Super Sales on Super Heroes

Chapter 5 - Slow Joe -

“Alright,” Felix said finally, looking over to the three women standing in the doorway. “I’m going to head out to a pawn shop and sell this.”

Wagging the silver bar at the women, he gave them a smile.

“Why a pawn shop?” Ioana asked.

“Because they’re less likely to ask questions. After that, I’ll need to pick up some more lead bars. This one I got from an auction sale for a scuba school. I figure I can hit another one for more weights. That or fishing supplies. They use weights, right?”

“What if they’re not pure lead?” Miu asked quietly.

“Then it might cost a few extra points, or fewer. So long as most of it is there, it should be relatively the same. Besides, I can check it now before I buy it. Thanks to Kit.”

Felix wormed his way between the three of them and grabbed his uncle’s keys.

He wasn’t going to be using his car anytime soon since it still had groceries in it.

Sliding the door open, he hopped in and jammed the keys into the ignition. As the garage door started to open, Miu opened the passenger door and got in next to him.

“I will accompany you,” she said. Reaching for his hand, she snagged the silver bar from him and then buckled her seatbelt.

“Alright,” Felix said uneasily. A single glance over his shoulder to confirm it was clear, and he backed them out of the garage quickly.

He really only knew of one pawn shop. It would have probably been a good idea to do some research and figure out the best one to go to.

Felix couldn’t help himself, though. He was excited.

An income that couldn’t be taxed, written off through cash, and done on a daily level.

No, he was beyond excited.

Miu said nothing the entire ride over. She quietly flipped the bar over and over in her hands as she sat there.

She’d apparently gotten a hold of one of his hoodies and looked very similar to Kit in her style of dress.

As her name would imply, she was clearly of an Asian heritage. He’d have guessed Japanese, but he was truly awful at figuring out people’s ethnicity. That and it didn’t matter that much to him.

In a world filled with Elves, Dwarves, Beastkin, and every other fairytale creature under the sun, race didn’t matter that much.

She was a touch prettier than Kit, though her face held no emotion. She seemed more akin to a doll at times.

Felix shook himself from his thoughts as he pulled into a parking spot in front of the pawn shop.

“May I handle the sale?” Miu asked, patting the silver against her palm.

Felix looked at her and then nodded once. “Sure. You might be able to get more than me anyways. Being pretty helps.

“Sell it, don’t pawn it. I was hoping to get at least eighty percent of the melt value for silver.”

Miu nodded her head and then got out of the car, walking straight for the front door. Felix locked the car and fell in behind her.

Right up until she headed for the sales counter.

Felix turned off to one side to look around.

All around him were things that the pawn shop had purchased and was reselling. Jewelry, instruments, weapons, anything and everything.

And if I were the owner of this shop, I could upgrade and resell at an even higher price.

Screw transmutation. Pawn shop! We’ll do this alchemist thing for a bit, buy a pawn shop, then really get the money rolling in.

Felix grinned, leaning into a display case and doing hypothetical point checks on watches, rings, necklaces, earrings.

It was all well within his power to turn these low-grade metal pieces into much more expensive ones. Even if he only did everything in silver. Or converted a low-value gold into a higher-value gold.

Or diamonds.

Technically, diamonds would be easier than gold, since diamonds are more common. Hah. This is it.

Or if he got really lucky, a damaged antique.

Fixing something that had a low material value but a high intrinsic value.

That’s the real money.

“I got you ninety percent.” Miu sidled up next to him. “Going to buy us jewelry?”

“No. Besides, this is all rather cheap. But this trip did give me an idea. A big one, in fact.” He turned and exited the pawn shop quickly, getting back into the car. It wasn’t until they were both seated and the car had been fired up that he continued.

“We’re going to buy a pawn shop. Or make one. We’ll pay a bit more than others to purchase items to draw customers in. Then I modify, fix, or whatever, then we sell it at a higher return. It’s perfect.”

Miu digested that, turning her head to one side. Black hair as dark as night covered her deep brown eyes. “Yes. I think that would be a good direction. Though I do not think you have the money for this, no?”

