The Phantom of the Night

by Tigris Euphrates

Christine P. Shelton of Salt Lake City, Utah accidently runs across the gargoyle she names Phantom, resulting her becoming involved in a massive feud of warring halves of the Children of Oberon. Illustrated. (homepage: http://www.miniclan.org/tigris/saga.

11. Deception

Writing begun on: February 13, 2000
Writing completed on: February 23, 2000
This version is current as of: February 29, 2000

This is an original work, not associated with the Walt Disney Corporation. No copyright infringements intended. All rights to the elements of this work reserved by the author. None of this content is in anyway directly copied from any Disney publication. "Gargoyles" belongs to Walt Disney Studios.

HISTORIANS NOTE: This fanfic will be my first in the Phantom Saga to include Elisa, Goliath, and the Manhattan clan. It being fifty years in the future, I needed some reference as to where to take that clan so many years in the future, so I used The Gargoyles Saga (http://tgs.gargoyles-fans.org) as a reference. I may have my qualms about TGS, but it's the best new material there is since the end of the second season. After all, Pegasus and I had a hand in writing it's pilot episode, Fallout - parts one and two. However, I don't agree with everything, so you'll find a thing or two of my own sprinkled in for good measure. (A little bippity, a little boppity, and a lot of boo!)

The X-men are owned by Marvel Comics.

This fanfic contains some mild to moderate sexual content, with suggestions of a lot more. There is no foul language. I recommend a PG rating.

1. This figure is accurate today with young women and cosmetic surgery.

Downtown Manhattan
January 2049

The Eyrie building stood proud as the tallest building in the world, and it was the last place in the city in which the lights of day lingered and faded away.

With a tremendous roar, the gargoyles awoke.

Atop the tallest spire of the tallest tower, Goliath, well into his sixties now, and Elisa at his side, stretched their wings, and embraced - happy to see another evening together. With a bound, both leapt from the top parapet down to where the others were brushing away the last of the bits of dust and stone debris. Broadway and Angela fell into each other's arms almost immediately, as Broadway gently rubbed her expanded girth, as Broadway gently hoisted their thirteen year old youngster up onto his shoulders. Opposite them stood Brooklyn in his armor, holding his mate Sata in her Kimono, both in their late fifties, and behind them were their two children, now grown into adults, and their adult gar-dog Nudnik. Lexington and his mate stood in the rear.

Smiling at each other, they all breathed a sigh of relief once more that they had awoken with everyone accounted for. Luckily times were not as bad as they had once been. Each of the gargoyles settled into the courtyard, gathering around the golden statue of Hudson, where a tall young man in a trench coat stood waiting for them.

"Good evening everyone." he smiled with dry humor. "Sleep well?"

"Just fine, Alexander. Is anything... wrong?" Goliath inquired.

"No, just wanted to take a moment to say hello, and pass on a message from Owen - there's some people waiting downstairs that you... might want to meet."

Goliath and his mate looked at each other. Elisa shrugged, and smiled. "Very well."

The room was decorated with shields, weapons, tapestries, and lots of little plaques explaining each of them. They were two women, an older looking woman in her sixties, and a younger girl of late twenties, The older woman was fairly plain featured, though formally dressed in a dark blue suit and white blouse. The younger woman was a little strange, however, whose hair was fluorescent pink. As Goliath and Elisa approached them, Elisa noted that the young woman's eyes were the same color.

Alexander approached them first, as Owen made the introductions.

"Mr. Xanatos, this is Terra Shelton, who will be speaking at the consortium next week, and her daughter Christine - owner of Xanatos Techsystems of Salt Lake City." Owen gestured first to the older, then to the younger human with the odd hair. "Ladies, this is Goliath."

Goliath reached out his paw to her, and Terra took it - by his midarm, in the gargoyle way. "Pleased to meet you at last."

Christine also shook his paw, and then turned to the orange/almond female at his side. "You must be Detective Maza."

Elisa seemed dubious of the strangers. She offered her paw reluctantly. "Second class, NYPD."

"Ah yes, I've been hoping to hear from the mysterious Christine of Utah, who keeps coming up with the most fascinating R&D projects." Alexander shook her hand. "But, I know you didn't come to see me." he and Owen turned and left.

Once they had gone, Terra and Christine looked at each other. Christine reached up in the air and snapped her fingers, and in a flash, where two human women had stood, two new gargoyles had taken their places. Elisa took an involuntary step backwards. They each nodded to Goliath. The younger of these two new gargoyles wore tight midnight blue spandex pants cut off at her knees, a baremidriff top decorated with shield of the Salt Lake City Police - the rank of a detective, and a baseball cap with the same police shield on it, with a ponytail of her long curly brown hair drawn out the back. The older one was in breeches like Goliath.

"Tutela of clan Drake, of the Isle of Man, and this is my daughter Malcora." the older red one smiled.

The younger one picked up on the cue. "Detective, SLPD." she produced her badge, and winked at Elisa. "Sorry about the deception." Christyne explained. "It's still hard to get a booking on an airline when you have wings of your own."

"Hopefully that is one of the changes we will make in the world." Tutela nodded to Goliath.

Christyne smiled. "I've been waiting a long time to meet you." she said turning to the startled police detective.

"Are there... many other clans in the US?"

"We've no idea, but there are some - Los Angeles, Washington state, Arizona, Montana, and some that have never told me their locations."

"Arizona? Any idea where?" Elisa's attention perked.

"Ever hear of a 'Hot Water Ranch'?"

"What have you come here for?" Goliath asked Tutela.

"We're here to inquire of you and Mr. Xanatos for a safe place to stay in Manhattan until the conference. Obviously, we cannot simply find a rooftop. Mr. Xanatos has already given his okay, but said that the castle was, at least in part, yours, and that yours was the final word. We want to get to know this clan, and if possible become your friends and allies."

Goliath smiled. "Agreed, you may stay here. We will discuss the rest... after the conference, when we know each other better."

"That's fair." Tutela shook mid-arm with Goliath.

"Will you join us for patrol tonight?"

Christyne smiled. "We'd love to!"

"So... four hundred years ago, your clan was destroyed by humans just as Goliath's clan was a thousand years ago." Elisa nodded.

"Yes, but I only survived because I had been cast into a similar eternal sleep a long time before. People knew I was already dead, but they damaged my body anyway. It was only through the intervention of the children of Oberon that me and my mother survived, and they placed us into the lives of humans - to help us learn to forgive, I suppose. I know I would not have forgiven them otherwise." Christyne sighed, reminiscing. She was no longer in her formal blues and had untied her hair, but Elisa knew that there was still a quick-draw holster under her arm - she recognized the bulge. She was dressed in the sort of thing Elisa normally wore since her change - tight fitting for gliding, but comfortable. She wore women's denim cut off at the knees, another bare midriff, but in a muted blue that matched her eyes, with the initials "CS" on one shoulder.

"So that you wouldn't wind up like Demona - the Weird Sisters learned from their mistake, I guess. Did you become a gargoyle then, willingly?"

"No - but I didn't remember my old life in the seventeenth century at that time. That came later, after I had been forced to accept the Fair Folk would not return me to my human form. I don't envy the choice you had to make, though."

Elisa shrugged it off. "Were you a cop before you were changed?"

"No, I was in college. I got my badge last year. I'd been doing my best to clean up crime and things in the city, but the town threw a fit. There were anti-gargoyles riots there, just like Manhattan around the turn of the century. I talked the police under my human guise, and we struck a deal. They agreed to let me continue to protect my city, as long as I obeyed the law and did so like a cop. I also had to licence the weapons I use, but the paper work eventually went through. It was a very secret project, kept from the city for a while, and me and my husband went through the program. They ranked us as detectives. Once things cooled down more, and some of the work we did got noticed by the press, they let it leak to KSL - the big news affiliate in the valley - that the gargoyles in the valley worked for the SLPD, and the governor actually made a statement that if the public should encounter gargoyles, that they should present their badge in any action we take."

"Did it work?"

"Yes, I think it was GREAT idea! Anytime the public encountered us, we showed our badges, and the public knew we were on their side. The riots stopped and the anti-gargoyle sentiment lost all it's energy. My oldest wants to go through the program too - that way she can have a badge of her own! Besides, a few years ago, there was an... incident. I was inadvertently responsible for vaporizing one of my sister's children in a hostage situation. I vowed from that day forth I was going to do things the right way and no more vigilante justice."

Elisa smiled, impressed. She went back to the topic of the children of Oberon. "I get why Oberon paid almost no attention to our situation with Maddox just after the turn of the century. He was too busy with you and Sephlan."

"Maddox?"

"King of the Unseelie and his Queen Maeve were on a rampage throughout Manhattan until we put a stop to their madness once and for all. I remember you saying you'd battled the Unseelie before."

"Now THAT must have been an adventure!" Christyne exclaimed with excitement. "No, we were dealing with a unseelie sympathizers in the seelie court, and Oberon REALLY hated traitors among his own. It took a bombing in his castle - in my chamber - to convince him."

"Do they consider you part of the Avalon clan, then?"

Christyne smiled. "Aye, that they do, milass!" she imitated their Scottish baroque.

Elisa laughed. "So... why the pink hair? And eyes too? I noticed you always have them, no matter which form you appear to be."

Chistyne stammered. "Well... uh... that's one adventure... that I'd rather not discuss. Would you talk about clan issues with just anyone? Like your brother, Detective Derek Maza?"

Elisa's eyebrows narrowed.

The two said nothing for a time, gliding on generally strong but peaceful night breezes. The sounds of shouting came to their ears. "Look!" Christyne exclaimed.

The two gargoyle females came to perch atop a bank complex. Down on the street were a group of protesters, who were getting fairly loud. They were being held back by a gate from a large series of nice looking buildings on the other side.

"The United Nations Complex." Elisa reported.

"Uh oh. This is way not good." the other sighed.

Down below, Christyne and her native New Yorker companion listened to the voices which came drifting up to them.

"Destroy the gargoyles! Destroy the gargoyles! Destroy the gargoyles! Destroy the gargoyles!"

Elisa slipped her radio into her ear. "Elisa to other teams, come in."

~"Sure Elisa, this is Brooklyn and Sata, what's wrong?"

"We've got an angry mob trying to storm the U.N. grounds."

~"Oh perfect. What's their beef?"

"Us."

~"T-riffic. I'll radio the others. You'd think they'd get tired of this after fifty years of this."

"It took them longer than that to get used to the idea of women's rights, blacks, and gay rights." Elisa remarked snidely. "Get Matt down here, if you can reach him on his cell. He might also be pulling the night shift tonight, so try his office."

"Utah is still struggling to pass a gay rights initiative." asked the Utah native. "Any ideas? We go down there, we're gonna throw gasoline on the fire - you know that."

"Only Matt and the police can make a difference here." she sighed. "Maybe it is time for me to retire."

Two frustrated gargoyles watched in silence.

Washington State

About a month later

Student shifted in their chairs, many sleepily, some just bored, but most only paying partial attention. The bell rang to begin the class, and the teacher, a good looking but slightly portly woman in her early thirties, sat her notebook down on her table in the front of the room.

"Morning, kids!" she smiled.

The pitiful excuse for a "Hello, Mrs. Xanatos." which they whimpered, made Sandra's patience edge slightly.

She sighed, and looked at them. "Have we had about enough of this play?"

The students, a little surprised by the question, all nodded, except one.

Her daughter, Jasmine, spoke up. "I dunno, I thought it kind of interesting."

The teacher smiled. "That's only because you know the real story."

"Real story?" came the other members of the class.

"You're only in third grade, kids - so I expect you'll be getting a litany of Shakespeare continually every year, every English class you take. It's part of life, you might as well get used to it. Romeo and Juliet is fairly easy to understand, A Midsummer Night's Dream is a lot of fun, but Macbeth is one of those staples you can never quite get away from. Like milk and bread."

"Death and politics." Jasmine uttered with sarcasm.

"Tell us!" the class pushed their teacher.

She smiled. "Oh well. We've finished the test, and today was our last day on your Macbeth unit - now, let's talk about what really happened."

One student was confused. "You mean... there really was a Macbeth?"

"There most certainly was a Macbeth, king of Scotland, and a Duncan. BUT! Shakespeare was an Englishman who was - eventually - working for the king, and England and Scotland were enemies. Is it any wonder then, that we learn that King Duncan gave a lot of things to England to 'get in good' with them? What Jasmine is talking about is the Scot's version of the Scottish Play. Was Duncan such a good and righteous king? Not in the least."

She began to draw on the board, listing the names of various Scottish nobles, explaining as she went. "Take notes on this. Macbeth's father was a well-loved man named Findlay. Meantime, Duncan had no support to get to the throne. Both were in line for it, and normally Duncan would have gotten the throne anyway, except that the people liked Findlay much better, and didn't trust Duncan. So Duncan, hungry for the throne, paid an assassin, one of his own men named Gilcomgain, to murder Findlay and Macbeth. Gilcomgain succeeded in killing Findlay, but not Macbeth. Without his father, however, Macbeth could not gain enough support to become king. Not that he wanted to become King, however - he had something else on his mind."

Her daughter, Jasmine, smiled.

