All the characters appearing in Gargoyles and Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of Spacebabie

by: Spacebabie

Email: spacebabie@hotmail.com

Reviews can be found athttp://pub17.ezboard.com/bgargoylesx

Feedback is not only welcome but greatly appreciated.

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Belonging

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"Which is why I can’t stay here any longer. I must leave. I have to, Cecilia. I can’t stay here any longer. Even if they say they would forgive me." ~Gawain

"Where are you going to go? Are you going back to Avalon?"Cecilia

"I can’t, not after all I have done. I don’t deserve to be there."~Gawain

"I wasnae talking to ye, I was talking to myself."~Jason

"There is another gargoyle who just left. He feels he is unworthy of this clan because he was tricked into helping the enemy."~Fox (Cleanup)

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The name of the human civilization had carved a burning wound upon his heart. The name brought warm memories of growing up, but it was also the source of pain. Gawain felt his large wings dip slightly as he descended in height. He missed his home, Avalon. He missed his clan mates.

There was the time when he and his rookery siblings were a few years shy of thirty and Marigold challenged him to a duel. He had beaten her, but not without feeling a burning strike to his right temple. A pain so great he nearly fell asleep. The princess along with Ophelia and Raphael stayed by his side, keeping a damp bandage against his head and making sure he didn’t fall asleep until dawn. The following nights Marigold could not approach him and whenever they crossed paths the only words out of her beak were apologies of how sorry she was. He did not understand what she felt at the time, but he knew it now. The burning guilt of knowing that he caused harm to a member of his clan, not just one member, but he was part of the group who caused pain to the clan that was the parents of his own clan.

"It is best not to dwell," he closed his eyes and shook his head. He had to push the thought of Avalon out of his head. He was never going to go back. How could he, knowing that he nearly killed one of the island’s saviors? If he did tell his clan what then? Even if they forgave him he would see it in their eyes. He could never go back. He would never taste Isoude’s warm and spicy stews or Katherine’s sweet honey cakes. He would never again feel the gentle hands of Raphael and Ophelia tending to his injuries, never to see the works of art by Jasmine or Clovis. Never to laugh at the sight of Rinaldo trying to perform a spell. It was all gone, all in the past.

Where would he go? Cecilia’s and Mercutios question haunted his mind. Where was he going to go? Was there a destination he must meet, or would he forever be traveling. Gawain wasn’t sure. Until he learned where he is meant to go he would to continue to be moving. Resting at various small places, helping those who need it. He might find a new clan, if a clan would be willing to accept him.

He felt the tiny cold droplets on his skin before he heard the not too distant crackle. He could continue to glide through the night and even though he felt he deserved it, he did not want to glide in the rain storm. He wanted to find a dry shelter.

His strong eyesight searched the ground below them and found a long building with tiny turrets attached, almost like a castle but it’s structure was wrong. It was more of a long castle ending in smaller bent angles. Gawain glided a little lower, struggling with the strong wind trying to push him back. There was an almost endless parking lot with several cars. He should know what the building was called. He heard the one human female, Felicia, describe it. A shopping center was what she called it.

The emerald colored gargoyle hovered above the turrets, hoping to see if one of them was hollow enough for him to climb inside and be protected from the rain. From what he could see was they were all solid. He was about to give up when he nearly crashed into the largest tower. The top of it had a small Swiss style clock imbedded in the center. It was held up by four stone pillars and one thick wall in the back. It wasn’t a completely solid tower, but it did have a roof.

He almost folded his wings completely against his sides. It was almost difficult to stay where he was in the air. The wind was whipping against his face, causing his hair to stream past him. He reached out and grabbed onto the structure with his claws and pulled him inside. He kept his soakings wings folded across his shoulders and moved closer to the wall. The rain poured down in large have drops that were nearly too heavy for the wind to slant. It was less like rain, but more like a waterfall. Gawain knew he would not be able to continue traveling that night and set the two duffel bags he carried down.

"As if it mattered," He stared at the ground. He didn’t notice the newspaper until it flew into his shelter and struck his chest. Gawain stared at the damp and flimsy chestplate sticking to his skin with the bottom part fluttering slightly. He peeled the print from his chest and turned it over to stare at it. There was a small continuation about a store being robbed and something about an art show, but the article that captured his eyes had the title of ANOTHER DEVIL SIGHTING

Devil sighting? From what he was taught he knew the devil was another term for Satan or Lucifer. He was the greatest evil of all. The one who ruled over hell and enjoyed seeing the suffering of everyone. Devil could also mean demon. Gargoyles were often called demons. This devil could possibly be a lost gargoyle. A lost gargoyle like himself.

"I doubt he nearly killed the leader of his clan," Gawain sighed ___________________________________________________________________________

The black and red aircraft flying above the town of Avalon was not low enough to be easily seen, nor was it high enough to escape the downpour. The continuous flooding from the sky was almost a thick opaque frost in front of the ship. It was almost impossible to see through it. Even with the infrared lights on it was difficult. The rain scattered the light creating a different cloud that was almost as opaque as the rain. The pilot narrowed her pale blue eyes as she gripped the steering wheel in frustration. There was no way she was going to be able to make it through. They were going to have to find a place to land.

"Listen everyone," Robyn Canmore shouted into the speaker after she pressed the button "I know Some of you are going to object, but I’m taking the ship down. Because of the rain there is no pheriphial vision. I’m flying blind." She decided to keep the button on for feedback. She only knew one person who was going to protest.

"It is better to wait than it is to crash," Vahril’s musical voice was the first to reply.

"Do what you have to do," Yama replied in his usual understanding tone.

"It’s just a squall," Dingo griped. She was right. She knew the former Pack member would have been the one to complain.

"Just a squall?" Robyn spoke back. "How could ye puts the words ‘Just A’ in front of squall?"

"Squalls don’t last forever. there will be a little pounding of water and then it’s over before you noticed it started."

She did not feel like debating with him. "Aye it would be brief, just enough time fer us to crash. Do ye really want that?"

"No I don’t. If you just keep her steady we wont crash. There are not any large mountains around to worry about."

"I’m na going to argue."

"I could offer assistance," Matrix’s cold and robotics voice was heard over the com. The sliver morphic being’s voice reminded Robyn of the computer from 2001.

"What were ye planning on doing?"

"I plan on integrating myself with the circuits of the ship and flying us safely." It paused for a few minutes. "You said were."

"Aye, ye do to much already."

"Sounds like someone is doing everything in her power to try to get us to land."

Robyn reached for the shut off button but paused. She did not want him to have the final word. "Ye listen to me. I am not landing just to get under your skin. I’m landing because I’m concerned about the safety of everyone on this jet. Is that clear?" She was responded with different forms of yes, including an agreement from Fang after a long sigh. "Monmoth?"

"Crystal," She could actual hear his tongue thrashing against the back of his incisors as he hissed through his gritted teeth.

"Very well then." Her accent shifted away from her natraul tongue. She was glad nearly everyone agreed with her on landing. There were only two protesters and she didn’t really give a damn about what one of them thought, but as for Fang it was different. She sighed at the thought of Fang having to delay the return trip to the city by a few more hours. It was more hours he had to wait to see his daughter. The crew of The Redemption squad had taken the chupacabra, the lone survivor form a group of three, and returned him back to it’s native Mexico. While they returned the creature the Wyvern can along with resources of Cyberbiotics, Nightstone, and Xanatos enterprises were going to seek out the remainders of Thailog’s clan.

The other prisoner in the Labyrinth have given them one exact destination and the states of where the enemy might have moved to. Leaving the other prisoner behind was another crushing weight on the cougar mutate’s shoulders. She was his former lover, and he learned she had taken another mate during their separation.

Robyn felt a pinch of guilt running through her spine. While Fang was having his heart torn out she was spending her time with her brothers and their families. Both Christine and Lorrie were as lovely and sweet and Colin had grown from a tiny infant to a toddler with an endless amount of energy. There was another surprise waiting for her in the form of Jason’s son. Christine went into the labor the last day of the Redemption Squads planned stay in the city. The crew decided to stay a little longer when they heard the news. Robyn held onto the newborn for a full hour. She was the aunt of two nephews and wouldn’t mind being a mother someday herself.

"Don’t worry Fang," Robyn whispered. "We will return to the city soon, and then we will go to your daughter." She fought hard to keep her eyes from misting over while she slowly brought the ship to the ground.

___________________________________________________________________________

Sunlight filtered through the cracks in the curtains, painting golden beams on the two beings sleeping on the bed set in front of the window. The couple slept close together, keeping their arms entangled and not noticing the young man standing at the foot of the bed.

Daniel Bluestone stared at his sister and her boyfriend sleeping soundlessly before he glanced over at the clock and let out a deep breath through his nostrils. "Everybody out of the pool!" Daniel clapped his hands as loud as he could. "Party is over, rise and shine." He approached his sister first while she rolled over and shifted slightly. "C’mon Marleen it’s time to wake up." He grabbed her arm.

"Leave me alone," Mars moaned before she rolled over again.

Next to her ,Cazador asked a question in Spanish softly. "What time is it?"

"It’s almost ten." Daniel replied.

"too early," Mars mumbled.

"You both are guest speakers at the college. I’m going to look like an idiot if you don’t show."

Mars blinked her lids open. "That is at one right?"

"Yeah its at one."

"We have time for breakfast." She leaned over her boyfriend and whispered in his ear. "What would you like for breakfast?"

"I want some omelets and toast with grape jelly and a slice of cantaloupe," Cazador slowly opened his steel colored eyes.

Mars sat up straight in bed, the covers slipping down to reveal a powder blue nightgown with a lace trimmed top. She stared into her older brother’s eyes. "Danny could you fix us some omelets with toast with grape jelly and cantaloupe?"

Her bother stepped back. "What?"

"I’m going to take a shower." she reached over and pinched the firm cheeks of her lover before she slid out of bed and faced to the bathroom.

Cazador sat up in bed. "She’s going to shower?" His eyes narrowed slightly and smirk formed on his face. "I guess I’ll join her." He rolled out of bed and opened his suit case. After extracting a pair of clean boxers and an outfit he left the room, smiling at Daniel on the way out.

________________________________________________________________________

Daniel entered the small corridor shaped kitchen only pausing to take a sip from his half filled cup of coffee.