“No. Not yet. But you have to spend it to make it. And that,” Felix said, pointing to the money in Miu’s hand, “is the start. Off to buy some lead. Then I have to get ready for work tomorrow. If I can get myself fired, they have to give me a paycheck immediately. I think I have something like four weeks of vacation accrued and several weeks of sick time. By law, they have to pay it out to me as it was earned time, not given.”

Miu raised her eyebrows at that, then gave him a small smile. “Bold. And stupid. Craven, too.”

“Sounds like me, I guess.” Felix shrugged, backing up out of the parking space.

Felix walked through the front door of the fast food restaurant where he spent his days with a big shit-eating grin. Dropping his time card into the punch clock two hours early, he immediately called his regional manager.

Much to his surprise, he heard a phone going off from his office. Spinning towards the door to his office, he lifted the handle and turned it.

It opened easily enough and he found Joe hunched over his computer. Pecking at the keys, he glanced up as Felix entered.

“There you are. Kind of you to actually show up. Now, I need—”

“Fuck off, Joe,” Felix said with a grin. “Actually, first. Janessa!”

The woman whom Felix had learned to loathe jerked in response to his sudden shout. She was in the back, putting on makeup, of course.

“You’re fired. Here’s your final paycheck. I took care of it this morning through accounting. Go finish your makeup in your car.” Felix held out the final check to her.

He’d spent the better part of his morning going over Joe’s head to HR, payroll, and legal.

Joe was going to be in a world of hurt once HR started up its investigation. For now, this was more of a means to an end.

Janessa snatched the paper from his hands with a squawk. She looked between him and Joe, then fled the building quickly.

Felix entered the rest of the way into his office and then closed the door. He sat down in a chair in front of Joe with a huff.

“What the fu—”

“Shut up, Joe.” Felix shook his head and rolled his eyes. “We all know you only kept her on to try and bang her. Don’t worry, I’m sure you can hire her on somewhere else.”

He grinned at the sweating regional manager. It’d only make it worse for him when he had to explain that.

“One more word and I’ll have you fired—”

“Then do it. Fire me. Now.”

“Felix, what the he—”

“Fire me, you disgusting bastard. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve covered for your incompetence? No? Whatever. Fire me.”

“You’re asking me to fire you.”

“No, I’m calling you a disgusting piece of shit.”

Joe glared at him and then leaned forward with a sick smile. “You’re fired. Effective immediately.”

“Great. Here’s what you owe me. I’ve already made sure of everything with payroll and accounting in advance. Let me just get them on the phone,” Felix said, laying down a slip of paper with his balance sheet on it. In the other hand, he dialed up HR.

It was going to be a hell of a final paycheck that would probably screw up Joe’s entire bottom line for the month. With any luck, the store would underperform at the same time.

Going to be a bad month for you, Joe.

“Hello, this is Susan.”

“Hey, Susan? This is Felix. We spoke earlier. Joe has officially fired me.”

“I see. Could you please put me on speaker so I can confirm this?” came back the voice on the other end.

Felix set his phone down in front of himself and thumbed the speaker phone button.

“You’re on,” Felix said.

“Hi, Joe, this is Susan over at Human Resources. I understand you’ve terminated Felix from his position?”

Joe looked confused, glaring first at Felix then his phone. Clearing his throat, he leaned over the phone. “That is, we were—”

“You told me I was fired. Effective immediately. Did you not?” Felix said, grinning at Joe.

Hesitating for a moment more, Joe finally nodded his head. “Yes. Felix is terminated immediately.”

“Thank you,” came back Susan’s voice.

Felix flipped it off speaker and put it back to his ear.

“Alright, Susan, you’re back with me now. Was that all you needed?”

“Yes. Was this immediately after you terminated Janessa?” Susan asked.

“Sure was. About two minutes.”

“I’m sorry about this. We’ll be in touch with you soon. I’ve cleared your final paycheck to your account.”

“Whatever. Doesn’t matter,” Felix said, disconnecting the line.

“Alright. With that, I’m done. You’re a scumbag, Joe. I hope you get what’s coming to you in the future,” Felix said brightly.

