Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or locations from Gargoyles, those belong to their owners.

Author's note: This story takes place the summer following "The Journey", and though it ignores the comic's continuity, I'm using Fang's real name, revealed in Bad Guys #2.

Chance Meetings

Chapter 32

by Remtar85

It was a cloudly and rather cold evening when Fang and Sevarius were set to leave London for their next travel destination. The cougar-man sighed as he landed near Sevarius's jet at the private airport, wrapping his wings around his shoulders to let them rest. An hour after night had fallen, the mutate and scientist had packed up and left the hotel. Fang had flown with his luggage all the way to the private airport as they had done in most of their travel locations so far (other times having Fang land near it and be picked up in the car transporting Sevarius), to keep the mutate's secrecy. Fortunately, it wasn't a long trip to the private airport, and the jet was ready and waiting for its two passengers. As he got there before Sevarius did, Fang did not bother waiting for the scientist and boarded the jet immediately upon arriving.

"Hi, Jess," Fang greeted Jessica, the blond stewardess, who stood by the door waiting for the only two passengers of the flight.

"Hello, Mr. Sykes," she said rather timidly. Ever since they first departed back in New York, Fang had been incessantly flirting with Jessica any time they were in the jet, always with a cheesy or sometimes even sleazy pick-up line, and sometimes putting an arm around her. The young lady was clearly not interested, and the cougar-man's insistence in his flirting unnerved her.

"So, where to next?" Fang asked her.

"Doctor Sevarius said we're heading to France," she replied. "Paris, specifically. I'll take your luggage."

"Sure. Just lemme get something from inside," he said, putting his travel suitcase down and opening it. He opened the box at the very top and pulled out a book, the first of the Modesty Blaise series he had been gifted. He then closed everything back up before handing the suitcase to the stewardess. "There you go. Bit heavier now, by the way, so don't strain yourself."

"It's no problem," she said, not asking any questions about the mutate's fuller suitcase, taking it away.

"Hey, Jess," Fang called out to her, the stewardess turning back to see the mutate smiling casually at her. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Jessica called out, looking a bit confused as Fang turned and walked away. She was expecting the mutate to flirt with her as he always did, so to have him just be casually friendly and polite baffled her, but she certainly didn't mind it.

By the time Sevarius arrived and boarded the jet, Fang was seated at his usual chair, already strapped in and ready to leave. Jessica immediately closed the jet's door after Sevarius boarded, the scientist heading for his chair, sitting down and putting his seatbelt on. The captain quickly announced their impending departure, the jet's engines roaring to life as the flight crew readied for take-off. Sevarius's attention turned to Fang, and the scientist looked perplexed for a moment at the sight of the cougar-man immersed in a book he was reading.

"Where did you get that book?" Sevarius asked.

"I fished a bunch of books and some other stuff from one of those bins where people deposit stuff they wanna donate to charity," Fang lied with a casual tone.

Sevarius smirked and scoffed lightly. "Incorrigible as ever, Fang. I didn't know you enjoyed reading."

"There's a lot you don't know about me, Doc," Fang stated, eyes never leaving his book.

"Well, it seems you made the most out of this stop in our trip," Sevarius said, ignoring Fang's statement.

"It was a nice place. Flew around a lot, got some goodies from that charity bin, and no crazy Quarrymen to ruin it. Yeah, I did like this city, wouldn't mind coming back sometime," Fang said with a smile, turning a page, doing his best to make sure Sevarius would never find out about the gargoyles living in London.

The jet started moving, and Fang turned his eyes away from the book and out the window, watching the scenery pass by. Fang's heart was conflicted, as part of him wished he could stay, and another part of him yearned to be leaving, as it meant one step closer to returning home. And as the jet took off, Fang sighed softly. He would greatly miss this city, his new friends, and especially Cecily, but his time in London had been a very happy one. Fang felt lucky to have experienced it and it was something he'd always treasure. With a smile on his face, he returned to reading his book.

The descent was tedious to Fang. By now he just wanted out of the aircraft, stretch his wings and get to flying. He was pondering how a jet could feel so slow sometimes, and he was impatiently tapping one of his feet on the floor, arms crossed in front of his chest. This made his annoyance quite apparent to Sevarius, who groaned in exasperation.

"Would you calm yourself?" Sevarius snapped at the mutate. "We'll have landed momentarily."

"I know, I know," Fang said. "I'm just eager to be back home."

