Hi there, kids! It's Riddlestyx again! Seeing as pretty much all my fics so far have been Inuyasha crossovers, this probably gives you an idea of what I'm gonna be making. For those of you who have seen the Gargoyles series, I'm having the last few episodes starting with Genesis Undone, not having happened. Read, enjoy and review. I own nothing. Oh and this chapter is really long because my computer is messed up and I couldn't update and if I didn't write this down, I would go nuts.
English/Regular
Emphasis/Thoughts
Japanese
Souta ran. He didn't know where he was, so he was running blindly through the alleys. He had to find help. He skidded to a stop.
Who will help me? Who will help sis? He looked down at his hands. The fur on his hands was white with black stripes, just like the rest of his body. He noticed a puddle on the ground and saw his reflection. His eyes were gold, dark gold in fading light, a hint at their former brown. His face and body was covered and white fur, with black tiger stripes. He had fangs now, like Inuyasha's, as well as claws, but his were sharper. His ears were pointed and furry now. His nose was like a cat's. He had black wings that twitched.
Souta slumped to the ground. His adrenaline rush was gone now, leaving him exhausted. He leapt to his feet when he heard heavy footsteps.
Several people approached him, surrounding him. They appeared to all be men, and they were wearing some sort of dark blue uniform with black hoods that hid their faces, and they all carried sledgehammers. What in the world?
"Well, boys, looks like we caught ourselves a little monster." One of them said in a nasty sounding voice. Souta had not yet started learning how to speak English in school, so he didn't have a clue as to what the men were saying.
"P-please, y-you've got to help me." Souta whispered. "M-my sister-she needs help-"
Before he could finish, one of the men swung wildly at Souta with the hammer. Souta stumbled back, realizing too late that these men were not friends.
Suddenly, a feral growling could be heard in the dark. The men all turned their heads in fear, expecting to see gargoyles to come gliding down from the sky upon them. Instead, a large beast which resembled a tiger, with electricity sparking from his hands, emerged from the shadows. The creature shot the electricity from his hands, hitting two of the Quarrymen in the chests and causing the other two to flee in terror.
Souta watched wide eyed as the mutate turned towards him. The tiger had stopped growling and was staring worriedly at Souta. Cautiously, the tiger stepped forward, holding out a clawed hand to the young boy. Souta hesitated for a moment, before taking his hand.
Derek Maza, usually known as Talon, scowled to himself. It was times like these that made him really hate his job. If protecting and leading a large group of homeless people, mutates and clones was a job.
Maggie, his girlfriend, placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Derek, Claw will be back soon. He's probably just walking through the Labyrinth." Maggie said gently.
Talon nodded. Like him, Maggie, Claw and Fang had been mutated by Anton Sevarius and David Xanatos in an attempt to make artificial gargoyles. They had all been spliced with bats, electric eels and with different jungle cats.
Fang had liked being a mutate, the strength and power that had come with being splice with a cougar. He had attempted to take over the Labyrinth when they had started living there, and now spent his days in a small, guarded cell.
Claw had been spliced with a tiger and had not spoken since before he had been mutated, according to Maggie.
Maggie had come to New York to become an actress, but she ran out of cash and started living on the street. Sevarius had found her and tricked her into coming with him. He had spliced her with a lion, and for a long time, she had been obsessed with becoming human again. Now, she had come to terms with her mutation, knowing that she would never be human again.
Talon had been a cop, but Xanatos had convinced him to start working for him as his helicopter pilot and body guard, despite his sister's warnings. If he had listened to Elisa, he would never have been spliced with a panther, and fooled into thinking the gargoyles were their enemies.
"Hey, Boss-Cat!"
Talon turned to see Al, one of their human friends in the Labyrinth, running towards him.
"What is it Al?" Talon demanded seeing the older man's shocked expression.
"Claw's here and you won't believe what he found!" Al said, pointing to the direction he'd just come from.
Talon turned and saw what Al had been freaking out about. Claw was leading a young boy towards them. The boy had black hair on the top of his head, and the rest of his body was covered in the fur of a white tiger, and sticking out of his back were a pair of black bat wings.
"Oh God." Maggie whispered. "He's just a kid."
Talon knelt down in front of the boy.
"Hey buddy, what's your name?" Talon asked kindly.
The kid's face became distressed, and he began to speak in a foreign language. Talon swore softly.
"They must have grabbed him from out of the country." Talon grumbled. Then his face became thoughtful. "You know…..Owen speaks a lot of different languages."
"Why did you call us back here, Elisa?" Goliath asked, landing on the castle balcony.
"Derek's friend, Al came up to the police station, and he said that Derek had to meet with us as soon as possible." Elisa explained, looking extremely grim. "He also wanted Owen to be here."
"Why did he want Owen?" asked Brooklyn.
