Welcome to New York!
Gargoyles belongs to disney.... but soon I will take over the world and rule disney so I WILL own gargoyles
*********
"All right class, Mr Xanatos has been kind enough to let us visit his castle while in New York so lets show our thanks by NOT breaking anything... this means you Troy Davis!"
The small group of grade 12 students laughed at the boy who was at the moment pretending to be possesed by a demonic elmo "Sesame Street has been brought to you by the numbers 6 6 6," he quickly snapped out of his trance and joined the rest of the kids at the elevators.
a group of girls went into the first elevator laughing at their fellow classmates as they closed the door on them.
"Naddia? Oi N-A-D-D-I-A? EARTH TO NADDIA COME IN NADDIA!" a tall brunette waved her hands infront of her 5'3 pink haired friend who seemed to be in a trans.
"Leave 'er alone Mindy she off in happy land.... she does it all the time," Crystall a Jamaacian girl said.
"Yea and if you want her to come back you just say "KIT KAT!" the fourth girl who seemed to be from the middle east said.
Naddia blined, "where?"
"Where what?" Mindy asked.
"Where'she Kit Kat? Amanesha said Kit Kat, where is it?"
"I'll get you one bake at the hotel kay Naddia," Amanesha mothered her.
The four made fun of each other untill they reached the top floor. 'This is perfect!' Naddia thought to herself, 'we're the first ones here so we get first dibs on the statues'. She walked around to the ouside of the castal and looked around at the stone monsters. 'That one looked so kewl' she went over to one of the gargoyles and started to set up her stool. she opened up her set of pencils and her sketch book and began to work on the 6' demon.
She started to work on the main frame of the body, then put more detail on the torso. The rest of the class had arrived and began to talk rather loudly so Naddia put on her MP3 player and listened to some Tori Amos. She started to work on the head, makeing the beak a little bit stronger and giving the eyes a more serious look. The edges were smoother as if it were real instead of stone, and the hair looked like the wind was blowing it. Mrs. Smith wouldn't except it, she said they had to copy it exactly. Naddia sighed as she erased on wing wich was out of proportion and replaced it with a more accurate one.
'A sortta fairy tale' started to play and Naddia stopped to listen to her favorite song.
"And I'm so sad, like a good book I can't put this
Day back, A sorta fairy tale with you,
its a sortta fairy tale with you."
"Miss McPhee?" Naddia put the song on pause and looked up at her teacher. "You're supposed to be working not singing and your gargoyle is stone not real! fix it." with that she left to critisize more peoples works.
"I'll fix you yah old bitch," Naddia mumbled under her breath carfull not to let the middle aged devil hag hear her, the last thing she wanted was to got back to Ontario after giving up half her college savings account for this art trip.
After two hours Naddia had made two complete sketches; her amazingly realistic sketch for her own portfolio, and the equally wonderful stone sketch for her ungrateful teacher. They would be back for one more day for the slower kids then they would move on to the art galaries. "I'll see you tomorrow buddy," Naddia Patted the Gargoyle on the back. "Don't move kay!" She packed up her stuffed and raced to the elevators with her friends.
As they left the sky scrapper Naddia noticed a rather creepy black lux with two men standing outside looking up at the castle in the skyline. You could only describe them as the type of person you would rather avoid even if it ment waling into a pile of garbage. 'I know it's just sterio-typing New Yorkers, but those guys give me the creeps'. They were talking in a forign language, possibly Greek. "Yo Mindy!" Naddia ran ahead of the crowd dragging her friend with her. "Do you know what those guys were sayin'?"
Mindy looked at the two men who were now entering the lux, "How the fuck should I know!"
"I thought you speek Greece....anese..."
"It's Greek you dumb-ass, and I wasn't paying attention. It's RUDE to listen to someone elses conversations."
"So I guess I should stop now," Tory bursted in between them. "Watcha up to girlies?"
"Oh, you know, The usual..." Naddia said passively
"Yea discussing the best way to make it look like you're the one who flooded Mrs, Smith's room," Mindy added.
"Can I help?"
"Sure"
They walked a few blocks to the subway station that would take them to Amsterdam Avenue, where the Youth hostel was. After riding the New York subways, Billie had a great sence of pride in the ones in Toronto, and the bums at hobos were so much more polight and didn't talk to themselves.... as much. It's no surprise Naddia was the first person to enter the youth hostel and stated she wasn't going anywhere that night.
************
The sun dissapeared over the Manhattan skyline and the cities nightlife was comming out to play; man, freaks, and Gargoyles. After a few stretches Angela rapped herself in Broadways arms, Goliath rapped himself in Elisa's arms, and Hudson rapped himself in his lazy-boy's arms. Lexington went to his computer and Bronx joined Hudson. Brooklyn was left alone. He didn't mind, he was always a little bit of a loner, he liked it. Tonight he was going to paint the town red, he leaped from his post and glided toward the old stadium where 'The Pack' did all their live shows, it was now a stadium for amature rock bands.
You would think that having to hide from the world, not being able to be soaked in the crowds of rockers down below would be depressing. You'ld be right. But Brooklyn wasn't about to complain after all, he had the best seat in the house and he didn't have to worry about bouncers, drunks, or being trampled by restless punks. 'Life could be worse,' he would reassure himself as the song finished and the group of skinny spiked hair men in kilts was replaced with fem-rockers.
"Hey Brooklyn!" Lexington landed beside Brooklyn. "Goliath needs everyone back at the castle, some kind of emergancy."
"What up?" The two glided out of the building and caught an updraft taking them in the direction of their home.
"I'm not sure but Xanatos said he's been having trouble with some old buisness partner of his and it may get a little dangerous."
"Whaddaya mean by dangerous?"
"I don't know, but according to Xanatos, this guy is someone you don't want to mess with."
The two joined the rest of the clan and Xanatos in the court yard. Brooklyn braced for the news wich he figured wasn't going to be good after seing serious faces of the entire clan. Goliath was one thing, but Broadway, and Lexington as well...
