Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 15:34:59 -0800 (PST) From: Author James <authorjames2002@yahoo.com> Subject: Tales of a Real Dark Knight Chapter 5 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!!! By the way, my name is James. jmsotc@yahoo.com Chapter 5 Enter the Huntress I was surprised by all of the excitement pertaining to the concert. But I shouldn't have been. After all this is NSYNC. There were people everywhere, and I do mean everywhere; standing on the sidewalks, hanging out of windows across the street, even standing in the middle of the street. Because I was riding in a limo, the cops let me through. The limo pulled up to the front doors and the chauffer opened the door for me. At first, I could see nothing. Camera flashes were going off like the grand finale at a fireworks display. Then they stopped. The reporters and mass media realized I was no one special so they wasted no more film on me. I went inside right away and showed the security guard my ticket and special pass. He escorted me down to the front row. I didn't bother to read what the special pass was for. I was too excited about actually being at an NSYNC concert. About ten minutes later, the concert hall began to fill with young girls and boy-girl couples. Obviously the guys were bringing their girls to make them happy. I would be surprised to find any other gay guys here just to see the singers. Not that NSYNC doesn't have a major following among the gay community, some just don't want to be figured out so easily. I understand their fears. I used to have that fear. At times, I still do. The lights went dark about a half hour later and the stage lights came up. It was awesome! Spotlights shined behind the guys making them appear only as silhouettes. They began to sing from their new album "No Strings Attached". It was good. In fact, during the song "It's Gonna Be Me" Justin, JC and Lance all looked in my direction. "Don't tell me all three of them like me. That would be awesome but totally impossible," I told myself. Then, I got the shock of my life. The guy who I noticed in Justin's apartment last week was standing to my left. He seemed to show no emotion, and his eyes were concealed behind sunglasses that ran straight across his eyes, sort of like Geordi's VISOR on Star Trek: The Next Generation. "Excuse me," I said, giving him some room. He was rather intimidating. "That explains Justin looking this way," I thought to myself. That gave me pause to look to my right. A young brunette was standing beside me going wild. "They looked at me!" she was screaming. "JC, Lance and Justin looked at me! AAAAHHHHH!" "My God she's insane," I thought. I rolled my eyes and happened to notice a shadowy silhouette in the skylight. It looked familiar to me. It was the same one I saw earlier this week when the young gay boy was murdered. Determined to catch this person, I worked my way out of the crowd and into the hallway. I looked for a bathroom and found one close by. Going in, I locked the door and changed. I pushed my clothes into a vent and went to the door, pressing my ear against it to listen for people walking up the corridor. When I heard nothing, I slowly opened the door and went out. After working my way through the corridors, I finally found a back door close to a fire escape. I took it to the roof where I found the shadowy figure looking through the skylight. "Can I help you?" I asked. The person turned quickly and I realized it was a girl, brunette, wearing a black costume with a purple stripe running from her shoulders down to her waist, forming a "V". It was on both the front and back. She also had purple boots and gloves. When she looked at me, she kind of smiled. "Not really," she replied. "What are you doing here? Stalking NSYNC?" "Not hardly. They are cute, but, no, I'm not after them. I'm after one of the crowd members." "Which one?" I asked moving closer to the skylight. "Your boss," she answered. Before I knew it, she spun around, kicked my legs out from under me and pulled something out of a hip pocket. I couldn't tell in the darkness what it was, but I did notice it had a point. He came at me with the weapon. I grabbed her wrists and, with a foot, flipped her over my head. We both stood and turned to face each other. "My boss? I don't work for anyone." "Then maybe I get to slay two tonight." "Two what?" "Vampires." I couldn't believe what she said. I stood there silent for a minute. "Vampires? Riiiight." "You act like you don't believe me. You yourself dress like a bat, the animal that vampires are always associated with." "I'm not a vampire." "Prove it." "Okay, let me think." I looked around thinking how I could prove that I'm not a vampire. Besides getting a wooden stake through my heart or decapitated, there had to be some non-life threatening way to do it. Then the solution hit me. "Toss me your cross necklace." I removed my glove. She slowly took it off and tossed it to me. I grabbed it with the unprotected hand. "See. No burn. I'm human." I tossed the jewelry back to her and re-gloved my hand. "Now, who are you and who are you after? Is someone in the crowd a vampire?" She placed her stake back in her leg pouch and walked passed me. I noticed the small crossbow she had hanging from her belt. No doubt, she had many objects inside the pouches on her belt. "She's more prepared than I am," I thought. "The name's Huntress, and I'm a vampire slayer." "Like Buffy?" "Yeah. Mr. Whedon has a great insight into the world of vampires, as does Anne Rice. The stories they tell are based on truth." "And you are here because of a vampire attending an NSYNC concert. Fascinating." "You don't have to believe me. Either way, there is one here." "Which one is he?" "Mr. Timberlake's