Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2001 18:42:36 -0800 (PST) From: Author James <authorjames2002@yahoo.com> Subject: Tales of a Real Dark Knight Chapter 9 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!!! jmsotc@yahoo.com Chapter 9 Time Away I awoke to someone knocking on the door. As I was getting oriented, the knock came again, this time with a voice added. "Justin, are you awake?" It was JC. "Come on. Get up. There's a problem. We can't find Eric." I grabbed my robe and put it on, though if I didn't, nothing would have been seen. I went over to the door and opened it. The look on JC's face was rather funny, however, I was successful in hiding my smile. "Good morning, JC." "What...what the...what the hell are you doing in here?" Justin woke up at that. "JC, what's going on?" "That's what I would like to know! Why is Eric in here?" "Because, first off, he needed to sleep somewhere other than a couch. He's good enough to help protect us. The least we could do is offer him a bed to sleep in." "We are paying him!" "But he also deserves to sleep in a bed, not a couch." "Even so, you didn't have to offer him your bed!" "JC, we didn't do anything." "Yeah, right." "Even if we did, it's none of your business." "Justin, how can you say that when...oh, never mind." JC stormed down the hall to his room. "Wow. I didn't think he would have such a problem," I replied. "Since you were dating a man a few weeks ago." "It's not that. It's just...forget it." I left it go. I didn't want to pry. Instead, I went into the bathroom to shower. Shortly after I got in, I head the door open up. "Justin?" "Yeah?" "What are you doing in here?" "I came to help." I looked through the curtain and saw the smile on his face. I was flattered, but I was not ready for this. It didn't matter that I had always loved this man. I didn't know him well enough to be sexual with him. "Justin, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think I'm ready for this yet. We hardly know each other." "Hardly know each other. We've been together for three weeks." "Yes, three weeks. And half of that time, we've been sleeping." "Is it...is it me?" "No. It's not you. You're beautiful! You're perfect. I just know that I'm not ready for this yet." "Can we talk about it?" "Sure." As I washed myself, Justin would ask questions. "You are 24 years old. Why don't you think you are ready?" "Justin, for me, I've always believed that the person you want to be with should be someone you know very well. You should be best friends before being lovers. I want to be with you. I don't know you well enough yet. And we are not best friends yet. The rest of the group knows you better than I know you." Justin put his head down as if he was disappointed in it. "Justin, you don't have to be angry or upset about it. It's bound to happen since you've been with them for several years. You and I just met a month ago. But don't worry. We've got the rest of our lives to get to know each other." "Okay. I respect that. I'll try to live with it, but I do respect it." I smiled at him as he smiled at me. Then, he turned and left the bathroom, closing the door behind him. I released my breath, breathing a sigh of relief. I'm glad he didn't look behind the curtain. If he had seen me, he would have thought I was definitely ready for sex. That sort of stimulation is natural; especially when you are with someone you care about and want to have sex with. But my brain and heart know better than my penis. I took care of the stimulation and finished cleaning off. Once I was dressed, I left the room and went to the main living area. The guys were eating breakfast. I just had a glass of orange juice. It was plenty for me. "I'll see you guys later. I have to be at work. Have a great day!" With that, I left. At work, I had a busy day, but nothing kept me from thinking about Justin. I was going to enjoy just getting to know him. During lunch, while I was eating at my desk, the telephone rang. It surprised me by turning out to be Justin. "Hello?" "Hi, Eric. How's work going?" "Very well since I'm now talking to you." "You tease." We both laughed. "Listen, I got some bad news." This was it, the moment I had waited for and dreaded all my life. Justin found somebody else. Or Turic contacted him. "What is it?" "We just got a call from Johnny. We are going to have to leave tonight for Orlando. Something about some legal forms and issues. Then we have a benefit concert with Celine Dion in New York. We should be gone for a week." "Oh, that's not so bad." "Not so bad? We just started getting to know each other and now I have to leave and it's not so bad?" I couldn't help but laugh. "If you would have known what I was thinking, you would understand." "What do you mean?" "Uh, let's not go there." "Okay." I could hear the smile in his voice. "Will you guys be there for dinner?" "Probably not. We've got to pack and get everything in order." "Okay. Well, if I don't see you, have a nice trip and hope to see you soon." We hung up and I felt disappointed. But as I thought of him going away, a great excitement came over me at his return. I smiled really big, which caught the sight of Debbie, one of my co-workers. "Uh, oh. What's that smile for?" "Someone very special will be coming in a week." "Really? I wonder who it could be?" I just laughed, not wanting to share this personal information with her, or anyone, just yet. The day wore on and, at last, the last patient had left. I finished all I needed to do on my computer and shut it down. It was Friday so I didn't have to worry about getting up early the next morning. It would be a good night to do some patrolling since I hadn't done that in a while. I got home to find a nice message from Justin on the answering machine. Then, I suited up and went to work. It wasn't too