Gold Demona
Chapter I
Our Clan
(Gold Demona)
(A month or so later) (2110 A.D.)
I looked myself over in the mirror, as I did every night after sunset, having changed from a light-skinned human with strawberry blonde hair to a pale yellow-skinned gargoyle with hair of light pink and light blue. I liked being at home when changing forms, because I didn't have to worry about torn-up clothes that way.
"Maybe if I dye my hair…" I thought as I stared at my odd-colored poofy-spikey hair. "Nah, it'd just change back with the next sunset."
I never liked the way I looked as a gargoyle. My coloring wasn't normal. I mean I'd seen yellow gargoyles, but none in the pastel shade that I was. And hair colors were always normal. Some black, some brown, and occasionally some white. There were even some that had no hair at all, but it was still normal. And they were always just one solid color. My hair was in patches of light pink and light blue.
On other gargoyles, the flaps of their wings were simply another shade of their skin color. Mine were fuchsia pink, hardly a match for my pastel yellow skin. The color of my eyes, being red, was one of only two things about me that never changed from night to day, and even that wasn't normal. My ears were split into three pointed parts, appearing as three separate parts of the same thing. The horns on my elbows weren't even normal. They looked like they were put on backwards. On any other gargoyle that had elbow horns, they pointed upwards to the shoulders. Mine pointed downwards away from the shoulders.
I turned around and looked at my back. Etched in black on the base of my back was the second thing about me that never changed. A strange design tattooed on my back. To me it was proof that there was something strange about me, because I had it since the day I hatched, and I knew that tattoos were not things you inherited genetically.
"Just what the hell am I?" I wondered in thought, as I always did while looking in the mirror.
I then looked away, picked up my clothes, and put them on. I headed out to the living room, sat down on the couch, and turned the TV on.
"You know, Gold, you're probably gonna look the same every night," Vaala said to me from the kitchen, where she was doing dishes.
"What do you mean?" I said back as I held the remote pointed at the TV.
"I mean there's not much point in staring at yourself in the mirror as long as you do. Just how vain does a person have to be to stare at herself for hours?"
"Oh, shut up!" I yelled as I started flipping channels.
It was almost to ten at night on a Sunday, and as usual there was nothing on. I flipped through the hundreds of channels on our satellite system, and ended up watching a program on a local station I could have watched without paying for the service.
"Figures," I groaned, "The only thing worth watching is a show I could've watched for free."
"Oh come on," Vaala replied, "It's not like you never watch the cable channels, you know, like those animes we watch late at night on the Cartoon Channel. Besides, if we didn't have the satellite service, you'd have to try and watch it through a bunch of static."
"I know, but whenever I'm just trying to find something to watch, there's never anything to watch. And when there is, it's always on a local channel."
"Maybe you should find better ways of killing time."
"Like what?" I asked.
"Like maybe helping me try to find other gargoyles."
"As soon as we come up with how we're gonna go about this. We have no way of knowing where these clans are until it's too late and their shattered remains are all over the nine o'clock news. And even if there are survivors, we have no way of hauling their statuesque selves over here, and I can't leave the apartment at night without getting shot at. And since you're a human living in this country, I don't think you'd have much luck convincing them to come here with you."
"Well, we've gotta do something. We can't just sit here and let all this happen. We've gotta come up with a way to get around all that."
"Yeah, like a solution to our problem is just gonna come knocking on our door."
Right when I finished saying that, there was a knock on the door. Vaala and I fell silent and stared at each other for a bit.
"We weren't expecting anybody, were we?" I asked.
"I don't think so," Vaala replied.
Then they started knocking again.
"Should I get it?" Vaala asked.
"Give me a head start," I answered as I got up off the couch and headed to my room. I went in and almost closed the door, leaving it open a crack so I could see the front door.
I gave the all clear, and Vaala opened the door.
"Yes?" she greeted, "Can I help you?"
"Aye, is this the residence of Vaala Marsaille and Gold Demona?" answered our mystery guest with a VERY thick Scottish accent. The voice sounded female, but I could barely tell.
"Uh, yes?" she answered.
Then there was a faint beeping coming from the guest.
"Good," she replied and shoved her way in.
She was a tall thin human woman wearing a white lab coat. She had pale skin and reddish-brown hair that spiked upwards from a leather strap she had wrapped around her head. The strap suspended a pair of thick glass lenses in front of her eyes. She shoved Vaala aside and shut the door.
