Aside from clocks sporadically placed on walls around sections of the Labyrinth and its various dwellings, AJ did not know how anyone down here knew when it was night or day, and like everything else he did not really care. But apparently, Malibu and the other gargoyles kept good time down here despite being out of the Sunlight to turn to stone, which he had always heard gargoyles had to be in the direct light of.

Whatever, AJ just leaned against the broom handle as he waited for the gargoyle statues to come back to life with a slunk in his posture, barely taking notice of the gathering small crowd of mostly young children and some adults who always daily watched in wonder at the approaching spectacle.

In an area known as the Labyrinth Crossroads, at each large open passage that lead to other yet undesired or as yet unexplored parts of the ever crisscrossing tunnels of an endless underworld maze, a gargoyle statue stood in a fearsome pose in order to deter away would be intruders, a tradition long held for millennia by their proud race. However to AJ, had he not known better, they simply looked like weird statues that he usually ignored. Now as he waited for whatever was supposed to happen, his gaze kept wandering over to the slate grey stone statue of the hot female gargoyle Malibu had called Delilah. He had to admit even as solid stone she was still really hot, but she will always be way hotter when alive.

Moments passed like an eternity to AJ, but then something really weird and spectacular began to happen and his eyes widened in astonishment. Cracks and chips began to form on the bodies of the gargoyle statues as a sound of breaking grinding stone signaled a most exciting display. The gargoyles burst forth from their stone shells in a chorus of loud roars rumbling from the depths of their throats, four sets of eyes glowed deep crimson and one pair a heavenly white as muscles flexed away hard stiffness to renew the spark of life to once more flesh and blood bodies. AJ stared at Delilah like a wide eyed moonstruck child as he watched the hypnotic way she flexed her wings and arms, being entranced by the interesting way it affected the movement of her buxom chest, barely aware of the applause by the excited young children.

While AJ's attention was fixed on Delilah, the image of her awakening forever ingrained into his memories, he hardly noticed Malibu come up to him happily after greeting the other gargoyles and the children that loved to watch the nightly awakening of their unusual nocturnal guardians.

"Hi, AJ," Malibu greeted enthusiastically with a smile on his prominent beak.

"Hunh? Oh, hi, green bean," AJ said with an obvious lack of enthusiasm as he shook himself out of his open mouthed gawking at Delilah.

"I happy to see you," Malibu said, "We see movie instead of learn reading tonight because it Saturday, and Talon say it a day to do fun things. You watch movie with me and brothers and other kids? It called 'Labyrinth' and I thought it about us, but Hudson say it a kid movie about strange way humans picture Third Race. I only see fairy or goblin of bad Unseelie Court from Third Race before but I know it be fun. Want watch with us, friend AJ?"

"Can't, green bean," AJ brooded, "I have to clean up your gravel crap as part of my damn 'community service', then I just want to go to bed and hope I die."

AJ then gave Malibu a hot narrow eyed look that made the light green gargoyle's wings shiver and his tail twitch uncomfortably.

"Why'd you sell me out?" AJ quietly snared, "I thought we were partners, I was gonna share the take with you."

"I gargoyle," Malibu said with heated defense, "Gargoyles protect, not steal. Stealing wrong and I not steal from ones I supposed to protect. I not be your stealing partner, I be your friend."

"Friends don't sell each other out."

"You do bad thing, and that not good. You not have to do bad thing again and I be your friend, my brothers and sister be friends to AJ, too."

AJ just gave a scoff, "You're wastin' your time, greenie, I don't belong in this underground freak show. But I did find that breaking out of stone show pretty bitchin'. Now I know what the echoin' shouts and roars are all about."

Malibu was taken aback for a moment as he said, "We not mean to scare when we wake up from stone sleep, but why you say bad words and it a bad thing?"

"I mean it was really awesome, one of the coolest things I've seen in my life."

Malibu gave a small smile as he said, "Thank you, AJ, why not say it cool and not use bad words? I not like bad words."

"Whatever," AJ huffed, "You go watch that stupid movie 'cause there's no way I'm gonna be done when it starts. Just somethin' else that shows how much it sucks down here."

