Kit slowed for a second, but then continued on as if nothing had changed.
Felix said nothing, and instead held up the list he’d made. Scratching off toilet paper, he looked around himself to figure out what was next.
“They’re so quiet. It’s like constant muttering,” Kit said, reaching up to pull down a pack of paper plates. “Put it to one percent.”
Felix obliged, and then checked his account balance.
Kit was listed as one thousand four hundred and eighty-five points now. Exactly ninety-nine percent of her value.
“I really have to focus to hear anything. To the point that it hurts. Urgh. How about five percent?”
Felix flicked the slider over four percentage points.
“I can hear them if I think about it. That’s… rather nice, really. Do you mind leaving it there?”
Felix wasn’t going to worry over something like seventy points right now. Not when he could always take it back just as quickly. “Sure.”
“Thanks. You’re an okay guy for a slaveowner.”
Felix chuckled at that and shook his head. “You’re a smart, telepathic lady. Read my thoughts. You’ll find I’m not that nice.”
Kit stopped dead in her tracks and slowly looked at him. She tilted her head to one side, then the other. “I can’t. I actually can’t… read your mind. I’ve never had that happen. Put it to one hundred percent real quick.”
Doing as she requested, he popped it up to zero percent draw and looked to her.
She staggered as if struck and then looked at him. Her eyebrows drew down, and he got the feeling she was exerting immense pressure to open his mind.
Felix looked around to see if anyone was watching. It looked more like she was angry at him than anything. It was honestly rather embarrassing.
An old woman passed by them, eyeing Kit, then him. Felix made an apologetic gesture at the woman and gave her a weak smile.
“I can’t,” Kit said finally, shaking her head. “I actually can’t read your mind.”
Felix flipped her back up to ninety-five percent draw and then shrugged. “Okay? Goodie goodie for me. I’m betting it has to do with the slave master thing.”
Stepping in front of Kit, he took the cart and got them rolling again.
“No, you don’t understand. I can’t tell if you’re lying or telling the truth.”
“Okay? Yeah, that’s normal. Welcome to being human.” Felix shook his head and turned the cart across the back aisle towards the dairy section.
“You’re right. So, tell me, then,” Kit said, grabbing a two-gallon jug of whole milk.
“Tell you what? The slaveowner thing?” Felix scratched off milk from his list and then pointed at the cheese section.
Kit nodded her head and grabbed a bag of shredded cheese.
“You’re a source of power. A battery. Income,” Felix explained slowly. He wasn’t sure why he was telling her this. He was giving up some power over them in favor of… trust, maybe?
“Ah. I see. Keep us happy, healthy, and cooperative and it’s easier for everyone.” Kit nodded her head, dropping the cheese into the cart.
Felix grunted his agreement, immediately moving the cheese into the right spot.
“Smart. I get it. I think I’d probably do the same. Well, if we—” Kit stopped, a smile frozen on her face. “Someone is watching us. They recognized me as Augur. The things he’s pushing at me mentally are… can you turn it off? Please?”
Felix nodded his head and pushed her back up to a full draw.
Kit blinked and then laughed suddenly, pressing her hands to her stomach. “Oh, that’s rather nice. No helmet required, just… boop, gone. Haaaaa. Other than the whole slave thing, this is rather nice. What’s next on the list?”
Looking to the list, Felix scratched at his head. “Meat. Ioana wants a lot of meat.”
“Meat!” Kit said loudly. She jumped up on the back of the cart, sending it skittering forward as she pointed towards the indicated section.
Sighing, Felix followed along behind her. He didn’t blame her for her actions. He imagined her life up to this point had probably been full of the thoughts and emotions of others.
She lived for herself now.
Well, through me, for herself. All fifteen hundred points of herself.
Felix stopped dead, staring at nothing.
He had two thousand eight hundred and fifty points.
A grin popped up over his face, and suddenly, the world seemed a much brighter place.
