Day and Night
Thirteen
The next day at her company, Nightstone, Dominique Destine was slightly apologetic as she greeted Alicia. "Are you all right," she asked gently, "I'm sorry I didn't have the chance to see you after the attack."
"No, no, it's fine," Alicia said sheepishly, "I know how crazy things were."
Demona hated having to lie to the girl, but she knew she had to keep her existence as a gargoyle a secret. Both for her own sake, and for the others of her kind. "It took quite a while to get the police interviews done, and by the time I left I figured you were in bed," she added.
"Yes, I got home after one of the nice police escorted me home," Alicia said, then she smiled faintly in memory.
Demona wondered if Alicia was thinking of their meeting last night, She had gone over to Alicia's in her gargoyle form, intending just to check up on her. When alicia waved to her she had soared down to enter the girl's home, and had comforted Alicia when she burst into tears. It had felt very good, holding the smaller woman, much like she imagined holding her daughter might have felt like...
Alicia leaned forward as she asked curiously, "Where did you learn to use a sword like that? Watching you fight those monsters was incredible."
"Well, it's a bit embarassing," Dominique admitted, "but I used to do what they call live action role playing. I picked up a lot of sword fighting experience then, but I moved and haven't found another group locally."
Alicia gave her a odd look, as if she was trying to imagine the sleekly dressed businesswoman waving a fake sword, but she seemed to accept it. "Well, this came in by courier," she changed the subject as she passed the documents over.
"Thank you," Dominique was back to being all business as she studied a contract for a series of Gargoyles plush toys. "You're kidding me," the beautiful redhead said, looking at her assistant.
"The Gargoyles are becoming quite popular in the city," Alicia noted, the attractive blond looking amused, "especially Demona. Have you seem the t-shirts being sold on street corners?"
"No," Dominique admitted.
"There's one that says, 'I got rescued by a Gargoyle and all I got was this lousy t-shirt,' it's quite popular," Alicia smirked, "I also saw one that said Stay Calm and Trust Gargoyles."
Dominique laughed, shaking her head. "Well, I copyrighted the image of Gargoyles several years back," she admitted, "but more because I wanted to make sure no one exploited them."
"True, but we could always donate profits to charities if you feel it's needed," Alicia offered reasonably, "or to the Gargoyles themselves."
"True," Dominique conceded. She frowned slightly, "I understand Xanatos has some contact with the Gargoyles, I'll ask him to put me in touch." She shrugged, "I don't feel comfortable starting something like this without their consent." What she would actually do was go ask Goliath in person, but she couldn't tell Alicia that.
"That makes sense," Alicia agreed.
Work dragged on after that, with various project crossing Dominique's desk. Nightstone had fingers in genetic engineering, robotics, entertainment and other businesses, and all of it crossed her desk at one time or another. While the heads of each department were capable, some decisions had to be made by Dominique herself.
"Ugh," Dominique sighed as she stretched.
"It's not that bad, is it ma'am?" Alicia teased.
"Oh, it's bad enough," Dominique complained. "I really need to delegate more," she conceded with a sigh.
"Well we're just about done," she said as Alicia double checked her PDA. "And you have a hour clear if you want a break."
"Lunch?" Dominique asked curiously, knowing the young lady probably hadn't eaten either.
A warm smile appeared on Alicia's face as she said, "I'd love to."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Anthony 'Tony' Dracon wasn't a nice man, but as he took a sledge hammer and smashed the man's leg, he decided it was good to be bad. "Arrgh!" the man howled in pain as he writhed on the floor, blood splurting from gashes in his leg.
"Now," he casually leaned on the hammer as Tony said, "we've talked about this. You do NOT skim off money from my cut of the drugs. It's just not good business."
The wounded man broke down in sobs as he was hauled up. "Please, I'm sorry, so sorry..." he begged weakly.
Tony was tempted to just kill him, but that wouldn't really help him in the long term. "I won't kill you," he said, "but this is your last warning. Do NOT fuck with me again, or you'll wish I was just working you over with the hammer."
"Thank you, oh god," the sobbing drug dealer babbled as he was carried off to get medical aid.
Casually Tony turned to his two guests, who were watching with interest. "Well," he said, "I have to admit, you'd make good muscle."
Hyena and Jackal, two cyborgs formerly part of the Pack, faced him calmly. The two siblings had sacrificed much of their physical humanity for power, replacing arms and legs for deadly cybernetic weapons. Jackal had replaced one eye with a cybernetic replacement, and Hyena was considering further changes too.
