Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2000 17:47:09 -0000
From: Shade . <ensstyenlc@hotmail.com>
Subject: The Daemon Gate Chapter 7

I'm back! Thanks to everyone for their emails, feedback and encouragement!
Also special thanks to Shadow, Neto, Susz, Mags...thanks for being my
friends. Thank you to David, "'cause every moment we share together/is even
better than the moment before/if every day as as good as today was/then I
can't wait till tomorrow comes". Now just a little note for everyone...fans
of JC, AJ, Howie and Chris, these boys are coming back into the picture! In
this chapter! Also, this chapter won't be very long because it's a "bridge"
to connect the last parts together. Sort of like the domino I need to push
before the rest come falling down. Don't worry, though, because all the
chapters after this one are going to be much longer in content, but that
means it will be a slower time of coming (which is still better than waiting
a few months... ;p ). And not only the above-mentioned boys, but also the
guys of Westlife are coming in too! Do I hear a cheer? ;p Also, I know that
having a whole big bunch of characters is gonna be very confusing, so I'm
going to make it easier for everyone. Not going to explain how, but no, I'm
not killing anyone...or am I? *Insert evillaugh.wav here* Just thought I'd
let you know... anyway, here's the story (after the stupid legalities
underneath this passage, of course...)
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This story contains homosexual content and should not be read by anyone
under the age of 18. Also, this story does not imply anything about the
sexualities of anyone from Nsync, Westlife, Backstreet Boys, a1 or any other
celebrity mentioned here. I do not know them and their characteristics. This
also does not imply anything about any other people mentioned in this story.
Their names and descriptions are there but that doesn't mean that their
characteristics are the same in real life. And none of them possess any
special powers of any sort and this is totally fiction! And now you may read
this next chapter! Happy reading!

For David L.Z. (Was there any doubt?)
______________________________________________________________________________
|The Daemon Gate - Chapter Seven|

JC paced worriedly around his hotel room. It had been almost two days since
he had last contacted his friends. Chris was on his way to JC right now and
his plane was scheduled to land in four hours time. JC had not heard any
replies from Justin, Lance or Joey, and he wondered if anything had happened
to them. It seemed, according to the hotel, they had just disappeared
leaving everything behind, including their mobile phones and even clothes.
The hotel management had kindly sent everything over to Justin's house but
there was no trace of his friends. Lost in his thinking, JC started when his
hotel room phone rang. He slowly walked over to the phone, hoping it would
be one of the guys.

"Hello?" he answered, squeezing his eyes tightly and hoping.

"Hey J," replied the voice which JC recognised as AJ's.

"Hey AJ, what's up?" JC asked, a little disappointed.

"Oh, same old, same old," AJ responded lightly. "Except for the fact that
Kevin, Brian and Nick have disappeared without a trace."

"You too?" JC asked, not really surprised.

"What do you mean 'you too'?" AJ asked.

"Justin, Lance and Joey have disappeared without a trace as well," JC
replied. "Where are you now?"

"Err...downstairs," AJ said. "Howie's here too."

"Oh, okay then," JC said. "Come up to my room. Chris should be here in four
hours or so."





The Boss smiled gleefully as she watched Ghaunadar approach the screaming
human in the pit below. The great mass touched the human, a young man, on
his exposed arm. There was a strange sucking sound and the screaming teen
disappeared without a trace, his clothes falling to the ground. The Boss
gaped at Ghaunadar's power. She tried to remember the teen, but she could
not even remember his hair colour. She picked up his pink identity card
(note: all singaporean IC's are pink) and read his name and looked at his
face, remembering neither one. She smiled wickedly and muttered, "The sithi
will be swallowed whole and none will remember them. All who are killed by
Ghaunadar never existed in the eyes of everyone."

"Boss," a male malenta strode into the room, his yellow eyes gleaming
evilly. The Boss turned around to look at him.

"We are set?" she asked. The malenta nodded. He broke into an evil grin and
snorted in a twisted sort of happiness.

"Our mages have managed to tap the powers of the daemon gate," he said. "The
vampires have been notified. Their power has been increased, and they are
ready to attack the sithi force."

"Good," the Boss smiled. "We will not attack."

