Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2003 21:39:05 -0700 (PDT) From: Author James <authorjames2002@yahoo.com> Subject: Judgments of a Real Dark Knight 22 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. 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. Star Wars and all related concepts created by or based on the universe created by George Lucas. Copyright 20th Century Fox, LucasFilms Ltd. and Lucas Books/Ballantine Books. I don't know for sure if I will use all the above elements, but just in case, I have myself covered. Other stories set in this universe: "Marvel Knights" "Tales of a Young Mutant" (soon to resume) "Tales of a Superhero Band" "Tales of the New Phoenix" I have received many emails from people who have enjoyed it and some from those who do not. I would enjoy hearing from you. 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. If anyone has artistic talent and/or design capabilities, check out the "Real Dark Knight" Contest. Please email me at either address if you are planning on participating in the contest. Thanks! Chapter 22 Planning Lance and I arrived at the meeting, with Blade coming shortly behind us. Lance sat down on the back of the chair and I sat on the chair resting my head between his legs. His hands rubbed my cold shoulders. Blade stood near the door way. Punisher and Johnny sat on the couch, their hands lightly touching one another's. They still had a ways to go before being comfortable showing open affection around supportive people. Jessica sat with Justin. Dr. Strange sat in a high-backed chair. Cyclops and Northstar stood near Shiro, who stepped forward and cleared his throat. "A short while ago," the mutant began, "we had our first major victory. We saved a hero from the clutches of the mutant known as Apocalypse. That hero, who was once one of the Four Horsemen, has retained his memories of where Apocalypse's hideout is as well as his defenses. With this information, we hope to gain access to Apocalypse and his hideout. What Johnny has told us, things are moving much quicker than predicted. Johnny?" "One of Apocalypse's horsemen, a vampire named Dasro, is behind the Vampire War the Slayers and Watchers fight. His sister, Saswah was slain and he became rather pissed. He left Apocalypse to deal with his own vendetta. That gave Apocalypse some trouble. He has moved ahead of schedule so he can take advantage of the discord caused by the Vampire War." "What is his plan?" Justin asked. "The same it has been before. If any of you remember what happened the morning of September 11th." "That was so horrible," Justin replied. "The World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the plane that went down in Pittsburgh." "That was tragic, but that isn't what I'm referring to." "You are talking about the attacks on college campuses," I replied. "Exactly. Mr. Sinister desires to create the perfect, most-powerful mutant." "How can he do that?" Lance asked. "Sinister is a geneticist from a century or two ago," Cyclops answered. "He has been fascinated by the abilities of mutants and seeks to create the perfect mutant." "Wouldn't that mutant be able to challenge Apocalypse though?" I asked. "Of course," Northstar replied. "Apocalypse is a mutant who possesses superhuman strength which he can augment by psionically drawing on outside energy sources. Apocalypse can alter the atomic structure of his body at will in order to change his form. He can even increase his size by taking on additional mass from a presumably extra-dimensional source. Through his ability to alter his form, Apocalypse can give himself virtually any superhuman physical power. Apocalypse's "costume" is actually part of his body, and he can psionically alter its appearance at will. He can levitate himself telekinetically. "Apocalypse has an extraordinarily long life span that has already lasted thousands of years. He can survive for weeks without food or water and can rapidly recover from injuries that would prove fatal to normal human beings. In the future, however, his physical form will eventually grow too aged and enfeebled to contain his vast superhuman energies. Hence, he will transfer his consciousness and powers into a succession of host bodies, abandoning each one when it grows too old to contain his power." Everyone sat in silence. "Shit," Justin said, "this guy sounds unstoppable." "I wouldn't say that," I replied. "I took on an immortal demon before. This guy is human for all intents and purposes. He can be beaten." "After all that Cyclops just told us, you honestly think we can beat him?" Blade replied. "Maybe we are going about this the wrong way," Jessica said. "My thoughts exactly," Punisher said affirming Jessica's words. All eyes went from Jessica to Punisher waiting for one of them to continue. "Right now, we are looking at this guy as someone impossible to beat," Jessica continued. "Maybe that isn't what we should be doing. He seems way too powerful, even with all of us combined, to beat." "So the next best thing is to keep him off guard and stop his plans," Punisher continued. "We know where his hideout is, his plans, everything we need. All we have to do is go in there, distract him while a team of two or three gets to the important stuff, like his lab, and destroy everything, including the database. If they don't have any of this knowledge available to them, they will have to start all over." "Good thinking," Shiro replied. "The question is how do we get inside?" "Me," Johnny volunteered. "For all they know, Death is still in control. I can become Ghost Rider and get inside. While inside, I can shut down the security systems so the rest of you can sneak in. From there, most of us confront Apocalypse." "I think Lance and Justin should deal with destroying their laboratory and database," I said chiming in. "They don't have the strength to deal with Apocalypse." "Thanks for your vote of confidence," Lance replied squeezing my neck. "It isn't anything personal, love, but if none of us can stop him, you and Justin would be killed easily. Besides, you two are the smallest of all of us; you can get passed things much easier." "They won't be alone," Punisher replied. "I don't have the strength to face off with Apocalypse either. I have demolition knowledge that