52 - "The Return: Part 2"
Originally Written: March 21st, 2001
Contains: Profanity, Violence
Rated: R
"I think you should come out, my dear, before my men open fire." he called out once more. "It would be a shame if your boyfriend were accidentally hit by a wild spray of bullets."
Annika urged Todd to rise with her, knowing this threat would be carried out, and upon meeting his resistance, pulled harder on his hand. She begged to him with eyes rimmed with the faint beginning of tears, pleading to him to follow the commands given to them, for she could not stand to see him hurt.
Todd lifted slowly from the floor, placing himself in front of Annika, and staring at the third man directly in between the others. His eyes narrowed, icing over when peering upon the voice's owner, a man he had hoped never to see again. "Crowe." he spat out.
The elder man smiled, his parched skin molding into a twisted version of a smile. "That's Mr. Crowe to you...boy."
Todd lunged forward, only to be restrained by his lover. An idle comment released by the older man, yet enough to inflame Todd's anger, having carried a hatred for this man, and his treatment of Annika for her entire childhood, since the night they laid eyes upon each other. "I'm gonna fucking kill you, old man!!" he screamed, as Annika held him back, noticing the hired men alongside Therias Ebon Crowe had pulled their weapons.
Crowe sneered, yet admired this show of strength in the face of death. He decided to ignore the young man, and instead force his dead eyes to Annika, cowering behind Todd. "You've been away too long, Annika. I...miss you. You have left a job unfinished. I have invested forty years in seeing you grow up healthy, and then you leave? I am hurt."
"You yelled at me, beat me, treated me like garbage," Annika hissed, clenched firmly onto Todd's stolid form, resting her chin on his left shoulder, "you never cared for me, or my mother. All you wanted was a gargoyle at your beck and call. To follow your sick orders without question. I resisted you. And I escaped, only after my mother died."
Crowe leaned back, his chin lifting, his smile swelling. He always enjoyed whenever Annika found the courage to speak back to him, a sign of her own admirable valiancy, a power he could have harnessed to a frightening degree, and still thought so even now. "You have gained a new strength, while in this rogue's company." he spoke aloud, though partly directing his comment to the young man, still forced back by strong rose-colored hands. "That should prove useful in your new line of work."
"I won't do your dirty work." Annika replied, a scathing tone, flowing with her hatred for this man. "Find someone else..."
"But I only want you." said Crowe. "And I will take you, whether you like it or not."
"You'll take her over my dead body, jerk!!" screamed Todd, his eyes ablaze, his entire body tensed.
"Yes, that is the entire plan. Gentlemen...if you please..." Crowe allowed his two cronies to advance forwards, guns in hand, and Todd edged Annika back, each step in time with the mercenaries' own tread.
The young man searched through the viscera of his mind, trying to think his way out of this dire situation. He knew as soon as they attempted an escape, a hail of bullets could swarm upon them, ending both his life, and perhaps that of his gargoyle lover. He could feel Annika's trembling talons digging into his shoulder and side, and he knew for a fact she was terribly frightened. Only this man, this demon taken human form, would grip her heart in such a panic. He felt the fear radiate throughout her, and his promise, made over a year ago, in a fleeting encounter, a battle, a merging of two hearts, would be kept to the very end. He swore to it. "On my signal," he whispered quietly to the gargess, knowing her great hearing would pick up on every word, "get ready to haul ass through the door."
Annika paused, then nodded, endeavoring to strengthen her emotions to clear her mind, as only an unclouded intellect would result in their clean escape.
Todd moved towards the coffee table, noticing the two men had assumed a position very close to each other. It was almost too perfect, for their distance apart was the exact length of Todd's endtable in front of his massive television. He managed to maneuver himself to the table's side, and nudged his right foot just beneath. His right hand, obscured from the mercenaries' sight, was used as a signal to warn Annika.
Her bright blue eyes peered down to a countdown on his fingers, and she prepared her body for the next critical move.
Crowe noticed the wary stance of his 'daughter' from afar, a sudden change from her once trembling cringe to that of an animal preparing to flee. "You fools," he yelled, "they're going to..."
The distraction of Crowe's outburst was all Todd needed, as he kicked up the coffee table, and pushed it towards the men with all his strength. The wooden table-board slammed against the hired goons, knocking their aim away from the couple.
"Move!!" Todd ordered, a scream erupting from the base of his throat, and he bolted towards Annika. She moved as if the wind, her winged form becoming a rose-tinted blur, heading for the apartment door, with Todd following close behind.
The men steadied their weapons and let loose a barrage of gunfire, with the walls taking the brunt of the shells, exploding with a powdered exhale of drywall, covering the escaping couple with a fine white powder. Annika wrenched the door from her path, creating a spray of painted oak to scatter into the breadth of the hallway beyond, as the wooden barrier was forcefully torn apart with her bare talons. They crashed into the corridor, with the bullets continuing to hurtle past them, grazing across their skin and clothing, and embedding into the gaudy art-deco of the far wall.
"Idiots!!" Crowe hissed, appearing behind them, and clamping a hand on each gun, effectively ceasing the bombardment upon the now gutted walls. "You'll hit her!! Now go! Make sure they don't leave this building. I don't care what you do to Hawkins, but I want Annika alive!"
****************************************
"Go, go, go, go!!" Todd screamed into Annika's ear as they traveled the length of the apartment hallway, nearing the stairs, two separate directions creating a proverbial fork in the road. "Come on," he urged, attempting to pull her downstairs, to possibly lead her to his vehicle, "let's go!"
"No," she cut in, pulling back on his arm, "to the roof."
Todd hesitated, and then followed, Annika practically hauling him up the narrow staircase. As they rambled up the steps, they could hear the uneven and heavy footfalls behind them, knowing they were being pursued. The outside door appeared before them, and with a mighty punch, it crumbled beneath Annika's clenched fist, and fell from it's hinges, allowing the couple access to the naked heavens, and the imperial spires of Manhattan's broken skyline. They kicked up a cloud of fine layered dust, forming twin trails across the building's roof as they made their way to the edge.
As Todd peered over to the dark streets below, a sudden fear crept through his heart. Heights had always bothered him when a child, and now that fear, once thought vanquished, had returned, and he could find no reason why, especially having taken to the skyways with his girlfriend or donning the newest piece of technology. Yet, he understood why Annika had led him here, for she knew their best chance at saving Todd's life, was this route, a celestial pathway to freedom.
Annika charged up to his side, hopping onto the ledge. "Come on!! They're right behind us!"
Todd quickly replied to her frenzied command, and joined her upon the building's edge. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and dodged the sudden outburst of her dark membranes. Seconds before they could leave behind the safety of the solid ground, a shot rang out, effectively freezing the young couple in their place.
The mercenaries had caught up with them, now standing near the damaged door, weapons aimed and ready. "Don't move!" called the taller man, peering through his eyesight, allowing the barrel of his weapon to hold itself directly on the couple. "You're coming with us, Annika, or we'll drop your boyfriend." he threatened, a very real warning of an impending fate.
"I guess there's only one thing to do then..." Todd whispered, passing an obscure smirk to his girlfriend, who nodded, and wrapped firmly around him.
"Don't even think it, girl." the other mercenary cautioned, seeing them lean towards the open sky.
"Too late, boys," Annika teased, "we're out of here. Tell my dad to kiss my ass." Annika let her body grow limp, and both she and Todd fell from the ledge, cast off into the air, and screaming towards the ground. She repositioned Todd to her back, and spread her wings, catching an updraft to ascend to a higher level, if only to escape from the narrow confines of the alleyway they had fallen into.
The mercenaries dashed to the ledge and opened fire, creating as if they were a stormfront, a shower of bullets cascading upon the couple. A shrill warning of the advancing shaped steel came off as a wicked scream, the evil cry of technology skimming past the couple's hides, as Annika weaved her way through the brick walls.
Suddenly, a bullet tore through her right wing, shredding the membrane like tissue paper, and she cringed.
"Are you okay?!" Todd yelled, seeing the small but noticeable hole in her appendage.
"Yeah," she lied, "just fine..." She continued her way through the metallic jungle of fire escapes and a few clothing lines and at last found the unimpeded sky, the brilliant stars calling to her, guiding them both home. As they flew on, the bullets ceased their frantic chase, and the couple both hoped they had disappeared from the mercenaries' sights. Annika felt the pain resonate through her shoulders, as the wind clawed at her wound, tearing upon the membrane as if a blanket's seams being sheared in two. Her body wracked with pain, especially her midsection, and she wondered why. She hoped she could make it back to the castle, she hoped on her very life, if only to protect the man she loved.
****************************************
"Sorry, sir, we lost them."
"No, we have not." Crowe hissed, his eyes of utter ruin searching the heavens for any trace, yet seeing only a small rose-tinted speck among the distant burning orbs. "Get to the hovercraft, if we're lucky, they shall lead us straight to wherever my dear daughter has chosen to hide herself from me." The men quickly stowed their weaponry and ducked into the entrance to the stairs, with Crowe following behind, and oddly, possessing a baneful smile. "Imagine, if we could find the others like her, perhaps I may have more gargoyles on my payroll than I ever thought possible..."
****************************************
A safe haven were the cornices of Wyvern, as Annika centered her direction on the courtyard. Her flight was erratic, and Todd now wondered if she was perhaps more wounded than she let on. A spiral of wind curled about her body as she touched down, a once graceful landing forgotten in the chaotic crash of wings and tail, and a young human being tossed to the stones.
"Annika?" Todd yelled, turning to see his girlfriend sink to the ground, her eyes fluttering, desperate to win the war against unconsciousness. "Annika?!" He crawled over to her in a mad rush, pulling the gargess into his arms.
"I guess...I guess I was more hurt than...I let on..." she mumbled, forcing a smile to the man now pressing her limp body close to him.
Todd scanned her body, discovering more wounds on her left leg and shoulder, and her side, oozing a bright red fluid, a stark contrast against her fair skin. She had been hit several times with the bullets, and paid the price to save her lover's life. Her gargoyle instinct to protect had been more powerful than her own sense of worth, a rich quality any man would admire. "Oh shit..." Todd wheezed, his own hands becoming bloody, as he tried to sway the release of her own bodily fluids. "Someone help!! Help!!" he screamed to every corner of the castle, hoping someone would heed his frantic cries.
"Todd?" It was Goliath, emerging from the castle's interior. He found Annika sprawled in the young man's arms, appearing as if a corpse, and hurried over to them. "What has happened?"
"Daddy crashed my party." Todd spewed out bitterly, moving away the loose strands of blond hair from his lover's face, still afflicted with a pained expression.
"Therias Ebon Crowe." said Goliath, in a heavy tone edged with a feral growl.
"Yeah, it seems Mr. Crowe wanted his daughter back, and we barely escaped from my apartment after he blew through the walls and shot at us."
Goliath growled and leaned down, a massive lavender hand crossing Annika's forehead, covered in perspiration, a clear sign of her battle with her suffering. "The wounds are deep," he breathed, his other hand caressing upon the bullet wounds, "but not life threatening. Once we get the bullets out, she will heal with the sun."
Annika chuckled. "Didn't you...say that a year ago?"
"I thought you were unconscious then." Todd muttered, forcing his lips to curve up into a false smile.
"Just faking...so you would hold me...in your arms..."
Todd smiled, a genuine grin this time, refreshing a memory to the night they met, an eerie similarity to this very moment. "You'll be okay, gorgeous. I promise."
Goliath smiled, in seeing two warring races come together in a pair of young teenagers, their love for each other new, yet professedly ancient, as if it was destined from the very beginning. Yet he suddenly perked up, when his enlarged ears captured an odd sound, and he craned his neck to peer behind him, looking into the darkened sky. Upon the fading lavender hues and the radiant platinum glitter, came several distinct forms, decreasing their distance ever so quickly. Goliath sneered, an animalistic facade to elicit fear in his opponents, worn whenever battle was about to commence. "We have visitors."
Todd looked up as well, and found what Goliath had spotted. His breathing grew erratic, and his arms drew in closer to Annika's form. "Oh shit," he gasped, "Crowe..."
"It seems he followed your route."
"Oh man...Goliath, we...we didn't mean to, we were trying to escape...we didn't think they could catch up to us..."
"It is all right, my friend." Goliath reassured him. "You both made the right decision. If there is to be a battle, then it shall be on our stones, with our home advantage." Goliath stood up, the wind carrying his long sable tress about his wide shoulders. "I suggest you move Annika to a safer location. I shall gather the others who are not on patrol."
"I'm not leaving you guys to fight my battles." Todd snapped, convinced that this entire affair was for him to deal with, unwilling to drag anymore of his cherished friends into what he may have caused in the first place for standing up to Crowe over a year ago.
"You are clan now, Mr. Hawkins. Family. It is OUR battle."
Todd paused for a minute, then nodded, and gently scooped the wounded gargess off the ground. He slipped from Goliath's side and carried her into a far corner, allowing his girlfriend to rest, and save her strength. "I'm not going to let him take you, Annika, I promise you that." he whispered into her ear, as her eyelashes flickered with an almost angelic harmony, like the strings of a harp, and signaling she was still with him in the realm of consciousness. "I promise."
