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 am 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 four days after "Ambush".
Explosion
By SN/TVfan
Email: Sam_Nary
Off Karaginskiy Island, Russia
Demona and the rest of the group headed back to Tibet awakened to find the waters fairly quiet. She had used her powers over sorcery to turn the Illuminati's hover-sleds into a boat that could allow them to sail from western Canada to at least Asia. Their general plan was to eventually get to Japan, where Yama and Yoshi promised that their clan would provide them with supplies needed to drive the supermen out of Tibet, although Demona did not know for certain where to 'abandon' the boat that had been created to transport them.
Demona slowly made her way into the small cabin area that served as the ship's bridge. There was a small map of the pacific spread out across a table in the center of the room. Je Lu and Shi La followed her.
"Where are we?" Je Lu asked, "I'm most eager to get off of the ocean."
Demona nodded as she had quickly found that many of the Tibetan clan was not used to being on a large body of water and as a result they quickly became sea sick. Demona then consulted the map, as he had linked their location on the globe to her own powers. She then pointed to an island on the map that was near the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia.
"We appear to be about tell miles off of the island of Karaginskiy," Demona answered, "And this where a decision needs to be made. Yama and Yoshi want us to visit the Ishimuran Clan on our way to Tibet, which means we can not keep going in this boat for long. Japan has very little territory that we could sneak ashore, and aside from this island, the closest area in Russian territory would be the Kuril Islands, which we might reach by the time we get close to dawn tomorrow."
"We can land here," Je Lu spoke, "If we wait until we get to the Kuril Islands, the sun might rise and we'll end up sailing into Japan before the sun sets again."
Demona was about to nod when Yama came in rather quickly.
"What is it?" Demona asked.
"We have something coming up on us," Yama answered and pointed out the front windows.
Demona then looked out the window to see two warships moving toward them at high speed.
"What are they?" Shi La asked.
"Russian frigates," Demona answered, "Get everyone inside or below decks. The last thing they need to see are gargoyles."
Demona then moved to try and take their small ship back out to sea, as the last thing they needed was to get into a battle with the Russian navy. As the two frigates came closer, they heard a voice shout to them over a loud speaker from one of the Russian ships.
"Attention pirate vessel," the voice spoke over a loud speaker in Russian, "Stop immediately and surrender! We have been authorized to fire!"
"Pirate?!" Demona growled, "Pirate?!"
"They're just defending their country," Je Lu spoke.
"I am NOT a pirate," Demona growled and walked out of the room and out onto the deck.
The immortal female slowly walked out onto the bow of the small ship she had created and pointed her hands toward the two Russian warships. She then began chanting in Latin. Wedrington heard this activity and rushed to try and stop her, fearing she was attempting to murder the men on the ships trying to intercept them, and the Russian sailors were not impressed.
"We have authorization to fire," the voice screamed over the loudspeaker, "stop and surrender, NOW!"
Demona did not stop her chanting as a thick mist began to move in around the two Russian ships.
"What are you doing?" Wedrington demanded as he came up, "These are ordinary sailors. Unconnected to the Illuminati."
"You may relax," Demona answered, "I'm merely wrapping them in fog so that they can not see us. We will beach our ship and depart before they can fire on us."
They were interrupted by a loud boom and then watched three large geysers of water shot up around their small boat.
"The radars on modern ships allow them to fire without necessarily seeing the target they're firing at," Wedrington commented, "We're also lucky they didn't fire a missile."
"Can they detect us?" Demona asked.
"I would assume so," Wedrington answered.
Demona growled and then chanted something and vanished from sight.
"Demona?" Wedrington asked as he looked around, "Demona?"
He then turned and moved into the cabin where Je Lu and Shi La were trying to help Yama pilot the ship toward shore.
"We must go into the mist," Wedrington urged.
"But we won't see," Je Lu answered, "It is that thick, even our eyes can not see through it."
"We have to," Wedrington answered, "Demona's teleported onto one of those ships, and we can't allow her to kill anyone. Especially since they aren't connected to the supermen."
"They aren't?" Shi La asked.
"They're Russian," Wedrington answered, "Completely innocent."
Meanwhile, Demona appeared on the bridge of one of the Russian frigates. Her appearance frightened the men on the bridge and Demona quickly used that to her advantage. She turned and grabbed the nearest person she could find and lifted him into the air, her eyes glowing brightly.
