Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2003 07:25:12 -0800 (PST)
From: Author James <authorjames2002@yahoo.com>
Subject: Marvel Knights: Idol 15

Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction.  It has no intentions of
resembling any real persons dead or alive.  This is entirely from my
imagination, with a little help from already established sources.  This
story is based loosely on the comic book character "The Punisher" from
Marvel Comics.  Other characters may appear from Marvel comics as well as
DC Comics.

Punisher and all related characters copyright Marvel Comics.

Blade and all related characters copyright Marvel Comics.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel copyright Joss Whedon, United Paramount
Network and Warner Bros. Respectively.

The Vampire Chronicles and all related characters created by Anne Rice.
Copyright Anne O'Brien Rice.

I have written another story on nifty entitled "Tales of a Real Dark
Knight".  It is in the Celebrity/Boy Bands section.  Batman may appear in
this story once or twice, as the Punisher may appear in "Tales of a Real
Dark Knight".  Any comments may be sent to authorjames2002@yahoo.com

Thank you and enjoy.
 
Chapter 15 New Moon Rising

	Outside the hotel, Whistler pulled up and he and Dr. Strange
climbed out of the truck.  Whistler took the crossbow and slung it over his
shoulder, then hefted the machine gun.  Dr. Strange looked at him and
raised his eyebrow in thought.
	"Are you ready for this?" Whistler asked.
	"Are you?"
	The two made their way around the hotel to the fire escape.
Dr. Strange magically pulled the end down so the two could climb up.  Once
they got to the second floor, they entered through the window and made
their way to the lobby.
	
	Tiamat stood before Blade smiling as the energy swirled around him.
Soon her spell would be cast and Blade's soul would be housed in the orb of
Thesola.  Then she would be able to place the soul of her brother Ahriman
into Blade's body, providing him with a strong host.
	"This...won't work," Blade muttered.
	"And why do you say that?" she asked.  "Do you believe your friends
will be here?  I doubt it.  Your friends have all left.  You are all alone
in this universe.  And soon you will be no more."
	"Not likely, bitch," Whistler said as he shot an arrow at her.  It
hit her squarely in the heart.  She fell backwards as her blood squirted
from the wound.
	"Stop him!" she called.
	Several vampires headed toward the front door where the steps led
up.  When they got there, a blast launched them back.  Punisher stood in
the door hefting his shotgun.
	"I can't believe he showed up," Whistler said.  "He has a lot of
nerve."
	"Or a lot of caring.  We've been in contact with Black Widow.
Perhaps he overheard our conversation."
	"Maybe."
	"Speaking of Black Widow, where is she?"
	"We can't worry about that now.  We have vampires to slay."
	Whistler pulled his gun up and open fire on the vampires in the
lobby.  Several took refuge underneath the balcony and, when Whistler had
to reload, flipped up and kicked him taking his weapon.
	Dr. Strange held up his hand and pushed the demonic creatures off
the balcony and back down to the floor.  One still had a hold of Whistler
and drug him down as well.
	"Oh, dear," Dr. Strange replied.
	
	Black Widow climbed down the wall of the hotel lobby and readied
her stake.  She aimed her wrist gun and little stakes shot out
consecutively, all embedding into the demon's below.  Some turned to dust
as the wood hit their mark.  Others grabbed and pulled the wooden slivers
out of arms, legs, genitals and eyeballs.  She released her grip and fell
to the floor attacking the nearest vampires.
	A leg flew up and connected with a vampire's face.  She spun around
and staked another vampire and brought back the stake slaying the vampire
she kicked.  Turning she snap-kicked a vampire in the face flipping the
demon in the air.  She staked it while doing a cart-wheel over it and
kicked yet another vampire.  She moved like a spider, swift and lethal,
killing vampire after vampire.
	Dr. Strange sent out several fireballs only to be grabbed by some
vampires that made it up to the second floor.  He fought them well but had
many to take care of.

