Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or locations from The Gargoyles series.

Author's note: This story takes place the summer following "The Journey", and though it ignores the comic's continuity, I'm using Fang's real name, revealed in Bad Guys #2. Also as a warning, violence and foul language are present in this chapter.

Chance Meetings

Chapter 5: Success

By RemTar85

As the tiger mutate soared through the night sky, the boy he held clung firmly to his fur. In his haste to get to the Labyrinth in time to carry out his uncle's plan and still get back home before his mother returned and noticed him missing, Daniel had forgotten to take a jacket. Despite it being summer, the evening breeze was chilly when one was flying above the city, and Daniel was very glad when Claw landed on his building's rooftop.

After setting the boy down, Claw smiled a little at the sight of Daniel frantically rubbing his arms for warmth, and he took his notepad and pencil to write on it. "Now look at you, Daniel. I really hope you don't catch a cold because of this. Make sure you never forget your jacket from now on."

After taking the note and reading it under the bright moonlight, Daniel nodded. "Got it. Don't worry, it won't happen again. Honestly, I know you guys are furry and all, but if this is how summer nights are, I don't even want to begin imagining how it is during the winter."

Claw only grinned, leaning down to pat the boy in the back and pointing down, signaling that Daniel should go back home, inside of his warm apartment. He also handed Daniel the brown paper bag he had been holding, which contained two apples he had taken for Daniel in the Labyrinth. The tiger-man turned to leave and stretched his wings, ready to take off, when Daniel suddenly reached out and grabbed his hand to stop him. Claw stopped before leaping into the sky, looking down at the boy in mild confusion.

Daniel kept himself calm, not wanting to appear too sudden, as he figured that if he wanted to give his uncle time to escape, he should try and keep Claw away from the Labyrinth and its surroundings at least a little longer. "Claw… can I ask you something?"

The mutate's look of confusion turned to curiosity. He turned around and walked towards the edge of the building, around the back of it, facing away from the streets and anyone who might spot him. Sitting down , Claw turned his attention back to Daniel and nodded.

"I've been wondering about something. We met not long ago, and I haven't visited the Labyrinth much. And it's way cool that we became buddies and all. But, that's kind of what I'm wondering. How come you befriended me so fast, when we pretty much just met, and I'm just some outsider? There's a whole bunch of kids in the Labyrinth, so why me?"

Claw smiled again, once more picking his notepad and writing on it. After handing it to the boy, he let electricity surge through his hands, to create better light for Daniel to read the note. "Well, like I said, there are no minors in the Labyrinth without family members with them. Elisa makes sure all orphans and runaways are taken to good places. So, when you showed up, all alone but telling us you have a home and family and were simply looking for a meal and then hoped to drop by for more visits, I guess maybe some protective instinct just kicked in. Just reminded me of someone, I guess."

After reading the note under the light generated by the mutate, Daniel looked up at him. "I reminded of you of someone? So, you dealt with kids before becoming a mutate? Like a teacher, maybe?"

Claw's smiled dimmed down. He sighed softly, and Daniel, noticing the mutate's change of mood, could not help but continue questioning, his curiosity getting the better of him. "Was it family, then? Is that why you say I remind you of someone you knew? Did you have a family before you got turned into a mutate?"

Claw's expression turned uncomfortable now, and Daniel wished he had kept his mouth shut after seeing it. Daniel could not decipher what Claw was feeling at that moment, but it was certainly not positive. Daniel could easily tell that he had just touched a delicate subject to his friend, and now felt quite bad about it.

"I'm sorry, Claw, I didn't mean anything bad," Daniel said, rather shyly extending his hand to give Claw back his notepad.

Claw looked rather serious now as he took back his notepad, and once more he wrote on it, showing it to Daniel rather than handing it to him again. "It's okay, Daniel. Don't feel bad, you didn't know. The subject of my past, prior to being a mutate, is something I don't feel comfortable sharing with anybody. Not even Derek or Maggie, who are like family to me. Hopefully someday I'll be able to deal with it, but for now, I'd rather not talk about it."

