The Legacy of Eros - Dark Son Ch. 03

"Your bad feelings," Inez mocked, "don't equate to real evidence."

"Fine - fine," I persevered. "Why don't we initiate our own investigation from our end?"

"Count me in," Louise insisted. This time Kyle and India did the nodding. Ugh.

"Fine! Fine, but I ride shotgun on this madness," Inez insisted ... and so it began.

[~]

Ole Barry's 14th story apartment was a mess. Entry ... and presumably the exit ... were by one of the living room windows. The midday breeze was rather pleasant for this early in Spring. 'The Brush' had put up some kind of fight, or run for it. It wasn't initially quite clear from the way the rooms had been ransacked.

"What do you think happened?" Kyle asked Inez.

"No you don't. I'm just here as an impartial observer and to keep you four out of trouble," Inez responded.

"Fine ... Ultima?"

"I'm just here to keep an eye on Reynard. I did spend a million dollars on him after all," she avoided responsibility for these proceedings.

"Reynard?" Kyle turned to me.

"Ummm ... okay," I scanned our surroundings once more. "It appears Barry came home late last night, the Uptown Crew blew in the window and then attacked him. They chased him into his bedroom where they finally wrestled him down then departed with him. That's where the trail of destruction leads."

"But why Barry?" India inquired.

"Straight up ... I guess Barry and Kyle have the highest salaries of the group here. That means they intend to ransom him back for a portion of that salary. That is guess number one."

"Good guess," Ultima smiled in my direction.

"You agree with him?" Louise pondered.

"I didn't say that," Bonny serenely shook her head.

"Who are you people and what are you doing here?" a man whose suit screamed 'Federal Agent' called out to us.

"We are some of the contestants from the same contest Mr. Bushnell was in," I addressed him.

"Well, you shouldn't be up here," he frowned. Apparently we had accidently snuck past the guy. "Let's see some ID's."

"You first," I glared. I was almost tired and definitely not in the mood to be pushed around.

"You first, Smart Guy," he put his hand on his hip holstered piece.

"I think I'd rather exit the window over there," I bit back.

"Reynard, don't be an ass. Show the man some identification so we can all exit this place peaceably," Bonny touched my arm.

"Fine - okay, but I'm only doing it to keep you off my case," I verbally retreated. I proffered up my Student ID and State Driver's License.

"Reynard Haven ... okay, you check out," he examined my bona fides then returned them to me. The rest of the gang went as smoothly until it was Bonny's turn. Apparently she had an ID which gave both her real name as well as her moniker. The guy blanched then profusely apologized. Inez's cop ID was virtually an afterthought for the guy.

"I didn't know the Ultimates had been brought in on this case," the Fed addressed Bonny.

"We haven't. My interest in this case is strictly personal - as in Reynard Haven is a person of interest to me," she explained. "With your permission we will be leaving now."

"Of course," the FBI guy couldn't get out of our way fast enough, much to my chagrin.

In the lobby of Barry's high rise, we gathered together again to see what else we could do.

"Inez, do you think you could locate the hangout of the 'Uptown Crew'?" Kyle began.

"No. That would be a horrible idea," she shook her head vehemently.

"Oh, come on," India pressed. "We have Ultima with us. What could go wrong?"

"Be careful how you use my presence," Bonny cautioned us. "I may be called away with barely a moment's notice. It is the nature of who I am."

"But we would still have Reynard with us," Louise hugged my arm. She was doing that way too often for my comfort level, damn it.

"Who is no one any of them would know," I evaded.

"I don't know about that," Inez let her eyes bore into me. "After all, you just might be Dark Son ... who took down Kori Ivankov."

"I can neither confirm nor deny that," I glared right back. "Besides, if I have a secret identity, there might be a reason behind it." Then I had a brain storm. "But I know who we can ask and it is getting late enough in the day he might actually be awake and willing to accept visitors."

"Who would that be?" Inez queried.

"Romeo Dusk."

"The reputed number one contender to replace the late, unlamented Mr. Ivankov - that Romeo Dusk?" she blinked in surprise.

"Yeah - him," I grinned all shark-like. "Rumor has it he knows everything going on in the Criminal Underworld."

"This should be interesting," Bonny wrapped up my other arm in hers. All this proximity ... oh man. It was pissing me off. The only one I liked getting this close to me was Skye (Angelheart), damn it.

"Sounds like a plan," Kyle smiled.

"I'll let HQ know where we are going," Inez groaned ... and off we went.

