Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2002 02:19:22 GMT
From: writemeastory@juno.com
Subject: Tales Of The New Phoenix chapter 4

This is not my first story, but I think this is going to be where I
flourish. I've never had as many Ideas running around my head as with Tales
Of The New Phoenix. I don't know exactly how fast I will be able to get
chapters out, so please don't kill me. And, as you can see by my title, I
am going to have a character based on The Phoenix from Marvel Comics. I am
going to go a bit of my own way with the Char. so any die hard fans, please
refrain from hurting me, ok? My experience with the Phoenix is limited to
the cartoon, and the Dark Phoenix comic book saga. I do hope to hold true
to the heart of the character, but will be making some changes just as was
made with The Bat Man. Now, on to the boring stuff.

I do not own any of the following:

Nsync, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Pink, Christina Aguilera, The
Wallflowers, and any other celebrities. I also know nothing of their sexual
orientations.

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 written by Anne Rice.

Buffy & Angel 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.

I am restating; I do not own any of the above mentioned, although I wish I
did. Those make tons of money. I do not know the sexual orientation of
anyone mentioned for certain. Everything I write is purely fiction from my
mind. Please don't sue me, I am a poor college student and have nothing. If
you are under aged, go away. This site is for adults. Warning to the closed
minded, gay fiction is about to start.


Chapter 4

	Andrea was standing outside the front doors waiting for us when we
arrived. I got out first and ran up to her, covering her eyes. "Now, you
are going to have a slight heart attack," The others were climbing out at
this point. "but if you embarrass me in anyway, you'll be very, very, very
sorry." Everyone was now lined up in front of us, staring confusedly. "I
refused to tell her who was going to be here. Just that the club needed to
be closed, and set up for a small party."
	Justin started laughing. Lance was grinning. Chris ran up silently
and put his face right up in front of Andreas, waiting for me to remove my
hand. "Is she a big fan?" Josh came up next to me, taking my free hand in
his.
	"Huge." I turned back to Andrea who was practically bouncing in
place. "Don't scream." I removed my hand, and Andrea let out a blood
curdling scream from fright. Chris almost fell down he jumped back so
fast. "I swear Andy; you have to be a mutant with a scream like that."
	"You guy's... you're... Blake is this... Nsync?" I can't figure out
how she sounded so normal with her mouth completely agape.
	"Yes, now let's all go inside." We headed in, and went straight to
the middle of the room to a table set up for 10 in a space designed to hold
500. We all sat, Josh to my right at the head of the table, Andrea next to
me, and I looked at the chair left empty and took his hand in mine on the
table. He looked at me and smiled. In the center of the table was a cake
about ten times too large for the gathering.
	Andrea loved to bake, and before us was a 5 layer chocolate
cake. It was in a circle, and as the layers went up the cakes got smaller
and smaller. "Don't worry about left-overs guys, the crew here will eat
anything you don't eat or take home. It will find a good home."
	Andrea was still staring about a bit in shock. She finally spotted
mine and Josh's hand, and smacked me very hard on the back of the
head. "Why the hell didn't you tell me you ass!?!?" I looked at her
grinning.
	"To mess with your head a bit. It's so much fun." I ducked getting
ready for the next smack, which came about to seconds later.
	"Don't be hitting my man." I turned to my savior. "That's my job."
He smacked me upside the head grinning. "What, I'm not special enough to
tell your own sister about?" He started pouting.
	"Uh uh Jayce, that's mine. You find your own guilt trip." We
started laughing while I picked up the stereo remote. I started some light
background music, and picked up the lighter and started lighting the cake.
	"This is still weird though." We all turned to Chris who had a bit
of an evil grin in his eyes. "But not completely unexpected. I mean, JC was
always the flamiest of us." I took a scoop of ice cream out of the dish on
the table, and handed the scooper to Josh. He proceeded to fling ice cream
at Chris.
	"We make a good team." I smiled at Josh as I lit the last candle
and Sarah took a bit of ice cream off of Chris, and licked it off her
finger.
	"That we do." Everyone stood up and we started in on the song. A
bit of the way into it everyone turned to me and Andrea. We were holding up
with everyone in the birthday song. At the end everyone seemed a bit
impressed.
	Andrea started serving out slices of cake. Very large slices of
cake. Joey and Chris both looked thankful, Justin tore into his with
Jessica at his heels, Lance looked a bit apprehensive at the size with Eric
grinning at him, and Josh was just looking at me.
	"You never told me you could sing." Josh took a bite of cake, and
started to scoop some of the French vanilla on his plate. As the group
broke into a few stray conversations.
	"Never really came up." I took a bite of the cake, a deep dark
chocolate. I love Andy's cake.
	"Hey Blake, why don't we run up to the stage and play that new song
for them. I'm sure your guy would like to hear you sing." She had an evil
glint similar to Chris'.
	"Go on, it's my birthday. I want some music." He started pouting.
	"Didn't Justin just get through telling you that you weren't
allowed to do that?" I looked at Justin.
	"He's aloud this time." Justin was grinning, chocolate frosting on
his nose. I hadn't noticed, but he and Jessica were having a bit of a
war. She had frosting on her cheek, and a big dollop on her index finger.
	I looked up at the stage and spotted my guitar and Andy's keyboard
both set up, waiting. "Andrea, you do know this means war, right?"
	"Yup." She was beaming.
	We stood and went to the stage. I grabbed my guitar, she turned on
the keyboard. After a moment to make sure the strings were in tune, a
stepped up to the microphone.
	"This one is dedicated to the birthday boy."

