Gargoyles: Pendragon

The Swords and the Sun

Part IV

June Sixth, 1997

Hildegard Hellstrom burst through the doors of the Diogenes Club, storming past several dozen indignant stuffily dressed old men.

"Miss you can't be in here," one man attempted to say, but Hildy stormed past him angrily, ignoring him entirely. She grabbed the man attempting to block her's fingers, and with a swift cracking motion, broke them.

She then stormed into the private room at the very back of the club.

A tall man—Seven feet tall, at least—covered with scars was standing in the room, talking to the other man.

The other man was rather short, and dumpy. He casually reclined in his chair, and took puffs from his cigar. A bowl of jellybeans sat on the table next to him. A pin on his lapel depicted a pyramid with an eye over it.

"—and that is why I feel that I should be given an opportunity to speak with this 'Coldstone' on my own. I feel that it's vital that we learn how…"

The tall, scared man stopped speaking as Hildy stormed up to the man in the leather chair.

"Where is it?" Hildy demanded.

"Ahem," the smoking man said. "Miss Hellstrom. Formalities must be observed."

"Of all the asinine-," Hildy raged angrily. "Fine, 'M'. THIRTY. Are you happy?"

"Eighteen," the scarred man said, almost reflexively.

"Three," M said. "Now. You have a problem, Miss Hellstrom?"

"You know damned well that I do! Where IS it?"

"Where is what, Miss Hellstrom?" M replied. "The Society keeps track of over a thousand artifacts and magical objects at any given time."

"And when the time is right," Hildy said. "You swoop in and take them. Now where is it? Where is the führer's symbol of power? WHERE IS THE SPEAR OF DESTINY?"

"Last time I checked, Austria," M said casually.

"The REAL spear, not Charlemagne's fake." Hildy said.

"As I recall," M said. "You smuggled it to Brazil as your first assignment for the Society."

"Ja," Hildy said. "Where it was stolen last month by Demona's henchmen, taken to her home in New York and reunited with the Spearhead after fifty-two years. Where she tried, and failed to use it to destroy humanity—failed—and after that, the spear just up and vanishes. I think not. This stinks of your handiwork, M. One of your layered plans. So many low level operatives in New York. Xanatos, Thailog, Castaway, that Gargoyles Task Force cop? Any one of them could have been conscripted to reclaim the Spear in the aftermath of Demona's defeat. The WHOLE Spear. My Führer's Spear."

M put out his cigar in the ashtray next to his jellybeans.

"The Spear is back in its rightful place," he said quietly. "Where it belonged from the beginning. Where it never should have left, but did. It's enough that it is safe. Leave it alone, Miss Hellstrom."

"It is not enough," Hildy said. "You know full well that I've been petitioning the Society for years to start up my Fourth Reich and take back the world, and make it rightfully Aryan."

The tall, scarred man regarded Hildegard with an air of disgust, but said nothing else.

"My plan…my proposal hinged on finding out where Ravencroft hidl the spear tip," Hildy said. "Now that we have it, we can set my plan in motion."

"Patience Miss-," M started to say.

"I have been patient for 52 years," Hildy snapped. "It is time to set right what once went wrong."

"We disagree," M said. "It is not yet time for the Fourth Reich to begin. Not as long as men and women who remember the Third one still live. Wait a few more decades, until—,"

"I will not wait anymore," she snapped. "I want justice. Restitution. I have been skulking in the shadows for fifty-two years!"

"And Duval has been waiting one thousand, four hundred and fifty five years," M said. "You can wait three more decades to—You're going to interrupt me again, aren't you?"

Hildy was boiling.

"You've been stringing me along, haven't you?" she demanded. "A half a century of lies to get me to fall in line. I may have moved up six ranks, but you're still feeding me the same bullshit that you feed to all the little Thirty-Sixes. The lies you tell to keep them in line."

M took a deep breath and sighed heavily.

"If you won't help me," she said. "Then I'll do it myself. Without your help, and without the Spear."

