Super Sales on Super Heroes 6 -Ch 26- (Patreon)

Chapter 26 - Objection -

Felix felt quite strange.

In fact, he couldn’t even define it as strange. That was an under-statement of how he actually was feeling. That the world didn’t quite match up with reality at the moment.

No matter where he looked, he swore he could see transparent images, people, for a fleeting moment before they vanished. As if he’d been staring at a bright light and then looked away, only for the image to trail along behind.

They weren’t everywhere though, nor were they always quick to disappear. He’d caught several of these phantoms staring at him. As if they were surprised to be looked at.

Right now he was looking at an old man. A man that looked to be ancient, in fact. They were hovering over one of his CRG Elves. Just over their shoulder, in fact.

For more than a few breaths Felix and the old man stared at one another. After a few more seconds Felix finally broke the staring match.

They were currently riding a train to the Super Prison that Legion managed from the shadows. Faith and Felicity refused to allow him to go back to the HQ.

They’d remained in the tunnels till a train came to pick them, and the prisoners, up. Then they were moving to the Prison where a hold-out bunker and portals had been installed.

The Andrea’s that manned the location were few in number but heavily armed. Kit had been contacted directly by the A-Net and told to portal to the HQ, close the portals, then resume her duties.

Which of course she hadn’t.

He’d overheard Andrea complaining about Kit closing the portal as requested, then going to the Prison. She was now waiting there for Felix.

“Is… there something wrong, Lord Legate?” asked the Elf he’d had his face turned toward. He’d been looking over her, but from her point of view, he’d probably been staring.

“Name?” he asked rather than answering her question.

“Ah, Aubrey. That’s-that’s what my name was given to me by my father. I’m a Snow Elf from Lord Vince’s world,” said the Elf. “Did I-is something wrong? Should I take my helmet off?”

Felix started to shake his head, then nodded it.

“Maybe. That is… you’re a Snow Elf? Not a hybrid or a Human?” he asked, now confused. He’d been thinking that maybe they’d been related to the old man.

“I-that… I am, actually. My grandfather was a human. My mother was a half-elf, my father a full Snow Elf. Why?” asked Aubrey.

“Was your grandfather really old when he died?” Felix asked, glancing to the old man that was still as of yet hovering over the Elf. Now he was looking to the Elf again. “Short white hair, bald on top, brown eyes or the like?”

“Yes? Yes. Why?” Aubrey inquired, sounding suddenly nervous. She’d turned away from where she was at the window and had taken a few steps toward him. “His name was Walter.”

“Walter?” Felix repeated, his helmet tilting slightly so he could look right at the phantom hovering over Aubrey. To which the old man didn’t respond. He just gazed at the Elf. “Protective of you?”

“He raised me. My parents died in a Troll attack. He… my grandfather gave everything for me. If there was anything I needed, he’d take from himself to give it to me,” Aubrey murmured. She sounded wistful.

“Mm… well… he’s ah… I think he’s still with you. There’s an old man fitting that description hovering over you. Almost protectively,” Felix answered and then turned to look ahead. He really wasn’t sure what to think of this. It felt like too much to him.

Doubly so if he considered the fact that if this was Walter’s ghost, he’d followed Aubrey through dimensional rifts.

“I know,” Aubrey stated with a chuckle. “Pappy is always with me. He’ll always be with me. He told me so on his death bed. It’s good to know that you can see him. I’ll be doubly sure to talk to him. Maybe go find a Spirit Mage and see if I can’t talk to him directly.”

“Felix,” Evie said, moving directly in front of him. She reached over, picked up his helmet, and pushed it down on his head. The phantoms were gone no sooner than it covered his eyes. “Time to get ready. We’re arriving shortly. We need to get you to Planet Legion and safely tucked away.”

In the end they’d all agreed that Planet Legion was the safest place for him to be. The entirety of the world was essentially a recruitment drive for Legion. The natives were all tribal at best and no threat to Legion or it’s people.

Half an hour later, and a long conversation with Kit about what happened, and Felix was sitting in the “command center” on Planet Legion, in the heart of New Legion.

Sitting down in the chair that was specific for him, he sighed.

“Okay, renaming time,” he muttered while pulling his helmet off. He looked to Felicity. Phantoms and ghosts flickered away in all direction as he laid eyes to the world directly.

He was starting to wonder if they didn’t want him to see them with the way they fled. That perhaps in seeing them he could effect them.

Glancing over he saw who he believed to be Walter still hovering over Aubrey.

Looking back to Felicity Felix nodded his head.

“Renaming. Because we’ve been bad at it,” Felix stated.

“We can’t rename this planet, or this city. It being Planet Legion and New Legion City are both… set,” Felicity stated. She was organizing something on the desktop of a laptop she’d gotten from somewhere. Sometimes he felt almost like Felicity was far more capable than he was at times. “They’re well entrenched in our cultural beliefs as Legion. The name of the planet you came from we could change. The one you went to work to work on for Ryker is just being called Earth or OpFor. Though Earth is more common.

