Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 06:06:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Author James <authorjames2002@yahoo.com>
Subject: Return of a Real Dark Knight 4

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 4 Discoveries

	The next morning I awoke to find Lance already up.  I showered and
dressed and went downstairs.  Lance was preparing something and Preston was
already up sitting at the kitchen table reading a book.
	"What do you have there?" I asked him.
	" 'Blackwood Farm' by Anne Rice," he replied.  "The vampires in
here are fascinating."
	I looked over at Lance and smiled.  Lance smiled back.
	"What's that all about?" Preston asked noticing the looks we gave
each other.
	"Oh, nothing," I said.  "Do you have any plans for today?"
	"None," he replied.  "Just sit back and relax."
	"Don't do too much relaxing.  While it is good to rest and
recuperate, you still need to be active."
	"Yes, father," Preston said with a sigh.
	I chuckled and went over to the stools and sat down.  "What's for
breakfast?" I asked.
	"Nothing," Lance replied.  "I'm getting the chicken marinated for
tonight.  Remember?  We are having the pool party for the contributors to
the Center?"
	"Oh, that's right!" I said remembering.  "I forgot all about that!"
	"I can see how," Preston replied.  "You have a lot on your mind.
Do you want us here?"
	"Of course," I said.  "I can't see why not!"
	Sarah came down the stairs and entered the kitchen.  "Do you all
have to be so loud?"
	"Sorry," I said.  "How did you sleep?"
	Sarah looked at me and looked at Preston. I recognized the look
well.  She was annoyed that I said something to her in front of her
brother.  That surprised me somewhat because she and Preston used to share
everything, despite Lance and my attempts to help them develop their own
identities.
	'He doesn't know,' I mouthed to her.
	Sarah just shook her head and went to the cabinet to get some
cereal.
	"What are you doing today?" Preston asked Sarah.
	"I was going into town with Tiffany and Hope.  We are going to do
some shopping."
	"Make sure you are back before five," Lance replied.  "We are
having the sponsors of the Teen Center over for a pool party and we would
like you and Preston to be here."
	Sarah nodded and ate her cereal.
	I went upstairs to see if Randy was up yet and see if he was hungry
for breakfast.  When I knocked, there was a quick rustling and finally he
said, "Come in."
	I opened the door and stepped in.  "Good morning."
	"Uh, good morning," he replied wiping his eyes acting as if he had
just woke up.
	From the look of the tent in the comforter, he had been up for
quite a while.
	"I was just checking to see if you were up yet.  Did you sleep
okay?"
	"Yeah," Randy said enthusiastically.  "I slept great!"
	"Good.  See you downstairs in a few minutes."
	"Yeah," he replied.
	I left the room closing the door behind me.  I couldn't help but
laugh.  'Was that kid always that horny?' I asked myself.
	I went into my room to get my wallet and watch.  I heard the spare
bedroom door open and looked in the mirror.  Randy walked past the bedroom
and into the bathroom.  To my surprise, he forgot to close the door.  He
pulled down his pants and adjusted the water for the shower.  He turned and
I saw he was still rather "up."  He turned and closed the door to the
bathroom not noticing that I saw him.
	"Exactly like his father," I said and closed my dresser drawer.

	The rest of the morning went by uneventful and everyone went off in
their own directions.  Preston and Randy took Sarah to Tiffany's and then
came back.  Later the two would go pick up Sarah when she called.
	"Hey, dad," Preston said as he came into the den where I was
working on notes from clients at the Center.
	"Yeah, bud?"
	"Is it okay if I watched one of your old DVDs?"
	"Sure.  Go ahead and get whichever one you want."
	"Thanks," he replied.
	Preston walked past me and went over to my DVD collection from when
I was in my twenties.  He grabbed several of the seasons of Buffy the
Vampire Slayer and went to the door.  "Thanks," he said and he left.
	"You're welcome," I said even though he couldn't hear me.  "Why is
he getting interested in vampires all of a sudden?"