****************************************
"The Eyrie building, I should have known." Crowe cursed under his breath, atop his hovercraft, advancing on the sharpened, carved stones and undeniably unique cornice structure of castle Wyvern. "Xanatos has always been a tad too eccentric for my tastes. It seems he has been keeping too many secrets from the unsuspecting public. I always thought Hawkins' frequent trips here were for his painting services, and not to regularly screw my daughter, and damage my merchandise."
"Sir," the taller merc appeared beside him, edging his own machine directly beside his, "our reinforcements are going to be a couple minutes more. Shouldn't we wait? Who knows what kind of armaments this castle has, or if there are more creatures like Annika."
Crowe passed along a look that instilled a paralyzing fear into the scoundrel's own black heart. "I am well aware of that, but I am taking back my daughter. And I don't care if Xanatos has his little zoo protected by God himself, no one takes my property."
Already having failed once when he allowed Annika to slip away last year, the merc abruptly ceased his argument, hoping this second chance given to him would end in success, and the next paycheque. "Yes, sir."
"There are three of us right now. You and your friend will distract whatever force we may face until the others arrive, and I will search for Annika. Understood?"
"Yes, sir."
****************************************
"My brother, what is happening?" the low monotone of Othello carried with a deep echo, as he burst from the door, followed by a few others of the clan.
"You all are aware of Mr. Therias Crowe?" Goliath asked of the gathered, as he had quickly led them out to the courtyard while never giving an explanation.
"You mean the man who raised Annika, and regularly beat her?" Desdemona answered, her wondrous features twisted with a visible hatred for the human who would dare abuse a small child, no matter what species it was.
"The very same. In his haste to get back what he lost, he has attacked Todd's apartment, and wounded Annika. They are safe now, but Mr. Crowe and a couple of his hired men are on their way here."
Shadow snarled deliciously. "Good," he hissed, his eyes ablaze with the cerulean fire that was unique to him alone, "I will enjoy tearing apart those bastards once more. Especially the old one."
"Dinna wish fer battle, laddie," Hudson cut in, a taloned hand around his sword, "fer it may spell 'r very doom, especially fer the wee lass who is th' target."
"Then we shall stop them before they can take her, senpai."
"Hopefully." said Goliath. "But Xanatos has taken both the defensive systems and the entire Steel Clan off-line for the planned upgrade, and the rest of the clan is on patrol. So it seems we are on our own until the others can make it back."
"My brother," Desdemona pointed a caramel hand to the sky, "they are coming."
"I see only two." Shadow whispered. "Where is the third?"
Goliath found the two men approaching on the sleek hovercraft, and noticed he who Annika feared so, was not among them. "Crowe is missing. He must have taken a different route."
"Aye. Now there be five t' two." Hudson drawled, a growing feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Hardly seems fair, Goliath."
"They must be planning something, or they have others coming."
"No matter, brother. We must defend this castle, and our friend." Othello took off to the ledge, along with Shadow, to greet the visitors with the appropriate response due to invaders of their home soil.
Goliath turned to Todd, still attending to Annika. "Get her inside, Todd. Tend to her wounds, and protect her. We shall hold these men off for as long as possible."
The young man lifted the gargess into his arms, and tore through the door, allowing Goliath to focus in on the advancing attackers.
The men both circled in, choosing the two closest gargoyles as their targets, and opened fire. Two rows of bullets streamed from their machines, tearing up the stone in a fine mist of dust and shrapnel. Shadow and Othello dodged from the projectiles' wild pathways, the dark warrior launching himself into the air, and the Scottish protector rolling to a stop, only to turn and see the front end of a hovercraft impact upon his chest with a sharp crack. The dusty blue gargoyle was forced back, the wind torn from his lungs, landing in a heap several meters away.
"My love!!" Desdemona screamed, racing to her mate's side.
Goliath scrambled to get underneath the other hovercraft, though with the smaller size and great maneuverability, the mercenary was able to twist himself around within the confines of the courtyard, and evade the lavender giant's grasp. Yet, as if the sky had grown claws, born from murky clouds and the raven stratosphere, a dark shape rammed into the machine, the titanium plating being rended and contorted with grayish-purple talons. Shadow had taken to wing, and propelled himself into the hovercraft's side. The mercenary turned around and unleashed a taser at full charge into Shadow's side, and he fell away. He twisted and flipped in mid-air, and landed on his feet, though staggering to keep his balance, and favoring his left ribs.
His machine was damaged yet still able to fly, and the merc continued his game of cat and mouse. Until a glint of sterling steel caught the corner of his eye. Hudson appeared in front of him, using his weight and momentum to throw himself directly at the machine. He jabbed his curved sword into the very heart of the hovercraft, dissecting the device with the skill of a surgeon, and rendering it's engine useless. Hudson lept away, and the mercenary bailed out, tumbling to the ground, watching the hovercraft fall to the stones not a few feet away and burst into flames.
He clambered to his feet, reached into the pack strapped securely to his back, and pulled out more weapons, seeing both Goliath and Hudson advancing on his position. He aimed and pulled the triggers.
****************************************
On the other side of the courtyard, Desdemona was frantically attempting to drag her wounded mate to safety, as the other taller goon continuously swept upon her, toying with her, enjoying seeing his prey scrambling from him, fleeing like an animal from it's relentless hunter. "I wish...someone would get him off of our backs..." she mumbled, hefting Othello higher onto her shoulder.
And indeed, her wish would be granted. Searing through the air, came a battle cry that shattered the wind, and even caused the crystal clear waters of the marble fountain to ripple. Shadow had arrived to assist his clanmates in the battle, and with two whirling circles of his nunchuku, the Japanese warrior collided with the hovercraft, sending it into a downspiral. The mercenary skidded and skipped along the courtyard's rough surface, eventually pitching from his craft, and finding refuge of Scottish stones.
Instantly, Shadow was upon him, and it was only the thin armor padding that kept the merc from having his very blood spilled upon the ground. Shadow rose above him, and howled with animal rage, and all the hired goon saw was a sharp crimson flash of the nunchuku's leather wrapping hurtling towards his face.
****************************************
He allowed her weary body to rest peacefully upon the hospital bed, ensuring her head was supported by the thick pillow. Her wounds had almost clotted, but were still trickling with blood, soaking into the crisp ivory sheets, and staining them a deep crimson. Todd leaned over her, guiding a hand down her face, and she awakened to his touch. "Hey," he whispered, "I'm...going to have to pull the bullets out. There's no doctor here, so...you're stuck with me as your surgeon."
Annika trembled, and her eyes grew wide, opening to a deep ocean blue. "Oh...damn..."
"You're telling me." Todd breathed heavily, grabbing a few surgical tools from the cabinets. "This is going to hurt like hell, gorgeous, but I have to get those bullets out."
Annika simply nodded, and repositioned herself upon the bed, grasping both hands to the steel rails alongside.
Todd hovered over her, with the long steel clamps, glinting in the fluorescent lights of the Eyrie's hospital room. He moved to her leg wound, and steadied her appendage with a firm hand. He hesitated, holding the tool just above the skin, and then entered ever so slowly. Annika jerked, as the foreign object traveled the length of the wound, a deep cavity torn away by the copper-tinted bullet. Todd winced, seeing his girlfriend in so much pain, and his pressure on her leg intensified, as her very muscles spasmed against his grip. "Almost got it...here we go, hang on, Annika...there!" Todd pulled out the slug, dyed a deep scarlet, and he placed it on the rolling tray beside him.
Todd then finished off the shoulder, an easier task, as it had not buried itself as deep. Once the second bullet had been pulled, he moved down to her midsection, where her last wound had revealed itself within the caked pool of blood, collected on her well toned stomach. "Last one..."
Annika was breathing heavily, her ample chest rising and falling with every rabid gasp.
Todd was momentarily distracted, and seconds later, a goofish grin formed on his lips. "I wish you would stop doing that," he whispered, "you're making me horny."
Annika released a small garbled chortle through the relentless pain, and soon paid the penance for allowing herself to laugh, inflaming the wound in her stomach. "Ouch...please...don't make me laugh..."
"Sorry." Todd moved his eyes back to the laceration, and prepared himself with a steadying breath. He quickly plunged it into the wound, deliberately moving the tool around in a wide circle and unintentionally causing even more pain, yet he had to find the submerged bullet, throughout the constant flow of blood. His own hands were completely drenched in his girlfriend's blood, and he kept the bile from rising in his throat with ever a solidified resolve. For to save his lover's life, he would do anything.
Annika gritted her teeth, and her hands clenched firmly upon the rails of the bed, her incredible strength threatening to tear the entire berth apart. Tears of torment traveled the length of her rose cheeks, yet she never screamed, too proud to let her boyfriend see her cry out in pain.
Todd wiped his brow, leaving a visible smear of blood, and continued in silence. His tool then hit something hard, and his brow snapped up in total surprise. He hoped he had not clasped upon something needed within her, such as a vital organ. He pulled back slowly, and found a glimmer of gold emerge from a deep rose. "Oh yeah, Todd Hawkins, surgeon to the stars."
Annika visibly shuddered, a deep sigh caressing the entire length of her body. Todd appeared in her field of view, holding the last bullet in the thin tongs. "...is it...over?..."
"All done. I'm going to bandage your wounds now, so you can rest if you want to."
"No...can't rest...can't let my dad...hurt anyone..."
"He won't. The others are taking care of them right now." Todd squeezed her hand, noticing her own forceful clench, as if unwilling to let him go.
Even with her blurred vision, she watched him intently, gently cleaning her wounds and wrapping them in a softened white gauze. She could feel his hands moving upon her hide, an infinitely warm touch that she so desired, and took pleasure in.
"There, that should hold until dawn...hopefully." Todd approached her side, and dragged a few fingers down her cheekbone, wiping away the tears that had fallen in her moment of agony. He noticed she seemed ashamed of allowing the crystal liquid to escape, but he soon calmed her, assured her in a demanding tone, that he never thought any less of her. "It's all right. If our positions were reversed, I'd be screaming like a little girl."
"This is all my fault...you, the clan, everybody, is always forced to fight, and risk their lives to save me...I'm sorry..."
"Don't be," Todd leaned over and pressed against her lips with a touch of his own, "you're worth the fight."
"Well, isn't that sweet. A saccharine scene torn from a romance novel sold in corner drugstores."
Todd whirled around to the grating voice, and found a tall man dressed in a long black trenchcoat, seemingly filling the entire doorway. "Crowe..."
A gun was cocked and directed at the young man, who in turn moved in front of Annika in a protective instinct. Crowe stepped from the hall and slowly, deliberately, crossed half the length of the smaller, contained hospital, all the while aiming his gun towards Todd. "You know, I am continually impressed by this building's facilities. For I used to do quite a lot of business with Mr. Xanatos. But then he decided to clean up his act, and I lost a very lucrative contract."
"You and Xanatos...know each other?!" Todd screamed, angered at the fact Xanatos had failed to mention this.
"Oh yes. You can imagine how many weapons a billionaire would purchase when trying to take over the world, or some other stupid, infantile scheme he would hatch. It really didn't matter, for he always paid in full, and on time." Crowe edged closer, and with every step, Todd would react, his body twitching as each large boot came down on the tiled surface. "It's a good thing I was able to hack into his computer systems and download a schematic for the building after our last meeting years ago. For I asked myself, where would a young man bring his injured love, but to the closest medical facility to the castle. Is she well? I would hate for my daughter to die on our way home."
"You are not touching her." Todd growled, his brow lowered, his fists clenched behind his back.
"And what makes you think you can stop me, Mr. Hawkins?"
"Because, old man," he actually grew a smile, though crooked, but rife with his own courage brimming to the surface, "I'm not as unarmed as you think..." He had left his hands hidden from sight on purpose, as Annika took the advantage in Crowe's longwinded explanation to hand her lover a weapon. With all his strength, and before Crowe could even react, Todd let loose a steel bedpan, impacting on the side of the older man's left temple.
The gun went sprawling, and Todd lunged towards him, kicking him in the midsection, before the chance to recover presented itself. A brawl ensued, as Todd lay into him with all the pent up rage and animosity contained within his young form, released in a torrent of punches and kicks to any exposed body part. Until his fist was caught by a gloved hand, and Crowe, despite his great age, arduously clamped down, and Todd winced.
"You have passion, boy, I'll give you that." Crowe twisted his arm, bringing Todd around, and leveling the field. "But the curse of youth works in my advantage. You fail to realize I have forty years of fighting ability and battle experience on you, and I am also wearing battle armor. You should quit while you're ahead."
Todd listened closely, yet this grating threat still fell on deaf ears. Perhaps his young age was acting as an affliction, allowing him to ignore all rational thought, to perhaps give up and relent to a more powerful foe. "Fuck you." Todd hurled his free hand towards Crowe's face, and brought forth a spray of blood from his nose.
Crowe staggered back, and wiped the fluid from his upper lip. "You'll pay for that...boy!"
"We'll see...old man."
And the battle ensued, for the freedom, and life, of Annika Smith.
****************************************
"RRRRRAAAAAUUUUUUGGHH!!!" Shadow screamed, his growl released from deep within his chest, and his heart brimming with bestial lust. The war still waged on the stones outside, and the two mercs found themselves at the gargoyles' mercy. Stripped of their hovercraft, and most of their weapons, they scrambled for their lives, as two massive dark shapes descended upon them.
