Hey people! Sorry to keep you waiting! Thanks to all of you who sent in your responses, keep em coming!!!! I'm gonna shut up now . . . so go read! LoL ?
Last time . . .
"Well, Joey is in LA shooting and movie, Chris is in Arizona, I think, but he moved there just after Dani died. Beryl is still in New York. We have them all." Lance said sure of himself.
"No, we're missing one. You round up the others, I'm going to find Justin."
Josh walked out of the room, leaving Lance there naked, and confused.
This time . . .
The next day, Lance went to LA to find Joey. He got to the front door of Joey's luxurious house in the San Fernando Valley, he knocked on the door and there was no answer. Lance was getting impatient, he had to get to Joey and fast.
Joey pulled up to his house in his black SUV and saw Lance standing at his front door. He told his now 5year old daughter to stay in the car. He got out and said,
"Lance?"
"Joey! Thank god!" Lance said relieved to see him.
"What are you doing here?!" Joey said in a mixture of shock and confusion.
"We gotta talk. There's trouble."
"Uh oh! Um . . . ok, hold on, let me get Maggie and we'll go inside."
"Uncle Lance!" Maggie said as Joey took her out of her seatbelt.
"Hey sweetie!" Lance said as she ran up to hug him and he lifted her up in the air.
As they went inside, Joey said,
"Honey, why don't you go out back and play?"
"Ok daddy! Bye Uncle Lance!" She said running along to the backyard.
"Bye sweetie!" Lance said, "She's gotten big!"
"Yup, my little angel! So what's up?"
"Well, to tell you the truth, I don't know. But, there's trouble."
"What kind?"
"I dunno exactly. Josh had a dream last night and he woke up and said something about feeling the touch and warmth of some girl's hand. Then he said that we had to reassemble the team and Beryl too."
"Great!" Joey said sarcastically.
"I know it's been a long time, but we need him. And I think it's you who should get him."
"Me?! Why not Josh? He's the Chosen One!"
"Cause Josh went to find Justin."
"What?!? How? Where?"
"I don't know. He just got up and said that he was going to find Justin!"
"Well, why can't you go?"
"I have to go try and convince Chris to come with us, wherever it is we have to go!"
"That's gonna be hard!"
"I know, and I'm the only one who can do it."
"Fine, I guess I'm going to New York then! Linda's gonna kill me!" Joey said sighing then stroking his goatee, "Maggie, come here for a minute!"
"Yes daddy?" She said running back into the living room.
"Hey, listen honey . . . You gotta go back to your mommy's cause Uncle Lance here needs my help with something very important!"
"But daddy! You promised to take me to the zoo today!"
"I know baby, but it's really important that I go with Uncle Lance."
"Fine . . ." She said sighing in a disappointed tone.
"Hey Maggie!" Lance said.
"Yeah?" she said still upset.
"I got somethin for you outside!"
"You do?"
"Yup!"
"What is it?"
"I'll show yah, come on!"
They all went outside and Lance got a teddy bear from his rental car and gave it to her.
"Is that for me?"
"Sure is! And look what happens when you wind it up!"
She turned the key in the back and it played "For the girl who has everything".
"Is that?" Joey asked.
"Yup! Got is especially for her!"
"I know this song!" She said, a smile forming on her face.
"I used to sing that to you when you were still a baby!" Joey said, "You forgive me now?"
"Yes, I'm sorry daddy."
"It's ok honey, there's nothing to apologize for."
Joey got in the car with Maggie and Lance and they drove back to Linda's house. Once there, Joey took a deep breath and rang the doorbell. She opened the door and said,
"Don't even say it!"
"Linda . . ."
"Save it!"
"But . . ."
"No Joseph! She's your responsibility on the weekends!"
"But something really important just came up!"
"Something really important is always coming up! It's always either the show, or a movie, or an interview, or an appearance! What is it this time? Or should I ask, who?!?"
"I swear to you! This is not like any of those other times!"
"Don't give me that Joseph!"
"Linda, please! This is a matter of life and death, I can't explain, but I just have to go!"
"Don't you walk away Joseph! If you walk away, you'll never see her again!"
By this time Maggie had already started to cry, and was hugging the teddy bear tightly to her chest.
"I love you sweetie!" Joey said as he turned his back and started down the walkway.
"JOSEPH! I'M WARNING YOU!" Linda yelled, "THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!!"
He got to the car and Lance had it already started and was in the driver's seat. Joey got in and sighed as tears started to fall from his face. Lance drove off and Joey saw Maggie standing on the porch crying and hugging her teddy bear tightly as she saw the car drive away.
