by Jason Krate
"It's probably no different than the sensations I feel while being ravaged by the pigs who pay me to let them fuck me or do what they want to me and my body" Rachel Addison scoffed, "just a high, and its over…nothing special."
"You're wrong. This woman was like you. She had an emptiness to her, she was lonely, but she had been told she was a freak. She eventually left her home and came here…and this funny thing happened. She found a kindred spirit in this damaged and lonely man. They grew close, and fell in love. He and she eventually married and had children. That woman was my wife."
"You speak of her so highly" Rachel Addison said in response, "you really must have loved her."
"Yes I did…and when she died….part of me died as well"
"That is so cheesy" Rachel Addison said in cynical disbelief.
"No it's the truth" Baron Knight insisted, "I tell no lies."
"It sounds like pillow talk that my clients always say to me" Rachel Addison countered, "the only time I've ever had a man say he 'loves' me…is when he's deep inside my vagina and it's not ME he is saying he loves."
"Never compare what you do for money to survive with the feelings and sensations of true love and lovemaking" Baron Knight scolded, "I hope you one day experience what I am talking about."
Rachel Addison scoffed, "Are you seriously saying that you're hoping that I one day fall in love with a man?"
"Yes I am." Baron Knight said, "Every woman who is like you deserves to be loved by someone. I hope you do, because then you'll understand. When you fall in love, a part of you becomes part of the other…and I am not talking about sex. I am talking about your heart, your spirit. You become a part of one another's life. You want her or him to be happy, as happy as you feel when you're around them. When you touch, its confirmation that this is real and you're not imagining finding your life mate. When you kiss, it is a confirmation of your passion and amorous feelings towards each other. And when you…well…fuck each other in bed, it's not just the carnal pleasures of the flesh that you feel…of which I am sure your undoubtedly very familiar with. It is in fact much better. Because when you love and trust that person, and he or she feels the same enough to do this with you. You don't feel like you're just fucking, you feel like you're are both truly one with one another. One mind, one heart, and one body. I hope you get to experience it…and if you do, I hope you never have to experience the pain of losing that special person in your life. Because like the pleasure of love, the pain of loss can fill you. When your lover dies, part of you dies with them. It can make you lose yourself. I should know. I am lost without her and my loved ones. Just rummaging around in the dark, hunting for monsters in the night until my mission is completed."
* * *
There was a long moment of silence between them before Rachel broke it.
"You…" Rachel Addison blinked in awe at what he had said, she had to admit after hearing Baron Knight describe the sensations of love, something she had never experienced with a man herself, she felt a little envious towards Baron Knight's wife Raven Ducard and what she and he had had when she was alive "you really did love her didn't you. You don't see that a lot in today's world."
"I did, her and my first wife Gwen. I loved them both when I had them in my life…" Baron Knight added ruefully, "as much as it hurt to lose Gwen, it was nothing compared to how I hurt after losing Raven and everyone else in the same dark hours before the world became…like this."
"You fell in love twice?" Rachel Addison said astonished, "what were you a Casanova in your prime?"
"Why are you up here?" Baron Knight asked, "if you've come up here to pester and bicker with me your doing a damn fine job of it but it's getting old…"
"I was wondering why you returned to Brightmoon City" Rachel Addison answered, "Now I told you why I pray despite being a…filthy whore…now it's your turn. Why did you return?"
"Revenge" Baron Knight answered.
"On who?" Rachel Addison asked concerned, she didn't like the sound of that.
Baron Knight ignored her.
"After you've had your revenge, what are you going to do…fade into the shadows or something?" she asked.
"There will be nothing left for me once I've had my revenge" Baron Knight answered, "when it's over…I plan on killing myself."
"Makes sense I guess…" Rachel Addison said sadly, but cynical nonetheless "all your friends and family are dead like you say, you must be dying to see them again."
Baron Knight stood up and looked down at her, "Do you delight in reminding me? Do you get some kind of satisfaction making me remember I'm the last of my "kind"?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean any offense…" Rachel Addison said apologetically, "It's just…I would have thought you'd have taken the plunge to the afterlife years ago. If I was without my daughter, I would have to escape from the loneliness and the pain…just to see my parents again."
Baron Knight suddenly calmed down and became somber, he looked back out at the ruined city "I wasn't all alone….I had a daughter who survived the great massacre. For most of my lonely life these past 48 years or so…I lost count. She was my companion, she made it a bit easier to live on in this burnt of corpse of a world that took away everyone else I ever loved."
