Save State Hero -Ch15-

Edmund knocked on the door to Felix’s office firmly.

He’d briefly considered going straight in without even bothering to wait but that’d likely cause Felix to shut down. The last thing Edmund needed was Felix not talking to him about what happened.

“Uh… yeah, enter. What… whatever,” mumbled Felix from inside.

Grasping the handle Edmund pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Felix was sitting behind his desk.

Staring at something only he could see Felix looked incredibly pale. His gray eyes reading something and moving left to right. His short-brown hair hung limply on each side of his face.

The intelligent and ever critically thinking leader of Legion had a dullness to him that left Edmund hurting. Hurting on his behalf knowing that he’d lost damn near everything important to him.

This was the man who’d scooped Edmund up out of the impossibly deep gutter that he’d lived in. Pulled him out of it, gave him worth, and invested heavily in him.

Something out of a fucking fairy-tale.

Felix’s glanced at Edmund, blinked, then looked back to the screen he was working on. His mouth had a slackness to it that didn’t fit in any way.

“Hey,” he muttered. “I’m glad you came. I assume Tribune told you already.”

“Yeah,” Edmund admitted with a small nod of his head. He pulled out the seat in front of Felix’s desk and sat down in it.

“No matter which way I do it. Regardless of how I try… I can’t find them. Any of them,” Felix whispered. “I can upgrade anything I want, everything I want, but nothing… nothing returns a result.

“Faith, Goldie, Miu, Andrea… a number of Dragons and Dryads. They’re all just dead. Dead and gone.

“Dead, gone, and missing in a way that I can’t even locate their corpse. It’s as if their bodies were turned into nothing.

“Well… that is for everyone but Andie. Andie… I can’t bring her back for some reason. I can’t give her life back.

“Ryker and Runner won’t answer me. They’re silent. Quiet as could be. Gaia tried calling out to them and they didn’t answer her either. No one’s answering.”

By the time Felix had finished speaking his eyes had ceased moving across what Edmund assumed was a prompt created by his Super power.

Felix could modify or alter anything he owned. He gained, used, and lost points according to some strange value-system, but was theoretically able to even bring back the dead.

The fact that he couldn’t, or find their corpses, meant it was something beyond the expectations of Felix and Legion. Something that’d passed their notice.

“Even the finger tips they cut and left for me… don’t work. I can’t regrow a body from it to bring them back to life,” Felix whispered with a slow shake of his head. “It’s as if they’re not dead, but I can’t access their points. Which means they have to be.”

“Outside influence? Whatever is preventing you from accessing their corpses is preventing you from getting their soul back?” asked Edmund. “And what exactly happened?”

Felix looked thoughtful at Edmund’s words, the gears in his head whirring to life as he began to chew at the problem from a different angle. His mouth skewed to one side as if he were gnawing at the corner of his lip.

Damn, he’s broken.

His perfect and eternal poker face is absolutely blasted.

“Distraction we set up didn’t work. Right from the start it simply just wasn’t big enough or strong enough. Alma and Carlotta did all that they could but… it just wasn’t enough to divert attention.

“Andrea and Faith led a charge against a rather large defensive strong point. A handful of Andrea’s were gun downed but Faith… Faith got his with something big. Something really big.

“So big that she was just obliterated in that attack. Absolutely obliterated. Went right through her magic and just… she exploded, Edmund,” Felix murmured in an offhand way. The proud and confidant man that defied governments was gone. A Super villain in personality that was a Hero to those he protected. Even if the world turned against him, Edmund would gladly fight that fight. “We found part of her hand, but that was it. Really that was all we needed though. Normally, at least.

“I couldn’t bring her back even then, though. Even with her hand I couldn’t. Couldn’t bring anyone back.”

“I can fix it Felix,” Edmund blurted out suddenly. Seeing his own personal hero in such dire straits had shaken him far deeper than he’d realized until that moment. “I can fix it. I will fix it. I can bring them all back.

“Bring everyone back. I can do it. It’s all within my power. I can. I really can.”

“Your power?” asked Felix, his eyes instantly snapping to Edmund and fixating on him. There was a moment where there was no life in the man’s eyes, only suddenly for there to be a flicker of hope there. “Poly… polymorphic, right? What is it? What does it do?”

“I can rewind time. I can go back and make things… not happen. Or happen. Depending on whatever I want. It can be a bit limiting at times but-but I can make changes. They’re called Save-state and I can load and save them however I want.”

Felix’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Edmund. He got the sudden impression that he’d used his own power and was now rooting around in some weird creative way to figure out the depth of Edmund’s power.

“I see,” he whispered, then snorted. Followed by a soft and low laugh as he leaned back into his chair. “I see. I get it. It makes more sense now. The car chase. Your sister. All those deals that I swore were going to go sideways that suddenly came out rightside up.

