All characters appearing in Gargoyles and Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles are copyrighted to Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. I've taken the idea for the Unseelie Court from the TGS. Characters and concepts from Star Trek are property of Paramount and created by Gene Roddenberry. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of SN.
Note: I'm disregarding the events of the "Goliath Chronicles", with the exception of "The Journey" because I do not wish to use the rest of the "Goliath Chronicles" as canon to my story. Also, I am altering large sections of the Star Trek storyline, especially concerning events like WWIII and the Eugenics Wars, which without the Cold War as a backdrop probably wouldn't happen the way Roddenberry wrote them, if at all. This story takes place two days after "Government is Harder than it Looks".
Traps and Assassins
By SN/TVfan
Email: Sam_Nary
Khan'sBase,Tibet
Marilyn reported to the rooftop landing pad as a helicopter came in for a landing. She had been waiting for this particular arrival. Khan had finished his inspection tour of China. He had been looking at the things that would have to be rebuilt after the war between the Illuminati and his forces. It had been a necessary trip, even if Marilyn didn't like it. They had taken China from the Illuminati and they had killed two members of the Illuminati Council, but the war was likely far from over. Not while the Illuminati as a 'Society' still existed. China would have to be rebuilt and prepared for when they finally got to striking back at them.
"It is good to see you again," Marilyn said to Khan as he exited the helicopter.
"You thought something would befall me?" Khan glanced to her, "or did you miss me?"
"I doubt anything could happen to you, sir," Marilyn answered, "but I am not suited to all these political things. You are far more skilled at that."
"The Tibetans wishing to be independent and so forth?" Khan gave a chuckle.
"Yes... and I am not skilled enough to tell them they won't get what they want in a way that they would like it," Marilyn replied.
"I may have to teach you to lie then," Khan chuckled, "but that will be for some later date."
"Of course, sir," Marilyn answered.
Khan continued walked toward the inside entrances to the former Illuminati base that was now his headquarters. Marilyn followed behind him, hoping for some mission that would do more then just deal with complaining Tibetans. Khan, meanwhile, however wished to be updated on the major theaters of operation in the area while he had been out.
"So, how goes Damien's struggles with Demona?" Khan asked as they reached the door.
"Not as well as it probably should be," Marilyn admitted, "she's managed avoid Damien to continue her night time raids on our supply lines. I am afraid, sir, that we will only able to run multiple runs during the day."
Khan didn't like that one bit. His men needed those supplies. The Illuminati base was well stocked and had access to raw materials from which they were able to manufacture their own weaponry. But all of it was located in one location, and most of the Chinese factories were still smashed. His army, both Supermen and Anti-Illuminati Chinese and Tibetan nationalists depended on the supply lines from Khan's base being unmolested.
"That will be a problem if he can not find her," Khan answered, "the full complement of supply runs must be used..."
"Finding her shouldn't be a problem," Marilyn commented, "but it will need us to leave only one supply mission at night."
"Only one?" Khan wondered, "You would lay a trap with the supplies that my army needs?"
"It'll be the only way to trap Demona," Marilyn argued, "unless you want to keep gambling that Damien will patrol over the supply run that Demona happens to attack."
Khan only sighed. He didn't like these results, as they would increase the difficulty that his forces had to face. But Marilyn had a point. Demona's raids came at random and no two supply runs were hit twice within any short period of time... and whenever he'd thought he'd had her pattern predicted, she changed things. The Illuminati was beaten, but Demona was proving to be a worthy foe.
"I will discuss this operation with Damien later," Khan answered, "In the meantime, I have a new assignment for you."
"An assignment?" Marilyn asked, this time looking eager.
"Yes," Khan nodded as they made their way into the main command center of the former Illuminati base.
It had once served as the control center for all the Illuminati's most secret projects in the Tibetan area. Chinese and Tibetan agents of the society came in for updates on what was expected of them as Illuminati scientists and leaders gave them instructions. They did this even if the men giving the instructions weren't Chinese or Tibetan. Khan had seen all this. But now it served as the nerve center for Khan's entire operation.
And Khan intended to use every file, every document that he and his followers had copied from the Illuminati's own systems to his advantage. Khan expected to conquer the world in the long run, but for the moment, politically he had China. Before he could move on from there, he would need to destroy the Illuminati as an organization in its entirety.
"In the long run, our next move will ultimately be to straighten our lines... securing Mongolia, the Korean Peninsula, and the island of Formosa... or Taiwan," Khan answered, "and then to prepare for American interference..."
"Which do you wish me to strike?" Marilyn asked.
"The Illuminati within every country on Earth," Khan said with a smile.
Marilyn gave him a puzzled look and Khan pressed a few command buttons that then put a great holographic display in the air in front of them.
"As you know, Marilyn, the Illuminati society rules the world in secret," Khan spoke, "largely letting the countries think they're governing themselves. To do this, they maintain a host of agents, officials, councils, and officers. They handle many of the society's various affairs and insure that they are well led and that the countries are given appropriate guidance in one form or another."
"Which is why we're fighting," Marilyn told him, "to give the world a REAL ruler."
Khan only smiled, "Yes... but completing that will take some time. Time we probably won't get because while we control China, the Illuminati largely still controls the rest of the world... and our victory in China mostly came from manipulating the Chinese and the Tibetans to purposes that were of our intentions. We won't get that chance elsewhere. Once the Illuminati knew that it was I behind the 'Tibetan rebellion', they cut us off from all of their present files... which means everything we have is slightly dated."
"They can not have changed everything," Marilyn argued.
Khan nodded, "of course and that is where you come in. We can not repeat what we did in China elsewhere because I've painted myself as a Tibetan/Chinese local. Even if we gave the rest of the world the list of Illuminati members, people in other countries wouldn't believe us... and even if they would believe us, the Illuminati has changed the codes to their networks, which means while we can give them lists, they'd have no proof of anything besides our lists."
Marilyn was silent and looked at the display. It largely looked like a network of names and photographs. It was like some giant hit list.
"But this is where you come in," Khan answered, "using your magic, you can remove the various Illuminati members that are in positions to run the society from the 'field' as it were."
"In positions to run the society?" Marilyn wondered, "Why not kill all of them?"
"Because that would take too long," Khan answered, "and besides, not every Illuminatus knows enough about the organization to control it... for example..."
Khan then pressed another series of buttons and another list came up beside the hit list that was being displayed.
