“Yes. And in the lower habitation levels. The ones shielded by about ten feet of reinforced concrete with steel plates. You paid a lot for them? You don’t remember?”
“I sign many things. I think I want to buy a stamp with my signature on it. It could just sit on my desk. ‘Oh, sign this’, stamp,” Felix said, feeling playful. For the first time in a long while, he wasn’t being drowned in paperwork, working a headache out, or dealing with something.
“You do realize how quickly that’d end up in Andie’s hands, yes? Then everything would have your signature on it. Including her, I imagine,” Lily said, pulling him along through an archway.
“Ah… yeah. That’s… yeah. Good point. Ix-nay on the stamp,” Felix said.
As they passed the arch and got deeper into the room, Felix realized they were surrounded. It started with a few people, and almost immediately climbed into a throng of men, women, and children running about on whatever chores they were doing.
“These are…” Felix started, watching as people streamed in and out of what looked to be stores.
Grocery stores, knick knack shops, even an electronics boutique.
“These are your people, living in their underground world that you carved out. You subsidize almost all of their costs, so the fact that almost everyone’s salary is the same, doesn’t matter at all. And since you actually pay them their full salary now, that goes pretty far with the subsidizing. Shame about that loophole. I really thought that would last a while. Or at least, longer than it did. It got wiped out pretty quick in the grand scheme of things. Skipper realized how much they were missing out on in taxes,” Lily said.
“Yeah. Skipper is definitely paying attention. I imagine that probably shored up some gaps in the budget for Skippercity, too.”
Lily only nodded her head and led him along as they walked down the street. There were no cars or bikes, just pedestrians.
Everyone moved about as if they were simply out and about. Enjoying an evening after work in a shopping district.
There were even dark gray security guards on patrol making their rounds.
It was obvious they were treated vastly different by the crowd in comparison to how most people acted with the police.
The security patrol smiled and nodded to friends and acquaintances as if they were still at the office. Quite a few stopped and chatted with others.
“It’s a little strange,” Felix said softly, watching.
“I suppose it is. At first. Mostly everything turned out this way, because it’s us against them. Legion versus everyone else. Sense of a shared purpose. And with everyone getting the same treatment, even down to the same living spaces dependent on family size, there’s little room for envy,” Lily said.
Felix nodded his head at that, not responding.
He hadn’t meant to do it, but it was a very normal tactic in business.
And warfare.
Or taking over countries.
“Don’t feel bad about it. If you are, that is. They have purpose, drive, and unity. In fact, part of where we’re going tonight is to show you that,” Lily said, giving him a clue finally.
“Ok. Also… and this is starting to make me a touch crazy, since it doesn’t seem like anyone has noticed, do they not see us?” Felix asked.
“Oh they see us, but they don’t see us. We look like normal employees. Not Felix and Lily. I doubt we’d get a true experience of your city within a city otherwise,” Lily admitted.
“That—ah. That’s why you wanted Kit to take a look at you. I mean that—”
“PANCAKE!” shouted a crowd of people off to one side.
Felix blinked and stared in that direction.
“Let’s… not go over that way,” Lily said.
“No, we’re going over that way. I want to know,” Felix said, moving off towards the sound.
Felix managed to get up to the crowd before he was practically knocked flat with another shout.
“Holy crap,” he said, lifting up a free hand to rub at his ears.
“They tend to get loud. Especially when there’s a crowd,” Lily said. “I’ll be over here by the fountain.”
Looking over at her, he found she was smiling in a bemused fashion, indicating the statuary nearby.
“I’ll be right back then. I’m very curious. Can’t help it,” Felix said.
Forcing his way up to the front, Felix found himself face to face with an eerily accurate yet clearly mechanical Andrea.
From the hairstyle, down to the eyes, and even the smile, it was Andrea.
Just not Andrea.
The machine held up a plate to him that had a pancake on it.