Malibu's red eyes narrowed a bit with hurt anger as he said with a controlled hurt voice, "Living in Labyrinth good, it home. People with no home up there come to Labyrinth to be home and my clan protect people from bad things. It be your home, too. Watch movie with name like our home with us and see it good."

AJ just gave the green gargoyle a shake of his head and brush off wave of his hand as Malibu walked away, then began sweeping the scattered stone shell remains.

As the first pile was formed, a female voice said from behind him, "You shouldn't treat him so badly, he's only trying to be nice to you, AJ, we all are."

He turned to find the cute blond Lisa standing behind him, wearing her jeans and comfortable winter boots and a dark brown and fashionable raincoat, and a look of pity on her smooth skinned and oval shaped face. He tried to assume a charming and confident posture, yet it came off a bit arrogant as he said,

"Well, I know you and the green bean want to pal around with me 'cause I'm such a fun guy, but it's been my experience that it's always because people wanted something from me and I end up getting the short end of the stick."

"I'm sorry you feel that way," Lisa said with a sympathetic tone, "But all we want from you is friendship, nothing else. Without friends to care about you, life can be pretty crappy anyway, and if you can't trust your friends then who can you trust?"

"Nobody," AJ said bluntly, "I learned that lesson the hard way a long time ago. Cheating and stealing is the only way to get ahead if I was to survive."

"It doesn't have to be. And you said you've only survived but you haven't really lived, have you? There's a difference. You don't just have to survive anymore, AJ, you can live a good life down here. Let me, Talon, Malibu and the others help you live again, have some real meaning again and find some happiness. I know you're a good person somewhere deep down, and you must like it here in a way, because I'm sure you'd have run away a long time ago."

AJ just gave her a reserved yet brooding look as she said she will see him later and walked to the Community Room to join in viewing the cult classic kids' movie.

From another corner of the Labyrinth Crossroads, Talon watched with reserved stoic contemplation as he saw AJ sweep the gravel with an obvious begrudging hardness. The panther mutate leader momentarily considered lightening the former street urchin's sentence but immediately dismissed the thought because then AJ would not learn anything if Talon went too easy on him. Much of this spoke volumes to him from his law enforcement experience and career, a career he left behind and will never have again.

He had left behind a few good friends on the force, including his commanding officer and a mentor in Captain Chavez, whom he had only last spoken to on the phone during the Phoenix Rising crisis. Elisa had told him that she had also just been introduced to the Manhattan Clan above, but had respected her brother's wishes to not tell his former captain about the Labyrinth just yet.

Even before his mutation, Talon had always been something of a very private person. Some things were best left unsaid unless a proper time came, though secrets tended to be revealed too soon.

****Manhattan, 1995

The last several months in Derek's new career had shown promise and he actually began to feel he was going places; despite that first night of excitement with Jackal's and Hyena's attempted assassination of Mr. Xanatos and the revelation of the gargoyles, working for the multi-billionaire had quite a few perks such as seeing the testing and research into new technologies for non-lethal weapons development, space travel, robotics, and genetic engineering for medical research, as well as being a test pilot for prototype air craft.

Along with his budding new career and life style, he was dating and had become crazy about Nichole, the pretty, smart, and spunky waitress from Denny's who wanted to pursue a career in engineering and shared to a strong point Derek's interest in aviation.

Then all of a sudden, in one night it all seemed to come crashing down harder than a ton of bricks.

Maybe it all began with Elisa trying to convince him to leave his new job not 24 hours after accepting, and they got right into an argument after having captured Mr. Xanatos's would be assassins and meeting the unbelievable creatures called Gargoyles. At the time Derek was completely certain his big sister was just trying to control his life and would not allow him to live it the way he wanted.

Even in her off hours she had to be the cop instead of just being a sister.

Members of his family have always been over protective of each other, especially his parents with his father being a cop and his mother a school teacher, but also strongly because of their mixed heritage backgrounds; Diane Maza, an African American woman of Nigerian descent, possibly a descendent of runaway slaves from the South; and Peter Maza, the son of a Southwestern Native American, an honored Hopi medicine man and storyteller, a member of the Coyote Clan.

