Although it was nearly impossible for Mike to believe, Erica was even more responsive in bed than Cat. The young woman came just from being kissed. He had never thought of himself as having much stamina in bed, but she was unconscious before he was even close to coming. At first it worried him a lot, but he got used to her collapsing on the bed unconscious within a minute of two of him entering her.
The solution was to include Cat in the bed so that she could warm him up before he turned his attention to Erica. Cat would take him almost to the point of no return and then he would enter Erica. Within a minute or two, he'd be coming. Most times he would finish about the same time that Erica's eyes rolled back in her head.
Cat was ecstatic about his bedtime performance. In a way, he was confused by her obvious pride in his bedroom skills and how much time she wanted him to spend with Erica proving that he was indeed a virile Hero from Earth. It took a long time for him to realize that she was establishing bragging rights.
Despite her quick trigger, Erica was practically insatiable. She was ready to go eight or nine times a day. Every action and every word out of her mouth was a subtle tease intended to get him to the next performance. Between the cultured sexiness of each woman, Mike was in a near constant state of arousal.
Between bouts of sex, Mike was debriefed about every minute of his time on Chaos. He also trained with weapons and learned more about Chaos. Cat couldn't help him with sword training and he knew that he would have to start training with a sword back on Earth. She was able to tell him the styles that would be most useful.
One afternoon after a very intense session with Erica, Mike joined the two women on the couch. The pair of women made sure that he was seated between them. Erica asked, "Do you have a girlfriend back on Earth?"
"No," Mike answered.
Cat asked, "Why not?"
"You're the only woman I need," Mike answered. He noticed the expression on Erica's face and added, "Along with the Damsels."
"That's rubbish," Cat said.
"What's rubbish?" Mike asked.
Erica said, "A man like you can give a woman so much pleasure in bed that you should be surrounded by a dozen women."
"Two dozen," Cat said poking Mike in the side.
"You're it for me," Mike said.
Cat stood up and faced Mike. Pointing a finger at him, she said, "I want you to promise me that you'll find a nice Earth woman or three and keep them happy."
"I'm happy as I am," Mike said.
"Promise me," Cat said.
Mike stared at Cat for a moment and then said, "This is important to you."
"Yes, it is important to me. I know that you know Hero Sid and his Hero Companion," Cat said.
"I know Cynthia," Mike said with a frown.
"Sally Caretaker is always bragging about how her Hero, Sid Jones, has a girlfriend on Earth who actually accompanies him as a Hero Companion. I want to be able to say the same thing about you," Cat said. She sat down on the couch and said, "You're my Hero and I want to be able to tell women that you can satisfy hundreds of women."
"It sounds to me like you want to brag about me," Mike said.
"You bet," Cat said.
"I'm not very comfortable with that," Mike said. He preferred to earn respect with his current actions and not on the basis of boasts about his past.
"Are all Heroes that modest?" Erica asked.
"Yes, they are. They all act embarrassed when they discover that we have television shows in which we discuss their sexual prowess," Cat said returning to her seat next to Mike.
"You have what?" Mike asked open mouthed. He wasn't sure that he had heard correctly what Cat had said.
"I'll probably go on the Heroes Are Sexy show when I return to Cassandra," Erica said.
"Oh? That's one of my favorite shows. I used to lie there and masturbate while watching that show," Cat said.
"Same here. The hostess really knows how to get all of the erotic details about the performance of each Hero," Erica said, "I'm sure that everyone will want to hear about the new Hero. He's such a stud. It takes both of us to take the edge off his sexual drive."
Cat looked over at Mike and said, "I just have to look at him and I get wet between the legs."
"Same here," Erica said.
"He'll take care of you anytime you want," Cat said. She gave Mike a look that suggested he had better agree with her or else.
"Uh, yeah," Mike said looking at Cat realizing that this was very important to her.
"I can't wait for the day when I can get on television and tell everyone that he has an Earth girlfriend, too," Cat said.
"I don't have an Earth girlfriend," Mike said.
