“Uh. I think I want a shower.”
“Is that so? We can continue this discussion in your bathroom, then.”
“Ah, no. That’s fine. We can pick this up later.”
Felix turned and marched off with as much dignity as he could muster.
Chapter 23 - Reactionary -
Felix had set himself up in the appraisal room for customers and clients.
There weren’t any, since everyone was going to the competing pawn shop, but he still wanted to keep to his schedule.
To keep himself busy, he was going over the available upgrades and point purchases he could make.
“Dense materials. All exterior surfaces and materials are upgraded. Prevents listening equipment and superpowers from hearing anything inside the building. One-hundred twenty-five thousand.”
“That sounds nice,” Andrea said. She was seated at the end of his appraisal table, working on her tablet.
“Mm. Definitely seems like something worth taking. Add it to the list.”
Andrea made a musical noise in the affirmative.
Felix kept reading through the listed improvements. There were a number of them didn’t seem to be worth the cost.
Stain-resistant floors. Upgraded insulation. Energy-efficient lights.
Felix shook his head and closed the window. They’d already gone through and picked out the ones that would be useful.
“Can you read the list back to me?”
“Mm-hmm.” Andrea tapped at her tablet and then cleared her throat. She opened her mouth, and then stopped.
After a second, she dropped the tablet and turned her chair around to face him.
“Actually, I want to ask you a favor.”
Felix waited patiently. Andrea being serious was something out of the ordinary.
“I’m listening.”
“You… made me smarter.”
“I did.”
“Twice.”
Felix had to think about that for a moment, but he nodded his head. He had indeed moved her intelligence up previously as well.
“I… understand things I didn’t before. Things that seem obvious to me now.”
“Okay. I’m not sure if you’re complaining, or…”
Andrea gave him a small smile. “Maybe I am. Well, I’d like to ask if you can upgrade my powers.”
Felix nodded his head. The request wasn’t surprising. Not really. Not when he thought about it.
“Okay. And what do you want me to upgrade exactly?”
“When I… when I take in my Others. I take in all of their memories. And if they’re dead, I take in their memories of their death.
“After a while, it… it can be overwhelming. All those memories of death. The pain. The suffering that comes right before. The emptiness and loneliness.”
I can only imagine.
“After a while, I have to create a Death Other. I give them all my memories of death, the pain, the horrible things that happen. Then I send them out. They normally head to places that could use a vigilante.
“Where they can put our skills to use while trying to live with the burden we’ve given them.”
“I see.”
“I want you to upgrade me so that I can choose the memories I take back. That I can leave out the ones I don’t want.”
Andrea looked at him with wide eyes, her hands clasped in her lap, gripping each other.
It explained her partitioned mind power, as well as why she seemed disturbed and happy at the same time.
“I’ll see what I can pull up. Why don’t you call Lily in while I do that?” Felix turned back to the table. Focusing on her power, he tried to encapsulate everything she’d told him as part of an upgrade to her existing powers.
That and so that it didn’t take as much out of her with each clone.
Power Upgrade: Multiple Self Projections
Required Primary Power: 40 (Unmet)
Upgrade?(5,000)
Power Upgrade: Partitioned Mind
Required Secondary Power:50 (Met)
Upgrade?(5,000)
Expensive when you count in the cost of getting her up to Primary Power forty. Something like forty-five thousand points.
“You rang, dar-ling?”
Felix glanced up from his power screen. Lily was perched on her elbows on his table, her face resting in her palms.
“Yeah. Andrea wants an upgrade to her power set. Total cost is around forty-five thousand points. I think it’s worth the cost. As far as I can tell, there’s nothing on the point calendar today, either.”
“There isn’t. And no, I don’t disagree with you on the upgrade for her.” Lily’s eyes flicked to the wolf girl, then back to him. “Though you’ll need to upgrade Ioana, Miu, and Felicia after this as well. It wouldn’t be fair otherwise.”
Felix sighed, pressing a hand to his temple.
She was right, of course. Doing so much for Kit, Lily, and Andrea put him in a strange spot for the other three.
“Yeah. You’re right.”
“I know I am. Your point calendar is empty tomorrow as well, we were just going to have you make gold. Our finances are doing well enough in our other investments that we can spare the points.”
Lily stood up, rearranged herself, then moved to sit next to him on his left.
Felix accepted the upgrade for Andrea as he turned to Miu in the corner. “Come on over, Miu. We’ll do yours next.”
Lily’s head snapped around to where Felix had spoken to.
“I want nothing,” Miu said from the shadows.
“You sure? Could give you the ability to blend in with shadows. Actually become one.”
Miu was silent. The spot that he thought was her shifted. Barely.
“I will consider it. For now, nothing.”
“As you will.”
Felix sighed and looked to Andrea. “So? Was that what you wanted?”
Andrea gave herself a visible shake, her eyes turning to him. “Yes. Yes, it is. I’m… I’m going to go. I need to call my Death Others and bring them home. Those who are alive, at least.”
Getting to her feet, Andrea moved to leave, her tail swishing back and forth behind her energetically.
Stopping at the door, she turned to him. She gave him a bright, warm smile. “Thank you, Felix. I’ll repay you.”
Then she opened the door and stepped out.
“My, my. I think she even gave me butterflies with that,” Lily whispered in Felix’s ear.
Flinching away from her, Felix tried to ignore her completely. “With that many points spent, I’d rather keep the rest just in case. Besides, we really could use the money.”
“Not a bad thought. Just make sure you get back to Felicia and Ioana soon. And Miu, too, if she figures out what she wants.”
Felix could only agree. Now the rest of the day sat ahead of him. There were no appointments scheduled, which meant it’d be time to catch up on paperwork.
“So. What ever shall we talk about?” Lily asked, smiling. “How about the fact that those boxers you had on the other day looked like they were ten years old?”
Felix was making the rounds today. Visiting each department, asking about the few people he knew by name, trying to learn the names of a few more.
Everywhere he went, he found people working hard in their various jobs and tasks.
He also got a chance to really explore the layout on foot, as blueprints and maps only did so much for him.
In his head, he now divided each “section” by three floors. For each section, there was one communal dining hall, a number of training rooms, classes, supply depots, section stores, armories, restrooms, kitchen, morgue, conference rooms, meeting hall, a number of break rooms, and a good number of recreation areas.
Felicia had truly aimed at producing in each section everything someone could ask for in their lives.
People worked shifts, were given an allowance, and could socialize freely. Nothing was restricted to them, except speaking of the organization.
Outside internet connections weren’t available on personal PCs. It was accessible at public computers, through a VPN and firewall that scrubbed everything going out and in.