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 3 Walking the Beat
"Ghost Rider," Blade said, "you've never fought vampires before, have you?"
"Not in this form, no," Ghost Rider replied. "But I have seen it done and before. And I have dealt with dark forces before."
"Vampires are tricky," Dagger said.
"I remember what Whistler said," Ghost Rider replied pulling out a wooden stake. "I can do this."
"Just be careful. They are much stronger than they look."
Ghost Rider nodded and the four mad their way through the shadows of Columbus, Ohio.
Cloak drove the car into the secret entrance of the underground hideout. He and Marvel Boy climbed out and were met by Whistler.
"Are you okay?" the southern accented Watcher asked.
"Fine," Cloak said. "Let's get working on this spell."
"In time," Whistler replied. "We need to do some research on the Lanithro to know exactly what spells they are susceptible to. If we start casting spells at random, we could fuck things up royally."
Cloak nodded.
"Harris is working on the Internet searching for any references to Lanithro. Davey, you and Ty can help me sort through the books. Get showered and changed and meet me upstairs in the library."
Marvel Boy and Cloak nodded and headed off to the showers. In a short amount of time, the two came out dressed for relaxation and serious work. Davey walked up behind Harris and put his arms around his neck.
"How goes the computer searching?" Davey asked.
"Slowly. I've done several searches on different search engines using the words 'Lanithro demon' and all I get are some caricature pictures and fantasy stuff. Nothing actually useful."
"I'm sure you'll find something."
Davey kissed Harris on the top of the head and walked to the stairs and headed up to the library. He found Whistler climbing one of the rolling ladders in the library. There was a small stack of books on a table and Ty was already digging in.
"Pick one on the table and start reading," Whistler said.
Davey walked over, grabbed a book and plopped down on a sofa. Putting his bare feet up on the cushions he looked through the back of the book. "There isn't an index in here. What's that all about?"
"I apologize that the authors of these ancient texts didn't index the books. Perhaps Ty could do a little time-traveling spell and you can go back and ask them to index these for you."
Davey rolled his eyes and started skimming the pages looking for the word 'Lanithro'.
The three men and one woman worked their way through the shadows keeping all senses peeled for any sign of evil activity, whether human or non-human.
"I just realized something," Dagger said. "Punisher is the only one of us who doesn't have special powers."
"Your point?" Punisher replied.
Dagger, seeing the look on Punisher's face, decided to drop the subject. "None, just an observation."
Punisher looked away. He noticed something stirring in the shadows across the way. "What's that?"
Headlights came on and an old car tore out of the alley.
"Should we follow?"
"How do we keep up?" Dagger pointed out. "The car is back that way."
Ghost Rider turned toward the vehicles which were several blocks away. In a few moments, the headlight of a motorcycle could be seen heading their way.
"I have power over my ride," he said.
The motorcycle pulled up to them and he climbed on.
"Follow them," Blade said. "And keep in contact with us. We'll catch up."
Ghost Rider nodded and drove off after the car. The other three headed back toward the vehicles.
Cloak and Marvel Boy pulled into the underground parking space and climbed out.
"Are you two okay?" Whistler asked.
"Fine," Marvel Boy replied.
"Except for our pride," Cloak added. "What are those creatures?"
"Go get showered up and changed. I need your asses out here helping me. I've got Harris on the Net checking for any information he can about the Lanithro. I need you two upstairs with me looking up stuff in the books."
The two young men headed to the showers.
Blade, Punisher and Dagger arrived at the motorcycle and Suburban. Blade climbed on his motorcycle and Punisher climbed behind the wheel of the Suburban. Dagger climbed into the passenger side of the Suburban and they were off.
"Ghost Rider," Dagger radioed. "Come in, Ghost Rider."
"Ghost Rider here."
"What's your location?"
"I'm heading east on East Spring Street."
"We'll be right there," Dagger replied. "Stay with them."
The two vehicles pulled out and drove toward East Spring.
Davey and Ty came out of the showers in their shorts and t-shirts only. Davey walked up behind Harris and put his arms around Harris's shoulders.
"Hey," he greeted kissing his boyfriend on the head. "How goes the web-surfing?"
"Slowly," Harris replied. "I haven't found much except pictures and descriptions. We already know what they look like."
"You are so hot right now," Davey replied.
Harris smiled and looked up at Davey. "You are always hot."
Davey kissed Harris on the forehead and headed to the stairs leading up to the house. He found Ty and Whistler already in the vast library. Books reached from floor to the ceiling. Whistler was moving a ladder as it rolled along the wall to a section close to the fire place. Ty was already sitting at the table looking through a book. A small stack of books rested near him.
"Davey, glad you could make it," Whistler said. "Take a book and start reading."
Davey walked over, grabbed a book, and sat down on the couch putting his bare feet up and started flipping through the books. He opened the back and looked around for something.
"Where's the index?"
"Book writers in the past didn't think of indexing their books. They believed people would actually read the entire thing and understand everything that was said. They didn't in our world of convenience. If you want, invent a frickin' time machine to go back in time and ask them to index it for you."
Davey rolled his eyes and started looking through the book.