[MEETING ROMEO DUSK]

The Walls of Jericho nightclub wasn't open when we showed up, but we had several things working in our favor - Inez, the metropolitan detective, Bonny aka Ultima, and Kyle Rodney, Quarterback for the Megalopolis Champion (it turned out the chief bouncer at the door was a HUGE Champions fan). That got us through the front door and a bit of fancy footwork got us to meet the man upstairs in his office sanctum.

He looked rather young for a man in his position - mid 20's perhaps - with black hair, dark, piercing eyes and a steady demeanor which belied any nervousness about meeting someone as exulted as Ultima. With him, leaning against his high-backed chair was the metahuman mercenary known as Winter Frost. Winter had long white hair and a blue cast to her skin and eyes which threatened every red-blooded man in the room with a chilly death ... except for Romeo Dusk, who she appeared to have some sort of attachment to.

"Ms. Ultima," he greeted without standing the most prominent of us first then, "Mr. Rodney. The rest of you ... I don't know."

"I'm just along for the ride this afternoon, Mr. Dusk," Bonny responded.

"Pleasure to meet you," Kyle responded.

"As usual, sucks to be me," India mumbled. She was as star player for her team, the Megalopolis Stars, after all.

"I'm Detective Inez Neustadt, Mr. Dusk, and we have some questions for you."

"I don't talk to the police without my lawyers present," Romeo smiled pleasantly enough.

"Got something to hide?" she bristled.

"I'm Louise Dresser. You haven't heard of me?"

"Afraid not. Are you auditioning for a spot in my club's lineup?" he offered.

"No ... she's not," I interjected. "I'm Reynard Haven and I'm not a cop. Care to answer a few questions?"

"I'm willing to listen to you ... Mr. Haven," Romeo Dusk turned his barracuda countenance my way.

"We have heard the Uptown Crew kidnapped Barry Bushnell and we were wondering if you knew why they did so," I began.

"As a personal favor to you, Mr. Haven ... sources unknown to me have put a bounty on the killers of Kori Ivankov - $5 million dead, or alive. The Uptown Crew decided, from what my sources have been able to decipher, to kidnap 'The Brush' in order to get the Metropolitan Police hand over all their information on the costumed vigilantes who did the deed."

"That makes no sense," Inez interrupted. "The Metropolitan Police would never deal with kidnappers that way."

Romeo rolled his eyes instead of responding.

"That plan sounds awfully weak," I continued.

"The Uptown Crew are hardly criminal masterminds," Romeo shrugged. "I imagine the idea made more sense when they were half-coked out of their minds."

"So, what's going to happen when the MMPD refuses to play ball - to Barry?" I wondered.

"I wouldn't care to hazard a guess. Smart money would be they sell him back to his franchise. Morons might waste Mr. Bushnell in a pique of misplaced rage. As I said, they aren't the brightest bulbs in the skyline."

"Well, thanks for the input," I said. He definitely appeared to be a regular human being, but with a few interesting gadgets whose function I couldn't immediately fathom. Still, if he was in the running for the number one spot in Megalopolis' Criminal Underworld, he had to have something else working in his favor. What? I had no clue ... and now I owed him a personal favor. I hadn't missed him interjecting that into our conversation and, by the looks of things, neither had Bonny.

"As part of that 'personal favor', could you tell us how we might contact the Uptown Crew ... to make sure our fellow contestant is alright?" I decided to push things a bit more.

"For you, Mr. Haven, why not," Romeo grinned. He wrote down something on a slip of paper then slid it halfway across the table too me.

I reached the rest of the way and secured the folded up sticky-paper.

114B West Holland Place the note read. He hadn't given us a contact number. He had given us - hopefully - their address.

"Thank you. For everything," I tacked on.

"Have a nice, productive day," Romeo Dusk dismissed us. We filed out back the way we had arrived.

Once we were outside, Inez separated from us long enough to make a call back to her superiors ... who proceeded to ream her ass out over the stunt she had pulled with us going to Romeo Dusk's. I wanted to immediately retire and call Lucky Dead and Arachne, except I didn't have either of their numbers. Arachne had mine, but had never given me a call so I could have figured out her digits for a reverse trace. Yeah, I'm that kind of paranoid guy.

"So, what was on the piece of paper?" Kyle questioned me. The others closed in.

"He gave us an address. It might be the address of the Uptown Crew, or it might be something different, or worse," I cautioned the normies.

"Let's go check it out," Louise got all excited.

"Do you think you can handle them?" India asked Bonny.

"How many are there?" she asked back.

