.

Brood of a New Age

32.

Even hours later, anyone who accidentally touched Dante got a small jolt of electricity every time because his body was as if electrically charged. Grace had taken the trouble to re-braid his braid very tightly so that his hair did not rise in all directions as if a balloon had been rubbed intensely against his mop of hair. At dinner, no one had been able to look at the green and blue battered gargoyle, all ashamed or unsettled about different things. But Dante didn't want excuses or seek conversation either. He focused stoically on his potato pancakes with apple sauce which Broadway had made in heaps because he had assumed that by the end of the evening some clan members would prefer soft food. Dante didn't grumble about the lack of meat, and you could tell he was glad for the soft food. But other than that, he was fine. He had even repeatedly enjoyed zapping Grace and Luca until he was threatened with the newspaper again. But there would be no more fighting for him. It was Grace's turn.

She just stepped onto the mat in the large training hall with Angela and visibly swayed until she got used to the soft surface after a few meters.

Luca was now sitting - not without radiating a lot of insecurity - between the again functional Coldstone and Coldfire. Dante squatted next to Katana and Nashville. Broadway and Hudson behind Dante and Nash.

Lexington and Elisa now held observation positions on different sides of the hall.

Both females looked to Goliath as he stood up in front of them.

"I'll repeat the rules again. Short glides in the hall are allowed if you make it into the air. Anyone who lands or is thrown outside the mat area loses. If you are so injured that you need your stone sleep before you can fight again, you lose. Whoever gives up has lost. I trust that no one will hurt the other too much. Fight with decency but show what you can do, because your opponents out there will not be merciful to you."

He nodded encouragingly to Grace and Angela and stepped back.

Angela moved into a fighting stance but Grace didn't move but just stood there indecisively. She had discussed with Luca while Dante had luxuriated in the tub earlier how things should go in case she had to fight. To knock out the opponent in a hurry or to let herself be knocked out and not look like a trained killer. But now Angela was her opponent and Grace was completely unprepared for that. She had hoped Brooklyn or Goliath or at least the robot woman Coldfire could be her opponent because then it would not have been conspicuous to let herself be defeated. Maybe at least Goliath or Coldfire might have actually beaten her in a fight. But now the pleasant, kind, and yes - from Grace's point of view - almost humanly fragile Angela stood before her. Grace was taller and more muscular than her, and somehow she didn't think it was normal for Angela to lift 600 pounds with ease, as Grace had done back in the training room at the Della Marra estate. No one would buy it if she deliberately let Angela defeat her, but she also didn't believe that Angela was physically or characteristically capable of fighting brutally so Grace didn't have to act. Then the only thing left to do was ... to incapacitate Angela. She didn't want to fling the nice female around like a rag doll that she landed outside the mat area. She would have to force her to give up as soon as possible. And that could bring up a whole other and for Grace ancient problem. Old memories threatened to be pushed from her mind to the surface of her consciousness. Shouted orders. Icy darkness inside her. And the crying of a child. She jerked back to the here and now as Broadway called something from down the hall.

"Show Grace how to fight as a gargoyle, Angela," Broadway called out. Not spiteful or particularly partisan but rather good-natured. Still, Dante felt compelled to also put his hands to his beak and, though his ribs and lungs would cause problems until dawn, call out.

"Show her how WE fight, sister!"

He felt Broadway's stare like pinpricks on the back of his head and smiled confidently. It was a shame that he probably wouldn't be able to win over honeyed Angela (not without turning into a fat awkward blob) but he didn't care that much. If these alien gargoyles considered him a tough nut to crack in a fight, they were about to be very surprised. Just because Grace had been trained as a Sniper didn't mean she couldn't be a serious opponent in close combat. On the contrary. He just hoped ... that she would keep control. Either way ... hopefully the Yanks had plenty of band-aids and cold packs on hand. Angela had meanwhile lashed out and punched at Grace. Not even particularly fast or hard but just to see her opponent's reaction to it. Grace had deflected her hand to the side with ease. As well as the one that followed. And the one after that. Angela ducked, spun around quickly, and tried to sweep Grace off her feet with her tail. And she succeeded! Grace fell on her back and Dante as well as Luca jumped up.

"She's not hurt," Katana said, and Nashville added. "It's a very simple Gargoyle Move."

"Gargoyle move my ass. That was foul play!" exclaimed Dante but grudgingly sat back down under Katana's stern sideways glance. Luca likewise.

"Dante and Grace hardly use their tails at all. They don't fight like that," the detective said, rubbing his hands indecisively as if he were cold.

"Then it's about time they learned," Coldstone said coolly.

Grace, meanwhile, had risen to her feet again, looking visibly unhappy at her self-imposed inaction but still making no attempt to react as Angela moved around her again in that hunched posture.

"Why doesn't she go into an offensive or defensive posture?" asked Coldfire to the crowd. "Angela is a pleasant, not too rough training companion, surely the new red sister won't be afraid of getting hurt?""

"Certainly not!" hissed Dante to the toasters and they stared at him. So did Luca, who looked kind of distressed.

