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 5 Revealings
"What?" Davey asked incredulously.
"Ryan Finster is my friend. He used to go by the name Ryfin in school. He used it for his made-up superhero name when we were in the second grade. Mine was Har.."
"We need to tell Whistler."
Davey jumped up and headed up the stairs. Harris grabbed the printout and followed.
"Here's something," Johnny said as he took the book over to Whistler. "It mentions the Amulet of Ashtoroth."
Whistler walked over and took the book from Johnny. Davey burst in the room.
"Harris knows who Ryfin is," the young mutant shouted.
All eyes turned to the door as Harris came rushing in with the printout. "What's going on?"
Moments later, all were in the library. Harris sat on the couch with Davey sitting next to him holding his hand. Tandy sat to the boy. Whistler sat in the chair. Weatherby, Johnny and Ty sat at the table and Blade stood at the bookshelf. All eyes were on Harris as he told them about his friend, Ryan Finster, a.k.a. Ryfin.
"We grew up together and were best friends in elementary school. He was the only one who accepted me just as I was. He was cute, too." Quickly turning to Davey, he added, "Though not as cute as you." Then he went back to his story. "We were both different from everyone else, too. I figured out why I was, though. It's because of my sexual orientation."
"Could that have been the same thing with Ryan?" Ty asked.
"I don't think so. He dated girls all the time. He always had someone pinning over him. He ended up moving away two years ago and I hadn't seen him since. I don't know what he's up to now."
"We do," Blade replied. "He's the one who controlled the Lanithro demons that attacked us. Something is up with him."
"Some type of vengeance. The amulet is used in rituals of judgment and vengeance. And it controls fire."
"We need to find out where Ryfin...er, Ryan is and discover what in the hell he wants," Whistler replied. "He can't keep doing this, Harris."
"I know," the young boy replied. "I don't want him to do this either."
"Then we must find a way to stop him," Tandy stated. "The question is where do we find him?"
"I don't know." Harris put his head down. "It's hard to believe that this is the same friend I had years ago. Is it possible it isn't him?"
"We haven't seen Ryfin. It could be possible it's someone else, but who would have the exact same name? It's too coincidental."
"We should start checking his old haunts," Punisher said. "Contact people he used to hang out with. Maybe Harris can get into the school records and find out where in the hell he moved to."
"Then we question anyone who has heard from him," Tandy answered.
Harris stood up. "I'll get to work on it."
Harris walked out of the room and his friends looked on.
"Poor Harris," Tandy said. "He's been getting the raw end of the deal ever since he joined up with us. First you get shot, Davey. Then he gets beat up by a vampire. Now his old friend might be behind a flock of demons."
Davey stood up and followed Harris. He hurried down the steps to find Harris about ready to sit.
"Harris," Davey said getting his attention.
"Yeah," Harris said looking back.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?" Harris asked.
"For what you are going through. It seems ever since you got involved with me you've had nothing but trouble. I can't help but feel somewhat responsible for it."
"You don't have to worry about it," Harris replied sitting down. "It isn't your fault."
"You say that but your voice says something different." Davey walked up to Harris and sat next to him. "Please, look at me."
Harris turned to Davey with tears in his eyes.
"I wish I could take all this away from you."
"I chose this, too, Davey. I could have let you get taken by the Friends of Humanity and not fought back, but I didn't."
"Why didn't you?"
"Because I was doing the right thing." Harris looked down and wiped a tear. "I didn't count on you ever feeling for me what I felt for you. I never thought it would happen. In fact, I resigned myself to believe that someone like you would never be interested in someone like me."
"Then..."
"I fought back because the Friends of Humanity was wrong. They were hateful and bigoted toward anyone who was different. Much like the guys you used to hang out with. I would never, as long as it was in my power, let anyone be treated like I was."
Davey leaned in and kissed Harris on the forehead. "You are the hero in my book, Harris."
"I'm no hero." Harris turned back to the computer. "I'm the one who gets beat up by vampires and pretty boys."
"And you are the one I love. I'm never going to stop loving you."
