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'm 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 weeks after "Instigating Chaos".

Dragon's Wrath

By SN/TVfan

Email: Sam_Nary

Alaska Range, Just West of Denali National Park, One Week Ago

It was one of the many quiet areas in the sense of there being little or no human activity. Most of the people lived in towns along the coasts or in Native American villages. Most of the other lands were rather sparsely populated and weren't used all that often, or had been set aside as nature preserves by the government. Not that this wilderness deterred everyone.

"I don't like this," an overweight man complained to his partner, "It'd be safer working the oil fields up at the Arctic… or better yet running the pumps in Anchorage or Valdez."

"For minimum wage and not counting spills and cleaning up oil soaked animals," his partner grumbled back, "which I never understood why… damn animals ought to know better then to play around human things."

"We could be trespassing," the overweight man warned.

"On who's land?" his partner retorted, "how many people have you seen since we came out here?"

"No one… but we took a bunch a back roads and deer trails on all terrain vehicles," the overweight man answered, "before you lead us here where we had to go on foot."

"Oh quit being such a wuss, Jones," the other man grumbled, "we ain't seen anyone, and we ain't gonna tell anyone if what I saw here the other day was real…"

"You don't know if it's real?" Jones asked.

"I saw a faint sparkle," the other man answered, "like it was gold… but thought I heard a bear coming and thought it better to get away then be eaten."

"Weren't the gold fields closer to the Yukon territory?" Jones questioned, "In Canada."

"The original gold fields were," the braver of the two men answered, "this could be a new one. No one's really looked here, have they?"

Not sure as to whether or not geological surveys had been made, Jones simply nodded and went along with his partner's lead.

"And suppose there isn't a lot of gold there, Ben?" Jones asked, "or worse that there's too much?"

"If there's only a little, it'll still be worth more then what we make now," Ben replied, "and if there's a lot… who says we have to tell anyone where we found it?"

"People will ask," Jones warned.

"And if you don't tell them, we won't have a problem," Ben answered.

Jones silently mumbled something to himself and tightened his grip on the tools he was carrying, including the handle to small cart that he was pulling behind him. The path they were on was very rocky, but they hadn't gone high enough up the mountain to actually go above the tree line. They continued along the path that Ben had apparently found until they came to a large rocky area.

There were few trees in the area, and strangely the few that were in the are looked almost burnt. But neither man noticed that. What held their attention was a slight crack in the rocks, like there was an opening into the mountain.

"Is that a cave?" Jones asked.

"Duh," Ben answered, "what do you think it is?"

"I've never heard of there being any caves up here," Jones answered, "none of the scientist guys have said anything about there being caves up here."

"Dude, who are you going to listen to?" Ben grumbled back, "them scientist guys that never come out here, or your own eyes."

"Oh I believe it," Jones answered, "I just don't know how anyone could have missed a cave here."

"They miss lots of things," Ben shrugged, "shoot, they missed a clan of gargoyles running around New York City for what… two or three years?"

Jones shrugged and nodded and followed Ben into the cave. They'd all seen the news reports about the discovery of a clan of creatures that slept the day away in stone on the news. Although, to the two Alaskan treasure hunters, the gargoyles were the last things on their minds.

Entering the cave they found that it was no small fissure that had simply been missed. It looked like a giant tunnel that had been dug out of the mountain. Jones was tempted to question his partner again because of how strange this seemed to him, but there was a faint twinkle in the tunnel just ahead of them.

"You got a flashlight, Ben?" Jones wondered, "something looks like its twinkling up ahead."

"Yeah," Ben nodded, "you won't believe this."

Ben then pulled a fairly large flashlight out of one of his pockets and shined it in front of them. And to Jones' surprise and astonishment, the tunnel lead into an even larger cavern inside the mountain. What was even more surprising, as they finished their trek down the tunnel was what filled the cavern.

"Me… oh… my," Jones gasped as he stepped into the cavern, "that's… that's…"

"Solid gold," Ben smirked, "Just as I told you."

And it was gold. Not things like jewelry, like it was a cave full of loot, but ore. Large pieces of gold ore seemed to decorate the walls of the cave. Like they were placed against the interior walls of the cavern.

"Have you ever seen so much gold?" Jones asked.

"Before this? Never in one place," Ben answered, "come on. We gotta get a few loads of this back down to the truck."

"Where are we gonna exchange it?" Jones wondered, "the guys around here will ask where we got it… or will come looking. Lying won't work forever… or perhaps even for long."

That made Ben think for a moment. People would ask where they found all the gold and if they lied, the people would hunt them down when the went there and found no additional gold, nor any sign that there had ever been gold there. If they gave to vague an answer, people might still flock to the area and the cave would be found.

"Best to drive it across the country," Ben then spoke, "New York or New Jersey. They'd have a good gold exchange… and are far enough away that someone would have to be nuts to come all the way back here…"

"And we'd be closer to retiring in Florida," Jones commented.

"Yeah," Ben nodded, "Come on now, let's get to work."

And the two began an almost exhausting process. Using the shovels and picks they had brought with them, they began prying various large pieces of ore from the walls of the cavern. There was so much of it that neither of them bothered to wonder how the gold had gotten there and why it looked like the ore had been placed against the sides and bottom of the cavern. They only saw their prize, and were determined to get away with it. After nearly two hours of going up and down the mountain to a truck they had parked earlier on a dirt road, Jones and Ben drove away much richer then they had been when they made their way out to the portion of the Alaskan mountains.

However, neither man bothered to ponder more important questions then 'were did the gold come from'. And that question was, 'why was the gold there'. It could also be followed closely by 'who owns this gold'. Neither Ben nor Jones bothered to think over these questions. And they were questions that probably should have been thought over.

A couple of days after Ben and Jones left the area with their loot, a large shape descended from above to land on the ledge outside cavern that the two men had found. Moving on four legs it slowly entered the cavern. It turned once to roll the large boulder back in front of the opening, like the large rock was a door. Once that was done, it turned back toward the heart of the cave.

It entered what had been the gold chamber and it stopped. The chamber had been its food-store, and now… it was practically empty. Only a couple of gold ores remained, and all of them were very small in size. It gave a startled grunt and then began to sniff around the chamber. It quickly found two scents that angered it. Two strange scents, not belonging to him or of another of his kind. They were humans, no doubt to it, and that left it angry.

To the creature, humans were an annoying threat. On their own they were of no threat to it, but their technology was more then a match for the creature. What made them a threat though, was their inescapable urge to steal things. The creature had been young when the great Yukon Gold Rush began, making Alaska a big destination. And people came in great numbers with guns, shovels, pick axes, dynamite, and various other tools.

