Day and Night
Eighteen
Jason Canmore used a motorized wheelchair, while his sister Robin kept pace. They took the elevator up, heading to the offices of Nightstone Enterprises, her calm and Jason fidgeting nervously.
"Are you sure this is wise?" Jason finally asked, the dark haired man tapping a finger on the arm of his wheelchair.
"Not necessarily wise," Robin admitted, "but we need to make peace with her if we intend to stay in town. Besides, she agreed to see us."
"Probably to kill us and hide the body," Jason sighed.
"Now, now." Robin reassured him. "She'd never kill us HERE. Now, at night... all bets are off," Robin added with a sigh.
Jason rolled his eyes, "Oh that is comforting..."
The elevator opened, then they rolled up the hall. The secretary looked up with a warm, pleasant smile, clearly unaware of their past with her boss. "The Canmores, yes? You're right on time," she said to them cheerfully.
"Thank you," Robin smiled charmingly, "Is Ms Destine in?"
"Yes ma'am," Alicia nodded as she pressed a concealed switch under the top of her desk, "I was told to buzz you right in."
Jason smiled, "Thank you, miss."
The two went inside, as Dominique stood by the window, the redhead looking tense. Once they were inside the door clicked locked, and both Canmores twitched nervously.
"Oh calm down," Dominique said to them crossly, "the soundproofing doesn't work entirely if the door isn't locked." She scowled at Robin as she added, "You should know that."
Robin indeed should have remembered, having worked for awhile under Dominique as Robin Correy. But that had been months ago, and she had had some rather interesting adventures since then. And, honestly, Dominique could be very scary too.
"Thank you for agreeing to see us so quickly," Jason said to her diplomatically, rolling his chair up to the desk.
Robin sat down in a chair beside him, even as Dominique sat in her own seat behind the desk. "So," Dominique asked conversationally, "why shouldn't I track you down later in Gargoyle form and pitch you Hunters out a window?"
Jason leaned forward angrily but Robin put a steadying hand on his arm. "Because we're no longer Hunters and are not a threat to you," she answered calmly.
Dominique grunted softly as she leaned forward. "So you've forgiven me for killing your father?" she probed calmly.
Jason looked grim, but said, "No, but we're also well aware our family has been trying to kill you for years, too. The hate has to stop somewhere."
Dominique sat back, appearing to digest that.
"As you probably know through your sources, I'll be in the city for the near future, along with Jason. I hope we can simply avoid each other," Robin shrugged.
"Your Redemption Squad is operating in town?" Dominique asked, aware of the government run squad of superhuman agents.
Robin hid her surprise, "I should have expected you'd know." She shrugged, "I believe we'll be staging out of the city, only."
"All right, hopefully we can coexist peacefully," Dominique said. 'And who knows,' she thought, 'they might be useful if the Pack comes back.'
"I'm trying my best to stay out of trouble in general," Jason admitted, pointedly tapping the arm of his wheelchair.
Dominique gave him a sympathetic look, surprisingly. "While Nightstone isn't necessarily a biomedical company, I do have contacts with various organizations who could look into your condition," she noted.
"We have a appointment with Cyberbiotics in a few weeks," Robin nodded.
"I have some pull with Reynard," Dominique made a note in her organizer, "I'll see what I can do to move that up."
Jason raised his eyebrows slightly. "Why are you helping us?" he asked.
Dominique eyed them both thoughtfully a moment. "Let's say I'm trying to turn over a new leaf," she finally said with a small shrug.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Alicia Sevarius knocked on the door, then went in after hearing a muffled call. "You missed lunch," she said, holding up a take-out bag enticingly.
Dominique beamed, "Bring that over here, please... did you get enough for you too?"
Alicia gave her a 'Do you think I'm dumb?' look and headed in. "I got those sub sandwiches you like, along with sodas and some chips," she said as they cleared a section of the fancy desk. Alicia always found it amusing how her fancy, refined boss liked junk food like this.
"Thanks for remembering," Dominique smiled at her warmly. "And two sandwiches for me, good," she smiled.
Alicia grinned back. "One of these days you need to tell me how you eat like this and maintain your girlish figure."
"Magic," Dominique answered, deadpan.
