“Too fast for you to use those runes, princess?”
Lily gave him a smile.
A band of runes sprang into existence in front of the speedster and wrapped around him.
He came to an abrupt halt, and the sound of his ribs breaking and his breath whooshing out was audible.
“My dear master upgraded me,” Lily said, wrapping her hand around the man’s skull. “I wonder what you taste like. I bet it’s awful.”
A purple haze burned the area around her, hiding everything from view.
The man started to scream.
Kit stood staring the last woman down. Unmoving, they looked as if they were two predators determined to have the other blink first.
“Where’s your helmet, Augur?” said the woman.
“Don’t need it.”
“You sure?”
Kit chuckled and then tilted her head to one side.
“Very. This has been a rewarding experience. I haven’t tested myself like this in ever. Shall I stop toying with you?”
“Funny. You were never that stro—” The woman choked on whatever she was going to say, falling to her knees.
Blood oozed from her nose and ears, her eyes rolling up into her head. Both of her hands were pressed to her temples, her teeth clenched together.
“Don’t explode her head,” Felix said loudly. “Her body will foul up if you do that. If you’re willing to keep her alive, we can see about enslaving her. If not, at least preserve the body so we can put her in the wood chipper.”
Kit snarled something between her teeth, then sighed. The woman collapsed to the ground at that moment.
“Fine. See if she’ll take the slave status. Make her mine. I know her. She was always an uppity bitch who took every opportunity to put me down a peg. Or hurt me.”
“She was a hero?” Felix asked, easing out from behind the dumpster.
“Yeah. They all were,” Kit said. Sighing, she put her hands on her hips.
Lily’s mist faded away and she dropped the speedster’s living, souless husk to the ground.
Lifting a delicate foot, she kicked the man’s jaw. “They made me ditch my heels. They were expensive.”
“I’ll buy you new ones.” Felix lifted the dumpster cover and helped Eva out.
“Three of these we can interrogate for answers. Maybe get them to accept a slave oath willingly. That or go into the sausage machine.
“The fourth one over there is the carrot I made. And I think this speedster here is an empty juice box,” Kit explained to no one’s asked question.
“You alright, Kit?” Felix asked. He reached into the dumpster and started pulling Andrea out.
“My head hurts. It’s like it opened into something else. I’m not… quite aware of it entirely yet.”
Felix could only imagine.
Andrea limply clung to him as he wrapped his arms around her. Slowly and carefully, he turned around and got her up onto his back again. “There we go.”
Eva looked at them and then at the bodies. Her eye twitched as the woman with the broken back started screaming again.
“Kit, put that one to sleep, please? Nothing permanent. After that, give Miu a call to get her down here with a truck.”
The screaming cut off abruptly.
“Lily, can you start gathering up our… err… loot, I guess? Kit can probably float them wherever we need them after that.”
“Uhm, if they attacked you here, wouldn’t they attack your base, too?” Eva asked.
Felix blinked, shocked. Then he pulled up his character screen and slid Miu and Ioana upwards on their power draw. All the way up to a three hundred percent boosted level. Pushing them to a level that they’d probably never reach in their lifetimes.
If Eva was right, they’d need it. If they were alive.
If Eva was wrong, then he’d be out nothing.
Chapter 13 - House Call -
“She’s not picking up,” Lily said, holding a hand up to Felix while the other held the phone to her ear.
“Shit, alright. Uhm,” Felix said, looking at his feet. “Shit, shit, shit. Andrea, any of your Others make it?”
Felix looked over his shoulder at Andrea’s face on his shoulder.
“A few. I feel them. Don’t know what they’re doing. Probably absorbing the fallen,” she murmured softly. “I have no way of contacting them, sorry. They’re separate from me the moment they split, but I can feel them.”
“Kit, can you—”
“I’m sorry, they’re beyond my reach.”
“Shit on a stick. Alright… fuck.” He didn’t want to give up on his trophies, but it was looking a lot like they’d hit his pawn shop at the same time.
“Ioana, Felicia, and the shop phone aren’t being answered either,” Lily said, lowering the cell phone.
Damn. I can try to get them back home, but that’ll take time.
“Lily, take their souls, then call a tow truck for our car. Kit, call No-Name and tell him there’s some heroes here for pickup. We can split the bounty with him.”
Lily and Kit started doing as he’d requested as he fished out his own phone.
“And what are you doing?” Eva asked him.
“Seeing what our fastest route home is. If there’s a used car lot nearby, that’d be the quickest. Cash talks, bullshit walks. A taxi is good, but that’d leave a trail. Mass transit is slow.
“No, no. We’re going to crush this problem with our wallet.”
Lily slid them into the garage in their new used car. He’d paid a prick price for it, but it’d gotten them home quick.
And too late at that.
Even as Felix stepped out of the car, he knew they’d been attacked. There was no question of that.
All around the warehouse floor were signs of violence. Corpses, body parts, smashed items, and even a fire.
Felix surveyed the scene and then lifted his hands to his mouth. “Hey! Anyone here?” he called.
There was a distant response from the front office. He couldn’t make out what it was, but it was something.
“It’s Miu,” Kit said, stepping out of the passenger side. “No one here is a threat.”
Felix took off at a trot towards the front office.
As soon as he crossed the threshold, he found all three of his people.
Felicia looked like her jaw had been shattered. It hung at a strange angle, and didn’t look right. She also had a hand pressed to a bloody shoulder.
Miu looked more like raw meat. Wounds covered her arms and torso. Her forearm hung grotesquely from her elbow, attached by only a few bits of flesh. A tourniquet was tied around her bicep where it met the elbow.
Ioana was lying down on the ground, a sword wedged in her guts. Blood welled up around the weapon with every breath. Frothy bubbles gathered on her lips.
Her left leg was mangled and broken in several places. Bone jutted out from her lower shin.
Her glassy eyes found him and seemed to focus for a second.
“Stop lying down on the job,” Felix said to Ioana, calling up her window.
Name:
Ioana Iliescu
Power: Enhanced Reactions
Alias: War Maiden
Secondary Power: Combat Mastery
Physical Status:
Fatally Wounded
Mental Status:
Shock
Positive Statuses:
None
Negative Statuses:
Bleeding Out
Strength:
84
Upgrade?(840)
Dexterity:
73
Upgrade?(730)
Agility:
62
Upgrade?(620)
Stamina:
77
Upgrade?(770)
Wisdom:
36
Upgrade?(360)
Intelligence:
41
Upgrade?(410)
Luck: