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: LadyAndromeda@smstars.zzn.com

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Children of the Night

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Previously on Gargoyles

Limerick visited when he could. In the early nineties he informed her on why she couldn’t reach Dylan when she sent out her energy to feel her children. He told her that a mysterious group called the illuminate has him and are holding him.(Thank Heaven for Little Girls)

"Taurus claims this criminal is not only a bit crazy he has been known to be the only evil New Olympian."~David Xanatos

"Taurus is staying with for a short while?"~Owen

"He is staying until he catches Proteus. He says he has tracked the criminal to New York."~Xanatos

"They were very dark, almost like shadows."~Fox Xanatos

Fox's vision of shadow children runing around over turned cars and knocked over fire hydrant. (School Days)

"Next time, we’ll be the heroes."~Alex Xanatos (Bloodlust)

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The vibrating ringing of the telephone was like the droning buzz of a stinging insect to the ears of Duval. His blissful sea of dreams was cut short by the blasted ringing.

Duval opened his bloodshot hazel eyes, underlined with grayish purple half-circles. "Curse you Bell," He rolled over on his cotton sheet lined water bed and picked up the sleek black headset of his cordless phone. "Hello?" His voice came out in a rasp.

"Greetings Mr. Duval," the aged voice of one of the senior Illuminati members came through. "I am sorry to have awaken you at this ungodly hour, but this is urgent."

"How urgent?" Duval fought back the urge to yawn. The glowing green numbers on his digital alarm clock read 3:30 am

"The alarms are going off."

Duval sat up at full attention at the mention of the alarms. "What has been stolen?"

"Nothing had been stolen sir, something had escaped."

"I’ll be there in an hour." Duval bid a goodbye while he sat on the end of his bed for a few minutes rubbing his slightly tall forehead. What could have gotten out? The head of the Illuminati tried to ponder all the possibilities while he dialed the number of his driver. He hated having to wake the poor fellow at that time.

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The second he stepped foot inside the main Illuminati building he was handed a Styrofoam cup full of warm coffee. Duval took a sip. It was just right with a single serving of sugar and very warm, almost hot.

"Sorry we had to wake you," the thin man who gave him the coffee said. He looked like he was barely fifty with his salt and pepper hair and only a few lines under his smoke colored eyes. In truth he was nearly seventy. "but this was urgent and we felt you should be the first to know." Like Duval he barely had time to slap on a suit. His chin and jawline was covered with rough gray fuzz.

"Yes, yes I know," Duval replied in a barely coherent mumble. He took another sip from his cup and wished they had added a touch of bourbon. "You had mentioned over the phone that something was missing?"

The other man nodded. "More like something had escaped." They had come to the elevator at the end of the hall. He continued to talk while he pressed the button to open the pure silver elevator door. "Our watch guards called us first when they escaped." He explained as he and Duval enter the elevator.

"Why didn’t they try to prevent them from escaping?" Duval asked. The sinking feeling of descending entered his stomach.

"Well the clever little bastards had some help. We believe from the five in DC. Those that broke into the holding rooms of the ones here didn’t trip the alarm. It was only when the last one left their room did the siren go off." The elevator came to a stop.

"That does seem most likely," Duval exited the elevator first. "Although I would like to know who are the ones that escaped."

The other man flinched. "Well it’s the children." He scrambled up ahead, leading his leader past the closed doors. Large Plexiglas windows gave way to darkened rooms. Some of the denizens wandered over to the windows to see what was going on.

Duval did not bat an eyes as they passed a tall man covered with a thick pelt of hair. A moss green humanoid with a large round head, two large red eyes and sharp talons just shook it’s head. Two gray skinned hairless dog like creatures with long pointed shoulder spurs snarled at them as they walked past. The pointed tips of their long barbed tails thrashed from side to side.

Some of the creatures growled at them when they passed by their rooms while others made strange chuckling sounds. The man that woke Duval paused by the door to the room that was simply marked Children.

The grandmaster slowly shook his head. "This cannot be," He nearly dropped his cup but squeezed onto it at the last second. "Not those shades."

"I’m afraid so sir."

"The three of them are loose in the city."

"Eight of them sir. The five from Washington came down here and freed them."

Duval sighed. "I’m going to have to make arraignments for a flight to DC and speak with the senior members there." He mentally cursed himself for sipping from the Grail fifteen centuries ago. "I want you to contact all the New York Members and tell them what happened."

"Even those in the lowest circles?"

"Just tell them that something had gotten loose and to be careful. Only tell those on the upper five what had gotten loose."

"Should we contact the Sorority?"

"Just give them the same message you will give the lower circles." Duval turned around and walked back to the elevator. Only three more days till the 31st and already it felt like Halloween for the Illuminati headmaster.

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The fingers of Matt Bluestone drummed a steady rhythm on his lap while he waited outside one of Prometheotech’s offices. He felt like he needed to talk and he wanted to be the bigger person. He also had something to offer. Every other minute he would stare up at the mint cream colored desk of the receptionist and at the door that had a small brass plague that had Jon Canmore’s name carved into it.

His hand came to a full rest when he caught the movement of the secretary out of the corner of his eye. She pressed a button to her desk top intercom and spoke into it. Matt sat up straighter. She straightend up and smiled at Matt."Mr. Canmore will see you now," She said once she let go of the button.

Matt smiled weakly and nodded. "Thank you." He hoped he was doing the right thing and Jon would not try to attack him.

Jon didn’t even notice that Matt had stepped inside his office. He was staring outside the window. His golden hair was gathered into a ponytail that fell past his shoulders but was still a few inches above his waist. "So you are here detective," he spoke calmly. He said detective not traitor. That was a good sign.

Matt breathed deeply before he entered. "I am a bit surprised that you agreed to see me."

"I’m unharmed," Jon held up his hands as he turned around. He still dressed like Castaway. Blue suit with white shirt and black tie. "I have been wondering how long it will take ye t’ come and arrest me."

"This is not why I’m here," Matt held up his hands. "Since you are a weregoyle it would be a bad idea to put you in Rikers or back at Elumore. The prisoners and guards at Rikers would panic at the sight of you transforming and Jason told me how they treated you in Elumore."

"Would ye have let me go when I took out the second in command?" Jon folded his arms.

"We would have put you in the labyrinth prison," Matt said. "I can’t really take you there now."

The blond man nodded. "So why are ye here?"

"I just want to talk."

"I won’t attack ye here," Jon pulled out his chair and sat down. He pointed at the chair in front of his desk. "Sometimes at night m’ inner beast takes over."

The detective lowered himself into the other chair. "Now we are being civil."

"Aye. So what do ye want to talk about? Is about us not being human or if ye are trying t’ get me t’ join yer clan then ferget it."

"Not about that," Matt noticed one of the pictures on Jon’s desk and spun it around so that he could view the image better. He immediately recognized the woman as his wife and figured the blond infant to be his son. "You wife and son?" Matt raised his eyebrows while smiling politely.

"Lorrie and Colin," Jon couldn’t keep from smiling.

"He looks a lot like you."

"Everyone tells me that. He has his mother’s eyes and her chin."

"After you son was born were there times where you felt an uncontrollable need to uh," he paused to chew his lower lip. "To be intimate?"

"What are ye talking about?" Jon’s golden eyebrows lowered.

Matt felt his feet shuffle on the ground and noticed he was tapping the desk with his finger in a similar beat to the one he played on his lap outside the office. "Well we recently noticed with Frank and Jam. Frank’s a weregoyle and Jam is his human mate. Jam recently gave birth to their daughter and well ever since then whenever Jam ovulates it drives Frank into an excitement."

"Wait are ye saying that we can detect when a human is ovulating?"

"Not any female human," the detective nearly coughed. "I can’t tell when the female humans of Wyvern are ovulating, only gargoyles and weregoyles. With Frank it’s only Jam he can tell."

"Well since Colin has been born there were times when I just wanted to make love t’ Lorrie. A few times I nearly lost control but I always managed to get a condom on and she takes the pill now."

"You were close all right." Matt nodded and reached into his trench coat pocket he pulled out a pair of nose plugs still in their plastic casing and slid it across the desk. "You will want to use those."

Jon picked them up and stared at them. "So whenever Lorrie is in heat I can slip these over m’ nose and I won’t want t’ breed wi her?" He looked up. "And I know I’m talking like a gargoyle. Ye don’t have t’ point that out."

I’m not saying anything," Matt rose to his feet. "Just want to help you out."

"It is a bit of a big help. Are ye going t’ come by my place tonight t’ arrest me then and take me to this Labyrinth?"

Matt shook his head. "When we are in the middle of battle and you are captured then yes, but not now. Part of me doesn’t want to take you away from your family."

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Matt wanted to surprise Dominique in her office once he left Prometheotech, possibly have a little desk top action and then return to Wyvern, but he didn’t. He told the others he was going to give Jon Canmore the nose plugs and then return back to the castle. He was returning home not just because he said he was but also he wanted to see what the progress report on the search for Thailog was going.

The second he entered the castle he heard the sound of little feet racing along the carpet. He turned a corner and saw a smiling two year old with bright red hair.

"Dada!" Charlie toddled up to him as fast as his chubby little legs would allow.

"Hey you," Matt kneeled down to pick up his son. "Why aren’t you playing in the nursery?"

"Don’t wanna play," Charlie pooched out his bottom lip. "Mama not here. Alex not here. Angela asleep."

"You don’t have anyone to play with?" Matt asked as he carried his son to Xanatos’s office.

"No one," Charlie pouted. "Wanna go to school with Alex."

"He won’t play with me," Elisa waddled up from behind. The size of her swollen abdomen caused Matt to blink. "I don’t think he likes me. He’s Demona’s son all right."

"Elisa got fat," Charlie stared at her stomach. The things that come our of children’s mouths. "Her fat won’t let her play a lot of games Alex could play."

"Now Charlie you shouldn’t say things like that," Matt stared into his son’s emerald eyes. "Elisa’s stomach is that big so the stork can see it."

"A stork is coming?" Charlie blinked. "Elisa is going to have a baby?"

"Yes she is," Matt turned to smile at his partner. "Thanks for letting me borrow your car."

"Don’t mention it," she smiled back.

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The castle office of David Xanatos was semi crowded with people. Matt noticed all the weregoyles except for Frank The only other clan members in the room were the stone and steel cyborg Coldstone and the brass like robot Coldfire.

"Welcome back brother," Coldstone was the first one to greet him as soon as he entered. Matt tried his best not to form a strange expression. While it seemed warm and just right to be called brother at night it seemed strange during the day.

"My love you keep forgetting two things," Coldfire turned to her mate. "the first is that when part of our clan are humans they feel a bit of unease when you adress them as brother and sister, and the second is the members of the clan have names."

"I know," The cyborg rubbed the back of her metallic hair even though he knew she could not feel it. "But I refuse to call you that robotic name."

