Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2001 05:02:28 -0700 (PDT) From: Author James Subject: Tales of a Real Dark Knight Chapter 34 Disclaimer: This story, though maybe not in this chapter but in subsequent chapters, will have celebrities in it. I have no knowledge of their sexuality and this is not intended to imply their sexuality. This is all from my own mind. Scary!! People actually get a glimpse into my mind!!! Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Angel and all related characters created by Joss Whedon. Copyright 20th Century Fox. Batman, and all related characters created by Bob Kane. Copyright DC Comics and Warner Bros. X-MEN, and all related characters created by Stan Lee. Copyright Marvel Comics and 20th Century Fox. Star Trek and all related characters created by Gene Roddenberry. Copyright Paramount Studios. I don't know for sure if I will use all the above elements, but just in case, I have myself covered. In this story, which has been floating around in my head most of my life, you will find many universes merging, as the above copyrights reveal. I hope you all enjoy this. I appreciate any feedback that you may want to give. This story doesn't deal so much with sex, sex, sex, but more of my feelings that I struggled with and am starting to come to terms with. Part of his background is mine. I do hope that you enjoy it!!! Any emails you send, please tell me what chapter you are commenting on. Thanks. jmsotc@yahoo.com Chapter 34 Abyss I returned home and ate. I showered and decided to go see Aaron. I needed to feel something, anything. And he would bring out very basic, almost primal, feelings. I walked down the street to his apartment feeling the excitement of seeing him, being with him. Joey ran up to me. "Hi," he greeted with a smile. "Hi, Joey. How are you?" "Good." Joey walked beside me with a grin on his face, staring up at me. He obviously had something to share with me. "What's on your mind, Joey?" "I kept your secret. I haven't told anyone." "Thanks. I appreciate that." "You're welcome." He grinned even wider and left. Kids can be so easily satisfied. Just show them some attention and love and they are yours. People don't realize the fragility that comes with youth, both the inner and external fragility. Thank goodness adults aren't so fragile. We can usually take most things life throws at us. I arrived at Aaron's apartment building. I hoped he had a chance to enjoy the food I prepared for him the night before. I entered the building and went down to the basement level. As I neared Aaron's room, I heard struggling. Was someone hurting him? There was only one way to find out. I bust into the room to find Aaron, not struggling with someone, but having sex with someone. I stopped in my steps, as did my breath. My jaw must have dropped to the ground. I was shocked. Aaron turned and looked at me, first worried, and then he smiled. "Hey, Eric. Glad you came by. If you want a turn, sit down. Or if you want to join us, Anthony won't have a problem," turning to his sex partner, "will you?" "Not at all," Anthony said with a smile. "Come on over and join us. I'm sure we could find some position for you." They laughed. Aaron, a man who I thought I had much in common with, Aaron, a man who I found a new level of sex with, Aaron was with someone else! He was having sex with someone else! "W-w-w-what about us?" I asked just barely finding my voice. "Like I said, you can sit down and wait your turn or you can join us. If you are joining us, you better hurry. I'm almost done here." I couldn't believe the way he was talking! It was as if he was mocking my feelings! What was going on? What was happening to me? Why was I being treated like this? First, I was raped! Now, I find out someone I was intimate with didn't feel a thing for me! I was just a sex partner for him, nothing more! "Oh, yeah," Aaron moaned. "Keep it up," Anthony replied. I couldn't stick around for this. I ran out the door and slammed it shut. Collapsing on the steps I cried, nothing more could I do. But my tears were not loud enough to block out what I heard next. As if mocking my pain, the two became louder in their flesh romp until they finally reached their climax. "Damn, that was good," Aaron said. "You are one of my better guys." "What about what's-his-name?" "Who, Eric? Oh, he's good, too. He likes to bottom. He's nice and tight." I couldn't believe my ears. He was talking as if I was nothing more than a sex object. I was victimized a week ago. Now I'm being treated as property. That was the last straw. My anger seemed to take over ever inch of my body. The tears I cried burned away at the intense rage I was feeling. I stood, walked over to his door and...the door burst into tiny pieces. I stepped on through into Aaron's apartment. The look on the men's faces was that of horror. I must have been scaring them with what I did. I didn't care. I was angry. Nobody takes advantage of me. Nobody treats me as insignificant. I was tired of being treated as less than a person. And now, someone was going to pay. It wasn't enough that my vendetta was against those who were bigoted. Now, my vendetta included all who crossed me. I reached my left hand out toward Anthony and, slowly, he lifted out of the bed. I moved my hand over toward the opposite wall and pinned him up against it. I could care less that he was without clothes. I wanted him to be naked before me, exposed for the worthless waste of flesh he was. "Eric! What are you doing?" Aaron called out to me. My eyes turned to him and my eyebrows