Super Sales on Super Heroes

Chapter 26 - Smith -

Looking up from his office terminal, he saw Andrea standing in the doorframe.

“How’d it go?” Felix turned his eyes back to the spreadsheet. Lily had sent him over the finances involved with purchasing out the entire street.

Only the two stores on each side of his own refused to even discuss the matter. Nor did they owe anything, giving them no leverage at all over them.

They really did open them up just to get us. Next we’ll need to find out if they had any involvement with this attack. If they did, I’ll send a herd of Andreas over there.

“They’re all with me again. I am… we are… thankful.”

“Hah. Good. I kinda figured they would rejoin you. I can’t imagine a reason why they’d stay.

“You all cleaned up, then? No death memories?”

“None. We kept all of our memories outside of the deaths. They… are not all pretty, but they are us.”

“I’ve heard that before. Or something to that effect. Uh… ‘the sum of what we are, our experience, is what we draw upon to make choices. It’s what we use to defend ourselves from doubt. We compare them to things we’ve done previously and judge it based on what the outcome had been then.’ Or so I remember it as.”

Felix closed the spreadsheet, pulled open Lily’s email, and gave her a quick reply. Sending it off, he locked his terminal and turned his attention on Andrea.

“They had many questions. Mostly about you.”

“Oh? That’s surprising. I thought they’d want to know more about what memories you’d strip from them.”

“No, we share memories, for we are but one person. It’s… complicated.”

“I suppose it is at that.”

Andrea came in from the doorway, walking his way slowly. She’d changed out of her normal corporate attire and was in a tight pair of jeans and a tank top.

It was very much not in her normal style.

Andrea had that girl next door thing down to a science. This was more like—

Lily.

“Well, is there anything else you need? Actually, before you answer that, I had a question. If an Other is wearing clothes, where do they go? And gear? Say, if they had a knife?”

Andrea came up to stand directly in front of his desk. Placing her hands on the wood, she leaned forward over it.

Felix kept his eyes fastened on her face, her different-colored eyes.

“Any fabric goes… somewhere. Everything else ends up on the ground. We can recall the fabric from wherever it goes so our Others are dressed.”

“Oh, how odd,” Felix said, leaning back in his chair, away from Andrea.

He was well aware of the women around him. Aware of their appeal. He wasn’t stupid to think that they wanted anything from him like an actual relationship, though. They all had their own moments where they teased or flirted, but that was where it would end and he knew it.

“We should build an Andrea armory. Where you can store all your Others’ gear. That way they can arm up and move quickly.”

Andrea tilted her head to one side, her hair cascading down to one side. Her ears twitched on the top of her head, swiveling backwards and then forwards towards him. Then her nose twitched as she made an audible sniffing noise.

“How many Others do you have, exactly?” Felix reached over and thumbed his terminal to life. He opened up an email to Felicia and started writing a quick letter about creating an armory for Andrea and her Others.

“Three hundred or so now.”

Felix entered that it’d need to hold three hundred sets of full tactical gear and sent the email.

Andrea sat down in his lap, her tail moving up to press to the side of his shoulder and neck.

“You’re not paying attention to me,” she growled under her breath.

Felix’s head snapped to her, his eyes catching yellow flickering irises.

Never seen that one before.

“With the return of our Death Others, we’ve realized a few things when we went over our memories. You keep me at a distance. You smell of desire and longing, yet do not touch. You watch me, roll your eyes over me.

“You even watch me at night sometimes.”

Felix’s eyebrows went up slowly, till it felt like they were in his damn hairline.

She wasn’t wrong, of course. He was only human, and he hadn’t gotten laid since before this whole thing had started.

Saying he had blue balls would have been an understatement.

Honesty would do the best for him here.

“What can I say? You’re right. It would be wrong, as you’re a slave and I’m your master.”

Andrea chortled and her eyes flashed again. Reaching up, she poked him in the forehead. “I’m not as smart as the others, but I know this. I will mate as I will mate, when I mate. No one will tell me otherwise.

“You are the alpha. I can accept sharing you with others, but I cannot accept you saying no.”

Andrea patted him on the chest and then got up off his lap. “I’m going to call all my Others in tonight. I’ll let Miu and Ioana know about the gap.”

Leaving his office by going into his attached bedroom, she disappeared without another word.

“Okay then… I’ll just… finish up here and go to bed. I guess.” Felix scratched at his cheek. There was a certain amount of excitement in his head. And his other head.

He was only human, after all.

At that moment, his phone went off.

Clicking his teeth shut, he looked at the display.

The fact that the name came up at all on the display was simple pride on their part.

“Agent Smith,” Felix muttered.

Hitting the accept button, Felix pulled the phone up to his ear.

“Agent Smith,” Felix said again, now for the benefit of his caller.

“Mr. Campbell, I’m so glad to have gotten a hold of you.”

“I don’t remember giving you this number.”

“You didn’t, but that’s okay. I heard you had some guests earlier today.”

Felix felt the hairs on his neck stand up on end. Was Smith involved in this?

“We did. They were escorted off the premises.”

“Glad to hear it, glad to hear it. Unrelated, there was a real problem with the emergency circuits today. Apparently, a huge number of emergency calls and emails didn’t get through today.”