Getting out of the chair, Felix opened the door, tossed his name badge on a counter, and walked right back out the front door.

Stepping outside, Felix stretched his arms over his head and then sighed with a smile.

That had been refreshing.

Felix jumped when his phone started ringing in his hand.

Looking down at the caller ID, he frowned. He didn’t recognize the number.

Lifting it to his ear, he thumbed the call accept button.

“This is Felix,” he said, walking to his car.

“Hey, Felix,” came the smooth voice of Marcus. Caldwell.

He didn’t give a flying pig’s ass what the man called himself.

“Hey, Caldwell. More merchandise already?”

“Hey, hey. It’s Leon today. And yeah, merchandise. Kind of. There’s an auction going down in three hours. I only found out about it a few minutes ago. Got you an invitation.

“Different this time, though. No damaged goods. Price will be higher accordingly, of course.”

Felix looked down at his feet, his keys forgotten in his hand. “How much higher would that be?”

“Last numbers I looked at, it seemed like the average price was about ten to eleven thousand per.”

He grunted at the number. He didn’t have that and wouldn’t have that. It was beyond his means. A pity, since—

“Alright. Give me the address,” Felix said, making a snap decision.

Sell my car and pull out the paycheck in the bank, that’s about twelve.

“Alright, alright. I’ll text you the address. See you there, Felix.”

Looking up from the hood of his car, he saw the loan shark across the street. The man operated out of a restaurant that he coincidentally owned.

This is a terrible idea. This is truly an awful idea.

He couldn’t manage a thought other than how much of a bad idea this was. Right up to the point that Felix found himself standing in front of said loan shark.

“I need twenty grand,” Felix said without preamble, introduction, or thought.

The loan shark blinked and looked at him in confusion. Then he started laughing and pointed at Felix.

“A man who knows exactly what he wants and doesn’t waste my time. I’m Dimitry.”

“Felix.” Holding out his hand to Dimitry, he shook it briefly. Then he was pulled in close to the man, who pulled open Felix’s shirt to look inside.

“No wire, either,” Dimitry said, lifting Felix’s arm to run his fingers down his side. “Or a piece.”

“No. I’m just—”

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry. One of those things. Twenty grand?” Dimitry asked, looking at Felix first, then over his shoulder towards where he’d worked up until about ten minutes ago.

He’d undoubtedly seen Felix a number of times while he was working. Felix could even remember intervening once between a worker and Dimitry when they’d messed up an order.

Dimitry knew exactly who Felix was.

“I don’t normally lend so much to someone I don’t know. I don’t know you, but I know of you. I want forty back from you in three months. If you try to pay up early, it’ll still be forty grand. These are my terms.”

“I accept.” Felix said it with as much authority as he could.

Dimitry sniffed and took a drag of the cigarette in his left hand.

“Fine. Go inside. Here’s some markers. Head inside, talk to the hostess, get your money.” Dimitry pulled out four tokens from his pocket and handed them to Felix.

Taking the plastic circles, Felix realized there was no going back from this point. Closing his fist around them tightly, he went into the restaurant.

“See you in three months, Felix Campbell,” Dimitry murmured with a shark-like grin.

The skin on the back of Felix’s neck prickled at the use of his last name.

Getting out of the cab, Felix walked up the driveway towards his aunt’s oversized SUV.

He tried not to use their vehicles since they weren’t technically his.

Opening the rear door, he tossed in the thirty-three thousand dollars in a briefcase and then shut it.

“Where’s your car?” Ioana asked from the corner of the garage, startling him. He hadn’t even seen her or realized she was there.

“Sold it. There’s an auction that’s going to start. They’re selling… slaves. I needed money so I could participate. If I can get more supers, I can make money faster.”

Ioana wrinkled her nose at that, yet said nothing. She eased herself back into the chair and ignored him.

Felix darted into the house for a quick change of clothes, something a bit more professional and anonymous. Put together in a simple black business suit, he slipped into the large black SUV with its tinted windows.

His aunt had disliked being seen.

Looking over, Felix found he wasn’t alone.

