Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2004 15:10:31 -0700 (PDT) From: Author James Subject: Return of a Real Dark Knight 9 Disclaimer: This story is fiction. There are two celebrities who will appear from time-to-time. The other characters are fictitious. Any similarities to persons living or dead are completely coincidental. In this story, I have continued the adventures of Batman, my Batman, which his story first began in "Tales of a Real Dark Knight" in the Boy Band section of this archive. It spanned 250 chapters. You will find many universes merging, as the above copyrights reveal. I hope you all enjoy this. 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. The Vampire Chronicles and all related characters created by Anne Rice. Copyright Anne O'Brien Rice. I don't know for sure if I will use all the above elements, but just in case, I have myself covered. I appreciate any feedback that you may want to give. I do hope that you enjoy it!!! Any emails you send, please tell me what chapter and story you are commenting on. Thanks. authorjames2002@yahoo.com I also have several online messenger services. If you want to chat with me in real time, email me and tell me the services you use and I will tell you my screen name. Chapter 9 Train The next day found the house busy with cooking and cleaning. Once breakfast was over, I took Jessica and Sarah to the Center while Lance, Justin, Preston and Randy had a guys' day out. At the cave entrance, I dropped Jessica and Sarah off so she could ready the cave for training with Sarah and Dinah. Then I went around to the front of the Center and entered. April was leaving as I got there. "Leo is in already," she told me. "How did the night go?" "After you left, all was quiet and calm. Why is it when you show up, there's trouble? I'm starting to wonder about you." I laughed. "Is Dinah doing okay?" "After the excitement she fell asleep. She just woke up an hour ago." "Thanks for everything, April." "You're welcome, Eric." I entered to see David at the reception desk. "Hey, Eric," he greeted. "Hi, David. How are you?" "I'm doing great. I heard there was some excitement last night." "Sure was." "April's beginning to think it's you. There's even a poll going around as to when the next troublesome act will take place. They are all on your shift." "Hey!" I said laughing. David laughed with me. "Can I check on the new arrivals last night?" "Sure. They should be out back right now enjoying the nice weather." "Cool. Could you get me their charts?" "Sure thing." David turned around and pulled the charts from behind him. We kept the charts on new arrivals behind the reception desk until processing, and then we moved the files to the more permanent records room. "Here you go," he replied as he handed me the files. "Thanks," I said as I went back to my office. As I sat down at my desk, I noticed the local headline across the top. It read: Gang Members Found Unconscious. It peaked my curiosity so I sat the charts down and picked up the paper and turned to the section. Apparently, the Center's savior, Anarky, had been busy downtown. He stumbled across several gang members attempting to sell drugs and he attacked. He shocked the guys, tied them up, and left a note for the authorities telling that more would come if people didn't stop exploiting the city's citizens. "It looks like Anarky was busy after he left here," I whispered. I lay the newspaper down and picked up the charts leafing through what each person's situation was that brought them to the Center. I picked up the chart on the girl who attacked the Center last night. It appeared she didn't remember what she did the night before. The last she did remember was being approached on the streets by a strange woman with red hair. She couldn't remember the woman's name. Then, she felt groggy. A trip to a mansion was remembered in clips and that was all. 'I'll have to have a talk with her a little later,' I thought. Once I was finished with the charts, I went out to look for Dinah. I found her outside watching the others. Approaching her, I called out her name. She turned and replied with a "hey". "How did you sleep?" "Okay, I guess." "Did you have breakfast?" "I'm not really a breakfast person." I nodded. "When do we start training?" she asked me bluntly. "We can start now, if you like." She nodded this time and we went back to the bedroom and down the hidden ladder to the cave. Jessica and Sarah were already practicing when Dinah and I showed up. Dinah stretched and quickly fell into a routine with Jessica and Sarah. I told Jessica that I had to do some work and that I would be down later to check on them. Then I returned to my office and requested that the young lady, whose name was Annabelle, come to my office. "Hi, Annabelle. My name is Eric." "Hi," she replied as she sat down feeling scared. "Are you going to have the police take me away?" "I'm not planning on it. I want to know what happened last night. Why did you come here with a gun?" "I--I don't remember." "I know it