	"So, the lover comes," Tiamat said as she approached Punisher.  The
wound in her chest closed up.
	"Lover?  What are you..."
	"Your lover is in my possession.  Soon he will be no more."
	"He isn't my lover."
	"Oh really?  Do you know what I saw when his cock pumped in and out
of me?  In his mind, he was making love to you.  He imagined you when he
had sex with me.  I played along and made his fantasy seem even more real.
No man had ever cum as hard as he did that night."
	Punisher flipped his shotgun up and took aim at Tiamat's head.  In
a quick fluid motion, she took the gun from him and picked him up by the
throat.
	"You pathetic human being.  Do you honestly think you can combat a
vampire of my caliber?"
	
	"There are too many!" Black Widow called out as she slayed several
more vampires.  "I can't save Blade or the Punisher!"
	"I can't help you," Dr. Strange called from the second floor
balcony.  "There are many up here that I must fight."

	Whistler was pushed against the wall and a vampire was leaning in
to feed when suddenly something metal flew through its neck.  It turned to
dust before Whistler's eyes.  The Watcher looked around and saw, to his
surprise, three figures coming down from the second floor balcony.  Two he
recognized.  One, however, he did not.
	Dagger hurled two wooden stakes at nearby vampires and watched as
they turned to dust.  Cloak sucked several up into the dark portal that he
creates.  They popped out near several wood hooks and landed on them,
turning to dust.
	The third person was also wearing a cloak, although his or her face
was completely hidden in shadow.  The cloak he wore was dark gray.
Underneath he wore a black suit underneath with a crescent moon shape on
his chest.  In his hand he held several crescent-shaped blades that he
hurled at vampires, decapitating them.  In his other hand he held a stick
that he opened as a nunchaku.  He spun it around hitting vampires, tripping
them and causing all sorts of damage.
	"We need to get Blade free!" Whistler called out to whoever could
respond.
	Cloak nodded and headed toward Blade.  Several vampires jumped in
his way, but Dagger showed up with her stakes and slayed them.
	"Thanks," Cloak said.
	"Not a problem."
	Cloak neared the chains, held his hand up and said, "Absolvo!"
	All the locks on the chains opened and fell off.  Blade stood
frozen, though, unable to move from the mystical energy.
	"Dr. Strange!" Cloak called.  "Some help here!"
	Dr. Strange slayed a vampire and then floated off the balcony as
the vampires tried to grab him.  He floated above the energy surrounding
Blade.  "With me, boy."
	Cloak nodded and stood in front of Blade.  The Daywalker looked up
at Cloak and tried to smile.  The spell had been doing its job on him.
Cloak nodded in acknowledgement and held his arms to his side.  At the same
time, Cloak and Dr. Strange said, "Expedio."  Yellow energy flowed down
from Dr. Strange and green energy flew from Cloak.  When it hit the energy
surrounding Blade it swirled together, enveloped the mystical spell, and
then flashed, freeing Blade from the power of the spell Tiamat performed.
Blade fell to the floor exhausted.
	"NO!" Tiamat said as she threw Punisher through the glass doors to
the outside.  "You've ruined my chance to receive my brother!"
	Dagger and Cloak ran over to their friend to see if he was okay.
He nodded at them and slowly stood before the vampire.
	"You played me," he replied.  "You deceived me to your own ends.
That is something that I don't forgive easily."
	"Get over it!  After what you did to my brother, you're lucky I
haven't torn you limb from limb!"
	"Your brother was a psycho!" Dagger said.
	Tiamat's head jerked to the right several times.  "I see something
in you.  Change.  Growth.  Light."
	"I guess it runs in the family," Dagger added.
	Suddenly everyone hunched over clutching at their stomachs.  Pain
seared their bodies.
	"You don't have the power to stop me," Tiamat said as she smiled
upon them.  "I had intended for my brother to cause your deaths.  But since
you do not yield to me, I have no choice but to end all of you."
	"Fuck off, bitch," a voice said from behind.
	Tiamat turned as Punisher open fire on her with his shotgun.  She
stumbled backwards and he fired again.
	With Tiamat distracted, everyone was released of her power.  They
gasped for breath as they were freed.
	Punisher fired again and again.  Then his gun ran out of bullets
and Tiamat smiled.
	Blade took notice of the sun slowly rising behind Punisher.  "Move,
Michael!" he called out.
	Tiamat turned around and Blade ran at her tackling her, taking her
out the broken glass that Punisher was tossed through earlier.  They
tumbled on the ground and she tossed him up into the air.  As he came down,
she flipped over, kicking him in the face and tossing him into the
Suburban.  She held up her hand and Blade clutched his stomach.  Something
flew and sliced her hand off.  The unknown cloaked figure stepped out of
the hotel.  She held up her other hand inflicting more pain on Blade.  A
gunshot rang out and her other hand shattered into nothing.  Punisher stood
there with his gun aimed at her.
	Tiamat screamed and levitated into the air.  A chain flew around
her and grabbed her.  She tried to go higher but couldn't.  Everyone looked
to see Ghost Rider with his mystical chain holding her so she couldn't
escape the sunrise.
	The first rays hit her and she screamed out in pain.  Her skin
burned and her body slowly turned to ash.  Her skin and skeleton crumbled
into dust and the chain fell to the ground.
	Ghost Rider looked over at the Punisher.  Without a word Ghost
Rider turned, mounted his motorcycle and drove away.

