Super Sales on Super Heroes: Book 2

by William D. Arand

  Would you like to log your message and send it once the connection has been re-established?

  Felix ground his teeth together and selected the no option.

  He wasn’t going to get the quick exit he’d been hoping for.

  “Alright. Let’s figure out everything we want to take with us, and get some shut-eye. We’ll need to be ready to move tonight with whatever we can carry. We can always make a second trip if we need to, but I’d rather not,” Felix said, turning around to his small group. “I’ll pop open a camping supply crate and start pulling out what we need for a decent rest. Sleep in turns so everyone gets a chance to go through the lists and sleep. One person up, everyone else sleeping. Questions?”

  Everyone shook their head.

  “Let’s hop to then. Quick quick like a bunny,” Felix said, clapping his hands together.

  Chapter 31 - Reinvigorated -

  The ground itself shook and rumbled, knocking Felix out of a dead sleep.

  Staring blearily around himself, it took a few seconds to remember he was still in the Legion cache bunker.

  “What the fu—”

  Everything trembled and shook. The rumble of what sounded like a freight train passing overhead was audible.

  “Oh my god,” Steve said from the stairwell, staring upward. “What the hell is going on?”

  “No idea,” Felix said, the way he was woken up clearing his mind pretty quickly. “But it sounds bad. Have there been any super fights in this area?”

  “No. They all went to the front. The worst we get is patrols. Usually bored ones that are more concerned with getting back to base,” Amy said.

  Before Felix could respond, a massive shaking took over everything. Cases and supplies went tumbling about in different directions as the world seemed as if it would come apart.

  The sound was deafening as well. Even as well sheltered as they were, the sound was as if he’d stuck his head into a machine.

  Dust fell from the flickering lightbulbs above them as the cacophony of sound continued.

  Felix got his feet under him and started to secure their cases and supplies. He was helpless to whatever was going on above him. He could at least be productive here and get things ready.

  Motioning to the others, Felix set to work and got down to business. Hopefully it would distract him as well as he planned, and for everyone else as well.

  Julia didn’t hesitate and started to work as a pair with Felix, taking guidance from his actions and finger directions.

  Steve managed to shake himself out of the daze. He rounded up the others and started to work on sorting out cases they’d tagged to open, and the ones they had no interest in.

  Everyone got to work, and did their best to ignore what sounded like the world ending above them.

  There were few breaks in the onslaught of sound and shaking.

  Right at ten o’clock—and Felix only noted this because the panel chimed once at the top of every hour and he actually heard it—everything had gone calm.

  Quiet.

  Silence filled the room. Felix could actually hear his ears ringing now. What had sounded like constant explosions had ceased.

  Felix and all of his people were all staring at the stairwell. As if they could somehow see to the pawnshop above.

  “Amy, check it out. Don’t go too far though. Just see what you can see from the stairs,” Felix said. It felt strange to use his voice.

  To talk.

  There’d been no possibility of saying anything since it the shelling had started.

  Moving over to the security panel, Felix tagged the entrance to open.

  Amy nodded her head and unhesitatingly scurried up the stairs. The grinding of the bay doors was loud, but not half as loud as what they’d just gone through.

  When she got to the top she stopped.

  “I can’t get out,” she called down. “The entire room is collapsed. I can see the sky above though. We might be able to climb out? Oh my god…”

  “What is it?” Felix asked

  “I can see Powereds fighting in the sky in the distance. It’s… there’s so many. I think… I think they shelled the city,” Amy said.

  There’s no way they’d shell the city, would they? The goal isn’t to kill their own citizens. To destroy their own cities.

  They’d want to them back, wouldn’t they?

  Unless… unless they felt like they couldn’t win. That they were losing. And destroying the city was preferable?

  Does that mean… that they’d nuke the city?

  Felix froze at the thought. It was an unrealistic scenario a few months ago, but now?

  Now it might not be unthinkable. If they’re willing to bomb the city, what’s to stop them from dropping a nuke? We have to get out of the city. Have to get out, and now.

  “Gear up. Now. Don’t bother taking anything that you don’t plan on carrying for long. Because we’re only going to stop long enough at the post office to give everyone else their gear. We’re done with Tilen,” Felix commanded.

  “Why not stay here?” someone asked. Felix wasn’t quite sure who it was.

  “Because an artillery strike is only the first move. And honestly there’s no escape routes from here. This is a dead end,” Felix answered. Moving to the closest case, he picked up the rifle he’d secured for himself. It was a shortened version of a military battle rifle. Andrea had drilled him repeatedly with it and several SMGs. This was one that he’d been relentlessly trained on. She’d told him repeatedly that standard use rifles weren’t going to be useful in most city fights. Being that Legion operated in a city, it was all she would allow him to work with.

  Need to thank her. Somehow. Both of them, since they both worked on this with me.

  He’d already donned the dark fatigues, tac vest, and webbing. Felix was fully loaded with clips, grenades, a knife, and anything else he thought he’d need in city fighting.

  Grabbing one of the extra clips from the case he slipped it in and felt it click into place. He pulled the charging handle and took a slow breath. The nerves were starting to creep up on him.

