AN: Just a reminder that I do enjoy reviews. I don't mind if they are critical at all as this helps me with my writing and lets me know that someone out there is actually reading! Anyway, thanks for reading! Allegra
Sister was quite stunned by what she had just witnessed. This gang of young kids was like nothing she'd ever seen before. Not that she'd had the opportunity to spend much time with human children, she admitted to herself. But she had seen kids on TV and observed kids playing in the parks many times, often with a sense of longing to meet them and interact with them. They always seemed like they were having such a good time, and even if they quarreled here and there, Sister had always held the impression that it was a good thing to have a group of friends beyond your own family, to play with. This frightful band of hooligans, however, challenged this perception entirely!
Now reassured that the micro-sized thug-in-training was now safe among her wild tribe, Sister considered her involvement no longer necessary and spread her wings to continue gliding north. But then she paused when she heard Vernita say a very curious thing to the boy named Stanley.
"The trap worked great, but it's not going to be enough to hold a gargoyle!" she explained thoughtfully, "Occhi, did you do what I told you?"
Sister's head snapped back around and her large ears stretched open anxiously.
The little girl's face also widened into a devilish smile that exposed two missing teeth. She unzipped the front of her ridiculously puffy coat, and pulled out what looked like a large, rectangular canister.
"Yes!" Vernita replied excitedly, taking it and handing it to Stanley, "Is this what we need?"
"Perfect!" Stanley agreed, grabbing the huge battery and hurrying to add it to his creation, "A jolt from this ought to stop `em long enough for us to get the chains on!"
Sister raised a brow at this claim, but she was too curious to be offended. She inched further down the branch of the bald pin oak tree, careful not to make enough sound to call attention to herself.
"How much did your pops say the reward was, Marco?" Vernita asked one of the boys, while the little girl she called 'Occhi' tugged at her arm, trying to get attention.
"Fifty grand a piece!" exclaimed the smallest of the three boys, "But it's not like he'd ever pay us that!"
"Yeah," the taller boy agreed with an eyeroll, "Even if we caught him a hundred gargoyles, he'd just give us enough for a gelato and tell us the rest was going in our college fund. I don't even want to go to college!"
"Me neither," Marco agreed, "I wanna motorcycle! Wouldn't that be cool, Nico? We could all drive all over the neighborhood, tearing shit up and scaring the snot out of everyone!"
Nico grinned at the idea, but shook his head skeptically.
"You two ain't thinkin about this right," she informed them, "If the boss is willing to fork over fifty grand a gargoyle, then how much do you figure the big boss would pay to get em back?"
Marco and Nico glanced at each other, then Nico shrugged.
"It don't matter anyway," he pointed out, "He ain't gonna deal with us. We're kids! Besides, we can't deal against the family!"
Vernita shook her head, still not satisfied.
"But why do you think the big boss is willing to pay all that?" she pressed them further.
Sister was now completely enwrapped in the kids' conversation. She had inched so far out on the branch that she was now directly over the two boys, looking down at their woolen hats and hanging on their every word. Not only did these children know about gargoyles, but they were actively trying to capture one. Some 'boss' had ordered it, and though Sister was not particularly concerned about their clumsy, amateur gargoyle trap, she wanted to know what gargoyles they hoped to catch in Chicago, and for whom.
"Oochi heard the guys saying that Xanatos has gargoyles protecting his castle and working as his bodyguards," Marco explained, "That's why they're so valuable. They make him untouchable by the cops and well…everyone. Isn't that what they said, Occhi?"
The little girl stopped trying to get Vernita's attention for a moment and nodded earnestly.
"Then why should we turn them in?" Vernita demanded, "If some rich man n New York City can make them work for him, why couldn't we make them work for us? Why not keep em ourselves and have our own invincible protection?"
The boys' eyes widened and Sister stared in disbelief and disgust. What did these punks think they were? Rottweilers?
"Yeah!" Nico responded after a moment's thought, "Then nobody could mess with us! Not the cops, not those two hoodrats, not the street gangs, not even other families!"
