Meet the Clan

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own naught but a few characters, some events, and a layout design for Time magazine. The clan at large are educated guesses and genealogical extrapolations.

Summary: After 1002 years, Clan Wyvern is once again whole, but a comet (actually a very suspicious meteorite) bodes ill for our friends. A new power enters the fray, but on whose side: Jon Canmores… or his own?

Unidentified older male gargoyle: "Previously on Gargoyles"

/Voiceover/

Reawakening:

Goliath: I LIVED FOR MY CLAN!

Demona: And they died for you! Smashed to dust by the humans you trusted!

/image/

Awakening:

(Scenes of gargoyles roaring upon waking up and battling Vikings, fading to shots of rubble piles outlined by flame)

Goliath: My… Angel of the Night… (Shot of Goliath running his talons through a pile of rubble before pulling back to the roar and the classic ending shot)

Sunset, Oct. 28th, Castle Wyvern

"What do you mean resurrected?" Queried Detective Maza as she and Owen Burnett ascended a set of stairs on the southwest wall leading up to the battlements.

"I mean that Mr. Olorin used some sort of magic jewellery to bring back Goliaths clan. If they indeed awake at all." Owens face furled in thought. "The very nature of the object worried me. Their keepers take the form of ridiculously beautiful young woman, drawn to either handsome, non-human males or high magical fields like leeches to a vein. That one of the Forbearers would dare to use such a thing must be a sign of, as the Chinese say, 'interesting times'." Well, either that or they'd finally lost their minds.

"Oh, don't be such a wet blanket Owen. Show the good detective to her chair if you wouldn't mind." Came the voice of David Xanatos from the battlements. Coming to the wide stone roof of the inner gatehouse, the pair found the Xanatos' lounging on deck chairs, outfitted in sweaters that were either Armani or very good examples from Abercrombie & Finch. Fox was holding Alex while David was holding what looked like a very expensive camera with a zoom lens. There was an extra chair besides. "Good evening Detective Maza. Would you have a seat?"

"Actually, I wouldn't. What're you doing with that camera anyway, Xanatos?" Maza wasn't in the mood for this, having just discovered that the number of gargoyles in New York would potentially multiply tenfold by sundown, promising to make her duties to both clan and precinct a lot more difficult.

"The look on Goliaths face when he receives what will arguably be the greatest shock of his life is a moment worth capturing for posterity. I intend on doing it personally. Speaking of that moment, Owen, what is the T minus currently at for sundown?" David asked his aide.

Exactly two minutes and… 30 seconds, Mr. Xanatos. Detective Maza, would you like to take your seat?" Burnett motioned to the empty chair.

"No thanks, I intend on being with Goliath when he wakes up." Stated Elisa before hurrying to the spiral stairs of the south tower. Noting the refusal, Owen sat down in the empty chair to keep track of the countdown.

Later… much later, Elisa Maza would recall that the as seconds ticked by and the sun slipped fraction by fraction below the horizon, it felt like an entire lifetime was being compressed into each tick of the clock. At last the sound of cracking stone filled the air as Goliath and his clan shed their stone skin for a new night. On this night, however, the noise was louder than it had been in… oh, about a thousand years.

Goliath stared in disbelief at what he saw below him. His brothers… sisters… elders… were ALIVE? A faint clicking caught his ear, and he looked down to see Xanatos reclining and waving at him as he held his camera. The trio and Hudson weren't doing much better, staring down in shock at people who were supposed to be tragic memories. Bronx, on the other hand, acclimated quickly enough to familiar scents and the company of other watchbeasts. He was barking excitedly and wagging his tail-stub wildly.

Drowsy gargoyles glided down from their perches, hoping to find something to eat among the castles summer larders, not yet realizing the slight problems that A) it wasn't summer anymore and B) that the particular corner of the inner wall that housed the larder had been turned into a decorative shrub display. A young, brass coloured male with black hair and batwings tried dunking his head into a rain barrel he swore had been there the previous night and ended up falling flat on his face.

Another, one of the trio's rookery sisters, happened to look down into the courtyard from the battlements and noticed something. 'Strange… the refugees are gone… and what's all that grass doing there?' Something was wrong… the air was colder… and smellier than it should have been.