The trip to Paris after leaving London had been uneventful, with the sole exception of the fine cuisine Fang got to sample at their hotel. The rest of the time in Paris was spent mostly in Sevarius's company, by a group of people who were all fascinated by the mutate. To Fang's relief, he was allowed to not be present during Sevarius's experiments, giving the mutate peace of mind in not having to see or even know what kind of things Sevarius was doing. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for their next destination, which was Vancouver, Canada. Fang's services as Sevarius's bodyguard were needed once more, as Sevarius was tasked to create mutates again, and as his test subjects were hardened criminals, Fang had to not only protect the scientist from his very unwilling and violent victims, but also handle the criminals throughout the process, moving them to and from places and the like, to which Fang was grateful that whoever Sevarius's client was had added additional security for handling the criminals after their mutations. Despite having gone through that mutation process himself, Fang didn't exactly like seeing it happen to other people, especially as Sevarius was clearly going for more variety than winged felines. The ones who got turned into bug mutates especially creeped Fang out. Overall, between Paris and Vancouver, Fang did not get as much free time as he did in London.

While at the hotel penthouse, a few hours before they had to leave Vancouver, Fang asked Sevarius what their next destination would be, and he was elated to hear that they were finally returning to New York. His good mood was present and evident upon boarding the jet, where he insisted on putting away the luggage so Jessica wouldn't have to. After Fang stopped flirting with her upon leaving London, mainly because he felt that Cecily gave him what he needed and then some, Jessica was much more at ease around the cougar-man, who was simply friendly in a casual way with her, and it made the subsequent flights more pleasant. She even shared his enthusiasm to returning home, despite the excellent pay by Sevarius during this long journey. This reminded Fang of the payment for his services as Sevarius's bodyguard and showpiece for his clients, the mutate very eager to know how much he was getting paid.

Finally, after what seemed entirely too long a time, the jet touched ground. Fang could hardly wait for the aircraft to come to a full stop and quickly removed his seatbelt once the sign was given, standing up and stretching. A moment later, the two passengers met Jessica at the door, receiving their luggage from her and leaving the jet. Fang bid Jessica farewell, as did she to the mutate. A fancy car with a driver standing outside it was already expecting Sevarius.

"So, Doc, how about my payment?" Fang asked. "'Cuz, ya know, we're back in New York and I still haven't seen it."

"Don't worry about it, Fang, I won't renege on our agreement," Sevarius said as he approached the car; the driver (who had clearly been informed of Fang just as the crew of the jet had been) had popped open the trunk and Sevarius set his luggage in it, then turned to the mutate. "I made a few calls to have everything ready. Your payment is waiting for you at one of my apartments around the city, which is where I'm headed now, for a proper rest before returning to work for Demona. Coming?"

"Hmm. Yeah, okay," Fang said, walking forward and putting his luggage carefully into the trunk. The prospect of spending even more time stuck with Sevarius irritated Fang, but he would put up with it a little longer for the sake of getting that money. He also figured that it would beat having to fly for an hour back to the city. The car's tinted windows would also make sure Fang would go by the whole trip unseen.

The drive was longer than Fang would've wanted it to be, and it was spent mostly in silence. Both Fang and Sevarius were tired from their flight and their interests were too different to engage in casual conversation, something that had been commonplace throughout their whole trip, any talks they had being mostly business. Manhattan's buildings coming into view as they neared the city was a sight for sore eyes, and it did not take long for the driver to head into a fancy apartment building's underground parking. Once there and with nobody around to see, Fang and Sevarius exited the car and, taking their luggage, Fang followed Sevarius to a private elevator that took them to the top floor. They got off the elevator, towards a door, which Sevarius opened to an elegant, immaculately furnished and clean penthouse residence.

"You sure like living large everywhere you go, eh, Doc?" Fang pointed out more than asked.

"I see no reason not to. Besides, I do my best work when relaxed and comfortable," Sevarius said, moving to the living room area and pointing to a large duffle bag that sat on a big couch. "I called well ahead of time to have your payment ready."

Fang eagerly moved over to the couch, setting his luggage aside and opening the duffle bag. "Holy crap, Doc," he said in an amazed voice at seeing many, many neat stacks of 20 dollar bills. "Just how much is there in here?"

"Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars."

Fang's eyes grew very wide. "A quarter of a million bucks?!"

"Well, you did keep me safe from my test subjects in Russia and Canada," Sevarius said. "And having you with me when meeting new clients caused an excellent impression and boosted my business considerably. I'd say you've quite earned that money."

Fang's eyes were still on the numerous stacks of money in the duffle bag, the mutate grinning, an amazed expression on his face. He stayed silent except for a soft chuckle, shaking his head in momentary disbelief as he took it all in.

"And now that our business is settled, I shall go freshen up and go to bed early," Sevarius announced. "Demona will be expecting me punctually tomorrow for work."

