealed as she followed her friend into the hallway with a bounce in her steps.

Mist shook his head, rather amused. "They've got way too much energy."

"Yep," Vivian replied as she followed the girls at a more sedate pace. "Which qualities do you want me to add to their cursed cards?"

Mist followed Vivian into the hallway. "How about Immunity to Aging and the Crone Durability?"

"Okay," Vivian agreed as they started walking down the hallway. "I'm curious, what was the box with glowing numbers?"

"It's an electronic clock, they're pretty cheap compared to the clocks that are made out of gears," Mist told her.

"I've got a lot of catching up to do," Vivian admitted, wondering how long it would take to catch up.

"Yep," Mist agreed.

Vivian glanced at Mist. "This is where you were supposed to lie and say, ‘It's not that bad’ or something to that effect."

"Okay, let's try that again," Mist replied with a grin. "It's not that bad, you'll get there."

"See, was that so hard?" Vivian asked, trying not to laugh.

Mist shook his head. "Not really and it's even true, it's just going to take a couple of months or a few years depending on how much effort you put into things. You should be fine as long as you stick with the group for a couple of weeks so we can try to make sure you're safe."

"That's the plan," Vivian agreed as they walked into the pool area, not particularly interested in running off by herself to explore.

Mist spent the mana to boost Abby's martial arts card as they walked over to where Abby and Becky were sharing a lawn chair near the pool and chatting with Molly about a fire crystal.

Abby pulled her attention off the fire crystal that Molly was holding and looked at Mist and the attractive red haired girl with him. "Molly explained the basics, are you going to boost our cards before you add more cards or add more and boost them?"

"Boosting the old cards doesn't really boost the new cards," Vivian said as she spent the mana to give Abby an extra card. "Your extra uncursed card is a Martial Artist card which should give you a nice boost," she offered as she added the qualities for the cursed card and spent the mana to give it to her.

Mist selected the Martial Arts card that increased her agility and gave her hands and feet a Durability boost equal to the rarity of the card as the rest of them weren't particularly impressive.

"Can you fix the curse?" Vivian asked Mist.

"Probably," Mist replied as he spent a decent chunk of his mana to boost the cursed Swamp Girl card. "Give me a minute to finish reading everything."

Abby glanced between Vivian and Mist. "What's the curse?"

"You attract hostile animals and they do double damage against you, which is annoying considering it's a Swamp Girl card and it has some nice traits."

"Yuck," Abby complained, rather happy that she didn't have to use that card if she didn’t want to.

"Like I said, give me a minute," Mist replied with a smile as he selected the Swamp Girl card that swapped the curse for a damage boost to hostile creatures. "Okay, the card lost the curse and Immunity to Bug Bites but picked up Immunity to Disease, a damage boost against hostile animals and Water Walking which seems like a fair trade."

"Bug bites are annoying but if you use enough bug spray, they're not that bad so that's probably a good deal," Abby mused.

Becky shook her head. "Says the girl that barely has to use bug spray, they love biting me."

"That's because you're delicious," Abby teased.

Becky playfully flipped her girlfriend off.

Mist smiled as he spent the mana to boost Abby's Martial Arts card while they were discussing things. 'I'll ask what she wants if something interesting comes up.'

Zora snickered. "If you need decent protection from bugs, I can enchant rings."

"How much?" Becky asked, really tired of having to layer herself with bug spray for Abby's adventures into the swamp.

"What's it worth?" Zora asked, not sure what the local currency was worth.

"I'll strip?" Becky offered, having seen the girl eyeing her in a way that said she was interested.

"Deal," Zora replied cheerfully, more than happy with the trade since it only cost her a bit of mana. "I'll even toss in an enchantment that protects against sunburn if you want."

"Hell yes!" Becky replied without hesitation as she quickly sat up and started pulling her shirt off.

"I'd object but she's an exhibitionist, she has a tendency to strip any chance she gets," Abby teased, not worried about it since Becky liked showing off.

Becky dropped her shirt on the concrete next to her chair, revealing the fact that she wasn't wearing a bikini top or anything under it. "Guilty and you love me."

"Always and forever," Abby replied with amusement as she took her silver ring off and handed it to Zora. "I'm going to wait to strip until I actually have the ring, I don't need to burn."

"Not a problem," Zora replied as she opened her enchanting interface and held her hand out for Becky's ring. "Do you want the ability to change your hair color?"

"Permanently? Or just an illusion?" Becky asked as she handed one of her silver rings to Zora, not interested in changing her hair permanently.

"Just an illusion," Zora assured her.

"That would be neat," Becky agreed. "How much?"