"Where is Mr. X?" Matt asked while setting Charlie down. The two year old ran up to the female robot.

"Xanatos is on the phone," Coldstone explained while his mate picked up Charlie. "His wife and their servant left to pick up Alex from his school."

"Okay what have I missed?"

"Not much," Jerry said while he shuffled through a few pieces of paper. "Thailog and his clan had left their place in Mexico. From what we could gather it was only a few days before Xanatos’s searcher robots arrived."

"Any good news?"

"Well we have narrowed down the possibility of his latest location to either Illinois, Kansas, or Nebraska," Marle said. "All we know is that they are in one of those corn states."

"So we will be sending searcher robots to those states." Matt noticed they all were quiet and staring past him. the detective turned around to see Xanatos, still holding his phone. The normally unflappable billionaire seemed a fleshtone lighter and his eyebrows were turned up in a worried expression.

"I just received some unsettling news," Xanatos said while he pocketed his phone. "The senior members of the Illuminati wanted me to tell only fellow members that something dangerous had escaped from their storage cells."

"Something?" Matt blinked.

"Well since I just told those who are not members what had happened," he smirked. "I will tell you exactly what had escaped. The Shadow children had broken out of both the DC and New York buildings."

"Shadow Children?" Gloria asked.

"From what I heard they are young shades."

"Shades," Coldfire spoke up. "Beings that have died while feeling a hatred towards someone in their hearts. Their spirit forms are dark and shadow like."

"Exactly." The human nodded. "The are shades of children who died while hating their parents. They are mischievous and like to play pranks on other children. Pranks that, from what I heard, to be quite violent. They are even more malicious towards adults."

"Goliath will have to have a say about it," Matt said. "But I think we should exercise extreme caution and keep our eyes open for these shades when we are out on patrol."

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The beauty and aura of the robot beckoned the figure to approach. It did not walk nor run, but glided in a slippery fashion towards the toy. The robot was a pale silvery color with a hint of blue. Almost like the color of ice. It’s head was small, and arrow shaped with large eyes like a mantis. It was built like a linebacker with lights that flickered and flashed in a palette of colors. What fascinated the small form was what the robot could do. It could walk, speak ten phrases and fire off tiny marbles or soft foam like darts with sucker endings.

The shadow of small hands slid over the robot’s box and clutched onto the cardboard while it read the description of the toy. How he wanted the robot and there it was inside it’s red and white cardboard prison mocking him from behind it’s cellophane shield.

Another shadow appeared next to him. Humanoid like him and only taller by an inch. It spoke to him in a whisper before it’s dark hand covered the top of the box, not just cover it but sink through the cardboard. When it pulled back it’s arm the lid shook and tore open.

The first child reached in and pulled out the toy robot. He knew that he would need batteries to operate the walking, flashing lights and voice but he just needed to press a button on the robots arms to operate the darts and pellets.

The second child slipped away and phased through the aisle, only to nearly be run over by another shade on a bicycle. He floated high above the store’s aisles till he nearly touched the ceiling and could see the whole store. The other children were having fun playing with their toys.

"It is a bit tiring for you watch over them?" The voice came from behind the young shade. He turned around to see another like he, only much taller and filled out. A shade of an adult. "Don’t become alarmed it’s me. The one who helped you. You enjoy seeing your kind having fun."The shadow child lowered himself till he sat on top of one of the center aisles and nodded his head."You do know how to speak do you?" The adult sat down next to him.

"Yes," the voice came out soft and thin. "I do enjoy seeing the others have fun since their lives were miserable."

"And you would love to help other children now would you?" The adult shade floated to the to the other side of the child.

"I don’t want any more children to suffer," The child lowered his head and stared at the other shades playing on the ground. "Like they did. Like I did."

"I’m sure that the others will want to help you on this mission?"

The child stared down again. Two of the children were constructing a plastic pirate ship out of tiny Lego pieces. The child with the bicycle was riding it in large circles around stuffed animals that were set out on the floor. "They might."

"Yes," the adult floated closer to him, till they were an inch apart. He watched the children playing for a few seconds. "You will only know for sure if you ask them."

The shadow leader turned to the adult before flying back up to the ceiling. "Everyone!" His voice that was once quiet rose to a loudness that echoed off the walls. "The one who helped us escape. He has an idea of what we should do next." He hovered in the air until he was sure he everyone’s attention. "Your turn," he settled down on the top of the aisle.

"Yes," the adult floated over the aisles. "Do you know what is coming up?" He waited until one of the children took note of the black rubber bats that were hanging the air, plastic spiders that hung on white yarn webs between the aisles and the ghost heads that were taped to the registers.

"Halloween," a child squeaked. "But we can’t go trick or treating." Her bright voice soften to a sad whisper.

"That is correct. There are other children who will be out that night. Many children we can help and liberate from their cruel parents." He shook his fist and noticed that no one shared his enthusiasm. "Liberate means to be free. Many of the children have parents that don’t love them. Like your parents."

"We are going to save them." The child leader’s shout was followed by the cheers of the others.

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Mr. Duval grumped a greeting to the tall and slightly plump black man as soon as he stepped off his private jet. Like the man who assisted him in New York he appeared to have been in his late forties to early fifties.

"Glad you could make it sir," he said while he lead an upset Duval to the limousine. Behind the two of them porters scrambled to pick up Duval’s luggage. "You’d you like me to take you to your room.

"No," Duval barked coldly before he entered the limo. The other man slid next to him. "How did this happen?"

"There was an outside force sir," The other man adjusted his glasses. Their bubble like lenses looked like fish bowls.

"Outside force," Duval’s voice was drained. "We have better secuirty than the white house and fort Knox combined yet," he clenched his fist. "An outside force managed to break into one our cells and free five shadow children. Those five and the original culprit helped the three in New York escape." He turned to glare at the other man. "Do you know what kind of trouble has been unleashed?"

"We send teams into the apple to make sure the populace does not find-" his words were struck in his throat when Duval grabbed him by his shirt collar.

"This is bigger than if the populace finds out about us." His voice came out in a hiss. "There is no telling what kind of damage those shades will cause. No telling how many people will be hurt or killed." His tense fingers relaxed and he sat back. "Sorry about loosing my temper." He smoothed the back of his head.

"That is quite understandable," the other man straightened out his collar and reached into his jacket pocket. "Do you want me to call ahead?" He pulled out a small sleek phone.

"Please do, and tell them I want to see the angel."

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The more secured levels of the DC office had just as many men scrambling around as the one in New York did. Duval and his cohort waved around them as soon as they exited the elevator.

"Sir!" The sharp voice brought both of their attentions to one of the white coat wearing lab technicians flanked by two guards. "Would you like to see the room the children were in?"

Duval lowered his sleek dark eyebrows in annoyance. "I have been here before." He reminded the scientist. "I know where they were kept, I’ve seen them and their room. Why do I want to look at an empty room?" He turned on his heel.

"You were a bit harsh back there sir," his cohort made sure he walked by his side.

"After the fact that they allowed anything to escape and had the audacity to ask me that question I deserve to be a bit harsh."

"You have to remember he is under a lot of stress. A lot of people here are trying to figure out what exactly what went wrong, plus there are the New Olympians that made the news."

Duval nodded. "I have read the newspapers."

"What is our official stance on them?"

Once again the grandmaster’s hazel eyes narrowed. He slowly turned around to glare ate the other man. "We do not have a stance on them. Not now, not with more important matters on our hands." He slipped away from his DC assistant and entered the door marked Dylan O’Riley.

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The room was built like the ones back in New York. Soft Berber covered double L shaped couch in the color of oatmeal. Small round card table. A reddish leather covered arm chair next to small night-stand with a single beige lamp with a pale pink and silver striped lampshade.

There was only one other door to the room and that lead to the main dwelling of Dylan O’Riley. Duval had been inside such rooms. A large u shaped kitchen equipped with the latest appliance models. A long counter separated the kitchen from the tiled floors of the small dining room with a kitchen table and four chairs. It had a living room with a television, VCR, stereo and bookshelf. A bathroom with a large tub, double sink counter top and a large bedroom that had smaller forms of the entertainment in the living room. It wasn’t cell. It was an apartment.

Duval looked up at the sound of the door creaking. A tall man who appeared to be in his twenties stepped out. He was dressed in a white shirt, slacks and shoes. His head was topped with well groomed chocolate colored hair. His bow shaped lips were clamped tight. He did not say a single word as he walked over to the couch and sat down at the crook.

"Hello Dylan," Duval greeted. "It’s been months since we have last talked." The young man continued to stare at the table while his slightly large nostrils flared. "Are you uncomfortable?"

Dylan shook his head. The lights from over head caught honey colored highlights in his hair, making them shine like gold tinsle "I’m fine." His voice was barely above a mumble.

"You won’t even say hello to me."

"And why should I greet ye," his voice became louder, making his natraul Irish accent more distinct.

Duval sat back and sighed. "It’s this again. The Illuminati needs you-" .

"Need me t’ be there prisoner," Dylan interupted. "Need me t’ provide the information they want t’ maintain their hold on the world!" Anger flashed across his deep green eyes.

"You are not a prisoner. This isn’t a cell. Would you want something bigger? Would you prefer better cable, or perhaps a computer with Internet. It won’t even be AOL but something decent."

"I dinae want any of yer technology. I know why ye are here. Ye want t’ be discussin the children."

"That is true," Duval nodded. "You have worked with to try to let go of their hate."

"I don’t know who let them out of their cages, but I do know this. Ye are wastin’ time talkin’ wit me and ye be wastin’ yer time trackin’ them down."

"What do you mean by that?"

Dylan smiled slightly and stood up. "Ye can talk wit me after ye figure it out, or after ye figure out where the shadow children are, but I tell ye this there is somethin even more dangers than them on the loose." He exited the room leaving Duval feeling a bit perplexed.

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The dirty gray clouds that thickened in the sky around an above Wyvern reflected Xanatos’s mood. Xanatos felt somewhat gloomy. A result of his feeling of defeat from failing to find Thailog mixed with a touch of fear from the news he received from the previous day. The clan kept their eyes open for any sigg of the shadow children, but they did not find a single one of them.

Xanatos paused from writing down a few notes of his employees performance reviews to stare outside his Eyrie office window and sighed at the sight of the clouds. He glanced at his reflection the glass of his framed picture of Fox in her bathing suit and noticed how the hair near his temples were starting to change to the same color as the clouds. He was going to need some more of the rejuvenation drugs. Of course Fox wouldn’t mind if he went silver.

His thoughts on the subject were shattered when he received a knock at the door. Only one man was able to walk briskly by his secretary without having to wait for her to contact him. "Come on in Owen."

The tall bland man strode in with a manila envelope tucked under his arm. "I have the information you wanted covering the Halloween party sir." He handed Xanatos the envelope.

