Super Sales on Super Heroes 6 -ch23- (Patreon)

Chapter 23 - The Lights Come On -

“Good evening,” Felix stated into the polycom at the center of the table. “We’ve discovered the problem. I’ll be sending an official report with all the information and a great deal of detail after this, but I felt it would be good to have a high lever over-head meeting about this.

“First, let me apologize to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. While our methods weren’t kind, we discovered that your organization has indeed been compromised and through no fault of your own.

“It isn’t something you can defend against, even if you knew you needed to defend against it. Regretfully, the culprit responsible has a way of toying with people. Through the use of telepathy, other powers, and a great deal of planning, she can actively counter any defenses you might take.

“In fact, even if you changed your defenses after knowing what she planned, she’d know it. She’d alter her plans to once again counter you. There is nothing you can do to actually stop her.”

“What?” asked the President in a concerned tone.

“It’s a super behind it. They have the ability to predict the future. At all times. They can immediately determine what will happen next at all times in a what-if scenario,” Felix deadpanned. “Her name is Skipper. I’ve had a likeness created of her and included it in the file as well as actual photographs of her.

“We’re going to flood the world with photos of her as well as rewards for tips. I’m going to run her down and get her registered one way or another. At all costs. Of course… I’ll have an associate of the Hero’’s Guild and the Villain’s League with me through the entire situation.

“I would be more than happy to welcome an agent of your government as well. Or even a team of agents.

“Her actions have directly affected you and I would imagine she’s liable for a number of crimes. There’s a number of missing agents across many of your intelligence gathering organizations that I suspect are directly related to her. Most especially ones that seem as if they just vanished one day and you have no clues at all. She would know if she left anything behind, after all.”

He was guessing at that last part, but Felix felt pretty confident about it. It matched up with what he knew about Skipper and how she operated. She probably had small enclaves in every single intelligence agency that mattered in one way or another to her.

Next he needed to really set the hook. To really get them into the mindset that they were hungry and wanted the steak he was holding on a plate. To get them riled up.

Which really was a simple answer.

All he had to do was remind them that the association was a national level institution now after they’d bothered Felix. Bothered the Legate and caused him some issues.

They weren’t the lead nation to host them anymore.

Last he saw Felicity was negotiating with the United Kingdom to become the host nation of the Association.

“Though I imagine there might be a mad scramble for extradition once the truth comes to light. Well, if she’s apprehended after she’s registered. There were regrettable circumstances the last time we attempted to register supers,” Felix continued. “The association will of course share all this information with the globe at the same time we provide it to you. I imagine there will be others who would like to participate.”

“Ah… that-ah… is there any possibility that we could negotiate a first rights, type of situation?” asked the President.

“It depends on where we locate Skipper. The nation in question will get the first rights. It wouldn’t be right to decide anything else without first observing where Skipper is. You’ll receive the detaisl in the report we’re sending over.

“Feel free to speak with your Association ambassador with any questions or concerns you have. I’m sure they’ll be able to answer them directly or request information. Thank you for your time.”

Felix reached out and tapped the button to disconnect the call.

“Alright, Tribune. Dump the packages,” Felix ordered and spun to the side. Kit, Lily, Felicity, Andrea, Miu, Goldie, Faith, and Gaia, were all sitting there in various seats in his office. He’d been staring into the wall while talking. Looking at any of them would have been distracting. “I feel like that covers it all, right? Did I miss anything or are we good to move forward? Kit? Felicity? Faith?”

“Should be fine,” Kit murmured and glanced over to the other two.

“No concerns,” Felicity confirmed with a simple nod of her head, to which Faith concurred in a similar fashion. “Given Skipper’s propensity for seeing the future, we should activate our telepath network now, rather than our original timing.”

“Proceed,” Felix agreed and steepled his fingers in front of himself.

“Nn! Evil villain mode engaged!” cheered Andrea Prime before diving into his lap and then shoving her head up under his chin. “Pet me Evil Villain Felix!”

Unable to help himself, Felix chuckled and began to pet Andrea’s back. She spanned the gamut of personalities from Andrea now. He often could see facets of each woman in her actions anymore.

“Evil Villain Felix,” mused Gaia from the side. “I suppose that fits in some ways. Then again, I think I was supposed to be the villain, wasn’t I? I think that’s what Ryker said.”

“Yes, it was, lady Gaia,” confirmed Faith. “Given the situation it’s understandable.”

“Now we wait,” Lily said and then yawned. Then sighed. “Andie, can I have some pancakes and coffee?”

“Nnnnn! Yes, yes, my god yes!” shrieked all of the Andrea’s. Especially the ones who were finishing up all the offices. They were just doing painting work now. Ten or so Other’s fled from the scene, and dashed into the “pancake alcove” they’d created in Felix’s office.