“Uh-huh, I imagine. A real shame. I hope no one had a problem with the lack of emergency services.”

“No, no. The problem was a very small area, apparently. About a street long.”

“I see. So, other than local news, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Oh, nothing really. Just wondering if you’d thought on my offer.”

“Not really. I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t thought of you since you left.”

“For shame. Well, I’ll be by next week to see how things are going. Check on your slaves. Collect. You know, government job and all.”

“Goodie.”

“With that settled, I’ll see you then. Good evening.”

The click of the agent hanging up was all Felix heard.

Setting his phone down, Felix contemplated the situation.

Then his door opened, and Others began marching by.

They were all dressed in street clothes, most of them wearing jeans and a t-shirt, with very little diversity.

Each and every one of them made eye contact with him as they went by, though. Their cheeks turning a pale red and their eyes flashing yellow at the center as he met their eyes.

They all filed into his bedroom, a never-ending train of them.

The last Andrea entered the office, turned, closed the door, locked it, and then entered the bedroom. Watching her go, he waited for her to vanish from sight, and then he opened an email to Lily.

He filled her in on everything that had just happened with Agent Smith, and his questions and concerns, then sent it.

If anyone could figure out what was going on, it’d be Lily.

Getting up, he wandered over to his bedroom as casually as he could make himself be.

The door was already open and inside was a trio of Andreas, waiting for him.

This’ll be fun.

I think.

A week passed in the blink of an eye.

Felix spent most of that time either making gold, or putting his people back to rights.

They’d only lost a few people in that final push.

Missing limbs, blinded, mental problems, everything was swept away under an onslaught of spent points.

He was also well aware of what that did for his reputation. Everyone began treating him as something much greater than a mere employer.

They all treated him like he was their personal superhero. That nothing was too great for Felix. That if for whatever reason something failed, Felix would be there to fix it.

Personally, Felix ignored it. He had other things to worry about.

Like the fact that their assets had been frozen and they couldn’t access anything electronically that was directly tied into Legion.

That was a pretty big worry right now. They’d only been tied up for two days, but it was already enough to be a problem.

Lily had her entire team jumping through hoops to get it all figured out and sorted, but for the most part it seemed as if it was a government hold.

Which really only left Agent Smith.

No one else knew them or had even tried to put any pressure on them from a government position.

“Now I don’t feel so bad about sending Wraith after them,” Felix said, leaning back in the chair in front of his personal computer.

Wraith, the incorporeal shadow hero they’d captured, had signed on as an indentured servant. It was that or get his, her, whatever, soul ripped out and stuffed into the sausage machine.

Since Wraith had never revealed their form, Felix wasn’t even sure how to address them. Not that he cared how to address them. They were Wraith. That was all that mattered at the moment.

And at that moment, they were infiltrating Agent Smith’s organization and doing a bit of intel gathering.

The speedy guy and Tanker had both declined his generous offer. For some reason, they had seemed to think he wasn’t going to go through with killing them.

Felix wasn’t your average cliché villain, though. He did what he said he would do.

Tanker had been turned into many, many sausages. Most of the enemy captured prisoners had been in fact dumped into the machine after having their soul stripped, just like Tanker.

After they’d all been thoroughly interrogated, of course. Any who were willing to sign a contract were given a chance and were being put through their paces.

“Why would you?” asked Victoria. She rarely left his side now. After Miu had attached Victoria to him, Miu had taken a back seat and was working with her team more frequently.

“Dunno. Seems rude to do that to someone who up to this point has genuinely only been annoying rather than a problem.” Felix interlaced his fingers behind his head. “Whatever. Wraith will figure out what they can and report back. I think Lily said she was expecting something today or tomorrow.”

“She did!” Andrea chirped happily at his side. She tapped at her tablet and then nodded her head. “She has another meeting tomorrow with you.”

Victoria took a number of steps to one side, and then paced back the other way. Her sword clicked as she turned and started back the other way.

“Stop pacing.”

“Sorry. I’m not used to this yet. I was just on a security team a bit ago, and now I’m protecting you.”

“It’s been a week already.”

“And? Still not used to it.”

“Whatever. Take a seat or Lily is going to be annoyed. Miu would tell you to post up near the door. Probably.”

“She would,” Andrea confirmed. Her eyes peered at him for a second over the top of her tablet.

She’d changed since they started actually started sleeping with each other.

She was her normal and chipper self; she touched him casually a little more often, but nothing obvious.

Then there were times where she touched him when they were alone somewhere, times when her touch was far more intimate.

The door opened and Lily entered. She was dressed in a dark black jacket, white blouse, and dark black pencil skirt. Her hair was tied back in her professional style, though most surprising was that she was wearing glasses.

“Agent Smith should be arriving in fifteen minutes.” Lily crossed the distance to where he sat at the conference table and dropped into the chair next to him at his left side. “Andie, Vicky.”

Both women nodded their head to Lily.

Felix quirked a brow, smiling at Lily.

Reaching up, she adjusted her hair with a touch and then looked down at herself. Looking back up to him, she frowned. “What? You’re looking at me in a strange way.

