The Legacy of Eros - Dark Son Ch. 01

"Threat acknowledged," she nodded once more.

"No, that's a promise ... otherwise, I'm in," I said in a lighter, more positive tone.

"Really?" Arachne appeared surprised.

"Yeah. If I'm going to start making a name for myself, I might as well start it here and now," I stated. "This theft sounds like it will be epic -- even with the promised backlash. Plus, I get the feeling this won't be reported as a crime."

"That bothers you?" Arachne asked.

"Yes. My current situation would become much more complicated if I was to become a wanted man."

"But the CAA (Costumed Actors Act of 1952) protects your secret identity ... whatever that is -- and I'm not inquiring," Arachne pointed out.

"Good to know. Kori Ivankov won't care though ... nor will other people in our lives," I sighed. Yeah, breaking my first law would be tough on Angelheart. The Clusterfuck in Sudan didn't count because she didn't know me then. Even if this became another 'No (Reported) Harm -- No (Legitimate) Foul' things would be different. I was merely putting off the inevitable, though if I used this as an excuse to not take part of this madness I knew I would again.

"What kind of opposition are we expecting -- besides the army of goons?" I pushed ahead with this madness.

"Besides said army of goons and the five, or six metahumans Arachne and I can deal with ... Stunner is expected to be there as well," Liberty Lincoln dropped the hammer. Stunner was an 'A'-class elite metahuman mercenary.

"You guys think I can take on Stunner?" I grunted.

"Not really," she gave me a sly smile, "but Web Slinger does and I'm going with his / her information on you anyway."

"If you don't think you can keep Stunner occupied, let us know now," Arachne added.

"I've never fought her (Stunner was a gal), but I'm willing to give it a shot. Besides, I've got to take her out before I can get away with my share of the loot, right?" I mused. "It is about time I put my abilities to the test."

"Don't let us down, Big Boy," Lincoln taunted me, "or it is all our asses on the line."

"I won't (let y'all down). Now where and when is this job going down?"

"In about three hours," Liberty informed me, "at his main crib uptown."

"I thought you said it went down tomorrow?" I grew hostile.

"Three hours from now is tomorrow," she gave me a toothsome smile.

"Fuck a duck," I ground out. "Fine ..."

"We weren't' sure you would betray us, or not," said Arachne.

"Are the rest of you ready?"

"As we will ever be," Luck Dead gave a rictus grin of her own as she foisted up a duffel bag full of what I assumed were firearms.

"A bag full of guns and three dames on a mission," I ruminated. What could possibly go wrong?

[RIGHT, WRONG AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN]

The event which was distracting the majority of our opposition was a celebratory bash ... celebrating prematurely Kori Ivankov winning a 'laundry list of crimes' case against him which all boiled down to the prosecution's star witness refusing to testify against him. Just after 1 a.m. we ghosted in through his rooftop sensors and raided his penthouse safe room. It was all perfect going in, but somehow Web Slinger failed to counteract one of the failsafe alarms and security plus Stunner was fast on her way as we were breaking into the safe room itself.

I HAD STRUCK GOLD!

Gold and silver goblets full of gems, flash drives with who knows what kind of data on them, antiques and paintings were all in evidence. I didn't even have to worry about what the other three had come for. It was ... the cat.

Or what was presumed to be a cat. My sensors indicated -- once they worked passed its screens -- it was some sort of unidentified alien life form disguised as a cat. I let the others know of this as I pocketed all the goodies into an extra-dimensional space. My haul, provided I survived, was going to be worth millions -- check that -- tens of millions. Every second it took them to corral this demon beast from the Abyss was worth a fortune to me.

"Help us out here," an exasperated Liberty called over to me.

"Not part of the plan," I shot back.

"They're almost here," Lucky Dead called from the main room.

"How close?" Arachne asked only to be met by the sound of gunfire. Lucky Dead had been engaged. Seconds later, a grenade went off. Lucky, it seemed, had brought her own back-up.

Two missing Dutch Masters went into the pouch when I heard the crackle of electricity. It was my time to take part in the festivities. Oh well, the Van Gogh would just have to wait.

"A little help here ...," Lucky Dead trailed off as I stepped out. The goons and Lucky backed off as the two Major League metahumans faced one another.

