Super Sales on Super Heroes

by William D. Arand

In the end, Reznik, Blacketer, and Troy had limited him to one attorney and no bodyguards.

  That hadn’t prevented a horde of Andreas spreading throughout the office and watching everyone.

  Or the fact that Kit was in the lobby, more than likely pillaging the minds of everyone that she could find.

  Miu had somehow been talked into remaining at home and drilling the teams with Ioana.

  In fact, it was probably the overwhelming entourage that Felix had arrived with that sent the Reznik, Blacketer, and Troy lawyers scurrying. It was beyond all their expectations.

  “So… thanks for taking care of the tutor thing,” Felix said, tapping his fingers on the desk.

  “Not a problem. It was easy to arrange and didn’t cost us much. The check-in I had yesterday after the initial meeting confirmed that she’s well on her way to being caught up. Maybe only a week or two of dedicated work is all it’ll take. She wasn’t as far back as she thought she was. Just missing a few fundamental things.”

  Lily brushed the concern off with a flick her of wrist, the cuff on her jacket snapping lightly as she did it.

  “Fair enough. Still, thanks. I know Eva appreciates it as well.

  “You put any thought into what you want? I did say I’d spoil you.”

  “Hm, not yet. Honestly, I have everything I want right now. I’m sure I’ll think up something.”

  Lily sighed and crossed her arms in front of her. “They’re stalling because they weren’t expecting me here, Andrea in the lobby, or Kit staring through people’s heads.”

  “Unsurprising, I suppose. She really does stare through people’s heads, though. I don’t think she’s used to directing her talent yet.

  “Maybe we should—”

  The door across the way clicked open and a group of well-dressed men and women began filing into the room.

  Felix vaguely recognized some of them from previous meetings, but there were of course several new faces.

  “Sorry for keeping you waiting, Mr. Campbell,” said a smartly dressed young woman, taking the center seat.

  She was in her late twenties, brown hair, blue eyes, attractive, put together on the slimmer side, with a perfectly straight smile.

  “That’s alright, we’re billing you accordingly,” Lily said with a bright grin in return. “As this was an emergency meeting and fell outside of expected contracted calendar dates, you’ll be taking the bill for everything.

  “I don’t think you’ll like my rates. Especially when we factor in the costs of bodyguards and personnel.”

  “I… see.” The woman’s face had clouded at that. “My name is Lauren Aston. We’ll try to keep this brief.

  “We’ll be halting all payments made to you as a landlord, until you are able to pay off the outstanding debt.”

  Felix raised his eyebrows at that and opened his mouth to ask a question.

  Lily lifted a well-manicured hand and held up a finger, her face tilting to the side a fraction to catch his eyes with her own.

  Nodding his head, Felix closed his mouth.

  “Is that all?” Lily asked.

  “Ah, we’ll also be unable to process any other agenda items until it’s taken care of, as you’re still in breach of contract,” finished Miss Aston.

  “According to my notes,” Lily started, opening her satchel and flipping through a series of papers. “The debt owed is… one hundred and fifty thousand dollars?”

  “That’s right. I’m afraid with that substantial amount of money owed, we really would need it taken care of first.”

  Weird. Wouldn’t they assume I could just use the landlord back pay to crush the debt?

  Do they know I already spent it all? Do they think me broke because I opened a business?

  “And who has deemed that this is the correct course of action?” Lily asked, picking up her pen and moving it over to her ledger.

  “Ah, that is, we had a majority vote.”

  “That’s fine. I’ll need the names of who voted in favor of this action, though. I’m afraid your voting process isn’t sealed,” Lily said, smiling with her teeth.

  As if to emphasize her point, she tapped the pen twice to her paper.

  “Ah…” Miss Aston paused and looked to her left and right.

  “Here, I’ll make it simple. Who voted in favor of this action? Please raise your hand? If you don’t have a majority, we can give you the bill for this meeting and leave.”