But that aside, while Derek was growing up his father would push hard for his only son to take up his father's legacy of going into law enforcement, possibly near to the point of leaving his son with little choice of anything else to do with his life, while his mother was more open and encouraging yet subtle in hoping one of her children might become a teacher like her. It was because of this more open and patient understanding from Diane Maza that Derek came to be closer to his mother than his father, often looking to her for advice and wisdom when he felt conflicted, knowing that all as any mother would want was for her children to be happy and have the confidence to make their own choices.

This was a strong reason why he chose to leave the force and go work for David Xanatos; yes the man had a white collar criminal record now but the multi-billionaire had admitted to his mistakes.

After that first attempt on Xanatos's life by the Terror Twins, as Derek later learned Elisa had come to call them, Derek had wondered about the strange creatures that had attacked them and allowed him to pilot Xanatos's personal helicopter to safety. His new boss soon showed him a recording of fantastic creatures called gargoyles and told Derek about the events of the night of the alleged 'exploding generator' not long after the completion of his newly acquired Scottish castle.

Xanatos had not known the gargoyle sculptures would actually come to life, as local folklore in the Wyvern Highlands said the castle was haunted, but Xanatos had dismissed it as local superstition. Quickly realizing the thousand year old Gothic statues were actually living creatures, he tried to help them adjust to their new surroundings but the clan had rejected his help as he made a few mistakes that greatly offended them and they left the castle for a new unknown lair. Though they had left the castle in Xanatos's possession, the gargoyles still kept an oath of protecting, and knew that they still owed an oath of honor to Xanatos for freeing them from an ancient 'sleep spell' and knew that by saving his life, in turn he will continue to protect their former home should they ever forgive him and chose to return.

It was all hard to believe, even as Xanatos showed him the evidence right in front of him, and Derek knew a forgery when he saw one even though he had been a police pilot instead of a forensic scientist.

What had been more surprising and even hurtful, was that his own sister Elisa knew of them and had even befriended them. Why they chose to trust his sister more than the man who helped them first did confuse Derek, but this was the least of his questions. Why his own sister did not tell him about them before might be a bit understandable, but he and Elisa were both on the force and she should have known she could have trusted her own brother to keep a secret as unbelievable as this. Of course he did not always tell his sister all of his secrets either.

But it also still proved that she did not trust her own brother enough to make his own decisions.

As their argument escalated into a near shouting match as Derek yelled at Elisa to butt out of his life at her incessant belief Derek's new boss was just using him, the big pale purple gargoyle appropriately called Goliath yelled for them to be quiet and stopped the human siblings' fighting. He pointed out how lucky they were to have each other in the first place and nothing was more important than family before walking away and being joined by the rest of his gargoyle comrades.

For a short while he and Elisa were quiet, contemplating what Goliath had just said and Derek deep down knew that weird giant monster was right. Elisa then told him, calmly of course, she admitted to being wrong about a lot of things and he didn't have to be a cop and did need to lead his own life, reassuring Derek's trust in her and feeling a sense of pride at Elisa finally showing a sense of faith in her younger brother.

Yet she was still irritatingly insistent about being right about Mr. Xanatos as she handed him a tape player and left the choice of listing to what it said up to him.

For a long while he just left it to gather dust in his new apartment's closet and moved on with his promising new career, and didn't even listen to it until a day or two after hearing about the Pack, a group of former TV stars turned career criminals, escape from Riker's Island Prison.

It was the same group Jackal and Hyena belonged to, as well as Mr. Xanatos's lady friend, Fox. Feeling confused and a bit angry, Derek cautiously but intently confronted his boss and his television star lover about what she and his sister had said to each other on the tape recording, unsure of what to think. Fox admitted to just messing with Elisa and telling her what she wanted to hear, and Fox always had something of a rebelliousness to authority figures since she was a kid who only wanted to have fun, though the part of only Fox knowing Mr. Xanatos was the boss and creator of the Pack was entirely true.