"I don't know who you are, but you have three seconds to flee before I incinerate your ass," Stunner greeted me. She was floating off the ground, her brunette hair with golden highlights floating about her in a static fog. Her blue and yellow bodysuit was visible under the tuxedo she had probably been in the process of removing up until now.

"The name's Dark Son ... with an 'o'," I got off when she decided I'd had my three seconds and opted to act stupid instead. I was inches away from being turned into a briquette as I dodged right. I fired off a foam-dispensing micro-rocket which she foolishly batted aside. The foam went everywhere, momentarily blinding her. What I did next was not for the lighthearted, or nigh-invulnerable -- I grappled with her.

Right off the bat I was seared by her electrified force field. OUCH! Hell, I screamed out it hurt so bad. I did manage to both stay conscious and make that all important skin contact though. The exchange when through and I felt my physiology begin to morph just in time. She flew back perhaps three feet and gave me both fists -- twin bolts of lightning rolling through me, body and soul.

For a moment there was a slight pain and then I felt energized. Super-energized in fact. I could now absorb electrical energy it seemed. It made me stronger, faster and even allowed my telekinesis to reach out beyond touch-range. Having been knocked down, I stood back up and was instantly taken in by two lassos of solidified electrical energy -- one around my waist and the other around my neck.

"Okay, Stupid," she mocked me. "That stunt failed and I'm about to turn your pathetic armored suit into so much slag. Any last words?"

"My, you are pretty when you are angry," I coughed. I was still getting over my first run-in with her force field.

"Thank you -- now its lights out," and the electricity in the bindings began coursing through the tendrils and into my body. I shook and twitched for the viewing audience. I really wanted to get too strong for the rest of the goons to possibly hurt.

"Dark Son -- NO!" Arachne didn't understand what was going on and came to my rescue.

Like me, she discovered a second too late Stunner's force field was damaging. Still, she managed to knock all three of us down. I was the first to rise, having suffered no further damage. Arachne was as strong as a human-sized spider so only Stunner was momentarily stunned. Her force field was also still intact, if somewhat weakened, which was a blessing in and of itself because the moment they had a clear shot, the goons opened fire.

I was sprayed with lead in multiple calibers ... with no discernible effect. Seeing some wack-job about to fire off a grenade launcher in these enclosed circumstances, I did my best to shield Arachne's body. Lucky Dead was too far away and behind some makeshift cover anyway.

The room exploded in flames, smoke and chaos.

"I'm okay," a wobbly Arachne mumbled to me.

"I've got the damn cat!" screamed a triumphant Liberty from the safe room. It was time for us to get out of here then. The sprinkler system registered the flames and doused the room in flame retardant foam, immediately clearing out the smoke so now we could all see each other.

Stunner rose up, looking so fucking pissed off and a real mess. She gave me both barrels again, knocking me back over the sofa. As I rolled to a standing position, I saw Lucky Dead ... with a huge section of the glass top table sticking out of her chest. Not so 'lucky' anymore it seemed. Oh fucking well, I had to worry about the members of my team who could still be extracted.

I knelt by the sofa and telekinetically slammed it back in Stunner's direction. Her body's shields cut it in two, but the two halves swept up most of the goons as it propelled itself, and everything else, back towards the elevators. There ... my powers just ... failed. Through the foam, with a whole new cadre of muscle, was Kalashnikov Kori himself. OH FUCK!

Stunner was the next one to feel his effects. As Ivankov advanced, her powers flickered then failed. The guy was a fucking 'Null' ~ a metahuman who negated the powers of other metahumans. Stunner had been alternating bolts between the entrance of the safe room, keeping Liberty pinned inside, and making Arachne dodge for her life. As her bolts failed, we had a minute window to escape.

And then Kalashnikov concentrated on me. I felt wobbly and somewhat nauseated. Next, Arachne stumbled and crashed into a bookshelf ... which then fell on her. Now normally she would have never made such a misstep -- being as nimble as she was, and if she had she would have had the strength to immediately be back up. She wasn't getting right back up. Instead ...

"Help ..."

"Oh shit," I muttered. He could project his 'Null' powers as well as use them in a field centered on himself. Only Liberty seemed immune, but then her powers were strictly physical.

"Kill them," Kori demanded of his underlings in his thick Russian accent.

"Liberty, get down," I screamed in her direction.

She did, but a bit belatedly as I saw her get clipped in the left triceps by a bullet. She was bleeding.

