Written in the Cards part 16

Evan groaned as he woke up with the type of hangover he hadn't had since high school when one of his 'friends' had slipped him a couple of screwdrivers made with orange juice and a 'generous' amount of Everclear. He did his best to ignore the headache as he tried to take stock of where he was, a bit surprised that he was on a bed and that his knees didn't hurt. It took him a minute to realize that he actually felt pretty good, if you ignored the headache from Hell and the stench. "Did I fall in a dumpster?" he complained as he glanced over at the clock resting on the nightstand. He sighed when he realized the display on the clock was blinking, meaning it probably wasn't accurate. "Four thirty five, that's useless."

He spent a minute trying and failing to piece together the last couple of hours or possibly days since he wasn't sure how the hell he'd ended up in a hotel smelling like rotting shit and booze then forced himself to get out of bed and stumble toward the bathroom, hoping that drinking a bit of water would help with the headache so that he could figure out how the hell he'd gotten into his current situation.

He partially closed his eyes and played with the switches on the wall until he managed to find the switch for the low wattage light, revealing a folded up towel, a pair of gym shorts, a t-shirt, a small glass bottle with a green liquid in it and a sealed bottle of water on the counter with a note. "I found the clothes in the lost and found, they're clean. The bottle should fix the hangover. Grab a shower, you need it," he muttered as he turned the water on in the shower. "No shit."

Evan stared at the unfamiliar handwriting for about twenty seconds, trying to figure out if he recognized it before deciding that he didn't. He set the note back on the counter then stared at the supposed hangover cure for ten seconds, trying to figure out if he was crazy enough to drink an unknown bottle filled with green sludge. 'Fuck it,' he thought as he uncorked the bottle and sniffed it. 'Smells like mint, lemon and vegetables, it's probably some health food shit.'

He drained the liquid, a bit surprised that it didn't actually taste that bad. 'That could have been worse,' he mused as he cracked the seal on the bottle of water and took a drink after sniffing it. He drank half of the bottle of cold water then stripped out of his filthy clothes, grabbed some soap from the sink dispenser and stepped into the shower.

Twenty minutes later, he stepped out of the shower feeling almost human and better than he'd felt in years. He grabbed the towel and dried himself off then pulled on the clean clothes, figuring he'd dump the clothes he'd had into the dumpster. He twitched when someone knocked on the door to the room. "Just a minute."

"No worries," Mist called out from the hallway, a bit surprised that the man sounded pretty respectable.

Evan quickly emptied the pockets of his pants, surprised to find a couple of bags of drugs that sure as fuck weren't his. 'What the fuck?' he grabbed his wallet and scowled when he realized that his cash was gone. 'Did I get robbed or did I spend a thousand on booze and drugs?' he mused as he stuck his wallet and cell in the pocket of his new shorts and dumped the drugs and his old clothes in the trash.

He headed back to the main room and opened the door. "Are you with the management?"

"Basically. My friend owns the place," Mist replied. "How are you feeling?" he asked when he realized the man looked a lot more lucid.

"Better," Evan admitted. "How did I get here?" he asked as he studied the man that was probably in his late thirties or early forties judging by the gray in his beard.

"You were ranting at us about stealing your spot to sleep and drunk as a skunk then you passed out on us. Molly didn't want to leave you on the street so we hauled you into a room and let you sleep it off."

"I appreciate it," Evan replied. "I'm not sure what the hell happened, I haven't had a drink in ten years and I don't recall starting."

"Are you an alcoholic?" Mist asked, figuring that would explain the behavior and the spiral.

Evan shook his head. "Not particularly, I used to enjoy a drink now and then but my son and his wife died in a car crash ten years ago because of a drunk driver. I was more than a little tipsy when I nearly beat the unrepentant bastard to death because he got off on a technicality. I realized that I needed to stay sober to take care of my granddaughter and not drinking became a habit."

'If he's lying, he's a better actor than the professionals,' Mist mused, having noticed the shifts in his expression. "What stopped you from finishing the job?"

Evan scowled as he remembered the asshole flinging a mug at him then sprinting for the balcony and jumping. "He tossed himself off the balcony and hit the pool. I wasn't quite tipsy enough to jump after him, we were on the fourth floor. By the time I got down there, he'd stolen a car and fled. He lost control of the car when a police drone showed up and he ended up wrapping the stolen car around a light post and wasn't wearing a seatbelt."

