Super Sales on Super Heroes: Book 2

Chapter 1 - What They Understand -

Felix was roughly pushed into the chair, practically falling out of it with the force of the shove.

“Sit,” growled out the heavyset officer.

Looking up at the man with an unamused face Felix laid his hands flat on the table. Sitting there quietly he inspected the room they’d put him in.

White bare walls, table with four chairs, a single entry, and a very obvious one-way mirror.

Before the pudgy uniformed police officer could do or say anything more, a woman in slacks and a blazer strolled in. She held a binder under her arm and seemed to be in her mid thirties.

Quirking a brow Felix turned his attention to the woman.

“Mr. Campbell,” said the woman. “I’m Detective Torres.”

“Morning, Detective Torres,” Felix said evenly.

“I’d like you ask you a few questions, and then have you look at a few things,” she said as she took the seat across from him.

“And you’re gonna be real helpful,” muttered the cop, looming over Felix.

Eying the man Felix contemplated the situation.

He didn’t have to be here. They weren’t actually holding him on anything, and the moment he got resistant they’d probably be forced to cut him loose. Or admit they had nothing.

If they really wanted, they could hold him for twenty-four hours on nothing.

But that was okay. They’d left early from Skippercity for this very reason. He didn’t want to spend any time here, but it fit within his expectations.

“Uh huh,” Felix replied, looking back to Detective Torres.

She was an attractive police officer. Darker skinned, brown eyes, short black hair. She had a hard set to her mouth and eyes though. Felix could only imagine she worked and fought her way through the ranks.

Battling her coworkers as often as crooks, he imagined.

“First, what’s your reason for coming to Tilen?” asked the officer.

“Business. Our ventures in Skippercity have reached a bit of a plateau. Only so many antiques and heirlooms in one city. You know how it is. Expand, grow, or die,” Felix said honestly.

“And what business is that exactly? Slaves?” said the detective, leaning forward in her seat.

“Hardly. Slavery isn’t legal here. We’re looking to expand our pawn shop business, and we’re also considering a few other opportunities. In fact, we’ve already got all the prerequisite licenses and approvals on behalf of the city. It’s one of the reasons we came here openly,” Felix said, leaning back into his chair.

He kept his posture open and loose. He wasn’t hiding anything and he didn’t want her to think he was.

“I’m very much aware. I pulled all your paperwork to give it a once over and everything does appear to be on the up and up.

“Moving on. Do you know these individuals?” she asked, flipping out several photos in front of him.

Victoria Volante stood in all her glory with a sword upraised in front of her. Dark brown curly hair and dark green eyes.

The picture next to that was Kit in her Augur costume, her dark brown curls slipping out from the bottom of her helmet, the beautiful face hidden.

Last was Miu, dressed in a security uniform and with a no nonsense look on her serene Asian features.

“Yep. Head of internal security, head of HR, and head of my personal bodyguards,” Felix said, identifying each one.

“And these two?” asked Torres, pulling out two more photos.

The first was Andrea with a sub-machine gun pulled in tight to her shoulder in a firing stance. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, the bright locks pulled back from her “girl next door” features. You couldn’t see her mismatched eyes, but he was sure they were flat and dead. She was clearly in her Myriad persona.

The second was a photo of Ioana. Clad in leather armor, a sword held out in front of her, one boot smashed into the pulpy remains of someone’s head.

Plain featured, huge, with a shaved head. She was every bit the intimidating warrior he knew her to be.

“Yep. The big one is the chief of external security for Legion. The other is my personal secretary,” Felix said, holding the photo up. “Never seen Ioana with no hair though. Can I get a copy of this? Felicia would probably like it.”

Detective Torres’ mouth became a thin line and she took the photo back from him.

“She’s responsible for the deaths of multiple Heroes and Villains. She’s a murderer,” said the detective.

“Supposedly. She’s never actually been convicted of anything. In fact, I do believe there’s been a recent change in all of the pending charges against her. The vast majority were ruled… well… inconclusive really, due to a lack of evidence,” Felix said, giving the detective a smile.

“And that brings me to the next one,” said Torres, ignoring him.

She picked a photo out of her folder and dropped it onto the table.

It was Lily.

She stood in the middle of a photo that had been taken at considerable distance. She was wreathed in red and blue sigils and was clearly fighting with someone else.

“Yes?” Felix prompted, not giving up anything they didn’t have.