"I understand, Claw," Daniel said after reading. "I promise I'll never bring it up again."

Claw nodded, a smile appearing on his face once more. He patted the boy's shoulder and gave a thumbs-up to show everything was okay. He pointed towards the fire escape, signaling for the boy to go home. Standing on the edge of the building, Claw extended his wings and took off into the night sky. Daniel saw him fly off, and then, instead of climbing down the fire escape, Daniel took the door that led to the main building's stairwell.

When he reached his apartment, Daniel tried the door, finding it locked. He was relieved by this, as it meant neither his mother nor his stepfather had arrived yet. Taking the spare key from his pocket, he opened the door and went in, closing and locking the door afterwards. Immediately he went to his room, turning on the light and opening his window. He wanted his uncle to find it open, if he had escaped. And, after what had happened with Claw minutes before, Daniel could only hope that Claw would never find out that it had been Daniel who had let the imprisoned mutate out of his cell.

Fang grinned as he administered a heavy blow to Talon's head with the thick lead pipe he had found. He had hidden in an adjacent room as the panther mutate fell for his trap, and had used the strongest electric blast he could muster to knock down Talon, following with a wild swing that hit its mark. Fang felt a morbid kind of pleasure hearing the pipe connect with Talon's head, a spray of blood bursting out of Talon's mouth as he collapsed to the floor.

"Nice little surprise, eh, fearless leader?" Fang asked mockingly. "How was that little energy blast? It was pretty strong, right? Comes from saving it up for a whole lot of fucking time!"

Talon coughed as he struggled to get up, listening to Fang's voice change from a mocking tone to an angry scream. Blood sprayed on the floor as he coughed, and though his vision was blurred from the blow and the horrible pain on his head, Talon felt disgusted when he noticed three of his teeth on the floor before him, having been knocked off by the heavy blow.

Fang noticed this too, and laughed heartily. "Hey, look on the positive side! The Tooth Fairy's gonna have a field day with those! I wonder if you'll grow any back now. Sure hope not, because you'd look hilarious with those gaps in there every time you opened your mouth."

"How?" Talon asked, finally able to talk, albeit in a painful groan. "How did you get out? Who let you out?"

"Ah, ah, ah, that's for me to know and you to find out," Fang said. "See, now, you could've saved yourself a lot of pain and three teeth if you had only let me the hell out of that cell, at least from time to time. But no, big bad Fang's too mean and dangerous and he must never see the light of day again! Admit it, Talon, you kept me locked up all that time and never gave me a chance to redeem myself only because you hate my guts."

Talon growled at this, and looked up at Fang, anger gleaming in his eyes. Fang scoffed at this, and as Talon tried slowly to get to his feet, Fang delivered a hard kick to Talon's stomach, making him roll over onto his back, clutching his stomach and gasping for breath, a couple of trickles of blood dribbling out his mouth and down his snout now. Fang smirked, setting the pipe down onto the floor and holding on to one of the ends, leaning on it as though it were a cane.

"I told you I'd get out someday," Fang said. "It was only a matter of time before it happened. Now, this bit of batting practice is enough to brighten things up and make up for the crap you always make me go through. And now, I just go and get the hell out of here. I miss flying, and the world's full of possibilities for me."

"And what are those, Fang?" Talon wheezed out, slowly regaining his breath and looking up at Fang with a scowl. "Target practice for the Quarrymen? No, most likely as a sideshow freak in some carnival. That one's right up your alley."

Fang's smirk turned into a frown, growling as he heard this. "Holier-than-thou till the end, huh, Talon? Pulling the freak card out, too, which is really pathetic. I think you forgot, right? I like this form. Call me a freak and a monster all you want, I don't care, because right now I'm one powerful bastard, and as a human, I was a worthless nobody, so it's all thumbs up for me."

"You're still a worthless nobody," Talon replied.

