Ruthless - The Angry River

Rex held his hands out as though giving the conversation over to her.

Pythia mulled it over in her head for a little while, before she rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine, yes, you're right. I'm way too incredible, and you're far too incapable to do this alone."

Rex smiled. "I understand you think you can hurt my feelings, but," he pointed to Meredith, who just shook her head when Pythia glanced at her. "Yes. You have talents, you have knowledge, and I am not capable of doing this without aid. You can phrase it as bitchily as you like."

Pythia deflated. "Even when you lose arguments you still somehow win."

"Fuckin irritating isn't it," Meredith murmured.

"Hey!" Rex yelled at Meredith, who gave him an innocent, 'Who me?' expression, before he turned back to Pythia. "Look, I don't want to work with you. I don't really want to work with anyone. It's been a lot of trouble, and it got me arrested. But I have to stop Watchman, and I need you to do it. It so happens, you also want me to stop Watchman. So, here we are. You need to work for me."

Pythia sighed. She clearly didn't like the idea of working for anyone. "There's something else."

Rex furrowed his brow, as he didn't really like unexpected riders on contracts.

"I... might need a checkup... at some point. I'm going to try to set up an out-of-town doctor, so I might not be available."

Meredith looked at Rex, and he nodded to her to make the offer. Meredith smiled, "We have medical equipment."

"I'd rather not," Pythia responded flatly.

Meredith backed off, "It's up to you." Rex shot her a look as if to ask, 'Is it?' and Meredith gave him a patient expression, so he followed her lead. Meri reached down and took Pythia's hand. "But know that I'm here for you. No matter what."

Pythia squeezed her hand and muttered, "Thank you."

Rex set down a communicator next to her laptop. Hopefully, she would prefer this secure way to reach him in the future. Resetting his network id was just a real pain in the ass.

Rex climbed into the back seat of his driverless car, and Meredith climbed in next to him. They stared ahead into the darkness for a few moments. His mind whirled, arguments, counterarguments, analysis. Black holes destroyed the stars that orbited them, didn't they?

Meredith looked over at him, concerned.

Rex couldn't contain the emotion within him. "Fuck!" He screamed. "Fucking, fuck, DRIVER, nearest entrance, GO!" The car lurched forward and took off down the road.

Rex fumed. "All I wanted, was to get out of fucking prison, do some goddamn supervillain shit, and just have some consequence-free villain and hero fuckery. It was a stupid dream, but it was mine." Meredith slowly moved next to him on the bench seat and curled up against his side. Rex leaned his head back. "This was not it. This was not the plan."

"You know, Rex," Meredith spoke very softly, and her soft voice reached into his guts. "It may not be a dream, but what we have is real."

She didn't just strike a chord she slammed a hammer into the piano. Rex's brain went a bunch of different directions at once again, and he whirled on her. He mashed his lips against hers, pushed his tongue into her mouth. She flailed, then grabbed onto his shoulders.

He shoved her legs apart and pulled his cock out. She wore nylons and garters of course, but no hose and no panties. He shoved his cock into her pussy and started to jackhammer her. She screamed and dug her nails into his shoulders.

Rex knew he had lost control. He was out of his mind. Instinct was driving him, and it was an instinct he'd never felt before. It hit him too hard, and too fast.

Meredith broke the kiss with a gasp. "Oh Rex! Shit," she grunted, and squeezed her eyes shut, which sent tears down her cheeks. He couldn't stop. He could feel it rising inside of him, and he needed it so badly. Meri wrapped her legs around him, and he shoved his cock deep inside, before he exploded in climax. He grabbed her head, and kissed her several times, on her lips, her cheeks.

Rex came down slowly and panted heavily, as the car drove toward its destination in town. After a few seconds, he spoke. "I'm sorry Meri. I'm fucked up."

"Hey Rex, it's okay," she murmured and planted a soft kiss on his nose.

Rex rolled off of her and laid back on the bench seat.

"What... what did I say?" That quiet voice again.

"Nothing, I just... I had the most fucked up instinctual response and I just... I just couldn't stop it."

Meredith shook her head in confusion. "What?"

"I wanted to breed you, Meri. That's how fucked up I am. It just... it exploded in me, and I couldn't control myself." Rex hated when he lost control. But her reaction surprised him.

Meredith laughed and laid her head down on his lap. "Rex, after all this, you actually wanting children is actually the least fucked up thing about you."

