Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
We hate some persons because we do not know them; and will not know them because we hate them." - Charles Caleb Colton
Chapter 1 – Hating the Unknown
It has been said that the rain may put holes in the stone, not through violence, but by falling often. The rain is constant, always there to drop and wash away the dirt and grime of the day. Sometimes, however, the rain isn't as cleansing as one would think; it often times seems to only aid in sinking the smells and grime into the cement streets of the city. As the moon rose higher into the night sky Lizzy knew that tonight was one of those nights, were the first summer rain brought out all the stenches of the streets. Her head shot up as the hammers came down heavier than the raindrops that hit the red demon creature. Lizzy and her friends, her family, sat with their backs against the alleyway wall as they waited for Jason to get their van. Lizzy, Jason, Jack, Allison and Bridget lived in this neighborhood. This was their turf, fought for and bought with hard work and a few fights. This was one of the few areas that gangs and thugs alike stayed out of because its citizen's had decided to fight back. The big white van rumbled up as the creature fell underneath the blows of the five men. His growls and grunts could be heard and it appeared no one would come to his aid for fear of the Quarrymen's wrath; but all was not as it seemed.
Faces peeked from storefronts and upper apartment windows, but the streets were empty. The poor souls that had been walking this late at night had scattered when the roof top battle had poured down onto the streets. This area was a place that people normally came to at night because it was safe. Lizzy was going to be sure that these men never came back to her neighborhood. Jason parked the van nearby the action, jumping out and crouching next to the younger girl.
"How's it look?" He asked as he pushed his long dreads out of his face, Lizzy's blue eyes met his and a thin eyebrow raised in silence. Shaking his head he sighed, "that good?"
"That bad, actually," she whispered, pulling her brightly colored hair into a high ponytail, "They're going to kill him if we don't move soon," she grumbled.
"Fine, we move now, Lizzy and Jack, you're second. Al, Bri, stay in the back, if it gets too deep, run," At their nod he rose the others following him. They walked in a v style formation with Jason in the lead, Jack and Lizzy flanking him, the twins in the back, and making as much noise as they could to alert the attackers of their presence. When the men didn't look up at them Lizzy shoved her pinkie fingers in her mouth and let out a high, shrill whistle. That caught their attention and most of them turned while the rest held down the unconscious but still writhing Gargoyle.
"We're going to have to ask you to step back, this thing is dangerous," the tallest of the bunch stated in a tone resembling a police officer. He might as well have been directing traffic with the tone his voice carried. Lizzy smiled sweetly at the masked thug before she signaled to the man in the window nearest her. The old, Asian man smiled with a nod and disappeared.
"Gentlemen, we're going to have to ask you all to leave," Jason's voice was gentle but left no room for discussion. The young black man had nearly growled the last part before continuing on, "This is our neighborhood and we don't appreciate your coming in here and disrupting the peace. We frown especially on hate crimes," Jason said with emphasis on the word hate and he stood with his arms crossed over his chest. The Quarrymen all began to laugh, a sound muffled by the thickness of their masks. When they showed no sign of leaving Lizzy, defying Jason's orders that they not engage the Quarrymen physically, took three large strides forward and delivered a high roundhouse kick to the leader's face. The tall man dropped his hammer and fell into a few of his compatriots. With angry shouts and movements wrought from hours of training they circled around her, the Gargoyle forgotten.
"Show this chit what happens to those who defy the Quarrymen!" The leader's British accent suddenly heightened as blood soaked through his mask from his broken nose. Lizzy could hear their snickers as they all moved in to attack. The group of young adults went on the counter, evading most of their blows and catching a few of the men in sensitive areas like the neck, stomach and the groin. A few littered the ground until Jason was able to give the signal. He smacked Allison on the back, thrusting the keys into her palm and she took off towards the van. Jason turned to look at Lizzy who gave another shrill whistle while fighting a particularly over confident Quarryman. An obviously green member over shot a punch to her face, stumbled when she evaded him easily; she used his momentum to push him to the wet ground. The van screeched to a halt and the door slide open as Bridget and Jack hauled the limp, red Gargoyle into the vehicle. When the Quarryman attempted to rise Lizzy hit him in the head with his own hammer. He crumpled to the ground and Lizzy ran to the van in an attempt to jump in. The men were too close so she grabbed the handle and yelled at Jason.
