“Kit, can you—”
“I’m sorry, they’re beyond my reach.”
“Shit on a stick. Alright… fuck.” He didn’t want to give up on his trophies, but it was looking a lot like they’d hit his pawn shop at the same time.
“Ioana, Felicia, and the shop phone aren’t being answered either,” Lily said, lowering the cell phone.
Damn. I can try to get them back home, but that’ll take time.
“Lily, take their souls, then call a tow truck for our car. Kit, call No-Name and tell him there’s some heroes here for pickup. We can split the bounty with him.”
Lily and Kit started doing as he’d requested as he fished out his own phone.
“And what are you doing?” Eva asked him.
“Seeing what our fastest route home is. If there’s a used car lot nearby, that’d be the quickest. Cash talks, bullshit walks. A taxi is good, but that’d leave a trail. Mass transit is slow.
“No, no. We’re going to crush this problem with our wallet.”
Lily slid them into the garage in their new used car. He’d paid a prick price for it, but it’d gotten them home quick.
And too late at that.
Even as Felix stepped out of the car, he knew they’d been attacked. There was no question of that.
All around the warehouse floor were signs of violence. Corpses, body parts, smashed items, and even a fire.
Felix surveyed the scene and then lifted his hands to his mouth. “Hey! Anyone here?” he called.
There was a distant response from the front office. He couldn’t make out what it was, but it was something.
“It’s Miu,” Kit said, stepping out of the passenger side. “No one here is a threat.”
Felix took off at a trot towards the front office.
As soon as he crossed the threshold, he found all three of his people.
Felicia looked like her jaw had been shattered. It hung at a strange angle, and didn’t look right. She also had a hand pressed to a bloody shoulder.
Miu looked more like raw meat. Wounds covered her arms and torso. Her forearm hung grotesquely from her elbow, attached by only a few bits of flesh. A tourniquet was tied around her bicep where it met the elbow.
Ioana was lying down on the ground, a sword wedged in her guts. Blood welled up around the weapon with every breath. Frothy bubbles gathered on her lips.
Her left leg was mangled and broken in several places. Bone jutted out from her lower shin.
Her glassy eyes found him and seemed to focus for a second.
“Stop lying down on the job,” Felix said to Ioana, calling up her window.
Name:
Ioana Iliescu
Power: Enhanced Reactions
Alias: War Maiden
Secondary Power: Combat Mastery
Physical Status:
Fatally Wounded
Mental Status:
Shock
Positive Statuses:
None
Negative Statuses:
Bleeding Out
Strength:
84
Upgrade?(840)
Dexterity:
73
Upgrade?(730)
Agility:
62
Upgrade?(620)
Stamina:
77
Upgrade?(770)
Wisdom:
36
Upgrade?(360)
Intelligence:
41
Upgrade?(410)
Luck:
51
Upgrade?(510)
Primary Power:
31
Upgrade?(3,100)
Secondary Power:
82
Upgrade?(8,200)
Status Correction: Expand for List (Over 200 items) -> Healed
Correct Status? (10,000 points)
Felix hit the accept button and then drew up Miu’s screen.
Name:
Miu Miki
Power: Multiplicative Base
Alias: Miu
Secondary Power: None
Physical Status:
Gravely Wounded
Mental Status:
Flustered
Positive Statuses:
None
Negative Statuses:
Concerned
Strength:
43
Upgrade?(840)
Dexterity:
53
Upgrade?(730)
Agility:
51
Upgrade?(620)
Stamina:
52
Upgrade?(770)
Wisdom:
46
Upgrade?(360)
Intelligence:
40
Upgrade?(410)
Luck:
49
Upgrade?(510)
Primary Power:
75
Upgrade?(3,100)
Secondary Power:
--
Upgrade?(--)
Status Correction: Expand for List (Over 50 items) -> Healed
Correct Status? (5,000 points)
Felix hit that accept button on her, too.
Next, he turned his thoughts to Felicia.
Name:
Felicia Fay
Power: Mechanical Understanding
Alias: None
Secondary Power: Magical Enhancement
Physical Status:
Wounded
Mental Status:
None
Positive Statuses:
None
Negative Statuses:
None
Strength:
62
Upgrade?(620)
Dexterity:
57
Upgrade?(570)
Agility:
29
Upgrade?(290)
Stamina:
44
Upgrade?(440)
Wisdom:
41
Upgrade?(410)
Intelligence:
78
Upgrade?(780)
Luck:
31
Upgrade?(310)
Primary Power:
62
Upgrade?(6,200)
Secondary Power:
64
Upgrade?(6,400)
Status Correction: Broken Jaw -> Healed
Correct Status? (2,000 points)
Tapping the accept button, he looked back to Ioana. The sword that had been embedded in her stomach simply reappeared next to her, swathed in blood.
