Chapter One The Escaped Prisoner With No Name
The girl was already getting cramps in her sides. She had been running for ages and she didn't know how much longer she could keep it up. She glanced behind her. Several men dressed in all black pursued her. She supposed she should have been flattered. Usually they only sent one or two men after her.
"Aren't I the popular one?" the child muttered sarcastically.
She was around nine years old. She couldn't remember which day she had been born. Heck, where she usually lived, she couldn't tell day from night. Back at the laboratory where she had lived her entire life, she tried to escape constantly. Sometimes when she wasn't, she crawled around in the ventilation system.
The grown-ups who controlled her thought that they were so high and mighty. The adults had raised her to be humble around her "superiors". One of the tactics they used was taking away whatever humanity she possessed. They always called her "it" or "the Girl". She never really had a real name. They treated her like she was something below them whose only purpose was to do whatever they ordered her.
The girl darted into one of the nearby buildings and fled up into the elevator. She pressed the button for the roof. As the elevator slowly made its way up, the girl paced around the small elevator. She had never been in an elevator by herself before. One of the adults had always been with her. She was always escorted wherever she went.
The girl sighed. The elevator doors opened. She ran to the edge of the roof, with her pursuers right behind her. She whirled around to face them.
"Give up, Girl," one on the men snarled.
The hunted didn't need superpowers to recognize the voice. It was Charlie, one of His Sweepers. The Sweepers "swept" away the mess, and the Cleaners got rid of the evidence.
"I'm never going back," the girl snarled back.
"You have no other option," Charlie sneered. "If you come back quietly, the punishment won't be as harsh."
"And why should I trust you?" the girl glared. "You, who would tattle if it meant gaining more power."
Charlie took a step forward. "You will do as you're told."
"Get away from me," the girl screamed. "I won't go back. You can't make me."
"We created you, Girl," Charlie smiled nastily. "Your will is our will. You're only our tool."
She felt her anger rise. "I am not your slave, Charlie. I'm a human being."
"You're below human," Charlie told her coldly. "You wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for your betters. You're dirt. No, you're lower than dirt. Now, come here. NOW!"
"Get away," she ordered. "I'll jump. I swear I will."
"Go ahead," Charlie shrugged. "All we need is a sample of your DNA to make a clone. Maybe it will be less . . . resilient than you."
"It'll still be a setback," the girl pointed out. "You could say good-bye to that promotion you wanted."
"I'm patient," Charlie shrugged back. "If it means I'd be rid of you, even for a short while, I'd call it a blessing."
The girl sighed. Putting her hands in the air, she slowly walked toward her captors. Just as Charlie reached to grab her, she darted away and jumped off the building.
Brooklyn was just about to go back home from patrol when he had noticed the human child fleeing from the older humans pursuing her. She had ran onto the roof and fled to the edge. The conversation between the girl and one of the men chasing her had halted for a few minutes. Then the girl walked toward her pursuers, defeat written all over her face.
Brooklyn and his fellow clan member, Broadway, rushed in to save the girl, but apparently she had plans of her own. Just as soon as one of the men was about to grab her she fled back to the edge off the building. Then she leapt off.
To the gargoyles' surprise, she didn't fall off the building. With amazing agility, she leapt onto the next building.
"Whoa," Broadway muttered.
The human who was talking to the child pulled out a gun and shot it towards her. A rope shot out and wrapped itself around the girl. Then the girl was yanked forewords.
"We've got to save her," Brooklyn ordered. "Whatever she is."
Both Gargoyles flew at the humans. The humans tried to fight back, but the Gargoyles had them beat within twenty minutes. All that was left was the human who had shot the gun at the child. He had just finished pulling up the child, who appeared to be unconscious. He held the girl up like a shield.
"Stay away from me," he screamed.
"Give us the girl," Brooklyn demanded.
"No!" the man yelled back. "She belongs to me. You can't have her!"
With that, he began to step backwards.
"Stop!" Broadway yelled, but it was too late.
With the child in tow, the man fell off the building. He managed to grab on to the ledge, but dropped the girl in the process. Brooklyn grabbed the child before she fell to her death while Broadway pulled the man up into the air. Brooklyn gently put the girl down and went to find something to tie the human man up with. He tore apart a garbage can and wrapped it up around him.
With the battle over, the two Gargoyles brought the girl to the castle.
The girl heard sounds before she regained her sight.
"Do you think she'll wake up soon?" a voice asked.