The taller mercenary, with only a few shredded remains of his armor left intact, ran for his very life from the dark warrior's advancing talons, bearing down on him, threatening to rend peach-tinted flesh from ivory bone. He had discharged most of his weapons, and the rest were now twisted scraps left on the stones, fit only for recycling. He reached the far end, climbing the steps to Goliath's tower, yet in his fleeting escape of the beast behind him, clouded by rampant fear, he had forgotten it was a literal dead end. He reached the top and found the small enclosure, with the familiar cornice structure laid out on all sides. He was effectively trapped.
A howl of the wind carried a large form, and a pair of taloned feet slipped onto the stones, with enough force to almost dislodge the Scottish rock from their tight-fitting seams. Goliath had followed the mercenary to his roost, and hovered over him, casting his winged shadow upon his trembling form, a shroud of darkness only breached by the acerbic gleam of his glowing eyes. "This ends now, mercenary." he declared exactingly, his tone severe enough to elicit a quick, child-like nod from the cowering human. "Grab your friends, and leave this castle, or I will throw you from this tower, allowing you to fend for yourself in the winds."
Below, Desdemona and Hudson had subdued the other hired goon, using a contorted assemblage of his own weapons to bind his hands, legs, and mouth, intent on culling the attacker's invasion of their home. Yet even over the muffled ranting of the restrained human, came an odd sound to the tenth century gargess, drowning out the familiar whisper of her inherited protectorate. Two lingering shapes allowed themselves to be discovered, and the caramel gargess gasped as a glint of steel, and fires brighter than that of the sun increased to right these two behemoths upon the courtyard floor.
"What...who are they?" she asked of her mentor.
Hudson's ridges knitted together. "They be th' bad guys, lassie. Perhaps th' replacements fer these two." The elder gargoyle shivered within his tunic, for these newcomers possessed full suits of body armor, almost an entire machine surrounding their forms, but only did their eerie familiarity to the suits worn by the Hunters years ago, strike fear into his steeled heart. "It seems Canmore be sharing his toys..."
The two invaders stood silently, scanning the alien environment, possibly sizing up their opponents. One looked above him, to Goliath's roost, and then signaled to his partner. He took off, the massive boosters effortlessly lifting the bulky suit from the ground, and soaring directly towards Goliath.
"Brother!!" Desdemona screamed frantically. "Look out!!"
Goliath turned only to be hit head on by an armored fist, splitting his bottom lip and releasing his heated blood, knocking the massive beast from his perch. As the lavender giant fell away, Shadow joined the fray, capturing both hands of the suit in his own fierce grasp. The mechanical systems of the suit strained at the dark warrior's strength, but soon overcame this obstacle, breaking the hold and impacting clenched fists on each side of Shadow's head. He went down, the warrior toppled, as the mercenary, behind the thick, smoked glass of the suit's visor, smiled with a malicious intent, and lay waste to the creature beneath him with a blur of wild thrusts.
Desdemona and Hudson faced the other suit, awaiting his first move. And it would come, as he stalked towards them, seemingly unfazed by their show of brave hearts and stoic nerve. He swept upon them as a force of nature, the unbridled strength of futuristic technology more than a match for the two gargoyles. He swatted Hudson away with a single swipe, the elder gargoyle forced back into a broken pile of tanned hide and crumpled wings, and then turned his attention to Desdemona.
The slender female edged back, eyes wide, her mind swimming for an answer, yet drowning in her fear of this monstrosity stalking towards her. She instinctively lashed out with a clawed hand, yet was caught instantly, and her wrist bruised from the forceful grip. The mercenary squeezed harder, and the female cried out in pain, as the sickening sound of the splintering of bone was freed into the still air. She fell to her knees, still held in the armor's grip, her eyes tearing as she wavered on the verge of unconsciousness.
Yet without warning, a flash of misted blue ripped past, then followed by a frightful, guttural scream, as if this form had raced so fast to beat the sound of his own voice. Othello had gained his second wind, and jumped the armored man, using his strength to forcefully separate his loved one from the machine. "Let go of my mate!!" The mercenary at last staggered back, with repeated blows of a dusty cerulean hue enough to crack the titanium shielding and even force the human within the retaliate out of a blind panic. He struck Othello across the jaw, and barely breached the rage flowing through the gargoyle, after seeing his mate slump to the stones, favoring her mangled appendage. "You will die for this, human!!" he bellowed, holding his ground, directly between Desdemona and the armored merc.
He looked up to where the other gargoyles were barely keeping his partner at bay upon the highest turret, and smiled. "We'll see..." came the reply to his newest opponent, though filtered through some sort of transmitter. "Let's just see how powerful you freaks really are."
"T'would be my great pleasure, invader." Othello lunged forwards, and a spray of sparks erupted from the suit with a single swipe of his claws. He fought on with valiant courage, buying the time for his mate to crawl to safety, and perhaps for re-enforcement's of their own to arrive, and aid them in this desperate battle.
****************************************
Todd was thrown across an empty bed, bouncing from the mattress and colliding with another tray of medical tools. He fell to the ground with the clatter of steel, and rubbed his jaw, a painful ache erupting throughout his entire head. Crowe stalked around the berth, and grabbed Todd by the collar, forcing him to his feet, then delivering a well placed punch to his midsection. Todd felt the impact, a jarring shock that caused a terrible pain, before being hit once more with an elbow to the neck.
The young man was losing this one on one confrontation, though he had held out for a considerably long time, far longer than most his age, and at such imposing odds. He recovered and swung blindly, as Crowe dodged the wildly-aimed fist, and countered with a knee to his gut. He grabbed Todd's shirt and mercilessly threw him away, his momentum forcefully ceased with yet more medical equipment.
Todd lay sprawled near where Annika had been forced to remain, perched in a corner, attempting to keep her wounds from opening and too weak to even stand upright, she was thus helpless to aid her boyfriend in this barbaric slugfest against her father. Tired eyes watched Todd struggle to get up, and only receiving a large-soled boot stomping upon his stomach.
Todd barely kept his food down, as Crowe twisted his foot, digging the thick heel into the young man's clothing and flesh beneath. Crowe then followed it up with a hard kick to his side, purpling his hide, and possibly even damaging the kidneys. "Ouch, that looked like it hurt, boy." Crowe sneered, relishing in Todd's whimpering, curling into a fetal position.
"...ffffuck you...bassstard..." Todd's slurred words hissed through his trembling lips, as if a balloon being deflated.
Crowe lost the abhorrent smile, and kicked once more, a powerful thrust into Todd's side, and the youth screamed out in sheer pain.
"No!!" Annika screamed, having found the strength to hobble her way to the dueling humans. "Please!! Stop this!!" she pleaded to Crowe's darkened heart, and he slowly turned his head towards her.
With one leisurely movement, he pulled his discarded gun from the tiling, and aimed the barrel directly to Todd. "One shot, and your lover dies on this floor." he said to her, the same horrifyingly exacting voice from so long ago. "But you can change all that, my dear. If you surrender yourself to me, I will spare him."
Annika looked to Todd, who barely cocked his head high enough to gaze upon the conflicting emotions being played out upon her face. "Okay..."
"What was that?"
"I said...okay. I-I'll surrender. Just please...please, don't hurt him."
"...no...d-don't..." Todd whispered, coughing up minute traces of blood.
"Be thankful, boy," Crowe cut through, "she just saved your life." The elder man peered back to his daughter, leaning on the hospital bed for support. "Now, my dear, if you'll come with me, we can be on our way." Crowe extended a hand to the gargess, and she languidly made her way to her father's side, passing by Todd, who tried to snatch at her feet, to hold her here, but to no avail. Crowe fished out a pair of steel manacles, and a collar, and grabbed Annika's forearm as soon as she moved into his range. He wrapped her wrists with a glimmering titanium, and attached the collar around her neck, concealing her decorative, golden necklace. "Much better. This collar will hinder your gargoyle strength, and numbs the nerve endings to those wings of yours, so you cannot escape from me...again."
Annika was pulled into the elder man's chest, as Crowe cinched back on the collar. She passed teared eyes to her injured boyfriend, having tried what he could to give her her freedom, to allow her the life she deserved. "I'm sorry..." she whispered to him, and the deep ash of his longing gaze would forever haunt her thoughts, perhaps the last sight of him she would ever possess.
Crowe forced her to move towards to door, seemingly unfazed by her wounded state, until a weak voice stopped both of them in their tracks.
"...y-you're...not taking her...motherfucker..." It was Todd, regaining a precarious balance near the window. "Let her go...now!"
Crowe laughed deep within his chest, so wanting to continue this game, yet he knew he had won, he had claimed his prize at long last. "Oh, I think not, Mr. Hawkins, for you see, I still have the upper hand." The gun was once again aimed for the youth, and Annika shuddered.
"You said you wouldn't hurt him!"
"I lied." Crowe pulled the trigger, sending a bullet searing through Todd's shoulder, and with enough force to push him back, through the window.
"NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" Annika screamed, an ear-splitting cry of pain, seeing her lover being thrown through the window, his form shattering the glass and disappearing through the frame, lost among the crystalline shards and brilliant stars. "TOOOOOODD!!!!" Annika became limp in her father's arms, her face flooded with relentless tears, knowing now she had just been witness to the demise of the man she loved. "No...please...no..."
"Come, Annika, my dear, we have to go home now." Crowe whispered into her ear, yet she never heard a word, lost in her torment, and blinded by her tears. Crowe pulled out his transmitter, attached to the lapel of his trenchcoat. "All right, gentlemen, I have secured the target. Plant the diversion, and let's get out of here before any others decide to come home to roost. And remember, I want them alive and unharmed, they may prove...very useful in the future."
He dragged the grieving gargess from the room, and his beaming ivory teeth were opened to the dark hallway, an evil smile signaling his conquest. Annika wept the entire length of the corridor, leaving a visible trail of her tears to pool upon the tiles. Crowe practically dragged her along with him, until they reached the elevator. As the doors slid closed, Annika wailed, her heart broken, her existence now destroyed, and she herself died this night, for the love of her life had perished, left to the mercy of the biting Autumn winds.
****************************************
He felt the rush of the gale tearing past him, reaching unimaginable speeds, and seeing the streets below growing closer with each passing second. His shoulder was releasing a stream of scarlet fluid into the air, creating almost an unbroken umbilical back to where he had fallen from. He found himself reliving what memories he cherished, a blur, a split second, faded flashes of a life so short in the ever continuing dance of human evolution.
The stories of the Eyrie passed by, and his whirlwind ride was coming to a quick end. Yet, beyond the constant howling of wind flowing past his ears, came the familiar rustling of leather, and the scent of a flowery perfume. Two cerulean arms stole around his waist, and pressed him to an ample bosom, contained by only a thin halter. The taloned hands tightened around his midsection, and he winced, his injury inflamed, welling beneath his peach skin.
"Don't worry, Todd," came her voice, "I have you." It was Demona, extending her wings to lift them both away from the street, barely a few meters away. She captured a warm draft beneath the billowing sapphire membranes, and she began the slow ascent to the castle.
****************************************
The massive battle suits lay down a suppressing fire, pushing the gargoyles back. Hudson had recovered enough to carry Desdemona far from the fight, leaving Othello, Shadow, and Goliath to continue on in vain, as these suits were more powerful than any they had faced. The lavender giant promptly herded his clan members back, barely escaping from the barrage of weaponry.
"Get back!!" he bellowed, as Othello heeded his brother's command, and Shadow hesitated, then followed behind.
Suddenly, one mercenary jerked, and held back as his partner continued firing upon the gargoyles. He had received Crowe's message, and though no one could see, opened his lips to bare his teeth, and let loose a smile of doom. "The raven has left with his egg," he voiced, transmitting to his partner, "time to deploy the mines and go."
The other suit swiftly pulled his gun away, and jettisoned several circular discs from upon his back. As the three winged warriors looked on in morbid curiosity, the discs landed a few feet in front of them, creating a line separating them from the mercs.
Goliath peered upon the round silver discs with sharp eyes, and then noticed electronic timers, slowly counting down with an ominous red L.E.D. display. His eyes burst open, deducing the mercenaries' intent, watching the numbers drop to a single digit. "MOVE!!!" he screamed, and the ferocity of his growl caused the remaining gargoyles to scatter, as the discs reached the end of their deathly countdown.
One by one, they erupted in a column of flame, exploding towards the sky. The courtyard lit up, and the gargoyles threw themselves to the ground, wrapping their wings around themselves to protect their bodies from the lapping flames and intense heat, enough to melt steel, and scald bare flesh. And in the midst of the confusion, the mercenaries took to the winds, and left the beaten gargoyles to cower beneath their membranes.
Goliath peeked out, and found the discs had completely discharged, leaving only scorched, steaming craters in their place. He noticed the mercenaries had escaped, and wondered just why they had fled when they had the upper hand.
"BASTARDS!!!" Shadow flipped to his feet, and flared his spurred wings. "A coward's way out!! Have the guts to finish us off!!"
Othello rubbed his head, and grimaced at the dark warrior's deep thirst for battle. "Be thankful that we are still alive, my friend." He rose up and followed the scent of his mate, tenderly pulling a wounded, yet smiling Desdemona from Hudson's embrace and into his arms.
Shadow snarled, his talons nearly drawing blood in the forceful clench. "Why would they leave?! They had us almost beaten!"