The machine had just pulled it out of some type of oven that was behind her to one side.
“Want a pancake?” it asked in Andrea’s voice, moving the plate closer to him.
“Uh… sure,” Felix said, taking the plate.
“Pancake!” yelled the Andrea, holding her arms above her head.
“PANCAKE!” came the reverberating shout from the crowd.
Felix winced and ducked his way back through the mob of people.
As he went he finally realized that this wasn’t the same crowd, but was a constantly filtering group of people. Coming and going all at the same time.
He found Lily exactly where she said she’d be. Sitting down next to her with a pancake on a plate, he felt a touch strange.
“That was… different,” he said neutrally.
“Oh yes. Remember when you said you wanted a machine that could turn out pancakes that increased power? Like the Power Sausage? That’d be that,” Lily said, indicating the pancake. “Besides, it’s hard not to like Andie. She’s practically the mascot of Legion. Everyone knows her and loves her. Most remember your first speech and her stealing the show.”
“Err. Is it made out of people?” Felix asked, changing the topic. He wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.
He’d never been that keen on the Power Sausage. Even though he’d made that promise to actually eat them, he’d never been able to
“No. Thankfully not. Though I do hear that the security team seems to prize the Sausage when it’s made. A ‘successful encounter’ is how they describe it when it’s available. Hand that off to someone, you’ll spoil our dinner. We should be off anyways,” Lily said.
She got up and set off at a leisurely pace, clearly knowing where she was going.
Felix stood up and made eye contact with a teenager and held out the pancake to him.
“Hey, eat this,” Felix said with a grin. Handing off the plate to the kid, he jogged a few steps to catch up with Lily.
The kid mechanically picked up the pancake and began eating it, the order of the CEO of Legion being something no one could resist.
Chapter 10 - Break Out -
Lily seated herself comfortably at the table and then smiled up at Felix as he took the chair across from her.
They’d been brought to their table rather quickly. In fact, he’d swear it had only been maybe ten minutes since he’d witnessed the pancake worship.
“Alright. So this is all rather interesting. You’ve got me there,” Felix said, looking around at the rather upscale restaurant in Legion city. “But I’m curious why you picked this of all places.”
“To get you away from everyone, mostly. That and to show you all the good you do. I know sometimes you get bogged down in… well… ordering people’s deaths and conquering companies, banks, and local governments. It’s good to see the good you do, no?” Lily said, leaning forward over the table.
Felix bobbed his head back and forth as he thought on that.
He couldn’t deny that earlier today had been bothering him. He’d more or less went full villain mode and ordered the death of the governor, and forced a deal on his successor.
Part of him wondered if it wouldn’t be easier to just run for governor after all, but that was besides the point.
On top of that, he’d realized that this wasn’t over
by a long shot. If the government was trying to get to him to use him as leverage in Skippercity, that’d bode well for no one.
“No… you’re right. It was… yeah. It was getting to me, I admit it. Well. Since you’re playing the part of my therapist and girlfriend, what do you recommend?” Felix said, tapping the menu.
“I have no idea. Never been here. Girlfriend?” Lily asked, flipping open the menu.
“That’s the part that gets you strung up? Not the therapist?” Felix asked, staring at the top of the table.
“Not really. They’re the same thing anyway,” she said. She paused to read something on the menu that caught her attention. “That looks nice. I’ll do the tilapia. I’ve always liked tilapia. You’ll do a hamburger. Because you’re easy. Don’t bother opening it you’ll just confuse yourself.”
Felix snickered at that and slid the menu to one side. “Yes, dear. Thank you, dear. Am I paying?”
“You’re welcome, and yes, you are. Don’t worry, I’m worth every penny,” Lily said, giving him a dazzling smile.
“Are you now. Definitely gotten my money’s worth out of how little I paid for you,” Felix said, watching a waiter heading their way.
“That the best you got? You’ll need to do better than that,” Lily said. She gave her head a shake, her hair swishing back and forth as she refused to rise to the bait.
