Enter the infamous legal disclaimer... NOW:
I do not own any of the following. I wish I did. OH how I wish I did. Do you know how much money some of these bring in? But alas, I am but a meager college student working towards a teaching degree. That's right; I am in college, and going to be a teacher. Going from no money at all (college student) to no money at all (teacher). Please don't sue. You'll get a crappy pen set that I got from my brother many moons ago. Now, onto everything I do not own. Repeat. Don't own. I don't know sexual orientations or personalities either. DON'T OWN, DON'T KNOW!
Nsync, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Pink, Christina Aguilera, The Wallflowers, and any other celebrities. I also know nothing of their sexual orientations. Wish I did though.
Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and all related characters.
The Anita Blake Vampire Hunter book series by Laurell K. Hamilton.
The Vampire Chronicles, Tales Of The New Vampires, The Mayfair Witches, all series and characters written by Anne Rice.
Harry Potter and all characters, abilities, and creatures there within. (I have been forgetting to put this in. A fan pointed it out. So, a special thank you to Frithjof for telling me.)
Buffy & Angel television series.
Birds Of Prey television series.
Star Wars
Star Trek, Star Trek TNG, Star Trek DS9, Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek The New Frontier, Enterprise television series, movies, and novels.
Ok, now that that is taken care of, a little publicity for my co-authors. Go read these four stories in the Boy Bands, and Celebrity sections:
Tales Of A Real Dark Night (The series that started it all.) celebrity/boy-bands/tales-of-a-real-dark-knight/
Marvel Knights celebrity/marvel-knights/
Tales Of A Super Hero Band celebrity/boy-bands/tales-of-a-superhero-band/
Tales Of A Young Mutant celebrity/tales-of-a-young-mutant/
Tales of a Human Spider celebrity/boy-bands/tales-of-a-human-spider/
There may also be a new writer up and coming. Good luck! I love the storyline I've seen so far dude! Keep writing!
On a personal note, my Lap Top is going in for repairs later today. I'm pressing this chapter out earlier then I planned because... I don't know how long I'll be without my compy. I am very, VERY sad here. I love my lap top. My Lappy. Sigh So I won't be able to hear anything you guys respond on. Well, all two of you if this chapters feedback is anything like the last chapters. WRITE ME PEOPLE!
Finally, this is it I promise, we are entering into a section of the story where 4 stories converge. I am hoping that this is not confusing, but exciting for you all. So, enjoy!
The Story of the Birds Of Prey Chapter 11: The Fallen
We landed on top of a mountain above highway 280, 15 minutes outside of San Francisco. I turned to everyone, and they were all shaken up. I was too. How many people lived in Santa Cruz? All dead. All dead because of Dasro.
"Blake?" It was Josh. I looked at him, but he didn't seem real some how. "Blake, what's wrong?"
"Santa Cruz." I said.
"What about it? Is that where you went to fight?" He asked. Everyone came over.
I fell to my knees. I looked at my gloved hands, and hated what I had become. "It's gone. Santa Cruz is gone. All the people, dead."
"What?" Storm asked.
"I would have felt their pain, their fear." Jean said.
"It was a nuclear bomb. They were gone too fast." I said. In that moment something in me broke. I couldn't cry anymore. There were no tears. Only hate and rage. "I'm going to go kill him. I'm going to tear him apart." I turned to my friends, my team, and my future husband. I saw worry, fear, and confusion. They shouldn't be here. "This is my fight now. Falcon, go charge your ring. Everyone goes." I looked at Josh.
"Blake, don't..." I cut him off.
"I love you. More than anything. But, if anyone goes with me, they will die. This is my fight, and my fight alone." I turned to walk away, but the man that was with Devin stopped me.
"Phoenix, you must know what you are about to face. Dasro is attempting to open a gateway to another world. A world with powerful Vampires. Some who can circumvent entire army's by falling them with a lust they can not fight, some who can cloak themselves in shadows or fear, some who can draw old wounds from a person, and some who can shake the very Earth to its core." I looked at him with disbelief.
"The world Laurell K. Hamilton writes about." It wasn't a question.
"Yes. He can bring these vampires, and other creatures of the preternatural realm from that world into ours. This Laurell K. Hamilton is what you might call a seer. She sees this world through the eyes of a woman in that world. If Dasro succeeds, it would mean disaster." He looked me in the eyes, a look I will never forget. He was one of the most powerful vampires I'd seen yet. Not as powerful as Sanswah or Dasro, but a force to be reckoned with. And what I saw was fear. Pure, naked, fear.