"Get him out of here, I'll catch up!" Lizzy shouted as she slammed the van's door shut. The sound of heavy boots hitting the wet pavement drew her attention away from the disappearing van. Reinforcements had arrived and Lizzy, for the first time that night, felt the overwhelming impossibility of walking away unscathed from this fight.
"This is the one," pointed the leader as he spoke loudly and addressing a man in a
darker colored uniform than the others. The new masked man stepped towards her, his hammer at his side and slammed his fist heavily into her stomach. She would have toppled over onto the ground had two of the other Quarrymen not grabbed her arms to keep her upright. She fought against their grip once she had regained her breath but the two men had a strong hold on her. The darker clad man gripped her chin hard and forced her to look up at him.
"Child, you are very misguided in your attempts at heroism. That creature you and your friends just took from us may very well kill them. It has no logic like you or I, it is a monster, plain and simple," He said, his accented voice low as he brought his face close to hers.
"The only monsters I've seen today wear masks," she spat, gasping for breath as he punched her again in the side, her ribs giving way to a sickening crunch. Her knees gave way as a foot collided with her spine and the Quarrymen holding her let got. Lizzy covered her head with her arms and went into herself as the men beat her into the wet cement. Suddenly, the sound of sirens filled her senses, she had never been so glad to hear the sounds of the NYPD. The men began to scatter leaving Lizzy gasping on the wet pavement. The sounds of screeching brakes and car doors as the men started to scurry.
"NYPD, stop and put your hands up," came a voice over a police car com system. Coughing Lizzy sat up and saw the familiar red Cadillac of Detective Maza, the woman herself, gun drawn, silhouetted in her headlights. Lizzy lay flat again when shots began going off as the Quarrymen began firing at the police. With her face in the dirt of the pavement she quietly shook in fear as the bullets whizzed past. Just as suddenly as it had begun the shots stopped and Maza's voice rang in the quiet air.
"I want cars out here picking up anyone who so much as looks like a Quarryman," she shouted, holstering her gun, "This area is closed off, get these clowns cleaned up and in a cell before I get back to the station, Cesar," she said to a heavy set officer who was taking down her directions and nodding. "Are you alright, kiddo? Do you need to see the EMTs?" Elisa said, concern edging her voice as she helped the young girl up. Lizzy looked around and two of the Quarrymen had been shot, wounded only, and were being cuffed and led to the ambulances.
"No, I'm fine," she asked, clutching at her side at her sudden movements and groaned slightly in pain. She turned to Detective Maza, the woman looked a bit nervous for a moment then shook her head before placing a hand on Lizzy's shoulder.
"You sure you're fine, I still haven't gotten used to being shot at" Maza said to the familiar girl, her pink and purple hair dripping from the rain. The girl, Elizabeth something, seemed to be assessing the damage to her person; running her hands over her face and buttoning the denim trench coat she was wearing.
"Yeah, I'll live," Lizzy said as she looked at the taller woman, her wet hair and clothing causing her to shiver in the cold. "Is there anything else, Detective Maza? Or am I free to go?" she tried not to seem antsy but she knew the Gargoyle that the Quarrymen had been after was in a bad way and that her friends would need her help if he woke up.
"Actually, I have a few questions if you don't mind?" Maza asked, taking out the small pad of paper that all police officers carried. The girl sighed but nodded, wrapping her jacket tighter around her as the rain picked back up.
"Yeah that's fine," Lizzy said stiffly, the wet beginning to creep through all her layers of clothing. Maza looked up at the rain for a moment before shoving the pad back into her red jacket.
"How about this, I'll give you a ride home and we can talk on the way," she said, sweeping her arm towards her vintage Caddie. Lizzy bit the inside of her mouth, on one hand she was tired, hurt, wet and have over twenty blocks to go to get home. On the other she was getting an odd vibe from the cop, not something bad but the hairs on the back of her neck prickled as the Latina woman glanced quickly up at the rooftop that the Gargoyle had fallen from.
"Yeah, fine, you know how to get to Harlem from here, Morningside Park area?" Lizzy asked, feeling stupid as any cop worth their salt would know their way around their beat.
