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 one week after "Taking Apart Empires… Part 1."

Taking Apart Empires… Part 2

By SN/TVfan

Email: Sam_Nary

Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu Province, China

The superman base here consisted of nothing more than a series of tents and mud brick buildings that looked like they'd been hastily constructed since the Illuminati had lost the Chinese province. At least that is what Demona noticed of it when she glided over it with Wedrington covering her. There also seemed to be few there.

"I'd think it's a command and control area," Wedrington commented from above her, "the guys talking to the others in the field."

"Yes," Demona agreed, "Should give our allies an opportunity to try out the plan…"

Wedrington nodded. The overall plan after going from base to base in Tibet was actually to try and take apart the command structure of the supermen. Demona had proved good at picking apart the bases and assisting the anti-Illuminati Chinese and Tibetans in taking out Khan's supermen, but they couldn't rely on her to fight big battles for them. At the same time, they can't count on the Illuminati not to notice anything taking out Khan's supermen. Removing the supermen deeper inside the borders and in secret wouldn't necessarily mean the Illuminati wouldn't notice that, but it wouldn't be so obvious.

"How many do you think they have there?" Wedrington asked carefully as he looked for signs of movement, which seemed to be limited to a couple guards.

"Not many," Demona answered, "And most of them seem to be asleep."

Wedrington looked up to the dark sky above them. After finished in Tibet or Xizang Zizhiqu as the Chinese government had identified the province, they met up with a unit of anti-Illuminati Chinese that had been notified earlier about Khan's duplicity in using them to depose the Illuminati and setting himself up as a king. They notified the new allies on the plan and gained a surprising amount of help and information. The men were actually based normally in nearby Miquan to serve as auxiliaries to the supermen in the provincial capital and when they heard, figured they were likely first on Khan's chopping block.

"Okay, Wedrington," Demona said slowly, "We dive in on the two on top of the brick building first and then bank away to carry them off. Go the east. I'll go to the west. Once outside the base, try to gain as much altitude as you can and then just drop the man. The fall will either cripple him or at least knock him unconscious."

The white lion-like English gargoyle hesitantly nodded but did focus downward and from there the two went into a steep dive. Demona aimed at her target and readied her talons for a rapid strike, which would be key. The move wasn't too different from air to ground attack's she'd used before, but those previous attacks were all shallow dives and intended to land and engage the target on the ground. This was more like Wedrington described as how eagles and hawks hunted prey, and Demona could rapidly feel it and was forced to squint her eyes.

The landing of the blow came with no roar or other traditional battle cry, but a swift grab underneath one arm with one of her arms and clasping her other hand around his mouth to muffle any cry he might give. The man did drop his weapon and struggled slightly, but the speed of the dive gave Demona enough momentum that she was able to get a fair amount of altitude back on her own before she had to worry about lift from any of the winds in the area. A few seconds later, she was over a ravine with her struggling quarry, but true to her plan, she only dropped him. The man let out a scream as he fell, but went silent after a resounding 'thunk' of a landing. An echoing scream was soon heard rising from the other side of the camp as Wedrington did what Demona had done to the superman she had grabbed. Now all that remained were the four sentries at the corners of the camp.

Demona circled back to head toward the camp it was only then that she noticed one sentry headed out toward the ravine that she had just dropped the first superman down. She glanced to the other corner to see that that guard was staying at his post, but had his weapon ready. That guard wasn't wearing night vision goggles, but night didn't necessarily mean complete darkness and Demona wasn't about to gamble on whether or not the Illuminati had given their supermen good night vision in addition great strength and enhanced reflexes.

"See anything, Spethe?" the sentry still at his original post called to the one advancing toward the ravine.

Demona noticed that the man didn't look up and allowed her to glide back and come in quietly.

"Nothing yet!" the other, Spethe, answered and advanced on.

Demona managed a soft landing and crept slowly towards the man on alert. He was alert, but wasn't looking in her direction. That gave Demona some advantage, as over the years, she had mastered stalking tactics. While that sentry was watching Spethe, Demona came forward quietly and before the sentry even knew she was there, she grabbed him by the back of the head and snapped his neck. As that man fell to her feet, Demona kept her focus on Spethe.

