The Legacy of Eros - Dark Son Ch. 04

*Editing magic performed by Shyqash, plus contributions by the regular gang of brigands and neer-do-wells*

*This tale is a bit tongue and cheek as well as kinky, so be warned.*

*To be needed, or wanted. You decide*

[SIXTEEN BLOCKS OF HELL]

I leapt off the ground once more to do battle. Inside me coursed the greatest energy - the greatest sensation - I had ever felt. I had touched Bonny / Ultima and risked the exchange of memory and power. The solar plasma coursing through my veins was my penalty / reward.

We connected simultaneously like two heavenly thunderheads colliding. Her fist pulverized the left side of my jaw, inner ear and that quarter of my skull. My fist slammed into her gut and propelled her ever upwards as I plummeted back to Earth. I crashed back into the ruins of the Fidelity Insurance Building, digging a trough through the concrete, steel and brick.

She was much better at this aerial combat than I was because pushing me down forced me to relaunch while she dove upon me from on high. I still met her, damn it, trading blows, partially connecting and staying engaged with one another. My 'special' power's creation of an anti-Ultima had gifted me with Ultima-like powers instead.

Perhaps that meant the only way to take her out was to overpower her. I was too disoriented by the power surge to think clearly on the matter at the moment. No, all I had to guide me was fury and hate. Fury ... I was angry with the whole God-damn world for robbing me of my parents from a young age. Hate ... because deep down I knew those heroic types looked down on me because of who my parents were. They pitied, or despised, me for things beyond my control ... and now I could finally make them pay.

"How are you still standing?" Ultima grunted in shear surprise. No non-divinity had gone toe-to-toe with her in my lifetime (19 years).

"My hate is greater than your devotion," I ground out. Man, in a nebulous fashion I realized I was in a super-tanker load of pain, but the amount of anguish I was in failed to register with my combative ability.

Hell, I felt I could fight on until my body disintegrated, I was that high.

"That makes no sense," she snarled then clobbered me a good one, her quantum-enhanced fists glowing like twin mini-Suns. Down I plummeted again.

This time I caught myself before I impacted the ground. She was right on top of me though, giving me no time to rest.

"I hate you. Hate You! HATE YOU!!" I screamed out as I punched back. My rage battered down her guard, pushed through her block and landed squarely against her nose. It was a fountain of vaporized blood, crushed cartilage and shattered bone. I had to chase after her up to the edge of the storm clouds ... to catch her before she fully recovered.

In the periphery of my pain-clouded mind I realized Elite 99, Ultima's teammate, tried to reach us through the surrounding carnage only to be intercepted by a mega-storm sized lightning bolt ... from Lightning Lord ... leader of the Sinister Six and my Godmother's brother. He wasn't so much an ally as an ally of convenience. Against Ultima, I was on my own.

[~]

Beneath us, roughly sixteen square blocks of Megalopolis had been turned into a post-apocalyptical battlefield for over two hundred heroes, villains and vigilantes. It was the chance to settle old scores, or get a leg up on the competition between the various villain factions striving to come out on top of the Megalopolis crime scene after the demise of Kori Ivankov ... a man I had helped kill.

Lost to me was the Orchid and his all-girl squad as well as Arachne and Lucky Dead (late to the dance, but full of her own angsty rage). Freedom Force battled the Nine Nobles Nefarious. Meta-Force One and the Sidekick Super-Squad fought on the side of Humanity against the villains who came out as both individuals and as their own super-groups.

And, above them all, were the Ultimates, who were fighting to enforce the State's Governor's Emergency Declaration which demanded all super-types 'lay down their arms and surrender to the proper authorities' ... aka the Ultimates. This did not unite all the metahumans, augmented humans and what have you into one coordinated force though. No, they still squabbled and fought one another whenever given the opportunity.

Thus the carnage and destruction.

So, why was Lightning Lord helping me out? It went way beyond our shared history (he was the brother of my godmother). I was the one metahuman keeping Ultima busy, thus allowing the others to clear house and stopping the Ultimates from cleaning everyone's clocks.