The creature's parents tried hard to feed it, but the humans took most of the gold out of the countryside. Its parents had to go farther and farther to find food… gold… and in the end, they starved themselves to raise their child and made the ultimate sacrifice. But even on its own, the creature had to go long and far to get gold, and had taken to hording it to insure it had food for itself… and now humans had raided it. Carried off his food.

The creature had their scent and had it catalogued in a memory that a computer would be envious of, if inanimate objects could have emotions. Enraged at having someone steal from it, it decided it would find the thieves, and it would make them pay dearly for their transgressions.

Castle Wyvern, Present

The residents of Castle Wyvern, however, knew nothing of Ben and Jones, nor of the creature they had robbed. For them, things had settled into a fairly obvious routine of patrolling the city and looking after the Tibetan hatchlings. In other words, same old thing.

Their greatest worry was Holly, Thailog's witch. Or at least the clan suspected her. They had gone through some odd incidents on one patrol shift. One fire hydrant had burst suddenly and with for no logical reason. There were no faulty pipes, no large collection of rust, and no one had left it running with the covers on. Two cars had also crashed, and when they investigated it, the cars had no drivers, just two terrified hamsters that weren't claimed and were still at the Manhattan ASPCA offices. And when the clan returned to the tower to clock out, they found Detective Matt Bluestone and his partner Detective Jennifer Flariaty we unconscious. The security cameras had a fairly long blank spot on them there as well. When it went off, the two human officers were awake, when they came back on again, they were out cold on the floor.

Now, there were logical explanations for these events. But many of them were complex, and the probabilities these things happening were minute. Magic had to have been involved in what had happened. It strangely made more sense to the Clan then to say that the quality of the metal in that particular hydrant was poor. That the car had a complex remote control. That some one could have attacked Matt and Jennifer and then tampered with the cameras. Either magic was involved in these incidents, or the coincidences were truly amazing… and if magic wasn't involved, the issue with Matt and his partner was bigger.

The two of them couldn't remember falling asleep, or being knocked out. They had no clue what had knocked them out. Now, a strong blow to the head could possibly induce amnesia-like symptoms, but such an attack would have generated far more noise as Matt and Jennifer weren't going to just stand there and be clubbed upside the head with a large object. And the resulting fight would have triggered back up to come from the station's lower floors. And after Goliath had explained this to Elisa, she was quick to deduce that magic of some sort could be the only reason for the leaders of the Gargoyle Task Force being attacked and knocked out without a struggle.

The real problem was pin-pointing who's magic was it. It could be some rogue fey, likely Unseelie that had so far managed to escape the end of the Unseelie War. There were some of them still around, but when Puck had been called in to do his best to 'track' the magic that had to have been used, no fey magic was sensed. That left only one option… mortal magic and Holly.

Holly was the obvious suspect. The clan knew she was a witch who had sided with the clone Thailog before the Unseelie War, which allowed the clone to take over Maddox Technologies. They knew she had turned herself into a gargoyle and had been involved with the clone gargoyle. During Thailog's endgame with the clan she had been knocked out when various explosives and steel clan robots exploded around her to take out the Eyrie Building's shield, but she managed to escape the prison before she could truly be secured… Or her powers as a sorceress were not noticed or suspected by the prison guards. Either way, she escaped that situation, leaving the rest of Thailog's clan to await trial.

And now, she was apparently causing chaos in the city on her own. For what purposes though, the clan didn't know… and what made things worse was that unless the war in China ended and Demona and Wedrington returned, the clan was fairly certain that they couldn't easily deal with Holly. The Coyote robot might manage, but it had been reserved as one of the clan's last lines of defense, according to Xanatos… not to mention the fact that if the city of New York had relegated many of the various robots built by Xanatos Enterprises and Cyberbiotics be registered with their intended uses and all possible vulnerabilities… incase they went nuts or rebelled against their makers. That left Coyote solely as security within Castle Wyvern and the Eyrie Building.

"Hopefully she won't do anything different from what other sorcerers and fey have done against us if you catch her," Elisa said to Goliath as he prepared to head our for his shift for the night.

"Hopefully," Goliath rumbled, "though from what Lexington has over heard from Alexander's magic lessons from time to time… is that some things are more difficult to do then others under fighting conditions."

"And the clan has had plenty of experience in fighting magicians," Elisa reminded him, "and we've done alright."

"There will always be the concern that things could change," Goliath gave a slightly frustrated sigh, "someone could eventually do something different."

Elisa sighed and nodded. For the most part, most of the sorcerers they had faced had stuck to some elemental attack. Throwing lightening or fire at them… or possibly even water. Which largely left the battles on a physical level rather then on levels that the clan could not counter easily. And the danger was always there that someone would change tactics. Do something that couldn't be easily dodged or endured. But she tried to keep herself optimistic when it came to catching Holly. It might have been all the clan had, it they gave up on it, they'd have a bigger problem.

"Maybe," Elisa sighed, "but hopefully that night will not be tonight."

Goliath looked back and nodded.

"Of course, my Elisa," He rumbled to her.

"Be careful, Big Guy," Elisa told him, "we'll keep things quiet here."

Goliath nodded and leaped from the castle walls and was soon gliding toward he 23rd Precinct headquarters with the rest of his shift gliding with him, or gliding after him. Elisa watched for a few moments before turning to head inside. Her shift would be needed to help with the Tibetan hatchlings for the night, and she couldn't ignore their care. As she went inside, she hoped things went well.

Elsewhere in Castle Wyvern, a different pair of eyes were focused on a very different scene.

"You do look well, Mrs. Xanatos," spoke the voice of Owen Burnett to the red furred fox-like mutate examining herself in a mirror.

Fox turned to see the blond assistant and disguised fey standing in the door way. Young Alex stood beside him.

"Just checking, Owen," Fox answered.

She was moving into her middle trimester of what was her second pregnancy, and the growth of her unborn child was becoming more and more noticeable as time went by. And despite her condition as a mutate, Fox still found herself drawn to checking on the development of her unborn child.

"Of course, Mrs. Xanatos," Owen answered.

"Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" Alex asked.

"Not yet," Fox answered, "and I think I'd prefer to wait until this one is born before I find out."

"Of course, Mrs. Xanatos," Owen answered, even though he knew the response was not directed to him. After all, with most, if not all, of the restriction Oberon had placed on Puck at the end of the Gathering gone, he could do a great many things in his service to David and Fox Xanatos and in protecting their son, Alexander. And that included presenting Fox with an image of the life within her.

"Is there anything you need?" Owen asked, "before I take Alex to bed?"

"No thank you, Owen," Fox answered, "Have a good night."

Owen barely nodded and then lead Alex away. Fox, meanwhile, returned her attention to her bedroom mirror. The gown she wore was not the most fashionable of things she owned, but with her mutated form, she didn't feel like destroying more expensive pieces of clothing to accommodate her wings.