Rex sighed deeply. Somehow that made sense. But it was definitely not part of the plan. Of course, it couldn't happen anyway - not without effort beyond the sexual. "I have no idea how any of this is going to go. I was supposed to be collecting superheroines, not puppies."

"Shelly may be a puppy. Pythia is a genuine superheroine."

"Yeah, but it's not like I can trust her. And I can't put her on the formula - even I'm not that fucked up."

Meredith grinned from his lap. "You know, it is actually possible to trust people without altering their brain chemistry. Look at Feral."

Rex was silent. He was trying to figure out how he could explain that Feral was different, without dismissing the fact that what she said was, factually speaking, accurate. It was a difficult problem.

"You know I'm right, don't you," Meredith laughed.

Rex shook his head. "But how do I know Pythia won't just turn on me the moment it's convenient? The moment she doesn't need-"

"She's a hero. They usually don't do that."

"They also usually don't drug and impregnate their fellow heroes."

"Watchman's different, you know that. Even you don't believe Zarathustro actually knows about his plan, do you?"

Rex thought about that. It didn't seem likely. It was more likely that Watchman was somehow playing the others, and they were unaware of it. "Right, because they trust Watchman."

"This is different. They don't know him. You know Pythia."

"Do I?" Rex sighed.

"Well, look, you don't have to tell her everything at once. You build trust slowly." Meredith leaned up and looked at him. "This can work, Rex. Imagine, if you had a team of converted heroes instead of psychopathic villains."

"But they won't do what I need them to do. Like Pythia would never fuck Dan Full-"

"You don't need them for that. You need them to keep the League in check."

"An interesting thought." He hadn't considered that actually. A team of white hats, and a team of black hats. And him, Meredith, and maybe Feral the only ones who knows what both teams are doing. Hell, Feral could maybe go back and forth between them, if they got people he didn't hate.

"You're about to put me in charge of a trillion-dollar corporation, so I hope I have a few of those," Meredith laughed.

Rex laughed and then his laughter faded, as he remembered something that hadn't come up. Meredith sensed the change in mood. "What?"

"Pythia was in stasis for nearly my whole prison sentence."

"Uh... why?"

"She thinks it was because I brainwashed her, and so they had to stick her in stasis to undo the brainwashing."

"But... you didn't."

"Right. The formula failed. I told her as much."

"So why-oh."

Rex nodded. "That is a question that needs answering."

At the CIC in their headquarters, Rex found Feral watching the news.

"How goes the seduction?" Rex asked.

"Oh, nearly done I hope," Feral looked up and shook his head. "He's gross and incompetent." Rex had always considered him an exception executive, and then realized Feral meant incompetent at sex. "But I got his computers hacked and did what you asked."

Rex nodded. "Then we can-" he glanced at the monitor and immediately gestured to turn on the volume.

The news reporter had just mentioned that, "Tragedy struck Akrinym corporation," and had passed it to another reporter.

"Dan Fuller was found this morning by a cleaning crew, having passed in the early hours. Also found was his wife of 25 years, who apparently passed last night as well. Police are investigating, but our sources tell us that it his death is currently being investigated as a suicide, and hers, natural causes."

Rex could not believe their luck. "Tell me you modified his TOD." Feral looked up at him slowly. "The Transfer-On-Death for his-"

"Yeah boss." Feral nodded. "I modified it. It'll revert back to the company."

Meredith furrowed her brow. "The company?"

Rex nodded. "Me, more specifically."

Feral looked back at the monitor. "That's kind of weird though-"

"Oh yeah, no, Watchman murdered him. He's apparently upping his game."

"What!" Feral yelled and jumped to his feet. "What are you talking about? Watchman vowed-"

"Night Watchman isn't who you think he is. This isn't the first time he's suicided someone, and unless we stop him, it's unlikely to be the last."

Feral shook his head and held up a hand. "Wait, you're jumping to conclusions."

Rex furrowed his brow. Although, Feral had just spent some time with the deceased. "You think he was suicidal?"

Feral winced. "I think his wife was in very poor health." He coughed and looked down. "That's uhm... partly why..."

Rex stared at the monitor. "Oh, shit you mean... this might actually just be a coincidence? That seems improbable."

Feral shrugged. "I mean, if she was in poor health... Maybe Dan admitted what he had done? If it killed her, I could see how that might drive him to... to that."

Rex thought about ways they might be able to prove that or look into it. Well, there was a prosecutor who had access to those kinds of things. Maybe even -

The communications system told him a call was incoming. Shelly Klaus.