Spethe continued to walk forward while Demona now began to stalk after him, her wings caped to prevent her own movement from making them rustle behind her. As he walked further from his own post and the camp, Demona felt more confident in picking up her pace and began to jog toward him. When he reached the edge of the ravine, Demona watched as Spethe paused to look over and then gave a startled gasp and nearly dropped his weapon.

"It's… it's… hey, Yan… it's one of our…" Spethe began to report, half stammering, and turned to see Demona less than three paces away from him, "Demona!"

The last word was clear and likely came from whatever contact that Khan had had with his troops in the field. After all, he had attacked Je Lu's old home and had had his witch try to kill her. It wouldn't be impossible to assume that he had informed his soldiers about her. On some level, it was also something that made Demona nervous about the anti-Illuminati Chinese, but they so far seemed to feel betrayed enough by Khan that they were willing to trust one that had likely labeled as an enemy. Warnings didn't help Spethe, though, as he fumbled with his rifle to get a shot at the sky blue female gargoyle. Demona closed the distance and gave him a very hard shove. The man fell backwards into the ravine and rolled like a great boulder down it. His rifle snapped and cracked as he fell and by the time he reached the bottom, he was on his stomach and wasn't moving. Demona noticed that the man was breathing, but that was about it.

Demona had little time to do anything more as a series of shots echoed from the other side of the camp. She then sighed, as that likely meant that Wedrington had been spotted. More shots soon followed, and Demona turned to see Wedrington gliding off with another superman in his arms, while the shots seemed to be aimed at him. However, that wasn't the worst of it, as the shots succeeded in waking up the men that had been in the camp and Demona could startled and surprised cries rise out of the tents inside the camp. She now had to move quickly.

"Be careful, Wedrington," Demona spoke aloud, uncaped her wings and moved toward where the fist sentry had been.

She reached the spot as the first supermen stumbled out of their tents and looked up into the sky, or towards the main 'brick' building where the first two sentries had been.

"They're gone…" one was heard to say as Demona wrestled the superman she had killed off of his gun. By the time the man who had spoken turned, Demona had the weapon her hands and was ready.

"They're gone!" the man shouted again, "We're under attack! Get up! Someone took out our top sentries!"

Demona didn't give them the chance to really recover any further. Once she had the rifle ready, she opened up on those that had stumbled out of the tents and the firing of the gun gave the supermen, still recovering from the surprise of finding two sentries gone, a bigger one. Two were killed almost immediately, two were wounded and fell to the ground, one was wounded but managed to get back into the tent he had come out of, the remaining managed to get back into their tents without taking a hit.

"So much for a quiet operation," Demona then grumbled and backed off to search for more cover.

The area they were in was rather open and she knew that without additional rounds, she wouldn't do well. This ended up meaning that she pulled back to the ravine that she had sent the two sentries, one from the rooftop and the other being Spethe, tumbling. From there she leaped into the air again and dove, hoping to catch the weak breezes in that ravine. Fortunately, she did catch the wind and was soon gliding up again, but it would take her awhile to be ready for the next move.

Once out of the ravine, she swung around until she got closer to where she figured Wedrington was. As it turns out, he was coming up to meet her, but was clinching one of his hands with the other. Her eyes also widened when she saw the red of blood dripping toward the ground below them.

"What happened?" Demona blurted, sounding more like she was worried than what she wanted to sound.

"Grabbed one of the corner sentries in a dive," Wedrington answered, wincing as he did so, "the guy dropped his gun, which then fired into the air when it hit the ground. That alerted me to the other sentry who was, thankfully for me, just far enough away that I was too tough of a target for him to hit."

"But your hand…" Demona asked, "How did that happen?"

"I'll be fine after a day in stone," Wedrington assured her, "when I got to dealing with the other sentry, he didn't take kindly to being grabbed. We wrestled a bit and he ended up biting me… and I know you said these supermen had super strength… but I can tell you that that also goes for their jaws and teeth."

He then held up the injured hand, and Demona could see the wound. It wasn't really deep or life threatening, but the superman had clearly broken the skin on Wedrington's hand between his thumb and forefinger, leaving a sort of shallow arch where the superman's incisors had broken Wedrington's skin and then two blackish-purple bruises where the superman's molars and canines had had enough strength to do soft tissue damage but lacked the cutting power to pierce the skin.