"We are having it inside this year," Xanatos said. "With those shades on the loose in my city it is too risky for people to enjoy themselves out on the street."

"What about the trick or treaters?"

"We will go along with that," Xanatos tapped his desk with his pen twice. "But we will make sure they get home before dark, from what I learned about shades is that they are more active at night."

"You have been reading up on them sir?" Owen blinked and his mouth turned up into a hurt expression. "I could have told you about them."

"Well why didn’t you?"

"You never asked sir," Owen stated.

"Does the clan know?"

"I do not know for certain."

"Make sure that they do." Once his servant had left the room Xanatos picked up his pen and wrote a final comment on the review he was going over.

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Owen waited outside on top of the tallest tower along with Elisa as the sun was setting. He felt the heavy stare of the pregnant woman but did not say a word, nor did he turn to face her. He stood still as the stone gargoyles he was watching.

"Something on your mind?" Elisa’s question broke the silence. "I know you try to act like a statue at times but you can be a bit more vocal."

"I was wondering if the clan knew about all the abilities of the shadow children," he turned to her. "Did he tell you anything."

"All he said was they were dangerous." She furrowed her brows. "Why?" The cracking sound of the clan waking up told she would know soon enough. She watched as her husband’s body move slight before his stone covering flew off in dozens of pieces.

Goliath gave his deep purple wings a gently shake before he turned around and smiled at those who waited for him to awaken. "Hello my love," Goliath stepped off his battlement followed by Hudson who sheathed his sword and Brooklyn, still brushing out a few stone pieces from his mane. The clan leader held out his hand and waited for her to place her hand in his. He was careful not to pull her too quickly into his arms.

"Goliath I’m pregnant," She smiled at him. "Not a Faberge egg."

"You may be pregnant with an egg." He traced the bottom of her chin with the tip of his talon, barely touching her skin so as not to hurt her.

"Um no," Elisa stepped closer and placed her head against his chest. Her arms wrapped around his middle. "I felt our child kick. There is no eggshell."

"Still I," he was silenced when her hand reached up and grabbed his lower lip.

"Too much PD," Brooklyn shook his head. his eyes widened when he noticed both of them staring at him. "Hey I’m not the only one sickened." He pointed over his shoulder at Hudson with his thumb.

"Now donnae be dragging me into this," Hudson barked. "I just wanted their attention. I dinae want them t’ behave like that," he held up a talon. "but I won’t say that it is disgusting."

Owen coughed into his fist, bringing everyone’s attention towards him. "I hate to interrupt his moment-" He was interrupted by the red beaked gargoyle.

"You are the only one," Brooklyn muttered under breath, earning a jab in the ribs from Hudson’s elbow.

"Lad!" The clan elder hissed.

Owen cleared his throat again. "As I was saying, we need everyone together in the clan’s meeting room." He walked towards the entrance steps. "I have some vital information regarding the shadow children. "He paused before taking the first step and turned around. "Unless you already know."

Goliath stared into the almond brown eyes of his wife and sighed. "We better go," He ran his two middle talons through her hair.

"Yeah," Elisa slipped from his embrace and followed Hudson and Brooklyn into the castle.

___________________________________________________________________________

Nearly everyone found a place to sit in the meeting room. The long couch was full of weregoyles and Cecilia, Both love seats had Angela and Broadway and Matt and Demona, Brooklyn sat in one armchair with Mercutio perched on its top. Elisa sat in the second armchair. Frank, Lexington, Brooklyn and Rayne sat around Bronx on the rug. Only Goliath, Coldstone, Hudson , Coldfire, and Owen, remained standing up.

Owen took in a deep breath before he spoke. "You have been sent out on your regular patrols while not knowing what the shadow children can do." His eyes wandered over everyone looking to see if anyone might have heard of the beings before. Does anyone?"

Everyone shook their head in near unison. Brooklyn fixed his eyes on Demona. Several other members of the clan noticed who he was staring at and looked at her too.

"I did not research the different kinds of human spirits," the immortal said. "I had no need to read up about dead humans before."

Owen waited until they were all staring at him again. "These spirits are powerful, not only can they pick up and throw things like poltergeists but they also have powers related to how they died." He noticed a few confused expressions and he continued. "If a child was killed by a dog, he would have control over all the dogs within his vicinity. If a child was electrocuted he would have electrical abilities such as hurtling lightening bolts. If a child drowned he would have power over water."

"Great," Brooklyn grumbled. "It’s bad enough we have to look out for ghosts but now it’s superghosts."

"How do we defeat them?" Cecilia asked.

"You must convince them to let go of their hate," Owen pushed his glasses further up his nose. "Only then can they become normal spirits and depart this world.

"Okay I think I’ve figured it out," Lexington said. "We learn what their powers are, that way we can know how to defend ourselves, we get close and then try to convince them what they are doing is wrong." Lexington’s browridges were turned up with excitement. "Good old fashioned video game strategy."

"It is not as simple as your video games," Owen frowned. "These shades are very dangerous and there is no restart button." He noticed the way Goliath was staring at him. "I am sorry did you want to say something?"

"I was just waiting for you to finish," Goliath unfolded his arms and turned to face his clan." We need everyone to be patrolling. That includes both my rookery brother and sister."

"We understand," The golden robot said. "The city is our castle and you need the whole clan to protect it."

"We will also ask Taurus to assist us. We can carry him or he can use one of Xanatos’s sky sleds."

"As long as he is not patrolling with us," Coldstone interjected. "His voice disturbs me."

"I should call Canmore tomorrow," Matt spoke up. "I know he’s our enemy but he does have a child and I don’t want to see anyone’s children get hurt."

"He might want try to save his city, our city, from the shades," Goliath added. "That does bring up a good point though. We have to make sure the Labyrinth children are safe."

"I already called Derek," Elisa told him.

Goliath nodded at her words. "I want everyone to have their dinner and split into teams of two. We will all carry and communicator and try to find these children. If you see a robbery or a human in trouble before hand go and assist them."

____________________________________________________________________________

"Okay don’t move," Fox warned as she dabbed the tip of Tina Chavez’s nose with a bit of reddish brown makeup. "Okay we got that finished, now for the whiskers." The former TV star tried to hide her fear as she helped Tina, Sandy, Mandy, Alex, and Charlie into their costumes. she could not believe her husband and Owen would let children, including her own son go out on Halloween when they know that a group of malevolent spirits are on the loose, but they were mostly active at night and the children will be back before dark.

‘The spirits have caused little damage,’ Fox thought as she picked up a black eyeliner pencil. ‘All they did was trash FAO Shwartz and that was only to play with the toys, but these were the same thing she saw in a vision a month ago.’ She took the pencil and drew three diagonal streaks on Tina’s right cheek and three on her left. "There you go. The make up isn’t itchy is it?"

"No it isn’t Mrs. Xanatos," Tina shook her head and nearly lost her pipe cleaner glasses. The make-up completed her Lita mouse costume. She wore a long pink skirt, shiny black shoes, a silvery white blouse and a purple vest with all the letters of the alphabet decorating it in a jumbled pattern. Two fake fuzzy round ears were sewn into a headband and a long tail made of cloth stuffed with cotton was attached to the back of the skirt.

"That’s good," Fox handed the girl her trick or treat bag. "This makes how many characters from Hailey Komet you have been?"

"Three. Last year I was Glitsie the Pixie and the year before that I was Hailey herself and now I’m Lita the library mouse." Clever name for the character, Lita being a variation of Lit which was short for literature. "I really like your costume. Are you Jean Gray?"

Fox glanced down at her outfit that consisted mostly of black leather. "Yes I am, but don’t expect me to lift anything with my mind."

"I want to get some candy now," Alex’s petulant voice demanded from behind.

Fox sighed before she turned around to give her son a glare. She placed her hands on her hips. "Alex don’t be rude." Staring at her son she had to admit to herself she did a fine job on his outfit. Red checkered shirt was covered with a copper colored leather vest. Matching chaps covered his denim clad legs. Around his neck was a pale blue bandanna, on his feet were leather boots with silver plastic star shaped spurs attached to the heels. His costume was complete with the cowboy hat at the top of his head.

"I’m not rude," the quaterling said. "You said we have to be home before dark. The longer we take talking the less time we will have to trick and treat."

"Trick or treat," Charlie corrected. His costume was very simple. He was dressed as a ghost with a long white sheet with two long and baggy white sleeves covered his body. Large holes for his eyes and mouth were cut out and his hands were covered in white make up.

"All right you guys," Fox smiled and relaxed her arms. "You got me. I think we have Tina’s costume all finished."

"Yeah I’m finished," Tina said.

"Now remember the rules. I want you to stay with Owen at all times. If you see something that looks like a child’s shadow tell Owen. If Owen tells you that you all have to go home then you will go home. There will be no whining or complaining."

"I understand," Tina saluted her.

"Yes mom," Alex tried not to roll his eyes.

"Yes," Charlie added.

"Good," She took her son’s hand in her left and grabbed Charlie with her right and lead the three of them down to the lobby where Owen stood. To Fox’s surprise he was not alone.

Fox’s eyes danced from Mandy to Sandy and finally to Owen. "Why are they here?" She spread her index and middle fingers as she pointed at the twins.

"They wanted to trick or treat with Tina," Owen explained.

"Cool costumes," Tina commented while grinning from ear to ear. It was easy to see why Tina loved Mandy’s costume. The more withdrawn twin was dressed in bright yellow puffy pants that had the lower part of the legs stuffed into a pair of pink boots.A pale blue aviator jacket was zipped up halfway. On top of her head was cotton candy pink wig topped with bright yellow aviator cap and light blue goggles.

At first Fox thought Sandy was dressed a young Goth with her black dress, dark purple corset, and long black wig. Her face was covered in pale makeup to give her a ghostly white parlor and her lips were painted with purple make up, but when she smiled at Tina’s comment Fox could see the plastic fangs in her mouth. The Ex mercenary had to wonder why the girl wanted to dress as a vampire since they were attacked by the same creatures back in April, but she decided not to ask.

"I thought they were originally going with Talon and Claw," Fox said.

"They are coming with us," Owen said before taking the hands of both boys. "Talon and Claw have plenty of children to watch over."

Fox shrugged. "I guess." She leaned over and wagged her finger at her son. "You behave. No talking back, no tantrums, and no magic."

"Do not worry ma’am," Owen said. "I will make sure they will all behave."

"The same goes for you," Fox pointed at the disguised Fae prompting Owen to raise one eyebrow.

____________________________________________________________________________

Nine children that ranged in age from three to twelve raced up to the stoop of an apartment, wearing a variation of different costumes. The oldest of the group rang the button, signaling the doorman.

Only a minute passed by before an elderly man dressed in a distinct uniform stepped out and smiled at the children. "Well what do we have here?" His pale blue eyes twinkled.