"Five," I answered. The Underworld rumor mill was running at full tilt and the Uptown Crew weren't exactly secret about who was on their current roster.

India shot me a curious look. The rest were too hyped up / scared to wonder how I had that gem of information.

"I'm not sure I can take the five fast enough to make sure Mr. Bushnell remains unharmed," Bonny replied. "It would be nice to have someone backing me up," was clearly aimed at me.

"I'll do it," I grumped.

"I'll help too," Kyle volunteered. Considering how much his livelihood relied on him being relatively intact and uninjured ... Kyle stepping up to face some metahumans made me like him all the more.

"You can count on me," India stepped up too. Seeing me eyeing her, she misinterpreted my glance. "I kick really hard, damn it."

"Oh, I believe you," I grinned. "I do."

"Aaahhh ..." Louise mumbled.

"Louise, we'll need you to call the cops the moment we go in. Someone has to stay outside and keep the MMPD in the communication loop," I reminded her.

She didn't have to have a combative role to have a place in our little rescue party. We had only one flaw left in the endeavor. Inez came back, looking fumed.

"We need to end this madness now," she grumbled.

"We have one place left to check out," I stated.

"No ... would this have to do with that piece of paper?" she studied me.

"I'm not saying it does and I'm not saying it doesn't. What I'm saying is we are going to this address and unless you arrest us ... for what - I'm not sure - we are going," I laid things out for her. "Or, you could tag along and see what develops."

"This is most certainly criminal," she glowered. "Gang - don't do this."

I looked around giving everyone else a chance to back out. None did.

"We are going," Kyle spoke first.

"Fine ... fine ... I'm coming along too ... to make sure none of you get yourself killed," Inez allowed. I thought secretly she wanted to do this as well. Getting two taxis was easy. The drive over was filled with nervous energy ... for everyone who wasn't Bonny, or me. For Bonny ... well she kept looking at me and smiling ever so slightly, as if she liked me for reasons she wasn't willing to get into here and now.

We arrived a block down from the address then walked the rest of the way.

"I'll go in first," Bonny explained. "Then it is Rey, Inez, Kyle and India. The moment we go in, Louise, you make that call."

"No - I should be the one coming after you, Ms. Franklin," Inez shook her head. "I'm the law enforcement officer."

"Just this time, Detective Neustadt, I want Rey backing me up. I'm not going to explain why. I'm just asking to accept my decision on this matter as based on my long expertise in dealing with these kinds of matters - professional consideration."

"So, he is a metahuman ... and somewhat bulletproof," Inez responded.

"I'm not saying he is. I'm not saying he isn't."

"One of these days, I'm going to get a straight answer out of you," Inez turned on me.

"I hope it isn't one day soon," I replied. I wanted to keep my secret identity as long as possible.

"Okay everybody? Let's go," Bonny led the way to the lower level apartment at 114 West Holland Place. It was a nice Georgetown townhouse. A place were up and coming professionals lived ... thus likely to be occupied on a Saturday afternoon.

[THE UPTOWN CREW]

For starters, the five members of the Uptown Crew were the Heir Apparent - their leader, the Dilettante, the Socialite, Touché and the groups' Butler - I kid you not. What did any of them do? No one was quite sure because the group was that new. No one suspected the group to have any heavy hitters among them, being rich trust-fund kids who either bought some augmentations, or were lucky enough to be born metahuman yet without the work ethic to go legit.

Instead of busting down the door and rushing in, Bonny led off with a polite knock. She had to knock a second time before someone answered the door. It was a slender brunette with an oval face and big brown eyes. My glasses revealed her to be an unknown metahuman.

"Yes?" she greeted us with a bored voice.

"We are here for Barry Bushnell," Bonny answered.

For a second, the girl at the door froze up.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," she blathered.

"Wrong answer, Sweetie," Bonny said right before she pushed the door all the way open and brushed the young lady aside. I was right behind her. Inez cursed as she drew her firearm and followed.

"MMPD!" Inez hollered. "Everyone hit the deck!"

Inside the front room was a cultured metahuman man sitting on a sofa watching TV. He was clearly panicking. A pale man with black hair, dressed like a butler, was standing behind the sofa and regarded us dispassionately. Far into the open concept was a kitchen with a large island. Another metahuman male with a half-eaten sandwich half way to his mouth was sitting at the island. Between the sofa and the kitchen, among other things, was a set of stairs going down.

"Rey - Stairs!" Bonny commanded. Off I went. "Everyone else - sit your asses down and nobody gets hurt!"

