I just want to thank the creators of DARK AGES for creating such a great background and Storyseeker for correcting my fics and helping me with great ideas, as for Worker72 and Doppleganger for their reviews.
2.Visites
03.08.98; 23:49; Castle Wyvern:
Asrial stood, fully concentrated over her new tool, working in it with her pliers in one claw and the screwdriver in the other. She just had to connect this wire with the other and...
"OUCH!" the caramel-skinned gargess exclaimed, as she jumped backwards and knocked down the stool she had sat on.
Sucking her slightly burned left claw; she stared on the machine in front of her. It was the upper arm of a robot... To be exact, it was an upper arm of one of Xanatos famous steel clan robots. This piece of human technology didn't just fascinate her because it had the appearance of her brother, but it seemed to have an endless potential of modifying.
Releasing her claw, she looked over the room that Xanatos had given her, since her old tower now served as a stockroom for some of the castle's inventory. Much to her relief and that of various other clan members, who knew of the results of her old experiments, this room was placed far away from the main living area of the castle.
In the relatively short time she inhabited it, Asrial had managed to cover most of the place with parts of TVs, PCs and other interesting machines of the human world, so that she could... mostly unsuccessful... try to create something new from them, while analyzing them.
As a little reward, she had offered Xanatos to help him with upgrading his robots, which he had accepted openly. Some of her clanmates had been against her idea because they thought that the steel clan robots could one day be used against them.
Yet Asrial had decided that when her brother and clan leader trusted that human, then she could do so as well.
Her new idea on how to improve the robots was to give larger parts of it an independent energy system, through which the robot would stay operable even when large parts of it had been destroyed, at least for a time.
Let's hope this works, Asrial thought, looking skeptically on the single upper arm of a dismantled steel clan robot version 2.
Carefully, she took up the arm again and connected its cables with the remote control she had especially modified for this case.
"Let's see if..." Asrial began, but never got an opportunity to finish this thought since the claw on the robot, extended the laser.
"Clever, sis..." the gargoyle, who had just come through the door, began but never got the opportunity to end his sentence, since a laser beam hit him in his chest and the world became dark.
Later
"Brother?" a soft, concerned and somehow distant voice called him. "Brother!"
"Ohhh," Thersities groaned, slowly opening his eyes, noticing that he was lying on his back, "what..."
The beautiful orange-skinned face that was revealing to him, calmed him for a moment, then he remembered what had happened.
"AHHH..." the olive-skinned warrior screamed, as he jumped up, grabbing his chest as if he had just had a heart attack.
"It is okay." Asrial tried to calm him down, not very successfully.
"OKAY?" Thersities screamed, whirling around himself as if to make sure that not just the world, but he even so was still there. "A laser hit me, I'm dead and..."
"You are not dead." his sister replied, standing up. "I used a low-energy cell for the laser. It had the intensity of a sunbeam."
Thersities stopped, slowly calming down since he sensed that his chest neither had a large hole in it, nor had it a burned spot.
"I heard sunbeams cause cancer." he noted, even when he sounded calmer now, nearly a bit ashamed of his reaction.
Asrial giggled; despite the shock she had got herself, her brother's reaction was too good.
"I think it would need more light than this to cause cancer." she told him, trying to suppress her giggles.
"Yes, by humans, but our skins are more sensitive against sunlight than theirs and..." Thersities stopped, noticing that his sister was working hard not to burst out into a new series of giggles. "Ha, Ha, Ha."
"Sorry." Asrial replied, suppressing a grin. "By the way, what are you doing here?"
"Well," Thersities began. "Our cook sent me to tell you that he has left some of his excellent Bolognese for you in the oven of the main kitchen."
"Oh..." Asrial exclaimed, looking up to the clock, which showed 12:13am now, far beyond the clan's usual time to gather in the great hall for a meal. "I forgot."
"Again." her brother added. "Some in the clan already fear for your weight."
Asrial absently touched her hips. She hadn't really missed that many meals, but to say that she had lost weight was... Then it hit her like a flash.
"Oh no..." she said startled. She had actually forgotten the tour to the Jefferson hall that she had planned with Lexington.
In this hall, the large hi-tech empires presented their newest prototypes to various businessmen from all parts of the industry. It was an non-public show, not to speak of gargoyles, but Xanatos had given them the access code and took care that no security man would enter the hall for two hours, starting at 01:00am.
