Ch.4 Could you ever love Another?
It carries out into the night like an endless strand of time heading into its future and to its end upon Eric. He feels the mental pulse, whispers of her voice, and then he opens the door and she is there, just as he remembered. Roxie.
"Eric," Roxie said calling out with her mind as she flew above New York State.
"I'm here," Eric said.
"Finally," Rox said as she brought them together on the astral plane. She appeared to him in her tight black leather pants and red tub top that revealed her wolverine tattoo. He was in all black from his boots to his trench coat. Which was what he had always worn really. "Finally," Eric asked?
"I mean I've been trying to find you for several days and failed. Why couldn't I find you? Why were you blocking me?" Rox asked as Eric took her hands into his and gently kissed them. He really didn't want to answer her question but he knew that if he didn't it would anger her and he would rather her happy. Not because he feared that Rox may lose control but because he didn't want to upset the woman that he…loved. He wanted her to be happy and he had a feeling that there might be someone else in her life now.
"I'm sorry, Rox," Eric said, "I didn't mean to worry you. I just…..I've got stuff going on that I really needed to be by myself to deal with. I even kicked Jason out of the apartment for a time."
"So it wasn't anything that I said or did the last time we talked?," Rox asked gently and softly.
"Of course not," Eric said taking Rox in his arms, "you could never say or do anything to make me not talk to you, darlin."
"Not even if I liked another guy?"
"Do you?"
"I don't know. I was kind of hoping you could tell me. As stupid as that sounds."
"No, your thinking it the wrong way. Your seeking permission to love…Tryon," Eric said and Rox looked at Eric for a moment wondering how the hell he had guessed that and then he answered her unasked question.
"I'm right aren't I? See, Rox, your mind is an open book to me here as mine is to you," Or at least the parts I let you see. Eric thought to himself. There were things he had done that no one, not even his brothers, knew about which he intened to keep in that manner.
"So, do you think I like him?" Rox asked. She knew that Tyron cared for her the same way that Eric did but that didn't mean that she had to like him like she still cared for Eric did it?
"I think you'll have to figure that on your own," Eric said gently, "But I know you would prefer my consent."
"Eric, I won't love anyone like I love you."
"I know and neither will I. We were each other's first loves. You never forget your first love. You never stop loving your first love, okay? No matter how many others you love. Rox, I want you to be happy and if Tyron makes you happy then be with him. Just don't forget me. Or perhaps it would be best if you─
"I will never forget you," Rox said suddenly cutting him off before the last word. "No matter what."
She leaned forward and kissed him and after a moment he returned it. They parted once more. "What are you doing," he asked feeling her mental strain.
"Landing a jet that a friend lent me."
"Where?"
"New York City. More specific Wall Street. There are some evil techno beings attacking people."
"Techno beings," Eric inquired with a smirk on his face, "Is that the technical term?"
Rox simply shook her head with a smile and said, "No. We don't know what they are called yet."
"You know Di is going to want to talk to them."
"I know." Rox said, "And it's not going to work I can tell you that much right now."
Rox's attention was diverted once more and then she turned back to Eric and said, "I have to go, babe."
"All right."
"I love you."
"I love you too Rox."
And she was gone once more and he was left with that inevitable hollow where his heart should be. Once he was called Immortal, part of the now legendary Pheolvrom Team, but now that cause seemed lost. Instead he returned to Eric, a person who has suffered through many hardships and a person perhaps may one day cause such suffering upon others. The future is a bleak one, though it shouldn't be. The two kings, Sinister and Trask have sense been defeated and the tyrant Apocalypse gone as well. But still Eric can not see a world turning to the better, no instead he sees the beginnings of endless anarchy. In part that's why he is where he is at this moment, the ruined city of Deltra.
He stands upon a cracked building over looking the rain drenched city and waits. Pelting drops hammer down upon his skin and billowing cloaks, his dark hair sticking down to his eyes. Near his finger tips, the drops of water crackle and pop away as his body steadies an electric current. Jason is approaching, fast…through wires and old telephone lines until a flash of light occurs and then he's he is on the tower as well.
"Well?" asks Eric eyes focused on the city.
"I found a connection," says Jason coming to his side.
"And that is?"
"They were all previous guards at Alkon."
Eric narrows his gaze, and repeats the name to himself, "Alkon…"
"Yeah, changes things a bit doesn't it?"
"I guess so, but still even if these murders are justified, who ever this is, is doing it in extreme forms. He's not just killing them outright. He's torturing them for days at a time in the best of ways." Jason nods his head in response and then pushes, "It's no worse then what they did to us."
"Then it would be safe to assume this is the work of a mutant. Any idea on what it's mutation is?" he asks.
"Can't say for sure," says Jason. "The guards are all men, wounds ranging from stabbing, burns, strangulation, surgical cuts, hard to tell what the mutant factor if any might be."
"You're suggesting this could be done by a human?"
"It's possible, but at this point, we won't know for certain until we catch him."
"Catch him?" asks Eric a little surprised. "I thought we would just leave him to what ever he wishes. I have no compassion for those people, and nor should you."
"I don't, trust me. It's out of sheer curiosity that I wish to pursue this unknown mutilator and perhaps he'll join up with us."
After a long pause, "Sure…why not?" says Eric. "I take it then you have a means of finding our friend?"
"Of course," says Jason nonchalantly. "I did a little computer work and there are only two other prior Alkon guards in the city. We either split up or go on the same hunt, but I would recommend splitting and then see who get's lucky."
"I guess it could work. Am I to take it, Twitch will be tailing with me then?"
"Wouldn't have it any other way," says Jason and he pulls out a hollow map from his cloak and hands it over to Eric. "Ok, on here are the directions to one Mark Collins. He lives on the west side of the city, close to the production mills. Lives alone from what I take. You steak out him and I'll take on the other."
"You really do like this whole detective shit, don't you?" inquires Eric.
"Jason gives a slight smirk, "It's something to do," and shocks away, back into the wires.
Eric gives a small sigh. Some how hunting underworld criminals seemed devote of any real purpose. Take down one and another comes right up to fill it's place. And further more it's not something that will lead to any fulfillment. Roxie….some how she enters his thoughts once more and he can't shake her away. Why? Why dose she haunt him? It just can't be, could never be. Why? Because his soul is unsettled, his thoughts of loss never ending. Something still scratches away in his soul eroding the being he has made for the eyes of others.
Jason. For twins how is it that he dose not seem to suffer from the very same torments that consume Eric? Dose his heart desire Roxie's? Does he carry with him a secret buried deep and dark?
It doesn't matter. Time to track down a killer, a killer in which Eric can't help but sympathize with. He's doing the world a favor. And if torture is his function, why not? Certainly none of those guards were ever merciful.