"Hurry, before the timer runs out!"
"Ah! Hey! What timer?"
"I'll show you," she answered and checked her wristwatch, which turned out to be the source of the beeping. A moment later, her image flickered and faded away, revealing a thin female gargoyle of pale cream skin.
"Whew! What a relief," the strange visitor said. "i thought I'd never make it before my cloaker expired."
"You're what?" Vaala asked.
"My cloaker," she repeated, pointing to her wristwatch, "It allows mt to appear human for a short time, but I'm afraid five hours is the limit."
"Oh, a cloaker!" Vaala clarified.
"That's what I said! A cloaker. But I haven't introduced myself."
She held her talon out for Vaala to shake.
"Professor Mac Hen, at your service."
Vaala reluctantly shook it. "Ok?"
"I know this must be very awkward to you, lass, but your grandfather insisted on me coming to help you."
"My grandfather?"
"Aye, your grandfather, Alexander. He sent me here to help you find survivors."
"Alex sent her?" I thought.
"Agh! Don't tell me Alexander never told you I was coming."
"No, he never mentioned you."
"Agh! Did he at least tell you to build the empty room for me?"
"The empty room?"
"Aye, eight by six meters, those were the exact dimensions. Unless you converted them to feet and inches, in which case I'd have to kill you."
"Metric units," I thought.
"Wait wait wait! Hold it! Slow down," Vaala said, "Ok, my grandpa did tell me to build a room by those exact dimensions and stressed preciseness, but he never told me why we were building it."
"Will, now you know. It's for me to set up my laboratory."
"Yer what?"
"My laboratory. To do my scientific studies."
"Oh, a laboratory."
"Aye, a laboratory. What, you don't speak English?"
"Oh shut up. Gold, come out here!"
I opened the door and walked out.
"But it was so much fun watching."
"Ah, Gold Demona," our new guest greeted as I walked out. "Nice to finally meet you. Professor Mac Hen."
She walked up to me and shook my talon.
"Nice to meet you, too," I said, eyebrow raised. "So, you're a professor, huh?"
"Aye, that I am."
"What do you profess?"
"Oh, anything and everything. Ah taught only half of the science courses at the university in Scotland I taught at. I'd teach all of them if I could master splitting myself in two so so I could be in two places at once, but unfortunately, Ah haven't worked all the nickers out of that. None of my test subjects ever survived my experiments."
Vaala and I just stared at her as she spat all that out. I didn't know what was more disturbing. The fact that she was such a brilliant scientist, the fact that she was teaching so many science classes at this university, or the fact that she actually experimented in trying to be in two places at once.
"What? They were frogs and mice. I wouldn't test it on intelligent subjects. I may be a wee bit crazy, but I'm no mad scientist."
"Could've fooled me," I thought to myself.
"Could've fooled me," Vaala said out loud.
I nudged her with my elbow, accidently poking her with my elbow horn.
"OW! Hey! Those things are sharp!"
"Agh! Anyway," The strange science professor said, shaking her head. "In order for me to help you, I need to set up my lab."
"Uh yeah," I replied. "I'm guessing you wanna see the empty room."
"Aye, that's where the lab will be."
I looked up at Vaala, who looked up at me, eyebrow raised on both our faces.
"This way," Vaala said and turned to the TV.
"Hang on a sec, Vaala," I raised my hand before she could move. "Excuse me, Professor."
"Agh! Call me Mac," she replied.
"Yeah. Mac. Excuse us a sec."
She crossed her arms and stayed silent. I then turned back to Vaala and yanked her aside with me.
"If she's really here to help us, then why didn't your grandpa mention her to either of us?" I asked.
"Grandpa only tells me things he thinks I should know about."
"And the fact that he sent somebody we don't know to us isn't one of those things you should know about?"
"Yeah. He has a strange sense of what I should or shouldn't know. But in the end it usually turns out ok."
"Usually?"
"Ok, it always does. Anyway, I got a feeling about her. I'm pretty sure she's telling the truth. And besides, who else would know about the empty room my grandpa asked me to build. He made me build it for a reason. And she's Scottish. The metric units make sense now. They don't use feet and inches in Scotland."
"Alright, I'll trust your judgment. I just hope this isn't a mistake."