  Lily curled an errant lock of hair behind one ear and waited, moving her eyes from one person to the next.

  Slowly, five hands raised into the air.

  Lily made a point of reading the nameplate of each individual, which they had so graciously provided in their self-important routine, and writing it down.

  “You can’t dismiss anyone, as you’re in breach,” Miss Aston said, leaning forward over her section of the table.

  Lily sighed and pulled out a checkbook. Filling out a check quickly and neatly, she set it down in front of Felix.

  “Sign here.” She indicated the signature line.

  Felix accepted the pen, signed his name and slid it back to Lily.

  “Here is your payment. When will you have the five percent for the landlord available?” Lily asked. With a quick motion, she popped the check clear of the book and set it down on the desk.

  “I… tomorrow. As per our regulations.” Miss Aston no longer seemed so sure of herself.

  “Great. As this is a new quarter, we move to dismiss two people. We’ll also be filing a complaint that we find the recent hiring practices to be unsatisfactory.

  “As to who’s dismissed…” Lily tapped her chin with a finger and then leaned back in her chair, looking to Felix. “Any thoughts? If nothing else, Miss Aston is pretty enough to keep around for fun. I mean, she’s not me, but… you can’t always stare at me. Even I’ll get self-conscious after a while.”

  Miss Aston made a shocked noise, while the four who had raised their hands with her looked everywhere in the room except to them.

  Felix smirked and shook his head, letting out a slow breath.

  “I ever mention you’re fantastic, Lily?”

  “Several times. Don’t stop.”

  “I’ll leave it to you, Lily. I trust you.” Felix didn’t want any part in her power game right now. Instead, he pulled out his phone and updated Kit in a text message.

  “Music to my ears. Great, you two are gone. Thanks.

  “Now, Miss Aston, I do hope you’ll be working for our interests here in the future. I’d hate to see you lose your job over it.

  “We’ll leave our bill with the receptionist, as well as our formal complaint. I made sure to have it notarized. Can’t have it go missing, now can we?” Lily stood up from her chair, closing her satchel.

  Felix got up as well, pocketing his phone.

  Nothing more was said as they left. Lily was as good as her word and left both the complaint and bill at the front desk.

  Felix adjusted his pants as they left the building. For whatever reason, he could never get his dress pants to sit quite right.

  Stopping just outside, he reached down and pulled at the sides of his pants. “I swear to God, maybe we should hire a tailor. Felicia’s great, but I think I’m abnormal and need a master tailor or something,” Felix muttered.

  All around him, a sudden and blinding bright white light encircled him.

  A group of Others plowed into him and hustled him forward before he had a chance to even contemplate it.

  What the fuck?

  He was forced head first into the car. He ended up being smashed up against Lily with Andrea just about clambering on top of him.

  He caught a glimpse of Kit in the passenger seat before the convoy took off.

  “That was a sniper. Had to be miles and miles out. Didn’t even hear the sound,” Andrea said, still pressing into him. In turn pressing him into Lily.

  The sorceress looked at him, his head wedged into her shoulder and chest. She gave him a weak smile
and averted her eyes.

  “The force on the shield was significant. Whatever they shot, it was a very heavy round,” Lily said, adjusting her position without looking at Felix.

  Andrea eased up off him as they blew through a red light and across into a section of street with taller buildings.

  “Sorry, Lily,” Felix said as he sat up. He tried to do it without pawing the woman unnecessarily.

  “Better to be manhandled by you, than you dying. Property, like slaves, goes into a limbo state if the owner dies. Your health is important,” Lily explained, her voice soft. She picked something off her skirt and then crossed her legs.

  “Oh! Did that tire you out? Here, you can lean on me, dear,” Andrea said delightedly. Grabbing him around the shoulders, she pulled him into her side and chest, holding to him tightly.