"So are they awake?" Charlotte asked from behind her comic book. A half eaten buttered English muffin was on the small plate in front of her. "Or did your sister pull another one of her Martian moves?"

He sighed as he opened the pantry and pulled out a box of Cherrios. "You know what they want? They want me to fix them an elaborate breakfast. You know what? Screw that. They are lucky I’m pouring them a couple bowls of cereal."

"Are you being a little bit harsh on them?"

"No I’m not," He placed the box on the counter. "Mars has always been this way and now that her comic is famous she thinks she’s a celebrity, now I realize her boyfriend is a famous actor, but I was told he was once a noble fighter. She’s a bad influence on him."

"What does she want to eat?" Charlotte lowered the comic she was reading and peered over the cover at her husband.

"She wants omelets with toast and cantaloupe. We don’t even have cantaloupe."

"They can have what we had. There still some scrambled eggs left, and we have plenty of muffins to toast."

Daniel stared at the cereal box and tapped the top with his finger tips. "Yeah you are right." he placed the box back into the cupboard. "I’ll even give them a banana for their fruit." He reached for the frying pan, half full of golden fluffy scrambled eggs. "What are you reading?"

"Night Angel." She watched her husband drop the frying pan back onto the stove.

"Your are reading Mars’s comic?"

"It’s quite interesting concept. You’re sister has some good ideas."

Daniel divided the eggs up into two sections and placed them onto plates. "That is one thing you can’t say about her. You can’t say my sister is not creative." He reached into the fridge and pulled out a loaf of bread. "That is one of the many things about her that still remains unchanged. In fact that is the only I thing I hope never changes."

"She’s always been irresponsible, sleeping in and late?"

"Not too mention daring, doesn’t know her boundaries."

"When did you become responsible?"

"When she turned two."

"If you had another younger sibling she might become a bit more responsible?"

He shook his head while he slid two slices into the toaster. "I doubt it."

"Is she at the point where she might loose her job?"

"She’s never late to the meetings and she never misses a deadline."

"Is her behavior causing anyone any harm?"

"No, but it is annoying."

She arched an eyebrow. "Is it? Or are you just annoyed because she makes more money than you do and you are the responsible one."

"I’ll admit I’d be lying If I said I wasn’t."

"I don’t smell any eggs!" Mars shouted as she walked into the kitchen fully dressed. A dove white towel was wrapped around her head and she was carrying her shoes in her hand. Cazador followed behind her. He was as dressed as she was except his shoes were on his feet. His unbuttoned shirt hung onto his sculpted farm while beads of moisture traveled down his forehead from his damp crown of hair.

"That’s because I haven’t put your plates in the microwave yet," Daniel glared. From behind him the toast popped up. "Your fiancee’s muffin is done."

"Don’t use the f word around me," Mars slumped down into one of the chairs. "You know I don’t ever plan on actually getting married."

"What about flying to Vegas to get engaged?" Her brother asked as he placed the toast on a separate plate and placed another sliced English muffin into the toaster.

"I would not mind doing that," Cazador said. "Vegas sounds like fun."

"Better than doing it in Atlantic City," Mars nodded. "I still plan on doing the Vegas thing, but don’t use the f words around us. If you have to use one of those labels then use mate." She placed her hand on Cazador’s arm. "I like that word. Like how our cousin was mated with Demona. He was happy being just mated until Auntie Miriam drove him to marriage."

"I’m not going to argue," Daniel said as he carried the plates with the eggs to the microwave.

"Let me help you with that," Cazador rose form his chair and raced to Daniel he grabbed the plates and placed on inside the small oven. "I’ll cook my mate’s first." He smiled over at Mars.

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There were several two story buildings lining the campus of Avalon Community College. Daniel lead his sister and Cazador to the admissions building. "Go into the first room on your right. there will be someone who will tell you where to go." He pointed at building in the center of the circle. "They will probably tell you to go into the auditorium in the student center. That’s the building behind the admissions."

The young woman nodded her head as she heard the information. "Uh huh and where do you go for food around here?" She heard her brother sigh. "What?"

"You both just had breakfast a few minutes ago."

"Yeah, and we don’t know how long we are going to be here."

"There is s a cafeteria on the bottom floor of the student center, and there are vending machines all around." He glanced at his watch. "I don’t want to be late."

Mars grabbed onto Cazador’s good hand and gave it a good squeeze. "Lets go find out where I’m going to be speaking." She dragged him into the building and wrinkled her nose. It had the scent of an office building receptionist area. Too clean and sterile. The carpets had the dry clean scent of being freshly vacuumed and there was tang of pine sol clinging to the tiles.

Mars raced passed the first round desk near the entrance to the office her brother told her. Another secretary’s desk was in front of her in an office so small there was only a few feet of carpet between desk and door.

The stringy haired secretary held up a finger as she nodded. Her other hand held a phone tot he side of her head. "That’s good if you want to schedule a meeting with all the members of campus police then you call Debbie at line ten." She placed the phone back and turned to face the newcomers to her office. "May I help you?"

"I’m Marleen "Mars" Bluestone. I’ve been scheduled to give a speech on breaking it into the entertainment business." she stepped back until her butt nearly came into contact with the wall. "This is Carlos Hernadez. He also giving a speech. His is scheduled right after mine."

The secretary adjusted her cat woman glasses. "Just a minute." He fingers flew across the keyboard. "Here it is. You are going to need a couple of visitor badges. I’ll be right back." She backed up from her computer and desk and left the area. She came back a few minutes later with laminated badges hanging from lanyards. "Her you are. The assemblies will be in the auditorium on the first floor of the Student Center." She slid the badges across the desk.

Mars picked hers up and glanced at it. The top of the badge had the name of the college and underneath in large bold lettering was the word VISITOR."

"It looks like your brother is right," Cazador said as they left the office.

"Why did we even bother squeezing into that room? We ended up in the same place Danny suggested we are going. God, that place was small enough to cramp my tiny boobs."

"Your boobs are not tiny and we did need these." He slipped the lanyard of his badge around his neck.

"Okay you got my ass on both accounts."

"I have your ass on more than those accounts." he reached over and placed his hand on her bottom, squeezing out a surprised and pleased giggle.

"Honey I love it when you do that, but not while were here. A lot of students are activist crazy."

"True," he grabbed the back door of the building. "If I hold the door for you would think it is polite and I consider it an honorable act to hold the door open for a woman but some of the feminists here would think..." He wrinkled his forehead. "What would they think?"

"They would think it is a sign that you think women are the weaker sex and we don’t need a man to hold doors open for us when we are perfectly capable of doing it ourselves."

"That is very true."

"I think its bullshit. If a man wants to hold doors open for me or wants to carry me across mud puddles then he can, not because I’m weak. It’s because I’m lazy and like being treated like a queen."

"That is my Martes."

She stepped closer to him and leaned against his chest. "I also feel it’s kind of romantic." She placed a kiss on his nose before she ran back to the student center.

"I know you like to be alone while you practice your speech."

"I’m going to practice inside the auditorium. I hope it’s empty."

He pulled a few quarters out of his pocket. "I’m pretty sure it is. You go on ahead. I ‘ll be inside the main room waiting until you are ready."

"Are you going to be working on your own speech?" She grabbed onto the door handle.

"I already got it memorized. I’ll need to practice for just a few minutes before I give it."

"Well if you are sure."

He didn’t respond save for a smile that caused the dimple in his left cheek to become noticeable He pulled down the hinged door off the Newspaper box and pulled out an edition. Standing back up he noticed Mars was already inside. He glanced around for a place to sit down. Normally he would have sat inside, but since the weather was nice and cool he decided to find a bench.

He slid into the closest of the black metal benches and glanced at the headlines of the paper. The front story was about a bank robbery that occurred then night before. He shrugged at the fact that made the front story, but he remembered he was not in New York. The story may have seemed small and insufficient, but a bank robbery was the most newsworthy event that had occurred. He might mention it to Mars or not. She used to work at the Akron beacon Journal.

He turned the pages as he read. His suspicion was right there were small stories occurring. One of the stories was about the previous nights rain storm. Two others seemed a bit strange. A strange craft landing in the middle of the woods? A strange creature that may be the Jersey Devil? Cazador just shrugged. Mars might know about such things.

_________________________________________________________________________

The sweet murmur of the voice of their team leader’s whisper snuck into Harry’s ears first. He did not want to move at the gentle sound. He hoped it was part of the semi dream floating through his mind. A dream he could ignore.

"Harry," the murmur became more audible and Harry reached up to his ear by reflex to rub at his tickled skin. "Wake up."

He rolled over, leaving his back to face her. "Lay off," he mumbled.

"I said get up!" He felt the points of her fingernails sink into the back of his neck before he was rolled over and was forced to stare into the glaring blues of Robyn’s eyes. They were beautiful when she wasn’t pissed. They were the same shade as the egg of the bird that shared her name. "We’ve got work to do."

He shrank back on his cot and scowled at her. "If you don’t mind I like to sit up without you being in my face. I don’t want our foreheads impacting into each other."

"Fine," she sighed as she stepped back. "Well get up and get out of bed."

He sat up mumbling that he was. He raised an eyebrow and stared at here. "You know you are pretty when you are angry." Her exasperated grunt was the response he was hoping. Dingo slid out of his hammock and pulled out a change of clothes from the small dresser he shared with Fang. He wondered why the mutate wanted to split half of it with him since he did not have much in the way of clothes.

Robyn had left the area by the time he was fully dressed. Dingo had optioned for a more casual look of blue jeans and a green button down shirt. He searched for her pausing only briefly to give the stone form of Yama a friendly nod and pat the top of McKinley’s head.

"We are out here," Fang’s voice called from outside the ship. "You gotta see what the storm did."

"What the storm did?" Dingo turned to stare at hairless jungle cat with thick skin like a reptile. "Why do I have a feeling I don’t really want to know?" The only response he got from the cat was a moan like grunt. "I don’t blame you for staying inside, and I don’t just mean the sun thing. I’ll be back soon." He reached over to scratch behind McKinley’s ears.

He was right. He did not want to see what was going outside. Robyn was dressed like him. Wearing simple and comfortable clothes as she walked around the aircraft. Their landing was smooth. Nothing was crushed under the ship. It was what was on the ship that was the problem. The rain and wind sheared off a few tree limbs, covering the craft in twigs, branches and leaves. Some of the branches that were torn off were still alive and fresh. Bright orange sap bleed from where the trees were severed. There were sticky semi dry splotches covering the hull.