"What?" the malenta was shocked.

"We won't attack," the Boss repeated. "We do not have to. Already the sithi
and their allies are preparing their attack on our different bases, the
locations of which I have convieniently let them know subtly. They are after
the bait, and we have set the trap. All we need now is for them to stumble
into it. My spies are keeping me well updated."

"Will our spies rat on us?" the malenta asked. The Boss shook her head
slowly.

"It is unlikely that they will," the Boss said. "Both have everything to
lose if they do, and their lives to keep if they don't. Just keep one or two
of our mages on hand to hide the energy of their telepathic connections with
me from the sithi and their allies. This is one fight we cannot afford to
lose by being found out."

"Yes Boss," the malenta nodded, turned and left the room. The Boss looked
through the glass down to the pit. She pressed another button and let a
human, a young girl this time, screaming out of her cage. She smiled evilly
and contentedly as the girl's screams faded away, as did all memory of her.






Chris knocked on JC's room door. He had unpacked most of his things and was
rushing to find out why JC had sounded so urgent on the phone. JC opened the
door and ushered Chris in. Chris smiled at AJ and Howie as he stepped in.
Before he could say anything, JC closed the door and said, "Okay, now we
need to find out what happened to out missing friends."

"Talk about missing friends," Chris said, reaching into his pocket. "Look
who I found. Or rather look who found me."

Chris withdrew a familiar crystal unicorn from his pocket. AJ's eyes widened
and he grabbed Tilkeleb from Chris' hands. He closed his eyes and a blue
mist formed outside the statue. The blue mist floated in front of AJ and
Tilkeleb materialised.

"Tilk!" AJ yelled, hugging the unicorn. Tilkeleb whinnied a welcome and
nuzzled AJ. Chris smiled happily.

"How did you find him?" AJ asked Chris. Tilkeleb playfully knocked AJ with
his hoof.

"Actually, I found Chris," Tilkeleb said in his crystal clear voice. "I
sensed his presence near the store where I was in and I sent him a
telepathic message. He recognised me and bought me to bring back."

"Cool!" Howie said. "Now we may be able to find out what happened to our
friends."

"And how's that?" JC snapped. "What good is having a unicorn if we don't
know how to find our friends?"

"Maybe Estel took them away somewhere?" Tilkeleb offered.

"Estel's dead," JC said. "Has been for almost two thousand years already."

"How do you know that?" Tilkeleb asked patiently.

"Because no one can live that long," JC practically screamed.

"What's eating him?" AJ whispered to Chris, who shrugged.

"Maybe he's thinking of how foolish he was to break up with Lance," Howie
said.

Tilkeleb looked JC in the eye and said slowly, "Estel is alive. Lalaith is
alive. The sithi are immortal, they cannot age."

"Sithi?" JC, Chris, Howie and AJ asked in unison.

Tilkeleb began to tell the four boys about the wars, history and origins of
the sithi and malenti while they listened intently, catching up on what they
had missed the past two thousand years. When he was done, JC asked, "So how
are we going to make contact with the sithi then? It still leaves us
nowhere."

"That's where you'd be wrong," Chris said. "I happened to meet Mariah Carey
recording a cover of Phil Collin's Against All Odds with this group called
Westlife. After Mariah left, one of the guys came up to me with his eyes
wide and asked me if I was Chris."

"That's nothing," JC said. "What has that got to do with our situation?"

"Well, he asked if I was Chris, not of Nsync, but of Nirnaeth Arnodied, and
I recognised Nirnaeth's name so I said yes," Chris explained. "Mark
Fillysilly or something like that, the guy who asked the question, told me
that he was fighting daemons and would hope to maybe see me around since the
sithi were trying to recall the heroes of Nirnaeth Arnodied to help out. He
gave me the phone numbers of the group, introduced me to them and we talked
until someone noticed he was gone and they went back to their hotel to look
for him."

"Mark?" Tilkeleb asked. "Mark Feehily?"

"Yeah, that's it!" Chris exclaimed. Tilkeleb nodded.

"Who's that?" Howie asked.

"Mark is Estel's new love," Tilkeleb replied. "I don't know much about him
except that he was supposed to inherit Stile's powers, though I have no idea
when it happened if it has happened."