"It's a bit hard to punish the dead," Mist agreed. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"I remember my granddaughter inviting Becky over and her shithead of a boyfriend tagging along. I vaguely recall taking the idiot with me to grab the pizza because the girls wanted to watch a movie he was complaining about and then nothing," Evan admitted as he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and checked the missed calls. "This is weird, Abby should have checked in."

"You should probably call her," Mist suggested, starting to wonder if he'd been drugged since things weren't lying up.

Evan called his granddaughter's cell, barely getting the phone up to his ear before he heard his granddaughter's voice.

"Are you okay?" Abby demanded. "Your phone wasn't picking up."

"I woke up in a hotel with a hangover, I don't remember having a drink," Evan told her.

"I'm pretty sure Ralph drugged you to get you out of the way," Abby complained, pissed off about the entire situation.

"Why?" Evan asked, not surprised that the shit would try something that stupid, just surprised that he'd managed it since he was normally careful not to lose track of his drink around the little shit.

"I don't know, he's been trying to talk Becky into moving in with him or running away with him and kept saying something about me having a threesome with him and Becky."

"And you didn't bother mentioning this before?" Evan asked warily.

Abby rolled her eyes. "You'd have killed him Grandpa. I figured it was just him being a creepy little shit but Becky liked him for reasons I'll never understand, something about bad boy credit and the fact that he was a decent camera man."

"Where is he?" Evan asked, deciding that he needed a word with the little shit.

"He's chained up in the shed, he grabbed Becky's ass and she told him off because she was kissing me and he got stupid so I hit him," Abby admitted.

"Good girl," Evan told her. "Which hotel?" he asked Mist.

"The Moonlight Hotel," Mist replied, wondering what was going on as he'd only caught part of what Abby said.

"Is Becky still there?" Evan asked.

Abby glanced over at her friend who was sitting on the couch eating ice cream. "She's freaking out and pissed that her father was right about Ralph."

"Just keep her away from my axe," Evan told her, wanting to make sure there wasn't any of Ralph's blood on the property in case he had to toss his body in the bayou. "Can you grab Becky and come pick me up?"

"We'll be there in twenty," Abby told him.

"Take your time, I don't want you speeding," Evan told her.

"Fine, twenty five minutes," Abby agreed as she gestured for Becky to follow her. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine," Evan assured his granddaughter. "Stay safe and drive carefully."

"One last question, have you checked your wallet?" Abby asked. "Ralph had a lot of money on him and he's always complaining about being broke when it comes time to pay."

"At least a thousand?" Evan asked.

"Thousand and fifty," Abby replied.

"I'm going to expect it back," Evan told her.

"I'm keeping the fifty," Abby replied, figuring Ralph owed her the fifty for being a creepy bastard. "We'll be there soon," she assured him and ended the call so she could concentrate on getting Becky into the car and away from the property without her deciding to rush to the shed to turn Ralph into gator chow.

"Sorry, my Granddaughter's best friend has horrible taste in boyfriends," he offered as he put his cell back in his pocket.

"Don't worry about it," Mist replied. "Speaking of questionable life choices, how would you like to be immune to the negative effects of alcohol and drugs?"

"I'm listening," Evan replied.

"I picked up the ability to basically create magical cards that are influenced by a person's life. If you're willing to give me one of the five cards that I can create by awakening your magic, I'd be willing to awaken your cards."

"You're saying you can basically create magic gems?" Evan asked, not sure he believed him.

Mist shrugged. "Not exactly, the gems only give people spells and a bit of magic, the cards can boost physical stats or magic or give the people skills or other weird abilities. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it, everyone can only use six cards which means you have to get cards from other people if you want to fill your hand."

"I'm surprised that you didn't just awaken my cards while I was out of it," Evan admitted.

"I thought about it," Mist admitted.

"What changed your mind?" Evan asked.

"I thought you were just a drunken bum who refused to leave, but you weren't violent," Mist explained. "It looked like your world was falling apart and you just wanted a place to sleep. I'm not a saint, but I'm trying to avoid being an asshole."

"Always a good idea," Evan agreed. "How does your spell work?"

"I use magic and you hand me the Dutchman card that causes hair loss when you get it," Mist told him.

