((The following has some risque material in it. God, I hope I didn't push the limit too far on this... I'd hate to have to put a link here instead. It seems so cold and sterile.))
--Later That Week...--
Roland returned to his apartment after running errands in Kings Row. He didn't know why his father had him deliver the report to Iron Spyke, but he did it because he had little better to do.
Well, he did have better to do. There was a leak somewhere in his apartment building's basement, and he needed to fix it fast. His building manager had made it clear that a leaking faucet wasted more energy than leaving a computer on all day. He was certain it was a pipe, perhaps a coupling had busted over the winter.
Kings Row wasn't known for much, but hardware like the new couplings he'd bought and the pipe wrench he needed could be found for very reasonable prices. Heck, he was even able to find a good auto parts store just next to the tunnel to Galaxy City.
He was just starting to think about what the Circle could possibly want with his father's neighborhood when there was a knock at the door. Grunting in consternation, he walked over to the door to greet his visitor.
"Hi!"
It was Rose, the perky woman down the hall with an almost boundless ignorance for boundaries. She almost tackled him as she hopped into the room without his permission.
"What have I said about that?" he grunted, " Calm down, girl. You're worse than a cat."
"Aw..." she murmured, but perked right back up again as she saw he was getting his toolbelt, "Whatcha doin'?"
"There's a leak in the basement, I have to go fix it," Roland replied, "Sorry for being short with you, but I've got a lot on my mind right now and I need to get this done."
She smiled and stepped in his way as he tried to leave. Looking perplexedly at the strange buxom redhead, he tried to step around her, but she got in his way again.
"I really don't have the patience for this," he said darkly, catching himself just before he started growling.
"And I'm sorry," Rose sighed as she flicked her foot back to close his door behind her, "But my plane leaves in a few hours, I don't have time to wait anymore and I really don't feel like doing this in the basement. It's icky down there."
"Do what?" Grey asked, feeling like he was missing something.
"This!"
Rose jumped up to tackle him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Surprised, Roland couldn't react in time to keep her from kissing him, and then it felt like smoke was spewing into his throat.
He wrenched the bizarre girl off and she tumbled to the floor with a squeak. He, however, was finding it extremely difficult to breathe. It was like his throat was on fire, but he swore he could smell flowers and taste nectar. His left leg suddenly went slack and he crumpled to the floor, bouncing the back of his head against the couch.
"Rghhhghl..." he gurgled, "Wh-what did... What-d-ja jus-just do to me?"
He could see purplish smoke wafting from his mouth. It was weird stuff, it had little stylized hearts in it.
"What the... What the [frick]?"
"I was so worried before," Rose chirped as she hopped back up to her feet and bounced over to his prone form, "I came here thinking you'd be itching to jump into bed with me. Imagine my surprise that you saw my aggressiveness as a bad thing!"
"Not bad... Un... Unusual..."
Curse me for a fool! he shouted inside his head, I should have known there was something wrong with this girl! What the Hell is going to happen now?
Rose dragged him away from the couch by his arm. Despite his girth, she was able to move him easily.
Oh yeah... That's doing wonders for my calm...
"Why can't I move?" he wheezed.
"It's my Kiss," she replied, "It shuts down most of your muscle control so I can... Work."
Euphemisms... Yay.
But he couldn't stop himself from asking "Work?" Her sly smile and twinkling eyes told him all he needed to know.
It was hard for him to describe his reaction. For one thing, Roland was intensely curious as to what this would be like. On the other hand, however, the logical, pragmatic mindset he prided himself on kicked his rage into overdrive and tried to rail against whatever it was keeping him unable to move.
Unfortunately, all he was able to do was barely lift the fingers of his right hand. Growling angrily, he narrowed his eyes at the crazy woman.
"Let me go! Why are you doing this, anyway?"
"Simple!" Rose replied, unperturbed by his reaction, "I was paid! It was really strange... I usually take contracts for corrupt politicians, corporate executives who abuse their power, that sort of thing. You know, anybody willing to take advantage of a naive young girl and have their way with them. Of course, what they don't know is..."
She giggled a little.
"I feed off them."
"Feed-!?" he almost asked.
The curious portion of Roland's mind ceased its inquiry at that. The implication was terrifying. Her patting his belly appreciatively as she undid his tool belt did little to allay his fears.
"And oh boy, are you going to be a feast!"
"Dear God no," he grumbled, "No... No. That's not right... That can't be possible..."
"Oh but it is if you're a succubus!" Rose giggled as she stuck her tongue out at him.
Despite the impending doom, he couldn't help but notice that she was still ridiculously cute.