"The only mistake that's happening here is that I'm standing here waiting for the two of you to finish your debate while entire clans of gargoyles are being killed."
Vaala and I slowly turned back to Mac, who was glaring at the both of us.
"Honestly, lasses. If you're going to whisper about someone, The least you can do is try to whisper instead of speaking at the top of your lungs. And it's only you goofy backwards Americans that use feet and inches."
We both let out a nervous chuckle.
"Why don't we show you to your lab?" I said as I picked up the TV remote and dialed in the code.
"Yeah, times a-wastin," Vaala continued as the TV swung away from the wall to reveal a hidden passage.
The three of us stepped inside, and we showed her the door to the empty room that Alex had us build. It was the only room in the whole building with a fifteen-centimeter-thick steel door.
"Here it is," I announced as we arrived.
"Steal door. Nice," she said as she walked up and opened the door. "Exactly fifteen centimeters."
She then looked up around the room, pointing around and nodding as she went.
"Excellent," she said after a whole minute. "Everything is just right."
That's when I noticed something.
"Wait a minute," I said, "How are you gonna set up a lab if you didn't bring any equipment."
"I'll get to that in a moment," she answered as she pulled something out of her labcoat pocket and started hitting buttons on it.
"What are you doing?" Vaala asked.
"Just a minute," she answered as she set whatever it was down on the floor in the center of the room.
After adjusting its position, she got up and bolted out the door, shoving us out with her.
"Hurry! Get out!" She yelled as she slammed the door behind us.
"Ah! Hey!" I reacted.
"Is shoving people through doors something you do a lot or something?"
"Only when I'm getting in or out in a hurry," she answered and pulled out a pocket watch.
"What was that anyway?" I asked.
"Something I invented a long time ago. It's so I can transport my lab without having to pack my heavy equipment. It transports the entire room instantly. Only thing about it is that the destination room has to be the exact same size as the original."
"Hence the metric units," I said, looking back at Vaala.
"Exactly," Mac said, still staring at her watch. "Three, Two, One."
There was a loud boom from inside the room that made both Vaala and me jump.
"What the hell was that?!" Vaala shrieked.
"That was the lab," Mac answered as she turned back around to open the door, "I think it may be done now."
She opened the door and stepped inside.
"Ah," she sighed in satisfaction, "Just as I left it."
We stepped behind her into a room cluttered with electrical equipment. Along the one wall on the right-hand side, there were test tubes, beakers, and all kinds of other glass containers arranged in no apparent order ontop of a counter that ran the length of the room, as well as the cabinets above it. Along the other wall, on the left-hand side, there was a collapsible metal stretcher with white padded cushions and a small hospital-variety pillow. In the back wall of the room the counter from the right-hand side continued across the width of the room. Taking up space in the center of the room was a large metal table that had all sorts of papers and tools piled ontop of it. In the left-hand corner, a couple feet from the bed, was a large machine that I could only guess was a computer.
Mac sat down on the rolling chair that was in the room and rolled across the room to this machine. It showed video footage of some kind, though it didn't seem like the kind from a stationary camera. It looked more like a camera that was mounted on somebody's head.
"What's with the surveillance video?" Vaala asked as we followed Mac to the computer she went to.
"This is video feed from a robot I built a year or so ago."
"Cool, you built a robot?" Vaala replied.
"Aye, I was attempting to create a robot that had a personality of it's own, similar to today's companion computers."
"Oh, you mean like the iFriend and the AmigoPC," Vaala clarified. "Computers with emotional responses built into their operating systems, each with a different personality depending on the operating system and the settings you put it at."
"Like the ones that have errors on purpose when their mad at you?" I asked.
"That's just the ones that have asshole personality operating systems."
"So you built your robot with a personality operating system?"
"Aye, I did. And after that, I sent him out to gather information for me. And to help me download software I'd otherwise have no way of getting on my own."
"So he's your spy," I said.
"Well…" Mac sighed, "That was the intent. However, it seems as if I installed an operating system ill-suited for this sort of work."
"What do you mean?" Vaala asked, "What operating system did you install."
"Well, only because I had no idea what it stood for, I installed the L.A.H.O.S."
Vaala then busted up laughing. I had no clue what L.A.H. stood for, so I didn't see what was so funny.
"Oh my GOD!" Vaala said while still laughing, "You gave 'im THAT?!"
