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 7 Wounded
Punisher arrived at the hospital and carried the boy into the Emergency Room.
"We need a doctor right away!" he said as he pushed through the doors.
"What's going on?" a nurse asked approaching him.
"He might have some internal bleeding. One of his ribs is cracked."
"How did this happen?"
"He was kicked by something."
"By what?"
"I'm not sure. I didn't see," he lied.
The doctor came running up to the gurney as Punisher laid the boy down. "Let's get him into X-ray ASAP."
The nurse nodded and ran down the hall to radiology. The doctor began his examination right there. He unbuttoned the boy's shirt and pulled it open revealing his youthful chest. Punisher noticed a mark on the boy's shoulder that ran to his back. He couldn't tell what the mark was, although it was obviously some form of tattoo.
The doctor finished his examination and turned away for a moment. "Stay here with the boy. I'll be right back."
Punisher nodded as the doctor rushed away. Punisher then approached the boy and helped the youth roll to the side, where he was able to lower his shirt down his back to get a better view of the tattoo. It was a skull head and scythe.
"The symbol of 'Death'," he muttered. "He is in some kind of gay or something."
The doctor came back and asked Punisher if he was the boy's legal guardian.
"No."
"Do you know who the boy is?"
"No."
"How did you find him?"
"I was driving along when I saw a group of kids chasing after another kid. I stopped to see what the problem was and he ended up getting hit by something. That's when I checked him out and brought him here."
"We're going to take him to radiology to determine the extent of his injuries."
Punisher nodded and an orderly came and wheeled the boy away. Punisher watched until the double doors closed behind the boy and he went outside to wait for Ghost Rider and Dagger.
Tia sat on her bed with Blade standing in front of her. She noticed his body was tense.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"I'm not sure about this."
"Have you never been with a woman before?"
"It isn't that. Relationships don't go well for me."
"Why not?"
Blade sighed and walked to the window. "My life is very rough. I don't have time for anything serious."
"So you don't want this to be serious?" Tia asked as she stood and walked to him, placing her hand on his shoulder.
"I'm not sure what I want. Up until now, my feelings had been for another man. But now..."
"They are for me?"
Blade turned to her. "I don't know."
Tia leaned in and kissed him. "Don't think about it," she said after pulling away. "There is no pressure beyond us being close friends."
"Do close friends do this?"
"If not, maybe they should," she answered with a smile. Her hand ran down his sculpted arm and clasped his hand. Then she led him over to the bed and made him lay back. "Just relax and don't worry about beyond this moment."
The motorcycle pulled up with Johnny driving and Tandy, in costume minus her mask, on the back. She hopped off and went over to Weatherby. "Well, how is he?" she asked.
"Not sure yet. I think there might be some internal injuries. The doctors have him in radiology right now. But there is something more important to worry about at the moment."
"How can you say that?" Tandy replied loudly. "There is a young man in the hospital with internal injuries simply because I wasn't careful."
"He wasn't an innocent youth. He was out harassing someone. He deserved whatever happens. Now, I noticed a tattoo on his should and back that I think we need to be aware of."
Tandy approached as Punisher walked up to Johnny.
"On his back was a skull head and scythe. Does it ring any alarms in your supernatural heads?"
"The symbol of death," Johnny replied. "Most ancient beliefs have a symbol for death, and it is usually a skull and scythe, though others have other markings in it."
"Something tells me this boy is working for something evil in town. We need to find out what it is and why it is here."
The two nodded in agreement. "What about the boy, though?"
"They are going to do all they can. We can come visit him later. Right now we need to get this to Whistler."
Tandy sighed and reluctantly climbed in the Suburban. It was true what Punisher said. They could do no good here. They had to get what they discovered to Whistler and figure out what type of creature or religion or whatever used that symbol. And Tandy was desperately in need of a Watcher's counsel after the events of this evening.
The taxi pulled up in front of "Southern Nights," one of the many gay clubs in Orlando. The music could be heard booming outside as the young men climbed out of the cab. Everyone was dressed for the evening. Ryan wore an all black button-up shirt and tight black leather pants. The shirt was only buttoned up halfway revealing his smooth, slightly tanned chest. His hair was spiky and he wore a seashell necklace. Caleb wore black leather pants as well. He also wore a button-up shirt only his was white. His black hair was spiky as well. Davey spiked his hair, too. He wore a green t-shirt and khaki cargo shorts, showing off his smooth legs. Harris was the only one who wasn't totally into the scene. He wore a t-shirt and jean shorts.
The four young men entered the club. Davey was excited about the scene. He kept comparing the size of this place to the "Axis", which was much smaller than the Florida club.
"This is so cool!" Davey said as they made their way to the dance floor.
"It gets even cooler!" Ryan called back trying to help Davey along. His hand, which was on Davey's back, pushed a little. It went down a little bit and hit Davey's butt. The first time this happened, Davey jerked away. This time, however, Davey was so distracted that he didn't even notice.
"Come on," Caleb called to Harris, who was dragging behind. "You don't want to lose your boyfriend in the crowd, do you? Once that happens, it is difficult to find anyone in here."
Caleb smiled at Harris and Harris smiled back. 'He's actually trying to be nice to me,' Harris thought. He rushed forward to catch up to Davey.
They finally arrived at the dance floor which was covered in flashing colored lights. Davey started dancing immediately, as did Ryan and Caleb. Harris watched for a minute and finally gave dancing a try. He bounced around moving his arms and feet to the music. After several songs worth, all four boys were covered in sweat, which helped them blend even more so into the crowd.
