Chapter 5
"Thank you guys for taking me home, I really appreciate it." Quinn said as Goliath and Brooklyn landed in the alley way next to her apartment building.
They had offered to take her home after they had both thanked her for watching over them throughout the day, she was going to decline, but after remembering her home was almost halfway across the city, she agreed.
Brooklyn smiled at her, the corners of his beak lifting up just a little bit higher than they were originally, he had asked Goliath if he, himself, could be the one to carry Quinn, but Goliath continued to believe that he probably could not be able to hold her up because his arms weren't as strong.
The reason he had wanted to carry Quinn was this, he wanted to speak with her. It was of nothing bad, he had wanted to thank her for watching over them throughout the extent of the day.
He watched Goliath set Quinn down to stand on her own feet, "It was no trouble, Quinn. I trust we shall see you soon?" the lavender Gargoyle asked her.
She nodded, "Sometime later tonight sound okay?" she asked, to which Goliath nodded, seemingly pleased with this answer.
He turned to Brooklyn, who had his eyes locked on Quinn, "We must get back to the castle, no doubt the others will be worried about us by now." he said and with one final nod at Quinn, he dug his talons into the side of her apartment building, "Coming, um... Brooklyn..?" he struggled to remember the red Gargoyle's new name.
Brooklyn nodded at him, "Yeah, Goliath; I'll be right with ya." he said as said Gargoyle started scaling the wall. He cleared his throat to get Quinn's attention, "Thanks for, uh, protecting us throughout the day. No doubt new statues got new kinds of attention." he said, raising a taloned hand to rub at the back of his head.
Quinn closed her eyes and smiled sweetly at him, "The only attention you two got, was the attention of a confused jogger, but nothing major." she lied. She hadn't wanted to explain to him exactly what happened that morning, she was just surprised he hadn't asked what happened to Goliath and why he seemed hurt.
The beaked Gargoyle smiled, "That's good to know." he looked up towards the roof of Quinn's building when Goliath called his name, "I guess I've gotta go. Will I see you sometime tonight?" he asked the red haired girl, who nodded at him, as he turned to the wall, sinking his talons into the brick, he started climbing up, "See ya, Quinn!" he called to her as his form disappeared over the edge.
Quinn watched him go, smiling to herself as she walked out of the alley way and over to the front of her apartment building where the land lord, Bertrum, sat waiting to let in his occupants.
Bertrum was a short, stocky man with snow white hair that was thinning, and he was always dressed in khaki shorts with polos, long white socks, and crock shoes.
He smiled a warm, friendly smile when he saw her coming towards the entrance, "Ms. Stryker! I was wondering where you were, seeing as how you never came home yesterday. Detective Graves was a little worried, at least from how she asked me about two times if you were at home, Mr. Witts was far more worried, though." he told her, opening the wooden door for her when she was close enough.
She smiled back at him, "Hey, Bertrum. Sorry I made everyone worry about me, I had something come up with some friends and I had to help them take care of it. I guess the time got away from me." she told him as she entered into the beige colored room with the stairs leading up to the apartments.
She thanked Bertrum before turning and going up the stairs, rounding a few corners, until she finally made it to the apartment she shared with her foster mother, Julie Graves, and foster brother, Joaquin Witts.
She opened the door and walked into the rather spacious living room of the apartment, finding Joaquin sitting on the couch, watching What Not to Wear, with their Golden Labrador, Tripper, lying next to him.
Joaquin was an African American boy that was her age, younger than her by three months. He had died his hair a honey blonde color, and had gotten it cut in a Mohawk sort of way.
He was dressed in a dark blue, short sleeved shirt with slim jeans, and black sneakers.
Joaquin turned his attention to her when he heard the door open, "Well, look who decided to come home!" he said.
She smiled at him as he stood to walk over to her, "Hey, Joaquin." she greeted, giving him a hug before walking over and petting Tripp, "Was Julie worried?" she asked casually as Tripp licked her hand, not truly caring whether or not their could-care-less-guardian was worried about her or not.
Julie Graves was more along the lines of one of those Guardians who basically said, "Sure, I'll take a kid; yeah why not give me another one, I don't care. Yes, they'll be fine, can I go now? My shift starts in two hours and I still need to get my makeup on." you get the picture, Julie doesn't show interest in either of the two teenager's lives.
