Opening File: Demona
Demona is an immortal gargoyle who was once a member of the Wyvern Clan, and one of the co-conspirators in what became the Wyvern massacre. Blaming humans for her misfortunes, she has spent the last thousand years seeking to exterminate them. She is now one of the Manhattan Clan's greatest enemies, and possibly the most dangerous gargoyle in the world. Demona was hatched in the year 938.
By 971, she was Goliath's mate and a respected member of their clan. Like the rest of the clan, Demona originally had no formal name, though Goliath frequently referred to her as his 'Angel of the Night'. However, the young Demona had already begun to develop the weaknesses that would lead her down a dark path to come. Showing a strong interest in magic, she secretly entered into the Archmage's service as his apprentice, in which role she served largely as a servant and errand-runner.
The Archmage treated her harshly, but she was able to develop an aptitude in sorcery through his teachings. He also taught her to read, and she in turn taught Goliath. In 975, the Archmage commanded her to steal the Phoenix Gate from Princess Elena. Just after Demona stole the Gate, an older version of herself appeared with a duplicate Phoenix Gate, and whisked them both away to the year 994, accompanied by an older version of Goliath (both from the year 1995). There, the older Demona showed the younger one the aftermath of the Wyvern Massacre and Goliath's petrified form on the battlements, urging her to use the Phoenix Gate to avert this disaster and destroy the humans.
The younger Demona was horrified at her future self's coldness and callousness, and refused to become like her, but was also disturbed at what she had seen. The Goliath from the future did what he could to comfort her, urging her to not worry about this catastrophe but to remain true to her love. The younger Demona then returned herself and the two time travelers to 975, where she hid the Phoenix Gate from the Archmage, pretending that she had lost it. The Archmage, furious, cast her off as his apprentice then and there. Afterward, Demona and Goliath attended Prince Malcolm's wedding; she broke the Phoenix Gate in half there, giving one half of it to him as a token of her love, while keeping the other half for the same purpose.
As Demona aged, she became one of the greatest warriors of her Clan, protecting the humans of the Castle but remaining troubled over the vision of the future she saw and becoming more and more angry by the humans' treatment of her and her kind. In 984, her former teacher the Archmage tried to take over Wyvern but was defeated. In a last attempt to kill Prince Malcolm, the human leader at the time, the Archmage shot him with a poisonous dart which only a spell from the Grimorum Arcanorum could cure. The Clan's leader, known later as Hudson, was entrusted to bring back the book and he decided to take Goliath, by this point the Clan's second-in-command, and Demona with him.
Together they tracked the Archmage to a cave and were able to retrieve the book and return it to Castle Wyvern, saving Prince Malcolm's life. Demona expressed many misgivings over Hudson's advancing age and ability to lead, and it was this and Hudson's own feelings on the matter that convinced Hudson to step down and allow Goliath to lead. In truth, she wanted Goliath to lead out of her own self-interest, and Goliath soon made her his second-in-command. In 987, Demona and Goliath conceived a child and the next year Demona laid the egg in the rookery of the clan among many others.
By 994, Demona had become resentful of human prejudice toward her clan and conspired with the Captain of the Guard to betray the humans inhabiting Castle Wyvern to Hakon and his Vikings. The two urged Goliath to take the entire clan and drive the Vikings away from the castle, intending for Castle Wyvern to be captured in the gargoyles' absence at night. But Goliath, unwilling to leave the castle undefended, only took Hudson with him. The Captain, desperate to have the plan succeed, decided to have Hakon attack during the daytime instead.
Demona was alarmed, knowing that in the daytime, the clan would be trapped in its stone sleep and defenseless. She dared not warn the rest of the gargoyles, however, for fear that if she did so, she might have to reveal her part in the conspiracy, and so she fled alone to hide upon the beach. She awakened that night, and returned to find her clan slaughtered by the Vikings. Horrified and grief-stricken, she hid herself when Goliath returned to the castle, too afraid to face him.
By the time she returned, Goliath and five other survivors had already been put under the stone sleep curse by the Magus. Looking up at her mate's petrified form, Demona cried out, 'What have I - what have they done to you?' In that moment, her mood changed from grief to anger and hatred, burying her guilt underneath her rage at the humans, blaming them for her woes so that she could avoid facing her own responsibility for her actions. She saw below Princess Katharine, the Magus, and Tom loading the rookery eggs on the cart and driving away with them, but made no effort to go after them as she was unable to 'face' the eggs.
Instead, she kissed the stone Goliath one last time and glided away, sending herself into exile. Alone for several years, Demona had an encounter with a child named Gillecomgain, scarring his face during a petty theft. Gillecomgain became the Hunter, a mercenary and assassin seeking revenge against her and her race. Demona continued to wander about Scotland, attacking any human who got in her way and stealing food to survive.
