Chapter Ten: Justice
"What have I done?" Nick repeated in agony. He slammed his hand against the floor in frustration, cracking the mortar with the fading vestiges of gargoyle strength. Anger rose in his heart, but he smashed it down; rage had caused nothing but pain. Nick slowly stood up, and no sooner had he taken his feet, than a blue fist crashed into his face. Broadway pulled his fist back for another strike, but by the time his hand made it there, it had nothing to hit. The sorcerer reappeared five feet away, checking to see if his jaw was broken. When Broadway charged at him, he quickly decided that it wasn't and called out, "Stop!" Instead of slugging him in the face again, Broadway just grabbed him by his shirt and lifted him off of the ground. The look in his glowing eyes said that he had better have an amazing explanation.
"Listen, I deserve all of the horrible things that you want to do to me right now, I really do. Wait, wait, wait. But right now we both want the same thing. Wouldn't you rather take out the head, instead of just the hand?" he pointed to himself at the last word.
"What are you talking about?" Broadway growled right in his face, giving him a good shake.
"Solomon, my old master, he's the one that told me about what Hudson did. Wait, don't! But the thing is, he's been hired by Xanatos to take you guys out. He used me to start the job. All I'm asking is that you help me atone for what I've done."
"It's going to take more than this to make up for it," Broadway growled, dropping him from a good three feet.
"I know, but you gotta admit, it's a pretty good start," Nick replied, smoothing out his shirt. His did it to stop his hands from shaking. The gargoyle bent over and picked up the discarded sword, sliding it into his belt. "We're going in hot, you ready?" Broadway nodded, and before he could blink, his entire environment shifted around him. It was almost enough to make him sick, but by the time they landed, his stomach was settled. They were now in the mage's study, with all of its jars, beakers, and books. Leaning over his spell book was Solomon, acting as if he hadn't even seen them. But he knew they were there, and they knew that he knew. Broadway took a look around him, and quickly spotted something very out of place in the environment. Not that he really knew what to expect in a magician's study, the Magus had never allowed anyone in his rooms, but he suspected that the cage in the corner of the room shouldn't be there. What really tipped him off though was the fact that creature inside of the cage was his rookery brother, Lexington. "So how's this going to go?" Nick asked, his eye scanning for magical threats while Broadway's scanned for physical ones.
"What did I teach you, my boy? Always let the enemy act first, it allows you to predict what they're going to do," the master tutted.
"Yeah, and I remember another rule of yours. You can't make friends though mind control," Nick replied, running through his list of spells in his head. Broadway shot him a look, nodding ever so slightly to the cage in the corner of the room. He would have gone already, but he understood the tension of the situation, and he didn't want to aggravate it any further.
"I didn't mind control you, my boy. The only thing I did was keep you angry. What you did while in your rage, you cannot blame on me," Solomon said offhandedly, flipping a page in his spell book.
Nick nodded to Broadway's glance, his hand flexing. "Watch me!" the sorcerer shouted, launching lightning from his palm. As he did, Broadway leaped over the counters and bounded across the room. Before his lighting reached its destination, Solomon had activated the amulet that hung around his neck. A personal energy field erected around him, stopping the bolt cold. The field was tuned into the magical signatures of several different magicians, and Nick just happened to be one of those people. It essentially made him immune to the sorcerer's magic.
"Now, now, we can't have that. I'm just going to have to punish you," Solomon said with a yellow-toothed smile. He flipped the page of his spell book one more time, then began to cast. Nick listened to the words that flowed from his mouth, trying to get a sense of what the magic would manifest as. He heard something about leaves, and cutting. That didn't sound too good to him. The many colored leaves of autumn appeared around him, swirling around as if caught in a whirlwind. A single leaf brushed against his arm, slicing right through his sleeve and skin. Then another cut into him, on his cheek, just below the gash from Elisa's bullet. More and more leaves were manifesting around him, which meant that he had to find some way to defend himself.