Hearing this, Fang turned to Sevarius, reaching into the pocket of his pants. "Oh, hey, Doc. Can I ask one last favor?"

"Yes?" Sevarius asked, turning to Fang, who was now holding up the beeper that Demona had given him to contact him for whenever she needed his services. And to Sevarius's surprise, the cougar-man crushed the beeper in his hand. He opened his hand, the destroyed device falling to the floor in tiny pieces.

"Tell Demona I quit," Fang said, smirking quite smugly.

"Have you gone mad?" Sevarius asked, a frown on his face. "You know Demona is not someone you just quit on."

"Watch me. And before I go, I just wanted to show you what I think about what you told me back in London, Doc," Fang said, his smug smirk changing to a fierce glare, his eyes now glowing white. "You remember, about the test subjects that came before me and Claw, and how I basically got lucky that you didn't pick me before Claw for your experiments or else I woulda been dead. Yeah, that wasn't too pleasant to hear..."

Seeing Fang's glowing eyes and hearing the tone of his voice lower into a menacing snarl, Sevarius was filled with sudden, intense dread. He tried to flee, but before he could even turn to run, he was blasted off his feet by a powerful burst of electricity shot at him by the mutate. The scientist could only grunt from the shock of the impact as he flew back a couple of meters, hitting a wall and crashing through a decorative glass table to the floor, breaking it into many pieces several of which cut him. And as Sevarius groaned in pain on the floor, the mutate shot him again with a stronger blast that slammed him once more against the wall, knocking him unconscious; then, after a few seconds of gathering power in his hands, the cougar-man snarled and fired a third, more powerful bolt, which burned off a good chunk of Sevarius's shirt, resulting in some burns on his torso. Between the burns, several cuts from the broken glass and, unbeknownst to Fang, a few broken ribs from the impact against the wall, Anton Sevarius was still very much alive, but now very much in need of medical attention.

Fang's eyes stopped glowing. He took a deep breath, let it out, then smiled brightly. "Man, that felt so damn good!" he exclaimed loudly, a strong feeling of catharsis filling the cougar-man with glee.

Feeling happier than he had been since his stay in London, Fang grabbed the cordless phone, walked up to Sevarius and tossed it next to him so he'd call for help once he regained consciousness, the mutate feeling rather bummed that he wouldn't be there to see Sevarius's distress upon awakening. Picking up his suitcase and the large duffle bag filled with more money than he had ever seen, Fang walked out to the big balcony and took off. While he had some difficulty flying due to carrying both his suitcase and the duffle bag, he still managed well enough. Fang kept a watchful eye out in the skies for any Manhattan Clan gargoyles out and about, but generally he just took in the sights of the city with a big smile on his face, absolutely thrilled to be back home.

Feeling a very strong urge to immediately drop by Daniel's apartment to see his son again, Fang resisted said urge and flew in another direction, for he had a very important appointment that he could not miss out on. He was glad he knew the city's layout well enough by now, and eventually he landed atop an office building. The cougar-man then proceeded to enter the building through the rooftop door, going down one flight of stairs. Now inside, Fang found the floor entirely deserted, and as he walked along, he could see a variety of things in rooms, corners and hallways, mainly boxes, but also desks, chairs, filing cabinets and the like. That was until he came across an open door leading into a large room that was furnished just like any apartment would. Fang entered, and before he could take a look around, he found David and Fox Xanatos standing in the kitchen area. The couple were engaged in conversation, until they noticed the cougar-man.

"Ah, Fang, you made it," Xanatos said with a pleased smile.

"Sorry if I kept you waiting," Fang said.

"Not at all," Fox said, the couple leaving the kitchen area to join Fang.

It had all began when Fang had first called Xanatos back in London a moment after Sevarius had. After accepting Xanatos's proposal to work for him, the businessman gave Fang instructions to call him again whenever he and Sevarius were bound to return to Manhattan and the time of arrival. Fang had done so without Sevarius being any the wiser, and Xanatos gave Fang a specific address to meet him at to make Fang's employment with him official.

"So, how do you like your new home?" Xanatos asked.

Fang blinked a few times in surprise. "My new home? You mean this place is for me?"

"That's right," Fox replied. "We like to keep our employees happy, after all."

"As you know, we own quite a number of businesses in the city. This office building is one of many," Xanatos explained. "And we also have many safehouses and hidden places through the whole city, for any possible emergency situations. We figured we could spare one so you could live comfortably."

"This floor is used for storage," Fox continued explaining, "but the walls are soundproofed, so any employees that come up here to fetch something won't hear you in here. Keep the door closed during office hours and you'll be fine."