"No problem, jump in," Maza said as she climbed into the driver's seat. Lizzy shook her head as she slide into the passenger seat and buckled the safety belt. The monster rumbled to life and Maza took off down the street. When she had taken her first left turn away from the scene of the fight Maza started asking her questions, "Why were they here?" She asked bluntly, looking at the small woman in the seat next to her. She didn't look like a whole lot, couldn't be more than 130 pounds and she was soaking wet. But Elisa knew small packages were never a testament of what a person could do and if what she'd heard from the dispatch she'd help take on ten very large Quarrymen. When she had pulled up she had seen the end of the fight, five men kicking the girl as she lay protecting her face on the ground. By the time she was out of her car, gun drawn, some of the probably greener members had opened fire while the others disappeared into the night.
"They had a Gargoyle, but he got away," Lizzy said, the half-truth coming easy to her.
"Did you get a look at it? What did the Gargoyle look like?" Maza said with a slight stutter. Lizzy wondered if it was from fear of the creature or something else.
"Yeah, smaller that the purple one I saw on TV last week, um, red, white hair, wings were more smooth, not like a bats, that's all I remember, it happened real fast," she said quickly. Maza sucked in her breath quickly causing Lizzy to look over at the cop.
"You okay, Detective?" She asked.
"Yeah, I take a left here, right?" Elisa said, deflecting the attention from herself. Brooklyn, they had tried taking down Brooklyn; but hadn't Lex been with the red Gargoyle? Her mind raced as she moved toward the small park.
"You can drop me off here," Lizzy said quickly as they got closer to her apartment building.
"Alright," Maza said, pulling the car over to the side of the road. She reached into her jacket and took out a small, white piece of paper, "take my card if you have anything else you can tell me, or if you need any help. Don't be afraid to contact me, for anything," Elisa smiled down at the young woman as she held out a white business card with her information on it. The girl shoved it into her pants pocket, jumped out of the car, turned with a nod and took off towards an alley, disappearing into the dark. Elisa watched the girl limp off into the night, heading away from the park. Once she was out of sight Maza pulled out the rarely used phone that Xanatos had given to her and pressed the first speed dial number. It rang twice before a deep, rumbling voice came on the line.
"Elisa, are you alright?" Goliath asked in concern.
"Yeah, great, Big Guy," she said, nervously running her hands through her hair, "has Brooklyn made it back to the castle?" she asked.
"No, he was out with Lexington but sent him ahead, we all thought that perhaps he wished to be alone for a time," Goliath stated, confused, "Why?"
"Shit," she muttered.
"Elisa, please, tell me what has happened," he said, his voice rising in anxiety.
"I just broke up a bunch of Quarrymen beating on a young woman. She told me they were fighting a Gargoyle that met Brooklyn description. She said he got away," she stopped.
"Hmm, but you don't believe her," he stated, his voice humming through the phone.
"No, not fully anyway, she avoided me when I tried to get much information about how Brooklyn got away and she wouldn't let me take her all the way home," she said.
"There isn't much we can do but search the area for Brooklyn and hope he is safe," Goliath stated. Elisa could hear him instructing the clan to conduct a through search of Harlem, Hudson and Bronx staying at the castle to await his return, "Thank you, Elisa, I must join the search, if we find him I will call," he said pausing for a moment, Elisa took the silence as dismissal.
"Alright, Big Guy, I'll call if I hear anything," she said clicking the phone closed once he had agreed and they had said their farewells.
Three blocks away Lizzy was finding running was more difficult than she had earlier thought, her ribs ached with the effort to keep going. She was soon holding her arms under her chest and walking towards the apartment building where her friends all shared the open, top floor. Taking the large freight elevator she was slightly dismayed to see that there was blood on the floor, that no one had taken the time to clean it yet.
Lifting the gate to the elevator she marched through the still open door of her home. Jason ran past her with towels and bandages. She followed him into the living room where Jack, Bridget and Allison were holding down the writhing creature. He was still unconscious but in extreme pain. His tail whipped out, hitting Jason and causing him to fall to the ground. Lizzy, throwing off her jacket onto the couch, ran over and grabbed a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and began dabbing his wounds with a cloth but the stinging pain forced the Gargoyle back into the real world. His eyes flashed white; the unearthly glow frightening Allison into moving away from the Gargoyle and huddling against the wall. He let out a growl, hissing and swinging out his tail before falling back to the floor again.
End Chapter 1