Disclaimer: This story, though maybe not in this chapter but in subsequent chapters, will have celebrities in it. I have no knowledge of their sexuality and this is not intended to imply their sexuality. This is all from my own mind. Scary!! People actually get a glimpse into my mind!!!
Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Angel and all related characters created by Joss Whedon. Copyright 20th Century Fox.
Batman, and all related characters created by Bob Kane. Copyright DC Comics and Warner Bros.
X-MEN, and all related characters created by Stan Lee. Copyright Marvel Comics and 20th Century Fox.
Star Trek and all related characters created by Gene Roddenberry. Copyright Paramount Studios.
I don't know for sure if I will use all the above elements, but just in case, I have myself covered.
In this story, which has been floating around in my head most of my life, you will find many universes merging, as the above copyrights reveal. I hope you all enjoy this. I appreciate any feedback that you may want to give. This story doesn't deal so much with sex, sex, sex, but more of my feelings that I struggled with and am starting to come to terms with. Part of his background is mine. I do hope that you enjoy it!!!
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Chapter 39 Future Uncertain
Lance drove so fast we seemed to fly down the street in his SUV. With great fear and anticipation we approached the teen center.
"Why are we coming here?" he asked.
"I think Ra's did something to the teen center."
Lance pulled up across the street. I was the first one out and almost to the door when suddenly there was an explosion. I was thrown back into Lance's SUV. I felt the metal buckle under the force.
"Oh my God, Eric!" Lance exclaimed as he jumped out of the vehicle.
I climbed off the SUV and he embraced me.
"Oh God! Are you okay?" he asked.
I nodded.
He turned and we watched as the teen center went up in flames. My dreams, my hopes, my goals for the future, all of it burned up in a moment of time. My heart seemed to stop beating. Everything that I had wanted was crushed, was gone. Part of me wanted to run to it, but Lance held me back.
"There's nothing you can do, Eric."
"What are the kids going to do?!" I wailed. "They have nothing now! Nothing!"
"Sssh...we'll start another one. And it will be better than this one."
Sirens were heard in the distance as the fire engines, ambulances and police headed towards the fire. They wouldn't need the ambulances. No human was physically hurt. The only casualty was the future of the teens of Orlando. The chaos unfolded around me but I felt so detached from everything. All sound seemed to turn off. I was held at that moment and seemed to be looking at it from the outside.
The police had given us a ride home, but I barely remember the trip. The next thing I knew we were walking into the living room and I collapsed to the ground with tears streaming down my face. Lance knelt down and held me tightly from behind.
"What are they going to do?" I kept repeating. "What are they going to do?"
"Eric, we will figure out something. This isn't the end of your dream."
The guys from NSYNC walked in from the kitchen.
"What happened?" Chris asked faintly.
"The teen center," I replied. "It was blown up!"
Lance held me tightly for a few moments then helped me to the couch. "Could one of you guys get him a glass of water?"
Joey went into the kitchen and came back with a glass of water. He handed it to Lance who tried to get me to drink it. I took some sips. Slowly I calmed down.
"We should go," JC said. "Let them get some sleep."
"No...you guys can stay," I answered.
"Eric...after what you've been through...you two need some time alone. We'll be here tomorrow if you want."
Lance stood up and went over to the guys as the walked to the door. "Thanks for everything."
"Call me if you need me," Justin said. The other guys said the same and then they were gone, leaving Lance and I alone.
Lance walked over to me and took me into his arms. I placed my head on his chest and just cried and cried. I cried myself to sleep.
I awoke the next morning feeling exhausted. I was lying in my bed. Lance must have carried me up after I fell asleep. The emotional turmoil from the night before left me feeling so tired and exhausted. I didn't want to get up. I wanted to go back to sleep, and sleep forever.
Reluctantly, I showered and dressed. I did not eat breakfast, even though my stomach growled. I had no unction to eat. My mind went back to what I used to do when I felt so confused and such hopelessness. I went up to the bedroom, kneeled at the foot of the bed and began to pray.
"Lord, I don't know what to do. I felt the teen center was what I was to do with my life. Things were working out so well. I had the building available. It was beginning to be restored. I even had two teens come to the center for help before it even opened. It was turning into a lighthouse of hope and love.