boyfriend." I stepped back at that. It couldn't be. "Are you sure about that?" "Sure am. I've followed him. He seems to get away though just before sunrise. He appears after sunset to Justin, spends the night with him, and then leaves in the early morning hours." "What does he want from Justin?" I said. I didn't bother to think about what I would want from Justin. Vampires aren't interested in that sort of thing, are they? "I wish I knew. That is the only thing keeping me from staking him. He may be working for someone. Who, I don't know. The only way to find out is to keep following him." "Or you could find a way to get close to the group. Maybe if you got close enough, you could figure out what's going on with him." "Good point. I'll keep that in mind." "Since there isn't anything I can do here, I'll leave you to your watching." I turned and walked toward the fire escape only to stop as something occurred to me. "Speaking of Watchers..." "Yes, I have one," Huntress replied without looking up. I smiled underneath my mask and descended the rusted ladder to the ground. Minutes later, I joined the concert again. The group was in the middle of singing "Bye, Bye, Bye". I enjoyed the song and tried to keep from looking at Justin's boyfriend. "Was he really a vampire?" I wondered. The song ended and Joey announced to the audience that they were going to take a 20-minute break but that they would be back. They exited the stage and the lights went up in the hall. Some of the people filtered out. Justin's boyfriend was one of them. I took a deep breath and let it out. "What am I going to do?" Before I had time to think, a very large man wearing all black came up to me. "Are you Eric?" he asked. "Who wants to know?" "I was sent out here to show you back to the group. That is if you are Eric." "Uh, yeah. That's me." "You wouldn't mind showing me your pass, would you?" I pulled it out of my pocket and showed it to him. He looked it over and then replied, "Follow me." We went out a side door and down the corridor to a locked door. He swiped a card through a magnetic lock and opened the door. "Down the hall on your right." "Thanks," I answered and then proceeded down the hall. "What am I doing? I'm going back stage at a concert of a group of guys whose music I enjoy. I have a crush on one of them and he's dating a vampire. What on Earth am I doing?" I reached the door and knocked. A voice instructed me to enter. Putting on my best fake smile I opened the door and entered. The whole group was inside plus Justin's boyfriend. "Hi guys." "Hi, Eric. Come on in," JC said. "How was your trip over here?" "It was different. I've never ridden in a limo before." I looked over at Justin's boyfriend. "Forgive us for not introducing you. Eric McCoy, this is Turic. Turic, Eric McCoy." "Nice to meet you." I held out my hand. He took it in his. His hand felt like ice, but I tried not to let it show. "Likewise, though we actually were standing next to each other the entire evening." "It's hard to recognize people under normal lights. Those flashing colored lights make it hard to see your own hand." I looked around for a place to sit. By now my legs were getting all weak from the excitement of the evening. The only place available was right between Justin and Lance. Lucky me. I sat down and tried not to take up much room. I kept my arms close to my body and my legs squeezed together. It was uncomfortable. And Lance was the first to notice. "Eric, relax. You look uncomfortable. It's okay if your leg touches mine. I won't bite you." He flashed me a warm, friendly smile. "Thanks." "Would you like something to drink? The vendors out there charge an arm and a leg for a bottle of water." "Water would be good." Lance got up and opened the small refrigerator in the room. He pulled out a bottle of water and gave it to me. "Thanks." "You're welcome." "How do you guys like the concert so far?" Joey asked. "You guys are great," Turic replied, not taking his eyes off Justin. "Yeah," I added. "This is the first concert I've ever been to." "How old are you again?" Chris asked. "Twenty-four." Chris looked over at Lance and smiled. I couldn't tell for sure why. Did Lance like me or did Chris? Reading people can be so difficult. It's not one of my strong points. And now was not a good time for me to think about flirting. I was too busy worrying about the man I had a crush on being in love with a vampire. How could I know for sure if he was a vampire? I didn't want to do anything that would jeopardize anyone's life. Then I remembered the ring I had on. It was a gold ring with a ruby-like gem set in it. Inside the ruby was a cross. I would have to find a way that would make it so Turic came in contact with that cross. Punching him would be out of the picture. It had to be something polite. But what? "Eric," Lance said, "the guys are planning on going out after the concert to get something to eat. Would you like to come?" "That would be great." I took a few swigs of water before their manager came into the room and announced the guys had five minutes before needing to be back on stage. I thanked them for the water and went to the door. Just before I exited I looked over at Justin and saw him give Turic a long, lingering kiss. "Isn't that nice?" I looked at Lance who spoke to me. "What?" "Two people in love." "Oh. Yeah. Nice." With that, I left the room and went back to the concert hall. To Be Continued... "Okay, people, throw me a frickin' bone here." (Dr. Evil, Austin Powers movies) I had to do it! I just had to do it! What do you guys think? I want to know what you readers think! Should I keep writing or kill off the main character to end the story? Is the story good or does it suck beyond repair? Please, let me know.