“Mab.”

“Uh-huh”

“Killed her own clients.”

“Supposedly,” Felix said neutrally, fighting a smile.

In truth, Lily, Lauren, and Kit had spent the last three weeks going through HR records. Every charge they could find, they argued and filed against in whatever fashion they could cook up.

Lauren Aston, Lily’s new legal apprentice, apparently had a real knack for that work. Lily had praised her several times to him.

Combine those three great minds with the resources of Legion and those charges were rapidly vanishing under oceans of paperwork. It’d take time to get everything muddied, dropped, or blackmailed off, but it’d happen eventually.

It was one of the reasons Felix allowed himself to be taken into custody.

The large cop slammed his hands into the table, glaring at Felix.

“She’s killed cops! Heroes! There is no supposed about it!” shouted the officer.

Felix felt the corner of his mouth twitch as he fought a smirk.

Is he the bad cop then?

“Supposedly,” Felix said calmly, staring into the cop’s face.

Then, surprisingly, the cop smashed his fist into Felix’s jaw.

Rocketing out of the chair and crashing to the floor, Felix couldn’t help but be shocked. Having Victoria, Miu, Andrea, and Ioana train him daily had put him through much worse though.

Playing the situation for what it was, Felix lay limp on the ground.

The bastard had taken a cheap shot at him. He figured he might as well earn some points from it.

If this was a stand up fight I would have cleaned his clock, too.

There was the sound of shouts and a door slamming open as Felix recovered.

Before he could get back to his feet, the officer had been hustled out of the interview room.

“Yeah, no. We’re done,” Felix said, getting to his feet. Feeling around in his mouth with his tongue he could taste copper. Taking aim, he spat a mouthful of blood onto the table. “I’ll also be filing charges against that officer for assault and suing the city for every penny it’s worth. My lawyers are quite good.

“I’m formally refusing all medical assistance until this is documented and my wounds photographed. You can testify or I can have a mind reader verify the truth of the situation,” Felix said, giving her both barrels. He didn’t want this going anywhere he didn’t want it to.

Detective Torres stood there, her face now an angry snarl and her hands clenched at her sides.

“You have my sincere apologies, Mr. Campbell, perhaps you could let this matter drop?” she asked him.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Felix asked while laughing. “What kind of request is that? Why would I do that? I’m going to happily see that hulking gorilla tossed out on his ass, and then collect a big fat paycheck.”

Felix brushed his clothes off carefully, but made sure not to touch his bleeding lip. In fact, he let the blood flow freely down his chin and neck.

“We can hold you for a while,” Torres said.

“You were already going to hold me. Your offer changes nothing. You have about ten seconds to say something that makes sense before I ask for a lawyer, and this whole thing ends.”

Felix turned his head to stare into the one-way mirror.

Torres followed his gaze and then went over to the mirror and tapped on it twice.

A few seconds passed before a tap came back in return.

Turning her head to him, Torres gave him a grim look.

“I’d consider it a personal favor. I’d also turn you and your entire crew loose today,” Torres offered.

Oh? A personal favor might be worth it but…

Felix reached up with his left hand scratched at his ear with a finger.

“I dunno. Are your personal favors worth a few hundred thousand dollars? You’re just a detective, aren’t you?” Felix asked seriously.

Detective Torres was clearly gritting her teeth. He couldn’t imagine she was enjoying this situation very much.

“You know what, don’t answer that. I’ll take you up on it, provided you can get me and my people out of this precinct in the next,” Felix said, pausing to look at his watch, “ten minutes.”

Never hurts to have a policeman in your pocket. This is turning out to be an interesting trip already.

Detective Torres must have had some pull.

Since Felix, Miu, Kit, Lauren, Victoria, and Eva were all on the street in front of the security convoy with all their possessions returned in under five minutes, it seemed like a logical conclusion.

Miu was staring at Felix while Lauren got into the lead car of the security detail, just wanting to put the situation behind them.

Those dark eyes of Miu’s bored into him, demanding an answer to her question.

“Ok, yeah. Something happened. Some cop punched me. Because of that, we got turned loose, and the detective in charge of my questioning owes me a favor,” Felix admitted. “May not count for anything, but it seemed like an easy favor to take.”