"Macbeth was in love with a girl named Gruoch, and they say she was very pretty. Many men wanted her, but she was in love with Macbeth. However, when Macbeth did not ascend to the throne, Duncan ordered Gruoch be married to Gilcomgain."

Sandra Xanatos noted her entire class seemed riveted to her recitation of history, especially the nine year old girls. A young man of about Sandra's age, another teacher, quietly slipped in the door at the back of the classroom, listening to her story.

"Then, something happened. Macbeth learned that Gilcomgain was the assassin who killed his father, and slew him in combat for his father's murder. Macbeth married Gruoch, and they had a son - Luoch. Duncan had a son as well, Canmore. Duncan began to fear Macbeth, and secretly began to slay Macbeth's supporters while they slept - NOT the other way around. Duncan waged an all out war against Macbeth's supporters. He slew King Duncan in fair combat on the field of battle, not while he slept.

"Unlike Duncan, who's short reign was filled with hostility towards the crown,

Macbeth reigned in peace and prosperity for forty years, when he was betrayed by his chief advisor, his castle destroyed, and was himself murdered by Duncan's son, Canmore. However, Macbeth's son, Luoch, took up his father's crown, beat back Canmore's English forces, and reigned in peace in Scotland for many years."

There was a single applauder in the back of the classroom. The class took up the clapping after a moment. Sandra looked at the man standing back there - another of the English teachers.

"Can I help you, Mr...?"

"Jordan, Geoffrey Jordan actually. I teach in the fifth grade. I was walking through, when I heard your retelling, and it intrigued me. How much research did it take for you to compile all that?"

"I attended a few lectures at Columbia, thanks to some friends of mine - most of the rest if family history. My husband is full blooded Scottish."

"Oh really?" he asked. "Family history? What kind of family..."

"Now, if you'll excuse me," she cut him off. "I've only got about ten more minutes to pass out and resolve test results on this unit before recess."

"Recess!" the children whooped and hollered.

Mr. Jordan smiled, and walked casually away. Sandra placed him completely out of her mind.

The house was a modest looking one - nothing out of the ordinary in these neighborhoods. It was a little larger than most, almost a flattened cube shape with an inclined roof and gables on the front, as well as a large, sturdy balcony in the back. There was a trampoline buried in the backyard, and a separate garage/workshop where Eric Xanatos kept us his little family.

A minivan pulled into the driveway early in the afternoon, and the children all piled out. She scurried them inside to do their homework, yawning.

"Tired, my love?" Eric inquired, taking Sandra in his arms.

"Aye, I think I'll grab a few hours before we leave tonight."

"I'll have supper ready."

Eric wrapped one hand around the back of her neck, and drew Sandra up to a long kiss. She lifted her left foot off the floor.

Sandra, still glowing from the kiss, counted herself lucky. Eric was an accountant, who did most of his work from the computer at home. He also wrote a few books about the Medieval Christian Church which sold modestly. After not having been pregnant in fifteen years, she had decided that it was time she did something else with her time, and became a teacher at the local grade school her children attended by day. Eric would tend for their needs at home, run errands, go grocery shopping, and still earn a living large enough for his family to live on comfortably.

However, by night, no one except for a select and trusted few, knew what their family did by night.

Sandra reawoke around eight, the children all exclaiming that they were rested too, and wanted dinner. Eric already had it on the table. Fajitas ala-carte with a healthy balance of cheese-on-asparagus for nutrition. Usually Sandra and her mate traded off cooking nights, as both were now eager chefs. Some of the children were showing the same desires, and occasionally, they would get their own chance to do a dinner night all for themselves. After making sure each of the children and adults were given their own fair helping of vegetables. No one touched their food yet, though - they knew better.

All at once, the parents and their five children, raging in age from nine to two, each stood and held hands around the table. Their father, Eric, closed his eyes, and said something to the ceiling in Latin, before they all took their seats again and began to eat in earnest.

As the meal drew to a close, a sense of urgency grew. "Time's almost up, Portula, you have to eat as least one." Sandra encouraged her youngest.

The stubborn young child folded her arms and pouted. "I don' wanna!"

"Do you want a treat tonight?"

"Yes."

"Then I suggest cutting it up into little bits, and mixing a lot of cheese into it. You've only got fifteen minutes left."

The youngster took the small glass dish the vegetable had been served from, and began to use it's serving utensil to shovel as much of the remaining cheese sauce as possible onto her long stalk of asparagus.

It wasn't very much later that the family gathered in the living room, held hands, and waited. They were watching a computer on the wall make a countdown in seconds. Finally it reached zero, and the family looked at each other, waiting. In a subtle, silent wave, from one end of the room to the other, the family each rippled, the old appearances fading away, to reveal Tigris Euphrates, Erik of Avalon, and their five gargoyle children.

"Who's teaming tonight?" asked Magnolia.

"Your mother and I are gliding together tonight." said Erik, taking Tigris's paws into his. "Kids - you'll signal us if there's trouble?"

"Daddy! We always do! Promise!"

Tigris held her mate's shoulders. "They've never let us down before. It's my job to worry, not yours."

Erik smiled, and kissed the silver star on her brow. Jasmine, Rose, and Magnolia had similar stars on their brows as well, although little five year old Marigold and two year old Petula did not. They had not passed their eighth birthdays as Jasmine, Rose, and Magnolia had.

The family climbed the stairs in the hall to the deck out back, climbed the railing, and dove off into the night in pairs: the parents, and the two 'M's, Magnolia and Marigold, except for Jasmine, Rose, and Portula, which flew as a threesome.

Magnolia and Marigold we talking about school. Magnolia was saying how things get more complicated as you get older. Going to parties with friends, multiplication tables, and so forth. Marigold wished she were older like Magnolia, so that she could go see the Unicorn.

"Pardon me, chaps?"

Had Marigold and Magnolia been on the ground, they would have jumped.

They looked up to find an orange gargoyle male their did not know, smiling down at them.

Tigris and Erik were blissfully in love. It was a feeling Tigris was so glad to finally be feeling again, and had sworn never to take for granted for the near thirty years they had been married.

"So where do you want to go for our thirtieth?" Erik inquired, the two coming to stand atop the rocky crags and peaks of a mountain named Olympus on the Washington state coast. He gently stroked her hair, and her waist. His touch sent shivers through her body. Her attraction to him had yet to diminish in any way - instead, it had only grown.

"How's the big apple with Chrissy and my mother to the conference?"

Erik shook his head. "No, besides that."

"You've taken me all over the world! Where else is there for you to take me?"

"I was thinking about... Hmmm..." Erik was drinking in the smell of her hair, caressing her shoulders and her back. "...Avalon."

"Oh...!" Tigris said in surprise. "You do take me to the most... exotic places."

Erik's paws found her bottom end, and one other paw held one of her ample breasts which had seen the teeth of six children. She began to moan audibly, and she could feel Erik's masculinity pressing against her from beneath his breaches.

BEEP BEEP! "Father! Mother! Come in please." Came Magnolia's voice over the two-way radio.

A wave of ice fell over them, and Erik let go of his mate to fish the device from his belt pouch. Tigris sighed to herself, and moved over to a nearby ledge to sit, and try to recover some of what she'd been feeling a moment before - trying to herself back together again as though she'd just been shattered.

"Erik here."

"Are you guys done mating yet?"

Tigris looked at Erik with a raised eyebrow. Erik shrugged. Kids say the darnedest things sometimes.

"No, we haven't even started yet. What's wrong?"

"We met another gargoyle. He wants to see you two."

"Bring him over to the peak. We'll wait here."

Erik turned to his mate, who looked a little depressed. "I'd cast the birth control spell and everything." she looked forlornly at the ground.

"The night is still young, my angel." he tried to comfort her.

The night was filled with shadows, and of the shadows the dreamer emerged. Her wings were as glorious as the moon, and her face shone from between them like a shadow with two long glowing ruby crescents. He was there also. His wings were of the night, and his eyes were as white as the silver light of the moon. She was the moon, and he was the light, and together their spirits danced about upon the night.

Their souls touched and tickled one another, and from it a million new lights were born into the sky. His kiss was upon her lips, and she let him control her every part. She drank hungrily at his strength, and he teased at her reciprocation. His hands held her... oh his hands... oh...

She threw her head skyward and cried out toward the night, only a few intelligible words escaping her lips. "Jordan... oh Jordan... oh..."

Eric was startled when Sandra awoke from her nap that morning by running off to the bathroom. He looked in on her, to find her hair being held up over the toilet bowl as she wretched.

Concerned, he asked if there was anything he could do. "Are you pregnant?"

She laughed, splashing water on her face, and dressing for school. "Oh no, just a horrible dream. I couldn't possibly... *GASP*"

Eric's eyes followed Sandra's gaze to her belly, where her hand touched a small mound in her belly. Both parent's jaws hit the floor.

"How is it possible?" Sandra asked him. "I bled only a week ago! This must be three months of development!" she turned and looked in the mirror. Something sparked recognition in her mind, and she touched her cheek tentatively - remembering the strange, wonderful, and terrible nightmare she'd had. "Jordan!" she whispered.

"Jordan?" Eric asked. "That gargoyle we met last night? Is he...?" Eric's eyes grew wide as saucers. "Tigris... you... You've been cheating on me!"

Now it was Sandra's turn to be astonished. A hundred other emotions flickered across her face at the same time - especially anger. "What? No! I would never be unfaithful to you and our children!"

"Then explain this!" Eric's voice rose an octave, gesturing wildly to her growing belly. "How long have you been hiding this from me? Haven't I given you enough? Haven't I given you everything I am?!!!" Eric was forming an edge on his voice, his eyes brimming with tears. Sandra broke out into tears before he did, turning and running from him, out of the room.

"THAT'S IT! GET OUT OF HERE, DELILAH! DON'T COME BACK, YOU WHORE!" he shouted behind her. Sandra burst out the door, piled into a small four door metro, and tore off down the road in the madness of tears.

Jasmine and Magnolia, eating their breakfast in the kitchen watched their mother drive away without them, and their father cursing after her. The children watched with fear. "Uh oh..." said Magnolia with a stalled mouthful of cereal.

"Did... we do something wrong?" asked Jasmine.

Eric looked at her, the anger fading from his eyes, as it began to settle onto him what he'd just done. Closing the door, he rested his hand on Jasmine's shoulder. "No... I think I did."

Salt Lake Genetic Therapy Center

Mandy chuckled good naturedly to herself, as she stirred a small cup of herbal mint tea, and enjoyed the warmth from the fire. She and her twenty five year old companion sat on the hearth, talking about old times.

Christyne was having trouble cheering up her old friend. Mandy's age was starting to get her down. Her children were all grown and moved away, adding a little more magic and mystical heritage into the world from their somewhat feline-oriented family. Here Christyne sat, barely old enough to be married in the first place, looking almost the same as she did fifty years ago when this all began. Or did it begin over 400 years ago? Christyne wasn't sure.

The only differences was her hair and eyes. As many dies and genetic recoloring sessions she attempted, she couldn't get that hideous fluorescent pink color out of her hair and pupils. She looked like a human highlighter pen! The comments on the street were the worst. "Hey babe - great hair!" It was getting REALLY annoying. Don't men have any imagination? Every time she went to have her driver's license renewed, the clerk choked on her eye color, and so it remained "HAZEL". She carried a driver's licence with the same number as her original, but somehow the picture in it never seemed to change. Same hair, same eyes.

Mandy sighed. "Oh, that's wonderful news. I wish Pacifica the best. She wouldn't be the first of her sisters to marry outside of her species."

Christyne smiled. "They're all fay, you forget that, Mandy. They are whatever species they choose. I just wished she'd waited until she turned 21 like Corala did."

"True. Remember dear, Tigris also married when she was 18, and you were only 19 (so-to-speak)." Mandy took another sip. "It occurred to me the other day to ask you, what happened to GT Roland?"

"I was actually invited in an underhanded sort of way to his funeral."

"When did he die?"

"He was killed by a mob during the anti-gargoyles protests era in 2013, mostly because he supported us." Christyne asked with a note of loss.

"You still care about him, don't you?"

"Why shouldn't I? He was a great friend for a long time, and there for me at that one special time when I needed someone." she answered.

Mandy sat back in her easy chair, watching the flames for a long moment. The tone became very solemn. "You didn't come here to talk about old times, did you?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"I know you, Christine Shelton. We've been through too much together. It's something very important or you wouldn't have brought it to 'the old lady'."

Christyne's brows furrowed, straightening her skirt in frustration. "There's nothing wrong with being old, Mandy - STOP IT! I'm 400 years old, chronologically speaking, 72 years is nothing."

"Seventy three next month."

"Mandy..."

"What did you come here for, then? It certainly wasn't my boundless strength and physical endurance." Mandy asked bitterly, on the verge of tears.

"You are NOT that bad off. You don't know what old age is really like. Do you know how often I wished I had your life?"

"But it's not fair! You'll be twenty five long after my CHILDREN forget you!"

Mandy began to cry, and Christyne stood and wrapped her arms around her dying friend.

In a flash of insight, Christyne asked, "They don't see you, do they?" Christyne handed her a tissue, literally out of nowhere.