"You will be born a mutate…" Fox sighed to her womb, "you will be loved by your family and by the clan… but I wonder how you'll fit in outside the Castle's walls… as things are changing rapidly for the clan themselves. Pulling them out of the shadows they'd been in for so long."

"What was that, dear?" came her husband's voice as he entered their bedroom.

Like Fox, Xanatos had also been mutated into a canine based mutate, though the species used for him was the wolf.

"Oh, nothing, really," Fox sighed, "just wondering on what will be our youngest child's future."

"Hopefully a happy one," Xanatos answered in a rather loving tone.

"Hopefully," Fox nodded, "how did your day go?"

"Fairly well," Xanatos smiled, "Got a fairly odd request that came into one of the gold exchange companies I own. Came all the way to me because it was so odd."

"Oh?" Fox asked, sounding intrigued, "what was this about?"

"Something about two guys claiming they've found the mother load of all gold discoveries," Xanatos answered, "it's to be checked for purity and exchanged at the proper rates tomorrow."

"Someone found the mother load of all gold deposits?" Fox wondered.

"That's what the call said," Xanatos answered.

"In New York state?" Fox asked.

"They said the were from Alaska," Xanatos told her.

"Alaska?" Fox asked.

"I told you it was weird," Xanatos answered.

"Wouldn't it be easier for them to have done this IN Alaska?" Fox wondered, "they've driven across the country to state a claim and have it exchanged for the equivalent value in cash."

"And Canada as well," Xanatos nodded, "an odd case. Staying in Alaska would have been easier…"

"You think they might have stolen it?" Fox questioned.

"Maybe not stolen, but they certainly want a monopoly on the claim that they have," Xanatos sighed, "that is for sure… and could mean that the gold is stolen, or the land used wasn't owned by them… shoot it's entirely possible they took it out of one of the National Parks in Alaska."

"So what will you do with them?" Fox wondered.

"Owen will handle the actual meeting… or he will supervise the exchange," Xanatos shrugged, "and we'll have whichever clan member is on duty tomorrow night on call."

"Just in case?" Fox asked.

Xanatos nodded.

"Has there been any problems caused by Fang?" Fox wondered after a moment.

"Still silent on the fact that he's not a gargoyle," Xanatos answered, "at least according to what I've heard…"

"Too stupid to realize what weapons he has against us," Fox commented.

"Hopefully," Xanatos sighed, "his trial hasn't started yet."

Elsewhere

And meanwhile a different pair of eyes watched the horizon as her slaves reported to her on the day's events. She'd been rather quiet in direct activity against the clan after her little escapade a week ago. She got the sense that she had given them all some difficulty, and her moves did provide her with the information she wanted to know. Exactly who was in each patrol group.

And now she knew the rotation that the Police had the clan following in their patrols. And she knew how strong each set was. It was a good opportunity to continue to give the clan some trouble, but she had decided against taking any major action for the moment. Much of her reasoning came from what she had observed in shadowing their patrols over the past two weeks.

Her acts of mayhem did give the clan some difficulty, but they appeared to suspect her involvement in them fairly quickly. That made her curse herself and decide to back off on its own. If she was under suspicion for what relatively minor things she had instigated two weeks ago, doing more of the same would only raise more suspicion and the clan might decide to try and track her down in force. And a big drawn out battle was not what she wanted.

She also found she had underestimated the technological access the clan had. While they patrolled in twos, perfectly easy enough numbers for her to handle once they'd get farther from the 23rd Precinct Headquarters, they carried a series small walkie-talkies that connected them to the station and to each other. This meant she couldn't just instigate random acts of chaos to spread the clan thin and then go after Elisa. The clan, or the dispatchers would catch on to what was going on and vector in the rest of the clan or human officers as well.

And since she couldn't be certain that they either couldn't or wouldn't call in the others, Holly decided to keep her eyes and ears open to the events that the clan dealt with. She couldn't be the only person in New York that didn't have some sort of personal beef with the clan as a whole or at least one of the individual clan members. And she was certain that if she kept her eyes and ears out, she'd find someone who could be of use to her.

"Thank you," Holly answered as the Eres as they finished their report for the night, "you may feed yourselves now. Make sure to clean up after yourselves when you're finished."

Her enslaved minions then trudged toward the kitchen, while Holly continued to look out over the city.

Hotel Room

Meanwhile, the unknown man, known to the police as 'John Doe', which was only a generic name given to males that could not be identified, sat quietly watching the news. He had also been inactive for the past two weeks, though not for the same reasons as Holly. He had no personal problem with any members of the clan.

He had come to New York to earn a little money, even if his methods were considered criminal by most others. Not to war with the gargoyles. It was only the fact that his plans would bring him into direct conflict with the gargoyles that gave him any reason to be antagonistic toward them at all. And the conflict would mostly revolve around them trying to stop him from making a little money…

And dealing with the gargoyles would be a difficult one. John Doe knew that. His own observations of the gargoyles and the events surrounding them, going back to even before coming to New York, had shown that. Much of what he had seen on then news related to the racial tensions between humans and gargoyles in New York. Various groups like the Quarrymen and now the Order of the Phoenix had stated their hatred of gargoyles in fairly blunt terms. But there were also groups like PIT that supported the gargoyle clan that had appeared among them.

He tested the waters by running a dummy gargoyle down a zip-line to see what would happen if a 'gargoyle' buzzed a crowd for no apparent reason. Mostly to see how divisive the whole gargoyle issue was. Too much in one direction, and he figured he could find a way to make money off of it. Unfortunately, nothing after that really went right. The reactions were both fierce and evenly balanced, which resulted in a riot. And John Doe was unable to really catalog the events of the fight as he was caught by two real gargoyles that showed up in the area as part of their patrol. That resulted in his arrest, but he clung to an alias rather then his real name and became known as 'John Doe' to the NYPD.

But all was not lost for John Doe. When he had first arrived in Manhattan a group of ruffians from some street gang attempted mug him on the street. He successfully dealt with all of them with a concealed dart gun using extremely toxic venom. Now that he was out of jail and had paid the fine for 'inciting a riot', John Doe now had his opportunity to make some profit off of his arrival in New York. And that seemed to be with the very people who'd tried to mug him.

Members of the gang that had tried to mug him, had accused a rival street gang in the murder of their members. The fact that no street gangs had access to venom John Doe had used was forgotten, and it appeared that the two street gangs were now embroiled in a war across New York. One side vowing vengeance for the murder of its members, the other simply trying to defend itself.

Now, according to the news, this gang war hadn't resulted in any deaths, yet. Mostly because patrolling gargoyles managed to catch these fights as they began or before they could truly get out of hand. People had been wounded and a few had to receive fairly lengthy emergency room stays, but that was to be expected. The fact that the gargoyles had managed to prevent deaths was a credit to them…

Not that John Doe's latest plan would really make their job easier in that regard. In fact, if he played his cards right, John Doe would make a fair amount of money, and make life difficult for the gargoyles all in one move.

