Super sales on Super Heroes 4 -Ch8- (Patreon)

Chapter 8 - Only a Ghost -

Felix watched from across the street. He was working through a newspaper as if he were had nothing at all to do. Just a man with some time to kill.

Who just happened to be watching two very attractive women waiting in a park for people to drop things off.

Amusingly, there were other men actually doing exactly that. Watching Faith and Miu standing around and accepting things from people. Moving them around around on the tarp that’d been provided to them by the mayor, or just waiting around.

I should have modified Andrea.

I need someone with me.

Or… well… I wonder if she didn’t want to be modified because she’s getting used to being Allison. Didn’t want to throw other changes into the mix just after she accepted what she’s becoming?

That’d make more sense.

Then… Goldie?

Doesn’t seem like Miu or Faith need me here. I should get going to the next part.

Time’s wasting and I don’t really have that luxury. Everything is timed right now.

We’ve got our foot in the door for our goodie-two shoes side. Now… we need to start the process for the darker side.

Because how can I control a world if I’m not on both ends of the spectrum?

Folding the newspaper in half, he stood up. Moving away from the table Felix wished the paper away into points. Converting it into nothing as if it was an illusion.

He was enjoying the fact that he could stockpile points now and not have to worry about converting them one way, or the other.

He pulled up his points table to see how much he’d earned so far after everything he’d gained and what he’d spent.

I bet that’s enough to give a Dragon the ability to hide their horns, eyes, and ears. They already have a shape-shifting ability, after all.

I can’t imagine it’d be too far off to add to that.

In fact, it might be really cheap.

Let’s go run down our dear Goldie and see if she’s willing to go on a trip with me in the truck. This’ll be a perfect opportunity to explore a bit, too.

Though… still need to be careful.

No driver’s license and no idea on all the rules of the road here. I’ll have to keep assuming they’re all mostly the same and mimic others.

Pulling the key from his pocket, Felix headed off for the truck. Thankfully, filling the gas tank was as easy as topping it off with points.

This world certainly had it’s disadvantages to him, but he was fully enjoying using his points however he wanted.

Without suppression, wasting any, or feeling like he had to hurry up and convert things.

A few hours later, and handling Faith and Goldie’s amorous advances, Felix had managed to talk the Dragon into the truck with him.

That’d been more difficult than getting her to agree to being able to hide her non-human features for some reason.

“Makes no sense,” complained Felix as he spotted a sign stating they were one mile out from the city of Hardysburg.

“I… just don’t like being in vehicles,” muttered Goldie, her arms folded across her chest. She was wearing clothes that fit her incredibly well and she looked out of place in such a rundown interior.

She must have gotten hold of a sewing kit. Pretty sure that’s something that didn’t fit her at first.

“Yeah, heard that part. I just don’t get why. It makes no sense. You’re a Dragon. I ride you like a horse. Doesn’t that make you a vehicle?”

“You ride me like a Dragon and a woman. I am most definitely not a horse,” growled the Dragon. She turned her head toward him and her currently brown eyes began to glow a golden color. “And if you make a joke about my horns being handlebars than I’ll really give you something you need to hold onto.”

“No, no joke. Those aren’t handlebars. It’s where I hold onto my beautiful Dragon because she’s too much for me,” Felix stammered out quickly. “My Goldie, my Dragon, is far too much for such a man as I. I have to hold onto her horns because of that.”

Goldie’s eyes slowly faded back down to the false brown they were disguised as.

“You’re lying. You were thinking of them as handlebars. You even had that thought when we made love earlier after you were done with Faith,” said Goldie in an offended tone. She turned to look forward again and lifted her chin up.

Sighing, Felix nodded his head. He was very much regretting the fact that he couldn’t seem to lock Goldie out of his thoughts.

“I’ll not be angry at you for your thoughts. Even I had strange thoughts,” Goldie said, almost as if she were extending an olive branch. “Besides, you often fantasize about holding onto my horns, even if you think of them as handlebars. I can be generous.”

Then thank you, my Goldie, for being generous.

Felix deliberately threw up a number of mental images of her being generous with him only an hour or so previous. From his point of view, at least.

