Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 05:03:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Author James <authorjames2002@yahoo.com>
Subject: Tales of a Real Dark Knight Chapter 50

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.

Author James <authorjames2002@yahoo.com>

Chapter 50 Battle with Bortos

	"What kind of trouble?" I asked Garrett.
	The Huntress had called me earlier.  She requested I come to
Garrett's.  She stood by Garrett at his desk as he told me trouble was
brewing with Bortos.
	"I did some research into Bortos.  Most accounts of him are very
vague.  But I did come across one that went into great detail.  It seems
Lord Bortos is a chaos worshiper."
	"Chaos worshiper?"
	"Yes.  He worships chaos as any other person would worship a
religious deity.  His objective has been the same over the past few
thousands of years.  He would have his followers commit crimes that would
lead any investigators astray.  From there, he would work on his hidden
agenda."
	"Which is?"
	"Bringing forth Chaos demons.  These spirits would permeate the
world governments and cause nothing but chaos."
	"In short anarchy."
	"Not really.  Anarchy is more of each person being responsible for
his or her self.  Chaos is when there are no such personal laws.  Chaos is
pandemonium.  And Lord Bortos wants to bring it into the world."
	"What do we do to stop him?"
	"That would be the Huntress's job.  She has to stop him.  But she
is going to need help.  According to this, Bortos keeps an army of Kailiff
demons at his side during the final ritual serving each ritual location."
	"It must be those places that the symbols were placed."
	"Yes.  And at each one of them he will have a Chaos priest to call
forth the chaos demons.  They all must be stopped.  If one completes the
ritual, one spirit or aspect of Chaos will be unleashed.  With the ritual
locations being so far apart, it will be nearly impossible for the Huntress
to stop all the priests and Bortos on Halloween night."
	"Which isn't too far away," the Huntress commented.
	"What we need is a small army of our own.  But we cannot ask any
ordinary person to get involved.  They would get killed. We need an army
that had power and strength, especially against the Kailiff.  You know how
strong they are, Batman."
	I thought back to my encounters with them.  They were tough.  The
only other being that had fought with them, besides the Huntress and
myself, was Wolverine.
	"I got it!" I exclaimed more excitedly than I had imagined.
	"What?" Garrett asked.
	"I know who could help us.  The X-MEN.  They all have mutant powers
that could be of use."
	"You're sure they could do it?"
	I looked over at the Huntress.  "Definitely."
	"Are you sure they would help us?"
	"I don't know.  We could talk with them."
	"You know where they live?"
	"Yep.  Let's go."

	Within moments, we were at Xavier's Institute-West Coast campus.
Garrett took his van, the Huntress her motorcycle and I on my motorcycle.
We went up to the door and I knocked.  Kitty answered the door.
	"You?  W-w-what do you want?"
	"I need to see the Professor," I replied.
	"Kitty, who is it?" I heard Logan ask.  He came up to the door and
opened it further to peek out.  "It's you.  What do you want?"
	"We've got a problem, Logan.  We need to see the Professor."
	"What you need our help?  We're mutants.  I thought you weren't a
mutant."
	"Logan," I heard the Professor say.  "Who's here?"
	"It's the mutant bat."
	"Let him in."
	Kitty opened the door and we entered.
	"What's wrong, Batman?"
	"Professor, we need to talk to you.  We need the help of the
X-MEN."

