June 21, 1997
Brooklyn feels the air currents lifting his wings as he glides towards Castle Wyvern, the other gargoyles in his clan gliding close by. While he had been to the castle a couple of times in the past forty years, he knows this will truly be his return home.
The air currents lift him up to the top of the Eyrie Building in Manhattan, where Castle Wyvern sits. Soon, he and the others land on the floor of the courtyard. Brooklyn looks around. A tear flows down his cheek from his eye.
He is home.
After forty long years, he is home.
Brooklyn looks at a lavender-skinned gargoyle, whose face has two eyes, a mouth, and a wide nose.
"I am sure you have many questions, Goliath," Brooklyn says to the leader of the Manhattan clan.
"These questions can wait," replies the clan leader. "I am sure Elisa will want to find out what has happened to you."
"It's good to see you again," says the brick-red colored gargoyle, hugging Goliath.
The other gargoyles decline to ask the Second questions, at least not until Elisa gets here. Brooklyn remembers their names- Broadway, Lexington, Bronx, Angela, Hudson, Coldstone, Coldfire and the four-legged gargoyle beast called Bronx.
"You look different," says Broadway.
"And who might ye be?" asks Hudson.
"Katana."
The gargoyles look at the sapphire-colored gargoyle with a short beak. Black hair grows from her head. She wears a simple dress. The other gargoyles figure that she is in her early eighties.
"I am of the Ishimura clan," she continues.
"Ishimura?" asks Lexington. "Brooklyn picked up a chick from Japan? I mean, did he e-mail you or something. I didn't even know he knew how to e-mail."
"There is much I want to tell you, about why I am here with my mate and my child."
"Nashville," says the green-beaked gargoyle with a billed cap reading USN. "We've been traveling through time…"
"Time?" asks Angela, her eyes widened.
"It's a long story, and Elisa should be here to hear this," answers Brooklyn. He could still remember the raven-haired human, a New York City police detective who became the clan's first friend in the 20th century.
"Perhaps while we wait for Elisa to arrive, we should show our new guests around the castle," says Coldstone.
And so they do. Katana and Nashville look in wonder as they enter Wyvern's great hall, with its chandelier and electric lights.
"Much has changed," says Katana. "I have been here before, over one thousand years ago. I even met a younger version of Brooklyn-san."
"It will be an interesting story you and Brooklyn will tell us," says Goliath.
"Aye, we dinnae need to visit the future to know that," says Hudson.
They walk by a room.
"That is my private study," says Angela.
"Who is this?" asks Katana, looking at a poster of a fat, dark-skinned human. The human wears a white cap and a leather jacket. "Is he of this castle?"
"No," replies Angela. "He is the Notorious B.I.G., a human musician. He was murdered in L.A. three months ago. So tragic. He was one of the best."
Brooklyn could barely remember reading or hearing about that. From his perspective, that had been forty years ago.
They continue walking.
"Wait," says Brooklyn, looking inside a large room in the castle with a desk and a chair. "that was my study."
Katana and Nashville enter the room, which was sparsely furnished, save for a wall map of Manhattan.
Brooklyn sits down at the computer- an Apple Macintosh Performa. Booting up the computer, he looks at the desktop before finding the Netscape Navigator program.
"You need help with that?" asks Lexington.
"I picked up a few Internet skills in the past forty years," replies Brooklyn. He conducts a Yahoo! search, seeing the cursor-turned-stopwatch. For a few seconds he wonders why it is taking so long for the search results to load.
He finds a few links. One of the stories involved the arrest of John Castaway, the leader of the Quarrymen, on various charges regarding the attack on a passenger train transporting a gargoyle prisoner. Using the mouse, he clicks on the link, wondering why the page is taking so long to load.
It's 1997. The Internet only recently became commercially available.
He reads more about the story. Forty-year-old memories surface regarding the rescue of the train, as well as the crowd cheering him and the rest of the clan. That was the end of the Quarrymen- at least for the time being. Brooklyn briefly scans the headlines on the web page, to at least be in the loop as to what is happening in this time, where he will remain.
"Elisa is here with Detective Bluestone," says Goliath, looking at Brooklyn and the two new gargoyles.
It is time to tell the whole story.
Brooklyn soon sees Elisa in the Great Hall. The raven-haired human looks pretty much the same as he remembered, with a red jacket and blue jeans. He immediately hugs the police detective.
"Elisa," says Brooklyn. "It's been such a long time."
"I..guess," replies Elisa, confused. She had last spoke with Brooklyn last night.
Brooklyn then looks at the red-haired man wearing a trench coat over a suit. "Good to see you again, Matt."
"Good to see you too, Brooklyn," replies NYPD Detective Matt Bluestone.
"You all must wonder who these two gargoyles are, and why I look forty years older," says Brooklyn. "It started a few hours ago- in this time. I saw the Phoenix Gate appear in the courtyard, and then this fiery bird emerged, and took me on a tour through time."
