Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 17:16:01 -0700 (PDT) From: Author James Subject: Tales of a Real Dark Knight Chapter 44 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 44 All On The Table I looked at NSYNC. They were surprised to see me on their floor since they just left me in the lobby. "Remember the night in the warehouse? What I was able to do?" They nodded. "I'm a mutant." Their eyes widened in shock. "So that's it, huh?" Justin said. "You decided to come up here and kill us because of what I did?" "No. I came up here to explain to you what happened. You wanted to know. You wanted me to be honest with you. Give me that chance now." After a moment of not speaking, I was waiting for Justin to hit me again. I would not have been surprised, nor would have I been angry with him for it. I've been to the point where I needed to react to my feelings. Admittedly violence is not the way to do it. But, when you are Batman, that gives you an opportunity that you do not have as being a regular human being. "All right." I followed them into their living area. Everyone sat down, Justin in a chair, JC sat on the couch, Chris and Joey sat on the arms of either end of the couch, and Lance stood against the wall. "Go ahead. Explain." "Do you know about Turic?" "Yeah. Wasn't he the frickin' vampire wizard?" "Yeah. That's him. He put a spell on you." "To make me gay." "Yes. But I did not know that's what the spell did. Honestly. I thought it was to give you nightmares so he would have a way to control you, so you would feel you 'needed' him. I did not know it was to make you gay. "We ended up..." it was a tricky subject for me. How do you tell a straight person he was involved with another man willingly? "Having sex. I know." The disgust was easily detectable in his voice. "It was more than that, Justin. That was the last thing we did. You and I had a relationship. We were in a relationship. The gay version of you was in love with me, as I was in love with him. We cared about each other." "It's true, Justin." It was the first time Lance spoke up since my arrival downstairs. "You two were in love with each other. It was good. There were no ulterior motives on either side." JC looked over at Lance. The look in his eyes was very sympathetic, pretty much what I felt toward him. What he was doing must have been difficult personally. Justin looked over at Lance. Something in him broke, the anger that he felt, the embarrassment and humiliation and shame. Typical emotions for someone involved in that kind of relationship, straight person with a gay person. Then he turned to me. "What happened next?" "Once Turic kidnapped you, I did all I knew to find you. The way he spoke to you and about you angered me. I ended up staking him. That broke the spell completely. Not only did the nightmares end but also the homosexuality spell ended on you. You were free. It tore me up inside, but I never pressed what we had. You had no memory and I did not think it prudent to spill everything out before you. I went on with my life as best as I could." "I appreciate your honesty now. But why didn't you tell me when I came to see you?" "You came to me with a...delicate subject, a subject that I knew I could help you with. My helping you seemed the more important issue than what we had in the past. What was at stake was more important than the past. I'm sure you understand what I mean." Justin nodded trying not to look back at Lance since Lance's sexuality was the reason Justin came to see me in the first place. "It's up to you if you want to continue seeing me on a professional level. If you are wondering whether I still have feelings for you, I won't lie. I still care about you. You have a special place in my heart. But you are a different person. You are the real you, a person that can never love me the way I may have wanted at one time. And I would not change that for anything, even if I knew the spell to make you gay. My feelings for the real you are as a friend. It's up to you if you want to continue being friends. "Now that I was able to tell you everything I wanted to tell you, I will go. You know my number if you want or need to call me, and you know where my office is if you want to talk. Thank you." I left the room and went to the elevator. When the doors opened, I looked back to the room and saw Lance standing in the doorway looking at me. I smiled at him and entered the elevator. The doors closed. When I arrived home, the sun had begun to set. I grabbed a quick bite. The telephone rang. "Hello?" "Eric!" "Jessica?" "Yes. I need your help. Can you suit up and meet me at Garrett's?" "Sure. What's the problem?" "I'll tell you when we are at Garrett's." She hung up. I cleaned up and suited up. Not too much later, I arrived at Garrett's. The Huntress let me in and we went to Garrett's library. Rather large room it was. "What's up?" "Something rather dangerous," Garrett replied, "and serious. With Halloween coming up in two weeks, the Huntress has noticed a rather large surge in demonic activity. Several demons have become more active and it all is centering around public office buildings." The radio transmission between the Huntress and Garrett came to my mind that occurred a few weeks ago concerning vampires breaking into city hall. "At first, I couldn't figure out what was happening," the Huntress said. "Maybe the demons were just