Because Fox had not been in her right mind when the Pack went rogue and fought the gargoyles as a publicity stunt and got caught up in the thrill and excitement, as well as stupidly taking a swimsuit model hostage, Fox chose to serve her sentence in jail and pay her debt to society so she could be with the man she loved and start with a clean slate by severing all ties with her former colleagues.

Feeling satisfied with Fox's answer, Derek asked no more questions but just did his job to the best of his ability and continued to impress Xanatos with his determination and resourcefulness.

Yet, Derek thought he had lost it all in one night as he took a bullet for Mr. Xanatos, or rather what he thought was a tranquilizer dart shot by one of Xanatos' own science employees from a genetic research lab called Gen-U-Tech, the creepy and obvious would be brother of Dr. Frankenstein Dr. Anton Sevarius.

Although eccentric, as Mr. Xanatos called the geneticist, Dr. Sevarius had an incredibly brilliant mind for genetic engineering and research and felt he could be beneficial for humanity and gargoyles alike. But when it was revealed Sevarius was using human test subjects to create gargoyle like creatures, Xanatos decided to have the project shut down and have a cure made for the mutated test subjects, but Sevarius wouldn't hear of it.

The dart had been filled with the mutagenic formula instead of anesthesia, and Derek began to gradually and very painfully transform into a monster, one he did not want his sister to see. Not until he was cured and human again, which Sevarius had been in the process of making until that blasted Goliath burst into the lab for no apparent reason and killed Sevarius by kicking him into the tank of electric eels.

His chance to be human again yanked out from his grasp in an instant and gone forever.

As he and his fellow mutates learned to use their new wings, again those damn gargoyles showed up at the castle and Derek seized his chance for revenge, certain Goliath was just as responsible for his current condition as Sevarius was.

Though Derek got the upper hand when he unleashed a powerful electric surge upon the mighty gargoyle, their fist fight was halted by the unexpected arrival of Elisa, holding her gun to him and commanding him to step away from Goliath, momentarily angered by her defense of the guilty purple beast and denied his chance for revenge.

Derek was a bit surprised and at the same time relieved Elisa did not even recognize the new winged monster standing before her as her own brother. Taking advantage of her ignorance he called himself Talon, briefly glancing at the ones growing on his now inhuman bestial hands.

But the deception did not last long as he crossed his heart in a promise gesture he and Elisa had always done since they were kids, simply out of habit. The wide shocked look in her eyes was exactly as he had feared; it was all he could do to hide behind his new wings as a shield futile though it was.

Again she blamed Xanatos, the very man who was trying to help him recover from what was clearly an accident, but Elisa believed Xanatos had always lied to her little brother. This just angered Derek so much, energy sparked and surged from his body as Elisa touched him, stunning her as she fell to the ground. Derek realized a moment too late what he had done; he had only wanted Elisa to stop her continuous lecturing and antagonizing of his boss, not hurt his own sister.

The newly mutated Derek could only scream his grief, shame, and anger to the sky before running away, the feared and shocked look in Elisa's eyes to forever haunt his conscience and his dreams, he was now the monster she saw him as and he was made to be.

Elisa will hate him forever, just as the newly proclaimed Talon hates Goliath for what he did to him. He will never be human again and he can never go home.

****Labyrinth, the Sanctuary, Talon's office, Present day, late February 2000

Talon gave a quiet sigh as he begrudgingly listened to Xanatos, a brooding frown colored his felinoid features. Ever since his former boss showed his true colors, Talon was cautious to near the point of being paranoid with Xanatos and any of his intentions. He always hated admitting when he was wrong to anyone, especially his older sister, but she always had the decency to not rub it in his face, though there was the under tone of I-told-you-so in her voice and facial expressions for a short while after Derek had made a big mistake. But like any member of an unusual family she let it pass in time and was there for her little brother.

Despite Xanatos being a bit more open and honest with his former bodyguard, Talon could still tell from his demeanor that Xanatos prided himself as a suave but cutthroat industrialist in the business world, and beneath that masked a resourceful and cunning trickster any in the Third Race would consider a worthy rival and not one to be underestimated.