By 997, Demona was leading a scattered clan of gargoyles, the survivors of clans that had been destroyed by the humans, including Demona's Second. Learning from the lessons of the past, she arranged for the clan to sleep in different places, so if one 'cell' was discovered and destroyed the rest would live on. The entire Sruighlea Cell of Demona's clan was later massacred by King Constantine and Gillecomgain. Amid their remains, Demona discovered a wanted poster left behind for Mary and Finella and discovered that they possessed the Grimorum.
Shortly after, Demona was approached by a time-travelling Brooklyn who explained his presence by pretending that he avoided the Magus's curse. At Brooklyn's behest, Demona brought her scattered clan together to help Kenneth III battle Constantine, although she secretly planned to betray the Grim after Constantine was defeated and use the Grimorum to bring Scotland to its knees. After Brother Valmont used the Grimorum Arcanorum to create a rain of fire arrows during the battle, Brooklyn cut Valmont's hand off to get the Grimorum back. Demona was able to seize the book and reverse his spell, if not the consequences.
After Constantine was defeated, the phoenix appeared to spirit Brooklyn away. Knowing he couldn't let Demona keep the Grimorum, Brooklyn offered to hold the book for her while she reached for her half of the Phoenix Gate, letting her believe she needed it to control the Phoenix. As the years passed, the grown-up Gillecomgain, as the Hunter, had become one of Demona's worst enemies, and a danger to all the surviving gargoyles left in Scotland as well. In 1020, the Weird Sisters persuaded Demona to attack the Hunter at Castle Moray, when he went there on Prince Duncan's orders to assassinate Findlaech and Macbeth.
Despite her hatred for humans, during the battle Demona chose to save a young Macbeth and Gruoch even though it meant letting Gillecomgain escape. In 1032, Macbeth and Demona faced Gillecomgain together again. This time Macbeth was able to save Demona's life and the battle ended with Gillecomgain's death. Later, an elderly Demona entered into a bargain with Macbeth to defeat a common enemy - Macbeth's cousin Duncan I of Scotland.
Macbeth wanted Demona's help protecting his kingdom, while Demona wanted her youth back so she could lead the last of her kind. The pact was facilitated by the Weird Sisters, who caused her and Macbeth to switch ages making Macbeth 51 and Demona the gargoyle equivalent of 35, the age that Macbeth was then. In so doing, they also made them both unaging and immortal, only able to die if one slew the other - something the sisters conveniently forgot to mention at the time. Macbeth himself soon came to admire Demona's combat prowess, and eventually became heavily dependent on Demona's clan for support in the war with Duncan's forces.
In the final battle with Duncan, Demona's devastating attacks so impressed Macbeth, he exclaimed 'You fight like a demon!' After becoming king, Macbeth called her 'Demona' (She-Demon) for the first time, a name she found very pleasing, and simultaneously declared her to be his primary adviser. The two became fast friends. Eventually, Demona's trust in Macbeth evaporated after overhearing Macbeth considering on betraying her to win the support of the English.
Fearing that this would come to pass, she abandoned his forces to Duncan's son Canmore and the English armies. Canmore, in turn, betrayed her, killing the last of her clan. Demona was alone once again, the last gargoyle alive in Scotland, and eventually she fled for other parts of the world. Demona would not enter into another alliance with a human for almost a thousand years.
During the intervening time, she amassed a substantial fortune and plotted her revenge on humanity, all the while being pursued both by Macbeth (who first hunted her to seek revenge and later simply to end his long life) and by a new line of Hunters descended from Canmore, who had somehow learned of her survival and chosen to hunt her down. Growing increasingly bitter towards humans, she finally decided that she must destroy them all, partly as the only means of ensuring survival for herself and what little remained of her race, partly as a means of gaining her revenge.
Sometime before 1994, Demona allied herself with David Xanatos, got him the Grimorum Arcanorum, and told him about the spell put upon the Gargoyles at Castle Wyvern. This led Xanatos to bringing the castle to Manhattan and waking up Goliath and the rest of the clan. Despite her and Xanatos's efforts to manipulate them, the clan refused to join her vendetta and actively opposed her. She later assisted Xanatos in resurrecting one of the dead Gargoyles from Wyvern, Coldstone.
During one of her attempts to murder Elisa Maza, Demona was granted a 'gift' by the magical being, Puck: after requesting that he make her able to walk in daylight without turning to stone, he grants her wish, but at a price. While a gargoyle at night, during the day, Demona would become the very thing she despised: a human. The transformation is incredibly painful and it hurt Macbeth when he was in proximity as part of their binding spell. Though initially furious at Puck's trick, she realized the positive uses of her human form as she later took up the alias of Dominique Destine.
