Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 18:50:51 GMT From: Blake Alexander Subject: Tales of the New Phoenix: The Story of the Birds of Prey chapter 9 Enter the infamous legal disclaimer... NOW: I do not own any of the following. I wish I did. OH how I wish I did. Do you know how much money some of these bring in? But alas, I am but a meager college student working towards a teaching degree. That's right; I am in college, and going to be a teacher. Going from no money at all (college student) to no money at all (teacher). Please don't sue. You'll get a crappy pen set that I got from my brother many moons ago. Now, onto everything I do not own. Repeat. Don't own. I don't know sexual orientations or personalities either. DON'T OWN, DON'T KNOW! Nsync, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Pink, Christina Aguilera, The Wallflowers, and any other celebrities. I also know nothing of their sexual orientations. Wish I did though. Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and all related characters. The Anita Blake Vampire Hunter book series by Laurell K. Hamilton. The Vampire Chronicles, Tales Of The New Vampires, The Mayfair Witches, all series and characters written by Anne Rice. Harry Potter and all characters, abilities, and creatures there within. (I have been forgetting to put this in. A fan pointed it out. So, a special thank you to Frithjof for telling me.) Buffy & Angel television series. Birds Of Prey television series. Star Wars Star Trek, Star Trek TNG, Star Trek DS9, Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek The New Frontier, Enterprise television series, movies, and novels. Ok, now that that is taken care of, a little publicity for my co-authors. Go read these four stories in the Boy Bands, and Celebrity sections: Tales Of A Real Dark Night (The series that started it all.) celebrity/boy-bands/tales-of-a-real-dark-knight/ Marvel Knights celebrity/marvel-knights/ Tales Of A Super Hero Band celebrity/boy-bands/tales-of-a-superhero-band/ Tales Of A Young Mutant celebrity/tales-of-a-young-mutant/ I am sorry about this comming out late, I had Finals. You know what? That is an evil word. You know what else? I trully believe that Algebra is another way Satan tortures human souls. I think there are millions down in hell just doing Algebra for all eternity. And Algebra Teachers are actually demons. *Looks at a algebra teacher.* Back to HELL DEMON! BACK to HELL! Finally, this is it I promise, we are entering into a section of the story where 4 stories converge. I am hoping that this is not confusing, but exciting for you all. So, enjoy! The Story of the Birds Of Prey Chapter 9: What Comes Next "Jean to war room. Jean to war room. Come in Beast! Damn it come in!" Jean screamed as she pressed her hands down on a deep cut they had found on Blake's back. "We're still too far out. Andrea, we need to move faster." "We're coming up on the east coast. I'll have us there in about four minutes. I can't move us any faster than this in the Earths atmosphere." I said. Tears were already streaming down my face. I wanted to ask her what she thought I was doing. He's my brother for Christ's sake! "Jean to war room. God Beast, answer me! God damn it ANSWER!" she screamed. Then she became silent. "His heart stopped. Clear me some space!" She screamed. I couldn't believe what she had said. Ororo was trying to calm down JC who was hyperventilating. I took off my glasses and faded my mask. The tears were trapped in it and causing my vision to blur. Without the mask and glasses they freely fell down my face. "Rogue, try to get through to the base." Jean yelled as she pounded on Blake's chest. "Rogue to war room, Rogue to war room. Come in war room." She stayed quiet for a second then started repeating. "Rogue to war room, Rogue to war... Beast. Clear the basketball field and get an emergency crew up there right now! Our ETA..." She stopped and I figured this was my space to fill in a time. I used my powers to locate our position and figured our time. "Two minutes, twenty-three seconds." "Just over two minutes." Rogue said. She paused a moment and I figured Beast was talking. "Blake. I think it's a code blue..." Another pause, "ok. Be ready." "Ok people, fasten your seatbelts." I yelled into the back. "I can sense a good number of military craft in the air, and I don't think they are going to be thrilled to see us. I'm reworking the energy field of the craft, but they can still see us with their eyes. Lots of maneuvering at high velocities about to happen." "Keep them as calm as you can Andrea, Blake is bleeding internally." Jean yelled. "Ok, we'll do this in a funny way. I'm going to do something stupid people, hold on." I willed more energy into the jet and sped up. The thing I was trying to avoid began to happen. The air began to superheat as it hit the skin of the jet. It took all my control to keep everything intact as the jet shuddered. "One minute out!" I screamed. The sound from outside leaked in as the shell protecting us from the plasma pressing against the hull thinned. "Thirty seconds!" I yelled. My ring was beginning to loose power as the extreemness of the situation worked its toll. I hadn't recharged it since San Fran and it was feeling it. "Ok, I'm slowing down really fast people. Jean, secure Blake! I