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.
Chapter 2 - Now Hiring -
Several days later and everything was up and running.
Now it felt almost as if he were in the Skippercity HQ.
Minus Andrea and Lily.
Felix shook his head to clear the thought. It didn’t help any, and it would only make the situation worse for him to dwell on it.
The best cure for morose thoughts was work.
And work we have aplenty.
Looking to his display he called up his itinerary and began to read through it.
Andrea had marked out everything he needed to take care of for the week.
Lily had updated his points calendar to reflect his upcoming meetings and Legion needs.
Kit had sent him all the appropriate documents and talking points.
Everything was prepared in advance for him. Now he just had to start hiring for the pawnshop, recruiters, and their other ventures.
The overarching goal was to make the lives of Legionnaires comfy.
This of course was actually all secondary.
Yes, these were all valid things that they wanted to accomplish. But the real r
eason they were here in Tilen was that it had an active Heroes guild location.
During her time as a prisoner, Kit managed to siphon a good bit of information off of her captors. Unfortunately it was all done through conversation and being observant.
Nothing was ever directly confirmed.
That device they made her wear really did a fair job of keeping her locked in her own mind, unfortunately.
From everything that they’d been able to piece together, their enemies wanted Kit herself.
Felix was a means to an end for them. They’d even gone and deemed him as necessary collateral damage.
Their goal was simple. They were going to kill him to break the contract. Once that was done, Kit would be put into a limbo state with the government.
Beyond that, nothing was said. The assumption everyone in Legion was working off of was that they wanted to secret her away before anyone was the wiser. Before the government of Skippercity could reclaim her.
And yet, there really was no reason stated for this whole thing. At least that they discussed. No clue, no hint. Nothing. Not a word.
Or even how Kit had ended up with Skipper, and then been sold.
It didn’t make sense.
The guild only wanted Augur. No one, and nothing, else. She was apparently so important, no one had even bothered to simply ask Felix if they could purchase her.
That’s the world though. Full of fools. Supers, Villains, and unpowereds alike.
Wouldn’t have sold her anyways. Too damn important to me.
Have I told her that?
Standing up, and chasing his thoughts away before he could settle on any one, Felix buttoned his coat and gave his lapels a quick tug.
“Need to tell her how important she is to me,” Felix muttered. Lifting his hands up he smacked his cheeks with his hands. “Time to go put on a show.”
Walking out of the small office they’d let him prepare in, Felix set off for the school gymnasium.
The halls were quiet as he passed, but up ahead was a roar and crash of noise. He knew it was hundreds of excited teenage voices talking at the same time.
This assembly had been scheduled by Lily in advance. All she’d had to do was promise a few things. The first was that all applicants of Tilen High would be given preferential status over other applicants for Legion entry level positions for the next six months.
Second was of course a small donation that the school didn’t ask for, but didn’t decline.
All to test a contract, and how to teach people quickly.
Pushing the double doors open, Felix stepped out into the gym.
Plastering on his best customer service smile, remembering to crinkle his eyes slightly at the corners in the parody of a genuine smile, he headed for the center.
Standing there were Victoria, Lauren, Miu, and Kit.
No wonder there’s so much discussion. Every guy here is probably wondering how to get a chance to talk to them.
“Everyone, settle down,” said a man in a suit with a microphone. He was fairly average in all things, with brown wavy hair and blue eyes.
He apparently did have some credit with the student body though, as they all quieted down in decent order.
“We have a guest speaker today. He’ll be talking to you about his company branching into our fair city of Tilen, and an offer he’s making to Tilen High specifically. Please help me welcome Felix Campbell. Owner and CEO of Legion.”
There was a moment of silence, followed by a respectful amount of applause.
Smiling, Felix bowed his head incrementally to the principal and shook his hand when he got close.
“Thank you. And thank you, Tilen High,” Felix said, taking the microphone and holding it up. “I’m here today because Legion is expanding. We’re setting up a branch right here in Tilen.”
Several hands shot up into the air and Felix couldn’t help but grin.
“We’ll save questions for the end, but I’m sure I can guess a few.
“Yes, I’m from Skippercity.
“Yes, I own slaves.
“Yes, the beautiful woman standing next to me is Augur.
“Yes, Mab is in my employ, as well as War Maiden, and Myriad.
“No, they aren’t here today.
“How many questions did I answer with that?”
Looking around, he saw almost all of the hands drop down.
“Great, save those questions for the end though, as I might answer a few as we go. Have no fear, this’ll be a quick assembly. Even though some of you might wish it was longer,” Felix said with a chuckle.
There was a collective snicker at that.
Everyone loved assemblies. It meant they didn’t have to do anything.