Brewster, New York State

"Would you quit pacing like that," Ben grumbled, "you're giving me the willies with all of that."

"We're sitting on a mountain of gold and were not in the sticks anymore," Jones answered, "Someone could steal it on us."

"No one's gonna steal anything," Ben answered, "we got a hard top in Alberta, remember? All our gold is locked up safe and sound. No one's gonna take it from us."

"I wish I had your confidence," Jones grumbled and walked back over to the hotel room window and looked out to see if their truck was still there.

"Did anyone steal it?" Ben asked, mostly joking.

"No," Jones answered.

"See, nothing to worry about," Ben answered, "so quit that pacing… you're acting like a caged lion."

"I'm sorry," Jones sighed, "it's just that it's so much gold. I've never seen so much… I don't want it to be stolen."

"And it won'," Ben answered, "as far as the locals here know we're simply tourists from out of town. So long as you don't tell anyone what we're carrying, we shouldn't have a problem."

"We told that Xanatos guy what we're carrying," Jones told him.

"He owns the company that will be doing the exchange," Ben reminded his partner, "we can't just show up at the guy's office unannounced and say we have gold to exchange. Shoot, the company website says an appointment has to be made… true they're probably expecting stuff like gold watches, rings, and the like… but still…"

"Suppose he ups and steals it from us?" Jones asked.

"You're paranoid, man," Ben sighed, "how is he going to steal a truck? Especially when I have the keys and we'd both know if someone tried to hotwire it."

"He could have an army of robots swoop down and carry it off…" Jones replied, "I heard he's been fighting with Boeing, McDonald Douglas, and Northrop-Grumman for contracts to sell robots to the government."

"What is this, a cartoon?" Ben retorted.

"You never know," Jones answered.

"You're paranoid, man," Ben growled at him, "completely paranoid!"

Not too far away…

The creature that had been following Ben and Jones rested somewhat lightly in a large parking area filled with the trailers to semi-trucks, or something like them. The humans that had robbed his cave had come a long way, and the creature found it very tough to trail them. His nose was stronger then anything on Earth and he had their scent memorized, as well as the gold that they had stolen from it, but that didn't make the journey easy for it.

The thieves had fled into a highly populated area. An area the creature would normally try to avoid at all costs, but the instinctual call to revenge was too strong. Humans had invaded its home and stole its food. They would pay for that transgression. And so the creature followed them into an area it was unfamiliar with and largely at risk of being exposed.

It did its best to keep itself hidden, but that got progressively harder as it came east from Alaska. When it could it stuck to thick forest, ravines, and other pieces of difficult terrain. Things that would be difficult for humans to get into and where they would have trouble in see it there if they did get out there. As it moved toward the more heavily populated areas of the American continent, warehouses and places such as the depot it was in became more favored.

This meant that it was probably on a few security cameras and humans had to have found evidence of its entry into their buildings or other areas during the day… or occasionally at night. But, the creature ignored that for the time being. It's mind was focused on punishing those that had trespassed on its home ground. And as it went, the creature, through its success, became more and more confident in its ability to either hide or move fast enough that people wouldn't notice it.

It's only problem was food. In its pursuit of the thieves, the creature had largely neglected to feed itself. This made recovering the gold the thieves all the more important. It needed sustenance, and only the gold could provide it. An instinctual fear then ran down its spine. It remembered how its parents died of starvation to feed him And now it seemed likely that the same thing could happen to it. It had to recover the stolen gold. It had to.

23rdPrecinct, Manhattan, NYC

Goliath and Eve slowly made their way out of the clock tower and were soon gliding back toward Castle Wyvern. The night had been quiet. A couple of minor muggings and so forth. Their biggest action had been dealing with another small gang fight, or reasons that Goliath felt to be absurd… though to an extent he understood them. Though the concept of revenge that went through one the gangs' thoughts was a very medieval concept that from what he had read on, and what Elisa had told him about, didn't fit in with a 20th to 21st century society.

"Are you upset that all we caught were more of these gang members fighting each other?" Eve asked in a fairly nervous voice.

Goliath looked over to the Avalon female and then sighed.

"If you are referring to finding Holly," Goliath sighed, "then I would suppose so… but mindlessly focusing on her will leave the rest of the city unguarded. Even though these street thugs are not who we set out for, stopping their war will still protect the city, and that is the important thing."

Eve nodded.

"We will catch Holly eventually," Goliath answered, "she will eventually do something that will allow us to catch her."

A thought then came to Eve's mind.

"Suppose she's fled Manhattan?" Eve wondered, "gone somewhere else and decided to cause trouble there."

"I don't think she would do that," Goliath rumbled, "she spent a lot of time with Thailog, and I would bet that he taught her several of his strategy tricks… and she may have been fairly smart to begin with. Leaving Manhattan would present both potential for great gain and great danger for herself."

"How so?" Eve asked.

"It's related to human politics and our population, I'm afraid," Goliath sighed, "our clan is the only clan in this country. There are no other gargoyles here, outside of us, Talon's clan which are mostly clones of members of my clan, and the Guatemalans and the Tibetan elders and their hatchlings who have come here because of disasters in their own homes."

The two of them banked toward the Eyrie Building and began to glide up toward the castle at the top of the tower.

"But because all of the gargoyles are centralized in Manhattan, people outside of New York have little knowledge of us," Goliath continued, "some may say they support us, but because we do not live in their town, they feel free to say that because we are not 'their' problem…"

"But groups like PIT are pushing for national membership!" Eve commented, "Amy's told me that her mom and dad are working toward something like that!"

"I'm sure they are, but it will still take time for them to succeed or fail," Goliath replied, "and should Holly leave Manhattan and cause trouble farther away… she could find herself facing a reborn Quarryman movement there when they find out they have gargoyles there and that they aren't friendly to them… and even with her power… I doubt she could overpower all those she could end up angering."

"So she'd stay here where groups like PIT would try to 'protect' her in a way?" Eve asked.

"She'd stay where people are more accustomed to our presence and a mistake or action is not as likely to have as violent a consequence," Goliath answered, "as a simple point of strategy."

Eve nodded.

"There is also the fact that she likely has some rivalry with Elisa… and probably will have some rivalry with Demona when she and Wedrington return," Goliath sighed, "with the one that she personally hates here, I would think that she would stay in this area to deal with the one she has a personal grudge against."

"What if she's changed her mind and wants to be good?" Eve wondered.

"Then we'll all be relieved," Goliath answered, "though considering the stunts she's pulled recently… I doubt that that has occurred."

Eyrie Building, The Next Day

"And now we get to take our robot out for a spin," Xanatos gave a confident smile in one of the more private sections of the castle.