Goliath rubbed a few talons into the blackened pits left in the stones. Surely, an explosion meant to finish off his clan would have left larger craters. "A distraction." he breathed. "To allow their escape when...finished of their task." Goliath sighed painfully, realizing just why Crowe had been absent from the battle. "Annika."
****************************************
"D-Demona?" Todd breathed, clasping a hand to the heated skin of her shoulder.
"Imagine my surprise when gliding past the castle, and seeing you tossed from the window." she commented, almost a touch of humor intermixed in her hard-edged tone. "It's a good thing I decided to visit when I did."
Todd grew slack in her arms, allowing her to carry him to the castle's level, and deposit him gently to the stones. She held him like a ceramic doll, her hand pressed against his wound, to sway the loss of blood. He faltered, yet she kept him steady.
"It's all right, I have you."
"No...you don't...understand...Annika...he took Annika..." His words flowed together, broken with a choking emotion.
"What?" Demona asked of him, turning to face the youth, clasping a hand to his cheek and forcing his eyes to hers. "What happened?"
"Crowe...he got her...have to...get her back..." He drew away from the gargoyle, attempting to make his way to the door leading back inside. "Have to get her back..."
Demona restrained him, and he fell into her arms, sinking to the ground, the fight, and the loss of blood having taken it's toll. "Shhhh...rest, you are injured." she whispered, cradling him, perched upon the stones with him almost comatose against her chest. She found Goliath racing to their side, and stopping, an anguished cast upon a regal facade. "He said...Annika..."
"I know. Crowe has taken her." he responded, eyeing the young man, bleeding and grasping onto the last shreds of cognizance. "Let's take him inside. We need to treat his injuries...and plan our next move."
****************************************
"How is he?" Demona asked, holding her ground near Dr. Pierce, as he tended to Todd's shoulder wound, while using an I.V. to replace the blood lost upon the streets of Manhattan.
"Pretty beat up." the older man answered, never bothering to turn his head, and instead finishing wrapping the bullet hole, though soon a scar would form, a constant memory of this night to haunt him forever. "Besides the obvious, a few bruises, cuts, scrapes, and he may have a bruised kidney, but I'll have to take some x-rays to make sure."
"Then make sure, doctor," Goliath rumbled from afar, as Elisa rubbed a cleaning solution across his cuts, "he was in rough shape when Demona caught him...AH!!!" Goliath cringed, when Elisa used the alcohol on his slashed lip.
"Oh quit whining, you big baby." Elisa drawled, pressing the rag even harder against his wound.
Trinity, sitting beside her father on the spare bed with 'Goyle, her stuffed toy, looked on with wide eyes as her massive patriarch fought against Elisa's tender motions against his bottom lip. "Da?" she squeaked. "Da owie?"
"No, angel," answered Elisa for her husband, "your daddy's just fine."
"Yes, for some apparent reason, he escaped with merely a few cuts..." Desdemona playfully berated her brother, holding her wounded hand, wrapped in a temporary splint. "And yet the rest of us are beaten down like hatchlings."
Shadow, with Delilah resting against him, snarled at his clanmate's simple comment, releasing his own anger in having the battle quickly halted and losing the chance to fight until the bitter end if need be.
Desdemona quickly swayed the dark warrior's rage, watching as Delilah defensively placed her hands to his heaving chest. "No offense intended, Shadow."
"All right," Dr. Pierce cut through, "time to get that hand fixed before dawn, Des."
"But what about Todd?" Demona growled, stopping the doctor with a forced hand.
"He'll be fine. He's not in any danger, and I don't think he's bleeding internally, for there are no symptoms to warrant such a diagnosis. Only if he aggravates his wounds through any extraneous actions, will he endanger himself. But right now, I have to re-set Desdemona's bones, if she's going to heal properly." Dr. Pierce hesitantly moved the fierce-minded gargess' hand from his shoulder. "He needs to rest. That's all." He left her side, and motioned for Desdemona to follow him into the operating room, where her minor surgery would commence. Othello was pulled along, and the door clicked closed.
"So, what do we do now?" Elisa asked, directing the comment especially to her husband, and the leader of this clan.
"Right now, we cannot do anything," Goliath responded, taking his baby daughter into his arms, "but rest, heal, and attempt to find where Crowe has taken Annika. Yet, it is barely two hours before the break of day, and we cannot afford to be left helpless if another battle should arise."
"So," came Xanatos' leveled tone, "we do nothing."
"Unless you know where Annika has been taken, for the rest of us do not."
"...he knows..." Todd had awakened, and glared up at the billionaire. "Don't you, Xanatos...you and Crowe are...old buddies..."
Xanatos immediately started shaking his head, now knowing Todd had discovered their ancient partnership. "We are not friends at all. He was merely a business associate I dealt with...a long time ago."
"You know of Therias Crowe?" Goliath barked accusingly.
"Yes. He is owner of Black Raven industries, a very secretive and extremely covert black market arms syndicate, dealing of course, in massive amounts of powerful weaponry. It seems it was he whom Maddox Technologies stole a few of their their designs from, if only to get a headstart in the business world."
"You knew him, and you never did a goddamn thing to prevent this from happening!!" Todd screamed, rising from the table, and fighting off Demona's calming hands.
"Like the rest of my sordid past, I left him behind me. Far behind me." Xanatos fought back, seeing this youth struggling against the azure gargess to get near him. "I never knew he was harboring a gargoyle child when I had my few meetings with him. And it was only an unfortunate coincidence that the castle's defensive systems, including the entire Steel Clan, were off-line for the upgrade. I never thought he would be this bold."
"You could've found him!! You could've done something!! Sent that bastard to jail!!"
"I have no idea where he is located. He gave me only a cellphone number, and we had only met three times in person." Xanatos did his best to calm Todd, seeing the utter rage in his eyes. "I am at this moment, doing everything I can to locate him, and your girlfriend."
Todd hissed a hot breath through his clenched teeth and finally relented, if only to cease a provocation his wounds. He moved away, grumbling obscenities beneath his breath, and resting back against the bed. Demona moved a soothing hand about his back, as Todd slumped over, resting himself on the cool sheets and clutching a hand to his throbbing side. "Dammit...I have to get her back..."
"You're in no condition to go anywhere." Demona leaned over, whispering softly to him. "Besides, we have nowhere to begin at this point."
"I don't care...I'll fly around the entire fucking country if I have to...I'm not leaving her with that bastard. I made a promise...and I intend to keep it..."
****************************************
Dawn had broken, casting it's brilliant light across the entire sky. The gargoyles had taken to the cornices and were frozen in their stone sleep, their injuries sustained last night, healing with every hour the sun remained in the sky. Desdemona's hand had been skillfully repaired, and would only present her with a slight ache in the morrow.
Yet a recent member of the Manhattan clan would be possessed of a restless sleep indeed, his thoughts, his very dreams filled with his failure to keep his lover safe within their home. Todd had woken up several times, and roamed the halls, eventually coming upon Annika's bedroom. Her perfume lingered, a sorrowful aroma haunting him, tearing at his heart. He saw her abandoned pottery wheel to the side, her finished works upon the constructed wooden shelves. Todd inspected each sculpture and dish, seeing a talent to rival his own in a much different medium. He fell down onto Annika's bed, wrapping himself into the undisturbed sheets, and found this place, out of anywhere in this castle, to be where he could capture at least several hours of slumber, until he would awaken just before dusk.
****************************************
"You need sleep, David. You've been at this for hours now." Fox approached her husband's side, seeing the billionaire typing furiously upon his computer, scrolling past line after line of unintelligible computer jargon, sifting his way through years of information gathered on everyone he had come into contact with.
"I can't." he replied, without bothering to look back to Fox.
"It's not your fault." she said forcefully, knowing he was suffering from Todd's biting accusation the night before. "We both never would have guessed that Crowe would attack here, and succeed."
"I could have done something years ago. Gotten rid of him when I had the chance."
"We implicate him...and he implicates you. He has just as much proof of your past as you have of his. A proverbial stalemate."
Xanatos sighed. "I know...but there's...something that I'm missing. I remember something he said. In our last meeting..."
"And what was that?"
Xanatos bit his bottom lip, cursing his long-term memory for not meeting his high standards. "He had an affinity for antique furniture. He loved oak...said it always went well in his home. A large Victorian manor...which matches what meager description Annika was able to give us more than a year ago." It was flooding back now, scraping away at a recollection from a former life he wanted so to leave behind. "A Victorian manor..."
"David," Fox drawled, crossing her arms, as she stood to the side of his leather chair, "there's hundreds of those in Manhattan alone."
"But not one that would suit someone who wanted...needed the utmost of privacy to construct a company dealing in illegal arms sales, and to hide away a gargoyle hatchling from suspecting eyes. We can narrow our search to this island, for that's where Annika said her home was located. Mr. Crowe also had an unfortunate habit of bragging about his company's merits, if only to gain more of my services, including his shipping weapons to other countries."
"Near the coast, to ship by sea."
"Yes. The route chosen by most gunrunners, as it's extremely hard to force security upon the entire coastline, and then you're home free when reaching international waters."
Fox leaned in, watching as David narrowed the search perameters, and up popped one lone house, situated on the northern tip of the island. "Interesting. It seems this house was purchased forty years ago, and subsequently saved from demolition."
"How can we be sure this is the place?"
Xanatos smirked. "313 Mockingbird lane, Northern district."
"This guy has a thing for birds." Fox laughed in triumph, incidentally casting her eyes back to the open doors of the office, and a youthful interloper having been discovered. "Todd..."
****************************************
The hangar doors hissed open upon accepting his code, and he raced inwards, passing by several aircraft, including Xanatos' own private helicopter, and heading for the special storage containment for the cybernetic suits, including the Epsilon prototype. His distorted reflection appeared in the sleek black surface, including his angered scowl, twisting his features from a handsome youth into a creature of pure vengeance.
Another code was needed to release the suit, and the hydraulics released the armor to the ground on a steel platform. Todd watched it descend to his level, and invisible seams opened along the resemblance of a muscular structure. Todd quickly stepped in, ignoring the pain from his side and shoulder, and it wrapped itself around him, sealing the young man inside the ebony titanium and violet armor plating. He attached the neural implants to his forehead and spine, and powered up the direct link to his brain. Once again, came the rush of power, searing through every nerve ending, creating the connection of man and machine.
Proceeding from the platform, he took a few steps in his new form, his constant anger empowered by this incredible strength flowing through his very arteries. With an undeviating path, he tromped his way to the outer doors, and the press of a single button, the entire wall broke apart, revealing the last fading rays of the faded sun upon the New York horizon curving around the building's structure.
"And just where the hell do you think you're going?"
Todd was snared in his very tracks by the throaty call, and he snapped his neck around to see Elisa walking into the hangar bay, followed by Goliath and Demona. "I'm leaving." he seethed, as if that was the only explanation needed.
"You're hurt, and you're definitely not going by yourself." Elisa argued, taking a few hesitant steps in his direction, hoping he would not throw himself from the building before she had the chance to say her peace.
"I'm going to get Annika." he growled. "I made a promise that I would always take care of her, and I'm not going to break it now."
"The clan will go, Todd," Goliath appeared from behind Elisa, "we'll help yo..."
"NO!!!" he screamed. "This is between me and Crowe, and I'm going to finish this once and for all!!" Todd instructed his suit to power up to full strength with merely a simple thought, and a flicker of his brow. "I'm going to bring Annika home." Words of an impetuous youth, yet an utterance of finality, his eyes as cold and unbreakable as steel.
"But Todd..."
"Good luck." said Demona, cutting in to Goliath's protest, knowing nothing would change the human's mind.
Todd nodded, and suddenly, the two sides of the helmet were brought around to enclose his entire head, forming the same featureless facade. Two burning orbs of emerald green flared with all the energy this suit possessed, and Todd readied himself for the upcoming flight to the Northern tip of the island, where his girlfriend was now held against her will.
"Are you taking any extra armaments, besides those which the suit already possesses?" Demona asked, knowing just what could be attached to this armor of her own partial designs.
Todd stole back to the stall where his suit was stored, and pulled out a long, cylindrical object that glinted ever so softly in the blossoming starlight. It was a mere baseball bat, made of steel.
"A bat? That's all?"
"Yup." With a single talon, he scraped a message into the glimmering surface, creating a high-pitched squeal that affected all there, especially the gargoyles and their sensitive hearing. He finished, and Demona could make out the cryptic message. 'To: Crowe, with love...jerk'. Almost laughable, until Todd swung the equipment turned weapon around with his fist. "Borrowed it from Alex on my way here. I'm going to use this thing to knock Crowe's teeth out, and beat him to death."
"You don't mean that." Elisa gasped.
Todd peered to her through the suit's optic sensors, seeing the shock present on her wondrous features. "If he's hurt her, he's going to die."
"Todd, please consider this carefully. You're going in alone to face a man who possesses the resources of perhaps an entire army."
"You're right, but you know what? I don't give a damn, because I don't plan on coming back without Annika..." The boosters powered up, and the suit lifted off, casting a sheer wall of forced air towards the trio. Todd took off into the night, and Demona chased after him, until standing on the edge of the hangar bay. He disappeared within seconds, on his way to face immeasurable odds, and perchance lose his life this evening to save his love.
"Come back to us, my friend," she whispered, "come back to me..."