“Good evening. Welcome to Legion’s, what can I get for you to drink?” the waiter asked, looking from Felix to Lily.
Legion’s? Really?
“Wine for me, he’ll have a soda. And we’re actually ready to order already as well. I’ll have the tilapia. He’ll have the Legion’s Fist,” Lily said, holding out her menu.
“Ah, good choices. I’ll have that all brought out immediately.” The waiter picked up the menus and scurried off.
Felix smiled and let out a slow breath.
It was refreshing to not make choices.
To lead a company of people through a cesspit of humanity was hard. Being that he had both Villains and Heroes present was doubly so.
“Felix… why are we in Tilen?” Lily asked him softly.
“Hmm? To figure out who’s after us. To offset our risk with the whole slavery thing as well. Why else?” Felix said. Perhaps a bit too quickly.
“That’s a very good reason. Why else?” Lily asked. “I know there’s another reason, Felix. It isn’t like you to spend as much as you have on this enterprise simply to find out who attacked us. Knowing you, you’d make like a turtle and sit inside Legion until you had a chance to fight back. This is out of the ordinary for you.”
He wasn’t surprised.
Lily knew him fairly well. Knew what his habits were and what he liked and didn’t like. This move into Tilen was pretty far outside his normal tendencies.
“That obvious?” Felix asked, finally meeting her eyes.
“Only to me. Kit, too. Everyone else either doesn’t care, or doesn’t know,” Lily said, holding her hand out to him across the table.
Felix gave her half a grin and set his hand in hers.
“Ya got me there. Yeah, there is another reason. After everything that happened in Skippercity, I had to take a step back. Reevaluate everything. Figure out what was my weak point. Ask myself, if I started over today, what would I change,” Felix said.
“And what I found was that the one thing I’d change is my reliance on slaves. Sure, it’s a great way to hold everyone in check. Keep everyone in the same path. But all it would take for Skipper to end me, us, would be to make slavery illegal. And that’d be the end,” Felix said honestly.
“You mentioned something about that before, but I didn’t take it to the obvious conclusion. Outlawing slavery would… definitely hurts us,” Lily said.
“I know. It’s dumb, right? But that’s all it’d take. Hence our adventure to Tilen. If we can make this work, and it is so far, then all I have to do is change the contract everyone is on.” Felix shrugged and gave Lily’s hand a squeeze. “And there it is. I need to get this all hammered out. My only saving grace right now is how many people would be insanely pissed off if Skipper outlawed it today.”
Lily closed her mouth and opened it again, only to close it once more.
“I didn’t even think about it. It’s… such a simple thing to do, too,” she said finally.
“Yep. It really is. Like I said, the one thing I’d change would be that. But hey, most of the way there already. Kit is pretty sure we’ll have this all buttoned up in time. She’s been going over everything we need from a HR perspective. We’ll have the contracts over to you and your legal team by next week I imagine to finalize any of the wording and clauses. But enough of this, you didn’t ask me out here to talk about work, did you?”
“No. No, I didn’t. Not at all. I’m glad to hear that you’re being proactive though. Very glad,” Lily said, giving his hand a squeeze and smiling. “Now, how about we talk about something else entirely. Like that we’re going to go see some art from the Legion after this.”
“Art?” Felix asked, raising a brow with a grin. “We have art?”
“You said you wanted everyone to have a place. A position that fit them. If everyone earns the same, and costs are incredibly low, anyone can work doing anything without fear. There are a number of people in your employ who create art, write books, or make music,” Lily said, her teeth flashing as she smiled at him. “Kit took your meaning directly, and now we have many, many jobs that wouldn’t normally exist in a corporation.”
“That’s… actually rather interesting. I’d love to see it. You said we’re going after dinner?” Felix said, actually feeling rather interested in the whole prospect.