She has also tried to exterminate humanity on numerous occasions; first by turning New York City's human population into Gargoyles, and when failing that, she tried turning them to stone at night so that she could smash them at her leisure. This curse was foiled, not only by an alliance between Goliath and Xanatos (thus ending her alliance with him), but also the unexpected intervention of first Macbeth, and then the Weird Sisters. The Sisters took Demona and Macbeth away with them, putting them into a trance and using them as extra reinforcements as part of their plot to takeover Avalon with the Archmage. When the Archmage and the Sisters were defeated, they were sent back into the outside world by the Avalon Clan with no recollection of this event.
Avalon brought Demona and Macbeth to New Paris, the new capital of what was left of a crippled France , where Demona met and became infatuated with Goliath's clone Thailog. Using the immense fortune and resources that she acquired over the years, she and Thailog founded a company called Nightstone Unlimited with herself as its CEO under the alter ego of Dominique Destine. She used the company to further her goals where she couldn't as a Gargoyle, and conspired to first steal Macbeth's fortune and, when failing that, create their own version of the Manhattan Clan through cloning. Sometime after returning to New York with Thailog, Demona learned from Sevarius that Angela was her biological daughter.
She did all that she could to convince to join her, without success. Demona, Thailog, and the Clones then captured the clan, but when Thailog tried to kill Angela, Demona discovered that she had come to care about her daughter and turned on Thailog, freeing the Gargoyles and telling Goliath to save their daughter. Not long afterward, Demona employed Sevarius to create the CV-1000 Carrier Virus and set Operation Clean Slate into motion. On the night of the Hunter's Moon, she used the Fulfillment Spell engraved on the Medici Tablet to merge the carrier virus with a case of D/I-7 detergent that she had stolen from Xanatos, creating a powerful plague designed to destroy all intelligent life on the planet, and invoking the Praying Gargoyle's magic to protect gargoyles from it.
Fortunately, when Demona revealed her plan, Goliath intervened at the last moment and destroyed the Praying Gargoyle, forcing Demona to abandon her plan. She managed to escape, however. Despite her plans being foiled Demona continues to plot the destruction of humanity with considerable bitterness and attempt to alter the clan to suit her vision of what it should be like. Angela has continued to try (presumably unsuccessfully) to turn Demona from her destructive course.
Xxx
"What a mess and all because you couldn't remember who is in charge." Crom said, holding the trembling form of Skulker in his hand. "A pity."
With a flash of light Skulker was sucked into Crom's neck, screaming as he vanished. He then turned to the bloody sickles, summoning them to him with a wave of his hand.
"Find a new Harvester of Blood."
With that the sickles shot out of the throne room, leaving the castle and then the island.
Xxx
"We have reports of the weather becoming more erratic, especially in places like Scotland, Japan and England. Word is spreading it is the work of a god or some powerful new villain out to claim domination of the world."
"Miss Destine?"
The TV was instantly turned off as she answered. "Yes?"
"Your nine o'clock appointment has arrived."
"Send him in."
In walked a man that while tall and muscular looked nervous with a slight shake in his steps as he entered. She didn't mind though as she loved it when her underlings were nervous.
It gave her a sense of power and control she had craved for centuries.
"Report."
"Goliath and his clan were last seen on a boat. We couldn't find a charter and it's not been seen anywhere else. We did a thorough search but couldn't find them anywhere. There is something else to note…"
"Oh?"
"They were with a man dressed in medieval armor with a face plate resembling Goliath's. It matched the same armor worn by a man who was arrested after fighting some thugs on the streets some twenty years ago."
She raised an eyebrow. "His name?"
"There is no official record but he went by the name Guardian. A few eye witnesses called him Tom…"
'Tom, Guardian….' Her eyes widened as she stood up. "Thank you. You will find your pay on the way out. Now go."
The man quickly did as he was told, leaving her alone in her office.
"So Goliath, you've returned to Avalon."
It made sense.
Tom was the name of the boy who helped Princess Katherine guard the eggs of her former clan in Avalon for the last one thousand years.
He was their Guardian.
She remembered Angela telling her about Katherine and Tom one time during her incarceration.
"So the Guardian again calls on Goliath for aide. But for what?" She wondered.
It must be a threat to the eggs.
No one has been able to find Avalon in centuries and even then the last time there was a threat it was the Archmage. Her former teacher had help from those Weird Sisters and brainwashed her and Macbeth into helping them. Goliath had been the main folly of her plans for years and she made a point of keeping an eye on all his movements. She had been listening, observing and waiting for the day when she could find a weakness to exploit.