"Don't worry, it'll be alright, she just needs some time to cool down." Lance said trying to comfort him.
"No, she meant it this time, she meant it." Joey said starting regret his decision. The ride back to Joey's house was silent. Once there, Joey got some clothes packed, and they went off to the airport. Joey went on his way to New York and Lance on his way to Arizona.
In Phoenix, Arizona a few hours later.
"Yes, I need to find a Christopher Kirkpatrick please." Lance said into his cell phone politely, while walking through the airport.
He had just gotten off the plane and was heading out the door.
"I have two listed sir. One is at 4496 Crest View Ave, and 5852 Trek Lane." The man said as Lance got into the limo that he had called for.
"Thank you," Lance said as he hung up the phone, "Drive 4496 Crest View Ave, please."
The Limo pulled out of the airport parking lot and hit the interstate. Lance pulled out a new IBM laptop, and began to access government files dealing with Inline Genetics, a new way to develop armies that are still human, but have the abilities of slayers. Lance and Josh had 100% government funding, which with both of their combined fortunes made them the richest men in America. They once sat down and tried to figure how much they were worth, they came to an estimate of about 350 billion dollars. 300 million went to their house, and the rest they didn't touch, except for $10,000, which Lynn would find added into her checking account every month. Although Lynn constantly would ask, Lance and Josh would still claim not to know anything about it.
Lance rolled up the window to the limo and started to change out of his normal clothes and into his slaying cloths. He slipped on his black slacks, and his black sweater vest, then threw on a trench coat, and a pair of sunglasses.
"Driver, how long till we get to our destination?" Lance asked starting to access Chris' bank statement.
"About 5 minutes Mr. Bass."
"Thank you."
Lance began to look over Chris' financial problems, and history.
"Well, Chris, teaching voice lessons, and teaching at Phoenix East High School. Making $45 thousand a year, and you seem to be broke." Lance said, talking to himself. "And today is your son's fifth birthday."
Lance closed that laptop and waited for the limo to pull up to Chris' house.
"Go down the street I will meet you there." Lance told the driver.
The limo pulled out of the driveway and made its way down the street and parked. The sun was just about to set and Lance wanted to make sure he was okay, so he checked to make sure he had his sword with him. He walked up the sidewalk and rang the doorbell. He could hear laughing inside, and could see a figure coming towards him through the fogged glass window. The door opened, and Chris was standing there with a smile, which quickly faded and turned to shock as Lance took off his glasses.
"Hello Chris." Lance said kindly with a slight smile.
"Daddy! Who is it?" A little boy said running up and in front of Chris, and then looked at Lance, "Who are you?"
"It's nobody Justin, go back inside and play with your friends." Chris said as he lightly pushed him back into the house as Little Justin took off without a second thought.
"He looks like his Mom." Lance said with a smile.
"Yes he does. What do you want Lance?"
Lance looked at Chris.
"May I come in?"
"No," Chris stepped outside the house and shut the door, "Talk."
Lance felt pure anger coming from Chris.
"We need your help. Something's happening and we don't know what it is. I need for you to come with me . . . now." Lance said, as he looked Chris dead in the eye.
"You've got some fuckin nerve! You show up to my house, and . . ." He dropped his voice to a whisper, "And ask me to leave my home, and my son, to help you?!?"
"I'm not asking you to leave your son. He can come with us. We can leave him at the estate, he would be safe there till we got back."
"NO! You, Joey, and Josh can handle it! I told you, I'm not going to put up with it anymore." Chris said and turned to walk back into the house.
"You can't bring her back you know. You're just stopping what you are, and what you have been chosen to do."
"Don't you get it Lance! I never wanted to do this! I wanted to get rich and famous and DIE. Not go around killing Vampires, and Demons!" Chris said as he turned and stood dead on with Lance. "And I told you not to come around here again!" he then turned and walked back into the house. The doorbell rang again and he turned around, threw the door open and yelled,
"Look I told . . . Oh hey Michel."
Michel was Chris' neighbor.
"What was that all about?" He asked.
"Vacuum salesman, please come in!" Chris said with a smile.
"Vacuum Salesman!" Lance's voice rang though Chris's head. "I don't dress that bad!" Chris quickly looked up the stairs with a death frown on his face.
"Where are you?" He said telepathically.
"So you do remember how to do it! I thought you said you wouldn't use your powers?"
"I'm not fucking around!"
"Come on Chris. Come get me! I bet you can't, you don't remember!"
Lance was sitting up in Chris' room in the closet, and in an instant he felt himself get pushed out, and was standing in Chris' bedroom.
"Yeah, I still know how to do it, what's your point?!"
