Life was a bit bad and good for the gargoyles of Manhattan, New York as of late. Despite threats from many kinds of enemies, it didn't matter to them that they would always continue to be guardians of their city. But beyond battles on the streets, there was still life in their ancient castle home too. Just like ordinary citizens, they too had a life at home with family and friends too.

Goliath was the leader of the clan. The biggest of the bunch with lavender skin and auburn hair. He had deep compassion for humans that it was hard to understand sometimes why when the humans were so against his clan just because of their looks and actions to defend the city. He also had a special and deep relationship with Elisa Maza, a policewoman detective. She helped even him out in times of doubt.

Angela was Goliath's daughter, also lavender and auburn hair in color, but looked more like her mother, Demona, Goliath's ex-mate. Angela had been raised on Avalon along with her thirty-five other rookery kin by Princess Katherine, Guardian Tom, and the late Magus. Angela had deep caring for humans too. She strongly didn't understand why the humans hated them since she had been raised by humans.

Hudson was the clan's elder and former leader of the clan. He was often Goliath's advisor when the leader had problems with leading. He had much wisdom. He was like a grandfather to the young ones as well as a father. Unknown to them, he was also Broadway's birth father. He had lost his mate long ago in a battle and had remained single ever since. He was most likely to be found in front of the tv nowadays, having a retired life, but still went out to fight with the clan when he was needed. He was closest to the clan's pet, gar dog, Bronx.

Brooklyn was the clan's Second in Command. He was the leader of the three youngest males that had been the Trio at one point. He was red in color with red and black wings and a white mane of hair. He also had a beak and horns. He had the most exotic face of all of his clan. He liked motorcycles, was a hopeless romantic, longing for a mate of his own, loved music, and could be a hothead sometimes, especially when it came to Demona for having tricked him a few years ago. But he was also calm and caring too.

Lexington was the clan's smallest one and the smartest. He was an olive-green in color with webbed wings along his arms, sides, and legs. He glided differently than the others. He loved technology and the baby boy that lived in the castle named Alex Xanatos, who was the son of their benefactor, David Xanatos and his wife, Fox, or Janine.

There was also a butler man named Owen Burnett, who was David's assistant oftentimes, and babysitter to Alexander. Owen had a secret identity called Puck, a magical fay. He was Alex's teacher of the magical arts. Alex was part fay himself through his mom, Fox, and grandmother, Titania.

Broadway was the clan's cook and beloved chosen mate of Angela. He was the biggest and strongest of the Trio. He was turquoise in color. He also liked to hang out with Elisa as he had once accidentally shot her. He always wanted to know she was safe. He would also play police detective too. He was also Hudson's son biologically.

Bronx was the clan's pet and guard dog. He was a different type of gargate. The only one that acted like a dog and didn't have wings. He had a good sense of smell. He was very loyal to the clan and closest to Hudson.

The six males, Demona, and original thirty-six eggs had been the only survivors of their destroyed clan over ten centuries ago. Three of Goliath and Demona's generation had also been brought back to life in robot/cyborg bodies by Demona and David with a mix of science and sorcery. Two that were mates and an evil brother. Back in 994, A.D., the castle residents had been betrayed by the Captain of the Guard and Demona to the Vikings that had smashed the others in their stone sleep state.

Gargoyles turned to a stone substance in the daytime. It made them vulnerable to attack. But it had good advantages too. They absorbed solar energy to be strong and refreshed every night when they broke free from it. It also healed wounds and bruises sustained the night before. Even if a gargoyle was tranquilized, it also made the effects wear off faster sooner too. Broken bones might take a few days longer to heal if set properly.

Gargoyles also had the ability to see in the dark, good senses of smell, great hearing that was well above what humans could hear, incredibly strong, the ability to glide on wind currents rather than fly, and their eyes glowed when they got angry or were in pain. Males glowed white while females had red eye glow.

