Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 442 BEARINGS

“There you are,” Gwen said as Anne and I approached. We were on a higher level of the bazaar. The large building used an interesting elevator system which was a massive tube that people could step onto and would float up to the correct level. We were about 20 stories up when we found our group. “I need money.” 

“What makes you think I have money?” I asked. I was starting to feel a lot better now that Anne’s Haki wasn’t all hate for me. In fact she was radiating a lot of love as we walked through the busy building silently. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but reminded myself it was better than hate. 

“Oh, are you guys together?” Gwen Stacy asked as she noticed Anne and I holding hands. “I thought you were broken up.” I could feel some shame from Jean Grey, she must have spilled the beans to the others on the drama around school. Which reminded me of my short affair with the alter ego of Jean, I decided I would most likely forego that tale for Anne. 

“We-” I tried to say, but Anne cut me off. 

“We never stopped dating,” Anne said proudly. “What are we buying?” She let go of my hand but walked over to the stall we were at. The floor we were on had just as many Shi’ar, but finally there were some other species working stalls and shops. 

Everywhere littered with someone selling something. There were big bear people, others with pale white skin and eerily thin arms, and most every species you could imagine. Far too many to count. I wasn't sure why there were so many new species working the sales floor than what we had seen down below. But I did notice that only the Shi’ar were the people buying goods. 

“They have this cool holographic cube,” Gwen said walking us over to a booth. I eyed Peter who was putting on some weird helmet. Jessica Jones gave me an apologetic look, and Lyra Talbot studied Anne. I needed to get back to Earth as soon as possible to put out some fires. 

“It’s 100 sols,” Gwen said. 

“Didn’t you have that already?” I asked. 

“It was stolen,” Lyra said. “Most of it anyway. We had enough for food though.”

“Seriously?” I asked, annoyed as I turned to Polree, our Shi’ar guide. “Stolen? Don’t we have like diplomatic immunity or whatever?” 

Her eyes turned to someone in the crowd. I followed her gaze to see a man that had been following our group. He was a tall Shi’ar with light gray skin that blended into the crowd. I was starting to think she purposefully let it get stolen. That way the majestor would get his money back, and we couldn’t get any cool technology for our fights. 

“Fuck,” I mumbled. They had been so open I had assumed they didn’t really care if we went shopping. But of course they wanted to win this. I needed to start thinking defensively. No showing my powers, or letting the others show theirs. They had us monitored outside of our prison/villa, so we were probably monitored there as well. We were basically on a very limited house arrest. I had to think. 

“Polree brought us to this level cus they have the cheaper stuff,” Gwen said. “We got some food, which wasn’t terrible. But now we can’t afford anything.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” I said and turned back to Polree. I let my Nen out, casting some fear on her. Always watching those that were following us with my Observation Haki, I needed to be extra careful. “Okay, tell me about the bazaar.”

“What about it?” She squeaked. Though the fear I cast on her was small, it was enough to ensure she told me the truth. 

“We are new to the solar system. What kind of species are here?”

“People from all over,” she said. “Everyone is part of the Shi’ar empire. There is the Hullsk people,” she pointed at the bear, “the-”

“Yeah, I don’t need a list of everyone. How are other species treated on your planet?” I asked. “Why are they only the shop keepers of these upper floors?”

“I don’t know what you-”

“Fucking hell,” I said, her Haki was truthful which meant she was either ignorant or…dumb. “Fine, first take me to a pawn shop.”

“What?”

“A place that we can sell items,” I said. I had been stealing from people sporadically but was only at a few hundred sol. I would need more for what I was planning.

“This way,” Polree said pointing back to the elevator.

“You have anything to sell?” Peter asked as we followed. 

“I was gonna sell you,” I said with a shrug.

“What?”

“I’m sure it will be to a nice home,” I assured. “I wouldn’t think of it like slavery. Just someone getting a pet spider person.”

“Ha!” Gwen laughed. “Do you really think they buy people?”

“Most definitely,” I said with a nod. “I haven’t seen any slaves, but its the universe. I seriously doubt people are free.”