fed all my power into counteracting the inertia inside the jet, but I couldn't do it totally. It felt as if we were all doing sixty and stopped in 5 seconds flat. We were hovering three hundred feet above the school and I quickly took us down. We touched down and I opened the hatch to find Beast and several students streaming inside. "We have him from here. Jean, can you assist?" Beast asked. "Yes, I'm right behind you." they left with Blake on a gurney and JC close behind. We all stood and deplaned. As I stepped off I turned around. I pointed to the jet and it faded to nothing. I turned around and fell to the ground crying. Rogue came to me. "He'll be fine. I seen Dr. Grey and Beast do amazing things. Don't worry." She pulled me into a hug and then to my feet. "I just... he can't die. He's too good a person. Not like this. Not like this." We walked towards the mansion, and neither of us said another word. When I finally got downstairs we found JC sitting on the ground in the hallway holding the sword and crying like a lost child. As Rogue and I neared he looked up. When he spotted me he leapt to his feet and ran towards me. We held each other and just cried. I cried for my best friend and brother, JC cried for his lover and soul mate. I don't know how long we stood there like that but Professor Xavier brought us back to the world. "I just want you both to know that we will do everything within our power to save Blake. We will not allow him to simply fade from us." JC looked at the Professor and didn't say anything. "Thank you Professor. We know you're doing all you can." I pulled JC closer to me and we supported each other. The Professor looked at the door and then back to us. "They are in surgery right now. There is nothing you two can do for Blake, you should rest. The room you shared is still free, go there. I will have a student come to you to aid you in resting." "Here Professor." Josh said handing him the sword. "Blake has put his life at great risk for this. Please, take it and take care of it." "We will study it and when Blake recovers, it will be returned to him. You have my word." The Professor said. "Now go, rest." "Thank you." JC said. We walked along the hallway towards our room. My mind was back at the battle, searching for something I could have done to protect Blake. There was nothing. I knew it, but I wouldn't accept it. I stopped as we past a common space that had a TV turned to CNN. "...damage to the desert land. The ground has been turned to solid rock where it hit. Reports are that several hundred Sentinels and hundreds of unidentified aircraft were in the immediate vicinity. The NSA refuses to comment about this. NASA reports say that a strange solar phenomenon is responsible for the destruction of the Sentinel and aircraft fleet. Whatever the cause of this destruction, it is definite that this is a truly baffling thing. Back to you in the newsroom." JC and I walked away as more reports about Ground Zero came on. When we got there, there was a young girl standing at our door. My mind rebelled from the real world and she explained that she makes people fall asleep at her will. All I know is that I went in and laid down on the top of the blankets and that JC curled up next to me. The girl stood over us, and my last thought was `He could die and there is nothing I can do to help him.' "Contact San Francisco, New York, Orlando, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Columbus England, Moscow, Paris, Mexico City, Tokyo, Japan, and Berlin. Tell the troop leaders that it is time to make ourselves known." Dasro said from his chair. The burns were almost completely healed, but he was still in visible pain. The pain wasn't as much from the damage to his body, but from his lost companion in eternity. "The humans will regret what they have done to Sanswah." "Sir, San Francisco isn't quite ready. The chamber isn't open yet." A vampire said from her monitoring station. "Fine! Sanswah wanted us to wait for this blasted chamber to be open first, so be it." He stood slowly and moved closer to the display at the front of the Super Transport that he himself designed. The display showed the location of every Slayer in the world. "We wait for the Atlantian Chamber to be opened, then we move. Tell the troops to get ready. We are about to make a loud noise." "Report in from Jentarn, he has slain the Slayer and Watcher in Sacramento." A vampire in the back of the compartment said. "He is on his way to Portland as we speak." "Very good. Rout a communication line through to my quarters." Dasro started for the exit, "If anything of consequence happens, contact me." When he got to his quarters, a small room done in black and silver, he sat at the desk next to his bed. He flipped open the laptop stationed there and punched in a few commands. "Status?" Apocalypse said from the screen. "Sanswah has been destroyed and Phoenix has my sword. Everything else is according to plan. My troops are preparing to attack, and I have almost breached the Atlantian Chamber." Dasro reported. "Very good. Contact me when the Chamber is breached. Do nothing without contacting me first. Apocalypse out." The screen went black and Dasro simply stared. In the back of his mind he felt something was wrong, that he wasn't supposed to be contacting someone for permission