The Super NKOTB
by Kittie

Episode Twelve - Aftermath

"Come here, Jordan, I wish to make you immortal. You will live on forever within me, as it should have been when you were a child. We were such friends, Jordan...."

Mr. Man's voice was soft and soothing, and though he knew he shouldn't, Jordan found himself responding. His feet seemed to move of their own accord, bringing him closer and closer to the demon and the clouds that were beginning to gather above their heads.

He could hear Danny's frantic voice somewhere behind him, but the words didn't make any sense. Mr. Man was grinning at him, his yellowed fangs still wet with Spooky-Guy's blood.

And yet the pain came as a shock when Mr. Man's claws ripped into his wrists, and seconds later, the lightning struck. Wind howled in his ears as the room began to spin and a dark veil descended over his eyes. His legs slowly lost their strength and he buckled, held up only by Mr. Man's iron grip.

"No! No, how did you break free?!"

The grip on his wrists suddenly loosened and then disappeared altogether. He fell to the floor, only barely conscious. He felt terribly empty, and he could feel his heart straining to beat, his lungs screaming for air.

"Nooo!"

The lightning struck again. This time though, instead of draining what was left of his life, it seemed to fill him with what he'd lost—and more. Jordan's entire body clenched and arched off the floor as the energy shot through his veins and enveloped his heart.

He opened his eyes and all he saw was darkness. At first he thought he'd gone blind, but then a burst of light shot toward him and buried itself in his heart, tunneling through the darkness that threatened to consume him. The warehouse where Mr. Man had held them receded into nothingness, and Jordan found himself in an unlit tunnel. It seemed as though he was caught in a whirlwind. All around him were voices and images; incomplete scenes and unfinished sentences that paraded before him, torturing him unmercifully.

He saw an endless parade of lost spirits, crying out to him for mercy, only to be cruelly sucked away by the winds that left him untouched. He saw children, young, innocent, and active, snatched from their lives and enveloped by black lightning, leaving them nothing but empty, shrivelled husks. With each child's dying breath, he felt an unbearable euphoria - he felt his spirit renewed and his energy flagged, and he laughed.

No...!

Only it wasn't him. The laughter was coming from somewhere within him, but all he felt was guilt and terror.

What's happening to me?!

In his mind's eye, he saw his friends. Donnie, a supernatural black band fastened around his throat. Jonathan, imprisoned within solid walls of pure darkness. Then he saw himself, pale and staring, awaiting his fate.

Mr. Man's face suddenly loomed in front of him, grinning maliciously. He cried out in terror and jumped backward, but Mr. Man grabbed at his wrists, his claws ripping through the tender skin.

"You can't run from me," the demon hissed, his breath like rancid meat. "I'm a part of you now."

"What are you talking about?! Let me go!"

"Your friends think I have been defeated, but they are wrong. They have merely slowed me down... slightly. All of my powers, all of my memories... they've been given to you."

"But.... But I don't want your powers!"

Mr. Man threw back his head and laughed, and the wind picked up. "Welcome to my world, Jordan. Welcome to my nightmare."

~*~

Jordan jerked to awareness, biting his lip to choke off a scream. He was back in Mr. Man's warehouse, curled up in a ball on the floor. His entire body was shaking, his stomach rolling as images from his dream continued to scroll in front of his eyes. He sat up slowly, raising a hand to his head as dizziness threatened to over whelm him, and red filled his vision. Startled, he yanked his hand away from his face and saw him arm streaked with blood. Both arms.

He held out his hands, palms up, and stared at the gaping wounds that marred both of his wrists. He was sitting in a puddle of blood, and it continued to grow.

Oh dear, chuckled Mr. Man's voice in his head. We can't have you bleeding to death before you carry on my legacy.

And twin bolts of black lightning shot out of his chest and traveled up his arms, where they crackled around the wounds and sunk into the skin. The puckered rips began to glow and then they slowly closed up, leaving the skin soft and unmarked; good as new.

