Super Sales on Super Heroes 6 -Ch 20-

Chapter 20 - Perspective -

Felix was looking at the satellite image of the building they were heading to. It was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a fence, and was off the main road.

There wouldn’t be a way to approach it, without it being uncomfortably obvious they were heading that way. Any visit they made to Travis would be spotted, one way or another.

The surprising part was that this wasn’t the first time the man had gotten in the way of Legion. He’d been able to create weapons that’d nearly killed some of his Dragons.

“It’s certainly in the middle of nowhere,” Lily mused from the seat directly next to him. She had an arm around his shoulders and was leaning into him. Staring at his phone over his shoulder. Before he could respond, she leaned in and kissed the corner of his mouth.

It hadn’t taken long for them to mostly fall back into the relationship they’d had before she was stolen away from him. To Felix it felt as if she’d almost never left.

Faith was the last person on the middle row of seats.

“I’d do the same if I were him,” argued Kit from just behind him. Evie was next to her and Goldie was right beside her in the back row.

Gaia was in the front-seat and Andrea was driving.

He also suspected Miu was in the rear of the vehicle but he hadn’t checked. She preferred shadows after all and that’s where one would be.

“Yes, if one is an ambush hunter, you would most likely be afraid of being attacked in a similar way,” said Gaia, turning her head and looking back at them with her wide and easy smile. “Given that they’re someone who creates weapons and remains off the front line, they likely have a similar mentality.”

Gaia didn’t look away her smile slowly fading away.

“I wonder if I missed my chance,” Gaia muttered. “I should have forced my way into his bedroom. There’s no room for me now is there? I find that incredibly depressing.

“I acted like a complacent prey animal and just stood there. Waiting and wondering. When all around me I was surrounded by predators. I should have just gone into his bedroom, ripped his covers back and—”

Gaia’s mouth hung open as she slowly looked to eveyone around her. Everyone, including Andrea who really couldn’t keep her eyes on the road it seemed, was watching her.

The goddesses mouth snapped shut, she turned around, faced forward, and went silent. Gaia wasn’t embarrassed at her words, but frustrated that she’d said them.

Sex and emotional care for another weren’t unique to humans and were quite natural to many species. Basic needs for many animals.

Only humanity had gone and twisted it up in weird ways.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Andrea said with a rapid fire laugh. “Nn, nn. We’ll just drive by. Canvas the road, see what the terrain looks like from ground level, go from there!

“It’ll be fun. It’ll be exciting! It already is! We’re on a road trip! We get to be together and-and
 and
 we’re all here. Together. It’s all of us. Our new friends and our old friends. All of us. Ioana and Felicia don’t count because
 well, they’re married to one another. They can’t count at all.

“Felicity is on the phone with us and being our eye in the sky so she counts, too.”

“Yes, I’m here, Andie,” Felicity said with a throaty chuckle. The sound of a keyboard clacking away accentuated her words.

“Even my pretty Miu is back there, despite trying to hide. Aren’t you, dear?” Andrea prompted. She sounded completely assured despite the fact that there hadn’t been any proof Miu was there.

There was no response.

For two seconds, at least.

“Yes, I’m here, Andie,” murmured Miu from the back of the car.

“See? We’re all here! All together! Together, we’re Legion. Together, we can do so much. All of us. Legion First,” Andrea declared and thumped her fist against the steering wheel. She followed up with a growl that sounded almost like a bark, followed by her nodding her head frantically up and down.

“Andie, I agree
 so just ease up. You’re our driver. You don’t want to kill all of us do you?” asked Felix, trying to ease her anxiety.

Or at least, he felt like it was anxiety.

Outwardly she probably seemed excited but to him she seemed on edge.

“Okay. Yeah. Okay. Uhm, I made a huge change and I’m a little off,” Andrea said, glancing up into the rearview mirror.”

“Just pull over, dear,” Kit suggested warmly. She seemed amused. Felix was confused, concerned, and anxious. “Turn on the emergency flashers and take a minute for yourself. No one will blame you for that and I’m sure what you want to say is certainly worth while.”

“Nn,” whined Andrea, turning the wheel and bringing the car to the side of the road. Slowly, she brought them to a stop. She hit the flashers, put the car in park, then turned on the parking brake as well. Then she slowly turned around and looked to everyone in the large SUV. “Uhm
 I absorbed
 all my Others. All of them.”