to move his army, but this feeling soon passed. In cities all throughout the world vampire troops were receiving orders from their area headquarters. Maharet and Meker were also getting reports. David Talbot was entering San Francisco at this time. He looked out across the San Francisco Bay and thought back to the first time he visited this place fifty years earlier. His first stop was the old location of Dracula's Daughter, a vampire meeting place in the 1980's. The bar had long since been replaced, and the streets environment evolved. As he walked down the Castro he saw many different looking mortals. Men were walking hand in hand with other men, women were kissing in a bar he passed. He wished he had had a place like this to go to in his youth. He entered a bar and went to a table in the back. The waiter came to him and he ordered a scotch. When his drink arrived he sat there, occasionally lifting the glass to smell. He didn't drink alcohol. He didn't consume mortal food. Instead he feasted on the blood of humans, mutants, the occasional were-animal, and at times even other vampires. He looked about the room waiting. After an hour of sitting in this bar he spotted what he was looking for. A demonic vampire walked in. He watched the vampire order a beer and down it quickly. The vampire did this three times before paying the bartender and leaving. With speed unequalled by normal humans David followed the vampire out of the bar. The vampire walked down Castro Street to a small alley. He turned into the alley and David quickly climbed to the top of the building beside the alley. From the rooftop David watched the vampire lift a manhole cover. David dropped down into the alley and grabbed the vampire by the back of the neck and hurled him into a brick wall. The manhole cover crashed loudly to the ground as David moved to the now hurting vampire's side. David grabbed the vampire and held him against the wall. "You will tell me now what it is that Dasro and Sanswah are doing in this city." David said calmly. The vampire looked on David's young tanned form and smiled. His face changed from human to one with a ridged brow. "I know nothing." David pressed his hand against the vampire's chest until he heard three cracks from the vampire's ribs. He kept his eyes locked with the vampires, and with a look of complete disinterest and a tone of voice that matched, he repeated his demand. The vampire was snarling at this point. "You will never defeat master Dasro!" David determined that he would gain nothing this way and instead invaded the lesser vampires mind. Once he had gotten the information he desired he sank his fangs into the vampire's neck. David did not care for this species of vampire's blood but he had not fed this week and the blood was available. When he had enough blood he dropped the vampire to the ground and began to walk away. The vampire laid there helpless as David walked away. When David was twenty or so feet away he turned around. He used the powers given to him by his sire the Vampire Lestat and caused the demon vampire to burst into flames then dust. He turned around and lifted into the air determined to find the areas Watcher and Slayer. *1 week later* "Boomer, watch your back end!" Jubilee screamed as she ducked a sweep from a metallic arm. Boomer threw one of her time bomb energy charges at a gun on the wall. It exploded six inches from its target, destroying the gun. "Dazzler, take out the whips!" Jubilee screamed shooting energy fireworks at a gun on the wall. Dazzler, with headphones hanging from her neck, turned to the wall that had the metallic vine like whips coming out of it. She pointed her finger and a blast of white light hit the whips at an angle. Then the light shifted along the spectrum until it was blue. The whips flung about as Dazzlers laser sliced through them. "Got them Jubilee!" She screamed. As the girls went through their paces I was left unsure of why I was watching them. The Professor looked at me and smiled as if he could hear my thoughts. Oh, wait, he's the most powerful human psychic on the planet, fancy that. He could hear my thoughts! "Only your surface thoughts. They are like ripples from the ocean of your mind. I can't help but sense them at times. Especially when I have not rested for extended periods of time." He said. That was an understatement. I hadn't seen him take time to rest in quite a while. "Well, I just don't understand why I'm watching your students train Professor." I asked. "Well Andrea, these three girls want to move out on their own. Though I would love for them to be able to strike out on their own, I am worried about their safety. Also, they are about to go to college. I was hoping that you and Blake could keep an eye on them." He said. "They start at San Francisco State in the spring." "Well... I can't speak for Blake on this, but I will." I said. I choked a bit. More than anything I wanted Blake here with me. "I spoke with Jean earlier. They believe Blake will wake up anytime now." He said. "He has fought bravely Andrea. No one will be asking him to fight anymore. "Yeah, try and keep him out of this fight." I said chuckling. "They killed Green Lantern Professor. He won't let his death go unavenged, and neither shall I." "Yes. I believe that as well. So..." he was interrupted