The Legacy of Eros - Dark Son Ch. 05

*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.*

*One for the Money, two for the road. Three to get ready and four ... you're screwed!*

[Finally, some sex!]

[THAT FRIDAY NIGHT WE WON'T SOON FORGET]

Here we were at the end of the worst week for me in a long time and I felt truly boned. I had, despite some herculean efforts on my part, won the Most Eligible Bachelor of Megalopolis (under 30) Contest. Bonny aka Ultima had definitely screwed me over. Not only had she upped my profile, she had looked super-hot doing so. Worse, I had defeated the person who I thought deserved it much, much more - India Figueroa.

"Sorry," I whispered to her. "You deserve this more than I." We were standing on the stage with a crowd in the auditorium standing and clapping as the results were read off. We had peeked at the results earlier, praying it was India.

"No worries," India squeezed my hand. "I'm used to it."

See, even in defeat, she was kind about it. She was cute, brave and a great team player were as I was a rather curmudgeony supervillain (in disguise).

"Well, I think I will decline this honor," I breathed out the side of my mouth.

"Don't you dare," she squeezed my hand harder. "That will only embarrass everyone involved - you included."

"Fine, but I'm going to be a bad sport about it," I conceded.

"Oh poo," she grinned.

"And the winner is ... let's see the final results as of six o'clock this evening ... Reynard Haven!" the announcer sang out.

"Go get them, Tiger," India said as she kissed me on the cheek. To do so she had to stand up on her tippy-toes even with her heels.

"Here goes nothing ..." and up I went.

"Thank you, Megalopolis," I shouted out as I held up the brass, gold and glass trophy in one hand. "I would just like to say ... I think that I've met some wonderful people while participating in this contest ... namely Kyle Rodney and India Figueroa ...who each would have made excellent choices beside myself. I will miss their companionship and wit."

"I would also be remiss in not thanking Boniface Franklin aka Ultima, who pumped a great deal of money into the charities this contest championed and opened my eyes about a whole bunch of things. I would also like to thank the contest organizers, promoters and staff who made all of this less than a traumatic experience for us participants."

"Go Stars!" I twisted and toasted India and the women's Soccer League team she was a midfielder on. "Go Champions!" I added Kyle's NFL team as well.

The audience seemed to appreciate my efforts. Some women threw their underwear at me before I could exit the stage as well. What I was supposed to do about it - I had no idea.

Once backstage I was gifted with two surprises. Okay, something I was pleased about and Bonny. Kyle had shown up without my knowledge and been sneaked backstage.

"Good job, Sport," he clasped my hand and patted my shoulder. "I'm sure the Front Office (of his sport's franchise) will appreciate it."

"Mine as well," India crowded in to congratulate me. "You even said ours first," she then raspberried Kyle. We all laughed.

"You did just fine," Bonny joined our huddle. "You didn't need to mention me though. I didn't contribute what I did for the accolades."

"Still ... if someone nominates me for this madness next year, I'm saying 'no'."

"Me too," Kyle agreed.

"Me three," India concurred. "They can pick someone else to be the 'cute' sidekick."

"Who said you were the 'cute' sidekick?" I teased her.

"Well, you were the hero which made me the sidekick," she beamed widely.

"Wait now - she's the hero ... heroine," I poked a thumb in Bonny's direction. "I'm just 'that other guy'."

"Who saved Barry and Louise," Kyle pointed out.

"Yeah and took out three members of the Uptown Crew," India pilled on the unhappiness. I was no one's hero, damn it!

"Listen up, you two," I shook my head. "I am not the good guy. I have a secret ID for a reason and that reason is rather villainous."

"Yet you are helping well known vigilantes," India countered. "You are one loyal, brave and truthful villain, if you really are a villain after all."

"One can be loyal, brave and true without being a 'good guy'."

"Oh, just stop, Reynard. They appear to know you better than you know yourself," Bonny intervened. "You may not be a classical hero, but you sport some finer qualities which put you heads and shoulders above most villains."

"Why don't we talk about something else?" I evaded the discussion.

"Ramone's on 64th?" Kyle suggested.

"I'm in if someone else is covering the tab," India snickered.

"I've got this," Kyle regally declared. "Dinner and drinks are on me."

"Why don't you go," Bonny dragged me along. I suspected they had forgotten that since I was under the legal age of 21, I wouldn't be doing any drinking. "Come on, Reynard. You will have fun."