"I've got a friend to find," Harris said wiping another tear from his eye. "I've got work to do."
Davey nodded. "Okay. I'll leave you to your work."
Davey stood and walked back toward the staircase up. He turned back and looked at the young man sitting at the computer typing away.
"I'm losing him," Davey whispered to no one in particular. Then he headed up the stairs.
Harris got the lists of schools Ryan Finster attended. They weren't far from Columbus, which enabled the Marvel Knights to move quickly and gather information. The database was easily hacked into and his home address was accessed as well as names of anyone he mentioned to his teachers. The team split up the names and paired off. Weatherby and Johnny were to head to the school Ryan last attended before summer vacation. Blade and Tandy were to talk with a teacher that lived in Columbus about Ryan. Ty was going to continue working with Whistler on a spell that would release the Lanithro from Ryfin's control.
Weatherby and Johnny pulled up in the Suburban at Jefferson High School. There were students on campus still, probably doing summer activities or summer school. Weatherby and Johnny headed to the principal's office and approached the receptionist.
"Can I help you, gentlemen?" she greeted.
"We are looking for a student," Weatherby replied. "He just finished for the summer. We need some information on him, friends and such."
"What's this about?" the receptionist asked concerned.
"I can't really say," Weatherby replied.
"Who are you?"
"Weatherby, Michael. Sergeant First Class. Marine Corps."
"Do you have some identification?"
Weatherby reached into his wallet and found an old Marine ID card. He pulled it out and showed the receptionist.
"Wait right here. I'll get the principal."
Blade and Tandy found the location of the teacher living in Columbus during the summer. It was a beautiful Victorian home in the Short North area.
"This is where most of the gay people live," Tandy replied.
"Nice area to live in. Follow the gay people, and you will find nice houses."
Tandy laughed.
The two walked up to the door and rang the bell. A lady with long brown hair opened the door. "Can I help you?"
"Hi," Tandy said right away. "We need to talk to you about Ryan Finster. A friend of mine used to go to school with him but we can't find him. The school said you used to have Ryan in class and we wanted to talk to you. It's about a reunion for the two."
"Um, okay," she answered suspiciously. "Come in."
Tandy and Blade entered. They were offered a spot on the couch and they sat. The brown-haired teacher sat in the chair.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"I'm Tandy and this is..." Tandy looked over at Blade.
"My friends call me Blade," he replied.
"I'm Teresa Brown. What do you need to know about Ryan?"
"What has he been like in class?"
Teresa looked at the two quietly for a moment. "There is something more going on, isn't there?"
"We think Ryan might be in trouble," Blade answered. "But we can't find him. We would appreciate any help you could give."
"And this old friend doesn't exist?"
"Oh, he exists," Tandy replied. "He really misses his friend and is concerned for him."
The teacher nodded.
Weatherby and Johnny looked through the records the principal had concerning Ryan. Johnny wrote down the address that Ryan was last to have lived. They continued looking through the records for incidents between Ryan and other students. There was one student who seemed to always be at odds with Ryan. Johnny took the yearbook from the previous year off a nearby shelf and looked for the name Dorian Lam.
"There he is," Johnny replied when he found the picture of the young Asian teen.
Weatherby stood up and went to the receptionist's desk. "Where does Dorian Lam live?"
She went into the system and typed in the name. She wrote down the address for the men. "Oh," she added, "he's here. He has summer school."
"Thank you," Weatherby replied. "Where is he?"
"There should be a class break going on. He's in room one-seventeen."
Weatherby nodded and headed out the door. Johnny followed him out into the hallway.
"What are you going to do?"
"Ask Dorian about Ryan."
"What if he doesn't help?"
"Then I'll ask him again."
The two walked down the hallway and found Dorian in the hallway commons area with a group of friends. They were talking and laughing, looking up to take note of Johnny and Weatherby in their leather outfits.
Weatherby ignored their looks and focused on Dorian. The friends looked from one to another then to Dorian. Weatherby walked up to Dorian and grabbed him by the throat.
"We need to talk," he said dragging Dorian away from his friends.