“You do that often,” Lily replied immediately. Then her volume dropped a bit only to go back up. Realizing that everyone here would hear her no matter what. “Andie, dear, you did
 you did that last night.”

Andrea’s face instantly turned a flaming sheet of crimson. Something that Felix wasn’t expecting at all from Andrea.

That was more a reaction he’d come to expect from Adrianna, in fact.

“I’m all of me,” Andrea said, still blushing. “Myriad is me. Adrianna is me. All my Others joined me. All of them except the Seconds. We want all three litters but that’s besides the point.

“We’re all
 together. Andrea is Myriad. Myriad is Andrea. Adrianna was a nickname we once gave ourselves when-when ran away from home. Even then, it’s still just Andrea. We’re all Andrea. I’m all me.”

“In other words, when the Andrea who had come with me rejoined you, you all felt a mental shift that you wanted to become one person again,” Felix summarized. Andrea nodded her head quickly to that while making an “nnn” noise. “I mean
 okay. Great. I’m pretty sure that doesn’t really change anything.

“Because you’ve always been you. Even those who weren’t you, that I forcibly separated and made into unique people, were still you. Whether you wanted to be individuals or just Andrea, it doesn’t matter to me personally. You’re just Andrea. All of you.

“I can’t speak for anyone else though. To me it just never really mattered that much as you were all Andrea, even when you weren’t. Even now you can still be individuals within Andrea, as Others. Though collectively you’re stronger as a person now. Thoughts?”

As Felix looked to the others he found all of them nodding their heads.

“Exactly. Perfectly said. Listen to this adorable sociopath of ours, Andie,” Lily said, squishing Felix’s mouth with her free hand. Then kissing the side of his head she patted him on the chest. “Whether there’s thousands or just one of you, you’re Andrea. I mean, I’ve got by three different names now. It’s not like I was really that different a person with each. Just different stages of my life.”

Andrea’s eyes partially rounded as Lily spoke. Then she nodded her head quickly and promptly tried to dive at the sorceress. Only the seatbelt kept her from doing so.

In seconds she was clawing at the seatbelt.

“Later, Andie,” Lily said with a laugh. “Get us going again. For all we know we’re being watched on this long empty road. I haven’t seen another person on it for miles. And we have many miles to go, don’t we?

“Let’s come up with a plan for what we think will happen, and go from there. Long car ride after all. Very long.”

***

Staring at the satellite image, Felix gave up. He was frustrated and didn’t like the answers they had so far.

Their recon had proved only one thing to them.

Driving to the house would likely get them shot at from a long ways out. Anyone there would have to stop at the entry point of the main road as it had a gate and walls that surrounded the entirety of the property.

Unless he sent people that could fly, the response would be problematic.

“Counter-attack, escape, or destruction,” Kit mused, looking at his laptop. They’d pulled over at a gas-station a few miles away from their target. It’d been a lucky find that wasn’t on the map for some reason.

Kit had said they were a bunch of kidnappers and serial killers but that worked out just fine for them. Lily had already subdued them and tore their souls out for a snack.

The bodies were already buried in the ground courtesy of Goldie becoming a massive earth mover for a minute. Evie had been on hand to shove the dirt right back on after it was done in her own Dragon form.

“Nnn, it’s an ugly thing to approach,” agreed Andrea.

Felix sighed, handed the laptop to Miu, patted her knee, then stood up. He started to walk around in a small circle, thinking. Sometimes he found that movement helped him generate ideas.

No one had been able to come up with a way to get into that building without them noticing. Other than Goldie and Evie dropping down on it from above like a bomb.

But that’d give them the element of surprise, only to be immediately dealing with whatever was going on in there. Them doing such a thing at night had become their best plan at the moment.

He’d taken a few laps when a solid question popped into his head. One that he hadn’t asked yet.

“What’s the likely response of a super creator?” Felix asked, looking to everyone there.

“What?” Evie asked, the beautiful Red tilting her head to one side. “What do you mean? Your thoughts are moving too fast.”

“Oh? I get it,” Kit said with a laugh and clapped her hands together.

“We keep thinking about this like we ourselves would. As Gaia pointed out, an ambush predator would think like one,” Felix explained. “He isn’t an ambush predator. He made weapons for an ambush predator. He isn’t a predator at all.

