Super Sales on Super Heroes 6 -CH 11- (Patreon)

Chapter 11 - Reset -

Everything flickered, buzzed, and then became solid again.

Computers that’d been stripped of parts to get others running, suddenly were whole and where they should be. Broken desks were repaired and in place.

Broken lightbulbs began throwing out light from perfectly formed glass.

Everything, from the carpet, to the ceiling tiles, including the one Evie had inadvertantly broken apart, were exactly as they had been when Legion pulled out of the world.

Monitors began turning on, computers whined to life, camera feeds started to flicker to life. Defensive systems fired up and readied themselves.

“Tribune, report,” Felix commanded, looking to the massive bank of monitors.

“I have control of all systems,” reported the VI.

Felix nodded and looked over to the Adrianna’s who had been quickly taking seats. Some of them had gotten up and left the station they were at to go to a different one.

Must be going back to where they’d been previously.

As if they’d never left.

That’s rather amusing.

“A-Net, what’s your status?” Felix asked.

There was a collective intake of breaths over the comms as well as everyone in the room. Every Andrea, Adrianna, and Myriad had froze up.

Third Adrianna, Third Andrea, and Third Myriad all scurried forward to stand off to the side of his chair.

Prime Adrianna and Myriad fled the room. For reasons he didn’t know or understand.

Andrea was wide-eyed, while Adrianna and Myriad had schooled their features a little better.

“A-Net up and running,” reported Adrianna. The three of them were in Legionnaire armor but Adrianna had stuck a head-set on over her head. It looked more military than corporate. “Postions are being filled by Andrea and Myriad for the security points. Adriannas are currently taking all support, utility, and facility positions.”

“Good. Now… any are any of my Elex women missing? Have we finally got all of them back?” Felix asked, turning to put his entire focus on the three women.

Andrea’s face twitched as if she were fighting something inside her own head. Adrianna opened her mouth and froze. Myriad looked at the other two and frowned.

An Other stepped out of Myriad, entered Adrianna, then left her, and entered Andrea. Only for an Andrea Other to leave her, and re-enter Myriad.

“The only missing Elex women at this time, were missing before you came into the picture,” Myriad reported, Adrianna and Andrea still looking flustered. “Even some more Death-Others who had yet to arrive, made it back.”

“How many missing?” Felix asked.

“Sixteen,” Myriad answered quickly. “We think.”

“Can we get them?” he pushed. Then he gave up on that line of questioning because he realized it didn’t matter. Looking around to everyone around him. “Does anyone have a compass?”

No one answered him.

“I can make a magical one,” Lily offered, seated in a very similar seat to Kit’s.

“How long would it last?” Felix asked. “Needs to last for a while. Maybe a year. And for me to own it personally.”

“I could do that. Just means putting in more power,” stated Lily. Then she held her hands up and she quickly formed a spell from runes and then pushed her hands together. There was a pop, followed by the spellwork becoming solid. It was a hand sized disc and looked to be an actual compass.

Just made out of magic.

Focusing on it, Felix wanted it to show the way to any missing Elex woman. Alive or dead. So long as it was a part of them so they could be reabsorbed, and hadn’t been spoken to about rejoining the Elex collective.

A cost popped up and it was less than ten-thousand points. A sum that would have been eye-watering only a year or two ago.

He accepted it without looking at the window and then held it out to Andrea.

“Please go find all the Elex women. I invite them to remain with us, but if they truly want to remain separate, that’s their choice,” Felix said.

A Myriad Other stepped out of Myriad and took the compass. She held onto while nodding her head at him.

“The Death-Other’s will handle it. Many of those missing are our kind, after all,” remarked the Myriad. Several Andrea Others, as well as Adrianna, separated and then merged into the Myriad Other.

“I… you know, I still don’t get it. Or how they even keep it together. Or how he recognizes them now,” Lily remarked, sounding confused. To which Kit only nodded her head.

“Building secure,” Adrianna reported, looking to Felix after having been staring at the ground. “All positions active, all weapons ready, all… all facilities active.”

“Great. See if anyone wants to come collect their old gear or equipment,” ordered Felix. “Maybe Felicia left some things here that she wanted after all or something like that. Now… let’s bring up that outside view. I assume all our cameras are working again again.”

There was a momentary pause, and then the bank of monitors swapped to a new view. They were broken down into groups of four. Each four monitors were a single view. The lines between the screens were so thin that it was almost as if there was no break in the image.

It was still night-time outside.

The cameras had turned on their night-vision mode, though it was still quite difficult to make out the details of what they were looking at. The city really did look like a completely bombed out mess.

Worse than a warzone in many regards.

