Date: Thu,  4 Jul 2002 14:56:33 -0400
From: Leo Huang <dylan@celticwarrior.com>
Subject: Tales of a Superhero Band Chapter 13

With thanks to Jordi, Aeoros, Rune and Mikey for being the coolest friends
on the net! Thanks for being there guys!

Especially dedicated to Justin, Jeremy and Louis. The three of you have
inspired more new parts of this story. Quidditch and lightsabers forever,
brothers! :D

Especially for Justin: I never expected when I first met you that we'd be
together. How did I ever end up with someone like you, so loving, caring
and thoughtful? What did you see in me that made you smile that extra
sweetly for me? How did I get a boyfriend that has the same name as
Mr. Timberlake, the star I've admired for so long? You may not be an angel,
but you sure are my heaven. Love you! :)

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Disclaimer: This story is fictional, and says nothing about the
orientations of any member of the boyband N Sync, or any other character,
celebrity or otherwise. If you are under 18 or 21, or live in a country
where it's illegal to read something like this, leave, though I seriously
doubt you will. If you don't like the idea of two guys in a relationship
with each other, or having sex with each other, what are you doing here in
the first place?

Though maybe none of the characters will be appearing, ideas taken from
these places will show up:

Buffy, Copyright 20th Century Fox, Created by Joss Whedon
X-Men, Copyright Marvel Comics, Created by Stan Lee
Charmed, Copyright WB, Created by Aaron Spelling
Harry Potter, Copyright JK Rowling (due to James' addition of Harry Potter
to his Dark Knight series, I find myself adding it in too, but the
character may never appear in the story. However, loving Quidditch as much
as I do... :D  )
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Chapter 13 - The Good And Bad News

(Note: This part of the story takes place at approximately the same time as
Chapters 22-24 of Chronicles of a Real Dark Knight, in the Tales of a Real
Dark Knight folder of Nifty/Celebrities/Boybands)

