Grimmfall: Eclipse

I do not own Grimmfall, Gargoyles, OK K.O, Powerpuff Girls or any other franchises with characters or ideas that appear in this story.

A new threat emerges, heralded by Goliath's former love. As Point Prep's own Foxtail goes on the hunt, Sebben brings Melissa Hunter into the field to stop events from spiralling into chaos.

Xxx

Chapter Three: Unstoppable, Immovable

Gilded Heart

The screams kept coming. Angela, his precious daughter, the one good thing that Demona had left to him. He could hear the agony ripping through her and was helpless to do anything to stop it.

This was what hell must be like. Not pitchforks and fire, or even ice and darkness…it was being forced to do nothing while those you love suffered before you.

He had run out of breath for shouting when Foxtail returned, casually nursing a cup of freshly brewed coffee. He had even run out of breath for crying.

"Please…" He pleaded, slumped in his restraints. "I beg you…my daughter…her suffering brings you nothing!"

"I beg to differ. It sure made you adjust your attitude, which makes me a little happier." Foxtail said, pouring some cream in and stirring.

"Stop it…if my submission is the price you demand then you have it! Just leave my daughter alone!" He cried out.

"It isn't your submission I want, Goliath." Foxtail shook her head. "I just want to make sure she has as much reason as possible to come in hot headed."

She. Demona, obviously.

"Demona is not here to hear you torture Angela!" Goliath snarled.

"No, but her bug in the system is." Foxtail checked her watch. "In fact, I'm honestly surprise that she didn't already-"

Suddenly all of the lights went out, and Angela's screams ceased at the same time. Red emergency lights were quick to come to life, and Foxtail already had her scroll out.

"Foxtail, Bridge. Report!" She ordered.

"Power breaker just tripped, ma'am. Seems there was an overload. Damage control teams are already scrambling to the source- wait! Incoming! Airborne contacts, green-four-five!"

"Gargoyles." Foxtail concluded immediately. "She's here."

To her side, the only door into the room suddenly groaned as something struck it from the other side. Foxtail assumed a ready stance, tossing aside her coffee but keeping hold of her scroll. "Security to holding room one!"

"You can't face her alone!" Goliath said. "Release me!"

"You're staying on that slab." Foxtail replied. "Whoever comes through that door, whatever they want…it just became a suicide mission."

Then the alloy expanded as something beat a growing indent through it from the outside. Several more blows at the corners broke the metal extensions that served to reinforce the hatch, causing it to snap out of place and fall at Foxtail's feet. The Head of POINT Prep, ready for whatever enemy stepped through, was hit with a surprise as her Faunus eyes adjusted to the dim lighting beyond the door.

"…Mel."

"That's Mrs Hunter to you." Melissa stepped through the doorway and fixed Foxtail with a venomous glare. "Bitch."

"What are you doing here?" Foxtail demanded, not dropping her stance as she saw more figures outside the door. "Releasing prisoners from Federal custody is a crime with a severe penalty, Mrs Hunter."

"So is conscripting child soldiers, abduction, illegal detention and a whole lot more that I could probably find out from looking around this little taxpayer black hole of yours." Melissa said as Angela ducked into the room and raced over to her father.

"Angela!" Goliath was relieved to see her…strangely unharmed. "What did they do? Are you alright?"

"They just locked us up in rooms, father." Angela informed him as she and Broadway worked on freeing him from his restraints. "But we thought we heard screaming coming from here."

"Yeah, pretty convincing screaming." Elisa stepped in next, pistol levelled at Foxtail. "Don't have it in you to torture an innocent woman after all. Colour me surprised."

"Physical torture is the least effective means of getting anything done." Foxtail relaxed her posture. "Put it away, detective. I think you have enough actions added to your record after tonight as is."

"Funny, I think you're still rackin' em up as we speak." Elisa replied. "You really thought that you could kidnap people and not pay for it?"

