All of the Gargoyles on the council that had gathered in Manhattan had known that there was a measure of risk involved with "coming out" to the humans. Each and every one of them had been well aware of the risks as well as the potential threats from humans who feared them, which is why most of them had returned home before the NYPD ceremony.
The two that had stayed behind, Lei-Ji and Garia, had opted to return to their homes for the time being after all of the newest trouble had begun, with promises to return soon.
And that's how it was that the gargoyles of the Manhattan clan were back to their original numbers.
One unexpected outcome of the announcements as they were read at every station, at the beginning of every shift, that day, was that the applications to join the GTF skyrocketed. With the discovery of Silvan's participation as well as the suspected participation of his buddy from the parking lot, Officer Chambers, every applicant would be going through a thorough process to weed out anyone looking to get close to the gargoyles for harm.
All told, instead of only three officers at every station, they actually had to put a ten person per station cap on it to slow things down.
Victor Tanner had come in and taken over the GTF so efficiently that it took a while for everyone to finally realize that Matt was no longer in charge. Retired Officer Tanner spent his nights at the 23rd precinct, stationed at an empty desk in the corner of the bull pen. While the ten person cap had long since bene hit within each station, he was still going through applications as "reserve" GTF members.
Oh, there were still those within the NYPD who were leery to work with the gargoyles, but they weren't as vocal as before.
Officer Chambers had turned himself in a few days after Officer Silvan had blurted out the Humans First Organizations plans. At first he had ignored it all, but reluctantly he had come forward. He felt guilty, since he had initially introduced his partner, Silvan… former partner by that time, since Silvan had repeated the threats to his fellow NYPD officers without batting an eye or showing remorse at the possible lack of life. Silvan had run across a member of the Humans First just after he had been given a position on the Task Force at the very beginning, and had tried to bring Chambers into the organization with him.
Chambers admitted that he didn't like the idea of working with the Gargoyles, but found the group way too fanatical the one and only time he had gone to a gathering for the members. It had made him uneasy, so he had not gone to a second meeting.
The real kicker was that He had a rock solid alibi, complete with both video and photographic evidence to prove that he was not at the ceremony the night that Silvan and the unknown subject had tossed those Crowd Suppression gas canisters.
Elisa would have sworn that it was him there with Silvan that night, but had been proven wrong.
Chambers was required to take some time off of work, ordered by the Internal Affairs officers to give them time to verify everything that he had said. Not only that, but he had a mandated round with the NYPD's therapist after he had confessed to the argument in the parking lot that had resulted in his removal from the Task Force.
After a week, they had decided that, while Chambers was a bit of an a-hole, he wasn't a danger to his fellow officers.
Chambers had returned to work, but he was being watched very closely.
Or so Elisa had heard through the grapevine.
Life became a little more… crowded after Silvan's arrest. If a call went out, at least two units responded, and it didn't matter if it was police, fire or EMS.
And if there was an assist call for the gargoyles, everyone showed up to help.
While it was a kind of relief for Elisa, knowing that so many people were looking out for the safety of the clan now, it was becoming increasingly hard for Goliath and Elisa to find time to meet up while they were at work.
They still managed to make time, though, and after a while, they got used to their working hours again.
Detective Sutton, the undercover detective that had been assigned to try to get in with Humans First, came up empty. The group had gone completely underground, and Elisa worried at that. They would probably surface again, just as soon as the NYPD started loosening up over the threats that had been made.
In a way, she hoped so. She wanted to be there when they were taken down.
After the first few situations where the gargoyles were called out, a good sized part of the population of Manhattan made it known that they were behind the gargoyles. Less and less people were running from them in fear, and had begun to actually applaud them at the scenes where they were called in to help.
Almost a full month after the threat, the clan was brought in for a meeting with Maria and Lucy. As a courtesy, both Elisa and Matt were brought in as well. Elisa watched with trepidation as the clan filled the large conference room. Neither she nor Matt had any idea as to what was going on.
Mr. Tanner and a young man in black judges' robes entered last, and made their way to the front of the room. After a brief rundown, a few questions, and a session of 'repeat after me', the Gargoyles had been deemed legal citizens of the United States.
Elisa fought back a groan at the craziness of it all. It seemed that the HR department had really been making noise about the whole payroll thing, so Lucy had managed to find a judge willing to make them official. He was young, new to New York, and had jumped at the chance to make his mark in the history books.
He even went so far as to have his picture taken with the clan to frame for his office.
Elisa smirked. He was going to be mighty disappointed when he got that print back as she watched the judge stand smiling hugely in front of them, with the clan looking shell shocked and more than a little confused behind him.
It had taken some time afterwards to help the clan understand why that had been necessary, and once more the clan argues that they did not want nor need to be paid for what they would willingly do for free.
In the end, Elisa was the one to come up with a solution. Their "paychecks" would be deposited into a single account to be there in case of emergency, but automatic withdrawals would be made each month to a variety of charities.
The Labyrinth would be getting a good chunk of it to help the homeless there, while the rest was divvied up between a few crisis centers and youth centers to help those in need.
The clan seemed satisfied with this, and Elisa watched as Lucy practically danced in her seat.
Yes, the positive PR would be amazing, Elisa was sure of that.