"Don't eat me!" the man pleaded.
The fact that the man thought that she would eat him angered Demona, but she managed to hold her temper. She had promised Wedrington that she would change for the better. But these humans were preventing her from helping protect another clan of gargoyles. She wouldn't kill them, but she had no time for being polite.
"Where are your radar screens?" Demona demanded in a growling voice, hoping to use fear to get them to talk.
The man pointed toward them and Demona looked at them intently and then at the rest of the gathered crew. All of them had drawn weapons, but were too afraid to do anything while Demona had her hostage. She quickly decided not to let her advantage slip away and walked over to the radar screens and devices. She then smashed them with her talons. She then walked to a door that would lead her out of the ship.
"For your information, I am not a pirate," Demona growled, "And in the long run, my mission may in fact save you, but I do not have time to explain that."
Demona then chanted again, disappearing from view and dropping her hostage to the floor. One of the other officers immediately approached him.
"Are you alright, sir?" the officer asked.
"That is possibly the weirdest thing I've ever seen," the captain answered.
Back on the smaller boat, Wedrington, Yama, Je Lu, and Shi La all jumped when Demona suddenly appeared back on the bridge of their makeshift vessel. There were sounds of surprise coming from outside the small bridge as the other Tibetan gargoyles had also gathered to see what was going on since Demona had called in the fog and then vanished.
"What did you do?" Wedrington demanded quickly.
"I took out their radar," Demona answered, "Do not worry, no one was harmed and their ships are easily repairable, but they can not track us for the time being, which will allow us to continue on our way."
"You promise you didn't kill anyone?" Wedrington asked.
"I promise," Demona answered, knowing that Wedrington was trying to make sure she stayed on the straight and narrow, even though she didn't like the supervision, "You needn't worry about me. Now, we must beach the ship before the fog spell wears off."
Unknown Location
The Illuminati quietly sat around their council. Three had just returned from a brief mission to New York and seemed greatly upset by the results, which had resulted in an emergency meeting as a result.
"I hope you have a good reason for this," Four grumbled.
"I do," Three answered, "It has to do with the situation in Tibet and the believed gargoyle connection to it."
"We know of the gargoyle connection," Five grumbled, "Demona is behind it."
"Demona may be involved in it, but she is not the originator of the problems in Tibet," Three answered, "What I learned in New York proves that the insurrection is much closer then many of us care to admit."
"What do you mean?" One asked, beginning to sound nervous, "Are you saying this is a rebellion within the Illuminati Society?"
"Impossible," Six commented, "We would have known about it before it began."
"Not if everyone in the facility where the insurrection began is in league with the leader of the rebellion," Three answered, "We know about internal descent because it has come up in places where a rebel has spoken to a loyal member without knowing it. The rebellion against us in Tibet has come from people who are all allied together."
"What is the origin of the Rebellion then?" Two asked, curious, "And how did you learn of it?"
"You do understand the problems we have faced since our Tibet facility was overrun, and not just the rebellion in Tibet?" Three asked.
"Yes," Four commented, "Every scientist we've found or hired to run the facility has been murdered. We do not know how the rebels have managed to track them all."
"That is because they've used our technology to track them all," Three said in a voice that showed that he was serious in his warning, "Our New York candidate survived the attempt and his assassins have been captured."
"And how is this bad?" Five demanded, "You report this as if it's a bad thing! Maybe you are leading this rebellion."
"What happened in New York?" One asked.
"The assassins found our man first, before he could leave for Tibet," Three explained, "Thankfully the chance actions of a friend of his saved him from being killed by the assassins."
The other council members nodded and waited for Three to continue.
"Their actions attracted New York's gargoyle population to the situation," Three continued.
"Probably to finish the job," Four grumbled.
"That is what I thought as well, initially," Three replied, "but the problems was, a human team of assassins attempted to kill him. NOT the gargoyles, who defeated the assassins."
"The gargoyles stopped the assassins?" Two asked.
"Yes," Three nodded, "Which allowed Duval's men to take him prisoner. We began with the standard interrogation method…"
"How could you tell if they were telling the truth?" Six questioned.
"Duval had them hooked up to our latest lie detectors," Three answered with a sigh, "We would have known if they only said something that was true by only a technicality."
"Did they say who they were working for?" Two asked.
Three nodded, "Yes. They're working for Khan."