"Nice of you to join us Brooklyn," Xanatos said in his natually calm voice. "As I was telling Goliath, Ptolemeus is a distant cousin of mine. My Great-great grandfather and his are the same. A rather large fortune passed from him to my great-grandfather and down to me. That fortune is what funded this corporation. Ptolemeus, who I reasently found out existed believes that the fortune should have fallen to his great-grandfather, and to make up for his mistake I should do the rightful thing and hand it over along with my company."
"Sounds a little greedy," said Elisa.
"I've offered him doubble the fortune but he refused. He said that he will be sending some associats of his to help 'convince' me to give in."
"What does this have to do with us?" Goliath asked sternly.
"Just keep on guard for attack, I don't know anything about this guy and I don't know how he fights. I want to be prepaired for anything." With that Xanatos left the frustrated Gargoyles alone.
"So what do we do Goliath?" Lexington asked, breaking the silence.
"Stand on guard. The sun will be comming up soon, we should prepaire to rest."
Goliath and Elisa walked up to the tower where he perched every night. Broadway and Angela got onto their pedistal embracing each other. and the rest did the same. Brooklyn thought for a second, 'Just when everything was going easy, I don't think will ever have a time of peace.' He gave out a depressing sigh and slouched as the sun rose and the angels of the night turned to stone.
***********
"WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!" Naddia jumped at the sound of Mindy screaming in her ear. "You gotta get up girl!"
"No I don't," Naddia hid herself under a Beetle Juice pillow and Ninja Turtle Blanket.
Mindy moaned as she pulled the blanket off and dragged Naddia to the ground. "We were going to get up early to grab a cab and get to the castle before everyone else remember!"
"Why would I say something stupid like 'get up early'?" Naddia moaned as she skrambled from her bottom bunk and walked to the bathroom with her cleaning supplies and a change of clothes. "I hate mornings" she mumbled through the door as she slipped into her skort and tied up her dockers.
"I know you do, but we can go to Starbucks and get an extra fatty breakfast, my treat!" Mindy spoke through the door as the sound of an electric toothbrush ended.
The door bursted open and Naddia and rushed for the door, Mindy right behind her. "Come on Mindy we can brush our hair in the cab!"
*************
The two friends couldn't decide which was worse, the traffic or the subway. But they had reaced their destination, confirmed with the desk clerk that they where here with the Toronto art class. and made their way up to the castle. Mindy, who yesterday was working on a dog-like gargoyle, decided to work on the old one beside it. Naddia on the otherhand went striaght to the bird-like gargoyle she worked on. Something wasn't right about it. She opened her sketchbook and looked at yesterdays art. The thing was slouching! 'No. It couldn't be. could it?' She studied the sketches and the statue more thoroughly. 'It's impossible! maybe they switched it. I mean stones don't move! I'm going crazy.' Naddia stood up and tried to clear her head. "Oi Mindy! make sure no one takes my spot! I need to got to the washroom."
"The class won't be here untill 10:10, and its...... 8:47 I think your spot is safe." Mindy went back to her sketching.
"Well, just make sure no pidgeons sit on my stool then."
"Whatever..."
'Where are the fucking bathrooms in this damn building!' Naddia ran around the laborinth looking for a bathroom or a person who wasn't rude enough to stop and show her which way to go. 'I hate grown ups! I never want to be one.... like Peter Pan! a 19 year old female version of Peter Pan' Naddia's mind trailed off as she entered her happy land. 'Happy land? AMANEASHA OWS ME A KIT KAT!'
"Can I help you miss?" Naddia looked up at the tall, dark and handsome man, "You look as though you are lost."
"Yea um where are the bathrooms?"
"On next floor down, I'll show you."
"Thanks... Oh sorry for being so rude, I'm Naddia." Naddie extended her had to the stranger.
"David Xanatos." He smile as he shook her hand
"You-yu-you're Mr. Xanatos!"
"Last time I checked." The two headed for the elevators.
"Thank you so much for letting our class do the sketches in your castle, I think its absolutly beautiful."
"Thank you,"
"There's this one gargoyle up there, it kinda looks like a bird,"
"Brooklyn?"
"If that's what you named it, it uh moved."
"What do you mean?"
"Well I was sketching it yesterday, and when I went to start again, It's possition moved. It looks like it's slouching. I must sound like I need to go to the looney bin but do you have copies of it that you've replaced?"
"No, but the castle is old and has the habbit of leaving little suprises," Xanatos smiled at Naddia.
"Yea, I guess you're right." The doors opened and Xanatos showed her the way to the washrooms. "Thank Mr. Xanatos, it was an honour to meet you."
"The pleasure was all mine. Naddia," The elevator doors closed. "This should be interesting."
***********
Naddia finished in the bathroom and went back to the castle. Whatever was going on she didn't care anymore. 10:10 came around and the rest of the class came in and started sketching the sculptures. Naddia, who was finished another sketch for herself started thinking about the moving gargoyle again. "Troy?"
Troy who was working on the smaller gargoyle beside her turned around, "Oh what does misses I'm too good an artist to go to the building wiht the rest of my class want?"
"Where are we going tomorrow?"
"Some art galary, why? you wanna get their early too?"
"No I'm comming back here."
"Skipper! Can I come?"
"No"
"Why?"
"If you do, a big-ass one-eyed-one-horned-flying-purple-people-eater will beat the shit out of you!"
"Again! God I just got over that one in Muskoka! Why isn't the one-eye-one- honed-flying-purple-people-eater repelant working!" Naddia and Troy laughed at their little personal joke which was now going on for seven years.
"I need you to cover for me or Miss Bitch will send me back!"
"No prob, I'll tell her you're on a PMS day or something."
"Gee thanks. The last thing I want is the whole class knowing I'm on my period when I'M NOT!"
"Fine, I'll say you're constepated from all the double cheese pizzas you ate."
"I DON'T LIKE CHEESE!"
"You've got a cold?"
"good."
"great!"
"grand!" Naddia turned around and put the headphones to her mp3 player on. She sang to Sam Roberts as she sketched the Gargoyle from another angle.
