Super Sales on Super Heroes 5 -Ch 27- (Patreon)

Felix didn’t even have to look at it to know it was Miu.

Tapping the accept button, he held it up to his ear.

“Hey,” he said.

“Found the location,” hissed Miu over the line. “Only one here.”

“Which?” he asked.

“The one the goodies know of,” answered Miu.

Right, so Michael is there. Not Thomas.

Thinking, Felix had to consider how to move.

Things were rapidly spiraling away from him. Despite taking six months to build his infrastructure, that’d only bought him time enough to consider what was happening.

The simple reality here was that his actions were too large, too grandiose, to not have an impact. The Association and Legion were going to leave a mark, no matter how hard he tried to walk the middle line.

In this case, he needed to somehow reinforce that the Association wasn’t here to put people in jail, or to influence politics. It was here to register Supers and catalog powers.

That meant he needed to make a few moves that would take the teeth out of any movement made by the federal government. To limit their scope of power and provide an alternative to the Association.

Maybe it was time to take things on the road, so to speak.

He needed to go up and see Canadia and how they felt about their Super population. They likely had a similar ratio of Supers to non-Supers.

After that, his best action was to jump the pond and hit Europe.

There were many powerful countries over there and he could begin leveraging them one off the other. There was even a union amongst many of them that he could get the Association into.

Pay dues, offer services, technology, and the same things the Association does here. As well as cleanup offers.

In fact, I can offer them a priority queue over the States’ government. An offer I could extend to all of the union over there.

So long as they’re going to entertain any type of pushback from citizens here, I can use it against them and let other countries start reaping the benefits.

In fact… we should start selling out some medical tech.

We can begin the process of showcasing equipment that will become available for rent from Legion, through the Association. For interested parties, they’ll just need to petition and put in a good-faith form.

At the same time I push for them to allow us in.

“You’ll remain here with Anya and provide assistance. You’ll likely need to put together security for the League of Villains. Work with your sister to make sure it doesn’t get spicy,” Felix said, coming to a conclusion of his thinking. “If you have questions or concerns, ask me. Don’t make yourself visible for any reason at any time.

“Return to the bar and wait in the back. Anya will go there and you can begin from that point.”

“Understood. This is a good direction,” Miu confirmed. “Please tell Evie I’ll strangle her with her privates if she tries to sleep with you.”

The line disconnected after that.

“Right,” Felix murmured and put his phone back into his pocket. Looking to Anya, he gave her a shrug. “Found Michael. He’s in a butchery or some sort. That ring a bell for you?”

“Yes. I know exactly what and where that is,” she growled.

“Great, there ya go. My personal suggestion? Let the cops handle Michael. Feed them information on him while protecting your own organization,” Felix advised her. “He’ll try to turn on you after he realizes you’re alive, but if you lay low, he won’t realize it until it’s too late for him to change his story.

“Doubly so if you’re ‘in a hospital recovering’ during this time. Might want to make yourself scarce to anyone you haven’t charmed up.”

Anya blinked, processed that, and then nodded her head.

Turning, she left without another word. Exiting the apartment completely.

“So… what do we do then?” Evie asked while looking to Anya’s corpse. “If we’re not pushing this further, what’s next?”

“We have… we have so much work to do. It’s not even funny,” Felix sighed, putting his hands to his face. “In no certain order: there are lawsuits waiting for us here in the States. Ones that’ll put our ability to act in jeopardy.

“We need to get out there and push ourselves to other countries. Get more opportunities for us as the Association. Put pressure on the States so that they can’t limit us without putting themselves behind everyone else.”

“Oh. Alright,” Gaia said with a shrug of her shoulders. “Human laws and legal systems seem overly convoluted to me. There are times that I can’t help but wonder if Humans took the right path or not.

“Nature is much simpler. Kill, eat, mate. Anything else is silly.”

“Yeah… but… there’s a lot of neat things amongst the prey now,” Evie argued, looking at Gaia.

Gaia only clicked her tongue with a shake of her head, looking back to Felix.

“You should reach out to the government that tried to fight us. I don’t think they were opposed to the Association so much as opposed to the nation it was in,” suggested Gaia.

Felix froze, his mind stumbling over itself, then whirring up into speed.

He wasn’t thinking globally enough if he was only considering Europe. That was still only what fit within his own mental boundaries.

“You’re right. We’ll put out the call to all nations. That the Association is ready to expand and will be hiring locals to work at those facilities,” Felix agreed. “I just have to get the message out there and start moving it.”

“Dragons,” Evie offered and then held up her hands with a grin. “Send Dragons. Dragons to every single country that we want to talk with. We all received the gift of tongues from Gaia on our rebirth.

“We can speak to anyone about anything. Not to mention… we’re Dragons! It’s hard to argue or fight one of us.”

Well, unless they decide to run up their army.