"I mean, it isn't that I can see your bones, but..." Thersities told her.
"I have to go." she told him, running out of the room, her current project instantly forgotten.
"It's no hurry!" Thersities called after her.
Asrial didn't hear him; instead she concentrated on running through the corridors.
I forgot it, she thought, I really have to get one of those electronic timers that the humans use.
Maybe she could build something like that by herself. It shouldn't be difficult, just...
Luckily she had paid enough attention to the reality so that she could jump over the bucket filled with dirty water in the last second.
Asrial turned her head to the two shocked hatchlings, each with a wiper in their claws, who weren't happy by the idea of cleaning the floor a second time around.
"Sorry." she told them, turned around and hurried across the fresh cleaned floor.
Following the floors with the security of someone who had grown up there, Asrial soon arrived at the room she wanted to.
"I'm sorry." Asrial told Lexington, waiting in front of the door to his computer room on all his fours. "I was distracted, but we can start at once."
"Sorry, sis," Lexington began, standing up to his full high, which was still a bit lower than Asrials, "but I can't."
"Why?" she asked surprised, as based on their former talks, she had come to believe that Lexington was much more interested in visiting this show than she was.
"Well," her younger brother began "I..."
"Lex?" a soft feminine voice called to him. "I can't open this program."
Out of the room came one of Lexington's rookery sisters. She was beautiful, with orange skin, slightly blonde hair and two horns following her head backwards...
"I'm just showing Bea how to use the PC." Lexington explained, scraping his head.
"Is anything wrong?" Bea asked, sensing the sudden silence between these two.
"I just came along here and greeted him." Asrial lied, sensing what was going on and not wanting to ruin for her brother this opportunity to get close with one of his sisters. "Nothing at all."
"Okay," Bea replied and nobody knew if she actually believed this. "Lex, can you come?"
Lex nodded and followed her in, but not before throwing a last half-thankful, half-guilty look on Asrial before closing the door behind him.
Asrial sighed before going down the floor. She really would have liked to go to the hall with her younger brother, but...
I could go alone? She thought. It isn't that far...
Naturally she could, but...
But what? The voice in her asked. No time?
She had time, plenty of it, even when large parts of her wanted to go back to her workroom and finish the work... or start a new one.
Asrial put this thought away, as she could do this tomorrow night, but what Xanatos had granted them was just for one night.
It would be ungrateful not to go. She thought. Besides, my brothers and sisters seem to believe I never go out.
The decision was made and Asrial set her feet claws in the direction leading outside, when another part of her told her something else.
Okay, a snack first, she thought while holding her growling stomach.
04.08.98; 01:16; Jefferson Hall:
Asrial landed not very gracefully on the roof of the building.
Our old teacher would give me an extra training lesson. She thought. Who says that getting older makes things easier?
Asrial slowly massaged the point where her aching wings met on her back Maybe some further hours to practice her gliding wouldn't be that bad, at least it would keep the pains away she got by already flying small distances.
I really don't glide out enough Asrial thought guiltily while looking around.
After some seconds, she found the emergency door that Xanatos had described to them and quickly opened it, rushing in so as not to be seen by any security system that Xanatos hadn't thought of.
Following the steps downstairs, she soon discovered another door leading into the hall. The hall was dark and as far as Asrial could see, except for the various machines, there were no signs of any guards.
Still cautious, she sneaked into the hall, studying the various exhibits until one took her interest. It seemed like a mix of virtual-reality helmets and two joysticks beside a dark box.
Overwhelmed by her curiosity, Asrial activated the machinery, grabbed the joysticks and took over the helmet, happy that it just covered her eyes as her horns might have stopped her from going further.
Luckily the machinery, despite a short peep, didn't make much sounds, neither did it make any light, which could attract any attention.
What she discovered was startling. At first it seemed like endless darkness in it, then a light lit up before her eyes and Asrial realized that whatever she saw wasn't much more interesting either.
Before her virtual eyes, she could see a long black wall, slightly sparkling in the light of her lamp.
To be honest, she didn't realize what she was seeing until a friendly, masculine voice began speaking into her ear.
"Welcome..." the voice greeted and Asrial nearly made a jump in the air.
As quick as she could, she took the helmet from her head and looked around searching for the source of this voice.
