“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.”