The human Eliza?
She was strong for a human and no matter how many times she tried to kill her she always failed.
The members of Goliath's clan?
She tried exploiting them but they had grown, fully embracing Goliath's foolish ways over the truth.
Her daughter Angela?
She tried and failed to convince her.
So what was left to try?
Xanatos for all his resources failed to kill them and he eventually made peace with them.
The Pack failed.
The Grimm had failed.
The Archmage failed.
Thailog…Her eyes narrowed in disgust at the mere memory of him.
Even Oberon, the King of the Fae failed.
She had failed as well.
SMASH!
There was a loud crashing sound and she jumped to her feet, watching as two red sickles stab her desk in front of her. She could only stare at them, feeling a great and powerful magic emanating from them. In her mind she could strange whispers…
Take us…
Have your revenge…
Kill your enemies…
Sacrifice them all in the name of Crom…
She reached and grasped the two sickles in each hand, with each sickle emitting blood red energy around it. Dominique Destine, better known as Demona laughed in pure exhilaration as she was encased in a suit of blood red armor covered in hundreds of spines in varying sizes while changing into her Gargoyle form, her wings and tail sprouting from her back with pieces of armor covering them. Demona's head was encased inside a blood red spiny helmet, covering everything including her eyes but excluded her mouth.
"Caileag Crom... Oir is mise an fhuil-fhigheadair (Hail Crom... For I am the Harvester of Blood!)"
Xxx
Jerry had read the reports REYN filled in on the recent events while working on handling on the Crom Situation, caught his curiosity of the two guests being from another reality and brought to theirs against their will by the Fallen no doubt, but also learning other individuals associated with the Justice Friends are from different realities. This concerned the Director and higher-ups such as himself what the Fallen are planning and with how many dimensions and planets they explored, this sort of theory was not fiction to him since there are many possibilities thanks to the assistance of top scientists and a breakthrough of some like Dr. Tezla's World Race event and Dexter O'Reilly.
After finding out Satyra being the center of an ancient plot and their true nature, it was imperative to find the leader and stop him, along with Argost knowing they were working together to awaken an ancient Cryptid. He could perhaps contact one of his close friends who specialize in this sort of thing but time is on the clock and need all the help they can get to end this crisis.
"Miss, Quill, I believe you mentioned something about a recording you found about one of these... Harvesters' identity." He asked her and thought it could help discover something about these minions, maybe a weakness they have.
"Oh yeah, I found something you won't believe but thought to show you all what we found." Yara said, loading up a video of Van Rook being in his cell, the rest of the group were not sure what was going on until a fight broke out in the cafeteria when something crashed through the roof.
This caught everyone's attention of seeing what looked to be some sort of a golden ax, the same weapon one of the Harvesters wielded. The next part showed Van Rook approaching it and when he took hold of it he became the Harvester of Riches.
"I managed to translate it thanks to Ross and Erika and if the translation is right then it says 'Hail Crom, for I am the Harvester of Riches.' The same thing happened to the rest, but I got no idea who they are." It was much as Yara had found using WHOOP's computers to find out.
"And also a lot of high energy spikes in remote places on Earth." Artemis said.
"So that means they could be like Johnny's hammer, only the twisted version and controlling the user?" North speculated.
The others thought of the same thing.
"Does that mean I have to fight this Crumble...Coach guy?" Johnny asked, getting the name wrong upon pronouncing it.
"Crom Croach, and so far no. Everyone is taking part to stop him before it's too late." Erika told him, which made him feel relieved to hear it.
"Phew, no offense, much as I wanna be a big hero. This guy seems a little above my level." Johnny said nervously.
"Don't worry, just give it your all and make certain to not get fried." Amethyst said to give some support which others agreed with.
Rossweisse nodded in agreement.
Jerry turned to the two universe displaced heroes. "Ross explained the situation on the two of you and rest assured we have the best experts on dimensional research."
Both Heroes looked to each other and back to Jerry.
"Seriously? I thought it is impossible." Connor said.
"Well, we are one of the best and I know of certain people who do the impossible in recent years." Jerry explained. "It would take some time though until we found the right source of your home realities."
"That's ok, and if we can somehow contact our friends, maybe they can help you guys." Artemis knew the Justice League would have to decide how to handle the situation if the Fallen found their way to their Earth, unleashing an army of Grimm and other superpowered villains to cause havoc. Superman would need to be careful when facing magic users, and also caution against many who have powers.
"Yeah, maybe later we could go and see it sometime." Yara said thoughtfully.