"Are you willing to jump up and down a couple of times so your breasts bounce?" Sarah asked hopefully.

'Popcorn or ice cream?' Molly mused as she watched the show, not sure which was more appropriate.

Becky laughed as she got to her feet and started bouncing in place, causing her breasts to bounce. "Absolutely."

"Off with the bikini bottoms," Abby suggested, rather enjoying the show, despite the fact that she'd seen her girlfriend naked countless times.

"In a minute," Becky replied as she continued bouncing.

'At least they're having fun,' Mist mused as he swapped to boosting Becky's cards, doing his best to actually pay enough attention to the cards so that he didn't make a mistake.

Vivian spent the mana to give Becky another card then gave her a cursed card, using the professor and alchemy boosting qualities. 'Another Cam Girl card and a cursed Honor Student card. Boost to learning and the ability to summon a twisted teacher that wants to hurt the summoner, there are worse curses,' she mused as she watched Becky start dancing and giving Zora a show. 'Nice.'

0o0o0

"Don't kill me!" Ralph blurted out when Abby's grandfather opened the door to the shed holding an axe and looking like he was seriously considering using it to chop him into gator sized pieces.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't, you drugged me," Evan replied coldly as he glared at the teenager that was chained up in the middle of the shed with no less than three sets of handcuffs and a decent amount of chain. 'Where did she get the extra handcuffs?'

"I didn't drug anyone, it was magic," Ralph replied quickly.

Evan raised his eyebrows. "And that makes it better?"

"It wasn't intentional," Ralph assured him. "I'm not that crazy!"

"Explain," Evan ordered, figuring he might as well get the kid's side of the story.

"My aunt gave me a couple of luck and calm sticks so I wouldn't screw up the job interview tomorrow, they were in my coat when it got caught in the door, the sticks broke and we got hit with a large wave of luck and too much calm or at least that's the only reason I can think of for why you walked off to grab a drink with a hot blonde woman and left me to drive back."

"That's the best you can come up with?" Evan asked as he stepped into the shed.

"Check my camera!" Ralph blurted as he gestured toward the pile of stuff that one of the girls had pulled out of his jacket and set on the bench. "It's the second to last one."

Evan set the axe, that he hadn't really been planning on using, against the door and picked up the camera. "I find that rather unlikely…" he trailed off as he selected the second video and saw a clip of him talking to a rather curvy woman in her late twenties that was wearing a shimmering red dress that screamed street walker or lounge singer. 'Damn, he might be telling the truth about the luck sticks,' he mused as he watched himself walk back over.

"Take the car and the pizza, I'm not going to need it," the Evan in the video ordered as he emptied most of the cash in his wallet into a bag in the front seat. "If it's not there when I check, I'm going to feed you to the gators."

"I'm not a thief," the Ralph in the video quickly assured him.

"You steal movies and game manuals," he replied.

"They're out of print, it's not the same," the Ralph in the video argued as the Evan in the video walked off, leaving him to deal with the pizza and getting the car back to Abby's house.

"Old man has game," the Ralph in the video said before the clip ended.

"Why did you take the money out of the bag?" Evan asked, still a bit annoyed about getting robbed.

"I wasn't going to leave it in the car, I had to grab drinks because we forgot and you'd have blamed me if cash had gone missing. I also wanted to check if the clerk knew the girl in case a couple of people jumped you and we had to track down your organs."

"That's fair," Evan admitted, figuring that was actually a reasonable reaction to a man in his fifties walking off with a hot blonde and the reason he'd probably left his cash. "So, how did you get locked up in here?"

"Abby and Becky were shooting a video for Becky's channel. I was grabbing a soda and I tripped on a slipper, clipped the table, spun around, tripped over a cable, caught my shorts on the chair and landed with my hand on Becky's ass with my shorts around my knees. She was pissed because she was kissing Abby and thought I was just being a pervert. I tried to explain and things… sort of spiraled."

"So, you tripped, fell, lost your pants, and just happened to spank her ass?" Evan asked, wondering if he realized how insane that comedy of errors sounded.

"I have video," Ralph argued, willing to admit that it sounded insane now that he had a minute to calm down about the damned power cables that should have been taped down.

Evan sighed when he realized that Ralph was serious. "I'm not sure you could dig your own grave faster if I handed you a shovel."

"I doubt it," Ralph admitted. "Just send a copy of the most recent video to Becky's phone, the camera should have caught the fact that I slipped, they were distracted and then I said something stupid when they didn't believe me and Abby hit me."

"Let me guess, you've got an explanation for that as well?" Evan asked.