"Is that why you contracted Anton Sevarius to learn about the viability of Armored Mutates?" M asked, and suddenly Hildy was off guard.

"You knew about that?" she gasped.

"You will find, my dear," M said. "That there is very little that goes on that I do not know about."

"It doesn't matter," she said, "You made an error M. You taught me how to play your little Society's long game. Well now I can play it too. I'll have control of Europe within a decade."

"Adam," M said, turning toward the scarred man. "Would you be so kind as to escort Miss Hellstrom out of the building. She's becoming a bother."

'Adam' quietly walked up to Hildy, grabbed her arm, and forcefully shoved the German woman out of the room.

M pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number.

"Three," he said over the phone. "Just as I predicted, Duval. You leaked the information about the Spear to her, and she was in the Diogenes Club within a month. She will unleash her Neo-Nazis upon the world, and likely cause quite a bit of carnage and chaos in the process."

"Yes," M replied to the voice on the phone. "It will probably take a few years; she did learn patience from the Society. Not enough patience, mind you, but patience enough to serve her. What I still don't understand, is why you wanted me to activate this particular plan right now."

"A distraction?" M wondered. "A distraction for whom?"

Duval said nothing more, and M closed his phone, just in time for Adam to walk back into the room.

"Ah, excellent, Adam. Now…you were saying about Coldstone?"

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March 11th 2004

Orange lightning erupted from Hildy's blade as she tossed the sword sheath aside. She pointed the blade at Arthur, and the orange magical energy surged at him.

In a heartbeat, Arthur grabbed his scabbard and held it up, the lighting slamming into the scabbard, which glowed blue and absorbed all of the energy.

Hildy surged forward and struck at the Once and Future King with her sword, and Arthur parried with Excalibur. Blue and orange lightning surged through out the cabin. And suddenly alarms began to go off as the craft began violently shaking while loosing altitude.

"No!" Hildy shrieked as the small pile of swords slid across the cabin and right out of the door to the craft.

"NO!" she screamed angrily, and more orange lightning erupted everywhere.

Her eyes snapped open, and she glared at him, angrily.

"Do you have any idea what you've cost me? How far you've set my plans back by?"

She angrily raised her sword and rushed at Arthur. Arthur raised his sword again, preparing to parry, and once more trigger an explosion of power from the two opposing magical blades striking.

It didn't happen. Hrunting was blocked by Sakura's katana, as the gargoyle had now intervened. Orange lightning shot up the ordinary sword blade and arced into Sakura's hands. Her eyes glowed red, and she gritted her teeth in pain, but she did not yield. She surged forward, putting pressure on the sword and forcing her opponent back.

"Japanese Demonbreed!" Hildy spat. More orange lightning arced up the sword, and suddenly Sakura's katana shattered apart. Splintering into shards of steel that went flying all over the interior of the craft.

Hildy grinned and struck at Sakura's now vulnerable neck with her sword. And would have hit it, if Arthur hadn't taken the opportunity to step in again, blocking parrying Hrunting with Excalibur.

The Explosion of orange and blue lightning sent Sakura and Arthur tumbling through the open doors of the hovercraft, plummeting to their doom.

Sakura kept a level head about her though. Knowing better than to flare her wings at these speeds (and getting them broken for her troubles) she pointed her head downward and dove after Arthur, grabbing hold of him and catching him under his armpits. She then quickly, but methodically unfolded her cloaked wings and caught the wind, like a parachute.

Arthur, for his part remained calm until they witnessed the hovercraft slam into the ground below them and exploded.

"Tea!" Arthur exclaimed!

"Kawa!" Sakura said as well.

"Glad to know that you care," Kawa said, gliding up to them from above. Tea was in her arms, back in human form. Tea's hands were covered in mutate blood.

"I liked that rifle," she muttered "It was custom."

The two gargoyles glided to the ground.

"Are you all right?" Arthur asked Tea.

"I'm fine," she said. "And hopefully that bastard racist mutate learned a lesson."