Blade and Punisher caught up with Ghost Rider and they took turns following the car. One would turn and go around the block while another would pull up and follow for a short distance. After a half hour of this shadowing, the car pulled into a cemetery. The motorcycles stopped at the gate with Punisher parking behind them. They turned the motors off and gathered at the mouth of the cemetery.
"What do we do?" Dagger asked.
"We need to find out what they were doing," Punisher replied. "We should go in quietly and assess the situation."
"Agreed," Blade replied. "Punisher, Dagger and I will go in. Ghost Rider you come in behind us but stay at a distance. Once inside, we separate and keep in the shadows. I'm aiming for surrounding them."
"Good plan," Punisher replied. He pulled his machine gun out from underneath his jacket.
"No firing until we know what we are dealing with."
Punisher nodded and the four headed inside the cemetery. It was a cool night and foggy. It made it easy for the four dressed in black to blend in with the shadows. They kept in eye contact with one another and slowly made their way following the twisting and turning of the road.
Soon they came upon the car sitting with the engine turned off. In the distance, the figures stood around a tomb a fire blazing at their feet. The figures wore brown robes and were chanting something.
"Could these be the cause of the Lanithro?" Dagger asked Blade over the radio.
"It's possible. Let's take it slow and everyone keep an eye out for any Lanithro demons."
"I'm going to crash their party," Dagger replied.
The Vampire Slayer ran and grabbed a low-hanging branch. She spun around and leapt at the robed figures. Her landed was loud enough for them to stop their chanting and look around.
"Who's that?" one asked. "What's going on?"
They sounded like scared teenagers.
"We'd like to ask you that," Blade said stepping into visual.
"What...what is this?" another robed figure asked.
"What are you doing here?" Dagger asked.
"We're not sure. We found this paper that had instructions for doing this ritual thing. We thought it would be freaky to do."
"Where did you find the instructions?" Punisher asked.
"In school. They were in our lockers."
"All of your lockers?"
They nodded.
"How far are you in the ritual?" Ghost Rider asked stepping near. His head glowed in the darkness.
The robed teenagers widened their eyes in shock.
"Who...are you?"
"Answer him," Dagger said.
"We just finished."
The ground began to shake and open.
"Get out of here," Blade said.
Dagger pocketed the paper of instructions and radioed Whistler.
"Hold on one second," Harris said to Dagger. He pressed a few buttons and spoke through the intercom. "Whistler, you are needed down here big time. Something is happening."
In seconds, Whistler was down with Harris at the radio. Ty and Davey came in behind him.
"What's going on?" Whistler asked.
"Some teenagers performed a ritual in a cemetery and the ground is shaking."
"Do you know what ritual it was?"
The sound of ruffling was heard. Then Dagger answered, "Dagoth."
"Oh great," Whistler muttered. "Dagoth is a shadow demon."
"Damn," Blade replied. "It's going to blend in perfect in the cemetery."
"What are its weaknesses?" Punisher asked.
"Light," Whistler answered.
"We'll be in touch," Blade radioed.
"Keep us informed."
"I can deal with that," Dagger replied. Her hands began to glow.
Ghost Rider's head flared with bright flame.
Blade and Punisher grabbed a stick from the fire and held them up like a torch.
The ground stopped shaking and everyone looked one to another. The shadows seemed to darken around them and the felt like they were in limbo. Darkness suddenly attacked Punisher hitting him and he dropped the torch. The man flew into the darkness out of sight.
"Punisher!" Ghost Rider looked around. He ran into the shadows and his head lit the way. He found Punisher lying unconscious on the ground. "He's alive," he called to the others. "Just knocked out."
Dagger and Blade looked around carefully, cautiously, concentrating on any signs of movement. The shadow came out of nowhere and hit Blade. Blade, however, kept a grip on his torch and swung it at the shadow. A screaming sound echoed throughout the cemetery. Blade fell to the ground but managed to stay conscious.
"What was it like?" Dagger asked as she ran over and knelt by her friend checking him for injury.
"Cold," Blade replied. "It felt cold and lonely."
Dagger looked around the cemetery. "Something isn't right about this."
"What do you mean?"
"How far can you see?" she asked Blade.
"Not very far. The darkness has gotten deeper."
"That's not it," Dagger replied. "I have an idea."
The mutant Vampire Slayer stood and her hands began to glow brighter. As they glowed, the shadows dissipated to a radius of twenty feet around them.
"Dagoth has surrounded us," Dagger answered. She threw her hands out and light daggers flew into the darkness. The sound of screeching resumed. "It's surrounding us!"
Ghost Rider turned and ran into the darkness. His head flared with anger and the shadow screamed. Dagger continued pounding the darkness with her light daggers. Blade grabbed another torch and swung them at the surrounding shadow.
Slowly, Punisher came to and saw what his friends were doing. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his flashlight. Turning it on, he shined it on the dark wall surrounding him.
The four continued their assault on the demon and the darkness slowly dissipated. Finally, it was gone and the four stood exhausted.
"I'm ready to go home," Dagger replied.
"Do you still have the ritual instructions?" Blade asked.
"Yeah."
"Good. We'll take that to Whistler and see what he can make of it."
She nodded and the team headed back to their transportation. Then they headed back to their home.
To Be Continued...