"Not from where I'm standing," Fang said, grinning again as he looked at the bloodied mutate. "Funny how roles get reversed, huh? As a human, I was a complete loser, and right now I'm top of the heap. And while you were human, you were a policeman, helicopter pilot and even bodyguard for the richest guy in the city. And now? You're just a freak living in tunnels and taking care of a horde of bums and hobos. Perfect little kingdom for King Talon."

Fang laughed as Talon growled, pulling himself up to a sitting position as the brown-furred mutate continued his ranting. "And you know the best part? In the end, you could have prevented all of this happening to you if you had listened to you sister. You'd still be a human, up there with your family, if only you hadn't been a stubborn little brat and just clicked the 'Play' button on that tape she gave you."

Talon knew very well when Fang meant. Back when he was a human, when he had left the police force and taken the job offer as Xanatos's personal pilot and bodyguard, he had constantly shot down his sister's attempts at trying to convince him that Xanatos was up to no good. He had ignored the tape recording she had given him, where she mentioned she had proof of Xanatos's true intentions, and even after being transformed into a mutate, he had remained stubborn as ever. He had forgotten that tape recorder, having left it at his parents' house during a visit shortly after Elisa had given it to him as a human, and had found it once more the night he had shown his mutated self and his mutate companions to his parents. All four mutates listened to it, and despite how glad he was that he and Maggie were brought together through this incident, Talon was crushed to know that he had brought it all upon himself.

"Oh, looks like I struck a nerve there!" Fang said mockingly. "As if that wasn't bad enough, I still remember what a savage you were during those times. You sure were taking the whole psycho killer thing on Goliath seriously. And the way you acted towards your sister! You sure made me look like an angel back then, Talon, because I honestly thought that you were gonna kill your sister if she kept protecting Goliath. Now that is… "

Fang was stopped in mid-sentence by a sudden electric blast from Talon. The panther mutate had had enough of Fang's big mouth, and had managed to catch Fang by surprise. As Fang cried out and got knocked back, a furious Talon quickly got to his feet, determined to put Fang back in his cell by force. However, as soon as he stood, he felt a sudden dizziness. He knew that the blow to his head with that lead pipe had been stronger than he thought, and standing up too quickly and suddenly made him disoriented. He shook his head, hoping to shake it off, and he then dashed towards Fang, not wanting to give him a chance to recover, electricity charging up on his fists.

The cougar-man had not expected the sudden attack that sent him flying back, making him lose his grip on the lead pipe, which fell a couple of feet away. He groaned and opened his eyes to see Talon about to attack him again, but Fang noticed that he seemed rather out of it, as if dizzy, and a little slower than he expected. This was the chance Fang needed, and as Talon was about to blast him again, Fang quickly raised his hands and fired an electric blast before Talon could. Talon was knocked back as well, but already he was recovering from the dizziness that was afflicting him. Unfortunately for him, a now enraged Fang was quicker to recover.

"Don't you ever give up?" Fang yelled. He quickly stood up and once more grabbed the lead pipe. He snarled as he rushed towards Talon, who was standing back up. The panther mutate raised one of his hands to blast Fang again, but did not even get close to doing so, as Fang delivered another crushing blow with the pipe to Talon's head. Talon fell down once more, and was not moving. Fang was still snarling as he rolled Talon over with a foot. The fallen mutate was most definitely unconscious. As he watched Talon, Fang started panting as well, his snarls becoming louder, and after a few moments and with a furious roar, he took the lead pipe and began to savagely beat Talon with it.

"This is what you get, you son of a bitch!" Fang screamed in a rage as he struck blow after heavy blow as hard as he could. "Always screwing up my life! Always humiliating me! Making me look like a nobody, like a loser! And who's the loser now? Who's the loser now, you worthless, pathetic bastard?"

Fang continued pummeling Talon a few more moments after he had stopped screaming, and then he stopped altogether. He panted heavily as he threw the lead pipe aside. Talon was now not only unconscious, but also badly beaten, bruised and bloodied. Fang was certain that he'd done more than enough damage, and yet could still notice the panther-man's belly, raising up slowly, sporadically, showing he was still alive and breathing. And as he noticed that, Fang sneered and spit on Talon.