"Wanna leave but I've got to stay,
And I'm thinkin' more everyday,
Montreal to Hong Kong, where have all the good people gone,
Traffic jam and I'm on the shoulder, Took ten cops to pull me over, Bangcock to Babylon, where have all the good people gone!"
Miss Smith tried to get Naddia's attention but gave up after the second course and went to one of the other students to 'give advice' on how to improve. 'Yes!' she thought to herself, 'Miss Smith IS like an anoying wild animal, if you ignor her, she'll go away. I should have listened to Crystall a long time ago.'
Luch time came around and Naddia, Mindy, and Troy desided to find out where the restraunt where the $42 burger was, but they had to settled for a pizzaria. Their teacher told the class that this would be the best time to go sight seeing while they were in this area of Manhatten which everyone hated since there was so much everyone wanted to see. Mindy and Troy wanted to get some expensive outfits and pretend to be rich. Naddia however, had other plans. She wanted to play ghost hunter and see if the gargoyle had moved again. After two days in New York Naddia was starting to learn who to talk to and who to stay away from, so she had no problems getting directions from whichever street they were on, back to Xanatos' skyscraper.
She was making her way up to the castle with ease, untill the elevator door opened and in steped and stern looking blond man. "What are you doing?"
"I-I was just going up to the castle.... for my art class we were scheduald to come."
"I believe you were supposed to be here from 10:10 to 11:45, it 1:53 now. I believe you missed the class."
"Come on now Owen," a firmilliar voice said from behind the man. Xanatos greeted the young girl. "Naddia just wants to prefect her work, she takes it very seriously. I told her she could come, isn't that right?" He winked at the girl, she nooded.
"Thank you once again Mr. Xanatos, you are a very generous person."
Xanatos and Owen left at the top floor of the building, Naddia continued to the castle. To her dissapointment the gargoyle didn't move, but it was quiet, peaceful, and welcoming to her. She leaned over the ledge and look down, the shear hight made her dizzy, even though she was never really scared of hights and she did outlast her friends in thier anual 'see who can lie face down on the glass flor of the CN tower and scream your face off scaring old people and tourist the longest before the guards kick you out' contest. She stepped back and leaned into the gargoyle. "Mr. Xanatos said your name is Brooklyn," she looked over at the Brooklyn bridge. "wonder where the Idea of that name came from eh?" she closed her eyes to escape the warm sun, 'I'll just close my eyes for a moment'.
When she opened them, it was clearly noticibal that a few hours had passed. 'Shit! I gotta get back.' Naddia grabbed her bag and walked towards the exit, when someting got her attention. She looked over to her right side to see a little black box. 'That wasn't there before,' she looked closer and noticed it ticking. 'Why is it making that noise?' as she looked on the other side of the box, a screen with digital numbers was counting down, at -20:56. 'IT'S A BOMB!' Naddia stubld backwards as she headed for the elevator.
She got off on the floor she saw Xanatos get off. 'God I hope he's still here,' she ran around looking for signs of life. She closed her eyes for a second to clear her head when, BAM! She looked up to see the blond man from befor, "OWEN!" He gave her an rude glare, "There's a bomb in the castle!"
"What do you mean?"
"I MEAN, there is a bomb in the castle and in about twenty minuites it is going to blow!" She was beging to dislike this Owen fellow.
"I'll look into it." Owen entered Xanatos' office and reappeared a moment later, "You might want to stay around for questioning."
*********
The last hour had been the most hectic experiance in Naddia's life. A ditective name Elisa let her use her cell phone to call her friends and say she would be comming back late that night. She didn't tell them why though, Mindy had the bad habbit of overpanicing in bad situations. The bomb squad came and disarmed the black box, and Naddia had to tell her story ten times to the police; "I didn't see who came in, I kinda fell asleep. When I woke up I went to leave and I noticed the bomb, so I ran for help and ran into Owen. He told Xanatos and Xanatos called you and here we are DO YOU WANT ME TO TURN IT INTO A BLOODY MUSICAL FOR YOU?"
"No I think you've done enough," Elisa entered calming down the frantic girl. "Thank you Miss...."
"Naddia."
"We need a full name."
Billie grunted, "My name is Naddania McPhee, everyone calls me Naddia."
"Okay, Naddia." Elisa gave her a soft smile, She looked at the skyline. 'Almost sunset, this kids had enough excitement for today,' "Hey Demetri, how about you escort this our guest downstairs."
"No prob Ma'am." Demetri, a rather dashing new recute for the NYPD led the witness out of the castle.
Naddia started to relax, 'Finally I can go back to the Youth Hostel! I think I'm gonna stay away from this place, for a while at least'. They reached the doors to the elevator and just when she was about to enter, Demetri yanked her back by the neck and couvered her mouth and nose with his hand. She tried to kick her way out, but Demetri got her legs into an akward knot and kicked them with great strength spraining her right ankle. She tried to scream but his hand muffled her voice, and the frightened girl was running out of breath. 'Oh god what the fuck is this! This guy's a fucking cop and he's going to kill me!' tears started rolling down her face, 'I'm going to die, I HATE THIS PLACE SO FUCKING MUCH AND I'M GOING TO DIE HERE!'
Then to top it all off, Demetri pulled out a hand gun, "You must think of yourself as a little hero am I right girly? You know Ptolemeus is a very good man, a hullova lot better then that ass hole Xanatos and he just wants what's his. You're going to fuck up his plans if you keep hanging around here, you've done enough damage as it is! Ptolemeus helped me though my courses and training so that I can be a cop and all I had to do is help him out a bit and you're trying to fuck me and him over."
'This guy is a goddamn nut case' Naddia stuggled some more to get free but Demetri just pulled her in closer and held onto her tighter,
"Any funny stuff and I blast your head in" Demetri and Naddia hid in the darkness of a corner, Elisa walked by talking to Xanatos about how she would tell them what happened later because she had a ton of paper work to fill out, and Xanatos said he was going back to his wife and son. As soon as they where alone Demetri lowered his hand which was over Naddia's mouth and gripped her hands together behind her back. "Now if you scream I will kill you, we're just gonna go down the elevator like a happy couple and you are going to step into my bosses car, okay." Naddia nooded.