"This is a..." the gargess looked down and quickly began rebuking herself.
The voice came from the headset. She thought. I should have guessed this...
Doing this was definitely more her brother's style than hers.
Carefully, she took over the helmet again, readjusting to the virtual atmosphere while grabbing the joysticks again.
"MINER 3.0." the voice continued. "This newest work of IRONSIDE is the top of the current revolution having started in the mining business. This model works in a mine near the Rocky Mountains. Please use the Joystick..."
Asrial did so and quickly managed to take over the machine, realizing that the control was designed very easily to allow even a low-tech worker to use it.
After she had put a block of coal down that she had cut out of the stone through laser-beams, on the automatic train, the automatic voice asked her if she wished to continue. Asrial denied this by placing the headset back on the table, through which the whole system somehow shut down.
Not very interesting, she thought, as she looked over the papers lying on the table...
"MINER 3.0... Mining-robot... Automatic program on demand... Works at over 200C°..." Asrial was about to turn around and continue her tour when she read the last part. "IRONSIDE (Part of the Nightstone Unlimited Group.)"
She had to read it twice until she believed it, then she shrugged her shoulders. She probably had to congratulate her sister for this.
Asrial walked further around, looking here and there, investigating the newest super-fast internet-server from Cyberbiotics, and going over the power suits from Xanatos Enterprises. She mostly ignored them since she knew that Xanatos always left his newest developments for his own battle suit and robots, to give enemies not a possible advantage.
Small microscopes going deeper into the existences of things that Asrial had never dreamed of. Laser-based 3 dimensional pictures , models of aircraft's flying with sonic speed on regular basis. Artificial gems used as memory chips...
Little brother, you will become so jealous when I tell you of this. Asrial thought while walking further. This...
Suddenly, her sensitive gargoyle ears sensed something and when she turned around, Asrial discovered the door, straight down the room through which she had entered, slowly open.
Trained reflects made her jump between two stalls before the door was even half-open and she had turned around, looking to the door before it was fully open. Two guardsmen, of the sort that Xanatos had said wouldn't come, came out of it looking around.
"I told you there was something wrong." The first guard told the second one.
"There is nothing here." Guard B replied, looking into the darkness.
"We'll see." Guard A told him, drawing his pistol and slowly beginning to walk down the floor
Guard B sighed, but drew his weapon and went over the floor. Asrial was just turning around, trying to find a place to hide when she noticed that she had left the light on the last booth. It was a little light, but when one of the guards noticed it...
Time to go. Asrial thought while turning around. I...
She stared into two wide eyes staring directly into hers.
"Ähmm..." a man around his thirties, with wide mild blue eyes, short blonde hair that was full of gel, began, "...hello?"
"Who are you?" Asrial asked him, working hard not to scream with surprise and before he could say anything, she had a second question coming into her mind "What are you doing here?"
"I..." the man swallowed and Asrial got time to study him.
He wore a black jacket with gray jeans and worn-out jogging shoes, on his back he wore an even so worn-out bag.
"Are you a thief?" she asked him, her voice sounding harsher than she had intended it to, especially since her right to be here was more than doubtful.
"No!" he exclaimed fast, and for her ears much too loud.
As fast as he could, he lay down his bag and opened it, showing the contents, being made of a camera, some paper and a laptop. Asrial looked up again, looking into his face and seeing nothing, but a somewhat scared and harmless young man.
"How did you..." Asrial began.
"Hey," Guard A called his comrade. "Here is something."
The gargess decided to satisfy her questions later and to concentrate now on escaping.
"Can you escape alone?" Asrial asked while slowly crawling on all her fours around the man, looking for the guard on the other floor.
"No..." he explained, taking his bag back on his shoulder. "The guards are blocking it."
Asrial noticed that Guard B was distracted by looking into the direction of his comrade and took this chance.
"Follow me!" she whispered to her newly found companion, not wanting to let him be captured by the guards either.
Faster than any human could, she raced on all her fours through the open floor, vanishing quickly behind the next booth. Asrial was going to look around, seeing how her companion was doing when she heard someone screaming.
"Hey." Guard B screamed. "Stop!"
A quick look over her shoulder showed Asrial that the man had no intention to do so.
"Come on, hurry!" she whispered to him and ran in a speed that she knew the man could hold, to the emergency door.