"You want something to drink?" Caleb asked the other three.
They said yes and he headed off to get their drinks.
"This place is awesome! Too bad I don't live down here!" Davey exclaimed.
Ryan smiled at Davey's enthusiasm. Harris did, as well. Davey was definitely a partier.
"What do you make of it?" Johnny asked Whistler as Whistler searched through his books for the image Weatherby described.
"When I find a few pictures so we know exactly what the boy had on him, we can start speculating," Whistler said as he went back to his book. "Damned impatient people."
"What about what happened with me?" Tandy asked.
"One thing at a time. We have a mystery to figure out. All of you pick up books and start looking. When you find a picture of a skull and scythe, show Weatherby."
Everyone agreed and picked up books to begin their search.
An hour later, Weatherby came across a picture in a book that looked exactly like the one on the young man in the hospital. "This is it," he called out. Everyone looked up from their books and listened as he read. "'The Mark of Death' represents the order following an ancient evil buried for centuries. The order caused havoc for a time before the separating of the gods. Since then the order became dormant until the two gods joined for the reclaiming of the earth'."
"Sounds like a plan," Johnny stated.
"A plan we have to stop," Tandy added.
"Tomorrow," Whistler said, "I want Michael to go to the hospital and talk with the boy. You might be able to get through to him since you rescued him."
"What about..." Tandy began.
"You stay away from him. The last thing he needs is a visit from the person who hurt him. Besides, we still have the matter of these outbursts of your powers to look into."
At "Southern Nights", the young men found a secluded table to sit. Harris had to use the restroom so Caleb offered to show him, leaving Ryan and Davey alone.
"So, how long have you two been together?" Ryan asked.
"A while," he replied. "Since around Spring."
"Really? How did you meet?"
"School."
"Did you two hang out at school or have mutual friends?"
"No."
"You have my curiosity peaked. What made you two decide to get together?"
"The people I hung out with were really attractive people, like you and Caleb. And all we would do is make fun of those who didn't look like us."
"Guys like Harris."
Davey hesitated for a minute, then answer, "Yeah. And I realized after a while that what me and the other guys did was wrong."
"So you dating Harris is mostly a 'make-up-for-past-sins' deal. I get it."
"No, that's not it at all. One day, this was before I realized how horrible I was being, I heard him playing the piano and singing. He was showing his emotions so openly. He didn't know I was there or anything, but I got to see his personality, who he is. And I fell in love with that."
Ryan nodded his head as if he understood completely what Davey was saying, almost as if he experienced that himself.
"How did you and Caleb meet?"
"Oh, we've known each other for a few years. We live in L.A. and met over the internet. We've been together ever since."
"Really? That's cool. Long-term relationships are the way to go. So much stability and trust and all that."
"It isn't really a long-term deal," Ryan corrected. "We are both hot, have nice bodies, and like the same things. We're too young to really be committing like that. Maybe when I'm thirty I'll commit, but not now. Of course, the sex is good. He can suck a mean dick. And his ass is nice and tight for fucking. How is sex with you and Harris? Do you top or does he?"
Davey was taken back by Ryan's bluntness about sex. Before he could answer, though, Ryan was asking more questions.
"Have you guys ever had a three-way yet? Those are awesome, but only if you have three hot guys in the mix. All that testosterone, sweating, and moaning, not to mention having three cocks going at it, now that's a good time."
"You've had threesomes before?"
"Oh, yeah, dozens of times. It's really hot. So, you and Harris..."
"No, we haven't had sex yet. We just started talking about the subject a few days ago. He wants to wait until we're older."
"Ah, shit, man, he doesn't know what he's missing. With your hormones raging, you should be having sex as much as you want. If you wait too long, certain things can happen."
"Like what?" Davey's interest was now engaged.
"Well, you could end up not being able to get off with others. If you repress your sex drive so much, or only get off by watching porn and stuff, you could have a hard time getting off with another guy.
"Plus, you're young. You shouldn't let one person tell you when to have sex with another guy or who that guy should be. Don't get me wrong, Harris seems like a nice guy. I'm sure he's very caring and all that. But he shouldn't tell you what you can and can't do. You don't have rings on. He isn't your boss.
"Why does he want to wait, anyway? Does he have some problems? Maybe he thinks he's not beautiful enough for you. Maybe he isn't very big as far as cock size goes. Some guys freak about that."
"Do you worry about cock size?"
"Honestly, sometimes. If it's too small, you don't get deep penetration when fucking, you can't really give a good hand-job, and deep-throating isn't a possibility. There's nothing like a long, thick dick tickling your esophagus."
All the sex talk got Davey's hormones in gear and his dick swelled in his pants.
"Listen, if you ever want to have a threesome, call me. Caleb and I would be glad to do it with you."
"I don't know. That wouldn't be right by Harris."
"What does he need to know? Like I said, you're not married. And I won't tell. Caleb won't tell. He doesn't have to know." Davey went to reply, but Ryan cut him off. "Don't answer now. Just think about it. It might be something you want to do."
Harris and Caleb returned to the table with more drinks.
"Hey, guys," Ryan said as if he hadn't been talking about sex.
To Be Continued...
What do you think of the proposition Ryan gave Davey? Do you think Davey would try a three-way? What about Ryan's reasoning concerning long-term relationships? These young men are in their mid-teens. Is that any time to plan a long-term relationship? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject.