As I leave Channel 9 "On time" news, I check my phone: There's a text from the skeeve. Seems the LLC and business license are done, and the first few patent applications are filed. I'm officially in business.

I pick up a second phone number via an IP based phone provider under the business name and place a simple ad in the local paper for personal flight with my new number. It'll run for a week. Old fashioned, I know, but I'll need to actually touch people, so this must be done in person.

That done, I set about making a few potions of Invisibility by way of Minor Creation to make amber flasks, fill them with water via Create Water, and then infuse magic into them via the Quick Potion spell (which… turns water into a potion). Quick Potion is my spell, so it will last well past the normal duration, but it produces a normal potion, so the actual Invisibility will be temporary when drunk. That's the hope, anyway. The idea, of course, being to demo magic without permanently giving it to folks who don't pay up. If I cast anything directly, it sticks around until I cancel it. A potion, though, shouldn't benefit from my class features. Testing… ah, Summons.

I cast Summon Monster to get a Celestial Monkey. I  have it drink a potion of Invisibility, and set a ten minute timer.  As the base spell is one minute per level, and I haven't hit caster level ten yet (OK, I can with Spell Enhancer, but I don't use that on this), that should be enough.

I wait.

Waiting is boring. I prepare more demo potions while I wait. That's at least something.  A few each of Cure Serious Wounds, Remove Disease, Remove Blindness, Remove Deafness, Fly, and Neutralize Poison - all of which do what they say.  Also a few of Tongues, which lets a person speak and understand any language for a time. And more of Invisibility.

Eventually, the Invisibility goes away, before the timer runs out. Yay! I dismiss the monkey. My demo supplies are ready. I load them up in my Keyhome.

And then, of course, I need to wait. For my ad to run and the calls to start coming in, or for the military or intelligence services to contact me about the videos.  Whichever comes first.

So I entertain myself with keeping my Dedicated Wights busy. The Gate Archon is a good idea, after all. And there's a lot of useful little off the wall items; I'm sure I'll need to demonstrate some of those patents at some point.

About the time my familiar is finally done with her enchantments, I get an in-person visit from six people, all of which are in fine shape, all of which are at least fifty. Three folks in military dress uniforms with way too many stripes, stars, ribbons, and brass: One each of the navy, army, and air force. The other three are in very nice suits with dark sunglasses. They all have visible sidearms, except for one of the suits. X-Ray Vision tells me all of them have holdout pistols as well. And the army guy is also carrying two knives and two sets of brass knuckles.

Well, it's not like I'm unarmed, and it's not the kind of hardware that can hurt me regardless.

A closer look with X-Ray Vision gives me the badges. One of the suits is CIA, one is FBI, and the third is carrying no form of ID whatsoever, not even a wallet that might have civilian ID.

It's the man with no ID who speaks up first, his voice seems very practiced: "Greetings Mr. Carlson, are you having a good day?"

Well, that's refreshing, "I am, yes. From the looks of things, the reports from the check on the facility underneath us got some attention. Are you here for the demo of what I can do for you?"

The unnamed man continues,"We also saw the news reports on you, and yes. If you need more space…"

"Oh, we can just use the farm in Bungalow 13. It's big enough, quite private, and you didn't bring tanks.  We'll need to join hands; shall we go?" I hold out the hand with my familiar and they reluctantly take it and each others'. I mentally have my familiar use her at-will Limited Wish to duplicate Greater Teleport (it's a fifth level spell on the Summoner list, and is thus a valid choice), while I use Dimension Door to get myself and my polymorphed paintings downstairs. Between the two of us, we have exactly enough carrying capacity to do it in one trip.

Inside the farm, all six of the guests look around in wonder. The unidentified one speaks up, "How much does that cost?"

Oh, right: pricing, "I can do a write up - along with attached limitations of the tech - after the demo when you have a better idea of what each can do for you. I have a lot to show." Yes, I'm kicking the can down the road a little.

I open my Keyhome and pull out my potion bag… and I see a jaw drop. Oh, right. I've gotten used to this… "The storage is difficult to make, most the time it'll be better to use more traditional methods, but yes, I can make very mobile storage units, which you can model into garage space, warehouse space, mobile command centers… or, if you're me, an apartment.  But that all can easily be done more traditionally.  What you're interested in is in the bag. After all, the tech's no good to you if I am the only one who can use it. Who wants to showcase?"

The army guy raises his hand, "I drew the short straw. What do I get?"

"These are just temporary versions for the demonstration. Do you want to start with Flight, Invisibility, or healing wounds? I have all three prepped, and I expect you'll want to see all three before the day is done."

"I'm actually most curious about the dragon thing you did. That looks like FUN."