Jordan just stared as the lightning continued its work. He could see it pulsating in his veins, rapidly replenishing the blood he had lost. The dizziness faded but the nausea he felt in its place was even worse.

He fought to bring himself to the present. Somthing had happened, that much was obvious, but what? He forced his attention away from himself and looked up. All of the guys were huddled in a corner of the room. Danny and Jonathan had their backs to him, and Joe appeared to be on the floor. But Donnie was looking right at him, his eyes wide with terror.

"Donnie...?" Jordan frowned. There was something very wrong here.... Then he saw it. A black band, just like the one in his dream, fastened around Donnie's throat.

Before Jordan even knew what he was doing, he reached out toward Donnie... and sucked the dark energy right out of him. The black band constricted slightly, causing Donnie to gasp, and then it snapped and flew back to Jordan, where it rejoined the swirling core of darkness that resided somewhere deep inside.

Jordan grimaced, once again oblivious to everything but his own inner turmoil. Dimly, he could hear Donnie speaking, but the words just ran together like so much gibberish. His ears seemed to be filled with an odd buzzing noise, but instead of coming from somewhere outside, it was coming from that swirling core of dark energy that surrounded his heart. There was something warm and familiar within that cold void, and he retreated deep inside himself, searching for it.

Upon closing his eyes, he found himself back in that dark, almost airless tunnel. The winds had gone, and he could see the promise of light up ahead, so he started to walk toward it. The further he got, the more solid the darkness became, until it seemed he was walking through a thick sludge. It seemed like forever that he was trapped within the darkness, pushing his way through to a light he could no longer see. But when he finally broke through, its warmth enveloped him like a down comforter and lifted his rapidly dropping spirits. "Joe...?"

The light flickered briefly, as if in answer to his question. It looked something like a small comet, and it wagged its "tail" merrily. Then it seemed to cry out as the darkness surrounding them pressed in just a little harder. Jordan's heart sank as he realized what was happening. Mr. Man must have gotten hold of Joe somehow and drained him, and when Jordan had absorbed that energy, he'd also absorbed what had been stolen from Joe. Now the darkness within him was trying to finish the job, and soon Joe would be nothing more than a memory, just like the other poor souls Mr. Man had stolen.

Jordan growled to himself and reached his hand out, cupping the little comet in his palm. "I won't let that happen to you, Joe.... Hang on."

Without even realizing how he was doing it, he burst out of the dark confines of his own frozen heart and propelled the both of them back to awareness. His eyes opened and he saw the comet shoot from between his cupped palms to embed itself in Joe's still-motionless body.

The others were thrown backwards as Joe's body arched and he drew in a deep breath. His eyes, impossibly blue, flew open, and he curled up into a ball... clutching at his chest, as if not wanting to let go of his now-pounding heart.

They were all staring at him now, Jordan realized as he slowly came back to himself. Even Joe. He looked away, unable to meet their questioning eyes. His heart heavy and his mind confused, he slowly retreated into the shadows.

Epilogue

"Okay Jonathan, you getting anything?"

Jonathan closed his eyes and leaned forward, furrowing his brow in concentration. Joe, lounging in the easy chair across the room, had a similar look on his face as he pushed his thoughts as hard as he could toward Jonathan. Both were silent for a moment, and Danny was considering repeating the question when Jonathan finally spoke.

"It's very faint," he sighed, opening his eyes, "and no words, just the usual pictures and sounds.... But even that was staticy."

Joe groaned and fell back in the chair. "I'm sorry Jon, I'm just too tired. I can't think straight anymore."

Danny looked Joe over with a critical eye. He was still pale, with dark bags under his eyes. Danny had been concerned when Joe had insisted on testing out his newfound telepathic abilities so soon after his brush with death, but Joe had insisted that he was alright to try again. His excitement over actually communicating words to Jonathan was apparently overriding his obvious need for rest.