long after I began patrol, an hour maybe, when the Huntress showed up. "Good evening," I greeted. "Yeah. Right." "What's wrong?" "Turic." "What's up with him?" I asked getting concern in my voice. "He's left town. Left about three weeks ago." "Why didn't you tell me?" "You weren't home. I couldn't get a hold of you to tell you." "Oh. Okay." "How are things at the NSYNC front?" "Pretty good." She could tell I was smiling despite the cover over my mouth. It must have been my eyes. "It must be. I guess it was a good thing I didn't tell you Turic left. Now I know where you've been hiding. Tell me, is he as good in bed as most girls dream he is?" I was slightly offended by that statement, but not totally. I should have expected that kind of question from anyone. "I really don't know." "You mean you guys aren't...he wasn't interested?" "Oh, it's not that. He is very interested. But I'm not ready for sex yet. I need to know and trust the person before I'm sexually intimate with him." "Wow. You sure know how to break stereotypes. First you reveal to me that Batman is gay. Now you tell me you didn't have sex with one of the most gorgeous guys on the planet. Thank God for people like you, I say. We need to have stereotypes broken. People will assume much less and be open much more." I couldn't agree with her more. The Huntress and I patrolled together for a little while when we noticed a small group of breakers and enterers. There was a van parked out back of a computer store. Not a delivery van, we could tell. It was rather unusual for delivery vans to have the kind of graffiti scribbled on the sides and back. "Shall we go in and check it out?" I asked. "We can't let these guys get away." "Okay. How about you disarm these guys and tie them up while I go inside and see what's going on in there?" "Are you sure you're up to it, lover boy?" I ignored her and leapt to the other building. It wasn't too far for me to jump, considering it was diagonal from the one I was standing on and the space between corners was big enough for two men to walk through side-by-side. I walked quietly over and checked the skylight. It was too dirty to find out what was going on inside. I would have to go in. I found the door to a set of stairs that lead down. I pulled hard and snapped the lock. "Hmm," I thought. I descended the stairs and, at the first door, opened it and went in. I walked down the hall and found another door that lead to a catwalk. Opening it, I heard some movement below. I stepped carefully out onto the catwalk. It was very slow going until I found my footing. I walked until I was able to see more. And, boy, all the things that I saw. Three men were busy carrying boxes toward a large door. The door led to the loading and unloading zone. Just beyond that, the waiting truck, preparing to take this stolen merchandise out to be fenced. "Thieves," I thought. "What to do, what to do." I looked around and saw a stack of boxes close to the catwalk. I moved as quickly and quietly as I could, reaching the stack of boxes rather swiftly. I climbed over the railing and onto the stack, staying as close to the shadows as possible. I moved down the stack of boxes and waited for the three gentlemen to return to retrieve more boxes. "We've almost got this shipment done," one muttered. "Then we can move on to the next place." "I don't think so," I said. They looked around trying to find me. Since I was in the shadows it was hard for them to find me. That is until I leapt upon them. I landed on them and knocked them all down. Quickly I got to my feet making ready for their attack. One began getting to his feet. I quickly kicked him in the face, knocking him out. "One down," I replied. The other two had time to get a little farther. "My God," one said, nearly in hysterics. "I thought I'd seen it all until now." "It's Batman!" the other said laughing. I rolled my eyes at their chicanery. "You know," the first one began, "you're not really that scary." I hauled off and punched him, knocking him back into the boxes. "You hit me!" He said while rubbing his nose, which began to drain blood. "You hit me! You bastard! You broke my nose!" "Really," I replied. "Had to make up for not being really scary." He lunged at me. I stepped aside and hit him in the back as he moved past me. His momentum, combined with the force of my punch, carried him into the stack of boxes. He turned around and I swung my leg up, kicking him in the face, knocking him out. After that, I turned to the third. "Don't hurt me!" he began to whimper. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do anything wrong! They brought me into this!" He was slowly stepping back. I knew he was going to run. I looked around to see if I could find something that I could throw at him. I couldn't find anything, so I began to inch forward as he inched away. "Stay where you are," I said. "Don't move." "Just stay back, Batman. Just stay back." He turned to run. I immediately went into action, not wanting him to get away. I leapt and tackled him to the ground. "AAAAHHHH!" he screamed. Now he was really going hysterical. "Don't kill me! Don't kill me!" "I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to leave you to the police." I looked around for something to tie him up with. After looking around while sitting on top this guy, I found some plastic binding cord. "I guess this will do." I stood, dragging him up with me, and walked over to get the cord. I wrapped his wrists tight with it, then his feet. Then, I grabbed the other guys and tied them up, as well. "Let's see how the Huntress is doing." I walked to the doorway and saw her finishing up with one guy, knocking him down and out. I couldn't help but smile at her. She was too funny. Then I looked down at my outfit and realized how ridiculous we probably