"Sweet Jesus," Dingo complained. "How the hell are we going to get that crap off?"

"The branches are easy," Robyn replied. "It’s the sap we are going to have a problem with." She watched as Fang crawled around on top of the ship along with Matrix, and Vahril.

The mutate gathered several branches together in his furry hands and threw them over the side. Some of the leaves were glued to his arm. "Crap." Fang grabbed a few of the leaves and ripped them off, taking small bits of fur along with them. "Fuck! Fuck, fuckety fuck, fuck!"

"What yer tongue mate!" Dingo cupped his mouth with his hands. "There are some ladies present."

The mutate glared at him. "How would you like it if I put some of this crap on your short hairs and pulled. I’m in pain here."

Vahril paused from shoving off plant waste to give Fang a sympathetic glance. "Is there a special soap we can use?"

"You mean like Brillo?" Fang shuddered. "Um, no thanks."

"I think they might sell what we are looking for at a hardware store," Robyn suggested. "Or perhaps an auto supply store."

"Does that mean we are going to have to venture into the city and go shopping?" Dingo asked.

"We have no other choice. We also need to buy some food."

"Can’t that wait until we get to New York?"

"We can wait for the food, but we cannot wait for cleaning supplies." She pat the side of her pants, feeling the bulge caused by the wallet. "I have money if that is what you are worried about."

"The money isn’t what I’m worried about, it’s the time. That and how are we going to find a store. We don’t have a car."

"No, but there are cycles aboard the ship."

"Hover-cycles?"

She nodded. "They can shift from hover-cycle to motorcycle." She lead him back aboard the ship.

Fang watched them and shook his head. "Man is it me or are they acting like a married couple?"

Vahril paused and stared at him with here strange colored eyes. "Married? You mean like the ceremony humans take when they bond with each other?"

Fang blinked. "Yeah, something like that, but more like those who have already gone through the ceremony and are living together in the same building."

"Humans like them? The ones who are happy and enjoy each other’s company?"

"Yeah, What I’m trying say is those two bicker like a married couple."

"When you put it like that, then yes they do."

The silver feathery end of the Matrix’s arm turned feather duster wiped away a few pine needles without getting stuck in the sap stains. He stared up at the mutate and alien. "Their behavior is similar to the human couples portrayed on television, but I see not the point of this discussion. Unless it is a natraul discussion between two biological beings that I have yet to understand."

Vahril smiled at him. "Do not worry about it. We shouldn’t be talking about that when we are supposed to be cleaning."

The matrix bobbed it’s head. "Should I try to remove the sap?"

The alien shook her head. "You might accidentally harm the ship."

"We better wait for the couple to return," Fang smirked while making quotation points with his fingers.

___________________________________________________________________________

The first shopping center they found while on the road had the stores they need. The tall stone pillar near one of the entrances had signs of the stores of the center. There was a grocery store and an Ace Hardware.

"We’ll look in the hardware first," Robyn said as they pulled their motorcycles into the parking lot. "If they don’t have it we’ll find another place."

"Do we have to get the food afterwards?" Harry asked after he turned the motor off.

"Do ye want to eat?" Her response was enough for him to slide off his bike and remove his helmet. "From what I can see about ye is that ye don’t like to shop?"

"I don’t have a problem with shopping. I just think this is a waist of time. How much do we have the refrigerator anyway?"

Robyn locked her helmet inside the storage carrier on the side of the bike. " All we have is half a bottle of water a bread bag with nothing but the heels a quarter of butter and an apple."

"I guess we can get a few things like a few packs of hot-dogs, some milk and eggs, soda and beer."

"We are getting more than that."

"We don’t have the time," Dingo snapped at her before he glared at the center. Wall to wall stores topped with turrets to give it an old European look to it. There was even a clock imbedded in the tallest tower. The clock tower caught his attention for another reason. Underneath the roof and surrounded by the stone pole like pillars was a gargoyle.

"What is it with men and shopping?" Robyn frowned. Her hard glare softened when she noticed his look of shock. "Harry , what is it?"

"Look," Dingo pointed at the stone figure that held his attention. "Is that a real gargoyle, or is it just a statue?"

Robyn’s eyes followed to where Dingo pointed and widened at the stone figure. It was perched close to the back of the tower. It’s back against the wall with it’s wings were folded across the shoulders, making the creature look like it was trying to hide from the world. "It could be."

"The way it’s sitting makes it look like it was trying to take shelter from the storm."

"Aye, Ye donae suppose he’s the gargoyle we were supposed to keep an eye out for?"

"He could be."

She peeled her eyes away from the statue and placed them on her watch. "Well it’s hours until sunset. We can return later after we restocked the fridge and cleaned the sap off."

Harry felt her hand grab onto his arm, squeezing her fingers into his muscles as she tied to drag him into Ace. His eyes never left the gargoyle.

_________________________________________________________________________

"Can we stop at Burger King?" Mars asked from the back seat of her brother’s blue Ford Taurus.

Daniel felt his fingers form a tighter grip around the steering wheel. His last class of the day had ended. He had found Mars and Cazador talking with a group of students and signing autographs on the lush grassy area where other students where tossing Frisbees back and forth. He was glad his sister did not become bored waiting for him.

"This is the third time you mentioned food today," Daniel pointed out.

"I eat at least three times a day."

"You don’t have to announce it."

"We don’t have to stop at Burger King," Cazador decided to be the peace maker. "I’m sure you or Charlotte have something delicious planned for tonight.".

"Yeah she mentioned she was going to fix chicken fingers with green beans and noodles." Daniel smiled. His sister’s mate was a responsible man.

Mars sighed and sank back into the pale gray upholstery. "You both have a point. I just wanted to try that new pepper bacon sandwich they have, but if we are having chicken fingers planned then I can wait until tomorrow."

"We’ll have Burger King tomorrow. Charlotte is going to have a long day at the gallery tomorrow. She would be too tired to cook and we are not about to allow Mars to cook."

"I can cook," Cazador said.

"Naw, the more I think about those burgers do sound good for tomorrow." He hesitated at the cars slowing down in front of him. "What the hell?"

Mars noticed the vehicles packing up and the nearest traffic light still shone green. "Is there an accident?"

"I’m not sure," Daniel reached over and turned on the car radio. He bit his lip and switched channels from Brittany to Lincoln Park. The end of Crawling was slowing down. "Maybe the traffic report will tell us what is going on."

"We’ll got to Joester in the copter with traffic," The DJ said before the soft rhythm of the copter blades was heard in the background. "Are you with me Joestar?"

"This is Joestar with the traffic report," the reporter in the helicopter introduced himself. "We have a bit of head on collision at the intersection of Buttermead and Thalia. The passengers and the drivers in both cars are not seriously injured. There is in an incident on the 215 heading towards downtown. A garbage truck has been turned over. Ambulances are already on their way, and their is a detour being set up on Cherrywood near the Washington Mutual bank.

"This is it," Daniel turned up the volume.

"Police are still investigating last nights robbery and are making the road closed on both sides of the bank. Detours have been set up."

"Shit."

"All that trouble for just a bank robbery?" Mars asked.

"I guess," Daniel shrugged. "It depends on how big the robbery is."

The question about he robbery reminded Cazador about the formatting of the morning’s newspaper. "Do you get bank robberies here often?"

"Not that often, why do you ask?"

"I figured they would be minimal since it was on the cover of the morning’s paper."

"What?" his girlfriend turned to him to give him a questioning look. "You mean the front page?" He pulled out the folded up paper from under his arm and handed it to her. Mars unfolded it and glanced at the cover. "It’s small for a headline, but it’s still a heading. Man bro, your town sucks."

"Some people would consider that to be a blessing." He glanced up at the cars in front of him moving a few inches closer to the detour. "We’re moving again."

"I think she means that much doesn’t happen in this town," Cazador explained.

She nodded while she continued to read the articles. "The people who formatted this paper need a better dummy."

Cazador arched one of his slightly thick eyebrows. "A dummy?"

"The person who fits articles together so that there is no spaces. You know someone who dummies up the pages. The story about the damages caused by last night’s squall is bigger than the bank robbery story. It should be the headline."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Most normal people would get nauseous while riding in a moving vehicle."

"This car isn’t moving, bro, and I’m not like most normal people."

"Which is a blessing," Cazador leaned over and kissed her cheek. She did not remove her eyes from the paper.

"You guys are buckled in back there right?" Daniel asked.

"Si," Cazador leaned back into his own seat and stared at the traffic ahead. Seeing that they were not much closer to the detour he glanced over to his beloved. Her nose was buried into her reading material. She might not notice if he slid his hand across the seat and massage her thigh. His finger’s stroked her denim clad thigh, feeling the warmth of her body-heat beneath the pants.

"Keep that up, please." She mumbled without even looking at him. "I love to feel your fingers. These are your real fingers?"

"It’s kind of hard to reach over with my left hand," he chuckled.

"Sorry," She folded the paper together to turn the page. "The spread of their sports section is very nice. Almost as good as the Bacon Journal."

"Bacon journal?" Daniel asked before he remembered it was once of her cute nicknames. "Never-mind."

She was glad she didn’t have to be disturbed from her reading to explain one of her Marism’s to her brother since he should know them by now. She slipped through the classified s to the Kicking Back section, which might or might not be similar to the Beacon Journal’s Lifestyles section. The top story about the renovation of the library did not seem to be as interesting as the story on the bottom. A Fuzzy image of a reddish creature with a pair of devil like horns, under the title :THE DEVIL STRIKES AGAIN.

"Oh it’s here."

"What is here?" Cazador asked.

"The Jersey Devil?" She ignored her brother’s cussing and smiled at her beau. "and not far from Danny’s"

"The Jersey Devil?"

"It’s a local monster legend, like the moth man of the Carolinas and Sasquatch of North Pacific."

"Just don’t get any ideas sis," Daniel grumbled as he gently pressed down on the gas pedal, causing the car to slowly crawl closer to the detour.

_________________________________________________________________________

The cleanser he and Robyn had purchased at Ace did the trick. The emptied a fifth of the bottle into a bucket and filled the rest with warm water. One wipe with a sponge soaked with the solution was enough to clean off some of the sap as if it were mud. While cleaning the craft they mentioned the gargoyles to the others. Vahril had thought it would be better if Harry and Robyn went to greet the gargoyle by themselves since the rest of the team would invite suspicion.

