The Legacy of Eros Ch. 03

*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.*

*If you think bacon and chocolate are just as good as sex ... well then, you simply aren't eating the right kind of bacon*

[MEETING THE 'FAMILY']

[SUNDAY]

It had been two days since my last encounter with Angelheart and I was feeling pretty positive about the progress of events. Perhaps I shouldn't have. No - I should have been less optimistic and more cautious. After all, I was working alone with limited resources and had never attempted such a deception before while my target had far more resources at her disposal.

Sunday evening I was coming back from a study group when I found Skye Steiner (aka Angelheart) sitting on my stoop. Actually, outside the door to my studio apartment on the fourth floor of my apartment building. She was wearing a hoodie and baggie jogging pants as some sort of disguise.

"Skye?" I inquired as I rounded the stairwell.

"Reynard ... Reynard Haven," she smiled shyly as she pushed up the wall.

"What are you doing here?" I kept the anger from my voice.

"I ... wanted to see if Eros had contacted you yet," she let her eyes flicker to the side as she asked me this - clear sign of a lie.

"The real reason."

"Can't I be concerned about our mutual blackmailer?" she pouted. So damn adorable.

"Yes, but that's not why you are here," I stated. I had now walked right up into her space. She couldn't meet my gaze.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," she tried again.

"I'm fine. How did you find me?"

"I ... aren't you worried about me?"

"Yes, but not so much I would risk contacting you on the sly when I'm worried someone else is keeping an eye on both of us," I related.

"Oh ... so you ARE worried about me?"

"Yes. I said so. Now, how did you find me?" I harrumphed.

"I have my sources," she tried to act coy.

"You asked someone in Freedom Force to locate all the Reynard's at MCIU (Megalopolis Crown International University) then picked me out from the photo on my Student ID card. After that, you cross-referenced my name in the student directory and here you are."

"Wow," she gulped. "You are right except I did the research on my own."

"On a Freedom Force network?"

"Yes."

"Well ... damn," I murmured.

"No one else saw what I was up to," Angelheart insisted. "Why are you upset?"

"You work with powerful and somewhat unstable individuals," I reminded her. "Shall we get into their moral ambiguity which they exercise on a daily basis?"

"They aren't that bad," she shook her head.

"We shall see," I sighed.

"I ... ummmm ... can we ... spend some time together?" she got down to the real reason she had hunted me down.

"To plot how to extricate ourselves from this mess?"

"Yes," she wasn't pleased with my suggestion of how we spend our time.

"No. If we spend any more time together, Heroine, I am going to lose my cool and fucking molest you - am I clear?" I leaned in until we were nose to nose.

"But why?" she panted with heaving breasts.

"I don't need a reason, Angelheart. I'm the 'bad guy', remember? I can snatch you whenever I want. I can hurt you when I want. I imagine that is why I was chosen - because I'M THE BAD GUY," I breathed heatedly into her face.

"I don't believe you," she dared me. I could tell she desperately wanted me to be the 'bad guy' with her.

I punched the wall hard enough to leave an imprint of my fist.

"Skye, the next time we will be forced to have sex," I whispered into her ear. "Do you want me to take your virginity?" She said nothing. "Go back to Chad - your boyfriend - someone you love - and give that precious gift to him."

"Not you ..." she sniffled.

"I'm telling you if you walk into my apartment, I'll be your 'First' ... and you don't want that."

"I don't?" sounded as much a question as a repetition of what I'd said.

"If you can salvage something with Chad, do it now ... before it is too late."

"Too late ..."

"It may already be too late, Angelheart," I rubbed my bruised and bloody hand along her ear rim, stopping and pulling slightly on her lobe. "We may already be too screwed up. I'm not sure where I'm going from here."

"You are thinking about leaving?" she got panicky.

"Not physically. I'm talking about losing who I was and who I might be able to be, Skye," I murmured to her, face to face and eye to eye.

"I'm losing myself too," Skye responded.

"Then go back to Chad before it is too late," I insisted by shaking her by her shoulders.

"I ..." she gulped. She turned and staggered down the hallway. As she turned to go down the stairwell she looked back at me.

"If you are too far gone ... I'll still be here," I stated. "I'll ruin us both."

