Heat, Stress, Burns, and Cuts Ch. 11

Disclaimer: If you're looking for a short story to jack off to, this isn't it. This is a 3500 word story with one sex scene, the prime purpose of this is plot progression. If you don't like that, don't read. Same goes for those who don't like my writing style or the amount of time between installments of these chapters - writing is not my job, nor is editing. I write what I write, deal with it.

Note: To all those who have been waiting - I'm sorry; and I appreciate your patience in waiting for the newest chapter. I don't write as a job, so this is more of a passion project whenever I get around to writing them. Enjoy!

"Can I get you something to drink?" Jean Luc asked as he made his way to the desk. A top sat a bottle of gin and a bottle of scotch - I took the only obvious option.

"I'd love a scotch." I said taking a seat on the chesterfield leather couch.

His study was like mine, but more Mediterranean; his bookshelves, desk, and other furniture were all mahogany, accompanied by marble floors that gave the room a refreshingly rustic atmosphere. All of the furniture that wasn't covered in wood was instead deep brown leather, two couches and two chairs; all of which circled a mahogany and glass inlaid coffee table.

He placed my scotch on the coffee table and sat in a chair just to my left. He sat back in his chair, seeming to be scanning me up and down - maybe sizing me up? His face let off a slight smirk, it was almost smugness. His pompousness is nearly palpable.

"Vygot is hidden underneath the Basilica Di San Giacomo. We assume that LOA have tracked him to the city, but the hideout is well hidden. We wanted you here to discuss the strategy, and technique that the League used on you; this way we can properly assess their methods of engagement." He spoke in English.

I don't get a good feeling from this guy. He seems pompous, and arrogant. I decided to give his ego a check. Being that he is from Italy, he speaks fluent Italian, might as well make it easy for him to understand. Fortunately, I had learned Italian from the help of Jean Luc's chauffeur's and the help of Vitur by the time the car ride was over.

"How many guards do you have on him?" I asked in fluent Italian. He paused, it was almost unidentifiable, but he paused.

"Six. My best men who aren't in my personal detail." He said, smirk slowly dissipating.

"The league came at me in a car while on the move. I out ran them on my motorcycle, but they certainly knew what they were doing. I would argue that they strike when the target is moving. More areas of vulnerability - if I had to guess. Even if they know where he is, they won't attempt a strike til he is on the move. That being said, I have a plan." In that moment his smirk faded entirely, only to be replaced by one on my own face.

I walked onto the Luc's deck overlooking Lake Como, lit by nothing but a crescent moon. I found Megan sitting at the teak table with a bottle of wine, and two glasses sitting beside her. She saw me walking over, and she was already pouring a second glass.

"That took less time than I thought. You and Hiro used to talk all night." She gave a small smile as she handed me the glass. I took it in hand, and brought my glass up for a toast.

"He is the opposite of Hiro." I said, realizing that I was becoming more concerned than I thought. "There is something up with him."

"Well, we had great luck thus far with people around us in this crazy world, it was a sure thing that we would eventually need to deal with a few assholes. What particularly is off putting about him?" She asked.

"I can't place it, honestly; there's just something off about him. Call it an aura or something mythical, but I feel like there is something we don't know, or can't see." I turned introspective for a few seconds, but quickly realized that I was sitting on a deck in Italy enjoying time with my fiance over a bottle of wine.

"The view is absolutely immaculate," I said, changing the subject; trying to get myself out of my own head. I got up from the table, grabbed the wine bottle, and my glass then went to sit on an outdoor couch. Megan followed with her glass in hand.

We didn't talk too much, I think we just needed to enjoy each other's company. The amount of time we used to spend together, comparative to the time we spend now is bleak in comparison, and I think we both feel that distance.

The bottle dwindled down until only a few drops remained. She fell asleep in my arms, as we overlooked the dots of light that painted the Italian mountainside; as the gentle roar of speedboats jetted across the large watery expanse. I snatched her into my arms and took her into our room; Samantha was asleep on the bed. I peeled the covers back and tucked her in. Heading out to the kitchen, I picked up a bottle of scotch similar to the one that I had with Jean Luc. I make my way back, and sit down onto the couch, admiring the view for a few minutes longer, taking it in trying to let all other thoughts fall away.