"Trick or Treat!" The children held out their bags in front of them and shouted out the popular phrase.

"That’s what I need to hear," the man chuckled and ducked back inside the apartment only to emerge a second later with a large plastic bowl. "Wow there is a big bunch of you," he reached into his bowl. "I hope you all like Butterfingers bars." He dropped a candy bar into each of their open bags and was rewarded with several thank yous.

Talon watched as the children raced down the steps, nearly tumbling over each other. Their feet drummed against the cement of the sidewalk before they raced up the steps of the apartment next store and begin the process all over again. "I just hope this lasts," Talon said underbreath. "I hope their holiday fun isn’t cut short before the sun sets."

The other mutate nodded. Like Talon he wore a long sleeved shirt and a pair of pants. His wings were draped over his shoulders. Halloween offered many possibilities, but they had to be realistic with how they present themselves.

Loud screams from around the corner caused both mutates to nearly loose control of their wings and let them spread, but they kept their composure. It was Halloween after all, but there was something about the screams that had note of true urgency in them. More screams followed by the scent of smoke made Talon think that it could be more than Halloween.

"Wait here," He ordered. "and don’t let the children out of your sight." The former helicopter pilot pranced forward around the corner. His golden yellow eyes widened at the sight of the chaos. Like the old saying said whoever there was smoke there was five. Three buildings and a couple of cars were set ablaze. More cars were turn upside down and were on their sized surrounded by sparkling puddles of shattered glass. A fire hydrant was turned over on its side and a geyser shot straight up. The most unsettling image were of children floating in midair, high above the mess. Most of them were crying.

"My God," Talon gasped. He only knew about the treat of malevolent spirits, but he didn’t know they could cause this, and weren’t they only supposed to come out at night.

The scream of a woman flying through the air brought his attention to her. Talon spread his wings and leaped as high as his powerful legs would allow. With a few flaps of his wings he soared in the direct path of where she was coming from and caught her. The force of her impact against his body sent him flying backwards a few feet.

"Are you all right," The panther mutate asked as he descended to the ground. He noticed the woman was staring so intently at the children floating above that she didn’t notice who or what saved her.

"My son!" she shrieked pointing at one of the young boys in the air.

Talon grabbed onto her wrist. "Don’t worry we will rescue them all, but you need to come with me."

"No!" She turned to face what held onto her. Her eyes widened but she did not scream in fear. "Those ghost things have my son. They are going to hurt him."

"Sorry ma’am," Talon kept a tight hold on her arm. " I understand what you are going through. I too have a son." He pulled her along. " but it is not safe here." He pulled her kicking and screaming back to where Claw and the children were. He could hear the wailing of sirens approaching.

The tiger mutate stared at him with worried tired eyes. The children were standing around him. The youngest ones clutched onto his legs while the eldest looked bored.

"Claw I want you to take the children home," Talon ignored the wails of protest that followed. "What we had feared is attacking." He shoved the panicking woman towards the tiger mutate. "Try to get her to calm down. I am going to rescue the children that are in danger, including her son."

____________________________________________________________________________

Talon raced back to the scene of destruction. The wailing sirens were getting louder. The winged panther man climbed on tops of cars to avoid the sharp bits of glass. He could see more damage caused by the unseen terrors. A lamp post was bent and broken at the middle from where a car had struck it. Besides glass the ground was littered with several bodies.

"I think I hear another adult coming," the voice belonged to a male child but from it’s tone Talon could tell it wasn’t one of the ones hovering in the air and crying. "I bet we have another adult to play with." The child spoke the word adult with such venom it caused icicles to form on the mutate’s spine.

"Where are you?" Talon demanded, looking both ways.

"I’m right here," the voice came from the ground. Talon stared in disbelief at what looked like the shadow of a ten year old materialize from the ground. It’s left hand was covered in bright orange cackling flames.

"And right here," the second shade’s voice was female and it’s lithe shadow emerged from one of the thrown car. Even though the dark spirit did not have any eyes , or eyes that were visible Talon could have sworn that it blinked at him. "What are you?"

"Just a concerned adult who wants to help these children." The mutate pointed at the children behind him.

"An adult!" The male shade hissed. "We don’t like adults." The flame on his hand became rounder till it was a perfect ball shape. The flaming ball leaped off his hand and floated a few feet above his head before he reached out to catch it.

"He’s not like the others," the female shade said. "He’s like a monster or something."

"I’m a mutate," Talon corrected, never taking his eyes off the bouncing fireball.

"What’s a mutate?"

Talon noticed that the female shade was smaller than the first. "I used to be a normal human, and then an evil person, a mad scientist turned me into a winged panther man."

"That wasn’t a nice thing to do to you. Can you fly?"

"Sort of," Talon stretched his wings. He jumped up in the air when the fireball was launched toward him and struck the top of the car, nearly singing his feet. "You!" He turned to the older child who was forming a second fireball.

"Why were you talking to him?" The male shade addressed the female. "He’s an adult."

"Somebody was mean to him. Like our parents were mean to us," she pointed to the living children. "Like their parents were mean to them."

"How do would you know their parents were mean to them?" Talon kept his eyes on the male shade as he flapped his wings. "Did you ask the children, or did you just murdered their parents for no reason."

"We had a good reason!" The young pyro threw another fireball. Talon dodged it and aimed his own hands at the male spirit. He felt his own hand become warm with energy, electricity sparked over each knuckle and claw. With enough energy gathered he sent a large long bolt at the child. The blast of electricity went through the spirit with out damaging him and struck the GAP add painted on another building.

"Cool!" the female shade was clearly impressed. "Did you always have that ability, or did you get them from the mad scientist?"

Talon turned to her and sighed. "The mad scientist." He felt like this shade he could reason with. "Do you shoot fire too?"

"No I make stuff float, like the cars and the other children."

"Did you throw their parents to their deaths?"

"Yes, but they deserved it."

Talon shook his head in sorrow. "Do the children deserve to be frightened?"

"No they don’t"

"Exactly." The Labyrinth leader dodged another fireball and flew towards the children. The kids floating in mid are sniffled up their tears when they saw them coming. Talon’s face fell at the sight of their quivering lower lips, blood shot eyes and tear streaked puffed up faces. the youngest couldn’t be older than five. He flew towards that one and another that was only a year or two older than him and held out his hands. "Take my hands." He instructed. The children not knowing what else to do grabbed his velvet like hands and held on. "Hold on tight. Talon adjusted his wings and dove down to the ground and made sure the children landed safely on their feet. Once he made sure they did not float back up he turned around to rescue the others.

"Stop him!" the male spirit shouted, throwing more fireballs at him.

Talon pulled his wings closer to his body to squeeze in between the fireballs. He snarled when he felt the upper point of his right wing become singed. Still, he did not let that discourage him, and even if he was discouraged he could not stop trying to rescue the children. He reached the two younger children from the group and repeated the process.

"Your wing is hurt," One of the children he held onto pointed at the blistering skin of Talon’s right wing.

"I’ll be fine," Talon said and heard the cackling flame of another fireball hurtling towards them. He pulled the children closer and folded in his wings slightly to protect them. He nearly tumbled onto the ground but instead landed on his rear. The children wriggled out of his arms. "Make sure the others are safe." He instructed before he took to the air again.

"I said stop him!" The male child shouted again, this time even louder.

"Okay," the female sprit agreed and pointed at a wastebasket she had yet to upset. The metal canister floated above the ground and came flying towards Talon. The mutate dodged it at the last second but felt it strike against his toes, breaking the bones in at least two of them.

"The rest of you to me!" Talon shouted at the three remaining children. They tried and wiggled but the could not float closer to the mutate. Talon flew to them and pulled one of them towards his chest. "Hold on to the shirt." He instructed before he grabbed onto the hands of the other children and flew them towards the ground. Turning his head he saw the female spirit had levitated a Volkswagen, but instead of sending it flying towards him it just floated.

"What are you doing?!" The male spirit demanded, both his hands were ignited.

"I might hurt the children," The female spirit said. "We don’t want to do that."

"You are right. We only want to hurt the adults."

Talon felt he was right when he originally thought the female spirit was the one who could easily be reasoned with, but now wasn’t the time. He landed on the sidewalk, to avoid the police cars, ambulances and fire trucks that drove up. He knew they would have a hard time trying to make sense of the two shades, but Talon did not have time to wait around and explain the situation to them. He had to make sure the children were brought to safety.

"I want you to run around the corner," he instructed. "We’re going to take to my home. It will be safe." He urged the children to run a head and limped behind.

__________________________________________________________________________

The gleaming orange sun was positioned beneath the castle when Owen stared up at the Eyrie building. They were gradually making their way back home, stopping at each building to ask for candy. Noting that they only had an half hour left Owen told the children that the can only stop at three more places.

"Make it sheven," Sandy’s plastic fangs gave her a slight speech impediment.

"What did Fox say about no one protesting?" Owen frowned.

Sandy, never one to miss out on a loophole smirked. "She shaid that to Alesh, not the resht of ush."

"Yeah," Tina agreed. "So we go home after seven more places."

"I said three," Owen glared.

"Seven!" All three girls, even Mandy shouted. Little Charlie repeated the number.

The disguised fae rubbed his forehead. "I think I can go as high as four."

Sandy smiled at her sister and Tina. "Shish."

"Five and that’s it."

"Deal," Sandy gave him a thumbs up before grabbing her twin’s wrist. "C’mon."

The blond assistant folded his arms across his chest as he watched the five of them race up to the next building. That Sandy will make a great businesswoman someday with her ability to point out the exact details and to negotiate. He watched as they raced from that building to the xt instead of walking like they did before Owen told them they had to hurry up. It was nice of them to keep the time and urgency to get home before dark in their minds.

The children had raced to the third building when Owen felt a small vibration against his right thigh followed by a shrill ringing. Owen reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. It wasn’t vibrating or ringing. It had to have been his communicator. The ones designed for the humans looked liked and sounded like phones, they even could be set to vibrate. "Hello, this is Owen Burnet speaking." He waited for a few minutes while listening to nothing on the other end. "Hello?" He wondered who would call him on the communicator and not say anything. He continued to listen and all he heard was breathing. "Claw is this you?" If it was Claw how would he answer?. "If it is you I want you to tap against the speaker with your talon." He place the communicator next to his ear and listened to the clicking sound of someone tapping against the speaker. "Is this what we had feared? If yes tap once, if no then tap twice." He listened to the single tap. "Listen I want you to make sure the children that are with you return to the Labyrinth safety. I will call the castle." He turned it off and placed it back in his pocket.

He noticed that the children were about to knock on the fifth door. He hated having to tell them they had to go home, but he had no choice. "Children," he caught up to them. "We have to go home now."

"You shaid we can go to five," Sandy stomped her foot. "You shaid."