"I hope so," said a second voice.
She groaned and tried to open her eyes, but the light was too bright for her. She quickly shut them again.
"I think she's coming to," a third voice said.
The girl slowly opened her eyes again. The sight she saw was not what she had expected. Seven . . . somethings were kneeling around her. One of them slightly resembled a dog, except it was blue with giant ears. The one that looked like a dog licked her face; the girl just stared in wonder. What were they? Were they more of the lab's experiments? Were they sent to capture her?
"Hello," the smallest of the . . . whatever they were smiled. The girl recognized him as the owner of the first voice she had heard. "How are you feeling?"
"What are you?" the girl blurted out. "Where am I? How long have I been out?"
The oldest looking something chuckled. He had a scar under one eye.
"Aye, we haven't introduced ourselves, have we?" he smiled. "We're Gargoyles."
The girl frowned. "You mean like those statues on top of castles?"
"Precisely," another gargoyle nodded. This one was blue and very tall. He was watching her with mild mistrust.
"Do you," the girl hesitated. "Um, work for them?"
"Them?" the little gargoyle asked in confusion. "Who's 'them'?"
"I think she means the men who were chasing her," the red gargoyle told the smaller one before turning back to the girl. "No, we don't. Who were those men chasing you?"
The girl hesitated.
"You can trust us," the only female gargoyle told her. "I'm Angela. What's your name?"
The girl still hesitated.
"We aren't going to hurt you," the red gargoyle told her gently.
"It's nothing personal," the girl replied apologetically. "It's just that whenever people try to help me, bad things happen."
"What kind of bad things, lass?" asked the oldest Gargoyle curiously.
"Anyone who tried to help me in the past is either dead or comatose," the girl replied sadly.
"What's comatose?" asked the gargoyle who hadn't spoken yet.
"That's when you're asleep and who won't wake up," the big blue one explained.
"Oh."
"Don't worry about us, lass," the oldest one smiled. "We've defeated much worse than humans. I'm Hudson. The red one is Brooklyn. Next to him is Broadway. You've met Angela. The smallest one is Lexington and that's Goliath, our leader. The energetic one who first said hello is Bronx." Hudson scratched behind the canine-esque gargoyle's ears. "We want to help you. We consider it our job to help those in need. What's your name?"
"I don't have a name," the girl said sheepishly. "They never gave me one."
"What?" Angela asked in confusion.
"I've lived at the laboratory since I was little," the girl could sense now that she could trust them. "I don't remember life before I went to live there. The doctor in charge didn't want to give me a name because they wanted to make sure everyone knew that I was just the experiment and not a real person."
The Gargoyles stared back at her, horror written all over their faces.
"Of course you're a real person," Angela said indignantly.
"Am I?" The girl asked sadly. "Sometimes I wonder. You see, I'm different from most people."
"How do you mean?" Lexington asked.
"I have telekinesis and telepathy," the girl said matter-of-factly. "I can astrally project myself and heal quickly. I'm also very smart for my age. It didn't take me long to realize that I was the only person who could do those things."
"It just means you're gifted," Lexington said. "Most likely, you have fey in your heritage."
"What does 'fey' mean?" the girl asked in confusion.
"The fey are a race of beings," Angela explained. "They have magic powers and tend to like making mischief. Their king and queen live on an island called Avalon."
"Avalon?" The girl asked in excited disbelief. "Avalon as in King Arthur and Merlin and the Lady of the Lake?"
"You've heard of it?" Brooklyn asked, surprised.
"When the scientists didn't need me, I'd sneak out of my cell and explore through the ventilation system," the girl explained. "Some of the scientists brought books to read in their spare time. I'd sneak into their offices and borrow them. One time, I found a book called The Mists of Avalon. I liked that one. I read it five times before I returned it."
"You like to read?" Hudson asked softly.
"Oh, yes," the girl replied. "I love to read."
"What do you like to read?" Hudson asked.
"Anything I can get my hands on," the girl replied with a dreamy look on her face. "Mostly I like fantasy, but lately I've been reading William Shakespeare. A Midsummer Night's Dream is my favorite, I think."
"Remember the magical characters like Puck, Oberon, and Titania?" Angela asked. "Well, those are fey."
"How old are you, lass?" Hudson changed the subject.
"Nine," the girl didn't particularly feel like explaining that she wasn't even sure of her own age.