Dante turned his head and grunted in displeasure. Grace wanted so badly to convince these Yanks of her social skills that she was playing the pacifist here. But what if that was exactly the wrong thing to do? Goliath had just said they had to be able to FIGHT for their duties. Whatever these duties were. If she acted as if she couldn't fight at all, apart from shooting, she could ruin her own chances. Didn't his smart sister think of that?

He put his hands to his beak again. "Grace! Wrong time for non-violence. If this clan can't see what you can do, how will they know if you're an asset to them?"

Grace gave him a venomous look. Which immediately grew uncertain, however.

"But I don't want to hurt anyone!" she exclaimed.

Goliath stepped up to her where Angela backed away.

"Grace- Gargoyles appreciate peacefulness, too. But when we're out there, sometimes we have to fight. When we have the opportunity, we prefer retreat to bloody battles. But that is not always possible. That was true a thousand years ago and it's still true today. You can handle guns, you said?"

Grace nodded hesitantly and lowered her eyes like a guilt-stricken child.

"Surely you're somewhat skilled in hand-to-hand combat as well. And even if you're not, show us what you can do." Goliath lifted her head with a claw under her chin. "That's the clan leader's order. You can do no wrong."

On the bench, each of the gargoyles heard Elisa grumble quietly at the sight. Only briefly but audibly. Goliath's gargoyle vocalizations had been rubbing off on her a bit for a while now.

Angela stepped up to her, "It's okay, Grace. Even if you land hits, I won't be mad at you. That's what these training fights are for. So that when we're out in the field, we know how to act."

"Are you sure you won't be mad at me?" the red Italian whispered and the purple female smiled broadly. "Who says YOU won't be mad at me after this?"

That got a cautious laugh out of Grace.

Now Grace also went into a fighting posture and the two females circled each other appraisingly. Several times Grace lunged at Angela, who backed away, or they did the same with reversed roles. It looked a little like a dance. But then, faster than Grace had anticipated, Angela ducked down at her next move, grabbed Grace by the hips, lifted her up and threw her to the mat. Even a human wouldn't have been hurt by that, and Grace jumped back up to her feet from her lying position. Angela was back in her crouched stance, grinning and ignoring the scratch that Grace had accidentally rather than intentionally inflicted on her when her claws grazed Angela's upper arm. But Grace noticed it very well. She smelled the blood of her fellow species and knew she would have to finish the fight quickly. Very quickly. Angela lashed out again with her arm, but Grace didn't block the blow or deflect it. She caught the fist with her hand and held Angela in place.

"Okay. Goliath said you have to say it. Now you have to say you give up," Grace said with an encouraging smile and Angela laughed with her soft voice.

"Not because of that!" She lashed out with her other hand and it too was caught and her fist clutched. Angela tried to pull her arms back, but Grace held them with ease. Angela's smile disappeared. So did Grace's. The red Italian female's gaze was penetrating, almost a stare.

"Now give up," she commanded.

Again Angela tried to wriggle out of the clamp hold but could not. She groaned under the pressure. Grace was suddenly like a different person. Not the praying female from the church who hugged and kissed. Not the shrill fury who whipped her brother through the castle courtyard with a newspaper. She was suddenly ice cold. And the coldness of her eyes threatened to petrify Angela even in the middle of the night. That scared Angela. And the fact that she had been pinned down like that made her angry.

"Give up," Grace said, and Angela s eyes lit up red.

"A gargoyle doesn't give up that easily!" she hissed, snarled, and was about to lunge with her leg to knock Grace over, but she seemed to anticipate it, kicked her supporting leg when the other was already in the air, and Angela fell to her knees - still in the same ruthless grip. The Italian squeezed harder, so much that it really hurt now.

"Give up!" said Grace again more firmly, looming over her with murderously cold eyes. For a second, compassion flickered in them. And regret. "You must say you give up, Angela. Please."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw that her mate had stood up.

"Angela! Say you give up," she heard him call urgently. Unable to answer now, Angela let out a furious scream, her tail lashing out wildly at Grace, but before it could whip her, Grace jumped up and landed with one of her feet on her tail. Angela became even more frantic from radiating pain, wriggling in the grip of Grace who now had three of her limbs pinned down.

Grace did not use her claws. She wasn't supposed to be stronger than Angela at least not THAT MUCH stronger. Or was that just how the Italian clan had been? Had the females been stronger than the males there? Angela barely felt the pressure of her own claws digging into her palms, so tremendous was the pressure on her hands and fingers. So intense was the pain that one could think every second - A moment after Angela had heard at least two cracking sounds in her hands, Grace let go.

"Ahhhh" Angela screamed inhumanly shrilly, falling back and rolling on the floor in pain. Broadway nearly leaped over Dante and Nash with a dexterity none of the Italians had thought him capable of. Immediately he was at his dearest, Elisa right behind him.

Katana and the robots also wanted to get up, but Goliath gestured for them to stay in their seats with a petrified face.

Luca sighed in frustration and Dante whispered.

"Well, that turned out great. From one extreme to the other. Because the princess didn't give in."

