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.