“We aren’t selling Mr. Parker,” Jean said. The red head was laughing inwardly but trying to stay professional.

“Fine, you think they have a brothel booth?” I asked. “How much you think we could sell some alien poontang to these people for?”

“We aren’t selling our bodies,” Lyra said. 

“Not you, Ms. Grey. She is the oldest, obviously she has the most experience,” I said, giving her a side look. She blushed furiously. Her alter ego, Phoenix, had told me she never came in her life or had sex. Though in her early 20s she was still a virgin, which was easy to see as her Haki went wild. 

“How about we sell you instead,” Peter said. “I say we take a vote.” He raised his hand, as did everyone but Jean. 

“I’m so hurt,” I said to Anne, who was slowly coming out of her shell. She stuck her tongue out at me. “Polree, apparently I have to sell myself sexually. Where can I do that?”

“Uhhh-” She said but Anne cut in. 

“He’s joking,” she said with a little more conviction than was needed. 

“I’m actually not,” I said. “Is there a brothel in the bazaar?” 

“No,” Polree said. “That’s kept in one of the…outer towns.”

“Outer towns?” I asked as we all walked onto the lift that floated us down. Each of the others acted like country bumpkins as they shook or became fearful as the invisible forces descended us. Others doing the same below or above it felt rather safe. 

n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Yes, we are in the capital. As you noticed there are not very many other species here. Mainly because of permitting issues. But there is a brothel if you are interested in…”

“Having some alien fun?” I asked. I gave Anne a look and she narrowed her eyes at me. “Maybe later. So where is this pawn shop?”

“Ahead,” she admitted. “Getting off around the 10th floor she stepped out to an even busier level in the building. This time people were a lot louder. They traded items back and forth rather than with sols. “This floor is run by the Directive. They don’t believe so much in the sol. Though most systems accept the currency. You can trade goods for sols here…not so much people though.”

“Damn,” I said. “You’re safe Parker.”

“I freaking knew it,” he mumbled as we stepped into a shop. Very busy, there were aliens haggling with others at glass booths that had weird gadgets inside. A bug-man with green skin, two hands and six bug arms shooting out of his back was the first to greet us. 

“Hello, fine people,” he said in an excited tone as we walked up to his section of the counter. I thought I detected a Middle Eastern accent, but that was probably where my mind went when I pictured selling goods in strange places thanks to a lifetime of movies. “How may I help you this fine evening?” 

“Well we are new in town,” I said.

“I can tell,” he said. “Are you perhaps, Kree?”

That confirmed that Car-Ell at least wasn’t a complete idiot. Also that the Kree were known in this sector of the universe at least. Every little bit of information helped. “No, we are humans,” I said as I studied the strange items in the glass cases. “We are looking to sell some goods from our home planet. What are you willing to buy?”

“What do you want to sell?” The man’s spiritual energy said he would sell his mother to make a profit, then slit my throat to get his money back. I was going to have to be careful. 

“How much for the kid?” I asked, thumbing at Peter.

“What-”

“Hey-”

"Unfortunately, buying and selling of sentient species is frowned upon,” the man said. I nodded, simply confirming my thoughts. That told me that it least happened in the universe, which wasn’t a huge surprise. 

“How much for my shirt?” I asked. Doing my best to gauge what items were worth. This was a second hand store, so I wouldn’t be making a good profit no matter what I sold. 

He focused on me. I felt some electricity move in his eye as a thin light appeared between us. Like he was projecting words in the air that only he could read. He must have been using some technological identification tool as he looked me up and down. I immediately wanted whatever he was using, but the man frowned as he answered, “nothing.”

“Damn,” I said. “Anybody else got stuff?” I looked at the others in the group. They began looking through pockets. As they did, I discreetly opened a small Rift in my pocket. Opening a hand-sized access point to my sub-space I pulled out one of the many items of jewelry I had stolen since arriving at the bazaar. It was a fine silver lace necklace. As no one else provided anything, I showed it to the green alien. 

“Hmm, two sol,” the alien lied. He could go higher on it as his identification stared at the unit. I was still in the early phases though, I didn’t want to push. I threw him the necklace and it landed on the glass case. “Anything else?” He asked tiredly. He was starting to think he wouldn’t get anything interesting. 