***

“You know, I’m actually… stupefied,” Felix muttered, staring at the map laid out in front of him on the screen. It was something that he honestly didn’t expect, but after seeing it, it made perfect sense. Realistically, he should have considered it because it matched up wiht Skipper’s personality. “Manhattan, New York. Seems like that city seems to carry over from world to world. Rather surprising. Where exactly is she?”

“Last known location was heading into a high rise apartment building. The cost of the location she’s at is five-million-”

“Unneeded,” Andrea blurted out, hopping up and down against him. Her hands were pressed to Felix’s desk and sitting in his lap. It was extremely distracting, to say the least. “Nnnn, is it a home? Apartment? Building? What’s the likelihood of others getting in the way?”

“Apartment building. She’s purchased the entirety of it,” Tribune answered. “The likelihood of there being the possibility of citizens or civilians is very high, though it’s also quite possible that they all work for her.”

“It’s the latter. They all work for her,” Felix muttered, doing his best to ignore Andrea. “And she’ll be in the penthouse. That means we just have to land on the roof and go from there.

“I imagine those… uh, oh, LSDF things can land on a building? Too much force to stop without collapsing it?”

“Too much momentum, yes,” Tribune agreed. “The roof would collapse. That isn’t to say we can’t make it happen. We do have aerial units that can fly.”

“Yes! I love it,” Andrea declared, sitting down firmly in Felix’s lap. She forcefully spun his chair to face everyone else. “We can hot-drop down into the nearby riverbank during the night. Exit, then fly up to the top of the building. At the same time we can deploy some of those fancy new CRG Wardens to the ground. Police the exits and keep anyone from leaving. Those also have some anti-air capabilities so she can’t fly out either.”

As she spoke, Andrea had snatched up a pen and was quickly sketching something out on the back of one of his reports. She looked like she was drawing a map based on the map Tribune was showing. She was adding in maneuvering plans in a different color pen now.

Andrea is finally a single person. She is Andrea and Myriad at the same time.

“The Draco Custodes can get most of us up all on their own. Then we can just enter the penthouse and clear down,” Andrea murmured, finishing up her sketch. She then put it down and looked to the screen, then a camera in the corner. Forcing the chair to spin, she held up the paper to the camera. Several seconds after she put it back down to the desk. “Super impose that on the map, please.”

There was a blink from the screen, followed by a redrawing of Andrea’s plans, though a bit cleaner, thrown on top of a new blackand white street map of the location.

“She won’t be there though,” Felix said before Andrea could get into it. He was already confident in this. That she wouldn’t be there. In fact, he’d bet on it. Bet on this being a misdirection. “She’s elsewhere. This is where she was and where she wants us to focus. Make sure we collect a part of anyone who goes so I can bring them back later if what I think will happen, happens. Don’t send anything we can’t afford to lose, either.”

“Huh?” Andrea asked, looking at him.

“She’s got precognitive abilities. Even with our little telepathic shield going on, I’m sure she’s seen enough futures to know what is and isn’t a good idea,” Felix continued with a shake of his head. “She’s already left the planet or is hiding somewhere else. In fact, let’s just cheat.”

Picking up the paper Andrea had been working on Felix focussed on it. He wanted it to display a map of the world and the telepathic net. On top of that, he wanted it to showcase where the gaps in the net were.

Doubly so if they happened to be shielded, under ground, or in a place that the shield wouldn’t quite get to. Something that he knew he could have Tribune do but that it’d take her time to do it and there was the question of accuracy.

A point cost flickered up in front of him that was only a few-hundred thousand points. He accepted it and watched as the pen-marks on the paper faded away rapidly.

What replaced it was a map of the world exactly as he wished.

“Extrapolate that, Tribune. It’s a map of our net and where the gaps are,” Felix asked, looking back to the monitor. “Then add it to the tips, sightings, and everything else. Let’s see if there’s a pattern or something. Maybe it’ll help, maybe it won’t.”

“No pattern,” Tribune reported quickly. “Other than that if the tips are correct, Skipper has been appearing in multiple locations nearly at the same time.”

“Duplicates or fakes,” Lily answered quickly. “Doppelgangers of some sort or just body doubles. She’s already aware we’re looking for her, or it’s just how she already was doing things, and planned for her being a known person.”

“Alright, we can get rid of tips and sightings then,” Kit concluded with a short huff. “That means the Manhattan location is most likely a trap of some sort. There’s no reason to go in directly.

“Let’s not bother to send anyone. There’s no sense in wasting points on something we already know is wrong. On top of that… she’ll probably just blow up the building. Won’t she?”

“Probably,” agreed Felix. “Shes never cared for casualties. Her own or others.”

“Mm,” Faith put in and then leaned back into the couch where she sat between Lily and Kit. “But we need to check it, don’t we?”