They walked toward the elevator and Demetri started to lower his gun and loosen his grip, 'It's now or never girl!' Naddia spun around and slammen her open hand into Demetri's face breaking his nose, then kneed his pelvis making him doubble over. She limped away as fast as she could but didn't get far untill she heard Demetri's gun shooting at her. 'I've gotta hide!' Naddia franticly looked for a place to hide but was too buisy panicing to find a decant place.
The sun was setting and Demetri's hostage was cornered, "Stupid move bitch," Demetri raised his gun and aimed it at Naddia's head. The ground started to tremble under them. As the sun disseaperaed, the Manhattan clan came to life.
For a second Billie forgot about Demetri, 'HOLY SHIZA! I'm either dreaming or Mr. Bad-cop has allready killed me!' It was hard to tell who was more surprised: Naddia who found out how the gargoyle moved from it's shape, Demetri whose simple job was taking a turn for the worse, or the gargoyles who had no clue what was going on. Finally Naddia came forward, "YOU'VE GOTTA HELP THIS GUYS TRYIN' TO KILL ME!" The gargoyles came out of their shell shock and moved toward Naddia.
"Y-y-you freaks stay out of this!" Demetri stuttered, "This is between me and the girl."
"He tried to blow up this castle! He's working for this Ptolemeh-whatever guy and... and... HE WANT'S ME DEAD JUST 'CAUSE I FOUND HIS BOMB!"
"Goliath, Ptolememus is the guy Xanatos warned us about right?" Lexington asked pulling Naddia out of Demetries view.
"Yes," Golaith looked at his second-in-command, "Brooklyn take the human somewhere safe."
"No Problem." Brooklyn grabbed the human by the waist and jumped of the building. Naddia screamed as she found herslef free-falling from the skyscraper and gliding through the Manhattan sky. After a few seconds though, she calmed down and was actually enjoying the view. "What were you doing up in our castle anyway?"
Naddia was still a little shocked at the fact that the gargoyle could talk, "Uh, I'm visiting from Toronto with my art class, we were sketching some of the sculptures in the castle and I wanted to stay a little longer...and I found the bomb and... and.... I think I need to sit down for a second."
"Okay then, how about overthere?" Brooklyn pointed his head in the direction of an apartment roof and glided down. Naddia scrambled to the ground and decided she felt safer sitting. "Are you all right?"
"Not really, no. I mean it's not everyday a policeman tries to kill you, not where I'm from at least." There was an akward silence, Brooklyn didn't know what to say to her and the same for Naddie. "You're Brooklyn right?"
"How do you know my name?"
"Xanatos told me, I just... Thank you. You guys saved my life. I owe you big time."
"Hey, If your bomb story is true, you saved our lives first....uh"
"Naddia..... so we're even?"
"Guess so." There was another pause. "So, you were drawing stuff around the castle huh?"
"Oh yea! I basicly drew.... You!" she opened up her backpack and handed her sketchbook to Brooklyn, "You can look at them if you want."
Brooklyn skimmed through the book untill he found the sketches of him. "These are pretty good," he continued on. "These are really good! Aww you got my good side." He turned the page to a rather poor cartoon of what looked to be a giant multi-coloured Brooklyn eating a stick lady in a polka- dot-dress with a grey old-lady afro, "Uhhh?"
"Oh Troy did that. He's my step-cousin. We don't really like our art teacher... as you can see..... Ignor that one." They continued on talking about art, Brooklyn's past, and any random topic that came up.
"Hey uh Naddia how long are you going to be in New York?"
"For the rest of this week, unless we want to stay longer on our own. See I'm 19, and live on my own. I couldn't afford University yet so i decided to take extra OAC courses, kinda like a grade 13. I could stay as long as I wanted since I'm on my own."
"Oh Cool! I...mean.... Are you going to stay longer? 'Cause if you were we could probably hang out a bit... besides you've got yourself into a sticky situation and you might need some protection."
"Wouldn't it be safer for me if I went home?" Naddia Mocked Brooklyn. He started giving her puppie-dog eyes, "Well, everyone IS expecting me to stay, and how could a person say no to a face like yours?"
"It's almost impossible," Brooklyn bragged. "I was hatched with good looks."
Naddia laughed at his egotistical comment, "Hey do you think the rest of your clan is all right?"
"I think everything is cleared up, you wanna come over?"
"Sure!" Brooklyn took Naddia by the waist again the the two sailed off towards the castle. The clan was all their with Elisa, Xanatos, and another woman who wold soon be introduced to as Fox. Xanatos apologised to Naddia for the poor security, and Elisa reasured her that she is perfectly safe. Naddia introduced herself to the clan and thanked them for saving her life. She decided to stick around for a while, if it wasn't a problem, which it didn't seem to be, after all these things don't usually happen to people, except in books or tv shows and she was not going to say good bye to this dream yet.
Naddia told Elisa that she wanted to be an artist all her life when she asked her what she was going to do for a job; and she was more then happy to show the Chinese dragon tattoo on her left hip, "My best friend Mindy has the same one on the same spot."
The clock-tower, which had been repaired since the 'terrorist attact' struck 3, and Naddia thought it would be best if she went back to the Youth Hostel. Brooklyn volentered to take her back and she said goodbye to her new friends. They landed on the balcony to where Naddia's dorm was, "I'll see yah around Naddia."
"Yea, soon I hope..."
"What are you doing tomorrow night?"
"Nothin'. You wanna do somthing?"
"I know this place where they have awsome music, we could have the best seats in the house, besides it will give you a better chance to see the cooler side of New York."
Naddia smiled, "Pick me up around 9:30 here okay? Bye Brooklyn!"
"Later Naddia" The gargoyle flew off into the night and she changed into her pj's. 'This day just went from horrible to great! who'ulda thunk I would be friends with a real live gargoyle! I hope it's not a dream.' Naddia slowly drifted to sleep. 'I'll rest in the morning and stay up all night! Screw Miss Smith'
**************
to be continued
Gargoyles belongs to disney.... but soon I will take over the world and rule disney so I WILL own gargoyles
*********
"All right class, Mr Xanatos has been kind enough to let us visit his castle while in New York so lets show our thanks by NOT breaking anything... this means you Troy Davis!"