"I doubt it," Arthur said. "In my experience, those whose eyes are blinded by hate do not learn from violence returned to them."

"A fair point, your majesty," Tea nodded. "But hopefully, I at least made him suffer for his…well, let's call it an ill-chosen word."

"Of that, I have no doubt," Arthur agreed. He turned towards Sakura. "And you, I owe my life. You helped me recover my blade, as promised, and you saved me from Hrunting's dark magic, and from the fall from the craft. I am twice indebted to you. If I can ever repay you…"

"Actually," Sakura said, looking at the hilt of her shattered katana.

"Of course," Arthur said. "Your blade. I will commission a replacement from the finest sword-smith in Japan."

"Domo," Sakura replied absently. "But there is something else. Something you can do for me…and I can do for you. We could do for each other?"

"You have but to name it."

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Griff was fast. Tex was faster.

Before Griff had even managed to raise his lightning gun level with the mutate, Tex had fired his particle gun at Griff's talon.

The English gargoyle let out a scream of pain, dropping his own weapon, which clattered, along the floor. Griff gripped his now burned talon in pain.

"Looks like I win," Tex said, grinning.

"Yes," Griff said, his eyes glowing white. "You are the better shot. It's undeniable. But I have other talents."

With a roar that shook the whole vault, Griff suddenly surged forward and grabbed both of Tex's particle guns, picking them up and crumpling them up in his talons. He then grabbed the mutate by the edges of his armadillo-shell lifted him up, and threw him across the room.

Tex slammed into the nearby wall and looked up at Griff, who had picked up Kusanagi in his left talon, while wincing in pain, and squeezing his burned right talon reflexively.

"My wounds will be gone at sunrise," Griff said. "Will yours?"

"I reckon not," Tex said grinning. "But I've still got one more ace up my sleeve."

An alligator mutate slammed into Griff from behind him, shoving the green gargoyle to the other side of the room.

"Where the heck were you, Nigel?" Tex demanded. "That freak took out all four of my Pangolins"

"Sorry mate," the gator-mutate apologized, Griff taking note of his thick cockney accent. "I had some trouble getting past the gargoyles on th' outside of the temple."

"Just grab the sword and let's go!" Tex yelled.

"I think not," Griff said, holding Kusanagi up in front of him.

"I've had just about enough of you lot," Griff said. He unsheathed the sword.

The straight, narrow blade of the 'Grass-Cutting Blade' began to glow green, and suddenly a massive gust of wind began to pick up in the temple.

"What's all this then?" the alligator demanded.

"I don't rightly know…" Tex started to say, but was interrupted by the wind picking him up and slamming him into Nigel.

A giant swirling windstorm was now raging inside the Ishimuran temple vault. Griff stood at the center of the storm, unfazed by it, holding Kusanagi straight up in the air in front of him.

The wind was now battering the two mutates into each other, and around and around the vault room in a circle.

Griff sheathed the sword, and the winds instantly died down. Tex and Nigel tumbled to the ground, completely unconscious. Griff walked up to the pair, and then frowned, noticing a specific symbol tattooed on Nigel's left shoulder. He hadn't spotted it before, under the green scaly skin, but now that he could see it, he couldn't not see it.

A German Swastika.

"Nazis!" He snarled, angrily. His eyes flickering.

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"That's all the swords we found, sire," Tea said. "Fifteen. Sixteen were stolen altogether. One is missing."

"That would be Hrunting," Arthur said grimly. "The Viking sword that the woman wielded within the craft."

Fleur landed Arthur's hovercraft behind the warriors.

The doors slid open.

"Who even were they, anyway?" Kawa wondered.

"Nazis," Fleur spat angrily.

"Griff's enemies from the Second World War?" Arthur said, his eyes narrowing.

"I witnessed the Rhino-Mutate from France escape with Hildegard Hellstrom. Hildy was recruited at the end of the Second World War to serve as the leader of the Illuminati's more…fanatical branch. Someone to control and direct racism to serve their own ends."