From the corner of his vision, he saw Broadway trying to find some way past the electric bars of Lexington's cage. If he were a gargoyle, he wouldn't even have to worry about these pathetic little leaves. That's an idea, Nick thought, kneeling to the ground as two more leaves cut into his leg. Two arcane words left his lips, stone and armor. The stone floor leaped up around him, settling around his body. With his stone armor in place, the leaves were free to have at him, since they had no hope of cutting him. But as he heard the magic wind die down, he realized the great folly of his spell. Now that he was incased in stone, he couldn't move to break himself out. Nick cursed himself; he had to think things through. "Well now, my boy, what are we going to do with you now?"
"If you've got any ideas, I'd love to hear them," Broadway said to Lex as he tried to break his rookery brother from his cage.
"I haven't really had time to examine this thing, I was too worried that he'd turn me to stone again!" Lexington rebuked. The cage was designed like the one Hudson had described to them from when Xanatos had captured him. Its bars were made of solid light, electrically charged and as hot as a laser. Lexington suspected that all of the wiring was in the top section, but there was an inch of steel between him and it. Besides, if he did escape from this cage, he was trapped in a room with a powerful magus. He'd rather stay in the cage. "What happened?" Lexington asked as Broadway fiddled with the panel on top of his cage, "Why do you have Hudson's sword?"
Broadway's hand fell on the hilt of the sword, "We're not sure what happened here, but Nick went back to the clock tower and attacked us. Attacked Hudson more specifically. He kept us back with his magic, and-and," Broadway had to stop for a second, taking his mind off of it by playing with one of the wires. With a talon, he severed the wire, causing the cage's bars to fade away. "He stabbed Hudson in the gut. Elisa's working on him, but…I don't know."
"I didn't see too well, but Solomon cast a spell on him. Do you think that he's controlling Nick?" Lexington asked as he stepped out of his coop.
"No!" Broadway growled without hesitation. "He admitted that he's guilty, and he's going to pay for what he's done. So are Xanatos and this Solomon." As his rant wound to a close, a shimmer appeared right next to him, quickly forming into a translucent image of Nick.
"Hey, guys," the image said, its voice slightly hollow, "I kinda got myself in a pickle here, so if I could get some help, that would be great." The image vanished with a shimmer just as it had appeared. Both gargoyles looked over to see the sorcerer entrapped in stone. Solomon stood over his frozen form, in the midst of another casting.
"You think we can just smash through him?" Lexington asked as they bounded across the room.
"If not, oh well," Broadway replied, his eyes filling with white fire. He leapt from one of the counters, landing right on Nick. The stone shattered under his weight as if it were glass. At the same time, Lexington flew at Solomon, but he never made it. Solomon called out the last words of his spell, turning it upon Lexington instead of Nick. A spectral hammer manifested out of thin air, striking the flying gargoyle right in the chest. With all of the wind knocked out of him, Lex was thrown clear across the room. Ironically enough, he landed right back in the broken cage.
It seemed that the hammer was a one-time weapon, for it faded as soon as it was used. Solomon flipped to the next page and began casting. Upon hearing the words, Nick raised his hand from his place on the floor and issued a torrent of red flames. But just as before, the amulet protected him.
"It's really no use, my boy," Solomon said with a wave of his hand, "Your magic is useless against me. I know you're smarter than this, so just give up. I'll even spare your life out of the memory of your apprenticeship."
"And the gargoyles?" Nick asked, taking his feet. He was acutely aware of Broadway's eyes boring into his back.
"I'll have to kill them. Xanatos hired me to do a job for him, and I always finish what I've started," Solomon replied. He turned his attention back to his spell book, restarting the spell from the beginning. As the energies condensed in front of the magus, Nick couldn't help but feel completely helpless. His magic didn't work, and that was his one and only weapon. Asking him to fight without his magic was like asked the gargoyles to fight without their hands. Solomon spoke the last words and sent a large ball of rolling fire after them. Nick raised his hands and sped through the words of his ice spell. Frost sprayed from his palms, slowly dousing the flaming sphere. Like the same side of a magnet, the two opposite elements pushed away from each other, driving him back. He increased the intensity of his frost spell, increasing the force that pushed him back. By the time the flames were extinguished, Nick had been driven halfway across the room. Broadway grabbed him by the shoulders, using himself as a brace to prevent being pushed back further.