The warrior queen stared at him uncomprehendingly, her eyes clear and no longer holding over the glaze of pain and imminent death that they had before.
“You done sleeping? I’m tired of the game we’re playing with these fools. Soon as midnight hits and our points restock, we’re going to go storm the damn place and take their heads.”
“Sweet mercy and grace of the gods above and below,” Eva said from behind him. “She looked like a corpse. They both did.”
Felix looked to Miu, who had turned her head in a different direction, avoiding his eyes. It was clear she was in perfect health again.
Felix grunted and then walked off back to the car.
He had a promise to keep to a certain Beastkin.
“He healed them instantly. Instantly!” Eva nearly shouted at Kit.
“Yes, I know. Get a mop and a broom. We’ll need to clean this place up. Andrea’s not going anywhere for a while, so she won’t be able to get working on this,” Kit said to the young girl. “Truth be told, neither am I. My head is killing me.”
Opening the rear passenger door, Felix reached in and gathered up the spent Beastkin. He did his best to not pinch, crimp, or bend her tail as he did so.
“Thank you,” Andrea murmured as she oozed into his arms, laying her head on his shoulder.
Felix only grunted and carried her off to her bedroom.
“No, please don’t,” Andrea murmured softly.
Ignoring her, he managed to get he
r door open with one hand while still holding her.
Taking a step into her room, he now understood a few things that he hadn’t previously.
His clothes were heaped up in a pile where her covers should have been.
“I’m sorry,” Andrea said.
Felix didn’t respond, but instead carried her over to the center of that pile.
There, in the middle of his dirty clothes, there was a circle that looked like it was big enough to sleep in.
She’d turned it into a den.
Laying her in the middle of that circle, he adjusted her clothes a bit, trying to make her as comfortable as he could.
Andrea snuggled into her bed, and his clothes, and lay still.
Felix crept from the room, closing the door with a click behind him.
Popping open Felicia’s character screen, he slid her draw to three hundred percent.
Moving to the front office, he found Kit was lying down behind the counter, fast asleep. He wasn’t sure if she had fallen there or laid down.
Didn’t matter.
“Felicia. I’ve put your wits at a level unsurpassed by anyone on this planet. Make our home a fortress. I expect plans by tomorrow morning,” Felix said.
Leaving, he went to go find a place to nap for a bit. When midnight came, he wanted to be ready.
They’d parked around the corner from the restaurant and sat with the lights off.
Ioana, Kit, Lily, and Miu were with him. Felicia, Eva, and Andrea were at home.
“It’s them. These are the people who attacked us. I can feel their worry. They’re wondering why no one has checked in. Everyone they sent out is hours overdue. They have people watching the street and everyone is twitchy,” Kit said from beside him.
“We should tell them they’re being turned into sausage. Ease they’re minds on where their minions are,” Ioana growled. “So help me, they’ll be next.”
Felix said nothing for a few seconds. “Any innocents in there?”
“Everyone in there is a criminal. It seems like they’re a criminal organization almost like… well, a mafia. Or a gang. In fact, quite a few of these people know about other organizations in the city. I had no idea.”
“Heroes really only looked at villains. Gangs and the like were left to the police,” Felix explained.
“I suppose. Well, most everyone in there was in on the attack on us or knew about it. But…”
“But?”
“But not all of them. Some had no idea. Pretty sure Dimitry’s people are in there, too. I don’t feel Dimitry, though.”
“Damn. I don’t want to get Dimitry involved if we don’t have to. He could be useful as information after this. Or even just an ally.
“Ioana, I want you through the front door. Get in as quick as you can. I don’t want anyone escaping, and the longer we’re in the street, the more likely police will be coming.
“Lily, stay on her heels and play long-range support. I doubt you’ll get halfway down the street before they open fire.
“Kit, I want you to put a thought into everyone’s head who wasn’t in on the attack that tonight is a bad night to be brave. That if they were to lay down and not move, they might find themselves left alone. After that, stay safe here and do what you can.
“Miu, you’re with me.”
Felix opened the door and stepped out.
A second later and Ioana, Lily, and Miu did as well.
Lily and Ioana took off at a pace akin to a leisurely walk. Ioana unlimbered her sword and Lily began calling runes into existence. She was getting better every time with them. Faster. Denser.
In a handful of seconds, Ioana had a small silhouette of power outlining her body, followed quickly by one that enveloped Lily.
Whoever was on watch wasn’t slacking. Twenty or so people rushed out of the restaurant the second Lily and Ioana crossed into the street. The muffled bark of pistols with silencers could be heard following that. They weren’t waiting or taking chances.