"Well," Demona said after a moment, taking the time to remind herself that they still had a battle to win and fully accepting the growing feelings for the English gargoyle, formerly English human, and fussing over him would be inappropriate, "As I said before, I don't think there is that many of them… and I think I got most of them."

Wedrington nodded and let Demona continue to explain.

"For the moment they're in the tents but will likely mount something more serious," Demona spoke, "which means their brick building is unoccupied. We can use that as a strong point that they would have to assault… or they'd be forced to retreat which would allow me to pursue them and get them one by one…"

"I'm not sure I'll be of much help," Wedrington told her, returning the wounded hand to the protective grip of his free hand, "I can barely flex my thumb and finger through all this pain… the guy bit HARD."

"Don't worry," Demona answered, "I will deal with them. You rest and keep your head down."

The two then banked and began to descend toward the brick building, which was likely the local headquarters for the units and served as the coordination center for all the units that supposedly followed Khan in this province, be they supermen or anti-Illuminati Chinese. The supermen that Demona had shot earlier that weren't began to appear out of their tents, and the immortal female noticed that they were now dressed and armed.

"They seem to only be handguns," Wedrington commented when they began to fire up at them making both of them sway back and forth wildly to avoid being hit.

"They are still lethal," Demona chided him as they finally managed to come in for a landing on the roof of the building.

The landing went well, though both were forced to crouch to stay out of the line of sight of the supermen on the ground, who were now shouting Demona's name and the word gargoyle over and over again. Demona stayed closer to the edge fired on the supermen who were scrambling for not only cover but for positions to assault the brick building. She managed to kill one and seriously wound another, but the rest of her shots missed and she soon ran out of ammunition. The only thing that saved her was the fact that the supermen mounting their assault had nothing more powerful than a handgun.

"How many of them are there?" Wedrington as carefully as he watched a couple of rounds bounce off the top of the level of bricks near where Demona was.

"That aren't dead or so badly wounded that they can't keep going?" Demona replied as she crouched back, "about five…"

She was now looking about the top of the roof for anything that might be of real use for her against the remaining supermen. The rifle she had taken from the sentry had no more bullets, and while it might be used as a club, that was a last chance option and Demona didn't think things were that bad yet. Then to her fortune, she noticed another rifle lying on the roof nearby. Apparently the sentry that had been on the roof when she and Wedrington began their raid hadn't dropped it to the ground. It went roof that the man had been standing on.

"Check and see if the rooftop sentry you grabbed only dropped his weapon on the roof!" Demona urged to Wedrington and rolled to reach the gun that she had seen.

Demona was quick to ready the weapon and aimed over the edge to see that those still attacking them were using the tents as cover and would soon be at the door. They weren't there yet, but she also knew that they had to keep the building intact. She fired a few wild shots and moved back so that she could stand above where the door was. Once there, she quickly thought over spells she had learned in her youth, spells she learned from Grimorum Arcanorum, and spells that later the Mage had taught her as to a means to make sure that none of the equipment inside the brick building wasn't damaged. Eventually she came to a decision on a spell that would work.

"Earth… rise to shield the doors and portals… until the moon sets," Demona commanded in Latin and then stepped back as a pair of pistol shots then went where her hand had been.

As she heard Wedrington approach her, she gave a smile as she felt a rumble of the earth all around the building. The rumbling shook the building they were on, but did no damage, and Demona heard her companion gasp in surprise as the very earth around the building began to push up. To Wedrington, it seemed like a strange biblical upheaval.

"My…" he began to say, making Demona turn back to him.

"It'll only last through the night, but will also make sure they can't get in and destroy anything," Demona answered.

"Still… amazing," Wedrington managed, ignoring the pain in his hand for now and then reached out with the good hand and presented what he had to Demona. "Anyway, I did find the other sentry's gun."

"Good," Demona answered as curses rose up from the ground, "as we may need it to finish of the last of these supermen."

She then carefully approached the edge and fired down at the supermen that had gotten the closest. It took three shots, but she did manage get the one that was the closest. The man near him rolled back and fired a round of his own, and like all of the supermen, he was a good shot. Demona managed to avoid the worst of it, but she did feel a burning pain go through her and radiating from her right wing. At the same time, part of her wing felt heavy. She staggered back and looked over her shoulder to see that the wing.

