Chapter 2
"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Macbeth stated politely as he shook the hand of the most extravagantly beautiful woman he had ever met.
"But, Lord Macbeth, you introduced yourself a half an hour ago when you first arrived with Xanatos and the clan!" Dr. Miranda Baker answered in her sweet, melodic tone.
"Yes, but a half an hour, there was only a mere portion of this magnificently gorgeous woman standing before me!"
He leaned in and kissed her hand, bringing forth an adorable giggle from the throat of the professor. From behind the two, the voice of Brooklyn interrupted the romantic moment.
"Humans! Gag me with a spoon."
The gargoyle's rude statement was answered with a volley of laughter from nearly everyone in the room (with the exception of Miranda and Macbeth, the latter of whom was rather offended by the comment).
A half an hour ago, after dropping Fox off at her drop point, where she could easily make her way back to the vampire layer, Macbeth had arrived here, in the clan's layer, housed deep within a pole of the Golden Gate Bridge, along with their clan leader, David Xanatos, the next-in-line for leadership, Brooklyn, a long, narrow-beaked orange gargoyle with pure white hair and horns that faced backwards. Accompanying them had been Lexington, a small green gargoyle that stood about half Macbeth's height, and whose wings were attached under the gargoyle's arms, rather than attached to the back, giving him a very flying-squirrel-like look, despite his green hairless skin. Once inside the Bridge, they had been met by Demona and Anthony Dracon, two enemies that Macbeth knew from past experiences not to trust.
Macbeth remembered his reaction vividly. He had screamed, and lunged at Xanatos, pushing him out of the way, and he pulled out his new teammate's laser blaster, which was strapped to his hip. He was about to fire, when he noticed something different about these two. Demona, rather than being her normal gray-skinned, red-haired self, was made of pure brown stone, cracked here and there. The only part of her that wasn't covered in the rocky texture was the torn garments covering her unmentionables. There was nothing different he could see about the human, Dracon, and that's what frightened him the most. After all these years, Anthony Dracon, the famed crime lord, had not changed a bit. In fact, he looked a little younger than he had when they had first met.
Brooklyn, of course, had disarmed Macbeth very quickly, and silenced him before her could say anything.
"No, Macbeth! These are friends! Teammates! They are standing with us against the vampires! They had experiments done on them too, if you couldn't tell! You see Demona? Well her skin was turned permanently to stone, and I promise you that you can trust her, because she's my mate!"
"What?" He screamed, "How could you mate with such a demon?"
Demona now spoke up in defense of herself, "Now, Macbeth, I know we've had our share of differences in the past, but I promise you that I have the purest of intentions now! If you had told me thirteen years ago that I would wind up fighting alongside David Xanatos and the gargoyles, I would have laughed in your face, and for stating that Brooklyn here would be my mate, then I would have simply brushed you off as an insane vagrant, but that was before the vampires became such a massive threat! No one is safe from them, not even I! I was one of the first five experiments to escape, along with David here, and Anthony, with Lexington's assistance. There were two others, but they're now members of another clan that is housed in another city, not far from here. I owe these men and women my life, and I will not betray that! You can trust me!"
Macbeth saw in Demona's eyes that she was not lying (it was just a knack he had always had with people), and this seemed to upset him more.
In his thick Scottish accent he cried, "But what about Dracon? You can't seriously-"
"Oh, please, old man," he answered before the former king could finish his sentence, "You know as well as I do that I would betray these Neanderthals in the drop of a hat, but I have no choice here! Because of those demonic vampires, I can not age! I can easily be killed or murdered, but I can't experience what it feels like to grow old! I can never die of disease or illness, and I, of course, would never commit suicide, due to religious beliefs. I loved it at first, but that was before I lost all my business endeavors, and my criminal underworld! Now, nearly all of my thugs are either experiments, or vampires themselves!"
Macbeth knew in his heart that Dracon was also telling the truth, and that he could obviously not be trusted, but for the moment, it seemed, he was one of them.
"Come with us," Lexington had then interjected, "We'll introduce you to the rest of our clan!"
