Super Sales on Super Heroes: Book 2

Chapter 35 - Last Mile -

“Sounds like this was all part of some scheme by Skipper,” Kit said, sitting next to him.

Everyone other than Lily and Kit had cleared the room. They all had things that they needed to do and see to.

“And we’re not out of the woods yet,” Lily said. “Best guess is we’re about to be drowned in Skipper and other forces.”

“They mentioned that,” Felix said dryly. Grimacing he looked at his leg.

The tourniquet had been on for too long. He knew there was going to be muscle damage, but he figured Felicia could repair that. Bleeding out wasn’t going to be as easy to solve, so it remained right there.

“Yes. It’s not good,” Kit said. “The leg is probably lost or severely damaged at this point. But so long as it’s still intact and we get you to Felicia sooner rather than later, it’ll be fine.”

“Speaking of, how are we getting out of here?” Felix asked.

“Most of us are going to get out the same way we got in. Load up, move out. You, though, are being flown out by helicopter to an airfield. Felicia’s there with a medical bed ready for you and a much larger plane. It’s bound for Wal. We’ve already made a number of deals with them to acquire a sanctuary there,” Lily explained.

“After everything that’s happened… yeah. Tilen and Skipper City aren’t going to be safe for us to operate out of. And with the religions getting militarized, I imagine global politics are shifting rapidly,” Felix said.

“That they are,” Kit agreed. “Wal is looking forward to our operational relationship as much as we are, I think. Their military was never large. We’ve taken on a contract to act as a standing army for them. PMC for an entire military, so to speak.”

“Interesting. Michael will be happy about that.”

“Which Michael?” Lily asked. “There’s a lot of them.”

“Fort One Michael.”

“Ah, yes. He’s already sped up his recruitment to help fill slots for that contract,” Lily said.

There was a short klaxon-like sound, followed by a long high pitched whistle.

Kit sighed and put her helmet on, pulling it down tight. “I’m afraid your ride out hasn’t arrived yet, but our enemies have.”

Lily stood up and brushed herself off quickly. Leaning down, she gave him a quick kiss and then fled the building.

“She was rather worried. She might seem like everything is fine, but there were a few times where it was clear she was falling apart,” Kit said. “I… must admit I felt very much the same. It was eye opening how much we rely on you when you’re suddenly not there. Now… I’m going to go lead my Minders and Fixers into the field.”

“Where’d Eva go?” Felix asked, wondering where she’d ended up.

“She’s in an APC. I think there’s a few Andreas with her. She’s…” Kit’s voice trailed off.

“Yeah. I get it. I’ll talk to her later about it all.”

Kit nodded, and then left the room, leaving Felix by himself.

Sighing, he levered himself up, and hopped and hobbled his way over to the computer desk. Sitting heavily in the seat, he managed to get himself mostly comfortable.

Fixing his view on the monitors, he watched as his people went about their tasks. Ioana, Kit, Lily, and Andrea were at the center. Around them were their lieutenants and assistants. Victoria, Miu, Adriana, and Neutralizer were much closer to the front, though clearly going through very similar circumstances.

On the next monitor, Felix found himself looking at one of the perimeter views. At the edge of the view-screen, he could see people making their way towards the Legion position. They were numerous. Something akin to a horror movie where a horde of zombies were rushing in, to be exact.

Legion forces opened fire, the heavy machine guns, rifles, and SMGs unloading. The turrets on vehicles, Wardens, and emplacements began firing as well.

Skipper’s Powereds began filtering in amongst the enemy troops. Some literally came down from buildings to try and land amongst Legion’s forces. Legion’s equivalent met them head on, working in groups and in tandem to their advantage.

From another direction, on a different monitor, Felix watched as a group of what he assumed were militarized religious priests came running down a street. The only reason he even assumed that was that they were all glowing in a similar way to the group he’d seen the other day.

At that moment, the screen frizzed out. Almost immediately after that, every monitor died.

Not wanting to miss what was going on, and figuring he could probably do this safely, Felix decided to leave.

Picking up a helmet someone had left inside, he pulled it down over his head, becoming a faceless soldier, and not a standout target.

Exiting the building, he didn’t go far. He leaned up against the wall, and looked towards where the religious order had started to come from.

There, floating in the air above, were several impressive looking men. They were garbed in nothing but energy, and seemed to hold weapons made of the same stuff.

Gods. Great.

Abera and Desh materialized over the Legion forces. Desh folded his arms across his chest and leaned his head back, laughing. Abera howled, gripped her axe, and leapt towards the three deities.

One lifted what looked like a sword to block her attack, only to have it shatter into bits, and her axe buried into his head.

Screaming triumphantly, Abera turned on the other two, yanking her weapon free of the god with the split skull.

More gods started to appear, until Desh and Abera were facing twenty or so of them.

