The Legacy of Eros - Dark Son Ch. 04

"Well, I'm glad to see Richard's latest effort in 'last ditch' life saving equipment works," Susan commented happily.

"Yeah," I coughed, "but it has a bitter aftertaste."

"Buck up," Susan chided me. "You are lucky enough to be alive enough to taste anything. Be grateful, you brat."

"Yes, 'Mom'," I groaned. Susan was my Godmother after all.

"What about her?" Theresa inquired.

"Which her?" I dared.

"That one," Theresa head-tossed Bonny's way. "Am I going to have to share you with that one too?"

"No," I dispelled that belief. "She either murdered my Mother, or knows who in her close circle of friends who did."

I could see that declaration bothered Bonny. Susan spoke first.

"Sooner, or later, you are going to have to let go of some of that hate," my Godmother advised me. "It isn't healthy ... as we are witnessing right now."

"Well, if someone murdered me, I would hope Rey - Dark Son sought revenge against those who had done me in," Theresa pledged.

"Princess," Susan countered, "we are talking about something which happened thirteen years ago under circumstances he doesn't understand. Seeking revenge will have a higher price tag than he can possibly imagine."

"Can't you let this go?" Angelheart rubbed the back of my hand against her cheek.

"Never," I shook my throbbing head.

"You are being childish," Bonny frowned. "You have no idea what happened. You have no idea what sacrifices were made on your behalf!"

"Huh?"

"Boniface, you've said too much," Susan turned on Ultima. Okay, something passed between those two yet wasn't for general consumption ... despite this being my Mother they were talking about!

"Susan?" I inquired.

"Get dressed," was all she said before she and Ultima turned and walked away together. It fell to Skye to hand me a robe for me to get in before I dismounted the healing chamber.

"You are hard," Skye snickered.

"Get away from him!" Theresa snapped. "He's ... he's too hurt to be up for your shenanigans."

Oh look ... my penis was indeed erect though I wasn't much in the mood for any fucking at the moment. It went beyond my near brush with death and my full body ache. My soul hurt. Susan was keeping something from me and I thought I could trust my Godmother implicitly. What the hell was I going to do now?

[WHAT WAS I DOING BACK IN ...]

So, what was I doing back in Megalopolis? At the damn contest?

To pull this off, Ultima had to abridge her earlier statement to local authorities, claiming she knew the civilian identity of Dark Son, thus freeing me up in my regular persona. She still warned me to behave myself aka no more unwarranted touching. What exactly did she suspect I was going to do? Try to kill myself again?

Why was I doing this? I got my civilian identity back, got to return to college and got to continue my crusade to find who tried to murder Liberty Lincoln. I was hoping the Masquerade of Mystery chose me to be next on their hit parade. I was going to clobber them a good few before turning them over to Ultima.

It wasn't going to be too difficult to turn them over to Ultima because she was going to be staying with me while the Sun was below the horizon. Yeah ... we - as in 'all the contestants' were having one massive sleepover with the World's Worst House Mother (Ultima).

[~]

Now that we were in her dwelling under 24/7 surveillance, you would think some people would have had better sense than to engage in an illicit liaison. But no ... not only did I get a nocturnal visitor, two of my housemates - Louise and Lao - decided to get it on as well. How could that possibly gone wrong? More on that later. I had to deal with my own social crisis.

I wasn't really sleeping when I sensed the shadows darkening. Princess Penumbra was paying me a nocturnal visit. The shadows flowing over me before forming a body was something new. Gracefully, Theresa came to rest partially on top of me and partially between myself and the wall-side my bed rested close to.

"Hello," I greeted her softly. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't keep a smile off my face.

"Hello yourself," she whispered. "Have you reconsidered my offer? We still have cookies."

"Ha," I snorted. "I'm sure they are wonderful cookies, but I still have some vigilante stuff I need to handle before I become a full time villain."

"Like ...?"

"Like dealing with the Masquerade of Mystery," I hardened in more ways than one. "They blew up Liberty Lincoln and I am going to make them pay for that."

"Are you and Liberty ...?"

"No. We are just friends. If anything, she's been mentoring me on how to be a better metahuman and one hell of a criminal investigator. I figure from time to time figures will try to wrong me and I want to be able to hunt them down for their impertinence."

"Well, that's nice then," she smiled back. After a long pause, "What about you and Arachne? I think she has a 'thing' for you."

