Super Sales on Super Heroes 4 -Ch19- (Patreon)

Chapter 19 - Knife Fight -

Felix sat down on the couch and did his best to stifle a yawn. They’d all woken up with the sunrise. There was a lot of work to be done today.

“Coffeeeeeee,” said an Other while holding out a cup to Felix.

“Thank you, Three,” he replied, giving the Andrea a wide smile.

The Andrea blinked, smiled, and tilted her head to the side. She watched him for several seconds.

“How’d you know?” she asked finally, bouncing in place a little.

“As I told you when you came back with Myriad. You were formerly Myriad Three. Before that a Death Other. We met for the first time when you were working contracts of captured Heroes.

“I know my Elex Women. You can’t hide from me,” Felix said and took a sip of the coffee.

“I… you knew I… really?” asked the Other, now looking shocked.

“Yes? I know all of you,” agreed Felix. He’d gotten much better at knowing which one was which as time went on. After their homeworld fell he knew them all at a glance. Even if he’d only met them once before.

“Okay, what…nn…” the Andrea took a shuffling step to the side and another Andrea popped out of her. Pointing at the Other she looked very serious. “Who’s she?”

“Five, now,” Felix said after looking at the Other. “She was Adriana’s Third. Before that she was Andrea sixty-four. She died in the back of the car saving me.”

“I… yes! Yes I am!” squealed the new Other. She began to dance in place and then jumped into Felix’s lap, nearly spilling the coffee he’d just been given. “You really do know us!”

“Yes? I believe I’ve said that repeatedly,” agreed Felix.

Faith, Miu, and Goldie had all joined him and were taking seats throughout the living room.

Miu had sat down right next to him and was now glaring a hole through the Other’s head.

“We just… didn’t realize you really meant it,” called Andrea from the kitchen. She took a step away and met his eyes. A grin had spread across her face that looked ecstatic. “It’s amazing. Do… do you know who was with you last night?”

“Your Second, of course. Who’s currently with you, right now. I don’t know where Four is,” Felix said then looked to the Other’s. He had a fair sense she wasn’t with any of them. “No, she’s not here. Where’d she go?”

“She… she’s on watch,” all three Andrea’s said in unison.

Then the Others all went and combined with Andrea, who was watching Felix in a very curious way. Leaning back into the kitchen she set to her task of making pancakes for everyone other than Goldie.

Who was still on a red-meat diet.

“Is it time for a bored board meeting?” asked Faith who sounded rather excited.

“Board… board… meeting?” Felix responded, not quite sure what she meant by that.

“As in, you’re bored, so you want a board meeting,” elaborated Goldie.

The Dragon sighed, then went over to the couch. She made a small hand gesture at Felix to move down.

Miu shifted down and started pulling at Felix’s arm.

No sooner than there was enough room than Goldie sat down. She leaned in close to him and then set her head down on the couch and his shoulder.

“I guess it’s that,” muttered Felix, taking another sip of coffee. “I just wanted to talk about our plans. We have a lot going on.”

“Mmhmm,” Faith said, watching him with a wide smile. “You don’t have to justify it. I like being here for these things. I’m not just… a… uhm… what’d you call it, Goldie?”

“A side character,” answered the Dragon. Her eyes were closed and her left hand was now hanging onto Felix’s left sleeve.

“Yes! I don’t feel like a side character in my own story anymore. Being here and being part of this means I’m finally the heroine of my own story!” Faith gushed, sounding a lot like a kid being told they were getting ice cream.

“Right,” mumbled Felix. He cleared his throat and then nodded his head, as if restarting his mental process. “We’re moving on the ‘evil’ side of the plan first. We can’t really push ahead with the ‘good’ side till we get those documents.

“That means cash, prepaid cards, prepaid minutes, and everything that doesn’t leave a trace. Good thing we got paid by David.”

“Yes, it was a lot of money. We’re now able to make a lot of things happen with cash alone,” Miu agreed from his right. “I’m starting to put some aside for the trash truck you wanted.”