Nick looked at the work of his spell after the fire had been put out. A large section of the room was covered in ice, but standing in the middle of it all was Solomon, completely untouched. "This is hopeless," Nick said, just loud enough for Broadway to hear. The gargoyle's grip on his shoulders tightened till it was almost painful.
"Don't give up on me now," Broadway said, his grip becoming even tighter. "Let's play catch the magician." Nick nodded, and Broadway let go of his shoulders. Immediately, the sorcerer vanished, reappearing right in front of Solomon. Broadway's words had reminded him of something. Even though his magic was completely useless, he could still fight like a normal person. He grabbed the spell book and threw it to the floor like a bully picking on a nerdy kid. Solomon's hand immediately went for the amulet, most likely to prevent him from ripping it off, but when it came to magic, it was better not to take chances. Nick jumped back, out of the range of the magic dampening field, and teleported again. This time, he reappeared in the air, and came down with a drop kick to his chest. It was the exact same move he had used on Hudson barely a half hour before, only now, his head was clear enough to use it on someone who deserved it. The kick threw Solomon back, right into Broadway's waiting arms.
Broadway grabbed the magus in a bear hug, crushing the air from his lungs. He would just hold on long enough for him to lose consciousness. Enough people had been hurt today. He looked over at Nick and gave him a 'job well done' nod. But Nick's response was not what he expected. Instead of a thumbs up or a smile, it looked like he was shouting, "Look out!" Blinding pain shot up his back, causing him to drop the magician. He dropped to his hands and knees as his head swam from the pain. Metal feet marched past him, and Broadway knew the red paint job well.
"I bought you a gift, Solomon," Xanatos said, holding out a roll of yellowed papers in his metal hand. His voice sounded hollow inside of his metal helmet. The winded magus took the papers greedily, shuffling though them as his own spell book lay discarded on the floor. Sure enough, they were the same pages that Nick and Broadway had left scattered across the rooftop.
"Oh, yes, these spells are amazing!" Solomon exclaimed, his voice filled with childlike glee. "Now that I have the Gremorum, killing these pests will be pitifully easy."
Elisa sat by Hudson's side, right across from Bronx. The poor beast hadn't left his side the entire time. While she had managed to stop the bleeding with some tight bandages and more than a little reliance on the gargoyle's own constitution, she still wasn't sure about how he was doing. Hudson had passed out not long after she had worked on him, most likely from too much blood loss. It didn't look good. Goliath came and took a knee beside her, "How is he doing?"
"I don't know, Goliath, I just don't know," she held the unconscious gargoyle's hand. It wasn't as warm as it should have been. Now that she thought back, Hudson had said that he was cold. But gargoyles didn't get cold. "I wasn't trained for any of this, no one on earth was. The Captain has to be looking for me, but I have a good excuse. It just happens to be one that I can't tell her. But it will all be worth it if everything goes okay. You hear me, I don't care how old you are, you're sticking around a little longer." She squeezed his stone cold hand. A sudden warmth enveloped her as Goliath's wing wrapped around her shoulders.
"I hope so, lass," Hudson croaked, his hand tightening back. Bronx let out a whine, nudging his other hand. It responded weakly, rubbing the beast's snout. "Is that you, Goliath?" He tried to lift his head to look, but didn't have the strength.
"Yes, we are all here, except for Lexington and Broadway," Goliath replied.
"Where is my son?" Hudson asked, reaching up and grabbing Goliath's arm.
"We are all your sons, old friend," Goliath said. As the oldest among them, Hudson was regarded as the father of the clan. But he shook his head as hard as he could manage.
"Don't feed me that, lad," Hudson replied, his grip tightening on Goliath's arm. "Where is my son? Where is Broadway?"