into vandalism or something. But when I noticed the attacks on public facilities becoming more common, I went to Garrett." "I did some digging and it appears a very powerful wizard is trying to gain control of the city." "I remember this episode on Buffy the Vampire Slayer," I said. "What?" the Huntress asked. "The mayor this one season of Buffy wanted to become a demon. Good season." "That's not what is going on here," Garrett replied. "This is reality. A very powerful wizard is planning something big for this city and it's citizens. You said you wanted to help. We need it." "What do I do?" "Right now, we patrol. Four eyes are better than two," the Huntress said. "We stop vampires, try to find out their motives and see what we can dig up on the streets." "I'll continue researching this to see what kind of wizard we may be up against." "What kind of wizard, Garrett? Wizards are wizards. They're bad," I replied. "Once we find out the kind of wizard he is, the easier it will be to determine his motives. If it's a wizard who is more naturistic, it's possible he wants to rid the city of technology. If it's one who believes in elitism, he may need to destroy or subjugate those he believes to be inferior. The possibilities are endless." "Okay. Let's go." I stood and headed towards the door. "Not that way," the Huntress interrupted. "We have another surprise for you." I followed her to another room, where a door led us down to another underground room. In it rested the motorcycles we rode. One was in the colors of her costume. But another one had a strange bat-like design to it. "Surprise. We made you a motorcycle." "Thanks." We mounted the bikes and started them up. I followed her through a tunnel and out to the street. As we drove through the streets, I watched the faces of the people we passed. It seemed so unusual to see people going through their daily lives not knowing the darkness that was growing around them. Did it make them selfish or just oblivious to the dangers of life? It didn't matter. Sure, it would make our job much easier, but then there are too many people who would freak out about such things. "Let's do a foot patrol," the Huntress suggested. We drove into an alley and parked the bikes by a dumpster. "What about people who might want to steal these?" I asked. "Watch." The Huntress pressed a button on her belt and her bike disappeared from sight. "Cloaking device. Yours has one, too. It's in one of your belt pouches." She showed me the pouch and I pressed the button inside. My motorcycle disappeared from sight. It's a good thing I didn't experiment with my new suit too much. Who knows what damage I could have caused? The Huntress climbed the fire escape and I followed. Hunting vampires and demons was her territory. She had the expertise, the experience, and I was willing to defer to her for the rest of the night. We went from rooftop to rooftop. The night was strangely quiet. That is until we reached the building housing the local EPA. The Huntress stopped and motioned for me to stop. She pulled a small pair of binoculars out of a pouch on her belt. She looked over the building and replaced the equipment. "There's something in there." "What?" "I don't know. Let's find out." She shot a line to the window and slid down. I followed on her line. Inside it was wrecked. File cabinets were tipped over, papers and folders all over the floor. "What could these demons possibly be doing?" The Huntress did not respond but exited the room. We entered a hallway and slowly made our way around until we found the location of the demons. They were not being quiet about their work here. It was almost as if they mocked the people, which they could back up. Demons are very strong beings. Unless you have a close relationship with God, the One who has power over all creatures, or are chosen to fight them, or you're a mutant, it is not a good idea to pick a fight with them. The Huntress slowly inched open the door to reveal a room full of grayish-black demons with spikes on their jaw line and above their eyes running toward the back of their head. "What are those things?" I asked. "Kailiff demons." "What in the world is a Kailiff demon?" "They are very tough demons who tend to work for other demons, often hired hit men." "Really." "Yep. Be very careful. They are very volatile and strong." "Okay." We watched as they searched through files. After a moment, I asked, "What's your plan? Do we follow them?" The Huntress did not answer. I just held back even though part of me wanted to move. The Huntress must have noticed this. "We need to wait and listen. They may give us more information, provided they have it. If not, then we go after them." After a few more minutes, the stopped and turned toward the door...toward us. I panicked but the Huntress remained calm. If you had seen the Kailiff demons walking toward you, you would have freaked, too. The Huntress moved to the shadows. I followed. There wasn't much we could do. There wasn't much of a hiding place around the hallway. The Kailiff came out of the room and stopped. One sniffed. "Humans are here." "Where?" "Spread out." The six split up and began sniffing and searching. "What do we do?" I asked. "We're going to have to fight. Are you ready?" "I have no idea. The training with Garrett has given me some confidence. But training and the real thing are quite different." "That's for sure," the