"Then we should contact that Westlife group," AJ said. "But will they be
able to help us? If they don't have powers, we're just going to look like
fools in front of them."

"They have powers," Tilkeleb said. "All the people from Ireland have powers,
they just don't know they have them or how to use them. I can show them how
to discover and use their powers."

"Okay, good," AJ said. "Contact them, Chris."

"Sir, yes sir!" Chris said, saluting, then rushing to the phone to call
Westlife.






Shane had just woken up to go to the toilet and was ready to plop back into
bed when his mobile phone rang.

"Bloody hell," he exclaimed, digging out his phone and trying to answer it
before it woke up his room mate Kian.

"What in the bloody blazes are you doing calling at two thirty in the
morning?" he screamed softly into the phone.

"Err, hi, did I catch you at a bad time?" the unfamiliar voice on the other
end asked sheepishly.

"Who are you?" Shane asked irritably.

"Hi, I'm Chris, and I don't know if you remember me, but I need your help,"
Chris replied quickly.

"Oh, yeah, you're the shaggy haired guy," Shane said. "What help do you
need?"

"We need your help to find Mark," Chris replied. Shane's eyes bolted open.

"Where's Mark? What did you do with him?" Shane accused.

"Nothing, I swear," Chris replied quickly. "We have a friend here who knows
where he might be but we need your help to find him, as well as our friends
too. How quickly can you get here?"

"Now," Shane said sarcastically, even though he spoke the truth. His sarcasm
was lost on the enthusiastic Chris who instantly replied, "You can
teleport?! Cool!"

"Okay, so what do you really want?" Shane asked.

"Just teleport here and we'll tell you," Chris said, and hung up.

"Bloody bugger," Shane muttered as he switched his phone off. He closed his
eyes and tried to remember Chris' face and willed himself to Chris. He did
not know how he was able to teleport, he just knew that he could when a car
was about to knock him over and he willed himself to the other side of the
road with his eyes closed and when he opened them, he found himself where he
imagined himself to be. He felt the unknown energy surge through him and
fade away and he opened his eyes. He glanced around the room and saw Chris
and three other guys he vaguely recognised. And a unicorn. Shane blinked his
eyes, rubbed them, and stared at the spot again. The unicorn was still
there.

"Bloody hell!" Shane stumbled backwards, his eyes wide open in shock.

"Actually, I'm a unicorn," Tilkeleb smiled at Shane.

"Oh my gosh," Shane said, still in shock. "Bloody hell."






The Boss smiled as Aalakab entered the room. The vampire master was huge,
standing almost eight feet tall, and was muscular and agile. He looked and
was deadly, but powerful as he was, the Boss did not fear him. She knew she
was more powerful than him.

"Has it worked?" she asked Aalakab. He nodded.

"My people are testing it out on each other," Aalakab said. "We have taken
those weakest among us to test them."

"And what are the results?" the Boss asked, crossing her arms across her
chest.

"We no longer crumble into dust when staked," Aalakab reported. "The stake
prevents us from regenerating our wounds, but when pulled out, we heal
almost immediately. Magic is only thirty percent effective against us, but
it can hurt us. It takes a lot to kill us. Fire still destroys us, but only
if we are staked."

"How about magick?" the Boss asked. Aalakab looked confused.

"Magick," the Boss said. "With a 'k'. It's the magick of the Wiccans, and
it's different from the magic wielded by the mages."

"We have not tested that since we have no Wiccans to cast magick on us,"
Aalakab said. "We are confident that it will have the same effect as normal
magic. Holy water still affects us, but it no longer kills. It just burns us
like weak acid."

"Good," the Boss said. "Anything else to report?"

"Yes" Aalakab replied. "When my people died, the dust remaining began to
form back for some of them."

"Which ones?" the Boss asked.

"The ones that were killed by beheading and injuries," Aalakab stated.

"Injuries?" the Boss asked.

"Those we did not remove the stakes from died from inflicted wounds, just
like a normal human, and they crumble into dust. After they turn into dust,
the stake is no longer inserted in them and as a result, they are able to
regenerate again, in approximately five to ten minutes."