	I shook my head in frustration as I looked at the notes I had taken
down. It had been nearly two weeks since I began collecting clues, and I
was still no closer to finding the culprit. The tour was ending in two
days, and if I didn't solve this problem before then, Nsync and Ocean
Whispers might both no longer exist. Things had not quieted down, but they
weren't getting worse either. Whoever was behind this obviously had a plan
that was working without a hitch, and it was up to me to expose
everything. I looked over the clues again, feeling that I was missing
something out, but nothing came to mind.
	"Yes you did!" I could hear Reuben shouting. "Joy and I both heard
you say that to Lance."
	"I said no such thing!" JC replied hotly. "I tell you I was on the
bus!"
	"You have no proof of that," Joey was saying. "We all saw you
talking to Lance."
	I slowly let the argument change into background noise. It kept
getting louder, but I just ignored it. Then I heard Melvin shout, "You're
all a bunch of assholes that deserve to be shot! Especially you, Mr Stuck
Up Beyond Belief! Keep your bloody voice in your ass where it belongs."
	"You bastard!" I heard Justin yell. There was a large thud as
someone hit the ground, followed by Justin's howl of pain. "That son of a
bitch hit me!"
	"Well, you deserved it," Melvin said. He must have left because the
door slammed and the bickering continued. Then a thought struck me: When
such arguments start, the party being accused what had been said usually
claimed they were alone. Now that Melvin had apparently left, I thought
that someone should keep an eye on him. The outburst was uncharacteristic
of Melvin, but then locking myself in my room (with the others knowing
where I was at all times) was uncharacteristic of me. Now all I needed to
do was to find a way to get out of my room and follow Melvin without anyone
spotting me leaving. Invisibility was out of the question since Reuben's
powers had developed during the tour, and he was now able to see a bright
glow whenever a kindred or mutant used their powers. I would be as
invisible as a flashlight with new batteries in the dark. I had to think of
something quickly or I would lose the only chance I had to find the
shapeshifter.
	"Shapeshifter," I thought to myself. "I'm a shifter!"
	Shifters are different from shapeshifters, the latter being
mutants. Witches and Wizards could use magic to change their forms to look
like other people. Some Wizards (the "high" wizards called themselves
Wizards and Witches to define gender, which irritated us witches to no end
since we used "witch" for both males and females. The high Wizards and
Witches often went to study in large schools like Hogwarts while the
witches, or "hedges" as they sometimes called us as a nickname for
"hedgewizard" or "hedgewitch", were often homeschooled, like us Filans.)
did complicated rituals to make themselves into Animagi, or artificial
shifters. I was lucky, the Filan line had a long line of natural shifters
in the family, but only two of my cousins, Shane and Seamus, and myself
were shifters.
	And lucky for me, I could change into a ferret. Small and silent, I
could creep through places unseen and unheard, even without invisibility. I
quickly brought the animal instinct into mind, and felt myself change into
the ferret. I slowly accepted the instincts that flooded me, but gently
pushed them aside for now. I needed to keep a human mind to prevent myself
from losing track of the situation. I hoped that my kindred powers would
work in ferret form, and luckily enough, they did. I walked through the
door and darted across the floor as quickly as I could. I didn't use my
invisibility to hide, so the tension was high, but none of them saw me. I
squeezed my slender and long ferret body under the door, which was built a
little higher than normal above the ground (lucky for me). I could feel
Melvin's storming feet vibrate the ground, and I followed him. He entered
the door that led to where all the instruments were kept. Stopping before
the door, I slowly shifted back to human and waited before I walked in. I
reached out a touched the knob.
	"Dylan? I thought you were in your room?" Melvin said from behind
me. I glanced back at him. He looked calm and happy, and had bits of
strawberry jam on his lip.
	"Where were you?" I asked, then pointed to his lip. He quickly
wiped the jam off. "I went to make a sandwich and I heard them shouting, so
I stayed in the kitchen."
	I glanced hard at him, then burst the door open as quickly as I
could. There was Melvin sitting on the piano chair. He looked up at me as I
stormed into the room, his face blazing with anger.
	"And what did I do now?" he shouted at me.
	"WHO ARE YOU?!" I screamed back. He looked at me with the typical
cuteness that comes when he's confused.
	"I don't know what you mean..." he said slowly. Then his eyes
widened.
	"Oh my..." Melvin exclaimed from behind me. "Why are there two of
me?"
	I ignored his question and looked at the Melvin sitting at the
piano. "Who are you?"
	"I'm Melvin," he said instantly. "The other guy must be an
imposter."
	"Just shut up," I said. I turned to the Melvin behind me. "Who are
you?"
	He stared at me for a moment, then smiled. "I am who I am. I am
me."
	"What kind of stupid answer was that?" the imposter Melvin asked. I
turned to him again. "Who are you?"
	"I'm Melvin McGowen," he said. "I've been your childhood friend
since forever. Come on Dylan, you know it's me."
	"Wrong answer," I said, a smug smile forming on my lips. "Now tell
the truth. Who are you? No, wait. Show me who you manifest as most when
you're around us."
	"Caught on, did you?" the fake sneered. "How about I show you my
natural form?"
	"No," I said. "You may not have been around us in your natural
form."
	"Dylan, what's going on?" Melvin asked.
	"This is a shapeshifter that's been behind all our arguments and
fights," I said. The mutant clapped his hands slowly. "Well done. Too bad I
won't be around for you to prove anything to anyone."
	He got up and dashed for the door at the other end of the room. I
reached out with my mind, sensing the ground beneath me. A quick split
second communication with the elementals conveyed my desired effect and
reason behind it, and they responded with immediate action. The area of
ground just in front of the door rushed upwards like a stone wall, cutting
the devious villain off from escape.
	"You will come with me," I said as I stretched my hands out. The
winds responded with an affirmative, and the shapeshifter was blasted off
his feet, landing at mine. He glared up at me and whispered in a
threatening voice, "I promise you, one day I'll get back. I'll find your
family and make them suffer."
	I rolled my eyes. "This power runs in my family. It took one Filan
to bring you down. What can you do against three families of Filans? Now
show me the form you took most among us."
	The door burst open and the rest of Ocean Whispers and Nsync came
dashing in. Of course when the floor burst up from the ground, you would
expect tremors and a loud sound at least.
	"What's going on?"
	"Dylan, let Melvin go!"
	"That's not Melvin, I am."
	"Why are there two Melvins?"
	I raised my hand and they fell silent. I looked back at the
shapeshifter. "As we were before they came in. Come on, I'm still waiting
to see who you are."
	The shapeshifter sulked, then slowly morphed into Cynthia. "There,
happy now?"
	I wasn't sure if I should believe it. Still keeping my eye on the
mutant, I reached into my pocket and drew out my cell phone, dialed
Cynthia's number and waited. Sure enough, Cynthia's ringtone sounded off
from the mutant's clothes. I hung up and put my phone back.
	"So it was you all along," I said coldly as the others murmured
away. "Why did you do it?"
	"Revenge!" Cynthia spat. "Batman crossed my path (Author's note:
Check out Tales of a Real Dark Knight series, it's in there somewhere) and
I have always wanted to get my revenge. But I could not find him, so I
thought of the next best thing. He seemed to have ties with Nsync, and I
meant to tear the group up as my form of vengeance. Ocean Whispers
appearing as an opening act caused several problems in my plan, but I
overcame them. If it was not for you, I would have succeeded in destroying
both groups."