	"Seeing your crying face
	Takes me back to that place
	Where you were hurt by him
	Where you were hurt by him

Andy pulled in on her key board, building up from my light playing. I
looked at Josh and smiled.

	"Come here with me
	I'll take you away
	We can soar through the night
	And watch the dying day
	I'll hold your hand
	And you'll hold mine
	We'll escape into forever
	And never look back

	"Say it and I'll do it
	Lift you up from the ground
	You lost your tiara
	I'll polish you a crown
	You deserve the finest jewels
	To shine half as bright as your eye's
	I'll wrap you in blankets lined with silk
	You'll never be cold

	"Come here with me
	I'll take you away
	We can soar through the night
	And watch the dying day
	I'll hold your hand
	And you'll hold mine
	We'll escape into forever
	And never look back

Andy came in with stronger playing, matched by my voice rising. I stopped
playing the guitar on this verse, and she started to vocalize the harmony.

	"Promise me one thing
	You'll let me be there for you
	He left you to the wolves
	I'll slay a dragon or two
	You were meant to be in my arms
	I was meant to hold you
	But baby this can't happen
	Unless you let me rescue you from him

I came back in with the guitar and we just played for a minute or two. Then
I came back in with the Chorus.

	"Come here with me
	I'll take you away
	We can soar through the night
	And watch the dying day
	I'll hold your hand
	And you'll hold mine
	We'll escape into forever
	And never look back

	"Come here with me
	I'll take you away
	We can soar through the night
	And watch the dying day
	I'll hold your hand
	And you'll hold mine
	We'll escape into forever And never look back

	At the end of the song I took off the guitar. Everyone was on their
feet clapping. The sound felt sort of small in the large room, but was nice
none the less. Andrea and I took a dramatic bow and hopped off the
stage. We walked back to the table and I spotted my ice cream and cake, now
both sitting in the middle of a pool of melted ice cream. Joey and Justin
were both reaching for seconds on the cake.
	"That was amazing. Why haven't you looked into a career in it?"
Josh pulled me into a hug.
	"I have all that I have been dreaming of. I have my sister, I have
my club, and now I have my man. I may look into it eventually, but for now
I'm 100% content."
	"Good answer." Jessica said smiling. I smiled back at her glad that
she was becoming more at ease with me. I looked over at Andrea going to
take a bite of cake, and decided to exact my revenge. Her cake leapt off
her plate, and smashed into her face. Everyone stopped talking and looked
at her, staring at her plate, a look of shock glued to her face.
	"Consider the revenge exacted. War over, I declare myself the
winner." Everyone started laughing.
	"JC, Blake was on the bottle until he was 5." She looked at me with
a smirk.
	"No way!" He sounded shocked.
	"Uh... yeah I was." I looked at him uncertainly.
	"I can't believe that! So was I!" Everyone busted out laughing, and
Andrea pouted.