Oh yeah... Succubus. The rest of his thoughts were filled with a litany of curses and loud, panicked shouts of terror.
Oh, hey! There's an idea!
"HEL-!" he got out before she jumped up and clamped her hands over his mouth.
"Aw... Roland! Don't be like that! This should be a special moment, one between just you and me. There's no need to involve anybody else... Look, if it makes you feel any better, I'll let you in on a little secret..."
She pulled herself up so she could sit on his belly. She had to hold herself up a little as she straddled him because he couldn't brace his belly to support her.
"Oh, sorry about that," she patted his shoulder sympathetically as he gasped to breathe, "I forgot that happened... I'm usually sitting a little lower on the body by now."
"I think you were saying something about a secret," he murmured.
"Oh... Right... Well, it goes like this: I really don't want to do this to you."
Roland blinked at her.
"Don't look at me like that! It's not easy for a succubus-oh, excuse me, half-succubus-to admit! Usually we just want to... Well... You know. All the time."
"You're being timid?"
She gave him a strange, pouting kind of smile and patted his cheek.
"I'm not some vulgar beast, Roly-poly. Sometimes I like to be sweet... Especially with a nice guy, like you. I like you, and it didn't take sitting on your magic couch to get me to. Beneath your rough layer, you're a good guy."
"If you like me, then why are you doing this?"
Rose looked a little sad and she sighed.
"Well... The contract was from... Silver Mantis. She said she wanted me to do it because of my... Unique assassination technique. She said it would send a message."
The litany of curses coursed through Roland's mind again.
"Well, time's a wastin', Roly," the demonic girl chirped, "I've got to get this done and it's going to take a long time to drain you. Not even MedCom will be able to help once I'm done, you'll be so depleted."
"I've got little recourse," the portly man said in exasperation, "Rose..."
"It's Lillian, actually. My mother named me in honor of our queen..."
His eyes rolling in aggravation, he continued.
"Look... Please don't do this. I'm sure living here hasn't emptied your funds, you can pay back Silver Mantis and forget about this contract."
"Roland, I really want to," she said sadly as she made her way to his waistline, "I mean it. Seriously. Nice guys like you shouldn't die like this... Well, actually... They should. All of my victims have had bright beaming smiles on their faces when they finally went!"
"Spectacular..." Roland said glibly.
"But you haven't done anything to deserve getting killed! I feel really bad about doing this..."
She started reaching for his belt and he knew his time was almost up. There was no sense holding back anymore.
"I'm a virgin," he announced matter-of-factly, "I haven't made love in my life, and I certainly haven't been laid. Most women I've run into in my life have barely noticed me, and what ones have never feel particularly inclined to spend the night with me."
"Lillian Rose" stopped and blinked. She looked askance at Roland's face, her own screwed up in irritation. She opened her mouth to say something, then clamped it shut as she rolled off of him and stared at the wall for a few seconds.
"You [frick]er!" she shouted as she swatted him on the belly, eliciting a light grunt, "You totally ruined the mood!"
It wasn't entirely true. She would have done it to him anyway, but this gave her an excuse to stop.
"I don't think that a guy's first time should be his last," she murmured, "I... I won't do this to you."
"Really? Oh, thank Heaven..."
"Unless you're lying!" she perked up and leaned against his torso playfully.
"Can you imagine a guy lying about that?"
Lillian grimaced, still cutely, and shook her head. She gave him a hug across his belly.
"So... Will this paralysis fade away?"
"Yeah, eventually. I've spat it at guards before and they got better. I'm not a fighter."
The door to the apartment splintered at that and they both looked to see Ms. Liberty standing in the doorway. While she looked furious, it didn't match the blur that sped past her as Roland's sister, Sarah, tore into the room, screaming with rage as she hooked the half-succubus by the neck and vaulted her over the couch.
Pleading incoherently, Rose tried to keep the white-haired psychic from killing her. Sarah levitated the buxom magical freak and hurled her into one of the chairs, causing her to tumble across the floor and slam into the wall.
"Snuffy!" Roland barked, "Hey! My apartment!"
"Oh!" his sister snapped out of her anger and looked down to her brother, "Oh my gosh! Are you alright?"
"How'd you know I was in trouble?"
She blinked her dark eyes at him, then tapped her temple twice.
"I'm psychic, Round! Remember?"
"So you keep tabs on me?"
"And mom. And dad. And Cedric."
"Come on," Ms. Liberty hissed as she lifted Lillian to her feet, "You're going to the Zig, the easy way or the hard way."
She leaned in close and whispered "Resist arrest... I really want to send you the hard way."
"I'll be good," the demon wimpered, "I'm sorry."
