Discovering the real world

PART 6: "An ordinary conversation?"

Bullseye was confused, shocked even by her sudden change of plans - she had told him clearly that she saved his life because she needed him to eliminate Daredevil. Was she mocking him or was she indeed serious?

However, he noticed her bored tone, as if even she didn't approve to what she had just said.

But all these thoughts were somewhere deep in his mind for his real reaction was a violent outburst, an eruption of suppressed anger - nothing that Lara didn't expect.

"What?" Bullseye yelled striking his clenched fists against her desk. "You're out of your mind?"

But Lara still didn't look him in the eyes, a fact that made him even more furious.

"You listening to me?"

Her ignorance made him feel stupid, as if he was talking to himself and he couldn't stand this at all. With a quick movement he reached out to snatch the book from her hands but Lara anticipated his intention and with a quick movement she grabbed him by the wrist before he could touch her book. Finally, she raised her eyes and looked at him while putting the book aside. Standing up, she twisted his hand so hard that he placed the other one on the desk, trying to keep his balance. He was also struggling not to show how much it hurt, as her adamantium skeleton was squeezing his hand like a vice.

"For your sake, you had better learn to control these violent outbursts."

If there was something Bullseye hated more than missing the target was being threatened. And although he would never harm Lara, in that moment he was simply starring at her, his eyes wide opened and burning with anger, as if he wanted to fire deadly laser rays at her, through them.

When he suddenly felt her grip on his wrist loosening he pulled his hand back violently and took a step back, not because he was afraid but because he knew that if she provoked him more he wouldn't be able to control himself.

"Believe me, I like this situation as much as you do but I received an order from my superiors and I have no choice but to comply with it," She informed him.

"But I don't.'

Bullseye turned to leave but in front of the door he saw standing a young woman with short blond hair and hazel eyes of about 5.50 ft. tall and no more than 28 years old. She was dressed in a medium-size dark blue skirt and a matching coat. She was also wearing a pair of elegant, narrow glasses.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot let you leave," Lara told him.

Bullseye began laughing while looking at the blond woman and turned to Lara.

"What? She's gonna stop me?"

He turned back to the young woman, intending to push her aside.

"Get out of my way girly."

But before he could even stretch out his arm, she raised hers and waved it as if wanting to push him backwards, but without even touching him. However, as if a tremendous bolt of energy was released from her hand, in the moment she pushed it towards him he was simply thrown across the room at a great speed, smashing with his back into the opposite wall.

A few seconds later, when he came to his senses, he began standing up, gazing into the girl's eyes with his frightening maniacal look, while slowly reaching for a small ornamental knife he had noticed on a cupboard near him. He knew it wasn't sharp enough but with the right move he could easily impale it right into her neck. When his fingers reached the knife, he grabbed it quickly and in a blink of an eye, threw it at her.

But the girl, moving as fast as him, used the same tactic as before to make the knife stop in mid air. While he remained stunned by her reaction she began moving her hand when up and down, when left and right, when in circles. The knife, which was practically floating, began moving according to the movements of her hand. She began moving the knife faster and faster in order to mislead Bullseye who was following it with his gaze as if hypnotized by it and suddenly, at a simple twitch of her fingers the knife flew directly towards his head, with the speed of a bullet, hitting exactly the center of the target symbol on his forehead. The strong impact made him fell backwards, hitting the wall again.

"Bullseye!" the girl said giggling, obviously pleased with what she had done. Lara herself couldn't refrain from smiling. She glanced at the girl as if approving her deed.

Bullseye shook his head and blinked a couple of times in order to recover from the hit and raised his head and looked at her. He was burning with anger inside and one could clearly see that on his face. The girl slowly tilted her head to one side and stared at him insistently. Her smile slowly faded and she looked as if she was concentrating on something. He wanted to stand up, grab whatever objects he found and throw them directly at her but while he was staring back into her eyes the only thing that crossed his mind was the thought of scorpions crawling on his body. He couldn't understand what was happening to him and instinctively his eyes dropped down on his body - he also felt a sort of itch all over his body.

The sight made him threw himself violently backwards with a scream of fear and panic, leaning against the wall.

"What the .. ?" He couldn't believe his eyes. Out of nowhere, hundreds of scorpions were now roaming all over him.

"Get the f**k off," he began shouting while desperately trying to shove off the scorpions.

And although the his hands seemed to pass right through the scorpions as if they weren't really there, the pain caused by their sting was rushing throughout his whole body.

He began twisting and twirling violently, shouting and waving his hands to remove the terrible creatures from him.