Felix smiled at Miu and Ioana as they opened the garage door. Felix turned the keys and shut the car off. Opening his door, he tossed the keys to Miu.
Giving them a quick wave, he slipped by them and entered the house.
“What?” Miu asked, catching the keys and looking to him.
“If you could please unload the car, I’ll take care of lunch in a bit. I’m sorry, and thank you,” Felix said over his shoulder, heading straight to his uncle’s study.
“Why? What’s wrong?” Ioana called after him. “Felix!”
“Gotta check something. Might just solve a whole buncha problems.”
Felix opened a dresser drawer and pulled out a solid ingot of lead. It weighed five pounds and had been one of his early experiments.
He knew that he didn’t have the points to turn it into gold.
Focusing on the heavy metal, he called up the window for it.
Picking the “material” section, he changed it to silver, then looked at the point value needed.
Two thousand points. Exactly as he remembered it from when he’d tried different materials.
Grinning, he hit the confirm button. The five-pound lead bar was replaced with a five-pound silver bar.
Laughing, he picked up the bar and flipped it over in his hands. It was real. It existed. It worked.
“We’re in business.”
“And what business is that?” Ioana asked from the door, her arms folded across her chest.
Felix looked to her and gave her a big smile. “Whatever we want it to be. First, we need to buy a lot of cheap metal. Whole lot of it.”
Then Felix realized something even better. He could quit whenever he wanted if this went as he hoped it would.
Chapter 5 - Slow Joe -
“Alright,” Felix said finally, looking over to the three women standing in the doorway. “I’m going to head out to a pawn shop and sell this.”
Wagging the silver bar at the women, he gave them a smile.
“Why a pawn shop?” Ioana asked.
“Because they’re less likely to ask questions. After that, I’ll need to pick up some more lead bars. This one I got from an auction sale for a scuba school. I figure I can hit another one for more weights. That or fishing supplies. They use weights, right?”
“What if they’re not pure lead?” Miu asked quietly.
“Then it might cost a few extra points, or fewer. So long as most of it is there, it should be relatively the same. Besides, I can check it now before I buy it. Thanks to Kit.”
Felix wormed his way between the three of them and grabbed his uncle’s keys.
He wasn’t going to be using his car anytime soon since it still had groceries in it.
Sliding the door open, he hopped in and jammed the keys into the ignition. As the garage door started to open, Miu opened the passenger door and got in next to him.
“I will accompany you,” she said. Reaching for his hand, she snagged the silver bar from him and then buckled her seatbelt.
“Alright,” Felix said uneasily. A single glance over his shoulder to confirm it was clear, and he backed them out of the garage quickly.
He really only knew of one pawn shop. It would have probably been a good idea to do some research and figure out the best one to go to.
Felix couldn’t help himself, though. He was excited.
An income that couldn’t be taxed, written off through cash, and done on a daily level.
No, he was beyond excit
ed.
Miu said nothing the entire ride over. She quietly flipped the bar over and over in her hands as she sat there.
She’d apparently gotten a hold of one of his hoodies and looked very similar to Kit in her style of dress.
As her name would imply, she was clearly of an Asian heritage. He’d have guessed Japanese, but he was truly awful at figuring out people’s ethnicity. That and it didn’t matter that much to him.
In a world filled with Elves, Dwarves, Beastkin, and every other fairytale creature under the sun, race didn’t matter that much.
She was a touch prettier than Kit, though her face held no emotion. She seemed more akin to a doll at times.
Felix shook himself from his thoughts as he pulled into a parking spot in front of the pawn shop.
“May I handle the sale?” Miu asked, patting the silver against her palm.
Felix looked at her and then nodded once. “Sure. You might be able to get more than me anyways. Being pretty helps.
“Sell it, don’t pawn it. I was hoping to get at least eighty percent of the melt value for silver.”
Miu nodded her head and then got out of the car, walking straight for the front door. Felix locked the car and fell in behind her.