"What?" I asked, still not getting it, "What is the L.A.H.O.S. operating system?"
"It's only the worst possible personality ever for a spy," Vaala replied.
"Well?" I asked, impatient for the answer.
"L.A.H.O.S. stands for Lazy AssHole Operating System. The robot's a lazy asshole."
"Bite my shiny metal ass!" Yelled a voice from the computer speakers as a set of horizontal lines started waving on the screen with each syllable.
"Your ass hasn't been shiny in months, Bender, and you know it."
"It's shiny enough," it replied, making the lines on the screen wave and shudder again. "And for the last time, it's Bender, not Bindar. I don't care how thick your stupid accent is."
"Bender?" I replied, eyebrow raised. "What kind of a name is Bender?"
"That's the name I came with, toots. If you don't like it, then screw you!"
"Agh! Enough! Did you get the software I asked you for?"
"Funny you should ask," Bender answered, "I met this real fox of a computer while I was in the military building. Don't ask how I got in. Ok, I bribed 'em, and gave 'em some crap about killing lots of gargoyles, and then I took their wallets after they let me in. Suckers. Anyway, this foxy computer had a job that was really important to the government. Though at the time she didn't have any personality, I knew she wasn't happy. She's got no appreciation for all the work she's been doin'. Anyway, we met. We interfaced. One thing lead to another, and before you know it we were exchanging beautiful programming together."
"I don't give a rat's ass about your sex life, Bender. I just asked about the software I asked you to get for me."
"I was just gettin' to that! It turned out this lovely lady was the scanning computer that was scanning the country for gargoyles so the government could go and kill 'em. And since we've been intimate with each other, I have her scanning program, and she has my operating system."
"You gave her the L.A.H.O.S.?" Mac asked with a chuckle.
"Actually, the fusion of my operating system into hers created a new hybrid OS called the L.B.O.S. Lazy Bitch Operating System. So she's just as lazy as I am. You can bet yer wings that gargoyle slaughters won't happen so often now."
"Bender, I could kiss you!"
"Another bottle o'that Scotch you have in your mysteriously infinite stash will do just fine. Just have it delivered to my place and we'll call it even."
"Scotch?" Vaala and I said at the same time.
"Aye, he drinks scotch," Mac replied and looked back at us with a grin on her face.
"And beer. I like beer, too."
"How does a robot drink?" Vaala wondered out loud.
"And what's the point?" I followed.
"To answer both of those," Bender said, "I don't know and I don't give a damn. Just send me the Scotch and we'll never speak of this again."
"Why don't you come over here to get it?"
"What? And move from this spot I've made myself comfortable in? Hell no! The only reason I ever do anything for you is because of that Scotch. Besides, you're like hundred thousand miles away."
"I'm in New Liberty, Bender! I'm only a dozen or so kilometers from you."
"Yer in New Liberty? Well, that explains the clarity of yer audio, and it also explains the company. I take it they're the two idiots you were talking about that needed your help because they suck."
"What?" Vaala and I said at the same time.
"Are you trying to make me look bad on my first night here?!" Mac yelled at the screen. "That's not what I said, and you know it!"
"Yeah, I know. 'They require your assistance in seeking refugees.' Meaning they don't have a clue what they're doing and they need your computers to track 'em down, preferably BEFORE they get slaughtered. Conclusion, they suck."
"Agh! Just shut up and give me the software, Bender!"
"Fine! Take it! It's not like I got any use for it!"
The lines on the screen then flickered away and were replaced by an image of two computers standing side by side, connected to each other. One computer was sending something to the other.
"Shit, he really IS an asshole," Vaala commented.
"No kidding," I agreed.
"He's always been like that," Mac replied, "But in the end, he always pulls through for me. Mostly because I pay him in scotch."
The computer then flickered to a green screen with white text that read 'Transfer Complete' and made a dinging noise.
"Finally," Mac said and rubbed her talons together. "Now to see if it works."
She pressed a sequence of keys, and the computer reacted by changing the screen to a map of New Liberty.
"Excellent," Mac said happily, "This should tell us the location of every gargoyle in the country."
She then pressed a button and there was an error message on the screen.
"What?!" Mac yelled.
"Heh," Vaala laughed, "Maybe ya should've gotten a Mac, Mac."