	Evening came and Justin and Jessica arrived in formal evening wear
to help out with the party.  JC, Joey and Chris couldn't make it.  They had
their own lives to live and had much on their plates.  Preston, Sarah and
Randy also dressed rather nice and helped the caterers with setup, letting
them know what was to go where and so forth.
	I was up in the bedroom adjusting the collar of my shirt.  Lance
came over and helped me.
	"You always look good in a tux," he said to me, giving me a peck on
the lips.
	"And you always look good," I replied after the kiss.
	Lance smiled at me.  "Do you think the sponsors will help out?"
	"I'm sure they will.  We've got a few celebrities backing us.  Nick
and Aaron Carter, David Gallagher, Leo DiCaprio.  These local sponsors
should flock to be part of the same list as those guys, not to mention all
the other celebrities backing us."
	"Its great to have so many help us.  But we need the local support
to continue to make an impact."
	"I'm sure tonight will help with that," I replied.  "The guests
will be arriving soon.  Let's go greet."
	Lance hooked his arm around mine and we headed off downstairs.

	"There you two are," Sarah said as we came down the stairs.  "I
hope you two weren't making out upstairs.  That is so gross for people your
age to do."
	"Our age?" Lance said.  "We aren't THAT old!"
	Sarah just chuckled and turned and left heading for the patio.
	We entered the kitchen to see Preston and Randy getting some soda
pop from the fridge.
	"How did you like the DVDs?" I asked my son.
	"They were interesting," he said.
	I smiled and nodded.
	"What DVDs?" Lance asked in a whisper.
	"Earlier today, Preston asked to watch a few DVDs.  He grabbed the
Buffy ones and watched."
	"Hmmm.  I wonder why?"
	I shook my head wondering the same question myself.

	A half hour later, everyone had arrived and were mixing and
mingling with one anther.  Several major business owners spoke with local
politicians and having Lance and Justin at the party gave it a nice flavor
of importance.
	"You see," Lance was saying to one of the Councilmen, "the Hunter
Center is doing a great service by finding children who are lost in the
night, who are wondering who they are and what their purpose is."
	"Isn't that the job of the parents?"
	"Of course it is.  But we still have parents who do not care what
happens to their children.  We still have selfish people in this world and
they are having children.  The harm they cause is detrimental to what
happens to the youth.  The Center can help the children get back on track
developmentally by giving them a solid foundation of love, support and
guidance to bettering their selves."
	"This all sounds very intriguing," the Councilman said.  "I would
be willing to endorse your Center."
	"That's great," Lance said.  "I'm glad you see things in the same
way."
	The Councilman smiled.
	As I stood listening to one of the Department of Health and Human
Welfare workers speak to a small group of business owners of the good work
the Center did, I heard a rustling in the leaves.  The night had been
amazingly calm and I didn't feel a wind blowing at that moment.  Casually I
looked up and saw some movement in the branches.  Something was up there
but I couldn't tell what.
	Jessica had heard the noise as well.  She looked over at me and
gave a slight nodded, letting me know she was ready in case it was
something unnatural, or should I saw preternatural.
	Without warning, the thing fell out of the tree and landed near
Sarah.  She, and those around her, screamed.  However, she reacted
physically and backhanded it and it stumbled away from her.
	Jessica and I got a good look at its face.  It wasn't human, or
completely human.
	"Damn," it said as it leapt over the wall and into the night.
	Lance and I did the only appropriate thing we could do as hosts,
call the police and fill out a report about someone who was trespassing on
our property, climbing our trees.