-----------
--The Next Day: Grey's Army Base--
Roland's recovery took a quarter of a day, and even after a good night's sleep, he still felt a little uneasy on his feet. The ordeal didn't seem to have affected his mentality too much, he had just talked his assailant out of killing him when he was rescued, but Ms. Liberty noticed he seemed to be keeping his distance from her.
She found him in his group's base the next day. Randall had recently acquired a lease for expansion for his base, and was apparently setting to work immediately. Roland was shaking every time he started moving, so the group was letting him relax in the lounge.
"You okay, man?" Kip asked as they sat on the central sofa, "You don't feel emasculated?"
"Why would I?" Roland looked askance at his friend and shrugged, "I got ambushed by a succubus and rescued by my psychic sister because she was the only person who could hear my mental shouts for help. I'm a pragmatic, Kip. I take what good I can get."
"Well, whatever makes you feel better, Louis."
"Louis?"
"Yeah. Louis Lane. Or maybe I should call ya Marty Watson."
Roland glared at Kip. He'd have been mad if he didn't feel like laughing so hard.
"Wait!" they heard as the base portal made a zapping sound to signal that Cedric had arrived, "Where's my brother!?"
The tall man barreled into the lounge and grasped his younger brother by the shoulders. He was wearing a business suit that looked freshly made.
"I already called him Louis," Kip chuckled, "And Marty."
"Aw! Dammit!" Cedric spun around and punched the nearest pillar, "I had to see my case worker and I missed it!"
"Hey, shut up!" Roland barked, but not without amusement.
---
“You see,” Randall growled amidst the small androids working on the new expansion to his base, “This is precisely why I don’t see the advantage to being associated with your organization.”
Ms. Liberty frowned at the big man and folded her arms over her chest. She had just got done greeting Roland and the violent Kipland Durj when her friend's gargantuan father beckoned her to speak with him.
It wasn't like talking to her grandfather. Statesman always spoke in terms that still denoted some brand of respect, even when he was being condescending. This gray-haired tanker, however, was gruff and crude. Contempt was radiating from him. He obviously saw a little girl when he looked at her.
“Mister Grey, we can’t keep tabs on everything going on in this city. It’s why we need the help of you and the other heroes… But… I really wish I’d seen the signs that freak was living in Roland’s building. I’d have dealt with her a long time ago.”
Randall looked impassively to the young woman. When she went to say something, he popped open his can of beer and started drinking. At his size, towering at eight feet in height, it wouldn’t do much to his sobriety, but the message was clear. He was irritated that his son’s association with the heroine had once again brought him in harm’s way, and he didn't much care about anything she had to say in protest.
"Mister Grey, I care for your son. I don't even know how things got this way, but... He's important to me."
"He's important to his mother, too, and his sisters, in case you didn't figure that out! His brother went into a rampage when my youngest was kidnapped, what do you think he'll do if something happens to Roland!?"
"I never thought-"
"Brothers treat each other differently than one would a sister. It doesn't mean love ain't there, it's just treated different."
Jessica Duncan shuffled her feet. There was an implication the big man was pacing around. It was the same implication she had to deal with whenever she sought advice from the Vindicators about her male friends.
"Is this really the only thing people think happens between guys and girls, or is it just wishful thinking?" she thought darkly to herself.
“Look, you two better figure things out,” Randall grunted, “I wouldn’t mind if my son died for something that had meaning instead of some skirt leading him on. If that happens…”
He crumpled the unfinished can of beer in his hand, causing foam to spew from the cracks between his fingers.
“…I will be very upset.”
“I’m not leading your son on, Mister Grey!” she hissed, “God! What is it with you people!?”
“We’re like chickens,” Roland answered as he slowly walked up behind her, “We find something irritating about someone and keep pecking until they’re raw and bleeding. Then we peck some more.”
Seeing the spilled beer, the portly young man looked up at his father and gave an inquisitive upward nod. Randall shrugged.
"Your father was just finishing threatening me if anything ever happens to you," Jessica muttered.
Her friend looked askance to her, then back to his father.
"I'm just concerned, son."
"I'm old enough to handle my own conflicts, Dad. I'd have been alright, even if Megan and Sarah didn't show up. We wouldn't have caught Rose, but I'd have been alright."
"I'm glad we did catch her. Now we can find out why Silver Mantis wants you dead..."
Roland looked away a moment, then sighed.
"I would say it's obvious," he explained, "She's trying to hurt you. Look what it does to my family. You read the reports from when we hit Sharkhead to get Sheldon back. That was for a friend. Then there was the rampage Cedric went into when Angel was kidnapped..."