To be concluded...
Originally Written: March 21st, 2001
Contains: Profanity, Violence
Rated: R
"I think you should come out, my dear, before my men open fire." he called out once more. "It would be a shame if your boyfriend were accidentally hit by a wild spray of bullets."
Annika urged Todd to rise with her, knowing this threat would be carried out, and upon meeting his resistance, pulled harder on his hand. She begged to him with eyes rimmed with the faint beginning of tears, pleading to him to follow the commands given to them, for she could not stand to see him hurt.
Todd lifted slowly from the floor, placing himself in front of Annika, and staring at the third man directly in between the others. His eyes narrowed, icing over when peering upon the voice's owner, a man he had hoped never to see again. "Crowe." he spat out.
The elder man smiled, his parched skin molding into a twisted version of a smile. "That's Mr. Crowe to you...boy."
Todd lunged forward, only to be restrained by his lover. An idle comment released by the older man, yet enough to inflame Todd's anger, having carried a hatred for this man, and his treatment of Annika for her entire childhood, since the night they laid eyes upon each other. "I'm gonna fucking kill you, old man!!" he screamed, as Annika held him back, noticing the hired men alongside Therias Ebon Crowe had pulled their weapons.
Crowe sneered, yet admired this show of strength in the face of death. He decided to ignore the young man, and instead force his dead eyes to Annika, cowering behind Todd. "You've been away too long, Annika. I...miss you. You have left a job unfinished. I have invested forty years in seeing you grow up healthy, and then you leave? I am hurt."
"You yelled at me, beat me, treated me like garbage," Annika hissed, clenched firmly onto Todd's stolid form, resting her chin on his left shoulder, "you never cared for me, or my mother. All you wanted was a gargoyle at your beck and call. To follow your sick orders without question. I resisted you. And I escaped, only after my mother died."
Crowe leaned back, his chin lifting, his smile swelling. He always enjoyed whenever Annika found the courage to speak back to him, a sign of her own admirable valiancy, a power he could have harnessed to a frightening degree, and still thought so even now. "You have gained a new strength, while in this rogue's company." he spoke aloud, though partly directing his comment to the young man, still forced back by strong rose-colored hands. "That should prove useful in your new line of work."
"I won't do your dirty work." Annika replied, a scathing tone, flowing with her hatred for this man. "Find someone else..."
"But I only want you." said Crowe. "And I will take you, whether you like it or not."
"You'll take her over my dead body, jerk!!" screamed Todd, his eyes ablaze, his entire body tensed.
"Yes, that is the entire plan. Gentlemen...if you please..." Crowe allowed his two cronies to advance forwards, guns in hand, and Todd edged Annika back, each step in time with the mercenaries' own tread.
The young man searched through the viscera of his mind, trying to think his way out of this dire situation. He knew as soon as they attempted an escape, a hail of bullets could swarm upon them, ending both his life, and perhaps that of his gargoyle lover. He could feel Annika's trembling talons digging into his shoulder and side, and he knew for a fact she was terribly frightened. Only this man, this demon taken human form, would grip her heart in such a panic. He felt the fear radiate throughout her, and his promise, made over a year ago, in a fleeting encounter, a battle, a merging of two hearts, would be kept to the very end. He swore to it. "On my signal," he whispered quietly to the gargess, knowing her great hearing would pick up on every word, "get ready to haul ass through the door."
Annika paused, then nodded, endeavoring to strengthen her emotions to clear her mind, as only an unclouded intellect would result in their clean escape.
Todd moved towards the coffee table, noticing the two men had assumed a position very close to each other. It was almost too perfect, for their distance apart was the exact length of Todd's endtable in front of his massive television. He managed to maneuver himself to the table's side, and nudged his right foot just beneath. His right hand, obscured from the mercenaries' sight, was used as a signal to warn Annika.
Her bright blue eyes peered down to a countdown on his fingers, and she prepared her body for the next critical move.
Crowe noticed the wary stance of his 'daughter' from afar, a sudden change from her once trembling cringe to that of an animal preparing to flee. "You fools," he yelled, "they're going to..."
The distraction of Crowe's outburst was all Todd needed, as he kicked up the coffee table, and pushed it towards the men with all his strength. The wooden table-board slammed against the hired goons, knocking their aim away from the couple.
"Move!!" Todd ordered, a scream erupting from the base of his throat, and he bolted towards Annika. She moved as if the wind, her winged form becoming a rose-tinted blur, heading for the apartment door, with Todd following close behind.
The men steadied their weapons and let loose a barrage of gunfire, with the walls taking the brunt of the shells, exploding with a powdered exhale of drywall, covering the escaping couple with a fine white powder. Annika wrenched the door from her path, creating a spray of painted oak to scatter into the breadth of the hallway beyond, as the wooden barrier was forcefully torn apart with her bare talons. They crashed into the corridor, with the bullets continuing to hurtle past them, grazing across their skin and clothing, and embedding into the gaudy art-deco of the far wall.
"Idiots!!" Crowe hissed, appearing behind them, and clamping a hand on each gun, effectively ceasing the bombardment upon the now gutted walls. "You'll hit her!! Now go! Make sure they don't leave this building. I don't care what you do to Hawkins, but I want Annika alive!"
****************************************
"Go, go, go, go!!" Todd screamed into Annika's ear as they traveled the length of the apartment hallway, nearing the stairs, two separate directions creating a proverbial fork in the road. "Come on," he urged, attempting to pull her downstairs, to possibly lead her to his vehicle, "let's go!"
"No," she cut in, pulling back on his arm, "to the roof."
Todd hesitated, and then followed, Annika practically hauling him up the narrow staircase. As they rambled up the steps, they could hear the uneven and heavy footfalls behind them, knowing they were being pursued. The outside door appeared before them, and with a mighty punch, it crumbled beneath Annika's clenched fist, and fell from it's hinges, allowing the couple access to the naked heavens, and the imperial spires of Manhattan's broken skyline. They kicked up a cloud of fine layered dust, forming twin trails across the building's roof as they made their way to the edge.
As Todd peered over to the dark streets below, a sudden fear crept through his heart. Heights had always bothered him when a child, and now that fear, once thought vanquished, had returned, and he could find no reason why, especially having taken to the skyways with his girlfriend or donning the newest piece of technology. Yet, he understood why Annika had led him here, for she knew their best chance at saving Todd's life, was this route, a celestial pathway to freedom.
Annika charged up to his side, hopping onto the ledge. "Come on!! They're right behind us!"
Todd quickly replied to her frenzied command, and joined her upon the building's edge. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and dodged the sudden outburst of her dark membranes. Seconds before they could leave behind the safety of the solid ground, a shot rang out, effectively freezing the young couple in their place.
The mercenaries had caught up with them, now standing near the damaged door, weapons aimed and ready. "Don't move!" called the taller man, peering through his eyesight, allowing the barrel of his weapon to hold itself directly on the couple. "You're coming with us, Annika, or we'll drop your boyfriend." he threatened, a very real warning of an impending fate.
"I guess there's only one thing to do then..." Todd whispered, passing an obscure smirk to his girlfriend, who nodded, and wrapped firmly around him.
"Don't even think it, girl." the other mercenary cautioned, seeing them lean towards the open sky.
"Too late, boys," Annika teased, "we're out of here. Tell my dad to kiss my ass." Annika let her body grow limp, and both she and Todd fell from the ledge, cast off into the air, and screaming towards the ground. She repositioned Todd to her back, and spread her wings, catching an updraft to ascend to a higher level, if only to escape from the narrow confines of the alleyway they had fallen into.
The mercenaries dashed to the ledge and opened fire, creating as if they were a stormfront, a shower of bullets cascading upon the couple. A shrill warning of the advancing shaped steel came off as a wicked scream, the evil cry of technology skimming past the couple's hides, as Annika weaved her way through the brick walls.
Suddenly, a bullet tore through her right wing, shredding the membrane like tissue paper, and she cringed.
"Are you okay?!" Todd yelled, seeing the small but noticeable hole in her appendage.
"Yeah," she lied, "just fine..." She continued her way through the metallic jungle of fire escapes and a few clothing lines and at last found the unimpeded sky, the brilliant stars calling to her, guiding them both home. As they flew on, the bullets ceased their frantic chase, and the couple both hoped they had disappeared from the mercenaries' sights. Annika felt the pain resonate through her shoulders, as the wind clawed at her wound, tearing upon the membrane as if a blanket's seams being sheared in two. Her body wracked with pain, especially her midsection, and she wondered why. She hoped she could make it back to the castle, she hoped on her very life, if only to protect the man she loved.
****************************************
"Sorry, sir, we lost them."
"No, we have not." Crowe hissed, his eyes of utter ruin searching the heavens for any trace, yet seeing only a small rose-tinted speck among the distant burning orbs. "Get to the hovercraft, if we're lucky, they shall lead us straight to wherever my dear daughter has chosen to hide herself from me." The men quickly stowed their weaponry and ducked into the entrance to the stairs, with Crowe following behind, and oddly, possessing a baneful smile. "Imagine, if we could find the others like her, perhaps I may have more gargoyles on my payroll than I ever thought possible..."
****************************************
A safe haven were the cornices of Wyvern, as Annika centered her direction on the courtyard. Her flight was erratic, and Todd now wondered if she was perhaps more wounded than she let on. A spiral of wind curled about her body as she touched down, a once graceful landing forgotten in the chaotic crash of wings and tail, and a young human being tossed to the stones.
"Annika?" Todd yelled, turning to see his girlfriend sink to the ground, her eyes fluttering, desperate to win the war against unconsciousness. "Annika?!" He crawled over to her in a mad rush, pulling the gargess into his arms.
"I guess...I guess I was more hurt than...I let on..." she mumbled, forcing a smile to the man now pressing her limp body close to him.
Todd scanned her body, discovering more wounds on her left leg and shoulder, and her side, oozing a bright red fluid, a stark contrast against her fair skin. She had been hit several times with the bullets, and paid the price to save her lover's life. Her gargoyle instinct to protect had been more powerful than her own sense of worth, a rich quality any man would admire. "Oh shit..." Todd wheezed, his own hands becoming bloody, as he tried to sway the release of her own bodily fluids. "Someone help!! Help!!" he screamed to every corner of the castle, hoping someone would heed his frantic cries.
"Todd?" It was Goliath, emerging from the castle's interior. He found Annika sprawled in the young man's arms, appearing as if a corpse, and hurried over to them. "What has happened?"
"Daddy crashed my party." Todd spewed out bitterly, moving away the loose strands of blond hair from his lover's face, still afflicted with a pained expression.
"Therias Ebon Crowe." said Goliath, in a heavy tone edged with a feral growl.
"Yeah, it seems Mr. Crowe wanted his daughter back, and we barely escaped from my apartment after he blew through the walls and shot at us."
Goliath growled and leaned down, a massive lavender hand crossing Annika's forehead, covered in perspiration, a clear sign of her battle with her suffering. "The wounds are deep," he breathed, his other hand caressing upon the bullet wounds, "but not life threatening. Once we get the bullets out, she will heal with the sun."
Annika chuckled. "Didn't you...say that a year ago?"
"I thought you were unconscious then." Todd muttered, forcing his lips to curve up into a false smile.
"Just faking...so you would hold me...in your arms..."
Todd smiled, a genuine grin this time, refreshing a memory to the night they met, an eerie similarity to this very moment. "You'll be okay, gorgeous. I promise."
Goliath smiled, in seeing two warring races come together in a pair of young teenagers, their love for each other new, yet professedly ancient, as if it was destined from the very beginning. Yet he suddenly perked up, when his enlarged ears captured an odd sound, and he craned his neck to peer behind him, looking into the darkened sky. Upon the fading lavender hues and the radiant platinum glitter, came several distinct forms, decreasing their distance ever so quickly. Goliath sneered, an animalistic facade to elicit fear in his opponents, worn whenever battle was about to commence. "We have visitors."
Todd looked up as well, and found what Goliath had spotted. His breathing grew erratic, and his arms drew in closer to Annika's form. "Oh shit," he gasped, "Crowe..."
"It seems he followed your route."
"Oh man...Goliath, we...we didn't mean to, we were trying to escape...we didn't think they could catch up to us..."
"It is all right, my friend." Goliath reassured him. "You both made the right decision. If there is to be a battle, then it shall be on our stones, with our home advantage." Goliath stood up, the wind carrying his long sable tress about his wide shoulders. "I suggest you move Annika to a safer location. I shall gather the others who are not on patrol."
"I'm not leaving you guys to fight my battles." Todd snapped, convinced that this entire affair was for him to deal with, unwilling to drag anymore of his cherished friends into what he may have caused in the first place for standing up to Crowe over a year ago.
"You are clan now, Mr. Hawkins. Family. It is OUR battle."
Todd paused for a minute, then nodded, and gently scooped the wounded gargess off the ground. He slipped from Goliath's side and carried her into a far corner, allowing his girlfriend to rest, and save her strength. "I'm not going to let him take you, Annika, I promise you that." he whispered into her ear, as her eyelashes flickered with an almost angelic harmony, like the strings of a harp, and signaling she was still with him in the realm of consciousness. "I promise."