"Thom died last year, and since then the kids consider me as good as gone. You're the only one who visits me with any regularity. The kids are just so... busy."

"I'll have you know I'm busy too!" Christyne smiled. "It's not easy lobbying congress to allow gargoyles to become members of the United States, and to keep an eleven year old from trying to pulverize her little brother."

"Do you think we'll win?"

She sighed. "Alone? Never. With the other clans across the US helping and supporting us? As long as mother is there to keep me from turning them all into toads, yes. After all, this whole measure is her baby - so to speak."

Mandy was silent for a long moment. Christyne finally drew a long breath.

"Alright, here's the scoop. Erik threw Tigris out, and she spent the day at our place. The kids notified me, and I came back on an emergency basis."

"What?!!! Why?" Mandy asked.

"Somebody knocked her up. Their little clan encountered a new gargoyle, one named Jordan. Jordan made some advances on Tigris, and she nicely told him to go climb a tree. They wake up the next morning, and low and behold Tigris is three months pregnant, where she'd been having her period a week before."

Mandy scowled. "Too weird."

Christyne nodded. "That's only the beginning. Erik overreacted, accused her of cheating on him with this Jordan guy. Erik threw her out, and called her a lot of things he's really going to regret when this is all over. When I got her, she was in fits, and I almost had to drug her to calm her down." Mandy smiled. That was her Christine, Little Mrs. Gargoyle M.D., Ph.D..

"Magic?"

"Lots of sign of it, and I can prove to Erik using blood test results that whatever it was wasn't there the night before. There's more - Tigris reports she had a dream immediately before waking up this way that this Jordan character had made love to her."

"Suspects?"

"Assuming that Tigris, Erik, and their clan are necessary to guarding those forests in Washington, than a simple way to thwart them in advance would be to break Tigris and Erik apart."

"Then we've got to prove that Tigris is right, that she didn't commit adultery. What makes you think Tigris is even telling the truth? She's good at magic, you know."

Christyne was silent, looking into the fire for a long moment. "You said you'd known me long enough to know me. Tigris is my sister, I've known her long enough to know better, but experience says I need to stay open to the possibility."

"I'm not dropping the axe on Tigris just yet, I'm just saying that you can't read her mind."

Christyne rubbed her chin, an idea forming. "No, but Pacifica can."

"You're going to hold this outdoors in front of humans?" Christyne asked incredulously, looking through the bridal magazine her eighteen year old

daughter had handed her. "Are you getting married as a gargoyle?"

"Why not, mom? Let's face it - this isn't the 21^st century you grew up in anymore! Gargoyles are a little more accepted than they were in your time of the Great Reawakening, earlier this century."

Christyne scowled, looking at the magazine more. "I just like my marriage, I guess."

"Hey momma, no one's downing you and dad - it's just that I wanna do this our way. Besides, it's not like this is the only time I'll ever get married. There's always the next wedding."

"Next wedding?"

"Momma, I'm gonna outlive him eventually, and I'm trying to think of the future."

Christyne sighed, put down the magazine, and looked at her daughter, taking hold of her strawberry colored paws. "Honey, listen to me for a second. You know we can't let the humans know we're immortal -they're just not ready for that yet. True, you'll probably change lovers after he dies, change identities, and get married again, but why wait for it? Your in love with this man, now. You're eighteen - enjoy it while it lasts - live in the moment. Enjoy that love without trying to capture the future. The future will come in it's own due time."

Pacifica smiled, and threw her arms around her mother. "Thanks mom! Is there something I can do to help?"

"Around here? Well, there's not much to do, but I could use your help on one thing."

"What's that?"

"Your aunt Tigris and uncle Erik are having trouble, and Tigris spent the day here."

"Uh, ouch. That can't be good. What's up with them?"

"Erik accused Tigris of cheating."

Pacifica was silent for a moment, and looked at her mother with a puzzled expression. "Do you believe him?"

"I don't know. I was hoping you could help me."

"Well, I can't take you back in time like Tanya can, but I can say Tigris is telling everything she knows - she's not lying. Erik is too far from here for me to tell."

"Well, if I can get Erik to come here, I'll let you know and you can find out, but that's enough for me to get started on.

Pacifica paused for a moment more, as though listening for something. "Her thoughts are mostly about her children. She's feeling pretty betrayed by Erik, and what he said about her, when she knows she was loyal. She's mad that Erik didn't trust her to tell the truth, when she - in fact - did."

Christyne tried to remember how old the children were.

"Nine, eight and a half, eight, five, and two." Pacifica answered for her.

Christyne laughed. "I'll bet you're dynamite in college."

Her daughter let out a hiss. "You know better than that. I don't read anyone who doesn't wish it unless I have a need to force my way into their mind and invade their privacy for some special reason. You taught me that."

Christyne patted her daughter's paw. "I hope you understand why."

"It's what I would want if our roles were reversed. I'm not selfish, I'm sensitive to how other people feel."

Christyne smiled.

In the early half of the 2020's, a phrase had developed for women on estrogen supplements who cried too much, "estrogen heads". Tigris Euphrates was an estrogen head. Christyne discovered early on in her sister that a loss of bone density was as much a problem for gargoyle women as it was for humans, and the treatments used on humans were applied to gargoyles. Christyne was hoping to stave off bone loss during menopause by starting early, but her experimentation with her sister's hormones was something she had quickly come to regret. Estrogen replacement affects everyone differently. She couldn't just take her little sister off it cold turkey either, as this causes Tigris hot flashes, severe depression, and any number of other side effects.

Being suddenly pregnant again didn't help matters any either. Her little sister had certainly gotten her wish - she was spending the greater portion of her youth barefoot and pregnant! Christyne was direct with her, padding straight up to her, wrapping her arms and her tail around her sister. "I believe you."

Tigris sniffled a little, turning to face her elder sister. "You... you do?"

"Do I lie?"

"No, but you don't always tell the whole truth either. Why?"

"One, a simple blood test says your body has only been pregnant for the last 24 hours or so. That's long proven scientific medicine. Secondly, Pacifica is our young mind reader - remember her? - and she reports you are telling me the truth as you know it. Lastly, you are my kid sister, I love you, and I trust you." she smiled.

"I'm worried about my girls."

"Erik won't hurt them, you and I know that."

"Yes, but who knows what this Jordan character will do if he finds I'm gone. I don't trust HIM."

Christyne nodded. That was sensible. "I agree. But Mandy is dying, and I can't leave her, and my mother also needs me in Manhattan with the upcoming conference. I've got a good repoir going with Eliza Maza, and I don't want to jeopardize that."

"Eliza Maza?"

"It has to do with Fay politics, honey. The Weird Sisters predicted that she and Goliath would mate over eleven thousand years ago, and that it would mark the end of the Madoc and Maeve, king and queen of the Unseelie court, which my old friend Obscurmalo had defected to. As far as the fay are concerned, she and Goliath are formidable mortal allies. That's part of how she became a gargoyle."

"A gargoyle? How?"

"She was presented with a nasty decision. She had to unite the younger races - that's humans a gargoyles - with the first half human, half gargoyle child. Xanatos's geneticists are working on it, since both Eliza is past the years of conception, but she's still young and supple enough to carry a child invitro. The problem was that is had to be a GARGOYLE that bore the egg, or else both mother and child would perish. A human woman can't lay an egg, or a gargoyle hatchling with all it's horns and claws. It's medically impossible. If she refused accept transfiguration, she was spelling out certain doom for the younger races, as this left the Unseelie wide open to come and enslave you. She didn't have much of a choice really, but has adapted very well - thanks to a lot of help from her Fay friends, Alexander especially, who did the actual transformation."

Tigris mulled this over. "You and I were never asked first - we were never given an option."

"The Weird Sisters are neither Seelie nor Unseelie. Oberon is still ticked at them for that whole incident before you and Erik got married. They knew that is was coming, so they didn't feel that you or I really deserved to be asked, but they knew the importance of Elisa Maza, and so they respected her like she were a Fay."

"Getting back to Erik..."

"I'm going to have the children show Erik the bloodwork, and have Pacifica present her findings. If he doesn't believe it, and still won't take back what he said about you, then I don't know what we'll do. I want you, though, to stay here until I can figure out how you a whole trimester into a pregnancy without more than a few hours going by."

Tigris sighed, and settled herself down into the examining bed, trying to get comfortable. "Can I use the bathroom?"

"Are they gone?" Tigris inquired.

"Yes, they've left. It will be a few days, thought. Tanya was not able to come along and shorten travel time. I told them to call."

Tigris Euphrates nodded, and glanced back at the ceiling, where a flatscreen was showing news reports about the upcoming debate with congress about a Gargoyles being citizens and having American rights. Christyne smiled. "Elisa's really adamant about Tutela's bill."

"Why?"

"She wants her police badge back! Until she's declared a citizen again instead of an illegal alien, she can't carry her badge. She's got a rookie right behind her, too." Chrissy laughed to herself. "At least we're not the only ones."

"May there be many more."

They watched in silence, until the reports changed topics, when Tigris turned to TV off. Christyne turned to leave and do other things.

"Wait." Tigris said. "Can you spare a minute?"

"Sure sis. What's up?"

"Do you ever have dreams, like I did? Where you're so enthralled with passion you don't know what's going on, but when you wake up and realize what you were doing, you feel so sick and guilty that you throw up?"

She laughed, a little angrily. "Oh, the irony! I had one about Phantom the night before the costume party where I lost my humanity forever."

"But you married Phantom, later."

"Doesn't matter."

"Is there any evidence that Jordan... touched me?"

Chrissy's eyebrow's lifted an eyebrow, following her drift. She sighed deeply, and looked down at the floor. "Look, sis... that's... something I was hoping not to bring up with you for a while. However, since you've brought it up, now's just as good a time as any. Did you and Erik do IT that night?"

"No. Never got around to it. Jordan was a real ice on our night together."

"Well, somebody did."

Tigris blinked in confused. "I thought... you believed me."

"I do. Tigris, honey, little sister, I don't know how, but you had sex with someone that night. Your gyno proves it."

"You mean Jordan...?"

"I don't know, but if he did, then you were raped. He may have used magic to keep you from knowing what you were doing at the time."

Tigris covered her face in her paws. "No... no... no..." she began to cry again.

Christyne sighed, and turned. As she left the room, she vowed to catch the creep who did this.

Drake Castle, Isle of Man

November, 1679

The young hatchling with the Salmon/pink skin was thrown into the mud with a sweep of her opponent's blade.

"Keep your guard up, Malcora." Demona reminded her young protégé. "You'll be surprised how many humans will mercilessly take advantage of you when you leave your guard down."

Determined, the young gargoyle was back on her feet, determined to please her teacher. When her weapon was thrown from her paws once again, she met her opponent hand-to-hand they wrestled for a few moments, until Malcora once again found herself laying in the mud. She looked up, to see Demona holding her sword against the hatchling's vein of life.

However, she did not strike. She withdrew. "Don't feel badly, youngling. You are learning swiftly. I only do this to challenge you to keep learning more."

Malcora swept the mud from her body, former opponents took hold of eachother's upper arms. "Until the morrow night?"

"Yes, I will teach you more then." Demona said, smiling.

Another gargoyle approached her. "My queen?"

"It's alright. Malcora has a sharp wit, keep mind, and won't rest until she learns everything."

"She has been blessed with great fortitude." said the other.

"She will someday make a great warrior."

"Is she the one, then?"

"Yes. I choose this youngster. Do you have the incantation?"

The other handed a scrap of paper to the red maned gargoyle queen. In the distance, they watched the youngling as Demona recited the Latin, and pointed her finger once in the small girl's direction. The writing on the script of parchment glowed, and then burned away. Demona passed out on the ground, into the arms of her companion. The others were totally oblivious to what was happening. In several long minutes, Demona recovered.

"New she will always be your willing servant." said the other. "Her free will itself has been enslaved to your will."

"Yes. The demands of the spell were that the spell caster exchange their life to enslave the other's will and self-control for the duration of their life. Fortunately..." Demona smiled. "I have plenty of lives left. Now only Oberon himself can break the spell."

With a terrifying snarl and roar, the younglings and adults like broke from the stone forms. The rookery were situated on the inner balustrades of the Drake Castle, where both human and gargoyle alike could watch after their safety. That is, all but one. Tutela, the blood red gargoyle woman, stood above her little hatchling, alongside her mate - the beaked blue gargoyle with the shock of white hair. Malcora was a special case. They knew Tutela had once been human, so she just asked that her most precious youngling remain at her side. Malcora was twenty now, the human equivalent of a ten year old, and Tutela discovered her hatchling had Christyne's near-photographic memory, and applied it to her skills of swordplay and studies in the arts arcane. Tutela also encouraged her youngling to spend some time reading the literature and poetry of the time. She was taught how to read and write in Gaelic. She developed in wit and strength. She was admired in her rookery for her skill - they could already see that someday her wisdom would lead the clan of the Castle of the Drake. Tutela and Malcora were so very gargoyle-like, and once Tutela was taught battle skills, they both were very strong members of the clan, and so indispensable that the members of the clan who did not like their human roots, soon forgot them or considered them immaterial.