"It’s an emergency," Owen bent down to pick up Charlie. "We have to go home now!" He grabbed Alex’s hand and walked at a high speed towards the tower.

"Not fair," Sandy stomped again.

"It’s an emergency," Mandy told her. "Something dangerous is out there and I don’t want to be anywhere near it."

"Shuck up. You alwaysh shuck up to the grown upsh."

"She’s not sucking up," Tina said. "If there is something dangerous out there then I want to be at the castle where it’s nice and safe."

Sandy shook her head. "I’m shurounded by wushiesh." She noticed how far everyone was ahead of her. "Hey wait up!"

____________________________________________________________________________

Alex noticed his mother racing through the crowd towards them first. The was something different about her though. "Mommy?"

"Mrs. Xanatos?" Owen blinked at the mention of Alex’s addressing his mother. He noticed the Ex mercenary approach them. "You’ve changed outfits."

Fox nearly skidded to stop. "I just needed something easy to run around in." She explained while catching her breath. "There are some of those shades near the Eyrie building. You’ll run right in to them if you take the direct approach."

"We’ll take a different path then," Owen tried not to look worried.

"Exactly, but I was thinking we could split up and try different paths." She reached for Charlie. "Give me the boys."

"That does sound like a solid plan," Owen handed the toddler to the halfling.

"We’ll make sure his candy gets home safety," Tina said. "I’ll take Charlie’s and Mandy can take Alex’s."

"Hey don’t you trusht me?" Sandy narrowed her eyes.

Owen exhaled through his nostrils and handed the boys trick or treat-bags to Tina and Mandy. "This way girls," He turned right, leading the three of them in a different direction.

Fox, with a fidgeting Charlie in her arms turned right. The toddler secured in her right arm she held out her left hand for Alex to take it, but he never did. "Alex take my hand." Fox commanded.

The four year old eyed his mother suspiciously. It wasn’t just her outfit that made her seem a little bit off. "I don’t want to.’

"Alex," her tone dropped to the point where Alex knew it wasn’t a good idea to make her angry. "It’s dangerous out here."

"I’m a big boy," Alex kept his arms to himself. "I don’t need to hold hands."

"Take me hand, please." Her tone did not change and she fixed a cold glare on her son. Still holding onto the toddler she reached out and grabbed Alex by the arm. "That’s better."

"Let go of me!" Alex shouted and tried to pull away. He felt himself being dragged along into a place that barely had any light. "Why are we in an alley?" he was too busy struggling to notice where they were going.

"We are taking a short cut."

That did make sense, but as Alex peered ahead he saw a dead end. "There’s no other way out."

"Oh," Fox set Charlie down. "There isn’t." She placed a finger to her chin. "How could I have made such a mistake?"

"You are not my mom."

"My, my you are a clever little boy." Her voice dropped from her warm lady like voice to the voice of a man’s with a mischievous tone. Her body darkened all over, including her hair and cloths to a pure black shade that was as dark as ink. The dark form seemed to have melted before it rose back up with a figure of a male. "Oh children would you like to play?"

Alex thought that he was talking to them at first but the faint giggling coming from both sides meant he was talking to other children. Two more shadows floated out from the buildings. They were like the dark adult except they were smaller and they appeared to have been a bit more transparent.

"You two have fun now," the adult shadow said before he flew away.

"We will," the taller of the two children said. His shadowy form seemed to have been a bit more plump too. He held up his hands. His fingernails were not dark. They were long and clear and dripping water. Alex knew they weren’t nails but icicles. The ice finger child waved his hands around creating a thick white fog.

Alex felt tiny bumps form on his skin from the chill and shivered. He wrapped his arms around him and shook. He saw how Charlie was trembling and pulled him closer.

"I’m c-c-cold," Charlie stuttered. Even with the ghost costume on he was still chilly. He felt Alex wrap his arms around him and he hugged him back. Their hugs made him feel a little bit warmer.

The fog slowly dispersed but the temperature was still cold. Alex noticed tall clear spikes had surrounded them. They were large icicles. Still holding on to Charlie Alex turned to glare at the spirit that created the ice cage. "What do you want?"

"We want you to show you a truth about your parents," The ice shade said. "They don’t love you."

"That’s not the truth," Alex’s breath formed small misty clouds that exited his mouth. "My parents love me and Matt and Demona love Charlie." Alex notice the ice shade’s hands shake with anger. "Why would you say that when you don’t even know our parents?"

"Because our parents don’t love us," the second spirit answered. "They didn’t love us when we were alive. They hated us, and we hate them." A small gray cloud of smoke formed over his head."

"Why?" Alex shivered, from the cold. "Levitate!" He floated both himself and Charlie over the ice.

"Neat," the smoke shade said.

"That isn’t neat," the plumper shade told him. "One of us can make stuff fly."

"You all have your own powers?" Alex asked as soon as his feet and Charlie’s feet touched the ground.

"I make smoke and he makes ice," the smaller spirit said, nodding his dark and slightly see through head.

"Why don’t you use your powers to help others?"

"We are," the first one held out his arms. "We are trying to save children from their parents."

"Why do you keep saying our parents don’t love us, and why do you say that your parents don’t love you?"

"Because they were mean," Smokey said. "They wouldn’t let me sleep at my friend’s house just because I didn’t clean my room and they won’t let me use my allowance money to buy candy, or comics. They tell me I have to save it, and whenever I want to practice baseball my father would be too busy."

"My parents were even worse," the ice spirit said. "They wouldn’t let me have any cake until I finished my squash and then they would force it into my mouth and made sure I chewed it up and swallowed it. Then they said I was getting fat and scheduled me to go into a fat camp."

"And they say I’m a spoiled brat," Alex rolled his eyes. "You guys say that unless your parents let you do whatever you want they don’t love you? My parents won’t let me have dessert unless I eat all my vegetables, make sure I keep my room clean and if I got an allowance they would make sure I’d save it."

"They don’t even give you an allowance?" the small shade asked in shock.

Alex shrugged. "I’m only four, but I think I know why they do the things they make me do. They want me to be clean and vegetables give me muscles." He flexed his arms. "And if I spent all my money on candy then I wouldn’t have any to buy a bicycle or a video game, besides even if I thought those were mean things there were a lot more nice things."

"Like what?" Ice asked.

"When it was bath time my mom always had bubble bath and my scrubbing teddy bear was fresh and clean, before bed time I got animal crackers and milk."

"Me too," Charlie added. "My mama sings to me."

"My mom used to tell me stories and then check for monsters," The smaller spirit said. "Sometimes I get bubble bath at bath times. Once when I got all my spelling words spelled right she bought me a new boat to play in the tub with." His dark form brightened slightly. Alex noticed actual eyes blinking and a mouth voicing the words. "and my father took me to a few live baseball games."

"My mother would read a page and then I would read a page," the older spirit added. "and my father pretended to attack the monsters. He would make all these funny faces." His coloring was brightening too, but not as much.

"And when you finally got to spend your money on something it was better than candy right?" Alex liked where the conversation was headed.

"I got to buy a new baseball glove," the smaller child’s clothing was more distinguishable. A T-shirt, baseball cap, and a pair of shorts. "but afterwards they wouldn’t let me buy any candy."

"Did they buy it for you?"

"Yeah they did." His hair under the cap grew noticeably more blond.

"What other nice things did they do?"

"Whenever my mom baked I got to help her and then I got to lick the bowl and on the weekends my father did teach me how to ride a bike." His color brightened to the point he looked like a regular child, the only thing difference about him and Alex and Charlie was that he was transparent. "I was just mad at them because the wouldn’t let me spend the night at Jake’s and I was so angry I hid. I heard a strange buzzing, but I ignored it and I heard them calling for me, but I was mad and then it got real smoky, and then there was darkness." The two boys that were still alive were not sure but it looked like the blond ghost was crying. "They were trying to find where I was. They wanted to save me, and the smoke killed me." Still sniffling he turned to Alex. "They loved me. I want to tell them I love them and I miss them."

"Go tell them," Alex said.

It was only a few minutes after the former shade had faded when the ice shade spoke up. "My parents did some nice things, but they still wanted to send me to fat camp. They kept on feeding me food they considered healthy and they would rarely let me have any dessert."

"They were just trying to get you to loose weight," Alex pointed out. "We have a friend who is fat and we try to get him to loose weight."

"Elisa is fat," Charlie said. "but she has a big stomach so the stork can see her."

"Yeah they wanted me to loose weight," the shade agreed. "They were just embarrassed to have a fat child."

"Maybe the didn’t want you to have an heart attack or something." Alex shrugged.

"Just because my grandfather died from one and he was overweight doesn’t mean I was going to."

"I’m sorry about your grandfather, was he a nice man?"

"Yeah he was nice whenever we visited him and grandma he would take me and my sister out on hikes and during the summer he would rent a boat and we’d go fishing." His color was getting lighter and Alex could see the blue straps off his overalls. "It really sucked when he died, we stopped playing board games for a while and then my father started to work to and then they..." He paused. "That’s when they started the whole weight loss thing. It’ wasn’t long after grandpa died."

"They were worried about you. Like when I got lost from my mother at the mall. When she found me she yelled at me, but she was crying."

"They were worried about me," His reddish brown hair was as bright as the alley would allow. Even his freckles could be seen. His ghostly eyes sparled and shimmered as if they werefilled with tears."I guess I should tell my parents how I really feel and then I’ll go be with my grandpa." The ghost faded away. "I hope you get home safely."

"Thank you," Alex waved goodbye. He waited until the there was no sign of the spirit before he turned to Charlie. "I bet we can save the city. We just-" he was cut off when the hatchling was bent over. Alex pointed at him and used a spell that made the pain fade. H kept the glowing white light around Charlie while a pair of azure wings with double claw wing hands ripped through the back of his costume. A plain tipped tail tore through the lower back, On the top of his head a pair of upright horns ending in slightly curved tips sprung out. "Sorry I nearly forgot."

"I didn’t hurt!" Charlie flapped his wings. "Now what?"

"Now we go home," a familiar silly voice from behind made them jump. The boys turned around to see a short lean man dressed in a red, and purple tunic trimmed in gold. His moonlight white hair flowed down to his waist. "You mother was quite upset with me." Puck said as he wiggled his fingers causing both boys to levitate. "I thought she came and took you guys. I told her that, but she made a big deal that I being the Puck would have known it wasn’t her."

"We’re going home?" Alex asked.

"That’s right cowboy, we are going to bring you back home before your mother," He pointed at Charlie. "Correction mothers throw a fit, and between you boys and me I don’t know which one is scarier."

"But we know how to take care of the shades," Alex protested.

"Alex turned two into boys," Charlie sad while flapping his wings. "Am I flying?"

"Not quite," Puck smiled at him. "And well done Alex, that just leaves us with six of the little buggers, but your mother made you promise not to protest when I take you home."