"That's enough Leah," Lara commanded the blond girl, her expression turning serious all of a sudden.

Leah closed her eyes for a few seconds and then opened them slowly, as if waking up from a trance and turned towards Lara.

"As much as I like to see you torturing him to death, we have more important business to attend to right now. Get up!" Lara ordered Bullseye.

He was still twisting and twirling, until he noticed that the scorpions had disappeared. He examined his body for a few seconds after which he began standing up slowly, fixing Lara with his still furious gaze.

"You're insane. What the hell do you want from me? First you save me and now you wanna kill me? I always knew you were a bit crazy but having scorpions crawling around .. ?"

"Scorpions? There are no scorpions," Lara responded smiling.

"What you're talking about? They stung me everywhere. Look!"

He raised his hands to show her the marks. Lara gave him a look as if reminding him she was right and when He looked himself he noticed that the red marks left by the scorpions' stings were all gone. He also realized that his body was no longer aching with pain.

"I'm not crazy. There were hundreds of scorpions crawling all over me," he told Lara on a defensive tone.

"It was only an illusion," the blonde girl informed him.

"Colin, this is Leah Lail. She possesses both telepathic and telekinetic abilities, meaning she can read minds, project her thoughts and levitate objects as well as living beings at will."

Bullseye thought, rolling his eyes annoyed.

"If we posses special abilities it doesn't mean we are freaks," Leah told him.

"What?" he asked confused.

"You just said ~ Great, more freaks.~" She tried to imitate his Irish accent in order to annoy him more but he only threw her an angry look, paying more attention to what she was saying than to the way she was saying it.

"I didn't say anything."

He tried to hide his astonishment but she could easily tell he was lying by the slightly nervous way in which he was acting.

"Well, actually you didn't say it, you thought it."

"You're telling me you can hear what I think?" he responded in a mocking way.

"Among many other things."

"Bullshit. This is all bullshit. Those things were real. I can still feel them crawling all over me."

"It felt real only because your mind made you believe it was real. .. Well, actually because I made your mind believe it was real."

"You will have time to chat some other time. Right now we are in a bit of a hurry," Lara spoke impatiently after looking at her watch.

"Ok. Then, I'll go get my computer and wait for you in the limo."

Lara nodded and Leah rushed out of the study.

"Since you are here, you would better come as well Colin," Lara informed Bullseye while walking towards the door.

"And why should I do what you tell me to do? Where do you wanna go now? To congratulate Daredevil for his latest success?"

Lara suddenly stopped, a serious and annoyed expression covering her face; that was not the answer she had hoped for although she knew what a difficult person Bullseye was.

"Daredevil is temporary on vacation," she said turning to him, trying to stay calm and in the same time, forcing to curve her lips into a smile. She could still see signs of disagreement on his flouting expression and felt the need to give him further explanations.

"Listen, I do not know why my superiors could possibly want Daredevil alive but believe me that I will do my best to convince them that the only way he could help us is by being dead. But you must understand that for this I need time. I promise that you will have your revenge but you also have to promise me that you will not intend anything against Daredevil. Can you do that?"

Instead of a clear answer Bullseye muttered a barely hearable ~Yes~.

It was obvious that he was not content with this agreement and Lara knew very well that as soon as he had the opportunity he would rush off in search of Daredevil. But at least in this way they wouldn't keep on quarreling about the matter.

"So we have a deal."

Bullseye nodded.

"Good. Come now, there is no time to loose."

"Hey, wait a second!" Bullseye called Lara back as she was heading towards the door. "Where do you want me to go?"

"To pay a visit to your former employer."

"Fisk? Isn't he in prison?"

"Don't you read the papers? He's already been released and poor little Daredevil is now trembling in his miserable den because almost every police officer and hit man in the city is after him."

She managed to bring a wide, satisfactory smile on Bullseye's face even though the news pleased but also displeased him at the same time.

"This is your work, isn't it baby? I've read some things in the papers. You do have a lot of power, don't you?"

"Yes, I suppose I do." She smiled pleased with the impression she made. "It was all so very simple. I managed to make everyone believe that Wilson Fisk was simply the victim of a vigilante gone mad, who is now hunting innocent people. Practically, Daredevil is now the most wanted criminal in New York City. There are countless rewards on his head; rewards from the press for information or pictures with him, rewards from the police for his capturing. This Daredevil managed to create a real chaos -and not only in Hell's Kitchen."

"Nobody'll collect any reward 'cause the bloody devil .. is mine."

"Yes, but do not forget our agreement."

"So why do you want me to go to Fisk now? I've done my job, collected my money, .. well, part of it."