He then paused, and chuckled a bit "you know…this is the longest I have ever known and talked to a woman outside of my daughter…without them calling me an Asshole and running off in a huff?"
"What a shock" Rachel Addison said sarcastically, "but truth be told…this is the longest I have known a single man or even talked to one without being naked and having to have an actual conversation instead of hearing how sexy my curves are and having to fake my appreciation of the rather uninspiring sexual innuendo being spouted while coming up with some of my own just to keep up the façade of enjoying myself getting reviled for pebbles and some perverts pleasure. Its…kind of nice. Just…talking with a man who doesn't want to fuck me for money. It really is."
"Well don't get any ideas" Baron Knight scoffed, "you're not my type."
"I'm not even your age old timer" Rachel Addison shot back, "I'm not into May-December Romance, even if I was looking for romance…and even if I was, I sure wouldn't be interested in you."
"What does she look like?" Baron Knight blurted.
"What?" Rachel Addison asked, his sudden change of subject took her off guard.
"Your daughter, Kaitlin…" Baron Knight answered, "What does she look like? If you tell me, I can go out and find her…bring her back to the church and to you safely."
"Why?" she asked unsure of Baron Knights intentions.
He may have saved her, but that didn't mean she entirely trusted him…especially with something as important to her as her daughter.
A woman who has gone her whole life mistrusting most men, and at one time hating all metahumans didn't just drop those defenses so easily.
"Because among my many talents I am good at tracking and was once revered as a living Sherlock Holmes" Baron Knight explained.
"Who is that?" Rachel Addison asked in confusion, she had never heard that name before.
"Okay now that is a crime against humanity" Baron Knight grumbled in annoyance, and then looked at her with his glowing red eyes "I am a Great Detective, and although my skills may be rusty I am sure I can find your daughter. You only need to ask."
Rachel Addison thought about it, and then looked him in the eye "You find her, will you send us both out of the city before you're…whatever you're doing to whoever in some mad scheme for revenge…engulfs the whole city?"
"You have my word, and I am a man of my word" Baron Knight nodded in agreement.
"She is this tall, and has brown hair and a cheeky smile. She is missing a tooth on the left side of her mouth and she has a butterfly birthmark on the back of her neck. She was wearing a pink shirt and slightly worn track jeans the day before…before I ran into you."
"That will help a lot, thank you" Baron Knight said, and got ready to leave.
&nbs
p; "Wait…why are you helping me?" Rachel Addison asked, genuinely curious as to why this Metahuman was going to go look for her missing daughter.
"Because you helped me, remember? One good turn, deserves another a wise man once said" Baron Knight answered, "Besides….it's what she would have wanted me to do."
"What who would have wanted you to do?" Rachel Addison asked.
But Baron Knight vanished in a flash of light and a plume of purple smoke before she had even finished asking her question.
She then looked out the belfry in an attempt to locate Baron Knight to see where he was going, but found that she couldn't see him anywhere in the distance.
How did he do that?
She was about to walk down the stairs to wait for his return, hopefully with Kaitlin in tow, down in the pew bellow.
She stopped for a brief moment, because for that moment in the background of the ruined city outside the old church.
She could have sworn she heard what sounded like an explosion, and tanks and walker noises heading towards the church.
She had no idea how right she was about that assumption.
The Baron Knight Returns: Chapter 7
* * *
Chapter 7: Kaitlin Addison
* * *
Rachel Addison's Apartment: October 8th, 2063: 2:50 AM
"Well Miss Addison, you definitely didn't throw the wild party that occurred in this place after the both of us left it last. That much is for certain." Baron Knight said as he looked around at the apartment flat that belonged to Rachel Addison.
She hadn't been exaggerating.
The living room area was a mess, and it indicated that some kind of struggle had occurred.
But what really interested Baron Knight was the burn marks on the walls, as well as the ones on the floor.
Electrical burn marks to be exact.
Now whatever it was that had caused those two marks on the wall might have been the same thing that had fried those thugs that attacked Kaitlin Addison's paladin escort.
But it was the marks on the floor that really interested Baron Knight the most.
Because unless his eyes were playing tricks on him, the burn marks on the floor were in the exact shape of two shoe prints.