Most had no clue who I was, only that I was pulling off the impossible - going at it in a seemingly even struggle against Earth's Mightiest Hero. While I kept at it, they had free rein to do as they desired. The moment I was put down, the rest of them were truly fucked ... and they knew it. Ultima would hunt each of them down, one at a time, and bludgeon them into unconsciousness. That was why EVERYONE was propping me up as long as possible.

[~]

"You can't possibly win," Ultima panted. I was really stressing her to her limits ... though I didn't know how, or why. According to my Godfather, Richard Reeds, I didn't have what it took to equal her in destructive potential ... yet here I was.

"I don't care," I snarled as I launched into another series of furious assaults.

My anger seemed to confound her as much as my power. She hadn't really felt it necessary to examine the roots of how much I despised her and her ilk while I was safely beneath her in the hierarchy of power. Her chance to reason with me had past because I had zero desire to talk things out with her right now.

"You are insane ... you are destroying the city ... look around you," she retreated from my advance. She was buying time to regenerate the damage I'd done, not seeking any real understanding.

"Fuck if I care ... this is your legacy, not mine ...," and, "the only thing I see right now is you running away from ME!"

That last bit got to her. Tactically she needed to dispose of me before she could lay into the other big guns opposing her team. What stymied her was the amount of power she would need to exert to accomplish that feat. Deep down I knew she didn't want to kill me. She found killing to be abhorrent ... mainly because she had held the upper hand throughout most of her history.

So few were the opponents she couldn't simply subdue the idea of being faced with defeat, or death, had so rarely come up. Now it was staring her in the face ... in the presence of a young man she actually liked - I had her memories somewhat sorted out now - but didn't respect. Respect still wasn't coming though. She had a truckload of disbelief to work through first.

She powered up her quantum fists and came at me swinging. I charged my own quantum field and met her halfway. Blows were exchanged - either blocked, or giving only a glancing strike. No decisive outcome was reached. She didn't want to kill me and nothing short of death would stop me from coming for her, or so I thought.

"Stop this!" Richard Reeds aka Mentat burst upon the scene from nowhere decked out in a battlesuit, but with no weapons in evidence.

"Get out of the way, or I will arrest you next," Ultima growled.

"NEVER!" from me.

"Ultima, you are killing him," Mentat pleaded. Huh? "Dark Son, your power is consuming your body. If you keep fighting, you will destroy yourself."

"How do I know ... I can trust you?" Ultima blanched.

"What are you talking about?" I gasped. "I feel ... invincible."

"You will have to take this much on faith, though Prodigy can back up my findings," Mentat revealed. To me, "I would never lie to you, Dark Son. If you keep fighting Ultima, you will only succeed in destroying yourself."

"I ... don't ... care," I panted. I was really feeling 'it' now.

"Would you leave your father in prison forever?" he countered. That reached me.

"What ... what do you mean?" I grunted.

A levitating Ultima retreated a few paces and regarded us suspiciously.

"There is no victory here for you today, Dark Son," he explained. "Ultima's power is simply too much for you to process. You cannot handled it and its killing you."

"What do I ... do?" I began to feel the residual pain and heat buildup. It was ... uncomfortable - a clear warning sign I had been ignoring up until that point.

"Touch someone else," he advised.

"Who?"

"Someone you have experience with would be preferable," he outlined.

Keeping one eye on Ultima, I scanned about for Angelheart. She was far below us in some trouble fighting the members of 'High Society' ~ the other uptown criminal clique.

"I'm going down to help out Angelheart," I told them both. Ultima nodded.

"They are criminals anyway," she allowed. Off I went, Mentat in his battlesuit right behind me.

I dove into the mass of them like a thresher through crisp wheat. I scattered all five members present then rebounded to reach a badly wounded yet healing Angelheart.

"You came," she sighed in my embrace.

"You looked like you were having too good a time," I joked. I was really, truly in some serious pain now. Mentat was right. I was about to die.

"I need to touch you," I requested. I got a nod. I touched her chin with the ruin of one of my gauntlets then kissed her deeply. The kiss was like plunging into a glacier-fed lake - cold and sharply invigorating ... and then I passed out.

[THE PIECES OF ME]

Even with my regenerative properties I was still in a shitload of pain. Why was that, I wasn't certain. For that matter, I wasn't sure where I was, or how I had gotten off the battlefield. Slowly ... ever so slowly because my ocular orbs were terribly sensitive, I opened my eyes to get a better feel for my location.