"There are various members that have joined for various reasons for their own personal gains, but do not occupy any position of power in the organization," Khan explained, "they've maintained various files on these members. The largest are on one David Xanatos of New York City and of Xanatos Enterprises fame and one Matthew Bluestone, also of New York where he is a local law enforcement agent."
"What's they're story?" Marilyn wondered.
"Xanatos joined while in college, bragging about his business skills," Khan answered, "and they then helped him build his fortune... although the exact details of how that was done or started isn't listed. They have, however, run various Illuminati projects through Xanatos Enterprises. And in that sense they've used his wealth to further their own agendas. It's doubtful that Xanatos even knows about several of these projects that his company has done for the Illuminati."
"They're using a multi billionaire?" Marilyn gasped.
"And that's power," Khan smirked, "Bluestone's story is different though. He originally suspected the society's existence and wanted to expose them. And due to the fact that he was good at his investigation of the leads to the Illuminati, they assigned an agent to keep and eye on him and make sure that he never found any proof of them... but after he was dismissed from the FBI and moved to the NYPD, that agent could no longer tail him and he came into contact with one of the Illuminati's main New York City agents. After he delivered a gargoyle to him, he was granted membership, which according to the files, Bluestone accepted in the hope of getting enough hard proof to expose them... but even with membership granted, Bluestone was not given access to knowledge of who were members and of all of the Illuminati's programs."
"So, they brought him in to control him..." Marilyn surmised.
Khan nodded, "and there are countless other Illuminati members in this bracket. Kill the leaders main project and these minor members will continue on as if the society never existed."
"And how am I to get to all these targets?" Marilyn wondered, "some places will be shielded against teleportation and even if not... teleporting a lot can be taxing on me."
"You might be able to use mirrors the way the fey can... you were cloned from Merlin, a fey halfling, making your magic of the third race in the way it works and its origins," Khan commented, "You might need to cast a specialized spell to do so, but you should only need to do it once."
"You've been studying some of the texts they have on magic?" Marilyn wondered, referring to various spell lines and things that Khan had copied from the Illuminati's databases before access to them was cut off.
She hadn't expected that from Khan. The Illuminati kept extensive files on magic other such things, but Khan could not practice magic himself. Only Marilyn could do that. Khan had no explicit need for it.
"I'm merely seeking to insure that you can function well," Khan answered, "You are an important part of my organization. The better you function, the better our cause."
"I see," Marilyn said slowly.
Hotel Cabal, NYC
Duval continued to follow the election results quietly as they came in various places. The process was very slow and even with all the technologies that had aided in voting for the rest of the world, it would take days for the Illuminati to know who had been elected to the new council. Doing things secretly made a lot of that seem rather difficult. But that had more to with the fact that they were having to elect an entire council, and the various candidates did campaign for offices as the timeframe of the Illuminati election continued.
As he looked over a couple of the internal polls that were being taken, his phone rang. He answered it to find that it was another of the candidates nominated to the new council. However, this caller, unlike Duval, was actually nominated for two seats. Duval was nominated to become the new Six. The man calling him was nominated to become Five our Six. It was an odd nomination system, but in theory it gave him a greater chance of winning a Council seat, as his supporters would be able to vote twice for him, and he might pick up some additional support in one of the two races. Duval guessed that that was what he was being called over.
"How're you holding up, Duval?" man asked, his oriental accent barely detectable. The only way Duval had known who his caller was, was the specialized caller ID system that was given to main Illuminati agent that ran an office the Illuminati directly controlled.
"Doing rather well, I suppose," Duval answered, "I could be worse... all things considering. The gargoyles haven't done much that we really need to be concerned with."
"I'd think capturing gargoyles for their own protection is something we can forget for now," the other man answered, "this business with Khan and all..."
"You're in Korea," Duval wondered, "Has he done anything?"
"Nothing much," his caller answered, "I think they've actually weakened their forces in the area... but then... he might only be consolidating power. The real trick is figuring out where he'll go next."
"Do you..." Duval began to ask.
"Let's save the questions until AFTER we're on the Council, which is why I'm calling," the man on the other end of the line replied.
"Of course," Duval nodded, "you'll forgive me if I'm a bit anxious."
"Now," Duval's caller began, "I've called you because of specific things related to the Council elections."
"Yes, we are both nominated for the rank of Six," Duval nodded.
"But I am also nominated for the rank of Five," his caller told him, "and I'm offering to propose a deal for you."
"I'm listening," Duval replied.
His caller then began to explain his deal.
"Since I am nominated for two seats, one higher then yours, I propose an alliance," his caller explained, "I'll support you for the rank of Six... even against me, and you will support me for the rank of Five. That way, we both stand a good chance of winning."
This was a similar deal that Duval had already been offered. The earlier one had been made by his caller's rival for the rank of Five. He had offered to help Duval if he would support him. It was a sign of the tight and intense politics that made Illuminati elections. If the world's democracies thought their campaigns were extensive and even ugly, they were yet to see an Illuminati election. Duval had records that occasionally members murdered rivals to try and secure seats on the Council. So far that hadn't happened yet in this election, but Duval knew that the threat of it still hung over them.
"I will..." Duval began to respond to his caller's offer when he stopped suddenly.
The phone had practically hung up and had gone to a dial tone. It had been a sudden stop that Duval didn't expect. These races were tight and commonly involved some acts of distrust and rude behavior... but even when things were at their worst, he'd never known someone to actually hang up on a conversation.
"Of all the rude things," Duval commented to himself and hung his phone up.
Unnamed Location inKorea
The building that Duval's caller had called from was filled with a thick and poisonous gas. And only one person had unleashed it. And that one person was Marilyn. The trick of using mirrors through her powers as a fey halfling had worked and allowed her to move rapidly to the locations on the lists that Khan had of Illuminati members. She had arrived at the first location in the women's bathroom of a hotel building on the Korean Peninsula.
And using a few canisters of a powerful nerve gas from Khan's arsenal, she unleashed them into the building's ventilation system. The gas spread rapidly through the building's ventilation system and went into all rooms of the building. Marilyn would then enter the building with a gas mask on to check over the various 'bodies' of the people she was there to assassinate.
The halls and passageways were filled with a smoky white haze that made it difficult to easily see very far. Some of that came from the volume of the nerve gas that Marilyn had dumped into the buildings ventilation system to make sure that there would be no survivors or that the gas wouldn't dissipate through open windows, doors, cracks and other venting systems. And insuring that the people in the building were dead, Marilyn had found she was very successful.