"I'm coming. I'm coming," I conceded.

"Besides, you get to meet my girlfriend, who has been rather anxious to meet you all," Kyle informed us. I bet she was ... and for a bit of interrogating too.

At the exit, Bonny stopped and kissed me on the cheek goodbye. She was still and important lady with truly important things to do.

[~]

Kyle's girlfriend turned out to be one Kimberly Mann and a rather enjoyable russet-haired, mocha-skinned beauty. Kyle was one lucky guy. She didn't bust our chops much about Kyle doing dangerous stuff, and she only chided me once for saving Louise Dresser just so she could ruin poor Lao Ping's life. I claimed not to be a firm believer in Buddhist karma - if I saved someone's life, they owed me - I wasn't responsible for them ... especially not for their whole life.

In fact it was all going along famously until I went up to drink from an ice sculpture Ramone's had on display. We were the final table in the joint with everyone else gone home for the night. We filled the restaurant with our laughter and talk. That ice sculpture was rather cleverly done ... and I made a mess of it, but it wasn't my fault.

See, I picked up a cup then something powerful smacked me in the back of the head, propelling me bodily into the ice sculpture, shattering it. Then the bomb went off. Yeah. Someone was trying to assassinate me and I had an inkling who ... but first I had to deal with the gyro-jet round which had been fired into the back of my skull. Recall when I said way back at the start of this journey I was tough to kill - I meant it.

Even the average metahuman would have been decapitated by the penetration and resulting explosion. Me? It made a ruin of the entire restaurant around me ... and I had a killer headache. Unfortunately for my assassin though, my head was both intact and still attached. Oh, and I was getting back up and was terribly pissed. Much more unfortunately, they'd blown out only one window - the one the gyro-jet had come in by. It led straight back across the street to their sniper's perch.

On the downside, I had two - now three people I had to get out of this killing zone before their human bodies became so much shredded bone, blood and tissue.

"Kyle, get the ladies and go out the back," I hollered. I ran diagonally away from them, trying to draw the sniper's fire off.

"On it," Kyle responded. My three dinner companions had been knocked over, but the table was intact and provided some shelter while they crouched around it.

Sure enough, another gyro-jet impacted the support pillar I was sheltering behind. While they might have been trying to drive me back into the open, I suspected a more sinister agenda. They were going to knock out the build's supports and drop the entire structure on me. I had to get out of this building fast. I picked myself back up and sprinted toward the closest window, shattering it as I blew through.

Now I was out in the street with more options. It also gave my opponents more opportunities to get at me ... without those annoying civilian casualties. I rolled behind a taxi parked out front only to have them open a portal of some kind in the road perhaps ten feet from me. Three people came storming out. Oh look ... it was three members of the Masquerade of Mystery ... total numbers: TEN.

Well, I'd been looking for them anyway. Despite my previous damage, I gleefully entered combat with them (again). I'd had a chance in the Grand Melee several days ago, but lost my opportunity to avenge Liberty Lincoln when it became obvious Arachne and Lucky Dead (my vigilante allies) needed me more. Now was my second chance.

"I've been looking for you," I snarled.

"What?" one of them said. She had the astrological sign for Pluto on her costume - a body stocking in smoky, swirling grey urban camouflage-ish with an eye mask in the same style. The 'Pluto' symbol made her Scout Hades.

"This guy is delusional," Padre Ares snapped in a female Hispanic contralto. "Just kill him."

"On it," Pilot Caelus responded even as she slashed down with this slender-looking glaive. I leapt back so fast I fell on my butt. The glaive tore a huge divot out of the asphalt between my outstretched legs. I didn't like the look of that.

I realized I needed to fall back and get my armored suit before they could get away, or kill me. I hopped up and fled down the street.

Even as I did so, I saw three more members of the MoM rounding the store corner, coming my way. One immediately launched a serpent of flame in my direction. I jumped up high enough for it to pass under me because I was able to grab the base of the awning. I yanked myself higher up the awning even as a lightning bolt tore the awning to shreds with a resounding clap of thunder.

I was being boxed in for a felonious purpose. On top of the awning, I propelled myself upwards over the middle of the street. Right as I felt an invisible fist grab hold of me, I was able to activate my teleportation device. It only had an 86% of success ... and the karmic guardians were still with me.