Skye nodded once then went down the stairs out of sight. I double-checked my room's sensors to see if I had any intruders yet. A subroutine I had placed in one of the air conditioner sensors informed me the data I was receiving had been looped ... so I had company, or would very soon. There was no way I could avoid it even if I went on the run. I had to face this head on while stealing myself for the pain to come. After all, I had a date to keep.

[~]

I opened the door to my studio apartment and swung my knapsack into the chair I normally kept it on when I dressed before heading out (assuming the weather was inclement) because I was afraid I was about to get jumped. I had my laptop and a few other things I valued in it. I didn't want them crushed in the upcoming melee. Sadly, I was right in my paranoia.

"Lightsssss ...," I got out to my automated system before I was jumped. I got up a forearm before I was shoved backwards against the wall. Someone was trying to put a forearm chokehold on me, but I was partially blocking them. As the lights flickered on, it was revealed to be none other than the leader of Freedom Force, the Night Watchman.

"Listen up, Punk, and listen good because I'm only going to ask you this once: what do you have on Angelheart?" the Night Watchman rasped in his trademark intimidating voice. Fortunately for me, I had been raised by someone much, much worse - my Dad, Baron Bedlam.

"Save the intimidation for someone who cares," I glared right back.

His nerve strike was punishing, but, as I've said, my stamina and resistance are among my finest attributes.

"Fuck, that hurts," I coughed. Yeah, it still hurt, but it hadn't changed my preconceptions that cooperation wasn't the way out of this.

"Let me at him," someone else insisted in a voice full of menace - toward me.

I stole a quick glance past the Night Watchman to see he had brought along Sentinel Seven and the source of the voice, Weapon Y. While the Night Watchman was rumored to be a borderline superhuman normie with more skills, talents and tricks than the Almighty, Sentinel Seven created six clones of himself ~ that was about it ~ and Weapon Y was this short, stocky Saskatchewan lumberjack in spandex with a bad attitude and the animal weaponry to match the toughest predators on Earth.

"You are going to answer our questions, or you are going to spend a long time in a prison cell - solitary confinement, Jackass," NW kept at it.

"We can always start with Breaking & Entering then tack on Assault and Battery," I jested.

"How about living under an assumed identity? At the very least that will get you expelled from the University," he threatened.

"Do we want to talk about the number of databases you had to compromise to figure that out?" I riposted. "Because they had to be quite a few."

"I was thinking more about your violation of the Costumed Actors Act of 1952, the host of illegal high-tech gadgets in a room registered to you, your violation of Sudanese national sovereignty while committing a terrorist action and your association with a known techno-terrorist organization - M.A.N.T.I.S," he laid out my criminal charges.

"The violation of CAA'52 gets you serving your sentence in solitary ... still laughing, Punk?"

"Prove it," I grinned. The CAA did, among other things, make it illegal to reveal a costumed entity's secret identity ... like these asshats were jeopardizing mine.

"The evidence is in our files plus in what we have discovered tonight in your abode."

"And if the evidence isn't there you would simply create it, right?"

"I never said that," he sneered ever so slightly.

"You know, Probable Cause would have be nice," I fought back verbally. "You know - the reason you entered my abode in the first place."

"Maybe I should let Weapon Y have a few minutes of your time," NW menaced. "You seem to be a real hard-case and he's the 'best at what he does' ... and 'what he does isn't all that pretty'."

"He's not my type," I joked. Why not? All they were threatening to do was beat & maul me into a coma. What wasn't there to jest about?

"Just tell us why you have been picking on Angelheart and all of these problems can go away," Sentinel Seven played 'Good Cop'. As a villain, I wasn't a fan of any cop, 'good', or 'bad'.

"Sentinel, if you masturbate one of your clones, does that make you gay," I replied, "or just some dilettante who abuses the help?"

"Fine," the Night Watchman said. "Sentinel Seven, why don't you and I step up on the roof for a minute and let Weapon Y ask our new friend what's going on with someone we actually give a damn about?"

"Ummm ... if you say so," the junior member of the team began withdrawing. They went to one of my windows and used some rappelling ropes to access what lay above my ceiling, leaving me in the room with the Canadian curmudgeon.

"Boyo, you and me are going to dance," my shorter opponent came at me.

"As I already told you once, you aren't my type," I stepped up to meet him.

Weapon Y lashed out with his clawed hands, which I blocked with my arm then counterpunched him in the gut. It was like hitting a California Redwood ... you know, one of those monster Sequoyah's. It had minimal effect.