****************************************
"The Eyrie building, I should have known." Crowe cursed under his breath, atop his hovercraft, advancing on the sharpened, carved stones and undeniably unique cornice structure of castle Wyvern. "Xanatos has always been a tad too eccentric for my tastes. It seems he has been keeping too many secrets from the unsuspecting public. I always thought Hawkins' frequent trips here were for his painting services, and not to regularly screw my daughter, and damage my merchandise."
"Sir," the taller merc appeared beside him, edging his own machine directly beside his, "our reinforcements are going to be a couple minutes more. Shouldn't we wait? Who knows what kind of armaments this castle has, or if there are more creatures like Annika."
Crowe passed along a look that instilled a paralyzing fear into the scoundrel's own black heart. "I am well aware of that, but I am taking back my daughter. And I don't care if Xanatos has his little zoo protected by God himself, no one takes my property."
Already having failed once when he allowed Annika to slip away last year, the merc abruptly ceased his argument, hoping this second chance given to him would end in success, and the next paycheque. "Yes, sir."
"There are three of us right now. You and your friend will distract whatever force we may face until the others arrive, and I will search for Annika. Understood?"
"Yes, sir."
****************************************
"My brother, what is happening?" the low monotone of Othello carried with a deep echo, as he burst from the door, followed by a few others of the clan.
"You all are aware of Mr. Therias Crowe?" Goliath asked of the gathered, as he had quickly led them out to the courtyard while never giving an explanation.
"You mean the man who raised Annika, and regularly beat her?" Desdemona answered, her wondrous features twisted with a visible hatred for the human who would dare abuse a small child, no matter what species it was.
"The very same. In his haste to get back what he lost, he has attacked Todd's apartment, and wounded Annika. They are safe now, but Mr. Crowe and a couple of his hired men are on their way here."
Shadow snarled deliciously. "Good," he hissed, his eyes ablaze with the cerulean fire that was unique to him alone, "I will enjoy tearing apart those bastards once more. Especially the old one."
"Dinna wish fer battle, laddie," Hudson cut in, a taloned hand around his sword, "fer it may spell 'r very doom, especially fer the wee lass who is th' target."
"Then we shall stop them before they can take her, senpai."
"Hopefully." said Goliath. "But Xanatos has taken both the defensive systems and the entire Steel Clan off-line for the planned upgrade, and the rest of the clan is on patrol. So it seems we are on our own until the others can make it back."
"My brother," Desdemona pointed a caramel hand to the sky, "they are coming."
"I see only two." Shadow whispered. "Where is the third?"
Goliath found the two men approaching on the sleek hovercraft, and noticed he who Annika feared so, was not among them. "Crowe is missing. He must have taken a different route."
"Aye. Now there be five t' two." Hudson drawled, a growing feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Hardly seems fair, Goliath."
"They must be planning something, or they have others coming."
"No matter, brother. We must defend this castle, and our friend." Othello took off to the ledge, along with Shadow, to greet the visitors with the appropriate response due to invaders of their home soil.
Goliath turned to Todd, still attending to Annika. "Get her inside, Todd. Tend to her wounds, and protect her. We shall hold these men off for as long as possible."
The young man lifted the gargess into his arms, and tore through the door, allowing Goliath to focus in on the advancing attackers.
The men both circled in, choosing the two closest gargoyles as their targets, and opened fire. Two rows of bullets streamed from their machines, tearing up the stone in a fine mist of dust and shrapnel. Shadow and Othello dodged from the projectiles' wild pathways, the dark warrior launching himself into the air, and the Scottish protector rolling to a stop, only to turn and see the front end of a hovercraft impact upon his chest with a sharp crack. The dusty blue gargoyle was forced back, the wind torn from his lungs, landing in a heap several meters away.
"My love!!" Desdemona screamed, racing to her mate's side.
Goliath scrambled to get underneath the other hovercraft, though with the smaller size and great maneuverability, the mercenary was able to twist himself around within the confines of the courtyard, and evade the lavender giant's grasp. Yet, as if the sky had grown claws, born from murky clouds and the raven stratosphere, a dark shape rammed into the machine, the titanium plating being rended and contorted with grayish-purple talons. Shadow had taken to wing, and propelled himself into the hovercraft's side. The mercenary turned around and unleashed a taser at full charge into Shadow's side, and he fell away. He twisted and flipped in mid-air, and landed on his feet, though staggering to keep his balance, and favoring his left ribs.
His machine was damaged yet still able to fly, and the merc continued his game of cat and mouse. Until a glint of sterling steel caught the corner of his eye. Hudson appeared in front of him, using his weight and momentum to throw himself directly at the machine. He jabbed his curved sword into the very heart of the hovercraft, dissecting the device with the skill of a surgeon, and rendering it's engine useless. Hudson lept away, and the mercenary bailed out, tumbling to the ground, watching the hovercraft fall to the stones not a few feet away and burst into flames.
He clambered to his feet, reached into the pack strapped securely to his back, and pulled out more weapons, seeing both Goliath and Hudson advancing on his position. He aimed and pulled the triggers.
****************************************
On the other side of the courtyard, Desdemona was frantically attempting to drag her wounded mate to safety, as the other taller goon continuously swept upon her, toying with her, enjoying seeing his prey scrambling from him, fleeing like an animal from it's relentless hunter. "I wish...someone would get him off of our backs..." she mumbled, hefting Othello higher onto her shoulder.
And indeed, her wish would be granted. Searing through the air, came a battle cry that shattered the wind, and even caused the crystal clear waters of the marble fountain to ripple. Shadow had arrived to assist his clanmates in the battle, and with two whirling circles of his nunchuku, the Japanese warrior collided with the hovercraft, sending it into a downspiral. The mercenary skidded and skipped along the courtyard's rough surface, eventually pitching from his craft, and finding refuge of Scottish stones.
Instantly, Shadow was upon him, and it was only the thin armor padding that kept the merc from having his very blood spilled upon the ground. Shadow rose above him, and howled with animal rage, and all the hired goon saw was a sharp crimson flash of the nunchuku's leather wrapping hurtling towards his face.
****************************************
He allowed her weary body to rest peacefully upon the hospital bed, ensuring her head was supported by the thick pillow. Her wounds had almost clotted, but were still trickling with blood, soaking into the crisp ivory sheets, and staining them a deep crimson. Todd leaned over her, guiding a hand down her face, and she awakened to his touch. "Hey," he whispered, "I'm...going to have to pull the bullets out. There's no doctor here, so...you're stuck with me as your surgeon."
Annika trembled, and her eyes grew wide, opening to a deep ocean blue. "Oh...damn..."
"You're telling me." Todd breathed heavily, grabbing a few surgical tools from the cabinets. "This is going to hurt like hell, gorgeous, but I have to get those bullets out."
Annika simply nodded, and repositioned herself upon the bed, grasping both hands to the steel rails alongside.
Todd hovered over her, with the long steel clamps, glinting in the fluorescent lights of the Eyrie's hospital room. He moved to her leg wound, and steadied her appendage with a firm hand. He hesitated, holding the tool just above the skin, and then entered ever so slowly. Annika jerked, as the foreign object traveled the length of the wound, a deep cavity torn away by the copper-tinted bullet. Todd winced, seeing his girlfriend in so much pain, and his pressure on her leg intensified, as her very muscles spasmed against his grip. "Almost got it...here we go, hang on, Annika...there!" Todd pulled out the slug, dyed a deep scarlet, and he placed it on the rolling tray beside him.
Todd then finished off the shoulder, an easier task, as it had not buried itself as deep. Once the second bullet had been pulled, he moved down to her midsection, where her last wound had revealed itself within the caked pool of blood, collected on her well toned stomach. "Last one..."
Annika was breathing heavily, her ample chest rising and falling with every rabid gasp.
Todd was momentarily distracted, and seconds later, a goofish grin formed on his lips. "I wish you would stop doing that," he whispered, "you're making me horny."
Annika released a small garbled chortle through the relentless pain, and soon paid the penance for allowing herself to laugh, inflaming the wound in her stomach. "Ouch...please...don't make me laugh..."
"Sorry." Todd moved his eyes back to the laceration, and prepared himself with a steadying breath. He quickly plunged it into the wound, deliberately moving the tool around in a wide circle and unintentionally causing even more pain, yet he had to find the submerged bullet, throughout the constant flow of blood. His own hands were completely drenched in his girlfriend's blood, and he kept the bile from rising in his throat with ever a solidified resolve. For to save his lover's life, he would do anything.
Annika gritted her teeth, and her hands clenched firmly upon the rails of the bed, her incredible strength threatening to tear the entire berth apart. Tears of torment traveled the length of her rose cheeks, yet she never screamed, too proud to let her boyfriend see her cry out in pain.
Todd wiped his brow, leaving a visible smear of blood, and continued in silence. His tool then hit something hard, and his brow snapped up in total surprise. He hoped he had not clasped upon something needed within her, such as a vital organ. He pulled back slowly, and found a glimmer of gold emerge from a deep rose. "Oh yeah, Todd Hawkins, surgeon to the stars."
Annika visibly shuddered, a deep sigh caressing the entire length of her body. Todd appeared in her field of view, holding the last bullet in the thin tongs. "...is it...over?..."
"All done. I'm going to bandage your wounds now, so you can rest if you want to."
"No...can't rest...can't let my dad...hurt anyone..."
"He won't. The others are taking care of them right now." Todd squeezed her hand, noticing her own forceful clench, as if unwilling to let him go.
Even with her blurred vision, she watched him intently, gently cleaning her wounds and wrapping them in a softened white gauze. She could feel his hands moving upon her hide, an infinitely warm touch that she so desired, and took pleasure in.
"There, that should hold until dawn...hopefully." Todd approached her side, and dragged a few fingers down her cheekbone, wiping away the tears that had fallen in her moment of agony. He noticed she seemed ashamed of allowing the crystal liquid to escape, but he soon calmed her, assured her in a demanding tone, that he never thought any less of her. "It's all right. If our positions were reversed, I'd be screaming like a little girl."
"This is all my fault...you, the clan, everybody, is always forced to fight, and risk their lives to save me...I'm sorry..."
"Don't be," Todd leaned over and pressed against her lips with a touch of his own, "you're worth the fight."
"Well, isn't that sweet. A saccharine scene torn from a romance novel sold in corner drugstores."
Todd whirled around to the grating voice, and found a tall man dressed in a long black trenchcoat, seemingly filling the entire doorway. "Crowe..."
A gun was cocked and directed at the young man, who in turn moved in front of Annika in a protective instinct. Crowe stepped from the hall and slowly, deliberately, crossed half the length of the smaller, contained hospital, all the while aiming his gun towards Todd. "You know, I am continually impressed by this building's facilities. For I used to do quite a lot of business with Mr. Xanatos. But then he decided to clean up his act, and I lost a very lucrative contract."
"You and Xanatos...know each other?!" Todd screamed, angered at the fact Xanatos had failed to mention this.
"Oh yes. You can imagine how many weapons a billionaire would purchase when trying to take over the world, or some other stupid, infantile scheme he would hatch. It really didn't matter, for he always paid in full, and on time." Crowe edged closer, and with every step, Todd would react, his body twitching as each large boot came down on the tiled surface. "It's a good thing I was able to hack into his computer systems and download a schematic for the building after our last meeting years ago. For I asked myself, where would a young man bring his injured love, but to the closest medical facility to the castle. Is she well? I would hate for my daughter to die on our way home."
"You are not touching her." Todd growled, his brow lowered, his fists clenched behind his back.
"And what makes you think you can stop me, Mr. Hawkins?"
"Because, old man," he actually grew a smile, though crooked, but rife with his own courage brimming to the surface, "I'm not as unarmed as you think..." He had left his hands hidden from sight on purpose, as Annika took the advantage in Crowe's longwinded explanation to hand her lover a weapon. With all his strength, and before Crowe could even react, Todd let loose a steel bedpan, impacting on the side of the older man's left temple.
The gun went sprawling, and Todd lunged towards him, kicking him in the midsection, before the chance to recover presented itself. A brawl ensued, as Todd lay into him with all the pent up rage and animosity contained within his young form, released in a torrent of punches and kicks to any exposed body part. Until his fist was caught by a gloved hand, and Crowe, despite his great age, arduously clamped down, and Todd winced.
"You have passion, boy, I'll give you that." Crowe twisted his arm, bringing Todd around, and leveling the field. "But the curse of youth works in my advantage. You fail to realize I have forty years of fighting ability and battle experience on you, and I am also wearing battle armor. You should quit while you're ahead."
Todd listened closely, yet this grating threat still fell on deaf ears. Perhaps his young age was acting as an affliction, allowing him to ignore all rational thought, to perhaps give up and relent to a more powerful foe. "Fuck you." Todd hurled his free hand towards Crowe's face, and brought forth a spray of blood from his nose.
Crowe staggered back, and wiped the fluid from his upper lip. "You'll pay for that...boy!"
"We'll see...old man."
And the battle ensued, for the freedom, and life, of Annika Smith.
****************************************
"RRRRRAAAAAUUUUUUGGHH!!!" Shadow screamed, his growl released from deep within his chest, and his heart brimming with bestial lust. The war still waged on the stones outside, and the two mercs found themselves at the gargoyles' mercy. Stripped of their hovercraft, and most of their weapons, they scrambled for their lives, as two massive dark shapes descended upon them.
