Last Time . . .

“Ahem . . .” Chantal cleared her throat.

“Oh! Where are my manners . . . many apologies my lady!” Jason said taking her hand and kissing it. “I am terribly sorry to hear about Jean Claude, he was a great man! We will find the monsters that did this to him! I swear on my grave!”

“Thank you Jason . . .” She said looking at the sun setting over the water. “Never was there a sight that I both loved and feared more than the setting sun. Now the sun has set on one more victim, and as always, the rest of the world lives on. It’s going to be near impossible to live on without my darling, but hopefully with his child that I bare, I can somehow do it. If you will excuse me gentlemen, I am going to sleep. Feel free to stand guard over my room, anything to protect the baby. I bid thee adieux.”

This Time . . .

"Now what am I supposed to do?" Beryl asked.

"Come, I'll show you!" Leo said jumping onto the massive sheet of ice. They walked to the edge of the ice and stopped. "It's ok, you can still walk on top!" Leo said as he stepped onto the water as if it were solid ground.

"Ok, that feels . . . interesting!" Beryl said stepping next to him.

"Kinda like jell-o I know!"

"Yeah!"

"Come . . ."

"What? Oh! You mean follow . . . Sorry . . ."

"Ew!"

"What do I have to do?"

"Jump!"

"Huh?"

"You see the mists forming below?"

"Yeah . . ." Beryl said looking out.

"They are the Mists of Time. When you jump, you will be enveloped by them, and see things around you, and when you land, you will arrive at your destination."

"So just . . . Jump?"

"Yup!"

"Good thing I'm not scared of heights!" He said looking out once more. "Ok, here goes!"

"Good luck!"

He pushed himself off the water and dove out in a belly flop; as he descended into the mists, he tucked in and flipped around so he would land on his feet.

Lightning flashed around him, and everything was dark around him as he was surrounded by fog. He saw a light below him and as he fell, it got brighter until it drowned out the darkness of the fog and blinded him. He covered his eyes and as the light faded, he felt the ground beneath his feet, landing gracefully behind a tree in what appeared to be a backyard. The sun was just setting, and he saw two children, a boy and a girl, running into the house.

"Come on kids, we're gonna miss the movie!" A female voice said from inside the house.

"Coming mom!" the little girl said. "Hurry up Josh!"

"I am!"

"Sun's almost down, I better follow!" Beryl said to himself as he turned invisible and teleported to the front of the house, to see the kids run out to the car that was in front.

He watched as the family piled into the car and drove off, morphing into a bird, he flew after them and followed them to the movie theater. By the time they got to the movies, the sun had already set. Beryl carefully looked around and watched for vampires.

"How am I gonna tell which vampires are which?" He thought to himself.

Suddenly, as if his thoughts were answered, he felt a vampire presence, one of mixed feelings. He looked to his left and saw two vampires tailing a woman back to her car. He then looked to his right and saw four vampires in a batch of bushes, talking. As if magnetically drawn, he felt his insides be more wary of the group of four than the duo. His instincts pulled him to saving the girl, but his judgment told him to let fate be. Just as the battle in his mind was getting too much, he saw a car drive by the duo and a slim Asian woman dressed in black, jump out of the window and knock the duo to the ground. She quickly disposed of the threat and looked at the tree in which Beryl perched and motioned for him to go.

"That takes care of that problem!" Beryl said as he looked to his right and saw that the four future vamps had left. "SHIT!" He said flying off following the family.

"Can we get some popcorn?" Josh asked his father as they handed the usher their tickets.

"Ask your mother." His father replied.

"Can we mom?"

"Sure!" She said as Beryl walked passed them invisibly.

"I love getting into the movies for free!" Beryl thought. "I need height!" He said to himself as he scoped out the lobby of the theater. He noticed over the concession stand was a balcony with cardboard cutouts of people enjoying themselves at the movies. He teleported up to the balcony and noted its strength. "Seems sturdy enough!" He said looking behind him, noticing it was also used for a stock area. "Damn . . . They're spread out!"

Each vampire was at a different corner of the theater, spying on the Chasez family. Beryl watched each one carefully as they stalked the future Chosen One.

"This isn't gonna be easy . . ." Beryl thought. "Can't freeze em all . . . Too much power . . . The time delay would really screw with them. SHIT! There's too many people! I'm just gonna have to tail them till they make a move. I can't afford to split myself, so I guess it's the old fashioned way. DUH! Modern technology that isn't supposed to exist! I love the government sometimes!" He thought reaching into a compartment on his belt, pulling out four transparent tracking devices. "Lance is right, we are like Batman!" He quickly teleported to each of the vampires unnoticed and placed a tracker on each of their backs. He then figured he should risk putting one on Josh since kids have a tendency to run off. After succeeding in his covert mission, he teleported back up to the balcony. Looking down at his arm guard, he saw the five blips on the small LCD screen, Josh distinguishable by a red blip. "Ah . . . The power of the mind!"