"Not even Sister Zita!" Stanley teased him with a laugh and Nico scowled back at him.
"Man! Wouldn't she shit, if we sicked a gargoyle on her one night?" Marco explained with a laugh, "No detention for the Draconi boys, ever again!"
Nico grinned maniacally at the thought of their holy nemesis, trembling in horror before the only monster scarier than herself. Then he frowned suddenly.
"Hey, what's wrong with Fiorella?"
The gang all looked toward the little girl, who was still anxiously clinging to Vernita's wrist, urging her to follow her up the embankment.
"Who knows?" Stanley replied with an eyeroll, "She don't know how to talk!"
"She talks to me!" Vernita shot back in a fierce tone that shut up her associate pretty quickly. Vernita leaned over so Fiorella could whisper to her without the others hearing.
"You saw one in the park?" Vernita replied out loud and Fiorella nodded and pointed up the embankment, "Occhi, was it one of the ones you saw in the courtyard?"
Fiorella shook her head vehemently.
"Another one!" Vernita exclaimed, "That's at least three, right in our neighborhood!"
Stanley gave the little girl a suspicious look.
"Why is it only SHE sees these things?" he demanded, "How do we know they're even real?"
"Shut up, Stanley!" Vernita snapped back, "So, she doesn't talk to strangers! So what? Occhi is the best spy we have! She's smart! She knows when to shut up and listen, unlike you, dumbass! No grownup ever suspects a quiet, little kid!" Stanley rolled his eyes again, but held his tongue.
"Besides," Marco added, "My dad saw the gargoyles too. And so did some of the other guys. They saw them carry off three kids, right from our back porch!"
Stanley seemed even more skeptical of this even stranger claim, but went back to wiring the battery into his creation, nonetheless. Sister was also suspicious and confused. Gargoyles kidnapping children? It didn't seem right. There had to be more to that story! But had this girl and her family actually seen gargoyles here in Chicago? The idea thrilled Sister. A new clan! Perhaps with hatchlings her own age! She knew she was getting ahead of herself, but as isolated as she often felt with only one brother in her rookery, she couldn't help but hope for it. Her mind raced as she leaned in further, hoping they would say more about these new gargoyles.
Vernita continued directing her crew.
"Come on!" she urged, "Let's get this thing up! The gargoyle Occhi just saw could still be close by! This could be the best chance we have to get one! The Draconis are all out looking for them, and with a reward like that, they've got every goomba and gangbanger in the city on their side!"
Sister drew a tense breath at this information. She didn't know what a 'goomba' was but she knew all too well what 'gangbanger' meant and she was in no great hurry to encounter a swarm of armed street-thugs looking to cash in on a fifty-grand reward that some mob boss had placed on her hide.
Sister glared down at the tall, assertive Vernita with a mixture of frustration and disgust. The way the girl talked about her kind! As if they were servants, or dogs for her to trap, train, and trade! Sister would have liked to twist the whole lot of them into that ridiculous contraption they had built and spin them around until their teeth rattled! No one would blame her if she did. But now another idea was pestering her as she watched the crew of young miscreants lift and secure the ludicrous gargoyle trap to the opening of the bridge.
Her mission, which she had so confidently concocted in her head, was turning out to be as ill-fated as these hoodlums' gargoyle-catching scheme. She had no idea where she was and only a vague idea of where she was going. She had to get across this massive, unfamiliar city to find Alexander, and now it seemed that if she wasn't careful she would be ducking the bullets of bounty hunters all the way. Meanwhile, this gang of kids knew the city, had personal knowledge of the mob boss that was after her, probably had information that could help her find these other gargoyles, and, unsurprisingly, seemed to be missed by no one after dark. A chorus of misgivings seemed to scream in her head as she considered her options, particularly when her gaze fell on Vernita, who had a distinct look of treachery about her.