Sure enough the wing had been hit, with the bullet going through at the wing's 'elbow' joint. In doing so, the bullet had smashed through the bones there and the upper part of her wing hung limp and weighed down on the rest of her wing. She tried to lift it for a moment, and while she still had feeling, she also found that it hurt too much to move.

"Demona, are you alright?" Wedrington asked as he rushed to her, his tone betraying his concern.

"Nothing a day in stone won't cure," Demona assured him and managed to look out couldn't see any of the supermen out in the camp, "Though we got to hold off the ones assaulting us first…"

The sound of small rocks sliding and rolling soon came up from the ground below them, indicating that the supermen were trying to climb up the barrier that Demona had raised. They didn't have the claws or talons of a gargoyle, but Demona new that these supermen were probably smart enough to figure out hand-holds and strong enough to grip crevices that normal humans could never safely grip. Both Demona and Wedrington turned to the sound of that.

"They're still attacking?" Wedrington wondered, "I would have thought trying to pull back to where they could call for help would be a good idea…"

"I may be wounded, but outside of your hand, you're still healthy and capable," Demona answered, "If they retreat they risk you diving on them while they retreat. They have to take the base to keep themselves alive… and in doing so…"

Demona leaped out onto the ledge, visibly winching in pain as she did so and fired a series of shots down the side of the raised walls. What followed after that was the sound of limp bodies falling back to the ground below. Wedrington chose not to watch. He only listened as Demona fired a few more shots finishing off the last of the supermen.

"They leave themselves open," Demona answered, "now, we'd bet get their radio… we'll need the support of the anti-Illuminati Chinese troops to round up the ones who are wounded and those we dropped at the beginning of the raid… assuming they haven't woken up and decided to go for help…"

Hotel Cabal, NYC

Duval had taken to sleeping in his cot in his office in the hotel. The assassin that Khan had trained was taking apart the entire Illuminati organization by striking suddenly and in varying ways. Sometimes the assassination was done through rather standard means, shooting or stabbing. Sometimes the assassination was through poisoning. Sometimes it was through fire and burning. Sometimes it was through beating in which the target was struck with some blunt object or fists. Sometimes it was through what scientists labelled as various causes but were obviously done through magic of some kind. Some were rather simple while others were complex. Some killed only a handful, some killed more, and Duval kept a couple of newspaper reports on one of the places the assassin had hit, and that was the report of the gas attack in Singapore.

The reports on Singapore demonstrated how bad things were going for the Illuminati. The assassinations had been going through nearly every level of the Illuminati. Most of those who weren't being targeted were people who were considered members, but were not involved in the organizations decisions or operations… and some of them didn't always escape. And with the loss of so many Council members against Arthur Pendragon in Britain and Khan in China, the Illuminati had to elect a new council. Duval had tried to run in the election for a council spot, and had even pulled some strings to gain additional votes. But the assassin had essentially cut out that election as top level members turned up dead and the election hampered any official Illuminati policy to try and curtail Khan. And that seemed to splinter the Illuminati along factional lines. Some were based on continental boundaries, some on national and regional boundaries. Some boundaries seemed to be arbitrary, and what happened in Singapore was the result of that split…

The remaining Asian groups and major players in the Illuminati held a massive conference that the assassin had found out about, and attacked. Duval looked at the headline which read, 'Hindu Terrorist Gas Bombs Hotel: Hills More Than 1,000!' Duval knew the Hindu wasn't a terrorist or even the perpetrator of the attack. The attack was made by Khan's assassin, who had somehow found a way to pin the attack on the man who had likely called the meeting, Rama. Duval knew Rama was an Illuminati member, and figured that Rama had called a conference of the regional leaders, which then also drew many major members to assist, take notes, or serve as body guards and the assassin struck the hotel they were in, killing them all. In doing so, Khan's assassin had taken out the main Illuminati leadership in all of Asia and a fair number of mid-level members in one strike. There were other smaller attacks throughout Asia as well, but they seemed more like information gathering raids or tying up loose ends.

"There's got to be something that can be done…" Duval said to himself.

"Sir?" a voice spoke the doorway.