"Great!" the Boss replied cheerily. "Now all we need to do is seperate your
people into seven groups and go to the ambush sites and we're all ready!"

Aalakab nodded and faded from site. The Boss threw her head back and began
to laugh diabolically.






"Bloody HELL!!" Shane screamed as soon as he saw Mark. Mark was in the
lounge of Estel's hideaway and his back was turned to the newcomers. As soon
as he heard Shane's exclamation, he turned around as quickly as possible.

"Shane!" Mark was shocked. "Kian? Bryan and Nicky? And Chris, AJ, Howie and
JC? And a...unicorn???"

"You little bugger, running out on us without telling us about all this?"
Shane yelled at Mark, causing the boy to blush.

"Calm down, lad," Nicky said, patting Shane's shoulder.

"Calm down? BLOODY HELL!" Shane yelled. "How could he just disappear like
that and not tell us about all the cool fighting?!"

" 'Cool fighting'?" Mark asked. "You're here to help in the fight? You know
about the fight? You know how to use your powers? What are your powers?
What's going on?"

"There there, don't strain it," Bryan said, patting the confused Mark on the
head. "Just tell your dearest that we're here to help."

"No need for that," Tilkeleb said. "He's already expecting us."

"And you're right on time," Estel said appearing from nowhere. "Come on,
everyone's waiting. No time for introductions, we have to go."

He closed his eyes and transported the group to the meeting hall one level
lower. He opened his eyes and blinked to a table with two boxes, one big and
one small, at the front of the room.

"Attention everyone," Estel spoke. "Justin and Peter have recently
discovered the location of seven strategic malenti hideouts. Since there are
forty two of us including the recent arrivals, I have decided to split us
into seven groups of six."

"How are we going to decide that?" Sidney asked.

"We're going to draw names from this box to see who's working with who,"
Estel explained. "The malenti may be familiar with how we might group
ourselves and our only chance is to surprise them by grouping with totally
random people. They might try to figure out some sort of pattern to it, and
they'll just end up wasting their time. Now we draw names and places."

Estel fished into the small box and read,"FunDazzle. The malenti keep a
special orb in there of uncertain power. People think it's just a toy for
the kids to play with when they're there. The following group will go to
FunDazzle and steal the box."

He dug his hand through the large box and withdrew six names and opened them
one by one, reading them aloud: "Charmaine, Paul, Brian, Britney, Ian and
Lalaith."

The six in question nodded and left the room immediately.

"Second is United Square, an office building where they keep their official
documents and results of magical tests. The following people will go there:
Joey, Chris, AJ and Tilkeleb counted as one, Marcus, Shadow and Kenny."

Before the second group could leave, Estel had already dug out the third
location.

"KK Mother's and Children's Hospital. They have hidden technology hidden
there. Group is Mark, Justin, Bryan, Magenda, Susan and me. Fourth is Mt
Alvernia hospital, also with hidden technology. Group four is Lance, David,
Jason, Lydia, Steve and Leo. Location five, Temasek Polytechnic, reputed
hideout similar to this one. Group five is Denny, Peter, Tara, Shane, Veron
and Nicky."

Denny and Nick looked at each other sadly.

"Oops," Estel said sheepishly. "Error...that reads Nick, not Nicky. Location
six, the old, abandoned San Yu High School building. There's a cemetary
across the road from it so expect undead. Group is Kevin, JC, Chelsea,
Grace, Neto and Sidney."

A large groan came from group six the moment they heard Sidney's name. The
remaining people either sniggered or sighed with relief.

"Last group, you get the Science Centre. Possible entrance of the daemon
gate. Your group is Vincent, Karene, Fariz, Kian, Howie and Nicky. It's
possible that Ghaunadar is there as well."

"Ghaunadar won't show up until all of us are together," Vincent said boldly.
"He won't be a concern to the very end. It's always the same in stories, the
toughest guy is the last to show up and only when everyone's there."

"Of course, but don't forget that this is NOT a story," Estel said. "Go, we
don't have much time. The malenti have managed to tap the powers of the
daemon gate and are beginning to open it."
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Well, that's it for this chapter... enjoy. Comments to be sent to
ensstyenlc@hotmail.com
Hope to hear from you soon! :)