"That's more complicated," I decided to go with some honesty. "She asked me out on a date and I said 'yes'. Does this upset you?"

"Yes ... a little bit," she gave off a big sigh, "but I've come to accept you are going to be out there doing your thing while I'm stuck doing Nine Nobles' business."

"Be careful now," I stroked her from shoulder to the bottom of her ribcage along her back. "The Nine Nobles Nefarious are going to want 100% of your effort and aren't going to accept anything less. I don't want them taking out their frustrations on you, damn it. I've already got too many revenge projects on my plate."

"You would come after the Nine Nobles if they screwed with me?" she brightened up. "Really screwed with me?"

"Damn right," I gave a minute nod. "You have always been a good friend to me and we have even talked about a future together ... in some future date we can safely stand on our own two feet."

The 'good friend' statement made her unhappy, but the 'future together' brightened her right back up.

"I still think about what we talked about that first night together," she sighed again. "I want to feel like I matter to someone outside of my powers. I really do."

"You matter to me, Princess," I assured her.

"You are not just saying that to avoid savage, post-break-up beat down, are you?" she teased me ... sort of.

"Hey now," I verbally held her off. "We aren't a couple yet. We can't have a break-up spat before there is even a relationship to break-up."

"Don't be so sure about that," she gave me a wicked grin. "I'm the girl in this relationship and if I say we are a couple, you had best believe - We ARE a couple."

"So, if we are going to be a couple," I teased, "are you going to let me see other girls? I'm a young and up-and-coming rising dark star on the villain scene and I should be allowed to roam ... a little bit. It is a 'bad boy' sort of thing."

"I'm not so sure about that," she shook her head. "Remember, I can always find you where there are shadows." Okay, I wasn't sure how much of that was a lie, but it was somewhat unnerving.

"That's fine," I grumped playfully, "I'll just have to figure out how to glow like a nightlight at all times - totally subtle like."

"Why don't you simply hang a sign on your breastplate which says 'Shoot Me First!'?"

"I was planning on it ... using the Cyrillic alphabet. I figure half of the time they will be so busy trying to figure out what the sign really means I'll get the drop on them."

"Hehehehe," she giggled. "That's clever."

"Now you are just buttering me up," I frowned. I also ran both my hands along her sides stopping just short of her ass cheeks. Around the hips was 'safe'. Further up ...

"Hey," she giggled softly, "that tickles."

"This," I repeated the gesture, which did tickle her, "or this?" I brought my right hand up and stroked her from ear lobe to temple.

"Number two - I like," she smiled down at me.

"Care if I exchange memories?" I hazarded.

"Okay," she responded way too fast in my estimation. It was almost as if she had been waiting for me to make this move.

Still, I did it. A quick flash and then I was in her mind and she was in mine. Theresa was back to wanting me as her exclusive boyfriend, hating Skye and angry over me spending time with any other woman. Okay - the 'angry about me spending time with other women' was new. The rest I was totally prepared for.

"You really are thinking about me," she exhaled into my face - truly happy.

"Of course I am. You and I have too much common ground to make you any sort of substitute. I'm truly into you," I responded.

"Do you think she is better looking than me?" she murmured. By 'she' she meant Skye.

"I think you are both different and incomparable," I wove deception with the truth. Deep down I really thought Angelheart was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Theresa was a highly satisfactory and respectable 'third' in my estimation behind my godmother, Susan Reeds.

"But if you could only have one?" she pressed.

"We are not going to go there," I cut off that discussion. "I've already made my thoughts clear."

"Hrmphf," she pouted. "I wish your thoughts were clear on this matter. I can't sort through them and figure out if you're telling me the truth."

"I do care about you, Princess," I resumed stroking her side and head. "It is just ..."

The door to our room opened very slowly. Theresa slipped over to my far side - using my prone form as cover. When the door was opened just wide enough, a female figure slipped into the room. It was ... Louise Dresser. If she came my way ... shit would get bad really fast.

I lucked out. Louise scanned my way then back to Lao Ping. Neither bed showed movement so she began padding over to Mr. Ling - thank God. No sooner had she parked her ass around Lao's hip level did he stir.

"Huh?" he mumbled.

"I have this thing for Asian guys," Louis softly revealed.

"You do?" he muttered, still groggy.

"Yeah ... let's do it," she took the plunge both figuratively and literally. She leaned in and French kissed the lucky bastard.