"Nobody is going to wonder why we are standing in front of the clock?" Harry asked as they walked away from their parked motorcycles the second time that day. He wondered if they had even parked in the same place.

"We are not going to be standing in front of the tower," Robyn said as ran her hands through her long pale blond ponytail. "We will be standing next to the tower."

He glanced at her, wondering how they are going to get to the tower when he realized she meant for them to climb up. "Are you nuts? People are going to notice if we are climbing the damn thing."

"Shut up and follow me," she snapped as she walked the long way down on the shopping center walk. She was still angry he didn’t apologize to her for the groceries. They managed to squeeze everything they needed into two paper bags. Including the six-pack on the bottom of one. They had more than enough food to get to New York and even a few left over until they returned back to headquarters in Japan.

She had lead him to the back of the building. Surprisingly, three was no one around to notice if they climbed the back or not. After checking to make sure the coast was clear Robyn pulled out a small gun like weapon from her back pocket. She aimed at the clock tower, the sides of the gun sprain open revealing the side hooks.

"So this is how we are going to get up to the top?" Dingo asked while crossing his arms.

She did not respond. Instead she pulled back on the trigger sending the grappler to fire to the stone pillars and the metal hooks clinging to the stone. She pulled on the cord still attached to the gun before she separating it and attached it to the buckle of the belt around her jeans. She tested it for tightness with a couple of tugs before she scaled up the building.

"What about me?" Dingo asked.

"Here," she detached the rope from her belt and tossed the end down towards him. Robyn waited for him to attach it to his belt. Gritting her teeth she grabbed onto the cord and pulled as he climbed up the stucco and cement brick like surface. "Ye weigh too much."

Harry grunted and struggled until he was able to slip over the top. "That’s not fat that’s muscle." He poked her in the biceps. "Something you lack."

She slapped his hand away. "Now stop fooling around."

They eyes of the gargoyle seemed lost and distant and in a way melancholy. The last time Robyn saw eyes like that on a gargoyle was when she first saw the transformed state of her brother. Above his eyes were a triangular shaped spiked browridge. It looked like the crown of the Statue of Liberty. His face was triangular in shape ending in a blunt cleft chin. His large wings had three claw like fingers and were folded across his chest plate. Robyn tired to get a closer look and noticed the gargoyle was clutching onto a few bundles underneath his wings, both stone as the rest of him.

"Almost time," Harry glanced at the fading sunlight before returning his gaze back to both Robyn and the gargoyle. "Do you think he might be the real deal?"

She nodded. "I’m positive. He looks so much like-" she paused when she hard the unmistakable sound of stone cracking. ‘The real thing." she stepped back and shielded her face from the flying stone debris.

The gargoyle’s golden wings stretched out at their full spread as the gargoyle roared. The rest of his body was emerald green and his long fell of hair was as white as the clouds and had a silk like luster. The glow in his eyes faded before he turned to face them.

"Don’t be afraid," Robyn murmured as the gargoyle stepped back and eyed her suspiciously.

"Who are you?" Gawain asked. His tiny barb covered tail flicked back and forth like an anxious cat. The two humans were not threatened nor feared him, but they were still unfamiliar. Despite all the lies Thailog fed him there were a few truths. One of them was that there were some humans that did not fear gargoyles but wanted to use him, trick him to leading them to his clan so others can destroy his people. If that was the case with them he was glad he didn’t have a clan.

"My name is Robyn and he is Harry. Do you have a name?"

"I was given a name by those who raised me," Gawain sighed. "And who I betrayed. I am called Gawain."

"Gaiwan?" Harry repeated the name and traded a knowing look with Robyn. "He is the one."

"The one?"

"The one we have been looking for," Robyn answered. "We want to offer you membership into our group."

Gawain did not like the way things were going. They still might want to use him as bait, but they also might have a group or clan they want him to join, but the clan might be like Thailog’s. "Why would I want to join you?"

"We are called the Redemption Squad. We all once were part of groups or alliances that had participated in questionable behavior. We want to clear our names by fighting for good instead. We were told by Fox and Goliath you were part of the clan that had attacked their home, but you were lead astray and didn’t mean to. You thought you were fighting an enemy of Goliath but that was a lie too."

The gargoyle’s eyes widened slightly. "That is correct."

"We think you should join us. Be part of our team, our clan. We are fighting the good fight."

The human male nodded. "It beat’s community service."

"I don’t know if I can trust you." Gawain shook his head.

"We understand," the woman sighed. "Maybe if we let Fang talk to ye?"

Fang was the name of the male mutate that journeyed to the island along with Thailog and Felicia. He remembered riding in the speedboat with him until the mutate fell over the side and was rescued by Cecilia and Mercutio. "Fang is no longer an enemy is he?"

"He’s part of the team."

"My rookery siblings have told me he changed." He lowered his shoulders and wings. "What kind of work do you do?"

"Mostly we foil the plans of this one organization that has control of the world," Dingo explained. "We also do good deed for the community our headquarters is stationed in, like giving first aid to flood victims and rescuing kidnapped sheilas."

"That does sound like good and noble work and I am getting the sense from you that you are telling the truth, but I can’t join you."

"Why not?" Dingo stepped closer to him and was stopped by Robyn who shoo her head at him.

"Because I can’t join you. You are friends of Goliath’s clan. You know what evil I’m capable off, and I’m not ready." He bent down to pick up his bags that were set down. His toes curled over the edge of the tower and he spread his wings to their full span. "I’m sorry, but even with what you are offering I feel I am not worthy."

__________________________________________________________________________

Cazador checked the contents in the back seat of the Taurus. They had enough for a simple camp trip: tent, sleeping bags, lantern, change of clothes, toothbrushes with tooth paste, matches, compass, pocket knife, hot dogs, graham crackers, chocolate, marshmallows, Handy snacks, Jerky, Fruit Roll ups, bottles of water and night vision goggles.

"I can’t believe you are actually going to go through with this," Daniel grumbled as he followed his sister to the car. "You have done some strange stuff but to go camping in the woods just so you can see a strange creature that may or may not exist is just absurd."

Mars stopped in short in her tracks, sending a few loose pieces rolling forward. "You obviously don’t know me that well dear brother." She reached up to finger the camera handing by a red and black lanyard around her neck. "I’m not only going to see the Jersey Devil, but I’m also going to prove it exists."

Danny shook his head. "You are Matt’s cousin all right."

She smiled. "You and he both are the responsible ones. We’ll be fine."

"I can’t believe I have to drive you to the woods now."

"You could let us take the car instead." Mars flashed her brother a saccharine injected smile.

Daniel immediately shook his head. "Yeah, forget that idea. You would probably return it in a week."

"You speculate too much."

"My speculations have developed from a lift time of living with you sis."

"You keep forgetting I’m mated to a very responsible man."

"I didn’t forget," Daniel smiled briefly at man in question as he was placing the last of the supplies into the back seat. "I’m just worried I won’t have my car when I need to go to class tomorrow."

"So stop complaining about driving us. You can pick us up on your way home tomorrow." She opened the door to the backrest and slid across the upholstery. She did not want to hear another negative word out of her brother’s mouth. She turned when she heard Cazador opening the door on the other side and smiled when her lover slid into the seat next to hers.

_______________________________________________________________________

The alien female was standing outside the ship, waiting for them to return. She held onto a cold beer and a bottle of ice cold water in her hands and when the humans approached her she held them out. "Any luck?" she raised her unique eyebrows.

Dingo mumbled a thank you when he accepted his beer. Robyn smiled at the offer. "Thank you. We did not have much luck at all."

"Was he a real gargoyle?"

"He was, but he didn’t want to join."

Vahril turned to watch as Harry climb aboard the ship. He was probably going to ask either Fang or Matrix to help him in getting the cycles back into the craft. "Did he say why?"

Robyn twisted the cap off her bottle. "At first he didn’t trust us, and I don’t blame him. After what he went through I wouldn’t trust us either, and he thinks he’s unworthy of joining."

"He feels he is unworthy of joining us because of who we are or what we do?"

"He doesn’t want to join us because we know Goliath’s clan, but that isn’t all. He feels like has is unready to join a clan at this time and he doubts if he ever would be worthy of joining any clan at all."

"Did you explain we all once felt like we were unworthy of joining any clan?"

Robyn smiled politely. "I don’t think if Harry, Fang or I ever felt we were unworthy, but you do have a point. We didn’t explain why we became a group thoroughly enough to him."

Vahril nodded and turned to the opening and the stairs leading inside. "Maybe we should continue this discussion a little further inside." She climbed the stairs first endangered the Redemption Squad ship. The rest of the team was waiting for her and Robyn.

Dingo waited until Robyn had entered the craft to speak. "Yama wants to speak to Gawain."

She blinked at the suddenness of the question being flung at her. "We don’t really know where to find him."

"Why do you want to speak with him?" Vahril asked.

The dun gray colored gargoyle sighed. "None of you know the feeling of betrayal this young warrior is feeling. I have. I once did something I thought would be good for the clan. I was betrayed by someone close. I wanted to commit sepukko to restore honor to my name. My clan members told me they understood I was lied to. The told me they didn’t care and not to dwell on it, but I felt the burden of guilt way heavily on my shoulders, back, and chest. I could not live with them. That is why I sought you out."

Robyn stared into the gargoyle’s dark eyes while he spoke. They were serious with a hint of saddens misting over the corneas. She felt a weight develop on her head and sighed. "You will be the first to speak to Gawain, but I think we should all talk to him again. Tell him why we are seeking redemption."

"We got to find him first." Fang pointed out. "And we don’t even know where to look."

"He was heading east," Dingo said.

"I guess we’ll divide into groups and seek him out." Robyn suggested. "Fang I want you and Dingo to try to get along. Yama and I will be another group, and Vahril, McKinley and Matrix will form the third."

"Someone should stay with the ship."

"I’ll do it," Vahril volunteered. "Matrix and McKinley would be more stealthier without me."

"How would they contact the rest ugh us?" Dingo asked.

"Matrix can form a radio that would contact the rest of the teams communicators and there is one attacked to McKinley’s collar."