"The Manhattan Clan are not citizens of the United States of America, or any other nation. They are rogue elements who are not subject to protection under any law that I know of." Fox replied, arms crossed. "In any case, I have no further use for any of them. They're minnows who brought in the real catch I'm after, as intended."

"What does she mean?" Angela asked as Goliath got to his feet.

"Demona is here." Goliath told them.

"And the power surge which I assume you all caused to cover your prison break has left this ship vulnerable." Foxtail pointed out sharply. "Plenty of good men and women serving their country are about to die without a chance to defend themselves, thanks to you."

"Stow it, lady!" Brooklyn snapped. "Don't act all righteous with us."

"Demona is here for us." Goliath said. "The sooner that we get away from this vessel, the sooner she will leave it and its crew be."

"Get going." Melissa said, motioning with her head while keeping between Foxtail and the door. "The Headmistress and I have a long overdue chat at hand."

The Manhattan Clan filed out of the room, with Elisa being the last to back out after them, weapon still aimed at Foxtail. "Be careful." She told Melissa before hurrying after her family.

In the ensuing silence, the distant sounds of weapon discharges and urgent shouting was heard through the walls.

"Those are my men dying because of you, Hunter." Foxtail reminded her.

"Because of another one of your brilliant plans." Melissa countered. "Glob, how did you manage to get the top seat at POINT when you're so shortsighted?"

"I got it because unlike some of us, I could be counted upon." Foxtail's eyes narrowed. "Because I'm willing to do whatever it takes to achieve the objective."

"Like how you achieved capturing that clan by conscripting two little girls into your precious militia?" Melissa reminded her.

"They aren't conscripts. Their father-"

"Was threatened with losing them forever unless he played ball." Melissa cut her off. "And because he didn't know that Sebben could've helped him, he bought your bull shit and signed the dotted line. You really are the worst."

"Those two 'little girls' possess more power than you or I and they've misused it too many times to be trusted with it." Foxtail declared. "They and their sister have caused countless incidents. People lost livelihood, some even lost their lives."

"And for every life they affected negatively, they affected thousands positively." Melissa reached into her pocket and opened her scroll. "They're coming with me, and you're going to drop them from POINT."

"I know you well enough to guess that you aren't expecting me to agree to that without motivation." Foxtail raised one brow. "What could motivate me to send two super powered delinquents back out into the wild?"

"Titanomachy."

That made Foxtail clamp her mouth shut.

"Drop them. Forget about them entirely. Leave them and their father alone. Leave Demona to me." Melissa set her scroll down on a free table, showing an unopened folder labelled under the very word that had Foxtail's blood racing. "Those are my conditions."

"You…withheld classified government documents on a top secret black project." Foxtail shuddered. "You didn't just desert POINT…you've betrayed it. You've betrayed me."

"Order your jackbooted thugs to build a bridge and get over it." Melissa said flatly. "I kept everything on Titanomachy, and I kept a copy stashed somewhere in case you ever got it in your head to come after me. Anything happens to me, or if you break those conditions, and it goes out. Everyone knows. Then POINT is sunk."

"You'll go down too!" Foxtail retorted. "You were in just as deep as the rest of us! The only difference is that you got cold feet. And now time as a housewife has just made you soft and sentimental."

"I'm going to just assume that under all that bluster and groaning you've agreed to my conditions." Melissa picked her scroll back up. "The girls leave with me. Do anything to piss me off before I've stepped off this ship and I'll send it all out on sheer principle. See you around…Fox."

Xxx

The moment she reached the main deck, Melissa was thrown into the thick of a chaotic firefight. Soldiers and crewmen at their defensive stations, some manning machine guns that didn't rely on presently inoperative computers and others relying on small arms, fired into the sky as armoured Gargoyles dove down, clawing and kicking as they got low enough. Some snatched up victims to carry them up high and drop them into the ocean, or worse.