"We're about to find out." Lexington said, pointing to three shapes flying towards them. They were surprised that Claw had ventured up from the Labyrinth, as Talon usually left him behind to keep an eye on things, but they were even more shocked at what, or rather, who he was holding. Claw was carrying a young boy who had been spliced with a white tiger and had large bat wings.
"Claw found this kid up on the streets, some Quarrymen were about to split his head open." Talon quickly explained. "He doesn't speak English, and I know for a fact that Owen is multilingual."
"How much does anyone want to bet Sevarius is responsible for this?" Brooklyn growled, eyes glowing angrily. How many lives are ruined because of him?
Bronx whined and lumbered over to the kid. Everyone watched nervously, waiting to see if the boy would scream. Instead, the kid watched Bronx in surprise before giving a small smile and scratching the beast's ears.
"Well, that's weird. Even if he has been mutated, you'd think he'd still be a little scared of us." Broadway said, narrowing his eyes. "No offense Maggie, but you were terrified of us when we first met."
"Yeah, we left Delilah and Al in charge when we left the Labyrinth, but he didn't even blink when he saw the clones." Maggie agreed.
"Perhaps he has experience in this type of thing." Angela suggested uncertainly.
"What was it that you needed?" Xanatos asked, walking into the courtyard and followed closely by Owen. He stopped dead when he saw the boy. "Let me guess; Sevarius is up to his old tricks?"
"It would appear that way." Hudson growled, fingering his dagger.
"He doesn't speak English." Lexington added.
"I see." Xanatos looked over at Owen, who nodded before moving to stand in front of the boy.
Souta watched as the blond man with no expression knelt down in front of him. They must think he knows my language, Souta realized.
"H-Hello." Souta said lamely. Please, kami-sama, have him speak Japanese!
"Hello, what is your name?" Owen asked.
Souta nearly fell over in relief. "My name is Higurashi Souta."
"My name is Burnett Owen, the man over there is Xanatos David, my employer, and the woman is Detective Maza Elisa." Owen pointed out each person as he told Souta. "The three people who brought you here are Claw, Talon, the detective's younger brother and Maggie. Like you, they have been mutated, possibly by the same man who mutated you. The beings here are the gargoyles; Goliath is their leader, Brooklyn is his second in command, their elder and former leader is Hudson, Angela is Goliath's daughter, Broadway is her mate, Lexington is the smallest of them and you have already met Bronx."
"W-Wow."
"Now, Souta, you need to tell me about yourself, anything important, and how you came to New York."
"My name is Souta. I'm 11 years old and I'm from Tokyo, I lived at Higurashi Shrine with my mama, grandpa and my big sister, Kagome. I don't know how long it's been, but in June we all went to the beach for the day. It was night when we started on our way home." Souta's voice started to shake now. "There was nobody on the road now, and then a couple of black vans drove up behind us. O-One of them pulled in front of us and turned sideways so my mama had to stop. The other van stopped behind us and a bunch of big men and women got out. They wore uniforms that hid their eyes and they had guns. Th-th-they forced us out of our car and-and they shot my mama and my grandpa." Souta stopped talking for a minute so he could wipe the tears from his eyes. "Kagome nee-san was angry and she-" Souta broke off and shifted nervously. How will they react if I mention nee-san's powers? Surely they won't think I'm crazy or that I'm making up stories? Only one way to find out. Souta gulped. "She used her powers to try and fight them snuck up behind her and hit her with his gun. They put a cloth over my mouth and I fell asleep. When I woke up, nee-san was up and we were in some sort of lab, in some sort of glass cage. A few of the men from before were in there and they were talking to a red haired man in a white shirt. Nee-san knows English and she told me that the man was some sort of scientist and that the people who had brought us here were mercenaries. They were telling the scientist about her powers and he seemed very excited, and Kagome said he was talking about not needing to use eels on us." Souta stopped to take a breath and glanced up at Owen's face. The man's face was no longer emotionless, but was a mixture of horror and comprehension. Souta continued. "Not long after, he had the men come into the cage and forced us to put on weird clothes." Souta pointed to the trunks he was wearing. "The man who had me put a gun to my head, so that nee-san wouldn't fight back. After we had the clothes on, the scientist came over with two needles with yellow stuff in them. He used them on us and then he put us back in the cage. After that, we hurt for a long time. When we woke up we were like this, but our fur was all patchy and we were really skinny. He spent a lot of time working with Kagome, but he fed us a lot of meat and made us exercise a lot until we were in better shape. That wasn't too long ago, but then the scientist started making phone calls, and nee-san got scared and angry. She hadn't used her powers at all because they would have killed me, but she told me that we were going to be sold to something called 'Nightstone Unlimited'. After she told me that, she used her powers to break the glass and she told me to run as fast as I could. Sh-She couldn't keep up and I got out onto the street…." Souta broke off. That was as far as he could go without crying and he could still remember that time he had cried in front of Inuyasha. He looked up at Owen and saw his face, which held several emotions; horror, disgust and anger.
