“Speaking of Neutralizer, he said the night you disappeared he felt a power trying to reach into HQ. He disrupted it as best as he could, but he’d never encountered it before and didn’t know how to do it,” Victoria said. “He’s confident he can block it if he runs up against it again though. He also shared his knowledge with his department.”
“I wonder if that’s why I ended up where I did. They didn’t get to use it the way they wanted, maybe,” Felix said. “Remind me to thank him. Actually, I have an entire list of people I need to reward and thank.”
A boom sounded out from somewhere to the left. It was a deep, resonating thing that shook the pit of his stomach.
Gunfire filled the silence afterward, only to be drowned out by a deep rumbling of a high powered machine gun.
The APCs entered what appeared to be a large single level parking lot and peeled off to the right.
When the Wardens made it into the lot, Felix realized it was anything but empty. It was bristling and full of Legion forces and equipment.
Machine gun emplacements, vehicles, even Powered soldiers were everywhere.
For all the world, it had the appearance of a fort perched on the edge of a battlefield that’d be held to the death.
Then people started to realize Miu and her Wardens had just passed the perimeter.
It started as a single cheer, and quickly progressed to a deep rumbling roar.
The Warden guard came to rest at the center of the fort.
Felix wasn’t sure where it had come from, or if it had been there, but he was happy that there was a building there. One that looked like it had thick walls and maybe a nice seat.
Kit, Lily, and Ioana trooped out of that building, and rushed over to him.
He was surprised when he saw them because they were all wearing costumes.
Kit was in what looked like her original Augur outfit. He knew she’d kept it in a locker, and hadn’t touched it since she retrieved it.
Lily was wearing a suit of the light combat armor that Miu typically favored.
Though this one was different. The black fabric had red stitching and graphics worked throughout it. The shimmer of magic bled back and forth across it as she moved. She’d clearly spent some time enchanting and modifying it.
Ioana was in a suit of armor similar to Victoria’s, though much more bulky.
“Felix!” Lily said, quickly moving to his side as Miu set him down. “Oh, thank god. Oh my god, you’re wounded.”
Unable to help himself, he smiled as Lily began to methodically check him over, her fingers light and tender.
Andrea and Adriana Prime squirmed in at Lily’s sides.
Adriana began to quickly go over his wound while Andrea fussed with his face and hair.
“Stop, back up, he’s fine. But we should get him under cover,” Kit said, muscling her way between everyone. “Here, I’ve got him.”
Lily, Adriana, and Andrea all took a step back. They all wore worried smiles, but were clearly glad to see him.
Pulling her helmet off her head, Kit smiled at him, her short hair blowing out around her. Without a gesture or word, Felix floated up off the ground. Completely supported and weightless.
The door to the building opened on its own, and Felix was floated inside.
“I imagine Miu gave you the rundown,” Kit said, following him in.
“She did. I’m not sure what good I am though. My powers have been messed with. I assume it’s a unique powerset or… well… divine intervention,” Felix said, trying not to panic at the fact that there was nothing between him and the ground.
The room was simple. A few chairs, a table, and a computer desk with a huge bank of monitors with live camera feeds.
“That’s not a problem,” Ioana said from the doorway. “Your job is to build us up and guide us. Fighting is the job of me, and my people. You’ve done everything possible, now it’s our turn to show you what we can do.”
Kit lowered Felix down into a padded chair.
Relaxing, Felix oozed into it, trying to get comfortable.
“Then you have my permission to engage as you see fit, and do what must be done. I place my full trust in you, Ioana. My Warmaiden,” Felix said.
Ioana stood up straighter, her hands clenching. She seemed as if she couldn’t respond to that.
“Go forth and conquer,” he added.
Saluting smartly, she spun on her heel and charged back outside.
Lily leaned over him, hugging him tightly, pressing his face into her shoulder. “We were all so worried,” she said into his hair.
Then Adriana and Andrea were there, hugging everyone at the same time.
“Sorry. I did everything I could to get back as quickly as I could. And before I forget… Adriana, one of your Others found me. Helped me. Provided assistance above and beyond. I’m not sure if you have a second, but I think it’d be a suitable reward for what she did for me,” Felix said.
“Nn, I can do that. Where is she?”
“Dead. She took her own life so we could move faster in escaping. She said she left her finger with you. That her current designation was forty-two,” Felix said.
Adriana nodded her head and then kissed him.
Followed by Andrea doing the same.
Lily only wrinkled her nose at them.
“I’ll wait till later, when you’re not covered in Wolfgirl slobber,” she said with a broad smile.
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 muc
h 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.”
Super Sales on Super Heroes: Book 2 Page 38