She saw the Manhattan Clan in the midst of it, fighting to keep ahead of these attackers. Katana had her namesake in hand and was fighting back to back with Brooklyn, both of them backed up by Bronx in defending their children. Elisa had gotten ahold of a rifle and was covering Goliath and Hudson as they attempted to fend off four attackers of their own. Broadway was grappling with a larger gargoyle and slowly losing ground before Lexington landed on the larger fighter's back, gripping the seam of their helmet and wrenching back to make them lose balance so that Broadway could kick them away.

Melissa wove her way through the battle, stopping to intercept a Gargoyle who tried to make off with a medic trying to help wounded to safety. She leapt up and slammed both feet into the gargoyle's head, causing them to drop the medic before they were too high off of the ground.

She didn't stay to see if the medic knew who he'd been saved by or if he'd be grateful.

Another of Demona's new friends let out a roar as he landed before her, sinking a large trident into the deck plating which folded like wet paper. He pulled the weapon free and jabbed it towards her, but Melissa ducked to one side and engaged her semblance, charging concentrated amounts of Aura to the tips of her fingers and bringing them together at a point along the trident's shaft…causing it to shatter like a twig. Before the warrior could recover she used one of his digitigrade legs as a stepping stone and slammed her knee into his jaw, making his head tilt back and knocking his helmet clean off. Before he fell over she stepped off of his shoulder and landed in a roll near Elisa.

"Is it me, or-" Elisa brought her rifle up and bashed the stock into the outstretched hand of another attacker, who hissed and flew straight up. "Are these ones actually flying?!"

"They are!" Melissa looked around while blocking strikes from two individual attackers, one arm apiece. "Where's Angela?"

Even if Demona was here to kill her old clan, Angela would be the one exception. She'd seek to separate her from the group so that her forces could attack without restraint. That made her protection a priority.

"Further ahead!" Elisa replied, looking over her shoulder. "I see her!"

Mellissa kicked one of her assailants away and followed Elisa's direction to where Angela had one of the armoured flyers in a headlock, keeping them from finishing off a downed sailor. But coming down behind her was another one with a familiar mane of red…

Demona!

"ANGELA LOOK OUT!" Melissa shouted.

Angela saw her mother's swift descent and was too slow to react…but someone else had seen it moments before. Broadway roared as he intercepted Demona, knocking her away from his mate.

"STAY!" His fists slammed into her cuirass. "AWAY! FROM ANGELA!"

On his fifth swing, Demona's claw closed around his wrist.

"You." Demona hissed in disgust. "Are unworthy of her."

CRUNCH!

Broadway howled as Demona released his now broken arm. He cradled it and backed up as Demona climbed to her feet. Angela heard her mate's cry and saw his peril. She abandoned the fight and tried to race to his aid, but as she crossed the deck a crane built into the ship was struck near its base by an explosive dropped by one of Demona's soldiers. The crane leaned heavily to one side, almost crashing down on Angela. Despite missing her, one of the beams that had supported the crane fell upon her and left her pinned.

Groaning with exertion as she tried to lift it off, Angela looked up to see that Demona had struck Broadway hard enough to fling him on his back. "No!" She reached out as Demona gripped Broadway by his throat. "Mother, please!"

Demona raised her other hand up high, claws extended. "You're better off without this disappointment, Angela." She said bitterly. "We both were."

As she brought her claws down, she was yet again interrupted, this time by Goliath's hands closing around her wrist. With a roar, the leader of the Manhattan Clan ripped Demona off her feet and spun around, flinging her into a nearby container hard enough that she dented it.

"Enough, Demona!" He snarled. "Your fight is with me."

"That is right…" Demona stood up, shrugging off the impact. "You have been nothing but my bane since you awoke, Goliath. But…our war needn't end in bloodshed."

"You already know that we will never be of a single mind, Demona." Goliath said, tensed and ready for her next move. "And we have drifted too far apart to ever reconcile."