Reaching the door and opening it, she saw that her companion wasn't far behind and ran into the door without asking anything.
I hope I know what I'm doing. Asrial thought
Some meters behind them, Guard B reached the emergency door, believing to see it closing.
Fast, but not running, he approached it, waiting on his comrade to let him cover him if necessary. Reaching the door, he looked to Guard A, who nodded and slowly opened the door, just to enter the room with a jump.
Quickly, Guard B made a 360° look around while Guard A rushed after him, then he looked up seeing... or believing to see the door at the top of the stairs close. Racing up the stairs, Guard B got enough time to ask himself what he had seen... Was it a man, or a shadow?
Whatever it was, he would know soon.
As fast as he could, he opened the door and jumped on the roof.
There was nothing.
The fire escape, it crossed his mind and raced to the ladder, looking down... and finding nothing.
"Where is he?" Guard A asked, coming by his side and looking down the ladder like he did.
"There probably wasn't been anything after all." Guard B told him, placing his gun back in his belt.
"But the light." Guard A insisted. "And didn't you see something?"
"They might simply have forgotten to put out the light." Guard B replied, angry about chasing shadows in the night, taking his eyes back from the ladder to his comrade. "And what I saw... If there truly had been a man then we would have him, wouldn't we?"
Guard A frowned, but finally put his gun back in his belt. "Right."
04.08.98; 03:01; Brooklyn, Blocks away from the Jefferson Hall:
"Ahhhh..." The man screamed, hanging in Asrial arms while his legs dangled over fifty meters about nothing, but air.
"Be quiet, you'll attract attention." Asrial told him, hoping not to be seen by any humans on the street. "I won't let you fall."
The gargess deeply hoped that she spoke the truth. This human was heavier than she guessed him to be and when she had jumped over the roof with him, she had gained much weight that she had feared to land very hard on the street.
Luckily she had caught an updraft and was able to stabilize her glide... somehow.
"Can you land there?" the man asked after some time. "This is my home."
Asrial looked down on the roof of a seemingly empty and slowly decreasing building, and nodded, gliding deeper in a circle down on the roof. Finally she was low enough to release the man from her arms so that he could jump on the roof while Asrial made a final circle, landing on all fours just one meter away from the man.
Standing up, she noticed that the man was standing in front of her, studying her with unhidden awe.
"That was great." he told her.
"Really?" Asrial asked him, stretching and massaging her aching wings and imagining what her teacher would have said to this... Four additional gliding lessons at least, most likely.
"Yes!" the man exclaimed, excited. "I mean, I already saw some gargoyles gliding on the television, but this... How you glided down to the earth first, to not let the guards see us..."
Asrial nodded, accepting the unearned praise, even though she disliked the way this man talked about her. He spoke, as if it was something special to see a gargoyle gliding, but it wasn't... It shouldn't be.
"So what were you doing in the hall if you weren't trying to steal something." Asrial demanded to know.
"I was just looking around." the man told her. "Those shows aren't open for normal folks like me."
Asrial nodded, making her wings stretch one final time before mantling them around her body.
"Same for me," she told him. "I don't think going there openly would be a very happy event."
Now it was time for the man to nod and for a second, Asrial believed to see a harder, more serious look in the man's blue eyes, before it lit up, seemingly getting an idea.
"You are interested in High Tech?" he asked her surprised. "I have never heard that gargoyles were interested in such."
Asrial shrugged her shoulders.
"Not many of us do." she admitted with slight frustration in her voice. "Maybe four in my clan are truly interested in it."
The man nodded and an unpleasant silence followed, since neither of them knew what to say.
"Oh, I forgot...Thomas Carter." the man began. "My name.."
"Asrial." Asrial replied, extending a claw.
Thomas slowly took her claw and shook it, even though cautiously, as if he would be able to crush her hand not the other way around.
"A beautiful name." Thomas noted.
"Thanks," the gargess told him. "I chose it after a counsel with my brothers some months ago."
"When you arrived here?" Thomas asked. "I heard that some of your kind have no name."
"Yes." Asrial said, feeling a bit bad about lying to him, even when it was just a half lie.