"I guess it’s settled then."

_______________________________________________________________________

Despite the surrounding darkness Cazador was able to find plenty of fallen branches and rocks. He and Mars used the lantern light to build their tent by. Now that their shelter was raised they wanted a fire so they could cook their hot-dogs. Mars had places the rocks in a perfect circle, making double layers and even placed a smaller third layer on the middle. After the stone platform was assembled they arranged the wood and lit the branches with a lit match.

Mars watched the frank at the end of her stick vibrate slightly from the heat of the flames. The outer skin blistered an cracked while it darkened to black. She loved listening to the sound of the flames eat away at the wood mixing with the sizzling meat.

"Your hot-dog is burning," Cazador said softly while pointing to the nearly blackened dog. His own hot-dog was cooked till it was brownish gray with a few rust brown spots.

"I like them well done."

"Nothing well about that done dog."

"Okay I like them burnt. I think they taste better when they are covered in a crispy skin."

"It’s your taste buds, not mine." He used the open hot-dog bun to grab onto the meat and slide it off the stick. "We are eating them naked?"

"We are going to be eating each other naked?" She wiggled her eyebrows at the same speed she would flutter her eyelashes.

He matched her smirk. "Maybe later." He glanced at hot dog and took a bite. "I guess it would be a bit of trouble to bring mustard and ketchup with us."

"Bringing whole containers yes, but if Danny had some of those packets from fast food places at his house we would have taken them with us." She pulled her frank back and blew at the smoke.

He scooted closer to her. "I like this, being out here."

She leaned against him. "Just the two of us. Where no one or nothing can bother us."

"I’ve been wanting do this for a while, but work had been demanding."

"I know the feeling. Last month Night Angel went nation wide and I’m flooded with so many letters. I want to answer them all, but then I won’t have time to write out the scripts and draw the panels. I’ve been thinking about hiring more artists."

He swallowed the last bite of his hot-dog. "To color?"

"I have enough color artists. I mean to draw. I’d do the basic sketches for the story board. I want to draw all of them myself, but the work load has increased too much."

"I understand," he reached for the package of hot dogs. "We recently filmed the first three episodes of the new season. Christine is not in many of the scenes due to her pregnancy and the rest of us are picking up slack except for Jason." He removed another pick and slipper frank from the package and speared it with the end of his coat hanger.

"He’s Christine’s husband. He’s probably spending more time with her." She grabbed another hot-dog.

"That’s not it. He has been distant recently. I have caught him talking to himself a few times."

"His mind is probably on what his fist child will be like."

"That is probably true." He placed his second dog over the flames and shifted a few inches to the right after she joined her second dog next to his. He smiled at her and noticed she was only two thirds done. "Cooking your second one?"

"I have two hands, and by the time the second one is burnt to the point I like my first hot dog will be eaten."

"Well I can’t argue with that. That is another reason why I love you." He leaned closer to her until his shoulder and arms came in contact with hers. "When are we going to search for this thing?"

"Probably after we have our smores." She popped the rest of her hot-dog into her mouth and washed it down with a mouthful of diet coke.

"Running around thaw woods, searching for the unknown. "I feel like I’m in that movie about the college students searching for a witch."

She let out a breath between her closed lips while she rolled her eyes. "What a piece of crap that was. I didn’t feel scared for a second."

"This is a legendary beast we are searching for right?" He pulled back his hot-dog and blew on it.

"Yep."

"One I haven’t really heard of before."

"You remember that episode of the X-Files where they were near Atlantic City and they came across a Neanderthal woman? That was supposed to be the Jersey Devil. Although that was that show’s version. There are a lot of versions." She watched as the charcoal black spots form on the dark brown hot wiener. "The original story was that here in New Jersey, on the thirteenth year of the 18th century a housewife was giving birth to her thirteenth child. This of course happened on the thirteenth hour of the thirteenth day of the month. After it had fully exited her womb it scuttled across the floor and climbed up the chimney."

"The housewife that gave birth to creature swore she saw horns and a tail. That was the origin of the story. Through the years it had gone through several different forms. Sometimes it has wings and sometimes it doesn’t. It has been known to either be furry or feathered or scaly. Some incantations have it with a head of a ram or a winged lion and there were a few times when it looked like a typical devil. There have been times when it even had webbed feet."

"Nobody has actually seen the creature?"

"Well some people have claimed they have seen it and I believe them, but there have been barely any photos except of recent."

"For all we know it could be a gargoyle."

Mars nearly dropped her hot dog into the flames. Instead she let the smoking meat fall onto the open bun she held out. "I never thought of that. but why would a gargoyle be out here by himself?"

"Maybe he isn’t. Maybe all the photos were of different members of his or her clan." He breathed deeply. "Or maybe this is a gargoyle who doesn’t know where he belongs, like the gargoyle who left Wyvern."

Mars blew took a bite without blowing away so of the smoke. She ignored the slightly burning feeling as it touched her tongue. A nearby owl hooted before she heard the crunch of a branch snapping. She turned towards the direction while chewing the food. "Did you hear that?" She placed the hot dog into her mouth and slowly stood up.

"All I heard as an owl and a branch snapping." He watched as she walked towards the direction of the sound eating her hot dog along the way. "I don’t think it’s anything serious." Too late. She was already walking out of range of the campsite. He did not have much of a choice. He emptied the contests of their sodas and one of the bottles of water onto the flames before throwing on a few handfuls of dirt and stirring it around to make sure there were no sparks remaining. He crawled into the tent and pulled out the night-vision goggles. After slipping them over his head he grabbed the lantern and ran after her.

Mars froze when she was fully immersed into the shadows. She couldn’t see two feet in front of her. She held up her hand out and wiggled her fingers, but she barely could see them. Her brother was right about acting before thinking. It was going to spell the end for her. Her only hope was for Cazador to find her. She looked at the sky above her. Through the branches she could see the stars. She couldn’t believe how clear they were, or how many of them there were. She spun around on her feet, searching for a glowing piece of the moon and smiled when she saw the D shape of the satellite in half form. She felt she could relax if she could see at least some form of light and the stars and moon provided just enough to stare at. She could see the branches and leaves clearly as well as the dark winged shape that glided from one tree to the next. From one tree to the next? She’s found the Devil!

"Martes." He grabbed onto her wrist prompting her to scream. "Shh it’s okay." Cazador pulled her close.

She pulled away from him. "How dare you sneak up on me. You made me scream."

"I am sorry," Cazador apologized. "I didn’t know any other way to announce myself."

"What about hey Mars?"

He shrugged., his leather jacket squeaking slightly. "You might have screamed at that as well."

"You are probably right." She studied him. Even with the flood light from the lantern casting him in a brilliant white glow, it still was difficult to see him because of all the black he wore. The one thing that seemed to stand out was the pair of bright green goggles strapped across his face. "You look kind of strange with those night visions on. You look like a raver."

"I probably do," he smiled while handing her the lantern. "But you look all green. Well everything looks green, but I can see you."

"That’s probably true. Now I’d love to stick and chat but we have to run."

"Why because of the strange sound?"

She held out the flood light in front of, casting the glow a few yards ahead. "It’s not just because I heard something. I saw something gliding over the tree tops and it was heading that way." She skipped a few feet ahead.

He knew even with the flood light she would still get lost in the middle of the woods. "Martes wait for me." He knew it would be no use to try to convince her not to run ahead. Convincing Mars Bluestone to not do what she wants was like trying to convince the planet Mars to change it’s orbit.

She heard the sound of his feet scrambling behind her and gained speed. As she kept on running she lifted and lowered the lantern, making it easy for her to search not only the ground but also the trees. She heard the crunching like creaking of a branch bending from a heavy weight from the right and shifted direction. There was no mistaking that sound, not after years of climbing trees. "This way!" She shouted.

She kept the light in the trees and tried to search for the sign of a clump of leaves shaking or something large. When she saw the outline of the same creature that glided over her leap down from one of the trees she forced her self to run as fast as she could. "Where’s the camera, camera..." she patted her pockets trying to feel for the camera they brought and felt nothing. Hopefully Cazador had the camera.

She should have been looking where she was going better. The thought entered her mind when her foot struck against one of the roots and fell face forward toward the ground. The lantern like flashlight flew from her hand as she landed on the hard ground. "Damn it," she ignored the slight burning feeling of her chin. She probably scraped it and as soon as she returned to the campsite she would apply some Bactine to it, but now she had to roll over and admit defeat. Mars froze when she heard the growling. She stared deep into the darkness and tried to find out where the animal was. There was nothing. Nothing except for a pair of fireflies softly glowing a phosphorous light side by side. It took only half a minute for her to know they were not fireflies.

"Stay down." Cazador whispered slowly as he stepped in front of her. "I do not know what you are, but you will not harm the woman I love." He spread his arms. "I don’t know what you, you might be a demon or the legendary Jersey Devil. Perhaps you are a cave woman or even a gargoyle, but we do not wish to harm you."

The glowing eyes blinked. "I am a gargoyle, I don’t know nor I trust you."

"I understand," Cazador nodded his head. "My name is Cazador, that is not my real name but it is what I go by. I am an actor, but I once defended the rain forests of Central America from an evil threat while teaming up with gargoyles."

Mars pulled her self back up to her feet. "Hi, my name is Mars Bluestone. I’m a comic book creator and I’m related to a gargoyle."

The two eyes dimmed. "You are related to one?"

She shrugged. "Well he’s only a gargoyle at night. He’s a weregoyle technically."

The emerald hued gargoyle stepped into the light and brought a hand to his forehead and sighed. "Why didn’t I understand. Bluestone is the last name of one of the weregoyles that are part of Goliath’s clan." He lowered his hands to look at the humans with tear soaked eyes. "I’m so sorry."

Mars held up her hands. "You don’t have to apologize."

"Yes, I do." The gargoyle slowly stepped backwards. "After what I have done to your family member’s clan it is the least I can do."

"You are the lost soul," Cazador spoke. "You are the gargoyle who placed a self banishment on yourself."

Mars turned to her lover and pointed at the gargoyle. "He’s Galena?"

"Gawain," the gargoyle corrected. "I have to go."

"No you don’t. Before you leave lets talk. If you feel you have to owe me then you can owe me by talking."

Gawain sighed again, lowering his wings in defeat. "Very well. What do you want to talk about?"