isn't in your conscious memory. But I know it is in your unconscious. I want to help bring it out, if you'll let me. Will you let me?" Annabelle looked around for a minute, then down at the floor. "Will it hurt?" "No, not at all. It involves you relaxing, that's all." Annabelle nodded and looked at me. "What do I do?" "Close your eyes and relax your muscles. I want you to think of a time, a place, when you felt the safest. Picture it in your head. Think about the sounds around you. Think about the smells, the temperature, and the people in your life at that time." I took her through the relaxation technique and brought her mind up to the moment she was approached by the red-haired woman. "Her hair was fire red and her eyes were green. Her skin was pale and, when she smiled, I noticed two teeth were longer and pointier than the others, almost like she had fangs." I knew at that moment we were dealing with a vampire. "Why did you come to the Center?" I asked her. "Vesta, that's her name, she wanted me to come here and grab a girl. She's looking for virgins." "What does she want with virgin girls?" "To be her handmaids. She wants only those who are pure to serve her." I asked for the location of this mansion but she had no details of streets or house numbers, which meant it could be anywhere. Then I asked about details of the house. She couldn't remember much about the outside, but she remembered a long, large hallway on the inside with many rooms. Candles lit the home and a wooden crate rested in the middle of the hallway. The crate was filled with dirt. Annabelle described the crate for me and I jotted down as much information as possible. Then I brought Annabelle out of the hypnotic state. "Did I help you at all?" she asked. "You helped immensely. Thank you. How do you feel?" "I feel okay. Tired, but okay." "Why don't you go outside for a bit? The sunshine will do you some good." She agreed and left. I used my computer to access Oracle downstairs. I typed in the description of the box and asked Oracle to search for trains', planes', and ships' cargo manifests for any crates with the description Annabelle gave to me as well as any delivery address or persons who might live in such a home to pick it up as search criteria. Oracle began working and all I could do was let it do its job. An hour or so later, I took lunch down to the three ladies. They were in the middle of sparring when I arrived. I sat the food on the table and took my seat by the computer so I could watch. Sarah blocked a punch by Dinah. Then she used her other hand to push Dinah's hand down, and with the same hand, brought it up and backhanded Dinah. Dinah stumbled back a bit. Then she spun around and backhanded Sarah. Dinah spun the other way and backhanded Sarah again causing her to stumble backwards. Dinah threw a kick at Sarah, who blocked, dropped to a crouching position and spun her leg around knocking Dinah's out from underneath her. Dinah fell to the mat. Dinah, once in a crouching position, spun her leg around and kicked Sarah in the face, causing her to spin and fall to the mat completely. "Excellent, both of you," Jessica said as she intervened. "You two both show remarkable skill and promise. I like how your personalities are reflected in your fighting skills and styles. You've taken moves that I've shown you today and have made them your own. Excellent." "Yes, good work," I said standing up, "to both of you. I brought down lunch." Dinah and Sarah helped themselves to the soda and sandwiches. I pulled Jessica aside and told her what I found out from Annabelle. "It seems that we have a new vampire in town, one who is well-versed in mind control." "We'll have to be careful on this one," Jessica said. "I don't think the girls are ready to deal with anything like that." "Then I guess its going to be you and me, just like old times." "How long have you done this, Dad?" Sarah asked as she walked over to us. "For a little over ten years." "Is that how you met Aunt Jess?" "Actually, it was," I answered. "I was watching Uncle Justin and your Dad from a skylight when she snuck up on me. She thought I was bad, I thought she was bad, and then we realized we both weren't. That was my introduction into the world of vampires and Vampire Slayers. "Grandpa Garrett trained me for a while. It was Aunt Jess and Grandpa Garrett that got me my costume. My second one." "Is this one your second one?" Dinah asked. "No. That's actually my third one. My first one was homemade and was not the greatest looking thing. The second one had a few pouches on it and looked much better. That one was given to me by the Watchers' Council when I di...when I fought against a demon named Macai." Jessica looked at me as I nearly slipped up and told them when I died. Technically during that time I didn't die. But everyone thought I did. Which was enough, if you asked Lance. "Did you ever think of getting something new?" Sarah asked. "Not really. This has functioned well for the past decade. It still does the job well. Why change