"I understand." I turned and ran back towards the city. As I ran I augmented my suit. I was going into a battle to decide the fate of my world. I was running away from the love of my life and it infuriated me. My mask faded, with it the glasses that Storm had given me. My hair darkened to black, my eyes bled blue fire. My suit was no longer a single piece, but rather a long sleeve leather shirt that held Silver and Wooden Stakes at the arms. On my forearms were sheathed silver daggers with eight inch blades. Carried on my back the sword I claimed from Egypt, the Sword of Horus. My pants were tight leather with stakes at me thighs. Black work boots finished me off. As I leapt into the air and let the Phoenix flow out of me I did one last thing. I pulled my Ankh out from my shirt and wore it naked on my chest.
As we watched Blake fly away I knew we weren't out of it yet. We still had to make it all the way back to the Condo. I wanted nothing more than to follow my lover and make sure nothing happened to him, but he wanted me with the others. I wonder if Lance ever feels like this. Like not having powers makes him less of a match for Eric.
I looked at the others. Storm nodded and we started back. Started as in we didn't get far before the first gun shot.
"Everyone down!" Jean yelled. We dove for cover in the grass. Yeah, lot's of cover with weeds.
"It's coming from the East!" I yelled. I mentally told my glasses to switch to infra-red to let me see better in the darkness.
"Storm, rain. Heavy rain now!" Jean yelled.
"Great, just great. This in a new leather jacket you know!" Jubilee yelled.
"Jubes, shut up sweetie." Boomer replied.
"Jubilee, wait for my signal, then shoot a stream of fireworks straight up. Bright enough to blind, ok?" Jean asked.
"Sure." Jubilee replied.
"Everyone switch off your infra-red." She said then rolled on her back. The rain was making it almost impossible to see without the night vision, and we just waited. Then suddenly the rain stopped and Jean yelled now. Jubilee set a blinding stream of fireworks into the sky. They exploded with bright flashes that made it almost as bright as the noon day sun.
The light soon faded and Jean yelled for us to Attack.
Me and Rogue stuck close as we jumped to our feet and ran for the Vampire Commandos. Bobby was firing ice beams at bewildered Vampires. I then realized what Jean had done. The vampires must have been using Night Vision scopes to see through the rain. Good night eyes don't help when it's too rainy to see. The goggles blinded them with the pyrotechnics.
There was roughly fifty soldiers around us. I started shooting, all head shots. Some turned to dust, some cinders. One fell and just bled.
Jubilee and Boomer were heading towards a group that were firing at Jean. Jean was trying desperately to keep the bullets off of her and Bobby. Dozens, if not hundreds of bullets were stopping in mid air and falling in a rain of tiny black things and burning tracers. Boomer started throwing bombs as Jubilee blasted. Dazzler was slicing away at the Vampires with laser beams. A vamp came up behind her and spun her around.
She fell to the ground and then there was a flash. There were suddenly three of her sitting on the ground. The vampire turned his gun towards the middle one when the left one kicked him in the crotch. He fell gasping and Dazzler beheaded him with a light beam.
Storm was blasting vamp after vamp with lightning from her hand. Within no time we were out of opponents.
"That was fun!" Jubilee said dusting herself off.
"I'm wet, I'm tired, and I'm getting sick of being shot at." Andrea said replacing a stake she had been using on a group that was apparently coming up behind me and Rogue. "Let's take their jeep and head for the condo."
We took one of their jeeps.
I came to a hover high above the city and found my prey. A vampire troop vehicle that was speeding towards downtown. I let the Phoenix Flames fade and sped to the ground. I landed in the path of their Hummer and let it speed towards me. They actually sped up!
I raised my hand high above my head and brought it down in front of me. The front end of the Hummer flattened sending the back end upwards into the air. I walked towards the car as it slid towards me on its roof, sparks flying. I stopped it suddenly with a thought. I stepped up to the drivers side and tore the door off. I dropped it, reached in, and grabbed the driver. I lifted him into the air, strangling him with my hand.
"Now I am going to release you," I said using my powers to rip his helmet off his head. His brow was very pronounced and ridged. "Then I am going to kill you. If you don't tell me what you know, you will die slowly. And you two behind me will stay where you are or die slowly as well."
"Fuck you!" One yelled as he ran away behind me.
I didn't care that there were dozens of people lining the sidewalks gawking at what was happening. At the man in black who just destroyed a car without drawing a single weapon, and who tore a door off said car. All I knew was the anger, the hate at what Dasro did to Santa Cruz.
I looked at the fleeing Vamp and lifted him high into the air. I found what it is that makes his species turn to dust so quickly using my powers and blocked it. "You should have listened to me!" I yelled blowing one of his legs up. He screamed as blood flowed from the wound. "Now you will suffer demon!" I blew off his other leg and his arms. "And you will die slowly." I drew a silver blade telekinetically and slit his abdomen. His internal organs spilled out and fell. Some stayed attached to his body, dangling from him high in the air. The rest fell to the ground with a sickening splat.
The people around us ran screaming as the vampire in the air struggled to breath. "Now, where is Dasro?" I asked letting the vampire I was holding fall to the ground.