He saw the Chasez family make their way into the theater and decided to stay close to them. As the plaza level cleared and the majority of the people went inside the theaters, Beryl saw his only chance at getting all four vampires at the same time.

"Big mistake!" Beryl said smiling to himself as the vampires reconvened to discuss strategy. Beryl teleported behind them as they all walked together towards the empty halls of theater level. Once they all reached the door of the theater that Josh was in, Beryl teleported the vamps outside to the dumpsters.

"What the . . ." They commented.

They all looked at the slayer stood before, preparing for a fight, they all drew fangs and spread out. Beryl quickly examined his surroundings and saw a red rope stanchion that would make a good weapon. He teleported the stiff leather rope to his hand and the fight began.

Beryl twirled the rope with its metal end caps, stiff enough to be twirled like a bo, flexible enough to be used like nunchucks, then held the rope stretched in front of him. He stood in the middle of the ring formed by the vamps as they circled around him. The first one struck from behind, Beryl sensed him and did a flying spin kick, connecting with the vamp directly to his head, knocking him out on the floor. The other three closed in as Beryl landed, quickly ducked down and swept kicked all of them.  One flipped back up to his feet, only to be knocked down again by the cap of the leather rope connecting with his face. The other two stumbled up and started to run.

"Oh no you don't!" Beryl said moving two knives to his hand and throwing them at the two vamps, catching them both in their backs. With his other hand, he swung the rope behind him catching the bloody-faced vampire in the side of the head. He turned to meet his two opponents, both rising from the floor. They ran up on Beryl punching as hard and quick as they could, not providing as much of a fight as they thought they were. The slayer blocked all of their punches with ease and grew quickly bored with their lack of skill. As they both went in for a punch on either side of Beryl, Beryl stepped out of the way, put up the leather rope, catching both of their fists and tying up their hands, immobilizing them. He quickly morphed his free hand into a double-sided stake and killed them both with one fluid movement.

As the two vamps became dust, Beryl quickly teleported back to the theater to continue watch over Josh.

The rest of the time was uneventful until they got back to the house, which was already on fire. As the family panicked in shock, Beryl kept an extra close eye on young Josh while his parents went to talk to the Fire Marshall. As his sister consoled his little brother, Josh stood to the side, alone, tears streaming down his face. As he watched his home burn, he heard a voice in his head, calling him, beckoning him to go behind the crowd. Beryl picking up on the mental intrusion, teleported to where the voice was coming from, behind a large pine tree. There he saw a female vampire staring at the child, as he turned his head to see who was calling him. Before she could gain total mental control, Beryl stood beside her and mentally put up a shield protecting Josh, severing the connection, and causing the vamp to be thrown back by the force of her own energy being deflected back to her. Beryl quickly ran over to her and pinned her down on the ground. He froze her still then read her mind to see how many more vampires had traveled back with her and where and when they were going to strike.

"She’s the last one before the Chosen Team gets word of the fire . . . It's a diversion?! They're going . . . OH SHIT!" He quickly teleported back to the tree in the backyard, where his portal awaited him.

As they walked along the path, Joey noticed on either side of him, every time there was a partition, the sky in front of him appeared to be rippling like a pool of water.

"Um . . . Sean?"

"They are time portals."

"Oh . . . Um . . . Sean?"

"No I'm not psychic, I was just expecting you to ask those questions. And besides . . ." He said stopping, "We are inside your mind, so I can tune in to what you are thinking."

"Oh . . . Um . . . Sean?"

"Yes Joey?"

"Why'd we stop?"

"Cause we're here."

"Oh . . . Um . . . Sean?"

"WHAT?!"

"Just kidding!" Joey said smiling.

"NOT funny!" He said laughing.

"So now what?"

"Look for yourself!" Sean replied as they both turned to the portal in front of them and the ripple started to swirl, and a spherical doorway opened to reveal a forest before them.

"Whoa . . . So I just walk through?"

"Yup!"

"Ok . . . Sounds simple enough! Here goes!" he said stepping onto the ledge in front of him.

