Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 08:54:41 GMT From: Blake Alexander Subject: Tales of the New Phoenix: The Story of the Birds of Prey chapter 10 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/ There may also be a new writer up and coming. Good luck! I love the storyline I've seen so far dude! Keep writing! 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 10: Beginning of the end I didn't waste my time after I landed on the grounds. I ran straight into Josh's open arms. I picked him up and swung him in a circle. He was crying and laughing at the same time. I slowed and looked into his eyes, then kissed him. Andrea landed shortly after me, I could sense her, so I pulled back smiling at Josh. I turned to the people that had gathered. Professor Xavier was next to Jean and Storm, there was Rogue and Bobby with three girls I didn't recognize. "Phoenix, it is good to see you healed." Professor Xavier said smiling. "I would like you to meet your new team. Bobby Drake AKA Ice Man, Tabitha Smith AKA Boomer, Alison Blaire AKA Dazzler, and Jubilee. Ororo, Jean, and Rogue are also still with you. After the battle you were in I felt it prudent to increase your team size." The Professor said with a smile. "Is that wise Professor?" I asked. "I mean, I don't want to leave the school unguarded." "Do not worry Mr. Blake. The institute has many other defenders. We also have many friends we can call in case of an emergency." He explained. "Now, let us go into the War Room and plan our next move." Without touching the controls on the chair he headed back towards the school. I was turning to Josh when I heard a pop and girl yelp. "What the hell..." "That's just Tabitha and Alison. Tab wanted to get back at Alison for using the last of her favorite perfume." Jubilee told me walking over. "Hi, it's nice to finally meet you. JC has been really worried about you. Ya know, you have great eyes. Are you a model or something? I mean, JC is... well, JC. So you have to be someone famous too." I was about to say something when Tabitha came over. "Jubes, shut up. Let them be alone for thirty seconds will ya?" She said pulling Jubilee away. Josh started laughing as they followed the others in. "They are so cute together." He said. Then he turned to me. "You know, I was really worried." "I'm so sorry." I said pulling him close. I didn't know what to say. He didn't ask me to promise not to do it again, and I didn't make a move to promise him. We both knew that my being Phoenix meant that I would have to face those who would do harm. No one knew if I would go up against someone I couldn't defeat or not. We just stood there for a bit, holding each other. Comforting. "Come one. No rest for the wicked you know." I said. We walked towards the school, hand in hand. "Once we establish the location of Dasro and his legions you will be heading for them." Professor Xavier explained. "Your battle in Egypt did not go unnoticed though. The Egyptian Government is blaming it on Mutants. They are linking it with the battle in San Jose. This is not good. Mutants will be persecuted even more now. This war needs to end, and it needs to end quickly." "I agree. Now how do we find out where..." I was cut off by beeping. Beast, who had been in the room when we got there, turned quickly from his computer terminal to us. "I've got a priority communication from San Francisco, California. The sender is identifying himself as Owl. But he is unable to receive." Beast said. "That's our Watcher." Andrea said walking towards the console. "Please put him through Beast." The Professor said. We all turned to the back wall which was sliding down to reveal a large screen. It had a revolving X which was soon replaced by a smoke filled room and bleeding Devin. "Phoenix, Green Falcon! You must return to San Francisco! The Hole has been compromised! Repeat, The Hole has been compromised! Dasro is here! God damn it, I'm not getting anything!" Another man ran into view. "Devin, we must go. They will break through the door any moment." The strange man said. Devin picked up his wand and ran with the strange man to the fire place in the distance. He grabbed a satchel from the mantle and stepped inside, pulling the strange man. He put his hand into the bag and pulled it out, spilling some dust. He threw it down and screamed, "Serenity!" and disappeared in a flash of flame. A moment later there was an explosion to the left of the room. A dozen figures in black ran in with Dasro soon behind. My blood boiled when I saw him looking about the chamber, then he walked to the computer. He looked at it for a moment, then smiled and looked into the camera. "Hello Fire Demon. You destroyed the one person in this world I truly cared for. For that, I shall kill you, your family, and all you hold dear slowly." He punched the screen and the image was replaced with static, then the revolving X. "We know where we are going now. Get your gear people." I said walking out of the room. As I did I hit my communicator. "Phoenix