	An hour or so later, and a bit of mindless chit chat, we decided to
hit a club. Hey, I could write it off on my taxes, I would be doing "A
group survey of another establishment." My accountant would love this
one. We didn't have to worry about clean up because Andrea had set it up
with the crew so that they would do it in the AM. Hey, sometimes it pays to
be the boss!
	The club we visited was a bit of a bust. I imagined that the crowd
was so full due to the fact that I had closed Serenity for the night. We
all split up into our separate couples, and Andrea had no problems finding
a nice boy to grind against. She always managed to find a man within 3
minutes of hitting a dance floor. It had to be the shoes, I mean, isn't
that what it is in those sports commercials? So, yeah, it had to be the
shoes.
	After a while, I decided to go get Josh and I some drinks. I hit
the bar just as Eric was finishing an order. "Can I also get a Tequila
Sunrise, and a Cosmo?" The bartender nodded and headed to get the drinks.
"Blake?" I turned to Eric and noticed a bit of a serious expression, and
that made me nervous.  "What?" I sounded meeker than I liked.
	"I'm sorry about what happened earlier.  There have been some
distressing things that have happened in our past that mirror what happened
between you and JC.  We haven't known you long and JC never mentioned you.
It seemed like everything happened so fast between you two that it sounds a
lot like what happened with Justin and Turic.  JC can explain more to you.
It's not a subject I want to get into.
	"Anyway, I want you to know I'm sorry if I made you feel bad.  It
wasn't my intentions to do that.  You seem like a nice guy and I want to
get to know you." I got enough of a sense from him even with my powers
closed to know he was being genuine.
	"I'd like that Eric. All I really want is for Josh's friends to
accept me." I shook my head. "And that sounded totally selfish, but I just
don't want Josh to have to choose between me and his friends. I don't want
him to go through that, and I don't want to face the possibility that he'd
choose them." I looked down for a bit. "But it doesn't seem to be coming to
that, now we just need to deal with Tyler." The bartender came back with
our drinks.
	Eric looked into the crowd, a new expression on his face, and bid
me a bit of a rushed, excuse me leaving me slightly dazed, and headed
off. Josh was just coming up to me at the bar when I heard it. Several
screams came from the crowd, and I looked over in time to hear, "You
pathetic fool!" and see Eric fly through the air from a monstrous smack
from a smoking man, and I don't mean Marlboros.
	"Vampires!" Josh gasped next to me.
	"Get out of here!" I kissed him, then ran for the store room next
to the bar.
	Since gaining these new powers and deciding to do as The Phoenix
Mother asked and become a protector of Earth, I'd decided I couldn't do it
as Blake Alexander. I would become Phoenix.
	I could feel the matter around my body ever since the merging. I
concentrated, and knew I would be able to rearrange it. I pictured myself
unbelievably clear in my mind, right down to a wrinkle on the back of my
shirt, and saw it changing shape into a uniform. It was a single piece of
leather from the boots to the mask that covered all but my eyes and my
hair. The only seam in the entire suit was wrapping around the top of the
mask to help hold it in place, coming to a low point at my brow. I thought
about the Phoenix Mother, and lit my eyes which seemed to give me a new
sense of sight. Everything was more vibrant, and I could see the energy in
it. I also noticed that the dark store room was lit as if the sun were in
it. Last, I decided to change the color of my hair for extra measure. My
hair is normally jet black, short, with a slight curl. I straightened it,
and made it blood red. Once I was sure no one could possibly recognize me,
I came out into the crowd.
	The crowd was in panic. I could see auras surrounding the people as
light blue light. I then noticed purple, red, and pink auras surrounding
about two or three dozen people throughout the club. A perk of lighting my
eyes I guess. They mostly looked just like the vampires I had faced the
night with Josh, but a couple looked human. I went after the two nearest
me. The club was still far too packed to unleash all of my powers, so I
settled with hand to hand. I noticed a slightly different shade aura as I
snap kicked a vampire, a woman with brown hair and a dark costume fighting
in the corner. Her aura was a turquoise. I skimmed her and knew it was
Jessica. A vamp smashed a chair over my head while I was distracted. I fell
to my hands and knees, dazed. The vamp jumped onto my back, and I unleashed
a bit of the Phoenix energy into him, causing him to blaze in a bright
flash with a scream, and fall around me as dust.
	I picked up a broken piece of table leg and turned to the next
vamp. I threw the leg to his right. It buzzed by his ear, and he smirked at
me showing teeth. "You missed me." He said stalking towards me. I stood
perfectly still, guiding the stake.
	"Who said I threw it at you?" I pointed to the stake. He turned in
time to see it plunge through the back of a vampire coming at Jessica's
back. I turned back to me snarling, and I lifted him high towards the roof
with a glance, while guiding the make-shift stake towards his heart. I saw
