A Knight to Remember
Destiny's Flame - Story 1

by: Kitty Cat Demon

Disclaimer: I don't own Gargoyles, I don't make a profit from Gargoyles. Any original characters are property of me, and if you wish to use them, please ask first. Batman and friends are characters of Warner Brothers and DC, based on the Cartoon series, and used without permission.

Note: This story won't make much sense unless you read the Change of Face Saga, and Destiny's Flame – Prologue first. By the way, when I change perspective, it'll be marked by the person's name, and POV (point of view). You have been warned, now, on with the story.

Rating: PG-13 for violence


Destiny's Flame - Story 1
A Knight to Remember


Chapter 1


The ball of green flame disappeared, leaving Brooklyn, Shade, and myself standing on the roof of a very beat up looking factory. We were definitely not in New York anymore.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"I dunno," Brooklyn replied. "But wherever it is, it isn't New York. There's nothing familiar, no Twin towers, no Statue of Liberty, and more important, no Eyrie Building." He gave me a lost look, "What happened?"

I held up the object Owen had thrown at me only moments before. It was some type of pendant with a silver dragon in flight being depicted upon a jade background. "Owen threw this at me, and poof we were here." I looked around. "Wherever here is."

"Can I see that?" Brooklyn pointed to the pendant.

I had a sudden, overwhelming urge to put the chain around my neck and never part with it. I looked at it again, and slipped the chain over my head.

"Um...I wanna hang on to it for now." I told Brooklyn, "if you don't mind."

"Okay..." his response was long and drawn out, as if he wasn't sure if he should leave it with me. He looked at the dragon pendant around my neck. "You know," he said, "it looks almost like the Phoenix Gate."

"Phoenix Gate?" I'd never heard of such a thing.

"Yeah," Brooklyn responded, "it was this magical artifact, it allowed the person holding it to travel through time, in a ball of orange flame."

To travel to other places a fragment of a dream floated to the surface of my mind.

"Other places?" Apparently I had spoken aloud, as Brooklyn was now questioning my words.

"What if," I began, "this thing," I held up the medallion, "is a sort of gate, like the Phoenix Gate, but, instead of traveling through time, it travels to different dimensions?"

Before Brooklyn could respond to my theory, there were sounds of gunfire from nearby, and the gargoyle's urge to protect kicked in.

"Duty calls." Brooklyn said, as he leapt from the edge of the building.

"Hey! Wait up!" I felt a similar urge to right this wrong, as I grabbed Shade and dove off the side of the building after him.


The sounds of gunfire grew as we glided over a jewelry store. There, on the street in front, was the source. Some poor beat-cop had come across a robbery in progress, and had tried to stop it, only to be pinned down behind a severely bullet-ridden car by superior firepower.

As we glided over a clear area in the street, Shade sent Drop me, NOW! The command was so loud in my mind, I dropped her out of reflex. Down she went, some fifty or so feet to the pavement, landing silently on padded feet, and racing off into the shadows. Thanks.

I joined Brooklyn on the roof across from the store, directly above the cop. There I got a clear look at the three of the strangest, would-be robbers I have ever seen. They looked like the three stooges, if the three stooges had been on steroids, and signed up for work as gun-toting mimes.

These three guys were enormous, like football players on steroids, huge. They were dressed in large black unitards and each had a face positively plastered with white paint. It would have been funny, if they hadn't been armed with equally massive guns.

Brooklyn turned to me. "Shall we crash the clowns' party?" he grinned at his own joke.

I'm ready, Shade sent from somewhere below. I'll take the one to your right.

"Shade'll take the one on the right, I'll take the one in the middle." I told Brooklyn.

He peered down at the clowns below. "That leaves me with Moe." his eyes began to light up. "Let's go."

We jumped off the building, into the street below. My clown, the one in the middle who looked like Curly, happened to glance up and spot me, a dark winged shape with glowing white eyes.

He pointed and screamed "Batman!", then all three thugs gave up firing on the cop in favor of a more aerial target, namely, me.

Shade came barreling out of nowhere, ramming into Larry clown. She knocked the gun from his hand, and pinned him to the ground.

One clown down, two to go. Unfortunately for me, these two seemed completely fixated on filling me with bullet holes. Of course this left Brooklyn completely free and clear to slam into Moe, without suffering any bullet holes. I came down in front of Curly and, my attention riveted to him, began to fight.


A Universal View

Brooklyn slammed Moe into the brick wall, hoping the weight of him would be enough to knock the clown out. This clown seemed to be made of some sterner stuff, as he pulled himself off the wall, and prepared to slam Brooklyn into a pile of bloody goo. The thug's gun struck from his hand when Brooklyn had knocked him into the wall, he now rushed towards Brooklyn with nothing but his fists. Brooklyn, seeing him coming from a mile away, ducked under his attack, and tripped the flailing clown with his tail. The clown staggered, and turned, right into Brooklyn's flying fist. Brooklyn's fist connected with a loud 'Crack!'.

A few feet away, Cat was attacking Curly with her bo stick. She knocked his gun out of his hands, and tried to sweep his feet out from under him, only to have him slam one of his big, meaty feet down on top of it, and knock it from her grasp.

"That's just great." Cat panted, as the clown picked up her stick, and tossed it away. Cat looked up at his grinning face. "Now what, wise guy?"

Curly began advancing on Cat, arms wide open, ready to grip her in an unbreakable bear hug. Cat backed-up a few steps, then spread her wings wide, eyes lighting up, making her appear much larger and more menacing. The clown backed up a few steps, stopping only when he connected with the wall.

