Chapter 1

I don't own Martin Mystery – it belongs to Marathon and to the original writer of Martin Mystère, Alfredo Castelli.

Low-hanging clouds brushed against Martin's figure as he freefell towards the cemented earth. His hands once more thankfully grasped the harpy's right wing and torso respectively, saving him from a surely painful meeting with the ground. The biped with the face of a woman was a truly grotesque sight. Her entire body was covered in thick grey feathers, her wings resembled those of a bat rather than those of a bird with what appeared to be dark purple bones showing through her sinewy tissue, and her womanly facial features were pulled tightly into a grimace that was framed by long and greasy black hair. The immense creature struggled to knock off her insistent passenger and continued her dive towards the prestige university's campus.

The young special-agent was oblivious to the many archaeology students, professors, and specialists alike that moved about below. It was to Martin's misfortune that one particular archaeologist was strolling by the distinguished stone fountain at the centre of the courtyard on his way to another conference when he happened to look skyward just in time to see harpy and agent alike crash into the fountain statue that had been Achilles before tumbling to the earth.

"Martin?" came the astonished cry of the archaeologist.

With the monster in a half-nelson neck hold, Martin quickly glanced up at the older man. He resumed wrestling the thing twice his size, keeping her belly flat on the ground, before he gave the simple reply of, "Oh, hi dad!" He was forced to pause when the harpy nearly accomplished rolling over, but continued once he had a better hold on the winged creature, "Could you hold on just a sec?"

Gerard Mystery was only able to nod and stand by with the rest of the small congregation of university dwellers to watch his son battle with the revolting creature. His shock was not only the product of the rather abrupt entrance of Martin and the mythical beast, nor that of the repulsive sight of the latter, but instead of his son's appearance. Martin's clothes were torn and unkempt, his hair was wild from his time in the air, and he was bleeding in various places – mercifully the only of his son's injuries that truly worried his father was the large cut on the leg which he seemed to be reluctant to put any weight on. Gerard had never really thought of the work his son and stepdaughter did as being dangerous until that moment.

Why he hadn't thought about it before was what truly baffled him now. Twice he'd seen an example of the work his children did and both times he himself had been in serious danger along with them. Being nearly eaten by a Sinth's babies (as well as being knocked out by a badly placed falling tree branch) on the first and then almost infused with the DNA of a worm permanently on the second hadn't made him feel terribly secure – and Martin and Diana faced things like this every day!

His thoughts were interrupted by a large white helicopter proceeding to land close by in an open area of the university courtyard. Out stepped the Centre head, M.O.M., with Diana, and the strange Java and Billy in tow. Diana ran quickly towards Martin, while the others followed at a slightly slower, but still hurried, pace. She didn't seem to recognize her stepfather at this point, but immediately looked for a way to help her brother.

"Di, here," Martin called to her as he fought to get his U-watch off his wrist with one hand and keep the monster at bay with the other. As soon as he was able to get the device off he threw it to his sister and did his best to put himself in a better position. Diana took the watch in her hand and flipped through the options quickly, smiling when she found the one she sought. A net came flying towards the fighting pair and just missed Martin when he ducked out of the way. They both breathed a sigh of relief when the screeching creature was safely caught under the net and they were able to let the reinforcements M.O.M. had called in (who always seemed to arrive immediately and after each struggle) take over.

The group of paranormal investigators were all cheerfully going over what had transpired and both teens were getting some pats on their backs for their respective courage when Gerard walked up to them. Martin had seemed to forget his father's presence until the latter's voice could be heard raised above the chatter of his friends and coworkers.

"Martin Mystery…"

Hey guys! This is my first 'Martin Mystery' fic, so bear with me!

Also, I'm going to be updating this story as I write it instead of writing it all first and posting each chapter periodically as I've done with my other stories. This means that updates could be few and far between, or one right after the other. I feel like trying something new while I try out this new category (and, let's face it, I couldn't wait to post this!) Hopefully this won't be too inconvenient for any readers.

Thanks, and don't hesitate to review!