And with that, they had departed to the computer lab, where he would meet the remainder of their team.
* * *
When he walked the door to the lab had slid open, and Macbeth had entered with Brooklyn and Lexington, the only two not too busy to walk him there, he immediately recognized a very familiar face sitting in an uncomfortable-looking metal chair, staring deep into a microscope. The face was perfect and flawless, and the lightest shade of peach possible without entering the white spectrum. His hair was the color of chalk, and he sported an extravagant green and orange outfit with sharp cutoffs exposing pieces of skin all over his midsection.
"Puck?" Macbeth asked, barely believing his eyes.
The Child of Oberon looked up from his work under the microscope to see a familiar face staring back at him. Immediately, the small figure crossed his legs and floated in midair to Macbeth, appearing to be sitting the whole time. An enormous, hideously insane smile was spread from ear-to-ear that exposed all of his shiny, white teeth. Macbeth realized immediately that something wasn't right, just by looking into the man's eyes.
"Macbeth!" He screamed, "I know they went to go retrieve you, but I never thought in a million years that they would be successful! So, how was your sleep? Fine I hope! Miranda says she met you! Don't tell anyone, but I think she has a little crush on you! Sshhh! You didn't hear that from me! It was Demona! She said it! I swear! Leave me be!"
In a split-second, Puck's mile-an-hour speech had turned from excitement to pure fear of Macbeth. Suddenly, Brooklyn intervened.
"Calm down, Puck! Leave him be! Just go back to your experiment!" He gestured to an older man across the room, and signaled for him to come retrieve Puck from his spot, floating directly in front of Macbeth.
"Peter! Could you come get Puck back to his experiment?"
"Of course, Brooklyn!" The North American man replied as he grabbed puck by the shoulders and lowered him to the ground. He slowly walked him to his metal chair and sat him down. It was then that Macbeth noticed the iron chain around his ankle and pinning him to the wall.
Macbeth leaned in close to Lexington and whispered, "Who was that man, accompanying Puck? He looked familiar!"
"That's Peter Maza... well... sort of! He's actually a clone of Peter Maza, made by the vampires. You know Elisa Maza, right? She was the police officer, our first human ally in the present days!"
"Oh, of course! How could I forget her?"
"Yes, well, this is her father. He was a cop also. His daughter is one of our two insiders in the vampire empire, and his son, Derek, is a member of our other clan."
"So, have I met the entire clan, so far?"
"Well, basically, yes. There are also some free colonies of humans, gargoyles, Oberon's Children and New Olympians based underground all across the planet, but altogether, there can't be more than one thousand free people opposing the vampires. But, our clan is proof that a small number of rebels can easily oppose their might."
After getting Puck settled in, Peter finally approached the three men conversing together, and introduced himself.
"Hello, my name is Peter Maza. I heard that you were Lord Macbeth! You're the one who's supposed to be joining our team, correct? I've heard a lot about you!"
"I've heard a lot about you too, Mr. Maza, and let me just say that your daughter is a wonderful woman!"
"Which one? Elisa?"
"Yes, that's the one."
"Well, she has a hard time accepting me as her father, considering I'm just a clone, and no one really knows what happened to her real father."
"I don't mean to be rude and change the subject, Mr. Maza, but that was Puck, Child of Oberon. I remember that he was insane, but never to that extent! What's wrong with him?"
"Oh, well, after he was stripped of most of his powers for failing to keep Alexander Xanatos, the child he was chosen to watch over, from falling into the hands of the vampires, he lost what was left of his mind, and Oberon gave him to Xanatos and Fox to watch over and make sure he stayed out of trouble, so they sent him down here to the lab to help Miranda and I with our studies. Miranda handles the technology, I deal in chemical science and medical treatment, and Puck does our research for us. Occasionally, we'll call in Lexington to assist in something. Intellectually, he's second only to Miranda!"