looked, like we just stepped out of the comic books. I got some plastic cord for her and we tied up the other guys. "Now, how do we alert the police?" she asked. "I'm not used to dealing with people, just vampires. I stake them and they're gone, nothing more to do." "We could call." "But then they would want to know how you knew it was going on." I looked around and had an idea. I walked over to the fire alarm and, looking back at her, grinned. She smiled, too. I pulled the alarm and the alarm klaxons wailed. She and I went to the alley and up the fire escape. We waited for a few minutes until we saw a fire truck and police car arrive, then we took off to continue our patrol. After about an hour, we decided to take a rest. Sitting down on a roof, we took some deep breaths. Those suits can be awfully warm sometimes. "So what's going on with you and Justin?" she asked. "We just started dating." "Really? That's good." Pause. "Are you going to move in with him?" "No, not just yet. Not for a while, anyway." "Why? You could probably quit your job and not worry about working ever again." "We just started dating. I'm not making plans to marry him, yet." "You will have to move to Vermont for that. Not very many states are allowing same-sex marriages." "I know." After a moment... "Doesn't it bother you that the government who is so big on civil rights denies you those basic rights simply because of the way you were born?" "Sure it does." "What do you do?" "I get angry at the world. I get angry with the President and every Senator and every type of organization that tells us and the rest of the country how gays feel. So many say that we 'choose' to be this way, that we don't feel real love but demon lust. It makes me angry. It turned me off to God at one time. But I can't blame Him for the ignorance of His children. So many of them would rather go along with their own minister's traditional teachings. "I try to remind them that traditional teaching in the 1950s was blacks and whites could not mingle, that it was a sin. Back in the 1700s traditional teaching said it was okay to own another person as property, in effect condoning slavery. They are too self-righteous and hypocritical. It unnerves me." I stood up and began to pace, feeling my anger return as it always does when I visit this topic. How could people be so cruel? Simple, so long as a higher being says it's okay to hate a certain group, they are more than willing to do it. Actually, they do it with a fiery fervor. I'm sure God gets angry with them as well. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry." The Huntress stood and walked up to me, placing her hand on my shoulder for support. "I'll be honest with you. At one time, I thought all gays were wrong. I went to church, did a lot of work for the church. I loved God. He was everything to me." "What happened?" "I got treated like dirt by people who were so influential in the church. All because, when I was asked to do something and couldn't, I said 'no'." I chuckled. So did the Huntress. We were both in the same boat as far as religion was concerned. But at some point, it was different. She was rejected because she was unable to do for the church sometimes. I was rejected because of the way I was born. "So how is your walk with God?" she asked. "You turned ordinary drinking water into holy water. It takes priests several days to do that." "It's not quite where it was, but it's getting there." "Good. I can always use someone who knows how to fight demons to contact if I need help." I smiled at her. "You know," I said, "it's horrible the damage that I did to myself because of religious pressures." "What do you mean?" "I was uncomfortable with physical touch. It bothered me. Especially when it was another guy. I felt so dirty, even if it was nothing sexual about it. My best friend would hug me when I would leave his house. I hugged him back, but I felt so awkward. I even had a hard time accepting a man's advances to get close to me." I looked over at the Huntress and knew instantly what she was thinking. "Not sexual advances. I'm talking showing their feelings, their care, even saying sweet words to me. I screwed up possible great relationships because of it. Do you know how horrible it is to feel that way? To feel that if you enjoy someone's touch in kindness and love and true caring that it scares you? Damn, I'm pitiful." I walked to the edge of the building. "Where are you going?" "I've got to do some more thinking." With that, I jumped from the roof, not looking back. I patrolled for a little while longer. When nothing of interest happened, I went home to think about the time that had been taken away from me. Justin's being away was good for me to consider who and what I was. It gave me pause to consider my life to this point and how empty it's been, how hollow and worthless some aspects have been. To be sure, my spiritual life for the most part was outstanding. But inside the whole time I was busy hating myself and hating my sexual identity, my gender and my reaction to love. We should open up when we are loved. Instead, I would shut down like a computer on overload. It wasn't fun. And, obviously, I still had things to work out. To Be Continued... In the future songs will be "sung" in this, almost like a musical. It would be great if you had napster and could download the songs and listen to them at certain points in the story. It would help you feel more of what the characters are going through. Now you see a certain part of our character, some of his history. And you get to understand some of his inner demons and feelings on stuff. Just out of curiosity, how many of you have gone through similar things? I would love to hear from you. Do you think that makes Eric a stronger or weaker person? I would love to know what you think!