"Jasper, prepare to teleport me right back from where I came from!" I yelled once I was back at my secret base ... Dad's really.

"Yes sir. May I inquire as to your purpose?"

"Sure," I huffed as my armor flowed over my body, securing itself. "The Masquerade of Mystery just tried to murder me and I'm going back to teach them a lesson."

"As you wish, Sir," he sighed. I guessed he missed 'Dad' aka Baron Bedlam too.

Ten seconds later, I was back on the scene - battered battlesuit on and ready to renew the fight. Lucky me, Arachne had arrived in my absence and was keeping them busy / occupied. I plunged down on the second group of three first. They should have been looking up instead of down the street. I crashed in among them even as they began to respond.

'Venus' aka Specialist Aphrodite aka the Bomb Maker had to be dealt with first. What else she did besides make big explosions I didn't know and didn't want to find out the hard way ... so she got slammed into a brick wall with full force. She was hurt, but not out. I swore she'd regret that.

"You are going to regret that," Ares barked right as she wreathed me in flames.

Despite definite integrity issues, my armor held, so I was only mildly BBQ-ed. Next came me and Ranger Zeus. Even as I pounded Padre Ares with some fire-retardant missiles - at this close range they really had to hurt - Zeus pumped a few mega-joules of nature's fury into my form. That one was going to cost me. My HUD sparked then died, so I was back to relying on my glasses and my left gauntlet failed - so no duel-handed TK.

I went down the street maybe fifteen feet ... so basically to the street corner. Instead of continuing to pummel me, Zeus was helping Specialist Aphrodite and Padre Ares back up. I also, via lip reading, picked up something new from her.

'Unable to reacquire Haven. Dark Son has arrived and is giving us a hard time. Situation Beta.'

What did I get from that?

They had come to kill Reynard Haven independently of what I was doing as an ally of Liberty Lincoln ... and, they didn't want to be fighting me which most likely meant they had heard about my one-villain crusade through the criminal underclass to figure out who bombed Liberty. They also didn't want to fight me and Arachne together ... which was wise on their part.

I pulled myself up from the ground into a crouch then launched myself down the sidewalk at full flight into the group of them once more. This time I bowled them over like ten-pins. The only ones to get up right fast were Zeus and I. She was winding up for another power surge of electricity which I really didn't want to take, so I grabbed hold of her wrist and let my secret power take hold.

I received a rush of memories as did she. Mine were more coherent plus I received some new powers to add to my repertoire. In this case ... I could manipulate weather and electricity, thus able to counter-act all her powers. Weather-related powers were like that. She cut loose with the lightning ... which flowed around me harmlessly. I countered her by using a huge blast of wind to blow all three of them farther down the sidewalk. It was gale force at least.

This time only Zeus got up at all, quickly canceling my gale into a sweet summer breeze.

"I didn't know you could do that," she panted.

"There is a whole lot you don't know about me," I smirked as I let fly with some lightning of my own ... into the back of Scout Hades.

I was already beginning to put some things together about the Masquerade of Mystery. They - as in the nine female members - were all in love with the Orchid. They had no memories of a time before being in their group either ... thus my ability to so quickly interpret her memories. Also ... the Orchid was jealous that Reynard Haven, and not him, had been chosen for the damn honor. Oh crap.

Finally, Specialist Aphrodite was the one I wanted alright. She was definitely the bomber.

"Get lost," I waved Ranger Zeus away. "I've got the one I want."

"We don't leave a teammate behind," she insisted ... so I clocked her hard three times until her eyes fluttered and she fell over.

I then grabbed Aphrodite and fled straight up.

"Arachne, let's get out of here," I loudly called out.

"But there are still so many left," she laughed.

"Yeah, but we got the one who hurt Liberty so ..."

"Okay," she leapt up to the top of a building closest to me ... or the side of the top anyway.

"What do you plan on doing with her?" she questioned.

"Well, it if was just me ... but it's not. Liberty would want me to turn this one over to the authorities so that's what I'm going to do," I related.

"You are a decent guy, Dark Son," she sighed. "Follow me."

So I followed her and ended up at a police precinct close by. I put Aphrodite up against a lamp post and Arachne vomited some webbing to hold her tight. By the time we had accomplished that, four cops were coming at us, hands on their holsters.