"Who?" One asked as a surprised silence fell over the room.
"Khan," Three answered, "The man we created to help us enforce our polices. He is the one who orchestrated the 'attack' on our facility in Tibet, and is probably the one behind the violence in Tibet and China at present."
"But Demona, the gargoyles?" Five asked.
"If he is behind all this, I'm sure what we've seen is what he wanted us to see," Three reminded them, "Remember we gave him and his followers a naturally high intelligence."
"Are you sure about this?" Two asked, "We also placed programmed genes that made them loyal to us. Khan shouldn't want to be disloyal."
"We also did blood tests," Three answered, "The two assassins were our supermen and they had sworn fealty to Khan. How he broke his programming is unknown at this time, and considering what he has done, focusing on that is a bit too late."
"But why would he betray us?" Four asked, not believing any of this, "We provided him with everything one could want."
"Except his own freedom," Three sighed, "Which may be what he in fact wants. We can't allow him that freedom, but that may be what he wants."
One then sat back heavily in his chair and sighed heavily.
"What can we do?" One asked.
"Aside from destroying the Tibet facility and preventing Khan from raising an army, we need to see what access he has to our systems and files," Four commented, "Make sure he hasn't leaked our existence out already."
"He's had access to all of our technology," Three answered, "How else do you think he's managed to hunt down the replacements for the Tibet base? He used our data files to find them."
"Can we block his access to them?" Two asked.
"I don't know," One commented, "If Three is right and Khan is behind it all, we might not be able to construct a firewall that can block him, and the most direct route is out of the question."
"What is?" Five questioned, "We could potentially have a major challenger for power out there fighting a war against us."
"If Khan is behind this, he apparently does not the world to know of our existence," One replied, "if he did, he would have done so already. The chaos that would have caused would have brought us to our knees, but the same tactic could potentially be used against him."
"Reveal who Khan is?" Three asked.
"Yes," One nodded, "Let Tibet know who their 'liberator' is. Show that he is nothing but a genetic engineered freak of nature who sees himself as superior, and all the 'free Tibet' people will back away from him."
"That is if he survives a strike on 'his' base," Five commented, "We must strike him there. Show him that we know what he is up to and his scheme will not go unpunished."
"We can not risk our own equipment," Two commented, "The Chinese are bound to see it and might fire on it by accident."
"We can hire their air force to do the job," Five spoke, "With Khan gone, the rebellion will end, and we can finally resume normal operations in Tibet."
Three looked on with a frustrated look on his face. Things were moving quickly, and he was beginning to wonder if the Illuminati's 'normal' operations could ever be regained anywhere.
Beijing, China
"They have a FORTRESS?" a Chinese political leader gasped in surprise as a pair of military officers showed him a series of aerial photographs.
"Yes," one of the officers answered, "These attacks have become dangerous enough that it was felt that we felt that our efforts need to be stepped up. We sent several recon planes over the region, and one returned with that series of photographs. We can pinpoint its location on a map, if you wish."
The political leader nodded, "It is not the scouting that you have executed that is the problem. It's the fact that this is the first we've ever heard of this fortress. I mean planes flying from here to India will fly over Tibet. Surely one of them saw this fortress in its construction."
"There doesn't appear to be any direct route over this fortress," the other officer answered, "It is very possible that no one saw this fortress as no plane flew directly over it."
"What can you do rid the people of this problem?" the political leader asked.
"We have garrisons in Tibet and we are reinforcing them," the first officer answered, "I've already ordered a massive force to surround the position and advance on this fortress."
"How long will that take?" the political leader asked.
"We've also launched a series of air strikes to be launched against the fortress," the other officer answered, "If all goes well, we should be able to capture this fortress in a few days. Hopefully we capture the leader of the insurrection there before it spreads beyond Tibet's borders."
"Very well," the political leader sighed, "Let me know when these actions have finished and that we have captured the fortress."
"Of course, sir," the two officers saluted.
Tibet, The Next Day
It was early in the morning, just after the dawn of the day when two Xian H-6 (Tu-16) 'Badgers' flew low over the Chinese province of Tibet. They were escorted by four CAC J-7 (F-7)s which also flew in pairs. Two of ground attack fighters flew ahead with air to air missiles to make sure that no fighter opposed them while the other two flew above and behind the 'Badgers' and were armed with bombs to be dropped after China's strategic bombers dropped their bomb load on the targeted fortress.