Either they own the cops, or the neighborhood. You don’t fire guns in the street that brazenly otherwise.
Guns with silencers are still loud.
Felix and Miu eased back around the corner and peered around.
Bullets crashed into the silhouette of power and fell to the ground.
Realizing that bullets were pointless, they switched from pistols to knives and whatever they could find close at hand.
Two men in trench coats stood to the rear of the battle. They started to glow faintly. One waved his arms through the air while the other held perfectly still.
A bolt of electricity crackled from Lily’s palm and speared through the chest of the one holding still.
As Ioana walked forward, she swung her blade in wide, swift arcs when people got close enough. She took hands, arms, or lives with each flick of the sword.
“Once they’re inside, grab whatever corpses or body parts you can and let’s get it inside,” Felix said distastefully. “While I doubt the police will be coming, I’d rather not tempt fate.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Kit said from behind him.
Looking over his shoulder to her, he managed to keep himself from asking why she had gotten out of the car.
When he looked back, Ioana was just entering the building. Miu led them into the street at a slow walk, her eyes scanning the area as they went.
Bodies, both dying and dead, and body parts, were lifted from the ground and moved back to the restaurant in a parody of a parade.
Miu entered the building and then Felix followed behind her after a few seconds.
The sound of battle could be heard from deeper inside.
A man in a white collared shirt rushed at them with a bat from a side room.
Miu stepped in front of him and swept her arm across her body, intercepting the man’s arm. The man was disarmed before he could even swing his weapon.
Taking a grip on the bat, Miu brought it up from below and cracked into the man’s chin.
There was a sick pop and he dropped to the ground.
Searching the room with her dark eyes, Miu confirmed there was no one else.
Felix patted Miu on the shoulder. “Good show.”
Then he followed the trail of bodies and destroyed furniture Ioana and Lily had wrought.
The confidence the enemy had was surprising. Corpses were everywhere.
If Felix had been cornered like this, he would have had everyone scramble and get out.
Pride is a commodity that can be purchased again later.
One’s life is not.
As Felix entered yet another back office, he caught only the tail end of Lily disappearing down a trapdoor.
“The hell is this? It’s so damn cliché,” Felix muttered.
“Clichés exist because they’re based in reality.” Miu shoved him gently to one side and entered the trapdoor ahead of him.
“She’s not wrong,” Kit said, pushing him to the side again when he tried to move to the trapdoor.
Felix couldn’t argue with their demeanor. He was nothing more than a civilian.
Maybe I should have Miu and Ioana train me. This is getting pathetic. I might as well remain at the shop and send them out on missions like a starship captain.
Go get ‘em, Number One. I’ll sit here and mind the coffee.
Felix sighed and then dropped down the trapdoor.
At the bottom of the ladder was a simple entry room with a single doorway.
Ioana, Lily, Miu, and Kit were standing around what looked like a desk in the other room.
Felix walked in, looking around in each corner as he did so.
It was a rather well-decorated study.
My office looks horrible in comparison.
Sitting behind the desk was a man with an iron circlet around his brow.
He looked smug. A man without a care in the world.
“I can’t get into his head. That pretty princess crown of his is keeping me out, I’d bet. Enchanted, probab
ly,” Kit said, turning her head to Felix.
Ioana grunted and then moved around to the other side of the desk.
Then he saw Felix. His eyes glazed over, his pupils rapidly expanding as if he were in complete darkness.
Then the man lifted a pistol from his lap that no one had noticed. He leveled it at Felix and pulled the trigger. The bullet slammed into the shield around Ioana, who stood between him and the gun.
Before the boom of the first shot even registered, the man swiftly placed the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger again without hesitation.
The two shots from the handgun in the small room made Felix jump. Blood began pumping out of the man’s skull in rhythm with his still beating heart. It quickly covered the desk and started to pool on the ground.
That looked strange. As if he was commanded to.
“Lily, take his soul before it escapes. Kit, was this the man giving orders? On top of that question, I take it you can’t read anything if his brain has a bullet in it?” Felix asked.
“It was him, and no, I can’t read his mind now,” she said softly.
Lily gave herself a visible shake and then laid her hand on the dead man’s shoulder.
The purple haze surrounded Lily and the man for a few seconds and then vanished. It seemed quicker than usual, but Felix didn’t care to ask about it.
Instead, he went to the coatrack in the corner and pulled a jacket off it. Walking back over to the man, he threw it over his head.
“Search the room for anything that might tell us information. Leave the valuables. Let’s get out of here quick like. Once the bleeding dies down, let’s take that thing he had on his head. I’d like to be gone in five minutes, so chop, chop, people.”
It took a moment, but everyone started moving even as the man continued to bleed out.
Super Sales on Super Heroes Page 15