"Dude, I think he's a fucking wizard." A voice said to my right, sitting where Megan sat a few minutes ago. "We haven't met, but that Jean Luc dude is a fucking wizard. It would explain a lot." he stood up, and hopped to sit in the chair opposite me. "Think about it, he lives in a brick house - so 1820's. And did you get a good look at his daughter? There's no way she comes from... that - without some sort of sorcery involved. "

"...Who are you exactly?" I said, noting something that was off about him. Almost like a majesticness.

"My name is Ambrose. I guess you could call me the grandson of Odin, but him and I are rather... estranged. Meaning that he and I don't really see eye to eye, and luckily you're something which he wants. He told me that I had to go to earth, and keep tabs on you myself. But then I thought "Hey, why do that when I can take a shuttle to my favorite vacation planet, and fuck the shit out of this cute elven girl I've been on-and-off again with. Then just pop in here, and have a chat with you myself," and thus the brilliant idea was formed!" He finished.

"Uhh... There's a lot to parse out from that." I said, not sure what to focus on first. "I guess first and foremost, are you all knowing like your father?"

"Ah, my dear Daniel - getting right to the important parts. I knew we would work well together, ever since I saw you rip Freyja to shreds." he laughed, slapping his knee. "That is gonna be on my highlight reel for the next two centuries at least."

"That was a pretty good one, wasn't it?" I chuckled.

"Well, you seem pretty busy with all the stuff you got going on, so I want to make my proposal to you, I'll be quick: Immortality. If you take it from Odin he will isolate, and threaten the lives of your loved ones to make you comply. His MO is to wait a hundred years until you have no one else, when the people with you are most important. I want to offer you immortality with no strings attached, unless those strings are voluntarily strung, by you."

"What strings did you have in mind? And why should I trust you?"

"I'm gonna take the long road to your answer, but I'll get there. Odin has a friend, a very influential friend - well, he's a dwarf, but an eclectic one. Simply an amazing politician. Odin figures that he is going to need someone to do his bidding, as at the time the Dwarfs, Giants, and Aesir were at war. Are you following so far?" He asked.

"Yeah, I got it." I said, motioning for him to continue.

"Okay, good. So anyway, Odin makes him the offer, he said in return for helping forward the progress of peace, he will grant immortality to him and his family of 6. Well, of course the Dwarf accepts. Then about 10 years later, after a long reign of peace due to his expert negotiating skills, the Dwarf decides that he wants to retire, and travel the galaxy with his family. Odin had other plans, as you may have imagined. He wanted the Dwarf to stay in politics, and do his bidding. The dwarf offers for Odin to take back immortality and allow him to travel with his wife. Odin didn't like that, so he killed all 6 of his family members, then left the dwarf with immortality; no longer allowing him any political work, nor any other kind of work for that matter. He is left to wander this fucked up place for the rest of his days, with no hope of forgetting his family, or how they looked when they died ever again. See, the moment when immortality loses its charm, is the exact time when you begin to think of life as more of a burden than a gift. Odin uses this to his advantage in the most sadistic way divinely possible. That's who Odin is, I'm not."

I started to feel a sort of kinship towards him. He's smart and unabashed; he fits in perfectly. I'm still unsure about if what he says is true. Maybe it's just a large trap fr-

"... maybe it's just a large trap from Odin to test your loyalty? Not quite." Ambrose said, completing my thought for me. "You want to trust me? Well, I never did answer your original question; allow me to do that right now: That light will turn off in ten seconds." He said pointing to a distant house on the opposite mountain side of Lake Como, "in 52 seconds the Butler will come out to ask if you need anything. After that? Alexis Luc will find you, and introduce herself. I'd personally recommend a bottle of wine, then staying out here till she finds you, because this spot is romantic as fuck. Last but not least, you've been thinking about ways to access your 'other selves' as you call them. The secret to that lies in clear, and precise thought. With concentrated thought, comes willful execution. With that said, my time is up. We'll meet again soon, slainte Daniel." he cheered, as he vanished from thin air.

"Excuse me sir?" I turned to see the butler.

"Yes?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Do you need anything? Drinks, snacks, or...?"

"Yes, if I could have another bottle of red brought up, and two fresh glasses please? I think I might have company." I said, glancing back to the distant house's light, which was now pitch black.