The small group of grade 12 students laughed at the boy who was at the moment pretending to be possesed by a demonic elmo "Sesame Street has been brought to you by the numbers 6 6 6," he quickly snapped out of his trance and joined the rest of the kids at the elevators.
a group of girls went into the first elevator laughing at their fellow classmates as they closed the door on them.
"Naddia? Oi N-A-D-D-I-A? EARTH TO NADDIA COME IN NADDIA!" a tall brunette waved her hands infront of her 5'3 pink haired friend who seemed to be in a trans.
"Leave 'er alone Mindy she off in happy land.... she does it all the time," Crystall a Jamaacian girl said.
"Yea and if you want her to come back you just say "KIT KAT!" the fourth girl who seemed to be from the middle east said.
Naddia blined, "where?"
"Where what?" Mindy asked.
"Where'she Kit Kat? Amanesha said Kit Kat, where is it?"
"I'll get you one bake at the hotel kay Naddia," Amanesha mothered her.
The four made fun of each other untill they reached the top floor. 'This is perfect!' Naddia thought to herself, 'we're the first ones here so we get first dibs on the statues'. She walked around to the ouside of the castal and looked around at the stone monsters. 'That one looked so kewl' she went over to one of the gargoyles and started to set up her stool. she opened up her set of pencils and her sketch book and began to work on the 6' demon.
She started to work on the main frame of the body, then put more detail on the torso. The rest of the class had arrived and began to talk rather loudly so Naddia put on her MP3 player and listened to some Tori Amos. She started to work on the head, makeing the beak a little bit stronger and giving the eyes a more serious look. The edges were smoother as if it were real instead of stone, and the hair looked like the wind was blowing it. Mrs. Smith wouldn't except it, she said they had to copy it exactly. Naddia sighed as she erased on wing wich was out of proportion and replaced it with a more accurate one.
'A sortta fairy tale' started to play and Naddia stopped to listen to her favorite song.
"And I'm so sad, like a good book I can't put this
Day back, A sorta fairy tale with you,
its a sortta fairy tale with you."
"Miss McPhee?" Naddia put the song on pause and looked up at her teacher. "You're supposed to be working not singing and your gargoyle is stone not real! fix it." with that she left to critisize more peoples works.
"I'll fix you yah old bitch," Naddia mumbled under her breath carfull not to let the middle aged devil hag hear her, the last thing she wanted was to got back to Ontario after giving up half her college savings account for this art trip.
After two hours Naddia had made two complete sketches; her amazingly realistic sketch for her own portfolio, and the equally wonderful stone sketch for her ungrateful teacher. They would be back for one more day for the slower kids then they would move on to the art galaries. "I'll see you tomorrow buddy," Naddia Patted the Gargoyle on the back. "Don't move kay!" She packed up her stuffed and raced to the elevators with her friends.
As they left the sky scrapper Naddia noticed a rather creepy black lux with two men standing outside looking up at the castle in the skyline. You could only describe them as the type of person you would rather avoid even if it ment waling into a pile of garbage. 'I know it's just sterio-typing New Yorkers, but those guys give me the creeps'. They were talking in a forign language, possibly Greek. "Yo Mindy!" Naddia ran ahead of the crowd dragging her friend with her. "Do you know what those guys were sayin'?"
Mindy looked at the two men who were now entering the lux, "How the fuck should I know!"
"I thought you speek Greece....anese..."
"It's Greek you dumb-ass, and I wasn't paying attention. It's RUDE to listen to someone elses conversations."
"So I guess I should stop now," Tory bursted in between them. "Watcha up to girlies?"
"Oh, you know, The usual..." Naddia said passively
"Yea discussing the best way to make it look like you're the one who flooded Mrs, Smith's room," Mindy added.
"Can I help?"
"Sure"
They walked a few blocks to the subway station that would take them to Amsterdam Avenue, where the Youth hostel was. After riding the New York subways, Billie had a great sence of pride in the ones in Toronto, and the bums at hobos were so much more polight and didn't talk to themselves.... as much. It's no surprise Naddia was the first person to enter the youth hostel and stated she wasn't going anywhere that night.
************
The sun dissapeared over the Manhattan skyline and the cities nightlife was comming out to play; man, freaks, and Gargoyles. After a few stretches Angela rapped herself in Broadways arms, Goliath rapped himself in Elisa's arms, and Hudson rapped himself in his lazy-boy's arms. Lexington went to his computer and Bronx joined Hudson. Brooklyn was left alone. He didn't mind, he was always a little bit of a loner, he liked it. Tonight he was going to paint the town red, he leaped from his post and glided toward the old stadium where 'The Pack' did all their live shows, it was now a stadium for amature rock bands.
You would think that having to hide from the world, not being able to be soaked in the crowds of rockers down below would be depressing. You'ld be right. But Brooklyn wasn't about to complain after all, he had the best seat in the house and he didn't have to worry about bouncers, drunks, or being trampled by restless punks. 'Life could be worse,' he would reassure himself as the song finished and the group of skinny spiked hair men in kilts was replaced with fem-rockers.
"Hey Brooklyn!" Lexington landed beside Brooklyn. "Goliath needs everyone back at the castle, some kind of emergancy."
"What up?" The two glided out of the building and caught an updraft taking them in the direction of their home.
"I'm not sure but Xanatos said he's been having trouble with some old buisness partner of his and it may get a little dangerous."
"Whaddaya mean by dangerous?"
"I don't know, but according to Xanatos, this guy is someone you don't want to mess with."
The two joined the rest of the clan and Xanatos in the court yard. Brooklyn braced for the news wich he figured wasn't going to be good after seing serious faces of the entire clan. Goliath was one thing, but Broadway, and Lexington as well...