Alicia stuck out her tongue. "Uhm... when the Canmores came in, I ran their names through the database as usual. You dismissed Robin with cause?" she asked a bit tentatively.
"Hmm," Dominique finished a mouthful of food. "It's a bit of a long story, but Robin applied under a false name, accessed files illegally and aparently engaged in industrial espionage," she explained dryly.
Alicia blinked. "And you let her back into the building again?" she asked.
Dominique laughed softly. "She was doing it out of family loyalty and other reasons," she said, "I can at least understand it. She's also paid the price in prison time so..." Dominique shrugged slightly.
"I suppose," Alicia nodded in acknowledgement.
"And I have our security keeping a eye on them," Dominique added. "I'm forgiving, not stupid."
Alicia chuckled at that. "Oh!" she beamed, "we got the designs for the Gargoyle plushies we licensed. They sent us a sample."
"How bad is it?" Dominique had to ask.
"Don't be a grump," Alicia laughed, getting up. "I'll be right back, and don't eat my chips!"
"Right," Dominique called, then swipped a chip anyway. Her secretary slash assistant wasn't going to order her around.
"Here we go," Alicia hurried in with something hidden behind her back. "Ta da!" she presented the toy with a smile.
"Urk," Dominique blinked.
The purple furred, redheaded, winged gargoyle plushie was HER. Pretty much. It even had the sort of torn dress she usually wore. It was adorable, in a disturbing sort of way.
"I asked for the Demona sample," Alicia admitted. "Isn't she cute!"
"I suppose," Dominique admitted, still faintly creeped out bu the toy.
"Is it alright if I keep it?" Alicia asked, taking it back.
Dominique watched her hug it and fought down a blush, oddly enough. "Yes, it's fine," she agreed.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Demona dropped down into the alleyway, blinking as the goons brought up high tech weaponry. She had a moment to think 'Oh shit' when the guns started firing.
They didn't fire bullets, but instead some kind of powerful laser. The first beam cut into Demona's side like a knife through butter, and she yowled in pain.
With just seconds to consider, Demona tossed out dodging or fleeing. Lasers were too fast for that. "Aroooh!" with a bestial howl Demona charged the hoods, wings flared and eyes blazing.
Just as she had hoped, her charge and scream stunned the four men for a few seconds. She grabbed one man and slammed him against a nearby alley wall with a wet crunch. The other three tried to back pedal but she snatched one of them, getting him in front of her as a human shield.
"Fuck," one of them yelped, unsure what to do.
'Two left,' Demona thought, feeling pain surging from her side and shoulder where another bolt had hit. Lashing out with her clawed foot she raked the blade like nails along one of their chests. The man screamed in pain and fear as she struck again, a side kick sending him crashing to the ground.
"Screw this," the last man cried as he fired his laser.
Demona could smell cooking meat as the laser burned through her human shield, but he bought her enough time to reach the last one. She tossed the corpse at him then when he was off balance slugged him unconscious.
With a gasp of pain Demona leaned unsteadily against the alley wall. This hurt. A lot more than she remembered. Being mostly bullet proof caused you to forget what painful injuries felt like. With a groan she forced herself to stand straight.
'Why were these men here, with laser rifles? They can't have been gunning for me, I don't patrol here often...' Demona thought.
Just then a man unsteadily made his way forward from the darkness of the alley. "I'll be damned, a gargoyle saved my life," the unfamiliar figure noted.
"Gang hit?" Demona asked, then shook her head. She didn't know who he was, or really care. "Please try to keep innocents out of the line of fire," she barked, then carefully began climbing up the wall to get altitude for gliding.
"Huh," Tony Dacon watched her go.
Demona soared painfully across the night, swiftly realizing her injuries were going to ground her. Soon. Guided by instinct rather than reason she found herself entering a familiar part of town. Without really thinking about it she dropped down to the balcony, nearly crashing.
Alicia rushed to the balcony door then threw it open. "Demona?" she blurted, eyes wide.
"Sorry to just drop in on you," Demona managed then collapsed.
To be continued...
Notes: The Redemption Squad was going to be introduced in the third season of Gargoyles, but wasn't. They also did a comic book by the TV series' creator. I don't plan to use 'em much, but I at least wanted a mention for the sake on continuity.