Situation update number one: I was submerged in some kind of liquid. I didn't have on a respirator mask, which was kind of odd. My foggy first guess was I was in some sort of oxygen-rich healing goop.

Situation update number two: the lights were very dim yet didn't conceal the presence of four people around me. The gel I was incased in didn't do much to dilute their images, or reduce their perceived volume. I could hear them all quite clearly.

"He's waking up," Skye whispered to ... someone else.

"We can see that for ourselves, you insipid tramp," said someone else - Oh Fuck! It was Theresa Markov aka Princess Penumbra. From the sounds of their voices and the movement of their bodies, I could tell I was on my back - most likely in some sort of medical bay - with the ladies on either side of me.

"Theresa - please," from yet another person in close proximity. This one was my Godmother, Sarah Reins Reeds aka Storm Siren. If she was standing sentinel over my battered form I must have been even worse off than I had feared. She was a busy lady with a usually full itinerary.

"If he had touched me instead of ... HER, he wouldn't need to be in this healing chamber, or have been out for so long," Theresa griped.

How long had I been out? I tried to form words but none came. I had gel, not air, in my lungs.

"So he's going to make it?" the fourth person spoke. Holy Hell! It was Boniface Franklin aka Ultima. Yikes.

"He should, but we won't know his full state until Richard gets back," Susan answered. My, that was good to know.

"Fine. Dark Son, you are hereby charged with multiple counts of property damage and Causing Public Mayhem," Ultima declared. "Step outside this facility, or if I catch you in Megalopolis, you will be detained with as much force as deemed necessary. Do you understand me?"

I nodded because there wasn't much else I could do.

"And ... it's also good to see you still alive. You gave me a good scare there," she softened in both her speech and mannerisms. "Don't do it again, ya here?"

How was I supposed to respond to that? I stared at her. After all, my life plan had just gone down the shitter. My domicile was probably in the process of being confiscated. There was no way I'd ever finish my college career now.

How much more of my belongings were still my own ... I had no way of knowing, and there was no way I could find out stuck here. Still, being stuck here seemed the safer option instead of stepping out with both Princess Penumbra and Angelheart standing about. Damn it, I had no idea how badly I'd been damaged in the fight, or how long I would be in recovering.

I did have one way to speed things along, though it entailed some risk in and of itself. I reached up with my right arm (Angelheart was on my left) only to have it feel like I was pushing through liquid concrete with bones made of sawdust. Mother-fucking shit! What had happened to me?

"Be careful," Angelheart cautioned me. "Your skeleton is still reknitting."

"Oh, be quiet. He's reaching for me," Theresa growled.

With some effort I managed to get my hand to the surface of the goo. Pressing beyond appeared to be too much for me. Thankfully, Theresa made it easy on me and reached in and took my by the hand, palms touching. She pulled my forearm up the rest of the way.

"God, you look so ... so fragile," she nearly wept. "Can't you give up all this do-gooder bullshit and come over the Dark Side now," she half-joked. "We have cookies."

I would have laughed if I could. Instead, I tapped her fingers with one of my own. It felt like a titanic undertaking, yet I accomplished it.

Theresa ignored me ... so I tapped again. This time Susan caught it and figured out what I was trying to communicate.

"He wants permission to exchange powers and memories with you," she enlightened the youngest of the Nine Nobles.

"Oh ... yes ... yes, you can," she squeezed my hand. At least that is what I assumed she was trying to do. It felt like she was crushing my appendage. I activated my power and ... nothing happened.

OH FUCK!!

I tried again, stressing myself terribly hard. This time there was a migraine-like spike in my frontal cortex ... then the dam burst and the exchange took place.

Out of the periphery of my perception I saw a terribly distraught Angelheart who had also misconstrued my gesture.

"Now you can heal him," Susan told Skye. "That is why he had to exchange powers with Miss Markov. While he was keyed on you, he was resistant to your Bio-manipulations."

"Oh," from an upbeat Skye.

"Really?" from a conflicted Theresa.

"He didn't reach for me - his Godmother," Susan explained to Princess Penumbra. "He placed enough trust in you to feel you would be the one he could best exchange memories with."