"You can't deny who and what you are! You remember that? I told you then and I'm telling you now! We need you!"
"NO LANCE!"
"Daddy! Look what Michel gave me!" Little Justin said running into the room with a toy he had just received.
Chris turned his attention to his son while Lance jumped out the window landing on the front lawn.
"That's nice buddy, can you go downstairs for a second, I have to talk to my friend here for a second."
"There's no one here silly!"
Chris turned his head back around and saw the room empty and a stake on the bed. He turned back to his son with a confused look and heard Lance say,
"You know what to do!"
"Hey, that's just what you wanted! How bout we go downstairs so we can thank Michel?" Chris said as he picked up his precious son and telepathically said, "When and where?"
"Our estate in Virginia in 2 days." Lance replied back while walking to the limo.
"I'll be there." He said as he reached the backyard and put his son down.
He went inside the house, and looked at the picture of him and his wife on the wall.
"Dani." He sighed, then walked into the kitchen and picked up the phone.
He dialed in a few numbers and the recorded voice said,
"You have zero dollars in your account."
Chris felt his head drop and tears start to form and fall from his eyes, he then heard his son laugh, and saw him chasing the dog that the last bit of their money had been spent on. When he was about to hang up the phone he heard the computer voice say,
"Transaction complete, you now have 250,000 dollars in your account."
Chris' eyes grew with shock as heard Lance telepathically say,
"You're welcome. Consider it a birthday present for your son."
New York City, around midnight.
What was regularly a quiet street, except for sound of evening traffic, was now turned into an all out war zone. The streets were torn up and there was fire coming from a building in front of Central Park, Beryl's building. The sounds of fighting could be heard all throughout the neighborhood. Nobody, not even the police, dared to interfere with what was going on.
Joey arrived on the scene in shock. As he saw the remains of Beryl's building he feared the worst. As he saw the building in flames, he heard the motor of a motorcycle scream by him, followed by another one. He turned his attention to the streets just in time to see Beryl jump off his Harley and tackle the person on the other bike. They both went crashing into the wall that separated 5th Ave from Central Park, and upon impact, the bikes blew up. Joey ran over to the wreckage as fast as he could. Crawling out from under the bike, badly bruised and bloody, Beryl was grabbed by his opponent and thrown up against the wall, by the woman who was riding the other bike. She took off her helmet and revealed her vampire identity. It was Sarah, Beryl's enemy of 9 years. Beryl was weak from all the fighting and crash and he didn't have enough strength to heal himself. As Sarah let out an evil laugh and said,
"Finally, after all these years, I have you right where I want you!"
"Fuck you bitch!" Beryl said spitting in her face.
"You're gonna pay for that!" She said wiping the spit off with her free hand, "And they said you were one of the chosen ones!"
"He's not, but I am!" Joey said as he stuck a piece of broken park bench through her body.
"NO!" She yelled just before she turned to dust.
As the ashes hit the floor, so did Beryl. He was curled up on the floor and coughing up blood. Joey knelt down beside him and said,
"You don't look so good!"
Beryl focused on the body kneeling in front of him and weakly said,
"Joey!?"
"Yeah."
"What the hell were you doing?!? I had her right where I wanted her!" Beryl said then coughed up some more blood.
"That's why you were almost vamp food?!?"
"I knew what I was doing!"
"You're welcome!"
"W . . . what're you doing here anyway?!"
"Come on, let's get you cleaned up first!" Joey said helping him up.
"I . . . I can do it myself!" Beryl said pulling his arm away then falling back to the floor.
"Why don't you just let me help you?!"
"You had your chance, you made your decision!"
"Will you let that go?!? That was 9 years ago!"
"Well I'm so sorry! I guess I should just let it slide that the man that I thought I was falling in love with decided that what we had was nothing! I mean after all, it would've been 'too complicated' to try and work things out! We 'weren't ready'!"
"I would've thought that after all this time, you would've let it go."
"Well I'm so sorry! It's my fault again!"
"Look, this isn't the time or place to be discussing this! Can we just please go inside somewhere?!"
"Where can I go?! In case you haven't noticed, my house has been burned to the ground!" Beryl said finally letting Joey help him, but also breaking down into tears.
"It's ok Beryl, it's ok." Joey said trying to comfort him.
"Ok?! I have no place to live!"
"You can find another place."
"It's not so simple! After what happened tonight, I might lose my funding! And besides, it's not, not being able to find another place. It was my families! It's where I learned to become everything I am today! And look at it! It's all gone! Everything!"
"BERYL!"
"Huh?"
"This is gonna hurt you more than it hurts me!"