“No, I have-” I put my hand back in my pocket and sensed as I grabbed the golden lasso from DC world. Coating my hand in Armament Haki to prevent myself from telling all my deepest secrets I tried to pull it out. As I tried to pull it out though, a notification popped up. 

“Fuck,” I mumbled. So much going on, I hadn’t had time to try it yet. It looked like Wonder Woman’s Golden Lasso was a little too unique. The only big thing I had put in the subspace was Cerebro II, but it wasn’t unique to Marvel since I had pulled it out in the future. I mentally thought through everything I had. Still a fair amount of jewels and precious items I had stolen as Rift in DC, I also had a couple hundred ARMIS suits future Gwen Stacy had given me. 

Since the suits were six years from the future they were better than my Gantz suits. Actually able to increase strength closer to 15 times, increased blunt and piercing damage mitigation, and a shrinking and enlarging function, they were top of the line. I needed to save these. Instead I pulled out one of my Gantz suits. 

The small lights projected from the aliens eye began to increase as he scanned the black suit I acted like I pulled from my pants. “Where the hell do you get this crap?” Peter mumbled, no one else did. The alien’s eyes widened as he stared at the suit. 

“Where did you get this?” He asked. 

“Around,” I said with a smile as he appeared to want it.

He stared at it further. “What does it do?” He asked. 

“You tell me, quite the eye you have,” I said. He frowned but looked up at me.

“What was your name, human?” 

“Weston, yours?” 

“Tarkain.” 

“Good to meet you Tarkain, let’s quit the playing and start the dealing, alright?” I asked with a smile. If sols were universal, I wanted a lot of them. Here’s hoping it wasn’t monopoly money everywhere else in the universe. 

—

I ended up with 5,981 sol. He ended up only giving me a few hundred for the Gantz suit. Once I began pulling my loot from DC world he became a lot more interested. Luckily none of it was unique to that world so I stacked it all on the table and made a nice profit for space bucks. One item I had taken from Lex Luthor’s safe had been especially valuable to the man. The alien admitted it was a rare natural stone and nearly gave me 1,500 sol for it. Either way we both felt like we got a good deal from our transactions. 

“Where did you pull all that from?” Peter asked again. 

“I’m a magician,” I said pulling a sol chip from behind his ear. “Buy yourself something nice. Daddy’s got full pockets.” I gave him a wink. 

“Oh god,” he said, shivering but pocketing the money. 

“Give me some,” Gwen said, moving to be in front of me. Sticking her hands out she tried to do a puppy dog look. 

“Hell no, you got the last bit stolen. Let’s get some shopping done, I’ll buy you all what you need,” I said.

“I thought you were his girlfriend, make him give us money,” Lyra said to Anne.

“Yeah, I want some perks,” the slowly warming up Rogue said. 

“Hold it,” I said, sticking my arms out and turning to face them. “This isn’t a shopping spree. We get what we need. First is clothes. Second is gear. Gwen and Peter, you need super suits. Jessica, what do you need?”

“I’m pretty invulnerable,” she said, flexing her arm. 

“True, you probably want more leather. Maybe some badass space biker get-up,” I said eyeing her black leather jacket. “Lyra?” 

“Think they have clothes that stretch?” She asked. “For my…thing?”

“Good idea, Jean?” I asked.

“I…don’t know,” she said, surprised to be included in my list. 

“Think on it. Anne, I’ve already got an idea for your get up. Polree, what do you know about the best…apparel people…dressers tailor guys around?” I asked, struggling to think of the space version of what we needed.

“The best?” She asked, annoyed that I had so much money. The Shi’ar woman had been eyeing the soldiers discreetly guarding us. I was sure she would try to get them to rob me but if they tried they would become very discreetly dead. I wasn’t sure what game the Majestor was playing, but we needed this opportunity. I planned to see it through. “Perhaps the second floor?” She said. 

“Lead the way, Tweety,” I said with a smile. Ready to spend it all on my future endeavors.