Joaquin smiled a mocking smile, " 'When you see that girl, you tell her that I don't need to be worryin' over the likes o' her' were her exact words." he copied the woman as he walked over to stand beside her.
"So, in other words, basically the same Julie we've known for five years?" Quinn summed up as she kicked her shoes off and plopped onto the couch next to Tripper, who wagged his whip of a tail as fast as he could when he nuzzled his head into Quinn's side.
Joaquin shrugged as he sat down on the other side of the Labrador, "Basically- hey! I was watching that!" he protested when the red headed girl snatched the remote from the coffee table and changed it to the news.
She smiled slyly as she held the remote away from her foster brother's reach as he stretched across the dog, to the best of his ability, and tried in vain to get it away from her, "Well, now we're watching this." she stated, turning the volume up to where it practically drowned out the noise of the streets when she saw Joaquin open his mouth to argue with her.
Joaquin sighed in agitation, "I was trying to brush up on some new fashion tips to impress Sandra, I'll just look into a magazine instead.." he tried to get Quinn to hand him the remote once more, but to no avail, so he stuck to pouting.
Quinn rolled her eyes, "Sandra's gay, you Fruit Loop." she said bluntly, turning down the volume to where they could hear a rather loud ringing sound in their ears.
Joaquin glared at her, "You don't know that, Q, she could be lying and just doesn't want people to know." he tried, all that got him was a throw pillow in the face.
"Fruity, heed the words of the ever wise Young Stryker," leaning over the dog to grab both sides of his face and turn it in her direction, "she was checking out Amber Hales in the cafeteria when she walked by her. She hit on me on my first day at school, don't even think about the years that have passed since then," she cut off when he looked like he was going to bring up how that was Junior High, "And a week ago, she wrote 'I Love You, Jennifer' in pink letters all over the lobby. Believe me, Fruity, she's completely lesbian." she finished, tapping Joaquin lightly on the forehead as she let his face go and settled back on the sofa with a sly smile as Joaquin looked somewhat upset by her reasons.
"Well, you never know, Q. She may just be covering up who she's attracted to; maybe all she needs is another person to bring it out of her." he finished this sentence with a delighted smile at the thought of getting a love confession from the dark haired girl.
Quinn resisted the urge to face palm herself, it was hopeless to argue with Joaquin, she knew this, so why did she even start up this conversation?
Turning back to the television, she turned the volume up higher than intended when she saw the same scarab insignia that was on the tracking device, on the screen, while a picture of the Eyrie Building and the building's owner, David Xanatos, popped up with the reporter's voice in the background, but she wasn't listening; no, Quinn kept staring at the scarab insignia next to Xanatos' face, vaguely hearing the reporter saying something about Mr. Xanatos being the owner of the company with the scarab as a sign.
Standing up abruptly, she threw the remote behind her to lay in her old seat, "Watch what you want, Fruity, I've got some research to find." she muttered, walking away to go into the dimly lit hallway and into her room.
Upon turning on the overhead light, she strode over to her desk where her laptop sat, flipped the screen up, and turned it on.
When it was fully turned on, she made no hesitation in pulling up Google and typing the name: David Xanatos.
Instead of taking her to any website links, it took her straight to Xanatos . She blinked, "Okay.." she mumbled, scrolling to the top, she was a little surprised to see there was a History link on the menu. Clicking it, she discovered that Xanatos did indeed own the company with the scarab insignia, and that he operated the entire production within his own Eyrie Building, where the rocks fell from the castle on the very top, where he was being questioned by multiple police officers and detectives..
Where she met the remaining Gargoyles of the Wyvern Clan.
And where she knew they were currently staying at..
Shutting down her laptop after printing off a picture of the scarab sign, she moved quickly as she gathered up her Death Note (A/N I LOVE Death Note! ^.^) messenger bag, stuffing her laptop and the paper within it's largest space. Quinn ran out from her room and into the living room, grabbing her boots once again, she fumbled with them in her haste to get them on her feet.
She stopped for a second when she heard that three bases for Cyberbiotics were robbed by what appeared to be monsters with wings, and that one of them destroyed the main controls for the hover craft base while it was in the air. 'Did the guys have anything to do with that?' she asked herself as she continued to wrestle with her shoes.