"What does that have to do with me, though?" Liberty furrowed her brow and looked to the two heroes.
Randall wasn't paying attention anymore. A loud noise in the new machine shop had alerted him and he was watching the progress of the Ryat androids more intently. Roland, however, pulled her down the hall to a more secluded room.
"A brewery," Jessica muttered as she saw the setup in the elevated corner, "Figures."
"Look..." Roland sighed as he tried to collect his thoughts, "What I'm about to tell you, I'm not supposed to. The Menders swore each of us to secrecy, but... Frankly, it's too obvious not to be explained and considered."
Ms. Liberty turned to her friend. A worried expression had crossed her face and Roland didn't quite know how to continue, so he decided to start from the beginning.
"A couple weeks ago, the Menders plucked a few heroes and heroines from their business and showed them the future. They normally wouldn't have, but this was about the future of Paragon and it apparently had something to do with how prepared we would be for 'the Coming Storm' they keep talking about. In our case, it was us and how close we could get to you."
She blinked at him, and the corners of her mouth tugged back to give her a small smile.
"And how close do you get?"
"The Menders said I have the capability to marry you."
He said it like he was reading a grocery list, or like he was saying he needed a new filter for his jeep. Ms. Liberty's smile vanished and she leaned against the refrigerator.
"They said I'm capable, not that it will happen," the portly archer continued, misreading her reaction, "But they showed me some futures where it does happen... And in each one I died."
"Oh!" Jessica perked up at that and looked worriedly to him, "Then-!"
"Often it was Silver Mantis who did it, other times Ice Mistral... This one time, it was this woman named Olivia Darque who hired the assassin. In the end, it was always the same. You stormed into the Isles, demanded to see Recluse, and he always let you duel Mantis or whoever in gladiatorial combat... Then you would kill them and Recluse would corrupt you and turn you into his weapon against Statesman..."
Ms. Liberty blinked and leaned against the refrigerator again. She had to brace against something to keep from trembling. Roland wasn't talking like he was reading anymore. He sounded like he was genuinely concerned, and it was a plan that made a disturbing amount of sense. It just required the catalyst of her falling in love.
"My point," he finished, "is that these people don't need to wait to do this to you. And it wasn't just me, Jess. I knew a couple of the other heroes I saw... Blue Battler, Apex... Apex was on his way out when I arrived. He looked about as happy as I turned out to be."
"So, any one of you guys could wind up in a relationship with me, and get assassinated?" the heroine slumped to the floor, "Great..."
"They're not waiting on us, Jess," Roland walked over and slumped next to the fridge around the corner from her, "They're going after the people you care about now. People the rest of the world won't notice at first..."
"So that's why he said he needed to rescue War Witch!" Ms. Liberty seemed a little lost in thought, but she was still paying attention.
"That's what we're dealing with. I wasn't necessarily surprised I got hit by an assassin... But the method... That jarred me a little. Rose said she was hired because it would send a message, and I'm guessing that message was for you."
"So I'm not allowed to have anybody close to me?" Liberty snorted derisively, "Mom never had to deal with crap like this when she was active. She was able to find a sweet guy and fall in love..."
"I wouldn't say you can't have anybody close to you," Roland turned to face her, "But you have to find a way to look out for them."
She studied his posture carefully. Sometimes, it really irked her when he was working to maintain a neutral, professional attitude. Often, she wondered if he ever felt anything for her outside the platonic relationship they'd developed after he found out she wasn't just another little-known heroine. He'd been feeling romantic before, but when he learned who she was...
"I've already got Agent Wild keeping an eye on you," she said after she determined he wasn't about to re-enact a movie cliche, "But he's got other problems, too..."
"I'll work something out with him, then," he said before turning away and resting his head against the refrigerator door, "Oh man... I just felt dizzy there..."
She patted his shoulder sympathetically and stood up. She had to stop worrying herself. He wasn't going to try to take advantage of her delicate emotional state. Still... This was a bit of a bombshell. Arachnos forces were already plotting to harm anyone and everyone close to her? Just to corrupt her?
"I should get going," she sighed, "I'm glad you're okay, Roland."
She looked down to him and helped him up as he tried to stand. He thanked her and leaned back against the refrigerator.
"Still a little dizzy," he explained, "Anyway... Thanks. It's... It's nice to know you, you know? I never thought this sort of thing would happen in my life."
"I know what you mean," Jessica smiled and hugged him, "Get better soon."
2. What is your favorite zone? Croatoa... I just wish the daylight was a little lighter in there. Also love Eden... the earth reclaiming the land.
). Both are currently clad in bathing suits, he in shorts and her in a bikini.))