	A short while later, the party ended, earlier than expected, but
necessary due to the events that had transpired earlier.  Lance and I
thanked the guests for coming and told them we would be in touch with them
concerning any donations and other support they could make for the Center.
We thanked them again and saw them off.
	Once the last car drove away, Lance and I turned and entered the
house closing the door.
	"That was so scary!" Randy said, pacing the living room.  "I wonder
why Batman didn't show up."
	Preston stood near the doorway to the kitchen.  Justin sat on the
couch with Jessica.  Sarah sat in the middle.
	"That was wicked awesome!  How did you do that, Sarah?" Randy
asked.
	"I don't...I don't know."
	"Jessica, could we speak to you in the den?"
	Jessica nodded and stood up.  As we walked past Preston, he put his
arm on my shoulder and whispered, "That was a vampire, wasn't it?"
	"We'll talk about this later, Preston," I said and continued into
the den following Jessica and Lance.
	Lance turned on a lamp as I closed the door.
	"Can you believe what happened?" Jessica said.  "That was some
strength she had."
	"Unnatural strength," Lance replied.  "One would say supernatural."
	"True," I agreed.  "The question is, from where?  She's not a
mutant.  Her powers would have manifested at puberty.  This is the first
time I've ever seen anything like this with her."
	"Me, too," Lance replied.
	"From what I saw," Jessica said, "it looks like our Sarah might be
a Vampire Slayer."
	"How did you know you were a Slayer?" I asked Jessica.
	"I was out at night with some friends.  A mugger tried to grab my
purse and I grabbed his wrist.  I was never afraid of confrontation growing
up, so I didn't flinch when it happened.  But when I grabbed his wrist, I
ended up snapping it.  I was just a teenager, just had my fifteenth
birthday.
	"It was then that I knew I was different.  A few days later,
Garrett showed up at my door and talked with my parents about me getting
accepted into a boarding school in London.  They were so proud they sent me
off.  When I arrived, I found out it wasn't a school to teach math and
writing, but a school to teach Slayers about vampires.  It was in England
that I met Lance."
	"NSYNC was just getting started and we toured Europe before coming
to America.  Jessica was at one of our concerts.  We ended up meeting at a
little café and became friends."
	"Our friendship developed into something more and then Lance
realized his sexuality."
	I nodded.  "What do we do about Sarah?  I don't want to send her
off to London to learn about this.  I'm sure sending you to London was to
also protect your family from your new calling.  But I've been involved
with this for fifteen years.  So has Lance.  We know the dangers and can
help prevent them.  Plus, we have you."
	"It is possible to train her here," Jessica answered.  "I can
contact the Council and give Jayce the heads up on what is going on.  He
may give me permission to train her.  With my experience in slaying
already, I don't see why not.  I would be acting as her Watcher."
	"Then that's what we'll do," Lance stated.  "But we have to be sure
first that she's a Vampire Slayer.  What happened could have been a fluke,
an adrenaline rush."
	"True," Jessica said.  "So tomorrow night, Sarah and I are going to
go for a stroll through some cemeteries."
	Lance and I both nodded.  "We can't tell anyone else, except
Justin.  I don't think Preston and Randy are ready for that much
information."
	All of us agreed on keeping it secret for now.  When we left the
den, I noticed Preston looking at the pictures on one of the Buffy the
Vampire Slayer DVDs.  He looked up at me and then looked down again,
obviously disturbed by what he saw.  I didn't blame him.  It was scary what
he saw.  But I didn't want to alarm him and confirm his fear that it was,
indeed, a vampire.
	Jessica, Justin and Randy said their goodbyes and Sarah and Preston
went to bed.  Lance and I went upstairs and got ready for bed.  As we sat
in bed, with glasses of wine to either side of us, we held each other and
talked.
	"This is scary," he began, "finding out our daughter is different
from the rest of the world.  Just like when we found out we were different
from the rest of the world.  Everything changes if she is a Slayer.  But it
isn't like what changed when we came out.  We had ridicule and hatred and
discrimination.  And there was a remote possibility that someone would beat
us to death like Matthew Shepard's death.  But with Sarah being a Vampire
Slayer, the violence level goes way up.  She will be out there every night
fighting vampires.  There will always be a chance that she could be
killed."
	"Lance," I said getting him to stop.  "Don't think that way.  It
won't do her or us any good."
	"But how can I?  I've lived with you and that fear was real for me
every night you went out.  I..."
	I stopped him by kissing him long, hard and passionate.  I felt the
muscles in his body relax.  His mind definitely wasn't thinking about Sarah
now.
	I caressed his chest and moved my hand down his abs to the
waistband of his underwear.  His hand reached up and flicked off the
lights, and the two of us made passionate love.

To Be Continued...

What do you think of Sarah being a Vampire Slayer?  If any of you remember
my request back while writing "Judgments of a Real Dark Knight" for a
picture of a blonde Huntress, you now know who it was for!  More to come!