"I wonder why it worked then but not now," Jonathan wondered, startling Danny out of his thoughts.

"It was a life-or-death situation," Donnie piped up from the kitchen doorway, where he stood with a box of crackers. "It's like when guys can lift trucks off their babies and stuff like that, you know," he continued, moving over to the couch and sitting down.

"I guess," Joe acknowledged, his eyes still closed, "But I kinda wish I could still do it. It was really cool!"

"Yeah, and it nearly killed you," Danny reminded him in a scolding tone, "So maybe you shouldn't want to do it anymore."

"It did kill him, remember," Donnie quipped, his mouth full of crackers. "It's just that Jordan brought him back."

"Where is Jordan," Danny asked, looking around the room in sudden confusion. "He was here a minute ago, wasn't he?"

"I think he went outside," Jonathan answered, his eyes growing sad. "I'm worried about him you guys, he's been so withdrawn...."

"He's scared," Joe put in, opening his eyes and shrugging sadly. "He doesn't like what he's turned into."

"What has he turned into," Donnie asked, "even though I think I already know."

"He's become exactly like Mr. Man," Joe explained. "Well, not exactly, 'cause he's not evil, but I don't think he knows that."

"He's like Mr. Man," Donnie repeated uneasily, still shaky from his last encounter with the deceased demon. "What do you mean?"

"Well, he got everything that came out of Mr. Man when he blew up."

"What?"

"Joe kind of explained this to me earlier," Jonathan put in. "He's pretty coherent when he doesn't use words."

"Hey!" Joe protested, but Jonathan cut him off.

"I'll try to translate." He sat back and crossed his arms, as if giving himself a hug. "Joe called Mr. Man a soul-sucking vampire before... that's pretty much what Jordan's become. See, the way we managed to defeat him was by sending a bolt of positive energy at him... kind of. The light you saw coming out of my eyes was the energy Joe had managed to send my way. His strength combined with mine destroyed Mr. Man. When he was defeated, all of the energy he'd absorbed, including Joe's and Jordan's, got zapped back into Jordan. That's how Jordan was able to save Joe, he just gave Joe back the energy he'd sent through me. Unfortunately, all of Mr. Man's power had to go somewhere too."

"Damn," Donnie muttered, the box of crackers lying forgotten in his lap. "But Joe, you said he's not evil. How can you tell?"

"I dunno, I just can. Mr. Man and and Spooky-Guy scared the heck out of me... they didn't really have any aura at all, just emptiness. Jordan's different. His aura went from green to black though.... Well, black with green specks."

"Green specks," Danny repeated.

"Yeah, it's pretty. Oh, and hey, guess what?"

"What?"

"I looked in the mirror this morning—turns out my aura is white. Neat, huh?" Joe yawned widely and curled up in a ball in the chair, closing his eyes again. "I'm gonna take a nap."

"Okay Joe...." Jonathan made a face. "You look kinda cramped in that chair, you sure you don't wanna go to your bedroom?"

But Joe was already asleep.

~*~

Jordan watched them from the shadows. He felt most at home in the dark now—not even Donnie's sharp eyes could spot him when he chose not to be seen. Mr. Man's voice had long faded away, and he was thankful for that. He felt he would surely have gone mad if he kept hearing that horrible voice in his head. Unfortunately, the cravings had not gone with him.

His eyes went once again to Jonathan. Out of all of them, he had the brightest glow, and Jordan licked his lips hungrily. He could almost taste it....

He shook his head and bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. He knew what would happen if he gave into his hunger.... Jonathan would die. Could he kill his own brother just to curb these dark cravings?

Jordan forced his eyes away from Jonathan and buried his face in his hands. The hunger was too much, he had to do something or it would overwhelm him and he might do something he'd regret.

With once last mournful look at his friends, Jordan slipped out into the night to feed.

End

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6
Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12