"Now it's destroyed. The hope that it stood for has been dashed to pieces. What am I going to do? Was I going the wrong way? Is this Your way of telling me this wasn't Your will? Or is this the devil's work?"
I stilled my heart and mind and heard the soft voice in my heart and head whispering to you.
"It was not God's will for it to be destroyed. What was the name of the man who destroyed it?"
Ra's Al Ghul.
"The son of the demon. He was not doing the work of God. God is about giving hope to the hopeless."
I felt the presence of God flood the room. Then I heard the sweet voice of God speak to me.
"Eric, that place was destroyed because you were heeding the call I put in your heart. That place was just a building. It was not the teen center. It was not the hope. The right place will come to you, in good time. I will bring it to you soon. Just be patient and rest on My arms."
I felt the warmth of God's love and reassurance flow into my heart. I knew that things would be okay. I may not have felt it but deep down I knew.
I went about the rest of the day dusting the house and making it clean. When the mail came, I saw that Joshua had written me a reply.
December 25, 2001
Dear Eric:
Hi. It's good to hear from you. You are so lucky to have Lance with you. I wish you to the best of happiness.
A lot has happened since the time you left. For starters, I found my real mother, Ororo Munroe, aka Storm. My cousin, Evan, also lives here. He's really cool. Everyone here is pretty nice. I found out stuff about people that you wouldn't believe. Like Cyclops is bisexual. And you were right about Gambit. He is a real asshole. And I had a couple of run-ins with Peter again, too.
I discovered I have a lot more powers than it seemed. I am also empathic, and have psionic claws, similar to Logan's. I have a healing factor like Logan, too. I also know how to 'transform', to change my clothes mentally by altering the molecules. You can probably do it too, "Master of Molecules."
I have become good friends with a lot of the students, Bobby, Jubilee, Kitty, Evan, Pietro, Kurt, and John. I feel like I fit in for once. That Rogue girl seems pretty nice, too. I think I can become friends with her, too, even though she's a bit older than me. Remy seems to like her, but I could care less, as he is somewhat of an asshole, and she doesn't too much take to him. At least she doesn't show physically an emotion. I feel some of her feelings toward him. Of course I'm not telling him that.
ANYWAY....Logan is a lot nicer than you thought. He became my personal trainer, gymnastics and martial arts, trainer, and my friend. And more. Once he got over his confusion of what being gay meant, he became pretty good friends with me. In fact he and I fell in love. Do not get all "daddy" on me or "psychiatrist" with the 'He is too old for you' kick. Logan and I are, were, happy. Scott is jealous for some reason that I can't quite figure it out. He is angry with me now, and I can't tell why.
I have also had vampires coming after me, and sorcerers. They are being led by someone named sinister. The name sounds familiar, but why I cannot figure out. I made new friends, like Perry, Phillip, and Patrick, the charmed ones, wizards with mutant like powers, and Perry's white-lighter/lover, Michael.
Also, Scott found his long lost brother, Alex. It makes me a little happy for them, yet sad that I can't find my own brother.
Now for the bad news. Logan and I went into the Canadian wilderness yesterday for survival training. We were attacked by Sabretoothe, who tried to kill Wolvie. I exhausted myself trying to stop him, and fainted. I woke up in a cabin with Wolvie, and we made love. And had sex. A lot. Hey, it's not like it's easy to satisfy yourself when you have a healing factor like we do. The first time was very special. All of the times were good and special. But that's not the point. We woke up in the middle of the night to sounds outside. It was Mutant X, those responsible for the adamantium inside of Wolverine's body. They shot us both up. I fell out. (It hurts to get shot as many times as I was.) I'm okay now, but they took Wolverine to their base. I have no idea what they are doing to him.
I returned to America to the New York school to get help. But soon after my return, the place was blown up by the F.O.H. (Friends of Humanity.) The only thing that saved us was a premonition that I received two minutes before it happened. Also, the government approved a program that is to exterminate mutants. They use soldiers and a squad of robots called Sentinels. One almost destroyed our escape ship. We have to relocate to the Orlando establishment of the school. Sorry we have to come to your area, but we have no choice. We will come in cloaked from all detections devices, and the school will appear as a run-down chapel.