"Sure, I happen to like my hair," Evan agreed, still not sure if he was joking about the cards.

Mist glanced at the man's bushy gray beard that needed a trim but looked a lot better now that it wasn't filthy. 'More than a bit,' he thought as he used his magic to awaken the man's cards, causing five cards to appear in his hands.

Evan stared at the cards that had appeared in his hand in surprise. "You were serious, weren't you?"

"Yeah," Mist replied with a smirk as the 'drunk' looked through the cards. "I'm Mist, do you have a name?"

"Evan Jones," Evan replied as he glanced over the cards. "Brewmeister, Remarkable Magic and Excellent Agility and Durability. Immunity to the negative effects of alcohol, 200% increased yield of potions, remarkable talent for alchemy and brewing and an upgraded brewing skill that comes with the ability to mix alcohol and potions together. It also comes with various brewing related spells. That would have come in handy when I was still a barkeep."

"It's also useful if you want to make potions," Mist assured him.

Evan swapped to the next card. "Swamp Dweller, Regeneration while partially submerged in water, increased comfort in higher temperature, immunity to poison and disease for the low cost of getting sleepy if I'm dealing with temperatures below freezing. It's Florida, I can deal with that," he said with a laugh.

Mist grinned. "Don't forget the Remarkable boost to physical attributes and Magic."

"I'm going to have to find a weight machine to test everything, aren't I?" Evan asked.

"Probably," Mist replied with a shrug. "I haven't had a chance to make a chart."

"Dutchman: Excellent Strength, Remarkable Agility, Perfect Balance, Navigation by the Stars, Immunity to Sunburns and getting sea sick. Remarkable talent for woodwork and crafting ship related objects. I don't see anything about hair loss."

"It's the other Dutchman card," Mist replied with a grin.

Evan checked the other Duchman Card. "Monstrous Magic, Incredible Physical Attributes and an Amazing talent for crafting ships, sailing, woodworking and objects related to sailing. Reduces the time to craft items by 50%, small chance to improve the quality of the material used in crafting and any crafted products have double the durability they should have if that's desired. Comes with the ability to magically hide a boat that you're on along with everyone and everything on the boat from various methods of detection. Immunity to aging after you become an adult and a Remarkable Alchemy Talent. Unnatural Hair: Your eyebrows and eyelashes will quickly regenerate to the right length and the rest of the hair on your head grows twice as fast while all hair below your neck grows ten times slower and vanishes every night."

"That would be the one," Mist replied.

"That's a damned nice card," Evan said as he handed the card to Mist, figuring a deal was a deal. "I can see why you'd want it."

"Yeah, Sarah is going to love it, she's our crafter," Mist replied with a smile as he put the card in his pocket.

"I can see where you'd want to stack similar cards," Evan said thoughtfully as he looked at his last card. "Marine Scavenger: Excellent physical abilities and Magic along with a 15% chance to get extra parts when I take apart anything marine related. Not bad, how do I use the cards?"

"Just tap the cards to the back of your hand one at a time and focus on using them," Mist suggested.

Evan touched the Marine Scavenger card and stared as the card seemed to flow into the back of his hand, forming a tattoo of a card and causing his muscles to regain most of their former definition from when he was younger. He flexed his arms, rather happy with the changes the card had provided. "I was half expecting this to be some sort of elaborate prank."

"I can understand that," Mist replied with a grin.

"Before I use the rest of the cards, can you awaken my granddaughter's cards or should I save some of them?" Evan asked.

"I don't have a problem awakening people's cards," Mist replied with a grin. "Same sort of deal, I get one card and they get the rest."

"Fantastic," Evan replied excitedly as he used his next card, looking forward to seeing what he could do with his new abilities.

'That worked out better than I was expecting,' Mist mused as Evan used the rest of his cards, going from a normal if decently in shape man in his fifties to someone that could make a decent superhero in most comic book settings. 'I really need to grab a physical boost with my next card or at least one of my three cards.'

"Does the hotel have a gym?" Evan asked, eager to test his strength.

"It's not the most impressive but it has one, I'll show you," Mist replied as he started walking toward the gym, glad that he'd done a bit of exploring while waiting for his mana to regenerate between boosting Evan's cards.

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Evan replied as he followed Mist.

0o0o0

"This feels like cheating," Derrick admitted as they watched yet another pair of goblins walk out of the hotel mirror dragging a pair of ugly dead dwarven women wearing hockey masks and nothing else.