"Is the fortress radar equipped?" one of the fighter pilots asked over the radio to one of the 'Badger' pilots.
"We must assume so," the 'Badger' answered, "Thankfully, the fortress did not appear to have any anti-aircraft weaponry. They may detect us, but they can not shoot us down."
"That's a relief," the other fighter pilot commented, "And they don't appear to have any aircraft, at least we haven't picked up any on radar. We are half an hour out of our target, if what you've said about their defenses is true, then we'll flatten that fortress and be back at the base safe and sound."
Meanwhile, inside the fortress Khan watched the six blips on a radar screen coming closer to his fortress.
"How far away will they be when they begin dropping their ordinance?" Khan asked, "Our air defenses aren't fully installed yet, and this base can not be destroyed."
"You're certain they're coming after us?" Khan's second in command asked.
"They are on a path that will take them directly over our base, and more importantly this is the first time that such an attack has been mounted," Khan answered, "They are on their way here."
"But why…?" Khan's second began to ask.
"The why is unimportant," Marilyn growled, "the point is, they're coming, and if your technology isn't ready, the I suppose I am the only one who is ready."
Khan and his second in command then turned to see Marilyn vanish from the room in a flash of green light.
"Now, this could be interesting," Khan commented.
Marilyn reappeared floating in mid air in the path of the approaching aircraft. She assumed the pilots could see her, but she thought that was needed. The idea of seeing a woman in commando gear simply float in mid air should confuse them allowing her to do what was needed. Pointing to one of the two Chinese fighters, she focused entirely on the pilot of that fighter, and after chanting a short spell, the pilot was suddenly teleported out of the cockpit of his fighter, and reappeared directly behind the plane's afterburner. He screamed as he was quite literally cooked.
Marilyn then performed another teleportation spell and appeared inside the cockpit of the fighter that she had just removed its pilot from. She heard the Chinese pilots screaming for their lost comrades and it made Marilyn laugh. She then activated her plane's radio.
"Good morning gentlemen, my name is Marilyn and I will be your executioner today," Marilyn spoke with a laugh and pulled the fighter she had commandeered into a tight turn and slowed it down enough that the other advance fighter was right in front of her.
Marilyn shot down the other escorting fighter with a burst of gunfire, although her turn jammed her plane's guns and made it impossible for her to use it on the other aircraft, but with her occupying one of the four fighters, and one shot down, she didn't need the plane's guns necessarily. What she did need was her magic, as she was not experienced in piloting fighters and against four trained pilots, she might manage to escape, but that would mean allowing the base to be destroyed, without which neither she or Khan could conquer the world, and she couldn't allow that. Not just because she shared Khan's goals of conquest, but she respected Khan's abilities as a commander. She didn't want to see him dead.
Turning to use a basic mind control spell she aimed it on the other two fighter pilots as she silently chanted. She couldn't sense any magical talent in any of the pilots and smiled that she could use those spells over and over with relative ease, but she wasn't sure if they had the room to house thousands of prisoners under mind control, or is she had the ability to control that many people, as at present, she was nearing her limit as she took control of the minds of the other two fighter pilots.
Marilyn then smiled as the other two fighter pilots followed her mental command and deliberately turned toward each other and crashed in midair without either pilot trying to get out. That left Marilyn to deal with the two 'Badger' bombers, which had turned and were trying to escape from the area as quickly as possible.
"You can not escape me," Marilyn spoke into the radio and turned her captured fighter around and began to target one of the two fleeing bombers.
Pursing the fleeing bomber, Marilyn quickly found that the fighter she had captured was easily faster then the larger plane, and she was forced to slow down to allow her plane's missiles to lock on to the bomber. After a moment or two, she heard a beeping noise, indicating that the missile had locked on, and she fired. She then smiled as a missile flew out and his the bomber's engine, destroying the aircraft. Marilyn ignored it to now chase after the other bomber before it could too far away, and she destroyed that bomber in much the same way she had destroyed the first. Once that was done, she set her captured fighter into a steep dive and teleported out. Once she rematerialized on the ground, she watched the plane crash into a nearby mountain and then moved to return to Khan's base.
Khan's Base, half an hour later
Khan was waiting for Marilyn as she arrived.
"Good flight?" Khan asked.