You should come in to get some anti-detection equipment. I don't want you and Lance in any more danger than necessary. I hop ewe get this solved because until it is, and until the new school is settled, we cannot rescue Wolverine. I miss my Wolvie. If there is any way you can help, please let us know. That is, if you're not busy enough.
Sincerely
Joshua.
P.S. No one here can really understand what I am going through. I feel like I completely lost Wolverine, while Kurt has Warren, Bobby has Hank, and there's everyone else with their loves. I know that you used to be with Justin through accidental thought reading when I discovered you were Batman. I could really use an understanding shoulder to cry on.
Once again, thank you.
When Lance arrived home from work, I greeted him with a kiss.
"I'm glad to see you are in a better mood," he said.
"Yeah. I prayed about it. It's in God's hands."
"Good."
"How did work go today?"
"Well. We finished up the last of what we needed to learn for choreography. And soon we will go on tour. Until then, we have vacation time."
"Yay!" I replied.
"So where would you like to go for vacation?"
Part of me wanted to go see my family, especially since I didn't get to see them over the holidays. But I also wanted to go up to Canada to visit with David and Michael. Michael was really bad and needed to be in the hospital all of the time. I wanted to go and support the two.
Lance agreed to that so we made arrangements to fly to Ohio, then onward to Canada.
That night, I went out on patrol. While sitting atop a roof looking down at the crowd, Robin and Nightwing came up to me.
"How are you doing?" I asked.
"Okay, I guess," Nightwing replied.
"Do you know what happened to the teen center?" Robin asked me.
"Yes."
"Isn't that horrible?"
"Yes."
"You don't act like it bothers you all that much," Nightwing observed.
"That is not the calling of the Batman. It must be Mr. McCoy's. The teen center blowing up is his problem."
"Interesting," Robin said to me.
"What is?"
"Oh, nothing...never mind...forget I said anything." All was quiet for a few minutes. Then Robin asked, "So there are vampires?"
"Yes," I answered.
"Have you ever fought one before?"
"Several."
"Really? Are they really strong?"
"Yes."
"Do crosses burn them?"
"Yes."
"What about all the other superstitious stuff about vampires? Is it all true?"
"I know decapitation, stake through the heart, holy water and crosses work on vampires. I don't know about the whole running water bit. Sunlight does hurt them, too."
"Why does all that stuff hurt them? The cross and holy water and stuff."
"Vampires are nothing more than soulless demon-human hybrids. When a person is changed into a vampire, their soul is no longer in control of their body. Their soul may not even be in the body at all. The demon, however, has full access to whatever memories the person had before they were made into a vampire."
"Quite good," Batgirl said as she approached the group. "Spoken like a true Slayer."
"You know vampires exist, too?" Robin asked Batgirl.
"Yep. I'm a vampire Slayer."
"You mean you actually slay vampires?"
"That's what I was built for. That's why I was made...to hunt the vampire."
"Wow! That is so cool!"
I looked over at Nightwing. He seemed preoccupied. "What's wrong, Nightwing?" I asked.
"Nothing," he answered then walked away.
I followed him over away from Robin and Batgirl. "Something is bothering you. Tell me what it is. I may be able to help."
"You're not my psychologist, Batman! So just leave me be!"
With that Nightwing shot a line to another building and swung away.
"What was that all about?" Robin asked.
"I don't know. But he doesn't want my help. I can't help if he doesn't want me to."
A scream rang out. Batgirl, Robin and I went immediately into action. We ran in the direction the scream came from and found two girls and two guys running down the street. A gang was pursuing them.
"Gang violence," Robin said. "Just what I want to get involved in."
"Not just any gang," Batgirl replied. "Those are vampires."
"How can you tell?"
"I'm a Slayer. It's my job to sense a vampire." Batgirl reached down to her leg. "Here, Robin," she said drawing a wooden stake out. "Remember, aim for the heart."
"Got it."
Batgirl shot a line and swung down. She kicked a gang member in the head, knocking him to the ground. She released the rope and, before he could get up, staked him. Immediately he turned to dust.
Robin pulled out a bolo and slung at a gang member. It wrapped around her legs and tripped her. He ran to her and staked her. She turned to dust.
As I ran ahead by way of rooftop I came up close to where the vampire gang was running. I leapt into the air and my mutant ability went into effect. I lifted up higher than I ever had and came down between the gang and the couples. I created a ball of fire and threw it at one of the vampires. It went up in flames and turned to dust.