	Back at the mansion, the team stood nursing their injuries.  Cloak
and Dagger explained what they had gone through to Blade and were finishing
up how they had come to be back with them.
	"While I was at the Institute, he came," she referred to the hooded
man, "and told us of something horrible in Columbus.  He had been chasing
something down and it fled."
	"He heard of what the Scarlet Witch was doing with me," Cloak said,
"teaching me about magic, and contacted her asking her if I could help him
get here.  The Scarlet Witch knew about Dagger being with Professor X so
she contacted him and we met up.  He taught us about what we were going to
be up against and then came here to inform you."
	"We overheard Whistler communicating with Black Widow," Dagger
picked up, "so we headed out to this hotel.  Cloak did a locater spell and
found you guys."
	"Who exactly are you?" Blade asked the cloaked figure.
	"I call myself Moon Knight.  My real name is Marc Spector.  I was
once a mercenary.  For my last job, I was hired by an archaeologist to help
find an ancient artifact.  When I realized that the archaeologist was
actually attempting to raid and plunder a village for the artifact, I
turned on him.  He shot me and took the treasures of the village.
	"The villagers, however, saw my attempt to save them and took me
before a statue of their moon god, Khonshu.  I was saved by the moon god
and, after being given the robe of the moon god, became the moon's knight
of vengeance.
	"I hunted down the archaeologist and returned the gold to the
villagers.  There I was given these weapons to use in my fight against
darkness, whether in the form of man or spirit."
	"What brings you to our little neck of the world?" Whistler asked.
	"As Cloak and Dagger said, there is a great evil that I have been
chasing.  For some unforeseen reason it picked this place, probably because
it sensed a strong negative psychic energy here.  It came to feed.  Chances
are it has already begun."
	"What do we do to stop it?"
	"That is a long story.  Perhaps after everyone is rested."
	"That's fine with me," Cloak said.  "I've heard the story.  It is
long.  What I would like to know is, why did Ghost Rider leave?  I mean, he
gave the nastiest look to you, Punisher, then left."
	Punisher didn't answer.  Instead he turned and rushed out of the
room.
	"What happened?" Dagger asked.
	Whistler sighed and answered, "He raped a young boy all in the name
of his mission."
	Everyone gasped in shock.

The End

What do you think of how the story ended?  Big cliffhanger.  Don't worry,
everything will be tied up in the next, and last, storyline, "Marvel
Knights: Legacy".  "Legacy" will not be out right away.  I'm going to write
another story called "The Shadow" to document where Harris went and what
happened with him.  "Legacy" will take place seven months from this
storyline.  For those wondering what happened with him, look for "The
Shadow" to appear in either the "Celebrity" section or the "Boy Band"
section.  Until then, I would love to know what you think of this, as well
as the addition of Moon Knight to the team.