Dragons are tough. Very tough, but even Goldie would have issues with tanks, jets, and helicopters. Not something I’d want them to run up against.

Even with that thought, he couldn’t fault the logic. It was exactly what he needed to do.

Reach out to every government that is big enough to support us or give us global leverage… then send a Dragon to establish the opening if they’re willing to talk.

Dragons will have instructions to only answer a limited set of questions, hand off paperwork, then I wait for their answer beyond that.

“— been interesting. Can I get pregnant?” Evie asked. She’d been talking to Gaia while Felix was lost in his own thoughts.

“Almost too easily. Be very careful if you’re going to lay with your Nest-mate,” warned Gaia. “Your instinctual need for gold isn’t entirely on gold. It’s power and wealth. Both of those affect your reproductive ability.

“If you do bed Felix, make sure you speak with Alma, Carlotta, or Faith. You’ll need to curtail any pregnancy early so it doesn’t develop. He doesn’t want any children right now.”

“I need my armor, then we’re flying back to Legion HQ. We need to finish the tunnels and send communications,” Felix determined. “Time to put some pressure on.”

***

“Felix! I’m so glad to see you. Your arrival is… it’s perfect timing,” Faith said as he walked into his own office. She was sitting down at Felicity’s desk and had been typing away at a computer there. Pausing mid-keystroke, Faith got up from behind the desk.

Walking over to him as he stepped in front of his armor stand, she stood there, smiling at him. There was a faint glow in her eyes as she watched him pull off his helmet.

“Stop with just the helmet, my love,” murmured Faith. “We’ll need you to film a video communication as well as a written one.

“The video communication will also be a display of tech. I’m having it all brought in. I think your direction is perfect and will give us a chance to take a breath.

“If we pause all our current work, other than registration, Association duties, and prison maintenance, we’ll have lots of people able to work.”

Felix opened his mouth to say that it’s called low occupancy, but it died on his lips. There was no reason to correct her and would just be rather pedantic.

Especially considering everything she’d put up with in working with and for him. From late long workdays, taking time out of her busy schedule to track him down to talk, or just throwing him into a bed and helping him work out physical stress.

She was a pillar in his life that he couldn’t do without.

Setting the helmet down on the top of the stand, he took a moment to collect his thoughts. Waiting for a few moments, he then turned and hugged Faith tightly. Pressing her into himself and holding to her for all he was worth.

“Thank you, Faith,” he whispered softly. “I’ve practically ignored you for the better part of a year and you’ve just… taken it all with a smile and trucked on.

“I can’t even begin to try and explain how much you mean to me. Through it all, you’re always there. Even when you’re not directly with me, I know you’re doing everything you can for me.

“So… uh… thank you. I love you. Please don’t leave your stupid Human because he’s an idiot.”

Faith had returned the hug with a great deal of force. Holding tightly to him, to the point that he could feel it on his armor in fact.

By the time he’d finished speaking though, she’d started to laugh. A warm and low chuckle that made his worries and thoughts melt away like butter on a hot skillet.

“Mmm! I’m so glad to hear you say that, my love,” Faith whispered, turning her head to kiss the side of his cheek. “I’m going to really reward that open emotional honesty of yours later. I’ll give you one of my special ‘Faith in Felix’ services. I know you love when I do that.

“Second to that, of course I’m doing all I can. There’s no question of that. Nor that I’d ever leave you. I don’t need to be in the spotlight to… to be a heroine for you. I’m most definitely the heroine of my own story now, and I know I am.

“You just need me handling things that you can’t tend to, while you do other things. In time, that’ll ease up, and we’ll get more time together. In fact, if I don’t miss my guess… you and I will be traveling around the better part of the world. Cleaning up messes real soon.

“You, me, Goldie, Andrea, Carlotta, Alma, and of course, Gaia. I know you gave Miu a task that she can’t turn away from, but if we’re pulling back on the other bits and pieces until the government figures out what to do, we’ll be fine.”

Speaking of… haven’t heard from Andrea.

“Before you ask about her, she’s fine. Last I heard she was having a lot of fun with Romina. Posing for photographs, signing autographs, doing interviews, and generally being exactly who she is. She’s quite the mascot, you know,” Faith said and then stepped away from him. “Now… let’s get your helmet on, prep for this video commercial, and start writing out the communication.

“I’m sure we’ll be bombarded with responses the moment we send it out. The question is… who would you want to see first?”

“Whoever the Zhongguo is. That’s who I want to see. They moved against us because they felt we were part of the States. Their government,” Felix answered. “That means if we move counter to that, we’ll likely be invited in quite quickly.

“That’ll force the government here to wise up, or try to expel us. If they try to expel us, we’ll go dormant here for a bit. Then return once we have more global backing. Won’t be hard.

“If all we ever do is force them to accept our registration of Supers as well as various other duties related to that, it’s hard to deny us. Especially with all the benefits we can provide.”