"Nice of you to join us Brooklyn," Xanatos said in his natually calm voice. "As I was telling Goliath, Ptolemeus is a distant cousin of mine. My Great-great grandfather and his are the same. A rather large fortune passed from him to my great-grandfather and down to me. That fortune is what funded this corporation. Ptolemeus, who I reasently found out existed believes that the fortune should have fallen to his great-grandfather, and to make up for his mistake I should do the rightful thing and hand it over along with my company."
"Sounds a little greedy," said Elisa.
"I've offered him doubble the fortune but he refused. He said that he will be sending some associats of his to help 'convince' me to give in."
"What does this have to do with us?" Goliath asked sternly.
"Just keep on guard for attack, I don't know anything about this guy and I don't know how he fights. I want to be prepaired for anything." With that Xanatos left the frustrated Gargoyles alone.
"So what do we do Goliath?" Lexington asked, breaking the silence.
"Stand on guard. The sun will be comming up soon, we should prepaire to rest."
Goliath and Elisa walked up to the tower where he perched every night. Broadway and Angela got onto their pedistal embracing each other. and the rest did the same. Brooklyn thought for a second, 'Just when everything was going easy, I don't think will ever have a time of peace.' He gave out a depressing sigh and slouched as the sun rose and the angels of the night turned to stone.
***********
"WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!" Naddia jumped at the sound of Mindy screaming in her ear. "You gotta get up girl!"
"No I don't," Naddia hid herself under a Beetle Juice pillow and Ninja Turtle Blanket.
Mindy moaned as she pulled the blanket off and dragged Naddia to the ground. "We were going to get up early to grab a cab and get to the castle before everyone else remember!"
"Why would I say something stupid like 'get up early'?" Naddia moaned as she skrambled from her bottom bunk and walked to the bathroom with her cleaning supplies and a change of clothes. "I hate mornings" she mumbled through the door as she slipped into her skort and tied up her dockers.
"I know you do, but we can go to Starbucks and get an extra fatty breakfast, my treat!" Mindy spoke through the door as the sound of an electric toothbrush ended.
The door bursted open and Naddia and rushed for the door, Mindy right behind her. "Come on Mindy we can brush our hair in the cab!"
*************
The two friends couldn't decide which was worse, the traffic or the subway. But they had reaced their destination, confirmed with the desk clerk that they where here with the Toronto art class. and made their way up to the castle. Mindy, who yesterday was working on a dog-like gargoyle, decided to work on the old one beside it. Naddia on the otherhand went striaght to the bird-like gargoyle she worked on. Something wasn't right about it. She opened her sketchbook and looked at yesterdays art. The thing was slouching! 'No. It couldn't be. could it?' She studied the sketches and the statue more thoroughly. 'It's impossible! maybe they switched it. I mean stones don't move! I'm going crazy.' Naddia stood up and tried to clear her head. "Oi Mindy! make sure no one takes my spot! I need to got to the washroom."
"The class won't be here untill 10:10, and its...... 8:47 I think your spot is safe." Mindy went back to her sketching.
"Well, just make sure no pidgeons sit on my stool then."
"Whatever..."
'Where are the fucking bathrooms in this damn building!' Naddia ran around the laborinth looking for a bathroom or a person who wasn't rude enough to stop and show her which way to go. 'I hate grown ups! I never want to be one.... like Peter Pan! a 19 year old female version of Peter Pan' Naddia's mind trailed off as she entered her happy land. 'Happy land? AMANEASHA OWS ME A KIT KAT!'
"Can I help you miss?" Naddia looked up at the tall, dark and handsome man, "You look as though you are lost."
"Yea um where are the bathrooms?"
"On next floor down, I'll show you."
"Thanks... Oh sorry for being so rude, I'm Naddia." Naddie extended her had to the stranger.
"David Xanatos." He smile as he shook her hand
"You-yu-you're Mr. Xanatos!"
"Last time I checked." The two headed for the elevators.
"Thank you so much for letting our class do the sketches in your castle, I think its absolutly beautiful."
"Thank you,"
"There's this one gargoyle up there, it kinda looks like a bird,"
"Brooklyn?"
"If that's what you named it, it uh moved."
"What do you mean?"
"Well I was sketching it yesterday, and when I went to start again, It's possition moved. It looks like it's slouching. I must sound like I need to go to the looney bin but do you have copies of it that you've replaced?"
"No, but the castle is old and has the habbit of leaving little suprises," Xanatos smiled at Naddia.
"Yea, I guess you're right." The doors opened and Xanatos showed her the way to the washrooms. "Thank Mr. Xanatos, it was an honour to meet you."
"The pleasure was all mine. Naddia," The elevator doors closed. "This should be interesting."
***********
Naddia finished in the bathroom and went back to the castle. Whatever was going on she didn't care anymore. 10:10 came around and the rest of the class came in and started sketching the sculptures. Naddia, who was finished another sketch for herself started thinking about the moving gargoyle again. "Troy?"
Troy who was working on the smaller gargoyle beside her turned around, "Oh what does misses I'm too good an artist to go to the building wiht the rest of my class want?"
"Where are we going tomorrow?"
"Some art galary, why? you wanna get their early too?"
"No I'm comming back here."
"Skipper! Can I come?"
"No"
"Why?"
"If you do, a big-ass one-eyed-one-horned-flying-purple-people-eater will beat the shit out of you!"
"Again! God I just got over that one in Muskoka! Why isn't the one-eye-one- honed-flying-purple-people-eater repelant working!" Naddia and Troy laughed at their little personal joke which was now going on for seven years.
"I need you to cover for me or Miss Bitch will send me back!"
"No prob, I'll tell her you're on a PMS day or something."
"Gee thanks. The last thing I want is the whole class knowing I'm on my period when I'M NOT!"
"Fine, I'll say you're constepated from all the double cheese pizzas you ate."
"I DON'T LIKE CHEESE!"
"You've got a cold?"
"good."
"great!"
"grand!" Naddia turned around and put the headphones to her mp3 player on. She sang to Sam Roberts as she sketched the Gargoyle from another angle.