	A half hour later, I was in their conference room.  Professor
Xavier sat at the head of the table with Garrett on one side and Cyclops on
the other.  The Huntress sat beside Garrett and I sat beside her.  On the
other side sat Jean Grey, Logan, Ororo, Gambit and Kitty.
	"You can't be serious," Logan replied after Garrett told them what
he had told me.  "Who believes in magic and voodoo mumbo jumbo?"
	"Magic is real, Logan," Garrett replied.  "In this age of
technology and modern science, people have left the old ways behind
believing them to be myth.  Magic is real.  Supernatural forces exist.  And
one very dangerous force is working to gain control of this world.  And I'm
asking for your help."
	"Logan, you saw what Lord Bortos could do," the Huntress replied.
	"For all any of us know, he's a mutant who thinks he was given a
gift by the dark one."  Logan looked right at me.  "If I'm not mistaken,
you thought your gift was an answer to prayer to some God to help you fight
vampires."
	"For all any of us know, Logan," I said, "all mutants could be
God's answer to fight against darkness."
	"I don't believe this," Logan stood up and marched toward the door.
	"What about the Kailiff?" the Huntress said.
	Logan stopped.
	"You know, the demons you fought with us at Bortos' manor?  What
about them?  Could they all be mutants that look the same?"
	Logan turned back.
	"I didn't think so."
	"Logan, please," Professor Xavier said.  "Sit down.  We need your
help.  If this is serious, we may be on the verge of losing everything
we've worked for.  You know Magneto.  He would take advantage of a
situation like this."
	Logan reluctantly sat down.
	Professor Xavier turned to Garrett.
	"What do you plan to do?"
	"The Huntress and Batman went and did a thorough search of all the
ritual locations.  It seems there are four ritual spots and in the center
is where Bortos will be.  The Huntress and I need to go after Bortos.  I
would like you and your team, along with Batman, to split up into four
groups of two and attack the ritual sites.  The objective of each team
would be to take down the priest and stop the rituals before they can
complete their rituals."
	"What are these Kailiff demons you were talking about?  What are
their strengths?"
	"Weapons," Logan chimed in.  "They use lots of old-fashioned
weapons.  And they are strong.  Very strong."
	"Then lets get practicing.  Halloween is just around the corner."

	Over the next few days we trained together.  Thankfully Professor X
had a Danger Room we could use to simulate the ritual sites.  From there we
could practice strategies.  Of course before we could practice, we had to
be split into our groups: The Huntress and Garrett, Professor Xavier and
Ororo, Jean Grey and Cyclops, Wolverine and Shadow Cat, Gambit and me.
Gambit was not too happy being teamed up with a gay man, but he had to deal
with it.

	Halloween day I went to see Lance and talk with him.  I wanted to
make sure he was out of danger before this thing started with Bortos.  He
was surprised to see me show up at the hotel, as was the rest of the group.
	"Hi, Eric, what brings you here?"
	"Lance, I need to ask a favor of you."
	"Sure."
	"I want you to stay in tonight.  I don't want you or the rest of
the guys to go out."
	"Why?" Chris asked.  "It's Halloween night.  All the clubs are
having costume parties."
	"There is something more going on than just trick or treat
tonight."
	"Like what?" JC asked.
	"Remember Turic?"  Everyone got quiet.  "There's a demon-wizard who
is planning to do a ritual tonight."
	"And why are you telling us this?" Chris said.
	"No more lies, Eric," Justin said.  I could tell he had his doubts
over what happened with Turic.  "I don't believe in that stuff.  None of us
do."
	"You were under a spell yourself, Justin.  You were under a
vampire's control and you don't believe?"
	"For all we know it was you the whole time," JC replied.  "You are
a psychologist.  You could know something about hypnosis.  You could have
been in league with Turic the whole time.  Where's Joshua by the way?  I
think you hypnotized him and told him to leave town so you could have your
own counseling office.  You hypnotized him to get to us, to get to Justin,
and now to Lance."
	"I don't believe I'm hearing this!" I said.
	"You better believe it," Justin replied.
	Quickly I felt eeriness in the air.  Someone once told me I was
sensitive to spirits.  I knew I was long before anyone told me.  I could
sense dark spirits and dark forces.  That's what I felt now.  It was
Bortos.  The spell had begun.  And maybe, just maybe, it was affecting the
guys.
	I turned and left the hotel and hurried over to Garrett's where I
could suit up and get my motorcycle.  Chaos, disarray, frenzy, it was
beginning.  First people would begin to change their attitudes and beliefs.
Then, once the spell was complete, it would be total turmoil.
	I got to Garrett's and suited up.  On my radio, I called the
Huntress.
	"What's up, Batman?"
	"It's started, Huntress.  I have seen some changes in people
already.  We've got to get moving now."
	"Understood."
	"Tell Gambit I will meet him on top of the library."