“Alright,” Felix said and then sighed. “I guess that leaves Legion City and the tunnels that lead into the city directly. Suggestions, people?”

“Leave the tunnels blocked off till we’re ready,” Faith put in. She and Gaia had come over. Surprisingly, Goldie and Evie had joined them. “There’s no sense in opening us up to other problems just yet. We’ll get to them. Just not at this time.

“It was a temporary measure, let’s make it a long lasting temporary measure. We have enough problems as it is without opening ourselves up to more.”

“Nnn, yes. We should seal them off completely. Have some of the magic types do the building of walls,” Andrea suggested, slamming a gauntleted fist into the other which was open with a clang. “Click, clack, clunk. Floor to ceiling. Worst case, I just dig dig new tunnels to where we want to go and abandon the old ones.”

“That’d probably be easier anyways,” Adrianna remarked, glancing at Andrea.

“Good. Good thoughts. We’ll definitely keep the tunnels sealed. Building new ones is a good thought, but we need your Andrea-power elsewhere for now. What else?” Felix prompted.

“Are there Dragons on this world?” Evie asked. “We could try to recruit some if there are. The strength of your Wing is already impressive.”

“I… don’t know. There were a lot of secrets in this world,” Felix admitted, then he glanced to Gaia.

“I’m sorry darling, I have no idea,” replied Gaia with a sad smile and a shrug of her shoulders. “This isn’t my world. I’m not sure I’d want it either. It’s fairly ruined. I think it’d become a detriment to me rather than a positive.”

“I could go make our intentions clear,” Goldie suggested. “I could go to the roof and declare my ownership of a full wing. That’d likely attract willing females.”

“Or aggressive individuals,” countered Carol. A platinum dragon with eyes and hair of a similar platinum color. She was as filled out as Goldie was and a smidge more attractive.

“I’ll take care of those,” offered Lucille, the equal in every way Black Dragon. Though she had black hair and black eyes. “I may not be a very good housewife, but I’m confident in my abilities to fight.”

She said the last while flexing her hands in front of her as if she wanted to jump into combat immediately. Even while looking terrifying, she was seductive.

Felix had difficulty not staring at the Dragons. They were all far too appealing to the casual observer. He was only a weak minded man who let his emotions and desires get the better of him.

“Is that a wise idea?” Felix asked, looking to the four Dragons. “If you think it’s wise, I’ll support it. Do we want the attention? We won’t have the ability to support with much of anything.”

Goldie frowned and looked thoughtful.

Raising a gauntlet to her mouth, Gaia stuck a fingertip against her lip. Only realizing that it wasn’t her hand when the metal touched her skin. She quickly dropped her hand back down.

“I’ll assist if I need to. This is something that would be better for me to be involved in anyways,” Gaia offered. “Not to mention, it’d be good for me to be there. I can inquire as to where the Gaia of this world went. Maybe we could find her remains and bring her back. If she’s willing.

“Though… given the state of the world, we’re better off assigning a new goddess of the world. Though we’d need to make sure she was only a goddess of the lands we possessed.”

“Sounds like Faith’s getting a promotion. Kinda a long road away from where you started as a bodyguard,” Felix remarked with a long chuckle while gesturing at the armored Dryad.

“Many of us have been on a long road. A winding and twisting long road,” Faith agreed, the warm and slow smile that spread over her mouth made his spine tingle. The glow that appeared in the depths of her eyes only added to it. “I’ve enjoyed it myself. I wouldn’t be who I am without it.

“As to becoming a goddess… I’ll pass. That’s… no. That’d tie me down here far too much. I imagine Gaia isn’t feeling perfectly comfortable being on this world given that it isn’t her own.”

Frowning, Felix’s eyes flicked to Gaia.

He caught a fleeting look of annoyance and frustration. Only for it to be whitewashed over with her attractive smile.

She waved a hand in front of herself as if dismissing the whole conversation. That it was nothing more than a concern that didn’t matter at all.

“I’m perfectly— perfectly fi—”

Gaia’s voice had trailed off as soon as Felix pulled off his helmet. He wanted to look her in the eye and hear her words. “Eye to eye” so to speak. Many people simply couldn’t put voice to a lie in person.

Felix didn’t say anything, he just stared at her. Waiting for her to continue.

Slowly everyone turned to look at Gaia.

The goddess blushed, slowly looked to the ground, then nodded her head a bit.

“It’s a bit hard,” she admitted. “I saw something on the tablet once and that comes to mind. Like being at high altitude and not quite able to catch a full breath.

“That feels somewhat similar. As if I’m just not quite able to get control over myself. It isn’t painful or truly problematic. Nothing like that. Just a bit uncomfortable.”