"Be glad I let you live, you piece of shit," he growled.

"Oh, my God!" a voice suddenly rang out.

Fang turned around, and saw Al and about six other Labyrinth dwellers nearby. Fang realized now that they must have heard his screams, and he quickly turned and ran off, knowing he could take them, but not wanting to risk the clones coming in as back-up. The Labyrinth dwellers quickly made their way to Talon, their shock and despair very evident as they saw the vicious beating that Talon had received.

Fang was angry at himself for getting sidetracked, as he was supposed to be escaping, but he allowed his desire for revenge on Talon to make him lose track of time and made him lose that discretion he had wanted to make said escape possible. Still, it did not seem to even be an issue, as he quickly came across the exit he was looking for. He went through, and he was out, in the back of an old building, and, making his way to higher ground, he leaped and took off into the sky, wings flapping as he gained altitude. He knew he was not out of the woods yet, though, and he elevated much higher into the night sky. He knew that Claw was probably on his way back to the Labyrinth by now, and that any of Goliath's clan could be patrolling the city, making him figure that the higher he was, the best he could evade being seen, and the more room to maneuver should he be seen.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Fang smiled and simply let the wind carry him around as he decided to kill a little time before he went to see Daniel, just to be safe. Despite knowing he would now have to come up with a lie to tell his nephew regarding what happened to Talon, Fang relished on being able to fly again, feeling free. It was just as pleasant to him as knowing that he had taken revenge on Talon, a lot more than he thought he ever would.

Claw flew slowly back to one of the various paths that lead to the Labyrinth. He was admonishing himself for reacting the way he did to Daniel's questions. He always reacted this way when someone brought up that topic, as it was quite a sensitive topic for him, and one he had never talked about with, not even with his closest friends. Still, Daniel was a child, and children were curious by nature. Claw felt he could have reacted better, and hoped the boy would not feel bad about it. He decided he would more properly apologize to Daniel when the boy next visited the Labyrinth.

As he neared the entrance to the Labyrinth, near an abandoned building like most were, Claw hovered around in the air for a few minutes, searching for any signs of life anywhere in the surroundings. He remembered how he had gotten careless and been attacked once, along with the clones, by Quarrymen. They had barely managed to escaped the gargoyle-hating group that one time, and Claw wanted to make sure that they never attacked him again, also making sure that they never found their way to the Labyrinth. He did not want to think of the chaos the Quarrymen would cause should they ever find it.

After making sure no one was nearby, Claw landed and made his way down into the tunnels. Having chosen one of the tunnels nearest the Labyrinth's main area, he had to walk only a little bit. Upon entering the main tunnel, though, his superior sense of smell registered a familiar scent. Claw could smell blood, specifically mutate blood. During his time living in the Labyrinth, and tending to common cuts and bruises amongst all residents, he had somehow managed to notice the difference between human, gargoyle and mutate blood. He always found this fact to be rather morbid, and the presence of blood was confirmed to him when, seconds later, he stepped on something liquid, and looking down, he saw it as blood, which formed a trail straight towards the Labyrinth.

Instantly growing concerned, Claw ran towards the main area. As he neared the large door, his ears could pick up voices. They were too many to make out anything specific, but Claw could immediately recognize they sounded very concerned and worried. He quickly reached the partly open door, and upon entering the Labyrinth's main area, he saw a very large crowd near the entrance to the hall that lead to the room used to help sick and injured people. As he could not speak, Claw clapped his hands several times and instantly began moving through the crowd. Hearing the clapping, many heads turned, and the residents quickly made way for Claw to pass. Claw realized he had heard right as he could see a sea of worried faces. Having made his way through the crowd, Claw quickly entered the room, and he was shocked at what he saw.