As for myself, I was in an armored suit which afforded me some protection. Seeing my temporary resistance, Kori and three other metahumans came my way. I could already see their play. The second the head of the Russian Mafia (US East Coast) dropped that field, the three would pound me flat. It was a good plan. I would have used it had I been in his situation.

The only flaw in it was I was not totally suppressed. Apparently my power was rated higher than his ability to nullify it which gave me some unforeseen (by him) options. To get things rolling I lunged into them before they got to me. I was a lot stronger than I ought to have been, thanks to Stunner. I broke the jaw of one super-goon before Kori dropped the nullification shield. He shouldn't have done that because it made my next move even easier.

I got hold of him even as his master-craft Sambo (a Russian martial art) came into play. The exchange took place and ... he was stunned for all of a second. It was a crucial second because it allowed me to mimic what he did. I negated him and his cronies before he could suppress me and my allies.

I didn't go for the field affect, concentrating solely on Ivankov. Now normally Ivankov was bulletproof (among other things) so when his confederates opened up on the two of us KNOWING their boss was immune to their damage they had no idea they were actually attempting to murder him. He got riddled ... really, really bad. He would never look quite the same even if he somehow managed to live.

Cursing in Russian followed when they realized the depth of their mistake. I dropped the bloody ragdoll I'd been holding and looked over the rest who now regarded me with some degree of horror.

"You are going to be a long time dying ... for that," muttered Stunner, despite her treatment from her boss moments ago.

"Are you trying to convince me to kill you now?" I shot back full of bravado. She tried to summon forth some electricity so I shut her down.

"What did you do to me?" she worried.

"Do I just kill you now, or do you want to quit this fiasco?" I growled. Behind me Arachne and Liberty were putting themselves back together and gathering up ... Lucky Dead?

Stunner looked over the dismay and disarray of her companions, weighed my intent and abilities against what she couldn't do then factored in the paycheck she might not be getting anymore if Kori Ivankov was actually dead. Even factoring in his mood if he was still alive wasn't coming out good for her.

"No ... I think you and I are done," she bowed her head ever so slightly.

"Good to know," I acknowledged then backed up with the rest of my team. The Russians were following after us, giving us room yet not willing to simply surrender the day quite yet so I had to ferry everyone across to the next building after which we ran around to the far side and used Arachne's webbing to escape further downtown.

Already sirens were wailing away, but we were moving away from their locus of activity. We'd let the uncooperative Russians stonewall the cops while we made our escape into the Bricks (Brocton). Once back on top of the Toy Company ...

"Why is Luck Dead naked ... and why did we leave a clone of her behind?" were the first words out of my mouth -- post escape.

"That is how her immortality works. She creates a new body out of the Aether, leaving her old body behind. It melts and eventually evaporates so it doesn't leave any DNA behind," Arachne told me even as she brought forth a back-pack from a hidey-hole. Somewhat abashed, Luck Dead began to dress in her new clothes ~ just like the old clothes.

"Well, you did your job alright," Liberty extended her hand to me.

I shook it.

"I aim to be a man of my word."

"Would you have killed Stunner if she came after us?" Arachne worried.

"She'll never know and neither will you," I smirked. "What matters is I was able to convince her, sans violence, that it wasn't in her best interest to pursue us ... and that's what matters."

"Killing people matters."

"They killed 'Lucky'," I pointed out. "In general, those men were killers and Stunner has been known to leave a corpse, or two, in her wake."

"I don't kill," Arachne pledged.

"I don't live by that Code," I replied. "If someone crosses me, they had better make their final arrangements."

"But you risked everything for us -- took on all those mobsters," Arachne tried to understand my soul.

"You didn't hire me to try and do my best. You hired me to do my best," I explained. "I'm not someone who 'tries'. Tonight that meant I took on everyone who came at us ... and I did. After all, I'm also not the kind of guy who leaves his partners in the lurch while I flee the scene. I was brought on to get everyone out and I did. Had I failed, none of us would be having this discussion because I would most likely be dead ... and you all would have been captured."

"But we weren't captured because you stood up," Liberty Lincoln smiled at me. "You may be a hard-ass, but you have your own Code of Conduct you choose to live by too. I can live with that."

"Well ... you aren't going to make a habit of kill folks, are you?" Arachne plied me.