As she checked each room thoroughly, she found those who had been inside the building slumped over desks or flat on the floor. All of them were dead, but the death had been quick and silent. None of them even knew what was happening until the gas filled the room and then everything went numb. As she checked each victim of her attack, she also checked the lists that Khan had given her of various Illuminati members to eliminate and those that could be left alone. Most of them were on the list of targets, most of those that weren't on the target list, also weren't on the 'safe' list.
"Oh well," Marilyn shrugged, "collateral damage... and besides, Khan will be attacking Korea eventually. If they suspect him, I'm sure he can use it to his advantage."
Marilyn rapidly finished her inspection and then left, with no trace that she was ever there.
Tibet, Demona's Cave, Dusk
Meanwhile, as the sun went down a very different 'drama' was getting ready to unfold as Demona and the gargoyles that come with her awoke for the night. Though to say that they had come with her would be misleading. They had brought her here, but they needed real help to free their 'home'. After throwing off her stone skin, Demona glanced at the Tibetan gargoyles, whose cause she had taken on and then looked out toward the mouth of the cave that she had drilled into.
"Though to say 'home' might be wrong too," Demona thought to herself.
Khan had likely destroyed their home, a monastery hidden in the Tibetan mountains that had somehow escaped the purges of the Chinese government and time. Now that was gone, and even after Khan was defeated, Je Lu and his clan would not have a 'home' to return to or rebuild, and the people of Tibet and China would learn that there were gargoyles native to 'their' land.
Had this war begun three or four years earlier, Demona's answer for it would have been different. She would have tried to get Je Lu's clan to fight a larger war to insure that gargoyles ruled over humans... or that there were no humans to threaten them at all. At that time, she had still been boiling over with rage at humanity for their mistreatment of gargoyles and trying to shrug off guilt for her own mistakes. The various betrayals of humans who had been friendly to her and dismissing other humans who had befriended gargoyles as exceptions to the rule. Few would take that sort of path, and given what she knew of the Tibetan clan, she doubted they would accept such a solution.
That change had building since she had learned that Angela was her daughter. Of course at first she did want to draw her away from Goliath and get her to side with her in her war against humanity, but Demona had to admit that she had failed in that regard. And as she came to realize that Angela would never fully side with her, he had found that much of her actions began to lose purpose. At her worst, she wanted either enslave or kill off humanity and rule over every gargoyle on Earth, largely believing that only her ideas could save and protect them. But as she learned that Angela wouldn't side with that, many things began to lose their point an meaning. Humanity wouldn't be destroyed, and unless the world's gargoyles united into one clan and went through extremely prolific breeding, there would never be enough gargoyles to conquer humanity. And even if there were, Angela wouldn't have supported her.
Still, her daughter had not been enough to end her rivalry with the clan. She still resented that Goliath had become leader and that he had chosen the human, Elisa Maza over her. True, she was largely over her relationship with Goliath for the most part, but that didn't mean that old flames still burned. And in her pursuit getting rid of her former mate and the human detective, she ran afoul of the Mage, who wanted her as an 'apprentice' of sorts. He had turned Elisa into a gargoyle and her into a human. And she was then used as part of his private war with Oberon. She managed to escape the Mage and begin her path back to being a gargoyle.
And it was on this path that she met Wedrington. A human archeologist who had been studying Egypt's pyramids. And he just happened to be researching the one that Demona had needed to get into to retrieve artifacts to restore her gargoyle form. And he had actually helped her in this without many of the preconceptions Demona had had. And in her rush to restore her gargoyle form, she ended up leaving him to be taken prisoner by the Unseelie Court. She ultimately did free him and restore her gargoyle form, but it also ended up with her being 'tried' by the Weird Sisters and every misdeed she had done being revealed to Wedrington.
Yet he didn't flee or hate her for it. In fact he seemed to understand her motives in his own way. He had made it clear that he didn't agree with her actions, but seemed to understand where she had been coming from. He even volunteered to be her daytime guardian, as restoring her gargoyle form and also made her have to return to sleeping away the day in stone. He also volunteered to help her and show her that humanity wasn't something to be hated. And he actually did a good job at that.
But then Thailog and the Unseelies intervened again. Wedrington was turned into a gargoyle by Thailog's witch and was forced to fight with the Unseelies during their war. He survived this, but in the course of it, Demona had found something she had truly missed... love and attention. To a certain extent, she was too young and ambitious and let too much that get in the way of her and Goliath, and Thailog was a 'rebound' choice. Goliath had rejected her, and so she turned to Thailog, Goliath's clone, who seemed to have everything she wanted. But to him, she was not much more then an object. She doubted that Thailog could love anyone. But Wedrington was different... and she could strangely feel it.
"Demona!" came Wedrington's voice from beside her, snapping her from her thoughts, "are you alright?"
"Just thinking over things," Demona sighed, "do you know who is up for going out tonight?"
She was referring to the 'battles' she had been taking the Tibetan gargoyles on. They had no real history as warriors and weren't prepared for the war that Khan had put on them. Yoshi and Yama, two Japanese gargoyles, one an apparent exile, had been of great help in teaching the Tibetan gargoyles the 'moves' of a warrior. And to perfect them, Demona had been taking small groups out at night to raid Khan's supply lines. She didn't know about China's defeat against Khan's forces and believed that war was still ongoing. As such, she was certain that Khan's forces were likely being supplied from Khan's main base.
So, if she raided it and took the weapons, the Tibetan clan would gain the weapons needed to hold out, and Khan's army would 'starve'. From there, Demona expected the human battles to turn back toward Khan's headquarters as Demona's raids weakened him. And by doing things on a small scale, Demona felt confident that she wouldn't be sending the entire Tibetan clan into a fight they weren't prepared for. She gave Wedrington the list of the Tibetans who were up for this run tonight and then moved toward the back of the cave.
"The rest of that can wait until after breakfast though," Demona then spoke, "and to allow me to converse with Yama and Yoshi on how they think the training of the Tibetan gargoyles is going."
Wedrington nodded and moved to follow her.
"You will permit me to go with you tonight," Wedrington spoke to her, making Demona turn. When she did so, he looked a little embarrassed, "Please."
"I would be happy to have you by my side," Demona said to him.