"Hmm…" Baron Knight thought to himself, "how very interesting. It seems there was a metahuman in this apartment. An electro-kinetic. A metahuman that would never have been able to use his or her powers in this wrecked world…unless they were able to draw power from a lightning storm…or if an entire city suddenly and inexplicably got its electrical power back after decades of being blackout city. So when the Deathborne Sibling somehow restored power to Brightmoon City…this mystery Metahuman got their powers rendered accessible. Now…what was this mystery metahuman doing in two places where Kaitlin Addison was said to be or was supposed to be found."
He looked down at the footprints again, "I thought it might be you old friend, that maybe like Mastermind you survived as well. But it can't be you…because these can't be you footprints. So that leaves only one possibility on who this mystery electro-kinetic really is."
He then activated his Shadow Vision ability.
Unfortunately the echoes of what happened here in this room were not as strong as they would have been eight hours ago, so all Baron Knight could see was the hazy images of what happened.
So he couldn't see who was who in this strange 'shadow play' before his eyes.
But his deductive mind was still as sharp as ever even if his powers were a bit rusty, the echoes were all he needed to piece together what happened.
Someone ran into the room to hide, they barricaded the door with the couch.
That didn't keep the person who ran into the apartment to hide safe for long from his or her pursuers.
They broke in, causing the person to pick up and throw what they could at his or her pursuers…and tried to make a break for the fire exit.
They weren't fast enough to get away, the pursuers blocked them off from the window.
Cornered, and about to be accosted by the pursuers…something happened here that caused the marks on the walls.
Whatever it was that happened, it gave this person the chance to run for the door.
But his or her pursuers recovered quickly and ran after this person.
One of them took a shot at the fleeing person, hence the bullet hole on the wall I saw coming up the stairs.
One of his crew seemed to scold him before leading the chase after the fleeing person…obviously whoever they were chasing they want him or her capture alive for some reason.
Baron Knight followed the echoes out to as far as they could go, the front door of the lower floor.
The echoes he saw in the shadow realm were only recorded in dim lit or darkened areas, so events that didn't happen in those places or in that kind of lack of sunlight exposure he couldn't see.
From that point, he'd have to rely on logic and solid deduction.
He looked out at the ruined street that ran parallel to the apartment buildings front door stoop.
Only two ways that Kaitlin could have run (he figured it was Kaitlin since he knew that the echo that had been chased was a small child matching Kaitlin Addison's age and height based on Rachel's description) and since the way to the left end of the street was a bit of a steep climb due to a large pile of masonry that ruined collapsed building creating a makeshift incline.
So she would have run the opposite way.
He followed the street down to its closest access way.
A single alleyway.
He walked down the alleyway and out onto…..he couldn't believe it.
The vacant lot.
It was still here.
Untouched.
Out of all the places that had been wrecked by the battle with THANATOS many years ago, this place, it was still around and looking the way it had been before.
To the city and its citizens, especially the ones who didn't know the history of the city thanks to civilizations collapse it was just a vacant lot in a city full of them.
To Minra…it was the site of his tragic origin as a superhero.
The birth site of the Baron Knight.
A place that he hated.
* * *
He pushed the bad memories this place had for him out of his mind and focused on the task at hand.
He looked around the open lot for any clues to give him any indication where Kaitlin Addison could have gone.
He suddenly heard the sound of a child whimpering coming from the direction of the pile of rubble and wrecked masonry.
He saw that there was an open manhole leading down into the abandoned section of Brightmoon City's sewer system in that direction, but what really interested him was the body of the dead Marauder.
It was near the edge of the manhole, and it was charred like the others.
The kind of charring only electrocution of high voltage could produce in a body.
He could see that the electrocuted Marauders hands were clasped around the metal stepladder leading down into the sewer system.
So something or someone sent a powerful electric current through that ladder, wiping out the remaining pursuit force.
If his hunch was correct based on the clues he had found so far, he was going to have to ask Rachel Addison where exactly she had gotten Kaitlin from.
His Dark Sense power wasn't what it used to be, but it still wasn't giving him any signs of danger coming from down the manhole well.
So deciding that it was safe, he pushed the Marauders charred corpse away from the manhole and climbed down into the abandoned sewer system of the Far Side slums.
Once down there, his Shadow Vision's 'miasmic Echo' ability kicked back on due to the fact that darkness was everywhere down in the sewer system.
So he had a good lead on the trail left behind by Kaitlin Addison.
He followed it down the pipe to what used to be a main Sewer Junction.
He heard what sounded like a young g
irl whimpering in the darkness, and with his night vision ability he also saw the young girl who was making those sounds.