"Interesting," Marilyn answered with a smile, "We will have to make more of those planes when China is ours."
Khan nodded, "I would have preferred if you could have saved the fighter that you confiscated, but then until we can either capture an airfield or land suitable for building an airfield, we can not do anything with planes. Maybe some helicopters, but not panes."
Marilyn slowly nodded, "My powers will be more then adequate to protect the base until we have the strength to defend it otherwise. Although, you may want to have your troops ready, I noticed there was at least a division's worth of infantry on their way here, although they were moving very slowly. With the loss of their aircraft, they might have even turned back."
Khan nodded, "I'll even arrange for some of our guerilla units to strike at their flanks if they're entirely infantry."
The two then walked inside the base and moved toward a conference room where Khan's second and a few other officers were waiting.
"We are ready for the meeting," Khan's second reported.
"Good," Khan answered, and took his seat at the head of the table and then began to speak, "My friends, the time has come that we take our war directly to the Chinese and the Illuminati inside China. It has come sooner then intended, but we have no choice at this time."
"No choice?" an officer asked.
"Those aircraft where headed here," Khan answered, "China could not have found us without the Illuminati telling them where we are."
"Then the Illuminati know that we are the 'rebels'," another officer spoke.
"Yes," Khan nodded, "with our facilities and growing support among the Tibetans, we can defeat the Chinese infantry, and with Marilyn, China's technology will find itself at a disadvantage or at least in an uphill fight."
"We will need to increase our production of supermen," one officer commented, "to insure that we have powerful numbers."
"Also insure that half are female," Khan ordered, "It will give our people the ability populate our kingdom on our own without using science."
The others nodded.
Unknown Location
One sat quietly inside his own office when a secretary came rushing in. He looked up, somewhat surprised at the intrusion, but not upset, as when these sorts of things happened, something 'big' was happening that required his attention.
"Sir, you have someone on the communications screen for you," the secretary reported, "He seemed very insistent on talking with you."
"Is he Illuminati, or just some high tech nut who happened to get lucky?" One asked.
"I do not know, sir," the secretary told him.
One sighed and got up, "Very well. Tell them I'm on my way. If anyone else from the Council stops by, let them know I'm in the interrogation room."
When he arrived at the communications center he was greeted by a face that took him completely by surprise. It was Khan himself.
"You!" One gasped in surprise.
"Yes, me," Khan smiled, "How have you been."
"You've caused all our troubles!" One accused.
"Your most recent ones yes, but in a way, one could say you brought them on yourselves," Khan replied, "Playing 'god' and so forth."
One didn't answer.
"I'm going to assume that you've finally learned the truth about the rebellion in Tibet," Khan commented, "You've all created great interest among my men considering your stupidity."
One only growled at the screen.
"Although I must say, I am curious," Khan commented, "Exactly how did you learn that it was I who was behind everything in Tibet?"
"Manhattan's gargoyles saved the life of the man we intended to send to Tibet to take command of the facility you've overrun," One answered.
"Gargoyles," Khan smiled, "such noble creatures. A pity the Illuminati has done as much as it could to destroy every gargoyle clan it could find."
"We…" One began to protest.
"Sure," Khan smiled, "Casting spells to insure the Roman 'Order' would fall victim to the Plague epidemics of the late middle ages and renaissance. Secretly urging the Vikings to raid northern Scotland in the hopes that they would destroy the gargoyle population there. Flaming hatred of gargoyles among the Saxons so that when they conquered the British isles they destroyed every gargoyle they could find. I have read all your files on how the Illuminati Society has 'dealt' with gargoyles. You may not have directly pulled the trigger, but you did influence the men who pulled the trigger, and now they are the only ones who might be able to stop me. A pity for you really, since you've made yourselves to be such enemies of them."
"We will stop you," One growled.
"How?" Khan answered, "My struggle is in China, and the Chinese are outclassed, and considering how many 'free Tibet' signs I've seen on your 'internet' I would assume that most of the world will actually support me. Unless I invade another country, you can't turn this into an international war and the only way you can 'win' is by revealing your own activities within China, which I'm sure you don't want to do."
One only growled again.
"This is a declaration of war, Illuminati Council member One," Khan spoke, "A war for the fate of China. Should I win, China is mine. Should I lose… well… I guess that would mean it is back to 'business as usual' for you, wouldn't it?"
To Be Continued…