“Faith always attributed it to you, your hunches, and footwork. Sounds like it was just you making sure we all kept on the path.

“Being our personal Sherpa and never letting us know. Just taking up the work by yourself and being our hero. My hero.”

Edmund swallowed hard at that then looked down to his own shoes. He felt his toes curling up inside them and he felt as if he were about to burst into flame. That if he were a match he’d be burning brightly just from the heat of his face alone.

He’d never expected his hero, to call him a hero.

Felix began laughing harder now before he wrenched open a desk drawer.

Looking up Edmund watched as Felix pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. Grabbing the writing tool he began to jot things down on the paper.

“I’m assuming you can’t take anything with you. That means we’ll have to commit it all to memory. Might take a bit but… actually, whatever. Doesn’t matter at all,” Felix said and then laughed. “You’ll just rewind to this point no matter how many times you need to to get it all from me. Is this the first pass? Second? Something much higher?”

Felix had a grin and was rapidly writing things down now. Listing things out in a bullet form format. In his left hand he’d started tapping in something into his phone with only glancing at it here and there.

“First,” Edmund answered, feeling a bit stunned at Felix’s rapid shift.

“First? Huh. First. I-oh,” Felix paused mid pen-stroke and looked up at Edmund. Then he grinned. “You got upset because I was upset. Ha. Well. I saw you at your worst and reached in. Now you’re doing the same.

“I just wish I’d be able to remember this in the future. Because I’m betting there’s no trace of you ever having done this at all.”

Felix went back to writing as soon as he finished speaking. He then tapped his phone with his left hand and set it down.

“Yeah, you won’t remember any of this,” Edmund got out. He wasn’t surprised that Felix had figured out his motivations but it still managed to unnerve him. “As far as I’m concerned, there’s no reason for you to, either.

“Just painful stuff that you don’t have any need for. Of. Won’t do you any good to hold onto it.”

“I completely disagree,” Felix stated and continued to write, his eyes moving across the page as he went. “In this case, it would be an incredibly valuable lesson to keep for myself. I was far too arrogant in the belief that I could fix anything. Even death.

“My hubris led me into what happened and people died for it. People I can’t get back in this life.

“Thankfully, my own personal hero, my Save-state Hero as it were, has stepped in to drag me out of my own stupidity. My own pride and ego were going to end the lives of far too many.”

There was a knock on Felix’s office door and then it clicked open.

“Legate?” asked a curious voice. It sounded a lot like Ellie to Edmund.

Turning around he found she was indeed standing in the doorway.

“Ellie, come in. I need you to answer me as if you were speaking to Gaia,” Felix murmured, not looking up. He was still working through the sheet of paper.

“Of course, Legate,” answered the Dryad, coming over to stand near Edmund. “Hello, Ed.”

“Hey hi,” Edmund said with a wave of a hand.

“Ellie, where’s your tree?” Felix asked bluntly.

“I… uh… its… in my room. I have it planted in a pot. Gaia helps me take care of it so that it’s fine like that,” Ellie answered in a robotic way. She sounded incredibly concerned and wary.

“Got a seed?” Felix pushed.

“Of course. Why?”

“Edmund. I can modify Ellie’s seed to move through time with you. Might screw things up, might help. Would cost me a great many points but it’s not too hard to do. What do you say?” asked Felix.

I… uh… errr… why would I even want that though? That sounds more like a problem than something helpful.

“Being a Grove empowers you. Pushes your natural abilities up. Makes you more than just Human. Increases your lifespan, too,” Felix answered the unspoken question. “Ellie is interested in you and would willingly plant her seed in you if you wanted. I can modify it so it won’t kill you, it’ll travel with you, and empower you. Whatever timeline you jumped into, you’d take it with you.

“But only this Ellie here would be the one who planted it in you. Whatever Ellie in the timeline you go to wouldn’t even be aware of it. Not unless you wanted her to be.”

“I’m sorry, what?” asked Ellie in a delicate as glass whisper.

“Edmund can time travel. I’m trying to make him your grove. Don’t you want him as your grove?” asked Felix.

“I’d love that but… I… that’s not what Edmund wants,” she blurted out suddenly then shook her head. “I wouldn’t want him to do something he doesn’t want to.”

“I’ll uh… I’ll save… this state,” Edmund offered instead of answering. “That way I can come back to this moment and take you up on the offer if I need it. I mean… if it travels with me, it doesn’t matter if I accept it now, or deep in the future, right?”

“Exactly. Good way of thinking of it,” Felix said as Edmund indeed saved the state of the world.

He now had a save at the Save-state world with Oz.

A save just before this mission started.

One for this morning.

And now one for right now with Ellie’s seed being offered up.