Sarah glanced at Derrick's blood covered shirt that looked like it had been slashed half a dozen times. "Just be happy the goblins are immune to their lust aura."

"Yeah," Derrick agreed, less than happy about the whores since they'd lured him to a bed then slashed him half a dozen times before he'd realized what was going on thanks to their lust aura or at least that was the story he was sticking with.

One of the goblins laughed. "We're not immune, we're just durable enough that they can't hurt us."

"If they want to fuck us, we'll fuck them. If they stab us, we'll break their necks," the other goblin replied with a grin that was almost too wide for her face then headed into the mirror with the stream of sludge where they'd set up a bonfire since the boss said they weren't supposed to eat people raw..

"Yep," the other goblin agreed as he followed her through the mirror.

Sarah shook her head. "Mia, I think your goblins are a bit insane."

"Probably, they are goblins after all," Mia agreed from where she was sprawled out on the extremely comfortable bed that the goblins had recovered from the hotel mirror. "As long as they're effective and they're not killing my friends or innocent people, I'm not going to complain."

"Note that she waited to say that until the goblins were through the mirror," Beth teased.

"No point in confusing them," Mia argued as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the warmth on her face from the sun.

"Did you have any luck with the spell crystal?" Derrick asked Zora, trying to change the subject.

Zora pulled her attention off Sarah and focused on Derrick. "More than I was expecting, less than I'd like. I can't physically copy the crystals but I can copy the enchantment that gives someone knowledge of a spell. I'm going to have to learn a bunch of spells because I can make crystals that give knowledge of any spell I know now, and we have a lot more useful spells than just the basic ones the crystals impart."

"You're welcome to use the crystals we brought back," Derrick told her.

"Ante up!" Zora replied with a smile, looking forward to learning a bunch of spells.

"I'm going to check on Mist," Molly said as she headed for the mirror that went to the other world.

"Have fun," Sarah replied as she turned her attention back to Zora. "You should probably grab some of the mana regeneration gear, I doubt anyone is going to mind."

"Go for it," Derrick told her, knowing Mist wouldn't care.

"Thanks," Zora replied as she headed over to the coffin to grab some of the magic gear.

0o0o0

'Is that a Camaro?' Molly mused as a blue sports car pulled into the lot that looked like some of the newer models from back home. 'Chevy logo on the grill but I'm not seeing a brand name, maybe it was repainted?' She reached out with her Technopathy and pulled up the make and model from the car's computer as the car pulled into a parking spot. "2030 Electric Camaro, nice…" she trailed off as a pair of gorgeous redheads that could have stepped right out of a magazine got out of the car wearing shorts and t-shirts. 'Damn, I can't say I blame the kid for wanting to get them in bed.'

"Do you think she's single?" Becky asked in a whisper as they walked across the parking lot.

"Not a chance," Abby replied, checking the older red haired girl out as they walked over. "Do you know where my grandfather is?"

"He's helping with the pool," Molly replied with a smile as she opened the door and gestured for them to come inside, recognizing the girls from the pictures Evan showed her. "I'm Molly, I own this place."

"Nice to meet you," Abby replied and walked inside, getting out of the morning sun. "How long do you think it will take to reopen?"

"At least a couple of days," Molly replied as she started walking down the hallway, heading toward the pool area. "The inspector should be here Monday morning to check the electrical systems. I'm hoping we don't have to replace everything."

"Best of luck," Abby offered, fairly sure she was going to have to jump through a bunch of hoops if she didn't bribe the inspector.

"Thanks," Molly replied. "I'm new in town, what do you normally do around here for fun?"

"I like window shopping and hitting the beach but it's a tourist town, so you can find a little bit of everything here if you look hard enough," Abby offered.

Becky smiled as she thought about some of her favorite restaurants. "The food isn't bad either if you ignore the overpriced tourist crap."

"I'll have to get a list," Molly replied, making a note to check some of the local cuisine and see if they had recipes available so that she could increase the number of dishes that she could conjure.

Abby sighed in relief when they reached the doors and she saw her grandfather leaning over a table working on some type of electric motor looking noticeably younger and… stronger? "Gramps!"

Evan turned and smiled at Abby as she walked into the pool area with Becky and Molly. "Hey kiddos, how are you doing?"