Duval looked up to see a lone woman there. She was dressed in commando gear that looked similar to the commando gear that Xanatos had bought for his own security personnel. The big difference was its black and grey coloring with tints of gold and the Illuminati's symbol, of an eye inside a pyramid placed in various places on the uniform. She was one of many members that he had called to serve as his own protection among other things. He only sighed as he knew it was a sign of the factionalism that was breaking the Illuminati apart. He sighed again, knowing that she had seen his frustration.

"Mostly thinking over the present situation," Duval answered, "the actions taken by Khan's assassin are tearing us apart. We have grunt soldiers… but we have no way of contacting them…"

"Perhaps they may think for themselves," his guard offered.

"Not likely," Duval grumbled, "and this assassin probably has the skill to hunt them down… as we've often intermixed them with every nation's military and kept formations together to allow for their work for us to be organized… in fact many of the other murders have been those attacks…"

The guard said nothing for a few moments. She had been hired to run protection, not correct Duval on the mistakes the Illuminati had made in the war against Khan and his assassin. After a few moments she did speak.

"Anyway, sir, I have increased the defenses as per your specifications," the guard reported, "The maze has been improved with various hazards in each… Technologically speaking, we're more than ready. And if this assassin can dodge that… my men are alert and excellent marksmen."

"And what about any possible issues with sorcery?" Duval answered, "This assassin has on occasion used spells of some kind… shoot, she's likely the same warrior, Marilyn, who killed One and Five in battle. She has to be powerful in magic."

"I've laid down the 'vampiric talismans' as you requested," the guard answered, "they should drain any magic user of their energies… though that's provided they actively use their magic and/or don't cast a protection spell beforehand."

Duval only sighed. The talismans were something that the Illuminati had secretly pilfered from other secret societies that dabbled in magic and things that went bump in the night. They were made from the dust from killed vampires encased in specialized amber that had been augmented/created by certain spells. The spells then manipulated the vampire's killed demon aura, enhanced by the spells, to draw any active use of magic out of a spell caster. In pure theory it would negate any spells out there, but it also depended on the spell caster not suspecting the talismans and taking precautions. And if this assassin was indeed Marilyn, she might have the raw power to overcome the talismans, and would likely be smart enough to protect herself from their effects.

His lack of response made his guard sigh and give him a very questioning look. Eventually the guard decided to speak up.

"I might be able to do more if I knew for sure who this assassin was, sir," the guard spoke, "You said the assassin might be Khan's witch Marilyn… are you sure? Do we have any relevant data on her? Or at least any reports from those in our service that retreated out of China during Khan's conquest?"

"I think it is Marilyn, but I really don't know for sure," Duval sighed, "and even if it is her, we have no data on her whatsoever. She could be a fey Halfling or she could be Khan's version of the Mage. He had access to all of our files on our founder before beginning his rebellion outright."

"I can take precautions… equip security with iron, in case she has fey blood," the guard offered, "but without further knowledge that would at best be a precaution…"

"And if she's like the Mage, it would be failed precautions," Duval looked down, a somewhat depressed frown growing on his face.

"Perhaps if we talked with someone with experience against both…" the guard offered, "the Manhattan Clan is still here and still serves the NYPD."

"Perhaps…" Duval mused, "but they've also counted us as enemies, and probably not without good reason to… they may not listen."

"Sir, if you are not comfortable with the measures I've taken, then you may have to do things that don't fit in easily," the guard answered, "and while this assassin is in Asia, perhaps you'd best take advantage of it before the assassin arrives here."

Duval didn't answer.

Manila, Philippines

The room was practically filled with gun smoke as Marilyn made her way toward the main door to the bar. She'd found the attack in Singapore to be highly successful and had from there moved to clean up many of the mid-level members who stood to gain chances of promotion in the Illuminati. Many of these members were those who the Illuminati used as part of their own private army around the world. She'd taken out many of them in the process of her attacks, though she'd also found that many of her targets had also been killed in the war in China and earlier in Britain. In this, Marilyn actually found that the Illuminati was actually running out of men, and much of what she was doing was only mopping up the ones that hadn't been called into other missions.

"You saw nothing," Marilyn said calmly as she blew the smoke away from the muzzle AK-47 she had in her hands.

"Right, madam," a rather thin man peeked his head up from behind the bar with eyes wide.