She would have liked nothing more then make Wedrington a warrior, but so far he had insisted that he wasn't. If pushed he would defend himself, and from what Demona had seen since his transformation, he'd done a good job of that. But her time with him had made her appreciate many of the things she probably didn't even care about before. She wouldn't force him to take on a warrior's role, but if he wanted to do so on his own, she wasn't going to stand in his way.
"I'll make a warrior out of you yet," Demona said with a soft smile.
"It's mostly to make sure you're safe," Wedrington answered her, "you may find this strange but I awoke with a very bad feeling... like something is going to happen. And I do not wish to see something bad happen to you."
Demona sighed silently at that. The fact that he wished to protect her and be with her reassured her that his attraction to her was real, and was beginning to become a reminder that even though he had been human, the magic that changed him did a thorough job. His wish to protect her was no different from any other gargoyle male. Human males, she had been told would respond this way at times, but Demona had this sense that Wedrington was coming more from a gargoyle's natural instinct to protect. Not his own personal attraction.
"Nothing will happen," Demona answered, "remember that I can not be killed unless it is Macbeth who does the dead... and I doubt he would side with the likes of Khan... He and I may have had our difficulties after my betrayal of him... but he has always been a man of honor. He would never side with someone such as Khan."
"Doesn't mean they can't capture you," Wedrington pointed out, "or kill the Tibetans."
That Demona couldn't argue with.
Khan's Base
"I will tell you here that I am not entirely in favor of this trap idea, Damien," Khan answered, "Our men NEED the supplies this base carries."
"I know, sir," Damien said slowly, "but Demona has proven to be a maneuverable and cunning adversary. Unless you create an army of clones like me or Marilyn... she will move from supply run to supply run and taking on the one that is the most vulnerable. The one that I am not patrolling."
"Yes, Marilyn has already told me of this," Khan nodded.
Khan didn't like the plan, but he had to admit that there was some logic to it. The Tibetan gargoyles that Demona had been monitoring were no threat to him, but Demona was. And while she raided his supply lines at will, he had problems to solve. But this battle had to come quick and had to be decisive. Demona could not escape.
"I do not entirely agree with the tactics, but we appear to be stuck with these tactics for the moment," Khan sighed, "but I have other plans advancing and it will be imperative for our success that Demona not survive the trap you have decided to use."
"Don't worry, she won't escape, sir," Damien promised.
"She must not," Khan answered, "and for that reason, I'm sending twenty armed supermen with you. If Demona attacks, they will gun down anyone with her and you will deal with Demona herself. If you fail, your back up will deal with her. If you wish to aide Marilyn in her present mission, I would hope, Damien that you succeed in killing her... or at least capturing her."
"I will not fail," Damien answered.
"Good," Khan said firmly, "now get going. The infantrymen are already waiting with the supply trucks and you're behind schedule."
"Yes, sir," Damien acknowledged and moved on.
Damien moved on to get to the trucks that would be carrying the one night time supply run that Khan would be running for the moment. He grumbled a bit to himself as he went. While Demona would resent him as his being clone of her with one chromosome altered to a Y, Damien did carry many of the same traits that Demona was recognizing as a problem. He didn't like being ridiculed or having ideas being second guessed while Marilyn's were approved, or the fact that he needed Marilyn's help to get his idea approved.
Forcing Demona into a trap was his idea and his alone. He didn't need Marilyn's help, and on top of that, the plan was a good one. Demona would be lured to the lone supply run and he would catch her and defeat her. And yet he was being second guessed by Khan. He wasn't trusted while Marilyn was. If he wasn't good enough to be trusted as a part of Khan's operation why didn't he have Marilyn there to baby-sit him?
"I'll show him," Damien vowed to himself, "I'll show him that Marilyn is nothing but a cheap tart for simple errands! Who's she facing? A bunch of nobodies that don't know she's there! And who will I be facing? One of history's most powerful sorceresses who will suspect that I am there."
He was still grumbling when he made it to the supply trucks that he was to ride in. The supermen there were quiet as he climbed into the leading truck. He pulled down the coverings and then moved to an open spot on one of the benches.
"When I bring in Demona's severed head... then he'll know that I am better then Marilyn," Damien thought eagerly to himself.
In the Air...
In the air, Demona and Wedrington and the small patrol team of gargoyles that were there for their round of 'live action' training circled in the night, waiting for some sign that Khan was going to send out a supply shipment. They were mostly circling the fortress that the Illuminati had built and was now being used by Khan's forces. They stayed far enough away to avoid being shot at, but close enough to monitor the comings and goings around the fort.
After a few moments, a series of trucks drove out of the gates to the fortress and began to amble down the road. There were two or three in the group and they remained close together. They all stayed on the same road.
"It would appear they're all going to the same spot," Wedrington commented.
"And that they're they only supply run for the night," Demona nodded, "we'll ambush it away from Khan's base."
"Why are they only sending one convoy tonight?" one of the Tibetan gargoyles wondered aloud.
"More then likely it is a trap," Demona answered, "with additional hired guns guarding the goods, expecting you to just charge in."
"Then maybe wait until they get to a spot where we can roll a large number of large rocks onto them," another Tibetan gargoyle offered, "let them shoot the rocks rather then us."
"A good idea," Demona nodded and then banked to follow the trucks for a little while, "A way around their potential numbers and the fact that they will be armed while we are not..."
"You told us not to take any of the weapon's we've confiscated from Khan's men on these patrols," the first Tibetan gargoyle pointed out.
"To help you train and prepare for the final battles with Khan," Demona answered, "to prepare you for the final battle. Anyone can shoot a gun. A true warrior figures out how to defeat an armed opponent while being unarmed him or herself."
The others slowly nodded and banked to follow Demona as they moved to get away from Khan's base. After a few moments, the convoy of trucks came to a rather rugged area in the mountains around the area. As they did so, Demona began to move ahead to stop the convoy.
"I'm going ahead to stop them!" Demona called back, "the rest of you move to a position where you can dislodge the rocks down on them!"
"Right!" the Tibetans answered and then banked to follow Wedrington as he had headed in that direction without saying a word.
Wedrington lead them somewhat ahead of the convoy of trucks to a spot on the mountainside where there appeared to be a good many large and loose rocks. Dislodging them and sending them down the mountain would take a bit of work, but the feet was doable, provided Demona could get the convoy to stop and leave the convoy a sitting target.