"Yeah, I'm an idiot," Ralph replied bluntly. "I have no fucking clue why I thought calling her a liar was a reasonable idea at the time. I'm just glad that she didn't kick me in the nuts while I was unconscious."

"I was half expecting to have to toss you to the gators," Evan admitted as he sent the video to Abby's phone along with a quick text saying that the video might contain evidence.

"If I'd willingly screwed things up with the girls, I would have tossed myself to the gators," Ralph admitted.

'Maybe her taste in boys isn't complete shit,' Evan admitted as he grabbed the keys for the handcuffs and padlocks off the bench and started working on getting him free, fairly sure he was actually telling the truth. “How in the hell did luck sticks send me off with a blonde and you to a woodshed?”

“I have no idea,” Ralph said with a groan.

0o0o0

"Evidence?" Abby muttered as she played the video that her grandfather sent.

"What's up?" Becky asked as she glanced over at where Abby was looking at her phone.

"Gramps sent a text that said the video might have evidence to prove that Ralph is just an idiot," Abby replied as she fast-forwarded through the first bit of the video where Becky was stripping for her fans, fairly sure that the part wasn't what he was talking about. 'What was that?' she asked when she caught Ralph sort of tumbling into the frame. She slowed things down and selected a slightly earlier moment in the clip then hit play. She stared at the screen in disbelief as she watched Ralph trip into view, accidentally catch his shorts and end up in the position that she'd seen him in the night before, that had pissed her the hell off at the time. "Shit."

"What's up?" Becky asked.

"Ralph wasn't lying about tripping and losing his shorts," Abby admitted.

"Seriously? How the hell?" Becky asked as she got up from the edge of the pool and walked over to check the video.

"It's like something straight out of a gag reel," Abby replied as she tapped the earlier spot on the clip so that she could show Becky.

Becky watched the clip of Ralph tripping into view that would have been nearly impossible to fake, especially since they'd chained him up without access to a computer. "Huh, okay, I'll admit that I may have flipped out a bit."

"Yep," Abby agreed. "To be fair, no one would have believed it."

"What happened?" Molly asked, despite already using her Technopathy to 'watch' the clip with them.

"He said something stupid about tripping but well, he had his penis in his hand and he was looking at Abby when he said what I thought was 'fuck me,' after accidently slapping my ass. I didn't take it well," Becky admitted.

"To be fair, it looked like having his shorts yanked like that hurt like hell, so him saying fuck makes a lot more sense and was just really bad timing," Abby admitted as she paused on that part of the video, showing the look of pain on Ralph's face.

"You should probably call Gramps," Becky suggested, wanting to make sure he didn't do anything drastic.

"Yeah," Abby muttered as she called her grandfather, feeling worse about the whole thing now that she wasn't in the middle of it.

"So?" Evan asked, curious what they'd figured out.

"It looked like a damned skit from a gag reel, so yeah, we're trying to decide if we need to make a chocolate cake to apologize or do something more drastic," Abby admitted. "Did you figure out what happened with the money and him leaving you in town?"

"Yeah…" Evan trailed off, not really wanting to explain the part about the hot blonde woman that might have been responsible for his memory loss and his general miserable condition to his granddaughter. "He accidentally broke some luck sticks and things went weird. I left the money in the car. He grabbed it to keep someone from stealing it when he went to grab drinks because I'd wandered off after telling him to drive home."

"Shit, I don't think chocolate cake is going to cut it," Abby admitted.

"It's a start," Evan replied.

"If you bring him here, I can swing some magic powers," Mist offered as glanced over the descriptions of the potential Martial Artist cards that he needed to choose from, not seeing a problem with boosting and awakening the kid's cards since he apparently wasn't the asshole that they'd thought, just really unlucky.

"Mist just offered to give him magic cards, do you think that will help?" Abby asked, feeling bad about the entire thing, now that she'd realized that the only reason he'd said fuck while looking at her was he'd just gotten a wedgie from Hell.

"Probably, we'll be there in thirty minutes, I want to change clothes," Evan told her.

"Sounds good," Abby agreed then ended the call. She turned to look at Molly. "Can you conjure chocolate cake?"

"Absolutely," Molly replied with a grin as she gestured and conjured a chocolate cake on a paper plate on the table.

"I could get used to this," Becky said cheerfully.

"Same," Molly replied, happy to meet some of the locals.

"Do you want to cause seventy percent more damage with your fists or forty percent more damage with any weapon, including fists?" Mist asked Abby, trying to pick between two of potential Martial Arts cards.

Abby pulled her attention away from the conjured cake and focused on Mist. "I'd rather have the forty percent boost."

"Sounds good," Mist picked the general damage boost then spent the mana to boost the card again, rather happy with the results.