When they were finally on, she jumped to her feet, after throwing a quick "I'll be back later." at Joaquin's questioning gaze, she ran out the front door, down the staircase, and finally out the front door of the apartment building.
'Hang tight, I'm coming as fast as I can.' she thought as she started sprinting down the sidewalk, having to fight her way through people to get back to the meeting place Goliath had spoken to her about when he and Brooklyn had dropped her off.
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Goliath smiled despite the horrifying activity he voluntarily went on with his long lost Angel of the Night, when he saw the trio with their guard beast, and Hudson standing on the tower of their home, awaiting their return.
Tonight had definitely been something else, especially when he saw his love destroy an entire air ship, almost killed a human while he was unconscious, and refused to show pity upon anyone who got knocked out.
Glancing over at her, he saw she had a hardened look upon her face, like she was against the world with nothing to offer. Her ruby red hair whipped furiously behind her as the wind ran past her, she kept her hands down at her sides, clenching them and unclenching them into fists; this was not how he remembered his mate. Sure, he remembered that she hadn't had the same compassion and understanding that he had, but it was never as bad as what he had just witnessed.
He could hear sirens going off in the distance where the Cyberbiotics air ship crashed into the river after he saw his love completely destroy something that must've been the main controls for the craft.
'Why did she do that?' he quietly asked himself as they landed on the walls of the Castle Wyvern, giving out a friendly smile to the rest of his clan, then a blonde haired man with glasses on his face came out, and he dropped the smile as he handed the man known as Owen Burnett the disk they had gotten, watching as the trio and Hudson also handed him their disks.
Pushing up his glasses from the bridge of his nose, he half smirked, "Thank you, gentlemen and lady, Mr. Xanatos will be happy to know you succeeded in your mission." he said before turning around and walking gracefully back inside.
Brooklyn looked at Goliath, "Why was there an explosion?" he asked, his Rookery brothers, the newly named Broadway, the biggest one, and Lexington, the smallest one; both looked to their Clan leader with mild curiosity, wondering the same thing.
Goliath looked at his mate for a moment, she met his eyes with a steady gaze before turning her head away from him.
He looked back at Brooklyn, "It was an accident, nothing more." was all he said on the matter before turning to the edge, "I must go see a friend." he said.
Brooklyn grew happier, "Your going to see Quinn? Right? Can I come along?" he asked a little enthusiastically, glaring at his Rookery Brothers when they snickered at him.
The red headed Gargoyle raised an eye ridge from underneath her golden head band/crown (A/N I don't know what the hell that thing is, sorry) regarding her mate with mild curiosity, "'Quinn'? Who is 'Quinn', Goliath?" she demanded, her eyes narrowing, "Is 'Quinn' a human? You know we cannot trust humans! Not after how we were betrayed by them!" her eyes glowed a crimson red as she recalled what happened at Castle Wyvern a thousand years ago, a snarl ripping out of her throat, "They know nothing but treachery and deceit!"
Goliath looked at her for a second before nodding in answer to Brooklyn's question, then turned around to face the open sky, "Humans may have betrayed us then, my love, but that doesn't mean that every human we meet is treacherous and deceitful." he said, about to jump off the ledge when Brooklyn's voice stopped him.
"Is it alright if I come along? I told Quinn I would see her sometime tonight." he said to the leader's questioning gaze.
Normally, Goliath would have given him his assent to follow, but after the ordeal with his Angel of the Night, he wasn't sure if she was exactly able to be trusted with their host in the castle. Even if there would be five other Gargoyles ready to fight her off if the situation called for it.
Instead of telling Brooklyn his true reason for him to stay behind, however, he stuck with the classic, "You must stay and help guard the castle."
Brooklyn looked a little upset about his answer, but he agreed, "Oh, yeah, sure... Okay. I guess I'll just stay here, then." he said a little quietly.
The female Gargoyle narrowed her already slim eyes at her mate, "Time has changed you, Goliath. That is certain." she said, caping her wings around her shoulders as she turned and disappeared the way Mr. Burnett went, down the darkened hallway.
Goliath watched her go, then shook his head as he turned back to the open air, and after reminding his Clan to guard the castle, much to Brooklyn's chagrin; before turning back and gliding off the tower.