"Wanna leave but I've got to stay,
And I'm thinkin' more everyday,
Montreal to Hong Kong, where have all the good people gone,
Traffic jam and I'm on the shoulder, Took ten cops to pull me over, Bangcock to Babylon, where have all the good people gone!"
Miss Smith tried to get Naddia's attention but gave up after the second course and went to one of the other students to 'give advice' on how to improve. 'Yes!' she thought to herself, 'Miss Smith IS like an anoying wild animal, if you ignor her, she'll go away. I should have listened to Crystall a long time ago.'
Luch time came around and Naddia, Mindy, and Troy desided to find out where the restraunt where the $42 burger was, but they had to settled for a pizzaria. Their teacher told the class that this would be the best time to go sight seeing while they were in this area of Manhatten which everyone hated since there was so much everyone wanted to see. Mindy and Troy wanted to get some expensive outfits and pretend to be rich. Naddia however, had other plans. She wanted to play ghost hunter and see if the gargoyle had moved again. After two days in New York Naddia was starting to learn who to talk to and who to stay away from, so she had no problems getting directions from whichever street they were on, back to Xanatos' skyscraper.
She was making her way up to the castle with ease, untill the elevator door opened and in steped and stern looking blond man. "What are you doing?"
"I-I was just going up to the castle.... for my art class we were scheduald to come."
"I believe you were supposed to be here from 10:10 to 11:45, it 1:53 now. I believe you missed the class."
"Come on now Owen," a firmilliar voice said from behind the man. Xanatos greeted the young girl. "Naddia just wants to prefect her work, she takes it very seriously. I told her she could come, isn't that right?" He winked at the girl, she nooded.
"Thank you once again Mr. Xanatos, you are a very generous person."
Xanatos and Owen left at the top floor of the building, Naddia continued to the castle. To her dissapointment the gargoyle didn't move, but it was quiet, peaceful, and welcoming to her. She leaned over the ledge and look down, the shear hight made her dizzy, even though she was never really scared of hights and she did outlast her friends in thier anual 'see who can lie face down on the glass flor of the CN tower and scream your face off scaring old people and tourist the longest before the guards kick you out' contest. She stepped back and leaned into the gargoyle. "Mr. Xanatos said your name is Brooklyn," she looked over at the Brooklyn bridge. "wonder where the Idea of that name came from eh?" she closed her eyes to escape the warm sun, 'I'll just close my eyes for a moment'.
When she opened them, it was clearly noticibal that a few hours had passed. 'Shit! I gotta get back.' Naddia grabbed her bag and walked towards the exit, when someting got her attention. She looked over to her right side to see a little black box. 'That wasn't there before,' she looked closer and noticed it ticking. 'Why is it making that noise?' as she looked on the other side of the box, a screen with digital numbers was counting down, at -20:56. 'IT'S A BOMB!' Naddia stubld backwards as she headed for the elevator.
She got off on the floor she saw Xanatos get off. 'God I hope he's still here,' she ran around looking for signs of life. She closed her eyes for a second to clear her head when, BAM! She looked up to see the blond man from befor, "OWEN!" He gave her an rude glare, "There's a bomb in the castle!"
"What do you mean?"
"I MEAN, there is a bomb in the castle and in about twenty minuites it is going to blow!" She was beging to dislike this Owen fellow.
"I'll look into it." Owen entered Xanatos' office and reappeared a moment later, "You might want to stay around for questioning."
*********
The last hour had been the most hectic experiance in Naddia's life. A ditective name Elisa let her use her cell phone to call her friends and say she would be comming back late that night. She didn't tell them why though, Mindy had the bad habbit of overpanicing in bad situations. The bomb squad came and disarmed the black box, and Naddia had to tell her story ten times to the police; "I didn't see who came in, I kinda fell asleep. When I woke up I went to leave and I noticed the bomb, so I ran for help and ran into Owen. He told Xanatos and Xanatos called you and here we are DO YOU WANT ME TO TURN IT INTO A BLOODY MUSICAL FOR YOU?"
"No I think you've done enough," Elisa entered calming down the frantic girl. "Thank you Miss...."
"Naddia."
"We need a full name."
Billie grunted, "My name is Naddania McPhee, everyone calls me Naddia."
"Okay, Naddia." Elisa gave her a soft smile, She looked at the skyline. 'Almost sunset, this kids had enough excitement for today,' "Hey Demetri, how about you escort this our guest downstairs."
"No prob Ma'am." Demetri, a rather dashing new recute for the NYPD led the witness out of the castle.
Naddia started to relax, 'Finally I can go back to the Youth Hostel! I think I'm gonna stay away from this place, for a while at least'. They reached the doors to the elevator and just when she was about to enter, Demetri yanked her back by the neck and couvered her mouth and nose with his hand. She tried to kick her way out, but Demetri got her legs into an akward knot and kicked them with great strength spraining her right ankle. She tried to scream but his hand muffled her voice, and the frightened girl was running out of breath. 'Oh god what the fuck is this! This guy's a fucking cop and he's going to kill me!' tears started rolling down her face, 'I'm going to die, I HATE THIS PLACE SO FUCKING MUCH AND I'M GOING TO DIE HERE!'
Then to top it all off, Demetri pulled out a hand gun, "You must think of yourself as a little hero am I right girly? You know Ptolemeus is a very good man, a hullova lot better then that ass hole Xanatos and he just wants what's his. You're going to fuck up his plans if you keep hanging around here, you've done enough damage as it is! Ptolemeus helped me though my courses and training so that I can be a cop and all I had to do is help him out a bit and you're trying to fuck me and him over."
'This guy is a goddamn nut case' Naddia stuggled some more to get free but Demetri just pulled her in closer and held onto her tighter,
"Any funny stuff and I blast your head in" Demetri and Naddia hid in the darkness of a corner, Elisa walked by talking to Xanatos about how she would tell them what happened later because she had a ton of paper work to fill out, and Xanatos said he was going back to his wife and son. As soon as they where alone Demetri lowered his hand which was over Naddia's mouth and gripped her hands together behind her back. "Now if you scream I will kill you, we're just gonna go down the elevator like a happy couple and you are going to step into my bosses car, okay." Naddia nooded.