Right up until she headed for the sales counter.
Felix turned off to one side to look around.
All around him were things that the pawn shop had purchased and was reselling. Jewelry, instruments, weapons, anything and everything.
And if I were the owner of this shop, I could upgrade and resell at an even higher price.
Screw transmutation. Pawn shop! We’ll do this alchemist thing for a bit, buy a pawn shop, then really get the money rolling in.
Felix grinned, leaning into a display case and doing hypothetical point checks on watches, rings, necklaces, earrings.
It was all well within his power to turn these low-grade metal pieces into much more expensive ones. Even if he only did everything in silver. Or converted a low-value gold into a higher-value gold.
Or diamonds.
Technically, diamonds would be easier than gold, since diamonds are more common. Hah. This is it.
Or if he got really lucky, a damaged antique.
Fixing something that had a low material value but a high intrinsic value.
That’s the real money.
“I got you ninety percent.” Miu sidled up next to him. “Going to buy us jewelry?”
“No. Besides, this is all rather cheap. But this trip did give me an idea. A big one, in fact.” He turned and exited the pawn shop quickly, getting back into the car. It wasn’t until they were both seated and the car had been fired up that he continued.
“We’re going to buy a pawn shop. Or make one. We’ll pay a bit more than others to purchase items to draw customers in. Then I modify, fix, or whatever, then we sell it at a higher return. It’s perfect.”
Miu digested that, turning her head to one side. Black hair as dark as night covered her deep brown eyes. “Yes. I think that would be a good direction. Though I do not think you have the money for this, no?”
“No. Not yet. But you have to spend it to make it. And that,” Felix said, pointing to the money in Miu’s hand, “is the start. Off to buy some lead. Then I have to get ready for work tomorrow. If I can get myself fired, they have to give me a paycheck immediately. I think I have something like four weeks of vacation accrued and several weeks of sick time. By law, they have to pay it out to me as it was earned time, not given.”
Miu raised her eyebrows at that, then gave him a small smile. “Bold. And stupid. Craven, too.”
“Sounds like me, I guess.” Felix shrugged, backing up out of the parking space.
Felix walked through the front door of the fast food restaurant where he spent his days with a big shit-eating grin. Dropping his time card into the punch clock two hours early, he immediately called his regional manager.
Much to his surprise, he heard a phone going off from his office. Spinning towards the door to his office, he lifted the handle and turned it.
It opened easily enough and he found Joe hunched over his computer. Pecking at the keys, he glanced up as Felix entered.
“There you are. Kind of you to actually show up. Now, I need—”
“Fuck off, Joe,” Felix said with a grin. “Actually, first. Janessa!”
The woman whom Felix had learned to loathe jerked in response to his sudden shout. She was in the back, putting on makeup, of course.
“You’re fired. Here’s your final paycheck. I took care of it this morning through accounting. Go finish your makeup in your car.” Felix held out the final check to her.
He’d spent the better part of his morning going over Joe’s head to HR, payroll, and legal.
Joe was going to be in a world of hurt once HR started up its investigation. For now, this was more of a means to an end.
Janessa snatched the paper from his hands with a squawk. She looked between him and Joe, then fled the building quickly.
Felix entered the rest of the way into his office and then closed the door. He sat down in a chair in front of Joe with a huff.
“What the fu—”
“Shut up, Joe.” Felix shook his head and rolled his eyes. “We all know you only kept her on to try and bang her. Don’t worry, I’m sure you can hire her on somewhere else.”
He grinned at the sweating regional manager. It’d only make it worse for him when he had to explain that.
“One more word and I’ll have you fired—”
“Then do it. Fire me. Now.”
“Felix, what the he—”
“Fire me, you disgusting bastard. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve covered for your incompetence? No? Whatever. Fire me.”
“You’re asking me to fire you.”
“No, I’m calling you a disgusting piece of shit.”
