Chapter 2

Cynthia glanced at the clock and said, “He should be back in a minute or so.”

Sid asked, “Well, what do you think? Will he like his caretaker?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Mike said.

“The women of Cassandra are pretty,” Cynthia said.

JJ said, “My dad has very particular requirements when it comes to women. As far as I know, he’s never gone out with the same woman twice, since mom died. He compares them all to my mother and they all fall short.”

Sid said, “I don’t know. I’ve met a lot of women from Cassandra. Each one of them is pretty special.”

“His requirements are impossible to meet,” JJ said.

She was beginning to get a little worried. All of this talk of how beautiful the women of Cassandra are was making her wonder if she stood a chance with Mike. She knew that he had a Caretaker and the way that his voice changed when talking about her was making her jealous.

“I’m convinced he’ll get a caretaker that will knock his socks off,” Sid said.

JJ looked at Mike and said, “Tell me about these caretakers.”

“It’s hard to describe. You’ll meet Cat soon enough,” Mike said. They were going to Crossroads in a couple of hours.

“I know you’ll love her,” Cynthia said. She leaned over to JJ and whispered, “Ask her to put you in the healing chamber. You’ll really appreciate it if she does it.”

“Why?” JJ whispered back.

“She can improve your sensitivity to foreplay,” Cynthia whispered.

“Really?” JJ said.

She would have asked for more details, but Professor Jackson stumbled out of the closet with a goofy grin on his face. His legs were a little weak so he sat down on the nearest chair.

He swore and said, “Two weeks. I’ve got to wait two weeks before I can go back.”

Mike said, “It sounds like he likes his caretaker.”

“Yes, it does,” Sid said.

“I love my caretaker,” Professor Jackson said. He stared off into space with that goofy grin on his face.

JJ stared at her father. She had never seen him acting like lovesick teenager. He was normally a very reserved man. She asked, “So what is she like?”

“She’s amazing,” Professor Jackson answered.

The two of them had spent hours going over the history of Hero activities on Chaos. She had made the adventures undertaken by the Heroes come alive by pointing out little details. He discovered that she had a phenomenal memory for details as well as the ability to grasp the big picture.

“Amazing?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who is as smart as she is.”

“That’s a given. You wouldn’t look twice at a woman who didn’t have an IQ the size of the national debt,” JJ said dismissively.

“I like smart women,” Professor Jackson said. “Mercedes is beyond smart.”

“Mercedes. That’s a pretty name,” JJ said. “Is she pretty?”

“You bet,” her father said.

Sid said, “All of the women of Cassandra are beautiful.”

“Describe her,” JJ demanded. She was getting a little frustrated by the lack of details.

“She reminds me of your mother,” Professor Jackson said. “She could be her twin.”

“She’s a blond?”

“No. She’s a brunette,” he said.

“Green eyes?”

“No. They’re brown.”

“Is she tall?”

“Not really.”

JJ stared at her father. Her mother was blond, green-eyed, and tall. The woman didn’t sound like her mother at all. She asked, “Has she got any distinguishing characteristics?”

“She’s got a few scars and she lost her left hand,” Professor Jackson answered.

Sid and Mike chuckled thinking he was joking.

Professor Jackson said, “She was in an accident ten years ago. Apparently, Cassandra doesn’t have the healing unit so she was stuck with some scars and losing her hand.”

“She sounds just like I remember mother,” JJ said rolling her eyes. “However, if I remember correctly, Mom had both hands and no scars.”

“That’s true. After being around Mercedes for a while, you don’t notice those minor imperfections. Like I said, she’s brilliant.”

JJ stared at her father. All of a sudden the penny dropped.

She said, “Don’t tell me: she’s got Betty Page Legs and Earth Mother Boobs.”

Professor Jackson nodded his head while blushing.

“You pervert,” JJ said, “You got your trifecta for the perfect woman.”

“What are Earth Mother Boobs?” Cynthia asked.

“You don’t want to know,” JJ said, rolling her eyes.

Professor Jackson said, “They are the perfect breasts.”

Sid said, “Like yours, Cynthia.”

“More like JJ’s,” Mike said.

“Cynthia, I hate to tell you this, but we don’t have Earth Mother Boobs,” JJ said shaking her head. “My mother did. She had Dad’s trifecta of beauty. She had Einstein Brains, Earth Mother Breasts, and Betty Page Legs. Dad was putty in her hands.”

“Oh,” Cynthia said looking over at Professor Jackson. She would never have figured him for the type to go ape over breasts and legs. He was such a reserved man.

Professor Jackson pulled himself together. Looking more like the professor than the lovestruck schoolboy, he said, “JJ, you’ll be leaving in a while to go to Crossroads and then to Chaos.”

“That’s the plan,” JJ said. She could hardly wait for the opportunity to try out her fighting skills against real opponents.

“Let me give you a last minute bit of advice,” Professor Jackson said.

“Sure,” JJ said.

“It is going to be dangerous on Chaos. Mercedes told me about the experiences of a lot of Heroes on Chaos. The statistics are frightening. This is kill or be killed kind of combat,” Professor Jackson said.

“That’s true,” Sid said.

“I know,” JJ said.

“You don’t fight to where your opponent yields. They don’t really have that concept. If they can still fight, they will fight. She told me about a dozen Heroes who fought to a yield only to discover a knife in his back when his opponent got off the ground,” Professor Jackson said.

“Really?” JJ asked.

“If your opponent tries to yield, knock them unconscious or kill them,” Professor Jackson said.

“Kill them?” JJ asked shocked at the suggestion of harming someone who was trying to yield.

“Yes,” Professor Jackson said. “You don’t pull your blows to where they have a chance to yield.”

Sid said, “That was one of the hardest things for me to learn. If you stand there with a sword point to someone’s throat assuming they’ll surrender, you’ll discover that he’ll grab the sword and start fighting again.”

“One moment of hesitation will get you killed,” Professor Jackson said.

“Okay,” JJ said.

Professor Jackson turned to Sid and said, “On your last mission to Chaos, you let two men surrender. You were lucky things turned out the way they did.”

Sid said, “I never got close enough for them to be able to attack me. They were also convinced that I had men with bows trained on them.”

“That might be the case, but you never know. I imagine if you had pressed them, they would have run,” Professor Jackson said.

“That’s true,” Sid said.

“Cowards,” JJ declared.

“Just because they run doesn’t mean they are cowards. They are smart enough to know when to get the hell out of Dodge. This isn’t a game,” Professor Jackson said.

“Running away is not something I do well,” Sid said.

Mike said, “On my mission, I wouldn’t engage a couple of guys because I knew that they held the upper hand. I waited until I had the advantage.”

“That’s what you’ve got to do,” Professor Jackson said.

Sid said, “I’ve got a tendency to stay engaged too long.”