"I know it's not your area of expertise, Talon," Xanatos said, "but with everything that's going on in the city, it would be appreciated if any information any of your people overhear is passed along and brought quickly to my attention, whether I'm in person or it's visits from your sister, one of the clan, or even Owen."

Talon's facial fur seemed to bristle a bit as he went over Xanatos's request in his head, as simple as it was he couldn't shake a nagging suspicion that there was more to his former boss's plan than he was telling.

"Let me see if I understand you right, Xanatos," Talon said, not trying to even hide his personal suspicion, "You're going to be throwing a fundraising charity benefit to raise donations for the Renard Foundation, which is supposed to be attended by some of the richest people in the city, and you're asking me to have some of the people I'm supposed to protect to risk their necks for you to keep their ears to the ground about any criminal activity about any of the city's crime organizations or this Obscura drug that's rumored to be going around on the streets."

"I know it's risky, Talon," Xanatos said too casually, "but several guests at this fundraiser we know to be dangerous criminal kingpins with strong connections on the streets. I wouldn't put it past any of them to pull something during this fundraiser, which is why I need your help. No doubt you're aware of the city's gang war going on right now, and there must be plenty of new people arriving into the Labyrinth every day who are greatly affected by it seeking refuge in what's rumored to be the 'safest homeless shelter in the city'. Well it's affecting much of the city's businesses as well, both multi-national corporations such as Xanatos Enterprises to small local businesses like the dying mom and pop stores."

"I'm an ex-cop turned flying panther freak living in the sewers, I protect and give a home to other outcasts and misfits who can't protect themselves. I hardly know anything about business functions despite that 'promising career' you gave me a few years ago," Talon said with a slight growl.

"You don't have to, but there may be some people down here who do and that's the advantage we have. There're dirty secrets whispered in the seediest back alleys of the city no one in the underworld wants overheard, and homeless people are always overlooked or ignored because it's assumed they're too stupid or naïve to understand what's going on but we know better. What someone like Brando or Tony Dracon doesn't know is that someone like me has other kinds of reliable sources besides ones of internal business affairs and intelligence gathering."

Talon glared at his former employer with a strong hint of insult and begrudging as he growled, "I was your bodyguard, Xanatos, I'm not your spy. Until Dr. Goldblum cures me and the others I can't even show my face in public and can only go out at night. Why don't you ask the gargoyles to help you? After all, they're living under your palace roof."

"They already are, in their own way, but they have different priorities that happen to coincide with some of my interests. I know you have few reasons to trust me, Talon, but this is in both of our interests. I have reason to believe that it's all connected and somehow Thailog may be behind it since he took over Nightstone from Demona."

Talon's frown deepened and his brow furrowed further as he contemplated what Xanatos had said. He finally gave a deep rumbling sigh of resentment and conceded to Xanatos' request.

"Fine, Xanatos, I'll play along and see what I can do," Talon said with a growl, "But if anything dangerous happens to any of my charges" The panther mutate held up a razor sharp clawed finger to the dark haired industrialist's face right in his line of sight, but Xanatos continued to stand with confident arrogance and didn't even flinch "I will personally hold you responsible, and don't expect money to solve everything because people down here expect more than just reimbursement. I also want to know what this is all really about, because I don't like being kept in the dark and I know there's more to this than what you're telling me."

"For now it's all only on a need to know basis, but I can tell you yes, it's supposed to be a trap as well as a fundraising benefit for the Labyrinth. But the trap is for those who mean to do deception towards my company and the city. But if you're worried I'm not on the up and up, Talon, if it puts your mind at ease Captain Chavez is going to be there, too, if you knowing someone you once trusted will be there to 'keep an eye on me.'"

The Labyrinth Clan leader gave Xanatos another hard glare as he began to escort the powerful businessman out of his office and to the entrance above ground, passing a disgruntled young man sweeping up a corner of the Crossroads area. Xanatos eyed AJ with a fleeting curiosity while he looked at the two older men with clear rebellious resentment.