"Not to protest to Owen," Alex smiled. "She didn’t say Puck."

"My, my , my," Puck’s mouth turned up into a mischievous smirk. "You are learning your loopholes from Sandy. In a way your father would be proud, but in truth it is too dangerous for the two of you to be out here."

"It be dangerous if we were normal human children, but we are not normal human children. Right Charlie?"

"Right," the tip of Charlie’s tail lashed back and forth.

"And if you let us help you can be Puck longer." Alex grinned.

"Well I guess it looks like we are going to have to develop a lie," Puck grabbed their hands. "Now lets go to where Talon was having trouble."

____________________________________________________________________________

Talon rested on a police car that was turned on it’s side with the wheel still spinning and a spiderweb of shattered glass on the windshield. Tiny rivulets of blood streaked down the bottom part of his left wing from the bits of glass that were impaled into the leather like flesh . The top of his right was still blistered with small bits of fur falling like snow and bits of flesh just hanging from his wings.

"You are not going to give up," Talon said while glaring a the male shadow child with his one good eye. The other eye was swollen shut. The mutate’s bruised ribs, and he was sure one was cracked made it hard for him to breath. He favored one arm that had a huge chunk of twisted metal impaled in his shoulder.

"You may have fooled my friend," the shade’s hands were covered with bright glowing flames that made his hands appear to have been even bigger. "There are still five of us left plus the grown shade and we won’t give up that easy."

"Grown shade?" Talon shuffled to his feet while trying not to stand on his injured foot. "You mean like an adult? I thought you didn’t like adults."

"I don’t like them when they alive. When they are dead they are decent."

"This is why you are killing everyone?" The mutate bared his fangs.

"Not just that, killing adults is the only way to free their children."

"You’re logic is flawed child of the corn," Talon sat down again. It was hard for him to stand. "What about the adults that have babies, and the children will eventually turn into adults. Are you going to kill them when they grow up?"

"I won’t have too, When that time comes they will have their own children and they will give them the love that they never received."

Talon shook his head. He felt like he would have had an easier time trying to get his son to take a bath than to try to reason with this child.

"This place is worse than your room," The strange slightly high vocal and jovial voice stated. "After one of your temper tantrum’s Alex." Three beings floated next to Talon causing the mutate to wander if the female spirit had darkened into a shade again and returned. His jaw hung open when he saw that it was a short skinny man with pointed ears, long white hair and strange outfit accompanied by both Alexander Xanatos and what he could guess would Be Charlie Bluestone under the white ghost costume

"My room doesn’t get that messy," Alex turned to him. "And my tantrums are not that bad."

"You must be Puck," Talon voice turned into a growl and he narrowed his good eye. "How could you bring them here?"

"Wanna help," Charlie answered. "Two became happy."

"You two convinced two more too let their anger go?" Talon’s snarl softened.

Charlie pointed his white makeup colored talon at Alex. "Alex did. He told them."

"Heh," the mutate smiled and turned back to the fire shade. "That’s two more of your party gone."

"Two more?" Alex repeated.

"I convinced a little girl that her parents loved her," Talon held out the communicator he received from Claw. "The Cold Duo convinced two more."

"So that leaves just three," Puck smiled and folded his legs so that he can float while in a lotus position.

The fire wielding child was quiet since the arrival of the new comers. He kept his focus on the strange man. "What is the deal with your ears?"

The prodilogical fae smiled and turned to face him. "Why it’s better to hear you my dear. Would you like to ask another question?"

"You are making those boys float. What are you?"

"I’m the one called Puck. I happened to be a member of the fey, or a male faerie."

"I figured you were gay by your outfit. Are you going to tell me some stupid lie that my parents actually loved me?"

"They didn’t love you?" Alex asked. "Is it because they didn’t let you get your way all the time?"

"Spoiled brat!" Charlie spread is wings and flicked his tail from side to side.

"It’s not that," Talon shook his head. "According to him his parents broke a promise."

"The best movie ever," the ghost grumbled. "They promised I was going to get to go see Jurasic Park, but because I didn’t clean the garage they said I couldn’t go." He threw a fireball towards the ground. The heat from the fire melted the asphalt into a gooey substance. "They broke a promise. I hate them!"

"They would have let you seen the movie," Alex said. Talon opened his mouth to tell the four year old he tried to tell the shade the exact same thing and it was useless to tell him otherwise, but he didn’t say anything. Perhaps if the ghost heard it from another child it would listen.

"What makes you think so?" The flame on the shade’s hand dwindled till it was only two thirds it’s original size.

"They would have let you go after you cleaned the garage." Alex said.

The flame dissipated. "Maybe, but they promised."

"My parents do that all the time, even though they promises. Like tonight. They said I couldn’t go trick or treating if I didn’t finish my lima beans. As soon as I finished them my mommy helped me into my costume."

"You could be right," the darkness faded. "But they still might have. They never broken a promise before."

"Then how do you know?" Alex asked. "Did you die after they told you couldn’t go?"

Dark eyes blinked while the head nodded. "I guess I never will know. They might have." His color brightened further. His hair color and the clothing of his clothing could bee seen.

"Not might, the would have." He pointed to Charlie. "His parents do the same to him and Talon does the same to Teddy and it’s the same with Tina and the twins."

"My parents did the same to me when I was a child," Talon added.

The coloring grew brighter. They could easily see the shade’s features. "I guess I was wrong. If," He kicked at the air. "If only..." He stared at the ground and then back at them. "Do they miss me?"

"Yes," Charlie said.

"If something bad happened to my son I would be depressed," Talon said.

"Go to your parents," Puck spoke up. "You are ready now. Go make peace with them."

"I will," He turned his head from side to side."but I did a lot of bad things. I killed some people."

"Your partner felt the same regret," Talon said. "I forgave her, what you did was wrong. Many innocent people died, but you have learned the truth and sorry for it. I know you can't bring the people you killed back to life. All you can do is make peace with your parents."

The ghost faded from view. "I hope you can convince the last two. They are hurting the worst."

"It would be nice if I made peace with my family," Puck sighed. "Well squirts better find those last two." He looked up at the two boys and smiled.

"Wait a second," Talon glared at the fae. "You are going to take them to find the last two?"

"They did convince the last three," Puck gave him a salute before turning to face the boys. Alex was missing. "Oh dear." He turned around and sighed with relief

Alex had touched the wing that had the tiny cuts. The second his index finger came in contact with the wing the bleeding wounds faded away. "Tiny injury that I see, with a small touch you shall flee." He touched Talon’s other wing, right at the burned part. Like his other wing it too became healed. Alex repeated the words and touched the mutate’s face healing his eye and then his foot.

"That will do," Talon smiled at the boy. "Thank you Alex. You go on with Puck."

"But your arm," The four year old pointed at the metal sticking out of the mutate’s arm. "Let me heal that."

"I’m going to go to Wyvern for that." Talon reached over to give Alex a gentle pat on the head. "They are going to have to pull the metal out before they can heal me."

"Not too mention we don’t want to tire you out," Puck said and held out his hand. When Alex was by his side he grabbed the hands of both boys."

"Hold it!"

"What is it now?" Puck turned around.

"These things were out before sunset," Talon glared. "You said they came out when it was dark."

"I said they come out when mostly when it’s dark, mostly." He and the boys had flown a few blocks before he realized he quoted a science fiction movie.

____________________________________________________________________________

Broadway squeezed onto the side of the building with enough force that his fingers sank through all the way up to the joint that connects his talons to his hands. He tried not to look at the body of the dead woman that was a few feet way from him lying face down, surrounded by a large maron puddle. The gaping hole in her back made the pale turquoise gargoyle flinch. It was exactly like--no he shouldn’t think of that. He shook his head and looked up at the battle above.

Marle and Mercutio were gliding as fast as their wings could allow. The ice blue weregoyle felt a great aching strain in her back from the never ending usage of her wings. She was sure that Mercutio was feeling even more pain from having to use both his arms and legs to glide.

Marle turned her head. The female shade was still in hot pursuit after them. Her dark hand pulled back, ready to fire another energy blast.

"Hold still you freaks!" The shade hissed before sending out the small bolts of energy. She growled in frustration when both gargoyles dodged it. How the hells was she supposed to kill them if they didn’t stop moving? Human adults were much easier. She sent many blasts through their hearts, leaving smoking holes in their chests and backs.

Her partner wasn’t having any better luck. Her leader, their leader floated through the air carrying a car in his hands, in a hot pursuit of the largest one of the monsters. The big purple lummox wasn’t as slow as he thought he would be, everytime he was close enough to hurl the vehicle on to the monster his large wings pulled back and he dodged at a surprisingly fast speed. They would have been hunting down more vile adults if the stupid beasts didn’t try to interfere, thinking they know what they were going through.

Broadway stepped back further into the alley. "I can’t do this." He clenched his fists. "I can’t just stay back and not help."

"I know ye want t’ help lad," Hudson told him from over head. His father was halfway up the building. His talons were already embedded in the wall. "But we got t’ make sure Taurus rescue’s the wee ones first."

"Yeah your right," Broadway nodded and returned his attention back to the action. Instead of watch his clansmen trying to fight the spirits he watched the square shaped cage that was constructed of several cars pressed together

The two shades were far away from the cage and were too preoccupied to watch it. They could not have seen a Minotaur like being in a special metal suit, equipped with rocket thrusters, lower himself into the junk yard prison. He originally wanted to use his rocket sled to fly in and help the clan, but Xanatos thought t would have been too conspicuous. He had devised a special suit for the new Olympian to wear.

A smile broke out on Hudson’s face when he saw the Minotaur return with two children in his arms. It was going take a while, but he was going to rescue the children.

After setting the children down Taurus’s rockets fired up once more and he sailed back to the cage.

Nobody noticed the tall black shape until it appeared right next to the chief of New Olympian security. "What is this?" The adult shade asked. "An interesting being and he’s trying to ruin these poor children’s fun." He flew behind Taurus and grabbed onto the rocket pack. "After what these poor things have been through you plan on making them more miserable?" before Taurus could do anything the shade ripped off the rocket. "Happy landing."

"Noooo!" Taurus lowed as he fell a few feet into the cage. The children inside ran to the far end to stay out of the way so he won’t crash on them. The cheif of New Olympian security shook his head and stared up. He might be able to break through the cage, but witht he way the cars were placed it might cayse them to collapse inward crushing him, and the children he was trying to save. He tried to stand up, pain shot through his leg causing him to topple over.

"That one big one could have dropped him on the other children!" Hudson scrambled up the building to the top. "Now it’s time lad!" He spread his wings and jumped over the side.

"Oh children!" The adult shade hollered. "Somebody was trying to ruin your fun." He pointed down.

The female shade arrived first. "What are you talking about?" She was irritable from having to fire at the winged creatures over and over again, without any success.