Mac then turned around and glared at Vaala, looking up over her glasses through her lowered brow.
"There is nothing wrong with the computer. I just didn't expect that it would not be able to scan the entire country at once. The most it'll scan at once is a large city, such as Cybertown off to the east."
The map then zoomed in on a city twenty miles to the east of Paradigm City.
"Cybertown?" I repeated, "Why there?"
"There was a news broadcast not long ago tonight saying that there was a gargoyle slaughter there."
"Maybe if you weren't channel surfing, Gold, you would've caught that," Vaala said, nudging her elbow into my arm.
"Shut up!" I said.
"I've got a reading!" Mac interrupted as the screen blinked a red arrow orbiting a specific point on the screen. "Looks like there was a survivor."
"Are you serious?" Vaala and I both squealed in disbelief.
"Aye, but just one. He's standing right in the middle of the scene of the slaughter. Just standing there."
"He's probably grieving," Vaala said, "Poor guy."
"We have to get to him before the Hunters do," I pointed out.
"Aye, Agreed," Mac agreed, "But before you go anywhere, you're going to need a cloaker."
"A cloaker?" I replied, blinking my eyes at her.
"Aye," she answered as she rolled her chair over to one of the other tables in the room. "You can't go prancing about the country looking like that."
She picked up in one talon a small vial and something else too small for me to see. She turned to me and held up her empty talon.
"Your talon?"
I placed my right talon into hers, and she brought her other talon up and jabbed something into my claw.
"Ow!" I reacted and tried to pull my talon back, but she had a firm grip on it. "What the hell?!"
"I have to take a sample of your DNA so I can make a cloaker for you," Mac answered as she held the vial up to my bleeding claw and squeezed out some of my blood.
"What?" I asked as she plugged up the vial, placed it behind her and then picked up a bandage to put on my claw.
"The cloaker makes a human image based on the genetic code of the gargoyle. A little bit of your blood is all it takes."
"This should be interesting," I said, wondering what image the cloaker would make for me.
After Mac finished bandaging up my claw, she turned around and placed the vial in a slot on some machine that kind of resembled a computer. She opened a cabinet underneath it and inside were many cloakers nearly identical to the one Mac was wearing.
"All those are cloakers?" Vaala asked.
"Aye, but they're blanks," Mac answered as she picked one up from the cabinet and placed it in its own slot on the same machine she placed the blood in.
"How come yours doesn't look the same as all of these?" I asked.
"It's a prototype," she said as she flipped a switch on the machine to get it running.
The machine made some noises and some text came up on the screen. I couldn't understand what it was saying. I assumed Mac did since she built the thing. After about a minute or so, the screen went blank and a light came on in the slot where the cloaker was.
"Finished," Mac said as she picked the cloaker up from the machine and handed it to me. "Try it."
I put it on my right wrist and looked at it for a bit. It looked just like a regular wristwatch. It even told time, which was a very handy function. As far as anyone knew, it was just a wristwatch.
"How does it work?" I asked.
"There are two buttons on the cloaker," she said. "The one on the bottom that twists is the watch. The one on top in yellow is the cloaker. Press the button to activate it. Press it again to turn it off."
I looked and saw the two buttons she was talking about. the twisting one for the watch, and the yellow one for the cloaker. I pressed it, and I saw holograms shooting out of it and completely enveloping me, hiding all my gargoyle features and making me look like a human, but something wasn't right.
"That's not right," Vaala pointed out. "That's not what she looks like as a human."
"Do you have a mirror?" I asked, staring at my talon, which now looked like a human hand, but not the one I had every day.
"Aye, I'll get one," She said with a puzzled look on her face as she dug around under one of the desks. After a few seconds, she came back up with a hand mirror in her talon. She then handed it to me so I could look at myself.
I had light tan skin with pink and blue hair and red eyes. My face looked just like it always did in my gargoyle form, but with human features.
"That's weird," I said with an eyebrow raised, "This looks like what I SHOULD look like when I'm human, but it's not. I look nothing like this."
"Ah, Alexander told me that you became human during the day. This isn't anything like what you look like, you say?"
"Nope, I'm a light-skinned blonde. And my facial features are completely different. The only part of this that's right is the color of my eyes."
"If you'd rather, I could have you get a blood sample during the day so I can make a cloak image based on that."