Talon laid unconscious on one of the eight beds they kept in the immaculately clean room. The panther mutate was covered in blood. Two women were there, one of them carefully wiping the blood off of Talon with a damp cloth, a bowl of water next to her as she constantly rinsed the cloth to wipe off more blood. The other woman was carefully applying disinfectant to Talon's many cuts and bruises, and then proceeded to bandage them, looking quite worried about injuring him further. Also there, was Maggie, crying in despair over Talon, holding one of his hands as she looked at his seemingly sleeping form.

Claw took a few steps into the room, watching over Talon's brutally beaten form. The two women kept working on him, and Maggie looked up, meeting Claw's eyes when the largest of the mutates reached the bedside. Her tear-filled eyes told all, as she found herself unable to speak from the pain and grief, and it broke Claw's heart. He was so shocked by the scene before him that he tensed immediately when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"It was Fang," Al said as Claw turned to him. "He escaped his cell. We have no idea how, but me and some others heard him screaming out in a tunnel and we found him beating up on Talon with a lead pipe."

Claw was further stunned by this, and he made to leave the room, but Al immediately grabbed his arm to stop him. "Wait! I already asked the clones and some of the guys to search for him in all the tunnels they can. But I don't think they'll find him, he ran off as soon as we spotted him. Look, we can deal with Fang later, but we got to help Derek right now! We're worried that we just might have injured him worse by carrying him here, and there's not enough here to help him out. We don't even know if he's unconscious or worse, we only know he's alive, but Fang was beating him with a lead pipe, and it looked like he was aiming to kill. Derek could have broken bones, maybe even be in a coma, we just don't know."

Both of them turned to Talon, Maggie still weeping over him, the two women trying to comfort her as they tended to Talon. Claw then took his notepad and pen and quickly scribbled a note on it, writing as clearly and quickly as he could. Ripping it off, he handed it to Al, then turned and took off running. The crowd parted way again, this time much quicker, as the tiger mutate was looking sternly serious, even furious. Al moved to the door and saw Claw run out the door and into the tunnels. Immediately, he checked the note Claw had written.

"I'm going to go get Elisa. She needs to know what happened, and will know what to do. We'll try to find proper medical care, maybe from Xanatos, and ask Goliath and the others to keep an eye out for Fang."

Al sighed after reading this, looking back at Talon, and also at Maggie. After everything the two of them, as well as Claw, had done for him and everybody else in the Labyrinth, seeing Talon and Maggie like this pained him very much. Remembering how Fang had terrorized him in the past, the old man was hoping that he would be caught before he could harm anybody else like he had done with Talon. Al also wondered what would be done to Fang once and if he was recaptured, because after everything he had seen, Al was almost certain that locking him back up and throwing away the key simply would not do. Not anymore.

Daniel washed his hands thoroughly, having just tossed the second apple core in the trash can that was in the kitchen. He always had the habit of washing his hands both before and after eating, and having barely eaten anything in the Labyrinth, he had eagerly eaten the two apples Claw had given him. And eating something also helped him relax a little, as he was becoming increasingly impatient and jittery. He took a small kitchen towel, dried up his hands and started walking around the apartment.

He chuckled to himself after his fourth walk from the kitchen, to the living room, to his bedroom, and back. Another habit of his, walking around when he was impatient or nervous about anything, unable to just sit still and wait it out, and not even reading his comics or watching television worked to keep him entertained enough to be still. It especially annoyed his mother when he was waiting for dinner to be ready, and was the reason he did not bother turning on the television. He was simply too anxious regarding the results on whether his uncle had managed to escape or not.

He had walked throughout the apartment for a while now, and decided to stop a little while in the kitchen. Taking a glass, he got himself some water from the fridge, and checked the clock set up on the wall of the kitchen as he drank. It was almost nine o' clock, so it probably would not be too long till his mother returned. Though she said she'd bring him dinner, the two apples he had eaten a little earlier had filled him up for now, and he had no more appetite. His thoughts were interrupted by a strange, sudden noise from his room, and he almost dropped the glass of water, putting it on the kitchen counter as a voice rang out.