In the trucks, Damien could only wait for the inevitable ambush. He knew it would be coming and that this convoy probably wouldn't make it to where it was supposed to go, but it wasn't really intended to there. It was a trap for Demona and the small groups of gargoyles she was leading to ambush the supply runs. When she attacked, he would attack her and the supermen commandos with him would gun down the gargoyles that were helping Demona. It probably wouldn't put an end to the fighting in the area against these gargoyles, but without Demona their advantages would be gone.
But for awhile, there was no sign that there was anything obvious. The trucks had canvas "roofs" that didn't let anyone look out and up. He couldn't see that Demona was already laying her trap for the convoy and would thus force Damien and the commandos with him to adapt to whatever tactic Demona decided to use to initiate her raid on the convoy. But, Damien was determined to do so. To overcome whatever Demona would throw at him and show Marilyn that he was the better weapon to use against the Illuminati.
"After all," Damien thought to himself as they rode along, "Marilyn has had her shots against Demona and failed in all of them. If I defeat her... I will upstage that clone of Merlin clone! I am ready!"
He then glanced to the commandos in the truck with him. They were well dressed for the coldness that came with the elevations they were at and small oxygen tanks were nearby incase they needed more oxygen to breathe properly. They were also well armed with assault rifles, particle beam weapons, and even some light machineguns. Any attack on them would be met with firepower that Demona's raiders couldn't meet.
"They are ready too!" Damien thought confidently to himself.
His silent confidence was broken, however when there was a great scream from the cab of the truck.
"THERE SHE IS!" the driver of the truck shouted at the top of his lungs.
"SHOOT HER!" the passenger in the front seat shouted.
Damien turned and crawled around the supplies in the truck to look through a window to the cab and the truck's windshield. To his surprise he saw Demona standing about one hundred yards ahead of them. He couldn't tell what she was saying, but he could easily tell that she was getting ready or already was casting some sort of spell.
"Brace yourselves!" Damien ordered immediately, knowing that Demona would likely do something to force the convoy to stop rather then actually destroying it.
He was proved right when he looked back to see what looked like a giant rock wall rise straight out of the earth in front of them. The driver had no time to stop. He hit the brakes, but all that did was slow them down a bit. The truck hit the rock wall and nearly full speed and was brought to a bone jarring halt. The engine block was bent in. Damien and many of the commandos where thrown to a side as the truck made impact with the wall. And that wasn't the end, the truck's behind Damien's couldn't stop in time either and slammed into the back of the stopped truck.
The secondary crash did more damage. It twisted the truck Damien was in sideways and continued to push it through the rock wall that Demona had erected. It threw crates around the inside of the truck with two commandos being hit by them and firing their weapons into the air. And the these processes were repeated in each of the other trucks as well as Damien heard other shots be fired. As things finally calmed down, Damien had looked to the area in front of the truck. His view was a bit restricted now, but as far as he could tell, Demona was no longer there.
"Is everyone alright?!" Damien called out, "this is the start of the raid! Be ready!"
"Rhan's been shot! Johun got hit with a crate and accidentally fired!" came an answer from one of the other trucks.
Damien only sighed as there were at least two other reports of that nature. He also learned that about three men had also suffered simple fractures as a result of the accidents, and the truck's drivers were apparently unconscious. Demona had landed the first blow in this raid, and the blow had been a good one. But, Damien had expected it, and three men wounded three more injured as a result of the crash still left Damien with a fairly impressive force. He had started with fifty supermen, and now he had forty four, still outnumbering the gargoyles that Demona was training.
All they had to do was recover and move out along the ground. Leave the trucks behind, take the high ground and gun down Demona's trainees.
"Now is the time men!" Damien thundered, "the time of Demona's demise! All those who can fight, prepare yourselves and spread out. We'll gun them down and bring in Demona's head! Move!"
"What about the wounded?" one of the superman commandos in truck with Damien asked.
"They can hunker down and wait for us to finish this, or join in if they feel they can," Damien responded, "but we must respond!"
And they did begin to respond.
From the mountain top, Wedrington and the Tibetan gargoyles looked down as Demona cast whatever spell she intended to use against Khan's convoy to stop them. She had raised a large chunk of rock, probably from within the mountain itself to block the path of the trucks. The impact was powerful and put all of the trucks into large pileup.
"That ought to stop them!" one of the Tibetans said confidently.
"You can never know," Wedrington answered, "we have to move the rocks, now! Before they can recover!"
The Tibetan gargoyles nodded and immediately set to work on the project. Wedrington could understand some of the excitement that the Tibetans had felt. Many of the things they had seen since Khan had forced them from their monastery home had been new for them. He knew they weren't fond of fighting, but would do so if pushed, and so far, Khan's war had pushed them into a situation like this. And made them encounter the things that they had not seen in the monastery they had grown up in.
They were quick in the task that was given, and Wedrington did his best to both supervise and help along. The rockslide they intended to cause would insure that the trucks could not be backed out and that many of the men guarding them would not be able to hold out against Demona's raid on the convoy. Demona was still on the ground, but had gone around a corner in the road. Occasionally Wedrington looked in her direction to make sure she was okay. He still couldn't shake the idea that something would happen tonight, but so far things were going fairly well.
Of course, the notion of things going well began to vanish when large numbers of armed commandos jumped out of the trucks. They rapidly began firing a host of weapons up at the Tibetan gargoyles. Most of the shots went high, but a few did come dangerously close. Still, the Tibetan gargoyles did their best using their strength to pry the large boulders out and down on Khan's men below them. And in this they ultimately got a bit of help. One or two of the non-projectile weapons slammed into bits of the rock below them all. When the particle beams exploded, the resulting fissures combined with the Tibetan's efforts to pry the rocks loose.
"And there they go..." one the Tibetans announced as a great rockslide slid down the mountain toward Damien, Khan's commandos, and the trucks they had been riding in.
On the ground, Damien casually observed the battle as it developed. He figured his trap had to be a bit of a shock to the small grouping of gargoyles that had likely come with Demona as they seemed to be focused on hiding up amongst the rocks at the top of the mountain. If they weren't they would have rushed down in a diving charge already.
"They're hiding up and amongst the rocks," one commando reported, "and it appears that there is too much snow and ice here to climb directly."
"And there's still no sign of Demona!" another added.