"But ..." Mr. Ping got out before she went in for seconds. She also took one of his fidgeting hands and placed it upon her clothed breast.

"I really shouldn't ..." he tried again.

"You aren't gay, are you?" Louise pressured him.

"No, but ..."

"Then let's do it," she all but squealed. She shimmied out of what I assumed were her panties, pulled back the covers somewhat and jumped on top of the poor Mr. Ling.

"What a slut," whispered Theresa to me.

"Different strokes for different folks, I guess," I replied. Who was I to judge?

"You wouldn't do that to me, would you?"

"Of course not," I assured her. "I could definitely kick her out of bed," I added, 'and do it on the floor'. In reality, I wouldn't do - that latter part. I was too loyal a guy by far.

Across the way, Mr. Ling was upping his game after coming out sluggishly from the starting gates. He had one hand inside her sleepwear, massaging her bare breast while the other hand rested on her thigh. A little bit of wiggling and maneuvering and Louise had him out of his pajama bottoms (we guys were wearing pajama bottoms without tops because the house was so warm).

"Oh yesssss," Louise hissed. I had to believe penetration had been achieved.

Theresa tilted my head back her way so I could gaze into her wonderful sapphire eyes.

"Promise me," she breathed upon my lips.

"Theresa, we aren't an item yet. There is nothing to promise."

"Well ... promise me if we ... no, when we are an item, you won't cheat on me," she tried next.

"Very well," I allowed. "When you and I become an item, it will be you and only you. That means for the foreseeable future, I will have to play the field like a madman though."

"You are impossible," she smiled. "What if I 'play the field' too?"

"I'm okay with it," left her unhappy, but then, "Just tell me first ~ 'who do I have to kill?' Who is the competition?"

"Oh," she got all sassy, "there are so many guys. I don't want to make you a mass murderer ... or anything like that."

"Fine," I played along. "Who do I have to cripple?"

"I like your enthusiasm," she giggled.

Lao and Louise were too much into one another to catch that so I continued our conversation.

"You give a guy a lot to be enthusiastic about."

"Why, thank you, Mr. Bedlam," she whispered. She had been quiet, yet still Lao's head turned our way causing Theresa to crouch down. We remained still for over a minute until my roommate grabbed hold of Louise's hips and began to thrust up into her like the Energizer Bunny.

"Uh-oh," I groaned.

Sure enough, about fifteen seconds into his frantic thrusting he jerked to a halt, gave it one last upward shove then stopped cold.

"Already?" Louise looked down at him.

"I shouldn't have done this," Lao moaned piteously.

"Oh, it wasn't that bad for me," Louise misinterpreted his melancholy.

"No, you stupid cow," Lao spat. "I'm engaged! I have a fiancée."

'Not my problem', I thought. Besides how angry could this fiancée be ... when this illicit tape went viral ... in under twelve hours? Recall what I said about us being under constant surveillance? That included the bedrooms and I was figuring Louise had pounced on ole Lao to up her popularity for the upcoming elimination round.

[TWO DAYS LATER]

What was I doing at Victor Vaugh International Spaceport? Was I about to seek refuge in a Non-Extradition country to escape my now numerous crimes? Maybe I was just deciding to take an extended vacation, or a hopper flight to Canada. Nope. None of the above. I was at the spaceport to meet with the fiancée of the dear, un-departed Lao Ping.

I hadn't been aware he had a wife-to-be in Mainland China, but then I barely knew the guy. Now the Megalopolis Metropolitan Police Department had decided I would make an excellent addition to the formal delegation sent to meet the lady. Maybe they thought I was simply a kind hearted sort of fellow, or perhaps the reality I - Reynard Haven - was actually 'Dark Son' was deemed more relevant.

You see, Lao's lady was a current member of the Chinese Super Team, the Golden Dragons and rumor had it she was pissed Ole Lao had fornicated with dear Louise Dresser. She - Li hua Zhang - went by the handle 'Shuǐlóng - the Water Dragon and was powerful enough to be on the premier super-team of the most populous nation on Earth ... so how tough could she be?

"So, what do we do if she suddenly cuts loose with a blast of water tough enough to gouge out her initials on a diamond facet?" I asked the dweeb the Mayor's Office had sent along with this expedition.

"Can't you stop her?" the guy gulped. "I mean, you are pretty strong too, right?"

"Reynard Haven is just an above attractive college student, Buddy," I grinned. "I ain't doing jack for anybody."