"Damn friggin' idiots. Who the hell thinks of putting a fire escape next to a bedroom window? A window that's already too damn small! Damn, stupid, architect wannabes…"

Daniel smiled instantly when he recognized the angry voice, and ran to his bedroom. Standing at the door, the boy could not help but grin and laugh a little as he witnessed his mutated uncle squeezing himself through the window. Even though he had folded his wings around his shoulders in his usual way, he was still pretty big, and had trouble trying to fit his broad shoulders through the window.

"Hey there, Danny boy," Fang called out, managing to finally fit through the window and enter the room, where he ended up almost falling on the floor, but quickly got up on his knees, grinning at his nephew. "Now what kind of a greeting is that for your uncle, laughing at me like that?"

"You made it, Uncle Freddy!" Daniel said, still grinning, and he went into the room, giving his uncle a hug, which the mutate returned, wrapping his arms around the boy.

"Hey, it's all thanks to you, kiddo!" Fang replied. "And I thought we agreed, call me Fang now."

"Okay then," Daniel said. "Uncle Fang?"

"Yeah?"

"You're crushing me," Daniel said in a half-amused, half-pained voice.

"Oh, crap!" Fang said, not realizing he was giving such a tight hug. "Sorry about that, Danny. Not really used to being around kids after I got turned to a mutate, you know?"

"It's okay," said Daniel. "I'm just really glad you're out of there. But what took you so long to get here?"

Fang sighed, getting up so he could sit more comfortably on his nephew's bed. "For one thing, I had to kill some time, make sure Claw didn't see me on my way here, since he brought you and we could've bumped into each other. But, even worse, when I was making my way through the tunnels, I bumped into Talon, and a fight broke out."

"Really?" Daniel asked, inspecting his uncle. "But you look okay."

"Well, he managed to catch me by surprise, and he almost had me when I grabbed a lead pipe nearby and hit him with it a couple of times. I ended up knocking him out. He was unconscious, but breathing, so I high-tailed it out of there."

"Geez," Daniel muttered, sitting next to his uncle. "That sounds really rough. I wish you didn't have to do that."

"Same here. I didn't like Talon, but it's not like I would've hurt him bad on purpose. I just defended myself," Fang said, surprised on how he could say that and sound like he actually meant it.

"Then let's hope he gets better soon," Daniel said. "But at least now you're out and free."

"Yup," Fang said with a grin. "And I already know what I'll do next."

"Do next?"

"Well, let's face facts, Danny Boy," Fang said. "Looking like I do, there aren't many options for me out there. Plus, you can't keep me hidden here, at least not for long. I'm too big to hide in a small apartment, and I don't even want to imagine your mom asking you why so much food ends up disappearing."

"Yeah, that would be trouble," Daniel says with a nod.

"But, like I said, I know what to do next. You know about the Eyrie Building?"

"Of course I do," Daniel replied. "It's hard to miss, being the tallest building in the whole city. But what are you thinking, going up there?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that Xanatos is the one responsible for having turned you into a mutate," Daniel said. "Claw told me about it. So why are you going there?"

Fang chuckled, putting an arm around his nephew's shoulders. "I told you, kiddo, I like being a mutate, so I'm pretty grateful to Xanatos. Besides, I bet Claw must have also told you that we all lived in the castle up on top for some time after we became mutates, right?"

"Yeah, he did," Daniel replied.

"Well," Fang continued, "if there's one thing I've learned about David Xanatos, is that he never wastes an opportunity on anything. So, I'll go there and offer up my services on anything he wants. I'm pretty sure he won't mind putting me up in security or anything like that."

"I see now," Daniel said. "That sounds like a pretty good idea, Uncle Fang. So then you'd end up living there again?"

"Exactly. But, of course, I'd come visit you often," Fang said, grinning at the boy. "And I'd take you up there to visit, too."

"Really?" Daniel asked, looking excited. "That would be awesome, I've always wanted to see that castle up there!"

"Then you'll get to see it soon, Danny Boy," Fang said, looking smug, "because I'm going up there a little later tonight. And pretty soon, your uncle's gonna be living large."

To be continued…