Damien paused for a moment. He knew Demona was somewhere on this battlefield. She had initiated the raid on the supply convoy, just as she always did. Eventually, Damien was sure she would enter the fray, but for the moment the commando was right in assuming that she hadn't... at least she hadn't done any more then her initial strike.
"They want to hide?" Damien questioned, "then blast away at the mountain with the particle beam weapons! We'll destroy the mountain and expose them!"
The commandos nodded, and those with particle beam weapons then unleashed a barrage of the blasts at the mountain. All of the shots hit below where Demona's raiders where, but that was the intention. By aiming low, they would destroy the rocky cover they were using. Demona's gargoyles would have to either charge or retreat. And at first, it looked as though the blasts would do the job.
Then came the effects of the blasts themselves, and that dashed Damien's hopes and even put him it a bit of terror at what was happening. The blasts in a way did expose the gargoyles raiding the supply convoy, but they did so by also bringing down a torrent of large boulders falling down the mountain. As they came down, they seemed to dislodge several other large boulders that just happened to be in the way of the ones that were coming down.
"Take cover!" Damien yelled as the boulders landed amongst Khan's commandos and the disabled trucks.
Many of them tried to get away, but what hit them was an avalanche. Trucks that were hit were practically crushed. In come cases, the falling rocks set of grenades and other explosive weapons in the truck, which served to destroy it utterly and did additional damage to the other trucks in the area and to any of the commandos that were in the area. Men were it and were knocked out... at best. Damien heard a series of sickening crunching noises, which made him certain that some of the commandos had been crushed to death. And that wasn't an impossibility.
The supermen had been engineered to be better then normal humans in all things including strength. But a lot of that appeared to only matter if they were ready for it. If they weren't, they were crushed just as easily as a normal person was. Or it could be that the term enhanced strength was relative. They may be stronger then normal humans, but it was only by a little bit. Damien had never seen any of the testing records, so he couldn't be entirely sure, and at present, he didn't have time to figure that all out.
"All right... that's enough!" Damien roared and leaped into the air and went over the edge of the cliff that made one edge of the road the trucks had been driving on.
He went down a fair distance, but his wings soon caught enough winds and updrafts and was gliding back up. He intended to go and destroy all of Demona's raiders. Demona had started the raid by stopping the trucks in the convoy, but it was the gargoyles that she'd been training that had done the most damage. Many of his men were now out of the fight, and nearly all of their weapons were destroyed. And Damien had to make them pay for that. Unfortunately he did not go unnoticed.
Demona had done very little in the course of this ambush. She cast the spell needed to stop the trucks in the convoy, but from there, she had stepped back so that she could observe the Tibetan gargoyles. And so far they were doing well, especially with Wedrington to help them. She watched them move to roll several large boulders down the mountain toward Khan's commandos. In the process, she then heard the resulting chaos that followed.
The commandos fired non-projectile weapons at the mountain, and when the particle beam exploded, they ended up causing an even bigger rockslide when combined with what Wedrington and the Tibetan gargoyles were doing. Demona quietly listened to the various sounds of chaos as men screamed, rocks slammed into something made of metal, and even an explosion or too.
"A good tactical solution, I suppose," Demona mused to herself and was ready to move in, in case it appeared that Khan's commandos would recover and drive Wedrington and the Tibetans away.
However, as waited a form caught her eye. And that form was Damien. The clone that Khan had made of her, but with a chromosome switched. The male clone was in an upward glide trying to recover from the rockslide that Wedrington and the Tibetans had started and Khan's own commandos had finished. And with the sight of the clone, her own rage boiled over. Her time with Wedrington may have softened her on her attitude toward humans in general, but there were some things that Demona would never tolerate. The violation of her genetic code was one of them, and that even went back to Sevarius and Thailog creating Delilah from hers and Elisa Maza's DNA.
And so, Demona let lose her own battle cry and began to rapidly glide down toward Damien as he tried to glide up. He noticed her just before they met, but didn't have enough time to fully react as Demona plowed into him with full force. She drove him downward until they landed at the bottom of the ravine created by the mountains that Khan's convoy had been trying to navigate.
"You will pay for what you've done!" Damien growled in anger.
"And you will pay for your violation of my person!" Demona growled back in equal anger, not really thinking about what her charge could potentially mean.
Demona then lashed at Damien with one fist, getting him to jump back and giving her the room to prepare a real attack on him.
While Demona engaged Damien, Wedrington and the other Tibetan gargoyles managed to recover from unleashing the rockslide on Khan's commandos and were already planning their next move.
"They must have brought fifty commandos!" a female Tibetan in the group commented as they looked down toward the vast chaos below them.
"Yes," Wedrington nodded, "but it looks like the rockslide got the better of them. It'd be best to move quickly before they get an opportunity to recover. We can't tell how many were wounded when we brought the rocks down on them."
"What about Demona?" a male Tibetan wondered.
Wedrington saw what looked like a flash of lightening come ravine bellow.
"I believe she's otherwise indisposed at the moment," Wedrington sighed, "Let's go! And go quickly!"
And with that, Wedrington launched himself from the top of the mountain they were on, even if it had lost a bit of height. The Tibetan gargoyles were quick to follow. Below them was a very chaotic scene. There were wrecked and crushed vehicles, piles of rubble, some small fires, injured and disoriented men, and now a handful men who were still conscious and in a position to fight back.
"Move quick and remember to focus on an individual target before he can react!" Wedrington instructed as they dove down.
He ended up catching a lone superman commando who was struggling to his feet after dodging a couple of the larger boulders. Wedrington had a fair amount of surprise on his side, as the commando was looking in his direction. His blow was half punch and half using the momentum of his dive as a weapon. It sent the commando tumbling forward, and ultimately he tripped over some of the rubble and fell face first into the side of the convoy's trucks. He remained conscious after this, but that was fixed as Wedrington then landed and clubbed him between the shoulders with both fists.
He then looked around to see that the Tibetans had managed the same success by being able to surprise one or two of the commandos as they tried to get back to their feet. Which would hopefully allow the Tibetans to gain some confidence when it would come to battles in which they would not have such a decided advantage of surprise and disorientation. However there was one commando who was in a position to do something about the attack that mounted on them.