They walked toward the elevator and Demetri started to lower his gun and loosen his grip, 'It's now or never girl!' Naddia spun around and slammen her open hand into Demetri's face breaking his nose, then kneed his pelvis making him doubble over. She limped away as fast as she could but didn't get far untill she heard Demetri's gun shooting at her. 'I've gotta hide!' Naddia franticly looked for a place to hide but was too buisy panicing to find a decant place.
The sun was setting and Demetri's hostage was cornered, "Stupid move bitch," Demetri raised his gun and aimed it at Naddia's head. The ground started to tremble under them. As the sun disseaperaed, the Manhattan clan came to life.
For a second Billie forgot about Demetri, 'HOLY SHIZA! I'm either dreaming or Mr. Bad-cop has allready killed me!' It was hard to tell who was more surprised: Naddia who found out how the gargoyle moved from it's shape, Demetri whose simple job was taking a turn for the worse, or the gargoyles who had no clue what was going on. Finally Naddia came forward, "YOU'VE GOTTA HELP THIS GUYS TRYIN' TO KILL ME!" The gargoyles came out of their shell shock and moved toward Naddia.
"Y-y-you freaks stay out of this!" Demetri stuttered, "This is between me and the girl."
"He tried to blow up this castle! He's working for this Ptolemeh-whatever guy and... and... HE WANT'S ME DEAD JUST 'CAUSE I FOUND HIS BOMB!"
"Goliath, Ptolememus is the guy Xanatos warned us about right?" Lexington asked pulling Naddia out of Demetries view.
"Yes," Golaith looked at his second-in-command, "Brooklyn take the human somewhere safe."
"No Problem." Brooklyn grabbed the human by the waist and jumped of the building. Naddia screamed as she found herslef free-falling from the skyscraper and gliding through the Manhattan sky. After a few seconds though, she calmed down and was actually enjoying the view. "What were you doing up in our castle anyway?"
Naddia was still a little shocked at the fact that the gargoyle could talk, "Uh, I'm visiting from Toronto with my art class, we were sketching some of the sculptures in the castle and I wanted to stay a little longer...and I found the bomb and... and.... I think I need to sit down for a second."
"Okay then, how about overthere?" Brooklyn pointed his head in the direction of an apartment roof and glided down. Naddia scrambled to the ground and decided she felt safer sitting. "Are you all right?"
"Not really, no. I mean it's not everyday a policeman tries to kill you, not where I'm from at least." There was an akward silence, Brooklyn didn't know what to say to her and the same for Naddie. "You're Brooklyn right?"
"How do you know my name?"
"Xanatos told me, I just... Thank you. You guys saved my life. I owe you big time."
"Hey, If your bomb story is true, you saved our lives first....uh"
"Naddia..... so we're even?"
"Guess so." There was another pause. "So, you were drawing stuff around the castle huh?"
"Oh yea! I basicly drew.... You!" she opened up her backpack and handed her sketchbook to Brooklyn, "You can look at them if you want."
Brooklyn skimmed through the book untill he found the sketches of him. "These are pretty good," he continued on. "These are really good! Aww you got my good side." He turned the page to a rather poor cartoon of what looked to be a giant multi-coloured Brooklyn eating a stick lady in a polka- dot-dress with a grey old-lady afro, "Uhhh?"
"Oh Troy did that. He's my step-cousin. We don't really like our art teacher... as you can see..... Ignor that one." They continued on talking about art, Brooklyn's past, and any random topic that came up.
"Hey uh Naddia how long are you going to be in New York?"
"For the rest of this week, unless we want to stay longer on our own. See I'm 19, and live on my own. I couldn't afford University yet so i decided to take extra OAC courses, kinda like a grade 13. I could stay as long as I wanted since I'm on my own."
"Oh Cool! I...mean.... Are you going to stay longer? 'Cause if you were we could probably hang out a bit... besides you've got yourself into a sticky situation and you might need some protection."
"Wouldn't it be safer for me if I went home?" Naddia Mocked Brooklyn. He started giving her puppie-dog eyes, "Well, everyone IS expecting me to stay, and how could a person say no to a face like yours?"
"It's almost impossible," Brooklyn bragged. "I was hatched with good looks."
Naddia laughed at his egotistical comment, "Hey do you think the rest of your clan is all right?"
"I think everything is cleared up, you wanna come over?"
"Sure!" Brooklyn took Naddia by the waist again the the two sailed off towards the castle. The clan was all their with Elisa, Xanatos, and another woman who wold soon be introduced to as Fox. Xanatos apologised to Naddia for the poor security, and Elisa reasured her that she is perfectly safe. Naddia introduced herself to the clan and thanked them for saving her life. She decided to stick around for a while, if it wasn't a problem, which it didn't seem to be, after all these things don't usually happen to people, except in books or tv shows and she was not going to say good bye to this dream yet.
Naddia told Elisa that she wanted to be an artist all her life when she asked her what she was going to do for a job; and she was more then happy to show the Chinese dragon tattoo on her left hip, "My best friend Mindy has the same one on the same spot."
The clock-tower, which had been repaired since the 'terrorist attact' struck 3, and Naddia thought it would be best if she went back to the Youth Hostel. Brooklyn volentered to take her back and she said goodbye to her new friends. They landed on the balcony to where Naddia's dorm was, "I'll see yah around Naddia."
"Yea, soon I hope..."
"What are you doing tomorrow night?"
"Nothin'. You wanna do somthing?"
"I know this place where they have awsome music, we could have the best seats in the house, besides it will give you a better chance to see the cooler side of New York."
Naddia smiled, "Pick me up around 9:30 here okay? Bye Brooklyn!"
"Later Naddia" The gargoyle flew off into the night and she changed into her pj's. 'This day just went from horrible to great! who'ulda thunk I would be friends with a real live gargoyle! I hope it's not a dream.' Naddia slowly drifted to sleep. 'I'll rest in the morning and stay up all night! Screw Miss Smith'
**************
to be continued