It was one of the marvels of the castle. Most of his main offices were in the main part of the Eyrie Building that had been built before the castle was moved to New York. This left a lot of the castle for him and his family and now for the clan to use as personal living space, though he did manage to keep certain things, like the dungeon in tact. But there were some spaces that were removed to allow for the supports to make sure that the castle didn't just collapse to the ground below. It made several rooms smaller and meant that some of them were now not much more then closets.

And at present they were outside one of these rooms that was in a spot where the castle transitioned into the Eyrie Building or vice versa, depending on if you were going up or down.

"Do you think this will work, David?" Fox wondered.

"It's programmed to act as I would," Xanatos shrugged, "though with firm safety controls, obviously… so that it doesn't get a mind of its own and do what it wants rather what we want it to do."

"And we've also made improvements with a lot of the software going into the robot," spoke Owen Burnett from beside the two canine mutates.

"Meaning?" Fox wondered.

"It can effectively operate as a drone, should something come up where I want to personally be involved…" Xanatos smirked, "where as you can see 'I' can't. But the robot can and through it, I will be able to see and hear everything that goes on."

"Can you talk through it?" Fox wondered.

"Yes," Xanatos sad with a smirk, "come with me and we'll show you."

He then began walking away toward a different room, leaving Fox to follow. Owen meanwhile stayed beside the presently shutdown robot.

"Okay, Owen, I'll contact you over the intercom when the Robot is ready to be activated," Xanatos called back to his glasses wearing assistant.

"Of course, sir," Owen answered, and simply stood there… almost like a soldier during an inspection.

Fox followed Xanatos into a different room about one flight of stairs down. In this portion it was quite clear that they had passed down into the Eyrie Building section of the tall skyscraper that had been built. What they entered look like some sort of high tech control room. It was dominated by a large screen going along one wall. In the middle, there was what looked like a treadmill, with sets of gloves, specialized boots, and a headset which included a visor that come down over someone's eyes, but not far enough that it would interfere with Xanatos's muzzle.

"You see, I put these on and I can see what the robot sees and control what the robot does and says," Xanatos explained as he began fitting the gloves and other items on.

Once he had everything on, he pressed a button on a control panel underneath the screen which turned the screen on. He then pressed a second button which activated the intercom to where Owen was standing.

"Okay, Owen, activate the robot," Xanatos instructed.

"Yes, sir," Owen answered.

Xanatos then smirked at Fox and then shut the intercom off. Fox only watched in surprise as she watched the screen come on, presenting the image of Owen Burnett looking toward the robot.

"Okay, Owen, the intercom is off, can you hear me?" Xanatos asked.

"Of course, sir," Owen answered.

Fox was amazed at seeing all this, but she also did expect it. Xanatos Enterprises had been a leading company in robotics and artificial intelligence programming for years… even if some of their biggest developments had their origins in the theft of Cyberbiotics data when the gargoyles first awakened. She watched on the screen as the Xanatos robot turned its head, and the screen now showed the wall of the 'closet' the robot was in.

"And now, all we do is walk the robot to where the meeting will take place," Xanatos explained, "though you and I, Fox, can not talk to each other during the meeting… it would make me look rather foolish to these people."

"I'm sure Owen is getting quite a kick out of this as we speak," Fox chuckled.

Xanatos turned back to where Owen was and saw the man hadn't moved and that his facial expression hadn't changed. If Owen had any amusement at the robot turning its head and talking to a wall, he didn't show it. Not that 'Owen' ever showed much in that regard.

"Well, Owen," Xanatos spoke, "let's get going."

"Of course, sir," Owen answered.

Elsewhere

Ben sat in awe as they drove along the streets of New York.

"What, you've never seen a big city?" Jones asked him, "and remember we went through Ottawa and Montreal before coming down here."

"Yeah, but man, they got nothing on this place," Ben spoke as he stuck his head out to look at the skyscraper around them.

"Yeah, their traffic is better," Jones grumbled as he tried to drive his truck down a fairly busy street.

The street was wall to wall cars going in each direction, and it was murder just trying to change lanes or make turns. He was already certain they would be late.

"Do you have the address the guy on the phone gave us for this exchange?" Jones asked.

Ben nodded and pulled out a paper map of Manhattan and pointed to where the address had been written in paper on the page.

"Yeah, got it right here," Ben nodded, "it's the Eyrie Building. You know the tall one with the castle…"

Jones glanced out at the traffic and the tall buildings around him. Because of that, he couldn't see the building.

"I'm gonna need turn by turn directions from where we are," Jones answered, "with all these dumb buildings in the way, I can't make out anything."

"Okay," Ben nodded and began unfolding the map, "the gargoyles live in the Eyrie Building, you know…"

"We ain't done nothing that would concern them, Ben," Jones answered, "we found gold and we're going to have it exchanged. Perfectly legal."

"Yeah… but do you suppose we'd get an autograph?" Ben asked.

Jones only sighed, "just focus on the directions and forget about autographs… shoot, all the national news stations say they sleep during the day. We'll be long gone by the time they wake up."

It took them awhile to make it to the Eyrie Building. As they approached it, they could easily see how it was the tallest building in the city. They could barely make out the medieval castle at the top of the building.

"You sure we'll be gone by the time the gargoyles get up?" Ben wondered.

"Yeah," Jones replied as pulled the truck into a parking garage that went under the skyscraper.

The cruised the parking garage quietly until they came across a blond man in a suit and wearing glasses. He was standing next to what looked like a loading door with a large wheeled cart.

"We got some help," Jones smiled.

They parked nearby and got out. As they did so, the man approached them.

"You here to help us?" Ben asked him.

"I am Owen Burnett, personal assistant to David Xanatos," Owen answered, "your claim has raised some interesting questions and he has taken a personal interest in this."

"But you'll help us?" Ben asked again.

"I am capable of helping you move what you've collected to the officers where your claim will be appraised," Owen replied.

"Thanks," Jones replied, "we have plenty to load. Don't pocket ANY of it. We'll be watching."

"Of course," Owen replied.

Loading the gold onto the cart took about ten minutes. Owen did his best to supervise and make sure that they weren't coming in with a truck full of Fool's Gold. From what he could tell, it was real Gold, but there were oddities that Owen sensed in it. He wasn't an expert on geology, however, and would prefer to let the appraisers make sense of it, and that would happen soon. Once everything was loaded, Owen allowed Jones to push the cart.

"If you'll follow me," Owen answered and lead Ben and Jones toward the loading door where Owen had been standing earlier.

They dutifully followed the blond assistant. Jones was very confident and could practically already count the money they would make of the claim. Once inside the main part of the building, they went lead to an elevator. It took them up several floors and when the elevator door opened to reveal a bearded man in a dark looking suit with a couple of men in what looked like lab coats.

"So these are our miners?" 'Xanatos' asked.

"Yes, sir," Owen answered.