Coldfire and Coldstone turned to him and though their faces remained largely expressionless Dante knew they had "heard" every word. Katana probably did too but like Nash, she probably chose to ignore him. Which pained Dante somehow. He would rather be reprimanded than ignored. The purple female's quiet sobs echoed through the hall as Angela was soothed by her mate and helped up. Lexington was also with her, looking at her hands.

Grace, now not cold but again full of emotion was standing affectedly apart, lowering her head under Broadway's hard gaze.

"What were you thinking?!" he asked, eyes blazing, and where they had never once lit up in battle, now the fire in the Italian gargoyle's eyes was awakening. She sounded desperate but as angry as she was perplexed.

"She had to give up! Signor Goliath said so."

"Do you always do everything just as you're told!" blurted Broadway, and Dante, despite Katana's orders to remain seated, jumped up, standing between the turquoise gargoyle and his sister as he had done all his life. His wrists and knuckles above the heel spurs felt bare and cold but he still thought he felt that greedy vibration of his knives and bared his claws as he had never done before.

"Don't yell at her! We've ALWAYS just done what Father told us to do! Of course she listens to the clan leader now!" Dante shouted deadly serious as if Goliath was the logical successor to her human father.

"Enough!" roared Goliath, his wings snapping open loudly, urging Dante and Grace as well as Broadway, Angela and Lex apart. Eyes blazing, the massive gargoyle turned to his three clansmen who ducked under his powerful presence.

"No one will be blamed here, and no one will start a fight, or all go to the rookery," he said. All three, even Angela nodded.

Brooklyn - too old, too hardened and too uninvolved in the dispute to duck away like a Hatchling stood on the sidelines with his arms folded, his hand on his laser weapon, never taking his eyes off Dante. Elisa, already used to such a display of his temperament but not crushed by gargoyle instinct, took Angela in her arms.

Goliath turned to Dante with a growl, but the latter only raised his head steadfastly, his own growl already in his throat. He had never had an opponent like this before and he wasn't sure if he could take on Goliath. But for Grace, he would try. But Grace pushed past him and now stood between Dante and Goliath herself.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. And again - almost heartbroken and croaking with agony. "I'm really sorry." Goliath's gleam in his eyes faded as did the growl. He looked again at Angela. Gargoyles were strong and tough and did not cry even in pain. But Angela had grown up among humans. On a peaceful magical island. Only her gargoyle pride made her overcome the shock and paralyzing pain and look at her father.

"I'm sorry, too, father. It - it's all right."

"There's probably something broken," Lexington said, looking at her hands, bloody from her claws. "At most, a fissure fracture in one or two fingers. Maybe a small bone or two in the metacarpus. No fracture is displaced."

Goliath closed his eyes to collect himself, grumbled again in a way that even the foreign gargoyles could hear that the threat to them was over, then looked up again.

"Then stone sleep will solve the problem. Angela." He brushed the last of the moisture from her cheek and she smiled at him, which also made him smile mildly.

"Next time, give in quicker. Don't get hurt on purpose. And Grace?"

The red female's eyes grew wide.

"Yes, Goliath?"

"Your strength is extraordinary. But we don't hurt clan members even if they don't verbally say they're giving up. It goes against our code. Obedience is good ... but a clan needs thinking members even if it means that one or another minor decision of the leader cannot be followed exactly. So ... never hurt other gargoyles or humans again unless they are a serious danger to yourself."

Grace could say nothing in response. She was so terribly ashamed. For forgetting for a minute that she wanted to be good. How long had it been since this cold darkness had taken possession of her head? She turned to Dante and saw that he wanted to take her in his arms, but she couldn't bear his embrace right now.

She also had to avoid Luca's gaze, which had slowly approached them. He thought she was SO much better than she was. But she had hurt another gargoyle. Lovely Angela, who had been so good to her first. She had perhaps ruined all chances of being accepted into this clan. Dante was not the problem. She was probably one, too. Right now she just felt ... sinful.

"May I go, please. I ... I need to pray."

She noticed the way the clan members looked at each other. As if they did not understand this need in the least. Still, Goliath nodded.

"Nash, go with her."

"But I-"

"Now, Nashville," said Goliath.

"Yes. It's okay. Come Grace."

"Okay," she said softly, reaching her hand out to him sadly.

Briefly he was taken aback by the gesture, but then he grasped her hand. Together they walked out of the hall under Hudson's gaze. The old warrior looked at Goliath. Then he faced Broadway and Angela. "Broadway, go to the infirmary, bandage Angela's hands. I'm sure there are more cold packs there, too. You guys are dismissed for tonight.

"Okay, Goliath," he muttered, leading his now silent, pale partner away. Luca and Dante walked off whispering to each other in Italian which saved Goliath from having to ask them to stand back for his own little consult.

Brooklyn, Lexington and he put their heads together.

"That was terrifying. Where did that come from?" the little web-wing asked.

"Grace won't show us what she can do now."

"She may never now."

"Maybe in a real conflict out there. But then it will be too late for her opponents," Goliath speculated.

"Opponents or victims," Brooklyn whispered.

Killer mood tonight -..-

Thanks for reading, Q.T.