squinted together. All my anger was now upon him. He would pay for what he did to me. "What am I doing? What am I doing? You cheat on me and you have the gull to ask me what I'm doing?" "Cheat on you? What? Did you think you and I were dating?" "Yes. Unlike some people," and I looked at Anthony, "I consider being intimate with someone to mean that the person cares about me. But it seems I was wrong." "I'm sorry if I misled you." "If? IF? You are sorry IF you misled me?" I raised my hand toward Aaron and the blankets flew off the bed. He was trying to hide. But he couldn't. No one can hide from the anger they cause. It burns like a flame of hell. An old statement is "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". I say, "Hell hath no fury like a lover scorned". And I really felt scorned. "Eric, please. Don't." "Don't? Don't what? Do this?" And I reached for him. I felt my consciousness wrap around him and lift him off the bed. "Please, God! Don't hurt me! Don't hurt me! Don't..." "I didn't want to be hurt, either, Aaron," I said in a rather calm voice. "I didn't want to be forgotten. I didn't want to be victimized. I didn't want to be used. But no one seems to care about me." "I'm sorry. Please, I'm sorry. If I would have known you were s..." "Ssss...what? Psychotic?" "No, serious about sex being for two people who love each other, I wouldn't have done what I did." "You knew. When I lay there in your bed, you knew. When I gave myself over to your animal passions, you knew. When I came back, you knew. So don't tell me you did not know. Because...you knew." I dropped Aaron and Anthony on the floor. I turned and went to the door. Just before I exited, I turned pointed my finger and an intense bolt of heat shot out, hitting his CD player and melting it. I moved my finger to his table and an intense beam shot out shattering a leg. Its contents came crashing to the floor. I shot pictures, knick-knacks, even the telephone. The two just cowered on the floor covering their heads. "Aaron," I said, getting his attention. He looked up at me. "Be careful who you are intimate with." I pointed my hand palm opened toward his bed. "You may just get burned." And the bed went up in flames. I turned and left the room in shambles. Something happened inside me seeing Aaron in bed with someone else. Something in me completely fell out. It was as if my last ray of hope for love and life was snuffed out. Nothing mattered. Not love, not joy, not peace...nothing. I ascended to the street level and walked. Someone approached me. "Hey, guy. Care to get a motel room and get it on?" I opened my hand and he flew into a window smashing the glass. Those who witnessed this stayed back from me as I walked. I was angry. And I didn't care. I walked on down the street and eventually found my way home. I suited up and went back out, looking for wrongdoers. It was my job to avenge those who have been wronged. And I would mete out that vengeance as I saw fit. The whole week I did nothing but hunt. I searched for those who preyed upon the weak, the different, and I was their protector. Some might have said I was too rough. I broke several arms, a few legs, a couple ribs, but it was all in the name of justice, of vengeance. I had that right. People treated me horribly and I did nothing to them. I refused to allow anyone else go through what I went through. At the end of the week, I returned to the street where I was to meet with the blue female mutant. I stood in the darkness, in the shadows, waiting. "It's about time you got here." I spun around to find the cop she morphed herself into standing behind me. Slowly she changed shape. "Don't do that." "I'm sorry. Did I scare you?" "Let's just get this over with." "Here is the list. I have compiled a small list, a beginning list of those in the police department whose views are not very positive towards people like us." "Mutants." "Yes. If they are not positive toward us, chances are they do not like anyone different. Their position, rank and precinct are listed as well." I looked down and saw the department head of the precinct that Joey lived in. A Lieutenant Harrison was in charge. He must be the one causing all of this turmoil in that district. Batman would have to have a little "talk" with him. I looked up at this blue woman. "What's in it for you?" "Nothing...yet. I will be in touch." "May I ask your name?" She smiled at me and morphed back into the cop. "No, you may not." And she walked away. I returned home and suited up. Not too long afterwards, I was at the precinct Lieutenant Harrison was in charge of. I stood on a ledge outside his office window and watched...listened. The phone rang. "Yes...Understood...I'll be right there." Lieutenant Harrison hung up the phone and left his office. Moments later he was down on the street and climbing into his car. I followed him by way of rope to an old building. It was dilapidated but still usable. I watched as he entered the building. I noticed a light on in one of the upper level windows. That's where I headed. There was no ledge for me to stand on, so I shot a grapple into the brick and hung upside-down looking in the window. I kept my cape pulled tight so it wouldn't hang over my head and into the window. Inside the room was a mass of equipment. A table set in the middle of the room with straps and a headpiece. "What could it be used for?" In stepped Lieutenant Harrison. "I'm here." "Good. The patient is waiting for us." I saw a man wearing a gray jumpsuit and silver helmet exit assisting a Native American male. I could