Xanatos slammed Broadway against the wall, holding him there by his neck. Blood trickled down from his eyebrow, a nice scratch from when that metal hand had cracked his head against the floor a minute ago. The other steel fist came up, but instead of smashing into his face, a compact laser blaster unfolded from the wrist. Broadway tried to wave it away, but Xanatos just knocked his hand away and aimed again. He was still weak from being shot in the back, so there was not much that he could do. Thankfully, he was not alone. Lexington dropped onto Xanatos' back, ripping the laser right off of his wrist. Using the sudden distraction, Broadway slammed his fist into the elbow of the arm that held him, bending it the wrong way with the force of a sledgehammer.
Xanatos' cry of pain made his helmet ring. Thankfully, his arm was not broken. The suit was designed to take most of the damage of any blow, so it bent and buckled before his bones snapped. With the press of a button, the steel arm would simply slide off, giving him back free range of movement. But before he was able to shake the twisted piece of metal off, Lexington was on him again. The small gargoyle dug his claws into his helmet and tore the piece off. Without its protection, Broadway was free to slug him right in the face.
"You know," Lexington said, holding the torn helmet at arm's length, "I've never quite understood your Goliath envy. This thing looks just like him. Do you think that this suit makes you as good as him?"
"It doesn't," Broadway growled, cracking his knuckles, "You and your robots will never be as good as us. 'Cause we just keep getting better."
Xanatos wiped the blood from his lip with a smile. "So do I." His smile split his face as he reached down and pressed a button on the wrist of his remaining gauntlet. Both gargoyles heard a single beep before a crippling pain brought them to their knees. Electricity snaked around their bodies, originating from a device planted on each of them during the fight. Only the size of a quarter, the small electrodes were located on the back of Broadway's left shoulder and the inside of Lexington's right leg. The pain was intense, and it paralyzed their muscles, leaving them helpless. With that annoyance taken care of, Xanatos turned to help his employee finish up the remaining piece of trash.
Nick was teleporting around the room like mad; doing everything he could to dodge his master's new favorite attack. Taken from one of the pages of the Gremorum, it released a black ray that reduced anything it touched to ash. If he so much as brushed that beam, there was little doubt that it would kill him. He vanished again, narrowly dodging the black beam. It struck the wall behind him, carving yet another deep grove in the stone. The most Nick had managed in return had been a few lightning bolts, not that they had done any good. Reappearing on one of the counters, he ducked as another beam shot over his head.
"Stand still!" Solomon shouted in frustration. It was terribly irritating, being given these new toys, yet being unable to use them. No matter, he would just switch to a different spell. He shuffled to another page, his face splitting with another yellow-toothed smile. "Mr. Xanatos, you may want to leave the room. It is about to get very dangerous in here."
"If that's your professional opinion," Xanatos said with a grin. Without so much as a glance back, Xanatos strolled from the room as if he wore a business suit instead of robotic armor. During the exchange, Nick had popped over to the pained gargoyles, removing the electrodes with one of his summoned daggers. Their muscles still twitched from the shock, but they accepted his arm as they tried to get back on their feet. But they never made it.
Nick's heart skipped a beat, and he could tell that the same was true for the others. All of the strength left his body, and he collapsed to his hands and knees. On either side of him, the gargoyles were on the ground, barely holding on to consciousness. Broadway was clutching his chest in agony. Again it happened, as if someone had reached inside of him and squezzed his heart. Darkness crept in from the edges of his vision. He looked up, trying to find the source of their condition, though he figured he knew already. Sure enough, Solomon was standing only five feet away, his hand raised in their direction, reading off of one of the pages. Another wave washed over them, and from what he felt, Nick figured out what was happening to them.
With every wave, every skip of the heart, the bond between their body and soul was further dissolved. It was necromancy of the darkest kind, and the fact that Solomon would even resort to it was simply vile. They had already taken three hits; the gargoyles might be able to take another three or four, but he wouldn't survive another two. Barely hanging in there, Nick started chanting in an arcane tongue. Their lives hinged on an idea that he hoped to god was right.
