****Nightstone Unlimited, Thailog's office
Paperwork.
He finds nothing else more loathsome of the many things he has to work on in running his business, and it takes up a great deal of his time, another commodity he loses more of every day due to his weakened state.
If his leading and most brilliant geneticist, and 'father' knew what was good for him and didn't come up with a cure for his old burn injuries soon, he will personally break his neck with his bare talons.
Unfortunately, as greatly satisfying as that would be, he couldn't afford to waste such brilliance as Sevarius was far more valuable to him alive than dead. However, once his usefulness to him was done, perhaps he will still take some pleasure in his creator's demise at his hands should the mad scientist show he may get too ambitious and out of control.
But for now he was far too valuable and necessary for his own personal well being, as well as his company's profits.
Yet, oh how he must endure the boredom and tedious task of working through his company's paperwork as he gives his signature where it was needed such as paychecks, approvals for future projects, company buy outs, and other things he knew were essential to keeping up a benevolent business company public image. Alongside all that were also memos, records, updates on projects and experiments, and other tediously mind numbing drivel all muddled together to give him a Manhattan sized headache.
Of course, it was the tests of endurance through such mediocrity which made him long for the times to pursue his real passions and ambitions between all the demeaning if necessary paperwork seem all the sweeter, and oh how he always looked forward to those times.
Although, he couldn't help but wonder how his ex-love did it for so long on her own without him; of that he couldn't help but admire. He could just give 90% of all this to his executive assistants, yet at this point everything called for caution if he was going to succeed in his current and future business goals, especially with building his empire across the city and then the world.
So, for now, everything needed his attention down to even the most miniscule detail as he couldn't and won't leave anything to chance should someone still be loyal and in league with his ex-love and partner.
There then came a loud knocking on his office door, making him growl in frustration, yet he was relieved for the distraction at the same time it made him irate.
His door opened before he could bellow for whoever it was to come in and it was Fergus. He seemed out of breath as he brought a piece of paper to Thailog, which the burned Gargoyle took hard with a bit of lingering annoyance as Fergus told him between heavy breaths,
"Sir, this just came from one of our informants at Xanatos Enterprises, and I'm sure you'll find it intriguing."
Thailog read the brief note with a bit of a raised brow ridge of curiosity, which then indeed became intrigue.
"Well, well," he mused to himself with a small dark smile, "Looks like things are finally getting interesting again over there, or at least interesting enough for me and my friends to get involved in. Fergus, go find Darius, I think he too will be interested in this news as well. And call Shari and Miss Lilith, I'm certain they'll be interested in this, too."
Fergus gave a quick and curt nod, and was gone in a half second.
In his private chambers, Darius once more studied the mystic text before him, one of a few Thailog had manage to acquire for him since forging their so-called alliance, from something called 'the black market'. While no doubt an appropriate and sinister name for an intended secretive operation by greedy and insidious humans for other equally greedy and insidious humans, it was still a human operation and anything having to do with humans either sickened him or he was disinterested in.
Of course, Thailog told him it did also have its intriguing macabre side, of which he did have a deep interest in.
The text he studied now was a rare volume about Norse magic and spells; something which was essential to one of his own personal projects. Ever since that night with that arrogant, naïve Goliath and his deformed unidentified whelp, Darius became even more resolved to have his revenge against him, that blue traitor, and his pathetic rookery brother.
What humiliation he suffered that night was now made up for in the promise of what he will do with the mystical artifacts he has thus far acquired in this human infested city, a situation that still surprised him and the chances of which should be infinitesimal.
Yet in his many long years of occult studies, he has learned destiny can be a strange and unpredictable mistress yet give advantages in often seemingly insignificant and unorthodox ways.
As he translated the Norse runes from the book into English and Persian writing at his desk, a rather loud and obnoxious wrapping at his door interrupted his train of thought, making him give a low snarl.
It was worsened as he saw it was one of Thailog's pathetic human stooges, showing no basic courtesy at all.