it?" Sarah looked thoughtful, as if she had some ideas as to how she would change it. Sarah liked to draw, no doubt, and she was good at it. She loved to design clothes. Maybe she could come up with something new and exciting. "Did you have something in mind?" I asked her. "I don't know. I have a few thoughts." "Put something down on paper and let me look at it." She smiled and nodded, excited to be helping out her old man. "Do we get costumes?" Dinah asked. "Eventually," Jessica answered. "We'll have to decide on a persona for you to use, an identity that reflects your abilities but keeps your true identity a secret." "How did you get your name?" Dinah looked right at me. "I picked it on my own. I connected with the character in the comic books so much. He inspired me to push beyond who I was as a person." "Did your parents get killed?" "You don't want to go there," Sarah answered before I could. "That bad, huh?" "Let's just say if they had died, life would have been easier for my dad." I smiled a comforting smile. She was right. For those who don't know what happened, my parents found out I was a mutant and freaked out. They disowned me. They accepted the fact I'm gay and accepted my partner. But they could not accept the fact that I'm a mutant. They've missed out on the marriage Lance and I had, as well as their grandchildren, Sarah and Preston. But they were the ones to make that decision, not me. My niece and nephews still talk to me. They think everyone is stupid for rejecting me over this. It's nice to have that connection and not feel all alone as far as having relatives. "Are you ladies ready to return to training?" Jessica asked. The two girls nodded and they three Slayers went back to work. I watched for a moment and returned to the upstairs office. Once everyone was finished, Jessica, Sarah, and I returned home for dinner and then we settled in for bed. Sarah finished washing her face and walked out the bathroom door. The door to her parents' room was shut and the downstairs lights were out. She turned and walked down the hallway and around the corner. Her room was the first on the right, across from the big window in the back. She entered and closed the door. Taking several deep breaths, she pulled the blankets away and lay down. She had been having weird dreams recently, and she wasn't sure if they were just dreams or something more. Granted, before finding out she was a Vampire Slayer, she thought the dreams were nothing. But after finding out what she was, what she could do, she wasn't so sure the dreams were completely fictitious. As she drifted off to sleep, she found herself on a train. She didn't know where the train was or where it was going, but she felt an eerie presence around her. Then the voice came to her. "Sarah," it called. "Sarah, can you hear me?" "I can," she replied looking around, trying to find the source of the voice. "Where are you?" "Help me, Sarah. I need you. I've been searching my whole life for you." "Who are you? Where are you?" "Find me, Sarah. I know where you are. You don't have far to go. Please, come find me." Sarah began her search of the train car she was in. Once she was sure the person was nowhere in this car, she headed to the back of the car and to the next. In her dream, she would get this far, only to wake up once she reached for the doorknob. She believed that there was nothing after the car except the railroad tracks and the wind zipping by her. As she reached for the door, she expected it to end. But instead, she slid the door aside to find another car. She tried peering through the window to see if she could see anyone on the other side, but the windows were too cloudy to determine much of anything. She grabbed the door and slid it aside and entered the empty car. Empty of people, that is, but there were many other things in the car. "You're closer now, Sarah. Please, come find me. I need you. I've waited my whole life to find you. Please, come for me." "I'm coming," she called out, feeling her heart jump at his voice. Something was triggered in her brain, in her heart. She felt that she could help this person if she could find them. Determination filled her as she searched. When the car was completely searched yet there was no sign of him, she moved to the next door and reached for the knob. Her hand grasped the handle and... Sarah sat upright in a cold sweat. She couldn't believe she got further in her dream than the last time. "Maybe someone does need my help," she said out loud. "Now that I'm a Slayer, I have the ability to help this person. Maybe this person knew I was a Slayer and was trying to get in touch with me before. Sarah reached down and picked up her diary. "I've got to keep track of this," she said as she wrote the events of her dream as well as her thoughts and feelings about the mysterious voice, the train, and the situation she found herself in. "This might help me help him." Once finished with the diary entry, Sarah drifted off to sleep. The dream did not return that night. To Be Continued...