"This is the bomber who blew up that block in Brocton," Arachne explained. "Her name is Specialist Aphrodite and she belongs to the Masquerade of Mystery."

"You two are under arrest," one stated half-heartedly.

"Consider us to be fleeing the jurisdiction then," she chuckled. "Let's go, Dark Son." And we left them to their prisoner.

[TWO DAYS LATER]

With the Ultimates keeping an eye on Megalopolis, crime was down and super-powered crime was non-existent. No one wanted to bring that much heat down on themselves. This also allowed a severely banged up Liberty Lincoln to exit the hospital and return to her old stomping grounds. She had us show up at an abandoned bar a few blocks down from her old, destroyed, digs.

This time around, I was the second to arrive - Liberty was always on the premises of this place.

"Thanks Rey," she greeted me - leg in a cast, shoulder in a sling and the right side of her face still looking tenderized. She still looked ... majestic and powerful despite her current infirmity.

"For?"

"For having Freedom Force come by to keep an eye on me. I was sure someone made a run at me only to be warned off at the last second by Sentinel Seven."

"Well, they could do more than I could," I shrugged.

"No Rey, that's what friends do."

"I didn't think we were friends," I studied her.

"We weren't ... until then. Your actions saved my life. I'm pretty sure of that," she continued. "Also, the Night Watchmen and I had a bit of a sit down and he's going to keep an extra eye on Brocton for a while until I'm fully back on my feet."

"Brocton needs looking after," was all I could come up with.

"Damn, you are a hard man," she chuckled. "You know now the Night Watchman feels you owe him and I'm sure that's the last thing you wanted right now."

"I do owe him," I allowed. "He did me a favor and I'll pay him back for that ... someday."

"Well, Rey, I'm still going to figure a way to help you get your Dad out of prison ... if that helps."

That was a bit surprising.

"You got that bit of information from Web Slinger?" I wondered.

"Yes. I asked what I could do for you so she told me ... and I also pay my debts, Rey. I'll give your group cover here in Brocton and as much logistical support I can. I won't break him out directly, but I'll help you do it nonetheless."

"That is definitely more support than I had a moment ago," I couldn't help but smile. While having Liberty Lincoln busting my Dad out of Super-Super Max prison would have been nice, having access to her knowledge of all things super-human was just as good and I'd be a fool to turn her down. I stepped up and shook her good hand.

"You still too young to drink, right?" she teased.

"Yeah ... legally."

"Here. Have a beer. I sincerely doubt it will have much of an effect on you."

As I was opening it up, Lucky Dead and Arachne came in via the stairs to the roof access - my own point of entry.

"What are we celebrating?" Lucky asked.

"Our second big success as a group - putting Specialist Aphrodite behind bars and putting the Masquerade of Mystery on the police's radar," Liberty enlightened us all.

"What is next?" Arachne inquired.

"I figure we go after Lucky Dead's problem next," our nominal leader informed us. Lucky immediately perked up.

"You think we have a chance?" she pleaded.

"I was running down some leads when I was blown the fuck up," Liberty chuckled, "and I believe we can have Dark Son here run them down while I'm indisposed."

"Why him?" Lucky looked my way.

"He is a villain and those scumbags we need to get information out of know he's a villain and will do horrible things to them if he promises to do horrible things to them."

"I can too," Lucky insisted.

"Yes, but you will actually have to maul and mangle people to get those answers. All Dark Son will have to do is threaten ... as he proved by finding the bomber who dropped a whole city block on me ... in one night."

"Oh ... okay."

"Crazy-cakes," I regarded Lucky. "You can always come along."

"What did you call me?"

"It was how I described you to the Night Watchmen," I evaded somewhat. "After using the term, I decided it fit."

"Well ... I'm not crazy. I love someone and that person has been taken away. I'm ... vengeance-oriented."

"I like 'crazy-cakes'," I was unrelenting.

"Well, I don't," she frowned.

"Dark Son," Arachne tapped on my upper arm. "Don't."

"Oh - that reminds me. How do I get in touch with the two of you? I now have a burner phone that I want you to use when you call me and I was thinking we could exchange numbers so we can coordinate better," I said.

"Fine. Here is my number," Arachne provided me with one.

"Here's mine, but if you call me 'crazy-cakes', I'm hanging up," Lucky gave me her own digits.