He was aware she wasn’t a typical dragon. How he treated her, how he dealt with situations and was tender to those he cared for, had won her over a long time ago.

For her, it was becoming self-fulfilling.

The more intimate he was with her, the more she fell deeper into that hole, the more intimate they were with each other.

In a way, she was similar to Miu.

“I… yes. You’re… welcome. Now… I can see your plans to a degree but I’m not as strong as Kit was. Can you elaborate for me?” questioned Goldie. Her chin had come down a bit and her face took on a reddened color. Her shoulders had also lowered and she had partly turned toward him.

A far more inviting and “willing to talk” body posture than she’d had previously.

“Simple. Find a criminal element, exploit it, and turn it to work for us. Except we don’t want to be at the head of it. We don’t want anything to do with running it.

“We want someone else to run it for us as a puppet. We never want to be seen as anything special,” answered Felix. “Just as one amongst many and nothing of any interest. Not a target.”

“In other words… we want to do what Shirley did to us, to others,” deadpanned Goldie, turning to face him now. She’d even lifted one leg and put it on the bench to put more of herself facing him. “You… respect what she did. Envy her, in a way.”

“I do. I hate her, I admit that, but in the same breath I admire her,” confessed Felix as they drove into the city. Then he laughed, feeling a great deal of pain leaving with it. “Hell, she was beautiful. Beautiful, smart, cunning, and dangerous as hell. I wish I could have met her under different circumstances.

“I bet she’s an amazing woman, even if I hate her for that. That’s okay though. I learned from it. From her. Now I’m going to take what I did previously, expand on it, and build it better.”

“Yes, you’re going to drop your favorite quote aren’t you?” Goldie asked with a chuckle. “I can even hear it in your mind. ‘The sum of what we are, our experience, is what we draw upon to make choices. It’s what we use to defend ourselves from doubt. We compare them to things we’ve done previously and judge it based on what the outcome had been then.’ Right?”

Felix nodded his head and pulled the truck up to a parking space. They were in a very old, run down, and dirty looking part of the city.

Except it didn’t really feel like a city to Felix.

It felt like a really large town more than anything. The scope of what he was used to and what he was experiencing were extremely different.

“Is this where we’ll find our criminal element?” asked Goldie.

“Where you’ll find it, yeah,” redirected Felix with a snort. “We’re going to go for a walk and you’re going to pick out thoughts. We’re looking for a drug dealer, preferably. Even a low level one would work.

“Get their home address then go visit them tonight. With Miu and you. You drop us nearby, Miu gets us inside. Have a chat with them, then you get us out of here. It’ll get everything we need going.”

“Ah. Yes, I can see how that’d work. Alright,” Goldie said with a growing smile. “We’re most certainly holding hands while we walk, by the way. Because you’re right. As I fall deeper into you, my Dragon demands ever more, only to fall deeper. I hope you’re prepared.”

“You can’t be any worse than Miu,” Felix argued with a shrug of his shoulders. “She takes bites out of me, remember?

“You just purr, get kind of licky, and turn into a giant kitten. It’s incredibly adorable.”

Goldie went quiet and became the same color as ketchup.

***

Miu grasped the handle in her gloved hand.

Then jerked her hand down.

There was a sharp ping and something inside the flimsy lock gave away.

Pulling back on the handle the hole thing came away from the door. Looking into the mechanism Miu found something and then twisted it to one side.

The door then swung open, letting them into the mobile home. It’d been relatively quiet so Felix wasn’t too concerned about the dealer waking up.

A large number of people had clearly been awake as well, despite the dealer they were after actually being asleep. Goldie had mentioned he preferred dealing during the day than at night.

Apparently the man felt like he was far more likely to be killed at night by a buyer.

Moving quickly, the three of them entered and Goldie closed the door behind her as best as she could and remained there. Miu kept going deeper, silent as a deep space.

Before Felix had even taken a few steps in he could hear Miu talking in a harsh whisper.

“Be absolutely silent. Don’t do anything stupid. I already took your gun, so don’t bother,” demanded Miu. “Nod if you understand.”

There was a long pause.

“Good,” finished Miu, who then went silent.

Ah, that’s my cue then. Goldie… please free to step in and add anything if it helps.