Suddenly, Miranda herself stepped into the room, but she was different. She had lost her lab coat, and abandoned the reserved, bunned hair and let it flow to her shoulders, which were not covered by any type of fabric. The purple dress she wore showed off every shapely inch of her magnificent body, including cleavage and hips (Macbeth's two favorite aspects, though he would never admit that). Miranda's square-rimmed glasses were now removed, and the only sign of the original woman was the long length of her never-ending legs.
"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Macbeth stated politely as he shook the hand of the most extravagantly beautiful woman he had ever met.
"But, Lord Macbeth, you introduced yourself a half an hour ago when you first arrived with Xanatos and the clan!" Dr. Miranda Baker answered in her sweet, melodic tone.
"Yes, but a half an hour, there was only a mere portion of this magnificently gorgeous woman standing before me!"
He leaned in and kissed her hand, bringing forth an adorable giggle from the throat of the professor. From behind the two, the voice of Brooklyn interrupted the romantic moment.
"Humans! Gag me with a spoon."
The gargoyle's rude statement was answered with a volley of laughter from nearly everyone in the room (with the exception of Miranda and Macbeth, the latter of whom was rather offended by the comment).
"Excuse me, all," She finally built up the courage to say, "dinner will be held in Xanatos' private dining quarters in half an hour! The dress is elegant, as you can see, and it is very important that all hands arrive, whether to eat or not. That means you, too, Puck!"
"Oh, hooray!"
Miranda smiled. She always loved the way Puck resembled and acted like a kid. She had always wanted children of her own, but had never met the right man. It seemed Puck would be the closest she would ever get.
After a prolonged, awkward silence, Peter broke the still nature, and spoke up, saying, "Um, my dear, could you assist Lexington and I in solving the problem with my anti-flaxxen serum?"
"Of course!" She eagerly admitted as she and Lexington moved toward his table.
"Come, Macbeth," Brooklyn enticed, "I'll show you to your living quarters where you can get dressed."
With that, the two left the four scientists alone in the laboratory, Macbeth keeping his eyes on Miranda the whole way. After he was gone, she let out a long, relaxing breath, and was finally able to concentrate on the flaxxen problem.
"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Macbeth stated politely as he shook the hand of the most extravagantly beautiful woman he had ever met.
"But, Lord Macbeth, you introduced yourself a half an hour ago when you first arrived with Xanatos and the clan!" Dr. Miranda Baker answered in her sweet, melodic tone.
"Yes, but a half an hour, there was only a mere portion of this magnificently gorgeous woman standing before me!"
He leaned in and kissed her hand, bringing forth an adorable giggle from the throat of the professor. From behind the two, the voice of Brooklyn interrupted the romantic moment.
"Humans! Gag me with a spoon."
The gargoyle's rude statement was answered with a volley of laughter from nearly everyone in the room (with the exception of Miranda and Macbeth, the latter of whom was rather offended by the comment).
A half an hour ago, after dropping Fox off at her drop point, where she could easily make her way back to the vampire layer, Macbeth had arrived here, in the clan's layer, housed deep within a pole of the Golden Gate Bridge, along with their clan leader, David Xanatos, the next-in-line for leadership, Brooklyn, a long, narrow-beaked orange gargoyle with pure white hair and horns that faced backwards. Accompanying them had been Lexington, a small green gargoyle that stood about half Macbeth's height, and whose wings were attached under the gargoyle's arms, rather than attached to the back, giving him a very flying-squirrel-like look, despite his green hairless skin. Once inside the Bridge, they had been met by Demona and Anthony Dracon, two enemies that Macbeth knew from past experiences not to trust.
Macbeth remembered his reaction vividly. He had screamed, and lunged at Xanatos, pushing him out of the way, and he pulled out his new teammate's laser blaster, which was strapped to his hip. He was about to fire, when he noticed something different about these two. Demona, rather than being her normal gray-skinned, red-haired self, was made of pure brown stone, cracked here and there. The only part of her that wasn't covered in the rocky texture was the torn garments covering her unmentionables. There was nothing different he could see about the human, Dracon, and that's what frightened him the most. After all these years, Anthony Dracon, the famed crime lord, had not changed a bit. In fact, he looked a little younger than he had when they had first met.
