Secondary Power: Mana Manipulation
Physical Status:
Healthy
Mental Status:
Confused
Positive Statuses:
None
Negative Statuses:
Fear
A quick glance and he confirmed everything was as he’d expected.
“Did you know you technically have a second power? Mana manipulation. Not sure if that’s intrinsic or learned.”
He flipped it over to the second sheet.
Strength:
37
Upgrade?(370)
Dexterity:
55
Upgrade?(550)
Agility:
53
Upgrade?(530)
Stamina:
42
Upgrade?(420)
Wisdom:
67
Upgrade?(670)
Intelligence:
88
Upgrade?(880)
Luck:
21
Upgrade?(210)
Primary Power:
64
Upgrade?(6,400)
Secondary Power:
59
Upgrade?(5,900)
“Hm. Alright. I have a pretty good idea about you, Lily, from a power and abilities perspective. That’s all without the context of who you are, though,” Felix said, rapidly filling in the information into the spreadsheet. “I’d appreciate it if you could tell me about you.”
Lily squirmed in her seat, wringing her hands slowly. The strong, violent mage was gone. All that was left was a woman who seemed more scared than anything.
“You can really see all that?” she asked, looking at the spreadsheet from the other side.
“Sure can. It’s my power. Up until recently, it wasn’t very useful,” Felix said a touch self-consciously. “It is what it is, though.”
Lily, pursed her lips, then spread her hands out in front of him.
“I was never anything special. Went to school, graduated, went on to get a legal degree,” Lily said, tracing the wood grain in the desk with a fingernail. “Then I had a case. Involved black magic. The kind they warn you not to get involved in.”
Lily shrugged her shoulders. “I represented him. I believed in him. Believed he was innocent. I was wrong.
“I don’t want to go into the details, but he tried to kill me, and I knocked him out instead. He wasn’t dead, but I didn’t think he’d live longer, either.
“He’d locked us in his library when he tried to kill me.”
Lily sighed, turning her head to the side.
“There wasn’t much to do. I couldn’t break the door down; it was reinforced by magic, I think. So, I started reading from the book he had laying out.
“It was full of diagrams, instructions, warnings. Spells.
“Suddenly, I pulled his soul out. I felt incredible. I… felt powerful. After a while, the magic on the door faded and I was able to escape. I called the police and they came over. It was ruled self-defense.”
Felix nodded, fascinated.
“Then later I had another case. I knew she was guilty. She’d told me so. So… I killed her and took her soul. Then another. And another. Eventually, it caught up with me, of course.
“You can’t make your clients disappear every time they appear guilty without someone noticing.”
Lily let out a slow breath and leaned back into her seat. “That’s when the goody goodies got involved. Killed a few of those, and suddenly I’m on a titanic level of power. Super souls are worth a lot more. A whole lot more.
“End up doing my own thing for years. I haven’t aged a year in a decade. And since your own power said I’m twenty-six, it sounds like I really have stopped aging. And here I am.”
Felix held up a finger. “You were a lawyer?”
“Yep. Was a trial lawyer. Defense. Did pretty well with minor crimes,” she said, a small smile sneaking across her face, only to disappear as quickly as it came.
“Great. Here,” Felix said, reaching down into a drawer. He’d stuck his contract there after coming home. Fishing it out, he laid it out on the desk in front of him. “I’d like you to read over this and tell me your thoughts.
“The problem is the board is trying to get me to pay rent that they claim I should be paying for living here. Once you’re all caught up on that, we can discuss it and see what we can do. I’m sure I’m missing something. I leave it to you.”
Lily looked at the packet of paper, then back to him. “You would have me… be your lawyer?” she asked in a small voice.
“Well, legal counsel, at the very least. I’m not sure if you were disbarred or not? It would be nice if you weren’t, though. Maybe we could get you back on track for that? Look into it and see what it’d take.”
Lily seemed awestruck at that. She picked up the packet and then looked to him. She gave him a tiny nod of her head. “I’ll do that.”
“Alright, that’s it for now. Could you send in the next person?” Felix said with a smile for her.
“Yeah. I can do that. Do… you want me to have Andrea bring in pancakes when they’re ready?”
“I’ll eat last. This is a bit more important for the moment. Thanks, Lily,” Felix said, closing the drawer and then folding his hands on the desk.
Lily walked to the door, opened it, and stepped out of the study quickly.
“Pancakes!” came back a shouted duo of voices as Lily exited. “Catch!”
There was a splat-like noise, followed by a growl and a screech.
Felicia stomped into his study, the short woman slamming the door shut with the back of her fist.
“So, you’ve stolen my wits, have you?” growled the short woman. “Made me as inept as an Elf with a weight set?”
She stomped up to his desk and slapped her hands onto the surface, glaring at him over the top of it.