"He's, he's, deep under Alcatraz." He said crying.
"Thank you." I engulfed him in flames and he quickly turned to dust. I turned to the third passenger in the car and sent him to his flaming demise. I levitated up to the disemboweled vampire and saw him crying in tears. "How many people have begged you for their lives? How many innocent souls have you sent to the beyond place? You don't deserve this easy a death. And don't worry, I have greater plans for your master." I burned his heart to charcoal and let him fall to the ground as a cloud of dust.
I flew towards Alcatraz and what was waiting.
"Sir, we can not raise the other squadrons! Something is blocking our transitions." A vampire at a terminal said in a slightly panicked tone.
Dasro just looked at what was before him. They had finally opened the Atlantian Chamber and they were ready. All that was needed was the last ingredient for the ancient charm to do its work. The blood of a dead man.
I hit the waters of the bay and moved like it wasn't there. My powers were providing me with oxygen as I moved towards my final destination. The seabed near Alcatraz was nothing. I melted it was I hit, created a bubble of space around me, and allowed it to close behind me. I cast my mind foreword and found Dasro and his legions. I slammed into the wall surrounding the chamber sending chunk of stone flying. To my left was a doorway with many vampires in their military garb. I pointed my palm at them and sent them hurtling down the passage they had created. I turned to my right and saw a healed Dasro standing beside a arch with various items resting on a small stone alter.
The arch was beautiful, a shimmering crystal with faint blue light coming from within. It went into the floor and almost looked as if there should be more.
"Phoenix. I was hoping you would be here for my final victory. You and your world shall pay." He smiled the smug son of a bitch.
"You will not live to finish your work Dasro." I said unsheathing my knives. I hurled them at Dasro. One hit him in the chest striking true, the other slit the side of his neck and imbedded itself in the stone wall behind him.
"You forget Phoenix..." He said pressing his hand to the wound on his neck. "I'm already dead." He rubbed the blood onto the arch. He then splattered the alter with more blood and turned to me laughing. "Now you shall see power."
The chamber began to violently shake. Chunks of the ceiling broke loose and fell. I deflected any that moved towards me easily. Dasro on the other hand was taking a beating. What a troubling concept, no?
I could feel a build up of energy. The air was so full of it I could almost choke. I turned to Dasro and drew the sword.
"You will not succeed Dasro!" I yelled advancing. I used my powers to stop anymore of the ceiling from raining on us. No need for distractions.
"Don't you understand? I've already won. This gate will fully open and the other worlds vampires will have access to our world. You can't stop it now! It's already opening!" He withdrew the Fang of Set and started moving on the defensive. He hadn't even removed the dagger in his chest.
He came at me and I used my powers to stop him in place.
"I've thought about our battles in the past Dasro and found your fatal flaw." I said with a smirk.
"What's that?" he said.
"You still think I'm stuck by some code and am unwilling to fight dirty." I used my powers to bring every stake on me to the air around me. I splintered the wood and stakes into toothpick size pieces. "You have telekinesis. Let's see who's strongest at the art." I fired them at him. He started deflecting them. He was holding up well.
"I can keep this pace up all day Phoenix. We keep having stalemates. You can't defeat me." I laughed at him.
"How did I kill Sanswah Dasro? I called the flames of the sun itself during the darkest of night." He looked at me wide eyed. "I'm holding back now." I stopped all of the splinters where they were and pointed them at his face. "Let's see how well you fight with no eyes Dasro."
All of the splinters launched towards his face. He managed to sway some of their courses enough for his face to become a pincushion of hamburger. His eyes burst from the impacts. His lips frozen, pinned to his gums. His face was so torn and bloodied his powers would most likely never completely heal the damage. He started screaming in rage and pain. I lifted the sword and pinned him to the wall.
"You have killed far too many, and done far too much damage. For this you shall pay." I focused on his feet and started burning him. Inch by inch, slowly. The human nervous system will shut itself off if exposed to extreme pain and damage. A safeguard for a persons mind. I kept Dasro from doing this.
He screamed and it sounded like a curse, but it was in a dead language. The flames worked their way up to his knees, ash falling from the flames. I didn't let them engulf him like they wanted. I made it slow. He felt as they burned away flesh, ate at muscle, and as the burning muscle constricted and broke bone. He screamed in agony, his mind and powers lashing out. The walls began to crumble again at his will. I didn't care. Nothing mattered but seeing Dasro burn. The flames ate at his genitalia. Ancient and unused. The ancient soul bearing ones don't care for sex. His intestines and internal organs all burned away, and he felt all of it. The flesh surrounding the sword burned away and he fell over sideways. He started pulling himself blindly away from me. The flames hit the bottom of his lungs and the screaming stopped. He stopped pulling and pushed himself onto his back. I looked at his ruined face, frozen mask of ruined meat. His jaw opened and closed in silent shrieks. The flames ate away his heart and the blood stopped flowing. I could still sense his mind, frozen in a endless scream. The flames ate away his torso. His arms fell away and started burning by themselves. His head was all that was left. I let the flames engulf it like the head of a match. He burned away to nothing. Nothing but ash.