Young Malcora was past the age of decision, and was given the right to fight in the clan's battles. Her quick thinking and agile movements of youth impressed her elders. She was placed aside the dark grey/ebony haired Lisonja - the night-dark gargoyle. Some said that Lisonja was the hatchling of Macaren - an old night-colored male who was the shoulder companion of Malcora's father Padrecor, but it was only a rumor, as Lisonja was considered by all to be a "Child of the Clan".

When she reached the age of mating, to humans the age of 18, she was considered by many to be very beautiful. Since she had been ten and had started studying under her mentor, Demona, she felt very drawn to her cause, and spent much of her time at Demona's side. Unlike her human counterpart from long in the future who was quite homely, Malcora was sought after by several gargoyle suitors. However, Malcora's devotions were to duty, and that meant her life at Demona's side.

However, after another year had passed, this all changed.

Relations between nations had become tense with all the crisis taking place in that century, and the leaders of their castle became very suspicious of their allies, the Spanish ambassadors. The Spanish Gargoyle clans had all vanished, and Demona was infuriated. Lisonja was given a secret disguise as a human, who went among the Spanish because of her ease speaking their tongue, along with Macaren. Her news was grave - the clans were destroyed, but if by the Spanish, the English, or the French she could not tell, and reported that there was the chance of fighting between the human nations.

"THIS IS INTOLERABLE!" Demona exclaimed. "Never in ten thousand years have gargoyles suffered so much death! The last time this happened was when Oberon was fighting Madoc. Gargoyles were destroyed by day, and so the practice of keeping our eggs underground was born. Now humankind hate and fear us - how will our eggs survive the next thousand years?"

No one disagreed with the seriousness of the situation, but the nobles of Drake Castle swore to protect their gargoyles and their eggs, and so the issue was at a standstill.

May, 1696

Hand to hand combat was the lesson, and for teaching material, Malcora and a human chief fought each other to demonstrate the moves and the technique involved. As the last round of demonstration ended, the human chief found his arm caught in Malcora's grip, and she slung him forcefully over her shoulder, and into the mud.

"Well, I'm impressed!" he said. "I've never lost to a woman before!"

Malcora offered him a paw to help him up. "I'm not just any female."

While the instructors spoke to the their students, the two presenters spoke in a stiffly lighthearted manner. "So, do you always hit so hard?"

"No, I usually hit harder, but that would have made the match uneven."

He laughed. "So you're saying you held back from me? I'm disappointed!"

"If you'd like, I could match you with my full strength."

He laughed. "Perhaps sometime, but not right now."

"Then I have duties to attend to."

"Must you?"

She turned and looked back at him. "My duty is my life."

"Duty, honor, strength - when do you ever take time to be a woman, Malcora?"

She was taken aback by this statement. She had not thought that she was neglecting herself. Yet this human's statement held a grain of truth. She had been so devoted to Demona and learning to become a great warrior and sorceress, had she neglected her birthright as a woman? She was no longer a child. She was thirty seven years old, plenty old enough now to seek her mate. Surely Demona would approve if she found herself a gargoyle mate.

Then how, she reasoned, How would the dark-hearted one learn to open up her heart?

"What about a walk in the forest? The moon is full out tonight." he offered, interrupting her thoughts. "We can try and see who best each other in hand to hand combat if you want, or we can count stars - whichever you'd like to do."

Before, she would have rejected the notion as silly, but instead she felt moved by something deep inside her soul.

"I won't be here at the castle for very much longer." he said, picking up his mace, and tying it to his belt once more. "I'd hope you would concede to spend some time with me."

She looked at him. "What is your name, human?"

He extended his palm. "Sir Joseph, but that's just Joseph to you, my Lady Malcora."

Present Day

Christyne had been visiting Mandy again. Her condition was worsening. Mandy wanted to be left alone to not burden anyone when she died, further frustrating Christyne who didn't want her to die alone. It was a rather gloomy night as Christine pulled up the driveway in her rather beat up 2022 Mercury Talon - a small coupe-sized car, not unlike her father's old Toyota Tercel. It was almost/yellow color like her daughter Carribea

Christyne's thoughts immediately went to Carribea, who would soon turn twenty one, and wanted to enter the police academy like her sisters. Pacifica was the only other one of her daughters who were old enough to seriously consider it, and Pacifica was the only one to decline thus far. She didn't feel the urge to protect her community as much as her sisters, more inclined to follow her Fair Folk blood. Christine didn't force the issue, although Phantom had expressed his displeasure.

She held her jacket close to her, anxious to get into the caves where she would be warmer and could drop all pretenses. It was a cold, wet February - further reinforcing the fears of ecologists that changes in the atmosphere were causing the desert land of Utah to be turned into a Rain Forest, and give the Salt Lake flood management people waking nightmares during spring runoff season.

She made her way to the mailbox that sat out on the road, marked "PHANTOM", and found a few envelopes, which she placed in her jacket pocket, idly thinking about how the public would react if Elisa and Goliath did manage to have a human/gargoyle hybrid child. She was so engrossed, that she didn't see someone walking along the side of the road, and the two of them walked right into one another.

She blushed. "Sorry - I wasn't even paying attention."

He smiled back, and began to run down the road in the direction her had come. Suspicious, she checked her jacket pocket - the letters from the mailbox were missing!

She vaulted into a run, shifting as she went into her gargoyle self. "HALT! POLICE!" she shouted. Her hand went under her spandex top, and came out with a white/grey gun. The perpetrator did not stop. "HALT OR I'LL OPEN FIRE!" Again, the perp failed to respond.

"I guess that's fair warning." she said to herself, and pulled the trigger. A bolt of red shot out of her laserpistol, and intercepted the man right in the back on his knee. All that police training was finally paying off, her aim was improving!

He went down, and the first thing she found was her family's mail in his possession. Out came the cuffs. "You're under arrest for mail theft which is a federal offense. You have the right to remain silent, anything..."

The man interrupted her. "What kind of a cop are you?"

Christyne shifted to her normal nighttime self. The man gasped in horror. Christyne pulled out her badge. "Detective, SLPD." She read him her badge number, and finished mirandizing him.

"HALLO, Mrs. Phantom!" said one of the officers waiting at the county building. Considering her marriage to Arion, and the fact that, as far as they were concerned Christine P. Shelton was dead, the name Mrs. Christyne Phantom was a little less conspicuous. The didn't know that the murdered woman and the gargoyle detective were the same person. They weren't ready to know, either.

The city/county building was a large gothic structure with it's own share number of gargoyles, where her family had spent the day many times. It was surrounded by a large park and trees, so Christyne alighted herself on the roof, and climbed down the side to a certain window with an outdoor latch. The window was high enough off the ground to keep human intruders out, but just right to let Christyne and her perp through. "What have you got tonight?"

"A little bit of personal business. Book him for mail theft, and see if you can get a search warrant - I want to know how long this has been going on." he said.

"Whose mail was he lifting?"

"Mine."

The officer, a tall negro man named CJ Johnson with badge No. 597, laughed. He had a jolly, roar of a laugh. "Wow, buddy - did you EVER pick the wrong mailbox to steal from!"

"She's just a woman!"

"She's a cop, AND a gargoyle." CJ noted.

Christyne just snorted. "Pig."

"Gee, Chrissy - I didn't even know you GOT mail!"

Christyne was not laughing, however. Out of curiosity, she glanced at the mail she had taken back from her perp. There was a letter for Atlantica from her friend in Florida. A letter for Christyne from a clan in the Los Angeles area she knew, two instant money offers, three credit cards, a get-out-of-debt-free offer, and something addressed to Tigris. Tigris? Since when did she get mail here? It had no return address, but was post marked Olympia, Washington. Good thing she'd gotten this letter back - it might be Erik writing to apologize!

That left one question - why was this thug stealing her mail. Was he working for someone? Did he want the credit card offers, or was there something else here that he wanted to steal? How much more of her mail had been stolen in the past?

She ran the man's fingerprints through Interpool and was soon awarded with an ID match. This guy had a rap sheet about as long as her arm, mostly petty theft, vandalism, and robbery, with a few cases of forgery and extortion. Not good.

Unlike when she had been growing up, in the 2040's credit card companies had made it a lot harder to get a faked credit card, mostly because when a con rings up a large bill on an innocent person's account, the government will pay part the debt, the criminal - by law - has to pay part of it, but it's the credit card company who has to eat the remaining difference. Photos were used on the card, but that didn't stop Internet them from using the Internet to run up the bill.

It's not like she was worried about money - she could afford it with all the ideas she had patented in the last fifty years, but that also made her a great target for a scam. Goddess only knows how many times Alexander Xanatos had been hit by someone trying to steal from his father's riches. Worse still - how had they known which mailbox was hers? How would they know that her little, beaten up mailbox in the mountains would have a million dollar balance? Did the thug even know? Christyne smelled a rat - was she really seeing the whole picture here?

CJ walked into the squad room as the gargoyle sat hunched over her computer.

"You okay? You look pale."

She gave him a look. "Very funny, CJ."

"Paler than usual, I mean." he quickly recovered. "Something going on?"

She sighed, caping her wings around her shoulders. She and CJ were old friends. Christyne suspected that the two of them got along so well, because people were not overly fond of them being police in a mostly white state. "Huh, you got me CJ." she sighed again, deeper this time. Her voice was very soft and low. "I've been watching an old friend from when I was little - a human friend - slowly dying from her window in an old's folk's home."

He sighed too, sitting on the corner of her desk. "Where's your hubby tonight?" Christyne looked down at her desk.

"At home watching the kids. We try and trade off our schedules when I'm in the office. When were both away from office, we get the kids together and kick some butt."

"Whatcha gonna do about your friend?"

She looked up at him. "I dunno... I might bring her to my place, where she can pass away among friends. But, that's not the problem..."

"What is?"

Christyne looked at her feet, her tail wrapping tightly around her ankles. "It's like I'm the enemy here. I would only be twenty five, and she's... I feel so..."

There was a long silence.

"What your trying to say is that you feel bad, outliving her, because you're a gargoyle."

She smiled, not looking up. "Bull's-eye."

"You can't help what you were born as anymore than I can change the color of my skin."

"Doesn't matter to all those freaks who begrudge me the very fact that I was born." she said with a note of bitterness. "You know who I mean."

He looked off in another direction, not looking at anything in particular. "Yeah, I know the likes of 'em. Yours is a truly unique problem, I can't think of any really good advice to give you, except for this: We are the way we are for a reason. I doubt your friend will hold what you are, against you."

She smiled a very genuine smile. "Thanks CJ - you're a true friend. I keep forgetting that people like you exist sometimes."

"It's like reminding someone you still care. Drop by my office anytime."

She smiled, and thanked him again, as he walked by - in the direction of his office. She closed down her computer, filed her paperwork into her desk and locked it. She then turned and followed CJ too his office, so that she could be on her way back home like she'd originally planned.

"Oh, you can just shove your stupid protests, Mandy. This time I'm putting my foot down." she snarled. It was a pretty scary sound, even though Christyne was in her human apparition for the time being.

Christyne was signing Mandy out of the home, and taking her friend home with her, to spend her final days surrounded by friends when her family didn't want her anymore. She would not stand for Mandy to sit here and sulk in her depression of her family abandoning her in her final days.

"Won't you listen to a dying woman's last wishes, Christyne? I refuse to burden anyone in my death!" she exclaimed as much as she was able to. Christyne made a mental note to bathe the woman when she got home - she smelled of urine.

"That's exactly what I'm doing, Mandy. You are burdening me and my family - who all love you - by sitting here and withering away with depression. The best way for you to put my mind at ease, and the entire family, is for you to come with me, and be with us, where we can all show you how much we care."

Mandy grumbled. "I've been cleverly manipulated by you again. Drat."

"What are friends for? Besides, I need your help."

"Help? What possible good can I be?"

"Tigris is laid up, and I want you to keep her company, and to bring her out of her depression." Christyne instructed her. If Mandy succeeded, she hoped doing so would bring Mandy out her own depression as well. It was worth a try.

After packing her things and her wheelchair in the back of the coupe, Christyne stopped at the post office by the county building to arrange to have her mail sent to a box. From there, they went up the canyon a short distance to where the cave was hidden in the mountains.

"Where's Phantom?" she asked, once she was inside. She wore her gargoyle form after leaving the home, to give her the strength to hold Mandy, and her luggage in her arms. It got her some funny looks at the intersections and when people pulled along side of her on the freeway, but she didn't care. Once inside and they were on marble floors, she set Mandy down into her wheelchair, where she could move about more freely.

"Now, do you want me to look into getting you a scooter or something? That would make if easier to get around? Knowing Alexander, he could find something that even has a protective shield and weapons on it.

She laughed weakly at this. "Sure - why not? Sound like more fun than I've had in weeks!"

Phantom appeared - literally out of nowhere. "What's up, honey?" he asked, giving her a peck on the cheek. She smiled. "I caught someone stealing our mail tonight, and took him downtown. He's got a rap sheet that includes forgery and extortion. Mandy's staying with us now - her family has basically abandoned her. I've asked her to talk to Tigris. Here, Mandy - give this to her - it was in the mail I took off our perp tonight. I've also got one for Atlantica..."