“Vince’s world has slowly become ‘Yosemite’ as it’s designation. Mostly because it’s the main city for the Legion of Yosemite there. Everything else is fine I think. I promise we’re being careful with naming going forward.

“And because I caught that look you just gave me, I’m not

“Now… we have other things to talk about. The NORAD team will most likely reach out to us very soon to report in. They should be finishing.”

Felix grunted at that and then sighed. He looked over to the endless line of displays and Andrea’s working here. This entire room was now the heart of the A-Net.

With a glance, Felix looked to Kit. She’d been rather shocked to hear her counterpart was part of the attack. To the point that he was wondering if she was going through what might have changed in this Kit’s life.

Sitting in a similar chair to Felicity’s on his other side, she was motionless and unspeaking. Her shoulders low and her upper body angled forward.

“I’m alright,” Kit murmured, not looking up. She was gazing into the floor in front of her. “Just trying to figure out what the heck is happening. I’ve gone through all the records from Tribune about… about ‘Hero-Kit’. There’s nothing that stands out as strange.

“Nothing that makes it seem like she was ever anything other than what she is right now. No change in her bank account, no alterations in her personal life, nothing going on with legal matters or anything like that.

“The only possible answer is she was working with Skipper since before we arrived. That they worked through any possible angle before we showed up and got her-got her over to their side. Her and Lily both.

“That’d explain why there’s so many people with altered minds. This version of me maybe has a slightly different power. A slightly different version? It’d make sense. That’s… that’s the only thing that makes sense to me.”

Unable to say anything, and not knowing what to say either, Felix turned forward again. On the main screen in front of his chair’s console, was a depiction of Tribune’s avatar.

Or a full body two dimensional version of her. Slowly pacing from one end of the screen to the other, and back again.

Then it looked up at him, waved, and went back to pacing.

Okay.

Hm.

That sentience is just growing faster and faster. To take the time to create a version of herself like that and make it pace is all for show.

A show for me.

It serves no benefit at all.

“Reporting,” came a firm voice over the speakers above. It took Felix a moment to realize it was Lily.“NORAD raid complete. Significant losses were taken. They had Legionnaire armor and even a few Wardens.

“Then they all just vanished and all that was left were naked people. We captured everyone we could as well as retrieved our dead.

“We have one high-profile prisoner. Skipper wasn’t here.

“We’ll be portaling out shortly, entire facility is clear and cold. Used a Legion with the power to detect life and a Dragon to clear all thoughts.

“We’ll use a warden to open a portal and—”

Kit held her hand out in front of herself and a portal ripped open out of nowhere.

“Send the prisoners through first,” Kit said just loud enough to transfer over the coms while opening a second portal directly in front of the first.

There was brief flickers of movement and shifting between the two portals. Felix was fairly certain that this was the NORAD raid for following direction.

“Clear,” stated an Andrea.

“Wounded, now, then the dead,” stated Kit, swapping the second portal.

Once again there was a series of movements.

“Clear,” Andrea said again. To which Kit swapped the portals.

“Non-leadership personnel,” Kit proclaimed, another portal swap occurring.

“Clear.”

“Leadership,” murmured Kit, closing the second portal completely.

Lily, Second Andrea, and several people from the CRG entered directly into the room. Along with a very buxom and lovely woman with shockingly red hair and green eyes. Felix stared at her for several seconds, possibly because she was naked, possibly because she was incredibly pretty, he looked to Lily.

“No, she’s not a present for you, but you can unwrap me later and rummage around in my box,” Talia put in with a nervous laugh.

There was an audible groan of what sounded like pain on the coms system through the speakers.

Kit closed the portal and everyone started pulling off their helmets.

“This is the ‘Skipper’that was at NORAD,” Lily ground out. Two Dragons had the red-head between themselves. “She’s an Elemental. Fire Elemental. Comes from an entire planet of them.

“Skipper owns it entirely. Has them all enslaved in a way with a weird… brand…thing. Doesn’t make any sense to me. Something to do with what Skipper actually is, which isn’t Human.

“Long story short, Skipper isn’t here. Her homebase is on our original world. No idea why, but that’s where she’s working out of. That’s the quick information I got out of her after I started tugging at her soul.”

“Yes, I’m happy to share everything,” gushed the Elemental. “More than happy.

“Skipper is definitely utilizing that world you came from. She often curses about you specifically, Felix. You’re a sore spot for her. She hates you and wants to own your world since you came from it.

“We used to use portals that were red or other colors up until a short time ago. All our portals failed and we couldn’t travel about anymore. I was pretty happy and thought that maybe I’d just gotten my freedom.

“Then new portals started opening up. Like the one that you used just now. They look the same.”

“Damnit,” Felix hissed and let his head sink.

“What?” Lily asked. “And why’re you all here?”

“Too long, didn’t read answer, we were attacked. By Hero Kit and Hero Lily who are apparently working with Skipper,” Felix summarized. “And I think I gave Hero Kit and Hero Lily your powers in a moment of weakness. I need to talk to Felicia. You all debrief them.”