"You must find one. There must be millions of women on Earth who need a man like you in their lives. I'd feel so guilty thinking that you were denying some poor woman pleasure because of me," Cat said.
Erica sighed and said, "You know, you're a very lucky woman. You'll get to make love to him every time he goes on an adventure. Millions of women will be jealous of you once you tell them how good he is in bed. I'm jealous of you now that I've experienced him."
"Uh," Mike tried to say. He wasn't sure how he felt about his sexual activities becoming fodder for television.
"I had always heard about how Earth men could have sex with a woman until she lost consciousness, but I never believed it. Now that I've experienced it, I still find it hard to believe. It is amazing," Erica said.
"Maybe if I went a little slower, you'd last longer," Mike said.
Erica shuddered and then let loose with a low moan. Cat said, "You really know how to light a fire in a woman, don't you?"
"Uh," Mike said.
"You are definitely going to have to get a girlfriend on Earth," Cat said.
The month with Erica and Cat passed quickly. He was relaxing on the sofa one morning drinking coffee when Erica came in the room and announced, "I'm pregnant."
Cat jumped up and raced over to Erica. Hugging the woman, she said, "Congratulations."
"I'm so happy," Erica said.
Although he had known that the whole reason for Erica to risk her life had been to have a baby, it was only at that moment that the full implications dawned on him. He had made a woman pregnant and she was going to have his baby. He rose and hugged Erica. He said, "I'm happy for you."
"I'm so envious of your Caretaker. She's one of the luckiest women of Cassandra. She gets to have you in her life. Millions of women are going to hear about you," Erica said looking at his face. Unconscious of what she was doing, her hand wandered down to his crotch and fondled it.
Cat said, "It is time for you to leave."
"I know," Erica said. She pulled away from Mike and said, "I wish that I could have one more time with you, but I can't. Take care of yourself, Hero."
"I will," Mike said thinking that in nine months a child of his would be born on a distant planet. He knew that he'd never see the child. He patted her stomach and said, "Take care of the little one."
"I will," Erica said. She went to the door and left.
As soon as Erica had left the room, Mike started feeling a little sick to his stomach. He said, "I'm not feeling too good."
"It is time for you to leave," Cat said leading him to the portal.
"I'd like to stay here with you," Mike said. His stomach twisted.
Cat said, "You have to go. Come back a month from now."
"I will," Mike promised.
"Find a girlfriend," Cat said looking at him. She kissed him passionately before she pushed him into the portal room. Dreading the separation that was coming, she slowly closed the door. Mike memorized her appearance while the door swung shut. Her look of longing was etched into his brain.
There was the slight twisting sensation when the portal transferred him back to Earth. The plain white room changed into the interior of Sid's closet. His stomach immediately felt better. Mike stepped out of the closet and looked at Sid. He said, "It is so hard to leave."
Sid smiled and said, "Sometimes I think they force us out so that all we'll think about is returning."
Mike turned and looked back at the closet. He frowned and said, "I have to wait a whole month before I return."
"It will be a long month," Sid said acknowledging how slowly time passed between adventures.
"That was nothing like I expected. I thought it was cleaner in the old days," Mike said moving over to a chair.
Sid said, "I'm always shocked by the smell."
"They had a tannery in the town where I stayed," Mike said.
"Now that is one horrible smell," Sid said with a laugh.
Thinking about his experiences on Chaos, Mike said, "I'm going to have to get some training with a sword."
Nodding his head, Sid said, "There's a guy who teaches medieval sword work that lives in this area. He's a historian and has been studying how swords were used in the past. He'll teach you the real stuff you need to know. You'll never win a fencing bout here on Earth, but you'll learn enough to win a sword fight on Chaos. I'll take you to meet him tomorrow."
"Thanks," Mike said. He looked down at the bathrobe he was wearing and said, "Thanks for the warning about clothes."
"It took me a few times to figure it out. One of the other Heroes goes to Crossroads nude. He told me it saves him money on clothes, but I know that it is just to save time when he reaches his caretaker," Sid said with a grin.