	"That's why you were so cold to us when we first met you," I
said. "Then that explains a few things. You got punched, and Justin's ring
cut you. You cleaned it up as much as you could, then his the cut with
make-up, and when Melvin and I refused to heal you, you cut a similar wound
into Lance as he was sleeping to keep appearences up. You said and did
things that were lies to cause dissension in the group."
	"None of which is cause for arrest," Cynthia said smugly. Her face
fell as I replied, "But fraud is serious enough. We'll see you in jail,
whatever your real name is."
	"I'll come back," she said weakly. "I will come back."
	"And we'll be ready for you, Mystique," Lance said. We all looked
at him. He shrugged and said, "What? Batman does talk to me, you know."




	Morale was considerable higher. It was Lance's birthday, and
according to Justin, the guys had given him a surprise party in the
morning. Melvin, Reuben, Joy and myself quickly went off to get gifts for
Lance's birthday. Mystique was taken away by the police, and everyone had
forgiven everyone else for harsh words and hard fists exchanged, and all
the lies she had spread had been cleared up.
	"And just in time, too," Joey remarked happily. "Today's our final
concert of the tour! Let's give it our best!"
	It was indeed the best concert we had done throughout the whole
tour. We all gave it our best, and then some. The fans went wild, cheering
and screaming their heads off, and we had done about seven encore
performances, including a few Ocean Whispers/Nsync combined songs when we
ran out of ideas after the first three encores. The truly last song of the
night was "That's When I'll Stop Loving You", and the guys performed it to
perfection. Justin kept turning to look at me, giving me sweet smiles. When
the song was over, the fans hit the roof. The guys bowed and said their
goodbyes, then walked backstage.
	"That was awesome!" JC said, his face beaming all over. "We were
awesome tonight!"
	"Yeah," Justin replied, his face just as contented. He gave me a
huge bear hug which I returned happily.
	"I just wish Eric could have been here for it," Lance said, a
little sadly, but still high on good cheer. "He sent me 'That's When I'll
Stop Loving You' in his last message to me."
	"I'm sure he wanted to be here to hear it," an unfamiliar voice
said. Lance recognised her voice, and looked up at the girl. She looked
quite strong, and her presence made me feel a little uncomfortable. Reuben,
Joy and Melvin were obviously uncomfortable around her as well, despite a
strong familiar feeling. Then I recognised it. She was a slayer.
	"Jessica!" Lance said, his face widening into a grin. "Glad you
could make it! Where's Eric?"
	The room suddenly felt charged with tension. Jessica's face twisted
in an attempt not to cry, but her tears began to flow. "Lance. I'm so
sorry."
	Lance shook his head and whispered, "No."
	Jessica nodded slowly and sadly, causing Lance to shake his head
even more. "God, no."
	Jessica ran up to him and gave him a hug to support him as he
collapsed. Lance's pain was almost too much to bear. "God, no! Why?!"
	"I'm so sorry, Lance," Jessica whispered. I glanced slowly at
Justin, and he understood. Though we were friends, we were still relatively
new to Lance, and right now, he needed his extended family. The rest of us
left while the guys of Nsync stayed behind and gave comfort to him.