Huntress said. A Kailiff got closer to us. "Ready? On one...two...three!" The Huntress jumped out of the shadows at the nearest demon. She tackled him to the ground and rolled to her feet as he slowly stood up. They were big. I watched one pull out a knife preparing to throw it. I pulled out a Bat and threw it at his hand. It imbedded into his hand and he dropped the knife, screaming in pain. Several of the demons turned in my direction. With my suit on, I melted into the shadows. No one could see me. I decided to use that to my advantage. I moved swiftly and silently along the wall and threw another Bat. It hit one in the head and they turned in my direction again. I was beginning to confuse them, which I definitely needed to do. To try a head-on approach though may be easy for a Slayer would be rather fatal for an ordinary boy like myself. I moved back down to where I was earlier and threw another Bat. This one imbedded into a demon's leg. He grabbed his leg and cried out in pain. "There's at least three more!" one yelled. Was it possible I was achieving my goal? Did they actually think there was more than one person in the shadows? My heart leapt for joy. That is until the lights came on. I guess they weren't as dumb as they were big. I looked over at the Huntress who, by now, was involved in a fight with two of the Kailiff. The Huntress kicked forward and kicked the demon in front of her in the stomach. Then in a single fluidic moment thrust the same leg back and kicked the demon behind her in the stomach. Bringing the same leg back up, she kneed the demon in front of her in the face, knocking him on his back. She turned to face the Kailiff behind her and punched him. He fell to his knees. She grabbed his head and snapped his neck like a twig. I was dumbfounded. I was taken by surprise by the demon grabbing me in a bear hug and squeezing me tight. I felt the air slowly going out of me. I was going to black out. I would have done no good for the Huntress or anyone else ending up dead. I threw my head back as hard as I could. I felt and heard something crack. The demon released me and I fell to my knees. I turned to see the Kailiff clutching his nose. It was definitely broken and oozing demon blood. He looked at me through tears and cried out in anger. With all my strength, I slammed my fist between his legs, hoping that male demons had genitals. They probably didn't reproduce sexually, but we all know how immoral demons are. The take anything God has made beautiful and turn it ugly. Sex is no exception. I was in luck. The Kailiff did have genitals. I could easily feel it through both his pants and my glove. The impact of my knuckles on his balls did the trick, too. He dropped to his knees clutching himself and crying out in agony. Taking both fists I rammed them into his face, knocking him over and out. My mutation was making me strong as that was what I needed. "I don't care who you are," one demon said to me, "you don't give a male a shot in the pills." I knew what he was talking about and smiled at him. Then, as a demon was coming at me from behind, I put my hands down, kicked out and pushed out and kicked a demon in the face as flipped into the air. I landed behind him and grabbed him from behind. Clutching his neck like the Huntress did the other Kailiff, I snapped his neck, though it took much more effort on my part than the Huntress made it look for her. "What are you doing here?" the Huntress asked. I turned to the other demons ready to fight if I needed to. "This is not your domain. This is man's domain. What is your purpose?" "To server our master." "Master? Since when did you serve a master? The only time I've ever known you to serve a master is when you are being paid. How much is this worth for you?" "More than all the money in the world." My eyes wandered over to the Huntress. She did not waiver. "I want to know who you are working for. Who is this master of yours?" "He is older than time itself. Our fathers and grandfathers served him. Now is the time for his reckoning with this world, with the infestation you call humanity. All humanity, make way for Lord Bortos." The Huntress looked at me questioning. "Don't look at me," I responded. "You know more about demons and wizards than I do." The demons took off running out the door. They were actually running from us! Man, that made me feel proud, a demon fleeing from me. I wanted to go after them but the Huntress had other plans. "We've got to get back to Garrett. He will know who Bortos is." I followed her back to our bikes and within the hour we were driving into Garrett's. She seemed very determined about this, very intent. I was amazed and proud of her. "Garrett!" the Huntress called out. "Garrett!" We did not find him downstairs so we went up to the first floor level only to have to hide. Garrett was talking with someone. "I'm sorry. I wish I could help you, Lance. But I haven't seen Eric since earlier this evening. He could be anywhere." "Thanks, Garrett. Tell Jessica I said hi." "I will." I looked over at Jessica. "What could Lance want?" She smiled at me. "Why don't you call him and find out?" Once Garrett came back in, the Huntress and I came out from our hiding places. "Garrett, we have a problem," the Huntress said. To Be Continued... Only 6 chapters left in this story! But don't worry, there will be another story continuing our heroes adventures!