"I can understand that," Mike said.
Sid asked, "Did your Caretaker talk to you about getting a Companion?"
"Yes," Mike said shaking his head. She had spent hours talking about how he needed to find an Earth girl to take care of him while he was on Earth. Shaking his head, he said, "I don't understand why Cat was so interested in my sex life. To hear her talk, you'd think that she wanted me to get laid by ten different women a day."
"That's how all women of Cassandra are. She'll ask you about every woman that you've ever met. She'll want to know every detail about every encounter. She'll ask you straight out how many orgasms the other woman had," Sid said with a laugh.
"You'd almost think that their idea of an aphrodisiac is hearing about how many women a man has been with," Mike said.
"It is," Sid replied. He added, "My uncle was considered a sex star because he had bedded over a hundred women from Cassandra."
"Wow," Mike said.
"You're going to want to build a portal of your own," Sid said. He pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Mike. He explained, "Here are the instructions on how to do it."
Mike looked down at the piece of paper noticing the material list required to build a portal. It was going to be pretty expensive. He said, "It will take some time to get the materials."
"You can use my portal until you get yours completed," Sid said.
"Thanks," Mike said.
"Just don't get killed while you're on Chaos. Your body will show up in my closet and I don't want to explain to your coworkers how you died," Sid said looking at Mike.
"I didn't even think of that," Mike said realizing how much of a risk Sid was taking by offering use of his portal. He thought about where he could put the portal and realized that he lived in an apartment. Shaking his head, he said, "I don't have a permanent place for a portal."
"Make one that is portable," Sid said, "There are lots of ways to do it. Malcolm has a mirror frame that he uses. He swings the mirror out of the way when he's ready to go to Chaos."
"Smart," Mike said.
Mike rode in the patrol car with his partner, Jim Daniels, that night. Saturday nights had to be the worst nights to be on patrol. It seemed to him like every idiot in the world decided that Saturday night was the time to attempt their most idiotic stunts. Mike said, "I hope it is a quiet night."
"Saturday nights are never quiet," Jim replied. Despite being the driver, his eyes flicked from side to side looking for anything suspicious. He noticed a crowd near one of the empty lots and said, "It looks like we found a little excitement."
Mike looked over at the lot and recognized one of the men. He groaned and said, "It looks like Stupid Steve is high on crack."
"Shit," Jim said. Stupid Steve was one of those individuals who turned violent after partaking crack.
Mike called in the stop to dispatch while Jim pulled the car over to the curb in front of the empty lot. As he turned off the car, Jim said, "I swear that if he comes at me this time, I'm going to kill him."
The pair of cops exited the car prepared for the worst. Mike took one look at what was going on and put a hand on Jim's arm to stop him. He said, "Hold on a minute."
Jim glared at Mike and said, "We've got to break this up before she gets hurt."
"Isn't she magnificent?" Mike asked watching the exceptionally tall Amazon woman face Stupid Steve. She was balanced on the balls of her feet and holding two small sections of pipe in her hands. The sections of pipe never stopped moving.
Stupid Steve was jumping up and down with his left arm flopping in an unnatural manner. He shouted, "I'm going to kill you, bitch."
"Limp dick."
The insult was only an excuse to do what he was intending to do. Stupid Steve charged at the woman. She stepped out of the way and tapped him three times with the sections of pipe. The grin that split her face was almost feral. Mike said, "Did you see that?"
"She's fast," Jim said impressed by the obvious demonstration of skill.
"She's playing with him. She could have killed him that time," Mike said. It was hard to believe that anyone well over six feet tall could move that fast.
Stupid Steve did not look very healthy. His left arm now dangled from his shoulder. His jaw was at an angle to his face. His breathing was raspy from what were clearly broken ribs. He swayed, but didn't back away.
Moving forward, Jim said, "We're going to have to stop it before someone gets killed. You take care of Steve and I'll take care of her."