Tigris looked at the letter with suspicion. Something didn't feel right about it, she said. Mandy and Chrissy watched as she opened it, turned it over a few times, and skimmed the contents.

"Is it from Erik?" Christyne finally inquired.

"No, Jordan."

"...and?"

"He wants me to come back to him, for me to leave Erik, and marry him."

"I wonder how he'd react if we were both there." Christyne suggested.

"I'm worried about my girls." Tigris restated.

Olympia, Washington

Three gargoyle females hunched in the brush behind the home of Eric and Sandra Xanatos, colored tan, almond, and dusty blue, their ages ranging from their twenties with the first two, but the dusty blue one could hardly be fifteen or sixteen.

"Why haven't they come back yet?"

"I don't know, but I smell a rat."

"Huh. All I smell is Carribea's lack of underarm deoderant."

"Shut up, Atlantica."

Corala snarled at her two younger sisters. "Atlantica, wanna take a look inside the house?"

The fifteen year old grinned impishly, and her form rippled in the air like rings on a pond, and vanished. Her older sisters sighed in relief. There was no sound, as Atlantica picked her way noiselessly through the undergrowth. The only thing a person would have seen was a small indentation in the grass under her feet. Even her sisters couldn't follow her if she moved stealthily enough - and stealthy was her life!

The front door was open. Out came Atlantica's laser pistol. She preferred a sword and dagger, but father had always warned her never to bring a knife to a gun fight. Sword were only useful against other gargoyles and fair folk - humans demanded science. Slipping up the stairs, none of the children were in their beds. Downstairs there were no lights, no one to be seen. Atlantica tried the lights - nothing happened. There were bed sheets scattered all over the livingroom. Atlantica could smell the lingering scents of Erik, Tigris, and her children. There were also some human smells she didn't recognize - and a lot of fear.

She picked up the phone. No dial tone. She tore it from the wall, she would need it. She went around to the back of the house. There was the power meter, smashed apart, and there were talon marks on the wall. Sure enough, the phone line was among the lines cut. She peeled back the layers of the line. There were two sets of wires, one for the computer, and the other was the phone line itself. She used her talons to expose the bare wires, and twisted them together, and was rewarded with a dial tone.

If a person had stood there watching, all they would have seen was that the phone line in the back of the house had vanished, but then came Atlantica's voice. "Hello, give me the police, please. I think there's been a kidnapping. The Xanatos home not far from the Bible College, next to mountains. There's signs of a struggle, the power box is smashed, and the phone lines have been cut. There's no one home. My name is Atlantica. Me and my sisters came to see if the family was okay after dad and mom had an argument, and mom left to stay at our place. I spliced the phone line to one of the phones, and I'm calling you from out back. Sure, my number is 801-555-9172. Thanks."

She set the phone down in the grass and considered her options. Her principal weakness was that she became visible upon turning to stone during the daylight, so if she was in "stealth mode", she had to be out of gargoyle shape before dawn. Which was, unfortunately, not far off. She reappeared in front of her sisters.

"Well?"

"Deserted. The power box was demolished by a very strong fist, and there are gargoyle marks in the wall. The place is a mess, I'd guess they were kidnapped."

The eldest, Corala, winked, and gave her a thumbs-up. "Way to go, rookie! What do you think comes next?"

The three shimmered again, reforming in a shape that appeared human, but was betrayed by thinly pointed ears. "We go incognito!" the younger one smiled.

As they suspected, there were also two other thugs watching the house. When they saw three women come walking casually up the street and knock on the front door, they were ready to drop on them.

That was their first mistake, only they didn't know it.

In a flash the smallest disappeared into thin air, and the other two swung around as though they were walked on air itself. One was given a swift kick in the chest that sent him sprawling, the other hit across the head with the butt of a gun.

Atlantica shuffled through their pockets, and produced a small hand-radio, which was buzzing. "Well? What happened? Did you get them?"

Corala did her best imitation of a man's voice. "Yes sir, shall we bring them down to you?"

"No - I'll have a truck come down to pick them up."

Corala smirked, and shut the radio off. "Sucker."

With a little spell exchanging appearances illusion, the two older sisters appeared to be two human male thugs, while on the ground next to them were two elven-eared women. The third, however was nowhere to be seen. An army-style cloth canopy truck appeared about an hour later, to pick them up. As it was daylight, there were no sign of gargoyles, but three humans with automatic weapons, and a driver - each with strongly Asian features.

"I trust they weren't hurt too badly, Modivo-san?"

Corala and Carribea glanced at each other. Corala spoke up in her masculine voice imitation. "Oh, they'll remember us for quite a while, sir."

"Excellent. We've found their little rescue party, and now it's time to ruin their hopes of being rescued."

Carribea looked at her sister with a strange look, and Corala shrugged. The two sat next to each other - probably a little closer than two men would, but they were talked to each other in whispered tones. The leader who had addressed them before looked at them conversing, but hadn't said anything yet.

"Asians?"

"Japanese, probably."

"The Yakuza?"

"I think so."

"I'd heard they were operating in Seattle and Tacoma. There's a clan there trying to weed them out." Corala pointed out.

"Any luck?"

"Not much, other Japanese immigrants fear them, and do whatever the Yakuza tell them too. When the people won't help, police work stops."

"When did this Yakuza thing start?"

"Earlier this century. They already had foothold in California, and spread here, and to New York."

"So the Manhattan Clan has to deal with them as well?"

"Yep."

"What about the claw marks at the house?"

"I imagine we'll find out when we get to Olympia and meet the others who are involved in this little operation."

"You two SHUT UP over there or I'll shut you for you!" said the leader in a thick Japanese accent.

The two girls in disguise were quiet, although one whispered to the other, "Steady sis - steady."

After about an hour of silence as the truck made it's way around the freeway from Port Angeles, around the bay, and to the city of Olympia, something very strange began to happen.

One of the Yakuza men with the semi-automatic weapons started to giggle and guffaw. Everyone looked at him. The other flunky of the Japanese leader was a woman, who smacked the giggling gunman around with the back of her hand. The Yakuza tended to have more and more women in their ranks since they first came to America in the early part of the twenty-first century. It probably had something to do with the American attitude influencing their politics over the last fifty years. Criminals sometimes didn't care where they got recruits from. The poor giggling gunman began to bat away at thin air, as if trying to rid himself of the itch.

Corala suddenly, very loudly, cleared her throat and gestured toward her side of the truck in a vague way, trying to make it look like she was straightening her collar. The gunman's guffawing stopped, as he tried to recapture some semblance of a serious air about him. Someone in the truck giggled, and Corala and Carribea knew it wasn't the Yakuza.

They pulled into a cinder-block warehouse on the bay in the city of Olympia. The two gargoyles incognito were ordered to pick up their two quarrey and place them in a holding cell with several others. The two girls went in with their prey to untie them and the door was locked behind them, and the guard would come back in five minutes. In one corner sat a human man and his five daughters, all pale looking, watching them.

The two untied their quandry, and turned to the others in the cell.

"Eric Xanatos?" For a minute the disguise rippled away, and Corala appeared, in her eleven form. "It's alright. We'll get you out of here."

Then Corala vanished and was a human thug again. Carribea touched the bars once and rubbed her fingers together. The guards returned and let them out, leaving the two real thugs looking like elven girls in the bottom of the cage.

There was a glimmer of hope in the eyes of Eric and his children.

"The bars are a mesh of heavy metals and a single carbon molecule on the outside shell. Even as gargoyles, they can't get past that. Not without our help." one whispered to the other. "The walls are sheeted with it too."

"You mean Adamantium?"

"Exactly." Corala sighed. Adamantium was the name Christine had given to her "organic metallurgy", or C-60 molecular creations, named by Tanya as the light-weight indestructible metal used by the X-men in Marvel Comics.

"Where would they get Adamantium?"

"The hunter who stole it from mother twenty years ago, must have cut their losses and sold out to the highest bidder when mother and father ransacked their operation fifteen years ago."

"Goddess knows, the Yakuza have the money."

"Yeah... the means and the motive."

"So... the only question is Why?"

"We need to radio mother, and get some backup. This is gonna be too big for three of us."

They were led to an office where a large man sat in a reclining office chair, and a stone-encased gargoyle stood in one corner. "Good work you two." Said the man in the same Japanese accent. "What makes you think these two are the ones we're looking for?"

Corala went back into her masculine imitation. "Because these two fought back, sir."

"Thank makes sense to me. You may go. Yama-san will pay on your way out."

Once outside his office, they slipped down the hall, and into the men's bathroom. Corala stuck her head out and whispered tersely. "ATLANTICA!"

"Behind you." said the small blue gargoyle with snowy white under her wings. The two older sisters jumped, glared at her, latched the door, and looked down at her.

"You almost got us killed!"

"They could suspect us even now."

"Hey!" Atlantica protested, "I couldn't help it! He was ticklish!"

"Now how do we get out of here?"

"I saw we downsize." Carribea suggested. There was a flicker of tiny lights, and she reappeared less than a quarter inch tall, hovering at eye level in a very elven form. The others did the same.

"Follow me!" Corala exclaimed.

Up through the ceiling vent, through a few aluminum ducts, and they were out the vent in the roof. There was a small satellite dish mounted in one corner, and Corala whizzed right up to it.

"Atlantica! You're the computer geek, can you use this to radio mother?"

"I'll need some stuff."

Carribea growled in irritation. "Very well, what do you need?"

In the cell, Eric and the children stirred nervously. The girls had stopped crying, and a nervous still hung over the air. Two security men conversed and laughed in Japanese while watching some racy porn film on the Playboy Channel from a monitor in the corner. This went on for a while, with the two guards looking back at their prey occasionally, until finally - quite to Eric's relief, the television flickered and changed to static.

"Ah! Stupid American television!" they muttered, one leaving the door to go do something about their TV, the other smacking the television set uselessly.

It was during this, that a small speck in the air suddenly became a very large one, and Corala cast a spell on the man that put him to sleep. Taking his access card, she swiped her way in the cage, relocked the door, but kept the access card. Throwing him in the pile with the real thugs, they immediately lost their illusion and became the two thugs that they normally appeared to be. The elven girl knelt down next to Eric.

"What's going on, uncle?"

"You're one of Christine's girls, I see that - but which are you? I've never met you in this form - I've only met you all as gar-girls."

"I'm Corala, the oldest behind Tanya. Tanya's already moved away and has a clan of her own now

"How's Tigris?"

"In bed, worried about her children, but otherwise fine." She reached into her blouse, and produced a white legal size envelope folded once down the middle. "Here are the test results. Blood tests show she's only been pregnant since that one night, and mother discovered magic was involved. Pacifica even scanned her thoughts - she thinks she is telling the truth, and remembers things the way she told them. Pacifica's written statement about her scan on Tigris is in there."

"She was telling the truth then." Eric concluded.

"Why are you being held here?"

"I don't know who these people are, but they are planning some kind of movement in Washington, and this little lot was ordered to make sure gargoyles didn't interfere. We've never really kept it a secret we were out here trying to bust small crime, but we never thought to defend the house before during daylight because we don't have to turn to stone if we don't wish to, but I'm no match for them as a human. One of the conditions of the spell we use NOW denies us the ability to use are gargoyle forms during daylight unless we want to take an extended nap." he explained.

"What kind of action are they taking on the state of Washington?"

"I don't know."

"I'll find out. I'll be right back."

Salt Lake City, Utah

"I just got a message from the girls. They say they're fine, but they're calling for reinforcements." Christyne replied.

"What's going on?"

"It's a text message, and I can't seem to find any way to reply to it, because it's not exactly email, more like a transmission aimed at us. Well, I could, but it would take too long. Anyway, there was only one clue as to what's going on."

"What is it?"

"One word: Yakuza."

Phantom winced. "I'll break out the heavy weapons."

Tutela piped up. "I'll call Keturah and Tanya, Ket's still got a few good fights left in her. Numbers are WAY against you, Christine. There's no way you can do this alone."

Christyne sighed in reservation. "Then it's time we call for help ourselves."

Manhattan, New York

"Look alive everyone! We've got trouble!" shouted Alexander Xanatos to his gargoyle friends who were just shaking the pebbles and dust of stone sleep from their bodies. They all gathered around the gold statue of Hudson.

"What is the commotion, friend?" Goliath inquired, Elisa at his side.

"The Yakuza are going to make a surgical strike of some kind on the west coast, and felt the need to eradicate the threat of a certain clan of gargoyles prior to taking their action. It's sad really - they didn't come to me first. Nobody remembers their manners anymore." he said this last part in a thoughtfully mournful tone.

Goliath's eyes were aflame. "Which clan?"

"The Olympia clan, where the clan mother is Christyne's younger sister."

"Christyne? The one from Utah?" Elisa inquired.

"The same. Christyne sent in her three most capable daughters to handle the situation, but this message arrived not more than an hour or two ago, that her girls just radioed for help. She's sending in the last of her clan, but that's only three gargoyles at the most. They're asking for help." Alexander held up a fax in his hand, with the signatures of both Tutela and Christyne on the bottom.