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Quinn stood on the rooftop, her foot tapping impatiently as she waited for any sign of a Gargoyle about to land where she was.
She didn't have to wait longer than she thought, when she saw the lavender Gargoyle coming in for a landing.
When he was standing in front of her, he smiled in greeting, but frowned when he saw her serious expression, something was wrong.
"What is the matter, Quinn?" he asked the red haired girl.
"Are you responsible for this, Goliath?" she asked calmly as she dug her laptop out of her bag and played him the news report on the robbery.
Goliath watched the news reel on the small screen for a moment before looking at Quinn, "Yes, I was involved. David Xanatos had three disks stolen from him two nights ago, and he asked my Clan and I to get them back for him. I had told him that we would have nothing to do with the stolen property, but when he reunited my love and I... I had agreed to go along on this mission." he told her, watching as she dug around in her bag once more.
She brought out a piece of paper in her hand, stuffing the laptop in the bag, "I did some research on that scarab symbol we found on the tracking device, your host, David Xanatos, can't be trusted, Goliath. He owns the company with the scarab insignia." she handed him the paper with the symbol on it, "He must have planted the tracker on you when you weren't looking, then told those goons to follow us into the park." she finished.
Goliath looked at the symbol for a second, "But, why would he do such a thing? I have seen inside his home, he does not need to steal other's property." he was mainly talking to himself.
Quinn placed one hand on his forearm to get his attention, "You can't trust him, Goliath, people like him know nothing of trust. I may be way smaller than you, but you can fully trust me. I guarantee it." she said.
Goliath looked back at Quinn for a second before growling low in his throat as he crushed the paper in his hand, baring his teeth.
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Brooklyn grinned as he looked out at the city's bright lights through his new sunglasses, "You know, I could really get used to this place." he said to his Rookery brothers sitting next to him.
Lexington looked up at him from the 'computer' Mr. Xanatos allowed him to mess with, "It is pretty cool here. I think I like it better here than Scotland." he said, dropping his wide gaze back to the 'monitor'.
Broadway just smiled through the mouthful of food he was chewing.
Hudson and Bronx were standing up against the stone walls of the castle. Hudson simply looked at Brooklyn with a slightly approving smile before turning his gaze back over the city before them.
That's when everything went downhill.
All at once, red beams of light shot in every direction around the five Gargoyles, causing them all to jump up and scatter.
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Quinn ran as fast as could into the Eyrie Building.
After watching Goliath crumple up the image she had given him, and yelling at him to come back when he decided to jump off the building they were standing on, she got off the building as fast as she could and ran in the direction she saw him headed to.
She panted as she finally made it to the elevator she had taken the night before, slowing to a jog when she almost hit her head on the wall opposite to the sliding doors. She swiftly pushed the button on the top of the selection before leaning against the back wall with her foot tapping impatiently against the ground as she watched the buttons glow as she neared the castle portion.
"C'mon. C'mon, I've gotta help them." she muttered under her breath as she watched the last two buttons glow faintly before going back to dim as she finally made it to her destination.
The doors slid open and she ran into the throne room, turning around to the hallway she met the guard beast in the other night, she ran as fast as she could to make it up to the stairs, stopping in the doorway when she saw the David Xanatos man from the news, and a pale blue female Gargoyle with a lot of hair that looked an awful lot like her own when she just got out of bed in the mornings.
Quinn saw that the female had a rather large gun pointed at Goliath, who was laying flat on the ground, looking up at her in slight fear and shock. She saw Xanatos also had a large gun pointed in another direction, upon looking further, she saw the other five Gargoyles looking from Goliath and back to the man who stole from Cyberbiotics.
Brooklyn must have noticed her because he looked like he was about to call out before she shook her head to get him to be quiet.
He shut his beak when he had opened it slightly, she saw the corners of his beak turn upwards in a slight smile, she smiled back at him as the female Gargoyle started talking.
"The humans," she sneered at the lavender Gargoyle at her feet, "gave me a name as well, Goliath. I am Demona." she finished, and Quinn saw her first talon start to pull the trigger back to fire at him; so she made a split second decision.
Shooting forward, she braced herself as she barreled right into Demona, making the female drop the gun in surprise as they both fell to the ground underneath where Xanatos and Goliath still were.