"I think you should take care of Steve. I'll take care of her," Mike said.
"Why?" Jim asked.
"Do you think you could handle her?" Mike asked looking at Jim.
"You're right," Jim said moving towards Stupid Steve.
Removing his nightstick from the loop on his belt, Mike walked up to the woman and said, "You might want to put down those pipes."
"Think you can make me?" she asked without taking her eyes off of the man she had been fighting.
"Yes," Mike answered in a flat honest voice. He held his nightstick with the long end flat against his forearm.
She glanced over at him intending to insult his manhood. He was standing there with the kind of poise and confidence that let her know that he was serious. She thought better of escalating the matter and said, "You just might be able to do it at that."
"There's no might about it," Mike said watching her eyes.
The woman dropped the pipes and gestured in the direction of Steve. She said, "You might want to help out your partner."
Mike looked over and saw his partner stagger back with a bloody nose. Jim was reaching for his gun. Shaking his head, Mike said, "I'll be right back."
"Yeah, sure," the woman said bending down to pick up the pipes. She paused in time to see Mike take Steve down with a leg sweep. Within seconds the man was on his stomach with his right wrist cuffed to his left leg. She smiled and stood up without the two pieces of pipe. She muttered, "Now that's a magnificent man."
Mike looked over at Jim and keyed his microphone. He asked the dispatcher to send back up and an ambulance. Holding his bloody nose, Jim said, "You should have let me kill the bastard."
"He's going away for a long time," Mike said.
"Not long enough. He'll be out on bail by noon tomorrow," Jim said disgusted by the revolving door judicial system.
Mike looked over at the woman and then said, "I'll talk to the woman and find out what happened here."
"Keep it in your trousers," Jim said.
"I've got a girlfriend," Mike retorted. He wasn't going to add that she lived on another planet and he would only get to see her once a month.
"Just remember that," Jim said shaking his head. He looked down at Steve and felt like kicking him in the side. His nose was still bleeding.
Mike walked over to the woman while pulling a small pad of paper and his pen from his shirt pocket. On reaching her, he said, "I'll need your name."
"I'm Jennifer Jackson. My friends call me JJ."
"I'm Mike Radford, Ms. Jackson," Mike said, "Would you tell me what happened here?"
"That little pencil dick attacked me," JJ said.
Mike asked questions getting a coherent story out of her. It took about ten minutes to get all of the relevant details. He closed his notebook and asked, "Where did you learn to fight like that?"
"Daddy," JJ answered with a smile.
"Let me give you a little advice off the record. You shouldn't have played around with him like that. You should have taken out one of his knees and left the scene. You were close to crossing the line between self-defense and assault," Mike said. The only thing in her favor was that Stupid Steve was high on crack and it was dicey if he would have ever backed off.
Sunday morning, Mike followed Sid and Cynthia into a large empty warehouse. From an office at the far end of the warehouse, the trio could hear a man yelling, "You shouldn't have played around with him like that. You should have taken out one of his knees and left the scene."
"It was the first time I actually got to use my training!"
"Well, you didn't use it the way I taught you. You know better than to play with someone in a fight. You take the opponent out and then you leave," the man shouted back.
Sid said, "Sounds like one of the Professor's students is getting a tongue lashing."
Mike said, "That sounds like Jennifer Jackson."
"JJ?" Sid asked surprised at hearing a name from his past.
"Yes," Mike said surprised that Sid knew who she was.
Sid hadn't seen JJ in almost ten years. The last time he had seen her, he was fourteen and she was eleven. She had been a tall skinny girl that was all elbows and knees. Sid asked, "How do you know JJ?"
"She was in a fight," Mike answered.
Perking up, Cynthia asked, "Is she pretty?"
"Yes," Mike answered.
"You better grab her before someone else does," Cynthia said.
"In case you haven't forgotten, I've already got a girlfriend," Mike said looking over at Cynthia.
Without batting an eye, Cynthia said, "Cat would be so proud if you were to have an Earth girl."