Kit waved from the passenger seat, dressed in her street clothes.

“I’m going! You’ll need me anyways. You’ll need to set my power to about twenty percent, I bet. We should probably stop and get me some clothes to match your own. You can spend a few points to fix up what the clothes can’t cover.

“Miu and Ioana have offered up one eye each, their left arms, and their toes to get me presentable.”

Felix cringed at the morbid nature of the discussion, but then sighed and nodded his head.

They’d been quick to convene and discuss it since he’d only been home a short while.

“Fine, let’s get this over with.”

At least it won’t be painful for anyone.

Felix gave his name at the front door. A paper was checked and he was allowed in after a cursory pat-down.

The building they’d been directed to was a large thirty-floor building that served multiple governmental needs.

One of which was apparently auctions on slaves.

“It’s almost like an industry,” Kit murmured, walking along beside him.

She’d chosen a simple black dress with long sleeves. They’d only had to do some minor work to restore her exposed skin.

She was also functioning at thirty percent of her original power, as she’d suggested.

“It isn’t like an industry, it is one. This is where debtors, prisoners, and other malcontents who meet certain qualifications end up. I imagine the bulk of the money generated here ends up in the hands of the government itself.” Felix moved at a regulated pace. This wasn’t a normal auction, per se.

All of the “goods” were on display on different floors and rooms. From what he understood, after a few hours, everyone would be asked into various meeting rooms. Everyone would be given a simple button remote that tied into the Wi-Fi and would register their bids.

Everyone would be anonymous. He imagined it would help to increase bids and prices. If no one knew who won an auction, he figured it was better for everyone involved.

“No,” Kit said, as they walked by a glass-walled conference room. Inside was a number of men and women seated in chairs with placards in front of them. “None of them will be worth our time. They’d only work against us.”

Us?

Felix was taken aback momentarily at that statement. Kit had always been supportive, oddly so. He didn’t like it. It didn’t make sense to him.

Nonetheless, he had to agree. From the look of them, they all valued themselves highly and would be accordingly attributed so. They weren’t for him.

Kit turned her head slightly, as if she were looking into the roof.

“Two floors up, that’s where we want to be. Everything above that isn’t worth our time, and everything below that will be out of our league.”

“And how do you know this?” Felix asked casually.

“Powerful enough to be useful, smart enough to fall in line, not prideful enough to raise problems. Trust me.”

He didn’t like that. Didn’t want to. Trust wasn’t easy, wasn’t really in his vocabulary or his dictionary.

“Alright, alright. Makes sense. Anything we don’t spend here we can use to buy lead,” Felix said, agreeing to her desire.

They walked over to the elevator and Kit hit the button to call it.

“I think you should limit yourself to three at the most. Six will strain your ability to keep everyone in check. Once everyone is more settled and up to speed, you can increase the size again,” Kit said as they stepped into the elevator and the doors closed.

“Thank you for the advice. Are you my consigliere now?” Felix asked.

“Better. I’m someone who wants you to succeed because it gives me what I want, while providing me with the least number of problems. So I’m an involved, and willing, party to all of this.”

“Uh-huh. We’ll see,” Felix muttered as the doors swung open.

This floor was definitely different than the others. There was a tension in the air that was palpable.

Felix couldn’t pinpoint the problem or why it was so different. Instead, he looked to the conference rooms on each side of him and saw a very similar display to the ones on the floors below. There were less interested parties, but it was roughly the same type of situation.

“They have villains and heroes both on this floor. Everything below this was heroes with a certain mindset or civilians with talents.”

Felix couldn’t help but feel confused about that. Villains selling villains.

“I wouldn’t worry about purchasing villains. They’ll serve just as well. You do realize Ioana isn’t a hero, right? She falls more on the villain side of things,” Kit explained, pulling him into a conference room.

“I thought you didn’t know her.” Felix was rapidly losing control over the whole thing.

“I didn’t, I looked her up on the internet. She fights anyone who she feels is stronger or a better warrior than her. Often, she kills them if they didn’t live up to her expectations. She’s called War Maiden.”

“Oh,” Felix said intelligently.