She bobbed slightly on her ankles while chewing her lower lip. "Why are you in such a big hurry? Where are you going to go?"

His grip on his duffel bags relaxed. "I’m not in any hurry to get to anywhere, and where I’m going I do not know. I guess I can say I have no destination. I’m just going to keep on moving until I find a place called home."

"You mean like a clan?" Cazador asked.

"Yes, like a clan. If they listen and understand my past and are tail are willing to allow me to join, then I will join them."

"How long will that take?"

"I’m not sure. Weeks or months maybe. I have to at least wait that long, and not a few days."

Mars blinked at his response. "What do you mean by days? Did someone offer you a position?"

The gargoyle nodded. "Two humans were waiting for me to wake up so they can ask me to join their team." his tail gently flicked from side to side. "They were some time of team, a forgiveness group."

Both humans stared at each other. "A Redemption Squad?" Cazador asked. He waited for Gawain to nod. "It is believed they would be good for you to join. My coworker told me they would be looking for you."

Gawain slowly shook his head while breathed no several times. "I can’t join them. They are tied to close to Goliath’s clan and it’s too soon."

"Okay," Mars raised her hands. "So a month from now another clan or a team offers you membership are you going to take it?" She glanced into the gargoyle’s eyes. "The nearest clan I think of is the Orlando clan, but you would reject them because one of their own joined Goliath’s clan. There are also clans in Japan, Central America and London but you will say no because they know Goliath. No matter what you are going to reject each and every offer that comes your way because you were lead astray and were betrayed and accidentally hurt someone. Sure it might seem like months at first, but then it will progress to years and then decades. Before you know it you will be alone wolf, a gargoyle hermit. If you haven’t committed suicide before then. I was told your kind need to be a part of a clan."

"That is true," Gawain blinked away a tear. "But you don’t understand."

"I don’t," Mars crossed her arms. "But there was a group of members who did and you refused to listen to their stories."

"They never told me why they joined," Gawain cloaked his wings. "Maybe if I listened to them instead of gliding off I might have learned."

"If they were meant to find you, like I think they are, then they will return," Mars said. "Right now I want to see if the Devil exists but not until after we finish our campfire treats." She held out her hand to the gargoyle. "Come on you look like someone who could use a few hot-dogs in you."

Gawain reached down and picked up his deposited duffel bags. "I have supplies."

"Yeah non perishable crap. I’m sure that is going to get boring after a while." She reached for his hand and grabbed it. "I’m sure you would rather have something different, and I don’t think you ever tried Smores before."

The gargoyle glance at Cazador who shook his head. "Don’t try to argue with her. You won’t win."

The young gargoyle forced his mouth into a smile. "Very well."

"Yeah you still owe me." Mars picked up the discarded lantern and walked backwards from where she had entered from. Cazador followed the gargoyle, ready to take the lead in case the love of his life became lost on the way.

_________________________________________________________________________

Brown furry toe talons curled around the thick branch of one of the many trees before the fingers grabbed on. Fang felt the branch of the tree bob lightly from his weight as he cloaked his wings. He waited for the branch to adjust to his body before he concentrated on listening for Harry to race up to him. He wished Dingo had asked for something to be added to the soles of his exist boots, to silence them, in the last upgrade. He was sure the sound of the suit trampling the ground would alert Gawain they were approaching and would scare the young gargoyle away. The cougar mutate did not raise his voice for fear that he might be the one that scared Gaiwan. He was thankful for the part of the mutation that gave him advanced eyesight as he watched the gold metal encased human approach where he perched. From where he sat he could see Dingo had his head raised, searching for him by using enhanced glasses that came with the suit’s helmet.

Fang raised his hand and waved. The silent signals he and the human agreed on. They had promised Robyn they would work together without fighting, and so far they kept the promise. Dingo did not wavy back. He raised his hand and placed the other hand down on top to signal a time out. Fang raised his brow ridges at the display before he folded his wings and lapped down into a shorter tree.

"Why did we stop?" The mutate asked as he landed on the ground. He glared at Dingo as the man leaned against the tree. "Are you out of breath?"

Dingo shook his head before he reached up and slid the masked helmet off his head. "Not exactly mate, but I think we could use a break and see if the others had made any progress." He pushed back a curved cuff shape piece of metal on his wrist. The metal shield was covering a small speaker with a few buttons. "This is team Dingo and Fang. are you with us?"

The speaker crackled before Robyn’s heavenly lilt floated across. "This is Robyn and Yama. Have you found anything?"

"Not so good. We haven’t found a clue."

"Yama thinks he may have found the claw marks of a gargoyle in a few trees. We are going to follow them."

"That sounds like a plan. We’re going to search for another hour before we return back to the ship."

"We have already communicated with Matrix and McKinley. They haven’t found much either."

"Thanks for saving us a phone call." He reached for the red cancellation button. "Over and out" He pressed a different button after switching off from Robyn. "Vahril this is Dingo. Do you read me?"

"I read you," the musical voice of the alien came through, "have you found any sign of Gawain?"

"The only ones who found any clue were Robyn and Yama. Fang and I are going to search around for another hour and then return home. We just thought you might like to know."

"I’ll put on a pot of coffee for you."

Dingo smiled even though he knew she couldn’t see it. "I appreciate the gesture love." He turned off the radio and turned to Fang. His smile faded when he saw the mutate’s eyes were so wide he could see the whites surrounding the gold. "Is there anything wrong?"

Fang raised a talon. "Don’t you hear that?"

"Hear what?" The question had barely left his mouth when he heard a strange howl like sound. "What the hell is that?"

"I don’t know, Wolves?"

"Can’t be wolves," the former member of the pack shook his head. "Couldn’t even be Wolf, unless he had the flu."

"So maybe they are sick wolves." His ears flattened against the back of his head with fear. "Rabbis is a form of disease." He grabbed onto the nearest tree and sank his claws into the bark.

"Where do you think you are going?"

"Wolves can’t climb trees. You have that metal suit." He paused before he pulled himself up onto the lowest branch. "I don’t have such protection."

"Oh for the love of Christ," he rolled his eyes into the back of his head. "Whatever it is it’s not wolves, nor are they rabid wolves. You are jump-" the weight of something hard and heavy striking the back of his head cut him off.

"I don’t care what you say," Fang grumbled as he climbed higher into the branches. "I’m not taking chances. I mean I can deal with wolves but I’m not going to get rabies." His ears perked up, trying to hear for the human’s voice. "Dingo?" He glanced to the ground where he last saw the human. Dingo was not there. "Hey where did you go man?" He looked around, climbing through the tree trying to find his comrade. He didn’t find him. Instead he saw something else, something big crawl through the brush. The only thing that caught his eye about the staring creature was it’s long slender tail ending in an arrow shaped point. "What the hell?" He spread his wings and leaped off.

He wanted to see what that thing was, but he also wanted to find out where Dingo had gone. His second desire had been answered when caught the glint of gold metal out of the corner of his eye. He turned around and nearly froze. The human was being dragged by a monster. He wasn’t sure what the beast was. It was as furry and almost as tall as Goliath, but it had furry bat wings like himself. It also had simple pointed horns and a tail like the creature that raced into the brush. Monster or not it had Dingo. Fang raised his arm and sent a bolt form his hand to the beast striking the wings. The beast jumped and surprised. What happened next surprised the winged cat. The beast raised a gun. A gun? How did it get a gun? He didn’t want to try thinking about how he got it. He had to try to avoid the weapon.

The bullets flew by him as he shifted on the currents and folded his wings back. He nearly fell out of the sky while evading the enemy’s weapon and glided around. He heard another gun fire and pulled back, only to have a searing piece of lead pierce through his wing. The mutate folded his wings half way while he tumbled to the ground.

"How the hell," Fang grunted as he rolled over on the ground. He was only a few feet away from Dingo and the furry monster. "How did you do that?" He growled.

"He can talk?" The voice did not come from the monster near dingo. Fang tuned and dropped his jaw when he saw a second monster approach them. How could he have been so stupid? He should have figured there were two devil like monsters.

"Of course I can talk." Fang kept his injured wing folded across his chest. "I mean you guys can talk. What the hell are you?"

"We were going to ask you the same thing," the beast near Dingo said.

"Haven’t you heard?" The beast that had clipped him asked. "We are the legendary devils."

"I’m a mutate."

"Okay mutate, you better listen to us." The devil near dingo pointed his gun at Dingo’s head. "I want you to keep your arms behind your back at all times and follow us, or else I’ll place some lead into his skull."

Fang grumbled as he raised his arms. "Fine." He watched as the devil that shot him race behind him and place the blunt end of the gun at the back of his head. He had no other choice in the matter.

___________________________________________________________________________

The scent was the strongest in the northwest. The cool breeze that blew from that direction entered the nostrils of the gargoyle beast and jaguar hybrid carried the strange scent. The liquid creature told him they would search for just a little longer before they returned to the aircraft, but McKinley wanted to see what the strange scent belonged to.

"I Believe we have been walking enough," the mass of nanites merged together from a long puddle into a single being. "We should return to the ship."

McKinley did not listen. He continued on his path. He didn’t care if the liquid creature followed him or not. He didn’t particularly care for that member of the team. While the others were living animals like himself the Matrix was not. It was cold and did not smell as nice. He didn’t slow until he saw the small structure surrounded by thick bushes. His tail twitched slightly while he sniffed the air, wriggling his nostrils. The strange scent was from the building. He lowered his body to the ground and slowly walked towards it.

The humanoid form of the Matrix formed behind the teal hued cat. "You think there is something worth investigating there. I can sense a light on inside. There is the possibility the gargoyle we seek is there." He melted into puddle form and slithered after the cat like beast.

There wasn’t any gargoyles inside the shack. Only three humans. Matrix stared at them through the window from behind a tree. Matrix took mental notes of the humans. All three of them were male and from different ethnic backgrounds.

McKinley sat by him. He wanted to approach the shack and grunted his frustration of being held back.

"Do not make any sounds." Matrix warned while focusing on the men’s conversation.

"Where are those two idiots?" The bald Hispanic man said before placing a cigar into his mouth. "They were supposed to back ten minutes ago."

"Maybe they are actually scaring somebody," the chubby Caucasian said while sliding a lighter to the man with the cigar.

"I want to know how long we have to stay in this crappy burg," the black man said before he sat back down into his chair. "We got the money why can’t we just go?"