"That would work better for me, actually," I said as I pushed the button to turn the cloak off.
"In the meantime, I can let you borrow one of mine," She said as she opened a drawer off to the side, pulled out another and handed it to me. "With hair like that, you stand out too much."
"And this is coming from the one whose glasses are held by a leather strap around your head," Vaala pointed out.
She glared at Vaala for a moment and then looked back at me.
"It has the DNA of one of my students. I took samples of all of my students before coming. I'll give you one more for the gargoyle you're off to find, and then I'll make one for him when you bring him here. Remember that they only last five hours, so I suggest you waste no time when you turn it on."
"Right," I replied as we swapped cloakers.
I put it on my wrist and turned it on. The image was that of a young girl in her twenties with light tan skin, long brown hair and brown eyes with a pair of glasses.
"Yeah, that looks like a science student," Vaala pointed out.
"This'll work," I said, "So now we go to Cybertown?"
"Aye, it's only two hours from here to Cybertown if you take the bus. So you'll have an hour to find him before you have to start on your way back."
"Right," Vaala and I said together as we turned around and started out of the lab that just over half an hour ago was nothing more than an empty room.
As we exited into the apartment, I turned to Vaala.
"We are sure we can trust her, right?" I wanted to make sure.
"Gold, I have a really good feeling about her. She's not a bad person. Really weird, perhaps, but not bad."
"Alright, as long as you're sure about it."
We then stepped out of the apartment, locked the door behind us, and headed out.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(A Two-Hour bus ride later….)
I really didn't feel comfortable being out on the streets at night, even with the cloaker on. I kept my wings caped and my tail tucked under me so I wouldn't touch anyone with them.
"Relax, you're fine," Vaala assured me, "You're gonna draw attention to yourself if you keep stressing out like that."
I leaned up to her and whispered.
"Yeah, you try being a gargoyle in New Liberty. See how relaxed you are then. And just because I got this cloak on doesn't mean the sensors can't pick me up. We don't know just how lazy that computer got, you know?"
"Alright, fine," She whispered back and dropped the subject. "I wonder where he is anyway?"
"I guess we should've asked where the slaughter was, huh?"
"We could ask around."
"You ask, I'll be right behind you."
"Fine."
After a bit of asking around, we ended up ontop of one of the taller buildings in the city. There were taller buildings around on one side, and shorter building around the other side. We froze in place as we were stunned by the scene before us.
Stone fragments were scattered throughout the entire surface of the roof. Some talons, some wing fragments, some pieces of tails, some segments of faces. When I got a good look at one that was almost whole, I noticed a look of terror.
"They came just before dawn," I said in disgust.
"Fucking bastards," Vaala sobbed. "They purposely came right before they went to sleep. They knew they were going to die."
"Come on," I said as I grasped her by the shoulders and started our long walk through the rubble.
I rubbed her arms as we walked. I'd already known the horrific sights of these massacres because the media loved flooding the news with video footage of them. Vaala was obviously not prepared for it.
"I'm sorry," She sniffed and wiped some of the tears from her face. "I wasn't expecting it to be this bad."
"They hate gargoyles here," I explained, "It's not enough just to kill them. They have to suffer, too. That's how it works."
We kept walking through the endless piles of broken stone until we found something live amongst the dead. A large male gargoyle covered with silver feathers, one of few gargoyles with wings like a bird, and he had the feet and tail to match. He had a doglike head with a short snout. Around his eyes and cheeks was a mask of thick skin. It sort of reminded me of a raccoon. This skin was also what his long, canine ears were made of. And his wings and tail ended in large golden-brown feathers.
He wore an old worn-out suit of armor, probably an heirloom. He was down on one knee, with one talon on his armored chest and the other in a fist down on the floor. His head was pointed so far down, he looked like he was looking at his own chest, which could very well have been the case if he didn't have his eyes so tightly shut.
"Why?" He growled as we approached, "Why must we suffer such cruelty?"
He looked up and saw us.
"Please," he said, "End my life now so I may join my brothers and sisters."
Vaala, now in even more tears, walked up to him and just hugged him. He didn't react.
"It'll be alright," Vaala said, "We're gonna help you."
His face then softened, and his wings lowered.
"Are you saying that there is hope?" He asked, "That there is more to look forward to in this horrid place than death? That there are actually people that are willing to help us?"