"Muscle is suck a crude term," Jackal noted, "I rather like to think of us as problem solvers."
"Yeah, someone's a problem to you, we'll solve it," Hyena said with a smirk.
Tony really wasn't sure what to make of Hyena, especially. She flirted with everyone, even with her cybernetic chassis, and seemed blatantly sexual. Yet there was also the way she seemed way too close to her brother too. Odd, odd people.
"It took some doing getting you bailed out after that botched kidnapping," Tony added, "you two owe me bigtime."
Neither looked terribly happy about that, but they accepted it. "What, exactly, did you want us for?" Hyena demanded.
"As you can see I'm a business man, and normally I am very good at taking care of business," Tony told them, "but recently I'm having some problems."
"Oh?" Jackal drawled.
"Those damn Gargoyles are interfereing with my operation," Tony said, "it's gotten to the point I need to take steps."
"You want us to kill 'em?" Hyena asked eagerly. She paused as she conceded, "We'd need some back up but..."
"No, no killin'," Tony told them, surprising the two. "The minute you kill a cop, the rest of them come down on you twice as hard."
Jackal looked faintly disappointed as he asked, "So what DO you want us to do?"
"Distract 'em," Tony said with a sly smile. "I'll pay you to keep the cops and Gargoyles busy on nights where I need my businesses uninterupted. In return I'll pay well and bail you out if needed."
"Sounds interesting," Hyena conceded after a moment's thought.
Jackal nodded slightly too, "It does at that." He looked thoughtful, "We'll need guarentees from you that we'll get bailed out if we tangle with them, of course."
"I'll set up a fund with a lawyer I do business with," Tony said with a nod.
"If we're going to tangle with the gargoyles we'll need help," Jackal added. "The two of us are formidable, but not THAT powerful."
"We need the Pack!" Hyena agreed eagerly.
Tony sighed as his basic distraction plan just got a lot more expensive.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Alicia Sevarius was practically skipping down the street as she headed out from her home to do a bit of shopping. Lunch with Dominique had been so fun, and they had chatted and ate for nearly a hour. She thought she was really getting close to her boss, seeing underneath the cool exterior.
And last night! Watching Dominique using a sword fighting off her Uncle's creations was incredible. It had been like being in a movie, almost. Dominique had been like... well, poetry in motion was overused, but it was the best description Alicia could come up with. She had been ferrocious and beautiful, in equal parts.
'I wonder if she was really into role playing like she said?' Alicia wondered as she went into the small supermarket. She wasn't sure she believed it, but it DID make for a hilarious mental image. Dominique running around a field in fake armor and a toy sword? It made her giggle just imagining it.
Not far away Terry Cheung shadowed the young woman, the private investigator carefully keeping some distance. He had been hired by Lennox Macduff to investigate both Nightstone and the young lady, but he had been recently fired. Adverse to seeing his efforts go to waste he was carrying on, looking for something he could use.
The life of a private investigator wasn't as exciting as some thought. More often than not Terry made his money with scandleous photos or stuff sent to the tabloids. With the high profile Nightstone had lately, he figured he might make some money off them.
Sadly so far he hadn't found much. Both Alicia and Dominique seemed to live pretty much clean lives. Dominique didn't even go out at night, and rarely attended events in the city. There were a few rumours about what happened to her last assistant, Robyn Something, but he couldn't turn up anything on it either.
So, he was out here tailing the current assistant. Who, frankly, was also pretty boring. Went to work, drove home in company car, didn't get out much. Pretty soon he was gonna have to give up the whole deal and try his hand at some other case. Maybe he could get into the search for good photos of those Gargoyles?
Terry was so preoccupied with his thoughts as he was following Alicia that he didn't keep an eye on his own safety. As he was passing a darkened alley a hand reached out from the darkness, grabbing him and yanking him into the shadows.
"What the...?" Terry started, then froze as he got a good look at what had him.
She was taller than him, with bright red hair and glowing eyes. The gargoyle held him off the ground with frightening ease, and her expression was NOT friendly. "Why are you following her?" she demanded coldly, "Planning a mugging?"
"No, no!" Terry yelped even as he wished he had his camera ready. "I'm just a private eye!" he continued desperately.
The gargoyle scowled, and Terry realized that saying he was a PI might not have been the best move. "Do not trouble this young woman," she ordered dangerously, "or you will regret it."
She tossed him aside hard enough to daze him, then Terry watched her clamber up the wall and glide off into the night. As he sat there, stunned, he thought, 'This case might be interesting after all...'
To be continued...