can help them out." "Then it's settled," Shiro said. "Tomorrow morning, we set out to stop Apocalypse." Everyone nodded and went their separate ways. It had been a rough outing and we all needed our rest to be ready for what was to come. Lance and I entered our room and I locked the door. "Are you worried?" he asked. "A little. But we are a tough group of people who know what we're doing. I think we will be okay. Are you worried?" "Yes," he answered. "I've never done anything like this before. I helped slay a vampire. I went with you up to a starship but didn't do much there. We are talking about averting something that could possibly take over humanity. This is global. This is like an apocalypse, no pun intended." "I understand your worries. The first world-wide apocalypse I helped stop wasn't too long ago, the battle with the demon Macai. That scared me out of my mind. But I had become so angry, that it didn't bother me too much. I was able to compartmentalize my fears and face him. Plus I had some help." "We have help now." "And that's a good thing. The more we have, the more eyes we have to watch each other's back." "What do you think of Punisher being alone with me and Justin? Do you think it's safe?" "Yeah, I do. He might like to kill people that he thinks is guilty, but he won't do anything to hurt you two. Especially knowing that he would have to deal with Jessica and me should something happen. "Seriously, though, he's trained right and can do the job. I have confidence in him." I looked at Lance's hands and saw they were shaking. Reaching out I took his hands in mine. "You're shaking." "Yeah," Lance said his voice shuttering. "I'm scared." "Understandable. But I'm right here with you. I won't let anything happen to you." "Hold me," he said. I took my best friend, my lover, my husband into my arms and held him close. I could feel his heart beating, nearly breaking through his chest. His fears were real and he felt them to the fullest. I held his head against my shoulder. He pulled back from me and kissed me. "Make love to me," he said. Michael sat on the bed wearing nothing. He was contemplating the attack on the compound tomorrow. They would have to go over a thorough plan before heading out. Johnny stood in the shower feeling the hot water pour over his skin. It had been so long since he felt water, felt his skin, that he cherished this moment. After a half hour of standing under the water, Johnny climbed out and dried himself off. Wrapping the towel around his waist, he walked into the room to see Michael sitting on the bed with his eyes closed. "Are you asleep?" Johnny asked. "No," Michael replied. Johnny went over and sat on the bed next to his lover. "I'm scared about tomorrow." "That's understandable," Michael replied. "You are going to face the creatures that turned you into a monster. You are going to pretend to be that monster in order to get in. If I were in your position, I would be scared shitless, too." "But you were once a Marine. Didn't you train to do stuff like this?" "All the time. That doesn't take the fear away. We just learned to push the fear aside and let the training take over. That helped get the job done." "But I haven't had any training." "Don't worry. Just act. You'll do fine. I have faith in you." Michael's hand reached toward the towel of his lover. "This is going to be so amazing!" Justin said. "I can't wait to get in there!" "You sound excited," Jessica replied as she took off her clothes. Her lover paced the room in the nude thinking about what was going to happen in a short amount of time. The excitement gave him the energy to pace back and forth while most of the others were resting. "Of course I'm excited! I'm doing stuff I've seen in the movies! How many people actually get to take part in an espionage mission?" "Many," Jessica answered. "Just ask Michael. I'm sure he's done plenty." "Yeah, I wonder how many he's done. And where he did them. And who the bad guys were." "And how many got killed," Jessica added. Justin's pacing stopped. He turned and looked over at her. "That's a real possibility," Jessica said. "I can see why you are excited. It is fun sneaking around trying not to be seen. There is the chance for lots of action. But with that action comes the possibility that people will die, good people. We can't afford to be too carefree about what is going to happen. We can't let the fun of the job cloud our minds to the reality that tomorrow morning we fight to save the world. And some of us might not come back." Justin took a few deep breaths. "Suddenly the good feeling I was having isn't quite the same." "It never is," she said. "Actually, I'm starting to get scared." "That's also natural." "Do you think Eric is scared?" "Probably. Him, Lance, Blade, Michael, Johnny, everyone is scared. You wouldn't be human if you weren't." "How do you do it?" Justin asked walking up to Jessica. "How do you do what you have to do despite being scared out of your wits?" "It's what being a Slayer is all about. It's what doing this type of work is all about. The others have been doing this for a long time. They know how to do it. You, however, haven't really done this before. The best thing for you to do is keep your cool and think. If you can keep yourself calm and think about what has to be done, you won't be distracted by feelings." "How do you keep calm, though?" "Find things to think about that help you to focus. Think about something that is strong enough to get your mind off the danger." Justin grabbed Jessica and pulled her into a deep, passionate kiss. "What are you doing?" Jessica asked once they released the kiss. "Doing something that will keep my mind off the danger." The two kissed again and Justin's hand reached for the remaining clothing Jessica wore. To Be Continued... WARNING for the next chapter: the next chapter will be very sexually explicit and will contain some heterosexual sex (i.e. Justin and Jessica). Those of you who are bisexual will probably enjoy reading it. Those of you who are very much homosexual and get nauseous at the thought of heterosexual sex (my boyfriend is that way), be prepared. I might split it up into three sections dealing with each couple. That way, you can skip the hetero stuff if you like and jump right into the gay sex.