Everyone listens in.
"My tour lasted forty years. During that time, I met Katana in Ishimura in the 16th century. After spending some time there, I earned the trust of the clan at the time, and she became my mate and joined me on my timedance- that's what the Phoenix called it. Nashville came along, about nineteen years ago; he hatched in this city called Nashville in 1978. And now we are here."
The others are stunned, barely able to process the implications of Brooklyn's story.
"Before anyone asks," says Brooklyn, "I don't know your futures. The Phoenix would not take me to any time or place where or when I'd be able to find out what happened to any of you."
"That makes sense," says Matt. "I mean, what if we knew the results of major sporting events for the next fifty years?"
"It would be destiny," says Goliath. "I have traveled through time."
"Yeah, Griff mentioned he was transported to the future by Goliath," says Lexington, recalling the gargoyle he met on a two-week visit to London back in December of 1996.
"We did see a lot of interesting things," says Nashville. "We even danced to Camelot, met up with Kling Arthur and Merlin, helping them against that witch Morgan Le Fay."
"We've all met King Arthur," said Coldfire.
"Oh yeah, Dad told me about that. I wonder if Merlin or Morgan are still alive. I mean, you guys were stone for a thousand years; I've even seen you frozen in stone back then."
"Or they may have been dead for centuries," says Katana. "We have so many stories to tell. It would take months to tell them all."
"I am sure we will hear all about it," says Hudson. "through the course of time."
"Katana, Nashville, and I would like to be up to speed in the present," says Brooklyn. "I know it's June 21st, 1997 now, and I did read about John Castaway being arrested for that attack on the train. And no, I don't know his future either."
The others nod. That attack on the train was just last week, in this time!
"Perhaps I should introduce myself."
Katana looks and see a tall human with blond hair on his head. He wears eyeglasses over his eyes. Over his torso he wears a black coat over a white-collared shirt, and a red necktie around the collar.
"I am Owen Burnett of Xanatos Enterprises," says the man.
"I am Katana, formerly of the Ishimura clan."
"I'm Nashville."
"Owen here is also the trickster fey known as Puck," says Brooklyn.
Katana nods. She has had encounters with the Third Race during her timedances-Coyote, Sun Wukong, the Banshee, Rudra.
"There is much more you will need to know about your new clan," says Goliath.
"A visitor from out of time," says Owen. "Mr. Xanatos will need to know about this. In the meantime, I know the clan has a Sony PlayStation. It should keep young Nashville entertained."
"A PlayStation?" asks the gargoyle hatchling.
"Let me show you," says Coldstone.
And they go to a room, where the hatchling sees a plastic box connected with cables to something that he recognizes as a television.
Coldstone opens the circular cover and looks at the disc, which reads Resident Evil, a survival horror game published by Capcom. The game was too…mature for an eighteen-year-old gargoyle. He goes to a nearby shelf and takes out Crash Bandicoot.
As Nashville plays the game, his mother speaks with the other gargoyles, learning their basic story- defending Castle Wyvern in Scotland during the 10th century A.D., the betrayal by Demona and the captain, waking up one thousand years later, in Manhattan in 1994, meeting Elisa Maza. She hears about their mission to protect Manhattan and all who dwell there, and she hears about the Pack, whom they fought just this night in this place called Times Square.
She also hears about the human known as David Xanatos. The only thing Brooklyn knows about Xanatos's future is that he dies within the next two hundred years- something that could be accurately said about almost all humans and gargoyles.
Soon enough, it is almost sunrise.
They all go outside. The sky is getting brighter, the unmistakeable symptom of an imminent dawn.
"Brooklyn, I must ask you this," says Angela. "Do you know what happens to Demona?"
Even after forty years, Brooklyn still remembers why Angela would ask that, for Demona laid the very egg out of which Angela hatched.
"I've encountered Demona a couple of times during my timedances," answers the just-retired Timedancer. "I do know this. She will, one day, be publicly tried for her crimes."
"You were there?"
"I've only read about it."
It is almost dawn. The sky looks so bright. Brooklyn looks towards the south. The city below seems so familiar, and yet so strange.
He is back home with his clan, and yet he feels like a stranger. He feels so distant from his rookery brothers, and his clan leader.
"Welcome back," says Broadway.
"Yeah," says Lexington.
"It's good to see you two," replies Brooklyn. He feels out of joint. He had been away from them for forty years; they last spoke with him at sunset.
"Katana, Nashville," says Goliath, "Welcome to our clan."
"Thank you, Goliath-san," replies Katana.
"Thanks," says Nashville.
"You feeling okay?" asks Katana.
"I feel like a stranger," replies Brooklyn.
"So do I."
They glance at Nashville, who is clearly more content in finding a clan to belong to.
And then the gargoyles turn to stone.