Mist glanced between the busty teenage girls that were almost as tall as he was. 'Yeah, Ralph's stupidity makes a bit more sense, not a lot considering Abby's grandfather was in the navy for twenty years, but I can see it.' He grinned when he checked the cards floating over Abby's head. 'Martial Artist, Honor Student and Swamp Girl?' he mused as he checked out Becky's cards. 'Cam Girl, Honor Student, Swamp Girl?'

Abby glanced at the dark haired man that was sitting on the edge of the pool with his feet in the water then focused on her grandfather. "Frustrated and annoyed at the idiot and relieved that you're okay."

"I'm fine," Evan assured her. "Mist helped me out with a regeneration potion and gave me a couple of magical powers."

"Regeneration?" Abby asked, wondering if her grandfather was playing a joke on them.

"Magical powers?" Beck asked excitedly.

Abby glanced at Mist then focused on her grandfather. "What type of powers?"

Evan casually jumped across the pool, easily clearing the fifteen feet. "Ninja magic!"

Abby shook her head. "How long have you been waiting to say that?"

"Since I was a kid, some of the anime were pretty good." Evan jumped back over the pool, making it look easy.

"How do I get ninja magic?" Abby asked Mist, knowing damn well that her grandfather shouldn't have been able to make that jump, especially not without a running start and a spring board and possibly not even then.

"You hang around for a couple of hours so I can boost your potential magic cards and awaken them or basically manifest them so you can use them like a magic gem. You currently have a Martial Artist card, an Honor Student card and a Swamp Girl card so there's a small chance that you could actually get ninja magic because of the Martial Arts card and I can spend mana to upgrade it."

"Swamp girl?" Abby shook her head. "I don't live in a swamp."

"Just next to it," Evan offered with a twinkle in his eyes.

"I don't pick the names," Mist assured her. "How much did you run around the swamp as a child?"

"We used to go fishing a lot," Abby replied, well aware that her grandfather didn't know about all of her adventures in the swamp, especially over the last couple of years.

"How come she only has three cards?" Evan asked, rather amused that his granddaughter thought she was sneakier than she was.

Mist shrugged. "Most people start with two or three cards and my friend Vivian can give people an extra two cards, one of which is a cursed card that has extra properties and a curse that I can usually at least partially mitigate."

"You had her use it while I was unconscious, didn't you?" Evan realized.

"To be fair, I thought you were a homeless wino at the time," Mist replied.

"What type of curses?" Becky asked.

"Uncontrollable invisibility was changed to controllable, getting turned into a cat was changed into the ability to turn into a catgirl and your grandfather had a hair loss quality that I managed to upgrade to a card that makes body hair grow slower and fall out every night while the hair on your head grows twice as fast."

"Never having to shave again sounds awesome," Abby mused.

"The cursed cards are powerful and dangerous, which is usually why I ask for them as my one pick from the person's cards," Mist explained.

"How many cards can you have total?" Becky asked.

"Six," Mist admitted.

Abby glanced at her grandfather. "I'm game if my grandfather doesn't mind me sticking around."

"That's fine, I need to go have a chat with Ralph," Evan replied, rather annoyed at the little shit despite how things had ended up. "I'll pick you up later."

"Worst case, we can call a cab or call my folks," Becky said, unwilling to pass up the chance to get magic.

"I'll be back in a couple of hours or I'll give you a heads up," Evan assured them.

"We're going to need breakfast," Becky stated, knowing that she should probably eat something other than just ice cream.

Molly laughed. "I can conjure food, what do you want?"

"Spaghetti and meatballs?" Becky asked thoughtfully.

"Lasagna," Abby suggested.

"Ooh, that's a better idea," Becky agreed, picking the dish she only got a couple of times a year rather than the dish that she got at least once a week on average.

Molly grinned as she conjured two plates of Lasagna and handed them to the girls. "Do you want food before you go?" she asked Evan.

"I probably should," Evan admitted, knowing that his temper was always worse when he got hungry.

"Cool, I'm going to see if Vivian has a minute to give them extra cards," Mist said as he pulled his feet out of the water and stood up. 'I should be back before my mana finishes filling up and then we'll get started boosting everything.'

“If you need to dispose of a body, we have spells for that,” Molly offered.

“I’ll wait till I question him to decide,” the older man decided.