“He’s prey. What does prey do when an animal digs into it’s burrow?”

“Flees,” Andrea said definitely with a sharp head nod. She was currently eating several sticks of beef jerky at the same time.

“That’s right. It’ll flee. A super creator, what this man is, is a prey animal. If we come at him hard, he’ll flee. His entire location isn’t set up for defense, it’s an early warning system.

“He’ll bolt as soon as he thinks he should. That means he has a way of escaping.”

Everyone was nodding their heads but they also looked unsure.

“Tribune, anyone even remotely have the possibility of constructing portals like we do?” Felix asked. “Or anyone even have the super power for it?”

“No and no,” Tribune answered. “The odds are very low that either of those answers are wrong, but not impossible.”

“That’s fine. I can prove he’ll try to escape. And he’ll probably try to do it in the same I do. Because I’m not a predator either,” Felix mumbled. “I’m prey that figured out how to take anything apart, figure out what I need to do, and do it.

“But I also flee. I like to do so underground, as well. Away from prying eyes. What’d you call me a few weeks ago, Andie? A mole?”

“Yes, a mole,” she replied having just swallowed a massive mouthful of jerky. Then she took a few steps closer to him and held out several of the sticks to him.

Taking one without thinking, Felix snapped off a large bite of one and walked toward the gas-station. Entering it, he found a newspaper. One that was on sale for a dollar.

“Anyone got a buck and a quarter?” Felix asked, looking to everyone as they’d followed him.

Lily slipped a hand into her blouse and pulled out a money-clip. She flicked through much larger denominations quickly and then held out a five to him.

“Smallest I have,” she said with a smile. “Hope you don’t mind that it’s warm. Women’s pockets in this world are freakishly small and don’t have room for anything at all. I suspect it’s all conspired from the purse industry.”

The smile was ruined when Andrea leaned in and started sniffing at the money-clip, causing Lily to eye the Beastkin warily.

Felix put the five dollar bill down on the counter top and picked up the newspaper.

“Keep the change,” he said and then held the paper in front of himself.

He wanted to convert this newspaper to a plot map of the house they’d just looked over. To see what it would be on an accurate plot map if it was taken today. If someone went through and surveyed all the details of the lot.

There was a flicker of a window and Felix just hit the accept button. Prices and costs weren’t really an issue for him anymore.

Evie slid up to his side and and put one of her cookies up to his mouth.

Not hesitating in the least he snapped it up and took the whole thing greedily. He began to chew as he watched the newspaper in his hands bend and fold over itself.

In seconds, it became an entire plot map just as he’d wished.

“A tunnel,” Goldie murmured. She’d come to the other side of Felix and held a soda up to his lips she’d opened. Somehow, she managed to get him to drink it without him spilling, and knowing when to stop.

Then he realized she was just skulking about in his thoughts again.

“It runs straight from the back of the house and down into the scrublands at the edge of the property,” Faith said and pointed with a finger. “Want to bet that’s an escape tunnel? That there’s some type of quiet vehicle or way out from there? That’s what you’d do, isn’t it Felix?”

He nodded his head at that. He’d likely also have cameras at the escape tunnel just in case someone stumbled across it.

“Everyone back into their SUVs. I’ll take Miu and Kit and head over to the tunnel,” Felix ordered. “Oh, and several of my CRG of course. So they’re not scolded later. You can pick the agents that’re coming with me. Just keep it to three.

“You can hide five or six of us, right, Kit?”

He asked the last looking at the telepath. Her powers had been expanded by himself and given her ability to control portals, holographs, and telekinesis, she was quite likely able to render them invisible to cameras from one direction.

“I
 yes. That’ll work. I can do that,” Kit answered with a wide grin.

“There we go then,” Felix said gestured to the two SUVS. The second one had arrived several minutes after their own, stuffed with CRG. They were always with him regardless of where he went now.

Minutes later, and stealing the dead gas-station owners vehicle, they’d blazed a trail over dirt, shrubs, several culverts, and a dry creek to arrive at the spot they needed to be. It’d been fairly obvious how Travis planned to get away even as they made their way to his exit.

The dry creek bed had several sets of single tire tracks. As if someone had been riding a dirt bike or an off road bicycle through the area.