"These are our technicians who will identify the quality of the gold you have collected," the robot Xanatos spoke.

"We'll still be paid right?" Jones asked.

"Oh, of course," Xanatos replied, "provided everything is in order."

"It is!" Ben said quickly, "we got all of it from the site!"

Xanatos smirked, "I'm sure. If you'll come with us, you can watch the appraisal and we will go over a few questions."

In The Air…

The creature that was tracking Jones and Ben flew rapidly through the city. The scent of its food and the scent of the thieves came from a tall building with a stone structure at the top. It was sure it had been seen by people, but it didn't mater. Its food would be recovered and the intruders on its territory would be punished, and so it flew on.

Castle Wyvern

Obsidiana and Turquesa were walking quietly along the castle's battlements for some exercise and to enjoy some of the sun. For the Guatemalan clan, things had not been too bad since Thailog's assault on the castle. They didn't patrol the way Goliath's clan did, so they were freer to help the Tibetan elders and to pursue gardening projects in the courtyard or other places. The castle would never replace the green, but they were managing to adapt, and night walks through Central Park did give them some 'remembering' of their old home.

They didn't have time to really think of a reason when Obsidiana looked out and saw a large winged and reptilian creature flying toward the Eyrie Building.

"A dragon!" Obsidiana gasped, "they were myth!"

"As humans today think we are myth," Turquesa countered, "or did before they've seen us."

Obsidiana quickly nodded, "alert Jade and Zafiro! Inform the Xanatoses! It is coming and coming fast!"

Turquesa nodded while Obsidiana kept watch on the incoming dragon. Gargoyle clans always had their stories on the creatures, just as humans did. Obsidiana had learned that before their clan to Christianity as a result of interactions between the gargoyles and Scottish Monks, Goliath's clan had worshiped a being they called 'the Dragon'. The Tibetan gargoyles also held dragons in high regard, although theirs was specifically the Chinese style of dragon, that the Chinese people also worshiped. The Guatemalan clan had no legacy of dragon worship… but Obsidiana did remember stories told by her elders when she was a hatchling that told of monstrous fire breathers that attacked man and gargoyle alike.

She couldn't let this dragon do the same. And as she glanced to the tower, where she caught sight of Goliath and Elisa, locked in stone sleep with the rest of the clan and the Tibetan hatchlings. If this dragon was on the attack, she couldn't let it kill them. Though she had no idea how to deal with it.

And on the ground below, the dragon landed at the base of the Eyrie Building. It knew it had been seen, as car horns blared at it. It also heard the sound of metal hitting metal. But that didn't matter. It had found where is food had been taken and it had caught up with the thieves. It largely reasoned that it could escape any pursuit the humans would make against it.

The scent of the thieves and its food went to a sort of ramp/door area that went under the building. The dragon tried to squeeze in but found it was too big. Realizing this, it roared in frustration and began contemplating how to dismantle the entire structure. If it couldn't pull its quarry out, it would dig them out.

Inside the Eyrie Building, Jones was not comfortable at all. It wasn't Ben's nervousness that was the problem. It was all the questions that Xanatos had been asking him. It wasn't his business to know why they had brought the gold to New York. They were to value it and give him and Ben the money to share.

"You don't have to go this far," Jones spoke as Xanatos stood in front of him.

"It's only common sense to have exchanged the gold in Alaska," Xanatos answered, "technically speaking, if you didn't claim it when you crossed through Canada, what you've done is illegally smuggle gold, because there is no paper trail of it being checked. And I've already served one prison term. I don't want to do another."

Jones didn't answer, but one of the appraisers did.

"And since the gold they've brought in comes from various sites, that is a big concern," the appraiser spoke.

"What!?" Ben blurted, "we found it all in one place."

"Impossible," the appraiser answered.

Xanatos was about ask what it was when a great roar was heard coming from outside the building.

"Dusk?" one of the appraisers asked.

"No," Xanatos shook his head, "too early for the gargoyles to be waking up. Owen… go see what that is and if necessary take all defensive precautions necessary. I will see if I can get our two miners to come clean."

Ben gulped while Jones looked on nervously.

Castle Wyvern

Zafiro and Jade came out of a small outside shed that they were storing gardening supplies for the small garden they had set up in the courtyard when the dragon roared. They met Turquesa running toward where they were.

"What is it?" Zafiro asked.

"It's a dragon," Turquesa announced, "we need to get Fox, Xanatos, and Owen."

"A dragon?" Jade asked.

"Yes," Turquesa answered, "come on."

The turquoise colored female the resumed running into the castle. Zafiro and Jade quickly followed her.

"What about Obsidiana?" Zafiro asked.

"She's keeping an eye on it," Turquesa answered.

The dark blue female gargoyle, named for the color of her hair, however, was not merely watching the dragon. She was diving down on it. The creature had led out inhuman roar that was much loader then anything she had heard before. It clearly wanted something or someone from inside the Eyrie Building. If it attacked the building itself, the building would come down, and the gargoyles sleeping in stone would all die.

As the dragon prepared to lunge at the building, Obsidiana reached is head, and unleashing a challenging cry of her own, lashed out at the dragon's cheek with her talons. It roared with pain and staggered back for the moment. Obsidiana moved to hover for a bit as the dragon looked to her. As it did so, she could almost swear that the dragon looked at her like it saw a relative of some sort.

When Owen reached the Castle he found that things were not going very well. The roars continued from outside, and no one knew what it was yet. He came across Fox, who had left the robot's control to figure out what was going on, herself.

"What is it, Owen?" Fox asked.

"An attacker of some sort," Owen answered, "beyond that, I do not know."

"David doesn't know what it is," Fox spoke.

"I know," Owen replied, "that is why I am here. To identify what it is and activate the appropriate security measures."

Fox nodded and the two continued on. As they approached the portions of the castle that lead to the outside they ran into most of the Guatemalan gargoyles, who appeared to be searching for them.

"Thank goodness we found you," Turquesa spoke quickly, "it is a dragon and a large one at that!"

"A dragon?" Owen's eyes widened, something few people ever saw.

"Yes," Turquesa nodded, "a dragon."

Owen then broke into a run for the castle's main security room. This startled Fox heavily as it seemed so very 'un-Owen-like' behavior. She and the three Guatemalans ran after him, if only to find out why he seemed to be acting strange.

"Owen… what's the danger!?" Fox asked as she rushed after him.

"Potentially everything," Owen answered, "dragons are incredibly powerful creatures. Not invincible, but still powerful. I had thought their race had actually gone extinct many years… probably even centuries ago…"

"But one has survived," Turquesa spoke, "Obsidiana and I saw it."

"Yes," Owen continued on his way to the security room, "and it's saw fit to attack the building for some reason. If it does so, it is strong enough to collapse the entire building, destroying the clan as it sleeps in the process."