to Owl, Phoenix to Owl. Come in Owl." I said. "Owl here. Did you receive my message?" I heard over the comm. "Affirmative. What is your current location." I said heading for the outside. "We are at your club. I don't know if they know about it. We need you Phoenix." He sounded panicked. "Ok, We'll be there within the hour." I said. "Phoenix out." I looked up towards the sky and did the one thing I could think to do. I prayed to the gods that I could stop Dasro. "Ok, I got my stuff and yours. It's waiting in the hanger." Josh said running out to me. "No, we're going the fastest way I can think of." We went back into the building and headed for the hanger. When we got there I saw my new team waiting. "Ok, we are about to go into a very dangerous situation. I know some of you and count you as dear friends. Those of you I don't know have become dear friends in my book by being willing to do this. Now, not to be rude, but what are you newbies bringing to the plate?" I know it's blunt and rude and all of that, but I needed to know what sort of people I was working with. Bobby stepped from his duffel bag and cleared his throat. "Well, I'm Ice Man." He closed his eyes and his body turned to ice. "I can freeze things, create an ice sled, and form sharp ice shards to throw." I nodded and turned to Tabitha. "Well, me..." She rubbed her fingers together and a glowing marble appeared. She threw it at a table in the corner and a small explosion knocked it over. "I can make time bombs." She said with a little laugh. I smiled and turned to the table. I used my powers to turn it upright again, and then looked at Jubilee. "I can create explosive pyrotechnics from my hands." She lifted her hands and shot fire works into the distance. "Ok, and how about you?" I said turning to the last person, Alison. "I convert sound into light." She said. She was wearing a walkman with headphones hanging around her neck. She hit a button on her walkman and I heard music coming from the headphones. She stepped away from everyone and slipped off her jacket revealing a bit of skin. She started dancing and light started shooting off her skin. She turned towards me and there was a flash, then two of them stood there. One of them faded and she turned off the music. "I can also form lasers." "Ok. Andrea, are they up to speed on Vamps and such?" I asked. "Yup. All of them know what to do, but they aren't armed." She said. "We'll worry about that in Frisco." I said. "We can take a jet, but the flight will take at least four hours." Jean said walking over to me. "I have a faster way. Andy, can you grab the stuff in an energy bubble and hold on to it?" I asked. "Sure thing." She said pointing her ring at the luggage sitting off to the side. A green bubble snapped into place around it all and it lifted off the ground. "Ok, everyone get close. You're in for a hell of a ride." I let the Phoenix flow around us. Jubilee gave a gasp as we all lifted into the air, and then we were off. I used my powers to make the hanger doors open as we neared and slipped out the holographic rock easily. Once clear we headed straight up towards orbit. "Well, this is a fine thing we've gotten ourselves into." Devin said over the din of the club. "I have been in worse situations." David said, a look of disinterest over his tanned face. "I believe that once Phoenix gets here and we sit down and form a plan, we will succeed in defeating Dasro." "Ok. I guess we just wait here for Blake." Devin said. "Silence!" A voice screamed from the entrance. Devin and David both turned to the entrance and saw Dasro standing there, a dozen or so men behind him. Dasro turned towards the DJ and held his hand out. A white beam shot out from his hand and sliced the DJ in half. The crowd started screaming and as a single entity pushed towards the back of the room and the fire exits. "Bloody hell, they followed us!" Devin yelled. He drew out his wand and he and David started fighting the crowd to get towards the office. David was about to reach the staircase to the office when the building vibrated. He and David looked towards Dasro and saw surprise on his face as well. Then the room was bathed in green light. Everyone looked up and saw a green bubble pulling a large chunk of the roof into the sky. As soon as Andrea cleared the opening, we descended. I was first, dissipating the Phoenix flames before going through the hole, and was then followed by Andy, and Ororo. Jean, Bobby, and the girls were out on the street with Josh trying to control the panic and defend the public from the troops out there. I looked at my club and surveyed the damage. When I saw Paul, my DJ, dead at his boards I was filled with fury. "Dasro!" I said, my voice actually causing glasses to vibrate off the tables that weren't overturned in the stampede. "You will stop this now!" "You're kidding, right fire demon?" Dasro said floating into the air across the room from me. "You killed him." He said with a look of disgust. "The one being I would give my life