“Legion is hiring. We’re looking to hire many of you. This’ll not just be pawnshop jobs either. We’re hiring into all departments and aspects of Legion,” Felix said. Moving to the other end of the gym, he made sure to look to both sides of his audience. Trying to bring them all in.
“Because of course some of you are wondering how you could ever work at Legion with no experience. We’re going to be showcasing a new training methodology we’re perfecting. Should you be hired on, this is something you’d be given access to. Miu?”
Turning to look to his internal security chief he gave her a smile.
With a glance to the other set of double doors that led out to a patio, Miu said something into her headset.
The doors swung open, and four men and five women came into the gym, wheeling in a large platform. It looked like a bathroom stall with a roof and only a single door.
“Inside of this is that very same methodology we just spoke of. I’ll first need several volunteers. I won’t be selecting anyone though. In fact, you can elect your own volunteers and send them up. Those lucky volunteers will get to see it firsthand, and experience it.”
Felix turned away from the crowd. With a few swift steps he reached the spot his people were setting up.
“We all set, Kit?” Felix asked, thumbing the mute button on the microphone.
“Yes. I’ve also been scanning the area. There are several Heroes spying on us. It would seem choosing this location really was ideal. Picking the high school directly across from the Heroes guild hall was a solid idea,” Kit said with a smirk.
“Hey… before we go any further in this. I just wanted to say, you’re important to me. Very. Don’t ever think you’re not,” Felix said, catching Kit’s eyes with his own.
“O-oh. I see. Yes. Thank you,” she said, breaking her gaze away after a second.
Lifting the microphone back to his mouth, Felix turned around to his audience. Two young teenage boys and a girl were walking his way.
“Ah, good show, good show. Congratulations and welcome! You’ll be our first job applicants. Though I’m afraid, it’ll be for today only, and the skillset you learn won’t be of much use. Well, maybe,” Felix said, grinning.
Several of his assistants had left and now came back carrying boxes of varying sizes. Some so large it took two people to move them.
“Alright, you, Mr. Letterman jacket. Pick a box,” Felix said waving a hand at the parcels being set down.
“Uh… sure,” said the kid.
Walking over to a medium sized one, he picked it up and looked to Felix.
“Go ahead, open it,” Felix encouraged. Moving over to stand beside the young man, he tilted the mic towards him.
“Kay. Uh…” Pausing, he opened the box and peered inside. “It’s a… Rubik’s cube?”
“Great. Ever solve one of those before?”
“No. They uh… they don’t make sense to me.”
“Perfect. First, I have to ask you to sign this waiver. It’s very simple. This is your agreement that you’re allowing us to train you in… how to solve a Rubik’s cube. To do that, we have to go into your head, put the training and experience there, and then get back out.
“It also says that this training will only last for a year. And ever
yone here just heard me say this, and that’s the legally binding contract. I’ve had your faculty read over this beforehand of course, and they felt it was acceptable.
“Of course, it does say that you won’t be sharing any of what you see in that teaching booth with anyone else.”
Almost on cue, the principal nodded his head and gave a thumbs up.
Thanks, Chief. Remind me to actually use this school as a recruiting grounds instead of just on paper.
“Uh. Ok. I just… sign?”
“Yep, right there,” Felix said, pointing to the specific line. He took the Rubik’s cube from the boy and began mixing it up.
Lauren held out a pen to Mr. Letterman, who took it and signed his name. Which was apparently Jeff.
“Go ahead and open that door there, Jeff, step behind the curtain, and follow the instructions.”
“Kay.”
Real conversationalist there. Destined for a job in a back room.
Jeff opened the door and stepped in. One of Miu’s people shut the door.
“Now, folks, this’ll really only take a minute. So while he’s doing that, how about you two go pick a box?”
The girl immediately went to the largest box and set about opening it.
The other boy picked up a small sized one.
He managed to get his open first and held out his prize.
“How to speak Japanese,” he said curiously.
“Oh, that’ll be fun,” Felix said.
The girl yanked the side off the box and stared at what looked like a desk with tools on it.
“Woodworking. I wonder what you’ll build for us. Maybe you’ll be an undiscovered artist,” Felix said with a laugh.
The door to the training cell opened, and Jeff stepped out. He looked a touch dazed, but fine.
Hm. Need to check on the skill books and see if converting them into a video format changed a few things. The books worked for the Telemedics after all.
“Ah, good. Here ya go, Jeff. Solve this as fast as you can,” Felix said, tossing him the mixed up Rubik’s cube.
Jeff looked down at it, confused.
In the next moment, his eyes focused on the cube and his hands started moving. Rotating and shifting the cube faster and faster.
Super Sales on Super Heroes: Book 2 Page 2