By then they reached the main security room and Owen did the one thing he knew would protect the Eyrie Building and the clan of gargoyles in stone sleep on the castle's towers and battlements. He activated the shield. The dragon would be strong and powerful, but it couldn't over power the shield.

"Why is it attacking us?" Jade asked.

"My best guess is that it is connected with the miners that have come here with the gold," Owen answered, "their answers seem to be those who are trying to dodge the truth about how they obtained the gold."

"Why would a dragon care about gold?" Fox asked.

Owen sighed, "it's part of their own food cycle and is tied to how dragons evolved."

There was then a brief flash of light as Puck replaced Owen. He then created images of the three sentient races.

"Now, humans evolved solely by science," Puck began, "the Fey, the Third Race, evolved through magic. Gargoyles evolved through a mixture of magic and science… and dragons are one of the evolutionary ancestors of gargoyles."

A line then went down from the gargoyle depicted in Puck's illustration to that of a dragon.

"Now, while many legends have dragons being powerful and magical beings in their own right," Puck explained, "that is not entirely true… Like the fey they do hold some power naturally, but its more like a gargoyle's stonesleep, then fey magic… though, for dragons, it affects their digestive system more then anything else. They can't eat plants or animal matter the way other beings do… they eat precious metals and gemstones and things like that. It will generally vary with what is most common in any particular area."

"The miners must have stolen the dragon's food source," Jade surmised.

"That is a distinct possibility," Puck nodded, "and being only semi-sentient, the dragon's only real thought is to punish the thieves and recover its food. Even if it means killing us in the process."

"And maybe that's the origin of the stories of knights fighting dragons to save princesses," Fox commented.

"Yes," Puck nodded, "although the details of those encounters are not present accurately in those stories. Any princess in a dragon's clutches was not threatened by any evil act of the dragon… if and when the dragon threatened her, it would be no different then from a Mayan, say, getting attacked by a Jaguar or a European attacked by a Wolf. The dragon is merely following its own instincts."

"Can we stop it?" Fox asked.

"It is possible," Puck nodded, "though, I'd think the Police will end up doing far more to stop it."

"They'll take too long," Turquesa answered, "the dragon is already here!"

Puck sighed, "I can help… though you will all need spears…"

Outside

Obsidiana could sear the dragon had some look of recognition at her when it did so, but it soon shrugged that off and blew a ball of fire at her. The dark blue female managed to dodge the attack, which hit the brick of a nearby building and dissipated, though she also noticed a large burn mark on the building. As she dodged, she ended up diving closer to the Eyrie Building just as the building's shield went up.

"Hopefully that keeps it out," Obsidiana commented as the shield went up.

The dragon seemed unfazed by this and lunged forward at the shield. It then roared with pain and staggered back into the streets after receiving an electrical shock from the shield. As the dragon recovered from that, it watched the gargoyle that was watching it, and it listened to the sound of sirens.

It's hope to recover its food was gone, now. Too many people knew it was there and the building seemed to emit some energy it couldn't tear through. Trying to stretch its wings to fly away the dragon ended up giving a pained hiss. The shock from the shield had somehow damaged its wings, or at least stunned the dragon enough that it could not use them for the moment. It then began to walk away, hoping to get as far from the people as possible. The dragon's rage was gone and now all it wanted to do was get away.

Inside the Eyrie Building

Owen returned to where the Robot Xanatos was still questioning the two miners. The real Xanatos was still controlling the robot, so he knew that talking to the robot would allow him to report to Xanatos without doing anything that would be considered odd. He arrived to find one of the miners, Jones, vigorously defending his actions and where their gold came from.

"And I'm telling you," the appraiser spoke, "the soil and rock samples with the ore are not consistent with your claim. There are samples that have some consistency with Canada, Alaska, and even parts of Siberia. Not the one portion that you're saying."

"And I'm telling you we found it all in one place," Jones answered vehemently.

"I'm sure," Owen spoke up, "but it would be in your own best interest to tell us exactly how you found this gold and where it was… as the roar was made by the REAL owner of it."

"Real?" Ben asked.

"A dragon," Owen answered, "the buildings security measures are in place."

"They're real?" Ben asked.

"You come to the building where a clan of gargoyles live and question whether or not something else that is inhuman exists?" Xanatos questioned, "Now I suggest that one of you talk. Because if no dragon carcass is brought in by the Manhattan SWAT teams, I will have you charged with smuggling and robbery and I will have someone go to Alaska where you claim to have found this gold and tell them that you stole from their land and property."

Jones looked defiant, as the location they had given was no where near where they had actually found gold. But, Ben cracked.

"We found it in a cave," Ben blabbed, "west of Denali National Park."

"And how did you find the gold?" Xanatos asked.

"Just stacked there," Ben answered, "Jones found the cave."

"Just as I suspected, sir," Owen cut in, "the dragon had hid in the mountains there. It had dug the cave out itself and probably failed to adequately cover the cave opening and these two found it."

"And just what would a dragon want with gold?" Jones challenged.

"Food," Owen answered, "their digestive system is very different from ours."

"How do you know?" he challenged again.

"Lets just say a little 'imp' told me," Owen answered, "anyway, the dragon failed to hide its cave and these two found the cave and robbed the dragon. This in turn angered it to the point where it would risk discovery to get the gold back."

"We didn't know a dragon owned it," Ben spoke nervously.

"Obviously," Owen answered, "though the only person who can claim the dragon's gold once the dragon is dealt with will be the legal owners of the land, so we will need an exact location of the dragon's cave so we know who to contact."

Jones glared at his partner as Ben gave them the real location of the dragon's cave. As he finished, Owen and Xanatos stepped away.

"I will deal with the police," Xanatos spoke, "Owen… I want you to do what you can deal with our reptilian attacker."

"Of course, sir," Owen nodded and then headed out.

On the Streets

The dragon, meanwhile, was no longer intentionally attacking anyone. The shield around the building was more then enough. All it wanted to do was flee. The city it was in was far too loud. The people running in terror from it screamed and fled their vehicles, which the dragon either crushed or flicked out of its way as it looked for a spot where I could get airborne and flee the city. What hurt its ears more were the constant sounds of sirens. They were even loud and some of their undercutting frequencies served to disorient the dragon.

Gliding above and behind the dragon were the Guatemalan gargoyles, who had now united again.

"Why did you attack it?" Turquesa asked to Obsidiana, "it might have eaten you!"

"It was about to truly attack the building," Obsidiana defended her actions and accepted a long spear that Turquesa was handing to her, "and had it done so… Goliath's clan and the others would be dead. We can not fail again."

Jade and Zafiro nodded, catching the reference to their original home, the Green. Puck had armed them relatively well with long spears, which the fey had assure them would be able to penetrate the heavily armored scales on the dragon's hide. And with them, the four gargoyles, protected from turning to stone by the amulets they wore pursued the dragon as it walked along.