“Trash truck. Remind me what we’re doing with that again?” asked Goldie with a yawn.

That’s… why are you asking that, Goldie? You can see the answer in my mind as clear as day.

Goldie responded to his thoughts by rubbing her cheek against his shoulder. Whatever her plan was, was for someone else’s benefit in the room.

“It’s part of the ‘good side’,” Faith answered before anyone could speak up. “Help out the cities and towns with low cost solutions that also benefit us. We don’t step up to the same level of visibility of Legion, but ingratiate ourselves into the system. Then we just keep spreading out. Undercutting others and utilizing our abilities.”

“Exactly that,” Felix said, pointing at Faith with a smile. “That’s right. But as I said, that’s for later. We need a lot more documentation for those things to work out for us.

“Right now we can only really work on the under-world side of our plan. It’s all Legion to anyone inside, but two organizations from anyone outside.”

“Okay. So… what are we doing about that?” asked Andrea as she trooped in with a three plates of pancakes. She handed them off to Miu, Faith, and Felix. “Just a few minutes more, Goldie.”

Andrea took a moment to pat Goldie on the head and then went back to the kitchen.

“What we’ve already been doing, really. Forcing a change in the drug scene while expanding in the background,” explained Felix. “I don’t want to be working with drugs but we don’t have a choice. Criminal enterprises seem to be focused around theft or drugs. The last thing I want to do is rob any of these people.

“They already have very little. That’d just be adding misery to their lives. No sense in being cruel.”

“Nn! Good! Yes!” called Andrea. “Drugs are okay because the people doing them would do them anyways. If you can make it less lethal and regulate it a bit, that’d be good. Kinda like how Skipper did it with all vices and made them industries.

“Though it’s kinda funny how you don’t even try to keep them guessing with how you change the drugs. Pretty sure they think you’re a wizard or something.”

Felix couldn’t deny he’d seen how that’d worked out with Skipper at the helm. Things had been regulated, commercialized, and held to a higher standard. Skipper’s government had a vise like grip over everything and forced all to bend.

Or break.

“Well, we’ll keep moving in the drug world. Since I only need a little bit of whatever they’re dealing in to purify the rest, it makes it easy. I don’t even have to import anything or run the risk of dealing with borders,” continued Felix. “Past that, we’ll just keep moving out. Expand into other things.

“Gambling, black-market goods, anything that we can do without hurting people.”

“What about prostitution?” asked Faith.

“Problem is with that one it’s harder to force our view on it. We’d have to step into a spotlight to make that one happen. Either in the underworld or going through the political road,” argued Felix. “Everything else is just letting people do their own thing.

“If we get the opportunity though, it’s definitely worth getting into that business. Just not something we can move to at this time.”

Andrea came in and then gently touched Goldie’s face. In her other hand was a large steak that looked just barely seared. It was a rather large chunk of meat that took up the whole plate.

“Just like you like it,” Andrea said in a warm tone.

Goldie groaned softly, then sat upright. Taking the plate from her she picked up the steak with one hand, held the plate in the other, and began eating. Tearing a mouthful off with her teeth.

Felix noted there was no cutlery there anyways.

Interesting.

You’re cute when you’re feral, my Golden One. Should I put a collar on you with a pure gold tag on it?

“Yes,” Goldie said around a mouthful, chewing determinedly while staring at him now. Then she swallowed hard and cleared her throat. “Yes, you should. A necklace though, not a collar. Pure gold, of course.

“Now, move to the next part of the plan. Dealing with this… Stephen… fellow.”

“Yes, Stephen. Stephen Chernishoff. Local big contact for all things cocaine in the area. He doesn’t do anything else so he’s obviously heavily invested in what we’re trying to take from him,” Felix elaborated. “More or less sounds like he’s the cartel guy for a large part of Alassippi.

“It’s one of the reasons I wanted to have that farm as our meeting point with David. There’s only one road in, it’s backed up to a swamp, and there’s no way to really get to it otherwise.

“I mean, I think there’s a really large open field you can go across to get there. But at that point you might as well drive. Or at least, that’s what you heard, right Faith?”