Demona growled furiously as she jumped up onto her feet, starting to stalk the new intruder, her eyes narrowed and turning to the crimson red she showed when she was pissed. She stopped where she was when she saw the small red headed girl starting to get up.
The human girl groaned as she rubbed her head, getting back up to her feet, she turned and looked at Demona with a half pained expression, "Demona, meet Quinn." she heard Brooklyn introduce the girl who had knocked her off her feet a second ago, albeit rather smugly.
Demona's eyes went back to normal as she got out of the defensive position, "It's you.." she whispered in a voice that was mixed with a lot of shock, and a little bit of happiness.
Quinn missed the brief look of anger the female Gargoyle gave the surprised looking Xanatos, because at that moment, the gun that had fallen from Demona's grasp went off, shooting two beams of the red laser out and at the stone tower across from Goliath's tower.
It erupted against the grey stone and destroyed the tower, making all the rocks fall out into the direction where Quinn and Demona were still standing.
Quinn's eyes widened in shock as she watched a giant piece of the rubble heading straight toward her, "Frak!" she exclaimed.
Demona chose that moment to surprise almost everyone there, exclaiming, "NO!" and pushing Quinn out of the way before it got to her.
Quinn twisted her head around to stare at Demona in shock, her mouth gaping open like a fish; before she could start asking the question that was fresh on her mind, the rock, which she had just realized was the biggest piece from the dismantled tower, had crashed into the platform she and Demona had fallen on, shattering the ground beneath them almost immediately.
The two red heads screamed as they fell from the incredible height; Quinn looked to Demona for a split second, long enough to see the blue skinned Gargoyle reach out for her, "Come to-!" she started when a piece from the newly destroyed ground came and crashed into her mid section, making her fall faster than she was.
Quinn's eyes widened when she turned back to call out for help; she had barely gotten the word out when Brooklyn swooped in and caught her, holding her in a bridal style, he glided smoothly back to the remaining castle.
Brooklyn landed on the upper piece of the castle where he and the others glided up to when the ground was destroyed.
He set Quinn down to her feet, and looked at her in a concerned manner, "You okay, Quinn?" he asked her.
She smiled slightly at him to show she was, "I'm okay, Brooklyn." she said, turning back to the others, when she noticed Xanatos standing behind them, a smirk on his face, "You must be Xanatos." she said.
"Yes, I am." he said, walking closer to her, "And I know who you are, Quinn." he started when an intercom that she just noticed was on the wall of the remaining tower beeped at him.
"Mr. Xanatos. There is a Detective Graves in the lobby with a warrant for your arrest." his assistant's voice floated in the air, falling on the surprised billionaire's ears.
He twisted his head around to look at Quinn, "I'm guessing you called your Guardian." he stated, turning around and walking off with his hands in his pockets, possibly to go meet Julie downstairs.
Quinn shook her head as she watched him go, "Julie showed up just in time." she told herself as someone tapped her on her shoulder.
Turning around, she saw it was the olive green Gargoyle with the web wings, "Hey, uh..." she tried to come up with a name to call him, when he interrupted gently.
"It's Lexington, or just Lex if you'd like." he told her, before pointing behind him at the approaching sunrise, "The sun's almost out, and we were getting ready to go to sleep for the day. I just wanted to say thank you. For, well, I guess you saved us from Demona." he said with a small smile.
She smiled back, "No problem, I'm happy I got here in time." she said, watching Brooklyn turn and smile at her, as big as his beak would allow him to smile, before he turned back around and got on his pedestal, readying for the arriving sun.
Lex turned around after shooting one last smile in her direction, then scurried off to get on his own pedestal.
Goliath called out to her when he saw her starting to leave, "I assume, you will be returning to us tonight?" he asked her.
Quinn looked surprised for a brief moment, before her face split into a wide smile, "You know it." she called out, before turning around and disappearing into the dark hallway as the six Gargoyles turned to stone for the day.
Sorry it took so long to update, like I said in my newest TMNT fic, school started for me.
Sorry if the ending was rushed, I really wanted to get done with the Awakening episodes, I'm on episode 48 of season 2, and it's getting a little bit harder to remember most of season 1.
Anyways, please review.
I curse your inevitable betrayal if you flame me.
-Zabby