"Mr. Thailog needs to see you right away, Mr. Darius," the frumpy human said quickly, and was gone the next second with no other explanation.
Darius just gave a frustrated annoyed sigh as he set his project aside and made his way to Thailog's office.
Whatever it was that the dark skinned Goliath look alike wanted to see him about, it had better be worth it.
A few minutes later, Darius joined Thailog, along with Coldsteel, the human female called Shari, and a brownish skinned and blonde female gargoyle wearing light armor, and with eerily familiar features that made him very uncomfortable.
"I'm glad you're all here," Thailog began with a smug smile, "Something really interesting has just come to my attention from Xanatos Enterprises."
"And why should we take interest in the activities of your human business rival?" Coldsteel asked with clear disinterest, "Unless it involves my foolish brother's clan in some way, I don't wish to hear about it."
"It might, Coldsteel," Thailog just shrugged, "But I still think you'll find it interesting. Xanatos just received some new guests to his sky castle, one of whom one of my spies says might be the alleged London crime boss, Arthur Pennington."
Darius and Coldsteel just gave blank looks, either with disinterest or confusion, making Thailog smirk again as he said, "But you might know him by another famous name, Arthur Pendragon, I believe? Though some think he's just delusional and needs to be locked away in an insane asylum, going around claiming to be the famous fairy tale King of England."
Something changed in the silver android and the necromancer, both knowing the name fairly well if for different reasons.
"I'm a bit familiar with this legendary figure of the West, and I'm especially intrigued with the court wizard, though he's failed to keep my interest as I preferred to study about old masters of more forbidden arts," Darius said.
"I remember hearing the stories from my hatchling days," Coldsteel said in a dry deadpan tone, but then gave a bit of a dark smile as he said, "Except for stories of the battles and wars I don't remember much, yet oddly I came across rumors of the real Arthur Pendragon possibly still being alive in this time from the computer records I stole from Xanatos not long ago."
"What do you think brings a possibly dangerous British gang leader to Manhattan?" Shari asked, her tone curious yet seemed to hint at some detail known only to her.
"That's what I'm hoping our friends here will find out," Thailog answered a bit smugly again, "Ever since that fiasco and his identity was revealed in London, I've been following his movements for some time to see how much of a threat he may pose as a potential rival. He's been mostly erratic and his activities proved to be of little interest to me, so he was put to the side as a pleasantly distracting hobby for a few months. But, now that he's here in Manhattan and he and his friends are guests of Xanatos, I'm curious as to what brings him and his friends here, and if they'll be problems for my business affairs. Perhaps the four you and Anaheim could take a look and find out what they're up to."
"The four of us?" Darius said confused.
"Yes, Ms. Lilith here will finally be accompanying you on this outing," Thailog smirked as he indicated the brownish female Gargoyle standing beside him as he said, "We just have to wait on Typhon."
"And how long will we have to wait?" Darius asked with clear boredom, "Our scarlet friend isn't exactly known for his punctuality or eagerness to go on one these supposed 'missions.' If we have to wait too long, I might as well get back to my own studies as I'm still working on that soul transference spell for Coldsteel as well as other spells that require my attention."
Thailog seemed to give this some consideration for a moment as he tapped his chin, and just smirked as he said, "Perhaps you're right about that, Darius, as Typhon is rather more inclined to do his own thing despite the messages he gets on his pager. Perhaps for once this team needs someone new, a bit of new blood if you will; someone who hasn't been out in the field for a while and needs the experience, perhaps one of the Ultra Pack as I haven't put them to use for some time.
"Fergus, find the Ultra Pack and see if one of them is willing to volunteer to team up with my friends here for a quick outing."
Fergus gave a nod and was quickly gone, leaving Darius and Coldsteel with looks of puzzlement while Thailog just gave a small dark smile.
In their private training area and/or gym, a few members of the Ultra Pack just occupied themselves with their own activities; such as Jackal practicing target practice of replicas of familiar enemies, and Wolf hit and boxed with an oversized slab of meat like from the classic Rocky movies, while new member Vixen practiced her martial arts moves on a wooden apparatus called a Muk Yan Jong.