"Of course, sir, I will grab them from the cellar." He turned and started to walk away.

Though the amount of stress towards my celestial offerings was building, my sights still were on the earthly tasks at hand: The most prominent issue now is that of Vygot. I kept my plan close to my vest when I was talking to Jean Luc - chalk it up to intuition.

Just as I poured the second glass of wine, I heard footsteps from behind me.

"Hi there, I didn't have a chance to formally introduce myself earlier;" She said, walking onto the deck. "I am Alexis Luc, very nice to meet you, Daniel." Her smile was something to behold, teeth that were neon white, imperfectly perfect; and cheek dimples that could open beer bottles... in a good way.

"Since you gave me the formal introduction, I'll match suit; I am Daniel Vanderbuilt, very nice to meet you." I said, handing her a wine glass, and extending my free hand. "I had a feeling that I would find company soon. Call it intuition."

"Well, that's a neat trick you got there. Wanna let me in on the secret?" She tilted her head with a playfully, and inquisitive intonation; pulling me in from my handshake into a hug.

"Well, it's real simple, you see. Sometimes, a magical Norse god who happens to know when every single thing will happen in life appears, and tells me when good things will happen." I said with a grin.

"Are you sure you're not just schizophrenic?" She asked, chuckling.

"Shhh, no one knows I've escaped from the asylum yet." I said, returning the chuckle.

"So, what brings you to Lake Como, and to meet my father?" She asked, moving to sit down onto the couch next to me.

"Well, Lake Como, for the scenery of course. And your father, because of his warm, down to earth, and honest disposition." I said sarcastically; trying, and failing, to keep a straight face.

She raised her glass up in response, "I'll certainly drink to that. About time for someone to call him out on his pompousness" I raised a glass in retort.

"So," I began. "a question: What are you up to late tomorrow morning, say around 11? My Fiancé and I need a travel guide, and I would kill to see you in a pair of yoga pants." I said, as she blushed.

"Hmmmm" She hummed, tapping her index finger on her chin "I think I can make time in my busy schedule of a trust fund baby." She smirked, and went to stand. "I'm going to get to bed, if you find yourself needing a place to sleep, I'm up the hall, and to the right." She winked, as she walked inside.

Oh, temptation, temptation.

I had larger issues on my mind, as I planned to extract Vygot tonight. . But first, I want to try to get in better touch with my other selves. Like Ambrose said, clear and precise thought: Vygot is in the safe house which is presumed to be surrounded by the League of assassins. This church is on a peninsula. I need advice from The Conqueror of the Sea, and The Jarl; Sigmund, and Herald, respectively. I focused my mind, thought of their demeanor, and respective energies; then all of a sudden there they both stood in front of me.

"Are you in need of assistance, brother?" Herald said.

"What can we do?" Sigmund parroted.

"Look there" I pointed to the peninsula that was across the lake. "There is a man who I need to get out of that church, the enemy is around it, blending into the civilian population. I need to get in there, and get him out without detection. Thoughts?"

They both turned, and intently stared at the church, and peninsula, squinting their eyes trying to see so far. Even with the visual enhancements from Vitur, it was still a long distance away. Both of their eyes twitched at the same time, and they slowly looked over at each other. Almost as if part of a light bulb went off in their head. They stared at each other for a few seconds, getting more and more smug every passing second. Finally, they burst out into laughter; it didn't seem to end for a good minute and a half. They turned to me:

"You're supposed to have the big brain, right Daniel?" Herald said trying to stifle a laugh.

"Some may say that, sure." I responded.

"With the formula you ingested in Boston, you can hold your breath up to... Ten minutes, no?" Sigmund asked.

"Also correct, I don't unders-" I was cut off by Herold.

"The Luc's they have a boat... Not 400ft away from you?"

It all started to click now, and I understood the plan. There was only one question in my mind.

"Sigmund, how would you like to drive a modern boat for a change?" I asked with a grin, while turning to the Jarl.

"Herold, how would you like to be my partner on a rescue mission?"

They both just grinned. We headed for the boats, and pressed the button to raise the water-garage doors. In the darkness, we saw a Donzi speed boat that was flat black, perfect for a midnight rescue. Thanks to Vitur's continuous upgrades we have gotten night vision added to our repertoire, upon other thi-

'...actually sir, I've been meaning to mention to you a project that I have been working on.' Vitur said in my inner monologue.