Eh, maybe, "That one integrates into your system deeply.  It's quick and painless going in, but turning it off… well, it sometimes leaves people in a coma. I can fix that after, but… it's not going to be pleasant. And you're not buying just yet, so…."

"I have a budget. How much?"

Eh, shoot for the moon, "One million US."

"Deal. Hit me."

Eh, I can probably trust these guys to pay up… and if not, I'm not joking about the coma thing. And there's no range, line of effect, or even targeting requirement: Nowhere for you to run or hide.

"OK. Hold a moment…" I reach over and put my hand on his cheek for the "full round" the ability requires, and spend a moment to refresh my use of the ability, "... done. You should be able to turn into nearly any creature you're familiar with, and I can do classes for some exotic and useful forms. A horse is about the upper limit on size, though."

The army man considers for a moment, and yes, he starts with a horse. Then an eagle, and he even tries out the dragon I showcased on the news. He tries flying in that form; I let him.  After a few minutes, he lands and - still in dragon form - speaks a nonsense string:

"Bravo Echo Charlie Zulu Oscar Alpha Tango Romeo November Epsilon Zulu Whiskey."

Listening in on his thoughts, I get it: Security phrase to make sure I didn't just replace him, that he wasn't an illusion, and so on. Clever. The others visibly relax, and the army man returns to his normal form.

The CIA guy speaks up, "Where did your uniform and weapons go?"

Good question, and I have a ready answer: "The effect merges them when the form isn't sufficiently compatible, and restores them after."

The CIA guy follows up, "So we could, say, load an agent up, have him turn into a bird, fly across the border, resume himan form, and unload everything?"

Nice way to get past customs, "Yes, but the equipment still weighs the agent down in bird form, so flying may not be possible. A common ground animal may be preferable for someone playing packmule, and I have some exotic forms I can teach that will let you do things like go under fences without tunneling."

The FBI guy takes his turn, "How much control do we get over the details of a form?"

"Of itself, not enough to copy someone specific, but it makes a solid baseline for handling the rest with a good stage makeup kit. So an agent could turn into a generic adult movie star easily, but if he wants to pass as Zena Folsom, he'll still need to spend some time in front of a mirror to get the details right. But I do have a lot more to show…"

They test potions of Fly, Invisibility, Tongues, and - thanks to the navy guy having an iron will and stabbing his own leg with the army guy's knife - the Cure Serious Wounds potions. After each test, there's another, unique passcode.  And they all have reasonably intelligent questions. I also walk them through the Green Man form. It's a human-shaped plant creature with good DR and Regeneration, both of which my version of Change Shape grants. In modern combat, it's close to the best: You can use modern weapons AND soak an amazing amount of punishment.

And all six swear I'll get the money for their shapeshifting. And… none of them strictly returned to their default forms… ah. Heh. They all wanted bugger 'guns' in their pants. Maybe I should charge more for that. Eh, oh well. An easy six million.

Towards the end, there's a particularly relevant question: "What kind of volume can you do, and how do you handle delivery?"

"I can make copies of the demonstration liquids, and those can be shipped normally, but those are fundamentally temporary. For anything permanent, I need to be directly involved. Most things require I spend a few seconds per agent to apply - the rest is prep work that doesn’t require the agent on site. Things like the portable storage take a lot more time, but can be passed around easily once it's done. And for technical reasons, anyone taking certain permanent effects needs the Shape-shifting first," the technical reason, of course, being that I want to have strings on you guys for anything with more abuse potential than permanent personal flight. "And if you have a specific need, come talk to me, I can probably find something to fill it."

I give each one a business card - no, I didn't get them printed up in advance, but Minor Creation can do paper and vegetable based ink, no problem,and when I do it, it's a swift action and lasts forever - and each one gives me theirs. I shuttle them out the same way they came in. The unidentified man's just has a number and an email address one one of the standard services.

…

And they're all mentally congratulating themselves on just how much bang for their buck they'll get off the shape-shifting. I should have charged more. Of course, if they decide I need to equip ten thousand soldiers and spies this way, then I have ten billion coming my way, and have ten thousand minds I can mess with at my leisure.  Not that I plan to.

…unless they stiff me.

I do a write up of a number of things: The Shapechange that costs me six seconds clocks in at a million US, but I also add in the invisibility potions (also a million each), permanent Invisibility at ten million (plus Shapechange), healing potions at a hundred grand each (it takes me more work than the Shapechange, but it's hard to abuse healing), and a few other buff spells, like Tongues at one million and Mythic Fly at two million (I'll sell the regular version to civilians for much less). Also a few things that require actual work, like the Keyhome and a Cape of the Monteback at a billion each (What? It takes me an hour to start a Dedicated Wight running) with a time delay and notes on production limits.

I send that, as well as an invoice, to each of them.

Easy money…