Tapping the connect button he pulled his earpiece out of his front pocket and slipped it into his ear.
“Hey, beautiful,” Felix said, grinning. “I miss you. You and that big brain of yours.”
“You say the most wonderful things. You compliment me on both sides, and reassure me that you want me for my mind,” came the purring voice of Lily on the other end of the line.
“I want compliments, too!” said Andrea, clearly in the same room.
“Stop, Andie, you know he compliments you endlessly,” Lily said with a laugh.
“I miss you both,” Felix said simply.
There was no response to the sincerity in his tone. Both Lily and Andrea seemed flustered.
“Well,” Lily began again. “That’ll be over soon. Wraith is on their way over to you. Should be there in an hour or two.”
That means the job is done.
Every witness who was lined up for every charge against anyone in Legion had been taken care of. Silence purchased, intimidated, or simply eliminated.
Hopefully as little of that last one as possible.
“Only two,” Lily said, as if she’d heard his thoughts.
“That’s great,” Felix said, feeling better.
Two out of six hundred was pretty low on how bad it could have been.
Me and mine first. Anyone else is an enemy. Legion first.
“We’ll be waiting about a week, and then joining you,” Lily said a touch breathily.
She missed me, too?
“Lauren’s been sending me status reports. Seems like everything is going splendidly,” she immediately continued on.
“Ah, yeah. Everything is. We had a really good turn out for Tilen High. We’ll probably be visiting all the other high schools after this. They’ll all get second tier preferential treatment, but still preferential,” Felix said, leaning back in his chair again.
“Good, good. Stop it, just—ok. Ok. You don’t need to give me that look, stop multiplying. Ok, here,” Lily said. “One second, Felix, Andie wants to talk.”
Felix laughed and nodded his head, even though they couldn’t see him. “Alright.”
“Felix!” came a thundering of voices practically shouting into the phone. Then it devolved into a tumult of voices. It sounded as if there were at least twenty of them all crowding around the phone.
“Any possibility of you getting down to Andrea prime? It’s a touch hard to understand with so many of you talking at the same time.”
The Andreas got quiet, and one of them was directing the others.
“I’ll go first,” said an Andrea into the phone. “I love you, Felix. I miss you.”
The directness of the words struck him at his core, and he felt his skin prickle insanely. There was a heavy feeling just behind his forehead and eyes.
“I… I love you, too, Andrea,” Felix said thickly. For the first time. And he meant it. Which was surprising.
“Nn! Feelings received. We’ll be there soon so just… just wait for us,” Andrea said huskily into the phone.
“Ok, next!” she shouted to someone else.
The phone made a rustling noise as it was clearly passed off.
“Felix! This is Andrea,” said Andrea.
Unable to help himself he chuckled. “Hi Andrea,” he said, wondering which one it was.
“This is number three. I was with you the night before you left,” she said in a conspiratorial whisper. “I love you, Felix. I miss you.”
“I love you, too, Andrea,” Felix said for the second time.
They’re not going to pass the phone off to every—
“Nn!” said the Andrea, and then the sound of the phone being passed could be heard.
“Felix? This is Andrea!”
Oh god they are.
“Hi… Andrea. How many… others… are there right now?” he asked neutrally.
“All of us! We made a line. Myriad got us in order like when we’re prepping for a mission. She said she’ll go last so it’s fair. This is number four. I was a Death Other and you brought me back.”
“Ah. I should have guessed,” Felix said resigned.
“I love you. So much,” the ex-Death Other cooed into the phone.
Sighing, Felix settled in for what he suspected would be a long phone call.
Pulling the earpiece out, Felix blew a raspberry with his mouth and closed his eyes.
A deliberate shuffling of feet caught his attention. “Wraith is here?” Felix asked.
“Yes, sir,” said one of the bodyguards.
“Everyone please leave after Wraith enters. Please also track down Eva and send her over. Only people allowed in are Victoria, Miu, and Kit,” Felix ordered.
He heard everyone leave quickly, the door opening and closing only once.
“Wraith?” Felix asked quietly.
“Here,” came the echoing whisper.
To this day, Felix wasn’t entirely sure what Wraith was. His ability page seemed to say one thing, though his appearance countered it.
Since he was a conscripted employee, Felix didn’t really trust him.
“We’ll wait for Eva,” Felix said, relaxing into his chair. He was still processing everything that had just gone down with Andrea.
Five minutes ticked by before the door opened again.
Opening his eyes, Felix found Eva standing there in the doorway.
“Felix? What’s up?” Eva asked.
“Come on in, take a seat. Wraith is going to go on a mission tonight and I’d like you to accompany him. Time to test out those skills we put in your head, and some of those new powers,” Felix explained.
Eva nodded her head with a smile. Coming into Felix’s office, she closed the door.
After what happened at the school, and spending a long time getting everyone back from the dead, he’d begun experimenting.
Modified powers with massive detriments that made them cost few points.
Eva was a very good example.
He’d given her super strength. On par with some of the mightiest in the world. Except it only worked for a short period of time given certain circumstances.
As strange as it was, the power cost a touch under one thousand points. It was an economical power that was undeniably useful.
Then he gave her Lilly’s powers, with the same limitation.
Then Kit’s.
And Andrea’s.
Eva had an altered version of many powers. She was his personal nuclear warhead. Eva… was probably the single strongest super in his employ. Provided it only had to last a day or two.
And she didn’t even know it.
Because each and every power he gave her had a limitation. She had to have Felix’s approval to use them, speak the name of the power, and after the usage, that power would fade away.
Nor did she know about it. She had no idea about all these powers he’d put into her.
In fact no one did. They were originally just experiments.
After his success with these one-off powers, he’d begun making the books with similar powers within, instead of just medical training.
And soon, the library will be done.
Breaking free of his thoughts, he slid a small skill book across the desk to her. It’d been an expensive skill book to make. It had cost him a number of points.
“This is Wraith’s power set. I want you to go with him tonight on his mission. Learn from him. Let’s see you put to use all those other skill books we’ve been feeding you,” Felix said with a grin.
Every skill book created for every other department was given to Eva as well. She was a walking encyclopedia of the working knowledge of Legion.
Eva gave him a small smile and picked up the book. A few seconds later and it vanished into nothing.
Part of keeping the cost of books down was making them all single usage.
Now if only I could use those damn books myself.
Much to his chagrin, not a single book was usable by him.
At any level.
It lined up with the inability to modify himself.
Or to modify others to have his own power.