Marilyn only smiled. The man was the bartender and was the one that group in Manila went to. Her targets were grunts in the Philippine army and they gathered there when off duty at the end of the day, and they seemed to be fairly regular about it. After two days of observation, she finished their tours of duty with both the Illuminati and with their own country's army. Though, she also shot up the bar as a whole, as that would add an element of randomness to it and leave anyone in the Illuminati tracking the assassinations a bit off balance.

"Good," Marilyn gave a dark smile, "I'd hate to have to come back here."

She then walked out into the night, enjoying the quiet that existed in this part of the city. It left her with only the sound of her boots hitting the pavement and her thoughts, and for the moment her thoughts were very confident. The Illuminati as an organization was beginning to fray and fall apart in all sorts of ways. It wouldn't be too long before she figured the entire world would be at Khan's feet and she could return to claim her share of it.

"But first… there is the old empire to pick clean," Marilyn thought to herself and walked on, eventually making her getaway by entering the side view mirror of a car parked along the street.

Lhasa, Tibet

General Lao sat very quietly as his visitor paced in front of him, looking quite irate.

"I'm sorry, sir, but Khan's orders were quite firm," General Lao spoke, hoping the deception would work and would keep the supermen from full investigating why they hadn't heard from Khan of late and found out that Demona had beat him and that the Anti-Illuminati Chinese had found out about his duplicity. "Khan wants the utmost privacy."

"I and my men are supermen! Like Khan, himself!" the officer growled, "We cannot be stopped and rerouted here by your road-blocks… and if he did want privacy… he would have told us or contacted with our orders…"

"I was under the impression that no new orders were given, than the previous orders had not changed," General Lao commented without moving from his desk.

"But he's normally tried to get some measure of contact those not here on the base," the officer answered, "We've heard nothing… Nothing!"

"From what he told me it's some sort of weapon that he wants to try on Demona," General Lao spoke carefully to keep his act going, "as she has given him some trouble and has even raided my bases…"

General Lao watched carefully as the officer responded. He had received some reports on what Demona was up with regard to purging the supermen from positions of power in China, but he also knew that there were enough supermen that if they realized that Khan's secrets were out, a civil war would break out. And regardless of who wins the civil war, it would attract attention from Illuminati who were sure to come back for a second round once they recovered what strength they'd lost fighting Khan earlier. For the moment, General Lao had to act as if he was a loyal servant of Khan.

The officer only paced for a few moments, but said nothing.

"Demona?" he asked after a moment.

"Yes," General Lao answered, "A blue female gargoyle… from Scotland originally, I believe… supposedly has a connection to the Illuminati in some way… Didn't Khan tell you this?"

"No… my mission was to deal with the Illuminati soldiers directly," the officer answered, "and to defend the Khanate from direct Illuminati attacks."

"Then I'd suggest you get back to that," General Lao advised, "Khan gave me orders to keep the base protected and to allow no one admittance… for fear that Demona has influenced them. Once the weapon to deal with her ready… he said to contact you then."

The officer scowled at General Lao. The anti-Illuminati general didn't know if the superman believed him or not, but knew that if the officer continued to push things, he might need to take some matters into his own hands.

"She's a skilled sorceress that has apparently defeated all comers," General Lao continued, "I'd imagine that Khan is simply being cautious and has something that will overpower her."

"I'd like to go up to the base and volunteer to fight her," the officer answered, "if she is a threat… we ought to focus everything on her…"

"We still have other enemies," General Lao warned, "The Illuminati for instance… and even without them… we cannot be certain how the rest of the world will respond… as we have overthrown a government and a country. Even with the Illuminati links… people may not accept Khan's rule… my men and the supermen garrisoning the base can contain Demona."

"She ought to be crushed," the officer argued.

"That's what the secret weapon that Khan is building is for, I suppose," General Lao answered calmly hoping that his act was working.

The officer only scowled and reached for General Lao, making him roll back in his chair.

"You will take me to the base so that I may volunteer! Remember that you are below me!" the officer growled, sounding irritated and having spit actually fly from his mouth due to the irritation he felt.

General Lao rolled back in his chair and looked back at the man. Even if he didn't already know that Khan intended to enslave them, the action would surely be a sign that Khan and his supermen weren't on the up and up.

"I had thought Khan wanted us to all be equal and free," General Lao spoke, as he reached for his holstered gun.