“Most especially technology,” Faith finished and reached up to gently caress his cheek with a hand. There was a deep and bright glow in her eyes now. One that he knew was there because they should be as bright as the sun, but she was throttling it down for all she was worth. “I’m having examples of all the tech you’ve made brought in. We’ll be able to introduce a lot of it to the world, showcase it, make the benefits obvious, and then push off with our global invitation.

“Oh… ah… I did… I did set it up so we’ll have our prettiest and most handsome from the Association on hand for parts of this. Those who are with the Association will be filming from there. Legion from here.

“I know it’s a bit… cheap… but it works. Beautiful women and handsome men, sell. Though I’m a little nervous. Some of those Dragon Maidens… they’re… incredible to look at.”

“Tell me about it,” growled Felix. “I hope you’re ready for attention. I had to spend way too much time around a very attractive Red and Gaia. Thankfully I have control and I’m not led around by my pecker, but I’m still just a man.”

Faith wrinkled her nose, grinned, and patted his cheek.

“Ooooh, my Grove-mate. My husband. That’s music to my ears. I’m going to drain you dry tonight,” she said, and then kissed him briefly. Moving away from him, she picked up his helmet, pulled it down over his head, and made sure it was fastened securely. “Alright. I’m going to go finish up this email. You have a chat with Tribune about all the plans I put in place and approve them. I know I can do it myself as a temporary Legate but… best you do it.”

Walking away from him, Faith went back to her desk. His eyes followed the smooth swish of her walk as she did so.

Realizing he was staring, Felix quickly went and sat at his desk.

“Tribune, what do you need from me?” he asked.

“Approvals, Sir,” Tribune answered instantly. “I am unable to comply with many of your wishes with my current limitations. You will need to authorize the Global Domination program expansion you created.”

A slow breath was Felix’s only response to the request.

He’d learned many things from his previous experience in leading an organization. One of the biggest ones, was that you could be thinking you’re heading in the right direction when you’re just on a track for someone else.

That you’re operating under someone else’s agenda and plans without ever comprehending it.

Right now, he was fairly certain that he was completely free of others’ goals and plans. If only because he refused to join anyone else’s goals or plans.

It was hard for anyone to figure out what the Association and Legion was going to be doing when they overlooked everything except the small piece they were interested in. That every opportunity to gain party endorsements, favoritism, or kickbacks, had been ignored, as if they had never been seen.

There were very few things that the Association supported openly, outside of a desire to clean the world up and register Supers.

Only recently had more rumors started to circulate about the vast technology gap between Legion tech and the rest of the world. Mostly due to Romina’s streaming about “unboxing” all the gadgets, weapons, and armor she’d been given.

Quite a few companies and individuals had reached out to her after that. Many of them likely trying to open a line of conversation to get ahold of said technology.

Thankfully, Romina was loyal beyond a fault and had notified Felix of every single person who had tried. All the while, Tribune noted the emails and alerted him about them.

Technology was the weapon he’d overlooked the most in his last go round. Programs, technology, software, and cyber-warfare.

This time around, he had all the weapons, and his finger was already atop the trigger.

The door to his office opened and Alma, Carlotta, Andrea Prime, Gaia, Goldie, a number of the prettier Dragons, several extremely good-looking Dryads, Romina, Edmund, and several handsome men that were likely part of Gaia’s forces, all streamed in.

“Launch Global Domination, pre-war protocol. Launch Tribune’s Call and compile according to your own specifications on whatever would be best,” Felix murmured, mentally hitting the first-strike button. “I want it all Tribune. Take it all for me.”

“Yes, Sir. I will not fail you, Legate. I will take it all,” declared the VI as she began launching herself into the satellites above earth while simultaneously infecting all the nearby cell-towers, Wi-Fi signals, and internet. “Limited system access worldwide will be achieved in six hours. Complete dominance will likely be completed in six to eight days, depending on unknown variables and factors.

“Compiling will be achieved in ten minutes at most. Most of the Tribune locations will be integrated and then reprioritized without an issue.”

Good.

Good!

It’s a shame that is has to come to this, but I’m unwilling to allow a repeat of what happened previously. I’ve learned from my lessons.

Playing nice, playing by their rules, got me in trouble.

This time, I’m going to own everything long before they realize there’s an issue. When they go to open their armory and arm themselves, they’ll find all the locks changed.

Standing up, Felix moved around to the front of his desk.

With all these people who’d joined him, it just wouldn’t do to greet his people while sitting down. That’d just be outright rude.

Not to mention, it was nearly a given that Andrea would more than likely slam into him at high speed. It’d be better for him, and her, if he wasn’t at his desk.

Which she of course did.

Followed by Goldie, Alma, Carlotta, a nervous looking Romina, and an equally shy Gaia.

Murmuring the whole while about how she should probably let Felix seduce her. That if she waited any longer the Dragons might take up what room there was left.