The cigar man held the flame to the end of his stogie and waited until a plume of smoke floated up before he pulled it away. "We are going to wait until the heat is off."

McKinley’s growl brought Matrix’s face away from the window. "You may or may not understand, but I think they have committed a crime, but we should inform Dingo of the information first. We must establish the law with the proper order."

________________________________________________________________________

The sticky sweetness of the treat called smores still lingered in Gaiwan’s mouth even though the fire the marshmallows were roasted over was long quelled out. Mars and Cazador gave him the leftover packages of marshmallows, chocolate, and Graham crackers. His curiosity had gotten the better of him and asked why the two of them were in the woods in the first place.

"We are looking for the Jersey Devil," Mars said while rooting around in her tent, searching for the newspaper article she brought with her. "Unless its you." She showed the gargoyle the grainy picture of the mysterious beast.

"Not really," Gawain said after studying the photo. "I guess it’s hard to see it in the dark but I’m green while its more red. It’s got horns while I have a spiked ridge, it’s wings and tail are different. It might be another gargoyle though." He lowered the article and raised his browridges. "Why are you searching for him?"

"I want evidence the creature exists."

"She believes it is real," Cazador shrugged. "She just would like some concrete proof."

Gawain frowned. "You want to disturb it while it lives in it’s natraul habitat, and what would you do with this concrete proof?"

"Put it in my scrapbook," Mars replied. "Look, I don’t want to have every news wagon and Joe "I-Want-To-Believe.’ out here."

Her words did convince him enough to join them in three search for the beast. He didn’t know how they were going to track it down, but Mars did have her flood light with her and Cazador insisted the goggles he wore on his head helped him to see in the dark. Mars was glad the gargoyle decided to join them on their expedition, Cazador however questioned the gargoyle’s motives.

"Why is he coming with us?" He asked while carefully stepping over a few exposed thick roots.

She shrugged. "Maybe my words got through to him finally"

"It could be." He waved at the creature gliding over them. "Thank you for watching over us."

"It is the least I can do!" Gawain waved back. They did give him some delicious treats to take with him. There was another reason why he wanted to search with them. They were unprotected while he carried his sword with him. He had to protect them. His guilt would have gnawed him further if he didn’t watch over them.

His wings nearly froze in mid glide when he saw another winged creature up ahead. "He stared down at the two humans below the branches. "I think I see him." He called down to them before he glided closer to the winged creature. To his surprise the creature glided towards him. He might be friendly, but Gawain did not want to take any chances. He Unsheathed his sword from the sheath attached to his belt.

To his surprise the other being was another gargoyle with dull gray skin. Thick curled horns protruded out throng his long mane of glossy hair the color of midnight. The wooden hilt banded with pale green jade of a sword was easily seen from the belt wrapped around the middle of his silk kimono. The other gargoyle studied him with almond eyes full of sympathy. "Do not be afraid. We did not come here to harm you."

Gawain hovered in the air. His wings rising and falling gently. "Who do you an when you say we?"

"Robyn and I have been searching for you," the robe wearing gargoyle pointed at the ground. A blond human woman talking with Mars and Cazador. She was dressed in mostly black with a top cut away at the midriff and topped with a red collar and pointed shoulder pads. Red holsters, each with a rifle like weapon were attacked to her long legs.

Gawain was not sure if he could trust the woman. He was sure he had never seen her before and that black mask that wrapped around her face, leaving the top of her head and mouth uncovered made her appear even more suspicious. He landed between the strange woman and his new friends. His eyes were glowing with a brilliant alabaster light. "Who are you and what do you want with us?"

"Gawain it’s cool," Mars said while Cazador grabbed onto the gene gargoyle’s arm. "This is Robyn Canmore."

"Robyn?" The light dimmed from his eyes. He heard the other gargoyle land behind him. "She’s a friend of yours?" He turned to face the strange woman and blinked when she removed her mask. It was the woman from the shopping center. "It’s you."

Robyn folded the cloth mask in her hands. "We just wanted you to hear us out. We did not have enough time to actually talk and Harry and I were not clear with you before." Behind her the other gargoyle flipped pen the top of a small device and pressed a button.

Gawain lowered his sword. "I told you I had no interest in joining your group."

"You said you had no interest because you feel unworthy," Cazador pointed out.

"And you don’t know why we joined," Robyn added. "We all felt we had done wrong in the past and want to seek forgiveness for our past actions. That is why we became a team. Please, before you make your final decision, listen to our stories and learn why we joined."

"Hunter, I think Dingo and Fang are in trouble," Yama’s voice was frantic. "I have contacted Matrix. He told me he and McKinley had found something suspicious. I can not get in contact with Dingo and Vahril thinks something might have happened to them."

"Do you think they might be hurt?" Cazador asked.

Yama shrugged. "We don’t know for sure."

"We do know their coordinates," Robyn sighed. "Gawain will you please at least wait for us here. We will speak with you once we have things under control."

Mars glanced at the two members of the redemption squad and at Gawain. If Gaiwan stayed behind with her and Cazador it was still going to be a fifty, fifty chance he would join the redemption squad. She had to make sure the percentage was higher. A smirk crept across her face. "I’m coming too. Three heads are better than two."

The blonde shook her head. "It not safe."

"You can use my help. I no I’m small and I may look weak, but I did help save a whole rookery of gargoyle hatchilings from snake robots" She kept her large grin despite the strange look the other woman was giving her.

"Don’t argue with her," Cazador sighed. "Once she has her mind made up it’s impossible to change it, and where Mars go’s I follow."

The Avalonian gargoyle handed him his sword. "Take this then. I’d feel better if you have a weapon.."

"I can’t accept this."

"You didn’t leave me with much of a choice. I can’t let you two run off into the unexpected unarmed and without me." He noticed the way the humans were staring at him. A look of confusion, except for Mar who had a satisfied smile on her face. "I’m coming with you, but I first want to make sure you at least have some sort of weapon. If you know how to use it."

"It’s only slightly heavier than machete," Cazador said as he grabbed onto the hilt. He glanced at his girlfriend and matched her smile with his own. "Are you sure you do not need it?"

The youth from Avalon held out his hands. "As you can see I’m always armed. I also have a tail. I’ll feel better if you keep with you until we rescued Dingo and Fang."

___________________________________________________________________________

The path the Matrix and the jaggar were taking on the return from the shack was not the same one they took when they approached it. Matrix noticed the difference but did not tell the beast. The creature was known to be an excellent tracker and could find his way home from nearly everything without any flaw. McKinley kept his nose low to the ground as he lead the non living creature back to the air ship. He was right about the strange scent. It belonged to those who were up no good. He didn’t have to be told the three humans were possibly breaking the law. His nose told him such, but Matrix creature did not believe him. It was probably because the beast could not smell.

A familiar scented ended his nostrils causing his tail to flicker slightly. The scent belonged to Dingo and Fang. He wanted to bound up to them and rub against their legs but the strange odor that accompanied their fragrance bothered them. The scent was human but there was something else about it. They did not smell friendly. McKinley turned to the moving puddle and grunted before he crouched low and crawled under the brush. He was sure the thing could slither under the bushes along with him. As he crunched the leaves under the growth he felt the coolness of the entity when it came too close to his skin.

Matrix heard the Jaguar hiss. It had to be the cat creature’s way of trying to keep him silent. Matrix had no intent of saying a word. he wanted to know why McKinley decided to crawl under the bushes when he did.

"Quit complaining," The answer to the Matrix came in the form of a two winged creatures. Their entire bodies were covered with red fur except for their heads. From neck up they appeared human. One of them was dragging Dingo and another forcing the other to walk wild holding a gun behind his head.

Matrix heard McKinley growl. "Do not think to rashly. We need to work together to rescue them. I need you to trust me for this to work." He slithered closer to theca like beast and slowly covered the cat’s body with his being. McKinley twitched at first, but he understood what the non living creature’s plan was.

For most of his life Fang never felt true fear. Even he was first mutated he felt confinement and anger, but never fear. Having a gun, held by someone he had never come across before, pointed to the back of his head caused the feeling of dread to increase the speed of his heart beat.

Harry did not seem to be doing any better. The human was still out cold. His complexion was frightenly pale The mutate cringed whenever Harry was dragged over something that caused his head to bump against the ground.

"Don’t tell me to shut up," the suited man dragging Dingo said. "You are the one with the easy part. I have to drag this guy with us."

"I didn’t tell you to shut up," the man behind Fang said. "I just ordered you to stop complaining."

"Order me?" the first guy let go of Harry. "You don’t have a right to-" he paused when he heard a not too distant roar. "Order me around." The roar was heard again, only closer.

"What the hell is that?" Gun guy asked

The roar was all too familiar to Fang. His eyes searched for the teal gargoyle like jungle cat, but didn’t see anything.

"Holy shit!" dragging guy shouted and pointed.

Fang spun around to see a large jungle cat with silver fur race towards him. The mutate quickly regained his composure long enough to turn and punch the man who held him hostage in the side of the face. He instictedly ducked when the strange wild cat leaped over him and stared up with his mouth open.

The fur melted off the creature’s body, revealing McKinley underneath and fell onto Gun guy. Fang paused briefly to watch Matrix swirl around the criminal before he turned to see the other fur suit clad thug trying to struggle underneath McKinley’s weight.

"Good boy," Fang grinned "But allow me to take care of this slob." He threw a bolt of electricity at man, instantly knocking him out. "Thank the good man you guys came." Fang said while he gave McKinley a pat on the head. "They didn’t want to kill us but use us. They were talking about money and hiding from the cops."

"They are most likely with the three criminals we discovered in the shack." Matrix had rearranged his form into a long snake like form. the middle of his body was wrapped around the Gun guy while his head was at the end of a long neck.

"Shack?"

"It is about forty minutes from here. I can give you the exact location."

"Wait." The mutate crouched down next to Harry. "You can tell everyone." He held his hand over the injured mans face and rained a few sparks of electricity. Dingo’s eyebrows twitched slightly before his eyelids peeled back.

_________________________________________________________________________

The bald gangster leader stomped around the shack. The cigar in his mouth had been smoked to a short stub. "Where the fuck are they?"

"Maybe they got lost?" The only black member of his team said . The small amount of light from the bulb overhead shone on the metal bands connecting the nearly invisible brackets on his teeth.