"Some are more equal than others," the officer answered as he easily hurdled the desk and grabbed General Lao by the arms, "Now, you will take me to the base, or you will die for treason to Khan!"

"Fine," General Lao said slowly.

The officer set him down, took his gun, crushed it, and then physically pushed General Lao forward.

"And COLENEL," the officer stated icily and heavily emphasizing the lower rank, "You'd best come up with an explanation for why you are not allowing supermen to go about their work. If this Demona is causing trouble, the ones restricted are to be YOU for your own protection. Not those that are strong enough to face her."

General Lao said nothing and walked along as the officer pushed him forward. He only stopped pushing when they reached the door. Hoping his own men were ready, General Lao turned the knob and pulled the door open, only to feel the superman officer's hand press against his back again. He was pushed out into the hallway where he was greeted by the wide eyes of a few of his own subordinate officers and two of his men, both armed, who had apparently heard the commotion in his office.

"There is nothing to see here," the superman officer spoke without missing a beat, "We're just going to see Khan and deal with a serious misunderstanding on WHO is in command… stand aside."

The superman officer continued to push forward as though everyone was fanatically loyal to Khan, which would place the supermen at the top of the official hierarchy. General Lao moved along until they were between the two guards in the hallway. From there, however, things turned on the officer. Just as he passed the guards he noticed movement in the periphery of his vision. He turned just in time to see the barrel of one of the guard's rifle flash.

The gunshot gave General Lao the relief to actually stop in turn, though the superman officer was dead and on the floor by the time he had fully turned around. And at this he sighed heavily. Khan and his supermen had always acted with some degree of arrogance about them. Khan, himself, tempered it fairly well, but he wasn't entire immune to it, and his subordinates were much worse. Many of them bragged on their superior strength and intelligence. General Lao honestly wished he could broadcast the image of the dead superman to show that they weren't invincible… but that could trigger the civil war that the needed to be avoided until Khan's supermen were either defeated or dead.

"Are you alright, sir?" one of his subordinate officers asked as he came out one of the other offices that adjoined the hallway, "We heard…"

"An idiot ranting about being superior," General Lao answered, "and this one is what… the third to arrive in such a tizzy?"

"Yes, but this one arrived at dawn," the subordinate officer answered, "and he came from an area that Demona and her companion haven't gotten to yet."

"Yes, I know," General Lao said slowly, "and it means we'll need to stay vigilant."

The subordinate gave a frown, "Vigilance won't work for long, sir, and you know that. These supermen aren't stupid. Arrogant and overconfident, maybe, but not stupid. More will come when they don't get orders and eventually the ruse that Demona is fighting Khan is going to lose its effect of deflecting suspicion away from us. They will either accuse us of doing nothing or that we're in league with Demona…"

"Which in a sense we are," General Lao sighed, "and with the fact that Demona took out the power generator at Khan's base, the factories the Illuminati built into the mountain are no longer functional…"

"And we can't beat all of Khan's supermen, not all at once," a different subordinate officer answered.

General Lao looked down at the dead superman and sighed heavily. Much of the plan was to use Demona and her magic to remove he supermen without drawing to much attention and allow the anti-Illuminati Chinese to put together a functional government. They had a loose agreement for the moment, but nothing definite, outside of the promise to assure the Tibetan gargoyles their freedom in China, along with the monks they protected. That wasn't much, and until they were in a better position they couldn't do any more.

"Send a message, as privately as you can to the other Anti-Illuminati generals… tell them that they may need to find ways to assassinate the leaders of the superman units in their areas and thus keep them disoriented…" General Lao said slowly, pausing every few moments to sigh as he knew this could potentially lead to the action within China being noticed by the Illuminati. "I know this could mean civil war and trouble with the Illuminati… but we may be running out of time."

"What about the gargoyles?" one of the guards asked, "Surely Demona can't be the only one that could help us… and besides if widespread gargoyle attacks on the supermen… they might be too distracted to mess with us as this would reinforce what we've told them…"

That made General Lao pause for a moment. After a moment he sighed heavily. It was a good idea, but it wasn't one that was going to just go away. Khan had built his empire well, and General Lao was fairly certain that even with the right use of the gargoyles, that taking apart Khan's empire would not be easy. They had a long way to go.

To Be Continued…