by a beep from the console in front of him. He reached over and hit a button. "Professor Xavier here." "Professor," came Jeans voice. "I just did a mental scan of Blake. I did it because according to all of my instruments he should be awake. Sir, his mind is empty." "What do you mean?" the Professor asked. "His brain is operating, but the core of who he is, his consciousness, it's not there. I sense nothing in his mind." Jean sounded a bit panicked. I had no idea what they were talking about, but it sounded bad. "What could have caused this?" The Professor asked sounding very worried. "I'm not sure, but I think that the amount of power he was using during the battle... fried his mind. It couldn't handle that much energy and it simply burned up. The damage to his brain when he got here was severe but the Phoenix was healing it even as we operated on his body." She paused for a moment. "I thought that the Phoenix had restored everything, but it didn't restore his mind." "I'll be right there Jean." He said hitting the console once again then turning to me. My chest hurt when he looked at me. He looked like a police officer that shows up at a person's door to tell them their child is dead. "What is it Professor, what is wrong with Blake?" I asked in a broken voice. "From what Jean just told me, he is gone. His body is here and healthy, but who he is, all his memories and knowledge, is gone." I wanted to scream, and hit something, and fall into a fetal position and cry, and the mix of those feelings made me just stand there and not know what to do. "I'm so sorry Andrea." "Has anyone... anyone told JC yet?" I asked in a very small voice. "I don't know." The Professor answered. "I... I need to find JC. I need... I need to tell him... tell him his soul mate is gone." I turned and walked away. I knew where JC would be. It was one o'clock. Every day that JC had been down JC had gone into the woods and picked wild flowers. When I asked him why, he told me that the sterility of the X-Men's infirmary couldn't be helping, so he brought color and life into the room for when Blake would wake up. I left the schools grounds and walked into the small woods. I found JC in no time. He was kneeling beside a small tree picking flowers and plucking small branches of evergreen. I stopped and just watched him. His hair was still black and straight, pulled back in a ponytail with a simple brown rubber band holing it. He stood and turned around but froze when he saw me. "Andrea, what is..." he must have read it on my face because he dropped the flowers in his hands. "No." He said quietly. "No!" He started screaming over and over again. I rushed to his side and pulled him into my arms. "Shh... shh... it's ok." "What," he said between sobs. "What happened?" He asked after a lot of crying. "His mind. It burned up in all the energy he used in the fight. His body is here, but who he is, is gone." I explained. "What do you mean?" He asked. "From what I heard Jean telling the Professor and from what the Professor explained, the part of his brain that is who he is, is empty." I told him. "He's just gone." "But, he is in the Phoenix." He told me in a quiet voice. "What?" I asked. "His mind and part of his soul is wrapped inside the Phoenix." He told me. "He can't be gone. He's as immortal as the Phoenix. Because he is the Phoenix." "What...?" I started to ask but he just took off running for the school. I tried to keep up with him, but he was faster. Let's face it, I could fight but he's a dancer and singer. He could definitely out run me. When I finally caught up to him he was in the infirmary screaming at Jean. She was holding him trying to calm him down but he wouldn't hear him. The Professor hovered to his side and asked him to calmly explain what he was trying to tell them. JC took a deep breath then tried again. "Blake can't be gone, he is the Phoenix." He explained. "We know he's the host, the problem is that his mind is gone JC." Jean said. "There is nothing we can do." "Is the Phoenix still in him?" JC asked. "Well, yes." Jean said. "We don't really know why it's still in him though." "Because the Phoenix is Blake. The mother Phoenix explained that their species gets who they are by merging themselves with the consciousness of their hosts and taking a piece of their soul. The Phoenix probably took all of Blake into itself to protect him from the damage. "JC was talking so fast that he was breathing in deep gasps. "The Phoenix in him is just a baby, it's probably lost in his mind." "I never knew that's how the Phoenix worked." Jean said hurrying to a computer console. She pulled up a bio-scan of Blake and began typing. After a few minutes she hit a button on her console. "Dr. McCoy, please report to the infirmary." "What have you found Jean?" The Professor said moving his hover chair to her side. "Well, the Phoenix is still present, and there is a great deal of activity in his brain scan. The Phoenix is perched in there, but not doing anything." She ran her fingers through her hair. "I think it's confused." "Well do something!" JC screamed. "I don't know what to do." Hank McCoy came running into the room, a blur of blue. "You called milady." He said moving towards Jean. "Hank, Blake's mind is in Phoenix." She explained everything JC told her and Hank just stood there for