	"So it's true?" I asked Joey. "Eric really is...?"
	"Yeah," Joey said sadly. "I'm worried about Lance, Dylan. He chased
us out and locked himself in his house and he won't speak to any of us. I
really need to go see him. I need to make sure he's all right."
	"Of course he's not all right," I snapped a little too
harshly. "He's just lost someone close to him, and I can relate. My dad's
dead, remember?"
	"Sorry," Joey said softly. "But I want to be there to talk to him
or something. He just wants to be alone, and it isn't healthy."
	"Sometimes you need time alone," I said, remembering the morning
when I woke up hearing guests in the house and my mother crying. "When my
aunt broke the news to me, I just locked myself in my room and cried for
hours before I came out to talk to my mom and my sister. I didn't want to
talk to anyone at the time, and I didn't want anyone to talk to me."
	"I don't fully understand," Joey said. "I can't understand unless I
go through the same thing, but I can be there for him. I don't think he
needs to be alone."
	I shook my head sadly and patted Joey's shoulder. "Sometimes you
just have to accept that you can't do anything now, but he'll call when
he's ready to talk."
	Joey grabbed my shoulders and looked me straight in the
eye. "Dylan, please, I really think... no, believe that he needs to be with
someone. I have this sick feeling in my gut telling me that he shouldn't be
alone. I couldn't live with myself if he did anything to himself. Please
Dylan, help me get in."
	"You do realise," I could feel my will weakening, "that he'll
probably be asleep by now?"
	"I don't care," Joey said, gripping my shoulders even more
tightly. "I just have to make sure that he's all right physically."
	I couldn't help it. I gave in. Possibly the worst thing I could
have done at the time. "Okay, I'll take you tomorrow."
	"No, now," Joey said urgently. "Please."
	"Joe, it's two in the morning!"
	"I know, but I don't care," Joey said, shaking me. If he didn't cut
it out, he'd tear both my arms out.
	"Okay, fine," I said. "I'll take you."
	"Thanks," Joey said. I had a horrible feeling that something bad
was going to happen, and I almost changed my mind, but Joey wanted so badly
to help Lance that despite my gut feeling, I felt that I couldn't change my
mind anymore since I had already agreed. I held Joey's hand and turned us
both invisible and intangible, and Joey slowly led me to where Lance's
house was. We took our time walking, reaching Lance's place at about
two-thirty. A car drove by Lance's house, then slowed down. A sudden
movement from the bushes around Lance's house revealed the slayer
Jessica. She charged at the car and yanked the door open. Joey and I walked
near to see what was going on. I could hear Justin's voice from inside,
realising that he had been driving around to check up on Lance. Jessica got
into the car and the two of them drove around the corner and parked
there. Joey tugged on my arm, reminding me that he wanted to go inside. I
turned and walked towards the door, wondering what Justin and Jessica were
talking about. A slight but sudden pain appeared in my chest, then
disappeared quickly. My heart was pounding like a jackhammer, and I could
feel a bit of sweat on my back. I had a really bad feeling about the whole
situation, and somehow, something about Justin and Jessica's meeting didn't
feel right. I put all those thoughts out of my mind quickly, focusing on
getting Joey and myself inside. Once inside, I let Joey's invisibility drop
to conserve energy. I also figured that it would not be in Lance's best
interest to have Joey appear from nowhere. And I knew Lance would react
better to just Joey, rather than two of us, so I kept myself
invisible. Joey and I made our way upstairs as silently as possible when we
heard noise coming from the bathroom. It was Lance, and he appeared to be
singing softly to himself. Concerned, Joey opened the bathroom door to
check on Lance. He was sitting on the floor crying and singing to himself,
three bottles of what I knew to be a very strong brand of whiskey lying
next to him, all empty..
	"Lance," Joey said softly, cautiously. "Lance, are you okay?"
	"Eric?" Lance said. Joey knelt down next to his drunken
friend. "No, Lance this is Joey."
	"Eric," Lance said, a drunken smile on his lips. He hugged
Joey. "Eric."
	"Lance, it's Joey," Joey said, extricating himself from Lance's
strong grip. He looked at my general direction and nodded his head. I leant
over and whispered, "I'll wait downstairs."
	"Okay," Joey replied. I made my way downstairs and decided to take
a nap on the couch. I still didn't feel good, and there was the feeling
that something unpleasant was about to happen. After turning over a few
times, I finally fell asleep on the couch.




	I could feel the light on my eyes even before I opened them. It was
not blinding light, but the soft glows of dawn. Rubbing my eyes, I stumbled
into Lance's kitchen to get a drink of water. I heard a chair shifting and
halted in my place, slowly removing my hands from my eyes. Expecting to see
Lance, I sighed with relief as I saw Joey slumped on the chair looking
tired and disheveled. He looked a mess, and his eyes were red from
crying. He looked up at me as I sat opposite him, all thoughts about my
thirst forgotten. He choked and buried his face in his arms on the table
while I sat and watched. We stayed that way for a couple of minutes. "Joe,
you alright?"
	I got up and stood behind him. Turning to look at me, he stood and
grabbed me into a hug, struggling not to cry again. I patted his back and
softly tried to calm him, still not understanding why he felt so bad. He
smelled like some of the whisky Lance had been drinking had been spilled on
his clothes. The smell of alcohol masked another scent, but I could smell
traces of it on Joey.
	I released Joey and grabbed his shoulders, looking him straight in
the eye. "Joey, what happened in there with Lance? I smell cum on you."
	A pained look crossed his face, then he seemed to start crying
again. I could tell he was fighting it, but something happened that hurt
him a lot. "Lance... h-he was drunk and he kept s-saying I was Eric." His
voice began to crack as he continued. "He... Dylan, he..."
	"He had sex with you," I completed. Joey let out a sob, then
slumped to the ground, still whimpering.
	"I didn't want him to," tears streamed down Joey's normally
cheerful face. "I kept telling him 'no', but he was too drunk. He wouldn't
stop. I couldn't stop him."
	I crossed my arms. "That is inexcusable. We need to talk to him."
	"No," Joey said. "Please, he's too fragile right now. Give him
time."
	"He can't get away with it," I said, shaking my head. "He has to
know."
	"No," Joey pleaded. "Not now. Not yet."
	I nodded slowly. "But you'll have to tell him sooner or
later. Promise me that."
	Joey looked pained as he promised. It was understandable for Lance
to act that way, but it did not justify his actions at all, and it would
have to be dealt with later.
	I grabbed Joey's arm and pulled him up. I reached up and wiped the
tears from his eyes, silently wondering what this would impact in the
future. "Come on, Joe, let's go get you cleaned up."

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Comments, questions? Email dylan@celticwarrior.com