Felix was quite happy to have someone with him that could read minds. It would make dealing with the criminal underworld a lot easier for him.

There’d be no fear for him working with someone who planned to betray him, informants, or undercover police. He could theoretically become a godfather and not have anything stand in his way.

Making sure the mask Goldie had made for him covered his face was well in place, Felix came over to stand above the dealer.

“Good evening, Mr. Wiles,” murmured Felix in a soft tone. He needed to come in with a much more velvet like approach after Miu had done her thing. “Congratulations. You’re going to be my henchman. You should feel thankful.”

Miu turned on a light with a flick of a switch. Lightbulbs came to life in several points in the room. Her own mask was worn just as snuggly over her face as his own.

The man in the bed was nothing of what Felix had expected. Almost not on any level, in fact.

He was heavily muscled and was quite fit looking. He had sandy-blonde hair that was somewhat bewildering to Felix’s eye.

It seemed equal parts deliberate and accidental, giving it a look that would’ve belonged to a viking culture from Felix’s worlds history.

Blinking several times the man held a hand up to shield his blue eyes from the glare of the light-bulbs.

“Super… thankful. Always wanted to be a statistic. Maybe a snuff film if you’ve got a phone out,” rumbled the man. “Robbing me, murdering me, or both? Pretty sure I didn’t do any dealin’ on any owned turf.”

“No, we’re not part of them,” Goldie answered from behind Felix. She’d joined him but remained out of sight. Her figure and body shape would be almost as identifiable as her face.

“Now,” Felix chimed in to steer the conversation back to where he wished. “You’re going to give me all your drugs. Then I’m going to make them the highest quality possible. You’re going to sell your much higher quality drugs at an increased cost.

“You’ll put some aside for me as my cut. You can decide the percentage based on whatever you’re selling your drugs at, but I do expect you to be fair.

“Does this all make sense so far? Are you following?”

“Yeah… but… no. How are you going to make it better? It’s pretty shit. I don’t use but from what I can tell from my users it’s trash,” said Jay, getting up into a seated position on his bed.

“Oh, just a little… magic. No need to ask any further about it because that’s the only answer I’ll give you. If you don’t believe me, you’ll discover it tomorrow.

“Though as I’ve stated, the quality will go up. Which means the risks go up over overdosing or causing more harmful issues. I expect you to do everything you can to limit fatalities.

“Dead customers, aren’t customers. I’d recommend doing what you need to, to make it go further. Higher quality attractions more attention, of course.”

Felix wasn’t really sure what drug the man dealt in. Goldie had said it was cocaine but Felix had no experience with it.

Nor had he heard of the word from his previous world.

He was more or less operating in the dark here.

He didn’t really like getting into bed with an illegal market like this, but he could at least do what he could to limit the damage he was causing. This was something he had to do to have his needs met.

As soon as he could, he’d be exiting the drug dealer market and moving hopefully to something a bit more organized as far as criminal enterprises went. Maybe corporate or some type of banking fraud.

Would love to defraud companies of their excess. Especially company owners. I bet I could get a great deal of money from them.

“I… yeah. I’ll cut it down and make it last. No point in selling higher quality stuff to them,” Jay agreed looking from Felix, to Miu, then back. “If you’re really going to make it the same quality as what I’ve got, I can easily make that go like… three or four times further.”

“Splendid. All that remains then is our drugs. Where are they?” asked Felix, gesturing about the room around them. In that moment he noticed there was a very large number of books on programing, coding, and general computer science.

There was a great number of beginner books that looked like they’d once been used extensively but not much any longer. Covered in dust and other things.

What did look recent were a handful of advanced books. As if Jay had been involved in a full programming career previous to his drug dealing.

Hm. Maybe I can use him further than just dealing.

Jay had gotten up from his bed and moved to one side of the trailer. Getting down to his knees he started working at one of the floorboards.

Or at least, he’d thought it was floorboards.

Watching what was happening he realized it was more like a laminate that’d been stuck down to the floor. At some point Jay had worked on it, it seemed.

“Programming?” Felix asked in the silence that filled the room.