The group watched nervously.
"Never seen Owen have that much emotion on his face before." Broadway whispered to Lex, who nodded in agreement.
"Whatever happened to that kid must be pretty awful." Lex replied.
"Souta, do you have powers like your sister?" Owen asked solemnly.
"Y-Yes." Souta replied, startled. He often forgot that. His powers had first manifested when he turned 11, though he was nowhere near as good as his sister. She had patiently taught him how to use them, such as sensing aura's and a basic idea of what they were like, good or evil. Thinking of this, he cautiously felt the aura's around him. Claw, Talon and Maggie, surprisingly enough, were still human underneath all their physical changes, but with powers. David and Elisa were human of course. The gargoyles were definitely not human, although, if he remembered what Kagome had told him, they had no powers, so they were not youkai. But when he sensed Owen's aura, he was stunned to find that the blonde man was a youkai. But there is something wrong with him. Maybe I can use my holy powers to help…..
"Then I assume you realize that your sister is a miko?"
"Yes, and I know that you are a youkai, but that there is something wrong with you."
Owen had a shocked expression on his face.
"I don't suppose you care to share what he is saying?" Brooklyn grumbled impatiently.
"His name is Souta Higurashi, he is 11 years old and he is from Tokyo. He and his older sister, Kagome, were kidnapped in June and his mother and grandfather were killed by the mercenaries. From his description, it would appear that Sevarius is indeed responsible, and that he planned to sell them to Nightstone Unlimited." Owen said grimly.
"WHAT?" Goliath roared. "Thailog is involved?"
"Yes, but that is hardly the worst of it. He and his sister both have holy powers." Owen said this with rage underlying his words.
"They have what?" Angela asked, confused.
Owen sighed. "You know that there have been people, like the Magus and the Archmage who possess powers, but holy powers are a truly rare thing to find. There were once many of them in Japan, priestess', priests, or monks, but they are believed to no longer exist. With their powers, they could easily kill me or any other fey."
"Could they kill a gargoyle?" Broadway asked nervously.
Owen asked Souta something in Japanese, to which the tiger mutate shrugged. Owen turned back to the group, "He does not know, his powers only manifested recently and he has little experience with them. However he was able to tell that I am, as his culture puts it, youkai, which translates as demon."
"You're dancing around the reason why you're so pissed about these kids in particular being mutated." Talon growled.
"If you must know, those with holy powers are pure souls, benevolent, and it is rare to find any who are aware of their powers in this day and age, they should be protected, not harmed. Few realize this, but holy people have been great allies to the Third Race, and I know several who would gladly kill Sevarius for what he has done." Owen's voice was tense with anger.
"Does this really matter right now?" Brooklyn snapped. "Sevarius is going to sell this Kagome girl to Thailog and he'll do God knows what to her."
"Brooklyn is right; we need to find Kagome before more harm can come to her." Goliath agreed, unfurling his wings. "Claw, you will need to take us back to where you found Souta, he will have to lead us back to the lab."
Owen translated this back to Souta, who nodded determinedly, before allowing Claw to pick him back up.
"This is the spot?" Goliath asked Claw, who nodded, before setting Souta down.
Souta glanced quickly around the alley before taking off down the alley. He stopped when he got near the street, turning around and gesturing impatiently for them to follow. When any of them attempted to pick him up, Souta swatted irritably at them, and bolted down the street.
"Man, that kid is fast." Lexington gasped.
"Come on, before we lose him." Talon growled.
Bronx ran with Souta while the others flew. After about 15 minutes of flying, they began to wonder if Souta had gone in the wrong direction.
"Either this is the wrong way, or he ran really far." Broadway commented.
"No, he's not going the wrong way, he's found it!" Maggie cried, pointing down to Souta and Bronx, the former of whom was waving his arms for them to land.
They landed around Souta, who immediately took off with Bronx at his heels. The mutates and the gargoyles chased after him and found him staring at what appeared to be a three-story abandoned building. Parked outside of the building was an armored car and a couple of beefy guys with guns.
"How do we get in? There's no obvious door." Broadway whispered.
"Broadway, you and Angela take care of the thugs, but be quiet." Goliath commanded. "Lexington, stay with Souta and Bronx. Hudson-"
"Nee-san!" Souta gasped, pointing to the car. A light outside the building had come on, bringing three figures into view standing in an open garage door that they hadn't noticed. It was Sevarius, Thailog….and Demona.
"What's she doing here?" Brooklyn snarled.
"It seems she and Thailog reconciled." Hudson said grimly.
Demona waved her hand and a couple of guys carted out a crate that reminded Souta horribly of a coffin. Nee-san.
Oooooooooooh. Cliffie (I think). Please review.