Rex furrowed his brow. He really hated coincidences, and they were starting to add up. "Answer, audio only."

There was a brief pause of Shelly's ragged breathing, before her quavering voice came through. "H-hello?"

"Speak." Rex wasn't one for phone etiquette on the best of days, but he wanted to give nothing away incase this was somehow unwilling.

"Sir, I'm... I'm sorry sir," she wept. "I didn't know what else to do, or who, I... I'm sorry, sir please."

"Stop."

Her voice went silent, her shaky breath the only thing audible for a few seconds.

"Take a deep breath." Rex commanded. He heard her draw in a deep, but still shaky, breath. "Then release it." And she slowly breathed out. "What happened?"

"I was fired, sir. Jack fired me, he said my... my work had suffered and I... I wasn't reliable I just, sir, I know I could do better sir, if only-"

"Stop." She went silent again. "Do you remember the instructions?"

A sniffle. "Yes sir."

"Follow them with a single deviation. Replace two with four."

A brief pause, and then she exclaimed, "Oh you mean-"

"Stop." Rex sighed. In the future, he'd need to explain to her how to communicate professionally. "Say nothing do you understand? To anybody. Pack essentials." He paused and said, "I want you to consider what I am about to ask you carefully before you answer. Do you have any questions?"

Shelly gave it a few seconds consideration, and then replied quietly, "No sir."

"Go." He disconnected the line.

Feral turned to Rex. "Really?" Rex furrowed his brow at the smaller man. "You're bringing her here?"

Meredith winced, clearly not in love with the idea.

Rex was pleased though. "You remembered the directions too, I'm-"

"With us?" Feral asked and gestured at Meredith, who raised her eyebrows.

Rex shook his head slowly. Ah, the naiveté of youth. "If you are looking to Meredith to back you up right now, you should brace yourself for disappointment."

Feral glanced at Meredith, who shook her head, then looked down and nodded. "Sure, I get it. It's your base, whatever."

Meredith didn't like it either, apparently. "You know Rex, the old you would've cut her loose."

Rex nodded, because it was absolutely true. "The old me lost."

There was a small foyer where the vacpods arrived in the headquarters. Feral had reverted, Rex noticed, to his more male form. Undoubtedly a form of pouting. Meredith kept glancing at Rex, as she probably continued to wonder.

The pod arrived and out stepped a cautious Shelly Klaus. She wore a faded State University t-shirt, gray sweatpants, and casual slip-on shoes. She held a pink backpack that had a fat, smiling, cartoon cat face on it. She had no makeup on, and her eyes were rimmed with red.

She saw the others and bit her lip, then approached Rex. "Sir, I... I'm here, sir."

Rex nodded. He motioned to Feral. "This is Feral."

Feral smirked and said nothing. Shelly stared at him for a few seconds, and he piped up, "Oh, so you recognize me?"

Shelly nodded and started to say something when Rex interrupted her. "Later." He turned to Meredith. "And this is Meredith."

Shelly smiled to her, "Good to meet you again."

Meredith nodded and smiled. "Wish the circumstances were better."

Shelly nodded, and wiped her eyes, then looked up at Rex.

Rex motioned to her and Feral, then took the two of them to the elevator, to the living quarters, and to a bedroom. There were a lot of bedrooms in Rex's headquarters.

"Shelly, this is your room." He motioned to a nearby chair. She took it, and Rex turned to Feral. "Say your mind."

Feral exploded. "That bitch doesn't belong here! She locked me up!"

Rex hoped to get this out of the way. "Do you remember how long it was between when you were arrested, and when she came to you to explain what was going to happen?"

"Yeah, like three fucking days."

"And in that time, how many cases do you think she closed?"

Feral leaned back and shrugged. "I don't know."

Rex looked to Shelly who thought and shrugged, then shook her head. She couldn't remember but took a guess. "Probably at least two."

Feral sighed and rubbed his face. "Boss, what-"

"She was a tool. A tool of a system that you supported." Rex stared at Feral who slowly made eye contact. "She is not to be blamed. Not only was it not personal, but she was actually following the same orders as everyone else, including you. The League was supposed to tell her if you were an ordinary criminal, or a hero. And the League set you up."

Shelly looked up at Rex, "Sir, may I speak?"

Rex nodded.