“Yes, that’s what all the trees told me. They’re rather eager to talk to me here. Eager and very chatty,” confirmed Faith with a small nod of her head. “No one’s been to that farm in a very long time. Whoever owns it has forgotten they do.

“Or died and it’s just… lost. That happened back in my old world but that was more because death was always close.”

“There we go. We’ll set up a nice trap for them there. We just have to decide who to send so they can welcome Stephen’s people when they arrive. I really have no doubt that there’s someone in David’s organization that’s feeding Stephen information.

“They’ll show up looking for a knife fight and I’ll have mined the arena. Simple as that.”

“I should have been there,” growled Goldie as she continued to chew and eat.

“And you will be. Even you yourself said that you think you’ll be back to normal in a few days more. That you’re not draining your own stamina anymore to regenerate,” countered Felix quickly.

“Yes. I… yes. I’ll be ready very soon. Doesn’t matter if I’m ready or not though, I’m going to that damn farm,” the Dragon stated firmly. There apparently was no room for argument from her. “Also, I have a request. I want you to alter what you did to me as well as the regeneration power.”

“Oh?” Felix inquired, his curiosity piqued. “Please, tell me what you’re thinking.”

Because I love your mind, my Golden One.

One half lovely and warm woman who wants to be cared and to care for another. One half brutal and truly awe inspiring Dragon.

Goldie was staring at him now, her golden eyes glowing as she held his gaze.

He only smiled at her in return. He really was rather fond of his Dragon.

“I… yes,” continued the Dragon. Her eyes not moving from his own. “I want you to make it so I can change my scales’ hardness when I wish. You’ve given me a regenerative power as well as the ability to modify my shape-changing as I wish.

“I imagine to alter it to do a third thing wouldn’t cost you very much. As of course, hardening scales would be a form of shape-changing, and letting it stop when I wish would be regenerative. At least, to me.”

“Nn, I like that. Oh, oh, oh, I also want you to change me and we need to do a test!” Andrea blurted out. She’d sat down next to Faith but lept out of her seat. Moving over to the door she opened it.

Leaving it ajar she walked to where the living room, kitchen, and entrance joined together. She put her hands on her hips.

“I’ve been practicing!” she stated. “First, I want to show you how good I’ve gotten.”

“Good you’ve gotten?” parroted Felix. He had no idea what she was talking about.

“Yes! I figured the better I could control my Others and I, the easier it’d be to expand us. I know that I have at least three Others in me that would love to exist. But I can’t!” Andrea stated with a stamp of her foot.

Then Four came in from outside and went straight into Andrea, vanishing into her.

Putting her hands on her hips Andrea stood there looking almost confused.

“Oh, this’ll… be harder… without music. Whatever,” she said and then shook her head.

Stamping her right foot out she threw her hands out to each side. Thrusting her hip forward and toward Felix she gave him a solid profile view.

Her tail stuck up from behind her and curled around her middle as well.

She leaned her shoulders back, pushed her chest out, and angled her rear end out. Putting her hands out in front of her an Other appeared. Then one more in front of that one.

All three Andrea’s began to move in sync. Crossing their arms in front of themselves and pressing their arms together to push their chests up and forward.

Then Felix couldn’t quite follow the action very well as Andrea continued to dance, appearing Other’s and drawing them back in as she went.

Creating an almost optical illusion as she practically flung herself back and forth in the motions. Others popping into existence with a flourish, only to draw another one to themselves, or to vanish again.

Then she suddenly came to a stop and all the Other’s came back into her.

“See? See? I’m really really good at controlling my Others now!” she said and started hopping in place. “You should give me the ability to have five more. I bet it’s cheap. If I had ten, I’d be so much stronger.”

Andrea held her arms up and flexed.

She actually did have a good amount of muscle on her. He could easily forget how much of a terror she was in combat when she was acting cute like this.

“I… sure,” Felix remarked. He really had no idea what was going through Andrea’s head at the moment.