“Gaia, go back through the portal. Support everyone there. If I need you to come protect me, I’ll gladly reach out to you,” Felix promised with a wide smile for her. “I’m not going to let ego get in the way of me being comfortable. If I can ask my wife to shield me from problems, I’ll most certainly do that.

“But in the same breath, I’d rather not having you being uncomfortable for the sake of nothing, either. There’s a great deal you can do for me back on your original world for the time being. Besides, there’s still a few things we could clear up on that environmental problem list of ours.

“Maybe I want to see you at your pinnacle of beauty and health, dear wife. At your peak. That would help me quite a bit, wouldn’t you say?”

Laughing, Gaia watched him. Then she let out a long and slow breath. Her eyes never leaving his.

“You’re putting a warm face for me,” she accused.

“Of course I am. I’d rather have you here, but I’d also rather not having you being bothered,” Felix confided instantly. “But neither am I lying to you. I don’t think it would be problematic to have you go back and tend to your wounds, as they were.”

Huffing once, Gaia pouted, folding her arms across herself. She stood like that for several seconds before huffing a second time, then moving over to him.

She leaned down, kissed him briefly, patted his cheek, then stood up.

“Okay. I’ll do that. I’m only a single call away, after all. Portals seem rather convenient to zip about,” Gaia pointed out, her eyes moving to Kit for only a moment. “Bye for now, Felix.”

Gaia made a small wave of her fingers in an awfully cute way before she left them all there. Exiting with a poise and grace that caused him to watch her depart, even if there was no sexuality in the Legionnaire armor covering her.

“Okay,” Felix said, looking back to Faith and the Dragons. Then to Kit and he dipped his head to her. “You’ll need to be on standby to drop a portal from the Dragons to Gaia so that they can work together. If we don’t have to utilize Gaia, all the better.

“Now… any other ideas? Any other suggestions? Concerns? This is the turning point where we figure out our next actions so it’d be good to know what you’re all thinking about it.”

“I don’t have anything to add, really,” Lily stated. “It all seems fine, I guess. Given the way the building now looks though, I think we’ll have people heading our way. People who want to get inside for refuge or to take what’s ours.”

Ugh.

She’s not wrong. We’ll need some type of outreach program, or some such, won’t we?

“I can work on that,” Kit offered with a raise of her hand. “I’ll work on screening newcomers and sort the wheat and chaff. I can go to the old HR department and get some people there as well. They don’t seem to be doing too much at the moment.

“That’ll keep me here and on-hand in case the Dragon… challenge… goes off and needs a hand.”

Not responding, Felix only nodded his head. After neither Kit or Lily seemed to have anything else to offer, he looked to the Faith and the Dragons again.

“I’m rescinding one of your orders,” Faith stated with a smirk. “Many of the Andreas are going back to their security work. I’m only recalling enough of them so I can bring back Dragons to act as your body-guards. As well as the Elves who trained to be your body-guards.

“There’s no sense in not utilizing the resources we planned for this. Nor will we need all the Andrea’s even if we go to clear out Legion City.

“It’ll only effect the timing which, honestly, will still take far too long in either situation. The goal we have in mind is a marathon, not a sprint.”

“See, we left him in good hands,” Lily remarked quietly to Kit. The comment clearly wasn’t meant to be heard by anyone else. Felix just happened to manage it due to his proximity.

Faith’s cheeks colored but she didn’t look away from Felix. She’d obviously heard as well. Though she wasn’t going to acknowledge it.

Clicking his tongue, Felix decided he wanted to take a different approach.

He looked to Adrianna and Myriad.

“I know you’re more white-collar now Adrianna, but how’s your combat compared to Andrea?” Felix asked.

“Not… great? I can hold my own obviously. I can do a lot of good and win against most in a fight. But she’s just better than me,” Adrianna shared with a wince. “If you ask how I hold up to Myriad… that’s even less of a conversation.”

He looked to Andrea.

“You compared to Myriad?” he asked.

“Nnn, that’d be Adrianna compared to me,” admitted Andrea.

Looking to Myriad, Felix smiled at her.

“Myriad Andrea Elex,” Felix stated clearly. While they all acted as separate individuals, he knew better. Having taken her to another world and watched them meld into one person, he knew the secret here.

Even if he split their souls, it was still only one soul.

Myriad was the true original Andrea. Andrea was the carefree split off that took control when Myriad died. Adrianna was the high-minded intellectual that was made to preserve their mind. They were all part of the whole.

Myriad swallowed at the statement and blinked. He wasn’t going to say more, but he knew they were well aware of the truth as well.

