Still exuberant from his unexpectedly violent interaction with the stranger, Brooklyn came crashing into the castle common room where he found Broadway preparing himself for the late patrol with a plate of chicken pot stickers. Brooklyn ordered him to help him gather the clan and a few moments later, Brooklyn was telling them all about the rogue female he had encountered on the beach.
"Why in the world was she out in the middle of the river?" Ophelia asked.
"Yes, that does seem strange," Angela added, "Did she look injured in any way?"
"Not that I could see," Brooklyn said thoughtfully. As was often the case, he appreciated his sisters' way of finding the sensible questions to ask.
"Maybe she was scared?" Lexington suggested, "I mean, if you've never seen the city before, it makes sense not to want to approach it in a vulnerable way. But I wonder what brought her here in the first place?"
"She was certainly defensive the moment she saw me," Brooklyn replied in a grim tone, "Maybe there is someone after her? I think she may need our help."
The others seemed to consider the various puzzles of the situation. For a moment the room was silent, until Blaze announced his verdict.
"Well, then! Let's be off and search for the poor wretch!"
"Aye," Linnet agreed with a smile, "We'll help the lass like she's never been helped before, kicking and screaming all the way!"
"You could at least try to talk to her," Angela pointed out, "The city is a dangerous place for a lone gargoyle with no place to go by day."
The matter was decided, and rather than the planned late patrol, the four male gargoyles, as well as Linnet, were soon scouring the park where Brooklyn had last seen the rogue gargoyle. Brooklyn wished that they had Bronx's tracking skills for this endeavor, but Goliath had seen fit to take him along with Thorn to the mining site where Xanatos' liaison had witnessed what sounded like a gargoyle attack. This left them to the task using only their own tracking abilities, which had been retrained over the years to seek mobsters and terrorists in buildings and alleyways, and not gargoyles in a wooded river's edge. They found no sign of the rogue among the treeline by the waterside.
"Maybe we aren't finding her here, because this isn't the way she went?" Blaze pointed out as he gazed across the river, "Maybe she was headed into the city the whole time?"
The group decided to search the other side of the river by air instead. At last, Linnet pointed to an old graystone church, nearly lost among the towers that had sprung up around it over the years.
"Something's moving on that rooftop!" she exclaimed. Brooklyn followed her gesture and caught sight of a shadow moving near the base of an ornate belfry.
"She was scared of me before," Brooklyn told them, "So we probably shouldn't all approach her at once or she might flip out."
"Send Lexington first," Linnet suggested, "He's, by far, the least intimidating among us."
"Thank you, my Treasure," Lexington replied sarcastically.
Brooklyn had only a moment to consider the best choice. How he wished they had Angela with them. Her natural empathy and gentleness could gain the confidence of the most ruthless serial killer, but she was also strong enough to hold her own against nearly any opponent, if things went south. Unfortunately, she was too close to laying her egg and was in no condition for combat.
"The both of you go," Brooklyn ordered, "And we'll cover you from the other side."
The plan worked well at first. The rogue was not nearly as aggressive toward the two smaller warriors as she had been with Brooklyn, but at the same time, she clearly had no interest in talking with them. As the pair distracted her, Brooklyn and Broadway approached from the other side of the belfry, trying not to be noticed. The rooftop, however, was unstable and a chunk of shingling fell away from under Broadway's claw, falling to the ground and causing the subject of their focus to whip around, eyes flaring at them. Before he could speak a word, Brooklyn found himself in his second physical confrontation of the night and his friends were soon forming a circle around him and the rogue, trying to pull her off of him.
Despite the overwhelming number against her, the rogue had no intention of allowing herself to be taken by them. She was fierce and relentless as she threw all the strength she had at them. Brooklyn quickly lost any delusion that she might never have been formally trained within a clan, for she knew and predicted a great deal of their coordinated efforts to seize her without actually hurting her.
"Brooklyn?" Blaze proposed as he dodged a particularly brutal kick that had been aimed for his face, "I don't mean to question your authority by any means. But I wonder if it might be the correct time to consider the possibility that this lovely high-spirited hellcat may not want our help after all."
"Aye," Linnet agreed as she clung to the rogue's left arm for dear life, "I'm beginning to get the same impression."
"Well, be that as it may," Brooklyn replied as he caught and repelled a powerful punch, while simultaneously taking a thrashing by the rogue's spiked tail at his knee, "We can't just leave her alone out here. It will be dawn soon! She can't turn to stone just anywhere. We can take her back to the castle and then-"
"But we can't force her to take our help," Broadway pointed out, "We don't have any reason to hold her against her will. She hasn't done anything wrong!"
The stranger snarled at Brooklyn, her eyes filled with rage and hatred and he paused, looking her over.
"You're right," he said slowly, "She may not want to be our friend, but she's not our enemy either…there's no point in making her one." Brooklyn ordered the others to release their captive, and she charged forward, ready to attack him again, but he caught her arms and stopped her from striking.
"No!" he said firmly, "We don't want to harm you! Do you understand?" The female struggled against him for a moment that flung herself backward from him, now standing alone in a circle of strangers. Brooklyn pointed at the Eyrie Building in the skyline, where their home was prominently visible.
"Do you see that castle there at the top of that building?" he asked firmly, "That is our home. That is where we are safe during the day. You can come there if you need help. Do you see it?" The rogue's eyes seemed to follow his gesture to the tallest tower, but her expression remained defiant. He suspected that she didn't understand a word he had said. He turned to address Lexington.
"Do you have any of those transmitters with you?" he asked quickly and Lexington pulled a thin disk, about the size of a silver dollar, from a bag he wore strapped around his waist and handed it to him. The stranger snarled as Brooklyn approached her again, but he held the transmitter out to her and she looked at it in surprise.
"You can use this to call us," Brooklyn explained, "If you are in trouble, push the button and we will come find you."
The rogue gave him an untrusting look, but gingerly took the transmitter from his outstretched claw, lightly touching the scarab emblem that represented the robotics department of Xanatos Enterprises. Quickly, she closed her claw over the device and charged Brooklyn again, not to attack this time, but forcing her way past him and leaping from the edge of the roof to glide away into the darkness.
"Well, at least she took it," Lexington said hopefully.
"Yeah, but who knows if she has any idea what to do with it or not?" Brooklyn replied grimly.
"We did what we could," Broadway assured him, "It wouldn't have been right to force her to come with us."
"No, it wouldn't," Brooklyn agreed, and suddenly, they were interrupted by the buzz of his phone. Brooklyn took it out and his face unexpectedly took on a smile.
"Goliath is less than an hour away!" he announced to the others, "He wants us to meet him at the castle. He says he's bringing guests!"
The others gasped and cheered with excitement at the news and they quickly departed for the castle. As they passed overhead, they didn't notice the shadow of the rogue gargoyle, watching them curiously from behind a massive billboard that was attached to the side of a tower. She opened her claw and looked again at the emblem on the transmitter.
"Xanatos," she whispered to herself, and she watched the strange gargoyles gliding away in formation, until they disappeared over the castle curtain wall.