"Somebody was trying to take the children out of the safety zone," the adult shade kept on pointing into the cage. "I took away his wings. He should be easy to kill."

"Thank you," she floated over to the edge of the cage and stared down, besides the seven children still in their strange costumes holding onto each other there was an adult. A male adult with a bulls head? He was lying on the ground clutching onto his leg. His eyes were squeezed shut and his mouth was open in a silent shout. "Too bad I can no longer eat." She pulled back her arm. "I could go for a hamburger right about now."

"Stop it!" The shout made the shade pause. She turned to see another beast, older and clutching onto a metal sword.

"I’ll take care of him," The adult shade flew towards the winged geezer leaving the female with her target.

"Don’t shoot!" This time the voice came from the ground. the shadow child stared down at a fat winged beast racing towards her on all fours. Why wasn’t this on gliding, because it was too fat?

"Why should I listen to an adult?"

The fat creature stopped in the middle of the street. "You might accidentally shoot one of those kids."

Even though she was a ghost she could feel the sting of the words. "I would never shoot a child." Her words came out slow and strained.

"Don’t shoot!" A third distraction, but this time the voice belonged to a toddler. A toddler? There were no toddlers in the cage and why did it come from above?

The shade raised her dark head and saw a strange pointy eared man and two little boys fly toward her. "What in the world?"

"Good question," Puck said as he floated closer to the shade. "Whats in the world? Well there are animals and trees, and mountains and the ocean..."

"You’re strange," the female spirit said. "What are you?"

"I’ve been asked this a lot lately," Puck crossed his arms. "I’m one of Oberon’s children, but enough about me lets talk about you."

"Are you a spoiled brat?" Alex asked. He was getting tired of ghosts who hated their parents because they were punished or not allowed to do whatever they want.

"I’ll admit the others hated their parents for stupid reasons," she shook her head. "but my leader and I are different. Our parents truly hated us."

"What makes you say that?" Broadway asked from the ground.

"Why else would they shoot me with a gun?" Her response stopped everyone in their tracks. The parting words of the last spirit stuck out in the minds of Puck and the boys. I hope you can convince the last two. They are hurting the worst. "If they loved me they wouldn’t have shot me, now would they?"

"Maybe they didn’t mean too," Alex blinked backed the tears that were forming his light blue eyes. "It could have been an accident."

"People don’t shoot others on accident." She said matter of factly.

"Well young lady what if you had shot one of the children instead of the man bull?" Puck asked. His normal cheerful mood had taken on a somber turn.

"That would have been--" she shook her head. "I wouldn’t have hit one of them. I have a very good aim."

"They did shoot you by accident," Broadway’s voice shook. He hated to think about what we he was going to say next, but he had no choice. "I once shot a friend by accident. I didn’t mean to hurt her." He could feel the warm sting of tears form in his eyes.

"You did?" The shade asked.

"My clan and I we got frozen in stone for a thousand years and woke up in New York." The heavyset gargoyle slowly rose too his feet. "We didn’t know how dangerous guns could be. I liked watching this cowboy movie and thought guns were neat. I went to visit Elisa and while she was cooking I checked out her apartment and I found her gun." Tears were trickling out the corners of his eyes. "I just wanted to hold it and while I was playing it went off. The bullet hit her in the back. I took her to the hospital and I thought she died. I wanted to banish myself for what I had done, " he wiped his face with the back of his hand and sniffled. "but I wanted to get rid of guns, take them from criminals."

"You miss your friend?" The shade asked. Nobody noticed that her color was coming back. They were all watching Broadway.

"She survived," the aqua gargoyle wiped away the rest of his tears. "The doctors saved her. She’s going to be a mother soon."

"The stork is coming!" Charlie shouted.

"She was lucky," the shade’s tone was soft. "Maybe-"

"Don’t maybe!" the male shadow child appeared next to her. "He’s lying. Look at you. You’re fading!"

"Tears don’t lie," she said. "I remember my father had the gun and he wasn’t pointing it at me. He was pointing it at my mother! He was drinking and he was threatening her." The shade floated to the ground and crumbled to her knees. "My mother didn’t shoot me. It wasn’t her fault." She was almost at the point where she could make peace with her family.

"Don’t listen to them!" The shadow child leader shouted.

"You shut up!" She shouted back. "Dylan tried to get us to see the truth but you kept interfering. I remember it all now. My father was about to shoot my mother and I had to defend her. I jumped in front of her as the gun went off. My mother caught me and she was crying. My father was crying too. He didn’t want to shoot me. They did love me."

"Don’t you leave me!"

"I’m going to say goodbye to my mother," she started to fade. "If she asks me to forgive my father I will." She smiled at Broadway. "Thank you. I'm sorry what I did, I hope they can someday forgive me." her words were still audible in Broadway’s ears after she had disappeared.

"I’m all alone," the last shadow child floated down a few feet and then floated back up. "They believed their lies." He turned not too sure who too look at firs, the winged beasts that surrounded him, the fat one who fed his friend that lie, or the two children being used as puppets by that strange man with the long hair. He finally did turn and came face to face with the adult shade. "I’m all alone."

The adult shadow reached out and gave the child a gentle pat on the head. "Sorry I didn’t come sooner. I would have helped block the lies."

"Hey where’s Hudson?" Broadway blinked.

"There they are," Mercutio pointed at Hudson, being supported by Goliath. The elderly gargoyle was barely moving. "Great Avalon what happened?"

"The adult one slithered around Hudson," Goliath glared at the adult shade. "And squeezed."

"That’s his power?" Puck asked and nearly did a double take. "There is something not quite right here. Alex wasn’t he the one that disguised himself as your mother?"

"Yeah," Alex nodded.

"Shades only have one power."

"And they are usually transparent!" Marle pointed at the adult one. "He’s thick as cement."

The smaller ghost floated down to the asphalt then back up to the adult shade. "Why didn’t I see this before. You are not one of us." His fingers curled into a fist "You tricked us." His fist shot forward striking the being’s dark form in the chest. The impact of the punch was surpassingly powerful, sending the dark being flying back wards.

The dark being fell to the ground. While everyone watched it liquefied itself into a shady taffy like substance and compressed his body into a dark blob.

"This remind me of the second Terminator movie," Marle said while the blob took on the colors of white and pinkish peach before reforming into a human shape.

"Proteus," Goliath’s eyes blazed.

The being that Goliath addressed as Proteus smirked and turned around. "Nice to see you again Goliath, I was hoping to find someone to dispose of you," he turned to sneer at the shadow child. "All I could find where these dead brats. Well them and something else I hope to join up with in the future." He turned to leave not noticing that both the rocket pack he had snatched off Taurus and Alex descending into the car cage. "Now you either have a choice. You can either chase after me or you can try to convince Robby here that he was loved and end this nightmare." He turned on his heels and sauntered off.

"Goliath!" The deep voice of the Minotaur came from inside the cage. "Leave Proteus to me." The small squeal of the rockets being fired were heard. "Convince the last child!" The New Olympian rose above the prison, supported by the flames from the twin rocket pack that had been returned to him. He did not land on the ground outside but continue after Proteus.

"Convince me?" The young shade spoke with a bemused tone. "I am more than ever convinced that adults are conniving even when they are dead."

"He was using you," Broadway told him.

"He agreed to help me," the dark child crossed his arms. "That hybrid nearly had the others convinced but I stopped it. I need my army."

"What do you need an army for?" Goliath asked. "To kill all the adults?"

"No, just those who are mean to their children. Most of the adults are mean."

"And when the children that are children now grow up are you going to kill them?"

"Of course not," the shade shook his head. "They will remember what horrible parents they had and will be nicer to their children." He straightened suddenly. "I know what you are trying to do." He floated closer to Goliath, his hand balled into a fist. "You are trying to make me forget the truth. Forget it! I’ve been dead much longer than the others."

"How long?" Mercutio’s question caused the shade to pause.

"I don’t know, the cars and the technology, I think for a long, long time."

"How did you die?" Goliath asked. "From your violent behavior and your strength I would guess you were beaten."

"That is true," the shade turned back to Goliath. "If you think you can convince me then forget it."

The clan leader shook his head. "I’m not trying to convince you. I feel sorry for you. You were a victim of child abuse. Did both your parents beat you?"

"Just my father, him and the step bitch!"

"So your mother was not to blame."

"She didn’t rescue us!"

"Were yer parents divorced?" Hudson asked. He had finally caught back the breath that was knocked out of him.

"Us?" Goliath blinked. His question came out the same time as Hudson’s. "You had siblings?"

"Jacob and Brendan," Robby answered. "Jacob was five and Brendan was a baby. Yeah my parents were divorced. Jacob and I were sent to live with my father." He spoke the word father that dripped enough toxins to make it sound like it was the worst insult in the world. "Baby Brendan got to live with my mother."

"Your mother was divorced," Goliath pointed out. "She was not even in the same house."

"She didn’t fight hard enough, to keep us!" He landed a punch on Goliath’s face, breaking his nose. He pulled back his fist and turned to the others. "If she fought hard enough or chose not to work she would have won us. She only got Brendan."

"Don’t blame your mother!" Marle shouted. "Blame the courtroom politics. Decades ago the mother was to stay home."

"What happened to Jacob?" Alex asked. For some strange reason he, Charlie and Puck were quiet. The others could see why. Alex was still floating in the air. Charlie’s parents had arrived and while Demona was trying to dish out her personal form of discipline onto the trickster, Matt had landed, beneath them, with Charlie safely in his arms.

"I don’t know," The shadow child seemed to have sighed. "The last time I saw him he was being dragged away by the step bitch. He was trying to get our father to stop hitting me. We were only playing and the plant was knocked over and I tried to clean it up and my father started to hit me. Jacob was crying for him to stop." He cradled his head with his hands. "That bastard ordered the step bitch to put him in the basement and he hit me again, and again and..."

"His color is coming back," Broadway whispered in awe. "But isn’t he supposed to forgive his mother?"

"Mayhap," Mercutio rubbed the bottom of his chin. "Or mayhem he must realize he loves some adults and if it’s been many years since his death then his brothers are adults."

"He wouldn’t stop hitting me," Robby weeped. "Even after I was bleeding and I fell to the ground. "He just kept hitting me and hitting me. I hate him! I hate Marcus Wellington!"

The last words clicked inside Goliath’s head. He new somebody by that last name and the first name too. "Your baby brother is Brendan Wellington?" Goliath stared at the not so dark form. "Are you aware you might have killed him tonight?"

"What?" Robby asked.

"You have been dead for over thirty years," Goliath stated. "Your brothers are no longer children. They grew up. From what I know about the legal system after your death your father was arrested. Jacob went to live with your mother and from what I have seen she was a good mother. Your brothers became great men."