Goliath sighed, frustrated. "It's so close to the conference, I don't want to risk leaving here unless we have to."

"I know what you mean, Goliath, but I can't help the feeling there's something bigger going on here." Elisa echoed. "It doesn't add up, there's gotta be a bigger picture here. The timing is so... convenient."

Brooklyn spoke up, his mate Sata at his side. "Tutela and Christyne are fine warriors, but they can't face the Yakuza alone. That's suicide!"

"It's her children, her sister, and her sister's family we're talking about here - not to mention whatever the Yakuza has planned for this country and the upcoming pro-gargoyles conference! She has to do something! Otherwise she wouldn't be pleading for the help of other clans." Elisa advised.

Goliath gave a low growl, and stood at the balustrade for a moment, looking down at his city. Everyone watched for several minutes while he thought. Finally he turned to Alexander. "We can get there before any of the other clans. Alexander, I will need your help."

"Of course."

"Send them a message we'll be there soon. Can you get us a jet?"

Angela broke in. "Shall we call the mutates?"

Brooklyn snorted. "No way - Shannon would fly off the handle battling Yakuza."

Goliath agreed. "Time is of the essence - we must leave now. Tell them to protect the city in our absence. These Yakuza may strike at a distant target, but their actions could endanger my city. We are going." His tone would allow no discussion.

Salt Lake City, Utah

The jet was a harrier, which hovered over the mountains, and the gargoyles took to the air, as well as one mechanical gargoyle. The jet turned, and flew back the way it had come. Another clan of gargoyles - only three this time, with one falcon winged human, rose to meet them.

"ELISA!" Christyne exclaimed. "I was afraid you wouldn't come!"

The two former human police detective gargoyles embraced. Christyne's eyes were stinging.

"Are you okay?" she asked, gliding together down towards the mountain peak.

"Just worried. I've got Tigris stabilized enough that she'll be joining us, but everyone keep an eye on her, she's pregnant, and I don't know how long her strength will last. Her body has been through quite a tidal wave of hormones lately. My daughter Tanya is here, so that makes six, including Ket." She turned to Goliath. "My three girls I sent ahead of me sent one more message saying they're safe and will meet us at a warehouse in the city of Olympia. Add the eight in your clan, that makes 17 of us. I have gargoyle armor that I want everyone wearing - neither laser, bullet, nor blade can penetrate it."

The man in the mechanical gargoyle suit, Alexander Xanatos, spoke up. "I'll call the harrier back when we're ready. He's at the airport right now refueling. From there I'll get us to Washington."

"A thousand thanks for that, Alexander - but there's no time." cut in Tanya, the very mature adult gargoyle woman of twenty three. "I can get us there faster."

Tigris, Keturah, and Tanya needed to be introduced to new gargoyles, so Christyne made the introductions. Phantom seemed to know them already. "Goliath, the clan leader, and Elisa Maza."

"Detective, NYPD." She said, showing her badge.

"COOL!" Tanya asked with excitement. "May I see?"

"Broadway and Angela, Brooklyn and Sata, and of course Lexington who's mate is human and stayed in New York. My sisters Tigris and Keturah, and my oldest child Tanya."

Angela looked at Keturah with wonder. "Are you a New Olympian?"

The armor plating was also white, very flexible, and sectional, and so she had a design for just about everyone except for Xanatos - who was already quite well armored for his tastes, and Brooklyn who was already wearing the same stuff.

"Where's your hubby? Still in LA?" Tigris Euphrates inquired of Tanya.

"Yes, I told him in no uncertain terms to watch our youngling."

"What is this stuff made of?" Angela, Goliath's pregnant daughter in her early forties, referring to the armor they were donning. It was stretchy and elastic like, bit slippery to the touch like silk. It fit the bodies of the warriors closely, which was very complimentary for some, like Elisa, Angela, Tanya, and Christyne, but not so complimentary to others like Tutela and Tigris.

"Adamantium." Tanya answered, proudly. "I named it."

Broadway was proving difficult to fit because of his large size. Eventually Christyne had to apologize. "I'm sorry, hun - I just can't fit you. I'd need to cut a whole new sheet of Adamantium, and I just don't have the time. You'll have to do with a breast-shield only and watch your front."

Broadway took it well, smiled, and gave her a thumbs - up. Angela hugged him.

Christyne flashed, and reappeared in a tailor's outfit, hanging in the room like a fay. "Hmmmm... Lex I've got just the thing for you - one just like Tanya's. I can adapt one of the boy's breast plates to it so you don't look like your wearing a sports bra."

Tanya giggled girlishly, Elisa and Angela smiled, and Lex blushed.

Christyne went on. "There's also a helmet - over there. Brooklyn and Tutela will need a special one. Ket - those arm bands will be useless on you, just be careful not to expose your wings too much."

It took about half an hour, but soon they were each suited and ready to go. Tutela gathered the warriors together, and Tanya snapped her fingers. "To my sisters!"

Olympia, Washington

A small figure, half the size of a house fly, stood atop the door frame as the guards came in.

"The two Americans are in the cell unconscious, the two women they brought in are missing, and someone's knocked out the satellite!"

"Yama-san, if you are lying to me..."

"Never sir!"

"Did the Xanatos's escape?"

"No sir!"

"Good, then I won't kill you where you stand. Get your men together and go on high alert. I want to men in every hallway, and ten minute check-ins!" the fat man ordered. "Find those two! Don't you dare come back to me until you have their heads on a platter! Those two incompetent Americans..."

With a road, the gargoyle in the corner came to life. The lackey scampered out. The gargoyle - a young, medium built, very capable looking male, yawned and shook the dust from his skin.

"Ah, good evening Jordan. Sleep well?"

"Like a dream." he laughed. "Everything is well, I presume?"

"You were right, there were two women who came checking up on the house. We know they weren't just neighborly callers because they fought back vehemently - and even now escaped the prison cell, and my men are looking for them."

"Hmmmm. I don't know how they might have escaped. Unless these friends / cousins have some kind of special talents I was not told about."

"We must assume they do."

The gargoyle, Jordan as he had been addressed, bowed. "I shall search for them."

Corala's fists bunched up tight. Jordan had not only raped Tigris, but betrayed them to the enemy! What kind of gargoyle was Jordan?!!!

She went up to the roof to meet her sisters and to fill them in.

He had been told not to smoke in the warehouse. With a clink of his Zippo, it was plain to see he did not care. Shifting his .22 automatic from one hand to the other, he sucked greedily on the cigarette. It was dark beyond the stark illumination on the aisleways, as this warehouse was intended to be run by daylight. Nervously he wished those in charge of this operation would have realized that this did not make for good combat. These two could be anywhere in this warehouse. But, he and several others had all the exits blocked - they wouldn't be going anywhere.

All the lights went out. Shouts of alarm went up. Some people had flashlights, and turned them on. The fat guy from the office came out of his office shouting "What's going on?"

A series of lights came on in sequence. A group of figures were standing in the main doorway opposite the figure smoking his cigarette. They all were winged, and all but one had a tail as well. Some were kneeling on the floor, with others standing over them - others were lined across the tops of boxes of freight stored in the warehouse. They were all pointing large weapons in their direction, and they all wore... black sunglasses?

There was not a clearly discernable face among them. Jordan rushed in and stood beside the fat man. Even with his gargoyle infrared vision, he still could not make out who it was behind the sunglasses - those sunglasses blocked that spectrum as well.

Christyne had counted on that. "Where is the cell?" She asked the Yakuza in a slow tone.

Seeing only shadows of gargoyles, holding up bright lamps to blind them, the humans began to open fire. They turned their lights out again, and the Yakuza struggled to adjust. The fay found the gunfire easily dealt with. They could slow their vision down and see the bullets coming, and bring up an arm or some other armored part of their body to deflect the spray of lead. The more mortal among them scattered in the darkness.

There was silence in the room, as the human no longer could see anything moving to shoot at, and be sure it wasn't one of their own. "Here to me!" Jordan exclaimed. The humans gathered around him and the fat man, watching the perimeter.

Clank.

A flash of light so bright the warehouse turned from night into day, and then evaporated from sight in the waves of intense light, every human in the room was holding their eyes in pain.

Alex's voice crackled in Christyne's ear. "Very effective, don't you think? Best of all, it's non-lethal ordinance. "

"How long will they be blind?" she asked.

"Three hours, give or take an hour. Gargoyles will only be affected for fifteen to thirty minutes."

"Alright everyone, split up and find the cell - and check in regularly. Try and leave some Yakuza alive to rot in jail and set an example for the others." Christyne snarled to herself, her eyes aglow with amber flame.

Keturah and Alexander nodded to each other, and went together down the hallways. One would guess it made sense - the two humans would find each other during the battle. With Keturah holding his back, the human/fay halfling in the metal suit clanked his way down the perimeter aisle. A few men, dressed in Yakuza black with cloth wrapped around their heads had opened fire on him, but a blast from his wrist-mounted laser sent them flying.

"Projectile weapons are SO twentieth century." he smiled to Ket.

"I see something!" Keturah pointed down the hall, where on her sunglasses a streak of something indeterminate was highly visible on her display.

"Incredible. I think you're seeing a magical trail."

"Let's follow it and see where it leads."

A whistle from behind Elisa made her head spin. She would have been too late, but her armor saved her, and she felt a thump on her back. Christyne immediately responded with her claws, and knocked the man senseless. Elisa found a five pointed round metal object on the ground.

Elisa took a sniff, and found a fine dry powder on it's points. Poison. "Thank goodness for your armor."

Christyne smirked. "I vowed to myself, after that battle with the hunters, that I would put a greater emphasis on protecting my loved ones, than charging blindly into a dangerous situation. That's why I asked for help this time when I honestly knew I couldn't handle it. Police training taught me when to call for backup."

Tanya and Lexington had paired off because they were both of the same wing type, and so fought the same. They were also, ironically, similarly colored - except that Tanya bore more of a hint of purple under her under-arm bat wings, than Lex's darker green tones.

"These are COOL!" Lex said, adjusting the sunglasses. "What am I seeing?"

"Magic." Tanya explained. Each using a small magic stone, and using it to receive magical impulses, which the glasses display. It's one of mother's oldest inventions."

"I ought to uplink to your database sometime and check out your work."

"Stop by our home sometime, and we'll let you and Atlantica play computer games against each other."

He grinned.

Erik, now returned to his proper gargoyle form, glared at the guard wordlessly. His five young girls were huddled in the corner, waiting. A scuffle was heard, and scraping of metal. Gunfire - and a man's scream. Lastly, the sound of human flesh hitting the ground was heard.

The massive steel and fiberglass exoframe made to look like a gargoyle appeared, startling and frightening Erik. Then a girl appeared, human, but covered in falcon's feathers, and who's arms had been turned into wings. She was wearing some kind of white skin-tight armor, and began pushing a grey doughy substance into the space between the frame and the electronic door lock. The woman ducked behind the metal man, and Erik dived backwards and spread his wings protectively over the gargoyle girls.

The blast rocked the warehouse, and stone bits flew everywhere. One of Erik and Tigris's daughters shouted jubilantly "YES!"

Xanatos beeped on the line. "Eagle 3 to team leaders. I've got them - in the basement under the offices in a room marked 'Janitorial'."

"Didn't find many brooms or buckets." Ket smiled, "but we found a lot of little girls who miss their mother."

"My babies! Are they okay?" Tigris's voice came back.

"Pale and bruised, but otherwise fine." Erik replied, overhearing the conversation.

"Remember- first priority is to get them out of here, and to a safe place where they can meet the harrier when it arrives. We'll deal with the Yakuza and their plans second."

Tigris and Tutela arrived after the first two, and they began to escort their liberated family out of their cell and out of the basement. Corala and Carribea joined them soon afterwards.

They were escorted to the roof, where all four gargoyles and two humans in armor stood guard.

"Alright Christyne, you and Goliath have one hour. We'll call if we have trouble. The harrier will fuel in Seattle first, and then fly us out of here so that we have the most fuel possible for our getaway."

"Understood." Goliath's voice returned on the line.

Ten gargoyles in armor, and most armed with some form of weapon, from plasma rifle to sword, encircled them. The fat man lay on the floor, looking up at the gargoyles in dark sunglasses. Christyne held a radio transmitter in her one paw, and a tape recorder in the other. She connected a small microphone to the radio, and they turned to the fat man.

"If I do this, they'll kill me - you know that, right?"

"Would you rather face me?" Goliath asked, frightening the life out of him. Phantom grinned impishly.

The two fates seeming about equal, the man chose to take his chances with the Yakuza - he at least understood how THEY worked. He picked up the radio transmitter, pressed a button and began to speak. Christyne began taping.

"Okay boss, everything's at peace here. Remind me again what our plan is."

"You fool, don't you listen to anything? The ship arrives at midnight, and we'll have three trucks there to offload it. One will go to Seattle, one will go to San Diego, and the other we will take down to Los Angeles. Our demands will be announced when we raid the pro-gargoyles summit, and we will either get our wishes, or else we will detonate."

Christyne gestured with her gun.

The man nodded, and continued playing stupid. "Detonate what?"