"Perhaps, but that does not change the fact that we both have one thing in all of the world that we would die to protect." Demona pointed out. "I make this offer for her sake. It comes from the Father of Gargoyles himself, the first to have flown unassisted and spread his gift to the worthy."

"Father of Gargoyles?" Goliath repeated.

"Vorador." Demona clarified. "It is his will that his children be given a place in this new world, and that each wayward child of his be given he chance to atone for the betrayal of their ancestors by joining our righteous cause. You should be thankful, Goliath; it is by his will that my desire to see the other races end has ceased. In its place he has given me purpose, and I offer to share it with you and our daughter."

"And the price of this purpose and whatever change that has befallen you would be joining this Vorador." Goliath concluded.

"This is no 'change', but restoration." Demona replied. "Think of it, Goliath. Even if you and I can never love one another again…our Angela would not be a slave to the dominion of the sun as I once was. You could bask in the warmth of a sunset with your pitiful human, be free from all limits imposed upon us. All you must do…is kneel to him, and it shall be yours."

Goliath inhaled deeply. "…once, long ago, I may have agreed to that for your sake. But I will not kneel to any master of your's Demona, even the so called Father of Gargoyles himself. Not while this offer comes with too great a price attached to it, and not while it is not given freely to the rest of my clan."

"Really?" She tilted her head and smiled wryly. "Didn't think so."

Goliath saw a shadow form over him, already rapidly shrinking. Throwing himself back, he narrowly avoided the downwards punch of one of Demona's soldiers, this one appearing to be senior among them.

"Goliath, the greatest betrayer of our kind!" He snarled as he turned to face him. "I am Daemon." He drew a great-sword from his back. "Remember it for when I send you to the deepest hell reserved for traitors."

At Goliath's side, Hudson appeared with his own comparatively smaller weapon in hand. "Better than you have tried, boy." He growled.

"There are none better than those of the Grim Clan." Daemon sneered, and took a step forward with the sword poised for an overhead strike.

Before either side could close in, a beam of red cut through the space between them, making Daemon recoil before a powerful gust of wind slammed into him and Demona, forcing their wings out and sweeping them off of the deck of the ship.

As she regained control, Demona saw the culprits behind these attacks. "No…"

Blossom and Bubbles Utonium were flying through the air around the Gilded Heart, knocking her warriors out of the sky and using their eye beams to target more on the deck. Bubbles herself landed between a group of defenders and an advancing formation of Grim Clan fighters, expelling a breath with the strength of a hurricane to fling them up into the air. The defenders used this opportunity to organize while the automated defences came back online, now targeting the Grim Clan and picking them off with precision shots.

"Fall back!" Demona commanded. "Grim Clan, to me! Fall back!"

The remainder of her attack force quickly leapt from the deck and took to the skies, some of them still being intercepted by the two Powerpuff girls. But when Blossom closed in on Demona and Daemon, the latter snarled and swung his sword, unleashing from it a blast of lighting that slammed into the young girl, flinging her back and disorienting her long enough for the Gargoyles to finish their withdrawal.

The Manhattan Clan had regrouped on the deck, finding themselves surrounded by many of the men and women they had been fighting alongside moments ago. Melissa was preparing for a whole new fight when something surprised her…

"Stand down!"

Foxtail, the source of the command, stepped through the crowd of sailors and soldiers- all of whom had obeyed and made safe their weapons.

"Stand the ship down to Alert Level Two." The head of POINT Prep ordered. "And set in a course for home. We have damage that needs to be seen to. Some of those hostiles got down below and tore things up rather badly, presumably in search of our former prisoners." She looked to Melissa. "Thanks again for that."

"Anytime." Melissa replied with equal amount of sarcasm. "So what are you doing now?"

"Taking your advice to not piss you off before you step off this vessel." Foxtail said simply. "This battle showed me several things. Firstly, that I was right about Demona being unable to stay away from her former clan."