When it came to reproduction, couples that were old enough would breed on the 7th fall equinox year in the 8th year of an even decade. As the female got pregnant, she would carry the single egg for six months, then lay the egg the following spring equinox. The egg would be purplish in color with purple dots on it, and it would incubate in a rookery for ten years. Then it would hatch on the spring equinox in the 8th year of an odd decade. Gargoyles could only have children every twenty years. The hatchlings were a little more developed than human babies but were still dependent on their parents. They also were nursed by their mothers.

Gargoyles had a balance of both reptile and mammal-like qualities. The females laid eggs and produced milk for offspring like the few mammals that did the same that all lived in Australia. Having hair and being warm-blooded was a mammal quality too. Gargoyles also had more tolerance for the colder times, but extreme cold could get to them too. They just had a thicker skin than humans did.

Over the centuries, from so many being killed in stone sleep or battles, the living ones just couldn't reproduce fast enough to replenish the populations. Their kind had nearly been done for. Some clans had gone into hiding. Humans were just too dangerous to them. Humans just feared and didn't understand them. There was more to them than just their looks, like how it is with humans themselves. Judging before knowing other living beings.

There were known clans that had been discovered by Goliath, Angela, Elisa, and Bronx on their world tour by Avalon in London, Guatemala, and Ishimura, Japan. The Ishimura Clan was one of the biggest clans having been kept secret from the outside world for so long. The London Clan had a big clan too, that lived separate from the shop that they ran for business.

Maybe someday, it would be possible for the clans of the world to unite together and hopefully try to make peace with humans.

…

In the Manhattan Clan, though life was stable enough for the clan right now, it had its ups and downs among them. For one member in particular, life seemed lonely and miserable.

Brooklyn, the clan's Second, he had been leader while Goliath had been away and was a good one, though there were still things he could learn from him. Hudson had been his mentor as much as Goliath had too. But the red male wasn't quite ready to be the clan's sole leader yet. He was satisfied with his role of Second to his leader, but there was just one thing he longed for more than anything: a female to complete his life.

Brooklyn loved his rookery brothers, but as their clan had been killed off before their one-thousand-year sleep, when waking up here in the 20th century, having a shortage of clan members had to make the Trio grow up quicker and take on more adult responsibilities.

The Trio had once been so close as best friends, then Brooklyn got his new title of Second before his leader went on the Quest for six months, then Angela was brought home, and then the Trio tried to compete for her affections. Males of all species tended to do that. But it was Angela's choice in the end. In due time, she chose Broadway. That really upset Brooklyn. For a small while, Angela had seemed probably the closest to him, but after the Coldstone incident, Angela made up her mind.

Brooklyn still hung out with Lexington when he wasn't watching Alex or working on some piece of technology. But his life still felt empty.

He often felt sick to his stomach watching Broadway and Angela at times, being mates. Goliath and Elisa were a couple too, and it made the red male sad that there was no female for him. He would sigh and tell himself, "There's a girl out there for me, I just haven't found her yet."

But that would soon change.

…

In the city, there were biologists that were interested in the gargoyles, rather interested in catching some of them for study. At least one male and one female.

They wanted to study gargoyle anatomy and gender differences along with possible reproduction. They couldn't be that hard to reproduce, could they? The humans asked themselves.

These scientists were fascinated by the creatures. They had heard they were guardians of the city, like the police. And even heroes deserved a family. They didn't know how many there were in the city, but they just needed two.

The boss of the outfit, named Theo McCurren, was a man in his mid-forties. He stood at 5'8, had dark brown eyes, sandy colored hair, and wore science lab clothes, white shirt, and brown khaki pants. His colleagues did the same. There were both men and women there. Ages ranged from late 20s to 40s among them. There were over fifty of them in this business here.

Though both genders worked equally among each other, Theo was still going to have at least some of the women be more in charge of the female he caught and the men being in charge of the male. But if needed, either gender could help with either gargoyle. There were also really strong men among them too, as the gargoyles were known to be strong.

Theo didn't want too much stress brought on the female as she would carry the progeny that he planned to bring forth. And it also depended on how the gargoyles were acting too on how they were going to be treated.