Day and Night

Five

The hit team were good, in fact in some parts of the world they might be considered the best. They approached the castle like home warily, their weapons at the ready as they smoothly evaded the exterior contacts, quickly reaching the outer wall.

The red headed team leader looked at his two special operatives and shuddered slightly. Hyena and Jackal had willingly exchanged flesh and blood for steel, twisting their bodies almost as much as their minds. He didn't trust either as far as he could throw them, but he needed their abilities.

"Is everyone clear on the plan?" Jonothan Canmore asked bluntly, looking over his five man team as they crouched in the shadows.

"Jackal and I go in first," Hyena smirked, "and draw fire from security until you cut out the system." She buffed her steel nails, "Then the rest of you go grab Lennox MacDuff."

"Alive," Jonothan reminded his team, "we can't ransom him if we don't get him alive."

"It'll slow us down," Kirika noted, the Japanese woman calmly checking over her weapon. She was quite possibly the most calm, detached shooter that Jonothan had ever met. Honestly, she gave him the willies almost as much as Jackel and Hyena.

"We all need money for various reasons," he said as Jonothan pushed open the window inside, "so don't screw up."

"Too late for that, lad," the amused male voice noted.

Jonothan whipped his head around, realizing Lennox was standing there in front of the window. "Scatter!" he yelped, bringing up his stun gun.

Lennox calmly slapped the gun out of his hand as he grabbed the young man, one hand latching onto his throat. "You really didn't think it'd be that easy?" he asked as security forces converged on the group, weapons at the ready.

Hyena leaped on one robot, shredding it with her claws as she yelled furiously, "I'm not going back to jail!"

"Indeed," Jackal agreed as a weapon popped up on his arm, laying down suppression fire on the converging guards.

"Oh fuck," the young man moaned as he saw Lennox calmly knock out the boss, tossing him aside casually.

"Surrender," the cool, emotionless voice commended right before Kirika opened fire on her teammates. Precision fire found weaknesses in the two cyborgs, sending sparks flying and disabling systems on both of them.

"Traitor!" Jackal lunged at her but the girl backpedaled, keeping away as she pinged him with bullets again and again.

"No time," Hyena grabbed him as they staggered away from the others, "we've got to run!"

Stunningly rockets flared from the boots of both battered cyborgs, sending them both flying rather wobbly into the air. Kirika raised her gun, "Should I try to...?"

Lennox smiled slightly, "Wait for it."

After a second a series of surface to air missiles fired, converging on the wildly flying pair and engulfing them in a explosion. The leader of the security teams smiled wryly, "I'll have a squad go out with those kevlar nets. We'll round them up and ship them off to prison."

Jonothan was groggy but awake as the guards gathered the kidnap team together for transport. "How long have you been a traitor?" he demanded.

"Since shortly after you began forming the team," Kirika shrugged. "Mr Macduff made me a much better offer."

Lennox nodded as he firmly said, "An' I'll keep my word, too. Any medical help your partner needs, she'll have."

"Thank you," Kirika bowed as the three men and a woman were carted off to prison, hopefully for a good, long time.

Lennox MacDuff, sometimes known as Macbeth, soon took a relaxing sip of some good scotch as he let his mind wander a bit. Once upon a time he would have blamed either Demona or the Gargoyles for the attack, but he honestly couldn't see them see them hiring such inept help. Well, except for Kirika, of course.

David Xanatos was a possibility, Macbeth had to concede. The man had a mind like a corkscrew, and could easily have come up with such a scheme including the ineptness of most of the crew as a blind to prove he wasn't really involved. Trying to guess what Xanatos might have been planing gave him a headache...

'No,' Macbeth shook his head, 'it was more likely some semi-random event.' Forcing it from his mind he sat back and enjoyed his scotch.

David Xanatos, on the other hand, was much less relaxed when he heard the news. "Macbeth will think I was responsible," the brown haired man grumbled, stroking his neatly trimmed beard as he sat in his office in the Aerie building high above Manhattan.

Fox Xanatos actually looked rather amused as she commented, "And why is that?"

David gave her one of his infamous dour looks. "While not everyone knows I created Jackal and Hyena, everyone in our... unique community probably does," he said seriously.

"I told you to repossess their cybernetics," Fox told him, the slim young woman calmly burping their son, Alexander.

"I did," David shrugged, "replaced the military hardware with standard tech." His expression darkened again, "But they went to Preston Vogel at Cyberbiotics and got their systems repaired and even upgraded."

Fox looked displeased as she muttered, "I think Daddy and I need to have a little talk."

Fox was the only daughter of Halcyon Renard, the founder of Cyberbiotics. A hard minded yet somewhat ethical man he ran his company as a tight ship, but he also had a assistant. Preston Vogel was the dark shadow of Cyberbiotics, a man who would do anything needed to protect the bottom line, even resorting to second hand murder. David still wasn't sure if Halcyon was really in the dark, or if he just deliberately didn't let himself know what Vogel was doing.

"I'll have to contact Macbeth and let him know I wasn't involved," David said glumly, "then try to convince him of that."

"Pin it on Preston," Fox suggested cheerfully. "I would certainly have no problems with Macbeth going after Cyberbiotics."

"Heh," David smiled wryly.

"I think we can calm him down," Fox noted as she walked over to the crib and put the baby down, "as long as we don't do anything stupid."

"Like show up on his lawn in my Steel Clan armor?" David asked wryly.

"That would do it," Fox smiled wryly. "He responds to shows of force about as well as you and Goliath do."

"I'm in good company," David smiled as Fox moved to hug him from behind.

Fox hugged him, pressing her breasts against his back as she purred, "And I mean that in the best way, too. You've... grown, in the time I've known you, David. I'm proud of you."

David smiled up at her warmly, "Thanks." He took a deep breath, "And now I get to try to reason with Macbeth. Reaching for the phone he dialed, waiting for the pick up, "Macbeth? It's David here. I heard about the attack...."

Fox watched David sweet talk the semi-immortal, smiling fondly. He really had grown up a lot since she first met him, and she was proud to call him her husband. 'Now I just have to prepare my gift to him,' she thought, 'bringing peace to the Gargoyle clans....'

To be continued!

Notes: Another side bit. I wanted to touch on how the various lives of the Gargoyle clans are carrying on, and how many of them are getting into trouble. Heh! I always liked Macbeth, so it's fun splitting a chapter with him and Xanatos, and it's fun writing David too. He started out evil, gradually picked up more noble side and is interestingly complex. Kirika is a refugee from Noir....