“Kit? What’s—”
“Felix, there’s a problem,” interrupted Kit.
“I kinda figured since you called me, but—”
“Shut up and listen. There’s been a super-villain breakout. Literally. That isn’t the entirety of the problem though. The Heroes guild is handling that. The other part of the problem is that in their breakout, they smashed a supermax prison apart and there’s a flood of prisoners and convicts running around the city,” Kit said.
Felix sighed and closed his eyes. He pressed his free hand to the middle of his forehead.
“Pull everyone in, get the generators up, and set the defenses on active,” Felix said.
“What’s happening?” Lily asked.
“Prison breakout,” Felix said, pulling the phone from his mouth.
“—id all that. We’re safe and everything’s buttoned up. But I was thinking. This might be a good opportunity to mobilize some of our resources. I mean, we have emergency responders for this situation. We should use them, the Telemedics, the Security teams, even the Fixers. Put Skippercity on a lockdown and transfer the resources here,” Kit said.
Huh. I guess we could. Might help a bit with our local PR problem. Thankfully we’re not getting into a dirt flinging contest with the guild.
The guild!
“Is the Heroes guild responding as well?” Felix asked, his entire attention now on the matter at hand.
“Yes. They’re dividing their forces up. Half to go for the villains, the other half to work in the city,” Kit said, her voice sounding weary.
“Alright. See if Felicia got the portal up and running for everyone else. I’ll need you to put a portal down to my current location. Do I need to tell you where I am or can you call it up with a camera? Oh, and don’t worry about checking on Felicia. Just tell her you wanted to see what her progress is. Chances are she already got it up and running just to spite me. I’m betting it’s already working. Get all the resources over after locking down Skippercity HQ. I need Miu, Eva, and a Fixer who’s been trained to multi-skill out to Miu’s department,” Felix said.
“I’ll take care of it. What else do you need?” Kit asked.
“A huge number of GPS transponders. I want one for about… three hundred Others,” Felix said. “We’re going to arm up the Andreas and send them out in a massive patrol but I want to recover any corpses they leave behind.”
“On it. Anything else?” Kit asked again.
“Nope. Date went fine, you didn’t interrupt anything. See you later,” Felix said, closing the phone and turning it off.
“I take it that was work?” Lily asked, the irony not lost on him.
“Indeed. And this time, I think we can use it to our advantage. The Heroes guild is going to be distracted with this. We’re sending Miu, Eva, and a Fixer in to get the information we need. At the same time, we’ll be assisting the local government and working on our public image. Get your pretty face ready to go smile into the camera, Lily. You’re about to go do some meet and greet with the press I imagine,” Felix said.
With one hand he started to work through a series of menus for the Skippercity HQ. Calling up pre-existing modifications he’d built in that he was now activating.
“Why me?” Lily asked.
Felix snorted at that and closed up the screen. He was ready.
Then a blue dot appeared to the side and started to slowly open up.
And there we have Kit’s portal.
“Why you, you ask? Because you’re the most attractive woman we have in Legion, and have a smile that matches. Doesn’t hurt that you’ve got a killer intellect on top of that. Now, I hate to date and run, but I think this is our ride out of here, and Kit doesn’t have the best control over it yet,” Felix said.
“I can hear you, Felix. Don’t make me close this up on you while you’re halfway through,” Kit said from the other side.
Felix froze in place and then shook his head. “Actually, can you keep it open for a bit? I need to zip up to my office and grab my armor. I’m thinking it might be best if I was on the scene and helping to organize the efforts from an operation base. I think everyone would agree with me doing that in the suit.”
“I… yes. That’d probably be wise. I’ll start opening a portal inside of your office, and move this one to the staging area in SC:HQ. Be a dear and activate the right protocol? I’m sure you already turned on all the right upgrades, but don’t forget the people,” Kit called through the portal, and then closed it.
“Protocol?” Lily asked curiously.
“HR loves having a process and procedure for everything. Leadership is expected to read through them all, it’s those online trainings that everyone gets pushed to their work stations or tablets,” Felix said. “I would hope since you’re in Legal you’d be—”
“Yes, yes. I’ve read all the ones pertinent to me. I just didn’t realize there was one specifically for a prison break,” Lily said.
“There isn’t one. But there is one for mobilization. Now. Let’s go get my armor,” Felix said, setting off at a jog, moving with the crowd.
“Do you even know where you’re going?” Lily called after him.
“The same place everyone else is, the elevators,” Felix said back.
All around them, people were starting to get messages from co-workers. They were all looking at their wrists or phones.
Felix imagined it was them being told about all the modifications going live. They would all be assuming something was about to happen.
Word tended to spread with something like that.
Those who had been notified first were already on their way to the elevators was Felix’s guess.
Sure enough, when he lifted his eyes to the horizon, he could see the outline of a massive column reaching up into the recessed lighting above.
That’d be the place.
An alert chirped on his wrist and he flipped it over to check the screen.
It read “R&D lab” and was from Felicia.
Well, she’s quick on the draw. New suit, maybe? Also should probably find out how she knew.
“We’re heading for R&D,” Felix called over his shoulder to Lily.
As they got closer to the elevator, he could see that it was part of a large plaza.
Sitting in the center of that plaza was the wrecked mech Felix had piloted.
Legion’s Fist.
It looked no different than what he remembered, half salvaged by his own hand.
Except that when he finally got up close to it, he realized the entire thing had been bronzed or recreated in bronze.
I thought she was repairing it. I’ll have to ask.
Felix noticed the placard as he passed and quirked a brow.
Legion’s Fist-Year One: Piloted by Felix to eliminate the Heroes Guild of Skippercity.
He wasn’t quite sure how he felt about being immortalized like that, but he wasn’t about to naysay them right now.
The time was right to strike.
Chapter 11 - Mobilized -
Felix stepped out of the elevator and found himself in the middle of a fantastic mess.
Felicia and White’s people were scurrying around in every direction. Loading crates, packing boxes, and generally making ready as if they were going into the field.
Everything was being shifted to a gigantic freight elevator in the back. It required both White and Felicia to unlock it to actually be used.
“Over here!” called the voice of Felicia from a corner.
Felix ducked his head at the shout and followed it.
He’d lost Lily somewhere along the way. He imagined she probably went to talk to her department for one reason or another.
Probably to get ready for the camera and prep anything legal-wise.
“Felicia, I’m not sure how many more times you can upgrade the suit before it hits a plateau,” he called out over the hubbub.