“And not in the normal, stripping me of my clothes and devouring me way.”

Felix snorted and reached out. He pushed her glasses up higher on the bridge of her nose. “Didn’t realize you had a prescription.

“And how would you know what I do to you in my mind while looking at you?”

Lily pressed her lips together into a line. “Yes, I’m a bit nearsighted. I ran out of contacts and forgot to order more.”

“Wear the glasses more often. Your eyes are lovely, it brings the focus on them.”

Lily smiled at him, then looked to Andrea over his shoulder. “He’s been much more of a smooth talker since you tamed him.”

Andrea chuckled, not arguing the point.

Felix wasn’t quite sure how he felt about the fact that everyone knew Andrea and he were sleeping together.

“Anyways. My eyes aren’t the topic, though thank you for the compliment. Agent Smith is definitely the reason we’re all tied up financially. I also found out what’s going on with that slave tax bologna.”

“Bologna?”

“Complete bologna. Yes, there will be a tax, but it isn’t being put into place for a while yet. They’re still going through the assessment faze. He’s trying to shake us down.

“The freeze on our assets is probably part of a toolset to help them determine what we should be paying when the tax goes live.

“Best I can tell, it’ll be repealed tonight.”

“Huh. Good work. How’d you find all this out?”

“Wraith and our police informant. Doesn’t hurt that we kept all that petty cash on hand. I’ve been using it to grease wheels. We’ll need more.”

“You know what, Lily? You’re fantastic. I cannot imagine Legion without you.”

“You still owe me, remember? Now you owe me two nice things. Spoil me, already.”

“Fine, whatever. Two favors of your choosing. Get it put down in a meeting and we’ll take care of it. No limit, except anything along the lines of ‘free me,’ cause that ain’t going to happen. Sorry, too valuable.”

Lily lifted up a hand with one finger held up. Her shoulders were set and her body had gone rigid. “Anything?”

“Well, anything within reason. But yeah, I can promise to be receptive to whatever you ask.”

“I’ll hold you to that. We can talk after this meeting. I do have a favor already in mind. I’ve been working on getting it set up, one of the reasons I didn’t bother you about it yet. I finally got most of it taken care of.”

Felix was curious now. He really didn’t know much about Lily. She kept to herself when it came to her past and about herself in general.

“You damn tease. That’s all you’re going to say, isn’t it?”

Lily’s tension melted away in a heartbeat, replaced with the vibrant soul-stealing monster.

“Of course. I have to keep you coming back for more. Ever since you started playing bedroom games with your wolf over there, you don’t pay me as much attention.”

Andrea started giggling at that. “Bedroom games?”

“There’s lots of games. We’re having lunch tomorrow, aren’t we?”

“Uh-huh. You promised me a different type of pancake. Creepies or something.”

“Crepes, but yes. Not quite pancakes, but similar enough.

“We’ll talk about games then. We haven’t talked recently. I think our little leader here has been trying to keep you away from me.”

“No. Just busy. We were setting up the Other armory.”

Felix sighed and looked to Victoria as the two kept chatting.

“As you can see, I’m a passenger most of the time. Just along for the ride.”

The swordswoman shrugged her shoulders. “Most of us kinda assumed you were already sleeping with Lily and Andrea. There’s even a pool going as to how big you’re going to make your harem and who’s next.”

“A pool? Seriously?”

“It’s not that surprising. People bet on anything. And you do kinda own everyone.”

“Huh. So, who’s in the lead in the pool right now? Maybe I can swing it in my favor with a rumor and split the payout with the person.”

“Ah… that is…” she started.

“What, Kit? Ioana? I mean, seriously. Ioana isn’t my type, and she’s with Felicia. Kit… don’t get me wrong, she’s pretty, but she’s a touch on the girl scout side for what I do for that to work.”

“Right now, it’s me. I spend the most time with you among anyone in your senior leadership circle. I’m… I’m at the top of the pool.”

“That’s… unexpected. I mean, you’re definitely in my strike zone, but we just met a week ago.”

Felix shook his head. He never quite understood how people perceived relationships in that fashion.

He tried to deal with everything from a black-and-white perspective. Relationships were very much not black or white.

“—then I gagged and almost threw up,” Andrea said sadly.

“You need to practice first.” Lily shifted in her chair and leaned towards Andrea.

Felix sat up straight and jumped into their conversation.

“Yeah, no. That conversation is over. Let’s get ready for Smith,” Felix said quickly, slapping his palms to the table.

It was one thing for everyone to know he was sleeping with Andrea. It was altogether too much for him when they discussed their sex life aloud as if it were polite dinner conversation.

He turned a full glare on Andrea, who only smiled at him. She lifted her tablet up in front of her face, only covering her nose and mouth, her eyes watching him.

“Seriously, is there anything I need to know?”

Lily shook her head and then lifted her hands up in surrender. “Realistically, there’s not much more we can do but wait to talk to him. We can’t do anything more till then.”

Andrea tapped her tablet and Lily’s chimed in response.

Lily picked her tablet up, tapped at it, then laughed.

Oh my God, they’re sending messages about it since I told them to stop talking.