Joe glared at him and then leaned forward with a sick smile. “You’re fired. Effective immediately.”
“Great. Here’s what you owe me. I’ve already made sure of everything with payroll and accounting in advance. Let me just get them on the phone,” Felix said, laying down a slip of paper with his balance sheet on it. In the other hand, he dialed up HR.
It was going to be a hell of a final paycheck that would probably screw up Joe’s entire bottom line for the month. With any luck, the store would underperform at the same time.
Going to be a bad month for you, Joe.
“Hello, this is Susan.”
“Hey, Susan? This is Felix. We spoke earlier. Joe has officially fired me.”
“I see. Could you please put me on speaker so I can confirm this?” came back the voice on the other end.
Felix set his phone down in front of himself and thumbed the speaker phone button.
“You’re on,” Felix said.
“Hi, Joe, this is Susan over at Human Resources. I understand you’ve terminated Felix from his position?”
Joe looked confused, glaring first at Felix then his phone. Clearing his throat, he leaned over the phone. “That is, we were—”
“You told me I was fired. Effective immediately. Did you not?” Felix said, grinning at Joe.
Hesitating for a moment more, Joe finally nodded his head. “Yes. Felix is terminated immediately.”
“Thank you,” came back Susan’s voice.
Felix flipped it off speaker and put it back to his ear.
“Alright, Susan, you’re back with me now. Was that all you needed?”
“Yes. Was this immediately after you terminated Janessa?” Susan asked.
“Sure was. About two minutes.”
“I’m sorry about this. We’ll be in touch with you soon. I’ve cleared your final paycheck to your account.”
“Whatever. Doesn’t matter,” Felix said, disconnecting the line.
“Alright. With that, I’m done. You’re a scumbag, Joe. I hope you get what’s coming to you in the future,” Felix said brightly.
Getting
out of the chair, Felix opened the door, tossed his name badge on a counter, and walked right back out the front door.
Stepping outside, Felix stretched his arms over his head and then sighed with a smile.
That had been refreshing.
Felix jumped when his phone started ringing in his hand.
Looking down at the caller ID, he frowned. He didn’t recognize the number.
Lifting it to his ear, he thumbed the call accept button.
“This is Felix,” he said, walking to his car.
“Hey, Felix,” came the smooth voice of Marcus. Caldwell.
He didn’t give a flying pig’s ass what the man called himself.
“Hey, Caldwell. More merchandise already?”
“Hey, hey. It’s Leon today. And yeah, merchandise. Kind of. There’s an auction going down in three hours. I only found out about it a few minutes ago. Got you an invitation.
“Different this time, though. No damaged goods. Price will be higher accordingly, of course.”
Felix looked down at his feet, his keys forgotten in his hand. “How much higher would that be?”
“Last numbers I looked at, it seemed like the average price was about ten to eleven thousand per.”
He grunted at the number. He didn’t have that and wouldn’t have that. It was beyond his means. A pity, since—
“Alright. Give me the address,” Felix said, making a snap decision.
Sell my car and pull out the paycheck in the bank, that’s about twelve.
“Alright, alright. I’ll text you the address. See you there, Felix.”
Looking up from the hood of his car, he saw the loan shark across the street. The man operated out of a restaurant that he coincidentally owned.
This is a terrible idea. This is truly an awful idea.
He couldn’t manage a thought other than how much of a bad idea this was. Right up to the point that Felix found himself standing in front of said loan shark.
“I need twenty grand,” Felix said without preamble, introduction, or thought.
The loan shark blinked and looked at him in confusion. Then he started laughing and pointed at Felix.
“A man who knows exactly what he wants and doesn’t waste my time. I’m Dimitry.”
“Felix.” Holding out his hand to Dimitry, he shook it briefly. Then he was pulled in close to the man, who pulled open Felix’s shirt to look inside.
Super Sales on Super Heroes Page 5