"Oh, Robin, they don't do too well with fire, either."
Robin nodded at me. He turned and a vampire backhanded him. Robin went flying into the air.
"He's too young," I whispered. "He shouldn't have been brought into this."
I pulled out two of my bats and threw them hard at two vampires. The bats severed the heads clean off the vampires.
Batgirl did a snap kick at a vampire's head. Its head flew back and she rammed a stake into its heart. She turned and staked another vampire as it ran up to her.
A vampire ran up to Robin and jumped. At the last minute, Robin put the stake up and the vampire fell right on it. Robin looked at me and smiled as the dust cleared away.
With all the chaos going on around, I didn't notice two vampires get passed me and run after the couples. I saw Batgirl as she took a stake and flung it in the air toward me. It flew past me and hit a vampire in the heart.
I turned to see the other vampire closing in on the people. I lifted my hands, stretched my molecules out and picked up the vampire. I spun him around a few times then brought him down hard against a building edge. The impact was so great his head came clean off.
Batgirl went over to the people as I went up to Robin.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"Yeah. That was amazing!"
"I think you were too young to get involved with that."
"Why do you say that?" he said defensively, the typical teen reaction.
"Because you are not built to take on supernatural forces such as that. Perhaps, though, Batgirl's Watcher can train you like the Huntress's Watcher helped train me. You should ask Batgirl about that."
Robin and I walked up to Batgirl as the couples turned and walked away.
"All is well with them," Batgirl said. "Another vampire gang bites the dust."
"It wasn't that bad. Back to normal, I'd say," I said.
"You would think that, especially after dealing with Ra's Al Ghul and his hired vampire thugs. But something doesn't seem right, here. Lots of vampire gangs are forming. That's the third one I've had to dispose of in three months."
"Again I say, it doesn't seem that bad."
"Not to you who is used to seeing one a month in Los Angeles. But down here in Orlando, they are even fewer and far between. I think something may be brewing."
"Here?"
"Perhaps. Or perhaps somewhere else and the vampires are coming here to escape...whatever it is."
Christian walked across the room in the early morning light. He did not sleep very well considering the circumstances he was in. He adjusted the slight bulge in his boxers. He had to use the bathroom rather badly, as most people do after sleeping through the night. Christian relieved himself and then showered, letting the warm water flow down his back, relaxing his muscles. Life had gotten rather stressful since the holidays.
He went into his bedroom and dressed. Then he felt the presence in the room. He turned to see the hideous demon standing in the corner with a sneer on his face.
"Good morning, servant. It's a shame you aren't immortal. Mortals have such weaknesses I find rather tedious," the demon known as Macai stated.
"If I were immortal I wouldn't be your servant. I'd kick your ass."
"Watch your insolent tone, boy. I may have figured you into my plans, but I can easily figure you out of them. You are not irreplaceable. I can always find someone else to...distract him for me."
Christian looked at Macai with a changed looked. He was no longer angry. He felt, instead, a longing.
"That's right. I know you care for him. You puny humans have that feeling called love. And you feel it for him. I'm offering you the chance to express your...love...for him. In return you get your family back. My will seems to be to please you. And you get a reward for doing my will, your family's lives."
Christian nodded and walked over to the balcony. Opening it he looked out at the skyline. "But it's wrong, Macai. It's not real. He won't feel anything for me."
"He may, he may not. But I know people. When sex is involved, they jump at whatever it is just to get the chance to have sex. Believe me. I know these things. Humans are really quite basic animals if you look at them in the right way. They all feel the primal instincts of the tiger, the wolf, the bear. They all have the basic urges and lusts. Of course, animals only have sex for procreation. Humans have sex because their biochemical urges have grown so strong they cannot contain themselves. They lose control all because of an instinctual chemical reaction.
"Given enough time away from his...love...you will be able to fulfill that fantasy of yours with him. I will make it so."
To Be Continued...
Wow! What an amazing chapter! The teen center blown up by Ra's Al Ghul as his last attempt to thwart Eric's plan! Robin gets his first experience with vampires! Batgirl hints at something happening in the spiritual realm with the vampires! And the demon Macai has made a deal with Christian, one that Christian has already agreed to! What could it be?