  The plan was to take a group of people, with only one who had any rifle experience, another who was little more than a street thug, and two who were probably homemakers straight out into the street that was now an active war-zone, and try to get home.

  All the while dodging Skipper and her people.

  You got this.

  “Mount up. Steve, you’re on point. I’ll take the rear. Everyone else, pick a case, and get ready to hump it all the way home,” Felix said.

  Being the only other person with any sort of experience with a weapon, he was the logical person to take the front.

  They made their way up the stairs and met with their first obstacle of what felt like it was going to be a very long night.

  Hanging around the entry in broken walls and shattered objects, the pawnshop was a ruin.

  Whatever had gone on up above ground had landed squarely atop them. Only Felicia’s knack for safety measures had spared them.

  Clambering over and through the broken husk of a building, they eventually managed to get onto the street.

  Only to find it was as bad, if not worse, as the pawnshop had been.

  Gigantic craters littered the streets and holes were torn out of buildings all around.

  The city of Tilen had been attacked with artillery. This was a scene of a city not under siege, but in a war with active combatants.

  “Oh my god,” Julia said, standing on his right side. She rolled her shoulders under the weight of her bulging backpack. “I… I can’t even begin… I mean… This wasn’t a staging area. This was all civilians… we weren’t… we were just trying to survive.”

  “Unfortunately, someone decided that it was worth it, if it took care of a local Skipper resource. That’s my guess at least, but I’m pretty confident in it,” Felix said.

  Shaking his head, he started down the sidewalk, weapon couched in his shoulder and f
inger in the trigger.

  Having the situation elevated meant that everyone else would either be hunkering down, or panicking. Given that the city was already on edge before this point, and most of this entire territory seemed like it was living under apocalypse rules, Felix was betting on the latter.

  “Only one warning,” he said. “Then you fire. Keep the number of rounds low if possible to conserve ammo. It’s unlikely they’ll give you a second chance, so don’t give them one.”

  “You’re a nasty asshole, boss,” Julia said. “A man after my own heart.”

  “I’m going to give you to Miu when we’re done here. She could use a second. Then you can tell me if I’m a nasty asshole, or just a realist,” Felix said. “Let’s cut the chatter, keep an eye out.”

  Felix kept himself on high alert as they walked down the street. There were several times they heard noises from the alleys, and investigated none of them.

  This wasn’t the time to play investigative detective, and he wasn’t about to split the party either.

  At long last, the post office came into sight. Or what was left of it.

  It’d clearly taken a direct hit and the entire front was a wreck of broken bricks.

  “Move to the rear entrance. That’s probably still intact simply because of the way it’s positioned,” Felix said.

  Steve swung out to the right, his rifle held steady as he changed their direction.

  Turning the corner through the alley, they arrived at the rear parking lock and secured entry. Standing around in large groups around the lot was what could only be citizens. It was hard to tell clearly what was going on since they were only going by the light of the moon, but he could see enough.

  They were gathered around something on the ground in the corner, in the center where it looked to be an argument, and a bunch of people were battering on the rear door of the post office.

  “Back up,” Felix hissed.

  Steve backed up slowly, everyone else doing the same.

  “Drop gear and prepare for a firefight. I didn’t see any guns, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have any. Make sure you’re chambered, safety off, and have your clips ready. Try to keep your finger moving. Burst fire only. No full auto,” Felix ordered.

  Twenty seconds later, and everyone had dropped their cargo. Julia and Steve looked sure, the others looked sick.

  “You two will be up front, kneeling. I want you to try to only shoot if people start heading our way. Got it?”

  The two of them nodded at Felix.

  “Great. Julia, post up on the right and keep it clear. Steve, the left. I’ll hold the middle. Keep your fields of fire clean. If I move, move with me. To start this party off, I’ll fire a single shot over their heads. If I fire after that, light ’em up,” Felix said.

  A single breath and they were staring back into the parking lot.

  Nothing had changed.

  Everyone got into position quickly, their weapons trained on the targets.

  Aiming just above their heads, Felix fired a single round.

  In an instant the world changed.

  The single round cracked the air and echoed.

  “Clear out!” Felix called. “Now! Only warning!”

  Apparently the situation was far worse than he had thought it was. Because they all turned towards his group, and charged.

  Sighting the individual who had started moving first, Felix pulled the trigger for a split second. Before he could even determine how bad he’d hit that one, he moved on to the next target.

  Then everyone opened up and muzzle flashes lit the night.

  Nancy and Amy spent their entire clip in seconds. Both freezing up on their trigger and holding it down.

  Steve and Julia fared better, each tracking targets and firing selectively.

  They got within thirty feet of Felix and his squad, before it was clear to everyone that this wasn’t going to work. The rounds were penetrating multiple people and bodies were piling up rapidly.

  What had started as a mob rush, now quickly became a full-on retreat. Everyone tried to head back the way they came, scattering as they did.

  “Drop as many as you can. No survivors if possible,” Felix called, shooting one of the fleeing people in the back with a burst of fire.