"Don’t be stupid. We have been around the woods for weeks. They know the way."

The pudgy member set down his beer can. "This wouldn’t have happened if I was in one of the suits."

The man with braces turned to him. "You can’t even fit in the costume."

"Fuck you."

"Shut up!" The leader tore the stub from his mouth and threw it on the floor.. "We may have to end up leaving tonight." He ground out the sparks with the heel of his Doc Martins. "If they are not back within an hour we are going to start packing up."

Chubby blinked. "We are just going to leave them?"

"We are not going to get caught."

Braces pulled out three more cans. "I got an idea. Lets finish the beers, if they aren’t back by the time we drank the last drop then they are shit out of luck."

"Sounds like a plan," the leader pulled on o the cans and pulled back the tab. The sound of the can being popped was overpowered by the repeated thumping against the door.

"That could be them now," Chubby said.

The leader pressed his hands against the door. "What’s the password?"

"Help!" The voice was not one of the guys. It was a frantic female’s voice. "They are after me!" she pummeled the door with her fists. "Oh, please help me."

"Shit," the gang leader hissed. "We got discovered."

"Sounds like something is after her." Chubby pointed out.

"What is after you?"

"There are these monsters," the girl was on the verge of crying. "They have these wings and claws and they want me. I don’t know if they want to eat me or..."

The leader grabbed onto his head. "I told those two to just scare people away. They are screwing things up by trying to get some tail."

"Why would they chase her here?" Braces asked.

Chubby rubbed his plump hands together. "Maybe its the Devil. You know the real one."

Their leader glared at him. "Don’t be stupid. There is no such-" his thin eyes widened into the size of golfballs at the loud sound of two heavy objects landing on the roof. "What the hell was that?"

"They’re here!" The drumming against the door resumed.

The leader was at loss for words. He turned the locks with one hand while pointing at the guns and windows with another. He nearly tore the door open ready to grab the girl and pull her inside. He was not expecting to see a young and athletic Latino male who looked a lot like that actor from Pride Force.

The actor puled back his arm. "Hola." His fist shot forward striking the gang leader in the nose.

"He could have had a gun," the petite woman behind him said. The scared female was her.

The gangster held onto his nose, feeling blood gush out into his hands. "You do are really zupid." He pulled one first away and shook it, trying grab the attention of his men. "Dese liddle fucks broke my dose. Kill them!"

" I don’t think so." The girl pulled her arm from her back. She was holding a sword. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Who carries swords around with them in the woods these days? "I don’t think you should even try. My mate is good with a sword and our friends can rip you to shreds."

"Your freds?"

Before anyone could answer a few tree branches came crashing through the window, raining glass on the floor. Chubby ran to the broken window to see the damage. "Holy shit! It’s the devil!" He tried to backpedal and tripped on his own feet falling bottom first onto the ground. He tried to get up but something a large grayish creature leaped through the opening. It’s long ink colored hair flowed past it as it pounced on the gangster.

Braces didn’t move. He was too scared to even link. He couldn’t even here his leader ordering him to grab a gun or the shattering glass of the window behind him.

"Behind you!" The leader pointed at the second creature as it landed behind Braces. The black man didn’t even turn around to see the green beast as it tackled him to the ground. "I have to do everything." The leader dove across the table and knocked it over, spilling the guns and beer. He picked up one of the guns and sat down behind the table turned shield. He peered around the side and saw both winged monsters holding down the members of his gang without any difficulty.

He aimed the pistol at the head of the green creature and pulled back the trigger, only to hear the click of an empty chamber. He knew he had at least a bullet of two in the gun. He pressed the trigger again and again, only to hear the same clicking sound.

"Donae move a muscle." He turned to his side and saw a blond lithe woman dressed in a red and black costume. A black mask with pearly white eyeguards and three red slash marks clothed her face. He normally wouldn’t mind staring up at a woman with long legs, round and nice breasts, and good muscle tone, but not one dressed in a strange outfit aiming a gun at him.

"Are you their keeper?" He pointed at the creatures with his head.

Her mouth did not loose their angry pursed form. "I’m their friend, now I suggest ye place yer gun on the floor and put your hands in the air." The bald man glanced back at his unconscious men, the two hulking beasts standing over them and at the man with the sword before he set his gun down and raised his arms.

________________________________________________________________________

half an hour had passed before Fang, Dingo and McKinley returned with the other two Devil suited gang members. The Matrix had formed handcuffs and a connecting chain, keeping the thugs bound. The two men were surprised to see the fate that befell the rest of their team.

"I’m sure there is room for three more," Dingo said while gently patting the back of his head.

"Harry are ye all right?" Robyn asked.

"I’ll be fine. So what is the story here." He pointed at the men lying on the ground and third kneeling with his hands placed on top of his bald head.

"These dishonorable humans are thieves," Yama pointed at the two knocked out thugs. "They had recently robbed a local bank and took shelter in the shack."

"I think they have been here a while," Robyn said. "There are signs they have been living here for weeks. There’s garbage on the ground and some food in their fridge." She pointed at he suited men. "What is with those costumes?"

"They are the Jersey Devil," Fang smacked one of them on the shoulders, causing the man to grunt. "At least they are pretending to be."

"Why?" Gawain blinked.

"My guess is to scare people." The mutate shrugged.

"Do you think they possibly could have been using their Jersey scheme before the robbery?" Cazador asked.

Robyn shrugged, "Perhaps."

"I may need to check the back issues of the local paper to make sure first," Mars said "But they may have been donning those costumes and running around for a week or two before the robbery."

"Why would they want to do that?" Gawain asked

Fang had recognized the pattern of the dialogue and knew where it was going. he raised his hand. "I know, I know. They want to set up the belief there were monsters in the woods to scare people away."

Mars who also was a fan of the cartoon Fang was quoting, and was never one to miss a cue, chimed in. "And it would have worked to, if it weren’t for us meddling kids." She placed her hands on her hips and smirked at the criminals. The two in the suit groaned, either at her joke or they realized how true it was while the leader spat.

_____________________________________________________________________

The walked slowly through the woods to the Redemption Squad air craft. The separated into two groups. The first group lead the prisoners while the second brought up the rear. There was a small brig in the ship where the criminals would be held until they can drop them off with the proper authorities.

"I was a criminal," Harry spoke up. "The group I was with went from television stars to small time thieves. After the rest of my team mates altered their form I had to get away from them. I returned to my homeland where I began to work on redeeming myself." He turned to face Gawain. "I can’t blame you for what you did, but you can blame me. I know what I did was wrong."

"And you changed?" The emerald green gargoyle asked.

Dingo shrugged. "I returned to Australia, my home. I went to see an old friend. He was a shaman, but not just a shaman he was a teacher. I felt if I talked with him and spent some time with him I would have cleansed my soul. I know what you went through mate, and I know by wanting to be alone you want to find yourself before you can move on."

"I was always sort of a punk," Fang began. "I tried to live with my fellow mutates as a clan, or a pride considering we are part jungle cats. I tried to force myself into being the leader, but that resulted me into being a prisoner. I got freed and joined Thailog’s clan. I fell in love with a female mutate and I impregnated her. " He stared at the ground and sighed. "After I fell out of the boat I was rescued by Cecilia and Mercutio. We became a team and I grew into liking being a hero for a change."

Robyn breathed in deeply before she began. "My family has hunted gargoyles for centuries, particularly the one immortal gargoyle we have called the demon. After our father was killed by her my brothers and I were taken in by a distant Aunt who raised us and trained us. Jason believed all gargoyles were evil while I just wanted to kill the demon and be done with the hunt. I didn’t care how many other gargoyles I had killed along the way. I just wanted it to be done. We tracked her down to New York City and found another small clan. Jason wanted to kill them all. He believed she was working with the clan. Jon believed they were her enemies. He wanted to work with the clan in hunting the demon. We caused damage to a local police station, Jon lost his mind and adopted Jason’s belief, while Jason believed Jon was right all along. That night I saw what a noble and good person Goliath was."

"He’s a great warrior," Gawain nodded. "And I nearly killed him."

"But you didn’t," Robyn said. "And that is what matters."

"Matrix here was doing what he was programmed too," Dingo pointed at the silver chain connecting the cuffs of the criminal gang. "He was doing what he thought was right. He didn’t know better since he was knew and like a child in a way."

Yama waited to be the last one to speak. "Like you I was tricked by a person who I thought was a friend. I wanted to do what would be the best for my clan. We were going to be in a place where we would have been gradually introduced to the world. I went behind my clan’s back and accepted the offer. My friend was corrupted by greed and only wanted us so he could make money."

"What happened?" Gawain asked.

"I defeated Taro using Bushido, a style of fighting. I felt it wasn’t enough. I lived for a little a while away from the clan, but that still wasn’t enough, I wanted to kill myself to make things right and restore honor, but my new friends had a better offer." He held out his hands, indicating the redemption squad.

Mars was the first to notice the large plane like ship "Is that your ship?" She pointed at the structure.

"That is it." Dingo spoke into the com link "Vahril we are back." He turned to Gawain as the steps descended from the ship. "Before you make your decision please listen to her story."

"I will listen," Gawain said. "and maybe stay with you and see truly fit with your clan."

"We can drop you off at your campsite," Robyn offered to the two lovers.

Both Mars and Cazador glanced at each other. "We might as well as gather our stuff and Gawain’s stuff and have you guys drop us off with the crooks." Mars said. "Looks like tonight is a bust in our original plans. I can call Danny from the station."

"You better let me do the talking," Cazador said

"He’s going to assume I did something wrong."

Harry was the first to clim the ladder aboard the ship. "You don’t have to worry. We’ll tell this Danny about everything that you two did."

Cazador and Mars were the last to climb aboard. The Matrix had shifted to ankle cuffs connected by a chain to allow the criminals to climb aboard. The actor climbed up after the criminals and Yama. He was halfway when he noticed his mate wasn’t following him. He glanced down to see her staring at the trees. "You seem so down. What is the matter?"

"You know," she shrugged. "I was hoping to find the real Jersey Devil." She shook her head and grabbed onto the bottom rungs. A stringing hooting sound brought her attention back to the forest. Two greenish yellow lights shone from the canopy as few seconds before they blinked out. She shook her head. "Nah, maybe tomorrow."