  Felix growled, putting his hands to her to push away. Only to have her pull his head to her chest, and then lightly comb her fingers through his hair. “There, there, dear. We’re all here for you. All you had to do was ask.”

  Felix closed his eyes before he could see Kit or Lily gloating at him. They seemed to delight in the fact that Andrea did as Andrea pleased. Much to his eternal dismay.

  “Whatever. Now they’re using snipers to take me out.”

  “Yes. They were outside of my range,” Kit said from up front.

  “I didn’t see the shot,” Andrea said, her fingernails grazing along his scalp.

  “Nor I. It only confirms what we knew. They’re out there, and very determined. Nothing has changed, except that we now know some of those poor excuses for lawyers are involved,” Lily said with a click of her tongue.

  “What?” Felix asked, cracking an eye open to look to Lily.

  The soul-eating lawyer met his eyes and held up her hands in a gesture of futility.

  “A sniper was prepared for your exit, with a perfect shot, and at an extreme distance. The whole thing was a setup.”

  Oh. Shit.

  Things had calmed down since the shooting.

  Everything was finally back to normal.

  Or at least as normal as it could be when you were the head of a corporation boasting some of the strongest supers the world had ever seen.

  Felix was on antique duty today. There’d been a large number of scheduled private evaluations while he’d been incapacitated.

  Since coming back into the store, he’d given the superpower of “Item Identification (by touch)” to several people.

  Having it triggered by touch had kept the point cost much further down than by sight.

  It also meant that the other stores, and the auto shop, would be outfitted to have someone always on hand to get things cataloged. Which left Felix at HQ doing his own part.

  Sitting in what used to be the storefront in the warehouse, he awaited the next client.

  They’d be searched, brought in, and dropped off here with their item.

  Today had been a very good day. Several high-end acquisitions had been made that’d turn their fortunes around quickly.

  After all the cash outlays recently, their bank account was looking rather skinny.

  Broken antiques, purchased at a higher price, repaired, and then sold, made everyone happy.

  Most especially the people who sold those broken antiques for more than the value of it.

  A man entered the room. He spent some time looking around at the various items dispersed throughout the office as decoration.

  “Good morning,” Felix said, standing up from behind his desk.

  The man jumped and his head whipped around to lock on to Felix. “G-good morning.”

  “What can I do for you today, Mr.…?” Felix held out his hand across the table good-naturedly.

  The man took Felix’s hand in a firm shake and then took a seat.

  “Mr. White. I’m, uh, here to sell this.” Mr. White pulled out a legal-sized sketchbook with drawstring ties.

  “Oh?” Felix. “And what do you believe it is?”

  He’d learned that asking this question was the best way to determine the intent.

  “It’s a sketchbook. My father bought it from a collector. The man claimed it was worth a couple hundred dollars at the time. It’s filled with sketches from artists from the twenties and thirties, with a couple of knockoffs as well.”

  Mr. White said it humbly and without any emotion behind it. It was a sale to be made to him, nothing more.

  He needs money and doesn’t really care that much about the item at all.

  Flipping open the sketchbook, Felix began to sort through them one by one.

  They matched exactly what the man said. Sketch after sketch he flipped through and checked.

  Fifty dollars here, a hundred there, ten for the next one.

  Right up until Felix flipped it open onto a sketch that was very out of place. It had the look of something religious, yet drawn in an older style.

  One that looked similar to the Renaissance era.

  Name: Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Sketch

  Created In: 1502

  Appraised Value: $32.00

  Created By: Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

  Actual Value: $4,500,000.00

  Condition: Moderately Worn

  Asking Price: $200.00

  Durability: 69/100

  Mint Price: $22,000,000.00

  Cost to Repair: 200 points

  “That’s one of the imitations. Supposedly it’s meant to look like Michelangelo. The attribution is missing since the corner it’d be in was torn off.

  “It’s well drawn, but without that attribution, there’s no telling if it was a master or someone who liked his work.”