“I missed this in a way,” Kit whispered as they got out of the battered sedan. One of the tires was rapidly deflating and they’d lost both bumpers on the drive over. Miu had been behind the wheel and had done much better than Felix thought he could. They were only twenty or so feet from their location. There was a great deal of foliage covering everything though. The rest would be done on foot. Though Kit had kept a barrier in front of them the entire time. “Missed everyone. Missed Legion. Didn’t know what I’d lost till it was gone.”

Felix only nodded his head. He didn’t have to say anything for her to know his feelings on the matter.

“You were
 you were missed, too, Kit,” muttered Miu suddenly, stepping up close to the telepath. “You were the first who saw inside that didn’t shy away. Didn’t condemn me.”

“Don’t kid yourself, I condemned you, Miu,” Kit said with a laugh and surprisingly put an arm around Miu’s shoulders. “The difference was, I condemned you, and then was quite thankful you were on my side. I still think you’re insane. Crazy. But you’re on my side. My family.”

Miu had been staring at Kit in a way that made Felix a little nervous.

Till she suddenly smiled and thumped a hand against Kit’s stomach.

“Old woman. Back up. You smell like worthers originals,” Miu groused through a grin and pushed at Kit. “Twice as old as me.”

The two separated and both got serious again.

Stepping through the branches and bushes, they found what they were looking for.

A massive six-foot in diameter pipe. Lights were strung along it and led off back into the cliff it stuck out of. Inside of it Felix could faintly hear a sound that was very similar to a whine.

“Looks like he noticed the SUVs coming back,” Miu guessed with curiosity tinging her words. “He must’ve been recording license plates from a distance or something. Our people shouldn’t even be anywhere near the gate yet. Interesting.”

“I’ll pop him off whatever he’s on. We can go from there,” Kit said.

Sooner than he thought it’d happen, a man came rushing out on an electric motorbike. It wasn’t very loud at all. The only reason they’d heard it at all was the sound that it did make was traveling right down the pipe toward them.

Kit snatched him off the bike with ease. As if he were just a mouse and she was the cat lurking above.

In the same movement she stripped him of his helmet.

He was a man in his twenties with mostly black hair. There were an odd few silver hairs here and there but he didn’t look too out of the ordinary. His eyes were a fairly normal looking brown color.

Except he didn’t look at Miu, Felix, or Kit, as they appeared. He hung there in mid air, staring at the ground.

“He’s been tinkered with. In his head,” Kit murmured. “He’s entirely devoted to the cause he’s part of, mostly without even realizing it wasn’t his idea. There’s
 there’s no way to fix it.

“He’s a zealot and he’ll never know he’s one. It’s
 a waste of a wonderful mind. He’s quite intelligent. What would have been a useful man to us.”

Felix clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“Bring him with us,” Felix ordered. “We’ll work on him. Maybe we can help him in time. Maybe I can make a machine that’ll do it.

“Tribune, are you active?”

“Of course, Legate,” she answered immediately.

“Fire up your full power. I want you to craft AI video footage. Mock it up so that unidentified figures came through here in full military gear. Shootout. We’ll blow the whole building up. Blow it sky high.

“That’ll make the news one way or the other. They’ll be over here nice and quick. We’ll just have to make sure we’re long gone before that happens.”

“I can do that, Legate,” answered Tribune.

“Great. Fudge up some leaked audio as well. Fake the voices. Ordering the kill on this scientist for links back to his handlers,” ordered Felix. “Use higher ups in whatever organization was running this guy. I’m sure you’re already neck deep in their databases and know who’s doing what.

“Do you have enough audio footage to make it believable?”

“I’ll add in some slight distortions and static. Disguise it in the noise,” Tribune answered. “It’ll make some people think it’s fake while others will be convinced it’s real.

“Should I unleash the cyber package we prepped?”

“Yeah
 let’s do that. Let’s get them all pointing fingers at each other,” Felix confirmed, then sighed. “Let it all loose.”

“Is this all the AI stuff? The deepfakes of videos, audio, and leaked papers?” Miu questioned.

“Yeah. It sure is. All four diplomatic parties are going to think the other three are out for blood,” Felix affirmed. “In the next week
 their whole political platform is going to explode.

“We’ll turn our focus on the world in that time. Lots of basses to approve. Lots of military budgets to get included in on .”

“You really are a villain, my love,” Kit interjected, looking at him with a tilted head. Travis hung in the air, slowly spinning one way, then the other.