  A dead round locked up his rifle as he sighted a woman who had almost made it to an alley.

  Hitting the bottom of the clip with his left hand he checked the trigger and found it unresponsive. Reaching up he yanked the charging handle and sent a round flying.

  Re-sighting his target, he pulled the trigger just as she cleared the corner. The two rounds he got off hit the building.

  Scanning the area, he found no upright targets.

  “Clear?” he asked.

  “Clear,” Steve responded.

  “Fuckin’ dead,” Julia said.

  Amy and Nancy said nothing.

  “Walk the field. Julia, Steve, any survivors get a blade. If you think they’re a threat, put a round in their head instead. Don’t risk getting close. Amy, Nancy, get on that door and see if you can’t get anyone inside to answer,” Felix said. “I want to go see what they were so interested in over in that corner.”

  Pulling his magazine free he looked into it. He couldn’t tell how many rounds were left in there, and he didn’t really want to find out at a critical moment. Slipping it into one of his pouches, he put in a fresh clip and then headed off for the corner.

  Keeping his distance from the unchecked bodies, Felix let his eyes scout the path out for him.

  Reaching the corner, he found something surprising.

  An Adriana.

  She was alive, though she looked like she’d been thrown through a wood-chipper from the feet up. There wasn’t much left of her from the hips down. Her left arm was gone from the forearm down as well.

  “Fuck off,” she muttered, her head turning away from him.

  One of her eyes were clear, and the other looked like it’d been partially torn out.

  Though he could see why everyone had been crowding around her.

  It was slow, probably because of the extent of the injury, but it was obvious she was healing.

  Growing tissue anew.

  “Hey there, dear,” Felix said, squatting down near her head. “It’s Felix. Going to get you some place to rest, hydrate, and put some food in your belly. I imagine if we can get you some energy and time, you’ll be right as rain. Good thing your sister passed on that regeneration power, huh?”

  Adriana turned her head back towards him and smiled brightly. She visibly relaxed from her position on the ground, tears trickling out from the corners of her eyes.

  “I found you. I found you, Felix. I found you,” she said.

  “That you did. Now, how about you let me carry you inside and we get you comfy so you can put yourself together.”

  “They threw several grenades at me. No idea where they got them,” Adriana muttered. “Bet they didn’t expect me to survive. They had to rush me when I was reloading with one hand.”

  “Yes, dear. You’re quite the soldier. Maybe we should consider pumping your power up into a crazy level and drown the world in Adrianas,” Felix said. Reaching underneath her, he gently scooped up her broken body and pulled her in against his chest.

  Adriana immediately laid her head on his shoulder, her right hand clutching at his back.

  Standing up, Felix went over to the rear entry door. Amy and Nancy were there, talking to someone through it.

  They both stopped at his approach, eying what probably looked like a corpse to them.

  “Open the door. Now. Or I swear by the dark-side of my asshole I’ll—”

  The door swung open rapidly. Derek stepped out and held it open for them. “Felix! I’m so glad you’re back. Everyone got back ok, but with the shelling, we were worried about you. Then all those people showed up and—”

  Walking past Derek without a word, Felix walked into the post office and headed straight for his sleep
ing bag.

  “Oh thank goodness. I’m so glad to see you—oh my god. Adriana?”

  Eva appeared at his side, her hands immediately going to the wounded Beastkin.

  “She’ll be alright. Her power just needs fuel to work. Start feeding her until she throws up. Fill her up with juice or food. Anything with sugar, and high in calories,” Felix said. He kicked his sleeping bag open and then slid Adriana inside.

  “Smells like you,” said the Beastkin, her one good eye focusing on him.

  “I would imagine so. Now. Anything I need to know immediately or can I debrief you later?” Felix asked.

  “Later. It can wait,” Adriana said, nodding her head.

  “Great. Lauren, Katy, Derek, with me. We need to move some crates inside and re-secure the door. We’ll also need to clear the front so we can get out. Having only one way in or out is making me itchy,” Felix said.

  He gently pulled the sleeping bag closed around Adriana and snuggled it up to her chin.

  “Rest. We’ll talk more after you’ve got more than a single limb.”

  “Nn…” Adriana said, closing her eyes. “I found you.”

  “Yes. You did.”

  Felix felt better. Having her here, in his time of need, was reality changing.

  He was positive he could get through this now.

  Taking a quick minute, Felix checked the front entrance of the post office and found that it was mostly intact, just collapsed. With a few quick checks of his power, he found he’d be able to clear it relatively quickly for an escape.

  “With me, everyone—except you, Eva, take care of Adriana,” Felix said as he passed by everyone.

  Outside there was a single shout, followed by a groan. “Bastard. You’re not getting off that easy,” Julia growled. “Try to stab me?”

  Felix stepped outside just in time to see her stomping on a man’s skull.

  “Julia, finish him up and move to the next. Better we’re not out here if anyone decides to return. We’ll need to figure out our next steps, too.”

  Grunting, Julia dropped her booted heel on the man’s windpipe, and moved to the next body without a word.

  Miu’s apprentice, indeed.