	I arrived at the Library and saw the group of Kailiff standing
guard around the perimeter of the building.  Some were on the roof.  Not
too much later, Gambit showed up.
	"Looks like the party started without us," he said in his Cajun
accent.
	"Sure has.  Remember the plan?"
	"We've got several of them.  Which one is you thinking of?"
	"Then one where we win."
	Gambit turned and smiled at me.  "Hard and fast, huh?  Let's do
it!" Gambit pulled out a deck of cards.  "Good thing I stocked up."
	Gambit jumped out of our hiding space and ran to the middle of the
street.  "Hello, boys.  What's up?"  With that he threw two cards at two of
the Kailiff demons.  The cards were glowing and, when they impacted the
demons, exploded and knocked them into the library wall.
	Three Kailiff ran out after Gambit.  I shot out several of my bat
lines and tied their legs.  With a hard yank they fell to the ground.  I
ran out and joined Gambit.
	"Let's go, Bats."
	With that we entered the building, and I offered a silent prayer up
to God for success.
	Inside we found it quite quiet.  But we knew we had to be on our
toes.  At any minute a Kailiff could jump out at us or shoot us with an
arrow.  We found the stairs leading down to the basement where the symbol
was placed and the ritual was taking place, and descended.  When we reached
the bottom, we made our way to the room where the ritual was.
	The priest was standing in the middle of the symbol.  Several
Kailiff surrounded the symbol weapons ready.
	"Do you think you could hit the priest with one of them cards?" I
asked.
	"Sure thing."
	"Do it."  With that I moved down further and around the corner.  I
had a plan.  The Kailiff would see Gambit, not me.  That would give me an
advantage to get some of them out of the game at the start.
	I watched as several cards flew out, one hitting the priest and
knocking him out of the symbol.  The others hit several Kailiff and knocked
them back.  They were wearing some kind of protection so the explosions did
not do as much damage.  As they ran toward Gambit, I relaxed and let my
consciousness stretch out.  I moved a bookshelf in front of the Kailiff as
they approached Gambit.  There was no time for them to stop in time.  They
ran, full force, into the bookshelf, knocking them out.
	Gambit jumped on top of the bookshelf and pulled out his
quarterstaff.  A Kailiff happened to be wielding one as well.  "Looks like
I get some action, too."
	Gambit jumped down and swung his quarterstaff hitting the demon in
the mouth.  It could be said of Gambit he does not hesitate in jumping into
action.  The demon swung back and Gambit blocked.  Bringing the
quarterstaff back towards Gambit's head, Gambit blocked.  He then swung the
other end around and hit the demon in the mouth for a second time.  Then he
brought the staff up and knocked the demon's legs out from under him.
	As much as I was enjoying watching Gambit fight, I had my own job
to do.  I moved over to the symbol and the priest.  He stood as I grabbed
his ritual book.  He swung his leg up and kicked me.  Then, he pulled out
his sword.
	"There's nothing more you can do.  You have failed."
	The priest swung his sword at me.  I ducked and rolled behind him.
Standing, I kicked him in the back knocking him forward.  Then I grabbed a
candle and set fire to the ritual book.
	"NO!"
	"Yes!" I mocked.
	He screamed at me and attacked me.  I flipped over him and grabbed
one of the candle stands.  As he brought his sword around, I used the
candle stand to block, and then swung the other end back, knocking him off
his feet.
	"It's over." I said.

	In the center of the sites, the Huntress approached Lord Bortos.
The Kailiff guards lay on the ground unconscious by the Huntress's battle.
	"You can't stop me, Slayer.  You can't win."
	"I already have.  Even as we speak, us inferior social outcasts
have dismantled your priests and their rituals.  All that's left is you."
	"You won't win."
	"Try me."
	Lord Bortos threw a green ball of energy at the Huntress.  She
rolled to the side and then lunged at him tackling him.  As Bortos fell
backwards, he stuck his foot in the Huntress's stomach and flipped her over
his head.  He got up and drew his sword.  The Huntress stood and pulled out
her dagger.
	"You think you can beat me with that?"
	"I don't think I can.  I know I can."
	Bortos swung his sword at the Huntress.  She used her dagger to
block, then rolled into him, elbowing him in the stomach.  He hunched down
and she brought her fist up, backhanding him in the face. She turned and
punched him in the face with the hand holding the dagger.  Bortos swung his
sword toward her stomach.  She stepped outside of the arch and rolled down
his arm ending up behind him.  She took her knife and held it up to his
throat.
	"Guess what, Bortos?  I won.  Drop your sword."
	"You won't take me alive," he replied dropping his sword.
	"You're a demon.  You are not alive."
	Bortos swung his head back hitting the Huntress in the face.  Then
he flipped her over his head.  He pulled out a dagger from his robes and
lunged at the Huntress.  She grabbed his fallen sword and held it up as
Bortos fell on his own sword impaling himself.  His lifeless body slumped
onto the Huntress, his dagger just missing her head.  She rolled him off
and stood up.
	Garrett stood at the corner and gave her a smile and thumbs up.
She gave him a smile and walked over to him.

