Super Sales on Super Heroes

Chapter 12 - Building Upward -

Felix stared at his points screen and then poked at it with an angry grunt. Bending his will to it, he tried to force it to reorganize itself for him.

He didn’t want to see every damn name. It felt like an endless list. He wanted it organized by power type under who it would be rolled up to. He wanted it organized like a corporation.

He knew those. Corporations made sense. Org charts kept everyone in line. It was a civilian military system.

Trying his damnedest to get his way, he used the example of the Hernandez brothers rolling up to Ioana because their power sets were similar. They’d end reporting to her as if she were their supervisor.

With over a hundred additional people, it was going to take some time to get it all sorted out.

Right now, they had some time. Felix had spent his time buying up the undocumented masses cheaply. The rest of those participating in the auction were now fighting over the high-value known individuals.

Felix couldn’t deny his interest, but not at those prices. Instead, he got to work.

He had to check his terminal a few times to confirm his thoughts against his notes, but eventually he got it to a view he was happy with.

He left Eva out because he wasn’t sure where her powers would fit best.

Received

Spent

Remaining

Daily Allotment

150

0

150

Miu Miki

1,000

200

800

—Direct reports

12,875

0

12,875

Ioana Iliescu

1,100

220

880

—Direct reports

24,720

0

24,720

Kit Carrington

2,250

2,250

0

—Direct reports

20,600

0

20,600

Lilian Lux

2,600

2,600

0

—Direct reports

12,360

0

12,360

Andrea Elex

1,400

1,400

0

Felicia Fay

1,550

310

1,240

—Direct reports

13,905

0

13,905

Eva Adelpha

1,600

2,000

-400

+ Loyalty Bonus

1,610

0

1,610

DAILY TOTAL

97,720

8,980

88,740

“Weeeell. Ending total right now is just shy of one hundred thousand points. I’d say our money troubles are well and truly over. We’ll need to be careful, though, and not overdo it and make ourselves too rich. That’d just draw attention we don’t need.

“I say we go with the original plan. Use the pawn shop as a front to launder the points through into money,” Felix said, closing the window.

“But I do your laundry,” Andrea said sleepily from her corner.

“That you do. Hey, I wanted to ask you about that. I appreciate you doing that for me, I wasn’t expecting it, but it feels like everything is off by a week.”

“I don’t understand?” Andrea asked, rolling over, putting her back to him and curling back into a napping position.

“The clothes you dropped off yesterday were from two weeks ago. It’s… weird. It’s like there’s a delay.”

Andrea started to snore softly, leaving Felix’s question unanswered.

Felix harrumphed and looked to the screen. The amounts were getting ridiculous.

Pointless. I can turn Eva into a wrecking ball. Or the boy into a second Lily. Bidding on an end result is pointless for me. I can take the untrained and bring them up.

Trainer of newbs.

Felix smirked at his own thoughts and waited for the whole thing to end.

Looking at the young girl next to him, Felix kept himself from sighing. Technically, he’d told Kit she could do this. He had only himself to be upset at.

The rest of them were being shipped in busses tomorrow morning, since it was already late in the day by the time they’d gotten out of the auction.

No-Name had set it up for him and seemed rather pleased with himself. Felix didn’t care. He imagined the man would get a cut of Felix’s purchases, and that was fine with him.

It was a relationship they both benefited from.

“You bought my brother? You swear?” she asked again for the tenth time.

“If she asks me the same question again, I want you to put her to sleep, Kit,” Felix said, ignoring her.

“Eva, he bought your brother,” Kit said, turning her head to face the young girl. “Please don’t make me put you to sleep. I won’t have a choice in the matter. Remember what I said about his power and your power? It doesn’t exist right now.”

Eva shuddered, looking at Felix out of the corner of her eye. “And you’re Augur?”

Kit nodded from the front seat.

“And you’re Mab,” Eva said, turning her head to face the rearview mirror.

Lily glanced up at the girl and then flashed her sparkling white teeth at her. “I am.”