“I’m not as daft as that magical tart that just left. What do I have to do to get my wits back?” she spat at him. “Do I need to start taking my clothes off here and now? Despite all your pretty words? You wouldn’t take advantage because we’d be offering?”
“Wait, stop talking,” Felix interrupted her, holding up a hand. Then he gestured to the chair. “Please, take a seat if you would. I propose a simple solution to what clearly is going to be a problematic conversation for us both. You ask a question, I’ll answer, then we go back and forth till you’re satisfied.”
Felicia glared at him, her jaw working soundlessly.
After a minute of what truly looked like she was shouting at him wordlessly, she held up her arms and looked as if she would split down the middle.
“Please, calm down, and let’s talk. Once you’ve seated yourself, I’ll remove the compulsion.”
The sound of her panting dominated the room. Slowly, she eased herself in the chair, staring murderously at him with a red face.
“You can speak. Now please, back to the beginning. What do you have to do to get your wits back was your first question.
“Now see, that’s the problem. If I give you your ‘wits’ back, I lose out on all the points that your power offers.
“And you give me one thousand five hundred and fifty. That’s a lot.”
Felica’s face scrunched into a scowl. She opened her mouth, then closed it, pressing her hands to her stomach.
“I see. Or at least, I think I do. I offer a trade. Barter, if you will.”
Felix tilted his head to one side. He was curious. What could she offer him that he couldn’t take by force?
“You say you can’t give me my ‘wits’ back because it takes your points. What if I use my wits to get you more points?”
Felix put his elbow on the desk, and then his chin into his hand. “I’m listening.”
She gave him a bright smile and leaned forward. “I’m a genius at inventing things. I can build things that would hone, empower, and build up these girls’ powers. Perhaps even a machine that could enhance them permanen
tly. But I’d need my wits to do it.”
“It’d need to be permanent for it to affect my point pool,” Felix said. Sighing, he sat upright again. “Give me a bit with your points. I need them for a time. Then we can see about giving you your wits back. There’s a lot of work to be done right now in the short term.”
“Unless you want to give me a specific order for every little thing, you’ll be giving me part of my wits back,” she said.
“I can’t. But I’ll make you a deal. What can I do for you now that you’d accept as an act of good will? Something you want for yourself that would show you that giving me some time is truly in all of our interests.”
She eyed him, her argument frozen on her tongue. “How much can you change? One of them ninnies said you can change us.”
“Quite a bit. What’d you have in mind?”
“Can you make me taller?”
Felix stopped himself from instantly replying. Kit had opened his mind to new possibilities.
Instead, he focused on Felicia and what he believed would be more in line with her “character sheet” for things relating to her physical appearance.
Much as it had happened before, a new window surfaced. One that had all of Felicia’s measurements in it.
Her height was listed at a paltry four foot eleven. And it would only cost him a hundred points to bump her up an inch.
“I sure can, what kind of height did you have in mind?”
“Ah. Oh. Ergh,” Felicia mumbled, scratching her shoulder. “Maybe, five foot four? That’s still short, but… not child short? I guess?”
Felix looked back to the screen and tapped it five times. It’d cost him six hundred points in total. The height was still below average, so it didn’t seem to cost that much.
“Done. Anything else?” he asked, looking up at Felicia.
She whispered something that he didn’t quite catch.
“Sorry, I missed that. One more time?”
“I want to be a D-cup,” Felicia said angrily, meeting his eyes.
Felix blinked, unsure of how to respond.
Then he shrugged. It didn’t matter to him what breast size she was. A glance at the window told him she was an AA cup.
Below average again. How much will it cost?
Felix flicked the button four times and the cost went up to fourteen hundred points even. It was less than what she was worth for one day. It’d only take him a day to replenish his point values. If he had to do this for everyone, it’d be annoying, but not the end of the world.
He’d call everything a bargain and spend today lounging around. Maybe convert something small to silver.
“Done. Anything else?” Felix asked again.
Felicia looked to her chest, then back to him. “I don’t—”
“Once I confirm the changes, they’ll happen. You may want to unhook your bra. Going from AA to D… yeah, it’s going to be significant.”
Felicia turned a deep scarlet red and then reached behind her back and into her shirt. There was a soft click and her clothes shifted.
“I’m ready.”
He hit the button and leaned back to watch.
Felicia stood up rapidly in surprise. Her body began expanding rapidly in multiple ways.
Ten seconds later and it was all over. Her clothes had split at the hip and shoulders, and her increased bosom pulled the fabric tight in the front of her shirt.
“Glad we had this talk, Felicia. Now, could you send in the next person?” Felix said with a smile at the half-breed Dwarven woman, who now looked much more like a human than her heritage would have normally allowed.
Chapter 8 - Boldly -
The two Andreas were looking at him, unspeaking.
He’d already gone through everyone else, each person having minor requests here or there. By the end, he’d spent five thousand of his points.