“What about me?” asked Miu from the darkened corner. He’d assumed she was there but hadn’t actually checked. She hadn’t stepped out when she spoke either. “I’ll go check into that. I can stay out of sight and figure out what’s going on.”

“I guess that works,” Felicity allowed. She was tapping a finger to her chin. “I just worry for your safety, Miu. I know we can bring you back if something goes really wrong but still… is there really a need to go check? We’re fairly certain it’s a trap now.”

“Miu, do you want to go?” Felix asked, tilting his head to the side. Looking at the shadowed spot.

“Yes.”

“Then go. Thank you. Now… that map,” Felix mumbled and looking back to the screen. “Tribune, anything stand out to you as a place that Skipper would want to hide?”

“NORAD,” Tribune dropped after several seconds. “Given her previous actions, strategies, and plans, I think she’ll look to orchestrate a nuclear holocaust once she believes she can’t take over the world.

“Likely then she would execute her sleeper agents. Get everything to happen, lock down the site she’s in, and let it all go. It wouldn’t be the first time she weathered a collapse of the world.

“Perhaps she believes she could do so again. Or does she still have the capability to travel to other universes? Planets? Just as Legion does?”

Felicity cleared her throat before anyone could respond. Then she smiled when everyone looked at her.

“I do think Tribune is correct. Skipper is likely looking to get the world to dance to her whims, or will try to have the world ended,” Felicity agreed. “Thankfully she can’t account for Tribune. You can lock out the controls for nuclear launches for every country, can’t you?”

“If the Legate authorizes the action, yes, it can be done quickly,” Tribune confirmed. “I have deliberately limited my abilities and reach to conform to the Legate’s concerns.”

Sighing, Felix put a hand over his eyes. This wasn’t surprising. He knew she already had access to everything, but he didn’t realize she’d moved from access and data acquisition to actual control.

“Okay,” he said. “Lock out all the nuclear controls. Let’s just… fix the world now without anyone knowing. Go ahead and deactivate all the nuclear warheads you can reach. How many of those can you do that for?”

“Anything that requires a launch code, or key, is now deactivated,” Tribune announced immediately. “Though there are likely many weapons that I cannot reach, I have deactivated everything registered in all countries in one way or another.”

“She’s sentient, isn’t she,” Lily deadpanned.

“Of course she is,” answered Kit. “It wouldn’t be something to do with Felix, otherwise.”

“Sentient?” Gaia asked curiously, then she laughed loudly. “Oh my. She does have a spark of life in her. That’s surprising. It’s new and pure. Delightful. I haven’t seen new life birthed unto the world in a very long time.

“It seems there’s always room for surprises. Even when you’re the oldest living being on a planet. Such wonders… I’m glad that I didn’t become the big bad evil guy and destroy everything.”

Gaia was nodding her head at that.

“Sounds like we’re going for NORAD then,” Felix stated. “What is it?”

He really had no idea. It hadn’t existed in his old world.

“Short answer, a nuclear bomb shelter with lots of defenses to withstand a nuclear attack,” Felicity summarized succinctly. “It will be interesting to break into it.”

“There’s what we’ll do then,” Lily declared with a smile. “Couldn’t be simpler.”

“Good. Now… before we change subjects or get deeper into detail work, because I think that’ll take many hours, I have something I want to bring up.

“I can’t wait any longer. I’ve held my temper long enough. I’ve kept this bottled and was trying to wait for a better time, but it’s obvious I won’t get that chance unless I force it,” Goldie stated and lifted her chin up slightly. There was an anger to her tone that was unmistakable. “With that said, I want to discuss our home. Or more specifically, the home we use on this planet. Because I finally had a chance to go back to it the other day after finishing my work.”

Andrea suddenly frozen in Felix’s lap. Her entire body going rigid.

“I know we had it expanded so everyone has a room of their own,” Goldie continue. “And that certainly increases the amount of housework to be done, but I expected better. Much better. Because while I think some of you aren’t contributing as much as you should, there’s a few things that are well above and away in a terrible state.

“Do you have any idea how many dishes I found laid about the home? That there were piles of laundry scattered about? Or, and this one really annoys me Andrea Elex Campbell, a… a… a stained pair of boxers hidden in a pillow case?

“You filthy little monster. I’m going to have you clean the house from top to bottom, because I think all of this disaster is almost exclusively you. All of it. Top to bottom, every inch.

“Except everyone is far too sensitive to seeing you upset so they don’t call you out on it. I’m afraid my role doesn’t allow that. I care about you too much to leave it like this.

“You will bring at least a thousand of your Others and accept your punishment. Then share it with everyone equally. Do you understand me?”

“Yes… Goldie,” whined Andrea, not meeting anyone’s eyes at all. “I understand.”

Err, what about boxers?

What’d Andie do?

They were my boxers, weren’t they.