“Oz, when do I get more Save-states?” asked Edmund. He’d noticed Oz had gone rather silent for a time. He figured they were just off attending to other things.

There was no response.

“Oz?” Edmund tried again.

“Who’s Oz?” Felix asked, stopping to look up at Edmund in his work.

“I don’t know really. But he knows how my powers work better than me. He’s been helpful. Sometimes,” grumbled Edmund.

“Great. Here’s the paper. Go save everyone,” Felix said and then held out the paper to him. Grinning from ear to ear. “Be sure to come back and tell me how it went sometime. I’d really like to hear the good news. Even if only for a moment.”

Errr… it wouldn’t matter though because you’ll never exist like this again?

Whatever.

There’s no point in trying to go around that bend till I get there.

“Sure,” Edmund replied and took the paper.

He began reading it over.

Felix had listed out everything that’d gone wrong, possible solutions if there was forethought, as well as what he’d do over again if he had the possibility. As well as minor suggestions on how to make them happen from Edmund’s perspective.

“Easy enough I hope?” asked Felix.

“You really are a Super villain sometimes,” Edmund mumbled with a slow shake of his head. Most of his answers were cold to the point of being callous. Often involving murdering, torturing, or bribing people for information to utilize in a different pass through.

The vast majority of them simply wouldn’t be usable to him, but it did help him think of what Felix really wanted out of these situations.

“I mean… whatever? Winners write the history and they’re the ones who get to say who committed war crimes or not,” Felix confessed with a shrug of his shoulders. “Just make sure you win if you’re going to commit the crimes.”

I… yeah.

Yeah.

That’s Felix though. Through and through.

My Super villain of a Hero.

Edmund grinned and nodded his head.

***

“Hum… first up is Carlotta and Alma,” Edmund said to himself as he got out of the care in the Association parking lot. He had about sixteen hours before the mission kicked off.

Felix had actually suggested kidnapping the UN troops commander that would be going on the expedition as a first move. To kidnap, torture, and brutalize their family to find out if they were leaking information.

He’d believed that the other side had been providing information as everything seemed to have gone wrong from the very start for Felix.

Except Edmund wasn’t really sure of that fact.

That really this didn’t sound like a betrayal from an ally, but an under-estimation from their own forces.

From what he’d heard of the brief itself from Faith, and Felix previously before he loaded, was that it was a gigantic registry mission. One that was set to take down a super that’d taken over a country, in fact.

Or that was the the mission statement at least.

Felix had admitted to him after the fact that it really was just an excuse to get some solid world recognition. For the globe to back them up so they didn’t have to worry about the States getting pissy about something said or done that they didn’t like.

That maybe Legion had missed or overlooked something and gotten smashed for it. Just as Felix had said, his pride had gone before his own fall.

I’ll probably need to figure out a good way to remind him that he isn’t nigh-invincible. That we all have limitations.

“Oh! Edmund! Hello!” called a musically warm voice from off to his side.

Turning his head to look at the speaker, Edmund found the actual living embodiment of the world, Gaia, standing there. She was rooting around in the trunk of an Association vehicle with an Andrea in tow.

The beautiful goddess was hard to look at sometimes.

Not because she was a goddess, but becaues she was the literal epitome of beauty. No one could compare to her at any level and Edmund had no idea why.

It was just almost painful to be around her given his very male reaction of wanting to stare, and forcing himself not to.

She was overly built to the point of making Dryads look small somehow and not very athletic.

Gaia, for all intents and purposes, looked like what the vast majority of men would consider to be a perfect woman.

Her eyes were a rich brown that glowed internally that slowly shone with a kaleidoscope of all the colors of the rainbow. Slowly transitioning from one to another.

Her mouth and lips were full and often blessed with a smile, her hair delicately pulled back, but also clearly trimmed to fit the times right now.

Right now she was dressed in a pair of slacks and a white blouse. They were perfectly normal atire for the situation but it fit her too perfectly, of course.

“Ah, hello Gaia,” Edmund said with a wave of his hand and a smile. “How’re you today?”

“I’m quite well. I’m doing trunk inspections with Andrea!” the goddess said with a smile. “Apparently Andrea has been rather naught and keeps replacing the gear that should be in them with other things, or not putting anything back.”

“I’m sorry. I really am,” whined the Andrea next to Gaia. It sounded as if she’d been doing nothing but apologizing.

“Oh you don’t have to apologize to me you silly thing,” Gaia promised with a throaty chuckle. “I’m just doing my own job duty now. This is all it is. There’s no reason to be that way about it.

“It’s not like you’re one of those who worship me that’d be different. Then I’d have to have some words with you young lady. Because this is irresponsible and a dereliction of your own duties. Is it not?”

“Nnnn, yes,” mewled Andrea.