"The nuclear bombs, stupid! What do you think is on those trucks, anyway? Lollipops? They are packed in cargo boxes."

There were some blanched faces among the warriors. "Whoa boy." Broadway muttered to himself.

"How will I know which ones they are to offload then?

"They will be long cylindrical objects with a large round sphere attached at one end, all made from weapon's grade uranium we bought from our brothers in Korea."

The fat man waved, to his captor - wanted to end the conversation. Christyne nodded.

"Midnight then, I'll be waiting." he ended the transmission. Christyne stopped the tape recorder.

Elisa smiled. "Airtight. If we can gum up the works now, the locals can sort it out in the morning. This evidence will put them away forever."

Christyne's mind was already hard at work. She began to make a drawing on a crate. "This is what a typical nuclear device looks like. The whole thing will be encased in steel or iron - me and my family are going to have to stay a mile away from the thing. On the small end is blasting cap filled with high explosives like nitroglycerin, which are intended to push a slug of uranium down this tube to impact at the speed of a bullet from a gun, into the uranium bowling-ball here on the end. There's more to it, of course, but keeping this explanation simple: once those two impact at that speed, the atoms will have enough inertia to begin colliding and cause a fission explosion. Such science is so incredibly powerful, that OBERON himself would not be able to contain it. To disarm the device is simple, break or bend it in half - or rip the ball off the end. Any of the gargoyles who is not harmed by the iron covering can do it easily."

Turning to the combined warriors, she continued. "I want one of my family with every team, we might be able to help, but in the end it comes down to you. Me, Elisa, and Lexington will take the first team. Phantom and Goliath, team with Brooklyn and Sata. Finally, I'd like Tanya to accompany Broadway and Angela. Again Goliath, Alexander, I can't thank you enough for your help tonight."

"No thanks is necessary. I am glad now that I decided to get the clan involved. The danger here is far more serious than any of us had anticipated."

"How soon will the harrier arrive, Xanatos?" Christyne asked the intercom.

"Twenty minutes. They're fueling now."

"I want you out of here before midnight. Find a safe harbor to wait at for a while, and if possible refuel. We'll signal when we're ready."

"The family is asking if they'll be going back to their home in Port Angeles."

"Tell them I want to examine them and have a discussion about their mother first. We'll do that in Utah."

"Understood."

Christyne smiled. For the owner of a multi-billion dollar company, he sure was more of a team player than his father had been. She guessed it was his mother coming out in him.

Although initially Tigris had been bathed in hugs and kisses from her hatchlings, she initially kept a distance from Erik, who in turn kept a distance away from her. Ket and Xanatos watched the exchange with unease - unsure what to do with them as neither knew the whole story as to what was going on. The commotion was probably what reawoke Portula, who began crying again. The children handed the weanling to Tigris.

"She won't take the bottle since you left." Rose explained. "She hasn't eaten anything."

As she nursed the weanling, the eyes of the children flickered back and forth between Tigris and Erik. Finally, between the expectant looks of her children, Xanatos, Keturah, and those given her by her own heart, Tigris went over, and held his shoulders with her free arm.

"Tell me, my love, that we are still mates? Tell me my children still have a mother and a father. Believe me, whatever happened it was not by my choice!"

Erik turned and held her. "I have so gravely wronged you. I should have known you would never willingly do such a thing to me - to our children."

"Let us not think about it. We make mistakes, just as much as the humans do."

They embraced, Erik's wings wrapped around her, and tears in Tigris's eyes. They kissed. Erik paused, broke away, and looked into her eyes for a long moment.

"I'm so sorry, my love... Will you ever forgive me?"

"'Tis already forgotten, for you are in my arms again." she replied. He gently stroked her hair, and they were kissing again.

Alexander comically put his head on Keturah's shoulder and sighed audibly.

"Stop it!" she quickly rebuked him.

"But I was enjoying the young lovers..."

"You're almost as bad as Christyne and Sharm."

"Moi?" Xanatos asked, looking up at her. Keturah couldn't see it, but behind that mask he was grinning. "Would I do something like that?" Keturah scowled at him. "What can I say? I was only raised by a trickster."

Keturah huffed in frustration. She looked up at the sky. "Why, My Lady - Why? Do I attract them to me?"

Alexander laughed. "If only you knew! If only!"

"Hello, Tigris." said a voice from behind them. Tutela jumped, and was instantly ready to tackle the new figure - a male gargoyle standing right behind them. Alexander and Keturah stopped laughing and spun, weapons hoisted.

"Stay away from me, Jordan! I don't know what you did to me, but I won't let you near me again!" Tigris crouched behind Erik with her suckling child. Erik stood protectively in front of her. Alex recognized him as the gargoyle that was with the Yakuza. They began to circle him. Jordan seemed unperturbed, smiling devilishly. "What is it you want?" Alex asked. "Otherwise clear you out or I'll clear you out myself."

"I do not normally attack another gargoyle, but you don't deserve to live!" Erik accused him, eyes burning white.

"A burden I am not bound by." he smiled. "Tigris my dear, I'm willing to put all this in the past and give you one last chance to come with me and be my mate, before I have to dispatch of these... pests."

Tigris was on the verge of tears again. "Pests? These are my family! I love them! I can't leave them! You disgust me! Protecting your own kind means nothing to you - especially when there are so few of us left! You're corrupt! You're a sociopath!"

The smile had not left Jordan's face. "But you know you like it." he said in a sick and demented way. Tigris began to groan, and finally broke out into a scream. She let go of Portula, whom Erik had to quickly jump down and catch. Erik breathed in relief, turned, and found Tigris's face pale, as she fell to the rooftop and began to writhe. Tigris was holding her head. "Stop it! Stop it, please!"

"Leave my daughter alone!" Tutela exclaimed, opening fire at Jordan. Jordan leapt, causing the beam to destroy the antennae pylon he had been leaning against. Tutela turned, as he barreled into her from behind. The weapon went flying, as Tutela and Jordan grappled with each other, wrestling. Erik unsheathed his sword, left the babe with the other children, and joined the fray. Jasmine leapt up, standing between the fray and her younger sisters. Xanatos too padded his large metallic feet in that direction. He, however, was not looking for a fight. Alternately he looked at Jordan and the suffering mother. An orange glow had begun to form around Tigris. "Leave me alone!" she groaned, fighting with all her willpower.

"Hmmmm... somebody likes to play with black magic." Alex pointed a hand at her, and the glow vanished.

Tigris took a deep breath and looked up. "Thank you, Mr. Xanatos."

"No problem. It was a spell I knew how to combat anyway. It seems that he took advantage of your existing hormonal weakness and amplified it." he replied thoughtfully.

Tutela managed to wrestle Jordan down underneath her. It soon became obvious that Jordan was not a great fighter compared to Tutela - he depended too much on his spells and his subterfuge.

"Oh Jooooooordan..." Tigris said saucily. Tutela and Erik stopped, standing back in a daze. She swayed her hips, and carressed her hair. Jordan smiled.

"Glad to see we finally agree." he smiled. Erik winked at Tutela.

Tigris motioned him forward, and he came to her eagerly. She wrapped his arms around his neck, and he placed his hands around her waist. Tigris's lips went to his neck.

Jordan dropped to the floor in a heap, quivering. There were to teethmarks in his neck - from Tigris's fangs. His body crackled a became stone forever.

At midnight, a large cargo ship entered the port. Yakuza men from inside the ship disembarked and began to operate the heavy machinery to remove the huge cargo containers. They selected three cargo containers, and lined them up in the yard. The rest of the ship would wait for the day crew. In Seattle, men would work 24/7 to work the docks and keep ships moving, but here things were a little more casual - exactly what the Yakuza was counting on. Olympia was an easy target for smugglers - except for one thing. Gargoyles.

Three semis arrived from other parts of town, these also driven by Yakuza men and women. These trucks had a special trailer made mostly of a few metal beams and appropriate lights, upon which the cargo containers were dropped, and hidden mechanisms snapped into place, securing them. For added safety, webbing was used to strap down the container to small hooks on the side of the trailer rails. The men worked quickly, and all three trucks were ready to go within only a few minutes.

The trucks pulled out, their drivers not noticing that they had a passenger that had climbing on the back of their cab between the sleeper and the trailer where the air line were stretched out. The remaining dock workers gathered together after they were finished to follow the trucks in large, expensive black foreign make cars, but were abruptly taken down. Tied down in nets, Christyne's three daughters Corala, Carribea, and Atlantica watched over them with heavy weapons.

Down below, Broadway had implanted himself on the third, Goliath on the second, and Elisa on the first. Christyne's voice crackled on the radio. "They're gonna have to hide the trucks someplace. That's the best place to handle them."

"That would endanger honest citizens." Elisa added. "Take them down now - quick and fast - before they reach a commercial or residential area."

"10-4." replied Broadway.

"Understood." Goliath added.

Broadway's talons snapped the brake lines like brushing aside cobwebs. The truck suddenly lurched as the trailer's brakes locked shut. The truck spun wildly and out of control. Broadway tore into the back of the sleeper, startling the already frightened female driver. She produced a gun of some variety, but it hardly mattered as Broadway quickly squished the life out of it like so many grapes.

"Pardon me!" he shouted, and one quick blow later she was out. Out of control now, the truck turned once, and was on top of itself. Broadway was pelted with the contents of the truck.

"WHOA!" Spun off the road, it quickly came to rest. The engine idled itself, and Broadway reached up and switched off the engine key. As he was pulling himself out of the twisted mass of fiberglass and metal, Angela and Tanya landed.

"My love! Are you hurt?" she asked.

"Nah." he replied. "Just a little shaken, not stirred."

Tanya walked over to the trailer, and touched it once with a talon. She was met with a spark, and was thrown backwards. In pain, she rubbed her paw. "So much for that idea. I'm gonna be basically useless here."

"Are you alright?" Angela asked. "What happened?"

"I'm a fay halfling - like Alexander Xanatos. At the time my mother had me she was a gargoyle, and Phantom was a Child of Oberon. Or a brother, if you want to get technical."

"So you're vulnerable to iron, aren't you?" Angela observed.

"Exactly. I can't help you guys except stand guard."

Broadway smiled. "I think I can handle this, ladies." Angela put a reassuring hand on Tanya's shoulder.

Broadway, still on an adrenaline high, pushed the trailer back upright, and tore the locking bars off the back. From there, the iron doors opened easily, and Broadway found himself confronted with a series of steel cables holding a wood crate off the ground and in the exact center of the cargo container. Snapping cables, he made his way to the box, and tore the end off.

Inside was something out of an old Star Trek episode. Broadway gasped. It was a long shaft the size of his arm, had a bowling ball at one end, and the other end of the shaft had some kind of radio device. Broadway snarled in fury and tore the uranium ball from the end, and threw it behind him, letting it fall in the grass with a thud, sinking several inches into the dirt because of it's sheer weight. "Dang! This thing is a lot heavier than it looks!"

"It's made of uranium, one of the heaviest metals known."

He tore the radio off the end, and removed the blasting cap from it's housing. Taking a long stride from the trailer, he threw the blasting cap as far as he could throw it into the hills where there were no houses. There was a flash of light as the nitroglycerin exploded, and the hills shook.

Finally Broadway took the other uranium slug out of the iron housing, and dropped it on the ground.

"CAREFUL!" Tanya shouted. "Don't let those things touch! You don't always need nitroglycerin to make the two react!"

Angela scowled at Broadway. He blushed. "Oops. Sorry."

Goliath didn't even bother with the driver. Taking Broadway's lead, he cut the airlines, and held on for the rollercoaster ride as the driver struggled to regain control. Goliath took the side of the cargo container, and pulled it right apart. Snapping the cables, he took the box apart, and grabbed the cargo inside, and leapt free of the truck. With Phantom watching overhead, Brooklyn and Sata stared at the device.

"Whoa. Now, what did she say to do?"

"Bend it here, my love." Sata instructed.

"I'll get it." Goliath offered, and quickly the device bore 90 degree bend in it's main shaft. The shaft itself snapped under the pressure, and came free. Goliath pinched the ends closed for good measure.

"Careful with the blasting cap - she said there was nitroglycerin in it." Brooklyn pointed out. Taking that end of the device, he looked at the wires, and cut one with his talon. The lights on it went out.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Goliath inquired.

"Don't remember exactly."

Laserfire intercepted Goliath's armor. Startled, he threw himself around to face the driver of the second truck, who had abandoned his vehicle, seeing that it's cargo was already gone. He had some kind of laser weapon and was trying his hardest to kill Goliath. Phantom had already squeezed off several shots at the human. Brooklyn's reflexes were no match for him, though, and with the large weapon Christyne had loaned him, opened a large hole in the Yakuza man's chest.

He smiled. "Hey - I like this gun! My love? Remind me to ask Christyne if I can keep this."

Elisa already knew to cut the brake lines, and she had herself one semi on the side of the road not far from the others. The driver had not appeared, but she knew he was in there. She had her gun out, and snuck around the side. It was tipped on it's side, so she was climbing along the side. Her weight probably made her position obvious. A laser bolt shot through the skin of the fiberglass exterior of the cab, narrowly missing part skin that was not armored, near her middle.