He took a step forward expecting there to be some kind of foundation in front of him, but was surprised when there was nothing solid under his foot. He tried to step back, but his weight was already put out in front of him, causing him to fall forward into the portal. As he went through, he emerged falling in mid-air. Thinking quickly, he morphed into a hawk and maintained his balance in the air. He soared through the Mississippi air and searched for the little blonde haired kid as the sun began to set. As he flew through the forest, he wondered how things would play out. He'd heard the story thousands of times before, so he knew more or less Lance's every move, but there was a difference between hearing the story and living it. He landed on a branch and morphed into a smaller bird, Lance coming into sight. He watched as his future friend cut through the trees and climbed over rocks. His attention was broken when all of a sudden he felt the presence of vampires, and a lot of them! He figured that next to Josh, Lance was the most important due to his persona within. His senses guiding him, Joey figured that there were two teams on either side of the young, future swordsman. He jumped out of the tree and morphed into a deer, walking towards the first team of assassins. He hid just in front of them, judging that there were about twelve in the group, spread throughout Lance’s path. He camouflaged himself and moved rapidly through the woods, keeping his noise to a minimum, just below the vampires’ range of hearing. He snuck up behind a team of two and took them out quickly, just as another team of two in front of them looked back, Joey morphed into one of his victims and waved, signaling everything was alright. He then morphed into a living mist and drifted towards the next two, surrounding them then severing their heads. The two vampires in front of him turned back just as their comrades turned to dust and ran forward to check in on them. Just as one of them was about to inform the others on the radio, Joey came from behind them and staked them both. Seeing that the next group of six were much further ahead, Joey decided to go to the other side to take care of the other group, which he figured would be the same amount. He morphed back into a bird and flew to one of the trees, seeing three vampires huddled together. He then jumped down from the branch as a monkey and surprised them, one of them jumping and pointing his gun at him.

“What the . . .” The startled vamp said.

“Oh shit! A monkey!” the second one replied.

“Dude, it’s just a fuckin monkey, gettin all excited!” the third one chastised.

As they stared at the monkey and quietly laughed as it jumped up and down with a stick in its hand, one of them suggested they eat it. Joey went in making like he was taking their bait, then jumped on the first vamp’s chest and staked him, jumped off, morphed back into himself, blended in with the forest and snapped the other two’s necks, all before they could radio for help. The next three were all spread out down the line of the path, Joey ran stealthily forward, morphing a sword into his hand, decapitating the vamps as he ran by undetected. The last vampire was just about to fire a shot from his gun when he was dusted. Joey took a look at the gun and realized that they were tranq guns.

“They’re gonna try and capture him!” He said picking up the guns and strapping them on his back.

He took to the trees and ran forward, stopping to pick off two vampires with the tranq rifle, the silencer covering his tracks and scope improving his accuracy. He jumped down and staked them, feeling someone appear behind him, he jumped forward, kicked the intruder in the throat and snapped his neck. He picked up the gun and aimed across the path at a sharpshooter that was aiming at the advancing Lance; the vamp fell back from the branch he was perched in and onto his partner who radioed for help.

“Shit! There goes my sneak attack!” Joey said to himself as he threw a knife across the path and killed the tattletale.

Joey looked ahead of him and saw two vampires who spotted his transparent outline and were aiming straight for him. He morphed into crow and flew at them, dodging their shot, pecking their eyes out, then quickly landing behind them staking them before they screamed. He flew across the path and staked the unconscious sharpshooter before he woke up then flew forward and saw the five remaining vampires huddled together. He ran forward, sword morphed in hand and gun held in his other. He jumped through the air and stabbed one, dusting him as he shot the gun at another, point blank range, the tranq dart going through his skull, hitting another in the shoulder. Joey ducked and kick swept the two standing and staked them both, then decapitated the incapacitated vamp. He looked through the trees and saw Lance now turning back to return home. He tailed his friend just to make sure no one else followed. Just as his friend was tucked in for the night, he walked back towards the forest that bordered the house and saw a team of five vampires approaching him.

“Impressive . . . you took out some of my best men, but I guarantee you, this won’t be as easy!” the apparent leader stated as the four followers pulled out swords and chains.

Joey didn’t wait for them to make the first strike, he morphed his hands into chains and went straight for the necks of the two on either end, snapping their necks, knocking the number down to three. The next two both grabbed Joey’s arm-chain and pulled him towards them, making him slide on the floor. They kicked him as he tried to get up then held him up in front of their leader.

“Pathetic human . . . Why fight a losing battle? We will win and you will die!”

“I may die, but you will never win!” Joey said as his energy reserves kicked in and he balanced himself on his captures, and kicked the leader in his chin, sending him flying back. He morphed his hands into spikes and got both vampires through the neck, dusting them as he advanced forward. “Never underestimate us, we will always get you in the end!” Joey said stepping on the vampire’s chest.

The vampire down, but not out, grabbed Joey’s ankle and twisted him off, making him fall to the floor once again.

“I could say the same about us!” The vampire said laughing.

Joey flipped back up to his feet and they ran at each other, fists-a-blazing; they both connected with each other’s faces. Joey went down to kick sweep him, but the vampire jumped up and kicked Joey in the head. Joey fell back but pushed himself up with his hands to spring kick the vampire, sending him crashing into a tree. The vampire charged at Joey, who simply moved to the side and elbowed the vamp in the spine, sending him to the floor, Joey then quickly staked him while he had the chance.

“First lesson, never fight in anger, you’ll always lose!” Joey said rubbing his cheek as his surroundings faded back to the garden where he started.

TBC . . .

[email protected]