"That is sick," Tea said.

"Why do you think I quit the Illuminati," Fleur said. "My biggest regret is that I didn't do eet sooner. "

Arthur gently placed a hand on Fleur's shoulder, and she softened slightly.

"The Illuminati is many things, but racist isn't one of them. That doesn't mean that they won't manipulate or use racism or racists to serve their end goals, however."

"The problem is that hate that extreme," Arthur said. "It's difficult to control."

"Actually, Arthur," Fleur said. "You're quite wrong on that account. All the Illuminati has to do to control that sort of fanaticism, is point it at the right target."

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Hildy clutched her sword close to her side, her anger boiling over as she saw Blanchefleur exits the hovercraft. A broken, badly bleeding Panzer leaned up against a tree.

"OF course," she spat. "HER. Of course the Illuminati are trying to stop us. But that's fine. We can handle them."

"With all due respect," Panzer snapped. "No we cannot. They have SIXTEEN magical swords over there, and we have one. I say it's time for a strategic retreat, because we can't beat them in this sorry state."

"Agreed," Hildy said, never taking her eyes off of Fleur.

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"Sakura…can we talk?" Griff asked the Ishimuran gargoyle.

A full night had passed since the battle. The temple was still in pretty bad shape, but Griff's wounds had healed.

"Of course, Sir Griff," she said, formally greeting him by his knightly title. This raised a flag in Griff's mind, but he wasn't sure why.

"Look," he said, hesitantly. "I know that…I know that you've been attempting to catch my attention. Lord I'd have to be blind not to notice. And…It's not that I don't think that you're an amazing bird, because you are. You're incredible, and I love spending time with you, and…I'm not sure how to put this."

"I understand," Sakura said, placing her talon on his arm.

"Sir Rory told me about Una," she said.

"Did he?" Griff muttered.

"I know that you are not over her. I will…I will back off."

"Look," Griff said. "My emotions on this matter are rather complicated. And the fact is, I may never actually be able to sort them out. I may never be ready for that sort of relationship ever. And I want to be fair to you. I don't want you spending your life waiting for something that may never happen."

"As I said, Sir Griff," Sakura said. "I do understand. I…I am not thrilled. But I do understand. So long as it does not affect our professional relationship."

"Right," Griff said. "Wait…What 'professional relationship'?"

"Bushido dictates," Sakura said. "That a samurai can gain honor, through service to an honorable Daimyo or Shogun."

Arthur, Fleur, Tea, Parvati, Rory and Kai entered the courtyard. Sakura bowed, and stepped forward, taking a katana borrowed from the temple armory, and holding it in front of her.

"I pledge my sword and service to you, King Arthur Pendragon," Arthur drew his blade as Sakura spoke.

"Then with this sword, and by my hand," Arthur said. "I dub thee, Dame Sakura. The Tengu Knight."

Griff was utterly speechless.

From above them, Kawa launched herself off the back of the temple and glided away. Over the forest behind Ishimura, over the river and the lake, landing quietly next to a hovercraft with a different logo emblazoned on the side. A half-moon with a circle within it.

A dark-skinned woman of around 19 years of age stepped out of the craft, alongside a dark-skinned gargoyle with shock-white hair, and Tex, the mutate Armadillo.

They all regarded one another with silent glances and stepped into the hovercraft.

A screen lit up on the wall, and shadowed figure surveyed the motley group.

"Thirty-Six," Kawa said.

"Thirty-Six," Thailog echoed.

"Thirty-Five," Tex muttered.

"Nine," Shari said.

"Three," M said leaning forward in his seat. "So…You're all here. I can assume then, that everything went according to my plan?"

"More or less," Kawa said. "They got away with one of the swords, but all the others have been recovered."

"I'll let you know Hildy's next move, as soon as we can figure out a good cover for how I escaped from the Ishimura pokey," Tex said, tipping his hat.

"One other thing you ought to know," Kawa said. "King Arthur has a new knight."

"How interesting," M said.

Never the End…