I was standing there basking in his death when the gateway formed. I turned to the arch and saw a tunnel of white. At the end another world. A city. I moved towards it and could sense a great mind that was curious. It sensed the gate. I looked at the gate and tried to feel what powered it. I couldn't sense its energy source. I tried to break it telekinetically. It wouldn't brake.
I pulled the sword from the wall, walked over, and struck the arch. The sword hit and did nothing. I cast my powers into the tunnel and studied it. The tunnel could be broken. I could destroy it, but not the arch.
I picked up the dagger and created a sheath for it on my pants. I put the sword away and stepped up to arch. I knew what this meant. I knew what had to be done. The tunnel can't be broken at either end, only within. So I did what needed to be done.
"When will we get to the condo Andrea?" I asked. Everyone was so quiet. We couldn't stop thinking about Blake.
"Soon JC. Soon. Listen when we..." I stopped listening to her. I could feel something at the back of my mind. I closed my eyes and focused. Then I was on the beach. Our beach. I turned and saw him. "Blake!" I ran towards him. "Oh my god, I'm so glad you're ok." I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his neck. "I... I don't think I could live if anything happened to you."
"You will." He said.
"I... I will? What... what do you mean I will?" I pulled away and looked at him. I hadn't noticed before, but he was crying.
"Josh," He said. He rubbed the side of my face with his index finger curled. "You are my universe. You are my everything. And I would do anything, anything to make sure you're safe." I felt his energy tickle across me as he undid the cosmetic changes he made to me.
"What's going on Blake? Why are we here? Why aren't you with me in the real world." I was starting to panic. "What the hell is going on?"
"I... I have to do this. If I don't, it could spell ruin for the entire human race. I can't let that happen." He was sobbing, and so was I.
"Blake, no. Please, don't leave me! We can find another way to do whatever it is that needs to be done. Just tell me where you are! We can go charge Andreas ring and be there!"
"There isn't time. She is coming already." He sniffled. "I need to go now. I'm sending you back. Just always remember, I love you. It's only you. All for you."
"NO!" I screamed grabbing onto him. But everything faded and I was suddenly back in the car. I started to hyperventilate and everyone turned towards me. I could still feel him, sending his love to me.
I walked into the tunnel, the only thing keeping me from falling down and weeping was the fact that I needed to do this to ensure Josh's safety. That the world would go on for him without this new threat.
`What are you?' suddenly came into my mind.
She was calling to me. Speaking to me with her mind.
`I am Phoenix. You shall not enter this world.' I cast back.
`Don't do what you are planning. This world I sense is lovely. I shall enter it and make it mine.' She whispered. I was suddenly so very cold and scared. I reached deep within and cast her power back onto her.
`I am PHOENIX! You shall not stop me with cheap parlor tricks!' I screamed back at her. I was almost to the center of the tunnel. I could see her standing at the end, wearing flowing whit gown that was muddy at the hem from walking in the wet grass. It was a park overlooking a city at the other end.
`Then you shall die!' she whispered back to me. Cuts started forming all over my body. I ignored it and reached the most center part of the tunnel.
The cuts kept forming and I ignored them. I cast my mind back towards Josh and said three final words. "I love you." Then I unleashed the Phoenix. His flames expanded to the edges of the tunnel and pushed it outwards. She fell away from the tunnel at the other end shrieking as the Phoenix flames erupted out her end. The energy forming the tunnel spread to its breaking point and snapped violently. I cried out as the world folded in on itself. The phoenix faded in pain as energy washed through my body. I saw bright white, then black, and then stopped all feeling as my thoughts slipped away.
The passengers of the stolen Hummer tried to hold the JC as he struggled and called for his lover. The car pulled over and the woman in green turned to see what was going on. He stopped struggling as he heard his betrothed speak to him.
"I love you to..." he whispered, tears falling. Then he felt pain sear through his mind, and the cry of the man he loves. "NO!"
Everyone stopped moving as realization dawned.
The Phoenix had fallen.
Blake was gone.
Well? Did anyone see that comming? I cried while I wrote it. I'm a softie.
How are they going to cope without Blake? JC doesn't seem to be holding up well. But... beh.
Stay tuned for the conclusion of the San Francisco side of the Vampire War next time. I hope you guys aren't dissappointed. Also, a special shout out to the newest member of the Tales Familiy. Go read his story. Go now! this one chapter is ended, why are you still here? Send me Feedback and GO READ HIS STORY! Tales of a Human Spider