Brooklyn, of course, had disarmed Macbeth very quickly, and silenced him before her could say anything.
"No, Macbeth! These are friends! Teammates! They are standing with us against the vampires! They had experiments done on them too, if you couldn't tell! You see Demona? Well her skin was turned permanently to stone, and I promise you that you can trust her, because she's my mate!"
"What?" He screamed, "How could you mate with such a demon?"
Demona now spoke up in defense of herself, "Now, Macbeth, I know we've had our share of differences in the past, but I promise you that I have the purest of intentions now! If you had told me thirteen years ago that I would wind up fighting alongside David Xanatos and the gargoyles, I would have laughed in your face, and for stating that Brooklyn here would be my mate, then I would have simply brushed you off as an insane vagrant, but that was before the vampires became such a massive threat! No one is safe from them, not even I! I was one of the first five experiments to escape, along with David here, and Anthony, with Lexington's assistance. There were two others, but they're now members of another clan that is housed in another city, not far from here. I owe these men and women my life, and I will not betray that! You can trust me!"
Macbeth saw in Demona's eyes that she was not lying (it was just a knack he had always had with people), and this seemed to upset him more.
In his thick Scottish accent he cried, "But what about Dracon? You can't seriously-"
"Oh, please, old man," he answered before the former king could finish his sentence, "You know as well as I do that I would betray these Neanderthals in the drop of a hat, but I have no choice here! Because of those demonic vampires, I can not age! I can easily be killed or murdered, but I can't experience what it feels like to grow old! I can never die of disease or illness, and I, of course, would never commit suicide, due to religious beliefs. I loved it at first, but that was before I lost all my business endeavors, and my criminal underworld! Now, nearly all of my thugs are either experiments, or vampires themselves!"
Macbeth knew in his heart that Dracon was also telling the truth, and that he could obviously not be trusted, but for the moment, it seemed, he was one of them.
"Come with us," Lexington had then interjected, "We'll introduce you to the rest of our clan!"
And with that, they had departed to the computer lab, where he would meet the remainder of their team.
* * *
When he walked the door to the lab had slid open, and Macbeth had entered with Brooklyn and Lexington, the only two not too busy to walk him there, he immediately recognized a very familiar face sitting in an uncomfortable-looking metal chair, staring deep into a microscope. The face was perfect and flawless, and the lightest shade of peach possible without entering the white spectrum. His hair was the color of chalk, and he sported an extravagant green and orange outfit with sharp cutoffs exposing pieces of skin all over his midsection.
"Puck?" Macbeth asked, barely believing his eyes.
The Child of Oberon looked up from his work under the microscope to see a familiar face staring back at him. Immediately, the small figure crossed his legs and floated in midair to Macbeth, appearing to be sitting the whole time. An enormous, hideously insane smile was spread from ear-to-ear that exposed all of his shiny, white teeth. Macbeth realized immediately that something wasn't right, just by looking into the man's eyes.
"Macbeth!" He screamed, "I know they went to go retrieve you, but I never thought in a million years that they would be successful! So, how was your sleep? Fine I hope! Miranda says she met you! Don't tell anyone, but I think she has a little crush on you! Sshhh! You didn't hear that from me! It was Demona! She said it! I swear! Leave me be!"
In a split-second, Puck's mile-an-hour speech had turned from excitement to pure fear of Macbeth. Suddenly, Brooklyn intervened.
"Calm down, Puck! Leave him be! Just go back to your experiment!" He gestured to an older man across the room, and signaled for him to come retrieve Puck from his spot, floating directly in front of Macbeth.
"Peter! Could you come get Puck back to his experiment?"
"Of course, Brooklyn!" The North American man replied as he grabbed puck by the shoulders and lowered him to the ground. He slowly walked him to his metal chair and sat him down. It was then that Macbeth noticed the iron chain around his ankle and pinning him to the wall.
Macbeth leaned in close to Lexington and whispered, "Who was that man, accompanying Puck? He looked familiar!"