Shelly turned to Feral and swallowed, as though she could swallow the tears that were still in her eyes. "I'm sorry, but when the League didn't vouch for you-"

"You didn't even investigate!" Feral cried.

Shelly gestured vaguely, "The heroes are vigilantes, legally-"

Feral started to interrupt when Rex cut them both off. "That's bullshit!" He pointed at Shelly. Shelly looked over at Rex in surprise. "You're not allowed to lie in here, not to me, not to any of mine. Tell the truth. Now!"

Shelly burst into tears. "It-it was quick! It was the-the, the fastest thing I could do, I didn't have time, time for anything, I couldn't," she heaved a few deep breaths. "I had more cases, every day, and they refused to give us help! We couldn't, we couldn't even ask questions, I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe!" She collapsed out of the chair to her knees. "I'm sorry! God, I'm sorry!"

Feral stepped back in shock and cast his eyes down. Rex cleared his throat. Feral looked at him and Rex gestured to Shelly. Feral bit his lip and kneeled down next to her. "I..." She looked up at him, through her tears. Feral wiped his eyes of his tears. "I went to prison, Shelly. It ruined me. It destroyed my whole life."

Shelly nodded and grimaced.

"But it wasn't your fault," he reached out and touched her knee. "Not really. And weirdly..." he looked up at Rex and blinked back his tears. "It worked out for me. So, yes my old life was destroyed, but in a way, you helped me find a better one."

Shelly lurched forward and slung her arms around him. He squeezed her in a hug. "Thank you," she murmured.

Well, great. It had happened again. Somehow, tears and hugs, and in the end, a stronger team. Or so Rex hoped. If all this just resulted in an ordinary group of people that couldn't get the job done, Rex was going to be very disappointed.

Rex left Shelly take the rest of the evening to recuperate, and to acclimate to her new surroundings. There were other things that needed to be done. He returned to the CIC, where he continued to work into the night. He sat back in his chair, and stared the monitors, with news feeds from around the world.

Meredith walked in, naked, and sat sideways on his lap. "What're you up to? I know it's not Akrinym."

He couldn't help but grin. "Something I can help you with?"

"Sleeping in your bed is only fun if you're there," Meri grinned, but then she looked at his computers.

"There's always more work to do."

Meri furrowed her brow and looked back. "You dodged the question. What is this?"

Rex sighed and smirked, as Meri was the one of the few people he couldn't slip things past. "Did I ever tell you about Rakes and Lace?"

Meri shook her head, though smiled at the name.

"When I was young, I thought it would be a great name for a cop show starring a jaded male cop, and a sassy female one." They shared a laugh, and he shook his head. "Silly, but for some reason, the name stuck with me. So, when I formed a second corp, I called it Rakeslace."

"Rakeslace? That was the backup? The second basket?"

Rex nodded and thought about moving the conversation on to something else.

"But you went to prison for 10 months. Who took care of the business while you were gone?"

Well, too late to do that. He sighed deeply as he considered how much he wanted to reveal to her, but then she stepped in and answered for him.

"Oh my god, it's someone I haven't met, isn't it?" Meri shook her head. "I can't believe it. You've got a whole other... what? A whole life somewhere else?"

She didn't really sound angry about it, just disbelieving. But Rex knew she was too important to let this ruin their relationship. "In a very real sense, yes. But not the sense you're thinking of."

Meri just furrowed her brow, so he decided to show her. He tapped a few commands into the computer, and a face appeared on the monitor. It looked a little like his own face, but younger, and more angular.

The image spoke. "Awaiting command."

Meri stared at it and closed her eyes, before she rubbed her face. "I can't believe you. You made an AI based on yourself."

"It's hardly a real AI, but Rakeslace isn't a real business. It's a shell company that makes really smart investments in real businesses. It by itself doesn't need much in the way of hands-on management. The AI takes care of it, makes trades, pays bills, that kind of things."

Meri shook her head. "So why bother now?"

"Well, Bident Security is a subsidiary of Rakeslace, and, by some cosmic coincidence," he grinned, as it most certainly wasn't, "Also the primary security company for Akrinym. Trust me, it's important that this get taken care of."

"But can it wait until tomorrow?"

Rex chuckled and nodded. Meri stood up, grabbed his hand, and led him to his quarters. What he found on his bed delighted him. Chrissy was naked and working the large cock on a strap-on in and out of his mouth. Rex noted that the inside of the strap-on had a slightly smaller, thicker cock. He looked at Meredith.