“Come then,” shouted the goddess of war. It was audible to everyone. As if it were enhanced and multiplied. “I’ll bury you all! In the name of Felix and Legion, I will crush you. Crush you to goo.”

The result was instantaneous. Whatever machine Felicia built was clearly working. Abera suddenly burned like the sun as Legion screamed their agreement to her words.

Desh turned a bright white then exploded, a golden halo sweeping out from him and covering everyone nearby.

As it passed over him, Felix suddenly felt lucky. Incredibly lucky. Like if he were to buy a lottery ticket right now, he’d win.

If he bought a ticket for every lottery, he’d win every one.

Turning into a golden meteor, Abera launched herself headlong into the enemy gods and goddesses, and began to wreak havoc amongst them.

Standing on a rooftop nearby, a dark robed man began to build rune-script out of the air.

Not far from where Felix stood, bright blue runes popped into being.

Evan stood there, his hands making sharp gestures as perfect, clean runes formed. Rapidly formed.

He was clearly proceeding with his spell in a much quicker fashion than the other man.

No sooner had the rune closed the pattern, than Evan clapped his hands together and shoved them forward. The rune formed a gigantic icicle and sped off towards the black robed man. And went through him.

Crumpling where he stood, the enemy magician tumbled off the roof and disappeared.

Evan wasted no time and started up another spell, the runes coming almost as fast as Lily’s did before he upgraded her.

A rumbling crunch to the left got Felix’s attention as an armored car with a turret mounted on it came into view. It started to fire into the ranks of his people.

Only one round got through before a wall of glowing red runes appeared. It was sloped to force rounds to glance upwards and away, Lily standing at the center of the formation.

Kit stood beside her, and wherever she looked, enemies fell in twitching heaps.

All around him, the forces of Legion battled and held their ground. There was no getting around the fact that Legion were outnumbered.

While everything Legion had had indeed been mobilized, that didn’t mean everyone had already made it here.

And even if it was, Felix and his forces were fighting against multiple enemies. Holding out was a definite, and winning was almost guaranteed.

But it wasn’t assured.

There was a chance it could all fail and fall apart. Most of this entire situation was because of Skipper.

She viewed him as a problem. A hurdle.

He was a rival for Tilen and Skipper City.

But what if he wasn’t?

Hobbling back into the building, Felix wondered if this ploy would work, or doom them.

Yanking off the helmet he tossed it into a corner. With a hop and a graceless flop, he landed back in the computer desk’s chair. Taking a deep breath, he picked up the speaker that was perched in front of the stand of monitors, and thumbed the button to turn it on.

“This is Felix Campbell, head and CEO of Legion. I’d like to parley with Skipper,” Felix said. He could hear his voice amplified over the loudspeakers outside. More than likely it’d be passed back to Skipper.

“If she’d prefer to meet in a virtual space, I’ll be on—” Felix paused to look at the radio nearby to read off what it was set to. “Two-seventy MHz. I’ll be waiting for ten minutes, then assume you want to continue wasting your resources here. I’m sure the federal government is just watching and waiting to make their move. I know I would be.”

Felix let go of the button and picked up the headset, pulling it over his head.

Before he’d even sat there waiting for a minute, Kit entered the room, her helmet clutched under one hand.

“What are you doing?” she asked immediately.

“Hopefully, I’m getting us out of here quickly. I mean, loss of life isn’t a concern for us, but I’d rather not waste resources if we don’t have to. Do you have any idea how much gold it’d cost us if this kept going?” Felix shook his head at thought of it. “No, if I can get us out quickly and easily, that’d be ideal.”

“We’re winning out there. Completely.”

“Of that I have no doubt, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t the possibility of defeat. In this case, I’m going to be risk averse,” Felix said, shrugging his shoulders. “Sit your pretty ass down and keep me company. Maybe you can block her from reading the future. Oh, and here, this’ll catch you up. Also let you listen in technically if she decides to respond.”

With his left hand, Felix opened up the command to allow Kit to read his thoughts.

“Felix,” said a voice over his headset. “What the fuck do you want. Before my army crushes you and your peasants.”

“Not much,” Felix said, pressing down the microphone button. “Though I’m not so sure about you crushing anything. Have you taken a look at your losses yet? I have. Not looking so good. You lose too much more and you won’t be able to fight when they roll over your forces in Tilen and swing to Skipper City.”

“Hmph,” Skipper said, and went silent.

Letting go of the button, Felix laughed. “She’s so obvious. She relies on her power too much. Without it she can barely function. Right now she’s probably trying to get reports on what’s happening here. But your presence might be making it harder or impossible to do it with her power.”

Shaking his head, he laughed again.

“I mean, we already know her infrastructure is garbage. If—”

“Well?” Skipper asked.

“Ah, to be continued, Kit my dear,” Felix said.

He paused for a moment at that comment. His head felt funny, and the pain hadn’t come back yet. Things weren’t feeling quite normal.