Most especially after having gotten what the Andrea that came with him, shared with them. He also had a sneaking suspicion about something deeper he’d seen since he’d reunited with them.

“Yes?” she said after a moment longer.

“How many Others can you handle right now,” Felix asked and paused deliberately. “Myriad?”

Blinking twice, Myriad looked down to the floor.

“Several thousand,” she noted and looked up to him.

Which wouldn’t be possible if she wasn’t actually Andrea as well. They’ve just split their personalities in the end. They really are just one person.

That’s fine. We’ll keep treating them individually.

It makes them happy.

This is just like I talked about with the other Andrea. That she was all Andrea Campbell, even if she was separate people, too.

All of them Andrea.

“How many extra could I give the Elex collective at this time?” he asked instead. He knew there was a limit to how much they could handle at a time for each host.

Chances were there were many “sub-Prime” Andrea, Adrianna, and Myriads running around right now. All coordinating the efforts to their Primes.

“Four-hundred. We’re… we’re still trying to deal with the thousands you gave us,” Myriad answered with a small shake of her head. “This is the most we’ve ever had before. Ever. We were our own PMC but only in the hundreds. We’re now… we’re legion.”

The last was said with a rueful smile that lit Myriad’s face up.

“I’ll push a thousand more into you. Divide it up as you see fit but I want the majority as Myriad. I need high-end combatants,” Felix demanded. “Can you do it?”

All three Elex women winced, looked to one another, then back to Felix.

“No, but we’ll make it work,” Adrianna apologized with a sigh.

Damnit, okay. This isn’t them under-promising.

“Five hundred?” he tried instead.

He got smiles from all of them at that. The three of them nodding quickly.

“Fine. Five-hundred. The Dragon maidens. Elf body-guards,” Felix ticked off trying to figure out his force composition.

“Lily and myself,” Faith added. “Carlotta and Alma can handle my Dryad duties here with Kit and the others. General security will be handed over to Ioana. She’ll be able to organize it better than the rest of us.”

“Okay,” Felix agreed, then he looked to the screens across from him. He was afraid to ask his next question. He was fairly certain Tribune was sentient and hiding it from him. “Tribune. What’re your recommendations? Please present them on one of the displays. We don’t need to be staring at the buildings around us anymore.”

There was a flicker on the monitors before an image of the helmet of Legionnaire appeared on it. It took up half of the display that was available.

“None, Legate,” stated Tribune on the monitors while providing closed captioning at the bottom of its statement. “All your actions are what would be suggested or advised. The actions not taken, were higher in risk, and not optimal.”

“What if I put you in a few Wardens,” Felix suggested. He’d long believed that Tribune was at the point where she could become a world ending event. Putting her in a Warden was the step in the wrong direction.

But he needed forces.

There was a pause, followed by a blip-like noise that made the screen flicker.

“I could safely hold five Warden suits without diminishing my protocols or efficiency,” Tribune answered. “Though this action is not advisable. I am a threat and could become more of a threat once allowed to utilize weaponry directly.”

Felix wasn’t as prideful as he used to be. He didn’t think he was all knowing and would conquer everything thrown in front of him.

“Okay. Please transfer your programming into five Wardens. Newest generation,” ordered Felix. “Put a permanent lock out on them to delete your programming and on an access command from me.

“Your orders will be simple. Maintain and hold the entrance, which will also be our exit. Make sure it’s clear so we can put up a base camp there if we wished.”

“It will be done,” Tribune promised, then the image of the Legion helmet vanished.

Turning his thoughts inward, Felix wanted to modify Andrea Campbell. To give the ability to pull up five-hundred more Others.

Though he wanted the current change to be reflected in her Myriad personality, despite the fact that they were all the same person.

He felt a stretching in his power, only for it to pop up a window without an issue.

Name:   Andrea Campbell (Myriad)

Condition:   Nervous.

If   No Action Taken: None

Action   >> Alter Power: Cost 971,188 points

The cost was higher than he wanted, but he didn’t care. He hit the accept button on it and then looked to the Elex women.

“There you are, Andrea,” Felix murmured, saying it to all of them.

Myriad nodded her head once.

“Well… we’ll wait for the Dragons and Elves, then get going,” remarked Felix, looking to everyone else. “I’m honestly somewhat eager to clear out the city and restore it to how it used to be.

“Because then we’ll have even more room for people. All the old citizens can come back, while we put new citizens in both New Legion City and Old Legion City.

“We’ll need better names for it all though. Especially Legion planet. In retrospect… that’s just over the top super-villain trope, isn’t it?”

“Nn! I’ll lay on your legs and you can pet me! Super villain!” stated Andrea a moment before an Other stepped out of her in normal clothes and started climbing into his lap.