“That we are. Then after that we’ll see where the wind takes us. Legion is a city that doesn’t sleep since we have graveyard shifts in almost every department,” Lily said with an adventurous grin.
Felix wasn’t one to normally feel like he wanted to go explore the unknown, but right now, he was happy to be in Lily’s company, and let her dictate the pace.
Lily took a few steps out in front and held up her arms. “Well?”
“I had fun,” Felix said, nodding his head with a smile. They’d spent quite a while walking around the exhibit.
“That’s it? Just… fun? That’s all you can give me?” Lily said, exasperated.
Looking around Felix realized they were alone out here in the plaza. The art exhibit exit behind them wasn’t the same one they’d gone into.
An impromptu walk in the park, and a long conversation later, and they’d ended up on what seemed like the other side of the city.
Must be on the backside.
“Fine. You want to hear it?” Felix said with a chuckle. Taking several steps forward he caught up with her and slid an arm around her waist, drawing up close to her.
“I had a fantastic evening, Lily. One of the best dates I’ve ever been on,” Felix said seriously.
Lily dropped her arms around his shoulders and smiled at him. “Is that so? Does that come from a wealth of experience? Because I’m betting it doesn’t.”
“Har har. No, it doesn’t come from a wealth of experience. It does come from a genuine place. A realistic one. One that I have trouble expressing and putting into words. But I’m doing it, and will try to be more open with it,” Felix said, making sure he kept eye contact with her.
Lily froze up at that, her smile faltering till the point that she had a neutral expression.
“Really?” she asked finally.
“Yeah. Really. I mean it. I’m not the best at it, but I can definitely put in the effort. I want to put in the effort. You’re worth it. Especially when you’ve clearly put so much work into me and my needs,” Felix said honestly. “This isn’t something that you came up with on the fly.”
“No… it isn’t,” Lily said, not pulling away from him. “Then what would you say all this is? It’s not exactly a normal relationship. You have a Beastkin—a Wolf, no less—that you sleep with,” Lily
said. Then looking down and to the side, she continued in a softer tone. “I’m not quite sure what to make of all this myself, actually.”
“I… don’t know. I don’t even claim to know enough to give an honest opinion. When it comes to you and Andrea, I… don’t have a plan or even a direction. I’ve mostly just been going along with whatever pace you two set. Or so it feels like at times,” Felix said.
Lily nodded her head once and then turned her face back to his. She gave him a lopsided smile and then a soft peck on the lips.
“Good. I think for now that’s the right direction. Now, unless you plan on causing a scene here and now, you should be letting me go so we can head back. I imagine that Andrea is probably waiting either to pounce on you, or chat me to death to find out what happened,” Lily said.
Felix didn’t really care for her response, but he could understand.
She was an independent woman who gained her powers through the death of others. Many others.
Her very nature had been changed as of late, and he couldn’t imagine she was in the most stable of mindsets.
“Of course. In this, you lead, I’ll follow,” Felix said.
“Just the way it should be,” she said, grinning at him.
Neither of them moved however, and Felix wasn’t about to be the first one to let go.
After ten seconds passed, Lily laughed softly and pressed her forehead to his.
“You can let go. I promise I won’t run, and this isn’t the end. I… just feel cautious all of a sudden. That’s all. I’m interested, obviously, and Andrea and I have talked about this quite a bit. I think I want a bit more time though,” said the soul-stealing sorceress villain.
“Yeah, not a problem,” Felix said and released her. “What did you—”
Felix stopped as his phone started to chime in his pocket.
“I thought I told no one to call you,” Lily said with a touch of heat in her voice.
Pulling out the wristband from his pocket he flipped it over. He’d pulled it off as soon as their date started just case he felt tempted to look at it.
“It’s… Kit? That’s odd. You’d think she’d be the one person to listen to you,” Felix muttered. Sliding his thumb across the screen he accepted the call, buckling it to his wrist.
Super Sales on Super Heroes: Book 2 Page 11