As I was racing toward the stairs, I noticed the Uptown Crew not heeding her warning. The guy came off his sofa and pointed at Bonny.

"Get her!" he directed the butler, the poor sap.

The guy eating the sandwich was coming my way, looking to vault the stairwell in an attempt to block me. The girl who had answered the door chopped down at Inez's gun arm, disarming her.

"Okay then," Kyle grunted then punched the girl, sending her tumbling. He hadn't held back - good man.

Bonnie hit the guy coming off the sofa in the chest, slamming him back down. In her next step she collided with the butler ... and they began wrestling. What the hell? I couldn't make out happened next because I was engaged. It was also not lost on me we still had a member of the Uptown Crew unaccounted for. I didn't have time to play with this guy.

I dove (flew) down the stairs, so Sandwich Guy came down behind me ... and higher up on the stairs. He was facing me so he missed a fierce India Figueroa launch into him from behind with a lightning fast kick to his spine. Ouch! Down he came. I was faced with a dilemma in the form of three doors down here on the subbasement level.

"Ooohhh ..." Sandwich Guy moaned. India was clomping down the stairs after him.

"I've got this bozo," she let her smile blossom. "You find Barry."

Speaking of which ...

"Help," came from the second door to my left. There I went. I slammed into the structure, blowing the door off the hinges. Inside this small bedroom was Barry ... naked ... and being ridden by an equally naked russet haired feminine beauty. She didn't read as metahuman.

"This White bitch be crazy!" Barry screamed at me.

"Who are you?" she said at the same time. She was also seeking to dismount Ole Barry. I wasn't here to play around. I moved up two quick steps and clocked her hard, throwing her over the other side of the bed and bouncing her off the far wall.

"I'm Reynard Haven," I answered after the fact.

"Ow!" came a female voice from behind me. New dilemma: release a bound Barry - bound spread eagle on the bed - or go check on India. I had the feeling the female molester was out for the count so I turned and went aback into the hall only to run into Sandwich Guy. I shoved him before he shoved me, but he didn't bounce back toward me like he should have. No ... instead, he raised up his right hand and pointed it at me, pistol-like.

"Thanks for the boost," he grinned wickedly. A beam of light emanated from his fingertip and struck me in the left shoulder. My jacket and shirt vaporized, but thanks to my current bonding with Angelheart, I felt none of the heat. Not to be outdone, I launched myself at him. I punched him again and he shot me another blast of heat - this time to my stomach. My wardrobe was taking a beating.

"I can keep this up all day," he laughed at me and my efforts.

"Oh ... Touché," I gained sudden insight.

"Got it in one, you dumb brawler," he came my way. His hit was what you could expect from a regular human - nothing special. This time I shifted passed his extended arm, twisted the offered appendage and maneuvered myself behind him.

"What the ..." he got out before I put him in a sleeper hold. As I was doing so, I saw a bruised India picking herself up off the stairs. Above us a fight was still going on though it had migrated to the kitchen. I had to wonder who, or what, was keeping Bonny occupied. Meanwhile, Touché was struggling mightily to escape my hold. He even tried to blast me in the face with a feeble heat blast. I ducked my head aside because I didn't want the blast to mess up my glasses.

"Let me kick him one more time," India came my way.

"No. That makes him stronger. Go free Barry. He's naked in bed so be prepared," I informed the cute soccer star.

India nodded then scooted passed me into the room.

"Damn, Barry," she chuckled. "Here we are worrying about you and you're busy getting some tail."

Touché went limp in my grasp so after one good shake, I let him slide to the ground. India was busy untying Barry so I decided to go upstairs to see what the problem was. At the top of the stairs I had dilemma number three: Kyle and Inez were squared off against the guy who I assumed was 'Heir Apparent' while Bonny was having a hell of a time landing a blow on the butler.

Mind you, when he hit Bonny, he had minimal, if any, effect ... so I went to help Kyle and Inez instead. The girl who had opened the door began moaning, so I deviated just enough to give her a sharp left blow to the chin. Her head bounced off the wall and she rolled over from a seated position to the floor - definitely out. Meanwhile Kyle and Inez were revealed to be in a world of trouble fighting the Heir Apparent, who appeared to be a phenomenal martial artist.

In I went. He attempted to dodge my lunge, but I managed to tackle him and take him to the floor. He dropped an expert elbow jab to my neck, but my nerve cluster failed to deliver on the expected release. No. I had hold of this joker now and I wasn't planning to let go.