'Sure Vitur, what's up?'

'Well, for starters, I've compiled an analysis of current guard patterns in Lake Como as reported 3 hours ago, and have found the optimal location to take you underwater for less than your ten minute timespan, while covering almost a 2 mile underwater stealth approach.'

'Well, holy shit I don't know where I would be without you' I said, smiling ear to ear.

'There is more' he continued 'After your conversation with Ambrose, it got me thinking, too, about your otherselves, and why they couldn't be true physical manifestations of themselves. I used this time that they were summoned for analysis; I discovered that there is a signature energy source, just like Ambrose. But I can lock onto your otherselves signatures , and manifest physicality at will. This means that while they are still invisible, if they throw a punch, or want to hold a weapon, I can manifest the energy in such a way that it will be able to maintain a tangible grip on objects, as well as carry force in hand to hand combat.' My smile only continued to grow.

'So not only are you saying that I can see in the dark, and swim 2 miles underground; but I also have a ghost squad as my backup?'

'Oh, fuck yeah dude.' Vitur said with as much enthusiasm as I was displaying.

'I'm not dreaming, right?' I asked, to no response.

We began our approach to the drop point, with Sigmund piloting the Donzi, after a small tutorial on what did what on boats of this century; and a small learning curve for Vitur to learn how to manifest the energies.

Herald and I sat at the back of the boat going over plans for the extraction. I had to take a second before planning to just sit back, and see the ghost squad that has been formed around me. Tonight I wasn't one man, I was 3.

The drop point came up - Sigmund killed the engines, and dropped the anchor. He would remain on the boat to stand guard, then Herald and I would go on the swim. Vitur brought a heads up display of our location into my eyepiece, Herald too. We saw our dive point and dove in. Herald, was still able to defy gravity, and any other rules that human bodies are bound to, simply choosing to float whilst I swam the the 2 miles trek. It was rather easy going - my body and organ systems had been supercharged by all of the substances I received in Boston when all of this began. I had already swam around a mile, and felt like I barely tapped my oxygen reserves.

Herald spoke, "What do you think about getting into the Church? Our infiltration point is the abandoned dock right across the street from the Church, right?" I nodded my head while I continued to swim. "So, what I think we do is peek our heads up at around 100yds away to make sure there are no enemies nearby, then we'll use the dock for cover, and slip right up the culvert on the side of it. That sound good to you?" He asked, to which I again nodded.

We neared in on the dock, and when we peaked our heads up we noticed two guards who were walking along the perimeter; if timed just right, we should be able to slip by no problem. Herald and I were practically reading each other's minds, no need for communication, just a respective head nod, and we were ready to go; hugging the bottom side of the dilapidated deck, we began creeping our way towards the empty culvert.

Vitur informed us that the guards were converging on the dock, and that we needed to freeze in five seconds. We were nearly at the culvert, so we pushed hard for that short time, and made it to the beginning of the dock, right beside the culvert. Freezing as I heard large, stomping boot sounds coming from both guards. They stopped by each other, one bummed a cigarette from the other, and questioned why they were even there. The other said that he didn't know, nor did he care, and started to walk the perimeter once again.

The other guard put his cigarette out and turned to walk in the opposite direction. Vitur gave us the signal, and we went up the culvert, towards the church. It seems like the League couldn't find the hiding location of Vygot, and instead resorted to a heavy perimeter.

Thanks to this error, once we were past the initial perimeter, the church was completely unguarded. I know for one that the safehouse will need to be in the basement, as there was mention of concrete-fortified walls. We found a path leading down to the catacombs.

'Vitur, get me Saga as well, please.' I asked.

'What do you need, Sir?" Her angelic voice flowed like a thirty year old scotch.

'Take a look around here, and see if any of it matches filings for any memories stored. Hopefully it has been a safehouse long enough for us to have a record of its location. Vitur, grab architectural plans, and cross-reference them with where we are walking. Get Skjult to take over Herold, and Sigmund's physical manifestation while you do it, with his background in fighting, and evasion. Let's find this guy, and bring him home.' I said, feeling like a team leader. 'Oh, check in with Sigmund before you do that please.' I said