  Felix cleared his throat and delicately withdrew the sketch and set it aside.

  Just buy it, just buy it, just buy it, just—aarrrrggh.

  “Why do you need the money?” Felix asked quietly, folding one hand into the other and meeting Mr. White’s eyes.

  “I don’t see why that matters. Can’t you just buy it and…ugh. My son was apprenticed to some superhero. He doesn’t even have powers, he just… wanted to help. Damn cops got him the other day when the hero he was working for… left him behind.”

  The man shrugged his shoulders and slumped low in his seat.

  “I need to get the money together to buy my son. He’s my only son. I’ve been out of work for a while now, living off my savings. Now this happens and I… they said it’d cost a significant amount of money to buy him. Because of his apprenticeship. Doesn’t matter if he doesn’t know anything, everyone will assume he does.

  “And right now, the bounty on heroes has skyrocketed.”

  Felix could only nod his head. It had indeed.

  Apparently there were some heroes still working in the city, and in the last day or two, the bounty had jumped into the millions.

  Yeah, his son is going to be expensive. Not my problem, though.

  Nodding his head, Felix pulled over the bill of sale and started to write it in for a thousand dollars.

  It was more than generous on his part.

  Felix stopped in mid pen stroke and looked at the pen he was using.

  It was something Eva had given him. It was a rough cast steel pen that had been engraved by Eva’s hand.

  His name was front and center on the barrel of the pen. Taking up a sizable space. All around his name were engraved simple words.

  Defender. Valiant. Fearless. Preserver. Vigilant. Guardian.

  On and on it went, the pen completely filled with those silly words formed from a childlike innocence.

  She’d spent hours trying to get the engraving just right.

  She had given it to him in a little box and everything.

  “Your weapon is a pen. Here’s one from me, then,” she’d said at the time.

  Smothering the stupid sentiment welling up in himself, he set the pen down and pressed his hands to his face.

  She’d hate me.

  Felix shuddered at the
thought of Eva staring at him after finding out about the sketch.

  Especially if she got the full story.

  “This actually is a Michelangelo sketch. It isn’t an imitation. It’s legit.

  “In its current condition, it’d probably be worth four million if you could get professional attribution,” Felix said between his fingers.

  His energy leaked out of him as he spoke, slowly hunching over the desk.

  “I can certify it with my own name, but I wouldn’t be able to buy it from you, nor would it honestly get the full worth from it.

  “I can put you in touch with the name of a contact I have who deals in some of the slave auctions. He could probably arrange something for you, though I doubt you’d get the full amount from the sketch.”

  “Really?!” Mr. White leapt to his feet, the chair clattering to the floor and scraping along the ground. “That’d be… that’d be great. I can’t tell you how grateful I am.”

  “Uh-huh,” Felix said without emotion. Setting his hands back to the table, he picked up Eva’s pen. Staring at it for a second, he looked back to the sheet of paper and wrote it out as an evaluation rather than a sale.

  “That’ll be one hundred dollars for the valuation,” Felix said, sliding the sheet of paper across to the excited man.

  Mr. White gathered up the sketchbook and then looked at the valuation.

  “I… I don’t have it. I’m sorry. What little money I had, I spent on getting an invite to the auction that my son is being sold at.

  “I don’t have a job.”

  Felix groaned and scratched at his head. “Alright. What exactly do you do for a career?”

  “I, uh,” Mr. White paused. His words were cautious, uncertain. “I was the lead engineer on several projects for the super hero association. When the government changed over, I escaped and never looked back.”

  Felix’s attention changed from the sketch to Mr. White. “What kind of projects?”

  “Nanotechnology, energy weapons, and renewable energy. They’re all kinda interconnected,” Mr. White said with a small smile.

  Ha… hahahaha. Seriously?

  “Mr. White. How about you sit back down? I’ll cancel my upcoming appointments, have lunch brought in, and let’s have a talk.”