To cover the arrival of so many gargoyles, Goliath had told the public authorities that a small part of the clan had already been living in New York before the others came. In the years since then, when they had achieved a somewhat public acceptance, the rest had come with them since their old home was no longer save. This was a lie, a lie Goliath hadn't found easy to tell, but in the end it was better then the supposed to be dead, but rescued by a magical, time-interpreting-talisman story... much better.
"Most of my clan's elders have none," she added. "Like some other clans."
Asrial bit her tongue, as no one of her clan was supposed to talk about the other clans, at least as long as none of them was willing to reveal themselves.
"I don't think it is necessary for your kind to adjust to the human world." Thomas told her and Asrial believed to see a little sparkle in his eyes. "At least, not if you don't want."
"Oh, we want to." Asrial assured him. "We are a very large clan and... Most of us thought it was time for this."
Thomas nodded, seemingly satisfied by this and the sparkle Asrial had believed to see in his eyes was no more.
"Do you want to come in?" he asked, turning half around so that she could see the dark windows of his balcony.
Asrial hesitated, as she didn't know this human, even though he seemed friendly. Not just Goliath, but the others had warned her that they had to be cautious in this new world. The clan had...
The clan, Asrial thought, oh no.
"What time is it?" she wanted to know from him.
"03:26." Thomas told her, checking his wristwatch.
"I have to go," Asrial told him, jumping to the border of the roof. "My clan will be worried about me."
"Wait." Thomas begged. "Can I meet you again?"
Asrial looked back on the human. Could she trust him? Their leader told them that they had to be part of this world to be accepted.
"This time, next week?" she asked him, using the first date she got in mind. "Here at midnight?"
Thomas nodded.
"Sounds great." he replied smiling. "Good night."
"Even so." Asrial replied, smiling back on him before jumping from the roof and vanishing fast into the night.
04.08.98; 3:51; Castle Wyvern:
Asrial could see her brother and clan leader standing at his perch on the highest tower already in some distance and such she decided to land there. After a quick a circle and a landing, which was definitely the most graceful of this night.
"Brother." she greeted him, standing on the perch beside him.
"Sister." Goliath replied, looking a bit surprised. "I thought you were out with Lexington?"
"Our little brother was occupied elsewhere." Asrial explained. "So I went alone."
Goliath stood up to his full high, looking perplexed.
"Alone?" he asked.
"You sound as if you wouldn't believe that I could glide alone?" Asrial noticed, sounding a bit offended.
"No," Goliath told her. "I was just worried..."
Asrial smiled, showing that she indeed wasn't angry with him since she knew he was always worried about her, which was another reason why she liked him.
"You stayed out long." Goliath told her. "I thought Xanatos gave you just two hours there."
"Yes," she admitted, "but it was interesting, so I decided to make a glide over the city... I haven't seen much of it yet."
Goliath nodded. His sister was indeed so occupied in exploring the technology of this new time that she forgot that there was a new world to explore.
Asrial meanwhile had turned around, looking down to the courtyard. There were some of the clan's hatchlings, with Darlene's own, playing something between football and soccer. Some of the clan elder's watched them without true interest, standing in the courtyard talking. While on the battlements, other members of the clan of various ages stood around, talking, laughing or simply studying the city. Asrial watched how a nameless, Demona's former second, arrived and was welcomed back by some of his closer clan-mates.
"I met a human." Asrial revealed, slowly turning back to her brother. "Thomas Carter.... he seemed nice."
"You know that I told you and the rest of the clan to be careful about the humans..." Goliath told her in his usual calm voice, not showing if he was displeased or worried. "Most may become our friends, but some can't be trusted."
Asrial nodded. Sure she knew, especially since she learned of the various hard encounters the clan had made.
"I think I can trust him." she told Goliath, even when she wasn't so sure herself. "At least so far that I meet him again."
"When?" Goliath asked her in his usual stoic voice, but since Asrial knew him literally since the night they had hatched, she noticed the curiosity in him.
"In a week." she answered, jumping from the battlement onto the floor.
Goliath grumbled slightly, closing his eyes.
"I trust your judgment, sister," he finally noted. "But for your safety, I ask you to take at least one clan member with you when you visit this human."
Asrial nodded.
"I will." she promised, turning around and beginning to walk down the steps. "Goodnight, brother."
"Good night, dear sister." Goliath replied, looking after Asrial until she vanished in the tower and then turning back to the gargoyles in the courtyard and the fabulous view over the night in New York, watching and protecting as much as he could.