"A big job for just one person, isn't it?" Xanatos quipped with a bit of humor, though it passed over Talon as he remain stern faced.

"AJ is doing community service for thieving crimes," the black furred panther mutate said with a hard look to Xanatos, "We're not as backwater and anarchic as most people would think down here, even in the Labyrinth we have rules."

Xanatos just quirked an eyebrow, he never doubted that but let the subject pass.

"Anyway," he continued, "anything you can find out, even if it's just rumor I want to know about immediately."

"Yeah, yeah," Talon groaned, "keep my ears to the ground about any criminal threats to your party at the museum."

As the two older males left the Crossroads AJ watched them with a resentful glare, but it quickly became a sinister smile as a thought came to his scheming mind. Even on the dirty backstreets of New York's seediest neighborhoods everyone knew who David Xanatos was, a man so stinking rich he could buy a country's monarchy or over look a newly printed 100 dollar bill on the side walk of 5th Avenue as most people over look a dirty penny. What the rich guy was doing down here in this crap pile and hanging out with the panther man AJ did not know, nor would he usually care but he did know Xanatos' company owned the so-called homeless foundation that runs this place.

How awesome would it be to get his hands on even a quarter million of the rich guy's deep pocket mulla, but even better it would be so bitchin' to just have a chance to get a sense of payback from one of the high class rich snobbish bastards who he blamed for the death of his late mother.

This lead to thoughts of his current predicament, of how those in a better position than him always had to tell him what to do or thought they knew better than he did, a stupid little boy for them to exploit. His time in foster care shaped his views of human nature as his negligent guardians made him and his foster mates perform slave labor work or overlooked the kids ruckus fighting about who was in charge of their little group. He got thrown to the wolves several times until he learned he had to find another to be a sacrificial lamp if he wanted to keep his skin, and he finally understood if he wanted something he had to take it because no one was going to get it for him. Out on the streets he made some friends he knew he could count on for a time when there was a job too big for one person, and at least a sense of fun came from their crime spree for a time. But even his street buds knew and understood it was every man for himself, especially when it came to being busted by the police. The damn police, who always ruined everything and never understood how hard the gritty streets really were and always just wanted to put AJ and his street buds down with their dominating authority.

Just like Talon was doing to him now.

Well, no more, AJ has had it up past his head with the slave work he had done for the past three days forced upon him by the panther man. It wasn't like he was hurting anybody or had stolen a lot of the money, he just needed enough to pay back Baby Face Frankie and he was almost half way through. Damn it, it was not like he could just go to a bank and make a withdrawal from a personal account like most people.

As much as AJ tried to refocus on finishing cleaning the gravel and stone shards from the ground, the thought had galvanized itself into his mind and sustained him with determination and a growing sense of renewed need for revenge and self satisfaction. Five minutes later, he made his choice. He threw the broom down with a hard wooden clank and began speed walking his way through one of the side tunnels of the Crossroads, passing a few people who looked at him with confusion and curiosity, but he completely ignored them as though none of them even existed.

Had either of his supervisors, Thug or Claw, been awake at that moment they would have stopped him before he even took five steps, but his evening supervisor was the wino Al who just tried to step in front of AJ with an out stretched hand to stop the younger man and tell him to get back to work unless he wanted to get into more trouble with Talon. But AJ just shoved hard at the old man to get him out of his way, but the old wino was more tenacious that AJ thought as the old man grabbed his upper arm to stop the younger man from leaving too soon. Without a second thought AJ just punched the old man hard enough to make him dizzy and fall to the ground with a hard bodily thump.

By the time Al recovered and was able to stand up again as his head cleared from a swimming dizziness, AJ had ran down a known side tunnel and was out of sight.

Al knew the Boss Cat was not going to like this.

AJ had run down a dark tunnel he had come to know down here and kept running until he found a man hole he could climb to. He peeked through the open hole in the street and saw he was not far from a part of the city he had known for a long time.

He didn't even bother to replace the manhole cover as he ran down the dark and deserted city street, and didn't even look back.