"There!" Stanley declared triumphantly as he fastened a circuit of what looked like steel bicycle locks to his makeshift shock snare, "That should hold `em! And if they misbehave, we'll shock `em into submission!"
"If Marco doesn't eat all of the bait first!" Nico taunted.
"I only ate one!" Marco grumbled, as he hung the last of a ziplock bag full of sausages on the trap's netting, "They're some of Nonna's handmade. They're my favorite!"
"Now we wait!" Vernita declared, "If this works, nobody will ever mess with this neighborhood again!"The rest of the gang all nodded eagerly, except for Stanley, who rolled his eyes again.
"You guys can't be serious!" an insolent voice exclaimed.
Vernita spun around with an expression that suffered no fools. Her eyes fell on Stanley.
"What'd you say, little boy?" she demanded in a dangerous tone.
"I didn't say nothin!" Stanley replied, looking genuinely confused.
Vernita's domineering glare turned to Nico and Marco, who exchanged an anxious glance and shook their heads.
"I said that you'll never catch a gargoyle in that stupid thing!" the voice continued, "I doubt you could even catch a cold!"
The five children scanned the banks of the stream apprehensively, searching for the source of the mysterious voice.
"Who's there?" Vernita demanded, picking up a flashlight in one hand and brandishing her knife in the other. Stanley also shone his flashlight into the darkness as the gang crept forward, refusing to be intimidated by anyone. They stared into the silent darkness, like impetuous young cats ready to pounce without knowing or caring what they were pouncing on.
Suddenly, they were all startled by a swish of breeze, followed by a loud crack behind them. They whipped around quickly, the beams of their lights finding the trap discharged and swinging feebly back and forth from the stone balusters of the bridge above them, snapped shut, but quite empty. Hanging from the netting was the creature, red eyes glowing from her turquoise face. Her wild red hair billowed as she swung back and forth, like a child on a swing, laughing at them tauntingly. The gang stared in bewilderment as she leapt to the ground in front of them with a snarl, showing them her menacing fangs. Despite their bravado, they all stepped back a pace and she smiled.
"First of all," she told them matter of factly, "This netting wouldn't even hold a hatchling! And what in the world is this supposed to do?"
She narrowed her eyes as she touched a sharp talon to the electrified bike chains. A dim arch flashed between her claw and chain, but she just laughed condescendingly.
"Your amperage is way too low, Stanley," she taunted, "This has less charge than what my uncle sets up to keep the hatchlings from climbing around in our Christmas tree!"
Stanley tried to keep up a tough scowl, though the fear, embarrassment, and uncanny strangeness of this inhuman being addressing him by name was clearly taking its toll on him. Sister could sense his distress and was emboldened to continue. She cast him a satisfied smile as she leaned casually against his ineffective creation. Since she remembered she was going on two days without food, she helped herself to a sausage. She took an aggressive bite off the end and chewed it thoughtfully as studied the stunned, silent gang. She gave Marco a curt nod of recognition.
"I do like the sausage though," she complimented, "Good choice, Marco! Tell Nonna she did a good job!"
Marco gave a panicked look toward the rest of the gang, who were all glancing sideways at Vernita, firmly in 'freeze mode' until she gave the word to fight or flight. Sister grinned eerily before stuffing a second sausage into her mouth, demonstrably showing off her fangs as she did so. She felt a little giddy inside at their horrified expressions. She was stepping well outside her normal character of loyal daughter, responsible city guardian, and nurturing clan sister. She found it rather fun.
After taking her sweet time to enjoy a third helping of Nonna's sausage, while leaving these arrogant human miscreants still frozen in shock and mistrust, she took hold of a huge cinder block, which she chucked toward the circle of children. The gang shuddered in unison as it crashed loudly onto the creekbed, a few feet in front of them. Then she lifted a second cinderblock high above her head, casually giving them a taste of what they were messing with, and strutted effortlessly toward them, stacking it on top of the first to create a makeshift seat for herself. Upon this concrete throne, she settled down and asked.
"So. Where do I sign up to join the gang?"