He needed to keep his mind occupied and working.
Occupied and working was much better than shock and inactivity.
Behind him, he could hear Eva starting to shift things around as she started to search.
Good. Good. Let’s see what we find.
The building was empty of people, unless you counted the corpse they found curled up in a fetal position out behind the building.
The shop did however have a few things that were usable as far as resources went.
Some of what they found still had owners, some of it didn’t. Everything that Felix could get his hands on that didn’t have an owner he turned into dirt if he couldn’t use it immediately.
For a mechanic’s shop, there happened to be some seriously expensive gear. Felix was more than happy to dust it all for points.
Three sets of mechanic’s jumpsuits, oil smeared and everything, were welcome additions.
Other than the knife, though, they found no weapons.
“We have… a total of fifty thousand points, give or take,” Felix said. They were hunkered down near the side entrance of the building that had been used by employees.
It was locked from the outside, but they could leave in an instant from the inside.
“Is that enough to give me a teleport power? Or portals?” Eva asked.
Felix grimaced at that. He’d actually already tried.
Adding any power at all to her would require upwards of a couple hundred thousand points. Even something simple like increased eyesight.
For the life of him he couldn’t figure out why it would cost so much. It wasn’t normal. It didn’t seem correct on any level.
Which means there’s an outside influence here. But I don’t think it’s my friend who I owe favors since… well since this is more likely to get me killed than anything.
“Honestly… I don’t have access to any of the points for Legion. Only your points and mine. And when I try to add any powers to you, I get a cost that’s… not realistic. At all. Something very wrong is going on with my power. I’m also starting to think the goal wasn’t to drop me here. Something… someone… intervened. If I had to guess… Lily maybe. Or Neutralizer,” Felix said, staring into the darkness of the vehicle bays.
“Oh… so… we’re stuck out here then,” Eva said a touch lifelessly.
“For the moment. How far did you get in your hand to hand training with Miu and Ioana?”
“Not far. They said I’d be better off sticking to my powers. I don’t have a knack for it, I guess.”
“How about guns? Did you work with anyone?”
“Yeah. Andrea, or Adriana I guess. I’m not a marksman or anything but I did alright,” Eva said defensively.
Felix sat there thinking to himself.
It really left it up to him unless he wanted her to start spending her one shot powers. He’d sent her all the names and activations a while back.
“Let’s do our best to not use your powers. There’s no guarantee I’ll be able to get them back any time soon,” Felix said. “For now, leave it up to me. I think our first immediate need is information. I’m not keen on risking it but… that post office across the street might be ideal.”
“What? The post office?” Eva asked.
“I figure it’s less likely to have people there, and if we’re lucky, it’ll have a route map. A route map would tell us where we are in the city. Or so I hope. Worst case… empty building with nothing for us,” Felix said.
Eva sighed, pressing her hands to her face. “This is insane.”
“It’s definitely not good. I think you need to realize that this will probably get worse though. Optimism and trust are probably the quickest ways to get killed out here. The teams we sent out to scout typically come back with some pretty bad stories about what was going on.” Felix paused and took a shaky breath.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is… I wouldn’t be surprised if this got worse, and we end up hurting people. Or worse. I normally try to limit the amount of harm I cause but… this isn’t going to be fun. Or easy.”
Eva choked off a broken chuckle that almost sounded like a sob. “So you’re telling me you’re going to murder people.”
“Probably. And if I have to kill fifty people to protect you, I will. And that isn’t something you can stop, prevent, or talk me out of. It isn’t your fault, and isn’t your doing, so you can’t be responsible for it. But if—and I hope it’s only an if—if it happens, I won’t hesitate,” Felix said.
Eva didn’t respond to that. Instead, she looked away from him, unwilling to meet his eyes.
“Alright, let’s go. I’ll take the lead. Stay close to me and don’t hesitate to pop a power if you think we need it,” Felix said.
Wish I had given her some more utility powers instead of all the combat ones. Teleport or Portals would be rather nice right about now.
Opening the door, Felix slipped out and started back towards the road. Reaching the sidewalk, he hesitated, listening intently for whatever he could.
There’d been no working clocks or watches in the mechanic shop, but it felt like it was the small hours of the morning. They’d have to act quickly and maybe find a place to hunker down for the night. It might be easier to move about in the daylight when people were less likely to shoot at a shadow coming near.
Felix mapped out the path he wanted to take across the road. There was a truck he wanted to search but he didn’t dare.
Not right now at least.
For all he knew, he was next door to Skipper’s Headquarters. The last thing he wanted to do was get caught out in the open by her. He had the distinct impression she’d do awful things to him.
Taking in a slow breath, Felix got low to the ground and crept out into the street.
Sure steps and smooth movements carried him across the road quickly.
It wasn’t until he stepped off the sidewalk and onto a side approach for the post office that he let out the breath he’d been holding.
Not waiting for people to come investigate if they did see him, Felix went up the steps quickly. Easing up to the side of a sliding glass door he peered in to see if he could catch a glimpse of anything.
There was the briefest flicker of an orange glow. Deep, deep within the post office. He couldn’t be sure, but he’d swear it was a fire.
Which to Felix sounded like a pretty awful idea. Sure, it was cold out, but not that cold.
It was a risk he’d never take, that was for sure.
“Is that a fire?” Eva asked from beside him. “I’d love a fire.”
Maybe it’s a group of people with a similar mindset to Eva?
Pulling the knife from his pocket, Felix flicked it open as quietly as he could. Grimacing at how bright the damn thing was he looked down to the ground.
There in the corner he found some dark disgusting filth he couldn’t identify. But it was sticky, and dark.
Which was exactly what he wanted.
Reaching down, he scooped some of it up onto two fingers and liberally coated the blade in it. It wouldn’t do to have the knife reflecting in any way.
That bit of yuck done, Felix moved forward, entering the post office.
He kept to the far wall, half of his mind working in overdrive to keep himself from tripping over things, the other half trying to figure out where the firelight came from.
“—it!” came the faint sound of a heated whisper. Felix held perfectly still and cocked his head to one side, listening.
“No, I won’t!” came back an equally angry whisper.
Back room. Sorting room? Behind the service desk.
Doing a quick check of the room, he found two different doors that could possibly lead into the back area. It had to be where he’d spotted the faint light.
Moving to the second door, Felix listened intently. If he could just figure out if they were on the other side or not, this’d go easier.
Then he heard a sound that could never be mistaken for anything else.