The taller mercenary, with only a few shredded remains of his armor left intact, ran for his very life from the dark warrior's advancing talons, bearing down on him, threatening to rend peach-tinted flesh from ivory bone. He had discharged most of his weapons, and the rest were now twisted scraps left on the stones, fit only for recycling. He reached the far end, climbing the steps to Goliath's tower, yet in his fleeting escape of the beast behind him, clouded by rampant fear, he had forgotten it was a literal dead end. He reached the top and found the small enclosure, with the familiar cornice structure laid out on all sides. He was effectively trapped.
A howl of the wind carried a large form, and a pair of taloned feet slipped onto the stones, with enough force to almost dislodge the Scottish rock from their tight-fitting seams. Goliath had followed the mercenary to his roost, and hovered over him, casting his winged shadow upon his trembling form, a shroud of darkness only breached by the acerbic gleam of his glowing eyes. "This ends now, mercenary." he declared exactingly, his tone severe enough to elicit a quick, child-like nod from the cowering human. "Grab your friends, and leave this castle, or I will throw you from this tower, allowing you to fend for yourself in the winds."
Below, Desdemona and Hudson had subdued the other hired goon, using a contorted assemblage of his own weapons to bind his hands, legs, and mouth, intent on culling the attacker's invasion of their home. Yet even over the muffled ranting of the restrained human, came an odd sound to the tenth century gargess, drowning out the familiar whisper of her inherited protectorate. Two lingering shapes allowed themselves to be discovered, and the caramel gargess gasped as a glint of steel, and fires brighter than that of the sun increased to right these two behemoths upon the courtyard floor.
"What...who are they?" she asked of her mentor.
Hudson's ridges knitted together. "They be th' bad guys, lassie. Perhaps th' replacements fer these two." The elder gargoyle shivered within his tunic, for these newcomers possessed full suits of body armor, almost an entire machine surrounding their forms, but only did their eerie familiarity to the suits worn by the Hunters years ago, strike fear into his steeled heart. "It seems Canmore be sharing his toys..."
The two invaders stood silently, scanning the alien environment, possibly sizing up their opponents. One looked above him, to Goliath's roost, and then signaled to his partner. He took off, the massive boosters effortlessly lifting the bulky suit from the ground, and soaring directly towards Goliath.
"Brother!!" Desdemona screamed frantically. "Look out!!"
Goliath turned only to be hit head on by an armored fist, splitting his bottom lip and releasing his heated blood, knocking the massive beast from his perch. As the lavender giant fell away, Shadow joined the fray, capturing both hands of the suit in his own fierce grasp. The mechanical systems of the suit strained at the dark warrior's strength, but soon overcame this obstacle, breaking the hold and impacting clenched fists on each side of Shadow's head. He went down, the warrior toppled, as the mercenary, behind the thick, smoked glass of the suit's visor, smiled with a malicious intent, and lay waste to the creature beneath him with a blur of wild thrusts.
Desdemona and Hudson faced the other suit, awaiting his first move. And it would come, as he stalked towards them, seemingly unfazed by their show of brave hearts and stoic nerve. He swept upon them as a force of nature, the unbridled strength of futuristic technology more than a match for the two gargoyles. He swatted Hudson away with a single swipe, the elder gargoyle forced back into a broken pile of tanned hide and crumpled wings, and then turned his attention to Desdemona.
The slender female edged back, eyes wide, her mind swimming for an answer, yet drowning in her fear of this monstrosity stalking towards her. She instinctively lashed out with a clawed hand, yet was caught instantly, and her wrist bruised from the forceful grip. The mercenary squeezed harder, and the female cried out in pain, as the sickening sound of the splintering of bone was freed into the still air. She fell to her knees, still held in the armor's grip, her eyes tearing as she wavered on the verge of unconsciousness.
Yet without warning, a flash of misted blue ripped past, then followed by a frightful, guttural scream, as if this form had raced so fast to beat the sound of his own voice. Othello had gained his second wind, and jumped the armored man, using his strength to forcefully separate his loved one from the machine. "Let go of my mate!!" The mercenary at last staggered back, with repeated blows of a dusty cerulean hue enough to crack the titanium shielding and even force the human within the retaliate out of a blind panic. He struck Othello across the jaw, and barely breached the rage flowing through the gargoyle, after seeing his mate slump to the stones, favoring her mangled appendage. "You will die for this, human!!" he bellowed, holding his ground, directly between Desdemona and the armored merc.
He looked up to where the other gargoyles were barely keeping his partner at bay upon the highest turret, and smiled. "We'll see..." came the reply to his newest opponent, though filtered through some sort of transmitter. "Let's just see how powerful you freaks really are."
"T'would be my great pleasure, invader." Othello lunged forwards, and a spray of sparks erupted from the suit with a single swipe of his claws. He fought on with valiant courage, buying the time for his mate to crawl to safety, and perhaps for re-enforcement's of their own to arrive, and aid them in this desperate battle.
****************************************
Todd was thrown across an empty bed, bouncing from the mattress and colliding with another tray of medical tools. He fell to the ground with the clatter of steel, and rubbed his jaw, a painful ache erupting throughout his entire head. Crowe stalked around the berth, and grabbed Todd by the collar, forcing him to his feet, then delivering a well placed punch to his midsection. Todd felt the impact, a jarring shock that caused a terrible pain, before being hit once more with an elbow to the neck.
The young man was losing this one on one confrontation, though he had held out for a considerably long time, far longer than most his age, and at such imposing odds. He recovered and swung blindly, as Crowe dodged the wildly-aimed fist, and countered with a knee to his gut. He grabbed Todd's shirt and mercilessly threw him away, his momentum forcefully ceased with yet more medical equipment.
Todd lay sprawled near where Annika had been forced to remain, perched in a corner, attempting to keep her wounds from opening and too weak to even stand upright, she was thus helpless to aid her boyfriend in this barbaric slugfest against her father. Tired eyes watched Todd struggle to get up, and only receiving a large-soled boot stomping upon his stomach.
Todd barely kept his food down, as Crowe twisted his foot, digging the thick heel into the young man's clothing and flesh beneath. Crowe then followed it up with a hard kick to his side, purpling his hide, and possibly even damaging the kidneys. "Ouch, that looked like it hurt, boy." Crowe sneered, relishing in Todd's whimpering, curling into a fetal position.
"...ffffuck you...bassstard..." Todd's slurred words hissed through his trembling lips, as if a balloon being deflated.
Crowe lost the abhorrent smile, and kicked once more, a powerful thrust into Todd's side, and the youth screamed out in sheer pain.
"No!!" Annika screamed, having found the strength to hobble her way to the dueling humans. "Please!! Stop this!!" she pleaded to Crowe's darkened heart, and he slowly turned his head towards her.
With one leisurely movement, he pulled his discarded gun from the tiling, and aimed the barrel directly to Todd. "One shot, and your lover dies on this floor." he said to her, the same horrifyingly exacting voice from so long ago. "But you can change all that, my dear. If you surrender yourself to me, I will spare him."
Annika looked to Todd, who barely cocked his head high enough to gaze upon the conflicting emotions being played out upon her face. "Okay..."
"What was that?"
"I said...okay. I-I'll surrender. Just please...please, don't hurt him."
"...no...d-don't..." Todd whispered, coughing up minute traces of blood.
"Be thankful, boy," Crowe cut through, "she just saved your life." The elder man peered back to his daughter, leaning on the hospital bed for support. "Now, my dear, if you'll come with me, we can be on our way." Crowe extended a hand to the gargess, and she languidly made her way to her father's side, passing by Todd, who tried to snatch at her feet, to hold her here, but to no avail. Crowe fished out a pair of steel manacles, and a collar, and grabbed Annika's forearm as soon as she moved into his range. He wrapped her wrists with a glimmering titanium, and attached the collar around her neck, concealing her decorative, golden necklace. "Much better. This collar will hinder your gargoyle strength, and numbs the nerve endings to those wings of yours, so you cannot escape from me...again."
Annika was pulled into the elder man's chest, as Crowe cinched back on the collar. She passed teared eyes to her injured boyfriend, having tried what he could to give her her freedom, to allow her the life she deserved. "I'm sorry..." she whispered to him, and the deep ash of his longing gaze would forever haunt her thoughts, perhaps the last sight of him she would ever possess.
Crowe forced her to move towards to door, seemingly unfazed by her wounded state, until a weak voice stopped both of them in their tracks.
"...y-you're...not taking her...motherfucker..." It was Todd, regaining a precarious balance near the window. "Let her go...now!"
Crowe laughed deep within his chest, so wanting to continue this game, yet he knew he had won, he had claimed his prize at long last. "Oh, I think not, Mr. Hawkins, for you see, I still have the upper hand." The gun was once again aimed for the youth, and Annika shuddered.
"You said you wouldn't hurt him!"
"I lied." Crowe pulled the trigger, sending a bullet searing through Todd's shoulder, and with enough force to push him back, through the window.
"NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" Annika screamed, an ear-splitting cry of pain, seeing her lover being thrown through the window, his form shattering the glass and disappearing through the frame, lost among the crystalline shards and brilliant stars. "TOOOOOODD!!!!" Annika became limp in her father's arms, her face flooded with relentless tears, knowing now she had just been witness to the demise of the man she loved. "No...please...no..."
"Come, Annika, my dear, we have to go home now." Crowe whispered into her ear, yet she never heard a word, lost in her torment, and blinded by her tears. Crowe pulled out his transmitter, attached to the lapel of his trenchcoat. "All right, gentlemen, I have secured the target. Plant the diversion, and let's get out of here before any others decide to come home to roost. And remember, I want them alive and unharmed, they may prove...very useful in the future."
He dragged the grieving gargess from the room, and his beaming ivory teeth were opened to the dark hallway, an evil smile signaling his conquest. Annika wept the entire length of the corridor, leaving a visible trail of her tears to pool upon the tiles. Crowe practically dragged her along with him, until they reached the elevator. As the doors slid closed, Annika wailed, her heart broken, her existence now destroyed, and she herself died this night, for the love of her life had perished, left to the mercy of the biting Autumn winds.
****************************************
He felt the rush of the gale tearing past him, reaching unimaginable speeds, and seeing the streets below growing closer with each passing second. His shoulder was releasing a stream of scarlet fluid into the air, creating almost an unbroken umbilical back to where he had fallen from. He found himself reliving what memories he cherished, a blur, a split second, faded flashes of a life so short in the ever continuing dance of human evolution.
The stories of the Eyrie passed by, and his whirlwind ride was coming to a quick end. Yet, beyond the constant howling of wind flowing past his ears, came the familiar rustling of leather, and the scent of a flowery perfume. Two cerulean arms stole around his waist, and pressed him to an ample bosom, contained by only a thin halter. The taloned hands tightened around his midsection, and he winced, his injury inflamed, welling beneath his peach skin.
"Don't worry, Todd," came her voice, "I have you." It was Demona, extending her wings to lift them both away from the street, barely a few meters away. She captured a warm draft beneath the billowing sapphire membranes, and she began the slow ascent to the castle.
****************************************
The massive battle suits lay down a suppressing fire, pushing the gargoyles back. Hudson had recovered enough to carry Desdemona far from the fight, leaving Othello, Shadow, and Goliath to continue on in vain, as these suits were more powerful than any they had faced. The lavender giant promptly herded his clan members back, barely escaping from the barrage of weaponry.
"Get back!!" he bellowed, as Othello heeded his brother's command, and Shadow hesitated, then followed behind.
Suddenly, one mercenary jerked, and held back as his partner continued firing upon the gargoyles. He had received Crowe's message, and though no one could see, opened his lips to bare his teeth, and let loose a smile of doom. "The raven has left with his egg," he voiced, transmitting to his partner, "time to deploy the mines and go."
The other suit swiftly pulled his gun away, and jettisoned several circular discs from upon his back. As the three winged warriors looked on in morbid curiosity, the discs landed a few feet in front of them, creating a line separating them from the mercs.
Goliath peered upon the round silver discs with sharp eyes, and then noticed electronic timers, slowly counting down with an ominous red L.E.D. display. His eyes burst open, deducing the mercenaries' intent, watching the numbers drop to a single digit. "MOVE!!!" he screamed, and the ferocity of his growl caused the remaining gargoyles to scatter, as the discs reached the end of their deathly countdown.
One by one, they erupted in a column of flame, exploding towards the sky. The courtyard lit up, and the gargoyles threw themselves to the ground, wrapping their wings around themselves to protect their bodies from the lapping flames and intense heat, enough to melt steel, and scald bare flesh. And in the midst of the confusion, the mercenaries took to the winds, and left the beaten gargoyles to cower beneath their membranes.
Goliath peeked out, and found the discs had completely discharged, leaving only scorched, steaming craters in their place. He noticed the mercenaries had escaped, and wondered just why they had fled when they had the upper hand.
"BASTARDS!!!" Shadow flipped to his feet, and flared his spurred wings. "A coward's way out!! Have the guts to finish us off!!"
Othello rubbed his head, and grimaced at the dark warrior's deep thirst for battle. "Be thankful that we are still alive, my friend." He rose up and followed the scent of his mate, tenderly pulling a wounded, yet smiling Desdemona from Hudson's embrace and into his arms.
Shadow snarled, his talons nearly drawing blood in the forceful clench. "Why would they leave?! They had us almost beaten!"