not see the face of the man with the helmet. He kept turned away. Lieutenant Harrison helped him strap in the Native American gentleman and the man in gray turned on a few switches. "This is going to be uncomfortable, but it will help. I promise." "Before you turn it on, Doctor, I want to tell you thank you for all that you've done for me." "You're welcome. This is why I live, to help those who want it and need it." Lieutenant Harrison stepped back as the doctor flipped a switch. On the ceiling above the table appeared images of nude men. Each image was of a single man posing for the camera. Then, as the images progressed, the men were in teasing positions, almost playful. The parade of pictures continued until the images switched to two men posing, then teasing, until, finally, they were engaged in sex acts. "What could be the purpose of these pictures?" I got my answer when I took my eyes off the images and put them on the Native American. He was shaking. And was shaking more violently with the growing eroticism of each image until finally he screamed out in pain and passed out. The doctor let the machine run for a moment after the man lost consciousness. "My God," I whispered. "Shock therapy to cure homosexuality! That doesn't work! It only hurts! Nothing can cure homosexuality because there is nothing to be cured! It's not a disease! It's not a sickness! It's not a disorder!" I watched as the doctor and police lieutenant left the room and their "patient" to rest. I decided to take initiative. I lengthened the rope and pushed out. Spinning in the air, I moved my legs in front of me and smashed through the glass. I ran over to the man strapped down and unbuckled him. "Come on. Wake up." I patted the sides of his face to waken him. He slowly stirred, but not before Lieutenant Harrison came rushing in. "Batman! What are you doing here?" "I came to save this man from the torture that's going on here." "Torture?" Lieutenant Harrison smiled at me. "He's a willing participant in this experiment." "Experiment?" "Yes. The good doctor is performing experiments to change those who are plagued with homosexual desires." "It's not plague." "Really? You wouldn't believe all the patients the doctor has. There are even those who come to him who are very famous. If they didn't think it was okay, why would anyone else?" "Because others have come to terms with their sexuality and know who and what they are. They don't need society to tell them what's right and what's wrong." "So you feel you are above the law now? Have your own set of laws you follow and are subject to and now you want to spread your own brand of law?" "I never said that." "Of course not. If you did, you would not be very popular. But we all know how you operate. I've heard it from several police precincts. You've declared war on the police because they don't stand up for your ideals. In case you didn't notice, this society is based on what the people want. They elect the officials who make laws and vote for laws that the people want. You are just one person with your own beliefs." "There are more people like me than you realize. The mask just makes me brave enough to stand up to you." "Why need a mask? Why do you feel you need to hide?" "Because of people like you who would twist what I do to his or her own agenda. You would take everything I've said here and twist it for your own propaganda." "First off, it doesn't matter who you are. Being Batman only makes you more popular because there are several comics out about your persona. Second, I would only tell others what I've heard tonight." "And no doubt twist it to mean whatever you want it to. I know you too well. I know people like you. You make me sick. And you ruin the shine of your badge. Why are you in league with this doctor, anyway?" "Because he is going to help guarantee my position as police commissioner in the upcoming elections as well as my run for mayor in a few years. You see, I plan ahead of time. I look at the big picture." "Guess what, Lieutenant. That picture is about to be changed by the Batman." I grabbed the patient who was almost fully aware. I hefted him onto my shoulder and ran to the window. Jumping through it, I turned and shot a line into the building. Using my momentum I went down, but I used the rope to slow me down. When we reached the ground, I took off carrying the victim of this heinous crime. After I got him to safety, he asked to be put down. By now he was completely aware of his surroundings. "Where am I?" "It's okay. You're safe." "No. No, I'm not. I need to get back to my doctor. Only he can cure me." "Cure you? Cure you of what?" "Of being gay." My heart stopped beating. "You mean you don't want to be gay?" "OF COURSE NOT! Who on earth would want to be abnormal and evil? Certainly not me!" The Native American stood and left the building leaving me behind. I couldn't believe my ears. He did not wantto be gay. Is it possible that this same doctor is the one Nick was seeing? To Be Continued... It's amazing how Eric is changing! He's becoming so violent so quickly. He seems to be experiencing major mood swings. So, do you think he will ever get a hold on his feelings? Or do you think he will be a slave to his feelings? What about the Huntress? Where has she been? Remember their last encounter, Eric got rather angry with Jessica. He refused to listen to her. Do you think she is completely done with him? He's not been his normal self and it seems she is trying to reach out, but he rejects her. And what is affecting him, anyway? Let me know what you think?