"The real question now is how do we bring it down?" Zafiro spoke up, to save any second guessing for a safer moment, "Owen told us that they will be confiscating the gold and turning the miners over to the police. If the dragon leaves… it may eventually return and could come hunting for the gold."

"If we can get a spear into its chest… that might do it," Turquesa commented, "although remember what Owen said… back in the days when people still believed in magic and confronted dragons and such… it took ARMIES to kill them. Not just lone knights."

The dragon, however, overheard them or sensed it was being pursued. It turned its neck around and aimed its mouth directly at the four gliding gargoyles.

"Uh-oh," Jade gasped and then dove away as the dragon sent a torrent of fire into the air.

The rest of the Guatemalans dove to avoid the fire and were successful in doing so. The fire did dissipate and did no damage to the city itself, but it was more then enough to get the four Guatemalans to try and rethink some of their strategy. Such as it was.

The dragon, however, seemed to focus on Obsidiana and Zafiro as they had dove in the same direction, and the dragon did recognize the first being that had attacked in. It then shot its neck out to try and frap the two gargoyles in its mouth but failed.

"Obsidiana and Zafiro have it distracted!" Jade said to Turquesa, "let's go!"

Turquesa nodded and swooped down low and fast as Jade moved after the dragon while it was preoccupied with snapping at Obsidiana and Zafiro. The dragon never caught on to their movement and they managed to get underneath it, as the dragon had risen up onto its hind legs. The two of them readied their spears in a position to strike at the dragon.

"NOW!" Turquesa roared and thrust the spear up into the dragon's chest.

Jade did the same and thrust his own weapon to the dragon's chest. It took much of their strength, but they managed to get the weapons to sink in fairly deep. However, the dragon reared up in pain, making itself taller and pulling the weapons out Jade and Turquesa's hands. It then looked down at the two gargoyles. It did not look happy.

Above the dragon, Obsidiana and Zafiro saw the dragon turn back down to focus on Jade and Turquesa.

"Attack it's head! Quickly!" Obsidiana spoke.

Zafiro nodded and dove down, spear ready. Jade and Turquesa would not be able to escape the dragon's fire if it attacked with that, but the gargoyles being in two teams of two, found themselves facing some advantage because of their numbers. In turning to face Jade and Turquesa, the dragon had lost all attention on Zafiro and Obsidiana.

The two of them dove down and reached the back of the dragon's head just as it prepared to breathe fire. Zafiro drove his spear into the back of the dragon's skull while Obsidiana drove her spear in behind the dragon's right ear. Their momentum caused them to let go of their spears, but the move did its job. It did breathe fire, but in reacting to the wounds to its head, it lowered its head, and when the flames did come out, the dragon ended up roasting its on chest and abdomen. This included the spear wounds that Jade and Turquesa made I its chest. It roared in pain and collapsed to the ground.

"I think we got it," Jade said slowly as the dragon lay still.

Obsidiana and Zafiro landed to find that the dragon was still groaning. It was still alive, but Obsidiana thought the wounds it had sustained had to be mortal.

"I believe so," Obsidiana commented, watching the dragon's increasingly erratic breaths. Her nose easily picked up the scent of burnt flesh from the dragon.

The dragon then raised its head with the last of its strength only to have the bumper from a car that the dragon had earlier crushed or destroyed hit the end of the spear in the back of its head so perfectly that it acted like a hammer and a nail. The spear was driven completely into the dragon's braincase while the bumper landed on the dragon's back. When the Guatemalans recovered from the dragon's near revival, they noticed who had thrown the bumper. It was Puck.

"So, I've arrived just in the nick of time, I see," Puck mused, "though I must say you for did very well. In the olden days it took an army to kill a dragon, and it was usually catapults and ballistas that actually felled the beast."

"Modern weaponry is far more powerful," Jade commented.

"Undoubtedly," Puck nodded, "but we in the Seelie Court believed that most great dragons such as this were driven into extinction in the early part of what Europeans call the Middle Ages."

"So what do we do now?" Zafiro asked as Puck was replaced with Owen… somehow without any onlooker noticing.

At the same time, the sound of sirens got closer. It was actually a SWAT helicopter that arrived on the scene first.

"Now, Owen said slowly, "we explain how a dragon ended up in New York, which will be my department on behalf of Xanatos Enterprises."

Obsidiana nodded.

"The four of you will likely be called on to give a statement," Owen told them as four SWAT officers approached, M-16s ready.

"Is it dead?" the first officer asked.

"It would appear that way," Owen stepped forward, "though it is a good thing you are."

"How so?" the second SWAT officer answered, "your gargoyles already killed it… though shouldn't they be asleep?"

"The amulets we were allow my clan to stay flesh during the day," Obsidiana spoke, "it allows us to look after the gardens in Castle Wyvern."

"These are the ones that came from Guatemala," the third SWAT Officer spoke, "Xanatos' lawyers got the Immigration Department tied up on their status as refuges, citing aggressiveness on the part of the locals to them."

"The Immigration Department can suck eggs if they're going to help us with stuff like this," the first retorted, "damn thing could probably take a full clip and survive."

"Any idea what…"

"It is a dragon," Owen answered, "and as you can see, not animatronics. It is real."

"Do you have any idea why it's come into New York City?" the first SWAT officer asked.

"I do indeed," Owen nodded, "as does Mr. Xanatos, who is informing the NYPD leaders as we speak."

Two Hours Later

Ben and Jones were silently loaded into transport vehicle from the police that would take them to a jail cell to wait for the trial for what had happened. Official charges of a criminal nature would be rather light. Mostly thievery, though, that would actually be the responsibility of the Alaskan courts. The one criminal charge they would face in New York would be "public endangerment" for leading such an animal into the city. Most of the rest of the charges would be civil trials in relation to the damage that the dragon had done.

And of course, Jones couldn't use the gold he had found to pay for it, as it was confiscated as stolen and smuggled property. And the gold would likely sit with the NYPD until Xanatos Enterprises could find the owner of the land where the dragon had its cave. At present, that looked like it would take awhile.

And from the castle's battlements, Xanatos… the real Xanatos stood with Fox looking down toward the NYPD vehicle.

"I almost wish the dragon had caught them out in the wilds of Alaska or Canada," Xanatos commented, "It didn't do much damage to the Eyrie Building… but it will still cost a bit to repair."

"I'm sure, dear," Fox nodded, "but it could have been worse."

"It probably is worse for the people who lost vehicles to that thing," Xanatos replied, "and he police did find that several people have broken bones… and you know our greedy miners don't have the money to compensate them all."

"Perhaps when we find out who owns the land, we can persuade him to donate the gold," Fox commented, "from what you told me, they took enough to more then compensate for the damages."

"Maybe," Xanatos nodded, "Only time will tell…"

The End