"What?"
Joey punched Beryl as hard as he could, and knocked him out. He picked him up and threw him over his shoulder. He tried his best he could to find a cab, but didn't have any luck. He then decided to do something he hadn't done in a long time, he morphed into Chris and teleported to Lance's and Josh's estate in, Virginia.
Lance was just reaching the front door of his large estate when he saw Chris with a body over his shoulder, standing at the front door.
"I didn't expect you so soon! And where's your son?" Lance said as he stepped out of his limo and walked up the steps.
"Huh? What are you . . . oh!" Joey said realizing, he was still Chris, "It's me, Joey!"
He turned back into himself and leaned Beryl up against the wall. Then lightly leaned up against the wall from the drain of power he had just used.
"Is that . . ."
"Yeah, he's pretty badly hurt, can you help him?"
"Yeah, hold on, let me just open the door."
Lance placed his hand on a touch pad, and put his eye in front of a scanner.
"Hand print complete." A monotone, electronic voice said, "Retinal scan complete. Welcome home Lance."
They walked into the large house, and Lance said, "Come on, follow me!" He led them to the basement where there were medical stations set up. "Put him on that table, I think I got something that'll help him." He went over to a cabinet and pulled out a vile and threw it to Joey, "Here, give him some of this!"
Joey poured the potion into Beryl's mouth, and within a minute, his body started to heal.
"It's working." Joey said.
"I thought it would."
Once Beryl started to come to, he was disoriented.
"Wha... Where am I??" Beryl said focusing his eyes to the light of the room.
"You're at my house Beryl."
"I know that voice . . . Lance?"
"Yeah."
"I'm here too." Joey said.
"I know . . ." Beryl said uneasily.
"He saved your life." Lance said.
"Th . . . thank you Joey."
"Yeah, um . . . no problem." Joey said also becoming uneasy.
Lance, sensing the tension decided to do something about it.
"So, did Joey fill you in?" He asked bringing both of their attention back to him.
"Uh . . . no, I kinda knocked him out cause he was hysterical." Joey said.
"So what's up?" Beryl asked.
"Well, there's not much I can say but that there's something going down, and Josh went to go find Justin."
"You think it's the prophecy?"
"Maybe, I don't know. Josh didn't really fill me in on anything except that we had to reassemble the team, and to get you too."
"And he's finding Justin?"
"Yeah."
"Where's Justin?"
"We don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know, and how will you find him then?"
"Well, Justin kind of faked his death a few years ago . . ." Joey said.
"That I know, I saw it all over the news. And I knew he wasn't really dead, cause I saw him once."
"What?!?" They both said.
"He disappeared before I could get to him. I tried to teleport to him, but couldn't."
"When was this?" Lance asked.
"About a couple of years ago. But I thought you guys knew . . . and since Josh didn't talk about it, hey, I figured all was fine!"
"We knew that he faked his death cause none of us felt him die. He never told us he was going to do it. Then he disappeared." Joey said.
"So you don't know where he is?!?"
"No!" Lance said.
"Then how the hell is JC gonna find him?!"
"I dunno, I just hope that he does, and quickly! Well, whatever, let's go upstairs and get you some clean clothes. You must be pretty tired, that potion only healed you, it didn't rejuvenate you, so I can imaging you're pretty worn out."
"Yeah, kinda."
"Well, follow me then."
Lance led them upstairs and gave them a quick tour of the large complex. When they got upstairs to the floor with the rooms, he said,
"I'll show you both to your rooms now. Rest up, Chris should be here within a day or two, and Josh . . . well, I'm just hoping he gets in contact with me cause I'm getting worried."
After settling in, both men went to sleep. Lance did some various things around the house, including checking their voicemail, which had a message from Josh.
"Hey baby. I'm hoping by the time you get this message, you've already gotten the guys together. Assuming so, I'll say this. I've been having a dream about some people who need our help. By the way it all feels, I think it might be referring to the prophecy. With each night, I get slightly more and more details. I'm in France. Still no sign of Justin, but I think I'm getting close. I should be in Russia by tomorrow morning. I'll let you know if I find anything. See if you can contact the Oracle and see if she can tell you anything. Last I heard, she was in the Brazilian Rain Forrest seeking a peaceful sanctuary. Guys, I know that it's been a long time, and there's been some things between us all that haven't been settled, but we have to put all of that aside and come together as we once did. I love you all, I'll be in touch."
TBC . . .
Next issue, an additional way to read the entire Vampire Saga AND see some really cool stuff too! All questions, comments and suggestions should be sent to me at Dtang2000@aol.com LATER!