"No. 'Me' having to kill people will have meant something went horribly wrong, or people didn't take me at my word. I have no plans to become a hitman, if that is what you are worried about."

"Can we call on you for help again?" Arachne touched my arm.

"You mean off the clock and for free?" I studied her. Despite her mask I could tell she was a bit crestfallen.

"Yeah."

"Sure. I don't have a lot of friends so I would be stupid to be turning my back on anyone at the genesis of my career. I'm not sure how we do the whole 'contact' thing. I don't really have a villain's switchboard set up yet. Maybe Liberty, or Web Slinger, can figure out how to get in touch with me if you are really in need."

"I'm sure Web Slinger can find you if they have to," Liberty agreed. "Okay. I need to get the cat to the proper authorities," she added and made her way to the closest rooftop access to the building. Sure, she could jump off the roof, but there was no telling how the cat would take it. Arachne had to take Lucky Dead ... somewhere ... and that left me ... all by my lonesome. I had somewhere to be too.

[THE BALANCE OF TERROR]

I had a bound and blindfolded Skye (aka Angelheart) on all fours on my bed, pounding her from behind, one hand holding her golden locks like reins and the other putting hand prints on her luscious behind when I felt a proximity sensor go off. Damn it all, I was having some good sex here!

My lover had her own set of internal alarms to let her know if someone was getting close. If she hadn't been blindfolded, as she was now, she could have made out heat emanations and people's life energy.

"Reynard," she gasped, "what is it?"

"Damn it! We've got company and it could mean ... business," I revealed as I pulled out of her slick vaginal embrace.

"Business?" she rolled onto her side, bringing her bound hands up to partially remove her blindfold.

"Yeah, I've been bad," I grumped.

"Anything I need to know about?" she worried.

"I hope not. It if is, I will need to find a particular someone -- or some-ones," I growled -- meaning Liberty Lincoln and through her, Web Slinger. I produced a knife and quickly sliced away at her wrist bindings.

"We'll deal with this together," she pledged.

"No. You go home and let me deal with this myself," I frowned. This was some damn good sex I was going without after all.

"Please, Reynard ..."

"No. Get dressed and go home. I'll call you when this clears up," I insisted. She shot me worried eyes as she put her clothes back on.

She wasn't moving fast enough for my tastes so I spanked her flank a good one to hurry her on her way. My visitor waited until she had taken off flying from the window into the night sky before knocking on my door. How nice of them ...

I scanned the cameras watching the hallway and got a surprise. It was the Night Watchman blessing my stoop at sunrise.

I opened the door and ushered him in.

"Come on in. You know you've ruined 'date night', right?"

"One of many for you two," he rasped. "We need to talk."

"About what?" I feigned innocence despite the man before me breaking down deceptions by punks like me every day for the past two decades.

"Kori Ivankov ..." Long pause.

"Russian mobster," I answered.

"Someone, or a group of some-ones, put him in the morgue this evening," the Night Watchman informed me.

"Oh, he's dead?" I sounded upbeat. "How did that happen?"

"Yeah ... he's dead," NW eye's swept over my place. "Seems he got shot ... a whole lot."

"I don't use guns."

"I didn't say he was shot by a gun, or any number of guns," he tried to trap me.

"I don't use blasters either," I grinned.

"Wise-ass," he chuckled. "From what I've been able to piece together, Liberty Lincoln went over to his penthouse to retrieve a pet cat to get his former girlfriend to testify against him -- a happenstance now made redundant by his death -- because the former girlfriend and the cat were ... close."

"Well, good for her. Kori was a real nightmare of a mobster. He won't be missed. Liberty doesn't use guns either, or so I've been told."

"It seems she went in with Arachne and a young sidekick named 'Lucky Dead' ... plus one as of yet unidentified fourth party ... by the name of Dark Son."

"And you think I'm somehow involved -- that fourth person? Got any proof?"

"No physical evidence and it isn't like my sources would stand up in a court of law ... but I know it was you, Reynard Haven," his gaze turned piercing and lethal.

"Beyond some heartfelt desire to pin some crime on me, what makes you think it was me?" I grinned.

For sure both Liberty Lincoln and Arachne had cooperated with the Night Watchman in the past, but I didn't get the feeling they would have turned on me to this joker this fast. I hadn't done anything to break their faith in me after all, and until I did, they could be relied on to keep silent about my involvement in this Criminal Underworld disaster.