"Let me have his hand," Skye requested of Theresa.

"Get your own damn hand," Theresa snapped back violently. She even squeezed my palm tighter with the resulting pain for me.

Ever so gently, Angelheart reached into the gel and retrieved my left hand and drew it upward. More bone-shivering pain for me.

She held it tenderly for some time before I began feeling her heat pass into me. Bones were re-forged and muscles rewoven. Last of all - thankfully - my nerves reconnected. YEAH - I was in a ton of pain alright. So much so many of my pain centers must have been overloaded and shut down - or someone had cut them off to keep me from relapsing into a coma. I didn't know.

Slowly the pain faded and the warmth strengthened until I felt my own regenerative abilities kick in. They were done with simply keeping me this side of shedding my mortal coil that much was for certain. I had truly traveled to Death's Door. Now that I was safely away from that precipice I was able to focus on Theresa's memories and figure out what had happened.

When I had come crashing to Earth, the villains had figured their time was up and generally fled the scene before a mere handful could be rounded up by the Ultimates. That left the Ultimates facing off against the hero groups ... who were unwilling to allow themselves to be placed in government custody.

Before a second general melee broke out, Mentat and Prodigy (the big, bulging brain of the Ultimates) brokered a ceasefire which allowed the heroic types to vacate the city and pledge not to return until this whole mess was settled by the court system.

The Sensational Six had departed the battlefield with me in tow - none of the hero groups were willing to let the Ultimates put me in custody then and there ... for their own selfish reasons I bet. Richard and Susan Reeds had brought me to a research facility owned by Mentat right outside of Megalopolis and placed me in this experimental healing device ... which was where I woke up.

It had been twelve hours since the big brawl and city services were still crawling over the wreckage to determine if we had killed any people in the fight. So far - no casualties, so no one was facing murder charges. That still put the various personalities down for millions in damages and reconstruction costs.

It looked like the city was going to play hardball too - making everyone pay the accumulated costs of everything despite which side they had fought on. The CCA was going to be put to the test because most of the participants had been 'masked', thus enjoying the protection of anonymity. The plaintiffs - the Big Insurance Companies - were going to want to know who to send the bill to that was for damn sure.

Theresa had found me after she had run across Arachne who had the news about me, though not my location. On her own initiative, Theresa had contacted Susan and here she was, at my bedside, terribly conflicted about why she cared about me so much to the point she was willing to defy her parents about her continuing contact with me.

As far as she knew, Angelheart had been by my side the entire time and looked rather worn down from the ordeal. What this meant for Freedom Force was unknown. If left to settle the damage claims themselves, this could seriously inconvenience Golden Boy, even bankrupt him ... and he was a billionaire. In his favor he had some damn fine lawyers who would probably make sure he only paid his 'fair share' and not a penny more.

As for Arachne and Lucky Dead ... Theresa didn't know much except Arachne was still running around at large in the city with even more warrants out for her arrest. I was sure, if cornered, Lucky would simply fake her own suicide and escape justice that way. It was her thing and she was a freaking fanatic after all. Liberty Lincoln hadn't been involved, so at least she was financially secure ... though her public assets were rather minimal, or so I imagined.

Of course my involvement in the contest was most likely at an end. I couldn't return to the city since Bonny knew I was Dark Son, or so I thought. Besides, I was sure the university had disavowed me by now anyway. On the other hand, I realized why Web Slinger had wanted me to be part of the damn contest - to cross paths with Ultima. The price of this 'favor' was going up, up and up too.

My old life was gone for good. My villain identity was toast. Whatever property the authorities could tie to me would be forfeited until this court battle was settled ... at the very least. Right now if the Night Watchman wanted to screw me, he could. He had undoubtedly hacked his way through my files to the point he could lead the legal snoopers to much of what I owned in the city, if not beyond.

I would have to wait and see just how much he hated me first.

Oh, and I was feeling much, much better, though it had taken Angelheart an inordinate amount of time to repair all the damage I had done to myself. And Theresa still hadn't released my right hand. On the plus side, her worried squeezes were no longer causing me intense agony.

When Angelheart finished, I leveraged myself up until I was chest deep in the goop. Then I vomited forth copious amounts of liquid out of my lungs which left me light-headed for several seconds.