a black figure out of the corner of my eye, and saw a darker blue to him. I
scanned the surface of his mind, and knew it was Eric. `If Justin shows up
in costume, I'll scream!' flashed through my mind.
	Three vamps came at me all at once; two males with red auras, and a
female with a pink aura. I flipped over a male and kicked the female in the
face. The other male, a very large one, grabbed me by the back of the neck
and through my over the bar. I smashed into the mirror on the back wall,
and fell to the floor. I stood up immediately and looked at the vamps, who
were staring at me snarling.
	"Naughty, naughty. You should know better. Breaking a mirror," I
lifted my arms out to my sides and all the broken pieces levitated into the
air around me, "is seven years bad luck." The shards of glass shattered
into dust. The dust coalesced into three discs which began to spin at great
speeds. I launched one at each of them. The first one that attacked me was
immediately sliced in half at the midsection, and he turned to dust. The
female and male both avoided the discs, but the female lost an arm in the
process. Her arm burst into flame, and she screamed.  The discs came back
around, and one hit the female who was clutching the stump of her arm. She
completely burst into flames, and fell to the ground in cinders. The large
male ducked the one that originally went after him easily, but he hadn't
followed the one that successfully hit the first vamp, and this one caught
him slicing of part of his torso, his head and left arm. He started to fall
apart as he turned to dust.
	I turned to see a large number of vamps head out the door, and took
chase. As soon as I was clear of the mostly empty club, I unleashed the
Phoenix. I leapt into the air as the streamers of flame began to
coalesce. I streaked into the air and did a back flip above the street as
the Phoenix form came into being with a cry. I came back into a low flight,
and headed after the vamps. They were moving very fast, and with the
buildings, power lines, and transit lines I was limited in speed.
	The blood suckers headed to the pier and split up. I looked back
and saw Jessica and Eric giving chase, and went after the group that was
getting away the fastest.
	The three of them had purple auras and had veered to the left and
were moving with impossibly fast speed. They must have been moving more
slowly for the others. They noticed me to the air after a bit and shot out
over the water. I followed easily and gained on them. After a few minutes
they slowed to a stop and faced me.
	"You are a powerful creature," A dark haired man said with a
distant accent. "but we are some of the eldest of our kind."
	"We were sired by the first brood." Said a tall dark haired Asian
woman.
	"You will not defeat us." This man had an impossibly low voice and
red hair.
	"Uh huh." My wings were flapping to hold me in place. "Listen. I am
the offspring of a being older than this world. I have powers you can not
imagine. Surrender now, and make things much easier on yourselves."
	That must not have been the right thing to say, because as one they
attacked me. I held my hand towards the dark haired man and shot out a
stream of fire. He darted high above me, narrowly missing the fire. The
woman circled around behind me and I suddenly felt a crushing blow against
my back. I spun and grabbed her with my powers and began heating. She let
out an ear splitting scream as she burst into flames. Her remains lifted
into the air like burning paper. I turned back and the two men were mere
specks in the horizon, then gone. I tried to rub the spot she had hit, but
couldn't quite reach there.
	I headed back towards the pier to see how the others had
faired. They were no where to be seen, but a sky light on one of the roofs
was smashed. I flew over to it and let myself drop through the busted
glass. I saw Eric was pinned under a Vampire, and I let out a piercing cry
as a ball of yellow energy smashed into the vampire. It was lifted off of
Eric, sent spiraling towards the other side of the building, where it was
met by a second energy pulse from me, this time in the form of flames.
	I finally took a moment to look around the inside of the where
house. There had to be at least 50 vampires, with the three different auras
mixed throughout the crowd. There were also approximately a hundred cars
and dozens of motorcycles with weapons mounted on them of all sorts. There
was no way we would be able to take them all. Eric and Jessica shot lines
to the rooftop through the broken skylight, and I flew up after them. Once
there we started towards the edge of the building.
	"Good Job." Eric said walking to my left.
	"Yeah, who are you?" Jessica asked to my right.
	"No time for explanations." Twenty feet from the edge of the
building we heard the doors open. We ran to the edge ant saw the fleet of
decked out cars cycles come flying out. Jessica took out what looked like a
small gun and shot at one of the cycles.
	"Why didn't they just kill us?" Eric watched in amazement as they
disappeared completely in sight and sound.
	"No idea." Jessica was staring at what looked like a palm
pilot. After a moment she smacked it. "Damn it! They found the tracer!
They're good whoever they are." She put it away.
	"Well, let's at least take a look at the where house." I started