"Get off him!" one teen said grabbing Weatherby on the shoulder.
The scene was rather humorous to see a teenager grabbing an ex-Marine on the shoulder attempting to get the Marine to stop. Weatherby swung his hand back and backhanded the youth. The young man fell to the floor.
Johnny looked at the youth and then to Weatherby in shock. Then he ran to catch up to Weatherby, who had taken the boy to a row of lockers.
"What are you doing, freak?" the boy said to Weatherby. "Let me go! Rape!"
Weatherby slammed the boy against the lockers. "I need to talk to you about Ryan Finster."
"Help! Rape!"
Weatherby cupped his hand over Dorian's mouth. Dorian stuck his tongue out licking Weatherby's hand, hoping that would gross Weatherby out to let him go. Weatherby, however, kept his hand in place.
"Calm down so we can talk. I'm going to remove my hand. Don't scream. Understand?"
When Dorian realized he wasn't getting anywhere, he complied. Weatherby removed his hand from Dorian's mouth.
"I'll bet you liked that," Dorian replied. "I'll bet you're a queer."
"That's beside the point. Tell me what happened between you and Ryan."
"Ryan's been different from most boys in the class. He was well-liked, which wasn't strange," Teresa Brown said to her two guests, Tandy and Blade. "He was witty and funny. He was very average. But there was something about him that he only let people get so close to him. He never talked about his past friends. Since he moved, I figured that would help him to relax if he talked about it. But he didn't."
"What did he write about in class?" Blade asked.
"He would only write about what he was supposed to, to a point. We read several different stories and I asked the students to respond to them, whether they were personal experiences reminded by the story or if they had personal thoughts about the subject matter. Ryan never wrote about personal experiences or how he personally related to the text. He would point out several, objective points of view. I could never figure out what was wrong with him, why he never spoke of it, until I discovered something."
"Do you have something against gay people?" Weatherby asked Dorian.
"Yeah."
"That's not what this is about," Johnny replied.
"I think it is," Weatherby replied.
Johnny got quiet at Weatherby's words.
"What do you think of gay people?"
"They are only good for one thing, sucking cocks."
"I walked into the room and found Ryan performing oral sex on another student. The other student freaked out. He didn't want to be seen, for obvious reasons. His biggest fear, however, was that it would get out that he let another teenage boy perform oral sex on him.
"Their parents were contacted, but nothing more came of it. The boys went on like nothing happened. That included the young man picking on Ryan."
"So you used him to give you blowjobs and head," Weatherby replied. "He was nothing more than an outlet for sex. Tell me, did you cum in his mouth and make him swallow?"
"Oh, yeah," Dorian replied. "He was good. I couldn't stop myself. The pansy-ass was good for one thing, like all homos are good for."
Weatherby's eyes narrowed. "Son of a bitch," he whispered. "You made a gay boy suck you off and you still treated him like shit!"
Weatherby's hands clutched the teen's throat. Dorian's hand reached up and grasped Weatherby's wrist trying to get air.
"Don't," Johnny said to Weatherby. "Stop, you're hurting him!"
"Like he hurt Ryan. Now the young man is bent on doing evil. I would say this boy is a source of evil."
"But he's just a kid."
"That doesn't matter," Weatherby replied.
"We need to find Ryan," Johnny answered. "We need to help him before he does something that he can't be forgiven for."
Weatherby looked narrowly on Dorian and then dropped him. Dorian landed on the floor in a sitting position coughing and gasping for breath. Weatherby turned and walked away. Johnny followed.
"Faggot cocksuckers," Dorian whispered.
Johnny turned and his head changed to that of Ghost Rider's and flames erupted from his mouth and head. He snarled at the young man and then walked away. Dorian's eyes widened. Then he looked down at the puddle of piss that rested between his legs.
To Be Continued...
Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I hope it was worth the wait. Now we know who Ryfin is and why Ryfin is like he is. However, his motives are still unclear. It should be interesting how things go.
Questions and comments are always, always welcome! My email is at the beginning of each chapter.