Miu’s face turned pale. Her face became murderous and she looked as if she were going to march into the police station and start killing

“Miu, stop, please. Just… let it go for now. This’ll work out to our benefit, I’m sure. Now… how about we get in the car, and head off for the new Tilen Legion pawnshop, our headquarters. We need to get set up and start hiring with the new contracts we prepared,” Felix said. “I’ll let you dictate security and I won’t even argue. Ok?”

Miu’s eyebrows drew together as she glared at him. “You won’t complain?”

“Nope, not a word. You and Victoria can do everything you like,” Felix promised in the most charming voice he could manage.

He opened the passenger door and motioned inside. Looking to Kit he gave her a wave as well. “Come on, hop in, and let’s get going. I’ll sit in the back with Victoria and Eva like a good boy.”

Kit shrugged her shoulders and gave him a small smile.

Things had been strained between them since the “incident” two months ago with the Heroes guild.

To be fair, it wasn’t every day that your companion is kidnapped, doesn’t seem to fight, and a school full of children gets blown up.

Not one of those every day kind of affairs.

And since then, there’d been an uncrossable distance between them.

A gap that was too wide right now to cross. They’d made some progress, but it was slow.

Difficult.

Kit couldn’t read his mind and he could only tell her everything was fine so many times.

Having been a mind reader for so long, she didn’t have the trust and faith in people that normal humans did.

He imagined it’d eventually right itself.

Moving to the driver’s seat, Kit got in.

Miu finally got into the passenger seat, glaring at him the entire time.

Closing the door, Felix let out a breath.

“She worries about you, that’s all,” Eva said with a smile, patting Felix’s arm.

“Yeah, I know. And are you sure this’ll be alright? You’re good with your studies right now?” Felix asked, opening the rear passenger door for Eva.

“Yes. I’m fine. I’m ahead actually. The new Legion school is great. I know everyone there is happy that you built it into Headquarters, but it’s nice to get out. The fun part for me though is it doesn’t matter how many students we have, we just make the school bigger and hire more teachers. So you won’t lose track of any of your friends, they’ll just be in a different part of the campus,” Eva said, getting into the car.

Huh. Well, at least Felicia is on that. I’m sure she already planned for number increases. Ahoy future planning.

Victoria grabbed the door and then became immobile.

“I know, I know. Middle seat,” Felix said.

Victoria smiled in return to his comment and nodded her head, waiting.

Clambering into the car, he made himself comfortable.

It was a good thing they purchased luxury sedans and upgraded them. Middle seat in those was at least moderately comfortable.

And Andrea isn’t here. Which makes this even better. I won’t have a Beastkin crawling all over me.

Victoria slid in next to him and pressed into his side. Her lithe athletic figure reminded him that he hadn’t seen Andrea in a few days.

Clearing his throat uncomfortably, Felix felt excited.

“Let’s go see the new building first, Headquarters,” he said.

Kit nodded her head and got the car going. They sped off quickly down the road.

“So… are you going to do what you said?” Eva asked. She reached up and tucked a dark brown lock of hair around an ear.

“What, about the new pawnshop? Yep. I also want to explore what we did with the Telemedics. I think that could be something we can use to train people up a whole heck of a lot faster. I’ve already got some things to test out.

“The hard part is getting in the door, then getting them to buy the pitch,” Felix admitted with a frown. “It’s like any job, right? You get interviewed as you interview them. They find out if they want to work for you, work for the company, and if it’ll do right by them.”

“That seems hard,” Eva said.

“It can be. Especially if the number of jobs outpaces the workforce. Then you end up in salary wars, one hiring away the employees of the other and constantly raising their rates. We’ll see though. I think we’ll be able to make enticing offers. Well, provided that new indentured servant contract Lily drew up is valid and legal,” Felix said seriously. “I mean, this whole trip will be pointless if the contract doesn’t bind them to me in the same way.”

“Speaking of,” Kit said from the front seat. “Are we technically no longer slaves?”

Frowning at the question, Felix called up his point screen.

Received

Spent

Remaining

Daily Allotment

150

0

150

Miu Miki

1,250

1,250

0

—Direct reports

14,315

0

14,315

Ioana Iliescu

1,100

0

1,100

—Direct reports

25,170

0

25,170

Kit Carrington

2,250

2,250

0

—Direct reports

22,170

0

22,170

Lilian Lux

2,600

2,600

0

—Direct reports

14,750

0

14,750

Andrea Elex

1,500

3,000

-1,500

Felicia Fay

1,600

4,800

-3,200

—Direct reports

14,125

0

1,600

Eva Adelpha

4,900

4,900

0

Mr. White.