“Want me to go make more pancakes?” Andrea One said.
“Let us make you more,” Andrea Prime said.
“No, no. I’ve had my share. Remember?” Felix asked. He was concerned. She’d already said that twice.
“Yes,” they said in unison.
“But pancakes make people happy,” Prime said.
“And you seem sad,” One said.
Felix shook his head and pointed at Andrea Prime. “How long can your clone remain with you? How many can you have at one time?”
“She can remain forever. There’s no time limit or anything. It can get annoying to sleep in the same bed. We often combine back together at night.
“As to how many… I’m not sure? We can’t count how many are inside of us. I think we had two hundred out at one time? That was a hard day,” Prime said. One nodded her head at that, crossing her arms in front of her.
“I… see. So, rather than clones, it’s more like multiple versions of you existing at the same time?” Felix asked slowly.
Andrea Prime blinked, and then looked at him with a smile. “Want more pancakes?”
“Ah, no.” Felix pressed the fingers of his right hand to his temple. “Andrea, do you want anything?”
He began to call up her window for her stats and powers.
Name:
Andrea Elex
Power: Multiple Self Projections
Alias: Andrea, Andie, Lex, Myriad.
Secondary Power: Partitioned Mind
Physical Status:
Healthy
Mental Status:
Happy
Positive Statuses:
None
Negative Statuses:
None
Strength:
44
Upgrade?(440)
Dexterity:
62
Upgrade?(620)
Agility:
71
Upgrade?(710)
Stamina:
51
Upgrade?(510)
Wisdom:
81
Upgrade?(810)
Intelligence:
17
Upgrade?(170)
Luck:
53
Upgrade?(530)
Primary Power:
31
Upgrade?(3,100)
Secondary Power:
79
Upgrade?(7,900)
“I’d like to get married one day,” Prime said with a smile.
“Have children,” One added.
“Oh yes, children. Dating is hard, though. We keep getting tricked by bad men,” said Prime.
One looked at Prime and patted her on the head gently.
Felix was quickly losing himself in the meandering nature of Andrea. That and it was depressing.
He’d briefly considered changing some stats as he went through the meetings, but he ended up leaving everyone with their starting numbers.
He’d almost increased Lily’s luck, since it was so awful, but had decided against it.
Here, though, talking to Andrea, he wasn’t considering it—he was already running out the numbers in his head.
For two thousand one hundred and fifty points, he could push her intelligence up to twenty-six. It didn’t seem like much, but maybe it’d put her on par with a teenager.
Quickly making the adjustments, and tuning out the conversation she was having with herself about dating, he hoped there would be immediate improvements.
Prime and One both immediately stopped talking, their heads whipping around to view him.
“You changed us,” they said in concert.
“I did. Is that a problem?” Felix asked carefully.
They looked at each other, as if they were speaking without speaking, then looked back to him.
“No. Why spend points on us? We’re not like the others. We’re not really good for anything. You covet your points.”
Felix couldn’t answer that. Yes, talking to her was annoying, but he could just as easily have sent her out of the room.
“I don’t know. They say ignorance is bliss, but… I don’t know. Never mind that. Is
there anything else you want now?” he asked, diverting the question.
Mostly because he couldn’t answer it. He didn’t like the thoughts he was having. Andrea was too close to his own social ineptitude from his teenager years.
“No. But… thank you. I’m happy being me. But maybe later you can let me bring out more of me? They get crowded in there after a while and it’s easier the more I can bring out.”
“Uhm, yeah. Sure. We could work something out. Though I think it’ll be a bit,” Felix said cautiously.
“Okay! Do you modify yourself at all? I don’t think I could resist the temptation if I could,” Prime said.
“I can’t. I’ve tried many times, but… I can’t. I don’t know why.”
“Oh. What about the house? You should modify it.”
“I don’t own it.”
“Buy one, then! Then upgrade it! We need more bedrooms,” Prime explained. One nodded along next to her.
Felix started to argue with her, then realized she was right. Beyond right, even. It was so obvious it hurt. He wasn’t thinking big enough.
A pawn shop is good, but a house… A house I could build into a massive mega house with custom defenses and…
“You’re brilliant, Andrea,” Felix claimed, smiling at her.
“First time I’ve heard that,” Prime said.
“Me, too,” One agreed.
Time moved faster than Felix thought it could have. In no time at all, a month had passed since his last estate meeting.
He was dressed in a business suit again, staring up at that horrid sign that had come to represent so much hate for him.
So much anger.
Up until a few days ago when Lily had come to see him.
What had felt originally to be an unfair match now felt to him as if he had the high ground. The high ground and more troops.
And a nuke.
Grinning, he looked across to the passenger seat. Lily was dressed smartly in a black jacket, a slim black dress, and a red blouse. She’d pinned her hair up and had the look of someone going into battle.
Super Sales on Super Heroes Page 8