Her worshipers?

Her worshipers!

I can just have Gaia do this for me. I can even couch it all in a way that she’d probably prefer and let her handle it. It’d go far better than me trying to talk Carlotta and Alma into anything.

“You know, Gaia, I was just here to do my own duty. Though now that I’ve seen you and the awe-striking beauty that you are, I wonder if perhaps you could help me instead?” asked Edmund, laying it on a bit thick. Compliments went far with Gaia. Especially if you meant them genuinely.

“Oh? Is that so? What can I do for you Edmund?” asked Gaia, turning to look at him fully now and smiling from ear to ear.

It made it somewhat difficult to think.

Behind Gaia, Andrea was nodding her head rapidly and holding both hands up. Giving him a thumbs up with each one and smiling as well.

Then she began to slowly back away from the situation.

Ha… run, Andie.

Run.

“You see… Carlotta and Alma need to make a distraction for Felix. A big one. One so big that no one is there to bother him or his lead elements when they push ahead,” Edmund said cautiously. “I was going to talk to them and try to encourage them to make it as big as possible, but I wasn’t really sure how to do it. Or even how to help them be empowered enough to do it.

“It’s obviously for Felix, so I figured there’d be no reason to pull out any stops. That they could probably ask for help, barter with Felix or make a bet with him, and then really let loose.

“Like… the biggest distraction there ever was. To the point that it wouldn’t even be a distraction anymore.

“But I just can’t figure out how to do that. Do you have any ideas? They’re your worshipers so I figured maybe you’d have a good idea on how to help Felix with this.

“Especially if you make it all an idea of the Dryads rather than you or me. That’d do the most good for them, too.”

Gaia’s eyes widened and she began to nod her head. There was a glittering spark to her gaze that Edmund couldn’t mistake as anything other than excitement.

“I know just what to do! Just what to do. Yes! Yes. I can handle this for you. For Felix! This isn’t a problem at all,” Gaia declared and then made an odd hand fluttering motion with her hands. “Ahhh, thinking about doing this and getting his thanks is already making my heart beat so oddly.

“I wonder if this really is more than just a sexual desire? I admit I really do crave to know him carnally anymore. It’s getting so hard to deny it to people anymore.”

Edmund smiled a bit brokenly.

Gaia had a bad habbit of voicing her inner thoughts aloud. She’d only recent summoned up a physical body and was still getting used to it.

That or she was trolling everyone into next year.

“Inner thoughts, Gaia. Inner thoughts,” Edmund warned.

“Ah! Yes. Yes, thank you, Edmund. I’ll go see the girls,” Gaia turned and started to move away, then paused. “Oh, and by the way. Thank you for being so kind to Ellie. She’s a sweet girl. A bit too conservative for my tastes, but a sweet girl.

“Be sure you treat her well, alright? You’ll have to watch over her as I think she’s far weaker than anyone thinks. She’s not like other Dryads. No combat or magical ability at all despite all that training.”

Right.

Yeah… Ellie.

Ellie and Dorothy going with me on the mission.

They’ll be the ones to talk to next and see what I can plan ahead with them. I’ll just use today’s Save-state to make adjustments to the mission start.

Though… shit… I’m running out of Save-states faster and faster.

Edmund had a strange and sudden thought.

“Oz?” he asked quietly after Gaia had turn and skipped away from him. Leaving the trunk to the car she’d been inspecting open and forgotten.

“Yes, Edmund?” replied Oz.

He was back.

“Is there any situation where you’d just vanish?”

“Yes, Edmund.”

“What would that be?”

“Situations that would require my oversight can be simple yet also complex. I wouldn’t be able to tell Edmund what they are till they occurred.

“The question is too vague to be answered definitively. I’ve left several times and come back to Edmund without announcing this. It is not entirely uncommon.”

Edmund couldn’t argue that point.

It made sense.

It also made him feel better about him not responding previously.

“When can I get more Save-states? I’m kind of running low,” Edmund asked just as Gaia entered the Legion building. “I mean… I’ve got the Save-state tunnel, the one with Felix and Ellie and her seed, the one I put down right before accepting this mission, and the one for this morning.

“Of those… I really only have one Save-state I want to actively use. The rest of them I’d like to keep as they are.”

“At this time, there is no room for Edmund to gather any more Save-states. There are no resources available.”

“Great. Let me guess. The previous generation gathered them all up for themselves and there’s none to go around.

“If I want more, I’ll have to go kill them or take the Save-states directly from them.”

“Edmund is correct.”

Sighing, Edmund closed the trunk and then moved off.

Oz’s response felt true to life anymore.

He needed to get ready for the mission. He was apparently going to be strapped to a Dragon and shoved out of a plane.

“Yaaaay… such fun, much joy,” mumbled Edmund.