His resulting backhand sent me flying across my room. I bounced over the folding table I used for dining then crashed into a brick wall. He was on me in a flash. I caught him with a spinning kick while still on my back, which sent him over the table the other way. This bought me a few more seconds before he was on me again.

"I'm going to tear you a new asshole," Weapon Y snarled.

I hadn't lost my mind fighting one of the World's scrappiest scrappers with my paltry assortment of hand-to-hand skills. See, I had hurried home because I was expecting company ... of the metahuman kind and she was due any minute. She was the real reason I had stepped into my bachelor pad despite me suspecting I had company who meant to do me harm.

Had she shown up and been alone, that shit would have gone south fast terribly quickly. Instead, I had to keep the deranged, degenerate dwarf engaged long enough for her to either show up and save me, or show up and then leave ... to report back to her superiors in the Nine Nobles Nefarious she'd shown up at my place only to find me duking it out with Weapon Y from Freedom Force.

Maybe the 9N's would come charging in to kick Freedom Force ass - those two groups hated one another - or at least I would be left in better standing with the 9N's for obviously not cooperating with the heroes. As it turned out, I got Option One - she showed up and began kicking ass!

Right as the shadows began to form up, I used my special talent on Weapon Y ... who was distracted by scenting something new in the air - her. I made flesh-to-flesh contact and the memory exchange took effect. This was like nothing I'd experienced to date. Weapon Y had a noggin full of knowledge dating back almost a century. That was a lot to take in.

I still left him momentarily stunned, which was time enough for Princess Penumbra to ensnare him in two tentacles of solidified darkness and hurl him out a window -just not the one which was open. Replacing that pane of glass was going to be a bitch - most likely a custom job.

"There are two more on the roof!" I shouted to her.

"Let's get out of here," she beckoned me over.

I grabbed my backpack then hurled myself into her embrace even as I saw the Night Watchman swinging in by the window they had left open ... then all was darkness. I had no conception of what was up, or down ... until I reappeared in some girl's bedroom. I had escaped one problem only to have another ... like being in her debt.

[PANIC IN THE BEDROOM]

"Holy Hell, what was all that about?" Princess Penumbra bubbled excitedly.

"Freedom Force figured out I was Baron Bedlam's son and decided to drop by and pay me a visit," I grunted. I was still in a bit of pain.

"The fuckers!" she exclaimed. "We should go tell ..."

"It is none of their business," I stopped her from going off to tell 'Mom' and 'Dad' aka Quantum Queen and King Kaos, the leaders of the Nine Nobles Nefarious. "Besides, where are we?"

"Ah ... my bedroom. I panicked when I saw the Night Watchman coming through the window and came back to the place I felt safest."

"It is ... awful girly," I gave my brash assessment of her living quarters. Honestly, they looked like some teenager's bedroom alright ... a thirteen year old one. Everything was fluffy unicorns, pink, purple and lace. I would have never guessed.

"Well ... I'm a girl, or hadn't you noticed?" she grew defensive.

"Oh, I noticed you are a girl alright," I soothed her. "I also think your parents would KILL ME if they found me in here."

"You might be right about that," she concurred. "Where should I drop you off ..." and then someone knocked on the door.

"Proximity sensors went off near here, Princess," the voice of Dame Deathstroke graced our ears. "I need to search your room."

"Holy Shit!" she hissed. "Hide!"

My choices were a closet, or beneath her bed ... decisions, decisions. I dove beneath the bed. I heard Theresa 'Terry' Markov aka Princess Penumbra, walk over to the door, unlock it and open it.

"I was fatigued after a late night jaunt," Terry explained, "and popped back here by mistake."

"I see ... except it is barely ten o'clock Eastern Standard Time - so too early for a 'late night jaunt', I could have sworn I heard multiple voices coming from within your room and right before you opened the door I suspect I heard a body hit the floor," the Dame blew that lie away.

"Come in and look around if you don't believe me," Terry dared her.

Dare accepted. Only with my newfound (thanks to Weapon Y) senses was I able to hear Dame Deathstroke's feet step on the carpet, she was that damn quiet. She checked the closet first then she padded over to the bed. I hastily arranged some of the boxes (really small boxes) and stuffed toys into some sort of camouflage. She peaked under the bed, looked around then let the duster fall back down. She'd missed me!!

"Is everything okay now?" Terry spoke too soon.