“And you’re Myriad.” Eva’s finger pointed to Andrea, sitting next to her.

“Yep!” Andrea happily said, smiling at her from ear to ear. “I haven’t killed anyone in a long time, and I don’t have to anymore. Felix buys me all the pancake batter I want, and gives me fun things to do, and he lets me sleep in, and I get to build a basement and—” She paused to suck in a deep breath. “He smells awesome. When we get home, you’ll see.”

Andrea leaned in close to Eva and whispered conspiratorially, except her voice carried easily to everyone in the car.

“If you want something from him, all you have to do is phrase it in a way that will benefit him, and how he can’t live without it. Works every time. Watch.”

Andrea sat up and gave Felix a broad smile. “Felix?”

He shook his head looking at Andrea, laughing. “Yes?”

“He heard you,” Eva whispered at Andrea, trying to stop her.

“Can one of my Others sleep in your room tonight? I think it would be good for you to have someone watching over you. Just in case.

“Your life is important and you should have a bodyguard.”

Felix blinked at that and his smile faltered.

His inner paranoia kicked up a notch, and he found himself wondering what could happen at night.

It’s not a bad idea. At all. I could probably use a bodyguard. Not to mention if it is one of Andrea’s Others, it wouldn’t really matter.

“Huh. Sure. That’s not a bad idea, actually.” Felix felt better in agreeing to that. It’d be odd at first, he was sure, but it’d help.

“See?” Andrea whispered to Eva, as loud as she was before. “Now I get to smell him all night long. I just have to make my Other me, and I get it all for nothing.”

“Fuck, it worked,” Lily muttered from the driver’s seat.

“Sure as shit did,” Kit agreed quietly.

“Now wait a—”

Felix was slammed into the door. All around him, the world became as bright as the sun. A fiery red sun.

Time passed in an angry roar and pulse of light.

Eventually, it faded and he found he could think again.

He felt his chest pulling heavily at the seatbelt as his body tried to slide to the car’s roof.

“What… what happened?” Felix asked groggily.

“Someone tried to blow up the car. I think we got hit by a grenade, maybe,” Kit said gruffly.

“Well fuck them. I’ll tear their souls out,” Lily hissed.

Looking around, he realized they were upside down.

He was, at least. So was Eva.

Kit, Lily, and Andrea had already undone their seatbelts and were leaning down, peering out the windows.

Andrea reached up and unclipped his seatbelt, and then Eva’s without turning her head away.

“I count thirty,” Andrea said. All trace of the bubbly, bouncy Beastkin was gone.

“Forty. Ten in the building above us,” Kit corrected.

“One second.” Felix grunted as he righted himself, slithering down to sit on the interior of the car’s roof.

Grunting, he made himself as comfortable as he could.

Pulling up Lily’s power window, he confirmed the upgrade without a thought.

Then, in an afterthought, he called up Lily’s power draw and tried to force it to negative one hundred percent.

To pump more power into her instead of drawing it out.

A second later, and he saw the hash line jump to where he wanted it.

Snorting, he shook his head, then repeated the process for Andrea, Eva, and Kit.

“Right. I reversed the… flow… I guess. You’re now all at twice your original strength. Lily, I also upgraded your power as you requested.

“Andrea, you’re a PMC leader, what’s the play?” Felix asked.

The Beastkin known as Myriad turned her head and stared at him.

It was strange. Clearly, she was Andrea, but not Andrea at the same time.

“You would defer to me?” she asked him.

“I’m not an idiot. I have no military experience. Besides, at this point, I think you could probably make about four hundred of your Others and drown them out by yourself if you wanted.”

Andrea’s mouth turned up at one side. “If I do that, I’ll be defenseless and spent. I normally take hours to summon my Others and get them ready. This’ll hurt. Would you carry me? Even though I’ll slow you down?”

“I suppose I could? But wouldn’t it be easier to have one of your Others carry you?” Felix asked.

Andrea flashed him a sharp-toothed grin. “Can’t blame a girl for trying.”