“I… yeah, before all this shit happened. Company shut down about a year ago,” Jay said with a shake of his head. The section of the floor he’d been fiddling with came out with a soft clatter. “Couldn’t get a job anywhere else. Everyone was hired up and hunkering down to see if it’d all blow over.

“Tried fast-food work but… that just didn’t work. Everyone there didn’t want to be there and I was overqualified.”

“Ah, yeah. Pinch-hitters,” cursed Felix. “You’ll end up working a dreary job you hate for not very long before you give up, stop working, or go elsewhere. So a lot of stores just don’t bother hiring over-qualified. I get it. It sucks for everyone.”

“Yeah. Yeah, thats… that’s exactly what one guy said,” grumbled Jay, looking at Felix over his shoulder. Then he went back to his work. “Anyways, yeah. Once upon a time I was a programmer.”

“How interesting. Any good? Can you break into a company? Bank?” inquired Felix, genuinely interested now.

“Err, good enough to be a problem. Not great enough to bring down a company, if that’s what you’re asking,” Jay said and pulled out an ice chest from below.

Setting it down next to himself he opened it.

Or at least tried to.

Miu was on him in a flash with a drawn gun. The tip was pressed to Jay’s forehead.

“I’ve got it,” she said in a flat tone. “You go sit down.”

“Right, yeah, right. I’ll do that,” agreed Jay, his hands lifted up at his sides. He went and sat back down on his bed and went quiet. Not moving quickly or doing anything sudden. “Sorry, forgot. There’s a gun in there, too.”

Miu then flipped open the lid with one hand.

Inside was another gun, several magazines, and a great quantity of drugs. Or so Felix assumed.

They were all packaged in baggies and were arranged semi-orderly. There was significantly more than Felix suspected there would be as well.

Miu quickly picked up the weapon, partially pulled back the slide, then let it go.

“Chambered, no safety. Same as the gun under your pillow,” remarked Miu, looking to Jay.

“Dangerous neighborhood. Also why I don’t deal out of it,” explained Jay with a shrug of his shoulders.

“I’ll be sure to leave the guns behind,” Miu promised, and put the weapon back into the cooler though she did hold onto the other one. “No sense in depriving you of your security.”

“T-thanks,” mumbled Jay, clearly unsure of how to take all of this.

Kneeling down over all the drugs Felix looked through it and then glanced to Jay.

“Is this all mine then?” he asked the dealer.

“Uh… yeah. All yours, boss. Do your thing,” offered Jay with a wave of his hands.

Felix nodded his head and then focused on what was in front of him.

He wanted to convert everything in the bags to a pure form of whatever the drug it was. That anything they were mixed with, would simply become more of the drug.

To remove all the impurities and make it as perfect a drug that it could be. As well as knowing what the value before the action would be, and then after the action.

A window appeared in front of him.

Ah, that’s not so bad to purify it. It must not be too different substance wise from what it was mixed with.

This is easily going to be expanded three to four times he said. That doesn’t really account for such a massive post-action value, though.

Something else going on here but… whatever. That really isn’t my concern I suppose.

Well.

This is all just great. If this is convertible to cash without being able to trace back to me, than it’s well worth the cost. I’ll need cash like this that leaves no backward identification for me.

“You might want to make some more mixtures of this as you had it previously. Then just put it to the side so I can purify it again later. Whatever condition this was in, was quite easy to work with” advised Felix. “I’ll be back in a week to collect my first dividend.”

Closing the cooler, Felix made a head nod at Miu toward the door.

“Sorry about the door handle,” apologized Felix as they exited the trailer. “You can deduct the cost from what you owe me.”

Exiting Miu set the gun down on the counter and then closed the door behind herself.

Moving quickly the trio made it to a tree-line at a sprint.

They had other dealers to run down. Goldie had found a few that they could work with.

Or at least, probably.

Then… it’s cruising the back-alleys for trash.

I can’t wait to see what’s behind that big box store. Sam’sMart was it? I bet they have good trash.

Still need to leave an hour or two to clear what was dropped off at the park, though.

Busy, busy night.

“Don’t forget you owe me. You promised me,” growled Miu from the darkness.

Oh, and that. Yes.

Her control.

Good thing it isn’t even midnight yet.