Wanting to escape the situation, Felix focused on upgrading Goldie’s power first. To give her shape-shifting the ability to harden her scales as much, or as little, as she wanted.

Right up to the point that she could probably stop ballistic weapons cold. Making her more on par with what she’d been in the old world.

H… heat will occur? Goldie?

Heat like as in “in heat”?

Do I need to know something?

“Oh that’s nothing,” Goldie said with a laugh, ignoring his thoughts outright. “Wonderful! Now, how much does Andie’s cost? Having five more of her would be rather helpful.

“And by the way Andie, that was a nice dance. I liked it. Was that what we watched on the television the other day? Thank you for bringing that again, by the way. It was a nice change of pace.”

“Nn! Nn! Yes. I made the Others practice and then bring it back to me and we just kept doing that,” chattered Andrea excitedly.

Felix was feeling rather nervous about the message in regards to Goldie nesting. He knew that Dragon’s weren’t human and they did have animal needs and urges.

Just like Andrea tended to get wound up once every two or three months to the point that she was nearly insatiable.

“Something like that,” Goldie murmured and patted Felix on the knee. “It’ll be fine. Now… Andie’s power?”

Shit.

Felix focused in on pulling up the same window but for Andrea. To modify her power and allow her the usage of five more Others.

“Perfect! Yours is only seven-thousand Andie. Mine’s four-thousand. I’ll just carry Felix over to a different city tonight and we’ll go ransack some dumpsters,” Goldie suggested. “That’ll replenish our points to a degree. I don’t think Stephen’s people will make a move tonight either. Likely they’ll make their first advance in three days, I’d say.”

“Agreed,” Miu said firmly. She’d been mostly quiet the entire meeting. “That’s when I would strike.”

“Nn, nn, likewise!” Andrea said, rotating back and forth like a little girl would. She looked incredibly excited. “Did I mention I’m really happy that we’re all… combat types?

“I always felt like some of the magic users were a little too nose in the air for me at times. That they looked down at me for using my fists, feet, and guns.”

“I’m very happy about it,” Faith pitched in. “I like everyone well enough, and I’m quite friendly with them. But it’s nice just to be with combat oriented people. It’s very nice.”

“Yes, it is. I feel… good… with you all,” Miu added to the conversation.

It was an unexpected confession on her part.

Before anyone could react, Andrea darted across the room and snatched Miu up in a hug. Pulling the asian woman’s face straight into her cleavage.

“Oooh, Miu, I’m so glad you said that,” Andrea practically howled. Her arms were wrapped around the back of Miu’s head. Her hands resting on her shoulders. She began to rock back and forth, holding her face in her chest. “I’ve always wanted to get closer to you.

“After you stopped killing us, that is. You were always so mean before that.”

Miu had struggled against Andrea for a second, before going limp. Her arms came up and she just hung onto Andrea and let herself be manhandled by the Beastkin.

“Miu, Miu,” Andrea said in a loud whisper. Then she bent her head down a bit. “Let’s split Felix tonight. Okay? I bet we can really make him squirm between us.”

Miu’s body flinched, then her head nodded incrementally.

“Awesome. We’re gonna have so much fun,” whispered Andrea at a speaking level and stood up again. She started rocking Miu back and forth again, her face still buried in her chest.

The psychotic assassin who wanted to eat the womb’s of the women in the room just held onto Andrea. Her arms wrapped around the Beastkin’s hips.

“You know. Even though I can read her mind. I still can’t tell if it’s on purpose, or not,” remarked Goldie, chewing methodically at her steak. Then she turned and looked to Felix with a a wide smile.

He didn’t have to ask her what she was grinning about. It’d been an idle thought that’d crossed through his mind.

That he’d almost rather spend the evening with Goldie than get stuck between Miu and Andrea.

Of course she’d taken that thought from his mind and would likely offer to keep him out all night with her.

She’d have her own price for him to pay. But he couldn’t fault her for that. He’d do the same of course.

Naturally, a service should always have a price.

“Naturally,” Goldie agreed, putting her arm on his shoulder and leaning closer. She kept eating with her other hand.