Andrea looked to Lily and Kit.

“Mab, run defense on Felix. We’re fucked if he goes down. Augur, I need you to tell me info on positions, locations, and plans of the enemy. Then update my Others with new info as it comes in.”

Both supers nodded their heads.

Lily lifted a hand and then lowered it again. In front of her body, a rapid series of runes spread out in ever-increasing speed.

Her pretty face became an evil smile as the runes doubled, then quadrupled faster than he could keep up with.

They spread throughout the vehicle and wrapped up around it in a bubble. Then it made a deep thrumming noise and turned from blue to yellow.

“Done,” Lily said, looking to Andrea.

“All forty were sent by one person. They know only the barest details. I think it’s our friend from the restaurant, but I can’t tell,” Kit said. “Most have automatic weapons, a few have sniper rifles. They’re determined to wait and see what happens. Expect no mercy.”

Andrea wrinkled her nose and lifted a hand to play with one of her ears.

“Right. When this is over, I’ll need a buffet of food. Meat, preferably. And lots of spoiling. Looking at you, Felix,” Andrea said. Then she sighed and opened the door. “Stay with Felix, Eva.”

Andrea’s Others began sprinting out of Andrea Prime in droves. She clutched the door as gunfire started to open up all around them. It struck the car, asphalt, everything.

Thankfully, the car was beyond armored, so it had no effect.

Screams and moans were heard as the Others clearly began dying.

Andrea crumpled, the Others still pouring out of her.

“Damnit, Eva, pull her over here. Kit, let’s get the hell out of here. Which way?” Felix asked. Reaching across Eva, he pulled Andrea into his lap.

The Others had to take a few stumbling steps to get free of the car now, but they kept moving.

“West. There’s an alley we can get into and move from there.”

“Lily, you’re on rear watch. Kit, you’re on point. I trust both of you to do what you feel is best. Don’t ask for permission, executive decisions only.”

Felix’s door was already westward facing. Popping open the door, he took a peek outside. Andreas were littering the street and the surrounding area. So was the enemy now, though. Quite a few were engaged in hand-to-hand combat. One Andrea had somehow gotten a hold of a rifle and was keeping the snipers pinned down.

“Eva, help me get Andrea on my back. Lily, how strong is your Glenda impersonation?” Felix grabbed Andrea by a shoulder and started levering her onto his back.

Eva started to help him, pushing the Beastkin up onto him.

Up in the front seat, Kit and Lily opened Kit’s door and made ready.

“With that power amp you gave me… probably a tank shell, at most. Though sustained fire will be an issue, too.”

“Kit, lead on,” Felix said, taking a hold of Andrea’s legs. “Hold on, Andrea.”

The Beastkin woman nodded her head against his shoulder.

“Go,” Kit commanded.

The group of five stormed out from the safety of the car, sprinting for the alley Kit had mentioned.

Bullets sprayed over the bubble they were in, spitting up chunks of the pavement.

What took seconds felt as if it were a year, finally getting into the cover the alley provided.

Kit kept out in front at a light jog, Felix and Eva a few steps behind her.

Above them, the maze of fire escapes twisted and turned. Kit had them turning at random locations down towards directions he hadn’t considered.

There’s either people following us, or people ahead of us.

It was the only logical conclusion.

“No restrictions if we run across an enemy. Kill ‘em and move on,” Felix huffed, balancing Andrea on his back.

“Understood,” Lily said darkly from behind him.

“I can’t shake ‘em,” Kit admitted in front of them. “They’re ahead of us and keep moving to intercept. The ones behind us are long gone, but… I can’t shake these.”

“Fine. Give us a good place to fight from, then. Let’s stop, peek into their heads, and figure out the place they don’t want us to go,” Felix said, pulling up short.

Kit’s head swung to the right, looking at a wall. There was a high-pitched scream in the distance.

“They’re supers. One down. Not dead, but… probably never to, well, never anything now.