She leapt over to the door, and pointed the gun straight down in. "Maza, NYPD! You're under arrest!"

Christyne was right there next to her. She fired one shot right down into the cab where the last shot had come from. No response. Christyne tore the door off it's hinges, and looked around inside. Another laser blast - this time aimed at her face. Christyne pulled back quickly, and the sound of the windshield shattering was heard.

The orange/brown gargoyle woman leapt down, and leaned her shoulder against the hood - pointing her gun inside. She fired off three shots from the laser pistol she used in the NYPD. All at once there was a clicking sound.

The blast threw both gargoyles backwards.

"He had a grenade! He killed himself!" Christyne exclaimed.

"Kamikaze." Elisa corrected.

Lexington had taken the bolt off the trailer door, and had opened the door manually. Inside, he opened the crate and looked at the device. Finally, he got frustrated, reached behind his head, pulled out his small interface cord, and plugged in. Lexington scowled at the device, and it crackled and went out.

His synthetic voice responded. "That should make it harmless."

"Still." Elisa said. She looked at the end, took off the blasting cap, and carefully handed it to Lexington, and removed the bowling ball from the end.

Christyne smiled. "Eagle two to all teams - mission accomplished!"

It had been a quiet night, all things considered, at the police precinct building in Olympia. The police captain was chatting lightly with he people, because aside from the usual rigamarole, nothing big or explosive was happening - which was quite unusual. However, the calm did not last for long.

Through the front doors came two female gargoyles. The secretaries all shouted, and everyone looked up, most of them making started noises. At least three coffee cups were dropped and shattered on the floor.

They went right up to the man in charge. "You the captain?" the orange/brown one asked.

He nodded wordlessly, noting that the leader - the orange/brown one had a bag in her hand - an evidence bag. Both gargoyles produced police badges, and displayed them.

"Maza, Detective, NYPD."

"Christyne Phantom, Detective, SLPD."

"You've got three semis with disarmed nuclear devices in a ditch by a warehouse on the south end of the bay, and a lot of tied up Yakuza. They're all yours!" the leader handed the chief the evidence bag, and inside he could see a cassette tape.

The two gargoyle flared their wings, startling the squad office again, as they turned and walked out. One paused before walking out the door, turned to them, smiled, waved, and said.

"Enjoy!"

Washington D.C.

a month later

Every delegate in the United States House of Representatives were in their seats and watched in awe and disbelief as one by one, three clans and eighteen different gargoyles filed in, and were seated. Each were dressed in what could be considered business formal to Sunday formal for the children. There were two exceptions - two females in formal police uniforms, modified for a gargoyle's body. Keturah was also there, and Christyne was pushing Mandy in her wheelchair. One, a large, older looking red skinned woman with white hair, and double wings that were shaped like a butterfly, stood at the microphone to address them.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the house. First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Tutela, hatched at the Castle Drake, sometime in September of 1646. Yes, I am old enough to make your grandparents feel like spring chickens."

There was a little soft laughter in the room.

"I have watched through the ages as this nation grew from a colony in Virginia, to colonies, to states, to the great nation we are today. I can tell you all about Captain John Smith and Pocahontas, I can tell you George Washington's favorite bar, the color of John Adam's wife's favorite dress, and all about the pervading odor that always seemed to surround Benjamin Franklin. When the war of 1812 finally ended I was there. When men died like flies during the civil war, I wondered how human kind could hold the lives of one another so completely without worth. I watched this nation go to war twice to fight the Germans, and I cheered on VE day along with everyone else at those ticker-tape parades, for those were true heroes. I hoped that America had learned it's lesson in Korea, but was disappointed to learn we'd gone on to do the same thing in Vietnam. Had I been able to, I would have picked up the cause for the woman's vote, equal rights for gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgendered people. I stood there cheering as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. announced that he had a dream! A dream that people of different color would live together in harmony!"

She shifted stance, pausing. "Then came the Reawakening. All over the United States, my kind began to come out of the stonework (if you'll pardon my pun). I've watched the nation I watched over for 200 years start to commit the same mistake over again. Just like in the civil war, America held life completely without value, and began to destroy my kind completely without mercy. Haven't we learned that every life is precious? This nation is approaching it's 300^th anniversary! We are a nation of sexual and ethnic diversity, but for some reason we just can't bare the thought of diversity of species. Everyday more and more Americans undergo gene therapy for a variety of illnesses. Who's to say a genetically enhanced human being isn't a different species altogether from a natural one? Over 25,000 women enter a genetic therapy clinic every year to have their bodies enhanced⁽¹⁾, starting as young as fourteen years old! Where do you draw the line?"

She shifted one last time. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the house. I'm not asking you to change the world. I'm asking you to know me. If you read nothing else of this proposal, the I want you to know me. Here, I'll introduce you to my family. Christyne is my oldest, and her devoted husband Phantom. These are their eight children - my first eight grandchildren. Christyne has done highly acclaimed work in medicine and quantum physics, and invented some of the gene therapy techniques used today to fight cancer, Down's Syndrome and liver disease. She would study at a university, but she would be considered an illegal alien. Here is my second daughter Tigris Euphrates and her mate Erik who originally is from Scotland. She has five children, all daughters, plus one more which is buried near out home in Utah. She is a devoted wife and teaches during the day at an Elementary School where her children attend. They all have to use a disguise of humans in order to fit in and live out their daytime lives. She is also a transsexual - born my only son, she went through many years of crisis and a failed marriage to get through her own person problems. And, finally, my youngest daughter Keturah, who's story is so complicated I shall not even waste your time boring you with it." Keturah laughed. "Suffice it to say she is unmarried and aging faster than the rest of us. She always did take things way too quickly."

More laughter from the delegates.

"In conclusion." she said, turning to the speaker of the house. "Your honor. I ask you all to consider the lives you are making for your children and mine. Time and time again we have demonstrated our desire is to protect. That is our nature. Any gargoyle that does not desire to protect their home and their loved ones is a corrupt gargoyle - and a sociopath. We were CREATED to protect humankind from the evils that lurk in the night. It is our heritage! It's what we live for. I envision a world in which a young gargoyle attends elementary school and plays on the jungle gym with every other child his or her age. We must learn to live together, or else we will never be able to live with ourselves."

With that, Tutela turned, and walked down from the stand.

"We've done our best. Now we wait." Tutela sighed, pacing back and forth. "But we can only hold off stone sleep for a few more hours and then most of us are going to have to take a forced nap."

"Whatever the outcome, we all did our best." Goliath agreed.

Christyne smiled, and turned to Elisa. "Our two clans work well together."

"Yeah - you guys should visit New York more often!" she laughed. "I'd love to walk into the new precinct building and show them I'm not the only detective with wings and a tail." A serious expression suddenly crossing her features, Elisa walked over to Tigris, who was playing with her youngest - Portula, who burbled in the two-year-old talk that was somewhere between nonsense and language. "Tigris, we did some checking on Interpool, and it turns out that this Jordan character was actually wanted in several other unsolved rapes up and down the Pacific Northwest states. You weren't his first victim."

Tigris sighed, looking at the floor. Portula pulled on her mother's golden blonde tresses. Erik nodded, and Elisa continued. "The Yakuza we captured admitted he had been paid to break up the family of gargoyles protecting the Olympia area. True to his form, Jordan raped you."

Christyne piped up. "It was some kind of spell that made you forget everything else, and loose all will power and self control. Alex was right, it didn't take much, given your hormone problems. It's black magic, and probably took it's toll on it's user. He may have used the spell at every single one of his rapes."

"Jordan expected Erik to overreact, what he didn't count on though was you bringing back reinforcements once Chrissy discovered the rape. He really wasn't very bright, and thought only about sex. The Yakuza told him to leave you alone once you left, but he didn't listen. He sent you that letter at Chrissy's place, trying to get another night in your panties, but the Yakuza tried to get someone to get it away from you. They didn't count on Chrissy dragging him into the cops. He eventually admitted everything. As for Jordan, I'm willing to bet the Yakuza would have killed him for making a deal with them and then breaking it, if we hadn't done it first. If the Yakuza ever get ahold of his remains, they'll probably smash them to rubble."

Goliath sighed deeply. "Unfortunately, even Gargoyles are not immune to the effects of desire..." He turned, lookiong at the young lovers Tigris and Erik. "...and deception."

"They say that cops make the best criminals." Elisa pointed out folding her arms around her middle.

"If there can be gargoyle criminals like Demona, it just figures there are rapists and sociopaths too." Broadway deduced. He turned to his mate. "Sorry Angela."

"What will you do about the egg?" Sata asked Tigris, referring to four-month pregnant belly. "It's probably another side effect of that spell."

"Yes, and I'm a little worried we'll have a real demon on our hands. I'm pouring a lot of positive magic into the baby to keep it from being affected anymore by the black spell Jordan cast on you that night." Phantom grumbled.

She and Erik smiled. "We'll keep it, making sure that he or she grows up and has every chance to be the good protector that his father wasn't. Erik and I still have about ten years left if we want to have some of our own. As for the rest, we've already had a chance to... make up." she giggled. Erik drew Tigris up to his lips again, and they kissed. Tigris placed her hands on his chest, she raised one foot from the ground, and her tail snaked it's way around Erik's leg. Erik stroked her long blonde hair.

Elisa looked at Christyne. "You say she used to be your BROTHER?"

"Yeah, but he ALWAYS acted like that." Christyne replied. "He asked me if I had a boyfriend yet almost every day I was in college."

"Things are not always what they seem." Goliath smiled. "Even little boys."

Owen Burnette opened the door, and Alexander Xanatos walked in, in his Armani suit. "Ladies and Gargoyles, they're ready. Shall we go in?"

"This is Linda Langfield with the CNN Washington team. The House of Representatives tonight passed an amendment to the constitution that will forever change the course of human history. Having already passed the Senate several weeks before, the President signed the amendment into law tonight."

The scene switched to that of a black woman standing behind the presidential seal and microphone. "With this measure, our nation shows it's commitment to moving forward in more than just industry and science, but in moral and ethic values. What we pass tonight will forever enhance the quality of this nation." she said.

Linda reappeared. "This the One Hundred and First amendment, which has been dubbed the 'Gargoyles' amendment, that creatures of intelligence has the right to be citizens of the United States provided they speak English. It also gives them the right to fair trial, right to own property, and the right to equal protection under the law. As of earlier this evening on the capitol lawn, a select list of gargoyles are being sworn as citizens of this nation by the Madame President. This bill is not, however, without controversy, as special interest groups which claim kinship to terrorist organizations like the Quarreymen and Phoenix Rising..."

With that, the image on the screen vanished into blackness. The figure in the armchair stirred, considering this news very carefully. His wings sagged with age as he touched his beard. "So Terra, you finally succeeded. You did it, just like you promised you would."

This time Christyne strolled right in the front door of the county building, making the left towards the police office. She got a lot of stares - some startled, some frightened, but none had done anything big. When she got into the squad room, some people began to clap, and a few others joined in. She smiled, blushing. Not everyone was clapping, though.

She sat down at her desk, filed through her phone messages, and began to read her email on the police system. She stopped at one message.

You better watch out behind you, freak. One of these days we're gonna kill you!

Q

She sighed. "Hey Captain? CJ? Got a minute?"

The two men had been laughing about the latest Jazz game, wondering if they would beat the bulls again this season, when Christyne had called them. She gestured to the LAN message on her terminal.

CJ sighed, placed a hand on her shoulder. "Welcome to the club, Chrissy - welcome to the club."

The chief, an Irish man with bright eyes a red goatee (she always thought he looked like a leprechaun), pulled on his chin thoughtfully. "What's with the Q?"

"Quarreymen." Both Christyne and CJ answered simultaneously.

The Chief turned to Christyne and smiled. "The Quarreymen are disbanded, so using their name fraudulent." He smiled and shook her hand. "Let us know if you hear or see anything else like that."

"Yessir."

He nodded, and turned to go, but paused. "By the way, Detective. Congratulations." He winked.

Christyne looked at the hatemail for a moment longer, and then did something she never would have ever done. She hit "REPLY".

Not if I can help it.

C

She smiled a little to herself. Not anymore - she wouldn't let them scare anyone anymore. That would goad whoever it is, if nothing else, into sending more messages. She wanted that. Reaching into her hip pocket, she drew out her cellular phone, and drew up a special number and dialed.

"Hi! This is Christyne, can I talk to Lex? Sure. Be good to my sister now. Thanks!" She smiled a little to herself at the news that Alex was taking Ket out on a date. "Yeah, Hi Lex, can I get your help with something? I need someone as good at computers as I am to help me with this. Can you log onto my LAN as an administrator? Great. I want to track somebody down."

An officer in the same office, several hours later, returning from patrol in a downtown district, drinking a lot of coffee, and downing a lot of doughnuts, found a small scrap of cloth on his desk, along with a packet of paper and an envelope. The scrap of paper was a stylized Q with a hammer as part of the Q, taken from inside his desk. The packet of paper was a copy of a section of the rookie's manual entitled "Protect and Serve", and in the envelope was a scrap of paper with drawing of a little man poking his nose over a wall, and the words "KILROY WAS HERE."