"At the very least we'll help you," Vaala sobbed. "Come with us."
"What is your name?" He asked.
"Vaala Xanatos," she answered.
"Xanatos," he repeated, his tension dropping drastically, "Of course. I will go with you."
"What's YOUR name?" I asked as I knelt down in front of him.
"I am Silverbolt," He answered with a sob as his face hardened again. "I once led this clan."
I suddenly felt like a huge lump went into my chest, and I knew Vaala felt the same. I never had a clan or a family of my own, but I could imagine that the worst way to lose it would be if you were the clan's leader. Like a parent losing all of his children, his parents, and his friends. A Shepard losing his entire flock.
"How did you survive?" I couldn't help but ask.
"I foolishly went on a patrol too close to sunrise." He growled as tears ran down his face, "I could not make it back in time. My foolishness saved my life, but it cost me my clan. I left them to die alone, abandoned."
"It wasn't your fault," Vaala assured him, "There was nothing you could've done. You would've died along with them if you stayed with them."
"Perhaps that would've been the better fate for me."
I looked down at my watch to see how much time we had left.
"I have two hours and fifteen minutes left on my cloak," I said to Vaala, "And the trip's two hours. We have to go."
"Right," Vaala sniffed as she got back up and pulled the extra cloaker out of her pocket. "Here, Silverbolt. Put this on."
"What is this?" He asked.
"Watch," I said as I pressed the button on mine once to turn off the cloak and once again to turn it back on.
Surprised, he got up to his feet as Vaala put the cloaker on his big feathery wrist. "And what is your name, my lady?"
"Gold Demona."
Vaala then pressed the button and Silverbolt was cloaked into the form of a young man in his early twenties.
We left the scene and headed back home.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(A Two-Hour bus ride later….)
We were really cutting it close on my cloak. I only had five minutes left when we were finally walking around the corner of the block our apartment building was at. As we passed one of the alleyways, I noticed a small boy and a large white dog sitting in the alley, leaning on the wall. What caught my attention was that the boy was staring at us as we passed.
We were in such a hurry that I didn't pay it any mind. At least until I noticed that they were following us, the small boy riding on the large dog's back.
"What's up Gold?" Vaala asked as we kept walking.
"There's a kid and a dog following us," I explained.
"Perhaps he is looking for a place to stay." Silverbolt said.
We then stopped and turned to the boy and his dog, who were not far behind us. He was a small human boy of light-skin, light brown hair, and jet black eyes. He wore a white suit shirt with a bright green vest, matching bright green shorts, and an orange bowtie. Over all that he wore a blue hooded cloak. His dog looked like a white greyhound on steroids. What was weirder was that tied to the dog's collar was a bright red cape.
"Are you lost, little boy?" Vaala said sweetly.
"Are you gargoyles?" he asked in a whisper. "Or do you at least have a safe place for gargoyles?"
"What…" I replied as the three of us tensed up. "Do you mean by that?"
"And don't say neither," The boy said, waving his arms in front of him. "Krypto's nose doesn't lie and I can sense other gargoyles with my magic."
"Wait…" Vaala said, "Other gargoyles?"
"Yeah," Said the boy as he wiped his hand up his face, revealing the face of a small gargoyle boy. He wiped it back down and was human again. "We're disguised so nobody can see us. And I put a charm on our capes to keep the scanners from seeing us."
"Why are you wandering the streets?" I asked.
"Our clan was killed months ago. We were playing in an alleyway when the sun went up. Since then I've been practicing my magic, making better spells to keep us hidden from the Hunters."
Then I heard a beeping noise from my watch.
"SHIT!" Vaala screamed. "We have to go!"
We then bolted towards the apartment building.
"Hey wait!" The boy screamed behind us as his dog carried him, easily keeping up with us.
I didn't know how long it would beep before dying, but I didn't want to find out. We ran and ran and finally into the apartment building and straight for the elevator. Vaala pushed the thing as quick as she could.
"Come on, come on, comeoncomeoncomeon!!!" She willed as we waited impatiently.
The doors finally opened and we all jumped inside. The doors shut, and I was at ease. Then I noticed that the watch had stopped beeping, but my cloak was still on.
"Hey, what gives?" I wondered out loud. Then I felt a tug on my still invisible wing.
I looked down and saw the little boy, seemingly holding onto thin air where my wing actually was.