"Any of us could have told you that without being taken prisoner." Hudson grumbled.

"And," Foxtail continued, "that my troops, with few exceptions, are ill equipped to take them on in open battle." She looked up to Bubbles and Blossom. "Speaking of which…Utoniums!"

"Yes ma'am." Both girls said quickly, having likely been made to react to her commands quickly during their time in her custody.

"…go home." She said, making the two pause to process that command. "You're officially on special leave from all POINT Prep duties until further notice. Go home and make sure you remain available when-" Her eyes met Melissa's. "…if I choose to call you out again."

"Y-yes ma'am!" Blossom gripped her sister's wrist, but Bubbles pulled away for a moment and floated over to Melissa.

The blonde threw herself forward and hugged Melissa tightly. "Thank you…" She whispered while Melissa patted her on the back.

"Go home, kiddo." She said encouragingly. "And tell your dad to thank Sebben."

The Powerpuff Girls lifted off from the Gilded Heart and turned into a pair of colourful lines of light racing across the sky.

"Was there a point to doing that in front of me?" Melissa asked once the girls were gone completely.

"Call it an act of good will." Foxtail said. "I could have very easily continued my work with just those two to mop the floor with Demona's forces, but that would leave too much to chance. You, however, and your…friends, carried yourselves quite well." She folded her hands behind her waist. "I wish to make an accord with you, Mrs Hunter."

"I'm not the one speaking for this clan." Melissa pointed out.

"No, but I imagine that given how invested they are in fighting Demona, they won't object to what I have in mind." Foxtail shrugged. "It's certainly better than my first plan, unless they'd prefer to run around with no intel and just hope that they figure out Demona's game before it's up."

"State your terms, and make them quick." Goliath glowered at her, the memories of Angela's falsified screams fresh in his mind

"Demona wants your daughter, and she wants the rest of you dead as you've just observed for yourself. She's going to come after you, but with my help you can take the fight to her instead." Foxtail proposed.

"And what do you get from it?" Angela asked, supporting Broadway as Katana and Lexington got his injured arm into a makeshift sling.

"The same thing that you want: Demona neutralized." Foxtail replied. "I won't pretend that we're suddenly friends, but there's more at stake here than a few Gargoyles suddenly being immune to sunlight."

"Vorador." Goliath rumbled. "Demona's new master."

"And the one directing the whole show behind this Grim Clan she leads." Foxtail confirmed. "You want to know more? Then take the deal."

Melissa looked towards the Manhattan Clan. "…I won't speak for you guys. I hate the sound of this…but I think it's worth hearing her out."

"On the condition that she holds back nothing and makes no further moves against us." Goliath demanded. "If she can do that…then while I will neither forget nor forgive her actions against myself and my clan, I can move past them for the sake of stopping whatever Demona has planned."

"I can work with that." Foxtail dusted her palms off on one another. "Shall we discuss it over some coffee? I missed my daily cup because of all those excitement."

A man in an officer's uniform stepped up to her. "Ma'am, I'm sorry to tell you, but…" He took of cap off and held it to his chest while fighting back tears. "…Mr Coffee was a casualty of the enemy incursion into the mess deck."

A chorus of horrified gasps rang out across the deck. Foxtail's stern but serene expression hardened dramatically. "Those…bastards." She hissed. "I was annoyed before, but now? Now…I'm mad."

Melissa rolled her eyes and looked to the Clan. "This and more stupidity brought to you by POINT Prep."

"I don't get what their so upset about." Angela whispered. "Who is 'Mr Coffee'?"

"It's a coffee maker, lass." Hudson groaned, one hand over his face. "And apparently this lot is helpless without it?"

"Can't Lexington just fix their 'Mr Coffee' for them?" She asked.

"Well there's a silver lining." Melissa smiled humourlessly. "He'll probably be everybody's hero if he pulls that off."

Xxx

End of Chapter