****Castle Wyvern, two nights later
Brooklyn looked at the clan members before him, taking note of each member who now stood before him to await patrol assignments. The one that concerned him the most was Broadway, who was now returning to patrols, but Brooklyn could still see a deep depression coloring his face. Even with Yin approving of Broadway returning to patrols for a returning feeling of normalcy and needed exercise for his wings, Brooklyn wondered if his brother's wings will still be able to hold him aloft, because Broadway was looking a little more pudgy than usual from eating more the last few nights.
"Alright, listen up," the rusty gargoyle second spoke up, "As you all, know, while Goliath has to take care of other important matters for now, much of which involves our guest Li Shen, I'm going to be assigning patrols again."
Everyone was split into teams of two and then given areas of the city to patrol for the night, yet while everyone was ready to leave, Broadway just stood in place with a pathetic look in his face.
"Brooklyn?" he moaned, "Would it be alright if I just stayed here and helped Goliath guard the castle?"
Brooklyn could only give his aqua rookery brother a stern look, while everyone else looked at him with various degrees of pity and annoyance.
"No, Broadway," Brooklyn said as he placed a hand on his burly brother's shoulder, "I need everyone on patrol tonight. With this gang war getting worse every day we need to do what we can to help stop it. And with Thailog and his cronies still out there, no doubt he might try to take advantage of the situation and make it worse."
"What if I make things worse?" Broadway groaned, "What if I mess up again?"
Brooklyn could only sigh as he shook his head, and then tried to calmly say, "You're a warrior, Broadway, and I know you can do this. I and the clan need you on this."
Broadway could only momentarily look down as he sighed and said he would try, and then left with his patrol partner, Desdemona, to begin their assigned patrol area of the city.
The others then did the same, Sata with Hudson, and Angela with Othello, while Lexington momentarily hung back to say to Brooklyn,
"You aren't the only one who's worried about him, I am too. Who or whatever it was that beat him up so badly is still out there, and we need to find it and make it pay."
Brooklyn could only look at his shorter brother wide eyed for a moment, but it was returned with Lex's own look of determination.
Brooklyn patiently placed a hand on Lex's shoulder as he said,
"We will, Lex, but until we do we have to keep our heads in the game and focus on tonight's patrols and finding a way of stopping this gang war before it gets out of hand."
"Well, when we do," Lex almost snarled, "I want first crack at it, show it that when it messes with my clan they mess with me. I may be small, but I'm still a gargoyle, and I protect those I care about."
Brooklyn gave a thumbs up as Lex then left with his patrol partner, green skinned Graeme, and Brooklyn soon left with Ariana.
Several minutes later, as father and daughter soared over the city to an important destination on their patrol route, Ariana asked her father with worry,
"Dad, why is Uncle Broadway acting so glum? I thought he'd be better by now, but he won't even talk to me or Graeme."
"Me too, sweetheart, but all I know is it involved him using a gun, and you know how much he hates guns."
"Yeah, so?"
"Well, it's because he accidently shot Elisa with her own gun a few years ago when he was playing with it, and shouldn't have been. Back when it was just the six of us, we were still pretty naïve about this new time and place. Only if I remember right, instead of moping around in guilt, he focused instead on catching Dracon's gun smugglers, all in anger with himself."
"How did he get over it?"
"He confessed to Goliath just as he was about to kill Dracon, because Goliath thought that street slime had shot Elisa."
"But that was totally different from what happened a few days ago," Ariana pointed out.
"True, kiddo," Brooklyn agreed, "But sometimes doing something, like making the same mistake twice when vowing not to, can greatly affect someone, and that's never easy."
"Yeah, and I don't like the way it's making Uncle Lex act, either. He's usually really smart about this stuff, but he's starting to act a little like Aunt Demona, talking about revenge and stuff."
"I know, and it makes me worry about him all the more. I think it's because of everything that's happened to him in the last few years, he's afraid he'll die alone."
"But he won't, we know that he's gonna. . ."
"But he doesn't, and it's best for it to stay that way for now."
Ariana gave a reserved sigh as she nodded, then her expression changed to displeasure as she eyed the next stop on their patrol route.
"Do we really have to keep checking this place, Dad?" she complained, "I thought we were done with it, and besides it gives me the creeps."
Brooklyn eyed the old Maddox Technologies building, understanding his daughter's anxiety well.
"Me too, kiddo, but until we can find whatever it is that has Xanatos worried here, we keep looking for it until we find it."
The pre-adolescent red gargoyle would have preferred to just get the patrol over with had something suspicious not then just caught her eye.
"Uh, Dad," she nervously spoke up, "I think I found it."
Brooklyn looked down to see what caught Ariana's attention, and agreed it was extremely suspicious.