Standing up out of his chair, Felix inadvertently got an eyeful of the lovely creature and moved away. He was heading for a back room that he knew was his “office” here in the A-Net.

Something Andrea had built specifically for him when he visited. Not wanting him to go back to the HQ office and stay here with her instead.

Or all her Others, at least.

Halfway there he noticed Evie, Talia, Andrea, and Faith were all moving with him. He was surprised to find Goldie had joined them at some point.

“Hello, dear,” Goldie purred with a wide smile. Her golden eyes glittering with warmth. “I finished up most of my tasks and realized you were here. I handed most of it over to Kris to finish up with.”

“Kris needs to be careful,” warned Andrea Prime. “Felix doesn’t even remember who she is anymore. He knows Lucille more than Kris.”

“That’s fine,” Goldie said with a long sigh. “Kris actually found a mate. I released her from the Wing and replaced her with Lucille in the Hue’s of the Wing. She’d been working hard.”

Evie nodded her head along with this as if she’d already known. It wasn’t a surprise to her.

“I suggested it to Goldie,” Evie added as they entered the office. “Lucile isn’t my equal as a Dragon Housewife, but she’s an amazing Black. More than capable.”

Felix went straight to his desk and pulled over his keyboard.

Only for the monitor to flick on.

Tribune appeared in the bottom right corner while waving. Then the screen opened up a window and it said “calling” in the middle of it.

A few seconds later and Felicia was in the center of it. She appeared to be in her own office. There were a number of apprentices she was working with that helped her out with a lot of projects in her lab.

“Oh, hey,” Felicia said and grinned at him. The gruff exterior had finally completely melted away. “Which office is that?”

At least when they were alone.

“A-Net office. I left them all there and came in here to call you up. I need you to run an emergency project. To the point that I think I need to dial your power up to a point where you’ll likely be uncomfortable to make it happen,” Felix admitted with a shake of his head. “I’m sorry, Felicia. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t have to. But this is something that needs a master craftsman with a Super power’s touch.”

“Ah… well, that’s fine,” Felicia dismissively said with a hand wave. “It’ll give me a chance to see what I can do when I’m moving up to my limits. Maybe even beyond.”

“Great. I’ll go move your powers up in a bit. The goal is really simple this time, too. Easy to explain, hard to do, only a genius can complete,” Felix said. “I want something that’ll prevent any portal from opening anywhere on the planet. If this device is on, no portals anywhere. If it’s off, it’s fine. That’s it.”

Felicia only laughed at that, wrinkled her nose, and rolled her eyes.

“Fine, fine. Got it. And you flatter me more than my wife does,” growled the Dwarf.

“Hey, I like your wife. You’re a lucky lady to have her. And speaking of your lovely wife, you and her up for a dinner date later? Legion’s is supposedly opening again. Would love to go there on a double date.”

“Definitely. That’d be lovely. Bring at least two people with you. It seems to take at least two people to manage to keep my big brute busy with chatter. I’m no good at it,” requested Felicia a second before the screen turned off.

Demonstrating once again her inability to participate in “chatter” as she called it.

“She’s so nice now,” Andrea giggled with a clapping of hands.

“Andie? Dear? If you mention this to Felicia… you won’t like it,” Goldie warned, glancing at the Beastkin while moving around to the side of Felix’s desk. She set down a tray of Dragon shaped cookies of different colors. “Eat a few dearest, you look a bit worn. Being our god is probably taking more power than you think. You wouldn’t think it looking at Gaia, but she eats. A lot. She does her best to hide it around you.

“I wouldn’t mention it in fact if it wasn’t worth telling you so that you weren’t concerned with your eating habits.”

Goldie set down a soda next to the cookies.

Then Evie appeared and laid out a plate filled with cheeses and meats and a juice box. Leaving Felix suddenly torn on what to take first.

“Wouldn’t it be best if the apprentice surpassed the master?” Evie said with no heat and a great deal of care. “If I can be a better Housewife than you Goldie, it’d only be a testament to how amazing you are.”

Goldie’s eyebrows raised at that and a wide smile curved her lips.

Felix took the juice box as it was actually one of his favorites. He realized he couldn’t take several pieces of meat and cheese though as it would likely make Evie gloat over Goldie.

While he was a stupid man, he wasn’t foolish enough to play into their little fight. If they ever put something in front of him, he would deliberately force a draw. Soon enough they’d leave him alone.

“Alright, I’m going to alter Felicia. Someone go get me that Fire Elemental in the mean time,” Felix said as soon as he swallowed.

“I told you that you could unwrap me. You don’t need her,” Talia offered and then leaned over the top of his desk.

If she’d been in casual wear it’d likely have been a sexy pose.

Right now it was weird with her in her armor.

“Going to threaten her with torture,” Felix amended. “Then probably torture her. I need more answers. A body double is likely to have lots of those, right?”

To which Talia shrugged her shoulders.

“So long as you take care of my needs when you’re done, that’s fine,” she added. “I’ll answer any questions you want.”