Sid smiled and said, "I'm pretty sure that JJ would make a great Hero Companion. Her father taught her how to take care of herself."
"Not you too," Mike said with a groan.
Cynthia said, "The women of Cassandra really like virile men."
The trio reached the office door in time for it to open. JJ stormed out and almost ran into them. She looked at Mike; recognizing him from the previous evening. He looked even better in the light of day. Her eyes checked out the whole package before she finally said, "It is you!"
"Hello, Ms. Jackson," Mike said nodding his head in her direction. He did his best to keep his eyes on her face. At her height, that was pretty hard to do.
"Hello, JJ," Sid said. Little Jennifer Jackson had grown up into one impressive looking lady.
Cynthia smiled and said, "She's gorgeous, Mike. Don't let her get away."
JJ glared at Cynthia and then looked over at Sid. It took a second for her to recognize him. She said, "Sid Jones? I almost didn't recognize you."
"You've grown up," Sid said.
"So have you," JJ said. She looked over at Mike and then back at Sid. Gesturing at Mike with her thumb, she asked, "Is he a friend of yours?"
Professor Jackson stepped out of the office and looked at Mike and Cynthia. Pursing his lips, he asked, "Are these the two you want me to teach?"
Sid answered, "Yes."
JJ looked over at Cynthia and asked, "Why do you want to learn how to fight with techniques that haven't been used in three hundred years?"
Cynthia answered, "I'm his companion. I need to know how to defend myself when we travel together."
"You sure as hell won't be using medieval swords," JJ said with a snort.
Mike muttered, "Don't bet on it."
Listening to the exchange with a frown, Professor Jackson asked, "Are you saying that you believe that old fairy tale of Gerald's?"
"Which fairy tale might that be?" Sid asked.
"The one about Crossroads, Cassandra, and Chaos," Professor Jackson answered. Gerald had always told him tales about being a Hero and rescuing Damsels in Distress. It always ended with the old man telling him how it would help him to understand medieval warfare.
"It is not a fairy tale," Cynthia and Mike answered together.
Professor Jackson said, "Gerald was always talking about how I needed to go there. That old man was one sharp tack except for when it came to that little subject. I kept trying to get him to seek some professional help."
Sid said, "Chaos is real. There are Damsels in Distress who have to be rescued using nothing more than medieval weapons."
"You're just as crazy as your uncle," Professor Jackson said.
Sid looked at Professor Jackson for a second and said, "I'll make a deal with you. You come over to my house and do what I tell you for fifteen minutes. If you aren't satisfied that I'm telling you the absolute truth, I'll pay you double for their training."
"What will you expect from me if I am satisfied?" Professor Jackson said with a grin.
"You'll train all of us for free," Sid said. He knew that Professor Jackson would find it impossible to resist visiting Chaos. He would want to train and train hard before going there.
Cynthia leaned over to JJ and whispered, "If you play your cards right, you can get the guy and the chance to have the adventure of your life."
"What makes you think I'm interested in him?" JJ asked looking down at Cynthia.
"I saw the way you were undressing him with your eyes," Cynthia answered thinking that Mike's Caretaker was about to become a very happy woman.
"Rescuing Damsels in Distress using only medieval weapons?" JJ asked with a thoughtful expression on her face.
"That's right." Cynthia smiled knowing that JJ was hooked. It was time to reel her in. She whispered, "Don't forget that you'll be traveling with Mike."
After a bit of give and take with Sid, Professor Jackson said, "It is a deal. I'll come over to your house and do what you tell me for fifteen minutes."
"Good," Sid said.
Turning to Cynthia and Mike, Professor Jackson asked, "What do you know about swords?"
"Nothing," Mike answered.
"Same here," Cynthia answered.
"Good. We'll have none of that damned fencing crap to unlearn," Professor Jackson said. He looked at JJ and said, "You and Sid will spar while I teach these two which end of the sword to hold. Let's see if he remembers anything I taught him."
"Yes, Daddy."
The End of Mike Radford: Accidental Hero