	An hour later, we were all at Xavier's school telling the tales of
our battles in saving the world from Chaos demons.
	"It seems we had a successful campaign," Garrett said.  "We should
all be proud of ourselves."
	"Yes," added Professor Xavier, "we all worked well together.  I
hope this will continue."
	"This kind of battle?" Kitty replied, "with demons trying to take
over the world?"
	"No," Professor Xavier laughed, "with us working together as a
team."
	"Yes, here, here," Garrett said with a smile.
	"Unfortunately, I must return to New York.  My associate, Henry
McCoy, has been running things.  But I must return with Jean, Logan and
Scott.  Ororo, Remy and Kitty will remain behind.  I have new students
coming, both to New York and here.  They should be here within the week.
	"I hope that you continue training with them, Batman."
	"I plan to, Professor.  Thanks."
	"You've been training with them?" Garrett asked.
	"To learn how to use my mutant powers.  Training with you and with
them makes for a well-rounded person who can fight with everything,
Garrett."
	Garrett nodded and smiled.  We took our leave of them and went our
separate ways.
	On my way home, I stopped at one of the tallest buildings in L.A.
I looked out at the city and went over the last few months.  I had been to
several of the locations in the city and have learned part of it very well.
There was still so much more of this city to learn, so many more citizens
to meet.  Part of me, however, felt that a climax had come to this city, a
feeling as if I had done all I needed to do here.  Was it possible?  Was I
finished with my work in this city?  This city so vast, so full of life,
had been conquered?  Perhaps not conquered, just experienced.  Had I gotten
my fill of L.A.?  What did the future hold?  Of everything I had
accomplished, I knew one thing for certain: Batman would continue to have
his adventures.  Batman would go on.  He is a legend, and legends can never
die.

The End



I would like to take the time to thank my loyal readers (well those of you
that have emailed me, ha, ha, ha).  This list is in alphabetical order.
You are all so special to me: Adam, Andrew, Brandon, Chris, Darrin, David,
Dennis, Ed, Eugene, Harby, Iian, Jack, Jas, Jason, Jayce, Jayson, Jeremy,
Kris, Lucas, The Magic "T" Man, Matt, The ScreamN' Phoenix, Simon, Sky,
Stephan, Tat, Thanos, cybberboy.  This list is of those of you who have
emailed me and supported me.  If there are more fans, I would love to hear
from you!  I enjoy hearing from you.  You have all been a great support to
me and for me since I first started writing.  I didn't think my story would
last as long as it did without you.  You always let me know if I was right
on track or not.  As some of you know, part of each character is part of
me.  In some places it seems very detailed in feelings and emotions.  I've
gone through them.

Our hero's adventures will continue in another volume entitled "Adventures
of a Real Dark Knight".  I hope you enjoyed the first fifty chapters of our
hero's saga.  There are still many more adventures to come.  Look for the
new volume in a week or two.

I made it to Chapter 50!  I'm surprised that I still have readers!  I
figured everyone would be bored by now!  I'm glad I have support for this
story!  I can't believe I wrote fifty chapters!  The scary thing is that
there are still more adventures to come!  I'm not even close to the end
with the immediate plans I have for this story and our character!  Like I
said before, this story could go on forever!  Wouldn't that be awesome?  Or
would that be dumb?  Batman lasted 50+ years.  Now I know Eric McCoy is no
Bruce Wayne.  He's just an average gay person who happens to be a mutant
fighting vampires, demons, super-criminals and the occasional social
injustice.  Here's to another 50 chapters, Eric!

Oh, and if you want to see a pic of our hero that I drew, send me an email.
I would be happy to send you an email picture.

Yours truly, James