He was a commando who had been closer to the mountainside when the rockslide had come down the mountain. When the rocks did fall, the commando clung to the side of the mountain and let the mountain act as a natural shield. And the tactic had largely worked. The larger boulders did bounce away from the mountainside as they went down it. The commando didn't escape unscathed, but he did better then many of the other commandos were either killed by the rockslide or seriously injured by it. And he had just watched the gargoyles that set to raid the convoy dive down those that were in the open and managed to avoid being crushed.
The while lion-like gargoyle clubbed one with some confidence while a small group of Chinese dragon-like gargoyles managed to clumsily overpower a few of his comrades. The surviving commando had lost his main weapon in the rockslide, but he still had a handgun and he was determined to use it. If only to make at least one gargoyle pay. But he was not unnoticed.
"Look out!" Wedrington rushed forward and managed to get a grip on the commando's hand that held the handgun.
He rushed past one of the male Tibetans in the attack on the commando, and surprise allowed him to manage to crush the handgun that the commando was trying to draw from his holster. For the moment that was the only 'good' that Wedrington had got out of the conflict as the commando began to wrestle back against his attack. In doing so, Wedrington was reminded that these supermen were practically as strong as a gargoyle was, even if they didn't look it. He'd intended to pin the commando against the side of the mountain, but instead, Wedrington found himself being pinned against the mountain.
"Your interference ends here!" the commando growled into Wedrington's face.
Wedrington managed to get him off by kneeing the man in his gut. He released Wedrington from his grasp and staggered back a bit, trying to catch his breath. He didn't get far as the Tibetan gargoyle that Wedrington had brushed past landed a flying kick to the commando's backside, which sent the man rapidly stumbling forward. Wedrington assisted him by then forcing him into the side of the mountain, knocking the man unconscious.
"Thank you," Wedrington said to the Tibetan gargoyle.
"It was no problem," the Tibetan male spoke, "besides, he might have killed me if you hadn't rushed him."
Wedrington nodded and moved on to see that the other Tibetans had also knocked out the other commandos that were still capable of fighting. There were others who were conscious, but were too hurt by the rockslide.
"They appear to have been taken out by the rockslide," the female Tibetan reported, "do you think that it would do this much?"
"Not really," Wedrington admitted, "but then, when they fired the non-projectile weapons at the rocks below us, they unleashed a rockslide that was far bigger then what we would have created on our own."
The other Tibetans then nodded.
"So, what shall we do?" one asked.
"Collect what equipment you can carry," Wedrington instructed, "I'll check on Demona."
The Tibetans had set to that task quickly. It had become a portion of Demona's campaign to train the Tibetans. The main purpose was to train the Tibetan gargoyles into effective warriors, but the other part was to insure that they had the arms to carry the war to Khan. Demona had enslaved a couple of Khan's commandos with magic to use as daylight guards and they would need some thing that would allow her, Wedrington, the two Ishimuran gargoyles, and the Tibetan clan have some protection while they slept in stone. These daylight guardians needed equipment more then they did, and Demona's raids also served to insure that they would have weapons.
But for the moment, that wasn't a concern for Wedrington. He made his way around the carnage of unconscious men, wrecked and burning vehicles, and the rubble of fallen rocks to get to where he could see where Demona was. The strange feeling that something was going to happen hadn't left him. He had to make sure she was okay.
Demona and Damien's fight had turned out to be a fairly balanced affair. As with most battles of magic, elemental attacks were thrown at the other, be it lightening or fire. Some weapon that would do harm to the other. Of course there were other spells that could be used, but Demona could remember the various 'lessons' that the Mage had given her when he had quite literally enslaved her to him, as well as from other various lessons that she had had in her past from various sources. The Archmage and other characters.
Complex spells took time to cast and could easily be interrupted. And in combat, deciding to go for a spell that would 'win' the fight in one blow was unwise because of the effort and time needed to cast the spell. The target would likely recover before the spell could be cast. And the enslavement spell only worked on someone who had less magical power then the sorcerer casting the spell. And since Damien was her equal in power, that meant that she couldn't enslave him.
"Hold still!" Damien roared as hurled a large boulder at Demona, hoping to knock her off balance.
Demona dodged the attack and caught Damien with a lightning spell as he moved to follow up his attack with the boulder by lunging forward. And that was likely where the fight between them would be settled between them. Since in terms of power and magical knowledge they were equals, the only place where the battle could be decided would be in an outright physical confrontation. And there were some advantages that went in a couple of ways. Damien being a male was bigger and stronger then Demona was, but Demona had years of experience that Damien didn't have beyond some clone program...
And Demona was determined to let her experience help her wherever it could. Her lightning spell had sent Damien back away. She then carefully approached him as he climbed to his feet.
"I refused to follow such commands a thousand years ago," Demona taunted the clone, "what makes you think that I'm going to suddenly obey those commands now?"
"You're ruining everything!" Damien roared and lunged forward again, his fists crackling with the electricity of a lighting spell that wasn't thrown.
"I am defending my race," Demona stated her primary mission in life, "you're serving some tyrant. If anything I am improving things."
Demona dodged his fists, but only just barely. In fact, she found herself being backed against the slope of one of the mountains that rose up and above where they were fighting. Damien may not be experienced, but Demona did have to admit the fact that his greater strength and their equal powers in magic did help him out. As she backed up, one of her feet slipped on the side of the mountain and she found herself tumbling backward. She was ultimately caught, but not in a way she would have wanted.
It was Damien who had caught her, and done so by the neck. He then slammed her back so that her head hit the side of the mountain. The blow caught Demona by surprise and disoriented her a bit. As she began to come out of her disorientation, she looked up to see Damien preparing to throw another lightning spell at her, this time at point blank rank. The blow wouldn't kill her, but she doubted she'd be able to do anything for quite awhile.
"I'm serving a new era and a new world!" Damien stated his mission to retort Demona's, "and unlike you, I'm not out to kill the entire human race to do it! And when I bring your head in, Khan will see that I am the best suited to bringing this world into existence."
Damien was about to throw the lightning spell when another roar came down from above them. Damien paused in his attack to see Wedrington and one of the Tibetan gargoyles diving down on them. He didn't a chance to see if they were armed as the English gargoyle landed a strong blow that knocked him off of Demona.
"NOOOOOO!" Wedrington roared as he saw that Damien was about to finish Demona off.
This had to be the 'something' that he expected to happen. He had pledged to defend Demona. He was not about to let her come to harm. He couldn't let any harm come to her. And he threw a strong punch just as he reached where Damien was. The blow made him release Demona and Wedrington landed on the side of the mountain, digging all of his talons into the rock. He ended up leaving some deep claw marks in the stone when gravity pulled him down the one or two feet needed to put him on equal footing with Demona and Damien.