"Maybe another time, Yara." North chuckled but was intrigued.
Before Jerry could say anything else an alarm went off.
"Sir, we have an intruder. He's-AAH!"
Jerry immediately pressed the reply button. "What happened? Can anyone hear me?!"
He spun around, bringing the camera footage to show WOOHP agents that were now…statues of gold. Before anyone could process this the wall was smashed open and in stepped the very Harvester they had seen on Yara's footage: Van Rook, the Harvester of Riches.
(Don't Stop by Innerpartysystem Starts to Play)
Looking around the room his gaze fell on Erika. "Nì thu gu snog.(Translation: You will do nicely.)"
"It's him!" Ross pulled out his swords. "Quick, pin him down!"
"Tha. Thig thugam!(Translation: Yes. Come at me!)"
Garnet was first, summoning her gauntlets and lunging at the Harvester of Riches, starting off with a roundhouse kick and punch which the Harvester blocked with his axe but two managed to slip through. Van Rook then retaliated by punching one Garnet's gauntlets, easily breaking it and then slamming the blunt end of the axe into Garnet's face, shattering her visor and sending her crashing into the table. Pearl was next, slashing her spear at the Harvester who immediately blocked. The two then fought with Pearl using her agility and ballet based dancing skills to dodge the Harvester's giant golden axe.
Ross jumped in, managing to slash the Harvester across the helmet covering his face. Van Rook, now enraged by the snarl coming from his mouth caught Pearl's spear and then kicked her into Ross who dodged thanks to his Semblance. Ross tried to attack again but Van Rook punched him across the room. Erika, Doyle and Artemis let loose with a barrage of arrows and bullets, slamming into the Harvester's armor and pushing him back while North and Superboy charged at him.
"Gu leòr de seo!(Translation: Enough of this!)" The Harvester slammed his axe into the ground, unleashing a golden energy wave.
Rossweisse jumped in front of Johnny, holding out her hands as a magic sigil appeared in her palm. The golden energy wave covered the room and when it faded…everyone but Johnny and Rossweisse had been turned to gold.
"MAMA!" Johnny shouted upon seeing his mother, who had taken on herself to keep Steven same, now a statue of solid gold.
Even the Crystal Gems had been turned into golden statues.
The Harvester raised his axe and looked at the statue of Erika. "Bana-phrionnsa Lochlannach. Iobairt foirfe don Mhorair Crom.(Translate: The so-called Viking Princess. A perfect sacrifice for Lord Crom.)"
"You…" Johnny's eyes blazed with lightning as he pulled out Mjolnir. "TURN MY MAMA AND FRIENDS BACK TO NORMAL!"
He threw the hammer at the Harvester who raised his axe to block but the sheer power of the hammer knocking him off his feet and slammed him through the wall. Recalling Mjolnir in his hand Johnny shot forward, bringing his hammer down on Van Rook again but the Harvester rolled away at the last second, leaving a giant hole in the floor made by the enchanted hammer. Jumping up, the Harvester kicked Johnny back, swinging his axe to take out the new incarnation of Thor. Rossweisse jumped in, firing a magical blast that left the Harvester dazed for a second.
It was enough for Johnny to deliver a blow to the chest with his hammer. The Harvester Riches crashed through several walls.
"I said turn my Mama and friends back to normal!" Johnny shouted, flying at the Harvester again.
He swung his hammer down but this time Van Rook raised his axe and managed to block; creating a shockwave that shattered every window and glass on the top floor and several floors down. Van Rook quickly knocked Johnny through another wall, making a sizable hole. Taking a chance the Harvester of Riches rushed back to the office, using his axe to block incoming spells from Rossweisse. Once he was close enough he swung the axe at her, forcing her to jump aside but was then backhanded by Van Rook for good measure.
As Rossweisse was knocked down Van Rook entered the office and grabbed the statue of Erika before smashing through the wall, using his magical axe to propel him through the air.
(Don't Stop by Innerpartysystem Ends)
Just as Rossweisse got back up Johnny jumped back to his feet and ran back in. "Where's he go?! Where'd he go?!"
Rossweisse pointed to the hole in the wall, showing the city. "He's got Erika."
"And my Mama and friends are still statues!" Johnny fell to his knees as dark clouds gathered over the WOOHP building. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Rossweisse slowly walked over to the distraught Johnny. "We can follow him. If we find Crom and get help we can save them."
"…Right." Johnny stood up, grasping his hammer with lightning emitting from his eyes. "No one hurt my Mama and gets away with it!"
Watch out, Crom Cruach.
Johnny Bravo, the new God of Thunder was coming for you.