for. You destroyed him like some sort of common... mortal. He shall be avenged." Dasro lifted his hand as signal and the troops behind him rushed us. Ororo and Andrea started fighting immediately, using their powers. I watched Dasro who simply hovered there with a smile. "I notice you do not have your sword with you. Did you leave it with the cripple Xavier?" He asked with a smile. "So you know about Professor Xavier?" I asked. "Even now I have Sentinels attacking his school. Face it Phoenix, you have lost. So long as I breath, so long as I exist, I will fight you." He reached behind himself and brought the dagger to view. I will gut you and grind your bones to put in mortar for my palace." He said. His next movement was almost impossibly fast as he launched himself towards me. I managed to erect a force shield between us which he slammed into. I wrapped the field around him and flung him through the hole in the ceiling. I followed him through the hole, stopping at the roof to bring the sword to me. I had left it there as a ploy, to lure Dasro into a false sense of confidence. I raced into the sky after him, the Phoenix erupting from within me with a deafening cry that was possibly heard all across the city, and a flood of fiery plasma. As I reached Dasro I dripped the force field holding him and hit him with a solid uppercut. He flew several hundred feet farther up into the air and I followed. He held his hand out to me and fired a white energy beam at me. It managed to work through the Phoenix and hit me squarely in the chest. It sent me hurtling away and the Phoenix shrieked. I recovered in time to see him charging me, knife drawn. I brought the sword to aim on him and fired a stream of white hot plasma. The stream engulfed him and ant first he was screaming in pain. Then he pointed the knife into the stream and began absorbing the energy. I stopped firing and when I looked upon him he was leaking excess energy from his very skin. "So, Phoenix, how do you plan to stop me? Everything you throw at me I absorb. What do you wish to do?" He asked with a laugh. The simple truth was... I had no idea. Bringing the solar plasma from the sun was simply out of the question. Dasro was too adept with the knife. He would simply absorb the energy and grow stronger. "I'm tired of this dance Phoenix. It's time to change the tune." With that he hurtled himself south. I followed easily as he streaked along the coast. He slowed and I realized where we were. Above Santa Cruz. "What are we doing here Dasro?" I asked leveling the sword at Dasro. "This." He said with a smile. He pulled a device from his pocket and pressed a button. The next thing I knew I was being hurtled out over the Pacific, carried by a massive shockwave. I turned into the wave and forced myself towards Dasro who had erected a shield around him self. I looked down at Santa Cruz and stopped cold in my tracks. "It's funny what happens when you push hydrogen atoms together. Sure, they become helium, but the process has the side effect of a massive energy release." Dasro said now coming towards me. "A Hydrogen bomb." "Why? Why have you done this?" I asked through the tears falling fro my eyes. "Because it hurts you. And once I get the gate open, Vampires shall rule this world. Apocalypse calls for it, and it shall be so." He said with a maniacal smile. "Jesus, you are working for Apocalypse." I whispered. "I am War. Feel my fury." H pointed his open palm at me and fired an energy beam. It was stronger than before after absorbing my attack. It sent me hurtling away. I crashed into the water bellow us. What was there that I could do? Then I got an idea. I shot up out of the water, wings beating fiercely. "You may have been able to kill all those people Dasro, but you have not won, and you shall not win!" Directing my powers with my hands I turned the ocean water into an explosion of steam. I focused the steam into a single blast that slammed into Dasro before he could do anything. He was sent hurtling into the sky. I turned my attention back to the ruin that was once Santa Cruz. My Phoenix vision could see the radiation flowing into the atmosphere. I closed my eyes and let my mind flow out across the land, the sky, until I could feel the edge of the radiation. I opened my eyes and began pulling the deadly field into a point before me. When I had drawn all the radiation away from Santa Cruz I sent it hurtling into space. That done I flew over Santa Cruz, hoping to find survivors. I found none. "Boomer, on your left!" I screamed slamming a stake into another vampire. He snarled at me as I realized I'd used the wrong type of stake. I pulled it out, kneed him in the groin, and slammed the silver stake into his back piercing his heart. "Jubilee, take care of the leopards!" Jean screamed to Jubilee. The wereleopards had arrived soon after Blake left. I pulled my gun out of its holster and shot a vampire that was descending on Jean. I began to fall back towards the wall as the wave of Vampires and Wereanimals