“They don’t want us getting into an open space. I think their team is primarily an ‘up close and personal’ one. Though their telepath is strong enough to keep me from turning anyone else into a carrot.”

“Okay, that works. Which way, then? Get us an open space and we’ll deal as best as we can. Preferably somewhere the three of us can hole up while you two deal with them.”

“Felix, I can’t really fight that well. I’m a telepath. Telekinesis isn’t in my power set.” Kit turned back the way they had come and led them off down the twisting alley.

“Huh. Well, it’s a sister power to yours. So why not—”

Felix tried to focus on Kit’s power set, adding telekinesis directly to it.

Second Power(Unlock): Directed Telekinesis

Required Primary Power: 90 (Met)

Required Intelligence: 80 (Unmet)

Upgrade?(30,000)

“Goddammit.” Felix fumbled with his screen and smashed two points of intelligence into Kit, getting her up to eighty.

The second window flashed green as her Intelligence now met the requirement.

Kit slid to a halt in a dead-end corner of the alley. It was an expanded circle that looked like it had once been a park.

“Hold onto your tits, Kit, you’re getting a second power.” Felix stabbed the upgrade button.

As it activated, he called up his character screen for her to check the result.

Name:

Kit Carrington

Power: Directed Telepathy

Alias: Augur

Secondary Power: Directed Telekinesis

Physical Status:

Healthy

Mental Status:

None

Positive Statuses:

None

Negative Statuses:

None

Strength:

51

Upgrade?(510)

Dexterity:

54

Upgrade?(540)

Agility:

48

Upgrade?(480)

Stamina:

46

Upgrade?(460)

Wisdom:

72

Upgrade?(720)

Intelligence:

80

Upgrade?(780)

Luck:

41

Upgrade?(410)

Primary Power:

91

Upgrade?(9,100)

Secondary Power:

45

Upgrade?(4,500)

“Congratulations, it worked. I’m betting it works the same way as your telepathy,” Felix said. Turning his head around to inspect the area, he found a dumpster.

Kit had staggered to one side, her hands going to her knees.

Trotting over to the dumpster, he pushed it open. Glancing inside, he found trash bags and nothing that looked like it’d hurt. Then he dumped Andrea in. “Sorry, Andrea. I’ll make it up to you later. You’ll be safe in there.”

Andrea moaned as she hit the bags and lay there, limp and unmoving. “Eva, get your ass inside.” Felix gestured at the teenager.

“What? I’m not getting in there.” There was enough room for the two of them, but not if he tried to get in too.

“Get in. Now.”

Eva’s lower lip jutted out but she clambered in, unwilling to defy her master.

Once she was in, he lowered the lid into place and then got behind it.

“If I can help, I will; I’m no fighter, though.” Felix wedged himself against the wall and tried to keep himself hidden.

Lily clapped her hands together and then shook them out. The bubble around the area disappeared in a flash.

Standing up, Kit hesitantly motioned to a trashcan and it zipped through the air to crash into a wall.

All around the two women, runes formed in thin air. They looped and wrapped around them faster than he could believe possible.

Then they tightened together and flashed.

Holding her right hand to her side, Lily conjured lightning into existence.

Kit hastily began arranging objects around the area. Moving them into specific positions that she could call on from any direction to attack with.

“I want a third power after this,” Lily said.

“I just upgraded you. Why should I give you a third? Giving Kit a second one was expensive.”

“Because if you do, I’ll make sure you never regret it. You’ll have a devoted soul magician till you die.

“I’ll even bring your soul back from the grave if I can, just so I can serve you longer.

“I know what I want already, too.”

Kit shook her head, perhaps still feeling a touch unsteady. “It hurts. It was like someone punched a hole through my brain.”

“We’ll discuss it after. Kill them, eat their souls, whatever.”

“They’re here.”

Several seconds after Kit said that, a group of four men and women stepped into the circle.

They were all dressed alike in black spandex and black hoods. Their bodies were hard to gauge other than male or female.

Cosplay for the gimp.