Wolf punched at the huge slab of meat like a boxer in training, making hard squashing sounds from his large fists as he seemed to be letting off a lot of pent up frustrated steam as he grunted and growled.
Jackal shot at a mock target of Goliath with a new wrist laser and a recently slightly upgraded targeting system built into his cybernetic eye piece which was more accurate to within a quarter second; the target exploded the same moment Wolf punched the slab of meat so hard it went flying across the gym as Wolf gave a frustrated snarl.
The mutate chased after the meat slab like the animal he was modeled after on the chase during a hunt to then pounce upon it hard and just started chewing and tearing it to shreds with loud munching noises, red meat juice gradually stained his muzzle.
Jackal rolled his remaining human eye at this and just set to target practice again, shooting at mock targets of Xanatos and Steel Clan robots as they appeared, making them explode into sharp burnt splinters upon laser beam hits.
Vixen finally stopped her martial arts practice as she found the noise the two males caused distracting, giving them both a cold if impassioned stare as she took a seat in a far corner and set to freshly sharpening her personal tachis.
Wolf's gnawing on the huge meat slab soon became so loud as he ripped off a rather big piece and crunched on bones, Jackal grit his teeth in growing frustration and just shouted at his furred teammate,
"Will you stop that already, goddam it!"
He shot at the meat slab at a high setting of his laser enough to charbroil it, and Wolf barely had time to dodge away from the blast with a chunk of meat still in his muzzle as he growled in growing anger.
He crunched on the meat a couple more times as he stared at Jackal with a murderous glare, finally swallowing it nearly whole with an audible gulp.
Jackal gladly returned the stare as he said in a steel hard cold voice, "You really are an animal with nothing but damn fur for brains whose mother was a bestial whore who liked to screw dogs!"
Wolf growled dangerously at this as he returned with a dangerous tone, "At least my mother wasn't skrewin' around with old rusty junk piles in roach infested junkyards, or maybe she was skrewin' around with the roaches, and liked it."
Jackal growled low as he activated his laser again and as he warned low, "You want to say that again, furball?! 'Cause if Hyena were here, you'd think twice about what you'd say. Or more likely you'd be burned dog meat right now."
"Bring it on, ya damn rust bucket, I've been itchin' for real action for weeks now," Wolf gladly challenged as his claws grew another inch.
They readied to just tear each other apart when a short if deadly piece of metal suddenly appeared between them and a pragmatic if cold female voice said, "That's enough, you two, you're petty squabble is childish and pointless. Save your energy for tasks our benefactor requires us to carry out."
"What tasks?" Jackal yelled in frustration, "Thailog hasn't needed us for anything in months, so what's the point?"
Vixen just gave a dispassionate look as she simply said, "To be ever vigilant."
"Vigilant for what?!" Jackal yelled again, "If we're not out there doing God knows what for the Goliath cardboard copycat, we're stuck here doing nothing! So I still say, what's the point?"
Vixen didn't say anything else, but just continued to give a dispassionate cold look, though under it was a hint of judgment at what fools she was required to work with.
Wolf gave a glare as he growled, "That's the only thing we agree on right now, so much so I almost long for the 'good old days' of the damn TV show. At least there was some form of action instead sittin' around waitin' for nothin' to happen, no matter how well we get paid."
"And what good would we be anyway?" Jackal complained with frustration, "The so-called Pack isn't what it used to be, no matter what kind of fancy upgrades and improvements we're given. We're falling apart; two of us abandoned the team for an arrogant thieving rich man or damn misguided fantasy of going straight." He shot at two more targets, cardboard cutouts of Fox and Dingo in their original Pack TV outfits, and they just exploded. "The walking garbage disposal is out of commission for his own 'upgrades', Lobo is more worried about his stupid mongrel and tactics he's had no time to even lead us out there, and my sister could be dying from an unknown malfunction from her cybernetic parts and the same thing could happen to me."