"Brendan and Jacob are grown ups," Robby said. "I don’t hate them and they are not dead. Could our mother loved them?" His dark honey colored hair in the same slightly thick wavy style that all the Wellington men had became visible.

"Perhaps you should ask them. Brendan is businessman who is married to a lovely, smart, and brave woman."

"What about Jacob?"

Goliath smile faded. "Your other brother married a good woman and is the father of three daughters, but his wife died from cancer nearly a year ago."

"I have nieces," He lightened to the point where they could see his mouth turned up into a smile. "I had a sister in law." he looked down at his hands. "Hey what’s happening. I don’t hate my mother as much as before, but I’m not ready yet."

"We don’t think it’s parents," Mercutio told him. "We think that mayhap it’s anyone who is over eighteen years old, including your brothers."

"I love my brothers, I wouldn’t want anything to happen to them. I saved Jacob, my death brought Jacob to my mom. I’m glad it was me and not Jacob."

"You are going to talk to your brothers?" Goliath asked.

"Yeah," Robby began to fade out. "Maybe I’ll get to see Brendan’s wife and my nieces." His ghostly form thinned out to a mere glimpse and then he was gone.

____________________________________________________________________________

The Children didn’t mind the smell of the Crystal Bay retirement home on Halloween. They were not bothered too much by the stench of soiled adult diapers, disinfectant and medicine. Not when they elderly citizens of the home had plenty of candy to give out. The children knew that the elderly were happy to have any kind of visitors, even if they were strange children who were not their own in even stranger costumes.

Madeline Wellington was one of the youths that went around carrying a plastic jack-o-lantern shaped bucket. She wore her old purple satin night gown trimmed in sparkling lace. A feux fur trimmed cloak was held secure by golden plastic brooch on there chest. A glittering gold tiara rested on top of her head.

She ignored Serena’s snotty remarks about how she was too old to go trick or treating. She had a few more years left till she started highschool and she wanted to cherish those last few years where she could dress up and go ask for free candy. Both her father and her eldest sister encouraged her to participate. Candy even went as far out as to dress in a hooded cloak, place gloves on her hands and add a white streak to her hair.

"Last stop," Jacob Wellington raised his hand to tap against the avocado green door to the room of one of the residents.

"Come on in," the sweet and elderly voice on the other side of the door.

Jacob pushed the door open and allowed Madeline to step into the room. It was like the others with beige color walls and sterile gray floor. At one end of the wall was the single bed, but it did not have the same peanut butter brown blanket and white sheets as the other. Like a few of the other residents the woman who lived in that room had her own bedding. Crisp peppermint pink sheets were topped by a baby blue blanket and a quilt that had solid colored square patches, flower shaped patches, lacy snowflake like patches and a few patches with images of teddy bears having tea on them.

She had the same snow flake style patches worked into the doily that decorated her night stand. Her windows were clothed in lace trim baby blue curtains. She had the same furniture as the rest of the rooms. A single large arm chair placed in front of the small TV set, a round card table with a couple of smaller dining room chairs.

The owner of the room sat in the large chair wearing an orange shirt with black polka dots and a pair of black pants. Her silver hair was tightly curled. One wrinkled arm held onto a large plastic bowl and her other hand held onto a remote control. She muted the horror movie that she was watching as soon as Jacob and his daughters entered.

Madeline walked right up to her and held out her bucket. "Trick Or Treat!"

"What do we have here?" The old woman peered at her through pink framed cat glasses. "A darling princess. who deserves a couple of Blow Pops." She reached into her bowl and placed two lollipops into Maddy’s pumpkin. "Now could you do me a favor?" she whispered into the girl’s ear. "Could you help me get past the troll that put me into this prison?"

"I think I won’t have any trouble Grandma," Maddy smiled.

"I heard that," Jacob frowned at his mother. "Both Brendan and I offered to let you live with us."

"Oh please," Grandma Wellington rolled her eyes. "This kid can’t take a joke." She chuckled a few times before her eyes widened unexpectedly. The bowl slipped from hands and fell to the floor sending several lollipops scattering around. She slowly stood up.

"Mom?" Jacob and Serena rushed to her side, both checking her vital signs to see if she had suffered a stroke or was going into cardiac arrest.

Only Candy turned to see what her grandmother was staring at. How did that little boy get into the room? He looked to be about nine or ten and had a lanky build. His hair was cut short and brushed neatly but it had the same bang flip her father and uncle Brendan had. He was dressed in red T-shirt and blue denim pants and he looked quite transparent.

"Robby," Grandma breathed. Her eyelids had ceased to blink the second she saw him.

"What?" Jacob asked before following her line of vision. Like his mother he two widened his eyes and let his jaw go slack.

"What is going on?" Serena turned around and nearly jumped at he sight of the boy. "Who are you."

"Don’t be an idiot Serena," Candy’s voice was not harsh, but cold and still. "That’s our Uncle Robby."

"That’s impossible," Serena snapped. "Our Uncle is.." She finally noticed how transparent the boy was. Madeleine was too shocked to say anything.

"Man Jacob you got even uglier than Brendan," the ghost smiled. "Obviously my pretty nieces didn’t get their looks from you." He floated closer to the group. "If you want to know why I’m here, I just want to tell you that I want to see how well you did and I can see that you grew up to be okay." He turned to the girls. "Are you going to introduce me to them?"

Jacob blinked a few times before remembering how to work his mouth. "This is Calandra," He rested his hand on his eldest daughter’s shoulder. "We call her Candy, this is Serena and my little princess here is Madeline, but we call her Maddy."

"Pleased to meet you." He smiled at them before his eyes found the woman sitting in the chair. "Mom?"

"Robby," Grandma repeated his name again. "I’m so sorry," tears flooded down her cheeks. "I tried to get custody of you and Jacob but-" she was shaking.

"But it was the sixties and people were pricks back then," Serena folded her arms and held her head up high.

"Mom never got the note you wrote to her," Jacob explained. "If she did she would have had evidence, but that bastard," he squeezed his eyes shut and breathed deeply. "He confiscated all your letters."

"I’m sorry," Grandma Wellington held her face. "Oh god, Robby I’m so sorry."

"Mommy," Robby gasped. "I’m sorry that I hated you." He floated towards her. "It wasn’t your fault." He wrapped his ghostly arms around her and while he couldn’t hug he just let them hang, hovering around her shoulders.

"Robby, I never got to tell you how much I love you." Grandma continued to cry while he held onto him in the same fashion.

"I love you too mom. I just want to be here as long as I can before I can rest."

"Say hello to our mom," Madeline said. "And tell her how much we miss he and love her."

"I will," Robby breathed. He was happy he no longer was full of hate but instead happiness, warm memories, and love.

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Proteus stepped out from the alley in his new form. He had finally ditched that moron Taurus, but it wasn’t an easy task. He turned into a homeless person and tried to get lost amongst a crowd, but the damn head of security followed him. He kept on running and turned into a pigeon and flew away, Taurus still followed. He flew into a group of pigeons before he flew through the darkened alleys until he was sure he had lost him.

He stepped out disguised as a tall and lean man in his late twenties dressed in a gold shirt and dark blue jacket with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, dark pants and comfortable shoes that fit his large feet. A dark mop of thick hair crowned the top of his head and a lit cigarette hung from his mouth.

Smugly he walked down the street heading towards the small group of people. They were all talking about the destruction that the children caused. He had to smile.

"Monster!" A woman pointed to the sky, right at Taurus. The other people turned around and screamed. Proteus had not other choice but to let the cancer stick fall out of his mouth and to run the opposite way.

Proteus had only run a few yards before the armor clad New Olympian had landed in front of him.

"Proteus," Taurus barked and aimed both guns at him.

"I don’t know what you are talking about monster," the shape changer made his voice warble.

"I know it is you by your slow reaction time," Taurus smirked. "You were the last human to get scared. The others went into a panic the second they saw me." He fired at the ground a few inches from Proteus’s feet. "Now reveal your true form, " He aimed the second gun at his chest. "I won’t miss again. While in human form you will suffer from the burn."

"Fine," Proteus melted into flesh colored taffy like goo and reshaped into his true form. He stared at the cow man as he pulled back the trigger. "That’s not going too-" He noticed too late that the second gun did not shoot a lazer bolt, but instead the clear goo that was used to capture him the last time he escaped. The sticky blast covered his chest. "One isn’t going to hold me."

"I know." Taurus shot three more times. The shape changer began to shift before they hit and was in the middle of changed into a bear like creature when the goo nearly covered his body. His left arm and waist down was covered in the clear holding glue. His chest, right arm and face was in the form of a humanoid bear. He could not finish his morph. Taurus fired at him several more times.

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Xanatos stared with tired eyes at his guest from across his desk. The night before took it’s toll on himself and the clan. He barely got any sleep due to his worry for his son. He punished both Puck and Alex the second they got home. Alex went straight to bed without a bed time story or eating a single piece of his Halloween candy.

"You look tired David," Xanatos’s guest said. Dressed in a fine charcoal gray Armani suit, black hair slicked back. Dark eyebrows that were sleek, but not thin with the perfect arch were above eyes like hazel diamonds. Between his eyes was a regal hawk like nose. His lower lip stuck out slightly more than his top. "I shouldn’t have bothered you at this hour, especially after the night you had."

"I’m not really as tired as you believe Mr. Duval," Xanatos rubbed his face. "I was just up late from worry." He narrowed his eyes slightly when Owen entered the room carrying a steaming cup.

"Here is your tea sir," the blond assistant placed it in front of Duval, exposing his heavily bandaged wrist. His punishment, besides no magic lessons for a month was to have one Demona induced injury to heal at the normal human rate. It was a wonder he could still perform his duties with one scratched wrist and one made of stone.

"Thank you," Duval picked up his cup and blew on it. "A pity they attacked on Halloween. I didn’t have enough time to gather the same device I used when I captured the last one of them."

"Well you don’t have to worry about them anymore," Xanatos said. "They have been, well I guess you can say they have been cured."

"Jolly good, and what about the New Olympians?"

"The criminal was placed in a glass cell last night. The one called Taurus is taking him back to their home as we speak."

"Then nearly everything is resolved," Duval sighed.

"Nearly everything?"

"Once the mess was cleaned up in Washington we learned that the children were just a decoy. Something more dangerous escaped."

"What could be more dangerous than those children?"

"There are some things that we keep we don’t give pleasure rooms too. They are placed in true cells." Duval took another sip of his tea. "Some things I can’t tell you, that only I and the senior members know about." The grandmaster closed his eyes hoping that Xanatos would not press on. Part of him wanted to tell the billionaire, but creatures like the Cubus could not be discussed.

"If this new terror does attack my city I will hold you partially responsible."

"If what had escaped decided to come here we will provide you with enough back up. Now promise me you will get some sleep." He stood up hoping the Cubis would soon be caught.