In the midst of the "excitement", the girl hadn't taken much time to observe her surroundings. She noticed that she was in bedroom. She had never really been in a bedroom before, but one of the scientists had brought a book with pictures of fancy furniture for what was referred to as a bedroom. This bedroom was painted white with matching wooden dressers and bed. The girl had been placed on the bed sometime during when she was unconscious.
"Where am I?" the girl asked, sitting up and rubbing the back of her head.
"Castle Eyrie," Lexington explained. "We live here with some . . . friends of ours."
"I'm in a real live castle?" the girl's eyes lit up excitedly.
"Yes," Brooklyn chuckled. "Although I don't think that castles classify as living things."
The girl grinned. "So when am I going to meet your friends?"
"Sorry I'm late, guys, traffic was terrible," a tanned raven-haired lady said quietly as she entered.
The girl stared at the woman.
"You're awake," the woman smiled gently. The girl noticed that she was carrying a small cardboard box that had the words "Dunkin' Donuts" on them.
"This is one of our friends, Elisa Maza," Goliath explained when the girl looked at him in askance.
"Do you live here, Ms. Maza?" the girl asked.
"No," the human laughed. "Call me Elisa. What's your name?"
"Um," the girl wasn't entirely sure how to respond.
"She doesn't have one," Broadway said quietly.
The girl refused to avert her gaze, even when Goliath explained about the lab.
"I thought you would be hungry," Elisa smiled with a look of pity in her eyes.
No one had ever looked at the child with anything except disdain. She decided she didn't like this look Elisa was giving her but decided not to say anything.
"How long have I been out?" she asked instead.
"About a day," Elisa replied. "You woke up a few minutes after dawn. You hit your head pretty hard. So hard, in fact that you went right back to sleep the headache off."
"Do I have a concussion?" the girl asked.
"You did," Elisa sounded slightly puzzled. "But the doctor said that you'll be as good as new by tomorrow."
"I heal quickly." The girl's eyes widened. "Wait a minute, you sent me to a hospital? You can't. They'll find me. They -"
"Easy, lass," Hudson chuckled gently. "We didn't take you to the hospital. Our friend has his own live-in doctor."
Jade smiled in relief.
"Are you hungry?" Elisa handed her the box. "I brought you a snack. Do you like donuts?"
The girl took out a round, brown "donut". It had a hole in the middle.
"Is it tasty?" the girl asked.
"You've never had a donut?" Broadway asked in shock.
The girl looked away. "No, sir."
"Try it," Angela encouraged.
The young human took a small bite. It tasted sweet.
"This is delicious," the girl managed to say as she stuffed donut after donut into her mouth.
"Whoa, easy," Broadway gently grabbed her wrists. "You'll give yourself a stomach-ache that way."
The girl ate a little more slowly.
"When was the last time you ate, lass?" Hudson asked curiously.
"My last meal, if you can call it that, was at the lab," the girl replied. "I escaped about two weeks ago and I spent most of my energy escaping. It's a long way from the Delaware, you know."
"You haven't eaten in two weeks?" Brooklyn asked in disbelief.
"You walked all the way from Delaware?" Elisa asked the same time.
"I got food from the Dumpster," the girl replied. "Occasionally, Id steal food from carts. Just to eat. You know, to keep from starving. And no, I didn't walk the entire way. I took a bus half the way."
"Where did you get the money?" Elisa asked, already fearing the answer.
"Someone sent it to me anonymously," the girl frowned. "I'm not sure who. I found a bunch of money in the coat pocket three days after I escaped. The weather's been warm lately, so I haven't really used the coat."
She pulled out the envelope and handed it Goliath. She already knew what was written on it.
Jade -
If you don't want to be forgotten
As soon as you are dead and rotten'
Either write things worth the reading
Or do things worth the writing.
"It's a quote by Benjamin Franklin," the girl explained reflectively. "I only told one person how much I loved that quote, but he died five years ago."
"Whoever sent you this called you Jade," Lexington mused.
"I met him when I was little," the girl smiled fondly. "When I told him that I didn't have a name, he insisted on giving me one. He said my eyes reminded him of the jewel. I called him my protector because he always looked out for me."
"Well, that's it then," Lexington grinned. "We'll call you Jade."
"Okay," the girl now called Jade smiled shyly.
"Well, Jade," Hudson smiled. "Are you feeling up to meeting our friends?"
Jade nodded and followed her new friends into the unknown.
A/N All related characters belong to . . . Toon Disney, I guess? I own Jade and Charlie.