300

900

-600

—Direct reports

21,090

0

21,090

+ Loyalty Bonus

5,030

0

5,030

DAILY TOTAL

132,300

19,700

100,075

“Everything is still there. So your contract works. That or you’re still a slave. Won’t know until we test the new contract on someone else,” Felix said.

After a while the vehicle came to a slow stop as Felix tinkered with his screen. He’d spent any number of hours fiddling with his views. Trying to get the most out of them.

It was beginning to seem more like an anxiety response.

At least the huge increase in points from all the unpowered they bought certainly had paid off. Though their costs in finances was still annoying. Their profit margin shrunk by a few percentage points.

He had to constantly spend points to keep a thousand and one things on track and moving in the right direction. The point calendar looked like an ever-increasing bank balance that always had more withdrawals than he liked.

How else were we going to bring everyone back to life, though? We needed those people.

Not like you can magic up points. Gold? Sure. Points? Not really. And converting one to the other is damned expensive.

Victoria opened the door and stepped out, Miu doing the same.

“No hostile thoughts,” Kit said, holding a hand to her ear.

There was a muted response from the earpiece.

Felix waited quietly as he promised he would.

“Holy cow, that’s the new building?” Eva asked, peering out the passenger window from her side of the car.

Looking up, Felix found himself staring at a rather large skyscraper.

Tall, dark, and ominous, it was a rectangle. There were no accents or artful designs.

A giant rectangle stabbing into the sky.

Felix kinda liked the simplicity of it.

It went up what he’d guess was fifty floors.

Looking back down he found the entry was a vast and open area that funneled down into one single entry. The rest of the building on the ground floor was made of concrete.

He could definitely see why Miu, Andrea, Victoria, and Ioana were all happy with the building.

The entry was a death trap. A real choke point without even being reinforced or upgraded.

Makes sense.

“Where’s… where are we living?” Eva asked softly.

“I’ll be modifying it to be an exact replica of our current HQ in Skippercity. At least, everything from the ground floor down. You’ll be living in the exact same room you do at home, I suppose,” Felix said.

Going to be most of your points for the day there, Felix old pal. You won’t be doing much after this at all.

In fact, it would be all of his points. One hundred thousand and five hundred points. And that’d only take care of the first floor and down.

It’d take another several days to get the upper floors into what they wanted.

Kit and Lily had run the numbers on how much it would cost. In the end, using Felix’s points and several days of his time was simply the cheapest method. Even if all he did was make gold all day instead.

“Oh. Where’s your office going to be? Top floor?” Eva asked.

“Pfft. Only a villain, a hero, or a fool would live that high up. Nope, I’ll be in my office below ground. If I can’t be there, then I’ll be on the second floor when I have to be. With a window I can bust open and a comfy bush below it I can jump into,” Felix said dismissively. “Top floor will be a dummy office that I ‘work out of’ but it’ll really just be an elevator going really slow for one floor. Mr. White put together this weird display for the windows to mimic the top floor. It’s too technical for me, but it works.”

“That seems overly elaborate,” Eva said.

“It is. But it made them happy to solve a problem I didn’t care about. So we let them solve it. He’ll be here in a few days anyways so he can explain it then if you want.”

Victoria came up and rapped on the glass twice, waited five seconds, then opened the door.

Sighing, Felix slid out of the car and stood up with a stretch.

All around him, spreading out across the entire entry area, were people in tactical gear. They carried loaded and locked weapons, all checked out, licensed, and legal.

It was as if a private military company had been contracted for security detail.

Well, after the training Andrea gave them, maybe they are a PMC.

Thinking about what he wanted done to the building, he watched as the window floated up from nothing in front of him.

Then he thumbed the accept button.

“Let’s go settle in then. Today is moving day, and I imagine there’ll be a number of trucks showing up soon. Probably need to have you and your HR team ready to scan the locals as they help out,” Felix said, turning his head to Kit.

Sighing, she nodded her head and gave him a small smile.

“You’re right of course. I’ll get my people moving,” she said.

“Good. I’ll be in my office going over our quarter to date results,” Felix said eagerly.

Spreadsheets were still what made sense to him.

Despite all the changes.

Being trained in combat and guns.

Even changing his mindset to be proactive.

He still enjoyed spreadsheets and data.

They made sense.