a moment. "Fascinating." He finally said. "The only problem is, we can't push the Phoenix entity into the proper areas of the brain. I can think of nothing we can do here Jean." "Wonderful." I said. "Just fucking WONDERFUL!" I kicked a tray table sending its contents sliding across the floor. "We know he's in there, and that he can be saved, but there is nothing we can do. He's right there and we can't SAVE HIM!" I screamed. I sank to the floor and began to weep like a baby. Jean came down onto the floor trying to help me, but there was nothing she could really do. I couldn't understand it. They have all these powers and they weren't trying to do anything to save him. "No. It's not ending this way." I said moving to the side of Blake's bed. "Phoenix. Phoenix it's Josh. I know you can hear me. Phoenix, you can traverse the universe, you can feed off the energy of a star, I know you can bring Blake back. I know it. Phoenix, Blake, you need to try. We're here waiting for you." I stood there looking at Blake's prone form. He was lying in a plain white hospital bed with a sheet and blanket covering him. He had on a hospital gown, and there was an IV in his left arm. But he didn't do anything. I leaned over him and cried. "Damn it Phoenix, try harder! You can do this you fucking pigeon!" I closed my eyes and cried. I thought of the night he saved me from the Vampires, the nights in my hotel room, the beach. Our private beach in our dreams. I thought about the first time I saw that beach, the moon in the sky, the fine detail of the sand beneath my feet. I leaned down and picked up a handful and let it slide through my fingers. Then I realized I had gone from thinking, to experiencing. I looked around the beach and saw no sign of Blake. I looked out onto the water and saw an endless sea. Then I heard the cry of the Phoenix from the woods. I sprinted into the woods and started darting through the trees. The Phoenix cried out again and I zeroed in on him. When I found it I just stopped. Phoenix was lying there with its wings spread out onto the ground. It was barely moving. It lifted its head and let out another cry. Its feathers, usually a blazing red, were almost black. I moved around so I could see into its eyes, usually as bright as the sun, and found embers in them. "You can't find your way into Blake's mind because you can't move." I said putting my hand onto his head. The bird lifted its head and clucked. "You used all your energy in the battle. You need to feed." It let out a cry and I knew what needed to be done. I closed my eyes and pictured myself back in the infirmary. When I opened my eyes I was in a bed with Jean running an instrument over me. I sat upright and looked at Andrea. "Take him to the sun!" I screamed. She looked at me like I had grown a second head. If I wasn't so worried I would have laughed. "The Phoenix feeds off of solar energy. Fusion energy. Take Blake to the sun and let him feed. Hurl him into the center of the sun!" she nodded and pointed her ring at herself changing into Green Falcon. When she had done that she pointed her ring at Blake and lifted him into the air. "The hanger is to the left." The professor said. "Go out that way, it's faster." He hit a control on his hover chair as Andrea ran out of the room with a floating Blake in front of her. "Professor Xavier to War Room. Please open the hanger doors." We all rushed out of the infirmary and towards the War Room. When we got there Hank rushed to a control console and started punching in commands. Then a grid of the earth came into view. There was a red flashing dot on the east coast for a minute, then it streaked across the Atlantic Ocean then faded. Beast punched in some new commands and a picture of the earth came into view and zoomed out to where the Earth was no more than a blue point and a yellow sun was several feet away. A green dot flashed as it moved away from the Earth and towards the sun. "We will be unable to track them past Mercury's orbit, but we can use this information to judge their journey." We all nodded and watched. It took Andrea 2 minutes to get to the point we could no longer track. When that happened I just stood waiting to see them return, fingering my ring. Five minutes went by, then ten, then fifteen. At this point I wanted to rip apart the screen for not giving me more information. Then the green dot returned, except heading back towards the Earth. "Sir, I am reading a return." Hank typed in a few commands then turned to us. "We have two distinct energy signatures heading back towards Earth." Everyone started clapping and laughing, and I started crying again and ran out the door heading for the grounds. Passing the orbit of Venus you could see two giant birds made of energy. One a blazing blue Phoenix, within which you could make out a man in a black suit with flaming blue hair and eyes as bright as the sun. The second a giant green Falcon, constructed of Green Lantern energy, within a warrior with an emerald mask. The two birds danced about each other as they moved through the space between Earth and the Sun. Both happy to be flying together again. One returning from saving her brother, and the other returning to his soul mate's side. A happy ending, no cliff hanger. Damn it. I'm loosing my touch. Also, 9 days until my birthday! YEY!!!