"That's Peter Maza... well... sort of! He's actually a clone of Peter Maza, made by the vampires. You know Elisa Maza, right? She was the police officer, our first human ally in the present days!"
"Oh, of course! How could I forget her?"
"Yes, well, this is her father. He was a cop also. His daughter is one of our two insiders in the vampire empire, and his son, Derek, is a member of our other clan."
"So, have I met the entire clan, so far?"
"Well, basically, yes. There are also some free colonies of humans, gargoyles, Oberon's Children and New Olympians based underground all across the planet, but altogether, there can't be more than one thousand free people opposing the vampires. But, our clan is proof that a small number of rebels can easily oppose their might."
After getting Puck settled in, Peter finally approached the three men conversing together, and introduced himself.
"Hello, my name is Peter Maza. I heard that you were Lord Macbeth! You're the one who's supposed to be joining our team, correct? I've heard a lot about you!"
"I've heard a lot about you too, Mr. Maza, and let me just say that your daughter is a wonderful woman!"
"Which one? Elisa?"
"Yes, that's the one."
"Well, she has a hard time accepting me as her father, considering I'm just a clone, and no one really knows what happened to her real father."
"I don't mean to be rude and change the subject, Mr. Maza, but that was Puck, Child of Oberon. I remember that he was insane, but never to that extent! What's wrong with him?"
"Oh, well, after he was stripped of most of his powers for failing to keep Alexander Xanatos, the child he was chosen to watch over, from falling into the hands of the vampires, he lost what was left of his mind, and Oberon gave him to Xanatos and Fox to watch over and make sure he stayed out of trouble, so they sent him down here to the lab to help Miranda and I with our studies. Miranda handles the technology, I deal in chemical science and medical treatment, and Puck does our research for us. Occasionally, we'll call in Lexington to assist in something. Intellectually, he's second only to Miranda!"
Suddenly, Miranda herself stepped into the room, but she was different. She had lost her lab coat, and abandoned the reserved, bunned hair and let it flow to her shoulders, which were not covered by any type of fabric. The purple dress she wore showed off every shapely inch of her magnificent body, including cleavage and hips (Macbeth's two favorite aspects, though he would never admit that). Miranda's square-rimmed glasses were now removed, and the only sign of the original woman was the long length of her never-ending legs.
"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Macbeth stated politely as he shook the hand of the most extravagantly beautiful woman he had ever met.
"But, Lord Macbeth, you introduced yourself a half an hour ago when you first arrived with Xanatos and the clan!" Dr. Miranda Baker answered in her sweet, melodic tone.
"Yes, but a half an hour, there was only a mere portion of this magnificently gorgeous woman standing before me!"
He leaned in and kissed her hand, bringing forth an adorable giggle from the throat of the professor. From behind the two, the voice of Brooklyn interrupted the romantic moment.
"Humans! Gag me with a spoon."
The gargoyle's rude statement was answered with a volley of laughter from nearly everyone in the room (with the exception of Miranda and Macbeth, the latter of whom was rather offended by the comment).
"Excuse me, all," She finally built up the courage to say, "dinner will be held in Xanatos' private dining quarters in half an hour! The dress is elegant, as you can see, and it is very important that all hands arrive, whether to eat or not. That means you, too, Puck!"
"Oh, hooray!"
Miranda smiled. She always loved the way Puck resembled and acted like a kid. She had always wanted children of her own, but had never met the right man. It seemed Puck would be the closest she would ever get.
After a prolonged, awkward silence, Peter broke the still nature, and spoke up, saying, "Um, my dear, could you assist Lexington and I in solving the problem with my anti-flaxxen serum?"
"Of course!" She eagerly admitted as she and Lexington moved toward his table.
"Come, Macbeth," Brooklyn enticed, "I'll show you to your living quarters where you can get dressed."
With that, the two left the four scientists alone in the laboratory, Macbeth keeping his eyes on Miranda the whole way. After he was gone, she let out a long, relaxing breath, and was finally able to concentrate on the flaxxen problem.