One of the four dropped an unmoving fifth member to the ground to one side.

“Where’s your master?” the one in the lead said. “We want—”

A rock carved into a block the size of a wheel flew in from the side. It bulldozed into one of the women’s midsection and smashed her to a wall.

There was a sickening pop as she screamed and fell over to the ground.

“My back! I can’t feel my damn legs!” she screamed.

At the same time the group started to react, a lightning bolt slammed down from the sky into the middle of them, sending them flying in every direction.

One of the remaining three pressed their hands to their head and squealed, dropping to their knees and then lying still.

The final two charged in. The first was a blur of speed, dashing straight at Lily.

He zipped around her in a circle, trying to catch her unaware. Lily watched him warily for a few seconds and her runic shield flashed as the man attacked her repeatedly.

“Too fast for you to use those runes, princess?”

Lily gave him a smile.

A band of runes sprang into existence in front of the speedster and wrapped around him.

He came to an abrupt halt, and the sound of his ribs breaking and his breath whooshing out was audible.

“My dear master upgraded me,” Lily said, wrapping her hand around the man’s skull. “I wonder what you taste like. I bet it’s awful.”

A purple haze burned the area around her, hiding everything from view.

The man started to scream.

Kit stood staring the last woman down. Unmoving, they looked as if they were two predators determined to have the other blink first.

“Where’s your helmet, Augur?” said the woman.

“Don’t need it.”

“You sure?”

Kit chuckled and then tilted her head to one side.

“Very. This has been a rewarding experience. I haven’t tested myself like this in ever. Shall I stop toying with you?”

“Funny. You were never that stro—” The woman choked on whatever she was going to say, falling to her knees.

Blood oozed from her nose and ears, her eyes rolling up into her head. Both of her hands were pressed to her temples, her teeth clenched together.

“Don’t explode her head,” Felix said loudly. “Her body will foul up if you do that. If you’re willing to keep her alive, we can see about enslaving her. If not, at least preserve the body so we can put her in the wood chipper.”

Kit snarled something between her teeth, then sighed. The woman collapsed to the ground at that moment.

“Fine. See if she’ll take the slave status. Make her mine. I know her. She was always an uppity bitch who took every opportunity to put me down a peg. Or hurt me.”

“She was a hero?” Felix asked, easing out from behind the dumpster.

“Yeah. They all were,” Kit said. Sighing, she put her hands on her hips.

Lily’s mist faded away and she dropped the speedster’s living, souless husk to the ground.

Lifting a delicate foot, she kicked the man’s jaw. “They made me ditch my heels. They were expensive.”

“I’ll buy you new ones.” Felix lifted the dumpster cover and helped Eva out.

“Three of these we can interrogate for answers. Maybe get them to accept a slave oath willingly. That or go into the sausage machine.

“The fourth one over there is the carrot I made. And I think this speedster here is an empty juice box,” Kit explained to no one’s asked question.

“You alright, Kit?” Felix asked. He reached into the dumpster and started pulling Andrea out.

“My head hurts. It’s like it opened into something else. I’m not… quite aware of it entirely yet.”

Felix could only imagine.

Andrea limply clung to him as he wrapped his arms around her. Slowly and carefully, he turned around and got her up onto his back again. “There we go.”

Eva looked at them and then at the bodies. Her eye twitched as the woman with the broken back started screaming again.

“Kit, put that one to sleep, please? Nothing permanent. After that, give Miu a call to get her down here with a truck.”

The screaming cut off abruptly.

“Lily, can you start gathering up our… err… loot, I guess? Kit can probably float them wherever we need them after that.”

“Uhm, if they attacked you here, wouldn’t they attack your base, too?” Eva asked.

Felix blinked, shocked. Then he pulled up his character screen and slid Miu and Ioana upwards on their power draw. All the way up to a three hundred percent boosted level. Pushing them to a level that they’d probably never reach in their lifetimes.

If Eva was right, they’d need it. If they were alive.

If Eva was wrong, then he’d be out nothing.