He never saw Shade as she hit him from the side, smashing his head into the pavement, and knocking him into tomorrow.

Brooklyn walked over and wrapped the thug up in a piece of metal he had found in the alley next to the store. He then carried the three wrapped goons over to a lamp post and, using the rest of the metal, affixed them to the lamp pole.

A shrill voice sounded from inside the jewelry store, "Larry! Curly! Moe! What are you idiots doing out there?!" a slim figure walked out of the store. Dressed in a purple suit, with a white face, dark green, almost-but-not-quite black hair and wearing a big grin. In one hand he held a bag, full of stolen jewelry, in the other, a semi-automatic assault weapon. He looked over to where Brooklyn was wrapping his hired muscle around a pole. "You!" he shouted. "What do you think you're doing?!" he pointed the gun towards Brooklyn, and opened fire.


Cat's POV

I watched, horrified, as time slowed to a crawl. The gun came up. The trigger was pulled. A flash. A bullet flying. Brooklyn turning, too late. Seeing the bullet rip through his wing, go through his shoulder. The look of pain and surprise as his eyes lit up.

Then anger. I raised my hands towards this...this...joker who would dare hurt my friend. My rage burned, white hot, and then there was a ball of pure electricity, racing towards the fool who had hurt Brooklyn.

I watched as, at the last second, he turned, and saw his fate. I watched as the lightening struck him full in the chest. I watched as it propelled him backwards, through a window, and into a counter filled with jewelry. And I watched as he slumped into unconsciousness. Then I watched no more.


Universal View

Brooklyn roared in agony as the bullet tore through him. Then watched in amazement as Cat shot a ball of electricity at his assailant, exactly like those used by Talon and the other mutates, then collapsed.

The sounds of sirens could be heard now, in the distance, but getting closer by the minute. Obviously the cop they had come to save had called for back-up. Ignoring the shooting pain from his shoulder and wing, Brooklyn ran over to Cat, scooped her up, and carried her over his good shoulder, disappearing into the night, with Shade following silently behind.


Same Store, Twenty Minutes Later

Red and blue lights filled the street, casting eerie shadows. Four police vehicles, and one ambulance were parked on the stretch of road in front of the jewelry store. Sergeant Harvey Bullock was going over the crime scene, yelling out orders to unfortunate cops, who were, in his opinion, working too slow.

An emergency medical technician was loading the body of the super-villain known as the Joker onto a stretcher. By the pole out front, two police men with blow torches were attempting to cut the Joker's three stooges free from the metal bands which held them firmly to the pole.

Across the street, next to a dark alley, stood Police Commissioner James Gordon. If one looked closely enough, they might, perhaps, see a dark figure, standing just off to the side of the Commissioner.

James Gordon watched at the EMT loaded the comatose form of the Joker into the ambulance, and drive off. "Your work?" he addressed the dark figure, eyes never leaving the scene before him.

"Not mine." Batman stood in shadows, concealed from the police on the street, watching as the thugs were dragged away, babbling.

"I guess it was too much to hope for." the Commissioner sighed.

"What happened?" Batman motioned towards the crime scene.

"One of the beat-cops stumbled upon the Joker and his clowns robbing Stoker's Jewelry Store. He called in for back-up, but one of the clowns spotted him. They had him trapped under heavy fire. The officer reports that the gun fire suddenly ceased, and he heard signs of a struggle. He only came out from behind the car he'd taken shelter behind when we showed up. He didn't see anything, although he reports hearing things which sounded like wild animals roaring." here Gordon paused. "The Joker's goons say they were attacked by flying monsters, the EMT says the Joker won't be waking up anytime soon." he stopped, and looked at Batman. "Whatever hit 'em, it hit 'em hard."

Batman continued to stare impassively towards the ruins of Stoker's Jewelry store. Commissioner Gordon turned briefly, to look as the last of the police officers left the scene, he looked back, only to find that Batman was gone.


If any of the police officers had bothered to check the roof of Stoker's Jewelry, they would have found their "monsters". Brooklyn sat, with Cat cradled in his lap. Shade sat a few feet away, staring pensively out at the skyline. Brooklyn held Cat, oblivious to the wound in his shoulder, still slowly trickling blood down his chest and back.

"Cat, come on, wake up." he whispered, stroking her hair.

What... Shade started, but, oddly, with Cat unconscious, no one heard what she had to say. Had someone heard, they would have heard her inquire as to the presence of a dark shape which seemed to be flying through the night sky, shaped like a large bat.

Far in the east, the sky began to lighten, the sun came up, and Brooklyn turned to stone, and, for the first time in her life, so did Cat.


While Shade slept the day away in the presence of two statues, across town, Bruce Wayne spent a much less peaceful day. During his board meetings, and paperwork, and other boring aspects of running a multi-billion dollar company, thoughts of his other life kept intruding. Thoughts about the damage he had seen last night, in his guise of the Batman. All day, thoughts of these new "monsters" ran through his mind. What were they? Where did they come from? And, more importantly, how could he stop them from harming the innocents in Gotham City.


Elsewhere

Soaring upon the wings of fright, across the planes of fate, over the river of sorrows, a great darkness came.

It was a great evil. It was a destroyer of nations, worlds, galaxies, realities. It knew many things. But now it knew something it had never known before, Fear. Fear that this was the one, the one he was searching for, the one who would destroy him.

He was Darius, the dark one, he was the destroyer of order, born of Chaos and the Darkness, he was the one fated to bring Chaos to the Order. But not if he was destroyed first...


©2000