"Do you think she will attack us ... I mean, according to her dossier she is highly disciplined."

"And she crossed half the world to fulfill some odd requirement of a wedding contract signed by their grandparents ...," I left hanging there. "That sounds like a totally legit reason any sane person would use to utterly turn their life upside down and inside out."

"You think she's unstable?" he looked at me from the corner of his eyes.

"I think she's a lady who has been cheated on ... so yes," I yanked his chain a little more.

"That ... doesn't make much sense. How can being cheated on make her unstable?"

"You don't date much, do you?" I teased him.

"I'm married."

"Happily?"

"Huh? Yes. What does that have to do with anything?" he worried.

"Oh look ... the suborbital from Shanghai is unloading now ... so, if she goes nuts, which direction are you running in?"

"I ... ah ... guess I'll fall flat. What about you?"

"I just wanted to know so I wouldn't trip over you in my own mad dash to escape this catastrophe ... providing she goes nuts."

"You are having one over on me ..." he glared.

"Just figuring that out, huh?"

"Why? We are on the same team here," he reminded me.

"No, we are not," I burst his bubble. "I was blackmailed to be here. On the off chance she gets ... squirrely, certain people expect me to flip out and reveal that I'm Dark Son, thus screwing me over in the long run. I tell you right now, that's not going to happen."

"But you are Dark Son, aren't you?"

The cops around us were also getting a bit fidgety.

"Dark Son wears an armored suit. You see an armored suit on me, or anywhere close by?"

"Ah ... no ..."

"Then you are not going to see me turn into said entity."

"But we could get killed."

"That's why you are going to see me running for my stinking life if this shit goes south," I cautioned him.

"Oh ... then why are you here?"

"As I said, certain people expect me to turn into Dark Son if things get rough."

"Like who? You are kind of an asshole," he remarked. He meant to say I was being a total asshole - which I was - but was being politic and polite.

"Ultima."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"You would ... ummmm ... disappoint her? Just to keep your secret identity?"

"I'd disappoint her for a whole host of reasons, that being just one of them."

"That appears to be rather foolhardy. She's the most powerful person in the World."

"But she's not here now. I am and I'm not Dark Son."

"Oh crap," he muttered then, "Let me do all the talking."

"No problem," I agreed while flexing my muscular physique. I wasn't trying to intimidate the smaller guy. I was working out some kinks in case my prognostication turned into reality and I really had to fight a grief-stricken maybe-former fiancée. Despite my earlier words, if the lady did freak out for some unforeseen reason, I was going to try to shut her down - hopefully without revealing my true nature. Instead ...

"Greetings," the Mayor's guy said as the lady finally presented herself then he went into this spiel about how sorry Megalopolis was about her matrimonial tragedy and took a thousand words to say it. All the while she kept staring at him intently. There were three Chinese ladies behind the peeved superheroine, so I assumed we were somehow holding up traffic exiting their flight.

"This one is a junior plutocrat," she turned to me the moment he was finished. "So, who are you?"

"Reynard Haven. I am in the same contest as your betrothed. We're roommates."

"Oh really?" she eyed me speculatively.

"Really," I confirmed.

"Why weren't you there to help out my betrothed?"

"It's not my place to interfere in such things ... especially since I didn't even know he was engaged," I explained. "Besides, I was still recovering from wounds which I received in the Battle for Megalopolis. I got pretty banged up."

"What were you - the college student - doing in such a war zone?" she kept hammering away with the questions.

"Being misplaced," I lied.

"I don't believe you."

"I don't care," I fired back.

"If I discover you had anything to do with Mr. Ping's unfortunate situation, I will not be happy with you," she threatened.

"I repeat: I don't care," I shrugged. "Care to move this along and get you situated in a hotel room the city has set aside?"

"Very well. We will talk more later, Mr. Haven."

"I'll work to fit you into my busy schedule," I glared right back.

"We will endeavor to make sure Mr. Haven is available," the dweeb interjected himself.

"With any luck I might get voted out tonight then I'll no longer be part of this madness," I turned on him.

"Like you should get so lucky," he zinged me back.

[~]

Lucky? See, they were letting the on-line public vote for us every afternoon and at six o'clock, they were reducing our numbers by two ... the least popular boy and girl. Sadly for me and my desire to quite this catastrophe, I had 'won' round one so I had a 'bye' which would allow me to escape one rounds' elimination.