"No..." Damien growled as he recovered, "You're ruining everything!"
"And you're threatening my mate!" Wedrington growled, coming from a very emotional mood that he found he couldn't restrain.
Demona, herself, blinked in response to this, as she hadn't expected that from Wedrington either.
"And why would you want an old Scottish whore?" Damien taunted.
Wedrington roared in challenge and lunged forward, to which Damien only dodged and landed a blow that came down on the white lion-like gargoyle's back, directly between his wings. The blow hurt and sent Wedrington the ground.
"I'll finish you as soon as I'm finished with your mate," Damien said with a smile and was ready to move on Demona when he felt something hit his side, and then stinging pain.
Demona prepared to resist Damien's attack when there was a loud noise from the side. BAM! It was a gunshot that caught Damien in the side of his chest and sent him crumpling to the ground. He struggled for a moment or two, but after a few seconds, he was still. Demona turned to see that the one who had fired the shot was one of the Tibetan gargoyles. She was armed with one of the working rifles that had been part of the convoy that Damien had been guarding.
"The supermen have either been killed by the rockslide or are otherwise incapacitated," the Tibetan female reported, "we are recovering their supplies... at least the ones that were destroyed in the ambush."
"Very good," Demona answered, "that'll let us hold out for a little while. Keep up the good work. Wedrington and I will be there to help shortly."
The Tibetan nodded and went to climb back up to the cliff and road area where the ambush had begun. Demona, meanwhile, moved to help Wedrington up.
"You called me your mate," Demona said to him as she did so.
"I'm sorry," Wedrington apologized, "I saw him about to harm you... and..."
"You responded as any gargoyle that has seen his love threatened," Demona finished, "it was natural, Wedrington... believe me. Any gargoyle would have done as you've done if his or her mate were in danger."
"I shouldn't have said anything you might not have wanted," Wedrington then said weakly.
Demona gave a soft smile and then hugged Wedrington to her.
"But I want you," Demona smiled and gave him a soft kiss.
Wedrington managed to kiss her back, and the two enjoyed the quiet for the moment. When they separated from the kiss they turned to Damien's fallen form.
"We'll probably need to move from where we are," Wedrington commented, "Khan probably expected him to keep us occupied. With him gone now... he may simply just blow the mountain we're in away."
"That's if he knows we're there," Demona pointed out.
"Are you willing to take that chance?" Wedrington asked.
Demona thought for a moment and then sighed, "No. We'd best get back. Moving everything will need to be done quickly and as quietly as possible."
Khan's Base
Khan sat in command office reviewing various reports that had been radioed to his base over the course of the night. Most of them were from supermen units that had gone out with other anti-Illuminati units, but there were a handful from some normal anti-Illuminati units. For the most part the reports were encouraging. Streets were being repaired and lists were being compiled for what buildings would need to be built. But that all related to the rebuilding of China after the war the Illuminati. The only reports he didn't have were from Marilyn and from Damien.
Marilyn's lack of reporting could be understood. She was on a world wide mission to decapitate the Illuminati's leadership. In doing so, the organization they needed to covertly control the world would vanish and it would die. That would give Khan more time to plan his next move and create more supermen. And he would need to do that in order to make his next move successful. The anti-Illuminati Chinese had been helpful in taking over China, as had the Tibetans, but Khan couldn't play the Illuminati card again. At present he couldn't access the proof he would need to make sure it wasn't sounding like he was merely beating a war drum. Marilyn's success would give Khan the time he needed, and he was also certain that Marilyn could take care of herself.
It was Damien's lack of return that worried him. He had been created to balance things out with regard to dealing with Demona and to give him a force in sorcery that could strike around the clock. Marilyn could aide him during the day and Damien was to pick up at night while Marilyn slept. And in terms of dealing with Demona, Khan did remember the battles between Marilyn and Demona early on. Marilyn had not succeeded in those fights, and he had assumed that perhaps a clone gargoyle would do better. Especially if the clone was a clone of Demona, herself. Damien had been confident when he left, but Khan had found that he had not returned.
For the moment, he hoped that it was merely a matter of timing. That the planned ambush worked, but Damien had been caught by the suns rays before he could begin to return to the base. It wasn't much of a hope, but it was all Khan had at the moment. He paused in checking these reports when his Second in Command appeared at his office door.
"Yes..." Khan spoke in acknowledgement of his Second in Command.
"We've finally located Damien, sir," his Second in Command reported, "along with the bulk of the convoy that was sent out last night."
"Him AND the convoy?" Khan asked, standing up.
"Yes, sir," Khan's Second answered, "it would appear that Demona defeated Damien's attempted ambush."
"Damn!" Khan cursed, "I had hopes that he would do better... especially while Marilyn is dealing the death blow to the Illuminati."
Khan's Second didn't say anything in response. He didn't want to upset his commander any more then he already was. Khan eventually gave a sigh and sat back down. This report would set him back. It was partially why he didn't want to run the ambush plan to begin with. While there was no guarantee of catching Demona the other way, there was to a certain extent less risk. Demona couldn't hit EVERY convoy in one night. But now, that debate was a moot point. Demona had won.
"Are there any survivors?" Khan asked.
"Among the commandos, yes, though they will be in medical care for awhile," Khan's Second answered, "according their reports though... Damien did not survive. He was shot by one the dragon-like gargoyles."
"That makes this worse," Khan sighed.
"What do we do, sir?" Khan's Second asked.
"Arrange for a bomber to level the entire mountain that Demona had hollowed out," Khan sighed, "I'd hoped to avoid such a measure, but now we have no choice."
"Demona would likely still survive," his Second pointed out.
"But without the others it won't matter," Khan answered, "if need be we can overpower her."
His second nodded.
"In the meantime, collect Damien's body," Khan sighed, "we'll see if the scientists can accurately make a clone of a clone."
"Some things may be lost in that, sir," his Second warned, "considering the accelerated growth processes used."
"Unless you have a fresh sample of Demona or Merlin's DNA on you, we don't have much choice, now do we?" Khan questioned.
"No, sir," Khan's Second acknowledged and left Khan's office.
Khan only sat back in his chair and sighed heavily, "and things were once going so well..."
The End...