Goliath rubbed a few talons into the blackened pits left in the stones. Surely, an explosion meant to finish off his clan would have left larger craters. "A distraction." he breathed. "To allow their escape when...finished of their task." Goliath sighed painfully, realizing just why Crowe had been absent from the battle. "Annika."
****************************************
"D-Demona?" Todd breathed, clasping a hand to the heated skin of her shoulder.
"Imagine my surprise when gliding past the castle, and seeing you tossed from the window." she commented, almost a touch of humor intermixed in her hard-edged tone. "It's a good thing I decided to visit when I did."
Todd grew slack in her arms, allowing her to carry him to the castle's level, and deposit him gently to the stones. She held him like a ceramic doll, her hand pressed against his wound, to sway the loss of blood. He faltered, yet she kept him steady.
"It's all right, I have you."
"No...you don't...understand...Annika...he took Annika..." His words flowed together, broken with a choking emotion.
"What?" Demona asked of him, turning to face the youth, clasping a hand to his cheek and forcing his eyes to hers. "What happened?"
"Crowe...he got her...have to...get her back..." He drew away from the gargoyle, attempting to make his way to the door leading back inside. "Have to get her back..."
Demona restrained him, and he fell into her arms, sinking to the ground, the fight, and the loss of blood having taken it's toll. "Shhhh...rest, you are injured." she whispered, cradling him, perched upon the stones with him almost comatose against her chest. She found Goliath racing to their side, and stopping, an anguished cast upon a regal facade. "He said...Annika..."
"I know. Crowe has taken her." he responded, eyeing the young man, bleeding and grasping onto the last shreds of cognizance. "Let's take him inside. We need to treat his injuries...and plan our next move."
****************************************
"How is he?" Demona asked, holding her ground near Dr. Pierce, as he tended to Todd's shoulder wound, while using an I.V. to replace the blood lost upon the streets of Manhattan.
"Pretty beat up." the older man answered, never bothering to turn his head, and instead finishing wrapping the bullet hole, though soon a scar would form, a constant memory of this night to haunt him forever. "Besides the obvious, a few bruises, cuts, scrapes, and he may have a bruised kidney, but I'll have to take some x-rays to make sure."
"Then make sure, doctor," Goliath rumbled from afar, as Elisa rubbed a cleaning solution across his cuts, "he was in rough shape when Demona caught him...AH!!!" Goliath cringed, when Elisa used the alcohol on his slashed lip.
"Oh quit whining, you big baby." Elisa drawled, pressing the rag even harder against his wound.
Trinity, sitting beside her father on the spare bed with 'Goyle, her stuffed toy, looked on with wide eyes as her massive patriarch fought against Elisa's tender motions against his bottom lip. "Da?" she squeaked. "Da owie?"
"No, angel," answered Elisa for her husband, "your daddy's just fine."
"Yes, for some apparent reason, he escaped with merely a few cuts..." Desdemona playfully berated her brother, holding her wounded hand, wrapped in a temporary splint. "And yet the rest of us are beaten down like hatchlings."
Shadow, with Delilah resting against him, snarled at his clanmate's simple comment, releasing his own anger in having the battle quickly halted and losing the chance to fight until the bitter end if need be.
Desdemona quickly swayed the dark warrior's rage, watching as Delilah defensively placed her hands to his heaving chest. "No offense intended, Shadow."
"All right," Dr. Pierce cut through, "time to get that hand fixed before dawn, Des."
"But what about Todd?" Demona growled, stopping the doctor with a forced hand.
"He'll be fine. He's not in any danger, and I don't think he's bleeding internally, for there are no symptoms to warrant such a diagnosis. Only if he aggravates his wounds through any extraneous actions, will he endanger himself. But right now, I have to re-set Desdemona's bones, if she's going to heal properly." Dr. Pierce hesitantly moved the fierce-minded gargess' hand from his shoulder. "He needs to rest. That's all." He left her side, and motioned for Desdemona to follow him into the operating room, where her minor surgery would commence. Othello was pulled along, and the door clicked closed.
"So, what do we do now?" Elisa asked, directing the comment especially to her husband, and the leader of this clan.
"Right now, we cannot do anything," Goliath responded, taking his baby daughter into his arms, "but rest, heal, and attempt to find where Crowe has taken Annika. Yet, it is barely two hours before the break of day, and we cannot afford to be left helpless if another battle should arise."
"So," came Xanatos' leveled tone, "we do nothing."
"Unless you know where Annika has been taken, for the rest of us do not."
"...he knows..." Todd had awakened, and glared up at the billionaire. "Don't you, Xanatos...you and Crowe are...old buddies..."
Xanatos immediately started shaking his head, now knowing Todd had discovered their ancient partnership. "We are not friends at all. He was merely a business associate I dealt with...a long time ago."
"You know of Therias Crowe?" Goliath barked accusingly.
"Yes. He is owner of Black Raven industries, a very secretive and extremely covert black market arms syndicate, dealing of course, in massive amounts of powerful weaponry. It seems it was he whom Maddox Technologies stole a few of their their designs from, if only to get a headstart in the business world."
"You knew him, and you never did a goddamn thing to prevent this from happening!!" Todd screamed, rising from the table, and fighting off Demona's calming hands.
"Like the rest of my sordid past, I left him behind me. Far behind me." Xanatos fought back, seeing this youth struggling against the azure gargess to get near him. "I never knew he was harboring a gargoyle child when I had my few meetings with him. And it was only an unfortunate coincidence that the castle's defensive systems, including the entire Steel Clan, were off-line for the upgrade. I never thought he would be this bold."
"You could've found him!! You could've done something!! Sent that bastard to jail!!"
"I have no idea where he is located. He gave me only a cellphone number, and we had only met three times in person." Xanatos did his best to calm Todd, seeing the utter rage in his eyes. "I am at this moment, doing everything I can to locate him, and your girlfriend."
Todd hissed a hot breath through his clenched teeth and finally relented, if only to cease a provocation his wounds. He moved away, grumbling obscenities beneath his breath, and resting back against the bed. Demona moved a soothing hand about his back, as Todd slumped over, resting himself on the cool sheets and clutching a hand to his throbbing side. "Dammit...I have to get her back..."
"You're in no condition to go anywhere." Demona leaned over, whispering softly to him. "Besides, we have nowhere to begin at this point."
"I don't care...I'll fly around the entire fucking country if I have to...I'm not leaving her with that bastard. I made a promise...and I intend to keep it..."
****************************************
Dawn had broken, casting it's brilliant light across the entire sky. The gargoyles had taken to the cornices and were frozen in their stone sleep, their injuries sustained last night, healing with every hour the sun remained in the sky. Desdemona's hand had been skillfully repaired, and would only present her with a slight ache in the morrow.
Yet a recent member of the Manhattan clan would be possessed of a restless sleep indeed, his thoughts, his very dreams filled with his failure to keep his lover safe within their home. Todd had woken up several times, and roamed the halls, eventually coming upon Annika's bedroom. Her perfume lingered, a sorrowful aroma haunting him, tearing at his heart. He saw her abandoned pottery wheel to the side, her finished works upon the constructed wooden shelves. Todd inspected each sculpture and dish, seeing a talent to rival his own in a much different medium. He fell down onto Annika's bed, wrapping himself into the undisturbed sheets, and found this place, out of anywhere in this castle, to be where he could capture at least several hours of slumber, until he would awaken just before dusk.
****************************************
"You need sleep, David. You've been at this for hours now." Fox approached her husband's side, seeing the billionaire typing furiously upon his computer, scrolling past line after line of unintelligible computer jargon, sifting his way through years of information gathered on everyone he had come into contact with.
"I can't." he replied, without bothering to look back to Fox.
"It's not your fault." she said forcefully, knowing he was suffering from Todd's biting accusation the night before. "We both never would have guessed that Crowe would attack here, and succeed."
"I could have done something years ago. Gotten rid of him when I had the chance."
"We implicate him...and he implicates you. He has just as much proof of your past as you have of his. A proverbial stalemate."
Xanatos sighed. "I know...but there's...something that I'm missing. I remember something he said. In our last meeting..."
"And what was that?"
Xanatos bit his bottom lip, cursing his long-term memory for not meeting his high standards. "He had an affinity for antique furniture. He loved oak...said it always went well in his home. A large Victorian manor...which matches what meager description Annika was able to give us more than a year ago." It was flooding back now, scraping away at a recollection from a former life he wanted so to leave behind. "A Victorian manor..."
"David," Fox drawled, crossing her arms, as she stood to the side of his leather chair, "there's hundreds of those in Manhattan alone."
"But not one that would suit someone who wanted...needed the utmost of privacy to construct a company dealing in illegal arms sales, and to hide away a gargoyle hatchling from suspecting eyes. We can narrow our search to this island, for that's where Annika said her home was located. Mr. Crowe also had an unfortunate habit of bragging about his company's merits, if only to gain more of my services, including his shipping weapons to other countries."
"Near the coast, to ship by sea."
"Yes. The route chosen by most gunrunners, as it's extremely hard to force security upon the entire coastline, and then you're home free when reaching international waters."
Fox leaned in, watching as David narrowed the search perameters, and up popped one lone house, situated on the northern tip of the island. "Interesting. It seems this house was purchased forty years ago, and subsequently saved from demolition."
"How can we be sure this is the place?"
Xanatos smirked. "313 Mockingbird lane, Northern district."
"This guy has a thing for birds." Fox laughed in triumph, incidentally casting her eyes back to the open doors of the office, and a youthful interloper having been discovered. "Todd..."
****************************************
The hangar doors hissed open upon accepting his code, and he raced inwards, passing by several aircraft, including Xanatos' own private helicopter, and heading for the special storage containment for the cybernetic suits, including the Epsilon prototype. His distorted reflection appeared in the sleek black surface, including his angered scowl, twisting his features from a handsome youth into a creature of pure vengeance.
Another code was needed to release the suit, and the hydraulics released the armor to the ground on a steel platform. Todd watched it descend to his level, and invisible seams opened along the resemblance of a muscular structure. Todd quickly stepped in, ignoring the pain from his side and shoulder, and it wrapped itself around him, sealing the young man inside the ebony titanium and violet armor plating. He attached the neural implants to his forehead and spine, and powered up the direct link to his brain. Once again, came the rush of power, searing through every nerve ending, creating the connection of man and machine.
Proceeding from the platform, he took a few steps in his new form, his constant anger empowered by this incredible strength flowing through his very arteries. With an undeviating path, he tromped his way to the outer doors, and the press of a single button, the entire wall broke apart, revealing the last fading rays of the faded sun upon the New York horizon curving around the building's structure.
"And just where the hell do you think you're going?"
Todd was snared in his very tracks by the throaty call, and he snapped his neck around to see Elisa walking into the hangar bay, followed by Goliath and Demona. "I'm leaving." he seethed, as if that was the only explanation needed.
"You're hurt, and you're definitely not going by yourself." Elisa argued, taking a few hesitant steps in his direction, hoping he would not throw himself from the building before she had the chance to say her peace.
"I'm going to get Annika." he growled. "I made a promise that I would always take care of her, and I'm not going to break it now."
"The clan will go, Todd," Goliath appeared from behind Elisa, "we'll help yo..."
"NO!!!" he screamed. "This is between me and Crowe, and I'm going to finish this once and for all!!" Todd instructed his suit to power up to full strength with merely a simple thought, and a flicker of his brow. "I'm going to bring Annika home." Words of an impetuous youth, yet an utterance of finality, his eyes as cold and unbreakable as steel.
"But Todd..."
"Good luck." said Demona, cutting in to Goliath's protest, knowing nothing would change the human's mind.
Todd nodded, and suddenly, the two sides of the helmet were brought around to enclose his entire head, forming the same featureless facade. Two burning orbs of emerald green flared with all the energy this suit possessed, and Todd readied himself for the upcoming flight to the Northern tip of the island, where his girlfriend was now held against her will.
"Are you taking any extra armaments, besides those which the suit already possesses?" Demona asked, knowing just what could be attached to this armor of her own partial designs.
Todd stole back to the stall where his suit was stored, and pulled out a long, cylindrical object that glinted ever so softly in the blossoming starlight. It was a mere baseball bat, made of steel.
"A bat? That's all?"
"Yup." With a single talon, he scraped a message into the glimmering surface, creating a high-pitched squeal that affected all there, especially the gargoyles and their sensitive hearing. He finished, and Demona could make out the cryptic message. 'To: Crowe, with love...jerk'. Almost laughable, until Todd swung the equipment turned weapon around with his fist. "Borrowed it from Alex on my way here. I'm going to use this thing to knock Crowe's teeth out, and beat him to death."
"You don't mean that." Elisa gasped.
Todd peered to her through the suit's optic sensors, seeing the shock present on her wondrous features. "If he's hurt her, he's going to die."
"Todd, please consider this carefully. You're going in alone to face a man who possesses the resources of perhaps an entire army."
"You're right, but you know what? I don't give a damn, because I don't plan on coming back without Annika..." The boosters powered up, and the suit lifted off, casting a sheer wall of forced air towards the trio. Todd took off into the night, and Demona chased after him, until standing on the edge of the hangar bay. He disappeared within seconds, on his way to face immeasurable odds, and perchance lose his life this evening to save his love.
"Come back to us, my friend," she whispered, "come back to me..."
To be concluded...