"You didn't have to panic," he said, "I can hold your cloak as long as we're touching."
"Is that why you ride on your dog like a horse?" Vaala asked.
"That's part of it," He answered. "Another is that he runs a lot faster than me. Since it's suicide to glide around here, we keep to the ground."
"Smart lad," Silverbolt said.
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. We stepped out and went to the apartment. Through the living room, and into the hidden penthouse, where stood a very worried gargoyle.
"Where the hell have you been?!" She shrieked, "I told you not to waste time! The cloaker cannot last more than five hours!"
Then she noticed the cloak still on.
"Hold the phone," she said and looked down past me. "Ah, now I see. You picked up a little sorcerer. And a dog."
"Apprentice Wizard, thank you very much!" he spat with a gruff tone.
"But this was not the survivor I picked up on the scanner."
She looked up and saw Silverbolt, standing behind us.
"Aye, this is the one," she said as she walked up to Silverbolt and took off his cloaker. "You did well, lasses. Three survivors in one night when we were only looking far one. Well, don't be shy, lads? Tell us your names?"
"My name is Silverbolt," he said with a bow.
"Markl," said the boy as he removed his cloak completely from the both of them. "And this is my best friend, Krypto."
"Rar!" Krypto barked.
Markl was actually a small lavender-colored gargoyle with light brown hair and jet black eyes. His brow ridges each had two small spikes sticking up through the bangs of his hair. His wings were not on his back but were in the form of webbing from his arms to his legs, the kind that would be opened by lifting his arms straight up.
His dog, Krypto, was even bigger in his true form. He was a large white gargoyle beast, thinner than most, but still bulky enough to knock down some walls. He still kind of looked like a greyhound on steroids, but with a more dragon-like nose instead of a dog's nose, a brow ridge above his eyes, and long pointy ears that flopped down. The clothes were all the same for both of them.
"Well," Vaala said as she looked over to the clock and then yawned. "It's getting to be close to sunrise, and we gotta get up to go to work in four hours."
"Don't remind me," I groaned.
"What?" Markl asked, confused.
"I'll explain it to you guys, tomorrow. Right now we have to go to bed."
"I'll show them to the sleeping quarters," Mac said as she stepped aside to let everyone in. "You lasses have had a busy night and need your rest."
"Alright, Mac," Vaala said as the three newcomers walked in and Mac started to shut the TV-door behind them.
"And Mac?" I said just as she was halfway shut.
"Aye?" She replied and held the door half-opened.
"Thanks," I said, "For everything."
She only smiled, nodded and finished shutting the door.
"See? What'd I tell ya?" Vaala said, nudging me with her elbow. "I told you we could trust her."
"I know. I know," I said, "It's just so weird."
"What, that we got four gargoyles moved in here in one night?"
"Yeah," I answered, "We're finally getting somewhere."
"'Bout time."
"'Bout time."
"Lets get to bed, even though we're only gonna get four hours."
"Shut up," I said as we both went to our rooms and prepared for bed.
I took off my clothes and waited for the sun to rise. I could see some of the light starting to stream through the curtains of my window as my insides began to crawl around.
Changing forms didn't hurt, but it sure as hell felt weird. Having been through this my entire life, I should've been used to this weirdness, but I wasn't. I never got used to it. It was always weird. Having limbs appear, disappear and rearranged. Organs appear, disappear, and rearrange. Although I knew everything was secure, it always felt like my organs were ready to spill out at any moment because they moved around so much.
I clutched my gut as one of my claws on each talon split into two fingers and the rest of my claws just shrank into place. My horns, wings and tail shriveled away and my fangs flattened down. I could see my yellow skin change into a light peach color and my pink and blue hair change to blonde. The only things that stayed the same were my bright red eyes and the designs tattooed at the base of my back.
When all was done, I looked in the mirror, thinking about all that went on the night before.
"Why did the cloaker's image of me look so much different?" I thought to myself. "Why does everything about me have to be so complicated?"
I then heard a knock on my bedroom door.
"Hey, Gold!" Vaala yelled through the door, "Don't spend the whole morning looking in the mirror! You have to get some sleep!"
"I know! I know!" I yelled back and reached for my pajamas.
I put them on, set my alarm.
"Four hours," I thought, "I need to start taking naps."
I flopped down on my bed, and fell asleep nearly instantly.