"And as for groceries and other supplies, you only need to call the number written on the note by the phone and make your order," Xanatos added. "Your groceries will be delivered here, in the cargo elevator."

"Cargo elevator?"

"Yes," Xanatos continued. "The building has two. One's now exclusively for you. Your supplies will be loaded down below and sent up to you, but you can also use it if you want to get out of the building on ground level, by a back door. We've made sure the security cameras won't catch footage of you if you do."

Fang was quite taken aback by everything. "Wow. That's... I mean, all of this, for me? Not that I don't appreciate it, but what did I ever do to deserve this?"

Fox smiled at the mutate. "Well, like we said, we like keeping our employees happy. This is what we can do for you in return for what you can do for us."

"Alright. So what can I do for you?" Fang said, realizing that he was still carrying his luggage and the duffel bag full of money, so he put them down.

"Nothing too difficult," Xanatos replied. "Mostly the same thing you did for Demona while you worked for her. Provide security for valuable cargo, or steal something we might need."

"Oh! Sure, I can totally do that," Fang said with a smile.

"And beyond those things, there would be another thing you could do on occasion," Fox said. "As you know, Nightstone Unlimited is co-owned by Demona and Thailog."

"Yeah, and I'm still wondering how that works," Fang said. "Last time I saw those two together, they were trying to kill each other."

"From what we've heard from more recent encounters Demona's had with Goliath's clan, it looks like they're making it work at a distance," Xanatos explained. "They founded the company together and neither one wants to give up their share to the other, so they reached a reluctant agreement to keep it running, albeit it far away from one another."

"That's two of our worst enemies running a multi-million dollar company," Fox continued. "So, to distract and frustrate them even if only for a while, a little sabotage would be quite ideal."

"Things like stealing or destroying important cargo and the like," Xanatos said. "Giving Demona and Thailog a little headache every once in a while to distract them from us and others. Any advantage can be good any time."

Fang could not help but grin at this. "Sounds like the best job ever. Anything you want me to do, you can definitely count on me."

"Excellent," Xanatos said as he took from his pocket a device very similar to the beeper Demona gave Fang from his pocket. "We can keep in touch with this for anything we might need you for. But if you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask."

Fang nodded, taking the device. "Ah, actually, there's this one thing I wanted to ask for. I mean, if it's not too much of a bother?"

After explaining to them what he was hoping for, Fang was relieved that they accepted his request, Fox especially looking forward to fulfilling it. With that, the couple took their leave, allowing Fang to explore his new home. The space that had been turned into an apartment for him was quite spacious, with a fully functional and decently stocked kitchen, a living room with a TV, VCR and cable, a large bathroom and two fully furnished bedrooms, as well as a small room that had a laundry machine and dryer. There was also the cargo elevator in plain sight at the far wall. There weren't any windows, but Fang didn't mind, as this meant nobody could see him from outside, especially gargoyles. Fang was at first astounded that an apartment with all the necessities had been outfitted in an office building, but as he thought of Xanatos and Fox's immense wealth and everything they had achieved, Fang felt that this was tame by those high standards, and the astonishment faded quickly.

With a smile on his face, Fang chose which of the two bedroom would be his. Both rooms were already furnished with beds and dressers, and Fang first put his duffel bag full of money in his closet. He then proceeded to unpack his luggage. The magical artifacts and potions, as well as the Modesty Blaise books he had been gifted, were set atop the dresser drawer alongside the picture of Fang with Cecily and Desmond,, which Fang put in a picture frame from a few that were available in a corner of the dresser. The cougar-man then put away all his clothes in his dresser drawers and the closet, and as there weren't many clothes, he finished in no time at all. Having settled in quickly enough, Fang left the apartment, not bothering to lock up behind him. He returned to the roof of the building and walked to the edge, looking out at the city as a cool breeze blew at his fur. The mutate took a deep breath, exhaled slowly and smiled.

"Damn, it's good to be home," Fang said happily.

To Be Continued...

Author's Extra Note: And there we have it, Fang is finally back in Manhattan. He's been gone for quite some time, but now it's time to get back to the good old stomping grounds for this mutate. I decided it was high time he finally had a place of his own so he won't always have to crash at Daniel's all covertly and sleep on the floor, and of course, he finally doled out some payback on Sevarius. Sevarius has always been one of the nastiest, most genuinely evil villains in the show, and unlike most villains, he never received any proper comeuppance for all the bad things he did, so I figured it was high time to give him a taste of karma, and I tell you, it was very cathartic to write. Stay tuned to see what Fang gets up to next, and as always, thanks very much for reading!