"Part of it?"

"Yeah. He only paid me for Natchios, the old guy. For his girly Fisk had to pay me afterwards but ... Well, you know."

Recalling his failure over and over again definitely made him furious and he tried to get it out of his mind as much as he could.

"I think you should ask him for the rest of the money. After all, you successfully completed your assignment. Elektra is dead and from what I've understood you offered to eliminate the devil for free."

"I guess you're right baby. Yeah, I'll do that."

"So let's not waste any more time and go already."

"Wait!"

"What is it now?" Lara turned back to him irritated.

"You didn't wanna me to go to Fisk just so I can take my money. So what's the catch?"

"There are simply some things that I must tell you as well as Fisk and I do not have the time to do it twice."

"What about?"

"About what I have been doing for the past several years. And believe me, mutants are nothing compared to this."

"Here you go with that crazy shit again baby."

Lara didn't pay attention to his last commentary and simply turned to leave. She took a few steps but in the doorway she suddenly stopped and turned, Bullseye -who was following her close behind- almost smashing into her back.

"Oh, and I almost forgot," she said turning back at him once more "About what happened here earlier .. Leah happens to be my best friend and .. "

"So she's your friend from the Lin Kuei. I remember you telling me about her years ago."

"Yes, that is correct. And if you ever try to harm her again, that will be the last thing you ever do in this life."

"You're threatening me baby?"

"I do not threat. I only inform and execute."

To Lara's surprise, Bullseye seemed to be rather amused than irritated or furious. She tried to keep a serious expression on her face and look him in the eyes while she spoke but his reaction took herb by surprise. Hardly had she finished the sentence when she felt his hands pulling her roughly towards him. They had been standing quite closely and it was easy for him to just stretch his arms and grab her by the waist. In an instant she found herself tightly pressed against him. She placed her hands on his arms in an attempt to push him away but with no effect as his grip on her waist was too strong.

"I know you too well baby. You'd never kill me."

"Do not rely so much on our relationship from the past. I am a totally different person now, and if I saved your life .. apparently in a moment of weakness .. do not expect me to do it again."

"Don't worry about me baby, worry about you."

"Is this some sort of threat meant to intimidate me?"

"No baby. I'm just wondering who'll save you .. from me."

"Do you really think you could ever harm me?"

"Harm you? No baby. I'm gonna kill you .. with pleasure."

While he spoke the last words he slowly tilted his head to one side and gently leaned his head forward in an attempt to kiss her.

"Let us get a couple of things settled once and for all," she demanded while placing the fingers of her right hand on his lips, making him withdraw his head. "I am a self-confident and mature woman now .. "

"Oh, I can clearly see that," Bullseye interrupted her, looking down at her body with a smile on his lips and a lustful expression on his face

Lara stared at him for a moment with an annoyed expression on her face, after which she resumed her response.

" .. and you will rarely get anything from me for free. Meaning that if you want something from me, you will have to prove you are worthy for it."

"But what if you want something from me?"

"I always get what I want. And if I ever want something from you, willing or unwilling you will give it to me, but believe me it will be something far different from what you are fantasizing now."

Bullseye didn't respond, his amused expression still not fading from his face, and Lara once again tried to push his arms away but with the same result as before.

"Something else?"

Yeah. Please stop wearing high heels. It's really uncomfortable for me."

Lara was as tall as Bullseye was -about 6ft. tall- and with heels she was almost 4 inches taller than him. She had no problem with being so tall; she was a colonel and had so many men under her command and she would have probably not given the impression of a powerful and respected leader if she had to give strict orders from somewhere bellow. Or at least that is what she thought. However, some men -including Bullseye- were not too comfortable with looking up to her.

"That's the point sweetie," she responded on a mocking tone before finally managing to push his arms away and free herself.

She turned, heading towards the door but Bullseey grabbed her in his arms one more time -from behind- this time holding her arms tight around her body as well, so she could not push him away.

"There's one more thing baby. From now on, please call me Bullseye in front of other people. If you like my real name so much, you can say it as much as you like .. when we're all alone."

He almost whispered the last few words into her left ear, as her back was tightly pressed against his chest and she could feel his warm and intense breath on her neck, after which he gently leaned his head forward and kissed her neck. His lips touched her skin only for a couple of seconds but to his surprise, she did not push herself away as soon as she felt them touching her but rather later, when he was about to remove them.

"God, is this all you think about?"

She finally tore her head away from him and vanished right before his eyes, leaving him with his arms still clenched and with only some black smoke in the place her body used to stand -which also disappeared in a couple of seconds.