A fourth wave of dark magic washed over them, causing another wave of agony. Nick nearly lost the spell, but he gritted his teeth and kept going. Purple mist formed around his hand, telling both of the gargoyles exactly what was coming. Solomon looked down at him, saw the magic, and just smiled wider. The boy's magic could not affect him, all thanks to the amulet. Only another second, and his former apprentice's life would be over. Nick took a deep breath, because he wasn't sure if it would be his last breath ever. Placing his glowing hand against his throat, the boy screamed. Sound rippled through the room, tearing into the opposing magician. Broadway and Lexington pressed their hands against their ears as hard as they could. It was still painful, but not as bad as the pain of their spirits being torn from their bodies.
Solomon dropped his precious pages as his mind was wracked with pain. He covered his ears, trying to block out the sound. It lessened the effects, but couldn't stop it completely. Staggering back, the master magician tried to figure out why the boy's magic was suddenly working against him. The only thing he could think of, was that this was a new spell, one Nick had made after he had left Solomon's watchful gaze. That was exactly right. All of Nick's pain, all of his anger was in this scream, and he let it go on until his lungs were empty. Panting for breath, he slowly stood up, his eyes flashing.
Solomon was hanging on the counter, strewn with shards of broken glass. With a shaking hand, the magus reached across the counter, his hand settling on a worked wood box. Grabbing it with desperate fingers, Solomon allowed himself to collapse on his behind. "You know, my boy, you were only really good for one thing," Solomon said with a weak smile. He flipped the box open, revealing a velvet-lined interior with five syringes of red liquid nestled inside. "When I discovered what your blood could do, I realized that I had to have as much as I could." He pulled one syringe out and shut the box. Without any of his usual poise, he pulled up his sleeve and jabbed the needle into his exposed vein. Gasping in ecstasy, he pushed the blood into his own body. "Your blood enhances my own magical abilities by a factor of ten. The feeling, so much power! Is this the way you feel all the time? If its is, oh, how I envy you!" He stood up, placing the box back on the counter. His hand snapped up, and without a word, he pushed Nick against the wall. Nick struggled against the invisible hand as it lifted him off of the ground, pushing him against the wall. He tried to teleport, but just as if someone real was touching him, he couldn't get away.
"Now, now, it appears that I'm out numbered again. I really had counted on that spell to take care of you all, but I should have known not to place all of my eggs in one basket. No matter, I can take care of these two just fine, but what to do with you?" His yellow teeth showed as he smiled. He bent over and picked up one of the discarded pages, never letting Nick out of his grasp. "You always used to say that you weren't afraid of anything. Let's find out what you truly fear, my boy." Solomon began chanting off of the page, applying his newly enhanced magic to the spell. The gargoyles tried to get up, but between the shock, the necromancy spell, and the shout, it was everything they could do to say conscious. A shadowy mass materialized in front of Solomon, growing as he chanted. Though it was little bigger than a man, it seemed to completely fill Nick's vision. As the spell reached its end, the shadow took shape, forming into the sorcerer's greatest fear.
Solomon let go of Nick, allowing the boy to slide to the floor. The look on his face was priceless, a mix of fear and disbelief. He sat was paralyzed; his eyes locked on what the shadows had created. To Broadway and Lexington, the only thing that stood before them was a nondescript shadow, vaguely shaped like a person, though bigger. Only Solomon and Nick, the caster and the victim, could see the shape that it had truly taken. "I'm not too happy with what you did to me, lad," Hudson said, his voice echoing in Nick's head. The gargoyle lifted his sword, shadows trailing behind it. "It's time to join your father."
It's your author again. I hope all 19 of my dedicated readers are enjoying the story. Thanks to gargoyleslady for the review, it'd be great if we could get a couple more. For anyone who's interested, I've got an idea for another fanfic. There's no OCs. First I'll be finishing this one, next chapter should be out in two weeks at max.