One male, a bald, short-beaked warrior looking about forty with dark blue skin and large ears, strode purposefully to the cornices. His present purpose was that it was his turn for hunting duty, and he'd had his eye on a herd of wild sheep for well on a week now. If the Vikings hadn't scared them off or eaten them, the clan and castle would be eating good until the fall came and the stags started acting stupid again. A red, beaked male from the generation before would be joining him so as to herd the sheep to blue, who would kill some. He prepared to dive, looked down as to calculate the updrafts… and nearly had a heart attack.

"BY THE DRAGON!!"

This was rather loud, so it attracted lots of attention, sending gargoyles to the area to see what the problem was.

And what a problem it was.

Non-human faces starred in various stages of wonderment, horror and plain shock as they surveyed the city beneath them. The mob at the base of the building particularly drew their eyes, causing various remarks of "Vikings!" "Where did the hills get to?" and "Bugger, that's tall!"

More of the clan began filtering to the outer gatehouse, from frail elders to some especially curious hatchlings attracted by the noise. Goliath, Elisa in his arms, glided down to the gate, followed by Hudson, the trio and finally Angela, who was just beginning to understand that these gargoyles, by all the laws of nature and magic, should not have been here.

Goliath landed, to be mobbed by gargoyles frantic to know what the hell had happened. Elisa managed to find the ground non-painfully amidst the confusion, scampering through the forest of arched feet back into the open air. Behind her landed the Trio and beside them landed Angela. Hudson grounded himself on the other side of the gathering.

It was a little while before anyone noticed the two new females.

"Goliath," asked his reddish-grey horned rookery brother, "who is the human?" His unique 'fan' wings flared in worry.

"Never mind her, who is this?" Proclaimed one of the trio's generation, a dashing grey charmer of a male with a turtle beak, backward sweeping brow spikes and shock of blonde hair, bowed low in front of Angela.

While taken aback by this pageantry, Katherine of Wyvern, cousin of Maol Chalvim, had raised Angela in the finest noble traditions of Scotland and Normandy. This meant that the shock quickly transformed into comprehension at what he meant. "Dear sir, I am indeed flattered, but I am already being courted, and he is most courteous."

"Oh, really." Replied the male, a hint of challenge in his voice. "Well, I'd like to meet this male, to indeed see if he is as worthy as you suggest." In his bravado, he didn't notice that Broadway had circled around behind him. Infact, when the rotund male tapped him oh the shoulder, he merely turned his head and brushed him away, though not before making some aspersion to his weight.

Brooklyn and Lexington had a good idea of what to do.

Broadway cleared his throat noisily. "The lady is speaking about me!" To his, the grey male nearly collapsed in laughter.

"Why, you…!" Broadway tried to lunge at him, but was caught artfully at the arms by his red and green rookery brothers.

As they were struggling, the fan-winged, horned male asked of his leader "What is going on, Goliath?"

As that was asked, Goliath saw Xanatos signalling to him from the other gate. "I think, my brothers, my sisters… that we should assemble in the Great Hall. This is a story that will take until sunrise to tell."

"And since when has the princess allowed us in her dining hall?" Queried a pale blue female possessing a head shield over her brown locks and spikes along her forearms.

"For longer than you think, dear sister." Sighed Goliath as he leapt from the parapet in 'flight'. Elisa was wise to hurry down to the hall in the commotion.

As gargoyles began following Goliath, Hudson looked up from where the lads were cooling down to where a few familiar faces were appearing. "Good tae see ye, ye auld rascals!" He called up to the new arrivals.

A red male with a long beak, white hair and a 2/2-wing configuration (2 wing talons and 2 wing struts) was gliding down to the gate, followed by a greenish grey web-winged male with a muzzle jaw, white hair and two brow horns being accompanied by a glider-winged, thin female of pale yellow, with dark brown hair turning grey and short, sideways pointing brow spikes. They landed before him, the red male going forward to clasp his friends forearms. "Good to see you too, brother." He momentarily glanced out over the city. "Especially seeing as how… Scotland is not how it used to be."

"Nae, this isn't Scotland, but we should get down to the hall so the tale can be told. Come, you lot!" He motioned toward the mated pair for them to follow, before he too took to the air from the parapets.

Many Hours later, a few minutes before Sunrise

Gargoyles filtered out of the Great hall, many still puzzled by the long story they had just been privy too. Why were they living on the property of a man who had tried to kill their leader time and again? He may have said that he had changed, but could they really believe it?

Then again, fighting the King of the Fae to a draw with someone could change ones opinion of that person.