for the sliding doors they had poured out of.
	When we got inside, it was completely empty. I opened up my senses
completely, actually feeling through the floors and walls. I was limited to
a space about the size of this building, but that was still like... wow. My
powers were starting to surprise me. I looked at the other two. "What ever
was going on, they've completely cleaned up shop. I sense another level
bellow us, but it's now nothing more than an overwhelming number of empty
coffins. They are gone."
	"Who are you?" I turned back to Eric. He walked towards me.
	"I am Phoenix." I decided to be a bit of a schmuck.
	Jessica came up next to Eric. "Blake?" She asked a bit surprised.
	"Yup. One and the same. Now that you have my code name down, mind
if I get something other than Jessica and Eric to call you?" They both
looked at me in surprise. "I am psychic. You really think I'd fight by
someone's side without first checking to see if they are about to stab me
in the back?" The both seemed a bit flustered, but nonetheless ok. "I only
do it when I have to, or with permission. Don't worry, I don't just poke
around peoples heads."
	"Well, I'm Huntress and Eric is Batman." I sniggered a bit.
	"Sorry, it's just... Batman? He's a comic book character." I
laughed, and Jessica smirked.
	"Shut up, and let's head back to the club." We headed out, but I
could sense that Eric wasn't mad.
	I flew us towards the club, with an apprehensive Huntress at my
side. She could handle jumping off the sides of small buildings, but
levitate her a few hundred feet above the ground and she whimpers. I
decided to not let out the Phoenix form on this flight because of the
people in the club. It might be unnerving after a few dozen were
drained. We landed on a rooftop across the street, and Huntress walked to
the ledge.
	"I'll need to call Garrett; the local slayer will need to be
notified of the large number of people about to become vamps in the local
morgue." She turned back to me. "I'll also have him tell her she has a new
ally. You may want to make contact, we vigilantes should stick together."
She walked to the other side of the building speaking into what I assumed
was a radio in her mask. Batman and I were about to start a conversation
when she started yelling.
	"What do you mean? Someone's declared war on the Watchers and
Slayers?" she paused a moment. "Just, contact me when you have more
information." She walked back towards us. "The San Francisco Slayer was
killed yesterday. So were a dozen other slayers throughout the US, and ten
in Europe. Numbers are still pouring into the Watchers Council. Garret is
contacting all the Slayers on the west coast, and a Watcher named Whistler
is taking the middle, and your friend in Orlando is taking the East."
	Eric looked at her and she looked nervous, and very pissed.
	"Something big and not very good is going on here. And after what
happened with you in Europe the Council isn't ready for another full scale
attack." She leaned onto the ledge looking out across the skyline. "I have
a bad feeling about this Eric."
	"We've faced difficult situations before Jessica, we'll get through
this." He placed a hand on her shoulder.
	"Well... if you need me I'll be happy to help where I can." The
both looked at me and smiled.  "If this is any indication, we are going to
need lots and lots of help." Eric stated looking out over the
horizon. "Slayers are getting attacked and there is some force declaring
war on the Slayers.  It sounds like something very powerful is making plans
and believes the Watchers and Slayers as threats.  I wonder if the X-MEN
have heard anything or anything is going on with them."
	We all changed into street clothes. I was done first of
course. After that we headed back to the group. I found Josh asleep on the
couch. I grabbed an extra blanket from the bedroom closet and slipped down
next to him and tried to get some rest. He didn't wake up of course; he
could sleep through an earthquake. That made me think about him living here
in San Francisco. I hadn't really thought about that. He doesn't live here;
he lives on the other side of the country. I pushed that thought aside and
just enjoyed being here with him.
	If you had told me a year, hell a month ago that I'd end up a super
hero fighting the things that go bump in the night along side a Vampire
Slayer called The Huntress and The Batman I'd say you were nuts. But here I
am. My name is Blake Alexander, but you can call me The Phoenix.


I accidentily deleted all my e-mails. Dork huh? Can all the people who
E-Mailed me for a pic of Phoenix re-email me? Also, I never told my
name. It's also Blake. Well, I need to go study now. Finals and
all. TTYL. (PS, not many are E-Mailing me. Is there only a couple of people
reading?)

Now, if you haven't read the other stories in the "Tales Universe" go do
that now. Just copy the addy's I have bellow the story titles, and past
them in your browser address bar thingy. (Such technical jargen I have at
my disposal.)

Tales Of A Real Dark Night (The series that started it all.)
/nifty/gay/celebrity/boy-bands/tales-of-a-real-dark-knight/

Marvel Knights
/nifty/gay/celebrity/marvel-knights/

Tales Of A Super Hero Band
/nifty/gay/celebrity/boy-bands/tales-of-a-superhero-band/

Tales Of A Young Mutant
/nifty/gay/celebrity/tales-of-a-young-mutant/

You can E-Mail me at WriteMeAStory@Juno.com