"Yes ... except there is a man's boot underneath your bed and there seems to be a foot attached to it. Care to explain?" the English assassin inquired. I also heard a sword leaving its scabbard.

"WAIT! Wait!" Terry exclaimed. "It is ... the Squire ... no, Reynard Bedlam and he's in some trouble."

"He was told never to contact us again," to Terry and, "crawl out from underneath the bed nice and slowly, Mr. Bedlam," to me.

I began crawling out on the side of the bed closest to her ... nice and slow-like.

"He didn't contact us. I contacted him," Terry confessed. "He was being attacked by Weapon Y & the Night Watchman and I brought him here by mistake."

"What do you have to say for yourself?" the Englishwoman asked me.

"She didn't see Sentinel Seven who was still outside at the time. They stopped by to let me know they didn't want any son of Baron Bedlam living in THEIR city and I took exception ... so they decided to have Weapon Y rough me up a bit. I only put up with their crap because I knew Princess Penumbra was about to show up and I couldn't leave the three of them there to deal with her alone."

"Weapon Y would have destroyed you. Most likely destroyed you both," Dame Deathstroke observed. She then sheathed her blade and got on her wrist communicator. "Dame Deathstroke on level Three. Situation resolved." Back to me. "You are stupidly brave, Reynard Bedlam. Why?"

"Princess Penumbra has been kind to me," I explained.

"No. Really, why fight those three for us?" she didn't buy it.

"Fine ... Princess Penumbra is a sexy hawt and I have this thing for her," I confessed.

"Teenage hormones ... that excuse I believe," she looked us both over. "Princess, do you reciprocate his feelings toward you?"

"I think he's sexy hot too," she blurted out. Now we both blushed.

"That's ... not what I meant. I mean, do I tell your father about this infatuation, or can we consider it concluded for the nonce while we conduct Noble's business?"

"But I really like him," Terry pleaded. "He saved my life and ..."

"Now you have saved his," Deathstroke pointed out.

"He is loyal, brave and someone who gets me," Terry stuck to her guns.

"Then I suggest you get him out of here in the one minute, thirty-six seconds it will take me to report this breach to your father," she warned ... us. "I expect you back to answer to your father over this unexpected behavior as well."

"Who? Me?" I gulped.

"No - her. If I see you again you might want to assume I'm there to tidy up loose ends, Mr. Bedlam," she warned me. How nice of her. I understood she often enjoyed giving her prey a sense they had a chance before finishing them off. With that, Dame Deathstroke retreated from the room and exited down the hall. The clock was ticking.

Why was she being so 'nice' to me / us? According to who you believed, the Night Watchman had killed / crippled for life Dame Deathstroke's father, Duke Deathstroke - the reason he wasn't back in the new Nine Nobles. I imagine she was holding onto quite a grudge over that. I wasn't going to bring my speculations to her though. She might eviscerate me on general principle.

"Time for you to go," Terry sounded so crestfallen. I had to think fast.

"How do I contact you?" I whispered as I closed with her.

The shadows surrounded us and took us into the floor. Once more, space lost all sense of proportions ... and then I was on a hill overlooking the city.

"I don't know ... let me think about it ... we are in Manfred Park," she explained. Oh, one of the finer parts of town. "Where are you going to now?"

"I'm going back to my place," I knew I sounded crazy.

"They know where you live," she pointed out.

"So ... I'm not breaking the law ... as soon as I clean up my place a little bit," I smirked. "Otherwise they have to take a struggling college student to court and that's not going to look very good."

I couldn't tell her the real reason. I had to get back because I felt certain I would be seeing Angelheart again tonight.

"I think you are insane, but ... I'll look in on you from time to time," Terry promised. "When I'm sure they aren't skulking around, I'll stop by. Here, let me drop you closer to campus," and off we went.

[BEDDING AN ANGEL]

I was using a borrowed nail gun to put up the plywood in the space my window had once stood when there came a knock at my door. Since it was well past O-Dark Thirty by that time ... I checked my sensors and, sure enough, it was a distraught Angelheart. All my other illegal tech had been moved to another location ... and tracking devices removed.

"Come on in," I quarter bowed as I stood by my opened door.

She took three steps in then noticed the plywood ... and the missing window.

"What happened?" she gasped. Her eyes were puffy from too much crying and her face was a mask of emotional pain and suffering. I touched her and let the 'sparks' happen.