Painkillers?

Except right now wasn’t the time to worry about it.

“I was hoping to make you an offer to end this early. I don’t want to sit here murdering your entire army just to pack up and leave when you finally figure it out. So I’ll make you an offer. I have nothing I want in Tilen or Skipper City. I’ll retreat, remove, and release all matters pertaining to Tilen and Skipper City for at least five years. This goes for everyone in my employ as well,” Felix said, dragging a wrist across his brow.

“Un. And what do you want from me. Hm?” Skipper asked.

“I want the same from you that I’m offering. That you’ll have no interest in Legion in any way for five years, and you’ll withdraw from this fight. I want to leave, and the sooner you call your pets off, the sooner I can do so,” Felix said.

Skipper didn’t respond. The line went dead.

Outside, Felix could hear his people continuing their grim work. They’d been able to prep a position that they could hold from.

He wasn’t in a rush. For now, his people held the upper hand.

Silence was his ally.

Always.

“Deal,” Skipper said. It was clear she was frustrated and angry.

“Great. Go ahead and pull your forces back. We’ll be on our way as soon as we can. Legion won’t be your problem by the end of today. Though I recommend not sending people into our buildings. I’m going to demo them,” Felix said. “Signing off.”

Letting go of the button, Felix dropped the headset on the desk. Spinning in the chair, he turned to face Kit. “And there we have it,” he said.

Kit was watching him intently. Her eyes were narrowed as she stared.

Lifting his eyebrows, he waited a beat. “Yes?”

“Nothing,” she said, visibly relaxing. “Should I tell the troops to lay off as they retreat?”

“No. I don’t want to give Skipper a chance to change her mind. We’ll remain vigilant, aggressive, and ready. Though you can go ahead and tell everyone what’s going on,” Felix said.

“Done,” Kit said, still watching him, though not as intensely. “I think when we have some time later, I’d like to sit down and discuss what all happened.”

“We can do that. Definitely,” Felix said, smiling. His head felt light and he wanted to lay down.

Sitting in a room with Kit and watching her as she dissected him didn’t seem like a bad idea down the road. Maybe she’d even wear something fun. He just had to remember to make sure she couldn’t read his thoughts. His minded tended to wander at the best of times.

Wait. Can she read them right now?

Did we turn it on? Or off?

Closing his eyes, Felix pressed his hands to his face and tried to collect himself. He felt like his control was unraveling.

Leaning forward in his chair, he took in a deep breath, and could only smell blood.

His blood.

His leg was soaked in it.

Sitting up straight, Felix forced the image of Julia exploding out of his mind. Of Adriana blowing her own head off.

He’d seen worse. He’d done worse. So why did those images haunt him right now?

No, no, no. Got to get—

“Felix,” Kit said, pressing her warm hand to his cheek. “Calm down. Just… relax. The chopper is landing right now, and we’ll be getting out of here in a moment.”

“Alright,” Felix said. “It’s landing?”

“Yes. Right now.”

Listening intently, Felix heard it then.

He was amazed he’d missed it up to this point. It was so loud.

Had he lost some time there?

“Come on. Everyone is getting out now. A squad of Adrianas is staying behind to organize the retreat, everyone else is getting on the chopper with us,” Kit said.

Trying to stand up, Felix felt his leg go out from under him. Collapsing to the floor, Felix couldn’t understand what’d just happened.

Oh yeah, that leg doesn’t work now.

More than one pair of hands lifted him up, and he was situated between two people. Letting his head hang, Felix let himself go with the movements. Someone lifted him up into the interior of the helicopter, and belted him in. A number of other people joined him in the helicopter till someone eventually slammed the door shut.

Lifting his head a bit, Felix was staring out the window of the helicopter as it started to take off. Everyone was packing it in rapidly. Pulling out and putting tires to the road. Once Skipper’s troops had backed out, the religious fanatics had found themselves under extreme attack by the concerted efforts of Legion.

Or so it seemed to Felix.

That’s what it looked like to him right now as he watched them run away as magic, ammo, and other things rained down on them.

Abera and Desh stood side by side in the middle of the air as the enemy forces went tumbling back. Legion’s forces taking the chance to dash away from the line and to their mechanized transports.

When it was clear that there would be nothing coming back their way, Abera and Desh vanished.

Lifting into the air, the helicopter swung to one side, and Felix’s view of the field of battle was gone. Soon enough they were lifting up above the buildings and heading towards the south.

All along the route beneath them there were bombed out buildings, husks of cars, and wrecked pavement. The city wouldn’t be useful for anything other than collecting debris.

Whoever won this battle would gain nothing.

In fact, he’d be surprised if someone didn’t decide to start shelling it again.

Or bomb it.

Pressing his forehead to the cool glass, Felix closed his eyes.

That was all a problem for another day.

Right now, he just wanted to sleep.