"You don't think I'm not frustrated, being cooped up in here 24 hours a day?!" Wolf yelled, "At least you get to shoot at stuff, but I've got gnawing instincts to go out and hunt, but instead I'm trapped inside this damn building like a caged animal. And you're not the only one with family to worry about!"
Jackal was about to argue back as he gave a confused look, but Vixen yelled coldly, "Enough! You're bickering is pointless. When there is time of inaction, that is when one's skills need to be practiced and honed for the field, to keep from becoming stagnant and weak and you're wasting it now. I have high standards of whom I'm required to work with, but clearly I'm to make an exception in this situation as it's not my place to question whom I work for and only deliver on the promise of the best of required results. I also don't really care about your reasons for becoming the way you two are now, but clearly you're over compensating with truly pathetic low self-esteem."
Both Jack and Wolf gave her dangerous glares at her as Jackal hissed, "And who are you to judge us, Missy? You're not even one of us, no matter how much Thailog might be paying you. You're just some overly sexed up interloper on a little girl's feminist power fantasy that doesn't know what we went through to get the payback we deserve."
Vixen just gave a disinterested look at this as Wolf also growled defensively, "Yeah, again and again we were humiliated by those damn Gargoyles, and someday soon I'll one up Goliath. But, obviously you don't have a beef with the gargoyles, and what're you gonna do if one o' 'em gets to ya, huh?"
Vixen just gave an unreadable stone faced expression as she was as still as a statue for only a moment before she suddenly wielded her tachis in each hand, then just sliced them through the air with graceful movements barely discernible with her arms and wrists as the short deadly blades hissed faintly through the air inches away from Jackal's and Wolf's faces and shoulders.
The next second she sheathed her blades behind her back as the two males just smirked like she missed them as Jackal scoffed, "Heh, that was supposed to impress us?"
But then chunks of Wolf's fur around his muzzle and shoulders, along with the ends of Jackal's long grown side burns, fell to the tiled floor to make them both stop smirking and just look on with astonished looks.
"Whoa," Wolf breathed.
"Hmm," Jackal hummed as he touched at his chin, "Maybe we underestimated you."
"Which is the weakness and downfall of anyone who has," Vixen said with the hint of a warning tone.
Jackal and Wolf now seemed to grow an iota or two of respect for Vixen, but underneath it was something a bit more unsavory and lustful as they gave small dopy smiles.
Before anything else happened, the gym door opened to show the arrival of Fergus as he informed them, "Mr. Thailog requires the Ultra Pack for a meeting."
He was gone before any of them could respond or ask what it was about and just made their way to Thailog's office.
A few minutes later, they joined on the meeting involving several Gargoyles, a Gargoyle robot, and a mysterious woman and were quickly brought up to date on what was going on.
Coldsteel and Darius eyed Jackal and Wolf, and they did the same as though to size each other up or figure out what the others deal really was.
"So, I'm certain you all won't have any trouble working together?" Thailog inquired, "This is a pretty unconventional group, but what I need you all to do may be unconventional anyway given Xanatos' intriguing new guests."
"I understand this group of 'enhanced' humans hold grudges against my rookery brother for their own reasons," Coldsteel said with a cold monotone, "I will have no trouble working alongside this Jackal and Wolf so long as they understand as do I and am not part of his clan."
"You, a robogarg part of Goliath's clan?" Jackal questioned with a scoff, "I find that hard to believe, if you really ever were. But whatever, I'll work with these flying lizards so long as they stay out of my way for whatever we need to do."
Coldsteel and Darius gave glaring insulted looks as Wolf growled, "So will I, if it finally means some action and getting out of this dump."
"Good to know," Thailog said, "There's still some details to work out, but it looks this will be a promising and formidable team up."
"Indeed," Shari spoke up, "But we can't send them in yet, lasers a blazing without knowing more."
"Of course, which means we'll have to start with observing their movements for a time," Thailog instructed, "So, Coldsteel will be our scout…"
As Thailog gave instructions for his team, a tension hung in the air between all of them as wheels spun in their heads for ways they could claim the real prize in the end.