moved towards us. "Marvel Woman, get Storm and Falcon out here! We can't hold them back for much longer." I yelled. "On it C." I turned and saw Jubilee firing her fireworks at a group of leopards. Boomer was throwing time charges as fast as she could form them. Dazzler had her headphones on full blast and was glowing from ever exposed piece of flesh. Lasers leapt from her pointing finger cutting down vampires left and right. Rogue was at my side with her gun. Bobby had iced up the entrance to the club and was trying to hold the troops at bay with walls of ice. We were completely outnumbered. Then we heard the police sirens. "We've got reinforcements!" Rogue yelled. "But will they be more help then hindrance?" I Jean. "Boomer. Can you make a really big bomb?" I asked. "Yeah? How big?" she asked me rubbing her hands together. "Big enough to take apart a tank?" I said. "On it." She said beginning to form a really big time bomb. "I won't be able to control it as well though. You need to hurry this plan up C." "Jean, box the vampires in with cars. I have a plan." I said. She nodded and began moving the cars on the street. "Falcon, get you ass out here, now!" I yelled into the comm. She appeared over head and landed. "Falcon, we need to box them in along with the cars. Can you do it?" I asked. "Yeah, but I'm beginning to run out of juice. I haven't recharged. It may not hold." She said landing. I nodded then turned to Bobby. "Iceman, I need you to build a blast shield big enough to keep us safe from debris." "Ok." He said forming the wall of ice in front of us. Gun fire from the vamps immediately began to chip away at it. "I'm done with the bomb!" Boomer panted. I turned and saw a charge the size of a truck tire. "Hurry up, I don't think it'll hold very long." She yelled. "Marvel woman, get it in the crowd!" I yelled. She nodded and sent it flying over the ice shield. When it was in position I saw vamps starting to run. "Falcon, box them and the cars in, now!" I yelled. She nodded and pointed her ring at the crowd. The barrier held almost all of the vamps and wereanimals. About thirty seconds after the charge was put in place it went off. It slammed the cars against the edge of the barrier, and ignited the gas tanks. Andrea screamed as the shock waves began to rebound off the walls. She fell to her knees as her powers gave out and debris was sent flying in every direction. We all fell to the ground as chunks of cars slammed into the ice barrier. When it was over we all stood and saw a crater where the bomb had gone off, and a visible absence of Vampires and Wereanimals. "It worked!" I laughed. We were all celebrating when Ororo joined us. "The club has been cleared of vampires. We should leave before..." She was cut off by a large rumble above us. "Halt, Mutants!" The giant robot said as it, and several friends, landed on the street. Seconds later police cruisers came skidding around the corner. "Green Falcon, can you get us out of here?" Ororo asked. "I'm out of juice. I need to get back to our gear at the condo and recharge." Andrea said, referring to mine and Blake's place. "What do we do now?" I asked. Devin came bounding out of an alley and pointed his wand at one of the Robots. He screamed something in Latin and the Robots head exploded. Boomer and Jubilee both started firing at one of the others, but weren't getting very far. Bobby was shooting a stream of ice at one of the large robots freezing its joints, and Storm was calling down lightning strikes. Jean was doing her best to keep energy blasts from striking us, but was beginning to weaken. "We can't keep this up!" Devin screamed. I looked at the man with Devin. He was beautiful, with eyes that absolutely glowed in the night. He stood there and then was gone. I looked around and saw him standing at the feet of one of the Sentinels. He floated into the air and positioned himself between two of the robots. They both faced him, palms outstretched, and fired. He seemed to vanish as the energy beams struck each robot, destroying them. I looked up and saw him high above the fighting. "Let's get out of here." He said, lifting his hand as we floated into the air. We raised into the nights sky, and headed for the mountains. Dasro was flying above the waters of the San Francisco Bay. A beep came from his pocket. He pulled out a tube the size of a pen and pressed a button on its side. A voice came from it. "Sir... we've done it. The chamber is about to open." The voice said. A voice in his mind said to contact Apocalypse, but another started screaming. He stopped in midair and looked left and right, confused. Finally the screaming voice won out. "Open it. Open the chamber, I'm on my way. Dasro out." He started for San Francisco again, flying just above the waters, a grin on his face. "You shall be avenged, my brother of the night." Tee hee hee, I just now finished writing chapter 11. And... wow. I've been planning this part since the beginning, and I'm a little overwhelmed. So, stay tuned and get ready.