All the nights talk of metal gargoyles, flying gargoyle shaped armour, dead gargoyles brought back with metal parts… it was too much for some of the older clan members. The young, on the other hand, were full of excitement and questions as to the missing years of their lives. The news that the eggs were now only a decade of growth away from their first mating flights was strange enough, and the tales of mad Doctor Sevarius creating duplicates of the Manhattan six was a little hard to stomach.

Sadder and stranger still was the fall of Goliaths mate and former second-in-command. The one now known as Demona was obviously a danger to her and to others. And these Hunters… they knew that humans had never been especially courteous to them, but to take that suspicion and fear and to turn it into a congenital hate and madness was something they'd never come across.

Well… they had it now.

As the hatchlings were being led back to their protective corner of the wall, one of them looked up at the sky. "Hey, look, a comet!"

And indeed there was, a white-hot streak of fire streaming across the northern sky. Some of the elders began getting worried: in their time, a comet was considered a sure omen of bad things to come. Unfortunately, they could not long ponder at it, for only seconds after they spotted the object, the sun rose, claiming them in their rocky hibernation.

From the door of the Hall, David Xanatos and Owen Burnett watched the clan. "Owen, increase Castle Domestic Spending by 2500: we'll need a lot more food." David noticed that Owen wasn't moving at all, and turned to see the disguised Fae starring at the 'Comet'. "Something wrong?"

"Let's just say, Mr. Xanatos, that I'm getting a good many 'vibes' from that object… and none of them are good at all."

Meanwhile, Wood edge near Poughkeepsie, Hudson River Valley

Ken Mulligan hadn't asked for this. His father-in-law had invited him up for a day or two of deer hunting and now, just as he was finishing up a pre-dawn scouting of an old cornfield, it happened. Something roaring and blue had come smashing down through the tree branches, revealed to be a red-haired blue woman with wings, tail and all spiky bits when she landed. Suddenly, the sun came up and, much to his astonishment, she had, in some pain, changed into a human woman… who had a very dangerous look in her eye and was now demanding his muzzle-loading rifle and ammunition. He had no choice but to do it.

"For that, Human, I will let you live. Now run." And Ken did just that as Demona began climbing a large maple tree on the forest edge to ambush her pursuer.

Jon Canmore: formerly the idealistic younger Canmore sibling and now arguably as mad as a balloon and obsessed with revenge for something that he had actually done. He landed amongst the stalks, cutting off his jets as he began looking around. As he lowered his head-plate to increase visibility, little did he know that his prey was aiming a weapon at his exposed skull, her toes gripping the bark to keep her balance.

And then everything went strange.

A flash of light lit the sky, and something crashed into the edge of the field near the base of the tree that held Demona, the force of impact throwing her back into the woods. What resulted was a large crater with a large glowing object at the bottom. As Demona regained coherence and began retreating, Jon spotted her and prepared to follow.

Leave her.

This voice was not exactly heard, but comprehended none the less. "Hello?" Called Jon "Is anybody there?"

Over here, Human. In the crater.

Canmore, perplexed by the voice, ignited his jets and hovered over to the crater. At the bottom, the glowing object had cooled to be recognizable as an iron meteorite. "Hello?" He called again.

Who are you?

I am Jon Canmore, the Hunter, the last of my kind!" proclaimed Jon in a sudden bout of bravado, choosing to not count his siblings.

There was a pause. Ah, a Hunter… just the being I need. Tell me, what do you hunt?

"Not until you tell me where you are!" Called Jon, frustrated at this voice from nowhere.

Very well.

The ball of iron began glowing hot again, as long streams of molten metal began extruding into a skeleton of sorts: arms, legs, ribs, hip and spine assembly and finally a plain sphere of a skull and mask of a face, bland save for a band of red incandescence across where a humans eye sockets would be. Although the figure was no more than six feet tall fully erect, something about it made it even more imposing than Canmores Exoframe enhanced height.

"You were a rock." Stated Jon, almost dumbly.

No. I am the Morningstar. I am the greatest of any host. I am the mightiest this world has ever known. I am the one who comes in the light.

(Dramatic pause)

I am Meklor.

"And will you help me, to destroy the monsters who crippled my brother and have plagued my family for nine centuries?" Jon was understandably excited, but for the second figure watching from the woods through a pair of binoculars, it was near terrifying, especially because this strange metal man… well, evil was the only term that really described the chill that went down his spine.

With my assistance, Hunter, you will accomplish things that you've never even dreamt possible.

A strange, insane smile spread across Jon Canmores face as the iron man reflected on just how easy to seduce these bald monkeys were.